Nice work on the Joker, very cool stuff.

D

Thanks everyone!

Got Batgirl done today, but she's turning out to be one of those minis that will. not. photograph. properly... I'll keep experimenting, but it's likely she'll end up in an update with whoever's up next, most likely a Joker clown or two.

Ok, progress! Some of these pics are better than others, I'll start with the stuff you can actually see!

Joker's two clowns, Contra-Auguste and Knife Clown.






Couple of things going on here. C-A has had the Arkham logo on the back of his hoodie daubed over with a J, while the knife guy has patches of white on his arms and green and red streaks all over his face (that you can't see too well) as if, in an effort to proclaim his loyalty to the boss, he's just badly covered himself in greasepaint to try and be clowny.

Next up, Black Canary, who in fact wears blue and grey... You can blame DC for that one, not me.




Up next, the last clown, The Huntress, Nyssa and maybe Harley. I've also just about managed to get some decent pics of Batgirl (test attached below, let me know if it's crap or not!), so those should materialise tomorrow. In the mean time, any thoughts welcome! Cheers for looking!

fabulous work Para. love those clowns.

Yep good stuff. Quite like batgirl.

Really good stuff! I really like the dwarf and the Joker models you've done! Batgirl looks good too........ but that may just be the latex?...........

They're looking great. The only thing I would say is that the street marking is a distraction from the actual Batgirl mini. Nice to see your take on Dinah (I think mine is going to be more classic BoP).

Knife clown is genuinely sinister looking.

D

They are all looking really nice Para, you're making harder to resist with all these lovely young ladies.

Great work, Para! You're grinding through those minis like crazy.

Joker looks good, in a leering psychopath sort of way. That Batgirl mini, wow. A good dynamic pose.

Thanks y'all!

@NF09: Holy smeg, the Nerd speaks! We are blessed! Cheers for dropping by!

@Graven: Yeah, in hindsight I'm probably going to remove that. I added it simply as a way to not just have a plain gravel base, but with it running right next to the yellow boot it doesn't do the mini many favours. It'll come off by the time I retake photos.

As far as I was aware the Birds were Batgirl (Barbara), Canary (Dinah) and Huntress (Helena)? Am I missing some/ are there any that shouldn't be there? To be honest, I'm only going off a few comic cameos and very basic background reading, so I may well be wrong.

@Giraffe: Don't resist! Join us! It's Batman! And minis! It's the perfect combo (well, at least until someone realises the world needs proper Star Wars minis, anyway! )

@RH: Yep, she is a great sculpt, although rather unbalanced, I'm going to need to weight the base somehow. It's partly why I'm so annoyed I can't get decent pics, she looks great in real life!


More pics coming later!

I do not know how much of you BTMG stuff made the journey to Uni with you but any chance of a group shot of all of your painted Batman stuff? It would look epic.

Sadly I have't got anything other than this lot here with me, so no group shots left. Though if I can get any local gamers interested then it'll be coming up, and if not, then I'll definitely grab group shots galore next time I'm back home. Maybe even a batrep (is that a bat-batrep?) or two if no one minds crappy cardboard box terrain...

My weekend of productivity continues!

The last of the Clowns, named Ringmaster. Absolutely love the design work on this guy, he's a straight up game-to-mini transition from Arkham City. I can't find a decent screen shot, but if any of you have played the game, he should be instantly recognisable. Aside from Mr J, he's my favourite mini in the crew set.





Which brings to a close the Joker starter set. Of the 3 starters I've worked on (Bane, League of Shadows, Joker) this one is definitely my favourite! Such character in every sculpt, and this Joker mini is definitely in my top 10 minis of all time!


Next up, the Huntress. Again, not the best pics as the lighting setup I'm forced to use here doesn't like anything with large capes or muted colours, but here goes anyway.




Someone say group shots? Here's the fruits of this weekend's labours, the Birds of Prey tangling with the Clown Prince of Crime:


And finally (well, almost), I've finally managed to get some shots of Bugman that do him justice. Turns out all he needed was varnish, different exposure, different white balance and a different background! Simples!




And on one final note, The Huntress took me to 500 minis completed this year! Which of course means... MONTAGE! There's a bunch of pics of the first 365 a dozen or so pages back, so here's the best of 366-500!



Proof that for most of this year I've had far too much free time! Can't see myself topping that number in future! Cheers to everyone who's dropped in, commented, assisted and generally been a huge motivation thus far! Over this year I've learned a ton in painting, photography, conversion and all sorts, and I wouldn't be painting with anywhere near the quality or speed I manage without you guys!

Any thoughts welcome on today's lot!

And one final question; I may end up with a spare Harley Quinn mini due to the error in delivery, and rather than have 2 different Arkham themed versions. I thought I might convert one. So, do I go for a New 52 comic book style like Graven recently pulled off to great effect, or something based around the new Suicide Squad movie?

Thanks for all the pictures together, really great work all around. First glance of the Joker made me do a double take as I was wondering what hand sign he was making.

You really do blow through minis like crazy, don't you? In that montage, my personal favorite is Angron. He looks like he's saying "ANGRON CRUSH PUNY SMALL MARINES!!!" Really makes me want to get one of those Primarch minis once I have the spare cash to do so (although I'm waiting for the Lion...).

You will never best that total? I already have you booked in at 10 to 1 on to beat it at Ladbrokes. 20 to 1 that you will beat 1000 minis in 2016.

Joking aside my hat off to you Para.

Great stuff para

Cheers everyone! Certainly pretty pleased with what I've managed to paint up this weekend! Still got the Harley crew set coming some time next week and the Court of Owls needing replacement parts, so there's plenty more to come on the Bat-front.

@ZergSmasher: Do it! They really are somethin' else to paint, Primarchs! You think normal minis are great and full of detail and such nice sculpts... and then you get your hands on one of those, and it's just a whole other level.

If you want a crack at something Primarchy, but without breaking the bank, check out the Knights of Legend from Kabuki models. They are a range of not-Primarchs and they have a massive sale on at the mo (though sadly not on the one I want, the not-Sanguinis)
http://kabuki-models.com/13-knights-of-legend

Fantastic work, and such volume Great job!

Planning on getting big bane any time mate?

Big Bane is definitely on my shopping list, he was going to be part of my last order until I stumbled across this lot for such a good price in Swap Shop. By the end of this year I hope to have my Batman, Arrow, Bane, League, Owls and Joker crews 'done' (not as in EVERY model but enough to have some variety in my lists and have all the ones I want to paint), then it's on to Two Face and Scarecrow in the new year.

Might take a break before those two, though, as there are a couple of other ranges I want to dip into, Anvil's Afterlife and possibly MEdge

Oooh, I wouldn't mind seeing your paintwork on the MEdge stuff.

Speaking of MEdge, I just filled out their pledge manager. Quite possibly one of the best pledge managers I've seen thus far. Nice Gotham models there Para Quite liking the Joker and his goons!

Batman minis look great; that Joker is a particularly good sculpt and your paintwork has brought him to life.

Good to see that they have continued the comic "proportions" of the crime fighting ladies......

I vote for a suicide squad version of Harley.

Ta guys!

@Grim/AoV: Whether or not I do MEdge largely depends on what ultimately ends up in the box at retail and how much said box is. It's great that the proceeds are ultimately giving something back to the folks that make Dakka possible, but I'll only buy the box if the content is actually worth the money. Price pending, I may just buy a squad or two and/or some characters rather than the whole shebang.

@Archer: Yeah, that did bug me slightly. Batgirl's alright, but Canary's pose could certainly be better and the same goes for Huntress, although I did paint what should be skin (her thighs and midriff) as a suit like in Arrow, so she's at least slightly more practically dressed than she might have been.

Harley will certainly be taking inspiration from the Suicide Squad movie design, I think. Hard to copy exactly with the sculpt as it is, but hopefully the influence will be there.

 Paradigm wrote:
Ta guys!

@Grim/AoV: Whether or not I do MEdge largely depends on what ultimately ends up in the box at retail and how much said box is. It's great that the proceeds are ultimately giving something back to the folks that make Dakka possible, but I'll only buy the box if the content is actually worth the money. Price pending, I may just buy a squad or two and/or some characters rather than the whole shebang.

To be honest, I only went in for the Angel Minnows and a few terrain sprues. The former being for my Dark Eldar beast packs. The GW Razorwing flock models don't do anything for me aesthetic wise and I think since Dark Eldar raid on a galactic scale, it seems right that they'd have more freakish "pets" in their menagerie.

Congrats on the 500 minis para!

As if things weren't crazy enough with all these clowns running around, time for some proper bat-gak insanity in the form of Miss Harlene Quinzel... it's almost like her parents knew she was going to end up as super villain named Harley Quinn... They must be so proud...

As mentioned, this one is essentially 'spare', as I was sent her in place of the crew set I ordered, so rather than paint both models in the Arkham scheme, I took inspiration here from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. Due to the sculpt and my lack of GS/ability to do anything with GS, I kept the costume stock (if you want to see an awesome conversion of Harley, check out Graven's blog), but incorporated elements from her film design, including the red/blue dyed hair and the red/blue/while costume, and the faux-graffiti-covered baseball bat. Pretty happy with how she's come out, though I'm not deciding which to enter into the challenge until I get the other version (if I can get that and get it painted by the end of the month).









And that gives me a workable just-about-200 point Joker crew, more than enough to get started with/for demos and matching nicely with the Birds of Prey (who also clock in at just over 200). Now I just need to find some local opponents...



That's all for now! Next up will be Nyssa Al Ghul, and then probably a break from Batman while I wait for the other Harley and the replacement parts for my Court of Owls. Might go back to the small World Eaters squad, or mix it up a bit with some Genestealers... Thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

Harley looks great, as does the whole crew together. I especially like the work you have done on the bases.

Would love to see some 'Stealers, have you done any Tyranids in the blog before?

Very coherent, great job (and thanks for the wee shout-out!)

Thanks guys!

@Thraxas: The only nid presence so far is the Broodlord I did a few months back for a diorama with a Blood Angel. Around page 27 or so, I think.

Also, while I'm here I could do with some advice. The Clowns from the Harley Quinn set I have coming are rather different to the Arkham-Inmate-With-Mask guys that I have from the Joker set, and I plan to use them both together.


So, any ideas on how to go about these guys? Chainsaw dude fits with my existing grey/orange/cream palette easily enough, but the drill and shotgun guys are a bit too obviously in actual clown gear for me to paint them in 'civvie' getup. So do I just stick to that scheme, or does anyone have any neat ideas?

More great stuff. Hayley looks super cool.

Well done hitting 500 minis this year, that's super impressive, especially the quality you're kicking out. That montage was I inspiring .

D

You're doing fiercely well mate. Buy more toys to celebrate!

Drill and shotgun fella - their trousers and boots could easily be done in more regular colthing style; jeans, combats etc. They give them a more gang unifying top and cowl

I agree with Januine. The sculpt of the pants lends itself to jeans and then you can do the clown style up top of you want. Sort of they have proven more capable than the usual riff raff so have uniforms of a sort.

Thanks everyone!

@Graven: Will do as soon as I have some spare cash... turns out student budgeting and regularly buying expensive minis doesn't mesh that well! Need some more commission work to come through... Though that said, there's a little game called Frostgrave that's piqued my interest and given me an excuse to buy some Perry/Fireforge minis, so I may well be heading in that direction soon...

@Archer and Januine: Good call on jeans, that definitely works. I'll probably skip over the diamond motifs as well, in favour of something more Jokery and less Harley-specific. I have no real plans to ever run this crew with Harley as a Leader, so they'll probably get a stylised J or a smiley face or something like that. In all honesty I'm not a huge fan of the drill guy's pose, though, so he will likely get replaced in the final lineup. I plan to get one more Joker set before I call it a day here, probably the Elite Clowns set:

oohhh -likeeeee!!! esp that fella with the mallet. Lovely stuff

Great continued work on these Arkham/Batman models, mate. Also, congratulations on the 500 model milestone as well! I've just remembered I'm supposed to look up some stuff for you - sorry forgot as it's been crazy here lately, but I'll do my best to get it to you ASAP.

Cheers Az!

No hurry on looking that stuff up, we've still got plenty to go on with the main set so just let me know whenever you get around to it.

Just how many are there in the main set? You're going really strong here, don't burn out!

From Gotham to Grimdark! While I wait for the remaining Harley Quinn stuff and my Court of Owls parts, I had a look through my to-paint box, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the upcoming GW release opted for some more 30k! So here we have the third of the Rampagers and probably my favourite to date.







Getting the three together like that does show up the inconsistencies, particularly in the whites, but I'll go back and revisit the first couple when the whole squad is done. For the base of this chap, I went for a trial of a mosaic effect (which needs refining, but will do for now) as I'm a little short on basing material here.

