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ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/02 21:02:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello to everyone on DakkaDakka! ZergSmasher here, and I have decided to chronicle my painting and modelling journey in a blog. First, a bit of background about my tabletop gaming history.

I have actually been tabletop gaming since 2004 when I picked up the starter set for WOTC's second Star Wars Miniatures set, Clone Strike. I used to play that game all the time with my younger brother, and eventually some of my friends got some of the minis themselves and we had some good times playing. I was always excited whenever a new set would come out (I actually bought a whole case of some of the later sets when they came out!). I also dabbled in a few other games, notably WizKids' Halo ActionClix (derived from the very popular HeroClix game), and WizKids' Pirates (didn't spend too much time on this as I found the game to be pretty bad, but the little ships were cool!). The first time I actually started painting miniatures for a game was when I picked up the Mines of Moria starter set for GW's Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Unfortunately, I hardly ever played the game since I couldn't get my little brother very interested in it and no one in my area was playing it either. I ended up with quite a few kits for the game, many of which are to this day just sitting in their boxes, still on the sprues, waiting to be painted or sold. I took a hiatus from gaming until my senior year in college (I graduated pretty late-long story), when I picked up the Dark Angels paint set. I had been interested in 40k for a while, but I was always intimidated by the models (they seemed way more complex than the LOTR ones, which turned out to be true) and I wasn't sure I would like the setting as much as I liked LOTR. Anyway, shortly after I got the paint set, I got the 6th edition rulebook (that thing was as heavy as many of my engineering textbooks!), my copy of Codex: Dark Angels, and the Ravenwing Battleforce box. That was in the summer of 2013. School got in the way of me being able to do much hobbying, and I never did get a game until some time after I graduated, although I did get some more minis, including the Dark Vengeance starter set that i got reasonably cheap since 7th edition had just dropped, and a Tau battleforce box (that I really just bought on a lark). My first games (and tournament!) were in September 2014, and after the tournament I was completely and totally hooked!

Currently, I am working on two of my armies, my Dark Angels Space Marines and my Chaos forces (which got a new lease on life with the release of Codex: Khorne Daemonkin). My Tau are shelved for the time being, waiting to see if the rumors are true of a new Tau release.

Well, no P&M blog would be complete without a few pics, so here they are! I will post more as I continue working, so stay tuned!
First, a couple of pictures of my workshop (aka the card table in my bedroom where I build and paint stuff!). I really could benefit from an organizer of some kind instead of the haphazard chaos you see here with WIP models and paints and tools all over the place:

I wish I knew how to make the pictures bigger, although with these it would not really improve them. My pics will get better as I learn how to use my new camera (a Polaroid iE826).

Here is a picture showing the aforementioned Tau models; as you can see, they are literally shelved (next to some MtG cards)!

As I said, stay tuned for more (and better) content!
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/03 19:43:47


Post by: ZergSmasher


So here is what I've built so far for my Khorne Daemonkin army:
1 Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
1 Heldrake
1 CSM Rhino
5 Possessed (primed)
5 Raptors (currently being painted for Para's painting contest this month)
10 Bloodletters (primed)
5 Warp Talons
and all the chaos stuff from the Dark Vengeance box set (all primed).
Here's a quick pic of the bigger stuff (gotta love the new Bloodthirster model, it even looks cool unpainted I think!):


And these are the kits I have yet to even start building:

As I said, I am currently painting a squad of raptors for the May painting challenge. I am also trying to get everything assembled (currently putting together a squad of Chaos Space Marines) so I can at least use it in a game. This month's tournament at my FLGS is next weekend, so my Daemonkin will have to wait until next month to reap some blood for the blood god. This month I'll be running my Dark Angels once again (I'm going to try a greenwing gunline list with the Standard of Devastation). After the tournament, I'll probably post a battle report (in the appropriate forum) and let you all know how it went. For now,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/05 15:27:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again! Just a quick WIP update. I've been busy with work and stuff lately and haven't gotten as much hobbying done as I would like , but here is a picture of what I have managed to assemble over the last couple of days:

Left to right: 2 Chaos Space Marines with bolt pistol and chainsword, Chaos Space Marine with meltagun, Daemon Prince, Dark Angels Sergeant with Combi-melta.

I've chosen to build my CSM with melee combat in mind, since there are plenty of buffs for assaults in Codex: Khorne Daemonkin. The Daemon prince is mainly for summoning purposes, although in future he could be used if I were to run a Charnel Cohort. I put together the DA sergeant (for a tournament this Saturday) using a combi-melta from the Space Marine Commander kit. That is a pretty good kit in terms of useful bits. I mainly bought the kit for the combi-weapons, but the commander figure himself will probably be built as a Company Master (I've got the wings for his helmet in the DA Company Veterans box), if I can decide on a decent loadout for him. I would have bought the Sternguard box for the combi-weapons, but that one was a lot more expensive. I might buy one eventually and build the figures as company veterans or something.
I've sure made quite a few sergeants for my DA. It helps that I built the company veterans box as a command squad, using only a few parts from the command squad kit (leaving most of the rest of the stuff in that kit for conversions, etc.), namely the apothecary bits and the banner. It also helps that I only had to use half of a tactical squad box since I had 5 extra tac marines with bolters from the paint set. Between the ones I've already mentioned and the one in the DV set, I have 2 complete tactical squads, plus three additional sergeants with different weapons (powerfist, combi-plasma, and the aforementioned combi-melta), and an additional marine so that I have all three special weapons (flamer, meltagun, plasmagun).

Today I'm going to prime some stuff (including that DA sergeant), and I also really need to get on with painting those raptors for the monthly competition. I've only painted one coat of red on them so far, they need a second coat of that before I can move on to more exciting stuff. Maybe I can go on a painting streak and get the DA sergeant painted in addition to making progress on the raptors. For now,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/14 02:44:43


Post by: ZergSmasher


Been a while since my last update, but that's because there's been very little to report. Basically finished assembling the Chaos Space Marine squad, and I've started assembling my Skull Cannon of Khorne. I am thinking of using the herald (used if the model is built as a Blood Throne) as a separate miniature, but I'll have to figure out how to base him well since his pose is pretty specific to the model. Probably put one foot on a piece of debris or something. Still not much progress on the Raptors (I guess you could call it painter's block or something), got the brass trim on one of them done, still need to do the other four. Overall, it looks hopeful that I will have my KhorneKin force ready for battle by the end of the month (assembled, not painted, I'm not that fast even without painter's block!). Good thing, too, since last weekend's tournament saw my Dark Angels get their butts royally kicked! Until next time,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/16 03:15:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again, everybody! Just a quick update on my KhorneKin army. I've finished assembling the CSM squad completely, here they are:

As you can see, I chose to give them more of a CC-oriented build since that works better with the Khorne Daemonkin playstyle. The two meltaguns are there for anti-tank purposes. You might be wondering where the 10th man is. I will be using one of the Chosen from the Dark Vengeance starter set as my Aspiring Champion, so I might build the 10th man holding an icon of wrath or something (or I could make an additional aspiring champ, the possibilities are endless!). Work continues on the Raptors, its still slow going as I find myself too tired after work to paint sometimes. I still think I can finish them by the end of the month, so I remain in the painting challenge! For now,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/20 15:38:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hi again, Dakka! As those who are following the May painting contest now know, I have switched my entry to Khorne Flesh Hounds.

These look to be somewhat easier to paint. I intend to do Khorne Red for the skin, Mechanicus Standard Gray with highlights of Administratum Gray for the fur, Ushabti Bone for the teeth and spikes, and Screaming Bell with highlights for the metal collars. I may of course use other colors for any small details, but that is my basic painting plan. I am off work tomorrow, so should be able to make significant progress as long as I don't get distracted by my playstation or something lol.
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/22 03:54:11


Post by: ZergSmasher


Update time! I've been slaving over my Khorne Flesh Hounds a bunch today, probably the longest total time spent painting in a single day for me ever! Almost done laying down base colors, should be ready to move on to shades and highlights very soon! Here's some pics:


It may be nothing by many people's standards, but I'm proud of myself for actually managing to do this much in one day without getting distracted by my PS3 or computer games.

In other P&M news, I've nearly finished assembling a Skull Cannon:

Still need to assemble the two Bloodletter crewmen and their stand, but that'll probably go very quickly. I think I will attach them to the front (like the Blood Throne) as the model will fit in one of my 3" battlefoam trays easier (I've found out that bloodletters are a PITA to transport mainly because of their swords!) I also went to the FLGS today for some paint, and I happened to see that all the Warhammer Fantasy stuff was marked 35% off. Luckily, the store staff was willing to include this in that discount:

Now I have a Soul Grinder, ho ho ho! Anyway, I am starting to wonder if there is anything to the rumor that GW is going to quit supporting Fantasy or something. I know that hardly anyone in my area plays it (which may be the reason that my LGS is offloading it cheaper), but I'd hate to see it die as the models and stuff are pretty cool (If I had a lot more money I would probably play it in addition to 40k). Anyway, until next time,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/05/29 02:32:37


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hey, everyone! I'm happy to report that I've finished my Flesh Hounds of Khorne for the May Painting Challenge! Here's my final pics:





These images were shot with my new(ish) camera, a Polaroid iE826.

In other news, I've begun assembling my second box of Bloodletters. One of the things I hate about the kit is the amount of mold lines. Takes forever to clean up. At least they seem like they'll be easy enough to paint. Maybe I can make good progress on a squad of them before the June painting contest starts. Until next time,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/06/05 00:32:51


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again! Just a quick update today. I've nearly finished basecoating 5 Bloodletters of Khorne for my Daemonkin army (still need to paint some black over the areas I want to be black, so sorry about the mess!):

After I get the black finished, it'll be time for a wash of Carroburg Crimson over the skin. I may highlight the edges of the hellblades with either Hashut Copper or Sycorax Bronze, if I don't like it I'll go back over it with Screaming Bell. The bumps all over their skin will probably be drybrushed with Troll Slayer Orange. If drybrushing makes a mess or just doesn't work well, I will figure on dotting each bump individually with that color. Of course, before I can do any of that I have to retouch the skin with Mephiston Red so it isn't quite so dark (maybe I'll use Evil Sunz Scarlet instead, make these guys really bright!). Phew, I used a lot of Citadel color names, hope nobody thinks this is some kind of GW advertisement (lol joking, I just use Citadel paints almost exclusively).

I am going to try out some Army Painter Pure Red Primer on my DV Helbrute and my already-completed Chaos Rhino, hopefully the stuff works well. Mainly I hope it matches okay with Mephiston Red, as that is the main color I'm using for my Khorne army. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Until next time,
ZergSmasher, signing off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/06/09 19:20:22


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello out there! I'm back with more updates on my Khorne army. I've finished assembling my second Bloodletter kit and my third Raptors kit (built second one as Warp Talons). Here's pics of those (sorry for gray plastic, haven't even primed them yet!):

Trying to hurry and build stuff as I (hopefully) have a game on Friday. I haven't made much progress on my Helbrute yet, but here's a pic of what I have done:

Sorry the pic didn't turn out that well, but there really isn't that much to show. I've only gotten a little bit of the trim painted, but all of the fleshy bits are done. Still got a long way to go, so wish me luck!

I've only got 1 more kit left to do for the main part of my Khorne army:

I should be able to slap this together pretty quickly I think! Then I can hit it with the red spray primer (instant basecoat, yay!)

In other news, all you fans of the Greater Good should be interested to hear that I recently purchased a new-on-sprue Hammerhead/Skyray kit. Got it reasonably cheap on eBay, only thing missing was the box. I'm gonna build it such that I can just switch between a Hammerhead and a Sky Ray, doesn't even look like I'll need any magnets! Once I get this kit, my Kroot squad, my Commander, my Longstrike figure, and a couple of Shield Drones put together, I will have a decent 1000 point Tau army for fun small games. The project will wait until I've made more progress on my Daemonkin though. Until next time,
ZergSmasher, signing off!

P.S. Feel free to chime in with constructive criticism, praise, or questions! Any politely offered advice is appreciated!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/06/17 16:50:14


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again! Time for a quick update. My whole Khorne Daemonkin army is assembled (the main part anyway, I haven't put together the unexpected Soul Grinder yet), although I still need to paint the vast majority of it. On that note, here is a picture showing my progress on my DV Helbrute for the June Painting Challenge:

I've finished the majority of the basecoating (still a few small touchups here and there to do), so I should be able to do shading tonight after work if I'm not completely exhausted. I probably should shade those five Bloodletters I've basecoated, too.

On another note, I was playing a game with a Daemons player the other day, and he was using parts of one of these as a Juggernaut for a Herald:

I have a few of these, so I might just do some kind of conversion to make a Juggerlord or Juggerherald (might just repose the legs, cut off the wires/cables, and replace the head with a proper GW juggernaut head). I may not take on this project real soon, but I am looking into it. That's all for now, stay tuned for more!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/06/28 03:44:49


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hi everyone! I've finished the Helbrute for the June painting contest, here are the final pics:


Not as good as a lot of the stuff I see from the expert painters on Dakka, but certainly tabletop standard for most, I think. I'm happy with him, but I'm not sure how much game time he'll see because Helbrutes are kind of meh in the Daemonkin codex, at least compared to other war engines. Speaking of war engines, I've started putting together the parts to my Soul Grinder (no pics yet). I've only done the front legs so far, but I've been busy with other projects as well.

My Dark Angels may soon be making a triumphant return from the shelf to my army bag! I've preordered the Reclusiam Edition codex (GW shipped it late though, the lazy bastards!), and from all the leaks and spoilers it looks like Dark Angels will be a pretty badass army. I bought one of the new Devastator Squad kits in order to have enough stuff for a Lion's Blade detachment. It looks as though my scatterbrained approach to my collection may unexpectedly pay off, as the aforementioned Lion's Blade kind of needs a little bit of everything. For those who may be interested, here is a (brief) summary of my Dark Angels collection (including painting/modelling status):
HQ: Azrael (painted), Belial (unassembled), Ezekiel (primed), Sammael on Sableclaw (painted), DV Company Master (painted), DV Librarian (painted), DV Interrogator-Chaplain (primed), 2 other foot Librarians (both primed), Librarian on bike (painted), Chaplain with Jump Pack (painted)
Elites: Command Squad (apothecary painted, others primed), Ravenwing Command Squad (unassembled on sprue), Deathwing Terminator Squad (sergeant painted, others primed), Deathwing Knights (painted), Dreadnought (painted)
Troops: about 25 Tactical marines with various special/heavy weapons (mostly painted, others primed), 2 squads of scouts (both primed)
Fast Attack: Dark Vengeance Bike squad (partially painted), regular Ravenwing bikers x6 (2x painted, others primed), Ravenwing Black Knights x3 (primed), 5x Assault Marines (partially painted), Nephilim Jetfighter (partially painted), Land Speeder Typhoon (painted)
Heavy Support: Tri-las Predator (primed), Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer (magnetized weapons, partially painted), Devastator Squad (mostly unassembled on sprue)
Transports: Rhino (painted), Razorback (partially painted), Drop Pod (mostly painted, still needs touchups)
I have a second DV Deathwing squad coming in the mail (God bless eBay!), and I may have the bits I need to make a Techmarine (vital if I want to use the Hammer of Caliban formation). I am currently working on painting the Assault squad, I had hoped to completely paint it yesterday but that plan fell through When I make more progress on painting some of this stuff, I'll post some pics right here, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/07/22 21:31:37


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again, everyone. Yes, my blog is still alive, I just haven't been doing a lot of hobbying lately other than assembling a few things. Since I last posted, I got a Ravenwing Darkshroud and have assembled and partially painted it. I've also come up with three more Land Speeders (one from my FLGS, two from eBay) and assembled one of them. I also got another box of CSM to convert into Chosen so that I can run Cypher's formation. My most recent acquisitions (direct from GW) are shown below:

Left to right: Cypher, a Culexus Assassin, a Vindicare Assassin, and (in the rear, still in package) a Terminator Librarian. These are likely to be my last 40k purchases for a while, as I have come to realize that I spend way too much money on this stuff (who doesn't). Barring unexpected windfall, this will be it at least until September or something.

I've put together and primed all the pieces of my Soul Grinder:

Now I just have to paint the parts and put it together afterwards. Should be easier than trying to paint it while it's already put together, though.

Here's a kind of parting shot, showing the current state of WIP on my Assault Squad:

My current P&M goals are to finish the Darkshroud this month for the monthly competition, get the soul grinder finished by the 22nd of August for a tournament, and get a bunch of my Dark Angels (and the Vindicare assassin) done by mid-September for a possible 2-day tournament at my FLGS. Not sure if these goals are attainable considering my glacial pace, but hopefully I can find my inner speed painter and get it all done. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/07/26 02:38:58


Post by: Verviedi


Dark Angels are looking great. Keep up the good work!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/07/26 20:20:25


Post by: Lennysmash


That's a lot of work you've set yourself but you seem to be churning through your model count at a decent pace. good luck for the rest of them, and good luck for the tournies too.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/07/31 04:00:10


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, loyal blog viewers, I've finished that Darkshroud for the monthly painting contest. Here are the pics:



Not my best work, but not my worst by a long shot. I intend to get to work on some other stuff at the same time as I knock out my Soul Grinder for next month's painting challenge. Firstly, I intend to finally finish those Assault Marines. Then I may paint both of my Assassins. Then I have the Ravenwing bikers (5 of them to paint), two of whom are getting some aftermarket grav guns courtesy of Kromlech (a company some of you may be familiar with). Then I should probably do my Devastators, and when all of that is done, I can get to work painting THREE more land speeders (ugh, I can hardly wait... ). Maybe, just maybe, I can get Cypher painted in there too.

On a different note, I thought I would take some pictures of other models I've done in the past year (but before I got a sort of proper camera). Here they are for your viewing pleasure (I hope!).
First, we have a Dark Angels Librarian on Bike (painted this past winter, I don't remember exactly when):

This is one of the most useful minis in my collection!
Next we have my Dark Angels Dreadnought with a Lascannon and Power Fist (started painting last October, finished during the winter):

I did a stupid thing when I put this thing together: I glued the weapons on! I really wish I hadn't done that, as there have been times when I could've used different weapons. Live and learn, I suppose!
Then we have the Grand Master of the Dark Angels himself, Azrael, together with his helm bearer (painted this past winter):

Not the best paint job I've ever done, I've learned a lot since I painted this guy!
Finally, we have the subject of my entry into April's monthly painting challenge, my Deathwing Knights:

I consider these to be perhaps my best work to date. The Knight Master is missing because I had already painted him (and done a pretty terrible job, at that). I might go back and fix him later, hopefully I wont have to strip the paint and start over!
Thanks to everyone who's been following my painting and modelling journey, and I hope to have more stuff to show you soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/08/07 03:11:09


Post by: Verviedi


Everything is looking great so far! Kudos to you for getting so much painted!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/08/07 11:37:02


Post by: corpuschain


There's a lot going on in this thread - you seem to be motoring through your building and painting. Good work. Can't wait to see more closeups of finished chaos models.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/08/07 15:45:03


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Verviedi: Thanks, man! I've been working on improving the look of my minis (and you would know I am succeeding if I got brave enough to post my first few 40k minis).

@corpuschain: I'm doing my best to "motor through" my modelling backlog. I might catch up pretty good over the next few months as I don't plan to buy any new stuff for a while (trying to save $$$). Keep following my thread and you'll get to see more Chaos stuff, although my main focus (other than the Soul Grinder that I'm doing for the monthly painting challenge) is Dark Angels right now.

And speaking of the Soul Grinder, here is a WIP shot of the torso:

I still have to do a drybrush of Evil Sunz Scarlet over parts of it, then a glaze of Bloodletter to wrap it up. Then I can work on the parts of this subassembly that aren't skin. As for the rest of the model, I've put down a couple of coats of Mephiston Red on the parts of the legs that will be red, next up on those will be Leadbelcher for the metal. I've already painted the majority of the body in metal, with red on a couple of panels on the back and Zandri Dust on the part of the spine that is coming out of the top. You can see this in the background of the other photo in this post.

Speaking of, here is that other photo, featuring my work so far on the Assault Squad:

I need to paint the eyes and the blue plasma glow, but first I need to recolor the red weapon casings to make them brighter now that I've shaded the models. I also need to carefully highlight the visible parts of the chest eagles. Then comes the hardest part of all: freehand painting the insignias on the shoulder pads. I would use the decals, but I haven't had much luck with them in the past (although they work ok on flat surfaces like vehicles).

In my last post on this blog, I mentioned all the things I want to paint by the middle of next month. I forgot to mention that I also have a drop pod to finish up (its mostly done already), and a Razorback to fit in there somewhere. My work is cut out for me for sure. Thanks to everyone for reading this, and I hope to have more good stuff for you before too long!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/08/07 16:03:07


Post by: shasolenzabi


Sometimes, the projects take on a life all their own


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/08/30 04:17:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


Long time, no update! Well, I'm gonna fix that for you. I've finished the Soul Grinder for the monthly competition, and here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure:



Had a lot of fun painting this monstrosity! He may even see his very first game tomorrow, unless I take my Dark Angels instead.
In other news, I have been focusing on my Soul Grinder enough that I still haven't finished my Dark Angels Assault Marines. They are now my top painting priority. Grandfather Nurgle probably resented me working on Khorne-related stuff and decided to slap a cold on me last week (which is not conducive to painting!), so I fell way behind. I may even skip next month's painting comp in order to work on more DA stuff. In addition to painting, I am going to be switching my regular tactical and assault marines to the 32mm bases (I scored some at my LGS for a decent price). The characters and veterans may have to wait for new bases, as I don't have enough and am not planning on getting more unless I can get them cheap. Makes me feel better about not fully finishing any of the bases on my tacticals!
Hope to have more good stuff to show you guys soon! Thanks to everyone for reading!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/09/14 01:28:48


Post by: ZergSmasher


Been a while since I updated this thing, so I figured it was about time. I finally finished my Assault Squad (after the poor jumpy guys being in painting limbo for months...). They are far from perfect, the pistol barrels are not even drilled and there are a few mold lines (didn't notice them really until I had done some painting and didn't want to go back and fix them on such basic troops), but they are completely painted. Here are the pictures:




In spite of their flaws, I think they turned out pretty good. I can at least draw black dots on the pistols with a sharpie or something, and I am planning to eventually go back and add heat scorching to the flamer. The freehand symbols on the shoulder pads turned out better than I thought it would, although I still need to work on my freehand skills.
In other news, I have finished rebasing all of my tactical and the above assault marines onto 32mm bases. They match my devastators now, which is good. I still need to do the same for my command squad and my character models, but they can wait for now. I will see what I can do to five Tactical marines this week, hopefully I can focus for once and paint them quickly. Then it's time to assemble and paint my other two Land Speeder Typhoons so that I can run the Ravenwing Support Squadron. That's all for now, thanks for looking!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/09/16 22:43:13


Post by: Zambro


Saw your Assault marines in the showcase, and followed the link here. Lots of stuff going on here, I like it.

On your assault marines; they're a pretty good standard. It'll get them all painted pretty quickly, and you can always circle back to them for additional details when your ready. I dont really want to say much more - you got all the advice you need (and more) in the showcase thread.

Looking forward to seeing some Chaos Dark Angels soon


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/09/17 09:57:12


Post by: evildrcheese


A fine start and very prolific blogging! Good work!

D


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/09/23 16:07:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


Time for another update! I've decided to abandon my goal of painting my Dark Angels so quickly, instead focusing on painting things better instead. I've also decided to do a few side projects just because I felt like it. Here is one of them:

This is Longstrike's Hammerhead gunship (and my first Tau model I've built in a while). The gun turret is removable to replace with a Sky Ray turret, but that is not yet finished. I've had this kit sitting around for a while (it was an eBay score), and the Longstrike figure has been sitting even longer. Painting on this thing is probably not going to happen soon, but my plan for my Tau vehicles is to do a kind of subtle blue tiger camo.
Here is a pic of my Land Speeder Vengeance:

Okay, the pic is not very good (I will probably take some good pictures and put them in the P&M Showcase thread later), but it shows that I have now painted the plasma weapons and the sensor array so that I can use the vehicle as either a Darkshroud or a Vengeance. I've used the Vengeance in my last tournament, and it really isn't as bad as some people make it out to be.
I have made little progress on my Tactical marines (mostly I've been busy putting that Hammerhead together, and I've been busy with real life too), but here is a WIP shot showing what I have done:

Still a long way to go on these guys, obviously.
I have recently made a couple of good eBay scores for my Daemonkin army: a Juggernaut Chaos Lord and nine Flesh Hounds (both sets are metal). The hounds will look different to the ones I already have, but these ones will get some of the 50mm bases I've been gathering so they will be "official".
That's all for now, stay tuned for more!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/09/23 21:58:10


Post by: Zambro


Looks good! I decided that I'd take my time with my Tacticals too, instead of just pumping through them as quickly as possible. I just need to glance at the devastators I finished and I know I can do better. Must say, I'm enjoying slowing things down and painting better.

I like the devilfish, too. I know the monotony of painting the same thing over and over. It's nice to have something else to dip into.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/10/05 01:50:35


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again, Dakka! I wish this update was to show off more fully painted minis, but unfortunately I haven't finished anything recently, other than assembling and priming some stuff, such as this Tau Sky Ray (the main body was already done as seen in the last update of my blog):

I also assembled and primed my metal Juggerlord:

I know, that's a horrible picture, but as he's not painted or anything you aren't missing much. I replaced the included plasma pistol arm with a left-handed power fist from the Chaos Space Marines kit, as I intend to run him with Axe of Khorne and power fist for the +1 attack. He's gonna be fun to paint!
Finally, here is my progress on one of my Land Speeders:

Yep, just bits and pieces right now. Still a few parts to add to the sub assemblies, then it'll be time to start priming and painting the hard-to-reach areas such as the cockpit (I'll assemble it before I paint the outside of it).

