5th Border Legion

Well, new forum, best repost so that I have something to update as I add to it...

So, having been very undecided when I started painting my Khador whether I wanted to paint them white or olive green I opted for white.
Having painted a decent sized force in white I still kept thinking maybe green would've been better, certainly as I use Butcher the most, and so like the idea of a 5th Border Legion force.

With the announcement MKII was to be released in January, and seeing it as an excuse to start afresh, I'm now doing just that, painting lots of new stuff in the colours of the 5th Border Legion.

So far I haven't gotten very far, but what I have got was enough to win me the best painted *****machine army at TS, and then the best painted overall award.
Not a bad effort considering the army on show was clearly wearing two very different colour schemes.

These models continue the melted snow theme on the bases, but slightly less snow and more greenery, and perhaps a bit more effort on the bases too, but they sit nicely alongside the white army as a result, and the snow helps the dark models pop out from the table.

These are painted, erm, properly, insofar as I didn't use any washes to speed me along; it's all blended shading and hilighting, but it's all done relativly quickly, afterall this is a gaming army first and foremost.

Enough chitter-chatter, on with the models...

First up, the Butcher:



cont...

And Butcher's Wardog:



cont...

And here's Butcher and his doggie:



Click the images for some bigger pictures.

Hope you like them, thanks for looking, back very soon with some more.

Cheers,
JT.

Only 4 images allowed per post in this section is very silly, and very annoying.

Next up, the Butcher's 'jacks.
I like 'jacks and want lots, it's great seeing that I can use a 'caster like eButcher in all my games under the MKII rules, because he's such a damned good 'jack 'caster.
For now though, this is what I run in 750pts.

You might see on some of the photo's that I use brass rod and tube to remake the pistons in the 'jacks upper arms, and copper wire to add an extra pipe, partly for look, partly for strength, but mostly because it allows me to reposition the arms easily and get more poses from the models.

Kodiak:



cont...

And Kodiak number 2, because a brace of Kodiaks is better than 1 on its tod:




cont...

A Devastator, very useful with Butcher, very damaging to enemy infantry and, more importantly, an amazing looking model. This one has its arms repositioned outwards at the elbow, uses the legs and head spikes off a Spriggan and has the 5th Border Legion badge sculpted onto its carapace.
And it was painted in one piece, because painting my white Dev in pieces nearly sent me demented:



cont...

More pics of the Devastator.



4 pics per post?
Seriously?

Anyway, cont...

The last model finished for now is a Spriggan, a very effective model with eButcher in the MKII rules and another fantastic looking one.
Arms have been slightly lengthened by adding the brass pistons to the upper arms, which allows you to see more of its torso better, and it to has a 5th BL badge on its carapace:

[almond]

Love how you paint them, it's very crisp and clean. The 'jacks look like they just rolled out fresh from the factory though.

Yup, that's the idea.

Anyway, more...



cont...

And lastly for now, a couple of group shots of the whole battlegroup:



That's it for now.
Next up will most likely be some Battle Mechanics for a complete change of pace, followed by some Manhunters, Yuri and lots of MoW, though I have lots of other 'jacks to paint up as well.

Thanks for looking.

Very nice.
I love how smooth the colours are.
Nice bases too, by the way.

Right, quick and small update; the alternative Manhunter model:

Not done much recently due to other things going on.
I'd hoped to get a unit of 4 Mechanics finished and post the lot together, but they haven't been touched for a while whilst this little lady has ben finished and un photographed, so that's remedied at least.

If you look closely you'll see that her bro is slightly miscast. I didn't notice that whilst prepping her, as a result her forehead looks a bit odd from some angles.
No matter though.

That's the lot for now.
These have been painted for a while, but I wanted to copy them over from the old forum.
The mechanics will be done soon, then it's Yuri the axe because the above plus Yuri makes for a very fun 35pts army.
After that I've got a Prime Butcher to paint, though I may leave him until I see the new version.

Currently working on other stuff though, so updates here will be quite slow coming. I've had a busy few months and not done much of anything really, and to get me back in I've been speed painting something completly different, which I'll post in a couple of days.

Thanks for looking and thanks for commenting.

And thanks in advance to Privateer for lifting the silly 4 pics per post restriction which is really very silly, especially for images hosted off-site.

[CT GAMER]

Stunning.

The basing is very well done.

Love the tone of the green as well.

Awesome stuff as always. Although the photos are awesome, they're even nicer in the flesh. Also, your photos are damn impressive, you'll have to show me how you do it sometime.

Cheers guys.

Right, whilst I'm copying stuff over I may as well post my original winter scheme Khador in the same thread.
More to look at and all that.

Not coding in the links for the big pics here as it takes too long. If you want big pics ask and I'll code the pop-ups.

Incidentally, the 5th army is based similar to these guys so that I could field them together for a tourny, but I doubt I'll return and paint anymore in this scheme, the itch is well and truly scratched.
I do like the models, but not enough that I won't consider offers

Anyway...

Firstly, Yuri The Axe, this model and his rules really appeal to me. Infact he's possibly the biggest reason I decided on Khador.

And he loves animals... In his own way...

You do *incredible* work!

Secondly, the alternative Manhunter sculpt, the female one:

Thirdly, the original Manhunter sculpt:



Finally, a group shot of all three:

Onwards and upwards...
This was my conversion of pVlad to make him look tolerable.



It's a conversion I'll be redoing in due course, so that I can get it better and paint it to match the Border Legion.

And this is he painted...

As is this...

Wow! That is some fantastic stuff you did there. Great group shot, and manhunters too. I really love that blue effect on the sword.

Shiny white Widowmakers.

