Those Intercessors are looking quite lovely Zerg. I can't wait to see them when they're done!

Nice haul you got yoyrself! Many lovely bits.

Intercessors are looking great too.

EDC

@Josh: Thanks!

@Kitten: Thanks, hopefully not much longer till you can see them done!

@EDC: Thanks! I was overjoyed to see those old metal Plaguebearers, and I've always wanted a Techmarine model for my army, so those purchases were no brainers.

One last WIP shot for the Intercessors:

As you can see, the shoulderpads have been given a coat of clear gloss to facilitate transfers. I'm going to go ahead and try them, although in the past I haven't had much success with transfers on Marine shoulders. I'm also going to do the little icons on the backpacks as well, so that area has been glossed on all these guys. Those transfers and some grass tufts for the bases are all that is left to do with these guys, then it'll be on to the Inceptors.

Busy I see! I need to get back to paint work!

I have been inadvertently teaching my son some improper English as I help him apply transfers to his Ultramarines. Microsol (or an equivalent product) will be your friend and savior, I think.

@shasolenzabi: Welcome back to the thread!

@Josh: Yeah, applying transfers is no one's idea of fun. Luckily I happen to have some Testors Decal Set solution that seems to have done the trick! Also, it's very cool that you've got your son interested in this game. Teaching the younger generation will help keep the hobby alive!

Well, that's the first unit of my Primaris Marines finished! Here are some pics of the first Intercessor Squad:



I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They are definitely tabletop standard. Mainly I kind of went quick and dirty with them to knock them out fast. Of course, fast for me is glacial by many painters' standards. I actually got the transfers to behave this time thanks to a couple of tricks I found on the internet, so no need for my sloppy freehand on the shoulderpads. I photographed the individual Marines from a variety of angles to show as many details as possible, as they really are all very much alike so no need to show multiple angles on each guy. Feel free to vote for these in the Dakka gallery. As I have said before, next up will be the Inceptors. They'll be a bit trickier to paint, but it won't be too bad and there are only three of them. Hopefully I can knock them out quickly and keep chugging along on this project. I'm holding myself to painting all these guys before I start anything else, and so far that incentive is keeping me motivated.

In other news, I mostly got my butt handed to me at the ITC tournament this past Saturday. I did manage to snag one win in the first game by 1 point, but then I pulled a couple of spectacularly bad matchups and got tabled in both of my other games. Both of those opponents will be playing in the ATC this weekend though and were using their planned lists (one was Nids with Genestealer Cult, the other was Nurgle Daemon Prince spam). The win was against Orks, and even that was a tough list. I'm really going to have to figure out what works for Dark Angels in 8th edition if I want to do well. It was very frustrating getting curbstomped and finishing tied for 19th out of 22 players. 22 players is a record turnout for our local tournaments, shattering our previous record of 16, so that was cool. The good thing to come out of that day was that I got a great deal on some Space Wolves new on sprue from the used model collection at my FLGS. Now once I get them all put together I will have enough stuff to run a 2000 point Space Wolves army. Maybe that will be my next project once my Primaris marines are finished...

Those DA turned out spiffy. I'm curious what tips you found for getting the transfers to set flat like that. My secret has been dousing them in a locally-available Microsol equivalent.

Great work on those DA Primaris, Zerg. They're very effective and the decals absolutely look the part!

@Josh: Thanks! What I did for the transfers was to paint Model Master clear gloss coat over the areas, make small slits in the edges of the decals themselves to allow them to fit the surface better, applied a generous amount of Testors Decal Set solution right before sticking the decals down, and after they were set and dried, applied first a second coat of gloss, then some clear flat coat to hide the shininess. It worked surprisingly well!

@Azazelx: Thanks! I couldn't be happier with how the decals turned out. Maybe I've got them beat and can start using them more, which will look way better than my crappy freehand.

Haven't made much progress on the Inceptors as yet, still gotta finish shading the recesses of the green armor before I can do much else. In the meantime, here's the latest thing I assembled:

5 Wulfen for my Space Wolves force. They are a very strong unit and I'm hoping they'll work well when I start playing my Space Wolves.

Hope to have some painting progress to show for the Inceptors very soon.

Ah, space-viking-celt-werewolf-ballerinas. I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

Intercessor squad is looking great Zerg!

EDC

@Azazelx: Yeah, the poses are kind of...shall we say, unique? They'll be tough to paint, especially since I made the questionable decision to go ahead and assemble them first, but I'm sure they'll turn out fine.

@EDC: Thanks!

I've finally gotten started on the Inceptor squad. Mostly just the metallics left to block in with color. Here's where they are at right now:

The metallic color will be a bit of a slog, as there is a lot of metallic detail and some of it is hard to get to easily. I'm glad I'm knocking this unit out early on, as it looks to be one of the trickier to paint. To me these guys are the most badass unit in the Dark Imperium box, though, and I really can't play them until they are done, so hopefully that will be good motivation to finish them fast. More to come!

More progress on the Inceptors! All of the colors are now basecoated, so shades will be next. Here's where they are at right now:

And here's a shot of the bases so far:

Since the guys are hovering above the bases, I put some rocks on them to make them a little more interesting. Also, I've switched to Armageddon Dust as my texture paint of choice (also used on the Intercessors I painted), by necessity as GW discontinued Blackfire Earth. I still have some Blackfire sitting around, but I'll use it for other projects. I'm not sure but what I like the Armageddon Dust better anyway.

I hope to have these completely done by Thursday, as I am trying to get a game that day since I'm off work then. Once I finish these guys, it'll be time to paint up the Primaris Lieutenants, probably the most useful of all the Primaris models in the Dark Imperium box. My current goal is to have those done by the end of the month, and to have all the Primaris minis in the set done by the end of August.

Nice work on the Inceptors. Bases look great.

EDC

Yep, the In(ter)ceptors are coming along nicely, indeed!

@EDC: Thanks!

@Azazelx: Thanks, and yes they have a funny name. Honestly I'm not sure why GW went with weird names for the Primaris Marines. Maybe for the same reason they changed Imperial Guard to Astra Militarum or something.

Okay, the Inceptors are done other than a couple of final touches. I'll just put up this "teaser" photo of the finished bases:

I hope to have final photos of the Inceptors themselves by tomorrow. Getting them on their bases is going to be kind of tricky given how they attach.

Ooo you tease you. Looking forward to seeing the finished minis.

The bases look great with the tufts.

EDC

@EDC: Don't worry, your wait is over, see below. And I'm glad you like the bases. Those tufts are wonderful for making bases look more interesting than just texture paint. Kind of like sparse desert grasses.

Okay, no more teasers, the Inceptors are finished. Here are a couple of photos of the whole unit:

And here are a couple of close-up photos of each of the three models, starting with the Sergeant:

Here's the second guy:

And the third one:

These guys were tough to paint well. Lots of surfaces to cover, and edges to highlight. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I did the photos from a variety of angles on the individual models to show all the details, similar to how I photographed the Intercessors before. Feel free to throw a few votes on these pics in the Dakka gallery!

In other news, I got a box of AoS Khorne Bloodreavers to use as counts-as Khorne Berzerkers. I think they'll fill in nicely as I do want 20 of them with chainaxe and chainsword, which would be hard to do with the actual Berzerkers kit since it comes with so few bits. I'm also in the process of putting together a Venerable Dreadnought for my Dark Angels, and I'll start assembling either those Khorne guys or my Space Wolves stuff very soon.

Next up for painting for me will be the two Primaris Lieutenants, which I'm really looking forward to as I use at least one in almost every Dark Angels list I run in 8th.

Nice work. Are you using the official DQ green for them? It looks a little more drab (which is to say, military) than I usually see.

@Josh: Thanks! I am using the official recommended color for these guys, which happens to be Caliban Green (in the old Citadel paint range, a very similar color was called Dark Angels Green). I like it more than the lighter layers some people use. They are supposed to be the DARK Angels, after all!

Apparently my priming job wasn't that great on one batch of my Primaris marines, so I had to brush on a coat of Caliban Green on the Lieutenants. It's done, now, so I can start painting them soon. Meanwhile I finished assembling this:

This is Venerable Dreadnought Telemenus (the name comes from the Legacy of Caliban stories by Gav Thorpe). I've been wanting one of these since 8th came out since Dreads are actually good now. I'll eventually get one of the new big Dreadnoughts, but probably not for a little while as money is a little tight at the moment. Since DA Venerable Dreadnoughts are part of the Deathwing, this guy will ultimately be painted in the bone white color of the DA First Company. Although the pic shows my usual loadout for this model, I made the arms swappable so it can take any weapons. I had to use the fancy-looking fist to help distinguish the model from my other dreads (once it's painted it'll stand out easily enough, though).

I reckon you're on the money with the naming conventions there, mate. Your finished Inceptors look pretty sweet, though. What's next? (aside from the Venerable Dreadnought)

I'm quite interested in seeing what the bits that come in the standalone kits come to and seeing what perhaps one kit can supply to the starter set models. I've been working on making three of my own 3rd Edition DA squads legal in the last week, but more on that later!

@Azazelx: Thanks, next up are the Lieutenants! I'm painting all the Primaris Space Marines from Dark Imperium before I do anything else, although I may interrupt that or rather do something else simultaneously for Paradigm's monthly painting comp. As to your other point, it will be interesting to see how the actual kits of these models compare to the starter set models.

I'm still here, just have slowed down my progress a bit due to being tired lately and not getting much sleep. I'm finally getting somewhere on the Primaris Lieutenants, so here's where they are at right now:

I still have a few small details to basecoat, plus some touchups on the green armor and of course the one guy's skin. Hopefully I can get all that done by tonight.

I've also decided that I need one more Plague Marine with a plasmagun. I put together some stuff from the Chaos Space Marines kit including the Nurgle shoulder pad and head and the champion body, and a plasmagun from the Raptors kit and made this:

He fits in okay with the other Plague Marines, but if you look closely he's definitely a runt compared to the Dark Imperium ones. Once they are all painted and put in a squad together I don't think most people will be able to tell a huge difference, at least in size.

More to come, so stay tuned!

All the Primaris stuff looks great. I especially like that you have spiced up the Lieutenants with the Dark Angel bits. It is just a little bit of differentiation, but it goes a long way to making them seem like individuals.

@youwashock: Welcome to the blog, and thank you very much! I knew I had to do something to make the Primaris guys look more like Dark Angels rather than just "Green Marines". The backpack icons, and a couple of other small bits on the Captain and one of the Lieutenants, served that purpose well without taking much effort at all.

No real progress to show on the Lieutenants at the moment, but I do have some cool news. One of my two game stores had their Summer Market Day today, with about a dozen people selling some of their old gaming stuff. Some of them had some 40k items, and I managed to snag these for a total of $40:

I'm not sure they are old enough to call "Oldhammer" but they go back to 3rd Edition at least. The box on the left was an exclusive 25th anniversary set with a bunch of great heroes, including Marneus Calgar, Azrael, Logan Grimnar, Commander Dante, The Emperor's Champion, and a couple of limited-edition Captains. The other set is a very basic Assault Squad, and I mean very basic. Fortunately that works for me as I need some cheap jump pack troops, and it's cool to have the old box art. I remember seeing boxes like this in a couple of hobby shops back in the day (before I knew I'd ever be interested in the game).

When I got home I just had to put one of the heroes together, and I chose Logan Grimnar:

Bare metal minis don't photograph well, but I do love the way they feel in my hand. Nice and solid. Having another Azrael is okay with me since I want to paint him better anyways, and the heroes from the other chapters will be fun one-off painting challenges that will look great on display. If I were ever to get into those other Chapters (very unlikely) I'll already have their Masters ready to go. I am going to have to do something about banners for some of them, as none were included in the kit; just empty poles.

I really need to get working on the Lieutenants if I want to finish the Primaris stuff by the end of August as planned, so wish me luck!

Great score there, mate! I'm still using those very same assault marines and they're still pretty nice models that integrate perfectly well with the newer stuff. I'd never seen that hero box before to my knowledge, but its origin means that makes sense.

Wow. I've been gone a while again, but great work on your Dark Imperium stuff. I especially love those inceptors.

Your Dark Imperium stuff is looking good Zerg, still havent started on the Primarus yet. The plague marine looks good too, really hoping GW comes out with some Death Guard that are not mono pose.

@Azazelx: You're right about the Assault guys; the look and size of the models have not changed at all; only the extra bits have changed and gotten much better.

@brush: Welcome back! And thanks for the compliment, I personally think the Inceptors are the coolest Primaris models in the DI box.

@Yorkright: Thanks! As for the Death Guard, if the Primaris releases and previews are anything to go by, I'd say Death Guard will be getting some multi-part kits for Plague Marines at least, possibly new weapon options for Foetid Bloat-drones as well (but that's just a guess).

Finally, time for an update on the Lieutenants. They are coming along, albeit much more slowly than I'd like. Here's the latest photo:

With how tired I've been after work and stuff it's a miracle I've gotten this much done. I've also been distracted by a couple of special events in a MMORPG I frequently play (RuneScape, if you're curious). Add to that I've been distracted by wanting to assemble a bunch of my recently acquired new shinies and you can see why I've been a little scatterbrained lately. On the Lieutenants, they are actually mostly done at this point, just need some layers and highlights (shades are done). I might need to go back and do Agrax Earthshade on the chest emblems and purity seals, as having tried Seraphim Sepia for a change I'm not sure it's dark enough. I'll try highlighting first and see how I feel after that.

Speaking of those new shinies, I've been assembling my Space Wolves that I got a little while ago. Here's a squad of Grey Hunters:

These guys may be the Space Wolves' answer to the Tactical Squad, but the models are a hell of a lot busier. They'll be tough to paint well I think due to all the fiddly detail and stuff. Nothing I can't handle though.

I also assembled The Emperor's Champion from that Heroes box:

I'm putting that box away now because I don't need the distraction. These aren't models I'm likely to ever use anyway; they're mainly for display. I'm probably going to have to remove the Champion's sword and re-glue it anyway since I really didn't line it up that well.

Lastly, I've assembled five Khorne Bloodreavers (my counts-as Berzerkers):

These guys may actually get some paint alongside my Primaris Marines because they are my entry in Paradigm's monthly painting challenge for August, the theme of which is "Brutal". They'll be fun to paint, and I'll be sure to put some Blood for the Blood God on them!

That's all for now, hopefully I can focus and knock out those Lieutenants quickly so I can keep moving on. No more Space Wolves assembly until the Lieutenants and one other Primaris unit are done (that's my motivation).

Ooo you have been busy!

First off, Inceptors look wicked. You've really nailed the classic DA scheme on these excellent new models.

Progress on the Lieutenants is looking good too.

Nice haul on the SM Special Character models. Looking forward to seeing what you do with Dante

EDC

The Dark Angel Intercessors look very nice. I plan to do some up myself, but I want to finish (at least the Greenwing element of) my Dark Vengeance boxes before starting any new or exciting DA stuff. In the meantime I'll keep an eye on yours for inspiration and ideas to steal.

@EDC: Thanks very much! I'm pretty pleased with the results on the Primaris guys so far; the DA scheme seems to work for them, as I've gotten compliments both here on Dakka and at my FLGS. As for those characters, they are going to be on the back burner paintwise. I've got a lot to do on my main armies before I can mess with those guys unless I just really need a diversion.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm glad to be able to inspire someone, especially someone with your talent and years of experience.

Small update on the Lieutenants. I'm finishing them slowly but surely. I've gotten the decals on and have just a couple of highlights left:

I intend to have them completely done in time for a tournament on Saturday. I can then register them as a painted unit for the ongoing Konor campaign.

In other news, I've finished assembling the first squad of my Berzerkers:


And I've started assembling the project that will immediately follow the Primaris guys, a Dark Talon:

Not much to see now, but the completed plane will be cool! Despite how much I really want to use a Dark Talon in games soon, I am rigidly sticking to my Primaris Marines, with the only possible sidetrack being the Berzerkers because of the monthly painting challenge. If I don't push through the Primaris guys, they'll sit around forever and never get painted, and I really don't want that. So onwards and forwards with them!

Hope to have more progress to show soon!

Holy crap, did not realize I've reached 12 pages now. That's nothing by many Dakka blogs' standards, but for me it's pretty cool! I've gotten the Lieutenants done, so here are the final photos:



These photos don't really do the models justice. Some of the metallics look really flat where they look much better in real life. That said, I'm pretty happy with how these guys have turned out. So far so good on the Primaris guys. Feel free to throw a vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery! Now it's on to the second squad of Intercessors. Hopefully I can knock them out quick and move on so I can finish by the end of August, or at least by the end of the Konor campaign.

In other news, I just picked up 2 of the First Strike box set, just for the models. It was cheaper to do that than to cherrypick the sets I wanted 2 of. I wanted the Poxwalkers, Plague Marines and Reivers; pricewise I got $10 off of those by buying the boxes, plus some free Intercessors. And I could potentially use the box lid terrain features in casual games if I wanted to.

To all my loyal readers of this blog, thank you for the continual interest and encouragement. It has really helped to keep me going on this project! I hope to have more cool stuff to show very soon, so stay tuned!

Nice job on the Lieutenants.

EDC

Yeah nice work. The completed Dark Angels definitely look the part!

I'm planning to grab a couple of First Strikes as well for the models.

Nice work on the LTs. I like the DA bling on them. I’m mulling over thoughts about putting together at least one normal power armor LT myself, and trying to figure out how to make him look like more then a sarge, but not a captain. You have a good mix with these guys.

@EDC: Thanks!

@Azazelx: Thank you! Definitely a good buy getting 2 First Strike boxes for the models. The individual Easy to Build kits cost enough that if you buy 2 boxes its cheaper that buying 6 of the kits (which I wanted anyway), plus I get some "free" Intercessors. You get enough of the Reivers to make a squad of 5 plus an extra sarge, enough Intercessors to do the same thing, same story for the Plague Marines (plus Blight Launchers, which is cool!), and you can never have enough Poxwalkers. Certainly a good buy if you play both Marines and Death Guard.

@Nevelon: Thanks! I wanted my models to look like Dark Angels, and not just Green Primaris Marines. I like the stock models just fine, but I figured a little bit of DA-specific bling would be appropriate, and a lot of the locals around here seem to like how the models turned out, so I guess I got it right.

Finally got to work on my second squad of Intercessors. They are fully basecoated other than the sergeant's skin:

I'll probably basecoat the skin and then shade all the details; the armor is already done other than some edge highlights.

In other news, I've been trying to assemble a Primaris Repulsor, but the kit is one of those where if you don't get the parts lined up just right to within a micrometer, it doesn't go together right. So I'm going to have to haul out the ProCreate putty and fill some ugly gaps where the hull parts are supposed to fit together. I thought GW was past these fit problems with their newer kits, but I guess not. Oh well, the model will still look awesome in the end.

Hopefully I can knock out these Intercessors quick. I'm way off the pace at this point if I want to get all the Dark Imperium Primaris models done by the end of August. I think I may just try to get them all done by the end of the Konor campaign instead.

I like the LTs. For some reason they gave me a flashback to the cover for the 1st edition of Space Marine. Awesome old-school Fangorn art vibe.

Man, you're really cranking these out, and with great paint jobs as well.

The Intercessors are looking fine so far. And yeah, I just ordered 2 sets of First Strike today.

@youwashock: Thanks! I think GW was trying to tie a lot of older stuff together with the new when they designed the Primaris marines, so I'm not surprised if they evoke images of older artwork.

@Josh: Thanks! I wish I could crank faster!

@Azazelx: Thanks! Have fun with your First Strike sets; I sure enjoyed putting them together. I will say be careful with the Poxwalkers; a couple of them have parts that really don't want to push fit together at all; be prepared to cut off the stud things and just glue them instead.

So, a lot has been happening but not too much with the Intercessors, I'm afraid. I've gotten their details shaded and the sergeant's skin basecoated, but not much else. I just haven't been able to motivate myself to paint them lately; I'm not sure why.

Instead, I've been assembling stuff like a madman. I've gotten all of the First Strike minis put together except for a couple of the Primaris guys (because I didn't need the extra sergeants). Here are some pics of these models:
First, the Plague Marines:

I really wanted these guys because they include Blight Launchers. The sculpts are very busy and will be a real challenge to paint well, but I think I can handle it. I actually built both Champions, but the first had some unsightly gaps where the glue dried before I could push the parts together good. Glad I had an extra one!
Next, we have some Poxwalkers:

These models bring my total Poxwalker count to 32. I've got some spare Cultist bodies that are missing some arms that I will probably sculpt some tentacles for to round out my Poxies to an even 40.
And on the Primaris side, we have some Intercessors:

The one on the far right is not actually from First Strike, but rather the free mini from the "Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000" book. He's actually the same sculpt as one of the First Strike guys, but I'd rather have three like him than two with the little auspex thing honestly.
Finally, here are the Reivers:

I look forward to painting these. The skull masks look badass, and the unit looks like a lot of fun to use in-game!

Just because I haven't been working on my Intercessors doesn't mean I'm not going to paint. I figured maybe I need to paint something completely different, so I'm going to see how far I can get on these Bloodreavers today:

I've set aside all the paints I should need, and the models are primed and ready. If I get them finished today somehow, tomorrow I'll put up some pics. If not, I'll put up a WIP shot or two tomorrow and finish them ASAP so I can get back to the Intercessors. Hopefully I'll be ready to get back to painting power armor again by then.

Can't wait to see what these guys look like when you are done with them!

@shaso: Me neither, thanks for the encouragement!

So, I didn't finish the Bloodreaver Berzerkers yesterday, but I think I made pretty good progress (at least for my usual pace) in one day. Here's where they are at as of this morning:

Still got plenty more to do on them starting with the basecoat for the brass trim. There's loads of that brass trim on the weapons, so that'll take a while (like all those leather straps did, not to mention all the little belt buckles everywhere...), but I'll get it done. Then I've got to touch up the black areas like the horns on the helmets and the boots, and then I can start shading. The skin is mostly done already; I decided to do a heavy drybrush instead of trying to highlight all those muscles the hard way (tried that on one guy, gave up quick!). The effect actually works okay, but not perfect, but way easier than just about any other way. I still need to highlight the scars, but that will be relatively easy. Hopefully I can finish them today, otherwise I'll do it tomorrow after the total eclipse.

I'm finally done with the basecoats on these guys. Here's the latest WIP shot before shading:

Plenty of work still to go on these models. I thought I could finish them quickly. I obviously underestimated the amount of detail and how long it would take to pick it all out. It's turned into a bit of a slog. Maybe it's the fact that I've never really tried to do 10 models at once; I usually break squads down into groups of 5 for painting.

