I forgot how irritating my camo nid pattern is to actually execute. It’s the same contrast paints, but diluted with water and intestinally applied for a pathcy/mottled/marbled look. Which is a lot more work than the bang one coat on straight from the pot. And touchups require more effort.
This should be the last camo phobos Ultra for a while. I think I’ve got a spare one on sprue, but no space in a squad for him, so he can sit. I do have 10 of the new scouts incoming, the question is if they join the snow force, or stick with the woodland camo of the rest of their older brothers. But that’s a decision for later.
Did I mention that I ordered the KT box with the scorps/scouts? I know I talked about it. It will be here Monday.
Up for next month is a pair of librarians.
Which will tick a few boxes. Getting the new lib ready for the combat patrol, and the old one for the old stuff from the bench goal. Speaking of which, the VRLs click a patrol box themselves.
Nice work, Nev. The blood on the knife is a great detail. I like the camo pattern on the leapers. Subtle and cool. Upcoming guys look cool, too. The old guy looks so little.
So despite being Sunday, the postman swung by and dropped this off. Well technically just the KT box, the brushes showed last week, but I wanted to document my spending here. Between the KT box bundle deal and the online discounter price I couldn’t pass up this option. I’ve alway like the concept of the scorpions, and the old plastic scouts have always been mediocre at best. Primary build is going to be 40k focused, but I’ll glance at the KT rules. Going to be 4x5 mad squads, but we’ll see what the scouts look life from a build. I might do a trooper that can count-as a sarge to have a 10 man unit on the shelf.
And the next big question after the build is how to paint. Do I keep the scouts in the forest camo of their peers, or switch to the new arctic? And for the infiltrating aspect warriors, do they camo up like the rangers? Or stick to their classic aspect bright green? Still a ways from that point, but something to think about.
For the Scorpions, you could always split the difference and go for a more natural range of greens. Still sort of Aspect-y, still sort of camo? Either way, looking forward to how they turn out.
youwashock wrote: For the Scorpions, you could always split the difference and go for a more natural range of greens. Still sort of Aspect-y, still sort of camo? Either way, looking forward to how they turn out.
I’ve seen camo scorps, but in desert patterns. Which are way more appropriate for scorpions. Who are generally not noted for living in snowy areas. I could do them in my woodland camo, which would match the rest of my Eldar on their green bases. Or something more subdued as you suggest, like a darker green and not the bright emerald.
So many ways to go. One thing about aspect warriors is that they do not conform to any of my normal schemes.
Finished (probably) the terminators. I might go back and add some purity seals or tilting shields, but all the main work and magnetizing has been done. Not to figure out what to build next. Thinking something from the KT box.
tzurk wrote: Feel the paint fatigue. Gotta build build build!
Have to double take on the termy libs - the scale creep really hits you in the face hey.
For the scorps - split the difference - tundra camo?
My latest thought for the scorps was a goblin green basecoat (which is pretty close to an olive drab), with yellow and brown tiger stripy camo. Although maybe a grey instead of the brown. This would keep them close to their classic aspect colors, but more subdued.
Personally I think it's nice to take a break from painting and put stuff together once in a while. I've actually been doing it myself recently as I was able to snag the Deathwing Assault box. As for your Striking Scorpions, personally I like the gaudy green the artwork shows for them. Brightly colored Aspect Warriors are always striking in a Craftworlds army.
Reviewing the aspects in my gallery most of them are more subdued then the normal candy colored brightness you can get from aspect armies. Not that certain colors are not there, but for example, the FDs are bight orange on black, SHs are yellow over blue/grey, etc. So a splash of the aspect color, but more practical, muted palette.
I have a bunch of the old scouts I never painted or put on bases.
Been tempted to try and enlarge them by chopping them up and adding spacers.
I guess I have nothing to lose in trying.
Scouts seem like they would be hard to upscale. But I’m not much of a kitbasher, especially when the GS needs to come out. And the old plastics were not the best base to start with. The snipers were not horrible, but the bolter/shotgun/CCW scouts were not good sculpts. An issue compounded by replacing the excellent 2nd ed metals. I need to build the rest of the ones I piked up, at least a full squad. One issue is if I build them for KT or 40k. Probably a silly question, but looking at the KT squad rules, you can’t get the 9 man KT and 2x5 man 40k squads with the right gear. I guess I could always sub in a old scout if I needed to actually play WYSWYG KT.
So some good progress this week. Helped a little by the fact I’ve been off work since midday Wed due to an ongoing IT issue that required us to all log off and stay off out computers. Progress hindered but Cyberpunk 2077, which is eating my time pretty hard.
The gravis captain is getting there. Needs his edges highlighted, and some more work on his cape. I still have the aggressors to finish as well. I knew they were going to be an issue, as I’m not a fan of the sculpts.
Unfortunate about the sculpts killing motivation. It happens, hopefully you can find a way through it--I imagine the gaming helps! Progress looks pretty good so far!
So the silver runes were pretty much washed out by the blue. I suspected this would be the case, but worth the try. I know I do not have the brush control to go back and re-do them, so stopping there. New guy just needs touchups and base/decal work, almost done. Old guy needs his blue, a lot of cleanup, and the head/staff finished.
Going to do 3 company heroes for March. I should probably rebase the rifleman and HB guy on 40s. I think they are just pushfit on the ETB peg bases, so should not be hard. I was debating if I should do a TDA squad, but wanted to do a light squad so I had room to play catchup on old projects. Thought about just doing a single model, but wanted to push a little harder for progress, as this year has been off to a slow start.
The librarian is still looking very good. I just used light blue and that water with panel lining technique. Then cleaned it back up with the base color.
My photographs of it came out badly, as my camera exaggerates light colors too much.
Tommygun1918 wrote: The librarian is still looking very good. I just used light blue and that water with panel lining technique. Then cleaned it back up with the base color.
My photographs of it came out badly, as my camera exaggerates light colors too much.
One of the issues is that I use a dark blue glaze as the final step for the armor of my Ultras. With a little edge highlighting on top of that. So it’s real hard to go back and tidy up the blue.
Almost done:
Need to flock and decal. And final pictures for the 2 in the comp.
Nice work, Nev. The group psyker pic rules. The new guy's axe is quite slick.
Part of me wanted to go a little brighter on the blade, but I like they way it turned out myself.
RedSarge wrote:That's a very rich blue, reminds of the Chaos Gate '98 Blue for the Ultramarines.
These guys are celestium blue contrast over ultramarine blue, with a little lightning bolt blue edge highlights. The contrast is a new experiment to find a replacement for my old “Blue Ink” it might be a hair darker, but not crazy so.
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of range in how people do Ultras. From powder blue to almost black. I’ve always favored a richer sapphire blue to the “official” paint scheme
ShadowsAndDust wrote: How did you do the gold on the Gravis Captain? I quite like the look of it.
All my golds these days are Guiliman Flesh contrast over Shining Gold. The old hexpot is still holding on to life, but is getting a little sludgy. The Guiliman Flesh replaced the old Chestnut Ink I used to use. Sometimes I’ll pop out the highlights with a bright silver, but not always. I don’t recall if I did it for the captain.
So it’s nice to have plastic scouts that don’t suck. Not that they were all bad (the snipers were passable) but a far cry from the old metals.
Built these guys as a 10th ed 40k squad. At least as I figure the best build is. No reason not to take the ML and sniper. For the sarge, the chainsword gives him a pretty major boost in CC. Shotgunner is there as an action monkey, as he can still do things after advancing. And a bolter just to round out the squad (and as the tracker specialist if I want to run them in KT)
With the ability to split fire at will, it’s not absolutely horrible that everyone in the squad has a different weapon. From a physical rolling the dice and slowing down play POV, it’s pretty bad. In universe, it’s a flexable TAC squad. You have the ML/sniper on support, the sarge and the shotgun on point, and the bolter in a flex role to cover where needed.
The question is how to build the next 5.
For KT, I’d need the HB gunner, Hunter (BP/CCW) and 2 more warriors
for 40k, I’d want another squad like I built, (but would swap out the ML for a HB because I like HBs thematically)
Now the scout KT is 9 guys, so I do have a spare body. Which is going to end up being the sniper. Issue comes up where I need another sarge. What I’m thinking is treating the auspex guy as a sarge. He’s got the look, bolter is a legal wargear option. You miss out on the AP and extra attacks, but if they are just going to be backfield camping, is that a big deal?
So that’s a KT with all the specialists, and the 3 warriors being 2 shotguns and a bolter. With the tracker acting as a sarge, that gives me 2 5 man 40k squads:
I recently got a box of the new Scouts, and I'm building mine the exact same way so I can use them for big 40k or Kill Team. Might as well get as much flexibility out of the models as possible right?
ZergSmasher wrote: I recently got a box of the new Scouts, and I'm building mine the exact same way so I can use them for big 40k or Kill Team. Might as well get as much flexibility out of the models as possible right?
It bugs me a little to have their gear all scattershot.
Classically my scouts have been equipped for roles. All sniper (now legends) or all CC. Sometimes a light mix, like simple bolters for a screening unit. Or toss some shotguns in with the knives and BPs for flavor. When gear had costs there was an advantage to running cheep and cheerful squads. Now there is no real reason not to toss a ML into a CC squad. You give up one swing in CC (but the knife otherwise hits the same as a fist) but gain massive bonuses to shooting. Bit of a shame, as the CC scouts look pretty cool.
It’s not a lore issue, as I could totally see a KT of scouts with a little bit of everything in the field. It’s purely game mechanics. I think of it as the “Lesson of the Vanguard Veterans” When I first built my VVs I did it from a fluffy lore POV. These were the cream of the chapter’s warriors with pretty much open access to the armory. Every brother a hero of countless battles, with their own preference for bringing the fight to the enemy. The squad was equipped with a medley of swords, spears, mauls, axes, assorted pistols, shields. Looked pretty cool. But this was when they all had different stats, including hitting at different initiatives. When they hit combat things crashed to a halt as I needed to figure out who was swing what at who when. What a nightmare. Toss who is making saves and ending up a casualty on top of that for extra fun.
The mechanics of rolling the dice and wound management for a unit should not add that much time to the game.
And that’s what kills me about the scouts.
I guess it could be worse. Bolters, bolt pistols and shotguns are all flavors of S4 AP- D1 fire. It’s just weapon time, range, and number of shots that differentiates things. So it’s only the heavy and the sniper that need to be called out. Still, 3 different dice pools for the shooting of a 5 man 65 point unit.
OK, that’s enough angry old man yelling at clouds for now.
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Paint going down on marines. Almost done with basecoats, I sould get a pic. Also building the chaplain on bike. About halfway done, fun model. Little tricky getting the front wheel lined up. Probably going to need to clip the guide nub when attaching it to the base detail. Also need to decide how many parts to leave it in for painting.
Although 2 started their lives as sternguard. These guys will join my existing ancient and form a company command squad. So one company champion, on vet w/ HB, and one vet with a BR. All are push fit, 2 from the lev box, champ was MTO a while back.
Chaplain is a pretty straight build. No need to fuss around to make him more cool. The only changes I made were not to use the skull strapped to the back of the seat, and clip the ring off the handle of the pistol.
Next on deck are hormagaunts. Clipped 5, cleaned and built one already.
Should be just about done with the basecoats on the marines. Drybrush, wash and cleanup next. Plus the arms and such.
I'm liking the Company Command guys so far, and look forward to seeing them all done. I also like that you more or less cobbled the unit together from stuff you had rather than getting the bespoke kit like I did (and they took away the option to use it with some of my characters, not salty about that at all, no sirree...)
Gitsplitta wrote:Looking really good Nev. Man, you've really come a long way. Congrats!
Slow, steady, persistence, even at my pace, adds up over time.
ZergSmasher wrote:I'm liking the Company Command guys so far, and look forward to seeing them all done. I also like that you more or less cobbled the unit together from stuff you had rather than getting the bespoke kit like I did (and they took away the option to use it with some of my characters, not salty about that at all, no sirree...)
I already had the champ and ancient (and way more captains then I need) so why buy the new box for a marine with a bolter and one with a HB? Granted I was still tempted, as they do look awesome. But the hobby budget is sadly limited, so I just tapped some sternguard for the job.
Considering the death stars and unintended consequences of character/unit interactions, I can only give GW some flack for how they are doing things in 10th. Could they have done a better/more careful job? Absolutely. Honestly the command squad should just be open to all characters. It’s a jack of all trades TAC unit that doesn’t really do anything well in a game that rewards specialists. Sure, -1 to wound while there is a character in there is nice, but if you just want wounds to back up a HQ seems there are better bodyguards that actually do something, or are more robust then basic T4 3+ footsloggers (even if they are 4W a pop)
Related note: I really hate how GW presents who can join what unit. If I have a unit and want to know who can join, I need to sift through all the HQ entries to find out. And there are a ton of those.
—
So I cleaned up the beige on the marines. I’m going to highlight/shadow the fabric a little before the wash. Give the contrast a little help on the folds, as they are quite prominent on the tabards.
Pretty much done with the tabards. Next stop is the finicky blue cleanup. Wait, still need to green wash the laurels. Little more cleanup to go I guess. Not pictured is the black going down on the arms. Need to get moving on them more.
2 bugs in the back have their correction coat down, just need to be touched up with the flesh wash and they will be off the handles ready for basing.
Clipped the rest of the hormagaunts, in blisters waiting for cleanup and glue. Fun little bugs.
Tommygun1918 wrote: You are much more patient with all your layering and washes than I could ever be, but it really shows in the finished models.
Thanks, glad you like the results...
But Heh ; I barely layer. It’s drybrush and wash for like 95% of what I do. The putting the highlights down before the wash on the tabard is as close as I get most of the time
When people talk about layering, I assume it’s one of those “we start with a 90/10 mix of these two paints and adjust the ratios down to 20/80 as we work down the pauldron” and crazy stuff like that.
I basecoat. Drybrush a little silver around on the metalics. Slather some washes around. Clean up my sloppy work on places it doesn’t belong, and Bang! job’s a good un.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the results I get. But it’s hardly rocket surgery. The washes, especially with the contrast paints, do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Hear hear! Basecoat, dry brush, wash. I've tried (oncet or twicet) to 'layer' using a wet palette and adding white or black to the base color as required and (for me) it's okay, but I lack the patience and the discerning eye to really see any better result than the first method.
Mind you, there are Michelangelos out there that achieve jaw-dropping results. More power to them, I love eyeballing their work!
youwashock wrote:A good wash will cover a multitude of sins. Command Boys are coming along nicely, Nev.
Meer_Cat wrote:Hear hear! Basecoat, dry brush, wash. I've tried (oncet or twicet) to 'layer' using a wet palette and adding white or black to the base color as required and (for me) it's okay, but I lack the patience and the discerning eye to really see any better result than the first method.
Mind you, there are Michelangelos out there that achieve jaw-dropping results. More power to them, I love eyeballing their work!
Command group is looking ace!
I like to think of myself as an everyman’s painter. If I can do it, so can anyone. I’m not pushing any hard or complex techniques. The closest I come is some rough edge highlighting. The only reason someone couldn’t do what I do is I occasionally paint things that are stupidly OOP, and use paints that have been out of production for decades (which makes color matching hard).
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Build progress:
Stabby gaunts built. Instead of building the one ripper swarm from the box, I broke it up and added one more to the 3 other new ones I have, bringing them up to 5 rippers per base. I already have 6 bases each with 3 and 4 rippers. This way I can tell units apart. In case I need to carpet the field with 15 bases of the little blighters.
