Diesel DM

As soon as the low rumble began, followed by the mechanical, almost bestial grunt, the kapitan knew they had awakened the Savage. Leaving his breakfast tray on the table, he stepped outside to see the Butcher walking across the camp, his new Beast loping behind him. Even without the backstory on these two, it was a terrifying sight.
The rest of the Kommander’s force waited at the edge of camp, ready for it’s first patrol to the excavation site. A Kodiak and a Spriggan would round out the Kommander’s battlegroup. A squad of six Doom Reavers with a Greylord Escort and a Greylord Ternion rounded out the force. The kapitan refused to believe even four Greylords could hope to contain the Butcher if he lost control. The Convenant, of course, assured him his fears were misplaced.
Kommander Zoktavir did not stop to give orders, he and the Savage didn’t even break stride, they headed out of the camp, to the Orgoth ruins. The ‘jacks immediately began marching behind the Butcher, while the others quickly fell in tow.

Atop the ruins, the kapitan stood surveying the surrounding forest. It had been weeks since Zoktavir’s arrival and the patrols yielded no battles. While excavation of the ruins continued steadily, the Kommander’s sanity seemed to be eroding. Increasingly he disappeared in the middle of the night, sometimes missing entire patrol shifts the following day.
Evening had come and the forest began to darken, nearly time to head back to camp for the night. The Kommander’s ‘jacks were spread out, keeping watching on the southern and western edges of the clearing. Zoktavir typically paced between them, but he had stopped at the south-western corner, near the Kodiak. Both were staring into the deepening darkness. The Savage let out a mechanical snort, like an agitated bull.
Out of the darkened forest came dozens of Cryxian bonejacks, with larger helljacks following in their wake. As the first of the bonejacks came into the clearing, the Kodiak landed two brutal punches against it before heaving it into one of the advancing helljacks. Lola was making short work of the small ‘jacks, cleaving them nearly in half. The Spriggan and the Beast also found themselves battling waves of ‘jacks at opposite corners of the site. The Doom Reavers were easily cutting down the jacks that made it past the edge of the camp, the Greylord Escort keeping a tight leash on them. The Ternion stayed further back, using their powers to slow down and in some cases immobilize the larger helljacks.
Once the heavy Khadoran ‘jacks were fully engaged, thralls began skittering out of the first. The kapitan pulled his rifle to his shoulder and began taking shots at them, working his way down the ruin, closer to Kommand Zoktavir.

Fifth Border Legion Kodiak

Got the Kodiak wrapped up last night, he came out great.  While I of course continued with the FBL color scheme, I did stray a bit from the studio version, adding some red and swapping some red for black.   My favorite part is the black plate on top with the FBL logo.  Very eye-catching to have a splash of yellow behind the red ‘5’.

Left side, good contrast on the shoulder

This was a pretty straight forward model to paint, nothing too tricky.  A lot of metal rivets to hit at the end, but I do love the final detail work, definitely one of my favorite parts of painting.  I tried to go fairly bold with my red contrasts, getting it from dark purple to a bright orange, then glazing it with a lot of red.

Rear view – a lot of metal

The back was a lot of silver metals.  I decided to add some brass color to it with the boiler handle, grill and some bits on the lower half.  Needed to break up the monotony there.  Standard quick basing again with grit, patches of snow and some Army Painter Winter Tufts.  Really keeps the army tied together.

Right side, Khador logo

Seeing the right side again I think I may go back and hit the brass around the Khador shoulder logo with some gold instead.  The brass is a bit lost on that red.  You can see the black highlighting on the fist plates a bit better here.  The blending came out pretty smooth, which is always a challenge with the lighter colors.

I also got a good chunk of the Greylords (both the Ternion and the Reaver UA) done, so I feel like I’m back on schedule to maybe finish this thing on time.