So a lot of work yesterday to get them to a slightly different shade of blue. Edges next.


Told my realtor to put in a bid on a place today. Fingers crossed. It’s almost perfect. Hard to not get my hopes up. I’ll try to minimize the impact on my hobby time, but things might get a little choppy for the next few months if things start moving. And not in the close-combat way.

Edged 3 of them, did the gloss coats. 2 more, the arms, touchups, decals, and bases.

Going to be tight.

Good luck Nevelon.

You do have a little power to delay your wrap-up...not necessarily ethical...but who can say with the time zones involved and the variance in the Warp.

Cheers,

CB

You got it, man. No problem. Good luck on the bid!

I try not to abuse my power.

Bid on the place that was perfect was not enough, still searching. Which is why I’m spending 3 hours driving around tonight looking out houses instead of edge highlights. Although if I have any energy left at the end, I’ll try to get them done.

Marines shaping up nicely. Have a few mates going through the hassle of buying at the moment - house prices seem to have gone all over the place and nobody is sure at the moment. Things at auction going for 50k+ over asking, suddenly market drying up as people want to hold on to property.

Good luck in the search - it is draining and hard not to be disheartened, but you'll get there in the end.

Didn’t have the energy last night, but got some work done over the day. Still need a few touchup passes. Silver highlights, red edges, and a little work with white. But almost there. Then the bases and decals.

3 places I looked at yesterday were all misses. Two might have been OK, but they are old, and would require a bit of work. I’m not the best handyman, so that would be a lot more money. Oh well. Fun wrinkle is the lease on my apartment is up soon and they don’t let you go month to month. You get one extension, of whatever fixed duration you ask for. Not optimal. Get to gamble paying double rent vs. homeless against how long it takes to get a place. And the market here is also wacky. Fun times. /eyeroll.

Those marines are looking very sharp. Good luck finding a new domicile Nev. It sounds like a very frustrating situation.

Nice work on the marines and all the best with the house search, hope all works out!

Paint down and off to the basing station.

Just decal left. While grabbing supplies out of the workroom, I forgot the little container and sponge I use for them. Slug Boy is still asleep in there, so that might be a tomorrow project. Or I could just use a damp paper towel or something. One of the many reasons to get a new place is so I don’t need to have him sleeping on the fold out sofa in the office.

So next month is “Showing Off” I’m leaning towards using it as an excuse to paint up the Banshees. Those girls are a little showboat-y with the jumping and twirling and all. Pic for those who forgot what they look like.

The big problem is that I have no idea what color to paint them. Classically they are a white/bone/something with bright hair and flashing blades. I’m not even going to try to match them to my Jain Zar, who is clearly painted in another era.

Open to (and actively looking for) suggestions
Hair I’m thinking the red contrast paint I’ve been using for nid claws. Without the black wash, over the Grey Seer base.
Ribbons will be the khorne red I use for the rest of the army, to help tie them into a coherent force. Tabards as well (but they are more open)
Powerswords blades can either just be silver, but probably blue. I’m all over the place with my army (but mostly blue for newer ones). Hilts in gold
Soulstones are green. This is fixed army wide.
Guns are silver w/ a black wash.
Leather straps and holsters: Dark brown? Could also be a more beige color, or a light brown?
Base ruins are a sandstone light brown army wide, fixed.

The big three question marks, which can all be the same or different, is the bodysuit under armor, the armor plates, and the helmets. If I can do them with the colors I have, that would be best. But if I need to grab a new pot that’s not out of the question.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Looking at 3 more places tonight, maybe get a game in tomorrow.

Edit: decals on. Just need the lightbox and the glamor shots.
Edit 2: Done


Down to the wire a bit, but done.

So, W&N S7s. Worth it? Probably. Especially when they show up under the Christmas tree and you don’t personally pay for them. Will they make you magically a better painter? No. Will they help? Yes. It was easier to get the brush to behave, get the point where it needed to be, get the paint flowing from the brush to the model. They were working more with me than against me. If you’ve used old crappy brushes (and let’s be honest, we all have at some point), you recognize that very import distinction. No working the brush at just the right angle to try to get it to behave. Less slop and clean up.

With most things there is the weakest link, the thing holding back the project as a whole. Could be you eyes, your brush, your hands, your paint, or the mini itself. For me, it probably is not the brushes.

But while the didn’t make my painting particularly better, they did make it easier. Less struggle, less fuss. Especially the 0 and the 00. The improvement in the larger brushes was there, but had less of an impact. The smaller brushes I could tell helped a bit.

Not many pics, so not doing a full batrep, but game last Sunday.

Termagaunts in reserve make a great little bomb. Need more devourerors. Biovores put down the MWs and disruption. Probably the MVP of the game. Rippers worked OK to hold an objective and act as a speed bump.

Game was a progressive objective score. Using my speed, I took a commanding early lead, racking up max points on turn 2-3, while denying him any. Then I got blown off the table, clinging to life until the last round when I was tabled. But winning 7-6. Super fast glass hammer.

Sigh, time to work.

Your Ultras came out well Nev, glad the brushes have helped more than hindered, I find it very hard to go back to synthetics after using my nice sable brushes, although I have a soft spot for the GW starter brushes. They're so bad but they can do a tonne of legwork.

Regarding your banshees, I am fond of the classic scheme, and I personally like to maintain their armour and body suits as the same colour. I think dark brown for the leather and other straps is a good idea. There is a danger of everything being beige which needs to be avoided imo. The swords I think would be nice in blue, and adds a nice contrast to the red tabards, ribbons and hair.

Good batrep, I really enjoy devgants, so many dice!

I’m a bit all over the place on the undersuits. Basic guys and Dire Avengers are all monochrome. Hawks, Spiders, Dragons are all 2-tone, with the plates being a different color. My concern with the banshees is that they might end up looking naked, as pale bone/ beige is pretty close to skin tones. I think it will be OK, but will be interesting. They are all going to have a giant mop of bright red hair, and flashing blue blades, so I’m not worried about them just being a blob of shades of brown.

Put a layer of Grey Seer down on one. Going to be a lot of contrast on these gals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Started blocking in colors.

Cool little batrep, it sometimes feels good to snatch the victory despite no one being left on the field. Makes the opponent furious

Excited to see the Banshees!

He knows I play the objective game better than he does. He’s getting better, but still focuses on the killing more then the movement.



Just put the contrast on. Still need to work on the silvers and the blade, and a lot of gems and touchups. Probably edge her with bleached bone. Hair might get some highlights in blood red.

But overall pretty happy with her.

In other news, won the bid on a house, so next step is the lawyers and the mechanics of the sale. Probably close early April.

The wife and I looked at 27 places before we got the house we're in. It's beautiful. We've done a lot of work to it, most of which ourselves. Don't be afraid to dive into a project. It's interesting how your hobby skills can scale to various carpentry or painting projects. (I say carpentry with a very loose emphasis). But, there really are few projects you can't handle with a few youtube videos and 2-3 trips to the hardware store.
Good luck with the closing.

Blues are looking good.

Gratz Nev! It's a lot of work but it's totally worthwhile in the end to have a place to call your own.

Banshee is looking great, it's amazing how much of a difference a wash makes for the overall look of a model.

Started to work up the other gals. Put the Grey Seer on two yesterday, will try to hammer away at the rest today. And edge highlight the test banshee.

I should also build some stuff. It’s been a while. Tempting to just shut down all hobby stuff and spend all my time packing and cleaning. But I’m not going to be moving for like 2 months. Need to keep normal, need to keep sane.

Filled out and sent a TON of forms last week. Things are in motion. Gave my current place a date I’ll be out, so the Rubicon has been crossed. Inspection Monday of the house. Checking off the list of things that need to be done. Stress levels are high, as there are still a number of fail points that need to be passed. On the plus side, depending how I want to use rooms, I might have a separate painting room and game room. One nice things about being a single geek is the ability to use the space in ways that I want. No worries about appeasing the better half. Once the essentials are taken care of, planning on looking into building a new 4x6 table. Might go for 4x8 again, but those are pretty chunky.

Edit:
Just ordered a box of assault intercessors. Screw it if I need to move more stuff. Work shifted to a different healthy living reward program, and this one gives out reward points I can cash in for gift cards. Now I just need to wait for the Bladeguard to hit Amazon sellers. They and the new tank are on my short list of things to get.

Congrats on finding a house and fingers crossed everything will go smoothly!

First painted banshee looks great!

Gals are catching up. Next step should be a little cleanup and the washes.

Every time I see that "jump, scream, stab, flip", I hear it as the Ninjago theme song.

Banshees are looking good, Nev. Congrats on finding a place.

 youwashock wrote:
Every time I see that "jump, scream, stab, flip", I hear it as the Ninjago theme song.

Banshees are looking good, Nev. Congrats on finding a place.

While The Boy had some Ninjago sets, and watched the shows, it’s long enough ago that I have no recollection of the theme song. Probably no room in my mind for new ones; brain cells already tasked with remembering ad jingles from the ‘80s. House is moving forward. Some issues with the roof need to be hammered out, but I’m assured that’s normal, and should not stop things. Still a boatload of stress. On the bright side, mortgage is approved, pending me sending over a few more files. Fun times.

But on with the paint:


Girls still catching up. But getting a lot closer. Next step is a cleanup pass on the Grey Seer, and then the contrast. Which is Guiliman Flesh. Versatile pot that one is; getting a lot of use out of it.

Box of assault intercessors showed up yesterday. Nice looking kit. Going to task 5 of them as the back half of the autobolt rifle squad I just painted, and the other half to fill out the 5 from the Indominus box. I forget if I proactively magnetized the sarge from the box, but if not, I’ll go back and work him up. I think I’ll do up one of the boys with magnets as well, for if I want to run them as 2x5 rather then a full 10 man squad.

I was also thinking about refining my goal for painting marines for the battle company to focus that on getting a demi-company finished. I’ve got enough of the command elements, it might just require a focus on what gets paint. And maybe another box of battleline brothers.

Hope everyone’s week is going well, been a rough one here.

Hope your week gets better, and congrats on the house. We bid on at least a dozen and lost out before our first home. Our current house is the second one we've had since we got married and we lucked out in hearing about it before it listed and bought it before it even got sold, I think we paid too much but I was not up for the hassle again.

The Contrast Banshi are coming along nicely. I'll be in deep trouble when the Striking Scorpions come out. Double so if they come out in a box vs fallen scorpions and Ahra

Banshees are coming along nicely. That spiffy plastic kit looks like it's pretty great.

Also, congrats on finding yourself a house! Hope all of that goes well for you and it's a smooth transition into a new living space.

I said I’d put my money where my mouth was if they released plastic aspects, and I did. Cringed a bit, as the price point was a hair on the crazy side. But they are sweet looking minis. I’m in for a box of any they release, even the ones I have in metal (and maybe finecast)

All the gals at the same stage. Just edges, clean up (a bit of that) and bases.



House buying is plugging along. Got more of the paperwork done, just need to get the whole roof thing sorted. Which will hopefully get the the next step Monday.

And just so you don’t get any ideas about me going totally over to the Xenos, some building on a quiet weekend while The Boy sleeps.



Edit:


And done. The sarge is set up for both arm swaps, and could be fielded as a regular trooper if I wanted a full 10 man squad. While I had the bits out, I put a magnet in the push-fit sarge’s chainsword arm. He can just keep the plasma pistol, but might need something more stabby.

Good to see that after the (admittedly) great-looking murder xenos, some honest-working, down-to-earth, imperial marines are on their way!
Good luck getting the roof-hurdle sorted out!

Those guys are looking great. I'm jelly of your fancy new Ass Inters kit , it looks like there's some good stuff in there. I'm going to build my squads of Ass Bolters and Ass Inters as well, doesn't it bother you that the Assault Intercessors have the 'close support' symbol on their shoulders but are actually troops? It pisses me off.

Viterbi wrote:Good to see that after the (admittedly) great-looking murder xenos, some honest-working, down-to-earth, imperial marines are on their way!
Good luck getting the roof-hurdle sorted out!

I should have 10 more marines to build. Back half of the autobolt rife squad and either the back of a regular rifle squad, or some KT specialists. Once they are done, that puts me about 2/3rds of the way done to the company, much of which is primed and ready for paint.

RandyMcStab wrote:Those guys are looking great. I'm jelly of your fancy new Ass Inters kit , it looks like there's some good stuff in there. I'm going to build my squads of Ass Bolters and Ass Inters as well, doesn't it bother you that the Assault Intercessors have the 'close support' symbol on their shoulders but are actually troops? It pisses me off.

It was a fun kit to build. Basic set up as the other kits, legs/torso one part, but full range of arms and heads. Nice to have all the sarge CC toys in one place, and not try to find old marine parts that are the right looking size. Pose on the power sword is a bit wonky, but I’ve got plenty of those.

I figure the Troop thing was tossing a bone to the BA getting wrapped into the main book. I don’t think there are any FOC swapping shenanigans these days, so it’s a nod to “you can take assault marines as troops” but for the primaris age. And honestly, they need the help of the better slot. How often are you going to want the chainsword/HBP over the rifle? And if you had to give up ObSec for the privilege? If I was going to be pissed about units swapping slots, I’d save my ire for scouts going to elites. Or the continued failure to make reivers viable. Both would be better in FA, and the reivers should get one of the movement gear bits for free.

On that tangent, crusade does actually help a lot for units like reivers. The overpriced grapples/grav chutes? PL doesn’t care about points. And one of the honors you can get for leveling up gives you ObSec. So they can pull some serious backfield disruption. Not that I’m running out to buy a box, but as I basically just playing crusade games these days, if I accidentally pick up a squad, I’d enjoy using them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not to hold them to unreasonable eldar murder xenos beauty standards, but some more blenders.



I’ve got a ton of these guys, might as cwell get some ready for when I can prime again. I think they will work better in units larger than 5.

Your house hunting stories are giving me flashbacks. Buying a house is a form of hell, but once you actually own it, it all seems worth it.

Your banshees are coming along great. I think you said that you're doing the armor with contrast paints-- is that right? If so, you're showing amazing control-- so many contrast painted models turn out blotchy, but yours are smooth as silk.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Your house hunting stories are giving me flashbacks. Buying a house is a form of hell, but once you actually own it, it all seems worth it.

Your banshees are coming along great. I think you said that you're doing the armor with contrast paints-- is that right? If so, you're showing amazing control-- so many contrast painted models turn out blotchy, but yours are smooth as silk.

The light at the end of the tunnel is what keeps me going. Once I have my own space, life will be better.

