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Cobalt Scions hellblasters


It has been a month and a half since I posted my captain, and with him, a preposterously in-depth presentation of my Ultraboi successors the Cobalt Scions. What have I done in the subsequent six weeks? Painted five plasma lads, that's what.

Besides having a hilariously OTT name, primaris hellblasters will also give my fledgling army some much-needed oomph in the AP department. They will probably also draw everyone's fire, because I'm late to the primaris bandwagon and people are already wise to their burny shenanigans.


Since switching up the white basecoat on the pauldrons from pure white to Corax White (a neutral off-white), I've been enjoying the results and the opportunity for smoother weathering. Take a look at the shoulder pads in the image above and you'll see what I mean.

Similarly Corvus Black has been making my life easier with the gun cases and webbing, giving much smoother transitions into the initial Eshin Grey highlight. Pure black then gets used to line in the deepest recesses.


I was pleased I managed to fit Sergeant Uriel Castus' name on his pauldron, and made his squad number look a little more fancy than his under-bros, perhaps to distract snipers from shooting his extremely vulnerable head.

Embarrassingly the photo below tells me I missed out his right elbow pad when doing my final pass with Macragge Blue, which is used to soften the blue highlights. Ooops! Ah well, at least it serves to demonstrate how much of a difference that final stage makes. I'll do a proper step by step on the blue when I do the second intercessor squad.


What was not fun was painting his eyes. Man I struggle to get eyes right. The first result looked like Sloth from the Goonies. Some desperate repaints later and I had him looking left and mostly un-derped, but one rarely get things looking sharp after several repaints. Like many elements of this squad, I reached a certain point where I'd shrug and accept that it wasn't perfect, but good enough for me.

Something that's hard to get across in still photography is the way the metal chips look, since they really only work when you're looking at the model from different angles. I've tried my best to highlight it in the image below, so you can see how a few chips on this guy's armour look like dark recesses, then catch the light and show the metal of the armour beneath the paint.

Tiny metal chips

Overall I'm happy to be making slow but steady progress with this project. A redemptor dreadnought and 5 intercessors is what's left from the original box set I bought, then I'll look to expand the force up to a small battalion, after which I'll probably switch to something less fastidious for a while. Here's the whole detachment so far:


I'm really happy with how they're coming along so far. They're the sort of army I envisaged when I first started painting space marines many years ago, but tiny spotty Charlie had neither the skills nor the resources to make it work.

Since my last post they have also brought me extra joy for getting not one but two Elite Choice shout outs on the Independent Characters podcast, also known as the audible adventures of probably the nicest hobbyists in the world. In case you're wondering, yes: this has filled me with un-British levels of enthusiasm. I've been listening to their show for years and have enjoyed the crap out of it, so connecting (albeit very remotely) with a bunch of people whose output I enjoy is... well, it's a classic example of why the internet is so great for niche hobbies like ours.

The reason for the second shout-out was that Tom Taylor Bigg, one of the folks active on their Facebook group, reached out and we got chatting. Inevitably I invited him over for a game, and he proceeded to harlequin me right in the jacksie. His cherry blossom-themed army is face meltingly pretty, so I would be remiss if I didn't include some shots from the game. Carl, the main host of the podcast, was pleased that his show had resulted in two strangers on the other side of the Atlantic meeting up and throwing some dice around.

The Ynnari harlequins sweep over the Imperial line

Captain Lucullus metes out revenge to a filthy xenos champion

The battle was incredibly bloody; most of the troops in both armies were wiped out, but ultimately the fight was just a distraction - Yvraine spent much of the game running around looking for which of the objectives held the relic the human miners had unearthed. Once she found it, Lucullus rallied the last remaining imperial squad - some exhausted Ankrans - but had no chance of catching up before she made her escape.

It was a great game, and Tom was an absolute gentleman throughout our hobby blind date. We've already discussed the notion of some follow up games. Before I go, I'll leave you with a closeup of one of his conversions, because I absolutely love it:

Image credit: Tom Taylor Bigg's Facebook group

Comments

  1. wonderful looking miniatures the lot of them!

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  2. Crom! Those Hellblasters look fantastic, though I am late to the party as well and don't trust new things (it is the Dark Angels player in me). Those harlequins are exquisite.

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    1. Thanks Marc :)

      I can't imagine what could possibly concern you about the great works of Belisarius Cawl; he seems like such a reliable fellow!

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  3. They do look great. Love the colour scheme. Quick question: What did you use to highlight the red armour pieces? I'm currently working on Blood Ravens and struggling to find a good colour for the final highlight that's not too orange or pink... Thanks!

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    1. Thanks Monsterzonk! Excellent name, by the way. I giggled.

      I'm using the same stages as Maisey's using on his Blood Ravens: Mephiston Red basecoat, then Evil Sunz Scarlet, then Wild Rider Red. The only difference is that he uses a Nuln Oil recess wash, whereas I shade with Agrax Earthshade.

      If you want to see how his Blood Ravens look, you can check out the Blood Ravens tag on the blog:

      http://beardbunker.blogspot.com/search/label/Blood%20Ravens

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    2. Thanks so much! I'll give that a try. My shade wash usually is Leviathan Purple...

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  4. This army has suddenly mushroomed into a lovely playable force. Love seeing them all together in that photo.

    There needs to be a word for "annoyed realisation you missed a bit when photographing". My latest Ultramarines squad did that to me at the weekend. Bastards.

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    1. Cheers! Tune in next time when I limp past the incredible line of "more than 500 points." :P

      Re: much-needed word, I suggest incompootled. Will gladly accept other offerings.

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