From Bits to Behemoth: My Recent Warhammer Projects

"Last Orktober, a massive greenskin horde descended upon the desert planet of Kitchen-Tablus II. The Blood Ravens fought valiantly in the opening days of the assault, but with each passing day, it became more apparent they were in dire need of reinforcements."

The Battle for Kitchen-Tablus II

Welcome back to the dark gates of the Obsidian Tower!

Today, I thought I’d pull back the curtain on what I’ve been working on lately. Over the past few months, I’ve gone all-in on 3D printing, and I’m excited to show off some of the results.

The power of a forge world, in the palm of my hand...

I’ve always wanted to build some magnetized Dreadnought arms to swap out weapon options and breathe new life into one of my favorite units. Back in 5th Edition, the "Rifleman Dreadnought"—with its dual autocannons—was a classic. But I never justified ordering the Forge World parts. At the time, Marines were my priority, and the poor Dreadnought arms were sidelined... for years.

I call this the Helldivers Loadout now lol

My first attempt at printing went great, so I rushed to paint up the parts and finally gave my Blood Ravens their long-awaited fire support. Watching those autocannons click into place after all this time was incredibly satisfying.

Ready to fight some Terminids

Rifleman Dreadnought

After the Dreadnought, I turned my attention to the Ultramarines. I’ve always wanted a Whirlwind—something about its chunky silhouette and indirect firepower really appeals to me. Naturally, the Marines were getting all the new toys (as usual), so I figured it was time to balance the scales...

Before

After

A friend brought over his old collection, and buried in the bits box I found a single Ork. I gave him a quick paint job and added him to the green tide. 

"Right 'ere Boss!"

But what really caught my eye were the Tyranids. A lot of them were missing pieces—but with the printer humming and resin flowing, that wasn’t a problem for long.

Resin a flowin', resin a flowin', resin a flowin'...

I debated for a while on what paint scheme to use. I even polled my friends on Discord for ideas. After some back-and-forth, I landed on Hive Fleet Behemoth. It just felt right, especially since I already have a solid Ultramarine force. The thought of recreating Battle for Macragge-style missions was too tempting to pass up.

That's the last time I ask the audience...

To cap it off, I even started designing a 3D model of the old fusion core terrain piece from the box set—hoping to bring that nostalgic battlefield to life.

3D Model

Varras with the Core!

500 points of old school Tyranids.

This project also gave me my first serious go at the new Contrast paints. I enjoyed using them—they give rich, vivid coverage—but they’re no substitute for a good airbrush. Still, they’re a great tool for fast, dynamic shading. Once the ’nids were done, I circled back to a long-delayed goal: painting my Space Marine Heroes. I finally finished them. They might be my favorite Ultramarine squad now. They’ve got so much personality in their sculpts, and they look great on the table.

Heroes!

Side arm action!

Love these dynamic poses!

Ha ha, he has a robot arm...

Had to do some finger surgery to this guy...

I also dusted off some Servitors that had been sitting in my paint queue since what feels like the Horus Heresy. Even I need a break from power armor once in a while!

Servitors

To bring things fully up to date, I just wrapped up my custom take on Jonah Orion of the Blood Ravens.

Jonah squishing some bugs...

He’s been a fun project. You won't believe what psycic power he's about to cast on these Tyranids though...

Uhh, stop the what now?

All jokes aside, that’s a wrap on the last few months of hobbying. Until next time—grab a brush and get painting!

"Smells like victory"

ORK-TOBER SURPRISE!!!

Welcome back to Obsidian Tower, I thought I'd post today about my Orks since they haven't had a moment in the spotlight yet.

WAAAGH!