Pretty pleased with this blood-crazed nutter, all things considered.

Hopefully my remaining Bat-stuff will show up soon, and in the next day or so I'll also be placing orders for a couple of minis that should really give me a test. All I shall say is XVII and XVIII... all will become clear...

Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome! I'm a bit pressed for time this week, but hopefully I'll be able to put brush to mini again by the weekend.

Nice work- though I confess I've never been particularly keen on the bare headed rampagers. Better off with helmets IMO.

Yeah, the heads are odd. Being away from my bits box, though, I don't have access to anything to swap them with yet, so I decided to just make the best of it and try and do the face as well as I could.

Gore and anger abound here! Nice job on him Para, you do the heresy World Eater scheme really well, and just the right amount of gore. It is also good that you could get some work done with the essay deadline over your head. I like that chain weapon a lot.

So will your World Eaters be getting some hard plastic reinforcements post November 14th?

Nice work on the frothing mad men. Don’t tell the chaplain, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the followers of Khorne. I kinda dig the blue/white over the red/brass. Chain guy turned out nice and brutal.

Cheers! The gore is a learning process really, the more I do the more I get a feel for where it should be. Might have overdone it on the axe guy, so I dialled it back a bit here and also covered his feet/shins as if he's been wading through a blood-soaked battlefield.

Hard plastic yes, probably not for the WB, though. I'm still unsure on what Legion (if any, I may just do Shattered Legions/a mix of whatever I fancy painting). If I do pick a Legion it's between Word Bearers, Imperial Fists, Sons of Horus or possibly Blood Angels.... But more than likely whatever force I do will be something based around the survivors of the Dropsite Massacre, so bits and bobs of Ravens, Iron Hands, Sallies and a few loyalists from the Traitor Legions that made it off Istvaan III...

Good job on the marines.

I like your world eaters, they have a great firefly-reaver vibe.

Nice work on the marines para. Got that bloodied and weathered look down nicely.

And really nice work on the batman stuff as well! Encourages me to get into it

Thanks guys! Now I know I don't need them for next month's challenge (got something very suitable coming for that... spoilers) the last two World Eaters are probably up next on my list.

Nice world eaters. They really one of the best 30k paint schemes.

D

Cheers man.

Nothing particularly exiting to show today, just a quick test mini I could use some feedback on. Please ignore the somewhat shoddy seembly and the odd missed mold lines, I put this together years ago and since I was just using it to test a scheme, didn't spend much time on cleanup once I got it out again.

Salamander:




The main thing I want to test out here was the green; it's a colour I've always struggled to get looking good (well, I can do DA dark green, but bright Salamander-style green has always eluded me) so I figured it was about time I learned. I was initially going to go for a metallic green inspired by Nerdfest's Vulkan, but pretty early on in that process I realised I just wasn't getting on with the style (and figured it would also look odd next to NMM), so from there I played it by ear and after much cursing, fighting the instinct not to highlight any further and really wishing I owned a green glaze paint, I got to the result above. And since I hate to leave a mini unfinished, I quickly polished off the rest (hence why the flames aren't amazing and neither is the flamer). It's mainly the green I could do with some feedback on.

Why, I (probably don't) hear you ask? Well, all this Horus Heresy Hysteria going on in News and Rumours got me taking another look at Kabuki Models' not-Primarchs, which I've had my eyes on for ages but between their cost and shipping, never bothered with. But yesterday, not only were the last handful of each model insanely cheap (about £6.50 a pop for the ones I got) but they also had a free shipping deal on, so I grabbed 3 of them. Sadly, they'd long ago sold out of my two favourites (Gulliman and Fulgrim) but I was able to get Vulkan (hence the need for green practice), Lorgar and Mortarion:


As and when I get the HH box I am pretty sure I won't be doing any of their respective Legions, but Vulkan will fit in if I ever expand the planned Shattered Legions/Dropsite Survivors force to a full army, and Lorgar and Morty can look mean next to Angry Ron on my shelf, maybe getting a unit or two further down the line. Like Angron, I'm determined to do what you might call a 'proper good' job on these, so if anyone has any tips, suggestions or tutorials that might be relevant to these models then do let me know! I'm leaning towards grey armour for Lorgar rather than red, for the record.

Cheers for looking, apologies for the rambling/lack of pics! Hopefully I'll have something more meaningful soon...

I think he looks good but he's a bit muted, I feel he needs more pop.

Pyriel has done some really nice Salamanders

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-20650-4953_Salamanders%20Tda%20Firedrakes.html

I believe Nerdy painted some basic troopers for him as well.

These look nice as well by Asuryan

looks good Para. I like that it has a slightly dusty muted and worn look to it. I'm really not a fan of the bright shiny shiny paint schemes that look....'unused. You've the Saly scheme but managed a 'this fella actually goes to war' feel to him. Tidy stuff

Hah, between the two of you you've kind of summed up the problem I'm having! Especially for HH stuff I feel doubling down on grimdark and gritty is essential, but at the same time, he does need to have some pop to him to stand out and do the sculpt justice (less important here, but more for Vulkan). Vulkan will obviously have some more gold on him, and the scaled cloak, so I can add some more contrast there, but the green will still be the focal colour of the model and does need to have some depth to it without going too bright and shiny... so I need depth, without going anywhere near as bright as the examples Giraffe posted (they're great, but not the style I'm going for).

Mortarion will be easy to get the right look on, as gritty suits his scheme to a tee, and Lorgar I'm more comfortable with as he'll be mostly grey and gold, colours I know I can do, but Vulkan is probably my favourite model of the three and I want to make sure I get it right.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Grabbed a couple of pics of google to illustrate the look I'm going for:

So in hindsight I've almost gone too bright already, I may have to rethink the whole scheme...

I think he needs to be richer. That color looks washed out and pale. Would be great on a raptor, but for a Salamander I’d like to see some vibrancy. It can be a bight almost glowing green, or a deep emerald, but it should own the green.

If you want to double down on the grimdark, work him over like an Imperial Fist with the weathering and the damage. But when he was last able to paint and maintain his armor, it should show that he’s a Sali, and did it right and proper with the paint.

The vibrancy is what I'm struggling with, finding that without going 'shiny' is proving difficult. Since any Sallies I do in future will be part of a post-Istvaan force, they will be heavily weathered, as even a Salamander isn't going to take a timeout from that gakstorm to do a spot of armour polishing!

With that in mind, here's take two, trying to get closer to the artwork above and also with some weathering.



Compared to those last pics, he's had a nuln oil wash all over to get closer to the darker HH Salamander look, and some sponge weathering added. Can't do any more on this mini now as the paint if it gets any thicker will start obscuring detail. I'll try another one with a slightly different method at some point.

Very much in keeping with FW's Salamander aesthetic in your reference material rather than GW's brighter, emerald take on them. I like both, but, given your aim, this guy is a success.

Take 2 does seem nearer the mark, but personally I did not mind the first attempt either. I just think that the green of Salamanders is quite a hard colour to paint but you look pretty close to me.

Thanks for the input, chaps! Dare I say it, I think this third attempt has cracked it as far as hitting both the FW style and the necessary 'greenness':







As you can see, the final colour isn't much different from the last one, but to me at least it does seem to have a bit more of that nebulous 'pop' to it. The trick was starting from an olive drab rather than straight green, as that them emphasised the green highlights more without necessitating going brighter. The addition of the more vivid flames, blue plasma glow and the gold details also helped with the overall look, which gives me confidence for Vulkan as he'll have more in the way of contrasting colours.

So I'm pretty happy with that, but still open to suggestions. Let me know what you think!

Yeah that looks good. I do kind of like the bright acid green pop salamanders, but that really looks more like your style with the grit and grime. You paint like me, only much better

The new guy looks loads better, I like that you are going with the FW scheme. The way you built up the green this time and the flames standing out more gives him a nice natural look.

Now for a couple of squads like this

Ta guys!

@GiraffeX: I am leaning towards doing up the rest of a spare Tactical Squad like this now I've got the colours/methods down, they're not serving any other purpose and I do like the results... Time will tell.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Last one for today. Painted up another Salamander, but the green hasn't gone quite as well on this one (this is what I get for not writing down the exact recipe! ) On the other hand, I think the flames are possibly better on this one. We'll call it all a 'learning opportunity', because that sounds better than 'I fethed up 2/3 models'!






Tomorrow, if I get time, I'm going to come back to these three and hopefully get them all looking like the 2nd guy.

Hmm. I like them, I like duskiness, but I wonder if it doesn't need to be richer at the bottom of the colour - a thraka green wash maybe?

Got another one done today, but it's more of the same so I'll wait until I've something more to show. I had the same thought about a wash, so I've got a Waywatcher Green in the post which should go over what's already there and just make it a little greener.

Could you snap a pic on a white background? With the muted tones you are working with, I’m kinda glazing over them with the background. I don’t know if it will help getting a grasp on the mini, but I think a “clean” shot might help.

The do look good though. I might brighten up the missile trail. While you don’t need to go full OSL, it should be bright.

White was disagreeing with them and the camera, but here's a shot on blue that's actually a lot closer to what they look like, I'd thought the green on blue really wouldn't do them any favours, but it does! (apart from the missile guy in hindsight)

The new guy is on the far right.

New guy! Richer.

Is richer, or needs to be richer? Here's some more shots of just him if that helps. I still don't think he looks quite as good as the Sergeant in real life, but better than the other two.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Is it just me, or does uploading in a post rather than via the gallery really mess up the pics?

I like him more for he is rich uploading via post is fairly poor.

Ok, here's the pics again done properly via the gallery. With my current camera as crappy as it is, the last thing I need is Dakka further rubbishifying the pics!

Much improved!

nice job man. much prefer that battle-brother look. The FW scheme really works. great job as usual careful with waywatcher glaze. it's pretty strong stuff

Those marines do look better on the blue background. I happen to prefer the brighter green look I've seen elsewhere, but that's just me. If your aim was to do a more muted look, you nailed it! They do look good!

Nice. Very true to the FW art for the Sallies, I really like the olive green over a bright green on the sallies.

EDC

"Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war!"

Nice work with the sons of Nocturne

Thanks guys! I'm still not 100% happy with the look but I do wonder if part of that is 'stared at if for too long' syndrome. Between uni work and SPECTRE I probably won't get much done today, but if nothing else I'll prep the rest of the squad for painting. It's funny; while the Salamander scheme is a real pain, I can't think of the last Marine scheme that got me actually excited to go through a full Tactical Squad in short order! Could be just that in the back of my mind there's a 'need' to get this colour perfect for Vulkan, but still, it's motivational!

This was one of the squads I was planning to paint up and sell, but now I'm not sure if that'll happen as I've grown rather attached to them!

Well, what's there to say, I'm a fan.



Ok, ok, so they're not really as dark as the old ones but better than the flasy green ones.

 Meph wrote:
Well, what's there to say, I'm a fan.

Spoiler:

Ok, ok, so they're not really as dark as the old ones but better than the flasy green ones.

I not only remember when they were dark green, I remember when they were the 8th chapter of the 1st founding.

Para: Thanks for the brighter pic, Looking good!

Cheers guys!

In the interests of being a good person and enriching people's lives: go and see SPECTRE. See it now... and then possibly see it again! Best Bond movie yet.

It aint easy being green...

Sallies look good! You doing much with them, or just practising for Vulkan?

And I'm seeing Spectre in a few hours... Cant wait!

Well, mostly they're practice for the Big Guy, though I'll definitely be finished up this 10-man squad in the next week or so. The Legion will also feature as and when I pick up the HH box set (probably Christmas) as I'll probably be doing a Shattered Legions force, so very beat up Sallies, Ravens and Hands.

After these guys are done, it's (hopefully) on to the Primarchs. Mortarion is up first, as a) he's probably my favourite model of the 3, b) he'll require less of a learning curve and c) a fair few Primarchs are being entered into the monthly challenge, and Vulkan's taken, so I won't double up there.

Para I am worried that PETA or somebody will target you if you do not change the thread title.

I concur about SPECTRE, go and see it now.

EDIT: updated with better/group pics!

I'm laying the blame for my lack of productivity squarely at the feet of Napoleon Bonaparte... or at the very least the essay on his I had to spend most of last week working on! But I have managed to get one more Salamander done, so here he is! I even remember to write down the recipe this time, so hopefully the next round of Sallies will be more consistent and less trial-and-error. I Tried out a scale pattern on his right leg that will definitely be refined on future models to get away from 'all flames, all the time'






And now for something that's been a little rare in here recently, actual plans towards gaming! It's been over a year since I last played 40k (more due to lack of opponents than through choice), but as/when I get this new HH set I do want to at least build into something that could be used on the tabletop. if the situation arose, using the Legiones Astartes army list. Since Forge World have yet to release Shattered Legions rules (think they're coming in the next book), I'll be using them as Salamanders so I can get Vulkan on the field.

