Work bench of a madman!

I know I know, the raptors arent done... but I just had this massive urge to build and go conversion crazy!
So this arvo, I spent a few hours and built my autocannon squad and almost my support squad.
The autocannon squad looks a little funny because the barrels were irreparably bendy, so I just chopped them and put the muzzle brakes straight onto the main structures.

Also I pre-ordered my long awaited favourite HH character - Sevatar!! That glorious bastard is gonna make the centrepiece of my Night Lords. Until of course I invest in Curze.

Not quite finished

But here is a taste!

He's the only 100% complete one so far. Others range from 80-90% completion.

Raptor update!

Well, looks like I'm on point to finish these by my self-set deadline after all! I am very happy with them so far and I'm keen to see them finished.
Super happy with the gold.
I swear though that the huntmaster is cursed! He keeps falling out of my hand, breaking his base off and snapping the end off of his chainglaive! Oh the fury!

Raptors!

So these are through the initial stages. I painted the helmets on the sprue.
Armour, as with all of my night lords is airbrushed on - 50/50 mix of vallejo air signal blue and french blue, followed by french blue highlights and for the final zenithal highlights, 75/25 mix of french blue and white.
These guys are shaping up to be an absolute delight to paint. I love the sinister aesthetic and the dynamic poses.
I decided to save one of the winged helmets for the sergeant of my tactical squad, using instead one of the sternguard squad bare heads on the raptor with the chainglaive.

Contemptor Dreadnought - Finished!

Finally finished! I'm super happy with him and to be honest, kinda relieved he's finished. Now I can put myself to work on some other stuff.
I don't think I'll add any more dreadnoughts to my Night Lords force, they're a lot of work to paint and, I daresay this one will be enough of a centrepiece.
I'm fairly confident that after this model, I've learnt a lot about non metallic gold and steel, and the rest of my night lords force will be painted using the same techniques.

On another note, when my Night Lords are finished, I've been inspired by the stories of Barabas Dantioch and Kyr Vhalen - the loyalist elements of the Iron Warriors legion. One day, I'd love to put together a IVth Legion siege style army with that background. I'd want to paint them with a realistic approach, true metals and rust, grime and weathering included. This is some way off though, as I'd love to finish at least 1-2 thousand points worth of VIII first.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this :)

Full steam ahead!

After the laziness, I've fallen back into a rhythm and set some goals. I wanna get the dreadnought finished by the end of the week, and then I'm gonna get my Night Raptors finished by the end of the next fortnight. On the agenda after the raptors is the recon squad and then my heavy support and tactical support squads respectively. I'll set goals for the latter once I get closer to it.
Help me stay accountable to my goals!

Happy new year, merry christmas!

Well, I've been very lazy these last weeks and there really isn't much to report beyond this progress pic.
I did however get a hold on a legion recon squad and I'm waiting on a tactical support squad with volkite calivers and a heavy support squad with autocannons.
I'll be wanting to add a terror squad and a legion tactical squad at some point too, along with a Sicaran battle tank and a couple of predators.
Before I expand my Night Lords any further, I'll be waiting to see what else they add to legion lists in the coming year. I'm sure ForgeWorld is bound to release another campaign book, and I've heard we may be getting strike fighters.
For painting purposes, I'll certainly be adding the Primarch and of course Sevatar when he's released.

Anyhow, to all 3 of my readers - Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!