    I haven't collected Orks very seriously in my hobby career, and even considered selling them off at one point. Because of this, the paint jobs they have received have been a mishmash of varying levels of quality. I have always enjoyed the chaotic nature of Orks, and I feel that this concept has unwittingly worked its way into how my Orks are now represented in paint. When I look at my Ork collection I see some I painted at the beginning of my hobby journey. My wife painted a couple, my best friend's older brother painted a couple when he was younger than I am now, and even my friend Zac painted a couple when I tried to pawn them off on him. Eventually, they found their way back to me and I finally decided it was time to finish them off once and for all. It was time they were finished since they had been half-painted for over a decade. So lets take a look at some pictures!

Da Boss!

Nobz!

Looted Wagon

Deffkoptas

     Now that I am looking at them finished, I realize I can finally play a starter game of 5th edition! Better late than never I guess...

Blood Ravens Progress Report

 Welcome back to the Obsidian Tower! The Blood Ravens are very nearly complete, and I'm very excited to post some pictures for your viewing enjoyment!

The Blood Ravens!

I just love to look at them when they're all set up rank and file. Unfortunately, my phone can't seem to grab the whole army in all its splendor in the quality I would like so I had to take a few close-ups...

"I fear no evil, for I am fear incarnate." — Gabriel Angelos

My aim for this army is that I would use more old-school metal models wherever & whenever I could to give it a more retro 3rd-5th edition look.

Terminator Chaplain & Scouts

The theme here is 5th Company Blood Ravens with a special emphasis on color pattern reference from the Dawn of War series game assets.

The Dreadnought

I love that this army includes so many older models. The Terminators and Dreadnought look great together. The Devastator squad can be fully kitted out with either four Rocket Launchers or four Multi-meltas. I had a lot of leftover heavy weapons lying around lol.

The Bulwark

These guys cleaned up nicely! They went from some of my least favorite models to my most favorite, it's great what a new coat of paint can do!

I'm quite happy with the base here

The Dreadnought was an eBay rescue model I got a pretty good deal on. It was covered in black and blue paint from a chapter I'm sure was annihilated in a great crusade.

A couple of pylons I grabbed off eBay

Well, I only have a few more models to paint before the Blood Ravens are officially finished.

• Chaplain
• Terminator Captain
• Terminator Librarian

I wanted to have all the options for command available to the Blood Ravens because I'm a nerd like that I guess. Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned for more to come!

Buttermilk Bob's Machiavellian tactics

ULTRA-sonic cleaning

 

Welcome back to the Obsidian Tower. Last time I alluded to the acquisition of an ULTRA-sonic cleaner. Well, today we're taking a look at what I've been doing with it.

Kill me brother!

So I had some crusty old space marines in my collection that were looking very rough. I didn't really like looking at them and I decided something needed to change. I knew I wanted to re-paint them but painting them blue again just didn't seem like the right move.

Powerful stuff...

Since I had just completed my collection of 5th edition codexes, I wanted to try and paint up a chapter that could plausibly be played as more than just "codex marines". I've always liked the Blood Angels but I didn't want to do another headline chapter. No, this time I wanted to try something else. A different flavor of "blood" marines.

Here they come!

As much as I like that the flesh tearers also weren't too fond of Primaris at first, I decided they were a little bit too morally ambiguous. Then I remembered, I already painted a blood raven for fun, and I love Dawn of War.

Had to upgrade to the 'new' base size

Now that I knew what chapter I wanted to paint, I grabbed my crusty old Ultramarines and gave them an Ultra-cleaning in the Ultrasonic scrubber.

We're charging into the Ultrasonic cleaner!

These guys were rough. Their arms were mismatched and they still had two layers of paint from the failed simple green soak six years ago. This time, they were gonna get... super clean.

Obligatory Hobby Station Pic

The super clean sonic bath did the trick and these guys were as close to new as they could possibly get. I took my time trying out some different basing styles before I decided on what I wanted to go with. I liked the look the corkboard gave my chaos marines and I wanted to bring that over to the loyalists.

AAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

This sergeant was a special paint job because he reminded me of the meme of that guy screaming in the dawn of war 1 intro.

Freehand Detail

Had to flex the freehand on this guy. He's the squad leader after all...

