Jodrell Plays Games

Forge WorldWarhammer obviously have a stunning miniature of Vulkan for the Horus Heresy game, but I don't play that game, my Salamanders army is definitively a 40k army. When I saw this third-party "dragon lord" online, I thought: since Guilliman and the Lion have returned, why shouldn't Vulkan as well!

More pictures below the fold.

One of GW's special store anniversary models. A fantastic pose, which was nice and easy to customise with the Salamanders upgrade sprue. I think I finished this chap in a single sitting!

These are the last of the Salamanders models painted for me by The Unrelenting Brush. As with some of the other models, I added decals and flames once I got the models back.

The Unrelenting Brush did a great job of this model. I particularly love the flame effect on the shield. I added the flames on the shoulder pads and the decals after I got the model back.

These Bladeguard Veterans were painted by Darren from Burning Beard Studios.



The Bladeguard Ancient was painted by The Unrelenting Brush. I added the flames and decal to the shoulder pad after I got it back.

This is two five-man Assault Intercessors squads, painted by Darren of Burning Beard Studios. As with the other models he painted for me, he's added some 3D-printed accessories to make them distinctive. I really like the helmet on this sergeant:

These models have been languishing in my "pile of shame" for no less than seven years, so I was very happy that Darren from Burning Beard Studios did such a good job on them. He added some 3D-printed bits to make them a unique squad.

This is such an awesome model! After I got it back from The Unrelenting Brush, I decided to add some flames to the armour panels (I also added the decals) which helps to tie it in with the rest of the army.

Primaris Eradicators are a very Salamanders-esque unit, and I am definitely going to add more of these to my army. Another great paint job by Darren of Burning Beard Studios.

More models from the Indomitus box set, once again painted (and augmented with 3D-printed bits) by Darren of Burning Beard Studios. I love the flames on the main housing of the bike: it's not something I'd have considered painting, but it gives them a Ghost Rider vibe which works really well.

At the end of last year, I came to the sad realisation that, due to the challenges of a change in job, moving to a new home, and the birth of my youngest child, all during a global pandemic, the amount of time I've been able to spend on the hobby had plummeted, and was unlikely to improve in the near future. And, to make things worse, I had been still been adding to my grey plastic pile of shame, meaning that my backlog had reached ridiculous proportions: it would have taken a decade of no new models to get it back to a reasonable size.

So I made the decision to (a) sell off a lot of the stuff I didn't think I'd miss, and (b) outsource the painting of the rest, so I found a couple of commission painters who could reproduce my colour scheme at a reasonable price.

Last week I received the first couple of batches of painted models, and will be posting pictures of each unit over the next couple of weeks.

The first is this squad of Salamanders Terminators, painted by Darren of Burning Beard Studios. He's done a fantastic job of matching my colour scheme for the Salamanders, and has augmented the models with some 3D printed accessories.

This squad will take its rightful place alongside the two other Terminator squads of the Firedrakes in my Salamanders army.

More pictures below the fold. If you're looking for an affordable and reliable painting service, I can thoroughly recommend Darren, so check out his website.

I've finally finished my ten-man squad of Intercessors! The squad is set up so that I can split it into two five-man squads: one of the battle-brothers has a Forge World shoulder pad so he's easy to "upgrade" into a Sergeant.

Of course I've pre-ordered Adrax Agatone, so expect him to make an appearance on this blog in the next few months!

More pictures below the fold.

Over the Christmas and New Year break I thought it would be fun to focus on a single model, and this is the result. This Librarian for my Salamanders army is based on the model of Jensus Natorian of the Blood Ravens from Kill Team Cassius, with an alternate left arm and shoulder pads, and a bit of etched brass on the left greave.

More pictures below.

This unit is a mix of normal Aggressor models and the "easy-to-build" models. This means I can have a larger unit with no duplicated poses.

Not my best work but decent enough for the tabletop.

More pictures below the fold.

Last night I thought it would be fun to lay out my entire Warhammer 40,0000 Salamanders army (at least, all of it that's painted). I did a quick tot-up and it turns out that I have over 4,000 points worth which is a lot more than I would have guessed!

Another nice surprise is how consistent the colour scheme is between the first model and the last, despite there being a six-year gap between them. My painting skills have definitely improved in that time but the old and new models both work perfectly well next to each other on the table.

