Might be sooner, rather then later. Day was a tad on the humid side, but within acceptable parameters. Looks like I got a clean prime on them. So they are now in the painting queue.
Nice, it's always lovely when the weather complies. All my army is a prime deal from GW and Army painter. Without it, I have days of work just painting red and white, so I know that feeling.
I figure I should do something during the commercials while watching the World Series, so I'm going to inventory my primed pile.
5 BoP terminators
Apothecary
Master of signal consul
Tech marine on bike
Rt captain
Grv cannon gunner
Multi melta gunner
4 deathwatch
3 sternguard
5 scouts
3 lotd counts as
Tml speeder
Stalker/hunter/command tank
12 rtb01 beekies
Hold on to your hats true believers, I’m scratchbuilding with card!
OK, just a little bit, but it should count for something. So when I was dragging out the rattle can to prime the other day, I thought I’d grab some of the old lead in the pile of stuff I had stripped. While not as tidy as I’d like, they are probably as good as they are going to get. Unfortunately, most of them lacked age appropriate back packs, and I just shrugged and punted on them. But it did make me realize that the techmarine needed a new arm. As they come stock with power axes these days, that made it a bit rough. I think I only have one kicking around the bits box, and want to save that for a project more likely to see the table. So out comes the plasticard. And a question for all you:
Top or centered?
I took a thunder hammer from the BoP box and cut a groove down the center with a hacksaw. Little trimming and cutting for a cog shaped axe. Not bad, although I’m sure I might be able to make a better version if I tried. Also not 100% on the shape of the axe. And it might need a skull, not sure.
I almost fell out of my chair!
Top pic for sure! In the bottom picture, the flat edge above the TH bit looks unnatural and clunky and pain odd. When the flat part of the axe head is running straight down the shaft of the axe (pic 1), it looks a lot better.
Something on the axe blade would look cool. Skull would work.
OK, that’s one vote for each. I’m not opposed to doing more cutting, or just starting over again. If the blade needs something extra (like a spike at the top/back, or a cut away from the inside) I can re-do the whole thing. Well, the blade that is. I’ve only got a few spare hammers to work with, and would rather not dice up more of them. Left handed thunder hammers are not exactly common.
Put some more paint down on the champion. I’ll try to grab a pic in a bit. Most of the basecoats are finished. Still need to do the red, and figure out how I’m going to do the beard. Probably white/silver, with a black wash. Aiming for a nice steel grey of a seasoned warrior.
Another question for you guys: Anyone get their GW/hobby stuff from Amazon? My folks got me a $100 gift card, with strict instructions to buy something fun, and not just things I need to live. There look to be a few sellers who have 40k stuff up for sale, but it’s far from a complete line. Some of the sellers have pretty good ratings, so I’m not concerned with scams/junk, but thought I’d check. I think the last time I bought something from Amazon they still just sold books. There are also some bits/sprues listed, which struck me as odd. And some of the pricing for things like paint is crazy. Right now I’m leaning towards the start collecting Eldar box I’ve had my eye on, or a deathwatch land raider (which has all the parts to build the major variants)
Another year older, and theoretically wiser. This year should bring the answers to life, the universe, and everything. 42, and feeling it. Been a dumpster fire of a year.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back.
First things first, nice blog. Just found it and have enjoyed looking through it.
To answer your question on Amazon, most of the listings are good, but definitely not the cheapest you can find online. I prefer to buy stuff labeled with the "prime" label, that way you know it's legit and you will get it in a reasonable time. That being said, I have bought from other sellers on there and never had a problem.
pretty much what squall said about amazon. In my experiance, pretty reliable across the board. I have amazon prime, so normally only buy prime stuff (free next day delivery 90% of the time). Admittedly, I haven't bought GW stuff from Amazon, but I dont see why there would be any issues.
And a point on prices, last Xmas I wanted to buy the game Codenames. It was sold out everywhere, and amazon had it for £90. It's a £15 game.
Eldar get started would make a nice addition to your eldar stuff.
Why would you get a Death Watch landraider over a normal one?
Zambro wrote: Didn't the clocks go back last weekend?
Why would you get a Death Watch landraider over a normal one?
I don’t know how you guys do your clocks across the pond, but it’s today here in the states for the time change. But if it was last week for you, you should defiantly do it today!
The basic Land Raider is $74.25. As is the LRC/LRR. The Deathwatch LR is $80. For the extra $5.75 you get the parts to make both a phobos pattern with the TL’d Godhammers, and the LRC/LRR with the hurricanes and flamestorms. Plus a deathwatch sprue with shoulderpads, etc. Now that I’m better with magnetizing, that’s a whole lot of options for one kit. Sort of like buying the razorback for a few extra bucks over the rhino. Even if you use it as a rhino 90% of the time, it’s only a little extra for a lot of options.
I’m pretty sure the only DW iconography is on the extra sprue, but that’s just my educated guess.
But I went the other way. In theory, a Start Collecting: Eldar box is now winging it’s way though the postal/delivery system to my door. Some change over $70, plus free shipping. Company had a 95% rating, with tons of reviews, so I have faith it should work out.
Also while I was out running errands this morning I stopped by my favorite local art’s supply store and picked up a pair of new brushes. 0 and 00 sable. I’ll post pictures next time I hook up my camera and hoover pics off it. I think the store always has that brand on 40% off. Was $16 for two brushes, not bad.
Got some more paint down on the marine on the bench. I’ll try to get some more picks next time I hit the bench.
Hey there. Little too wound up to trust myself with a brush or clippers, but I need to do something to break out of my depression, so here’s an update.
Went down to the FLGS Monday night, chatted with the guys who showed up. I had forgotten that most of them were at a tournament this last weekend, which means poor attendance on the following game day. Oh well. Good to get out of the house and chat at the very least.
Some new brushes I mentioned last post:
Richeson 7777, size 0, and 00. The size 1 I picked up a while ago has been my go-to brush for the last couple years. Jan ’14 doesn’t seem that long. Time flies and all that. As long as I can pick them up at 40% off I think they are going to be my main brush. If I needed to pay full price, I might just bite the bullet and go for the W&N 7s, on reputation alone.
Got some work done earlier this week on the champion.
(didn’t bother getting a legs pic, not much to look at)
Still need to work up some more details and get the blues done. But I started washing the browns/golds. Also need to work up the cape. I’ve added the whole blending cloth thing to my toolbox, should use it.
But right now I’ve got all the motivation of a dead jellyfish. It’s a grey and miserable day out. I got my flu shot yesterday, and am generally achy and tired. And my country is up for some interesting times. This on top of the whole Wife leaving me, need to get a new place, another year older pile of junk in my life right now. I should just delete the personal junk. I really don’t want to burden you guys and harsh your buzz, but I need to vent it out a little. So sorry about that. I’ll try to return to my normal chipper self as soon as I can. Hopefully.
Or at least get to the point where I trust myself to hold a brush.
Hey Nev I'm really sorry things aren't going too well for you at the moment. I know you'll pull through, it's all about finding the things that make you happy and investing energy there.
I hear you about some of the troubles though, as a Canadian, I can't comprehend what happened last night and I passed all of today in bouts of seething anger followed by paralyzed shock. If you're looking for a new place though might I suggest north of the border? We're making plans of building a wall of our very own up here
In brighter news the champion is looking great, his head is awesome and the tabard bit with purity seals is a real standout feature to me. I like the smooth depth you got in it.
Nev, you gotta remember this is your plog. You can share whatever you need. Just take it slow and be careful. You are just chipping away with this plog these days.
I hope things go better for you, love the pouches on the model. Glad to see when you are just basecoating there is some paint overlap - how do you go about touching that up in the final stretch of a miniature? I have the hardest time not getting reds on my whites and then doing a million coats to fix a minute mistake, etc.
Oh, and for the TM, center placement for sure on that axe.
@Stormwall: The sloppy basecoats and touchup thing depends a lot on the mini. For the most part, I go blue -> details -> second blue -> blue wash -> touchups. Between the second clean up pass and the wash most of the slop for the detail stage is covered up. At least so you wouldn’t notice at table-top distance. For things like cleaning up whites (like the trim on the vets) I do end up doing a number of thin coats to cover any mistakes. I also try to take extra care when I know I’m going to run into problems. For example, on the Fire Dragons, I could be sloppy with the orange, knowing I was going to be painting black on the hard armor. But I was a lot more careful with that black, knowing it would be a dog to clean up with the poorly covering orange. Plus the fact that the Eldar don’t generally get a wash, which hides many sins.
Another thing that helps a lot is a zen-like acceptance that I’m not perfect. I’ll cover a mistake with one or two thin coats. I still might be able to tell it’s there in pictures or examining the figure. But on the table? It’s fine. No need to break myself for perfection; I’m not there anyway.
Got some more paint down this afternoon. Need to get back to cooking dinner now.
Spoiler:
Edit 1 (Odd, I posted this a few hours ago and it didn’t show up on the normal view, but was OK in the “blog view”. reposting to see if it helps.) Edit 2: Thread oddness continues. I posted again, and it looks like Dakka ate it. So I’m editing the last post that shows with the actual last post. If this continues, I’ll have to hit the Yellow Triangle of Friendship on myself.
Ready to crush some skulls for Macragge. As always, not 100% happy with him, but he’s not bad and ready for battle.
Which is good, as the month is zipping by rather quickly. Next week is going to be on the busy side, with The Boy having some half days and a number of other events. Need to schedule a meeting with my lawyer, as I got a letter from The Wife’s yesterday. She continues to set an unrealistic time table, even when we’ve got basically everything agreed upon. I know she wants me out, but if she keeps this up she’s going to risk tossing away everything we’ve worked out. Very frustrating. Hopefully me being out of town for Thanksgiving will give her space to cool off. But I doubt it. Sigh.
I should pick out something else to paint. But right now I’m binge watching Arrow (a few episodes into S2) and playing Fallout 4. So plenty of distractions abound.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend.
Edit 1 (Odd, I posted this a few hours ago and it didn’t show up on the normal view, but was OK in the “blog view”. reposting to see if it helps.)
Ready to crush some skulls for Macragge. As always, not 100% happy with him, but he’s not bad and ready for battle.
Which is good, as the month is zipping by rather quickly. Next week is going to be on the busy side, with The Boy having some half days and a number of other events. Need to schedule a meeting with my lawyer, as I got a letter from The Wife’s yesterday. She continues to set an unrealistic time table, even when we’ve got basically everything agreed upon. I know she wants me out, but if she keeps this up she’s going to risk tossing away everything we’ve worked out. Very frustrating. Hopefully me being out of town for Thanksgiving will give her space to cool off. But I doubt it. Sigh.
I should pick out something else to paint. But right now I’m binge watching Arrow (a few episodes into S2) and playing Fallout 4. So plenty of distractions abound.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend.
--Nev
(Odd, I posted this a few hours ago and it didn’t show up on the normal view, but was OK in the “blog view”. reposting to see if it helps.) Edit: Doing some trimming to fix some reposts from technical snafu.
He looks great Nev, a true burly brawler for the slave pits... errr I mean in the Emperors name!
You're never a true artist until you find imperfections with every. single. model. you. paint. That's called motivation to always improve, love it, use it, harness it!
Sorry to hear about things not running perfectly smooth with the wife. Teaching life lessons to super-mutants sounds like a good getaway when you can, hopefully things improve for ya buddy.
Also what's this about thanksgiving? Thanksgiving was last month. Just kidding of course I know that you guys down south celebrate Thanksgiving on the wrong day, don't worry, we still love you.
@Gits - I feel I could have dome some more blending and mixing to make things a little smoother, but it turned out OK.
@I_F - My high school art teacher once told me “The difference between an professional artist and a student is he knows when to stop” I’m badly paraphrasing there, it’s been a while. At the time I was fusing with getting the final polish on a large self-portate done in pastels. Kept tweaking shades, smoothing/rebuilding colors, etc. Basically lateral fixes, not improvements. “You’ve been done for weeks, you just didn’t realize it” All the fixes seemed relevant to do at the time, but in hindsight, he was correct.
Other little saying that are appropriate “Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good” “We are our own worst critics” “Pillage before you burn”
Err, maybe not that last one.
Is Canadian Thanksgiving the same as we celebrate here in the US? Turkey/stuffing/mashed potatoes/pie? Or is it like Canadian bacon, where the name is very similar to something awesome, but instead of yummy actual bacon, you end up with ham with delusions of grander? Because I’m all about celebrating other countries holidays if the food is good.
@Stormwall, EDC - While I generally hate painting faces, I have to admit they add a lot of character to the model. I don’t think this guy would have quite aggressive brutality without the angry head. Although I do recall thinking of the personality of helmets when working on my AM sarge and VV marine. Overall pretty pleased with him.
So yesterday was Monday, and I made it down to the FLGS for a game. It was fun, if brutal. Paired up against a tournament-class list. Which was educational. Guy was fun to play against, so I didn’t mind getting my teeth kicked in.
I brought an assorted CAD, mostly because it had been a while since I got to field a number of things. Re-jigged it last second to include the champ I just finished.
I forgot to get a pack pick, but it was 2 tacs in rhinos, LSS of scouts, pred, vindi, TML speeder, talon, 2 dreads. HG lead by Cassius in the LR. Vs. a wulfen deathstar (with Ulric) Lib conclave (W/ Tigs) Cortez, quad mortars, fellblade, VSG.
The wulfen were tough as nails. Yea for layered saves. 4+, 3++, Some level of FNP. Plus spending some time under the VSG umbrella. Also got some buff to let them re-roll saves.
Fellblade was a nasty piece of work. Part of that was the fact that it spent the whole game with a ignores cover buff.
The turning point of the game was when I had moved up my LR to get into range next turn to charge the wulfen. The fellblade blew it up and I was left with two choices: get out on the side closest to the wulfen and be charged by them, or get out on the other side and try to charge on my turn. I chose the later. But when it came time to get stuck in, I failed the charge though cover. Wasn't a long one (I needed 7”), but yea random! Next turn the fellblade opened them up, and the wulfen multicharged the remnants and a tac squad who were nearby. Called the game at that point.
Fresh paint report:
The TH champ ate fire from the superheavy and perished before doing anything. Could have used the DP I had a dread in (but cut for points) more then another body in the HG.
This might have been the first 40k outing for the contemptor. He did pretty good, all things considered.
Vindi is still pretty new. Copped a weapon destroyed result first turn. Should have bought that stormbolter. Acted a a funnel to help reduce the number of wulfen who could reach the contemptor in CC. Did fine for that.
Those are all really good quotes Nev. Knowing when to stop is very important. I know some days I still want to go back to my Succubus and do more work on her and I have to tell myself to leave her be. I figured pillaging before you burn was common sense but then again I suppose it's never a bad reminder, sometimes you just get swept up in the moment.
Yup Nev Canadian thanksgiving is very much like yours, turkey, stuffing, perderders, cranberry jelly and pie. In fact I can't think of any difference... oh Black Friday is a thing right? That shopping day after thanksgiving? We don't have that. And trust me when I say that even Canadians are disappointed that Canadian bacon is not real bacon. We love our true bacon up here, Canadian bacon only finds it's way on pizza and only as an assistant to real bacon.
It's sad your new champ didn't get much done in his first outing. If it makes you feel any better the first match I used my Succubus in she was killed by a scattered manticore missile that wasn't even aimed at her before she was even able to move. It's quite disappointing when your fancy new hero doesn't get to do anything.
The curse of fresh paint is a very real thing. I never expect much from a model’s first outing. Sometimes with a new unit, it’s just getting the best way to field it right. But many times it’s the fickle gods of fate toying with us.
I give Canadian Bacon a hard time, but am willing to cut it a lot of slack. It is a key part in one of my favorite breakfasts (Eggs Benedict). It might be hard to justify celebrating two holidays close together with the same food for Thanksgiving. But then, that might just generate more leftovers, which IMHO are one of the best parts of turkey day.
So I’m a little irritated with Battlescribe. They put out a new version, and the format is a little irritating for some units. Will take some getting used to, hopefully they will add some decent output options. I can understand units like sternguard having each model listed individually, as everyone can take separate stuff. But I don’t need every tactical marine singled out. Just adds a lot of bloat to the list and output. One of the downsides/perks to the change is that my old rosters were invalidated, so I went back to the YTD shelf and re-entered everything. If Battlescribe is to be believed, this is 659 points of Eldar, and 1648 of Ultras. HIWPI, so things like ML2 on the Lib, and AA armor on the captains. Not counted are the Zoat and marauder in the back there, or the 2 minis sent off to new homes (Ork boy, Chammady). So 64 actual minis (73 with my cheating math) and 2307 points, plus the odds/ends. And we still have a month and a half left in the year.
Edit: Forgot the mention. While I was at the FLGS, I picked up another pack of snow tufts for basing. So another $6 for my end of year math for how much I spent on the hobby. And a reminder to myself to take them out of my KR bag and put them on the workbench
Over in the general section there is the “what’s on your Christmas wishlist” thread that tends to pop up at this time of year. As I collected my thoughts over there, I should probably post them here as well.
The odds of me getting any hobby stuff is basically zero. The odds of me getting some random cash with a strict “buy something fun for yourself” is a bit higher. The odds of me actually spending money on fun stuff is a bit lower though.