To-prime is getting pretty crowded. It is spring, so I should be able to break out the rattle can soon. Not this weekend, we are forecast to get somewhere like 10-20” of heavy wintery mix snow. Because why not?
Got the clean up blue on the HB marine, more work on the arms.
Also built this:
Probs to all you LI people out there. Cleaning and assembling this guy was kinda a pain. While I do think it’s a better scale for 30k, so small. Would not want to clean an army worth of mold lines at this level. Anyway, another free mini of the month built and on the pile for when I need to paint something odd.
The LI ones are a bit odd, honestly. Just a lot of very small parts--usually with them I just get any nubs or obvious out of joint stuff, then roll with it (or just use in-fewer-parts stuff like vanguard or microworld.) Can be pretty fun, the small size means they take speed painting stuff pretty well. Your ultramarines system would probably work pretty well.
Vejut wrote: The LI ones are a bit odd, honestly. Just a lot of very small parts--usually with them I just get any nubs or obvious out of joint stuff, then roll with it (or just use in-fewer-parts stuff like vanguard or microworld.) Can be pretty fun, the small size means they take speed painting stuff pretty well. Your ultramarines system would probably work pretty well.
And looking good on the build pile!
It’s been a long time since I painted anything that tiny. Like back in the late ‘80s. Pre-dating most of my Ultras. The metallic green lenses is something I crossed over from GEV windshields. Only the very early RTB01s had anything else (black eye sockets)
Careening wildly into the home stretch. I’ve got tonight and tomorrow to finish them up. Friday I drive down to visit my folks for a week with The Boy for spring break, and will be gone the week. So even if someone asks for an extension, won’t do me any good. Just need to edge the HB marine and do a few more things to his gun. He and the champ need the brighter red trim as well. Lenses seals, cleanup, etc as well. Plus base and decals.
Did I mention I still need to work tomorrow and finish packing? At least the laundry is done.
Missed a few spots I might go back for; we’ll see.
And that wraps up the company command:
The DV Lts are looking a little sad. I should replace them at some point. If only GW made Primaris Lieutenants models. Not sure if the Judicair is officially a company level asset. I originally had him standing in for the champion, as they didn’t make a primaris one for a while. But that’s changed. He might get bumped back to the random HQ shelf.
Q3 pic:
Based the 2 gaunts while I was at it. Behind my progress goals, but have a lot of partial stuff on the bench, which I’m going to try to focus on next month
Tommygun1918 wrote: Very nice Nevelon, You may have given me the impulse to get my standard bearer done now.
They seem silly, but 40k is fantasy in space. Heraldry is important, and every army should have their colors flying. At least on the shelf. I think I have 5 ancients of assorted flavor and vintage.
I forgot that the company command guys get to count for my goal. I really need to keep that in focus. With the addition of a lot of 1st and 10th stuff in the built/primed pile, the 3rd is going to be marginalized.
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 3/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 5/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 12/20
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 0/3
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. 2/8
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. 3/14
1 - this is going pretty well. With the company heroes done, and hopefully the aggressors next month, ahead of schedule.
2 - again, pretty good. Only 5 on the YTD, but 2 WIP bench. So on track for getting 24 done in the year. And a ton on deck in the to-primed pile
3 - behind for now, but honestly not planning on picking up a lot this year, so good.
4 - need to get the dusty stuff out of the back, a few WIP things will check this box.
5 - good blogger, but falling behind on on 1-a-week goal.
6 - marines and nids are the low hanging fruit for this goal. So while technically on track, need to keep up on this.
7 - <checks off the free space>
8 - doing OK here? Still need to push forward and check off more units.
Overall doing pretty good. It feels like I’m behind, and am on volume, but hitting a good mix of stuff to cover my goals. Need to push forward and pick up the pace, but that’s entirely doable. Especially when I get stuff primed and ready to go.
Seems like you are meeting your goals pretty well so far, and worst comes toworst you could always temporarily lower your standards and batch paint a big group.
Keep up the good work Nev
Syro_ wrote: Seems like you are meeting your goals pretty well so far, and worst comes toworst you could always temporarily lower your standards and batch paint a big group.
Keep up the good work Nev
I don’t even need to lower my standards. Painting basic gaunts for my nids takes next to no time. If the painting handles are free, I can basically do one a day times as much free space as I have, even on work days. I just need to be dedicated and sit down to push them across the bench.
Not that won’t help me on on my diversity goals, or getting marines done. But will take a lot of the load off the raw volume metrics.
You're definitely doing better than me so far, especially on keeping up with your blog. I always look forward to your updates and you don't disappoint. I need to keep up better with mine.
Tommygun1918 wrote: Nice, I want that Chaplain, but I need to save for a Repulsor. Looking forward to seeing it painted.
He was an impulse retail therapy buy. But had been on my want list for a while. I’d say GW has never made a bad chaplain, but there have been one or two janky ones over the years. almost all of them are full of awesome and cool, and the bike chaplain is no exception.
He doesn’t check any boxes on my goals, but I’m going to try to work him in sooner, rather then later.
I'll second what you said about chaplains; most of them are among the more characterful Space Marine models GW has made. The only one I've seen that I don't like the look of is the generic Primaris one; the Indomitus one is much better in every way. I love that the recent Bike Chaplain is kind of a nod to the original bike chaplain from way back in 3rd or so; I actually remember looking at that model at a hobby shop when I was like 10-12 and wondering why a preacher would wear a skull helmet (I had no idea of the lore of 40k at the time).
ZergSmasher wrote: I'll second what you said about chaplains; most of them are among the more characterful Space Marine models GW has made. The only one I've seen that I don't like the look of is the generic Primaris one; the Indomitus one is much better in every way. I love that the recent Bike Chaplain is kind of a nod to the original bike chaplain from way back in 3rd or so; I actually remember looking at that model at a hobby shop when I was like 10-12 and wondering why a preacher would wear a skull helmet (I had no idea of the lore of 40k at the time).
I’ll agree the Indominus chaplain is a lot better then the stock one. Granted, I like how my basic one turned out, but I took the knife to him pretty hard to get him into phobos armor. The bike chaplain back in the day didn’t have a skull helm. At least mine didn’t. I was introduced to them via the lore before the minis. First read the article in the red RT compendium on them and commissars.
Pics for reference
Spoiler:
I need to get a new group shot of all my chaplains. Probably wait until after the new bike guy gets paint.
Speaking of paint: got the red down on two gaunts yesterday. progress. Hopefully more this weekend
Adamski Alders wrote: That is a fantastic selection of old Chaplain minis you've got there, love the group shot of the 3 of them together.
Heh. That’s one of the oldest pics in my gallery, from when I made a push to get pics of everyone for the blog when I started posting here.
Now that I’m not posting a quick reply on my lunch break, here are the rest of the chaplains, and better pics.
Spoiler:
My Jump chaplain is magnetized, and can have his JP swapped for a normal one, and his BP changed out to a combi flamer. This lets me field him as Cassius if needed (and rules allow, which are probably legends) He’s been the chaplain of my Ultras from the dawn of time. One of my first magnetization projects. (extra fun, as both he and the JP are metal) He picked up the name Brother-Chaplain Octavious at one point when I needed to name my warlord for a campaign roster. Which, funnily, I never actually managed to play in, but the name stuck in my mind since for him.
The bike chaplain is unnamed, and the only one of my chaplains with his skull intact. Ironic, since as a biker he should be wearing his helmet more than most. He’s got a teleport homer on the back of his bike, from back when that was a thing. He’d zoom up the table, provide a no-scatter bubble for deep strike, and then smash things. Good times.
Brother Severus was a kitbashed gift from a friend. He made characters for all the FLGS regulars at the time, with names and custom rules. Being a 3rd co. guy, he’s got the hate on for Xenos, and can’t slow down the killing to repair his armor, so patches it and keeps killing. Hence the hodge-podge patchwork of alien bits. He’d get along great with the new phobos Lt. with the combi.
Not sure where/when I picked up the old TDA chaplain, beyond memory. He’s served his time, and lead a lot of charges, both from DS and down assault ramps. He’s semi-retired at this point, as I finished the new plastic kitbash. However, if my old metal terminators need to hit the field (for example, because I don’t have modern plastic assault terminators) he will join them, as he’s still in scale for them.
Speaking of which, the new TDA chaplain. Built off of the Leviathan captain, with a head and weapon swap, and arm reposition. The newest painted addition to the chaplain corp, ready to lead the new scaled TDA boys to victory. Real happy with the way he turned out. Which honestly I can say about all of my chaplains, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Phobos chaplain is another guy who took the knife hard. Should swap for the pistol arm. New top for the crozious, as the old was just too basic pimp-stick. New legs, which was a lot of work, but sells the model. New backpack with phobos-y bits, and not an iron halo. Minor “whoops” when painting as I did both his shoulders black, and not one in UM blue. I think his robe was the first test of my modern arctic camo. Still really happy how it turned out.
And the Indomunis chaplain. Who I can only assume is a deliberate modernization/call-back to my original classic chaplain sculpt. Same bionic skull, pose, and of the same design elements. So obvious headcannon for me is that this is the same Brother Octavious, crossed the rubicon primaris, tending to the faith of the new battle company. I think the only changes I made on him was a swap for a UM shoulderpad.
And joining them at some point (and pushing the old one to semi-retirement) will be the new bike chaplain.
Part of me wants to get the young cassius from the KT overkill box, but that’s a lot of minis in a bundle for just the one I care about. and my deathwatch project is pretty much dead at this point. If they come out with a primaris JP chaplain, I’ll need one, as that’s really where they belong; in the vanguard leading the assault. But we’ll clense that bridge with holy fire when we get to it.
So yah, nothing got done over the weekend. Well, I did vacuum the house, catch up on Bad Batch, and start the new Fallout series on TV. And played the crap out of Starfield. But no painting.
Started clipping scorpions some point, and put the black was on the nids before work today. Really need to start finishing the marines on the bench. Month is half over. It’s been a rough one so far. Lots of crap going on just sapping my will to do anything but veg.
I'll admit, gaunts don't hold my interest for painting, it turns out. I went to do the claws and weapon on my Termagants recently, and after doing those details on one I was like, "I have to do this nine more times?! I'll do it later (tm)" Maybe I was making it unnecessarily difficult for myself somehow, trying to be too neat or something, but at that moment I wanted to do anything other than paint claws and weapons on Termagants.
ZergSmasher wrote: I'll admit, gaunts don't hold my interest for painting, it turns out. I went to do the claws and weapon on my Termagants recently, and after doing those details on one I was like, "I have to do this nine more times?! I'll do it later (tm)" Maybe I was making it unnecessarily difficult for myself somehow, trying to be too neat or something, but at that moment I wanted to do anything other than paint claws and weapons on Termagants.
Contrast paints makes it bearable. If I had to edge highlight or blend them, I’d be right there with you. But my scheme is just 2 steps. Red contrast paint. Nulan Oil. THen the normal clean up pass for the whole model to tidy up anything that looks too bad.
Prime
Basecoat Grey Seer
Shyesh Purple carapace, hard armor, headplates
Clean up mess (the purple will show up through the flesh wash)
Guiliman flesh all skin
Blood Angels Red all claws, hooves, guns, tongues/mouths
Nuln Oil over the red
Bleached bone teeth
Yellow eyes
Chaos Black vertical eye slit
Optional per model
Tounges (and gaping maw interiors) BftBG
Acid/poison glands/tenticles get a yellow basecoat and a green ink wash
Genestears get solid metalic blue eyes with a gloss blue soulstone layer instead of the catseye yellow
Wing membranes get a second wash of guiliman flesh.
Clean up any slop over the skin with Grey Sear, followed by the flesh wash again.
Snow Base
That’s the secret to my nids. Nothing fance, but fast and easy tabletop.
youwashock wrote: Love the Chaplains, Nev. The old Terminator has always been a favorite of mine. Sadly, I think I gave mine away years ago.
He is a classic. Part of me wants to track down the last metal terminator chaplain they ever made, which used to place highly in the “best mini GW made” polls. But I can only imagine what they go for, don’t want to deal with filtering out the finecast ones, and frankly don’t need him.
So hey, actual paint going down. Bodies are at the edge/cleanup stage, arms need a lot of work. But the blue ink stage is a major roadblock to be past.
youwashock wrote: You got this. If not, you could always ask the guy who runs the monthly challenge for an extension. He seems a reasonable fellow.
I already did.
Only feel a little guilty. Which I shouldn’t. Anyone even vaguely suggests they need more time I’ll slap on an extra day (or two) just on principle. I’ve also conveniently “forgotten” to formally close the comp to give people extra time past that. I should treat myself with the same kindness I give to others.
Edged and glued the sarge. Still more to go, but this is the hard step.
I should slap the red on those gaunts one of these days…
Camera decided the guys in the back needed the focus, but that’s what I get for a quick snap and not checking the depth of field. The two gaunts are older ones who were on deck for baseing. The two new guys got their reds, so next up is the nuln oil wash. Getting there. Rocks and tufts down, flock and decals to go.
I still need to blue edge the frag launchers, but I might just leave them off. Not strictly WYSWYG for the bolter guys, but I’m not a fan of the added bulk on their profiles. They are chonky enough. I might finish them and tack them on, but with time what it is, that will be post-comp.
Next month is Let’s Ride. I’ve got 2 flavors of eldar bikes and the chaplain. Not sure who’s getting the month. Might try for chap and one of the eldar, or use the time to cycle some nids across the bench as none of the bikes will use the normal handles.
I recall you really wanted to do the chappie-I'd lean towards that and the eldar, give yourself some fun stuff rather than things you feel you should.
Almost there on the marines, and the bugs are looking good!
Done. Not a fan of gravis armor. Those ammo feeds can just go die. But off to the YTD shelf. They should also round out the heavy support part of the company.
So I moved the chaplain down to the large paint handle. He can ride this month. Going to try to burn through some nids on the normal handles, see how many I can get done in a month.
See, there's one place we actually disagree, as I love Gravis armor. It's a PITA to paint for sure though, as in general the models are fairly busy with all the hoses, ammo belts, and various tchotchkes all over them. Your Aggressors look good, although personally I like the frag launchers on top. But then, I actually like the Desolation guys so maybe my judgment is a bit off...
Nice work getting the Aggressors done. They look good. I don't mind the cleaner profile. I impulsively bought a box of these when they were released. Still unassembled, but if they ever get put together I will probably try to simplify them, as well.
Plugging along. Nids got their clean up after the purple, up for the flesh wash next. Chaplain got his light brown.
Finished putting together the scorp exarch.
Was never a fan of the snippy claw. Just too silly for me. Even orcs have outgrown the giant lobster claw look. So I hit the wayback and grabbed a powerfist from the bits box. Probably old enough to be a powerglove. Lots of flash and soft detail, but the size seemed to work. Even had a little divot that the pistol fit nicely into (although I did need to significantly shorten the peg). Might have been able to find something better in a modern harli kit, but that would require me to have something other then a RTB06 box or two for my harliquins.
Everyone have a great Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day for those in countries where it’s celebrated today. Of course, you should celebrate your mother every day. They do so much for us.
Any chance to use the old power glove should be taken. It works quite well on this model, and is a lovely throwback to the Aspect previews in...WD 124? Something like that.
