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If your son is out of school, you could get him acquainted with the business end of a paint brush That'll help you pick up the pace. Also, seeing as it's summer you should be able to prime as and when needed. Not like winter, where you had to wait around for a good day.

Definately gear your Autarch for use with an aspect warrior squad. Either Warp Spiders or Striking Scorpions. That would be my inclination. Maybe even Hawk wings, but I'm not sold on SH. There is no really 'good' CC weapons, which is a shame. There is the lance and bike combo, but that's not 'great'.

Well, the bike is the one part of his gear that is fixed. Saim han and all. Getting mud on your boots is for lesser races.

Finished the DA exarch. How often do you get to say "2mm was barely small enough". Darn wasp waisted space elves. I don't think there is any way I could do arm work without picking up some 1mm magnets.

And now for a WIP picture, as there has been too much text here lately.

So the FLGS is doing a big apoc game this Saturday. Allegedly. They haven’t posted any details yet, and I’ve not been able to head up to chat with Mark. But last I heard, it’s 2,500 a person. So that’s what I put together. All on one FOC, because I like following the rules like that. So pretty much any wacky things that comes up I should be OK with. I wanted to get this all picked out and packed before the 4th, as I’ll have a mess of people over for a cookout, and won’t have time then. And I’d rather sleep late Saturday then list-tweak and pack.

Fresh paint on the field should be the jump captain, the full new assault squad (only half have seen the table) tac sarge with the c-melta, the second sternguard HF, bike CM’s fist, and the TLLC turret on the pred. It might be the first time all four Dev LCs have been in use.

Technically this is the first time out for Sgt. Chronus, but he’s just decorative (didn’t pay the points, needed an extra hatch)

No idea what to expect. It’s billed as a semi-naritive event, so the sky is the limit.

WIP from the paint bench is the HG torso. Almost done blocking in colors, then on to the wash/drybrush.


And I still need to figure out how to do his cape. Put a layer of blue on one of the drop pod’s blades. Every layer is one closer to finished.

All the dire avengers are done being cleaned and assembled. Well, pre-painted assembled; they all have the gun arm left separate for ease of painting. I partially glued the bits together for the ammo dump. Left them separate from the base for now. Also added a HB ammo hopper to the mix to help fill out the space. The to-prime box is full enough to justify getting the can out. Scattered thunderstorms and massive humidity say not now though.

The Boy has a 2 hour Summer Enrichment program/camp every weekday for this and the next two weeks. I’m painting for at least part of that every day. It’s a goal, so far, so good.

Hope everyone has a nice 4th of July weekend, regardless of wether it’s Independence Day for you or not.

These Honour Guard are looking sweet man, thought about a red Cape though? You can get a decent effect with a dark base coat and washes of black, brown and red.

I spy a whole bunch of bikes and an assault squad! It's always fun to see stuff you've recently completed hitting the table.

Didn't even realise it was the 4th of july... I hope you have a great weekend I was in Colorado over all of last summer, 4th of July was crazy-fun.

Capes are easy, imo. Pick what ever colour you want to do it in, start dark and apply layers on the more pronounced pieces. Obviously, the more layers the smoother it looks, but you can easily get away with 2 and a wash.

Sir Samuel Buca wrote:These Honour Guard are looking sweet man, thought about a red Cape though? You can get a decent effect with a dark base coat and washes of black, brown and red.

Zambro wrote:I spy a whole bunch of bikes and an assault squad! It's always fun to see stuff you've recently completed hitting the table.

Didn't even realise it was the 4th of july... I hope you have a great weekend I was in Colorado over all of last summer, 4th of July was crazy-fun.

Capes are easy, imo. Pick what ever colour you want to do it in, start dark and apply layers on the more pronounced pieces. Obviously, the more layers the smoother it looks, but you can easily get away with 2 and a wash.

The cape is going to be red, I just need to work out the details. I need to pick the shades from the ones I own, or mix/buy more. I think I’m going to do it last though. I’ve had issues with the blue wash I use on the armor seeping onto the tabards. I’d rather have a little red or brown on the armor then blue on the cape. It changes my pattern for how I paint, normally the blue wash is the last thing I do.

