Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Progress has been made on the second half of my Tau Breacher Team:

Gray cloth and blue armor are painted, some cleanup needed but shouldn't take very long. Next will probably be the next layer on the skin (not much exposed skin on these guys, so that will be a quick step). I'm also painting the Tactical Turret for my Strike Team at the same time so there will be pics of it in the future!
In other news, I've gotten some more Tau stuff assembled:

4 more Kroot, 3 Marker Drones and 3 Gun Drones, giving me a total of 12 Kroot, 6 Marker Drones, and 4 Gun Drones (not counting the ones on my Piranha and Devilfish). The Marker Drone on the far right is a kitbash, using one of the old Gun Drone kits, a markerlight from a Pathfinder, and a Crisis Suit support system. It looks okay beside the others, I think. I used the marker drone bits from the new Fire Warrior box and the Pathfinder box to build some, and the two from my two Stealth teams, but came up short by one, so that is why I built the custom one.

More will follow, so stay tuned!

Your P&M blog deserves more love. You are turning out quality models ! It's a touch call to pick favorites, but I definitely liked a lot of the DA paintjobs in particular.

Any idea how long does it normally take for blogs like this to gain any traction? If I were to have to keep posting material without responses, it can be done, but not if it keeps giving me the Automatically Appended Next Post shenanigans...

Looking good. The insignias look fine from the photo, and like you say since they're on the 'grunts' people probably won't be looking too closely.

EDC

@Kiln: I don't let it phase me that I don't get that many responses to my blog. I figure some people look at it, like it, and just don't have anything to say. I'm glad you like my paint jobs, especially the Dark Angels as that is my main army.

@EDC: Thanks, man! There will be better pics to admire at the end of the month.

The Breachers are finished now, feast your eyes on some pics:
2 pics of the whole squad:

Shas'ui, 3 Shas'la, and their drone (my entry in the monthly painting challenge):

Breacher Shas'ui:

MV36 Guardian Drone:

These were fun to paint, especially since I was doing my own color scheme for them. Always nice to see something I planned in my head come to life!

As for what's coming next, I'll mainly be doing my Stormsurge in February, so see my dedicated Stormsurge blog for more progress on that. I'll be assembling some other stuff (like some Tau Pathfinders and a Deathwing Command Squad), so there will be pics of those here, and I might try to knock out a few Tactical Marines to take a break from painting the big guy. That's all for now, but more is coming! Thanks for viewing, and thanks to all who have encouraged me. It is most appreciated!

Well, as I said in my previous post, my main focus this month has been on my Tau Stormsurge, but as well as painting that, I've gotten some other models assembled. Here they are:
Deathwing Command Squad:

3 Tau Pathfinders and 3 special Drones:

The Deathwing kit is really cool, all the sculpted details on the parts really make them very characterful. I was lucky enough to have an extra Thunder Hammer left over from my other Deathwing kit (that I built as Deathwing Knights), so I was able to kit out two of these guys with the Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield loadout. I'm looking forward to painting these guys, but it'll probably be a while before I get around to them, I have so much else that needs paint first! I need to assemble the rest of the Tau Pathfinders, and I will do so very soon, but I might be going to run the Deathwing in a game soon to try them out, so I prioritized them. Thanks for looking!

Well, long time no update here in my main blog. I've just been so busy with the Stormsurge and RL that I haven't gotten anything else of note done until very recently. I did get some new 50mm bases in from GW and put my Crisis suits on those, they look much better on the bigger bases. I also managed to get the rest of my Pathfinders assembled, here's a pic of the whole squad and their special drones:

Three of them have Rail Rifles, which will allow me to try running a four-man team with them, outflanking and then killing something (hopefully). I don't know how often I will use the special drones, but I like the models and they might see use in casual play at least.

In addition to the 50mm bases mentioned above, in that order from GW I also got Be'lakor, Darkstrider, and a single Space Marine bike (which will be built with DA Ravenwing accessories and turned into an Interrogator-Chaplain on bike!). Be'lakor should be a fun model to paint, although assembly could be a bit of a pain (thanks to Finecrap).