One trick with the contrast paints is something I do when I glaze my marines. Do the whole model, in one sitting, as quickly as you can. Try to have it be the final stage. If you take too long, parts will dry and you can end up with tide marks and edges, where you can see where you paused. You should keep this in mind when painting. Work in sections with natural boundaries. Like a leg that ends with a belt/tabard. Don’t just stop mid-thigh.

Another thing is do not touch the mini with your hands. Your skin has natural oils, and they can transfer to the mini. For very thin paints (like inks, glazes, and contrast) that require a smooth even coat, even a little oil can cause beading or otherwise mess with the flow. This might just be one of my persnickety painting habits, but I can tell when I’m painting spare bits that don’t fit on handles and I haven’t glued to a stick.

Great news about the house so congratulations, albeit somewhat tardy.

Your ladies are shaping up well and I like the effect so far on the swords which gives them a classic feel.

I'm impressed by the assault intercessor kit, although a little bemused at the inclusion of a tactical rock.

Good luck with the house Nevelon. Funny how real life can get in the way of good painting...but then we all require a roof over our head to enjoy this hobby.

CB

Ugh, is it Thursday already? This week has both dragged and flown by.

Not a lot of hobby progress this week. At the detail stage, so I can’t just slap a quick coat on during break, or in a pre-coffee state. I’d like to get them done this weekend. Which is not an unreasonable goal

House stuff is still ongoing and stressful. Roof failed the inspection, so need to get an estimate to replace/repair, and the first contractor flaked out and pulled a no-show, delaying the whole process. Hopefully have something by the end of the day. This should be the last roadblock. But the “roof over our head to enjoy this hobby” is what’s keeping this from happening.

On the bright side, I’ve started to think about space and setting things up. I should have a room dedicated purely for painting, and another rec room where I can build a 4x6 table and have space for minis. Even some built in shelves which would be nice for minis, although would need glass fronts. Will be nice to have more space. Eventually an airbrush, spot to leave the lightbox up, garage for priming. Looks good, just need to get there.

Sounds like a plan my friend. Just keep moving forward, you'll get there.

two words for you "Sprue Shingles"

Good Luck, once your in the house you won't think twice about the problems leading up to it. Still wish I had a dedicated area that wasn't the unfinished basement, but I have a few years till the kids are all out of here.

There is a time and a place for sprue construction. If I needed to re-do the deck, that’d be my go-to. But roofing is plasticard and rivets.

Forgot to mention I got a game in this weekend. Nids out again. Last of the crusade small missions, where you progressively score objectives, but they go away (and worth more at the end) I stepped back from my pure-WYSWYG self to field my termagaunts as a full 20 man devourer squad. They popped up with the trygon, put out a zillion shots. Strat to do it again. Killed a few marines. Not bad. Downside is getting them all within range of the big bug, and not fencing him in so he can charge. Might be worth just ignoring the tunnel and paying the CP to reserve them normally. The broodlord and the trygon continue to blend, but are glass hammers. And the big guy continues to flub his charge rolls, even on 3d6 drop the lowest. He leveled up, so I gave him a bonus to that roll.

The game was bloody as heck, with only my rippers seeing the end for me, and I think 4? battle-brothers. Victory for the bugs. Was interesting to see his reivers mow through the gaunt swarm. So used to them spanging blows off of marines, occasionally snaking a wound in, I forgot that their real job is cashing out gribblies.

So I cheeped out on the edgeing. I did it on the exarch, and realized it didn’t help that much over the contrast paint. So I just did the silvers for the rest of the ladies. Touched up what I noticed, which might not be everything, but is what it is. Down off the handles and ready to base. Glue drying on the tufts now, I’ll probably flock them in the morning.

So it’s 8 days until next month. Going to see if I can get these eliminators done. Not part of the battle company project, but a unit I’d like to field.



Next month is back to March, and Space Marine for the theme. I think I’ll try to get 5 assault intercessors done.

On the house front staggered past another roadblock. Got the sellers to agree to a credit towards getting the rood fixed. Negotiated compromise that’s under the estimate from the contractor, but it’s a seller’s market, and I’m over the barrel. But I can shop around once I’m in, and see if I can get something cheeper. Last stopping point is the title search, which is being done now by my lawyer. That should be clear <knock on wood> but it’s legal stuff that needs to be sorted out. Stared packing up stuff I’m not going to need in the next two months or so. Old game books were the first into boxes. Going to have to go and get more boxes, they fill up fast, and I’ve got a lot of crap. Hobby stuff and active 40k editions will be some of the last things. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep gaming and blogging with minimal interruptions.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend,
--Nev

Nice work on the banshees. They don't miss the edging.

Gals are done. Enjoyed painting them up. Not sure how well they would do on the table, but that’s not an issue at the moment, unless I want to start up a third crusade list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


And that’s a wrap for year 6! Keeping up my perfect entry record. High volume this year. 8 months I capped the 5 model limit, the one month that was waived I did 6, and last 3 were doubles. 52 total, ironically my yearly goal. 5 different armies represented, so good mix. And that’s not counting the fact that there were multiple schemes within armies. So wide range of things painted. Overall pretty happy with my work.

Great work Nev, a nice mix of models done and they look great. Congrats!

That's a solid year of work. The banshees look great-- back when I still played 40K, I treid to field tem in every game. They always underperformed for me, but they looked great doing it.

I’ve always enjoyed banshees. Never picked up any for my Eldar army before they went plastic (although did get a Jain Zar). My chaos fantasy army did have some old metals for when Witch Elves went bad. Swapped the pistols out for extra hand weapons. Whirrr ChopChopChop. Chaos Warriors were fun.

I think I only saw them on the other side of the table once? Maybe 3rd. Back when power swords just flat ignored armor saves. I did not allow them to live long, to the dismay of my opponent. Now? I think the math says that the 4 basic gals should kill one? marine, and depending on what the exarch is packing, she might get one herself. And then the marines fight back and do unkind things to the ladies. Looking at the DE leaks, it looks like their guys are all getting an extra attack. Hopefully when we get a new codex, we can also cash in on that. Eldar need the help. When a squad of Banshees plow into you, there should be body parts flying everywhere, and your armor should not help much. Right now the tabletop just doesn’t reflect that.

They are crazy fast, so I think they would work well as a disruption unit. Or grabbing objectives. But like most pointy eared gits, they just can’t take a hit.

Getting layers down on the snipers. Going quick. Let’s see if I can finish them in a week.

Plugging away. Gold work is next, then cleanup passes.

I might have ordered a little something extra to build. But only because I needed to grab one for somebody’s upcoming birthday. With shipping delays and me moving, I figured sooner would be better than later, and Amazon finally had them at a reasonable price.

Great job keeping up with finishing every challenge. I wish I could have done the same, but some months I'm just not feeling it, either the theme or whatever I chose to do that month just didn't end up jiving with me.

Banshees look great; I totally agree that it's usually not worth edge highlighting over Contrast, especially on non-characters. I edged my Phobos characters a little bit, but even there it didn't add a whole lot.

For the challenge, remember that you can change your entry at any time, or cut something down from a stretch of a 5 man squad to just one guy. Personally, I use it as a motivator to get out of the recliner and in front of the paint bench. Too easy just to revert to a vegetable and zone out all day.



Speaking of paint... Put the wash on these guys this morning, next up is a clean up pass for the whites, the apothecary white contrast, and then all the camo. Which should go fast-ish.

Started packing up old minis. Got my undead boxed up nice, and a chunk of my Eldar. If I’m not going to need it in the next month or so, things are starting to get put away.

Edit
Cleaning paint up is always a lot less stressful when you know a later step is camo. Missed a spot? Stripe goes there.

Next is the white contrast.

They look great so far.

And an evening doodling squiggly lines later



A few more touch ups needed. Like the blue wash on the shoulder, double check for missed bits, decal for the sarge, and bases. Almost there. Which is good, as I’d like to add these guys to my crusade force next time I add points.

Title search for the house reportedly is going to be done early next week, so I might be able to close as early as a week from Monday. Still a few more ducks to line up. Plus I’m not sure if I want to push it back a few weeks, just to reduce the time I’m double paying. Original close date was April 1. Something to be said for just getting this over with. Need to have a chat with my advisors.

Decal and flock left to go. Second pass on the black rim if I’m feeling fussy. It’s sloppy with one coat, but most of my army is like that.

Edit 2-26:
Flock down, will try to decal over lunch, and that’s a wrap for these guys.

And done.

Was feeling the ETB nature of these guys. Some of the detail was a little off. But they painted up quick and ready for duty.

Sweet camo work. Fast, too. Banshees turned out good. Love the summary pic. Lots of good work.

Wow, not entirely sure how I lost track of this one. Awesome stuff going on here!

Definitely looking forward to painting some eliminators myself.

Finished banshees look great and quick turnaround on those eliminators. Hope they prove themselves on the battlefield. I kicked my squad of the roster for now. I really love sniper units, but they never give that love back in-game

Great job on those banshees Nev, the basing works really nicely with the scheme too. The camo on your Infiltrators look great too and it's nice to see a marine that isn't a highlighter in a camo cloak

youwashock wrote:Sweet camo work. Fast, too. Banshees turned out good. Love the summary pic. Lots of good work.

Of all my competition summery pics, I’m probably most proud of this year. There might not be any “Wow” amazing work this year, but I think overall a higher level then I normally do, with a huge volume, and nothing I look at and go “that was bad, I phoned that one in"

GrimDork wrote:Wow, not entirely sure how I lost track of this one. Awesome stuff going on here!

Definitely looking forward to painting some eliminators myself.

I’m still here, plugging away. Consistency and persistence are two things I have going on in my favor. Looking forward to painting the rest of the ones I have. I think the full kits should be better, but I’ll find out when their time for the bench comes up.

Viterbi wrote:Finished banshees look great and quick turnaround on those eliminators. Hope they prove themselves on the battlefield. I kicked my squad of the roster for now. I really love sniper units, but they never give that love back in-game

I was just reviewing the rules and was thinking “Wait, why am I excited to get these guys to the table again?” It might just be that I was on the receiving end of them in 8th with my Eldar. My Warlocks eating headshots, even when out of LoS and pulling shenanigans, hurt. But while they got a point of S on the guns, they lost a lot of perks, including the sarge’s buff. Camo cloaks make them a little tougher, but compared with a 5 man intercessor squad with the stalker rifles, you have less wounds, and no obsec. Concealed positions is nice for some maps, but normally these guys want to live in the deep backfield. The cherry on top is that my games these days are crusade games vs. The Boy’s Salamanders. Marine characters are sniper resistant at the best of time, and his captain requires AV levels of firepower to get wound in on. He fields a phobos Lt, who is a little softer, but worth investing a 5 PL unit to counter? Of course, as crusaders, I could upgrade them to headhunters, or battle tested.

But the most important reason to get them to the table is I like the way they look. Which tends to override mediocre rules.

Tyranid Horde wrote:Great job on those banshees Nev, the basing works really nicely with the scheme too. The camo on your Infiltrators look great too and it's nice to see a marine that isn't a highlighter in a camo cloak

I’d like to say that the green grass bases were chosen due to my deep understanding of color theory, to pair with the red of the hair. But it’s just the way I base my Eldar. I agree that it does work out nicely. Still miss the old flowers I had, these tufts are not quite the same.

I agree that camo cloaks over bright armor does seem a bit odd. I was actually a bit worried on these guys. While the colors are the same, I tried to use different brush strokes on the armor vs. the cloak, to try to differentiate them. One problem with real/effective camo is that it makes the mini just look like an indistinct blob. I kept the shoulderpad chapter blue to add a little pop. There weren't a whole lot of other places to add interest to the guys.

Those Banshees are great. Nice basing.

The snipers also turned out well. I like quick method. And their bases really bring out the snow camo feel as well. Great stuff.

So these guys are going to be my entry for the month. I wanted to do the assault intercessors, but it looks like I’m going to be moving sooner rather than later, so opted for the easier paint. No edge highlights. Not going for a total speed paint, as there is still a lot of crap going on I need to tend to, but will try to get them done ASAP.

Also in the news, game last Sunday. Swapped back to my Ultras and up to 50 PL lists again. Solid win for me. His AV fire was cold early, and dead later. He got first turn and with it landed one wound on my pred. Total, army-wide damage for the alpha strike. I hit back pretty hard, and the rest was downhill.

Did not help that his captain, who has the relic nano meds to stand back up after death on a 2+ rolled a 1, so they failed. This is the second time they did that.

I'm so envious of your real game, Nev. Glad you won, may the dice be ever in your favor. I think you've picked a nice squad to work on, given your heavy schedule. Looking forward to seeing paint on them.

Awesome, glad to hear you're getting in games

May be painting some of those myself soon so I look forward to the inspiration

I think you made an appreciable difference between the cloaks and the armour and I agree it's difficult to make the mini not look like a blob. I had that issue when I was painting Eldar Rangers. I like the shoulder pad by the way, good nod to their faction.

Grats on the win and I'm keen to see how the Incursors paint up. Been tempted by phobos marines myself but need to get my normal PA stuff done first.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:


So these guys are going to be my entry for the month. I wanted to do the assault intercessors, but it looks like I’m going to be moving sooner rather than later, so opted for the easier paint. No edge highlights. Not going for a total speed paint, as there is still a lot of crap going on I need to tend to, but will try to get them done ASAP.

Also in the news, game last Sunday. Swapped back to my Ultras and up to 50 PL lists again. Solid win for me. His AV fire was cold early, and dead later. He got first turn and with it landed one wound on my pred. Total, army-wide damage for the alpha strike. I hit back pretty hard, and the rest was downhill.

Did not help that his captain, who has the relic nano meds to stand back up after death on a 2+ rolled a 1, so they failed. This is the second time they did that.

Page carryover!

First layer of Grey Sear down (hard to tell over white primer) and blacks. Plugging away. I’m going to try to hold myself to at least one layer a day. Not that many go on these guys, although they have more details than the eliminators. Grenades and the like.

The scouts look nice, but I feel like the camo cloaks need some shadows to mark the folds.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
The scouts look nice, but I feel like the camo cloaks need some shadows to mark the folds.

Not a bad idea. Might go back and add that. Would also help separate the cloaks from the armor.

Basecoats going down. Few more to go. Silver on the grenades, grey rubble, wax on a purity seal, few cables. All the hair. But getting there.

Lookin' great Nev!

Moving right along.

Silvers need a black wash, but I’m going to wait on that until later. The armor joins also get it, so I’ll do that step after the white wash and camo. They should be at the cleanup pass for the grey seer stage, although there is some detail work on the heads that I need to do as well. Sarge’s eyes, some studs and wires.

