Astral Knights: 2013

Showcase: More card scenery.

I had a go at a couple more of Dave Graffam's paper scenery models. In the above photo you can see the watch tower. Read on to see more photos...

I'm sure you're all aware of Beasts of War, if not then follow the link immediately... Now you're back or if you didn't go anywhere read on.

I recently discovered Dave Graffam models. He produces loads of really cool looking printable card terrain. Read on for lots more details and photos.

Here are the photos of the finished model for my Astral Knights Standard bearer. Lots more after the break...

Here's a tutorial for the freehand banner that I did for my Astral Knights standard bearer. Read on below...

Being the chicken I am I've painted the figure before I attempt the free hand banner. More pictures below...

I got a little bit distracted by my new toys whilst I was supposed to be painting up my standard bearer. Having seen some of the amazing bases that James Wappell produces I wanted to have a go at something special for my little snipers.

Now I love snipers. So when I saw these cute little guys on eBay I couldn't resist. Five little ratling snipers, and not the modern ones, these guys must be best part of 20 year old designs.

Next month's painting competition for my local GW store is themed 'standard bearer' so I thought I would practice my greenstuff skills and have a go at converting an old Dark Angel model to fit with my Astral Knights. More details and photos below...

I just spotted these over on puppets war. I think they would look amazing as helmets for elite power armoured members of the Astral Knights. What do you think of these on sternguard or vanguard veterans?

Showcase: Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven.

I had great fun painting this little guy. He's for the local painting competition. To see loads more pictures and how he fits the theme click below.

They're finally all firing in the right direction. More photos below of the heavy bolter chap...

Here's the plasma cannon for my retro 2nd edition devastator squad. Lots more after the break.

Blimey missile launchers have changed a bit. Lots more after the break...

I almost get the feeling that this guy is compensating for something with the length of his lascannon! To see more pictures click below...

Here's the first of the finished models from my very retro 2nd edition devastator squad. More pictures below...

I've just finished my retro devastator squad so I took a scenic shot for you to look at. I'll try and get some proper individual close ups soon...

WIP: A little bit more progress on the devastators.

Having just started a new job means slow progress on my retro devastator squad. However I've managed to get the red on the weapons, along with some of the details done.

It's slow going on my Astral Knights Devastators, but they're getting there.

Some finished models for the first time in ages. I managed to polish off the two metal sniper scouts, which takes the squad to seven now. Loads more pictures after the jump...

You may have noticed lots of very black miniatures appearing on my blog recently so I thought I should get some paint on them. As always I started with the basing and went to it...

Well I'm back after a little break from my blog. The end of term and hot weather don't contribute to a good painting rate, but I've got a lot of terminators old and new to show you.

I needed to turn my oh so retro 2nd edition devastators into believable members of my 6th edition Astral Knights army. So this is what I did...

I really enjoyed the process of stripping, remodeling and repainting my old librarian figure and it's inspired me to add a retro element to my astral knights army.

So my astral knights librarian won the monthly painting comp at my local GW store. I was really impressed by the standard of the young blood entries, the winning paintjob was a very good attempt at radaghast the brown. More after the break...

As I said last time I wasn't quite happy with the psychic bits of my Astral Knights librarian. The flames coming out of the book didn't look quite right and the shaft of his force stave was distinctly underwhelming. Having got some good advice from zab, here's my attempt to improve those areas...

I've technically finished painting my old school librarian model but I'm not entirely happy with it and could possibly do with some advice on how to really make him pop. Loads more pictures after the break...

I thought I'd share the progress so far on my Astral Knights librarian. Loads more pictures and details after the break...

After my plea for help posing my old metal librarian model Zab and Ieuan came to the rescue with some great ideas. Read on for more details of how he's going...

Wish I could make mine look this good!

The painting competition at my local GW store has changed format slightly and now we are given a theme for each month rather than a particular model. Hopefully this will encourage more people to take part as they can tailor it to fit their own collection. This month the theme is Wizard.

I've just finished the PCs for my D&D group so here is Morhir the half elf ranger. More details and pictures after the break...