I still need to paint (or finish painting):

1. Two three-man Aggressor squads
2. A five-man Sternguard Veteran squad
3. A five-man Terminator squad
4. A five-man Scout Sniper Squad
5. A Librarian (converted from the model in the Deathwatch Overkill game)
6. A ten-man Primaris Intercessor squad

I also have ten Mark III tactical Marines and ten Tartaros-pattern Terminators, but I am not sure if I am going to put those into my Salamanders or my Horus Heresy Word Bearers.

The rest of the pictures are below the fold.

My love affair with all things Primaris continues! Just like the Hellblasters and the Astraeus, the Redemptor Dreadnought is both an awesome model and also really easy and fun to paint: all the green parts were painted separately from the dreadnought's superstructure, so the whole process was relatively quick and easy (albeit spread out over several months since I no longer have a permanent hobby space).

The flames on the armour plates were painted using Duncan's technique for Salamanders flame heraldry, and I am very happy with how it's turned out! I may be going back to some of my older models and adding it to them (especially the shoulder pads on my tactical and assault marines).

The right arm weapon is magnetised so I can swap the plasma incinerator (which is the obvious choice when fielding Vulkan He'stan, since you get a re-roll to avoid the mortal wound on a roll of 1 when supercharging) with the gatling cannon, if appropriate.

More pictures below the fold.

Here are the first Primaris marines to join my Salamanders: a squad of Hellblasters and a Lieutenant from the Dark Imperium boxset.



I will happily admit that I love the Primaris marines. They look awesome and are so much easier to paint (for a middle-aged man with poor eyesight like me). I will be adding more in the near future!

From Lexicanum:

Xavier was a Chaplain in the Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines. He is regarded as the greatest Chaplain the Salamanders have ever known.

A proud upholder of the Salamander's Promethean Cult, Xavier is said to have epitomised the Chapter's ideals more completely than any other Marine in their history. Dedicated to encouraging his fellows in feats of endurance and fortitude, it is said that when Xavier led them, the Salamanders never fell back before an enemy. As a sign of this dedication, he was entrusted with the keeping of "Vulkan's Sigil", a relic believed to have been carried by the Primarch Vulkan. He is also famed for having slain a particularly ancient and monstrous salamander with his bare hands.

Games Workshop re-released this model last year through their "Made To Order" service, and since it's the only other Salamanders-specific model that GW ever made (apart from Vulkan He'stan), obviously I had to pick it up.

More pictures below.

I am not normally a fan of grav-tanks, and when I saw the Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank, I wasn't immediately taken by it. But over time I've come to really love the design so I decided that I wanted one for my Salamanders army, and I treated myself to one for Christmas.

Compared to the other Forge World models I've built and painted, this one was a breeze to assemble and needed very little work to get it ready for painting. The only pain point is the huge number of grav skids that you have to paint separately and then glue on.

More pics below the fold.

I am quite pleased to have finally (after 9 months) completed this model, as it's been a complete pain in the arse. The cast was fairly poor (bad enough that I could probably have got a replacement if I'd wanted) and I struggled with the paint job, thanks to my bad habit of assembling the model too much before painting (specifically, the exhaust pipes on the side) which meant that I had to mask off and respray a few areas to cover up the places where I'd got paint where it should not have been.

I magnetised all the weapons, so I can swap the Flamestorm Cannon for a Magna-Melta, and maybe also change the sponsons if I pick up some alternatives at a bits site or elswhere. I've also made some plastic doors that fit into the sponson and turret sockets, so I could even use it as a Rhino or Razorback if I wanted.

More pictures below.

Kavan Bor'seth was Chapter Master of the Salamanders during the 36th Millenium. After a distinguished career as a Sergeant in the 3rd company, he was elevated to the ranks of the Firedrakes, ultimately rising to lead the First Company and assume the mantle of Regent of Nocturne. He was presumed killed after many years of service, when his strike cruiser Sentinel of Hesiod was lost in the Warp en route to the Diadin sector.

Bor'seth wore a legendary suit of Artificer armour dating back to the Great Crusade. The suit was the subject of many legends: some say that it was wrought by Vulkan himself for one of his favoured commanders, others say that it was claimed as a trophy from the decapitated corpse of a traitor legionary during the Scouring. Alas, due to the loss of the Sentinel, this relic of the chapter is now lost forever, taking its secrets with it. The suit's backpack includes an integrated auspex and teleport homer - technology once common during the Great Crusade but since lost to the Imperium.