The total eclipse was a lot of fun and very spectacular despite the haze in the sky. We barely missed having it completely covered by clouds, so I'm just happy I saw totality at all. There's nothing quite like it, so if you ever get a chance to see a total solar eclipse, don't pass it up!

Well, I finally got those Berzerkers done, it only took about a week longer than I planned... Still, better late than never, right? Here are the pics, note that the way I've got the minis divided in the pics is because some of them are my final photos in the monthly painting challenge:
First, here's a shot of the entire squad:

Here are a couple of shots of the Champion:

Here's the guy holding the Icon of Wrath:

Here are some shots of the regular joes:


And finally, here's a shot of the ones that are my entry in the aforementioned painting challenge:

I had loads of fun painting these guys! They aren't my best work, but I think they turned out fine. The only part I'm unhappy with is the Icon; I think I went way overboard with the Golden Griffon drybrush and ended up basically coating the whole thing in that color. Oh well, it still looks okay. These models are packed full of detail; plastic models have definitely improved over the years and that detail is the reason they took so long to paint (takes time to pick out all the little belt buckes, Khorne symbols, straps, skulls, etc.). Please feel free to rate these guys in the Dakka Gallery!

Edit: I almost forgot to include my fluff justification for having these bare-chested barbarian models alongside my other Chaos Marines. They are feral tribesmen from a planet close to the Eye of Terror who after being visited by a Herald of Khorne have started brutally battling each other and openly worshipping Khorne. In reward, Khorne has enhanced their physiology to where they can take tremendous punishment before dying (their skin, muscles and bones together are almost as resilient as any power armor). They have since been found by Kharn the Betrayer and recruited to his forces, where they continue to carve a bloody swathe through the galaxy in the name of the Blood God. I know it's a stretch, but the models' weapons are great analogs for the actual Berzerkers' weapons (chainswords and chainaxes) and the guys themselves are much bigger than Cultists or Guardsmen, being about the same size as a Space Marine (but definitely not as big as a Primaris Marine).

Now that I've painted something other than power armor I'm ready to get back to the Primaris Marines. I was feeling some serious burnout, and I think it was very helpful to step back and do something else for a little while. Hopefully I can finish my partially done Intercessors very quickly and get on to the rest of them. After they're done, I may start tackling the Death Guard half of Dark Imperium in preparation for the Death Guard release.

Those are some wicked looking models. I really like how you picked out the scars.

Will you use these for 40K exclusively? If so, have you considered adding some SF bling to them? It's a little late for that, admittedly...

The Bloodzerkers came out really nicely. If you're wanting to touch up the icon, you could easily give it a wash with thinned down brown, dark green, or nihliakh oxide (for three quite different effects).

@Josh: Thanks! The scars were something I really wanted to stand out, as it shows that these guys have been in some fights! I didn't add any sci-fi specific stuff to them so that I'd have the option to run them in AoS in the future (although I currently do not play that game). I really considered adding a Space Marine helmet to a couple of the bases, or maybe a discarded bolter or Tau pulse rifle or something. Maybe I'll add some of those things later, or at least on my other squad of these guys once I get around to painting them.

@Azazelx: Thanks, and thanks for the suggestion on touching up the icon. I might do that in future; right now I'm just trying to knock out more models.

I'm finally back to work on my Dark Imperium guys, with the second Intercessor squad very near to completion. Here's the latest WIP shot:

The decals are on; now I've just got a couple of edge highlight colors to add, the red on the eye lenses, and the Sergeant's skin to finish, plus the bases of course.

I'm probably going to go ahead and start on the Captain even before these guys are done, as I'm way behind where I wanted to be on these models. I'm hoping to start on my Death Guard models before the codex drops, although at this point that may be a forlorn hope. And yes, I will be getting the new Mortarion model when it is released as well, so look forward to seeing me paint that in the future (probably before the year is out!).

This month's theme in the monthly painting challenge is "Armor Up", so I'll be doing a Razorback for my Dark Angels. Since the Primaris Captain is just one model, I'll probably do them simultaneously, although I expect the Captain to be a lot quicker since he's smaller (which is good because then I'll move on to the Hellblasters). I hope to do a better job of keeping up with my painting and this blog over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates.

Nice work on the DA Primaris so far. My own Primaris have completely stalled out, and I probably won't get back to them until I've cleared the decks of the other stuff I started, but i's great to see yours in DA colours, especially since I haven't decided how to allocate mine yet. Make sure you share the finished products as well.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I hope you can get back to your Primaris guys soon. I've been enjoying seeing your take on the Unforgiven, especially the older models. And don't worry, you'll see my finished models here if nowhere else!

Okay, I'm done with the second Intercessor squad from Dark Imperium:


I'm not as happy with how these guys turned out. I don't think I did as good a job as I could have with the edge highlighting on the armor because I hurried and thus missed some parts. I also experimented with putting some Agrax Earthshade in some of the grass tufts on the bases; it didn't really work well. And when I went to add the transfers, let's just say some mistakes were made and I had to use a couple of replacements from older kits that don't look nearly as good (not easily visible in the photos). Still, they are at least tabletop standard, so I can move on to other models, namely the Gravis Company Master and the Razorback I'm getting ready to paint for the monthly competition. I really want to finish him before the end of the Konor campaign (so, Monday), but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I'll certainly give it the old college try, though!

Those guys look just fine to me-- better than tabletop. Personally, I can't see any flaws that can't be touched up. Can't wait to see the Company Master.

Really solid work on the DA Zerg, cant wait to see how DG turn out.

Another good looking squad. Looking forward to seeing the Gravis.

@Josh: Thanks, that's very kind of you to say. I'm usually my harshest critic when it comes to my models. Way too many that I called finished and took pictures and then said, in the words of Homer Simpson, "D'oh!" when I realized I missed something or got paint where it shouldn't have been.

@Yorkright: Thanks! I hope to get to the Death Guard ASAP, but I'm going to slog my way through the rest of my DI Primaris marines first.

@youwashock: Thanks!

Time for a WIP shot of the Gravis Company Master. He's not nearly as far along as I had hoped, but I was busy over the weekend with stuff, including a 40k tournament. Here's where he's at right now:

Got the armor all done, as well as the white on the back symbol and the silver metallics, and the gold is basecoated in Retributor Armor gold. I love that color, so much more vibrant and shiny than regular Balthasar Gold. I hope to make more progress very soon, as I'm chomping at the bit to get to my Death Guard models. And yes, I've already preordered Mortarion from my FLGS, along with the Death Guard codex.

In other news, I finally got around to assembling the Forge World XV88-2 model for my Tau army. I got it from a friend over a year ago I think along with parts for a second one (but missing some bits). Pretty sure it's a recast based on how there's more than one color of resin parts, but oh well. Here it is, waiting its turn for some primer:


I also went to my other FLGS this afternoon and picked up a new paintbrush as well as a couple of Reaper Bones miniatures to use as Malefic Lords in my Chaos army:

Okay, this picture is garbage, but one of them is a sorcerer with flames arching over his head (with faces in the flames), perfect for representing a Chaos psyker. The other is a female wizard who will make a decent counts-as Malefic Lord (or Malefic Lady!). Yes, I expect Malefic Lords to get a nerf soon, but as cheap as the models were I couldn't resist. I just hope reports of how hard it is to prime Bones are exaggerated.

That 40k tournament I mentioned earlier did not go well for me at all. I ran a combined World Eaters and Alpha Legion list, and lost all of my games. I faced an Ultramarines list with Guilliman first, followed by a Chaos soup list with 2 Iron Warriors Sorcerers, 3 30-man Cultist squads, like 8 Malefic Lords, three units of Nurglings, and over 900 points of summoning reserves that all ultimately was used to drop Slaanesh heralds. Like 20 Smites a turn once the Heralds dropped. The third opponent was a Guard gunline that just chewed up the Rhinos that my Berzerkers were riding in and then most of the Berzerkers themselves. I clearly need to rethink my Chaos strategy as far as list building, because that was my worst tournament outing in a very long time. I just pulled difficult opponents for all my games and my inexperience with my army really showed. I do like the stratagems and stuff that Chaos Marines have access to, and at least that first game was very fun and ultimately very close as well.

The Gravis captain looks promising so far. I've been thinking about building one myself in DA livery, and how to best go about kitbashing him to my satisfaction.

So.. uh... keep going on yours. I need the inspires!

@Azazelx: Thanks for the encouragement, I'll certainly try to get him done soonish!

I'm making some progress:

Next up will be shading and highlighting the cloak. After that he's basically done, needing only some touchups on some parts and the transfers, plus of course his base. Getting to the underside of the cloak I ended up making kind of a mess, so some cleanup will be required (nothing I can't handle).

I still haven't even started on that Razorback yet. I'd better hop to it if I want to have it done for the painting challenge. I probably could have gotten away with using the Captain himself as my entry, as he is wearing armor, and it's bigger than most Marines' armor at that. I do really want to do a vehicle, as I haven't done a SM vehicle in a long while.

the captain is coming along. I suggest adding more reds before shading to the cape for increased depth.

Looking good. I like the cape color against the armor. Good choice. I like the addition of the icon, too.

@cormadepanda: I would have done that, but I'm afraid that if I try to get too fancy with the blending and stuff I'll end up making the model worse rather than better. Eventually I'll start trying those advanced techniques. Your suggestion is still appreciated!

@youwashock: Thanks! I like the way it looks too; I wasn't sure if magenta would look good with the green at first, but once I tried it I was very happy. And I'm definitely happy with the icon; makes the model look more Dark Angels-y (is that a word?), which is what I was aiming for.

I'm calling the Company Master in Gravis Armor done at this point, here are the final pics:


I'm satisfied with how he turned out, although as always I see places I probably could have improved. The only thing I'm really not very happy with is how the highlights on the back of the cloak came out; I need to learn to paint fine line highlights better. Maybe I should have just stuck with trying to drybrush it, but I wanted to experiment with actual edge highlighting. I clearly need practice.

Next up will be the Hellblaster squad. I've been looking forward to these, as I just absolutely love the look of plasma weapons. I hope I can make them look really awesome!

In other news, I picked up Mortarion and my Death Guard codex, and I've started assembling the big guy. Not much to show there yet, but soon I can show some assembly WIP shots. As I've said, he's gonna wait a little while for painting because I want to paint some regular Death Guard first to get the feel for how to make them look good. Then I'll be ready to tackle the Primarch. As expensive as that model was, I really want to be sure and get it right. When I get to work on it, you'll see it right here. In the meantime, stay classy DakkaDakka!

Gravis Cap came out cool. I wish I could boast half as many completed Primaris marines as you.

Captain looks good, I think your skills are good enough to try some of the more advanced techniques. Excited to see what you are planning next to tackle.

Dark Angels looking spot on!

@youwashock: Thanks! I've been cranking these out faster than I usually paint, but it still isn't fast enough for my tastes. I really want to get these guys all done so I can move on to Death Guard!

@Yorkright: Thanks for the vote of confidence. I do want to learn to do more advanced effects at some point, but I'm always afraid that I'll take too big of a step and end up screwing up. I guess I need to man up and just do it and consider screwing up part of the learning process if it happens.

@shasolenzabi: Thanks, and welcome back to the blog!

I'm making some progress on the Hellblasters:

Most of the base colors are down, with the blue plasma glow and the black armor seals and details remaining to be painted, plus the sergeant's bald head. I've got a day off work tomorrow, so I hope to make some progress then.

I'm also working on assembling Mortarion:

I'm thinking I may go ahead and fully assemble him before painting, although it's against my better judgment. If it worked for my Bloodthirster last year, I'm sure it'll be okay for this guy. He's going to be interesting to paint no matter how I do it. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

More to come soon, I hope!

Yeah that captain is very nice. OK, I'm going to go out and clip off my Gravis Captain parts today.

I was considering getting Morty but hes sold out now - I'll have to wait a few weeks I guess. You're barrelling along on those Primaris!

@Azazelx: Thanks! I look forward to seeing your Primaris marines. If they look as good as all those retro Dark Angels you've been doing recently, all your viewers are in for a treat!

Time for a little update. I'm making slow progress on my Hellblasters; there's just way too much happening to distract me lately. Here's where they are at right now:

I went ahead and shaded the guns, leather equipment pouches and metallics before cleaning them up because I'm going to have to repaint them anyway to brighten up the colors, so the little paint mistakes will be covered up and this will save me a step. I think I'm going to do one more drybrush on the plasma coils, with actual White Scar instead of just Ulthuan Gray. I feel they need to be just a little brighter.

In other news, one of the aforementioned distractions was the Start Collecting: Chaos Space Marines box I bought not too long ago. I already built the Terminator Lord from it, but over the last couple of days this happened as well:

Now I have a Helbrute with all the options instead of being stuck with just the Dark Vengeance ones. I magnetized it so that I can use every option except the hammer (which I'd likely never use anyway). All I had to magnetize were the shoulder joints; the right arm guns all stay in place well enough without even needing magnets, although you could easily put magnets in there if you wanted to. Personally I like the Scourge/Fist combo that I've seen referred to as a "Zangiefbrute". I'm not sure whether I'll paint this model to go with my Death Guard or my regular CSM.

I need to hurry up on these Hellblasters, I'm near the finish line on my DI Primaris guys; no letting up now!

He looks scary!

@shasolenzabi: He sure does! I definitely want to try that weapon combo (Scourge/Fist) as it'll really smash stuff in CC.

Progress continues to be slow on the painting front. Just lack of motivation really. Anyhow, I have finally made a little bit of progress, mainly some cleanup and adding the transfers to the Hellblasters:

I still have to put gloss and then flat coat over the transfers to seal them in. I also have yet to finish the Sarge's skin (just a layer and highlight to do) and add some red glaze to the eye lenses on the other guys. Plus the bases. Then I can finally move on to the final Primaris model, the Ancient.

I have been busy assembling stuff still. Most recently, my order from Spellcrow arrived, so I was able to build some Noise Marines. I ordered their Mixed Sonic Guns packs (2 of them), so that I would have the 8 Sonic Blasters and 2 Blastmasters that I needed, and to my surprise and delight they even threw in two sets of their Pleasure Knight heads, very appropriate for devotees of Slaanesh, so I used those on my Noise Marines. Here are the assembled models:

I even got to try them out in a game earlier today, but unfortunately as happens often with brand new models, they got killed before they could really do anything. I played them wrong really, so next time I hope to give them a fair test.

Lastly, I recently bought a lot of older Space Marine models from an acquaintance who happens to be the assistant property manager of my apartment complex. She had played Warhammer 40k years ago with her brother and now no longer wanted her models, so I was able to acquire them cheaply from her. The reason I got them so cheap was due to the extremely poor condition of the models, especially the paint. I believe they are salvageable, but they will take some serious work, beginning with some stripping of the extremely thick paint. The models include a metal Captain, a Techmarine, an Apothecary, Standard Bearer, 2 10-man Tactical Squads, a 5-man Tactical Squad, a 5-man Terminator Squad (the old smaller ones), a Land Speeder, and a Land Raider. They are painted Ultramarines, but I'll be most likely stripping them and using them as a core for a Blood Ravens force. The Land Raider may end up serving my Dark Angels, though. I also got a rulebook that I believe is from 4th edition (meaning I now own every rulebook from 4th-8th edition!) and an older-model GW carrying case as part of the deal, so I'm happy with it! I'll post pics of the appalling condition of the models in my next update or two, but I don't know how quickly I'll get around to stripping and refurbishing them considering the amount of other projects in my queue right now.

I hope to have final pics of the Hellblasters soonish, so look forward to those!

Nice score there mate, and the Noisemarines look intriguing. I'll go have a look at Spellcrow's site after I finish typing this...

Keep on plugging away on the DAs. I'm doing the same. Not getting a lot done at once, but trying to keep some progression happening at least.

Staying productive is the hobbyist's eternal struggle, it seems. Curious to see the job-lot Marines. Dark Angels still coming along nicely, too.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm almost there with the DI Primaris guys; just one more to go! Definitely have a look at Spellcrow's site; they have lots of cool aftermarket bits and aren't too terribly expensive.

@youwashock: Indeed it is. Nice guys like you and others who occasionally chime in on my blog is part of what helps me stay at least somewhat on task. It is much appreciated!

Finally got the Hellblasters knocked out:


I'm very happy with how these came out. I finally have a method for doing plasma coils that I'm happy with. I did notice after I took the pics that one of the guys has some paint damage on the end of his gun; fortunately it'll be an easy fix with some Leadbelcher paint. Probably happened when I dropped that model onto my desk accidentally. Anyway, feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka Gallery!

As promised, here are some pics showing the sad state of those recently acquired Ultramarines models. I didn't photograph every single Marine, but enough of them that you will get the idea of what I'm up against with this lot. Here are the pics, may the Emperor have mercy:



As you can see, thick paint and random decals everywhere! I just hope Isopropyl Alcohol does the job okay; I really don't want to have to use a stronger solvent with nastier fumes. I guess I could get myself some Simple Green if necessary though. As I said before, I'm not likely to do much with these right away; in fact it may be next year before I'm ready to mess with them. Lots of other stuff in the queue first.

Next up will be the final model from the Dark Imperium Primaris Space Marines: the Ancient. I'm really looking forward to tackling that banner, so stay tuned for that!

Those Hellblasters are terrific. You really nailed the glowing plasma coils.

Isopropyl alcohol should work fine on those models, assuming they were painted with acrylics.

@Josh: Thanks! I'm just happy the coils turned out well so that I have a decent method for doing more of them in the future. I love the look of plasma weapons! And those other models were indeed painted with GW acrylics, so it's good to know Isopropyl will work on them. I may strip a couple of them over the weekend just as kind of a proof of concept. Like I've said, not a rush item at the moment.

I'm making good progress on the Ancient. Pretty much all of the base colors are down at this point, so there'll be some cleanup and then it'll be on to shades. Here's a quick WIP shot:

I'm not real sure about how to handle the laurel branches on the banner. Right now I'm going with Castellan Green, but there's not enough contrast between them and the Caliban Green background on the banner. I considered going with gold on the leaves, or white, or a lighter green. I may yet switch to gold, as it will match well with a lot of the other decoration on the banner. I'll sleep on it and make a decision later. Here's hoping I can get this guy done fast, and yes, there will be at least one full group shot of the Primaris Marines.

With all the green you have, I’d go gold on the banner.

Nive work on the hellblasters. The plasma coils are exceptional, very nice work there.

Seeing all those Ultras takes me back. That command squad box remains one of my favorite collections of minis. And the gear on that captain doesn’t suck for the first time in decades! Be sure you include a little homage to their origins after you strip and repaint them. Honor the battle-gear of the dead. To not would risk angering the wargear, and that could impact their performance on the table.

And don’t do anything untoward with that sticker banner. That’s the Ultramarine 3rd company banner there, scourge of xenos. You can steal our troops, but don’t disrespect out colors.

The ancient is coming along nicely, and the helblasters really rock. Nice effect on the plasma.

My goodness you have been busy since I last checked in. Dark Angels are looking great, really like the hellblasters their guns are spot on for the plasma coils.

Beautiful blue plasma...

Oh, sorry. I'm back. H-blasters look great. I also suggest going for gold on the banner.

@Nevelon: Great advice on the banner, and as you'll see in this post I chose to heed it and it works! And thanks for the compliment on the Hellblasters, I'm glad you like them! As for the Ultras, I'm looking forward to working with those models, although as I said they'll probably be Blood Ravens when all is said and done. That nice sticker banner will perhaps be given to a friend who plays Ultramarines, so that it can continue to be used to serve the Emperor. As for an homage to the origins of the gear, I'll have to think about that one...

@Theo: Thanks!

@York: I'm trying to stay busy, I just wish I didn't get distracted/tired all the time so I could knock more models out! Thanks for your support!

@youwashock: So you like plasma too, huh? Thanks for the compliment and confirming me and Nev's thoughts on the banner; gold does look better!

Little update, I've definitely made some progress:

He's actually very nearly finished at this point, just needs his decals and the red on his eye lenses, plus the base and perhaps a couple more edge highlights in certain areas. I put the word "Inclemens" on the banner, which in Latin roughly means "unmerciful" as that is the name of the Dark Angels Third Company.

Well, it's finally happened, the moment I've been waiting for and hoped to have happen a while ago, but better late than never as they say! The Primaris Ancient, and thus the whole Primaris Space Marine half of Dark Imperium, is finished! Here are the pics of the Ancient:





I really love this particular model, although I think I could have made the banner look a little better. I haven't really painted much text before, so I'm actually happy with what I put on the banner considering it's only my first real attempt at something like this.

I know everyone will be asking for this, so let me go ahead and do it. Here's a group shot of the entire Dark Imperium Primaris Space Marine army, painted as members of the Dark Angels Third Company, the Unmerciful:

It has been a fun painting journey getting these guys done. It's the first time I've really stuck with a larger project like this to completion. Seeing them all together really makes me feel proud, like I actually accomplished something. Maybe it's nothing to a lot of veteran painters out there, but for me this is an achievement!

In other news, I got myself a Plagueburst Crawler and assembled it over the past couple of days:

I think that of all the Death Guard models released by GW, this is my favorite, even over Mortarion. Such a cool-looking machine! I can't wait to paint it, although it's not a huge priority for painting at the moment.

Next up in my painting lineup will be 10 of the Dark Imperium Poxwalkers for the monthly painting challenge. Maybe I'll go ahead and do all of the Dark Imperium Death Guard models like I did with the Primaris Marines, then I can do a group shot of them, and then a really fancy shot of the two forces facing off against each other. I know the Death Guard models will be much more challenging to paint and will probably take longer, but I feel I'm up to the challenge!

Very nice work. It must feel great to be able to call a project finished.

The Hellblasters look great!

I see what you mean about the marines, though if you have any difficulty with the isopropyl, Simple Green is a pretty good stripper as well, given a good soak.

Dark Angels banner has come up really well in the end, and the group shot of the DI set brings them together wonderfully. What's next for the Dark Angels?

Nicely done. It’s always great to hit a milestone and check that box off the to-do list. Text on the banner is well done. You use a brush or a pen?

Congrats on the Primaris completion. I'm as green as your Angels with jealousy.

@Josh: Thanks, and yes does feel great to actually finish something. I've finished squads and plenty of individual models before and that's something, but having a whole cohesive force like this done in a (for me) relatively short time is very nice.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I am considering Simple Green as a possible stripper since I can get it relatively easily. As for what's next, I'm working on putting a Repulsor together as well as a couple of Dark Talons.

@Nevelon: Thanks! For the banner, I used a very fine brush (Army Painter's "The Psycho" brush, to be exact).

@youwashock: Thanks!

