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 Adamski Alders wrote:
Damn those are some old minis, sorry "retro/classic". Are they meant to look purple though?

It’s OK to call them old. Because lets be honest here, that’s what they are. Not that they can’t be both old and retro/classic, so “All of the above” makes for a good option. As for the purple tint, there are a lot of sources for that. One is my crummy photography skills, these pics were some of my earliest miniature photos. Quality of camera is another place to lay the blame. My first (and current for that mater) digital cameras were hand-me-downs from my dad. While we may be spoiled with decent quality cameras on every cell phone these days, back at the turn of the century this was not the case. And what I was using was at least a generation old at the time. The photoshop work to the black background and image compression might also account for some of the color.

These guys have never been striped, and are still in active service. So any color shift is either an artifact of the camera, or just years of fading.

On a different topic, I’m in a bit of an quandary. Recently the folks who’s lawn I was mowing this summer returned from their vacation. This means I just got a shot of guilt-free funds to spend on hobby stuff. $200 specifically. Now, being a responsible adult, I’m trying to plan out my purchases. Unlike most of my hobby funds for the last couple of years, this is not store credit, so a lot more flexible. Still, I’ve mostly got my eyes on GW stuff.

Some things I’m thinking about:
1-3 Whirlwinds
2+ bikes (for librarian, techmarine conversions, maybe command squad)
Vindicator
Stalker/hunter
LRC/R
Scout bikes (Would be nice to have a larger squad a/o field 2 squads.)
Cents (I know, they are kinda ugly, but the rules....)
Eldar Fire Prism

Now those are all old news, things I’ve been coveting for a while now. There are also things like the rumor of the 30k box (sprue pics have been seen, so more solid then most). Last rumor I saw said it’s price might be 3 digits in GBP, so maybe $150 (my guess, could be more) Do I hold off and see if that’s worth getting? Do I branch out into FW stuff? It’s accepted at my FLGS, but I’d want to get both the rules and the models, so the budget would vaporize fast if I took that route.

Then there is the heretical thought of other game systems. Could I build a Warmachine army (including rules/codex) for that? I know they have their rules for free, but I think you still need an armybook.

Nothing wrong with old/retro/classic for minis, I think I may have some of those in a box somewhere, especially that classic Captain. Hell I even found some old 1986-1989 old Space Marines my Step-Dad gave me.

As for the possible purchases, I'm always a sucker for more Bikes. I like them plus I want to build a character on bike for all possible options eventually as well as being able to field two whole squads of bikes in a game if I wished. I also like Whirlwinds though don't know how effective they are these days. If it was a poll I'd vote those. Never Cents though, can't stand the sight of them personally.
Maybe the Fire Prism as well, your Eldar have been coming along very nicely lately, couldn't hurt to get them more firepower.

Of the options, I’m leaning hard towards bikes as part of the selection myself. Being able to field the full matrix of HQs and armor/transport types has been a goal for a while now. The fact that I know there is a box of them at the FLGS makes it very likely they may find their way to my workbench.

I guess part of my problem is a now/later thing. In a few month we’ll find out of the 30k box rumors are true. Also, GW usually puts out a new SM bundle box for the holidays. This is often a good deal if you need some of the parts of it. But there is also stuff I could use right now. Another thing fueling my decision paralysis is e-bay and bits stores. I want a pair of whirlwinds, (3 would be better) but how many rhino chassis do I need? Would my money be better spent just sourcing one or two missile turrets?

Oh well. On to paint:



I’m getting tired of painting the Oni. She’s been scaring me away from the paintbench. I started her for part of the monthly comp, but am not really enthusiastic about how she’s turning out. Nevertheless, I’m going to finish her. Might not be by the end of the month though. I’ll just enter the captain by himself, not a big deal. But I need to get some paint flowing if I want to keep up my year-to-date goals. So I put some coats down on a pair of heavy weapon troopers. I’d say devastators, but the odds of them showing up in a tac squad are much higher. Unless I break out the cheese and go skyhammer analyzation force.

Oni got some flame work done. Space wolf grey base, blue ink, followed by a purple glaze. Once that dries I’m going to go back and drybrush some light blue/white on top. Other plans for her involve some orange/yellow blending on her lower torso, to make it look like she’s emerging from a fire a/o hell. Might try some OSL. I should also try some highlights/shadeing on her in general, possibly a red wash overall. Just to give her some depth.

Finished my entry for the painting comp. Not 100% happy with the Oni, but she will do.

