Category: LEDs

Athimar, Silver Stars Captain

On By Chris B.In Kill Team, LEDs, Silver Stars, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

This week I’ve finally finished my Silver Stars Kill Team with the addition of a Captain to the roster. For those who are new to my blog, the Silver Stars are the mysterious chapter leading the Partisan forces in the War of the False Primarch. This miniature will take the role of a ‘Space Marine Captain’ in my Silver Stars Angels of Death Kill Team, known by the code name of ‘Squad Antimony’.

Modelling

As with all my previous Silver Stars, this marine is built using a Primaris marine body and legs, in this case from a Bladeguard miniature. The arms, pauldrons, backpack and heavy bolter are from the previous version of the plastic Legion MkIII Tactical Squad set.

The LED helmet eye lens effect is achieved with a resin MkII helmet, a TruOpto OSHR7331A-KL 1.8mm Red LED and the techniques described in my LED Eye Lens tutorial.

The Kill Team rules require the Space Marine Captain to be armed with a power fist and plasma pistol, but I decided to have a two-handed power mace to ‘count as’ a power fist. The mace comes from the Legion Melee Weapons Upgrade Set, with the haft extended to turn it from a one-handed weapon into a two-handed weapon. The LED effects in the mace were created using the same techniques I used for Lieutenant Titus’ thunder hammer as described in this post. The LED – also a TruOpto OSHR7331A-KL 1.8mm Red LED – is connected in parallel with the helmet LED to the same coin cell battery in the base.

As mentioned above, this miniature is also armed with a plasma pistol. I did consider adding an illuminated plasma pistol, but I decided that would steal focus from the power mace, so I settled on a holstered pistol at his waist.

Captain Athimar’s Iron Halo has been re-modelled into the shape of the alchemical symbol for Antimony, a design that you can also see echoed on his pauldron, tilt shield, and of course repeated on the other members of Squad Antimony.

Captain Athimar was the Line Captain of Squad Antimony during this terrible conflict. The rank is believed to be the equivalent of a captain of the lesser orders, as would have been found in the Legions of old, carrying more authority than a sergeant, but with no wider chapter responsibilities. All available pict-captures show him wielding a power mace, a popular weapon among the Silver Stars and often seen as an emulation of the crozius-like weapon carried by the False Primarch. Other than that, precious little is known about this individual – even the moniker “Athimar” is a code name assigned by Orthodox lexicographers.

EXTRACT FROM ‘A TREATISE ON THE WAR OF THE FALSE PRIMARCH’ BY SCRIBE HOWTOPHER BUXCRAFT

Painting

The paint recipes I used for Captain Athimar are the same as those used for the rest of the Kill Team. You can find my Silver Stars paint recipe in this post, plus this post which expands on techniques for painting Silver Stars insignia.

When it came to painting the tabard, my initial instinct was to paint it the same rose colour that is used for spot colours – like the helm crest and pauldron banding – elsewhere in the Silver Stars scheme. But I was concerned that such a large area of this vivid colour may have overwhelmed the rest of the paint scheme, particularly as it also features prominently on the tilt shield. I decided to look at some other Silver Stars painted by Apologist to see how he had approached tabards. I soon realised that none of Apologist’s Silver Stars had tabards or loincloths, but there were plenty of leather pteruges. So I settled on a dark leather for the tabard. This had the advantage of being a relatively neutral colour and therefore not too overpowering to the rest of the scheme. It also has the benefit of giving Athimar a workman-like appearance – he is a captain of the lesser orders, after all! – and plays with your expectations regarding what a space marine should look like, a common theme with the Silver Stars.

I hope that was an interesting insight into the making of Captain Athimar. I’ve had the concept for this miniature in my head since about this time last year, so it’s good to finally bring it to life. Back in January, I declared that one of my hobby goals for 2025 was to finish my Silver Stars kill team, and with this final member complete I can now tick that off the list!

I’ll be back again soon with some group photographs and and a blog post looking at the team as a whole. As ever, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. 

Silver Stars Heavy Gunner

On By Chris B.In Kill Team, LEDs, Silver Stars, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

This week I’ve added to my growing Silver Stars Kill Team with a heavy bolter gunner. As regular readers may recall, the Silver Stars are the mysterious chapter leading the Partisan forces in the War of the False Primarch. This miniature will take the role of ‘Heavy Intercessor Gunner’ in my Silver Stars Angels of Death Kill Team.

