"Like All Of Khorne's Creatures They Are Formidable And Ferocious Warriors..."

"...Among the deadliest in the galaxy with savage ferocity and... strength far out of proportion to their body mass."

These five plastic 6mm scale Bloodletters were made by "Games Workshop" for their now long Out Of Production (OOP) tabletop wargame "Epic", and are part of a small tub of second-hand lesser daemons of Khorne I managed to stumble upon whilst picking my way through the numerous stalls at this year's "Colours" at Newbury. Originally I had hoped to paint enough of these tiny figures to use with "NetEpic Gold", but having scoured the various other 'downloadable' rule-sets available, and seen that they all require some outrageously expensive old miniatures for my Khorne Army to be 'legal', I'll probably now end up using them with a homemade rule-set; especially as I've since discovered my purchase contains a healthy mix of "Space Marine - Second Edition" and "Epic" Bloodletter figures, and ideally I'd like to field both together.

The diminutive models were all originally super-glued to a thin strip of wood, and primed using two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Red. They were then washed using "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red. I subsequently 'picked out' their loincloths and horns with some Black and applied a layer of Heavy Sienna to their Hellblades. Lastly, I pigmented their hand-weapons using a combination of "Vallejo" Brass and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, finished the blades off with a delicate dry-brush of more "Vallejo" Brass, and assembled them upon a small "Flames Of War" rectangular stand by "Battlefront Miniatures".

"The Ion Age" WIP - The Adder Combat Car has been completely base-layered

Setting aside this enjoyable, if not a little eye-straining distraction, I have been busy progressing some additional miniatures from my slowly dwindling "The Ion Age" collection, most notably a second of the company's 15mm scale Adder Combat Cars. Unlike the first of these four wheeled light vehicles I've previously painted, I actually left the resin model off of its base until I'd finished painting its underbelly, and resultantly it's proved far less frustrating an experience.

In addition, I thought I might try and 'pick out' a few more of the sculpt's details than its predecessor, such as its hatch, and somewhat break-up its all-light grey monotony. However, although I've gone with another recognisable 'military colour', I'm not convinced (Russian) green is really the right colour to complement the grey, and may change it for something colder, like blue. That way, I might then later paint some more of my Muster First Patrol miniatures and their accompanying vehicles with a green and tan palette in order to replicate that of the Cadian Imperial Guard Shock Troops in "Warhammer 40,000".

"The Ion Age" WIPs - The Noble of Prydia has been primed and is starting to have his detail 'picked out'

Finally, I have started painting one of "The Ion Age" 28mm Nobles of Prydia to use as a proxy for Horus Lupercal; "the most favoured son of the Emperor of Mankind, and ultimately, the greatest Traitor in the history of Mankind." I've long fancied using this particular miniature to represent the fearsome Primarch, even though his great size when compared to the Prydian Army's 15mm knights bears little resemblance to the real ratio between the Warmaster and his early 31st Millennium space marines.

However, on the tabletop that should mean Horus will really dominate his force, and the sheer amount of wonderful detail on these larger models means I'm very willing to suspend my disbelief for the duration of a battle or two. Indeed, I plan to buy a few of these Marcher Barons in order to help populate my "Horus Heresy" themed tabletop with the various favoured sons of the Emperor of Mankind...