Nids need their touch up pass, almost done. Chaplain is gathering his basecoats. almost ready for the drybrush and washes.
So some fun stuff in yesterday’s reveals, but nothing for me.
Jump canoness is nice to see back. I recall much gnashing of teeth when she was dropped as an option. No plans to pick up more sisters, or even the codex at this point. Despite having a large legacy army sitting on the shelf. I would like to get them to the table, but I am not even doing that with my primary armies these days.
GSC get a new zoenthrope based character. Not a huge fan of the giant brain look on people, or the inclusion of other nid strains into the GSC. Not that it’s called out as being zoe based, but giant brain that shoots short range AV attacks? Where have I heard that before... At some point I might start a GSC army but it’s pretty far down the road. Which would be after I’m done with the hive fleet, if at all.
I don’t play Necromunda, and while I like the concept, to get the most out of it you need to be a regular with a reliable group and schedule. Which is not me. The GSC/malstrain genestealers look cool, but I don’t like the imperial half. And a GSC army is too far down the road to pick them up as a plan for the future. The way these boxes are generally priced, there is normally enough savings over buying them as individual releases that it makes it worth it. Plus bonus game. But nope.
Mechanicum looks cool, but not my army, not my system. When they dropped cross support for 30k/40k they killed my drive to get my UM legion up and running. It’s still a WIP, but lower priority. Now I did have the thought to put together the preator in charge of bots that let you add a squad of them to your army. Them being in plastic makes that a lot more likely to happen. But no time soon.
LI is a game I could get behind, but the rhino I put together was just so fiddly. And I really hate the campaign book rules release format. If you want to use all the units you have availible, you need to own a small library. So cool for people willing to ride that treadmill, but it’s not for me.
Nids are done based and on the YTD shelf. Moved 3 ripper swarms down to the bench. These should be the last of the pre-10th edition nids in the primed pile.
That bike Chappy is looking promising.
I have a bunch of the plastic rippers I'm not sure what to do with. Never really liked them.
I did pick up a few of the Forge World rippers years ago and now I wish I had gotten more.
I'll need to look into what's online with 3D proxies.
youwashock wrote:Yikes. The compression (or something) on that pic is murder. Click through for clarity. Worth it, because Chappy is looking quite cool.
Weird. I used the same technique as I normally do for pics. Phone pic uploads to the cloud, crop in iphoto on my laptop, upload to dakka, done. I’ll try to grab a new pic (focusing on the chap) later today after I get some more work done. Put the silvers on last night, so time for washes.
Tommygun1918 wrote:That bike Chappy is looking promising.
I have a bunch of the plastic rippers I'm not sure what to do with. Never really liked them.
I did pick up a few of the Forge World rippers years ago and now I wish I had gotten more.
I'll need to look into what's online with 3D proxies.
I’m not a fan of the rippers. At least the old ones. I’ll have to take a good look at the new ones and see if I have the same problem. Their faces bug me the most. Unlike the rest of the nid range, who’s eye are below the head plates, the rippers have eye holes in their carapace. So they look like they have goofy masks on. But they are free with the purchase of other kits, so I’ll give them a bit of slack. At this point I have 15 bases of the little biters, a dozen of the old ones, and 3 of the new. Who upon checking do have better faces.
Mechanically they cost peanuts and DS. While zero OC, they can take up space on the table, screen things, be action monkeys, etc. And have a bunch of crappy attacks. They have the Harvester keyword, so if playing an assimilation swarm they can leverage a lot of tricks. But mostly their job is to hang out, be irritating, and gum up the battlefield.
The ones on the bench got their reds and eyes last night, so need their black wash and clean up. Plus baseing. Almost done.
--
So the topic for next month is “Glow Up”. I’ve got some pretty bad decision paralysis going on. So many options.
I have some RTB01 beekies and some HH Mk VI in the primed pile. This is dialed in to the topic, but the motivation is pretty low. Would help be clear some backlog from the bench, which would be a good thing. If I don’t want to do the squad of HH guys, I could do the HQ in Mk. VI for maximal glow. That feels less daunting. In an ideal world those HH get done this year as part of my painting diversity goal.
On the ‘Nid side there I’ve got like 30 termagants and 10 hormogants 3 ripper bases in fresh modern sculpts. More motivation to get these done, and doing them would help with my nid-painting goals. If I wanted to drive the glow up point home, I’ve got some old metal gaunts with stranglewebs and spike rifles that could be stripped and repainted in modern colors. I think I also have a sealed blister of gaunts so old they look nothing like the modern ones.
10th also brought a lot of glow to marine kits. Modern terminators, sternguard, scouts. Getting the terminators done is high on my to-do list for the combat patrol. This would give me an excuse. I think the scouts will be July’s “Footslogger” although they also would fit here, as my existing scouts are ancient. I do have one old scout in the primed pile with a massively oversized sniper rifle from the eliminator squad. Completely unneeded these days, but he needs to get out of the primed pile at some point.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling for a Sat. Time to rummage up some breakfast.
Still have a week to make decisions. Not opposed to terminaotrs. Give all the new TDAHQs I’ve painted recently some boys to hang with.
Full sized pic, so might make browsers explode, but show more detail. Chaplain rolling along, rippers basically done with paint. Just need base work done.
Nevelon wrote: Nids are done based and on the YTD shelf. Moved 3 ripper swarms down to the bench. These should be the last of the pre-10th edition nids in the primed pile.
Getting through your pre-10th nids is quite the accomplishment Nev, nicely done
Nevelon wrote: Nids are done based and on the YTD shelf. Moved 3 ripper swarms down to the bench. These should be the last of the pre-10th edition nids in the primed pile.
Getting through your pre-10th nids is quite the accomplishment Nev, nicely done
There are a few odds and ends in the to-build Pile of Shame, but this is all of the stuff built and on deck. Cleaned up the rippers bases, next up is rocks and tufts.
So I finished building the scorpions. Fun, but not a lot of variation. Except the exarch, who has a zillion. When I make the other 5 I’ll need to decide how to kit out that one.
Continuing on the KT box build, started the second 5 man scout squad. Brought the first 5 down for reference, as there is enough options in the kit to make them all unique. Don’t want to accidentally repeat myself.
So that’s a KT with all the specialists, and the 3 warriors being 2 shotguns and a bolter. With the tracker acting as a sarge, that gives me 2 5 man 40k squads:
Quoting myself from a couple pages ago for reference. Already clipped the hunter, HB, and shotgunner. Still need to do the bolter and the sniper. One problem is the sniper is kinda very distinctive, so I need to work him around a bit so I don’t have 2 identical mono-poses. Little irritated that the rile is in a downward resting pose. Would have been nice to have the sniper sniping. Might be able to do some arm swaps? At the very least not using the off hand checking coms and probably not the cloaked body.
Ooh, that Chappy already looks pretty special! Looking forward to the final product. Gotta get my entry finished up too, it's getting close, I just haven't done any progress pics for a while.
youwashock wrote:Guess it's time to...put the pedal to the metal?
Lookin' good!
ZergSmasher wrote:Ooh, that Chappy already looks pretty special! Looking forward to the final product. Gotta get my entry finished up too, it's getting close, I just haven't done any progress pics for a while.
You can do it, although time is short!
Almost there. Need to edge stuff, decals, and base. But already done a few clean up spots and detail work. There was a point in my life where I would have called this done. Just a few more steps to go.
Vejut wrote:Almost there! Good to see him coming along!
Flock and decals left to go.
inmygravenimage wrote:Looks great. Classic model.
I can’t wrap my head about anything primaris being “classic” What I should do, in light of next month’s theme of “Glow Up” is to break out all the minis in my collection that have a 1-to-1 corresponding old school model and get side by side pics. Some I’ve already done. But this guy needs a shot with my old bike chaplain.
End is in sight.
Edit: Shoulder decal done on break. Just flock to go. And final photos.
ShadowsAndDust wrote:Nice work on the bike chap. It's probably your finest work yet.
Chaplains make it easy. Always cool models.
youwashock wrote:Gonna need to hose the bike off, surely.
Looks awesome!
He should be able to reduce them to a pile of bloody chunks, but it might take a turn or two and get real messy. There is probably a mono-task servitor back on the strike cruiser who’s sole job is to pick little bits of xenos out of the bike.
I still don’t like painting bikes. You either have to paint them in a billion parts, or there are going to be spots where the brush just will not go. So while he looks good from arm’s length, if you hold him close up at certain angles, you can see a lot of slop and missed spots in the crevices. And since I know they are there, I will always think about the parts I could not do. But he is done and off to the YTD shelf. Probably the last chaplain until they release a new primaris JP one. Or I decide to kitbash one. Which is actually a possibility. Getting a squad of jump intercessors and a HQ to lead them in somewhere on the to-do list. But plenty of things in the PoS right now, so not a priority.
There is alway a lot of bitter sweet nostalgia when I paint a new model that’s going replace an old venerable one. That old bike chaplain has seen a lot of battle. Not quite as much as the JP chaplain, who was my go-to for years. But when bike lists were strong, he would roll out with his brothers and add some chop to their strong shooting. Still the new guy is a glow up from the old, and should serve well in the new era of 40k.
Speaking of upgrades, on deck:
Automatically Appended Next Post: Bit of a cross post from the “Glow Up” thread, but wanted to have it here for posterity as well.
A smattering of upgrades from over the years:
And the evolution of my Dakka avatar over the years.
This is what 12 years and 21k posts will do to you. Heh. Looking at my profile it’s exactly 12 years today. Happy Dakkaversary to me I guess.
Wow, you've sure glowed up plenty of models over the years, huh? I did those same Chaplains, and I've got both old and new Azrael, and I've also got old and new Belial as a WIP, so maybe once I finish the Belials I'll do a little compilation like that. Bike Chaplain turned out really good btw!
There's some serious history going down right there. Very cool to see.
Here's to 12 more years!
Woops. Realized I forgot to note the blog’s birthday on the 21st. I started this rambling mess a little less than a year after I stopped lurking here to start posting. Oh well. All the glow up pics will serve as a little hisorical retrospective. Although many of the “before” pics pre-date the blog.
Tommygun1918 wrote:Nice comparison shot.
I have had a black primed jump pack sitting in my bit box for years.
A jump chaplain is on my list too.
Someone was asking about JP chaplains not that long ago and got ideas filtering around my brain. Where to start? While sticking a JP on a foot chaplain is always an option (and what I’ve been using since the dawn of time) But I’m not really getting “jump” vibes from the options we have. Skull swap and weapon change for the JP captain? Would probably work pretty well. Work up a assault intercessor (foot or jump)? Would take a deeper pull from the bits box, but I’ve got that. One of my irritations with that these days is how squad sizes are locked in 5/10 man units. So there is an opportunity cost of poaching a body from a squad to make a character. Although I’ve done it before, so my numbers probably don’t line up right anyway. Just need to keep building! Hmm. I did pick up that one copy of the magazine with the 3 assault intercessors in it. Never built them becasue they had the sculpted markings on the wrong shoulders. Might be a good base; I’ll need to look.
ZergSmasher wrote:Wow, you've sure glowed up plenty of models over the years, huh? I did those same Chaplains, and I've got both old and new Azrael, and I've also got old and new Belial as a WIP, so maybe once I finish the Belials I'll do a little compilation like that. Bike Chaplain turned out really good btw!
It’s always fun to look back and see how far you’ve come. Of course, I may be biased. I tend to spend a lot of time woolgathering on retrospectives. Gives me something to do while yelling at clouds and telling those kids to get off my lawn. I’m due to have a half-century service stud hammered into my skull later this year. We’ll see how long it takes them to put me into a dreadnought just to shut me up.
Anyway, thanks for the comments all. Have a great rest of your weekend!
--Nev
Automatically Appended Next Post: Finished building the scouts:
Arrayed for 40k. For use in KT one of the heavies and the non-cloaked sniper will stay on the shelf. Top squad is more for camping backfield and chilling, bottom is for more aggressively pushing up and causing mayhem. Although both squads can do both in a pinch. From an in-game POV it bugs me that their gear is all over the place. Lots of time burned to roll dice, see who’s where in the squad, etc. But if 10th wants to hand out gear for free, I’ll take it and hand it out. Prior editions a lot could be said for keeping them cheep and cheerful. While not a greenskin, I do believe some of their philosophy. Boys before toys. The best upgrade you can give a lad is another lad standing beside him. So rather then paying for the HB/sniper in the aggressive squad, I’d rather they cost less or be a couple brothers larger. Not going to happen in this codex paradigm; maybe 11th. At which point I’d have to buy another box and re-jigger my squads. Which would not be a bad thing. It was a fun kit to build, and I only scratched the surface for options.
Would have been nice to have the sniper actually shooting though. Repositioning the arm and working up a support hand was more then I was in the mood for though. So I just did an alt arm for the off hand so they are not identical. Also stowed his cloak.
So ordering some Coat D’arms paints has been on my to-do list for a while now. Didn’t want to do it over the winter, because not all paints freeze well. A fresh pot of blue ink that matches the old is nice, hopefully this works. The contrast was close, and would have worked in a pinch, but why not try the original formula? They had 2 and I wasn’t sure which was it, so just bought both. The “super blue wash” looks a lot more like the turquoise glaze I use on my nighthaunt. Ink Wash Blue seem to be my boy here. The amethyst purple was pure impulse. I used to have a lot of fun with the colored metalics, and still use the green and blue. But my purple died a long time ago (I don’t recall exactly when) The deadly nightshade was actually the thing that made me pull the trigger. I use it on all the thick cables across all my armies. And it’s not a color that I’ve found a decent modern replacement for. And my RT pot is getting real sludgy. And I rediscovered that one after my hexpot of the stuff gave up the ghost. Hopefully this matches.
Need to do something with the base. Most characters are on 40s, so the peg foot 32 will need to be replaced. Might lean him back a little and mount him on a lifter from the old AM box, slap some extra rubble around. But done with the chaplain himself.
Got the blue down on two terminators, and grey on the triumph base. Need to paint more, build less.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
A little morning progress
Edit2:
Just put together the last inceptor from the 8th ed box as a sarge for the DW squad. Just to get him off the sprue and let me field a second squad if I wanted to. With paint not meaning much anymore I could just toss a squad or two of deathwatch into an otherwise Ultramarine force. Which actually fits my headcannon on how DW would fight anything larger then what a KT could handle. Call for backup from a normal chapter and fight along side, spearheading the fight and lending specialized aid to the already flexible marines.
youwashock wrote:Kitbashed Chap/chap looks pretty dang cool. I like the addition of the fins to the pack.
While a mix of firstborn and primaris parts, I wanted to try to make him match modern aethetics. Part of that is grav vanes on the jump packs. Not 100% match to modern packs, but close enough that he should not be too out of place when I do get some jump intercessors for him to lead. Or they re-do the VV kit. Either one is good.
Adamski Alders wrote:That's a great looking Jump Chaplain, you thinking of giving him a "Hero Rock" to stand on/jump off?
It might be hard to make out in the second pick, but he did get some rocks and ruins on his base to jump from. With all the leaning and swinging around I wanted to add a little bit to the base to help ground the model visually a little.
So some progress today:
With the new AoS 4.0 dropping this summer I figured I’d finish up with the 2.0 Soul Wars box. I think these are the last of the nighthaunt form there (I split the box, so that’s all I got)
And other painting progress:
Started the silvers. Did the arm cables on all of the terminators, and started on the leg tubes things, but needed a break. Also put some work on the triumph base. Not pictured, but also did a little on the spare arms from the Eldar rangers. Not that they need WYSWYG wargear options anymore. Rules don’t even have the trap/projector things anymore. I also edged the frag launchers for the agressors and glued them on.
