***EDITED FIRST POST***
(Original first post in spoilers at the bottom of the new post)
Welcome to my blog. I'm primarily an Ultramarine guy, with a dash of Eldar and Tyranids. I've been playing since the RT era, so there will be a mix of old and new stuff worked on here. I started this blog when I sold the last of my MtG cards and re-booted my Eldar army. Due to some problems, that got sidetracked, so most of the actual progress in here will focus on my Ultras. If you have any questions about anything you see, or want close ups or alternate angle shots of anything, let me know.
One of the major goals of this blog is to try to keep myself motivated, on track, and focused. I will endeavor to paint at least one model a week and post a status update on a weekly basis as well. I’m going to use the first post here like a notepad, to track my progress on a number of things.
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 7/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 15/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 50/20
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 1/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. 7/8
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Paint models to be able to field the SM/Nid combat patrols. 5/14 bonus spearhead
I've been meaning to start a blog for a while, but didn't really have any projects, just a few odds and ends. The problem was lack of funds. That is going to change. I finally decided to sell the last of my MtG cards on consignment at my FLGS, and take the proceeds as store credit (I get the most value that way) As all the cards I had left were my alpha and beta cards, it should be enough to fund my hobby for a while. The fact that I'm taking store credit does limit my options. No 3rd party bits, no forgeworld, just the stuff he can get through normal distribution channels.
I have some ideas for my Ultramarines, but I'll get into those later.
Right now I want to talk about Eldar. I started collecting them as my second army back in 2nd edition. It was the falcon grav tank that drew me in. Once 3rd hit, I couldn't field anything resembling an army, so they got shelved. With the new codex coming out, and funds coming in, I think it's time to restart them.
Here's what I have:
16 guardians troopers
6 weapon crews w/ 4 platforms, assorted guns
4 warlock/farseer types
Jain Zar
Avatar
4 wraithguard
6 swooping hawks (inc. exarch)
4 warp spiders (inc. exarch)
One pile of wraithlord parts which don't like going together.
19 assorted harlequins
8 assorted old eldar trooper
2 falcons
1 viper
1 old bike
1 banshee, and some extra parts.
Some of these guys are going to be my first try in stripping old paint off of minis. A few of them just didn't fit in the 3rd ed. Eldar codex (the last I picked up), and I doubt will fit in the new one. I like the guy hefting a ML over his shoulder though, shame not to have a place for him.
I've got some ideas on how to build an army, but they have no basis in the rules. Swift moving, hard hitting, everyone mounted in some sort of anti-grav vehicle or otherwise highly mobile.
HQ on bike
2 bike squads
1 guardian squad in a wave serpent
sniper squad (for camping home objective)
Aspect warriors in the falcons (Thinking dire avengers in one, fire dragons in the other)
Viper squads for support
warp spiders/swooping hawks for zipping around fun.
Obviously, points values, rules, and the FOC might have something to say about what actually gets on the table. Right now I'm just knocking the dust off the old stuff and hitting refresh on the rumor page. With a new codex, everything could change, but I'm curious if I'm completely off base on building an army like this. I would appreciate feedback form someone who's played Eldar more recently then 3rd edition...
Well that went quicker then I expected. Mark, the owner of my FLGS has already managed to move my cards. So now I have a budget to work with and some orders to place. Total budget is a hair over 2k. While my RT beakie marines are worth about what I paid for them, my alpha black lotus gained some value. I plan on saving a chunk of this for in the fall, when rumors say the new C:SM codex will drop.
This is what I have ordered so far:
Old Eldar Stuff:
Eldar Fire Dragons
Eldar Dire Avengers
Eldar Rangers
New Stuff (for when he can actually place a pre-order):
Eldar Codex
Farseer
Hemlock Wraithfighter
Windrider Jetbike Squadron - 2x
Illic Nightspear
Marine Stuff:
Space Marine Thunderfire Cannon
Dark Angels Battleforce
Space Marine Commander
Space Marine Command Squad
Citadel Northern Wastes Basing Kit
So now we get to the projects I have in mind. This should be in the first post, and I might edit it up there, but here it is for now.
Restart my Eldar.
--Learn how to strip paint, clean up old stuff.
--Buy new rules, add units to make a viable army.
--Construct a webway portal, either purely scenic, or as a skyshield landing pad.
--Base army with a grass/maiden world scheme.
Flesh out my Ultramarines.
--Add bike captain, and enough bikes to fill 2 troop picks.
--Add more sternguard, with weapon options I currently lack (HFs, more combis).
--Expand HQ options (counts-as Lysander, MotF w/bike/cbeamer/foot).
--Fill out army with new toys.
--Construct polar fortress display board.
--Base army in an arctic scheme.
Get some new cases, foam
--Figure out what I need, verify, place order.
Get better at photography
--Build a light box.
--Learn to use more features on my camera.
--Photograph and upload pics of my collection.
Write some tactica articles (not really P&M, but on my to-do list)
--I find I'm repeating myself a lot in advice posts, would be good to organize my thoughts and just point people to them.
OK, now that we have the list, we can start checking things off of it. First is the foam issue. I spent some time on KR's website and put together what I think I need. Spoilered to prevent wall of text.
Spoiler:
Kaiser3 transport bag including 3 cases with custom trays, $219.99
So all told, that should be
3 drop pods
5 rhinos
1 LR 1 pred
1 vindi
1 stormtalon
2 dreds
2 speeders
6 bikes
1 TFC (plus 3 bikes/servitors)
80 troops
Which should be enough for any random take-all-comers Ultramarine list I put together. While not everything on the shelf, it should be more then enough to go out and play. I might get a few more cases in the future, but need to pick up and paint a few minis I've had my eye on before getting more foam. I've sent an e-mail to the KR guys to make sure that will work. Once I hear back, I'll forward the list to my FLGS to order through them.
OK, I've rambled on long enough for one morning. Next up will be the plans for what to do with the marines once they arrive.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I just had a lightbulb moment. A few years ago my brother-in-law gave me a weird light up decoration thing called a Lumindisk. Desk art kinda stuff. As I have enough clutter as it is, It got tucked in a corner and forgotten about. Until today.
The webway portal is now open.
It is made to hang on a wall, so conveniently sits flat if you lie it on its back. The top of the disk will be 3" off the table, and measures 6" across. Works on either batteries or an AC adapter. I could probably mod the case to make it lower to the ground, but if I want a count-as skyshield, those things are pretty high up. Might need to hack it a bit anyway to move the switch to somewhere more convenient for play. Or just do something else to show the open/closed position of the portal and leave it on all game.
It doesn't take a farseer to tell what's in store for that old harlequin. Let's see if this is as easy as everyone says it is. If so, I've got a chunk of old minis that need a fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately, I'll have to decide if my old Blood Angels will retain their colors, or join the ranks of Ultramarines. They have nostalgia and inertia working for them, but have done nothing but collect dust for a few decades...
Victory. I was a little worried. There is a thread where people were saying that simple green changed formulas and didn't work as well anymore. But the jug I picked up worked just fine. Not sure what the old harli was primed with, I know I didn't spray back in those days. Time to dump a few more guys into the drink. And then figure out if I'm even going to be fielding them. Can't wait to get my hands on the new codex.
I've been working on some back projects while I wait for the new stuff. A friend asked me a while a go to paint up some stuff for his IG ally force. Been working on the lord commissar. Bad pic, I know...
Also working on painting up the old battle for mccrag tac squad. Not that I need more bolter marines (although they will replace a squad of 2nd ed monopose in the company) but I was going to use them as basing experiments once the supplies drop. I was thinking of painting them step by step in a row so I could have a "how to paint" lineup with all the stages. But it would probably be easier just to take pictures along the way.
3 boxes of jet bikes
fighter
farseer
fire dragons
Battleforce (new w/viper)
codex
I need to read the codex before I get too into this project, just to make sure I get the right weapon mounts I need. Of course, I'll be magnetizing the vehicles, but things like what gun to give the fire dragon exarch need to be chosen.
From a modeling POV I'm going to diverge from the stock models in a few ways. I already have 20 guardians, which is more then I think I'm going to need. So the squad in the battleforce is going to donate their torsos and heads to the guardian jet bikes, to keep a more uniform look in the army. Also the Viper gunner (probably)
One of the bikes is going to go to the farseer. Another I'm going to make an autarch, but at the moment I have no idea what gear to give him. He's probably going to be made from spare dire avenger bits. Once I read the rules and knock a few army lists around I'll settle on something.
Tappers wrote: Awesome! I bet you were a happy bunny when you left the shop. Like to see how much that all cost ya...
I try not to think about the costs. As I have a chunk of store credit from selling the last of my Magic cards, I regard this as found, guilt free money. There were some things that my FLGS was ordering from a different distributer that didn't come in, so I'm not sure exactly how much of my credit went "poof" today.
But I am quite happy.
Finished my initial read though of the codex. Need to digest it now and hash out a list.
The only thing I don't own for that is a fire prism, which I think I may just have to pick up. Not sure how I feel about the new longer barrel on the cannon. I liked the old stubby one. But it's built on the oh-so-sexy falcon chassis and is capable of vaporizing anything from hordes to hardened bunkers, so that's a win-win. All at a quite reasonable 125 points.
I might have to pick up some striking scorpions and warp spiders. They look quite nice from a play perspective, and don't look half bad. Of course, I own 3+1 old spiders, and the minimum size is 5. On the bright side, they are the same sculpts I picked up ~15 years ago, just in fine cast.
On the subject of fine cast, the fire dragons I picked up didn't have any obvious flaws. I haven't cut them off the sprues and cleaned them up in detail, but did open the box and gave them a quick inspection. Which they passed.
I have to say, after putting together the flying brick that is the stormtalon, this is one sleek, sexy bird. I'm not going to bother magnetizing it, but it would be simple to do if you wanted to. Swapping out the side wings might be a little rough if you wanted to do everything, but the weapons are in convenient recessed bays to hide everything. One nice thing about the kit is that they included a plug for the flight stand hole, incase you wanted to mount it using a different system. Not that I'm going to, but it's a nice touch.
I might use the seer head from the wraithfighter option for a warlock, we'll see.
Automatically Appended Next Post: On that topic:
If you cut the dangling runes off the front torso, you get a reasonably flat surface. There are a few gaps in the back that will have to be filled, but they are mostly hidden. The spear arm and flowing sleeve meshes well with the bike. We'll just assume that one of the many psychic powers he uses is one that keeps loose clothing from being sucked into air intakes. I'm not sure if I want to mod the other arm to hold the handle bars, or just use the outstretched casting hand that came with the farseer and assume he's steering with his knees at the moment of focusing his mind. It's not like he's a SM captain on a bike with a powerfist/lightning claw combo, where you wonder how he's keeping that bike moving.
If I do decide to keep a hand on the bike, it might just be easier to sheer off the sleeve on the mini, glue the standard biker arm on and greenstuff a new sleeve. Right now I've got stuff poster tacked together, so it's a little wibbly-wobbly. Once I glue the torso together it might be easier to get an idea of the angles and how much bending/carving it would take to keep the existing sleeve.
Nothing much going on, just cleaning a lot of mold lines. Weather has been either windy or rainy, so no painting going on yet. Hopefully it will clear up next week and I can get some stuff primed
Almost done with the wave serpent, and finished a rough pass over the fire dragons. It seems the places they use to shoot the resin into the molds are a lot blockier then metal. Lots of clean up and carveing little chunks away from the mini. Not something I noticed on the other two finecast models I've worked with in the past.
Finally got a nice day. Still a lot of clean up to do with the rest of the lot, but at least I can start painting something to break up the time spent with the files and hobby knife.
On closer inspection one of the fire dragons had some major bubbles in his thighs. Called GW and they said they'd get a new one in the mail to me. Still not sure what to give the exarch. Seems a waste to give him the flamer, but how many melta shots do you need from one unit? My FLGS is out of small magnets, but is going to get more in. Next time I'm up there hopefully I'll pick up some 1mm and 2mm magnets. I've got a stack of 3.2mm ones, but they are a bit large for arm work.
Also need the small ones for head swaps for the farseer/warlock on the bike.
Speaking of bikes, anyone have any good ideas on how to mount a shuirken cannon under one? I'm not fond of the idea of buying the kits from GW and I've got plenty of spare guns lying around.
And now for the down side of nice weather, I need to mow the lawn.
See all that primed stuff in the last post? Need to strip and re-do it all. I'm not sure if the weather was too dry, or I sprayed too far away, or got a bad can, but it's all grainy and powered. Sort of sucked all the wind out of my sails. So back to more assembling/cleaning or minis. Working on the dire avengers. There are enough spare parts to have the exarch's torso assembled separately, so with a quick magnetic swap, I should be able to go from a bare bones 5 man squad, to a slightly more robust 4+exarch.
I looks like the easiest way to get the new guardian torsos on the bikes is to reposition the handlebars. Still a work in progress.
Also in the news is a new supply drop of marines. I just finished putting together a TFC. I can see why people complained about it when it was metal. It was rough enough in finecast. I'd hate to have to clean one up for professional level work. The resin pour/sprue connect points were in some bad places. The tracks specifically had bits in corners it was impossible to get a knife into, but you could still see. I also used a hot/cold water setup to bend resin for the first time. It worked fairly well. I was able to get the bits close enough to what they were supposed to be that the superglue could do the rest. Some of the detail was a little mushy and warped, but close enough for my lame tabletop level of painting.
I haven't put together the techmarine yet. Still haven't decided if I want him as-is, or if I want to add magnetic option for using him as a MotF with upgrades.
Sorry to hear about the priming dude, it happened to me a fair few times, I prime by hand now for that reason.
Looking forward to the updates that you've promised you'll put up though, you know I like your work, so keep those updates coming.
So I can hear you all out there saying "Nev, you're a loyal son of the Emperor, when are you going to stop larking about with these xenos and get back to your Ultramarines?" Well, today is that day. With the release of the new apocalypse book, I thought I'd finally polish off a few things on the off chance I get to play a game on that scale.
First is to get some paint on plastic, to help clear the mind and get back in the habit. I've been cleaning moldlines for far to long. Just some WIPtac marines from the Battle of Macragge box set. While I don't need more for my company, they are slated to replace one of the two 2nd ed mono-pose squads I have.
Next on the list is to get another assault squad. While I do own a full battle company, one of my assault squads always take the field on bikes and speeders, so I only have 11 marines with jump packs. Fixing that.
After working on dire avengers, it's a relief to get back to marines. So much easier to clean these guys up. I'm actually enjoying it, rather then looking at it like a chore.
Just a word on my process: I cut the bits for each guy off the sprue and put them in old blisters, to keep all the parts for each guy separate. For models where you need certain arms to go together, or matching backpacks to guns, it helps keep things straight. Also prevents loose heads rolling off the table. For troops I like to toss one extra (pouch, spare clip, pistol, knife, etc) on each guy just to mix them up. What's the point of having a bitzbox if you don't use it.
As for why I have 11 assault marines, it's a very flexible number for any squad that lets you field one special weapon per 5 guys. 2 Sergeants, 2 special weapons, and 7 guys can be fielded as either 2x5 man squads, or 1x10 man.
Also on the things to get my army apocalypse ready is the master of the chapter formation. I have the old Marneus Calgar in power armor, and don't feel like buying the new box just for the honor guard. So I need to rustle up some guys to count as.
Old RT era marine officers. Power swords and bolters? Check. Artificer armor? It's RT-era, I think that counts. The next problem is getting the 4+ captains. I have two at the moment, one on foot in PA, the other in TDA. I have plans and parts to put together a bike captain, so that'd be a third. Still one shy. I'll have a spare assault marine left after I finish fleshing out my company, so he could get gussied up to captain. A few problems with this. One is that my company is going to need its captain attached to it, not the command formation. So I'll need another. The other problem is that if I want to stick them in a LR/bunker, the bike is not going to fit. This might be time to think about my Lysander counts-as. Or just select some of my cooler looking models to receive brevet promotions to captain. The sternguard sergeant could probably pull that off.
The assault marines are just five basic guys. As I said before, I've got a spare sarge. I think I'm going to wait till the new codex drops before I pick up the last 5 guys. If they change the weapon options, I might need different specials then what I have. The snow on the table is fallout from the bad primer
Bikes are starting to get done. I doctored up the captain's ride with stuff from the DA sprue. I figure the ravenwing stuff with a gold paintjob will do nicely as imperial eagles. I'm really tempted to plaster those flowing purity seals over the whole bike. But that will be done in post-production. I'm not sure how the captain is going to sit on the bike, or even what gear I'm going to end up with (might just magnetize) so I don't want to glue stuff on that might get in the way.
Now for some paint.
Finished 3 bodies for the old push-fit marines from the Battle of Macragge box. The finished guy was my test bed for some of the new paints, I did him a while ago. Bolters and backpacks will come later. I know at this point, you are all asking yourself "Wow! How can I get the same mediocre table-top results on my miniatures?" The answer is so easy, anyone can do it. No fancy airbrush, wet palette, or even paint mixing needed! Just a brush, pot of paint, and mostly steady hand...
(N.B: A number of my paints are older then some of you reading this, you may have to substitute modern equivalents)
Prime white.
Base with Macragge Blue (my older stuff is based with Ultramarine blue)
Chest eagle, and the odd skull is painted in Codex Grey
Belt, bolters/pistols are in Abaddon Black (formally Chaos Black)
Pouches/holsters in Beastiel Brown.
Purtiy seals and other parchment is Bubonic Brown. The wax is Crimson Gore, with Blood Red on the raised bits.
Hoses are Deadly Nightshade.
Lenses (eye and targeters) are Glistening Green
Now that everything has a coat of paint on, drybrush Chainmail over the grey and black bits. Depending on how that turns out, a black wash over the grey/silver adds a nice depth, but I often skip this step for basic troops.
Next step is cleanup. This is basically a second round of the blue around the edges of everything else to tidy up the edges. If I notice a missed bit or a splotch, Now's the time to fix it.
Then a Blue Ink wash over most of the model. I cover the eyes and hoses, but not the rest of the details.
Last step is to check for anything I missed, and black the base. At some point I'll base my army, but for now, I like a uniform color, rather then the splattered mess left from painting.
A few notes. I don't do shoulder trim. Well, my sternguard have it, as do some characters, but not the basic troops. Some of my guys are old RT beakies, and they lack the trim on their pads. So rather then have some with, and some without, I just skip it. A lot of my paint techniques are this way because that's the way I've always done it, and I want my army to look uniform. If I had to start over, I'd probably do more highlighting.
I was hoping to have something cool and awesome here for my 2,000th post, but that's just not happening. And I found myself posting less and less as I approached 2k, passing by threads where I normally would have pitched in my two bits of advice. So I'm just going to post a status report, so I can get back to my regularly scheduled Dakka-ing.
But first I'd like to thank everyone out there. Dakka is a great place, full of cool people. I don't get games in as often as I like, but chatting about the hobby here with you all helps keep me sane.
I didn't get as much as I'd have liked done over the summer. Cleaning mould lines off of Eldar wore me down. A pair of bad primer batches took the wind out of my sails. Most of July got sucked away being supportive of The Wife as her best friend had some medical issues (hopefully past at this point). And last week was spent away from the workbench on vacation. But soon it will be September. Which means two things: a new Codex, and The Boy goes back to school, freeing up a large chunk of my time. So things should be picking up around here.
I primed the assault marines I was working on. It want on clean and smooth this time. The weather was a lot milder, and I held the can closer to the minis. It was probably the heat/humidity or distance that was causing problems before. I'm also slowly assembling the bikes. Just the bikes at this point, not the riders. I'll see if the options change in the new codex before putting the marines on
Speaking of new stuff, I'm loving the leaked pics of the sternguard/vanguard vets. A box of each, plus the new box of tactical marines is probably going to be my miniature purchases next month. While I like the look of the new AA tank, what I hear of the rules leaves me feeling "meh". The exo-suits look OK, but I don't see a role they fill better then more traditional units, so will probably just pass. I think an extra box of one of the veterans will solve my apocalypse captain problem. A few extra bits and a spiffy paint job should be enough to elevate them to command status. Once I have the new rules, I might add a few more things to my list. Time will tell. Some of the rules changes might make me grab a few new things. Land Raiders going back down to 10 man capacity, while not surprising, might prompt me to pick up a LRR/LRC so I can get a 5 man squad plus a HQ into the tank. Not sure.
But I'm not going to worry when all the information I have is 3rd hand rumors at best. I've weathered edition/codex changes before, this is nothing new. Just the dust-to-table ratio of units will be shifting again.
Edit: Woot! Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran. I knew all the hard work clensing the polar fortress would be reconized some day...
Has a nice summery of what's rumored/leaked. LR/LRR/LRC with a capacity of 10/12/16. Land Raiders have classically always had a 10 man capacity, the 5th ed. C:SM is the anomaly. It was nice while it lasted though. Depending on how the points and options go, I think a unit of vanguard vets might be taking over from the terminators in my LR. I do like sitting back popping things with the lascannons, then moving up to assault where needed. That does just not work as well with the other variants. Magnets for the jump packs it is.
But those decisions can be made once I have the book in hand, rather then relying on 3rd hand rumors.
Look! Painted marines! Next on the list is the sarge/ML/flamer for these guys, as well as the pilot who came with the set. But as I have spare sergeants, and special/heavy weapon marines waiting, they are fieldable if needed.
Yah, I'm a slacker. But all that should change this Friday. School is back in session for the year, so once The Boy gets on the bus, my free time skyrockets. I think I'm going to try to maintain a 4 model a week goal. I know it worked for me when I was hammering out SoB for my friend, so hopefully I can keep that pace for myself.
I officially placed my order for new stuff with my FLGS. Book (basic), a box of both Sternguard and Vanguard, and the strikeforce. While I don't need everything there, it contains a number of things on my wish list.
Want:
Drop pod (I only own 2. Three is a magic number for drop pod assaults)
Razorback (The only way I can field one is to use the chassis from my pred and the TLHB from my LR)
Ven. Dread (I love the kit, inspired by what I've seen here on Dakka to make my own)
Tac squad (New, mostly for bits and bodies)
Assault Marines (need another 5 for the apoc. battle company formation)
So that adds up to around $200 worth of stuff. So for $25 more I get:
Sniper scouts (I own 10, 5 more is a little overkill, but might see use)
Captain (I was looking to get more for the apoc. HQ thing anyway)
Command Squad (might pick up some bikes for these guys, or build them as sternguard)
The second tac squad (I only wanted one, guess more can't hurt.)
A second battle company is looking more likely as my collection grows. I have two squads of RT plastics that were painted up as a home-brew chapter from way back that might get stripped down and repainted to bulk it out. The two assault squads can be formed from my bike project and land speeders. I have a number of heavy weapons side-boarded for swapping, they can be squadded up into dev squads. I'm also getting more and more of the 1st and 10th. After this supply drop I should have around 42 vets and 28 scouts either painted or planned.
What I might end up doing is painting the extra tac squads with actual company markings, to differentiate them from my normal marines. This way I could use them to represent an allied force of marines using a different set of chapter tactics. We'll see how viable that is once the rules come out.
Largeblastmarker wrote: Do you line the shoulderpads in gold/red/other colors , or do you not like company specific marines?
Hm, I thought I mentioned that upthread. Yup:
A few notes. I don't do shoulder trim. Well, my sternguard have it, as do some characters, but not the basic troops. Some of my guys are old RT beakies, and they lack the trim on their pads. So rather then have some with, and some without, I just skip it. A lot of my paint techniques are this way because that's the way I've always done it, and I want my army to look uniform. If I had to start over, I'd probably do more highlighting.
I love my RT marines, and don't want them to feel out of place or unwelcome in my army. But they don't have rims on the shoulders, or even kneepads for company markings. I also don't do things like the red helmet for sergeants. I guess you could say I'm painting a 30k legion Ultramarine army, without any of those modern codex markings. And I've been doing it before FW/BL made it cool /hipster
Of course, if I do go with a second company, it will get some refurbished beakies as well, unless I swap more squads out of the 3rd Co. And there is a limit of how many modern marines I can pull, as they have a lot of upgrades and gear that the beakies just don't.
OK, I got my supply drop today. In addition to the Codex, Vets and the strikeforce I picked up 100 2mm magnets and a pin vice. Should help get things together.
The new veteran kits are made out of 100% awesome. Well, that may be an exaggeration. I think they cut the awesome with some "sexy" at some ratio, not sure on the percentage. Not to sound like a gushing GW fanboy, (Too late!) but I love these kits. The detail, the bits, all the options. Just wow. They might just be a little too awesome. My captains are looking very sad and dejected. Any marine not made out of these kits is just some schlub in power armor, regardless of where he is in the command structure or FOC.
I am also very impressed with the Ven. dread kit. If yours looks the same as someone else's, you are doing it deliberately. There are a lot of options in this kit to personalize it. It also looks like it will be fairly easy to magnetize the weapon arm for the different gun options. More importantly, I think I can get a MM option on there with minimal fuss. As someone who never picked up a AoBR set, I don't own a multi-melta dread. Which is a problem, because shy of Ironclads, they make a nice cheap option for a drop pod dread.
Also on the modeling front is getting the razorback turret set up. I have a whole bunch of spare assault cannons from the ravenwing sprues I got when I picked up my bikes. I should be able to shake a few plasma guns free from all the new stuff I picked up, so hopefully can get it so I can field all the options.
An a word of advice: If you have old, boring, push fit marines as a WIP on your bench, FINISH THEM BEFORE BUYING THE NEW KITS. I'm champing at the bit to dig into the new stuff, but need to finish the old guys first. It's painful working on the old Battle of Macragge guys after gazing upon the new shinies. But I will persevere...
Remember the bike project? Captain is tacked together
Biker legs, right arm
Multi-part captain's torso, backpack, Ultramarine shoulder pad, chainsword
Head from the new Vanguard box
Helmet crest, right shoulder, from sternguard box
Bike front and banner pole from the DA accessory sprue.