Modelling

As with all my previous Silver Stars, this marine is built using a Primaris marine body and legs. The arms, pauldrons, backpack and heavy bolter are from the previous version of the plastic Legion MkIII Tactical Squad set. To give the legs a more “antiquated” look, I added Mixed Micro Glass Balls from Green Stuff World as armour studs on the legs. 

The head is from the Horus Heresy Melee Weapons Upgrade Set. As I’ve mentioned previously, all of my Silver Stars are either wearing helmets or rebreather masks that cover the lower half of their face. I want the members of the Kill Team to be anonymous to add to the sense of mystery surrounding their chapter.

The LED techniques used here are based on my Simple Muzzle Flare tutorial, only using a TruOpto OSHR7331A-KL 1.8mm Yellow LED and a 20 ohm resistor instead of the smaller 0805 SMD chip LED specified in the tutorial. I used a larger LED so that the heavy bolter muzzle flare was larger than the bolt gun muzzle flares that already exist on other miniatures in the squad. You can see how the LED was integrated into the heavy bolter in the images above. A larger LED also requires a larger muzzle flare sculpted around it. As mentioned in Steps 14 – 16 of the tutorial, the Water Splash Effect Gel used to construct the muzzle flare should be built up in thin layers and allowed to dry between applications. This is especially true for this larger flare.

Painting

I don’t have anything new to discuss on the painting techniques used for the miniature, as I’m using a well establish recipe that I’ve used for the rest of the Kill Team. You can find my Silver Stars paint recipe in this post, plus this post which expands on techniques for painting Silver Stars insignia.

Back in January, I mentioned that one of my hobby goals for 2025 was to finish my Silver Stars kill team. While I now have six members of the team – which is technically enough – there is still one final member of the team on the way…

As always, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. I will leave you with a shot of the Heavy Gunner and his Marksman battle brother engaging the enemy in a deadly firefight!

Imperial Fists Apothecary Biologis

On By Chris B.In Imperial Fists, LEDs, Leviathan, Social Media, Space Marines, Technical, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

This week I’m showcasing a very special project – an Apothecary Biologis of the Imperial Fists. I am donating this miniature to The Apothecarion project, a fundraising effort for a charity that supports survivors of childhood cancer. Members of the online Warhammer community are donating Apothecary miniatures, and anyone can buy tickets to enter the raffle for a chance to win one of four ‘reliquary’ display cases full of donated miniatures. If you enter this raffle then this is your chance to not only own this miniature, but also raise money to a great cause!

Modelling

When I was asked to take part in this fundraising project and donate an Apothecary, my mind immediately went to the Leviathan Apothecary Biologis. Until recently I had no clear plans for this miniature as it didn’t really fit in with my Flesh Eaters. But with this community project to inspire me I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted to do with this kit. This Apothecary includes three LEDs to create its effects; one in the helmet, one in the task lamp, and one in the Vivispectrum sample chamber.

The glowing helmet eye lenses were created using the techniques detailed in my LED Eye Lens Tutorial, including the TruOpto 1.8mm Red LED.

The task lamp was created following the same principles as the helmet, in the sense that it’s a resin cast. The lamp uses a 3V yellow 0805 SMD chip LEDs connected to a 47 ohm resistor (also available pre-wired from Small Scale Lights) to provide the illumination.

The Vivispectrum sample containment chamber was the most complex part of the conversion. Thankfully it is hollow, but I had to carefully cut out and file the chamber windows. The ‘xenos sample’ is made from the tentacled maw of a Ymgarl Genestealer. I painted the sample and the inside of the chamber before proceeding to the resin pour. Will the chamber with resin was intended to give the impression it was filled with liquid. I used PVA glue to temporarily fix a thin piece of plastic over each of the four windows, then poured UV Resin from Green Stuff World into each half of the chamber. I then cured the resin with a UV Torch.

The final touch on the Vivispectrum chamber was adding the 3V Flickering Green 0807 SMD chip LED to the inside of the top of the chamber, facing downwards. The connecting wire runs up through the arm and then down through the torso and legs. I chose a flickering LED to give a sense of motion to the sample, and hopefully the impression that whatever it is, it’s still alive!

Each of the three LEDs described above are connected in parallel to a single 3V CR2032 coin cell battery and miniature switch hidden under the base.