I have realized that I have so much stuff going on right now I am going to need to focus a bit more rather than starting anything else. So while I really want to start putting some Kroot Carnivores together, I simply won't do it as it will add yet more to my project pile. My current WIP minis (ones that have some paint but not finished or are partly assembled) are: Land Speeder Typhoon, Drop Pod, Razorback, Nephilim Jetfighter, Ravenwing Command Squad, Ravenwing Bike Squad (from DV), 5 Tactical Marines, Ravenwing Attack Bike, Ezekiel, 5 Bloodletters of Khorne, Tau Piranha (Edit: forgot to mention my partially painted Land Raider!). That is a lot of stuff to have partially painted or assembled. I need to finish painting some of this before I start anything else, although I am going to paint Cypher for the monthly painting competition. Hopefully one mini won't be terribly difficult, although i want to do a really good job on him. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/10/19 20:59:26


Post by: ZergSmasher


Time for another update, I think! Cypher is done, barring some last-minute minor touchups. Here is a relatively bad pic:

I will take better pics at the end of the month when I finish his Chosen retinue. And yes, I will fix that little spot of light-colored paint that somehow got on his leg. Speaking of the Chosen, here is a very crude WIP shot:

All I've done so far is paint the metal trim on these guys, and I was so tired when I did it that I left the last guy out (didn't want to keep painting in my condition). He'll get done very soon, then I'll continue on the squad. Their color scheme is meant to go with Cypher on the TT.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/10/30 04:04:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


As promised in the last update, here are the final pics of Cypher:


Not my best paintwork by a long shot, but at least he looks okay. His Chosen will have to wait a while to be finished, as I am now on a bit of a Tau kick thanks to the upcoming codex release. I have a Finecast Commander currently being assembled on my table, and to test his paint scheme I will paint one of my regular battlesuits (watch this blog for some pics!). For those of you who might be interested, here is a rundown of my current army of the Greater Good:
Commander: partially built
Cadre Fireblade: Painted (needs touchups, though)
3x Crisis Battlesuits: Primed; need weapon swaps. One has 2x Fusion Blaster, which is okay; the others are Fireknife configuration (Plasma, Missile Pod), which I'm told is a no-no. I will give each of them 2x Plasma instead, and put the missile pods on the Commander.
3x Stealth Suits: Primed; need rebasing (I have the 32mm bases, so it will happen).
12x Fire Warriors: 4x Painted (poorly), others primed
16x Kroot: unbuilt, still in box
Piranha: partially painted (just some of the cockpit details I was doing so I could add the pilots)
Devilfish: primed
Hammerhead/Sky Ray: bare plastic
Come Christmas, I hope to get enough money to get my hands on a Ghostkeel and another Stealth team (I might be able to swap some of my MtG cards for store credit at my FLGS). Then I can perhaps run a small Hunter Contingent with my collection (at 1250 point level or so). I will also need to come up with some more 50mm bases for my Crisis suits (all the ones I have are slated for my Khorne Flesh Hounds).
More updates to come, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/02 19:26:28


Post by: ZergSmasher


Quick update: I've finished assembling my Tau commander, and I even put some Space Marine stuff on his base (supposed to look like stuff from some unlucky Sternguard Veteran), here is a pic:

I'll probably prime this guy shortly after I post this (assuming its not too windy outside). He should be really fun to paint. As followers of Paradigm's monthly painting challenge will already know, he is my entry in said event.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/02 19:58:38


Post by: Zambro


Cool! The new Tau models are great. They look like a lot of fun to paint!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/03 11:50:50


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking good Zerg. Was Cypher an enjoyable model to paint? I've been toying with the idea of picking him up for ages.

D


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/04 17:29:54


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Zambro: I think the Tau have some of the best models in all of 40k while not being so fiddly as to be frustrating to paint. So yes, it should be fun!

@evildrcheese: Thanks for the compliment! Cypher was fun to paint, but assembling him was a bit of a pain, especially when I dropped him and his backpack and arms fell off!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/12 06:36:38


Post by: ZergSmasher


Time for an update! I've been painting a regular Crisis battlesuit to test out my color scheme before applying it to my Commander (its an old Crisis suit, I don't have any of the new ones yet), here is a WIP shot:

I've only done the very basic base colors, he will get some shades to make those armor plates pop, plus some edge highlights. Ultimately I will put a brighter yellow (Citadel Yriel Yellow) over this basecoat, then it will really look good as a contrast for the deep blue. As for the base, I am not going to finish it, rather I will wait until I get some more 50mm bases before I do a nice base for him. With all these large bases on my models, I'm starting to wish GW would sell their texture paint in really big pots, as I stand to go through quite a few! In other Greater Good news, I've assembled some minis that now need some primer. A 10-man Breacher team (with drones and DS8 tactical turret):

And four Kroot:

The Kroot will get some primer when I finish putting together all their buddies (12 of them!). Then I will need to paint them, fortunately I've found a few speed painting tutorials around (including at least one right here on DakkaDakka) for finishing Kroot quickly.
That's all for now, stay tuned for more Greater Good-ness!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/12 06:55:41


Post by: evildrcheese


Blue and yellow are a great cool combo, I painted my SoB in a yellow and blue theme.

The crisis suit looks great, I really like the flash of yellow on the knee.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/23 16:15:13


Post by: ZergSmasher


@evildrcheese: Thanks for the compliment, I really like how the color combo is turning out too!

Time for an update: First, a WIP shot of my Commander, taken a couple of days ago (can also be seen on the Unofficial November Painting Challenge thread).

The photo quality for this one is bad because I used my iPod Touch for it. I haven't done anything to the commander since, which is bad because I have, like, a week to get him all done!

Next, we have a WIP shot of that dual fusion Crisis suit:

He's turning out okay, I've drybrushed some edge highlights on the blue armor using Lothern Blue, it really works well, if a bit messy (I'll clean it up later). I've tried doing some glow on the fusion blasters themselves (you can't really see it in the photo), but it isn't done yet. I need to work on my technique for this, as it is quite messy right now. Still, lesson learned for the future.

Here's a pic of my most recent acquisition for my Tau:

Turns out some of my MtG cards were pretty valuable, and the staff at my FLGS has been really helpful in going through my cards and giving me a decent amount of store credit for them. I've got the Kauyon book on special order from the store (hasn't come in yet), then once I sell some more cards I'll hopefully have enough store credit for a Stormsurge!

Here's a pic of the Ghostkeel's weapons, fully assembled and awaiting their magnets so I can swap them out easily:

It looks like the plastic is a bit thin for my usual magnets, so I'll need to be careful or get smaller magnets (although smaller magnets would not be strong enough probably).
That's all for now, more should be forthcoming before too long, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/23 16:26:41


Post by: Thraxas Of Turai


I really like your blue and yellow scheme for your Tau, nice and different. A eager to see how you get on with the Ghostkeel, it looks like an awesome kit.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/30 01:04:21


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Thraxas: Thanks for the compliment. I have had this scheme planned for a while, so seeing it brought to life has been very, very cool. I'm looking forward to painting that Ghostkeel, as it is perhaps the coolest of the new Tau models!

Well, I've finished my Shas'O for the monthly comp, here are the pics (also found in the competition thread):





He's been a fun mini to paint. Now I just need to paint more of my Tau so he has an army to lead into battle for the Greater Good! I also need to paint his magnetized attachments (shield generator and missile pods).

In addition to painting the Commander, I've managed to fully assemble my Ghostkeel suit:

He is going to be great when he's painted with a scheme similar to the above Commander. I magnetized his main gun, but not the secondary guns (I don't think I'll ever want to take TL burst or flamers on this guy anyway). I might, however, want to try the Fusion Collider instead of the Cyclic Ion Raker, so that is why I went ahead and magnetized it (it wasn't too hard).

Those of you who are following my blog will be interested to hear that, as a result of my ongoing effort to turn my MtG card collection into store credit at my FLGS, I now have a Stormsurge suit special ordered at said FLGS. I'll have to paint that thing as I assemble it (like how I did my Soul Grinder before), as it would be nearly impossible to do any other way. I intend to document every step of the process, so watch for updates here on my blog!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/30 08:48:54


Post by: evildrcheese


The Commander is looking good Zerg.

Was the GhostKheel an enjoyable build?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/11/30 15:51:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


@evildrcheese: Thanks! As for the Ghostkeel, he wasn't too hard to put together, but the final assembly is kind of fiddly (you need to prop the model up with something while the glue dries). The only real issue I had was with the knobby things on one of the leg plates, those just refused to fit right. I should have cut the little locator things off the back of them and just glued them on straight.

I've assembled more Kroot, but there's really nothing to show at the moment. I think for next month's painting challenge I will do my two Assassins (Vindicare and Culexus), as there is no specific theme for the month. I may also try tackling my Chaos Lord on Juggernaut for my Khorne Daemonkin army as well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/06 06:01:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


My current project is now my Chaos Lord on Juggernaut (or "Juggerlord" as Chaos fans say!). It's an older sculpt, and when fully assembled is fairly heavy as it is metal. I've been painting on it for a couple of days, so here are a couple of WIP shots:

This is the Chaos Lord himself. I replaced the model's stock left arm (which had a plasma pistol) for this Power Fist arm from the Chaos Space Marines box. I also used the shoulder pad with the Khorne symbol from the same box. This way I can run this Lord with the Axe of Khorne/Powerfist combo. Ultimately, when he is finished, his red armor will be even brighter to match the rest of my Khorne Daemonkin army.
Here is his mount:

Instead of Mephiston red I used Khorne red for this model. That way there will be some contrast between the rider and mount. I intend to do all my Daemon Engines with this same basic color scheme, with the exception of my Heldrake, which will get the brighter red like the rest of my vehicles will. I've still got a few base colors to go on these models, then it will be time to hit them with some Agrax Earthshade. After that, I will have to highlight them. I need to finish this by next Thursday (Dec. 10) if at all possible, as I will be using him in a game. Two days later I have a tournament for which I will be needing this guy as well. I intend to continue to show some WIP shots as I work on this model, so keep checking back!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/06 14:41:52


Post by: evildrcheese


Solid start on the juggalord.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/09 04:30:22


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks, he is gonna be cool. It has been fun working with an older model like this, I like the solid feel of a large metal model.

Here are some updated WIP shots:

I realize that these photos don't really show much change from my earlier WIP shots, but in person you would see that the Lord's red armor is much brighter, and the recesses are nicely shaded. The Juggernaut itself still needs a layer of Khorne Red to brighten its armor up, but the brass trim is already highlighted (as is the rider's) with Hashut Copper. Fortunately that coat of Khorne Red is the last major thing the model needs. I will still need to do the eye lenses on the Lord, and the yellow eyes for the Juggernaut, as well as a couple of other details, but I should be able to do it reasonably quickly.
Due to a cancellation by my would-be opponent, my game on Thursday for which I would have needed this model is no longer going to happen. The result is that I have an extra two days to get this guy done. I still need him done by Saturday for a team tournament.
I should have some finished pics for everyone to check out soon, so keep an eye out!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/09 06:59:28


Post by: evildrcheese


I can definitely see the progress on the lord, but your right the jugga is a little harder to tell.

Nice progress on the lord though, the new highlight is a big improvement.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/11 02:47:26


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks, I wasn't originally going to use Evil Sunz Scarlet on my Daemonkin. I primed my Helbrute, Heldrake, and one Rhino with Army Painter Pure Red spray primer, and it ended up looking way brighter than my planned Mephiston Red. Evil Sunz Scarlet is a close match for that, so I went ahead and painted the Helbrute with that, and it looked awesome! I think of it as a happy accident.

Well, the moment you've all been waiting for, my Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut is complete! Here are the pics:


I hope all you guys viewing my blog like him! I'm very pleased with how he turned out. I know that Lords on Juggernauts are one of the Daemonkin codex's best units, so I'm happy to actually have one now. All I need is some more flesh hounds to run with him...

Anyway, I'm going to shift gears a bit with my next project. I'll be doing my Vindicare and Culexus Assassins for the unofficial monthly painting challenge, so keep watching for those!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/11 06:50:13


Post by: evildrcheese


Juggalord is looking good. Are they the new plastic assassins or the old sculpts?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/11 15:15:22


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks for the compliment! As for the Assassins, they are the old sculpts. The Vindicare is Finecast, and the Culexus is metal. I love the new plastic ones, but at the time I got these the only way to get the plastic ones was in the box game. With what they are charging individually for the plastics now it is still cheaper to get the box game if you want all four assassins.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/25 04:07:15


Post by: ZergSmasher


Its been a little while since I posted an update on this blog, as most of the action this month for me has been centered around my Stormsurge, for which I am doing a separate blog. I've been working on my Vindicare and Culexus assassins, and have realized that painting those highlights is a lot harder than I thought. Here's a quick WIP shot:

This shot does a decent job of hiding the mess I've made trying to put lines on the bodysuits. I used Eshin Gray, which is somewhat subtle. There will be a further highlight (with an even smaller brush) of Fenrisian Gray over this, so I'd better get any problems I'm having sorted out if I want these guys to look any good. Other than the edge highlights, I'm happy with how they are starting to look. Plenty of work to go, though, as I need to finish them by the end of the month for Paradigm's unofficial painting challenge.

Merry Christmas, all! I hope everyone gets something nice!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2015/12/31 16:12:59


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, this is where I'm going to leave the Assassins for now, as I'm just frustrated with how badly I've done the edge highlights:
First, the Vindicare Assassin:

Last, the Culexus Assassin:

I will get back to these at some point to finish them properly, but probably not real soon. They are minimal tabletop quality I feel, and certainly above the 3-color standard that most tournaments use, so they are at a decent stopping point.

Next on my painting agenda will be a Tau Breacher Team, but before I get into that there will be an end-of-year review posted right here on this blog (after I get off work tonight), so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/01 03:12:49


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, 2015 has come and is almost gone (already gone as of the time of this post for those of you across the pond ), so its time for me to reveal what I have to show for the year, painted model-wise. Here is a group shot of everything I painted this year:

Some of these models actually have a bit of work left on them; I was generous in what constituted "painted" when I assembled this group. I did draw the line at minis that are obviously unfinished (like my Deathwing Land Raider), but some (like the Bloodletters and Assassins) still need plenty of work before they are truly done, but they are at a low-medium tabletop standard. I counted them, and for the larger models/vehicles, I took Gimli's advice from The Return of the King movie and said "That still only counts as one!" The total count of painted miniatures for me in 2015 is 37, and that is with the aforementioned inclusion of lower-standard models to slightly fluff my numbers. Here is a list of them:
Dark Angels:
Azrael, Helm Bearer, Apothecary, Ravenwing Biker, Librarian on Bike, 4x Deathwing Knights, Drop Pod, 5-man Assault Squad, Tactical Sgt. w/Power Fist, Tactical Marine w/Flamer, Dreadnought, Ravenwing Darkshroud
Assassins: Vindicare Assassin, Culexus Assassin
Chaos: Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, 5x Bloodletter of Khorne, 5x Flesh Hounds of Khorne, Dark Vengeance Helbrute, Soul Grinder
Tau: Commander, Crisis Shas'vre
As a New Year's resolution, I intend to paint at least twice as many miniatures in 2016. I'm going to start strong with a Tau Breacher Team, and hopefully I can get at least one of my armies to the point of bringing a fully-painted army to a tournament and actually getting some of those painting points.
Finally, to conclude this review, here is a collection of better-quality images of some of my better pieces, in no particular order. Most of these were entries into Paradigm's monthly painting challenges, but not all of them. Feel free to post which one(s) you like the best!

Dark Vengeance Helbrute


Dark Angels Assault Squad


Soul Grinder


Chaos Lord on Juggernaut


Tau Commander


Ravenwing Darkshroud


Deathwing Knights


Dark Angels Librarian on Bike


HAPPY NEW YEAR!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/02 02:34:38


Post by: Januine


Nice wee round up there Zerg. Love that soul grinder. Thinking about picking one up at some point. Very nice work on the stone ornaments on the darkshroud. Came out really well. Great job and onto 2016!!! Happy new year fella


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/02 03:43:13


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Januine: Thanks! It means a lot coming from a gifted painter like yourself. I'd love to see what you could do with a Soul Grinder!

I've decided maybe I should take a page from a couple of other Dakka people's books and actually quantify my painting goals for 2016. Here they are (in no particular order):
1: Get my Stormsurge assembled and painted.
2: Finish all my models that are currently partially painted. This includes a Nephilim Jetfighter, several Tactical Marines, some Chaos Chosen, a Tau Piranha, some Ravenwing bikers, and probably others I haven't thought of.
3: Paint at least twice as many models as last year (that means 74 models).
4: Paint my Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage.
5: Get the right combination of stuff painted to take a fully painted army to a tournament.
6: Learn to paint small details/freehand more cleanly (my Achilles' heel at the moment).
7: Finally clip all my spare bits off the sprues and put them into a dedicated bits box. No more hunting through the boxes the models came in to find a certain bit.

Maybe having a well-defined set of goals like that will inspire me to get some stuff done this year. Time will tell. First thing up for this year is my Tau Breacher Team. Should be simple enough to get a decent paint job on those. Since they are basic troops, I don't really need to get too fancy.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/07 05:27:18


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I've gotten the year started off by putting some paint on my Breacher team, still a lot of work to be done though. Here's where I'm at with the first 5 and their Guardian Drone:

Just the skin and cloth parts done so far, the distinctive blue armor will be next. The drone already has the blue, with gray around the edge of it. When I do the yellow squad and sept markings I will put matching ones on the drone, and whenever I get around to painting my Devilfish I may put the same markings on it to indicate that it belongs to this squad. Much more yet to come on these guys!

On another note, a project for later in the year (spring at the earliest) has arrived for me:

With these and my current partly-painted Nephilim Jetfighter, I will be able to run the Ravenwing Silence Squadron! Its going to be quite a bit of work and I'll be getting my Tau Stormsurge done before I try tackling these, but at least I have them in hand.

More updates will follow, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/08 05:57:59


Post by: ZergSmasher


Here's another WIP of the same models (minus the drone), I managed to paint their armor blue and their helmet lenses red. The latter needs some cleanup though.

For some reason the blue comes out looking somewhat washed out in this picture, it looks much more vibrant in person. Maybe I need to adjust my camera settings.

I'll be painting the metallic gold parts next, probably followed by the shoulder pad Fire Caste symbols. I do the symbols in black with silver lines, the method I use is to actually paint the whole thing silver, then put black where there's supposed to be black. It ends up looking good, you can see it on the Commander a few posts above.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/13 04:15:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


Base colors and Fire Caste symbols are done, here is a WIP shot:

Now I need to shade these guys, then it'll be time for some highlights. The yellow for the Shas'ui will be given a layer of Yriel Yellow to make it really stand out, and there will also be some yellow squad markings added. For the drone, it will have squad markings matching the Breachers themselves, and it will get a similar shade + highlight treatment.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/13 04:22:14


Post by: 2BlackJack1


Just read through the thread and I must say, well done on everything. You've certainly got a lot done, and it does look very nice. I myself am excited for you to work on your Kroot, (for rather obvious reasons, knowing me)


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/13 06:51:31


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice progress on the Tau.

Looming forward to see what you do with the DA fliers, they're really great models. You've certainly got your work cut out for you this year!

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/13 21:54:19


Post by: ZergSmasher


@2bj1: Thanks for taking a look, and thanks for the compliments as well! I've done quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I would like. This year will be different, I hope!

@EDC: Thanks, these Tau models are very cool, which helps keep me motivated. As for the DA flyers, they are probably going to end up waiting till mid-late spring at the earliest, but I myself am looking forward to doing them and running the Silence Squadron in some games. You're definitely right, they are awesome models (some of the best in 40k IMHO).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/16 06:29:22


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've stalled a bit on my painting (RL is a bitch sometimes), but I hope to have real progress to show soon. I've shaded those five Breachers and begun brightening up their armor again. This is my least favorite step of the painting process, as I have to use a small brush so as not to undo the shade, and it takes time. I have already done some drybrushing on the cloth parts (sleeves and pants) and I feel like I made it look good. I'll put pics up when I get a little further on them, then I need to do the other five Breachers.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/19 17:27:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, that's half the squad done and their Guardian drone (minus the bases):

Now I need to do the other half. They've already had a couple of their base colors applied. I'll do them up at the same time as I base these ones. I realize that the freehand unit insignias are not terribly neat, but that is a skill that I'm working on. Since they are basic troops, I'm only worried about getting them to a decent tabletop standard.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/22 17:59:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


Progress has been made on the second half of my Tau Breacher Team:

Gray cloth and blue armor are painted, some cleanup needed but shouldn't take very long. Next will probably be the next layer on the skin (not much exposed skin on these guys, so that will be a quick step). I'm also painting the Tactical Turret for my Strike Team at the same time so there will be pics of it in the future!
In other news, I've gotten some more Tau stuff assembled:

4 more Kroot, 3 Marker Drones and 3 Gun Drones, giving me a total of 12 Kroot, 6 Marker Drones, and 4 Gun Drones (not counting the ones on my Piranha and Devilfish). The Marker Drone on the far right is a kitbash, using one of the old Gun Drone kits, a markerlight from a Pathfinder, and a Crisis Suit support system. It looks okay beside the others, I think. I used the marker drone bits from the new Fire Warrior box and the Pathfinder box to build some, and the two from my two Stealth teams, but came up short by one, so that is why I built the custom one.

More will follow, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/25 04:59:20


Post by: KommissarKiln


Your P&M blog deserves more love. You are turning out quality models ! It's a touch call to pick favorites, but I definitely liked a lot of the DA paintjobs in particular.

Any idea how long does it normally take for blogs like this to gain any traction? If I were to have to keep posting material without responses, it can be done, but not if it keeps giving me the Automatically Appended Next Post shenanigans...


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/25 07:00:20


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking good. The insignias look fine from the photo, and like you say since they're on the 'grunts' people probably won't be looking too closely.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/25 17:11:09


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Kiln: I don't let it phase me that I don't get that many responses to my blog. I figure some people look at it, like it, and just don't have anything to say. I'm glad you like my paint jobs, especially the Dark Angels as that is my main army.

@EDC: Thanks, man! There will be better pics to admire at the end of the month.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/01/31 22:55:04


Post by: ZergSmasher


The Breachers are finished now, feast your eyes on some pics:
2 pics of the whole squad:

Shas'ui, 3 Shas'la, and their drone (my entry in the monthly painting challenge):

Breacher Shas'ui:

MV36 Guardian Drone:

These were fun to paint, especially since I was doing my own color scheme for them. Always nice to see something I planned in my head come to life!

As for what's coming next, I'll mainly be doing my Stormsurge in February, so see my dedicated Stormsurge blog for more progress on that. I'll be assembling some other stuff (like some Tau Pathfinders and a Deathwing Command Squad), so there will be pics of those here, and I might try to knock out a few Tactical Marines to take a break from painting the big guy. That's all for now, but more is coming! Thanks for viewing, and thanks to all who have encouraged me. It is most appreciated!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/02/13 05:11:54


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, as I said in my previous post, my main focus this month has been on my Tau Stormsurge, but as well as painting that, I've gotten some other models assembled. Here they are:
Deathwing Command Squad:

3 Tau Pathfinders and 3 special Drones:

The Deathwing kit is really cool, all the sculpted details on the parts really make them very characterful. I was lucky enough to have an extra Thunder Hammer left over from my other Deathwing kit (that I built as Deathwing Knights), so I was able to kit out two of these guys with the Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield loadout. I'm looking forward to painting these guys, but it'll probably be a while before I get around to them, I have so much else that needs paint first! I need to assemble the rest of the Tau Pathfinders, and I will do so very soon, but I might be going to run the Deathwing in a game soon to try them out, so I prioritized them. Thanks for looking!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/02 17:24:50


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, long time no update here in my main blog. I've just been so busy with the Stormsurge and RL that I haven't gotten anything else of note done until very recently. I did get some new 50mm bases in from GW and put my Crisis suits on those, they look much better on the bigger bases. I also managed to get the rest of my Pathfinders assembled, here's a pic of the whole squad and their special drones:

Three of them have Rail Rifles, which will allow me to try running a four-man team with them, outflanking and then killing something (hopefully). I don't know how often I will use the special drones, but I like the models and they might see use in casual play at least.

In addition to the 50mm bases mentioned above, in that order from GW I also got Be'lakor, Darkstrider, and a single Space Marine bike (which will be built with DA Ravenwing accessories and turned into an Interrogator-Chaplain on bike!). Be'lakor should be a fun model to paint, although assembly could be a bit of a pain (thanks to Finecrap).

Now for a change of pace, I'm going to review the past year of painting challenge entries that I did. I didn't participate in all of them due to RL issues and stuff, but I did most of them and I thought I would post the final pics here so people could see my progress as a painter (if any).

March 2015: Space Marines
I didn't really find out about the comp until near the end, so I did not participate.

April 2015: Veterans
My entry: Deathwing Knights
Inspired by the great entries from March, I decided to throw my hat into the ring and give it a go. I did not have a decent camera yet, so the pic shown below is not one of the actual entry pics, but one I shot much later with my better camera. The models themselves have not been touched up since the contest. At the time, these were the best painted models I had ever done.
Spoiler:

May 2015: Fast and Furious
My entry: Flesh Hounds of Khorne
I had originally entered a squad of Raptors into this month's challenge, but I ultimately got frustrated by the amount of fiddly detail and gave up entirely when one of them got broken after a game at my FLGS. So I switched to the Hounds and managed to get them done. I personally like these old Flesh Hound models better than the current ones GW makes, and was very happy to score them off of eBay. I probably gimped myself in the voting with poor photography here, as I had not yet learned all the settings on my good camera yet, so the color balance is way off on these pics.
Spoiler:





June 2015: Some Kind of Monster
My entry: Helbrute from the Dark Vengeance box set
I was very happy to have an excuse to paint this amazing model, and I'm quite proud of the results I managed to achieve. My photography skills were still not up to scrach, hence the whitewashed look of some of the photos, but I was getting there.
Spoiler:




July 2015: Sneaky!
My entry: Ravenwing Darkshroud
I was definitely stretching the theme, but I really wanted to paint this model. I feel like the statuary on top turned out very well, but the rest was just ok. I intend to go back and touch this thing up at some point, make it really pop.
Spoiler:





August 2015: Rise of the Machines
My entry: Soul Grinder
This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever done, it was so much fun to paint this model. Not to sing my own praises or anything, but the model gets compliments from other players whenever I take it to a tournament, so I definitely feel like I did a good job on it.
Spoiler:





September 2015: Never Tell Me the Odds!
I did not participate in this competition, mainly due to not having much that would fit the theme, and RL issues taking up much of my painting time.

October 2015: Trick or Treat
My entry: Cypher, the Fallen Angel
I originally had planned to enter Cypher and some Chaos Chosen as a retinue for him, but I ended up not having time to do the Chosen. I feel I definitely let myself down with Cypher, and intend to fix him up better eventually.
Spoiler:




November 2015: Princes of the Universe
My entry: Tau Commander
This was my first real attempt at painting the forces of the Greater Good, and a test of the paint scheme I wanted to do for my army. The paint scheme looks far better in person than my photos would suggest.
Spoiler:





December 2015: Open Challenge
My entry: Vindicare and Culexus Assassin
I did not manage to finish this one in time, due to being busy with the holidays and everything. I intend to go back and finish the Assassins at some point, probably before the the end of 2016.