I plan on magnetizing the weapon arm. Not sure if I want to do this at the wrist or shoulder. Shoulder would allow things like lightning claws and power fists, but would mean I'd have to use different shoulder pads for each arm. A wrist mount would let me keep the Ultra's pad on full time. The chainsword is a bit of a placeholder. I like the stats on the new relic chainsword, but don't know if I want to model something fancy, or just slap some bling on that one. I also didn't notice until I was tacking it on that the chansword arm from the captain's set has a bionic hand. IH players take note.
While I like the look of the new sternguard, I'm not sure how well they will integrate into my current collection. It's mostly the legs with the long tabards. I might just swap out for some tac legs. I'm thinking those legs might be the foundation for some honour guard. Take spare bolters from the sternguard, add a few power swords, and poof! HG squad. I think I have some holstered/slung bolters kicking around if I wanted to go with sword/BP. We'll see.
Hey. Clicked on your sig after you commented in my Honour Guard thread, and after reading your post on the new kits, I 100% agree. The new Veterans, especially the Sternguard, are so high quality it's just ridiculous. That said, just the fact that the SG kit has arms with a choice of pointing/clenched/open hands is enough to make me very pleased, so obviously liking everything else is just a given.
I agree that they are good for Honour guard, I'm combining them with the Vanguard plastics and other loose bits to get that effect. I was trying to keep my army looking pretty austere and no-nonsense, but now all these robed and bling-covered guys are showing up. I couldn't help it.
If you're going for the relic chainsword I'd say the one in the Sternguard box is ideal. Or perhaps you could try converting one of the swords from the Vanguard box?
I predict that the helmet crest is going to become one of the most sought-after bits for Marine players who like converting. It's tailor-made for an HQ model.
Well, now that we are a bit into 6th edition, I've finally finished the tac squad from the 4th ed starter box
Also shown is the TLLC option for my pred. With the drop in points, I might actually use it, so slapped some paint on it. I'm counting it as model 4 this week, along with the sarge/flamer/ML from the squad. It's a bit of a cop-out, but I've been working on the modeling side putting stuff together.
Speaking of which:
Standard bearer, champ and normal guy for an honor guard squad. Mostly built from the SG box with a dash of captain/command box in there as well. Still a WIP. Especially the standard bearer. I wanted to use the raised rim shoulder pads for the whole squad, but the angle of his arm makes them clash with the backpack. I could do one of the bolter arm, but wanted to keep him mostly in the classic Mk6 armor, with the studded shoulder. Three guys is the minimum squad size. Not sure if I want to use the rest of the SG kit to make more, or just bump up old marines to fill out the squad as needed. Which was my old plan. The odds of me actually fielding them is low, barring apocalypse games. And those don't show up often in my area/schedule. Should be fun to assemble and paint though, so having these three is worth it.
I think next on my paint list is some old terminators. Unless we get some good weather and I can prime some of the new stuff.
Seeing that one of the reasons I started this blog was to help keep me on track, I figure I should try to keep a weekly update at the very least.
I got my nice day, so a load of stuff got primerd. Two bikes, one normal and one with a magnetized wrist for weapon swaps, were started and finished this week. Grav gun was the first weapon done, more will come in time. I have a new sternguard with a heavy flamer and an old LC devastator in progress on the bench right now. Progressing though base coats. Will probably not be finished today. If I count the bikes as two models each, I made my 4. If not I'm a slacker. The Boy has a half day at school, so I'm unlikely to get much hobby time in today. Yesterday I actually got a game in!
Here's a dirty little secret: For all my love of the hobby and posting here on Dakka, this is the first game I've had since spring. The fall equinox is not until Sunday, so I got at least one game in this summer.
The curse of fresh paint did not seem to impact the bikes. The only casualties they took were friendly fire from a wild miss with a dev squad's PC (guided by the sergeant's signum no less!) It was the squads old plasma gunner who took the hit, proving the dangers of such unstable weapons; If not the plasma you carry, the other plasma in the army will kill you.
This was also the first time on the table for the hurricane bolter arm for the ironclad and the chaplain Cassius conversion I made. Both did reasonably well for themselves.
I like the new codex, but need to get used to it. Adding to my list of things to do is make chapter tactics cards. I kept forgetting about them. Both when to use them, and what the do. Have some reminders on the table, that I could flip over when used, would be nice to have.
The Wife has the good camera, so here is a lousy iPad pic of the week's work. Finished the HF sternguard and the LCdev this morning. Had a lot of fun painting the flamer guy. I've painted enough standard marines that it's refreshing to do one that breaks the mold. Sternguard are good for that.
Next step is to pick out next weeks projects. I'm thinking the bike captain and then some older stuff. Mixing up the new/old will help keep me motivated to burn through my backlog.
On the construction side I'm still plugging away at the bikes. Need to figure out if I'm going to bother magnetizing the attack bike, or just rely on the clip on the weapon and a little sticky-tac. It's a small connection point, and the 2mm magnets I have look to be a bit big for the handgrip. What I could do is just glue the guns, arms, and upper torso together and magnetize at the waist. It looks like the arms holding the heavy weapon are the same ones that come with every vehicle accessory sprue, so I have a bunch of extras. I have a land speeder on the things to do list, so could set up his gunner the same way. This would work well, as the primary option for the bike is going to be a MM, while the speeder is going to be a HB.
Mid to late week looks to be good weather for priming, so hopefully I can get a batch of stuff ready for then.
You bike chassis need some edge highlights. It looks like a bit of a solid blue glob. maybe a transfer to break up the monotony? How did you do your lascannon. Im working on like 7 different lascannon and I can't find a good scheme... except yours.
Largeblastmarker wrote: You bike chassis need some edge highlights. It looks like a bit of a solid blue glob. maybe a transfer to break up the monotony? How did you do your lascannon. Im working on like 7 different lascannon and I can't find a good scheme... except yours.
Yah, more highlighting is something I know I need to do. I might try to pick out some edges on the captain's bike.
Here's a slightly better picture of the HF guy, just because I like him
And a few LCs, including the new guy, but a spectrum for variety...
So those are my four lascannon marines. Two are old hybrid plastic/metal ones, and two new full plastics. I paint them more-or-less the same as the rest of the weapons in my army, just with more details picked out.
Primer white (like everything I do these days)
Base coat the gun black. Abbadon Black I think is what it says on the pot these days.
Drybrush the whole thing with Chainmail Silver. Hard. Not just a lightly touch the high points, but get most/all the paint off the brush and give it a good, solid brushing/scrubbing. When the brush first hits the model, there might be some strong silver streaks, even if you think you got all the paint off. I generally start on the back of the weapon to hide these if I get them. This does ...unkind... things to your brushes. Don't use your good ones.
The shoulder mount is just Beasteal Brown. Except that one guy trying to be different in the 4xLC shot. That's bubonic IIRC.
Lenses are Glistening Green. All glass/screens/lenses in my army are painted with it. Just how I roll.
The lower power conduit is Deadly Nightshade. All the think, ribbed cables in my army use it.
The bundled wires are whatever bright paints I grab first, until I run out of wires. Blood Red, Sunburst Yellow, Emerald Green were the paints this time (and my go-to paints for stuff like this). Hawk Turquoise and Blood Angels Red *coughOrangecough* sometimes make an appearance. Due to the fact that these paints cover like garbage, I undercoat here with white first. Newer, high-pigment paints might fare better, but my old ones don't. If you can get a clean, solid coat of primer and don't have any slop from the other painting, you might be able to skip the undercoat, but that's not me.
Give the wires a wash. I used Chestnut Wash this time, I think I've just used black in the past.
Cable ties are the same black/silver as the main gun. While I try to do these at the same time, my sloppy brushwork with all the wiring generally requires me to re-do them after.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but the skull on the LC is drybrushed with gold.
Buttons/controls are Blood Red and/or Emerald Green.
The arm is how you paint the rest of the marine. For me, that's Macragge Blue with a Blue Wash these days.
On the backpack, the little nubs on the side are black w/ silver drybrushing. The skull on the back (not pictured, should have shot one) Is base Codex Grey, drybrushed silver, black wash, light silver drybrush to finish.
The little inset control panel is black, with the buttons done in red/green.
Another week, another 4 minis done. Well, almost done. I need to wait for the last wash to dry on the terminator before I glue his arms on.
The IG guy with the grenade launcher is for a friend of mine who bought some guard to ally with his SoB. Most was painted, but not all. So I had to try to match the paint job of the rest of the force. Battle of Macragge pilot guy is probably never going to see the table, but at least he is off the workbench. Terminator had a magnet on top for a CML. The launchers have been painted for a while now, and do time as typhoon launchers on top of my speeders. And then there is the bike captain...
I tried some shading on the helmet, where I put down a grey wash then highlighted back up with white. Also some subtle edging on the bike. Not sure how much is visible. I went for a White Scars-esque red helmet jag. Not sure how I feel about it. Once I get around to working up some fluff for this guy, he's going to have fought along side the Scars for some action/campaign. I may use the ally force rules to work him and the bikes into my main force with different CTs. But for now, he's just my new bike captain.
Or for tomorrow, a chapter master. A friend of mine is in town, so we're getting a game in. Shocking, I know, two games in as many weeks. When it rains, it pours. So it's my Ultramaines and his Tau vs. his cousin's forces of chaos. No idea what flavor, he's got a reasonable collection and proxies stuff from time to time. 2x 1,000 point armies vs. a 2k list.
I plan on running:
+++ 1k new (999pts) +++
* Chapter Tactics
Ultramarines
* Chapter Master (205pts)
Artificer Armor, Bike, Teeth of Terra
* Sternguard Veteran Squad (285pts)
1xCombi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, 9x Veteran
* Drop Pod
* Space Marine Sergeant
Bolt Pistol, Boltgun
* Tactical Squad (210pts)
Meltagun, Multi-Melta, 9x Space Marine
* Drop Pod
Storm Bolter
* Space Marine Sergeant
Bolt pistol, Chainsword, Melta Bombs, Veteran Sarg
* Bike Squad (174pts)
Grav-gun, Plasma Gun, 3x Space Marine Biker
* Attack Bike
Heavy Bolter
* Biker Sergeant
Veteran Sgt, Chainsword, Melta Bombs
Thanks! I wasn't sure if I should try something a little more flashy for the red part. But I do like how clean I got it to look. Most of my freehand work is wobbly as all get out.
Today's game was another victory for the forces of the Ultramarines (with help from Tau) Turns out we were against a pure demon army, mixed with all gods present. Purge the alien, so just a meat grinder kill fest. The last few turns were trying to bring down a iron armed nurgle DP and a pair of soul grinders. I think I need to strap a box of melta bombs to the back of my captain's bike. He needed them. Fun was had by all, even if we did start a bit late and had to rush towards the end so one guy could get home and pamper his wife.
New paint on the field was the bike captain and the sternguard HF. Captain lived through to the end, but was basically running scared, as he didn't have the S to touch the soul grinders. He did carve up some demon herald things, so wasn't a complete embarrassment. The HF marine did well for himself, walking out of the drop pod and positioning himself to bake a keeper of secrets, and more importantly the squad of plaugebeares next to it (which he killed about a half-dozen of) He and his squad unfortunately didn't live to see a second round, as they were shot and stabbed to death by a large chunk of the opposing army.
So considering new paint normally chokes and fails spectacularly, I'm happy with a OK performance from the biker and a glorious death from the flamer.
Zambro wrote:Some really nice mini's you have there Nev.
Thanks for sharing.
And that biker's helmet... It's given me such good inspiration for some free-hand tribal markings on my White Scars. It's really great
Z
40kFSU wrote:Ok that biker helmet is awesome. The triangle makes it. Good call.
Thanks for the feedback. I wanted something that sets him apart, but not so much that he looks like he doesn't belong. And I didn't trust my freehand skills for jagged red lightning. I was a little pensive, since I strive to keep my marines mostly uniform, but I'm getting more comfortable with him, and his bold departure from my normal paint job.
This week's progress is not good. Not making my goal. Well, if I count re-surfacing my driveway as "painting" and 950 square feet of asphalt as a "vehicle equivalent" I'm good. But that ate all Tuesday, and made me too sore to want to bend over minis (or even trust myself with a hobby knife/brush) for Wednesday. But all is not lost, I've got some stuff in progress:
I've got 2 SB/chainfist terminators in the works, and a chaos marauder with a flail.
The marauder has an interesting story. Back in the day, I made some mounted marauders out of dark elf dark riders. I bought a bunch of blisters of the marauders on foot, just for the flail heads. Ahh, the good old days of getting an employee discount at my FLGS and being single with a real job... Flash forward a number of years, and GW puts out a plastic marauder kit. I picked one up, but was on the way out of playing WHFB at the time, so they never got assembled. Flash forward MORE years (to earlier this one) and there is a new Warriors of Chaos book, I receive a copy of the fantasy core rules, and decide to put some stuff together. The marauder kit can be built as either flails of hand weapons, so I find myself with some extra flail heads. Those sure would have been useful back in the 90s. Which bring us to the old, metal chaos marauder with flail. Not the flail he came with, but a new, plastic flail. He's been cluttering my workbench, either as weaponless chunk of lead, or a re-armed, primed mini sitting in the back for far too long. So this week I started to slap some paint on him.
As it looks to be a rainy weekend, so I might get these guys finished (and possibly a 4th, thinking of working on the IG psycer) instead of raking leaves and doing the other yardwork I had planned.
Largeblastmarker wrote: Interesting stuff going on. might I ask what kind of white primer you use? I'm starting pink tau soon....
I use armory white primer. There is a picture of the can I picked up back on the first page, along with the Eldar supply drop. This is the second can I've had, and the last one I will get. The first can had no problems, went on smooth. This last can at best has given me a passable coat, and is the reason most of my summer projects took a detour though a vat of simple green. prior to it, bad primer batches were just something that happened to other people. My only concern when spraying was making sure I didn't miss spots.
So even thought it is the brand my FLGS stocks, I'll be shopping elsewhere next time.
Lovely crisp, fall day here in upstate New York. So after lunch and a walk around the neighborhood, I took some stuff outside and put down a layer of primer. Coat went on clean. After screwing up most of my summer's work, I'm very gunshy about breaking the can out again. Did a test run on a spare bit of sprue before hitting the actual minis.
So I got the rest of the bikes assembled, primed, and good to go. The sarge is magnetized on his gun arm at the shoulder, currently packing a c-grav. Melta gunner has a magnet in his wrist, same setup at the grav gun in the other squad.
Also on the table is the techmarine from the TFC, and a new sergeant for my sternguard. While I love the way my old one looks, I have trouble with paying the points for the powerfist. This guy is just packing a chainsword at the moment, but has a magnet in his shoulder to swap out if I ever want options for him. A lighting claw might be in order.
And just to prove that I'm still painting:
Those are the last of the old metal terminators on my bench. I have parts for more, but they are mismatched, or very chapter specific. I think I've got some old GKs, DA, and chaos parts and bodies floating around in a box somewhere. But I think with these guys added to my force, I can field another legal squad. I'll see about getting my good camera out and getting a group shot of my old metal TDA marines. Should be good for a chuckle.
Next on my assembly/cleaning list is a drop pod. Emperor forgive any foul utterances that escape my lips as I work on that hell-spawned kit. Sooooo much hate for those damn things. But it will be my third pod, which is a magic number of hybrid drop lists.
Zambro wrote: I built a drop pod once... it sure is a PITA kit
magnets in the wrist must be a pain in the butt to drill in. Do you use 2mmx1mm magnets?
I think they are actually 2mmx2mm. 1mm would probably fit better, but I'm not sure if they would have the strength needed to hold the bits on. Anyway, I don't own any, so I just drill out 2mm holes. And it is indeed a PITA. Not a whole lot of clearance or margin for error, but they do fit.
I'm not sure why I decided on the wrist mount. Probably because it would let me use the weapons on more kits. I could put it in the hands of a tactical marine with minimal fuss. Of course, I could just have him holding it out like he was on a bike, but that looks a little contrived for a foot soldier. But as I only own 3 grav guns, I wanted to be able to get the most out of them. The melta gunner just got dragged along for compatibility.
In the future, I suspect I'll try to stick with shoulder mounts.
OK, ready the retro-rockets, it's old school nostalgia time!
When I first started playing 40k back in the RT-era, it was more as a RPG, less of a war-game. The guy in camo here was my character at one point in time. With a hand build hand flamer, made out of a IG lasgun and bits of sprue carved into a fuel tank and nozzle. My early marines were painted as BA, as those were the transfers that came in the first RTB01 we picked up. The cyclone in the background was a later add-on, from some 3rd party company I got a blister full of odd guns and bits from.
My assault terminators. The sarge has an older style rounded hammer. These guys will probably see less table time these days, since they can no longer fit with a HQ into my land raider.
And by HQ, I mean these guys:
They might still see use teleporting down with some tactical terminators, but they really loved charging down the assault ramp leading the boys. Especially the chaplain.
So that's 2 sergeants, 2 assault cannons, a heavy flamer, CML (magnetized, so he can take the field as a normal marine) and 6 normal guys, 4 with chainfists. This will let me field either 2 5 man squads, or one big 10 man squad. Although I'd need to remove the CML and field him as a normal guy to get the 7 basic marines for the unit. Which is fine, as the CML gets a lot of use as a TML stuck on the top of my land speeders.
That concludes our tour down memory lane. When you hear people complaining about people fielding terminators on 28mm bases, they are talking about me. But I've been doing it since the RT days, and by the Emperor, I'm not going to change now. You kids these days with your fancy "plastic" and large bases...
One of the things on my to do list was to make some reminder cards as play aides, for both chapter tactics and warlord traits. My own psychic cards are also on the to-do list, but I'll get to those later.
There was a thread a bit ago about making cards in a program called "Magic Set Editor" And some nice stuff put togethers by others (from which I grabbed the warlord cards) But no chapter tactics. So I made my own. The pictures I used were just from typing "assault marine" etc. into google and taking the coolest looking ultramarine on the first page or two. Apologies to anyone who's art I stole. MSE is pretty darn easy to use, and free to download. Much easier then tweaking margins and text size in Word to try to get things to line up at the right size.
I've got some of these card sleeves on order from my FLGS:
So progress is not at the pace I'd like. Bunch of things to blame for that. Raking leaves, LotRO, Civ V (just picked up the expansion), watching an anime a friend loaned me (Sword Art Online, it wasn't bad). Also the seasonal "blahs" that I generally get this time of year. I blame getting old and my birthday in a few weeks.
Well, excuses aside, I did get some work done this week. The marauder came out OK. I tried some base/wash/highlight techniques I don't use a lot, and they came out kinda meh. I'm not a fan of the stark deeps/highlights it generated, and don't like mixing paint and doing a zillion layers. He's ready to go collect dust with the rest of my chaos army now though.
Getting some paint on the TFC. The cannon itself was one of the bad primes. After a dip and a scrub, it seemed mostly better, but still a bit of texture on it. I'm not sure how much is the primers fault, and how much is the finecast. Overall not very happy with it. MotF is going well. Once I finish his other arm and backpack I'll get some close ups of him.
The IG psycher is one of the minis I'm doing for my friend. Low priority, but part of my effort to move old stuff off the bench.
Also done this week is most of the drop pod cleanup. I just need to clean the mould lines off the harness frames (I did the harnesses already) and sub-assemble them to the central podium. And cut and clean the stormbolter. Then it gets dumped into the "things to prime" pile and waits for a clear day.
Hopefully I'll be able to polish off all this stuff before the weekend is over. But I've got some errands to run this afternoon, and some plans to do stuff with the family Saturday, so we'll see.
How was the build / clean up on the TFCs? I have 2 waiting to get started and i'm not sure on them. I glanced over them quickly and there are some imperfections from the fine cast.
Zambro wrote: A little progress is better than no progress
How was the build / clean up on the TFCs? I have 2 waiting to get started and i'm not sure on them. I glanced over them quickly and there are some imperfections from the fine cast.
To quote myself from upthread (and months ago, man am I slow)
Also in the news is a new supply drop of marines. I just finished putting together a TFC. I can see why people complained about it when it was metal. It was rough enough in finecast. I'd hate to have to clean one up for professional level work. The resin pour/sprue connect points were in some bad places. The tracks specifically had bits in corners it was impossible to get a knife into, but you could still see. I also used a hot/cold water setup to bend resin for the first time. It worked fairly well. I was able to get the bits close enough to what they were supposed to be that the superglue could do the rest. Some of the detail was a little mushy and warped, but close enough for my lame tabletop level of painting.
It was irritating, but not the end of the world. In retrospect, I'd have left it in more parts to prime/paint. There were a number of bits that were questionable as to if they were flash or part of the model. The gunner has lots of spindly bits and details. Some saggy parts. I'm fine with just having one. If they come out with a plastic kit, I'll buy another. If I feel I need another one before then, I'll grab a 3rd party pair of tracks and steal the guns off of a stalker/hunter.
Overall it was less painful then a drop pod, but I can't say I'm a fan of multi-part finecast kits. It doesn't help that my TFC was part of my bad primer incident, so a miasma of irritation clings to it. YMMV, and I hope it does, as mine was not a positive experience with the kit.
Got some extra painting time in yesterday. Time I would have spent mowing the lawn, by I snapped the pull-start cord on the mower, so that got punted. Of course, now I need to spend some time getting a spare part and fixing that, but if I procrastinate hard enough, that might be next spring.
Yah, love that bad prime. I thought I had scrubbed it smooth. Nothing like a high-rez close up to show you all the flaws in your work.
Although I think this guy actually looks better close up. The harsh light washes our some of the chalky contrasts. It is kinda hard to miss the fact that his fists are bigger then his helmet. Such is the power of chaos I guess...
The drop pod is fully clean and finished with the sub-assembly. Waiting for a clear day to prime. Not sure what to assemble next; so many choices. I should probably do the razorback, it's the most likely to get used. The ven dread is tempting though. Or more infantry. Either some LotD made from new tactical marines and old skeleton bits, some new sergeants with wargear options, new command squad members, or the vanguard vets. Decisions, decisions...
And seeing some vangaurd vets would be nice. They have some awesome sculpts
Thanks. You want vanguard, you get vanguard. Well, first a jump captain, and then a VV sarge. The rest still need to be cleaned up and assembled. Although they are all sitting in parts in their own blisters waiting.
Captain:
Sarge:
All the arms are magnetized, so can be swapped as needed. So many options, it's hard to make a decision, so why bother when you have magnets! The sarge also has his jump pack magnetized.
There is space in the pack for a 2mm magnet and some greenstuff. Just put a little ball in the bottom of the top half, set the magnet in, and push more into the gaps with something pointy and non-magnetic (I used a spare bit of sprue I had on hand, toothpicks might be better) When the magnet is where it needs to be, just push the jump pack onto the back section to get the rounded nub on the torso to make itself a socket. That will help keep everything aligned when in use.
Some of the arms had to be done the same way. They are not solid, so I just packed the space with greenstuff and squished a magnet in there.
I am interspersing some normal assault marine bits in with the VV to stretch the kit out a little. I wanted a 5 man squad, but also a jump captain. While there are enough arms/heads to go around, I needed to add in a torso/legs/jump pack. So some of the guys are not going to be pure VV, but by mixing things up a bit, they will still look special. And I'll still have 4 more assault marines to fill out the last squad I need. You might recall upthread when I was assembling them, I mentioned that I had a spare sarge, so those 5, plus 4 more and the old sarge is going to be just what the company ordered.
My first thought (and first set to be assembled) for the VV is:
Sarge - LC/SS One - Power axe/SS One - BP/CCW, meltabomb
Two - BP/CCW (basic)
The captain has the TH/LC combo. I figured it was worth paying the extra 5 points over the powerfist, not so much for the concussive, but to look less goofy. There are no fists/hammers in the squad. I can't bring myself to pay that many points on a one wound guy who is going to strike last. And if these guys are on the field, there will probably be a character with a jump pack with them to do the heavy hitting vs. hard targets. Either the captain, or my jump chaplain.
Zambro wrote: Wow, they look great. I especially like the Captain's pose. awesome work
One problem with magnetizing: If you get a nice pose, you don't necessarily get to keep it. I like the captain like that myself, but just by repositioning the arms he goes from "sprinting forward, going to hit you with the hammer" to "I'm going to put this lightning claw through your head". The mercurial nature of magnetized minis struck me with the next pair, particularly the BP/CCW one
When I put together minis, I try to get the angle of the torso and where the head is looking to sync up with the weapons to make the guy feel a little more dynamic. The guy with the axe is pretty straightforward. He's running at something, and is going to kill it. But the chainsword marine is reacting to something off to his left, snapping off a shot with his pistol and bringing his sword up to guard his chest. How would it look if we swapped the arms? One way to find out…
The beakie looses a lot of the dynamism that he had. He's still OK, but I prefer him with his original arms. The other guy works well. By having the gun arm down/back and the chainsword up a little, you can tell what's about to happen in the close combat phase...
I agree the second beakie looks awesome, he also looks awesome in the first one... so either way it's cool. THe other guy on the other hand, looks better in pic 1, IMO.
It's clear in pic 1 that he is running at something/someone, but it's unclear what he is doing in pic 2
In hindsight, the sarge is leaning too far forward. But overall I had a blast putting these guys together. Vanguard vets are one of those units that have a lot of space for customization. From a fluff standpoint, they are the best of the best, in an army that is designed to be the best. They truly are the tip of the spear, designed to punch into the heart of the foe. From a mechanics POV, they were massively overpriced in the last codex, but look to be a little more reasonable in the new one. Looking forward to getting these guys on the table and carving a swath through the foes of the Imperium.
To my list of things to do eventually, I need to get some normal backpacks for these guys, and maybe some more weapon options. I might not field them as vanguard vets on foot, but they might see action piecemeal as vet sergeants in tac squads, or as members of a command squad.
Went out to lunch for my birthday with The Wife, and noticed that the weather out was mild and dry. So I after I came home I primed all those fine gents in the last post. Used the last dregs of paint from the can, so while I got a smooth coat, it's a little spotty in places. But that's better then fuzzy. And even better, I'm done with that bad can of primer <cheer> Not sure if I'll get army painter or some other colored primer, or a cheep can of more reliable hardware store stuff. On the down side, the can ran out before I got to the drop pod, so it's still in the to-do pile.