The bikes don’t get a shout out for new paint anymore, they’ve seen enough battle. With the rules being what they are it’s hard not to put them in a list. They are joining the sternguard in units that I sometimes have to consciously leave out, just to make room for other stuff. I do try to rotate units off the shelf if they get a little dusty, but for that the prime units need to take a time out. This list is a little odd, not just due to its size, but lack of deployment shenanigans (scout, infiltrate, deep strike) It’s a rare game these days where I don’t have something in a drop pod, but I didn’t want to play those games in a large scale battle. I’d rather keep my force together, and mobile. Hence the mech-heavy theme. If I had the razorback finished, I’d probably have swapped it and another speeder in for the dread, just to keep everyone rolling.

The game was fun. More like an escalation game with no objectives, but a fun little shootout. 4x4, imperial players (2 Ultas, 1 imp.knights/GK, 1 guard) vs. chaos/necron (1 demon, 1 necron, 2 CSM/demon mix) We had 2 shadowswords, 1 stock baneblade, 3 knights, and the mega fort aquila cannon thing. They had a tesseract vault, khornedozer, scaberax? (FW GUO) but I think that’s it. So nothing huge, and everything might actually be OK for escalation games. The GMing was a little random orkines tossed into the game. Some secret relics that were looted (nothing major) some drop pods of orks scattered around, and a stompa near the end. He also let the necron player rez his vault after we wacked it first turn. I think that was the only major. We still won on the body count, with a marginal win. And that’s with ending in the middle of the turn sequence, so we should have killed another turns worth of stuff. But we had the upper hand for most of the game.

Fun highlights:
My talon was the only flyer on our side of the table. There were 3 drakes (only 1 flamer) and a necron flyer on the other side. It ate a lot of fire, but stayed in the air for a long time. His claim to fame was after jinking, flying over and putting the last wound on kharn the betrayer. Because the closest you want to be to that guy is a high speed strafing run.

The jump captain and assault marines were supposed to drop in the backfield with full squads of LoTD and terminatos, but ended up scattering close to kharn and his berserkers (who had bailed from their immobilized LR) I shot some of the orks, forming an incredibly short lived battlefield truce with the fallen marines (we wanted to see what the story was, so thought to cleanse the green skins) But one of the reasons it was so short lived was a bad scatter on the baneblade pretty much wiped out my marines (and the orks) With no other target, Kharn charged and killed my captain. Not a good first showing for the new boy.

It’s not sexy, but just putting lascannons shots downrange got a lot done. I put a LOT of wounds of things. Mostly demon-bot things, necron transports, and other odds and ends.

The sternguard erased a 20 man plaugeberrer unit that DS next to them. Helpful hint: when a squad is packing paired HS, be careful DSing S&P troops that can’t scatter on landing. It didn’t help that the warp storm made demon saves -1 for that turn. But he burned.

The bikes copped and early death. The CM flubbed his armor saves early and ate it. They got a round of fire in, but didn’t get much done. Speeder was in the same boat. Got a few round of fire then died. Most everything else made it to the end.

All in all a fun time. Shorter then I expected, but I thought we were going to go past midnight. Gathering started around 11, game started around 1:30, and we were picking up at 8:30. and there was an hour+ dinner brake in there. So a solid day of play, but not grueling. I think I would have preferred playing with the objectives, and the actual apoc rules. But this was still a fun day out.

So when driving back from dropping The Boy off at his summer enrichment program, I noticed the sun shining, the birds singing, and the pleasantly mild, thunderstorm free weather. Which means only one thing: Break out the rattle-can. So I braved the unshielded fusion reaction in the sky and the allergen-laden atmosphere and primed the stuff in the to-prime box.



5 dire avengers (w/ swappable exarch)
HB tac marine
2 sergents (c-grav dev, c-plas tac)
c-melta sternguard
Ammo dump
Ven dread with all the fixings (including a custom MM)

Painting has been slow, but steady. Both the HG and the pod bit that have been on my bench are done with the blue touch-up stage, and are ready for the blue wash. Then the HG gets his cape done and I start on the next part of the pod. I think I’ll switch from blades to doors for the pod, They are less irritating, and if I get them out of the way I might slip over the threshold for motivation.

But Nev.. what about the drop pod?

 Tigurius wrote:
But Nev.. what about the drop pod?

It’s getting there. I should be working on it now, rather then posting to Dakka. Time slipped away from me this morning. I need to go pick up The Boy in a few minutes, so I’ll not get a chance to work on it early today. On the flip side, looks like my normal friday night gaming plans are going to be scrubbed, so I should have time to work on it tonight.

Assuming I’m up for holding a brush. The Wife wants to work on repairing the deck this afternoon, so my night might be filled with aches and liquid pain killers.

