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@Azazelx: Thanks! I also was worried that he looks very Thousand Sons-y, but the pic doesn't show as clearly that he has green edge highlights showing that he is a member of the XX legion. Once I get some details on him (like perhaps some stylized scale pattern somewhere) he'll be more obviously Alpha Legion.

I've decided to get my Noise Marines done next. They are a unit that has a very high chance of making it into my Adepticon list, and I really want to paint them. Here's the first WIP shot:

It doesn't show in the photo, but the blue armor has been basecoated, recess shaded, and drybrushed on the edges with green. Since these are Noise Marines, I was thinking about where I could put some pink color on them, and I've decided that maybe the gun casings would work okay for that. I actually have a tighter deadline for these guys as one of my friends wants to borrow these guys and go to the LVO, so I need to get them done. If they aren't completely done that will be okay, but I'd like them to look good on those tables.

More to come soon, I'm sure!

@Josh: Thanks! I considered adding pink to shoulder pads or even leg armor, but decided it would kind of ruin the Alpha Legion look (would make them look more like Emperor's Children). And the guys aren't wearing helmets. I personally am okay with bright weapon casings, as it gives a chance to add a splash of color contrast to a model (like the red guns on Dark Angels). It's a matter of taste, I suppose.

I'm making good progress on my Noise Marines. All of the basecoats are down except for black on the hoses and pipes, and dark gray on the spines. Here's the latest WIP shot:

Next up will be shading the trim, weapons, and heads. Painting that trim was a couple of hours of work, but shading shouldn't be too hard. Trim is always the most tedious part of painting Chaos models.

Also, Azazelx mentioned the Sorcerer looking like a Thousand Sons model. That's because like a dope I did gold trim before doing a little research and finding out that Alpha Legion have silver trim. D'oh! Fortunately I got it right on the Noise Boys, and it'll be a quick and easy fix on the Sorcerer.

Hopefully I'll have more to show soon!

Well, after a monumental push over the last few days, I think I'm going to call the Noise Boys done! Here are a few pics of them:
First, here's a shot of the whole squad:

Next, here are front and back shots of the Noise Champion:

Here are some shots of the Blastmaster guys and the Icon Bearer:

Finally, here's a shot of three of the regular grunts:

They are definitely not my best work, but they are just about the most fun models I've ever painted, trim notwithstanding. I'm super happy that Spellcrow threw in the Pleasure Knight heads for free when I ordered the sonic weapons from them. They really give these guys more character and make them look like true devotees of Slaanesh. On the ones that have hair, I did it in wacky colors, and several of the heads have facial piercings, which is a cool detail for models like this. I would have spent more time on details and mainly cleaning up the faces (the shading didn't turn out quite right) but I need to move on and paint more stuff to continue to get ready for Adepticon, plus my friend needs them right away for his LVO army. I've only got like 8 or 9 weeks left before Adepticon, so if I do a unit or vehicle per week I might be ready in time. Problem is, the weather is not cooperating as far as getting stuff primed. Temperatures have finally become more mild, but it's been very windy. I seem to run into this problem every year, it seems.

In other news, I picked up a Myphitic Blight-Hauler at my FLGS the other day when I was there for a tournament:

Just to see if it would work, I actually did assemble it without using any glue. GW isn't kidding about being able to do this, it holds together just fine. I don't know if I could easily get it back apart if I wanted to. The parts fit together very easily; the only real work is trimming the parts from the sprue and taking care of a few mold lines (very few). I've got the Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort kit coming in the mail (really should have been here by now, not sure what the holdup is) along with a Daemon Prince model that I need. We'll see if Lord Felthius and his men are as easy to put together as the Blight-Hauler was.

More Alpha Legion stuff should be coming soon, although I'm not sure what yet.

Moving right along, I'm continuing to press on with my Alpha Legion army. I've decided to tackle one of my Rhino transports next, as I know I'll need a couple of them for my lists. Here's the first WIP shot of it:

The hull is done, other than some touchups of the primary blue color. I missed a few spots with the basecoat due to using a very large brush (a necessity for painting a model like this in a reasonable amount of time), but I'll fix that and neaten up where I did the recess shades and green highlights all at the same time. Then I'll move on and start on the metallic parts. I think I will actually use a few transfers for this model, as it's pretty easy to get them to stay on flat surfaces. I may freehand a few things on the model as well.

I've also assembled another Rhino for my Alpha Legion. Now I need another break in the weather to prime it (along with some other models). Here it is fully assembled:

Less spikes on this one, and I went ahead and put the dozer blades on the front for variety.

