Tale of Heresy Gamers – THE END

The final bell tolls, and the last stone falls. It is the end of our challenge. Parting is always such sweet sorrow, but this segment wraps up. The surviving warlords have started to move onto pastures new, but they have a brand-spanking new collection at the end.

Looking back, the Tale of X series demands so much of the participants. You have to work to a schedule, rather than on the whim of inspiration. It’s a stiff backbone you need to develop as a commission painter, so it’s been wonderful to see the same pain shared by my fellows!

I’d like to thank every member of the group who participates in this challenge. I hope you got something out of this. I know it was tough at times, and even if you didn’t make it to the end, there’s always the next project to buy and leave in the box until you resell it, chasing that retail dopamine hit like a fiend for a rock.

LOYALISTS

Hello all, it feels like an age since my last article, due to unfortunate technical issues last month my contribution was a no show, but never fear I have still been busy in the forges of Vulcan. To conclude my force I have managed to paint two land raiders, was able to finish the army with the big man himself, Vulkan and wow what a journey Ive had with him and his legion. I’ve kept The XVII legion battle hardened with a few friendly games and I’ve been learning what works well and what I need to improve on with the force, and this has now completed the idea originally started for the ‘Blood on black sands’ event hosted by Hosted by the Mournival podcast.

Firstly I thought I would share what I have previously worked on and just haven’t got around to sharing. The Fire Drakes accompanied with the Herald will soon become the Pyre Guard. Painting them was a total pleasure, The Forge world sculpts have so much detail it’s easy to get overwhelmed, but I used the same approach as I did the rest of the terminators and took it slow and steady building up laters and then revisiting it with fresh eyes. The airbrushing was done at the same time as the other terminators  to ensure consistency through out the infantry, this is the benefit of starting an army with a final goal in mind as adding units later is always tricky. Lastly I went in with the brush to add the high light and paint all the flames!

On the table top the unit hits like a freight train also having the unit being able to score is potential game changer.  It soon became clear that a transport was an absolute necessity considering how much of a bullet magnet they are and the Spartan gets them into combat without getting shot apart too much.

I found that the slow moving units of cataphractii terminators was also an issue. With a few friendly game it became clear I needed more speed and protection so I have spent the time building and painting the new plastic land raider Proteus. This time old classic land raider makes a perfect dedicated transport for each unit getting the troops to where they need to be and looking good while doing it.

I approached painting the land raiders pretty much identically to the Spartan. I always try to maintain constancy in a force, it take a bit of extra time and effort but worth it for the overall look. However the bit I enjoyed most was the flames, I love details that pull it all together and it really helps to draw the eye towards the model. I’ve made the battle damage subtle as to not overwhelm the details and I’m looking forward to putting all three tanks onto the table being backed up by the leviathan.

Vulkan was my favourite part of the force to build and paint. He was a total labour of love, the detail is outstanding which gives us as painters the best chance of doing him justice.  I approached him similarly to the rest of the army, again keeping colour and techniques on both his green armour and cloak as consistent as poses to the other units. I have noticed that a lot of artists tend not to paint every flame as fire, but instead do it as brass or details on his enate armour. I however like to punish myself and decided to do the opposite, painting every single flame I could find as bright as possible. I am happy with the result and  I hope you would also agree. For Vulcans face I tried something I haven’t tried before. I wanted a red underglow to reflect the flames and fire that are emanating from below. The main reason for this was with coal black skin tones details can be lost and the lack of colour can look like shadow distorting the overall effect, So I decided to use this to lowlight his features and create further interest. To complicate things more I was adding more OSL to the piece, making it more difficult to which light source would reflect where.  He is one of my most proud models to date.

The ‘Blood on Black Sands’ event was held mid Febuary so it fell perfectly into the final article submission time. I actually managed to get my force painted to a standard  I was happy with, in time and with a few points extra to spare. I teamed up with my good friend Luke Waller  and his lovely Raven Guard. To say our army preformed well would be an understatement, Vulkan survived every game and I was able to get the terminators where I wanted them to be. The dragon scale shields saved the day on multiple occasions, making my terminator’s feel the way they should going toe to toe with any emeries and remaining standing. The raven guard managed to do everything that the Salmanders were not good at, lots of ranged weapons whittled down our opponents and being able to infiltrate got us up the table early. Having lots of small units to balance out the Salamanders more solid centre was also a valuable asset. The XVII legion would then fight the enemy heavy hitters and were able to stand up to some brutal combat and at the end of the game when the dust cleared we stood victorious.