The plan is to go for a rather veteran-heavy force, as if these guys have survived the Dropsite Massacre then they're going to have to have been rather good, and the increased number of special weapons over regular troops reflects the fact that in such a force, they're going to be handing out all the big guns they can find to anyone with 2 arms left.

Here's the list, and a few thoughts on how I intend to go about painting them. Since I have such limited time to work on these guys, I'll be doing my best to make each model and squad something special, so expect plenty of conversion, kitbashing, fluff and other fun!



Note that I almost certainly won't be starting this until Christmas, so don't expect anything straight away, just leaving it here a) as an aide memoir to myself and b) in case anyone has any particularly cool ideas they'd like to see me work into the force, from specific conversions to re-purposing whole units. I see this being a pretty major project that will last me well into next year, and I really want to make it the best I can, so I'll be doing my best not to half-arse anything, and really make it something I'll be proud to (eventually) out down on the table.


Anyway, that's enough rambling from me for one day! Any thoughts on the painting or the plan welcome! Primarchs may well arrive later, in which case expect plenty of unboxing pics!

Army list looks cool. Have absolutely no experience with 30k or the type of units. But I really like the sound of shattered legions.

The scales look awesome. If you tell me how you did them I will definitely rip them off. Though my salamanders will be the garishly coloured variety.

 Paradigm wrote:
In the interests of being a good person and enriching people's lives: go and see SPECTRE. See it now... and then possibly see it again! Best Bond movie yet.

You British people, you do love James Bond...but that's okay, because this American does too! I'm really looking forward to the movie, but I probably won't get to see it until this weekend, so no spoilers please!

As for your modelling efforts, your Salamanders look great, don't beat yourself up about them at all! And don't worry that you've slowed your painting down. One thing I learned when I was in college is that schoolwork has to come first. Business before pleasure, as they say. I hope you can find some time to get in some games of 40k, as despite what the naysayers on the internet say, the game is a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to seeing a whole army of 30k/40k stuff painted by you, it will be a visual feast for all of us (especially those Primarchs ). Best of luck buddy!

I know nothing about the state of current 40k meta, but they look.pretty

@Archer: The scales are quite simply just 'splodges' of paint on the area, then each gets a single highlight on the upper end for contrast. I tried to keep the larger ones in the centre, with smaller ones towards the edges. It'll definitely be neater and more obvious on my next Salamander.

Shattered Legions I picked as there's just so much scope for fluff and modelling. Loyalists using traitor equipment as their own is busted, characters so changed by what they saw at Istvaan that they fight in a totally different way to how they did beforehand, to stuff like being joined by the odd Loyalist from the Traitor Legions here, a cut-off squad from another Legion there, so on and so forth.

@ZS: I used to play 40k a lot, back in 5th/6th I had a gaming group that would meet most weekends. Since about the last year or so of 6th, that group drifted apart as people moved away, so I rarely got a game and thus shifted my painting focus to 'rule of cool' stuff rather than actual army-building. Once I get one more Bolter Salamander done, this will be the first legal 40k squad I've built in months! Still not 100% happy with the look, but that's what these guys are for, getting it wrong so I can get it right on a massive box of 30k plastic! I'll do my best to soldier on through the whole force, not sure what speed I'll get through them as there will be a lot of conversion and stuff going on, maybe even some sculpting efforts now and then.

@Graven: Neither do I! But I'm not really concerned about that, building lists that are effective has always been secondary to me to building cool lists with the models I want to play. Once the plastic hits the table, I'll go all out to win, but prior to that, it's all about fluff and minis! Frankly, the list above is probably pretty terrible (no transports, only about 40 guys, lots of expensive models) but what the hell, they'll die looking awesome! (hopefully)

Glad to here you share similar attitudes to me in regards to army building. All of my armies this far (and I will continue with the rest) has been a theme I like or models I just couldn't live without. Some are competitive, some are surprisingly good and others are just terrible. But they look pretty good doing it.

Will definitely steal the scale idea and see how it goes on Alpha Legion marines when I get to them.

I got post! Three shiny new Primarchs to work on.

For this month's challenge I'll be tackling Mortarion, who sadly hasn't photographed that well, the resin he's cast in is quite shiny and the details are lost to glare. A shame, as the mini itself is actually really nice. He's a little smaller than expected, particularly in relation to Space Marines, and nowhere near as chunky as Angron, but still tall and broad enough to pass for a Primarch. I'll grab some scale shots at some point.


And a little bit of paint happened. I didn't get too much done as I was playing BMG this evening (a brutal 3-way match between Joker, Bane and Batman- looks like the uni's game society is really hooked on this!), but I did get to work on his scythe, which I chose as a starting point to get around my usual lack of attention to weapons. I've worked a lot of tinges and stains into the blade over my normal NMM. to get a sense of chaotic taint and corruption. This is still a WIP, but I think it's coming along nicely.


And finally, the other two minis, which are both absolutely fantastic! The metal casting was really, really sharp, and with nary a mold line in sight, and the only issue with assembly was the weight of some parts. Not sure how soon I'll get around to these guys (3 Primarchs back to back is either an awesome endeavour or sheer madness, I'm not sure which yet), but I am definitely looking forward to it!




That's all for today, hopefully I'll have some more for you tomorrow!

Ough! That scythe looks wicked! The rusty aesthetic of the blade really suits the gross corrosion that Mortarion and his warband seem to love personifying. Looks great, adequately subtle whilst exploring a variety of colours

Looking forward to those Primarchs. I may have to pick up a couple of those since they aren't as expensive as the official Forge World ones. I hear you on the metal parts thing. The detail is nice, but metal is hard to glue together because of the weight of the parts.

Nice Primarchs. How do they compare size wise to the FW models?

EDC

Cheers guys!

@EDC:I'll get some scale shots with various minis later on. I don't have my Angron to hand but from memory, these guys are a fair amount shorter and not as bulky, particularly the head and hands as these guys are much more towards true than heroic proportions. With the scenic bases they're still standing over any PA/TDA Marines, and both Lorgar and Vulkan are in very upright poses so that helps too. Here's the measurements:

Vulkan is 43mm from the lower foot to the top of the armour that goes up around his neck, Lorgar is 46mm from feet to the top of his backback decoration, Morty is 39mm toe to head, but is more crouched compared to the others.

@ZS: I'd definitely recommend them, now that they've all had the prices lowered (not quite to the insane price I got these at, but still less than half FW). I'd suggest going for the metal rather than resin at that price, though, since the detail is superb on the metals compared to 'ok' on the resin. On their site, Morty and Perturabo are hidden away in the Stand Alone section at cheap prices, on the Knights of Legend page they still have Russ, Alpharius, Omegon, Horus and their (in my opinion awesome) Magnus in stock. I think the numbers on each are running pretty low, though, so if you want then, get 'em while you can!

Sound like they're still a decent size.

I really like Lorgar's mace.

EDC

Edit: Spelling, damn auto correct.

Yeah, they're still every bit as imposing as a Primarch should be, just a little more realistic in the proportions, which I do like.

Cool minis, looking forward to more paint, the scythe is promising.

Good to hear your local area is picking up the batman.

Very nice work on the scythe, kind of understand why they do not photograph the resin miniatures unpainted if they look like that...weird how photos often deceive, but am glad that they are great casts.

Scale shots would be great.

Scythe looks pretty deadly. Nice work! Of all the Kabuki Primarchs, Mortarion is probably my favourite of theirs. Looking forward to it.

Hmm not overly fussed about the Kabuki Primarchs to be honest. FW models while expensive look excellent and really give that gods among men kinda feel. I look forward to seeing what you can turn out from these though mate

Ta all!

@Grim: Yeah, several members of the society are really getting into Batman, and surprisingly it's going down quite well with a few that generally are more board/card game types. Since I made up some half-decent papercraft terrain and I'm getting more games in, I'll try and get a bat-rep (Bat-bat-rep) done at some point, but first I need a camera that can take more than 3 pics before running out of memory!

@Thraxas: yeah, it's certainly a strange resin, quite shiny and not as hard as resin I've had from the likes of FW/Anvil/Puppetswar... but now I've actually painting it, the detail is all there nice and easy to pick out...

@ckig: I am glad I picked up Mortarion, I was originally just going to get Lorgar and Vulkan but they had free shipping on when I ordered, so the extra cash went on him. Vulkan is still my favourite of the 3, but Morty really is proving fun to paint!

@AoV: Oh, I agree, the FW ones are some of the best sculpts ever committed to resin as far as I'm concerned... but they're also 10 times the price I paid for each of these guys... On a student budget, FW Primarchs are not happening! I do intend to get at least one other at some point (FW's Horus I just have to own, it's perfect) but no idea when.

Anyway, enough rambling, you're presumably here for pics!

First off, the scale shot that was requested. Lorgar's here simply as he's the easiest to stand up on a flat base and Morty is glued to my painting stick, but they are all about the same size. He's not on his scenic base; those vary in height, Vulkan's adds a good 12-15mm or so, while Morty's and Logar's are a tad shorter. I'll grab some pics of the bases at some point, they're pretty cool resin pieces.


And on the painting front, I started and finished his cape in my lunch break today, bar the skull/halo that needs the NMM treatment. I took the same stained look from the scythe here, and lots of drybrushing to get a threadbare, tattered look.


Pretty damn pleased with how it's come out if I'm honest, it's exactly like the vision I had in my head when I started. It kind of highlights the whole direction I'm taking this paintjob in as well, predominatly white/grey/cream but with various effects and tints to add some pop to it.

I'm currently working on the main body of the mini, so I may well have enough progress for another update tonight. Until then, cheers for looking, any thoughts welcome!

And from a WIP to a finished model! Honestly I had no idea I'd get him finished this fast, but the model ended up being far less labour-intensive than I was expecting (perhaps due to a lot of washing and drybrushing being involved), so here he is!


Mortarion, The Death Lord, The Child of Death, The Reaper, Lord of the XVI Legion











I'm provisionally calling him done, though if anyone has any suggestions for improvement then I'm open to acting on them, I really want to put up a fight in this month's challenge and place if possible (last month was the third or fourth time that I've been pipped to the top 3 by just a few votes! I don't begrudge anyone that as all the entries that are coming in ahead of me more than deserve to, but I'd like to break into the top 3 this time, and I think this is the mini to do it with)

And again, a scale shot:

Any thoughts welcome! Cheers for looking! Not sure whether or not I'll be cracking on with the others straight away or not, I do have a fair bit of work to get through this weekend.

Such a dynamic sculpt an awesome feeling of movement and implacable power. Love the colours and tone you have achieved.

I feel that the skull and halo on the cape though doesn't pop. It looks a little washed out and blends into the awesome that is that decaying cloak.

I have to agree with Archer on this one; the skull and halo need...something. Maybe some kind of metallic color? Don't know if that fits the fluff or not though. Otherwise, very awesome work. Wish I could do it that fast!

Cheers guys.

The skull came up in another thread, so I am revisiting it. It won't be getting NMM, but I'll experiment with a dyed or burned-in look.

Ooooh a brand like effect could be very cool.

Mam, you did that fast. He looks great though, the pose is really dynamic.

EDC

I like him, nice (!?!) Necrotic feel like he should have. I also think that he is hard to photograph and the lighting has not helped the pictures.

Maybe needs a spot colour somewhere but it is a head scratcher of what colour and where to put it.

Love the base. Did it come with the miniature and if not where is it from?

Cheers guys!

@Thraxas: I'll definitely go for some better pics later, my camera seems to be on a course of self-destruction at the moment (the memory seems to keep dropping, I can fit a whopping 2 pictures on the card at a time!) and my light setup is still decidedly trial and error.

I think I'll hold off on a spot colour for the moment, my whole 'theme' for this model was to have it predominantly cream, white and grey and get some colour in through the tints on the various surfaces and textures (which I think worked rather well, if I say so myself, it doesn't come across so well in the pics but holding it in my hand, I'm very pleased with how close he's come out to my initial 'vision' I was aiming for).

The base was included with the mini, all 3 came with really nice scenic base components. I'll get some pics of those later as well.

Update with loads of better pics!















And the promised shots of the others, including bases:

That blue background shows off the colours and contrast on Mort much better, very nice work.

I hear your camera woes. There is something very frustrating about having a miniature that looks great in real life but you cannot photograph properly. And with the current reduced daylight hours getting the right light can be a veritable pain.

I am now waiting for tuesday by which time you will have the other 2 Primarch's done.