Well, it's nice and all to finish those Primaris Marines, but now it's time to switch gears and start on my Death Guard. Here's a WIP shot of my first group of Poxwalkers:

All I've done is the skin, hence the mess on other parts of the models. They'll look better once I at least block in the other colors. The skin is completely done other than a few possible touchups. These make a nice change from all that power armor, let me tell you!

In other news, I'm working on a Dark Talon. So far just the cockpit is done, but I'm putting together other subassemblies currently. Here's the cockpit:

I'm ultimately wanting to run an Air Wing detachment, so I've gotta get this one assembled and painted and then do another one.

I've also recently acquired some more metal Plaguebearers of Nurgle, bringing my total of those up to 30. This includes a Command section with an icon, instrument, and champion. No pics as bare metal doesn't photograph well (I've learned), but that's my most recent acquisition.

Hopefully I'll make more progress on the Poxwalkers soon. They've been fun to paint so far!

Congrats on the finishing the primaris, you did a fantastic job on them. Looking forward to your deathguard, Plague tank looks very cool may have to pick one up after I finish up my other projects.

Good work on the Primaris, it is always satisfying to see a faction from a big box set fully painted up and they look great as Dark Angels.

How are you finding Mortarion to construct? As for the Plagueburst Crawler I bought two, I found it a very easy model to make and love it equally.

And best of luck sorting out those Ultras...you are a braver man than I.

@Yorkright: Thanks! I'm definitely looking forward to tackling that Plagueburst Crawler, but it's a ways down in my painting queue. I've really got to knock out the pile of shame at some point.

@ListenToMeWarriors: Welcome to the blog! Thanks for the compliment! As for Morty, he's all built now except for the smoke that goes on his back, which I'm leaving off until I paint him. Not too hard to build, except for attaching the hoses that connect to the tank above his head. The parts around there did not want to fit right.

Small WIP update on the Poxwalkers:

Most of the base colors are down now, and I'm actually kicking myself on how I painted the skin. I should have added a lighter layer before shading, as now all my highlights are WAY too stark. I think I can use shades to darken them back down, but it's too late to fix entirely unless I want to strip the models and start all over (hint: I don't). I used two layers of Rakarth Flesh as the basecoat and then shaded over that first with Reikland Fleshshade with some other localized shades, and then highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh. I should have put down an all-over layer of Pallid Wych Flesh over the Rakarth Flesh to begin with and then shaded over that. Lesson learned for the next batch, I guess. Technically they recommend priming these guys in white, but I've never had much luck with white primers, hence the black.

Hopefully I can get more done on these guys soon. Just a couple of base colors left, then I can shade the clothing and horns and start highlighting them, followed by doing all the nasty little maggots crawling over the clothing. Lots of little details like that on these models, and that's awesome!

Poxwalkers are coming along nicely, I don't think they need to be lightened up a whole lot more. They are supposed to look plague ridden with rotting flesh and other nasty pustules. Looking forward to the next update.

Those Poxwalkers look good. I forget if you were the Dakkaite showing of Sedition Wars infected, but it looks like they'd fit in well with these guys.

@York: Thanks, I'm glad you think they look okay. The more I look at them the more I'm okay with their appearance as well, but I am still going to go lighter with the next batch when I eventually do them. If nothing else, it'll be easier to tell them apart whenever I run them as separate small units.

@Josh: Thanks, and I don't know anything about Sedition Wars, so that must be someone else. By the sounds of a unit called "infected", these guys would probably be a good fit with them assuming the scale was right.

Okay, way too long since my last update, but that's because I've been feeling some burnout (again...it's pathetic really, isn't it?). I've finally gotten every last base color down on the Poxies, so here's where they are at (not a lot of difference compared to my last WIP, but still some progress):

Next up will be to shade the non-skin parts all over with Agrax Earthshade, then do a few edge highlights, then do the bases, which I'm actually going to do with Astrogranite since that will contrast better with the lighter-colored miniatures (will be more noticeable when I do my light-green Plague Marines, next in my Death Guard lineup).

In other news, I've got a Dark Talon mostly assembled, and primed, ready for some paint, and I've also gotten my Repulsor fully ready for paint (primed with a few parts left off for ease of painting). I plan to do both of those models by the end of the year. The reason for that is that they may or may not be going with me when I go to Adepticon next year. That's right, yours truly is planning to attend a GT for the first time! My local play group is probably going to send a contingent of like a dozen guys including myself. So I want to be running Dark Angels again by January, and that means getting some of them painted. Either way, as far as the painting goes you'll see it all right here, so stay tuned!

Finally finished the first unit of Poxwalkers, so here are some pics of those:
First, a pic of the whole group of them:

Next, a bunch of pics of the A group, the ones that are my entry in the October painting challenge:



These ones turned out reasonably well, but there is a noticeable drop off in quality I feel in the next bunch, what I call the B group:


Basically I did them all at once, but because I rushed near the end I was kind of sloppy on some of them. I picked out the best ones to be my entry in the painting challenge, but overall they are all tabletop standard so I'm calling them done. I hope to do better on the others and take what I learned doing these to heart.

Next up, I'll get to work on the Ravenwing Dark Talon and/or the Repulsor, and I'll be doing the Dark Imperium Plague Marines as my November painting challenge entry. I think I'll have an easier time with them compared to the Poxies.

One last thought: with those Poxwalkers done, that puts me over my goal of 51 models for the year (exceeding last year's tally!). I'm stoked about that for sure. I wonder how high I can set the bar for next year, as I'm hoping to knock out even more stuff (and hopefully diminish the pile of shame some). I'll really have to beaver away at my Dark Angels to get ready for Adepticon next year.

Nice work there Zerg. The Poxwalkers will all blend in together as a mob, so I wouldn't be too caught up in individual models not quite being up to others.

As for your annual tally. I decided a couple of years ago to aim for 365 in a year (not expecting to get to it - which I didn't) but this also set me a hard target of simply getting more than the previous year's total completed. Ignoring the 365 aspect, I'd simply aim next year to better the total you got this year.

@Azazelx: Thanks, and I think you are right about how they will look when they are all together. That's the nice thing about hordes; each individual model doesn't have to be amazing. I will be looking to beat this year's total completed models next year.

While I'm intending to paint the Dark Imperium Plague Marines, I've gotten a bit sidetracked. Over the last three days or so (with a little bit of work each day) this has happened:

Still a few more base colors to block in, but definitely making progress. I'm painting the stasis bomb separately before I attach it to the fighter.

I hope to get started on the Death Guard guys soon, as I want to finish them by the end of the month. Hopefully I can knock out the flyer by then as well. Wish me luck!

Sadly, nothing much happening on the painting front lately. It's been a stressful couple of weeks. I may give up on doing the Plague Marines right now, as I'm just not feeling much inspiration to get them done. They are certainly cool models and I do intend to get them painted eventually, but since I'm putting my whole Death Guard army on hold for now, I think I'll probably shelve them until I come back to the army. Which means that Morty will also be moving down the queue. While I haven't been doing any painting since my last post, hence my lack of posting, I have gotten quite a few games in with my Chaos Space Marines. I had a tournament yesterday which thanks to some incredibly stupid play on my part didn't go terribly well. I don't know why I keep making such dumb mistakes in tournaments; when I play casual I do alright, and I definitely feel that in this latest tournament I had a pretty strong list, but it's like I leave my brain outside the door when I play tournament games. I'll get it figured out one of these days...

In other news, while I haven't been painting, I have been acquiring some new swag since I've had some extra money lately.

First, here are a couple of box sets I found relatively cheap on eBay:

I've been wanting both of these sets for a while now, but after seeing Celestine in action in a game against my friend I pulled the trigger on getting the Triumvirate (since I also want Greyfax). I also wanted to have at least one of each Assassin, so I went ahead and got Execution Force. I've got some board game loving friends who, while they aren't interested in playing 40k, might be interested in playing Execution Force. The other thing that influenced me to buy it was the fact that I really need more Chaos Cultists. I now have 57 of them, but I really still need more...

Also on eBay, I found these Chaos Marines, most of whom have special weapons (good for making Havocs or Chosen squads):

I love that whoever assembled these put one of the plasma guys in the "Oh god I hope it doesn't blow up" pose. The bare metal model on the far right is an old metal Sorcerer with a force sword. I did a little research and found that that sculpt is at least 20 years old, so that was a nice find. I needed at least one sorcerer that wasn't on a bike, so now I have one.

Finally, my FLGS was having a 20% off sale on their used model bins, so I dug around and found this:

The photo is garbage, but the model is a World Eaters Dreadnought from Forge World. I don't care for the weapon loadout, but since I scored it really cheap and I don't play World Eaters except in casual games I was happy to find it. I also bought a couple of squads of used Obliterators, but I didn't take a picture of them. I'm wanting to get a couple more units of those for my next tournament list. Also not pictured is my recently acquired Maulerfiend, which I got by splitting the kit with a friend who just wanted the Forgefiend guns for a kitbash.

In other other news, I actually assembled all of the Assassinorum: Execution Force models over the last three days (needed the cultists for the tournament). Here is a pic of them:

I may paint the assassins sooner rather than later, as one or more of them may make it into my Adepticon list. I might also need to build and paint Celestine for the same reason.

I hope to have some painting progress of some kind to report soon. Things have somewhat calmed down now, so I can get back to work on the Dark Talon if nothing else. Whatever I end up painting, you'll see it here!

Well, I lied, I am indeed pushing on with the Plague Marines as I can't think of anything else I want to paint right now. It's looking like I may indeed be bringing Chaos of some flavor to AdeptiCon next year (that's what my fellow team members are bringing), so I need to be mostly painting Chaos stuff anyway, although these guys will be unlikely to make my list other than perhaps for the Friendly tournament. Here's my latest WIP shot:

All I've done so far is the green armor and the metallics. I'll add a couple more base colors and then give the models a thorough shade of Agrax Earthshade to make them look grimy. Then I will start coloring in the details like tentacles and stuff. There are a lot of little details, so picking them all out will be a challenge. I think I can do it though!

Meanwhile, I've also assembled Inquisitor Katerinya Greyfax from the Triumvirate of the Imperium set:

She'll be fun to paint, although she's pretty low in the queue (especially with Adepticon just 4 months away). I've also begun assembling Saint Celestine, but I'll most likely paint her in pieces before doing the final assembly since it looks like the model will be fairly delicate when fully built.

That's all for now, hope to have more progress on the Plague Marines soon!

That's a nice Haul there, Zerg - and the Plaguemarines are coming along nicely, despite your reservations.

With all the heresy around here, you might want to bump the Saint and inquisitor up the queue a bit, on peril of your immortal soul...

Nice progress.

The Plague Marines are looking fine Zerg, as a fellow Deathguard player you really need to finish them up before any more of those foolish corpse followers.

@Azazelx: Thanks! Now that I've gotten started, progress has been much easier. Sometimes you just have to take that first step.

@Nevelon: Thanks! I'll have to take the risk on my immortal soul since those models you mentioned are low priority (was going to probably take Celestine to Adepticon, but since I'm going Chaos for that event...).

@York: Thanks, and I plan to!

More progress on the servants of Grandfather Nurgle:

I've gotten the main shade down all over them and also highlighted all of the main colors. The all-over shade really worked well to make the models look dirty and grimy. Next up will be the task of picking out all of the little tentacles and tongues, and these models have quite a few of those scattered everywhere.

In other news, a friend of mine recently gave me a pair of Chaos Rhino kits, minus a few of the bits that he needed for another project (very generous indeed). I've already assembled one of them:

This one, and the other one that I have yet to assemble, will be for my Alpha Legion and will ultimately be painted as such. I'm still trying to decide exactly how I'll achieve the Alpha Legion look for my guys. I'll probably do what I've seen a lot of people do and just paint them blue with green edge highlights. That will be easier to paint quickly with Adepticon coming up. I know I have like 4 months to prepare, but deadlines have a nasty habit of sneaking up and this isn't something I can cram for like a college exam.

For my last purchase of this pay period, I picked up a set of Blightlord Terminators for my Death Guard, and one of the new Citadel Painting Handles. So far I like the handle, but I don't really think it's all that practical for a batch of models. It'll come in handy for painting character models for sure, though.

Anyway, hope to have more progress to show soon! Thanks to everyone for chiming in with encouragement and advice, it really helps me stay motivated!

This will probably be my last WIP shot for the Dark Imperium Plague Marines before I finish them:

Only major detail left to do is the bone stuff (skulls, horns, etc.). Otherwise it's just a few highlights and the bases, plus a couple of random touchups where I goofed a little with the paint. For December, I may be painting something a bit...bigger.

Marines are looking nice and nurgly. Well done.

December is alway a rough month for big models. So many things going on. But godspeed if you think you can pull it off!

@Nevelon: Thanks! As for December, I know I'm taking a risk on attempting a big model, but since I might need it playable soonish, I figure it can't hurt to try even if I don't finish before the end of the month.

Well, after a lot of work with my fine detail brush and a few frustrated moments at different times as I found another detail here and there that I missed, I'm ready to call the Plague Marines finished. Here are the final pics:



I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. These models are full of disgusting detail and were very fun and challenging to paint. I recommend that anyone with any interest in 40k Nurgle stuff get the Death Guard half of Dark Imperium; the models are just amazing. Some people say that the models are too busy; I simply marvel at how much detail can be put on a plastic model compared to how much could be done in years past. I see the extra detail as a positive thing, so I hope GW keeps it up! Next up from Dark Imperium will probably be the two lesser Death Guard characters (the Noxious Blightbringer and Malignant Plaguecaster), but they will probably wait until after the new year as I've got other priorities for paint.

My very next thing may be a few Chaos Cultists that I will paint in Alpha Legion colors. It'll give me something relatively easy to do until December starts, when I'll commence on my entry for that month's painting challenge.

As for what I'm going to do, I was going to wait and announce it at the beginning of December, but what the hey, most of you have probably guessed it anyway. I'll be tackling Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard. With that model, I'm hoping to finish the year off with a big painting finale. I'm already well over my model count from last year, so I don't really need to pad out my numbers, and I might be bringing Morty to Adepticon, hence my main reason for wanting to get him ready for battle. While I paint the big guy, I might knock out a few small projects as I wait for layers to dry on him. Cultists and that sort of small stuff that I can bash out quickly and don't care if they look really good. Wish me luck, I'll need it if I want to get Morty done during the busy Christmas season.

I do love me some Death Guard, they turned out great Zerg. Looking forward to your take on Mortarion and the rest of the DG.

@York: Thanks very much! I hope my work on Mortarion won't disappoint. He's gonna be tough to get right.

As the Chinese say, "Even the longest journey begins with a single step", so I've gotten started with Mortarion. Not much to see yet, but here's a WIP shot anyways:

All I've done is put a couple of coats of Rakarth Flesh on the wings, and a couple of coats of Death Guard Green on the armor. Next up will be the various metallics. There are a lot of those details scattered across the model, so that will be a big step.

Today I actually visited both of my FLGS. I picked up my copy of Chapter Approved, as well as this guy:

I've been wanting to pick up Abaddon for some time, so now I have him. The FLGS had recently gotten a shipment of a bunch of clampack characters, so when I saw this guy I pounced.

At the other FLGS, I saw they had a sale table with a bunch of cool stuff on it. Hiding at the back of that table, marked 50% off, was this:

I had originally gone to that FLGS because I heard that they got some new Battlefoam stuff in, but when I saw this I couldn't pass it up. I can pick up more foam anytime, after all. I just couldn't say no to $75 for this amazing box. Now I've got a bunch of Mk. III marines, some Tartaros termies (which rumor has it Dark Angels will get access to), some Null Maidens, and some Custodes, plus the cool Wolf Lord and Ahriman models. I've got some Legion Autocannons that a friend gave me; they will go on some of these guys to make Havocs for my Alpha Legion. Indeed, most of the Marines will become Chaos Marines, although I may turn one squad into Space Wolves Grey Hunters.

More to come on Mortarion soon I hope. I hope to also get a few smaller models done at the same time, like some cultists. I ended up not doing any at the end of last month, choosing to actually start my proper bits box instead. Nice to be able to finally discard a few kit boxes that were taking up space. I've got a looooong way to go on that project.

wow, nice find on the BoP box. Looking forward to the nurgly goodness.

Good start on Mortarion, looking forward to the WIP pics. Lucky find on that BOP box, it is chock full of great mini's.

That Mortarion model is quite intimidating. Where do you start on something that elaborate? I'm looking forward to seeing it in progress and then finished.

@Nevelon: Yeah, it was an amazing find, hence why I could not pass on it. Rest assured there is plenty more Nurgle stuff coming, at least while I'm doing the big boy.

@York: Thanks! And yes, BoP has some really great stuff in it. At first I didn't care for the look of the Mk. III Marines, but now that I have them in hand they are growing on me.

@Josh: I'm following Duncan Rhodes' method for painting Morty, at least in which parts to paint in which order. I'll use a few different colors here and there, though. I figure tackling it will be like how you would eat an elephant: one bite at a time. I'm not going to rush it though, as I want to get my money's worth and I really want the model to look awesome when I bring it to tournaments and stuff.

Time for an update now that I've gotten the metallics basecoated:

I'm going to go over the armor and touch up any areas where I messed up the green, then it'll be time to shade the areas I've painted so far. Thus far it's been relatively easy to pick out the areas of color; as I get closer to done it'll get harder since I'll really have to be careful to avoid messing up finished parts.

Meanwhile, I've also been assembling some of the contents of Burning of Prospero. I assembled the two characters (Ahriman and Geigor the Fell-handed) as well as these guys:

These are going to be used as Havocs in my Alpha Legion army. I used the Legion Autocannons, but with a modification; the ammo hoppers that normally go on the backpacks are mounted directly on the guns. I was having trouble getting the belts to fit between the backpack and guns, and apparently that is a common problem with the autocannon set, so I stole an idea I found via Google and built the weapons as seen. They look awkward, but this is 40k, so practicality is out the window!

More to come soon, both on the BoP assembly and Morty!

Conversion for the ACs looks fine.

When I saw the Mk III spures I was struck by their brutality. These guys want to be rammed face first into the enemy. Not that they can’t work as devs, but that’s not their forte IMHO. Also, with the way the legs assemble, just with a simple pivot when glueing them together you gan get something closer to a running gait out of them.

Big guy is coming together nicely.

@Nev: I'm glad you like the Autocannons. I'm pretty pleased with them myself. I would have liked to be able to use them as intended with the ammo belts and all, but...eh. I think you're right about the brutality of them, but I've seen lots of people loading these models with Autocannons and other long-ranged weapons, so I imagine they'll work either way. I'm really looking forward to turning one of these squads into Grey Hunters for my Wolves.

Another update on Mortarion, and a WIP pic:

I've finished shading and highlighting all of the green armor and metallics, and I've gotten basecoats down on two of the fabric colors. I'll shade and highlight this fabric before I move on to the third fabric color, which will be pale off-white and blend into the smoke around the bottom. Getting that blend to look okay will be a real trick, but Saint Duncan Rhodes showed how to do it in his tutorial for painting the big guy, so I should be able to make it work even though I won't be duplicating the colors exactly.

In addition to getting more work done on Morty, I've gotten a couple more squads assembled from the Burning of Prospero set. First, here is another Havoc squad, with 3 Heavy Bolters:

I went ahead and gave the Champion the helmet head crest, which will work okay for Alpha Legion. I perhaps should have sourced bits online for another one of these Heavy Bolters to make a full unit of them, but honestly I won't be running these models often as Heavy Bolters are just not that great in-game IMO.

The other assembled unit is the Tartaros Terminators from the box set, which will be used in my Dark Angels Deathwing:

They'll look pretty cool in the bone white livery of the Dark Angels 1st Company, I think. I went with the Plasma Blaster on the sarge because I love plasma and the option was there. I also opted for the Reaper Autocannon because it is a better choice than a Heavy Flamer in most situations, especially for a deep strike unit like this.

I hope to be able to continue to get work done on Morty, and have more updates soon. It's been fun painting the model so far.

Mortarion looks great so far. That green and purple combo shouldn't work, but it does.

Mortarion is looking good and nurgly, are you going to finish him before the end of the month?

@Josh: Thanks! I wasn't sure about it at first either, as Duncan used a dark purple, but I like how mine turned out.

@York: Thanks! It's going to be close, but I'm still hopeful that I can get it done.

I'm making slow but steady progress. I've finished up the purple hood and red loincloth, and I've gotten basecoats on the white robe and the smoke/mist:

This is probably the hardest part, as I need to get the mist at the bottom to blend with the white fabric. I'll mostly be following Duncan's guide, but I won't run the mist colors as high on the model as he did (I think he overdid it personally). Reaching in to pick up the inner areas under the model has been a real pain in the butt, but I wanted to be able to use the model. Morty's going to his first tournament tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to assemble the Burning of Prospero models, although after these I'm stopping and I may start a secondary painting project (cultists or perhaps an Alpha Legion character or two) between coats on the big guy. Here are my assembled Adeptus Custodes:

I went with sword and board on these guys, as the extra durability will help protect the expensive models in games.

Here are the assembled Sisters of Silence:

These are the Witchseeker variant, with the flamers. They'll hopefully do some good work when I return to playing Imperial armies, probably after Adepticon. I will be picking up the new Dark Angels stuff tomorrow when I'm at the FLGS for the tournament. I've got the codex, a set of the dice, the robed Primaris Lieutenant, and a box of the Hellblasters on preorder there.

More to come on Morty (and more!).

Nice work on Morty indeed! I really want the guy but my money went towards DI Some AL dudes would be fun IMO, though i'm biased cause I love teal.

@Justaerin: Thanks! I think given the choice you made the right decision. DI is a better place to start if you're building Space Marines or Death Guard. You can always pick up Morty later. It's good to do some smaller DG models first and then try to tackle something really big and complicated like this. As for the Alpha Legion, mine won't be teal, but rather just blue with green details and highlights. I'm figuring on doing some kind of scale motifs on at least some parts.

Yet another update on the big guy, this time with not one but TWO photos:

I wanted to show the progress I'm making on both his body and robes as well as the wings. The wings just have a couple of steps left to call them done, although they've turned out a bit messier than I had hoped, and the rest of him is not far behind. I think I'm going to finish this month, even with Christmas coming up.

In other news, I picked up my Dark Angels codex, dice, Hellblasters, and the new Lieutenant model on Saturday while I was at the FLGS for a tournament. I went ahead and put the Lieutenant together, so here he is assembled:

He's going to be fun to paint. I've enjoyed doing all the Primaris models so far, but this one will be even more enjoyable for me because I love the Dark Angels robed power armor aesthetic.

