40k-Speedpainting-Challenge: A Battalion of Kasrkin in one Weekend ***COMPLETED***

So, I have these Kasrkin models flying around for years now. Unpainted, of course. They are the 3rd edition metal models (with the good old slit bases) from Games Workshop and are currently out of production. They make their way back every few years via that “Made to Order” thingy, but these are the old ones.

I had a choice to make. Sell them for horrendous amount of money on ebay (like 10 bucks per mini) or finally get around painting them. As I am told they are quite good in the current 8th edition of 40k I challenged myself: Can I paint them in a single weekend?

So I borrowed the Imperial G… sorry the Astra Militarum Codex and organized them into an eligible force. I have about 25 models, but as they can have two special weapons – and not only one – per 5 man squad now a few Hellgunners will not make the cut. Here is the list:

1 Tempestor Prime with Powerfist and Command Rod (using and old Commissar Model)

1 Primaris Psyker

3 Tempestus Scions Squads, each with 5 men, 2 special weapons (two squads with Plasma Guns and one with Meltas) and a Sarge with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol

Totalling up to 17 models and 14 Power or 353 Points. I was a bit surprised, but it’s actually a legal Battalion for 40k. I was only missing a single Plasma Gunner. So I bought him for an unbelievable amount on Ebay. The list is ready… what about the minis? And how will I do it?

The list is ready and I nearly had the 17 minis I want to paint. Only one was still in the mail, but I needed a plan and had to prepare the minis.

Preparing the Minis:

Back in the day one didn’t care about slit bases. Just paint them Goblin Green and there we go. Nowadays this is a no go for me. So I filled up the bases with Putty.

Also I didn’t care about mold lines back then. So I cleaned the models. The Sargeants couldn’t have Plasma Pistols I think until this edition, so the models had Hell Pistols. I replaced them with Plasma Pistols.

Lastly I glued the minis on nails. I always do this as it is a great handle when painting and very useful when dipping.

The minis are ready to be primed. Onto

The Plan:

• Uniforms will be grey
• Armour plating will be green
• Guns and backpacks will also be grey with a few details
• The eye lenses will be blue
• Cabeling will be red
• Some glowing on the weapons
• A few decals on the shoulders
• Martian Ironcrust for the bases

So the first step will be a black primer from the rattle can. I have to make sure to get into every single corner of the minis. But with the nail handle this is no problem as you can hold the mini up while priming and spray them from below too.

Second step will be zenithing with uniform grey, also from the rattle can. This should take care of the underlying uniforms and mostly of the backpacks and guns.

Then I will start working on the armour plating and see where I am going next from there.

So the list is ready. So are the minis and the plan. I’ll start tomorrow 1200h and will be posting updates through out the weekend regularly. That’s 1100h on BST. 

I only have one concern. I would love to dip them with the solvent based dip from army painter. But this stuff takes 24h to dry. So if I am not making it to this stage by Friday night I’ll probably have to use the water based dip. We’ll see.

Until tomorrow…

The starting signal was given and as always I jumped the gun. At least a bit. The black primer is already down. Next up will be the uniform grey zenith. I post a pic once the step is done.

The two step priming (complete with black and zenith with uniform grey) is done. Now the real work begins. Onto the green.

10 models down with the green, 7 to go. But I’m hungry now. Time for some sustenance 😀

One question rises in my mind. The guns won’t stay gray. It’s just to similar to the uniform. Shall I make them green (same as he armor plating) or black?

After having a great meal I finished the green. I used Model Color Brown Violet (70.887) on the helmets, all the armour plating, the rebreathers and the grenades.

As the Psyker and Prime have none of these parts I used the opportunity to give them a heavy white drybrush. They will stay mostly in grey cloth so a bit more depth wouldn’t hurt.

Next up will be black. I also decided to go with black on the gun casings, as green would make them look to much like “normal” guards men.

Wow. This took ages. But I finally finished with black. I used it on the base of the antenna (backpack), rebreather valves, gun casings, straps and belts, knife sheaths and the soles of the boots. The Prime got some nice black boots, black sword and the rim of his cap in black.

I also used the opportunity that I had white (from the previous brushing) and black already on the palette. So I painted the Aquilas and Skulls white and blackened the bases.

I definately need a break now after over 8h of painting (not counting the 20 mins of eating in between) as my vision starts to blur. I hope to get back to painting in 1 or 2 hours, depending how tired I am.

Unfortunately it took me far longer to get here than anticipated. I hoped to be near dipping now or have at least the base colors down. But I still have red for the cables, blue for the visors and metal for gunparts and the antenna to go. Not mentioning reds, blues and greens for all the gunsights, laserpointers, buttons and displays. And then highlighting…

So I guess I have to rearrange my goals for the weekend. I guess I can be happy when I finish with dipping on Sunday. This is nearly the same thing as being finished, as I only do a coat of matt varnish, glow effects and the bases after dipping. But it removes the 24h dry period, as I won’t be painting on monday and it would be perfect for the dip to dry. Then I could do the finishing touches (matt coating, glow effects and bases) on Tuesday. We’ll see. I’m off eating now… and listening to some Metallica… BLACKENED!

