Wow. A momentous occasion. I say go all in. Those LE Marines will be very cool for the collection. As for what to work on, the blind-buy Marines make for a nice bit of individuality.

Put the first blue down on the rando marines yesterday. Also glued rocks and tufts on the terminators and just finished the decals. Just the flock and pictures left.

Nice solid Terminators there Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks.

Finished flocking. I’ll break out the lightbox tomorrow for pics. Also risked the cold weather to prime something for next month’s competition: “Final Boss” has a strong lead. Looks like it went on clean. I feel like I should toss out all sorts of click-bait lines. You won’t believe what’s coming next!

But you probably can’t guess.

And done.

Those sculpts are BAD. Really showing their age and the limitation of the medium. Soft detail, obvious places where undercuts are not allowed, the works. GW has come so far since they cut that sprue.

I don't think they are as bad as all that. Maybe painting them was a pain, but they look pretty sweet. With the helms and glowing eyes they remind me of Garthim.

I built an inquisitor out of a terminator body and some other parts and you're right, those models show their age. But you have done a wonderful job on them and the grey knight helmets really add a sinister note to them. Well done!

Nevelon,

Nicely done. Good luck in the monthly painting challenge.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks guys. I guess they are not as bad as I think, but I compare them to what GW is doing these days and they fall short. Things like the shinpads with the detail that kinda fades would not be done the same way now. They would either have the legs separate, so the angle was better, or a different part. Same with some of the no-undercut armor plates. On these guys it’s a solid block. Modern sprues would have parts set up so it would look more natural.

So mistakes were made. I went to the grand opening and waited in line a LOT. One guy on the till makes for slow progress. Still, was interesting. Lot less stock on the shelves then I expected. No more then the old FLGS. Might just have been heavily picked over, but I was surprised. We’ll see what their default is when they have time to recover. Most of the good swag was gone by the time I got mine. Today’s haul:



Not pictured but paid for is a box of interceptors and eliminators. They didn’t get the fist/plasma pistol captains in, so I put my name down on a list. Hopefully I can get one when they arrive. Got the terminator. Going to paint him up and put him next to his RT buddy. They were out of the satchels and card boxes, which was a shame. Might be able to do something fun with the datacard folder, and the little supply backback thing has some promise for keeping dice etc together. Aggressors are to join my Ultras. Too good not to include.

This month is “Final Boss” Time for the final Zoat. Fear the old-school.

Yeeeeessssss!

Ahem, I mean...cool. That's my favorite of the four original sculpts. Very much looking forward to seeing how he goes.

Scale creep? Nah.....

Sweet Zoat. Haven't seen one of those for a while. I was always disappointed that they shoehorned them into the Tyranid list, I preferred them as a separate species. Has he been sat around since he was current or did you liberate him from somewhere?

That's a goodly pile of loot there. I got a box of Eliminators and really like them. I think i'll do them next, once this current squad of Inters is done. They are a nice confluence of nice models and good rules which is a bit unusual for Primaris.

Finally catching up with Dak and it's nice to see all your posts, always impressed by your consistency and work rate, I'm much more sporadic.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
Sweet Zoat. Haven't seen one of those for a while. I was always disappointed that they shoehorned them into the Tyranid list, I preferred them as a separate species. Has he been sat around since he was current or did you liberate him from somewhere?

That's a goodly pile of loot there. I got a box of Eliminators and really like them. I think i'll do them next, once this current squad of Inters is done. They are a nice confluence of nice models and good rules which is a bit unusual for Primaris.

Finally catching up with Dak and it's nice to see all your posts, always impressed by your consistency and work rate, I'm much more sporadic.

The Zoat comes from a long, winding path. At some point the Ex of a friend of my former brother in law left a bunch of Warhammer stuff at her place. She gave it to John, where it collected dust for a long time. I offered to take it off his hands, and he gave it to me.

So, no. It’s not originally mine from way back. At some point I either need to sell the OG GSC cult/tyranid stuff, or paint them up as kill teams.

The plan for the new drops:

TDA captain gets built/painted as-is, joins the Ultras.
Aggressors get bolters and a blue paint job. Get to play march up the field while double-tapping like they are standing still.

Interceptors are going to be getting a lot of knife work.
The plan is to take 3 bodies from here, and gear them up with spare weapons from the eliminators. This will give me 3 squads, 2 with rifles, one with las. I plan on mixing guys in squads so they are a mix of interceptor kitbashes, full kit, and the mono-build ones from the SC vanguard box.
The spare arms are going to spruce up the duplicate builds from the SC box.
One is going to give his legs to the chaplain, for my phobos conversion.
5 are going to be built as the scope-y versions, just so I have a squad of them.

The last guy I’ve got a few ideas about. EIther an extra sarge, so the SC box can be fielded as 2x5 man squads. Or as the communication guy, if I want that instead of the medic. Or trick him up into a phobos captain so I can have all the HQs in phobos armor.

The Boy has been systematically getting me the new SM HQs for Father’s Day/my birthday/Christmas, so eventually I might get the actual phobos captain. Which I wouldn’t mind, he’s not a bad sculpt. So I might not bother to make my own. If I’m repurposing bodies anyway, do I want to just build one of the SC guys as a sarge, and only have the option for 2x5? How often will I want to put a full 10 man squad down? Granted, the medic makes it more attractive. How often will I want the com trooper? He’s only worth it if you are fielding the other phobos HQs, so a niche roll in a themed list. It might actually be worth building him as a basic trooper for if I want to swap the medic out for not being worth the points. Still undecided. I figure I’ll see what mood takes me when the plastic in in hand. I might butcher the conversion jobs so bad I’ll need the spare parts.

In build progress for the day, put together a seraphim so far. Not glued to to a base yet. Need to touch base with my friend and see how he feels about the stupid flight stands. Might build up bases of rubble for them to dance on. Or just glue them to those stands.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alt built with the arm/head rotated to make SoB 3B a little less monopose

Not as big a mod on 3C, but angled her arm a bit. The squad:

Another Zoat , they are coming back .

Nice work on individualizing the ladies.

Wow, they look great.

 Nevelon wrote:
They didn’t get the fist/plasma pistol captains in, so I put my name down on a list. Hopefully I can get one when they arrive.

Are they still being sold at store events? I thought they were done and dusted a long time ago.

Good haul though. The termie-cap is a grouse model. I really like that "modern" style of indominus terminator armour.

Those Seraphim are absolutely gorgeous. Can't wait to see you paint them up!

No paint on the sisters until spring. I’ll risk priming a metal model, as they can be stripped easily. But not plastic. Definitely not plastic that does not belong to me.

On offer at the stop opening was the TDA captain, a nighthaunt, and a stomcast. They were supposed to get the primaris captain, but didn’t. If I get 3 more stamps on my card I’m eligible to purchase the TDA chaplain or a hammer stormcast. As I don’t plat sigmarines, and think the chaplain looks like crap, no rush to finish that card off.

Some painting:

(old zoat for comparison)
So the new zoat is primed white, base coated with elf grey (very pale blue/grey) and then hit with apothecary white. He seems a lot more grey in person. I think a highlight pass on the white will help bring that back. Also, doing his armored hide will provide contrast. Picked up the white to do SoB armor, so this is kind of a test bed for that.

Push fit marine (Brother Castor IIRC) is getting his layers. His fellow with the ML was bumped off the handle for now.

Some more building:


Cobbed together some bases, not happy with them. Just looks artificial for him to be standing lightly on them. I might just suck it up and use the flight stands. He’d at least match the Inceptors.

Hope everyone enjoys your weekends.

On the jumpy marine, he looks like he's got some nice line of action going, could you abuse plastic glue, lean him to one side more, and make it look less like standing lightly, and more "launching off"?
Painting's looking good, especially looking forward to the zoat.

I’ll try finding a good angle, but might just scrap the whole idea. Undecided at this point. I’ll play with the angle if the mood takes me, no rush.

Some minimal painting progress.


Few more basecoats down. I should get more done. I nag The Boy when he says he doesn’t have time to paint. He has plaenty, he just has poor time management. He’d rather be playing games on his phone or binge watching netflix. But here I am, behind scehdual, wanting to get more paint down, and playing Withcher 3 pretty much non stop since last saturday.

Just hit level 10. Lot of content in that game, especially the GOTY edition with both expansions.

So if you wonder why I’ve been a little quiet lately...

Eh, what's a little hypocrisy when you're a parent...

Zoat is coming along nicely. I like the icy color scheme.

I'd scold, but the internet exists and it's my principal distractor from my own projects. We've all been there. The Zoat is coming along and it'll get done when it gets done.

Nevelon,

You need to paint the Zoat for the monthly competition...Withcher 3 can wait a couple of hours.

Cheers,

CB

Got some building done while The Boy slept till noon.



Still not 100% on the angle of the supressors, but it’s as good as it’s going to get. The two troopers have hooked their boots onto the rubble to help hold them in place from the recoil. The sarge is just loitering around.

Crazy ladies are crazy. The whip almost didn’t make it off the sprue, much less mold line removal. Damn fragile bits. Another example of GW making cool looking models that are impractical as game pieces.

Edit: Finished the arcoflagelents. Just the Pengine to go. Might actually leave that one in multiple parts to paint.

Someday spring will come, and the rattle can will sing. Until that day, the to-prime pile grows. Finished the last of the Sisters. Just glued the pengine together, I’ll manage on the vials and wires.

Hit the store Sunday to pick up the last of my order, so the intercepters/incessors (ugh) and eliminators are on deck to build next to fill out my vanguard force.

Look! Another layer.


Slow progress is progess.

Got a game in on Sunday with The Boy. Technically I won, but we had to call it a turn early. If we had gone another turn, I probably still would have won, but there were enough variables we decided to call it a draw. He’s getting better, and hopefully learning from his mistakes. We should be seeing a lot less blue on his side of the field. He has enough stuff built that I’m restricting him to borrowing only one unit at a time. So he’ll be playing with grey models, which should slowly turn green over time. But they will be his.

There's no progress like Zoat progress.

I feel your pain on the no priming front, Nev. Our weather here has been unseasonally flipfloppy. It'll rain like mad, then the sun comes out for a few days, and as soon as everything is dry and prime-friendly, it rains again and buggers everything up.

It’s not like I don’t have plenty of things primed to work on. But I do kinda want to get started on those sisters. We’re almost done with February, and I’ve done -2- minis. Not good.

Zoat progress:


Should be all basecoated. Need some touchups and then second coats, washes and drybrushes.

If anyone had and doubts about the GW painting handles, they are good. I’ve been holding that chunk of metal upside down and at odd angles, and nary a wiggle.

No more Witcher until the zoat is done. Running out of time.


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Got back to playing with the printer.



While I could download all sorts of trays, I wanted to make my own in tinkercad. Couple of reasons for that. One is that I can adjust for unit size. I’ve got 6 swooping hawks, I can make a tray just for them, and not have 4 empty holes from a 10 man tray. I can also develop trays for mixed units. Like 10 guardians plus their weapon platform, or the 4 regular, one attack bike squads. I’m also OK with some dead space on the trays, as I think I’m going to flock them. The question I’ll have to math out is how much dead space I’m willing to tolerate for things to line up neatly on the shelf? In an ideal world a squad would have the same width footprint, regardless of if was on a 24, 32, or 40mm base. Not sure how practical that is. I might have to go with two standards.

Printing out a 10 man tray at the moment. When that is done I’m going to print a test piece where I have incrementally larger slots to see how snug I can make them. I think I can also make them a little thinner, which should eliminate some print time and material use.

Are the trays for games, al la the Apocalypse ones, or more for storage?

Have you tried printing much terrain?

 RandyMcStab wrote:
Are the trays for games, al la the Apocalypse ones, or more for storage?

Have you tried printing much terrain?

Storage, and for keeping guys embarked in transports/deep striking separate from casualties. I have printed some shipping containers, need to do some ruins. Also need to grab a can of filler spray primer.

Home stretch for the Zoat. Looking good!

 youwashock wrote:
Home stretch for the Zoat. Looking good!

Put a black wash on before work. Not sure if I want to gloss the blacks like I did for his buddy.

Put a layer of black ink on the gun. Not full gloss, but does give it some shine. Flattened the look a little, but I’m afraid to go back and touch up stuff. Calling him done, started some prep work on the base.

Need to figure out what to do next month. And get moving. 3 minis in two months is not good.

I know that feeling--had a banner month last month, but its looking iffy if I even get the dragon for the challenge done. But hey, you have three more minis done than you did two months ago, and beating yourself up over it'll just stress you out.

I’ve got plenty of other things to stress about, true. But I do like to keep up with my goals.

So I’m calling him done.


Not my best work, I should have done a more high contrast highlight on the gun before the black glaze, it’s a bit flat. Not going to strip and re-do him. He is just going to find a crowded shelf to live on anyway.

I’ll grab formal shots tonight, and spin up my year end retrospective for this round of the challenge. And pick out a space marine or 5.

He looks like he's never seen the sunlight! Good job, he's creepy in with that skin tone.

You know I love him.

Zoat!

zoatzoatzoat!

Yah, he’s done. Not 100% happy, but I rarely am. Gun looks flat, should have done more highlights pre-glaze. Oh well.

I like the way the skin and scales turned out. The pale skin is the white contrast paint over a pale blue. Probably would work well for aquatic creatures or drowning victims.

And year 5:
(spoilered for size)


Overall pleased with the content. Not a huge volume compared to some years, but plenty of multiple entries. The one I’m least proud of is the Zoat, favorate is probably the bonesinger or the champion.

Nice Nevelon, I do not think I have seen a Zoat on a winter base before.

Good luck in the Painting Competition. I just managed to get my girls in before the deadline.

Cheers,

CB

Courage and Honour! We shall cleanse the galaxy of the xenos, the heretic, and the mutant!

But all sneaky like. While screaming litanies.

You going to argue with him?


Done building the phobos chaplain. Worth the effort for the leg swap (Infiltrator “B”, parts 12-15) shoulders can from the reiver kit, new crozious head from the bits box. Interceptor backpack, superglued on, rather then plastic glue, in case I want to snap it off and swap. Almost gave him a grav chute.

That looks great, a really seamless conversion. I hope they do rules for them one day. Wow that is a big gun and won't fit in that holster (that's what she said etc).

Great job on the Zoat... I see your critique on the gun, but the flesh came out really nice. I assume the Chappie is for the March painting contest? I may take a page from your playbook and find the oldest Marine I can, lest a newer high-detail model (Jetek Suberei?) take my bandwidth away from plastic Sisters. Anyway, nicely done, and nicely done on the year, too!

RandyMcStab wrote:That looks great, a really seamless conversion. I hope they do rules for them one day. Wow that is a big gun and won't fit in that holster (that's what she said etc).

With the way they are cranking out marines, I suspect they will make one some day. Pistol scale and holsters has always been an issue, the grapnel launcher of the reivers are particuarly bad. But it’s not the size of the pistol, but how you use it.