I'm still trying to decide which Alpha Legion stuff I'm going to do as a secondary project, if any. I've got so much that needs done, I'm having trouble deciding where to start. I'll probably do something for next month's painting challenge, but I want to get started on something else now. I need to get cracking if I want to have a fully painted army in time for Adepticon.

Just a small update here in the very wee hours of Christmas morning (just past midnight local time). Work on Mortarion continues, with all but one of the major details at least basecoated:

Just got to basecoat and highlight the black cables and pipes, plus the flies in the smoke that goes on his back. Then I have to detail the base, which has a lot more detail than I thought (doh!). It's like Mortarion actually makes the very rocks and ground sick just by being there. Some slime, maggots and stuff to pick out, shouldn't be terribly hard, but I have no idea how it's all supposed to look. I guess I'll have to be creative. Fortunately, the vast majority of the model is indeed finished, and I'm happy with what I've done so far, with the possible exception of the wings. They've turned out somewhat blotchy, probably due to going way overboard with the shades. The only real way to fix it would be to just basecoat the wings again and start all over, and I'm absolutely not going to do that. To be honest they still look passable.

Still nothing doing on the Alpha Legion front, but I'm getting more stuff assembled. This time, it's a bunch of Nurglings that I got cheap on eBay recently:

These guys are actually going to be part of my next Chaos tournament list attempt, along with the Changeling, who I will have to pick up later. I'm hoping when the Daemon codex drops the trick I'm planning still works (Changeling protecting Tzeentch Obliterators). The Nurglings will be there to fill out a Battalion detachment and to hog the board (preventing deep strikes).

Still in the mail is the old metal Bjorn the Fell-handed model for my Space Wolves army. Got him cheap, so he'll be a late Christmas present for me to put together. I've never put together a metal Dreadnought before, so this will be interesting.

To all my friends here on DakkaDakka, I wish you a very Merry Christmas! Hopefully you all find lots of great hobby stuff under your trees and in your stockings.

Good news, everyone! I've finished work on Mortarion! He's now ready to lead the Death Guard into battle to spread Grandfather Nurgle's blessings to all the Imperium. Here are the final photos (I just had to do 7 of them because Nurgle):
First, a shot of the whole model:

Here are two shots of the front, one of the whole body and one focused on the face:

The face one is somewhat whitewashed despite me turning down the brightness on my camera. Not sure what gives on these close-up shots.
Next, shots of the sides of the model, featuring The Lantern and Silence:

Here is a shot featuring the smoke on his back, as well as the wings:

Finally, here's the base:

I'm actually very pleased with how this guy turned out. He was a lot of fun to paint, and in the games I've played with him he's been pretty fun to use. I feel like this model is a great way for me to cap off the year, as far as painting. I keep saying I'm going to do some other small models, but I keep being too busy. I've got a few days left in the year, and I really need to get to work on stuff for Adepticon, and now Morty's done, so no more excuses. Time to knock out some Alpha Legion stuff. Anyhow, feel free to vote for the pics of Morty in the Dakka Gallery, I'd really appreciate it.

Coming soon, I'll do a year end review of everything I painted in 2017.

Damn fine job there! Have fun spreading the plagues around. Looking forward to your recap. I need to sort my own out as well.

Awesome job on Mortarion, for me he was probably the most fun to paint of everything I did this year. You will have to tell me how does on the table so far I have not had a chance to run him yet.

Wow. That came out really nice. I'm amazed that you made the purple work with the pale green.

@Nev: Thank you very much for the kind words! He was a ton of fun to paint and pretty awesome to run in games.

@York: Thanks! He's been beastly on the table in most of the games I've played him in, although he did not fare very well against a Tau Commander spam list that went first against me.

@Josh: Thanks! I was a little worried that the more magenta color I chose for the hood would be too garish for this model, but it worked better than I thought. Now he matches my other Death Guard stuff better than if I had chosen a darker color.

Okay, it's time to take a little trip down memory lane and look back at what I did this year, hobbywise. I painted 65 models in all, which for me is amazing although there are plenty of people who do 200+ in a year. I'll get there eventually, I hope. I'd like to paint more than I buy for starters, though, as I bought a hell of a lot more than 65 models. That's what happens when I'm working on like 4 armies at once (Dark Angels, Tau, Chaos, and Space Wolves). More if you count small ally forces and sub-armies in Chaos (like Daemons and Death Guard). Anyway, here's a pic of everything I painted in 2017:

I actually didn't paint much big stuff this year, with only one vehicle and one monster (2 if you count Bobby G). But, I did not one but TWO Primarchs! In last year's review, I had painted more Tau than anything, but this year I only did one Tau model, and more Dark Angels than anything. Here's a breakdown of what I painted:
IMPERIUM OF MANKIND
Ultramarines
Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines
Dark Angels
DI Primaris Master in Gravis Armor
DI Primaris Lieutenant with Master-crafted Auto Bolt Rifle
DI Primaris Lieutenant with Power Sword
DI Primaris Ancient
2x DI Intercessor Squads (5 models each)
DI Hellblaster Squad (5 models)
DI Inceptor Squad (3 models)
Devastator Squad (5 models)
30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine
FORCES OF CHAOS
Death Guard
Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard
DI Plague Marines (7 models)
DI Poxwalkers (10 models)
Chaos Space Marines
Sorcerer on Bike with Stave
Sorcerer on Bike with Axe
Khorne Berzerkers (10 AoS Bloodreaver models)
Chaos Space Marines (5 models)
T'AU EMPIRE
Longstrike's Hammerhead Gunship
So now that I've gone over what I got done this year, let's look at my goals from last year and how well I did accomplishing those:
1) Paint more models than I did in 2016. That means 51 or more models. I got that one done, yay me!
2) Finish my partially painted models. This includes, but is not limited to, 3 more Dreadball convicts, a Nephilim Jetfighter, 5 Dark Angels Devastators, 3 Ravenwing Command Squad bikes, some Chaos Raptors, a Land Raider (may not happen as I've screwed it up badly by not thinning paints), and others. I did the Devastators, but didn't touch any of the other stuff. I'm being very generous when I say I'll call this one partially done.
3) Paint the right combination of models to take a completely painted army to a tournament. I'm tired of missing out on painting points! This one didn't happen at all. It's almost guaranteed for 2018 since I'm going to Adepticon.
4) Win a 40k tournament. May not happen due to some pretty stiff competition around my area, but I've come close in the past! This goal is not very important to me, as I have a good time playing no matter how I finish. I won a tiny little 4-man event, so maybe that counts?
5) Specific model goal: complete all of my Dark Angels flyers to run the Ravenwing Silence Squadron. Nope.
6) Specific model goal: paint my loyalist Imperial Knight. The Chaos one is mostly done, but I haven't even started building the other one. Also nope.
7) Improve my freehand painting, and learn to paint neater in general. This is one area in which I really struggle badly. I've got to learn how to keep my hands more steady. I'll give myself a partial here, as I'm better that I was, but I still have plenty of room for improvement.
8) Improve my photography skills. Perhaps I should invest in materials for building a lightbox to help with this. Didn't do a lightbox, and my photos are still kinda crap. Fail!
9) Buy fewer minis. I've been spending way too much money on more models; I've got plenty of models now, so I need to knock out some of what I have before I pick up yet more. There are a few specific things I want (like a couple more boxes of Black Knights), but other than that I need to keep my wallet on a tight leash. We won't even talk about this one. Nothing to see here. Move along...
10) Set up some bits boxes. I'm getting very tired of having to search through many many kit boxes and sprues to find specific parts. I meant to do this in 2016, but I never got around to it. I started it toward the end of the year, but I'm not even close to done. Partial credit.
11) Update this blog more frequently. It's no wonder I don't get a lot of replies or feedback; most people probably think I've dropped off the planet! Updating once every two weeks is not going to cut it. Gonna call this one a win since my blog got through 8 pages in one year compared to 6 in the previous 2 years.
Okay, so new, hopefully more realistic and clear-cut goals for 2018, in no particular order:
1) Paint more models than 2017, meaning 66 or more.
2) FINISH THE PARTIALLY PAINTED MODELS, DAMMIT!
3) Take a fully-painted army to a tournament in 2018, besides Adepticon, which I have to bring fully painted models to.
4) Finish the Dark Imperium set's models. Still have a Lord of Contagion, Noxious Blightbringer, Malignant Plaguecaster, Foetid Bloat-drone, and 10 more Poxwalkers to do.
5) Get a lightbox and take better photos.
6) Stop buying every shiny thing that comes across my path. That may mean staying away from eBay unless there's something specific I really need. Specific goal for this is to paint more than I buy and therefore reduce the pile of shame.
7) Finish working on the bits boxes.
8) Bonus Goal: Finish an army. As in fully painted and based. Not likely, which is why I'm considering it a bonus rather than an actual goal as it's unlikely to happen in 2018.
I think I can handle most if not all of those.

Finally, here are my 5 best paintjobs of the year (in my opinion, feel free to disagree!):
#5: Longstrike's Hammerhead

#4: Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines:

#3: Dark Angels Hellblasters

#2: Khorne Berzerkers

#1: Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of Nurgle


Happy New Year, and see you all in 2018!

Impressive work for a year. Good mix of different armies, multiple centerpiece models and a good stock of rank and file. Anything over 52 models (my one-a-week goal) I consider a major victory. I particularly like your DA; solid work on them.

It’s good to fail on a few of your goals. If you make them all, it mean you aren’t stretching far enough. Sounds like you have a good list to work on it 2018.

Happy New Year!

Awesome review. Mortarion definitely deserves that top spot.

@Nevelon: Thanks, and you're right about the goals. I like to give myself something to push for without it being too easy (if it was easy I'd get complacent).

@youwashock: Thanks! I agree about Morty, in fact I might actually say I equalled or surpassed the Bloodthirster from the previous year on him. I think Morty had a higher degree of difficulty at least.

Okay, 2018 is off to a flying start with me preparing for Adepticon by getting some rank and file stuff done. Here are some Chaos Cultists with all of the cloth colors blocked in, awaiting some shades:

I know these guys will make my Champs list and most likely my Team and Friendly lists as well, so I may as well get them done since I know I'll need them for the big show. They are also my entry in Paradigm's monthly painting challenge (well, five of them will be). I tried to use varying placements of the same three colors, those colors being Macragge Blue, Stegadon Scale Green, and Mechanicus Standard Grey. Duncan Rhodes mentioned using this technique for cultists to make them look like they belong together but are not an organized military force (with uniform colors). I did this once before using different colors when I did the melee cultist unit for my Khorne Daemonkin army last edition. The main thing I deviated from this pattern with was the stubber wielder's apron, using Celestra Grey to make it lighter. The models don't look like much now, but once I do the shades and highlights on the cloth I think they'll pop nicely.

I also blocked in some of the basic colors on my metal Sorcerer:

I am going to go for a kind of red lightning theme on the sword, hence the red blade. Kind of a less elaborate version of how I did Bobby G's sword last year. I'm hoping the sword ends up looking like it's brimming with infernal energies. For the armor and cloth, I used some of the same colors as on the Cultists. This will make them a more cohesive force when I get more stuff done for my Alpha Legion. I'm going to edge highlight (or drybrush) the armor with green to make it look like Alpha Legion, and I may add some freehand scale pattern as well.

More to come soon, I hope. I return to work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some energy left for hobbying.

So, the flying start kind of fizzled for a little bit there, but I'm still working. I'm calling the fabric parts done and have moved on to basecoating the leather and silver metallic details on the cultists:

I need to get a move on, as I've got lots more cultists to do after these guys. I'm gonna be sick of the damn things by time Adepticon rolls around.

No more work on the Sorcerer as of now, but I have assembled some Hellblasters for my Dark Angels:

These are from the Dark Angels Hellblasters kit, so they have the nice chapter upgrades like sculpted shoulder pads and some accessories. I needed some built for a team tournament in a couple of weeks.

One thing I thought I might do this year is compile a wishlist of models I do wish to buy as of right now. Obviously I might get more stuff as new things are released, but this is a core list of models I either need or really want for my lists. In no particular order:
Daemon Prince with Talons: I need one of these for Adepticon potentially, as at least one of my list ideas for the GT there involves a Slaanesh DP with talons and both of mine have weapons (one sword and one axe).
SM Scouts: I need more of these guys for my Dark Angels, as they are perhaps the best troops for them (although Intercessors aren't bad). I actually have some metal ones on their way to me right now thanks to eBay.
RW Black Knights: Again, I need more of these as I only have 3.
Inceptors with Plasma Exterminators: With the plasma stratagem for Dark Angels, I really should pick up 6 of these guys (two boxes).
Great Unclean One: Although not a rush item due to the price point, I do want one of these for my Nurgle forces. The new model is totally awesome!
Various other Nurgle Daemons: I need more Plaguebearers, as well as some Drones, plus perhaps the new characters.
Bloodletters: I need a couple more boxes of these guys, as I'm actually considering running them once the new Daemons book drops.
Magnus the Red: Now that it's been confirmed that the Daemon Primarchs can use the Daemons Deep Strike stratagem, I need to pick up the other Bash Brother. Not a rush item though.
And now the much less likely to acquire Forge World section:
Chaos Decimator Engine: The model is cool and I've heard it's very competitive.
Fire Raptor Gunship: It's a cool model and probably the best flyer in the game. I'm definitely gonna see about getting one for my Alpha Legion or my Dark Angels.
Sicaran Battle Tank: Mostly for the cool model, but it isn't half bad in games either.

I'm definitely getting there on the squad of cultists. Most of the colors are all done, and I've just added the first basecoat to the skin. Here's the latest WIP shot:

I'll shade and highlight the skin, with a special highlight to show off the scars on some of the guys' arms, then it'll be on to a few small details like some straps that are on the skin (waiting until I finish the skin to pick them out) and the leader's hair. Cultists aren't very difficult to paint, but most Chaos armies need loads of them, so it's very much like Ork players having to paint huge numbers of Boyz or Tyranid players doing hordes of gaunts, which presents special challenges for painting (mainly the patience of the painter).

I've also made a tiny bit of progress on the Sorcerer:

I've added a brighter color to the sword blade, and I've shaded and edge highlighted the armor (with green). It'll start looking better once I get on with the next step, which is all the gold and silver parts. The Citadel painting handle is coming in handy for this guy.

I'm hoping to have the Cultists completely done by this weekend. The Sorcerer will most likely take longer, but I might already be started on another batch of cultists by time he's finished, or else I'll get started on my Noise Marines.

The cultists look good. You appear to have discovered the secret to painting hoards of nearly identical models: a very limited palette.

Great work throughout the year, and particularly on Morty last page. He's a very busy model, but you managed to pull it off well!

Nice start on the Sorc. I like the green highlights to the blue. The sword looks over-bright at this stage, but I've been painting long enough to know that you go through more than a few stages to get to the destination, so I look forward to seeing how it finishes up.

@Josh: Thanks! And yes, having a limited palette is very helpful for painting horde armies. I'll have plenty more of these cultists to do, and I intend to use the same colors for all of them.

I've finally finished the cultist squad, which has been in my model collection since near the very beginning (Dark Vengeance was one of the first 40k purchases I made). Here are the pics, starting with the 6 that will be my entry in the monthly painting challenge:



I chose the champion and heavy gunner to enter in the challenge since they are unique, and the three grunts I chose I think turned out the best out of all of them. Here is a pic of the other 5 guys from the unit:

And finally, here is a pic of the whole squad, ready to prepare the population of a hive city for the coming of the Alpha Legion:

Overall I enjoyed painting these guys, although I didn't put near as much effort into them as I did with models like Mortarion and it shows. That's because they are just grunts and I also have lots of them to paint. It's more important that I get them painted quickly than that I produce amazing quality since I am working against a deadline. I really need to go faster. 2 weeks to finish a 10-man squad is quick for me, but if I want to have a whole 2000-point army ready for Adepticon, I really need to work a little faster or I'll find myself having to pull some all-nighters when it gets close to time. Still, I'm now officially on the board for getting models painted in 2018.

In other news, work continues on the metal Sorcerer, with the gold details now painted:

This guy may not even make the cut for my championship list, so I'm not pushing too hard on him. He's mainly been a diversion while I paint other stuff. I've got a jump pack Sorcerer that will almost certainly be in my list, but he's my entry in next month's painting challenge, so I'm holding off on him.

Next up for paint will be either another squad of Cultists or perhaps my Noise Marines, along with more work on the metal Sorcerer.

The gold really makes the sorc pop. Just be careful with that palette that people don't think he's a TS.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I also was worried that he looks very Thousand Sons-y, but the pic doesn't show as clearly that he has green edge highlights showing that he is a member of the XX legion. Once I get some details on him (like perhaps some stylized scale pattern somewhere) he'll be more obviously Alpha Legion.

I've decided to get my Noise Marines done next. They are a unit that has a very high chance of making it into my Adepticon list, and I really want to paint them. Here's the first WIP shot:

It doesn't show in the photo, but the blue armor has been basecoated, recess shaded, and drybrushed on the edges with green. Since these are Noise Marines, I was thinking about where I could put some pink color on them, and I've decided that maybe the gun casings would work okay for that. I actually have a tighter deadline for these guys as one of my friends wants to borrow these guys and go to the LVO, so I need to get them done. If they aren't completely done that will be okay, but I'd like them to look good on those tables.

More to come soon, I'm sure!

Off to a good start. I've always liked Alpha Legion.

I wonder if there isn't a better place for the pink than their weapons. I've never been a fan of brightly-colored weapon casings, even back in the the Red Days. Maybe a spot color on their helmets or shoulder pads?

@Josh: Thanks! I considered adding pink to shoulder pads or even leg armor, but decided it would kind of ruin the Alpha Legion look (would make them look more like Emperor's Children). And the guys aren't wearing helmets. I personally am okay with bright weapon casings, as it gives a chance to add a splash of color contrast to a model (like the red guns on Dark Angels). It's a matter of taste, I suppose.

I'm making good progress on my Noise Marines. All of the basecoats are down except for black on the hoses and pipes, and dark gray on the spines. Here's the latest WIP shot:

Next up will be shading the trim, weapons, and heads. Painting that trim was a couple of hours of work, but shading shouldn't be too hard. Trim is always the most tedious part of painting Chaos models.

Also, Azazelx mentioned the Sorcerer looking like a Thousand Sons model. That's because like a dope I did gold trim before doing a little research and finding out that Alpha Legion have silver trim. D'oh! Fortunately I got it right on the Noise Boys, and it'll be a quick and easy fix on the Sorcerer.

Hopefully I'll have more to show soon!

Well, after a monumental push over the last few days, I think I'm going to call the Noise Boys done! Here are a few pics of them:
First, here's a shot of the whole squad:

Next, here are front and back shots of the Noise Champion:

Here are some shots of the Blastmaster guys and the Icon Bearer:

Finally, here's a shot of three of the regular grunts:

They are definitely not my best work, but they are just about the most fun models I've ever painted, trim notwithstanding. I'm super happy that Spellcrow threw in the Pleasure Knight heads for free when I ordered the sonic weapons from them. They really give these guys more character and make them look like true devotees of Slaanesh. On the ones that have hair, I did it in wacky colors, and several of the heads have facial piercings, which is a cool detail for models like this. I would have spent more time on details and mainly cleaning up the faces (the shading didn't turn out quite right) but I need to move on and paint more stuff to continue to get ready for Adepticon, plus my friend needs them right away for his LVO army. I've only got like 8 or 9 weeks left before Adepticon, so if I do a unit or vehicle per week I might be ready in time. Problem is, the weather is not cooperating as far as getting stuff primed. Temperatures have finally become more mild, but it's been very windy. I seem to run into this problem every year, it seems.

In other news, I picked up a Myphitic Blight-Hauler at my FLGS the other day when I was there for a tournament:

Just to see if it would work, I actually did assemble it without using any glue. GW isn't kidding about being able to do this, it holds together just fine. I don't know if I could easily get it back apart if I wanted to. The parts fit together very easily; the only real work is trimming the parts from the sprue and taking care of a few mold lines (very few). I've got the Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort kit coming in the mail (really should have been here by now, not sure what the holdup is) along with a Daemon Prince model that I need. We'll see if Lord Felthius and his men are as easy to put together as the Blight-Hauler was.

More Alpha Legion stuff should be coming soon, although I'm not sure what yet.

Moving right along, I'm continuing to press on with my Alpha Legion army. I've decided to tackle one of my Rhino transports next, as I know I'll need a couple of them for my lists. Here's the first WIP shot of it:

The hull is done, other than some touchups of the primary blue color. I missed a few spots with the basecoat due to using a very large brush (a necessity for painting a model like this in a reasonable amount of time), but I'll fix that and neaten up where I did the recess shades and green highlights all at the same time. Then I'll move on and start on the metallic parts. I think I will actually use a few transfers for this model, as it's pretty easy to get them to stay on flat surfaces. I may freehand a few things on the model as well.

I've also assembled another Rhino for my Alpha Legion. Now I need another break in the weather to prime it (along with some other models). Here it is fully assembled:

Less spikes on this one, and I went ahead and put the dozer blades on the front for variety.

I also assembled Lord Felthius and his Tainted Cohort:

I modified the axe wielder's combi-bolter into a combi-plasma so that I could have 4 WYSIWYG Blightlord Terminators with Bubotic Axe and combi-plasma. Now that I have these guys and they are assembled I can finish assembling my actual Blightlord Terminators kit, which will give me some options for what things I'll take in the squad.

I'm also putting together a Daemon Prince with double talons for my Adepticon list. I already had one with a sword and one with an axe, but the talons are better, so now I have a WYSIWYG one (well, I will when it's built!).

Speaking of my Adepticon list, I thought I'd share what models I have left to paint at a minimum to be ready for the event:
Daemon Prince: currently being assembled
Obliterator squad: Primed, need paint and basing
2x Obliterator squads: Painted (minimally), need basing
Jump Pack Lord: Primed, need paint and basing
2x Khorne Bloodreaver Berzerker Squad: 1 complete, 1 unprimed (needs primer ASAP!)
Jump Pack Sorcerer: Primed, needs paint and basing
Chaos Cultists: Some complete, some painted but unbased, others primed and need paint and basing
2x Chaos Rhino: 1 partially painted (currently being worked on), 1 unprimed
Noise Marines: Done!
Chaos Space Marines: Some primed, others painted (in Black Legion colors) needing to be rebased on 32mm bases.
Foot Sorcerer: Partially painted, needs basing
As a stretch goal, I'm going to try and get my non-Dark Vengeance Helbrute at least minimally painted to possibly use in the Friendly event. Might be just the kind of unit I'd want for something less competitive like that. If I get short on time, I'll just have to give any remaining models a very quick 3 base colors and wash, and put some texture on their bases. Very quick and dirty. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Feel free to vote in the Dakka Gallery for my Noise Marines and Cultists that I posted previously! Hopefully I'll have some more good stuff to show soon.