Bor'seth's preferred armament was a finely-wrought Thunder Hammer (with a similar pedigree to the armour he was clad in) and a regulation combi-melta, a weapon he grew fond of during his time in the Sternguard squads of the Firedrakes.

As soon as I saw it, I realised the conversion possibilities of Armillus Dynat (from the the Horus Heresy Character Series) and decided that I wanted to give it a go. The scale-pattern of the Heresy-era Alpha Legion works just as well as drake-scale in my opinion. And given how distinctive (and expensive) the model was, he couldn't just be a veteran sergeant or company captain, so I decided to write a biography for him and place him far enough back in history as to avoid any conflicts with canon.

More pictures below.

It's kind of silly that it's taken me more than four years to paint this model, but I'm so glad that I finally did! Soon after I bought it, I primed it using Army Painter Army Green, the same as all the other models, but I quickly realised that it was a mistake and that I should have primed it black instead; and it's taken me this long to get round to stripping it and re-priming it using the airbrush.

Bray'arth is a great centerpiece model and counts as an HQ choice for Salamanders army. I've designed my Salamanders army around Vulkan He'stan in that I have a lot of meltas, but there's no reason why I can't take both models as long as the points limit allows.

More pictures below.

The Mark II Missile Turret from Puppets War does a pretty good job of turning a Rhino/Razorback into a Whirlwind. The design would work quite well on Deimos-pattern Rhinos.

More pictures below.

This is the Salamanders Storm Eagle Vulkan's Wrath, the personal transport of Captain Dac'tyr, Lord of the Burning Skies and Captain of the 4th Company.

As is common among Salamanders vehicles, Vulkan's Wrath has been modified by its master, who added a stabiliser wing with forward-facing flaps to function as an air-brake: this allows Vulkan's Wrath to rapidly decelerate after a high-speed orbital insertion.

More pictures below.

This model is a real bugger to paint and he's not turned out anywhere near as good as I'd have liked. It's the first model that I actually wish I had in Finecast instead of metal. The quality of the cast is actually fairly poor, and all the spiky bits and sharp edges are a recipe for having the paint chip off, and to try to prevent that, I've had to overload on varnish. Plus, I made the mistake of assembling him before painting, meaning that it was much harder to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Anyway, he's done now, and while he's not as good as I've liked him to be, at least he's tabletop standard.

More pics below.

Here is a pair of Rhinos which can be converted into Razorbacks. When played as Razorbacks they use kitbashed weapons: a twin-linked Heavy Flamer (ideal for Salamanders) and a twin-linked Assault Cannon.


The side doors on Number 1 are magnetised: I'm planning on kitbashing some sponsons and a turret so that it can be converted into a Predator.

More pictures below!

Here's the second Tactical Squad. As with the first squad, the models have a mix of modern Mark VII, Rogue Trader-era plastic accessories, and Mark V armour from Forge World.

Here's the first Tactical squad. As you will notice, the Marines that form this squad are equipped with a variety of different types of armour: I mixed in some old Rogue Trader-era plastic components as well as some Mark V bits from Forge World.

I wasn't planning on building an Assault squad for my Salamanders army. I bought a box of Assault marines because I wanted to mix the legs and torsos into the Tactical squads to make them a bit more distinctive.

But I had some spare bodies — Rogue Trader-era metal Mark VII marines — so I thought I'd try fitting the modern arms and jump packs on to them to see how they'd turn out. The end result is pretty good I think. The Sergeant is a modern plastic miniature who's carrying a Chapterhouse Studios thunder hammer and storm shield.

Here is an Apothecary for my Salamanders army. The model is a 1990s era(?) 3rd or 4th edition that's still available in Finecast: I picked this one up, in metal, for £2 at a local wargaming store.

He was painted along with two Tactical squads and an Assault squad: I painted them all in a production line rather than one at a time, and have therefore managed to 26 models in the same time that it previously would have taken to paint two Terminators.

I'll be posting pictures of the Tactical and Assault squads soon: keep 'em peeled!

Here's the first completed model from the two Tactical Squads I'm working on for my Salamanders army. He was painted in basically the same way as the Firedrakes: Army Painter Army Green basecoat, washed with a mix of Thraka Green and Devlan Mud, edge highlighted with AP Army Green, and so on.

