#maydur

Just some friendly Adeptus. Nothing to see here. Move along, citizen.

group shot came out a bit shadowy. appropriate.

I got into Warhammer in the late 90s. Like many of us from that era, I spent a percentage of my limited resources poring over White Dwarf each month. Many of those images and articles are burned into my memory, taking up space that I could otherwise use to learn Russian or Korean, develop project management skills, or figure out how to join gaming groups in my thirties.

Probably worth it, to be fair.

White Dwarf #224, August 1998, p.53.
Image © Games Workshop. Used without permission.

One of the images that I always vaguely remembered was Ed Spettigue's (mostly) Tallarn Imperial Guard army from White Dwarf #224. He'd gone with a striking white-and-bone scheme, including on his Sisters of Battle, assassins, and the Mordian Iron Guard he used for heavy weapons. It was cool as hell.

When it came to painting the handful of metal assassins I'd somehow acquired, I was stuck on a painting scheme. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to base them to match my Mantis Warriors, or the industrial setting of the Death Guard, or maybe do some generic basing - maybe even do something weird, like spaceship tiles or something. I then remembered Spettigue's Tallarn, and some thing clicked into place.

While my collection of White Dwarfs was apparently stolen from my father's garage a few years ago, that's not as much of a problem in the age of the internet as you might think, and I was able to dig up a copy. I took a slightly different approach, but am still pleased to have a pack of assassins that aren't the usual black-on-black.

is there anything he vindican't?

The Vindicare was the first test subject, and he's come out okay. I definitely got more confident with the way I was applying highlights as I went on, and I got bored while doing the blacks for his webbing and weapons. He's alright.

Ironically, he's probably the most useful of the four assassins in the actual game of Warhammer 40,000, but so it goes.

The Callidus was really fun to paint. Everything just came together easily for me, mostly because I decided not to do all her webbing and guns that boring black. They're instead one of the Contrast paints (one of the Fleshs, I think) over the Zandri Dust basecoat.

Her weapons are in green to tie them into Necrons as, after all, the phase sword is made of a C'Tan fragment.

yes, you

 Fun fact: I don't care for Culexus assassins. I'm not a huge fan of the fluff, which is awkward in several ways, and the models aren't great. Which is weird, because a skinny assassin with a giant deformed skull head is totally my jam.

Anyway, I did actually have a blast painting this model despite my ambivalence. It's a great sculpt and has lots of fun details without being too much. It's shame I was going for such a limited palette on these, as the details on the helmet's long... bit would really lend themselves well to clashing neon colours for a cool cyberpunk look.

All the wiring is done in the same dull yellows to emphasise that the assassin might be a nightmarish creation of forbidden science and child mutilation, but it still needs the boring details of electrical wiring in order to power itself. It's that clash of the psychotic grimdark aesthetic with the terribly mundane that can make Warhammer 40,000 such a compelling setting.

My favourite part of this sculpt was when I decided to leave a bit of flash on the model between his grinning skull teeth, which I then painted like a lit cigar. A Culexus might be a creature bred to murder, his personality mostly washed away in chemicals and brainwashing, but this one likes a smoke.

Of course, if we want to talk about psychotic murder machines without personalities or drives beyond KILL KILL KILL

Sorry about that. For the Eversor, I wanted to steer back away from the stealthy desert look of the other assassins, as the Eversor Clade doesn't give a shit about hiding. They're there to kill you, your officers, and as many of your stupid fucking men as they can lay their Neuro Gauntlet into. If you see them coming, that's fine. Run, if it makes you feel better.

I still wanted to keep to my relatively limited palette though, so I just went with white for his armour. For the freshly-peeled look on his skull helmet, I painted it using the same white formula as the armour and then layered on about seven layers of Blood for the Blood God. Not subtle.

One of these things is not like the others! This chap was released in 1989 as an Imperial Assassin, and predates the Assassin Clades background material. I suppose you could use him as an Eversor in Modernhammer if you squint - he has a sword, a gauntlet and a combi-pistol.

This was the last of three I painted, and you can see that I'm clearly more comfortable with the formula I'm using. His synthskin suit is a bit darker, and I've treated a lot of his detail as a sort of armoured oversuit, which is come up in bone. You can even see his face, which hopefully stands out against his pale gear.

The sculpt is a real pleasure to paint and comes together very easily. This was the one I was most anxious about, as the 'black ninja bodysuit' look is clearly what he was intended for (down to his sandals), so I had no roadmap for the sandy desert look.

Remiare - Tech-Priest Assassin by John Blanche
Image © Games Workshop. Used without permission.

That's the team! I joked that this could make for a new themed month - we have '#deadcember' and #orctober', so why not '#maydur'. Alas, these are all the assassins that I have in my collection. Someone else will have to take up the challenge.