No paint progress since my last post unfortunately, but I have been assembling a few things. First, that Daemon Prince that I got recently is now fully built and awaiting primer (maybe this afternoon if it stays calm outside):

He'll be a Slaanesh prince with the Intoxicating Elixir. I'll probably do him with very pale skin (like almost white), with purple-shaded metallic armor. I might do the shoulder pads and chest plate in blue to match my Alpha Legion, though.

I've also fully assembled my Blightlord Terminators for the Death Guard:

They'll be fun to paint, but they'll be waiting until after Adepticon for sure as they aren't going to be in my list for that.

Now that everything I need is assembled, I just need to get back to painting!

Good progress.


(for filthy heretics)

Dang Zerg you have been a busy fella, noise marines look good and thanks for the review of the myphitic blight hauler.

@Nevelon: Thanks!

@York: Thanks! I have to stay busy if I want my army to be ready in a couple of months!

I've been too tired the last couple of days to paint much, but I have gotten some work done on my Rhino anyway:

I've got most of the base colors down at this point, other than the viewports on the hatch assembly and the skin on the impaled head on the right side spikes. I even put a couple of decals on the sides to mark this as an Alpha Legion vehicle, as well as adding a freehand "Alpha Omega" symbol and my first crude attempt at a scale motif on a couple of panels. I feel happy with how the scales turned out for my first attempt, but I do want to do them better in future. At least I have some idea what I'm doing now.

I hope to have more done soon!

Nice work, although I don't envy you the task of painting a while Rhino's worth of scales.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Nice work, although I don't envy you the task of painting a while Rhino's worth of scales.

Oh, don't worry, I won't be doing the whole thing. Those two panels are probably it for this vehicle, and I'll do a similar amount on the other one when I get around to it. It would look silly if the whole vehicle was covered in scales, I think.

So, continuing to plug away at my army, still slower than I want to be going. But, progress is progress, right? I've gotten a little bit more work done on the Rhino, including some more freehand, this time on the back hatch:

Not much left to do on this thing. Just a couple of minor details that need a highlight or two and I'll call it done. I don't have time to do any weathering, as I need to move on to other models.

I'm also working on two Sorcerers, one of them being that metal one with the red sword:

Next up will be brightening up his green skirt thing, as well as a couple of other small details. I fixed his shoulder pad trim to be silver so that it's more in line with Alpha Legion, but I like having plenty of gold as well because he's a sorcerer. I might add a couple of other highlights to the sword blade (such as lightning effects, which are already started), but this model is very nearly done.

I'm also working on my Sorcerer with the jump pack:

This guy is my entry in the February painting challenge (because he's carrying a big stick). I've already done the armor including the trim and green highlights (not easily seen in the blurry photo), and the staff has been basecoated and shaded. I should be able to knock out this model quickly enough and move on to others. Lots more to paint for Adepticon, after all.

I like the red sword (I think, it's a little out of focus). It reminds me of the Red Era of 40kv2/WHFBv4. Also, nice use of the sorcerer's staff from the Chaos Terminator set.

@Josh: Thanks, and sorry for the out-of-focus shot. I was in a hurry. I wanted to do the sword in red because I really enjoyed painting Guilliman's sword and I thought it would look cool for a Chaos guy to have an infernal-looking weapon. As for the staff, that is one of my all-time favorite bits, so I just had to use it!

I'm going ahead and calling that Rhino done. I need to move on since I've only got like 40 days or so left before Adepticon. Here are the final photos:


I feel like it turned out okay, if a bit rushed. If I had time I would do some weathering, but as I said I've got lots more to do so it's time to move on. Maybe I'll come back and weather it at a later date. Meanwhile, feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery.

I'm also very very close to finishing the metal Sorcerer model, so here's the final WIP shot before I finish the model off:

All that's left to do is one or two small highlights and some touchups and detailing on the Alpha Legion hydra symbol on the shoulderpad. Oh, and the base, which will be easy.

I'm also getting close to finishing the Jump Pack Sorcerer. Here's the latest WIP shot of him:

I decided to go with the scale motif on the side panels of the jump pack. It helps to hide the join between the two pieces of the pack. My freehand is still improving. All of the base colors are down on this guy, so just a few shades and highlights left and I'll be able to call him done.

I'm probably going to tackle a bunch of Cultists next, as I've got probably 20 more of them to do at a minimum. Fortunately they aren't hard to paint at all, especially now that I have a good method for them.

Got started on some more Cultists with autoguns, and one with a flamer:

Now that I have a method for doing these guys I'm hopeful that I can knock them out quickly and move on to something else.

I'm making more progress on the cultists, but I'm not posting another WIP photo just yet. I'll do another one of those after I get a little more done. For now, I thought I'd show what I did to clean up my desk a little bit. It was pretty chaotic, and not just because I'm painting Chaos models right now. Paint pots all over the place, loose bits just asking to be knocked on the floor and swallowed by the vacuum cleaner, and other things. So I decided to get myself a paint rack so I no longer have to hunt around for that one color that I need for this or that. Here's how it looks now that I've got that rack put together and loaded up:

Obviously the work area is still far from perfect, but it still beats having to hunt through a random cluster of paint pots, many of which look alike from the top (especially shades). I had also accumulated a fair amount of dust and crumbs and stuff (probably the result of eating while sitting at the computer), which is now gone, so the area is more sanitary. Hopefully it's less of a distraction now so I can paint faster.

I also went over to the FLGS today, where I picked up a new pluck foam tray for my Battlefoam case, the 8th edition Chaos Daemons codex, and this jolly little guy:

This is a Sloppity Bilepiper (ugh I despise that name). He was pretty easy to put together, and he'll be really fun to paint. He even has a cheerful little Nurgling dancing with him on his base! That's one thing I like about the newer Nurgle models; they are so full of character. Of course, since this model will not be accompanying me to Adepticon, he'll have to wait a while for some paint.

I hope to have more progress on my Adepticon army soon, so stay tuned!

I've now finished the metal Sorcerer model, so here are the final photos of him:


He was a lot of fun to paint, especially since the model dates back to 1996, before I even knew Warhammer existed! I'm not perfectly happy with how the sword turned out, partially because I got sloppy with the spark effects. I think it'll do okay for now, so I'm leaving it. Too much else to do to worry over one model that's already above and beyond minimum tabletop requirements. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery!

I've also got a WIP shot of the cultists ready:

They have been fully basecoated and shaded other than the skin, and the cloth parts have been highlighted. Not too much left to do, then I can paint either more fun stuff or...more cultists.

Here's a revised list of what is yet to be painted for Adepticon:
Jump Pack Sorcerer: In progress
3 Obliterator units: 2 units just need basing, third needs paint and basing
At least 20 more cultists: 10 WIP (see above), others need paint and basing
10 Berzerkers: Need paint and basing
6 bases of Nurglings: Need paint and basing
Abaddon: Needs paint and basing
2 Daemon Princes: Need paint and basing (one is for my Team Tournament list, the other may be borrowed by one of my teammates)
Chaos Rhino: Needs paint and basing
Autocannon Havocs: Need to be rebased on 32mm bases and basing material added, otherwise already painted (for friendly tournament).
10 Chaos Space Marines: Same as above, also for friendly tournament.

So, in other words my work is cut out for me, but I think I can handle it!

These guys are looking great, but that's one steep painting order for Adepticon!

You can get em finished Zerg! I may be at Adepticon this year and would love a look at your army in person.

@Az: Thanks! I've certainly got my work cut out for me!

@York: Thanks for the encouragement! If you are going to Adepticon, maybe PM me when it gets closer to time and I'll show you the army! I wouldn't mind seeing your stuff either.

Well, I've finished not one but TWO units! Firstly, here are the final pics of my February painting challenge entry, my Alpha Legion Sorcerer on a Jump Pack:


He may not be up to my best painting standards, but he's tabletop standard and should look okay with the rest of my army. I certainly had fun with him for the whole process, from kitbashing to painting. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery!

The other finished unit is 10 Chaos Cultists. Here are the first 9 of them; they are the ones I got from the Assassinorum: Execution Force box set:

And here is a guy with a flamer (got him in that big Chaos lot last spring):

Flamer guy is missing a couple of details since I was being hasty, but it's not noticeable too much at usual tabletop viewing distances. Just a few more Cultists to paint (plus plenty of other stuff).

I'm also making progress on a unit of Nurglings:

For the skin, I painted 2 coats of Rakarth Flesh, followed by 2 coats of Athonian Camoshade wash all over, which gave a nice putrid color. I've also basecoated the guts, tongues, and tentacles with Screamer Pink. As I thought, these guys should be very quick and easy to finish up, which is good, because I've got 4 weeks at the outside to get these and a bunch more stuff done.

In other news, I recently bought a bunch of base adapter rings for converting 25mm bases into 32mm ones. I've already applied a few to various models, and they work great. I'll give a brief review and a couple of pics in my next post.

Okay, it's been a lot longer than I'd hoped between updates, but I am still alive and still beavering away on my Adepticon army. I've made a little progress on those Nurglings:

They are basically done, just a couple of very small details left to pick out, plus the bases. I've started on a second batch of these little dudes as well. They really aren't very hard to paint at all. A nice solid basecoat of a light color (I used Rakarth Flesh, but actual white or even Death Guard Green would also work), plus a couple of washes of Athonian Camoshade, and most of the work is done. For sake of time I skipped the logical next step, which would be a highlight of Ogryn Camo, but honestly they look fine without it. It might make the skin pop a bit more, though. Other than that, it's just a matter of picking out a few details like the horns, any maggots or slime, and the guts and tongues, and of course the eyes, which I haven't done yet (they'll just be yellow). I should be able to finish these models soon.

As promised, here is a small review of those base expander rings. They are from a company called Eccentric Miniatures (here's a link), and they work great. They offer two different but similar products for converting a 25mm base into a 32mm base, perfect for rebasing Space Marines or lesser Daemons, which are now on the 32mm ones. The rings are made from the same plastic as GW's bases, and can be assembled with plastic glue assuming the base they are applied to is unpainted. Super glue also works just fine of course.

Here's a pic of the version I bought, which are designed to fit well on a GW base:

Basically it's just two semicircular halves that fit together around the rim of a 25mm base (as you might expect!). They fit very well on a GW base (only fit issues I've had have been bases that were already painted), and should blend in seamlessly once painted, textured, and/or flocked. Here are a couple of examples showing models I've rebased with these:

The image on the left is an old metal Plaguebearer with a Daemonic Icon. The ring fit perfectly around his base since it was unpainted. For old metal models on slotta bases, these are a godsend, as some of those (like the metal Plaguebearers) would be very hard to glue to a non-slotta base (you'd probably have to pin them carefully, and that's a pain in the ass!). The pic on the right is a squad of old metal Havocs that I got second-hand in a couple of different lots (the paintjobs are not my work). Four of those bases were already painted and flocked, so I wanted to show that these will still work on finished bases, although it may not be as seamless as there will likely be a noticeable ring where the existing basing material (small gravel, which I will repaint) meets the texture paint that I will use to make these bases match the rest of my army. I bought 100 of these for just $22 plus shipping, so they won't break the bank. That's certainly less than buying 100 new 32mm bases. They don't take much effort to put on (just a bit of glue, and plastic glue will work on unpainted bases).

In short, I think these things are a wonderful product, and they definitely deserve a ZergSmasher Seal of Approval!

I hope to have more painted stuff to show off soon. Just 3 weeks to go before Adepticon, so I'd better step on it!

Your technique on those nurgling bases look really nice. The models look much easier to paint than the old metal ones.

Do the base adaptors need glue, or do they clip on?

Nurglings look good Zerg, thanks for the tip on the bases I have a whole lot of Blood Angels that I may some day change over to the 32 mm bases. Will you give us a pic of your adepticon army when its done?

@Josh: I did the bases in gray on the Nurglings so that there would be more contrast (the models won't blend into the base). I've never really even seen the metal Nurglings so I can't attest to how easy or hard they might have been to paint. As for the base ring adapters, they do have to be glued. Super glue works well, but you could also use plastic glue if you are putting these on unpainted bases as they are made of the same plastic GW uses in their bases.

@York: Thanks! You really should rebase any Space Marines onto 32mm's as they do look better, but if you don't play competitively I don't think there's any reason to rush it. And yes, I'll certainly put up a pic or two of my Adepticon army (actually 3 lists since I'm playing in 3 events). The pics might not be terribly impressive, as some of the models I'm using were bought secondhand and not painted by me, which means the schemes will not match.

I'm getting work done on my various models. I finished the first 3 bases of Nurglings, so here's a quick pic of them (didn't bother with the formal photo setup):

I'm satisfied with how they turned out. They certainly aren't difficult to paint, although it is easy to miss spots with the paint since there are a lot of little surfaces.

I've also begun work on Abaddon the Despoiler as my entry in the March painting challenge. Here's the first WIP shot of him:

Just a couple more basecoats to put down, then I'll clean up the black and move on to shading.

I've begun work on several other models as well, including my Dark Apostle:

He's got quite a bit more work needed, but I should at least be able to get him to a minimum standard in time for Adepticon.

In addition to the above, I've started on 3 more bases of Nurglings (they are nearly done, needing only some texture on their bases and a little more shading on their horns) and my other 10 Khorne Berzerkers (the Bloodreaver models). I recently tallied up the remaining models I have to paint, and it came out to 35 models, plus about 21 more that need basing work (but are already otherwise painted). My work is cut out for me, as I've only got 16 days and counting. It's gonna be close!

Looking forward to that picture Zerg, hopefully I can catch up with you at Adepticon too.

@York: I'm looking forward to being ready to do the picture, and I'm sure we can arrange to meet at Adepticon!

I'm making more progress on my Adepticon project. First up for this evening, here is my second unit of Nurglings, all finished:

Like the first unit, they are up to a decent tabletop standard, but nothing fancy. I'm happy with how they look and they were pretty easy to paint.

Next, here's a WIP (basically done) shot of my second unit of Khorne Bloodreavers (counts-as Berzerkers):

While I'm calling them done other than their bases, they aren't up to the standard of my other set of these guys. I simply don't have time to finish them properly before Adepticon, but once I get their bases done they'll certainly be good enough. I even contacted the event organizers to make sure these would be an acceptable "counts-as" for Khorne Berzerkers and they said they'd be fine, so that's one concern I don't need to have anymore.

Finally, we have a WIP shot of my second Alpha Legion Chaos Rhino:

I only started this thing this afternoon, so I'm pretty happy to be this far on it already. I'm hoping to get some decals and freehand details on it before Adepticon, but we'll see what I have time for.

Not pictured, I have done a little more work on Abaddon, and started on a few more Cultists. So lots of models are in the WIP phase right now. I've got 12 days left in which to get all this stuff and more done, so I'm definitely sacrificing quality for speed at this point, and it shows. As long as everything is at least minimum tabletop standard and based, it's good for the events, so I'm sticking with that for now and I'll come back to certain pieces to make them nicer if I have time. Wish me luck!

Okay, small update. I've got basically everything I need at least basecoated, with the exception of a few more cultists and my Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Here's a WIP shot of the Prince:

He's coming along nicely, I'm really happy with how the skin turned out. Next up will be the armor and loincloth, then some of the little fiddly details.

I do have a few bases to finish, but that will be easy as I'm keeping them very simple. By this weekend I should be ready to post up a few army shots, and then I'll be ready to head on up to the Windy City. My gaming club is sending like 20 guys in total (5 teams in the team tournament), so we'll hopefully be making our presence felt this year. Adepticon 2018 will be my first major tournament(s) since I began playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago (September 2014), so I'm super pumped already and counting down the days.

I finished the Prince, here are the final pics (worthy of setting up my formal photo area):


I'm super thrilled with how this guy turned out. The photos here do not do this model justice at all. I tinted the shoulder pauldrons and chestpiece purple, and that hardly shows up in these pics, where it is very obvious when I look at the model in person. I need to figure out how to adjust my camera better so I can show these models off properly.

Progresswise I'm done painting stuff other than a few more details on the last 6 cultists, plus a handful of bases (on those cultists, my Obliterators, Abaddon, and my Dark Apostle). Abaddon and the Apostle are not truly done, but are far enough along to pass muster at Adepticon, so I'm counting them. Other than what I've mentioned, the only thing I've got left to do is to paint my display board for them. I'm keeping it very simple, just a cork bulletin board that I've spraypainted blue and will paint a green Alpha Legion hydra symbol on. I may also add the words "Hydra Dominatus" at the top. Technically my list for the Championship is a soup list, but my lists for the Friendly and Team events are pure Alpha Legion, hence my choice for the board. Once I get that done (won't be hard as I'm not going too fancy on it) I'll put up some army shots for you guys to check out.

After Adepticon, I'm figuring on getting back to painting my Sons of the Lion. Frankly I'm sick of painting Chaos stuff at the moment, so a change of pace is definitely called for.

Nice work on that DP. The violet shading is a nice variation on the usual colors.

Wow Zerg prince looks great, I can see the purple tint on the armour really sets off the green. Can’t wait for the group shot.

Nice work on the prince. I might have gone with something with a little more contrast for the eyes, but that might just be the photo. Looking forward to the army pic.

Why are you going back to painting your DA if you are sick of chaos? I kid, it’s always nice to shift gears, especially after a hard push for a deadline.

Good luck at Adeptecon. Be sure to crush all who oppose you, and drink deep of their bitter tears. And have fun!

@Josh: Thanks! I figured purple is a Slaanesh color, so I went with it and it turned out as good as I had hoped.

@York: Thanks, but there isn't any green. Must be the bad lighting on the photos making the skin look green (it does a bit).

@Nev: Har har har, very funny! You're right about the shifting gears thing. That's why I have no regrets on having several armies, as they all look distinct and have different types of models to build and paint and play with.

Well, it's time. Time for me to embark on my greatest hobby adventure yet: Adepticon 2018! All the models are painted, all my plans are made. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if I can dance. (bonus points for whoever gets that reference!)

As promised, I've got some army shots to show my faithful blog viewers. First, a shot of my hastily-painted display board for my forces:

Nothing fancy, but I had fun making this and it will suit its purpose.

Next, we have my army for the Championship event on Thursday:

All of these models except for the blue Obliterators were painted by me. The blue Oblits were purchased as-is from the used bin at my FLGS a while back; all I did to them was redo the bases.

Here's my army for Friday's Friendly tournament, which they are calling A Most Excellent Adventure:

Some of these models are ones I bought in a couple of different used lots and so were not painted by me, nor in actual Alpha Legion colors, but that's okay as they are in fact painted.

Finally, here's a shot of my army for the premier event at Adepticon, the Team Tournament:


All my efforts over the past three months have come down to this. I'm excited enough that I'm not sure I'll sleep much tonight. I'm leaving town tomorrow morning to get there and check in that evening to pick up my event badge and stuff. Then over the next four days I'll be playing a total of 12 games of Warhammer 40k. I'll probably be pretty fried when it's all over, so I did take an additional day off work for Monday to cool my jets. Hopefully I'll have some cool new swag to show off on here too!

Those of you who said you want to see my stuff in person at Adepticon, PM me on here or just find me during the events (my display board is distinctive enough I hope!). I'll be pretty busy since I'm playing in events on all four days, but I'd love to see you guys and maybe find some time to talk in person!

Hey Zerg, I've been off Dakka for a while, but now I'm back. Your filthy army of heretics is looking really good. Good luck at Adepticon

Everything looks ready to rock. Good luck in your games!

Looking good Zerg, hoping to be there on Saturday, would love a chance to see your army. Have a great Time!

@WK: Hey welcome back! Thanks for the kind words!

@youwashock: Thanks!

@York: Thanks, I look forward to seeing you there!

It's almost time, I'm leaving in a few minutes so I thought I'd post a last minute reply here first. As I've said before this will be my first large event since I started playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago. This will be a new experience for me, so I look forward to sharing about it on here, and hopefully showing off some shiny new toys that I get while I'm there.

See you all on the other side!

I really like the forces you've got going on there!

That's a nice looking army. It must feel great to be able to say "I'm finished." Good luck, and more importantly, have fun at Adepticon!

Looking forward to your report Zerg!

@Knightley: Thanks, that means a lot coming from you!

@Josh: Thanks, and yes, it's a great feeling to have a finished force.

@WK: Had a blast, read below!

Well, I'm back. What an experience I had at Adepticon 2018. I played more Warhammer in a weekend than I usually play in 2 months, although I'm going to start trying to get more games in nowadays as it was painfully obvious I've got a lot to learn on both the hobby and gaming sides of 40k. So without further ado, I'll tell you guys about how it went.

My local 40k club sent a total of 20 people to Adepticon, entering five teams (FIVE!) in the Team Tournament. Not all of us played in the Championships or any of the Friday events (although many of us did). A lot of players were commenting on how there were so many of our jerseys among the crowd. I'd be willing to bet that we had more people there than any other single club, but I can't swear to that of course.

So first up, the Championships, which was my Thursday event. I did not do very well at all, finishing 1-3 and barely winning the one I did win. Looking back I think my list was bad and I played it poorly. My first game was against Orks, and we barely got 3 turns in. My Oblits kept getting 1's for their damage even with rerolls, meaning I couldn't very well hurt any of the vehicles. Plus I didn't have nearly enough anti-infantry to handle the very numerous Boyz squads. My next game was against a brigade of Alaitoc Aeldari with a Vanguard of Ynarri led by the cat lady (Yvraine). I only lost this one by 2 points, and it was a pretty crazy game. My Khorne Berzerkers did some work taking out some Warp Spiders and Warlocks as well as some Rangers, but I don't think they made their points back. My Oblits did good work as well, taking out a Wraithlord and a Fire Prism (which exploded amongst my opponent's backfield and took out 3 Warp Spiders, 3 Dark Reapers, and wounded a bunch of other stuff) and some other things. Again, those Oblits did not really make their points back. What cost me the game was that the mid-table objective was on top of impassible terrain and so I could not get close enough to it to take it. Not sure that was fair, but oh well. Game 3 was against an Astra Militarum Catachan gunline. I got first turn here and managed to take out a bunch of infantry with my infiltrating Noise Marines. My opponent focused down my entire Cultist blob to prevent me from using Tide of Traitors to just get them back. It ended up being a slugfest with me only having a single Obliterator and some characters left. If the game had continued, I might have lost, but I ended up winning by 3 points. Fourth game is the one that made me salty, playing against a Daemons player. He dropped a couple of big Bloodletter bombs and managed to coffin both of my Rhinos thanks to me not screening them properly (to be fair, I was salty at myself rather than my opponent, as I felt really stupid letting that happen to me). When those Bloodletters also took out Abaddon, I did something I swore I would never do: a ragequit. I didn't act all rude to my opponent or anything, but I was visibly upset, mostly with myself for playing so sloppily, and I just conceded the game, grudgingly shook my opponent's hand, and walked away before my his patronizing attempts to console me made me do something really stupid. At this point I was actually feeling sorry I came, but fortunately I cooled off and came back on Friday for the friendly tournament.