Here is the finished Dragonborn Warlord. I think he definitely looks the part. The rich warm colours of his armour and cloak contrasting with the green skin.

I was requested to do "outrageous" for the clothing of this gnome bard but I drew the line at purple top with a yellow sash. I might come back to him at some point and do some freehand to jazz him up even more.

Here are the photos of the finished human paladin for our plucky band of D&D adventurers. The model is from reaper minis and the base is made from cork, baked sculpey and sand. My friend asked for an almost anime feel to him hence the pure colours and sharp highlights. The armour was washed with a dark blue rather than black which has given an effect that I rather like.

Having been inspired by all the PC models put up by muninn over on his excellent blog (he's currently finishing a mammoth "model a day for a month" session) I thought I would have a go at some for my group of friends as we belatedly embark on a 4th edition adventure.

As promised here are the details of my magnetized landspeeder. I've managed to do all the options that come in the ravenwing boxed army. Loads more photos after the jump.

High Marshall Helbrecht converted to Astral Knights Company Master.

Here are the photos of the finished Company Master. As I said in my last post it started off as High Marshall Helbrecht of the Black Templars and has been converted to make an Astral Knight.

More Bikers.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but I have managed to get a bit of painting done.

The photos below are of the last three bikers, brining the total to six. I haven't done the pennants for them yet, or any freehand on the bike armour but other than that they're finished.

Loads more pictures and a few extra bits after the jump...

Here are the pictures of how far my Astral Knights Attack Bike has got. It's at the same stage as the rest of my bikers as the aim is to try and do banners/freehand all at the same time. Loads more pictures after the jump...

I decided to try and magnetise the heavy weapon load out on my Attack Bike. Heavy Bolter for infantry or Multi Melta for armour. All the details after the jump...

Muninn's Brush is an excellent blog with some really nice conversions for RPG PCs. Not only that but he is giving away an Inquisitor model. All you have to do is post a comment in his post and you get an entry, (an extra entry if you publicize the comp on your blog). So check out his blog and enter the comp.

WIP: Astral Knights Attack Bike.

Having pretty much finished painting the first batch of Astral Knight Bikers I decided to try a little bit of variety so I've built an Attack Bike to give them a bit of support.

As promised I've tried to refocus on my Astral Knights Chapter and I've had a bit of a surge. I've very nearly finished three of the Bikers. Loads more pictures after the break.

I'll preface this with some context. I love Science Fiction, Asimov, Banks, Herbert, Dick etc. However I've never read any of the 40k expanded universe stuff. I think I'm inherently suspicious of a sci-fi writer who feels they have to write within a premade framework. Sounds judgmental I know but that is always the way I have felt.

I know that this blog has been almost exclusively GW centric up till now but Beasts of War are having a Mercs week and as part of this they are running a competition which is entered by putting the image above on your site.

Mercs looks like a really nice little game. It uses an RPG game turn mechanism so you're not sat waiting for someonelse to go. There are only 5 models per team so no huge army to buy and paint (the models are quite nice as well)

So do people play any other games than 40k/WFB?

10,000 page views...

Whilst I was away on holiday last week the page view counter clicked over that entirely arbitrary milestone of 10,000 page views. I wanted to take a second to thank everybody who has taken the time to comment on or visit my little corner of the blogsphere. Looking back over the last ten months it is clear that the focus of the blog has gradually changed. I started it as a record of my attempt to paint and model my own Space marine chapter but I have become distracted by my local GW store's monthly painting competition. This has really pushed my painting and modelling skills but I would like to achieve a balance in the future (time permitting) between the painting competition and Astral Knights.

So thanks once again to everybody and just out of interest what was your favourite post?

Showcase: Guardsman 'little' Belwas.

Here are the images of the finished Guardsman. Loads more pictures after the jump...

I've completed the modelling for my Nurgle Lord and he looks nothing like a Nurgle Lord now. From this point forth he will be called Guardsman 'little' Belwas (apologies to GoT fans but I couldn't resist).

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