Blood Raven Tactical Squad

And here is the final result. Ten tactical marines painted up like Blood Ravens. This force isn't as big as the Ultramarine force. When it is completed it will be composed of: 

• Captain ✓
• Chaplain
• Librarian ✓
• Terminator Captain
• Terminator Chaplain ✓
• Terminator Librarian
• 5 man Terminator Squad ✓
• Dreadnought ✓
• 2x 10 man Tactical Squad ✓
• 5 man Scout Squad ✓
• Scout Speeder ✓
• 10 man Devastator Squad ✓

So as you can see it still has a ways to go. The Terminator squad and chaplain are almost done but you will have to wait till next time to see them. Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope to have more to show soon.

Buttermilk Bob embraces Nurgle

Hobby Update + Brushes & Paint Rant

    Welcome back to Obsidian Tower, the most exclusive hobby blog delivered directly into your eyeballs via microwaves from space!

Gallery

Well, I think I'll start the post off with dessert first. Let's take a look at the most recent paint jobs.

Chaos Terminator Lord

Chaos Terminator Sorcerer

Chaos Lord (Magnetized)

Sternguard Veterans

Hobby Work

    I put a little time into my guys who were already painted as well. I wanted them to have some more quality features.

Magnetized weapon options

Larger base for this top heavy metal guy.

Sonic Cleaner

    I have recently acquired an affordable ultrasonic cleaner (great for Ultramarines), which I have been using to strip down some of the less desirable marines in my collection - those I do not take pictures of. The progress I have made so far has been steady, and I must say that I am impressed with the results.

5th Edition Codex Collection

    After many hours on eBay, I have finally succeeded in completing my collection of 5th edition army books. I find myself deeply enamored with the pictures and rich lore woven throughout these books, which is why this particular edition of the game holds a special place in my heart. It brings me great joy and satisfaction to have obtained them all.

Brushes

    Do brush packs grind your gears as much as they grind mine? It seems like 90% of the brushes included are either too small, too large, or have some other useless quality, like bristles that are too long. I mean, who really needs a giant brush anyway? When I get a brush pack, I find that most of the extra brushes just accumulate into a collection of junk.

Wash brush, a Stick, a shiddy brush, a regular brush, and a dry brush

This is basically all I need to complete a project, but the most important brush of all isn't really a brush. It is something far greater and more powerful than a mere stick of wood with some hair at the end.

The MIGHTY airbrush

     This tool helps me achieve smooth basecoats quickly, and I honestly cannot recommend it enough. As for the paint, well, you can't use a brush without it, can you? So let's just say I have some thoughts on that too.

Paints

    Let's talk about paint. With so many options out there, it can be overwhelming to know what you actually need. Rest assured, I'll break it down for you in simple terms. There are two main types of paint: opaque and semi-opaque. Opaque paint is the best choice for achieving that coveted "two thin coats" of color. On the other hand, semi-opaque paint is perfect for adding those finishing touches, like panel lines, edge highlights, and layering up to a bright and vibrant coat of a specific color. So, unless you find yourself frequently doing those tasks, you can probably skip the semi-opaque paints altogether. Trust me, I speak from experience. My collection is chock-full of them, and I rarely use them.

   There are a few types of paint that I wouldn't purchase again. First up, dry paints. While they're marketed as great for dry brushing, I've found that you can achieve similar results with opaque paint. Frankly, they're redundant. I'd skip them altogether.

'Dry' Paint

    Next on the list is glaze paint. To be honest, I'm not even sure if they still sell this stuff. It may have been a prototype for contrast paint, but even then, I'm not sure what it's meant to do. I've tried it, and it just didn't make a significant impact on my workflow.

Glaze?

    Lastly, let's discuss shade/wash paint that isn't black or brown. While I have a few different colors of washes, I can count on one hand how many times I've used them. So, save your money and skip them altogether. Trust me, you won't miss them.

'Shade' Paint

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.