In the Friendly event, for which the theme was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, we had some wacky special rules and stratagems. I faced a Drukhari opponent in the first round, and he absolutely paddled me since he seized the initiative and went first. I lost way too much of my firepower in his initial attack. My opponent and I both agreed that if I had gone first, it would have been the other way around, as Drukhari don't have a lot of staying power. In the second round, I played against Chaos Renegades with a pair of Decimator Engines and a Hellwright. I won this one fairly handily, as my opponent's list was somewhat friendlier than mine was. It was still a fun game for both of us. In the third round, I faced a mechanized Iron Warriors player. I beat him fairly soundly as well, but it was a little harder than the previous game. In this one, my Obliterators were the lame duck of the match, as they just couldn't roll more than 1 damage for 4 out of 5 turns. While I personally finished 2-1, my team finished 3rd of 8 teams (players were assigned a team color at the beginning; mine was black). It was still a fun lighthearted event.

So, on Saturday me and my team played the Team Tournament. There were some absolutely incredible display boards around, although my team actually didn't have one ourselves. The effort put into these things was jaw-dropping. Anyhow, the games. Our first matchup was against a team of pure Death Guard. The pair I faced were running three units of Blightlord Terminators, two Daemon Princes, four units of Poxwalkers, and some characters and vehicles. Our team won this one on both tables. Our second matchup was against an Imperial team, with three of the players running various Guard regiments and the fourth running Deathwatch. I was paired with our team captain, who like me was running pure Alpha Legion. That saved our bacon, as despite winning the roll-off to go first our opponent's seized the initiative. Had it not been for the -1 to hit, we would have lost way too much of our army. As it was, we brutally counterattacked and despite playing the mission wrong and missing out on some points, we ended up winning by a few points. Our teammates on the other table also managed to squeak out the win. In game 3, we faced a mixed Imperial team. In my game, I was paired with my World Eaters teammate facing a Cadian player and a Blood Angels player. We might have got our butts handed to us but for one thing: despite rolling 3d6 and having a reroll, their 15-man Death Company blob FAILED THEIR CHARGE from 9 inches. Our Berzerkers did a number on them in return, wiping the unit. My Obliterators took out Pask and a LRBT in this turn as well. It was still a very near thing, but we managed to win. My team also won on the other table, meaning that we were actually undefeated on Saturday and the best finishing team of our club for the day. On Sunday unfortunately, it didn't last. Our first matchup was some French Canadians with a beautifully-converted Dark Angels and Grey Knights army. Their theme was a homebrew chapter that fights Tyranids, so all the models had Tyranid skulls and boneswords and stuff as trophies. It was truly a thing of beauty. I was once again paired with our team captain, and we barely lost our game (if we had killed just one more model in our backfield, we would have won). Our teammates lost their game badly, though. Our opponents were also very pleasant and fun to play against, so it was a good experience despite the loss. In the final match of the event, we faced a team of pure Nurgle Daemons. That one went very badly for us, as we got seized on again and just could not kill enough Plaguebearers to matter. Worse, my teammate fired his huge Cultist blob's autoguns into a Plague Drone unit, with Veterans of the Long War and Endless Cacophony for double shots. He killed four of the models, but my opponent used a reroll to get a 1 for morale and got all of the models back. Very frustrating. Our opponents were at least nice guys about everything. Overall our team went 3-2, so not bad at all, especially since for our club we were kind of a throw-together team with no real practice playing together. The World Eaters guy normally plays Guard, so he did really well at using those Berzerkers right. It was a fun experience for all of us, and we all agreed we will probably go back next year.

So, as for my swag, I purchased the premium badge, which netted me an awesome swag bag full of cool stuff. Here are some pics of what I got:

First, a sprue for a Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar Assault Squad model:

Two of the pieces popped off the sprue, but they stayed in the bag thankfully.

Next, a set of bases by Elrik's Hobbies and a sci-fi door scenery piece by Tiny Terrain:


Then we have a selection of sample miniatures from various new and upcoming games, including Godtear, Blood & Plunder, and Tabletop Tactical Simulation (the mini is a modern US soldier I think). The final miniature is from Victoria Miniatures, and is an Adepticon 2018 exclusive.

The reason I have two of the Godtear ones is because my bag came with a Malifaux mini, and one of my teammates plays Malifaux and wanted it (and I had no use for it), so we traded.

I also got some paints in the swag bag: a bottle of Master Series Paints Mint Green, and an airbrush primer (pity I don't have an airbrush):


Now, we get to the really good stuff:


I'm glad I never bought that 30th anniversary Primaris Sergeant, as I now have him anyway. I've also got some cool books even if a couple of them are not from game systems I actively play, and those two boxed games will be fun to try and at least give me something different to paint.

In addition to these things, there were a few little trinkets and doodads in there, and I did order a couple of sets of Adepticon dice (which were pink and purple this year). I also bought some stuff:

I got two boxes of Primaris Inceptors and Asmodai for my Dark Angels, a Dark Angels Purity Seal (when I saw it I just had to have it!), and I won a set of Elrik's Hobbies bases to put those Inceptors on. I also ordered some Mortis Dreadnought Lascannons from the Forge World Booth, although I'm kicking myself for not going ahead and buying either a Sicaran Battle Tank or even a Fire Raptor (although those might have been a little outside my budget). Still, I got a decent haul on this trip, and there was a nice discount on the GW stuff (which is why I bought it).
.
Overall I had fun, despite what happened in the Championships. There, I really just had unrealistic expectations for my first GT, and I got burned for it. The other days went a lot better for me even when we lost all our games on Sunday. I look forward to returning next year if possible!

Sounds like one heck of a few days! if you were to rejig your list, would you have taken anything different?

Sounds like a good time. Glad you had fun!

Sounds like you had a good con Zerg, sorry I did not make it had some other things come up. The thing that I see happen when a person goes to big event is it really re energizes them, all those wonderfully painted armies and display board really gets the creative juices flowing. Looking forward to your next projects.

Adepticon sounds like a blast. have you started planning your army for next year?

Geez I need to get to Adepticon when I get the money, with all the cool stuff you got!

I'm so jealous

@Knightley: If I changed my list, I would probably have either skipped the Nurglings and brought more Cultists (not an option for me as I don't have enough more cultists to matter), or I would have doubled down and brought a full Battalion of Daemons alongside my CSM (2 characters and 3 Nurgling units).

@youwashock: Thanks, it was a total blast!

@York: Yeah, sorry I didn't see you there. It really did get me charged up for the hobby, plus I am already planning on going back next year. The whole thing was full of inspiration for both the painting and modelling side and the gaming side of the hobby.

@Josh: It totally was a blast! I'm hoping to take my Dark Angels next year, but outside of that, with the way FAQ's shake up the meta every few weeks, who can say what I'll be bringing?

@WK: If you get the chance, I highly recommend you attend Adepticon. Don't go by yourself, though. Get some friends to form a team for the Team Tournament; you can all save a bit on hotel expenses by sharing a room. If you plan it out well, you can probably make the whole thing happen for about 500 bucks total, and that includes some spending money at the vendors. Get the premium badge if possible, as the swag bag more than makes up for the slight added cost (the Guildball box game alone this year was worth $75 retail!).

Okay, now that Adepticon is over and done, I can get back to business as usual. First, I finally truly finished Abaddon the Despoiler for the monthly painting challenge, so here are the final photos (with an experimental new background):



I'm very happy with how he turned out overall. I wish I'd had time to finish him to this standard before Adepticon, but I was able to get him good enough for that and finish him after, so better late than never, right? I do feel like these photos turned out better than the ones I've been doing on the white background. I'll make some kind of gray background with something eventually; this was just a dry run with a foam tray and my kitchen table surface to make a darker, more neutral background.

In other news, I got some new stuff assembled:

From left to right: 30th Anniversary Primaris Intercessor Veteran Sergeant, Asmodai, old metal Bjorn the Fell-handed, and a Ghar Assault Squad model from Beyond the Gates of Antares (from my Adepticon swag bag). I'm also building some new Tau models as preparation for an upcoming tournament next weekend. I picked up a new Commander kit (which will be a Coldstar, of course), some more Pathfinders, and I'm finally going to assemble the Fire Warrior kit from the 7th edition Kill Team box set because I badly need more Fire Warriors.

I'm hoping to get the Tau stuff built very soon and start assembling and painting some Dark Angels soon. My entry for April's painting challenge will be one or more of the Assassins from the Execution Force game, so look forward to those!

Abbadon looks cool. Size aside, the sculpt on that model still rocks. Old metal dread, so awesome. And assassins to come? Sweet!

Failbaddon the Armless is looking lovely Zerg. Although the presence of arms that actually seem to be staying on is baffling to me.

Now I kinda want to paint some Black Legion models...

@youwashock: Thanks buddy! I agree that Abaddon's sculpt is cool. Made the model a joy to paint despite being FailCast.

@WK: Thanks! Not sure what you mean about the arms unless you are talking about the metal Abaddon model, which I can imagine would be a pain in the ass. And by all means paint some Black Legion; they have one of the coolest-looking paint schemes among Chaos Marines IMO.

Nothing new to show as far as paint, but I did get my Tau Coldstar Commander put together, along with his faithful drone companion, Shieldy McShieldface:

Probably not going to paint this model real soon, so I didn't glue him to the flying stand. He stays on there pretty well even without glue or even poster tack, so I can still game with him. I put magnets on the inside edges of the thrust packs and on the arms in order to attach up to four weapons, which on this model will often be fusion blasters. Magnets are your best friends when it comes to setting up Tau battlesuits, especially in 8th edition where the meta is constantly shifting, making different weapons good.

Next up for assembly will be some Fire Warriors, and next up for painting are my Assassins, so look forward to those in the days ahead.

Abaddon looks really good Zerg, cant wait to see how you do your assassins.

Abaddon looks good. Cant wait to see what you do with the Tau

Stepping your game up with Abaddon!

I was referencing his old model. Buddy of mine who played CSM said the arms had a massive tendency to fall off a lot.

The commander is looking really cool

Abaddon looks great. I like the model a lot-- it's a really old model that has held up quite well. I'm looking forward to seeing your Tau commander.

@York: Thanks!

@Zambro: Thanks, and long time no see! Unfortunately I'm not going to be actually painting Tau much for a little while, as I'm currently on an Imperial push, but I'll probably get back to them summer-ish.

@Knightley: Thanks man!

@WK: Thanks, he was fun to build, and he'll be fun to paint too whenever I get around to it.

@Josh: Thanks! He might be one of the first Tau things I paint whenever I get back around to painting them. Got a bunch of Imperial stuff (mainly Dark Angels) to do first.

Small update today, just assembled the other half of my Dark Angels Hellblasters box:

I'll assemble some Inceptors and a jump pack Master and then hopefully we'll have good weather to get out the primer. Believe it or not, it's been snowing here in Missouri. In the middle of April.

I've barely begun on the Assassins for the monthly comp. Just did some drybrush highlights to show some detail. I'll do photos once I get a few parts basecoated at least, hopefully very soon as I want to finish these and move on to some Dark Angels.

Quick WIP shot on the Assassins now that I've gotten a few base colors down:

More to come, hopefully soon!

More progress has been made on the Assassins:

Most of the base colors are down now, although some touchups of the black will be needed. These models are some of the coolest in all of 40k, and they have been fun to work with so far!

In other news, my Easy to Build Redemptor Dreadnought finally arrived. I got it assembled today:

It's molded in blue plastic and comes in just 12 parts, which is astounding for a model this size. It's a pretty cool kit, although honestly for an optimal loadout for one of these you need to go ahead and get the full kit. I may add some Dark Angels bits to it to customize it, or else I'll use decals to make it more Dark Angels-y once I paint it.

Those Assassins are looking lovely Zerg.

I kinda want to pick up one of those easy to build dreads for myself now.

Damn ! Those assassins are cool ! I really like their dynamical poses, especially the Eversor who seems to be in the matrix movies

Love the Assassins. They are some of the coolest things in 40K.

Those new assassins sculpts are lovely. Shame about how they are priced. I couldn’t justify picking them up, despite coveting the Eversor. And not playing Chaos, I skipped the box set with them when it was out.

Nice work painting them so far.

So far the easy build kits I’ve seen have been pretty good detail wise. I got The Boy the intro magazine with a push fit intercessor, and the easy build aggressor box. If you are willing to give up the options, they are nice to have.

Still not a fan of the new dreadnought from a looks perspective. I’m a die hard fan of the angry washing machine. Box dreads for life!

@WK: Thanks! I can recommend the ETB dread, especially if you aren't too worried about a customizable loadout, as it is a significant savings over the full kit.

@Babouin: Thanks, I agree about the poses. Some of the best 40k sculpts ever. I also thought the Eversor looks like he's straight out of The Matrix with his wall running pose.

@youwashock: Thanks!

Nevelon: Thanks! I do agree about the price of the Assassins. 30 bucks is a bit much for a monopose character model, even a cool one like these. I bought the box because I do play Chaos and I wanted the board game too after hearing it was a lot of fun. And yes, angry washing machines rock (but the Redemptor is still cool!).

No progress to report on the Assassins unfortunately. Having some motivation problems, possibly burnout after all the Adepticon prep. I have been busy assembling stuff to get ready for my big Dark Angels push, which is for (you guessed it) another GT, this one in August. Even if I don't end up going, it'll be nice to have a fully painted Dark Angels force to play with.

So, the newly assembled stuff. First, a Scout Squad with Bolters:


And a full 6-man unit of Primaris Inceptors with Plasma Exterminators:

One thing I hate about the Primaris kits is how monopose the models are. The Inceptors are literally only 3 possible poses, so I've got 2 of each since I bought 2 boxes. If you built the Assault Bolter variant, you could at least perhaps adjust the arm positions with a minimum of modeling effort, but the plasma weapons have cables that are sculpted to be very specific to how the arms are situated, meaning reposing the models would be a monumental task. At least the poses are dynamic and cool, though, and not totally bland or something. That would be horrible! I plan to put these Inceptors on those scenic bases I got at Adepticon. There were only 5 bases in that set, so I had to cobble together a 6th base that sort of matches the aesthetic using pieces of cork and part of a drinking straw. It'll look okay, I think, at least once it's painted. I'll have to paint these guys fully before I can play with them as they really need to be painted before being mounted on their bases, just as the Dark Imperium ones were.

The models I plan to paint in this DA push are:
6 Inceptors (the ones shown above)
15 Scouts (including the above ones)
10 Hellblasters
1 Repulsor
1 Ravenwing Dark Talon (already partially painted)
2 Razorbacks
1 Chapter Ancient
2 Dreadnoughts
1 Redemptor Dreadnought
I also plan to make a Master with a Jump Pack, plus at least one non-Primaris Lieutenant. When I get those built, I'll paint them. This is a lot of work, and may not be the full sum of it, but I'll prioritize as necessary (for instance, since the FAQ I'm probably not going to use a Dark Talon much anymore, so it's low priority).

Hope to have some actual painting progress to show soon. A lot of the stuff listed above still needs primer, which means I need a break in the weather. It's like winter doesn't want to let go around here, with cold mornings and a lot of wind.

Another tourney, another army. You set yourself lofty goals, my friend.

The funky helmet-over-another-helmet look on the Inceptor model makes me think that they should have some kind of transparent face shield, like an astronauts helmet. Can we make this happen? And by "we" I mean "you."

I have 6 of the Assault Bolter Inceptors myself (Dark Imperium and Know no Fear), and the annoying thing for me is the flightstands. I got 3 more of them from a friend and one of them snapped off his flight stand after he fell off a shoebox onto a table. They're wayyyy too fragile for transport I feel.

The rules I like, but transporting them is a massive pain in the rear.

@Josh: Yeah, I'm kind of masochistic like that, I guess. While technically the tournament I'm wanting to enter will allow unpainted models, I would become ineligible for prizes other than "best in gray" so I'd rather have painted stuff. Plus I liked the feel of having a fully painted army when I was at Adepticon, so I want to get more stuff painted. Most of that list of stuff won't even make the cut in my actual list, but I want to paint it anyway!

@WK: I get what you're saying about those stands. My 3 Inceptors from Dark Imperium have held up well so far, but I've only used them a couple of times. We'll see how it goes in future.

Finally back to putting paint on models. My Assassins are getting close to done, with all the basecoats down. Here's the latest WIP shot:

Next big step will be to shade and highlight the stone and metal details on the bases, but that will be very quick and easy. After that, just a few highlights and touchups. Hopefully I can knock these guys out soon and get to work on the Unforgiven, starting with the plasma Inceptors.

Assassins are looking good Zerg, I liked your comment about not going to tournaments unless your army is fully painted. Local ITC tourneys don’t have any prerequisite to have a painted army here, luckily though the majority of players come with most of their army painted and based. Good luck at your next event.

The Assassins are coming along nicely. Love those models, even if they seem to just die turn one/two every time I bring them along.

@York: Thanks! I wish I could say I never went to tournaments without a fully painted army, but sadly that is not the case. Adepticon is the only event I've been in where I had a fully painted army unfortunately. The big DA push is for a GT in August that I'm planning to attend, and I intend to be fully painted for that.

@WK: Thanks! I have yet to run any except the Vindicare in 8th edition so far, but now I might try the others and see how they work, especially with the new FAQ rulings.

Well, I finally finished the Assassins. Only about 2 weeks after I had hoped to finish. Hobby burnout is real, folks, and it's very hard to stay motivated sometimes. Anywho, here are the final pics of them.
First, here are a couple of group shots, with the second showing some alternative detail on the sides and rear of the models:

And here are individual shots of each assassin:
Vindicare Assassin:

Callidus Assassin:

Culexus Assassin:

And finally, the Eversor Assassin:

These were very fun to paint! My personal favorite of the sculpts is definitely the Eversor Assassin; he looks very dynamic running along that wall thing. I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out, although I could probably find some nitpicky things that I could have done better. I wholeheartedly recommend these models to anyone looking for something different to paint in 40k, as they are pretty unique compared to the regular armies in the game.

Next up for me will probably be my Dark Angels Inceptors with Plasma Exterminators. Since next month's painting challenge theme is 3 Color Maximum, I'll probably knock out a few Daemon models along the way. Those should be fairly quick and easy, especially if I'm only using 3 basic colors (shades and highlights notwithstanding).

Nice work on the assassins. I’ll agree on the Eversor being the best sculpt of the lot of them. What’s not to love about a drugged up murder machine charging up the wall to kill everything in sight?

Always fun to see more DA. Demons should be interesting as well. I was thinking about the 3 color thing myself, and even some of my normally simple paint schemes use a handful of accent colors on assorted bits. Going outside the normal range of stuff I do to find something to work on.

Good luck and have fun!

Hobby burnout: Assassinated.

They look good. My personal favorites are the Culexus and Callidus.

In terms of relative effectiveness the Eversor has done good things for me. If you can get him into a squad of Guardsmen or the like they'll get sliced to ribbons. The Vindicaire is ok for sniping out annoying models, haven't tried out the Culexus or Callidus yet.

Nice work. I particularly like how you did their bodysuits-- I find it hard to pull of lots of black like that.

I hear you on hobby burnout but looks like your back in the swing of things. Culexus is my fav of the bunch and I really like how you did the green on the callidus. Let us know how they workout in a game.

@Nev: Thanks! I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the painting comp.

@youwashock: Thanks very much!

@WK: Good to know, so thanks!

@Josh: Thanks! As for how I did it, it was literally just a black basecoat with a drybrush of medium gray. Quick and dirty highlights with that method, and I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out as well as it did rather than just making a mess.

@York: Thanks, I'll keep it in mind to post if I play them anytime soon. I'll probably start working on playing my Imperial forces again in June, July at the latest.

No real progress to show on the Inceptors at this point. They have been primed and basecoated with Caliban Green, and the recesses have been shaded, so highlights are next and then the green armor will be done. I have gotten some painting done on my Bloodletters that I'm working on for the May painting challenge. Here's a WIP shot of them:

Skin, bronze, and red cloth have been basecoated, so I'll probably shade and then highlight all that next. I'll clean up the black areas and highlight them last because it'll be easier that way (highlighting the red might be messy since I'll be drybrushing). These are actually really easy models to paint, so I should be able to knock them out quick and put my full efforts into the Dark Angels.

Thanks for all the responses by the way. It really does help with my motivation. Hopefully I'll have more to show you all soon!

More progress on my Bloodletters:

Not much left to do on these guys. Just some minor touchups, plus some highlights on the black parts. The symbol on the banner is crude looking, and that is by design, as I doubt that angry rage-demons are going to worry about their banners being pretty.

In other news, I recently assembled Inquisitor Eisenhorn:

He's going to be fun to paint, although he is currently very far down the painting queue.

As for the Dark Angels, highlights have been applied and the metallic parts have been basecoated. In my next update I'll post a WIP shot of them.

Nice work on the bloodletters. They're for the Three Colors painting thing, right?

I love that Eisenhorn model, I need to get one eventually, he would go nicely with my custom Inquisitor.

Bloodletters are gorgeous as well

@Josh: Thanks, and yes they are. I'm just using red, black, and bronze.

@WK: Thanks so much! Eisenhorn is a very cool model, and will be fun to paint whenever I get around to him. Maybe if he fits one of the monthly challenges he'll jump to the front of the queue...

Shifting gears a little bit from my last post, here is a WIP shot of the Plasma Inceptors:

The green armor is done, and the metallics and red weapon casings are basecoated. I still need to basecoat the chest eagles and chapter symbols (which are molded detail on these guys since I had the Dark Angels Primaris Upgrades from the hellblaster kit. That kit came with 2 of the upgrade sprues, so a total of 12 regular shoulder pads and 6 Gravis shoulder pads, which are on these guys.

In other news, the Bloodletters have had the black parts highlighted and the bases have been coated in texture paint. Meaning that except for doing the base rims and possibly a couple of very small touchups they are done. I should have final photos of them very soon, hopefully.

In other other news, I finally did something I said I would not do. I've started on a second game system, namely Corvus Belli's Infinity. Picked up the Operation Red Veil starter and its expansion. Probably won't get as into it as I am into 40k but it should provide an interesting diversion and something very different to paint and play with. I've been interested in the game for a while now, so having a little extra money this month and no real need to pick up any more 40k stuff led to me going ahead and taking the plunge.