Seeing that part of the reason for me starting this blog is to keep me on-track and focused, I feel the need to post at least once a week, regardless of progress. Hopefully the shame of saying "nothing new" will keep me painting.
From an excuses stand point, the last two weeks I've either had a cold, my birthday, and my parents visiting. So a lot of time was spent either holding the couch down, or out at dinner/doing family things. Not a whole lot of time and motivation for painting.
From a wargaming standpoint it wasn't a complete loss. On Monday (Veteran's day) I went with my folks and The Boy to Saratoga battlefield. For someone who pushes plastic around the tabletop, it was fun to see how things are set up in the real world. There were posts set up marking out where the fieldworks were, and cannon sprinkled around. Standing on a bluff next to some guns, looking down at the Hudson River, you could see why the british had to move inland. Crossing that under fire would be murder. Little creeks and ridge lines might not look like much on a map, but from a soldier's eye view they make a pretty big difference. While terrain placement might not have a huge impact on 40k, it is still an important part of the game. Even if walking around doesn't help my game, looking at the ground from a military POV helps get a feel of a battlefield, and "forge a narrative" in the GW parlance.
On the paint station these days are the bikers. I figure I'll paint them all up and then get around to the bikes themselves. Nothing on the workbench. I think the next think I'll do there is take the assault marines that are waiting on the paint bench and magnetize their jump packs. This way I'll have one full squad fixed with jets, and one that can swap. Of course, the guys on foot can be stretched out with spare sergeants and flamer marines borrowed from tac squads/extras shelf.
And while I've been posting this, the paint has probably dried, so back to work with me <cracks whip>
For those about to experiment with the new paint, we salute you!
So I picked up one of the new technical paints. Blood for the Blood God is the best new paint name ever. I don't want to go slapping it everywhere without testing it first to see how it looks. Thus a trip to the shelf to grab some blood-soaked volunteers.
First is Brother Corbulo. For a 2nd ed mini he's not so bad. The cup will get a fresh coat of blood, and I'm going to try the blood drops to see how the gloss will look. I'm thinking that BftBG might be an easy out for lenses and gems for the lazy amount us.
Next up is Isabella VonCarstien. (Don't tell her she's been replaced with a newer, younger, better looking sculpt over in GW land. She's been known to fly off the handle.) The fact that she's sloshing her blood around should highlight the new paint better (I hope)
Last is my faithful UM apothecary. While not drinking a cup full of blood like the others, he's been doing his job, and is a little splattered. He will test how the paint looks smeared on a chainsword, and I might put a new coat of splatter on him.
So depending on what my weekend looks like, I might get a change to actually hit these guys, but there is some stuff going on. I just wanted to get some "before" pictures up here before I retouch them.
The hard part will not be to fall into Khorne worship while doing this. The strongest lure of chaos I've felt is when the new berzerker box released years ago. And still the call of blood and brass calls when battle looms.
Back later, the chaplain is giving me that look again...
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OK, that went quick. I like the paint. It acts like a thick wash. That looks like it never dried. And if I can use it, anyone can. I'm sure the more skilled painters can do better, but for the average joe, it's east to splash around.
Little more splatter, fresh smears on the sword. Works about the same as the old red, but with a little gloss. Way back when I used high-gloss testor's enamel paints for blood and some reds I really wanted to pop, but that required paint thinner to clean brushes, etc. This is a lot easier.
When uploading I noticed the pics I got of the vampires were not in the best focus. Must be the whole "doesn't show up in mirrors" thing rearing it's ugly head. One thing about the cups of blood is that the base coat mattered. A lot. The Blood Angel's grail was just a flat disk, probably painted blood red back in the day. Adding BFtBG make it darker,richer, and glossier, but still just a flat disk. If I was doing him from scratch, I might paint some white ripples onto the blood pool first, and then hit it with the BFtBG, just to give it some depth.
Isabella's goblet had the benefit of being textured. The blood is running over the edge, and dripping down. And had already been hit with a dark wash, so had some shading built in. The blood look MUCH better on her.
You want quick and easy blood splatters? Get a pot of this stuff. It did well enough on the blood drop icons to warrant a try for gems/lenses on new minis, but I still might stick to my old ways. I'll have to see how it looks going on clean, rather then adding to an existing mini.
Looks pretty cool and thanks for the review. You got the splatter just right on the Ultramarine. And the comment about Isabella--Ha!. Plastic, metal, or real, they all hate the newer version!
Another week, another tiny bit of progress:
Just a quick iPad shot of the week's work. Sarge and special weapon gunner for the bikes. Sarge has a magnet in his shoulder, special at the wrist. Stock load for them will be a combi-grav and melta gun (they are in different squads) I have two more normal bikers halfway done. Then I need to get their rides painted.
Progress is going to be slow (yes, it gets slower!) due to Thanksgiving. The Boy has either half days, or is off school all next week, which cuts into my painting time. Got to do the whole Daddy thing. That and the Helm's Deep expansion for LotRO just released, so I'm playing that a bit more.
Merry Nurglemass everyone! That time of year when Papa Nurgle gives out the gift of plagues to all his favorite children. I've got a cold, and am not happy about it. There is so much stuff that needs to get done in December, I can't afford the time holding the couch down and pounding dayquil. Oh well, I'll manage somehow. I spent most of yesterday making turkey stock, so at least I'll have lots of good soup.
But back to the P&M part of the blog, and less of me whining. Finished the last two bikers. Still need to do the attack bike gunner, but getting there. Got the first layer of blue down on two bikes. Need to keep at it.
The highlighting on the legs is a little accidental. What I do is paint and blue wash the legs first, then do the torso. If I touch parts of the mini that I still need to wash, the oils from my hand make the ink bead. Not good. So I ended up holding the legs while I paint the rest, and wore off some of the paint. So I had to go back and touch up. I could have re-washed, but thought I'd leave it as-is. What I should do is pin/glue/otherwise attach the mini to a temp base while working. Like the rest of the competent painting world. It only really comes up with these guys, as normally I can just hold the base of the mini.
Now I'm going to get some OJ and make sure the couch doesn't run off before those nurglings grow up to be plaugebearers.
Returning the favour. Those bikers are coming along nicely! Those vanguard poses are poses are good, though the Sargeant looks like he's about to do a diving roll!
smithy12262 wrote: Returning the favour. Those bikers are coming along nicely! Those vanguard poses are poses are good, though the Sargeant looks like he's about to do a diving roll!
Yah, he's on the edge of getting cut in half and re-done. On the other hand, I just recently picked up the Space Marine video game (Thank you steam sales) so the idea of rolling into combat has a bit of an appeal…
It might be easier to just angle him from the foot then adjust his waist. I'll have to see how much glue I used. And as I use plastic cement, it's not just an easy freeze and pop to fix.
Hey there, it's time for another lack of progress report! I got the first layer of black done on one of the bikes I'm working on. That's it from the painting side. Lame, I know. The VV sarge has been removed from his base, I now need to file his foot to re-angle him.
But I've been baking cookies like a madman.
Candied pecans (4 batches)
Shortbread (3 batches, need to do 2 more)
Pistachio cranberry cookies (double batch)
Brownie roll-out cookies with peppermint royal icing (double batch)
Rougelach (just one batch of these)
Molasses spice cookies (dough is resting ATM, still need to form/bake)
And that will finish the first half of my holiday cookies. The second half will happen around New Year and will be another batch or two of everything on the list. We give out a lot of cookies. If all goes well, I'll be done with all the baking before the weekend. I've finished all my shopping for the season. So I can get back to painting next week. Week after that will be a no-paint week, as I'll be on the road to visit the folks for Christmas.
Well, I'm back from visiting my folks, clearing frozen slush and a foot of snow off my driveway, holiday baking & gift giving, and all the rest of that crazy December/New Year stuff. School is back in session, so The Boy is gone for the bulk of the day, freeing up my hobby time once more.
As some of you might know from my participation in it's kickstarter thread here, I'm a long time fan of SJG's classic tank game, OGRE. If you haven't figured it out, I'm a wargamer from way back, and 40k is not the only miniatures game I played back in the 80's. Putting these two things together leads us to the conclusion that there is an army of OGRE minis collecting dust somewhere in the basement. The trick is, it wasn't my basement, or even my parents. Back in the day my friend Dave and I pooled our money to buy gaming stuff. Some of the old RT stuff you see in my photo gallery is actually his painting. When I posted a picture of the OGRE DE box on Facebook, he commented "You are part owner of one of the most formidable Ogre Miniatures collections on the planet. I got it last decade. Do you need it for a decade? Because it's sitting in the basement. 96 GEVs in Combine Ironball Stealth, luftpanzern, enough dinochrome to knock the earth off it's axis. What say you?" To which the only possible answer is "Heck Yah!"
If you think you feel an earthquake, don't worry. It's just conventional armor deployed at the regimental level to stop a dozen OGREs.
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IGHQs 2 Paint all my new purchases. Right now this is just finishing an ADL w/quadgun, but my group of friends does our gift exchange this Sunday, so that pile might get bigger.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.
There are a bunch of projects I'd like to do, but need to see what the budget looks like. So those arn't on the resoulution list. Make a Lysander counts-as, another squad of sternguard (deathwatch?) or just add a few more items to my army (TFG, some more tanks)
Well, from a resolution standpoint, 2013 was not a successful year. I made some progress on 1 and 5, but still have lots to do. I think all the new purchases that I had for 2 got painted, but overall I've picked up a lot more then I've painted. 3 and 4 never got started. 6 is an ongoing struggle. Not sure if 2013 was better then 2012 for games played.
As for the non- resolution projects, some got work, some dropped. Due to a massive influx of hobby cash I was able to pick up the TFG I wanted, as well as some more sternguard. But due to the new codex, I'm not going to make the Lysander counts-as, and the need for making the combi heavy sternguard went down.
For 2014 I'm going to keep the same resolutions as I used last year. To those six, I'll add:
7 Update my blog more often, and maintain a consistent pace of work.
The second half of 2013 is fairly well documented in this blog. I don't think I painted as whole lot before I started tracking things here.
So, things painted in 2013 (that I can remember):
ADL w/ Quadgun.
Lord Commissar
10 Tac marines (Battle of Macragge push-fits)
Sternguard w/ HF Devastator w/ LC 2 Bikes (1 grav, 1 reg)
Bike Captain
Battle of Macragge pilot
IGGL trooper
3 Terminators
TFC w/techmarine
Chaos marauder w/flail
4 SM bikers (bikes still WIP)
Wow, summed up like that I feel like I've done nothing. By contrast, I've done a lot of assembly work, and did loose pretty much all the work I did on the Eldar due to the bad primer. I also started the year with just dregs of old stuff on the workbench. Spare parts and odd models. It wasn't until about halfway through the year when I started this blog after getting a windfall of cash did the painting side of the hobby take off. I think 2012 was a total of ~12 models, so it's more then that.
As for what to do in 2014, it's going to be more of the same. Slowly slapping paint on plastic. Mostly the stuff you've seen showcased here. One thing I need to do to make that happen is to get some new brushes. Mine are getting old, split, bent, and ragged. The only two that are still have any life left are a pair of detail brushes. This is one reason why the bikes are killing me. Takes forever to do with tiny brushes. I want to get back to the Eldar, but they really missed their launch window due to the primer incident. If I had gotten them moving, the momentum might have kept them active after the new C:SM codex dropped. But as a non-starter, they are just sitting there while the UM get all the love. It's not like they'll go stale, I'll get to them eventually.
I think that the 4/week goal might be a little too aggressive with everything going on in my life. I think I might try to maintain a 1/week goal. Considering what I did this last year, I should be able to maintain this.
Got my miniature done for the week. Meltagunner for the bike squad.
And here is a group shot of the bikes so far:
Mad Props to all you White Scars and Ravenwing players out there. I'm doing a half-dozen bikes, and already they are sapping my soul. Not my favorite sculpt. Fun on the table though, so I'll persevere somehow. 2 regular bikes and the attack bike (with gunner) are all that stand between me and two troop choices. While I'm working the squad, I should go back and do the trim on the old attack bike. Seems he didn't get the grey/silver like the rest of the guys way back when I painted him.
My FLGS is having a doubles tournament tomorrow. We'll see how I feel, might try to head up there, grab a random partner and get some games in. I don't think The Wife has anything planned for me, but communication of important details is not her strong suit.
So my brushes have been getting a little ratty and I thought it was time to go out and get some new ones. A common theme here when people ask about what brushes to use is "stop using crappy ones, using quality brushes will help you improve" One recommendation that stuck in my head was the W&N series 7. So yesterday I went down to my local art supply store (note, not big-box craft store, but a small specialty shop) to pick some up.
Or not as the case may be. I don't know what you guys pay on the other side of the pond, but they started at $25 a pop here for the small ones, going up to hundreds for the larger ones (which admittedly, I didn't need) So between the sticker shock, and the guy at the store pointing out that they were really designed for water colors, and I might actually be better served with a different style, I went with some others. So I picked up a variety of styles and bristle to see what I like, that were a little more reasonable in price.
The three of them set me back about $25 total. I'll see how they work and maybe go back and get a few more sizes of the brand I like. You know you are an artist when you are shopping for brushes and the thought pops into your head "I want to see the point on this when wet, I wonder if they would mind if I licked it"
So not top of the line, but not dollar store rejects either. Let's see if they help my painting at all.
They are like £2-£5 each here for the Kolinsky Sable brushes I buy.
I'm sure you know this already, but keep ahold of your old brushes. You never know when you might need a ruined brush for some bristle-destroying work (think applying PVA glue etc)
Nevelon, those brushes are worth it, however try amazon, they are tudge cheaper there. The art stores are a bit over priced but the reason they are so expensive is because they are actual sable hair, not a synthetic, which almost every other brand is. The well of the brush, the fat part of it, retains an amazing amount of paint and will allow you to continue putting paint on the model without having to "refill it" from your palette. Its a worthy investment when you can do it.
Zambro wrote: Wow, thats ridiculous pricing for paint brushes!
They are like £2-£5 each here for the Kolinsky Sable brushes I buy.
I'm sure you know this already, but keep ahold of your old brushes. You never know when you might need a ruined brush for some bristle-destroying work (think applying PVA glue etc)
I wonder how much you are paying for the name with the Winsor and Newton series 7, and how much better they are then other Kolinsky Sable brushes. The Richeson I picked up was is made from the same fuzzy critter, and half the cost (not factoring the 40% off sale price). None of the brushes I picked up are domestic, being made in England, Germany and Japan. No idea if some countries have stronger taxes/tariffs then others, but they are all taking a long boat ride before they hit my workbench.
And don't worry about me throwing stuff out. I'm a certified packrat. Old brushes just drift to the back of the rack.
So I used the W&N University 233 to paint the gold trim on the sarge's bike. Can't say that it was a game-changeing upgrade from what I had been using. Which for reference is either a GW or Citadel fine detail brush (blue and red, not sure how old they each are or any changes in manufacture between them) One thing that stuck in my mind as I was more brush conscious then normal was the warring goals of "Thin your paints" and "Don't let any paint get into the ferrule". As I was painting, I could see the pigment being wicked up the white bristles. I ended up rinsing my brush out more then I normally do in the middle of a color. Normally I just wait till I'm done and switching to the next pot. Hopefully this step (and waste of paint) will keep the brushes from developing spits. But what about washes? Those are going to fill the brush, no matter how careful I am. Should I just worry about getting globs of paint on the base of the brush and not work about stuff seeping up?
<sigh> I want to take good care of my brushes, I really do.
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bebopdrums2424 wrote: Nevelon, those brushes are worth it, however try amazon, they are tudge cheaper there. The art stores are a bit over priced but the reason they are so expensive is because they are actual sable hair, not a synthetic, which almost every other brand is. The well of the brush, the fat part of it, retains an amazing amount of paint and will allow you to continue putting paint on the model without having to "refill it" from your palette. Its a worthy investment when you can do it.
I could save a few buck via Amazon, true. I'm a firm believer, not just for gaming supplies but for everything, of buying local when possible. Even if you buy from a chain store, the person behind the counter is getting a paycheck and living in the local community. And when I go to downtown Saratoga Springs, on Broadway (the main street in a resort town), I expect to pay a premium. But it's a locally owned store, I bought my art supplies there when in college, and I'd like them to stay in business, so Soave Faire receives my custom.
As for not getting the W&N S7, part of that is fear, in addition to being cheep. I figure I'll get some new mid-range brushes, and see how well I take care of them and if they help before going to the top of the line. Kinda like your parents seeing if you can take care of a goldfish before getting you a puppy.
It might be reasonable for you to take a look at Masters Brush Cleaner. That stuff cleans and reshapes my brushes perfectly at the end of each painting session. It will definately extend the life of your brushes
Zambro wrote: It might be reasonable for you to take a look at Masters Brush Cleaner. That stuff cleans and reshapes my brushes perfectly at the end of each painting session. It will definately extend the life of your brushes
I have some and do use it. Good, stuff, worth mentioning in any discussion about brush care.
Bike sarge is done. Which is the last guy needed for that squad (besides going back and touching up the attack bike). Some of you might be asking "Why does the sarge have gold trim on his bike and the normal bikers have grey/silver? Those are the trims of the 2nd and 8th companies respectively, not your beloved 3rd, and I thought you didn't do trim in the first place” The trim matches their chest eagles, not their company. My basic troopers have silver chest eagles, while sergeants and officers get gold. Not doing the trim on a power armor marine is one thing, bikes is another. While you can skip it, the mini looks unfinished.
And on that note, I’m going to get some trim paint on the attack bike, so I can close the book on this squad (until I get to basing my army)
The attack bike trim is done. Well, as done as it’s going to get. I suppose I could tear it apart to get a better angle on some parts, but that’s not going to happen. It’s an old plastic/metal hybrid kit, I’m lucky it’s still in one piece.
On the topic of “things to do” I recently did an inventory of things actively primed and waiting for paint on my workbench. I know there is more WHFB stuff primed hiding away in some boxes, but I’m not counting that. To be honest, some of the fantasy stuff that is out could join them in hiding, but they were on the bench for the census, so here they are:
Other stuff sitting around waiting:
4x arcoflagelents
6x skeletons
8x chaos marauders
chaos champion
sister of sigmar novice
named rouge chick from the Pathfinder CoT adventure path (forget her name)
dwarf w/hammer
IG pycher.
Some of the marine stuff might take a trip back to the assembly table. The assault marines could use magnetized jump packs, and that scout sarge could stand to have his chainsword removed and replaced with a magnetized arm. He’s old and metal, so that would be a PITA to do. Might happen anyway; that or he keeps sitting in back waiting.
Part of me wants to take a break from the bikes and work on something else (the jump captain mostly) but I recognize my lazy procrastinating nature. If I step off the path now, they are never going to get finished. So I’m going to go slop on a blue basecoat, and then head out and do some of the other errands that I’ve been putting off (like grocery shopping)
Hahaha, grocery shopping or painting bikes?????? Not too long ago I would have always chosen the bikes but at the moment!!!!!!!!
Take a break from the bikes mate and do the captain else you will not put the effort you want into them. You have enough stuff to do that when you are sick of assault marines the bikes will seem like a blessing.
I have more work to do than could be imagined. You've seen the Scars I have plus whats coming and I have best part of 10k Nurge CSM to paint up. Still got a Nurgle reaver part primed. (procrastination is our friend)
Keep going man, first to 5/6k painted has to fly to the other for an apoc game........
McManiak wrote: Keep going man, first to 5/6k painted has to fly to the other for an apoc game........
Hmm. Let’s see. Do you mean a total painted army of 5-6k? Or who can transform that amount of points from grey plastic to fully painted? Because while I do have a stack of things to work on, it’s not that much (I think)
But you bring to my attention something I’ve been meaning to do since the new codex dropped: get a new point count of what I have painted. If I include my ADL with my Ultramarines, fielded at “shelf deployment” (so WYSWYG, no hidden upgrades, and sometimes silly weapon loads) I total 6,508 points. I have a dozen models that can’t be formed into spare squads, mostly spare plasma/melta gunners, heavy weapons guy, and the odd sarge or two. Field deployment, where some guys get bumped up to veteran sergeants, metla bombs get handed out, tac squads upgrade from ML/F, and the Devs change from one-of-each weapon to something sensible will drive the points up a bit.
So if you mean new paint to 5k, I’ll have to decline the challenge, as I’ll run out of hobby funds long before reaching that. If you mean 5k+ total, then Albany, NY is the closest major airport.to me and I’ll start clearing off my table.
Hahaha, brilliant mate. If it were that simple to hop over I would. Didn't realise you had that much already done. My task force points up to about 6.5k but won't be painted for some time. Maybe a weird sort of virtual game is the future for teams continental gaming (or us that just video gaming?)
It’s been a while since I took a picture of my whole collection.
That’s over a year old. I know when I took that picture I was working on my stormtalon. That, my ADL, and Sgt. Talion were all in the same supply drop near the end of 2012. What was added in 2013 is in my year in review post earlier up this page. I’ve since re-jiggered my storage, clearing books from a long shelf for my Eldar and moving the IG to there own spot (freeing that space for more UMs.)
What I should do is modify my shelf deployments to make a little more sense and then take some fresh pictures. I think I might wait until I finish up the assault marines I have kicking around so I can get a full company picture. Right now the 8th squad deploys on bikes/speeders, which while codex approved is not OK for apoc games using the company formation. I should also swap my command squad around so it’s not such a mish-mash.
That's a proper collection Nev! I reckon once my current WIP is finished (2 tac squads, 3 talons), I'll post my entire marine's collection.. and it won't even compare, especially if you had updates
Also, OI!
Get those models based! I want them all done by tomorrow, no excuses! I also want them all dusted off with a large dry brush and a nice photo to make them presentable!!
smithy12262 wrote: That's a proper collection Nev! I reckon once my current WIP is finished (2 tac squads, 3 talons), I'll post my entire marine's collection.. and it won't even compare, especially if you had updates
Also, OI!
Get those models based! I want them all done by tomorrow, no excuses! I also want them all dusted off with a large dry brush and a nice photo to make them presentable!!
Get to it!
If I was more meme-savvy I’d do up a picture with the caption “I don’t always base my miniatures, but when I do, I flock them with goblin green rims” Of course, the last time I actually did base my army, that was the in-vogue fashion, not retro old school. Arctic basing my Ultras is on my to-do list, just like it was last year. My FLGS tells me he’s had problems getting the basing stuff I ordered, and I’m in no rush, so I’m not pressuring him.
One of the perks of playing since the dawn of time is slowly growing my collection. If you add a squad and/or a tank a year, and collect for ~20+ years, you get a reinforced company with no effort! Not that I’ve been collecting consistently, it ebbs and flows depending on my interest and financials. On that note, let’s see if I can date my collection…
RT: 2 full tac squads, another half dozen or so bolter marines filling out a dev squad. One veteran, standard bearer, company champion (the Lt. Cmdr. I use for my avatar) some of the terminators.
3rd: 2 tac squads, speeders (from starters) 1 grey hunter box (extra sprue for bits, including a meltagun) 2 dev boxes (old hybrid kits), captain and command squad, most of the rest of my HQs. old bikes (sgt, plas, melta, HB attack) 10 assault marines. Extra plasma and melta gunners. 2/3 of my scouts, Land Raider.
4th: Battle of Macragge push-fits, Tyranic war vets, a few more assault terminators (bringing me to 5)
5th: Scout bikers, drop pods, more scouts (plastic snipers, Talion) Pred. Sgt. Chronos. Sternguard, Ironclad. Dev box (full plastic this time)
6th: Sotrmtalon, ADL, More bikes (w/captain) TFC and growing!
Now this is all from memory so there might be some flex in there. And some of those things were purchased in one edition, but were old sculpts at the time. The assault terminators I picked up in 4th were the last 2 I needed to finish my squad off. The blisters had a lot of dust on them and had to be dug for. I mostly played during the odd editions. RT back in middle/high school days a good bit. Only caught the tail end of 2nd. I helped the local game store demo and get into the game. My armies were in the display cases for a while until they had some painted up to go in them. My Marneus Calgar was a "thank you for helping" gift from them. 3rd edition was the sweet spot. I had graduated from college, had a real job, but was still single. So plenty of free cash and time. My FLGS was not far, and I was one of the core regulars there, so got a lot of games in. 4th was not the best time. My old FLGS closed up, so I needed to drive half an hour for a game. I was either un- or underemployed, and married, so both time and money were in much shorter supply. Not a lot of games in this era. 5th re-fired my interest. New FLGS (still a drive) Hobby funds were still an issue (full time stay at home Dad) but I added a couple things a year via birthday and Christmas gifts. 6th sees me at the same FLGS as 5th. The funds got a shot in the arm when I sold my M:tG cards. This is the era I’m documenting in this blog, so I’ll not repeat myself here.
I started while I was halfway through uni, some 4 years ago. All of my models, (having sold my last lot) are 6 months old at the oldest!
Arctic basing is the way to go, that's how I've done mine. If you want any help or anything with that, let me know. But I'm sure you're capable! Just make sure you paint the base white before adding the flock, if that's the way you're gonna go (if you didn't know already).
OK, enough woolgathering about old stuff, time for more progress! Another bike down:
Here is a pic of my old HB attack bike with its new silver trim, and the last normal biker I need to do. Next up is the final attack bike (with a MM) and then I can put those wheeled menaces behind me. I like the concept of a biker command squad, or a MotF a/o Librarian on a bike, but those are just nebulous thoughts at this time. Need to reduce the pile of grey plastic before adding new kits.
Partial progress this week. I was hoping to get more time in, but The Boy was off school Monday, and the in-laws had an issue with their furnace not burning properly, leaking carbon monoxide into their house, so they have been camped in my guest room since Wednesday. Cramping my hobby time.
But I did manage to finish the bike part of the attack bike, just not the sidecar and gunner. But if I stick him on a base, he counts for the 5 man needed for a squad, so we are almost ready to roll!