But a guy can dream.
My Eldar army is actually getting pretty close to being done. Barring new releases. Things I could use/covet
Another Wave Serpent. (I only have one. This is the closest thing to “need” on the list)
Wraithguard (and another WS to put them in)
Wraithlord. (I like the model, even if he is a little sub-par)
Maybe another 5 DAs.
My Marine army, while being significantly larger then my Eldar, could always use a lot more stuff. Probably because there are a lot of formations I’m just a mini away from.
1-3 whirlwinds (don’t own any, they work well in a number of formations)
Cents (They’ve grown on my, and are quite strong on the table)
Kill team Cassisus (mostly as a painting project)
Deathwatch LR (I only own a classic Phobos LR, this kit has the parts to make any of the core variants)
LSS, Pred, Vindi, Stormtalon (or hawk). (I only own one of each, could use at least one more of all of them. LSS especially)
Modern terminators (both tactical and assault)
If we want to go pure pie-in-the-sky wish-listing, there are a number of FW things I’d love to have. One of those smexy Eldar superheavy grav tanks, or frankly any of the 30k Ultras stuff.
In non-GW, but still hobby stuff:
I’m still looking into shields for turning some of the Mk III BoP guys into breachers. Also some jump packs to make some destroyer squads (the rad grenade guys). Might place a order with Anvil for parts, even though I’m not 100% on their shields.
I could use another KR case. I like my Kaiser 3, but often find myself just bringing 2 KRU worth of army to the FLGS. I’d love one of their backpacks, although a Kaiser 2 would also work. The odds of me needing to bring 5 KRU to the store is quite low, but being able to bring a smaller case would be nice on my shoulders. Last time I bought foam, I did leave a decent amount of space for expansion, but that’s mostly full at this point. Pretty much anything new I pick up would need a new custom tray, and I already have a few items being slotted into non-optimal spaces.
Oh, and another non-happening option would be an airbrush setup.
Looking back to my end of year/looking ahead post from last year, this is what I had in mind:
Things on my to-buy list. Which is still very fuzzy, and unlikely to happen. I’d be more likely to spring for an unknown new release then pick up old stuff.
1-3 Whirlwinds
Stalker/hunter
LRC/R
Scout bikes (Would be nice to have a larger squad a/o field 2 squads.)
Cents (I know, they are kinda ugly, but the rules....)
Eldar Fire Prism
Looks like I forgot to list the scout bikes this year. Still could use another box of them. And I did actually get some of the things on my list! The AA tank is sitting primed on the bench, and a Fire Prism should be showing up on my doorstep any day now.
I did sift through last year’s posts here in this thread to see what else I picked up, and where my hobby dollar ended up:
Stalker/hunter $45
Sold Sniper scouts (-$20)
(150 grit sandpaper)
4 pots paint $16
Flock/tufts/sale paint $35
Deathwatch killteam $35
Flowers/bases $11
Meadow Tufts $6
Burning of Prospero $120
SC: Eldar $70
Brushes $16
Snow Tufts $6
So that’s roughly $360 worth of stuff. If I credit the snipers I sold, and discount the SC: Eldar box (as that was an amazon gift card purchase, which I still have $30 on) my net spending on the hobby YTD is $270. It is a little surprising how quick the hobby supplies add up. A paint pot here, pack of tufts there, and we are pushing $90. Microtransactions: Not just for MMOs and Apps!
On the bright side, unless I go on a shopping spree in the next month, I should be sitting pretty on my "paint more then I buy" vow for the year. 52 infantry, 2 tanks, and 4 bikes were purchased.
I know it’s a little early for the year-end stuff, but I was thinking about it, so decided to do the write up.
Yeah the little things add up quick, I'm always amazed/embarrassed when I tally how much I've spent on paint pots. It's good that it's looking like you were able to paint more than you bought this year. That's always a good feeling
Found this on the front step when I got back from the regularly scheduled parent/teacher conference. (The Boy is doing fine). Was a little worried at first, as the box was not shrinkwrapped inside the padded envelope. But after a quick inventory, looks like all the parts are there.
Also a nice find when I was cruising drug stores yesterday looking for children’s sudafed in pill form: a small bottle of pure acetone. So another $3 for my hobby budget.
I’ve got The Boy this afternoon and tonight, and a meeting with my Lawyer tomorrow, But after that, I think this weekend is going to be a big chunk of free hobby time. The weather looks like it might be on the mild side, so if I can get enough assembly done, I might be able to get another batch of stuff primed.
I was thinking this is more of a “Stop Collecting” box, rather then “Start”. The Fire Prism was the last thing that I deeply coveted. Sure, there are some other odds and ends I could use, but nothing load bearing. Plus, IIRC from when I was counting slots in my KR foam collection, these should fill the last Eldar specific spots. So if I want anything more then basic infantry, I’d not be able to drag it to the FLGS without effort or leaving something behind.
And when it rains, it pours. Doorbell just rang and a box of books showed up. Via a very convoluted path. A few months ago, one of my friends offered up some black library books. As he lives down in New Jersey, he said he’s drag them up next time he was in the neighborhood. His aunt (who’s son is also my good friend) just dropped them off. So some reading to do: ( I know the James Corey books are not 40k, but are good sci-fi, I’d recommend them)
Edit:
Also, a little painting progress, I just put the first basecoat down on the Multimelta and Gravcannon marines.
Zambro wrote: For some reason, the start collecting boxes aren't shrink wrapped. The tyrannid and nurgle one I got weren't.
Have you read the HH series?
I could have swore the ones down at the FLGS were. And most GW products these days.
I think I’ve read two HH books. Forget the names. One dealt with the Betrayal at Calth, and the other with UM vs. WE/WB in the aftermath (I think). And I’m not one to turn down free books.
Started poking around the Fire Prism last night. Thinking about magnetization options. The easy way with less cutting looks to be just sinking magnets into both the top and bottom half of the backs of the guns. Should be enough clearance to slip them in under the hood to connect. The other thought would be to cut the backs of the guns off, and sink magnets into the cuts. No worry about slipping the parts into the turret that way. But more cuts mean more chances to screw things up. Although placing the magnets would be easier. Little worried of the weight of the prism cannon and the sheer strength of the magnets. That’s a bit of torque.
Thinking about priming and the clear bits. The front crystal is not an issue, that just slips in. But the one in the middle of the gun. If I prime in parts, that leaves those two fragile cover bits separate, which would be a pain. Don’t really trust myself to mask it off properly. And would kinda like to keep it clear. Plus if I keep it clear, I’ll want to paint the inside as well. Well, I just convinced myself to do it in parts. Sometimes just typing stuff up here gets me the answers I need. I’ll to to clean the mold lines for them on the sprue, and leave them with one attachment point. Give me something to hold while I work on them. And keep them from getting lost.
Speaking of mold lines, it feels good to be working on old Eldar kits again. The new kits aren’t so bad, but the old ones are a pain.
I like the fact that the prism kit has all the bits and bobs needed to represent the vehicle upgrades. Not that I play strict WYSWYG with my Eldar, but I might use the vectored a/o star engines just for looks.
Prism is ready to prime. I decided to go with the front mount magnets. So a bit of cutting, but it works with no fuss about getting bits in/out and lining up magnets. I’ll get some prime picks once the rattle can comes out. Which hopefully will be tomorrow. Which is why I’m cleaning mold lines and playing Civ 5, rather then drinking and watching TV.
Acetone rocks Doing a little dunk to get the crud out of the crevices on some of the metal guys I previously striped with simple green. This stuff does such a better job. Shame it doesn’t work on plastic. Hopefully I will be done tidying these guys up and they can join the prism in the prime box.
Great to see you adding to your Eldar as well as your Ultras Nev. I am always surprised by how bad the mould lines on older plastic kits can be as I recently worked on some Cadians for my GSC. I guess it is just an issue of the mould degrading over time.
As for the personal things I think sharing it with the viewers of your blog. It is a useful way to let off some steam and help put things in some perspective where nobody is going to judge you. I felt odd using my blog to discuss the passing of my Mum but in hindsight it was a really positive move for me to just talk things through. I just wish you the best of luck in sorting everything out.
Mold lines on Eldar are especially bad, due to all the curves and little gems and everything. Some of the detail on the older kits is a bit soft as well. But I made some major headway. And probably got in the last prime of the season. In the high 50s today, but with a forecast of wintery mix and generally crappy weather next week starting tomorrow. Which is why I pused hard to get this done:
Fire Prism/Nightspinner ready to go. As well as 4 vintage RT marines, and the techmarine I was working on. Plus 2 D&D minis that were kicking around I thought I might paint to take a break from all the grimdark.
It’s a good thing I blog here. I went downstairs to snap a pic to post, and realized that while I had primed the tech’s arm, I had totally forgotten to prime him or his backpack. So I grabbed him and ran back outside. Which considering as this is probably it for the year, was a good save.
Also in the news, I changed the simple green in the box I’m soaking the rest of the RTB01s in. Started to look a little funky in there. There is a limit to how much scrubbing I can do in one sitting though, but I want to get those guys out of the drink. At the very least so I don’t need to worry about where to put the tupperware when I move. Although I would probably just repurpose it for other hobby storage. But cleaning mold lines non stop yesterday and this morning has my hands basically calling it for the day. Might try to do some more tomorrow. While puttering around my workbench I also noticed I already had 4ish RTB01s that were ready for assembly, once I cleaned all the mold lines, old paint the scrubbing didn’t get and old glue off. So more hand-hateing labor.
They are ready to get in line at the very least. The Prism is most likely to get paint first, as it will help push my Eldar from stretching to get to 1,850 to being more comfortable there. And despite being large vehicles, I’ve found that Eldar paint up pretty quick.
The other guys, while having some history, don’t really have a need to hit the table. So will get done eventually.
...And it’s snowing out. Not that this is the first snow of the season, but it does look like I was right to rush out that last prime batch.
Still have all the bikes from the start collecting box to build, as the bulk of the Burning of Prospero set. So plenty of things to build and mold lines to clean over the long winter months.
But for now, I need to get back to painting on all the ready stuff I’ve squirreled away.
WIP of the MM and GC guy. Getting more coats down on them. Might get some more in tonight, but I need to focus on packing etc. Heading down to Louisville tomorrow afternoon, won’t be back until Sunday. So while I might lurk and post little quips from my iPad while on the road, I’ll not be painting.
Back from my trip, got a little painting in. They should be ready for their second blue coat, then the final wash. Still need to do the marine parts of the guns, but the guns themselves are basically ready. Might put a blue wash/soulstone coat on the grav cannon’s sparkly bits.
It was good to be home over Thanksgiving. Very relaxing, which I needed. Some slight delays in the airports, but it was always on the second leg, so no worries about missing connections. Still easier then driving. The one downside is I picked up a cold while I was there (I blame my brother, who was recovering from one) so I’m snuffling along up here feeling miserable. Praise Nurgle!
Lookin good Nev. I second the idea of putting soulstone on the grav sparkly bitz.
Glad you had a good holiday man, everyone deserves some RnR from time to time. Sucks about the cold though, if you want it gone fast I know a guy who's really good at curing these sorts of things. I can't remember his name but I think it starts with an "A". Anyways he prescribed me this drug called "the Rubric", man I haven't felt a bad cold day since... or anything for that matter. Strange. Anyways let me know if you want his number!
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Lookin good Nev. I second the idea of putting soulstone on the grav sparkly bitz.
Glad you had a good holiday man, everyone deserves some RnR from time to time. Sucks about the cold though, if you want it gone fast I know a guy who's really good at curing these sorts of things. I can't remember his name but I think it starts with an "A". Anyways he prescribed me this drug called "the Rubric", man I haven't felt a bad cold day since... or anything for that matter. Strange. Anyways let me know if you want his number!
As tempting as it is to swap this flawed meat-bag for the purity of a magical transfiguration, I’m sticking with it for now. Just enduring my semi-annual communion with Papa Nurgle.
Done with the Devs. Not that they are likely to be fielded as devastators, but more likely as heavies in tac squads. That’s my 3rd MM and 2nd GC for the collection. Which still makes them the most rare of my heavies. I’ve got more MLs then I could ever conceivably field, a chunk of HBs, 4 each of PC/LCs, and then these. Part of me wants to grab a new box of devs, just so I can get the 4xGC needed for maximal drop pod shenanigans. Low priority though. More likely is to re-jigger the tac squads shelf deployment to include a full grav squad for general use, and keep the spare on the swap shelf.
Now I need to figure out what to paint next. December is an open month for the painting comp, so I could do anything there. Things in the prime pile that would be most needed on the table are the Fire Prism and the Techmarine on bike. Maybe I’ll try to get them both done in the month. Should be about the pace I’m working at these days.
Edit: Put the first (of many) coats of red down on the prism
With the exception of having to put down 3-5 coats of the red to get good coverage, Eldar vehicles paint up so very fast.
As always, the simple wisdom of the Ork holds true: Red ones do go faster.
After I snapped the pic I put a black coat down on the bottom of the turret. It will be drybrushed silver next time I’m at the bench. One thing I’m still on the fence with is the gun. Classically I do all my guns, even vehicle ones, in the black/silver scheme. But part of me wants to do the prism cannon in red. Although even if I do that, I still might do the actual laser array in silver, and just leave the crystal focusing part red.
I hear you on the airbrush. Nothing makes me crave one with an unwholesome lust then painting Eldar vehicles. Not in the cards at this time though.
I’m leaning towards the red. Just feels right. Might try experimenting with tints, either an ink or the soulstone paints. Not buying a new line of paints just for a one-off though. Probably test things out on a spare bit of clear sprue.
If I can finish this guy over the weekend, I might bring Eldar down to the FLGS on Monday. We’ll see what happens.
Looking good man I must pick up an airbrush myself as I loathe painting vehicles at the moment (hell, a tank brush would do as all I've got is a detail one!).
Ynneadwraith wrote: Looking good man I must pick up an airbrush myself as I loathe painting vehicles at the moment (hell, a tank brush would do as all I've got is a detail one!).
Looking forward to some more Eldar
There was a time where I tried to do vehicles with just a detail brush. That way lies madness. My large brushes are cheep garbage synthetics, but they get the job done.
Started work on the cockpits/pilots. Plugging right along.
Personally I'd do the black/silver for the barrel. As long as you have enough other spots that have the black/silver to tie it in the two tone look could be pretty awesome.
Just glued it together, need to go back with a touch-up pass once that dries. Assuming this post doesn’t click my blog over, it’s hard to imagine I was unboxing this guy at the top of the page. I can’t say it’s the fastest turnover from box to table I’ve done, but it’s got to be close.
While I’m on a roll, I think I’ll paint up the nighspinner guns for it. They should be fairly simple. Just black/silver, with probably the blue soulstone paint over the flat bits.
Also, my harsh workspace light is not doing it any favors. Will get better picks once I finish the touch up.
Zambro wrote: Looks awesome, Nev! I'm not sure on Eldar at the moment, what will you likely run it as? NSpinner or Prism?
Prism is probably going to be it’s primary build. With 40k these days, I find you can never have too much AV firepower. Plenty of things can just mulch troops. I like that the prism has the single lance shot to pop tanks, but if needed can also pie plate squishier things.
I like the nightspinner. It’s really good at it’s job. But it’s a job that is not as needed these days.
How i've not subbed to this thread yet, IDK.
That's a beautiful FP right there Nevelon, if that's my Dec. Challenge competition, i'm in for some trouble!
They don’t call them “Fast Skimmers” for nothing. It’s amazing how fast tanks go together when you don’t need to chant hymns before tightening each bolt and light incense to purify each armor plate. Silly Mon-key AdMech. Or it might just be that the old sculpt is light on detail, and not encrusted in bling like the imperial tanks. Must be why the techmarines can’t repair them; "If it’s not baroque, don’t fix it”
The nightspinner bits are all silvered up and waiting for a detail pass. I tried the soulstone blue on them, but it came across as thick and blotchy, so I rinsed it off. Might just do a more traditional glaze.
@JustaerinAtTheWall: sorry I forgot to comment, but welcome aboard. And don’t worry about what other people are doing for the comp. If I let that phase me, I’d never enter. I think the best I’ve ever placed was somewhere in the middle of the pack.
I think I’ve done a much better job this year mixing up the Ultramarines and Eldar. But the red ones tend to strike out of the blue. Although looking back at last year’s year end pic, I did a reasonable job mixing things up there. 2014 was just a pile of blue though. And 2016 needs to end. Not just because it’s been a horrid dumpster fire of a year, but I’m almost out of space on my YTD shelf.
The prism also bring my Eldar to a fun little point. I can field everything on that top shelf in two formations, the one from the SC box and an aspect host.
1 Farseer (needs to be on bike)
1 unit of Windriders
1 Fire Prism
The Prism’s weapons have the twin linked rule when targeting things that the formation’s farseer has LOS to.
As far as formations go, I like it. It gives you a nice upgrade as a perk for taking units that are considered a little sub-par (the FP). It’s not over the top free stuff, or game breaking special snowflake rules. Most of the “costs” are opportunity ones. I.e. the bikes here are not ObSec, as they are not part of a CAD.
