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I'm fairly new around here post wise so I'll introduce myself. I have had the following armies which I have sold over the years CSM (painted), Necrons (painted), Eldar (briefly), and Tyranids which I only ever got around to painting up 1 test model. I have been playing on and off since second edition, problem is it's hard to find a large group of friends who play as I don't like playing in GW stores. So after loosing interest in attempting to play I sold off the majority of my forces, the Tyranids just recently. Of course soon after that a bunch of my friends start playing 40k. So here i am amassing a force of Space Marines to cleanse the xenos scum.

So far my plans for construction are as follows: All beakies, I am probably going to attempt to sculpt regular helmets into beakies; we'll see how that turns out, I imagine poorly. Spaceship/Industrial complex basing. Heavily converted Dread. Maybe some conversion on basic troops once I get a few units cranked out.

My force as it stands now are as follows:
40 Space Marines
4 Veteran Sergeants (They where essentially free)
1 Commander
5 Terminators
5 Devastators

I plan on picking up 1 or 2 Dreads, 5 more Termies, 2 Razorbacks which will double (triple?) as Rhino's and Whirlwinds, removable turret mountings etc. and 10 assault marines.

I'm still waiting on the bulk in the mail, but I have 10 SM and a commander which I have begun work on.


There will be piping and other oddments added to the bases later. I may redo the commander with some conversions if any ideas occur to me in the interim.

I am terrible at actually sitting myself down and painting so I'm focusing extra hard to get these things built and painted. I have already overcome my main hurdle and settled on a color scheme. I am still undecided on if I should use a black poly dip or just black ink wash them though, but that can wait until I have them blocked out in the basic colors. Hopefully I'll get some stuff done tonight.

Removing mold lines is a pain. I've been doing it with a hobby knife for years now. It seems to be faster and leaves less rough spots than using my dremel or file set.

Well 9 heads and guns and 18 shoulder pads and arms left to go.

Edit: Just attempted my first regular helmet to Beaky conversion. It turned out ok considering I have never tried to do more with GS than fill gaps. I hope I can clean it upa bit more after it cures. I don't want to poke around on it any more since I keep dropping it.



I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to do this and have it look right, from my view it looked like the head was too round to look properly beaky. Of course after putting it on it's quite obvious that the current helmet design is just a beaky with it's nose cut off.

Gave my one of my Seargents a Mohawk as a joke for a friend. It is strangely fitting. I'll probably gs it so it's not as choppy at the join later I was just trying to get a good hold on the thing for now so I can work on it without fear of it shooting off in a random direction or setting crooked.



Anyone have any thoughts on the beaky heads? Should I keep it going or have they just been done to death? I'm kind of iffy on converting 40+ helmets this way and I'd rather not shell out 13 bucks for 8 beaky heads.

I spent most of tonight cutting 20 tacs 5 devs and 5 termies from sprues. I can't believe the termie box only comes with 1 assault cannon. I will have to mod up another one. Makes me miss the old single terminator blisters.

I'd say all or nothing. Personally I'd shell out the cash for the heads. I wouldn't want one squad with sick beakies while another squad is found lacking. I really like how you wanted to do the whole army as beakies, and I think you should stick to your guns. Hell, it isn't turning out bad so far, why stop?

Well it has been a while and I have gotten absolutely no painting done. I actually have a fieldable army now though and I just finished priming everything last night. Figured I'd show what I did accomplish in the interim. I actually have some friends to play now so I hope to actually get some painting done soon.

I finished my custom army cases which cost me all of about $12 each to make.



Each ammo can holds 3 trays and each tray can hold 2 tanks, 6-8 dreads, 10 terminators or 24 space marines depending on how I cut them.

My force ammassing went a bit differantly than I had planned, I instead picked up a predator and the blackreach set. I also just the other day became the proud owner of a land raider crusader/redeemer kit. I also magnetized both my dreadnoughts and my Predator although the only purpose magnetizing the predator right now is so I can use it as a rhino since I don't have extra sponson bits and damn are they hard to come by cheaply nowadays. Gave up on the all beakies thing too, instead I will just have a large amount of beakies.

Very creative, how did you make the foam? Bbuy some from a hobby store or what?

I actually got the foam from a Fabric store. It comes in several different thicknesses and sizes and isn't that expensive. Then I just measured and cut out the squares I needed with a hobby knife and tore it out carefully so I didn't rip through the bottom.

Cool army cases but I don't think those things would make it through an airport.

Cadaver wrote:Cool army cases but I don't think those things would make it through an airport.

He wont make it far out of his house o_o ...

probably 5 mins before he is swarmed by swat team after closing his front door.

Unless you live in alaska. People up here use those as food cookers over trailfires.

Hasn't ben a problem yet. I carry them in my car or in a backpack anyway so it's not like I'm walking around office buildings or malls with them out.

where did you get the actual ammo crates? I would LOVE to carry my army around in one (or probably 3) of those!

Cadaver wrote:Cool army cases but I don't think those things would make it through an airport.

I used a WWII anti tank mine case to haul my army around for the longest time. Its flown with me 4 times now and each time it was a massive pain in the ass explaining the case and then the "toy soldiers" inside to airport security. Not to mention the looks i would get walking it through the airport.

Picked them up at an army surplus. I would have liked a larger one, but the price increased exponentially with the size. I may still do a larger one just so I can have everything in one case, but for now this is fine.

Finally got some painting done.
Here's some dudes post dip. Have to clean them up and highlight them still.


I have a Razorback I'm blocking out now too. Also note to anyone who wants to use minwax polyshades for dipping, things look alot better if you just apply the poo yourself with a brush (use a junk brush). The stuff likes to gather in the most unlikely physics defying places like the tops of shoulder pads and on the sides of legs in lines. These six where actually dipped. I'll be thinning it down with some mineral oil and using it as a wash from now on or hell I might just use ink washes. Despite all that The overall effect though is quite delightfull.

Wow, looks good! I need to try dipping sometime... :S

Still working on one of my razorbacks. I have been playing 40k since second edition and I don't remember tank painting ever being this painful. I spent few minutes whipping up a conversion of the Blackreach sergeant. I like the figure, but prefer other weapons. I think it looks pretty good, just have to fill in the gaps with greenstuff and maybe re sculpt part of the purity seal I trimmed off and a cable hookup for the powerfist.

So I am now waiting on the razorback/Rhino to dry, then have to paint up the guns for a few dudes and I will have a tac squad and a rhino mostly finished minus Highlights.

In the mean time I did this a little while ago. He came out alright, but there's a spot on his leg where I missed with a wash and despite redoing his eyes thrice he is still cockeyed.

So here's what I got so far. These guys are at 'tabletop' but I'm kind of stuck on what to do with them next so they may stay like this until I figure out a decent highlight color or something else to make them less bleh.
Also my flat coat decided it hates the polyshades varnish and caused several areas to wrinkle up or cloud over. It's not too bad, the residual white spirits may have had something to do with it too. Oh well I guess it isn't that out of place on a rhino that looks like it fell in a septic tank. I abstained from flat coating my tac squad because I'd rather not have to deal with a disaster. I may shoot one of them later just to see what happens though.

I would like to thank the Aegis Defense line for the noble sacrifice of it's quad autocannon emplacement.

That Dread seems very appropriate for this site - Dakka Dakka!

Hey, that's a cool idea for your dread, I wanted to make this configuration w/o the assistance of FW. Great stuff!!

Everything's looking good so far. One thing though, you'll want to cut the power fist arm down to just after the soft armour. As it stands, his arm is super long and looks like he has 2 elbows.

SoG