I can almost taste the end of the bikers, will get a formal group shot of them once I finish the sidecar.
Also shown are the assault marines that I put together a bit ago getting magnets. I think I might do a character next, and then paint the AMs as the next squad
The Wife is home today to distract the in-laws, should be able to get stuff done.
Why is it when working with greenstuff I can never mix the right amount? Does everyone have this problem? Got 4/5 of the jump packs done, then needed to roll up some more, and of course, there was extra.
On the bright side, they are all done now and back over on the paint bench. I should probably look at what sprues I have kicking around on work out my next build project. The drop pod is getting lonely in the "to prime" box.
And that wraps up the bike portion of my army for the foreseeable future. The painting dragged on towards the end, but I got to sample them on the field midway though, which helped a lot. Love the way they play. Not going full bike army or anything, I leave that to my White Scar brothers, but I plan on having a lot of fun with these guys. I could paint up some extra bits for magnet swaps, but I’m not feeling it right now. We’ll see if more trips to the table show flaws that need shoring up.
Here is the final addition, the sidecar for the MM attack bike.
And the two squads
And because I can, here is the captain again:
I think the next thing on the bench is going to be the sternguard sergeant I put together. Just a guy with a bolter and a chainsword. I like the way the powerfist sarge looks, but not the points he costs, so this guy will be the replacement. The sword arm is magnetized, and I need to toss together a lightning claw for him. But first lets get the primary build painted.
OK, here is a WIP shot of my new sternguard sergeant. Pretty much straight out of the new box, but the chainsword is from the commander box IIRC. I’m experimenting with multiple layers on the fabric. Normally I’d just base+wash it, but I’m trying to expand my skills a little bit here. It’s a bubonic brown base, snakebite leather diluted and washed into the folds, and then bleached bone on the high points.
My question is weather or not I should wash the whole fabric bit (probably with a chestnut wash) or just leave it as-is?
Also: white sucks to paint. Just getting the trim on the shoulder pads is driving me crazy.
McManiak wrote: Wash it all with chestnut then re highlight again
Pretty much what McManiak said.
The bleached bone highlight looks fine, but the bubonic brown and snakebite leather layers are too start, imo. A wash would help draw it together, but maybe next time you could try a BB+SBL mix as an intermediary step?
djphranq wrote:This is a wicked awesome P&M Blog! Totes gonna sub yo!
Welcome aboard!
McManiak wrote:Wash it all with chestnut then re highlight again
Zambro wrote:
McManiak wrote: Wash it all with chestnut then re highlight again
Pretty much what McManiak said.
The bleached bone highlight looks fine, but the bubonic brown and snakebite leather layers are too start, imo. A wash would help draw it together, but maybe next time you could try a BB+SBL mix as an intermediary step?
OK you slave drivers, you have me mixing paint. I don’t think I’ve seriously mixed paint since the mid 80’s. When if I wanted as simple as a flesh tone, or brown, I dragged out my ral partha starter paint set and made it out of primary colors. Ah, the good old days where all I had was 8 pots and some crummy brushes.
Huh, I just had a revelation when typing this. I had mixed bubonic brown with the snakebite, and put a thin line down the mid folds. But looking a Zambro’s quote, I now wonder if he meant bleached bone, or bubonic brown, with "BB+SBL” The true answer is probably “either or both” If I was going to put the effort real painters put into their work, I’d probably start with snakebite in the depths, blend that out to bubonic in the mid range, and then blend the bubonic up to bleached for the highlights.
Oh well, I did what I did, and that’s more blending then I’ve done in the last decade, so I’m good with that. I did give the whole thing a chestnut wash, which is drying as I type this. Will go back and re-highlight in a bit.
Nevelon wrote: But looking a Zambro’s quote, I now wonder if he meant bleached bone, or bubonic brown, with "BB+SBL” The true answer is probably “either or both”
Ahh! Brain fart
I ment bubonic brown and snakebite leather. That way, its a middle ground step between both.
But having said that, you could do a bleached bone and snakebite leather mix between the mid colour and final highlight
I find the more stages of mixed colours, the smoother the transition between the base and final highlight.
I often find myself using just 2 colours. The first is the base, and the second is the final colour highlight. Start with the base and keep adding the lighter colour and applying it to less of the cloth until you get to you final highlight. But of course, thats alot of work
Your bike captain makes me want to do some bikes myself! What are the kits like? Any good?
I’m not going to lie to you: The kits are old, lacking in detail, and are in two halves, leaving you a giant seem that runs down the middle of the model. That said, the marine biker himself is compatible with the rest of the range, so you can get a lot of variation with him. I enjoyed the theory of putting together a bunch of bikers more then the practice. Balancing these facts is how they play on the table. They are a fast moving, hard hitting, tough unit. Even without the bike captain making them troops, they pull their own weight. Adding the ability to score (and freeing up the FA slots) is gravy from the captain/CM, who makes for a nice beatstick himself.
If you want to learn more, seek the wisdom of the Khans. Both McManiac and Zambro have White Scars blogs I follow.
Bikes made out well in 6th edition and the new codex. They do make for a nice change of pace from footslogging marines. Worth the effort in dealing with the old kit. I’ve not fielded my scout bikers recently, but they are fun as well. More recent kit then the normal bikes. While they share some of the same issues (the seem down the middle) they have a lot of spare bits and extras in each box. If you have some extra cash kicking around, the FW Legion Outriders look very nice on the website, although I’ve not seen them in person.
Automatically Appended Next Post: OK, here is WIP 2
with the first WIP shot for reference:
I think I might have overdid the highlights a little, but it’s good enough for me.
Not quite happy with the face, but I rarely am. For all the extra work it took to do the tabard, it was worth it. When seeing pictures online of people doing that, I always thought it looked too stark and cartoony. But when not in macro-zoom under harsh lighting it looks much better. At arm’s length on the tabletop it looks far more natural.
Another thing that doesn’t show up in the pictures due to the lighting is the reds. For the red gems I painted Blood for the Blood God in one coat over a metallic base. I like the way it turned out. I also used BftBG as a heavy drybrush on the purity seals for a waxy look, and lightly on the cords for a little glossy sheen.
McManiak wrote:Highlights look great mate. Good work!
Zambro wrote:The robes look great, Nev! (You have a little spillage on his right foot, btw).
And thanks for sharing my thread!
Thanks guys. I get a lot of spillage. When I paint, I start with sloppy base coats, and then go over them a second time to trim any errors and spillage. Mostly it’s just the blue that gets the second coat (right before the wash) but sometimes I have to correct other things as well. If I post more WIP shots you’ll see is is pretty normal for my process.
Looking at my to-do list I’m struck by the amount of close choppy death there. I’m going from “I Can’t Believe it’s not White Scars(™)” to “We’ve secretly replaced this Ultramarines blog with a Blood Angel’s one, let’s see if they can tell the difference.” Jump captain, vanguard vets, assault marines, honor guard. If it wasn’t for the honor guard’s bolters, the only range weapons in this lot would be bolt pistols (and not everyone has one of those). I think next up will be the basic assault marines. I’d like to get at least two done so I can put a 5 man squad in a drop pod if the mood takes me, but it shouldn’t be too hard to bang out the whole 5 man squad.
I also need to get some grey plastic built and in the to-prime box. I should do the other 5 assault marines, so I have my apocalypse formation battle company. But as I just noted, I’ve got a lot of jump packs on the bench as it is. I might build some variant sergeants, with some magnets for weapon swaps and/or combi weapons just glued on. That or the razorback. Stuff more likely to see use on the table.
Zambro wrote: That vet looks great. The tabard is perfect.
Why build more stuff for the to-prime box, when you're already overloaded with to-paint stuff?
Thanks.
A few reasons:
I like building more then painting, for the most part. It’s not that I dislike painting, I love all parts of the hobby. But if I had to put things in order it would be playing > modeling > painting.
I’m a WYSWYG guy. I don’t include it in my army list unless I have it built, painted, and equipped properly. So you'll notice I suggest to other people things like “include a combi-weapon on your sarge to match the squad’s special” but never do that in my own lists. That’s because I have painted exactly one c-melta on a sternguard, one c-flamer for my Cassius, and now a c-grav from my bike sarge. With the influx of bits from the sternguard kit, I can now open up a lot of tactical options that were previously closed to me. Same with the razorback. I don’t have one built, and didn’t own one until I bought the strikeforce. Right now I’m rolling with two rhinos and 2 drop pods (plus my LR) as transport options. For some lists, that’s not enough.
I work slow, so need to plan ahead. Priming is weather dependent. I want to make sure that if I have a clear day I can get a load out and sprayed. Right now the only thing in the box is my drop pod. I’d like to have a few more things in there for when I get the chance. While I have enough primed and ready to cover me for February, I need to start lining stuff up for March.
I just ordered a land speeder storm from my FLGS. In an effort to keep the piles of sprues under control, for every kit that comes into the house, I want to build and paint another. While the painting has been going along at it’s intermittent pace, I don’t think I’ve built anything since the vanguard in early November. So I need to cut and glue some things together!
If I want to be a good friend, I should do some of the stuff my SoB/IG buddy asked me to paint for him whenever I got a chance. In my clean and assemble pile is a sly marbo and the koranova sisters (or however they spell their name, the raging hero commissar chicks) There is no huge rush, he gets games in about as often as I do, but I would like to get them moving just to break up the marines.
Hmm, I’ve recently done a rough survey of what I have painted, and then what I have primed. I should probably check and see what I have left to build.
Zambro wrote: That vet looks great. The tabard is perfect.
Why build more stuff for the to-prime box, when you're already overloaded with to-paint stuff?
Because the to build pile can only commence if the built pile moves to the, to prime pile. The to paint pile only goes down when a tournament or blog forces you. It's the circle of plastic life. From shiny box syndrome to urgh I've gotta paint syndrome to aah that looks good I wish I'd painted them sooner syndrome.
We are sane underneath all this plastic soldier madness though........aren't we???
Zambro wrote: That vet looks great. The tabard is perfect.
Why build more stuff for the to-prime box, when you're already overloaded with to-paint stuff?
Because the to build pile can only commence if the built pile moves to the, to prime pile. The to paint pile only goes down when a tournament or blog forces you. It's the circle of plastic life. From shiny box syndrome to urgh I've gotta paint syndrome to aah that looks good I wish I'd painted them sooner syndrome.
We are sane underneath all this plastic soldier madness though........aren't we???
"Only the insane have the strength to prosper; only those who prosper can truly judge what is sane”
This is grimdark 40k, peddle your “sane” somewhere else…
OK, I just did a quick survey of what’s still on the sprues for the marines:
Razorback
Land Speeder
5 sniper scouts
2x command squads
Multi-part captain
19 new tac marines
Ven dread
1 sternguard
4 assault marines
Things can be mixed and matched. For example, I have two sternguard torsos, but only one pair of legs. Also worth noteing that the command squads have 6 legs, which are the thing holding me back. So that’s an extra two marines.
What I don’t need is more tactical squads, so it is unlikely that those 19 guys are going to hit the table as bolter boys. So they are going to be used for a variety of projects.
McManiak wrote: You could do the assault marines coming through a window........hang on......that rings a bell, haha
Do the dread, they are always a welcome break from marines. Then do marines, vehicle, marines, vehicle. Etc
I’m not crazy enough to pull something like that off for the assault marines. The dread is very high on the list of things I want to build. This is balanced by the fact that I already have 3 dreds on the shelf, so don’t need a 4th on the table. But it’s a sweet looking kit; I was inspired to pick one up by seeing what Sir Samuel Buca did with his.
What I might do is make some Legion of the Damned. I’ve got a bits box full of skeletons, so might go for a more traditional build. My other thought was to make some more high-tech marines as a counts-as. This would require getting some bits together that I don’t have.
Grey knight interceptor backpacks (for teleporting power armor)
Storm shields for everyone (3++ saves all around)(I only have a few)
Assorted guns. I have a very old plasma cannon I could use, but might like a more modern one.
In an ideal world, I’d pick up the FW breaching squad but I’m unlikely to make a FW order. But that’s the image I’m going for. An elite squad of marines specialized in teleporting into tight spots and engaging in close range firefights.
But fun modeling projects aside, the razorback has a strong lead on the practicality standpoint.
Well, me being the practical sort, the razorback won out for what to build next, and is almost done. Just need to do the weapons. Which is the fun part from a modeling perspective. The TLLC and TLHB options are easy, being the ones included in the kit. The LC/TLPG and TLAsC are the tough ones. The goal is to have all options available and swappable. The spare assault cannons I have from the DA ravenwing sprues were a little small to put in the main turret, so I improvised:
I put a 3mm magnet in the hatch under the AsC mount, and will fit a 2mm in the gun mount. I just need to mix up some greenstuff to fill it in (It’s hollow) Right now it’s held on with sticky tac. The turret might just be fine with being push-fit. I figure if I make a TLPG similar to the AsC mount, I can just put a single LC in the turret for the LC/TLPG configuration. I should probably work up something to fill the space left by removing the extra lascannon. The other option is to build a TLPG mount that fits that space. Not sure which direction I’ll go; we’ll see what the bits box holds in the way of options. No plans ATM to make a TLHF option. I do have some spares from when putting together immolators for my friend, but they are his, not mine, and I’d feel bad poaching them. Painting them up so he can swap them is on the to-do list (just really low) Plus it would take some reworking of the vehicle rules for me to even consider fielding them on a razor as an option.
And just to show I’m still painting:
Two assault marines, ready for duty. Jump packs are magnetized, although I don’t have standard backpacks for them yet. If I wanted to run them in a pod, I’d just go packless at the moment. I left them with their squad, you can get a preview of what’s on the horizon there.
Interesting TLAC variant. The more I look at it, the more I like it
Are you really going to both with the TLHF option? I dont see any scenario where it would be chosen...
Keep going with the assault marines. I doesn't look like the back row (the 3 on the left, particularly) are primed. Is that a camera / lighting problem, or are the just not primed?
Zambro wrote: Interesting TLAC variant. The more I look at it, the more I like it
Are you really going to both with the TLHF option? I dont see any scenario where it would be chosen...
Keep going with the assault marines. I doesn't look like the back row (the 3 on the left, particularly) are primed. Is that a camera / lighting problem, or are the just not primed?
Hum, I did say all the options in the first bit. I meant most. I did go into details about the TLHF below the picture in the wall-o-text. I keep forgetting that the flamers are an option when thinking about razorbacks; they are utterly useless. You can get a TLAsC turret with the LRC box, or even buy that sprue separately. But if you used the DA battleforce to add bikes to your list as I did, it comes with 3 of the ravenwing sprues. The guns are supposed to go under the master of the ravenwing’s landspeeder, but I just fliped the whole assembly upside down and put it on a hatch. Easy as pie. The same bits could probably be used to slim down the massive chin turret on the stormtalon, but I had assembled mine before I got the bikes.
Good eye! The vanguard in the back are a little lightly primed. My can was pumping out it’s last breath when I was doing them. In an ideal world I’d wait until spring and give them another light coat. In a more realistic world, I’ll probably just paint them as-is.
Yes, I’m going to start basing my army. Shocking, I know. I’ve done a little research, but want to do a few trials before getting started in ernest. Probably use some of my Warriors of Chaos army as guinea pigs
On the painting side I’ve started putting base coats on two more assault marines. Nothing fancy, but progress.
Zambro wrote: Nice little supply drop there. How is that basing kit? I was woefully disappointed with the one I got a few years back and havn't picked up any since.
And what do you make of Stronghold Assault?
It probably wasn’t worth the price, but has stuff I can use. I was hoping for more sparkle on the snow, but it’s more of a powder. Rocks are rocks. The little stick-on tufts of grass should be nice. I wanted a way to do those without trying to get static grass to work. The icicles might get used when I eventually get around to making my display board. There is also a small square of frosted plastic that can be cut to make sheets of ice. Might be fun to play with.
Stronghold assault is like building rules 2.0. It changes and clarifies a lot of that section of the rulebook. Some of the new fortifications look fun, and the optional upgrades have some promise. I’ll need to mull them over and see if I’ll end up building/buying any of them. Last I checked my FLGS has OK’d the book for our local tournaments, with the exception of the void shield building and the massive fortifications. But it’s nice to have prices and rules for more stuff to put on the table. And it might be fun to scratch build some of it.
Experiment 1. GW snow flock mixed with Elmer’s (PVA) glue into a thick paste, and then smeared onto the base. While still wet I swished him through loose flock and then shook off the extra. This is straight over the black base I finish my minis with, with no color added to the glue.
GW snow is short fibers, which while nice for texture, is not very snow like. Also, very flat (a little sparkle would be nice) By itself, makes for a dull base. Next step will be to add some rocks/grass.
The paste method helps cover the slotta base, which I never filled in with greenstuff or anything else. It is also opaque enough that I don’t feel the need to re-paint the base with a white undercoat. Score two points for laziness. In an ideal world I’d go back and touch up the black rim, giving it a new coat of paint and removing any snow that slopped over the edge.
For reference, I found this link very helpful when thinking about different techniques.
In other happenings, The LSS is slowly coming together, Lots of finicky bits on that thing, quite the change from the razorback. Painting has taken a back seat to building this week, but I hope to get the assault marines done.
Edit: I found another good comparison pic for snow bases. Dropping it here so I can find it later
Have you tried the baking soda route? My experiance with it is limited but I have seen some nice example of it around here.
Dont get me started on LSSs... I hated building mine I lost tiny pieces, glued pieces on the wrong way and broke a few other pieces (Now that I say that out loud, it sounds like a 'me' problem ).
Zambro wrote: Have you tried the baking soda route? My experiance with it is limited but I have seen some nice example of it around here.
Dont get me started on LSSs... I hated building mine I lost tiny pieces, glued pieces on the wrong way and broke a few other pieces (Now that I say that out loud, it sounds like a 'me' problem ).
Considering I have the GW stuff, I might as well use it. I almost picked up some woodland scenecs today, but it was a box “winter kit” with stuff I didn’t need and I couldn’t look at the flock itself to see if it had the sparkle I wanted. For $12 I almost just grabbed it anyway, but I try to save money where I can.
Some of the speeder’s problem were my fault. Glueing the front top on without the dashboard in place was a big woops. Luckily I caught my mistake before the glue set and was able to pry it up and get things straightened out.
Other problems were the kit. The little door trim for the cargo bay didn’t even make it off the sprue intact. I had just put a new blade on my hobby knife at the start of the kit, so it’s not like I was just bludgeoning it off with a dull one. Those are just going to be left off. All the handgrips are next on the to-do list. I don’t think they have indents or anything helping you align them. Just stick them on the hull and hope they are straight. Those might get left off as well. I’m going to fly empty, so all the scouts in the back get left behind. I might take the benches out as well (haven’t glued them down yet)
The hand grips aren't too bad to put on. On mine, I broke one, then left the other one off on the other side for symmetry I also glued the air vent (on the top at the back) on backwards. Realised too late, pried it off and fixed it. But now I have a line of melted plastic where the vent was I lost the wind shield too lol.
That post count sneaks up on you when you aren’t looking. While it’s just another number, 3,000 posts is a rather large one, so I thought I’d actually do something a little interesting.
Over in RandyMcStab’s blog I was commenting on his old RTB01 Ultras, and saying that I needed to post pictures of my own. Now seems like a good time.
Here’s the group shot:
Ultramarines, 3rd company, 1st squad:
On every battlefield, in every edition of the rules, the brave marines of the first squad take the fight to the foes of mankind. When I say one of the core tactical squads I include in all my armies is a ML/F squad in a rhino these are the guys I’m talking about. The sarge got his binoculars from the old plastic space orc box.
4th squad:
My second RT tactical squad. You will note the scratch-built ML and the modern flamer. My old BA had first pick of the heavy and specials, so these guys got the dregs. I have no idea why the sarge has a 9 on his banner. My reasons are lost in the depths of time. My modern excuse (if anyone asks) is that he performed an extreme act of valor while serving in the 9th squad, earning him his promotion to sergeant. He keeps that number to honor his achievement.
Extra guys:
The bolter boys and the power fist vet are modern paintjobs on old plastic. You can tell by the green eyes. They were actually built sometime in 3rd ed when I was making the push to fill out my battle company. The bolters fill out a dev squad at the moment. The sarge with the fist was for wargear options, I think I made him to fill out a command squad. The standard bearer is an old timer though. On the back of the “How to paint space marines” booklet that came with the SM paint set they had banners you could photocopy and paint. That’s where this one comes from. You will note the roman numeral for “3” in the corner. In this book the Ultra’s are labeled as the 3rd chapter of the first founding. Space Wolves and Blood Angels numbers are the same, but Salamanders are listed as the 8th chapter. Ah, RT-era fluff, how you have changed… That “3”, by the way, is why when it came time to pick which company to build, I chose the 3rd.
And while not RTB01, here are a few old metal RT marines that found their way into the Ultramarines.
The first army I painted was Blood Angels, so most of the RT metals ended up there. A few were still unpainted when I switched armies, so got to be blue. These three are it for now, but I do have a few still kicking around un-painted. The bolter vet does time with the sternguard, the Lt. Commander in the middle you might recognize from my avatar. Sometimes he’s a company champion, other times a captain or vet sarge. His official shelf position is as a champion in the command squad. The plain lead bolter guy fills out a dev squad. He deserves better.
Not included in this little time warp are my RT-era terminators. They got their time in the spotlight a few pages back
Edit: I’ll miss being a Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran. Oh well.
<Spins up the Assault Cannon>
Two more assault marines (almost) ready for duty. Their jump packs just need a spot of blue wash on the bottom part and then will be finished. The final guy in their group of 5 has already received his first layer of blue. Once he’s done, I’ll have another 5 man stick of assault marines ready for action. Actually, with my spare sarge, these 4 make for a squad. I should probably assemble the rest of the squad.
On the subject of assembly, the land speeder storm is almost complete. I just need to clean and assemble the HB gunner. Then after doing two vehicles back to back, I need to work on some infantry. Probably the assault marines. But another option is putting together the scouts that should have been in the back of the LSS on foot. As strange as it sounds, I could actually use some more non-sniper scouts. The ones I have are very old metal ones, and a mixed bag at that. 2 bolters, 2 shotguns, and 4 BP/CCW, plus the sarge. While that works for the jump out and charge LSS load, I could use more bolter scouts for the drive-by configuration.
We’ll see what mood takes me once the speeder hits the to-prime box.
Also in the news is the foam I ordered finally came in, should be able to pick it up tonight. This has been a very long road. While the KR folks have a reputation for excellent customer service dealing direct with individuals, it seemingly does not extend to stores trying to order wholesale through the american branch. My FLGS had to call the home office over the pond to prod our local branch into action. As much as I try to support my local store, without whom I’d not need foam to drag my army around, next time I need to buy KR I’m doing it direct, to save Mark the hassle of dealing with them. Once I get my hands on it, I’ll write a review. See if it was worth all the effort.
And speaking of dragging my army to the FLGS, tomorrow is the monthly tournament. The stars are aligned, and barring anything odd arising, I should be able to go. So next on my to-do list is to put together a 1,850 list. I’ll try to cram as much new paint into the list and still keep it competitive.
I've never used KR, so I'd be interested to hear what you say about it. I always found their website rather overwhelming, which seemed off putting for some reason.
I brought a case from Feldherr - a german company. I like it. Decent sized (fits my 2k points in, minus the DP, with a good ammount of extra space). Also it's fabric opposed to a hard case, which (in my mind) is a little more fashionable.
What will you be heading to the FLGS with? 1850 is a good size, you have some room to include a fair bit. Will the AMs make the cut? Or the bikes? Or both?
Here is 1850 points of Ultramarines, arrayed and ready for battle. Before today, they would be riding to the FLGS in the bags on the left, but I picked up my new KR case yesterday. Overall size is about the same, but the KR is one bag rather then two cases. The extra box on top has spare foam to swap out if I don’t need everything. The case holds 3 more that size.
I can’t tell you how happy the box on the left makes me. Before now when I wanted to bring the pods and talon anywhere I needed to laboriously hand-pack them into the silver case with scraps of foam. It’s one thing to securely pack the box-like marine tanks, quite another to secure the odd shaped things for transit. KR does make a tray to hold an ADL, but I figured I could just stash it in spaces I wasn’t using for other things. It’s bigger then I thought, but it fit in my extra 4 rhino tray (which is coincidentally the same size as the dedicated ADL tray.) You will notice my rhino nosing up out of his slot. These cases are designed with stock builds in mind; his dozer blade pushes him a little outside normal. But one of the advantages of soft foam is that it’s OK to think outside the box. There is enough give in the walls, base, and cover sheet to accommodate these anomalies.
That flex is being shown again with some off the odd infantry and the bikes. The attack bikes are not the best fit in the 1/2 deep bike slots. If I was running a bike army, I’d probably pick up a tray of the foam designed for IG heavy weapon teams for them. Or one of the deeper bike trays. The speeders need to be on removable bases to fit in the tray. I’m going to have to re-jigger them a little to make them work long term. I’m in the process of experimenting now for something fun, but suspect I’ll end up going with a more basic solution. The pred slot had cut outs that I removed to make space for the sponsons. It just took a minute with a hobby knife to cut the connecting bits holding them in. It looks like the extra optional bits are secure enough that they won’t come out on their own. Which is very nice.
Speaking of foam extras.
We’ve secretly replaced half this army with foam proxies, let’s see if he can tell the difference. If I ever want to field more drop pods then I own, I’m totally just going to plop down those foam ones.
So far, everything is good. I fit everything in a little over 2 KRUs, so it’s a good thing I went for the Kaiser 3, because I needed the space. Different armies pack differently, so if I wanted to tweak a list with packing space in mind, getting it down to 2 would not be hard. If I was making recommendations to a new player, I would add “Think of how it will pack in the case” to the list of things to keep in mind.