“ Vulkan lives”

Tale of Heresy gamers Final Instalment:- Rob:- Edge Of Empire.
Well, That was a thing! The challenge is over & its time to look back on the last 9 months of
Heresy 2.0

It was a privilege to be asked to join in in the Tale, and my sincerest thanks Myles for the
opportunity and also to my fellow warlords for creating a welcoming environment/space on the
discord to be inspired by.
They’ve all smashed this challenge out of the park, even those who haven’t completed 2500
points, its because they’ve completed their models to such high a standard that 9 months would
be an optimistic target even on a full time basis.
I took a more ‘finished not perfect’ approach to my army, aiming for an easily achievable standard
& an easily replicated scheme. As a result I have actually been sat on a completed 3000 points for
a few months now which is handy as my paint shack is unheated & its been a bit fierce in there
over the depths of winter!
Ive managed to complete the Age of Darkness box contents minus 1 praetor, and with the
addition of a Land Raider Proteus, a Sicaran Arcus, and a Forgeworld Cataphracti Praetor and in
the meanwhile we’ve had 1 new conservatory, 1 new airbrush, 1 new role at work, a subsequent
promotion, 3 Prime ministers, 4 Chancellors of the Exchequer and more cabinet reshuffles than a
bedroom furniture shop with O.C.D. Its been an “interesting” 9 months all round.

I’ve been fending off the black dog these last few months so I’m glad I got ahead of the project
when I did and I am pleased with the result although I haven’t yet had the opportunity to get them
on a table & to roll any dice. This will change however. I intend to play more games in 2023 than
2022 & maintain that trend going forwards.
So, that’s about it for me really, I’ll add some pics to this at the bottom but I’d like to thank Myles
& The Warlords once again, We should do it again some time .. (did someone say Necromunda??)
Peace out.

Here is my Final Tale of Heresy Gamers article:

So, it’s the final month of the Tale of Heresy Gamers Challenge! Wow! It’s been great fun and I’ve had a blast experimenting with a brand new army. The Mechanicum were a lot more complex and intricate to build and paint than a Space Marine force, but I enjoyed the challenge of assembling them (and even converting a few along the way).

This month I was able to finish a Squad of nine Ursurax, and also managed to complete both of my Magos-Dominus. I’m really happy with how they have turned out – especially the Magos-Dominus, as their dirty white robes were something of an experiment and I think they turned out really good! 

My original goal was to complete 8 units and 2 Characters. Unfortunately I missed that goal by three units, namely a pair of Techpriest Auxilia Squads and a Scyllax Squad. My fully painted force currently stands at:

• 2 x Magos-Dominus HQs
• A Squad of two Castellax (Darkfire Cannons)
• A Squad of two Castellax (Mauler Bolt Cannons)
• A Squad of nine Ursurax
• A Squad of six Vorax
• A Squad of three Domitars

That’s 24 models in total, and the unit of 16 Scyllax is about halfway done as well. Considering my usual snail’s pace when it comes to painting, I think I did pretty well to get all of the above finished!

I originally bought and assembled this army during 1.0 as an Assault-based Allied Force for my Iron Hands. With the advent of 2.0 I’ve had to make some changes, and I’m hoping that when I finish the extra units I have assembled (a Thanatar-Calix and 12 Thallax), the army may still be a decent challenge, (especially with the addition of one of my Questoris Knights).

Next up I have a few things I’d like to work on. For a start, I’d like to get some heavy firepower for this Mechanicum army. Maybe a couple of Krios tanks, or a Squad of Myrmidon Destructors? 

Also, I haven’t bought a single model from GW’s new Heresy range yet!! There are a few units that I would like to add to my Iron Hands: A Tactical Support Squad with Graviton Shredders, a Predator Squadron and a couple of  Contemptor Dreadnoughts. But I think my first purchase is probably going to be a Squadron of Jetbikes. The new plastic Jetbike kits look incredible!

This final month has been absolutely jam packed for a short-month.

I didn’t quite get everything I wanted accomplished as my employer called an impromptu dismissal of about 80% of our staff. In addition to the added stress came with it some added workload which meant I needed some real decompression time. 

For the final month I had some lofty goals, and I got close, before I began travelling for March. (I’ll be gone some portion of every week in March, so I wanted to get as far ahead as I could for adepticon). I didn’t quite get to finish my box dread, so I’ll leave a WIP photo for this month. I did build the base from scratch to match my Unreal Wargaming bases and it still needs oils and powders, but if I needed to, a quick paint of the base rim would have this fallen hero table top ready.

On the Adepticon front, I aimed to finish assembling the 1500 points of mechanicum I need for the Tag Team event. I went back and tweaked a the first Interfector I finished last month and made a partner for it. I should quickly touch on the partner aspect – while a lot of the aesthetic will borrow from Japanese and assassin-esque influences – the force itself is being paired out Sacred Band of Thebes style. That means every model has a partner, a similar looking aesthetic with some sort of individuality still present. Make sure you check out @crescent_edge_creative at the end of March to see the force finished. 

I then managed to get 2 more Interfectors built, 4 unique servo automata, 8 thallax, 4 guardian automata, and 2 Aquiter Magesterium completely built before the month closed out. I wish I had the time to take pictures, but you’ll just have to see them in March!

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TRAITORS

THE END

FINI

Done.

