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Whether or not I go for the new Tactical kit largely depends on price and content. If it's the same price of a couple of quid more than the current Tactical kit (which I love!) I may get one and convert it to an on-foot Assault or Death Co squad, bit if it's much more than that, I am more than happy enough with the current one.

It is probably going on to the end of the shopping list, though, as I rarely get to play 40k with the stuff I already have, and I have quite the backlog of BA to work through as well.

Currently, my to-buy list is Deadzone Contagion, Malifaux Lucius crew, Infinity Corregidor and a Hobbit Dwarf army. With fairly limited budget, it's going to take me a while to get through that, but if the new BA are completely awesome, they may well jump the queue; my hobby tastes are nothing of not fickle...
In fact, this LotR binge may be the longest I've spent on one system/army for years! *looks awkwardly at primed BA on desk*

Nice painting on the lotr! Very gritty down to earth feel which suits them nicely. Well done.

And yeah, there's always more to buy, not enough time/money lol :(

Thanks! Do you have anything in mind for the style of your own LotR stuff?

I was going to update today, but couldn't get a decent pic of anything thanks to really bad lighting. I may experiment with setting up a new lighting area with lamps now we're getting into winter, but my previous attempts at that haven't ended too successfully, so we shall see.

And going back to the BA Tactical Squad, having seen more of them I'll almost certainly be grabbing one or two in the new year. For only a pound more than the basic Tactical kit there's enough unique stuff to make our easily worth it. Whether it not they end up as Tactical Marines, however, is a rather different matter... (And largely depends on how many chainswords I can get together)

I'm thinking of painting them in different colours to the studio scheme. It'll be fun to experiment on the fellowship models and make them each nice and unique. Other things like the uruk-hai though, they're pretty much just all in metal so not much wiggle room lol. I'm still deciding whether I want a clean neat look or try some my hand at weathering and stuff which I haven't done before.

Are you going to try make a lightbox? I want to make one too but I'm lacking in lamps and space atm.

I don't think I have the time/space/materials for a proper lightbox setup, sadly. I did have a bit of a fiddle with my desk lamp and various backgrounds, but couldn't get anything close to the kind of pics I'd been getting with natural light, so I guess I'll just have to hope my bursts of productivity coincide with good weather!

A non-movie Fellowship could be cool to see; I'm usually a bit of a purist when it comes to LotR, but I reckon you could easily make it work. With the uruks, the best way to vary them I think is to switch up the skin tones, having some brighter and more flesh coloured and some darker and more 'muddy'. Personally, I think LotR stuff lends itself to a more subdued and 'real' feel, but I've also seen some of it look good in very clean and neat style

As another slave to natural light I feel your pain.

Now rugby has started back up after the international games I've realisticaly only got Sunday morning to take pics now :(

Update: Termies and Tacticals Two!

No LotR today; I'm still soldiering on with the Knights of Minas Tirith, but progress is slow. I may crack on with Mordor soon, but if I don't buy the Dwarves I'm looking at over Christmas, I'm possibly saving them for a January army competition.

So today it's back to almost where this blog began, Space Hulk. The last two Terminators of Squad Gideon are done! First up, Brother Noctis, the squad's chief pointer. You need something pointed at menacingly/heroically, he's your man!



And next, Brother Leon, employed when a Storm Bolter just isn't enough...




It'll be a shame not to have these exquisitely detailed minis to paint between more mundane stuff, but on the other hand, I now have a very nice set of models that should look great on the board. I'll get some group shots of them all when I have more consistent lighting.

And to finish things off, a pair of Tacticals, now a bit bland given the new set. They fit in with their squadmates, though, and that's all one ask.


Up next will probably be some more LotR, perhaps the rest of the Sanguinary Guard, and anything else that grabs me.

Nice work. As usual, your space marines are very fancy

Thanks!

To elaborate, I'm quite jealous of anyone who can pull off a nice red, which you have.

The white scripting and free handed blood drop and I symbols are all great too And my space marines are all jealous of your superior gem/jewel bits.

Hah, I think my paintjobs might be deceptive! The red is just Mechrite red base, Agrax wash, rehighlight with thinned MR, and the gems are just painted light blue and washed dark! Washes are good!