January 2016: Up Close and Personal
My entry: Tau Breacher Team
I actually found a way for Tau to fit the up close theme of the challenge, and that was with Breachers, due to the nature of their guns. I painted the whole squad of ten, but entered only the Shas'ui, the Guardian Drone, and three Shas'la for the comp.
Spoiler:





February 2016: Size Matters Not
My entry: Tau KV128 Stormsurge
This was by far the biggest model I had ever painted. I knew from the beginning that getting it done in a month was going to be tricky at my glacial painting pace, but I managed to get it done in time.
Spoiler:





Well, there you have it. I completed 9/12 challenges in the last cycle, hopefully I can do them all this time around. Space Marine is the theme this month, and I will be entering a Dark Angels Devastator Squad. Here's to another year of challenge entries!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/03 04:53:53


Post by: Azazelx


Nice selection of models finished off over the months. Well done!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/03 06:53:46


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice journey though time Zerg. You can see how you've refined and improved your style.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/04 01:41:33


Post by: ZergSmasher


Thanks a bunch, guys! I like to think I'm getting better at this, and I've got those painting challenges to thank for it mostly! Paradigm, if you're reading this, thank you!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/07 16:10:36


Post by: ZergSmasher


Here's where I'm at with the Devastator Squad:

Still lots more work to do, but the major base colors are all down now. I'll have to clean up some spots where I wasn't neat enough with my brush, but that'll be the last step before shading. The shoulder symbols will be the very last thing, and I'll most likely freehand those, as I can never get the decals to work on the curved surfaces of the shoulder pads. Oh, and I'll probably get that bolter barrel drilled out before I do anything else. Can't believe I missed that!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/16 16:53:35


Post by: ZergSmasher


I think it's high time I did another update on this blog. I haven't gotten much painting done in the last couple of weeks due to RL taking all my time and/or energy (plus I strained my shoulder somehow), but I have gotten a little bit done. First, here's WIP of a Tau Piranha that I have been working on concurrently with the DA Devastators:

I'm doing the cockpit similarly to how I did the cockpit on my Stormsurge as far as the buttons and displays. This model is being done for kb_lock's "Git 'er done" painting comp.

The main thing I've been doing over the last couple of days is this:

Yes, that's a Tau Riptide in pieces. I've gotten it to the subassembly stage, now I have to drill out some weapon barrels (the fusion blasters and plasma rifles) and some holes for magnets. I intend to fully magnetize this thing so that I can get the most mileage out of it. I'll paint it in subassemblies like most of my large models these days, as that will be easier that trying to paint the whole thing fully assembled.

In other news, I have a Start Collecting! Tau Empire box set coming in the mail courtesy of eBay (got it pretty cheap), and I will soon have the Deathwatch minis from Deathwatch Overkill (splitting the box set with a friend, he wanted the Genestealer Cult models as he used to run a Genestealer Cult back in RT/2nd or whenever they were a thing). Looking forward to that.

Thanks for looking, and hopefully I'll have more to show you soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/17 08:48:35


Post by: Azazelx


Nice stuff. Dark Angels are a project of my own that I need to get back to sometime, so it's very cool to see how yours are looking. As for the transfers, have you heard of/used Micro Sol and Micro Set?

That's a lot of work on the Tau model. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/23 04:27:01


Post by: ZergSmasher


Thanks Az! I have heard of Microsol and Microset, but I've never used them. I've thought about trying them, but never bothered to. I do have a Testors decal setting solution that works okay (even though it smells like its just vinegar or something...)

Time for a quick update! I've made some progress on the DA Devastators, finishing the basecoating. Here's a pic:

Now I need to shade them. I'll probably do the Duncan Rhodes thing and just coat them in Nuln Oil, then brighten up the colors afterward. I'll apply edge highlights to the armor and weapons, at least. I've only got like 8 days left to get these guys done, so I don't know if I'm gonna make it in time.

More news from the Greater Good front, I've gotten to work on the models from the Start Collecting Tau box. I've begun putting the Crisis suits together (and yes, I'm going to magnetize them), and I've also assembled the Ethereal on Hover Drone:

That Ethereal is one of the coolest models in the Tau range. I'm looking forward to painting him, although I have plenty of other stuff ahead of him in the queue.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/23 06:46:02


Post by: evildrcheese


Devs are looking good Zerg.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/24 04:10:06


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks, bud! I love the color scheme of the Dark Angels, and it is fun to make it happen on the minis.

I've shaded those Devs now, so the next step will be to brighten up the colors. Then I'd better get to work on the freehand chapter symbols, Devastator symbols, and company markings (good thing my DA are 3rd company so the company symbol is a simple red stripe! ).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/03/30 00:19:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


It is my unhappy duty to report to you that my Devastator Squad has been placed in an indefinite holding pattern for the time being. I just can't find inspiration to finish them, and the deadline is in two days, so I'm bowing out of this month's painting challenge as well. But, there is a bit of good news as well! I recently began rummaging around all my DA kit boxes (gotta make a dedicated bits box one of these days), and suddenly this happened:

This is an Interrogator-Chaplain on a Space Marine bike. He's my entry in April's painting challenge. I used parts from five different kits, including: Space Marine bike, Ravenwing Accessories, Dark Angels Company Veterans, Ravenwing Command Squad, Deathwing Command Squad. Those kits are gold mines for Dark Angels bits.

On the Tau front, I'm about to start putting magnets on my Crisis suits, and I may just go ahead and fully assemble my Riptide rather than paint it in subassemblies. This will make it harder to paint, but at least I will be able to actually use it in games since it doesn't look like I'm going to get it done real soon (it won't be as hard as the Stormsurge would have been). I've already magnetized it so that I can use any combination of weapons.

I do have a dilemma upcoming. Tax time is approaching, and I'm not sure what I should get with my tax return. I'm not expecting a big check, as I can no longer claim school expenses on it. Here are the things I'm considering:
1) 2 boxes of Chaos bikes, a box of Chaos warhounds, and some 50mm bases to expand my Daemonkin army (roughly $120). This would allow me to run the Gorepack formation. I might also get a Maulerfiend or two depending on the size of my return.
2) 2 boxes of Tetras and a Y'vahra from Forge World. This is probably not going to happen, as with shipping I'm looking at about $260 at least. This would be my very first Forge World purchase, though.
3) Codex: Imperial Knights and an Imperial Knight kit (the new one). To me, this is tempting as I love the Imperial Knight models and they are very powerful. It'll run me around $180 or so depending on what the Codex costs.
4) Start Collecting! Space Wolves, Codex: Space Wolves, and a box of Thunderwolf Cavalry. I'd love to add a small Wolfstar to my Ravenwing lists, although I'm not sure investing in yet another army is a wise use of my money (around $190). I do love the Thunderwolf models, though.
5) 6 Razorbacks, 2 Drop Pods, an Assault Squad, a Devastator Squad, and at least one Tactical Squad. This would allow me to run a full Battle Company of Dark Angels. I'm not likely to do it, as it'll run me upwards of $450 and I'd probably go insane from having to built and paint so many vehicles!
First world problems, eh? Anyway, more will follow and whatever I do decide to do with my tax return, I'll report it in this blog. I hope to have some painting progress to show on the Chappy soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/13 03:02:52


Post by: ZergSmasher


Been a little while since I posted an update, so time to fix that! I've made some progress on the biker Interrogator-chaplain. The base colors are all down, although plenty of touchups are required. I've gotta learn to be less messy with my painting one of these days! Here's a pic:

Shouldn't be too long before I can call this guy done. I'm hoping not to take too much longer as I want to get back to painting some more Tau stuff.

Speaking of Tau stuff, I have been doing a little bit more on my Piranha. Here's a couple of WIP shots:

The blue around the edges in the first image is a result of having painted the bottom of the vehicle blue. Ultimately the whole thing will be blue with some kind of camo pattern. Not sure I'm going to do the planned tiger stripes but I intend to do something. This model will be a test bed for a camo scheme that I will then apply to all my Tau vehicles. The cockpit is mostly done, just some edge highlights for the panels and glazes for the screens left to do. The crew is coming along as well, with the blue armor and gray cloth done.

I hope to have more progress to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/13 06:00:40


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice Chaplain Zerg. I like the idea od the blue underside and the fact it gives a neat blue edge. It really pops.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/17 18:25:47


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! As for the piranha, it is not going to stay that way (with blue around the edges). I'm going to do the entire hull of the vehicle in blue, with a camo pattern. Although looking at it it does actually look okay if that was what I was aiming for, kind of a Tron look.

Time for a quick WIP shot of my Interrogator:

Shading is all done, now I'm working on highlights. I did some red on the underside of the robe, and I added some Gehenna's Gold over the gold parts to brighten those up (I still need to do this on the Mace of Redemption, though). Shouldn't take me too long to get this guy knocked out, then I can concentrate on the Tau Piranha.

Perhaps I'm late to the party, but I recently found out about the upcoming Imperial Knight Renegade boxed game being released from GW. I think I'm going to get one, as I've been toying with the idea of getting a Knight for a while now and I still haven't used my tax return money. Now I'll have two Knights! I may paint one up to match my Daemonkin (I'll use it as a Chaos Knight of Khorne). The other will be loyalist of course, and will probably be painted to compliment my Dark Angels, although I may give it some AdMech iconography so that in future I can use it with an AdMech army (although that will be a long way off probably).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/21 14:44:30


Post by: ZergSmasher


Update: More progress has been made, the highlights are almost done!

I still need to do another highlight of the red underside of his robe. After that there will be some cleanup of the shoulder pads and helmet. Then I can do the base, which will be simple and super easy, then I'll post the final pics for everyone to enjoy!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/23 22:48:07


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I've finished the Interrogator-chaplain, so here are the final pics of him:



I feel like he turned out pretty good. My freehand still needs some work, but...eh. This mini will probably see plenty of action when my Ravenwing hit the table. Chaos traitors had better hide when this guy shows up!

In other news, I've begun working on some Tau drones, and work continues on the Piranha, albeit very slowly. I'll post pics here when I make some more progress. Please feel free to vote for my images in the Dakka gallery! More to come soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/24 01:52:04


Post by: Azazelx


The Interrogator-Chaplain looks very cool as a model. The only thing is that he doesn't really scream "Chaplain" to me. It's the lack of Skull mask and a more blatant skull shoulderpad, though I can see where you've added the markings with paint. Perhaps extending the skull shape to the forehead of the helmet and adding in some skull-nostrils? That would make it more obviously a skull-mask painted on his biker helm.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/24 02:12:33


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Good idea, I might just do that. I've got a few more days left in the painting comp. To be honest I considered the face thing already, but dismissed the idea, thinking it wouldn't look right. I suppose I can try it and see what it looks like. Nothing I can really do for the shoulderpad, though. I tried to find one with a skull on it, but I don't seem to have one. I could have used a plain one and painted it, but I wanted something more ornate, hence the one you see here. Thanks for the feedback!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, having nothing better to do tonight I went ahead and got right on the face modification for my Interrogator and reshot my final photos, here they are:



I think it does make the face look more like a skull, albeit a stylized one, which is good.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/24 11:49:45


Post by: Zambro


Looks good, Zerg. I like the display screen on the bike!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/24 13:14:38


Post by: Thraxas Of Turai


Really cool kitbash there Zerg...nice stuff, really fits the brief as an Interrogator Chaplain.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/24 18:20:42


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Zambro: Thanks! I was torn as to how much to put on the screen, but decided to keep it simple like a radar view or something.

@Thraxas: Thanks! I'm glad it came across right. Those DA kits (Company Veterans, RW Command, DW Command) and the Ravenwing accessory sprue really do have lots of good bits in them. Great resource for customizing DA characters! I've actually got a Company Master on foot that I've barely started working on that is a similar kitbash, so look forward to that in the future.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/29 05:05:43


Post by: Azazelx


Cool stuff, mate. The addition to the helm paint makes a difference.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/04/29 05:17:31


Post by: evildrcheese


Excellent work on the interrogator Chappy, he looks brill.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/01 04:04:00


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks for the compliment, and thanks for the painting suggestion! It really does improve the model.

@EDC: Thanks very much!

Okay, time to switch gears a bit and go over to the dark side. My new painting project is to get some Chaos Cultists done for Paradigm's monthly painting challenge. I'm going to be doing Sect Anarkus from the Dark Vengeance set. Although my contest entry is limited to 5 models, I will be painting all of the cultists. Here's what they look like with nothing but black primer:

The plan is to use three main colors for their clothing, changing which piece of clothing is which color on each model to give them a unified look without looking like any type of uniforms. The three colors are going to be black, gray, and red. This should tie in nicely with my Daemonkin army. Their skin will be made to look very pale, like they have been living too near the bottom of an Imperial hive city for too long. I also intend to add some Blood for the Blood God paint to make them look like they've been "busy". Hehehe...

You may notice the Champion is missing from the above shot. This is because I painted him a while back (before I started this blog). Here's what he looks like right now:

Pretty sad, right? Well, he's gonna get a bit of a makeover, as his clothing will need to fit in with the color scheme I outlined above. I'll probably leave his skin as is, as it is pretty pale. I may shade it or something to give it some warmth, though.

Look forward to progress on these models soon, as I have been eagerly waiting for an excuse to put some paint on them! I'll also soon have some pics of those Tau drones I mentioned a few posts ago, as they are almost done.

Ooh, one more thing. I recently caved in and bought a set of Female Apocalypse Survivors from Wargames Factory at my FLGS. I intend to use them as additional cultists, although they will look pretty skinny next to the GW cultists. I probably won't get around to painting them anytime real soon, but you never know!

Stay tuned for more, and keep the comments coming! I'm always open to advice and constructive criticism. Feel free to vote for pics of my finished models on the Dakka Gallery!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/02 03:35:17


Post by: ZergSmasher


Okay, the following models are definitely NOT chaos cultists:

It's the two Gun Drones that go with my Piranha, and three Marker Drones. Here's a pic of just the marker drones:

My freehand still needs lots of work, as you can tell. I was going to just paint simplistic stripes on the marker drones, but I decided to go full nerd and paint actual Tau numbers on them. I'll do the same with all of my marker drones, sequentially (the ones shown are 01, 02, and 03 from left to right). I decided to do the numbers because of the movie Oblivion (the drone things in that movie had numbers on them).
Edit: Woohoo page 4!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/04 21:34:14


Post by: ZergSmasher


Progress has been made on the cultists, specifically the main three colors I mentioned earlier for the clothing have been done:

Next I'll probably basecoat the metallic parts, such as the guns, as well as larger leather parts, like the boots and gloves. I also need to clean up the colors that have already been applied, but that will wait until I'm almost ready to shade them.

I've also decided to go ahead and finish up five Bloodletters that I started on way back on page 1 of this blog. It's high time I finished them, although since I counted them as done for last year's total I won't count them for this year. I've just given them a shade of Carroburg Crimson to add some definition to the skin, here's what they look like right now:

Next step will be some drybrushing. First I will drybrush the skin with Mephiston Red, then the bumpy parts will be drybrushed with Troll Slayer Orange. Finally I'll do the horns with some type of gray, not sure about which gray yet. I'll probably drybrush the Hellblades as well, using either Hashut Copper or Sycorax Bronze. Ultimately I may put some Blood for the Blood God on them to make them look like they've been killing stuff recently (appropriate for daemons of the Blood God, I think!).

More to come, so watch this space!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/11 00:53:11


Post by: ZergSmasher


Hello again! I've gotten a little bit more done on the Cultists, as can be seen in this WIP photo:

I've done the leather gloves and boots, as well as all the metallics on the weapons. Next thing to do will be to shade and highlight these areas, then on to the skin.

I've also continued in earnest on painting the Tau Piranha that has been sitting on my workbench mocking me. I've decided that it will be painted this month or bust! Here's the latest WIP shot:

As you can see, I've painted the hull in the base color of my Tau army, Caledor Sky. Now I need to clean it up a bit (I think I missed a couple of spots) and then start painting the camo pattern. This will be my first time trying to paint any kind of camo scheme, so wish me luck on that!

Finally, I've assembled one of my most recently acquired models:

I've been wanting this model for a while, and now I have it. I left the cape off for now, as it would be difficult to paint with it already on the miniature. I intend to paint some regular Ravenwing first and then "reward" myself by painting Sammael. It's the only way I'll probably be able to motivate myself to paint more Ravenwing, as they are pretty boring to paint.

I hope to have more progress to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/19 20:01:52


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, finally coming back to painting after being too tired and/or busy for a while. I changed my tactics (or rather came to my senses) and decided to do the skin before I continue on anything else. I should have done it first, as now I've made a mess and will have to spend more time touching up the clothing before I can shade anything. Here's the latest WIP shot:

As you can see, still lots more to do. On a positive note, the Rakarth Flesh basecoat with a layer of Kislev Flesh actually gives a nice pale skin color, perfect for dwellers of the lower levels of an Imperial hive city. I'm just using Duncan Rhodes' method for painting pale skin (from the Warhammer TV Advent Calendar).

The Tau Piranha is coming along as well, I've finished the basic work on the camo pattern, and I think it turned out pretty good:

I'll probably fix it up a bit better before I go on and paint the details on this vehicle.

In other news, I've begun assembling Wargames Factory's female Apocalypse Survivors. I'm going to be trying to assemble them to stand in as additional Chaos Cultists. I intend to do a small review of the kit in this blog, so stay tuned for that.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/19 20:46:05


Post by: brushcommando


Great job on the piranha camo. Also, fantastic work on the cultists. I normally hate those models, but your color scheme actually makes them look interesting.
And lastly, kudos for having the discipline to paint ravenwing. Black is such a tedious color to paint well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/19 21:02:11


Post by: WarbossDakka


Oh yeah, I love that camo on the Piranha. Its come out really well. Also, I Sammael in resin or plastic? Cos I hope you haven't primed him white

EDIT: I would totally paint some of that ravenwing for you. I've strangely got addicted to painting black recently, but I have no black armoured armies. :/


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/20 01:33:19


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brushcommando: Thanks for the compliments! The cultists are actually some of my favorite Chaos models, so I'm pretty happy to finally be putting some paint on them. As for the Ravenwing, I haven't painted many of them yet, and those that I have were among my first ever painted models and look pretty sad next to stuff I've painted recently. I'll happily post more here when I do them though!

@WarbossDakka: Sammael is a Finecast model, so resin. Not fun working with that stuff, but it is what it is. As much as you would probably enjoy painting my Ravenwing, my usual motto stands: no one paints my minis except me! All I can say is, maybe you should get some Ravenwing of your own to paint! The models are great, and their in-game stats are boss!

Glad you guys like the Piranha camo, I was worried that it would just look wierd or something! I intend to duplicate this basic pattern on all of my Tau vehicles (but not the battlesuits).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/25 21:00:27


Post by: ZergSmasher


High time for an update on my progress. The Cultists are coming along, although nothing photo-worthy at this time. I've cleaned up a lot of the colors and shaded them, so all that is left is highlights and basing as well as the little tiny details (such as belt buckles, eye lenses on gasmasks, etc.). Hopefully I'll get more done quick, since I've only got 6 days left to get finished!

My Tau Piranha is nearly done. I've touched up the camo a little and painted some of the details black, here's a photo showing what it looks like now:

I'm going for a blue glow on the fusion blaster. It looks kind of funny in the photo, but it should look good when it's all done. The vehicle and crew are ready for some shading, then just a few highlights (and probably some yellow markings) and I can call this vehicle done!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/29 04:58:37


Post by: ZergSmasher


More progress has been made on both the Cultists and the Piranha. The cultists have had some highlights applied and have had a few detail colors applied, here's a WIP shot:

Not too much left to do; just some leather details like belts and a few pouches I somehow missed before, then some small metal details like buckles and buttons and studs, then a drybrush over all the leather stuff with Doombull Brown to kind of highlight the edges, and then finally the bases. If I have time I will do the planned blood on the models, but only if I have time for it. I've only got like 3 days left to finish these models and I may be busy with RL stuff, since I plan to go see X-men: Apocalypse tomorrow afternoon and I have to work the following two days.

The Piranha now has had the shading applied to the panel lines:

I'll need to clean up the blue some, then add some yellow letters or numbers or some kind of details, then add the pilots and it'll be done!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/05/29 05:43:46


Post by: angelofvengeance


Loving the camo pattern there Zergsmasher! That blue looks stunning!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/01 03:56:28


Post by: ZergSmasher


@angelofvengeance: Thanks a bunch! I'm very happy with how it turned out, especially since the camo pattern itself was just improvised really, not much planning to it other than what colors to use.

I've now finished the Chaos cultists, and not a moment too soon, as the monthly painting challenge is almost over! Here's the pics:





The last pic is supposed to show off the blood on the weapons, but it really doesn't. Oh well. It's the first time I've used Citadel's Blood for the Blood God, and I have to say I like the way it looks. Once I get a little better with it I think I can make my Khorne Daemonkin minis look suitably gory! The Cultist champion is conspicuously absent, but as I said in an earlier post I will need to repaint him in colors that match the ones I used for the squad. I'll get to him eventually...

Hopefully soon I'll have some finished pics of my Tau Piranha. Just a few small details and cleanup left on that model, and it'll be done! Probably in the next day or two I should have pics up of it. My next major project is going to be a certain Greater Daemon of Khorne with a really big axe and a seriously negative attitude!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/01 06:00:38


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking good Zerg, both the Piranha and the Cultists are looking pretty kick ass.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/01 07:05:26


Post by: corpuschain


I really like the cultists. They look dark!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/02 02:30:42


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! I'm glad you like them, it lets me know I'm doing something right!

@corpuschain: Thanks! I was going for somewhat dark, although I was kind of afraid that I had chosen too bright of red and gray colors for them. When I saw the pics I took I realized that they were alright. I hope I can do as well on the autogun cultists!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/02 02:51:34


Post by: Januine


They're looking great Zerg. Love the flamer guy. Such a cool fig. You've reminded me that i need to get on and finish off my own DV cultists. Just 10 more to go


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/04 21:24:07


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Januine: Thanks a lot, that is high praise coming from you! I look forward to seeing the rest of your DV cultists sometime! The flamer dude is probably my favorite of this bunch as well, so I'm glad you like him!

The fething Piranha's finished! Finally! Pics or it didn't happen, you say? Here ya go:


Shame of it is, I won't be using this model much if at all, as Piranhas are just not very competitive right now. Oh well, I'm still happy to have it done. Again, not my greatest work, but far from my worst. I struggled with what to do to get some yellow details on it, but ultimately decided to make the pilot a Shas'ui (hence the yellow helmet vane and shoulder pad) and add numbers and scribbles on the sides. The scribbles are supposed to be the crew's names (kind of like on a fighter jet) and the vehicle number is 117, a reference to the Halo video game series' main character, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. I'm very happy with how the camo turned out, and I think it will work well on future Tau vehicles that I paint.

In other news, I've assembled one box of Chaos Warhounds to use as Flesh Hounds of Khorne:

I put them on 50mm bases to be compliant with the current standard for Flesh Hounds (the kit came with WHFB cavalry bases).

I've also assembled one of my Chaos biker champions:

I figured I could represent a combi-melta by putting one of those gargoyle things from the Chaos vehicle sprue on the end of a bolter (like it's a Daemonic weapon or something). I put the model on an oval base I had. I've got plenty of those sitting around after buying three of the base packs that had 3 50mm rounds, 20 32mm rounds, and 5 of the ovals in each. It looks like they are starting to move toward putting bikes on those, so I thought I'd put my Chaos bikes on them. Plus, the spikes will hang way off a regular bike base. One thing I've learned after beginning to assemble the bikers is that the Chaos bike kit is a real PITA to assemble. Those legs just don't want to fit on the bike. I actually had to cut part of the inside of each one to make it work.

Next up will be the Bloodthirster, so be ready for it!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/05 03:25:07


Post by: Azazelx


The Piranha looks great. The warhounds should make very solid Fleshhounds as well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/05 09:19:49


Post by: angelofvengeance


Love the camo on that Piranha Nice work!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/05 17:57:07


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks for the compliment on the Piranha, I'm glad you like it! As for the hounds, I've seen other players in my area run these models as Khornedogs before, so I already knew it would work. They look better than GW's "official" Flesh Hound models IMO.

@aov: Thanks! I thought painting camo would be a hard and drawn out process, but it turned out it was easy as pie! Glad you and others think I did a good job on it; now I can apply the same basic pattern to my other Tau vehicles whenever I get around to painting them.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/06 18:40:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've begun work on the Bloodthirster, here's the latest WIP shot:

I still have one more drybrush to go on the skin (Evil Sunz Scarlet), and then a glaze of Bloodletter to make the red more vivid. Hopefully when all is said and done the skin will look at least as good as the Soul Grinder I did last year. That model was practice for this one as far as the skin. I'm mostly following Duncan Rhodes' method from the 2 part video on how to paint a Bloodthirster. I may add a few of my own touches here and there (like some Blood for the Blood God on the axe), but we'll see how I'm doing for time as I get further on the model.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/08 09:35:48


Post by: Azazelx


Nice WIP on the Thirster so far!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/08 11:13:59


Post by: Guildenstern


Lovely job on the Piranha!

Bloodthirster looks like it be a great model to paint, looking forward to seeing more on it!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/10 16:46:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks, it will be a lot better when it's done!

@Guildenstern: Thanks, I'm glad you like the Piranha! The Bloodthirster has been really fun to do so far, it is such an awesome model. Truly one of GW's best!

I've made a little bit more progress, although I'm starting to fall behind where I should be if I want to actually finish by the end of the month. I've finished the skin and basecoated the horns, claws, and fur:

Only problem is when I basecoated all the stuff gray I missed the teeth! Oh well I'll go back and do them before I continue with the rest. I'll need to shade and highlight those areas, then it'll be on to the wing membranes, which will be super easy (basically just basecoat black to clean up the mess from painting the skin, then lightly drybrush gray to emphasize all the texture). Hopefully I can get back on track and make serious progress soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/14 17:01:31


Post by: ZergSmasher


More progress! The horns, claws, teeth, and wing membranes are all done now, as can be seen in these two photos:

Next up will be the metallic stuff, like the weapons, armor, and some other small bits scattered around the model. Then I'll have to do all the human skulls, then the flames on the base, then the actual base itself. It's gonna look good when it's all done, though, I can feel it! Keep watching this blog for more on this model!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/14 18:32:19


Post by: Guildenstern


So cool! how are you thinking of doing the base for him?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/14 18:47:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


Thanks a bunch, Guildenstern! I'm probably going to do my usual texture paint, shade, and drybrush, then add some grass tufts. As an added touch, I may try to find a way to make the ground look scorched around the flames, though. Another thing that's hard to see in most of the photos is the fact that I've already added a few pieces from the Badlands basing kit (an animal skull, a pair of human skulls, a skull in a Guardsman's helmet-notice a theme here?). That should help make the base look interesting, which is important on such a large base.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/23 15:08:13


Post by: ZergSmasher


Okay, finally more to show on the Bloodthirster:

I've gotten most of the metallics done, just a highlight left on the brass parts. I've also basecoated all the skulls. There are plenty of those scattered around the model, even in the 'thirster's hair (not visible in this photo). Next thing I need to do will be to shade and highlight the skulls, as well as highlight the brass as I said. After that, just the black leather belts and straps that hold the armor on, the flames (that will be tough to make look good), and the basing. Oh, and the small fiddly bits like the tongue and eyes. Can't forget those.