MacPhail wrote:Great job on the Zoat... I see your critique on the gun, but the flesh came out really nice. I assume the Chappie is for the March painting contest? I may take a page from your playbook and find the oldest Marine I can, lest a newer high-detail model (Jetek Suberei?) take my bandwidth away from plastic Sisters. Anyway, nicely done, and nicely done on the year, too!

There probably won’t be a good day to prime, so he is going to wait for another month. I’m leaning towards doing 4 deathwatch with heavy weapons. Once the weather clears and I can prime the 40+ minis I’ve built over the last few months, it’s going to be very Sisters and Phobos around here. So I want to get my DW for the year squared away. Will still need to find time for an Eldar squad or 2. I do have some old RT marines that still need paint, waiting for the right time for them. I was thinking of painted the primaris ancient, back by some actually ancient marines for the month.

Edit: Just bit the bullet and put my money where my mouth is for plastic aspects. Pre-ordered a box of banshees from the FLGS over Amazon. Ouch. The price on those ladies is insane. Conflicting feelings. Vote with your wallet to support what you believe in. I want plastic aspects. Voted. But almost didn’t at that price point. $5 bucks more gets you a 10 man primaris box. Hobby budget unfriendly for the xenos here. But it’s guilt free Amazon giftcard money, so I’m going to pretend it was a gift and not look at the price tag.

Am I wrong in thinking the executioner is the only decent option on the exarch? Also looking at the alternative exarch powers. None really leap out.

3 squads.
Squad one has two las fusils and a carbine on the sarge. Set up on a flank, fall back as needed while maintaining heavy firepower.

Squad two all rifles. Set up in the core to benefit from auras, so the sarge can join in the shooting, rather then spot targets.

...and then squad three. If we are being generous, they have pistols out and are clearing a building to take advantage of the position once secure. If we are not, they were either set as a expendable screen to buy time and are in the process of being overrun, or their sarge needs to learn how to read a map, as they are far to close to their targets for comfort.

You won't be disappointed with Eliminators on the tabletop. Really solid unit, although I have yet to try Las Fusils (went all BSRs on mine). Zoat turned out pretty good; always fun to see old models like that getting love. The Phobos Chaplain conversion will be really amazing once it's painted too; definitely looking forward to that.

The chaplain is going to wait a bit. I think I’ve settled on doing winter camo for the vanguard, and want to do some troopers first before I do the HQs. Almost primed him yesterday, it was in the low 50s on the way home. But all the melting snow makes things a little damp, so I held off.

The main reason I put the las on one squad was for theme lists. Primaris have trouble with AV firepower, as do scout/vanguard type lists. So when running those, they should be very useful. In a generic TAC list, there are plenty of places to toss lascannons, and not as many for good snipers, so the rifles will get more play. The Boy had fielded a squad of them a couple of times, and does OK with them (even making some tactical errors). In the 8th edition world of auras and buff characters, snipers are a good idea.

I really like the Elims. It hadn't occurred to me to use spare Phobos bodies to make some more squads. I have my 'Wake the Dead' Reivers lying around and I should probably make them into anything else than more Reivers.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
I really like the Elims. It hadn't occurred to me to use spare Phobos bodies to make some more squads. I have my 'Wake the Dead' Reivers lying around and I should probably make them into anything else than more Reivers.

With all the spare guns in the kit is seems a waste not to make more. I. Could have tried to GS cloaks, but instead they have extra rolled ones from some scout kit slung beneath their backpacks.

I always find cloaks much harder than they look and will probably do something similar.

So yesterday was supposed to be productive. I got the second blue coat down on the marine WIP and then played Witcher 3 all day. /fail. This morning I put the blue wash on him and drybrushed his bolter. The hope is to get him done and off the handle so I can start in on the DW. Preferably today. But I also need to run some errands. We’ll see what happens. Weather is also hinting of being nice. Sunny today, high in the 50s, cloudy tomorrow, but in the 60s. Depending on how the humidity works out, it might be time for the rattle can.

Ahh yes I remember the great time sink of the Witcher 3. Such a great game but man did my life go on hold for far too long while I explored inch of that game.

Good luck with the weather, hope you can prime tomorrow!

So pretty productive day yesterday, finished off the ultramarine. He just needs transfers and a little snow on his base. But done with the brushwork. Clipped two infiltrators, need to clean and glue them. I think I might just promote the talking on his headset guy from the vanguard box to be a second sarge, free up an extra body. He’s the only non-helmeted, non sarge guy, so it’s an easy fix. We’ll see.

Moved two deathwatch down to WIP and put their first black down this morning. Month is slipping away. I think I need to buckle down, and get a layer done each day.

Hopefully the weather will be nice this afternoon.


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Pics:
Waiting for the final steps, but basically done.


Spring, as they say, is in the air. Smells like long-chain polymers, and probably cancer (but only in California)

Nice... that should keep you busy for a while!

 MacPhail wrote:
Nice... that should keep you busy for a while!

That’s about a year’s worth of work at my goal pace. Plus all the backlog I already have. Yup, busy is a word. I should be able to procrastinate this for years!

Hopefully the Chaplain and Sisters are early in the queue. Lots of good stuff!

 youwashock wrote:
Hopefully the Chaplain and Sisters are early in the queue. Lots of good stuff!

I almost bumped the chaplain up to be this month’s entry, but decided to finish what I started and get those deathwatch done (put the silver on them yesterday). I want to pick up a pot of the base paint designed for the contrast paints to base the sisters with, so need to head to the store to grab that.

Box of Banshee’s showed up yesterday. One of the little braids from one part snapped off and was loose in the box, but I think it’s for an alternate head I don’t care about. They go into the pile of shame for now; need more painting, less building at the moment.

Don’t think I’m going to magnetize them; seems a lot of work on fiddly waif-like eldar. Just going to build the exarch with the executioner unless someone gives me a compelling reason why it’s massively sub-par.

This is allegedly a painting blog, I should probably post some pics of things being painted. Put the browns down this morning. Chugging away.

Also did a sort of the primed pile.


Deathwatch: 2
2 SB/chainsword vets. (4 heavies are WIPs)

Eldar: 15
2 War Walkers
5 Wraithblades w/axes
5 Dire Avengers
1 Jetseer
1 Footseer
Not pictured:
1 Wave Serpent

SoB: 25
10 Battle Sisters
4 Repentia
1 Repentia Mistress
1 Penitent Engine
3 archoflagelents
1 Canoness
5 Seraphim.

Ultramarines: 59
13 RTB01 bolter marines
5 RT-era command/vets
5 30k Destroyers
3 Supressors
3 Centurions
1 Primaris Ancient
3 Librarians (Phobos, TDA, Primaris)
2 Captains (gravis, TDA)
1 Lieutenant (phobos)
1 Chaplain (phobos)
2 Scouts
9 Infiltrators
9 Eliminators
Not Picutred:
1 Stormhawk
1 Landspeeder Typhoon

Things on the short list to build:
3 Ultramarine aggressors
1 Ultramarine infiltrator
5 Ultramarine Incursors
5 Howling Banshees

Things on my slightly longer list of things to build:
More Deathwatch (VVs, SS marines, sarge)
Nighthaunt (for Oct.)

Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a good start. Stay safe out there.

Should be ready for their second black coat. Then all the edges and highlighting. Plus the guns and chapter pads.


Finished building the last infiltrator. Next up on the build queue is the incursors. Already have the sarge clipped.

So I’m now working at home for a bit. That means I can put a little paint down on my breaks and lunch. Did the second black on the first break, and glosses and silver edges just now at lunch. Grey edges might be a bit much for a 15 minute break.

I used to walk on my breaks, so it’s a swap of what goals I work on. Still, progress!

 Nevelon wrote:

Nevelon,

You are way ahead of me, I still have not finished assembling mine for the challenge yet.

Cheers,

CB

Edit: Cause Nevelon posted his update before I even finished posting.

Small upside to all the hobbyists stuck indoors, more minis painted. New DW guys are shaping up nicely.

Little more progress. Guns plugging along. I’m going to have to delve back into my blog to find out how I did heat stress before, the inferno HB needs a little. Also need to decide what chapters these guys are going to belong to. The half pot of coffee I had means I’m going to wait a bit to do the edges.

I’m going to put off the other pair of guys for a bit. My black is getting dangerously on the low side, and I use it for almost everything. So I think I’ll paint models that just use it as an accent for a bit, and not a primary color. I could head out to the FLGS, but the governor is requesting all non-essential stores close, and this is the last day a lot of them are going to be open. Do not want to be out in a crowd of last minute rush buyers. Might just mail order some, see how that works. Or just drag the pot out as long as I can. Somewhere in a box I have a little set of craft paints. While not the best for minis, I could use the black there for base rims.

As long as its not frosting, I'd try mail ordering, and soon. I doubt we're gonna be back to normal for at least a month, and even amazon delivery times are kinda streeeeching out from it.

The deathwatch themselves look great--once again gonna blow my challenge entry out the water.

Deathwatch are coming along nicely, hope you're able to get hobby supplies.

I placed an order with GW directly. I’d prefer to support my FLGS, but am not going out. We’ll see if/when things show up.

Vejut, don’t sell yourself short. You enter every month, normally with something new and different. And you are getting better. Look at your older stuff compared to your newer works. A lot of my entries are routine, just executing my scheme that’s not different from before. And hovering around the bottom of the pack is not “Blowing you out of the water”. One of the issues with the challenge is the fact that normal guys like us are on the same scale as top-end professionals (and other people who paint at that level). It’s great that we get to rub elbows with them as “equals” and get tips and inspiration from them. But when the time to vote comes, I know I’m happy for “not last”.

Put a brown glaze down on the pads before work. Guns are dine, bar the grey edges. See how good I am at putting that off? Still havn’t done it on the marines.

E-mail from GW today saying they are bunkering down. No word specfically on if my order made it out before the doors are shut. I guess I’ll find out in a few days.

Those guns look real good. Nice and used. Heat stress turned out nice.

Edged one marine and the inferno HB. Pads are done bar edges, which I wait to do after they are glued on.

Also got an e-mail from GW saying my order was on hold. Might look into alternatives; we’ll see.



Glued. Still needs touch ups and basing. Almost done

Greylined the last guy before work. Might glue him on my first break, then get around to starting the bases.

Found my craft paints, the white and black are dry. Might have more, will look later.

Just bases and touchups.

They are looking good, I've a pair of those HB/HF thingies but I've not yet found the time to make my DW unit, I've some nice bits for it but am unsure how often I've bust them out.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
They are looking good, I've a pair of those HB/HF thingies but I've not yet found the time to make my DW unit, I've some nice bits for it but am unsure how often I've bust them out.

Honestly, I view the DW mostly as a modeling project. Of course the rate I get games in, ALL my armies are mostly modeling projects!

If I was being competitive, I’d probably not have built the Infernus. It’s mostly there for the rule of cool and the hellfire ammo strat. That and I might not have had a 4th frag cannon. But I do like the way it turned out.

Edit:
In an effort to reduce the use of black paint, I used a marker for the base rims. Looks pretty good, might just do that from now on. Although that could be the fumes talking...

Marker? Interesting. They are looking good. Rule of cool always wins.

The Ultra has my normal abadon black base rim, the two new guys have permanent marker. If I had a chisel tip sharpie, I’d have used that, but I do have this old guy kicking around the office supply bin. Not full glossy, but more satin then matte. Within the range of normal, and I can always paint over it later.

Also, I’m a bit of an idiot. As I look at this pic, I think to myself I should have taken some fo the flock mix before I tossed it and added some snow to the Ultra’s base. Oh well, next time.

I’ll break out the light box for formal pics tonight or over the weekend.

Love coming back to your page brother! Great Work!

Still here, slowly plugging away at the pile of shame.

So good news. The closest FLGS is doing some social distant sales. Pay via paypal, and they will leave stuff on their front porch for you to pick up. So once I’m off the clock this afternoon, going to pick up some paints.

Speaking of the pile of shame, it looks like that’s going to be the theme for next month’s comp, Going to drag out some really old stuff for a lick of paint. See how much of it I can get done in a month.



I risked death in The Outside for these paints. But they are mine now. Canceled my GW order. As it was paints to get me though the quarantine and birthday gifts for The Boy, getting them late defeats the purpose. All it took was a quick e-mail, no muss, no fuss. GW customer service has always been good. While I was out I thought about supporting local eateries by getting some take out. Little german place on the corner had already shuttered for the duration though. And now I really want some currywurst. Staples from the pantry for me tonight.

Done. The other two will wait for later. Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a lazy start.


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I think that’s it for basecoats. Need to do the drybrushing, a few spot washes, clean up the grey seer base, and then hit it with apothecary white. Oh yah, and the tiger stripe camo. Anyone know how well the contrast white paint covers? Camo stripes before or after?

It doesn't cover much, but it would probably be better to add stripes after.

So question for the crowd: Do I add a third color of camo. Right now I’ve got Elf Grey (a pale blue-white) and Dawnstone (light grey). I was thinking a light brown, 2 pots suggested (bleached bone and snakebite leather) but could go darker, or a blue, or none at all. I think he could be fine as-is.

He’s basically done bar the Ultra transfer on the shoulder, and the base. Which will be the stock black rim, deep snow base I do for the rest of my Ultras.

Thoughts?

Also in the news clipped 4 incursers, started cleaning them up. Going to magnetze the arm for the haywire mine, otherwise just going to glue them. Sarge was done before, but while I had bits out I gave him some pouches and a purity seal.

Edit:
Slight update on the scheme. I added nualn oil the the flexable parts of the armor. Back of knees, elbow joints, etc. Helped a little to break up the monotone nature of the scheme.

Would be curious to see a third, darker color. Dark blue/grey?

 youwashock wrote:
Would be curious to see a third, darker color. Dark blue/grey?

This is what I have.
One darker grey, and then black on that side.

Two in the middle are what’s on him right now.

Blues have more options. Then enchanted/lightning bolt blue in the hexpots might be a little bright. Caldor Sky is also on that side. Macragge blue, without my normal blue ink on top of it, might do well, as would the more subtle unlabeled RT pot on the far right.

I also have a darker one I use for cables, so didn’t want to use it for camo stripes.

I would try a few thin stripes on the back of a leg or something, some will probably look really glaring. My first thought would something in the Codex Grey kind of area.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
I would try a few thin stripes on the back of a leg or something, some will probably look really glaring. My first thought would something in the Codex Grey kind of area.

I actualy have an old pot of Codex Grey with a little life left in it, but not enough to include in the lineup.

Of what you have, I'd be thinking that far lower right grey blue--I kinda feel you need a bit more contrast to the stripes so its quickly obvious its camo, but the other blues might match the shoulder too much. I'd also look into some way to define the plate edges a bit more once you did so the camo didn't work too well and break up the shapes (possibly a lighter grey or off white edge highlight or something? And or a careful nulning of the cracks and lower edges? I tend to get overfancy and make messes though so grain of salt on all this). Codex grey would probably work instead of the blue too.

How many of these guys will there be? If it is just a few, a custom mix of the Mech Standard (?) grey with the furthest bottom blue could be good.

