My Escalation League Army Build Up Part 2

BLOGS FOR THE BLOG GOD!!!!

Okay so I've been a bit remiss about keeping up with my plan on the Escalation league. Unfortunately life has been keeping me busy and haven't had the time to keep on track with my army build up plan.

I do have some things to report though and of course some pictures for everyone to ooo and aaah at. Okay maybe complain about it being washed out or blurry.

Let me start off by saying... I hate painting red over white. I used the white so it picks out the detail better but man what a pain. I started out layering up Brick Red as a base for the red bits. This took about 3 to 4 coats on most areas, but some places required 6 layers. It was an interesting color to say the least, kind of had a purple hue to it, but it actually worked in the end.

Here's a mini with the first coat of Brick Red put on it. As you can see one coat allowed quite a bit of the white to show through. The Brick Red seemed to rub off quite easily too on the tips of the model. Just handling them caused a bit to rub off.

My next color I used to layer up was Reaper's Blood Red. It's a more vibrant red then the Brick Red, but not as bright as GW's Blood Red. I didn't get any pictures of the mini in this color but you'll see it on the Rhino below. This is close to a color between GW's Blood Red and Red Gore I think. Not too bad a color over all, but not as vibrant as the Blood Red from GW.


As you can see it's a nice red, I've left the Brick Red in some of the more recessed areas for shading. I really like how this Rhino is turning out, also like how the Berzerkers are turning out.

Unfortunately I didn't take into account the many layers of reds I would need. Even this Blood Red from Reaper still took several coats to cover up the Brick Red completely. I do have to say though I'm pleased overall with it, just wish I could find a short cut to save some time.



I'll have to look into that at a later time. To the right you see the Rhino with the final layer of red. I used Vallejo's Game Color Blood Red as I like their paints a little bit more then GW's.

I also used Brassy Brass from Vallejo and Tarnished Steel from Reaper as base coats for the other bits you see on the Rhino. I'll wash the brass with a brown/black ink wash I use for most of my metallic colors. I will also wash the tarnished steel and then use a chainmail color to highlight those. Same with the Brass color. I'll most likely just use the base color over top the washed brass first layer.

Half finished Berzerker

Below is the top down look on the Rhino from Steps 2 to 3 with the red colors. Second one is a bit blurry, sorry about that, but you can definitely see the color difference. I think an army that looks like this is going to be very sharp on the tabletop indeed.

My Escalation League Army Build up

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!"

"SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!"

I enjoy themed armies like crazy. Always looking for the next theme to throw together. As you seen from elsewhere on my blog my last army was DeathWing. I'm working on an Elysian one next that will be all Airborne Assault even under the normal Codex.

So when The Gamers Realm started up an Escalation League I decided, hey it's time for another new Army. One that can be built and painted up as the League moves forward. With being one of the store owners it means I won't win any prizes, but I'm not really doing this for the prizes. I'm using it as motivation to get a fully painted themed army on the table.

So starting Sunday the 7th of March, we can start playing a modified Combat Patrol. 500 Points, 1 Troop Choice minimum, 0-1 HQ choice. With this in mind I went out and did some purchasing. I picked up two box sets of Khorne Berzerkers, 1 Chaos Rhino, I had 1 Loyalist Rhino I'll convert, and then picked up some ForgeWorld ChainAxes. One of the things I don't like about the Berzerker box set is the lack of ChainAxes. I mean come on, that's the iconic weapon of choice for them.


So off I went and cleaned, filed, cut, clip, etc 8 Berzerkers out. I'm keeping my squads at 8 since that's the Sacred Number for Khorne. The nice thing about 2 boxes of Berzerkers is I can build 3 squads of 8. I need to figure out my Skull Champions weapon choices, but to start out I'm just keeping him base.

Here's one of my standard Berzerkers. ChainAxe is from ForgeWorld, everything else is standard from the box set. I do have to say I really liked the box set overall. It has some decent options and additional bits for your Berzerkers, like the Plasma Pistol and such. I couldn't find a good place to attach the additional Frag Grenades though. Ah well

Below is my plasma pistol Berzerker. He looks righteous enough ;). I intend to get these guys painted up and ready for Sunday. I'm going with a mixture of Reaper Master Paints and Vallejo Game Colors. Going to try out the game color washes as well.

I hope to get the one squad and rhino painted up this week, and the second squad and Rhino Assembled and primed by Sunday. My goal is to have the initial 500 points painted completely before we jump up to the 700 point mark. At that point I'll have a core Troop selection set and ready for any point size game.

And just so you all know, yes the theme is Khorne. Expect to see a lot of Red on this site and on the table. ;) Below is the squad and converted Loyalist Rhino. I got them all primed white last night and touched up this morning.

Yes I went with white as to a) pick out all the detail on the minis and b) easier to build up the red on. I want these mini's to "shine" with the color red. So I want it nice and bright on the minis. Should be interesting to say the least.

Tonight will see base coats on at least the Rhino and the Berzerkers. I'm thinking that I might place an order to ForgeWorld here soon and get some Rhino Doors and possibly the conversion packs for the World Eaters, both normal squads and terminators. Maybe pick up some Brass Etched Khorne Icons as well, although those can be easily made with green stuff.

Here is my assembled first squad:

So stay tuned and we'll walk this road together. Maybe see me fail, maybe see a kick ass themed army come to fruition, or possibly just a neat escalation army.