Captain Brown wrote: I just had to Exalt the history of upgrades on the previous page. Congratulation on painting so much over the twelve years.
Sincerely,
CB
At some point I need to break out the lightbox and my old WHFB armies. There are a handful of units in my gallery, but they have not received the systematic photoshoots that my Ultras and Eldar have. It’s almost entirely 5th edition era. I’ve shown some of the new stuff in the blog, AoS era, but need to get out the wayback machine.
In painting new finished the silvers on the terminators. Greys and gold next, almost done with basecoats.
Looking good, Nev. I am anticipating a comparison shot with the originals.
Same. I love the before/after pics of new sculpts of old concepts.
So slow, but paint going down. Did the cleanup blue on one of the terminators. The silver pipes on the legs make it a major PITA. But we’re at the point in the month when I need to get moving and make sure at least one guy is done.
Put the Grey Seer down on the upper half of the triumph. I new the cherubs and ribbons were going to be a pain, and they are. So much flex and wobble. Luckily mostly going to be done with washes. But still need to basecoat the metalics. Cyberware in silver (which will get a black wash) bling in gold, parchments in beige (flesh wash) Skin just gets the flesh wash, wings get the apothecery white. Going to focus on getting the top completely done and then move on the the bottom. While I’ve got it on a stickytack handle, I need a firm grip so am just holding the sarcophagus. Also putting careful layers on the martyr. She’s half scupted to the bed, so it’s going to be fun to see how things like up. Should be fine.
In an ideal world all of this stuff will be done by the end of the month. Not holding my breath though. My folks are flying in for The Boy’s HS graduation and will be here for a couple days. and it’s not like we have a lot of month left. Summer is always fun for scheduling. I’ll be AFK for vacation for a week in both July and August. Might need to pick easy things to paint for the monthly comps, and need to get the triumph done at the same time. Once this part is done, it’s just 6 sisters, which should be doable along side the nommal stuff.
Edit: Forgot to mention that I finished the spare ranger bits. Not that I’m tracking spare bits anymore for my goals.
I dig it. Don't give up! You can get one, maybe two more of these guys done by the weekend!
I seem to have completely missed that you don't do white helmets for your 1st Company boys. Have you said why? I probably missed that, too. I choose to blame the fog of age.
youwashock wrote: I dig it. Don't give up! You can get one, maybe two more of these guys done by the weekend!
I seem to have completely missed that you don't do white helmets for your 1st Company boys. Have you said why? I probably missed that, too. I choose to blame the fog of age.
I’m going to keep at it. I just needed to make sure at least one was good to go. Gotta keep the streak alive!
I probably mentioned it last time I was painting vets, which may have been like half a decade ago. Or longer. My paint schemes are based back in the RT days. All this new fangled stuff like “shoulder trim” and “helmet colors” just doesn’t sit well. If you can’t say it with a helmet stripe, it doesn’t need to be said. Although I do give the vets white trim on their shoulder pads these days if they have it, which the terminators do not. I do occasionally hand out gold helmets to honor guard level guys. The only white helmets are on phobos guys to match their camo, and the bike captain, who my headcannon had him swap helmets with a WS he fought alongside in a joint campaign. Oh, and apothecaries, who like the phobos, don’t count.
From a practical POV I don’t like the look and white is a PITA to paint.
Is that what Terminators look like now? That model really has a sense of motion, especially compared to the versions I am used to, which tend to just be standing in place.
JoshInJapan wrote: Is that what Terminators look like now? That model really has a sense of motion, especially compared to the versions I am used to, which tend to just be standing in place.
Yup. The new terminators are actually reasonably dynamic. I mean, they are not backflipping with multilasers, but let’s not talk crazy. Compared to my old lead ones who were just milling around the battlefield, it’s nice to see some motion.
Finished that one guy, but haven’t got his formal shots in the lightbox yet. Still hope he might be joined by a few friends. Not holding my breath though.
Also in the news finished the last of the to-prime pile with a rattlecan yesterday.
Some YTD woolgathering:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 6/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 15/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 27/20
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. 4/8
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. 5/14
So June is basically over, so I should be halfway done with all these, right?
1 - Doing good here. Pretty low goal though, I’d like to push past it.
2 - Over halfway, so on track. I really should arrange things so just push bodies across the bench and dig out of the primed pile. So many gaunts there these days.
3 - This goal is a moving target. There are always more things to buy, but nothing really demanding the hobby budget right now. Still, you never know when a new box set will drop that I must have. Not going to get the AoS 4.0 box, but am seriously considering picking up the non-mini part of the box on ebay, and maybe working up some spearheads.
4 - I think the Lib counts for this, Still need to work this one better
5 - Still blogging, still painting. Volume is technically on track for 52 minis, but I know I can do much better then that,
6 - I’ve got Ultras and Nids. That’s it. Again, technically on track. But those were always the low hanging fruit for the goal.
7 - Still entering, still getting at least something across the line. Although just one mini this month and not the squad.
8 - This looks worse then it is. Once I finish the other 4 terminators this will be solid. Just the barbgaunts left.
Overall looking good, but the numbers are a bit deceptive. Volume and diversity are both low.
This could just be a perception thing, but it seems like this year isn't real good for productivity for a lot of people. There's a general feeling of fatigue. Except graven, of course. I know I feel it, so maybe I'm projecting.
Anyways, keep up the struggle. One more Terminator!
youwashock wrote:This could just be a perception thing, but it seems like this year isn't real good for productivity for a lot of people. There's a general feeling of fatigue. Except graven, of course. I know I feel it, so maybe I'm projecting.
Anyways, keep up the struggle. One more Terminator!
tzurk wrote:Despair not Nev, the quality is there and the quantity ain't too shabby all things considered either.
Love your snow bases, too. They really stand out as stellar in the group shot.
Here's to a just as (even more!?) productive next 6 months.
Spoiler:
It’s been a year. Some of it is more distractions. Early in the year I picked up a new gaming PC, so have been spending more time playing computer games than painting. Work has been up and down. I should have got more painting done in the month my office was down due to the CHC hack. (but was playing a lot of Cyberpunk and BG3 on the computer instead) Lot of parenting stress. The Boy graduated high school last Tuesday, and it’s been a long stressful road to get him there. I’ve not played a game of 40k all year. That was always one of the drivers to get stuff across the paintbench. I hold myself to a play it painted/WYSWYG standard on the table, so getting units I wanted in my army list done helped motivate me. Nothing against 10th, I’ve just not be able to get to the game store to play. Hard to motivate to be social. Plus general run-of-the-mill depressions and enui. Just bumbeling through life alone watching the world catch on fire. Not a good time. OK, this is getting rambely. Going to spoiler tag the depressing personal stuff now.
So done with one guy. Need to get to work on the other 4. And the Triumph. And figure out what to do for “Footslogger” next month. I’m leaning towards the intercessors I’ve had kicking around for a bit now. But I don’t think I’m going to move all 5 down. I think one or two at a time. Do that while I finish the terminators. Work some ganuts across at the same time. Next two months are going to be short, as I’ll have a week out of each for vacations AFK.
I do enjoy the snow bases. Sets off the deep blue armor rather well IMHO. And they are easy, which is a perk. I am pretty proud of the quality this year so far. A lot of it is just executing my scheme, but it’s fun and I’m pretty consistent. Might not be Golden Demon level stuff, but solid table-top, mini after mini. Something to be said for that.
Stay the course, Nev. Sometimes that's all we can do. I hear you on the woes.
He's turned out swell. I like the reference to the old fluff you mentioned in the challenge thread. I think I remember that story. Maybe it is just a symptom of age, but things sure seemed simpler then.
Hey, keep on keeping on. You're doing better than me so far. I've gone and let myself get a little bit burned out, and also distracted by various new shinies (details in my blog whenever I get around to it). You may only be getting the one Terminator done for the comp, but it does look good, and I'm sure his squad buddies will too.
youwashock wrote:Stay the course, Nev. Sometimes that's all we can do. I hear you on the woes.
He's turned out swell. I like the reference to the old fluff you mentioned in the challenge thread. I think I remember that story. Maybe it is just a symptom of age, but things sure seemed simpler then.
Not to be cynical, but it was simpler. Back at the start, 40k was run by hobbyists, and things were set up more like a sandbox. The offered a framework, with snippets of the world and kits to let you fill out what you wanted. These days it’s more corporate and sanitized, with the goal to sell you the product which is the alpha and omega of what you need. Less sandbox, more railroad. More fleshed out with all the details given to you. Less options to customize. But still amazing minis and world.
ZergSmasher wrote:Hey, keep on keeping on. You're doing better than me so far. I've gone and let myself get a little bit burned out, and also distracted by various new shinies (details in my blog whenever I get around to it). You may only be getting the one Terminator done for the comp, but it does look good, and I'm sure his squad buddies will too.
Need to keep painting. Going to try to keep a lid on goals for this month to help catch up.
Doing the KT intercessors squad this month. Or at least one or two of them. Not going to push for the whole batch. One or two at a time, finish the terminator. Maybe some gaunts. Chip away at the Triumph.
And finish this guy:
OK, not much to look at, but done. One of the free minis of the month, used mostly as a testbed for the blue..
Also put the beige down on the parchment for the triumph this morning.
Switched the marine for footslogger to one of the guys with both his arms on and put a layer down. Just blue the clean up blue on another terminator over lunch. Some progress for the Triumph. Getting along.
Came for the Ultramarines, but I must say your gold is fantastic. When I painted some Ultramarines back when Charlemagne was alive I did something similar to what you mentioned about the helmet colors, in my color scheme veterans and sergeants had a colored stripe in middle of the helmet as opposed to the full helmet colored. I like your blue a lot and hey, not everything needs to be Golden Demon level to look good (and most of the times is better to have a full army painted good, than 4 minis master painted and the rest grey, we dont have time for everything), and your Termi does look very good. Keep it up, I really like full blue Termi
So I was AFK last week, just got back. So no painting progress (but hopefully make some inroads this weekend) but waiting for my on my return were some boxes:
3 new 4L boxes and a 9L XL. Plus some extras. (bringing me to 6x4L, 1x9L, 1x9XL)
First off, the 9XL is not just a 9L with a new extra space lid. It has a slightly different footprint (same width, but about an inch longer) and does not stack perfectly with the other 4/9L boxes due to this. It’s firm left/right, but slides front/back do the the extra length. Minor disapointment. Can probably serve, but not a perfect fix for tall models like the winged hive tyrant.
I placed this order straight from the source (https://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk), and not Amazon resellers for the extra bits. Main thing is the lipped trays 2 plain and one segmented. Shipping is rough ($26 for <$100, which was me. Next bracket was $40 for 100-200). They say you can also get them from Office Max/Office Depot/Staples, but like Amazon, they might not have the full range. This is in the USA. It might be better over the pond on their native soil.
Plus an insert that adds some dividers.
The lipped trays are exactly what I had hopped for. They are deep enough I can put another layer of gaunts into the same box, basically doubling the space. Even the new, slightly taller ones. Now this is without the later of steel on the top. That thickness might make a difference. If it does I can just use the top layer for ripper swarms, spore mines, and other very low minis.
The thickness of the bottom divided tray makes it too shallow for most minis. I was thinking maybe I could pad it and use it for gargoyles, but the slots don’t quite fit.
Overall a mixed lot. The lipped trays are a major win, and the 4Ls were needed. I’ll line them with sheets when I have a chance.
So I ordered some of the spearhead bits and bobs from e-bay. Book/map/cards/terrain. So I spent some time this morning looking death in the face.
So this is where my nighthaunt are at right now. Just under 1,000 points usable. Some of that is unit size. The stalkers come in blocks of 4, so I have an extra. The 4 Grimghast reapers need to hit the table in blocks of 10, so need to warm the shelf for now.
I do have some old metals that could be pulled into service (like a pair of banshees) but they would need to be rebased and do not match the look of the rest of the “modern” spooks. Metal Nagash would require a ton of work to get up to speed with the new world.
10 more chainrasps are in the primed pile, and would add another 100 points. I’ve got another 5 mounted hexwraiths on sprue, but they could also be built as black knights on the soulblight side. It would be another 160 points if they went etherial and joined the haunt.
To field the spearhead I need a knight of shrouds (on foot), 3 spirit hosts, 10 grimghast reapers, and 20 chainrasps. I’ve got 4 reapers and the 20 rasps. And could probably substitute a foot hero for the knight. Worth picking up the box? 40 chainrasps seem like a lot of useless chaff. Not sure how they actually plat in the new edition. Or prior editions for that mater. I only need 6 reapers to bring up my unit to a valid size. The spares might be useful to kitbash some cairn wraiths. Might just be a paintjob away (red robes instead of black?) It’s $145 for the spearhead box. I could get a box of spirit hosts ($35) and Reapers ($58) for $93 together (before discounts) and just fake the HQ. The question is if I want to field a full AoS nighthaunt army do I need the foot HQ and 20 more rasps? Knight not sold separately, and the rasps are $45 each for 10. Which seems like robbery for push fit chaff units.
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I didn’t break out the soulblight as it would be a lot more work. The only modern models I have painted for them are Manfred and the trio of parkour vampires. On spure I have a lot kicking around. All of the Cursed City stuff, which is a bunch of HQ/support characters, and some skeletons and zombies. I also have 10 more skeletons to build (for a total of 20 modern ones) And the black knights if they don’t end up as hexwraiths. I also have a LOT more legacy stuff for this side of the undead. Mounted and foot wights/vamps/necromancers, roughly 100 skeletons.
Now the spearhead has rules/content, but no box at this time. It’s a vamp lord on foot, 5 blood knights, 20 skeletons, and 3 vargheists. That’s about $225 which hopefully will be at the $145 as the rest of them. Unlike the nighthaunt side, this is more appealing to me. I don’t know why I think having 40 skeletons is “a good start” while 40 chainrasps is “excessive” It might be from my time playing old school WHFB where all etherial units were high cost elites. Love the mounted vamps, the beastial flying ones seem useful, and like marine captains, you can never have too many vampire lords.
Between Manfred, Cursed City, the spearhead, and the BKs and skeletons I’ve got kicking around that should make for a solid well-ballanced AoS army at a reasonable size.
So no rush to go out and buy things, but I think I’m going to invest a little in AoS.
Spirit host
Grimghast reapers
Soulblight Spearhead (when it drops)
EDIT: Soulblight is out, but still branded as a Vanguard box, and not Spearhead, and not showing on GW’s site. But can be found on Amazon. Passing for now. I did pull the trigger on the nighthaunt, and used my rewards points to take a chunk out of the price.
I should focus on building the CC stuff I have so it’s good to go, especially the skeletons which will be used for the spearhead.
And get my lazy anti-social self down to the FLGS and get in on the ground floor where everyone is learning how to play.
Collect and paint for a decade or four-ish without selling off bits and they add up. Even at the pace I paint. And this is the trimmed down fantasy stuff. I culled a lot of stuff off the shelves and left them in boxes due to needing more space to display more active armies. It would be a herculean task to get everything out for a pic. And it would be such a wide shot it would be useless, except for the panoramic splendor. The closest I have is this shot from back in early 2017 after the divorce as I was packing things up. That’s the stuff I wasn’t able to fit in foam/cases/boxes and needed to take in multiple trips. And I’ve been painting 50-100ish models a year since then. My full Ultramarine pic is 4 years out of date at this point.
