# Akiim's Khorne Warband W.I.P



## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Most of you haven't heard of me, except perhaps my fellow CSM players. I've mostly been posting on Chaos Marines Army Lists, but at work I've been reading through the forums, especially project logs, constantly being amazed by the level of skill people show here. All these great logs and tutorials have inspired me to do what my older brother (a devouted (and a very, very long time) servant of Father Nurgle) has wished would happen for 15 years, which is for me to grab a brush and paint a mini! I never liked painting that much before, I always preferred converting more. Most likely because I sucked at painting, badly! My brother has painted most of the miniatures we've used in our Necromunda, Mordheim and Blood Bowl games over the years.

I started collecting this army in 1996 when the Codex Chaos came out, but the only miniature I ever painted was Abaddon the Despoiler_. _Got to play some games with mostly unpainted minis, but not many as my friends stopped playing soon after. I didn't play a game of 40k untill last spring when our Mordheim gaming group bought the Assault on Black Reach on a whim. I really liked the fast pace gaming compared to the marathon games of the old days, so I decided to get my CSM army together. I've liked Khorne's brutal attitude since I read my brothers Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned books as a young kid, so I decided I would use only Khorne troops. After reading the codex (and seeing Svartmetal's WIP thread!) I decided to later add Nurgle troops to the mix... I have played some games using unpainted minis but I found out recently that my local GW is hosting weekly 500 point games, so it is time to get these guys painted! The only problem is my brother is starting up his own IG army, so I can't rely on him to paint...

I want to start this project log to chronicle my attempt to get these guys on the battlefield in a somewhat presentable form. I've read many tutorials and other great threads here on heresy but in the end I'm counting on your feedback to guide me through this. Hopefully this thread inspires somebody else someday.

So after all that rambling, it's time to show where I am so far...










Here is the first squad to be painted, and on the background is the leader of my warband, Akiim (and no, he isn't going to stay headless...). I have a background story for him in mind, which I will post later on. Everything you see is still very early in progress, but hopefully I get to add more pictures during the weekend. 

The berzerkers were basecoated with mecharite red using an airbrush a while back. Had to do lot of testing to find out the right amount of water to mix in it (maybe some of you airbrush experts have some tips for me about that?), but I really liked the even coat I got in the end. Not to mention the speed. Some of the minis were previously painted but even with thinned down paint they were covered well. You can see blood red on one of the bases for comparison. Shoulderpads were all painted brass with the same 50:50 mix of tin bitz and dwarf bronze, but the camera on my phone has them look a bit different. I did have a slight problem with the model on the far left, the paint clogged up on his shoulder pad a bit, but I think it was because of the old, slightly uneven spray basecoat done long ago. The two on the right are both old metal minis. The champion has an icon of khorne (icon to be added later) and power sword (from the chaos biker set). I can't remember what weapon he originally had, but I cut it off and drilled a hole though his arm. I used a brass rod and gave it 2 or 3 layers of skull white before boltgun metal. The hand was broken sometime during the long break but I managed to glue it back cleanly. The rod is firmly glued in place tho. The spikes are from the old dark eldar sprues.


I will appreciate any tips and feedback you can give me. It's a HUGE accomplisment for me to even start painting, so I don't expect to be great any time soon. I am eager to learn tho.


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## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

1 thing that I see, kind of a personal opinion, so take what you will from it.
The red on the berserkers looks too bright, I'd suggest washing them with something darker, probably a brown.
Also, completely unrelated, is the guy in the back a daemon prince? If it is I'd suggest giving it wings.
Good luck with your painting!


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## Minizke1 (Feb 7, 2010)

as far as washes are concerned, you might want to use a gryphonne sepia wash.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

CattleBruiser said:


> 1 thing that I see, kind of a personal opinion, so take what you will from it.
> The red on the berserkers looks too bright, I'd suggest washing them with something darker, probably a brown.
> Also, completely unrelated, is the guy in the back a daemon prince? If it is I'd suggest giving it wings.
> Good luck with your painting!