The two heavy weapon guys are almost done. Just need to finish a shoulder pad, double check the details, black rim the bases, then glue the parts together.

Not bad Nev... not bad at all.

Thanks!

OK, finished up the marines:


I really hate lining up all the parts on the devs. Such a pain.

Also, while I was flocking the Oni, I finished up the second squad. (Second squad, third company. It’s actually the third tac squad I’ve completely flocked)

Those two devs look great Nev! Simple paintjob but very effective.

I like the flocking on the tacticals. Is the snow theme to represent the Macragge battles?

 brushcommando wrote:
I like the flocking on the tacticals. Is the snow theme to represent the Macragge battles?

More or less. For the longest time I didn’t want to base my army. You are never going to match every table you play on, so what to choose*? So I thought I’d just give them their home turf. And one of the most iconic moments in the chapter is the defense of the polar fortresses during the tyrannic invasion.

Plus I think the blue looks nice in the white.

One of these days I’l make a polar display board. I have ideas for it and everything. Plus the slab of insulation that’s been sitting in the garage for years. Just need to get off my lazy backside and do it.



* Yes I know they make clear bases these days, but that would require me to rebase everyone; not happening.

Some/all of these guys are going to be my entry for this month’s painting comp.

Put down the first blue coat on the two jump pack marines on the bench last night. And had something rare happen: I finished off the paint pot. "Licking the bottom of the pot for paint" finished, not the far more common “dried out/turned to unusable sludge” results. I had been thinking ahead, so have a spare pot on standby. But still, it was a notable occurrence.

After finishing up the grav cannon cent, I was thinking about putting a grav gun on a trooper, so I could run a full grav squad. Since they came out, I’ve always been under the impression that plasma does the job better for non-relentless units. And from a mathhammer POV, I think that might be correct. But I think from a practical standpoint, they should work just fine. You get 2 shots out to 9”. That might seem short, but I get flamer hits all the time, and that’s a ~8” template. And when not moving, 3x at 18” is much better.

The question is wether or not to magnetize. Traditionally I don’t bother for footslogging special/heavy weapons. But that’s partially due to the abundance of melta/plasma/flamers I have kicking around. Grav guns are on the rare side in my collection; I should have 3. And I might want to be able to put more on the bikes, so options are good. So that will be a little bit of a modeling challenge. The bike specials use wrist magnets (rather then shoulder) so I can do up a foot guy (or two) that’s compatible.

You know Nev... I used to magnetize everything. Then I realized that I usually just lose the magnetized options... so now-a-days I just glue it (with occasional exception).

I'm kind of leaning that way on magnets. I was going to ball-joint magnetize all 30+ of my enforcers but now I'm thinking if I just do 10 of each kind with 10 in the middle ball-jointed.. I'll have it covered.

Nice stuff hereabouts lately

I will admit, sometimes I think I over-magnetize these days. Mostly when I can’t move a unit 6” without having to put someone’s arm back on. But I never play the same list, so things are always getting tweaked around. And I try to maintain 100% painted, 100% WYSWYG. And for that, magnets are very useful.

So here is the latest guy for the prime box:


This will make the second wrist mag’d grav gun, joining a melta and a plasma gun for options set up this way. I realized as I was putting him together, that my third grav gun was actually on the arm of my LotD sarge. Woops, he should have a combi-grav. Not a big deal, as I mag’d that at the shoulder, so he can loan that to a command squad body. Or anyone else with a shoulder mounted magnet, which is where I normally mount them. You can see in the pic that there is not a whole lot of room in the wrist for a 2mm, which is why I dislike putting them there.

Interesting. I put the magnets in my special weapon swaps in the hand and where the gun handle goes. Wrist is not a bad idea... Wondering why I did mine the way I did... Maybe I had some of the intact guns with handles or something.

I think the newer kits are all mounted at the wrist where as the older kits are mounted on the top of the hand.

GrimDork wrote:Interesting. I put the magnets in my special weapon swaps in the hand and where the gun handle goes. Wrist is not a bad idea... Wondering why I did mine the way I did... Maybe I had some of the intact guns with handles or something.

Knightley wrote:I think the newer kits are all mounted at the wrist where as the older kits are mounted on the top of the hand.

Yup. I forget when they made the switch from separate guns to hands-on guns. At the very least they’ve been doing it for a couple of years now with the new tacs/sternguard. I’ve got a bitzbox full of old style guns where you needed to clip the handle off, but that’s just because I’m older then dirt.