There’s a reason they call it a challenge. Ho boy was it challenging. Getting over the finish line of 40 infantry drained my mental energy, but I knew that I would have a big fat reward for myself by the end.

THE WARMASTER HORUS LUPERCAL.

Beast of a model to lead an army of beast. The slow decent into madness has begun. Oaths of Moments are turning to prayers to madness. Mirror coins are replaced with severed heads. The Sons are starting to sour.

Looking back at the original plan, my army has morphed. The blobs of 20 infantry took way longer than I scheduled them for, and pretty things like rhinos, land raiders, and Leviathans had to go by the wayside. At least I’ve future-proofed the project for the next year or so.

The biggest takeaway from this project was to see how people collect in different ways. The initial rush of enthusiasm lasts for around 3 months and then the eye starts to stray. It’s hard not to be led astray by the next project, especially with how aggressively GW markets its product. And the entire influencer culture that has sprung up around releases (I’m not innocent in this – I’m fully aware), chasing the next project gives you the dopamine hit that seeing through an older project doesn’t give.

On parting, my advice for any who would take up the challenge.

1. Make a plan.
2. Don’t be afraid to deviate from plan.
3. Create a group of like-minded painters who can motivate you when times are bleak.
4. Stick to your guns, and don’t be lead astray by month 3.
5. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t complete the challenge. The hobby is meant to be fun. SO HAVE FUN FAILING UPWARD. Because you’ll have something awesome by the end, even if it’s not what you set out for.

Looking at the future, I want to get some games in. Maybe paint up a vehicle or 2 to cart these crazies about the board. Then it’s onto the next horizon.

The long march has begun. Onward to Terra!

Since last month I haven’t really much Heresy painting, other than getting my Ultramarine Terminators finished. But about a week ago we had ourselves the first Horus Heresy event of the year at my local club. Even though I managed to loose all my games during the weekend, I still had a fantastic time. Lovely armies, fun mission and great people from all over the country, with a few Swedes and a brit coming over to game with us.

We played 4 games of 3000pts with some increasingly weird missions during the weekend and I also had another smaller centurion game sunday evening with Tonka, who was visiting for the event (which I also lost). So overall amazing weekend.

Right now I don’t feel amazingly inspired to paint more Sons of Horus, so I’ll probably put that slightly on hold for a while and do other stuff. I do still have some models from the AoD box that I’ve already started painting last year, but didn’t manage to get done for MWW, but I’ll get around to it soon’ish. Also got my hands on the new Horus Ascended model which is going to be a nightmare to paint (so many details!), but I kinda have to at this point. I can’t imagine I’ll ever actually use it for a game, at least with the Ascended profile, as it’s just too ridiculously priced in points, but it does actually fit on a 40mm base (even though it’s only barely), so might just use it as the Unascended Horus..

Recently I’ve mostly just been painting more historical miniatures for our Napoleonic Black Powder projects, which I’m really enjoying as it doesn’t require to much concentration, hopefully we’ll soon have enough painted to actually play a game hahahah.

The past 8 months have been quite the ride, a new edition hit, loads of new models assembled and painted, several events attended and quite a few new friends made a long the way. I already have several Heresy events in the calender for this year, so hopefully it will be another great year of Heresy.

Enough incoherent rambling from me. I hope to follow a long on everyones continued great work on the socials during the year, who knows I might suddenly get inspired to paint more SoH!

Until then
Chris

This month I painted a Night Lords rhino. I did some fun freehand on the top, and im generally proud of how it turned out. But come on, it’s a rhino lets slow the roll here. It’s a small basic vehicle that at most would take a couple days of dedicated work to complete. Even still; just finishing this thing has been an accomplishment for me. My life has been crazy busy the last few months and my painting desk has (quite literally) been collecting dust.

As an “influencer” (I use this term lightly for myself) I find that taking hobby breaks like this has become a source of anxiety for me. When you post your work to social media there’s always an expectation to post more. After all that’s how you get more engagement and more followers, and that feels good right? Yeah; absolutely it feels good. Instagram has become a positive reinforcement machine for me. I post something, and every time my phone vibrates in my pocket I get a drip, drip, drip of dopamine straight into my smooth, shriveled brain.

Is this a bad thing? I’m not entirely sure. But what I’m sure is bad is I end up judging the quality of my work, either consciously or unconsciously based on how many likes they get. I find myself liking work that I’m proud of less when it gets bad engagement. When paired with the ever-present desire to pump out more and more content its starts to get pretty dang toxic.

I don’t have a good answer for this. It’s something I’m going to try and not care about as much more this year, and to get back to the basics. Which for me is just good quality painting, and tabletop miniature games with the boys. The hobby should fit into your life, not take over it (unless you’re total sicko and its your job )

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If you would like to join the journey please write an introduction to your project and post it up on your social media with #taleofheresygamers. Every month keep apace with the warlords in creating your own collection.

For the Warmaster.

For the Emperor.