Gitsplitta wrote: That's a great shot Nev, really puts things into context. Nice work.
Edit: Adding picture again due to page rollover
Thanks. And that’s before I add another ~30 marines to the pile. Depends if I can get all the guys on the bench done in time.
So each battle company takes about a third of a whole shelf. Firstborn a little less, primaris a little more. And that’s not just the primaris being on 32’s as opposed to the 25mm the old guys are mostly still on. But the primaris are using a lot of odd units for FA and HS, while the originals are pure infantry/basic JP. But everyone is spaced out to take reinforcements from the YTD shelf. The empty space in the middle is just dreads and command squads. Top shelf is all the vehicles except the Land Raiders, which stayed down with the vets and command. I could probably space guys out a little bit better. We’ll see. I still have the idea of making movement/display trays, which I should get back to.
To compare and contrast, here are the ultras about 10 years ago:
I hear ya on trying to find shelf space. That is the main reason I'm selling my Space Wolves; they are taking up two shelves and I never actually play them or really work on them. With them gone, I'll have a whole shelf each for Knights, Guard, and Votann.
Love the full army shots of your Ultras! You've got a very nice collection there. One of these days I'll do the same with my Dark Angels (a full army shot, that is).
That's quite the force of sisters. Sorry to hear about your friend, Phil. Glad the ladies could find a decent home.
1d4+1 is plenty of assorted glassware, roll out the Emperor's Armies! Extend the Emperor's might!
And if you were looking to hear someone tell you not to buy the sisters codex and have a fourth active army, you probably shouldn't have posted on Dakka.
After all, the white armor would give a nice contrast to try a different style of base.
ZergSmasher wrote:I hear ya on trying to find shelf space. That is the main reason I'm selling my Space Wolves; they are taking up two shelves and I never actually play them or really work on them. With them gone, I'll have a whole shelf each for Knights, Guard, and Votann.
Love the full army shots of your Ultras! You've got a very nice collection there. One of these days I'll do the same with my Dark Angels (a full army shot, that is).
What I should do is get everyone off the shelf and onto the battlemat for another mega army pic. But that’s a TON of work. I also need to get more display space for the other armies. Unfortunately the nearest Ikea is like 4 hours away and shipping costs are brutal. Not sure where else to get affordable display cabinets.
DJJazzyJeff wrote:That's quite the force of sisters. Sorry to hear about your friend, Phil. Glad the ladies could find a decent home.
1d4+1 is plenty of assorted glassware, roll out the Emperor's Armies! Extend the Emperor's might!
And if you were looking to hear someone tell you not to buy the sisters codex and have a fourth active army, you probably shouldn't have posted on Dakka.
After all, the white armor would give a nice contrast to try a different style of base.
We are a bunch of enablers here. The issue is the hobby budget. Do I spend $55 on a book I might use once before it’s obsolete, or on another box of minis? Which admittedly might never see the table, but I’d enjoy building/painting/on display. I don’t want to pick up minis without the corresponding rules, but hate the codex treadmill GW tries to keep us on. I might still pick up a centerpeice model, but that circles back to the lack of display space.
If I go back and rebase all the sisters it will be in a grey rubble base. It’s what I did the modern plastics on.
So some progress:
Marines are done with basecoats, onto drybrushing and washes. Nids are at the blackwash stage for the reds. Moving along.
Happy/Merry Christmas to all of you out there. Have a great day and hopefully find some new hobby stuff under the tree.
The two gaunts are off waiting to be based. Second blue coat down on the marines, ink next. Started the guns, and also a spare set of lascannon sponsons. Both those are blacked/drybrused. Moving along.
Since I’ve still got stuff moving across the bench, it’s a little early for the year-end wrap, but I’ve got a quiet day off, so I should start my woolgathering. Let’s look forward.
I’ve got a lot of stuff to build. Mostly the 30k boxset. I need to figure out what I want for my army. Need at least 5 more assault volkites (but kinda wish they came out with assault marines so I could do some on running legs). Also need to decide how I want to build the chaperacti and the remaining Mk 3/4 marines I have. Part of the issue here is I don’t know what kind of army I want to build from a mechanical POV, and there isn’t a fluff template like a 40k battle company to build towards.
I still have a lot of the mooks from the cursed city box. And a few other undead guys from previous buys sitting in the PoS. I should chip away at them.
I think the Eldar and Tyranids are pretty clear. Few odds and bobs, but nothing really pending.
Some intercessors need to be built for the company. I think I’ve got 5 more on sprue set to be the back half of a rifle team. 3 assaults I picked up from the magazine series, which unfortunately have sculpted detail. Which you would think would be fine, as it’s UM details, and that’s my chapter. But I’ve been mirroring my shoulderpads from the official sides, so they are backwards to me.
So planned purchases:
If we get 10th this summer, I’ll grab the box. This seems likely. I need a handful more basic intercessors and a box of heavy ones. We’ll see if any are in the starter, or if they have alternatives that can swap into their company slots. Besides that, the codex, UM supplement if needed, and anything especially shiny and cool.
I would like to clear the decks of nids before buying more. I suspect I’ve got enough built and ready to last the year. That said, a new codex/shiny stuff will break me. As there were rumors that the 10th box was marines vs. nids, this might be a bad summer. Or good, depending on the PoV.
Speaking of clearing things up, I should paint some Eldar before getting more. From this year’s purchases I’ve painted a singular autarch. I’d like to get some of the other new things I missed (storm guardians, Avatar, another box of spears) but I really need to work on what I have first.
Planned paint:
So I’ve got enough stuff on deck to keep me out of trouble. The question is what gets paint? I think polishing off the battle company might be a bit of a stretch. If my math is right I’ll need 26-28 guys to round it out. That’s doable, but represents a large chunk of my output for the year. Aiming for ~20 guys again and finishing it early 2024 might be a better pace. It is a stretch goal.
I’ve got a little over 40 nids left in the built/primed piles. Would it be nice to clear them all out? Yes. Doable? Also yes. Would it end up looking like this year’s YTD shelf where it’s either a nid or an UM trooper? Yes. If I aimed for both this and the company, I could do it, but that would be almost everything. Mild smattering of other projects in a sea of blue and purple. I’d like to be more diverse than that.
I think instead of my paint 5 different factions goal I might go to a 2 units from 4 different factions. I want to get more then token projects done.
I’m assuming the 10th starter. That’s a pretty well known unknown. The only wrinkle is if they do something like they did for 6/7th where the marine half is chapter locked. Life is too short to be scraping iconography off a starter’s worth of troops.
Will they do another big 30k box? While I’m still not done with the one I have, FOMO is a thing, and contents could entice me. There are also a number of other 30k things out now I’d kinda like to pick up
Wave 2 Eldar or a big revision to the Tyranid range might trigger more sales or projects.
A Kill Team box with contents I care about might drag me into that.
So paint progress. Hellblasters got their ink. Edges, clean up, and the sarge needs some face work. Guns got their first blue.
Some work on the TLLCs. Technically only 2 “bits” but if I can get these done I’m counting that as a minor victory on my paint spare bits goal. They would let me field both my LRs as classic phobos patterns, which are 30k compliant. Even if the exact model is a little bit of a stretch.
Cleaned up the jetbikes a bit more. They need magnets for their bases, which means some GS work before i can progress.
Have tomorrow off, so hoping for some good progress. I do have to go to the dentist mid-morning, so not uninterrupted hobby time. Still have until Sunday to wrap up yearly projects.
Good progress yesterday. Marine bodies are done, arms still WIP. More work on the LCs. Hopefully finish tonight/tomorrow. We’ll see how today goes and how much life I have left in me for hobby time.
JoshInJapan wrote:Wow, you keep plugging away, right up to the end. No wonder your UM army is so huge.
Stubborn persistence past the limits of sanity is normally an Imperial Fist thing, but I do what I can with my Ultras.
ZergSmasher wrote:Looks like you and me are both trying to sneak a few more things in at the end of the year. Looking forward to your wrap-up post as always!
I’d like to get them done for the year-end pics. It’s a little bit of silly perfectionist, but is what it is. If I put all of my summery pics together it does not cover all the models I painted in the timeframe, due the things WIP at picture time. The biggest one (literally) that stands out is my Stormraven, but there are probably more.
Also, getting them done will let me click off to more “completes” on my goals, so I’d like to be able to do that. I might cheat a little and give myself an extension due to the weekend, but would like to get things done today.
No picture at this time, but I just put the blue ink on the arms. They still need edgeing, plasma coils/wax glossed, and touch up. Plus final assembly. Another blue coat down on the LC parts. Getting there.
Bikes are up on their flight stands. GS’d magnets and did up the stems while I was at it. Next step is the little wings and the riders.
Enjoy the weekend all. Happy New Year if I don’t post again before tonight (which is a moving target depending on where you are reading this). Stay safe out there.
Edit: Everyone is down off the handles and over to be based. Finished the black rims, next step is tufts and rocks. Little clean up on the orange and the LCs are done, the sponsons need a second blue on the cowls, and then ink overall. Might put a wash on the cables for some depth. Plus assembly and touch ups.
Edit2: Rocks and tufts down, orange cleaned, cowls blued.
Automatically Appended Next Post: So random numbers time:
For the year, 2814 points, 94 models,
Ultras -
Year - 1,142 points, 33 models
Total collection - 17,114 points
Nids
Year - 1,313 points, 56 models
Total collection - 3,360
Eldar
Year - 299, 3 models
Total collection - 4,559
Deathwatch
Year - 60, 2 models
Total collection - 1,409
Last year was 97 models, 2,600 points. So this year was a few less models, but a bit more points. Also I think the first year where the Ultras are not the dominant force on the YTD shelf. The triple tyrant month for the nids really helped there. But also the waves of gribbles.
Only 4 factions this year, and Eldar/DW were really light. Need more diversity.
I’ll get pics once I finish basing stuff
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edit: flocked. Nids off to join the swarm, marines waiting for transfers. Blue ink down on sponsons. Need to do undersides of cowls, and then assembly.
Very two-tone between the nids and Ultras, but good volume. Got shots of everything that wasn’t previously in the light box. Not going to link them all, feel free to poke around my gallery if you want.
I had to reorganize the nid shelf. They really need more space, but for now some of them are in the boxes I got to magnetize, just so I can fit layers on the shelf. Still a tight fit. But while I had everyone out, here is a state of the swam pic:
Compare to the prior plan:
I didn’t include the bugs that were previously painted by my friend Ben in the new plan pic. They will be there if I need extra claws form some mega game, but trying to keep things in the leviathan colors.
While I’d like to get all of them kicked out of the to-do pile, it might be a stretch for one year. At least half. Let’s call it two dozen as a target. Then I can think about grabbing some new guys to add. I’d like a box of zoenthropes, and maybe the big brain bug.
OK, it’s been a lazy day, but I should motivate and do some stuff around the house. I’ll do more year end review and reset my goals for next year later.
Automatically Appended Next Post: OK, time to look at goals.
Last year I wrote: Here are my New Year’s resolutions: 1 Paint 20 members for the primaris battle company 22/20 2 Paint more than I buy. 94/119 3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magnetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options. * /12 4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3 5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week). 6 Paint at least one unit for 5 different factions. 4/5 7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. 8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain. Try to enter the new format LoER contest at least once.
1 - 20 troopers, and 2 characters. The plasma/fist captain has the red trim of the 3rd, not sure if I’m going to formally replace my current standing captain. But even if I count him as an extra, still made the goal 2 - OK, this was a miss. Between the Cursed City and 30k box, plus the Nid combat patrol this was just not happening. And those weren’t the only things I bought. Dropped a lot of cash on the hobby this year. Which to be fair is my major vice. I’m pretty tight with money generally. 3 - I’m counting this as a win, but it’s a little fuzzy. Finished the TLLCs for the LR (as well as 2 eldar bits) As each sponson is composed of 4 different bits, I’m calling this a technical win. 5 - I keep blogging away. 10 years this May. 6 - Doing the 3 sisters instead of undead in October killed this one. And the non-ultra/nid factions were really phoned in. Not very diverse this year. 7 - Still going strong. If my math is right June will be the 100th competition. 8 - I technically entered a LoER comp, but did not feel the one hill I completed was worthy of entry, so didn’t finish. But technically a win.
So 6 wins, 2 fails. Not bad.
So normally I just roll over last year’s resolutions with a few changes. Finishing the company is roughly 26-28 more guys. While a nice stretch goal, it’s a little much. Not going to aim for 20 again, as I feel that will just push me towards a similar year to this one, which was very monotonous. I think i’m also going to drop the spare bits one. I’m better about painting up all the options while I’m doing the mini, and the back log of bits is kinda reasonable. I do still need to chip away at what is left, but don’t want to stress over it. With The Boy’s lack of interest in playing 40k, I think I’m going to drop the terrain goal. No longer a need to get my home table up to fighting trim. I do want to add a counter for the Nids. They were supposed to be PoS neutral, but there is quite a pile there now. I also need to get their transport option sorted.
1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company (stretch goal: finish it) 2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) 3 Paint more than I buy. 4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week). 6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army. 7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. 8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
I’ll update the first post and archive things later. Enjoy your evenings all. Old first post
Spoiler:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions: 1 Paint 20 members for the primaris battle company 22/20 2 Paint more than I buy. 94/119 3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magnetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options. * /12 4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3 5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week). 6 Paint at least one unit for 5 different factions. 4/5 7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. 8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain. Try to enter the new format LoER contest at least once.
Money spent on the hobby: $1,008
$9 - Painter’s tape and superglue $120 - Eldar half of eldritch omens $227 - Cursed City, Imperium #3 $46 - Eldar Codex $123 - Tyranid codex, shining spears (plus free terrain) $100 - Tyranid combat patrol, Parasyte. (discounted w/ reward points, Should be $170) $365 - 30k box, special weapons. $35 - Rocks, tufts, loyalist codex (Discounted w/ gift card and reward points, Should be $115) $16 - 2 pots Nuln Oil (old) $50 - Paints, set of 10 assorted $10 - Magnets $7 - Pot guiliman flesh
Games played: 3/2
2-26 Ultramarine vs. SoB 25 PL crusade, lost. 3-27 Ultramarine vs. Tau 25 PL crusade, lost. 4-9 Ultramarine vs. SoB 25PL crusade, Win 5-8 Ultramarine vs. Deathguard 25PL crusade, Win 6-4 Tyranid vs. Ultramarines 25PL crusade, Win.
Just a quick proof of life. Things have been rough at work, and the post-holiday exhaustion is not helping. Also not helping is the Steam winter sale, which yielded up the Battletech game from a few years back, which my aging PC still has the power to run.
This month my comp entry is going to be the ancient from the indominus box. I also did a survey of old stuff to see what’s at the bottom of the PoS that needs to be scraped off. Winners for the 3 things I’m going to try to get done this year are the stormhawk, a jetseer, and a 5 man destroyer squad. And maybe the jump packs for them and the front half of the squad I did a while back.
No paint down so far, but the month is young, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Bikes getting cleaned up, and progress on the nid magnet issue
So the magnets in the bases don’t stick well to the rubberized magnets glued into the boxes, but fine to my metal ruler. Amazon has a 10 pack for $20. I don’t care how cheep they are (and don’t want the nice cork back) so let’s see how they work. Answer? Fine, but not what I need. The little bit of extra space at the end for the hole to hang them up? Makes them too long for the useful boxes. Quick search shows I can just get 12"x1” strips of steel for about for a little less than I paid for the rulers. But I wonder what kinda of markup I’m paying on those. Might be worth a trip to the hardware store. Also bought some fresh green stuff, as I think what I have has gone stale. It’s a bear to mix.
Anyway, that’s enough hobby for one night. Back to giant stompy mechs.
Dude, your description of the career arc of a Space Marine (over in the Painting Challenge thread) made me snicker. I look forward to seeing where you take the model.
I hope you figure out your storage issues-- I've had to slow down my own painting because I'm running out of places to keep the models I finish.
Bladeguard Ancient is coming along. That's a model I'm sure I'll have fun with once I get around to him (this year hopefully, before 10th comes out would be best). Mine will be painted in Deathwing colors of course.
You've set yourself some pretty nice goals and you did great on last year's. Given that you're pretty good at maintaining a steady pace of work I think you'll do fine. I hardly noticed any lack of diversity from you, but going back I could see what you were getting at. I had the opposite problem; I didn't finish very many models, but the ones I did finish were from a variety of factions/games. Looking forward to seeing what you produce in 2023!
I keep on being tempted to just have some Ikea Detolf shelves delivered. Wait never mind. Just went to their webpage and prices are seriously jacked up from last time I looked. I recall them being ~$60 and like $200 for delivery. Crazy, but a flat number, so if you got like 3-4 it evened out. Now they are like $109 w/ a $350 delivery charge. Screw that. At that price I can go to a real furniture store and get another actual quality china cabinet. Or order a bunch of KR cases or more useful boxes and magnets.
Speaking of which, the GS I ordered came in, but I haven’t cracked ti open yet. Did get some other work done.
Marine is pretty much done with basecoats, but they are extra sloppy. I think it’s time to get some new brushes. The mini is not particularly easy to paint either. Bikes are built, riders clipped.
Did some base work. New GS is a LOT easier to work with than the old stale stuff. Minis still have little wiggle on the magnetic sheets. Probably fine for around the house, not sure I’d trust it for a car ride to the FLGS.
Tried bending a ruler. Might need to be scored first for a cleaner angle. Or just use a dremel to cut off the excess.
edit: A little retail therapy found a new W&N S7 #1 at my door today. It’s my workhorse brush, and was starting to have trouble holding a point. I deserve nice things from time to time.
Started up a pair of stealers just to keep the volume up. And so I can see some progress actually happening. Ancient got his brown wash. Next step is a lot of tidy up and highlight passes. With the guiliman flesh over so much, I need to differentiate the bones, parchment, and golds.
Put magnets in the bases of 20 more gaunts. Also in a base of rippers. For the larger bases that have the features on the bottom to drill through, a stacked pair of 3x2mm magnets superglue nicely into them. I did 2 stacks on the rippers, but on the larger models I’ll probably fill more.
Got the blue ink on him last night. Now for the clean up. So much cleanup... Getting a brush to the armor under the robes was not fun. Moving along though. Should be on track to finish him by the end of the month.
Still playing a lot of Battletech on the computer. Running around with a lance of assault mechs is always a good time.
Stealers need a check pass for any cleanup. Marine is getting there. Need touchups with the guiliman flesh where I had to tidy up splashes, and some other cleaning. Plus edges and highlights. Getting there.
The Marine is, indeed, coming along nicely. You are much braver than I am, posting WIP photos like this-- I can't bring myself to share pics of unfinished models, since my process is so sloppy right up to the end.
What is your plan for the standard? As it is now, it looks a lot like the robes...