Might do some building today. I know it will make things harder to move, but meh. I enjoy it.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend

Coming right along! They kinda look like an apothecary squad right now

I enjoy building too. The speed at which I build greatly outstrips the speed at which I paint so I've been making myself leave my little buddies on the sprue so I don't get another grey legion built up...

Once the camo goes down they will look a lot less like medics. It bothers me that there is so much white. Because that’s my prime color, I equate it with “nothing done, needs work”. So when I see a model that’s mostly white, I feel there is still a ton of work to do. But these guys are getting close to done.

I try to stick with the “Paint more than I buy” goal, and that caries over as well as stuff to build. While I have a chunk of stuff still on sprue, it’s not a huge pile. Although if I inventoried it, I’d probably be surprised with what’s there. I tend to forget the classic marines, but think I have a couple dozen from the BaC/BoP boxes left to build.

But this morning’s build:


New BGVs. One is going to get a power fist, plasma pistol, and a little extra fancy to be a captain. Not there there is a need to add a lot of bling to these guys to bump them up to officer status. One is going to get a pistol, probably volkite as I like the looks of them, and be the new sarge for the Mono build squad from the indominus box. The last guy will be just another vet to fill out the BGV squad to 5 men. Like a marine squad should be. 3 man squads still bug me.

With how big they are, 3 man doesn't bother me a lot, reminds me of tyranid warriors or similar... but yeah 5 definitely sounds better. Also keeps you under the radar for the blast rule, while leaving a seat in an impulsor or the like. I'm contemplating six, but only because Deathwatch has a teleport relic that can get them up front and potentially charging turn 1.

Quite looking forward to seeing your work on these!

And done. Fun morning putting these guys together, the BGV box is a lot of fun. Noticed that I forgot to drill the bolt pistol, at this point I’ll wait to make sure the glue has set before I do it.

I should probably put some paint down at some point. And get some exercise. And pack more.

Don't forget to eat better, recycle more, do more volunteer work, and finish that novel!

Those guys definitely have some sweet posing with the kit, that power fist (captain?) guy really works well.

That's one thing that's so nice about marines, you can really just chuck bits at them to create your own characters so much easier than a lot of the races.

 GrimDork wrote:
Don't forget to eat better, recycle more, do more volunteer work, and finish that novel!

Those guys definitely have some sweet posing with the kit, that power fist (captain?) guy really works well.

That's one thing that's so nice about marines, you can really just chuck bits at them to create your own characters so much easier than a lot of the races.

Eating better is always on my list of things to do. I’ve been stress eating a lot of junk lately. And I’m at the age where I can’t take my health for granted and nobody else is looking out for me but me. I am eating a salad for lunch, so we can chalk up a win for that (for now). I took about a years worth of bottles/cans back for the deposit this week, so that covers the recycling. I should do more volunteer work. My company actually gives me 2 paid days off a year to do work like that, I’ve just never got around to finding a place to go. The closest I get to writing a novel is blogging, so here we are.

There are so many cool options in the BGV kit I feel I could put together 2-3 more boxes of them and still not feel like I was repeating myself. Sword/pistol/shield all with the option for in hand or stowed.

The captain with Plasma pistol/Power fist was a wargear option I wanted to put together for a while now. I never got a change to grab the limited edition model that let us take that loadout, so had thoughts on how to kitbash it. The BGV box just made it stupidly easy. I’m severely lacking in captains in my collection, so it’s good to get another one on the shelf. Of course, with the most recent rules changes, particularly to MC power swords, the game mechanic reason to have him is a lot less then it used to be. The stock sword a captain comes with is +1 S rather then 2xS, but doesn’t come with the -1 to hit. Same D/AP as a fist. Back when they were S-user, being able to take a fist meant wounding marines on a 2+ rather then a 4+. Big swing. I’m not sure if going from a 3+ to a 2+ is worth the -1 TH, especially now that he doesn’t get his own re-rolls. Still useful for taking down big things and tanks.

I love the fact that you can mix and match marine parts from pretty much the entire range. The only limiting factor is GW’s stupid no model, no rules policy, which is a wet blanket on creative hobbying.

Well, I was just being a smart-ass, but good on you sir! You're ahead of the game

That does seem like a neat kit, I don't know if I can talk myself into it, I have six from indomitus And I'm planning on converting probably both lieutenants and maybe one ancient... We shall see..


I started back in third edition and I remember the good old days of having options in the book that they never got around to making models for. Back when dark eldar archons could take skyboards and jet bikes, most space Marine characters could have jump packs or bikes, and there was just one to three lists of wargear that your various characters had access to, usually direct swap outs for their gun melee pistol etc.

That's kind of what's keeping the firstborn Marines in the game, they're allowing them a lot of their old options that their primaris successors just won't ever see.

I was trawling through the codex in app form and was shocked / pleasantly surprised to see that the indominus captain had so many options where I figured he could only take the sword and shield like the gravis captain of either flavor or the phobos captain.

The ridiculous if/ then / else conditional lists of the available options for units this edition is killing me... Although I hear it's better than 8th edition where you used to have to go multiple places to track down the points. Brings back fond memories of that wargear list I was talking about.

I try to to dwell too much on the rules restrictions, as they really irritate me. I hope that GW shifts tracks again to open things up. Not holding my breath, but hoping.



So the lack left two guys have their contrast white done. It’s subtle, but it’s there. On guys that are getting camo, probably a waste, but I’m going to keep doing it. 3 more guys, and then time to camo.

Yeah, I hear you on that. Except for using my codex as a guideline, I've kind of ignored the rules in favor of building and painting models I like the look of. Making good progress, Nev.

I need to loosen up my WYSWYG rules and lean into the Rule of Cool more often. But I’m a persnickety by-the-book guy; must be why I paint Ultras.



White contrast down and done. Next up is the stripes and splotches.

Also in the news, looks like I should be closing on my new home this Friday. So lots of crap needs to be juggled/scheduled/packed in the near future. Probably move in a couple weeks, we’ll see how things line up. Would like to have these guys done before I head out.

Good news! Almost there, man. And the new guys are looking good!

Good news indeed! Incursors are coming along nicely too.

Still a bit of work needs to be done. Black wash on the silver, armor joints. Edges on the guns, shoulders. And a lot of touch-ups from the white wash. Plus the normal finish work with bases and decals. But getting there.

Your winter camo is sweet. They'll look great, I think, once you do the panel lines.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Your winter camo is sweet. They'll look great, I think, once you do the panel lines.

They are not getting panel line per se. I’m not doing edge highlights on them. In theory the white contrast paint gives the the detail I need, even if it is masked by the camo. I do put nulan oil on the flex bits of the armor (which I did last night before bed) Just touched up the blues this morning, shoulders still need the ink.



Still a few touch up passes to go, but getting there.

And off the handles and ready for base/decal work.

I did put a little nulan on the sniper’s cloaks, With all the camo it’s a bit lost, I’ll look again when it dries. Helps give the fabric a little more shape though, so probably worth doing.

Looking good Nev, the winter camo really works with the phobos stuff.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Looking good Nev, the winter camo really works with the phobos stuff.

I do like the way it works out. I don’t think it would do well on normal marines. Not enough interesting bits on them to pop out and make the model. But the tacticool phobos have enough pouches, grenades, and such to be more then a blob of color.

Glued rocks and tufts this morning. Will try to finish them this weekend, but things are in flux right now. Closing this afternoon, have The Boy for half the weekend.

Almost there Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Any progress is good progress.

Congrats on finishing the squad and the BGV sprue looks like a lot of fun. May get one too, the Indomitus 3-man-squad didn't disappoint in their last games. They can bring a lot of punch.

And done. Off to the YTD shelf, until that gets packed up. Now to decide if I start another project, or just box everything up. I don’t need to be out of my current place until the end of April, so there is not a huge rush, although I want to get settled sooner, rather than later. But I need to line up cleaners and movers and a bunch of other things, not sure on the timeframe there to get everyone scheduled. Sent out a few emails looking for more info, might have to call for followup. Sigh. Fun times.

All looking good Nev. Up to you how you choose to pack. I tend to leave my warhammer to the last breath for packing as it's one of the few hobbies I have.

Moving woes sound nightmarish. Sorry you are going through this. Your incursors look great, though. You're still pulling out quality models despite the stress. That's to be commended.

Nice work on the incursors Nev.

Tyranid Horde wrote:All looking good Nev. Up to you how you choose to pack. I tend to leave my warhammer to the last breath for packing as it's one of the few hobbies I have.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Moving woes sound nightmarish. Sorry you are going through this. Your incursors look great, though. You're still pulling out quality models despite the stress. That's to be commended.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nice work on the incursors Nev.

Thanks. Everything will happen, it’s just the transition that’s rough. Need to keep my eyes on the horizon, and not on the problems at my feet.

While I could just spend all my free time vegging in front of the TV, that’s probably not the best way to spend my life, so I started another project. Just a single character, in the phobos pattern, as those tend to be quicker and easier.


Because I need more HQs. Although as a single character, I don’t need to worry about painting him and 2-4 more of his buddies. Although with the speed the snipers crossed the bench, I could probably do another trio of them. We’ll see how long he takes, and how the timing of everything comes together.

Nice work on the winter camo.
I like that Lt. model a lot. Though, as tzurk pointed out to me, he could use another knife.

 DJJazzyJeff wrote:
Nice work on the winter camo.
I like that Lt. model a lot. Though, as tzurk pointed out to me, he could use another knife.

Never enough knives. He’s got two on him, one in hand, one sheathed. Plus his award for being the best stabber in his class. Which could probably be used to stab something in a pinch.



Plugging through the basecoats. Although as I uploaded this pic, I noticed I missed the bit on his shoulder with the gold. Oh well. Getting there.

Great use of unique bits to spice this guy up.

 The Riddle of Steel wrote:
Great use of unique bits to spice this guy up.

I’d have to check the stock pics, but I think he’s just a head swap and an extra purity seal. The default head wasn’t a good match. He needed to be bald and yelling. This is The Way.



Put the cleanup pass on the white, ready for the white contrast. After that it’s just the camo and final steps. And probably all the other stuff I’m forgetting.

This is The Way.

CB

PS: Aren't we supposed to keep our helmets on for the Way?

 Captain Brown wrote:
This is The Way.

CB

PS: Aren't we supposed to keep our helmets on for the Way?

Depends how orthodox we are.

That’s why they tell us never to cross the memes. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light, total protonic reversal. I should have stuck with “The Codex approves of this action”

Anyway, white contrast went down over my lunch break.

This is a cool model, and the headswap is definitely working.

I like the new phobos stuff, kinda oxymoronic but in a space opera, science is magic and magic opens all kinda doors

 GrimDork wrote:
This is a cool model, and the headswap is definitely working.

I like the new phobos stuff, kinda oxymoronic but in a space opera, science is magic and magic opens all kinda doors

Any suitably advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic, and vice versus.



Almost done. Need to clean up the brown, pick out a few things like his service studs, and the final decal/base stuff. Put a little more effort into making the camo more tiger stripe, and less blotchy.

He's coming along quite nicely. Big fan of your winter camo Marines.

 kavika0311 wrote:
He's coming along quite nicely. Big fan of your winter camo Marines.

I like them as well. Might just be 6 more snipers to do in this scheme, although there are two things on my to-get list that would also get this.



He’s done now. Just a quick workbench pic. He’ll get lightbox time next time it’s out.

YTD:


Not bad. Reminds me I should do a Q1 review. Probably the next YTD will be at the new place.

Really love the camo scheme on your Phobos armoured marines Nevelon, the white and grey really contrasts well with the traditional Ultramarine blue.

Best of luck with the move, moving is a pain at the best of times but must be even more difficult right now.

So across the spectrum from white to black. Decided to get some paint down on the chaplain. Again going to try to get him done quickly, but also to a good standard.

I’ve set a move date and hired a crew. Two weeks from now. So that’s my deadline for the chaplain. Not a hard dealline, but I would like him finished.

Soon the Workbench will be about 45 minutes south of here. Might be a few hiccups, but should be manageable. After all, I’m working from home. Any interruption to my internet (and Dakka) is a high priority.

Awesome face on the new guy. And no resting on your laurels, jump straight to the Chaplain. Great stuff.

 youwashock wrote:
Awesome face on the new guy. And no resting on your laurels, jump straight to the Chaplain. Great stuff.

I didn’t want to start another squad, so picked out a character. He should be reasonably easy to do, black armor is less steps then the blue. And the gold basically edges itself. Although I’ll still probably bump it up a little. Plus I can count him towards my company goal.

Chaplains, throughout the entire history of 40k, have always been some of the coolest looking models. This guy is no exception. And the half-metal skull calls back to classic chaplain that was the original Cassius, and who has been tending to the spiritual faith of my Ultras since the dawn of time. So really looking forward to getting this guy done, to lead the new battle company forth with faith and zeal.

Nevelon wrote:

I’d have to check the stock pics, but I think he’s just a head swap and an extra purity seal. The default head wasn’t a good match. He needed to be bald and yelling. This is The Way.

Nevelon wrote:

That’s why they tell us never to cross the memes. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light, total protonic reversal. I should have stuck with “The Codex approves of this action”

Brilliant.

The Chaplain is another great model. Almost Terminator-like with the half skull thing. (I'm thinking Arnold, not Armor).

Picture your favorite 'dis gon be gud' meme, I'm partial to the one with the man one-hand expanding his camp chair, and consider my attention vigorously piqued. As someone who's chosen Deathwatch but hasn't gotten round to painting any yet, I'm always interested in seeing how people approach black armor on marines, and this is a particularly nice canvas!

The chrome skull does make you think cyborg death bot.

My black is nothing fancy. 2 thin coats, and then a grey edge. I’ve got a bunch of DW in my gallery in that scheme




Quick post before work

Blocked in a few more colors. Need to decide how I’m going to trim the shoulders. Gold to match the rest of his trim? Red for company? or even mixed, with white on the Ultra pad?

Thoughts?

Ooh, I'll definitely have to give that a look then.

Should be just about done with the base coats. Next is the washes and subsequent cleanup. Might actually do a little blending on the tabard.

If you are wondering why he’s screaming all the time, it’s because stuff like this is happening on the other side of the bench:



Sometimes you just got to build giant winged death monsters. We’ll see how quick I can get this guy together. I might try to enter him in next month’s comp. My nids paint up pretty quick, and soon I’ll have a garage I can prime in, so will be less weather dependent.

