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Looking Good there!

"Sir, another errant transmission."

"Best not to focus on them too much, Corporal. The warp is a funny thing..."











Remember that time when that starter kit came out and you could get a squad of Dark Angels Terminators for $10 on Ebay?

So this was an experimental piece, the result of a screw up then deciding to just go wild with the paint scheme. First and foremost, something went horribly wrong with the steel colored oil paint. It was thick, and dried with looking like it had a thick clear coat. But... it looked kind of cool. So I kept going. The paint job on the model isn't the greatest, but in all honesty it does look better in person. The pictures really don't convey the weird way the armor catches the light.

Also, a funny thing. Remember these guys?



A long while ago I bought some Kriegers on Ebay. After some asking around, and putting the bloody things together, I came to realize that they were recasts.

Just recently (within the last week) I think I figured out what they're made of. The bloody things are milliput! Doesn't really matter to me, honestly. But, I wish I could send my compliments to whoever made them. For recasts, they were spot on (like, seriously, for the longest time I thought they were original Forge World.)

Work-In-Progress gift for a friend:





My attempt at a Firehawk. I really need to get into this whole decal thing.

Elements of the 508th engage an unknown traitor legion.





When the least important terrain feature on the board becomes the biggest point of contention...





The shock of the Bullgryn assault sends the marines back.







The marines counter attack into the center trench.



The game mode was Firesweep. Ultimately, I won, but it was hard fought. Myself and my opponent essentially held an equal number of structures for the majority of the game, until the second to last turn when I blitzed forward and wiped out his units in one of the key buildings.

Overall, it was really nice having two fully painted armies on the table. Now I just need to make my gaming table look as good as the models on top of it...

Also, question for y'all. How long does an 1850 point game typically run you? For us, it was 1 hour setup, 4 hours of game play, and a 30 minute pizza break in the middle. My opponent is brand new to the game and I'm rusty as all heck, so it's not uncommon for us to be double checking rules.

As for speeding things up, I'm considering finding some sort of dice roller app for large amounts of dice. Rolling 40 dice every time the Russ Punisher or a fully furnished squad of guardsmen fires takes forever, and is frankly a little annoying.

For totally new/rusty folks? About right.

Once you get used to it, and stop having to refer to rules, you'll fire right on through these, aiming for about 2 hours each game.

--Brian

508th armored personnel carrier outside of the major hive city.











Needed to get some guard love on this page before too many peeps looked at it wondering why there are so many space marines running around...

That, and it's good to show off how paint jobs look like in natural sunlight. Reveals some details ... and some mistakes for that matter.

Also, I am seriously considering switching to Acrylic water based paints from oil. Through the years, my oil paints have done a variety of odd things. The most recent incident occurred yesterday, when I opened up my favorite sand/tan color (British Gulf LT Stone) to find that the oil had separated from the pigment, and what was left was a dark grey/brown sludge that is unable to be re-constituted. That, and even brand new a few paints have arrived way too thin, or way too thick.

As for Acrylic, it sounds like there may be more color options available, and it can be thinned with water unlike oil paints which... have a variety of problems even with the right materials. Of course the issues with acrylic are peeling, chipping, and visible brush strokes. Supposedly acrylic coats are less durable too. *shrug* I might pick up a few and experiment, see what happens. Either way, not too happy.

Also also also, on a more positive note. I want to turn this dude into a home brew IG character:

the sheer # of acrylic paints are AMAZING. Reaper, for example, has tons as well as GW. All manufacturers also have nice systems for blending/painting. Reaper, for example, has "triads" of mid, low, and high tones for their entire range of colors.

As for chipping/durability, you put a gloss clearcoat and then a matte clearcoat, and you're set. Bonus: the gloss clearcoat is perfect for applying decals to!

Hope this helps!

--Brian

It does, it does.

I might end of having to keep a little of both on hand. One key thing about the way I paint my vehicles is that damage/wear is more shiny than the rest of the model, so they end up glinting in the light like real vehicles (think WWII T34 paint.)

That's also an interesting detail on my guardsmen: their armor plate is a a semi gloss while their BDUs are matte. It's really a cool effect.


So, to get to the point, I might end up keeping a few key oil paints on hand for the vehicles then switch to the acrylic for bulk work. Dunno, we'll see. New learning curve here I come!

The 508th moves to engage a Renegade Knight House near the Eastern Fringe.





These pictures are ancient and I cannot remember if I have posted them before, but they came out nice enough to warrant sharing.

This was back in 7th edition, and my opponent... was not the nicest fellow. I was very much a newbie at the time and this guy brought three Knights, a Librarius Conclave, and some assortment of Space Marines. He then proceeded to cast invisibility on the Knights making it so I could only hit them on a roll of a 6.

