Empire General and Pistoliers

Some troops and a general to do Karl Franz's bidding. Nothing fancy with these, just straight Contrast on everything except the metallics.

The Empire force is really starting to build now but I still have a few foot and mounted companies to complete before I can go for a force selfie.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw

This is the Emperor of the Empire contingent from the Warhammer world that was (and will soon be again given the previews coming out of Forge World). Terrific model, plastic allowing the sculptor to do something to a true scale (as far as you can with mythical beasts) whilst keeping the price low (in GW terms) and ensuring the gamer doesn't have to reinforce their table to deal with the weight.

The warhammer carried by Karl, which I believe is THE Warhammer, seems a little superfluous as I doubt he could reach anything from the back of Deathclaw.

Still it's the look of the thing that counts. Feathery and metal bits are done in acrylics, the eagle claws and lion rear end Contrast.

More Chaos Marines

Some reinforcements of the psychic kind. First up a Dark Apostle and his damned attendants.

Then a Master of Possession from the Shadowspear box accompanied by a couple of his experiments.

Base colours are Contrast, metallics are standard GW paint.

Imperial Fists Scouts and Psyker

Seems to be a theme this month and that theme is Warhammer 40K. Not deliberate, just got on a roll with the Contrast paints which make churning out fantasy troops very easy.

These guys are from the Shadowspear box set released in the middle of 2019. I'd always wanted yellow marines but had avoided them due to the difficulty I always had with yellow. In these guys it simply a base coat of Wraithbone followed by a coat of Iyanden Yellow taking care to avoid pooling.

The only non-contrast colours are the red trim which is traditional acrylics.

Ju 87 Squadron

The Stuka's reputation didn't survive the Battle of Britain and it was withdrawn from the campaign in mid-August. But it did play a major role in the initial battle, particularly Kanalkampf, the opening phase, before losses became too heavy.

These models are not accurate for the 1940 campaign being Warlord's JU87D box and the plane which actually took part in the Battle of Britain was the B-2. However, I was unaware of the distinction at purchase and decided they would still make good proxies on the battlefield.

Roboute Guilliman

The ying to Abaddon's yang. I'd had this model since it came out but hadn't quite got round to finishing it. With the completion of Abaddon, however, I felt that I needed to balance out the forces of Chaos with something Imperium just in case anything got anywhere near a real game.

Because this model was started before the advent of Contrast paints I had to go back to the old tried methods of three step shading coupled with inks and glazes.

Abaddon the Despoiler

This was one of GW's most popular models of 2019 and was the first time I'd encountered a new(ish) phenomena with GW releases - it sold out on the day of release. This has happened a few times since and I believe it's a case of GW actually underestimating the popularity of a new release. Abaddon's original model was sculpted in the 90's and I had held off purchasing it in the hope of a replacement for more than 10 years.

As ever these days the base colours are all Contrast with metallics and details being completed with the old fashioned three shade acrylic method.