I also assembled Lord Felthius and his Tainted Cohort:

I modified the axe wielder's combi-bolter into a combi-plasma so that I could have 4 WYSIWYG Blightlord Terminators with Bubotic Axe and combi-plasma. Now that I have these guys and they are assembled I can finish assembling my actual Blightlord Terminators kit, which will give me some options for what things I'll take in the squad.

I'm also putting together a Daemon Prince with double talons for my Adepticon list. I already had one with a sword and one with an axe, but the talons are better, so now I have a WYSIWYG one (well, I will when it's built!).

Speaking of my Adepticon list, I thought I'd share what models I have left to paint at a minimum to be ready for the event:
Daemon Prince: currently being assembled
Obliterator squad: Primed, need paint and basing
2x Obliterator squads: Painted (minimally), need basing
Jump Pack Lord: Primed, need paint and basing
2x Khorne Bloodreaver Berzerker Squad: 1 complete, 1 unprimed (needs primer ASAP!)
Jump Pack Sorcerer: Primed, needs paint and basing
Chaos Cultists: Some complete, some painted but unbased, others primed and need paint and basing
2x Chaos Rhino: 1 partially painted (currently being worked on), 1 unprimed
Noise Marines: Done!
Chaos Space Marines: Some primed, others painted (in Black Legion colors) needing to be rebased on 32mm bases.
Foot Sorcerer: Partially painted, needs basing
As a stretch goal, I'm going to try and get my non-Dark Vengeance Helbrute at least minimally painted to possibly use in the Friendly event. Might be just the kind of unit I'd want for something less competitive like that. If I get short on time, I'll just have to give any remaining models a very quick 3 base colors and wash, and put some texture on their bases. Very quick and dirty. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Feel free to vote in the Dakka Gallery for my Noise Marines and Cultists that I posted previously! Hopefully I'll have some more good stuff to show soon.

No paint progress since my last post unfortunately, but I have been assembling a few things. First, that Daemon Prince that I got recently is now fully built and awaiting primer (maybe this afternoon if it stays calm outside):

He'll be a Slaanesh prince with the Intoxicating Elixir. I'll probably do him with very pale skin (like almost white), with purple-shaded metallic armor. I might do the shoulder pads and chest plate in blue to match my Alpha Legion, though.

I've also fully assembled my Blightlord Terminators for the Death Guard:

They'll be fun to paint, but they'll be waiting until after Adepticon for sure as they aren't going to be in my list for that.

Now that everything I need is assembled, I just need to get back to painting!

@Nevelon: Thanks!

@York: Thanks! I have to stay busy if I want my army to be ready in a couple of months!

I've been too tired the last couple of days to paint much, but I have gotten some work done on my Rhino anyway:

I've got most of the base colors down at this point, other than the viewports on the hatch assembly and the skin on the impaled head on the right side spikes. I even put a couple of decals on the sides to mark this as an Alpha Legion vehicle, as well as adding a freehand "Alpha Omega" symbol and my first crude attempt at a scale motif on a couple of panels. I feel happy with how the scales turned out for my first attempt, but I do want to do them better in future. At least I have some idea what I'm doing now.

I hope to have more done soon!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Nice work, although I don't envy you the task of painting a while Rhino's worth of scales.

Oh, don't worry, I won't be doing the whole thing. Those two panels are probably it for this vehicle, and I'll do a similar amount on the other one when I get around to it. It would look silly if the whole vehicle was covered in scales, I think.

So, continuing to plug away at my army, still slower than I want to be going. But, progress is progress, right? I've gotten a little bit more work done on the Rhino, including some more freehand, this time on the back hatch:

Not much left to do on this thing. Just a couple of minor details that need a highlight or two and I'll call it done. I don't have time to do any weathering, as I need to move on to other models.

I'm also working on two Sorcerers, one of them being that metal one with the red sword:

Next up will be brightening up his green skirt thing, as well as a couple of other small details. I fixed his shoulder pad trim to be silver so that it's more in line with Alpha Legion, but I like having plenty of gold as well because he's a sorcerer. I might add a couple of other highlights to the sword blade (such as lightning effects, which are already started), but this model is very nearly done.

I'm also working on my Sorcerer with the jump pack:

This guy is my entry in the February painting challenge (because he's carrying a big stick). I've already done the armor including the trim and green highlights (not easily seen in the blurry photo), and the staff has been basecoated and shaded. I should be able to knock out this model quickly enough and move on to others. Lots more to paint for Adepticon, after all.

