State of the desk; Mortalis, Dark Mech, Stormtroopers, Apocalypse

So the desk this week has had a nice tidy after a busy couple of days,

First things first, Mortalis. This was a real “I'm not sure what to paint next. Let’s paint that”, moment. There have been some ridiculously nice colour schemes for Mortalis. See here for the eventual aim (landing bay).

I went the route that suited me best. I wanted dirty, rusted and oiled, but with some semblance of unity. Black and silver looks great as the internal corridors of a ship, but with a little extra work I hoped I could add some more character to it so that it could be other things as well, a bunker complex, the bridge of a ship rather than the bowels, laboratory etc.

I also didn't want to take forever, I have 7 more of these sections to do.

Proud momma hen; my Hades Breaching Drill.

With the phrase stolen from Sergeant Terry of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I would like to present my favourite model of the moment, the lovely (completed) Hades Breaching Drill. Mmmmm.

This put all the little things into practice and I'm liking the result thus far.

Being a cliché, and 'Find the Cyclops'

Well I have been busy.

So apart from this Renegade Hellhammer beastie (more on him later) in the last month, I've got my house sold and looked at 18 separate houses to then buy afterwards (only 2 had a dedicated study, but hey ho) I've enjoyed a lovely holiday with friends, was best man at an awesome German wedding for my good man Den, had a birthday, and finally had an enormous game of Apocalypse, all with a pregnant wife and little spare time at all.

So I apologise for the delay, Den let me know the delay was unacceptable. Sorry Den.

Tempestus Scions; not a one-shot-pop-squad!

 These guys will have to do till I get my hands on the plastic Scions box set; Traitor Stormtroopers! (Because they missed the memo regarding naming conventions)

Putting aside their painting methods until later to focus more on their use in-game in comparison to the last ruleset the Stormtroopers have, in general they are cheaper, better in bulk, and using them is wholly more risky if you stick to their former play style.

I've got a legacy of being underwhelmed by the rules for Scions. In the past I've been OK with the one-shot-pop-squad, with 2 meltaguns which can deep strike for a little over 100 points, really I was. 

Now they are cheaper, even with meltaguns. They are still a costly gamble, which is heavily influenced by terrain use, but still worthwhile.

Playing the Sons of Sek as a Guard 'force'

A little delayed, next steps for the Son's.

The good thing about having some painted tanks on the battlefield is that they take up the space of a squad, but take less than half the time that ten guys do, allowing your army's colour scheme to spread across the gaming table nicely. At least you'll feel slightly better about bringing grey or black mini's along.

My principal army since rejoining 40k back in May 2013 has been Space Marines, a 3000 point force of random elements (i.e. no all bike/all Stormtalon/winnerstar force), just a custom force purchased for 'model-love' more than winning intent. 

How can you not love a stompy Ironclad! Tau's bestie.

Sons of Sek; Paint schemes and Berocca paintbrush holders

So, time to attempt some colour.

First things first, basic palette.

Again, teasing data from the books shows that the SOS have yellow ochre uniform, with glossy black body armour, which rose over their mouths into a hand cupping into a gorget.

For some reason though, a paragraph lodged in my memory that indicated that the SOS wore 'acid yellow' uniforms, and whose belts, bindings, and accoutrements was formed from the flayed skin of their enemies. However, without being able to find this in the fiction, I went for the option which I could guarantee I could find.

Basic Palette
So the basic palette was nice and simple;

Santa with his Sons

I'm a firm believer in some solid Christmas-list-making, you get what you want, you get what you need and if you pad the thing out to a large enough degree you can still capture that 'whats under the tree magic' of childhood.

I did ask for toy tanks and toy soldiers like you should as well. First up my lovely wife bought me some of these;

Time to get cutting!

Sons Of Sek; Stormtroopers

So, with me still working on my Marines whilst I waited for the Christmas rush of Guard boxes I felt the burning need to convert something.

Oddly, searching for 'Metal soldiers' on Ebay popped up 9 Stormtroopers, including backpacks sergeant, flamer and grenade launcher troopers for £5; bargain!

Like all of the old metal kits, without access to a particularly hefty craft-knife or serious files, the large details of the Stormtroopers would be relatively hard to change. Instead, I focused my efforts on overloading this elite inception force with an abundance of smaller details.