To add insult to injury, he willfully tricked me into engaging his psyker with mine, resulting in a wasted psychic phase (emphasis on me being new at the time.) He was also moving his bikers around without taking into account accuracy penalties for advancing and shooting (which practically doubled his firepower for three turns.)

Really the only funny moment was when we realized that vehicle ramming was unaffected by invisibility. My Russes literally did more damage by ramming than anything else in the game.

I'm so very sorry you had to put up with this.

--Brian

I've been playing around with a "hairspray chipping method." Essentially, apply a base coat of the "damage color", followed by a clear coat, then hairspray, and finished off with the actual vehicle color.


To get the weathering effect, you then apply water to the model and start brushing/scraping. The water soaks through the paint and reacts badly the hairspray, causing the top paint layer to chip away.


Results are nice:

Do not fear the xeno. Hate them. Loathe them with your very being. Stomp them out and demonstrate that we, the Emperor's chosen, are the inheritors of the galaxy. -Imperial broadcast, Hammerhead.





This was a test piece I did some time ago on a very old model.

I haven't been posting much lately, primarily because I've taken a dive back into historical kits, which pretty much have zero relation to the themes of this thread. It's incredible how detailed historical kits are. Added bonus - no mold lines. It's amazing.

Some really great work you did here. Conversions, paint jobs and also your thoughts on your regiments and the Gue'vesas background (I especially liked the Krieg advisors and now consider something similar for my own regiment). My utmost respect for all the work you did on vehicle damage and mud. It really bringe a lot of depth and realism to them.

Pyroalchi wrote:
Some really great work you did here. Conversions, paint jobs and also your thoughts on your regiments and the Gue'vesas background (I especially liked the Krieg advisors and now consider something similar for my own regiment). My utmost respect for all the work you did on vehicle damage and mud. It really bringe a lot of depth and realism to them.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it. One thing I love about the 40k universe is that it's structured enough to build upon, yet flexible enough that I can still have original ideas within it.

...and yes, I really love the idea of different regiments working together. Whether that's providing logistical support of tactical advisors, it brings some interesting ideas to mind.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it earlier in this thread, but the 508th is a "wannabe Cadian" regiment, utilizing the Cadian pattern weapons and equipment, but failing almost entirely in tactical and organizational respects. This is hardcore represented on the tabletop during the few times that I play - I never use Cadian doctrine.

Also while I'm here, pictures of some of my new weathering work:









The above pictures show the Pz. V Panther ausf G. that I've been working on. Getting back to 40k, I have a second Rhino APC that I grabbed off Ebay and will be converting into a Taurox. I think I'll try this new weathering method on it...

Also, I made the mistake of listening to Hell March while scrolling through this thread. Now I only speak Russian and my family and friends are concerned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvH5WXovz0c

Awesome thing. I was browing the interwebs and started watching a video on 40k lore. Suddenly one of my pictures showed up! That's awesome!

My models are featured in 15:57 in the video:




Here's the original picture:



This really made my day.

Also, at some point I'm going to get back into painting things. I've moved into a new place so it's been interesting.

"Come, my child. It is indeed true, this is an end. An end to suffering, an end to hardship. Though those around you will crumble to dust and the universe fade, you will endure. Yes, this is an end. But it is not your end. Now come, my child, it is time." - Mechanicus Liaison speaking to the planetary governor's youngest son prior to his induction into the Cult Mechanicus.



So I'm getting back into painting, and have found the mass majority of my oil paints to be thoroughly dead. As such, I went ahead and ordered a Vallejo acrylic paint set before doing any serious research, was that a good idea?

I've also heard good things about Tamiya?

Storm Trooper of the 508th's 3rd Company, assigned to protecting the monastery.









I'm finally getting back into painting, this time with acrylics. Until I figure out all of the acrylics that I need to complete my color palette I'm periodically pulling from my dried out oils. So far, the acrylics have actually been way easier to paint with. Better coverage and generally smoother. The only downside so far: The metallic acrylic paints kind of suck compared to oil. I think I'll stick to oil for my silvers, steels, and golds.

Elements of the 508th engaging traitor astartes on the world of <redacted>.







Been slowly getting back into the game... fighting Space Marines. My opponent has been purposely bringing weaker lists for my re-introduction into actually playing the game but by the Emperor, Space Marines are borderline impossible to fight. Not terribly enjoyable if I'm being honest.

On a more positive note, this same buddy of mine is printing out custom storm troopers for me and they look great. They'll be making it onto this blog soon.