Vejut wrote:Of what you have, I'd be thinking that far lower right grey blue--I kinda feel you need a bit more contrast to the stripes so its quickly obvious its camo, but the other blues might match the shoulder too much. I'd also look into some way to define the plate edges a bit more once you did so the camo didn't work too well and break up the shapes (possibly a lighter grey or off white edge highlight or something? And or a careful nulning of the cracks and lower edges? I tend to get overfancy and make messes though so grain of salt on all this). Codex grey would probably work instead of the blue too.

I was hoping the contrast paint would give enough detailing I’d not have to edge these guys. It would make the SO much easier to bang out. Not that it shows in the last pic, but I did nulan the joints, which helps a little.

youwashock wrote:How many of these guys will there be? If it is just a few, a custom mix of the Mech Standard (?) grey with the furthest bottom blue could be good.

10 Infiltrators, 5 incursers, 9 eliminators, and 3 HQs, who may or may nor deviate from the scheme. This guy is the vanguard of the new scheme for my phobos units, so is going to be at least 25, maybe more. I’m looking for a straight from pot solution.

Leaning towards the blue grey in the corner, but the mechanicus grey is also a potential. Might do a little test swatch


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When I popped open the RT-era blue grey, it looked a lot lighter then I wanted. So I went with the darker grey.



Front pic looks a little washed out.

Thoughts before this guy leads the Vanguard out of the primed pile and onto the table? Right now I’m just relying on the subtle shading of the contrast paint to do the lifting for me. I think actual edging might get lost in the camo, and be a lot of work for minimal results. I should probably try a little, but I hate it so.

Yeah, too many for a custom color...

That looks good, I think.

I think the pattern is a bit subtle. Also it looks like most of the disruptive pattern is isolated stripes in the middle of plates. Much more important than that is having the pattern go over edges and around corners.

The point behind camo is to disguise edges so that man shaped and man made objects no longer have an easily recognizable silhouette or patterning.

Rather than stick to greys i would recommend going from white through to black in 2 or 3 steps. I went the other way for my Tau back in the day and I think it worked ok.

With smaller scale.stuff, you really need to crank up the contrast a bit to get a noticable effect.

I also found that highlighting doesnt help that much in anything except really big plates.


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Also go.check out

https://www.camopedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

I think its still subtle, but gets the effect across, and while not crossing plates makes it bad camo, you kinda more want the idea of camo than the reality--effective camo makes it hard to make out the details of the model, which can be a bit of an issue when you need those for the game.

I think it looks good as is.

I’ve always said I do camo like Hollywood does movies bases on real-life events. You can tell what it’s supposed to be, but with more explosions and car chases. I’ll cross panels in the future, although on hard plates that shift, I might keep them separate.



Little lunchtime WIP

Look at those oldies! That kit was amazing in both versatility and value. Less than a buck a Marine. Look forward to the new Sister, too.

 youwashock wrote:
Look at those oldies! That kit was amazing in both versatility and value. Less than a buck a Marine. Look forward to the new Sister, too.

I think I forgot to post my entry for the month’s challenge. It’s Pile of Shame, so I decided to get some of the oldest stuff out of the queue.


Also the model cap is lifted, so I’m going to try to bang out as many as I can. Hence the 4 in a line batch painting set up.

Man, you get all those done, you may have to expand out to the full chapter, or at least another company. I think you'd be about halfway there. Good to see some old beakies getting ready for the table.

Vejut wrote:
Man, you get all those done, you may have to expand out to the full chapter, or at least another company. I think you'd be about halfway there. Good to see some old beakies getting ready for the table.

Last time I did a head count, I had roughly 363 Ultramarines. This was back in September. So over a third of the way to a chapter!

I have my full 3rd company
A little over 50 1st company vets (counting the 30k terminators)
30 scouts
3 full spare Tac squads (a 2nd ed retired squad, 2x BaC Mk. 4s)
The swap shelf has ~30 spare sergeants, heavy and special weapon troopers.
23 primaris
10 bikes, 3 speeders, other vehicles, etc
More HQ than a chapter has.

If I go with a “modern” company with integrated primaris, I’m probably there already. Or just shy.
Most of what’s holding me back is the battleline units. Which classically is bolter boys. Because honestly, how many does one man need? I rarely put more then 3 tac squads on the table, and have 9. So the desire to paint up more basic guys to fill out the backs of dev squads, or more tacs is nonexistent. But to have another company, I’d need 60 bodies. Got 30 in the spare tacs, 15 more intercessors. Each tac squad needs 7 bolters, I think I’ve got 12 RTB01s in the pile. Brother Castor the pushfit I finished is another. I’ve got enough bodies from the BaC and BoP boxes still on sprue to make the numbers.
20 Heavy support is easy if I fudge, harder if I don’t. Plenty of heavies to make Dev squads. By the book, the back half should be bolter brothers. If I just do 5 man sticks of a sarge and 4x guns, no problem. Hellblasters make 5 here.
20 Fast attack is not that hard. 10 bikes, 6 guys in speeders, 3 inceptors. Basically there.

So yah, another company. Almost there.

The vanguard will boost the 10th up to half strength to match the 1st. Roughly 50 guys. Once they get paint. Two and two half companies, plus a ton of chapter HQ assets.

I don’t have a problem. I can stop anytime I want.

Help me...

I mean, from the sound of it, it sounds like you need a few more scout, and terminator or Vanguard squads...

Vejut wrote:
I mean, from the sound of it, it sounds like you need a few more scout, and terminator or Vanguard squads...

I keep thinking I want to grab a couple boxes of “modern” terminators, but even the current plastics are old and need to be re-cut. And at $50 a box for a meh unit I already have, no rush. If/when they make primaris vets is probably the next time the 1st gets reinforcements. Although I think I can probably shake out another squad of metal terminators if I dig into the pile, might need to strip some of the BA ones.

I wouldn’t mind a squad of reivers to join the 10th, but while the models are not bad, their rules are hot garbage. I have 2 scouts primed, and two more on sprue, so we’ve not seen the last of them. But I’m not picking up any more. Again, horribly old sculpts, and I’ve got plenty. More scout bikes are perpetually on my to-buy list. And they would give me a little more FA in 10th company lists.

There is a lot of stuff I wouldn’t mind having if it was bundled into a battle/mega force. That’s the most probable way a lot of the filler in the companies is going to happen. But I’m not going to go out and plonk full retail (or even discount/reseller prices) for stuff just to paint and warm the shelf.


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WIP. Getting there. Working on the washes and drybrushing, plugging away.

Quick build progress from this weekend:

Basically done with her. Minimal edge work done. The thought is to be able to get these gals done sometime before the sun burns itself into a cold cinder. Need to do something about the base. Army was previously just on plain black.

She looks absolutely glorious Nev!
Congrats on nailing the white.

A squad of those is going to look sweet.

The Sister looks good, I like the scheme. Just get her base done and she'll be great! Have you thought how you'll base the Sisters? A reddish brown could work, giving you the SoB trinity of black, white and red.

Thanks guys.

I was hoping for a brighter white, but to get there you loose shading and highlights. One thing I remember from my high school art class: never use pure white or black except in the tiniest amount for extremes. Once you go there, you’ve no place else to go for shades/highlights.

For the base:
I talked yesterday with my friend who I’m painting these girls for. He doesn’t really care about the base. All his girls right now are on plain black. Which I think is not the best, with the black robes and all. I showed him how I did the bases for The Boy’s Salamanders, and he liked those. It’s a medium grey gravel. It’s also something I have on hand.

I think a reddish brown might look good, but would require me to pick up a pot or three of the texture paint, and then do a lot of weathering. You wear white and black in a ruddy desert, you need to be weathered. Which sounds fun, but is outside the scope of this project. Especially as I might be retrofitting this base on the rest of the SoB I painted in the past.

Also in the news I backed my second kickstarter ever.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forgottenchapters/forgotten-chapters-purity-seals-and-parchment-transfers

Transfers for squiggles on purity seals, books, etc. We’ll see if/when/how they will show up, but I thought it was worth the investment. 2 days left on the KS if others are interested. There was a thread on it in the N&R section here.

That's pretty awesome Nev.

Lovin the scheme Nev, great work!

Nice work Nevelon.

cheers,

CB

Thanks guys.

Quick update. Got the second blue down on all the marines, first down on the arms.

Crappy week at work, so any progress tonight is going to be forestalled by and Old Fashioned and a movie. Hopefully can make some progress this weekend.

Started a second sister, but just the base Grey Seer down at this point.

Ink done on two marines, arms at the ink stage as well. clipped a banshee for assembly. Low motivation, but plugging along.

Hearing you on the motivation lag. Good job keeping the train running. Every step forward is a victory, sometimes.

Some times plugging along is all you can do! Keep at it, you'll be happy once they're finished!

I should have seen it coming.

You know why these things are still in my pile of shame? It’s because I have no drive to get them done! Oh well, I can at least force 4 of them off the pile by month’s end.

Looking solid. Some times just forcing things through the que is just all you can manage. Background dev's also coming along nicely.

Vejut wrote:
Looking solid. Some times just forcing things through the que is just all you can manage. Background dev's also coming along nicely.

I think he’s almost ready for his second cleanup pass, although typing this, I remember he has some wires that need to be done first.

When was the last time I whined about how much I hate cleaning mold lines off eldar? Probably last time I cleaned them.


Well, 1/5 done. Her sisters are clipped and waiting. Went for the empty thrown back arm. I think it’s the best option for flow with the executioner. Liked the look of the mirror blades, but mechanically the rules just didn’t appeal to me, and I’m not magnetizing dainty elf chicks.

Edit:
All the RTB01 guys and their arms are inked. Assembly and cleanup next.

Well, now. There's a batch of gals I'm looking forward to seeing done.

 youwashock wrote:
Well, now. There's a batch of gals I'm looking forward to seeing done.

Interestingly, with all the exarch options in the kit you could give her both the executioner and the triskelion. So if you were not a fan of the new Jain Zar, you could attempt to kitbash your own out of the box. Obviously, she’d be be normal sized, but the hight is about the same as my old metal one. Jumping off the ruble, her eyes are higher than Jain’s, but her hair is a little bit shorter overall.

Lovely work on the sister and hang in there with the marines for the comp!

Glued arms on this morning. Readied a sarge for them. Still need a lot of touch up work, then all the finishing stuff. I should do one more basic guy as well.

Once you start using painting handles, it’s really hard to go back. Tempted to buy that 5 pack GW is selling, give two to The Boy, just so I have enough that if I want to bang out a squad I can.

Squads looking good, excited for the sarge to join them

Keep at it Nevelon. For the army of the painted!

Cheers,

CB

It’s nice to see the old marines get some new life.

Do your veteran sergeants sport a mad pimp’n medallion on a thick gold chain and a chunk of stonework on their shoulders? Do you even vet sarge bro? Not that you can see it in this picture (and I haven’t started it yet) but he has his helmet hanging off his belt. So if those two things don’t tell you who he is, the helmet stipe will. Hashed with parallel stripes, just like the codex says.


Just put the washes on this morning. Bunch of details still need work, the service studs and eyes being a big one. also the powerfist.

Don't be fooled by the rock that he's got...

Old boys are looking good.

Looking good so far and I can practically hear Sarge yelling "Get off my lawn!". And that's some nice bling around his neck, Mr. T is probably still looking for it.

youwashock wrote:Don't be fooled by the rock that he's got...
Old boys are looking good.

Viterbi wrote:Looking good so far and I can practically hear Sarge yelling "Get off my lawn!". And that's some nice bling around his neck, Mr. T is probably still looking for it.

"I pity the fo’ who hasn’t earned his crux terminatus”

A little more progress on those guys, mostly a spot touch up and starting on the loose backpack/bolter. I’ll get to them once the morning coffee jitters settle down. Detail passes and caffeine do not work well together. Cleaning mold lines can happen though.



Overall happy with these gals. Mold lines were actually not that bad, due to the new nature of the kit. Very few undercuts that needed tending to, which was surprising due to their dynamic nature. Of course, they come in a lot of little parts, which helps with that. My two concerns about the kit (besides the price) were the monopose nature, and some of the sprue attachments. While there were a number of ways the exarch could be built, the basic banshees do not have any options. You might be able to adjust the arms a bit, but that’s it. The heads are pretty fixed, and have the shoulderpad included with them, so you can’t just angle them to look a different direction. Some of the spots where the bits are attached to the sprue make cleanup hard. Not finecast, carve your own detail hard, but a little irritating. One part that stuck out was the guide nubs on the torsos to help align the arms. These were VERY shallow, and often had the connect point right on them. As there was not a lot to work with, any deformation in the cleaning process pretty made them useless for actually getting the arms where they should be. Not a huge deal, but with all the flowing ribbons, it’s nice to get things pointed in the right direction.

That's incredibly timely. Just started showing A-Team to the kids.

"Gulliman's on the jazz."

Those Banshees are nice looking, but it would have been nice to not have the issues you mentioned. The way they were split, especially.

 youwashock wrote:
That's incredibly timely. Just started showing A-Team to the kids.

"Gulliman's on the jazz."

Those Banshees are nice looking, but it would have been nice to not have the issues you mentioned. The way they were split, especially.

I love it when a plan comes together!

I think the last time I saw the A-team was when it was airing. I strikes me as a show that probably wouldn't age well, although looks fine through the nostalgia. Maybe I should go look up an episode or two.



So he got his second blue coat yesterday, and most of the detail pass done. I’d like to say the poor cleanup job could be blamed on younger me, but he served in my BAs, and was stripped for repaint not that long ago. So the horrible mold line running around him is my bad.

Did the cleanup pass on the squad, so they are just waiting for bases and decals. Extra trooper and backpack still need a bit of work. I started on the pack, but decided I wanted to mount it to a nail to help paint, so just a spot of superglue to hold it. Put it a little behind.

I moved some spooks to the build side of the desk. Might as well get them in the primed pile before October rolls around.

While I might nit-pick about the banshees, I’m glad to have them. Wonderfull kit overall, and leaps and acrobatic bounds better over finecast. While I’d like the modularity of marine kits, I get that there is a trade off between poseability and flow for minis. The more options you have, the less the motion of the model automatically “clicks”. And for a unit like the HB, the sense of motion is critical. It’s not like I’m making a themed list where I need 30 of the gals, and the repetition would be obvious. Unless I accidentally pick up another 5 as part of a bundle box, these ladies are it for me.

It’s always a little comical looking back at old RT Marines, but damned if they weren’t oozing with character. Great job on that face too!

 kavika0311 wrote:
It’s always a little comical looking back at old RT Marines, but damned if they weren’t oozing with character. Great job on that face too!

It was a different era, in many ways.

Face is the miracle of contrast paints. Darkoath flesh over zentrai dust. That’s it. Well, then the eyes which are always a PITA, but I think I did OK on.

A little building:


After the ~12 piece per lady banshees, these 2 part rat spooks when together in no time. At least phase 1. Due to the giant seems running down their backs, they are going to need another round of cleanup and possible gap filling. But I want to wait until the glue is fully cured before going at them again.

