It’s finally happened, I’ve officially reached the 500 point milestone with the Flesh Eaters, and it’s only taken me a year and a half to get this far! I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share some group photos.
Also pictured in the image above is Ancient Harlon. There weren’t quite enough points spare to fit him into the Patrol, but he will be included in future larger games.
There is of course the small matter of all the points values changing in a few weeks as 10th edition Warhammer 40,000 is released, so this force may not be quite 500 points by then. But I’m sure it won’t be drastically different…
Long time readers will know that this army is themed around Apologist’s ‘War of the False Primarch’ community project. This little-known piece of Imperial history takes place in the 34th Millennium, and is described in very few official sources.
The War of the False Primarch was a dark and bloody episode of the Imperium’s history, now largely lost to myth and purged from all records, that plunged the Segmentum Pacificus into anarchy from 780.M33 to 860.M33. The conflict was finally ended when the High Lords of Terra convened the Pentarchy of Blood and tasked five loyal Chapters to destroy eleven others that had been declared Traitoris Perdita for their actions during the war.
IMPERIAL ARMOUR VOLUME TWO – SECOND EDITION PG. 17
The Flesh Eaters are members of the so-called ‘Pentarchy of Blood’, those chapters who enacted the will of the High Lords of Terra on the wayward Partisan chapters. The patronage of the High Lords means that they are equipped with a mixture of the latest technology the 34th millenium has to offer, plus the best of what’s left in the vaults from the Heresy. I’ve tried to give this force a retro ‘Rogue Trader’ and ‘2nd edition’ Warhammer 40,000 vibe, and I hope that comes across in the model design and paint schemes.
The army in its current form represents Task Force Grimm as it appeared during the 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. Uriah Grimm spent this time leading his forces in small-scale raids into Partisan border worlds, looking for any clues to the whereabouts of the False Primarch.
So where do the Flesh Eaters go from here? Well we have the Space Marine half of the Leviathan box just over the horizon, plus plans for some more, larger vehicles. So plenty more to come back for!
That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this summary of the project so far. If you’d like to read more about my Flesh Eaters then you can read all posts tagged with Flesh Eaters. As ever, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.
Reinforcements for the Flesh Eaters rumble off the production line this week, in the form of a Forge World resin Deimos Predator.
Painting & Modelling
This is a slightly unusual one as it’s a rescue job – from myself! This Predator has been languishing base coated on my ‘Shelf of Shame’, waiting to join the Imperial Fists since around 2014. Anticipating an upcoming game of my Flesh Eaters against Apologist‘s Silver Stars, I decide to quickly revamp this model to add a bit of firepower to my boys in red.
The LED work on this miniature is incredibly basic by my current standards, as you can see in the picture below. The headlights are cast resin, each with a white LED inside, and these are the only part of the model that illuminates. The battery and switch are accessible via the magnetised front panel. I did consider completely re-doing the LEDs, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort as they were still serviceable. All I did in the end was swap in a fresh CR2032 battery.
I took a lot of influence for the paint scheme from the classic Blood Angels Predator above. I wasn’t aiming to replicate it exactly, but I certainly wanted to capture the Rogue Trader/2nd Edition vibe. My Flesh Eaters are themed around the War of the False Primarch in M33, so the whole army intentionally has a retro feel.
In terms of colour selection, I stuck with my normal Flesh Eaters palette of colours (as detailed in this post). I’ve chosen to limit myself to only green and yellow LEDs in this army. The LEDs originally installed were white, but a quick yellow glaze over the headlights helped to give them a yellow hue that fits in with the rest of the army.
The Imperial Eagle and numerals are transfers that I then painted over in Administratum Grey and Corax White so that they matched the rest of the army’s heraldry. The Flesh Eaters chapter symbol is freehand, as usual. I added the white stripe to the turret to emulate the white stripe on the Flesh Eaters helmets, and also to give a bit of visual interest to what was otherwise a very large area of flat red.
I also applied some damage and corrosion around the bottom of the tank, mainly near the treads. The battle damage was Rhinox Hide applied in spots with a sponge and then highlighted at the bottom to give the appearance of depth. I also applied a little Typhus Corrosion technical paint in areas where I thought dirt and mud might naturally collect.
That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this relic from another age! As always, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.
Today we’re looking at the Surgeon Acolyte, minion of Fabius Bile. This isn’t the start of a new army and my fall to Chaos (yet), but part of a birthday gift ‘commission’ for a friend. Fabius Bile himself will be following soon, but I wanted to test the LED technique on the acolyte first. Rather than helmet eye lenses, or weapon muzzle flares, LEDs in this miniature are being used to represent ominous glowing vials of daemonic ichor, super soldier serum, or whatever it is you think are in the glass containers on the acolytes’ back. My friend, who will eventually be the owner of this miniature, specifically chose the blue colour for the LEDs.