I post WIP shots to keep myself honest. And to get input if I should adjust things before I am finished.
I’m hoping the highlights will help differentiate things a bit. It’s all very same-y because the robes, golds, bone, and parchment are all slathered with the same guiliman flesh wash. The plan is to hit the golds with their base color and then a few bumps of silver, and the bone with some bleached bone. The parchment already got a little edge work with the base beige when I was cleaning things up. All goes well that will do the job. If not I can try another different wash to shift the tone again.
Nevelon wrote: I post WIP shots to keep myself honest. And to get input if I should adjust things before I am finished.
I’m hoping the highlights will help differentiate things a bit. It’s all very same-y because the robes, golds, bone, and parchment are all slathered with the same guiliman flesh wash. The plan is to hit the golds with their base color and then a few bumps of silver, and the bone with some bleached bone. The parchment already got a little edge work with the base beige when I was cleaning things up. All goes well that will do the job. If not I can try another different wash to shift the tone again.
Sounds like a lot of work, but also like it will pay off. I look forward to seeing the finished model.
He is kind of a symphony of earth tones.
Sounds like my patented Paint Everything Brown technique.
OK, all done. Pretty happy how he turned out. 1st company is getting pretty fleshed out. Is this how people end up with whole chapters of marines? It feels like I’m on that road. 2 battle companies and the 1st and 10th? Not unreasonable from where I’m sitting. Madness.
Also finished the 2 stealers. So 3 minis done this month. A little behind schedule.
Magnetized the bases of another lot of nids. Probably 3/4 of the way done. On the metal gaunts and the larger minis there is not enough strength to keep models in place on the flex magnet sheets, but it is a good grip on the metal. I should probably rev up the dremel and shave the rulers I got down to size. But that’s something that should probably be done on the workbench in the garage, and it’s cold out there. No rush. Or see if I can source affordable 8.5”x12" sheets of thin gauge steel.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Stay warm out there.
That Ancient turned out great! I'm well on the way to a whole chapter of Dark Angels myself. I've easily got a whole Battle Company, plus a good chunk of the 10th and (counting bodies in vehicles as well as bikes) basically the ENTIRE Ravenwing and half the Deathwing. It really is ludicrously easy to accumulate stuff in this hobby without realizing just how much!
This is on deck for the month. 3 snipers, a lictor, and a Zoe. Just put the base layer of grey seer down on the nids.
Licor I’m going to try something new. Instead of the normal purple/flesh washes, I’m going to go with a very thinned down coat and dapple some mottled spots on the carapace. Then I’m going to coat the whole guy in the white contrast paint. Probably. We’ll see how it looks with thinned paints. The idea is the same scheme as the rest of the hive fleet, but hyper desaturated as arctic camo. Face tentacles and deadly bits will be in their normal bright colors. Because real camo is boring.
Poked around the deep piles of shame for old battletech minis. I know there is more, but I could not lay hands on it. Found one med/light omnimech that never got paint, and a host of elementals, plus some metal hex bases. I'm pretty sure I’ve got some crappy plastic mechs and a few probable partial IS mechs in a box somewhere.
I’m not a huge fan of the mounted skeleton look, both here and on the Indominus captain. Is what it is though. Definitely distinctive.
So finally finished building the shining spears.
They can go into the to-prime pile and await the coming of spring. Need to figure out what to build next. Leaning towards the Spartan.
Put some purple down.
Going to need to reinforce the Zoe’s base. Getting a little wobbly, even with a pin. I thinned the contrast with a lot of water. Intentionally took advantage of the tide pooling, letting it dry a little and then sopping up the extra, repeat a few times. I want to go back and do another round, maybe put some un-thinned paint into the cracks. But this is on track to the look I’m going for.
That Zoanthrope has got to be about the most top-heavy miniature of its size class. Looking forward to seeing your Shining Spears painted; I'm not particularly fond of the Craftworlds models compared to other 40k ranges, but the newer kits are nice and I do like the official color scheme for Spears.
I'm interested in how your mottling experiment works out-- the few times I've tried it, I was never satisfied with the results. Also, the Battletech bug is spreading all over Dakka, isn't it?
I haven’t thought much about the scheme on the spears. Mostly white, some blue, and the constant accents that I keep across the army. What’s what will wait until they find their way to the bench. Eldar are a bit sidelined at this point for the nid/company projects. But I want to get at least 2 units of them done this year, and the bikes might be one of those.
the wobble/top heavy issue I’m hoping will be fixed when I base it. The flock/glue mix should fill the gaps and make a more solid connection. I’ll just slap it on a little thicker then normal.
I’ve dabbled into mottling and intentionally using tide marks for my nighthaunts and more dramatically on Manfied’s cloak. We’ll see what happens here. One of my issues is that I’m a bit of a control freak about some things, and the organic nature of the process is inherently uncontrolled.
I’ve been playing the heck out of the Battletech computer game (hence the slow painting progress) so it’s real hard not to bite the bullet and go all-in on the minis version. The main things holding me back are the fact that I’d probably never actually play, and I’m not made of money to blow on random hobby projects. Of course, if I take a step back and look at the status of my life, almost nothing I paint is actually going to hit the table, so why not? But I try not to use that perspective, because it’s depressing as feth.
Anyway, progress: Side hulls of the spartan done. Ish. Leaving the treads off for painting. Next up central hull.
Put the flesh wash on the Zoe, diluted it and put it on the spook. Noticed I missed the plate on his tail with the thinned purple. Oh well, I need to do more thin layers anyway. I think I might thin out the red to accentuate the brain bits on the Zoe. It’s the color I use for claws/guns/dangerous bits, so fits here.
Also put the first white on the snipers. They are a bit behind; need to get some progress on them.
Have a great weekend all!
Edit: As they are on my mind, here is a collection of my classic Battletech minis from the archives”
Looking good so far Nevelon. Only suggestion I'd have for the lictor is an orange or red brown wash on the face tentacles, try to bring them down and closer to the skin or talons a bit maybe?
Vejut wrote: Looking good so far Nevelon. Only suggestion I'd have for the lictor is an orange or red brown wash on the face tentacles, try to bring them down and closer to the skin or talons a bit maybe?
The plan is for them to get the green wash that the tentacles on the acid maw genestealers use. So it will be toned down a bit.
The black wash will tone down the reds, the green the yellows. Still not sure it will be enough.
Running the challenge is a little work, but not unmanageable. Maybe 4 hours a month, with about 2/3rds of that in on big chunk making the poll thread. Helping keep that running is a little thing I can do to add to the world. I think it really does help foster a sense of healthy community, which is a good thing.
--
Got a lot of work done yesterday. Still a few details I need to do. Lenses need the gloss coat, blue needs to be inked, black wash on flex armor. Some silvers need to be picked out. And all the camo stripes. I think I’m going to pass on doing the eyes on the sarge. He’s blinking.
Stealers need both stages of eyes, tounges glossed, and reds/rocks blackwashed.
Then everyone needs to be based.
Tank construction is paused while I try to get everyone painted by the end of the month.
Bugs are looking good, as are the Eliminators. I do like how you've been doing the arctic camo on the Phobos guys; makes a nice contrast with the bright blue of most of your Ultras.
I'm glad you took up the mantle of the facilitator of the monthly painting challenges. I know you'll continue to run it as well as Paradigm did and I look forward to continuing to enter (this month notwithstanding...).
Like the scouts before them, they serve a vital job of breaking up the sameness that painting marine armies brings. These guys bring me up to 2 dozen marines in arctic camo. Little over 30 scouts in woodland, halfway to the 10th company! <madness intensifies> I’ve got 2 scouts and 3 more eliminators to paint, and I think one more phobos body still on sprue. Honestly, I could probably call it at a respectable demi-co. Got the chaplain and a Lt, plus the senior sarge and a librarian to lead ~50 troops.
I’m more likely to push to a full 1st company. I’m already 2/3rd of the way there.
So a little wrap up.
Done.
And that’s a year.
I’ve already rambled on in the relevant threads, and am too lazy to copy/paste it back here right now. Pretty happy with them.
So all the nids off the workbench for the month. There is one more stealer in this lot waiting for paint. I’ve got 4 on sprue and one in the “already painted” pile that looks to be just a thin wash over primer. So I could boost this group up to a full 10 man squad if I wanted. Which would give me a full batch on the “official” bases. But I want to hold off until 10th, see if things change, of if I need to make some with certain heads, etc.
The Zoenthrope just just not have a good angle. Massive head armor makes anything from the front bad, and the back is not much better. But painted, which gives the swarm a much needed mid-sized synapse node. Still want to get more of them, and the new plastics, not this old finecast one. But i’m not going to look a gift nid in the mouth, she will serve the hivefleet well.
So some paint going down on the destroyers. Nothing fancy yet. But there will be freehand in their future for their squad logo, and probably chapter symbol to keep with the first half of the squad.
ZergSmasher wrote: Ah, kicking it old-school for the Marine month, eh? They look good so far!
Kicking it old school would be cleaning up some RTB01s, or dragging out some old lead terminators or space ork raiders or something like that. For an ancient grognard like me, nothing gets to be called “old school” unless it has a couple decades on it.
Not that these guys don’t have some age on them in a number of ways. They are mk III heresy marines, and a unit not active in 40k, only HH. And they are one of the oldest things in the primed pile. Both of which are reasons they are getting paint now.
Not a lot of progress since the last post. Need to keep the momentum up.
JoshInJapan wrote: I was just a little shocked to see grey rather than blue.
Not every marine I paint is blue! OK, most of them are. Somewhere in the 3/4 to 5/6th range. I should do a head count. But I’ve got 2 different camo schemes, all of the non-line officers (ok, some of them are still blue. So more like half of them) Deathwatch, Blood Angels, Chaos!
Plus guys like these 30k destroyers, who will get another coat at some point to bring them closer to black.
Finished the build for now. Tracks will be painted separately,
Need to figure out what I want to build next. It would help if I had any clue what I wanted my 30k legion force to look like. Kind of a mish-mash of randomness now.
And get more paint down. Weekend (and month) are drifting away.
Put the brown wash on the gold for the marines. Need to pick up the pace.
Also put magnets in the base of 20 genestealers and the sheet in the bottom of the big box. At some point I need to figure out how I want to deal with the gargoyles. Their flight stems are magnetized, so I might be able to kit up some sort of rack for them. Might be as simple as a row of nails/screws in something with a few magnets in the bottom to fit in the box.
edit:
Musing on company organization in another thread, put this together:
Ultramarines 3rd Company (take 2, I already built them as a firstborn company)
I don’t have a nice graphic of how things are laid out. Just a sheet of paper with a bunch of circles which get crossed off and filled in as things for from built/primed/painted.
1 Captain done- alt 1 Chaplain done 1 Judicair (filling the role of company champion) done 1 Apothecary done 2 Lieutenants done 1 Ancient done (probably 2 bodyguard vets) (not sure if I’ll get fresh redemptor dreads, or just attach some older models to help guide the new boys, need 2-3)
Battleline: 10 intercessors, bolt rifles - front done back 5 to build 10 intercessors, bolt rifles - front 5 done, need pic, back 5 need to buy 10 intercessors, autobolt rifles - done front-back 10 intercessors, 5 bolt rifles, 5 specialists for Killteam operations - Front need pic, back built 10 intercessors, stalker bolt rifles - done -front-back 10 heavy intercessors - front done Need 5 more
I need better pis of a bunch of guys. Both as full squads, and a lot of the basic bolt rifles snuck across the paintbench without geting photographed at all
Next up to clean and build are 5 more capheracti. The first 5 from the BaC box I built as pure 2xLC, with a grenade harness on the sarge. Building these to fill out the squad and give it some options. 2 specialists with HF and Chainfists, and 3 more 2xLC guys, one with a vexila. These are not the guys to use coms or auspexes. Chainfists are there because sometimes you need to carve open the crunchy box to get to the soft bits inside. HFs are a “why not” pic. Needed something for the off-hand.
Also put magnets in the bases of the spore mines and the old stealers. Going to have to order some more 5x2mm magnets
Painting:
Getting there. Put the dark blue on the cables, leather on the holsters. Still need to greenwash the frag grenades, do up the missiles, and then the second black layer, second blue on the shoulders, ink the blue, edges, freehand symbols. Still have (roughly) half the month.
As I was clipping the terminators I mused a bit on the shape of my HH force. I think I settled on a theme and background. I was leaning heavy into a mechanized infantry force, with a lot of volkite. Mech lists seem they work well with the legion rules, and volkite just screams 30k to me.
The Calth muster was supposed to be the UM and WB teaming up against an ork empire. Volkite seems ideal for tough, lightly armored foes. Like orks. So I think I’m going to list tailor my army as if I was going on a crusade against the greenskins. Still with a healthy dash of TAC, because hello: Ultramarines.
Enough long range heavy AV to deal with things like stompas, but more focused on mid S high rate of fire to pop light vehicles like trucks. And then weight of attacks/shots to clear hordes.
It’s OK to end up with some high AV firepower, but I’m not here to cash out MEQ. Of course, a 10 man squad to 2xLC will blend marines just as well as orcs.
I’m not sure I’ll use the armored ROW, but if I do I’ll need a tank commander HQ. To that end, I just ordered a sicarian tank. The base model with the right sponsons seems like it’s just what the primarch ordered for leading a spearhead against the orks. And I’ve coveted one for a while anyway. Will kit up a extra fancy guy for the top hatch. Part of me wants to do a “drive closer! I want to hit him with my sword” pose, but that’s not a very pragmatic Ultramarine thing to do.
Anyway, cat decided she has had enough time sitting in my lap, so off to start my day. Enjoy your weekends all.
So little retail therapy/supply drop. Getting low on the mags i use for bases. Probably would have been enough to finish the nids, but it would have been close. And I don’t want to feel restrained when putting them on bigger minis.
And a new tank. Because I’ve always like the look of this guy, and I wanted a special tank to run for my tank commander if I do run an armored spearhead list. I’m of two minds on that. If I am going to make a HQ tank, Do I go for a sword out ‘Drive me CLOSER", crest on helmet, flamboyant tank commander? Or a grizzled bearded guy with a dataslate and a coms bead organizing the advance? And more practically, do I clutter the coupla with the extra guns it’s almost certainly worth paying the points for?
Edit:
Hobby progress
The terminators have their legs and torsos cleaned and sub-assembled. 2 marines got their second black coat. When ai also noted I missed a grenade, so will need to go back for that.
If I was going to buy a 30k tank "just for the hell of it", that would probably be the one. I've always loved the look of the Sicaran, and I'm sure it would look great in the 40k Dark Angels color scheme; I just don't think I'd ever get around to playing with the damn thing! I do look forward to seeing what you do with it. For the commander, it's a tough call; on one hand, the whole "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!" thing is a great meme and would be well liked by people when they see it, but on the other hand, it would be more of an Ultramarines thing to go with the cold, calculating backfield commander with his dataslate or something. Just do whatever floats your boat, I'm sure it will look good regardless.
Need to dig around the bits box and make sure I have the right parts. Odds are I’ll build the commander before the tank. Maybe both of them...
Haven’t done any building/cleaning since the last time at the bench, but did get some paint down.
Blacks are down, next up is edges and cleanup. Plus details I missed (found a purity seal)
--
So 10th is officially happening. Big announcement at adeptecon/streamed for those of you living under a rock who missed it. Also for those under the Rock, you primarch woke up and is getting a model. Of which I am jealous, as he is far more awesome looking then Guiliman, But more importantly new terminators and Tyranids are the big bad for the edition. So the jokes about collecting the whole first company a little bit back? Probably happening. I’ve wanted to replace my old metals, but couldn’t really justify the budget just to swap out a perfectly serviceable part of my collection. Especially when they’ve sucked for most of the time. Atheistically, the new nids seem to follow the old, so should not be an issue merging them into the swarm. If they rebase things, I’m probably just going to ignore that. I don’t play competitively anyway.
Good luck with the Destroyers for the March competition.
I am actually looking forward to 10th if it is going to be as standardized with universal rules instead of the bloat we have now. My group is only playing Combat Patrol as there were too many custom rules for everyone to track.
Not to be cynical, but GW saying “opps, we let bloat and power creep get out of control, we are coming out with a new edition to fix all that” and then going back to their old playbook has happened before, and not just once. That said, each reboot is better IMHO, and we get a bit of time playing before the wheels come off and things go crazy again. And generally for causal players it’s never as bad as the competitive side where people are going all-out to exploit the flaws in the system.
Even if they mangle the rules, I’ll get more cool minis to paint. And I have faith that they won’t throw the baby out with the bath and kill their golden goose. Looking forward to things.
Cleaned and built the capheracti this morning.
So this is a squad that wants to charge down the assault ramp of the spartan. Will it blend? Pretty sure they can turn anything into a fine red mist. Or green mist, or purple. They don’t judge you by the color of your vital internal fluids/ichors. All who stand against them will be treated equally. Sunk magnets into the backs of two of them for options. Need to figure out how to vet a legion vexila up there, but they are composed of fiddly bits, so might need more work. Chinfists in case something crunchy needs to be carved up to get to the chewy center. And the HFs because they are the option in the kit, and sometimes you need to burn something out of cover before going in after them.
Next up to build is going to be the sicarian.
And someday the weather is going to calm down enough to prime. Pile is getting real full.
Eh, I've been enjoying 9th, and it was even better than 8th, so I have at least some hope that 10th will continue the trend, although I do expect the usual power creep and increasing bloat as the edition wears on. You should be happy that you'll be getting new Marines and new bugs whenever the new starter set drops; I actually thought of you when they did that reveal as I know you play both.
Cataphractii are pretty cool looking; they always look like they should be even more durable than normal Terminators, but in 40k they are the same (maybe in Horus Heresy they are tougher?). Did you magnetize the flamers, or did you only place magnets for vexillas?
The old guys were based with the GW flock before I got the woodland scenics. I’ll need to decide if it maters. I do have a small stash of it left. Plus a few of the dead tufts.
I’ve enjoyed the 9th I’ve played. It’s all been crusade at the friendly level. I like it better then 8th, which I think went too far to simplify things. Right now I’m looking at it like 7th. Solid core, fun to play, but codex creep run out of control at end of life.
Capheracrts are a bit tougher in 30k They have a 2+/4++ save and the heavy subtype, which lets them re-roll armor saves vs. blasts and templates. They can’t run/sweeping advance. I didn’t magnetize the guns for a few reasons. One is that I don’t have a lot of spare 30k heavy weapons, and only the HF for this model of terminator. They have the option for plasma blasters or autocannons in the rules. I’m also building to theme more for 30k. These guys have one job: charge down an assault ramp and kill greenskins. That’s the muster they were geared for. The fact that the Word Bearers did their thing does not change their loadout. I’ve also got 5 more on sprue, so if I want to do more weapons later I can. And those 5 models might be broken up into a command squad and some characters if I’m feeling spiffy, which might leave a spare body for swapping weapons.