For my active armies I’ve got unit shots for everything, and the occasional group shot, which are mostly out of date. When a new set of rules drops I try to do a “state of the <blank>” report. But that’s only for the active armies. I’ve got a lot of lead and plastic hiding in the dark...
youwashock wrote: There are some classics in that last pic. Really good stuff.
Let old Nagashes lie. Some things are best forgotten.
No love for the death clown? He was goofy back in the day, still is now. The new version still has some goof on him, but is a much better centerpiece.
And just to show I’m still painting. Marine still waiting for his clean up blue. Washes going down on the triumph. Although I keep noticing things I’ve missed. Going to be a lot of cleanup.
Edit:
Some ghosts showed up in the mail today. In theory spearhead rules and such tomorrow. Might try the FLGS sat, we’ll see.
Started clipping a spirit host this morning. Damn, I forgot how irritating GW;s ghosty wisps are to build. There is a perfect angle where the bits line up, but good luck finding it. Sometimes you get a nub/socket, but most of time time you have to wiggle stuff until the contours mesh. Then do it again with glue. Ugh.
Nighthaunt models all look like they are pretty easy to paint but they would be a real PITA to assemble, and I'd be worried about them breaking if I looked at them crossways.
inmygravenimage wrote:Oh, the horror. My kid started out with nighthaunts and the trauma was real.
ZergSmasher wrote:Nighthaunt models all look like they are pretty easy to paint but they would be a real PITA to assemble, and I'd be worried about them breaking if I looked at them crossways.
They are pretty much pure swirly gack. Some of the push-fits are fine. But big guys like Manfred, and as I’m learning the spirit hosts, are the stuff pf nightmares. On-brand for the army, but also a massive PITA.
Absolutely. Not the best army to learn the hobby with, don't know what they were thinking with them in the magazine. One thing we did was add extra roses on paper clips as struts to some of the more fragile ones like Lady Oleandar.
So I was AFK last week, just got back. So no painting progress (but hopefully make some inroads this weekend) but waiting for my on my return were some boxes:
3 new 4L boxes and a 9L XL. Plus some extras. (bringing me to 6x4L, 1x9L, 1x9XL)
That's one post that needs pinning somewhere.
9L and 4L are my go-to boxes these days. Knowing where to get them leads to visitis to all sorts of odd places. The trays are great too, if you can get them.
The best bit about them is a 9L and a 4L take up about the same space as 2x KR Multicase cardboard boxes, and they fit into double-size KR bags (not backpacks) perfectly.
I went back and edited a little more into into that post (plus adding more here, which I might go back and add later)
The 9XL while not the same footprint is close. It has the same width but is about an inch longer. So while it dose stack, it will slide front/back a little. Not the end of the world, just not what I was expecting.
You can order straight from them, but there is no free shipping.
Spoiler:
RUB wrote:Shipping charges (excluding any applicable taxes) are calculated as follows:
For order values up to $10, shipping is $24.00
For orders from $10.01 - $100.00, shipping is $26
For orders from $100.01 - $200.00, shipping is $40
For orders from $200.01 - $300.00, shipping is $59
For orders from $300.01 - $400.00, shipping is $78
For orders from $400.01 - $500.00, shipping is $97
For orders from $500.01 - $600.00, shipping is $117
For orders from $600.01 - $800.00, shipping is $156
For orders from $800.01 - $1,000.00, shipping is $195
For orders from $1,000.01 - $1,250.00, shipping is $244
For orders from $1,250.01 - $1,500.00, shipping is $292
For orders from $1,500.01 - $1,750.00, shipping is $340
For orders from $1,750.01 - $2,000.00, shipping is $389
For orders from $2,000.01 - $2,500.00, shipping is $486
For orders from $2,500.01 - $3,000.00, shipping is $583
For orders from $3,000.01 - $5,000.00, shipping is $620
For orders from $5,000.01 onwards, shipping is $700
So when you are looking at $26 for <$100 of product (and $40 for 100-200) that’s a significant upcharge. They say you can also get them from Office Max/Office Depot/Staples, but like Amazon, they might not have the full range. This is in the USA. It might be better over the pond on their native soil.
Good info about the KR. I’ve got a Kaiser 2 and 3, so that will be useful to know if my ’Nids ever go out for a game. Or Nighthaunt, as I think I’m going to mag them up.
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So that was a massive PITA. I like how they look, and they should paint up quick, but man, what a fiddly build. I do need to give them one prop: the bases. While they have frail bits sticking everywhere, it’s all above the footprint of the base. So less chance of bits getting snapped off on the table or in the case. It’s a little thing, but if it wasn’t the case they would probably be destroyed the first time they came out to play.
I would strongly discourage new players from picking up this kit. Which is sad, since they are part of the spearhead game mode designed for beginners. I suspect a lot of these are going to be thrown across the hobby room in frustration and the broken shards will live in bits boxes forever.
Next build will the the grimghast reapers to get my squad up to 10.
I should get some paint down this weekend, running out of month.
So the reapers were not nearly as bad. There were a few fiddly bits, but they were mostly just small parts, not alignment issues. All built, but I need to go back and smooth out some seams not that the glue is dry. It’s 5 sculpts repeated, some of which are similar, but not the same as the soul wars ones. So I broke out the whole squad to see who I would repeat to avoid as much sameness as I could.
Unlike the spirit hosts, these guys are all about hanging off their base. But they have nothing on their boss.
So now that I have the squad, let’s make the character. Hey, AoS has a document with base sizes. The squad is on 32s, might need a 40 for the boss. Nope. 25mm. Well, if that’s what they want. Helped narrow down which body to use for the base, as I needed a more upright one.
Swapping heads is not simple, as they are keyed to the robes they hide under, This one fit with minimal work. It might be sticking out further then normal, but that’s OK. The chains (and the head for that mater) are supposed to go for the bell/champion guy, but you can hide a lot under robes. He’ll get an inverted paintjob to help him stand out. But to be fair, the official model doesn’t stand out much from the rank and file.
3 bodies left. I looked at my bits box and was wondering if I could do a knight of shrouds on foot, but I lack the parts. However, I think I could do some Glaivewraith Stalkers. I should have some undead horse heads kicking around, and converting a scythe to a glave should be within my skillset.
OK, enough about the new. I know you are all here for the nostalgia hit! Nighthaunt, before they were all spun off from a fractured book. Going all the way back to a simpler time, where there was simply the Undead.
Before they were spirit hosts, we just had ghosts. I don’t know if I ever fielded them. They were pretty expensive, but hit like a wet noodle. Immune to anything non-magical (could still be broken by combat results) so you could tarpit with them, but a pretty big investment on a slow moving pit that disintegrated on break and had Ld5. Fun models though, including a classic angry bedsheet.
But if you wanted a slow moving immune to normal crap unit, you wanted wraiths. Sure they were 75 points a model, but has all the whistles and bells. They caused terror, which was fear++ in an aura. With their scythes and better WS, they should actually hit. And if they didn’t kill you they left a stacking to-hit debuff. You could also use them as unit champions. Crazy expensive, but they brought a lot to the table.
When I mentioned you could use them as champions, that includes mounted to join skeleton horsemen. This was an issue model-wise for my largely mounted host. At first, I tried green stuff.
Basically just trying to get robes on a mounted plastic skeleton. You can see my fingerprints. Not the best results.
At one point I found this guy in a dusty old store.
Sorry for the blurry pic. He’s a bit drunk. Has a clever, not the classic scythe. But at least he’s in robes.
And then there is my best option:
Borrowing the Vampire Lord’s mount (his legs are set for living mounts, not the thinner skeletal ones) he was kitbashed from a Dark Elf dark rider. Dremmeled his face out, and clipped the speartip off and replaced it with a scythe carved from cardstick with a skull backer. Little GS to blend them together.
The Banshee was originally a named character wraith from a campaign pack in 5th. She moved into the mainsteam as an actual unit later. The one on the left occasionally would hit the table when I needed a lich on foot. Fun model.
These guys blur the lines. Carrion are more of a zombie bird, but do have those adorable little chibi wraiths on top. These guys have a storied past. When I started my undead I had pledged to keep them rot-free. Not a huge fan of zombies (which were only in metal blisters at the time) and generally that aesthetic. Ghouls as well. So these guys were on my no-buy list. But my friend Phil got me a pair for my birthday one year. “You need these”. And he was not wrong. Even as a mostly mounted undead army, I was slow as molasses. So backfield artillery and other harassment units would do a LOT of damage before I could get stuck in. These guys could fly high turn one, and then drop down and mulch soft units. They got an extra attack for every wound they did, and started with 3/per model. Sure, they were WS3 and S3, but when their primary job was eating unarmored crewmen manning siege engines? That was enough. Of all the units I missed with the split from TK/VC, these guys were the top of the list (along with basic mounted skeletons with options)
OK, time for a second cup of coffee and to get moving on breakfast. And maybe put a blue ink was on some marnies today.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edit:
The stalkers are a little bit smaller then the reapers. So not sure how well they will mesh as a unit. But now I have 2x4 spook units, both with the allowed musician.
That's a wonderful spooky walk down memory lane. Seeing the old minis is great. Carrion are indeed awesome, as were Wraiths if you could fit them on a list. I think ghosts increased in playability with the move to spirit hosts. Much love for the bedsheet ghost. He was in my old army, too.
Nice to see some of the old lead. I don't have anything quite that old in my Old World collection (the only metal model I have for my Tomb Kings is my Necrotect, and he's not that old unless I'm mistaken), and all of my AoS stuff is of recent vintage. The older metal models had a lot of character, and there's just something satisfying about the heft of those pieces when you move them around.
youwashock wrote:That's a wonderful spooky walk down memory lane. Seeing the old minis is great. Carrion are indeed awesome, as were Wraiths if you could fit them on a list. I think ghosts increased in playability with the move to spirit hosts. Much love for the bedsheet ghost. He was in my old army, too.
When AoS first dropped I like what they did with ghosts. I think a multiwound base full of spirits is a lot better. IIRC in prior editions they may have done that with normal non-swirly stuff ghosts? But I’d have to go digging, and there are bigs gaps in my fantasy shelf.
ZergSmasher wrote:Nice to see some of the old lead. I don't have anything quite that old in my Old World collection (the only metal model I have for my Tomb Kings is my Necrotect, and he's not that old unless I'm mistaken), and all of my AoS stuff is of recent vintage. The older metal models had a lot of character, and there's just something satisfying about the heft of those pieces when you move them around.
So much love for old metal. It has its issues, but just feels right. Still: love modern plastics.
Cap'n Facebeard wrote:Were the chibi wraiths ever explained? Make me think of Pratchett's Death Of Rats.
Quick check of the old book. They are the spirits of all the undead bird's victims. With each kill another joins, making them more powerful. No idea if this was retconned later. I’m pretty sure they made the change to TK with new models? Don’t know if the spirits hung around.
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Hobby news I primed most of the spooks, but not the stalkers. It went on a little odd, but I think will be OK after the basecoat. Did not get any paint down yesterday. I’m slacking badly and need to get out of my rut.
tzurk wrote:Beautiful old minis, thanks for sharing and telling their story.
That converted reaper lord on the horse is a great idea with great execution.
Creativity is always more impressive when it's done with monopose metal minis!
Good luck on the paint with their multipart plastic spiritual (lol) successors.
heh
Converting metal was an ordeal. I’ve got shattered remains of a few failed projects, and a few that turned out OK. I used the same base unit (DE dark riders) to make mounted chaos marauders before they had a kit. That was mostly just a spearhead swap for flails and a paintjob. I think my favorite that comes to mind though is my centaur wight lord. I did a few centaur units (skeleton, chaos knights) but I just like how he turned out.
Spoiler:
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Put the blue ink on the footslogger last night. Got real sloppy. Needs a lot of cleanup. Was going to to the terminator on standby, but after seeing the first mini, decided to stop before it got worse. My hand was just not in it.
Oh hey, I should maybe update my blog with info, and not just post in the competition threads.
So he’s done:
Nothing spectacular, but done.
This month is “Beep Boop” and I’m way behind on so many things, so going easy
I don’t think there has been any progress on the centerpeice since I posted the last WIP. I’m hoping to at least get the sarcophagus done by the end of the month. We’ll see how things go.
Off on vacation next week to visit my folks, going to be a quiet week on the hobby front. Be well all
Slow progress. Motivation about pretty much everything in life is at a low. Plus I’ve been playing a lot of Mechwarrior 5, which eats time. And tried to clean out my gutters yesterday, which broke me for painting.
So beep-bop-booping along on the teleport homers. I wonder which one is Beep and which is Boop? Or is one Iliad and the other Odyssey? They do describe the heroic journey of the terminator squads. Note to self if I ever name the sergeants in my TDA squads to give them appropriate Greek/Trojan names. Which is pretty on-brand for Ultramarines anyway.
Anyway, classic literature aside, they are getting along well. Just put the clean up blue down, ink next. I reversed some of the lights, some red, some green. Not sure if the homers need to be keyed to specific squads, but wanted to differentiate them. Besides the fact that one has 2 anchors down while the other just has 2. I should try to key something on the sarges to them as well.
Triumph is going slow. No way the whole thing is going to be done in time for the comp. I’d like to finish the main part and the leading sister. Almost done with the cherubs. They need the white wash on their wings, as does the departed sister on her armor. Then the whole lower part. Which I had visions of doing in gold veined black marble. Sword and shield sister is getting her basecoats down.
Just keep on pushing on the Triumph. You got this! I'm looking forward to seeing it done, especially as I no longer have one to work on myself. The homers are coming along too, and I like the nice little wink at THE Homer with the idea of naming them Iliad and Odyssey. Although I might name one Simpson...
I’m a bad blogger. Thought I had put an update in. Might have just been in the comp thread.
Homers still waiting on flock and final pics. Ut that’s just a quick thing, so I’ve been procrastinating. Triumph is getting there.
Almost done with the fiddly details. Need a wash on them, then on to the marbleing. Once all the sisters are done it’s going to be largely obscured anyway. Oh, and I still need to do the underside, which should be quick. Lead sister needs some cleanup and her whites done. Plus more work on the back of the shield. Getting there.
So much detail on this, and I’m not even started on most of the gals around it. They will come in piecemeal over the rest of the year.
So finally got the beacons flocked and photographed. They turned out fine. Although I might have forgotten to gloss the green. Oh well. I can check and touch up.
Disappointed in the half year of the comp. All Ultras. There is more on the YTD shelf, but not in the comp. 2 of the months where I only got a single guy done should have been full squads. Or at least more than one. Some of that I can blame on the Triumph. Which is plugging along. But overall a huge drought of production compared to past years.
Ahem, that model ain't done, there's like five more girls supposed to be on there. Stop slacking! Just kidding of course, it looks pretty good. It will indeed look better once you do finish all the girls.
That’s all that could get done in time for the summer challenge, and it’s done enough to enter. I’ve got the other gals on deck, and even one prepped for paint.
Hopefully I can get more work done this month. It’s been a rough stretch lately.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Even small progress is good progress. I'm proud of you.
Thanks. Longest journey begins with a single step and all that. One layer at a time. I need to get back in the habit of just putting a layer down a day. Been slacking of late.