Hobby stuff is leading the way into the new house. As I’ve got more minis than bins and foam, I need to empty out what I brought and reload them for another trip. I think that might be a project for next weekend with The Boy to help. set everything up on a folding table until the cabinet and shelves move down. But the first load is down there and waiting.

Nice work on the Lt, the headswap works very well and great work on his face! Chaplain is coming along nicely. Hope the move will go smoothly, if the crews good you should have no worries.

Been awhile since I checked in on your work Nev, really like how the camo turned out. That chaplain is one of my favorites from the Indomitus box he has so much character and you've done a great job on him so far.

Viterbi wrote:Nice work on the Lt, the headswap works very well and great work on his face! Chaplain is coming along nicely. Hope the move will go smoothly, if the crews good you should have no worries.

Yorkright wrote: Been awhile since I checked in on your work Nev, really like how the camo turned out. That chaplain is one of my favorites from the Indomitus box he has so much character and you've done a great job on him so far.

Thanks guys!



Got a few washes down. Did a little highlighting on the robes before the contrast to help pop out the folds a little. Getting there.

That's excellent work Nev.

Very nice work on the chappy so far Nev, and great job on the Phobos Lt. Those guys look awesome and a really unique take on that armour type.

Loving this Chapie dude, he's turning out fantastic!

Plugging away. Quick WIP before work:


Did the second black last night, need to edge it. Some reds this morning, gloss on the seals, mouth. Need to do the eye and a bunch of cleanup. Almost there

Boy that model is really looking good.

Concur. He's turning out very well.

The Chaplain is looking quite nice.

CB

The chaplain is coming along nicely. Am I reading this right: you're doing the black with Contrast?

Thanks guys. I’d like to finish him before the move (next Wed) but that might not happen. I love painting chaplains, they are just such nice looking models. It’s hard to go wrong with them. And painting them at anything less than the best of your ability would shame the chapter, so they help motivate.

The black is just the old style. 2 thin coats of abbadon black, a GW base paint. Because I do use thin coats it looks a bit contrast-like. Over the white primer, it helps with the highlights.

The contrast on this guys is guiliman flesh over all the beige, gold, and skin. It’s replaced my chestnut wash in general use. Some red went over the haft of the crozius and a drop in the mouth. Not that it shows in the WIP pics, but the book on his belt got a second layer of Darkoath Flesh to help differentiate the cover from the pages/straps.

Going to try to finish building, priming, and painting the flyrant for the comp. Going to be tight to get her fully done in a month with the move. Fingers crossed.

Keen to see how you get on! I was tempted to enter my own flying hive tyrant for this one but it still requires stripping and I am not up to it right now.

How are you planning on working with the wings? It'll be a nightmare to store.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Keen to see how you get on! I was tempted to enter my own flying hive tyrant for this one but it still requires stripping and I am not up to it right now.

How are you planning on working with the wings? It'll be a nightmare to store.

I’m magnetizing for weapons, not storage. Wings will be glued.

I figure if/when I hit the gaming store again, it will be with my Ultras. So my nids are a at-home army/painting project. So I’m not concerned with storage and shipping. Besides the immediate house move, where they will lie gently in a towel lined plastic bin. Long term, I might magnetize the bases and make special boxes for them to move about in. They will probably take a shelf of either my glass fronted book case or in the china cabinet to live, now that they are off the YTD shelf. I’m still on the lookout for nice glass display space that won’t break the bank. Closest Ikea is like 4 hours away, and shipping is murderous. Still might be a road trip some weekend.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


And that’s a built flappy bug. Magnets are not enough to keep the cannon from drooping. Looks OK. Hopefully if I put together some stabby bits they will hold better. At least it’s not metal.

So I hear there is some xenos need a good smiting around here. Almost done. Just a little more black on the rim and the flock. Eventually I’ll go back and add script transfers, but it’s just about time to start packing up. He’s the last guy to cross this iteration of the workbench.

Excellent work Nev.

And done. Not sure when the lightbox is going to come out, but he needs formal pics

That face on the chaplain is amazing, you brought out the details really nice! Good luck with the move!

Broke out the lightbox this morning before work for some quick pics before I had to start my day. Last of the stuff from the YTD shelf that never got formal pics, before they get packed up. Which should be today. Half my minis are already down at the new place, on a folding table out of the way for now. Probably move the rest tomorrow; most are already packed. Movers Wed.

I feel kinda bad taking credit for faces. It’s almost 100% contrast paints. Magic little bottles.

That phobos camo pattern is still just fantastic, you should be really proud of that (even if you refuse to take credit for contrast faces xD)

Seconded. Those scouts are amazing.

No, I didn’t pick up the Cursed City box. If it pops up on Amazon sellers where I can use my guilt-free money I probably will, but too pricy otherwise. But I’m getting unpacked and settled in, and was able to recover things long lost.

First, my new digs for the Workbench:


And back from the depth’s of my Ex’s basement, my old workbench!


Long time readers will recognize this from the start of the blog. It was the matting table my folks used when my mom was a printmaker. I used it for years as a hobby table. One Christmas I got the new workbench, which was tasked with all the building. When I moved out during the divorce, there just wasn’t space for the roughly 3x5 slab of the old table in any apartment, so I left it behind, for The Boy to have if he wanted it. Nobody was using it lately, so when I got the house I was able to recover it and a few other bits of family furniture.

Still finding boxes and unpacking stuff. Right now most of the minis are sitting on the two folding tables or still in boxes. Eldar have found their new home, and the deathwatch are starting to settle in. Right now the Eldar are on about 1 and 2/3rds shelves of the glass fronted bookcase. With the deathwatch taking up the rest of the second shelf. I think the brothers of the watch need a little more elbow room, so they might move down a shelf and share one (for now) with the Nids who need a home. The issue with that would be prior to the move, my undead took a full 2 shelves in the bookcase. I think I might trim some of the older legacy stuff out of the undead and pare them down to one shelf worth of stuff to display. The rest can go live in boxes, or the white plastic shelf with the rest of the random old things. Which really needs a better option, but that might have to wait.

I really need some nice display cases, but the shipping is killer and I’m not sure what I can find locally.

Hopefully I can get the paint flowing again soon. Right now I’m unboxing and doing minor repairs due to move damage. (knock on wood, just 3 things so far needed a touch of glue)

Gratz on getting settled in to the new place Nev! It's always nice to have the space needed to really set things up well. For display cases I use the standing ones from IKEA, they're about 70$ CAD a couple years ago so should be roughly 50 USD if memory serves? It's what I use and I'm pretty happy with them, easy to set up, all around glass and they come prepped to install lights if you so choose (sold separately of course).

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
Gratz on getting settled in to the new place Nev! It's always nice to have the space needed to really set things up well. For display cases I use the standing ones from IKEA, they're about 70$ CAD a couple years ago so should be roughly 50 USD if memory serves? It's what I use and I'm pretty happy with them, easy to set up, all around glass and they come prepped to install lights if you so choose (sold separately of course).

I’ve looked at those, and it’s either a $200 delivery charge or drive 4 hours to the nearest store and then 4 hours back. Neither option is particularly appealing. Still, once I settle in a bit more and check the budget, it might be worth a Saturday on the road. Once I’m done getting vaccinated.

It’s officially Spring. Broke out the rattle can over lunch and put some primer down. Month is half over, and I can get started on the flyrant for my entry. And maybe some other stuff. Wile I’ve got a lot of unpacking done, still a lot of things to do to settle in. Might be a light month overall from a hobby POV.

Glad to see you settling in. Chaplain turned out awesome, too.

Glad the move is in the past. And that's excellent news about the workbench, furniture etc. Divorce sucks. But painting workbenches don't!

Nice work on the Chaplain. The face is fantastic. I don't have any display cases at all, so maybe I'll have to look into it as well. I'm pretty sure the nearest IKEA is a whole lot closer than four hours.

Good to hear the move in has gone well and great that you're getting that table back, looks like a beast to work on!

The Chaplain looks great!

Nevelon,

Remember the danger of more space...more models and bits being acquired to fill that space...stay strong...paint what you have to deter...the splurge.

My two cents,

CB

Tyranid Horde wrote:Good to hear the move in has gone well and great that you're getting that table back, looks like a beast to work on!

The Chaplain looks great!

It’s nice to have plenty of space to spread out into. Once I get boxes settled, I figure out what I’m doing where. Might need more lamps or another magnifier if I want to work at 2 spots. Not that I really need a magnifier for clean mold lines, but it is nice.

Captain Brown wrote:Nevelon,

Remember the danger of more space...more models and bits being acquired to fill that space...stay strong...paint what you have to deter...the splurge.

My two cents,

CB

I’m going to try to keep to my paint more then I buy pledge. Plus I need to be more careful with the budget now. Homes are money sinks. You can basically pour infinite amounts of cash into them to make them better. While I still have a nest egg set aside, it’s a lot smaller then it used to be, and needs to be able to cover repairs now. All work and no play makes Nev a dull boy, so I’ll still spring for a few new kits from time to time.

So, paint:


Just did the cleanup pass, so next is the flesh wash. Trying to decide what I want to do with the wings. I’d like to get a separate tone then the rest of the skin. I do have a slightly darker wash I should use. Although classically I think wing flaps are done in a lighter tone. Thoughts?


Automatically Appended Next Post:


This guy was bare plastic 2 days ago. I love contrast paints. Not for everyone, but bugs of all shapes and sizes love them. Still a bit to go, but the basics are almost set.

I'm with you on this Nev, I love contrast paints as well but they aren't a substitute for traditional painting methods but can certainly be used to compliment them. They have a use, knocking out armies quickly is definitely a solid one. That Tyrant is looking great, really digging him so far.

Contrast Paints seem like they are probably made for painting Tyranids; all those organic surfaces are perfect for them! They probably practically paint themselves. Hive Tyrant is looking pretty awesome! And congrats on the new digs!

Put a thinner layer of the guiliman flesh on the wing membranes. Give them a little definition from the rest of the skin. Started on the gun arms.

Moved everyone who gets a shelf to their new home. Still have some overflow and a lot of my old random projects that need a place. This is compounded by the fact that my mid-range goal is to get a cat. Can’t have fragile stuff on open shelves, so all the crap on my old white plastic shelve needs and answer. Can put it back for now, but it would just be temporary.

And now to head up to my apartment for hopefully the last load of stuff. Will save the cleaning for another day.

That flesh tone did a good job of differentiating the wing membrane from the rest of the skin. Tyrant is coming along at a really great pace.

Congrats on the new digs and really cool to be able to use the old workdesk again. Flyrant looks cool, they should do a new marketing campaign with Tyranids bundled with contrast. That stuff was made for each other.

I should go back and find the start date for the nids. See what I’ve done in a year, as we are around that point. (Edit: Looks looks I got serious on 5/26/20, and started test paints on the 29th. ~Month+ to go for the YTD)

Flyrant is almost done. Need to give it a close inspection for touch up spots. Hard, as with all the bits sticking everywhere, it’s hard to get under the magnifier.



And I should probably think about what I want to paint next.


Edit 2:
Finished the cleanup pass. Off the handle and started the base work.

It looks great! I like the darkening of the membranes, it's just enough to differentiate it from the "fingers."

 MegaDave wrote:
It looks great! I like the darkening of the membranes, it's just enough to differentiate it from the "fingers."

With the skin already being so pale, I would be hard to go lighter. Plus would require me to go out and get more paints. Darker worked well, and all it took was a second coat of the same paint. But something needed to happen. Remind me if I forget what I did when it comes time to paint more flappy bugs.

And now she’s ready to take flight.



That was what, a week being painted? And sure, I could go back and add some highlights and mungle around a bit. But I’m embracing the contrast paints and the table-top level job for the ‘Nids. A few extra details, well, one. Did the feed tube bits for the venom cannon with the same green ink over yellow that I did for the Trygon’s poison stinger. I think that’s going to be my go-to for toxin/poison/venom.

Need to build more bugs. I’ve got the 3 hive guard ready for paint, and 4 stealers I ran out of room in the prime box. I should assemble more gribbly little guys, probably another 4-6 stealers, maybe a gargoyle brood. I should also go spelunking into the pits and bring up more of the old stuff. Maybe see if I can find more stealers of the same vintage as my old ones. Or just stop being crazy and built/paint the TON of new ones I have and just let the old guys slink to the back of the pack. I also want to get the other big bug magnetized and ready. I think if we play larger games I’m going to need the exocrine.

Nice work, Nev. Especially considering the turn time. That little dab of green goes a long way.

Hey man.

Glad to see you have your hobby space sorted and the flyrant is looking swell to kick things off

That's a fine job Nev. Well done.

Gorgeous work with a short turnaround time. Something to be proud of!

Soon to be terrorizing the airspace over the battlefield. Need to get some gargs built so it’s not alone in the sky. Not that it gets character protection, but it’s the principle of the thing.

So I was waffeling about what to do next. Decided to start building the last big bug and get some paint on the bikes. New bikes are just as irritating as the old bikes. That squad will probably be a background project on the monster handle while I do other things. They probably should have been left in parts to paint, but then the join lines would be really bad. Going to be hard to get a brush places. But I do kinda want to get them on the field, so that should help.

Eat or shoot? That is the question. Didn’t magnetize this guy. Head might just be swapped with some sticky tack. Or I might fill and sink some magnets. Done for now. Glued on the smaller front arms. I built the big claws, but they seemed too much for the shooty bug, and redundant on the giant maw. While not pure WYSWYG, it’s close enough. When he’s got the giant hunger going on, what you see is something you don’t want to get close too, and what you get is a CC machine.

But off to the to be primed pile for now.

In other news I turned in my keys for the old place. Done with moving. Still not settled in fully yet, but that’s going to take time.

Fly my pretties!



Little Sunday morning assembly. While small with little fragile bits, I’m enjoying putting these guys together.

Nothing too exciting. Just putting together little flappy bugs, straight out of the box.



I was quite fond of the kit for most of this. The body halves meshed together nice, wings slotted in no problem. Then the guns. They do NOT want to play nice. 5 more to go.

And then I need to decide what I want to do for the bases. Right now they are just dry fit on the stems. I could sink magnets in there, or just let them go like that. Or work out another option. Not a huge rush.

No painting progress. Need to get back to that bike.

Very nice Winged Hive Tyrant Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks. Quite pleased with how it came out.

Quick progress, got some more basecoats down on the bike.


Also cleaned some more mold lines from the gargs. 5 more heads and then to assemble the last 5 guys.

Need to figure out what to do for next month. From ages past is the comp. In-game, so Dire Avengers would fit; warriors of an ancient race. IRL I could slap some paint on some more RT era stuff.

Thoughts?