You planning on using the flight stands that came with those guys? Just cleaned up a few myself and was looking into alternates.

The minis for Infinity look awesome. I’ve not heard of anyone local playing, which is a major hold back for me getting into it. But when I see someone else painting them up here on dakka, it’s always tempting. Looking forward to what you do.

@Nev: Yes, I will be using the stands, but I've got custom bases to put them on (a pack of 5 that I got at Adepticon, plus one that I made myself to sort of match them). I'm interested to see what alternatives you come up with. Infinity stuff will probably be on the back burner for now, as I've got a lot of 40k stuff that needs done in the short term, but when I do start on it, you'll see it right here.

I've finished the Bloodletters using a 3-color scheme for the monthly challenge, so here are the final pics:



It was interesting to only use red, black, and bronze to finish the models, with only the eyes deviating from that (which was allowed, according to the challenge rules that allowed very small details like squad markings, etc. to be a different color). Normally I might make the tongues pink and possibly use gray or bone for the horns. Honestly the lesser daemons don't need that many colors to get them looking good, which made them a perfect choice for the challenge.

In other news, work progresses on the Inceptors. Here's the latest WIP shot, showing the chest eagles and shoulder icons basecoated:

Some cleanup will be needed, then I can shade and highlight the metallics, gun casings and symbols. Then I will work on the smaller details, like the eye lenses, plasma coils, and other small things. I also need to get started on the bases. My goal is to have these guys finished before the end of the month so I can move on to other things by then.

I also assembled all of the Yu Jing models from the Infinity starter, but as I said in my reply at the beginning I'm probably not going to paint them real soon. I am already figuring out in my head what paints I'll use on them, though.

More to come on the Dark Angels soon.

Not as much progress as I would like, but I did get the bases for the Inceptors blocked in with color:

Elrik's Hobbies have some really cool base designs! I probably should have gotten more while I was at Adepticon. My homemade one that is intended to sort of match these sticks out like a sore thumb as you can see, but alas the pack of bases only came with 5 and I needed 6...

As for the Inceptors themselves, I've shaded the metallics, gun cases, and emblems, so highlights on those details are next on my to-do list for them.

Lots to catch up on here, Bloodletters came out great Zerg, but I have to say your Inceptors are what I like. That dark angel color scheme really looks good on them, are they good in game mine are still on the sprue.

@York: Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the Bloodletters. I haven't yet tried plasma on any Inceptors in-game, and I've only run the bolter ones once (and they were pretty solid).

More progress is finally being made. I did a little bit of drybrushing Necron Compound on the plasma weapons' metallic parts, and I also brightened up the weapon casings. In addition, I layered the chapter symbols on the shoulders. Here's where the Inceptors are at now:

Still some work to be done obviously. Mainly I need to do the plasma glow on the guns. I also need to gloss the right shoulders to prepare to add the assault symbol decals. I'm also going to add the company symbol on the knee pads, which for these guys will be the 8th company (reserve assault). The bases will of course need some more work as well, but those will be really easy.

Edit: Page 18! Woot! And once I count all the models I painted for Adepticon that I feel are complete enough to count, I'm already past my total of painted models from last year, so I can cross that goal off my list. I'm going to push for 100 models as my next goal, although I should blow that out of the water as well. Lord knows I need to in order to make a dent in my modeling backlog.

Coming along quite nicely. Year is not half over and you already made your goal? Impressive. I just did a quick survey last weekend and am on track for my 1-a-week goal, but behind by quite a bit if I want to reach what I did last year.

How much stuff do you have squirreled away to paint? What’s in store?

@Nev: Thanks! I made my goal mainly thanks to having Adepticon to prepare for. I must have done more than 40 models just to meet requirements for that event. I've got so much stuff "squirreled away" that I could probably work for a solid year and not get it all done unless I didn't have to actually go to work at my job (which gets in the way of my painting on a very regular basis). My pile of shame is truly a mountain!

One final WIP update on the Inceptors: the bases are almost completely finished. Here's what they look like as of now:

I was thinking of adding some kind of text or something to the sandbag on the one base. Maybe a little freehand aquila and "The Emperor Protects" or something. Other than that I just need to add the janky flight stands for the guys to hopefully attach to.

My next update should feature the completed Inceptor Squad, so look forward to that very soon!

I finally finished the Plasma Inceptors. Actually I finished them a couple of days ago, but getting them to stay on those stupid flying stems is a job and a half, even if they do look cool once they are on there. Here are the final pics of the squad:



There are definitely areas where I was somewhat sloppy, particularly with the drybrushing, but I'm just ready to move on from these guys. I think they are definitely good tabletop standard, which is what I consider well done, so I'm leaving them there. They are super fun models to paint, and the Elrik's Hobbies bases were a very nice thing to have for them. It's the first time I've ever worked with resin scenic bases before, so I learned a lot and I can see why some people use nothing but them for their armies; they are very cool and add some flavor without being so busy that they draw the eye away from the actual model. Feel free to throw a few Dakka Gallery votes their way!

Next up for me will be some Scouts. I've already got one squad started, and another will be the subject of my entry in June's monthly painting challenge. First time I've ever painted scouts, although I've used them in many games and I love them. They'll be a different sort of thing to paint compared to power armor.

In other news, I'm actually selling my non-Nurgle Daemons. I just don't need a Daemons army right now, but I want to keep the Nurgle stuff to ally in with my Death Guard. Basically I'm eliminating the temptation to flesh out my Khorne and Tzeentch stuff, because those could easily become separate armies in their own right, and I already have too many. While I hate to part with stuff I've painted (like my Bloodletters), it'll be worth it to both make space on my shelves and streamline my collection. I'm on the fence about selling the Bloodthirster, as I'm really proud of my paintjob on him. I'm certainly not selling him to the FLGS, as he'll suffer a lot in the used model bin. At the same time, if I can find him a good home with a player who'll actually make use of him, I'll sell him.

That’s a lot of fast plasma, should be fun on the table!

I always liked painting scouts. Gives me something other then power armor to paint for marines. Enjoy.

I’ve got a ton of crap on my shelves I should part with, I just can’t bring myself to actually do it. And I like to keep the shelves loosely packed enough that I can actually get stuff out. But right now all my non-active armies are packed in base-to-base. The next step is being boxed up and stashed somewhere; a fate normally reserved for the unpainted. And if it’s not being used/displayed, why not sell? Active projects can always use more funds. So good luck finding new homes for you old stuff; wish I could join you in the process.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, but in the end if you can make the break you wind up wondering why it took so long to get rid of that stuff in the first place. And like Nev said, there is always new stuff to buy!

Those Inceptors have quite a presence. Nice looking unit.

@Nev: Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to trying the Inceptors out! I'm also already having a blast painting the scouts. As for the stuff I'm selling, I held on to it for far too long really. I should have sold it off months ago, or better yet I should have just not bought it. I never did flesh out a real Daemons army, and doing so now would cost a lot of money that I don't have, so now it seems obvious to sell them.

@youwashock: Believe me, I'm already wondering why I held on to the Daemons stuff for so long. And there is definitely new stuff to buy on the horizon already, so it'll be nice to have some extra funds. Thanks for the compliment on the Inceptors!

So, switching gears, I'm working on Scouts now. I've gotten most of the base colors down on my first unit, so here's a WIP shot of them:

The only parts not basecoated yet are the symbols on the guns and the skin/hair parts, and those will wait until I get the rest of the models finished. Oh, I also need to do the scope on the sergeant's pistol, but that will wait until near the end as well. Lots of fun to paint so far! This is not the squad I'm going to enter for the painting challenge; that squad will be my metal ones with pistols and knives, as those will fit the theme better (Knives in the Dark).

Also scout-related, I've assembled a 6-man unit of Scout Bikers, so here they are awaiting primer:

These should be a fun little unit to paint and play with. My track record for painting bikes is not great, though, so we'll see.

In other news, I recently sold a few Magic cards to my FLGS for store credit. Suffice to say I've had some really good pulls lately so I got over $150 for them. That go toward one of those soon-to-be-released Big Knights. The money from selling the Daemons stuff will also help with getting me some Knight-related stuff. I've actually already gotten offers for most of my Daemon stuff, although I'm not going to make all that much off the models.

More to come on the Scouts soon.

I like how the inceptors turned out Zerg, the weathering on the plasma is really well done.

@York: Thanks, I'm very happy with how the plasma weapons turned out myself!

Progress has been slow due to RL stuff, but I have gotten more work done on the first Scout squad. Shades have been applied, and I've gone back over most of those areas and made them brighter again. I've also gotten started on the skin and hair. Here's the latest WIP shot:

Obviously there's more work to do on these guys, but they are coming along. I probably won't make my goal of having them done by this weekend for a tournament, but they should be very close.

I've also been very busy on the assembly front. One of the models I put together was a kitbashed Master with a Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, and Storm Shield:

There are parts from about 5-6 different kits mixed in on this guy, so it just goes to show how interchangeable the Space Marines range really is.

I also assembled a Talonmaster:

I left the pilots and the heavy bolter separate to make painting easier. The gunner is stock from the kit other than a Ravenwing shoulder pad, but the pilot (the actual Talonmaster himself) is a kitbash using some parts from the Ravenwing Command Squad kit. That kit is a gold mine for Dark Angels bits, especially Ravenwing. Lots of cool weapons, torsos, and heads in there to really give your models some personality.

Finally, I had to get those parts from somewhere, and that would be the kit that let me assemble these 3 Black Knights:

Now I can field a unit of 6 of these guys. I wanted their poses with the hammers to be more dynamic than my last set, and I feel that I accomplished that, although they still look too much like they are just riding down the road. I'm also somewhat annoyed that they switched the bases on these guys; now they are on the oval bases. I had to rebase my older Black Knights, and at some point I'll have to get more of those ovals for my Command Squad guys as I'm out of them now.

Anyways, I hope to get back to more painting soon. Work has been kicking my butt lately, hence the slow progress, but I should hopefully get more done as it should relax a bit soon.

Those scouts are coming along quite nicely. Your DA green goes nicely with the khaki/beige of the scouts' uniforms-- most scouts in chapter colors seem like they would draw a lot more fire than an ostensibly sneaky unit would want.

@Josh: Thanks! I agree about the colors- there is a nice contrast between the very dark green and the very light beige on the fabric. Personally I still don't think it constitutes stealthy, but then nothing in Space Marines really does (until we get to the sniper scouts with their camo cloaks of course! )

I finally finished the first Scout unit, so here are the final photos of the models:



I had a blast painting these models. I feel like my freehand is finally getting to a point where I'm satisfied with how it looks. Granted, for the pics I am only showing the best of it (a couple of the shoulder pads didn't turn out as well) but I'm at least making progress on learning to do neat work. I have already started on the second squad of scouts (which is my entry in the June painting challenge), and I'm glad I did these guys first, as those ones are way busier with different gear like grenades, pouches, bullets, etc. I left most of the extras off of this first squad as I wanted to keep them somewhat simple. The models still look good without needing all that extra crap all over them, which would only get in the way in a firefight anyways.

I also got back to working on my first Dark Talon. Here's the latest WIP of the plane and its stasis bomb:

It's coming along. I'm going ahead and getting it finished because I'm pretty sure it's going to be in most of my Dark Angels lists going forward. Finally got to try it out the other day and it put in some solid work. Plus the model is one of my favorites of all the models GW makes.

I hope to have progress to show on both the second Scout unit and the Dark Talon soon, so stay tuned!

Scouts look good Zerg, that lens effect looks great. Glad your using the Dark Talon it’s one of my favs also. Going to need some pics of it in action

Nice work on the scouts.

Did the flyer finally get decent rules? I’m not up on the DA special stuff, but recall it being luke warm at best in the last edition. Shame, as it’s one of the better looking marine flyers out there.

@York: Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how my lenses have turned out on some of my recent models (well, the ones that have lenses anyways). They aren't too hard to do either. As for the Dark Talon, we'll see about getting some in-game pics of it once I get it finished.

@Nev: Thanks! The Dark Talon has pretty good rules, although it did get a significant price bump in the big FAQ (from 160 to 200 points). Much better than last edition, when both DA flyers were kind of crap.

Small update, the second Scouts are progressing nicely, with most of the major colors already blocked in. The cloth parts are completely done, meaning I'm having to be very careful not to get paint on those areas as I work on the rest of the colors. Here's a WIP photo (sorry it's a little bright):

Like I said, these models are quite a bit busier than my last bunch. Lots of grenades and pouches and stuff all over them. Being metal models, I have learned not to bother trying to drill the gun barrels, as I don't have a power drill handy and my pin vise doesn't do the trick. I'll paint a black dot that'll be better than nothing, though.

Old metal Scouts. Dig it. I like the kitbashed Master, too. Lots of cool progress.

Those old scouts have a lot of kit on them. One of the perks of monopose metals. One nice thing about painting mine in camo: I get to care less about sloppy brushwork.

The scouts look good so far. It warms my aged heart to see those old metal models getting some attention.

@youwashock: Thanks!

@Nev: Yeah, busy models for sure, but that's cool! I'm sure camo will look good on these guys, so I'll follow your progress for sure.

@Josh: Thanks! It's really fun to put paint on old metal models like this. These scouts were the current models probably around the first time I ever heard of Warhammer 40k, long before I actually got into it.

Another quick WIP shot of my Scouts:

They are almost done, only needing some minor touchups, a brighter layer on the chapter symbols, and the bases done, plus some highlights on the faces.

In other news, see my newly reopened Imperial Knights blog to see new progress on my Imperial Knights. Might not be much to show unless the weather finally cools enough to actually prime some stuff. It's been extremely hot here lately.

Finally finished the second Scout squad, so here are the final pics:



These were a blast to paint, even more so than the previous squad. More challenging too because of the amount of gear these guys are toting. I ultimately need to paint at least one more unit of these, but I'll do something else first, most likely my Ravenwing Talonmaster, as it'll give me a break from painting endless Scouts, plus I know I'll need the Talonmaster for a fair number of games with my Dark Angels.

In other news, I have assembled a Primaris Aggressor squad, complete with some Dark Angels upgrade parts:

Not a high priority for painting, but I do think they are cool models, and when I put them next to Azrael in a game, I think they'll mulch anything infantry-sized that gets in their line of fire.

That's all for now, stay classy DakkaDakka!

Yes, I'm still alive, but I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the painting front. Just haven't been in the mood. All that's about to change, though, as my next entry for the Dakka painting challenge is going to be my Primaris Repulsor. Here's where it's at right now:

I need to start by touching up the areas where I missed with the green primer. I'm actually fairly confident that I can paint this thing completely pretty quick. It's not all that busy compared to some models I've painted.

I'll also be working on my Ravenwing Talonmaster at the same time as he's more necessary for my competitive lists. No pics yet for that model, but I hope to have a WIP shot soonish. Between these things and my Knight project (seen in my other blog) I'm pretty well swamped with painting projects.

2018 is already half over. Time is flying by! I'm up to 85 completed models for the year, which is incredible progress for me. I don't *think* I've bought more models than that this year, plus I sold some of my Chaos Daemon models, so the pile of shame has actually shrunk some, which is nice. It's easier to make progress when you've got events to prepare for (like Adepticon earlier this year, and the Siegeworld GT in St. Louis, MO coming up at the end of August). I need to get with the program if I want to have a painted competitive Dark Angels force by the end of August, so wish me luck!

My repulsor was fairly quick going, but I think I put on less of the grubbins then you did, and not as many magnetized options. I also left the grav plates off for painting. Was fun to do, looking forward to seeing yours come together.

I should probably do a mid year count. I think I’m on track, but prefer to be ahead. End of the year has so many distractions, need to go into it with a lead.

@Nev: I wanted to use all the stowage and stuff because the back panels look kind of empty without them, and I couldn't think of much other use for those bits. And hell yes I did a bunch of magnetized options. At $80, I want to get as much use out of this vehicle as possible, so having many configurations usable was a must. I was going to leave off the grav plates, but honestly there's not really any visible detail down there behind them so I just stuck them on to simplify assembly later.

After a few days' hiatus due to fatigue and burnout (mostly because I've been staying up late playing video games), I've been back at my painting desk. I've gotten most of the basecoating done on the Repulsor at this point, so here's a WIP shot of most of the parts of it:

I do still need to clean up the green where I was sloppy with the other colors, but that will be very quick work. Then it'll be on to shades and highlights.

Don’t get me wrong, some bits were worth magnetizing. I did the turret and the main hull gun. But for the effort involved for the difference between the storm bolters and the frag launchers, I just went with the SBs. It might come back and bite me in an edition or two, but there are limits to the effort I’ll put into a kit for marginal returns.

Looking good!

Are you doing your driver in red? That's because he's a techmarine, right? I haven't thought about 40K in so long, I can't remember those little details.

@Nev: I definitely see where you're coming from, and to be honest it was probably overkill. But, at least now I'm covered.

@Josh: Yes, most Space Marine vehicle drivers have the red armor of a Techmarine. He even has the cog symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus on one shoulder pad.

No real hobby progress to show, but I did once again change up my hobby area. It has gone back to the card table in my bedroom. The main reason is because my Brightech lamp arrived, and since I wasn't aware that it would weigh a ton I went ahead and got the clip-on version instead of the floor version. I didn't like the stress it was putting on my computer desk (the only place to attach it is on the keyboard shelf, and that seems to be begging for trouble), so I attached it to the card table instead, where it seems to work (barely). It really needs a proper, sturdy desk to attach to, but sadly I don't have one, so I'm making do for now. I'll do an actual review of the lamp over in the general P&M section and link it to this blog once I use it a bunch and get the feel for it (the company gave me the lamp in exchange for a review). It's taking some getting used to, since it's the first time I've really used a magnifying device while painting. I think it'll come in handy for doing neat freehand work once I get used to it.

Here's a photo of my new hobby space, complete with the new lamp:

I'm making good progress on my Ravenwing Talonmaster; the basecoats are pretty much all done, and there won't be much shading to do at all thanks to the model being mostly black. Here are a couple of WIP shots, taken under the light of my Brightech lamp:

I'm going to have to figure out how to make my camera play nice with the light from that lamp; that first photo is way too bright. I do like the lamp so far, although I'm going to keep on using it before I am ready to render judgement and write a review about it.

No progress to show on the Repulsor; I've barely done any more work on it. Most of my painting and modelling effort lately has been on my Imperial Knight, but that's the subject of my other blog. I'm going to need to rally if I want to finish by the end of the month. Funny thing is, there's really not that much to do to it; it's not really a complex model at all despite its size. I've just got other things I'd rather be doing (like working on the aforementioned Knight). Plus, the Repulsor is not going with me to that GT that I'm trying to prepare for, so if I don't finish it soon it's no big deal for that, hence low motivation.

Hopefully I can get a lot of work done on both the Talonmaster and Repulsor soon. I hope to finish both by the end of the month, so wish me luck!

Very sorry for not keeping up with this blog, but I have been getting some things done (just not nearly as quickly as I should be). I've nearly finished both the Repulsor and the Talonmaster. Both should be done within a couple of days. Here are some WIP shots:
Repulsor:

Talonmaster:

The Repulsor just needs a couple of minor details finished, and perhaps a second drybrush to really bring out the edges, at least on the main hull. The Talonmaster's speeder just needs a couple of details touched up, plus the pilot's skin and hair needs finished (and some detail added to his sword). Easy peasy, right?

In other news, my FLGS had its annual Summer Market Day today. Last year I had a pretty good haul, and this year I scored some decent loot too. Firstly, I picked up a painted Lukas the Trickster for my Space Wolves:

This pic does not do the model justice. Whoever did the painting on this absolutely nailed it! I got a pretty good price on it too, which is nice.

The other thing I picked up was a NIB Chaos Lord on Manticore kit from the old Warhammer Fantasy range. I'm going to use the model as a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (since I already have ones for Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh, though only the Slaanesh one is painted), although it is a bit big. I went ahead and built it with the Sorcerer Lord riding it because Rule of Cool. Here's a pic of it assembled:

The rider is not glued on, as I want to paint him separately. I'll do the Manticore himself in pinks, purples, and blues to represent its allegiance to Tzeentch. My fluff justification for this model will be that instead of becoming a Daemon Prince, the Sorcerer was gifted with a large Daemonic Mount so that he could better serve Tzeentch. Of course he'd better prove himself worthy of such a gift...
Here's a size comparison showing the Manticore without the rider next to an actual Daemon Prince and a Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage:

He's a lot beefier than a Prince, but not big enough to be a Greater Daemon or Daemon Primarch. I might add some stuff to make him look more 40k rather than Fantasy, but ultimately that might just be a dead Space Marine on the base or something. The model itself is almost too big for a 60mm round base, but since that is what a Daemon Prince goes on it will have to do, otherwise I'm modelling for advantage. He's not a huge priority for painting right now, but I'm already thinking about color schemes as I think he'll look cool with Tzeentch-type colors.

Anywho, I hope to have finished pics of the Repulsor and Talonmaster very soon, and I hope to get back to more regular posting in this blog.

As promised, I finished on the Repulsor, so here are the final pics:


Here are a couple of detail shots:

I had a lot of fun working on this thing. I technically still need to finish the alternate weapons, but there are just a couple of small details left to paint on those and then it will be truly customizable.

Obviously next up will be finishing the Talonmaster, but after that I've still got another unit of Scouts to paint, plus some Scout Bikes and some Hellblasters that all need paint by the end of next month when I have a tournament. And that's assuming I don't take anything else. Running a Knight in my list helps cut down my needed model count, but I still need to pick up the pace. It's going to be like Adepticon all over again, I think.

That's a nifty model, kind like a Land Raider/Land Speeder hybrid. You've done a great job with it, as well. I find vehicles really difficult, what with all those straight lines and sharp angles.

Repulsor looks slick! Great job!

The repulsor looks as menacing and powerful as it’s suppossed to . Brutal beatstick of the imperium.

Nice job. Always good to see more grav tanks in the world.

@Josh: Thanks for the kind words! Land Raider crossed with a Land Speeder was exactly what I thought when I saw this model for the first time as well.

@youwashock: Thanks very much!

@Theo: Thanks! Big models like this should look powerful, and the Repulsor certainly does, despite being a hover vehicle among an army of tracked vehicles.

@Nev: Thanks! I totally agree; there should be more grav tanks. I've got a friend who's painting a Repulsor for his Deathwatch, so that'll be yet another one.

