Sunday, 3 January 2016

New Year's Army Project - Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children


After a fairly patchy hobby year in 2015 I've decided to keep things fresh and start a new army for Warhammer 30,000 using the recently released Betrayal at Calth box set. I spent the last year or two culling my miniature collections and games down to just two (fairly large) Ork and Blood Angel armies, and it made little sense convincing myself the Calth box set was "good value" if I was only going to use it to add to my Blood Angels. I have always wanted to make an Emperor's Children pre-heresy army after seeing Dave Taylor's work over six years ago (!), and had put off any plans as I was still learning to paint different techniques while finding it difficult to stay focused. As a result my desire to match the "perfection" sought by the Emperor's Children with any paint job would result in a long term project that I felt I would never finish.


So with the New Year comes a new plan to build and paint a full army in a matter of months, and build and paint it specifically for the tabletop. I have been pushing the same models around in the same state of undercoat or partial paint jobs for nearly two years, hoping to one day paint them up "really well" but being distracted by newer models and competition pieces. As a result my enthusiasm for gaming has waned and I want to correct that this year. Having a fully painted army that is painted to a high tabletop standard (and not rushed for a specific deadline) is my number one goal this year, and less than a week in (I cheated with some assembly after Christmas) I am kicking major goals!


One of the keys to this success has been repeating the "tabletop/gaming" army mantra when something doesn't look quite right during assembly. A small gap here, or a slightly less than sharp mold there, would have brought a previous project to a halt but not this time. As a movie director will fix things in post production, I hope to tidy up, mask, and accentuate with a crisp paint job. I will be using all my speed painting skills that I had forgotten, a lot of airbrush, washes, real metals, dusty pigments on the bases (with minimal fancy features) and get back to the roots of painting armies rather than the six step process for painting an eye perfectly. My aim is to loosen up my painting style, relax my eyes and previously rigid hobby schedule to create a beautiful gaming army.

3 comments:

  1. Very cool work, man! That turned out looking fantastic!

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    1. Thanks! All your 30k armies inspired me to join the fun! Can't wait to see your 1k Sons MkII

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  2. I love the plan, and look forward to seeing your army rise up this month.

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