It’s Monday, and I was planning on heading down to the FLGS for a game tonight. But we have 3ish inches of snow on the ground, and it’s still falling. So I might have to scrub my evening plans. I’ll have to check the forecast. I thought I had snapped a pic while they were all ranked up for a pack shot, but didn’t. But here is an army shot of my 1,850 Eldar army.
This is all the Eldar specific foam I have, filling up nicely. If I build every bike I own, I think I’ll be one over at this point. 16 slots in the trays. I picked up three boxes of the old bikes, two of the new ones, and a pair of seers. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I place another order with KR. Some other foam related thoughts while I’ve got a pic up. Those cool little vectored thruster extenders I put on the Prism? Made it not fit into the stock KR slot. So I had to take a knife and mod the foam. Which is not hard to do with a sharp knife. Just put some tension on the foam, and gently run the knife across it. Also, if you are getting some KR, and have space left in your case, I highly recommend the 4xRhino tray my avatar is snug in. It’s my go-to for when I have a mini that does not slot nicely into the bespoke trays. Or, you know, rhinos.
Nice foam setup Nev. 3" of snow though? How about you come visit me for a week in between September to February and by the time you get back you'll be wearing shorts, sandals and a polo shirt in your 3" of snow.
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:Man, that sucks. It started snowing up here as well, surprisingly. Those cases look mighty useful, How much are they?
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Nice foam setup Nev. 3" of snow though? How about you come visit me for a week in between September to February and by the time you get back you'll be wearing shorts, sandals and a polo shirt in your 3" of snow.
I get that snow is relative. What we have on the ground here would cripple southern states. Until I was 10, I lived in New Hampshire, so was used to massive snows. Then we moved to Louisville Kentucky. Watching friends/neighbors freak out over a few inches was always a laugh. But even in New York there is a massive difference. Those guys who get the lake effect snow in the western part of the state don’t even blink if the snow isn’t being measured in feet. You guys in the Great White North I suspect are cut from the same cloth. Anyway, it’s off the driveway now, and I think the storm is passed, so I might still be able to escape for the evening.
I’m a big fan of the KR Multicase system. I’ve probably spent about $400 for my Kaiser 3 and 7 KRU worth of foam Now the prices have gone up slightly, and part of that was during a BOGO sale, so it would probably be closer to $500 these days. Which frankly sounds like a lot of money. But considering how much the minis cost, the time you spend painting them, and the quality of life boost of bespoke foam, I think it’s worth it. And you don’t need to get it all at once. One of the major perks of the KR system is that you can add more cardboard boxes full of foam as your collection grows, and just swap them into the case as needed. A Kaiser 3 w/ custom trays runs $250 these days (a Kaiser 2 would be $180 if you didn’t need the room). Each normal sized box of custom foam is $62 for when you want to expand. If you just want infantry trays a/o pluck foam the cost is lower. You can also get the cases empty, but there is a discount on the foam if you get them full.
The Eldar pictured pack into 2 KRU worth of space. Most of the trays are 1/2 with, 1/2 hight, so can fit 4 to a box. The Crimson Hunter is actually 3/4 high. I’ve got a 1/4 tray under it empty as a spacer. Basic infantry that aren’t waving guns/swords around in odd poses fit well into the 1/4 high trays (like these), but I try to use 1/3 deep ones when I can.
Yup snow is very relative. So is weather, I did a paintball tournament up here a few summers back and we had a pro-team from Hawaii come play. We're all in t-shirts and having fun and the team from Hawaii, whenever they weren't in a match, were huddled together wearing sweaters. It was quite a sight.
Yeah good carrying cases and foam are totally worth it. One of my friends recently bought a Battlefoam setup, ran him just over 800$, but he's got this massive rolling stackable beast of a case now. He lugs around 8000 points of necron everywhere he goes now.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Yup snow is very relative. So is weather, I did a paintball tournament up here a few summers back and we had a pro-team from Hawaii come play. We're all in t-shirts and having fun and the team from Hawaii, whenever they weren't in a match, were huddled together wearing sweaters. It was quite a sight.
Yeah good carrying cases and foam are totally worth it. One of my friends recently bought a Battlefoam setup, ran him just over 800$, but he's got this massive rolling stackable beast of a case now. He lugs around 8000 points of necron everywhere he goes now.
While a rolling setup might mitigate it bit, I do feel you have have too much of a case. Almost all of my lists can fit into 2 KRU worth of space. But I still have to drag out my Kaiser 3. And it’s big, and when loaded, kinda heavy. Not unreasonably so, but enough that I’m glad when I get to the table and put it down. I keep thinking next time I get more foam to get a smaller case to go with them. But that’s not going to happen until I get more stuff that won’t fit in the trays I have.
So got down to the shop after all. Game vs. GSC + Nids. Very interesting game.
My opponent recorded the game, and was going to put up a batrep on her youtube channel within a couple of days. If I can figure out how to embed it here, I’ll edit it in. (I know there are tags for it, just not something I’ve done)
After being traumatized by a superheavy last game, I think I erred too hard on the AV firepower. With the cultists infiltrating/being summoned everywhere, I just didn’t have the dakka to kill them all. Also, being able to summon is already a little twitchy, but fully upgraded units is a little over the top. Add in that they arrive via cult infiltration (so can sometimes get an extra round of shooting or assault) makes it extra rough. The game was very close, points wise, until I got tabled at the top of turn 4. I think I’m a little too fond of sacrificing units for maelstrom objectives. I charged the hawks into CC to get a point, but that left them exposed to a counter charge the next turn. I would have been better off just not scoring, and retaining their firepower to thin out cultists. Not that they would have lasted long vs. a summoned squad loaded up with all hand flamers. Overall the mobility I had was countered by cultists popping up everywhere. The game was very fluid on my side of the table as I tried to kill the cultists as they appeared and scoring objectives, while the nids advanced up the table. But they could replace their casualties, while I was being whittled down.
Fresh Paint Report: (and boy, there is a lot of it)
Farseer on bike: Got stuck into CC via a 1st turn assault by the GSC. Was able to hold out until the Avatar showed up. Tossed some buffs around that helped a little. Overall, not bad.
Bike squad (with warlock): Their mobility was hampered a bit by an early combat, but once they shook free of that, they zipped over to grab an objective. Then got shot to death.
Dire Avengers: ObSec’d an objective, dakka’d some cultists, and then were evaporated by some 20 shot nid MC.
Fire Dragons: Was waiting for the right time to disembark (as troops in the open had a very low life expectancy). Their Falcon got shot out from under them, and they they were shot down that same turn.
Swooping Hawks: These guys pack a lot of light dakka. I probably should have conserved them better. They did well until they died.
Fire Prism: Most things were making cover saves vs. the pie plates. It did score a VP when it used to focused shot to pop the magus after the cultists around him had been shot off.
Slightly less fresh paint:
The Vypers spent the whole game jinking. Yet for that, not only did they soak a reasonable amount of fire, but put some pressure on the the flyrant. Happy with their performance.
Crimson Hunter came in, slammed a bunch of wounds onto the flyrant, and then was shot down. About what I expected. If a few dice had gone other ways, I might have had air superiority (the flyrant was grounded with 1W at one point).
The WS ate a huge amount of fire, killed a ton on cultists, and scored some objectives.
The rangers didn’t do much, but were camping an objective (which I don’t think I ever drew for the maelstrom) Killed by flamer cultists.
The really stupidly old paint (seeing how I’ve already listed most of the army, might as well finish it out)
Falcons. Still good. Was running them with brightlances paired with the pulse lasers. Ate a respectable amount of fire, didn’t have a lot of good targets. Did help score some VPs by popping a ripper swarm that was in the backfield. Wish I had kept the scatters on them, but after my last fight with necrons, decided for a more dedicated AV load.
Guardians. Chaff filler. Or so I thought. They do just fine mulching up cultists. And the way I had put my list together, I needed the anti-horde firepower of a nice block of small arms.
The Avatar. He looks big and mean, and his fluff backs it up. But against dedicated assault units, he just is not all that. Mulched 2 squads of cultists, then pulled down by a large block of genestealers.
It’s hard to say what my MVP was this game. The Hawks, which could have been it, died early. The Avatar did some nice cleanup work, but nothing monumental. The humble Guardians in their Wave Serpent probably pulled above their weight this game. They had the right firepower for the opponent I was facing.
Enough that I’m seriously considering getting another serpent to mech up a second squad of them. I know the days of serpent spam are gone, but they do still bring a good bit to the table. Plus they are troops, so not hard to work into a list. But I was stretching to reach this point value and it showed. So getting something more might be needed if I’m going to keep at the 1,850 level. Although once I build/paint everything I should have a decent buffer of points (9 bikes and a seer should be 250-300ish points) I could field the guardians on foot, but then they would get muddy. Can’t have that.
Looks good I'm really looking forward to some GSC games, I'm waiting for Alex to sort his. They feel like a perfect adversary thematically for my PDF IG. I will check out that report sometime.
Sounds like a fun battle Nev, I've never fought GSC but looking at their rules they seem like they'd be a ton of fun to play against. The list you brought looks fun too, a good mix of many different units, and it's good to hear that the guardians did work, love the models and really want to get some of my own.
That playstyle is rather similar to mine. Luckily, Necrons can kill literally anything with their basic units! All in all, well played! It'll take a while for people to adjust to GSC. But thoroughly entertaining!
Thanks guys. We both had a lot of fun during the game. It was a nice proof of concept. Even if you have armies that can be cheesed out (and both ours could) if you can your opponent want to have a fun game of 40k, you still can.
Fun thing I found today when cruising Dakka. I went over to the P&M article section to grab a link for the paint compatibility chart, and what to my wandering eye should appear? As the pic for the “Modeling" section:
Which you might recognize as being cropped from my old workbench tools photo:
So while I might not get my minis on the front page (although I made the gallery front page once), I have been worked into the very fabric of Dakka.
Kinda psyched about that.
Spoiler:
Which I need today, as I was just formally served with divorce papers.
I should really go down and get some painting done. Been slacking since I finished the prism.
That's awesome that you've been immortilized in an article Nev! I agree you should go get some painting done, I'd love to see what you work on next. Sorry to hear about the papers dude, it sucks right now but there's still plenty of good to look forward to, new adventures await you man.
I find it a little ironic that at the top of this page, I was like “Nightspinner? Feh, who needs more anti-horde firepower. Prism all the way” and during the game with the GSC I kept thinking “The torrent flamer fire mode on the doomweaver would totally cash out that whole squad of cultists”
Well, maybe next time: Finished the alternate guns.
Video is up! I personally can’t stand to listen/watch myself on film, so only watched a few minutes of it.
Spoiler:
One the personal front, It’s not that things were unexpected, but just a nail of reality that stuff was officially past the point of no return. Thanks for the support.
No idea what the month is going to look like, but I’ll try to get him done. December tends to go fast. Got some of my shopping out of the way today, but need to bake some cookies. Going light this year, but still need to put in a token effort. And about a half dozen other things that are up in the air and will need to be juggled if they fall into place. But the techmarine on bike is the final bit for the HQ matrix, so if I can get him done I’ll be able to check off that box on my things to do list.
Yay progress! I've been meaning to get a couple bike units myself, and that's lookin' like a fun little project. PS, sorry about the news my dude, braveheart!
Bikes are great on the table, but the normal bike kit is really starting to show its age. Not sure about the newer DA ravenwing, as I’m just a humble Ultramarine. The riders are compatible with the rest of the range, so at least you can vary up the bodies for some spice. My struggle with bikes is well documented in the early parts of this thread. I’d say this is the last marine bike you’re likely to see me paint, but I’ve still got one left on the sprue. No need to build him for anything, so he’s likely to stay that way for a while unless the rules change and I need someone new on a bike. The closest “need” I have is for an apothecary on a bike, but I think I used up the last of my medic bits on the 30k apothecary.
Did get some paint down on him this weekend. Not as productive as I thought, but that’s life.
And for whatever reason, the machine spirit that runs this place decided that Zoat deserves the front page of Dakka. Kinda stoked about that. I’m sure more impressive stuff will push it off shortly, but I’m enjoying my 15 minutes.
We got a bunch of snow dumped on us, so I’m not sure if I’m going to make it down to the FLGS tonight. Also a meeting with the Wife and all our lawyers this afternoon, which might impact my mood. Although we have almost everything hammered out at this point, besides the unexpected appraisal/appreciation of the house.
Stay safe and warm everyone. It’s cold out there.
Edit: Meeting went fine. Snow clearing went fine. Roads look decent. I have no idea what kind of list I want to write though. Inertia is very powerful to just stay home and veg. But I should go out. Or at least that’s what the non-lazy side of me is saying...
Kudos for hitting the front page again! (it's the last picture on there as I'm writing this). Didn't you mention something about getting on the home page a few updates back? Coincidence?
Completely agree with your point on the bike's age. That seam down the middle is really noticable on most models, unless you dedicate some time to smoothing it out (something I didn't do with the Scars).
I've been lurking a lot recently, but I have to say your hobbying is really doing well. You've hit a solid pace, and your cranking out some really good stuff in solid time (remember when you had 1 model a week as a target?).
I had something (I think it was the Zoat again) on the gallery front page. This is the normal home page. And the pic in the articles section. All I need now is to be featured on the Facebook feed, and I think I’ll have checked every box on the Dakka featured bingo card.
I’ll agree that my Hobby life is doing well. At least something is going right! Getting a consistently higher level of quality out, and at a higher pace. Part of the pace might just be more hours dedicated to the workbench. Although in the last few weeks I’ve been binge watching Arrow/Flash on Netflix, which killed a lot of hours. Finished seasons 3/1 or them respectively this weekend, which is why I didn’t get as much paint down.
Well S5 of Arrow is out now, you can save yourself a bunch of hours and skip straight to it. I honestly didn't even finish S4 of Arrow. I missed the last couple of episodes of S4. Make up your own opinion, of course!
I am however a big fan of The Flash. S3 is going now, and I'm loving it. I'm not up to date yet, they did a big crossover (Flash, Arrow, legends, supergirl) that 'continues on Arrow'. So I'm going to catch up on Arrow instead of skipping to it.
Do you watch Legends of Tomorrow? I watched 10-12 episodes or something and really didn't rate it at all.
Zambro wrote: Well S5 of Arrow is out now, you can save yourself a bunch of hours and skip straight to it. I honestly didn't even finish S4 of Arrow. I missed the last couple of episodes of S4. Make up your own opinion, of course!
I am however a big fan of The Flash. S3 is going now, and I'm loving it. I'm not up to date yet, they did a big crossover (Flash, Arrow, legends, supergirl) that 'continues on Arrow'. So I'm going to catch up on Arrow instead of skipping to it.
Do you watch Legends of Tomorrow? I watched 10-12 episodes or something and really didn't rate it at all.
My understanding is that Legends starts after the episode 8 crossover of flash/arrow, of the season I’m on. I think I just watched 3 of flash, so still a bit out. Will watch it then. Supergirl I think starts after the current seasons I’m on, so will pick that up afterwards.
I spent most of the day baking. Not doing my full cookie spread, but 2 batches of 3 kinds. Phoning in the holidays this year.
On the painting front, did a little more detail work on the biker. Washed the gold, few other things. Plugging along.
Spent some productive time at the bench last night.
In hindsight, I think I should have angled the head a little different. Probably made more sense before he started jinking. He might be the only bike in my collection that’s not just driving straight ahead, but I like him that way. Makes sense with the axe.
So that’s the last Techmarine I needed for their 4-square. Well, 3 for them, as they have less options then most HQs.
Which brings us to this:
The full HQ matrix. Not necessarily all the wargear options, but the ways they can take the the field. Foot, TDA, Bike, Jump. With the techs doing their own thing for the most part.
This will probably wrap up my year for painting. I may try to get some of the extra options done, or just build for a bit. In theory I’m heading down to Kentucky for a week next Tuesday, but that’s still up in the air. I’ll probably start up my year in review work soon, so expect more rambling in the near future.
RandyMcStab wrote: Looks great, made me think of an awesome advent calendar for some reason. Enjoy the festive break.
That could be a lot of fun, if a tad expensive. Mini-a-day for 25 days? Clip the parts for each guy, and put them in a box/bag. Each day you get to assemble one. You could probably break larger kits down into parts. "Today I got the right track assembly of a rhino” Might be able to stretch a start collecting box out like that. Or one of the larger battleforces more easily.
Of course, it would require a someone to put all the time/money into assembling it. Which would take a non-insignificant amount of both.
ColonelFazackerley wrote:I like the swinging axe, and the angled bike's dynamic pose.
Gitsplitta wrote:Bike turned out really nicely. Good addition to your force for sure.
I do quite like the way he turned out. Kinda makes me want to re-do the rest of my bikers. But only in a not-going-to-happen, totally hypothetical sense.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Great work Nev on both the bike and HQs. They all look great. I also watched the batrep video, it was a pleasure to watch your forces at work.
Glad you liked it. I might watch it someday, but an hour of listening to myself is pure torture. Hopefully I didn’t embarrass myself too badly.
Zambro wrote:Wow, that is a very satisfying picture to look at!
Speaking of which...
