Okay, hello everyone! This is my first-ever army log, focusing on my (obviously) pre-Heresy Word Bearers. I must warn you this will not be updated very often, but hopefully I will get a unit done every week or two. College is busy this term so the 22 course books I have may interfere with painting.

Anyways welcome! I currently have to paint:
1 Apostle
5 Terminators
2 Dreadnoughts
20 Tactical Marines
1 Rhino
5 Scouts (for small games)
5 Devastators
1 Thunderfire Cannon w/ Techmarine

To buy or make:
2 Dreadnought Drop Pods
5 Devastators
20 Tactical Marines
5 Scouts
1 Rhino
1 Land Raider

So my obligatory usual workspace is this:


Terminator with scratch-built heavy flamer. You can see the custom helmets there but no shoulderpads since I couldn't find any good way to make them with my AoBR Termies.


My first drop pod. Still needs details.


Devastators, complete with signum.


First Tactical Squad for fire support.


I have plenty more to come as I paint and I will try to update as often as possible. I hope you guys enjoy my progress and PLEASE give me feedback as I go. Only one way to improve, right?

Thanks for looking,
Lord Caldera

I look forward to seeing some paint! A couple of points, though:
- Your pictures are quite blurry so it'll be hard to make out details on the finished models. Shroud has a a tutorial about how to improve your photography posted on this site.
- It looks like a primer coat is quite uneven--are you going to go back over the missed bits?

The drop pod looks awesome!

@ Magos Explorator: I'm using the foundation paints so I don't think repriming is totally necessary. I only paint for tabletop quality, though this is a "learning" army so I'm not too worried about it. I was frustrated with my pictures, though I'll have to look at that tut. Thanks!

@ Arven: Thanks a lot! I still have one to build. Tricky little things to get right, but I'm happy I found the templates instead of having to buy th GW ones.

Good drop pod, but I don't think the GW drop pods are bad, infact I realy like them :)

the pics are a bit blurry, but good start ;)

I really like them too but I don't feel like spending $60 on a pair of vehicles that get used once a game and can't even appropriately fit the model they are carrying.

Fair point I suppose :)
I'm gonna be getting some for my plague marines, I will be using the Impirial armour Apocalypse book for the chaos ones ;)

First Paint starring a combat squad! My first attempts at highlightning ever.




Sergeant Andra:


Bolter Dudes:


Plasma Dude:


Heavy Bolter Dude:


I saw Shroud's photography tutorial so think these came out a little better than the last batch. :P I hope you enjoy them. Any suggestions?

I like the way the chapter badge has come out. These guys are looking quite nice! Photos are much better, too. A few suggestions from me; if the above are still work-in-progress then apologies if these are something you're going to do:
- Try running some devlan mud or badab black into the recesses of the armour for some shading? I think the highlighting's working well but some shading would add to the depth of the armour.
- I'd add some flock or sand to the top of the base.

Thanks! I'm still trying to figure out how to base them, probably mixed brown'green grass with sandy patches. I do want to try out the washes and I can see now in the pictures that they still look kinda flat. That will have to wait for a while though as I have no GW nearby at the moment. :(

I like the shade of grey you've gone for here.
The Legion/Chapter badge looks good too.
My only sugestion is to make the script on the shoulder roughly the same size as what is written on the purity seals, I imagine them to be trying to get as much of the "word" on their armour as possible.
Maybe use a light grey or white for the armour script too, as it would be more subtle.

Look forward to seeing more of these guys! ;)

the badges are very good.

highlighting could be improved a little, but hey for a first attempt thumbs up.

looking good!!! B)

Thanks for the positive replies everyone! Yvraith I'm considering using different colored text to mark squad divisions, as I think that would be fairly unique (and my black pot is terrible). Finally an update!
Finished the first Tactical Squad:



And my "Thudd"erfire Cannon


Blow stuff up!


So that's the army so far. I still need to base everything of course, that'll likely come at spring break. Dreadnoughts of some kind will probably come next, hopefully I can do my homework quickly this week!

homework comes last!!!!!!

Ha! I know it should. I love your sig by the way Lord_Mortirion, that's my favorite movie! I'll have an update at the end of the weekend guys.

Okay managed to fixify the width problem. Small update here: the Dreads are effectively finished. I need to get back banners and black paint to do the Legion symbol and devotionals with. They are identical. Also got the body of the second drop pod done. I feel an explanation is in order for the Techmarine in the previous post. You may have noticed he has no servoharness! I was missing a few arms from it and the nice folks at GW sent me a shiny new one for free! :D More Tacticals are on their way as I attempt to paint a playable army.