Cheers Thraxas! It is kind of irritating, holding the model in my hand I'm convinced it's one of the best I've done, but the pics aren't showing it. Sometimes I do wish I could just plug my eyes into the computer and show you guys what my stuff actually looks like!

Not sure I'll have the others done that fast, I do have an essay deadline coming up soon so might not get a huge deal done over the next week, and I have a feeling Vulkan is going to be more complex to paint than Morty. He's primed up and ready to go, though.

Speaking of Vulkan, I need a verdict on his hammer; I am torn between a marble/NMM Gold effect and doing some fancy glowy shenanigans. I'm fine with the lack of a spot colour on Morty as that's what I was going for, but Vulkan might need something a little more vibrant.

Excellent work indeed! I am loving the cloth.

Maybe a magma/lava effect for Vulkan's hammer? Kind of like what people do for the Eldar Avatar?

Cheers Graven! Archer, I think I've settled on marble for the hammer now, it's a technique I've been meaning to try again after seeing your Gulliman and Januine's Knight. Lava may well come into play on the base, though...

On something of a shameless and tangential note, I am offering some significant discounts on Horus Heresy commissions at the moment. I know many of you reading this will prefer to paint your own models, but if anyone does want a BaC or FW model (or squad) painted by me at a much lower price than what I normally offer, check out the link below:
https://paradigmpainting.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/the-horus-heresy-special-offers/

You really want some Heresy stuff to get working on.

How are the commissions going? Hope the clients have been good customers too.

Yep, I do! I've set the prices as what I'm happy with, so if anyone does take me up on them I won't feel like I'm being short-changed, but I really want to get a look at these new plastics and in all likelihood won't get my own set until Christmas.

I haven't actually had any more commissions since that last lot of Mercs, (I had some interest, but for various reasons they didn't turn into actual work) so that's the other reason for the price drop. If I get much/any interest at the lower prices, I may consider revising my general pricing. When I started out I had plenty of people telling me my prices were fine or even too cheap, but I guess that's easier to say when they're not going to be the ones actually paying them! So yeah, it's all kind of stalled a bit, hopefully these offers will kick-start some interest...

On a hobby note, I have made a start on Vulkan's base, might get on to the man himself later on. Because of the pose, weight and my lack of tools for pinning at the moment, I've no choice but to stick him to the base before painting, there's no easy way to attach the main body piece to my usual mini-holding-stick.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And here we go, Vulkan WIP! The green is pretty much done now, and to be honest I reckon it's nicer than anything I managed on the test models. It definitely has that elusive emeraldy pop, to me at least.



I think I'll stick to the more muted look for the troops, but this should help Vulkan himself stand out. from the crowd as is fitting.

Next it's on to the NMM gold, which is going to be fiddly... all those flames!

Looking good Para

Phew, an afternoon of furious painting and another bites the dust!


Vulkan, The Blacksmith, Son of Nocturne, Lord of the XVIII Legion













And a scale shot:

He may not be the most massive or broad, but between the pose, base and size he's certainly going to stand out from the legionnaires.

Lorgar will be the next thing I work on, but it may not be for a week or so, I have an essay that's going to take some time to finish. I'm still undecided on whether to go for the red or the grey armour on him, so if anyone has any preference there then let me know!

Thanks for looking as always, any thoughts more than welcome!

Slow down! You are making the rest of us look bad.

It’s hard to tell from the pic what you did for the skin tone on Vulcan. Seems light for what he should be.

Looking good though, quality work as always.

The green looks fantastic. Really like the base. I think he stands out really well.

Good luck with the commission price change. Just remember to take into account all associated costs involved when considering any price drops.

Dude, you just knocked out two Primarchs in as many weeks (less, actually), and did a great job, no less! You must have a single-minded painting focus that the rest of us can only dream about. I paint a little bit, then my mind wanders and next thing I know I'm on the computer (either cruising DakkaDakka or playing Hearthstone or RuneScape, with a little bit of StarCraft 2 for variety). I need to learn whatever trick you have that lets you focus and let the paint flow...

Nice work on Vulkan, really solid paintjob.

EDC

Cheers everyone!

@Nev: His face is the traditional 'charcoal black' of the Salamanders, but because of its slight upward tilt and the fact it's so small (about 2/3 of the size of a regular marine head, if not smaller) I took the highlights up a little higher, to help it stand out.

@ZS: The trick, such as it is, is not having a great deal else to distract me. No games console here (more to the pity), nothing to really divert my attention, so I just stick some TV on in the background (currently getting through Constantine, highly recommended despite its cancellation) and paint away. This week, I have a lot of uni work to get through, so that was the other motivator; I wanted to get him finished up before my schedule filled up and I would have had to leave him half done.

Damn, fine work there. Great paint work all around on all of these recent minis.

The only thing I don't like about that sculpt of Vulkan is the 3 fingered power fist, and it's not like his real hand is in it or anything... I just like hands with the appropriate number of fingers

Great stuff!

Yeah, that did bug me slightly at first, but it's one gripe about an otherwise-excellent sculpt really. Cheers.

Nice job! You do some great work there, Para.

Looking fine! Great pose and really has height to him. You're paintjob does justice to a primarch. Though, does he have three fingers? :0

Ta chaps!

@LDP, yep, there's only 3 fingers on the Power Fist, but since his hand presumably isn't deformed enough to actually go in the fingers it doesn't bother me too much. I do love the pose, truly fittingly heroic.

Two Primarchs finished already?! That was fast! And they look excellent too! I really like the dirty look of Mortarion. Your gritty style kinda has a Blanche-esque feel to it (love his stuff). Perfect for 40k!

Cheers! I was definitely going for shades of Blanche with Mortarion, so I'm glad you picked up on that. I can get the style in painting (sort of), but I don't have the eye for conversion to really push my work into the Blanche-style territory I feel like aiming for at times. Otherwise I'd probably do nothing but Inquisitors and their warbands!

Great work on Vulkan there. The green has come up really nicely.

Cheers Az.

Still no progress to report, I'm afraid (still slogging through a dull-as-mud essay), but the good news is that my replacement parts for the Court of Owls models finally arrived, so after Lorgar they're up next, and then it's time for a little Betrayal...

Normal hobbying service should be resumed by mid-week at the latest.

I was joking about getting another Primarch done and you went and done it in a day, mentalist.

I am not a big fan of the miniature but the paintwork looks great, I think you have your Salamanders scheme down great.

So glad that my dull essay days are a decade behind me. Any luck with any Heresy Commissions yet?

Cheers man!

What is it about the mini that you don't like? To be honest, when I get to the actual Sallies for the HH force they won't be newly that bright; I'll stick to the same/similar colour and tone, but it'll likely be a much darker version. On the plus side, I may be getting them a little sooner than I'd thought, so there's a chance I will have the box in the next couple of weeks or so...

No luck on the commission front yet, but oh well.

Biggest problem with this essay is that it's the one dull unit in an otherwise great course, so the rest of my assignments for the term have been easy to get into and get done, while this one is just like banging my head against a brick wall. Still, once it's done I'll have a few much freer weeks for hobbying between now and revision for January exams, so back to it!

The pose mainly, the right leg is a bit too forward and at an odd jaunty angle and he seems to be leaning back just a bit too much. His hammer looks a bit daft to me as well. But... Marmite.

The essay will be a dull memory in just a few weeks...the incentive is the quicker it is done the more time to paint (easier said than done obviously).

Whats next in your painting Queue Para?

 carlos13th wrote:
Whats next in your painting Queue Para?

The plan, such as it is:

- Lorgar is up next, hopefully I'll have him done by the end of the week.
- Then it's The Court of Owls for BMG, as the replacement parts have finally come in. Just 4 minis, should be pretty quick.
- After that, it's a matter of time and budget... At some point between now and Christmas I should get my hands on the HH set, but I envision that being a project strung out over several months rather than blasted through, a) to make the most of it and b) because I want the final product to really be something I can be proud of.

I've also got plans for a few smaller projects. A couple of Frostgrave bands, one Samurai/Japanese themed and one with a medieval European feel (mainly as an excuse to buy some Perry HYW stuff), maybe a Norse-themed one as well. Depends on if I can get any of the local D&D players in on a Frostgrave campaign, as it's probably a harder sell to non-gamers than Batman was. Speaking of Batman, the next crews I have planned are Scarecrow and Two-face, but first I want to try and finish up my current bands. I'm actually still waiting on a set of Joker minis, I've been chasing the seller about it but to no avail. KM have also hinted that the Marvel stuff will be making an appearance with rules soon... which could get expensive.

I'm also accruing a list of things I may or may not get into, depending on budget. As much as AVP seems to have been a bit of a clusterfeth as far as KS fulfilment goes, if I can find a good deal on the starter I might well go for it just for the minis (and adapt Space Hulk rules); I love the look of the Predator minis, and kind of feel the strange need to do some house rules for pitting them against Batman... If I do get that, it'll just be the core set, the expansions are all pretty expensive and I wouldn't really want more than what's in the boxed game for painting.

Then there's X-wing; various things about this have always put me off, but as we get closer to The Force Awakens and the SW hype reaches explosive levels, I'm getting more and more intrigued. A local player is running demos for it either this week or in the new year, so that'll be the deciding factor there. Any stuff I did get would of course get the repaint treatment.

Anvil's Afterlife continues to appeal, I'm just waiting on the rules there and thus how much cash I'd need to drop to actually get in on it. And again, whether or not I'd have players, or just be getting it to paint.

Lots to do, not enough time/cash/space! Sorry, bit rambling there!

Rambling is fine. Much better than one word answers.

I am most looking forward to the Samurai for Frostgrave (I really need to get that package sent) and the Scarecrow and Court of Owls crews.

I know how you feel about too much cool stuff too little time. X-Wing is great but needs no painting time. Our tastes seem to align quite a bit. I want an excuse to get Perry medieval stuff, also very tempted by AVP at some point. But with Zombicide, Human Interface Nakumara Tower turning up later this year and Rise of the Kage under my desk I am reluctant to splash out on either.

 carlos13th wrote:
X-Wing is great but needs no painting time.

I think if I did get into it, I would have to give everything a repaint. The stock paintjobs are nice enough, but I'd have to go full nerd and give everything pilot-appropriate schemes and markings, and play around with some engine effects and such. It'd justify the cost, too, £10+ for something that's purely a gaming piece is hard for me to justify, less so if it's a painting project as well.

There's really two things in between me and X-wing, one of which the demo game I'll be playing at some point should clear up. That's the fact that everything seems from what I've seen to end up very close together in a big pile of ships, and ranges seem to be very short compared to the size of the models. It just feels very 'cramped'. The other thing is the business model of supplying certain cards with certain models that are designed/work best with certain other models. If I buy a core set, with it's X-wing, I'm not particularly keen on having to buy another identical ship to get a specific pilot or upgrade I might want. Similarly, on the ships I would want to double up on, I'd then be doubling up on redundant cards as well (as I understand most are unique). That sort of thing doesn't endear me to a company/range a great deal.

Still, if the game is good enough I can sort of work past that, I'm just not sold yet.

I have only had about 6-10 games but I have enjoyed them all. I don't like the card with certain ships business model either.

Para if you are looking at getting into X-Wing, I'm looking at this now as well then this site will be very useful has all the pilots etc on with their stats http://xwing-builder.co.uk

X wing is bags o fun, and repaints are a breeze. Get to it!

I play with mates so none of us mind using that squadron builder GiraffeX has mentioned. In fact it is fantastic.

If you want to participate in tournaments then you will need the cards......

X-wing certainly does seem to get glowing reviews from a lot of people. It's just the few battle reports for it I've watched that are leaving me unconvinced. But then, I try not to judge a game until I've actually given it a go, so I'll report back on that once I've had my demo (if it's not this week it'll be in the new year).

@GiraffeX: Is this just revenge for me making it too easy to get into Batman? I think I had a play with that site a while back, but it was all gobbledegook to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, FFG offer the core rules as a PDF? I'll have to take a quick look at that and then go back and play with the squadron builder a little more, see if all the numbers, colours and arrows make a little more sense then!

@Archer: Tournaments? Ugh! Nah, I'm about as casual as it gets, and tend to play with people of a similar mindset, so I imagine I'll get away with that if I do get in on the game. That and the guy running the demo apparently has a huge collection, so I may be able to borrow some stuff from him to get started.

In other news, the essay is slain, and I've rewarded myself with a big box of Horus Heresy plastic! Ordered from Element just now, so it should be here by the weekend. Just enough time to quickly knock out the Court of Owls and maybe Lorgar.... I can crack on now, so hopefully I'll have some pics for you all soon!

Are you going for Ultra's and WE paint schemes? Can't wait to see them!

Oh, and show me some BMG! My shiney syndrome for them has died right down. Make me want them again!

