Ork Kommando ‘Rokkit Boy’

On By Chris B.In Kill Team, LEDs, Octarius, Orks, Technical, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

I’m burnin’ out me fuse out ‘ere, alone…

Dregshak, Kommando Rokkit Boy

I’ve been wanting to put together an LED rocket launcher effect for quite some time now. I’ve been back and forward several times on which army or kill team project would get the honour, and I settle on the Ork Kommandos in the end. It seems quite fitting, as this Kill Team has been the test bed for quite a few different LED techniques and tutorials.

Design, Building & Painting

I won’t spend much time explaining how I achieved the LED rocket effect, as I have a brand new full ‘LED Rocket Launcher’ tutorial on my tutorial page here! Suffice to say, the LED was one of the usual Yellow 0805 Chip LEDs from Small Scale Lights and the smoke trail was made from a small amount of Soft Toy Stuffing.

The paint scheme sticks with the Blood Axe Kommando theme that can be seen in the rest of the team. I decide to decorate the rockets with a red and white chequered pattern that calls back to Titin’s rocket – the definitive rocket design in my opinion. The colour scheme for the mask was influenced by Call of Duty: Ghosts, which seemed fitting for the Kommandos.

That’s it for today! Eight Kommandos down, two to go! Check back again soon for more Orks…

Flesh Eaters & ‘New Year, New Army 2022’

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Space Marines, True Scale, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

As we reach the end of January, I can finally unveil my “New Year, New Army” project for 2022. This year I plan to expand my Flesh Eaters Kill Team into a small army in time for Armies on Parade in November. This is the first member of a new Intercessor Assault Squad, Brother Kane.

Brother Kane is depicted charging into the fray, bullets ricocheting from his armour. He carries the squad’s “Terror Banner”, an evolution of the vexilla carried by Legionaries in millennia past. Used by forces on both sides during the War of the False Primarch, they were unfurled at the moment the shooting starting, leaving their victims in no doubt as to who had come for them! The “Prey For Death” message is a homage to the slogan painted on the shoulder pad of the Flesh Eaters marine depicted in the colour section of the Warhammer 40K first edition ‘Rogue Trader’ rulebook.

Design, Building & Painting

I had a number of different design goals with this model. Firstly, I wanted to convert the base Primaris model to look like he was wearing Mark VI armour to help him fit more closely with the War of the False Primarch M34 setting. I achieved this by removing a lot of the distinctive Mark X armour details – ankle stabilisers, knee pad rims, etc – and adding chest power cables made from guitar strings. The shoulder pads and backpack are from the Forge World Mark VI armour kit.

The base model is an Assault Intercessor from the Indomitus box set. The left arm is in its normal position, and I repositioned the right arm and wrist to form a straight line with the other hand to allow the model to carry the flag. The flag pole is 1mm wire and the flag itself is a Tactical Marine banner turned on its side.

The LED effect bullet ricochets were achieved using the techniques described in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial, only with the “flares” coming from the armour rather than a gun barrel. Both LEDs are powered from the same battery. They are connected in parallel with each other and in series with a single 100 ohm resistor. You can see and On/Off comparison picture on the right of the gallery above.

The paint scheme is exactly the same as described in this post about my Flesh Eaters Kill Team.

That’s it for this week. One Assault Intercessor down, nine more to go! See you again soon for more Flesh Eaters space marines, and maybe even finishing some of the other projects I have on the go as well!

Primaris Pedro Kantor

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

Broader shoulders rightly mean greater burdens.

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, on crossing the Rubicon Primaris.

What if…Pedro Kantor crossed the Rubicon Primaris? Although it hasn’t happened in canon (yet), it’s a question that many fans of the Crimson Fists have already considered. I had originally hoped to include my take on this idea as part of my Armies on Parade 2021 display board, but when it became clear that I wasn’t going to get it all done in time I put Pedro on the back-burner for a couple of weeks while I finished the board itself. But now Pedro is finally done!

Painting & Assembling

This was a relatively simple conversion based on the Imperial Fists character Tor Garadon. All Tor Garadon’s distinguishing features were removed, such as his head and the grav-gun. I also replaced the ruined defences he was standing on with a pile of Ork skulls!

I then added a few parts from the Finecast Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, specifically his personal banner, left forearm and Dorn’s Arrow. The helmet is from the limited edition Primaris Captain; I chose this one as it had the same laurel wreath as Pedro’s current model. I also sculpted the circular gemstone on his forehead from modelling putty to echo the gemstone on the existing Pedro model.