Cap'n Facebeard wrote:Y'know I was just about the Google whether those rats could pass for a 6th ed rat swarm, and you have answered it.
The Triumph looks amazing, you've given me a new appreciation of the model.
These swarms are on 32s. IIRC from 5/6th, most swarms were on 40mm squares? I think? I do own some bat swarms from that era, and the ultra cheesy WHQ swarm box. But it’s been a long time since I looked at them. These guys would work, but I might get a couple of extra random rats to fill out a larger base.
The Triumph has a lot going on. I’ve still got 5 more sisters to add to it. It is rightly a centerpiece of the army.
So more more paint/modeling this evening, but this got built:
Probably would have been easier with an extra pair of hands, but I got it together. Might want to look into lighting, as that’s kinda crap in the basement.
Next question is what goes in there. Nids might be nice, but they have their boxes. Nighthaunt/soulblight another posiblity. Eldar as well. I figure some of my seconday amries will move into here, and I’ll unbox a lot of the tertiary stuff and put that in the old bookcase. But that’s a big project for another day. Now I need a sit down and another glass of water.
Happy weekend all. Spent the first cup of coffee shuffling Eldar around, second on in hand writing this and woolgathering.
While not nearly as impressive as some other Eldar armies I’ve seen posted recently, it’s mine and I’m proud of it. When gathering things up there were no units to pull from the YTD shelf for it, which needs to be fixed. I did paint a pair of spare arms for the rangers, but that hardly counts.
So where to go?
Left side, the footsloggers:
I’ve got the war walker, dire avengers, and scorpions primed. To build I’ve got a random mini-of-the-month Dire Avenger and 5 more scorps. Plus another farseer, dup to one I’ve painted.
Right side, mud-free:
Shroudrunners and Shining Spears. To build I’ve got a lone old school bike. I suspect he’s going to be converted to a shining spear to fill out a squad some day.
And their new digs:
So there is still a decent amount of space left on the shelves. Not packed too tight. And the bottom floor is basically empty. I might move the Deathwatch in there for now. The only shelf that’s really tight is the tanks. But plenty of space for all the Eldar I own to move in after they get painted.
So what do I need? Any purchases on the horizon?
Short answer: nothing really, but maybe.
I’d like to get another box of shining spears, convert one into a modern bike autarch, and the rest into a second squad. Although part of me would want to use another one to make a banner bearer for the wild host as a callback to the old times. (My old unbuilt bike to fill the slot here if I pull one guy out of the squad)
Part of me wants a box of storm guardians. Not that I need them. Just gotta catch em all, need at least one of each unit thing. I’d say I want a box of the new defenders (which I kinda do) just to have the modern sculpts, but with 30 of the old ones, I’ve already got more then I’ll ever use. So a box of these would be stormies.
Wraithknight and Avatar are both big centerpeice showcase units I don’t really need but kinda crave. Although glancing at the price, $168 for the WK is never going to happen. Avatar is pricy, but can at least see reasonable from where it is.
Maugan Ra and the Dark Reapers are minis that I don’t own, but do not fit at all into my playstyle. Even if the rules/points are good (which I have no clue about these days), and even with my obsessive gotta collect brain, these guys are probably not happening. Support platforms sit in the same spot, but don’t even hit the “get ALL the aspects” button.
Part of me want to get a little harli side action going on, but I don’t think I could paint them and do them justice. I have seen some muted schemes I could probably pull off. But as a accessory force to a secondary army, they are way down on the list of purchases.
The next most likely purchase is probably something that doesn’t even exist yet. If warp spiders or swooping hawks show up in KT, they will get snapped up. Or whenever the codex drops we get new units, something might tempt me. Although half the stuff from the last drop never made it to my army. A new megaforce/combat patrol would tempt me if it had enough stuff I cared about. Which is one reason I’m in no rush to grab a box of guardians, as they have a high chance of being in a bundle.
Anyway, coffee is gone now, time to get on with the day. Enjoy the weekend all
Sunday morning classically spent clearing mold lines while listening to the Sunday retro-rewind on the local radio station. Today no exception.
I have to give credit to the sculptor for the Cursed City skeletons (and zombies, but not there yet). They are push-fit, for the most part 2 piece skeletons. Lot of detail and movement, despite those limits. Plus, they take advantage of the duplicate sprues. So instead of front “A” going with back “a” and that’s it, they pair off. So A and B are comparable, C/D as well. So while most of the time with duplicate pushfits, you just end up with Aa, Aa, Bb, Bb with these you get Aa, Ab, Ba, Bb. Obviously there are repeating elements, as they double up on parts. But each one is technically unique.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Nice skellies! A sunday morning well spent.
Absolutely!
youwashock wrote:Liking the look of that display, Nev. I often wonder if I should try something similar.
From the reviews it’s a Chinese version of the Ikea Detolf, which is no longer made. A bit pricier due to inflation and they need to compensate for shipping. And it’s a hefty lad. Did I pay more than I wanted? Yes. But some of that is inflation; what price I think is “fair” is normally in 1990’s dollars. Which is hilariously out of date. And shipping is non-trivial. I could drive 4 hours and get the current version from Ikea, or have Amazon drop this off at my door. Could I use 3-4 more? Yes. But at that price I should just cruise the second hand furniture shops for another china cabinet.
I debated spending the money on more foam from KR, but wanted to display stuff instead. Although part of my would like to have space in boxes to pack everything. It’s a bit overkill, especially considering army sizes for games, the extent of my collection, and how often I make it out to play.
Cap'n Facebeard wrote: Looks very nice, I would suggest putting a cover on the webway gate unless you want it to lead to the Dust Dimension
All natural flock.
It’s been sitting out since I built it. Which at this point was a good number of years ago. In know it was pre-divorce, but post blog. I could check if it would fit in the bottom of the new cabinet, but right now it serves the vital role to filling space on top. I did screw an anchor into the wall to help prevent tipping, but it would be best if the Fuzzy Mistress didn’t climb up there to test things.
In other worlds, picked up SM2 last night and played a bit. I kind feel like I’m just button mashing, but the nids do explode into nice sprays of gore…
Love your Eldar, that's a lot of jetbikes. Also, that glass display has a eldar helmet ornament on top? Did you sculpt that yourself? Huge army, must be a chore to carry around to a match I take it.
It’s a webway portal. Based on a desk lamp/toy a friend gave me years ago, made out of that and foam insulation back in early 2016.
Guessing on the time from the date tag on the pic. I could go back through the blog for the exact times, as I documented its build here. Carved with a hot wire cutter. It was the first time I really worked with foam and cutters, so I have mixed feeling on it. Could have done better, but it’s OK.
I’ve got cases for probably all the Eldar, so it’s not hard getting them out to games. Big fan of KR Multicase. Custom foam trays for pretty much everything.
The whole theme of my Eldar is “getting mud on your boots is for lesser races”. The Falcon is what really drew me in when it released, but the bikes are a big part of what helps make it a viable army. Not that pure mechdar isn’t an option. But yes, I have a ton of bikes, with more in the primed pile.
Nevelon wrote: It’s a webway portal. Based on a desk lamp/toy a friend gave me years ago, made out of that and foam insulation back in early 2016.
Guessing on the time from the date tag on the pic. I could go back through the blog for the exact times, as I documented its build here. Carved with a hot wire cutter. It was the first time I really worked with foam and cutters, so I have mixed feeling on it. Could have done better, but it’s OK.
I’ve got cases for probably all the Eldar, so it’s not hard getting them out to games. Big fan of KR Multicase. Custom foam trays for pretty much everything.
The whole theme of my Eldar is “getting mud on your boots is for lesser races”. The Falcon is what really drew me in when it released, but the bikes are a big part of what helps make it a viable army. Not that pure mechdar isn’t an option. But yes, I have a ton of bikes, with more in the primed pile.
Nice man, I really like that sculpt (webway thingamajig), I've personally been drawn in by the get started box wraithlord and sometimes think of getting some more wraithlords but am already way too spread out and sitting in a pile of shame (as do we all )
Bikes are pretty cool, your bikes look nice in their slightly darker than box-art red' shade. Do you like shining spears?
Nice man, I really like that sculpt (webway thingamajig), I've personally been drawn in by the get started box wraithlord and sometimes think of getting some more wraithlords but am already way too spread out and sitting in a pile of shame (as do we all )
Bikes are pretty cool, your bikes look nice in their slightly darker than box-art red' shade. Do you like shining spears?
Wraithlords, for being an old kit, are a lot of fun to build. The combat patrol is a nice collection of stuff to get into the army. Thematically at least. No idea how competitive it is.
I use khorne red for my red, which I think is a deeper shade then the studio army. Also the fact that I’ve inverted the scheme, so it’s black instead of white. And while the vehicles are mostly red, I’ve also inverted the ratios for footsloggers so they are primarily black with red helmets.
The shining spears were a lot of fun to build. Nice kit. Have not played them, as they are not yet painted. While I don’t hold others to it, I try to keep myself to only putting painted models on the table. I have ideas on how I want to paint them, but white is always extra fun to do. Mechanically they generally had good rules, but I’ve not dug into analyzing them for 10th. With my rate of painting and how often I get games in, they might not even be ready this edition. But are a thematic requirement for my collection. The bike-centric army needs the bike aspect after all!
Built 4 zombies. Can’t say I’m fond of the gravestone/coffin on the back bit. It’s an aesthetic, I get that. Just not my cuppa. I get that in a world where necromancers raise the dead, headstones are not just markets, but might be needed to pin the bodies into the ground. But the way these guys look, they were more like 6 inches under, not 6 feet. Anyway, 6 more and done.
Getting layers on the big guys, and the sister. Slow progress, but progress.
No paint this weekend yet, but doing some building. This should be the last of the Cursed City box. Finished the zombies and the last of the random bits. The undead rat swarms were a little interchangeable, but not much. You can swap out the side rats (each is in 3 parts) but while the plugs are the same the location is not. Some in the front, some in the back. So if you want to keep them all fitting on the base, only some combos work.
I think the next thing to build will be the random skellies I have, so I have a block on 20 modern ones on round bases. With new command. But I should paint more.
I just came across that same plasma lightening thing the other day while sorting though old boxes.
Although, the one I have was made into a belt buckle thing for rave parties.
I have a bunch of different kinds of rave lights I bought for terrain projects I need to figure out what to do with.
I'm thinking an upright stargate type of thing.
Tommygun1918 wrote: I just came across that same plasma lightening thing the other day while sorting though old boxes.
Although, the one I have was made into a belt buckle thing for rave parties.
I have a bunch of different kinds of rave lights I bought for terrain projects I need to figure out what to do with.
I'm thinking an upright stargate type of thing.
In the LoER competition I made the webway for - The Portal a few of us incorporated lights/electronics. I thought the infinity portal was particularly cool. Old thread is old, but might be some inspiration in there.
Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day. One of the holy days of pastafarians. So have a cup of rum and a festive meal in the image of the FSM. Ramen.
One of the (few) perks of being divorced is that there is nobody to tell me not to do stupid things with my money. Also one of the drawbacks. I need to adult all on my own. But I can go from stealing space for a photo op to nearly the whole thing:
I realized it had been a while since I grabbed a full shelf shot, and I picked up a few acrylic risers to help decompress. I should take everything out and dust, but that seems like a lot of work.
I moved the undead up to the top shelf of the glass fronted bookcase, in the spot that used to be the Eldar’s. I should do a skeleton retrospective. I’ve got like 4 generations in there, and that’s not including the new CC ones I just finished building, or the ones still on sprue.
--
So a little painting progress. Popped the big guys off the bases so I could get a brush on their pants. Enough gaps in the coat that you could see, but not reach. I think I’m going to do the cuffs black as well. Wasn’t sure if they were gloves, but look to be part of the coat. It will balance with the black boots. Sister is plodding along. Getting there.
No work done yet this weekend, as The Boy had a long weekend home from school and came over to visit for a bit. I should try to catch up now.
I wonder if my horde of Ultras can out-horde my skeletons? Let’s take a look!
Ranked up and ready to dance
Only 90 some odd. So falling below chapter company strength. But to be fair, they have lost far more to edition/rules changes then the Ultras.
The oldest bones in the crypt. Most of these were picked up before I even started playing WFHB, for use in D&D. The standard bearer/musician were added later. Those were from the day when your rank and file were plastic (if you were lucky) but command were sold in metal blisters.
The oldest plastics. Bodies were one part, but the arms/heads were separate. Mix of hand weapons, one spear and one scythe. So if you wanted anything besides sword and board you had to get creative. There was a chariot and mounted box from the same era that had some extra bits. Like bows if you wanted to make archers. I think. It’s been a few years...
The next multi part box could be built either S&B or spears. Which is why most of mine were built that way. With just a few hand weapons to fill out ranks. This kit also included stuff to make a C/S/M so you didn’t need an extra kit. I think there was even a tomb king box that included a metal blister with extra parts. I think I have that unopened in a box somewhere. Torso and legs separate IIRC, and you got a beastman skull for a little diversity.
But if you really wanted to go multicultural, you wanted these guys. Dogs of War regiment with a conquistador guy who traveled the world, collecting skeletons along the way.
Now there is a fine line between wights and skeletons. You could take wights as champions for skeleton units, or field them on their own.
These are the old guard. Painted before I really settled down on a coherent theme.
Some command. I think the ones with axes were billed as skeleton champions and came with the musicians/standards.
I think the command guys might have released with these guys. Not sure if this was the change from “wights on foot” to “grave guard” as we know them know. They did rank up a lot easier. Felt more like a rank and file unit, where the early ones felt more like heros and champions, who sometimes teamed up into a squad.
Armored skeletons. If you wanted to field a unit of skellies with armor, there were a few armor bits on the early spues, but you could also get them in metal. One of these guys was the top of my wight centaur conversions. On the table I’d sometimes use them as the front rank of armored skeletons, or to fill out the back ranks of wights.
Because what’s a shambling horde of undead without a few necromancers to keep their numbers topped off and cast the danse macabre to get them moving? Generic necro, Kemler, one of the better sculpts of the day that still holds up well, and an empire light? wizard from back before TK split off.
The true heart of my old undead were these guys:
Did I abuse the heck out of their rules and pricing? Sure thing! These guys were a pure deathstar unit. And kinda PTW. Metal calvary, like $7 a blister at a time when a box of 12-20 troops were like $20. From an rules PoV, their points were different then most units at the time. Most armies were if you had a foot and mounted version, the mounted one was twice the cost of the foot, plus the coast of the steed. Wights? You want death poneys, just add that to the cost. No doubling. Now we did miss some options (like lances, maybe barding (not that I’d want that)) but it kept the cost down lower then it should have been. They kind of hit like a wet noodle, except agasint some very niche targets. They were there for the banner and rank bonus Because in a world where a vast bulk of things were based on a human statline, they were T4 with 3 wounds. It took a LOT of work to whittle them down. And by the time that happened, the Vampire Lord at the head of them would have reduced your army to a fine red mist. The cherry on top was the crown of command; this magic item (which I pretty much always took) let them make break tests on unmodified leadership. Toss the battle standard bearer in there for a re-roll, with the Ld 10 vamp? I can’t say they never broke and crumbled, as it happened once memorably in a masters of evil 3x3 team game, but they were rock solid.
