(Not so) Grey Knights...

'THE GREY KNIGHTS ARE HUMANITY'S GREATEST WEAPON AGAINST THE DAEMONIC ARMIES OF THE DARK GODS. CREATED IN UTTER SECRECY BY THE EMPEROR, THEIRS IS A SACRED DUTY TO DEFEND THE IMPERIUM FROM DAEMONKIND'

Sounds great doesn't it? Noble warriors, fighting the Warp born horrors that even the hardest Space Marine can't defeat... 

Problem is, I can't bear to paint the gunmetal / silver scheme that is synonymous with the GK - hell, it's where their name is derived from!

So, how to paint an army I really want to play.. choices choices....

Referring back to the Codex, I hit upon an idea.  Each 'Brotherhood; (which is comparable to a normal Chapter's Company) has a heraldic scheme, which is shown on a small 'oath' shield.  These schemes vary from Brotherhood to Brotherhood, but are always red and white / grey.  

Using this, I decided I'd base my Grey Knight force on the 3rd Brotherhood, under Captain Stern.  Using a  half white / half red scheme, I've come up with this:

THE SCHEME:

Basecoat:
Building from an undercoat of Halfords Red Primer, I blocked out the white half using Celestra Grey (I use the 'air' version for prefernce') and Khorne Red for the other half.  To shade, I used Nuln Oil into the recesses on the white side, and Reikland Fleshshade on the red (I did consider using Carroburg Crimson, but this would be darker than I wanted to).  The gold details were painted using Retributor Armour, the silver using Leadbelcher and the purity seals a base of Rakarth Flesh for the paper, and Mephiston Red for the wax seal.  the gunmetal areas were also painted with Leadbelcher, and washed with Nuln Oil.

Highlights:
The white half was overpainted with Ulthuan Grey, building up thin coats until I was happy that the colour was good and 'solid'.  The edges were then highlighted using White Scar.  The red half I re-painted the area with Khorne Red, which was then edge highlighted with Wazdakka Red, and then a final thin edge highlight of Tuskgor Flesh.  

The purity seals were highlighted with a 50 / 50 mix of Ushabti Bone & Flayed One Flesh, mixing in more Flayed One Flesh until it was 100% Flayed One Flesh.  Then, using an Artificer XS Brush, I painted thin watered down script on the paper.  The wax seals were highlighted using Evil Sunz Scarlet & Wild Rider Red.

The blade of the Nemesis Force weapon (the trade mark of the Grey Knights) was highlighted using Runefang Steel, and then a wash of Nilakh Oxide to add a 'glow' to the blade.

The final touch was the lenses on the helmet.  I painted these using White Scar, and then overpainted with Waystone Green, which is a translucent paint used to paint gemstones.

NEXT STEPS:

I'm really happy with the end result.  It's a challenging scheme to get right, and will hold my interest enough to paint an entire army.  Talking of which... the list I have to paint!

Draigo

Voldus

Librarian in Terminator Armour

1 Strike Team (10 men, 2 incinerators, Justicar)

1 Strike Squad (10 Men, 2 Psycannon, Justicar with Daemon Hammer)

1 Terminator Squad (5 men, Psilencer, Justicar with Daemon Hammer)

1 Terminator Squad (5 men, Incenerator, Justicar with Daemon Hammer)

2 Rhinos

1 Land Raider Redeemer

2 Dreadknights

Storm Raven 

Dreadnought

I've ordered Forgeworld Doors for the vehicles as I want to make sure they're as good looking as possible!

Spring 2017 - New Army!

Each year, I try to pick a new army from one of the systems I play and work on that as a major project for the year. This gives my somewhat magpie approach to gaming a little focus (this is known as avoiding the 'Shiny Toy Syndrome').

At Christmas, I decided on Space Wolves. This was due to the Wolves being one of the few armies I'd never painted, they're prominent in recent storylines (see the excellent Warzone Fenris for more on the Space Wolves vs Thousand Sons story arc) and have some great sculpts.

This was not to be however... After painting Ulrik, which is a stunning miniature (I'll be posting about this later) I thought this was the army for me, but when I began to paint the rank and file, I just couldn't get motivated painted so much grey.

So it was back to the drawing board!

After a lot of consideration and the release of both Book Seven of the Horus Heresy series from Forge World and the glorious Ixon Hale miniature, I decided that Legio Custodes would be the project.

This fulfils two aspects for me - I can use the Legio with Horus Heresy in mind, with all their fun Grav tanks and bells & whistles, but also use them as part of a Talons of the Emperor army for 40k, replacing the Grav with Rhinos & Land Raiders.

So here we go - the first two Custodes are done, and a lot more to go...

 Custodes Vexilia. Rather than painting the Vexilia in solid gold, I've gone with a spot colour of white for the wings.

Custodes - I want the armour to look a little more 'worn' than some of the Gw schemes, hence the lack of red or other strong colours.  This means that the gold plating looks colder.  Adding to this is the bases - all of which will be covered with snow (as with pretty much my entire collection).

Stay tuned for more updates on this army!