If I'm honest, the reason I do so much freehand and squiggles/scripture is partly to disguise the fact the highlighting style is pretty minimalist! It makes the models pop more, but before that stage they can look a bit bland with all the large armour plates and fact I refuse to faff around with transfers...

I think its easier to make a model look bad with poor transfer application than it is to get them on there nice and properly, I avoid them too.

All I know is your stuff looks good when I see it on my screen, if it isn't *that* much work then all the better I've seen photos where people will go into 10-20 steps of how they got their colors and you just can't see it, so maybe a Kudos for your photography is required too

Haha yeah I love how your stuff looks great and can be so simple! What's your Blood Angels army look like?

Love the terminators
Space marines look cool also
Keep up the great work!
Grtz
Mark

Thanks guys!

@ckig: I'm currently working on something special for the BA, so light dependant, I'll take some army pics of them tomorrow. As it stands, I have most of a Tactical Squad, a dozen Termies, parts of Sanguinary Guard and Assault Squads, a Dread and more Commanders than is probably good for me! Not even a playable force yet, even as allies, but I mean to crack on with the Tacs and Assaults when I grab some more primer, hopefully tomorrow.

Blood Angels look pretty sweet!. Of course, BA are my favorite minis ever, so I'm pretty biased, but still.

Haha, bias to Blood Angels is welcome here!

Update of Many Pictures!

First, something that those who recall 2nd Edition should recognise (well, if you squint a bit! ), Captain Aphael of the Second Company of the Blood Angels, based on the cover art for the 2nd Ed boxed game. I've taken a lot of artistic licence with the idea and execution, but I hope you can at least see where the conversion was coming from. This guy just kind of exploded from seeing that power fist in my bits box and making the connection with that art.





Like I say, not an exact replica, but the closest I'll get without paying eBay prices for the GD model. It was fun to put together, and a nice nod to a history I'm too young to remember! Of course, GW would chose the same day I build this to publish some actually artwork for Aphael that looks nothing like this, but oh well.

And now, as promised, some group/army shots as I have actually got some good lighting today!

First, the rest of Tactical Squad Vinci:




Next, the Termies from Space Hulk:



Some misc Termies:


Priests Ramirez and Ultor:


The Golden Boys:


Venerable Brother Montsano


Company Command:



And some shots of the lot:



That's all folks! I have to say I like how the army is coming together now, it looks far better than my previous effort on BA and once I bulk out the Troops section, it will probably be my go-to army for gaming in 2015. My LotR projects have sold me on the virtues of basing as well, so this lot will be getting the gravel treatment at some point.

Any comments or thoughts are welcome!

The Angel demands vengeance!

Nice stuff there Para- great job! Liking the feth you to the tyranids on the dreadnought lol

As Always great work Para
Grtz
Mark

A nice force of Blood Angels already going on there Para. Any desire to do any Death Company? I like them but the models are far too busy for me and highlighting black effectively is a pain.

Nice army. Love the captain. You captured the spirit of 2nd ed box perfectly. I scrolled down and saw the pic before reading the text, and my first thought was “Hey, it’s the old BA cover art guy"

Yep very nice. I'm still pleased to see BA tactical marines, something of a rarity.

Very cool stuff para.

Thanks guys!

@Thraxas: I have some of the old metal Death Co in the queue, which are much less blingy but kept the same sense of motion.

@Nev: Thanks! If you recognised it without reading, then I guess it's done is job!

@Grim: I think you may be seeing more of them soon enough, with the awesome new kit coming out.

On a side note, some of you may recall a discussion in the Mantic forum about some very cheap sci-fi tanks. Well, the one I ordered has arrived, and from initial impressions, is pretty damn awesome. A full review will be up tomorrow, pending time and light.

Sweet looking forward to tank review.

Review: BroneKorpus Battle Tank by Tehnolog
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BroneKorpus-Battle-Tank-MK-I-by-Tehnolog-/141491317510?pt=Games_US&hash=item20f18a2b06

Price: $6.00+$2 international postage
Contents: 1 Bronekorpus Battle Tank with weapon options and some accessories
Delivery estimate to UK: 2-4 weeks

This kit came to my attention when it was shown off in a Mantic thread a few weeks ago, and for the price of £5 including postage, I figured it was worth a punt and ordered one. Two weeks later, on the first day of the two-week delivery estimate window, it arrived.