I never got a formal table shot of 2013, which was partially covered by this blog. I did compile a list of what I worked on though, so pulled it from the shelf this evening. 2014: 2015: And 2016:
Now not everything I’ve done is pictured. A few minis got lost in the gap between my year end summaries and the start of the new year. The Stormraven, a few Vanguard Vets, and I think a biker or two. The coins scattered around represent minis sent off to other homes, and not present for the annual pic.
I’ll get to my yearly resolutions later, but I want to revisit the goals in the 1st post. Well, technically they first showed up a few down, but were copied into the main post years ago. I’m pretty much done.
Restart my Eldar. --Learn how to strip paint, clean up old stuff. -done- --Buy new rules, add units to make a viable army. -done- --Construct a webway portal, either purely scenic, or as a skyshield landing pad. -done- --Base army with a grass/maiden world scheme. -done-
All this. No fuzzy math or evasive answers. I was able to put a viable 1,850 list on the table, fully painted, fully based. Could it be better? Could I use a few more things? Of course! But this is 40k, and army is never done.
Flesh out my Ultramarines. --Add bike captain, and enough bikes to fill 2 troop picks. Done! --Add more sternguard, with weapon options I currently lack (HFs, more combis). Done! (still have some bolters waiting for paint, but options are fleshed out comfortably) --Expand HQ options (counts-as Lysander, MotF w/bike/cbeamer/foot). -done- --Fill out army with new toys. --Construct polar fortress display board. --Base army in an arctic scheme. Done!
Less total then the Eldar, but still a major victory. Never did the display board, and at this point the odds of me doing it are very low. I have a feeling that space is going to get very tight in the near future. I’m hoping I have space to keep everything on shelves, not packed in boxes. But big terrain pieces? Probably not. I don’t have all the combis for the SG, but enough to pack to pop a tank, and some HFs for general use. Never have enough toys, but I have added quite a few.
Get some new cases, foam --Figure out what I need, verify, place order. -done-
Might need to get more, but a bag and 7 KRU worth of foam.
Get better at photography --Build a light box. --Learn to use more features on my camera. --Photograph and upload pics of my collection.
I could probably stand to learn my camera a bit better, but I think I’ve got the other two goals here well sorted.
Write some tactica articles (not really P&M, but on my to-do list) --I find I'm repeating myself a lot in advice posts, would be good to organize my thoughts and just point people to them.
OK, never happened. I generally stear clear of the rules arguments these days. While it does occasionally get irritating to repeat myself, it’s mostly to new members, who deserve a personalized response.
OK, that’s enough rambling for now. Have a nice weekend all!
Good lord, are you ambitious! That's a mighty large bit of accomplished work there Nevelon, more than i've got! The yearly resolutions seem to be fairly useful for keeping your hobbying on track. Might do that myself, it's clever!
Great work over the years Nev. It's always good to take a step back and look at all the work you've done. I find it helps motivate me to look forward when I see where I've come from. As for the video your opponent did like 95% of the talking so you won't be hearing yourself all that much. And for the record, I don't know a single person who likes the sound of their recorded voice, we all sound different to ourselves than we do to others.
That's some really good work, Nev. I especially like the schemes for the aspect warriors, (loathe as I may be to praise xenos over loyal sons of uUtramar) and the captain with the gold shoulder pads.
I almost want to pull all the minis from my yearly blog summaries and compare them to all my previous body of work. From a 40k perspective, I might have done more work in the last few years then everything previous to that. Blogs: they motivate! If I count all my WHFB stuff, I’d not be close though. Fantasy hit at a time where I had a decent job and a lot of free time. Chaos and Undead shelves are a tad on the full side.
So I have too many captains. There is one more primed RT era guy in the to-do pile. But I thought it might be time for them to come out for a group picture again:
Calgar snuck in there, so I guess this isn’t just captains, but marine commanders.
And while I don’t have tons extra of the other HQs, I do have some.
Crummy pic, and doesn’t count the captain and chaplain of my company, who live on the shelf above.
Speaking of which, one of my goals this morning while drinking my coffee was to re-shelf the YTD stuff. While I might have been able to re-jugger stuff to fit on four shelves, I just took the 5th one.
A year ago, I counted up 9,389 points of Ultramarines. My Battlesribe YTD roster puts me at 1,826 for the year. For a total of 11,215 points of the Emperor’s finest. Fully painted, fully based.
On a related note, I painted up 794 worth of Eldar this year. If my roster is to be believed, this puts my at 2,819 total painted and fieldable in a modern codex.
So my total points in paint for the year is 2,620. Plus a few odds and ends, like a ork boy, chaos marauder, Chamady, and a zoat. Last year’s total was 2,224, and also included some odds and ends. 69 minis total, with my 1/2/4 math, 87 model equivalents. That’s counting the webway portal as a vehicle.
It’s a good thing I started my year end stuff early this year. I’ve still got a bit more rambling to do, but I think I’m done for now.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends.
--Nev
Automatically Appended Next Post:
brushcommando wrote: That's some really good work, Nev. I especially like the schemes for the aspect warriors, (loathe as I may be to praise xenos over loyal sons of uUtramar) and the captain with the gold shoulder pads.
You posted while I was working on that wall of text, so I didn’t get a chance to respond.
I had a lot of fun with the aspect warriors. It’s nice to get a chance to paint something besides a sea of blue. And while my ultras are not exactly “subdued” in tone, the aspects are significantly brighter. Mixing things up on the workbench helps to prevent burnout, not just in models, but paint schemes.
The guy with the gold pads and thunderhammer is not actually a captain (although he could fill that role in a pinch) but is my new champion for the Honor Guard. I also quite like the way he turned out.
One thing I like about painting stuff for 30k, is I get to use a lot more gold. The two BaCtac squads, the CTDA guys, etc. Blue and gold just go well together. Only a few HQs and the honor guard get that treatment on the 40k side.
shasolenzabi wrote:Marines look ready to purge some xenos!
Good thing my Eldar are on another shelf...
ColonelFazackerley wrote:I think your unit could fit some more shelves in...
I probably could fit another shelf in there. One problem with that is that it could make it rough to get to the guys in the back.
For fun, I took out a measuring tape and got some numbers. Each of those shelves is 7.5” x 34.5”. So about 1.8 square feet. So if I run with my assumption that I could have fit everyone on 4 shelves, that’s around 7.2 square feet worth of marines. The total area of all 5 shelves would be 9 square feet.
Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I’ve got good odds of getting the china cabinet in the divorce. It’s got 3 levels, and two halves. Each of the 6 sections is roughly 13.5” x 22.5”. That’s for the glass shelves (4 of them) and there is some room on the wood, and the bottom. We can break it up in 6x2.1 square foot zones. Now I’m actually going to need some of that for my stemware, but I figure either 2/3rds or half can be taken over for minis. Half would be 6.3 square feet, so a bit less then what I have now (although less narrow) but 2/3rds would be 8.4 square feet.
Time will tell how much space I end up with overall. Spent part of the morning putting together banker’s boxes and loading up shelves of gaming books. And when I took the Eldar off the YTD shelf, I just packed them up in their KR foam.
That's quite the collection Nev. Good job in being able to keep to one project for so long. I have like 4 armies between 500 to 1850 points and some that aren't even out of the box to be built yet. One day I'll have a single unified force as large as your SM force. Your dedication to the Emperor is commendable sir.
You must have well over a company now how long until you've got the entire chapter represented?
I'll echo the good job on sticking with the painting I must admit that's the bit that I struggle with most. I've got legions of white primered dudes, and maybe only 30% are painted...
Inevitable_Faith wrote:That's quite the collection Nev. Good job in being able to keep to one project for so long. I have like 4 armies between 500 to 1850 points and some that aren't even out of the box to be built yet. One day I'll have a single unified force as large as your SM force. Your dedication to the Emperor is commendable sir.
Ynneadwraith wrote:You must have well over a company now how long until you've got the entire chapter represented? I'll echo the good job on sticking with the painting I must admit that's the bit that I struggle with most. I've got legions of white primered dudes, and maybe only 30% are painted...
I generally blame my age and packrat nature for the size of my collection. Slowly add to it over 25ish years, and it’s surprising what you end up with! I’ve got a whole battle company on the top shelf. If I re-jiggerd the swap shelf around, with the BaC stuff I’m probably close to the second. Once I get the Burning of Prospero stuff built and painted that will also help a lot with the numbers. Although I still intend on gearing them up for 30k. Still need to source parts. I think I’ve got about 1/3rd of the 10th company, and half the 1st. I think my rough marine count is about 275 total. Between stuff to build and in the prime pile, probably another 50-75 guys. So I’m about at a quarter to a third of the chapter. If we assume I paint 50 marines a year, that should be a full chapter in 12-15 years. And me a loony bin.
As for the dedication to paint, I find my rule of only playing painted minis, and this blog help the most. If I want to use it, it needs paint. And the support of you all helps keep me honest with myself and pacing/progress.
So I went down to the FLGS to grab a gift for my nephews (7 and 9) Picked up King of New York. I know they like King of Tokyo, and this is a small step up from that. But while I was there, the guy at the counter let me know there was a 35% off sale on GW. The only question after that was what I was picking up, and how many things. The sensible side of me put a hard cap on one box. They had a very good stock, so it took a while to make up my mind. Ended up with a Stormhawk. Probably spend most of it’s time as a counts-as talon (going to try to magnetize options so it fits the role well) just for formations. It will also be pushing me to get some new foam. The guys are going to see if they can get KR though their distributer (they have been able to in the past, a couple years ago) so if I can get it without shipping, and at a discount, that will make pulling the trigger on a kaiser 2 real easy.
and for my year end records:
On sale, ~$36
(my back of the envelope math has me succeeding on my paint more then I buy goal, will do the formal number crunch later)
Never played King of New York, but I have played King of Tokoyo. Is there really much of a step up? I would have assumed it was a rehash in a different city.
The Stormhawk doesn't really do much for me. Although it looks to be a welcome addition to your army. Looks like you have every other vehicle in the SM book.
Stormwall wrote:The commanders are looking good and you did a ton of painting this year.
Hopefully you get the china cabinet and I look forward to the Stormhawk.
It's what I wish the Stormtalon was from the start.
brushcommando wrote:I second that. Looking forward to what you do with that stormhawk.
I can’t say it’s been my most productive year ever, but it’s been the best in a very long time. Back in my hobby heyday in the late 90s I might have done better. But maybe not. Very few records from those days still exist; it’s mostly myths and legends.
The Hawk looks much more like a fighter then the Talon. The Talon has grown on me over the years though. But I don’t think of it as a fighter. More like a soviet helicopter gunship. Nice bit of clunky cold-war brutality. But by moving the guns back, the weight of the Hawk is shifted. Looks a lot more balanced and aerodynamic. Should be fun to put together.
Zambro wrote:Never played King of New York, but I have played King of Tokoyo. Is there really much of a step up? I would have assumed it was a rehash in a different city.
The Stormhawk doesn't really do much for me. Although it looks to be a welcome addition to your army. Looks like you have every other vehicle in the SM book.
I only played KoNY once or twice. The big difference is that the city fights back. There are districts in the city, with buildings. You can crack them open to get stuff, or find them full of army guys. A few other minor things as well IIRC.
The list of things I don’t have is significantly shorter then the stuff I do. But I don’t have everything.
Centurions (not a vehicle, admittedly)
LRR/C (I have a basic LR, but not the options. This was one of the major contenders to come home yesterday)
Whirlwind
Tons of FW stuff
And I don’t have all the options for everything, and some of the special characters are just counts-as.
Speaking of counts-as, I need to re-visit my LotD counts-as unit. They got new rules in the Imperial Agents codex, with much more restricted gear options. As long as I play them from my codex, I’m fine for now, but who knows what the future will bring. Plus the ability to just tack a unit of them onto a formation based list is very tempting. But if I do that, I need to have my gear comply with the tighter restrictions...
Time is easy. Be unemployed. Or a stay-at-home-dad during nap time. Having my marriage disintegrate freed up the ~2 hours I spent a night watching TV with The Wife.
On a more helpful note: Make time. Even when I was working, I carved an hour or so a night to have “me time”. Sometimes it was puttering playing computer games, other nights at the workbench. Even if you are married or in a relationship it is important not to loose sight of yourself. Spend time doing things you enjoy. If you spend 100% of your time with the SO, you will end up resenting them for taking you away from the other things you love. There are a lot of things competing for your time in this busy age. Budget your life to keep space for the things you want. If you don’t set aside time, things will claim it. Even if you only manage to put down one layer of paint a day, that’s progress. Do it every day for a week, that’s basically all you need to bang out a table-top quality guy. One guy a week for a year is a full army. And it doesn’t take that much time to put a layer down, and you can do 2-4 guys at a time.
Motivation is hard. What works for me might not work for you. For me, 40k is a mix of fluff, modeling/painting, and gaming. The 3 aspects work together to keep me going. I read the stories, play assorted 40k video games, and otherwise brush up on the fluff. This helps me envision what the models I’m painting are going to do in their life. Drop pods screaming down from orbit, slamming into enemy lines. Hatches blow and a squad of marines emerge, tapping out a rapid bolter drill into their shocked foes. Very evocative, and ties into the mechanics. I want to do a hybrid drop list, so I need more pods. I think of the lists I could build once I get that third one painted. What to put in them? Sternguard? Dreadnoughts? So many options will be unlocked. Once it’s off the bench onto the table. Because if it’s not painted, I’m not playing it. The third leg of the hobby is the minis themselves. I’ll have to move away from my drop pod example, because those things suck from a modeling POV. Only the first 2 aspects got me through them. But for many GW models, they are just a joy to assemble and paint. All the detail and little grubins. Just waiting to go from grey sprues to a living model, brought out in color.
In addition to the general love of the hobby, I have a few other tricks. One is setting public goals, and keeping myself on task. 1-a-week. It’s a reasonable goal. I bring it up frequently. Keeping it public, and running a blog keeps me honest. I’m OK with letting myself down. Happens a lot, where I fall short of what I’d like to happen. I’m a pessimistic procrastinator. I’m not OK with letting other people down. Which is where all you guys come in. I publicly shame myself when I don’t make my goals for the week. I post a “sorry guys, didn’t get stuff done” entry on my blog. You probably don’t care that I blew off a week, or that crap came up. Life happens, we all know that. But I hate posting it. So I get time at the bench. Just so I can make a little progress to report.
First off, thanks for taking the time to write out this veritable dissertation on the topic, It really helps Nevelon.
Fluff is a big one for me as well, as the image of my troops inspires me. That daily hour is the real struggle, as during the school year, i have homework galore and it's smack in the middle of swim season. But the blog part definitely helps. I've been trying to run one or two for the past year/half year, but finding time is kinda hard.
Yet again, thanks for your time.
JATW
You know, Nevelon I don't actually comment on your blog with much frequency, but I usually read whenever I see it on dakka. You dispense so much modelling wisdom that I found myself subconsciously attributing Gandalf's voice when I read your posts. Thanks for the effort you put into the communtiy.
I'll be on the quiet side for the next week or so. Things fell out in a way that lets me go down to kentucky and see my folks. Should be able to post and chat, but no hobby progress. Bringing my laptop, so can be a little more verbose then I normally am while afk.
I'll wave as I drive by to all my friends in western NY and Ohio.
There are the blog goals from the first post, which I covered a few posts ago. Then there are my annual New Year’s resolutions.
I’ve been recycling the same resolutions for the last few years. Need to modify them this year.
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IGHQs .
2 Paint more then I buy.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.
7 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
8 Get my Eldar army to a larger level, 2 more full squads minumum, with viable 1,500 or 1,850 point lists being stretch goals.
9 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique every month.
1 - Partial-ish. I did paint up an old D&D mini for a different friend, and painted an Orc for a collective project. So while I didn’t technically get any of the old project done, I did do some work for others, including dusty stuff from the back of the bench.
2- Success! Painted a ton of stuff this year, and while I did pick up a few things, not close to the amount I got done.
3 - Success! Not the Macragge board for my Ultras, but I’m counting the webway portal for my Eldar for this. And it is done.
4 - Resounding Success! Everything from the Ultras and Eldar is based, new and old. All new work is based. Victory!
5 - Partial. Did a few bits. Still a huge pile. But a bright lance, nightspinner bits, and all the options for my contemptor are done.
6 - Fail. I didn’t go back and count, but got very few games in at Cooper’s Cave, and have just started to get down to Flipside, and not with enough regularity.
7 - Success. I’m a good blogger, and maintained a decent pace on the paintbench.
8 - Success. Actually put a 1,850 list on the table for a game, so not just a theoretical.
9 - Success. So far, so good on the monthly challenge. Also entered the LoER terrain challenge with my portal.
So that’s 6/2/1. Although one of the partials was closer to a fail then a success (the first). Last year was 3/2/3. Much better off in 2016.
Here is a more specific list of things I had in mind to do, with some color commentary.
Overall I got a lot of those things done. I think my primed pile is bigger this year then last, so my to-do list is quite extensive. There is so much stuff, that I can’t just list everything primed as a “What to expect to see in 2016” list. Things that I think I’ll defiantly want to finish:
At least one full squad of BaC Mk. IV marines, possibly all 3. 2 out of 3 done
The BaC characters, dread Done
Vindi Done
LS Still in the primed pile
Bike techmarine. Done
5 sternguard 4 out of 5 done. I might have built some more, would need to check
More Eldar. I want to get paint on at least 2 full squads, preferably more. Done, with the “more” as well
Building is going to be more sparse. The pile of on-sprue shame is actually quite small.