Put the black layer on parts for the two marines on the bench, slow progress there. I’m having second thoughts about my entry for the month. I should see if I’ve got anything spooky primed. Unfortunately, the weather is not conducive to getting anything else ready to paint. If I can get a decent day, I need to get things primed. I’ve got a custom mini to paint for a friend. He ordered it from Hero Forge, where you choose the options and they 3D print it for you. Udine (water elemental/outsider blooded) monk. Should be interesting; a new experiment in materials and theme.

Quick update for a supply drop:

3 bike box and a vindi. I was hoping to get a whirlwind or two, but none in stock, and unavailable from GW. We’ll see if they get re packaged or put into some sort of bundle. But the bikes were at the top of the list, allowing my to finish my HQ matrix, and the vindi is a tank long coveted.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to grab a beer and my clippers and hit the bench.

Haha, nice quote that makes at the end

I also need to get in another priming day. I primed a *bunch* of stuff but the wargames factory survivors I've been working on paint up fairly quickly and I'm nowhere near to being stocked up for winter. And even though I can airbrush prime stuff... honestly I'd just as well use a nice rattle can even if it obscures a bit of detail... just for a solid coat that won't readily scratch off. Especially in this season of stock piling.

Awesome supply drop!! Very excited to see the Vindicator going together!

What biker HQs do you need? Tech marine on bike is the only one I can think of.

GrimDork wrote:Haha, nice quote that makes at the end

I also need to get in another priming day. I primed a *bunch* of stuff but the wargames factory survivors I've been working on paint up fairly quickly and I'm nowhere near to being stocked up for winter. And even though I can airbrush prime stuff... honestly I'd just as well use a nice rattle can even if it obscures a bit of detail... just for a solid coat that won't readily scratch off. Especially in this season of stock piling.

I’m hoping I’m going to get to prime these guys, but it might be spring. Weather report is partly cloudy with a high of 68-ish all week, with more rain at the end. Not encouraging. But all it takes is one clean break in the gloom, and out comes the rattle can. But I think I managed a batch last November, so there is still hope.

Zambro wrote:Awesome supply drop!! Very excited to see the Vindicator going together!

What biker HQs do you need? Tech marine on bike is the only one I can think of.

Librarian and Techmarine. I’ve got robed legs from the DA bike sprue, and while there is a torso there, I think it might be a little too chapter specific. So I might end up sculpting some robes. That should be interesting. Techmarine I need to decide on gear. Do I keep him bare-bones, or spruce him up a bit. The bike mounted c-beamer is very tempting. But the servo arm is kinda his signature bit. Not that it helps him fix things, I just read up on that. You get the bonus for the full harness, but not the single arm. And swapping that out for the beamer doesn’t look like it impacts his repair rule. We’ll see if what the bits say.

I got the sides glued, but not the tracks on last night. I think I might prime and paint those on the sprue. The treads and wheels are very annoying to get a brush on when assembled. Did some clipping and dry fitting on the front. I did not realize that the main gun actually pivots up and down. Neat touch. The whole thing feels a lot more like a tank, and less like a box with some guns glued on. I expected that from the razorback, but the fact that the pred is just a rhino with a turret perched on top always struck me as lame. This guy feels like he’s got some weight and armor on him.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


...And done!

Not that rhino chassis are particularly rough to slap together. This one has a few more bits and bobs then most. I decided against the winch thing on the back, it looked very impractical. Not sure if I’m going to run with the paired turbine back plate, or just leave if off. Underneath is a slotted grill thing that I kinda like the look off. Not sure, so I’ll just prime the plate and see what I feel like later.

The siege shield is magnetized. It’s not even vaguely worth the points IMHO, but the tank looks a little naked without it.

I almost gave the tank commander a powerfist just for lullz. No game effect for him sticking out the hatch anyway. But the poor guy shouldn’t be able to fit his shoulders through the opening anyway, and the fist just made it comical. So he’s just sporting a more practical bolt pistol/auspex combo.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK, some test pics of the bike Lib:





I feel a little odd having the robed legs, but nothing on the torso. But with the arms and the bike, you don’t really notice it. I could try to greenstuff some on, or see if I could trde for one. Something the the sternguard sarge toga/robe chest would work.

I need to slap some books or something on the bike as well. The ones I have are not really the right size, so I need to dig a bit. Worse case I just slap a lot of purity seals and parchment around.

Thoughts? The bike is solid at this point, but the librarian is just tacked together and subject to change.

OK, tacked together a techmarine.



