DreadTober 2025: Tervigon Birthing Sac

 

Hi folks,

Term 4 of school started this week, so my hobby time has been compressed to a tiny singularity on Friday night. Still, I managed to paint my main goal for this week, the Tervigon's birthing sac. It was a bit of a process, which I will record here for posterity.

1) Base colour

For the basecoat I made a 1:1 mixture of Xerius Purple and Sotek Green. It took a couple of coats as coverage wasn't great over the black.

2) Blue wash

To add a bit of interest I added a Sotek wash in all of the recesses. I like the contrast between cold and warm tones when I do his, instead of using a darker purple wash. I also added some more Xerius Purple to the raised surfaces to help blend it all together.

3) First Highlights

I built up the highlights gradually with progressively lighter mixes of Model Colour Purple and Xereus Purple. Model Colour Purple is my "go to" for Tyranids these days; excellent for vintage genestealers.

4) Final Highlights

I dry-brushed neat Model Colour Purple to the raised surfaces, particularly focusing on the sacs where the Termagant heads can be seen poking through. Later on I even added a small amount of Jokaero Orange and Ushabti Bone to the mix to really bring those edges out.

5) Base coating the germ sacs

Early on I noticed that some of the sacs look smaller and rounder than the others. I thought maybe they could be the earliest stages of Termagant growth, just sacks of toxin and stem cells, which I could conceivably pick out in another colour. I undercoated these in a mixture of Xerius Purple and Warpstone Green.

6) Green Highlights

I highlighted the germ sacs with increasingly light mixes of Moot Green and Yriel Yellow. It is a similar look to how I do the eyes of each of my Tyranids. 

7) Blood!

The final step was to add some Tamiya Clear Red to the entrance of the birthing sac. Clear Red is my secret weapon for doing blood, though it is a bit of a pain to clean up, and pretty unforgiving if you mess up. Less is usually more when it comes to blood, so I only added a bit to the edges and the internal surfaces, which you can't see well in this shot. There is one thing that I have not painted; the armour on the top of the Devourer, as this will be colour shift. I'll bet tackling that part of the project next week!

See you across the table,

Marc

TTCombat CHROMA Acid Vats

 

Hi folks,

I have been plodding my way through the construction of the Kickstarter terrain pieces. These acid vats were a "must have" add-on and look suspiciously like Brian the Sewer Vent. 

The pieces on these vats fit together really neatly and the printed details are fantastic. The cover is removable too, for some supervillain origin story shenanigans. 

. 

I have a complete set of city ruins to do next, which looks nuts to construct; ~ 253 pages of instructions! For now, I'm going to give myself a stamp and work on construction my Tervigon for DreadTober.

Belial, Master of the 3rd Company

 

Hi folks,

During the week I added the final touches to my Belial conversion for the 2nd Ed. Storm of Vengeance campaign. It is based on the classic Brother Bethor model, which I started converting not long after painting back in the 90's. My mates hated playing against Bethor; his banner abilities really caused some damage back in those days. I caved and planned to turn him into Belial, but stopped after adding the power blade. I simply just lost my nerve with the build as a young hobbyist and didn't have a power fist or second pistol to complete the job. For many years the model was my assault sergeant, armed with some kind of power lance. No more! The conversion is finally complete and I am stoked.

Before his elevation to Grand Master of the Deathwing, Belial was the Master of the 3rd Company. He led them during the defense of Piscina IV against the Orks. Back in those days he was armed with a power sword, power fist, bolt pistol and plasma pistol, as well as a displacer field (for those sweet 3++ saves). Interestingly, his special rules in the campaign are very similar (in spirit) to his current rules in 10th Ed. He was so quick to strike back, enemies don't get charge bonuses against him.

Hopefully, I get to use him at some point if I ever run the campaign. Even if I don't, the project finally feels complete, which is great. Good enough for a major stamp, I reckon:

2nd Edition Army Challenge: June

 

Hi folks,

Just a short post today, as I am burnt out as all heck. After 6 months of effort, and no small amount of joy, I have completed the 2nd Edition Army painting challenge for 2025. This year I was working on Imperial Agents from the Codex Army Lists book (the "Little Black Book"). The models were mostly from the Inquisition, Grey Knights and Mechanicus portions of the list; no Sisters of Battle or Arbites. 

Finding proxies for some of the models and making new stuff look old was a real blast this time around. I especially have a soft spot for my Electropriests, so much so that i painted them a Rhino transport, lovingly named the "Voltswagon". The Electrohull vehicle card causes models that charge it to be thrown back, giving it room to deploy some frenzied electro-psychos into the mix! I also painted a Mechanicu Predator armed with a Conversion Beamer, using the vehicle conversion rules from the Dark Millenium book. The model itself is from the Horus Heresy range; what a beauty that kit is.