But back to skeletons:
Building these guys this morning. While “new” to me, they are an older kit, and there are more recent skeletons out now. These guys suck. They lean forward too much, the torsos are separate, but don’t want to attach right. Detail is soft. Just not a fan. Clipped all 10 from the sprue and cleaned up the 3 spearmen I’m building from them. Other 7 are going to have hand weapons. This way when added to the CC ones I’ll have 10 of each. Not that it maters in the curent rules, as it’s all “ancient weapons” but I like to keep things organized.
And for completion’s sake, here is the recent pick of the CC skellies
And now I kinda want a box of the new skeletons. They look nice!
Anyway, enough retrospective. Off to do constructive things with my day.
Always appreciate a retrospective. The original metal skeletons and the Dogs of War are really great models. I much prefer the old Wights to the later Grave Guard. They make for a better unit, but individually the Wights were far more interesting.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Laying down paint is good. Another step done.
Getting there
inmygravenimage wrote:I love the generations of skeletons. Although can you have generations of the undead?!
Absolutely! and if you raise dead at a family mausoleum, you’ll get a number of generation in one casting!
youwashock wrote:Always appreciate a retrospective. The original metal skeletons and the Dogs of War are really great models. I much prefer the old Wights to the later Grave Guard. They make for a better unit, but individually the Wights were far more interesting.
So true. I think a lot of the older sculpts gave next to no bothers about ranking up neatly, or being a coherent unit. The artists making them just went for what they thought was cool. Gave us a lot of awesome sculpts, but some less useful as game pieces then others. The the vampire lord who’s cape took up an extra space in the rank and file...
Cap'n Facebeard wrote:Nice bones. All you're missing is some Nightmare Legion for the very old generation.
I’m not tracking down old lead just for fun. New stuff, maybe...
So finished building these guys:
If you ever have the chance to pick up skeletons of this generation, don’t. They suck. They go together poorly, look ugly, have bad poses. The list goes on. I was questioning myself as I finished building them. Would I ever paint them? Would I ever field them? At best, these guys are going to be like that 7th tactical squad that you need to be fielding the exact wrong kind of list to ever even vaguely need. They are on the right bases for AoS, so have that over the 90+ better looking skeletons in my collection. But that’s it. And they have enough crappy detail on them I can’t just slap a quick bit of paint on them and call it a day. They are going to get so dusty in the Pile of Shame.
Thugs getting closer. I used to have a better pale blue paint I used for wight flesh. I put a wash on these guys to try to get something similar. not happy. The whole model is going to get a nuln oil wash, so am not overly concerned about some of the details. Still a bit of cleanup left to do. And a bit of detail work, like picking out the exposed bones.
Also put the blue ink on a terminator waiting in the wings. They need to get done. I’d like to get as many legitimatly done before October. Because next month I’m popping everyone off the handles and getting as many spooks done as I can.
Not the best pic, but these guys might be done, bar the bases. Just put the eyes and teeth on them. Should probably do a detail check before I pop them off the handles. Now that I think about it, they needed some work done on their beards last I looked that I never did. Almost done.
Thugs looking properly thuggish. I like the grunginess and that skintone is pretty cool. After the Nightmare Legion comment, I had to go check my own collection. Turns out I still have the unit champion. Great old mini. There's enough of us old-timers on Dakka, we could probably put together one heck of a GW retrospective.
youwashock wrote: Thugs looking properly thuggish. I like the grunginess and that skintone is pretty cool. After the Nightmare Legion comment, I had to go check my own collection. Turns out I still have the unit champion. Great old mini. There's enough of us old-timers on Dakka, we could probably put together one heck of a GW retrospective.
I do consider myself a “Living Ancestor” from the old squat lore. My job to keep the old fires burning, and tell the tales to the youngsters. And post pics of minis older then them. Heck, I might even be at the point where I’ve got minis older then their parents!. Crap I’m old.
One thing I notice in the pics but not in person is that the reflection of the light makes the beards look more grey then they actually are. But that’s just the finish on the paint talking. Going to give them a little grey drybrush. And then finish baseing them by Monday.
Warboss_Waaazag wrote: Lol, "weekend". I work at a Casino. There's no such thing as "weekends" here. In any case, glad to see your progress.
One perk of a soulless office job is that I do my hours, I clock out, and don’t have to worry about work when I’m off the clock, And as long as I get my 40 hours in, they are pretty good with me flexing here and there. And no nights or weekends. I did a stint in retail, where especially around the holidays, the idea of nights/weekends/time off was a laugh. Something to be said for the 9-5 grind. (Well, 7:30-4:00, but who’s counting besides me)
So terminator #2 is off and ready to be based/decaled. Working on clipping some black knights. Sister is plugging along; at the cleanup stage before washes.
And getting ready for Spooktober!
Going to try to burn through as many of these guys as I can in the month, pick 5 for the comp. But in an ideal world, I’d like to get them done by the end of the year. With the addition of the cairn wraith who’s joining them, this is what I need to finish for the spearhead.
Oh, and because I just posted them in the comp thead and not here, the thug brothers:
I finished one spirit host already, waiting for base work. Started on the next. Wraiths are almost done with basecoats, going to need a bit of clean up.
I finished one spirit host already, waiting for base work. Started on the next. Wraiths are almost done with basecoats, going to need a bit of clean up.
How cool, do you paint high point to low? That's some crisp coats.
Generally I start at the lowest layer basecoat, and work from there. Drybrush, tidy up as needed. Normally washes go on last.
So these guys are going to get their robes mostly done, the. The turquoise glaze for the ghosty bits, then a black ink to finish the robes. With a little final touchup, probably a little bright silver to pick out the chainmail.
But what later goes on first is more an issue of what pot is handy, or bits on the model then any sort of directional plan.
Ah, I see. I'm very picky with my direction. And if I use washes I'll try and clean up after, I always go a little to heavy I believe. I'm excited to see the glaze now that I see the basecoats. Been watching here and the evolution.
If I could even ask what does a basecoat layer consistency look like for you on your pallete? i believe mine might be too thick. I'm really curious your layers are so clean
Gost_engineer wrote: Ah, I see. I'm very picky with my direction. And if I use washes I'll try and clean up after, I always go a little to heavy I believe. I'm excited to see the glaze now that I see the basecoats. Been watching here and the evolution.
If I could even ask what does a basecoat layer consistency look like for you on your pallete? i believe mine might be too thick. I'm really curious your layers are so clean
Must be the bad pics.
In person they are a lot more splotchy.
I paint straight out of the pot. I have a blister pack I use to have a drop of clean water on, which I use to moisten my brush if it need it (which it will). But I adjust thickness on the fly. If I add too much water I dab it off on the paper towel.
This, for those reading along at home, is an atrociously bad habit. Use a wet pallete. I’m an old dog, so have to watch how many new tricks I try to learn. If it was good enough for me in the late 80’s, it’s good enough for me now!
Gost_engineer wrote: Ha! Oh boy well then tisk tisk. I still think they look great. Adjusting on the fly is some boss level work honestly.
Heh. I’ve distilled decades of bad habits into fairly consistent table-top results. I’m not winning any awards, but have painted a lot of models over the years.
I should really get back to work on the triumph. 2 years. Ugh. More detail work when I’m sober. Which is not now.
So it’s time for the Q3 report, now that we are in October. I suspect that this is going to read like “just like Q2, but 3 months behind” but let’s check
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 7/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 15/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 32/20
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. 5/8
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. 5/14
So 1 is not that bad. Granted, I’ve just added one model since last quarter. But only one left to go.
Nids are behind. That said, if I just put a month on them and cranked them though like I’m doing with nighthaunt now, achievable.
The fact that I’m ahead on culling the pile of shame says more about my purchases this year then my painting speed.
I really need to bit the bullet and just put the blue on the stormhawk. I think it’s at that stage. And figure out what the 3rd is.
I feel like my blogging might be slowing down a bit. Still here, still plugging away. I should make my 52 goal, but that’s sad as I know I can make much higher numbers.
Actually doing really good on diversity. I might not technically make this due to how I worded it, but getting it in spirit.
Still rocking the challenge. Even got the triumph finished enough to enter in the bonus round, but it still needs a lot more work.
I’m expanding the last one to cover spearheads as well. But I would still like to make this. I’ve got the terminators as WIP, which I’m pretty sure are what I need for the SM one.
OK, so not as bad as I thought, but still not good.
So what’s the plan?
Finish the nighthaunt The hard part on this will be burning through the 10 chainrasps. I can see myself loosing interest somewhere in that host. But we are only a week into the month and I’m doing good on the wraiths and spirit hosts. This will help my overall volume, add 2 more to the diversity count, and finish a spearhead.
Once they are done I think I need to get back to work on the terminators, which will finish the CP. Probably run some nids across the spare handles at the same time.
What wins the vote for November will shape what gets done in that month. Might go small so I can work volumes of nids across the bench to finish that spearhead.
December is good for batting cleanup. Figure out what goals I still need to meet, and paint on it.
So nothing at Warhammer day sparked my interest. Not that there weren’t a bunch of cool things, but nothing aligned with my needs. Being able to pass on the battleforces does open up some purchase room. I always like to hold out and see if any of them appeal to me, as they tend to be great deals. I might end up grabbing the soulblight spearhead, but that will probably wait until November. Give me something to build over the winter.
The summer was very disappointing at the workbench. I have more time now. Less vacations, and now that The Boy is off at college, I don’t have him every other weekend anymore. Which is another issue, but not a hobby one. I’m hoping the enthusiasm from the nighthaunt continues. We’ll see.
Hope everyone is enjoying what they can of their weekends,
--Nev
Automatically Appended Next Post: Put the Nuln oil down. Need to let that dry, give the wraiths a drybrush of light blue, then the black ink. After that the turquoise
Building the knights. As there is a lot of interchangeable bits, going to get the horses done, then put the riders together. Just in case I want to swap things around from what I clipped into the blisters.
Did the wraiths yesterday, and the spirit this morning. Need another black pass to blend the robes a bit, and some touch up work. The black ink is very strong, and darkens some things (like the chainmail) more then I want, so that needs to be bumped up a bit.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Did some work over lunch to polish these guys off. Referenced the old guys and did some stuff to match. Final drybrush coat, blued the blades. Probably ready to be popped on and replaced with the next 5. Will do the final check after work.
Tommygun1918 wrote: Nice work. I have a cavalry project for my Sororitas and I'm looking for basing ideas for them.
Flowers could work with broken cathedral pieces.
Army painter used to have sheets where you would tear off bits of flowers. Much preferred that format over tufts. We’ll see if the ones from GSW are a decent replacement.
I used flock/grass tufts/flowers for my Eldar, who are based on a maiden world scheme. I want them living, not trampled and ruined.
My undead were done in the old days in flock and goblin green. I added the tufts and flowers to kick them up a notch.
Edit:
Look at what showed up in the mail!
Little more volume then I was expecting, both in hight and general amount. Each box has 2 sheets. Got the purple, as I think it fits the undead well. We’ll see how they work next time I’m basing stuff. Which frankly can be any time now, as I’ve got stuff on deck.
If it doesn’t work, it was ~$30 down the drain for the lot. But I can still probably find a use for them. And they look good so far.
It was a little windy yesterday, but the temp and humidity was good. Rattlecan was on the light side, so I didn’t risk the second half of the to-prime pile
But more stock squirreled away for the long winter months.
I think I’m out of undead to build. Will need to find something else to clean mold lines off of.
More paint going down. Need a little more cleanup on various parts on various models. Some more then others. While the scheme is basically the same for the nighthaunt, the 3 different units have some slight differences in what gets done when. Plus I’ve been trying to be better about using scrap time on my breaks at work, so don’t necessarily get the same step done on everyone in one sitting.
Not pictured, but the sister is also moving along.
Vejut wrote:Looks like some nice progress, and a giant chainsword is always fun!
I hope so. The pther option was twin swords, which feels more banshee then scorpion.
Tommygun1918 wrote:Nice, will they be ready by Halloween?
This lot should be good to go. Mostly just need the black ink stage, and some touch up for the wraith. Which will leave 6 more chainwrasps left IIRC. Plus all the base work. As I paint in lots of 5, I might not get 100% of the nighthaunt done by the end of the month, but have 2/3rds pretty much done at this point. If I keep the pace I should be able to do them all. Two thirds done at halftime is promising. Although basing the whole lot will add some time.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
youwashock wrote: Spooktacular. Always good to hear more Eldar are on the way.
I need to get a brush on some of the ones I have. I think once the monster handle is free from the last spirit host I will get that old war walker up.
All the old guys are ready for rocks and tufts, bases greened and rimed.
Next step will be silvers. Even doing the one guy off-handle, just to keep them together. WW is down, but untouched at this point. Started on the sister’s banner. Still need to decide what color to make it. Doing the rack and candles as I dither. Sister just needs white edges, maybe a little detailing.
Clipped all the bodies for the scorpions. Going to mix and match arms, but will wait until the bodies are built first.
Edit:
Put the first red on the walker. I’d say I forgot what a pain these were to paint, but I remembered. So many places it’s rough to get a brush on. Like 80% of the model. Massive PITA.
youwashock wrote: Brave man, tackling the walker in a mostly assembled state. I only ever painted an old metal one, and that was a pain.
In hindsight leaving it in more parts would have been the right call. The only reason I have them is because they were in start collecting boxes. They don’t really fit with my army. But I’ve inadvertently picked up a few muddy-booted units over the years, so they can hang with them. And to be fair, most of the places you can’t easily get a brush to are not going to be seen. Unfortunately, I’ll still know what it looks like…
Put the silver down on the spooks. Next is the little bit of gold on them (just sword hilts) and the cleanup on the grey seer in preparation for the turquoise.
Walker still just has his initial red.
Hope everyone’s weekend is going well.
Edit:
Chainrasps should be done. Will need one last check and to pop off the handles and blackrim. Then the flock/rock/tufting
So the GSW is what I wanted. They are a little harder to tear then the old army painter ones I used to use, but they make much better natural looking flower patches. And while pricy to order from across the pond, it’s not outrageous considering the amount you get. I used the old tufts on the wraiths to match the rest of the squad, but fresh flowers for the new guys. I’ll probably reserve the rest of the flower tusts I have for if I need to match old squads, which will probably just be random Eldar? Maybe a few more nighthaunt.
Honestly little surprised at myself for getting this all done.
Now I need to figure out what to enter for the month. Up to 5. Could just do one squad, and pick 5. Or mix and match. Like one spirit host, and the best 2 of each squad. Or 1:1:3 so the little guys feel more like the chaff they are. Thoughts?
Picked out some final minis, mix of all groups. Will get pics tonight. Finished the scorpions this morning amd primed everything left in the pile over lunch.
So as this morning’s coffee project, let’s look at the primed pile. Some marine tanks, 2 HH ones and a modern primaris. The dropping of HH to legends kinda sucked a lot of the wind out of my HH project, as the cross compatability was a strong selling point. I should still get these guys done. I just hate painting tanks.
Just a few gribbles. Nid box is full of gaunts. But at least a lot of flavors. Horms, terms, barbs, neuro. And all sorts of weapon options on the terms. Plus the brain bug. Now these guys paint quick, so if I put my mind to it I’m sure I could get them done faster then I think. Maybe a December project?
Marine box is looking a lot like a 1st and 10th list in there. Terminators, sternguard, scouts. A couple BGVs and some HQs. The inceptor should actual be in the “other” box to be painted as deathwatch. The only stuff getting red trim here is the 4 guys left for the old KT in the back and the cents. Maybe the JP chaplain, although I don’t think I’ve ever company trimmed a chaplain. I absoulty would count him for my battle company goals though. Even though I don’t have JP intercessors for him to hang with.