I did originally also plan to illuminate the wrist-mounted computer screen. The wrist unit is actually cast in resin in preparation for this. But I decided against it in the end as I was concerned it would draw the eye away from the much more interesting LED effect in the sample chamber.

Painting

When it came time to paint this miniature I went with Imperial Fists as they are of course one of my favourite chapters. This was quite a complex miniature to paint, both in the amount of detail and the range of colours used. There’s a little too much info about all the paints used to include in a single blog post, but I’ve listed my recipes for the off-white and yellow armour below. The whole miniature was undercoated with Chaos Black spray prior to painting.

  • Yellow Armour
  • Averland Sunset basecoat
  • Yriel Yellow layer (2-3 thin coats)
  • Casandora Yellow shade
  • Fuegan Orange shade in darker areas (slightly watered down)
  • Mournfang Brown shade in deepest recesses
  • Yriel Yellow edge highlight
  • Flash Gitz Yellow fine highlight
  • Dorn Yellow fine highlight on sharpest edges
  • White Scar dot highlight on sharpest edges
  • Off-White Armour
  • Administratum Grey basecoat (two thin coats)
  • Apothecary White Contrast shade
  • Corax White layer
  • Skull White highlight

So there we go, something slightly different this week. Don’t forget to follow The Apothecarion project for updates, and please buy tickets to enter the raffle for a chance to win this miniature! As always, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Striking Scorpion

On By Chris B.In Craftworld Eldar, Eldar, LEDs, Technical, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

This week I’m dealing with the perfidious Aeldari and January’s ‘Mini of the Month’, a Striking Scorpion Aspect Warrior!

Modelling

Don’t roll your eye just yet, this isn’t another army project to distract me from my 2025 hobby goals. It’s simply a proof of concept to see how LED Aspect Warrior helmets look and find out if LED mandiblasters are feasible. Having said that, I don’t get much Game Workshop new release FOMO these days, but I must admit the Aeldari releases are making me sweat a little…

The LED helmet and eye lenses were made using the techniques described in my LED Eye Lens Tutorial. As you can see in the image below, only the upper portion of the helmet was cast in resin. The eyes used a single 3V red 0805 SMD chip LED and a 47 ohm resistor (also available pre-wired from Small Scale Lights). This is smaller than the 1.8mm LED that I normally use for Space Marine eye lenses, since there’s not as much room in Aeldari helmets.

The mandiblaster muzzle flares were created using the techniques described in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial. There are two separate 3V yellow 0805 SMD chip LEDs each connected to a 47 ohm resistor (again also available pre-wired from Small Scale Lights). The muzzle flares were sculpted from Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World.

All three LED circuits were connected in parallel with each other to a single 3V CR2032 coin cell and switch in the base.

Painting

While I’m mostly happy with the paint job as a whole, I think I would try a different green next time. I checked Striking Scorpions on the Citadel Colour app, and it informed me that the receipe used Waaagh! Flesh as a base, with highlights of Warpstone Glow and Moot Green. It wasn’t until I was fully committed that I realised this probably wasn’t correct and the “official” scheme was a lot brighter.

I try to stick close to the official scheme and stock poses for LED ‘proof of concepts’ such as this one. It’s about not changing too many variables at once. I may possibly come back and make a Blades of Khaine Kill Team at some point. If I do, I’ll probably be a little more adventurous with the paint palette, perhaps bringing in some blacks and yellows.

So now the Striking Scorpion is done and dusted and I’ve satisfied myself that LED mandiblaster are possible, does that mean I’ll be getting back to my planned 2025 projects?

*Checks workbench*

Erm, no…

Please come back again soon to find out what my next tangent will be! As ever, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Lieutenant Titus

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Space Marines, Ultramarines, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

Courage and honour! I’m kicking off 2025 with Demetrian Titus, Lieutenant of the Ultramarines 2nd Company and protagonist of the ‘Space Marine 2’ video game. While I don’t collect Ultramarines, I do have a soft spot for the chapter and have spent a lot of time playing Space Marine 2 recently. So when Titus was released as an individual miniature in Warhammer stores in December, I snapped him up immediately!

Modelling

If you’re familiar with this miniature, then you’ll notice that my version is significantly different from the base model. I wanted to swap the chainsword for a thunder hammer, which was my favourite melee weapon in the single player campaign. I didn’t want to do a straight swap with the chainsword as having Titus posed waving the thunder hammer above his head one-handed didn’t feel like it had the necessary gravitas, so I decided to mix things up and repose the miniature. The new pose is influenced by both the Weta Workshop statue and the life-size Titus statue in the Warhammer World entrance hall.

