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I started painting Custodes a couple of years back, but got sidetracked with other projects and never finished them. So now I’m back, repainting and touching up where necessary, but all of them are getting their bases redone.

The first batch was a 1k list I used at my regular gaming group last week, and each new batch will be based around another new list, until such time as I’ve rebased all my existing models.

Some new stuff will be added in time, as Custodes got lots of fancy new plastics recently and this army is a few years old.

This batch is:
- Shield Captain
- Aleya
- 5 Guard with Spears (the banner is from the old Sanguinary Guard)
- 5 Wardens with Axes (their banner is from the Grey Knight terminators)
- 3 Jetbikes with Missiles
- 10 Sisters with Flamers (their banner is from the Sisters of Battle kit. As are several of their heads)

I don’t like the idea of duplicating banners and icons so I’ve used a few sculpted banners from the marine range to make them all unique.

It’s been a while since I painted anything new for the Empire, but an upcoming campaign game made sense for him to appear in the narrative. It was nice to get back to the green and red of Hochland, so I might do a few other bits in the coming weeks.

I’ve finally painted my last Knight (for now) so thought to take a group shot of the whole army.

Back - Acheron, Porphyrion, Lancer, Castigator
Middle - Crusader, Castellan, Defender, Valiant, Errant
Front - Preceptor, Styrix, Paladin, Destrier, Gallant

There’s also 3 Warglaives, 3 Helverins, 2 Moirax, 20 Skitarii Vanguard, Skitarii Marshal, Tech-Priest Dominus, Tech-Priest Manipulus, Vindicare Assassin, Inquisitor and Agents

The knights are split into five lances represented by the icon and Roman numeral on their left shoulder. Each lance runs on a theme:

1st - anything that doesn’t fit into any of the others
2nd - flamer/melta primary weapon
3rd- all guns no melee
4th - all melee no guns
5th - mechanicum style armour.

My latest (and for now, last) Imperial Knight.

This was the version of him that came with our subscription to Warhammer+ when it first started.

I managed to pull together just about enough models to make a retinue for the Inquisitor I painted last week. I do need to find one more bloke with an eviscerator to finish it off.

Again I user the Blue/Red colour scheme to tie it into my Imperial Knights.

Most of the models are from the old Inquisitor Henchmen kits from 3rd edition, along with a sanctioned psyker from the imperial guard range, a copy of Sir Hektur (Having painted a fair few Knights I have a few copies of him) who I imagine acts as a go-between the Inquisitor and the Knight House.
The last model is from the Genestealer Cults range, his head replaced with a Skitarii Rangers head. I just think it’s a really nice model and a holo table is something an Inquisitor would have access to.

I think I’m going to add a Chimera at some point so they don’t get shredded straight away, any infantry allied into knights will take disproportionate amounts of fire.

Over the weekend I managed to get the Lancer repaired and painted that was laying like scrap metal in the background of the Porphyrion post.

A fair amount of glue was used to get this back into a usable state, and luckily I also had some spare parts from building the Castigator to complete the repairs.

Again I apologise for the photo being on my desk but this model won’t fit in my light box!

Last week I managed to get a couple more of units completed for the Fyreslayers project.

Firstly, a Runefather on Magmadroth. It’s a pretty standard build, the only variation is that I didn’t give the Magmadroth a tongue. I don’t like the aesthetics with its tongue sticking out.

The Runeson on the other hand is heavily converted - the body and head are from a Vulkite Berzerker, the javelin from the Runeson components of the Magmadroth kit and the axe arm I believe is from an Old World Dwarf. The rock is an actual stone that I liberated from my garden.

Finally I did 10 Hearthguard Berzerkers. The rank and file are done as standard, but I converted the Karl up by filing the hand from the axe haft and his other arm is from the Vulkites kit. The shield is again from the Old World Dwarf range.

Those of you who have been following this series and my quest to paint up the entire Fyrelsayers catalogue will notice that this is the end of my quest. However, I still have a conversion to do using the rest of the Runeson parts from the Magmadroth kit as well as another unit of Hearthguard Berzerkers armed with the flails. I still plan at some point to also do Vulkites with Axes and Shields as then I’ll have a unit with every weapon load out (I will not be applying this policy to the Magmadroths - one was enough for me)

The latest addition to my Knight House is the Acastus-class Knight Porphyrion. This has taken me a while to get around to doing, as painting a model that heavy has proven difficult (I couldn’t hold it one handed and I didn’t fancy leaning it against the edge of my desk- that’s how bits end up snapping off)

The base is a 3D print I found on eBay that fits the GW base aesthetic but goes a lot larger than any of their range of oval bases. I wanted the model to fit in with the aesthetic of the rest of my army, even down to the base.

