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Hahahahaha, at least you didn't say death to the false Emperor...

 McManiak wrote:
Hahahahaha, at least you didn't say death to the false Emperor...

I'm not that far gone. That little slip when trying out the new technichal pain meant nothing!

Blood for the Blood God!

Note to self: field chaplain next game.

Haha! Come join the scar's... We dont mind the blue, honest

As long as you have fun, then thats all you need.

I too like the idea of Teeth of Terra, the sheer choppy-ness of it appeals to me

Nice updates Nev.

Though I'm not sure I approve of your waivering fealty to Macragge. I'll have to notify Cassius, you understand

 Tigurius wrote:
Nice updates Nev.

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.

Have a nice weekend all.

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?

 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.

Looks like you have a lot of vehicles to prime. Might be worth getting some infantry primed in that batch so you're not restricted to vehicles only.

Maniak, DPs are horrific. You should get at least 1, just to see how bad it is

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.

Keep up the good work!

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.

Welcome aboard, thanks for reading!

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

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

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?

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 :/

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 RTS DoW 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.

keep up the good work

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).

Have a good weekend mate.

 McManiak wrote:
... then all your blues will go away. (Well at least onto your models haha).

lol!

Your psyker looks alright. The inside of the coat dont look quite right, imo. But, never the less, he definately looks finished

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.

mmm.... cake....

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.

Zambro wrote:
mmm.... cake....

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?