It has been another great journey this year and most of us are already planning for the challenge next year, assuming we can convince someone to run it. Now, though, I am tired. Teaching isn't getting easier and my father has been in palliative care for 12 months. I am still recovering physically and mentally from surgery 12 months ago. Without going into too much detail, things have been hard. I can't help but feel like I am in a liminal space at the moment and not sure at all what comes next. If you have stuck around with me this far, I thank you from the heart. I have the greatest respect for my "Blogger brothers".

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: April

 

Hi folks,

We are getting towards the pointy end of the challenge now and April was a busy month on the home front. With school holidays spent at the beach and a week of school camp supervision, there wasn't much time to mess around. I probably finished this Dreadnought in the first two weeks and just got smashed the next couple of weeks, failing to get any of my bonus models completed. That leaves me with a bit of a backlog of models that don't really count for the purposes of completing the challenge, but that I don't want to leave unfinished either! I am going to put in a big push this month to see what I can catch up on. 

The Dreadnought itself is not really a vintage model; it is a more modern Venerable Dreadnought sculpt. It is such a great kit, though. It came with a huge amount of options that allowed me to give it a Grey Knights vibe. I added an extra purity seal to the sarcophagus and an old school autolauncher that I had left over from my Legion of the Damned Dreadnought from a few challenges back. Autolaunchers can have a huge impact on the game in 2nd Edition; "popping smoke" can lay down a large barrier that obscures line of sight and can persist for a significant amount of time before it drifts away. It can protect both the Dreadnought and other nearby units as well.

The twin heavy bolter was another vintage addition. It was kindly donated from a fellow old school gamer, Kharnifex, who I have had the pleasure of playing a couple of games with. He is an all-round good bloke who gives so much back to the 2nd Ed. 40K community back here in Australia, and he is particularly great to play against; his patience is amazing (most of us can only remember 50% of the rules at any one time!). The weapon was originally from a chaos dreadnought but had had one bit of the iconography filed away. I went the whole way and ground out everything I could, except for the ammo feed gargoyles. A couple more purity seals sealed the deal.

The close combat weapon is from a Blood Angels Dreadnought kit, with a storm bolter attached in a very Grey Knight-adjacent way. I think it looks super cool next to the squads which have such a similar look to their wargear. 

Next month I have some Rapier Laser Destroyers to paint and I am sweating on a delivery of 3D printed servitors from Germany to crew them. Hopefully they make it before the end of the month. Then it will just be bonus material until the end of the challenge. So... once more to the breach!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: March

 

Hi folks,

March has been a fairly productive month on the hobby-front. My first job was to complete the bonus model I missed out on last month. The Tech Magus is the commander of my Mechanicus troops. He isn't quite as powerful as other commanders, having a ballistic skill and weapon skill of only 6. This isn't bad for taking out basic enemy troop choices but he is going to struggle with other commanders. Thankfully, the Inquisitor Lord I already have for the Grey Knights is at the other end of that scale and has an advantage over just about anything short of a Greater Daemon. 

A Tech Magus comes with a power axe, so giving him a plasma pistol was an obvious choice; it gives him an excuse to wield the axe two-handed every once in awhile. The armour and grenades section of the Imperial Agents list is pretty generous; I have selected a displacer field for him to complement the power armour he already has. It also allows me to slip some rad grenades into his pocket! This frees up wargear slots I would usually spend on survivability and grenades, giving him a solid three additional options. I have spent those on a warp jump device, bionic leg and bionic arm. Tooled up and under 160 points, he has a ton of survivability and mobility. 

I also painted a second squad of Grey Knights. These sculpts are what most people remember when they think of Grey Knights back in second edition. I always thought they looked a bit like Mexican Wrestlers, but I resisted painting them that way! Overall, they were great fun to paint, though the weird textured armour still drives me nuts. Using the rules from the Codex Army List, these Terminators aren't particularly powerful, though there force weapons make them scary for daemons. They can sling out a psychic power as well, which is certainly a force multiplier. Using the Dark Millennium rules, however,  they are fantastically deadly. Expensive, but lethal. For about 700 points I can teleport them in as a Level 4 psyker unit wielding strength 8, -5 save mod. force weapons, with multiple defensive saves. 

They cost AND hit like half an army.

To finish off the slice I painted a full squad of Electropriests. These models are proxies I ordered from a 3D printshop overseas. They were pretty good value for money, despite the postage. Electropriests are a really unique and odd entry in the Codex Army Lists book. They don't have any ranged weapons, but hit in close combat at strength 8. This allows them to punch down just about any other infantry. They are also effected by frenzy, which increases their number of attacks and makes them immune to the kind of psychology daemons like to wave about. If they are broken in combat, however, they drop dead from exhaustion, as the electrical charge they have whipped up dissipates. 