Forging the LED Thunder Hammer

1. This miniature uses a single-handed thunder hammer. This particular one is from the discontinued Dark Angels Terminator set as I happened to have in my bits box, but any single-handed thunder hammer will do. The first step was to prepare the hammer by drilling holes for the wires. I made cuts at joints between different textures (e.g. the top of the grip and the shaft) as these are easier to hide when reassembling. Cutting the hammer into smaller sections makes drilling holes for the wires easier.

The head of the hammer was cast in polyurethane resin, using the techniques in my Resin Casting Tutorial. This is to allow diffusion and transmission of the LED light.

2. I used a 1.8mm Tru Opto Blue LED to create the blue glow in the thunder hammer. The LED is connected by thin wires that run down through the thunder hammer (as seen below), Titus’ right arm, torso and leg to a 10 ohm resistor and 3V coin cell battery in the base (see my LED Eye Lens Tutorial for more details on how to do this).

To insert the LED into the resin hammer head you will need to drill a hole in the resin. It’s worth noting that the “1.8mm” in the LED’s name refers to its standard directivity, i.e. the radius over which the light is emitted, rather than it’s physical size. I recommend a 3.5mm drill bit for drilling a suitably sized hole in the resin. Once the LED is fully inserted, you can reassemble all parts of the hammer. Any gaps can be filled with modelling putty.

3. I added Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World, in narrow lines over the resin to create the crackling energy effect. This gel is best applied in thin layers, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next.

Once all the gel is completely dry, the final step is to apply a single thin glaze of blue paint over all the resin and gel. As long as this is suitably thin it will enhance the look of the miniature while the LED is off without inhibiting the light of the LED.

Getting A-head on Helmets

The miniature is supplied with a choice of bare head and helmet. Titus’ stoic visage and the glowering MkX helmet are both iconic looks, but thankfully I didn’t have to choose. I made the bare head and LED helmet interchangeable by using an IC socket and the techniques detailed in my LED Swapable Helmet Tutorial. When not in use, the helmet fits into a socket on Titus’ belt, as shown below.

The helmet contains a single 1.8mm Tru Opto Red LED and was created by following the steps in my LED Eye Lens Tutorial. As mentioned above, the LEDs in the helmet and thunder hammer are connected in parallel to a single 3V coin cell battery and switch in the base that are both accessible from underneath.

Painting

I followed the “official” scheme when choosing colours for this miniature, which seemed important as I was recreating a specific character. I did wonder about painting the Neuroloid in my Hive Fleet Cerberus scheme, but decided that was too much of a deviation from the Tyranids encountered in the game, so used the standard Hive Fleet Leviathan colours. The green box on the base is painted in the style of the crates that conceal ammo and supplies in the game.

This miniature used a lot of different paints, but I have included my recipes for a few key colours, just in case anyone is interested. All paints are Citadel unless stated otherwise. The miniature was spray undercoated Chaos Black.

  • Ultramarine Armour
  • Macragge Blue basecoat (two thin coats)
  • 50:50 Kantor Blue:Abaddon Black shade
  • Altdorf Blue highlight
  • Calgar Blue fine highlight
  • Fenrisian Grey fine highlight on top edges and corners
  • Blue Horror dot highlight
  • White Cloth
  • Administratum Grey basecoat
  • Apothecary White shade
  • Corax White layer
  • Skull White highlight
  • Administratum Grey thin glaze
  • Gold Details
  • Retributor Armour base coat
  • Reikland Fleshshade in recesses
  • Aggaros Dunes thinned glaze on lower portions of gold areas
  • Runefang Steel highlight
  • Urban Ruins
  • Mechanicus Standard Grey basecoat
  • Nuln Oil shade
  • Dawnstone drybrush
  • Administratum Grey drybrush
  • Skull White light drybrush

So there we are, my first completed miniature of 2025! Hopefully the corpse on the base allows it to also count as progress on my Tyranid project, haha! I’ll be back on the Ultramarines again in March for #MarchForMacragge, but before then I’ll be trying to progress my regular projects. Finally, if you haven’t played Space Marine 2, go and get it because it’s excellent! As ever, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.