Put the second blue coat down on the bits and trooper. Need to do their whites, and then touchups and ink.

Edit:
Blue ink down on everything but the backpack, needed a little more touchup work.

Finished building the spooks. They can wait for a nice day to be primed. Only thing left in the AoS starter I split is a score of chainrasps.


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OK, everyone should be done with paint. Next up is to start baseing/decal work.

I like how those RT Marines are turning out. Old school models are fun to look at because of how different everything looked. I'd love to have some of those myself, if for no other reason than it would be cool to have miniatures that are the same age as me.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I like how those RT Marines are turning out. Old school models are fun to look at because of how different everything looked. I'd love to have some of those myself, if for no other reason than it would be cool to have miniatures that are the same age as me.

I think GW could make bank if they did a MTO of the old RTB01 sprues. Have they spun up any of the old RT marines? I know for some they went pretty far back, Eldar had an ancient farseer.



Before work progress, flocked. Just transfers left to do.

Also, no scale creep here...

There is no scale creep, just as there are no wolves on Fenris.

Looking good. An anniversary edition of sorts, a full re-issue of the original box, original art and all, would be awesome.

 youwashock wrote:
There is no scale creep, just as there are no wolves on Fenris.

Looking good. An anniversary edition of sorts, a full re-issue of the original box, original art and all, would be awesome.

If GW did 30 marines in one box, like the RTB01 of yore, it would be over $100. Maybe $150. I’d settle for a 10 man squad priced the same as a modern Tac kit. Less options, less details, more nostalgia. Works out even IMHO. I don’t need 30 more.



So all done bar the glamor shots. Decals on. I’m sure some of you following this blog have been thinking; “Nev, you are a loyal Ultramarine, and a pretty Codex compliant guy; You know It dictates that the chapter badge goes on the left pauldron, The phobos is the only one who has it correct!” To which the only answer is “Then where would I put the armor studs?” This is one of my army quirks from way back, and painting up some old beakies illustrates the point. While some officers and specialists have the “U” on the correct shoulder, my rank and file troopers do not. And the reason is the Mk. VI armor and the classic studded shoulder pad. Even with the introduction of newer marks, and new unit marking schemes, I kept to the old ways, not wanting to abandon the history of my veteran battle-brothers. This is also why I don’t hold with those new fangled red helmets on sarges, or until very recently, shoulder trim colors.

You may have noticed that I moved the sister and ML back to the ready spots. Hopefully I can get some good progress done on them before next month’s comp starts.

Those are some old plastic marines...LOVE IT!

Cheers,

CB

Done. And the reason I wanted to get 5 bolter guys done (rather then 4 plus sarge):

The MLs were done back for the May 17th comp. So now I have a RT Dev squad to go with my two tacs.

Original ML x 4. Absolutely beautiful.

Great looking squads. You certainly did them justice!

I really need to get one more Tac squad up and running. That would give be a battalion. I could probably fake it with a 5 man squad (I think the back half of one of my Dev squads from my company has a few beakeis in it) but it should be 10 man, sarge heavy/special. That plus plenty of terminators and a few HQs could mike a tidy list. I should do a litle reserch and find out exactly when some of the stuff I think of as 2nd ed (dread, speeder, scouts) dropped. Might be on the RT side of the line.

Nice work on the beakies!

Original landspeeder and dread were RT, pretty sure scouts were too - 2nd edition wasn't until 93, think advanced space crusade was out before then? So those plastic scouts should be good.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Nice work on the beakies!

Original landspeeder and dread were RT, pretty sure scouts were too - 2nd edition wasn't until 93, think advanced space crusade was out before then? So those plastic scouts should be good.

Not original sculpts, but were they re-done before 2nd?

I know the guy on the left is RT, but I’m letting him keep his BA colors. Middle guy? He’s metal, pure dreadsock.


Similarly, when is they switch from the flying lawnchair to the guy on the left?


The scouts I had in mind were metal, not plastic, and I want to say they came out at the end of 2nd. Hoping to be wrong, but probably not.

Edit.
Doing my own legwork, they are all 2nd ed.

The RT era troops look great, and you should definitely watch some A-team. Who cares how silly it was it’s pure nostalgia.

If you keep the RT dread red, you could always make him a techmarine that got intured. I don’t think GW has gone down that route....yet.

I’ve poached enough from my BAs. Those that remain are there if I need them for an OpFor for things like BaC. If I loot anything more from them, it will be a terminator or two.

Little pre-work progress:

Marine is probably ready for the clean up blue pass. Sister is getting more basecoats; gold is next.

OK, inventory time. These are the sprues for active armies. Only the ones with enough bits to make full models. I’ve got plenty of other sprues with just spare arms, heads, and bits that needs to be clipped.

5 Deathwatch Vets, full kit. To be built mostly as SB/SS vets, I’ll have to check my DW plans. Edit: link
2 GK TDA bodies. I think one is going to be a terminator ancient for the Ultras, not sure of the other.
2 scouts. Might bulid one with a HB, The other should probably get modded into a sniper.
3 Aggressors, build with bolters to join Ultras.
Last of the DI spures, 5 hellblasters, 1 incepter sarge.
1 phobos body. Could bling up to captain, or specialist for one of the vanguard squads
18 assorted power armor bodies, of various marks.
1 bike. Probably join the DW at some point
SW from BoP. Plan to give him a guardian spear and turn into a DW watchmaster
Cypher, planed to remove the big sword, paint blue, and turn into the 30k gunslinger consul. Stalled out as the rest of my 30k projects.

Eldar bike - no plans
Farseer on foot - convert to spiritseer?

20 chainrasps - low priority, get at least some built for contest entires.
5 hexwraiths. Could be built as black knights, but I’ve got plenty of old metal mounted wights.
10 skeletons, because you never can have enough? (honestly, if I ever do get into AoS more, getting these guys done would let me field 2x40 blocks of skeletons without poaching random guys like the catapult crew and weedy wights to fill the back ranks)

Not pictured are some RTB01 marines, some stripping, some needing cleaning. Not sure about the count on those guys.

Also not pictured is the stuff from non active armies. SoS, 1kSon sorc, Empire/orcs from the 6th? WHFB box, Some Brets from the 5th, Mordheim skaven/guys, and a ton of old metal stuff scattered around in other boxes.

---

In painting progress, put the second blue down on the ML, golds on the sister.

Next month, going to work on these guys:

But I want to finish the 2 WIPs before starting.

Edit: While I had everything out I clipped the spare extras off about a dozen frames. Tedious work, but bits for the bits box! And less clutter around. I think I might want to get another box to help sort stuff out. Or find another place for my largely unused fantasy box, and recruit that for the cause.

Looking good. You are MUCH more organized for future work than I am. lol

 kavika0311 wrote:
Looking good. You are MUCH more organized for future work than I am. lol

To be honest, the pile was getting to be a mess, randomly tossed in boxes under the bench. And I couldn’t make up my mind on what to build next. So I figured why not sort and count stuff.

I sat down yesterday to make a scout sniper, but after digging around in the bits box for the sniper rifle I knew I had at one point, I’m pretty sure I traded it for other bits a while ago. Vague thoughts of a guy trying to make a 30k recon squad. Can’t complain too much, pretty sure I got some grav cannons out of that deal. But I’d have to scratch build one. I’d rather not just stick a long barrel onto a bolter, although that’s the common option. Might just put a pin in that for later. As I write this, I realize I’m an idiot. I’ve got 3 spare rifles from the eliminator kit. While I could potentially use them to make 3 more eliminators, at this point I have 9 waiting in the prime pile. The spare bits from building the eliminators were in a seperate thing, and not sorted yet. I’ve got a few places like that I need to square away to prevent this kind of thing.

For those wondering “why” my sniper scout collection is 4 old metal guys and 5 new plastic guys. If I want a full 10 man squad, I need to fill the spot with a HB or other guy. Also, one of the snipers is magnetized at the waist to become a ML scout. So if he’s called to fill that role, I’m down a sniper.

Build the other guy as a HB has a few reasons. It would give me my 3rd heavy for the scouts, so if I use them to fill troops I can have each squad in the brigade with one (2xHB, 1xML) and have them dispersed for use with flack missile/hellfire shell strats. Plus HBs look awesome, especially the ones lugged around by troopers.

I normally spend time Sunday morning building while listening to a Sunday-Rewind retro program on the radio, but I think today I’m going to go for a drive up into the mountains. Car’s been sitting around idle as I’m working from home, don’t want it to rust in place. And the fresh air and change of scenery will do me some good.


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Could have done a better job cleaning up the hand swap. Might have been better off just clipping the stock and replacing/reconstructing it. Close enough. These are the last two scouts in the place to be built, all spares clipped off the sprues. There are 2 bolter guys from the LSS primed and waiting, and that should be it for the old 10th company. New 10th with the Vanguard and snow are still mostly waiting in the primed pile.

Quick morning WIP. Sister is probably ready for her clean up pass with white. Calling the marine done with paint. Not going to edge him. Just not feeling it. He’s going to the swap shelf, and probably never coming off it, so not a lot of motivation to go all out on him. How often do you need that 15th ML in a list? Although now that I say that, I kinda want to put that list together.

Moved the 5 challenge guys down and put paint on 4 of them. One of the metal guys needed to be re-glued to his slotta. I think there is a reasonable chance that they are actually lead. Or the stripping process darkened the alloy.

I've had a few weird color distortions coming out of the Simple Green soak... not sure what that says about the co tent of the model but it does seems to be tied to the era.

Man, when you go, you go big! That's a lot of sprue processed and a long to do list. I'd do well to leave what's on sprues well enough alone and just get half finished projects going in the name of space. I am envious of both the headway and the sense of direction... maybe I'll do a big inventory, sprue purge, and to do list update soon.

Clipping is tedious, but good to keep things tidy. Although the face that some bits come in pairs makes it rough. But if it’s being stuck into the bitz box, odds are it’s going to be used in a non-STC construct, so probably doesn’t need to be matched.



Some progress, got a black layer down.

Looking good, and like you might just complete that additional company after all :-D

And yeah, the flexibility of extra parts is nice, but goodness they do pile up afterwards don't they?

Vejut wrote:
Looking good, and like you might just complete that additional company after all :-D

And yeah, the flexibility of extra parts is nice, but goodness they do pile up afterwards don't they?

The pile of minis is getting a little large.

Some things I’ll actually bag up in little ziplocks, rather then keep the sprue. But most things just get dumped.

Plugging away in the sloppy basecoat stage.

So did a little bitz box consolidation and shuffling. Some other time I’ll do more clipping. But now I can keep things a little more organized. Wanted space for the phobos bits, gravis bits, etc.



Decided to put together some gunslinging VV to join the deathwatch. Sifting through the bits box, I remembered that all my left handed bolt pistols were used in the creation of the 30k destroyers I had built. I might have been able to cob together some more, but it would be rough. Seeing that my 30k dreams are basically dead, I just decided to reclaim the destroyers.



With a little work, popped the shoulderpads off. And then built and magnetized two of the Kromlech jump packs I had picked up for them. The marines already had magnets in their backs. Shoulderpads not glued on, I’ll want to prime them separately, as the bodies already have a layer on.

That's a beautiful bitz box. Dual pistol guys look cool, too. The Kromlech packs are pretty sweet.

I think the kromlech packs mesh wonderfully with the brutal mk. III aesthetic. Glad I picked them up back in the day, even if they have just been collecting dust in my collection.

Progress

Put the white wash on the sister, brown on the marine. White stripes and studs on the troopers.

Also spent a little time clipping bits. 6 more sprues out of the pile.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms out there. Probably none reading this, but you never know. For everyone else, do something special for the most important lady in your life. She deserves it. A lot.

Incremental progress. Started on visor guy as well to bring him up to speed. Nothing new here.

Unlike this.


Hard to get a good picture, but with that bare arm, I wanted to do a little something special, so I tried giving him a tattoo. Used a less saturated color, and topped it with both a thinned wash of the base skintone, and then the contrast over that (with the rest of the arm). Obviously, would be better if my freehand skills were better, but the technique is sound.

I keep saying I want to try new things and add to my skill sets. I can check that one off for the year. Might be more relevant if I ever paint more fantasy chaos. My 40k armies are not the kind to normally sport ink. And undead are lacking one of the key ingredients; the skin to put it on.

Keep at it Nevelon,

You know I still see those figures in one of the Marine armies of my gaming group...they are about the same age as some of my metal Orks and Eldar.

Cheers,

CB

These models really bring me back to my first introduction to the hobby. I can't believe you found some to work on.

Nice work blending in the tattoo.

Nice job on the tattoo, the blends after help sell it as part of the skin, rather than on top.

Thanks guys. I’ve still got some RT gems hiding away waiting for paint. Most of them wore the red of my BA for a long time, but others just hid in the back.

Still slowly plugging away at these guys. Might make a push to get some work done this afternoon.

Clipped the hellblasters off the sprue. They can be my clean/build project next. Nothing special planned for them, besides finding a head swap for the sarge.

I forgot how much fun it was cleaning up the DI marines. Shoulder rims and EZ built do not go well together. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a hobby knife and a square file.

I should probably prime, piles getting big.

Those RT guys are just mad. I love seeing them, and you're doing great with them.
They put the mold lines for those DI Marines in some of the worst spots possible.

 kavika0311 wrote:
Those RT guys are just mad. I love seeing them, and you're doing great with them.
They put the mold lines for those DI Marines in some of the worst spots possible.

Not just the mold lines. There are places were do to them wanting to keep the number of parts down you end up with details smeared into the model due to the lack of undercuts. Like the holstered bolt pistol who's handle just kinda keeps going back in a solid chunk until it meets the belt.

I get that it’s a starter set. They want to make it easy to put together. And at table top distance, it won’t be so bad. Just very obvious when cleaning them up.

Proof of life. Still painting, albeit slowly. Just drybrushed the bolters after snapping the pic. 3/5 ready for the blue wash. Goal is to be done by the weekend.

Will be interesting to see what Sat’s big reveal is going to be. I’ve got a chunk of my tax return slated for retail therapy for my mental health. I’m not saying it’s burning a hole in my pocket, but I do smell smoke...

9th Ed? Was slated as Summer this year, unsure if this is Summer now or what.

Hopefully it's a new SM Codex the old one is feeling tired and underpowered.

Nice to see the RTB01/RT guys out to play, makes me want to dig mine out.

Nevelon,

Yes, I am way behind on my monthly entry as well due to doing so much Necromunda terrain. :(

Cheers,

CB

Looking good Nev. Wonderful to see those old figs getting good treatment.

Blue ink on everything but the bolter arms, which need their second blue base, and some work on the silvers. Next is the touch up pass, and the final bases/decals/etc. Metal guys will get some edge work done, not bothering on the RTB01s.

So, 9th incoming. The leaked pics of the new marines are crazy amazing. I need them more than is probably healthy. To the point where I’m wondering if I can justify a second set, just to carve up for conversion work. Maybe not that far. But getting the basic guys, and then full kits when they release? Maybe.