Because it’s 40k 😀

Last update for the day. I fixed some details and finished the Power Cables on the weapons, backpacks and radios. Also the Prime got some nice red epaulettes and sash. I used GW Red Gore. It’s quite an old pot. Maybe the color has another name now.

I managed to get nearly 10h of pure painting in today (9h 51m to be precise). I’ll continue tomorrow. Good night.

After helping myself to a few beers… sorry pints after finishing yesterday I’m having a little of a slow start today. But the important thing is: I am back at the painting table. And the keyboard. Next up will be gunmetal.

So, first real update for the day. Firstly I took care of gunmetal. It went onto the top of the antennas, the energy packs on the back and mainly the gun muzzles. I also used it on the swords and power coils of the plasma weaponry, but this will be painted over with a glow effect at the very end. The Prime got a metal power fist and a few details here and there. I used Model Color Gunmetal (70.863) but I wouldn’t recommend it. First time I say this about a Model Color as it is normally a very good range, but this paint has terrible consistency and very low pigment counts. It needed two coats to cover grey.

Then I used Model Color Flat Brown (70.984) on the stave of the Psyker and the gun holster of the Prime.

Next up was the skin. GW Balor Brown for the Sarges and the Prime and GW Bugmans Glow for the Psyker. I want a harsher contrast on the Psyker as he is probably a bit drained from all the warp energy.

I finally managed to finish the base colors. Now its “only” Highlights, Decals, Dipping and Finishing Touches to go. But I get ahead of myself.

Firstly I used GW Blathasar Gold on a few details on the characters. They eye and trinket on the psykers stave. The lower part of the primes blade etc.

Then came the eye lenses of the helmets. These are GW Ultramarine Blue. As I head blue already infront of me I decided to go displays, buttons and laserpointers next. Displays went blue, buttons GW Blood Red (buttons have to be red, like power cables) and laser pointers GW Putrid Green. Again some of these pots are old or very old. The names might have changed by now.

Then I worked on the eyes. White as as base (Model Color Foundation White 70.919.) and black as a pupil (Army Painter Matt Black). With black alread on the palette I used it on the openings of the gun muzzles.

And tadaa… all the base colors are down. Onto Highlighting. I’ll start with the armor plates again.

Done with the highlighting of the armour plates. This went much faster than I expected. So suddenly hopes are high to make it to dipping today. Unfortunately my feeble body tells me I need to eat. So a short break is in order. But then we’ll push on.

I just used the same green as before (Model Color Brown Violet) and mixed it on the palette with a bit of white. And then some quick and dirty hightlights on the armor parts.

A lot happened since the last update. First I did some highlighting on the black. Therefore I mixed 2 parts Armypainter Matt Black with one part Game Color Cold Grey (72.050). Just simple hard edging on the guns and other black parts.

Then it was Red’s turn. Highlighting the cabling and the Prime’s clothing with GW Blood Red. GW Steel Legion Drap did the Highlights on the stave and the Primes pistol holster.

More of the same: I mixed the grey from above with some white and put very few accents on a few gun parts, rimming of the uniforms and boots.

Lastly Model Color Gold (70.996) used for highlighting the golden parts and painting the Sarges insignia on his right thigh.

Now only the faces and a few details on the display are left and I can go onto the decals.

Nearly forgot Army Painters Dark Tone Wash (from the dropper bottle). I used this on nearly all the metal parts to tone them done. Especially the gun muzzles and very heavy on the Prime’s power fist.

I can proudly say, that I am finished with the pre-dipping painting. Meaning only Decals are left and then it’s dipping time. I should manage to achieve this before 2400h. So I can let the Dip dry for 18h on finish the models tomorrow evening.

But again, I am getting ahead of myself. So I finished the faces and some details in this one.

Faces of the 3 Sarges and the Prime:

• The base was GW Balor Brown (painted yesterday)
• Lips (also painted yesterday, I think, lost track of time) was GW Bugmans Glow
• Layered with a 1:1 mix of GW Balor Brown and GW Elf Flesh
• Eyebrows and Hair is GW Steel Legion Drab
• Beards are Model Color Flat Brown 70.984
• The blueshade of the shaven beard is Army Painter Soft Tone Wash (from the dropper bottle)
• The wound on the Primes is GW Blood for the Bloodgod

Face of the Psyker:

• The base (again painted yesterday) was GW Bugmans Glow
• Layered with GW Elf Flesh
• Eyes are Army Painter Alien Purple and then highlighted with the same color mixed with white
• The Blood again is GW Blood for the Bloodgod

Top of the Stave:

• Paper is white and GW Ushabit Bone
• Writing is black, duh 😀

Display:

• Base is GW Ultramarine Blue
• Highlight GW Shadow Grey (very old pot again)
• And then white for some details

Next up will be Decals. I decided to go with a symbol from the Emperors Children or to be more precise and old Unity Symbol from the Emperor from a time even before the Great Crusade. I am talking about the Golden Eagles Claw (see below).

Two reasons. First of all the name of these guys will be:

Emperors Finest Droptroops, 101st Screaming Eagles

And secondly I have like a billion of these decals and they look cool. Stay tuned.