Now for a change of pace, I'm going to review the past year of painting challenge entries that I did. I didn't participate in all of them due to RL issues and stuff, but I did most of them and I thought I would post the final pics here so people could see my progress as a painter (if any).

March 2015: Space Marines
I didn't really find out about the comp until near the end, so I did not participate.

April 2015: Veterans
My entry: Deathwing Knights
Inspired by the great entries from March, I decided to throw my hat into the ring and give it a go. I did not have a decent camera yet, so the pic shown below is not one of the actual entry pics, but one I shot much later with my better camera. The models themselves have not been touched up since the contest. At the time, these were the best painted models I had ever done.

May 2015: Fast and Furious
My entry: Flesh Hounds of Khorne
I had originally entered a squad of Raptors into this month's challenge, but I ultimately got frustrated by the amount of fiddly detail and gave up entirely when one of them got broken after a game at my FLGS. So I switched to the Hounds and managed to get them done. I personally like these old Flesh Hound models better than the current ones GW makes, and was very happy to score them off of eBay. I probably gimped myself in the voting with poor photography here, as I had not yet learned all the settings on my good camera yet, so the color balance is way off on these pics.

June 2015: Some Kind of Monster
My entry: Helbrute from the Dark Vengeance box set
I was very happy to have an excuse to paint this amazing model, and I'm quite proud of the results I managed to achieve. My photography skills were still not up to scrach, hence the whitewashed look of some of the photos, but I was getting there.

July 2015: Sneaky!
My entry: Ravenwing Darkshroud
I was definitely stretching the theme, but I really wanted to paint this model. I feel like the statuary on top turned out very well, but the rest was just ok. I intend to go back and touch this thing up at some point, make it really pop.

August 2015: Rise of the Machines
My entry: Soul Grinder
This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever done, it was so much fun to paint this model. Not to sing my own praises or anything, but the model gets compliments from other players whenever I take it to a tournament, so I definitely feel like I did a good job on it.

September 2015: Never Tell Me the Odds!
I did not participate in this competition, mainly due to not having much that would fit the theme, and RL issues taking up much of my painting time.

October 2015: Trick or Treat
My entry: Cypher, the Fallen Angel
I originally had planned to enter Cypher and some Chaos Chosen as a retinue for him, but I ended up not having time to do the Chosen. I feel I definitely let myself down with Cypher, and intend to fix him up better eventually.

November 2015: Princes of the Universe
My entry: Tau Commander
This was my first real attempt at painting the forces of the Greater Good, and a test of the paint scheme I wanted to do for my army. The paint scheme looks far better in person than my photos would suggest.

December 2015: Open Challenge
My entry: Vindicare and Culexus Assassin
I did not manage to finish this one in time, due to being busy with the holidays and everything. I intend to go back and finish the Assassins at some point, probably before the the end of 2016.

January 2016: Up Close and Personal
My entry: Tau Breacher Team
I actually found a way for Tau to fit the up close theme of the challenge, and that was with Breachers, due to the nature of their guns. I painted the whole squad of ten, but entered only the Shas'ui, the Guardian Drone, and three Shas'la for the comp.

February 2016: Size Matters Not
My entry: Tau KV128 Stormsurge
This was by far the biggest model I had ever painted. I knew from the beginning that getting it done in a month was going to be tricky at my glacial painting pace, but I managed to get it done in time.

Well, there you have it. I completed 9/12 challenges in the last cycle, hopefully I can do them all this time around. Space Marine is the theme this month, and I will be entering a Dark Angels Devastator Squad. Here's to another year of challenge entries!

Nice selection of models finished off over the months. Well done!

Nice journey though time Zerg. You can see how you've refined and improved your style.

EDC

Thanks a bunch, guys! I like to think I'm getting better at this, and I've got those painting challenges to thank for it mostly! Paradigm, if you're reading this, thank you!