I did put mags up top for if I wanted to do more then one of the augury/vexila/vox. Didn’t bother with enough space for all 3, as they have pretty much no use for the scanner. As an Ultramarine, I feel I should probably hand out a lot of voxes, as C^3 seems to be their big thing. But mechanically, I’m not planning on taking a lot of units that would benefit from them. These guys have the excuse that they are going to be deploying from a transport, so won’t start on the field to scout things out, and will be busy blending things so can’t call down fire support. Of course, they are going to be a big brick of battle-brothers in a key place, so might be able to do some spotting while they kill things. We’ll see if I kitbash a bit for them.
So that’s a 10 man squad. Took long enough. Freehand unit markings are still a little rough, but a lot better than before.
Next month is Doomsday, so some cultists getting paint.
Also, you can see in the blurry background the 8th edition starter captain and some more nids. I think the gravis captain is the only thing I have left from the DI box in the primed pile. Get him done just in time for 10th. I’ve got one more inceptor on sprue. I had painted 2/3 of my second squad to join the Deathwatch, when you could still mix them into intercessor squads. Since they monkeyed with the squad structure, not sure if I should clip and build him so they can field their own legal 3 man squad, or paint him blue to push my Ultra squad of them up to 4 men. I think I’ll wait until we see how 10th is going to shake out. No rush.
Tank going together pretty well. Next up is the engine bits and the turret/sponsons. And topped off with the commander.
Hope everyone is haveing a good start to their weekend and April.
youwashock wrote: Nice work on the Destroyers. They make for a cool looking unit.
Thanks. Some of the build on a few is a little sketchy. IIRC from when I was building them, not only was I scraping the bottom of the bits box for pistols, but also arms at the correct angle to hold them, Compromises were made. GW really needs to make some plastic 30k assault marines.
So it’s April now, time for a look back at the first quarter of the year.
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company (stretch goal: finish it)
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (7/24)
3 Paint more than I buy. (15/1)
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (1/3)
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
So while I’ve painted some Ultras, none for the 3rd company. This is a problem. 10th looks to be highlighting the 1st, so the odds of getting new shinies to fill the company are low. And are going to be a big distraction.
Chipping away at the nids. Good progress, but need more. Especially as they are going to get a massive influx this summer. Weather is starting to get nice, I want to prime what I’ve got and start churning them across the bench. I doubt I’ll be able to do them all in time, but need to make room.
Only bought one model, painting away. This goal, of course, is going to be sorely tested over the summer.
Destroyers let me check a unit off the old stuff box. I’ve got the stormhawk and jetseer sitting on my paint bench just to remind me they are next. Move the gravis captain from the 8th box to the bench for work, and just have the 9th ed relic shield captain are the remnants of the 8/9th starters in the primed pile to finish before 10th drops. One 8th inceptor on spure still from 8th I should deal with.
Good blogger, 15 minis down for the year. On track.
Do I count the 30k Ultras as a different faction? Anyway, good progress here. Halfway there (of course, with the gimmie entries of Ultras/Nids). 2 cultists for this month’s comp will also help here.
Still entering the comp. And running it now. Need to put the poll up for the last month today.
Nid magnet project is going strong. 3/4s of the boxes I bought are done, and I only have half a dozen mid sized bugs to do the bases for. Still a few big ones, and all new work. But i could get this polished off in a weekend. One more sitting, really. Still need to work out what to do for the ones that need more grip. Now that the weather is getting nice, might cleanup the workspace in the garage and dremel those rulers down.
So overall doing real good so far for the year. The one I’m behind on is painting guys for the battle company. Rest of them are on track or ahead.
--
Tank is almost done. Finished the hull, built most of the turret. Need to do the second gun to finish it. Then accessorize, which is where the fun happens. The tank commander was the driving reason for this kit, and has a lot of potential options as he’s basically bit’s box choice of where to go. Once the tank is done, I’ll start stickytacking parts together to see what I like.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edit:
Forgot about the sponsons. It looks like 3x2mm magnets are going to be perfect for the job. They should fit flush into the brackets and top/bottom of the guns. The volkite does not have the same power cable as the others, but it’s ribbon cable will hide the empty space, and not clip
So all I should need to do is clip the pegs off the top/bottom bits and just glue them over the magnets that fit flush into the brackets.
You're doing some pretty good work so far this quarter, keep it up! I do look forward to seeing that Sicaran get some paint; it is one of my favorite Space Marine vehicles, after all.
So I tried to mock up a sword guy, and nothing felt right. Angle of the arms were wrong, don’t have any good helmet crests kicking around. So I moved on to the commander style. Much better feel. Poached the head from the terminator librarian in the primed pile. I might need to grab another UM upgrade sprue. For blinged out UM shoulderpads, if not the cool heads.
Put a basecoat down on the cultists. They are going to be mostly contrasts. But that might be all the paint for a bit. Need to prep for visiting my folks for a week.
youwashock wrote: Missed the tank commander getting posted. He looks cool! Very in charge.
He’s more glued together now. Head and shoulderpads are still loose. Not finalizing those yet. I want to get another UM pack (I did via amazon, but backordered) and see how he looks with some other options.
--
Mostly like what I’m seeing in the 10th announcements. Might shake up what I’ve got planned.
Any progress is better than no progress, or at least that's what I tell myself. 10th edition has got me pretty excited, especially the new transport rules. If I can drop Hellblasters in a drop pod, I'll be a happy camper (at least if the pod and Hellblasters don't cost way too many points).
So it’s officially spring out there. Broke out the rattle can and hit up the nids in the pile, as well as the dread. I was thinking about maybe entering the walking coffin for the 100th competition, as I painted his BaC version back in year one of the comp. And there is still the fool’s hope of getting all the nids done before 10th drops. Or if not when it drops, clear the decks of the old stuff before the end of the year.
In that vein, I popped the gravis captain off the handle and replaced him with a gaunt. I still want the captain done, but it would be better to paint him in tandem to other ultras. Getting layers down on the cultists, and the first grey seer down on the background nids.
So we’re still in the early days of 10th leaks, with GW slowly dribbling out nuggets, and not massive dam-breaching dump from an outside source. Two things interest me from a modeling PoV.
One is that characters are back to attaching to squads, and have restrictions to what kind they can join. I suspect that I’m going to have to fill out a HQ matrix like I did prior. But instead of captain/chaplain/librarian/techmarine on foot/bike/JP/TDA it’s going to be primaris captain/chaplain/Lt/librarian in tacticus/gravis/phobos/bike. Probably restricted by what’s in the rules (but I already have a phobos chaplain that there are no rules for). Unless GW breaks drastically from NMNR, I’m not going to kitbash anything too far off the beaten path. But I’ll probably want to grab a phobos captain and chaplain on bike that have been on my wish list for a while now.
The second thing is the consolidation of bolt rifle profiles. Right now my company plan is for 3x basic rifle squads, 1 stalker, 1 auto rifle squads. With the later two already completely finished and the first 3 having their front halfs done. Last battleline squad is heavy intercessors, 5 out of 10 done. I went through some effort to held diferentiate the gun types. All the autobolt squad is built on running assault bodies, all the snipers have inceptor helmets. If a bolt rife is now just a bolt rifle, how do I want to fill out squads? Mix-and-match the back half of the other squads? One of them is slated to be filled with KT specialists. It makes sense, fluff-wise that squads might have mixes. You give you best marksmen in the squad stalkers, and assaults for a couple of guys who are going to be rushing breaches. Rest of the boys get the balanced guns. When putting together tac sqauds for my old company, they had special/heavy/sarge gear to distinguish them. Less of that here. Alternatively, I could drop one squad of basic intercessors for another squad of heavies. Technically infiltrators are battleline, but I keep all the phobos in the 10th. I guess we can wait if they offer a new troop pick in the new edition. Not in a rush to go buy more stuff for them at the moment.
Almost there. I think the chaos cultist is done, need to figure out how to base her. Probably gravel. GSC needs a little detail work. Eyes and lenses, maybe a little more touchup. He gets a snow base.
Bugs in back are ready for their black wash.
Should be able to get everyone done by the end of month.
I’m so-so on the cultists. Both came to me as free minis of the month at the local GW, so it’s not like I had any draw to them. Feel like I phoned them in as far as execution. The GSC took notes from the Magus I did, which in turn took from the hivefleet. Chaos was pulling from the repentia/arco-flagelents, but not really seeming to nail it. Oh well. All done with paint, on to bases.
The bugs got their blackwash. Eyes, teeth, and touchups left. Plus bases.
--
So I didn’t catch the stream, but caught up on the articles on the new 40k. Overall pretty stoked.
Nids:
Screamer Killer is OK? Not a huge fan of the head, and the design is in an uncanny valley of not quite fitting with the established look of nids.
Neurotyrant: Floating giant brain bug. I’m on board with that. Part of my hive goal/sturcture is to have a small/medium/large for all the branches of evolution. This guy will be a nice cap for the psychic one.
Neurogaunts: lukewarm on these guys, but they might be the “small” on the psychic chain.
Winged Prime: Better medium for the winged guys then the parasite. Would like a unit of shrikes, but I’ll take him for now. Folded wings are just OK, but he fits the established aesthetic very well.
Von Ryan’s leapers: Help flesh out the vanguard line, heads a little busy, but fine looking minis.
Gaunts/rippers: Not that I need more of these guys, but they look great and will mix up the squads with some new bugs. Model discrepancy can be hand-waived as they are from a later spawning of the invasion, sent in to reinforce the earlier wave.
Barbgaunts: Actually really like these guys. They fill the “small” slot on the artillery bug line, and look cool doing it. I would have preferred it if they were scaled bigger to be modern biovores, but am happy either way.
Psycophage: It’s another horror-maw devouring monster. I’m not going to turn it away, but already have the haurspex. Not a bad looking mini.
Overall positive. At worst, I’m ‘meh’ on things. High points are big-brain and the bombard bugs. I was going to get the box anyway, so will be glad to have the Nid half. I don’t think the whole package is wow-ing me enough to see if I could grab a second half of a box though.
Marines:
The fact that they name drop the TDA captain as Severus Agemman makes me happy. Good to see the old guy getting some respect. Sculpt is fine, but I already have the special captain with the GL-Powerfist. We’ll see if he is still supported by the rules. Might do a head swap with a skull helm and drop the sword for a crozius to turn him into a chaplain that’s not a 30 year old chunk of lead.
TDA Librarian is fine. I’ve got the one I put together out of GK parts still waiting in the primed pile, but the more the merrier.
Not sure how I feel about the nid bits on the Lt. He might get an arm swap. I only have one of the two Lts. for the 10th, so he’s got a place on the shelf. And will get the arctic camo to match.
Gravis apothecary looks cool. He can slot into the command squad of the 1st, although I suspect he’s a chapter asset.
Terminators. Non-relic, non-ancient metal terminators have been on my wishlist for a while now. Looking forward to these guys. New plastic, classic looks. This is exactly what I want more of from GW. Less new fancy stuff to bloat the range, but revisit and refresh old classics left to rot.
Sternguard vets. Yes please. Kitbashing and painting up a squad of veteran intercessors was on my to-do list. These guys will scratch that itch. Lots of questions about the rules. They are not “primeguard vetercessors” or some BS sounding new unit, but are straight up called sternguard. I’m going to need enough of these guys to fill a 10 man sqaud. As these are strterbox push-fits, we’ll see if we get a full box, and what options it brings.
Infernus squad. Primaris with flamers. What’s not to love? Do I need 10? No. Will I get them in this box anyway? Yes. With the restrictions on transports softening, kind looking forward to drop podding a squad of these guys. Fwooosh. My only real question is where they fit into the company structure. Battleline/FA/HS? Less a worry about FoC slot, but shoulder markings and how they will join my company on the shelf.
Primaris Dread? Check. No stupid stubbers stuck on? Check. Welcome to the company. I needed 2-3 dreads for the company, he’s one of them. I generally prefer a fist on my dreads to make them flexible TAC bricks, but the TLLC/ML dread is no stranger to my lists. My big worry about seeing this guy in the smoke filled trailer was that the mini would have random weapons glued on for no good reason, like stubbers on its face, or a stormbolter crotch. Nice to see some restraint. Less is more.
So the marine side is pretty much full of win. I actually like the look of all the minis. Is there anything I’d want to double up on? Terminators and Sternguard, but probably not 2x starter pushfits. The captain I’d take a spare, so I could paint one as-is, and convert another into a chaplain. I need more dreads, but would want different configurations. Although the way primaris foot-marines are light on long range AV, having a pair to back up the company is not a bad thing. If a combat patrol box or one of the 2nd wave partial starter (commander/recruit/whatever edition) boxes lines up just right I might grab it for the discount. But I’m not going to bet on that.
As for the rules still a lot of unknowns. Glad they are including the mission cards. Little worried about a separate crusade book. Will I be able to play crusade games out of the box? or need to pick up more rules? I love GW minis, but shelling out for books that only last 3 years gets old fast.
--
So a lot of confirmations here. How much will it change plans? For some of that we’ll need to wait on the the rules and fluff. We’ll see how the new guys fit into the company. Filling out the 1st to full strength is going to happen. Probably be a formal goal after I finish the 3rd. Because having 3 full strength marine companies on the shelf is normal. Nids, with their lack of formal structure are a little harder to plan for. These new releases fit a lot of the gaps in my S/M/L branch structure. Still have a few units I’d like to grab, but those can wait. I need to remember my goal of keeping them PoS neutral. And they are going to get a massive influx from this box.
OK, that’s enough rambling for one coffee soaked morning. I’ll leave you with my entry for next month: Mistakes Were Made...
Finished these yesterday, forgot to post them here. Still need to finish the nids. Might get them done tonight, but have a few paperwork things to do for the comp.
Yah, not a lot of motivation on them, so a little phoned in. Could have put more detail on them, but to be fair, they are just little cultists. Field them in double handfulls, and clear em off the table just as quick. But out of the PoS, so that’s a win.
So finished baseing the 3 bugs I was working on. That should be the last stealer for a while. The gaunts, of course, are endless.
Put the first base down on one marine and 2 gaunts. Then my back informed it it was time for a drink and the recliner.
youwashock wrote: The big big is very cool. Looking forward to seeing it in your colors.
Thanks. I had fun putting together a Swarmlord. So much stabbing. Judging from the nids faction leak, he’s still a big ol’ pile of mean.
Zergsmasher indirectly helped me answer one of my questions about how the new marines are going to fit into my company. He mentioned over in his blog about looking at the transfer sheet for clues about how they would fit into his DA, and that sparked me to go have a look myself. The transfer sheet has a bunch of “elite” cruxes, for the terminators and sternguard, and 10 heavy support chevrons. So these guys are not going to be battleline/troops (makes sense, they lack the flexibility marines desire for that role) and they are not fast/mobile. No other space for them. They do bring the firepower support, just very close-range focused. So from a company POV, I’ll probably have 10 of them and 10 hellblasters make up the 20 HS guys for my shelf. The other options (suppressors, aggressors, eliminators) will move down to the swap shelf.
This should also be my 20,000th post. I average a little over 5 posts a day, been at this for a while. I’d say I need a hobby, but that’s kinda why I’m here. Might put together a new avatar, we’ll see. Don’t have one picked out at the moment. edit: "The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar “ new title. wasn’t expecting that.
That's a lot of posts, Nev. And a lot of models painted. I was looking at at least half of the new box, with Tyranids and Marines being your two factions, it's got to be even harder for you to resist.
That cultist with the grenade is an awesome sculpt.
Keep up the good work.
Wait, am I supposed to be resisting the new box? Because that’s not even remotely in the cards. The question is not if I pick it up (I’m going to) or when (pre-order as soon as that opens up) but how many. And the answer to that is “just one copy please” Not enough of the units scream out for duplicates. That said, I’ll gladly pick up additional boxes of specific units. How many and which ones will be determined by rules and what the full kits look like.
At some point I need to sit down and do a 9th edition review. How many games I got in, how many minis painted, etc. But that’s probably a month away..
Did not get any paint down this weekend, but did get 2/3rds of the to-prime pile sprayed and over to the waiting for paint queue. I should probably take an inventory. Edition changes are a good time to review and take stock.
Love how the purple on the nids' carapace is referenced in the purple on the GSC armour. Excited to see how the Swarmlord (and the rest!) comes together.
Contrast is a heck of a drug. All the nids are off the handles and ready for baseing. 2 more little bugs up next.
Marines are actually farther along than they look. I think they are done with details, so need a clean up pass with the grey seer, the contrast white, and then camo and a few other steps. They could perceivably be done this weekend
I think i’m going to grab the MTO primaris champion that they are bringing back this weekend. Single models are stupid expensive, and I could kitbash one out of a BGV kit. But I like his style.
We’ll make it to the weekend somehow. Hang in there everyeone.
So these guys are getting there
Major cleanup pass. Next up with the white contrast and camo. Wait, need to finish the blue shoulders first. Then the white. Nids are ready for flesh.
Speaking of nids...
Magnet project is almost done. The flyrant does not have any, as she’s too tall for the boxes, and the old lead gal got missed, as I ran out of mixed GS before I got to her. Plus all the YTD and primed stuff still needs to be done. but just about ready to check this off the goals for the year.
So next up for the marines should be the camo. also need to do the faces and touchups. But that should go quick.
Nids need blackwash, then faces/cleanup.
Hot on the heals of the cultists I painted last month is an arbiter. Went down the the FLGS yesterday to put in for the MTO champ, got my free mini of the month. Who was on his own sprue, not just a box of clipped parts like prior months. Odd. Anyway, he can join the to-prime pile.
Looking back I don’t think I did an end of edition summery for 8th. Or 7th. Didn’t feel like digging back to see if I did one for 6th. All of which were covered in this blog.
To quote myself from the first page of this blog:
I wrote:An a word of advice: If you have old, boring, push fit marines as a WIP on your bench, FINISH THEM BEFORE BUYING THE NEW KITS. I'm champing at the bit to dig into the new stuff, but need to finish the old guys first. It's painful working on the old Battle of Macragge guys after gazing upon the new shinies. But I will persevere...
This has been on my mind as I work the old gaunts across the bench. When the new ones drop, it’s going to be real hard to find the motivation to get them done. Hopefully I can finish the snipers today and then start working little gribblies across as fast as I can.
As we approach June I was also thinking about how I’m doing on my goals. Not quite halfway through the year. Found it hilarious that I’ve painted a total of one marine in blue this year. And if I do the eldar rangers next month, that might not change. Not looking good for getting a dozen guys done for the battle company.
just started to mess around with magnetizing storage boxes as well and looks like were using exactly the same method great to see the finished product being effectively used for such a great army.
