I had a some time off work recently and had originally intended to work on some more Old World miniatures, before switching to some Uruk Hai. Somewhat inevitably though, I ended up doing neither.
Painting up Leetu (and reading Raldoron: Revenant) got me back in a bit of an Age of Darkness state of mind, but I wasn't really feeling the lure of more 28mm stuff and I wanted to paint something that I could try and get some games with.
I'd had some Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons kicking about in one of my project boxes for a wee while now, I can't remember if I'd hung onto them from when the Wrath of Angels box was released in 2021, or if I bought them later, but they'd been nice and simple to put together, I'd just never gotten round to slapping some paint on them.
After flicking back through the Aeronautica Imperialis Horus Heresy supplement, none of the 18 Legions were really leaping out at me, which kinda got me thinking about going with no Legion might actually give me more to work with in the long run and so I got to thinking about one of my favourite 'factions' in the Age of Darkness, the Blackshields.
An idea was beginning to coalesce, but it wasn't until I suddenly remembered a particular colour plate in The Horus Heresy volume VI: Retribution. I grabbed my copy off the bookshelf and furiously thumbed through the pages until I found what I was looking for. Next, I dug out my Blackshields transfer sheet and after some quick referencing back and forth, I had a plan - my aerial assets would hail from the Dark Brotherhood, a formidable force of Blackshield Astartes that formed around a warrior known as the Nemean Reaver and carved out a corsair empire on the edge of the Pale Stars region, to the galactic south of The Maelstrom during the early years of the 31st millennium.
Using the colour plate of the Nemean Reaver's Storm Eagle in Retribution I was able to plan out how to paint the Xiphons to give me a squadron leader and his two wingmen with sufficiently fitting markings to be able to distinguish them on the tabletop.
Once the Xiphons were nearing completion (and having made sure to take notes of the paint recipes), I ordered a box of Storm Eagles which went together just as easily the Aeronautica/Legions Imperials kits really are beautifully engineered.
I planned to paint one as the Nemean Reaver's personal transport at the Optera Conclave while the other would ferry Astartes of lesser status in the Dark Brotherhood and so not carry the bone accents or lion skull heraldry associated with the Nemean. I wasn't aiming for a full 1:1 reproduction of the colour plate, more like hitting the key notes and I'm satisfied that I've managed to capture the essence of the artwork sufficiently well for the scale of the miniature.
In terms of painting, the recipes are fairly simple, though there are a couple of stages that are a little time consuming.
After priming the models black and giving them a few thinned down layers of Abaddon Black to make sure there was a consistent basecoat, I painted the canopies with Khorne Red and the bone coloured ares Rakarth Flesh.
Once that was done, I added the various decals across the miniatures and then once those were cured and varnished, I set about some drybrushing to begin setting up the wear and tear I wanted to suggest had been accrued. An initial pass of Leadbelcher was followed with one of Iron Hands Steel for a little tonal variation, before a final light drybrush of Ironbreaker went on. Then it was time for time consuming stage number one: refining the chipping and scratches across all of the armour panels with Ironbreaker as well as using some thinned down Abaddon Black to tidy up any areas that had been hit too heavily with the drybrushing.
With the aircraft looking suitably scuffed up, it was time to add some grime and with it some better definition to all of the details using thinned down Doombull Brown. This is time consuming stage number two as it's not a wash, but rather panel lining all of the recesses so that I could focus where the grime was accumulated.
After that, I picked out details like the engine intakes, thruster cones, landing claws and weapons with Iron Warriors and then shaded them all with Nuln Oil. The thruster cones then got a wash of Agrax Earth before the 'rearmost' third was glazed a couple of times with Druchii Violet where the heatwash from the engines has discoloured the metals.
The various lights and sensors across the aircraft were picked out with reds, greens and blues. Because I'm a huge nerd, each aircraft has port and starboard navigation lights. After all, you don't want your aerial assets to be crashing into one another, even in the Age of Darkness!
The heavy bolters and lascannons were painted in the same way that I did the weapons on the epic scale
Malcador, Dracosan and
Leman Russ that I painted earlier this year.
Once everything else was done, I tidied up the canopy glass with some Khorne Red before shading it with Carroberg Crimson. I then layered them up with Khorne Red, then Wazzdakka Red before moving on to highlights of Squig Orange and Cadian Fleshtone. A wee dot of Pallid Wych Flesh in the uppermost corner finished off the highlights before I applied a glaze of Carroberg Crimson over the glass to help tie all of the red tones together. I followed this up with a glaze of Druchii Violet in the darker area of the glass before carefully painting Nuln Oil into the recesses between the glass and canopy frame to add a bit more definition. And with that, they were complete.
Between the three Xiphons, two Storm Eagles and the Legio Custodes Ares Gunship I painted back in March I now have a pretty decent squadron to draw upon for games of Aeronautica Imperialis though I do have a Thunderhawk I plan on painting up as well - it's probably the quintessential Astartes aircraft so I feel I'd be missing out if I didn't add it to the squadron, but after that I think I'm all set - though I have been toying with the idea of acquiring some Tarantula and Araknae weapons platforms to use as ground assets but there's no rush for that. Oh and if a Sokar pattern Stormbird is someday released in epic scale, I'd probably want to add one of those...
For the time being though, as always, thanks for reading and happy hobbying.
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