They're shiny and white...



Couple of detail shots...

Another Butcher, in white...

And more angles of same.

This 4 pics thing is killin' me, but look what it's doin' to my post count!

Another Devastator, a vision in white and red...

When I painted this one, I left the arms seperate.
Getting them glued on afterwards so that the glue didn't cloud the paint and so that they were solid sent me half daft.
As a result the green one was assembled and positioned so that I could paint it fully assembled.

That was fun, but if you go back and look I think it was worth it; it's elbows are further out and it looks bleedin' ginormous for it, really scary.

Kovnik:

A bit more Kovnik...



And a bit of Drakhun...

And a bit more Drakhun:

Last bit of Drakhun...



I scratch built him a high backed cavalry saddle and stirrups out of green stuff and plasticard (for the pommel and cantle of the saddle) so that he looks less pertched ontop and in danger of falling out o' the back door.

Do seriously love the Drakhun model...

Four Demo Corps:

I remember your old thread on the forums, did you use to dip your models? For some reason I remember you saying you did.

Anyways, great looking army and I really like the 5th Border Legion paint scheme. Your colours are really nice and smooth. Do you use NMM? I like regular metallics but have the hardest time putting on the first layer.

The Kodiak and Spriggan are my personal favorite but I wouldn't mind seeing another Drakhun painted up in the 5th scheme. You wouldn't happen to be working on another one?

Group shot of them fellas:



And onto Mr. Midwinter...

Absolutely gorgeous work. I like the 5th Border Legion pieces a lot and I like the white scheme even better.

Bluecardinal, yes I did use a woodstain on the white army.

They were primered white, basecoated, then painted in a dilute brown woodstain.

After that I went over and rehilighted everything.

Sped the job along no end.

Don't use NMM.
Never have and never will.

The thought makes me shudder.

But there very much will be a green Drakhun in due course, there will be a whole division of MoW, went out and bought max units of both flavours, a new Drakhun with dismount and a new Kovnik months ago.

The 5th Border Legion army will be a long old project and one I doubt will ever really be finished.



Anyway, one last pic for now, this is a group shot of the white army, using the eButcher model as pButcher it gave a brilliant and undefeated 500pts MKi army.
Infact I only lost using those models when Vlad led the army.
The white Butcher has never been killed, came close at Toy Soldier last year, to my mate Jim, who put everything into it for a bit of pay back after being beaten bloody by him on so many occasions.

But he rolled guff dice and failed.

So white Butcher has now been retired to safety




Click for a huge image.

Hope you like 'em.

Actually, if anyone is interested, here are a few step-by-step pics of how I went about doing the white army:



This first shot shows the base colours painted over a white undercoat.
Nothing clever or fancy, it's just a case of getting the right colours in the right places.



Second shot shows the the dip painted on.
As mentioned above I use Ronseal Quick Drying Interior varnish, Walnut shade. It's a good colour match for brown ink, and the interior stuff is water based so it can be thinned easily.
There are a couple of coats on here, both quite thin. The first coat will miss alot of the deep, fiddly areas, so the second coat is really just applied to make sure these get covered.
Most important things is not to let the dip pool else it will obscure detail.



This last shot shows the model with some more ink on it.
Black inks over the metal and the very darkest/deepest areas, brown ink over the reds and golds.

From there I have a good base to work over, all the colours are nicely shaded and the deepest areas and any that'd need black lining are pretty much done.
To finnish the models of I simply hilight over what's there, using brown ink to correct any slips.



Thanks for all the replies guys, sorry if I missed you and didn't respond during my furious copy-pasta-ing.

Very nice and stark highlights. Also am a fan of your Kovnik

Wow, I really dig this army, such smooth paint-work. If you hadn't told us they were dipped I don't think anyone would have ever known. Were the 5th border legion ones dipped too, or just the white section of the army?

Beautiful beautiful models. You, sir, are an inspiration to me!

I have 17 MoW's to paint. I think i might do them White!!!!

......Speechless.

Well, I always loved this army and its cool to see it again.
Please feel free not to bring it or something as good to the masters this year to give the rest of us a chance.

The level of painting on the face of the ladyhunter is just phenominal.

Looking forward to more.

Cheers.

Jon.

Wow! Beautiful army, best vlad I've seen.

I may bring it to the Masters Jon, may not. Depends on how much more of it I get painted really

As I say, add Yuri and it's a brilliant fun 35pts, and to get it up to 50pts I have a Jugger, Doomreavers and a second Manhunter to do, all of which are ready to get painted, so we'll see what happens.
My second list would be a simple matter of swapping eButcher for pButcher.

Mercykiller, no dips used on the 5th stuff, just blended hilights and shades.

But, time is not being kind to me and I haven't done much of anything for 3 months now, which makes me sad

I remember thinking, when you first posted your stuff, how great it all looked (this was the white Khador). I can say without reservation that the new stuff is even better. The butcher in particular is awesome.

...but what is "*****machine"?

Heh, word filter don't like it

When people run the names HORDES and WARMACHINE together and call it Hormachine, a fair few of us in the UK started spelling it with a 'w' at the begining and an 'e' in the middle.

Honestly, i love your work. You do such a great paint work with my most favourite color scheme for Khador. I wish i could only do half as good as you, sadly i am more a player then a painter. getting myself to paint is a story of itself.

After looking through everything I'm pretty sure I hate you.
Consider yourself added to my personal list of painters who make painting not fun for the rest of us.
Kidding aside, awesome!
One tiny complaint about the female manhunter. Why did you put eye make-up on her? Just seems out of place.
Looking forward to more of your stuff.

SFK