Also, I might have been looking at ’Nids. Don’t tell Cassius. Might never happen, but at this point my Eldar and even Deathwatch are looking “complete”. (yah yah, I know...) I’ve always had them pegged as a I wish one day project. I’ve got the money, it could be fun. This would be limeted in scope. Probably write up a 1,500 and 2k list, get the models needed. Less of the grabbing random stuff. Give Tippy and the Zoat brothers some friends.

I look forward to seeing the new Marines drafted into your Ultras.

 youwashock wrote:
I look forward to seeing the new Marines drafted into your Ultras.

So do I. While I like the “clean” look of the basic Primaris marine, sometimes you just need to cover yourself in glue, roll around in a gothic cathedral, and then charge into battle singing hymns to the immortal God-Emperor of mankind. This box is going to give us both of those.

And on that note, some SoB to join my marines on the bench.


Marines are glued and awaiting base/decals.

Sisters got their first layer of Grey Seer.


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Paint down on the bases, next up is glueing rocks and tufts.

First blacks down on the sisters.

And because it’s a lovely day out:

Just in case you were curious how I primed on the 3rd floor here.


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If anyone is bored and hates their liver, consider heading over to the Drunken Master’s Challenge

2 hours drunken speed painting. GO!

Little sad that a 2 hour speed paint while drunk is not that much worse than my normal plodding pace.


Got the flock down on the rest of the boys. Just decals left.


Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day.


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Edit for random thoughts.

So new edition and a new starter. It’s going to happen, so how many Primaris is that going to bring me up to? Where am I for a fully primaris battle company? What more would it take?

I’m willing to accept some flex, but let’s assume the standard 60/20/20 split. And while this is going to make the numbers needed a lot larger, my Vanguard forces are not part of the company, but off in the 10th.

Command elements
Captain (painted)
Chaplain (will be in new box)
Lt’s 2x (painted)
Apothecary -need
Ancient - primed

Battle line units (or troops as we like to think of them)
Squad 1 - Intercessors w/ bolt rifles, power sword sarge 5/10 painted, need to buy 5
Squad 2 - Intercessors w/ bolt rifles, power sword sarge 5/10 painted, need to buy 5
Squad 3 - Intercessors w/ bolt rifles, power fist sarge 5/10 painted, need to buy 5
Squad 4 - Intercessors w/ Autobolt rifle, TH sarge. Need to buy 10
Squad 5 - Intercessors w/ Stalker rifles, chainsword sarge. Need to buy 10
Squad 6 - Yet more intercessors, unless they add more units by the time I get around to them. Need 10 more. What I might do here is break them up into 2x5 man kill teams, with assorted gear and stuff to mark them out as specialists. If that is the case, some phobos might sneak into the company here.

Technically I could use Infiltrators here. But all phobos troops are going to join the 10th company.

Close Support (or Fast Attack for my fellow grognards)
Giving up on the squad numbering due to all the little fragments.
3 incursors - painted
3 bikes - (will be in new box)
10 assault Intercessors (will be in new box)
** Need another 4 marines** TBD

Fire Support (HS)
2x5 Hellblasters 5 painted, 5 primed
3 Suppressors - primed
3 Aggressors- NIB, to build
3 Melta gravis guys (will be in new box, guessing at role. If not HS, they will be FA. But they feel like they belong here)
One marine shy of the 20 bodies. I’m OK with that.

Now a bit could change once we actually get the new box in hand. The big unknown is the metla guys, as we can’t see their unit markings. There was a chance the assault intercessors were battleline, but they’ve got crossed arrows.

So, if I want to be crazy and do this, I’ll need
45 more intercessor bodies (ouch)
The new boxset
an apothecary
a 3-5 man FA pick.
Probably a new dread or two, but I can just loan some old ones from the shelf instead if getting the new tubby model. (which I dislike)

Getting another 15-20 intercessors was on my to-buy list anyway. I want 5 basic guys to fill out the back of at least one squad, and at least 5 of the other rifle variants. Probably a full 10 of the autobolter. So this is just an extra 2-3 boxes to fill out the back half of squads. I’ve been holding off just picking up boxes of these guys, as I figured they’d be the new tactical squad and start showing up everywhere. Not so much. Although that apoc box they did would have been nice right about now.

Not a huge fan of the apothecary model. Might just make my own.

There are plenty of FA boxes I could pick up. Might get another box of bikes if/when the full kit releases.

So yah, this is probably happening. Although getting at the troops done might take a while.

Pickled Marine looks good, as do his sober pals. Sounds like a solid plan for the Primaris.

Drunk speed painting. That should be a gaming convention segment with some of the “Talented” artists having to perform against each other .

 Nevelon wrote:
Little sad that a 2 hour speed paint while drunk is not that much worse than my normal plodding pace.

Sad?! Or pretty fething cool! Get hammered, paint your minis, and don't remember the process. Gotta love it!

 Nevelon wrote:
So, if I want to be crazy and do this, I’ll need
45 more intercessor bodies (ouch)

Do it! We'll be here cheering your crazy self on!

To be fair, I peaked at mildly intoxicated. I could tell I was impaired, but not so much that I wasn’t able to focus and compensate.

I did notice that I missed cleaning up a bit of black under his chin, not that you can see it with his bolter arm on. And I didn’t clean up the spare flock paste when it was wet, so had to scrape it off my tools/palette. More relevant is that I can probably leave less time for layers to dry if I really want to churn things out. Of course, I’m still limited by what my back can do in one sitting.

My build survey a bit ago shows that my Pile of Shame is getting down to a reasonable level. Of course, that’s just the “active” part of it. I know there are some diamonds in the deeps I should fish out. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need to push myself out of the spending habits. Years of living in a single income family situation has conditioned me to deny any non-required purchases and tighten my belt to compensate for those in the house who didn’t have quite the financial discipline. This is not my situation now. I’m living within my means, and have funds available to buy things I want. But I’ve spent years telling myself that I don’t want anything. I can afford to spend money on myself to keep myself happy. 40k is basically my only hobby/expense, besides booze and Netflix.

So once 9th drops, grabbing that, no questions.
Once I have time to digest it, I’ll be starting a Tryanid army. Nothing extravagant, probably just buy and built to a 2,000 list. This might be a slow build, as I’ve still got a whole SoB army to paint this year. But my tentative plans are to pick up a box of troops and some paints, and work out my scheme this year. See if any decent bundles drop near the end of the year. But also build and paint some of what I have on hand.

Once the supply chain starts running again, start picking up and painting more intercessors. It’s silly, but I’m a crazy guy. And I enjoy painting.

I missed the 7 year anniversary of this blog last week. Persistent little bugger, aren’t I?

And another combat squad of RT marines ready for battle.

Congrats on 7 years of awesomesauce plogging!

Marines looks ace, that sword guy in particular makes me happy. Can just picture him cutting an ork in half!

 MegaDave wrote:
Congrats on 7 years of awesomesauce plogging!

Marines looks ace, that sword guy in particular makes me happy. Can just picture him cutting an ork in half!

Heh. thanks. Don’t make me break out my old orks for a photoshoot.

On my “how do I want to build terrain” musings, I oft go back to the halcyon days of my RT-era youth. I’ve got a map of The Farm in the back of the book. I want to re-visit it as a ruined frozen refinery outpost. Eventually.

Congrats on finishing your comp entry, tattoo is a really nice touch on the one guy! Excited to see more of your friend's sisters on the table and for your tyranid color tests in the hopefully near future.

Nice work!

Rebuilding the Farm would be awesome. New squad is looking good. Old school cool, indeed.

Re-building The Farm? A worthy task.

The finished combat squad look.great

I’ve ordered some hobby supplies, so things can start happening on a few fronts.

New brushes. My old ones are getting a little ratty. Going to experiment with a ZEM brand I can get from Amazon. Worst case, I have some new drybrushes.
A set of 18x 2oz assorted craft paints. Because I’m not painting hills and buildings with GW paints.
More painting handles (the box of 5). Going to give a couple to The Boy, but I really like them, and am going to have a lot of ongoing projects. Don’t want to to paint without them, but swapping minis off/on them is irritating.

(also some bag clips, kitchen scale, and a set of noise dampening wireless headphones. Amazon is going to be happy with me, maybe not the delivery guy)

Still need to figure out my nid paint. The lore purist in my says go with the red and blue of behemoth, for Macragge. But I don’t like it and I’m goign to be painting a billion of these little guys. Well, at least 60-75 ish probably. So why not keep the theme of painting the poster boys and go with the pruple and pale of leviathan.

I might be able to keep using the darkoath flesh I have for the flesh bits.
Need a purple, (syesh is the contrast that looks right) and probably a highlight for that. One of the greyish ones.
Might want the other bright red base paint for claws. Or see how the contrast red I have works straight.

I should do some expenements with what I have. I’d rather make one trip to the FLGS for a single curbside pickup, and not just order paints one at a time.

It sounds like you guys are excited about the farm. I’ll start mocking up some concepts. But it sounds like 9th might bet some new/better/actual terrain rules, so nothing is going to get started until we get a glance at them. (Nothing big at least, might start some hills)

Some lovely laides moving though the basecoat stage:

So I cracked open the box of tainted biomass and extracted some samples. These are the newer of the ‘gaunts. Some realy old guys, some still NIB there, but these are half of the little guys.



Cleaned the mold lines off of one and gave him a quick coat of Grey Seer. No primer, as he’s a test bed and slated for the reclamation pool. I’ve give him a second coat later today to make up for the fact he’s not primed white. Then I’ll experiment with some skin tones and weapon treatments. Base troops must be all contrast/wash/drybrush. I’ll do feathered edges on bigger bugs. Small guys need speed to live.

Some Sister’s progress:

Doing some washes. Need a bit of cleanup. Face needs work.

Sisters are looking good. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the old bugs.

Classic metal Gaunts, have not seen those since the last time one of our group brought out his Tyranids...which was around 3rd edition I think.

CB

Lurking down with the Zoats. Waiting.

So a few things. One, was a treat in my mailbox. Was not expecting these until some time next week.


And some tests:


The carapace is just filler at this point. I’ll be picking up a pot of Shyesh purple with my next drop. But I didn’t want to leave those parts base grey for comparison pics. Should be deeper, more vibrant, and actually purple.

I might hit up the base of the claws with some nulan oil or darken them up a bit.
Not sure is the flesh is too dark. Might give it a drybrush of something like bleached cone.
Need something for the tubes. Pink? Different shade of flesh?
While the red gun is classic, not sure how I feel about it. Might nulan is down a bit.

Nulan oil on the red. Much better
Bleached bone drybrush on the skin, with another layer of the contrast on the textured areas. Not bad, but I’m wondering if I could just get the same effect by stepping down to a paler contrast?
Beady yellow eyes.
White base, just to give the right balance. They will be snow flocked like my Ultras.

And because they are destined for table top use, an arm’s length shot:


Thoughts?

It gives a nice iridescent color to the chitin .

I haven’t used the painting handles, how are they now that they have been out for a while? I just use old empty medicine bottles with poster tack and it works well.

3rd ed plastics were my nids, but I do enjoy looking at oldshool gaunts. There's a charm and extra gribbliness about them. Nice work!

 Nevelon wrote:
[url=https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/1062895-nid%20zoom.html]
Bleached bone drybrush on the skin, with another layer of the contrast on the textured areas. Not bad, but I’m wondering if I could just get the same effect by stepping down to a paler contrast?

Dunno. I think all the joints and grooves on nids benefit from a bit of, ah, contrast. Would a lighter contrast paint fill those to a similar degree?

Theophony wrote:It gives a nice iridescent color to the chitin .

I haven’t used the painting handles, how are they now that they have been out for a while? I just use old empty medicine bottles with poster tack and it works well.

The iridescent look is me slapping some red contrast paint on a blue base while it was still wet. Because I can’t remember the last time I owned a purple paint, if ever.

I love the handles. Would not go back to just holding the base. Last month when I was batch painting RTB01s, I really missed them. Which is why I bought the 5 pack. Going to give 2 to The Boy, keep the others (which brings me up to 5 normal, 1 large) For $10 a pop, I’m willing to shell out for something pre-built. They keep a firm grip on the model, even when I’m flipping old metals upside down to get a good angle on the,.

Vermis wrote:3rd ed plastics were my nids, but I do enjoy looking at oldshool gaunts. There's a charm and extra gribbliness about them. Nice work!

 Nevelon wrote:
[url=https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/1062895-nid%20zoom.html]
Bleached bone drybrush on the skin, with another layer of the contrast on the textured areas. Not bad, but I’m wondering if I could just get the same effect by stepping down to a paler contrast?

Dunno. I think all the joints and grooves on nids benefit from a bit of, ah, contrast. Would a lighter contrast paint fill those to a similar degree?

I figure if I want darker and the lighter contrast doesn’t give that to me, I can always use the one I have now to accent things. I’d just rather not plonk down 8 bucks for a pot of something that’s “Meh” Of course, I could use it for actual people flesh... Guiliman flesh is what the paint app recommends for their tutroial.

Gulliman is a solid color to have around. Maybe some Volpus Pink for the ribbed areas? And for 'Nids en masse, you can probably skip the drybrush on the flesh and have them look good enough on the table. Unless you are compelled to satisfy your own sensibilities for painting, which I completely understand. Shyish for the plates sounds pretty good.

 youwashock wrote:
Gulliman is a solid color to have around. Maybe some Volpus Pink for the ribbed areas? And for 'Nids en masse, you can probably skip the drybrush on the flesh and have them look good enough on the table. Unless you are compelled to satisfy your own sensibilities for painting, which I completely understand. Shyish for the plates sounds pretty good.

I am fine with a table top level on the little guys. I’ll spend more time on the centerpiece models. But for little gribblies who’s main job is to leave the table in double handfuls, I’m OK with a little corner cutting on quality.



Testbug two is go!

Hit the store, quick surgical strike for 2 pots of paint. Decided against getting a new grey to edge; what I have should work. Forgot about the pink while I was there. Might be able to just thin the red if needed. They didn’t have a whole lot of ’Nids on the shelf, or I would have impulse bought a box of hormagants. Really kicking myself for not doing this 6 months ago and getting the megaforce from last Christmas. It’s exactly the core of the army I want.

Once the base dries, He’ll get the contrast. See how he compares with his buddy

Put the second black layer on one sister this morning. I should do the other. I’d like to finish both of them this weekend.


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So this is straight up contrast paints. I still think the nulan oil is needed on the reds. The purple is DARK. I had heard this. And frankly, am OK with it. Will be interested to see what happens when it dries completely if there is any change. But as rich as it is, I don’t see a whole lot of the vaunted “base, shade, highlight, one coat” that is supposed to be the contrast motto.

I could do a swarm of these guys.

And boom.

No time wasted here. The Gulliman looks good. The Shyish is indeed dark, seems to be an issue with some of the colors. I have encountered the same with Leviadon Blue. Dark as it is, I think it will work as-is.

So here is the old stuff that might show up.