5 BaC terminators Built and painted
10 Bac marines Some built as HQs, but most still on sprue
1 SM bike Still on sprue
1 Eldar bike (old) Still on sprue
Some Eldar guardians, weapon platform Built and primed
3 legs to build marines Still on sprue
Of those, the BaC is going to be built, the other stuff might. The guardians, if assembled, might be gussied up to try to pass for more dire avengers. Nope, just more basic troops, but built
Things on my to-buy list. Which is still very fuzzy, and unlikely to happen. I’d be more likely to spring for an unknown new release then pick up old stuff.
1-3 Whirlwinds Nope
Stalker/hunter Yup
LRC/R Nope
Scout bikes (Would be nice to have a larger squad a/o field 2 squads.) Nope
Cents (I know, they are kinda ugly, but the rules....) Nope
Eldar Fire Prism Yup
Another thing that might happen is that I may strip some of my old RTB01 marines (and possibly a few other old guys from the BA) and work up a second battle company. A chunk stripped, some even cleaned and primed
Normally at this point I’d go through the primed pile and all the unbuilt stuff on sprues. Figure out my game plan for the next year. But as I’m halfway across the country from my workbench, I’ll have to go back and add it back later. I’ll probably edit it in here, as well as posting it down thread.
But now I need to get back to eating homemade cookies and drinking top-shelf booze. Just wanted to sit down and post something this week. If I don’t check in before the weekend, hope everyone enjoys their holidays.
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote: Grats on everything accomplished this year! You're lucky to even have a game store to play at, nothing up here in Washington!
Over the years I’ve had dry spells with no FLGS in the area. It sucks. One of the reasons I’m willing to buy local to support them. It might cost a little more, but if it keeps the doors open, that’s a win.
I just went back through my last year’s worth of posts looking for games played, for the formal count.
At Cooper’s Cave:
30k U 2W
40k U W
AoS C L
At Flipside:
40k U 1W/2L
E 1L
8 games total last year. Not the best for getting out of the house and pushing plastic around. If you count the 30k/40k games together, that’s 4/2 record for the Ultras. One outing out with the Eldar was a loss, and the AoS experiment with the Chaos was a loss. But the Sigmar thing was before the points came out, with us just eyeballing roughly equal forces.
I’m not sure exactly how many games I got in during 2015, but I’m pretty sure it was more then that.
I sometimes take the LGS for granted. I'm sure it would be terrible if they closed and I couldn't play any games! (I'd probably paint a load more, though!).
And on playing games, do you know Vassal? It's been years since I used it, but it was convenient to log in and play on the PC. It did take a while to get fluent with.
I'm interested to see what new goals you set for yourself next year. In your repeated goals, you pretty much cover the entire scope of your hobby (paint/play more, build scenery/table etc.). Pretty standard stuff for most people. Anything specific?
Zambro wrote: I sometimes take the LGS for granted. I'm sure it would be terrible if they closed and I couldn't play any games! (I'd probably paint a load more, though!).
And on playing games, do you know Vassal? It's been years since I used it, but it was convenient to log in and play on the PC. It did take a while to get fluent with.
I'm interested to see what new goals you set for yourself next year. In your repeated goals, you pretty much cover the entire scope of your hobby (paint/play more, build scenery/table etc.). Pretty standard stuff for most people. Anything specific?
Happy Christmas!
While I’ve heard of Vassal, I don’t really find it appealing. Part of my joy in the hobby is watching two well painted armies duke it out over a battlefield. While playing online would scratch some of the getting games itch, I feel it would leave me feeling hollow. 40k, for all my love of it overall, is mechanically on the weak side. If I’m playing games online, there are other options.
On a concrete goal front, here are a few off the cuff ones. Once I mull over the primed pile and random sprues, I’m sure I can get more.
--Paint the terminators from the BoP box. I had a lot of fun building them, looking forward to painting them.
--Finish stripping all the stuff in the simple green right now. I’d like to get that box emptied
--Finish all the Eldar in the primed pile, bikes at the very least. IIRC that’s 6 more bikes and another guardian squad. To be honest, I’m only including the guardians as a courtesy. No real need for them. Although painting them in a non black wash scheme would be nice. And I could use the weapon platform
--Source parts and build the bulk of the BoP guys as breachers.
--Build most of the stuff on sprue. The new Stormhawk is high on the list, but also the custodes/SoS from BoP, the rest of the SC:Eldar box, etc.
--Sell/trade unneeded stuff. I’ve got a ton of crap collecting dust. I need to lighten the load.
Things I’m thinking of picking up:
--Rumors of new mechanized bundles are appealing, but price point will determine if I spring for one. But the Eldar one is a Wave Serpent and 5 DA. IIRC you get the avengers for like 10 bucks over the cost of the serpent. I wouldn’t mind being able to field a full 10 man squad of them, and need another WS. Slightly complicating the decsision here is the fact that my FLGS has the old battleforce still on the shelf. Which gets me a vyper and another guardian squad, neither of which I need. Although the vyper could be build with my new and improved magnetization skills, and frankly a 3rd one would not be out of place. The foot troopers would never come off the sprue though.
--More Foam. Maybe just another KRU or two with custom trays for some of my new stuff, or a loaded Kaiser 2, just so I don’t need to lug my K3 down to the FLGS partially full.
--The same tanks I keep on thinking about: LRC/R, a WW or 3, Another pred or stalker. A unit of cents or some more scouts/scout bikes/LSS are also tempting.
--I’m not sure if GW is going to make the HH box and annual thing. But I was very happy with BaC, and not unpleased with BoP. I might budget for another one coming out next year. Not that I need to get it, but would be nice to have the cash set aside.
-- FW. In a few weeks I’m going to get a large check for my half of the house. This needs to carry me over until I get a job and an income source. Part of me wants to blow some of it on ale and whores. And by that I mean overpriced resin from across the pond. Totally irresponsible, but a little retail therapy to help keep me sane in a turbulent time. What to get is very fuzzy. Sicarian tank, Primarch, suzarian marines/other 30k Ultras. Lots of options.
OK, gota call it a day on the rambling list. Brother just showed up with his boys.
Just a quick note to let you all know I’m still alive, and get my update in for the week. 13 hours and change on the road is a little on the brutal side.
So next month’s challenge is Rouges and Scoundrels. Nothing in my active primed pile seems to fit. I’ve got some chaos marauders lurking in the back that could do, but they still feel a little off. I think I’m going to have to go deep.
I’ll need to give it some thought. Probably after more rum.
He’s a slayer pirate, so the beard is orange. Probably break out a color wheel to figure out what to do his pants and parrot in. The rest is just flesh, wood, gold and leather.
Edit: Quick look at a wheel has me leaning towards a teal/light green bird and blue/indigo pants. Now I need to play catch-up with the rum!
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:An interesting model! Is he an older GW model?
From the old Dogs of War range. Individual units you could hire with any army (mostly) This guy is none other the the captain of Long Drong’s Slayer Pritates
Spoiler:
War Kitten wrote:Pirates you say? I'm listening.... Its not Ultramarines goodness but it's good enough for me!
I’m all for bending the nature of the contest to fit an active project in, but didn’t want to demean my Ultras with the label scoundrel a/o rouge. Didn’t really fit the Eldar either. Then it was a mater of sifting the piles of lead for something with primer on it. Hence the pirate.
I do need to pick out some other projects to work on, and wrap up my year end wrap up stuff.
Happy New Year everyone. 2017: Nowhere to go but up! 2016 was a giant dumpster fire and I’m glad to see the end of it. Normally I just recycle my resoulutions from last year, but I can’t just to a copy/paste this year.
Here are last year’s again:
Spoiler:
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IGHQs .
2 Paint more then I buy.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.
7 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
8 Get my Eldar army to a larger level, 2 more full squads minumum, with viable 1,500 or 1,850 point lists being stretch goals.
9 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique every month.
Chopping out 3 and 4. I might make a display board for my Ultras at some point, but I’m not committing to any terrain projects this year. 4 is done. I could re-write it as “base everything I paint” just to score an easy point next year when doing my tally. But I think I’m above that gimmicky accounting. I base stuff now, it’s not something that needs to be strived for, it’s the new normal. Eldar goal needs to be adjusted. With all the changes going on, it might be harder to keep the hobby pace up, but I’ll see what I can do.
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IGHQs .
2 Paint more then I buy.
3 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
4 Try to get more games in.
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Get my Eldar army to a larger level, 2 more full squads minimum, aiming to be more comfortable at 1,850, possibly 2k.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique every month.
Here is what’s in the prime box:
5 BoP terminators
Apothecary
Master of signal consul
4 RT metals
Techmarine
RT captain
4 deathwatch
3 sternguard
5 scouts
3 lotd counts as
Tml speeder
Stalker/hunter/command tank
12 RTB01 beekies
6 jetbikes
8 guardians
Weapon platform
Homagaunt
Pile of random bits
Stuff to build:
8 Mk. IV bodies from the BaC box
30 Mk. III bodies from BoP 3 Mk. VII bodies from the modern tac kit
1 bike
5 Sisters of Silence
5 Custodes
2 BoPHQs 1 Stormhawk
<some number of RTB01 marines in various states of being striped>
1 old Jetbike
3 new Jetbikes
1 Jetseer
I think I’m going to make an effort to get some of the older projects off the pile. So some of those guys who have been loitering for years can finally be checked off the list.
OK, enough lists for now. Need to go clear the driveway while the sun is shining.
Looking forward to watching you achieve goal 7. It always amuses me when something random pops up in here that you have lurking at the back of your bench. It's ultras for so long, then bam! suprise slayer pirate. Also looking forward to seeing you try a new technique each month. Any ideas where you'll start?
Is that Master of Signal dude the one day, GW store only mini?
brushcommando wrote:Interested to see what the year brings. I'm excited to see what you do with the Tartaros Termies -- I really liked your cataphractii last year.
They are a little less ornate then the other guys, but should be fun. They are probably top on my list of things to do next.
Zambro wrote:Happy new year, Nev!
Looking forward to watching you achieve goal 7. It always amuses me when something random pops up in here that you have lurking at the back of your bench. It's ultras for so long, then bam! suprise slayer pirate. Also looking forward to seeing you try a new technique each month. Any ideas where you'll start?
Is that Master of Signal dude the one day, GW store only mini?
No idea on what I am going to do to push forward with new techniques. That’s mostly there so I’m reminded to try to get a bit better, rather then just stagnating.
The Master of Signal is one of the two 30k consuls I put together out of random bits and BaC parts.
Spoiler:
While I’ve got plenty of crazy old stuff, the nearest GW store is over 100 miles away, so the odds of me having anything limited edition is next to zero.
OK, enough woolgathering. Started to put together the hawk. Enjoying it quite a bit. Actually feels like something that could fly.
One thing that is slightly irritating about it, which it totally not it’s fault, is the size. I don’t think that KR makes foam for it. It’s wingspan is slightly longer then the talon, but I think it will still fit into the tray I have. The issue it the wing mounted AsCs. I’d have to do a little cutting to make room for them. It’s only an issue because I an thinking about picking up some more KR, and want to have space for everything. Not that there is a huge rush, as it will not get primed/painted until spring at the earliest.
That thing is pretty sweet looking. I really dig the armored canopy as opposed to the open one. Makes it look more like a flying tank -- which suits the space marine aesthetic quite well in my opinion.
And done with the build. Mostly stock, although rather then the two little landing pads on the back of the body, I just used the AdMech logo/fuel port bit from the talon. I didn’t bother to magnetize the missile pods, something I’m sure I’ll regret at some point. But I remember it being on the fussy side from when I did my talon, which I’ve never flown with anything but skyhammers. Did do the chin gun. Not fully magnetized. The lastalon will need to be stuck on with poster tack. Not hard, as there is a lot of space under there. But if I wanted to put a magnet in there, I’d somehow have to find out how deep a spacer I’d need and cut it to size. For reference, the stormcannon needs magnets flush with the top of the gun, and flush with the chin (cut off the little square).
I figure if I want to fly it counts-as a talon, I’ll just not mount a gun under the nose.
Automatically Appended Next Post: OK, I said I was done, but I’m going to sneak in a little more retrospective. I was reading another blog, and he had picked out his top 5 minis from the last year. I thought it was a cool idea, and something to keep in mind for my summery next year. Then I thought, “Why wait?”
#5, RT lieutenant. I like the retro nature of him, and thought I did a good crisp job on him. Bonus points for a decent freehand.
#4 BaC captain. He sorta encapsulates all my 30k marines. Love the model, did a pretty good job on him. Really enjoying the blue and golds of the 30k guys.
#3 Librarian w/axe. High point is the axe, but I can’t find anything on the mini that I have issues with. Which considering my general level of self-criticism, is saying something.
#2 Fire Prism. While the paint job is on the basic side, I have an inherent bias towards grav armor. So cool.
#1 While I was happy with it when I first painted it, finishing the siege shield really pushed it over the top. Mastered a new technique (masking), nice splash of color in an otherwise monochromatic army, and the pie plate of doom.
What are the rules for that flyer? It came out after I stopped playing...
I agree on the point about magnets. Its nice to have everything customisable, but if you're never going to use it, what's the point?
What are the rules for that flyer? It came out after I stopped playing...
I agree on the point about magnets. Its nice to have everything customisable, but if you're never going to use it, what's the point?
For 15 more points then a talon you gain:
+1 front armor
Lastalon (24” heavy 2 lascannon) Can be swapped for free for an icarus stormcannon (S7, AP4, H3 skyfire interceptor)
Flare launcher (re-roll failed jink saves)
Supersonic
Something that looks like it can fly
You loose:
The TLAsC being in a turret
Ability to upgrade the TLHBs to TLLCs (can still upgrade to skyhammers or TMLS)
Hover
Strafing run
The Vecotred afterburner rule (+6” when zooming, +1 jink when hovering)
A whole lot of ugly
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:An excellent top 5! I though your chaplain was an excellent piece of work especially. What's on the lineup next if not this stormhawk?
brushcommando wrote:Nice top 5! My favorite is the rt lieutenant as I've quite a soft spot for retro models.
Captain Brown wrote:Nice to take a positive look at some of your work from last year.
Always look on the bright side of life.
Gitsplitta wrote:Great work Nev. You're painting is steadily improving and that's great to see. Well done.
Thanks guys. Your support means a lot.
Sormhawk is in the to-prime pile now. No idea when that will happen. I might have to cob together an air hood or some sort of filter box if I’m going to continue to spray prime. Or move back to brush on. Odds are I’ll not have a backyard to play in when the weather clears enough to break out the rattlecan.
I did some debating this morning on what to do next. Full box of things to choose from. Should I try to finish some units? Big stuff? Old stuff that’s been lingering? Something in a lot of parts that will be easier to move once assembled? In the end I went with something I wanted to do the most. So even though they are one of the last things to hit the stack, I’m going to do the BoPTDA. FILO FTW.
Starting with the two SB/LC guys. Just the first sloppy blue on for now (still wet). Also starting to block in colors on Long Drong Slayer.
Zambro wrote: Looks great! Love the posing on the left hand termie!
I’m fond of him myself. All of the squad in fact.
It might just be that the bulk of my terminator experience is the old metal ones. Which, quite frankly, are just about as static as you can get. The CTDA ones from the BaC box had slightly more life to them, but still felt like guys standing around, swinging their arms and making “Rawr!” noises. I blame the bulk of the shoulders and the deep recessed heads. The SB/fist arms might have offered a bit more, but I did them all LC. But all of the BoP guys I feel has a story to tell. His own life and personality. Including “Come get some, Xenos filth” there on the left.
That's a lot of pointy bits! Looks like a scrambled series of pictures depicting the evolution of the TDA, Tartaros being the missing link for a good while.
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote: That's a lot of pointy bits! Looks like a scrambled series of pictures depicting the evolution of the TDA, Tartaros being the missing link for a good while.
I think it is the best looking mark for TDA. Although they all have some charm.
Minor painting progress:
Put the golds down. I’ll try to get another layer down this afternoon, probably the dark blue cables. Assuming I can find the motivation. Feeling awfully down today.
Spoiler:
Nothing drives home reality like getting a lawyer’s bill. Not only does life suck, but I’m paying for the privilege. And I need to find a place to live, but no job makes that rough. When I have cash in hand from my half of the house it might get easier. Life blows. /rant
So not a lot of progress, but my update for the week. I need to try to get out and get a game in soon. I should write up a list and pack it, so that’s one less thing holding me back. Just not very inspired atm.
Thanks guys. Didn’t get back to the paintbench yesterday, vegged out watching TV and drinking a little bourbon instead. Plan on getting some paint down today though.
The helmets are actually a pale gold, before the wash. They will darken up shortly. And then be mostly hidden by the armor.