Wow, 2 weeks since my last update. I'm really slipping. Finally getting my painting groove on, and not a moment too soon. Less than 2 weeks remain before the Siegeworld GT, so I have absolutely got to speed up! Fortunately I've made some progress on some of my needed models, and I think I finally have a decent list prepared. So here are some WIP shots:
First, here's the last WIP shot of my long-awaited Talonmaster:

He's not totally done, but honestly just a couple of freehand details and touchups are all that's left to do. This model actually will probably not be in my GT list, as it turns out, but by God I'm finishing him anyway!

Next, here's the first WIP shot of my third Scout squad, this one equipped with a Heavy Bolter:

They are coming along nicely. The cloth parts are done, and most of the rest is basecoated (just the leather parts and the skin left really), so they shouldn't take too terribly long to finish.

Finally, here's a WIP of my Scout Bikers:

I forgot how tedious bikers are to paint. I'm not honestly sure why I find them so; they aren't that intricate or anything (although these scout ones kind of are). Probably just in my head.

In addition to these models, I've got a bunch of Hellblasters, a Lieutenant, and an Ancient that need paint, and I need to finish my Dark Talon as well. I'll be borrowing some Guard models from a friend, and running my already-painted Imperial Knight in my list, so that'll cut down on the painting. It's still going to be very close!

Looking good, man. Push on!

Nice work. Nothing like a deadline to get the motivation going!

I think there a a number of problems getting paint on bikes. They are just big enough to get tedious, but you need to paint them in squads. Not just a block of color like a tank, so you cant just cheat with a big brush. Old sculps with soft detail makes it hard to be excited. Just a host of issues.

And I need more myself.

@youwashock: Thanks!

@Nev: Thanks, and I think you're right about the bike thing. There's a reason why I've got a bunch of unpainted Ravenwing sitting around gathering dust...

Welp, I'm out of time, and unfortunately I didn't manage to 100% finish the models for my Siegeworld list. They are, however, beyond the minimum standards for the event, so I can play with them no problem. Motivation has been lacking, and being tired and distracted by other things hasn't helped either. I don't have any current WIP shots of the stuff, but it's basically all basecoated and there have been some shades applied, and the bases have texture on them. After Siegeworld, I'm hoping to finish them in time for a smaller local event at which I may very well use the same list, depending on how it goes.

While I didn't finish the Siegeworld models in time, I did finally finish the Talonmaster, who didn't make the cut for my list. Here are the final pics of that model:



Far from my best work, but to me it'll serve its purpose well. I decided to keep the speeder simple and not put too much bling on it, as it shouldn't look better than Sammael's speeder, Sableclaw. The decision to add text to the back panels was a last-minute one and I did them somewhat hastily, hence why it looks sloppy. I actually finished this model a week ago, but just now got around to taking pictures of it. Feel free to vote for these pics on the Dakka Gallery.

I would have had a Ravenwing Dark Talon to post final pics of here as well, but as I was looking it over before taking pics I noticed one freaking purity seal on the tail that I somehow missed. It'll have to wait until after Siegeworld so I can get it painted, as even if no one else notices that I missed it, I'll notice, and it'll bug the crap out of me.

Anyhow, wish me luck in Siegeworld, and I'll have some pics of that Dark Talon, and hopefully some other stuff to show very soon!

Don’t be too hard on yourself for the freehand, it’s fine. Obviously could have been a little neater, but that can be said for many things. Practice makes perfect.

Good luck at your event. Crush all who oppose you, and purge the heretic! And have fun, always that.

Nice work on the Land Speeder there. My son and I built three for his army, but I could not get them assembled without gaps-- hats off to you. Is that guy going to lop someone's head off in a fly-by attack?

We're all waiting for a group shot, BTW.

@Nev: I'm sure you're right, but like most people I'm my own worst critic. I do feel like I'm improving as far as freehand, and I'm probably capable of doing better. I was just getting in too big of a hurry.

@Josh: Thanks! This Land Speeder was one of the newer plastic kits, which come in more parts than the older ones and thus are much easier to put together right. The old ones were a nightmare of ill-fitting parts and yes, there were gaps everywhere! As for the sword pose, Talonmasters are actually pretty good in CC with 4 attacks base, and I almost always give mine the Heavenfall blade relic, so he lops off plenty of heads! Group shot will probably wait until I get the rest of my Siegeworld list done (even though Siegeworld is over now), but rest assured there will be one.

Finally able to call my Dark Talon finished. It wrecked face at Siegeworld pretty well in most of my games. Here are the final pics (8 of them!):




The Dark Talon is one of my favorite models in the game, so it was really fun to work on this! I'm super happy with how it turned out, and it got compliments when I was at Siegeworld. Please feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka Gallery!

In other news, I picked up the Space Wolves half of the Tooth & Claw box set while I was at the tournament, and I've already assembled the Primaris Battle Leader:

I'm currently working on putting the rest of the stuff together, but I won't be painting any Space Wolves until I get the rest of my WIP Dark Angels that were in my list painted. I'm planning on running that same list in a local tournament in a couple of weeks, and I hope to be fully painted in time for that.

Since I lost my first game at Siegeworld, I was given the choice of a selection of Scibor models and accessories. I chose this cool model that will probably be used as a Thousand Sons Exalted Sorcerer or something:

I haven't glued him to the base, as I want to paint that separately, but I'm really looking forward to working on this thing. Scibor has some really cool stuff!

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope to have more Dark Angels stuff to show really soon!

Switching gears completely, I'm finally getting to work in earnest on my entry for the August painting challenge. I chose to paint some old metal Easterling Kataphrakts from the Lord of the Rings SBG (now called Middle-Earth SBG). The month is nearly over, so I probably won't finish, but I'm certainly going to give it the old college try! Here's how they are looking so far:

I've painted the skin of the horses (3 brown, 2 black) complete with highlights, and I've also basecoated and shaded the very prominent gold armor. I'll probably highlight that, then start tackling the cloth parts, which shouldn't be too terribly complicated. Time is definitely a factor though, as I actually have to finish sooner than the end of the month because I'm leaving town in a couple of days.

Anyway, I hope to have more progress to show on these and my 40k stuff soon.

I managed to power through painting my Easterling Kataphrakts in just a couple of evenings, putting the finishing touches on this morning, so here are the final photos:



I had a ton of fun painting these, and it really showed me how fast I could paint when my back was to the wall. If I could just have that kind of dedication when painting 40k stuff, I could probably knock out my entire pile of shame in less than a year, certainly less than two years. It was also very nice to take a break and paint something that wasn't 40k-related. I have always loved The Lord of the Rings, even before the movies came out, so when I finally had an excuse to get some of my LOTR stuff painted for one of the challenges, I jumped at the chance. I might not do any more of it for a while, but it was nice to get some of it done. I just love the models too; the Easterlings had, to me, hands-down the coolest armor in the movies. It's a crying shame that we only got to see them in one scene in the whole trilogy.

Anyway, back to 40k for me. I still need to figure out what to paint for next month's challenge...

Just a quick little update now that I've returned from my short vacation. I've now finished putting together everything from the Space Wolves half of Tooth & Claw, so here are the unpainted models from that set:

I'm actually going to use the Redemptor for my Dark Angels, and paint my Easy-to-Build Redemptor as Space Wolves, which will mean respraying it with The Fang paint (I had already sprayed it with Caliban Green). The main guns are swappable (didn't even need any magnets), as are the fist-mounted guns (I did use magnets for that one, and it was very simple to do). The ones on the belly would not be very easy to magnetize at all, so I skipped them and just went with Fragstorm Launchers (which is what I would probably take every time anyways).

Now I'm going to get back to painting Dark Angels. I've got 15 Hellblasters, 5 Scouts, 6 Scout Bikes, and 2 characters that need to be finished up properly before I'll move on to other things, so I'd better get on it. Maybe after that I'll get started painting my Wolf stuff.

Nice work cranking out those Easterlings. It is always a good feeling to finish up a group of minis. That is one thing I like about this hobby. The potential for many tiny victories.

@youwashock: Thanks! You are definitely right about the little victories thing.

So, change of plans. I have another GT coming up (this time right in my backyard, so to speak), so since I'm planning on running a Chaos list I'm going to have to put the Dark Angels on the back burner for now and focus on cranking out some Chaos stuff. Fortunately, most of the Chaos stuff I need for my planned list is already painted, but I still need to knock some stuff out in case things change, which is definitely a possibility given that there is a big FAQ expected to drop before too long. I would run my Dark Angels at the GT, but they really just don't cut it competitively. Anyway, I've started working on a Death Guard Foetid Bloat-drone for my list. It is also my entry in the September painting challenge, and it'll be another unit from Dark Imperium finished. Here's where it's at so far:

Okay, photo's a little blurry but I've basecoated and shaded the green armor and the metallics, as well as the black cables (most of which are hanging down below the drone). Next up is to highlight these colors, and then I can move on to the more fun stuff like the fleshy sac on the back of the drone. After this guy, I'll have to do one more Bloat-drone and 3 Myphitic Blight-haulers, as well as a Poxbringer, 3 bases of Nurglings (bringing me up to 9 total in my collection), and a Herald of Slaanesh. If I go with the other version of the list, I'll need to paint a Feculent Gnarlmaw as well. I plan to also work on those Dark Angels concurrently, but the Chaos models will be my priority.

Update: the Bloat-drone is nearly done; just a few little details left to finish up, plus the base. It'll be ready to join the rest of my painted Dark Imperium Death Guard models very soon. Here's a couple of WIP shots:

I am pretty happy with it so far. In fact, since I took these pics early this afternoon, I've already made more progress. Basically just the base left to do at this point, so expect some finished shots very soon.

Next up will be some Myphitic Blight-haulers, 3 of them in fact. It'll be the first time I've ever attempted to batch-paint vehicles before, but for ones like this it seemed appropriate as they'll be run together and they are identical models. Like the Bloat-drone they are fairly busy models, but I'll be able to apply the same techniques to them as I did on the drone, so it won't be too terribly hard. Look forward to WIP shots of those in the days ahead.

I managed to finish the Bloat-drone, so here are the final pics of that:



I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was super fun to paint too, despite how busy the model was. The little puddles of goo on the base were a last-minute addition based on the advice of a couple of friends, and I think they do help to emphasize the influence of Nurgle on this thing (as if the drone itself isn't disgusting enough to make it obvious!). I'll probably do better ones on my other DG stuff, as I'm pretty happy with how they look, and they would look even better if I had planned them before putting down the base texture paint.

In other news, I've started working on the Myphitic Blight-haulers. No pics yet, as I've barely started, but they are under way. They'll have a very similar look to the Bloat-drone when they are done, as I intend to basically follow the same techniques and colors.

I've also finally gone back and assembled all of my Infinity models, but still no paint on them as I've got a lot of 40k stuff that needs done sooner. I may start trying to get a game or two of Infinity here in the next month or two, as after watching a couple of guys play at one of my FLGS in town I really want to give it a try. Painting them will be somewhat daunting, as one thing Infinity models are known for is really, really tiny details. I better learn to use the magnifying lens on my lamp!

Anyhoo, I hope to have more progress to show on my models soon, so stay tuned!

Hello again, everyone. It's been a while since I posted in this blog, and I have to sincerely apologize for that. RL stuff was really getting me down, making me see everyone as being critical of me, hence my lack of motivation to show off my hobbying progress. Now that I've gotten my head back on straight, I can return to business as usual around here. First, some info about my upcoming GT (upcoming as in 3 weeks away now): the event is called the Mid-Mo Maelstrom, and is being hosted by my local 40k club. It is being run in a venue just a short distance south of my hometown, so I won't even have to travel or worry about where to spend the night. It'll be 5 rounds, using the ITC missions. I've also had yet another complete change of plans as far as what I'm going to run in the event. Since the time of my last blog post, I've decided that instead of running Chaos (who took some nerfs in the big FAQ recently), I'm going to field my Tau. This of course means that I need to have 2000 points worth of Tau painted, but thankfully while I haven't been blogging at all I have been getting some paint down on some models, even if it hasn't been as much as I should have. Anyhow, I do have some pics of stuff I've been working on:
First, here's a pic of a bunch of Fire Warriors that I'm considering finished for now:

The only thing that really could be considered unfinished on these models is that the blue armor has not been shaded or highlighted; I'll get back to that if I have time before the event, but I think they look okay as-is. The back row are actually not from this current push; they are the first Tau models I ever painted! I only added texture to their bases to match my other models; I'm not going to touch them up, either, as they are a reminder of how far I've come in the hobby.

Next, here is a trio of ever-useful Shield Drones, ready to protect my bigger Battlesuits from enemy fire:

These guys are done; I just don't think they are worth setting up my proper photo area. Once I get a few more of them painted, I might take a couple of better photos.

Here are a couple of WIP shots of two character models I'm working on, Darkstrider and my Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit:

Darkstrider is almost done; the gray parts need to be covered up with yellow, and the armor needs to be shaded and highlighted, and there are a few details to pick out. The Commander still needs a fair bit of work; like Darkstrider, the gray parts need to be covered in yellow (gray works good underneath yellow to make it look better). You may be wondering about the Custodes helmet and leg guard on the base; that is there because in a practice game my opponent underestimated the threat range on my Coldstar and I managed to fly over and annihilate his Vexilla bearer, shutting down a major component of his army's protection (it was providing a bubble of -1 to hit). I have done a lot of Marine heads and stuff on bases, but I never see any Custodes stuff on bases and I had a spare helmet and a couple of other bits, so I decided to go with it.

Finally, something very different. A WIP shot of my entry in the October painting challenge, the second set of 10 Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium box:

Lots left to do on these guys; all they've gotten so far is a couple of layers of Rakarth Flesh, a couple of layers of Pallid Wych Flesh, and an all-over shade of Reikland Fleshshade. I'll be adding a few more shades to the skin, plus some highlights, and then I'll start picking out the other details like the clothes and weapons.

Now that I've returned, I hope to start updating this blog more frequently. I've got a lot of Tau stuff to get done in 3 weeks, including probably 20 more Fire Warriors, 3 Riptides (thankfully 2 of them are partly done already!), some characters, and at least a dozen more Shield Drones. You'll see it all right here.

Hey, welcome back!

3(!) Riptides? That is going to look awesome on the table. I like the blue for the Tau. Clean and striking. Good luck getting the boys ready for the fight.

Whoa, another new army? You're amazingly productive. I also think that the blue you are using is a nice departure from the usual ochre.

@youwashock: 3 Riptides will be awesome, and quite powerful in game (although not so much as it would have been in 7th...). I've been pretty happy with my blue color scheme so far, and it has gotten compliments at my FLGS and here, so I'm going to continue with it.

@Josh: Hardly a brand new army for me, as I've had Tau stuff since very early in my time with 40k. I wanted to do something different with my Tau compared to the ochre color, so I came up with the blue and yellow scheme (kind of a reversed Craftworld Iyanden scheme) and haven't regretted it one bit.

I finished Darkstrider, so here are a few pics of him:


This guy's one of my favorite Tau models, so it was lots of fun to do. It's also the first time I've painted a named character in a different scheme to their "canon" colors. Maybe it's actually just Darkstrider's cousin or something... Anyways, feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery. One thing I will say about the close-up shot is that my camera doesn't like to zoom in too much. The pics become kind of grainy. It was the only way to get a decent close-up of this guy's face, though. I probably need to get a better camera, but I'm not willing to drop the cash for one right now.

In addition to Darkstrider, I've been getting work done on some other Tau stuff. I've made very good progress on two of my Riptides, so here's where they are at right now:

The one on the right has already had the shading done, and it really makes a difference in how defined the panel lines are. My third Riptide will actually be a repaint, as I bought it used and it was already partially painted. It'll be pretty easy to just go over it with two coats of Caledor Sky (the shade of blue I use), which should cover the underlying paint easily.

Here's the current state of my Coldstar Commander:

Not too much progress since my last post, but he's getting there. Next thing for him will be shading, then I just need to highlight him and pick out the details.

Finally, here are a couple of Ethereals that I'm working on. Not sure yet which one will make it into my list:

I'm doing the foot one in a more classic Ethereal scheme, whereas I was thinking I'd do the Hover Drone one in a very flashy scheme, with the skirt in bright yellow (to go with the blue that the armor will be when it's done). I'm not sure I should do that, as that yellow will be really bright and might be way too garish. Maybe I'll stick to a bone color like the robe on the foot one will be, although I want to get some yellow somewhere on the model to tie it in with the rest of the army.

In addition to these, I've got a whole bunch of Shield Drones in various stages of WIP, just no pics of them. Most have only had the blue parts basecoated. They are pretty easy to paint, so I should be able to knock them out fast. I really need to get a move on, as I've got two weeks to have the whole army painted and ready to play. It'll be tight for sure. And before anyone asks, there will be group shots when I get it all done, don't you worry!

Darkstrider (who I know squat about, but he looks neat) came out cool. Those Riptides are rockin'. Solid mecha goodness.

The blue and yellow are a really great combination and Darkstrider looks like the boss .

With the brightness of your suits, I’d not worry about having some on the etherial as well. Probably help him tie in with the rest of the force better. And make him easier for imperial snipers to pick out, but that’s just the cherry on top.

I wonder how it would look to have the etherial on disk painted to look like he was a hologram. Blue glow, scan/grid lines/wireframe. The Tau are the practical race. Why have your politicians leading from the front? Just slap up a motivational holo-projector. Unless of course your leader class is a bunch of mind-controlling jerks who need to be present.

@youwashock: Thanks very much!

@Theo: Thank you sir, I've been pretty happy with how my scheme has turned out on different Tau units myself!

@Nev: The hologram idea is cool, but I think it's beyond me to pull it off. I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future, though! Also, it is more fluffy for Ethereals to be actually present; in the current Tau codex there is mention of an artillery shell killing all of the Ethereals in a command center except for the holographic Aun'va (who is actually dead), and despite him giving commands to make a heroic sacrifice many troops, a certain Tau commander feels no compulsion to obey at all and calls the idea a useless waste of lives, unlike what would happen if Ethereals were actually present. Mind control indeed...

Sorry for lack of updates recently, I've been busy painting in addition to yet more RL stuff. The good news is that I have indeed gotten my tournament list all painted to at least minimum tabletop standard. Here's my promised group shot of the army:

The only models in there that I didn't paint are the Broadsides, hence why they are in a different scheme. They'll get repainted eventually. It certainly feels good to have a force like this all painted, even if they aren't totally done. I'll probably start going back and touching them up to fully complete them after the tournament is over. Of course, I said that about my Dark Angels a couple of months ago too. Maybe that's what I need to do for the rest of the year, just polish off my partially completed models, in addition to whatever I do for the monthly painting challenges. Speaking of which, I unfortunately did not have time to finish the Poxwalkers for October's challenge, so my dream of finishing all of them in a single season (March-Feb) remains unfulfilled for another year.

With that done, I now have a painted force for three of my armies (Tau, Dark Angels, and Chaos Marines). Yes, I have more painted than just what I need for tournaments, but now it'll be easier for me to get painting points since I won't have as much to paint in preparation.

I also sadly have found out that I will not be able to go to next year's Adepticon. My club is not sending as many teams, and all of the ones they are sending are picked already. Oh well, that's money I can save for other things, notably a new computer. I do intend to go to more big tournaments next year, but Adepticon will not be among them. Hopefully I can get into a team for ATC, as I've always wanted to play in that. We'll just have to see.

Nice shot of the Tau. I’m sure they will look nice on the battlefield being purged like the filthy xenos scum they are. Good luck out there!

Having a solid core of an army makes expanding it really easy. Not having to start from scratch every time is huge. Just need to swap out one or two units to chase the meta.

Shame about not going to adeptecon, I’ve heard good things about it. It’s on my wish list of things do do someday, but I can’t really justify the time off or money to go.

Look at all that mech. Great looking force.

Very cool looking army, I've never seen Tau in blue but they look brilliant. Having a core army is always great to work from, it's something I need to try and do!

@Nev: Thanks! You definitely should go to Adepticon sometime; save up some money and take the time off if you can. It's worth it. I hope to go back at some point, but it just won't be next year.

@youwashock: Thanks!

@Tyranid Horde: Thanks, and welcome to the blog! I haven't seen any blue Tau either other than mine, so it makes me feel like I'm doing something unique (although I'm sure someone else on Earth has a blue Tau army somewhere...).

Switching gears once again, I am now working on some Space Wolves for the monthly painting challenge, and I'm also working on some Dark Angels stuff for yet another event coming up in a little less than a month. First, here's a quick WIP of the Space Wolves Primaris Battle Leader from Tooth & Claw:

The gray armor is done, and I've started to pick out the details. Lots left to do on this model. The other half of my challenge entry is my metal Logan Grimnar model, but I've barely started on that.

On the Dark Angels side of things, I've begun working on my unit of Aggressors, as well as this Librarian:

The blue armor is done, and I've basecoated the robes and the green on the shoulder pads. This model has loads of detail, so I'm going to take my time and pick all that out as best I can. I haven't really started on the Aggressors yet.

RL has once again decided to kick me in the head, this time nearly literally. On Saturday night, as I was eating some pizza, I noticed a sharp edge in my mouth. On closer inspection with my tongue, as well as a mirror and a flashlight, I discovered to my total dismay that I somehow broke one of my teeth. There was no pain or anything, but I still went to see the dentist on Tuesday and it turns out that I had a very large cavity in that tooth, and it needs a crown. I didn't have the money for something like that, and I lack any kind of dental insurance, so my father had to pay for it, and I'll have to pay him back. Over $1600 to put a crown on one tooth. Thankfully the decay didn't go down to the nerve, so I didn't need a root canal. The dentist has already taken care of the actual bacteria that caused the cavity, and prepared the tooth for the crown, but I won't get the temporary crown until next Wednesday, and the permanent one a few weeks later. I really didn't need this, as now I'm going to have to allocate a lot of my spare money each month to paying my dad back. I had planned to buy a new computer this month, but now that's extremely unlikely. Oh well, life sucks sometimes, y'know?

Anyhoo, more to come on the Space Wolves and Dark Angels, hopefully soon.

Yikes! Sorry about the dental mishap. Real life is such a drag.

Bummer about the tooth. I’ve been putting off seeing the dentist myself.

Nice work on the wolf and the libby!

@youwashock: Thanks for the sympathy. It's not that bad except for the money part; there's no pain or anything.

@Nev: Thanks!

Small update: No real progress on the painting front, but I did assemble some characters for my Space Wolves:

2 Wolf Lords on Thunderwolves and a Rune Priest with a jump pack. My current plan is to run these as a Supreme Command Detachment alongside a main force of Dark Angels. I'm not a huge fan of the jaunty angle that the one rider is at, but that is actually how it's supposed to look, as shown on GW's website and the box art for Thunderwolf Cavalry. I think it's supposed to look like the wolf is rounding a corner or something. I'm just going with it.

Hopefully soon I'll have some painting progress to share.