 Nevelon wrote:
I should be working on it now, rather then posting to Dakka.

You really are doing your best to avoid it

It just occured to me, that if you get a blue spray can, you can power through your vehicles a lot quicker. I know the GW spray is a bit brighter than your usual blue, but a few washes shouldnt be too bad - A small price to pay for quick vehicles

What takes me the most time on the pods is the edging. There are the parts that get a black basecoat, then a silver drybrush, and the other parts that get the blue/blue wash. I generally do the black first, so I don’t need to clean the silver off of the blue (I use a vigorous, sweeping drybrush) Then I need to go back and very carefully paint the blue right up to the black, without gooping too much onto the finished parts. With the pods, particularly the blade/hull bits, there are multiple places where there are a ton of very tight edges. So even with a spray can of blue, I’d still need to do a lot of touch up work. Masking off the black parts might be possible, but also highly irritating.

For non-pods, there are a lot less edge cases, mostly just the tracks on the tanks. So they take a lot less effort.

And then once the pod is finished being painted, there comes the final assembly, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. But that’s still a bit off in the distance for now, I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.

The honor guard is done and now I need to figure out what to do for his cape. So here is what I have to work with:


I think the formal name of the old pot on the left is terracotta, It’s from the RT space marine paint set. The other unlabeled one on the far right is another red wash I just found today in a pile of paints I never use (I was searching for all my reds) Many were dried out or separated, but some had life left in them. While I normally mock the Blood Angels “Red” (because, let’s face it, it’s orange) I think it will work well for the final highlight. I think I might go crazy, and actually work my way up through all these paints.

Scab Red -> Terracotta -> Crimson Gore -> Blood Red -> Blood Angel Red

With a red wash over all, and then re-highlight the BA Red.

Although it is a very subtle change between the dark 3 shades, so I might skip the Terracotta.

There is also a tassel/rope/cord thing on his back. I think I’ll hit that up with BftBG and the red wash. I don’t want to be messing around with accent colors with all the blending, and I do them up in red anyway.

See! Progress on the pod. You darn slave drivers….

I forgot how much I dislike working with my old red paints. Not only do they cover for crap, but still manage to show all the brush strokes. No close up on the cape, it turned out OK. I think the multi-layerd techniques works better on things with sharp folds, not gentle waving capes. I could have put more work into it, but I’m not sure it would be worth it for the subtle results it would have garnered. Although I do think I need to pick up a red foundation paint before I start work on the eldar. Having to put 3+ coats on everything would drive me mad. Well, more mad then I already am…

Still working on the HG’s backpack. The sternguard ones take more time. Waiting to the brown wash to dry on the giant gold eagle, then I need to go back and drybrush over, and start on the purity seals. Detail is fun, but simple paints faster.

wow, i go away for a week or so and you paint a drop pod......is this what it takes hahaha.

Good progress mate and I agree that whilst the old paints are nostalgic they are not as good as the new ones.

Keep it coming mate

 McManiak wrote:
wow, i go away for a week or so and you paint a drop pod......is this what it takes hahaha.

Good progress mate and I agree that whilst the old paints are nostalgic they are not as good as the new ones.

Keep it coming mate

Heh, the finished pod in the background is an old one. Often models will return to the paintbench as reference pieces so I get the new ones done consistently. I still have 5 doors and 4 blades left on the WIP pod. Although I put the black layer down on two doors last night, so progress is happening.

I’m almost done blocking out the colors on the HG standard bearer. Just need to put white on the studs and red on the purity seals. Then the normal rounds of washes and drybrushes. Going to do the tabard last on this guy, see how that works. Unlike the previous HG, his torso is glued to his legs, so he’s getting done in one fell swoop. Well, besides the backpack and banner. I still need to figure out what to do for the banner. I might try to print something out, or just go with a very basic freehand on a blue background. I figure in the depths of the sanctuary, there are original banners from the founding of the legion. Nothing ornate, just the chapter symbol on a basic field. But probably handed to the primarch by the Emperor himself. Another option would be to carefully remove the old chapter banner from my venerable RTB01 marine, and retire him; passing the flag on to a new ancient. Or photocopy the old template I used to make that one and fabricate a new one. I suspect the HG will be carrying a empty pole for a while until I figure this out.