Xenos? That pirate is clearly a Homo Sapiens Rotundus! And while some in the Imperium might look down on abhumans, if he is willing to fight and die for humanity, I’ll give him the chance to serve. I sure some inquisitor could put him to use as an acolyte (BP/CCW?). Not that I’m familiar with the rules for the inquisition. I considered picking up the Imperial Allies codex, but at the rate I get games in plus the potential of a new edition next year, it did not seem a good use of my hobby dollar.
I do have a few actual 40k squats kicking around. Could probably make a pretty amusing and varied retinue.
Edit: Put down the dark blue, silver, green, and a some gold/black that I missed on the first pass. That should be all the basecoats on the terminators. Next step is washes/drybrush
Hey man a night of TV and bourbon sounds like an adequate use of time to me. Not every night for sure but getting a veg night here and there is pretty good to settle the mind.
The Termies and "Homo Sapiens Rotundus" are coming along nicely. Looking forward to what you do with them, they all look like loads of fun to paint for different reasons.
Sorry to hear about the state of other things dude. It definitely sucks right now but it's only temporarily, you'll come out the other side stronger for it. Not the biggest morale boost I'm sure, I apologize I'm terrible at this whole inspirational stuff.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Hey man a night of TV and bourbon sounds like an adequate use of time to me. Not every night for sure but getting a veg night here and there is pretty good to settle the mind.
The Termies and "Homo Sapiens Rotundus" are coming along nicely. Looking forward to what you do with them, they all look like loads of fun to paint for different reasons.
Sorry to hear about the state of other things dude. It definitely sucks right now but it's only temporarily, you'll come out the other side stronger for it. Not the biggest morale boost I'm sure, I apologize I'm terrible at this whole inspirational stuff.
I’m holding up OK. Some of the best support is just listening to me vent. Thanks to you all for that.
Got some washes down. Next step is the cleanup pass. The terminators do paint up quick. Need to get more done on LDS. He’s got a lot of wood and leather on him, so I need to figure out what browns to use. Don’t want them all blending together. Also need to look up parrot patterns.
I packed up two armies to bring to the FLGS. Last Monday I was thinking about going, but dithered about so long it was too late to make it down there and not get stuck in traffic. Ultras are pretty standard. Demi co backed up by a 1st co TF. Doing 2 squads of sternguard this time, although one of them is Deathwatch and TWVs lead by Cassius.
The other is Death:
1,500 points of cold, rattly death. With a plan to cut it down to 1k if needed. (Drop the grave guard, dogs, one of the leaders). Honestly a little surprised I had so many skeletons (2x30 blocks here) as they were never a main feature of my army. I played undead Bretonians. With my vampire lord, Nevelon the Betrayer, leading the Wights of the Realm. So a lot of my stuff was mounted. The spare command team is if I want to field the skeletons in 3x20. Although looking at their rules, bigger is better. Can you mix weapons in AoS? It seems like it might be a good idea to have a line of swordsmen with spears behind, just to get more of them into CC range.
I have to say, it’s nice to see undead together again. I started them before the split between Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings happened. So I’ve got skull chuckers and carrion, plus ghosts and wraiths. Vampires and mummies. Not that a lot of diversity is hitting the table here, but it’s nice to have options. I can use some of my mounted skeletons as battleline units if needed. A lot of my old stuff is comically out of scale (Nagash, catapults) but whatever. I’ve got ghosts on individual bases as well, and wraiths from when you fielded them in units.
But if you are going to raise an old army from the dustbin of history, there is none more appropriate the the Undead.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I really like how those termies are turning out. Tartaros looks awesome and I like the gold helmets. Also, that dread in the corner of your army shot. Not sure I've seen that one before, but it looks really cool.
brushcommando wrote: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I really like how those termies are turning out. Tartaros looks awesome and I like the gold helmets. Also, that dread in the corner of your army shot. Not sure I've seen that one before, but it looks really cool.
That’s my venerable dreadnought.
I don’t think he’s been pictured with the MM arm before though. And looking though my gallery, I’m not sure I ever got a finished pic of that arm. A WIP shot and hiding in the corner of the 2015 EOY.
I'm liking how the gold's turning out there nev, very bright! A dark oak color would be cool on the LDS, but depends on the feeling you're trying to convey. Are you still playing regular fantasy then? I contemplated it, but then AoS happened, and Tomb Kings were squashed and those dudes were my jam.
Almost fell out of my chair when I saw your fantasy ranked up like that! Did you get a game in with them?
@JustaerinAtTheWall: The Ninth Age is definately worth a look. Community driven Fantasy Battles game that picked up where 8th left off. It's a breath of fresh air to WHFB, and actually quite popular! Rules are free, too!
There is a movement at the FLGS to get AoS going more, so that’s what I’ll be playing. In theory, I should get one of those armies on the table tomorrow. There is a bigger AoS crowd on Tuesdays, but I still have The Boy midweek, so can’t make it down for those nights. Usually a game or two on Mondays though (normally 40k night)
I ranked them up out of habit. I’ve got a huge pile of those old green movement trays that are pretty useless these days. But on the table, it will be all sigmar free form.
So got a game in tonight. 40k, so the undead will have to wait a bit longer.
Almost forgot to snap a pic of the game. This is at the top of 3 (his side). You might note the low number of BA on the field. It was not going well for him. He was a little shy of 1,850, so I dropped half a sternguard squad and the fist sarge. He was mostly the golden host, or whatever the sang guard/dante formation is called. 3 squads of them, 2 tacs, a chaplain and a VV squad.
He had some very bad drops. While all his stuff came in on turn 2, the VV mishaped (I got to place them off in a corner) he didn’t get to pull off his DS then assault schtick. One squad was just 4” away from the LCDevs. Unfortunately, after the lead guy ate a shot to the face on overwatch, he needed to make it 5”, but only rolled the 4 he would have needed. Similar thing happened to Dante and his huge blob of guard who landed in the middle, although that distance was a little more reasonable. One squad got to charge a rhino and kill it.
Then I rolled up a rhino full of grav tacs and did unseemly things to that squad. The survivors are about to butcher that back tac squad in retaliation. The squad with axes mutually destroyed the terminators. I1 unwieldy death.
After my half of turn 3 the only thing he had left was Dante with 1 wound left, and a naked tac squad in a rhino with no guns and 1 HP left. He conceded at that point. Still, we both had a lot of fun. Some bad dice on his part; two failed charges that should have been his made quite difference. He was also an old school player getting back into the game. So while not a newbe, he was still a little sketchy on some rules. Still feeling out the modern edition. I probably should have softballed a few things to go easy on him “forgetting” to click of doctrines, etc. But I know one of his good friends is a competitive guy, so he needs to get his game up to snuff. The FLGS is a bit more competitive then my last, so I’m having trouble figuring out what power level list to bring. There is going to be a large tournament here in a few weeks, so I figured most people would be playing tight list. And then I pair up with someone who’s not. Sigh. I guess I could write multiple lists and pack them, but that’s kinda a pain.
brushcommando wrote:Well hopefully you still had fun. It's glorious at least to see those original Rogue trader minis taking to the field.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:A classic tale of Red vs. Blue. Glad you both had fun
evildrcheese wrote:Poor Blood Angels!
:(
EDC
We both did have fun, It just felt a little one-sided at times. His list was very high-risk, high reward. I also chose to go second, and kept my important pod (full of sternguard/Cassius) in reserve. So all the stuff I had on the table was reasonably low value. There was a little of that on the flip side; I used 5 suicide c-melta sternguard to pop a rhino. 4/5ths of them were cut down by return fire, but the last guy ran over to the relic and ended the game running through the woods with it.
His army really was a mirror of mine. Same old rhinos, eclectic mix of old and new stuff. He notice that some of his unpainted minis were fading from age. This was not time passing, but the subtle changes in GW plastic over the years. RT/2nd ed plastic was significantly lighter then what they use now. His tac squads were mostly 2nd/3rd ed, some painted, some not.
It’s OK to butcher Blood Angels. Makes then feel closer to their primarch.
<looks around for his new Mk. VIII power armor with the reinforced gorget>
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just to show I’m still painting. Guy on the left got his second coat of blue. Blue wash up next for him.
And the first two guys finished for the year. Painted up pretty quick. Wonder if I can finish the squad by the end of the month. Should be doable. Need to make sure I complete the pirate though. He’s the goal for the monthly comp.
If he accomplishes some epic level of heroics on the table, I might name him. But that’s very unlikely. I think I’ve only written on one or two scrolls total over my whole army.
Anyway, a little Friday progress:
We’ve secretly replaced the squat pirate’s terminator bodyguard with two different marines. Let’s see if he notices.
Put some more basecoats down on LDS. Almost blocked in. Bunch of pouches and his sword across his back still need work, plus his powder horn and the iron/brasswork on his guns. Decided to go with a yellow/green bird. Not 100% fond of it, but he’ll do. Polly want a real paintjob <caw>!
So two more done. Next step is the sarge, who should take a bit more effort, as he’s got a lot more detail. I think the only thing I still need to do on the pirate is the handle of his cutlass (across his back). Then I think I’m going to wash and go over him again to add some depth.
Plugging away.
We’ll see if Long Drong notices when there is only one guy backing him up.
So far so good Nev! I like the teal you've chosen for the plasma gun, it looks shiny! I'm a little excited for your finished pirate, he's got more character than many of GWs current models IMHO.
The green is an old pot of metallic "glistening green” with a little bit of a silver drybrush on it to add some highlights, then washed with a green ink.
All the character on the pirate is making him a little tedious to paint. Love the stunty little guy, but I’ve done 4 of the much simpler terminators in the time to get him mostly basecoated. A lot of the old metals, while full of detail and character, also take a lot more effort. Not that it’s a bad thing. I just don’t have a tremendous amount of motivation to get him done. Once finished, he’s basically just a display piece. And I’ve spent the last month or so trying to de-clutter my life.
I agree that the teal looks really nice on the plasma gun. Also I totally get what you mean about the models with the most character being hard to finish. I had to make myself finish them first on the current project so that I wouldn't get bogged down And lose interest at the end. But keep plugging on long drong! I'm sure the result will be worth it
Tuesday is AoS night down at the FLGS. Due to The Wife visiting her aunt/cousin down in the city this weekend, I get The Boy all weekend. To compensate, She’s got him tonight; normally I have him Tuesdays, so miss out on terrorizing the living with my undead hordes. All packed up ready to go, night free, rules reviewed, mayhem planned. Freezing rain. Now I need to get some games in to stay sane, but life’s not so bad that I need to die on the highway. Worst thing about it is that I skipped 40k night yesterday planning to make it there tonight.
Grumble.
Oh well. I guess I can get some more paint down. Put the base blue down on the last terminator. Sarge has a lot more gold then the rest of the squad. Closer to the capheracti level. Should be fun. Put another shade of brown on the pirate. Getting there.
Ooh, sorry to hear that Nev! I myself haven't had a chance to play for a while now, school and swim make a brutal combo. You'll get a game in soon, i'm sure.
Probably won’t be for another two weeks. There is a tournament this weekend, and turnout at the FLGS is always sketchy the following Monday, as everyone was just playing for the last two days.
Sucks when you cant make it for a game or two. Especially when you're psyched for it. It's happened to me a couple of time. It's not good...
Termies are coming along nicely. I always feel a bit 'meh' about painting display pieces. Maybe that's why my Silver Tower set is taking so long - Need to play that!
Experimenting with nulan oil. Back in my black wash everything phase, the washes didn’t flow the same. Acted more like tints/glazes. Modern washes seem to flow better into recesses. So I just slathered the pirate down, to see how it would work. I like the results. I can understand why it is occasionally referred to as "talent in a bottle” Not going to leave him quite like this. Going to go over him and brighten up some of the high points. I’d like the golds a little warmer, so will brown wash them.
Terminator is almost done with his basecoats. Need to decide if I’m going to gold up any more bits. I just noticed that his crotch armor has raised trim, where his squad doesn’t; might bling that up a bit. Also need to double check some of my CTDA guys and make sure I’m doing the arms the same way.
Yup. He just noticed. The sarge was on his blind side, so he actually looked around to see where everyone had gone. He started to complain, but a Volkite Charger pointed at your head tends to make you more polite...
You couldn't be more right, whenever I don't know what shade to use or a aspect is messed up, BLACK WASH. I like the sergeant here far more than the regular marine, he has real style!
His last wash is still wet. Once that’s dry I need to go over him and touch up any spots that need it and then base him. Should be done by the end of the day tomorrow.
For my YTD hobby expenditures, I spend about $2.50 for a new thing of superglue. Old stuff was getting gummy.
Long Drong turned out really nice -- a model you can be proud of Also digging the bling on the terminator sarge. He's sure to look quite impressive when finished.
Still need to do the transfers, which I think they really need. The more subdued blue I do the 30k guys in really benefits from the white chapter marking to help them pop. But they are not a requirement for me to move something to the finished pile. Which is looking a little light, but the year just started.
My inner photographer was screaming at me about proper framing, and subject focus. It’s 6 minis, and a huge amount of white space. But that’s the tabula rasa of the new year. The empty space is as much the subject and the figures upon it. Over time, it will fill up.
Speaking of which, I need to figure out what to paint next.
And on a tangental subject, what to watch next. Just finished DC’s offerings on Netflix (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow) which were competing with the bench for my time. Of course, I could also get back to playing computer games. Which would help with cleaning mold lines, as irritating as that is. At this point I’m also debating which would be easier to move, Sprues (take up more space) or stuff in the to-prime pile (more compact, but often in multiple bits that need to be kept together). I have been going over some of the older partially used sprues and cutting bits off to be sorted in boxes. That’s a no brainer on space savings.
In theory, today starts the clock on me needing to get out. The Wife should be re-financing today, and I’ll get my check sometime early next week. Sigh.
Long drong and the termies look awesome!
I really like ytd shelf photo. Should be fun to see filling up over the year.
I'd recommend Sneaky Pete as a good watch. Clicked onto it yesterday on Amazon and I'm 4 episodes in already. A con man (Giovani Ribisi) trys to con a mob boss (Bryan Cranston) but gets caught out and end up going to jail to avoid him. When he is released he pretends to be the 20 years estranged grandson of this family in order to hide/steal money to pay him back.
It gets a thumbs up from me!
The only streaming service I have is Netflix, not a Amazon prime guy. Or someone who purchases shows. Thanks for the thought though. I remembered that I hadn’t watched the second season of Dark Matter, so am working though that. Decent Sci-Fi.
And getting a little hobby work in as well. First, I decided not to wait on the decals.
Little torn on the XIII for the off shoulder. Scale isn’t quite right, but I wanted to put something there. Oh well, done now. Works well on the sarge though, due to the little circles on his pads.
Started getting some basecoats down on a pair of sternguard.
I think these are the last two guys needed to bring my sternguard up to full strength. But it’s hard to tell, as the bulk of them are still packed up in my case for if I head down to the FLGS.
I was also thinking of taking some formal pics of my old terminators. All the new guys get glamor shots in the light box. My old ones just have some sitting on a hill pics from when I finished up the last of them a couple years ago. One problem there is that my tactical terminators don’t fit nicely into squads at the moment. 12 of them on the shelf.
I think the legion numbers work -- definitely agree that all that blue needs white to balance it out. I did one test termie from prospero in an ultramarine scheme. I ended up putting a legion symbol on each shoulder pad .
Just need to finish the loose arm and base them. And check for anything I missed. Like the tiny skull on one of the backpacks (done now). The arm just needs the second blue coat and a final wash/touchup at this point.
Another round of freezing rain is keeping me at home this evening. We’ll see what next week looks like for a game.
And I need to figure out what to paint next.
And get more packing done, but I try not to think about that.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And done!
That’s 2x10 man squads. I took the pics, but need to make nice squad composites for them. Will do that tomorrow.
2 full 10 man squads. Not the last of the vets though. When I was stripping some of the old BA stuff a few more joined the painting queue. Unfortunate, as I like it when squads are all nicely lined up, and I had already built two full ones. Guess I’ll need to start work on a third.
The core of my sternguard are two old metal boxes. Well, a box and a pair of blisters; The metal sternguard box before they went plastic, and the tyranic war vets. For the most part, the rest are plastic. One new plastic sternguard box is in there, but many are just bits cobbed together from assorted places. Plus one old RT guy, soldiering on.
Looking pretty cool, Nev. I really like the tyrannic war veterans. I thought of trying to find some for my Macragge force, before I realized I would be creating a time-paradox
CREEEEEEEEED wrote:Can't believe I haven't checked this out before. Nice smurfs.
Glad to have you with us!
brushcommando wrote:Looking pretty cool, Nev. I really like the tyrannic war veterans. I thought of trying to find some for my Macragge force, before I realized I would be creating a time-paradox
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:Lookin' real good here Nev, never thought about using the TWV as sternguards, just probably won't work for my exorcists.
IMHO every Ultramarine player should have some TWVs. Great looking minis. Although thinking about it, might not be worth it if you need to deal with finecast. Although I keep hearing it’s not as bad as it used to be.
Even worth a little time paradox.
TWVs were basically proto-sternguard back in 4th edition. Although only the HB (if you took one) had special ammo. But they had some nice special rules, and fun tricks. But the models are veterans with bolters, and look cool. So why not include them in sternguard squads? The modern dataslate for them is a bit disappointing, unless you are list tailoring against 'nids (and why would you do that?) there is no reason to take them over normal sternguard. And even if you know you are facing the bugs, you still might be better off with stock sternguard. Much more flexible.