No, I'm doing them as a Shattered Legions force based around the survivors of the Dropsite Massacre, so Ravens, Sallies and Iron Hands. I outlined the plan a couple of pages back, though it's all liable to change at some point:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1260/615960.page#8248975

The game does look pretty decent, and since I have a few CSM characters and a Helbrute knocking around, I may well grab some HH marines or CSM from eBay if I see any cheap and build up a small op-force.

More BMG coming up, the Court of Owls are the only Bat-thing on my desk at the moment but they're some pretty kickass minis, so I can't wait to get onto them.

Yeah thats payback for sure

I've no idea what any of it means on the site, I did order the starter though last night from Amazon.

I was really impressed by Court last night when I played against them(bat-rep, or possibly owl-rep, to follow) but not for the obvious reason of durability - it's the fact that they can all Let's Go! makes them crazy fast, like the league but more savage.

And progress. Not any painting, but my Calth set arrived and I've assembled the first few models. I'm still waiting on some bits and some green stuff, so the more exciting conversions are still on hold, but this first squad is going to be my effort in pushing the limits of the plastic set with no/minimal modification or addition.

First off we have the sergeant of one of the three Veteran Squad in my planned list. His squad will be the more defensive of them, kitted out with plasma guns and given the Tank Hunters USR, so I want for a similarly defensive pose on him. Second shot is a bit blurry, but you can hopefully make out the battle damage carved into the shoulder pad. Expect lots of that sort of thing from this set:



Next we've got the Legion Vexilla bearer, I wanted a quite static pose for the chap so minimal conversion was done. I did apply some damage, severing a couple of the strands of his tabard:



A couple of Basic Bolter Brothers, one in mid grenade-lob. This was tricky as the kit lacks a grenade hand, so I had to repose an arm at the shoulder and cut a hand from a bolter and the top from a Krak grendade:



And the first of two plasma-gunners. Most of the damage here is to the top of the backpack, it doesn't really show up but it will when painted.




A few thoughts on the kit:
- Mk IV itself is awesome! Some really nice lines, parts and variations on the MkIV pieces we've seen in existing kits. The addition of old-style guns sets it apart as well.
- Casting is about as sharp as I've come to expect from GW, which is to say pretty damn good. There were a few consistently major mould lines on the backpacks and helmets, but still nothing a file can't fix.
- On balance, I'd say it's just a little more limited than the 40k Tactical kit from a modelling perspective. There's more variety (particularly in the legs), but it misses out of a few of those bits that I just love to use, like the pointing/open/grenade-holding hands and the odd smaller combat knife. Much less heraldry or decoration type stuff, though that's a) fluffy and b) made up for by the extra packs, pistol holsters and such over the 40k version. Still, I hope I have some spare hands and such in my bits box.
- Brings me nicely onto my last observation, which is more of a personal peeve than anything else; the hands sculpted onto the bolters makes things like 1-handed bolter poses or bolters slung from belts/holsters a lot more difficult. Just one or two bolters with handles attached on the sprue and I'd be very pleased.

All in all, good stuff.

On a less good note, I've having serious camera issues at the moment. The one I was using is on the way out, the newer and supposedly better one I've been given is in actual fact abysmal, at least for small stuff (the macro is just terrible at focusing on anything) and to make it all worse, the app I used to import pics to my laptop has one of those helpful 'updates' that moves all the buttons around and changes up the interface, so I'm currently working through a very convoluted process to upload pics at the moment until I can figure that out. Short version, sadly I can't promise many pics until I get this at least partly sorted. Sorry!

Anyway, that's all for now! Thanks for looking, and as a final note, I'm undecided on which Legions these marines are going to belong to as part of the Istvaan force, so if any of them scream Iron Hand, Salamander or Raven Guard to you let me know!


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Got the Sarge painted up. Just a quickie, I'll get more pics tomorrow. Legion Vexilla bearer is up next!

Ah I experienced that personal peeve of yours just yesterday. It only dawned on me whilst making that tac squad that yeah, to get a boltgun with a handle now in nigh impossible! I had to cut the hand off and then cut off a holstered BP handle and carefully glue it straight in the hole that was left. Makes it tougher to have grenade toss poses, points and the like, especially when if you're like me and prefer having marines holding bolters realistically as though the point is temporary and they'd be about to grip the bolter with both hands again. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but i've never been a fan of the sort of one handed boltgun arm pointingy poses, just doesn't strike me as uber practical or realistic.
Started to ramble, but just know that I feel your pain

Looking good Para. Nice work on the grenade lobber especially.

EDC

Cheers EDC!

@LDP, frankly brilliant idea on using the bolt pistol handle, I resorted to carving down the hand into a rough handle and hoping the paint would cover it up. When I can get back to my bits box, it should be less of an issue, as like most Marine collectors I have loose bolters by the score!

Gotta dash for a lecture, but before I do, a quick round of pics... I think I've just about got this new camera figured out now.

The sergeant Sallie:





And the Raven Guard Legion Vexilla bearer, with a scavenged Emperor's Children shoulder pad:






And the two together, I honestly think the combo of black and green is going to look quite good on a squad/army level, to me at least neither is upstaging the other:



Next up will be an Iron Hand, just so I can test all 3 schemes. Probably the plasma guy. That's all for the moment, cheers for looking and as ever, let me know what you think!

Nothing but nothing but nothing cooler than Mk4

Except Mk III of course... but that could just be my inner Imperial Fist saying that. The MkIV is certainly nice enough and different enough to painting the MkVII. Need to get some beakie heads and maybe MkVI legs for some of the Raven Guard in this force, though...

Just finishing off a test paint for the Iron Hands, I've just about figured out how to make them distinct from the RG despite both being predominantly black/white/silver, but I'm keeping it under wraps until I know it works. It's a pretty common technique for IH, so shouldn't be too hard to take a guess at.


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And here we go, Iron Hands test mini done.




Unlike the Raven Guard, I haven't fluked this scheme on the first try, but as an experiment, I think it works and I'll definitely refine the process for the next couple of Iron Hands (one more in this Demi-squad, another one in the other half). The process is simple enough- prime black, drybrush the whole mini silver, glaze with thinned black, apply details, apply weathering, wash sparingly with Agrax for a bit of contrast. Probably took less than an hour start to finish, not including drying times.

As this shot hopefully shows, he looks notably different to the black of the RG model, so they shouldn't look too similar on the shelf or tabletop. The RG is black up to a mid grey, where the IH is black black.


And thus the first 3 test models are done!


Have to say, rotating the schemes has been a lot more interesting than doing 3 the same! It also works out nicely time-wise; if I've got a good while, I'll do up a Salamander as they take the longest, while I could probably get an IH done in a break between lectures if I wanted to, which is handy. The RG fall somewhere in the middle; the black is still dead fast, just a 5 minute wet blend, but the white and such takes a bit more time than just attacking the IH with silver!

I'll finish this Demi-squad before starting on anything else, and then it'll probably be a Terminator (Salamanders, Heavy Flamer). Any thoughts welcome, as ever!

Nice work para. I like how you have managed to get more poses out of the kit.

What are you studying btw?

Cheers. With this first squad I want to push the limit of just one set of sprues, for the later units I'll be adding some green stuff, extras from my bits box and other such stuff. Converting from pretty simple sprues like this is one of my favourite parts of the hobby!

I'm studying contemporary military history, really fascinating course.

Lovely work so far Para. Are you painting up the set to represent all the differnt chapters or just a few of them?

Just those 3 legions, the loyalists that survived the Istvaan V massacre.

Those minis are looking fantastic! Especially have salamander -- love the shade of green you picked and the flame work on the pauldrons

Ta! That green did take a while to get right, in the end it was the final recipe I concocted for my 40k Salamanders and then a final glaze of Waywatcher Green to restore the hue.

You're doing great stuff with what seems to be quite a basic, yet still lovely kit. The intricate things you've done to make them yours really makes them shine over other BaC minis Good stuff!

Cheers mate. A couple of more interesting conversions coming up tomorrow!

And here they are!

First up, a very fiddly conversion to get a dude brandishing a combat knife. Had to take a bolter, trim off the hand, replace it with a handle and then take the hand from a left arm, bend that round to grip the bolter and cover the join with a bolted-on piece of scrap, then take that hand, shave down the straps from the kinfe and stick in on there. I think I'm starting to find the limits of this kit now, but my GS should arrive soon enough.



Next, another bolter and bayonet fellow; the other was leaning back, so this one is leaning forward. Might add a low wall to his base or something to give the impression he's leaning round cover.


Then a plasma gunner, nothing fancy here sadly, as I'm running short on really interesting bits (off this sprue, at least)


And now the Termies. No conversion here beyond some battle damage:



Not 100% pleased with that last pose, I might revisit him further down the line.

And because I don't like to update without some paint, the second Iron Hand. I'm a lot happier with the grenade conversion now it's painted.






I really am rather pleased with how this scheme looks, considering how dead easy it is.

Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome, more coming later!

Liking those Ironhands. chipping and weathering works really well. Thinking about getting ol' Ferrus in the new year. Time to start on the those primarchs

The RG are looking cool. I am really impressed with the granade guy, he looked cool before but painted up he's wicked.

What scheme you going to do the Termies in?

EDC

@Januine: Ferrus? I'll hold you to that!

@EDC: Grenade guy is an Iron Hand. But yeah, I think he looks better now he's got some paint on him. The Termies will be a mix of Iron Hands and Salamanders, and the Seeker Squad I have yet to build will be all Raven Guard.

They look great. The grenade throwing guy is my favourite. You have achieve a real sense of motion with him. I think the blacks between the Iron Hands and Raven Guard have a really distinct difference which is a real achievement. I really like the idea of combined squads of survivors. So I am keen to see where you go.

I just can't warm to the cataphract terminator armour. I think the 40k ones look way better. But that is a personal opinion only.

You're throwing updates out at an impressive pace. Good work, keep it up

 Paradigm wrote:
@Januine: Ferrus? I'll hold you to that!

Ferrus or Mortarion. I really don't like Mortarion in the fluff (he's a miserable fethstick in all honesty) but really really like the fig FW have done. Perturabo is interesting me a bit too as is the Arch Magos chappy.......we'll see. Won't be till well into the new year though

Course sounds interesting. Does that mean we may sew more historical from you in the future?

That title though... never spaghetti. Wait, SW weren't involved! LOSERS!


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But seriously, nice models.

Plenty more where that came from! Next Salamander finished!

Played a bit more with the scale pattern I mentioned a few pages back, it's worked out pretty well this time, I think. He's also sporting a Night Lords shoulder pad... yes, I'm aware that it's a bit silly that both scavenged parts in this squad so far are left shoulder pads, but there won't be any more for a while so it shouldn't be too noticable!




And that brings me up to half a squad painted. To me, at least, the unified style but varied colour schemes looks exactly how I had hoped:


This squad is set to have 1 more Salamander, 1 more Raven and 2 more Iron Hand.

@Archer: Indomitus vs Cataphractii Terminator armour is like asking me to pick a regular Dread or Contemptor, I just couldn't do it! But I do really like these Cataphractii though, and there's a ton of awesome parts on the sprue.

@LDP: Honestly can't remember the last time I was this eager to get into a big project. I think a combination of such nice models to play with, the 'new shiny' factor and the results and feedback I'm getting are combining to be very motivational.

@Matthew: Nah, the Wolves were too busy making sure the most dangerous Legion sided with Horus...

@Carlos: Not sure yet. There are plenty of historical kits I'm looking at getting to use in assorted Fantasy projects, but at the moment I have no real plans to do proper historicals. That said, I'm kind of tempted to do some more scale modelling some time soon, it's been ages since I've done that and I used to do a lot.

Thanks for looking, everyone! I'm treating myself to painting up a Terminator next, let's see if I can manage 3 updates in one day! Any thoughts always welcome!

Yay, update 3 today!

Got the last minis from the first squad assembled. On these last ones, I had to think outside the box a little and do a lot of cutting to get some uniqueness. This is probably as far as just the contents of this kit alone will stretch regarding conversion.

First up, a Marine who's 'armless enough... Sorry, sorry! There will be a few maimed and injured Marines scattered throughout the force, as not everyone would have got out of the Dropsite Massacre in one piece. (and, yeah, I was running out of interesting arm poses!)



Next, a more aggressively posed knife wielder to contrast with the quite menacing but passive one above. Arms here had to be cut at the shoulder and the elbow, and the hand reposed to grip the knife.




So that's all of the first squad built. Now I had some bits spare, I set to work about converting the Chaplain into a Vigilator (stealthy, shooty type, the perfect choice for a RG character). This again was quite involved. The pointing hand had to be carved out of a terminator chainfist, the gun is a mashup of a Bolter and a spare Combi-Bolter, and the left arm is actually built from two separate parts joined below the elbow.