Great range of Tyranid models in there as well, got a soft spot for those oldschool biovores, gaunts and hive tyrant myself. Awesome stuff, looking forward to more
The sheet magnets in the bottom don’t have quite the grip I’d like, but are fine for casual use. Not like I’m going to go skydiving with them or anything. I was just following tutorials online to make them, I think it’s a pretty common configuration.
I do have quite the eclectic range of nids. Getting 2 armies secondhand helped a lot with that. Plus a ton of new stuff. And more on the horizon.
So it’s a good thing I’ve been making progress:
Off the paint side and getting based. Almost there.
Which makes room for these guys:
I figure I should be able to get them done in the month we have left. At least off the handles and being based. The warriors on larger bases need the monster handle, so might as well start woking them across. The odds of me clearing the decks of all the nids is nil. After these guys there are 10 more gaunts waiting, plus all the other stuff. But it will take me time to build all the new stuff, so that gives me a little flex. It’s the whole “pile of shame neutral” goal I’m trying to keep the bugs on. 47 new guys dropping in is not good. And there is no way I will be able to hold myself to paint the old stuff first. Not even going to try. I don’t want the old stuff to just drift to the back though.
You should go skydiving with your models sometime; then you can say they really have performed a Deep Strike!
But seriously, your Swarmlord looks great, as do the little bugs. And the Marines, for that matter; the arctic camo was a great idea back when you started it, and I'm glad you've stuck to it for the appropriate models.
ZergSmasher wrote: You should go skydiving with your models sometime; then you can say they really have performed a Deep Strike!
But seriously, your Swarmlord looks great, as do the little bugs. And the Marines, for that matter; the arctic camo was a great idea back when you started it, and I'm glad you've stuck to it for the appropriate models.
Heh. I didn’t even think about Deep Strike. I was just looking for some form of travel that was not safe and smooth, and unlikely to be done. Was originally going with “off roading” But that sounded like something that people might actually do with minis in the back.
Put the decals on the marines this morning. Still need to flock. The next batch of nids has their purple on and cleaned up. Put the flesh wash on 3 of them, but now I’ve got to clock in to work.
Painted stuff is based, WIP stuff ready for the black wash on the reds. Eyes/teeth/toxins/tongues after that.
Drove down to the FLGS to pick up the MTO champ. Please allow up to 6 months for delivery. Or next week. Whatever.
Picked up Boltgun on Steam. Fun little Doom-esque shooter. Probably should have waited for a deeper sale, but have been in the mood for a run and gun kind of game. Why not.
So with the eliminators done that brings the 10th company primaris project to a temporary pause. I’ll, of course, get the new Lt. with the leviathan box. And I have one spare guy on sprue, who might just stay there for a while. Little over half a company if we count the woodland camo scouts, quarter with just the new guys in arctic. At some point I might get more guys to play in the snow. But probably not soon. I have fun painting them, and could easily see me adding a squad of reivers and a captain, plus the back half of the incursurs. But the buy/paint to-do list is going to be pretty packed, and the 1st company is probably going to get the love next.
Anyway, the phobos:
Automatically Appended Next Post:
So 99 competitions. Total number of models 281. Roughly 2.83 per month.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Nids on deck just got their last colors. Next step is the touch up pass and off to be based.
Not a good pic, but off the handles and ready for rocks and tufts.
Moving up to fill the space are my 100th challenge entry. Going to revisit the rangers I painted back in the first year of the comp. But this time in plastic.
Persistant and persnickety. Just plugging away stubbornly.
First grey down. I did a crappy job priming these guys. Oh well. Might take a few more base coats then normal.
Champ built. I was shocked to find he was a pushfit. Still, almost none of the compromises and undercuts you often see with those. Body glued, but the rest pushed for now. Might try a shoulder swap for an Ultra pad. And the sword will need to come off for painting.
I paid little attention to that model when it was announced. Is the helmet an included option or a change you made? Either way, it is an improvement. I look forward to seeing how he turns out.
youwashock wrote: I paid little attention to that model when it was announced. Is the helmet an included option or a change you made? Either way, it is an improvement. I look forward to seeing how he turns out.
Helmet is stock from the kit.
He should be fun to paint. Not sure if he was worth getting over just buying a box of bladeguard vets, but he is unique and cool.
So slow progress. Week was a bit of a hot mess. Folks were visiting last weekend, had The Boy full time for the start of the week, and spent the second half of the week in NH with family. But I got a layer of red down on the Eldar, so some progress?
So I did a read through of the datacards for both the nids and marines. Lot to unpack. And with no points, real hard to guage. If something got nerfed, but got a price cut to go with it, that’s fine. Different, but fine. The rolling of all the SM chapters together opens up some options. Like 2x special weapons on tac squads, or meltas in assaults. Some restrictions are going to be problematic. Like a lot of places to take a single lightning claw are gone. Some simplification I am fine with. Power weapons as just one profile is good. Combis less so. And vanguard vets were done a disservice. I get simplification, and we all have our lines of what is too far.
I’m less vested in the nids. So seeing things wrapped up into “tooth and claw” doesn’t bug me.
One thing is with characters back to joining squads, and with very tight lists of what’s allowed, I’m going to have to evaluate what I have and how I want to put squads together.
Still a lot to digest, much of which will prbably wait until after the codexs are out. Or we have points at the very least.
Automatically Appended Next Post: One thing I did notice is the primaris champ that I just build should now have a bolt pistol per his card. Space on his belt for one, and I’ve not primed him yet. To the bits box!
Cleaned up a bolt pistol for the champ and hung it off his belt. Also got a fresh head for the tank commander, so the primed one can go back ot the librarian. He also got a Ultra shoulder pad and glued together. Off to the primed pile.
I actually got that mini of the month too, as while I was out of town I did happen to be close to a Warhammer shop and made sure to stop by and check it out. I'll probably save it for when I don't have anything else for one of the painting challenges or something.
Rangers are coming along nicely. Their new(ish) plastic kit is pretty great. Haven't looked at their abilities in 10th yet (index only dropped today) so no idea how they'll play.
ZergSmasher wrote: I actually got that mini of the month too, as while I was out of town I did happen to be close to a Warhammer shop and made sure to stop by and check it out. I'll probably save it for when I don't have anything else for one of the painting challenges or something.
Rangers are coming along nicely. Their new(ish) plastic kit is pretty great. Haven't looked at their abilities in 10th yet (index only dropped today) so no idea how they'll play.
Having the monthly free models adds a nice buffer of random stuff for the comp. Also good for testing paints.
Rangers are going to depend a lot on points. They are pretty fragile, even for eldar. T3 with a 5+ does not last long in the open. Now, they do have a 5++ vs. shooting, so at least they get to keep their crappy save regardless of what’s being tossed at them. And stealth for a -1 to hit them baked in. Their special ability is to run away when things get close (but not engaged) is pretty situational.
Their rifles are nice, and softer armies might need to worry. But S4 AP-1 D2 precision shots is going to put like 2 wounds on a marine a turn for a squad of shooting.
They don’t have a lot of synergy with the rest of the army. They don’t buff/debuff others, and don’t have abilities that can really be leveraged. What they bring to my army is infiltration, which is a nice perk. More importantly, they get a pass on the “Getting mud on your boots is for lesser races” so are a unit I can include and not need to find a transport slot for.
Also hit the FLGS and grabbed my Leviathan box. That’s a chonky boy right there. I think my priority will be to get the combat patrols build and painted out of it first. The whole thing will keep me busy for a while
youwashock wrote: Nice! As always, I look forward to seeing the new Marines get their blue.
Those Scouts will have plenty to shoot at.
5 burrna boys clipped from the new box. I can fake the terminators and TDA characters with old lead until the new plastics get done, but need those guys for the marine CP. Will be good to get some blue across the bench. It’s been lacking this year.
Looking at Eldar, I have all the models, but a few gear issues. My glave WL has flamers, not cats, but that’s a pretty trivial counts-as. Spare heavies to swap for her and the platform. One issue is, ironically, the lack of scatter lasers for the bikes. Despite playing bike heavy eldar, I never bothered to build any. My dozen windriders are 2/3 cats, 1/3 cannons; old school. That said, the 6 modern ones are set for magnets. So I dug out 3 scats and will clean them up and mag them. I could counts-as cannons in the meanwhile.
SoB is the launch box I painted plus a rhino, so that’s all done and sorted.
Nids is a lot of fresh stuff needed. I can use old gaunts, but everything else is new.
Deathwatch I’m short a few models for and my agressors have the wrong options. Not the the bolters vs flamers would be a huge deal. But I’d need to get a Lt, an apothecary, and another intercessor to replace a sarge so I could go with a 10 man squad instead of 2x5.
Scats are cleaned and off to the to be primed pile.
Marines are clipped. Quick look shows that GW might be back to oddly cut pushfits. We’ll see how bad it actually gets. But one of the shoulderpads had part of the trim on the lower arm. Going to make painting in parts real irritating. We’ll see how bad it gets as I start actually assembling them.
Getting washes down. Used a thin brown on the leathers. Hard to tell it’s there. Oh well.
But seriously, working on the pyros.
These guys got a little banged around in the box. Needed to replace the grip on the sarge’s gun. Not the best quality of pushfits. Some compromises for less parts makes more cleanup. About on par with the 8th starter. Step back from the 9th, which was quite good.
Paint going down
Started the camo on the rangers. Leaving the insides of the cloaks white for contrast. Bug needs more details. Mouth, eyes, and green wash. Plus a lot of cleanup and assembly.
So that dread just fell together. While the pyros were a little irritating, and showed their ETB nature, the dread had no real issues. Being big and blocky has some perks.
Rangers got all 3 colors of camo down. Need to go back and do some extra splotches so it’s not as layerd. Right now all the dark is the bottom coat. They also need a lot of details touched up and picked out. Getting there.
Agree that the Infernus were kind of annoying to assemble. They should be decently easy to paint though. That arctic camo on those Rangers looks great!
Apparently I was paying zero attention to the run-up for 10th. Those new BBQ boys look cool. As does the dread.
The new box has a lot of cool looking minis in it.
JoshInJapan wrote:Your arctic camo looks great!
I feel like I need to go back and re-do my old rangers now. But that way lies madness. If I keep looking back, the Pile of Shame shall grow unchecked and devour me. Onward to fresh paint!
ZergSmasher wrote:Agree that the Infernus were kind of annoying to assemble. They should be decently easy to paint though. That arctic camo on those Rangers looks great!
From a build POV, I’m a bit torn on the Leviathan box. The pyros were a definite step back in quality. Which is a little sad, since the 9th starter was a lot better than the 8th in terms of mini quality. Once assembled they look fine, but there are more undercut compromises than I like. We’ll see what the rest of the box is like. The dread went together like a dream, but I noticed on the sculpted base bit his foot is on some random nid garbage. It’s pretty subtle, and could just be vines, but on other models there are defiantly dead nids. With Indominus there were optional necron parts on the bases you could leave off if they didn’t match your theme. Now as an Ultramarine 3rd company guy (scourge of xenos) I don’t have a personal stake in this, as I’m all about killing bugs. But as a design decision I wish they went more basic.
Anyway, with the dread build I need to figure out what to build next.
But paint:
Most of the touchup work done, guns glued on. Just need the final pass and to be based. Don’t know if I mentioned it, but the warrior of off the handle and waiting to be based himself. He’s the last of the 3 new ones I need to field a legal squad.
Next month is going to be “renewal” I’m thinking the new dread might get some paint. Assuming the weather calms down enough to let me prime.
Going to do the dread for next month’s challenge. Just a little scale creep. As that’s going to be on the big handle, need to figure out what else to paint along side.
Rocks and tufts done, just flock to go.
Clipped the barbgaunts to cleanup next.
Hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Quick post. Will probably ramble more tomorrow over coffee.
Halfway through the year:
Rangers done
New/old
Got some primer down on the new stuff. Hopefully good coat. Had to swap cans halfway through and it’s a hair on the humid side.
OK, we’ve been working on 2023 for about 6 months now. How are we doing?
I wrote:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company (stretch goal: finish it)
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (22/24)
3 Paint more than I buy. (41/74)
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (1/3)
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
I have painted exactly zero company marines. Heck, only one of them is even blue! This is a hard fail and one I need to get working on. Going to paint the new dread this month, so he will help. I’ve been kinda glossing over the company dreads. I know I need them, but was going to try to fake it with just assigning old ones from the dread pool. While knowing in my heart I was going to have to get 2-3 redemptors.
While I’m doing well on the 24 mini goal, the Leviathan box just dropped 47 more nids into the pool. I’d like to hit that number at year’s end, and if possible do it by clearing the decks of old stuff. So this goal should be a win, but it has basically 2 different stretch goals.
Assuming I don’t buy a whole lot more stuff this should be OK. But another awesome box set and this could be sunk. We’ll see what the release schedule looks like.
I still have the jetseer and stormhawk looking at me. Need to paint them. Halfway through the year and 1/3 through the goal could be worse.
This is like my free square. Still blogging, still painting.
I’ve actually painted units for 5 armies, but only 2 of them with more than one unit. The chaos/GSC cultists help with these numbers, but are unlikely to get more support. They do let me tick the “not for an active army” box. Do I count my 30k stuff as a seperate faction? I probably should. Either way, doing good here.
100 challenges under my belt. Still going strong.
Nids are basically all done. The only serious mini left is the RT tyrant, who will play the role of a warrior prime in a squad. The flyrant doesn’t have magnets, but doesn’t fit in the boxes so is kinda a moot point. I should figure out something for the gargoyles as well. New paint and the primed box will need their bases done, as will everything I build new. The painted shelf will probably get that done when I move them from the YTD to general population. Might try to do the new/primed stuff in batches as well. As it involves GS, it’s best to do them in blocks on 25-30, so not something I am going to do on a squad levels as I build them.
--
So in general I’m doing OK. The big fail is the company marines. Which should be helped with the batch I managed to prime yesterday. Dread, pyros, and the champ (plus some scatter lasers). All of them are company assets. And I want to get the burners done for CP games.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Belated happy Canada Day for my northern neighbors.
Good work on the Rangers, Nev! I don't even know what to say about the size difference on the dreads. Always good to see how you are doing with your goals. Best of luck in the 2nd half of 2023!
You're certainly outdoing me on your output for the year, but that's easy. I should have some stuff coming across the line that will pad my numbers a bit though. You should be able to breeze through the bugs fairly quick with your method.
Need to get paint down, but built 2 barbgaunts. They went together pretty nicely.
So yesterday I played a small solo demo game just to wrap my brain around 10th. Still missed a lot of things, but I wanted to give it a shot.
500 point armies, of the scout/vanguard variety.
So I took more pictures (in my gallery) but I’m just going to hit the high points.
Oath of Moment is nasty. I think we all knew this. But it is very focused. One unit a turn is going to get mangled, but others will be OK. Marines went first, so I scout moved the stealers into cover. The entirety of the marine line lit them up and killed them, but it took everything. The marine fire was basically tons of bolter fire, which did a number on the light guys. Much better force projection on the move. Struggled with the bigger bugs, but were still putting wounds down. Termagaunts were tougher than I thought. Keep to cover, get saves, respawn more. Still died when focused on, but impressed me. I think a block of 20 would be better. Lictor was mean. Most of the second half of the game was it and a parasite rolling up marines, getting wounds chipped off them, and eventually going down. Used the start to fall back and still shoot a lot for the marines.
Little pissed at the GW formatting for the PDFs. Some backgrounds made them unreadable. Going to have to clean up and make my own cards, but probably not until after the codex drops. App would probably be fine, but I was flipping between nids/marines, so lot of extra steps.
If we count this as an actual game, victory to the marines. Not a steamroller, but a solid win.
So finished building the barbgaunts (which went together fine) and the psycophage (which needed a little gap filling) Time to switch back to the marine side: reinforcement incoming, clipped and ready for cleaning
Paint going down, slowly.
Fist blue on the dread, grey seer on the nids.
Progress grinds slowly forward. Dread needs about 3-4 more base colors added, and a chunk of detail picked out. Plus the arms. But getting there. Gaunts are ready for the red stage. Scatter lasers just got theirs. They need a silver drybrush and another red. Although I’m reminded that I do some eldar guns as silver with a black wash, not black with a silver drybrush. I’ll need to check their peers and see what I did.
Heh. Yes: Drinking paint is bad. Paint rinse water as well.
I’ve still got active pots of paint from the RT era. Which are stupidly old at this point. Over 30 years. But even the hex pots date from the late 90s, and anything from that decade is past the 21 mark. It being 2023 and all. Which is just pure madness; the 80’s were not that long ago. I’m old. <sigh>
Painting those rangers has me itching to do the shroudrunners. There are a LOT of bike based shenanigans that the Eldar can get into in 10th. Basic bikes can get re-rolls to hit, shroudrunners can spot something to give lethal hits, vypers can strip cover from a unit. Plus all the normal psychic fun. It’s not the stuff you hear people whine about, but I think bike-based lists could have some potential. Backed up with grav tanks, because why wouldn’t you want as many of those in a list as you could fit /swoon.
Of course, the focus of the moment is marines and bugs. I’ve got goals to meet and armies to paint. Can’t get distracted by the knife ears.
I should be painting now, but it’s the hour of day where the sun is glaring at just the wrong angle through the window to work at my desk. I should probably do chores or something. That laundry is not going to fold itself...
No, I’m legitimately Old. How else would I have the collection to make comparison pics like this:
Just a touch of scale creep over the last 30 years or so.
Slowly building the new guys. Slowly getting paint down.
I’m going to at least paint the jetseer this year. Hopefully more. I do enjoy the Eldar, they just get overshadowed by other projects these days. Such is the fate of older fading races...
No painting progress, as I’m AFK for the week, but still time for Sunday coffee ramblings while I wait for people to wake up.
So, new nids! They look pretty cool, but how will they impact my swarm? I didn’t watch the videos, but read the articles.
Sadly, they probably won’t, at least for now. At least directly. And this is not the fault of the minis, which by and large I mostly like.
Genestealers: nice update to the classic strain. Dynamic, cool looking, on sensibly sized bases. I’ve got like 30 painted up and good to go. Do I need 10 more? Nope. We’ll see if there are new must-have options in the box, but I think I still have 4 on sprue to kitbash those if needed. The pics don’t show anything new, but they do mention enough ymergal heads to kit out the squad, so that might end up being a duel-kit build-esque thing
Hormagaunts: lovely little leapers, nice and dynamic. I’ve only got 20. Might grab these eventually.
Termagants. Look like the guys from the box, but with optional guns. With the way 10th works with upgrades this may obsolete my old stuff. Why not take all the fancy guns/upgrades? The barb launcher might be required for effective squads, as the barbgaunts hand out real nice debuffs. I have some spike rifles and webby things, but painted in another scheme and would need to be stripped. Might put off building the new guys from the leviathan until I see the upgrades.