I apologise for my messy desk, unfortunately this model is too large to fit into my light box!

It’s been fun to do and I look forward to putting it onto the gaming table and reducing enemy tanks to smoking ruins.

I’ve painted up a small force of Mechanicus as allies for my Imperial Knights as part of the Questor Forgepact detachment.

The two Tech-Priests and the Skitarii Marshal are straight out of the box, however I did make some Vanguard using models from the Genestealer Cults range, with Vanguard guns and heads.

Having done these allies, my mind is now wandering towards what other allied forces I could add to my Knights.

Ive been mostly distracted by painting AMech allies for my Imperial Knights this week so not had much time to get any Fyreslayers done. I did manage the Underworlds warband - The Chosen Axes though.

There’s nothing fancy about them, they’re straight out of the box.

As a break from painting Fyreslayers, I’ve painted up a copy of the White Dwarf model they released for the 500th issue of the magazine.

Oddly the base turned out to be the challenging part - so many broken weapons and shields from different armies that I had to think about colours for.

The colour scheme is a fairly traditional scheme, I didn’t want to push the boat out too far. The base was kept the standard grey I’ve done for the Fyreslayers as a way to unify the model with the rest of the army.

Over the weekend I managed to paint up another batch of Fyreslayers. This week is a Grimwrath Berserker and the Vulkyn Flameseekers

I did change the bases for the Flameseekers by putting all of them on 32mm bases to make them aesthetically the same as every other Fyreslayer models. I also chose to arm them with the Bokaz shovel-spears to make the unit a bit more unique. Fyreslayers have no shortage of units swinging big axes.

The final unit in this phase is Vulkites with shields and axes, however in waiting for some bitz to get shipped so that might be a while before we see them. To keep up the momentum I’m going to dive into the third phase of this project - the royal family and their retainers.

My offering to you this week is another unit of Vulkite Berzerkers, though this time armed with oversized axes in either hand.

The character of the week was a conversion piece I build a while ago but never finished. The body is a Dwarf Blood Bowl referee, with his arm replaced with one from the Vulkites kit. When I saw the model with the huge book on his back, I knew I wanted to do something with that model to represent a dwarf carrying around the Book of Grudges (for efficient recording of scores being settled). In reality I’ll probably use him as a Battlesmith. Nothing invigorates a dwarf quite like knowing there’s grudges to be settled, and a clans book is one of its greatest artefacts.

The army is fleshing out nicely, and a good number of units (or more specifically characters, seeing how Hero heavy the Fyreslayers are) are now done.

The latest addition to my knight house is the preceptor, I wanted him to have a more sinister vibe than usual, with a lot of aesthetics taken from marine chaplains.

The Moirax is a conversion - the Grav Cannon is the back half of the normal melta with the barrel from the AdMech Kataphrons Grav gun. The claw arm is from the HH contemptor dreadnought kit.

Please see my latest pyromaniac dwarfs for your amusement and entertainment.

I’ve now started on the common soldiery of the army, starting with ten Vulkites with Picks and Shields.

The Fyreslayers range is so character heavy I’m painting them in between units to break up the project (and I reckon I’ll run out of units before I have all the characters done)

I haven’t had as much time for painting this week as I would have liked, however I did manage to get Gotrek finished.

I will confess this one was a bit easier as he’d been painted up ages ago, all I had to do was his base to match the Fyreslayers I’ve been painting recently.

Managed two more Fyreslayers over the weekend. Brakki of the Gilded Key limited run model that I managed to get on eBay and a Battlesmith.

Brakki finishes off my first phase of all the priestly associated units.

The Battlesmith starts off the general warriors of the lodge phase so expect to see Vulkites, Grimwraths etc. over the coming weeks. As this has a larger body of models in it I can’t see me blazing through painting them at the same speed I did the Zharrgrim.

Two knights I’ve painted over the weekend. The shiny new Destrier - which I did not enjoy building and a FW Styrix. It’s the first resin knight I’ve done. Tested the limits of the light box trying to fit them in.

The latest batch of Fyreslayers continues the priestly theme of my last post. A Runesmiter, Flamekeeper and their Auric Heartguard security team.

I’ve also grouped the Battleforge in with the priesthood as they’ve traditionally been the ones to benefit from its presence.

I now just need Brekki of the Gilded Key to complete the priests section.

As this is a painting project and not a gaming one (though I will be using them on the table at some point) I’ve split the project into three sections - The Royal Family, The Priesthood and the common soldiers as a way to break down the models range into manageable chunks.