@Josh: Thanks, and sorry for the out-of-focus shot. I was in a hurry. I wanted to do the sword in red because I really enjoyed painting Guilliman's sword and I thought it would look cool for a Chaos guy to have an infernal-looking weapon. As for the staff, that is one of my all-time favorite bits, so I just had to use it!

I'm going ahead and calling that Rhino done. I need to move on since I've only got like 40 days or so left before Adepticon. Here are the final photos:


I feel like it turned out okay, if a bit rushed. If I had time I would do some weathering, but as I said I've got lots more to do so it's time to move on. Maybe I'll come back and weather it at a later date. Meanwhile, feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery.

I'm also very very close to finishing the metal Sorcerer model, so here's the final WIP shot before I finish the model off:

All that's left to do is one or two small highlights and some touchups and detailing on the Alpha Legion hydra symbol on the shoulderpad. Oh, and the base, which will be easy.

I'm also getting close to finishing the Jump Pack Sorcerer. Here's the latest WIP shot of him:

I decided to go with the scale motif on the side panels of the jump pack. It helps to hide the join between the two pieces of the pack. My freehand is still improving. All of the base colors are down on this guy, so just a few shades and highlights left and I'll be able to call him done.

I'm probably going to tackle a bunch of Cultists next, as I've got probably 20 more of them to do at a minimum. Fortunately they aren't hard to paint at all, especially now that I have a good method for them.

Got started on some more Cultists with autoguns, and one with a flamer:

Now that I have a method for doing these guys I'm hopeful that I can knock them out quickly and move on to something else.

I'm making more progress on the cultists, but I'm not posting another WIP photo just yet. I'll do another one of those after I get a little more done. For now, I thought I'd show what I did to clean up my desk a little bit. It was pretty chaotic, and not just because I'm painting Chaos models right now. Paint pots all over the place, loose bits just asking to be knocked on the floor and swallowed by the vacuum cleaner, and other things. So I decided to get myself a paint rack so I no longer have to hunt around for that one color that I need for this or that. Here's how it looks now that I've got that rack put together and loaded up:

Obviously the work area is still far from perfect, but it still beats having to hunt through a random cluster of paint pots, many of which look alike from the top (especially shades). I had also accumulated a fair amount of dust and crumbs and stuff (probably the result of eating while sitting at the computer), which is now gone, so the area is more sanitary. Hopefully it's less of a distraction now so I can paint faster.

I also went over to the FLGS today, where I picked up a new pluck foam tray for my Battlefoam case, the 8th edition Chaos Daemons codex, and this jolly little guy:

This is a Sloppity Bilepiper (ugh I despise that name). He was pretty easy to put together, and he'll be really fun to paint. He even has a cheerful little Nurgling dancing with him on his base! That's one thing I like about the newer Nurgle models; they are so full of character. Of course, since this model will not be accompanying me to Adepticon, he'll have to wait a while for some paint.

I hope to have more progress on my Adepticon army soon, so stay tuned!

I've now finished the metal Sorcerer model, so here are the final photos of him:


He was a lot of fun to paint, especially since the model dates back to 1996, before I even knew Warhammer existed! I'm not perfectly happy with how the sword turned out, partially because I got sloppy with the spark effects. I think it'll do okay for now, so I'm leaving it. Too much else to do to worry over one model that's already above and beyond minimum tabletop requirements. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery!

I've also got a WIP shot of the cultists ready:

They have been fully basecoated and shaded other than the skin, and the cloth parts have been highlighted. Not too much left to do, then I can paint either more fun stuff or...more cultists.

Here's a revised list of what is yet to be painted for Adepticon:
Jump Pack Sorcerer: In progress
3 Obliterator units: 2 units just need basing, third needs paint and basing
At least 20 more cultists: 10 WIP (see above), others need paint and basing
10 Berzerkers: Need paint and basing
6 bases of Nurglings: Need paint and basing
Abaddon: Needs paint and basing
2 Daemon Princes: Need paint and basing (one is for my Team Tournament list, the other may be borrowed by one of my teammates)
Chaos Rhino: Needs paint and basing
Autocannon Havocs: Need to be rebased on 32mm bases and basing material added, otherwise already painted (for friendly tournament).
10 Chaos Space Marines: Same as above, also for friendly tournament.

So, in other words my work is cut out for me, but I think I can handle it!

@Az: Thanks! I've certainly got my work cut out for me!

@York: Thanks for the encouragement! If you are going to Adepticon, maybe PM me when it gets closer to time and I'll show you the army! I wouldn't mind seeing your stuff either.