A bunch of GSC stuff, 2 chimeras. Unlikely to join the swarm, unless I try to scape a kill team out of it.
3 biovores, 9 spore mines. These guys seem good. I like the way the look, will get paint. Might scratch build more spores.
26 assorted genestealers. Some broken. Might get paint, low priority. Planning on getting new ones in the SC box, have 6 painted already.
6 more termagaunts. Old ones, no carapace, weird little guns. unlikely to join the swarm, as they just look completely different
(6 more modern but still metal ones on the bench as test subjects will join)
one old metal hive tyrant. I built one once before for a friend, they are not fun to assemble. Low priority, as the scale is WAY off. Might build as a warrior prime?
8 gargoyles. not the best unit to have in metal. Eventually might reinforce a newer squad of plastics.
3 old, broken warriors. Might attempt to fix. Don’t really match the modern aesthetics.

So this month is “In a Supporting Role” so going to do up a pair of banner bearers.



I want to get the ancient done before the new box drops, and will use any excuse to help motivate a sister across the bench. From the 2 DI boxes I got, I’ve got 5 hellblasters, the ancient, a gravis captain primed and waiting for paint, and an inceptor is the last thing on sprue. I should probably build him to join the Deathwatch just to finish that up. In an ideal world I’d finish all of them before the new edition, but don’t know if that’s in the cards. I feel I’m behind on the sisters, and want to catch up.

I’ve been doing a lot of retail therapy lately. Little things I wanted or could use, but never bothered to pick up. Some paint racks (multi tiered nail polish shelves). Supplies to keep my basing material together (crayon and pencil boxes) with some additional supplies to go in them. I always figured why pay for rocks, but my supply is dwindling. And it was only ~$10 for a pound, which should last a good while. Also more frozen tufts, as the nids are going to use them in addition to the Ultras. A pair of bent nose fine tipped tweezers for decal work. And lastly a box of hormagaunts, because let’s get this show on the road.

Sisters I think are ready for the touch up pass with the grey seer, and then the white and highligihts. Getting there.

I love this combo for the contest this month. I'll be doing an Imagifier as well, so I'm going to watch closely... mine's not built yet, so I should be able to monitor your week-ahead progress as we go. I'm doing the one from the Celestian/Dominion box, and she's got about a miliion pieces.

First layers down on the contest minis. Started another sister while I was at it. The two active sisters got their clean up pass with the base coat. Contrast white is their next step.

Found my kill jar and bottle of acetone. Which had mostly evaprorated. Not enough to cover the nids, but they are soaking. I want to prime them with the rest so the squad is uniform. And metal models really need a good layer of primer.

Edit: Contrast on the older sisters, just need white edges and base work.

Gave the two little nids a quick scrub. Diluted the goop so they are totally submerged and will let them go overnight. Going to be rainy a bit, so won’t be able to prime soon anyway.

Some classic metal in those bags Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Some of it is going to get some use, we’ll see how much. The newer plastics are pretty good looking, and metal has some issues. Also as a WYSWYG kinda guy, I wonder how playable it is. One thing I’m going to try to keep myself to is paint a unit, buy a unit. Or maybe box, as a unit for these guys might take 2 boxes of gribbles. I want them to not linger in the pile of shame, or add to the backlog. I might allow myself an extra box in the fall to keep me painting through the winter, or just work on other projects. We’ll see what my motivation looks like.



Put some blacks down this morning.



Reuse, reduce, recycle. It’s the Tyranid way. Test minis stripped down and ready to prime. Well, will be once I glue them back on their bases. Last of the acetone, will need to grab more if I need to strip any metal. Not that I do that often...


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So some organization showed up in the mail today. A 2 pack of 3x shelf nail polish racks. Probably should have gone with a bigger model, but they will work. Also some stacking crayon boxes and a pencil holder to help sort out my baseing stuff. Before, as part of how I base, I’d swish the wet base through loose flock. The flock was just in an open blister pack, so prone to spillage and hard to store. These have little clip on lids. I’ve filled them enough that I can take the bulk containers and stow them away, to save workspace.

Two sisters off the handles and got their bases backed, ready for rubble. Two infiltrators move down to take their place, got their grey seer base. Plugging away at the basecoats.

I’m enjoying the extra handles for WIP space. After I started using them, they really restricted how many things I could have ongoing at once.

Nids are back on their bases and into the to-prime pile. I should build some stuff to join them. Make it worth breaking out the rattlecan.

Nice to see you making good progress. SIsters in white really look great, excited for your painting comp entries!

Did I mention that I’ve been impulse buying stuff for projects? I think I have. More stuff showed up today:



With a horde army on the plan, more tufts were going to be needed. Not like they go stale. And for terrain, some cheep craft paint. Bought the assortment pack, even though I’ll probably only use 4-5 of them. Who knows, and good to have on hand.

Put a few more base coats down this morning. Plugging along.

Edit:

Another day, another supply drop!


Slate for baseing, tweezers for decals, gribbly bugs for hugs. This should be the end of the impulse spending for now. The only package outstanding is a kitchen scale, which probably won’t get used for the hobby. (and something my mom is sending, no idea what, but again, probably not hobby).

Put another later on the the guys on the bench this morning, and rubble on the sister’s bases. I should do more, but am doing laundry and playing Dawn of War instead. It would be nice to finish with the basecoats by today.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Part of me thinks it might have been better to go with the slate one size up. Mostly because this is pretty thin. Little worried about it just getting buried in the snow.

Progress;

Hugs?


Tippy is going to be so happy she has some new friends. I also forgot how painful it is cleaning mold lines off spiky models. Considering the age of these sprues, it could have been a lot worse. There was a little mold slippage, but I’ve seen a lot worse.

Some progress on the paint side:


Nothing earth shaking, just basecoats going down

And because I can’t have too many projects going on at once, this is what we know about The Farm:


Now, I’m working up an arctic table, so don’t really have the right theme for an agricultural farm. The plan is to take the layout, and transform it into a refinery/pump station/outpost.

Elements:
Bultha’s Rise, generator. This can remain the same. Hill will be painted insulation foam. The question is size. Maybe 12” long? And how high? With one inch thick foam, I was thinking of using every other contour line. The bulk of it will be 2” tall, which will block LoS for infantry. Was thinking of finding/3D printing a generator. I’d like something akin to the DoW plasma generators, but might go with a wind turbine. We’ll see what I can find.

Main building, 2 out buildings. These are going to be typical ruins. Might go with a second floor on the main one, or at least more on the roof to provide cover. Question of size, particularly the outbuildings. From a game PoV, who do I want to be able to fit in there? If I make the interior 2”x 3” you could fit a character or two, and a 5 man squad on small bases, but not 32's. Space for an eliminator squad 3x40mm? Changes to the cover system might affect this call. If they switch it (guessing blind here) to majority of unit in cover for bonus, rather then all the unit, I’d not have to make is so big as to fit everyone. So this might wait.

Cattle Pens. The defining feature of this space is the walled enclosure. Part of me would do this as a chain link fence, encircling piles of barrels and crates. One problem with chain link is that it doesn’t look like it will stop a bolter round like a nice rock wall. The other thought was to make this a collections of pipes connecting the buildings/going into the ground. Having some around the perimeter would provide the hard cover that you’d expect from walls.

Orchard: This will probably be the other option not chosen for the cattle pens. It should be difficult to move though, and make it hard to see though, but not necessarily impossible. Chain link full of scatter could do that, but so could a mess of pipes.

As I write this out, I’m leaning towards pipes for the cattle pens and storage for the orchard. Seems that would capture the feel of the game aspects of the farm better. But it will be interesting to see what they do with the mechanics. I might start on the hill before 9th drops, but will wait for the other parts.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just finished assembling another 4 guants. Rather then build another 4 guys off the same identical sprue as the first 8, I think I’m going to reserve the last one for when I grab a box of termagaunts. The arms look they like are interchangeable, so will help mix up the squads. A few running terms, a few crouching horms.

Cleaned up the biovores as well as I could. Ready to prime them. A third of the spore mines had snapped off their bases. I think I’m going to add an extra green stuff tendril to all of them (even the ones still intact) to take some of the stress off the tiny metal contact point. Better to do it now before they get painted.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ready for paint

Looking forward to seeing how fast you knock out those bugs. Also how the color scheme will look on the biovores.

The biovores are going to be the first test on a larger bug. I’m interested to see how it works myself. Might end up having to do more detailing, as the contrast probably won’t work as well on the larger surfaces.

Having these guys ready will help keep the project pile of shame neutral. Once I paint a dozen of them, I can buy the next box. Assuming the next box is termagaunts, which is the plan. After that, I think it will be a start collecting box. At that point I’d have 3 troops, a HQ, and a few support units. But could still use more of everything. I don’t want to have a lot of redundant units on the shelf, and hope to pick up the next mega box they offer.

I’ve noodled a few lists around, but with the new edition around the corner, everything is up in the air. The things on my short list to pick up are:

One more box of homagaults (give me a squad of 25)
Two boxes of termagaunts (blob of 30)
SC box (broodlord, trygon, genestealers)
Carnafex box (get two, build one as OOE, other generic)
Flying Hive Tyrant

That’s my HQs, 3 troops, and some heavy hitters. That’s the core. Then it’s a question of what I like and what I need. Which includes things like:

Hive Guard (good ranged AV)
Raveners (I like the snake guys)
Gargoyles (random harassment unit, the 8 I have are probably not enough to be worth fielding)
Zoenthropes (everyone loves brain bugs, might need 2 boxes if I want to build one as the HQ)
Exocrine (Biovore’s big brother in looks, solid ranged AV)

Little morning WIP. Almost done with the basecoats. Still need to bo the banner pole, and the un-helmeted sister’s head. Plus start on the marine banner. Did a little drybrushing silvers.

Finished the bases on the 4 done sisters, moved them to the YTD shelf. I should do a Q2 report, probably later this month. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Another week ahead, stay strong everyone!

Quick WIP of the contest entry. Lack of stabbed ‘Nid head on the banner with be compensated for on the base. Once I prime the bits.

Nice! Looking forward to seeing that banner turn into something special.

More slow progress.

Some building. GS’d some extra tenticles for the spore mines. Waiting for them to cure before glueing the broken ones back on their bases. I’ll add a little disk of GS for them to sit on. The snow base should hide it and give them a little extra stability.


At the point in painting where a lot of work goes down, but you don’t notice anything. I should ptobably just do the second major base color on them and move to the wash stage.

Still blocking in the banner.

At the point in painting where a lot of work goes down, but you don’t notice anything.

Always an annoying part in a project. Still looking good so far.

So besides slow progress, I got some paint on this guy.


As my large monster base wsa empty, I thought I’d slap some paint on a biovore. Rushed a little, as I had to log onto my RPG session.

Lessons:
The purple needs to go on first. Then a cleanup pass. There is no way to hide sploches of it. The brown can be sloppy and red/purple will just override it. But I’d rather not brown -> patch up slop -> brown again.

Not sure how I feel about the red guns still. I suspect when the swarm gets together, it will even out. Right now seems a bit garish. Of course, I still need to give it the nulan out. And do his eyes and teeth. And on something his size, probably edge a little.

In other news, I need to decide on the hearldry on the marine banner.

I think once you give the red a wash it’ll help tone down that garishness quite a bit.

For the heraldry on the banner, are you not going to go with the 3rd Company’s sword through a Nid head?

 kavika0311 wrote:
I think once you give the red a wash it’ll help tone down that garishness quite a bit.

For the heraldry on the banner, are you not going to go with the 3rd Company’s sword through a Nid head?

I wish my freehand could do that justice. I was just planning basic iconography on the banner itself. But the center bottom panel has a little divided field that needs colors.

The stabbed nid head will be on the base. You can see it WIP near the biovore.

The biovore looks good. I agree the wash will take some edge off the red. I also found that planning the order you put the Contrast on in is fairly important if you want to avoid too much touch-up.

The extra tentacles are a great idea!

youwashock wrote:The biovore looks good. I agree the wash will take some edge off the red. I also found that planning the order you put the Contrast on in is fairly important if you want to avoid too much touch-up.

Nulan helped a lot. I need to iron out my process for these guys. Shouldn’t be hard, there are not a lot of steps.

Gitsplitta wrote:The extra tentacles are a great idea!

One problem with metal is it tends to weaken if bent back and forth a lot. These guys spent a lot of time loose in boxes. Which is why a third of them snapped off. Hopefully the GS will be stong enough on it’s own. At the very least it’s another contact point to help brace them from bending. If I had to do it over again, I’d probably put a wire core in each one for added strength. These are just rolled GS.

So the first of the new swarm formally done. Not counting the zoats, Tippy, or the old genestealers, as they are all different patterns and schemes.


He’s a lower standard than what I’ve been doing lately. But solid table-top work. Which frankly is the only way an army of nids is going to hit the table before the sun burns out.

Here I think is how I’m going to paint the army:
Prime white
Basecoat Grey Sear
Hard carapace Shysh Purple
<touch up here>
Fleshy bits Guilliman Flesh
Claws & Guns Blood Angel Red, then a Nulan Oil wash
Tounges, mouth insides also BA Red.
Eyes in Sunburst Yellow, with a cat’s eye/snake vertical pupil in black
Teeth picked out with bleached bone
Base, stock winter as other armies.

As I paint things with more detail, I’ll have to decide what colors to use for those parts moving forward.

Works, I think. The eyes are a nice touch. Any plans to black out that muzzle?

 youwashock wrote:
Works, I think. The eyes are a nice touch. Any plans to black out that muzzle?

No?

I’m not drilling it out, that’s for sure. Hadn’t given thought to blacking it. It is a giant flat spot. I could give it a shot. Might do a mock up on the computer and see how it looks. Or wait until I have more models, specifically new scuplts, and see how their big guns look.

Put the grey seer down on the next one and did a little more painting this morning.

Spore mines ready to prime:

Hopefully the tentacles will help them from snapping off. If not, always more glue. Or cob some together out of something more sturdy and lighter, which is pretty much everything.

Some WIP:


Biovore #2 done. I’m liking this contrast paint thing. Once the wash dries I’ll move him down to the ready to base stage and start on the 3rd one. I have a feeling the speed I get the little guys done is going to be limited by how many painting handles are free at a given time. The end of month gap, where I am done with my competition project and looking for something to fill a few days/week is going to be full of gribbly bugs.

Ancient is ready for his second blue coat. Banner still needs it’s first black, and the lower center basecoated. And then the many cleanup and highlight passes. Nid head needs 2 washes for the knife, and then highlights for same.

Sisters and trooper 1 need their clean up grey seer pass. Then the white wash. After that the sisters get a higlight pass, and the marine gets his camo, soft armor wash, and the blue shoulder finished.

Trooper 2 already had his clean up pass, waiting for the white.

Working on different projects at the same time badly fragmented my focus. I feel I was just dithering around slapping random layers down. Sure, they eventually all got done, but felt really inefficient. End is in sight (ish). Next time I think I’ll try to keep it more focused. If I had done these guys sequentially, rather then together, I think I’d be done. (well, pairing the like models)

Another Biovore done already? Awesome.

 youwashock wrote:
Another Biovore done already? Awesome.