Great work on the Termies and pirate there Nev. Both came out great, the basing on the termies is really cool, I'm always a fan of snow bases
That pirate turned out awesome, just the right amount of coulours, both bright and subdued, to make him look sufficiently anarchic for his role but not laughably so, great work.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Great work on the Termies and pirate there Nev. Both came out great, the basing on the termies is really cool, I'm always a fan of snow bases
That pirate turned out awesome, just the right amount of coulours, both bright and subdued, to make him look sufficiently anarchic for his role but not laughably so, great work.
Snow bases are nice and easy. Also something that can be done after the fact to a completed mini. Which considering the large backstock of finished minis I had to base, was kinda important. No way was I going to cut everyone off their old base just to glue them to a new one.
I guess today’s theme is going to be a bit of a flashback comparison. I took some of my old termis to the lightbox for their glamor shots. These are all my old assaults, but only 5 out of 12 of the tacticals. I have a few more I can build these days, so need to figure out how I want to assemble them for the shelf. I think if I stretched and stripped some of my old BAs, I could get 2 full 10 man squads. More practically, I could do 3x5 squads, or 1x5, 1x10 man squads. Anyway, pics of the assaults, and the most common deployment of the tacticals (5 man, AsC, 1 chainfist)
When selecting 5 tacticals for the pic, I noted that some had their shoulder transfers on. 5 men, sarge (older one with the banner pole) 2xAsC, 1 basic guy, and 1 chainfist. I’m guessing I did the transfers back in 4th.
And just so you don’t think that Long Drong Slayer is all alone, now that he’s off the paintbench, here is a pic of him and two of his mates. Painted probably in the late 90s, early ‘00s. Really tempted to go over them with nulan oil.
I’ve got more of the little stunties, but not primed.
Looks like next month’s challenge is “we have the technology” One or both of my 30k consuls is going to be my entry. Going to try to bang them out ASAP once the new month clicks over. Need to figure out what to paint for the next few days though. Might try to finish up the 4 deathwatch in the pile so I have a full squad.
That's a lot of blue! Lookin' pretty good for older termies, wish I had that many...
But the pirate partners are very vibrant, and a suitable set of TRUE bodyguards for Long Drong. I'll be entering my deathwatch myself probably, only one of my guys is painted so far.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:It's always nice to take a look back and see where you came from to where you are, the difference can be quite astounding sometimes.
The problem is restraining yourself from going back and redoing everything. I’ve got enough stuff in the pile of shame to keep me going for a long time, as much as I’d like to go back and revisit a lot of old stuff.
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:That's a lot of blue! Lookin' pretty good for older termies, wish I had that many...
But the pirate partners are very vibrant, and a suitable set of TRUE bodyguards for Long Drong. I'll be entering my deathwatch myself probably, only one of my guys is painted so far.
Speaking of Deathwatch: A Howling Griffon and Blood Angel are starting their way across the bench.
Just a little more work on the arms and pads, and then baseing.
Might be done tonight, depends on what I feel like doing.
Also spent some time this weekend with the clippers.
Next step is the GS/magnets; weapon options and flight stems. Should probably do up the seer while I’m at it. Not that there is a huge rush for more grey plastic for the pile of shame, but it keeps me out of trouble to spend time building.
Thanks. Mad Props to anyone who does that on a regular basis. Getting a neat quarter pattern on a blank field is tricky enough. Doing it around the raised griffon was rough.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: DW are looking good, and I'm jealous of those bikes. I still don't have any of the new ones, mine are all the old models.
Go grab a Start Collecting! box. It’s full of Eldar-y goodness!.
I need to get to actually putting paint on my new bikes. The only one from that generation I’ve actually painted is a seer. I’ve got 3 old/3 new primed, 3 old painted, and then these 3 new in the build stage. So an even dozen troop bikes, 1 autarch, and 3 seers once everything is built and painted. Plus one unbuilt old bike I need to figure out what to do with.
As part of my goals is to get my Eldar points up, those bikes are near the top of the paint queue.
Finish DW on the bench
Do the other two DW (IH w/HF, Raptor w/stalker bolter) (this will finish the 10 man squad)
One or both of the 30k consuls for the monthly challenge.
3 more bikes. Probably new ones.
The 30k guys for the comp I’m going to try to rush at the start of the month. I need to be out of the house by the 19th, so this month is going to be ugly. Still looking for a place. THings are complicated by the fact I’ve got applications in to two companies, one to the north, the other to the south. Southern one pays better, but I might not get an answer quickly from them. Kinda want to wait to see where I’ll end up before signing a lease.
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OK, a little blurry, but done with these two fine gents. I’ll get more formal pics when the squad is done.
Sorry to hear about the rush to find a place. I understand how difficult it can be to try and find a place, worry about work commute and not wanting to be locked in a lease. I used to be a property manager so I know firsthand how troublesome it can be on both sides. I have faith you'll be able to make it work dude.
Well done! The Howling Griffons pad looks especially crisp, it scares me to even consider quartering my marines! Good luck finding a house dude, braveheart!
Thanks guys. The Deathwatch kit is a lot of fun. Plenty of cool bits in there. Put the first coat down on the last 2, the Iron Hand and the Raptor.
Got a game in last night. 2k points vs. loyalist Death Guard (Sons of Garro). Both of us using the Ultramarine codex/CT. Interesting mirrors to our lists, we both had a hard hitting orbital contingent and then some random stuff, themed around a mech column. It was filmed for a video bat rep, but the one of the players at the table next to us has Tourettes (legitimately, not just an excuse/euphemism), so there might be too much editing to make it presentable.
My list was 1st co TF, 2x10 man sternguard in pods, CTDA in a LR Tech on bike w/ melta bike squad sniper scouts CC scouts in LSS Full LC pred stormtalon Ironclad in pod TML/HB speeder
Her list was something like: Skyhammer annihilation force,2x 5 man 4xgrav Devs, 2x10 man assaults, full plasma, TH sarge 5x plasma command squad in a LR 5x melta command squad in a pod Full LC pred, AC/HB pred 2x5 man naked tac squads in rhinos
Mission is the Relic, played by one of my spare dreads. She goes first, I opt not to steal (wanting her pods down first)
First turn her melta squad drops next to my LR. No surprise there. And glances it twice. That’s a bit shocking; I was expecting smoking rubble. I think I might have saved one due to night fighting, as some pretty crappy pen rolls on her part. Need to roll a 6 to glance AV14 is below average, but not horribly down the bell curve. She keep the skyhammer in orbit until turn 2. I think her only other fire takes a wound off the attack bike.
My turn things get ugly for these so-called-loyalist traitors. Terminators hop out, speeders/bikes move up a little, Ironclad and the c-melt sternguard drop into the center. She just removes the melta squad to speed up play (they were going to get blendered) My c-melta squad explodes her LR, and the second half of the squad (who had combat squadded out) pumped the survivors full of vengeance rounds, wiping them out. Ironclad was some bad placement from me. I wanted him with his front towards the tanks, but that left him without a target to shoot. Not that he was needed, everything near him was dead.
Her turn, I brace for impact as the skyhammer lands. One assault squad mishaps, the other moves in on my bikes. Grav squads target my terminators and ironclad. Ironclad is wrecked, but 2/5th of the terminators survive! Go 4++ from the CTDA.
Here is the end of shooting, before assault The assault marines plow into the bikes. Sarge calls out a challenge, which I accept. I take a gamble, and figure 3 attacks with the axe/bp, wounding on 3+ is going to be better then 2 attacks with the servo arm, wounding on a 2+. Only one hit, and guess what I rolled to wound? Yup. A 2. That combat ends with one lone melta biker running away. Most of the c-melta guys die in the backfield, but the sarge and two of his half squad survive (and one man from the other half). I was expecting worse.
My last pod comes down and spits out 2x5 combat squads of sternguard, each with a HF. One roasts a minimal tac squad, the other takes a chunk out of the grav squad on the central rise. Scouts disembark and claim the relic, and combined shooting take out the other grav squad. I pop both the pods in my deployment zone. During assault, my lone vet from the first wave charges (sucessfully) the remaining grav on the hill, locking them in CC. The sarge from the other half goes and punches out a pred. Go WYSWYG and me having to field my old sarge with the powerfist. I’m not normally a big fan of spending those points. At this point, she only has the scrap of the grav devs locked in CC, a librarian with the remains of a tac squad, an empty rhino, and the dakka pred covering the center. The assault squad that ate my bikes is out of position to the side. I’m down my ironclad and half a sternguard and CTDA squad.
Her turn, she mishaps again with the assault squad, and concedes. Victory for the Ultramarines!
I think she might have been able to pull it out, but it would have been rough. It was a very heavy terrain table, and getting large squads of assault marines down was a tall order. But the next table over was quite loud, so rather then fight it out to the bitter end, I understand the concession. Her dice were also quite cold. From flubbing the melta pens to piss-poor armor save all game, the little cubes were extra fickle.
Fresh paint report: 2 full sternguard squads; MVPs of the game, no surprise there. While not fully fresh paint, the 2 latest guys off the bench brought them up to full strength. Tech on bike. Lack of an invuln was an issue. But he was fine with dealing with shooting with his 2+ and jinking. For a low cost HQ, he did his job. Not the best showing, but I didn’t expect much from him. Scout ML: I think this is the first time I fielded the ML on my sniper scouts. As they spent most of the time shooting at MEQ, the AP3 worked. Not sure it was worth the points over a basic sniper rifle, or even the HB. But it worked. The CTDA are probably not fresh paint anymore, as they’ve hit the table a couple of times. I think this was the first time that the sarge’s grenade harness paid off. Frag grenades are nice.
Nevelon wrote: Thanks guys. The Deathwatch kit is a lot of fun. Plenty of cool bits in there. Put the first coat down on the last 2, the Iron Hand and the Raptor.
Are there raptor shoulder pads?
Also is there any chance we cam see the battle report, I don't mind swearing?
Nevelon wrote: Thanks guys. The Deathwatch kit is a lot of fun. Plenty of cool bits in there. Put the first coat down on the last 2, the Iron Hand and the Raptor.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: I looked it up on botzbox, there's a shoulder pad labelled raptors. Tis a good day to collect raptors.
Building a force using the 1-per-box deathwatch shoulderpads is going to be a rough path to hew. Although there are far more pads in the box then bodies, so I could see a lot of spares making the rounds on bits sellers/FLGS swaps.
I think I'll but one deathwatch box for all the bitz thats could be used, then just buy a ton of raptors pauldrons from resellers, which shouldn't be hard because they're an obscure chapter and people probably won't use them often.
Sounds like you had a good game man, that's awesome. Victory for the Blue team! It's a shame about the mishaps though. I've both won and lost games because either mine or my opponents clutch very important unit mishaps and is sucked into the warp.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: Sounds like you had a good game man, that's awesome. Victory for the Blue team! It's a shame about the mishaps though. I've both won and lost games because either mine or my opponents clutch very important unit mishaps and is sucked into the warp.
As we were picking up, she realized that she had locator beacons on the pods, so if she had remembered, it could have helped. I hadn’t destroyed the fist pod yet, so there was a safe LZ in my deployment zone on the second turn. Would have been too far away to mug the bikes. At the start of the 3rd turn, I had killed both the pods on my side, but there was still one in the middle that could have worked.
If I’m going to build a list that has a major chunk of it DSing, I’m taking tools to mitigate it. Of course, I rarely play reserve heavy lists to start. One of the reasons I prefer a 5 man assault squad is the much smaller foorprint. 10 marines with jump packs and swords everywhere take up a lot of room.
Of course even if you pay the points for something, it does you no good if you forget about it.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: That's why I really enjoy DE right now. Webway portals allow you to devise a tactic and ensure that you'll be able to pull it off
That’s why I love drop pods. They get you where you need to be. On the table of course. On the paintbench they can die in a fire.
So I mentioned I started work on the last two guys, but didn’t post a pic. So while the green wash is drying, I thought I’d snap a quick pic. Should be done with all the basecoats, doing the washes now. Once the green dries, I’ll do the brown. After that it’s go over the black again with a second coat, and then a little grey edge highlighting. Plus the silver arms and chapter pads. Which I guess I could do while things are drying. Need to do a little research on colors, I think Iron Hands are black and silver, but am not sure what parts are what. I’m guessing a silver hand on a black backdrop. Need to get the right shade for the raptors, pretty sure it’s going to be a black head on goblin green. Not sure about the rim though.
Sounds like a fun time, my dude! When I play my small SM games, almost everything ends up unprotected on the field. Drop pods seem to be a good idea, but painting them isn't the greatest. As for the raptors, I used that shoulder pad for a Mentors marine. A lot of these icons get reused.
Not gunna lie for a brief second I thought you had modelled a star wars droid unit holding a heavy flamer. The DW are looking great dude, I'm totally in love with the way you do those greens. Once you finish these two how many will you be up to?
JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:Sounds like a fun time, my dude! When I play my small SM games, almost everything ends up unprotected on the field. Drop pods seem to be a good idea, but painting them isn't the greatest. As for the raptors, I used that shoulder pad for a Mentors marine. A lot of these icons get reused.
That’s one nice thing about the imperium, so many chapters! You can have the same iconography, but a quick paint job and you’ve got a whole other bunch of guys. Makes the sculpted shoulder pads even nicer, each one has multiple uses.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Not gunna lie for a brief second I thought you had modelled a star wars droid unit holding a heavy flamer. The DW are looking great dude, I'm totally in love with the way you do those greens. Once you finish these two how many will you be up to?
Beep-boop
The green is simply an ancient pot of “Glistening Green” with an even older pot of what I can only assume is green ink, but that was before they invented labels, so I’m just guessing.
These two will be the last guys for a 10 man squad. 2xHF, 2xC-Plasma. Equipped so I can just field them as sternguard. Most of the rest of the guys are basic bolters although the BA has a shotgun, and the Raptor will have a stalker boler. But both of those are close enough I can just count them as bolters if I’m just using them as sternguard. Didn’t want to have to bother with picking up their codex, or dealing with formations/allies. Although with the agents of the imperium book, it would not be hard to work them into a list. I also have a Deathwatch librarian who I painted up for Gitsplitta’s Mantis Maker Challenge a bit ago.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: Raptors in the fluff have siver trim and its a white raptor head not black.
Cool, thanks. I guess with their modern image of reasonable marines with sensible tactics and olive drab, I just assumed black low visibility markings. White should look nice.
Done with the Raptor and Iron Hand. Which finishes off the squad. So picture time for the whole lot!
2xHF, 2xc-plas. Everyone else is basic bolter. The SW gets to be the sarge as a punishment for not wearing his helmet. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to try to get representatives from every branch of loyalist to work together as a coherent team. He probably wishes for the sweet release of a sniper round to the forehead. Lets see, there should be 9 loyalist Primarchs, and 10 guys. Lets see if I did this right. Dark Angel - The guy with the ravenwing pad. Sure, it’s not black, so he might be from a DA successor. Still calling him a son of the Lion. White Scar - check Space Wolf - check Imperial Fist - Crimson Fist, so a 2nd founding successor. Blood Angel - check with the shotgun Iron Hands - The flesh is weak, see how it burns? Ultramarine - Howling Griffon. Not sure what founding they are, but a Ultra successor. Salamander - Burning things alongside the IH. Raven Guard - Not a pure RD pad, but with a bird/wing motif Calling him RG. If not the one “extra” marine is a Raptor, a RG 2nd founding.
And a HQ to lead them. Mantis Warrior librarian, doing the Divination thing.
And slowly filling up the space. Not bad for a month into the year. Seeing that my goal is 1/week, and there are 12 guys there.
Also, in personal news I have a space to live, should be closing on the 15th. Apartment down in Clifton Park. Lots of packing to do now, but at least there will be a roof over my head.
Those DW are absolutely gorgeous NEv. Fantastic work all around and a great addition to the yearly tally!
Good to hear you got a place man, though it pains me to think that during your packing and moving time we'll see less updates from you. I'm super selfish like that.
Master Azalle wrote:Great work on the blacks. I know that can be tricky.
I'd try giving the silver a wash of nuln oil and then re-highlighting, it'll really bring out the detail.
Congrats on the apartment brother, moving is always a pain.
Some of them I did use nulan oil. I forget when I got a pot of the stuff, the older guys pre-date that. I basically have two ways I do silver. Base black, with a heavy drybrush of silver (the guns are an example of this) or base silver, and wash with black. The DW arms are this way. I know the new ones are nulan oil, but the old ones are probably black ink.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote:Some very sexy models.
Thanks.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Those DW are absolutely gorgeous NEv. Fantastic work all around and a great addition to the yearly tally!
Good to hear you got a place man, though it pains me to think that during your packing and moving time we'll see less updates from you. I'm super selfish like that.
Looking back at a month’s work, I’m a little shocked how much I got done. On the bright side, it puts me ahead of the curve if I need to slow down. Which I hopefully won’t have to do. Although February will probably not be nearly as prolific as January. I do hope to keep at least my 1/week pace going. But on my short list of things do do in the next two weeks before I move is to call the cable guy and make sure my internet transition is as seamless as possible. But worst case scenario, I paint amongst the boxes, upload pics to my laptop, and then roam around looking for loose wi-fi to connect to dakka. Which should be easy, as I’m leaving the network infrastructure at the house, and I doubt The Wife will change the password.