Lictors/deathleaper/brainthing: I’m so-so on the look of Deathleaper. Not bad, if he’s needed for a vanguard swarm, might grab him. I like the concept of themed levels of invasion. The neuro variant just looks weird. Pass. I’ve got my old metal one, and the VR leapers fill a similar niche. Would not mind getting a new plastic, but also no rush to get one.
Bio/pyrovores. Guns on bugs. More buggy bugs then most nids. I’ve got 3 old metal biovores. Don’t need more. Might make new bases to bring them to a modern spec. Might grab one for a pyrovore. But not wowing me at the “must have” level.
Norn things. Big giant bugs. Glad to have them in the range, might make a nice centerpiece. Not a huge fan of the look of them, and for something that’s going to be over $100, hard pass.
So overall, like the looks, but don’t really need more of them. And the new stuff is not wowing me to run out to get it. If they release a discount megaforce, I might grab it, or get a new lictor with some guilt-free gift cards. Depending on the rules, might grab a box of termagaunts for new gear options. Will need to read the codex when it drops and see the sprues.
youwashock wrote: Digging Big Blue. Don't worry about time. There's, like, DAYS left.
Yah, but the guy running the comp is a real hardcase about deadlines…
As I use a lot of inks/washes there is a chunk of dry time needed, so I can’t rush steps. Getting there though. Almost ready for the cleanup blue step.
Rocks and tufts down, next up is flock and decals.
On Deck:
Marines are for next month. Going to do the ‘fex and seer in the scrap time, plus as side projects. Plus some of the extra bits that are starting to accumulate on the bench.
amazingturtles wrote: I still have trouble getting over just how beefy the new dreads are.
I had no clue to exactly how chonky they are until I took a pic of the new guy next to the old at the start of this month. Angry washing machine is barely up to the waist of the new guy.
Sometimes it’s hard to get a sense of scale just from pictures on the web.
Though these “primaris" brothers have new geneseed, their hearts still beat as Ultramarines. They will need your wisdom, venerable brother, to guide them. March once more for Macragge, in a new body. Courage and Honor!
Final Pic:
For and ETB pushfit this was a surprisingly good model. Not a lot of bad undercut issues due to trying to keep the part count down. Paint was fine, just the normal issues of painting vehicles. Just so darn big. And this guy is a chonky boi. First redemptor I’ve built. I had no idea how big they really were.
So technically this guy gets to count against my company goal, so that’s progress. The 5 burner boys next month will be better progress.
Also finished baseing the little bugs, so they are off to the YTD shelf. Only 4 more of the old ones left. And 21 new ones on spure waiting to join them. Endless multitudes indeed. They do push me past the 2 dozen I pledged to paint for my yearly goal.
So a not-a-lot of progress report, just to keep the blog running.
Last week I just managed to build one VR Leaper. Pretty finicky little bug to build. Ended up having to clip the peg from one of the arms and just glue it.
I also did all the paperwork for the challenge, which ain’t nothing. And had my car die and get replaced, which ate most of my energy for the week.
But no paint, so no pic.
Out of town on vacation this week, so probably no updates. Going to have to put the peddle down when I get back.
Quick paint update: Put the first blue down last night. Still recovering from the road trip, but hopefully get back in the grove and move stuff across the bench. Going to try to be more vigilant about “One layer a day”. Get to the bench, pick up the brush, little bit, every day. Even if I can’t get to all 5 models, at least work on one so I have something at the end of the month.
One problem with the pushfits is getting the angle of force in the right direction to the pegs. Especially with spindly parts like the nid arms. Also getting the exact rotation so things sit flush. Swapped out the TDA sarge’s head instead of the librarians, as I didn’t like the one he came with. I could have delved into the box-o-heads, (and did a little) but would have had to cut the neck flush to fit, and that seemed like a lot of work. This might be the first option in the leviathan box where I deviated from the instructions. As opposed to the indominus box where pretty much none of the squads were built fully stock.
Three colors in three days is solid progress, especially when you're painting a whole unit at once.
I got out of 40K before Easy To Build (is that what they're called?) became a thing. I do have a few-- a whole 10-man squad of series 1 Space Marine heroes-- but not enough to necessitate any conversion to avoid repeats.
JoshInJapan wrote:Three colors in three days is solid progress, especially when you're painting a whole unit at once.
I got out of 40K before Easy To Build (is that what they're called?) became a thing. I do have a few-- a whole 10-man squad of series 1 Space Marine heroes-- but not enough to necessitate any conversion to avoid repeats.
EZ build has some advantages. When you just have monopose models you don’t need to worry about modularity, so the sculptors can branch out a little. But you also get odd cuts where half the arm is on one bit, 1/3 on another, and 1/6 attached to the torso. And with the pegs, you need to make sure things are lined up just right before you apply force to get things snug. I generally don’t get duplicate units to the point I notice the repetition. And even if it’s 2x5 of the same guys in a 10 man squad, just turning the heads around a bit can go a long way to mask the clones. We’re not back in 2nd edition “I <3 my bolter” marines here.
youwashock wrote:Slow and steady. I have half of that.
Like the change to the Librarian. A little personalization makes the hobby what it is.
I’m not shy with the knife, but have built most of the guys stock so far. Just haven’t felt the need. With the bugs, no real reason for it. And the marines are pretty nice out of the box. I may play around with the captain and sternguard when it’s their turn. Part of me wants to wait for the codex to check out if they get more options. And as they are largely not glued, if I need to go back and mod the flamer guys, it should be easy to pop arms off the pegs.
I went and added some Dark Angels bling to some of the Leviathan Marine models to make them a bit less...generic I guess is the right word. It was honestly kind of fun personalizing them a little, as now my Leviathan set is different from everyone else's, at least in my mind.
I really need to get back to my entry, those Paragons won't paint themselves. And I need to get back to my blog before my readers (all three or so of them) decide I've fallen off the planet!
One problem with painting Ultras is we have less fun bits to spice up our armies then SW/BA/DA/etc. chapters. Every little but helps though. Keep painting and get back to your blog. No slacking off!
Put the gold and grey down last night, and built the floating brain and his two little buddies. Moving along.
Got another layer down. And, shockingly, made it down to the FLGS for a game of combat patrol. Took a couple pics, but having trouble uploading them, so just text.
Eldar vs. Tau. Mission was from last months WD, where one objective is a shield generator. Opponent was relatively new, but more time in 10th than me. But still well into the learning/mistake phase.
I probably should have split my bikes. 3 units on the table is not a lot in an objective game.
Need to remember that WLs can’t use fate dice. Woops.
Overwatch on a 4+ is rough. I vaporized his unit of stealth suits first turn when they stuck their noses out.
WL hitting on 4+ all the time is not fun. Especially when shooting -1 to hit targets like ghostkeels.
Fire Warriors still dish out shots.
Tau still suck in CC.
Our dice (both of us) were all over the place.
Etherial’s buff is very good. +1sv and 5+++ were gold for him all game.
I took an early lead so didn’t push what I could have done. Like I barely touched my fate dice. Still a pretty solid victory for the Eldar. Tabled him at the top of 5. I lost about a third of my forces. Fun was had
Also while I was down there grabbed a pot of leadbelcher and inquired about the Tyrand War Vet transfer sheets that were supposed to be in stores to promote in-store play. At first the owner had no clue what I was talking about, but I guess he poked around the back and dropped a sheet on me in the middle of my game. This thing is pure win for my 3rd co scourge of xenos. Going to love the heck out of it until it’s gone.
Almost done with the basecoats on the marines. I think the only color not on right now is the green for the lenses. Also got the base down on the fex and the seer. Hopefully move them along.
In build news slapped the screamer killer together. Big lad. I should probably build some marines next.
youwashock wrote: Where did this month go? Good job keeping at it. The screamer-killer is a sick model. I was tempted and I don't do bugs.
I don’t want to talk about where this month has gone. My one week vacation does not make up for the hellscape of the rest of it. Ugh. And still a lot of paint to get down.
Drybrushed the silvers tonight, and put the purple on the fex. Speaking of which, quick new vs. old shot of SKs.
I, unfortunately, do not have the old lead wrecking ball, so just 2 generations to compare here
With work done at lunch today the sarge has his ink, needs details, touch ups, and edges. Plus decals and base. Rest of the squad still needs their cleanup blue pass before moving forward. Did work on the gun arms a bit.
Fex body is done. Needs to start the arms. I cleaned a new head for him which is now in the to-prime pile (fingers crossed for good weather this week). I built him as a dakkafex, so used the hightened senses head. Which I think is on the lame side. If I don’t need to use ugly WYSWYG options, I’m not going to.
Went to the FLGS to pick up my dread that I had entered into a contest (shock, didn’t make the podium) As they had a copy on the shelf, I grabbed a Triumph of Saint Katherine Sylteena. I’m not going to rush it to finish by the start of October, but wanted to add it to the SoB I inherited from my fallen friend. I’d like to at least get the base and sarcophagus done in time for the 1 year anniversary of his passing (Oct 4th). We’ll see what the build looks like. Going to have to paint it in parts anyway.
Doing a lot of adulting lately. Still have more to do. Just lost an hour on trying to get my internet sorted/upgraded, but only so long I’m devoting to that on one night. After the hold got too long to try to talk to the 4th person I just noped out of that. Know where I need to go now, so next time should be faster.
Sarge is almost done. Needs some silver work, and the purple heat stress on the flamer. Because I decided to do that. Put the beige on it over lunch. Plus the eyes.
OK guys are done. Will take formal pictures tonight before the deadline.
So watched most of the revel last night.
30k stuff looks nice, but that’s probably my least favorite mark of armor, and the dread looks like a transformer who changes into a crappy boat. I’ve berely scratched my age of darkness box. Pass.
TDA Chaplain: I want a new TDA chaplain, but he’s not doing it for me. Not a fan of the chest; just looks blank.
TDA Captain: Glad we are getting a multikit with options. Not wowing me over the Indominus one, or my old one. I might end up converting the Indominus one into a chaplain
TDA Squad: Well executed, pretty much what it says on the tin. Nice glow up of classic models without screwing with them for no damn reason.
Jump Assault: are maybe a little too dynamic. Lots of leaping and leaning forward off tactical rocks. Sounds like they get 1/5 plasma pistols and sarge options. Would have liked to have flamer options to replicate the old assault squad, but I’ll take it.
Jump Captain: Glad he’s out. He does not need to be on that high rock. The pose should be able to hit the ground running with minimal work.
Command squad: Love it. Great looking cluster of minis. Which I have plenty of. Will need to kitbash 2 vets to fill out my roster. Captain looks nice with them, but I’m good for foot captains.
Sternguard look good. Primaris take on an old unit, well executed.
Scouts doing scouty things. Again, modern resculpts, well executed but not sexy. Which is the theme of the release
A lot will depend on what the rules look like. I see a lot of options on the character kits, which is a welcome relief. A lot of classic squads crossing the rubicon, which is good. And keeping a lot of their options, without getting stupid new ones. Little worried about the scouts and snipers. Is it one per squad now in the same place as the ML/HB?
I’m probably in for a box of sternguard and terminators, jump troops and captain. Company is going to want 10 JP boys eventually, but I’ll start with 5 if that’s how they are boxed. The TDA and SG might wait a bit though, I’ve got the pushfits for now. But I do like 10 man squads...
I’d not mind new scouts, but they are a low priority. I suspect they will show up in a KT box. I would love to get the command squad, but it’s 100% redundant for me. If I got one as a gift I’d build and paint it, but when allocating the hobby budget, there is a lot of things ahead of it in line.
The TDA chaplain is the only solid “miss” for me. Which is odd, as they are classically some of the best looking minis across the range over time. It might just be the paint job, but I cant get over how plain the torso it.
Nice, I'm about to start my flamer's as 3rd company too. I have a bunch of left over nid bits to use on their bases and I'm thinking of making the nid bits on fire.
youwashock wrote:Nice work, Nev. That flamer looks awesome. Nice and grimy and discolored.
Not as fancy/detailed as I’ve done in the past. Feathered drybrush of beige, followed by purple contrast. Little silver edgework on top.
Tommygun1918 wrote:Nice, I'm about to start my flamer's as 3rd company too. I have a bunch of left over nid bits to use on their bases and I'm thinking of making the nid bits on fire.
3rd co is the best co. I like what you’ve done to customize them. If/when I get the back half of the squad done, I might try some knifework so they are not all same-y
Finished the scything talons for the Fex. Started 2 shooty arms and the new head. Did I mention I got the rattle can out yesterday? Too much to do in one sitting, but finally got back to the cursed city villeins I’d put together. Still need to do the heroes. But it did let me start in on the new better head for the fex. I could technically move him to the done shelf, but I’ll wait until I do these bits. I have a spare set of crushing claws and a OOE head, so I could actually put a pair of fexes on the table if I wanted to right now.
Put the blacks on the jetseer Slow going, but going.
No progress on the marine side, but the HB scout is down for this month’s “Sun’s Out, Guns Out” I think I’m only going to do one mini for the comp this month, as I’ve got a lot of other things that need to be worked on for my yearly goals.
Building the Triumph. Wow there are some really fiddly bits here. Like the little heart mediation on her chest. Did a walkabout on the carpet. It’s like 2mm across and about 1mm deep, and needs to be set just so. Massive PITA. Right now the body is just resting on the platform, which is just sticky tacked to the base. Going to be a lot of painting in parts. We’ll see how much I can get done by October.
Maybe not much progress, but you have a ton on the go. Can't wait to see the Triumph come together.
Lot of irons in the fire, but none on the anvil. Hoping for some good progress today, but that will have to wait until I’m a little better caffeinated. Progress is slowed a bit because I finally got around to picking up the extra content for the Battletech computer game, so am playing through that again. Also played a few games of 40kMtG with The Boy over the weekend. Sealed commander decks, nids vs necrons. So rusty, so many new keywords. Fun time though.
So, state of the swarm. With the new book about to drop, I thought it would be a good time for a status update.
Here is the last plan
Spoiler:
My end of 9th point count for the painted stuff was a little under 4,000 points. Added a bunch of stuff with 10th, but also points drastically changed. I’ll grab a new total with the new codex eventually. Overall pretty good sized hive fleet with a wide assortment of stuff, but not particularly deep (with a few exceptions) One thing with the new book (from reviews) is themed detachments. Which I absolutely love as a concept and look forward to how they do it to other armies. But now, the question is how my collection fits.
Invasion Fleet: Your all-rounder Index option.
Crusher Stampede: Big bug bonanza.
Unending Swarm: Hordes of Gaunts.
Assimilation Swarm: Regeneration built around a new HARVESTER keyword.
Vanguard Onslaught: Sneaky and speedy bugs galore.
Synaptic Nexus: Build around your brainiest bugs and reap the rewards.
(From Goonhammer
Invasion fleet is the index option, and I’m fine for that as a jack-of-all trades.
Do I have enough big bugs? Probably not for this. I might be able to get something together for a low point list, but lack some of the big hitters (tyranofex, big brain, etc) I’m not thematically a huge fan of Nidzilla, so not a big loss. I’m a classic kind of guy. Carpet of gribbles with a few nodes and big bugs scattered around for support
Unending swarm:
That’s reasonably unending. If I really wanted to lean into it I’d probably want another 10-20 hormagants and gargoyles. Not pictured are the pre-painted ones I got with the supply drop which would include another ~30 bodies (and a spare ‘fex for the Crusher Stampede) Of note (and what will get the acetone out) is that there are 2 spike rifles and 2 stranglewebs in the old collection. So not barb launcher (as they are completely new) but some old/new toys for the little guys. Unfortunately with the silly way GW is doing upgrades/points these days, running bare-bones squads is leaving free power on the table. I suspect a full box of the new gaunts is in the cards, just so I have at least one of each of the new options. But it makes the ones from the leviathan box feel real lackluster.
Assimilation Swarm:
Not that there are a lot of minis for this phase of the invasion, but I’ve got 3/4ths of them RIppers, psycophage, haurspex. Missing the pyrovore. But only one of each. Thematically, I’d like to boost this side of my army. I enjoy the concept of being able to swam at all levels. Vanguard, main battle, and assimilation.
Vanguard Onslaught:
This also includes winged bugs, so that adds a bit more. But even just my sneaky bois I’ve got a decent selection of. And if I feel like it I can dig up a LOT more stealers from the depths of the PoS and get them to the table. Might need to pick up Deathleaper or a few of the new lictors (who I like) if I want to lean hard into this. Or another squad of VRLs.
Synaptic Nexus
The Leviathan box helped this branch of the swarm. Added a med/big sized brain bug and the little extension cords for tangling up the table. Of course with the dropping of the HQ zoenthrope and the changes to unit size, the lone guy there is pretty useless. Getting a box of floating death brains is still on my list. Of course, this detachment is focused not just on pure brain bugs, but all synapse. So I have the rest of the table to pull from.
Overall status:
My overall collection goal is to have a small/medium/large representative from all the major branches of the nid evolution. The 10th starter helped a lot with that, giving me small artillery and brain bugs, which I needed, and reinforcing a few spots where I only have one option. It also brought back attaching characters to units. I need to take a good look at things when the full codex drops to see if I need to pickup some bodyguard units (hive guard? melee warriors?) The new stuff looks cool, but I have quite the backlog to get through at this point, so will probably not be picking anything up but the codex on release.
And another nid for the swarm. Enough fresh parts he doesn’t need to borrow from OOE and can stand on his own.
Basecoats going down on the scout. Old green died, passing the torch to the new. Not the last of my active duty RT paints, but they do grow thin. Metaphorically. Literally they are getting thicker...
'fex looks good. I like the gradation on the red-- is that just Contrast?
I hate it when a paint runs out-- miniature paints (as opposed to, say, Tamiya or Mr. Color) are really hard to find where I am, so I have to do mail order when I need to replace one. I hate having to rely on the on-screen approximation of the color to decide if it's what I want.
The gradient is probably due to a few things. While I don’t zeniethal highlight, I do spray brime, and often not a complete even coat. So sometimes the recesses have a thinner coat where the grey peeks though.
Then the base layer of Grey Seer. Just one, so again not full coverage, so the recesses might be a little darker.
(The flesh wash is next, and while not on the red spots, I’m nothing if not sloppy so some does get on the claws etc. The next 2 steps generally hide anything, but the base of the claws might be a hair darker due to this. I count it as a feature)
Blood Angels Red contrast. Now this should be pooling and getting me the gradient intentionally.
Nuln Oil shade (old formula) over all* the reds. Should reinforce the contrast and help “blend” into the skin by making the transition less abrupt.
* - Tongues get BFtBG instead for the glossy, gory finish instead of the matting that the shade gives
--
I worry a good bit about color matching. Although with age my collections tends to drift around the spectrum despite this. I picked up a promising pot of blue contrast to replace the dwindling ink I use for all my Ultras, but haven’t tried it out yet. Need a test subject and some spare time in the paint queue. What I should do is buy a few pots from one of the many companies that either claim to match or in theory still produce the old hex pot cote d’arms paints.