Now for the one big downside that came up; the extras:
The Kaiser 3 has 5 pockets, mostly useless. Here is the picture of it loaded for battle:
Those nice looking pockets on the side? Too narrow to hold a full sized book. Or the apocalypse templates (although with some work, they might fit; I didn’t push the issue) Normal templates do fit, and the pocket rulebook fits in nice. (Assuming the new DV small rulebook is the same size as the 4th ed I tried) While I could slide my iPad into one of those pockets, it was tight, so not something I’m likely to do. There is a nice pocket on the side I dumped all the small extras into, but not the books. Behind those odd shaped pockets on the front are two more big pockets, one on the inside of the bag, one on the outside. You can see the rulebook distending the front on the bag from the outside one; my codex and stronghold assault books are on the inside. Because they share the front of the bag, both of these nice, big, pockets are hard to utilize completely. I had trouble zippering the bag closed. If I didn’t have to drag the massive tome that is the 6th ed big rulebook, things would fit a lot better. I could move the codexes to the outside big pocket, and then use the inside one for big, thin, things like the apoc templates. Now there is a mesh pocket on the outside I could use, but I dislike have stuff exposed like that.
I’m reminded of the days before I got my iPad. When going to my weekly D&D session I had to drag 3-6 hardcover books with me. My gaming bag was cram packed and heavy. Then I got some digital copies of some books, was able to access other via the web, and my load evaporated. The bulkiest thing I needed to deal with was my dicebag. While I much prefer hard copies of books over digital, the connivence of having them all in one slim package is tempting. While I can’t fault KR for not accommodating the 40k core book (that thing is massive) I was annoyed that I couldn’t fit my codex at least into one of the small pockets. If instead of two equal sized ones, they had a 3/4 and a 1/4 side one, books could go into one side and templates the other. Right now those two nice looking pouches are empty.
As mentioned earlier I use battlefoam and mainly custom cut. The problem kicks in as soon as you alter your list.
I only have the small DV rule book so us easy to transport with in my case a large pocket, for brb, codex and templates.
Tape in the side, Dice in a pocket (not in a cube though) and objective markers and psyker cards in another.
It may be worth downloading the rb and codex to your iPad. I have a link to my shared PDF file. If you would like it just pm me mate.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Looks great though all snug...
I know how you feel - that massive hardback rulebook is a bitch to fit in any case. I have a mini-one I got off eBay, and I also use my iPad, both of which fit in my KR Backpack nicely with codexes and a little fishing box of tokens and dice...
Wow, I can see the big rule book shaped bludge in the bag I told myself a few weeks before I started heading to the FLGS that I would NEED the smaller one
As mentioned earlier I use battlefoam and mainly custom cut. The problem kicks in as soon as you alter your list.
I only have the small DV rule book so us easy to transport with in my case a large pocket, for brb, codex and templates.
Tape in the side, Dice in a pocket (not in a cube though) and objective markers and psyker cards in another.
It may be worth downloading the rb and codex to your iPad. I have a link to my shared PDF file. If you would like it just pm me mate.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Looks great though all snug...
ArbitorIan wrote:I know how you feel - that massive hardback rulebook is a bitch to fit in any case. I have a mini-one I got off eBay, and I also use my iPad, both of which fit in my KR Backpack nicely with codexes and a little fishing box of tokens and dice...
Zambro wrote:Wow, I can see the big rule book shaped bludge in the bag I told myself a few weeks before I started heading to the FLGS that I would NEED the smaller one
We’ll see how the rumors of a new rulebook this summer pan out. I’ll look to pick up either the next small rulebook they make, or just a DV one if those don’t come true. One problem with digital rulebooks for reference is that they are had to bookmark and flip though. So even if I had a digital copy, I’d still want a hard copy at the table.
When I bought my foam, I made sure there was room to grow. Not shown in the pics is space for my LR, some dreads, another pod, 3 rhinos, and a TON of various sized infantry. If I need overflow space, there is still my old silver case where I can custom pack anything. So while I can’t fit everything I own, I can get must of it in. But if I wanted to bring more then one or two speeders/dreads on the road, they’ll have to sneak into a rhino slot.
A better organization system for the extras is probably in order. I like keeping the dice brick, but it’s an odd size to put in a pocket. But I know at the end of the day if it is full, I have all my dice.
Well yesterday was long (as normal) but fun. Not a huge turnout, I think it was 6-8 people. Some people showed up late, other dropped and were replaced so it was hard to keep track. The format was 3 games, each with a primary and secondary mission (one of which was always kill points) and then the normal secondary objectives as tertiary ones. I won 1, lost 2, but had fun, so it’s all good.
First game was vs. orks w/ tau (farsight) allies. 3 battlewagons, some grots and loota behind an ADL. Riptide, drone squad, crisis suits and commander. We each had an objective to defend. My dice were not in the best mood, particularly with reserves. TFC did a great job blowing chunks of orcs from behind the ADL. Sternguard failed to kill the riptide, a job that was almost accomplished by one of the bike squads in melee. I went over the ADL and multi-charged a markerlight drones, grots and the riptide. I was killing enought every turn to force leadership checks, but the riptide held. I put together a good fight in the middle, but things went south at the end.
Second game was pure demons. Big Guns. Lots of plaugeberers, GUO, soulgrinder, some bloodleters, and 2 units of drones. This one went poorly for him. Sternguard took out his GUO first round, TFC was just erasing units. Grav bikers ended up tarpitting drones, and eventually killed them. Melta bikes with the captain carved their way through to reach the soulgrinder, botched their first attempt to kill it, endured a round of CC, fell back and then shot it to death. The only reason I didn’t table him was that I forgot/didn’t notice a unit siting in a ruined building until late in the game. Even so, he has one guy left on the table.
Third game was vs. chaos demons/marine ally. Mostly on the wing, 3 flappy demon things, 2 helldrakes, 4 obliterators, some cultists, and flamers. He said that around 1,500 of his 1,850 list was flying. Oof. Primary kill point, secondary relic. TFC wasn’t as useful, as he was spacing well and didn’t have a lot of ground targets to kill. Sternguard dropped into his backfield and killed all his troops over the course of the game (and survived) HF earned his points, but some of my rolling for these guys was lame. Stormtalon did well, downing a drake and putting some wounds on a demon before getting magiced out of the sky. The other drake was killed by the melta bike squad using the Dev doctrine to re-roll snapfires. 3 melta guns, w/re-rolls can get the job done. The game felt a lot closer then it ended as. I was holding the relic until the very last turn, had brought most of the demons (and oblits) down to their last wound, but was unable to put the final wound on any of them, and died at the end. Was fun though.
So in the fresh paint re-cap:
TFC is worth the hype. Strong in the first game, deadly in the second. Only in the third did it not fare well.
Bikes: Tougher then they look. Particuarly in the 3rd game they took a HUGE amount of fire. The captain was able to tank baleflamer hits, they were jinking off volleys of fire from obliterators, rock solid. Even basic bikers with no CC upgrades were able to hold their own vs. backfield units and were tough enough to tarpit some stuff. Grav guns were pretty useless vs the foes I faced. I think I fired them once all day (into the side of a battlewagon)
Remember when I first fielded my bike captain vs. demons, and I said I needed some melta bombs or something to deal with hard melee targets? Obviously I didn’t. I like the concept of the Teeth of Terra, but it just didn’t bring the pain. I think I’m going to have to get the good captain a new toy.
The fact that they were troops didn’t impact any of the games in the end, but they did free up FA slots.
The new sternguard sergeant looked cool, and didn’t waste points. The only time they were in CC was vs. cultists, so there wasn’t a while lot of time where the old ‘fist one would have been better.
I did feel the need for a CC element. It might have just been my matchups, but I missed my assault marines. There were a lot of combats where I was making one attack per marine, and things just dragged.
If I added another HQ, I could field the bikes as counts-as White Scars allies. But at least once, being ultramarines made the difference (snap firing the drake down) I may try the allies in the future, but am happy with their performance as-is.
McManiak wrote: It's all bout having fun mate and sounds like you had a great day.
I like the idea of you having Blue Scars too
Most of me had fun. My feet and calves are currently telling me that I’m a bit too old to spend ~nine hours standing up.
And hanging out with you White Scars is really starting to affect my thinking. The bikes are just supposed to be an accent force to my normal list. I’ve never neglected the fast attack side of the marines, but they are taking more of my mindshare these days. I might have to make my next list a dread filled gunline to compensate.
Though I'm not sure I approve of your waivering fealty to Macragge. I'll have to notify Cassius, you understand
If that’s the case I’ll include him in my next list. I fear no test of my loyalty.
…And last time I fielded him he did very well. It helped that I was facing tyranids and he was riding to battle with sternguard in a drop pod. I think next time charging down the assault ramp of my land raider might be fun. It has been too long since that venerable machine has seen action (the LR, not Cassius, although both fit ). Need to figure out who to put in there with him though… Possibly the new assault marines, or if it’s a while before my next game, maybe the vanguard vets. Barring that a command squad would work.
You heard it here first. Next list I write is going to be an armored column lead by Cassius. details to follow once I actually have another game scheduled...
It’s Friday, time for an update.
Almost done with the assault marines. Just working on the jump pack for the last guy. Paint drying as I write this, then the wash and touch up. Should be done (or almost there) by the end of the day.
The LSS is done, off to the to-prime box. Which is getting full.
I left a bunch of things off of it. The hand grips, antenna, guys in the back, door rails. I’m sure it will be fine, all the extras lead to an over cluttered model.
With the LSS out of the way, it’s time again to put something on the workbench for assembly. I think the first thing to do is clean up and magnetize 5 regular backpacks. Both the new AMs and VV are set up to be on foot if needed, so I’d like to have the option available. Particularly since I think the VV might be my new go-to cargo for my land raider, now that I can’t fit 5 termis plus a HQ in there. Or if I go with a command squad instead (also highly probable) I’ll need the vets for WYSWYG weapon options.
After that, I think I’ll make a few sergeants. At least one with a combi melta to formally take command of the 5th squad (the MM/M one) The one c-melta sternguard I have is tired of being plucked from his squad to lead them. On that note, I also need to make another HF and c-melta sternguard. As my collection of magnetic weapon arms grows, having some basic bodies set up to take them seems like a good idea. Doing two sarges mostly ‘armless would be good for the swap shelf. I’ll have to take stock of what weapon options I have before deciding what I’ll put together for them. A left handed powerfist/TH is going to be one of them, as I think I might switch up my bike captain for one. Either that or try my greenstuffing skills and make a burning blade.
McManiak wrote: Looking good mate. I love AM's me honest....
I see your avoiding the drop pod then. I've never built one but believe they are a nightmare.
You gonna do the bases on the AM's?
I need to get back to my basing experiments. I want to get my technique down on my WoC fantasy army before I start on my Ultras. It’s defiantly on the to-do list. Once I’m happy with the process, I’ll start banging out my marines, probably in large lots.
As strange as it sounds, that drop pod is good to go for primeing. I probably could glue it together a bit more before I take it out and hit it with the spray can, but it’s got so many finicky bits and interior spaces, I leave it mostly unassembled for painting. And yes, they are a nightmare. Emperor willing, this will be my last one (bringing me to 3). I should go back and magnetize the doors on my old ones now that I have the tools/parts.
I used one (turned upside down and sawn) to with a sky shield for some terrain I made for my local GW and it seemed like it could be a bad time. Pics are in my gallery I think
Did another week go by already? Someone call the Ordo Chronos, I think someone’s been mucking around in the timestream.
From a building standpoint, I got the 5 backpacks I wanted cleaned up and magnetized, in the prime box. I am trying to retro-fit magnets into the doors of one of my drop pods and it is not going well. Of the two doors I’ve done, things just don’t want to line up, and I think I’d need to upgrade to larger magnets to have any impact. Might just abandon the project for now, it’s not really needed (although would have been nice) But rather then have a project I hate acting as a roadblock, I think I should switch to something I enjoy.
From a painting POV, I’m working on getting this guy off the bench:
He’s been staring at me half painted for about six months now, and I’m tired of looking at him. Still a work in progress. I need to figure out what to do with the staff. I was thinking of trying a marble effect, but the longer I think about it, the more likely it’s gets going to be painted black. Was thinking about leaving the hands white gloved, but looking at the GW picture, they do them as flesh. On the back of the hand holding the staff there are a bunch of wires, which I took to be an augmented glove, but in the IoM they just graft that stuff right onto you.
It’s hard painting outside your comfort zone. With marines I pretty much know what do do with every kind of detail. I spend more time thinking about what I’m going to do with this guy then actually working him over with a brush. Less thinking, more doing. I’m sure it will work out, but if I don’t do something he’ll be staring at me for another six months. Part of my New Year’s resolution was to try to clear the projects I’m doing for my friend off my bench. And this guy is part of that.
He'd definately be a break for the constant flow of Ultra's you have coming onto your desk. He looks pretty good, the least you can do is give the marble effect a try; nothing ventured, nothing gained...
Where did you drill the holes for the magnets on the DP? I did mine at the very top of the doors. There are notches that fit into 'dents' on the DP chassis. Drill into the dents, and replace the notches with the magnets. That's how my DP worked out.
And speaking of drop pods. And ultramarines. I've been struck with the 'see it, want it' syndrome. At the FLGS yesturday, a guy was playing a full DP ultra's list with 2 kheres assault cannon weilding contemptors in dreadnought pods. It looked sweet! And it wasn't even painted. I was so struck by it, I spent a good amount of time yesturday working out a 2k pod list for ultras. Maybe that idea will take shape sometime....
I was trying one magnet centered at the top of the door. I’ve seen other people do this, but it just wasn’t working for me. The thought of replacing the two notches did occur to me, but doing that just seemed like a lot of work. Probably the best solution though.
While Ultramarines do have some perks when it comes to drop pod lists, I’d put us somewhere in the middle of the pack for what chapter tactics to use. Particularly when talking about dreads. Iron Hands or Salamanders are probably going to do better for you overall. Not to turn you away from the glory of the Ultramarines, but out motto of “We’re not the best, but we can sorta do that” is not necessarily the best choice if you have a focused list in mind.
I can’t say I’m a fan of the contemptor dreads. From a rules standpoint I think they are a little overpowered for their points, and from a model POV I think they look a little pot-bellied. I’ve played against drop dread lists before; they are a rush. Nothing says “armor saturation” like ironclads raining from the sky. I can only imagine the FW dreads would make it better.
You dont have to do both notches. I only did one of them on each door. The lack of symmetry bothered me for the whole of 10 minutes, then I got over it xD
I've always entertained the idea of an Ultramarines army with good, consistent painting and CORRECT unit markings etc. It's never come to anything, because building a massive collection on the idea of consistency and correctness seemed a bit of a stretch. You're right about IH or Salies for a DP army, but i'm too attached to the idea of good looking ultras with all the markings etc. It would be a way of amalgamating the two ideas.
And you're right about the slight OPness of the contemptors. I love the idea of assault cannons. Regular ACs are underwhelming. But Dual Kheres cannons are awesome in my mind.
The list I threw together, and have been pondering, contains 1 ICD and 2 contemptors as part of the alpha strike. Thats 3 av 13 vehicles, 2 of which have 5+ invulns to shooting.
Finally managed to find the time to read through your whole blog! Great stuff. I'm surprised the number of similarities as I read through. Same Company we're building, both not colouring shoulder rims, RT beginnings, other little bits that stood out. I really liked seeing your RTB01 guys and your whole collection shot too, are those IG on the bottom yours or you mates? Are they RT too? I think basing all your guys will help taking them to the next level, I rebased all my Marines and the majority of my IG (of which I have a company) so I know it's pretty daunting to do so many at a time but ultimately worth it. Snow theme will look good.
All of the new IG belongs to my friend. So anything actively being worked on is his. The GL trooper and lord commissar I finished; the psycher in progress; and the 3 raging hero ladies and the sly marbo who still need to be cleaned assembled and primed.
The old stuff on the shelf is mine from the RT days. I have two tactical, on support, and one assault squads, plus a command squad, assorted odds and ends, and some stormtroopers. I think the stormies might be the most recent purchases, I picked them up when they came out, not sure exactly when that was (late 2nd?)
3/4ths of the troopers are the RT plastic kit, but there is one metal RT assault squad mixed in there. They mostly collect dust these days. With the change to the platoon system, and heavy weapons no longer shoulder mounted, I’m not sure if I could field a legal army. I’d probably have to stretch to get a 200 point kill team
One of these days I should get them some close up photos, not just the wide angle storage shelf picture. Same with my BAs, some classic stuff hiding out there as well.
I need to light a fire under myself. I’ve been slacking off getting stuff done. On that note, I think I’ll go put a layer of paint on something.
Did another week really zoom by already? I feel at least one day went missing from this last one, if not two. Oh well, another week closer to spring. Not that you can tell with the solid inch of ice and frozen slush encasing my driveway. At least it gives me some real world examples for snow baseing. But not inspiration. It’s hard to get up the motivation to -add- snow to something when I’ve just spent time removing it.
So more work on my psyker friend here:
All the colors are on there, now it’s just a mater of touch-ups, shading, and changing my mind again. I did attempt to marbleize the staff, and failed. The technique I tried was to stiple shades of grey onto a black base, then lightly line them. Just looked like a blotchy mess. Need to clean it up a bit, or I might just black wash the thing and have an uneven texture to the staff. Seems kind of appropriate for a force weapon. But the end is in sight for this guy, so he’ll soon be collecting dust someplace besides my workbench.
Nothing very productive has been done in general this week. I did just finish re-playing though the campaign for DoW 2 (the basic game) Was fun. Might re-do the expansions, or put together some more minis. Whatever
Ahh, the DoW games... I love them, lol. stopped playing after DoW 2. It didn't run too well on my PC and I didn't like what they did with. I preferred to max out my troops and run face first into the enemy base and gun everything down
Looks good mate. I know what you mean about the weeks getting away though (although it's been quite warm for March here) as I have not done a scrap since the AM's. Others than ruining my dremel charger by thinking I could solder. (New one in the post.
I've got one of those cleaned, assembled and ready to prime for my Ultramar PDF. I might have to start mine soon and we can have ourselves a psyker-off.
Get that bloody drop pod done Nev! No excuses. I did two, and though it drained my soul to ameoba-like levels, I don't have to bother with any more until... 1 Stormraven, 5 tactical marines and... and that's it. Feth's sake. Drop pods :/
Zambro wrote:He looks great
Ahh, the DoW games... I love them, lol. stopped playing after DoW 2. It didn't run too well on my PC and I didn't like what they did with. I preferred to max out my troops and run face first into the enemy base and gun everything down
I preferred the original RTSDoW to the RPG style DoW2, but both were fun games.
McManiak wrote:Looks good mate. I know what you mean about the weeks getting away though (although it's been quite warm for March here) as I have not done a scrap since the AM's. Others than ruining my dremel charger by thinking I could solder. (New one in the post.
Maybe next week eh?
I have built electronics with a soldering iron, but I don’t think I’ve ever successfully repaired something. Tricky work.
Tigurius wrote:Oh, a primaris psyker!
I've got one of those cleaned, assembled and ready to prime for my Ultramar PDF. I might have to start mine soon and we can have ourselves a psyker-off.
Get that bloody drop pod done Nev! No excuses. I did two, and though it drained my soul to ameoba-like levels, I don't have to bother with any more until... 1 Stormraven, 5 tactical marines and... and that's it. Feth's sake. Drop pods :/
My excuse is the weather. I spray prime outside. While you might be having a mild and nice March over the pond, we are getting an ugly one over here. Last Wednesday we got a wintery mix where the type of precipitation changed every hour or so. End result was around an inch of frozen slush/hail/snow/rain that needed to be chipped of the driveway. Hopefully this week will be clearer, but the weather app on my computer is telling me we are looking at low 40s with 3 days of mixed precipitation. So no priming, and the last pod stays in the box.
Unless you are referring to the magnetizing project, which might see work this week. I’ll try replacing one of the nubs to the side, that seems it might work better then what I’m doing.
But my primary goal is to get that psyker off the bench. He’s almost there, and then I can move on to fun stuff again.
Apparently I'm spoiled when it comes to the weather, It was 70 here yesterday and when i woke up it was 33.......... and I was complaining. Hate that yall are dealing with all that up north. Really puts a damper on getting anything done. The Psyker looks good! Makes for a good change of painting just blue too lol. I was eyeing my Eldar Wraith Knight the other day just for a change of pace. But the pointy ears will have to wait a little longer.
Not the best picture. But to be honest, not my best work either, so it fits. I’m calling him done though, sick and tired of looking at him. He’s been clogging up the paint station, making it so I don’t want to sit down and work. Not that I can’t find plenty of excuses. But unless I notice something truly glaring about him, he’ll be off to his owner next time I head to my weekly RPG session.
Overall not a lot of progress this week (shocking, I know) Most of my free time has been sucked into the computer, not the minis. Motivation, why have you forsaken me? Hopefully the time spent doing other things will have recharged my painting batteries. I think I’m going to do the jump captain next. Actually looking forward to him.
I need to just start snipping stuff off the sprues and putting things together. I’ve got a bad case of decision paralysis on the construction workbench. So many options, what to do, and how to do it?
Not that I’m going to get any work done this weekend. My parent’s are flying in for a visit, so once I’m done procrastinating here, I need to clean up the house and run some last minute chores. And on that note I should probably be the responsible adult I pretend to be and call it here. Have a nice weekend all.
Good luck dude. Parent visits can be a nightmare sometimes. On Monday just put dome good tunes on and start clipping. It will be mild enough soon over there to star priming and then all your blues will go away. (Well at least onto your models haha).
Well, another week has come and gone. This one at a more reasonable pace. Of course, there were a zillion things I needed to get done this week, so very little progress. Tomorrow is The Boy’s 8th birthday, so a lot of running around prepping for that. Cake is in the oven as I type this. I’ll probably carve, frost and decorate it tomorrow morning. <Sigh> the problems of being an awesome daddy who makes cool cakes.
So I decided to put together the last of the Assault Marines.
Right now they are off the sprue, in the blisters sorted my marine, and getting the mold lines cleaned up. One down, about halfway through the second, then the last two. Then the sub-assembly and magnets. Two will be basic BP/CCW marines, the other two will be able to swap arms for PPs or flamers. All with have the option of jump packs or foot deployment. Not that I ever expect to field them with plasma pistols unless the core rules or codex gets upgraded. But by having a shoulder magnet, If/when things change, I’ll be ready. My “shelf” deployment is going to look like:
10 marines, 1xPP, 1xF, sarge with PP/fist
10 marines 2xF*, sarge with BP/powersword
*These are magentized
I do have one spare jump pack in my bits box. It’s an old, metal one from when you could get 3 to a blister. The other two were used on my jump chaplain and the powersword sarge. I might hold on to it in case I want to make another jump character (librarian most likely) or a new sarge for the assault marines, with magnets in his shoulders for options. Not on the short term things to do list though...
Progress is slow due to the weather. I do all my work in the basement, and this end of winter/early spring time it is cold down there. The melting/flowing groundwater from all the snow just sucks all the heat out. I have a little thermometer down there that was reading 60 last night. Hard to do precision work when you are bundled up, and painting is right out.
I dont think plasma pistols are ever worth it on assault marines, so it would have to be a HUGE change in rules to even consider it.
Although, saying that, I can recall a game of 40k on Vassal I had once. Some guy ran a 10 man squad on vanguard all with dual plasma pistols. I was amazed by how ludicrous it was in terms of play style and points. It made mince meat of my Vulkan and friends that drop podded near them.
I dont think plasma pistols are ever worth it on assault marines, so it would have to be a HUGE change in rules to even consider it.
Although, saying that, I can recall a game of 40k on Vassal I had once. Some guy ran a 10 man squad on vanguard all with dual plasma pistols. I was amazed by how ludicrous it was in terms of play style and points. It made mince meat of my Vulkan and friends that drop podded near them.
They used to be 5 ppm and the only option we had in 3rd. I think flamers were added in the 4th ed codex. 5th was when the price boosted up to 15 ppm and you could only field 1 in a 5 man stick, 2 in a full 10 man squad (the only time there was something besides the 2 per squad restriction) 6th we’re back to 2/squad regardless of size, but keep the crazy pricing.
Fun old time fact: Back in 3rd, you could double-tap pistols out to 12” if you didn’t move. So if for some reason you didn’t want to be in CC with something right next to you, you could put a lot of plasma into it for not a lot of points. So not only are we paying more for the darn things, but their rules have gotten worse!
My old time assault marines used to be arrayed in 2x5 man squads with each stick of 5 equipped with 2 plasma pistols. I forget when I took the knife to them and lopped some arms off, might have been early in 5th. One of the few times I actually modified minis to match changing rules.
In 2nd every AM could have any combination of kit you liked which was funny. I don't mind the current costings in the 6th ed book, flamers came down to 5pts instead of being 10pts for some reason and since 3rd AM themselves have come down in points in every book.
I normally run an 8 man squad with a flamer and a PF, handles most things well and is comparatively cheap.
I miss double shooting with pistols, it came in useful a lot for me in 4th (I sat out 3rd).
Working on all these assault marines takes me back to the old RT days, and my first army: Blood Angels. They’ve been put on the back burner since 2nd edition, seeing zero love, as the Ultramarines got the spotlight.
No longer!
One thing that’s been holding my back is the fact they the BA have changed a lot since the RT days. It used to be they were just a different paint job on an otherwise codex compliant marine chapter. These days, they are a fast hitting, jump pack and tank heavy army. I’ve got jump troops on the bench, and can strip the paint off my tanks and give them the red they deserve! So I’m going to switch gears, and reboot the old angels, and shelf the Ultras for a few editions.
Lets start with what I have:
Two tactical squads, an assault squad on foot, a dev squad (with more guns then sense) some terminators, HQ and command, and a dread. Not a bad core to build from.
The pair of tactical squads. ML/F for both. The proto-cyclone was a way to make more heavy weapons out of the stuff in RBT01. There might have been a picture of one in the rulebook/WD. Free thinking and homebrew rules were the word of the day back then.
How do you make assault marines out of a tactical marine box? Scrape together every spare pistol and knife you can, and carve your own chainsword out of sprue. Also, add one blister of metal assault marines.