In addition to working on the Bloodthirster, I finished assembling my Chaos Bikers:

Not a good photo, but there really isn't much to see. I had one meltagun from a Chaos Marine sprue, and I came up with 3 resin ones from a GW pack of 5. The combi-meltas on the Champions are a bolter with the barrel cut off and a gargoyle head from the Chaos vehicle sprue attached. Should be okay when painted.

Hopefully I can finish the Bloodthirster soon, I've got about a week left, so wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/23 15:10:57


Post by: angelofvengeance


Lovely stuff Zergsmasher .

Really love the D-Thirster


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/25 20:18:12


Post by: ZergSmasher


@aov: Thanks, buddy! He's certainly my favorite of the three new Bloodthirsters, and not just because of his in-game performance.

This will be the final WIP shot before the final photos:

The only thing left to do on the Bloodthirster himself is a small drybrush of the black straps wrapped around the big axe. Other than that, there's just the flames and the base. I'm actually gonna finish him this month, possibly by tomorrow evening depending on what I do with the rest of my weekend (I'm going to see Independence Day: Resurgence this afternoon and then having dinner with my folks afterwards). Stay tuned for the final pics of this monster!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/29 02:38:16


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks!

Well, the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived! I now reveal to you my Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, of the Sixth Host of Khorne's Daemonic Legions:





He was loads of fun to paint! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I feel that this may be my best work yet! I couldn't be more pleased with how the model turned out! Truly a worthy centerpiece for my Khorne Daemonkin army. It doesn't hurt that the sculpt itself is one of the finest GW has ever made! I can recommend this model to anyone who has any interest in the forces of Chaos (especially Khorne, of course). Please feel free to vote for this guy in the Dakka gallery!

Now that this big angry guy's done, I'm not sure what's next up for me to paint. I'll be doing some Flesh Hounds for next month's painting challenge, so hopefully I can do better than I did on the last ones. I'll probably try to push on with getting my Tau stuff painted as well. Thanks to everyone for looking at this blog and offering words of encouragement! It means a lot to me! Hopefully I can continue to give you all some nice stuff to look at.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/29 03:14:46


Post by: Heretic Tom


Awesome job, he's epic.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/06/29 05:59:42


Post by: evildrcheese


That looks freaking amazing. Great work Zerg.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/02 01:13:31


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Heretic Tom and EDC: Thanks guys, I'm glad you like him!

I've brought my metal Flesh Hounds off of the shelf and onto my painting bench (okay, its just a card table...) for July's painting challenge. I hope to get them started very soon, although it appears I will have to dust them off a bit first!

Also on deck for this month is my squad of Tau Pathfinders. I'm doing them for Azazelx's "Tale of Many Gamers" challenge. Should be a pretty full month, but if I manage to get that many minis painted this month I will be really pumped!

So, now that the year is half over, here's where I am on my goals that I set back around New Year's:
1: Get my Stormsurge assembled and painted. I got that one done!
2: Finish all models that are partially painted. I haven't done so well with that one, in fact the only one that I finished that was partially painted at the start of the year was the Tau Piranha. I better hop to it!
3: Paint at least twice as many models as last year (37 last year, so 74 this year). I've done 29 so far this year, so I'm a little off the pace. Hopefully getting a few squads done will help my numbers. I've got some bigger models to do too though, but I'm only counting them as one.
4: Paint my Bloodthirster. I made it happen!
5: Take a fully painted army to a tournament. We'll see about that one, could be difficult even if I make my goal of number of models painted.
6: Learn to paint small details and freehand better. I think I'm improving a little on that, but I still struggle.
7: Clip all parts off of sprues and make an actual bits box. Not yet, since I haven't wanted to sit there and clip parts all day!
I've got a fair bit to go on most of these goals, so wish me luck for the second half of the year!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/05 17:00:54


Post by: ZergSmasher


No painting progress to show, but I have now finished assembling all my WHFB Chaos Warhounds as Flesh Hounds, meaning that my Gorepack is complete. Here they are, still shiny and...gray:


I recently got the Marine models from Deathwatch Overkill, and have begun assembling those minis. I've done one so far, Ortan Cassius:

I just love the details on these figures, they are so cool! I can't wait to start painting them!

In other news, I will soon be picking up a copy of Dreadball Xtreme from a friend who is trying to clean out his excess gaming stuff (he said he'd just give me the Dreadball game). It will be interesting to do some non-GW minis, although I'm not sure anyone around my area plays Dreadball (my FLGS does stock it though).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/11 02:35:36


Post by: Azazelx


I love that Bloodthirster! He's suitably epic, but I'd be terrified that he'll break off the base with only that thin fire holding him up! You've also just reminded me that I need to find and finish my packs of Chaos hounds as well!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/11 03:37:54


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks, man! He wobbles a bit near his base, but I've been using him for a while and so far so good as far as not breaking! For all the complaining I hear about the quality (or rather lack thereof) of GW plastic glue, it has worked for me with the exception of one bottle I used early on in my hobbying (most stuff I assembled with that bottle of glue has come apart at some point ).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/12 01:23:38


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've finally gotten off my lazy ass and started painting my Flesh Hounds of Khorne for Paradigm's monthly painting challenge. So far all I've done is basecoat the red skin, but it's progress, right? Here's the "pic or it didn't happen":

I was very messy with the paint, just making sure to get red on all the skin. I'm gonna cover over the mess with other colors anyway. The paint scheme will be very "quick and dirty" rather than super detailed like my Bloodthirster.

This month I'm actually taking on two units, the other being a squad of Tau Pathfinders for Azazelx's "Tale of Many Gamers" painting challenge. So far all I've done is the first basecoat of the skin, but nevertheless here's a pic:

That Tau skin tutorial that WarhammerTV's Emma did back in December is a godsend! The results are wonderful, so I highly recommend it to anyone painting Tau.

In other news, I've now finished assembling all the Deathwatch minis from Deathwatch: Overkill. Here they are, awaiting some primer and paint:


I also assembled my Be'lakor model:

He also obviously needs some primer love. I'm looking forward to painting this guy, as it's a truly awesome sculpt!

Sadly, priming may not happen soon, as here in mid-Missouri the weather is extremely hot and humid right now. And when it's not hot and humid, it's raining and making sure the humidity stays high. Gotta love a Midwestern summer [/sarcasm]. Hopefully I can stay focused and keep working on stuff. When I do, you'll see it right here, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/12 07:13:24


Post by: evildrcheese


Man you've got plenty done.

Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how the fleshhounds turn out.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/07/26 19:21:00


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Sorry to curb your enthusiasm, but I'm setting the Hounds aside for a while, as I'm just not finding the willpower or inspiration to paint them right now. I'll get back to them eventually!

Finally time for another update after over 2 weeks. I just haven't gotten much painting done, between being busy at work and other RL stuff, plus this oppressive heat has just sapped my energy. Anyway, here is some stuff I have managed to get done. I put the final basecoat on four of my Tau Pathfinders (I'm only doing 4 at the moment, I'll get to the others after I finish these). Now they have all the main colors in place:

They'll need some touchups before shading, plus I need to add some yellow on the Shas'ui's left shoulder pad and sensor vane.

I also have begun painting a few of the models from the Dreadball Xtreme starter set. Here's a WIP of one of the Free Agent models, the Avaran Treebeast:

I'm almost done with him actually, just needs a bit of green on the vine parts and maybe another light drybrush highlight. I've got a couple more Dreadball models primed as well.

Assembly-wise, I've gotten a Tau Strike team assembled, as well as a bike Librarian for my allied LIbrarius Conclave (will be painted as Blood Ravens so any chapter tactics!).

Hope to have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/01 02:24:43


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've made a little bit of progress. Very little has been done with the Tau Pathfinders I was working on, although now I may be able to take a fresh look at them after leaving them alone for a bit. Hopefully I can get the entire unit done in August, plus some other Tau stuff if possible to make up for the lack of painting in July.

As for the Dreadball Xtreme stuff, I have finished two of the Free Agents as my entry in July's painting challenge:
First, the Avaran Treebeast:

Second, the Vlorox Spinpede:

Finally, a shot of the two together:

Far from my best paintwork, but at least I got something done in July. What a beast of a month it's been.

Next month, I should be able to do the two jump pack models from Deathwatch: Overkill. They are primed and ready to paint. Also, as I said above, I intend to make some progress on my Tau army. Look forward to some progress on that front soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/08 02:07:49


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've made a little progress on the Deathwatch jump guys:

Just the silver stuff, plus the gold details on Delassio's chainsword. I intend to get more done very soon on these.

No additional WIP's of the Tau Pathfinders just yet. They are ready for shading, though. Speaking of Tau, a friend of mine sold off his Tau army, but had a few models left over, so he just gave them to me (Thanks a bunch, buddy!). Here's a pic of that haul:

The lot consists of 2 Devilfish, a Sky Ray, a Razorshark, a Piranha with Fusion Blaster, 3 old metal Broadsides with Rail Rifles, 1 old Broadside missing his weapons, a set of spare Devilfish engines, a couple of vehicle weapon systems, and a completely wrecked Crisis suit body (that will probably make it onto a base as a battlefield casualty). Everything is in pretty rough shape overall, but with a little work I can make most if not all of it serviceable. Mostly I need to track down some bits and stuff. The weaponless Broadside can get the rail rifle from the Broadside kit I built (I used the HYMPs). Most of the stuff is not competitive, but now I have some more models to use for casual/fluffy games.

Also in that lot of bits was a head from a Maulerfiend (not sure why that was in there). It will be used with the body from a Star Wars Miniatures Junk Golem and the herald left over from building a Skull Cannon to make a Juggerherald. All I've been waiting for was a suitable head, and now I have one. That conversion is not a high priority for me right now, but at some point I'm gonna want to try a Juggerherald, so I'm glad I can now proceed with that at my convenience.

More to come, hopefully soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/08 07:16:35


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice haul. Never hurts to have 'uncompetitive' options up your sleeve, as you say nice to more fluffy games and secondly you never know when they might be good again!

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/08 15:45:56


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Good points, especially since I enjoy both competitive and non-competitive games.

Progress update on the Deathwatch guys. I've gotten a good chunk of the basecoating done, here's a somewhat blurry WIP shot:

Just a few base colors to go, then I need to clean up the armor where I've made a bit of a mess.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/13 14:31:43


Post by: ZergSmasher


Good news! The basecoating on the Deathwatch Jump Marines is complete:

Now its time to put some shade on the areas that need it, and then do some highlights (oh, and Delassio's blond hair, as soon as I find a good method for painting blond hair). I'm gonna keep it real simple for the bases, as they already have some nice decorative elements on them.

More progress on the Tau: I've shaded the four Pathfinders I was working on, and painted the yellow on the Shas'ui's sensor vane and shoulder pad:

Now I need to highlight everything, including painting the brighter final yellow color on the Shas'ui. Then I need to get the other 6 guys in the squad done. These guys are just kind of tedious to paint for some reason, hence the slow progress.

I've got a box of Chaos bikes and Start Collecting: Space Wolves on the way courtesy of eBay, so I'll soon begin putting together a Cyclopian Cabal for my forces of Chaos. The wolves will serve both as a small ally force for casual games (using the box formation), and the start of a Superfriends list (I'll need a bunch more Thunderwolves first...).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/24 17:44:10


Post by: ZergSmasher


I'm back again with another progress update. The Deathwatch guys are done except for the bases and possibly a highlight on the Raven Guard guy's bird motif (on the jump pack). Here's the (final) WIP shot:

I'm pretty happy with how Delassio's face and hair turned out (I'm not very good at doing either of those things). I should have final pics of these guys soon.

On the Greater Good front, I've finished the Pathfinders other than their bases (although I may add squad markings as well), here's their final WIP shot:

Rather than try to slog through 6 more of these guys, I'm gonna see what I can do to some Stealth suits first. I'll come back to the rest of this squad later.

RL has been slamming me to the floor this month much like last month. I feel like it's a lame excuse for how little painting I've gotten done, but it's true. Thank you to all who have been bearing with me and continuing to comment on my blog, I really appreciate it!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/25 17:07:55


Post by: Guildenstern


Good job on the face, Zerg! that is really hard I find too

looking forward to the Tau, really like those models


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/27 02:39:10


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Guildenstern: I'm glad you like it! And as for the Tau, more are coming!

I've gotten the Deathwatch guys and those four pesky Pathfinders done! Now they can all stop giving me the stink-eye. Here's some pics:
First, a pic of the two Deathwatch guys together:

Next, a couple of shots of Edryc Setorax, formerly of the Raven Guard:

A note about this model: I painted the feathers to look like blue jay feathers, as I've never seen any feathers on models painted to look that way. I figured it would be okay as the blue jay is a distant relative of the raven. For those of you who are not from America and may not have any idea of what a blue jay looks like, I suggest you google it, as I think they are very pretty birds.
Here are a couple of shots of Antor Delassio, formerly of the Blood Angels:

Overall I feel like these guys turned out okay, although my paintwork is a bit sloppy on the details. I find that sometimes if I try to do too much to fix the sloppiness, I just end up making it worse, so I've let the models be for now.

Finally, here's a pic of those Tau Pathfinders:

I'm happy with how they look, and there will be more pics once I finish painting their 6 other squadmates. I'm gonna knock out some other Tau models first, as I'm a little burned out with infantry right now.

Feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka gallery, and as always, thanks for looking!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/27 03:52:57


Post by: Januine


Nice work there Zerg. The fly boys are looking grand. Who's you next. I recommend big bad Bran - he was really fun to paint too


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/27 03:59:32


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Januine: Thank you very much! I may not take on any more of the DW guys soon, as I intend to "reward" myself with painting them after knocking out some ordinary joes first. Might motivate me to stick with my regular dudes instead of just my cool stuff. When I do come back to these guys, I'll probably do Cassius or Natorian next. They're all so cool, it's hard to pick!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/28 19:09:50


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I have now begun working on a Tau XV25 Stealth Battlesuit team, here's the first WIP shot:

I'm going for a darker blue than on my regular Tau stuff, as these guys are supposed to be stealthy. For their yellow sept markings, I may just do the Averland Sunset rather than layer over that with Yriel Yellow, to give a more muted tone. Whenever I get around to it, I will use the same scheme on my Ghostkeel suit.

In other news, I'm assembling a trio of Black Legion Sorcerers to form a Cyclopian Cabal. I've begun assembling them and their bikes. 2 of them will have axes, one will have a staff. Here's a shot of what I've put together so far:

On the left is the bike, torso/head assembly, arms, and shoulder pads of one sorcerer, and on the right is the head, right arm, and kitbashed staff of another. I will paint them in pieces so as to make it a little easier to reach the details. The one on the left in the picture has some Slaanesh-related parts; this way I could choose to run him with the Mark of Slaanesh (as unfluffy as it is to do so in a unit from Khorne Daemonkin, it is permissible within the rules to do so provided the Khorne unit is only Daemons, like Flesh Hounds). Most of the time I'm going to run them all unmarked, though. These will be my entry in next month's painting challenge (It's a Kind of Magic); expect plenty of black and some gold trim since they are, after all, from the Black Legion.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/28 19:49:53


Post by: DaemonColin


Wow this is really cool plog. I love the way that BL biker is looking and your tau is pretty awesome


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/29 05:18:30


Post by: ZergSmasher


@DaemonColin: Thanks for the kind words! If you think the biker looks good now, wait till I get him painted, not to mention fully assembled!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/29 17:37:56


Post by: Thraxas Of Turai


Cool idea with the Blue Jay feathers, even more bonus points for them being related to the raven. Your Tau are coming along nicely as well, the TV25 has always been my favourite battlesuit design. The biker looks like it will be a successful kit bash as well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/29 17:40:20


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking food Zerg. Nice work on the Deathwatch and path finders. I reckon those bikers will look ace too.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/30 03:31:20


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Thraxas: I'm glad you like the blue jay feathers, I was afraid people would just think it was weird, so your comment is very reassuring. I'm actually enjoying painting the stealth suits, as I'm a big fan of the design myself. That's part of what I love about the Ghostkeel; it is to a Stealth suit what a Riptide is to a Crisis suit, a bigger, badder version.

@EDC: Thanks, I'm glad you like them!

Work continues on the stealth suits, more slowly than I'd hoped due to some RL things unexpectedly popping up (nothing major, so no worries!). I also got some bits in the mail today (from eBay) and that Razorshark that I got from my friend now has all its pieces. Only thing it doesn't have is a base, but I can borrow one from one of my other flyers. Now I need to repaint it in a scheme that matches the rest of my Tau army (not gonna happen real soon I'm afraid, too much else to do first).

Should have more to show you soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/08/30 03:42:57


Post by: shasolenzabi


Now those are cool colored Tau, makes me think a more aquatic world got settled!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/08 18:29:42


Post by: ZergSmasher


@shasolenzabi: Actually the fluff I'd worked out for these guys in my head was that the planet they're from is covered in blue foliage, but aquatic works too! I'm glad you like the scheme, as it's really fun to paint and looks better in person than these photos would suggest.

I'm not making much headway on the Stealth suits, as I've been throwing some paint on my Chaos Knight and my Cyclopian Cabal. Here's the latest WIP on the first Sorcerer from the Cabal:

The Black Legion color scheme is definitely coming together, as well as the skin and horn on the Sorcerer. You may also notice the stretched skin on the bike seat area; best not to think too much about what kind of skin that is...

I'm doing the sorcerers one at a time, so that way even if the painting challenge deadline catches up to me, I'll most likely have something to submit. More to come soon, I hope!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/08 18:44:42


Post by: jhe90


Nice start to biker.

Yeah.. Best not ask too hard where chaos gets its leather.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/14 20:30:11


Post by: ZergSmasher


@jhe90: Thanks!

I've made a little more progress on the first cabal Sorcerer. All the basecoating is done and I've applied some shading, now all that's left is highlights and details. Here's a (somewhat whitewashed) pic:

Hopefully I can get this guy finished up soon and start working on the other two guys.

In other news, I've recently acquired a trio of Broadside Battlesuits from a friend who is liquidating his Tau collection. He pretty much always plays Space Marines or Astra Militarum and has recently started playing Orks, so he's selling off his Tau models. Here's a pic of the Broadsides and their accompanying Missile Drones:

As you can see, they are painted to tabletop standard. I may repaint them to match my other Tau at some point, but since I have so much unpainted stuff I'm going to let them be for now (it's not like they're ugly or anything). My friend also sold me the parts to a couple of the old Forge World XV88-2 Broadsides. They are officially my first Forge World models. I probably won't get to them anytime soon either, as I've got so much else going on hobbywise.

More updates to come soon, I hope! I'm gonna see what I can do with my Stealth suits, as well as putting some more work on that Sorcerer in the meantime.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/17 19:09:20


Post by: Azazelx


Great work here mate. The Deathwatch are great, and that completed Bloodthirster is bloody amazing. On a related note, you should throw in some of these as stretch goals in the painting challenge thread. I know I couldn't keep focus on just Undead and Gondor for a whole year and absolutely had to branch out. You're more than welcome to do the same.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/17 20:00:21


Post by: angelofvengeance


Nice job with the Biker Sorcerer so far . Lovely "gift" the Dark Gods have given him on his head there
Tau are looking pretty spiffy too


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/19 09:57:55


Post by: shasolenzabi


 ZergSmasher wrote:
@shasolenzabi: Actually the fluff I'd worked out for these guys in my head was that the planet they're from is covered in blue foliage, but aquatic works too! I'm glad you like the scheme, as it's really fun to paint and looks better in person than these photos would suggest.

I'm not making much headway on the Stealth suits, as I've been throwing some paint on my Chaos Knight and my Cyclopian Cabal. Here's the latest WIP on the first Sorcerer from the Cabal:

The Black Legion color scheme is definitely coming together, as well as the skin and horn on the Sorcerer. You may also notice the stretched skin on the bike seat area; best not to think too much about what kind of skin that is...

I'm doing the sorcerers one at a time, so that way even if the painting challenge deadline catches up to me, I'll most likely have something to submit. More to come soon, I hope!


Hey it works either way huh? the blue armor is nice.

bike mounted sorcer is looking very Black Legion so the plan is coming together I see.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/23 02:03:25


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks! I worked very hard on the 'thirster and those two Deathwatch guys, so I'm glad you think they turned out good. As for the painting challenge thread, I did put the Deathwatch guys in (belatedly), and I'll throw more of my stuff in in the future.

@aov: I guess you could say the Sorcerer is horny

@shasolenzabi: Thanks!

Well, I've basically finished with the first Sorcerer, just a couple of minor touchups left:

This will be the last WIP for this guy. I'm going to assemble him and then do his base very soon, then I'll post some final pics. His buddies may have to wait a bit, as I'm going on vacation starting on Sunday.

In other news, I recently played in a 40k tournament (and placed 2nd out of 8 players), and while I was at the FLGS for that event, I snagged a set of the new Heretic Astartes psychic power cards, a copy of the most recent Black Legion supplement (mainly so that I would have a hard copy of the Cyclopian Cabal's rules) and a copy of the new White Dwarf, meaning that I now have this:

Yessir, that's the SLAUGHTERPRIEST WITH HACKBLADE, and he's a much beefier model than I thought based on seeing pics of him. He's too big to be a Possessed champion or even a Chaos Lord really, so I'm probably going to use him as a Herald of Khorne instead. I'm thinking of painting his skin red and using metallic tones for his armor. In all honesty, he's not a huge priority for painting, as I have a lot of other stuff I need to be painting right about now.

I should have final pics of the Sorcerer very soon, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/09/24 03:24:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I've now finished the first Sorcerer, so here are the final pics:







I feel like the model turned out ok, but my concern is that it doesn't look as much like a Sorcerer as a Biker Champion. I wish I had a model that could be a familiar or something, or maybe a spellbook. Oh well, can't be helped. At least my next Sorcerer will be carrying a staff. Feel free to vote for these pics in the gallery if you like them! I hope to get the other 2 Sorcerers done when I get back from vacation, so look forward to that and the final touches on my Tau Stealth team at that time.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/03 19:31:00


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I've now returned from my vacation, so it's back to hobbying! I'm going to paint my Kroot for my Tau army, as well as hopefully finish up those Stealth suits soon. If I have time, I'll put some work in on the BL sorcerers as well. Here's where I'm starting with those Kroot:

I obviously need to start with primer, but there's a problem: my apartment's kitchen is being remodeled soon (all the kitchens in my building are getting it, but only a few each month), so all my kitchen stuff is in my living room. I can't get to my balcony door until I put everything back, but I really can't put everything back until the work is done (meaning I basically have no living room ). The contractors were supposed to take care of the kitchen while I was out of town, but there must have been a delay or something . So now I can't get to my balcony to prime anything. I'll have to prime with brush-on stuff, or else find somewhere else to spray.

In other news, I picked up a copy of the Lost Patrol game, and I've already assembled the Space Marine Scouts:

I kind of like the red plastic; for a non-painter, this looks better than gray and makes it easy to tell the models apart from the Genestealers, who are in dark blue plastic. I'm going to paint these Scouts in Blood Ravens colors (probably not real soon though).

Since I've now painted 38 miniatures this year (that Chaos Sorcerer was #38), I've officially painted more stuff this year than last year, and I've still got a few months left to get more done. Hopefully I can push a few more units out and really raise that number!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/04 11:01:56


Post by: Zambro


Wow, already beat last year in painted models... Good job!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/10 15:46:19


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Zambro: Thanks! It really does feel good to be improving the rate at which I get paint on models, especially considering some of the models I've done this year aren't small (like the Bloodthirster and the Stormsurge).

I'm making some progress on the first 4 of my Kroot:

I've completely done the skin, and in a color scheme I've never seen used elsewhere. For those who are curious, I used Stegadon Scale Green as the base, with a shade of Nuln Oil, and a heavy drybrush of Sotek Green. I may yet go back and glaze the skin with Waywatcher Green, although I'm concerned that it will make it look funny. Most of the other base colors are down as well, with the exception of the shoulder pads (which will be Kantor Blue to help tie the models in with my other Tau stuff), and the head spines (which will be black). Hopefully I can finish these very soon and get the other 8 started.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/25 03:41:12


Post by: ZergSmasher


Wow, 3 weeks since I last posted in this blog? No wonder it slid all the way down to page 5! Time to fix that! I've completely finished those Stealth suits I started way back when, so here are the pics:



And here are a couple more focusing on the Shas'vre with his Fusion Blaster:

I actually found them easy to paint, if a bit boring. RL issues and other painting priorities kept me from finishing these guys a while ago, but now I can move on to better things without feeling guilty. I am pretty happy with how they turned out; the dark colors (both the blue and the yellow) are intended to convey the "stealthy" aspect, while still tying in visually with the rest of my Tau. Feel free to vote for the pics in the Dakka gallery and comment on how you like them!

In other news, my FLGS recently had a sale, and among the marked-down 40k products were a set of Space Marine Centurions, regularly $78, marked down to $50. I just had to get them, so that I could ally them in with my Dark Angels sometime. I've already started putting them together, and will post pics here when I get them all built. I actually like the models, although I know many players out there hate them and think they are ugly. They will be added to my budding Blood Ravens force.

I've also finished 4 of my Kroot, minus the bases. Here's a low-quality pic:

I'm going to start on their 8 buddies soon. I've still got 4 more unbuilt as well, but I'm not in a hurry as I am unlikely to use more than 12 in a game anytime soon. I did these 4 mainly to test out my color scheme, and I'm happy with it (though I'm not entirely sure about the yellow war paint on the heads).

Hopefully there will be more good stuff to post here soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/25 06:01:09


Post by: evildrcheese


Stealth suits are looking good.

Liking the use of purple and yellow on the Kroot to tie them in with the Tau.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/10/25 06:32:32


Post by: JoshInJapan


This is a nice little batch of models. The yellow warpaint on the kroot ties them in with the Tau, although it may be a little bright.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/01 03:02:47


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! I wanted the tie-in to be noticable, but not completely in-your-face.

@JoshInJapan: The brightness of the yellow was a concern of mine as well, hence why I only put down one coat of the darker yellow basecoat. For the rest of my Kroot, I'll have to come up with something that can mute that a bit. Perhaps a bit of shading over the stripes?