Headed down to the FLGS to grab the new codex. And like a sucker, a new box of gaunts. I probably should have picked up a box of one of the new flavor of lictors, or the termagaunt box for the new gun. But these guys are just so cute. Like happy puppies bounding across the battlefield, looking for snacks and hugs. The 20 I have didn’t really feel swarmy enough to lead the charge. I suspect I’ll want another 10 to do 2x20 blobs, but having the option for 3x10 seems like it might be good. Need to digest the codex.
Painting progress
Slowly getting layers down. The HB on the scout is misaligned, but I don’t feel like chopping his arm off to fix it. Getting layers down on another big bug. Chugging along. I really want to get the nid combat patrol done, and he’s needed.
So no progress on actual projects, but the side bug is moving right along.
Question for the room: What color smoke? Deciding between white (with blue-grey shadows) or yellow tinted goblin green. Both of which I’ve used in the past.
Although looking at that smoke grenade it’s a lot more grey then I was thinking. Probably just the white contrast paint, but maybe a very thinned blue/turquoise glaze. But nowhere near the etherial effect I use on the wraiths.
Psychophage looks great, the green smoke at least adds some interest, more so than plain white or gray would do. I like the way you did the inside of his mouth too, looks nice and gross. Nice to see your swarm growing too; gives me some inspiration for my own swarm (which I hope to start on soonish).
Pycho/Scout (Qu'est-ce que c’est) finished. Got the final pics of the scout done and up in the challenge thread. Pychophage will get its formal shots at the end of year. Dabbled a little BftBG onto the still wet flock for the blood soaked snow effect, Hopefully it dries well. We’ll see.
The severed arm used the blue contrast over the normal blue base, replacing the ink. Looks good, I should do a full scale test. Moved the free saurus warrior I got to the spare paint handle and put a grey seer basecoat on him. Going to see what the contrast looks like straight up.
Still need to finish the marines, farseer, and all the random bits and bobs. Almost done with Q3, need to take stock of how I’m doing YTD. Feel like there are going to be a lot of misses this year. But we’re not done yet.
Debating just leaving the cherubs off the Triumph; dislike the little weirdos. But it would require carving the chains off the sarcophagus, and getting the flur de lies they are attached to cleaned up. That’s a lot of fine detail carving, which is not something I’m good at.
Whenever I see “Pycho <blank>” My brain goes to the Talking Heads. It’s all the ‘80s in me. And yes, unless that scout hoofs it real quick, he’s going to be a quick snack for the big bug.
Progress:
Just sucked it up and glued all the freaky little buggers on. Going to be fun to paint. Right now it’s in 3 parts. The base, the platform, and the revered dead. (barring her feet, which are part of the platform). Part of me is thinking about putting magnets into where the platform attaches to the base to make transportation a little easier. Just be able to take all the flappy/ribbon bits off and move them separate from the base (which will have the honor guard) Worried about structural support though. Might require the strength of a solid glue bond. Bit of torque with the way things are connected.
Taking a build break from the sisters to put together some neurogaunts.
Nothing fancy.
Here is my blue experiment:
I should also do a full scale test of the contrast over macragge blue. I did the arm on the psychophage, but it’s hard to get a good idea from that.
I also need to figure out what to actually do with lizard boy here. What color horns/talons, should I lighten up his belly? Drybrush the scales? He’s obviously a testbed for paint, but I don’t want to leave him hanging.
I like the Psychophage, especially the purple carapace. I was under the impression that your 'nids were almost exclusively Contrast, but did you do something different? The lining on the carapace turned out really well.
Nope, the big bug is just my normal contrast scheme. One problem with contrast paints is their more organic flow. I’m sure with more skill with brush/flow control I could manipulate how they settle better I could get more uniform results. I do work that angle a little, but mostly just embrace the fact they everyone is going to be a little different. Which works fine for the bugs. Glad you like them.
--
So, It’s October, time for a Q3 report. Such as it is.
I wrote:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company 2/13 (stretch goal: finish it)
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (28/24)
3 Paint more than I buy. (49/85)
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (1/3)
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
Battle company is not doing well. Although I did put some more layers down on the flamer boys this morning.
Well, I got my 2 dozen nids. The whole PoS neutral thing is kinda shot. But as that was a “strive for” we can still call this a win. I finished building the nerogaunts the other day.
I really need to start cranking through things if I wan to count the paint more then I buy thing. Probably hard fail here. The question is how bad.
Almost done with the jetseer, put the last touches on his bike and the seer himself is getting along. Still need to start on the spear arm. I should start the jet. I just hate vehicles.
I’m a good blogger, and the pace is steady.
The 2 units for 4 faction might have been a mistake. I wanted to have more focus then a “one and done” for diversity, but this might have been a little much. I have been painting a lot of assorted things, so victory in spirit, if not in fact.
Still painting the challenge, still running it.
I recently picked up a sheet of thin steel and some tin snips, so going to try to kick up the nid storage boxes a level. But that was is basically done. Might grab some more boxes for the new guys.
So right now I’m a little over 50% win rate on those. Not the best. But might be able to turn some of those around. Still have a quarter of the year to go.
Bad lighting is bad, but YTD:
Good mix of stuff, good volume. No major issues here.
So things are moving. Got 2 sisters cleaned up for the triumph. Putting layers down on the marines. Jetseer is zooming. I just need to be more diligent about getting to the bench and making progress.
So here is the primed pile going into the end of the year. (With special appearance of the local eldritch forces of darkness, evil, and pettings). The weather is still semi-decent, so I should hopefully be able to one more batch in before winter sets in. Right now I’ve got the CC heroes and the neurogaunts in the to-prime pile. I’d like to get more marines and some more nids built and primed. Plus the triumph. Which I want to have painted by the end of December.
So the SM preorders have gone up and the leaks have started in earnest. No lie, the legends hit of units going out is hitting me hard, and sucking a lot of motivation out with it. We’ll see what I can do with counts-as. Luckily I’ve been magnetizing for a while, but that’s not going to help with platform issues like Land Speeders, just wargear options.
I think I’m going to pick up a box of sternguard with the codex. I want to get the command squad for the company sorted, and need a pair of vets for that, one with a HB. I have some spare intercessor bodies, so can mix and match bits to stretch the box out, and still get the 5 men there, as well as the two I need. There are a lot of boxes in this wave I want, but am trying to keep a little restraint and practicality in my purchases.
On the to-build list is the remains of the Leviathen box. On the nid side it’s just the termagaunts. I think these guys are going to wait until I get a full box, so I can make them all non-fleshborers. Looking at the rules, I think I want another 10 spinefists, and probably more devs. Plus the new toys. From the marine side I need to so the SG/Lt/Apoth sprue. Might wait until I get the full SG box before I do them, in case I can spice things up a bit. Should get the characters done though. I also have the captain, who is going to end up as a chaplain. Although leaks I’ve seen have removed the GL-fist option for the TDA captain, he should still be fieldable. He’s a little non-WYSWYG, as he has a SB, fist, and a sword. But I think I don’t care at this point. I’d like a in-scale TDA chaplain who is less then 30 years old. The question is if I go for a SB or SS, or if I try to magnetize. We’ll see what the rules look like how how I feel with the knife. Last in the Lev box are 5 more flamers. I might build these as the back half of the squad, or paint them as Salamanders. The Boy might not be playing, but it would let me paint something non-blue. Not that that’s been an issue this year.
When dragging the the garbage cans after work yesterday I noticed the weather was actually quite nice, so I broke out and rattle can and hit everything in the to-prime box. Which is the Triumph, CC heroes, and the nerogaunts. All off to the to-paint pile.
Put a little paint down:
Finished the seer, including the spare arm. Also put the base coat on one of the vamps for this month and a pair of nid gun arms for the fexes. I really need to stop slacking and finish those marines so I can free up the paint handles. Oh well. Maybe this weekend.
Thanks. I do enjoy the Eldar, and should paint them more. They’ve just unfortunately been bumped down to my tertiary army. As more of their range transitions to plastic, I’ll probably keep slowly picking them up. There are already a few things released I missed on my “to get eventually” list.
So did a little building. Put together the gravis apothecary and the combi-Lt. from the Leviathan box. Started clipping the SG to build, but realized the first one was the sarge, and he didn’t have any CC options. Looking at the pics from GW’s pre-order page I’m not sure if the rules are going to be swap his rifle for a CC (situationally worth it) or in addition to it (no-brainer in 10th). So putting a big pause on those guys until I have the codex in hand.
I should get painting. Or build something else. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
So a few weekends I picked up a sheet of steel and some tin snips. While technically the snips work, it is hard to cut a neat straight line in sheet steel. I’ve got got cuts on my hand from this then I’ve received from my cat total. (To be fair, Izzy only claws me accidentally; but is also composed entirely of murder and darkness). Worth the pain. These guys are on solid. The only one with any wobble left from these 2 boxes is the 3rd ed sister, who is a giant chunk of metal. Which is why she’s not sideways here. Did a full inverse upside-down test with the gaunt/ripper box, but wasn’t brave enough to try the big box.
Right now the metal sheets are just sitting on the sheet magnets I previously stuck in with their self adhesive side.
The steel was 2x3 feet, so should line 8 boxes of the size I have. Only own 4 right now. I think it was like 40-50 bucks, so while not cheep, will basically cover all my needs for the foreseeable future.
In other news put the second blue coat on another marine and the red on the nid arms. grey on the stone base of the vamp. Slow progress, but progress.
Shock surprise, I picked up the new codex. And a box of SG vets. With a bonus vet for the mini of the month. Which is good, as I needed a spare for the command squad project.
Going to give them a chance to update the legends docs before I go over the shelf to count the fallen. I suspect it’s going to be ugly. But it’s not like I don’t already have outdated stuff sitting there. It’s just going to be a lot of stuff added.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Working on getting a TDA chaplain out of the captain. The angle of the weapons really wants a bald and screaming head. Might see how it would work if I angles up the SB. Then we could go with a more determined look.
Got the blue ink down on 2 flamer marines. Plugging away.
The codex is hiding at the bottom of the pile. I also got a little folder thing to store the collector coins they hand out, as I finally got around to getting 6 of them.
I think that’s the “bare” head from the primaris techmarine. But I’m a sucker for my chaplains missing half their skulls. When I saw that head when I built the tech, I knew it would be screaming litanies someday.
I should be painting more, but have been working my way through the DC movies recently. Trying to keep some momentum, but feeling like a slug lately.
Your momentum is more than I'm managing. Definitely been thinking about magnetized cases. Most of the guys I game with have them and they're really nice.
I like that Chaplain a whole bunch.
Triumph is a massive diorama piece, can't wait to see it in turquoise.
DJJazzyJeff wrote: Your momentum is more than I'm managing. Definitely been thinking about magnetized cases. Most of the guys I game with have them and they're really nice.
I like that Chaplain a whole bunch.
Triumph is a massive diorama piece, can't wait to see it in turquoise.
I’m quite pleased how the chaplain turned out. Hopefully I can get him primed before winter.
I paint sister in black and white, with a little red. Turquoise is for etherial undead. With the exception of the sister on the place of honor, all these ladies are alive. Although, to be fair, I think the diorama would work as a nighhaunt-like spectral procession. Heck of a lot easier to paint as well. Hmmmmm…
Generally once I start putting paint down I finish what I’m doing before moving on. I think the last major drag I had was doing a drop pod as a background project that took a couple seasons.
Just need to to the red trim edges on the guy on the right and then touchups to get these guys off the paint handles. Then I can move the other 2 vamps up and really get cracking on them. Running out of month.
Alaricuk wrote:Looking very nice,,, wish I had your powers of “sticking with it till it’s done”
I like to think of it as weaponizing my stubbornness. But mostly I’m very good with planning and logic. Just the way I’m wired. Make a plan, do it. The blog helps a lot. I’ll give up on myself at a drop of a hat, but I’ll walk a mile over hot coals before letting other people down.
inmygravenimage wrote:The pose you have going on there is superb
I really like the way the chaplain came together. really just a simple weapon and head swap, and adjusted the angle of one arm. But came together really nicely.
--
So the two marines are off the handles and ready for base work and decals. Vamps up and ready to go.
Also, a heavy pour of a martini and a followup bourbon means anything else is can wait. Have a great weekend all, time for me to call it a night.
Built some of the ETB sternguard from the leviathan box this morning. They can join the free one and the rest of the guys in the to-prime box
Still have the sarge left, who pisses me off. Stupid 10th edition rules. It would be trivial to swap that bolt pistol for a power sword, but the rules do not support that. No combi weapon and CC toy. He’s going to have to be demoted and just be the guy in charge of the back half of the squad. I’m going to have to take a spare body and spruce him up to join the squad, as I’m going to poach the HB and one rifleman for the command squad. Probably going to grab a spare HB to fill out the squad, but might have some cool burny bits hiding on GK sprues to make a pyreblaster. I always enjoyed HFs on sternguard squads.
So some paint:
With the space now free, I can start in on the month’s entry. Took no time to catch the two new guys up to the one I started earlier. Going to be a bit of contrast on these guys. Right now one big issue is deciding what’s skin, what’s leather, what’s cloth, and what’s armor. Kinda fuzzy in a lot of places.
Heh, you're complaining about having models sitting around since August, and I'm still getting dirty looks from a batch of Easterlings that have been sitting mostly completed on my desk for like a year and a half at this point, and that's just the tip of the sad WIP iceberg for me.
Totally agree about the stupid wargear rules. I checked and you can indeed have a bolt rifle and a good melee weapon, but not a combi weapon and a good melee weapon. Like, why GW?
But, at least you are getting some paint down, which is more than I can say. I've been assembling plenty of stuff, but not getting much actual painting done lately. Keep up the good work!
youwashock wrote:Parkour vamps on deck! Sorry to hear about the equipment woes. That's a cool looking batch of upcoming Marines, too.
Nice mild day, so they all got a coat of primer and off to the to-paint pile.
Captain Brown wrote:
Nevelon wrote: Remember these guys who were supposed to be done in August? Getting there.
Most projects take longer than we planned. I have a ship build that stalled in 2012 and has moved three times since it was ready for painting.
Cheers,
CB
Normally once I start putting paint on things I finish them. If I count things that are built with just primer, I’ve got stuff back to 2017 in the “active” pile. If I dig into the Pile of Shame I’m sure I’ve got dead projects from the 90s. Mostly old WHFB stuff. Occasionally I dig things out for comps (like the dryads and slayer pirates), but not often.
ZergSmasher wrote:Heh, you're complaining about having models sitting around since August, and I'm still getting dirty looks from a batch of Easterlings that have been sitting mostly completed on my desk for like a year and a half at this point, and that's just the tip of the sad WIP iceberg for me.
Totally agree about the stupid wargear rules. I checked and you can indeed have a bolt rifle and a good melee weapon, but not a combi weapon and a good melee weapon. Like, why GW?
But, at least you are getting some paint down, which is more than I can say. I've been assembling plenty of stuff, but not getting much actual painting done lately. Keep up the good work!
I’m not a GW hater, but they do vex me sometimes. The big one is when limits are placed on things not due to fluff/background/game balance. It stifles the creativity and modeling side of the hobby.
So I finished the sarge, and just left him as-is. He made it before the primer came out, so will join the squad. I’ll need to remind myself not to give him sarge markings; he’ll be the nameless guy in charge of the back half of the squad. Started clipping the full kit. The ETB ones from the Leviathan box are a mix or combis and rifles, so I want to make sure I have enough for half the total squad to have each. So 4 troopers each, 2x heavy weapons (going to need spares as I’m poaching the ETB HB for the command squad) and a rifle/CC sarge and a basic combi sarge/second. I got a spare rifleman as a mini of the month, so will need one more body, which I should have kicking around.
Not that I’m doing much with the DW these days, but it might be worth seeing what I could do to get them field able as sternguard squads. I know the classic firstborn one I built with that in mind. Might need some HB/HFs to get the primaris up.
Put some more layers down on the vamps. plugging along, but not a lot of time.
Scouts
8x snipers (+1 in primed pile)
2x HB 1x ML (Mag at waist to swap for a sniper if needed)
4x BP/CCW 4x shotguns
5x bolters (one of them has a real big knife, an issue now that they differentiate between "Combat knife" and "Close combat weapon”)
3x chainsword sarges
Legends:
Sgt Talion (just a sarge with a bolter now )
3x scout bikes.
Land Speeder Storm
Gone:
Sarge w/ SB and powersword
Phobos:
5x Incursors
10x Infiltrators
9x Eliminators (2 rifle squads, one las)
Chaplain
Lt in phobos armor
Lt. w/ combi weapon (primed)
(bonus phobos librarian, not technically part of the 10th)
So due to the new box, the way the rules for scouts work have drastically changed. The big thing is that snipers are 1/5 guys now and not a swap at will thing. Full squads are still in legends for now.
Organizing them into squads for 10th seems like a lot of the options are gone. You need a sarge. You want the sniper and the heavy. That’s 3/5th. From what I hear on the play side you want a shotgunner. Having an assault weapon in the squad makes them eligible to shoot after advancing, so lets them perform actions. The 5th guy can do whatever he wants. It still might be worth it to aggressively run a squad for close combat, but is it worth giving up the heavy/sniper for a single extra CC swing? Because that’s all the BP/CK get. In the days when we needed to pay extra points for the big guns, a lot could be said for keeping them cheep and cheerful, and not paying for things you wouldn’t need. But the way 10th does points, why not?
The loss of my tricked out sarge hurts my numbers. That drops me down to 29 guys, assuming I just use Talion to fill his sarge’s slot in a squad. Not really relevant from a play POV, as I can still comfortably put together 3 kitted out scout squads (and a legend scout sniper squad) for lists. But it bugs me as I like to have tidy shelf deployment. He can still hang out in the back if I want to push for a full 10th company. I’m not going to try to source another old scale scout just to replace him.
Looking at the phobos side, I’ve got 24 troopers, plus some command
For the eliminators I have two pure rifle squads, and one squad with las fusils and a carbine sarge. Back when they were released, the sarge could forgo his shooting to buff the squad. So it was worth it to not pat to give him a las. if I was building a squad these days I’d have just had a pure Las squad. Not worth giving up the 3rd AV shot for the shoot and scoot ability. Might be worth tossing into a rifle squad. If I end up with spare bodies might try to trick out a new sarge.
I’ve got a 5 man incursor squad, with the gear they need. They have a very nice looking ability to spot a unit to give the rest of your army +1 to hit it. I don’t know if I need another squad of them, but like the way the look these days.
10 Infiltrators have some issues with the swap to 10th. It used to be the coms/helix was either/or for the squad. Now you can have both, even in a 5 man squad. They seem a little pricy for what they do, but it looks like they still do their job, and do it well. Which is camping and area denial. I could fake a tricked out 5 man squad, using the “sarge” from the back half of the squad for a comms trooper. But I could use some spare guys to gear them up properly.