There are a couple of points to note:

1. Despite several attempts, using both Revell Decalsoft and Microsol, to apply the Games Workshop Salamanders logo to the shoulder pad, I couldn't get the transfer to apply smoothly without wrinkles. I blame this on the crappy quality of GW's transfers. Therefore I've had painted the logo, which looks pretty crappy, but hopefully my freehanding skills will improve as I've got another 24 to do!
2. Realising that a simple green and black colour scheme would look boring, I painted a flame effect on the other shoulder, which seems to work quite well.

More pictures below.

I've finally finished the second of three Terminator squads in my Salamanders army. The first took about a year, painting one model at a time. I chastised myself for not using a "production line" which would have saved me a lot of time.

So of course, the second squad, which I used a production line for, still took about the same amount of time, thanks to the disruptions of a new baby, moving house and prevarication (due to the amount of work required).

I think I'll leave the last squad of Terminators until later. I now have two ten-man tactical squads and a five-man assault squad to do. I think these will actually be easier as although there are more models, there are fewer details.

More pictures below the fold.

Here is a Land Raider Redeemer for my Salamanders army. Normally, a Land Raider is the centrepiece for any Space Marine army, but in this case I actually painted it as a test model, in order to develop the painting technique before using it on the Stormeagle that's currently sitting in a box at my in-laws. The reasoning being that if it all went wrong, it would be a £50 model I was wrecking rather than a £100 model.

Fortunately, no such disaster occurred, although I did make a mistake when I tried to fix a pool of wash and ended up creating a nasty tide mark on the top of the model. This was fixed fairly easily, fortunately.

You can see that I've upgraded the model using Forge World resin pieces and etched brass. If you're creating an army with a rich visual style, such as the Salamanders, these are a bit of a must.

Now that I've successfully finished the Land Raider, I'm dying to get on to the Stormeagle! But you will see from my next post that there's another large model that's also taking up my attention...

Here, finally, is the Sergeant for my first squad of Firedrakes Terminators. This chap has taken quite a while since it features two of my weak spots: faces and banners. My reluctance to get stuck in and actually have a go at painting them meant that this miniature spent several months on my "to do" list.

I am planning on having a stern word with myself as it's taken me nearly a year to paint six terminators (this squad and a chaplain). This is because I broke one of my own cardinal rules, which is always use an assembly line. If you want to get an army finished, you divide your labour and do the same thing to every model at the same time. This is something I intend to do with the next two squads which will be painted all together.

Here are some more pics of the finished squad.

After finishing the test model I moved straight on to do another "production" model - that is, now that I'm happy with the paint scheme, I wanted to see how quickly I could knock out another model using that scheme. The test model took about 3 hours to paint, but this one took much less: no more than 1.5 or 2 hours.



I am now painting two more models in a batch as I think that will also save time. Then I only have to paint the sergeant and I've finished the first squad, or one third of the final army.

Here's the first of the Firedrakes Salamanders terminators. I'm pretty pleased with it overall, although there are a couple of issues: firstly, I decided to use the Army Painter spray as the base colour based on their "100% match" with their Warpaint paints: unfortunately this is not the case, which means that cleaning up mistakes is much trickier as I have to mix the right colour to match the base coat.

The second issue is entirely my fault: I left the model under a hot lamp too long which caused the model to warp. Fortunately I caught it before it got too bad, but I'm annoyed that the first model I painted for this army has such a visible and unfixable flaw which you can see in the photo below.



I used a couple of techniques that I haven't really used much before at this scale: I used line highlighting which is pretty standard for painting Space Marines (but I've never tried before) and I also used some of Forge World's weathering powders to weather the boots and greaves. I used two different powders (Light Earth and Dark Earth) layered one on top of the other to match the colour scheme of the base.

More pictures below.

Here's how I made the drakescale loincloths and banners for my Fire Drakes.

I've spent much of the past week working on the first few units of my previously-mentioned Salamanders Firedrakes army.

Behold:

2012 is almost upon us! The last twelve months have been a period of diversification for me in hobby terms: I delved more deeply into 15mm SF stuff, finished my first 40k army in 15 years, and discovered In The Emperor's Name.

I thought that it might be fun to post my plans for 2012, so I can look back next year and see how I did.