This is the random other box. Eldar have some DAs, Scorpions, Spears and shroudrunners. HH has some chapheracti, volkite, dread, and a HQ. Plus the RTB01s. CC heroes which I should do at some point. Or at least try to remember they are there when picking out monthy challange entries. Nice assortment of characters. Assorted minis of the month from the local GW. Pair of Deathwatch from when I was kitbashing up stormbolters for a squad of them. Dead project. More of the sisters for the triumph.
So much death. More CC baddies, plus the counters/tokens/swarms and gribblies. 10 zombies, 20 skeletons (10 good CC ones, 10 garbage old ones) 5 Black Knights. 3 glaivewraiths to fill out old squads.
As the weather gets increasingly cold and grey, I might not get a chance to spray prime outside until spring. And yes I know, I can do a quick batch in the garage if needed. It’s the fall tradition of squirreling away projects for the winter.
There is nothing currently behing built and the to-prime pile is empty. I should do a survey of the Pile of Shame. Lots of scraps and odds and ends, and a chunk of HH stuff. But who knows what lurks in the deeps. I was thinking about cleaning up the necrons from the Indominus box, but really want to get the nids closer to wrapping up before I move a new army down. With one moderate counts-as that would serve as another combat patrol. I know the walker in the patrol is bigger and shootier then the starter one, but should be close enough for FLGS play? Or more likely just sitting on the shelf looking fun. But there is other stuff I could be building as well.
Some paint: War walker is getting along. Needs some detail work in the cockpit, some silver, and probably 2-3 more coats of red. That stuff covers for crap, especially cleanup passes over black. Terminators are largely in the same place they were from back in August? When did I start them? <checks> June. Since June. They need the cleanup blue pass and the inks and touch ups. This is not the sloppy basecoat stage, so I can’t do it while having my morning coffee, or while drinking adult beverages. Still, need to get them moving. Cairn Wraith is progressing. Inverting his color scheme to make him stand out over the troops. He’s going to get a nuln oil wash to tone down the red, but a few more details to do before that point. Sister needs just a little white edgeing o nher backpack, and the banner needs a little more. I think I’m going to give it a brighter red drybrush and then a red contrast for some vibrancy. Might then hit it with nuln oil to knock it down to be more subduded. she should not be the focal point of the procession, One of these days I need to slasher that Stormhawk in blue contrast. I think he’s at that stage. Need to get him done; tired of looking at him starting at me.
Oh, and the new Feugan will need to be acquired when he drops. Such a nice model. I should do a better job of cleaning the last drop of Eldar out of the PoS before the next load lands,
And I posted it elsewhere, but here is the AoS Slasher Host Nighthaunt spearhead: I don’t have a knight of shrouds on foot, so subbing in another HQ. Gets the leader point across. And the pick 5 for the comp:
Lots of cool stuff to choose from. The ghosts have all turned out nicely. They make for a very cool looking group. The new Fuegan is a nice model. I feel the Phoenix Lords are 2/3 on updates, and Maugan Ra was at least "ok". Makes me hope for all of them to be redone in my lifetime.
Lots of cool stuff to choose from. The ghosts have all turned out nicely. They make for a very cool looking group. The new Fuegan is a nice model. I feel the Phoenix Lords are 2/3 on updates, and Maugan Ra was at least "ok". Makes me hope for all of them to be redone in my lifetime.
I like Maugan Ra, but am so-so on the new reapers. Head swaps migh help them, but they are also static firepower, which is not on-theme for me.
I’m so-so on the new Jain Zar, but love the banshees. Luckily I have the old metal one.
I like the new Fuegan, and have a “modern” squad of finecast dragons. Not that I’d be opposed to a box of plastic dragons if they dropped.
We’ve been getting new plastic Phoenix lords one per edition since 8th. Assuming we don’t get new ones, we should be wrapped up in 13th edition, which is less then a decade away. Even I should live to see that. If we get a shining spear or warp spider, things could be pushed back a bit. But who knows, we might get more then one per 3 years.
I took a triptych of pictures, but the front angles ones were badly focused. But she’s done barring a little touch up work that I’ll save for when the whole thing is ready.
So a bit of progress on the paint bench. Turns out I never did the silver drybrush on the stormhawk, so I did that.
Did the silver and blackwash on the walker’s cannons. They will need the bright silver accents.
Put the first red on the canopy for the walker.
Did a bunch of work on the wraith. He’ll need a little touchup with the base white, then the turquoise.
Pair of back flank sisters prepped and ready for paint.
No work on the terminators.
Wraith has rocks and tufts, just needs flock.
One terminator got his blue cleanup, ink next. Still 2 more to go. Did more work on the spare arms.
Finished the walkers guns, putting more details down, work on canopy.
Stormhawk ready for blue contrast.
So did this over coffee this morning. Not a fan. Will need a lot of cleanup, but some of that was just a low care factor and me being sloppy. This is blue contrast over grey seer. Normally I do blue ink over mcragge blue. I still get some of the splochyness and brush strokes by it is much more subdued. This system is a lot more obvious about it. Will not be doing it going forward. It might work on an infantry level, but not on the vehicle scale.
inmygravenimage wrote: Nice, bright and really pops. But if it's not for you fair enough. It's similar to the fact that I won't brush air paints on vehicles.
I like the color, it’s the lack of smooth coverage. I could give it another coat, but if I’m doing two passes anyway, why bother with the grey seer/contrast? Might as stick with my classic approach to tanks.
I will give it a shot at the smaller scale. If I ever get back to cranking out stuff for HH, I need a simpler scheme
Cleaned up the details, ready for decals. Started the base and the nose guns.
I probably don’t need to paint the base white, as it’s going to be covered in flock paste, but sometimes a little but of base peeks out around the grass tufts or rocks, so the pale base will be less obvious.
Also put the grey seer down on the WW’s base. It will need a wash.
Hopefully I can get some good progress today, but right now I needed to keep telling myself not to rinse my brushes in my coffee. So only doing things at the sloppy stages.
Contrast on large panels without layer paints as a next step is really hard - I use contrast as a base then I use the layer paints. I can see the start of your vision with it, but definitely understand the frustration. I have to finish a Gladiator Lancer and I don't really want to have to splotch Apothecary White all over the dang thing.
blockade23 wrote: Contrast on large panels without layer paints as a next step is really hard - I use contrast as a base then I use the layer paints. I can see the start of your vision with it, but definitely understand the frustration. I have to finish a Gladiator Lancer and I don't really want to have to splotch Apothecary White all over the dang thing.
The problem is that my Ultra scheme has always had a rich sapphire ink as the final layer. (edge work not included) I’m using them as a glaze, to tint the whole model, not a shade just to wash the depths. Although it does do that. So in an ideal world it would go on smooth with no pooling or splotches.
I love contrast paints for a lot of things, but they are not a silver bullet to solve all problems.
blockade23 wrote: Contrast on large panels without layer paints as a next step is really hard - I use contrast as a base then I use the layer paints. I can see the start of your vision with it, but definitely understand the frustration. I have to finish a Gladiator Lancer and I don't really want to have to splotch Apothecary White all over the dang thing.
The problem is that my Ultra scheme has always had a rich sapphire ink as the final layer. (edge work not included) I’m using them as a glaze, to tint the whole model, not a shade just to wash the depths. Although it does do that. So in an ideal world it would go on smooth with no pooling or splotches.
I love contrast paints for a lot of things, but they are not a silver bullet to solve all problems.
Ever tried experimenting with apothecary white? Imho completely named wrong because its more like a technical dulling medium, especially works well in making metals look dull. Some contrast paints work really weird.
Nevelon wrote: Apothecary white is what I use on my white armor phobos and sisters. Over grey seer. I like how it greys the shadowed recesses
I use a nuln oil wash on a lot of metallics, and it also dulls them down a bit..
I use nuln too but I always find it inconsistently blot, as if I accidentially missed spots' with accumulated black', then when I go over it a bit with some water I feel like it does nothing, but apothecary white, although not exactly black' (except etymologically as black comes from blanq which means white lol!) darkens things pretty well.
So when you make a 80% water + 20% iron warriors mix, you also get a better wash than nuln oil, for like metallic wear.
There's some technical paints that work so much better as a wash, like tesseract glow, I don't know who designs these but we have to keep experimenting as not every paint really works for what its meant to imho.
I remember when the last batch of contrast paints came out there was a lot of chatter about how vastly differently some of them worked. Some worked like advertised, where one coat actually did both shade and highlight at once. Others were mostly high-pigment inks that tinted/coated rather then shading. Both of corse very useful features in the toolbox, but nothing of the bottles tells you which is which.
YTD shelf is looking a lot better. Nighthaunt doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The sormhawk and another terminator are just waiting for flock and decals, or they would be up here as well.
Edit:
Finished the chin guns for the stormhawk, put the blue ink down on a terminator.
So I’m having a lazy day as I bang the half-century service stud into my skull. Took the day off of work and hope to get some hobby time in. I’d like to get some of the old projects polished off and get started on the new. While the PoS didn’t need more help, I ordered the soulblight spearhead to add some more undead to it. Also the first 3 books of the Stormlight Archive series from Brandon Sanderson. Really enjoyed the Mistborn and Wax & Wane series; would recommend those. Hopefully these will not disappoint.
Overall I’m doing OK on my goals for the year. Was a bit worried, but actually getting some stuff done. Hopefully I can maintain some momentum. If I finish what I’ve got on deck, paint the barbgaunts for Dec, and manage one more random marine for the company, I think I’ll mostly have covered what I need to do. This is achievable.
Hope everyone’s day is going as well as expected. Remember to be kind, help your fellows, and support the people around you. And keep on painting!
Happy belated birthday, Nev! Looks like you've been busy since last time I checked in. Ghosts look great, and you've also been getting some solid work done on your Smurfs. Nice job!
Thanks guys. It’s been a real week. I’ll spare you the details, but there is a whole lot of crap going on, and a lot of stuff in the air which should resolve OK, but going to be some changes. Plus my normal stress and worries. And this doesn’t even involve politics. Fun times. Hopefully won’t impact painting, but may impact my motivation to get things done. Going to try to keep plugging away though.
So terminator number 3 is off to wait for basing/decals. Just the sarge and the heavy left. Pair of sisters got their start. I don’t want them to be 100% black robes, so might work some red in there. RTB01s got their first layer. Need to start the dread.
Progress is progress. Getting there.
Be well everyone. It’s the weekend, try to relax.
Edit: Took a progress pic, but it was blurry. Got the TDA sarge tidied up and his blue wash down. Next step for him is edgeing and cleanup. Put some red on the sisters.
Happy belated birthday! Hitting the big five-oh is scary as heck from the 49 side, but it's not that different after.
Lots of great stuff on display here. I like your war walkers from a few posts back. I have a few of the originals, but didn't like the lawnchair version that came later, and of course had stopped buying 40K when the version you shared came out.
Eldar have had a lot of ups and downs with sculps. Amazing early stuff, a dark time around 3/4th, and then lots of good new stuff. When they get around to getting us new models.
So two terminators now waiting for decals and base work. One more left. Started cleaning up the AoS spearhead terrain.
Plugging away. Need to start on the dread. Moved a random intercessor from the old KT build to get paint. He’d let me hit my company goal.
If I can finish everything on deck, the 2 last triumph sisters, and 5 barbgaunts I think the year will be well sorted.
Also realized it’s been 3 years since the last advent, so I’m probably going to put that together so I can launch it on the 1st of Dec.
War walker is just about done. Need to black rim the base amd put some tufts and flowers down.
I like em, also bought one more recently, having 2 aswell.
Also like vypers but never bought one of those, but both the walkers and those have the most slick shaping, like walking branches, preying mantis' legs etc.
Everything looks suitably brutal and blue,,, as it should be. Keen to see what you do with the dreadnought. I have 2 leviathans and a relic contemptor I’m struggling to decide on final colour scheme,,
War walker is just about done. Need to black rim the base amd put some tufts and flowers down.
I like em, also bought one more recently, having 2 aswell.
Also like vypers but never bought one of those, but both the walkers and those have the most slick shaping, like walking branches, preying mantis' legs etc.
I like the look and concept of the walkers, but they don’t mesh well with my army theme, and are not fun to paint. The two I have will probably be the lst of them. I’d love to see a new vyper. The old one still holds up, but is showing it’s age. Which can be said about a lot of the Eldar range.
youwashock wrote:Yay for Advent.
Looking forward to the Triumph in all it's glory.
As I go through the last 3 years I feel that maybe a 4 year cycle would be better. Trying to find examples of minis I like, or that have a story or significance. Got a list of things for ‘22 and ‘23 so far, next up is a review of this year and some sorting. Fingers crossed on the Triumph. I’d love to get the whole thing done by the end of the year.
Alaricuk wrote:Everything looks suitably brutal and blue,,, as it should be. Keen to see what you do with the dreadnought. I have 2 leviathans and a relic contemptor I’m struggling to decide on final colour scheme,,
At first I thought “dread, what are they talking about” then I remembered I had one on deck for the month! I’m horrible. It will have the basic black/silver gears and pistons, with blue on all the armor panels. Some places are going to be hard to figure out what’s what. Playing it by ear.
So slapping some paint around. The last terminator got his blue cleanup. Ink is next. Although I realized I missed a lot of his wires, and a spot of silver. Will go back to those.
One layer at a time.
Soulblight spearhead showed up yesterday. Counting it as a gift, so not vs. the paint more then I buy goal. Birthday giftcards are good like that (even if some of it was out of pocket). But that’s going down on the build station once the spearhead terrain is done, which is 3/4th complete.
So the spearhead ruins are clean and off the the to-prime pile. So this lovely lady is down for cleanup. Not many mold lines, which is good. She’s got all the fragile bits of an eldar, combined with all the stabby parts of chaos. Waiting for the ams to set before putting on the elbow wing bits, probably leave the shield off for painting, but will see how it sits on the arm once I’m done with the next step. If the angle is good to get a brush in, I might just glue it for convenience.
Paint going down. TDA needs his edge highlights, otherwise done. RBT01s should be at the cleanup blue stage. Dread just got his black base for the silvers. It was completely accidental leaving the knee pad white when doing the blue. But I’m going to take that as a sign and leave it like that. Help break up the mono-tone nature of the dread.
youwashock wrote: Nice generational Marine shot. Vampire lass has my interest piqued.
I was on the fence about the bat hair. Still not 100% on it. But it’s grown on me enough to let it be. Built her stock. Debated swapping the mace out. But I kind of like it. Less stabbing and bleeding out. Just pulp things into blood bag smoothies. Perfect for the after battle snack. Shield just tacked on for now.
Brought the 2 finished ones down for a photo op. Glued some rocks and tufts down after taking the pic. Ready for flock and decals.
Everyone flocked and done. That’s a project that’s lingered on the bench. This was my June comp entry, where I only got one done in time. But everyone off the YTD shelf now.
But not before another pic.
That’s the marine spearhead done. Special TDA captain subbing in for the new guy (who turned into a chaplain)
Mechanically they generally had good rules, but I’ve not dug into analyzing them for 10th. With my rate of painting and how often I get games in, they might not even be ready this edition. But are a thematic requirement for my collection. The bike-centric army needs the bike aspect after all!