3xML, PC, HB, LC, 2xFlamer, PG, bolter on the sarge is a legal load for a dev squad, right?
You’ve seen these guys before. Slightly better picture this time.
Stop the presses! That a 2nd ed sergeant there! Yup. Along with Brother Corbulo and the techmarine he’s the only non-RT marines in my collection. Also in the command squad is a kitbashed signals marine, apothecary, and pair of metal veterans. The guy with the bayoneted bolter across his chest remains one of my favorite sculpts. I should get a better pic of him.
You know how you can tell who the librarian is? He’s the guy with the book painted on him. Official codex marking, fo' reals.
RT dread with mandatory toothy grin? Check!
The standard bearer, like roughly half of my old BAs, was painted by my friend Dave. My freehand work is not that good.
My old LR took a melta hit on the back shelf of my car on a summer day. I’ll see what I can do to repair it. If not, the young whipppersnapper next to him can get a red paint job. For those thinking “Why camo” it’s my try to get close to the desert pattern used in the assault on Bantax. WD compendium, pg. 117.
So that’s the base I working on. Reinforcements will be obtained via simple green and the Ultras. Looking forward to playing the Sons of Sanguines.
P.S. Is April’s fools just an american thing? Or do other people do it as well?
Zambro wrote: haha, joking aside, that's alot of minis that have survived the years.
Are you going to do anything with them, or box them back up for this time next year xD?
That’s a big question. I could strip them and add them to my Ultras, but why? I have more then enough power armor, so what would they add? Sure, the old metals would spice things up a little, and are the ones most at-risk for a bath in the Simple Green. But I have more then two full squads of RTB01 Ultramarines, how many do I need? And while never pictured, in an pair of egg crates are 20 or so moreRT plastic marines, painted in a green/yellow camo, all without helmets, that were used as our PCs mercenary force back when we played RT as an RPG. If I’m stripping marines to add to a force, they are going swimming first.
I could scavenge RT-era heavy and special weapons, but frankly, with the exception of the ML, I like the new ones better.
Which brings us to the dust covered limbo that is my BA army. While I technically could field them as an army, I don’t have the modern rules, and even if I did, I lack any of the units that could be viable. I don’t need any of the minis for other projects. I have a sentimental attachment to them as my first army. So am loath to re-paint or part with them. If I did part with them, how much trouble would it be, and would it be worth it? I’m not an e-bay user. Some of them are not painted by me. While my friend Dave has recently waived all claims of his part ownership, I’d still feel bad disposing of the hard work and skill he put into his half.
They occasionally come out for photo shoots. Dread/LR size comparisons. A display of helmet stripes and their meaning. Experimenting with the new technical paints.
Sheer brilliance. You gad me going for some time. I was thinking, nah he couldn't, he wouldn't, would he?
I was thinking of doing something this morning along the lines of scrapping my scars in a heretic fit of rage but then started to actually like the idea so stopped myself and you'll be glad to know started painting my chaplain and a couple of Libby's.
Nice to see all the RT goodness. Got worried for a minute that you were 'joining the darkside' there...*phew*
You could always just use them as an ally force to your Ultras in say APOC etc, use them as Imperial Fists or Iron Hands, they have great chapter tactics and you wouldn't have to go buying Death Company or Nipple Marines...just an idle thought...
Joking, Those Blood Angels look really cool, as someone who hasn't had the privilege of looking at anything RT with my own eyes, It makes me wish I was born a bit earlier as I think the older models look wicked!
Good thing I finally managed to stumble onto your Blog otherwise I wouldn't have seen these beauties
Love the old stuff Beaky Marines, What happened to the RT landraider? tried to make a hot rod out of it? the upper tracks should be parallel to the lower ones.
RandyMcStab wrote:Nice to see all the RT goodness. Got worried for a minute that you were 'joining the darkside' there...*phew*
You could always just use them as an ally force to your Ultras in say APOC etc, use them as Imperial Fists or Iron Hands, they have great chapter tactics and you wouldn't have to go buying Death Company or Nipple Marines...just an idle thought...
The best lies are based on a kernel of truth I figured this would make a fun April Fool’s joke. While they don’t get the press that my Ultras do, I make no secret of my ancient BAs sitting around, and they do make cameos from time to time. That coupled with the jump pack troops that seem to be infesting my workbench made it plausible. And from a practical standpoint, I’ve been meaning to drag the boys out for a photo shoot and it was a good excuse.
I could use them for allied troops, but the question would be why? It’s not like I’ve got any units in the BAs that I don’t in the Ultras. I have considered fielding them as LotD though. Emperor know’s they’ve been lost in the warp enough to count. As for apocolyse, I guess I could use them if needed. But in my limited experience, apoc is focused more on the big guns, not the boots on the ground. That said, I do have a lot of heavy weapons, and if I needed an extra thousand points I’m sure I could find a place for them.
TheYellowSubmarine wrote:Rogue Trader? What's a Rogue Trader?
Joking, Those Blood Angels look really cool, as someone who hasn't had the privilege of looking at anything RT with my own eyes, It makes me wish I was born a bit earlier as I think the older models look wicked!
Good thing I finally managed to stumble onto your Blog otherwise I wouldn't have seen these beauties
Welcome aboard. There are some perks for being older then dirt. Access to classic retro minis is one of them. Not sure if it’s worth the aches, pains, and thinning hair, but at least I have cool toys!
Jehan-reznor wrote:Love the old stuff Beaky Marines, What happened to the RT landraider? tried to make a hot rod out of it? the upper tracks should be parallel to the lower ones.
I jokingly say it took a melta hit, but that’s actually fairly accurate. It was left on the back shelf of my car on a hot summer day. I don’t know how hot it got in there, or what the melting point of the plastic is, but I know it was close enough to do some damage. On my perpetual list of things to do is to turn it into a terrain piece. Very low priority though.
On the topic of progress, I’m done cleaning mold lines from the 4 assault marines on the bench. Torsos and jump packs were glued last night, and are awaiting magnets. Which I will probably get to today. My goal for the week is to get these guys assembled. The weather is getting nicer, snow is melting, and soon I’ll be able to prime.
Crummy lighting picture aside, here are the last of the assault marines. Built and ready to be primed. Which may actually happen sooner, rather then later. Temps have been hitting the low 60s, and most of the snow if off the ground. Of course, the melting snow has turned by yard into a swamp, so I’d like to give it a chance to dry out a bit before I grab the rattle-can and put some coats onto bare plastic.
Backpacks and flamers are magnetized. Not that I think I’ll ever use the plasma pistols, but they are there to future proof the guys. There’s the chance for access to meltaguns on assault squads like BA, and I’d want arms for that. But knowing my luck, the new option would be to replace the chainsword with a power weapon, and I’d have to do something to the other arm. But I’ll burn those bridges when I get to them. It wouldn’t be the AM’s first trip to the chop shop due to codex changes. And the flamers will work just fine for now.
Barring something odd, these should be the last jump pack marines to cross the workbench. You will, or course, see more of them over at the paint station. Now back to the sergeants/sternguard I said I was going to be working on...
Automatically Appended Next Post: Working on another HF for the sternguard squad. Tacked together ATM, figured I’d get some opinions before I glue.
Some more bits I might add on:
Don’t ask me where I got that fuel tank, I haven’t the foggiest idea. It has a dimple in the back to be compatible with a space marine. Or could be stuck on the back of a normal backpack. Sticks out a bit, might have to be cut down. The tabard and or seals I was thinking of adding to the HF shoulder, as it’s pretty bare.
One of the perks of scale creep is that the old style terminator HF is not out of place on a modern plastic marine. I’m not sure how far up I want to angle the flamer. As it’s the last thing that’s going to be glued, I can fiddle with it once everything else is set. Holding on a big lead arm with stickytac does not lend itself well to set angles.
Originally I was thinking of having the other arm holding the spare fuel canister. I kinda like the knife though. Still open for other ideas is anyone has any for what to do with that arm.
Right now with the knife out, I’m getting a fun attitude from this guy. “Suit up for bolter drill again sergeant? Can’t we grab the jump packs and go vanguard? Just once? <sigh> dibs on the heavy flamer, I want to be on point if we get stuck in!
McManiak wrote: Looking good mate. How's the weather? Is it nearly priming time? You'll get through about 10 cans of primer with how long you've been waiting, lol
Gusty winds and scattered showers, not a good day to prime.
The to-prime box isn't as bad as you'd think:
Razorback
Drop pod
LSS 4 assault marines
Tac sarge
HF sternguard
Spare bits and backpacks.
I guess I could add re doing the vanguard to the list, they only got a light partial coat out of the last can. But overall, a reasonable volume. Might be two batches worth, particularly if I put some more stuff together.
I should do the drop pod first, but I have a lot of hate for those things. But that and the two guys I just finished are more likely to find their way into a list.
The assault marines would be quick and easy to do. Banging them out would let me check a few more boxes off my "one mini a week" goal, which I'm pretty sure I'm woefully behind on. They would also let me formally close the book on the battle company apocalypse formation. If I was a betting man, I'd put my money here.
The LSS is another strong contender. I don't have one already and they look like fun.
The razor is boring and practical. It will probably end up sandwiched between two fun projects.
And who knows, there might be more stuff in the box before the weather clears.
McManiak wrote: You are teasing us with a "what may come" line there mate. Spill the beans.....
When I was rummaging though my bits box and extra sprues I had the thought to put together some more sternguard. But instead of normal guys, I was thinking about a small deathwatch killteam. I've got some wolf and DA bits, and a few inquisition shoulder pads from the commander set. Might do a squad of 5, or just a few as advisers attached to a sternguard squad.
Or the venerable dread. I had the sprues out looking to poach one of the heads, reminded myself how cool the kit looked.
The sky is blue and cloudless, the trees aren’t bent in half from the wind, and the temperature is in the mid 50s. For those about to prime, we salute you!
Basic can of white primer from Home Despot. Nothing fancy, but also half the price of the hobby branded stuff. I forget what I payed for it, picked it up last fall in a trip with a bunch of other things for the house. Tested it on some sprue, went on fine, no fuzz. Then on an old metal mini to check to see if it obscured details (figuring it would be easier to strip if problem arose) seemed fine.
So after a chunk of time outside in the fresh (although slightly propellent tinged) spring air, we get to here:
If The Wife asks about the white spot, I’ll just tell her it’s a persistent patch of snow. It’ll mow out anyway, not like I’m spraying on the deck or on the driveway.
Hopefully nothing bad will happen as these guys finish drying. They are back inside now. <crosses fingers>
But now that the to-prime box is empty, we need to fill it again. Last night I cut 5 marines worth the deathwatch off the sprues, and it’s off to mold lines. I’m still on the fence on a few things though. The first is warger. Right now they are all just bolters. If I wanted to be a little more fluffy and fun, I’d do things like give the dark angel a combi plasma, and the Imperial Fist the Heavy Bolter. And while they would look cool on the shelf, they would probably stay there. Giving them all plain bolters makes it much more likely they would see the table. I guess I could magnetize, but because there guys are their own paint scheme, the parts would not be compatible with the rest of my army.
Right now we’ve got:
A Dark Angel. Lots of bits from the ravenwing sprue here. Which actualy brings up a question I don’t have an answer to: Do the ravenwing have the DA logo on their shoulder, or just the ravenwing one? And if they go into the deathguard (a great cover to look for the fallen) which would they keep on their one chapter colored shoulder pad?
A Space Wolf. I think I need to tone down the wolfy-ness of this guy. Right now he’s got the wolf pelt back, the wolf skull shoulder, wolf backpack, and a wolf talisman necklace. While I know it’s entirely in character for him to be Wolfy Wolf McWolfson, of the Space (wolfie) Wolves, I think I need to cut back a little. Probably switch him to a normal back, without the pelt.
One of the sternguard shoulder pads looked more like a raven then an eagle with a small bird head and upswept wings. So a member of the Raven Guard will join my merry band. Beakie head, obviously. If I go for style over substance, he will lead the squad and get a lightning claw.
Two guys left don’t have and special bits to make them stand out. One I’m going to do as a White Scar. I know the Deathwatch paints the armor black, but you can still have honors, trophies, and purity seals and the like. What do the red jags of the tribal markings fall under? I know one of the reasons they leave the one shoulder colored is to honor the spirit of the wargear. Would hiding the marking also dishonor the armor? I might just paint some back on anyway, over the black in BFtBG. Just because the Scar had to paint it black doesn’t mean he can re-apply the proper markings in the blood of his foes.
The last guy I think is going to be either a Imperial or Crimson Fist. Trying to get a good spread of chapters here, and I like these guy’s style. Imp. Fists will add a much needed splash of color, but Crimson have more history.
Love the white patch mate. Also the introduction of a white scar makes me feel somewhat happy. Not sure about the markings as I really don't know about deathwatch.
10 Man Tactical Squad (195pts)
Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino
Land Speeder TML/HB (75pts)
Stormtalon Gunship w/Skyhammer (125pts)
Land Raider (250pts)
Predator (140pts) TLLC/LC
I said the next list I made was going to be a Ultramarine armored column lead by Cassius. This Saturday is the monthly doubles tournament at my FLGS, my friend has the day off (barring issues) and it’s time to load up and roll out. I really wish I had some of the new stuff painted. If I did, there would be vanguard vets in the LR, and the scouts would be in the LSS. But I refuse to put unpainted plastic on the table. So the scouts are going to ride to battle in style Close combat scouts lead by Cassius charging down the assault ramp. There will be blood and guts everywhere. Probably my own, mostly, but it will be glorious The rest of the list is the usual suspects. Only thing of note is I swapped out the main gun on the pred. Lets see if the TLLC is worth the new points.
In the P&M department a pair of assault marines are working their way across the paint bench. Hopefully done by the end of the week. Mold lines cleaned from 3/5ths of the Deathwatch. I had the thought of gearing them as a 200 point kill team, in addition to the basic bolter counts-as sternguard. Will need to think about how I’d equip them, or what else I’d need. The idea of a 5 sternguard/5 scout list could be fun, or just work out 200 points of vets. Need to think on this some more. I’ve not actually played killteam, so don’t have a solid grasp on what’s needed/expected.
Thats an interesting list you have there. LRs are hard to take out, so your scouts should see some CC. And a chaplain to boot... should see some positive outcomes
Zambro wrote: Thats an interesting list you have there. LRs are hard to take out, so your scouts should see some CC. And a chaplain to boot... should see some positive outcomes
It might just be my own doubts showing, but I’m reading "Thats an interesting list you have there” as “You are going to Dieeeeeeeee” I recognize I’m playing a far from effective list.
Putting the list together was an interesting exercise. The goal was to include both Cassius and the LR in a mechanized themed list. Doing it in a 1k list was rough. I like Cassius, but a chaplain on foot has some issues. And if I stick him in the LR, I can’t fit a terminator squad in there with him. The command squad I have is a mish-mash of useless stuff, and far to many points if fielded as-is. (Note to self: put together a new one.) So right now my options of what to put in the big box-o-death are quite limited. If I was makeing a 1,850 list with the same goals, I’d have a drop pod contingent I could stick the good chaplain in with (sternguard) while the LR took the termis.
To provide some extra context, may partner for the doubles game should be primarily SoB, possibly with IG allies. The IG would in the form of some vendettas for air cover. Which is one reason I’m a little more focused on long range fire then normal. There should be enough melta and flamers on the SoB side of the army. And because I’m not sure if the IG flyers are going to show up, I need the talon for keeping the skies clean. Although, push come to shove, I can aim enough LCs up into the sky to knock things down. Not the best use of the tanks though.
I think it looks fun, the only problem with armour heavy is you don't get much out of the UM Doctrines. I get that you're doing themed mechanized etc but it's a pity.
I like Cassius too but I've yet to use him, I hope to get the time to finish off my conversion of him soon and then slap some Nids about..
Let us know how the event goes, I'd be interested on how you got on..
Nevelon wrote: It might just be my own doubts showing, but I’m reading "Thats an interesting list you have there” as “You are going to Dieeeeeeeee” I recognize I’m playing a far from effective list.
haha... well, I was trying not to say it xD
But seriously, the LR should be tough enough to drop off your scouts, and with the chaplains re-rolls and plenty of attacks combat should go your way. Plus, your partner can pick up some of the slack.
A LR is a big investment in a small list. Let us how it works out
OK. While I have no problem “forging a narrative” and pushing some dysfunctional list across the table, it might be a little unfair to my partner in a doubles tournament to be shackled with a crappy list. So let’s revisit my plans, hopefully with a slightly more effective list. Goals remain the same: Cassius and LR.
Cassius
LR, w/ assault temies (2xLC, 3xTH)
5 sniper scouts
10 Man tac squad. MM/M, c-melta on a vet sarge. Drop pod
5 Man assault squad. 2xFlamers, Power sword on vet sarge, drop pod
I could put the tacs in a rhino instead, but I like the option of the AV or anti-infantry pod to choose on the first turn.
That list looks good, too. I like the drop pod contingent. Gives you some anti-tank / anti-infantry options for turn 1 (and it gets your AMs out for a game xD)
Turns out, the doubles had been bumped up to 1,200 a person. I knew this a bit ahead of time, so was able to modify my list. Basically the last one with extra FA from the first one. Small turn out, 4 teams total. “Small” is relative; 4 doubles teams makes for 8 40k players. One of the guys who was at adepticon last week told a story about chatting with someone who’s 40k play group was 2 other guys, and was floored that our area sent a dozen guys out there.
2x HF/M plas pistol superior squads in a MM immolator
2x exorcists
3x penitent engines
(As a P&M note, I painted all those tanks and about half of the seraphim. Not that this is a great detail shot)
We were both playing list we thought were slightly dysfunctional. Which was a little liberating.
First game was vs. IG and demons. Same demon player from my last tournament: squads of plaugeberers, bloodletters, GUO, 2 soulgrinders. IG was a bunch of basic russes, a chimaera, vendetta (only flyer that day besides mine), some squads of guardsmen, a psyker, and some officers. Mission was hold the home objective, and kill one of the partners. Could have been secret, but neither side made any effort to conceal that the SoB and IG were the ones handing out the VPs. The demons mostly pushed forward while the guard shelled from the backfield. I dropped forward aggressively, rampaging though the guard lines (with some support) while the Sisters shot and slowed down the demon rush. Against aggressive armies that push forward, the penitent engines don’t need to walk across the table. 2xHF on each, plus the CC blenders are nasty when they can be brought to bear. LR took an unlucky LC hit and blew up midfield, but the terminators made a last turn 10” charge though cover to harvest a VP from a guard squad. We managed to push the demons off of our objective at the last moment (never got close to theirs) and won on VPs. We killed a -lot- of guardsmen.
Second game was necron/DE (Boats, boats, boats) DE had 2 of the big transports, some bikes, scourges, talos, small transport w/HQ. Necron was a pair of ghost arcs, monolith, some tesla gun skimmer thing, two scarab swarms, and a wraith/destroyer lord squad. Long table deployment, Purge as primary, relic as secondary (which was ignored by both sides) They came at us full throttle. Bloody game. My LR was half eaten by scarabs (down to AV7) but they were then flammerd off by some friendly sisters. I then had a few more round of blasting things before the monolith came over and rammed me to death. Glorious. When the dust cleared from the bloody conflict, we ended up loosing by a single VP. close and fun game.
Third game was DA ravenwing with a Imperial Knight, and Imp. Fists. with a unit of grav cents, CM, ADL, and a pair of melta squads in pods. He also had a TFC. Unfortunately, the guy who’s marine army it was had to go, so it was being played by a friend. Who didn’t necesarily remember everything about it, and hatesTFCs, so wasn’t firing it on principle. This is another game where they can at us VERY aggressively. The bikers scouted forward, and then rushed forward on their turn. We took them apart. I charged one unit with the termis, dropped my assault squad next to the other one and flamed it. The PEs took apart a drop squad of fists, and we shot most of one bike squad to death while the termis crushed the other. Turn two saw the end of the last of the raven knights in CC. Our soulution to the Imp. Knight. was to surround it with melta, with the seraphim on one side, my pod of melta behind, and long range fire from other angles. This didn’t work quite as planned. The angels scatterd right up in front of it and landed pretty much every hit. Even knights with shields up dislike flying gunslingers with inferno pistols, and it went up in a giant explosion. This killed most of the seraphim, and a few other troops that were a little too close. With most of their army in ruins at the end of turn two, the game was pretty much over. A few more turns of puppy-kicking as we rolled over the table purging the ragged survivors ensued, and ended with them being tabled by turn 5.
We left before results were determined (the other guys were still playing their last game) so I don’t know the final standing. Fun was had by everyone though. Some random musings on the results:
Penitent engines might be made of glass, but they pack a pair of HFs and can still blender things in CC. Respect them.
LRs full of termis are pricey, but can still work. I was glad of the LC/TH mix. Not every target needs the hammer, and the re-roll on the wounds helps get rid of ones. Even against an army packed full of things to kill it (necron with gauss and scrabs) the LR still got it’s licks in. But it is a lot of points in one box, and a lucky LC took it out in the first game.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the dice laughing. The dice were extra moody yesterday, on all sides. One highlight was the exorcists, who despite the pair of them fireing non-stop for 3 games, never shot more the 4 missiles.
New paint on the table was limited to the assault marines on foot. And just the BP/CCW ones, the sarge and flamers were borrowed from elsewhere. I’m liking this squad. Even when I scatter away from my target, the 6” deploy and the length of the template still burns things. While AMs might not be the best CC unit in the game, they were up to the job of butchering guard, necron warriors, and ravenwing knights. Cassius, obviously did some of the work there.
Army goals were to get the LR and Cassius on the table. The LR did well for itself, showing that the old beast still has some fight left in it. Cassius has hate to spare, and shows no sign of slowing down. He personally killed and IG primaris pysker, the traitor officer in charge of that army, and a handful of his closest troops. Later he carved his way though some necrons warriors, and was working on the necron lord when time was called. Last game he put down Sammael and his last knight biker, and crossed the table to put the final wound in on a grav cent that was involved in a lengthy slap-fest with a tactical squad. I will take his survival in all three games as a sign of his approval, which should put down any rumors about my disloyalty to Macragge.
OK, this is getting a little bit long. The day was full of fun details, but I need to stop. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
Wow, I suddenly feel overwhelmed about how many people play my my FLGS. We have 24 people playing in the campaign + an unknown number of people who aren't... But I guess its because we are in Cardiff, which is the capitol of Wales. And being a capitol city drums up a lot of gamers.
Game one sounds fun. a 10" charge through terrain? I bet the guard player was pissed
And you butchered a list with a knight in? Congrats. I've never played a Knight, but i'm sure it was no easy feat.
I guess some higher power gave you a thumbs up for Cassius. Sounds like he really pulled his weight. *Picks up the marine book to look at his stats...*
Zambro wrote: Wow, I suddenly feel overwhelmed about how many people play my my FLGS. We have 24 people playing in the campaign + an unknown number of people who aren't... But I guess its because we are in Cardiff, which is the capitol of Wales. And being a capitol city drums up a lot of gamers.
Game one sounds fun. a 10" charge through terrain? I bet the guard player was pissed
And you butchered a list with a knight in? Congrats. I've never played a Knight, but i'm sure it was no easy feat.
I guess some higher power gave you a thumbs up for Cassius. Sounds like he really pulled his weight.
*Picks up the marine book to look at his stats...*
The guard player was laughing at it. The dice were all over the place, and the game was mostly decided at that point.
One really fun perk of Cassius is when there is just one guy left in the squad with him, and you get to use the average toughness score of 6. While it’s fun when it happens with the last guy of the squad, one of these days I want to set up a buddy comedy piece where I team him up with another HQ and just fight my way across the table. My thought for this under the last codex was with Lysander. 2+/3++ 4W EW is a tough enough nut to crack, but add T6 to that for extra fun. With allies these days there are more options to choose from, possibly an inquisitor.
Our tactics for the knight was multiple threats, multiple angles. It’s armor is not all that good for something it’s size, it only has 6 HP, and the shield can only point in one direction. And it does not make you immune to fire, just gives you a 4++. The bonus melta gives you on the damage checks was important. The extra HP from the explodes results on the chart is what did it in. We got lucky killing it with the first squad, but if they didn’t do it, we had it’s number. The LR and the seraphim were in front, a pair of exorcists on the side, and my drop pod of melta behind.
From a Knight tactics POV:
They are tough, but not invulnerable.
Screening units are your friend.
Even in death, they serve. The big bada-boom at the end did more damage the it’s battlecannons.
Forgive the crummy iPad picture, but it’s just for a progress report/WIP update.
These are the two assault marines I had almost finished last week. Gave them their final wash and blacked their bases this afternoon. Still need to do their jump packs and at least the flamer arm for the magnetized guy. While I did paint up a pair of regular backpacks for use in my last army list, assault marines don’t get to be called “done” until they have a jump pack.
Put down a base coat on the sarge and heavy flamer marine, so they will be next up.
Last week was basically a lost week from a hobby perspective. The Boy had the week off from school, so I spent time doing stuff with him, rather the painting. A family trip to Boston the second half of the week ensured that not only did I not get any painting done, but didn’t do any posting here on Dakka as well (no wi-fi in the hotel). But now that all the snow has melted, the basement should start to get to a slightly more reasonable temp. I’m going to try to pick up the pace a little and work on two marines a week, to make up for my slacking the last month or so.
Mini supply drop. I exchanged a grab bag of spare marine parts to a friend for a project he’s working on for a bag of assorted nid bits to help me base my army. While I was out I grabbed a bag of 40mm bases to use for objectives.
Depending on how cruel I’m feeling, some of those nid stabby parts might have a run in with extra marine parts and a lot of BftBG splashed about. Make some work for the apothecary collecting the chapter’s due.
If I’m feeling kinder, the spare scouts from the LSS will be in forward positions observing the battlefield. Or ammo/fuel depots. Or servo skulls. Who knows what will emerge from my bits box.