As I said, really loving the contrast.

They are only really 6 steps, plus the eyes. I could probably do one a day if I was diligent about it, even weekdays while working. One layer before work, one each on my 2 15 minute breaks and another at lunch, finish up after work. Plenty of dry time.

I did mention how fast and easy these guys are?

Just need to base them. And maybe look into something with the flat guns. I think once I get the army more up and running I might go back and do a detail pass. Edge some armor plates, maybe gloss the eyes. But I’d like to get a table-top force out there eating people first. It would also help to tie some of the older scuplts in with the new ones. But I’d need some fresh plastic first. Even the hormagaunts are pretty old at this point.

I do love the old biovore over the newer sculpt. With them horseshoeing in the different races being used for biological material for certain Tyranids I think they overdid the Orc look way too much.

Living artiller-iffic. Quick, easy, and the more you paint, the better they all look together. Heck of a deal.

Theophony wrote:I do love the old biovore over the newer sculpt. With them horseshoeing in the different races being used for biological material for certain Tyranids I think they overdid the Orc look way too much.

I liked how they were subtle nods to the other races, but agree that I think the new biovore moved too far away from the general Nid aesthetic.

youwashock wrote:Living artiller-iffic. Quick, easy, and the more you paint, the better they all look together. Heck of a deal.

Glued some rocks and tufts to them, so just need to smear some flock around and they can be formally done. Then I get to buy another box. Next will be a box of termagants.

So with the state opening up again and no signs of the corona in our circles, I’ve started taking my weekends with The Boy again. Project for yesterday was breaking everything out for an army shot.

So hard on the lighting and focus. While we were transitioning everything from the shelf, I took advantage of the opportunity and grabbed units pics of everyone who didn’t have one. I’ll process and upload those to the gallery. Also took the time to readjust the shelf. It was getting cluttered, and needed some work. One thing was swapping the 2 BaC tac squads up into the company shelf, replacing the 2nd and 3rd ed squads. Sad to do it, as they have history, but how many tacs do I need in the ready space? Doing this let me move another 20 bodies down into the spare bits drawer. I should probably thin out a few more things, maybe move all the swap shelf spare weapons down there as well. But a drawer is not the best place for that sort of thing. Things are getting cramped though, so actions might need to happen. Although no rush, as nothing new is going to be moving in until the YTD shelf transitions at the end of December. I might need to take another shelf from the stemware, or get a new cabinet. If I could move the motor pool somewhere, it would decompress the infantry a LOT.

Hopefully get a game in today, we’ll see how that works out. Right now puttering with pictures and cleaning up some aggressors.

Happy Father’s Day to all my fellow dads out there.

Happy Father's Day!

Killer army shot. Ultras for miles.

Very nice shot of the full army. Are those your scouts on the far right?

youwashock wrote:Happy Father's Day!

Killer army shot. Ultras for miles.

Thanks.

I like this one better for the “Blue Tide” shot, but it looks a little fuzzy, and doesn’t actually show off the collections very well.

kavika0311 wrote:Very nice shot of the full army. Are those your scouts on the far right?

Yup. Scouts are part of my recon exchange program with the Eldar. They wear forest camo to infiltrate the maiden world base scheme of the foul Xenos, while the Eldar rangers wear white. Although the roots of the choice got back to 2nd edition where I was still on the fence about switching fully to Ultras, or keeping up my BA. So painting them in camo without chapter markings let me use them for both armies. I’ve got 4? more scouts to paint, and then they are done. I am still expanding the 10th company, but it’s with phobos units who are being painted in arctic camo.

Those are some awesome looking army shots. Makes me miss my own Ultras You have a lot to be proud of with your collection!

 brushcommando wrote:
Those are some awesome looking army shots. Makes me miss my own Ultras You have a lot to be proud of with your collection!

One problem with being proud of my collection is it makes it hard to shuffle stuff around. I don’t want to just box stuff up and/or stash it someplace unseen. All my Ultras, even the 2nd ed bolter huggers, deserve a place in the sun. But space is becoming an issue. I had hoped to pick some some nice Ikea shelves this summer, but the whole pandemic thing put a kibosh on that. The shipping costs on display cabinets is murder. I think end of year some stemware is going to go hide in the dead space above the fridge. But I’ll burn that bridge when I get there.

So I got a game in yesterday <wild applause>

As I’ve been painting up a bunch of RT stuff, I decided to make an army of it:

There are a few things less then 20 years old in there, but not many.

The Boy brought a mixed bag:


Mission was gain a VP for each objective, each turn, and for killing units. Nice mix of goal.

Deployment:


I start holding 3 objectives (there is one under the midfield rhino) He’s camped on one (the infiltrators being proxied by reivers in the middle runs in his zone). All my terminators in reserve, I seize and go first.

I move my rhino up to grab the middle objective (my devs in the ruin can still cap the one it was on) I shoot him up a bunch, but don’t kill anything.
He responds my moving the razor up the hill to claim that objective, and vaporizing my rhino camping the opposite objective. Other light fire across the table.



Turn 2 the hammer comes down. I DS all my termintors behind his tanks. And do a whole lot of nothing. Mostly due to my screwing up. I forgot the repulsor has the -2 charge range things going on. Woops. Not going to eat that much dakka overwatch on an attempt of a 11” charge. I had given my TDA captain the relic RF4 bolter that re-rolls wounds, and the warlord trait that causes MW’s on 6’s, but forgot the re-rolls didn’t work vs. vehicles, and positioned him poorly. And my dice just sucked in general. I did slap a bunch of wounds on the replusor, mostly via MWs from strats and psychic powers. But one shy from bracketing it. My midfield tacs deply behind cover to help pour fire into the building to dislodge the snipers. Didn’t do well their either. All and all poor showing. I do however still hold 4 objectives.

He unloads his captains from the transports and some intercessors. His firepower doesn’t do a whole lot, but CC gets ugly fast. He avoids contact with the assault terminators, but cleans up both my HQs and all but one of the tactical termis. Ouch. He’s got 3 captains armed for bear, including the new named Salamander guy (proxy while he paints his) who hits like a truck. I use the “Bite Me” strat to swing before dying to carve most of his wounds off.

He screwed up moving things around, and left an objective unclaimed. But did get a bunch of KPs. I’ve still got a lead.


The assault cannon falls back out of combat and with some slighly lucky rolls, mows down his named captain. (who tried to get back up with the Sal resurrection strat, but failed the check, even with a re-roll) My assault termis charge in and snuff his gravis captain. A slow attrition firefight continues across the rest of the table.

At this point I didn’t take any more pics. So you get a summery.

The giant tangle of death continues in the south. Most of the terminators are killed by weight of numbers, but take a heavy toll before dying. The sarge takes a swing at his remaining captain in a final act of defiance, but the Shield Eternal and his wounds prove enough to endure. His captain staggers out of the mess the sole surviver, and joins the champ on the hill to survey the final acts of the battle.

His sternguard disembark from the razor and storm my tacs on the hill, clearing them and taking the objective. The weather the last rounds of fire from my ensconced dev squad and hold fast.

Up north my tacs are slowly wittled away, with the last marine dying on the final turn. His intercessors moved up, but never managed to seize it.

Eventually he moved his forces to take the center from me. His last sniper fell back to hold his objective, freeing the infiltrators to move up (and preventing me getting the KP from killing him) with their support fire no longer needed to deal with my deep strikers, his squad of intercessors also moved down. With more guns to bear, and swords and knives to finish off the survivors, my tacs are swept clear of the central objective. He leaves the infiltrators to hold the center, and with a good advance roll, gets an intercessor boot on the the objective my Devs have been claiming all game.

I had a strong lead for most of the game, claiming 4 objectives a turn for most of it. But he had a strong push at the end, polishing off more units and seizing objectives from me. At the end he won by a single point, which was from getting that last intercessor to my lines.

Victory Salamanders!


Fresh paint report:
In an army composed entirely of RT stuff, it feels odd to do a fresh paint call out. The tac squad that held the middle was the freshly painted one, and they did fairly well for themselves. Popped some fire around, held fast until overwhelming force was brought to bear on them. Good show.
I don’t know if I’d fielded my RT ML dev squad before, but they were the MVP of the game for me. They were the bulk of my AV fire, and downed almost all his armor. Can’t say it was single handed, but they did the lion’s share. Lot of Flack missiles went into the repulsor, but they were also handing out krack missiles like candy. Didn’t take any casualties until the very end. Even got an extra missile off at the end from the ancient who otherwise didn’t do a whole lot.

Quick progress update: Finished baseing the Biovores, all 3 finished. That’s a unit, ordered a box of termagants.

Those army shots

Had a silly idea , It's me, so only silly ideas, and should never be taken seriously . I know you can buy those gigantic hissing cockroaches at some pet shops pretty cheap, you should get a few just for army shots, have them be a new strain of Tyranids rampaging through your lines .

 Theophony wrote:
Those army shots

Had a silly idea , It's me, so only silly ideas, and should never be taken seriously . I know you can buy those gigantic hissing cockroaches at some pet shops pretty cheap, you should get a few just for army shots, have them be a new strain of Tyranids rampaging through your lines .

I am starting a Nid army. The odds of them being posed dramatically against my Ultras once I get a few more done is quite high.

Also need to work on more terrain to help set the scene.

Yes, I love the work on your Nids, old metals , just saying watching the real bugs climb on the marine rhinos and grab tank things would be neat ......but should absolutely not happen .

 Theophony wrote:
Yes, I love the work on your Nids, old metals , just saying watching the real bugs climb on the marine rhinos and grab tank things would be neat ......but should absolutely not happen .

Maybe if I was painting 2nd company. But we are the 3rd. Scourge of Xenos. No giant bug is going to run rampant through our lines.

Fun thought though...

Congratulations to your son for actually winning one this time! Must have been fun playing a game with all those classic models!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Congratulations to your son for actually winning one this time! Must have been fun playing a game with all those classic models!

He’s won games before, Just not the best W/L record out there. It’s not entirely his fault. He’s going up against a lot of experience. Maybe in a few years when he’s more independently mobile he can hit the FLGS on his own and play different people. But right now it’s just me. What I like about last weekend’s game was that I was ahead for most of it, but he came from behind. A lot of the time if he feels that he’s loosing, his interest wanes. Now I have had a few runaway victories, but there were some games where if he had stayed engaged and focused, he might have pulled out a win. This game I was ahead on points due to objectives, but he was murdering me on KP.

I do love a game with the classics. Of course, I try to get the 1st of the 3rd on the table as often as I can, but this was a whole army. I was hopeing the TDA captain would do better. Once the new plastic gets paint, he will probably never see the table again.

Speaking of paint.

Sisters are ready for the white contrast, ancient is ready for his blue ink. Infiltrators just need the blue ink on their shoulders, and then final cleanup (and baseing/transfers/etc) Banner still needs some work, lot of touchups, a few more base colors on the heraldry. If all goes well, should be doable this weekend.

Edit: Just inked the blue on the ancient and the infiltrators.

Better pic of the contest entries. Almost there.


The infiltrators are joined by the first test marine to check for compliance. I think they pass muster. Flock and decals left to do.


So rumor has it a lot of people are breaking out old metal terminators. Now if you have to ask “Hey Nev, you have any kicking around the Pile of Shame?” you don’t know me very well. When taking the army pics last weekend, The Boy was wondering how to put the terminators back. Normally I rank things up by squads, but my TDA collection is a little eccentric. I have 5 assaults (3 TH/SS, 2 LCs) but my tactical terminators are a mixed bag. 2 sarges, 2 assault cannons, 1 HF, and 7 mixed troopers, some with power fists, some chianfists. If you look carefully, you will also notice one of the troopers has a magnet to take a cyclone launcher. So it looks like I need another 3 guys; 1 sarge, 2 troopers.

<insert rummaging noises here>



Running out of stormbolters, going to have to file the DA iconography off this one. I could use a better scaled power sword, but I’d have to crack open a DW sarge blister, and I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

I forgot everything I had in that box. Some inquisitors, old GKs, some deathwing, a librarian. Odds and ends, some very old. Good to go digging from time to time.

Edit:
Put the decals on and flocked the infiltrators. They get to move to the done shelf. Put two Termagants on the handles, and slapped their base coat on. Having painted and stripped two as the test pattern, I’d like to get them back up and running, just to get credit for painting them.

Ah, yes! Those will be good. How many old Grey Knights?

Ancient's banner is looking swell, as do the Infiltrators.

 youwashock wrote:
Ah, yes! Those will be good. How many old Grey Knights?

Ancient's banner is looking swell, as do the Infiltrators.

Looks like 4.

2 inquisitors, a whole bunch of deathwing guys, an old mark, CML. chaos guy, Lib. More heavy weapons then I need, not enough regular ones. If they ever go back to 2 heavies per 5 guys, I might break out some magnets and do some arm swaps.

The only stuff likely ever to see paint in this box is the inquisitors, just as a fun side project. Or if they switch things so HFs are the cat’s meow. Due to scale creep, the assault cannons would probably work for rotor cannons, or whatever those things they gave Chaos are called. If loyalists get them I might pop a few on some PA bodies. Or if 30k ever takes off locally, make some for there if I can.

So nice.

4 GKs backing up an Inquisitor would make a cool looking little squad...

 youwashock wrote:
So nice.

4 GKs backing up an Inquisitor would make a cool looking little squad...

Might be a fun project. Not sure the rules allow it, but honestly, half the stuff (more?) I do these days is just fun painting projects. Something for the back burner.

So termagants. They paint fast. And it’s OK to be a little buzzed. Had a long week, had a G&T and decided I didn’t want to do any detail work. Little bugs don’t care.


I’ll tidy up the bases when I get a few more done. In theory a dozen of their friends should be here Monday. Moved a pair of Hormagaunts down to the empty spaces. I figure I’ll paint them between the rest of the stuff on the bench. Which I want clear by the end of Sunday. Stuff has been lingering too long.

On the building front I want to clean those terminators and finish the arms on the last aggressor from last weekend. I left the guns and ammo belts off for painting. Not sure if I want to bother to magnetize. But at this point all it would take would be just building the other option and figuring how to sink magnets. I might just wait till 9th drops and see if it’s worth it. Once I finish those two projects, it will be time to find a nice day to prime. Although if more nids get built before the weather clears, thye can join the pile.

Termagaunts look great, although till you tidy up the bases they remind me of dogs we had tacking mud into the house.

Such cute litle Gaunts Nev, love 'em.

Theophony wrote:Termagaunts look great, although till you tidy up the bases they remind me of dogs we had tacking mud into the house.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:Such cute litle Gaunts Nev, love 'em.

They are just like adorable puppies who just want snacks and hugs. Is that so wrong?



