WIP - Ordos Xenos Valkyrie

My Ordos Xenos army was in need of a bit of transportation. Among other things, I chose a Valkyrie. Before I could get too far into the assembly or painting I had to complete the cockpit and crew bay first.

I began by priming the interior in black and followed that up with a heavy dry brushing of Army Painter gun metal. After that all had tried I applied a couple of coats of AK Interactive's Heavy Chipping fluid with my airbrush.

A coat of Tamiya Deck Tan was applied over that.

Using a damp stiff bristle brush I wore away the deck tan in areas of high wear.

After the details were painted I flowed it all up with an oil wash.

The cockpit was painted prior to being assembled.

More to come soon!

Ork Hunter

The first member of my Ordos Xenos Inquisitorial retinue is finished. I also took the time to complete a display base for him as I intend to take him around to the next round of model shows. He was created by combining some Victoria Miniatures legs with a Maxmini head and torso and Games Workshop arms, auto-gun, and scabbard along with a lot of green stuff.

I completed a couple of changes to him since my last post. Here you can see that he received a Mohawk. After some deliberation I also decided that he needed rolled up sleeves so I rolled out some green stuff and added those too.

After the sleeves had set,I put his pauldrons back in place and finished painting him using mostly Army Painter and Tamiya acrylics. 

I really wanted to create a nice display for this model but I didn't want him tied down to it. It was designed so that the 25mm base in the center would magnetize into the display but could be easily removed for game play.

I debated for a while about what type of base design I wanted, jungle, alien, industrial. Whatever it was it would have to applicable to the rest of my upcoming Ordo Xenos/Deathwatch Army. I finally settled on an industrial/ship deck theme which would apply well to a Space Hulk type feel. 

The display itself was crafted from a discarded dice box, some polystyrene and a casting of an Inquisition icon.

Not only is there a magnet on the top of the display, but also one inside so that the figure can be placed inside the safety of the dice box during transport.

The display was primed in black the top and the icon were dry brushed in a 1:1 mix of Army Painter gun metal and flat black. Army Painter and craft paints were used to finish out the icon. Gold and bronze were used for the 'I', Red and Valejo Hot Orange for the inside of the 'I', various off white craft paints for the skull, and a wash of soft tone to bring it all together.

The edge of the step was masked off and primed black again, and yellow hazard stripes were airbrushed on. Airbrush is the only way I've found to get a yellow worth a damn.

The hazard stripes were aged with a sponging of flat black and gun metal. After the display and base were done the figure was pined and added to the base.

Previous Posts

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter - Update

I got a little more work done this afternoon. My Catachan Ork hunter now has hair and a couple of souvenir Ork teeth hanging from his right shoulder guard.

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter

This was a rather productive weekend. One of the things I was able to work on the Catachan Ork Hunter for my Inquisitorial Retinue. I reworked the shoulders adding armour to each side, one with an Inquisition icon cut out of aluminum sheet. I repositioned the rifle sling, and swapped out the ork axe with a less obtrusive sword & scabbard. I replaced the handle with a carved Ork tooth. I threw in an obligatory purity seal for good measure.

I still plan on adding some Ork tooth jewelry, and some hair.

WIP - Inquisitorial Retinue

Never satisfied with working on one project at a time, I've decided to start building an Inquisitorial Retinue. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I've decided to return to building my retinue. Quite some time back I completed my Inquisition Chimera.

I have settled on building an Ordos Xenos retinue. I like the idea of including a couple of Xenos models and xenos tech. I also plan on making more than one inquisitor and perhaps a few extra henchmen so that I can swap between Ordos based on game play. 

 In addition to the Chimera I have also completed a Ministorum Priest. I will definitely be rebasing him at some point and may even do some remodeling.

A Primaris Psyker is under construction using the Chaos Cultist box set. I will definitely be reworking this one to some extent.

I plan on including two Sisters of Battle and a Witch Hunter. I haven't decided if I'll be doing any modification to these models yet.

My first major conversion piece has been a Catachan Veteran Ork Hunter. He's still a work in progress as I let the green stuff set. He's outfitted with a weapon from an old citadel weapon sprue and his trophy ork axe. I plan on continuing the shirt sleeve on the right shoulder, cleaning up the left, adding some hair, a necklace of ork teeth, and perhaps an ork skull shoulder guard.

I'll be throwing in a Kroot warrior and may be converting a couple of Vostroyan snipers as well. 

Inquisitorial Chimera with Chapter House & Forge World

Back in February of this year I set about making a one of a kind Inquisitorial Chimera using the Chapter House Studios six wheel kit with iconography and a rear door from Forge World. At that time I completed a review of the Chapter House Studios kit so I won't go into great detail about it in this post but you can check that out by clicking here.

The Chapter House kit required some modifications to fit. I was very happy with the Forge World kit. It was very detailed and I knew it would add a load of detail to my Chimera. 

I was disappointed however (this was my first Chimera) that there were no interior details in the crew compartment. So I made some.

I created a rear entrance and command module for the interior using styrene, sprue, guitar wire and green stuff. I also created some details for the side walls but I didn't get any pictures of them before they were painted.

The hull of the Chimera had to be modified itself. I filled in the driver's hatch and gun ports with apoxie sculpt and sanded them all smooth. I think the gun ports on the sides of the Chimera look stupid with the lasgun array sticking out so I wanted to cover the ports.

Using hatch pieces from multiple kits as well as some styrene rod I created the above gun port covers. I think they look a lot better than the standard lasgun array.

Adding the Chapter House Kit to the Chimera hull was a giant pain in the ass and required a lot of apoxie sculpt, putty, and a razor saw.  I also had to replace all the rivets on the front and sides of the hull using a small diameter styrene rod, but in the end it was worth it. 

I wanted the Chimera to appear to have been requisitioned from an existing Imperial Army so I searched for some obscure Imperial regiments and settled on using the Jouran 29th and an urban camo scheme. You can also see below the magnet in the turret.  All turret mounted weapons are magnetized.

 Initial weathering was completed by sponging to create a chipping effect.

 Decals were added using Microset & Microsol to get a nice painted on look.

After setting, the decals were worn down using a tooth pick.

Additional weathering was created using an oil paint wash.

I also used Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders.

 Purity seals were added on various parts of the Chimera to give it an added Inquisitor feel.

 Some bed rolls and other packs were added to give a lived in feel.

The name Jouran and number 29 were added using rub on transfers. I like these because they can be worn down easily with a toothpick.

 And the finished product...