What you get:
The kit came packaged in a jiffy bag with all the parts clipped from the sprue. From what I could see, there was no danger of anything breaking in the post. Here is a shot of all the parts in the set, after about 10 minutes of cleanup:


From left to right, top to bottom:
Track unit, hull unit, track unit
Radar Dish, small turret, gun with single or multi- shot barrels, hatch, large turret, energy gun, flamethrower
Hatch, small missiles, large missiles

So lots of stuff. Some closeups of the specific parts:
Treads:


Hull:


Turret:





My only issue here is the slight gap between some of the guns and the turret housing, but that's easily solved with just a simple plasticard plate. Other than that, I remain very impressed with the details for the price, and the plastic is much sturdier than I expected, much closer to GW plastic than the toy type stuff I imagined I'd be getting for the price.


Assembly and versatility:
Assembly including cleanup of the parts took no more than 15 minutes, and not a single drop of glue was needed! Everything fits snugly together once the flash has been trimmed away, and there is a huge degree of variability in how you can put the kit together. First, I went for a Hellhound in the classic Turret-forward Chimera style, using the flamethrowers and small turret at the front, the treads pointed that way and a flat hatch at the back:



Next, I used the Radar and missile parts to build something like a Manticore. If I had them (and I will soon) I'd add another set of missiles on top to bulk up the arsenal, and maybe elevate them a bit, but as it stands, it's still perfectly servicable:


And just to show off how different you can make to it, here's an alternate gun, the treads and hull reversed and the Dozer blade added:


And should you ever need an obscene amount of firepower, behold the wonder that is Missiles on Flamethrowers on Rockets on Treads on a Dozer Blade:


In short, I rate this very highly in terms of assembly and versatility; out of the packet it has a ton of setups, and it should be easy enough to mount other kinds of weapons or turrets on the hull. Simplicity is certainly not to be confused with lack of quality here!

Scale:

This aspect is where so many kits fall down if you're planning as I am to use them in 40k or other systems, but here, I think it fits perfectly. I intend to use it as a stand-in for Chimera hulled vehicles, and here it is alongside a Russ, Rhino and a scratch-built attempt at my own slightly beefeir Chimera pattern:







So it matches up nicely, I think. Even the guns fit in with 40k's heroic scaling, so that's good.

And finally, some shots of the turret on other hulls. I may experiment with some other turret types for counts-as Chimera, in which case I'll have turrets left over...
Predator?


Alternate Russ turret?



Overall, this is a great kit, especially given the insanely low price point, and offers a great basis for conversion as well. I will be picking up another half a dozen in the new year, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone in the market for a cheap tank. Hell, combine a few of these with some Mantic or Dreamforge infantry and you have a mechanised Guard army for under £100!

Yeah that looks like a great deal. Thanks for the unbox and breakdown.

I'm gonna wait to see what the warpath kickstarter does for tanks, but I'm seriously considering ordering several of these. They look a bit more space/future than 40k tanks and I like that.

An update! Got some more BA done in last couple of days, and looking at the new codex leaks, it seems my accidental decision to build to an elite heavy fairly shooty army has worked in my favour, what with Assault Marines and Death Co clearing off to Fast Attack and Eloites respectively, and leaving Tacticals as the new staple (dare I say I used BA tacticals before they were cool? ). Sanguinary Guard are looking much better to, as is Dante, so I shouldn't need to change things up too much. But enough musings, on with the pictures!

The fourth member of the Sanguinary Guard squad, toting the Chapter Banner and rejoicing at his shiny new 33 ppm price tag!




Next, a Chaplain, somewhat irate as a) there are Heretics that need fighting and b) he's been demoted from the Captain-stats Reclusiarch to a less awesome Chaplain statline. Oh well.


Might need a few touchups, but other than that I like how he's come out.

Finally, a Sternguard Veteran. I've actually done a squad of these guys, but the rest are in robes that today's lighting thoroughly disagreed with.



Not overtly blinged up, but with the gold helmet and older armour mark he looks the part.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Nice looking group of guys. I particularly like the sternguard. What’s the chaplain using for a crozius? And is he on foot? Or lacking a backpack?

That is a REALLY big hitting stick you've given your Chaplain lol


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice looking group of guys. I particularly like the sternguard. What’s the chaplain using for a crozius? And is he on foot? Or lacking a backpack?

Looks like a Mk IV Jump pack..