So cleared the bench today. Everyone is at the decals and base stage. Need to figure out what to move down to the in progress stations. The poll for next month should go up tomorrow, so if something looks interesting, I might reserve starting. If not, short list of things to do are 2 more infiltrators, to give me a playable squad, and just moving more nids across the bench. Probably both. I’ve got enough phobos guys that if they are needed for a challenge, I’ve got spares. Alternatively, I could get a few more sisters done. But tomorrow is going to mostly be a build day I think.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, June is almost over. While I could wait a bit, doing my half year summery is a good thing to do over a Sunday morning cup of coffee. Here is where we are at. I’ve temporarily moved the stuff that’s almost done up, as it should be done by the end of the day, and end of the month at the latest.



Here are my goals:
1 Paint 25 SoB
6 done. I kew this was going to be weighted towards the summer, as I couldn’t prime until spring. So not surprised I’m behind, but something I need to focus on.
2 Paint more than I buy. 29+7/34
Once I finish up the 7 guys on the bench, I have this. Until the box of Termagants shows up tomorrow (which I could technically count as a Father’s Day gift, as The Boy got me a gift card). Or the new box set drops. While the nids paint up lightning fast, I’m buying them at about the same rate. doing some of the backlog will help my overall numbers though. I suspect year end this is going to be a failure. Part of that is the deadweight of the necrons in the new box. I do plan on painting them up as a little kill team/combat patrol, but that’s a back burner project. Unless I find someone who wants to buy them off me, which is unlikely. But even if I don’t count the Necrons, adding 2 dozen marines to the tally is going to sting.
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
Nope. Don’t think I’ve painted any bits
4 Try to get more games in. At least 12, with some being non Floorhammer.
2 games this year. I’m going to call this a soft fail, rather then hard due to the Corona virus.
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
I’m a good blogger. My pace of work was a little sluggish for a bit, but has picked back up. This is week 26, and I’ve got more models than that done.
6 Paint at least one unit for all my army factions. (Ultra, Eldar, Deathwatch, Death)
4 guys to fill out vet quads is not quite a “unit” but is close. I’d like to see at least one more by the end of the year. Ultras are good. Better than expected actually. No Eldar, Death is October. Added Nids to my list of army factions, and get to check them off.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. In addition, paint something odd from the back of the bench a/o try out a new technique.
So far so good. Been a good year so far for cleaning up backfill. Nids getting dusted off, and polishing off some of those RTB01s that had been stripped and prepped for 30k, but than ignored.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain.
I have plans and ideas, but need to implement them. The recent supply drop of craft paints will help here. Currently on pause waiting for 9th ed and the new terrain rules.

Overall I’m on track. I do need to do those bits though; that’s one goal I’m way behind on, and had fallen off the radar. The rest I think I should be OK on. Except the lost causes, like getting in more games during a pandemic, and painting more then I buy when the new boxset Is packed with more then a year’s worth of work (half of which is an army I don’t play)

Short term:
Start some bits, keep a few going as side projects. Will be interesting to see if 9th is going to need any new ones built due to points/rules changes
Get those sisters moving. Once the new box drops, that’s going to hoover up a lot of my mindspace. Going to be hard to focus on other projects.
I aim to get the new box built before winter hits. I should try to clear anything major off my to-build list before it drops.
Try to up the volume. While I might not make my paint more than I buy goal this year, I’d like to fail in sight of the finish line. Batch painting some units should help here. Pushing Nids across the bench will help the numbers. The ~18 I’m starting with will paint fast and give me a head start, after that, the goal is to keep them Pile of Shame neutral, where I paint them as they come in.

Edit:
First layers of base down. For the snow flock, that’s it. Ancient just needs decals

For the sisters, I need to wait for it to completely dry, then put a seal coat of thinned PVA down to keep the rocks attached.

Getting there.

Been a good year, so far, it seems. Keep it up!

Entry for the month done.

One nice things about ancients and simulacrums; it’s easy to paint them to a high standard.

Ba-dump-bump.

They turned out quite nice. No text for the scrolls? Maybe some scribbles?

I backed a kickstarter for sheets of squiggles, which should be here in a month or two. So some might happen eventually, but not right now.

And while I could try to freehand something on the big scroll, I think it would detract, rather then add to the model when done in my shaky hand.

Very nice standard bearers. How is the simulacrum for stability? I used to have the old metal ones and they were quite tippy.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
Very nice standard bearers. How is the simulacrum for stability? I used to have the old metal ones and they were quite tippy.

She’s fine. I don’t think they let sisters with a habit of getting tipsy carry the sacred relics. The glory and wonder of plastic. You can hold large things up and not flip over. Also the center of gravity is fairly well centered over the base.

Nice finished entry and interesting to see your half year review. Good luck on working on your goals in the second half!
Hope the transfer sheet with all the scribbling arrives soon, it's so nice not to have to use a small brush or small tip pen to do some scrollwork. The new sisters decals have some writing on them and it has been a life saver for my repentia and navigator.

I’ve got a micra pen, but even that I’m not that great with lettering with. I might have some old SoB transfer sheets, I think those had some squiggles. Not rush, pics are done for the comp anyway. At some point I need to drag out huge lots of minis and do a transfer marathon. Get everyone their chapter markings, maybe some units as well.



I think the new guys might be compensating for something.

Also in the news box of gaunts showed up today. Now that those guys are off the build pile, they can get started. I’m thinking from the box 9 with devourers, and 3 with fleshborers. Added to the 6 old metals, that would give me 9 of each. Although I dislike odd numbers. 6 devourer, 12 fleshborers gives me even numbers. Eventually I think I’ll need another box to get me a nice 30 bug hoard. But we’ll burn that bridge when we get there.

Nice work on the Ultramarines banner. Very crisp and clean. The Sister looks pretty good too. Brave of you to paint her in white like that!

Nevelon,

You actually went and dug those metal guys out of the pile of shame.

Painting them will help with the paint more than you buy pledge.

Cheers,

CB

ZergSmasher wrote:Nice work on the Ultramarines banner. Very crisp and clean. The Sister looks pretty good too. Brave of you to paint her in white like that!

Thanks. The sister is not my army, so I didn’t get to choose the scheme. Would not have been my first choice. Black and white is very unforgiving. Not only due to shading and highlights, but the close proximity of opposites makes any slop very obvious (and take a lot of coats to correct)

Captain Brown wrote:Nevelon,

You actually went and dug those metal guys out of the pile of shame.

Painting them will help with the paint more than you buy pledge.

Cheers,

CB

The risk is that they will just move from the pile of shame to the primed pile, and just stare at me from there. But any step closer to painted is a good one. Time and motivation are the big things holding me back from the paint more than I buy goal. It’s not that I lack for things to paint. Those terminators will help my shelf look tidy and let me field a 3rd squad. That’s not a lot of drive. But they should paint up pretty quick, which is a plus. The downside is I’ve already got a lot of irons in the fire this year, and more are coming in. Their best hope for speedy paint is an entry in the painting challenge. Although I’m taking a week off work this month for a staycation, which might do good things for random projects.

Well, at least the Terminators can use the Aggressors for cover. Full cover.

Man, the size difference between the old Terminators and the Aggressors is ridiculous. I knew there was scale creep but that is near insane.

Anyway the Ancient and Standard Sister look great, and anyone that even attempts white armour gets appreciation from me. Good to see your half year progress as well.

It’s scale creep, the fact that primaris are just bigger, and that aggressors are very bulky all working together for comic effect. Kinda crazy seeing them next to each other.

So this is the July project:

Already got the grey seer on them, and the first black. I’d like to get them done early in the month to free up the bench for other projects. We’ll see.

With 9th incoming, I should do an 8th edition retrospective. Obviously all the primaris stuff, but that’s not all that I’ve been up to these last few years. Maybe a vacation morning over coffee project.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July weekend.

 Nevelon wrote:

The risk is that they will just move from the pile of shame to the primed pile, and just stare at me from there.

Nevelon,

I know the feeling. Last night we had a webex call between four members of my gaming group...and I spent a good five minutes staring at a primed Phoenix Lord listening to the guys chatter about 9th Edition before I mixed some paint to make the basecoat. Once that was on I got out some terrain and chipped away while that dried. Then back to it and finished it before the end of the call. Just needed that first coat of paint.

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

The risk is that they will just move from the pile of shame to the primed pile, and just stare at me from there.

Nevelon,

I know the feeling. Last night we had a webex call between four members of my gaming group...and I spent a good five minutes staring at a primed Phoenix Lord listening to the guys chatter about 9th Edition before I mixed some paint to make the basecoat. Once that was on I got out some terrain and chipped away while that dried. Then back to it and finished it before the end of the call. Just needed that first coat of paint.

Cheers,

CB

Once I start, I’m pretty good about finishing. And I’m self aware enough to realize when a project I’m not fond of is keeping me away from the bench. At that point I can normally kick myself back into action. It’s the stating thing that’s an issue. I’m not that fast a painter, and there are plenty of things on my to-do list. At one point I was considering putting together a list of when things were added to the primed pile, and giving preference to the ones that were waiting longer, all other things being equal. I also take requests. I can’t promise I’ll paint what you want, but if someone wants to see paint go on something that’s hiding out in the back, let me know. When I’m dithering about what to do next, feel free to chime in.

Some progress:


Plugging away at the sloppy basecoat stage. Still a few colors to block in, then the cleanup pass, get the things I missed, washes, dry brush etc, etc.

Clipped some gaunts this morning. On to cleaning mold lines. Might be my coffee project this weekend while Slug Boy snoozes the mornings away.

No painting progress this weeked, but I did a lot of building. Finished the box of termagants and the last 4 hormagaunts. Got carriend away and lost track, so only built 4 bugs with devourers. Meant to do 6. Oh well, next box.

Primed pile is getting big. 16 gribblies just added, but also 9 spore mines, 3 terminators, and 3 aggressors. Need to break out the rattle can soon, just to make space. And paint more. I’ve got so much stuff primed, it’s taking up 2 box tops on the top of the bench. Would be nice to consolidate down, but that’s going to take some work.

That primed pile is getting prettt big Nev. It’s a good thing Nids paint up so quickly. Everything’s looking good!

Looking forward to a mass of Tyranids. The new squad looks good so far.

What I did on my lunch break:


And dodged some yellow jackets. I think they might be building a nest under one of the deck chairs. Didn’t feel like getting stung at the moment, so I didn’t push the point. Might have to tip it over and let the elements do the work, or invest in some poison. But not right now. I’ve seen some bigger ones around, but these were the old fashioned little guys, not murder wasps.

 Nevelon wrote:
What I did on my lunch break:


And dodged some yellow jackets. I think they might be building a nest under one of the deck chairs. Didn’t feel like getting stung at the moment, so I didn’t push the point. Might have to tip it over and let the elements do the work, or invest in some poison. But not right now. I’ve seen some bigger ones around, but these were the old fashioned little guys, not murder wasps.

You sure they were not 1st edition tyranids under your deck chair? Maybe trying to reestablish connection with the hive mind.

 Theophony wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:


And dodged some yellow jackets. I think they might be building a nest under one of the deck chairs. Didn’t feel like getting stung at the moment, so I didn’t push the point. Might have to tip it over and let the elements do the work, or invest in some poison. But not right now. I’ve seen some bigger ones around, but these were the old fashioned little guys, not murder wasps.

You sure they were not 1st edition tyranids under your deck chair? Maybe trying to reestablish connection with the hive mind.

The thought crossed my mind, and the irony was not lost on me...

Edit. Pushed chair next to railing to hope weather makes them relocate. Lot of them started zipping about (only saw 4 earlier while priming) strategically withdrew to indoors. Was able to look through glass sliding door at a low angle; nest is about the size of a softball. Thunderstorms in the forecast. Fingers crossed this can be dealt with naturally before I need to prime again. If not, I’ve got a few options. Dig out my super soaker and try to dislodge it hydraulically. Failing that roll in a few canisters of CN-20 and nerve gas the nest. Finally take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

BBQ lighter + hairspray for maximum personal risk.

 youwashock wrote:
BBQ lighter + hairspray for maximum personal risk.

I mean, I pay for renter’s insurance. Why not use it?



Putting washes down. Still a few more steps to go. Progress is good though.

Just catching up with your thread. Always impressed with your consistency, I'm always running hot or cold whilst you remain Luke-warm (sounds wrong, metaphor may be strained....).

There seems to be some sort of worrying Xenos activity however and I feel you may need to report to the Chaplains for a bit of light psycho-conditioning.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
Just catching up with your thread. Always impressed with your consistency, I'm always running hot or cold whilst you remain Luke-warm (sounds wrong, metaphor may be strained....).

There seems to be some sort of worrying Xenos activity however and I feel you may need to report to the Chaplains for a bit of light psycho-conditioning.

Slow but steady wins the race. I do have ebbs and flows of motivation, but generally keep plugging away. My swings are not huge. In all these years I’ve never quit the hobby, but there have been dry spells. More before I started blogging. You guys keep me honest.

I’ll bump the chaplain up in the queue, and once the new box drops prioritize the one there and the Judicar. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold off before getting the new bike chaplain. With everything going on, he might wait until my birthday/Christmas. Summer and early fall are going to be loaded with hobby stuff anyway.

I did make sure to stab a nid for the Ancient. Can’t be 3rd company without one.

Honestly, I’m building the nids as a fluffy TAC army, so they are probably going to spend a lot of time getting purged off the table. Should make for some nice diorama pics once I get more terrain done.

Nice work so far, do you always do the fine details before the main painting? is there a benefit as I've been doing it the opposite way.

maxwin wrote:
Nice work so far, do you always do the fine details before the main painting? is there a benefit as I've been doing it the opposite way.

I’m sloppy?

I start with a sloppy basecoat of the main color. Hard to tell on these guys, as it’s Grey Seer over white primer. More obvious on my Ultra.

Then I do the details. As I use a lot of washes and drybrushing, sometimes (ok, most of the time) this slops over onto the main parts. So if I had painted them to a finished level, I’d just have to re-do them.

The (mostly) last step step is to go back carefully with the base color and tidy that up with a second coat, and then wash as needed.

Sometimes I’ll accidentally hit a detail bit, so need another tidy pass, but not often.

It works for me, but that may just be one of my quirks. I don’t claim to be a great painter, just steadily cranking out solid table top work. Would I improve if I switched up how I did things? Maybe.

Apothecary White down. Next up is clean up, a few more detail passes (gloss paints on the parts that need it) and the camo stripes. Oh, the nulan for the joins, finish the shoulders, bases and decals. So you know, almost done. /eyeroll.

It felt odd not to have anything in progress on the build side of the desk, so I moved up some chainrasps. Clipped two and left them there. Now it doesn’t look empty. I should actually look at their rules. I think they can take a musician, but you don’t get one in the AoS box. If that’s the case I have spare bits that can serve.

Not that I’m planning on priming anytime soon. Still need to deal with The Swarm. But cutting back the pile of shame is always a good thing. While the Nighthaunt don’t paint quite as quick as the ‘Nids, they do go pretty swiftly. So getting some of them done would help with my goals.

Chainrasps only have one "command", and that's the guy with the candle-staff-candelabra thing.