I've gotten those 4 Kroot completely done, including their bases. Here's the photographic evidence:





I feel like they turned out well, although looking at the pics I can see where I missed a few mold lines. The Kroot kit is particularly bad for mold lines, though. As they are basic troops, I'm not going to worry too much about it, and I hope to have some more of these guys' friends painted sometime soon. Feel free to vote on these in the gallery!

For the next painting challenge, I'm going to tackle a trio of Centurion Devastators with Grav Cannons. They will be painted in Blood Ravens colors as part of my budding ally force for my Dark Angels. Pics will follow soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/01 03:58:51


Post by: JoshInJapan


Those Kroot look nice. The warpaint doesn't lookt quite so bright in these photos, maybe because of the lighting? It works well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/01 04:33:46


Post by: shasolenzabi


Looking good!

I myself found a monochrome scheme with a few markings a tad boring myself and went at first with a very elaborate Dark Green/medium green/pale green jungle camo scheme, then went with a organic city scheme I was allowed to borrow from my days ate Advanced Tau Tactica, formerly Mechanized Tau Tactica


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/01 06:47:42


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice. That dark green/ dark teal skin tone suits them well.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/02 02:19:40


Post by: ZergSmasher


@JoshInJapan: Thanks, man! I'm glad you like them. I wasn't sure at first how I wanted to do the warpaint, but I figured simple stripes on the head would look okay and be easy to do. I guess it worked!

@shasolenzabi: Thanks! I'd be curious to see those city themed models.

@EDC: Thanks! I came up with the skin color after looking at some pictures of WFB Lizardmen (now called Seraphon in AoS) models. I decided that it might look okay on Kroot, so I tried it and, well, you can see the results.

Here's the start of my Centurions. They are only primed as of right now, but I'm going to very soon start hitting them with some color. As there haven't been Centurions in the Dawn of War games, I'll have a bit of liberty with how to make them look like Blood Ravens, but it should be pretty straightforward to extrapolate the scheme.

The heads are separate to facilitate easier painting, as with them in place it would be difficult to paint the details on the heads and around where the heads will go. More to come!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/07 02:42:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've gotten the first two base colors down on my Centurions:

2 layers of Mephiston Red for the armor, and 2 layers of Zandri Dust followed by 2 layers of Ushabti Bone for the shoulder pads. Next up will be Leadbelcher for the metallic parts, as well as Balthasar Gold for some of the decorative elements and Vallejo Model Color Black for the weapon casings and shoulder pad trim. Despite the crap quality of the photo you can already see the Blood Ravens color scheme unfolding.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/15 21:49:48


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've now finished the basecoating for my Centurions, so here's a WIP before I shade them:

I'm going to pretty much cover them in Agrax Earthshade, with the silver metals being shaded in Nuln Oil instead. Then I can get to the tedious process of brightening up the colors again before highlighting. I hope to have these mostly done by this weekend so I can use them in a tournament. I need to reach the point where the heads can go in to accomplish that.

In other news, I've assembled one sprue of Lost Patrol Genestealers:

2 more sprues of those and I'll have the whole game assembled. Then I can worry about getting some paint down on them.

I also picked up a figure at my FLGS to use as an Inquisitor. I've always wanted to go 3rd-party for an Inquisitor model as the GW ones don't really excite me that much other than Coteaz. Here's the assembled mini:

The mini is from Raging Heroes' Toughest Girls in the Galaxy range, specifically Admiral Olga Kurganova. I may just paint her up next month since the painting challenge will be open to any models. I just need to decide on a color scheme that makes her look more like an Inquisitor. I'll probably paint the Inquisitor I symbol on the inside of her coat, for starters.

More to come soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/21 04:00:34


Post by: ZergSmasher


The Centurions are very nearly done now, so here's a final WIP shot before I finish and base them:

All that's left to do is the freehand Blood Ravens chapter symbols and Devastator chevrons, but those won't be too hard I hope. I also need to highlight the gold details to make them pop. After that, I'll base them in the usual manner for my minis.

In other news, I just had a tournament yesterday that saw those Centurions in their first combat action alongside my Dark Angels. I ran a DA Combined Arms Detachment, a Ravenwing Attack Squadron formation, and an Allied Detachment for my Centurions, which also included a librarian on a bike, the Scouts from Lost Patrol, and a drop pod borrowed from my Dark Angels. My list, while not terrible, had some less than competitive options (including my first tournament outing with my Nephilim Jetfighter), but that was okay because I wasn't worried about winning, just having fun. Here's a short battle summary of my three games:

In game 1, I faced a Genestealer Cult for the very first time. I got royally slaughtered because so many of those Genestealers and hybrids just popped up everywhere and many of them charged right in on the very first turn. My Centurions were less than helpful since grav weapons aren't much use against 5+ or worse saves. The Nephilim actually didn't do too bad, as I caught a couple of squads of Neophytes out in the open and mulched them (Brrrrrrrrrt!), but it was too little too late. I lost 0-11, but it was a lot of fun seeing what a Genestealer Cult could do. Now I have to figure out what to do differently so I don't get roflstomped next time...

In game 2, my opponent was rocking a Raven Guard Talon Strike Force as well as a Skyhammer Annihilation Force (2x 4 Multimeltas on the Devs) and an Inquisitorial detachment, with Coteaz and a regular Inquisitor with 3 servo skulls. He left a lot of squads naked in order to really kit out his Vanguard Veterans from one of the Auxiliary formations (whatever the one is with the Scouts and Vanguard Vets). I chose to go second due to the fact that I was facing basically a null deployment army, and it paid off. My Ravenwing Command squad got charged on turn 1 by four different units, but two of them failed to make it in even with jump pack rerolls. Thanks to my Interrogator-Chaplain mainly, the two squads that did make it in got mulched without a single Black Knight going down. My Centurions came in on my turn and took out a couple of squads thanks to their Split Fire. This was unfortunately their only real action as they then got tied up in CC and killed over the next couple of turns. Long story short, I ended up winning 11-1, partly because the main mission objective was Kill Points, and my opponent's MSU-style army just gave up too many, causing him to concede after turn 4.

My third and final opponent was playing Orks in a Great WAAAGH!-band detachment. He had several large blobs of Boyz, and 2 large blobs of Stormboyz, as well as a couple of small squads of Lootas and a 3-man Meganobz unit. No vehicles at all, just a sea of Boyz (he had something like 190 models against my 39). My Centurions sacrificed themselves to get a clean shot at the Meganobz and one squad of Lootas. When my Nephilim came in, it killed a bunch of boyz and a couple of Lootas before it got Crew Shaken and I flew it off the board (toward the end of the game). I ended up winning 9-3, as we tied the Relic mission since neither of us had it. It was a bloodbath, with both armies losing 80-90% of their models. Most of the Orks that died were swept by the Command Squad, as my Interrogator-Chaplain just kept that squad killing Boyz by the handful. I also got very lucky with most of my die rolls. Indeed, the dice won me that game, not my skill as a player.

My takeaway:
Genestealer Cults are NASTY. I'm not sure how to defend against them, so I'll have to do a little research.
Centurions are amazing against many armies, but crap against others. They also need to avoid getting tied up in CC at all costs (obviously!). They should always take an Omniscope to threaten multiple units at once and avoid overkilling a single unit.
The Nephilim is pretty good against certain armies, but near useless against most. It is also criminally overcosted. I probably won't run a single Nephy in a tournament again, but I do intend to try out the Silence Squadron once I get my other two DA flyers assembled and painted.
Interrogator-Chaplains are beastly with a RWCS, especially if they take the Mace of Redemption. Those rerolls to hit in the first round really help, and his higher Initiative means he can hit ahead of most enemies (really helped against those Vanguard Vets with LIghtning Claws).

After the tournament, I picked up a copy of Kill Team, so now I have yet another squad of Tactical Marines as well as some more Tau Fire Warriors (which will probably become a second squad of Breachers). The models were not the reason I bought it though. I hope to try out some Kill Team games sometime soon.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/26 04:23:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I've got something to be thankful for: my Centurions are finished! Here are the pics:





They were a real blast to paint! It was a lot of fun translating the color scheme from Dawn of War onto a unit that wasn't even in the game. Centurions are cool models and very solid on the tabletop. They have plenty of detail to challenge a painter, yet are not frustratingly fiddly. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka gallery!

In other news, I've been busy assembling my Start Collecting Space Wolves box. I've gotten all of the Thunderwolf Cavalry done, as well as a Wolf Lord on foot and a couple of the Grey Hunters. I may not get around to painting them real soon, but at least I'll be able to play with them.

Since I will have some extra money over the holidays, I have decided to pull the trigger on building up my Dark Angels into a full Battle Company, including plenty of transports. I've already got a used Razorback on the way courtesy of eBay, and I'm looking at getting 3 more of them as well as a couple of drop pods and some more assault and devastator marines. I was originally thinking I would get the Deathwatch battleforce box that is going to be released soon, but then I decided that I really don't need yet another army, and besides, Deathwatch really aren't all that competitive. The models are sweet, but I'd rather spend money on more competitive things right now. To be honest, I still might switch and go with bulking up my budding Space Wolves instead (and buying some more Thundercav as well as some Wulfen), but I don't know that I want to go that route at this time.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and I hope to have more good stuff to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/11/28 13:49:44


Post by: shasolenzabi


Centurions look good! They are so beefy being a suit worn over another suit.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/12/02 02:43:24


Post by: ZergSmasher


@shasolenzabi: Thanks! The beefy part is what I like about the models! They just have a tough look that goes well with how they perform on the tabletop.

I've been in between projects for the past several days, but I've still gotten some hobbying done, just not as much as I would like. I have gotten most of the Start Collecting: Space Wolves box built (not all in the past few days though):

I've built all 3 Thunderwolf Cavalry models (the riders are not glued on so as to make painting the wolves easier), 3 of the Grey Hunters, and the footslogging Wolf Lord (with a combiplasma and a Power Fist). I don't intend to use them in any tournaments, but they'll be fun for casual play. Those TWC models are just so cool, I just had to have some! I'll eventually get some more and perhaps run a Thunderdome type list together with my Ravenwing, but probably not anytime soon.

I also got started on another squad of Tau drones:

They are pretty much basecoated, just awaiting shades and highlights. Drones are unsurprisingly easy models to paint, but there are just so many of the little frisbees in most Tau players' collections...

My next main project is that female Inquisitor model, which will be my entry into the December painting challenge. I've primed her already, so now she just needs a bit of paint!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/12/17 22:46:16


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I haven't gotten a whole lot of stuff done so far this month. I've decided to shelve that Inquisitor model for the time being, since I heard that Inquisitors got nerfed into the ground in the new rules (like losing servo skulls). So instead of that, I'll be painting the Convict team from Dreadball Xtreme. I've only barely started on one of them as a test model, and that was a while back. Here's their current state:

I'll hand prime them, as the weather outside is way too cold to spray anything. They should be quick and easy to paint up, but we'll see.

I recently bought a few things on eBay to start beefing up my Dark Angels Greenwing into a full Battle Company. Among what I've acquired so far are a Devastator Squad, an Assault Squad, and a Razorback all new in box. I also got a Razorback that was already assembled and primed. To me, the most interesting piece was this:

It's a metal Chaplain model from 2nd or 3rd edition. I saw it on eBay for a good price, and I just had to have it. I'm not sure what to do about the backpack banner holder; what were players meant to do with this? I might have to make some kind of banner out of ProCreate (like Green Stuff), as it will look kind of funny being just a naked pole.

I've also begun assembling a Tactical Squad (the one I got from the Kill Team box); 4 of the minis are assembled:

I'm going to squeeze 2 squads out of this box; the other will have a Plasmagun and Combiplasma. I have a Tactical squad that I picked up in my very first visit to an actual GW store while I was on vacation back in September; it will be assembled as a 5-man tac squad and a 5-man Assault Squad on foot (there will be plenty of extra chainswords and pistols from other kits). It'll be interesting when I get it all assembled and actually try running my very first Battle Company list. It probably won't happen till next spring, though.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more updates, and my end of the year review on New Year's Eve.

P.S. You'll have to excuse the quality of these photos, as the lighting situation wasn't so great with all the cloud cover from the winter storms ravaging my hometown.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/12/22 16:44:24


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've made a little bit of progress on those Dreadball Convicts. They are all primed with Vallejo Black PU primer, and I've gotten one of them done with basecoating as a test model:

Not the greatest photo, but you can tell what kind of look I'm going for with these guys. I'm hoping that some of those colors will really pop once I get some shades and highlights down.

I've also started on the sponsor for the Convict team, known only as The Warden:

I've only done the suit, shirt, and skin basecoats so far. This is the first time I've attempted to paint a black person, so I hope I can at least make the skin look right.

Now that I have my scheme for the Convicts down, I can start batch painting them. I'm hoping to have them all done by the end of the month, as not only will it be a good entry for the December painting challenge, but it will help fluff my model count at the end of the year.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2016/12/22 20:21:32


Post by: JoshInJapan


That's a pretty good start. If you're unsure of how to approach darker skin, there is an article somewhere here on Dakka about just that. Sorry, though, my Dakka-fu isn't strong enough to locate it right now...


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/01 05:22:49


Post by: ZergSmasher


@JoshInJapan: I didn't find it either, but I just kind of adapted how I paint white skin to darker tones, and it looks alright. Thanks anyway!

Okay, it's time for a review of what I painted in 2016, but first, here are my final 2 minis for the year! First, a Dreadball Xtreme Convict Thug:

Okay, even I admit the paintjob is AWFUL on this one. It looks, well, okay, in person, but zoomed in you can see how bad I did. I thought he was okay until I took the picture. I'm not proud. I'm only calling this guy done because he's complete to a low tabletop standard. I'll touch him up when I finish more of his teammates.
Finally for 2016, we have the sponsor for the Convict team, known only as "The Warden":

This guy is definitely not my best work either, but at least he turned out better than the train wreck above. I did find him enjoyable to paint.

Okay, now on to the main portion of this post, my year end review of my hobbying for 2016! First, here's a picture of everything I painted this year:

In total, I painted 50 miniatures for 2016, which was well short of my goal of 74 (which would have been twice as many as last year). Still, it is an improvement on 2015's 37 painted miniatures (some of which weren't really finished). Here's a breakdown and list of what I painted:
IMPERIUM OF MAN
Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain on Bike
3 Blood Ravens Centurion Devastators
2 Jump Pack Marines from Deathwatch: Overkill
Total 6 Imperial minis
CHAOS
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
Black Legion Sorcerer on Bike
9 Chaos Cultists
Total 11 Chaos minis
TAU EMPIRE
KV128 Stormsurge
10 Breachers with Guardian Drone
3 XV25 Stealth Battlesuits
4 Pathfinders
3 Marker Drones
4 Kroot Carnivores
TX4 Piranha with 2 Gun Drones
Total 29 Tau minis
DREADBALL XTREME
The Warden
Convict Thug
Avaran Treebeast
Vlorox Spinpede
Total 4 Dreadball Xtreme minis
From this breakdown, I could say that 2016 was way better for my Tau collection than anything. If I had just finished more of what I started, I could have done much better. I've got to get better at sticking with things and pushing through rather than getting bored or distracted. With that said, here are my hobby goals for 2017, in no particular order of importance:
1) Paint more models than I did in 2016. That means 51 or more models.
2) Finish my partially painted models. This includes, but is not limited to, 3 more Dreadball convicts, a Nephilim Jetfighter, 5 Dark Angels Devastators, 3 Ravenwing Command Squad bikes, some Chaos Raptors, a Land Raider (may not happen as I've screwed it up badly by not thinning paints), and others.
3) Paint the right combination of models to take a completely painted army to a tournament. I'm tired of missing out on painting points!
4) Win a 40k tournament. May not happen due to some pretty stiff competition around my area, but I've come close in the past! This goal is not very important to me, as I have a good time playing no matter how I finish.
5) Specific model goal: complete all of my Dark Angels flyers to run the Ravenwing Silence Squadron.
6) Specific model goal: paint my loyalist Imperial Knight. The Chaos one is mostly done, but I haven't even started building the other one.
7) Improve my freehand painting, and learn to paint neater in general. This is one area in which I really struggle badly. I've got to learn how to keep my hands more steady.
8) Improve my photography skills. Perhaps I should invest in materials for building a lightbox to help with this.
9) Buy fewer minis. I've been spending way too much money on more models; I've got plenty of models now, so I need to knock out some of what I have before I pick up yet more. There are a few specific things I want (like a couple more boxes of Black Knights), but other than that I need to keep my wallet on a tight leash.
10) Set up some bits boxes. I'm getting very tired of having to search through many many kit boxes and sprues to find specific parts. I meant to do this in 2016, but I never got around to it.
11) Update this blog more frequently. It's no wonder I don't get a lot of replies or feedback; most people probably think I've dropped off the planet! Updating once every two weeks is not going to cut it.
Okay, these goals seem manageable enough, but we'll see what happens. I'm sure going to give all of these the old college try!

Finally, I'll wrap this up with my top 5 favorite minis (or squads) that I painted last year, in order:
#5: KV128 Stormsurge


#4: Tau TX4 Piranha


#3: Blood Ravens Centurion Devastator Squad:


#2: Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain on Bike


#1: Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage


That's all for 2016, so I'll see you all in 2017! Happy New Year!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/01 05:28:07


Post by: War Kitten


Those Centurions are gorgeous!

Now I want to do a Blood Ravens army. God Emperor help me...


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/02 14:23:00


Post by: brushcommando


Really great stuff on here. I love the tau camo and the blood ravens!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/03 04:58:34


Post by: ZergSmasher


@War Kitten: Thanks! I went with Blood Ravens because I like the Dawn of War games. Plus their scheme is really cool looking. If you start a new Marine army, Blood Ravens would be a good way to go as you could use any chapter tactics you want.

@brushcommando: Thanks a lot! The camo pattern on the Piranha came out even better than I hoped when I first planned it, which makes me very happy! Also, I really enjoyed painting the Blood Ravens. It was fun extrapolating their scheme onto Centurions, which are not in the DoW games since they didn't exist when the games were released.

Sadly, no freshly painted models to show you, but I do have something, although it was done technically near the end of last year rather than this year. I've assembled two more Tactical squads for my DA battle company. Here's a quick pic:

They are still gray, and will remain that way until we get some decent spray priming weather (here in central Missouri it could be a little while). I've got some other Marines that are already either primed or partially painted to occupy me until then, so no problem! As I said, I actually assembled these in December, but I realized that I never posted about it.

To quote Monty Python: And now for something completely different...

Kit Review: Wargames Factory's Apocalypse Survivors: The Women

This is the first time I've attempted to actually review a model kit. I purchased the kit back during the summer to use as additional Chaos Cultists, but I only recently assembled some of the models. To start out, here is a pic of the front of the box:

The kit contains parts to assemble 30 models in various poses, with plenty of optional extras to customize them. It's also a bargain at just $22 or so (US dollars), especially compared to GW models that cost $29 for just 10 models (and that's for Cadians, one of the cheaper GW infantry kits). The box contains 3 sprues with 10 bodies and bases on each, plus the basic weapons for each pose. There is also a fourth sprue which contains alternate arms with weapons, plus a ton of spare weapons without arms attached, as well as accessories like canteens, backpacks, ammo pouches, etc. If you are good at converting models, the options are almost limitless. If you aren't, though...well, I'll get to that in a bit. Here's a pic of 10 assembled models, with the "stock" options (the ones that come on the sprue with the bodies):

As you can see, they come with a variety of gear, including pistols, rifles, shotguns, and even sports equipment as improvised weapons. The clothing and body types are also varied, from a little girl with a pistol, to various adult types in different outfits and even a heavy-set gal with an RPG launcher. The models have great detail and should paint up pretty nicely, whenever I get around to it. Now, for some good news and bad news.

The good: There's a great variety of parts in the kit, including extra heads, weapons, and accessories. The heads include options for making a couple of the women look African-American as opposed to all whites, so there's potential for some diversity among your survivors. As I said above, the detail is very good for a plastic kit at this price point, so there is the potential to create some very nice figures (and that's not just because they have feminine curves either). The extra weapons could probably be mixed and matched with other model kits at this scale, although they wouldn't mix well with GW stuff as the weapons look too fragile next to GW's weapons (if you were to hold one of the M16s from this kit next to a Guardsman's lasgun you'd see what I mean). The models are also suitably generic and so could be used in a variety of game systems, although they would be particularly suited to stuff like Zombicide, This Is Not A Test, and other games of that genre.

The bad: While there is variety, it requires good modelling skills to get the most out of it. There is only one set of alternate arms for the models, meaning that without some serious cutting and weapon swaps there will be plenty of duplicate poses. Many of the heads, and most of the arms, are designed to go with a specific body, so while mixing and matching is possible it won't always work well. For example, there are two different heads that will only work on the little girl's body, as well as two heads that are clearly meant for the RPG girl. Those heads would not work well on any of the other figures. While there are a lot of weapons, most of them are very samey. There are lots of shotguns, assault rifles (both M16 and AK47 style) and pistols (both semiauto and full auto Uzi-type ones), but no flamethrowers, LMG's, or anything like that. Also, figures wielding sports equipment will look somewhat goofy in a lot of games (especially something really serious like 40k).

Now, as for my planned use, I have to say that while the kit overall is okay, the models are just not very suitable to use as Chaos Cultists. For one thing, the wargear is all wrong, which is part of why I specifically mentioned the lack of flamethrowers or LMG's, as there is nothing in the kit to use as a flamer or heavy stubber without some serious use of the imagination. The models don't fit the aesthetic of most 40k figures, being more realistic in proportions (compared to the jacked physiques of actual Cultist models or even Guardsmen). In short, I probably won't be using these in 40k games at all unless I am very desperate. Maybe I should look into This Is Not A Test, as these models would be quite suitable for that game.

Overall the kit is pretty good, although far from perfect. It's cheap enough, as well. It should work well for any game system where you need "regular people" surviving some kind of apocalypse. One thing I should mention is that I think the kit, and the male counterpart, are no longer in production, as I could not find the kits on Dreamforge Games or Warlord Games' websites (they took over from Wargames Factory in terms of selling stuff). One could probably find them on eBay or Amazon, but I've never looked.

That's all for now, I hope you found the review of the Apocalypse Survivors kit helpful. More to come on the painting front soon, as I've started painting some Chaos Space Marines for Paradigm's monthly painting challenge.



ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/03 06:53:15


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice haul of painted for 2016, the Blood Thirster really is amazing, definitely worth the top spot.

Looking forward to more in 2017.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/03 13:51:02


Post by: Nevelon


Nice year end summery. I like the idea of a top 5 list, need to do that myself next year.

If you are willing to toss some cash at it, you can buy a nice photobooth setup for around $50, and that includes lights. Bits boxes can be acquired at a lot of stores. Bead section, or for nuts and bolds. Or a tackle box from a place with sporting goods. I’ve spent some time recently cutting extras off old sprues to save space. Helps a lot.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/03 14:45:14


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! I definitely agree about the Bloodthirster; he was by far my best piece of the year, and probably the most fun I've had painting in a long time!

@Nevelon: I already have a couple of bead boxes sitting around to start with, but I'll most likely need more. Fortunately I can get those at Walmart for about $2 each. I need to look into how to make a lightbox (I just know there's a tutorial about it somewhere on Dakka); it's nice to know it won't break the bank.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/05 06:34:17


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've now painted the armor on five Chaos Space Marines. Not very neat, but at this stage it doesn't matter how sloppy it is since the mess will be covered by other colors. Here's a (too bright) pic:

Sorry about the pic brightness, but I just wanted to snap this one quick to show that I've been working. I've also gotten a Razorback mostly assembled for my DA Battle Company, so look forward to a pic of that once I finish it.

I may slow down my hobbying for a bit, as just a few hours ago I slipped and fell in the shower. Since I'm kind of a big boy, I hit the wall hard and busted a chunk of it out, scattering chips of tile everywhere. Due to the jagged edges, I cut the back of my left shoulder pretty badly. Not very deep, but the cut is like 3 1/2 inches long and it did bleed a bit (it looked much worse than it was until I cleaned up the blood). Probably should have gone to the ER for some stitches, but I'm afraid of the cost (after hearing some ugly stories in the past), so I'm gonna let it heal on its own. I did do some basic first aid on myself, and I'm not in much pain at all surprisingly, but I really shouldn't be moving the arm since I don't want to reopen the wound. I should be able to paint since it's not a strenuous activity, but I need to watch the position of my left arm, at least for a couple of days. The real problem is going to be my job, as it requires me to move around some. Hopefully I can get some light duty for a couple of days at least. I'll also need to talk to the apartment management about fixing the shower wall ASAP, as otherwise I'm gonna stink for a while since I won't be able to clean myself. Bottom line here is I'm fine, it could have been WAY worse, but I need to take it easy for a little while.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/05 14:25:37


Post by: brushcommando


Ouch. Hope you feel better soon.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/12 19:12:18


Post by: ZergSmasher


Looks like I'm already failing on keeping my blog updated, but there hasn't been much happening lately. The good news is that my shoulder is healing nicely (no infection or anything), and it wasn't as badly hurt as I originally thought. The cut was only 2 1/2 inches long, and at this point it doesn't look like infection is a risk, although I'm going to continue to be careful with it.

Enough about my battered body, time to show what little has been accomplished hobbywise. I've painted the silver metallic parts on my Chaos Marines, so here's a pic of where they are at right now:

Next thing to do will be the brass trim on the shoulder pads and stuff, which will be somewhat of a test of my patience. The Aspiring Champion will be particularly tricky, as he's got some really intricate detail that will need to be picked out.

I've also assembled a couple of things for my DA Battle Company. First, we have a Razorback with a Twin-linked Assault Cannon:

I also assembled a Rhino top hatch and a crew hatch with a Storm Bolter so that I can swap this thing to a Rhino if necessary. Might as well, right?

Lastly, I have a Sergeant for one of my footslogging Assault Squads:

I will go back and drill out his pistol barrel before I paint him. The rest of his squad is currently under assembly and hopefully will be ready for priming soon (weather permitting).

That's all for now, hopefully I won't go another whole week without an update this time!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/12 19:34:07


Post by: brushcommando


Chaos dudes are looking pretty slick. I'm digging the red you chose. Also excited to see the DA get some paint. Keep it up


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/13 01:00:39


Post by: Nevelon


Those chaos marines are destined for greatness. Blood for the Blood God! Your injury will be their fortune.

Nice looking razorback and assault marine.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/14 20:00:31


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brush: I'm glad people like the red, as it's really an accident that caused me to choose it instead of a darker shade. I agree that it looks better! I hope to get some paint on some DA stuff soon; it'll be finishing up some Devastators first before I start other stuff.

@Nevelon: Yeah, when I fell and cut myself and saw all that blood, I did wonder if I was supposed to consecrate the bases of those models... All kidding aside, I'm glad you like them!