Pretty happy with that. It's not the pose I had in mind when I first saw the model, but that didn't work out with the parts I had to hand, and I think it conveys the look of a forward observer/sniper well enough. As far as painting goes, I'll be keeping him rather less ornate than the standard version.

And again, some painting. The first Terminator, in Iron Hands colours:




You can't really see it there, but I used some glazes across the larger armour panels to add very feint colour hues, inspired by the FW examples that employ the same technique.

Next up, a couple more Ravens. Apologies for the somewhat erratic/intermittent updates today, I wasn't expecting to get this much done. In future, I'll try and just stick to daily updates and not get carried away!

Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome as ever!

Paradigm, we've already established you're a great painter, but how do you manage to dull the colourts down while still making them pop?

You've got some pretty sweet conversions going on there... although it seems you need to call in some apothocaries for that poor armless guy. Did the medicae run out of plastic glue? Also, great work on that Termie.

Thanks both!

@Matthew: It's all in the highlighting, or in this case lack thereof.

On the Salamanders, I go from an olive to a mid green, wash it all black, highlight up a bit and then wash hit whole thing with a green glaze, tying it all together and darkening the tone without losing the depth of colour (it did take me a while to get the hang of it, green has always been a tricky colour for me).

For the RG, again the last stage is a black wash across the whole armour, dulling everything down but keeping the depth of shade given from the layering. Same with the Iron Hands, although in their case it's all done with washes over the undercoat and a silver drybrush, there's no highlighting involved at any stage.

Does that help at all?

@brushcommando: I freely admit the armless chap was a bit of a cop-out on my part, I'd run out of interesting things to do with arms so I just lopped it off! Still, it should hopefully look quite good painted up.

Oh I was not criticizing the pose -- it was just one of those "wow. sucks to be that guy..." moments.

+1,000,000 points for all of the progress and updates over the past few days.

-500 for writing "Yay"

Really like the Vigilator conversion, looks very badass. Great poses and painting on everything else too.

Nice to see you're still cranking out nicely painted models quickly. Looking forward to the rest of the BaC stuff painted up!

Really nice work on the BaC stuff Para. The Salamanders are my fav, think you've got the green down pretty well now and the flames look great.

It's a great set and looking forward to seeing the rest completed! It's definitely tempted me to get into 40k (30k) but then I see the oz prices and reality hits me :(

Your progress is fantastic, really makes me want to get my own progress going again.

I really like the idea of some injured marines. It makes a lot of sense a lot of the time and even more for a shattered legion force. How about a guy missing a leg using a shovel as a crutch?

Wow. You're really churning these out at an impressive pace.

The pointing termie is great.

EDC

Thanks guys!

@Archer: a missing leg and some kind of improvised crutch is definitely something on the list once my green stuff and bits box are to hand. It's a little difficult to do with just the stock parts and some sprue, but with some extras I think I could throw something reasonable together. Anyone else got any ideas for maiming my Marines?

@Ckig: Shame GW is intent on screwing you Aussies, I'd love to see your take on some of this stuff. Have you looked at something like buying from an ebay seller in the UK or US, it might be cheaper even with the shipping. I know retailers can't sell outside of their region, but I don't think that applies to someone just selling stuff on on ebay.

@Thraxas: Can I have the points back if I point out the use of the word 'yay' was at least 60% ironic? If not, I think I can settle for 999,500 points and solemnly swear never to use the Y word again... You've finished your Lord Celestant (and it looks awesome), time to crack on with Calth?

Not sure I'll get much done today, as I have a fair bit of work to get through, but if nothing else I'll update later with the converted Praetor and a mock-up or assembled Dreadnought depending on whether I can decide on a pose or not.

Sorry for delay. Love the poses and edging especially natty.

Cheers mate!

Update time! I'll lead with the painted stuff today, and it's The Men In Black that are front and centre.

First off, the second Raven Guard, ready to stab up some traitors:




Next, the injured Iron Hand.





And lastly on the painted front, another bolter Marine, Iron Hands again, having 'acquired' an Iron Warriors bolter after the loss of his own:




Just one more Raven and one more Salamander to go for the first squad, hope to have them done tomorrow.


And now onto the latest batch of assembly. First, the Praetor, who's received an arm swap, losing his chainfist for the power sword from the Terminator sprue. Other than that he's stock. Probably destined to be an Iron Hand, that way each of the 3 Legions is represented in the command structure at 2000 points (Vulkan for the Sallie, IH Praetor, RG Vigilator)




And lastly, the Dreadnought. Lots of cutting required to get this pose, and the gaps in his knees have been filled with some chopped up headphone cable to look like wires and such under the casing and not leave a massive gap. Still a bit to do here, assorted gaps need smoothing out when my GS arrives and I'll add some more damage at various points, but this is the pose he'll be in. I wanted something that looks like he's taken a real beating and is on his last legs, but still defiant to the last, like the army as a whole. There's a torn-in-half traitor destined for the outstretched hand...




It's hard to tell unless you've actually seen one, but Contemptors are massive. Even kneeling, he's easily the size and bulk of a regular Dread.



That's all for today! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome! 2 more Veteran Tactical Marines to go and it's on to a character, Vigilator or Praetor.

Sweet repose for the contemptor! Also, I've been thinking about it, and if you're still looking for wounded marine poses, you should just stick a head on a torso and make a " It's only a flesh wound, I'll bite your legs off" Marine... and nice work on those painted minis. I really like the knife-wielder.

Good stuff Para, keep it up

great job reposing the contemptor there Para. looks a thousand times better, nice one!

Thanks guys! Contemptor still looks a little rough around the edges, but I'm hoping a couple of further modifications and a decent paintjob he can be a worth centrepiece to the force.

It's a cracking conversion indeed, seriously dynamic.

Does anyone know if a modern washing machine dread's power claw will fit on the wrist of the Contemptor?

I'm thinking of a Space Wolf conversion with the venerable dread's power axe by swapping the axe handle around so it's being held left-handed, then just stick the wrist in place on the Contemptor. Reposition the storm bolter to the usual wrist mount.

You'd need to cut off the Storm Bolter and its magazines, but the width of the wrist looks right (I don't have any regular Dreads handy). I reckon it's probably a pretty easy swap.

Cheers Graven.

Great reposing on the Dread, looks great, really conveys the last stand / to the death feeling.

Your working speed is always amazing!

That dread is simply gorgeous. Really good work

Nice pose on the Contemptor. It really tells a story.

EDC

Possibly a daft question but will the dread be Iron Hands or Sallies?

Thanks guys. The Dread is slated to be Iron Hands; I toyed with making it a Salamander one, but they already have their showy centrepiece unit in Vulkan.

 Paradigm wrote:

@Ckig: Shame GW is intent on screwing you Aussies, I'd love to see your take on some of this stuff. Have you looked at something like buying from an ebay seller in the UK or US, it might be cheaper even with the shipping. I know retailers can't sell outside of their region, but I don't think that applies to someone just selling stuff on on ebay.

There are a few good deals that pop up now and then but it's pretty hard to collect a coherent army. It's pretty inconsistent so I've never taken the plunge. But who knows, maybe someday in the future..

More great stuff btw, dread conversion looks good. Each mini seems to tell a story which is cool. Really shows the Istvaan massacre well.

Camera battery died yestarday, but new ones have been acquired! Behold, progress!

Raven Guard vet with knife. Camera doesn't like this guy for some reason, but I'm pretty happy with him.




And Salamander wirth Plasmagun:




And that brings to a close squad 1! I'll get some better pics of the lot tomorrow, but for now, here's where it's at. Apologies for the appalling blurriness of the first shot, at least it gives a sense of what the colours look like all together:





And a wee bit of assembly, the start of the second squad. I'll be painting up the Vigilator before I get to these guys, though:

The Sarge, with both leg and arm joints reworked with a little GS for a more aggressive pose:



And a Vexilla carrier for the second squad. I didn't want him to just be a repeat of the first one, so his vexilla was modelled more like a standard for the squad to rally round and follow into battle.



That's all for now! If I can get some better pics tonight I'll update, if not it'll be tomorrow! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Coming together nicely.

Love the standard bearer.

Vexhilla is stunniung . great build.

Thanks guys! I am pretty pleased with the Vexilla bearer's pose, it's nicely different from the other one and I think it suits the more aggressive nature of his squad (who will have a pair of Flamers or Heavy flamers, I'm not sure yet).

Great stuff. And well done on the Contemptor pose! It'll be good seeing these armies develop.

Ah taking pictures of black, now you know my pain para. Great job though!

Awesome work. That squad as a whole looks really nice.

Additional positive comment on your squad's unity. Interesting contemptor pose. It kind of looks like it tripped and is falling down. Or maybe had its legs shot out from beneath.

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
Additional positive comment on your squad's unity. Interesting contemptor pose. It kind of looks like it tripped and is falling down. Or maybe had its legs shot out from beneath.

I’d like to see either smoke coming out of the wounded knee joint, or a banana peel on the base.

Thanks guys. I'll try and get some better pics of the squad and its members this evening.

@Warboss: Your latter suggestion is very much what I had in mind; it's suffered crippling damage to its leg but it's going down fighting. Kind of sums up the whole theme of the army, really, and in the plastic, it isn't quite as wonky as the pics might suggest.

@Ustrello: It was more the knife arm/blade throwing off the focus than the black itself, but yeah, photographing black can be a bit of a pain!

Anyone got any ideas for the Vigilator's cloak? Being a stealthy sniper type, he's not exactly going to have a flash cape, but equally, I do want him to stand out a bit and not just have a black mode with a black cape. I'm thinking either dark brown, or maybe a mid-grey?

Look into urban camo? Dark greys and black, little white?

Hmm, not too keen on camo on Marines in general. I could work with those colours, though. Perhaps something goes from very dark to very light, almost sheen-like, so imply it's a camo-cloak type thing that can take on the look of its surroundings when activated?

Bloody hell you're quick. What was all that about having essays to do?

With the Contemptor. could you build up the base to have it look a little more upright while still on its knees? Love the idea, but it does look a bit like he's falling over at the moment.

A contemptor in a kneeling pose suffers from that, the only way to amend it is by adding the suspension/strut system found in a normal box chassis dread.

I have to get some brass rod and some GS to make mine not look like it is falling, though there is some leeway with mine as his foot has been blown off by a word bearer.

You could try elevating the low side of the base with rock or rubble or dead marines and rubble, thus removing most of the falling affect. Oh lol, the post above me said to do that already.

The Istivaan V battles were fought in rough rocky terrain weren't they? Grey-brown maybe, you know earth colours.

Your rate of progress is ... well at least it's difficult to get board waiting for an update lol.

I'm finding it difficult making out colour and detail on your models though, until I read your comments with the images and looked hard I found it hard to tell what legions your marines were meant to be from :(. Maybe It's just me and old tired eyes.

Hey Para! Great looking models! I also want to thank you for introducing me to the Vigilator I'm starting Raven Guard and don't have any of the HH books and didn't know there were cool units like seekers and even an HQ to go with them that has the special issue ammo too. Epic man.

I love how you're incorporating all of the Istvaan survivors into 1 force! When you game with them though, which legion rules will you use?

Thanks guys.

Honestly, I think the dread will remain how it is for now. The model as it sits on the shelf looks much less precarious than the pics make it out to be. I'll see if I can get some pics that represent it a little better at some point.

@OMN: Not sure what you mean? I appreciate that some of the pics aren't the best (though I'm still using a camera much worse than the one I had access to the summer), but the colours and details at least look clear enough to me.

@Castellan: The Vigilator is pretty awesome as a concept. Shooty SM HQs are pretty rare, and this guy has a similar rule to the Raptors Chapter Master in 40k, he gets a pre-game attack against an enemy unit of choice which is awesome. I think it's D6 S5 AP6 shots, so with some good rolling you could easily take out a model or two or strip a hull point (it always hits the weakest armour). Can't remember if he does get special issue ammo like the Seekers, but I wouldn't be surprised (and it'd make him even more awesome). He's also got Centurion stats just like any other, so give him a power weapon and your Seeker squad becomes a valid melee threat as well.

As far as rules go, I'll just use them as a generic legion list (for the ones that don't have rules yet there's a list of USRs you can pick from, I might just go with one of those) or the Salamanders rules if I want to bust out Vulkan at 2k points.

And to finish off for the night, as the Vigilator isn't quite done yet, another squad pic, slightly better. Still a little blurry at the edges, but so far as I can tell there's no way around that with this camera.

Lovely bunch there. Nice work mate.

I like the idea of a wet blended cloak kind of giving the impression it is shifting its colours to suit the environment.