From a painting progress standpoint, those two guys in a last pic are almost done. They just need their final blue wash and touch-ups. Hopefully finish them tonight. Then I think a pair of arms and jump packs.
Looks good, I think your stuff will benefit from some basing, always seems to make more of a difference than it should. I used a few Nid claws as converted daggers for my upcoming Sternies..might be worth a crack.
Hope next week has more modelling opportunities (modelling as in Airfix, not as in Cindy Crawford, not that I'm saying you couldn't or anything..).
RandyMcStab wrote: Looks good, I think your stuff will benefit from some basing, always seems to make more of a difference than it should. I used a few Nid claws as converted daggers for my upcoming Sternies..might be worth a crack.
Hope next week has more modelling opportunities (modelling as in Airfix, not as in Cindy Crawford, not that I'm saying you couldn't or anything..).
The world is not ready for my rugged good looks, I’ll keep my modeling restricted to glueing bits of plastic together.
I’m having problems uploading finished pics to the gallery today, but I finished with the guys on the bench. Well, not the extra bits, but I do have a basecoat down on the jump packs. Until I get pictures up, you will just have to trust that I have finished yet more sublime examples of the painter’s art, masterpieces every one. Or just more of my basic table-top work.
Edit: Got it:
I did a bit more with brown washes on these guys. I’m liking it better then the black wash on gold. Makes more of a warm bronze-ish tone. It’s what I used on the sternguard sarge a few pages back. I also used it on the sarge’s head. Tallarn flesh -> chestnut wash -> bronzed flesh. Some of it looks a little chalky/rough, but I like the way it worked in other spots, particularly the nose.
Still need to do the jump packs and the flamer, but the marines are basically done. Although as I type this, I noticed that I might want to wash the knife on the one guy. So they might get a little touch up work. But these are the last of the plain assault marines. Which means that they are also the final marines for a full apocalypse battle company! <insert wild cheering> With that in mind, there are a few things I need to do.
1. Re-evaluate my “shelf” deployment. Right now 5/6 of the tac squads are ML/F. I should vary them on the shelf, so instead of just grabbing assorted bolter marines from the tac section and then spare weapons from the extras shelf, I can just grab a full squad. Also, my Devastator squads are a one-of-each load, which is not good on the table.
1a. Assemble any new models required for updated deployment. Probably a sarge or two and some new command squad guys.
2. Transfers. I generally put these off and then do them in batches. Lots of guys need little “ ”s on their shoulders.
3. Base. Yup, running out of excuses. Need to pick up the pace on this project.
4. Photo shoot. In an ideal world, I’d finish steps 1-3 before doing this. But, being realistic, it’s going to take me forever to finish all those, and it’s not like I’m paying to get film developed, so I’ll probably do this a couple of times.
That is just for my company. There are still all the other random things that need to be done. In a pie-in-the-sky world I’d pick up enough transports to mechanize/drop the company, but that’s not going to happen. Right not the dedicated transport pool is 2 rhinos, a razor, and 3 pods. (Once they get painted, that is) So a bit off from what the TOE says a company should have, but about what I need for a reasonably sized army in game. I may pick up some more boxes, probably in the form of another pred, whirlwind, or hunter. So may be able to get a couple more rhinos on the field if needed. Right now I’m in build/paint mode, rather then buying more, so don’t hold your breath on seeing those anytime soon.
Next up will be the last bits, and then I think the jump captain. Or one of the vehicles. I need to get a start on those...
Cool stuff, I can't wait to finish off my company too but find myself painting 1st Co. hangers on. Look forward to seeing your guys based, transfer'd and posing for the mega photo shoot.
Transfers make all the difference (and bases) so yeah crack on with them if you can mate.
Take a company pic now, then after each stage as it will help you realise your progress (look at my scars company shots).
I too still have to get rhinos for the company finish. (Got 3 out of 8 but have a plan) We can finish these companies with some determination. ?.?
I either need to get a fisheye lens or move everyone to a table for a group shot. I’ll shuffle guys around later, once I adjust the shelf deployment. But I do have some separate pics. I should put a note in the first page in the thread, but will say it here now: If you have any questions about anything you see, or want close ups or alternate angle shots of anything, let me know.
Tactical Marines, Squads 1-6 With the exception of 5th squad, they are all ML/F. 1st and 4th are both RT era beekies. Some info on them was a few pages back when I did a photo shoot of my old RT stuff. Which is why they have separate squad pics. 2nd and 5th are both from the 3rd ed starter set. The 5th has had it’s weapons swapped out for melta, and their squad pic does not reflect the new sarge. 3rd squad is composed of 2nd ed “I love my bolter” marines. 6th was receently upgraded from 2nd ed to 4th ed Battle of Macragge marines.
Devastator Marines, Squads 9-10 (note to self: swap with AM on shelf) The heavies are all metal hybrid kits dating from 3rd. The sarge in the 10th is from the command squad of the same era. These guys are the worst offenders for bad shelf wargear. I didn’t pick up the new dev box until mid/early 5th IIRC, so there is a lot of inertia behind their deployment. The spare body bolter marines are odds and ends from across time. Some RT, some 3rd. Filling up these squads was a low priority.
Assault Marines, Squads 7-8 Squad 7 is brand new. While the sarge is solid, everyone else is fully magnetized. The powersword sarge is actually composed of random marine parts, and was put together after the older assault marines. His jump pack is a chunk of metal bought separately. (3 in a pack) Squad 8 has seem some use. And some surgery. Back in 3rd, they were fielded as two sticks of 5 marines, with a pair of plasma pistols each. Early in 5th I think I took the knife to them and changed them to their current configuration. The PP/PF sarge is so comically overpriced for a 1W model he will never see the table as-is. Looks cool though, so he may be spared a second round with the hobby tools.
Dreads and Command The Ironclad still has the hurricane bolter on, as last time he hit the table he was trying it out. Not his normal config. Former Captain Fabian is the old chunk of lead in the middle. He’s how I reconcile there being two named captains for the 3rd co in various sources. His name is on the scroll on the powerfist and the RT captain insignia is painted above the sarcophagus. 3rd? ed multipart plastic dread is the final member of the walking dead. TLLC/ML is not an unusual load for him. In theory the quadgun donate TLACs for him to use, but they normally stay with the ADL. Captain Ardias, armed with a stombolter and powersword (more likely counts-as relic blade) does not see much time on the table. I’d hate to retire him to the spares shelf, but he is not well equipped. Kinda embarrassing for someone with the title "Master of the Arsenal” The rest of the squad takes there cues from the captain. The apothecary is OK. Standard bearer would probably be better served with a BP/CCW. PF/BP is not a combo with a lot of synergy. My lieutenant commander is filling in as the company champion. The last guy is a throwback to shooty 3rd edition command squads. It used to be that techmarines had to buy all their gear, so you didn’t really want the servo arm for a shooty squad. You did want the signum thing that boosted shooting though. So I grabbed the shoulderpad from a vehicle accessory sprue, and kitbashed a stormbolter for him (they were good once) The chaplain is currently kitted out as Cassius. Scratchbuilt combi-flamer. Most of the time he’s packing a bolt pistol and a jump pack (shown to the side)
Spares: Here is all the stuff I constantly swap in and out to field a slightly more effective army. Here you will find the newer plastic heavy weapons. 5th squad’s old sarge and ML. A pair of both melta and plasma gunners. And other assorted bits and bobs.
Transports not pictured. They have shots in my gallery somewhere. A pair each of rhinos and drop pods painted, and another pod and a razor in progress.
OK, I think I need to wrap up this wall of text. But there you have it. Ultramarines 3rd Company, Scourge of Xenos. Ready for battle.
Once before, in a farewell to 5th apocalypse game, did the whole company take to the field. Each player brought a 3k list, and played on a giant “H” shaped table, GM’d with some narrative stuff going on.
3,000 points, full company, no chapter assets.
It was an interesting game. Turns took way too long, there was a definite divide between people with actual apoc armies, and those of us who just brought 3k work of stuff to the table. The guys in the middle got hosed. The table shape hurt a lot. Both massive choke points and long stretches of nothing where all you could do was run because the enemy was yards away. By the time I got a chunk of my footsloggers close to somewhere relevant, they got apoc-pie plated by something, somewhere, killing double-handfuls of them. When we took a break circa 10 PM, and most of the guys went to the bar next door for a drink, I said my goodbyes and packed up. We were nowhere near done, and at the rate we were going would be greeting the dawn before the last turn.
I still had fun in spite of the sludgy mechanics and slow play. There were a dozen or so of my fellow hobbyists, often standing around with nothing to do. So we chatted about our armies, looked at paintjobs/conversions on the table, and in general had a good time. I’m not completely soured on apoc games, and learned a lot from the one I was in, but think I’ll avoid this sort of mega-game in the future.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Onward with other projects.
I think you've all heard me say how much I hate drop pods. But it’s not going to paint itself, so I need to start hammering away at it. I will probably not be doing it all in one stretch, but a little bit here and there in parts. Today’s contribution is the base and central console. I should probably do the magnets for the doors sooner, rather then later. Like before I primed it, but that ship has sailed… Still plenty of parts to paint while I get around to the doors though.
I think the jump captain is up next for paint. Once I can get the will to return to the workshop.
Quick build this morning. Just a basic company champion. Using mostly stock parts from the command squad box. Only odd thing is his sword, which is from the ravenwing sprue, but I carved and shaped the flare at the end off.
I think the thing with Apoc games is to play the same game as your opponents. I really like big games with roughly balanced formations and maybe one Superheavy each (and no multiple D weps like Revnant titans). But if you've got a balanced but big force and the other guy has 3 Warhounds and 2 Draigos it's less fun indeed. If you can balance it roughly and agree to exclude dumb stuff (like the old flank march) it can be a great day of 'splosions.
The teeny-tiny one on his chest? That’s only a couple of brushstrokes wide? I was thinking about quartering it, blue and argent. With 3 " “s on each of the blue fields to represent the 3rd company, and a yellow sunburst on the white corners to represent the golden illumination of the Emperor of mankind.
But I’ll probably go with plain gold, like the rest of the aquila.
It’s an interesting thought to put something there, but let’s be honest, far beyond my skills to work on such a small spot. At best, I could halve the field, and possibly freehand a on it. But it would probably end up looking very sloppy. There have been a few times in the past I have tried to freehand heraldry, and it’s never worked well. Admittedly, it’s been a few decades, but if I do try again, it’s going to be something much less ambitious.
Hm, looking back on my last post, I might have been a little snarky. Sorry about that.
Quick update:
Champion got a prime, and I also cleaned up, assembled, and primed with him the three lovely Kurganova sisters. And a powerfist (more on that later) The ladies are part of my friend’s collection on the get done eventually list. Reasonable amount of detail on the models, but completely different then GW’s sculpts. Even the Eldar aren’t as thin and frail. It doesn’t help that they are a bit on the exaggerated side. I think 80% of the models are legs and breasts.
The powerfist is the reason the spray can got dragged out today. Normally I wait for a larger pile before I prime. But this Saturday is the second one of the month, and that means team tournament day at the FLGS. Stars aligning, my SoB friend has the day off, which greatly affects the odds of me heading up there. He was mumbling about bringing his FoR, so I was thinking about bikes, to be the one going out, claiming objective, and getting shot of the table. In most of the times I’ve brought the bike captain out, I’ve wanted some AV level strength. While I like the concept of the Teeth of Terra, in practice, it’s been a little lackluster. So I’m probably going to just run with a powerfist this time. But to do that, in my normal WYSWYG fashion, I’d need to get one painted. None of the vanguard have one, so I needed to clean up and stick a magnet in one. Picking one out of the bits box was harder then I thought. Over the years I had accumulated 6 different styles of left handed powerfists. This one fit the bike the best, and will also eventually see use on sergeants and veterans.
And now I should probably put a layer of paint on it. Cheers all.
You make it sound so dirty. In all honesty, they are going to join the arcoflagelents in the back corner of my painting table and wait for their time to roll around. But they are now off my things to build list, so my assembly workbench is a little tidier.
I like the bikes, but I also like mixing up my lists to keep things fresh. Right now the 1,000 point list I’m noodleing around with looks like:
Bike captain, AA, fist, meltabombs
4+1 bikes, grave, plas, c-grav, HB attack bike
4+1 bikes, 2xmelta, MM attack bike
5 man Dev, 4xLC
TFC
TLLC/ML dread.
Stormtalon, skyhammers.
Not sure what to do if they bump the points up to 1,200 again. Might upgrade the captain to a CM and add scout bikers/landspeeders. Or assault marines. Haven’t thought that far ahead.
I always wonder why people take devs with 4 las when a pred with 3 las is cheaper and harder to kill. Granted it is 1 less shot but still, you could add the points to something else.
Just a thought. I like the list otherwise.
Will put mine up later with a group shot of what's going to the tourney.
In this case, it’s because my ally is taking a fortress of redemption, and the bunker under the front walkway had more firing ports then I need. So I basically get a AV14 box I can shoot everyone out of.
As an Ultramarine the Devs get some other perks as well. If I want to shoot at flyers, I can use the devastator chapter tactics to re-roll snap fires. That many LCs with two chances to hit each should land at least one hit. And most things on the wing don’t fare well to lascannons.
But I will admit to fielding my pred far more often then I do my Devs. It’s my go-to option for a HS slot most of the time.
Those female IG models are pretty sweet. I've seen one or two of them painted before and they do make a nice addition to ranks of guardsmen.
Your list looks good. Lascannon devs will definately be right at home within the FoR. You make me realise that my Scars literally ignore 80% of the other options for SM. I have no tanks, no dev / assault squads, no dreads, not even a humble tactical squad... I've only got the 20% of the codex that is competitive and mobile. Something is going to have to be done about that...
The teeny-tiny one on his chest? That’s only a couple of brushstrokes wide? I was thinking about quartering it, blue and argent. With 3 " “s on each of the blue fields to represent the 3rd company, and a yellow sunburst on the white corners to represent the golden illumination of the Emperor of mankind.
But I’ll probably go with plain gold, like the rest of the aquila.
It’s an interesting thought to put something there, but let’s be honest, far beyond my skills to work on such a small spot. At best, I could halve the field, and possibly freehand a on it. But it would probably end up looking very sloppy. There have been a few times in the past I have tried to freehand heraldry, and it’s never worked well. Admittedly, it’s been a few decades, but if I do try again, it’s going to be something much less ambitious.
A quartering scheme could look good, fluff wise, UM champions wear the colours of their noble house on their chest shield. Mine is just one quarter green, one quarter white and two quarters gold. No freehand, but looks a bit more personal, we both know you're a far better painter than me, you could pull it off.
Zambro wrote:Those female IG models are pretty sweet. I've seen one or two of them painted before and they do make a nice addition to ranks of guardsmen.
Your list looks good. Lascannon devs will definately be right at home within the FoR.
You make me realise that my Scars literally ignore 80% of the other options for SM. I have no tanks, no dev / assault squads, no dreads, not even a humble tactical squad... I've only got the 20% of the codex that is competitive and mobile. Something is going to have to be done about that...
Just because you play White Scars doesn’t mean you can’t use everything else in the codex. Except maybe dreads. I’m pretty sure you guys don’t use those at all from a fluff POV. But there is more to life then just bikes. The problem is your bikes are just so darn good, you don’t need anything else.
RandyMcStab wrote:Devs don't die to a single deep striking MG shot...like my Hydra and CCS Chimera in my last game, damn Blood Angles...
Melta can take down tanks, plasma roasts devs, there is a downside to everything…
The teeny-tiny one on his chest? That’s only a couple of brushstrokes wide? I was thinking about quartering it, blue and argent. With 3 " “s on each of the blue fields to represent the 3rd company, and a yellow sunburst on the white corners to represent the golden illumination of the Emperor of mankind.
But I’ll probably go with plain gold, like the rest of the aquila.
It’s an interesting thought to put something there, but let’s be honest, far beyond my skills to work on such a small spot. At best, I could halve the field, and possibly freehand a on it. But it would probably end up looking very sloppy. There have been a few times in the past I have tried to freehand heraldry, and it’s never worked well. Admittedly, it’s been a few decades, but if I do try again, it’s going to be something much less ambitious.
A quartering scheme could look good, fluff wise, UM champions wear the colours of their noble house on their chest shield. Mine is just one quarter green, one quarter white and two quarters gold. No freehand, but looks a bit more personal, we both know you're a far better painter than me, you could pull it off.
I’m flattered that you think I am a better painter then you; not sure I agree though. But one of the reasons to do this whole blog thing is to push myself become a better painter, so I will try to remember to quarter the shield when I get around to painting this guy.
But right now I’m working on the powerfist, and just put down the first basecoat of blue on the jump captain.
I also shuffled around some guys on the shelf. One problem with changing who’s in which squad is the eras of the marines. Nobody wants to hang out with the 2nd ed guys. I think I might make a “modern” mark 6 beekie out of the new tac box, and give him the HB off the sternguard sprue. Use him to replace the homemade ML from the 4th squad. Dev squads were just a quick swap to make them 2xLC, 2xML and 2xHB, 2xPC. Much better role identity, with a little flex still in there. Still need to figure out what to do with the command squad.
Command:
Apothecary: BP/CCW Standard Bearer: Bolter
Champion: BP/powersword, combat shield
Vet 1: BP/axe
Vet 2: CCW/SS
Which bring me to the to build pile
For the company:
C-plas sarge for 3rd squad (gun arm magnetized)
Mk6 HB for 4th squad
C-grav sarge for 9th
Foot captain, both arms magnetized
Command squad vet 1: BP/axe (might magnetize, or just glue)
Command squad vet 2: BP/SS (definitely magnetizing gun arm. Debating giving him flamer/SS as his basic load. He’s on point)
For the swap shelf/other:
A CC sarge to swap in. Might magnetize both arms, or just the swordarm.
c-flamer arm to swap as needed
c-melta sternguard
Automatically Appended Next Post: Sometimes you just need to put your fist through someone/somethings skull. That’s why we use powerfists. Accept no substitutes. Well, you can swap in chainfists or thunderhammers if you need to. You do give up the visceral feel of popping heads open and having the brains ooze between your fingers though…
And a 1k list that frankly puts more fire downrange them some of my larger ones:
Edit: Turns out, we’re doing 1,200 each. So take the above picture and add 3 scout bikers and a TLLC/LC pred. This is not quite every lascannon I own, but getting pretty darn close...
Captain Epathus, Master of the Rites, commands the Ultramarines 6th company. Traditionally, this reserve company trains the tactical marines in it on the use of bikes, and the swift-striking type of warfare they execute. Captain Epathus earned his position in the 6th due to his mastery of bike tactics he learned fighting along side the legendary White Scars.
Reserve companies don’t just sit around waiting to replace casualties in the battle companies. They patrol, garrison and train constantly. So borrowing a solid firebase from Cpt. Sinon’s 9th company to act as an anvil for his bike’s hammer, Captain Epathus loads up into a strike cruiser to help keep the Imperium clear, and gain some experience for the young marines under his command.
Little did he know what was in store for him and his men...
<end recording>
So yah, I’m going to be playing White Scars tactics. Just looking at the army on the table, it would be crazy for me to do anything else. I feel slightly dirty, as I’m normally a strict WYSWYG player, and these guys are obviously Ultramarines. But the Captain does have a White Scars’ Helmet, and there is enough un-painted minis at the FLGS so I don’t feel like I should be punished for painting mine.
This is every bike I own. And almost every lascannon (only the Land Raider is absent) It pairs a rock solid firebase anvil with a highly mobile bike hammer. This might be the meanest list I’ve put together in recent history; I’ve got a positive feeling about it.
Which means I’m likely to get tabled. Should be fun though...
I just realized I lied about that being every bike I owned. I also have my bike chaplain. I don’t think it’s worth re-writing the list just to include him though.
I’m Forging a Narrative over here, cut me some slack!
It’s not just the wrongness of using the White Scars CT. That’s just mechanics. What makes me feel really dirty is not fielding any tactical marines. It’s unnatural. I’ve got 6 marines on foot. One is the techmarine with the TFC, so I can’t even say I’ve got a half dozen power armored footsloggers. My FOC mix isn’t that bad: 1 HQ, 1 Elite, 2 Troops, 2 FA, 2 HS. That’s a balanced force right there. Now if you look at the bikes as FA, it gets wobbly, but these are tactical marines from the 6th Co, so it’s all good.
Yah, I feel bad. Accepting reasonable ideas for my next list in penance. I already fielded Cassius, so I’m not worried about heresy.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
On the hobby front, here is the heavy weapon replacement for the 4th squad. He’s a big bigger then the old RTB01 marine he’s taking over for. That’s OK, it’s an old trope for the big guy to be packing the heavy gun. Hope he’s not that out of place once he’s painted up. It was nice that the new tac squad had the parts to make him. The studded pads have been around for a bit (I know there is one in the assault marine box) but the rimless shoulder, padless knee legs, and external tube chest plates were nice to have.
Well, my partner for the doubles tournament bailed on me. Can’t blame him: his girlfriends’s apartment burnt down when she was at work, so he’s spending the day with her instead. It’s a legitimate excuse. She’s fine, but her cat is MIA, assuming the worst, and probably all her stuff. Not fun.
I may just show up solo and try to find a random partner. I’ve done it before. But my list was designed with manning a FoR in mind, and is a little all offense, no defense. Not my typical TAC list.
The thunderstorms that are supposed to sweep in today/this weekend aren’t helping either. The grey overcast is doing a fine job of further dampening my mood, and the pressure front is making my bones ache (I love getting old)
At least she is okay, you can replace bricks & morter but never a life!
Can you put a second army together, and maybe invite someone for the fun of it? Could be like Telion teaching a scout the ways of war (you being Telion of course).
Either that or blow off the tournament if you aren't feeling it and drop by your friends with a bottle of wine & some beers, give some support.
(sorry if the last part sounded condescending, it wasn't meant to be, just tinking that they might need want some company or help to sort stuff out)
At least she is okay, you can replace bricks & morter but never a life!
Can you put a second army together, and maybe invite someone for the fun of it? Could be like Telion teaching a scout the ways of war (you being Telion of course).
Either that or blow off the tournament if you aren't feeling it and drop by your friends with a bottle of wine & some beers, give some support.
(sorry if the last part sounded condescending, it wasn't meant to be, just tinking that they might need want some company or help to sort stuff out)
Stuff is stuff, and can be replaced. I’m still working on what I can do to help. Trying to avoid duplicate assistance. And it’s not condescending, and is in fact good advice. I’ll probably end up doing some sort of meals-on-wheels, or at least a cookie drop.
As for the tournament, getting a partner is not an issue. There are always a few people who just show up, or barring that the store owner will play to even things up. Right now I need to figure out which I need more: get out of the house and distracted, or a cup of tea, some cookies, and the sofa. And frankly, I’ve got a full plate on Sunday, so a quiet Saturday might be the better option.
Nevelon wrote: a cup of tea, some cookies, and the sofa.
As a Brit, this is my default mode. (Who doesn't love tea?).
But having said that, I tend to feel a little bit worse when I'm lazing around doing a lot of nothing when I could be out with friends...
Bad times man. As has been said, at least they are ok and hopefully the cat turns up ok too.
Maybe just chill out over weekend snd if the moid catches you in the morning then just go to the store. You could just mill around and watch a few games (whilst drinking tea and eating cookies).
Nevelon wrote: a cup of tea, some cookies, and the sofa.
As a Brit, this is my default mode. (Who doesn't love tea?).
But having said that, I tend to feel a little bit worse when I'm lazing around doing a lot of nothing when I could be out with friends...
McManiak wrote:Bad times man. As has been said, at least they are ok and hopefully the cat turns up ok too.
Maybe just chill out over weekend and if the mood catches you in the morning then just go to the store. You could just mill around and watch a few games (whilst drinking tea and eating cookies).
I am, fundamentally, an introverted hermit. Being out in crowded public places drains a lot out of me, even when I’m having fun. Sunday is Mother’s day, and I’m hosting it (kinda last second) so not only do I need to make it special for The Wife, but also her sister (plus niece) and cousin (and her three girls). My brother in-law will also show up, but being a guy on mother’s day, he’s low on the “make it special” list. So yah, it might actually be a good thing I’m passing on heading out to the FLGS. A solid day to recharge (and prep) should go a long way.
And just so there is some hobby content in this post, I cut the bits for the sternguard c-melta trooper and started cleaning them up. I’ll try to get him finished tomorrow. I also put a little more work in on the pod and jump captain. Not much, but some more painting progress.
“Since when was a plate of cookies added to the mysterious objective chart?”
“Must be new in 7th”
“That should stop some of the internet whining. So we get extra VP for holding it?”
“Nope, but if we have it at the end of the game, we get to eat the cookies”
Take and Hold Victory in one minute “Stand fast my brothers!”
“Cookies and Honor!”
“We munch for Macragge!”
OK, got some progress done today. The c-melta sternguard is done, heading to the prime box. His gun arm is just sitcky-taced on for the picture, separate for painting. The other two guys are new sergeants. A tac sarge with a c-plasma, and a dev sarge with a c-grav. They are almost entirely tacked together for the pic, still need to clean them up and glue. not to mention magnetize their gun arms.
It’s a house rule I doubt most people would object to. Except gluten-free players, or those on diets. If you wanted to change the nature of the game, You could eat a cookie off the plate at the end of each turn. This would prevent late game objective grabbing, and promote actually holding objectives.
Chocolate chip cookies aren’t really good for 40k themes. I’ve put some thought into how to make cookies that do, but that would probably involve making some sort of custom cookie cutter and/or a lot of work. Although now that I think about it, I do have a collection of different sized circles, and small letters. I might be able to do little =][= seals.
Yesterday was successful on the hobby front. All three of the chaps in the last picture are now waiting in the prime box. I think I might put together a vehicle next. Either the regular speeder I have kicking around, or the dread.
Zambro wrote: different sized circles, you say? Make nurgle cookies! xD
The chaos symbols wouldn’t be too hard. Well, Tzeench is kinda twisty, would be irritating. But that would make me some sort of heretic. And who would want to eat nurgle cookies anyway?