Modelling & Painting
As with many of my LED techniques, I was looking for a uniform glow from the point of interest – in this case the ‘vials’. After all, it’s not supposed to be a single point light source that is glowing inside them, but rather every part of the liquid they contain that is emitting a sinister glow. This is why I didn’t simply stick two 3mm round LEDs on the model and call it a day, as in that case all the light would have been coming from one visible point (the p-n junction) in the centre of the LED. I’ve written a short-form tutorial for how I achieved the glowing vials below.
I began by cutting off the plastic vials from the back of the model and inserting two 3V blue SMD chip LEDs in their place. These are connected to a battery in the base following the principles set out in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial.
Next I coiled the excess LED wire on top of the battery holder and filled in the gaps between the dead space marine and the base with modelling putty. It’s good practice to test the LEDs repeatedly at this stage, just to check you haven’t created an accidental short circuit while hiding the wire.
I then cut the rod to the same length as the plastic vials that were originally on the miniature. I used a combination of needle file and sand paper to round off one end, to more closely match the shape of the original vial. The other end was left flat.
The next step was to drill a 1.5mm hole in the centre of the resin rod starting at the flat end, being very careful not to drill all the way through to the rounded end.
I made sure the miniature was base coated at this point, especially around the areas where the resin vials would be attached. I knew it would be easier to glue them to a painted area rather than trying to paint the area after they were stuck down.
Next I applied a thin ring of PVA glue to the flat end of the rod, and stuck it in place over the chip LED. I used PVA rather than super glue to help avoid any accidental frosting effects.
Once the PVA glue had dried, I applied a thin blue glaze to the bare resin to give a pleasing tint to the resin when the LED is switched off.
When it came to painting the miniature, I largely stuck to the official colour scheme as I didn’t have any good inspiration for an alternative. I’ve noted a few of the colour recipes below, in case anyone is interested in replicating them, and as a reminder to myself. The model was undercoated with Chaos Black spray, and all colours mentioned are Citadel, unless otherwise noted.
Sickly Flesh
Rakarth Flesh basecoat
Carroburg Crimson shade
Rakarth Flesh thin layer
50:50 Pallid Wych Flesh:Rakarth Flesh highlight
Pallid Wych Flesh fine highlight
Emperor’s Children Pink dots on finger and toe nails
Bloodstained Surgical Gown
Russ Grey basecoat
Drakenhof Nightshade shade
50:50 Russ Grey:Ulthuan Grey layer
Ulthuan Grey layer
50:50 Contrast Apothecary White:water shade
Skull White highlight
Khorne Red applied with sponge as ‘blood splatter’
Blood for the Blood God technical paint layered over Khorne Red areas
Black Rubber
Abaddon Black basecoat
Eshin Grey highlight
Dawnstone fine highlight
I gave my friend the choice of chapter for the space marine casualty, and he chose Imperial Fists. I think this was a good call as it’s a visually striking choice, plus I have a lot of experience painting yellow power armour. I used my Yellow Armour recipe found in this blog post. I may have actually spent more time painting the space marine than I did the rest of the model!
So there we have it, the Surgeon Acolyte is finished and ready to assist the big man himself! I’ll be back again soon with Fabius Bile, as well as plenty of other LED miniatures. As always, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.
Sorry, I know that regular readers are probably tired of seeing this diorama by now, but yesterday I was lucky enough to have my work shown on the Warhammer TV Twitch channel again! “Burn traitor!” featured alongside the work of other hobbyists on this Friday’s ‘Hang Out and Paint’ episode on Warhammer TV (Friday 12th February episode, at around the 5:30 mark, if anyone would like to see it).
It’s always an honour to have had my work exhibited in this way, and a big thank you to Em, Alex and the rest of the Warhammer Community Team for their kind words about this miniature!
I’m back from Golden Demon 2023 and Warhammer Fest! After 48 hours to rest and decompress, I’m ready to share some thoughts, feelings and photos!
Golden Demon 2023
I’m very pleased to say that “Burn traitor!”, my entry to the Golden Demon ‘Duel’ category, made it through the first cut and took home a Finalist pin, as seen above! I’m really happy with this result. As mentioned in my previous post, I wasn’t seriously expecting a trophy – and I’m not certain if an LED miniature could ever win one – but it was lovely to have my hard work acknowledged in this way. There was nothing for my Ultramarine Veteran Sergeant, but I’d be the first to admit he was the weaker of the two entries, so I wasn’t overly surprised by that.
