Grey Knights - Part Three - Dreadnought & Dreadknight & Paladins

Presenting the third instalment of my largely self-indulgent Grey Knight blog as I assemble and paint the army. If you have missed Part One and Part Two feel free to check them out and please feed back any thoughts! There's also a Part Four!

It's been a tough time out there in the real world as Covid-19 continues to cause problems. My office was permanently closed down and I am working from home which is a lot better than some people who have no job at all, or are forced to come in and expose themselves further to Covid. However, some might think that working from home presents more opportunity to 'hobby', but in reality it doesn't - I work in the same room as I use to hobby and after spending the best part of the day at the desk I really don't want to sit there any longer and paint, so progress on this army has slowed. Anyway...

As you may have seen from my last update I had completed the majority of my character miniatures and it was time to work on the rank and file... but that's boring... so I started with a Venerable Dreadnought that I had recently bought...

Elite - Venerable Dreadnought

Frustratingly it didn't come with a missile launcher arm, but a kind soul on Facebook took pity on me and sorted me out with a spare.

I wanted him to look truly venerable, so I added a little more gold than normal and added a purity seal. I also turned the (for want of a better description) 'loin cloth' banner in to a pennant for the laser cannon. I might still paint the tips of the laser cannons gold too... but I didn't want to over do it - I'll see how I feel. You may also notice I decided to go with a Terminator helm as opposed to the standard power armour helm, as I'm trying to make a non-power armour army and it fitted with the theme.

I also picked up a nice tip on a painting technique for exhaust ports and other repeatedly heated areas of metal. I think it looks quite nice. As you can see I've left some heraldry plates, purity seals and other more blank areas until I have mostly completed the army and then I will assign unit numbers by utilising some transfers and adding gothic writing etc... but I'm not confident with that yet.

Heavy Support - Nemesis Dreadknight

I don't own an airbrush, nor do I intend to buy one, mainly because of expense vs use calculation, but also frankly I don't have the space for it! Therefore it was a little trepidation that I moved on to the Nemesis Dreadknight. 

From a painting perspective I decided to differentiate the Ceramite metal of the Terminator armour to the Dreadknight exoskeleton itself. You may notice the Terminator still has a hint of blue to it thanks in part to the Grey Knight Steel and the Drakenhof Nightshade. Instead, the exoskeleton itself was just primed in Ledbelcher (well, the whole model was!) and then washed in Nuln Oil and dry brushed in Necron Compound. I did it quite roughly to give it a more battered/used look.

The Nemesis Greatsword really tested my recently acquired blending technique but I think it came out quite well, wet blending with Black Templar contrast, through a number of blue base paints and then edge highlighted with Skink Blue, lightly washed in Drakenhof Nightshade and then coated with 'Ardcoat to give a bit of a shine as a power weapon should have.

I used the same technique on the Dreadknight exhausts too.

And I added a heraldry plate depicting the Grey Knight (complete with Nemesis Force Sword) battling a demon of Chaos... filthy things in need of banishment.

Agents of the Imperium - Inquisitor Eisenhorn

I didn't have any Inquisitor models, and the Eisenhorn model looked so good I had to have one on stand by. Since my last update I put him together and gave him a paint job which I think came out well... not that you can really see from the photo as I feel it exposes lots of untidiness. He's only a small model so every brush stroke really stands out on a close up... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Eisenhorn - I'll have to find a suitable Daemon Host for him later!

Elites - Paladin Squad

As Grey Knight army collectors know, the standard box contains all the parts necessary to put together Paladins, Terminators, and some others like Apothecary and a Paladin Ancient. After having used a box to make the Apothecary and Paladin Ancient I used another box to make a 5 man unit of Paladins. They are distinct from 'normal' Terminators with their Paladin helms (more curved) and their shoulder mounted book emblems (behind their necks). I equipped them with Halberds, and the Paragon (squad leader) with a Nemesis Daemon Hammer (taking advantage of his 2+ WS countering the -1 to hit for the hammer). I found the blending on the Halberd weapons more tricky than the swords, and the hammer more so, but they seem to have come together nicely and I have clearly improved on the Halberds since my opening Brother Captain model. 

Like the Nemesis Dreadknight I used Balthasar Gold on the heavy weapon tips for both the Psilencer and Psycannons, with a little Retributor highlight and Agrax wash. 

These Paladins have a lot more seals and books and bits & bobs on them which means they will have been slower to paint than Terminators, so it was good to get them done and out of the way.

Troops - Terminator Squads

Having got the Paladins done I turned to the 10 man Terminator squad I put together from a combination of left overs from the two boxes used previously, a new box and some extras I bought off eBay. 

The 10 man Terminator squad could be split into Combat Units of 5. They were simpler/quicker to paint than the detail-heavy Paladins, but they came with their own extras... such as the robe on the Justicar squad leader...

...and the decapitated daemon head, but no heavy weapons to worry about.

I decided the Terminators, in order to further distinguish them from the Paladins, should carry Nemesis Force Swords instead of Halberds... they also look cooler as far as I'm concerned.

The Army... so far...

A quick video of my army all together;

What's next?

A friend of mine (as well as TrollTrader) supplied me with some old metal Terminators so they are certainly on the 'to do' list...

I like the old models (as well as the plastic ones!). I managed to add to what my friend gave me with some further purchases from TrollTrader so I now have two all-halberd squads and one sword-only squad. There is an Incinerator and Psilencer in there too, which aren't necessarily the best tactical choice, but they are what they are. They all probably need stripping and cleaning too, which I find is a horrible task!

Apart from those guys I did get myself a Landraider but we will have to see how that goes.

I also have an old metal assassin to include as an option as well.

In the meantime I have a long list of Blood Bowl teams still to paint and a Sisters of Battle army box that really needs to see the light of day, as well as a bunch of metal Aeldari that have been sat in paint stripper for far too long (and some existing Aeldari that just need properly finishing! So we'll have to see how far I get. Like most people reading this blog, I'm not short of a few projects in the queue!

Let me know about suggestions for the Grey Knight army, or any hints and tips you can share. I know we are all waiting patiently for our 9th edition Codex to drop, but sounds like it will be sometime in 2021 if we are lucky! Hopefully they won't change the army too much... new sculpts is fine, but I'm really hoping Grey Knights aren't replaced with Primaris any time soon! Would be horrible to have my newly painted army consigned to the 'legends' bin!

Thanks for reading!