With the combi weapon lt from the Leviathan box that’s both the guys I need for 10th company command. Still need a captain. And if I want to go all-in, an apothecary and command squad. Might be fun to figure out how to do a modern command in phobos. The rifleman and HB guy are just weapon swaps, pretty easy. Ancient would need me to find a banner/pole, but should also be doable. I’ve got power swords a plenty, the issue would be finding one that looked good, and a good pose to make the champ stand out. The reiver Lt might make a nice base, but I’d hate to pay GW’s single character prices.
I feel like a squad of reivers would be nice to have on the shelf, but their rules are a bit naff for their points. We have so many better options for CC troops.
So where are we? A solid demi company of the 10th. Made the transition to 10th OKish. The support units (bikes, LLS) went to legends. The loss of the storm and the way gear is structured hurt the CC scouts. I can still put 3x solid units on the table, so from a practical POV, still good. Loss of dedicated non-legends scout sniper squad means I’ve got more of them then I’ll ever need. Oh well. Phobos are largely untouched, but the upgrade structure impacts the infiltrators.
Where are we going? Will I pick up the new scouts when they drop? I don’t need to, but might anyway (especially bundled with scorpions). They look cool, but the budget is not infinite. The old phobos KT box could be fun to grab. Use the parts and bodies to make a KT, add options to existing squads, maybe do up command.
All of these things are pretty low on the priority list. I’m probably going to focus on the 1st first. But I wanted to spend my Sunday coffee ramblings taking stock of what I had, because the 10th ed changes had some pretty big impact on my self.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
So some progress and not just random musings. Vamps are basically done. Need to be flocked. Built the SG sarge. Fist is magnetized. Didn’t like the one in the kit, so pulled one from the bits box. It’s got a crux on the back, so went for a plainer shoulder so as to not double up.
Moved the 3 old metal raveners down to the handles. Hope to bang them out quickly, so I can do the aggressors next month. Would have started tonight, but one snapped off his base and needed to be re-glued. Kinda glad we get something for the pure melee build (a pip or armor save) as these guys never had guns.
My 10th got gutted pretty hard. I had 11 snipers (including 2 old metal ones), a ML, a HB, a squad of five of the old metal close combat ones, and a bunch with bolters. Plus 6 Scout Bikes. I've sold or am in the process of selling all of my old scouts, in favor of getting some of the new ones when they drop (I like those models so much better). Thankfully my Phobos side is still just fine. My Ravenwing fared pretty badly as well, losing a bunch of Attack Bikes, 5 Land Speeders (Typhoons and Tornadoes), and a lot of my normal Bikes have special weapons and so can't really be used as Outriders unless I do some cutting, which I might. I'm pretty much selling anything I can't use, as my FLGS will give me some store credit for it and it'll clear shelf space for newer stuff. I'm holding on to a few pieces for nostalgia reasons, but I'm not particularly attached to most of it so most of what I can't play with anymore outside of Legends is going to the used model bins at the shop.
One reason I just focused on the 10th this morning is I’m not looking forward to a whole chapter wide audit. While legends are a thing, a lot of my favorite units are now residing there. The FA slot particularly. Sure, assault marines can translate into assault interecessors with minimal fuss, but all the mobile firepower is gone. Bikes and speeders. /mourn. Call me old fashioned, but I alway included some fast melta in a list. And armored columns needed screening elements that could keep pace. Ravenwing and White Scars players who built entirely fun, lore friendly, and effective armies just got shot in the gut. The new speeders and bikes are not a replacement for the old. Completely different on the battlefield.
I don’t sell stuff, but when it comes time in December to move the YTD up to join the army, some legends stuff might be going to secondary locations. I might be over reacting. Some people might not care. But the idea of tournament prep is pervasive in a lot of the FLGSs.
It’s not like it’s going to slow me down though. Still enjoy the Ultras, still collecting and painting. Just a twinge of sadness watching history fade.
OK, enough maudlin. (although I’m prone to it this time of year) Some progress!
Here is what’s waiting in the wings. Going to try to do it all, but that might be a little ambitious. Wrecking Ball in 3 parts. Agressors, Gravis Captain, SK.
And what’s currently going on:
Snakes have their grey sear down. One marine has his cleanup blue, ready for ink. But I want to get his brother caught up before I do that.
And because I don’t think I cross posted here from the October thread:
Some hopping leaches.
We made it halfway through the week. Hope everyone survived Halloween.
So made it to another weekend. Time for coffee musings while I wake up.
Let’s take a look at the 1st company.
Unlike the 10th, they didn’t get primaris replacements to the same extent. There were Bladeguard vets, and veteran intercessors, the later of which I never got around to specifically modeling. Although I did field them using Deathwatch squads in an Ultramarine list.
At the core of my vets is 4x5 old school metal terminators. 1 assault squad, 3 tactical.
3x sarge w/ power sword
2x AsCan/PF 1x HF/PF 5x SB/PF (one has a magnet to use a CML launcher)
4x SB/CF
Assaults are:
2x Paired LCs 3x TH/SS (inc sarge)
These guys truly are vets. I think the newest models are the assaults, which I finished off filling the squad out in 4th by digging through the “we don’t have space on the shelves for old blisters” box at a not quite local FLGS. Some of are rather modern paints, as i worked to fill out the squads from my backstock of Pile of Shame. Which still has some more old heavy metal in it, but a lot of odds and ends.
For baseline TDA I have the new Leviathan ones primed and ready
1x sarge w/ SB/sword
3x SB/Pfist
1x AsC/Pfist
I’d like a new CML and a Pfist sarge now that it’s an option. Going to require a new box of the full kit. I might snip pegs and mag the sarge’s arm from the Lev box to future proof him. The fist is just so much the superior option in 10th.
Next are the relic suits from the HH range. They just lost their 40k rules.
5x CTDA, all paired LC (grenade harness on sarge)
2x TTDA w/ SB/LC 1x TTDA w/ SB/CF 1x TTDA w/ Volkite/PF 1x TTDA w/ Plasmablaster/PF (plasma magnetized, but no swaps made)
Built and primed, but not painted:
2x CTDA w/ HF/CF 3x CDTA w/ paired LC (2 have mags up top for coms/vexila, not made)
On sprue:
5x CTDA
Now the capheracti with twin lightning claws are still 40k compliant. The tarteros significantly less so. They might not even be OK in the HH2 rules. For now they get to sit on the shelf and count against my company strength. Eventually I might calve off of the 30k stuff from the shelf into their own area, but not right now.
Now to the power armor.
10x Vanguard vets, fully magnetized.
So these guys had their rules gutted in 10th. All of their CC toys have been melted down into “Vanguard Veteran Weapon” which are basically chainswords with an extra point of S. Lame. And everyone can swap their BP for a better pistol or SS (at, of course, no cost) One of my big issues here is that they just pissed WYSWYG away for pretty much all the VVs made out in the world. I’d got a collection of swords, axes, LC, and yes, chainswords on my guys. But now they are all hitting the same. Despite those same bits being actual power weapons in other places in my army. If i was being serious about modernizing, I’d mag up some new pistols for these guys. And probably replace all the power weapons with more chainswords just to appease my WYSWYG self. I’d have to see how many shields I have kicking around. Might be worth just ignoring the shooting to 4++ the whole squad.
This is a massively eclectic mix of minis. I’ve got a pair of RT metals with terminator honors. 4x tyranic war vets. A box of the old SG metals, and the rest are from the last firstborm plastic SG kit, or just put together from random parts. Like one of the HFs is an old terminator metal. Sometimes scale creep works in my favor.
These guys are getting primaris reinforcements with the new kit. I’ll be poaching some of my new models for the company command for the 3rd, but incoming should look like this:
Primed:
Sarge w/ combi
1x Combi
2x Bolter
Built:
Sarge w/ rifle and powerfirst (mag CC arm)
on sprue:
4 bodies, inc heavy weapon.
I did one free mini of the month rifleman, but poached the HB from the leviathan box, netting me a man down for 10 new 1st company vets. I’ll probably end up scrounging up a HB from the old range and vetting up an extra intercessor body to even that out.
There are some new vets on the shelf.
3x Bladeguard vets
1x Bladeguard Ancient
primed:
2x BGV, including sarge w/ volite pistol
I have the 3 BGV from the Indominus box, and bought the full kit to flesh them out to a 5 man squad (as is right and proper) and make a captain. Sadly, with 10th pricing, there is no reason to go for a 5 man squad. You pay for either 3 or 6 marines. I might kit up a spare guy, or just leave it. I hate 3 man squads on the shelf.
HQs:
Some upgrades in the pipe here.
Old:
1x TDA chaplain (SB/Croz) (metal)
1x TDA captain (already retired to the non-active shelf)
1x TDA captain w/ SB, fist w/GL, sword (The modern re-do of the old retired guy)
1x CTDA captain w/ Chainfist/LC. I took the 30k guy from the Calth box and swapped his c-melta for a LC. Made sense in 5th, useless and illegal now, even in 30k. He might get the knife.
On deck primed:
1x TDA chaplain (SB/Crox, kitbashed from Lev Captain)
1x sword/shield (Indominus relic shield captain)
(I’ve also got an old TDA librarian painted and 2 new ones in primed pile, but they are not technically 1st company)
So plans forward:
I’d like to get a box of modern terminators. I love my old metals, so they are so out of scale. Honestly have been for a while now. Getting them replaced has been on my wish list for multiple editions, but I couldn’t justify it. Now that I have some new ones from the Lev box, it’s an easier transition, as it’s already begun. Plus I have a brace of modern HQs to lead them, so don’t have the scale mis/match.
One of my thoughts for the last 5 30k terminators I have on sprue was to make character/command minis from them, I still might. As the 1st company fills out, I’d like to get the command staff fleshed out. Need an apothecary and ancient at the very least. I do have the BGV Ancient, but do I need a normal a/o TDA one for the 1st? He at least has the white trim of the 1st. I regret painting the Lt. from the Indominus box with gold trim, I think i might go back and redo him so he can join the 1st. Need more Lts., and there are no TDA ones. No gravis vets either, so I can poach the apothecary biologis from the Lev box. Honestly, getting the company heroes box for the 1st is more appealing then getting it for my actual battle company.
So shortlist is going to see the 5 man TDA squad, 10 new Sternguard, and a handful of characters joining the ranks. Getting a new box of terminators is actually pretty close to the top of my to-buy list. i suspect I’m going to continue to dither about the 5x CTDA still on sprue, but they might get built. Either as s collection of heroes, or as something that could double as a modern 40k tactical terminator squad.
OK, that took longer then I though (plus was interrupted a few times while writing) Time to get moving on my day. Have a great weekend all.
And so it’s not all wall of text woolgathering, some progress.
Flesh wash down on the snakes. Although I noticed the have armored plates at the tip of their tails, in addition to the stabby bit, so will need more purple. Marines still need to be inked, which I’ll try to get to this afternoon.
And at some point I should start on this month’s entry. Need to make space though. I could get started on the SK. We’ll see how motivated I am.
I must have missed what the snakes are from earlier. Are they older model Raveners?
My 1st Company (the Deathwing) fared pretty well overall; the only thing they truly lost was the Relic Terminators, of which I only owned a single unit of 5 Tartaros guys. It is fun to go back and look through the collection and kind of take stock on just how bad my plastic crack addiction has gotten over the years! It does seem you've got me well and truly beat in that department, although you've also been playing longer than I have (if you started with RT you've been playing almost as long as I've been alive!).
Tommygun1918 wrote:The nids are off to a good start. I'm not allowing myself to paint mine until I have a playable force on Marines done. Good painting and have fun.
Not a bad plan to get a playable force done before shifting focus. I’ve got a solid enough base that I don’t field unpainted stuff, regardless of how good it is. I use the desire to get it to the table to help motivate me to get it painted. This does sometimes backfire, as I’ve picked up units to have them become hot trash before I ever get to use them. One reason to not let rules dictate what models you buy. Of course, I’m on the more casual side of the competitive spectrum.
ZergSmasher wrote:I must have missed what the snakes are from earlier. Are they older model Raveners?
My 1st Company (the Deathwing) fared pretty well overall; the only thing they truly lost was the Relic Terminators, of which I only owned a single unit of 5 Tartaros guys. It is fun to go back and look through the collection and kind of take stock on just how bad my plastic crack addiction has gotten over the years! It does seem you've got me well and truly beat in that department, although you've also been playing longer than I have (if you started with RT you've been playing almost as long as I've been alive!).
They are indeed old school raveners. Came to me with the supply drop when my friend Ben moved away and was culling his game collection. Date back to 3rd edition. Now with their reds down. Next up is black wash and details.
And yes, as I’ve been playing since the dawn of time, my plastic crack addition has its roots in a lead addiction. Real lead, not those new fangled “safe” alloys. Although to be fair, very little actual lead in the GW stuff, mostly old D&D stuff. I should do a new wave of group shots. It’s been a while. Very time intensive to move everything out to the table and then put it away again. Complicated with a kitty wandering around. I should also make sure everything in plugged into battlescribe and get some 10th edition totals now that 2 of my armies are out.
In other news, The Boy re-gifted me a drop pod and I have a few gift cards to burn. Need to take a good look at what’s on my to-buy list and check a few things off of it. There are (very) few perks of getting older.
Hope everyone’s week is going well. Don’t forget to vote if you are in the USA.
Edit: black wash down
Edit2: Ordered the new termagaunts and terminators. They get to count as gifts, so not against my goals.
Almost done with the snakes. Did the touchup work with the grey seer last night, so just need to go over that with the flesh wash and they will be off to be based.
Put the first coat down on the SK. Month is ticking along, almost time to start on the marines I was supposed to be focusing on...
I’ll try to grab pics after work. (which is going to be bad for a couple months, sigh)
Snakes flocked and on the YTD shelf. The 2 waiting infernus marines are based, need transfers. on the handles are 3 agressors who just go their first blue, the 2 remaining infernus waiting for ink, and the sk, who is basecoated.
Vejut wrote: Sounds like good progress! Little at a time, but it gets there.
Slow but forward!
Layers going down
Heavy weapon sternguard is cleaned up in sub assembly parts, need to figure out where to magnetize and what to glue. I think one mag at the wrist for his supporting arm might be enough. Let me swap HB/HF
I’d say 3 square meals, but we are on round bases here.
The marines could put a dent on the big guy if the got to swing, but if the SK gets to go, it’s dead marine bits everywhere. But he’s also a significant number of more points more, so that’s fair.
The agressors do seem to be very popular in lists these days, so with some support, they should do well.
Hope to get more paint down this weekend. Was fighting colds all week; really took the wind out.
One thing about how I base is it’s pretty easy to do. So just another step (or 3) but nothing difficult/skilled. Fex has had his base black rimmed, and rocks/tufts glued down. Just needs the flock.
From the build station, two heavies join the sarge. One was adding a HB from a Dev box onto an intercessor. Angles were not fun to try to line up, but workable. Still need like 3 hands and tiny fingers to get everything where it needs to be, but at least they are not plastic/metal hybrid kits anymore. The kitbash if fully glued. As much as I like to leave the gun off for ease of painting, that was just not in the cards for this guy.
The modern one I magged the gun for easy swaps, not suprisingly, went together a lot easier..
Paint:
So finally got around to inking the last of the burners. Edges for them next.
Agressors are done with sloppy basecoats, Next up is washes and drybrushing. (And starting on their guns)
Move the winged prime to the monster handle but haven’t started him yet. Part of the combat patrol, so more of a priority then the other stuff in the queue.
Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving. Almost the weekend for those who didn’t. For those in retail, hang in there; Black Friday only seems like it lasts forever.
2 flamers I finished a while back are still waiting for decals.
The SK and the last 2 burners are rocked and tufted, waiting for flock. After that, the incinerators will all get decaled and the squad will be done.
Clipped another SG. He’ll join the rifle half of the squad. I moved everyone to the mat to see who needed what. The company vets (HB, rifle) are not here, this is pure 1st co builds. Each half gets a heavy and a sarge. The front is all rifles, the back will be all combis. The riflemen have a sarge with CC toy (mag) and one of each of the bolt rifle variants. Not that they are a thing in 10th but I like the concept of flexible squads. Right now there is a c-meta on the sarge, and one c-plas in the back half. Again, 10th doesn’t care what kind of combi you have, they are all stated the same (which is BS, but I digress) Thinking that I’d do one more plas and a flamer for the last 2. I’ve got a half squad of c-melta firstborn SG already, should make for a nice mix.
On the paint side the aggressors are ready for their cleanup blue. Captain got started with his first blue down. With the spare space from the flamers moving off, I moved the lizard back up and put some beige on his cords. Next he’ll need golds which will work down to bronzes. Nid got his purple.
Not sure how much of this is going to be done by the end of the month. SK and flamers will probably be done by the end of the day. Aggressors might not make the deadline. Next month I think I’m going to do the stormhawk that’s been sitting around. Going to try the contrast and see how it works on a vehicle. If it’s a little off, that’s fine for a flyer. But by doing that for the open round there is no rush to get stuff off the painting handles. Plus it’s on the list for getting old stuff out of the painting queue. Might also try to get the 5 man KT/command intercessor squad done, which would finish my company goal for the year. We’ll see how the month goes. It’s a year where I’m driving down to visit my folks for the holidays, so that eats a week+ of the month.
youwashock wrote:That's cool! Makes me all nostalgic for the original, too.
I always loved the classic chunk of lead, but never had one. Didn’t play nids at the time. And now I don’t want to put the time/money into tracking one down just to have it warm the shelf.
ZergSmasher wrote:Screamer-killer looks pretty good, I only hope mine turns out as nice whenever I get around to it.
Miracle of contrast paints. ‘Nids are stupid easy to do in my scheme.
So some progress:
Winged prime is getting the most love. I should put layers on the other guys to keep them progressing.
And build more. Last 2 SG are clipped. I decided against the flamer. So the back half will be a HB and a pair each of c-meltas and c-plasma. Less jack of all trades, master of none and more a flex-focus build. Not a pure mono-gear specialist, but ready for taking down med/hard targets.
Hit the FLGS to grab a free tiny LI rhino. Those things are real fiddly looking. I was dithering about getting into epic, but I just don’t see myself enjoying building/painting an army at that scale. Also grabbed the bike chaplain I’ve been coveting for a while now. I logged it as things I bought, but it’s really the last of the birthday/retail therapy splurges. But I’ve got a LOT of backlog in the PoS I need to start chipping at. Not that I can prime outside in this weather, but plenty of time to get stuff off the sprue before spring.
Started with the free mini of the month guys that had been sitting around. Then sat down to decide how I wanted to deal with the 30 new guys.