Finished squad is looking.

Excellent idea with the vexhilla.

EDC

The vexilla guy is mean! I'm looking forward to seeing the aesthetic of this next squad. I love it when a unit tells a story from their freeze frame, and your capturing this to a tee! Keep it up man

Squad looks cracking Para - stonkingly great work as usual

Some nice gritty looking marines there Para

1/3 of the Tactical Legionary's done already? Excellent stuff. Really like the theme of these too. I like how the disparate schemes are united by the sombre colours...but is it a slippery slope into 30k and lots of spending?

Resin tanks for Christmas!

Paintingness happens!

Raven Guard Vigilator is done! For the cape, I originally had it in a shiny grey, but that wasn't working, so I hit it with a blue wash. And then a green one. And then it looked a bit Alpha Legion-y, which for those who know their Istvaan is actually quite fitting.... His story is he killed an Alpha Legionnaire and took the camo cloak, but who knows?






Pretty pleased with the final result, half way through it really wasn't looking good but I think I've pulled it back from the brink of disaster. The gun is the only bit I'm not happy with, I might revisit that at some point.

And a bit more assembly:

Flamer Vet, simple conversion here just to change the angle of the leg and give him a striding pose:



And a chainsword guy. All these guys have BP/CCW/Bolter, and I'm not one to let a good chainsword go to waste, so it ended up here:



That's all for now! Good news is the essays are now all done and handed in, so I've got a lot more free time and a lot less pressure; hopefully I can kick it up a notch and get the rest of this next squad built up and painted. The Vexilla bearer is up next, and from all your comments on the pose I'm basically going to have to absolutely nail it to do it justice! Anyone think it particularly suits either Iron Hands or Salamanders? I'm thinking Sallies myself.

@Thraxas: No tanks... hate painting stuff like that! I may treat myself to some of the less-madly priced FW stuff in the new year, though, perhaps the IH Immortals or the Salamanders Firedrakes...

Thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

"kick it up a notch" he says ...

That's a really cool use for the chaplain I may consider doing something similar with mine, since I'm not a fan of the ridiculous looking crozius he carries around normally. Fantastic work as always.

I can see your pictures fine now, to cut the story short: software issues.

Cheers OMN! The pointing hand aside, that Chaplain conversion was very easy, would have been even simpler if I'd had my full Bits Box to work from. I'm tempted to grab another to do up with some different weapons at some point, as I've seen some really cool conversions already. Helps that the base model has a fantastic armour set and cloak, so the end result looks good even with minimal work.

Must admit I'm glad it was software issues on your end that messed up the pics, I was worried for a moment that my pics were completely terrible (as opposed to occasionally terrible ).

While I'm here, anyone got any ideas for power weapons in keeping with the style of this force? NMM/OSL doesn't seem like it would work, but the metallics+wash feels a little basic.

Vigilator looks cool man, he's come out real nice and fits the aesthetic well. I love how effectively you're capturing a balance of desperation and pissed-offness with your marines I dig it.

As far as power weapons go, it seems tough. I feel like a full energy weapon wouldn't fit, but they should still be an oppourtunity to add flare to a mini. The first thought I had was something along the lines of how GW do some of their power weapons? With the silver but some sort of OSL electrical charge emitting from certain areas?

Cheers! I think 'The Shattered Legions: Pissed Off and Desperate’ is officially the new working title for this army!

That method for power weapons could work. Not 100% sure how well it'll translate to claws though, which I'll be needing several of... Might give it a shot on a spare one tomorrow.

Vexilla bearer is done, the LC sarge is up next (predictably, he'll be a Raven), and I'll crack on with some more assembly, try and get the second squad and the Termies built, that just leaves the Seekers and the CC vets/command squad.

I like your vigilator guy a lot... You should have a house-rule for him that every turn he has to roll 2d6. On box cars or snake eyes it turns out he's an alpha and he turns his guns on his allies...

Can't wait to see the LC sarge, all the minis have been gorgeous so far.

Ta chaps! The LC sarge will have a few different bits and bobs on to set him apart from my Ravens thus far, hopefully I'll have him finished up this evening.

 brushcommando wrote:
You should have a house-rule for him that every turn he has to roll 2d6. On box cars or snake eyes it turns out he's an alpha and he turns his guns on his allies...

Best house rule ever

I think this thread needs some Contemptor love...which chapter will he be from?

Here's the Vexilla marine:





Pretty pleased with him.

Didn't get the sarge painted as I ended up playing40k (for the first time in about 18 months) instead. It was a rather impromptu, organised-at-the-last-minute team game so I was forced to play with some unpainted stuff and there were proxies and such everywhere, but there's a decent number of 40k players around it seems, so going forward this force should be hitting the table more than I'd expected. Between Batman and now 40k, my gaming schedule is pretty good right now.

My side (Legions, Skitarri and Blood Angels) took something of a pasting from a DE/Necron team (80% from the DE, Trueborn in Venoms were just throwing around an ungodly amount of Splinter Cannon shots ). Final score was 7-4 to them, although I take some consolation in that all 4 VPs we scored were won by the Shattered Legions. Ok, they took an absolute beating in the process, with the Dread and a 5-man Vet squad lost within 2 turns, the Termies not getting stuck in until just before time ran out on T3 (this is why I'm not a fan of team games like this, there's hardly ever a result) and the other Vet squad and a Vigilator just camping in a Bastion, but still. The Vigilator should have wrecked a Ravager with his pre-game Sabotage, rolling 6 hits and 5 glances/pens, but they were all saved by DE cover trickery. In the end, his first kill was a Night Scythe with an Icarus Lascannon, which promptly crashed on his head (though he survived, just).

Next week, we're doing 750 point matches, and I want to take to the field with a fully painted force. Got a few list options, thought I'd post them here and see if there's anything anyone particularly wants to see:

Option A:
Praetor
Termies
10-man (already painted) and 5-man Veteran Squads

Option B: Swap Termies for Contemptor

Option C: Swap 5-man Vet squad for 10-man bolter Tac squad (probably the 'best' option, but also the one that requires most painting/building, and might be the most boring on the tabletop as basic bolter Tacticals don't particularly excite me)

Option D: Swap Termies for Seeker Squad (not a massive fan of this, as it leaves me with nothing tougher than a bunch of expensive PA Marines)

So it'll likely be the Dread or Termie option, although I could be convinced by the other two... Bearing in mind I have a week to get whichever one I pick painted, any thoughts?

@Thraxas: Dread will be Iron Hands.

Thanks for reading, more soon!

nicce work Para. Vexilla looks fantastic.

Love that vexilla dude, Para! Also glad to hear that you're getting into actually playing 40k instead of just painting the models. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

The Vexilla guy is gorgeous! Real nice work

I love that banner bearer. I don't know if it's just me, but the way he's holding it seems almost a taunt -- Sort of a "You want some?"

At 750 points a contemptor would probably be a handful for almost any army (save maybe necron). Would also minimise the number of models to paint.

From my recent experiences, Contemptors have the potential to be MASSIVE fire magnets, and with their shielding invuln save can shrug off a lot of shots. I personally would go with the seekers, but that might have something to do with mine being one of the stars in my current 30k list (others are the previously mentioned Contemptor, who last game took about 15 lascannon shots to go down, and a 5 man heavy support squad with missiles)

Painted vexhilla bearer looks fantastic.

Nice conversion from the chaplain to vigulator.

EDC

Thanks guys!

@Zergsmaher: I used to play a lot back in 5th/6th, towards the end of the latter my gaming group sort of disintegrated as people moved away or lost interest in the game. But from now on it looks like I should be able to get a game in most weeks, and as we're planning an escalation type thing, hopefully I can keep pace on the painting front.

@Brushcommando: Yep, that's what I was going for the in pose. Either calling his squadmates forward into an assault, or standing with the Vexilla a lot and saying 'this is where we are, come and get us!'... naturally, he died in the first volley yesterday!

Sounds like a couple of votes for the Contemptor there! I can definitely see the logic in him being tough to put down in a smaller game. In the 3k one yesterday he didn't get a shot off thanks to being swooped on by several Venoms full of Trueborn with Blasters, but given that he was the only vehicle on our side at that point (the only others at the start were 3 Sydonian Dragoons who got into melee and then bought it fairly quickly) that's hardly surprising. Perhaps a new coat of paint will grant him a little more luck.

Well, whether it's him or the Termies, painting isn't going to happen until this next Tactical Demi-squad is finished up, so if you want to see TDA, you've got a few days to convince me!

Update!

Raven Guard Sergeant with Lightning Claw:







Personally I am really pleased with how this guy worked out. The inspiration for the markings on the armour came from looking at the FW Raven Guard stuff, their Contemptor has some very cool, almost tribal markings on it, which after a quick bit of research looked to be inspired by traditional Maori art. Another google for some inspiration, and I applied it to this mini. I'll have to check the fluff to see if the presence of these markings mean anything in particular (as in, do they denote veterans of a particular campaign, Marines specifically from Terra or Deliverance ect), but simply on an aesthetic level I think they help him stand out a bit. Not every RG will have these, but I'll try it out on a few more now.

And to finish off for now, some assembly.

Termie Claws. He was pencilled in as an Iron Hand, but I'm now wondering if he ought to be a Raven given the claws?



Couple more Marines, one with a bolter and chain-bayonet and one with a knife and bolter:





That's a wrap for now! Might have some more later on. On an unrelated note, it's nearly Christmas, WH Smiths (a UK bookseller/newsagent) has the X-wing core set on buy one get one half price, family members have been alerted, mistakes might be about to get made... depends on if I can get a pair of the original sets really, as while the FA designs are cool, I think they'd look a little odd alongside the existing ships, so I'll be sticking to the OT for now if I do get them. No plans to go massive, just a couple of starters then adding the odd ship here and there as the mood takes me.

Cheers for reading, any thoughts welcome!

Loving the reposes on the BaC guys, especially the contemptor. Definitely giving me some ideas for my own build outs.

Cheers! I look forward to erm... borrowing your ideas for conversion in return!

That Veteran Sergeant looks great, I love the frills!!!! He looks so hardcore brother, making me want to pick up a Betrayal at Cath set.

You should definitely get a set. It's fantastic value and the minis are great! The tiles are nice too, even if you don't play the game itself, they are handy for Zone Mortalis or Kill Team 40k.

Final update for the day, the Iron Hands Praetor is done!








Pretty happy with him on the whole, something's a little off on the face and the black has a lot more depth to it than the pics are showing, but all in all I think he looks the part!

Up next, a few more Tacticals, and then it's off to work on the Dread...

Ta for looking, any thoughts welcome as ever!

They are shaping up really well. Really like the lightning claw Raven Guard and that Terminator with his claws probably should be a Raven Guard.....

Para you really are doing BaC serious justice. Your take on the figs if top kahunna and definitely my favourite renditions that I've seen thus far. Your praetor is fething awesome. Replacing that gammy chainfist (never a fan of that weapon even on the spacehulk terms) with a power sword was the way to go. Great great job so far.

Not having the Heresy set yet to see how the individual bits fit together, and also in the camp that thinks the chainfist is underwhelming, is that powersword conversion a pretty simple one, Paradigm?

It's all coming along quite nicely.

That IH praetor looks amazing! Real nice work

Ah man, that Prateor looks so much better with that sword! Great little kitbashes like that are making your stuff stand out a great deal. I'm also digging the Māori influnce, being from NZ and all
Also - suppose I find a BaC set falling into my hands - how hard would it be to throw a helmet on that termie praetor? And how was that arm switch?

Thanks everyone! This feedback is what keeps me motivated to to keel on ploughing through the set!

Regarding the Praetor conversion, the arm was a case of cutting off the Chainfist arm at the shoulder prior to assembly, sticking the front and back halves together, and then taking the sword arm from the Termie sprue and cutting that down to size until it fit in under the shoulder pad and tassles. There was a fair bit of trial and error involved, but anyone with a pair of clippers and some moderate conversion skills should be able to pull it off easily enough. I've seen a similar conversion done but cutting the arm at the elbow instead, that may or may not be any easier.

As for the head, the attachment is hidden between the front and back halves of the body, so the only issue would be making sure the head you replace it with fits between those. A helmeted head probably isn't likely to, but any bare ones that don't have ridiculous (read: Space Wolf) hair should work. There are some spare Caraphractii heads on the sprue, those would probably fit as well.

Aye, have done a head swap myself. As Para says I think you would struggle to fit a helmeted head in there...you may be able to fit one of the other Terminator helmeted heads from the Calth set but it may take a bit more work.

You should have the set painted by Friday Para.

Perhaps a tad optimistic! There's still over a dozen minis to build, and I'm running out of poses! The plan is to have the second Tactical Squad, the Dread and maybe the Termies done by Friday, that way I have some options for the game.