Sorry about the obscene size of the first picture, my laptop was pissing me off and wouldn't let me save changes to it.

Hmm, everyone seems to have forgotten about me. Oh well, more junk to throw up here is always good. Exams and other assorted goings-on kept me away from paints the past month or so, but I'm back, and with a big update: a playable army! First off, Chaplain Erebus when allowed, otherwise Captain Sicarius on awesome.




I went for a green-veined black marble on the handle of the crozius and the kneepads. This guy took me a whole day of fun to paint, and is my first real attempt at more advanced painting techniques such as layering, highlighting, blending, washing, and mixing and thinning paint.

Next is my secong Tactical Squad, and finally my playable army (minus Thudderfire Cannon, which I forgot to shoot a photo of).



To go are two more Tactical Squads, two Rhinos, two Dev squads, a Scout squad, another Thudd, a Land Raider, a Terminator Squad and the drop pods. More slow updating is to be expected, but I really want some C+C.

Lord Caldera

like the evelution of your army which is what legion?
oooo i see the world bearers
sorry this is the bad thing:
for one for armors aren't pre heresy(heads or legs)
need washes
and now for the good:
like the green on Erebus :D
the simplexity of the army
looking good for a w.i.p
keep it up

Yeah I know I have a lot of Mk VII armor in there. I wanted to get a playable army done quickly, but the rest of my force should have much more proper armor variants. I should try blacklining though, that looks better than plain.

for one thing dont rush ill take some timed to get all the stuff you will need.
try geting a black tempers upgrade kit it comes with 6 helmed heads that you can use and 2 bare heads. and for legs i know that the space wolf box comes with 4 usable lags, tactical box only with 3 though.
heads you can use:
bare
some beacky
crusader looking helms
one that looks like the red scorpions heads (also in black tempers upgrade kit)
and for legs the flat one with out knee pads
i know most chaos legs are none knee padded but need to file down chaotic rimes
and try washing Erebus whites will look better :D
and high light the rimes of the gray on them

I've been looking for the Mk 4 Red Scorpions kit on ebay but no luck so far. I'm trying to get as much Mk VI in there as possible, since my force is close to turning to a secret worship of Chaos, shown by the occasional and subtle chaos stars on their legions symbols. The traitor legions apparently got first dibs on Mk VI so I'm going for that. Kinda failing, but meh.

How did you paint the Word Bearer icon? (burning book)

The icon is:
1. a square of Scorched Brown for the cover edges, filled in completely
2. a square of Bleached Bone for the pages, slightly smaller than the previous to show the edges. I put an indent in the bottom and raise the two top halves to give the illusion of a book's pages.
3. the writing on the pages. I use black, standard little squiggly lines or smalll symbols. My army is just getting the Chaos influence spread around so I put a small Chaos star in the icon on one or two guys in each squad.
4. a full flame shape over the center of the book in orange, then paint the bottom half with yellow and the top third with red to show the "heat" distribution.
It's by no means perfect but I think it looks pretty good considering my painting experience. Hope that helps!

By the dark powers of Chaos I bring this log back from the dead! With the purchase of some new stuff I seem to have revived my interest in painting so hopefully I'll start updating again. :rolleyes: I got my hands on a pot of Devlan Mud and I must say I'm impressed with the results, even if it's just a dip I'm doing instead of real painting. I decided to give my entire army 2 coats of the stuff and it looks really great in my opinion.


Also got my first Rhino finished, and just in time fro the vehicle contest! The name is some variant of "breaker" I found online, and it says "god-king" on the side panel. I decided to go for ancient Greek instead of Latin for this force because Colchis is a prominent area in Greek mythology. The book is my first attempt at large freehand flatwork, and I think I'll include that kind of thing on all my vehicles since it was so much fun!




Next up I tackle my Land Raider. We'll see how far that gets in the next month...

I have to say that rhino looks excellent.. I think grey is a very hard colour to pull off and you've managed it perfectly here! The little bit of freehand on the roof is great, and the muted red is a great colour combination (I think too strong or bright a red would haev overwhelmed the grey, so great work!)

Nice attention to detail also with the scriptwork!

Can I ask what the recipe is that you've used for the grey?

Thanks Pacific! I thought I might've gone a little overboard with the script but it seems to work well. I use Adeptus Battlegrey over a black basecoat, then highlight with Testors flat grey that's close to Fortress Grey. Then just two washes of undiluted Devlan Mud with a wide flat brush and all done! I found that the undiluted wash dims and flows the color together and added the nice streaky "brushed" effect on the flat parts of the tank.