Small update today- I finished the full squad of Assault Marines. Here they are in their grey and plastic glory:


I really like this kit compared to the old one, as it seems like these guys can be more dynamic looking. They will be fun to paint up!

I hope to have more to show very soon. I've started working on the brass trim on the Chaos marines, but it's slow going as my lighting situation is not the best today and those details are pretty small. As I said before, it's a real test of patience.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/15 06:15:18


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Lookin' pretty good so far. I agree, the new kit is far more dynamic than the old one, which is what I have.
Interesting you chose to build them without JP, I assume they'll have a DT for them?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/16 16:43:16


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Justaerin: I built them without JP because they will be arriving by Drop Pod. I'm going to build another squad the same way, but using Tactical parts (half of the box will be actual tacticals; the other half will be assault).

More progress on the Khorne front. I finally got that brass trim done, plus a little bit of other stuff:

I still need to paint the eyes, the champion's skin, and then touch up the red armor (plus the black where I accidentally got other colors on it). Then it'll be on to washing.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/16 17:49:29


Post by: brushcommando


Coming along nicely. Keep it up


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/25 04:26:48


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brush: Thanks for the encouragement!

My deepest apologies for no updates in over a week, but RL has been keeping me pretty busy and making me too tired to get much hobbying done. Last week I celebrated my 30th birthday, and then this past Saturday I played in an ITC 40k tournament with my Khorne Daemonkin, winning only 1 of 3 games (but I had a blast regardless!). The Chaos Marines are done with their basecoats and now await shades, but their appearance hasn't changed much since last update. I'm running out of time to get them done, but if I rally I can still make the end-of-month deadline.

The main significant thing I've done is to break one of my resolutions already, as I bought some more models when I was at the FLGS for the tournament:

They are my first Chaos Spawn. The kit for these guys has enough extra bits that if I can sculpt an extra body or 2 out of green stuff, I can probably get a couple more Spawn without buying another kit. Plus Spawn don't have to look super-realistic, just good enough once I stick some of the kit bits on them. I've been wanting to pick up some Spawn for a while, so now I've got some.

I hope to get back into my painting groove soon. I've just got to find a way to motivate myself to get stuff done. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/25 05:27:00


Post by: JoshInJapan


Getting any gaming in is a cause for celebration, even if it keeps you from painting.

Those chaos spawn are wonderfully grotesque. I look forward to seeing them painted.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/25 06:59:45


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice update dude, loving the spawn, they really are great in KDK lists.

What was your KDK list at the ITC event out of interest?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/28 05:32:25


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Josh: You're absolutely right! I always enjoy the tournaments, and usually they get me pumped up to get more stuff painted. I only wish that feeling lasted longer; I'd get a lot more stuff done. As for the spawn, it may be a while before I get around to painting them. I've got such a huge backlog of stuff waiting to be painted, and they are kind of low on the priority list. Perhaps they'll move up if a category for which they'd be suitable comes up in the monthly painting challenge.

@EDC: My list at the tournament was the following:

Combined Arms Detachment:
HQ:
Chaos Lord: Juggernaut, Sigil of Corruption, The Blood-forged Armor, Axe of Khorne, Power Fist
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
Troops:
Bloodletters: 9 men, Bloodreaper upgrade
Bloodletters: 8 men, Bloodreaper upgrade
Fast Attack:
Heldrake: Baleflamer
Lord of War:
Chaos Knight Paladin of Khorne: Dirge Caster
Formation Detachment: Gorepack
Chaos Bikers: 3 bikes, 2x Meltagun, Combi-melta, Melta bombs
Chaos Bikers: 3 bikes, 2x Meltagun, Combi-melta, Melta bombs
Flesh Hounds: 10 dogs
Flesh Hounds: 5 dogs
Flesh Hounds: 5 dogs
1847 points
It was a fun list to play, although not terribly competitive. Of course, this is mainly because my local meta is extremely competitive (we regularly send 8 players or so to both Adepticon and the ATC). Pure Khorne Daemonkin just doesn't cut it against the super-optimized GT lists. Once I get my other two Sorcerers done, I'll try running a Cabalstar list. Maybe that will be more effective.

Very minor update today: I've gotten the shading done. I've got to rally quick if I want to finish the Chaos marines before the end of the month. I've been working long shifts every day this week, so my energy as well as my free time just haven't been what I need to really get any hobbying done. Maybe after work tomorrow I can brighten up most of the colors where they've been shaded (I shaded the entire models).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/28 20:02:14


Post by: Azazelx


Hey mate - sorry to hear about your injury - hope it's healing up well. Nice top 5 as well. I should do something like that myself, though my 2016 retro-perspective post kinda fizzled out while I was building it. I'll get back to it sometime, but it'll be a February thing if it gets finished. The stuff you chose as your favorites are some bloody impressive models painted vvery well - they look great and the camo on the Tau just works. The Khorne guys are coming along nicely as well


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/30 17:45:34


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks for the kind words! My injury is healing very well, it never did hurt very much. I may have a nasty scar though, but we'll see. As for the models, you should totally do a review of your 2016 minis. It'll make you feel good about your progress. Of course yours will be a much longer process than mine was!

Time for one final WIP before I finish these guys:

It's kind of hard to see the shading in this pic, but in person it makes a huge difference. I already brightened up the red armor again where it was shaded. All that's left is a few highlights, such as the brass trim, the skin on the champion, and on some of the black parts. After that, just the bases.

Next month, I'm going to be tackling a large model for the monthly challenge, namely my Tau XV104 Riptide battlesuit. Won't be as big a project as the Stormsurge was, but it might be harder as he's already all put together. I did that so I could use him in games right away, but now that decision may come back to haunt me. Let's hope not! I also hope to get some Dark Angels stuff done. I just hope I can stick with it in February instead of taking almost a week with no progress whatsoever like this month.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/30 18:38:35


Post by: brushcommando


Excited to see the final result! What kind of basing are you going to do?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/30 21:32:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brush: I'm gonna keep it very simple and just use the usual GW texture paint, with a wash and highlight applied. I might stick a few grass tufts on as well if I have time.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/01/31 12:12:13


Post by: evildrcheese


I like your KDK list. Lots of cool beasties with a BT, Helldrake and Chaos Knight.

KDK Chaos marines are looking good so far.

Painting the built riptide should prove fun for you, hopefully not contorting your painting hands too much to get the brush in those hard to reach places.

EDC



ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/01 04:24:33


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! I hope the Riptide turns out to be easy, as I want to finish it quickly and get on with my Dark Angels.

I finally finished those Chaos Marines, but in the end I decided not to finish the bases, as I intend to swap them out for the 32mm bases at some point because Space Marines of all varieties just look better on them. So rather than waste texture paint and stuff on bases I'm not even going to keep, I decided to leave them be. Anyhow, here are the pics:









The Champion looks better than the pic suggests. My photography skills failed me on that one. I feel like the Meltagun guy turned out the best of the bunch. My crude efforts at freehand on the shoulder pad worked better for him than for the others. One thing I will say about painting Chaos stuff: it's a lot of work as the models are very busy and fiddly, but in the end they come out looking good and you can really feel accomplished. These are, of course, my first completed models of 2017, so I'm officially on the board for the year.

Here's hoping February goes a little better, hobbywise!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/01 04:53:38


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Lookin' good. Just joined the last-minute club myself, got my kabalite in. I generally don't vote based upon bases(no pun intended - seriously), unless they're supposed to be a major focal point. But all in all, excellent job!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/02 01:31:14


Post by: Azazelx


Those Khornate marines look great. You shouldn't beat yourself around the head and shoulders over the painting challenge - just post those up!

If you prefer to be more of a stickler for the pledge itself, then change it so it'll help you with the motivation. That's what I did for my own last year to give me the flexibility to paint what I really wanted to while maintaining some sort of focus. Hell, for this challenge #3 I've set my pledge to literally any unit for anything since I need some freedom right now, and I can't face the Gondor models again for awhile.

Dark Angels or a unit from any other army.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/02 16:41:45


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Justaerin: Thanks! I am going to do nice bases for those models, but Marines look so much better on 32mm ones, so I'm going to wait until I get more of those.

@Azazelx: Thanks, and you're so right about the challenge. I just get kind of fixated on stuff and take things too seriously sometimes. I did request over there to change my pledge though, as I like to paint a variety of stuff. I do intend to mostly do Dark Angels, but the categories for Paradigm's monthly challenge haven't lent themselves to that army. Fortunately next month will be Space Marines!

Here's a quick WIP shot showing what I did to the Riptide yesterday:

Not bad for one day on such a big model, at least for me. I'm gonna see how fast I can knock this thing out, although another project may take priority for a bit- see below.

I've got another tournament on the 18th of February, and I'd like to try running the Cyclopian Cabal alongside my Daemonkin. To do this, I'm going to need to finish painting and assembling my other 2 sorcerers (you may recall I already did one of them awhile back). I may need to put the Riptide on hold for a little while so I can focus on getting those bros knocked out. Fortunately most of the major work on the Riptide is already done.

As for Dark Angels this month, if I have time I'm finally going to finish painting those Devastators I started on almost a year ago.

Lots to do, but whatever I get done, you'll see it here first! Stay classy, DakkaDakka!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/09 02:17:23


Post by: brushcommando


I must have missed your last update there. Can't wait to see the sorcrerors, and as always, I eagerly await seeing paint on those loyalists... ahem. I mean Dark Angels space marines.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/09 05:40:41


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brush: Glad you're back! As for the sorcerers, they are currently top priority, so you won't be waiting long. As for the Dark Angels, we shall see...

Yet again I've fallen behind. Grandfather Nurgle has seen fit to bless me with a slight cold. Nothing too serious, but being congested and tired all the time makes it hard to get any painting done. I do have some progress to report, though. I've begun work on one of my two remaining Cabal Sorcerers, so here's a quick WIP shot:

I've only gotten the metals and the horns basecoated so far, but the rest should be quick and easy. These guys aren't quite as busy as the Khorne Marines were last month, but maybe that's because there's not as many of them. I hope to knock them out quickly and get back to the Riptide.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/09 06:40:26


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice progress on the Bike Sorcerer, what will he be armed with?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/09 08:12:37


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


I echo the doctor's praise. Definitely coming along nicely, that sorcerous biker.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/11 22:45:52


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: This Sorcerer will be armed with a Force Stave, the third and final one will have a second Force Axe. I chose a Stave because this guy will roll Biomancy and hopefully get Iron Arm for some S10 AP2 attacks.

@Warboss: Thanks very much!

More progress, albeit not as much as I would like (sorry in advance for the crappy photo, my lighting situation deteriorated on me today):

This guy is fully basecoated, so he'll get some shades and highlights and then assembled, but it should be relatively quick. The last of my Cabal sorcerers has already gotten some paint also, but nothing too photogenic as yet. Stay tuned for more photos of these guys. One thing I will say, having a deadline is good motivation to get something painted.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/13 00:47:54


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


These are some cool little additions to your chaos! The helmet here is an excellent choice!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/13 11:34:24


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking good!

As a slight side note, are all bikes meant to be on those medium oval bases now?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/23 05:49:46


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Justaerin: Thanks! The helmet is actually the Tzeentch-themed one from the Chaos Space Marines box. I thought it would be appropriate for a sorcerer, so I'm glad you think it works!

@EDC: Thanks! Officially, you can put any model on any reasonable base, but most bikes come with the long narrow ovals like most of my Ravenwing are on. I used these oval ones because I just happened to have a bunch of them left over from buying some variety base packs (each pack came with 3 50mm round bases, 20 32mm round bases, and 5 of these ovals). They look better on the Chaos bikes I think, mainly due to the fact that there are spikes sticking out on the sides of the bikes. Most new bike kits do come with the oval bases now, though (like the Deathwatch bikers).

Yes, everyone, I'm still alive, you can quit worrying about me now! I've just been really busy with RL stuff (I know, same old excuse, right?) including a recent 40k tourney, the very one for which I had to prepare those Sorcerers I've been working on. In the last couple of days, I haven't made much progress due to ol' Nurgle deciding to slap an even worse cold on me than before. My throat was so sore yesterday I almost couldn't swallow without excruciating pain, and my head felt like someone hit it with a hammer, yet still I went ahead and went to work. Probably a mistake, but I can't afford to lose the hours right now. Thankfully I've recovered from it mostly as of when I'm writing this, so I should be able to get back to my painting. I have managed to get a few models assembled, though.

As for the sorcerers, here's what they look like right now:

As you can see, they are assembled, but they still need a few highlights and finishing touches, plus the bases. I do plan to finish them completely before I touch anything else.

The Tau Riptide is going to be put into a holding pattern for now. After I finish the Sorcerers, I'm going to go full into painting my Dark Angels stuff. For the March painting challenge, which will be Space Marines, I'm going to assemble and paint the 30th anniversary Imperial Space Marine in Dark Angels colors. I'll be doing other DA stuff at the same time, so it'll work out well.

The plan for painting my Battle Company will be to paint a squad, and then paint their corresponding transport, and repeat for each squad. I'll throw any characters into that mix as needed. Problem is, I'm still waiting on 4 Drop Pods from my friend. I've still got a couple of squads and a couple of Razorbacks to assemble, so there's time before I really need those pods. My goal is to have the army ready to play with by July if possible. We'll see if it works out that way. It'll be a serious test of my painting speed and dedication, as slogging through all those Power Armor guys is going to be rough. Maybe I'll do a couple of Tau models or something in there to break it up a bit.

I mentioned that I played in that tourney with my Cabal list. Here's a small summary of how it went:
My list:
Spoiler:

Detachment 1: Combined Arms Detachment (Khorne Daemonkin)
HQ:
Chaos Lord: Juggernaut, Aura of Dark Glory, Power Fist, Kor'lath, The Axe of Ruin)
Troops:
8 man Cultists
8 man Cultists
Fast Attack:
Heldrake: Baleflamer
1 Spawn
Lord of War:
Chaos Knight Paladin of Khorne: Dirge Caster
Detachment 2: Gorepack formation
Chaos Bikers: 2x Meltagun, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs
Chaos Bikers: 2x Meltagun, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs
14 Flesh Hounds
Detachment 3: Cyclopia Cabal formation
3 Sorcerers, each with Mastery Level 3, Bike, Spell Familiar, and free Veterans of the Long War

Game 1 was against a Space Marine list, specifically Iron Hands in a Fist of Medusa Strike Force. He had a tooled up Smashfether in a deathstar of Command Squad bikers, as well as a 4 Gravcannon Dev Squad with an attached Cataphractii Captain. There was also a Librarius Conclave in the mix, making the psychic potential of each list nearly equal. I played somewhat foolishly, running my deathstar up the middle, casting my Invis on the Knight instead of the Deathstar (I was afraid that his three Melta Tac Squads would just pod in next to it and kill it turn 1). Probably a mistake. My opponent just focused down most of my flesh hounds on turn 1. I ran what was left of the unit into his Grav devastators, killing most of that unit. My Knight bravely attacked his command squad, and after a few turns managed to stomp out Smashfether and his friends to a man, although the Knight was down to 1 hullpoint left. Of course, by then it was turn 5 and I was way down in Maelstrom points. I could have tied the game up had I moved a summoned unit of Hounds to the other side of the board and taken the Emperor's Will objective there, but like a fool I didn't see that opportunity and moved them the other way instead for a possible turn 5 assault (that ended up not mattering anyway), costing me the game. I need to quit getting tunnel vision and think about the big picture in these games.

In Game 2, I faced a Tau list with a Riptide Wing, a Stormsurge, a Ranged Support Cadre, and a Mark'O with some drones, as well as two single dual Fusion Crisis suits. This game saw me get annihilated badly, as again I just ran the deathstar up the middle and tried using my Shroud of Deceit power on stuff. I actually managed to make the Stormsurge kill some of his Broadsides with that power, but by then he'd already used the D missiles and taken my Knight down to 1 hullpoint. In that turn, I also, after completing the shooting attack with the Surge, forgot to cast any more of my powers (doh! ), which left my deathstar wide open. My opponent wiped it out completely in his next turn, including the Bloodthirster I got from the Axe of Ruin. He also managed to polish off the Knight. I managed to summon another Bloodthirster with my Blood Tithe points, and through sheer luck he survived to kill one Riptide in CC, but died the next turn. We ran out of time at the end of turn 5, but if the game had gone on I would have been tabled. Lesson learned from this one: DON'T FORGET TO CAST YOUR BUFFS! Although to be fair I didn't roll well on the psychic power tables to begin with.

Game 3 was against a Ravenwing list with a very new player. He had 3 flyers (but oddly enough not the formation, which he said he'd had some bad luck with on reserve rolls in the past), and a bunch of small units of bikers, as well as the Support Squadron. I really made good use of Shroud of Deceit in this one. I didn't kill much thanks to all that rerollable jinking (as a Ravenwing man myself I knew how nice that was!) but I did keep forcing the Support Squadron and other stuff to jink, which just nerfed his shooting. In CC, he really had trouble hurting my Knight and deathstar. I ended up winning quite handily, although my Knight was down to 1 hullpoint. My Deathstar had only lost 4 dogs, which was very telling of how little he was able to do to it. It was nice to run into someone else who played the Sons of the Lion, though, and I encouraged him to keep playing them. It really was just a bad matchup for him, and he played right into my hands a couple of times (like Scouting forward and letting me get off a couple of early charges), but I think he'll get better as he plays more.

At the end of the tournament, one of my friends gave me a couple of things that he was trying to just get rid of because he was cleaning house in preparation for moving. One of those things was a Circle Orboros battlegroup for Hordes (as in Warmachine/Hordes). I had been eyeballing that game for a while, and while I'm not going to commit to investing heavily in it, I have to say I like the models a lot! I may paint them to break up all the Dark Angels, as they'll be refreshing and different (living creatures as opposed to Space Marines and tanks). The 4 models in the set are Kaya the Wildborne, two Argus warbeasts, and a Feral Warpwolf heavy warbeast. Look forward to some pics of those models in the future!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/23 06:50:25


Post by: evildrcheese


Sounds like you had a good time at the tourney despite a couple of bad match ups. That Tau game sounds rough!

Did the bike sorcerers (looking good btw) join the lord/dogs?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/23 14:23:14


Post by: brushcommando


Cool batrep. nice to hear your minis are hitting the table. Did I understand correctly that you can take a knight alongside chaos now?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/23 19:09:40


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Sorry about the losses man, but still sounds like fun! WarmaHordes seems like a fun game, but I don't know anyone who plays it right now. Looking forward to those models soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/24 03:09:18


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: I always have a good time at tournaments. I never do that well, but that's partly due to my local meta being really brutal. Several of the players were using lists they intend to take to Adepticon next month, so...yeah. The Tau game was the roughest of the three by far. It really was just a bad matchup for my list unless I had rolled Invisibility. If I'd gotten Invis off, I'd have been fine, but as it was, even though I actually siezed the initiative, I really had no chance. As to your other question, yes, the sorcerers run along with the dogs and Juggerlord. That's how that unit operates: the Sorcerers cast spells, the Chaos Lord takes challenges, and the dogs are there for wound saturation and meat shields.

@brush: Thanks! Yes, the Forge World Chaos Knights can go alongside Chaos, and if the Chaos Knight is aligned with Khorne it can be taken in a Khorne Daemonkin detachment (gaining Blood for the Blood God). You can also take a Renegade Knight in its own detachment alongside any Chaos army. My Knight is not technically from Forge World, but I painted it up with Khorne markings to go with my Daemonkin, and I use the FW datasheet.

@Justaerin: Losing is part of the game, and I learned some things about how to run a deathstar unit, so I feel happy with how the tournament ended up. As for WarmaHordes, we've got a pretty good community that plays it at one of the FLGS in town, so I hope to be able to learn from them if and when I decide to take the plunge and start playing that game. I'll paint up the minis regardless, as they are just too cool to leave alone!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/26 23:05:20


Post by: ZergSmasher


Work continues on the Sorcerers, just a couple of highlights and the bases to go. Meanwhile I've been assembling some stuff. I've finished assembling my second box of Devastators for my Dark Angels Battle Company:


I've also assembled the models from that Circle Battlegroup box for WarmaHordes. The models:

Kaya the Wildborne:

Okay, technically I didn't assemble her, but I trimmed all the mold lines and stuff. I'm going to paint her in parts to get at the details better.

2 Argus Light Warbeasts (sorry for blurry photo):


Feral Warpwolf Heavy Warbeast:

I had to hold this model to take the picture as the wolf would fall on his face otherwise, hence my fingertips in the shot.

I absolutely love the sculpts even if they aren't as crisp as GW's. I'm going to do the bases separately once I figure out what kind of stuff I want to do basewise.

I'm hoping to have final shots of those Chaos Sorcerers ready by the end of the month, so get ready for those. I'll also do one or two pics of all three of my Sorcerers (my whole Cyclopian Cabal). Stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/27 03:43:10


Post by: brushcommando


Looking good! Still Can't wait to see the dark angels get some paint I've been thinking about outfitting my own devestator squad just like yours but I'm torn between the lascannons or the ML. What made you choose what you did?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/02/28 04:10:19


Post by: KommissarKiln


Don't be afraid to delve into those specialist games. I myself caved in today and bought the Blood Bowl starter set, and have the opportunity to start playing games with friends as soon as tomorrow. That said, be careful not to flood your queue with minis that need painting, but diversifying never hurt anyone. I think.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/02 04:15:17


Post by: ZergSmasher


@brush: Soon, I promise, you will see some paint go onto some Dark Angels. As for the loadout, I chose those weapons because that is what my other Devastator kit has as well. Now I have 4 Lascannons and 4 Gravcannons. I would always take a Lascannon over a ML; the Lascannon has one job that it does quite well (popping vehicles and wounding MCs from long range) whereas the ML, while cheaper, has 2 possible jobs, neither of which it does particularly well. Just my 2 cents.

@Kiln: I've been considering Blood Bowl and Gangs of Commorragh myself, as well as Silver Tower since I've got some friends who might like to play it with me. I'm afraid as far as flooding my queue goes, that ship has already sailed as I've got a ton of unpainted minis that need some work. I'm not sure I should even be thinking about GoC as I would then be tempted, perhaps overwhelmingly, to start a Dark Eldar army, and I really don't need a fourth 40k army right now, to say nothing of how bad DE are. Same reason I skipped Death Masque; don't need new armies, and the ones in the box aren't that good even if the models are.

Well, great news! I've finished the Cyclopian Cabal! Here's some pics of the last 2 Sorcerers (first one was painted a while ago and pics of just him can be found earlier in this blog):
Sorcerer 2:


Sorcerer 3


And finally, a pic of all three Sorcerers in the Cyclopia Cabal:

I feel like these turned out okay, although my freehand still sucks. I thought about drawing little glyphs and stuff on the second guy's staff, but decided against it because I wasn't sure it would look very good. Still, I'm happy with them, and they are pretty good in the game, although to maximize the formation's utility I should eventually add two more models. I might also consider adding something to indicate the spell familiars, as right now they don't necessarily look as much like Sorcerers as regular Bike Champions. For now though, I'm calling them good.

Next up will be my 30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine, so get ready for that!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/02 06:49:44


Post by: evildrcheese


Bikes are looking good dude. I see what you mean about them not looking especially like Sorcerors, maybe books / scrolls on the back of the bike would help?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/02 06:56:01


Post by: JoshInJapan


That's a nifty unit.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/02 18:28:48


Post by: brushcommando


Cool unit! If you want glyphs and you're not averse to transfers you should check out the word bearers stuff from calth. You can probably ebay just the transfer sheet for about $5. Lots of fun little glyphs and sigils. Is your imperial space marine going to be for your dark angels or will he be a one off?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/03 03:24:39


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks, and good idea about the books and scrolls. I'm not looking to do it real soon as I want to move on to other projects, but I'll definitely have a look through my bits stash!

@Josh: Thank you much!

@brush: I really hate working with transfers on anything other than a flat surface. But I might look into it as a possible option. As for the Imperial Marine, he will get Dark Angels colors.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/03 10:35:03


Post by: Azazelx


Cool stuff mate. I can see how it's tricky to make Sorcerers on bikes read as Sorcerers instead of biker champions.

Maybe to make them look a little more sorcerous break out the nihilakh oxide and flood their helmet eye sockets and breathing slits to give them some glowy effect?Maybe glowy eyes on the skulls on the bikes' fairing as well.

Transfers and sigils on their legs perhaps, so it's more of a cylinder you're applying them to rather than a painful shape like a shoulderpad? And the bikes themselves!

Also, books and scrolls and such on the tails of the bikes is a great idea as well.

Or going over their horns with silver, then staining them with a Blue or Green or Purple Wash. Maybe the same for their backpack vents (or just in silver/gunmetal) - little things like that to distinguish them from your normal Black Legion guys. Again, you could also do that to the bike exhausts.



ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/04 21:12:46


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Those are all good suggestions. I'm not too worried about them standing out from my Black Legion models because they are my only Black Legion models. They do stand out from my Daemonkin models (which are red). I appreciate the feedback!

I've gotten all the basecoating done for the Imperial Marine now:

I should be able to knock him out this month with no problem at all, leaving plenty of time to take care of other Dark Angels models.

Now, since the second year of Paradigm's Unofficial Painting Challenges has been completed, I'll review what all I painted for them:

March 2016: Space Marines
My entry: None
I was going to enter some Dark Angels Devastators, but I lost motivation near the end. Those same models are still unfinished, but are next in line to be finished for my Battle Company project.