Nevelon wrote: And who would want to eat nurgle cookies anyway?
Heretics, traitors... McManiak and his nurglings...
Buca, the biker helmet is back on page 2, around half way down
Time flies when you are having fun. The captain’s build is way back near the bottom of page one, and the finished pic is on page two. There are a few more shots hiding out in my gallery. They all tend to be from the same side, I’ll try to grab some alt angle shots next time I drag my camera out.
OK, I got the camera out an snapped a few new shots of the bike captain, as requested. I’m going to start with the old pic, as I think it displays his helmet the best.
White prime
Painted white
Grey wash for recesses
Re-painted flat areas in white
Eagle in gold w/black wash
Eyes are metallic green.
Red jag and crest are blood red and an uncharacteristically steady hand. Freehand detail work is classically not one of my strong points. I’m more of a basecoat/wash/drybrush kinda guy.
Nothing like a close up to show the flaws. Minor build mistake with the flagpole thing: it’s not sitting flat. Could have done a cleaner job on the purity seal. Didn’t paint the bolter rounds in a brass color.
Due to his pose, getting a good shot was very hard. This is the best my crummy photography skills could muster. The arms should help balance things out once they are done. They are next on the to-do list. Not sure I’ll finish them up this weekend though. I need to go see Godzilla tomorrow as well as bake a birthday cake for my niece. (and spend a chunk of Saturday at her party)
I also finished two of the harnesses for the drop pod. Slowly plugging away at it.
Construction has begun on the Venerable Dreadnought. Love dread kits, they are a joy to assemble.
So I started this blog one year ago today. Wow, time flies. 9 pages, 262 replies, and some 10k+ views. Not bad. Looking back, I’ve done a reasonable amount of the things I wanted to, and am making progress on most of the rest, albeit at my glacial pace.
At this point I’ve spent about 85% of what I got for selling my M:tG cards. All things considered, it’s gone a reasonable distance. A moderate sized Eldar force, a respectably large Marine force, a pile of hobby supplies, a small stack of rulebooks, and a KR case with some extra foam to drag it all around in.
Let’s revisit the goals I set early on and see how I’m doing:
Restart my Eldar.
--Learn how to strip paint, clean up old stuff.
--Buy new rules, add units to make a viable army.
--Construct a webway portal, either purely scenic, or as a skyshield landing pad.
--Base army with a grass/maiden world scheme.
OK, lot of failure here. The only thing I can definitively check off is learning how to strip paint. I really need to get back to work on these guys.
Flesh out my Ultramarines.
--Add bike captain, and enough bikes to fill 2 troop picks.
--Add more sternguard, with weapon options I currently lack (HFs, more combis).
--Expand HQ options (counts-as Lysander, MotF w/bike/cbeamer/foot).
--Fill out army with new toys.
--Construct polar fortress display board.
--Base army in an arctic scheme.
OK, this is looking much better. The bikes are done. Sternguard are all assembled and in various stages of the pipeline. Less need to combis now, so that’s less work. HQ options are a mixed bag. I’ve got a new jump captain almost done, but the codex change dropped the need to make counts-as special characters. At some point I still want to make a MotF, but I think that might wait until it can be done in plastic. The one that came with the TFC was irritating enough. New toys we have in spades. There are always more things out there to get (I’ve got my eye on a stormraven and AA tank) but I’ve been adding a stream of new things to my army. Basing and display board remain WIP, light on the P.
Get some new cases, foam
--Figure out what I need, verify, place order.
Aha, this I can cleanly check off. For the most part I’m quite satisfied with my KR bag.
Get better at photography
--Build a light box.
--Learn to use more features on my camera.
--Photograph and upload pics of my collection.
I’ve read a few tutorials on photographing minis, put some to practice, but I’m still an amateur. Uploading pics of my collection is happening in drips and drabs. Did one big shoot of the Company, got my BAs up, and a random extra here and there. So some progress.
Write some tactica articles (not really P&M, but on my to-do list)
--I find I'm repeating myself a lot in advice posts, would be good to organize my thoughts and just point people to them.
Nope. Didn’t happen, I still find myself typing the same old stuff. With 7th incoming and no immediate plans for me to pick up the new rulebook (waiting for a small one) I’ll probably be spending less time giving mechanical & tactical advice. While I’m sure a lot of 6th ed stuff would still be applicable, I’m not going to pen any advice articles until I have rules in hand. This was always a stretch goal anyway.
So what else have I done that wasn’t on the list?
Adjusted and finished my battle company to be apocalypse formation compliant.
Finished painting some old stuff on the bench (BoM marines, random IG, etc)
Made card play aides.
Worked with some new technical paints (BftBG) and on blending techniques (robes)
Battle reports and army lists.
Fun times. I’d like to wrap up this wall of text by thanking all my readers. I could not have done it without you. One the the reasons for this blog is to keep me motivated and on track, and your comments and encouragements have kept me there. Well, mostly there.
And just so there is some hobby related progress report: I’m most of the way though cleaning up and assembling the venerable dread. The captain’s thunderhammer is getting work on the bench, I’m experementing with some edge highlighting to give it a little something, not sure how I feel, will grab some pics later.
Thanks again all, we’ll see how year two turns out!
Death come to the foes of Mankind on wings of fire. Jump Captain ready for battle:
I like the way he turned out. A lot of the times I view my painting at taking a cool potential model, and turning it into a mediocre final product. I’m not going to claim he’s perfect, but a solid job. Hard to photograph though. Need to work on that.
Also, more slow and steady progress on the drop pod. 4/5s of the harnesses down, one more to go. Then just the minor problems or the doors, blades, and engine. <sigh> Still closer to the table then it was yesterday.
Hope everyone who gets it enjoys their long Memorial Day weekend, or just a regular weekend for those that don’t.
Zambro wrote: That Captain looks suitably badass. Awesome pose, and the facial expression adds a whole bunch of character.
He’s mad, and someone is going to pay!
And because I can, I bring you four captains. Bike, TDA, Jump and Foot. One of each way he can take the field.
The terminator is looking a little dated. Unfortunately I’m not planning on updating to something more modern. I briefly debated picking up the new box, with 20 terminators, a LRC, ven dread, raven and TDA captain. But then common sense sunk in. While it would be nice, frankly my hobby budget has better things to do then replace perfectly good models.
Well, now that the captain is done, it seems fitting to work on the command squad. Company champ in particular.
This is a WIP after phase one. All of the basic colors are blocked in. The next steps are to touch up any splatter, then go into the drybrushing and washes. For this guy, he’s also going to get the same tabard treatment I gave the sternguard sarge a few pages back.
Although I’m debating changing up some of the colors. I’m not sure if I want to stay with the brown leather/robe look, or go to a red fabric. I was also thinking about doing the lower parts of the pauldrons in red, rather then gold. I think I want a little more red on the mini, to tie in with the heraldic quartering on the shield, and the fact that he is the 3rd company champion, so needs to show a little more of the company colors. Shoulders would be the easy spot for it. Tabard I’d have to figure out a new formula, but that’s not the end of the world.
While I wait for opinions on the champ, here is some plastic being glued together over on the workbench:
The venerable dreadnought kit never ceases to amaze me. Not only are there a zillion options, but the interchangeability on the arms is well executed. Not only do the shoulders fit snugly on the torso without magnets or glue, but the guns socket into the arms, and the shoulder peg from the torso keeps them from falling out. The only thing left to do here is to greenstuff some gaps in my MM conversion, and glue him to the base.
I have to agree about the quarter's, they look great. Gonna be a worthwhile chsmpion when he's finished. Never built a dread so nice to see all the pieces laid out.
Oh, sweet, a Venerable Dreadnought! I've never seen one pre-painted. The pieces look cool. I've never owned a Dread... Maybe it's time I got one...?
That Captain fell through the cracks... It looks good. The quartered shield and chest shield look well executed. Just have to block everything else up and he's good
Adamski Alders wrote:Loving the quartered red and white shields on your company champion. Looks bloody brilliant. Also love your Bike Captain, I think he looks awesome.
Thanks! The next step is to not screw up what I’ve started...
McManiak wrote:I have to agree about the quarter's, they look great. Gonna be a worthwhile champion when he's finished. Never built a dread so nice to see all the pieces laid out.
Sterling work as always...
I really like the dread kits. I should take a picture of all the parts I didn’tuse for the kit. Sooooo many options in the ven dread box. Getting the MM done is a little tricky. Not a stock part, so I had to grab a spare from a speeder and chop it up a bit. Still a WIP. I never picked up a AoBR box, so don’t have the MM dread from there, needed to make my own.
Zambro wrote:Oh, sweet, a Venerable Dreadnought! I've never seen one pre-painted. The pieces look cool. I've never owned a Dread... Maybe it's time I got one...?
That Captain fell through the cracks... It looks good. The quartered shield and chest shield look well executed. Just have to block everything else up and he's good
Ahh, man! Ninja'd by Adamski & Maniak!
IIRC White Scars eschew the use of dreads, but if you want one, grab one. If you haven’t picked it up by now, I’m quite fond of them myself. They look cool, are a joy to put together, are an integral part of the lore, and they sum up the grimdark of 40k very well. Nothing says “there is only war” like taking your mortally wounded soldiers, wrapping a tank around their life support system, and sending them back out to fight for eternity.
RandyMcStab wrote:Sweet, it even comes with my fav 'Sword thru Nid head'?
When I saw that option, everything else flowed to make it work. If I had it to do all over again, every one of my dreads would be sporting it. I was a little surprised to find it on the sprue. While I guess any dread who has fought against the nids might sport it, the stabbed nid head is the logo of the Ultramarine 3rd Company. Which is a little specific to find in a random kit. Not that I’m complaining, just a happy little extra.
While I've got the bits out... And just to drive home the number of options, every time you glue on one of these bits, you cover up things that are already there. For the most part, the engraved names of battles, but under the sarcophagus is the entombed marine.
Is this my favorite kit? It might be. Although the new veteran kits are also quite nice.
This is a champion with just basic colors straight from the pot:
This is that guy after a little washing and drybrushing.
(The slightly out of focus photography is intentional to hide all the flaws in my work. Honest. I really need to work on that.)
OK, there was a little blending and re-highlighting on the tabard, but the rest is basically just washes and drybrushing. The quartering wasn’t that bad. I just needed to find the right time of day to do it. After the morning half-pot of coffee’s caffeine has worn off, but before/not on nights when I’m having a cocktail in the evening. And not on days I’ve done lawn work. My poor, abused, shaky hands. I shouldn’t have glued the shield arm or the backpack on before priming. Made for a lot of little nooks it was hard to get a brush into.
Now I need to figure out what to paint next. With 7th’s changes to scoring and "objective secured” on transports, the LSS needs to happen. But the drop pod is still a WIP, and I’m not sure if I want to have two vehicles in progress at the same time. My FLGS is planning an apoc game July 5th, so I might want to finish up the honor guard to field the HQ formation. Not sure if they are using all the normal rules though, It’s being billed as a narrative event, so things like the stratagems might not be in play. Another good reason to get them done is that I put them together back on page one of this thread. Might want to finish them sometime this decade...
That champion is sweet man, loving the heraldry on him!
I know how you feel about the Dread kit though, it is such a beautifully made load if plastic, and a joy to assemble.
What a difference a wash makes! And seeing a before/after pic, makes me realise just how dark your blue actually is. It didn't occur to me that it was actually that dark...
Drop Pod > LSS, imo. Pods have more uses, where LSS are reduced to ferrying (5) scouts around. (you can give your dread a nice ride...)
Honour guard would be nice. Lots of details, and 'unusual' bits you wouldn't usually get on regular guys. But it may be worth saving them for when you do larger, more mundane things, just so you can take a break and painting something cool looking.
Sir Samuel Buca wrote:That champion is sweet man, loving the heraldry on him!
I know how you feel about the Dread kit though, it is such a beautifully made load if plastic, and a joy to assemble.
Glad you like the hearaldry, as you are the one who egged me on to do it! The dread is also indirectly your fault. I wasn’t planning on picking up a fourth one until I saw what you did with yours.
Zambro wrote:What a difference a wash makes! And seeing a before/after pic, makes me realise just how dark your blue actually is. It didn't occur to me that it was actually that dark...
Drop Pod > LSS, imo. Pods have more uses, where LSS are reduced to ferrying (5) scouts around. (you can give your dread a nice ride...)
Honour guard would be nice. Lots of details, and 'unusual' bits you wouldn't usually get on regular guys. But it may be worth saving them for when you do larger, more mundane things, just so you can take a break and painting something cool looking.
Yah, I paint a much darker Ultra then the studio. I’m not alone, or the darkest out there, but defiantly not the powder blue poster boys. These days I’m using a blue ink as a glaze over a base of macragge blue. And none of that going over it again with a layer paint either. Wash and done.
While I’ve yet to pick up the 7th rulebook, the fact that the LSS can score on its own, while zooming about, and being objective secured due to being a troop pick, struck me as very powerful. The scouts don’t even have to get out, or even be in there. From what I’ve heard about the maelstrom of war missions with the objective deck, the ability to score on a highly mobile platform seems mandatory. While this is as natural as breathing for a White Scars player, not all of us run bikes all the time.
I know the pod needs to be finished, and it’s slowly getting there. But I think we all know by now how I feel about them.
As for keeping the HG to spice up between other projects, most of my “to paint” pile is pretty fancy right now. The last “bland” thing on the bench were the assault marines. Right now I’m looking at some old RT captains, vanguard vets, honor guard, and an old scout sergeant. For the non-vehicle stuff to paint that is. Still have the razor, LSS and the pod to finish. The “to-prime” box is the ven dread, sternguard, sergeants, and the Mk.6 HB. So not a bad lot either.
I put the base coat on the legs of one of the HG last night, so at least one is getting done now. It’s the hand resting on hilt guy, for those who want to go back to page one and check him out. I primed him in three parts: legs, backpack, and then the rest. Which is why I’m just starting on the legs.
The honour guard should be good, considering all the bits I'm sure you're accumulated over the 72 years of collecting Ultras.
Your dreadnought also looks cool, be interesting to see how that turns out. Seems our projects are in sync lately - next you'll be telling me you've got a shadowsword and two landraiders on your workbench.
The honour guard should be good, considering all the bits I'm sure you're accumulated over the 72 years of collecting Ultras.
Your dreadnought also looks cool, be interesting to see how that turns out. Seems our projects are in sync lately - next you'll be telling me you've got a shadowsword and two landraiders on your workbench.
While I’ve considered picking up a LRC/R, the odds of me actually doing so are not the greatest. And super heavies aren’t even on the radar. So you are safe for now. The next thing on my “stuff to buy” list is a stormraven. And I’m not in a hurry to pick that up.
On the topic of what’s coming up on the workbench, I need to write up a 200 point kill team list and finish putting together those deathwatch marines. I think 5 sternguard, 5 scouts might be a fun combo. It leaves me with 25 points to spend on wargear, or more bodies. The other option would be to go pure sternguard, which would mean I’d need 8 total and figure out what to spend 14 points on.
More likely as I dither about on how to assemble those guys I’ll put together the land speeder I’ve got kicking around. Probably just glue the TML on it. I’ve got a real one from the DA sprues, not just the CMLs I’ve been using. The pile of grey plastic is getting low. What I should probably do is put some Eldar together. Shocking, I know!
Nevelon wrote: The next thing on my “stuff to buy” list is a stormraven. And I’m not in a hurry to pick that up.
Dont do it! They're so... BIG!
I've been eye-balling the sprues for my storm raven, and i find it's quite overwhelming.. I'm sure it wont be bad when I get into it, but its a big piece, with lots of surface area that needs paint.
Nevelon wrote: The next thing on my “stuff to buy” list is a stormraven. And I’m not in a hurry to pick that up.
Dont do it! They're so... BIG!
I've been eye-balling the sprues for my storm raven, and i find it's quite overwhelming.. I'm sure it wont be bad when I get into it, but its a big piece, with lots of surface area that needs paint.
But what about all the guns, and the flying, and the shooting, and the pain? Plus the deathtrap cargo bay?
I’m kinda “meh” on the looks personally. If/when I pick one up, I plan on not putting the top intake on, and replace the top turret with something a lot more low-profile. Either a razor turret, or the TLAsC rig I did for my razor. This will (I hope) lower and streamline the profile, making it look a little less like a flying dumpster.
Mechanically it’s a lot of guns on a fast, flying platform that’s reasonably rugged. I don’t actually have that many HS options in my collection, while I tend to favor FA. So moving my air cover from one slot to another would help my lists overall. Or I could fly both it and my talon which should be about all I need for air power on any reasonable point scale.
As someone without an airbrush that hand paints everything, I hear you about the volume of space that needs to be covered. Rhinos are irritating enough to do, and larger stuff can get tedious fast. You won’t see me banging out 8 tanks in a week. But even the largest projects can get done if you take them one step at a time.
Macragge blue spray! Makes light work of all the surface area. I'm a hand painter too, I know the feeling - but this spray have saved literally hours of my life.
Also, game wise - Stormravens are arguably the best Marine transports.
Tigurius wrote: Macragge blue spray! Makes light work of all the surface area. I'm a hand painter too, I know the feeling - but this spray have saved literally hours of my life.
Also, game wise - Stormravens are arguably the best Marine transports.
Have they gotten better at color matching? The last colored GW spray I had didn’t quite match, so I needed to give everything a second coat anyway. At least when working over white primer I can see the spots I need to hit.
On to this week’s updates:
I finished the legs for one of the honor guard and the last harness for the pod.
Not a lot of progress, but it’s forward motion. Next step is to slap in some magnets for the pod doors, paint them and the rest of the pod, and finish the torso/backpack for the HG.
It’s always fun to see the variation in paint schemes. I’ve seen Ultramarines everywhere from a light blueish-grey to almost black. I’m on the darker side, but the blue wash makes for a very vibrant sapphire blue. As I like gem tones in general, this work for me.
Progress report: I’m about halfway done with the engine portion of the drop pod. Which I did stick magnets in. Not sure if it’s going to help keep the doors closed though. I’ve also been working on retrofitting one of my old ones, and the magnets done seem to have enough strength to overcome the fussiness of the kit. Oh well.
The top half of the HG on the paint bench is progressing. I’ve finished blocking the colors on, and have done some of the washes and drybrushing. Might have him done by the end of the week, not sure. I’ll try to grab some progress pics later.
This should mark my 4,000th post here on Dakka. I’ve done a number of retrospective and thanks for reading kind of posts lately, so don’t really feel like writing another one. I do appreciate everyone listening to my rambling though. Historically, even on message boards where I am “active” I don’t post a lot. More of a lurker at heart. I think this is the first time since I was running the MB for my EQ guild that I actually felt like part of the community, not just someone pitching in their 2 cents periodically. The fact that I’ve generated 4k posts in roughly two years is mind boggling to me. Particularly since I self-identify as a laconic, introverted hermit.
Thanks for reading everyone,
--Nev
Edit:
Swaps the TDA and AsC for AA, bolter and powersword. Resolute Ultramarine Honor Guard
That's the great thing about forums like this - as I also place myself on the far "introvert" side of the social scale, it's easy to learn and chip in with your thoughts than you would when actually faced with opinionated meatbags.
Well done on 4k posts Nev! I tell you what though, you REALLY need to get on with that Pod and just get it done. I know they suck, but they're awesome in games.
In all likelihood, my next potential game is not until July 5th. So I’m in no particular rush. And the fact that they are so good on the table is the only thing keeping me progressing at the snail’s pace I am now. I suspect at some point I’m going to hit the “almost there” point, where the end is in sight and the desire to get the thing off of the paint bench overrides my dislike of the kit. But I’m not there yet. So I maintain my slow but steady pace for now.
Nevelon wrote: I suspect at some point I’m going to hit the “almost there” point, where the end is in sight and the desire to get the thing off of the paint bench overrides my dislike of the kit
Yeah, I think we all know that feeling
I had it particularly bad with the last 10 guardsmen I painted. I didn't need them for gaming, when I needed them, they weren't available and when they progressed to my desk, I stopped needing them. It was really mind numbing to do them in 2 or 3 sittings, but you'll work your way through the pod doing a bit here, and a bit there in no time.
Congrats on the 4k mark
You say you're more of a lurker, but I'm not so sure. You give pretty solid advice, too. Not just in my (and other's) blogs, but elsewhere too. I was reading a thread about a new player, playing ultramarines. You gave some great advice for a list from the strike force box and a few thoughts behind said list/units. I'm sure most of your 4k posts have been useful to someone, and not just a 'good job' comment about someone's paint scheme
Nevelon wrote: I suspect at some point I’m going to hit the “almost there” point, where the end is in sight and the desire to get the thing off of the paint bench overrides my dislike of the kit
Yeah, I think we all know that feeling
I had it particularly bad with the last 10 guardsmen I painted. I didn't need them for gaming, when I needed them, they weren't available and when they progressed to my desk, I stopped needing them. It was really mind numbing to do them in 2 or 3 sittings, but you'll work your way through the pod doing a bit here, and a bit there in no time.
Congrats on the 4k mark
You say you're more of a lurker, but I'm not so sure. You give pretty solid advice, too. Not just in my (and other's) blogs, but elsewhere too. I was reading a thread about a new player, playing ultramarines. You gave some great advice for a list from the strike force box and a few thoughts behind said list/units. I'm sure most of your 4k posts have been useful to someone, and not just a 'good job' comment about someone's paint scheme
Classically I’m a lurker. Not so much here. And I do try to avoid “me too” or “+1” posts. Not that everything I do adds value to a conversation, but I do try.
And so I can add something useful to my own thread, rather then just woolgathering…
Here is the WIP of the HG and pod:
Crummy iPad pic, but it’s something. The engine block for the pod is done. Next step is either the doors or the blades. Honor guard is progressing. I think he’s up for the second clean-up coat of blue, then the wash. After that, it’s final touch up and move on to his backpack.
Nice work nev. I know what you mean about camera focus too. Can be a real pain.
I don't envy any of you guys painting blue as I'm all out of inspiration now with mine. I reslly dont wanna ho back to white tho either tbh.
Hey ho, grt som vg done and then get the drop pod finished. You will feel better when it's not there niggling at you. You know you would be telling me to get it done on my blog haha
McManiak wrote: Nice work nev. I know what you mean about camera focus too. Can be a real pain.
I don't envy any of you guys painting blue as I'm all out of inspiration now with mine. I reslly dont wanna ho back to white tho either tbh.
Hey ho, grt som vg done and then get the drop pod finished. You will feel better when it's not there niggling at you. You know you would be telling me to get it done on my blog haha
I guess turnabout is fair play. I’ll buckle down and get more pod bits done. I want to work on other vehicles, but one big thing in progress at a time is my cap, and right now the pod is hogging that slot. I’m a little concerned about what I’m going to do once I get to the standard bearer for the HG. I might just keep it simple. I can just use my old RT standard bearer until I figure out what I’m going to do with it. But the champion is just churning out another ornate marine.
Right now this is on a 40mm base. As far as I know, there is not official model to base it off of, so I went for something with a little room to scatter bits about. I don’t want to be accused of MFA. Artistically, should I add more stuff? To crowded? Sparse? Remove things like the sword, which technically doesn’t need to be there. I have some more spare fuel tanks and ammo bins. Also, some vehicular stuff like jerry cans. And all sorts of extra weapons. Lean a couple bolters in there if needed.
I guessed objective marker, can I have half a point?
It looks good. There is enough to make it look like an ammo dump, but not too much to over crowd it. There is a space in the bottom right of the base that is empty. If you can find something to put in that gap that doesn't make it over crowded, go for it.
I’ve been slacking. Sorry. Bunch of random stuff going on, ranging from killer yard work (de-thatched my lawn) to appliance repair and replacement (washing machine, de humidifier) to fun things like the Steam summer sale (picked up Sins of a Solar Empire) and reading a few books. So the 40k stuff took a back burner for a bit.
But I’m still working. Finally got around to finishing the legs of the HG on the bench, will start on his torso next. I’d say it would be quick, but he’s got a cape, so I need to figure out what shades I want to use. Why bother learning new fabric techniques on the tabards if I’m not going to apply them in other places. Need to inventory my collections of reds and see what to use.
On the workbench are some Eldar (thanks Zambro!) I’ve had some dire avengers cut, sitting in blisters, waiting to have their mold lines cleaned up and glued together for about a year now. I forgot how finicky and irritating they are to clean. Two are ready for the to-prime box, 3 and a half to go. There are enough bits that you can have a spare torso for the exarch. I’m planning on magnetizing one guy at the waist so I can swap from a bare bones 5 man squad to a slightly more robust one with a guy in charge. On the bright side, I’ve come a long way in my magnetizing skills over the last year working with my marines, so doing up the space elves should be a lot easier now.
It looks like I’m probably going to make it to the faux-apoc game next weekend, so I need to assemble a 2.5k force. The guy running it is doing a narrative event, so is not going to use all the normal apoc rules. I’m not sure exactly what is going on, so I’m just going to show up with a TAC, meched up, block of firepower.
But now I need to get back to non-hobby stuff. Haveing a birthday party for The Wife tonight. Already baked a cake, now to clean dishes and start food prep for dinner. I’d rather be painting my drop pod. <sigh>
Nevelon wrote: Already baked a cake, now to clean dishes and start food prep for dinner. I’d rather be painting my drop pod.
Sorry, Nev, but cake > drop pod any day of the week!
I'm glad I've inspired you to get some work done on your Eldar
The cake is not a problem, it’s cutting onions and all the dishes that I dislike.
I remember when the Eldar codex came out there were a number of things I wanted to see if they were FAQ’d before building stuff. For the life of me I can’t recall what they were. I guess I’ll just build what looks cool and I have the parts for. And I still need to figure out what I want to give my autach.
I forgot to mention it in my last post, but summer is officially upon us. The Boy is out of school, so my free time is going to be a little bit tighter for a few months. Hopefully I’ll be able to still maintain my glacial pace, or even <gasp> speed up a bit. We’ll see.