Great work mate and I realy wished I had that freehand skill. If I try to paint symbols they always look craptastic <_<

Well the Land Raider is closing on the finish, just got some freehands to do. Also I have my own Primarch in progress, hot on the heels of Iacton's announcement (but much less impressive!). Currently have no camera, but pics soon I promise!

Looking forward to it, hopefully its as good if not better than the rhino! Have you gone for the RT Landraider or one of the more recent varieties?

Ooh, did someone say Primarch? :P

Nice Rhino *cough* voted for it *cough* :ph43r:

@Pacific: I decided to just use the modern Land Raider. I can't afford the FW kit and I don't have the supplies or skills to ruin a perfectly good $55 tank. :P

@Iacton: Wow, I'm glad you liked it! I've been a huge admirer of your work for a few years now, so it's cool to have your support!

Anyhoo, a few pictures. First up is the Land Raider's interior. I don't have any lights in there so nobody's going to see it, but what the hell it was good practice and trial.



And next is a peek at great Lorgar himself. I'm planning on giving him GKT shoulder pads as I think the inscribed text and the scultped book really work for the WBs. I'm going to extend the fur on the cloak a bit and paint it goldish, as well as maybe adding wings to the ram's skull. The Golden Fleece was the main myth associated with Colchis in ancient Greece so I figured I'd work that in, being a Classics student myself. :rolleyes:


One problem I am having is deciding what to use for his second hand. Most people seem to like one normal and one enormous gauntlet like Horus and Big E in the artwork from the 4e rulebook. I've kinda narrowed it to the Tyrant's Claw and the Raptor Sergeant claw, but I don't really know as I think he should be beckoning to his enemies to accept the Emperor/Chaos.


What say you gentlemen?

Double the post, double the fun. I finished the Land Raider a few minutes ago and here it is, in the same style as the Rhino.



And the freehands-I didn't have as much space for the book as I had on the Rhino, but I think it cam out all right anyways. The scrollish thingy I threw on because that giant space on top looked sad. :(

Awesome stuff! Lovely little bit of freehand again. The Landraider is obviously Word Bearers, and I like the way you are managing to creep in some of that rather ominous dark red there.. :)

(just noticed the tiny chaos symbols as well, I bet you would have to look at the actual model for a while to notice those!)

A minor update. I touched up the Land Raider to stick in any missing script and the lights. I completely destroyed my chances of using the GKT pads as I crushed them in a vice trying to drill out the shoulders (when I could've just pinned them all together <_<). Work has begun on the major sculpting. I did the basic book on his shoulder and started to blend the torso and cape together. I also began work on his right arm. I'm using the Raptor Sergeant claw in a "preaching" pose to go with his angry yelling head. Pictures to follow.

i like the tanks :D
i think you need height with Lorgar but i like the preaching pose and the blade bown not up
looking a lot better
one thing ive seen on great painted land raiders are good looking banners in the back end of the tank

again looking good
ooo and what GKT shoulder pads

Something big approaches...

I bought this baby assembled from a friend who got 6 :blink: from Ebay. I figure even with it assembled it should be easy to turn it into a Fellblade with my dremel. The tank commander was an adventure, I had to cut and pop and yank for half an hour to get the IG hatch that was on the thing off, but I really wanted to get this idea onto the tank. Comments?

And a little progress on Lorgar. I was away in Maine for the week so today was the first I could work on him again.

I got the halo more secure with some fur extensions, and the claw smoothed into the lopped-off arm. I know the forearm looks a bit long but I hope to make some trim to create the illuision of a shorter arm. :rolleyes:
Okay, enough blithering. I'm having some trouble sculpting the flame on the book, does anyone have a suggestion for getting a nice sharp curved edge with green stuff?

I am very impressed, I think your take on the Word Bearers is great. I think the grey tone is spot-on and the red additions make them convincingly either pre-Heresy or just turned Traitor.

Lorgar looks great--I'd suggest painting him with gold skin as depicted in the novels for extra creepy-factor! Afraid I can't offer sculpting advice for the flames, though.

I agree with Magos, definately go for the golden-skinned look!

The fellblade looks good so far, and good on you for making the effort with the hatch! What other ways are you planning on differentiating the fellblade from a normal banablade?

With the flame, to get a sharp edge with GS I sometimes flatten a blob of it out on a plate or else porcelyn surface (first whetted) then you can cut it fairly sharply into a pattern and also scoop it up from the surface with a scultping tool without disturbing the shape too much.

Idea for making Flames - try making little tear drops of GS then pressing flat between two sheets of cling film (celowrap or whatever it is stateside).

Should give nice little flame shapes if you vary the thickness and size of the tear drop.

Then make one larger drop and layer thesmaller ones on top.