For Armour in April I will be working on a special 2nd Edition inspired Dreadnought for my Grey Knights. I may be able to fit a bonus model or two in as well, depending on how quickly I can get started on the Dread.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge IV: February

 

Hi folks,

February was a ridiculously busy month on the family front. It made it tough to build any momentum hobby-wise. For the challenge I was working on a squad of five Grey Knights and they were a bit painful to paint. Each had the detail of a character model; just the bodies alone had 17 skulls each!

Things went right down to the wire and I submitted my contribution directly on the midnight deadline. Taking photos of them was also pain, but here is a shot in the display cabinet.

I'm tempted to go back over the Nemesis Force Weapon hafts in black, but it is 2nd Ed., so bright is also usually better. I'll see how I feel when I do the next lot.

I missed old stuff day again after a pretty rough weekend. I'm hoping to take a trip down memory lane tonight and hopefully build a post out of it.

See you across the table,

Marc 

Oscar's Orks

 

Hi folks,

At some point during the Christmas holidays my son and I put in a concerted effort to complete his 1000 pt Ork army. This project has been a slow grow because I didn't want to push him too hard and burnout. Towards the end, though, he was so excited to start playing games that we pulled some all-nighters. The result is an infantry heavy Goffs army with tons of character. It can zip in and steal objectives but hold them fairly well too. 

In regard to who-painted-what, the idea of the project was for Oz to learn painting skills as we went along, so to begin with he focused on base coats and initial layers, but by the end he was doing his own washes and highlights. He has constantly amazed me with his developing brush control. Here's some pics of individual units:

Warboss Krumpzog Ironfinger (with Unicorn da squig)

Painboy "Doc"

Kommandos "Da Big Knives" (with Nukey da Squig)

Boyz Mob "Da Redhedz and Da Metal Skullz"

Gretchin Mob "Brave Gutz"

Deffkopta Squadron "Da Kofta Choppers"

Rukkatruck Squigbuggy "Uber Eats" (with Pancake da Squig)

Squighog Boyz "Boney Teefs" (with Pinner the Squigsnot)

Deffdread "DreadTobes"

The DreadTober crew will recognise this guy!

The little guy has also painted Ghazghkull Thraka and has a mob of 10 mega armoured Nobz to round out another 500 points. 

They'll take a while to finish though; for now he is just keen to play some games! More about that later...

See you across the table,

Marc 

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: January

 

Hi folks,

For the challenge this year I have picked a list entirely from the Codex Army Lists book. This book was in the 2nd Edition starter box and gave you a basic army list for all of the models GW was thinking about releasing. It was delightfully speculative, including a bunch of cool things that were never released (well... not until recent times anyway!). My Imperial Agents list focuses mostly on Grey Knights and this month I tackled the Character portion of the list.

Supreme Grand Master Geronitan

I have used an old Inquisitor Lord miniature to represent my force commander. It states somewhere in the Grey Knights Codex that Grey Knight Masters are all highly ranked Inquisitors, so it made sense to use the profile and model of an Inquisitor Lord. This model has been converted to include a Nemesis force sword from the old Brother-Captain Stern model. He is also equipped with a storm shield and bionic leg, providing ample parry opportunities and an extra attack, with the ability to knock a model down with his kick at the end of combat. What a boss move!!

Mech-Sanctifier Kallus Draeven

Techmarines aren't in the Imperial Agents list itself, so I have included one as an ally. This will allow me to field a Dreadnought, which is going to be in the Grey Knight scheme. The "Techmarine tax" that Space Marine players have to pay in order to take certain support units is a little onerous; I made sure his name reflected his exact reason for living in my army list. The model is a very old prototype Terminator model from the Rogue Trader era. I find these things fascinating; I'll let you spot the design influences that were ditched in the later models and those that were refined. 

Medicant Primus Tiber Acastus

If you are going to take a ~ 300 point commander in your army list, you may as well take an Apothecary to keep him alive. Every Grey Knight he saves is worth an absolute bucketload of points as well!

Tech-Priest Squad

With a couple of days left over until the end of the month, I decided to have a craic at some Mechanicus allies. The Imperial Agents list had a couple of Mechanicus choices, which were never released as models. I can remember experimenting with them back in the day, using proxy models. It was awesome fun repurposing some modern models to finally bring them to life. These Tech-Priests are armed with needle rifles and one plasma gun. I have a lot of plans for this part of the force; I hope I get around to doing it all.

February is Squaduary; so I am hoping to paint a full squad of Grey Knight Terminators this month. It is going to be a tremendous challenge, because they are all so beautifully detailed.

I have said it elsewhere on social media, but it would be remiss of me not to thank Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40K Addict. He and his mates put together a care package of vintage models that are just perfect for these challenges. It was like opening up a box of dreams. 

See you across the table,

Marc