April 2016: The Relic
My entry: Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain on bike
For this challenge, I ended up painting one of the most useful models in my collection. He makes it into nearly every Ravenwing list I write because he's that powerful, especially in a Ravenwing Command Squad.
Spoiler:




May 2016: Everyday Heroes
My entry: Chaos Cultists
I painted my CCW and pistol armed Cultists for this challenge, minus their Champion. I painted 9 models and picked the 5 that I think turned out the best for the challenge. This was my first time using Blood for the Blood God technical paint, and my only concern was that I didn't use enough of it.
Spoiler:






June 2016: Mighty Heroes and Nefarious Villains
My entry: Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
This month was the ultimate challenge for me: make one of the best sculpts GW has ever produced look good. I feel like I accomplished it despite what the votes showed in the challenge. This model may be my best work ever; I am very proud of it.
Spoiler:






July 2016: Unleash the Beast
My entry: Dreadball Xtreme Free Agents: Avaran Treebeast and Vlorox Spinpede
Doing these models was really just kind of a cop out for me. I feel like they turned out ok, but I really should have done more models, or harder ones, or something. I just wasn't feeling it in July.
Spoiler:










August 2016: Death From The Skies
My entry: Deathwatch Overkill Jump Pack Marines
I was one of four people who painted these two models in August, and mine were not the best, although I'm happy with them! They were super fun to paint! I just need to go back and paint the rest of the Marines from that box now.
Spoiler:






September 2016: It's A Kind Of Magic
My entry: Black Legion Sorcerer on bike
I originally intended to paint all three Sorcerers for my Cyclopian Cabal, but ended up only doing the one. He turned out okay, and I've recently gone back and done the other two as can be seen at the top of this page in my blog.
Spoiler:








October 2016: Something Wicked This Way Comes!
My entry: Kroot Carnivores
I went back to the Tau for this challenge, and Kroot fit the theme reasonably well due to their fluff (habit of eating their victims after a battle). I feel like they turned out good, but I need to paint the rest of them instead of just these four models.
Spoiler:






November 2016: Heavy Metal!
My entry: Blood Ravens Centurion Devastators
Thanks to a conveniently-timed sale at my FLGS, I picked up a box of Centurions. This challenge gave me a reason to get them painted quickly. I feel like they are among my best work, and they were really fun to paint! Plus, I love the models despite how everyone on the internet says they're ugly.
Spoiler:






December 2016: Open Challenge
My entry: Dreadball Xtreme Sponsor "The Warden"
This is another challenge where I switched what I was painting to something easier for sake of time. I feel like I did well on the model, my original entry, a Toughest Girls of the Galaxy model that was going to be an Inquisitor, would have been better, although harder to make look good.
Spoiler:


January 2017: Rogues and Scoundrels
My entry: Chaos Space Marines
These guys were fun to paint, but they were not easy. Chaos models tend to have a lot of fiddly detail (all that trim, for example), but they look good when painted. I probably could have done better, but I'm satisfied with the results.
Spoiler:










February 2017: We Have the Technology
My entry: None
I was going to paint my Tau Riptide battlesuit, but I ended up painting my last two Chaos Sorcerers instead, which did not fit the theme for the challenge at all. I needed the Sorcerers for a tournament though, so I made the right decision. The Riptide will have to wait for its turn.

So, this time around I did 10/12 challenges, which is an improvement over last year's 9. Maybe this year I can do all of them. I'm not going to sweat it though, as I'm trying to concentrate on my Dark Angels right now, so if I don't have time to switch to another army's model for the challenge, I'll probably just skip it. The challenges are fun, though, so I do highly recommend them. Paradigm is a really nice guy and leaves the challenges very open as far as the themes go.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/05 03:40:22


Post by: Nevelon


Nice summery for the year. Lots of diverse stuff.

Hard to choose a favorite. The ‘thirster is good, but I like the deathwatch. Even something about the cents strikes a chord. Solid entries all around.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/10 16:45:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Nevelon: Thanks! It was fun to put together that yearly review. It reminded me of all the fun I had doing the challenges.

Finally back with a progress update. I got the Imperial Marine shaded and have now brightened up the armor, as well as drybrushing some metallic areas with Necron Compound. Here's my latest WIP photo:

Still a bit more work to do on this guy. A couple of drybrush edge highlights (first with Warpstone Glow, then Moot Green for the extreme highlights) and some touchups in spot areas, plus the base, and I can call this guy done.

I've also been assembling yet another Razorback for my battle company:

I feel like I could assemble a Rhino chassis in my sleep these days. Tedious work, but necessary. All the work will pay off in the end, though, so I'll keep on keeping on.

More to come, so stay tuned!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/10 20:49:11


Post by: Azazelx


Coming along very nicely, mate!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/15 21:08:44


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks!

Here it is, the finished Imperial Space Marine, my entry in the March Unofficial Painting Challenge:


I think he turned out reasonably well. I'm not entirely happy with the edge highlights; I probably should have made them less subtle as in some of these pics you can't even see them. I think my freehand chapter symbol turned out better than some of my previous freehand work, which is nice. Maybe I'm finally learning how do to that better. Feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka gallery!

In other news, I've finished assembling that Razorback:

Just one more of these things to go. I'll put together some other stuff first.

I've also gone and done it: I preordered the Triumvirate of the Primarch from my FLGS and picked it up yesterday. Here's the photographic evidence:

I'm looking forward to building and painting these models. I did buy the book as well. I intend to go back and get the other two Gathering Storm books as well as the Triumvirate of the Imperium models at some point. I'll skip the Triumvirate of Ynnead models even though they are cool as I don't play Eldar and have no intention of starting them anytime soon. I've actually already begun putting the Triumvirate models together, starting with Grand Master Voldus:

This is my first Grey Knight model, and although his in-game rules and stats are kind of meh for his cost, I may use him in casual games just for the fun of it! I do intend to pick up a few Grey Knights at some point just to run the formation from Imperial Agents, so maybe I'll wait to paint this guy until then.

Next up on my painting desk will be the Devastator squad that I started painting a year ago and never finished.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/15 23:04:07


Post by: JoshInJapan


Nice work on the Anniversary Marine. I like the subtle edge highlighting-- I've never been a big fan of the almost-white lines you see on so many models these days.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/16 02:51:08


Post by: Azazelx


Agreed - nice work on the anniversary marine. Your freehand is definitely improving! There's a little trick I use to get sharp edges on things like the wings you've got there. Once you've done the lines that you've got there, go over the ends of the lines with your base colour which will sharpen those corners right up.

A little jealous on the Triumvirate of the Primarch. I'm going to have to grab all three Triumvirate sets soon, if I can find them for a decent price!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/19 01:52:50


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Josh: Thanks very much! I try to keep edge highlighting fairly subtle because I too think many models have too much.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I actually did cover some of my mistakes with the freehand with the original base color. I got kind of lazy with the ones that I thought were "good enough" and it shows a bit. Also, you should definitely consider getting the Triumvirate sets, as the models are full of detail and look amazing when painted well. I just don't want to think about how much they probably cost where you live...

Short update today. I've finished all the pre-painting assembly I'm going to do on the Triumvirate models. Here's a pic of Cypher and the Primarch:

I left Cypher's left arm off (and the part of the cloak that it's attached to) so that when I paint him I can get to the chest area. On Guilliman, I kept the halo and heads separate, and the body is not glued to the base yet, again in order to reach details better. The base will be much easier to paint without him standing on it for sure. I went ahead and put both heads together because I can't decide which one I want to use. I think I can make the face look less stupid than the example one on the box, but if not I'll have the helmeted one as a backup. Maybe I'll make them swappable.

In other news, I just played in a 40k tournament, and afterwards I picked up a bunch of stuff from a friend (the same one who gave me those Warmachine models). He's still cleaning his house in preparation to move. I gave him a bit of money this time, but he gave me a great deal. The bundle included: 5 old metal Possessed new in box, part of the plastic Possessed kit on sprue (missing one sprue), 3 Daemons kits new in box (Pink Horrors, Flamers of Tzeentch, Nurgle Herald), and Quovandius from the Inquisitor game, which I don't know much about. I also picked up the Drop Pods I needed for my Battle Company project, although I need to get with the guy I picked them up from and sort out the parts, as due to the boxes being opened I am missing a few parts (and have extras of others).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/19 15:46:50


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Really likin' the Imperial marine, the freehanding is very nice. I myself need to get the ToP, but money's tight right now for me.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/19 16:07:21


Post by: brushcommando


Yeah, congrats on the imperial marine! Also excited to see what you do with cypher.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/20 01:31:35


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Justaerin: Thanks! If you do get the money, I recommend the Triumvirate sets as the models are really cool!

@brush: Thanks! I'm looking forward to painting Cypher most of all in that set, but I've got kind of a backlog so he may have to wait a while. Honestly Guilliman will probably be the first of the three to be painted.

More stuff assembled, but unfortunately nothing to report as far as painting goes. My final squad of Tactical marines is assembled:


I've also gone ahead and assembled the Herald of Nurgle from that lot of stuff my friend sold me:

This model will be tricky for me to paint, as I've never painted anything Nurgle-related before. He is low-priority though, unless he fits a monthly painting challenge theme or something.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff to show soon. Next up for assembly will be some Assault Marines made from Tactical Squad parts mainly, at least for the bodies.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/20 06:48:24


Post by: evildrcheese


Ooo many shinies.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/20 16:56:45


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Good to hear your on the last squad, tac marines can get pretty monotonous when you've done 'em too long I hear. The Nurgle plaguebearer is a pretty fun model imho, and would make an excellent addition to a csm army with lots of nurgle marks and such, hope you enjoy him!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/21 07:48:27


Post by: Azazelx


You say that they're your final Tactical squad, but you know Cypher demands some Fallen, and Guilliman will need some Ultras...

With the Nurgle guy, take him as freedom to have fun with washes and layers and somewhat messy browns and greens. Just figure out what kind of overall look you want for/from him and go to town. Much more freeform than painting regimented marines!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/22 16:45:00


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Yeah, too many really. It's hard to concentrate on what I need to be working on when I've got so many other models that I can hardly wait to assemble!

@Justaerin: It's pretty monotonous and I haven't even started painting them yet. Emperor help me when it comes time for that. As for the Nurgle guy, I'm going to have to get some different paints, as I don't have many colors that would look good on him.

@Azazelx: I didn't say that it would be my last tactical squad ever, just my last for my battle company project. I'm considering eventually getting Betrayal at Calth and/or Burning of Prospero to get more guys to make Fallen or Blood Ravens out of. I don't intend to actually paint any Smurfs besides Rowboat, so he'll just lead some Blood Ravens with Ultramarines tactics. And on the Nurgle herald, what you said is exactly what I plan to do with all my Daemons. They will make a nice change of pace from the clean lines of my Marines and Tau.

Assembly update: I've put together my Command Squad, minus their Kromlech-pattern Grav Guns:

I left the guns separate so that I could get at the chest details better. On regular marines I don't really care, but since this is an elite squad I want them to look better. The guy with the banner will be my counts-as Sacred Standard bearer, and of course you all may have noticed my Apothecary on the other side. It was helpful to have a spare set of Apothecary stuff from one of my Ravenwing Black Knights kits so I didn't have to buy a SM Command Squad kit. One thing I found necessary but hated to do was cutting off the left thumbs of the guys. The Kromlech gravguns are too wide to fit in the Marines' hands otherwise, and it won't really be seen during a game though.

I also assembled my box of Flamers of Tzeentch:

These guys will be tricky, but fun to paint. I'm probably going to start a full-fledged Chaos Daemons army soon, as most of my KDK/CSM tournament lists just have not been cutting it lately. I'll probably get both the Nurgle and Tzeentch Start Collecting boxes, possibly multiples, and of course I'll have to get the new Lord of Change kit to make Kairos Fateweaver.

Here's hoping I can finally make good on my promise to get some paint going. I've just been so tired from work lately, and I really want to get everything put together so I can use it at least. Fortunately the only things I have left to assemble for my DA battle company are an Assault Squad, one more Razorback, and some Drop Pods.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/26 19:37:09


Post by: ZergSmasher


I've finally started getting some paint down again. The guys from my first box of Devastators are very nearly done, with just the shoulder symbols and the sergeant's skin to finish, plus some cleanup:

Of course technically when I play these models will be part of two separate Devastator squads, with Lascannons in one and Grav-cannons in the other.

I've also finished the final squad of infantry for my Battle Company, an Assault Squad:

Now I just need to put some vehicles together. The Drop Pods will be tricky, requiring a lot of painting in subassemblies before I stick them together. I have started assembling the final Razorback, though.

Hopefully I'll have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/26 21:47:36


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


Good stuff! Nice to see you pumping out another squad. I've not experienced drop pod hell before, so I can't attest to it. But good luck with that!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/27 06:44:44


Post by: Azazelx


Inspirational stuff! Should I start rebasing my own Dark Angels perhaps...?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/28 04:59:44


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Justaerin: Thanks!

@Azazelx: I'd love to see what you can do with the Sons of the Lion, so go for it!

Small update today. The Devastators have gotten their shoulder symbols painted, albeit crudely. I'll post a new photo of them when I clean the symbols up a bit. I'm trying to find the right paint consistency for this kind of delicate freehand work. Too often I end up with the paint being a bit thick, and then after I thin it out it ends up too thin and wants to run everywhere. I'll get it figured out. Soon, I hope, as I've got plenty of them to do in the next few months.

I just assembled a box of Chaos Possessed, but not the current ones, from that lot I got from my friend recently:

These are the old-school metal ones, probably dating back to 2nd or 3rd edition. I know the current plastic one is not exactly new. These old metal models are going to be fun to paint and play with. I love the feel of solid metal models.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/03/28 05:59:12


Post by: evildrcheese


Ooo they're cool possessed.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/09 21:16:17


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks! While I think the newer Possessed kit is way better, the metal guys have a character all their own, which should make them entertaining to paint and play.

Sorry for taking so long getting another update. RL has been pretty crazy of late. I've finished the Devastators' shoulder symbols, so all that's left to do on them is some lens effects on the Lascannon optics and Grav-amps, and the bases. Here's a pic showing the right shoulders:


In the meantime, I've started putting some paint on the Command Squad. Only problem is I went and started with the wrong parts. I should have started with the robes and then painted the green armor. Oh well, live and learn. Now I'll have to clean up the armor. Here's a WIP shot of them:

I've also noticed some ugly mold lines on some of the cowls that I thought I had taken care of. Maybe I'd better take care of those before I continue. The next step will be to add a layer of Ushabti Bone to the robes to make them really stand out.

In other news, my FLGS recently had what they call their "Spring Market Day" where people could come in and buy and sell their old wargaming stuff. I managed to score some nice stuff. From one seller (who happens to be the owner of that FLGS), I got these:

I think those Stormtroopers are probably from 2nd edition, possibly 3rd. The metal miniature is a limited-edition Space Marine Captain from 1999 (holding a Power Axe and Combi-melta). I paid only $5 for each item, which was good. The Stormtroopers will make good Inquisition Acolytes, and the Captain may become a Librarian with a Force Axe.

The big score for me was this big lot of Chaos stuff, though:

The lot included 2 complete 10-man squads of Chaos Cultists including leaders and flamers, a 10-man squad of Black Legion-painted Chaos Space Marines with 2 Plasmaguns, a 5-man squad of Black Legion Havocs with 3 Autocannons and a Lascannon, a converted kitbashed Chaos Lord on foot with a storm bolter and power fist, some kind of metal cultist...thing that looks like a minotaur or something and holding a flamer, 3 Chaos Bikers, 2 Dark Vengeance Helbrutes (one painted, one bare plastic), a Forgefiend with Hades Autocannons (missing his base), and two Chaos Land Raiders (one painted, one primed black). In addition, there is a bag of cultists that are missing arms, a bag of various Chaos bits (including Daemon Prince bits, Daemonette arms, some CSM heads, and a bunch of other stuff), some old Chaos decal sheets, and some sprues with leftover bits from a Daemon Prince and a Maulerfiend (probably the Maulerfiend bits left over from building that Forgefiend). The two Land Raiders are in pretty rough shape, with some missing parts and a lot of broken spikes, but I should be able to source replacement parts easily enough. The painted models are not particularly well painted, but honestly they aren't terrible either, so I'll leave them be for now as I have a lot of other stuff to paint. The bikers are great, as they aren't holding special weapons. This means I can use them to bulk out my Chaos bike squads instead of having to form a new squad. I calculated up the points and it came out to a little over 1400 points worth of models. I only had to pay $50 for all this. Probably the best deal I've ever made for 40k stuff.

I hope to have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/11 02:57:12


Post by: JoshInJapan


The Dark Angels are looking good. I always liked those robed guys. Also, that's a magnificent haul for very little money. Well done!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/11 05:56:09


Post by: evildrcheese


Dark Angel's are looking good.

Some nice scores in that haul!

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/11 19:04:19


Post by: Azazelx


Awesome stuff mate - a great haul! The Devastators and DA Vets look good. The Devastators' badges have come up well.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/12 22:52:07


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Josh: Thanks very much, the guys with robes are my favorite too! Those models make it easy to tell which guys are the veterans, certainly.

@EDC: Thanks!

@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm glad you think the symbols turned out good. They certainly took more work than they probably should have.

Nothing to report on the painting front as yet, but I've gotten another squad of plastic Possessed built, which brings me to 3 squads total (2 plastic, one metal). This is enough to run the Favored of Chaos formation from Traitor Legions. I had to get kind of creative with these new Possessed, as I only had one of the two sprues from the kit to work with (it was the one from that lot I got from a friend about a month ago). As a result, I actually reallocated some models between squads, so these pics will reflect that. Here they are:
Squad 1:

Squad 2:

I was lucky that I was able to scrounge up some backpacks without having to sacrifice building a model from other kits. I had just enough backpacks left over in two CSM kits, and I had not used either of the two winged backpacks from my first box of Possessed that I bought way back when I started my Daemonkin army. I split up the models so that each squad would have a winged model; this will make it much easier to tell who the unit champion is. Thanks to that big lot of Chaos stuff, I acquired a few extra Possessed arms. This really saved my bacon. I still ended up taking one claw arm from a Raptors/Warp Talons kit, as well as one Warp Talon head from that kit. I actually like how the kitbashes turned out; no one else has Possessed that look exactly like mine now!

I also kitbashed a Chaos Lord with a Jump Pack in order to run the Raptor Talon formation from Traitor Legions:

I used bits from the Chaos Space Marines (head, body, legs, decorations, shoulder pads), Raptors/Warp Talons (Power Fist, Lightning Claw) and Space Marine Assault Squad (Jump Pack) kits. I added a couple of trophies from that bag of bits in the big Chaos lot as well, as there were some Dark Eldar heads as well as Space Marine ones in there. I just love kitbashing miniatures! This one saved me having to buy the Failcast Jump Chaos Lord from GW, which I really don't like.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/22 01:10:44


Post by: ZergSmasher


I'm back. I haven't made much progress, but I have gotten a couple more colors onto my Command Squad:

The robes are basically done as far as basecoating is concerned, although the sashes still need some paint and one guy has a Dark Angels symbol on his chest that will be done before shading. The Ushabti Bone really helps make the robes contrast with the dark green armor, so I'm glad I decided to do it. I also painted the basecoat for the white symbols and a bunch of areas on the Apothecary in Celestra Gray. I probably will shade before I brighten up these areas with Ulthuan Gray. Still lots to do on these guys, but I intend to finish them by the middle of next month for a tournament.

In other Battle Company news, I've gotten one of my four new Drop Pods assembled (into subassemblies, anyway) and primed, so I should be able to start painting it anytime. I really need to get on that, as I've got four of those pods to do!

In other news other than my Battle Company, I played in an ITC tournament last weekend using my Tau. I went 1-2, which is not great, but I had some tough opponents for the two games I lost (one was running Magnus, the other a huge Genestealer Cult horde with many, many models). I had some store credit at that FLGS left from the previous month's tournament (where I won the random door prize), so I bought a box of Khorne Berzerkers to use with my CSM and KDK armies. Now I can try out the Hounds of Abaddon from Traitor Legions. Here's a pic of them all assembled:

They are cool looking, but the kit is a real PITA to work with. Some of the poses look kind of awkward despite my best efforts. This is one plastic kit that GW desperately needs to replace with an updated version. I assembled mine straight from the box, which means a mix of chainswords and chainaxes, but since it's never worth it to pay points for chainaxes, I'm just going to invoke rule of cool and say everyone has a regular CCW and some of them just look more badass than others (I do love the chainaxe models!). Since I may never run these guys in a competitive game, it probably won't ever be a problem.

I hope to have more to show soon. RL has been tough, but that's the same old excuse, isn't it? I have made some changes in my lifestyle habits, such as going to the gym regularly (I really need to lose some weight) and eating less, so we'll see if that affects how much I paint. Hopefully as I get healthier I have more energy and can get more done. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/04/30 21:27:04


Post by: ZergSmasher


Time for another update, I think. I've made progress on that Drop Pod that I primed the other day. In fact, it is nearly done, at least the bottom half is. Some work to do yet on the top half, but it's coming. Here's the latest WIP on the bottom:

Still some cleanup to do, and I intend to put some decals on the outside of the doors, but this subassembly is mostly finished. The hazard stripes on the doors look hard to do, but aren't really once you have a good method. I used a guy's method found here. They do take some time, though. No pic of the top part yet, as it has a lot more to be done.

I've also assembled my box of Pink Horrors of Tzeentch:

These little guys weren't too hard to assemble, and had a lot less mold lines compared to the Bloodletters of Khorne kit. These will be the last Daemons that I'll assemble, and I won't buy any more, until after 8th edition drops, as I won't know how Daemons stand until then.

More to come soon, including final pics of those Devastators that have continued to elude my paintbrush all this time (this time they're really done, I promise!).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/09 02:40:02


Post by: ZergSmasher


Wow, quiet in here, huh? Guess it would help if I had some real progress to show...oh wait, today I do! As promised, here are the final pics of my Devastators, finally finished after over a year in painting limbo:



I honestly don't know why I left these guys sitting on my painting bench unfinished for so long. They are very cool models. I'm just glad I have them done and can now stop worrying about them. The paintwork is far from perfect, but ultimately at the end I was just trying to get them finished, so I'm not too worried about it. They are tabletop standard, which is fine for me.

For the May painting challenge, I've begun painting my Tau Hammerhead tank. Here's a WIP shot:

Fortunately this thing breaks down into nice subassemblies for painting. The hardest part may in fact be the Longstrike figure, as it is fairly detailed. I haven't completely finished the blue, as I had to wait with the underside of the tank so that I could hold it while I painted. I also need to touch up a few areas that my big tank brush was too clumsy for. Shouldn't be too hard, though.

With the upcoming release of 8th edition 40k, it looks as if the current formations and detachments are going the way of the dodo. So I won't be mainly focusing on my Dark Angels Battle Company anymore. A pity that these models will only see one tournament together as one army. Of course it may still come in handy to have all these models, so I'm not too sad, just disappointed that 7th didn't last a little bit longer so I could play around with my Lion's Blade more. At least I'll be able to say I tried it. I will still attempt to finish my WIP Drop Pod and Command Squad in time for the tournament. My yearly model count really needs me to do that, as my numbers are looking pretty sad for 4 month into 2017.

Feel free to vote for my Devastators in the Dakka Gallery, and keep watching this blog for more progress updates!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/09 02:45:30


Post by: JoshInJapan


Nice work on the DA. Your freehand work looks great.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the Tau. I sold off all of mine a couple of years ago, and I regret doing so to this day.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/09 05:47:07


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice updates dude (not sure how I missed the first one).

I feel your pain relief the droppod as i'my currently buildings and painting one of those suckas. Mine doesn't have fancy hazard stripes though.

Lovely work on the Dev Squad. Judging by the profile for Lascannons in 8th they'Lloyd see plenty of table time, you you needn't worry too much.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/09 07:25:48


Post by: Azazelx


Nice work mate. I like the effect on the Lascannon lenses. Chainaxe issues may be a thong of the past with 8th coming out (hopefully), and remember, you can always use loyalist bits like backpacks on your CSM!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/10 16:46:55


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


And thus an era comes to a close, as the Dev squad escapes from paint desk limbo and reaches completion. And what an excellent work they are! I've stayed away from Drop pods in my army, going with rhinos instead. Though I suppose we all bite that bullet sooner or later.
As for the tau, I'm still lovin' the blue you've gone with for them. The Hammerhead is probably one of my favorites from the entire range, behind the ghostkeel and broadside. I look forward to this big gun sitting alongside the rest!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 01:30:49


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Josh: Thanks, I'm glad you like it. As for the Tau, I'm going to stick to my usual paint scheme, with the same blue camo as I used on my Piranha last year.

@EDC: Thanks! The stripes took some time, but weren't as hard as they might look. I am pretty hopeful after seeing some of the previews of 8th edition that all the weapons will be good. Fingers crossed!

@ Azazelx: Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how the lenses turned out too as I've been working on making them look good on my models. On Chainaxes, I just built the models with the weapons that came in the kit, no rhyme or reason beyond that. They do look cool, though!

@Justaerin: It is kind of the end of an era, isn't it? I only went with Drop Pods like this because I got a good deal from a friend. Otherwise I wouldn't be using so many. I'm glad you like how the Devs turned out; I worked hard on them, so thanks! As for the Tau, I too am a big fan of the Hammerhead, and hope fervently that it gets a boost in 8th edition.

I've worked a little bit more on the Drop Pod, so here's a WIP shot:

I need to finish the metals, after which I'll be ready to add some shades. Drop Pods aren't too fiddly in terms of small details to pick out, but there are a LOT of surfaces to paint.

I recenly picked up a couple of things on eBay. One of them was this metal Daemon Prince model:

This is the metal version of the Finecast prince from GW. He's missing a few parts, mainly his head and right hand, but the seller did include a bunch of still-on-sprue plastic Daemon Prince parts, including a pair of wings, so I can definitely make a Prince out of this.

I also got this lot for my budding WarmaHordes Circle Orboros army:

The lot included the current Circle starter (with Tanith, a Pureblood Warpwolf, a Gorax Rager, and an Argus) as well as a Circle Orboros token set and the 2016 Circle Faction Deck. Not a bad haul for 30 dollars!

That's all for now, I hope to have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 02:12:50


Post by: JustaerinAtTheWall


I don't even play Chaos and just for painting purposes I need a Daemon Prince solely for painting purposes. Likin' the green you've chosen for your hordes minis as well, very rich and forest-like.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 02:52:03


Post by: ZergSmasher


Believe it or not, that green is not paint, the models are molded in green plastic. I probably won't get around to actually painting those models for a while.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 11:16:42


Post by: Nevelon


Nice progress.

Have you ever tried washes for faces? It’s a simple step that can add a lot to the mini. I didn’t bother for years, but once I started I don’t think I could go back. Just looking at your dev sarge, it’s a step that I think could add a lot.

I could be wrong (and apologize if I am) but the face looks like a flat coat of paint, with the shadows being from the lighting.

I love washes. It’s like 90% of the work for 10% of the effort. Almost every part of every mini I do gets at least one.

Drop Pods can go die in a fire. So much hate for those things. Love them on the table though.

I’m hoping that 8th does good things for Tau tanks. Just so I see more out there. Back when the army first released I was a hair’s breadth from collecting them, simply because of the hammerhead. But my weakness to hovertanks is well known. I’d love to see them edge out suits in Tau armies. Or at least be a viable choice.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 15:37:15


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Nevelon: I actually did use a wash of Reikland Fleshshade on the sergeant's face. The shadows you see are from that shade. Maybe I should add more? I do admit it looks flatter in these pics than it does in person, so maybe my photography skills are still lacking. I also highlighted the brow and nose with lighter flesh color (Kislev Flesh). Doesn't really show in the pic either.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/13 15:45:26


Post by: Nevelon


 ZergSmasher wrote:
@Nevelon: I actually did use a wash of Reikland Fleshshade on the sergeant's face. The shadows you see are from that shade. Maybe I should add more? I do admit it looks flatter in these pics than it does in person, so maybe my photography skills are still lacking. I also highlighted the brow and nose with lighter flesh color (Kislev Flesh). Doesn't really show in the pic either.