Time to go to work...

My vote for the comp would be RT stuff, always nice to see the classics get a fresh coat.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
My vote for the comp would be RT stuff, always nice to see the classics get a fresh coat.

Captain (because I need more), Veteran, Assault Marine. The vet was always one of my favorites when he wore BA colors. Hope I can do him up as well in blue.


And paint:


So much cleanup needed. I forget how much I dislike painting bikes. They should be good on the table. And there are only 3 of them. I got this.

Also in the news I finished building the gargoyles. Barring whatever I do with the bases. Just fitting on the pegs for now. I should break out and clean up the metals while I’m at it, or build something else. Like more marines.

I have those old models, I love them!

Oh man those are awesome Nev. It's actually really cool to see those models and then directly below them is one of GW newest models. The contrast of where they came from to where they are now is really cool.

Saw the classics in the comp thread. Came here to say how excited I am to see them painted.

Lovely old RT marines. Are the backpacks metal, as well?

The marine on the right is the one I'm most excited for. Those are sideburns modelled on, right? It's really fun to see the evolution over a few decades.

GW has come a long way. I love the character and feel of the old ones, but sometimes the tech limits of the time and materials show though. Just solid chunks of metal undercuts, or filler detail so it could be one piece. But you can see the hand of the artist, and each one of full of personality. I also love the clean sharp detail of modern plastics. Both are good, just different.

Backpacks are plastic. I don’t know if I have any normal metal backpacks. I did try to use era correct ones, although one still needs to be primed. I think I had poached his for another RT guy a little bit ago.

I’ll have to check for sideburns. I think I’m painting it as part of the helmet. One issue with the old sculpts is what’s what can get a little fuzzy.

Put the first blues down yesterday.

Finished getting the grill set up and ran some food across it yesterday as well. That and the first prime of the year are the official hallmarks of Spring. One thing I missed a LOT living in an apartment. I should prime some of the other stuff I’ve built so I can start running them across my workbench. And build more. Sort of in a decision paralysis mode on what to do next there. Plus I need to finish setting up my workstations. Decide if I’m going to move the paint over to the big table, which I should do. Just a bit of work, and I’ve got sprues all over it right now.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of your weekends.

--Nev

Quick paint from the morning. Progress, one day at a time.

So not a lot of progress over the week. But hopefully I can get some work done this weekend. Nothing else planned, although I’m sure there are things I should be doing.

Have a great weekend everyone. Don’t forget to do something nice for the moms in your life.

You're making me want to read old White Dwarfs, Nev. Hope you can get some more paint down today.

I feel you on the slow week thing. Still, what you did get down is looking good, and if its not feeling fun right now, its a hobby, we set our own pace. Hopefully you do get some progress over the weekend.

The oldtimers and their new shiny bike friend are coming along nicely! As Vejut has said, we set the pace, not the minis

Not as much as I would have liked. But put the washes down this morning. So mostly cleanup left. I should freehand the captain’s shoulder heraldry. I need to force myself to the bench. I’ve at least been doing drive-bys and dropping a layer down once and a while. But they need quality time with a steady brush for cleanup now. Hopefully a game this weekend with The Boy. Might spark the fire a little bit. I should also rearrange my space and get everything settled. Things still feel temporary.


Random personal stuff:

I get where you are coming from, Nev. Hope you can get some positives from your efforts.

Just a quick report to say I’m still painting. Put the second blue coat on the bike this morning. So much space, so many bad angles. Going to need a lot more clean up. I’ve already got a deep feeling of “screw it, good enough” and still a lot of work left to do. Oh well. Will get there.

If you haven’t voted for the comp thread, consider going over there and tossing a few around. My flyrant is actually doing quite well, probably the closest I’ve been to a podium spot ever. Probably end up tied for 5-6th, depending on how things fall out. But 3rd place is actually a fairly tight race.

I know that feeling, especially when pushing to try to get something done. Still, you're making progress, and if the angles that bad, maybe no one will see the mis- stroke.

Vejut wrote:
I know that feeling, especially when pushing to try to get something done. Still, you're making progress, and if the angles that bad, maybe no one will see the mis- stroke.

For the bike there is a lot of that. Underside of the wheelguards and armor plates, behind the legs. On the tabletop they will be fine. But when I’m holding it in hand, i can see everything.

That Tyrant is one my favourites for last month's challenge Nev, the contrast paints worked a treat on the organic body.

Classic marines are looking good so far, they've got a great charm to them in their sculpts.

'Grats on the full vaccination, I'm still waiting for mine but great to hear you've decided to go out and be more social. Give the dating a go, I met my GF through Tinder of all places, so there's hope!

Hope you'll get a good game in this weekend, I've played a lot of 9th this year (more than 8th in the three years previous) and it really is a fun game with good mission design (most of the time).

And Re: RL, just taking it slow and steady is always the first and often biggest step and after that it might snowball... in a good way, not the avalanche kind

 Nevelon wrote:
Just a quick report to say I’m still painting. Put the second blue coat on the bike this morning. So much space, so many bad angles. Going to need a lot more clean up. I’ve already got a deep feeling of “screw it, good enough” and still a lot of work left to do. Oh well. Will get there.

If you haven’t voted for the comp thread, consider going over there and tossing a few around. My flyrant is actually doing quite well, probably the closest I’ve been to a podium spot ever. Probably end up tied for 5-6th, depending on how things fall out. But 3rd place is actually a fairly tight race.

Re: bikes and Marines: Are you putting contrast over a white base coat? You might get better results putting it over a blue base-- it wouldn't be so patchy and would require fewer coats. I feel you pain on the bikes-- I painted a squad of five years ago (back when I thought I might play 40K again someday), and man-o-man were they a hassle to paint. I should have painted them on sprue, assembled, and then done touch ups.

Re: real life:: I'm in no position to give anyone life advice, so I'll just say "hang in there." I'll leave it to you to imagine the kitten hanging from a branch.

Also-- you're this close to third place in the painting comp. Good luck!

Tyranid Horde wrote:That Tyrant is one my favourites for last month's challenge Nev, the contrast paints worked a treat on the organic body.

Classic marines are looking good so far, they've got a great charm to them in their sculpts.

'Grats on the full vaccination, I'm still waiting for mine but great to hear you've decided to go out and be more social. Give the dating a go, I met my GF through Tinder of all places, so there's hope!

A lot of people seem to like the flyrant as well. I was looking back at prior stuff I’ve done that did well in the polls, I’ve had a handful of entries that got 4-5% of the vote, but not many. And none this close to the podium. Few more hours for the vote. As I write this I’m on the podium, but it’s a bloody knife fight for the spot this month. 6 of us basically tied.

The Boy just got his first shot of the vaccine, so that’s a load of stress off. Might try other dating sites, not getting a good feel from the first one. Or just give up and get a cat and let life do what it will.

Viterbi wrote:Hope you'll get a good game in this weekend, I've played a lot of 9th this year (more than 8th in the three years previous) and it really is a fun game with good mission design (most of the time).

And Re: RL, just taking it slow and steady is always the first and often biggest step and after that it might snowball... in a good way, not the avalanche kind

Overall I’ve been having a lot of fun with 9th. I would like to play some normal games, as the secondary objectives seem like a good system. But we’ve been having a lot of fun with with the crusade format.

JoshInJapan wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Just a quick report to say I’m still painting. Put the second blue coat on the bike this morning. So much space, so many bad angles. Going to need a lot more clean up. I’ve already got a deep feeling of “screw it, good enough” and still a lot of work left to do. Oh well. Will get there.

If you haven’t voted for the comp thread, consider going over there and tossing a few around. My flyrant is actually doing quite well, probably the closest I’ve been to a podium spot ever. Probably end up tied for 5-6th, depending on how things fall out. But 3rd place is actually a fairly tight race.

Re: bikes and Marines: Are you putting contrast over a white base coat? You might get better results putting it over a blue base-- it wouldn't be so patchy and would require fewer coats. I feel you pain on the bikes-- I painted a squad of five years ago (back when I thought I might play 40K again someday), and man-o-man were they a hassle to paint. I should have painted them on sprue, assembled, and then done touch ups.

Re: real life:: I'm in no position to give anyone life advice, so I'll just say "hang in there." I'll leave it to you to imagine the kitten hanging from a branch.

Also-- you're this close to third place in the painting comp. Good luck!

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

I painted a lot of bikes earlier in this blog. I remember getting bogged down and very tired with them at the end. These guys are following right along. I’ll probably get the bike chaplain, but besides him, I think I’ll keep it to just the one squad.



This is after the second blue, but before the ink. Much cleaner looking.

Also in the news, I swapped the painting and building desks. Still need to clear some boxes and move stuff around, but getting there.



Have a great weekend all.

So got a game in yesterday vs. The Boy. Relic.



I set up the table before we rolled the mission. You are normally supposed to have a clear spot around the relic in the middle, but he said leave the webway, as it looked cool. Pro tip: Don’t do this.


This is the end of turn 1. I was able to start my infiltrators on the objective, and moved up the tacs in their rhino to cover them/block fire. I killed one intercessor and chipped 4 wounds off his dread. Infiltrators grab the mcguffin.

He started his forces a bit behind the 12” line, so wasn’t able to punish me for being so aggressive. I take some light fire, but nothing serious. My speeder is down to it’s last wound, but I think that’s it. He’s out of charge range, which considering how much chop he has in his list is a big deployment error on his part.

Turn 2 I take my ball and head for home. Infiltrators drop down the back of the hill, out of LoS of his army. Tacs deploy to cover their exit. I blow up both his vehicles, kill a couple guys.

His reivers and Lt. drop down to try to stop me. Unfortunately, they have 12” pistols, and I’ve got omni-scamblers.


Turn 3 I focus all my fire on them and delete them. Extra shots go towards thinning out his lines.

He realizes that the objective is out of his grasp, and concedes.



Giant LoS blocking hill in the middle where I could grab and run, coupled with his conservative deployment which let me dominate the center of the table pretty much ended this game in deployment. He might have been able to come back if he advanced aggressively first turn, but he didn’t. We had a good debrief chat at the end.

My captain leveled up, and got promoted back to chapter master. He held that rank at the start, when we were playing before the codex dropped. He also picked up a frenzon injector. He’s going to be a lot meaner with that hammer.

Edit:
Put the second blue on the captain, and primed everything in the built pile.

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

That sounds like a lot of work. The bike does look good though, so I guess it works.

Been a while since I checked in, and it seems you have been busy. Nice to see your flyrant doing so well in the voting; I haven't even really given the challenges much thought lately as failing two in a row has taken much of my will to even look in on it away. RL has been stripping my painting motivation bigtime lately.

Always cool to see you getting a game in (even if it was one-sided), and I look forward to seeing how the old Marine models turn out (and the bike too).

ZergSmasher wrote:Been a while since I checked in, and it seems you have been busy. Nice to see your flyrant doing so well in the voting; I haven't even really given the challenges much thought lately as failing two in a row has taken much of my will to even look in on it away. RL has been stripping my painting motivation bigtime lately.

Always cool to see you getting a game in (even if it was one-sided), and I look forward to seeing how the old Marine models turn out (and the bike too).

Motivation is always a fickle muse. And RL is a . We gotta keep moving on though.

JoshInJapan wrote:

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

That sounds like a lot of work. The bike does look good though, so I guess it works.

It’s just one more step then the “two thin coats” standard. With a glaze of ink instead of the layer/shade step. And it does make a difference in saturation and smoothness. The guy on the left hasn’t had his second coat yet, and it shows.



I also realized I need to put a helmet stripe on the vet. Can’t believe I almost missed that. But I got the eyes done, and most of the details. Getting there. Hopefully finish them up by/over the weekend.

Put the blue ink on the vet, a few more details (like the helmet stripe, little work on the severed head). Getting there. Looking at the backpacks, I noticed that the RTB01’s will not work with the old metals. So I’ll either have to drill out a spot for the mounting nub, or dig deeper into my spare parts looking for another age appropriate one. There is a chance there isn’t one kicking around, in which case the drills and files come out.

Also, today marks 8 years of blogging. Persisting little bugger, aren’t I?

Edit: Found a backpack, did a little scrubbing. Going to need more.

Congratulations Nev! That's quite an accomplishment!

Gratz on 8 years Nev! Here's to 8 more!

 Nevelon wrote:

Just wanted to share a congratulations to Nevelon on finishing third in the Monthly Painting competition with this great model - "Travelling in Style".

Cheers,

CB

Thanks guys. I’m going to use this as an excuse for a little retrospective. Not the full time of the blog, but here are some of the also-rans of my work in the comp. Best of each year, voted by you, the viewer.

Year 1 Contemptor dread


Nothing too spectacular here. My basic UM scheme, (30k variant) executed on a slightly larger canvas. Still, pretty tidy work.

Year 2: LDS


A little outside my normal comfort zone. Lots of little details, not part of an army I automatically know how things get done. Technically, I think one of my better works. Probably got a lot of nostalgia votes for painting old stuff. I get a lot of that when I do.

Year 3: Mannfred


He was the first modern Death model I painted, and broke the ground for my nighthaunt. I love how the cape came out, and the model overall. Honestly, on the podium for my best model ever. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, just skim through my entire collection and pick what IMHO is my best work. It’s always a fun exercise.

Year 4: Nighthaunt


These guys are cut from the same spectral cloth as Mannfred. Which isn’t a bad thing. I should really try to get my undead to the table some time. The new soulblight stuff is pretty tempting.

Year 5: Dryads


These guys surprised me. I think it was getting both barrels of tight adherence to the theme, and nostalgia. One of my first major forays into contrast paints. Not bad work, just a little shocked they were so popular. Although year 5 was not one of my better ones overall.

Year 6 Infiltrators, old school



Technically the old RT guys edged out the infiltrators if you go back to the numbers and check the rounding. Listing them both, as I think they both have some strong points. Old guys get the nostalgia boost, but I also like they way they turned out. First time painting a tattoo, worked out well. I should do more, but generally they are not very ultramarine-ish. The infiltrators were the vanguard of the arctic camo on my marines, and I’m quite fond of how that’s been working out.

And year 7 (so far)


My first podium spot, in a knife-fight 6 way tie for 3rd. It’s a win, and a milestone, so I’ll take it. Feels a little odd though. This guy went from plastic to paint in about a week. Crazy fast. And from sprue didn’t add much to that. Might be one of the fastest turnaround times I’ve had. Normally there is months of lag, as things get bought, built, primed, and wait for their time on the paintbench. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty, but the contrast paints do really feel like cheating. But they were born for organics. Seriously. Tyranids are their perfect showcase. And they scale from gaunt to tyrant. I should probably go back and highlight the purple a bit, but that can wait.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. I should try to get some paint down, but I’m still working on my coffee. And need to buy a new mower and hit the lawn at some point. Yay homeownership.