Here's where I'm at with the Devastator Squad:

Still lots more work to do, but the major base colors are all down now. I'll have to clean up some spots where I wasn't neat enough with my brush, but that'll be the last step before shading. The shoulder symbols will be the very last thing, and I'll most likely freehand those, as I can never get the decals to work on the curved surfaces of the shoulder pads. Oh, and I'll probably get that bolter barrel drilled out before I do anything else. Can't believe I missed that!

I think it's high time I did another update on this blog. I haven't gotten much painting done in the last couple of weeks due to RL taking all my time and/or energy (plus I strained my shoulder somehow), but I have gotten a little bit done. First, here's WIP of a Tau Piranha that I have been working on concurrently with the DA Devastators:

I'm doing the cockpit similarly to how I did the cockpit on my Stormsurge as far as the buttons and displays. This model is being done for kb_lock's "Git 'er done" painting comp.

The main thing I've been doing over the last couple of days is this:

Yes, that's a Tau Riptide in pieces. I've gotten it to the subassembly stage, now I have to drill out some weapon barrels (the fusion blasters and plasma rifles) and some holes for magnets. I intend to fully magnetize this thing so that I can get the most mileage out of it. I'll paint it in subassemblies like most of my large models these days, as that will be easier that trying to paint the whole thing fully assembled.

In other news, I have a Start Collecting! Tau Empire box set coming in the mail courtesy of eBay (got it pretty cheap), and I will soon have the Deathwatch minis from Deathwatch Overkill (splitting the box set with a friend, he wanted the Genestealer Cult models as he used to run a Genestealer Cult back in RT/2nd or whenever they were a thing). Looking forward to that.

Thanks for looking, and hopefully I'll have more to show you soon!

Nice stuff. Dark Angels are a project of my own that I need to get back to sometime, so it's very cool to see how yours are looking. As for the transfers, have you heard of/used Micro Sol and Micro Set?

That's a lot of work on the Tau model. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Thanks Az! I have heard of Microsol and Microset, but I've never used them. I've thought about trying them, but never bothered to. I do have a Testors decal setting solution that works okay (even though it smells like its just vinegar or something...)

Time for a quick update! I've made some progress on the DA Devastators, finishing the basecoating. Here's a pic:

Now I need to shade them. I'll probably do the Duncan Rhodes thing and just coat them in Nuln Oil, then brighten up the colors afterward. I'll apply edge highlights to the armor and weapons, at least. I've only got like 8 days left to get these guys done, so I don't know if I'm gonna make it in time.

More news from the Greater Good front, I've gotten to work on the models from the Start Collecting Tau box. I've begun putting the Crisis suits together (and yes, I'm going to magnetize them), and I've also assembled the Ethereal on Hover Drone:

That Ethereal is one of the coolest models in the Tau range. I'm looking forward to painting him, although I have plenty of other stuff ahead of him in the queue.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more!

Devs are looking good Zerg.

EDC

@EDC: Thanks, bud! I love the color scheme of the Dark Angels, and it is fun to make it happen on the minis.

I've shaded those Devs now, so the next step will be to brighten up the colors. Then I'd better get to work on the freehand chapter symbols, Devastator symbols, and company markings (good thing my DA are 3rd company so the company symbol is a simple red stripe! ).

It is my unhappy duty to report to you that my Devastator Squad has been placed in an indefinite holding pattern for the time being. I just can't find inspiration to finish them, and the deadline is in two days, so I'm bowing out of this month's painting challenge as well. But, there is a bit of good news as well! I recently began rummaging around all my DA kit boxes (gotta make a dedicated bits box one of these days), and suddenly this happened:

This is an Interrogator-Chaplain on a Space Marine bike. He's my entry in April's painting challenge. I used parts from five different kits, including: Space Marine bike, Ravenwing Accessories, Dark Angels Company Veterans, Ravenwing Command Squad, Deathwing Command Squad. Those kits are gold mines for Dark Angels bits.

On the Tau front, I'm about to start putting magnets on my Crisis suits, and I may just go ahead and fully assemble my Riptide rather than paint it in subassemblies. This will make it harder to paint, but at least I will be able to actually use it in games since it doesn't look like I'm going to get it done real soon (it won't be as hard as the Stormsurge would have been). I've already magnetized it so that I can use any combination of weapons.