On another note:
You know you are a gamer when driving with the windows down on a beautiful summer day your first thoughts are not “I should really do some yardwork” or “This is a good day to go for a walk” but instead “What a wasted day; It’s perfect weather to prime, but the to-do box is empty. I should have been busier building stuff” I will point out that I did do yardwork and go for a walk, as well as show The Boy how to pull fuses on my car (which did in fact work to fix the radio). So while I would prefer to be painting in my cozy cave, I can enjoy the great outdoors. At least in very small amounts.

Backpack still in progress, and I need to decide on the banner, but Ancient Tortalus is almost done. Yup, he gets a name. When fishing through old books looking for fluff, I found a story about Chaplain Cassius anointing a new standard bearer, telling him the history of the Banner of Macragge. I knew at one point there was a named character for the Ultramarine’s BSB, Ancient Helveticus, but he has a powerfist, so not really applicable to the modern FOC. Plus he died at the Battle of Macragge. Another Ancient (which is the title of the bearer of the chapter standard, BTW), Ancient Galatan, who had his arm sheared off by an ork warlord, picked up the banner with his other hand, took 3 more mortal wounds, and refused to die until the battle was over. If I had read this bit before putting my mini together, he’d have a bloody stump and an angry screaming head. As it is, I placed the shining marks on the admantium shaft of the banner pole, where his arm was cut off (as related in Cassius’s story)

Things we know about the Banner of Macragge:

Tall Banner
Gold Ultramarine symbol on a field of deep, rich blue
Intricate with honorifics and victory scrolls
Unburnable, and self repairing.
Lists all 77 UM chapter masters
Honorific for every major victory. Cassus was present for 9 of them. While 400 years old is quite a stretch, it’s just a portion of the ~10k years the UMs have been racking up wins.

So my plan to re-use my old banner won’t work. It’s torn, burnt, and ragged. Plus more rectangular, and not tall. I think that I’ll just freehand a gold “U” on a normal blue banner. And probably tack on a lot of purity seals, hanging scrolls, and the like. There are some good ones from the venerable dread kit I can use.

Also in the pod progress department: I put the silver drybrush on the two WIP doors, and the first layer of blue. Next step is the second blue coat, then wash (picking out the details somewhere in there)

I think some of those marines in the last prime batch are going to be next across the paint station. But we’ll see where the mood takes me. The Boy is finished with his summer program, so I just lost my two hour midday window. Progress might be affected.

Looking solid. I did a version of the chapter banner ages ago (as a back banner for some reason), As the bearer is always called 'Ancient' I put him in Mk I armour. I'll do a pic eventually. I'm interested to read about the banner being self repairing etc, is that in one of the novels?

Your plan to do a simple U with lots of scrolls etc sounds good, the Ven Dred bit should work well.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
Looking solid. I did a version of the chapter banner ages ago (as a back banner for some reason), As the bearer is always called 'Ancient' I put him in Mk I armour. I'll do a pic eventually. I'm interested to read about the banner being self repairing etc, is that in one of the novels?

Your plan to do a simple U with lots of scrolls etc sounds good, the Ven Dred bit should work well.

All the lore I've picked up for the banner is from the 3rd ed. Chapter Approved book. Which is a compilation of WD articles. Specifically the one with the UM characters, Chaplain Cassius, Ancient Helviticus, and Captain Invictus. There is a one page story about Tortalus being given the banner. Page 121. There are good odds I have the WD on the shelf, but I'd have to dig for it.

"It is said to be made of a stuff known only to the ancients; light as silk, but strong as steel, flame cannot burn it and where it is rent asunder it re-spins itself as perfect as the day it was first made."

So the banner still needs to be done, but it’s not like this is the only empty banner pole in my army. But the honor guard themselves are done. I think I have one more set of legs with the tabard, so might put together one more (with an axe) but for now, I’m calling the squad complete. Minimum 3 man, champ (with the cape) standard bearer, and one normal guy. Well, as normal as honor guard get.

I’d also like to take this time to curse all you guys on the other side of the pond. I keep trying to put that unneeded “u” in “Honor” I blame you entirely, as does my spellchecker.

On the paintbench is the Dev sarge with the c-grav. Almost done with him. After all the ornate details and multi-step processes for the HG, just painting a normal guy in power armor, even a sarge, is a breeze. Once he’s done I’ll probably try to kick out some of the other guys from the last prime batch. They represent the guys I made to get the Company where I want it, so even if they are a little redundant, I’d like to have them done. Although the vanguard vets are looking nice as well. But I think I need to paint something a little more basic for a bit, and the vets are not that.