Edit: Put the blue ink on the remaining 2 guys. Also, raised the banner of Gondor over my house. Because some times, you just need to let you geek flag fly.

Nice little retrospective there, and congrats on the podium finish! That Hive Tyrant really does look great. I've got more than one friend who use contrast paints for their armies (one plays Death Guard), and they swear by them. I feel like I get decent but not exceptional results from them for my Sisters. They are definitely perfect for Tyranids though, and I imagine just as good for most Daemons.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Nice little retrospective there, and congrats on the podium finish! That Hive Tyrant really does look great. I've got more than one friend who use contrast paints for their armies (one plays Death Guard), and they swear by them. I feel like I get decent but not exceptional results from them for my Sisters. They are definitely perfect for Tyranids though, and I imagine just as good for most Daemons.

I used the white contrast on the sisters I painted, but I don’t know if I’d use an actual color contrast for flat armor. It really shines on organics, or probably the quasi-organic mutants over in Chaos.



So all the blues are done, leaving just the edges, highlights, and the finishing bits. Plus the two backpacks. Plugging away.

So the heavy intercessors came out. $60 for 5 guys. Ouch. I shouldn’t be surprised, but was hoping for something a little more reasonable. I know, I know, “first step on the road to disappointment”. I’ve got enough of a backlog I’m not going to run out and buy a box. Maybe if I’m good, they will show up in a bundle box for Christmas. Not going to hold my breath though. The primed pile is so full it’s hard to find motivation to build stuff. But I should. More genestealers, some more intercessors, or break out some of the old lead in the ‘nid box. There is a metal tyrant there on foot, which would probably work better as a warrior prime. Also 8 gargs, which would help fill out the flock. Speaking of which, I added magnets to the ones I built. Need to do the stems, but they can borrow them from the Eldar jetbikes if needed.

And now I should probably go mow the lawn. Been like four and a half years since I’ve had to do that. Didn’t miss it.

 Nevelon wrote:

Also, raised the banner of Gondor over my house. Because some times, you just need to let you geek flag fly.

Man, nice work. A great introspective. You’ve had a solid run and I’m glad to see you on the podium. Should have been already, imho.
I love the mental image of the flag of Gondor flying over your house and I also now really want to get one. Going to come up with a good argument to convince the wife. She’s almost as nerdy as me, stops just shy of painting miniatures. Probably won’t be too hard of a sell.

It might seem like a small thing, but I was really psyched when I came back from grocery shopping and saw the White Tree flapping in the breeze. A man’s home is his castle, and should have his colors flying. When I go for walks around the neighborhood, there are plenty of American flags, a chunk of rainbow pride flags, and scatted sports teams. I put a lot of thought about what I wanted to fly. While I love 40k, a lot of the images they use could be taken out of context. Even something like an Ultramarine symbol would probably just be mistaken for being a Colt’s fan. Almost went with a SW rebel alliance flag (and might still) but a little sour on the franchise. Of the LoTR factions, I could have flown the colors of the Mark, but I’m in Saratoga Springs, a horse town. So the geek symbolism would be lost on the heathens. So I went with Gondor. Took a stand with the free people, against the evils of the world.

Quality of the one I picked is not as good as I’d prefer. Tons of them on Amazon. One side is darker black, the other a little lighter. Problem of getting things online.

When I was growing up I always kept my hobbies under cover. Being a geek was something that would get you picked on. As I get older I find I don’t care as much what other people think. I still don’t advertise much, but will occasionally post hobby stuff on my Facebook feed, and will honestly answer any direct question. But I am who I am.

The White Tree stirs the heart.

Congrats on the contest and 8 years of blogdom. It's cool seeing the old entries.

Maybe this year as an advent calendar I’ll post one pic a day, but focus on chronological progress. Start with the old, and end with the new. I’ll probably forget, but it was fun to do last time I did one. Although before it was more centered on favorite models. Which I could do again. Would be interesting to see what gets repeated, and what gets bumped down for new favorites.



Vet has his highlights, backpacks ready for blue ink, pair of gargs just got their flesh wash. Painting them on magnetized flight stands is irritating. I taped up 2 to keep them clean of slop. I can just grab bits of the model, but worry about oils on my hands affecting the flow of the contrast paints, or rubbing off if I hold a painted bit. Probably wouldn’t be too bad, but old habits. Running out of month, need to get stuff done.

Edit: put red down on my first break. Working from home has a lot of perks.
Edit2: black down and second wing layer. Just touchups and details left. Love how fast these guys go.

2 flappy gribbles done, captain edged. backpacks inked. Need a white pass on the studs, then those are done. Assault guy needs his edges. Then decals and bases. Plus the bike. Running out of month.

So, it’s been about a year since the great devourer sent a tendril into this blog, where do we stand?



Better close up pics of almost everything can be found in my gallery.

Still small, but getting there. Able to take the field in small games, with some options. Little over 1,000 points all told.

On deck:

About 450 points primed and waiting for paint. Or in progress for the next two gargoyles.

To be built:

20 more ‘stealers on sprue, and two dozen rescues in a bag.
3 old, pretty broken warriors
1 metal tyrant
8 gargoyles
6 VERY old gaunts


(work break over, will ramble later)

Zoats front and center. Excellent. Great pic!

 youwashock wrote:
Zoats front and center. Excellent. Great pic!

I wish there was a way to get them to the table. Might be rules for the new one they made, not sure how he fits into the Nid army. And these old guys are not the same scale.

So, one thing about the Nid project was to keep it pile of shame neutral. Paint a unit before I buy a new one.

Painted:
Flyrant
Trygon
Broodlord
Biovores
Spore Mines
Rippers
Homorgaunts
2x Termagaunts (enough of these guys to count as 2 units)

Not going to count the legacy stuff. That gives me 9 units.

Units purchased:
1 hormagaunt
1 termagaunt
3 genestealers (1 from the SC box, 2 from the big box, counting 8 stealers as a “unit”)
1 tyrant
1 exocrine
1 gargoyle
1 trygon
1 broodlord
1 hive guard

11 units purchased. Almost back to parity.

If I wanted to be slick, I could count each biovore separate, and the mines in groups of 3. But I’m not. Still, only 2 units behind before I catch up to the damage the big box did to my plans. And the gargs are in progress.

Painting up the 4 stealers I’ve got in the primed pile would let me flesh out my 6 old ones into a 10 man squad, which is a little more viable. I’d like to get a full 10 new ones ready, but that’s going to take more building time. All the units in the pile are needed on the battlefield, the question is fitting them into the schedule.

On the to-buy short list:
Box each of terma/hormogaunts
carnefexes
zoanthropes

The stabby little guys might be last. They seem really pathetic on the table. But I need more then 12. Box of shooty ones is a higher priority. That would bring me up to 30, which seems a good number. Zoanthropes seem solid, and add some MW punch. ‘Fexes are classic. They might suck, but I want them. Of course, that could be said about a lot of the bugs.

There are a lot of other things on the “would be nice to have” list, but honestly I think my plans will cover me until the next codex (aka a few years) so we can see if rules swing to cathc my eye.

Edit: and on the paining side finished the 3 old guys paint. Decals and bases up next.

Morning all (or whatever passes for “now” in your local timezone)

Finished basing the marines. Next up is the decal pass. Might do that over lunch. Or some spare time this weekend.

Gargoyles 5-6 on deck. 3-4 are with the first two and their mommy over on the YTD shelf. Not going to have the unit done by this weekend, but maybe in 2 when I have The Boy next.

Finished the bases on the first 4 stealers I’d built. Printed rings pop them out to 32mm. Instead of my normal plastic glue, I used superglue, both for the rings and to affix the nids to the bases. I figure if GW changes them to a new size I can just pop everyone off and re-base. They feel a LOT better on the bigger bases. My RT captain over there with most of his foot hanging over the edge is giving me dirty looks. Sorry bud, not era appropriate. I know the modern kids get them, but you don’t. Need to re-level my printer and bang out another 20 or so rings.

Right now the vote for next month is tied for “Boots on the Ground” and “Seeing Red” Which is probably going to be a 5 man stick of intercessors, or the Wave Serpent. Part of my is tempted to switch to the new fangled paint scheme for techmarines, and do him in red if that wins. But I don’t think so. He’ll get the metallic blue the rest of the techmarines got.

Great progress. I agree to keep him blue. I've been thinking about Seeing Red. Trying to come up with something other that just red armor. I have a couple more marines and my army is red, but it seems too obvious.
Anyway, keep up the efforts against the pile of shame. I like that you have a tally going to keep yourself on track.

Boots got another vote, so might pull out the win. Not sure how much longer the poll will run.

It’s only the nids I keep a careful eye on. More than just my normal “paint more than I buy” pledge. But starting a new army they had the potential to eat up both all my free time and hobby budget. Apt, for the Nids, especially at the rate I can paint them. I knew that if I didn’t start them up with a foot on the brake, they would get very bad, very fast. I could probably drop another $400 on them without even hitting all the units I’d like to have. Pile of shame does not need that volume, and I want to reserve the budget for if other things I want drop.

Edit decals on, and the last backpack. Just final check and formal pics.



Will break out the lightbox when I have a bit of time.

Lovely colors you're flying at your home! Loved the retrospective and the progress of the oldmarines, middle one is my favorite.

Calling them done. Captain, Veteran, and an Assault marine. Who I’m calling a vet, despite not having any markings. He’s been kicking around since the RT era, that’s got to count for years in service. You just don’t see many severed heads on loyalists these days. Ahh, for the classic era, where the “good” guys were just brain-scrubbed criminals enforcing the Emperor’s will. Captain had the appropriate symbol on his helmet, and the vet has the right stripe.

These guys might be the last of the power armor RT metals I have. Still have some RTB01s, and TDA if I dig a little. Might be a few left wearing BA colors. Was fun getting paint on the old stuff, even if they might not see the table any time soon.

Hard to choose a favorite. Still probably the vet with the bayonet. Although the AM with the severed head is growing on me. A more brutal marine from a less civilized time..

Bravo!

Always nice to see the old metal get painted up.

 Nevelon wrote:
Still small, but getting there. Able to take the field in small games, with some options. Little over 1,000 points all told.

Horde armies due tend to take a little bit of time.

Cheers,

CB

I love the character of the old metals, but the detail on the new guys is also quite good. Both have their pros and cons.

I think if I had put more of a focus on them, I probably could have finished all the nids already. While a horde army, contrast paints makes them paint stupid fast. Cleaning the mold lines off all the stabby bits is the real time sink. And the hobby budget slows them down. Going to try to get the gargs done in under 2 weeks, and maybe another unit. See if I can get a decent 50 PL list down. I should crunch the numbers.



So these guys are going to be my boots on the ground for this month. 5 assault intercessors to help fill out the battle company.

Hope everyone had a great memorial days, and a good week ahead.

If the severed head hanging off his belt wasn't enough to convince you he's a little off-kilter, the look on his face is a clincher. Great job on the oldies, Nev!

I am constantly and repeatedly impressed by your classic collection. Those RT marines really take me back, and you've done a great job on the paint work. Marines with mohawks, man... so 1989.

youwashock wrote:If the severed head hanging off his belt wasn't enough to convince you he's a little off-kilter, the look on his face is a clincher. Great job on the oldies, Nev!

He just really loves his job. Nothing wrong with that.

MacPhail wrote:I am constantly and repeatedly impressed by your classic collection. Those RT marines really take me back, and you've done a great job on the paint work. Marines with mohawks, man... so 1989.

I think they still occasionally make mohawk heads on modern plastics, but there is not mohawk like an 80’s mohawk.

If people were wondering what they looked like in their original, 80’s (well, 90’s) era paintjobs:

Captain never had paint.

finished 2 more gargs. 4 more to go. Started putting bases together for them. The eldar bikers were starting to whine.

Have a great day everyone!

That's quite an improvement!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
That's quite an improvement!

Thanks.

It’s easy to think that my painting hasn’t improved. I bang out the same table-top standard that I have for a while. But even over the span of this blog I can see marked improvement. And when I fire up the wayback machine to look at the really old stuff, it’s more obvious.

Put the first blue coats on two of the assault intercessors.
Finished the bases for the gargs.

Moving along.

Bike is done, barring the base and decals. Not 100% happy, but I’ll take it. 2 more to go. Might do something else on the large handle to mix things up a bit.

First blues on the marines. Layer at a time, they will get there.

Flappys # 7 and 8 on the way, just got their carapaces.

Bike got his tufts and rocks. Next up is flock and decals. Not sure if I want to wait until more guys are at that step, or just finish him.

Layers going down on the boys. Still a number of basecoats to go.

Gargs need their detail pass, cleanup, and second layer on their wings.

Overall not bad progress.

Fly my pretties!



Be good girls, and eat all your biomass, and you can grow up to be as big and strong as Mommy someday.



So that’s 10 gargoyles to help throw shade on the battlefield. Not quite blot out the sun level, but what do you expect for 70 points? They put me at 10/11 for my Pile of Shame. So I should really paint two more things before buying something new. Although I really want to grab another box of gaunts. Carpeting the battlefield seems the thing to do. But getting these birds done puts me at a tidy 50 PL list, so good for this weekend.

Marines need their leadbelcher and red basecoats, but are plugging along.

Great looking wings! Gargoyles are great for objective-grabbing and table-quarter actions for secondaries too. Also great as a cheap way for triggering the Leviathan stratagem for a more dangerous non-Flyer. Not bad for 70 points!

They look great (for target practice).

Contrast seems to really come into it's own with Nids.

I like the Assault Inters too, I've been bluetacking mine together, fun times. Like the dual BP guy.

Very nice flappy 'nids.

Excellent 'nids Nevelon! I'm perpetually impressed by the sheer volume of models you get through - I always seem to take an age to complete any model, but you churn them out (to a great standard) like there's no tomorrow . Cracking work as always

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:Great looking wings! Gargoyles are great for objective-grabbing and table-quarter actions for secondaries too. Also great as a cheap way for triggering the Leviathan stratagem for a more dangerous non-Flyer. Not bad for 70 points!

Yup. I’m not expecting much, but they bring some tricks and flex to a list.

RandyMcStab wrote:They look great (for target practice).

Contrast seems to really come into it's own with Nids.

I like the Assault Inters too, I've been bluetacking mine together, fun times. Like the dual BP guy.