Subtle shades are often washed out by the camera. If it looks good in person, that’s what maters. But I might try to get the darks a little deeper and the highlights a little brighter on the next guy, see how it looks.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/17 02:20:05


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Nevelon: Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a shot on the next guy. I've got plenty more bare headed Space Marine sergeants to do.

Not much of an update this time around, but keeping this blog updated helps me make progress. I've gotten the rest of the Genestealers from the Lost Patrol boxed game put together. Those were the last models that needed to be assembled from that game, so here's a pic of all the models:

These are low priority for painting right now. Lots of other things need paint first.

Sadly, disaster has struck. It seems that due to a high number of people at my workplace needing this Saturday off, I will be forced to work instead of playing in the 40k ITC tournament that day. Which means I will never get to run a Battle Company list in a tournament since that detachment will be gone when 8th edition drops. The reason I have to work is that the high schools in my hometown are having their graduation ceremonies this Saturday, and many of my coworkers are either graduating themselves or have kids who are (I work at a store). Oh well, maybe I'll be able to get a game with the Battle Company against a friend or something. Since I no longer have any reason to rush the Battle Company, I may switch and paint other things. I really wasn't getting much painting done anyway, but this has really let the wind out of my sails.

Hopefully I can rally and get excited about painting again soon. I do want to paint that Tau Hammerhead for the monthly painting comp, at least.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/17 07:29:19


Post by: evildrcheese


Aw man that's terrible news. I hope you get to play with the battle company at some point .

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the deamon prince, incidentally I just picked that model up, the fine cast version.

Nice job getting all the Lost Patrol built, it'seems a great (if slightly frustrating) little game.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/23 04:00:20


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: I'll live, don't worry. With the spoilers for 8th edition it looks like at least the models will be decently good anyway, so I really haven't lost much. As for Lost Patrol, reading the rules it seems like the Scouts have a very uphill battle. I do have a couple of issues of White Dwarf with extra rules that should help them out some. I look forward to playing it with my friends at some point.

I've been working on my Tau Hammerhead some more. I've got it completely basecoated now:

Next step will be to add the camo pattern, similar to the Piranha I did last year. I was happy with how that vehicle turned out, so we'll see if that camo scheme translates well on a larger vehicle. After that, it'll be on to shades and highlights. At some point I also need to paint the Sky Ray turret so that the model will be truly complete, but one step at a time for now.

The Longstrike figure for the turret has been started, but I haven't made a whole lot of progress so no pics as yet. Hopefully I can get him done quick so he's ready to command this tank.

I am strongly considering playing Tau in a tournament in a couple of weeks. The tournament format is aimed at being less competitive, so I won't be running my Stormsurge or anything like that. I do hope to get some more stuff painted for that tournament, so I may be painting some more Tau in the next couple of weeks if I don't wear myself out at work. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/23 05:45:49


Post by: evildrcheese


Good luck! You should do well with the Tau. From my experience even soft Tau lists are pretty strong!

Really Lost Patrol. Yeah it's awfully balance against the Scouts, still a good laugh though.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/23 06:03:12


Post by: JoshInJapan


Looks good. I really like that blue.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/25 02:33:30


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks for the vote of confidence!

@Josh: Thank you, I couldn't be happier with any other color. Really glad that my color choice has panned out so well and people like it.

More progress! I've gotten the camo pattern applied to the Hammerhead:

It's crude, but to me it works. It breaks up the outline of the tank, which is the primary function of camouflage after all. Now I need to shade all the panel lines and stuff. After that all I need are the details like some symbols and stuff.

I've also gotten Longstrike himself completely basecoated:

He will also need shades and highlights, but he's otherwise done.

Hopefully I can finish this thing by Sunday at the latest. That way I'll have time to bash out some Crisis suits or something next week.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/05/25 08:26:42


Post by: Azazelx


Nice work there on the Hammerhead and the commander for it. I picked up LP awhile ago but haven't done anything at all with it yet. That's the trouble with these GW boardgames, needing to assemble and paint the minis to actually play them.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/01 00:09:56


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks! Actually you don't have to paint the minis to play those boardgames, but you do need to assemble them. At least you can try out the game then if you are a slow painter like me! Of course painting does improve the play experience greatly...

Well, it took longer than I hoped due to being swamped with other stuff to do over the holiday weekend, but the Hammerhead is all done! Here's how it turned out:



I feel like I did okay, although the photo of Longstrike didn't turn out that great. My freehand is improving, but not a lot, and I still struggle to paint yellow over darker colors. The letters on the side of the gun spell Fury (I loved that movie!). I am happy with how the camo came out, and I'm really happy with how my Longstrike figure looks (at least in person). He wasn't as hard to paint as I thought he would be. Maybe in 8th edition 40k Hammerheads will actually be good and I can run this thing as a Hammerhead. Currently, I don't think I've ever run a Hammerhead, but rather just a Sky Ray. Speaking of the Sky Ray, I do intend to get started on that turret soon to make this thing truly complete. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka gallery (thanks in advance! ).

Next up, I will most likely get started on a very daunting painting project. Next month's painting challenge is Legendary, and I've got a Primarch who definitely fits that description...


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/01 05:58:42


Post by: evildrcheese


Excellent work on the Hammerhead. The camouflage is brilliant, and the freehand really sets off the piece.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/01 09:44:08


Post by: brushcommando


Nice! I've missed quite a few updates to this blog apparently -- you've been busy! I really like how your dark angels turned out and that hammerhead is great. Love the yellow lettering against the camo.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/01 23:14:11


Post by: Azazelx


That Hammerhead has finished up real nice! The Tau marking on the barrel and elsewhere on the tank add quite a lot to it, despite being fairly subtle, and the camp is quite effective.

On the boardgames, yeah I know you don't have to paint them.. but I kinda do. At least partially to get started. Call it OCD. I've been playing Gorechosen with proxies at least, and have started painting a set of proxies before I start on the proper guys. Need to get back into the Khorne-Groove first...


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/06 03:27:30


Post by: ZergSmasher


@EDC: Thanks!

@brush: Long time no see, friend! Thanks for the kind words!

@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm surprised myself at how well the camo ended up working out. It's incredibly simple to lay out, but it has ended up looking better even than I had hoped. I look forward to seeing your Gorechosen minis in your blog sometime!

I've started on the big Smurf himself, Rowboat Girlyman, I mean Roboute Guilliman! Here's where I'm at so far:

All I've done is basecoat the ground on the base, put a coat of Celestra Gray on the torch flames, and basecoated the armor in Retributor Armor and shaded it. I'll be layering the torches up to white and then adding progressively darker flame colors similar to how I did the flames on my Bloodthirster, after which I'll do the metal of the torches themselves. The gold on the armor will get a drybrush of Golden Griffon, after which I'll start the arduous task of filling in the blue around the trim (which might take a while). I'll also get started on the Emperor's Sword as well. Guilliman may be the most challenging model I've ever attempted due to sheer amount of detail. Let's hope I'm up to it. Breaking the model up into smaller areas to paint simultaneously may help me finish quicker and keep me sane. Wish me luck!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/10 04:02:37


Post by: ZergSmasher


More progress on Mr. G:

I've pretty much finished the blue and gold parts of the armor, other than perhaps some touchups on the highlights. That's the really hard part done; now I can get some of the details, starting with the white Ultramarines symbols.

Here's where I'm at on his base:

This has to be the busiest base I've ever tried to paint. So many little bits of debris strewn all over it. All I've painted so far is the dirt, rocks, and skulls, plus I've painted the torch flames in white. Now I need to finish the flames so I can get started on the metallics (since the torches are made of, well, metal!).

In other news, I just got a package I had ordered from GW. I got a base for that Forgefiend that was in the big lot of Chaos stuff, as well as a set of Dark Angels Accessories and the Finecast banner bearer (since I love the model). The other item in the package was a set of Vespid Stingwings for my Tau army. Vespids are looking pretty nice in 8th edition, so I figured it was time for me to get a few (plus I love the models). When I paint them, I'll probably try to make them look kind of like Geonosians (seen in Star Wars Episode II). That way, they will be distinct from my Kroot as well as my regular Tau, although the guns and armor will be blue to tie them in with the rest of my Tau forces. This will all have to wait a bit, as I've got lots in the queue ahead of them.

With just one week left until 8th edition drops, I'm already planning what I'll do once I get my hands on the Dark Imperium box set. I'll probably postpone all of my current hobby projects in favor of doing everything in that box. Hopefully I can finish Guilliman before then, but I will finish him first regardless. Regarding the Primaris marines, I'm already brainstorming ways to customize them a little and make them look more Dark Angels-y. Some of them will probably get some custom shoulder pads from the accessory pack, and I might swap out the Primaris Captain's sword with the sword from that kit. I'll know more about what I can do when I have the set in hand, so until then I'll not worry too much about it.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/10 04:06:37


Post by: Aetare


Looks like a fun project!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/10 19:44:05


Post by: JoshInJapan


RG looks good so far. All that gold must have been a bear to paint.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/10 21:52:39


Post by: Azazelx


Yeah, Bobby G is coming along really nicely. From what I understand, the Primaris are fully compatible with heads and shoulderpads, so there should be a fair bit of leeway to DA them up right there with DA sprues, upgrade sprues and Forgeworld stuff.

Looking forward to seeing how yours come up. I'm going to update my Dark Angels soon(ish) to 32mm bases and finish the many DV DA I have before I do anything with my Primaris, so in the meantime I'll just be thinking about how to allocate them.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/11 01:58:19


Post by: Nevelon


Interesting that you just based the whole thing gold. Looking pretty good.

Best of luck getting him done. I really need to start building mine.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/14 04:04:20


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Aetare: Thanks, it sure is!

@Josh: The gold was actually the easy part since I based the whole model in gold. I may need to go back and touch it up in places to make it really pop, but I'll probably leave it as I'm okay with it now.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I recently saw evidence that unfortunately the shoulder pads are not interchangeable, at least on the starter set Primaris marines, because they are monopose minis kind of like the Dark Vengeance ones. Oh well, I've still got some stuff to bling them out with at least a little. I look forward to seeing some of your own Dark Angels!

@Nevelon: Thanks! If starting with gold was good enough for Lord Duncan Rhodes, it's good enough for me! And yes, you really should do yours too, being as you're more of an Ultramarines guy.

Another update, but this time the changes are somewhat more subtle. I've gotten all the basecoats down on Guilliman's armor and I've finished the Emperor's sword:

To be honest, I may need to add a glaze or something to the sword to blend the colors a little better. Blending is probably the only part of my painting skillset that is perhaps as weak as my freehand. Next to do on the armor is to shade the details such as the silver metallics and purity seals, as well as the scrollwork (like where the shoulder pad says "Guilliman").

The base is coming along nicely too, with the only part yet to be basecoated being the dead Chaos marine:

The torch flames are nearly there; they will look better once I finish the flames and paint the metallic parts of them. I'm probably going to go with Black Legion colors as the dead guy, since in Rise of the Primarch Bobby G was killing a lot of those guys.

My FLGS is having a release day event on Saturday, so I'm already putting together a couple of lists to try for my inaugural games of 8th edition. I'm definitely going to be running Dark Angels as they are still my primary army (despite me having much more success with my Tau over the last year). My Deathwing termies will finally get off the shelf and into my army bag for the first time in a long while. It'll be nice to have a good reason to paint them (but unfortunately not before Saturday).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/14 04:28:43


Post by: JoshInJapan


You painted the blue inside all that filigree? That's insane.

Be sure to post your impressions of 8th Ed!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/14 05:35:08


Post by: evildrcheese


Awesome work on Bobby G so far. Love what you'very done with the sword.

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/14 15:36:22


Post by: Yorkright


Roberto is looking good, and I agree with EDC that sword is great.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/15 20:00:48


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Josh: Yeah, it was kind of insane, but it may have actually been easier than trying to pick out all the trim after painting all the armor blue. Duncan Rhodes did a video about doing it this way (one of the Tip of the Day vids), and as you can see it works. And be assured you will hear about 8th edition right here in this blog!

@EDC: Thanks! I'm starting to like the sword more myself. I wasn't sure I'd done well on it at first, but it's growing on me.

@Yorkright: Thanks!

Another update, but unfortunately not about Guilliman. I haven't made any progress on him lately due to being tired from work yesterday and helping my brother move today. I may not get any more done on him before Saturday. Anyway, I've assembled some more stuff. First, we have a Company Ancient (banner bearer):

This guy will be fun to paint. He may rise to near the top of the queue after Dark Imperium, because Ancients are going to be good in 8th edition it seems.
Next up, here's a new Dreadnought:

Dreads are also looking solid in the new edition. Unlike my other one, this one's weapons are not glued on (I still kick myself about the other one) so I can run multiple configurations. I love all the DA bits from the Ravenwing Accessory sprue, lots of them are good on Dreads!
Rounding out the Dark Angels portion of this update, some Devastators with Multi-meltas:

The reason they look kind of crappy is because they were in the used minis bin at my FLGS. Hence all the mold lines and stuff. They were missing their left shoulder pads, so I put some of the ones from the DA Accessory sprue on them.
Finally, some Tau Vespid Stingwings:

These guys are going to be fun to paint and play with. The Strain Leader was leaning back badly on his slotta tab, so I cut that off and put him on some rocks.

Anyway, hope to have more to show on the Primarch soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/15 22:59:20


Post by: Azazelx


Bobby is coming along nicely, but it's nice to see the DAs back to the fore. I've got the original version of that DA Ancient, back from when he had a name - Brother Bethor. The finecast version you have there has a kick-arse banner, though.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/18 04:07:12


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks! It's nice to bring the Dark Angels back to the fore as they are still my primary army despite all around better performance on the tabletop from my Tau. I really do look forward to working on Brother Bethor (thanks for the name BTW! ).

Well, what a momentous day it has been for 40k players around the globe! 8th Edition 40k is finally upon us; the waiting and speculation has come to an end. My FLGS, Magelings Games in my hometown of Columbia, Missouri, had a launch day event all day. 3 separate 2000-point games, with a random raffle for nice prizes for lucky players (including one Start Collecting box each round!). No, I didn't win anything, but who cares? I got to pick up my new swag that I preordered, so here are the "pics or it didn't happen", taken right at the store with my iPod Touch:

As you can see, I got the Dark Imperium box set as well as four of the five Indexes. This will allow me to play any model in my collection. I thought about buying Xenos 1 even though I don't play any flavor of Eldar or Necrons, but decided to save the money.

I ran a different Dark Angels list in each game. For the first one, I ran a combo of Deathwing and Ravenwing. Here's a picture of the models from that list:

I know, I know, I need to paint my gak. I got matched up against an Eldar player, who was running a couple of squads of Dire Avengers, some Striking Scorpions and their matching Phoenix Lord, a couple of Farseers, 3 Falcons, some Rangers, and a squadron of 3 Vypers. I ended up taking more drops and going second, but I siezed! I won't describe the whole game, but I ended up winning basically because of First Blood. We only got like 2 or 3 turns in due to having to look stuff up all the time, but that was everybody all day (I don't think anybody made it the full 5 turns all day!). It was a casual event and not a tourney, so nobody minded. In the second game, I swapped out the Deathwing for some Greenwing, including Azrael, Ezekiel, a Tri-las Predator, some Devastators with Lascannons, a couple of Dreadnoughts and some troops as filler. My opponent for that game was also playing Dark Angels, and was also running Azrael and some Dreads, as well as a solid Deathwing contingent including Belial. I ended up losing that one due to time, but given another turn or two I probably would have turned it around as I was only one point down (game was kill points). In Game 3, I ran Deathwing and Greenwing with Azrael again, as well as Belial and plenty of Termies. My opponent was running a Tyranids army including a couple of Hive Tyrants, the Swarmlord, a Broodlord, 2 Carnifexes, Old One Eye, a Trygon, a unit of 3 Warriors, a blob of 30 Hormagaunts that did the tunnel thing with the Trygon, and 20 Genestealers. Once again I was going second, and once again I siezed. This changed the game tremendously, as it allowed me to drop my Deathwing and murder the Genestealers, as well as annihilating the Swarmlord in a hail of Lascannon fire. I also got all 3 Deathwing units into close combat (using a Command Reroll to get the Knights in). My opponent had some really crappy luck on his own turn, as he failed a couple of crucial charges (one of which would likely have been the end of Azrael since I had positioned him poorly). I ended up winning, but it was really all down to a healthy dose of luck on my part. That Seize, like I said, was probably the difference in that game, as had my opponent gone first, I would have gotten badly mauled on the first turn.

My takeaways from today's experience:
-Azrael is almost a must take for Dark Angels. He allows you to build a nice little mobile firebase, giving all your weapons within 6" rerolls to hit and providing a nice bubble of 4++ goodness. The +1 Command Point is almost an afterthought.
-If you want to play Deathwing, Belial is probably a must take. Again, he provides a nice bubble of rerolling for Deathwing units. I think he's best used by deepstriking with a group of shooty Termies so that they can reroll their guns. All shooty Termie units should drop inside his bubble if possible.
-Deathwing Ancient is good, but I played him poorly. He is probably better riding in a Land Raider with some Deathwing Knights or something, as if he deepstrikes with some other guys and they get their charge, they will charge right out of his +1 Attack bubble unless he somehow makes an even longer charge to reach combat himself.
-Tyranids are completely bananas now. That list I faced would have ripped me a new one if I had not gotten that lucky 6 to seize the initiative against it. I think we're in for a big shakeup in the competitive meta. Orks are looking good as well!
-It was really awesome to see units on the table that you normally never saw in 7th. Old One Eye, any kind of Deathwing, Land Raiders, Predators, non-flying Hive Tyrants, Eldar Falcons, and many more obsure units that many of us had forgotten existed look to perhaps become mainstays of lists. And that is a good thing from both a gameplay and hobby standpoint!

Overall I'm looking forward to trying new things in 8th, and I have high hopes that it will be an even better gaming experience than 7th has been. Soon I hope to begin painting my Dark Imperium miniatures. When I do, you'll see it right here. Stay classy, DakkaDakka!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/18 21:55:45


Post by: ZergSmasher


Well, I just couldn't leave the new set alone. The first squad of Intercessors is already assembled, and the second squad is already half done as of when I'm writing this. Here's a pic of the first assembled squad:

So far I am really liking the quality of the sculpts. On a couple of the other squads, there is some repetition with the exception that the heads can be posed differently, so no two are exactly alike although they are mostly the same. This is mainly because the sprue they are on is repeated in the box. There are a few mold lines, but nothing too bad. I'll probably look them over again before I prime them in case I missed any.

For those who may be curious or haven't seen a similar pic, here's a size comparison of a standard Tactical Marine with a bolter standing next to an Intercessor Marine with a bolt rifle:

As you can see, the Primaris marines are big dudes. This is part of the reasoning behind another purchase I made while I was at the FLGS yesterday: a can of Caliban Green spray. Normally I hate to pay GW prices for spray primer, but for something like this where I want the color to match exactly, it's worth it. For plain black undercoat, I'll stick with Rustoleum. I also had bought some other paints, including the new Death Guard Green and others that will be used when I get around to painting all the Death Guard models from the box set. I also needed to pick up a replacement pot of Khorne Red since mine dried out, and some extra Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade because I was almost out of those.

I really need to get back to painting Guilliman, but I'm really enjoying putting the new guys together. Regardless of what else happens, I'm going to finish him before I touch the new models with a brush (although I may prime them as soon as I get a break in the hot humid Missouri weather because such breaks are few and far between this time of year).


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/20 06:53:49


Post by: Azazelx


The Primaris marines look great. The only thing I'm disappointed in about the starter set ones is that I thought we'd be able to swap out the shoulder pads and heads. It sounds like heads might still be doable, but not shoulders?


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/22 23:25:24


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks, they are great sculpts, truly some of GW's best. And you are correct; the shoulder pads are molded into the arms or torsos, so you'd have to be a serious expert to replace them. Heads on the other hand would be relatively easy, but fluffwise I don't think I would (that's just me though, don't take it as gospel).

Update: I've made a bit more progress on Roboute Guilliman, but nothing particularly photogenic. He's about 80-85% done, really just some highlights left and some stuff to do on the base. As for the Primaris Marines from the new starter, here's a pic of where I'm at with them:

That's all of them assembled! Once I got into a groove, I couldn't wait to get them all built! I did leave the Inceptors off of their flying stems for now, as otherwise priming them would be a problem. I actually did manage to bling out the Captain and Lieutenants with some Dark Angels stuff, so here's a pic of just those guys:

I took some of the backpack icons from the Company Veterans kit and put them on. I think they work well and really make them look more like they belong with the Dark Angels. I also put a couple of other random decorative DA bits on them (one is in the back of one of the Lieutenants and can't be seen in the photo) to make them look unique. I can't wait to start painting these guys. The good news is I may have a break in the weather soon so I'll break out the primer and get them ready soon. As I've said, though, I'm going to finish Guilliman first.

Hope to have more to show soon!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/24 05:59:43


Post by: Azazelx


Very cool, Zerg - the DA parts look the business! I'll do a bunch of dry-fits once mine are here, but I look forward to you and others leading the way so I can learn from your successes.

I managed to do a grocery run today and picked up some green sprays for my own upcoming DAngels. Still waiting on my DV, though. It seems to be in limbo bouncing around Europe right now.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/28 01:31:48


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm happy with how they look too. As I've said repeatedly, I look forward to seeing your Sons of the Lion get painted!

Well, I'm finally ready to call the Primarch finished. It's been one hell of a painting challenge for me. Here are the photos for Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the 13th Legion of the Adeptus Astartes:



To be honest, I'm actually feeling a little flat about how he turned out. I think I could have done better given more time, but I'm frankly sick of working on this same model and ready to move on to other projects (like Dark Imperium, next in my lineup). To be fair to myself, this model has a high degree of difficulty and is definitely not for the faint of heart or lacking of skill. I think I did well to even get him to this low standard. So really, I guess I'm satisfied. I can always return to it later (much later...) and fix it up properly. Feel free to throw a few votes down in the Dakka gallery for these pics.

In other news, I have now gotten all of the Death Guard minis from Dark Imperium assembled:

These guys are going to be fun to paint. I've never painted anything Nurgle-related, so it'll be an adventure. I did buy a bunch of paints specifically for these guys (including the new Death Guard Green), so I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

The first batch of the Primaris Marines from Dark Imperium are already primed in Caliban Green, so I can get going on those right away. First up will be an Intercessor squad, so look forward to seeing that right here!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/28 02:30:43


Post by: Don Savik


One way to improve Guilliman that nobody seems to do is use maybe some stirland mud texture paint to fill the gap around the basing that he's on. It will definitely make the base less unnatural looking I think as there wont be a ring of flat nothingness around it. Its slightly out of focus (I think, idk) so I can't judge 100% on the paint job, but its at least tabletop quality and it looks quite good if you ask me.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/28 04:43:57


Post by: War Kitten


Papa Rowboat is looking pretty good Zerg. You did him justice.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/28 07:44:57


Post by: evildrcheese


Looking good Zerg. I'll echo the comments that a bit of texture paibt/sand will improve Bobby Green by removing that void.

You've been building like a machine, looking forward to seeing you get all these dudes painted.

How did the LR perform in the games you played?

EDC


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/06/28 10:30:54


Post by: Nevelon


Nice work. Lots of fiddly details on the big guy. Looks daunting to paint. Bit scared to start on mine. Nice to know there is life on the other side.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/07/04 23:23:46


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Don Savik: Your suggestion has merit. I thought of doing exactly that, although I wasn't about to run out and buy a pot of Stirland Mud just for that model (I don't have any use for the stuff otherwise; it's probably my least favorite of the texture paints). I do appreciate the kind words about the paintjob!

@War Kitten: Thanks!

@EDC: Thanks! I've only tried the Land Raider once in 8th, and it actually did okay, but not great. Mostly it kind of intimidated my opponent, who didn't really want to waste shots on something that tough. I'll have to play it again to give it a real test.

@Nevelon: Thanks! Yes, the model is incredibly detailed; not for the faint of heart. I'm sure you could do better than I did, especially given that Ultramarines are your thing. Bobby G is my only Ultramarine model to date, and I have no plans to start an Ultramarines army any time soon.

Well, I'm finally getting some actual paint down on my Primaris Space Marines. Here's my first WIP shot of my first Intercessor squad:

I've actually already shaded and edge highlighted the green armor, although it is very subtle. I'll add another edge highlight to the sharper edges later. The only other major colors I've yet to add are black for the rifle grips and armor joints, and Leadbelcher for the metallic parts. I'll get those down very soon.

In other news, my crazy purchasing spree for this month continues. I finally picked up my first Techmarine while I was at the FLGS for a game last Thursday:

I've left his servo harness off so that I can paint it more easily. I actually had a couple of spare servo arm bits left over in the kit, so I'm thinking I might just kitbash a bike Techmarine as well. The Ravenwing accessory sprue comes with a Techmarine shoulder pad and head, as well as a chestpiece that looks okay for one. I just happen to have a couple of spare bikes since I never did finish my Libby conclave project.

Also while I was at the FLGS, I noticed a box of old-school metal Plaguebearers. Since I'm starting Nurgle, I went ahead and picked them up, for the same price as the plastic kit. Here's a pic of them on their bases after cleaning them up:

I love old minis, so finding these guys was great! I'll need to get some of the newer ones at some point as well since I need an instrument and icon, but now when I do I can run a blob of 20!

I've also got a Venerable Dreadnought kit coming in the mail. Definitely looking forward to putting that together, as Ven Dreads are awesome in 8th edition. That's all for now, hoping to have another WIP shot of the Intercessors soon.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/07/04 23:39:07


Post by: Azazelx


Nice haul there, Zerg. The Primaris are off to a great start as well!


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/07/06 16:59:53


Post by: ZergSmasher


@Azazelx: Thanks very much!

Small update today. I've gotten a little bit more done on the Intercessors, so they are pretty much ready for some shades on the details:

I rotated the models different ways to show all the metal details as well as other cool details I found while I was painting (like the little com device and screen on the Sarge's left glove). These may be some of the better detailed of GW's plastic minis ever (not counting the Triumvirate characters).

I've got my first actual 8th edition 40k tournament coming up on Saturday. I'm going to use a bunch of the Primaris marines for that. Hopefully I'll have this squad mostly done before then.


ZergSmasher's P&M Blog: PLASTIC SISTERS, Dark Angels, and Blackstone Fortress @ 2017/07/06 22:41:48


Post by: JoshInJapan


Looking good so far. Those new Marines are really nice. Thankfully, my complete lack of interest in 40K is preventing me from spending any money on them.