I feel like I learnt a lot from this year’s Golden Demon, both in terms of viewing other entries and listening to other competitors. Many people around the cabinets certainly had plenty of lovely things to say about “Burn traitor!”. One thing this outing confirmed for me is that 12V LEDs are the way to go if you want your lights to be clearly noticeable in the brightly spot lit cabinets. The 3V LEDs in the Ultramarines Veteran Sergeant were still visible, but only if you were nearby and looking directly at the model. The 12V filament LED was clearly noticeable from a distance, even in such a well lit space. After the first 24 hours the LED had lost a lot of its brightness, but the Golden Demon staff were very helpful and understanding, and kindly took the diorama out of the cabinet so I could perform a quick battery change. I didn’t bother to change the battery in the Ultramarine, as that one was under less strain and held up well for the entire weekend.
In the images below you can see my two entries displayed in the Golden Demon cabinets, along with Apologist’s Catachan Jungle Fighters command vehicle, and a selection of other entries that caught my eye. The cabinets were surrounded with admirers all weekend, so it was difficult to get close enough to take good pictures, but of course you can see the professional photos of the winners on the Warhammer Community site.
Right now, I feel like I will probably enter Golden Demon again next year, although it will of course be slightly dependant on where Warhammer Fest is and how long you have to be there to submit your entry and find out the results. This year it was a minimum of two days (Sunday to Monday), whereas at Warhammer Fest 2019 it was all done in a single day.
Warhammer Fest
So, what about the rest of Warhammer Fest? Overall, it was very enjoyable. There were lots of cool things to see and plenty to do.
Much of the event was understandably focused on the upcoming Leviathan boxed set release, and we got to see the ‘Eavy Metal versions of the box content in display cabinets (see above). The Screamer Killer was a bit bigger than I was expecting, and the Neurotyrant quite a bit smaller!
We also had a chance to a play the upcoming retro FPS Boltgun. It delivered exactly what it promised, which was a “boomer shooter” experience in a Warhammer 40K wrapping. A lot of the advanced marketing has pitched it as closest to Doom, but from the short section I played, it was a lot closer to Quake 2 in both feel and level design. Only the enemy sprites were in that classic pixilated 2.5D Doom style. In any case, they will get a guaranteed purchase from me!
We managed to make it into several preview sessions – spaces were limited – and we also braved the queues to play a demo game of 10th edition using a portion of the Leviathan box. It was actually only one turn for each side due to the time limits imposed by the high demand, but it was very smooth and easy to play, and overall, left me feeling very positive about 10th edition. They had Warhammer TV presenters running the demos, people like Simon, Nick and Ben, and they did a wonderful job at clearly and enthusiastically explaining the game to use – for what was presumably the 50th time that day!
There were plenty of other things to see and do. We played Orks vs Astra Militarum laser tag, got to have a go on a squigapult, and I even managed to take my Ork Kommandos out for a spin in a friendly game of Kill Team. Our group also bought tickets for the ‘Mega Warhammer Pub Quiz’ on Saturday night, and did very well, coming in third place overall, only two points behind the winning team! We were given a load of cool prizes to split between the team members (centre picture above), so now I need to start thinking about how to put LEDs in the McFarlane Blood Angels Primaris Lieutenant!
So, was it all good?
Overall, it was an incredibly positive experience, and I’m very glad I went. That’s not to say there weren’t issues. We had to queue for around two hours for the 10th edition demo game, and we heard that at some points the queue waiting time was well over three hours. There were lengthy queues for many other things too, including the computer game demos and the shop on Saturday. It feels like the queuing for the demo games could have been managed better, with perhaps a wristband or ‘take a ticket’ system that called you up when it was your turn. The shop was a bit strange too, there wasn’t enough event merch and exclusives to go around, and the Forge World section was arranged like a jumble sale, with items piled into hand labelled cardboard boxes! It would have been nice to see more availability of the event merch and items that you can’t normally buy in a Warhammer store, and less of the generic stock that you can buy anywhere.
For me, one of the biggest omissions was a lack of design studio staff, ‘Eavy Metal painters or Black Library authors carrying out meet and greets or signings. This is something I remember from Warhammer Fest 2019, and it seems a shame to have left that out this time. Another issue was that all the previews took place in an auditorium that was separate from the main hall, and only had a capacity of 750 people. What would have been better was a large stage and screen area in the main hall, where as many people as wanted to could have gathered around for the previews. As it was, the auditorium required joining the queue about an hour in advance to guarantee a seat.
All those niggles aside, I had a great time this weekend. It may have left me burned out on queuing and walking around exhibition halls, but my Warhammer enthusiasm is higher than ever! I’m already looking forward to the Leviathan release, and forming nascent ideas for Golden Demon 2023, so watch this space. As ever, thanks for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.
Chris Buxey Paints 