It’s funny to see The Boy’s salamanders rip into them. I’m so used to marine mirror matches, that some units I feel are just useless. Like reivers. But you know what they are good at? Cashing big blobs of gribbles all the way out. Like I shoot have the squad to death, but the last few just tear into the swarm and there are bug bits and ichor EVERYWHERE. And the stuff I’ve been fielding so far is so glass cannon. Sure, the Trygon is a death noodle who will blend most things. But the big guy is softer than a rhino. Broodlord is similar. Most of my games so far are me using speed and tricks to get on objectives and score early, and get shot into little itty bits. (Carving some chunks out of the marines, it’s not just a shooting gallery) But the end of the game is normally him trying to make up points, and not quite making it.

I had a lot of fun building the assault intercessors. Fun kit. Painting them is going pretty well.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Very nice flappy 'nids.

Thanks.

Warpig1815 wrote:Excellent 'nids Nevelon! I'm perpetually impressed by the sheer volume of models you get through - I always seem to take an age to complete any model, but you churn them out (to a great standard) like there's no tomorrow . Cracking work as always

The nids really do feel like cheating. Contrast paints just suit them so well. I can fairly regularly bang out 2 little guys on a work day if I paint on all my breaks and before work. Little slower if I’m more casual about it.

For other stuff, it really is just a case of slow and steady. Put a layer down every day. They add up. How many does it take to finish a mini? Two minis paint up in only slightly longer than one. There is a lot of overhead time in sitting down, getting out the paint, etc. Once you are there, might as well do a few. 5 minis starts to feel like batch painting, but not everyone needs every color. For example, only half the guys have purity seals, another half grenades. So a lot of the details still end up being 2-3 guys at a sitting. 1-a-week is my stated goal, and I think achievable by everyone.

Some progress:


Just a couple more basecoats (green lenses, back hoses) and than for the cleanup, drybrush, washes, etc. Plus I should start on the sarge’s arms at some point.

Great looking bunch of winged beasties!

Love your Tyrant and Gargoyles, they look fantastic dude!

Thanks guys.

I really enjoy painting the nids up. I think they end up looking very good overall, and paint fast and easy. Which punches the “happy hobbiest” button in my brain. Instant gratification for getting models done. So often we just stuck in a rut, where we need to slog though steps to finish, and it takes some of the charm off. But Nids go from primer to paint in one fell swoop.

Next batch are going to be significantly more grounded. Not sure if I’m going to to the exocrine or some hive guard next. Both need to get done. And as they don’t take up the normal sized paint handles, no reason not to get started. Unless I want to do more bikes. Which are not a “want” but “should”.

In painting news, finished the basecoats for the intercessors this morning. On to the next steps.

Nevelon,

Tyrant and Gargoyles will be a very good addition to your Tyranid army.

Well done,

CB

Might be a little longer before they get to the table. Going to slow down the pace of at home games. I’ve known that The Boy prefers the building/painting side, but he’s getting a little burned out on the game side.

Put the second blue layer on the sarge, need to start moving on those guys again.

Also in the news I got a pair of glaring eyes under my bed and nighttime noises last weekend. Eventually those should turn into a cat at some point once she acclimates to her new home. Door to the workshop is now closed.

Edit:
With picture now.


3/5 done with the second blue.

3/5ths done with the blue ink. These guys are going to need a lot of cleanup. But progress. Put the first blue down on the sarge’s arms. Those need a lot moer work.



And the back half of the ABR squad coming together.

Hope all my fellow dads had a nice Father’s Day. I got to spend some of it with The Boy, but then he left to hang with his Grampy, so I can’t really fault him for that. Tonight my RT RPG group is getting together in person for the first game since the pandemic hit. Dealing with Chaos, probably going to pick up some (more) corruption points.

Edit:
Put some paint on the arms, built another marine. Pro tip: if you use a magnifier, don’t forget to clean the lense occasionally. Makes a big difference.

Blue inks done. Next up is highlights and cleanup. Arms are ready for the second blue, then the ink. Running out of month, and I tend to drag on the final finicky steps.

Motivation in life is hard right now. One foot in front of the other.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So internet was down for about an hour this morning, so instead of working, I got some bonus hobby time.

Edges done on the sarge, a few detail passes.

Finished the back half of the ABR squad:

Somehow I’m shy an AGL, so one guy gets to stand in just chucking one by hand. He’s got a shotgun under his backpack if I want to claim he’s got a launcher. And the studded shoulder pad, which matches the other AGL gunner in the squad.

Edit2: 3/5 guys edged. Getting there. Will try to grab a pic later. Also, The Boy got me a gift card for Father’s Day, didn’t know what I needed for my Nids, but wanted to get me something for them. Ordered a box of Termagants which should be here next week. They should do a good job of locking down my troop options.

Quick breaktime pic.

Those are coming along nicely Nev, I did not know the Sargent could be equipped with a power fist.

Yorkright wrote:
Those are coming along nicely Nev, I did not know the Sargent could be equipped with a power fist.

<runs and checks codex>

Don’t scare me like that! It’s the fist off the assault intercessor sprue, on an assault intercessor, so I assumed it was OK. I know regular intercessors could take fists since the IF upgrade sprue released. In the hold-you-over rules from the indominus box, the sarge could only swap his pistol out, as the ETB kit only had that choice. Full kit, and the codex, has all the options.

Plus it’s magnetized, so no real worries.

But powerfists are my go-to sarge option these days.

Power fist = sergeant since RTB01. Keeping the 80's alive in 2021.

Good steady progress, Nev.

Nevelon wrote:

Yorkright wrote:
Those are coming along nicely Nev, I did not know the Sargent could be equipped with a power fist.

<runs and checks codex>

Don’t scare me like that! It’s the fist off the assault intercessor sprue, on an assault intercessor, so I assumed it was OK. I know regular intercessors could take fists since the IF upgrade sprue released. In the hold-you-over rules from the indominus box, the sarge could only swap his pistol out, as the ETB kit only had that choice. Full kit, and the codex, has all the options.

Plus it’s magnetized, so no real worries.

But powerfists are my go-to sarge option these days.

Sorry Nev did not mean to alarm you. I have an extra box of indomitus and may arm the sergeant with a powerfist or thunderhammer if and when I get around to putting them together.

Squad is coming along great, hope enough month is left for you to finish!

youwashock wrote:Power fist = sergeant since RTB01. Keeping the 80's alive in 2021.

Good steady progress, Nev.

Thinking back, after the old times, it was a BP/Chainsword that showed you had your stripes. In the RTB01, you had the fist, out nothing besides a knife for CC. 2nd was assorted metals and the monopose plastics (with the BP/CS) But I didn’t play a huge amount then. 3rd went back to the multi-part, but a lot fewer options. When was the modern tac squad re-cut with assorted CC toys? I know when I did my great sarge refresh back near the start of this blog (which would be 5th edition!) the push was for combi weapon sarges. It was just not worth investing in CC toys. And when they added challenges, striking last seemed like a bad idea. These days the points are down and the utility is up, so sarges get to pack the fun toys again. And while power swords are in a good spot, I think the fist is king again. The last thing holding me back from equiping more of them was the d3 damage, but at a flat 2 I’ll take ‘em.

Yorkright wrote:Sorry Nev did not mean to alarm you. I have an extra box of indomitus and may arm the sergeant with a powerfist or thunderhammer if and when I get around to putting them together.

Heh, I was mostly worried for comedic effect. The ETB ones from the idominus box are really easy to mod. All the arms just go on pegs, which are just a knife stroke away from being the same flat torso mount of the rest of the marine range. I magnetized a thunderhammer for my sarge, but the rules for them are in a bad place right now. You pay double the cost of a fist for basically a lateral shift in power. They do look cool though. When I built my LC/TH jump captain back in the day, from a game mechanic POV I should have just built him LC/PF. Hammers were not worth spending the 5 points over the fist, except in very edge cases. But it looked so much better, so I sucked up a little bit of inefficiency.

Viterbi wrote:Squad is coming along great, hope enough month is left for you to finish!

Everyone is off the handles and getting decals now. Cut out tactical arrows for their shoulders, but checked myself in time. They get the crossed arrows of close assault. One of those units who's FOC slot and place in the company don’t match.

Once I warm up my coffee I’ll get back to work on them. And try to grab a picture.
Edit:


Decals done, tufts and rocks down. Once those set it’s time for the flock. Mostly done.

Now to figure out what to do next...

And done and wrapped. Ran out of flock paste and time before I got to the bike.


I like this pic better, but it doesn’t showcase the models as well. More atmospheric though.

And their backs, just for completeness. One problem with doing 5 models for the contest is the 6 pic restriction. One group shot, and everyone gets their best side. So often the extra stuff gets left on the cutting room floor. When I do less I can get an alternate angle or two in.

Next month is probably not going to require the man sized handles, so I should probably get another 5 man stick done. I also need to do my Q2 review, as we are almost done with June.

Very nice looking group Nev.

Yeah, the atmospheric pic is pretty darn cool.

Good luck in the competition Nevelon. Those are much nicer than my Arbites...but I am trying to play on the nostalgia card.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks.

One of these days I want to master the LDP style of army shot. Of course, that’s a lot easier when you have a collection like him. I should actually try one of these days; it makes it easier to succeed when you start.

Nostalgia is generally worth a few points in the competition. I’ve had crappy paintjobs on old minis trend a lot higher then I thought they had a right to. I’m not expecting these guys to do anything but extend my entry streak. They fit the theme, but not in an exceptional way. Modern kit; I had fun building them, but no outstanding kitbashing to draw votes. Just my basic semi-tidy tabletop paint job. I’ve entered more Ultras in the painting comp than some people have on their shelves. Nothing new and exciting. I expect I’ll get the normal “I vote for everyone” votes and a stray extra here or there if I catch someone’s eye, or people just vote for me as a friend. My typical not-last entry.

Unless things have swung since I last looked, next month should be “Nothing to fear” Which is of course a huge lie. There are things in the blackness of space that you should be afraid of. And one of them is going to get some paint.

Edit:
Box of termagaunts showed up at the front door today. These get to count as a gift, so not on the paint more then I buy tally, or the ‘Nid’s Pile of Shame list. Which might have been intentional. Especially as one box should be able to get me two units, as there are a lot of rippers in there, in addition to the gaunts,

So it’s July. Year is half over. Went quick. Here is where I’m at:





12 guys for the company. Good progress for my 20 man goal. Stretch goal of a demi-co painted is doable. I will need 10 more troops, the other 2 bikes, and 5 heavy support. I’ve got all that built, and all but 5 troops of it primed. Big question is if I go with 5 hellblasters, or pick 2 from suppressors/eradicators/aggressors

Kept the purchases down. I’ve got a huge stock of stuff primed, so not a lot of drive. Plus watching the budget more. At this rate I could snag a big box at Christmas and still be OK.

1 bit painted, but 3 on the bench. Need to work on this more.

Games are OK for now, but will probably slow down. Need to try to hit the FLGS.

Blogging is fine, 40 models, so well ahead of my 52 yearly goal. Even if you discount the contrast work, still on track.

Lets see, Ultras, Nids, Eldar. Undead will come in Oct. Need one other faction. Either some Deathwatch, or something odd.

Comp is going strong, and I got a 3rd place win, so <cheer>. I should dig deeper into the pile just to paint something. RT guys only partly count.

I’ve got some half finished terrain things I can complete. Need to be better on this one.

Overall doing pretty good. On track for most things. Don’t need a radical adjustment to make it at the end of the year, although I’m sure I’ll still fail a few.

You're ahead of me for the year, I think. My count stands at 28 (will probably go to 29 in the next couple of days). That Hive Tyrant is by far your best work I've seen, and the Ultras have continued to be very nice and crisp. Looking forward to seeing what you crank out in the back half of the year (and maybe some of what your son gets painted too).

 ZergSmasher wrote:
You're ahead of me for the year, I think. My count stands at 28 (will probably go to 29 in the next couple of days). That Hive Tyrant is by far your best work I've seen, and the Ultras have continued to be very nice and crisp. Looking forward to seeing what you crank out in the back half of the year (and maybe some of what your son gets painted too).

Thanks. I’ll let The Boy know there are people interested in seeing what he’s up to. He’s got motivation problems in general, so that might spark some energy. Most of his minis are in my basement, right next to the lightbox, I should take formal shots of what he’s finished.

Roadmap for the rest of the year:

10 more intercessors, probably half snipers, half assault. Will need to prime the assaults. (they are the only guys in the to-prime pile ATM)
2x3 heavy support squads. Who gets the nod will probably depend on challenge topics.
Last 2 bikes.

That covers my Demi-company goal, and probably 2-3 months worth of work.

I should paint some of the characters. I’m torn with saving them for if they fit a comp subject, or just slapping some paint down. I should go back to bribing myself with fun HQs after slogging though boring stuff. Expect one after I finish the bikes. Probably the techmarine or the judicar.

The Nids have the hive guard and 4 stealers primed. I’ve got a bunch more stealers to build, and a fresh box of gaunts and accompanying rippers. I’d like to get at least 6 more stealers built and painted, giving me a squad of 10, and the new guys as well. This would check 4 units off as painted, and let me grab a few new ones. Due to the speed these guys get done, its hard to gauge how long it will take to paint the ~28 models planned, but probably a month, month and a half on the paintbench. Assembly will be the time sink here, and free space on the painting handles. Although if I do the 3 man HS squads, I can run pairs of little bugs across at the same time, often multiples in the time it takes to finish the main project.

October will see some nighthaunts. I’d like to finish off the soul wars box. I’ve got some random skeletons/calvary that I can build. Part of me wants to move on from the nighthaunts and go back to soulblight. Or Vampire Counts as I like to think of them. Might be time for Nevelon the Betrayer and the Wights of the Realm to ride again. Anyway, a month of dead stuff.

This should mostly cover the rest of the year. There is a little slack for an extra unit or two, depending. I can probably shoehorn most of it into painting challenges, and have plenty of spare things primed and waiting.

No major purchases planned. As always, plenty of stuff on the “That would be nice to have” list, but I think I can wait for most of it. Might pick up a box of troops to help flesh out the company if I get enough out of the primed pile, or a gladiator. Vampire stuff is tempting, just as a hobby project if nothing else. And more Nids, but that will probably be a year end thing. Plenty of them to built/paint to cover the rest of the year.

On to paint:


WIP shot of the Exocrine/Haruspex. Body needs touch ups, heads just got their Grey Seer base.

Not to be a broken record, but I do love those contrast paints.

Spare arms are also moving along. Need to work on that goal a bit more.

Enjoy you (long) weekends all.