I do have a dilemma upcoming. Tax time is approaching, and I'm not sure what I should get with my tax return. I'm not expecting a big check, as I can no longer claim school expenses on it. Here are the things I'm considering:
1) 2 boxes of Chaos bikes, a box of Chaos warhounds, and some 50mm bases to expand my Daemonkin army (roughly $120). This would allow me to run the Gorepack formation. I might also get a Maulerfiend or two depending on the size of my return.
2) 2 boxes of Tetras and a Y'vahra from Forge World. This is probably not going to happen, as with shipping I'm looking at about $260 at least. This would be my very first Forge World purchase, though.
3) Codex: Imperial Knights and an Imperial Knight kit (the new one). To me, this is tempting as I love the Imperial Knight models and they are very powerful. It'll run me around $180 or so depending on what the Codex costs.
4) Start Collecting! Space Wolves, Codex: Space Wolves, and a box of Thunderwolf Cavalry. I'd love to add a small Wolfstar to my Ravenwing lists, although I'm not sure investing in yet another army is a wise use of my money (around $190). I do love the Thunderwolf models, though.
5) 6 Razorbacks, 2 Drop Pods, an Assault Squad, a Devastator Squad, and at least one Tactical Squad. This would allow me to run a full Battle Company of Dark Angels. I'm not likely to do it, as it'll run me upwards of $450 and I'd probably go insane from having to built and paint so many vehicles!
First world problems, eh? Anyway, more will follow and whatever I do decide to do with my tax return, I'll report it in this blog. I hope to have some painting progress to show on the Chappy soon!

Been a little while since I posted an update, so time to fix that! I've made some progress on the biker Interrogator-chaplain. The base colors are all down, although plenty of touchups are required. I've gotta learn to be less messy with my painting one of these days! Here's a pic:

Shouldn't be too long before I can call this guy done. I'm hoping not to take too much longer as I want to get back to painting some more Tau stuff.

Speaking of Tau stuff, I have been doing a little bit more on my Piranha. Here's a couple of WIP shots:

The blue around the edges in the first image is a result of having painted the bottom of the vehicle blue. Ultimately the whole thing will be blue with some kind of camo pattern. Not sure I'm going to do the planned tiger stripes but I intend to do something. This model will be a test bed for a camo scheme that I will then apply to all my Tau vehicles. The cockpit is mostly done, just some edge highlights for the panels and glazes for the screens left to do. The crew is coming along as well, with the blue armor and gray cloth done.

I hope to have more progress to show soon!

Nice Chaplain Zerg. I like the idea od the blue underside and the fact it gives a neat blue edge. It really pops.

EDC

@EDC: Thanks! As for the piranha, it is not going to stay that way (with blue around the edges). I'm going to do the entire hull of the vehicle in blue, with a camo pattern. Although looking at it it does actually look okay if that was what I was aiming for, kind of a Tron look.

Time for a quick WIP shot of my Interrogator:

Shading is all done, now I'm working on highlights. I did some red on the underside of the robe, and I added some Gehenna's Gold over the gold parts to brighten those up (I still need to do this on the Mace of Redemption, though). Shouldn't take me too long to get this guy knocked out, then I can concentrate on the Tau Piranha.

Perhaps I'm late to the party, but I recently found out about the upcoming Imperial Knight Renegade boxed game being released from GW. I think I'm going to get one, as I've been toying with the idea of getting a Knight for a while now and I still haven't used my tax return money. Now I'll have two Knights! I may paint one up to match my Daemonkin (I'll use it as a Chaos Knight of Khorne). The other will be loyalist of course, and will probably be painted to compliment my Dark Angels, although I may give it some AdMech iconography so that in future I can use it with an AdMech army (although that will be a long way off probably).

Update: More progress has been made, the highlights are almost done!

I still need to do another highlight of the red underside of his robe. After that there will be some cleanup of the shoulder pads and helmet. Then I can do the base, which will be simple and super easy, then I'll post the final pics for everyone to enjoy!