It's the poor picture I'm afraid, the actual base color is pretty dark, but I will be giving these a good wash after I've done more of the details anyway. I was thinking devlan mud, but not sure. And yes, it's a dp! He does have wings, I will be attaching them later on. My biggest problems with him are his head and his left arm (the one giving the finger). I was thinking about using the default dp head (the one with remnants of a space marine helmet) or trying to convert a new one. I've had some ideas about it so I will try them out, if I fail you'll never hear about it, I'll just use the default head instead. :biggrin: The arm is problematic because 1) the palm is very undetailed 2) the pose is poor. 3) the whole arm has a gap running from the palm all the way to the shoulder, you can even see it in the poor picture if you look closely enough... I might try converting something from the other unarmed arm. My first priority will be the berzerkers tho. I did manage to throw some brass mix on a few of them. Progress is happening!



Minizke1 said:


> as far as washes are concerned, you might want to use a gryphonne sepia wash.


I bought gryphonne sepia today, thanks for the tip! Any specific places I should use it on?


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## Minizke1 (Feb 7, 2010)

Hypn0sis said:


> I bought gryphonne sepia today, thanks for the tip! Any specific places I should use it on?


Shoulders, chest plates, anything metallic, to give it a dirty worn feel.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Good start so far, before I give any airbrush advice what do you have?


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

djinn24 said:


> Good start so far, before I give any airbrush advice what do you have?


I have a "Paasche Type V" airbrush and I use citadel paints.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

This one?


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Yeah, that's the one!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

If you can pick up some testors airbrush thinner and add it about 10:1 to 2:1 (skim milk) paint:thinner.

If you can't try mixing 50:50 water and windex and then mix you paints like above. Make sure you mix it really well. Also drying retarder and flow aid work well as mixing agents too.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

I have some window cleaning "spray", is that the same as windex?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Blue stuff? If so it should work.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

djinn24 said:


> Blue stuff? If so it should work.


It's blue allright! :laugh: Thanks for the advice Djinn, I'll give it a try next time I use it (most likely when I start working on my bike squad). 

One of the reason I want to finish these models as fast as possible is that I want to get my hands on some dark eldars. Specifically the vehicles! I wanna try some airbrush painting on those bad boys. *

So I have set myself a goal: 1000pts of Khorne all ready and painted by the end of the year!*

I'm a pretty slow painter so it will require some efforts on my part, but I should be able to pull it off with the help of this community


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## Firefighter X (Apr 21, 2010)

As a fellow Brother Slaughterer and slow painter I bid you welcome to the Plog forum. You couldn't have chosen a better Chaos power than Khorne and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, remember what the champion said in the Liber, [ paraphrasing of course --> ] " no matter what god you serve, when you kill, blood flows for Khorne. No matter who you worship, every head you take is a skull for the throne.

BFTBG & KMB,

FFX


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

A suggestion when doing a new paint mix, start out painting on a semi porus material so you know how the paint is going to react when it hits the model. Mixing paint is the hardest part of airbrushing.


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## Firefighter X (Apr 21, 2010)

ps. Dj24 is like Yoda with an airbrush... take all his suggestions as the gospel truth.

FFX


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Thanks for the welcome FFX! I've seen some of Djinns work here on the forums, so I'll be like Luke in Dagobah, without the bitching about size of things and whatnot! :laugh:


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Just a quick update: I've made great progress, I'll try to get a picture up of my nearly finished berzerker later tonight. I started painting a batch of three berzerkers but I decided to finish one first, post a picture for some feedback before going ahead and painting the rest.

I'm really excited about this, I can't wait to get home from work and continue painting! And that's something I didn't believe could happen... ever.

EDIT:
I just came from dinner (at work) where I made a great discovery. I knew I had to post this right away... Check out what they sell at our staff restaurant for 25c a piece!
http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff508/hypn0sis99/Terrain%20and%20Scenery/bunker01.jpg

I raised a few eyebrows when I bought 4 of these without any food... I don't think I'll be doing these for a while, but they were just too good to miss!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Oh nice find! Those are going to make some niiiiiice bunkers.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

*First Mini Done?*

It's taken a while to get here but I believe I might have my first berzerker painted up soon. Still need to wash the right leg and correct a few mistakes but I'm getting there soon! I apologize for the quality of the photo but I had to use my camera phone and it's flash...










Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! I want to hear what you think before I finish this thing.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Adding some red highlights on the upper edges of the models would really bring it out some. Also a slight hardedge highlight on the metals parts would look awesome as well.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

What colors would you suggest? I used mecharite red on the armour and 50:50 mix of tin bitz and dwarf bronze for brass. Boltgun for metal. Everything was washed with badab black various times.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

If you washed over the colors then you should be able to use the base colors for a highlight.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

I will keep this under observation. More pictures please. :biggrin:


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Just a small update, no more pics yet. Still trying to sort out my photography issues, if anybody can give advice on a working lighting setup using household lights I would be very grateful!

I picked up the brush yesterday after many days of just intending to do it. I thought I was finished with one model already but turns out it still needed some work. I hadn't really paid any attention when I put my berzerkers together... I had my squad lined up for painting and I noticed there's 2 different styles of arms, other has a metal edged gloves and the other doesn't. While this is not SUCH a big deal, I do have some berzerkers with one of each (like the one I thought was finished). Also, I have completely forgot about backpacks! Some of these guys have been assembled for so long I didn't remember I had a huge stack of backpacks waiting too. Still, I will focus on the minis first and make a production line of backpacks when I have 10 berzerkers otherwise done. 

I'm happy to say I finally picked out a head and changed the arm on Akiim, my daemon prince. I decided on the default marine type head, which I glued on and gs'ed the annoying gap (where the head meets the neck). I switched the left arm (the one giving the finger) to a skinnier arm without any weapons. I really like the pose, he is going to look bad-ass with wings!

Also, I was thinking of getting a Defiler after I'm done with 10 berzerkers and the DP. That would put me on 500pts on the dot and ready to play. I've been making up lots of different 500pt lists trying to figure out what I should focus on next and I thought that might be a good addition, both tactically and with modelling in mind. After so many infantry models it might be a good change to do a mechanical. Plus I have some great ideas for it already!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

A white sheet attached to something and running down without any hard edges and lights shining on, but not directly on the model normally works really well.


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## Hypn0sis (Aug 16, 2011)

Whoa, 2 months since my last post... I guess time does flow differently in the warp. Been too busy with stuff that any deadlines I made for myself have long gone... I can't say I've gotten a lot done painting wise, painted a single layer every now and then but painfully little all in all. That didn't stop me from taking on some new projects, but more on that later... I did learn however, that I shouldn't impose deadlines to myself. When it started to feel like I "had to" paint, it took all the joy out of it. Now I'm painting when feel like it and I'm enjoying it a lot more.

At the moment I have 4 berzerkers almost fully painted, waiting for some final touches and... backpacks. I've looked at my berzerkers so long without backpacks I keep forgetting they need to be done too... Now I got 10 all cleaned up and waiting to be undercoated. Then I have my next 5 berzerkers assembled (heads and shoulder pads I'll paint separately), also waiting for an undercoat. I've gotten pretty far with my Daemon Prince, he just needs a little bit of paint before final washes and then highlights. I'm going to spend my time with him since he is the leader of army and should look the part.

One of the new projects I mentioned earlier is a defiler kit I bought some time ago, which I was going to save untill I was done with the berzerkers, but I couldn't help myself... The legs are all glued and waiting to be gs'ed, as soon as it's done I'll undercoat them and the lower torso a long with the new berzerkers and I'm well on my way to 500 pts.

All of the above mentioned are put on hold because of the other project. I went and bought a realm of battle gameboard, which is pretty much a childhood dream come true. The detail is awesome but painting it is a bit of a pain. I'm going to paint it similar to the bases I have on my berzerkers, a dark ash waste type terrain. I've undercoated 5 of the sections and so far used 4 pots of charadon granite. It took some tries but I found a good mix of water, vallejo thinner and paint (roughly 20:30:50) which I apply with a piece of foam. It takes a few layers but it's starting to look nice. I'm going to borrow a bigger airbrush from my dad during the holidays to see if that would work for the final layer, as the one I have now is way too small for this kind of work. I might try to do some of the smaller details with it tho when the time comes.

The biggest problem, besides the lack of hours in a day, is that I still can't take a decent picture, which unfortunately means that there won't be any wip photos for now (one of the reasons I haven't posted anything in a while). I'll get some pictures taken when I get something finished but it might be a while, maybe with the holiday season coming I get to paint more but who knows... The pictures will appear when they appear, kind of like space hulks.

PS. I found my old Nurgle troops, so this won't be a pure Khorne warband after all. Zombias and her plague marines are on the way.


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