The servo arm is on a magnet, can be swapped for a c-beamer (still very WIP)


Now quite happy with the angle of the axe. Might have to get a whole new arm for that; looks a bit awkward as-is. I wanted a more in-swing pose, I cut an arm at the shoulder to get it more off to the side, but the elbow looks off. Axe is not aligned with the bike. That can be fixed at the hand, but would weaken it significantly to cut. Oh well, still fiddling.

Thoughts and opinions? I’m on the fence a bit on both these guys, and there is still plenty of time to mess about with them.

I like the conversion beamer. Very subtle.

I dislike the pose on the axe. I dont think you'd be able to get the positioning right for a horizontal slash. Maybe a vertical hack would be better? Maybe the axe coming down from above and to the right of the shoulder pad? However, you should totally do a horizontal swing if you can get it to look right!

I don't know Zambro. If you look at that pose as a snapshot of a side slashing motion, than it's in a perfectly reasonable place. You wouldn't carry the axe that way though... you'd carry it high or resting on your shoulder. The axe would only achieve that particular position in mid-swing.

OK, did some tweaks, much happier. Ended up grabbing the arm from the command squad that should hold up a banner.



And with the c-beamer:


The techmarine is basically done at this point, but I may slap some more grubbins on him. Thoughts on the Librarian?

Was a nice day out, so some rattle can action went down.


I honestly didn’t place the large blast marker next to the vindi just for the pic. I think it has a new best friend.

Librarian together, although in a number of pieces for painting. Not that far off from the early mock up:



And just because if I’m not fielding both him and the JP librarian at the same time, he’s probably going to borrow the staff:


And to show that I’m still painting:

Brown and green washes down on the jumpers, base blue on the LotD. Still debating how to differentiate them from the regular line marines. Was thinking black. or silvered black, helmets. Maybe a black background on the vet shoulder.

Whats the background of the LotD? If they are just slightly different marines counting as LotD, then usual colours would be fine.
In the interest of making them different and stand out, you could do a seciton of them black. Black shoulder pads, a black arm, a quartered black scheme... All would fit

 Zambro wrote:
Whats the background of the LotD? If they are just slightly different marines counting as LotD, then usual colours would be fine.
In the interest of making them different and stand out, you could do a seciton of them black. Black shoulder pads, a black arm, a quartered black scheme... All would fit

Digging around from earlier in the blog to collect my thoughts. I picked up the parts and started glueing them together a bit over a year ago.

A 5 man squad of LotD counts-as. I’m using Voidstalker Veterans as a working unit title. A specialist squad designed to teleport into spaces too tight for terminators, for precision strikes on critical targets. Formed after the Battle of Macragge and the lessons learned in the space battle there. Made from GK and VV parts.

While it’s still a ways off, I’m trying to think about paint jobs that will differentiate these guys, but still tie into the army. I might do white helmets, as that’s something I don’t normally do for my vets. Other options would be to actually paint the trim on the shoulderpads, or the pads themselves in a different color. Black or silver come to mind for options, but green trim is also a possibility. As I put together some fluff for these guys in my head, they use precision teleports to zip in, evaluate the situation and set up a perimeter. Unlike terminators, which are slow and ponderous, or assault troops who get stuck in and can’t react well once committed, the PA/SS/bolter combination makes for a fluid, durable force. Being that they were developed initially for boarding actions, green trim for the 4th company (headed by the Master of the Fleet) makes some sense. But as they also have a veteran++ statline, white for the 1st company can also work.

One reason I want to make sure they are distinct is WYSWYG. They do not have chapter tactics, and have a significantly different set of rules then your stock marine. So I want them to stand apart from the rest of my forces to remind myself and my opponent about that, yet still look like they belong. I think more then just the shoulderpad should be done. Maybe the whole SS arm and helmet in black? That could work.

Because every clear nice day in October is a blessing that should not be squandered, I broke out the rattle can today.



More projects for the winter!

The bike hq's are looking quite good so far. Can't wait to see how they look when they're done.

War Kitten wrote:
The bike hq's are looking quite good so far. Can't wait to see how they look when they're done.

As units I’m kinda eager to field, they might be close to the top of the queue. That said, I still need to bang out a lot of Eldar by year’s end.

But with them built, I now have a full HQ matrix. Every HQ, every mode or transportation. Behold!



Plus all the named Ultramarine characters. Well, not technically all of them. But my foot librarian can counts-as Tigurius, and the JP chaplain has a normal backpack and c-flamer to fill in for Cassius. Lacking a lot of wargear options, but having every option available is asking a little much.