But just in case there are some painting slow downs, I am rushing my monthly competition entry. Who is almost done. The last wash is drying, so he just needs final touch-ups, baseing and decals.
Glad you have a roof over your head. I've never moved house, going to/from University is the most moving I've done, and that was bad enough. Hope it isn't too stressful!
I’ll live. Moving is irritating, but not the end of the world. On the bright side, I’ll be about 20 minutes closer to the FLGS.
One thing about painting Ultras; I’ve got them dialed in. When I want to bang one out quick and put my mind to it, it does not take long.
Which for those of you keeping track, is the last entry for this year’s unofficial painting comp, as that resets in March.
7 Marines, 2 Eldar, 3 “other”. Pretty obvious where my loyalties lie. Next month with a fresh start begins with “Space Marine” unless Para tossing a wrench into the works. I wonder what I’ll paint?
Fast AND fabulous, well done! If Space Marine is generally the march theme, you and I will be well set! An excellent set of entries as well, truly a successful year Nev!
brushcommando wrote:Nice work. You cranked those deathwatch out fast. I think I like the iron hand with the heavy flamer best of all.
Inevitable_Faith wrote:Superb entry for the painting comp dude. He definitely fits the theme very well.
evildrcheese wrote:Excellent work on the DW dude, they're looking fantastic.
The MoS does fit the theme, but I don’t think he’s distinctive enough to place above my normal “not quite last” placing.
I’m happy with the way the DW turned out overall. I’m not sure who my favorite is. The Iron Hand is up there, but that’s mostly the HF talking. If I wasn’t trying to get one member from each legion, I’m not sure I would have included him. I should have gone for a successor chapter. I like the pads that offer a little more contrast with the black/silver of the DW scheme. IH is just more of the same.
From a general build/body POV, I like the BA with the shotgun. Nice flow to him I think. The pad is just kinda there; again, the black is not doing it any favors.
I like the Raptor and Howling Griffon pads, as well as the freehand Mantis Warrior. Of all the pads, I think they pop the most, and add a lot of character to the squad. White Scar is not bad, but I feel I should go over the trim with a brighter red.
Looking back at my year of competitions, I don’t see a huge amount of improvement. The alpha and omega are pretty similar. I feel that there was a lot of quality production, but not a huge amount of growth. But I do feel I’ve done a lot of lateral work, by painting a broad selection of things. Also two of my entries were 4 man squads, which is a stretch for my pace in a month. Or was at the time I was doing them. I’ve gotten a lot more efficient these days, and that’s not just the increased free time talking.
Couple of set backs on the job front today, but I keep soldiering on. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )
Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space
I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )
Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space
PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.
I like the FW version a lot more. But considering the cost and irritation of dealing with resin, I’m OK with the plastic one. In general a lot of the bad models we see in leaks are better once we get full on views of them. The pose does look a little off, but I’m not going to let that stop me.
Cypher is also looking ace. I think a quick file to the DA symbol on his belt, and he’s going to be a 30k Moritat gunslinging consul. Might have to do something about that sword. I’ll have to see what the sprues look like.
The GK is a nice looking sculpt, but nothing I really need. Could field him as an Inquisitor in TDA. Or see how much work it would take to field him as a codex librarian. Or sell/trade him.
But 2/3rds of the box appeals to me, including the headliner.
I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )
Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space
PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.
The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.
I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.
I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.
I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )
Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space
PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.
The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.
I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.
I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.
I'll be getting this kit, because primarchs are primarchs, but his armor is almost... too ornate. Compared to his FW model, it's far more excessive and busy than his other mini(which I prefer). I also have a thing with him using the burning blade, like, what happened to his sword? But Cypher's lookin' on point, and the GK character isn't anything huge, but i'd still paint him.
The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.
I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.
I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.
I'll be getting this kit, because primarchs are primarchs, but his armor is almost... too ornate. Compared to his FW model, it's far more excessive and busy than his other mini(which I prefer). I also have a thing with him using the burning blade, like, what happened to his sword? But Cypher's lookin' on point, and the GK character isn't anything huge, but i'd still paint him.
Some of the fluff is leaked. I guess some/all his new gear is provided by that admech guy. The sword, I think, is the Emperors.
The armor is far more ornate then I’d prefer. But then again, this is 40k, not 30k. It’s a lot more baroque and gilded. So if his armor is a new set, that explains a lot. And I can deal with it either way. I’m hoping the proportion issues are just bad photos. If not, again, I can deal with it. It’s my Primarch! How can I not pick him up? I might try my hand at a little light sculpting. I wonder how his helm would look with a roman crest? Will be interesting to see his rules, but I suspect those leaks are a bit out.
I feel bad for that GK. He’s not a bad sculpt. But he’s in the same box as Guiliman (OMG Primarch!) and Cypher (besides being awesome in his own right, the best sculpt of the 3). So the GK ends up just being the 3rd guy to fill in the box. Yawn. If he was released on his own, he’d get a lot more press and fanfare.
And that’s the last of the SC:Eldar box built and ready to be primed. Primary guns magnetized, magnetized flight stems for easy transport, and the seer had his heads swappable and the arm is tight enough with a push-fir that it can be swapped.
I should really figure out what I want to paint next. This move is getting me in a very dithering about kinda mood.
These guys aren’t. I need to wait until spring to prime. But I do have some from the last batch ready to go. I’ll start work on them. It’s been mostly marines so far this year anyway...
Also cleaned up 2 more RTB01s this morning and put them in the to-prime pile. Rough on the hands. Getting old sucks.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: Can you explain to me what the right priming conditions are, 'cause I'm never sure what people mean. Surely it can't be raining/snowing 24/7.
It really is a goldilocks just right thing. I prime with a rattle can. It can’t be too hot, or too cold. Can says between 50-90 degrees F (10-32 C) and the humidity needs to be below 65%. But it can’t be too dry, of the paint might dry before it hits the mini. Can’t be too windy. There are some people who spray prime in the winter. In theory if you keep the can warm, and just pop out for a quick spray and bring everything inside quick, it can work. I’m not going to risk it.
Zambro wrote: Making progress on the Eldar is good. Gives you plenty to prime come spring!
What's the boxset you talk of (MoS?). Have I had my head in The Ninth Age for too long?
Put the red down on a bike last night. So started on an eldar squad.
MoS in this context is Master of Signal, a 30k rank/position. They have a bunch of auspex/signum/interceptor ticks, in addition to being able to call down an orbital strike once a game. Required for one of the Ultra’s Rites of War for 30k. He’s mostly built from the BaC Mk IV parts, with an old CML targeting arm and some other assorted bits and bobs from my bits box.
The box set I’m talking about is a separate thing. GW is advancing the plot a bit for 40k with the Gathering Storm storyline. They’ve been releasing character triumvirate boxes with some of the key players. The first was St. Celesine, some big AdMech Magos, and an inquisiter. The second box was Eldar, with an Avatar of Ynneed, it’s herald, and a champion. The third box, which should be out in March, is Guilliman, Cypher, and a GK grand master.
I agree on the note of the baroque armour being quite stunning, and I do adore anything baroque (it is my favorite type of classical music after all ) but agh I don't know
The jetbikes look awesome, they are such a gorgeous sculpt, its a shame there is such a stigma pertaining to Eldar bikes otherwise I'd take some allied Saimm Hann.
Yah, kinda torqued that bikes are so good. I love the look and theme to them, but don’t want to be TFG. I find running them in the old 1-in-3 heavy, and just shuicannons at that takes some of the sting out of them. That and don’t spam them. Guardians in a WS are also an acceptable troop pick.
Anyway, here is the first of the new bikers with his base red and black down.
Heading down to the FLGS tonight, hopefully get a game in.
I do the same thing with my bikes Nev. Since the 7th edition Eldar dex dropped I took one look at the bike entry and said "nope, not being that guy". I stick to the ol' 1 in 3 rule as well, preferring cannons but I sometimes pop out the scatter lasers. I have a buddy here who asked me about it one day and I told him I don't max out on scatbikes cause it's completely broken in casual play and he asked me to write up a list with them for him to fight just so he could see firsthand if they were really that bad. Needless to say it's an experience neither of us ever want to recreate, it wasn't fun for him to be blown off the board by turn 3 and it wasn't fun for me to devolve my entire game into "it's my shooting phase, I roll lots of dice and watch you weep". If I wanted that I'd be playing Tau...
Nevelon wrote: There are some people who spray prime in the winter. In theory if you keep the can warm, and just pop out for a quick spray and bring everything inside quick, it can work.
I am one of those people...because I live in the frozen north and won't wait for spring. Snow and rain are what we have to avoid most of the time, however my building does have a workshop I can do some spraying if it is not in use by others, have to wear a full filter mask though.
Cheers,
CB
PS: My Jetbikes are one special weapon per five bikes.
I’m not sure I could bring myself to put minis in the oven. Although I’m sure the local tyranids would love Ultramarines served up golden brown delicious! I’m fine with just planning ahead in the fall and stockpiling stuff for the winter like a crazy squirrel.
Got a game in. Vs. thousand suns (with some demons) Airiman and some sorcerous formation, some rubricks and terminators, and some horrors, tzangors and oblits. Probably a few more sorcerers stuck in for good measure. I brought an assorted CAD.
Captain with HG in a LR Full grav and melta tacs in rhinos
Speeders, pred, vindi
Full DW squad (counts-as sternguard) with their librarian (who rode in the LR)
Drop dread.
Mission was the maelstrom where you draw up to 3 at the start of your turn.
Deployment:
He goes first. Moves up a little, but is mostly out of range for most of the psychic stuff. He’s generating 20+ warp charge; it’s where the teeth of his army is. I think most of his initial turn is buffing up, although he does shake the vindi. A unit of horrors is also summoned
My turn I focus on taking out critical threats. Most of my long range firepower blows the oblits and their attendant wizard off the hill in the back. My sternguard come down, combat squad, and blow a chunk out of the sorcerer deathstar. Killing one, wounding another and I think a terminator or two dies due to look out sirs. I charge and kill the summoned demons with my HG. Which, in hindsight, was probably a mistake.
I think we each scored a objective or two, game is close on points.
His turn he plows his deathstar into mine. Things get ugly and bloody. One of those sorcerers has a demon sword, doing ID at AP2. I get some of my own licks in, and the terminators are all killed, and I think I put a few more wounds in on the characters. Bad things happen to the sternguard, but the sarge survives. Vindi is immobilized.
Game is still pretty close on points, I’m starting to get worried.
But I shouldn’t be. I score some of the objectives, and begin to churn them out. He’s got a huge chunk of his army sunk into the sorcerers and arhiman. I start pouring in firepower from the LR, pred, and speeders. He starts loosing wounds, and then models. The WC pool gets smaller, so the psychic phase starts to hurt less. I I have the run of the table.
I think this is turn 3. The midfield tacs are about to go over the wall and start shooting up the rubrics. The other tacs and their rhino split up to camp 3 separate objectives. The game goes on the full 7 turns. At the end, all he has is the horrors in the corner with a herald, and the rest of the table is mine. Due to some good die rolling on variable tactical objectives, but also some lucky draws (I got the Domination: control every objective on the last turn when I did) the final score was something like 22-6. Crushing victory for the Ultramarines!
Fresh paint report:
Vindi has been out a few times. He only got to shoot his big gun once, and it scattered horribly off target. He did eat a lot of fire. Not sure if he’s worth it as a pure distraction unit. He does do that job well though.
TH champ killed some horrors, but died vs. his real foe in a challenge. While most stuff that is AP2 strikes last, there is some that goes before him.
Deathwatch did a great job. Podded in, killed a sorcerer and put some pain on the deathstar. The plasma guns were a bit overkill due to all the invuln saves, but didn’t hurt.
The DW Lib did nothing relevant. In hindsight, they might have charged turn 2, not the first. I remember him being in the box the first psychic phase.
Nice battle report. It's fun to read about two of my favorite armies slugging it out. Although it does make me realize that I no longer really have any idea how to play modern 40k... Still. Well done on your victory.
brushcommando wrote: Nice battle report. It's fun to read about two of my favorite armies slugging it out. Although it does make me realize that I no longer really have any idea how to play modern 40k... Still. Well done on your victory.
All the mechanics are basically the same. Big change is the psychic stuff, which is back to being a mini-game like in 2nd. OK, not quite that bad, but close.
The maelstrom missions are probably the biggest change to how the game plays. There are still the old eternal war missions, which are more or less the same as previous editions. But there are also new ones using the tactical objective deck (“Tacos" in the local parlance). Different missions have you draw and deal with them in assorted ways. Unlike eternal war, where most of the objectives only mater when the game is over, maelstrom are score as you go. So you might draw a card that says “Score one VP if you hold objective #4” (all of them are played with 6 numberd objectives). So you get your squad in their box, roll over to it, and put some boots on that objective. Bam. VP for the pool. Keep doing that, run your tally, and compare at the end. Some of them are more then just objectives. Things like “win a challenge gain a VP” “wipe out a unit in CC for a VP, kill 3 and get d3 VP” “Claim an objective that your opponent held at the start of your turn for d3 VP”. So you have more goals during the game to keep things interesting and mobile.
I makes the game a bit more random, but mostly in a good way. And it rewards fun play. If you just bunker up in the corner and gunline, with a last minute sprint to claim objectives, you miss out on a lot.
I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.
We also play that way. Also, in the game we were playing we were allowed to discard one card at the end out our turn, and then draw up to 3 at the start of out next one. Not sure if the discard is part of the core maelstrom rules, but it helped prevent getting clogs in the objective flow. At different parts of the game we were both looking at hands that while technically achievable, were highly unlikely to happen. Being able to cycle the cards helps keep the game moving.
Edit:
I’m trying hard not to replay in a lot of the gathering storm threads, with the whole primarch returning thing. It’s starting to feel like RL politics threads. Lot of blind UM hate, theories based on the thinnest rumor and extrapolated out. etc. And it’s too early to know what exactly is going on. I’m used to a certain level of Ultramarine hate. It spiked back in 5th, wound itself up in the internet echo chamber, and has been very slowly receding for a while, almost to tolerable levels. But it’s on the rise again. Kinda getting under my skin. Some of it’s just the passive references, like smurfs and rowboat girlyman cracks adding up, but some is more overt stuff. Either cherrypicking bad BL stuff, or just intentionally misrepresenting fluff for personal vendettas.
Sorry to rant. Just needed to let that out. Just found myself writing, then erasing an angry rebuttal, and not for the first time. I don’t need to get into arguments on the internet, especially based on thin rumors and opinions.
Inevitable_Faith wrote: I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.
We also play that way. Also, in the game we were playing we were allowed to discard one card at the end out our turn, and then draw up to 3 at the start of out next one. Not sure if the discard is part of the core maelstrom rules, but it helped prevent getting clogs in the objective flow. At different parts of the game we were both looking at hands that while technically achievable, were highly unlikely to happen. Being able to cycle the cards helps keep the game moving.
Edit:
I’m trying hard not to replay in a lot of the gathering storm threads, with the whole primarch returning thing. It’s starting to feel like RL politics threads. Lot of blind UM hate, theories based on the thinnest rumor and extrapolated out. etc. And it’s too early to know what exactly is going on. I’m used to a certain level of Ultramarine hate. It spiked back in 5th, wound itself up in the internet echo chamber, and has been very slowly receding for a while, almost to tolerable levels. But it’s on the rise again. Kinda getting under my skin. Some of it’s just the passive references, like smurfs and rowboat girlyman cracks adding up, but some is more overt stuff. Either cherrypicking bad BL stuff, or just intentionally misrepresenting fluff for personal vendettas.
Sorry to rant. Just needed to let that out. Just found myself writing, then erasing an angry rebuttal, and not for the first time. I don’t need to get into arguments on the internet, especially based on thin rumors and opinions.
I just don't look at the gathering storm threads, except occasionally posing a meme when I find one. They all think a little too highly of themselves, it's just not worth it. I'll wait for the new fluff to actually release, then I might engage in an internet shitstorm over what's actually there.
Good natured ribbing I get. I know the whole “End Times” thing is a bit emotional, particularly with what happened with WHFB/AoS. People are invested in what’s happening and don’t like change. I get that. Hell, with what’s going on in my life, I really get that.
But the irrational herp-derp ultra hate needs to stop.
Nevelon wrote: Good natured ribbing I get. I know the whole “End Times” thing is a bit emotional, particularly with what happened with WHFB/AoS. People are invested in what’s happening and don’t like change. I get that. Hell, with what’s going on in my life, I really get that.
But the irrational herp-derp ultra hate needs to stop.
I've started using the ignore feature liberally. It works out, I still get to read good threads, and there's less negativity in my forums experience thanks to it.
The new kits aren’t so bad, but the old ones are a pain.
I must pick up an airbrush myself as I loathe painting vehicles at the moment (hell, a tank brush would do as all I've got is a detail one!).
I've got a lot of duplicates. You know you have a problem when your captain count passes 10.
