Lux Tenebris

Sirrah Galtos Acre, Esquire of House Tartarus, gloried in the feel of his nerves coming alive. As data from the sensors of his mount fired around him, he plunged into the comforting warmth of its embrace. Around him the ozone smell of electrics sparking and the thudding of the promethium engine were as familiar as the sights and smells of his home, far away. Lux Tenebris, Knight Armiger of the distaff House Tartarus, rose to its full height; the chainsword roared into life as with a snap-hiss of energy, the Melta came up to temrepature. With a slamming of pistons and the thud of foot upon earth, Galtos Acre went to war.

Later.

They were dead. All dead. Shattered bones and implants laid around, wrecked vehicles belching smoke. Lux Tenebris limped on, one leg almost seized from the blast of a some hellish weapon. Inside, Galtos Acre's breath rasped through the jagged tear in his throat. His hands, blood slick, had trouble grasping the controls; his vision - down to one eye now, just like the giant faltering around him - showed multiple enemy contacts, closing fast. 

If this was to be the end, he - and his heirloom that would become his tomb - would sell their lives dearly. 

So this is the start of the new project; an actual, honest to goodness Warhammer 40,000 army. It will be small - I'm not made of money, after all - and is basically so I can join in with the club at work as and when they need an extra player. I picked up the Forgebane box intending to build the Necrons but fell back in love with the Adeptus Mechanicus.

My force will be the guard of Magos Archeopterist Skol, seeking forgotten technology in the Lost Foundries of Sycorax. I decided that one of the first things they would try to get back in working order would be the Knights; so here is a wrecked Knight Armiger, brought back to operational parameters.

This is very unlike my usual style of painting. As you can see, there is no chipping to the paint and no rust; the only weathering is environmental. I deliberately set out to create a 'clean' paint job unlike my usual work, for two reasons; first, I wanted to work on my brush control simply as I had been aware that all my work recently on nurgley, grotty stuff had got me into some sloppy habits and secondly I wanted to create something that felt as thought it had been lovingly restored. My inspiration here was those classic cars you see which look better than new. This also led to to the colour palette  - there's something very 1950s about green and beige.

The whole thing was painted with brushes; normally I'd use an airbrush on a piece this large but again, I wanted to work on getting thin, even colours over a large area with a brush simply for the sake of technical practice.

The dusting on the base was done with weathering powder with varying degrees of binder for different consistencies.

Next up is the leader of my little force and a colour scheme test for the Skitarii.