When doing such a project like this there is always the fear something can go wrong. You always wait for it. And now it happened. The Decals went wrong. Not terribly, but enough to have shaken my confidence for about an hour. So I took a shower, helped myself to a beer and a piece of cold pizza and fixed the problem.

As I said the Decals are old Emperors Children Decals by GW. Like 10 years old. They applied easily and had the normal air bubbles and kinks for decals applied on a round surface.

I’ve expected this as I have applied decals to many Space Marines. I grabbed my wonder weapon Micro Sol. This is a decal solvent and normally takes care of flattening the decals in 2-4 applications. As nothing was happening after like the 10th application I was getting really nervous.

Google told me that old decals are much thicker than new ones and much harder. So decal solvents have problem softening them. I had a choice to make. Repaint the shoulder pads or try to fix it. After said shower, beer and pizza I decided to try and fix it. I applied Mirco Sol a few more times in much shorter intervals and much thicker. And it worked. Puhhh…

As on other projects I used quite a hard brush to flatten the decals so they ripped in a few parts giving them a used look. So if you want to point out that I ripped the decals, that’s actually on purpose.

To seal the decals I used a single layer of Army Painter Anti Shine (from the dropper bottle).

But see for yourself

Now onto Dipping. I will use Army Painter Quick Shade Dark Tone from the big 250ml tin. That’s the solvent based stuff. I love the results of this, but I hate doing this. I always fear that something will go wrong. But it never has. Until now. Keep your fingers crossed…

Puuuh. Ok. Dipping went fine. But this means I got nothing to do now. And for the most part of tomorrow. As the Dip takes 12h-24h to cure I can only continue with the project tomorrow evening. I think about 1900h (that’s 1800h BST). But it’s not much to do left anyways and it should take me less than 5h to finish. Leaving me with time left until 2359h:

• Mat coating 0,5-1h (I can’t use a spray can as it’s raining cats and dogs outside)
• Glow effects 1-2h
• Bases 1-2h

But back to dipping. I told you that I glued my minis on nails for different reasons. One being that it is quite useful for dipping. One of you have asked me: How? What? It goes like this:

• Glue your mini on a nail (the big end under the base)
• Span the small end of the nail into your drilling machine
• Dip the mini on the drill into the tin with Dip
• Let it drop of
• Hold the mini inside a round container with a bottom (I use a Pringles can)
• Hit it with maximum rotation for 3-10 seconds, depending on how strong the effect should be. I used 4s for the troops and 6s for the characters (lighter effect on the chars)
• Et Voilá your mini is dipped
• Once finished with all the minis pour the excess dip from the round container back into the tin with Dip

To fast? I prepared a photo story:

So. That finishes the Saturday for me. I spent today 10h 19m painting, dipping and decaling. Bringing me up to a total time of 20h 10m since priming. It took me longer to get here, but I am really glad that nearly everything went well until now (besides the short snafu with the decals). But we are not finished yet and will put the finishing touches on tomorrow. Thats Sunday 1800h BST.

I’ll treat myself to a beer now. Or maybe two… or nine… teen. Good Night!

There they are… in all their glossy glory…

But don’t worry. They have been dry to the touch for a few hours now and soon there will be matt varnishing.

And back in. The Dip has cured to my satisfaction. Meaning I can continue the work on the Kasrkin and hopefully finish them this evening. 3 steps are to go:

• Matt varnishing / coating to get rid of the Gloss from the Dip
• Gloweffects on Power Weapons, Lasersights, Buttons etc.
• Bases

So I’ll start with Army Painter Matt Varnish from the dropper bottle. I would love to use the spray can, but the weather won’t allow it. And the brush is much more precise.  Next update will be after varnishing.

Well, that was boring. And took longer than expected. But nevertheless here we are.

As said before I used Army Painter Anti Shine from the dropper bottle. But as this leaves the surfaces of models quite rough or raw I don’t use it pure. Don’t try to thin it with water. It immediately goes to some weird icying effect. Same if you put in on a wet palette. I just mix it 1:10 with GW ‘Ardcoat. This is a very strong Gloss Varnish and a single drop into 10 drops of anti shine has quite the effect. It is still a matt varnish, but not over the top and without the roughing up effect.

On some parts I like the roughing up. So i used pure Anit Shine on the scrolls on the psykers staff and the epaulettes and sash of the prime. The primes black sword stayed in gloss making it some kind of Obsidian. But take a look for yourself.

Next up will be glow effects. Buttons, Lasersights are first. This should go fast.

Ok. Just finished the “glows” on buttons, displays and lasersights. I used 3 colors from the GW Technical range: GW Waystone Green, GW Soulstone Blue and GW Spiritstone Red.

I used them over the greens, blues and reds from yesterday. Love the effect and it is so simple. Judge for yourself:

Next up will be blue OSL on the plasma weaponry and the Sarges power swords. Red OSL on the meltas. And purple on the psyker.

OSL is my nemesis for years now. I changed to a careful drybrushing method as it is much faster and I just can’t get the ultra-thinned-10-layers-method to work properly. Wish me luck.