To create the LED helmet eye lenses and muzzle flare I used the techniques described in my LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial that you can find here. For the paint scheme, I resisted the temptation to go too “bling” with the detail on Pedro’s and kept to the comparatively limited palette that I used for the rest of my Crimson Fists.

So there we have it, Primaris Pedro Kantor! Rule-wise, I’ll simply use him as with his normal rules on the table top. The Primaris upgrade is simply an aesthetic improvement so that I wouldn’t need to field a “first born” Pedro Kantor in an otherwise all-Primaris army. That’s it for this week, see you all again soon!

Ork Kommando ‘Breacha’

On By Chris B.In Kill Team, LEDs, Octarius, Orks, Technical, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

Little squig, little squig, let me in…

“Krumpa” Zog, Ork Breacha

This Ork Kommando ‘Breacha’ is my latest effort from the ‘Kill Team: Ocatrius’ box set. Originally I thought this would be one of the few non-LED models in the unit. But then I realised it might be fun to have him bursting through a door with bullets ricocheting from his armour! I made a few mock-ups with the door, but as it turns out the breaching ram takes up most of the 32mm base, and the door just obscured too much of the model. In the end I decided to simply hint at the door with the ruined door frame on the base. One of the bullet impacts is on the door frame to help draw attention to it.

Painting & Assembling

The LED techniques used on this model were fairly simple. I followed the procedure in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial, except in this case the LEDs are on the rubble and shoulder armour rather than the end of the gun! I used two of the same 0805 chip LED as detailed in the tutorial, both connected in parallel on the same battery.

I tried to sculpt the “flares” (using the Water Splash Effect Gel from Green Stuff World) so they looked like the sparks from a bullet ricocheting off a solid surface. I then painted them with a light shade and glaze, as detailed in the tutorial. When painting the rest of the model, I used the ‘Blood Axe Kommando’ scheme seen here.

That’s it for this week. I’ll finish up with a group shot of the Kommandos so far. Hopefully see you back here again soon!

More on Flesh Eaters Kill Team Caro

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, Kill Team, LEDs, Space Marines, True Scale, War of the False Primarch5 Comments

Last weekend I published an article about my new Flesh Eaters ‘Kill Team Caro’. During the week I’ve been sharing some extra close-up images and background snippets about each member of the unit on my Twitter and Instagram. Now that I’ve covered them all, I thought it would be nice to compile the images and information here on my website as well.

First up we have Sergeant Caro himself. The honour markings on his helmet indicate he is a veteran of the Flesh Eaters famous “Jaws of Doom” assault squad. He lead his kill team to infiltrate Partisan space and target key assets during the so-called “Sorrowful Years”, the period during the War of the False Primarch that saw mainly retrenchment and small scale skirmishes between Orthodox and Partisan forces.

Next we have Brother Orr. He is equipped with an Umbra Ferrox pattern bolt gun with autosense-linked scope. This weapon has similar range and stopping power to the much later marksman bolt carbine and was the bane of Partisan counter-insurgency forces throughout the War of the False Primarch.

Then we have Brother Holman. As the unit’s Helix Adept his medical skills keep them in fighting shape while behind enemy lines. He also carries the squad’s “Terror Banner”. Used by forces on both sides during the War of the False Primarch, they were unfurled at the moment the shooting starting, leaving their victims in no doubt as to who had come for them!

The fourth member of Flesh Eaters Infiltrator ‘Kill Team Caro’ is Brother Amos. Like the rest of his unit, Amos wears ‘Imperial pattern’ power armour, a rare archaic variant of MkVI ‘Corvus’ armour, characterised by its narrow greaves and external cabling. Brother Amos is proficient in the use of bolt weapons, as indicated by the circular tactical marking on his right pauldron.

The fifth and final member of Flesh Eaters Infiltrator ‘Kill Team Caro’ is Brother Stern. His bolter is equipped with a close combat attachment, an upgrade popular with the Flesh Eaters during the War of the False Primarch. These weapons were valued for the psychological damage they inflicted on the foe as much as the gruesome physical injuries they caused.

I think that’s enough Flesh Eaters for the moment! If you like what you’ve seen here and would like to make your own LED miniatures then I used the techniques detailed in my LED Eye Lens tutorial and my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial. If you need electronics supplies and consumables, you can buy them here. That’s all for this week, see you again soon!