Well, I've finished the Interrogator-chaplain, so here are the final pics of him:



I feel like he turned out pretty good. My freehand still needs some work, but...eh. This mini will probably see plenty of action when my Ravenwing hit the table. Chaos traitors had better hide when this guy shows up!

In other news, I've begun working on some Tau drones, and work continues on the Piranha, albeit very slowly. I'll post pics here when I make some more progress. Please feel free to vote for my images in the Dakka gallery! More to come soon!

The Interrogator-Chaplain looks very cool as a model. The only thing is that he doesn't really scream "Chaplain" to me. It's the lack of Skull mask and a more blatant skull shoulderpad, though I can see where you've added the markings with paint. Perhaps extending the skull shape to the forehead of the helmet and adding in some skull-nostrils? That would make it more obviously a skull-mask painted on his biker helm.

@Azazelx: Good idea, I might just do that. I've got a few more days left in the painting comp. To be honest I considered the face thing already, but dismissed the idea, thinking it wouldn't look right. I suppose I can try it and see what it looks like. Nothing I can really do for the shoulderpad, though. I tried to find one with a skull on it, but I don't seem to have one. I could have used a plain one and painted it, but I wanted something more ornate, hence the one you see here. Thanks for the feedback!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, having nothing better to do tonight I went ahead and got right on the face modification for my Interrogator and reshot my final photos, here they are:



I think it does make the face look more like a skull, albeit a stylized one, which is good.

Looks good, Zerg. I like the display screen on the bike!

Really cool kitbash there Zerg...nice stuff, really fits the brief as an Interrogator Chaplain.

@Zambro: Thanks! I was torn as to how much to put on the screen, but decided to keep it simple like a radar view or something.

@Thraxas: Thanks! I'm glad it came across right. Those DA kits (Company Veterans, RW Command, DW Command) and the Ravenwing accessory sprue really do have lots of good bits in them. Great resource for customizing DA characters! I've actually got a Company Master on foot that I've barely started working on that is a similar kitbash, so look forward to that in the future.

Cool stuff, mate. The addition to the helm paint makes a difference.

Excellent work on the interrogator Chappy, he looks brill.

EDC

@Azazelx: Thanks for the compliment, and thanks for the painting suggestion! It really does improve the model.

@EDC: Thanks very much!

Okay, time to switch gears a bit and go over to the dark side. My new painting project is to get some Chaos Cultists done for Paradigm's monthly painting challenge. I'm going to be doing Sect Anarkus from the Dark Vengeance set. Although my contest entry is limited to 5 models, I will be painting all of the cultists. Here's what they look like with nothing but black primer:

The plan is to use three main colors for their clothing, changing which piece of clothing is which color on each model to give them a unified look without looking like any type of uniforms. The three colors are going to be black, gray, and red. This should tie in nicely with my Daemonkin army. Their skin will be made to look very pale, like they have been living too near the bottom of an Imperial hive city for too long. I also intend to add some Blood for the Blood God paint to make them look like they've been "busy". Hehehe...

You may notice the Champion is missing from the above shot. This is because I painted him a while back (before I started this blog). Here's what he looks like right now:

Pretty sad, right? Well, he's gonna get a bit of a makeover, as his clothing will need to fit in with the color scheme I outlined above. I'll probably leave his skin as is, as it is pretty pale. I may shade it or something to give it some warmth, though.

Look forward to progress on these models soon, as I have been eagerly waiting for an excuse to put some paint on them! I'll also soon have some pics of those Tau drones I mentioned a few posts ago, as they are almost done.

Ooh, one more thing. I recently caved in and bought a set of Female Apocalypse Survivors from Wargames Factory at my FLGS. I intend to use them as additional cultists, although they will look pretty skinny next to the GW cultists. I probably won't get around to painting them anytime real soon, but you never know!

Stay tuned for more, and keep the comments coming! I'm always open to advice and constructive criticism. Feel free to vote for pics of my finished models on the Dakka Gallery!