All (I think) of the new special weapons and the devourers share a supporting arm with the fleshborers. And have set bodies they work with. If you were just buying spare special sprues to kit up extra guys it might be an issue, but shouldn’t be a problem for me
Building 3 as the new specials was a given.
10 more spinefists (bringing me to 20) enough for a max 20 bug squad, or 2x10. I think in the right detachment, these guys could be a lot of fun.
10 more devourers (bring me to 30). Partially just so I have some of the new guys, but also for some flex
7 fleshborers. (up to 47) Mostly because that’s all the left. I should be utilizing 100% of the options on the extra’s sprue.
Now I dislike odd numbers. My one freebee gaunt pushes me to 48. Digging into the PoS I have a partial sprue with 3 more gaunts. So 2 of them are probably going to be clipped and built to round me out 50. This will put me at 100 basic gaunts with squad level guns. And 3 additional special bugs. I should strip the old metal specials I have with would add an extra pair of stranglewebs and spikerifles. But that’s a task for another day.
In painting news the flying prime got his blackwash, so just need eyes, teeth, and tongue. Plus the black on a claw I missed (already did the red) and touchups.
So these little biters cleaned up quick. Should bring my total number of termagants to 103. 20 spinefist, 30 devourers, 50 fleshborers. And one of each special. Need to find my kill jar and see if I have any acetone left, get the 4 metals into the pool to respawn.
Old guys filling spots there are looking very plain jane next to the sculpts. Not so plain that I’m going to replace the ~70 of them that I have.
One thing about the new kits is that while they are all the same 10 bodies, none stand out. Which sounds like a bad thing, but in this case isn’t. For guys like marines, you might have 5 guys in a rifle squad, but one dude has his rifle slung and his pistol out. or with the old metal SoB range, the one gal pulling the pin out of the grenade with her teeth. When you have dups of that in your army, you notice it. With gaunts, you want a carpet of gribbles, all part of the hive mind. And they deliver.
Not that I needed more ripper swarms, but 3 more of them as well. I debated putting a 5th ripper on each base (and still might) just to differentiate them from the other ones I’ve built/painted (which have either 3 or 4 per base)
While I still have the stabby gaunts to build, I think I’ll take a break from the swarm and build some marines next.
Put the basecoat of grey seer on the stormhawk. Need to do all the details now, and then go back at the end with the contrast. New way of painting Ultras, we’ll see how it turns out.
Still need to get all the gravis armor on the painting handles done.
So the YTD shelf is looking full, and we still have some time left in the month. I’d like to clear the workbench of the projects, but that might just not happen.
Spent the morning cutting sheet metal and fixing magnets.
That’s the YTD shelf nids (plus some who came loose) ready to go. And metal in the last 2 of the boxes. Also maged up the winged prime who is still waiting for flock. I suspect when I try to move the YTD down into the boxes they are not going to fit. I’m guessing I’ll need to pick up one more tall box and 2 more smalls. I should have enough steel for 6 more boxes, so that’s not an issue. I’ll probably order them in the new year. With the ones left to build (hormagaunt box) ready to prime (seen above) and the primed pile I should have about 75 more bugs of assorted sizes to add to the swarm. On the bright side, almost all the old stuff is done; mostly just new plastic. Evolving forward!
Due to the lack of motivation on the Stormhawk swapping to the chaplain for the month. He’s getting along.
That was fun. Love chaplains. They are the spirit of 40k, distilled into miniature form. Need to build the bike guy I picked up, and then get a new HQ collection pic. Been a while since I did a round up. This guy is my 7th chap, new bike will be 8. Assuming I don’t build/paint any more before I get him done.
Crappy nighttime lighting pic, but here is a wrap for 2023. While I might finish the WIP on the bench before the ball drops, it’s unlikely. I’ll get it out on a table with more space and better light for the formal year end pic. There is a staggering lack of blue out there. Bad year to be an Ultramarine. Bugs are looking good though...
The bugs are getting a little out of control. But honestly? The end is in sight. It might take a year or two, but this is not a blank check open book like my Ultras. As a secondary army there is a limit on how far I’m going to push them. I only really have my eye on 2-3 more squad boxes, maybe a lictor or two of some flavor that I still covet. Not that the built/primed pile won’t last me a good while. Well, 2 years give or take at the rate I’m going. Between the piles I have about 80ish more nids to join the swarm.
We’ll see what happens after that. I’ve got some ideas percolating in the back of my mind, but it’s a long way off. Still need to figure out what next year’s goals are going to be. Probably finish all the ones I didn’t get to this year.
Tommygun1918 wrote: Chaplain came out great, those models are always my favorite type of marine. How many heads does that chaplain kit come with?
He is not the new TDA chaplain, but a kitbash from the leviathan captain. Who just has one head option, which I didn’t use. This head is the unhelmeted head from the primaris techmarine. I used the helmet option when I put him together, leaving this one free in the bits box. I’m not going to say you need to have half a cyborg skull to be a chaplain in my army, but half of my chaplains do. And most of the rest are wearing their helmets, so might underneath.
Ok, going to star some year end ramblings. Will probably come back and edit this post to add more later.
I wrote:Here are my New Year’s resolutions: 1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company 6/13 (stretch goal: finish it) 2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (35/24) 3 Paint more than I buy. (66/91) 4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (2/3) 5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week). 6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army. 7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. 8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
1 - Nope. Pretty bad fail here. 6 finished out of 13 I wanted. Even if I count the 3 agressors WiP on the bench, still a hard fail 2 - Win. Mostly. With the leviathan box and other extras that came into the house, I did not stay pile of shame neutral. But I did hit my target volume for painting. And I think as far as old stuff, there is only like 7? Old minis in the primed pile. So while not quite the “clearing the decks” of my stretch goal, did well here. 3 - hahahahah No. 4 - Partial? 2/3 solidly done. Actually, this might be fully done. I know the stormhawk, which was supposed to be the 3rd, is still in progress. The jetseer and the destroyers were the other two. But that HB scout might have been older then the 3 year mark I set in the goal. Will need to research. 5 - win-ish. Lower volume then prior years, and a little patchy in spots. I should be able to do better, but still crossed my (low) bar. 6 - Calling this a win. I might not have technically made it, but close enough. 2+ units from 3 factions, and the a pair of mismatched cultists and some vampires. I’m also starting to think of anything 30k as a separate faction these days, as the overlap between that and 40k is getting slimmer and slimmer. 7 - still going strong. Solid win. 8 - victory. I think there might be one or two of the old (non-flying) nids that haven’t been magnetized, but this is basically done. Even did the YTD shelf before I left on vacation. Will need more boxes, we’ll see how things look when I try to integrate the new stuff down. Probably order the same collection I did again, 1 tall, 3 short. But might need more big boxes.
5/1/2 overall for the year. And some of those were sketchy. Still, not horrible.
Minis Painted: 66 models, 2066 points
Ultramarines: 20 models, 591 points
Spoiler:
Tyranids: 35 models, 1,240 points
Spoiler:
Eldar; 6 models, 145 points
Spoiler:
Death: 3 models, 90 points
Spoiler:
Other 2 models
Spoiler:
Ok people are up and about, time to stop for now. Have a happy holiday everybody.
—Nev
Edit: First post for the year before the reset for 2024
Spoiler:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions: 1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company 6/13 (stretch goal: finish it) 2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids) (35/24) 3 Paint more than I buy. (66/91) 4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years (2/3) 5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week). 6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army. 7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year. 8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)
Money spent on the hobby: $830
$30 W&N S7 #1, Greenstuff $82 Sicarian tank, 5x2mm magnets $35 Company Champion $15 UM upgrades $250 Leviathan $5 Leadbelcher $120 Triumph of St. Katherine $110 Tyranid codex, hormogaunts $120 Marine Codex, Sternguard $63 Chap on bike, Mournfang brown paint
I need to figure out my new year goals. Probably going to be a lot of copy/paste from last year. Might tweak the numbers/wording.
The primaris 3rd company is still a goal, and still probably 2 years out. Crazy as it sounds, I might not be finishing it until 11th edition. So do I wait until we get some leaks for that before buying more guys just to fill out the company? Right now I think I want to focus on painting what I have on hand, maybe grab a box of the jump troops, as I know I’m going to want to add a squad of them to the co.
I’m going to see if I can resist buying more nids. Still might get some zoenthropes, tyrant guard, or a lictor or two. The original goal of keeping them PoS neutral is kinda shot, but I shouldn’t revel in it. On the bright side, they paint quick.
There is not a lot of stuff on my to-buy list. A lot of what I’m going to be painting in 2024 is already in the primed pile. If I can grab a copy of the KT box, I will. I like the scouts, and the scorpions are cool and adding infiltrators to my eldar list is a good way to excuse some mud on boots so I don’t need more transports. Do I need 10 of each? No. But I could have them on the shelf, and they way they price boxes, it might not be that much more expensive then getting a single box of each. There are still a few things from the last eldar release I’d like, but need to paint more of what I have waiting first.
I suspect next year is going to look a lot like this one. Probably over half the volume will be bugs. Less big ones, more gribbles. Hopefully 8 more 3rd co guys, If I grab a box of JP will be 13. Less 10th, more 1st company to fill out the rest of the marine portion. I’d like to focus to get the marine and nid combat patrols done. Assorted other stuff to keep a diverse assortment of things getting paint. And whatever the 3 oldest things in the primed pile are, which I’ll have to dig into.
And that’s enough rambling for this Christmas morning. Happy holidays everyone! Hope you all made the “nice” list this year.
Must make the pledge of two models painted for each one new figure.
Cheers,
CB
The big question is how much GW is going to drop on me that I covet. I’m holding of on more 30k stuff. Need to paint what I have, and the divergence from 40k compatibility sucked a lot of the wind out of my sails. I’m not getting into the new Epic. Looking at the free tiny rhino, I’m not enthusiastic about working with plastic on that scale.
The Old World is a maybe. I’ve got some TK from back when they were part of the unified Undead book, but my unbeating heart leaned towards VC. Who look to only be getting phoned in support. That said, I also have a chunk of chaos warriors. Also, a solid core of a 5th brettonian army that a friend passed onto me before moving away. And my own scraps of that starter, some of which have tatters of paint or were subject to conversion attempts. If I do get into it, that will do bad things to the PoS. Assuming I buy the bret starter. I really hate just buying straight rulebooks. They go obsolete so fast, and cost so much. Especially considering how often I get to the table.
There are rumors that KT might get a summer release could be a potential purchase.
Decent bundle boxes are always tempting.
Right now I’d like to get the scorpion/scout box, but won’t be broken up if I miss out. I’d probably be fine with a 5 man squad of each, but a double helping would be OK with me. They are also minis I would be just fine waiting to show up in a bundle.
A lot of stuff is like that. A lot of stuff that I’d like, but not anticipating and lusting after. The odds of me buying nothing are low, but assuming I pass on TOW, may only be 20-30 new minis bought this year. In which case, painting twice what I buy might happen.
Edited these into the year end summery, but for those following along at home 2023:
Minis Painted: 66
Ultramarines: 20 models, 591 points
Spoiler:
Tyranids: 35 models, 1,240 points
Spoiler:
Eldar; 6 models, 145 points
Spoiler:
Death: 3 models, 90 points
Spoiler:
Other 2 models
Spoiler:
Not horrible? Lower volume then I’d like to see, but a good mix of stuff. Mix of new and old stuff.
--
Moving forward, this is what’s on deck:
The Boy gave me another primaris grav tank. I’ll mag it up like the one still waiting for paint so I have a pair that can swap between tanks and transports. Also in the build queue are the hormagaunts, TDA squad, and the bike chap. Still some undead in the weeds and some assorted odds and ends might show up.
There are a TON of little gribbly nids in the pipe, with a few medium ones to break up the swarm. I need to get back in the habit of just running these guys across the bench as side projects as I work on other things.
Chunk of Eldar need work. I should try to do more then just 2 squads this year.
Cursed City and my undead need more attention.
30k is kinda stalled, but a lot of plastic there. Need to push some out.
Some new marines, some old. Need to get the company rolling again. The fail on this year’s goal hurt the project a lot.
So some new goals:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral.
3 Paint more than I buy.
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Paint models to be able to field the SM/Nid combat patrols.
Some slight tweaks over last year.
Lowered the company goal. I’m going to focus on other aspects, but don’t want to abandon this. 8 is the 3 WIP I’ve got on the bench and a 5 man squad.
24 is 2 a month. I know I can do better, so this should be a gimmie. Going to focus on not buying anything new to get the PoS aspect back in line.
Paint more than I buy is a classic, and a good goal to keep in mind.
Need to review the pile for the oldest stuff.
updating the blog and the 1-a-week is also kind of a given, but I like to keep it on the chart.
I’m formally going to consider 30k Ultras a separate faction from the 40k side. So this will probably end up being Eldar/nids/2xflavors of Ultras. I’ll try to splash an extra little thing in there, we’ll see.
The SM patrol needs 6 models (TDA squad, Lib) and the Nid needs 8 (barbs, VR leapers) Stretch goal would be to get 20 modern gaunts on the new sized bases done
OK, enough rambling, I should get some productive stuff done. Happy New year everyone!
That reminds me, I forgot to try to pick out my favorite models for the year.
Chaplain probably tops the list. Swarmlord in second? And probably the rangers bringing up 3rd. I should have made the call when they were still on the table for the year end shot.
You did pretty good for the year, I think. Maybe not as much variety as you would have liked, but you did good on the stuff you did work on. I look forward to seeing what you paint in 2024 as always!
youwashock wrote:Nice wrap-up, Nev. A solid body of work. Swarmy and SK are really standouts, as is the new Chaplain.
The SK has a few places where his ETB nature bug me. Both on the build and the paint there are places I know I could do better, so while I like him, he’s not my favorite for the year.
ZergSmasher wrote:You did pretty good for the year, I think. Maybe not as much variety as you would have liked, but you did good on the stuff you did work on. I look forward to seeing what you paint in 2024 as always!
Thanks.
Looking forward to things on the known to-paint list:
Finish painting:
3x agressors (will count for 3rd co goal)
Gravis Captain (even if I give him red trim, he doesn’t count for the company goal, as I already have a captain on the shelf)
Stormhawk (old mini)
Lizardman (random)
Eldar Warwalker (old, faction)
Old TDA Librarian (old, could be for CP)
New TDA Lib (CP)
5x terminators (CP)
5x Barbgaunts (CP)
3x VR Leapers (CP)
Combi weapon phobos LT (Jan challenge)
Those are “fixed’ and make for a count of 23 minis. Once I finish them I’ll need:
5 more 3rd company marines (probably the 5 intercessors I built to be a KT)
16 more tyranids
1 more eldar unit (probably one of Eldar Shining spears, shroudrunners, dire avengers)
2 units from another faction. (either Death, 30k, or something crazy left field)
Assuming i pick one of the 3 man bike squads for the Eldar, and go with a character + 5 man squad for the 4th faction, that brings my proposed total minis up to 53. Which is my yearly goal. And while last year was light at 66, the prior two were just shy of 100. To hit those numbers, probably a lot of gribbles are going to need to cross the bench, but I’ve got a bucket of those on deck. And there is the question on how to fit them into challenges.
I should start some progress for this year. Slow going, as I’m a bit under the weather right now. Got the month’s goal over to the bench, but will need to make room on the handles for them.
youwashock wrote: Hope he's hiding a few more battle brothers in those pouches...
Get well soon, Nev.
He does have a ton of pouches. Could be more though; I can still see his feet. Points wise, the leapers only have a 5 point edge on him. But he’s got a lot of points in army buffs and special rules, where the VR’s are basically murder machines. Still a lot more of fair fight then some of my vs. diorama/pairings.
Put the base grey seer on everyone this morning.
Started clipping terminators. Going to mag the sarg’s CC weapon and I think I should also be able to get all the heavies. Although the AsC and HF might have to put up with the CML targeter on the powerfirst. I don’t see a whole lot of reason to equip chainfists these days, but will probably build two anyway. One for this squad, one to swap out for the ETB guys from the Lev box. This is mostly institutional inertia from prior editions. Strength 8 powerfists vs. rear armor values was fine vs most vehicles, but sometimes you needed armorbane. Having one guy in squad able to step up and just carve open anything was worth the 5 point investment. in 10th, -1 to hit for anti-vehicle 3+ is a significant drawback for situational bonus.
Going to also see if I can get a spare fist out of the box to mag for the ETB sarge from the Lev box. While the sword on the sarge is iconic, +1A is not worth loosing 3S and a point of Damage.
Due to the way the box is set up I’m building all the bodies first, then will go back and do the arms and position the heads. All the SB arms are interchangeable (as are most of the CC ones) so I want to get the poses/direction right on everyone.
Assuming I survive the day. It’s been snowing all morning, and is supposed to keep at it for another couple hours. Probably around a foot of white stuff to clear once it’s all done. I’ve got a snowblower, but am not as young as I used to be. Lots of painkillers in my future...
Quick update to prove I’m still alive. Got another layer on the LT, and did a little bit on the gravis captain.
Built the sarge and the heavy terminators, at least their bodies. Mag’d the AsC/HF/CML. Will still need to do up a SB.
Not a lot of hobby progress.
I did order parts for a new computer build and put that together last Friday. And now I have an ilithid parasite in my head which makes it real hard to concentrate on painting…
So got the dappled purple down. Will do more touchups later, but that’s the base for it. Next is cleanup and then the skintone.
Lt is getting layers.
Captain is slowly getting there as well.
Bodies are done. Next up is the arms. Will need 5x SBs, one with a magnet, and at least 4 fists, mostly power, one chain. Would be good to see if I can get 6 fists out of the kit, so the ETB sarge can get an update.
Ordered the KT box online for the scouts and scorps. Hard to pass that up at a discount. Not that the pile of shame needs any help...
youwashock wrote: Woot, Terminators inbound. That guy on the far left isn't taking any chances. I am looking forward to seeing these updated dudes finished.
I’ve actually hit a major stumbling block on the terminators. Shoulder pads. I was always under the impression that they shared pads with gravis armor, but I think these new guys changed that up. None of the terminator/gravis pads I have fit on these guys. It might be the little nubs all over their shoulders. Going to try to trim some of those off and see what happens. Because without spare pads, I’ll not be able to magnetize all the options.
Put the flesh wash on the VRLs, continued progress of the Lt and captain.
Next month is going to be “out with the old, in with the new” so expect to see a pair of TDA librarians.
With the compound eyes, I don’t think I’m going to do the pupils. No way I can get them straight. They have had the corrections blocked off, need to go over them with the flesh wash and then final steps.
The issue is the hobby budget. Do I spend $55 on a book I might use once before it’s obsolete, or on another box of minis? Which admittedly might never see the table, but I’d enjoy building/painting/on display. I don’t want to pick up minis without the corresponding rules, but hate the codex treadmill 
)