<Quietly Chiiters>


A little building this morning. Also started in on the gaunts, who are going to be 11/12ths devigaunts, with one fleshborer. Which if my math is right will put me at 15 of each.


And paint. Still need to do the black slash on the eyes, and the final cleanup. Which is mostly a 2 step process. Go over the slop with a patch coat of Grey Seer, and then the contrast paint again.

Moved the stalker bolt rifle guys to on deck, but haven’t started painting them yet.

Hope everyone has a safe 4th of July. Grill something, have a crappy beer, and try not to blow yourself up. Or just be glad you don’t need to worry about us filthy colonials anymore, depending what side of the pond you are on.

On to basing. Some issues with this model. I paint claws/guns/dangerous bits in red, and skin as skin. But this model blends them, and contrast paints don’t do that particularly well. Or at least I don’t. Head is just sticky tacked on for now. Might have to sink some magnets in there, it’s not that good a hold. Was hoping to avoid that step. I suspect the exocrine head might do better, being a lot less massive. But who knows. Will wait till after the formal comp photos to try, as I don’t want to screw up the paint.

Exocrine/Haruspex is coming along nicely Nev.

Magnets to hold them on Nevelon, magnets. Nothing more embarrassing than your head dropping off in the middle of a game.

My two cents,

CB

The new big beastie is rocking, Nev. Nice half-year summary, too.

Finished


RAWR! Nomnomnom...

So the main draw is the haruspex, as he’ll just eat his way though your army. He’s even got a strat “grisly feast" about being a messy eater that adds to nearby morale tests. Good ol’ visceral “It’s gonna EAT ME!” fear. Visually the more terrifying of the pair. The Exocrine on the other claw, might not look as bad, but can double-shot bio-plasma across the table and melt whole squads into puddles of goo. Not too shabby.

So less fun painting this guy then the flyrant. He’s got a lot of things that bump against my paint scheme. Red=claws and guns, but his knuckles don’t have nice demarkation lines like most nids. So I had to fudge a little on where the skin stops and the claw starts. Similar things with some of the sinews around the mouth. What’s skin? What’s fang? Where’s the line? Contrast paints work like a charm, and get these guys done in rapid order.

Overall still nice to get him done. He’ll add another big bug to the swarm, either as a midfielder, or backfield support.

Magnets are going to be in order, but they can wait.

Started 2 stalker bolt rifle guys the other day, but not a lot of progress. Doing the whole lot of 5 seemed like too much, so I’ll just do them in parts. But no progress for a bit. Away from the bench next week on vacation. I might be posting sporadically, but no paint.

Enjoy your weekends!

--Nev

Exocrine/Haruspex looks pretty great! Colorwise fits right in with your Flyrant and other bugs, so I'd say that's a success. Have fun on vacation!

Your Harucrine/Exospex looks awesome dude, really love this model. Good work.

New big bug looks great, the contrast colors and the Tyranid minis are a match made in the warp

Thanks guys.

I’m back. Basically in one piece, but that car ride if getting less fun year by year. ~13 hours of road warrior is for younger guys.

Put a few more layers down on the SBR guys. Nothing huge, just a few more troopers going through the steps.


Feels odd to have so much month left. But that’s OK, I’m pretty much out of motivation at this point. Need to focus on the silver linings. Made a bunch of major life changes in the last few months, and nothing is panning out quite as I’d like. Work is also getting ugly, and will probably stay that way until mid fall.

Hobby endures. Keep momentum. March for Mcragge.

Not panning out as I'd like.

We should have t-shirts made.

I like the guy slapping the clip home.

 youwashock wrote:
Not panning out as I'd like.

We should have t-shirts made.

I like the guy slapping the clip home.

Yeah, life is fun some times.

It seems like there are a lot of “reloading” options in kits, but I very rarely use them, I’d rather the marines be in action/fighting poses. But with the snipers, I figured he could take his time to reload. One issue with that rife bit is that it lacks a scope, but I hung one off his belt. I’ll try to remember to get a pic that shows it. I think I put more extra pouches/kit in general on the sniper rile guys.



Few more passes, including silvers and black wash. Almost ready for the second blue coat.

Boring personal stuff


Also in the news I built another gaunt. Hopefully finish the last 2 in progress this weekend and start the next lot. And finish the marines, or at least get some solid work in.

So building progresses.

Put the second blue on one of the marines. Still need to do the random arms and the second guy. Slow progress.

Progress is progress! The growing horde is also looking good.

On the personal stuff, sounds like a lot at once, though a lot of it also sounds sort of like the painting, a little bite at a time and it starts improving. I hope things start looking up more for you.

Vejut wrote:
Progress is progress! The growing horde is also looking good.

Amen to that!
Looking forward to gaunties

Thanks guys. Means a lot.



To-Prime pile is getting larger. I’d like to get the last 4 gaunts done before I break out the rattle can. 3 more devourers and 1 fleshborer to go. Which should bring my gibbles up to a 50/50 split. All I’d need is a new codex to make spinefists the go-to.

I’d like to finish the 2 marines on deck by month’s end, just to free the handles. And, you know, make progress.

After I finish building the nids I’ll probably start some more genestealers to help kill time. I’m interested to see where they are going with KT. I was planning to make one of the intercessor squads in my company geared for specialists. But the way they are doing fireteams makes me wonder how much mixing is going to happen. So big pause on more marines.

Making it through painting projects and life, one step at a time. Going to be another rough week at work, but with the way my life choices are going of late, not sure I want to jump ship. Hopefully get some quality hobby time in to distract me.

Besides, you need some more Nids for your boy to shoot.

Cheers,

CB

I’d love to get the nids to the table. Starting to feel like a real army.



Last of the little biters built. When painted should bring me to 30 total, with an even split of guns.

Excellent progress. I like the nids, the marines, and the idea of an army on the table.



Keep up the good work.

So, some paint.



Ready for ink. Chipping away. Past the hump I think for these guys, would like to finish them up soon. Got to make room for the next batch.

Looks like “Rebel Scum” is going to win for next month. Which is a little rough, as we’re all loyalist around here. But from the depths of the Pile of Shame, and with some modern backup, I have a plan.
Rejoice! And welcome the embrace of the four-armed emperor! He has sent his angels to cleanse this world of the oppressive regime. Workers of the hive rise up and throw off your chains! You have nothing to loose but your biomass!


So an excuse to paint up some stealers, and a quite old Magus. Assuming I can get him primed. It’s been very rainy around here recently.

All the KT rumors seem interesting. No idea how they are all going to fit together into a game though. As I don’t care for either faction in the starter, I won’t be picking that up. Might check and see if I can get a copy of the non-model parts. I generally don’t buy second hand stuff, or parted out sets. Never darkened the doorway of eBay. But I suspect that a lot of those boxes are going to be opened for kriegsmen and orcs, so might be easy pickings. Or wait to see if GW sells the rules and bits for a reasonable cost. Yah, right.

Anyway. Slow progress on all fronts.

Marines are looking good, and I think a few posts ago you were looking at stealers, so that worked out!

Priming wise, not a fan or it for polystyrene these days, but vallejo polyurethane airbrush primer works OK for me for metals, it or another similar product like stylinrez or mrSurfacer might let you get that Magus primed up if a spray window doesn't open.

Vejut wrote:
Marines are looking good, and I think a few posts ago you were looking at stealers, so that worked out!

Priming wise, not a fan or it for polystyrene these days, but vallejo polyurethane airbrush primer works OK for me for metals, it or another similar product like stylinrez or mrSurfacer might let you get that Magus primed up if a spray window doesn't open.

I’s actually stupidly nice out. Might be a touch humid, but I sprayed them over lunch, and looks like it went on clean. So 5 more marines, 12 gaunts, 3 rippers and a magus join the primed pile.

Which I need to be better about chipping away at.

Hopefully will get some time in this weekend. Want to finish up the two marines, figure out how I want to do the stealers: Do I add purple bits for carapace, or just skin and claws? Where are the lines?

Good to see you making progress, Nev. My preferred style with Tyranids is carapace one color, body and limbs a contrasting color, hands a similar color but slightly different to the limbs or carapace, and some sort of shocking color for the claws and blades. Keep busy, my friend.

Building is coming along nicely

Excited to see your entry for rebel scum develop, they look like a very persuasive bunch

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Good to see you making progress, Nev. My preferred style with Tyranids is carapace one color, body and limbs a contrasting color, hands a similar color but slightly different to the limbs or carapace, and some sort of shocking color for the claws and blades. Keep busy, my friend.

My standard pattern is:
Undercoat w/ Grey Seer
Hard armor - Shysh purple contrast
Skin, light chitin, tubes, etc - Guiliman Flesh contrast (wings get 2 coats)
Killy bits (guns, claws, etc) - Blood Angels red contrast, w/ Nulan oil wash
Normal eyes - yellow w/black vertical slit
Genestealer eyes: Blue within blue of spice addiction Metallic blue w/gloss blue coat
Teeth - bleached bone
Tounges/mouth bits - BA Red contrast, BftBG gloss coat.
Poison/venom - Yellow w/ green ink

12 pots for an army. Not bad. And I could shave 2 off if I just did the stealer eyes like the rest of the army, but that’s my nod to their old hypnotic gaze.

For the Broodlord I went with the purple carapace. GW paints their ’stealers naked, just the claws/eyes a different color. With the smaller guys there is no clear cut point where the “hard” armor stops, and the normal chitin starts. I’m leaning towards just going with skin, and not just because it’s the lazy way out. It would help differentiate them from the gaunt class of gribbles, and the lack of armor helps reinforce how fast they are.

Theophony wrote:Building is coming along nicely

Spoiler:

On the personal front, I know all too well when you change a lot at once how daunting it all seems. A house is never finished, when you do get it complete is right when the wife or yourself decides it’s time to move again , fix what must be done, then do other items as you can. Don’t make it a chore, or it will zap everything out of you.

On the dating side, I always told my friends to give up. No really, stop looking for love, go enjoy what you enjoy and you will meet someone with similar tastes as you. It worked for me (20+ years and counting) and it has worked for a few of my friends. It’s not always the women you meet that you finally get into a relationship with, sometimes it’s a friend that gets to know you that introduces you to the right person. It’s when your being true to yourself that others can see you and will feel comfortable introducing you to others. Just my 2 cents.

Viterbi wrote:Excited to see your entry for rebel scum develop, they look like a very persuasive bunch

I wasn’t too thrilled with the subject, but this should work. I was considering just doing the stealers, but that just felt wrong. So a deep dive to get the magus out of the pile of shame. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a little kill team coven started.

So some progress from the morning.



Marines are just waiting for their edge highlights. First lot of stealers down the the handles. Need to wait for the coffee jitters to wear off for the detail work, but could probably splash some basecoats around. Did the black on the gun after taking the pic, needs the silver drybrush, and then the other steps. Plugging away.

Need to do a little cleanup, but basically done.

Still need to finish those marines, but so much hate for edge work.

Also clipped 4 more stealers. Need to print out more base rings to get them on 32’s. Which would involve re-leveling my printer in it’s new home. Which I should do. But I just spent my break adjusting my mixer (it was scraping the bottom of the bowl) because today is national chocolate chip cookie day. One hardware adjustment per day.,

Hope everyone’s week is going well,

--Nev

That's very nice work Nev.

Huzzah for cookies.

And Genestealers painted on the quick.

Best of luck navigating the pitfalls of home ownership and modern dating.

I like the pale, deathly look of that genestealer.

So like the rest of the nids, these guys paint up like a charm. And without the purple, even easier. Ready for basing. Not 100% on Mr. tentacleface, but I think he gets “Acid Maw” across pretty well. The other guy would do in a pinch as well, but is a lot more subtle.

Also in the news I put the edges on all the spare arms and one of the marines. One more to go, and then they will be ready for final touchups, baseing and decals.

Good progress.

Squid-features is great.

Glad to hear about the potentially positive change-up at work.

So some morning progress.

Decals done on the marines and spare arms. Next step is to glue down the rocks/tufts.
Stealers are at the same step. Probably base them all together. Don’t think I’ll wait for the magus.

Moved 2 more SBR marines down for paint. I could do the last 3 all together, but I want to cycle some gaunts across the bench, and prefer to work them in pairs. Once the Magus is clear I might start the last guy in the squad. Also moved a TH and power sword down for spare bits painting

Still need to clean and assemble the clipped stealers. Should get on that.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

--Nev

You’re making lots of progress. You post updates more often than I can even respond to them. There isn’t much about tongue-out tyranid that’s subtle, but sitting next to tentacle face I suppose you have a point.

 DJJazzyJeff wrote:
You’re making lots of progress. You post updates more often than I can even respond to them. There isn’t much about tongue-out tyranid that’s subtle, but sitting next to tentacle face I suppose you have a point.

Keeping the blog active is one of my goals. Compared to the rest of the stealers, many of who also have tongues sticking out, the guy with the small toxic sack under his chin does not stand out much. If you were to look at a blob of him and a dozen of his peers, could you tell at a glance who had the acid maw? I feel he’s in the same boat as if you looked at a squad of intercessors and were asked to ID the different bolt guns by the scope/clip. Sure, you can tell if you pick them up and compare, but at a glance at arm’s length? Nope. Squidly though you know has the upgrade.



So game yesterday. To try to keep things simple and quick we played without CP or strats. The elimination of “gotcha” moments and things to keep track of significantly raised the enjoyment of the game for The Boy. If you are playing more casually, having to keep all that stuff in mind is a lot of work. I’m a zealot, so not a huge deal for me, but he doesn’t want to invest that might mindpower into the game; he prefers the building/painting side of the hobby to the actual game.

Not going to do a full report. It was the hold objectives/scout table corners mission, 50PL. Victory Nids. I had a few more objective points then him and was 4/4 on corner while he missed one.

Fresh paint:
Exocrine spend most of the game shooting at the dread, not an ideal target. But got to erase a squad of reivers, so got to shine at its primary job. I like it.
Gargoyles dropped down, did some light shooting, scouted a corner. About what I expected. Low expectations, but met.
Flyrant was a little disapointing. Only 4 attacks, shooting was a little meh. She spent a chunk of time in reserves due to the mission, but I was hoping for more.

OK, time for work. Enjoy your week’s all.

Contrast still wet, but almost there. Need to do touch up work (eyes etc) on the face, gem (will be red) and the computer. Clean up the wires. And then base, which I still need to do for all the other guys.

Nice work on the new contrast guy.

Story time? Alright my children. Long ago, there were happy little moons around Ymgarl. There the peaceful creatures frolicked and played...

Just need to base them.