Honour honour honour.......

Couldnt resist sorry

 McManiak wrote:
Honour honour honour.......

Couldnt resist sorry

Cute.



Quick update: done with the dev sarge, finished 2/5 doors for the pod. The other three doors are done with the black/silver, and are awaiting the blue coats and details.

slow and steady, mate

Pod progress: doors done.

It was the right choice to do the doors next. With them done, the end is in sight, so motivation is on the rise! Just need the 4 blades and I’ll be able to put that thing behind me.



HB: New marine reporting for duty!
RT: By the Emperor! What are they feeding the scouts these days? Or are you one of those “tru-scale” guys?
HB: 25+ years of scale creep pops, deal with it.
RT: <fumes> We don’t need reinforcements, We’ve been doing fine as-is for over two decades.
HB: If by “doing fine” you mean riding the shelf, sure. How much table time have you seen with the old scratch built ML and flamer combo? You are what, the 4th pick tactical squad, right before the 2nd edition bolter huggers? I diligently assembled a full suit of mark VI armor to join you guys. I even got a helmet stripe Do you know the last time one of those got painted on? It was probably one of you guys! I’m the only HB marine outside the dev squads and swap shelf. You need me if you want to fight anything other then dust bunnies.
RT: Good points. Welcome to the third company, 4th squad.

Wow, those are some old school space marine models.

My 4th squad has a heavy bolter too, not sure why you need to know, but hey. Liking the tease of the Venerable Dreadnought and Vanguard Veterans there in the back.
Looking great as always though!

Pure brilliance...haha

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
Liking the tease of the Venerable Dreadnought and Vanguard Veterans there in the back

Me too!

That DP is almost done... so close...

@Warboss_Waaazag: Yup, older then dirt here. One of these days I need to photograph some of my older non-marine stuff. I’ve got a small collection of orks, but because they aren’t related to any current project, they never get near the camera.

@McManiak: Glad you are entertained

@Zambro, Sir Samuel Buca: Nice to know I’m not the only one who looks at the background of WIP shots to see what people are up to. So many neat things lurking in the corners of pictures.

@Sir Samuel Buca, have you ever written up a formal TOE for your company? It’s always interesting to see different people’s takes on the same thing. I’m not sure how much formal information is available on the 3rd, so we just have our peers to compare with.

I suspect the next marine to get paint is going to be the c-plasma sarge. He’s not terribly ornate, so should be quick work. And, of course, more pod bits. I should also take look of what’s going on with the assembly side of the workbench. I’ve not put anything new together in a while. While it might seem we are in the halcyon days of endless summer, fall is just around the corner. Which means I need to make sure I’ve got enough stuff primed and ready to survive the winter. While it might seem a little early to start squirreling away projects, if I need to order something from my FLGS, make it up there to get it (when it eventually comes in) clip, clean, magnetize, and assemble something, there is a significant time delay between wanting to get something and ready to paint. Particularly at my glacial pace.

But enough rambling for now. I should go get a coat of paint on things.

While waiting for paint to dry, I decided to go through this thread and see how I’m doing on my yearly one-a-week goal. With the end of summer in sight, I need to figure out how hard I need to push towards the end of the year. Here is what I’ve painted so far:

Bike w/melta
Bike Sarge
Bike
Attack bike
Sternguard sarge
Sternguard HF
9 assault marines
IG primaris psyker
c-melta tac sarge
c-grav dev sarge
Jump captain
Company champion
3 HG
HB mk. 6 marine

So that’s 26 guys I can check off on the “done” list. So by some bizarre coincidence, halfway to my goal. Honest - I didn’t plan this. By a quick flip through the calendar, we have 20 weeks left in the year. So I’m a bit behind, but not horribly so. It does mean I need to pick up my building. I’ve got 19 things in my primary ready to paint pile. There are more odds and ends hiding out in the corners, but I’d like to fill out the paint list with more relevant stuff. I also need to stock a couple of months worth of things in the primed and ready pile for next year, before the spring priming window.

In a more immediate progress report, I’m almost done with the c-plasma sarge. Body is done. Gun is done, and the first layer of blue is down on his arm. So all he needs is the second layer of blue on his arm, and then for that to get washed, and he can report for duty. 2 more blades for the pod are getting there. Black/silver is done, and the first rough layer of blue is drying now. Actually, It’s probably been done drying for a bit now, this post has take a while to write.

So back to painting for me. Hope you all are having a good weekend.