Are you finding that the three colour schemes are making painting a bit easier and less dull than if you were just doing the one?

Definitely. No way I'd have got through this many minis this fast if they were all the same. It also helps that they vary a lot in complexity/time required. so while I'd need to sit down and focus for a couple of hours to do a Salamander, I can stick an episode of TV or a podcast or something on and have an Iron Hand painted by the time it's finished.

The fact the minis are really nice helps too!

Was up in Seoul today at my flgs. Had a wee look at the BaC box. Bit of a bruiser init?!!!! Apparently has been selling really well over here. Didn't pick one up though. Was possibly the cheapest trip there yet. 4 pots of paint, a brush and a single figure!!

Yeah, it's a big box and packed with good stuff! The tiles and counters are all good quality as well.

We all know that one figure will end up looking better my whole BaC box!

Lol. Not so sure. What you've turned out thus far is top banana. I just got a lonely cairn wrath. Cheap as chips so I was happy picked up a couple of the new sized shade bottles love the new size but the fething things don't fit in my paint drawers. First world problems eh?!!!

Cairn Wraith looks like an awesome mini. Any plans for converting it? There's been some great AdMech conversions over the years based on that mini.

Another quick thought on a list for Friday, this one loses out on a little firepower but manages to get in both the Termies and the Dread.

Praetor
Dread
10-man Tactical Squad with extra CCW and a LC Sarge
Termies

Thoughts? This one is possibly the most effective, and gets a bit more anti-infantry firepower which at 750 is probably more important than anti-tank (which the Dread and Termies can do in a pinch if I run up against some armour).

You've been knocking these models out in such great speed that I can hardly keep up. If GW had done this set a few years ago then I would have possibly jumped back into 40/30K.

The mix of loyalists you have is great, a real feel for the dropsite massacre.

 Januine wrote:
picked up a couple of the new sized shade bottles love the new size but the fething things don't fit in my paint drawers. First world problems eh?!!!

They do not fit (at least if you want to close the lid) in the Citadel project box either.

@Para: Are you using them for 30k or 40k? I am loath to pick up the FW books at £70 odd a pop but need to if I want the 30K lists.

At the moment, I'm building them for 30k, though I may end up using them with a 40k army now and then as well.

You don't need the big books if you can get the Crusade Army List book, which has just the rules and costs about the same as a regular codex (well, plus Forge World shipping). They're currently being reprinted, though, so won't be back until some time next year in all likelihood. Happy to answer any questions you have on Legion lists in the mean time, though. if you're looking for guidelines for unit setups or whatever.

I really like the 'high five' RG sgt, very dynamic pose like he's about to slap a sucka with his LC.

Was the weapon swap on the praetor easy?

EDC

Easy enough, I outlined the process above. Short version, lots of trial and error.

Very nice, and I'd like to see a contemptor too

 Paradigm wrote:
Cairn Wraith looks like an awesome mini. Any plans for converting it? There's been some great AdMech conversions over the years based on that mini.

Yeah that's the plan. Want to make a nice tall archmagos with him, looming over the others. Krautscientist did a fantastic admech conv with the wraith a whiles back named 'Legion' I think. Inspired me to picj one up. Feth knowss when I'll get around to it

You've done the whole set justice with your painting and conversions. Keep it up! Vigilator is my favourite so far, but looking forward to that dread!

I like the sword. The gamer (as opposed to the modeler) in me is yelling that a lightning claw is far superior when paired with a non-pistol weapon.

But you can’t argue with the looks.

Spent a little time checking out all your BoC stuff. It's really good, I like what you have done with it. Especially the Contemptor. My copy is sitting in the corner, just trying to decide what legion.

@40kFSU, ckig and graven: Cheers guys!

@Nev: When it comes to leaders, I'm generally a sword guy all the way. I just see my commanders trying to get into as many epic duels as possible, and claws just don't lend themselves to that imagery unless it's full-Wolverine with a pair of claws. Effectiveness be damned, I'll lose but I'll lose in style!

Shameful lack of photgraphable progress in the last couple of days, haven't been feeling too well. Got another Tactical Marine nearly done, and the Dread is coming along, should have them done tomorrow. Going to try and get the remaining Terminators done for Friday if I can, just to have options for the game.

OK Para, since you were kind enough to offer, a few HH questions:

Are Sgt loadouts similar to 40k (bar Grav etc)?
Terminator Squads: Is Calth an anomaly in that you can mix cc and ranged weapons or does it apply in 30k too?
Are there any loadout variations between Tactical and Veteran Squads?

Thanks in advance, hope you can shake off whatever bug you have.

And now, the moment you've all been Dreading.. sorry, sorry, that was bad and I feel bad about it! Have this Dreadnought to make up for it! Advance warning, my lighting setup is not being kind to this chap, he honestly looks a little better in reality than he does here. Being black, metallic and with a lot of flat surfaces, there's a hell of a lot of glare that my diffuser isn't dealing with, the only way around it was to add another layer of diffuser or dial down the exposure, both of which threw the colours off quite significantly.

Anyway, that's enough excuses! One Iron Hands Contemptor Dreadnought, name pending:







Not 100% pleased with him, but he'll do for the game on Friday and looks the part for the force. If anyone has any suggestions for areas to revisit I'm all ears. Mechanical, metal ears of course, because THE FLESH IS WEAK:


That's all for now, got another two Tactical Marines in progress (one is mid-way done, the other just needs basing really). Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome! More interesting basing will happen for this guy and the whole army once I have access to the rest of my materials.

Oh, and wow, 50 pages! Didn't see that before! Blimey! Huge thanks to all of those who've comments, advised, suggested and critiqued all this way! Couldn't do this without you guys!

That dread is fantastic Para - really lovely paintjob. Crack on fella - you're knocking these out of the park

Love the dynamic pose on the Dread.
The weathering is top notch as well!

Really like the pose on the contemptor
Keep it up!
Grtz
Mark

It's a cracking paint job, mate. But honestly, I think the posing is... off. I understand the sort of pose your going for, but he looks too far forward. Perhaps if he is stood up a little more, but still with a noticable tilt, he'll look less like he's falling over.

And 50 pages is a lot of content! Especially seeing as you started [goes back to page one] 15 months ago?!?! How is that possible?!
Time for a summary of the past year? Or some sort of giant group photo?

Thanks guys! Honestly, you're all too kind! I think the paintjob is probably passable, and I'll feel happy to put it down on the table, but not quite up to scratch for the mini that'll be the centrepiece of the army. It could just be case of having looked at it too much, I don't know, it just feels like something is missing and I can't put my finger on what...

@Zambro: I think it's not so much the page count that surprises me, after all I ramble a lot, it's the marked difference in my output, quality and just general approach to painting that's changed in that time. At some point, I mean to go back and do a few comparison posts as I do think my painting has come on further these last 10-12 months than it ever has in a similar period, and so much of that is down to you guys that help keep this blog going! Especially as until recently this has been something of a 'wilderness year' in terms of gaming/socialising with other hobbyists, so family aside you are the only folks that can see my models and push me to improve, and you're all doing a marvellous job of keeping me motivated! Thanks again.

Come the end of the year I'll do a 'year in review' post like I did last year, lots of montages, group shots and such.

Regarding the pose, I discussed that a page or two back, short version being that it looks far more natural from a 'standing over a table' perspective than it does in the front-on pics. I may go back and raise him up a bit when more creative basing happens, but I'll see about that when I get to it.

Although I agree with all of the above comments, I have to say that I see Zambro's point as well - he's so close to being the most badass thing in existence since plastic sternguard, but the degree of his lean does look the most delicate smidge too excessive for me. If he was kneeling upon a rock or some debris or something it would perhaps be alleviated? Regardless of what you decide to do, on the whole that dread is beautiful - I know its a miniature but I still get intimidated just looking at it The paint job fits right in with the guys and he looks a right force to be reckoned with. Can't wait for more, looking through your HH progress are some of my favourite updates to behold

50 pages so quickly. Congratulations. With just a tiny bit of jealousy at the speed of your progress.

Really like the force. The weathering really brings them together into a group that looks desperate and capable of anything.....

You, sir, are flying through that BaC box, and doing great on those minis. I might have to echo what other have said about the Dread's pose, he looks like he tripped over something. The paintjob is great, though! I bet it is even better in person like you said!

Congratulations on the 50 pages Para, I think you are right you have improved a lot in a very short period of time. It is good that with the move to Uni you now have more access to the social side of the hobby as well.

Great paint job on the Contemptor, I like the addition of the Iron Hand on the leg too. Is that a plastic bit or a personal bit of sculpting?

I have now set a date of July 28th 2016 for you to reach 100 pages.

Nice contemptor. I'm divided on the pose, sometimes look at it and think it really works, other it looks like it's just tripped over rather than being brought down in the throws of battle...

EDC

Thanks guys!

@Thraxas: The Iron Hand and the scrap of parchment on the torso are sculpted. Not my best work, but better than the massive seam running down the side of the leg, and I think it looks passable and just adds a little more character.

Another 50 pages in half a year? Optimistic, but I'll do me best!

More later on!

Progress! Three more Tacticals and a Termie today!

First off, probably the least exciting, an Iron Hand. Nothin' fancy here, just my usual simple combo of black, blood and weathering to hell and back:




A Salamander with a flamer. I'm still finding this green hard work to be honest, but he does the job:





And the mini that rounds out the first half of the second Tactical Squad and gives me at least a painted and legal list for Friday, a Raven Guard vet with knife. Again, took a slightly different approach to the scheme, he's not actually a veteran in terms of markings (no white shoulder pads) but that gave me a better canvas for some more tribal markings and such:




Crappy squad shot (this weekend, once I get the Termies finished up, I'll go back and do squad/group/army shots properly)


And finally for today, another Terminator, as suggested by several of you he got Raven colours in the end, and I think he looks rather good in them. He's nominally the squad's sergeant:





That's all for now! As ever, thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

These look simply amazing! I'm probably tardy to the party, but care to explain the hand held vexillia? looks tons less breakable then regular backpack vexillias

Cheers! The vexilla was an easy enough conversion, just a bolter hand, the vexilla stuck to the top and the haft of the Chaplain's Crozius attached to the bottom (any long weapon handle or even plasticard rod would do). A little GS was then used to get the wrist angle, but there are probably many arms that would work with no GS needed.

Needed a change of pace after blasting through the stuff for the game last night (played 2, lost 2 but at least the minis looked good doing it! ) so with the 4th Annual Nerdcademy Painting Competition opening up and me finally feeling up to the challenge of entering, I've slowed down a little and decided my force needs a Standard Bearer. Iron Hands have been my strongest suit on the painting front thus far, so I figured rather than take a Sallie or a Raven and try and make it work well, I'd take the IH scheme and push it up to 11 with a few new techniques. The final mini will basically have everything I know how to do on it somewhere; weatherings, metallics, NMM, freehand, a wee bit of OSL maybe...

Sadly, my camera battery died and I won't be able to get any more until Tuesday, so the only shots I have are the ones I was able to get before it all stopped working. So they're not the best, but they do at least give you an idea of where it's going. Basically, I've taken my regular armour method and added some strong greens and purples before the final black wash, and been a bit less haphazard with the weathering, and I think he's coming along quite nicely. He's just tacked to the base, as I have a bit more to do there:





Again, apologies for the blur, I mean to retake some of these shots but couldn't. Finally, just so you can get an idea of where this is all going, the rest of the parts. Obviously the lighting and focus are off here, but you can still see the early WIP of the banner, and the general direction I'm taking the pose/sword painting.


On an unrelated note, I've bitten the bullet on X-wing, 2 Core Sets, 1 lot of Rebel Aces (A-wing and B-wing) will be with me at Christmas. After that, I plan to grab the TIE Advanced, the Imperial Aces set, the Y-wing and maybe a couple of others before getting the bigger ships like Slave 1 and the Falcon. This will probably be a slow-grow game for me, I'll just add the odd bit here and there, but I can see myself ending up with most of the movie ships and maybe a few of the EU ones as well further down the line. They'll all be getting repaints, so if anyone has any insights on that I'm all ears!

More soon-ish, once the camera's back in action. I'll soldier on with the Standard, and I'm planning to have the rest of the Termies done for next Friday as we escalate to 1000 points. Any thoughts welcome on this mini or anything else! Cheers for reading!

I'm sure that the reason your boys lost the games is because they're paying homage to the tragic events at Istvaan V

Throwing it back quite a ways - the termie sgt is one of my favourites that you've done so far. The tribal marks sit perfectly on him and I think he's still subtle - but a good standout piece. Liking the standard bearer progress - reminds me of the work that I need to get done on the contests that i'm in