Well, I've finished not one but TWO units! Firstly, here are the final pics of my February painting challenge entry, my Alpha Legion Sorcerer on a Jump Pack:


He may not be up to my best painting standards, but he's tabletop standard and should look okay with the rest of my army. I certainly had fun with him for the whole process, from kitbashing to painting. Feel free to vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery!

The other finished unit is 10 Chaos Cultists. Here are the first 9 of them; they are the ones I got from the Assassinorum: Execution Force box set:

And here is a guy with a flamer (got him in that big Chaos lot last spring):

Flamer guy is missing a couple of details since I was being hasty, but it's not noticeable too much at usual tabletop viewing distances. Just a few more Cultists to paint (plus plenty of other stuff).

I'm also making progress on a unit of Nurglings:

For the skin, I painted 2 coats of Rakarth Flesh, followed by 2 coats of Athonian Camoshade wash all over, which gave a nice putrid color. I've also basecoated the guts, tongues, and tentacles with Screamer Pink. As I thought, these guys should be very quick and easy to finish up, which is good, because I've got 4 weeks at the outside to get these and a bunch more stuff done.

In other news, I recently bought a bunch of base adapter rings for converting 25mm bases into 32mm ones. I've already applied a few to various models, and they work great. I'll give a brief review and a couple of pics in my next post.

Okay, it's been a lot longer than I'd hoped between updates, but I am still alive and still beavering away on my Adepticon army. I've made a little progress on those Nurglings:

They are basically done, just a couple of very small details left to pick out, plus the bases. I've started on a second batch of these little dudes as well. They really aren't very hard to paint at all. A nice solid basecoat of a light color (I used Rakarth Flesh, but actual white or even Death Guard Green would also work), plus a couple of washes of Athonian Camoshade, and most of the work is done. For sake of time I skipped the logical next step, which would be a highlight of Ogryn Camo, but honestly they look fine without it. It might make the skin pop a bit more, though. Other than that, it's just a matter of picking out a few details like the horns, any maggots or slime, and the guts and tongues, and of course the eyes, which I haven't done yet (they'll just be yellow). I should be able to finish these models soon.

As promised, here is a small review of those base expander rings. They are from a company called Eccentric Miniatures (here's a link), and they work great. They offer two different but similar products for converting a 25mm base into a 32mm base, perfect for rebasing Space Marines or lesser Daemons, which are now on the 32mm ones. The rings are made from the same plastic as GW's bases, and can be assembled with plastic glue assuming the base they are applied to is unpainted. Super glue also works just fine of course.

Here's a pic of the version I bought, which are designed to fit well on a GW base:

Basically it's just two semicircular halves that fit together around the rim of a 25mm base (as you might expect!). They fit very well on a GW base (only fit issues I've had have been bases that were already painted), and should blend in seamlessly once painted, textured, and/or flocked. Here are a couple of examples showing models I've rebased with these:

The image on the left is an old metal Plaguebearer with a Daemonic Icon. The ring fit perfectly around his base since it was unpainted. For old metal models on slotta bases, these are a godsend, as some of those (like the metal Plaguebearers) would be very hard to glue to a non-slotta base (you'd probably have to pin them carefully, and that's a pain in the ass!). The pic on the right is a squad of old metal Havocs that I got second-hand in a couple of different lots (the paintjobs are not my work). Four of those bases were already painted and flocked, so I wanted to show that these will still work on finished bases, although it may not be as seamless as there will likely be a noticeable ring where the existing basing material (small gravel, which I will repaint) meets the texture paint that I will use to make these bases match the rest of my army. I bought 100 of these for just $22 plus shipping, so they won't break the bank. That's certainly less than buying 100 new 32mm bases. They don't take much effort to put on (just a bit of glue, and plastic glue will work on unpainted bases).

In short, I think these things are a wonderful product, and they definitely deserve a ZergSmasher Seal of Approval!

I hope to have more painted stuff to show off soon. Just 3 weeks to go before Adepticon, so I'd better step on it!

@Josh: I did the bases in gray on the Nurglings so that there would be more contrast (the models won't blend into the base). I've never really even seen the metal Nurglings so I can't attest to how easy or hard they might have been to paint. As for the base ring adapters, they do have to be glued. Super glue works well, but you could also use plastic glue if you are putting these on unpainted bases as they are made of the same plastic GW uses in their bases.

@York: Thanks! You really should rebase any Space Marines onto 32mm's as they do look better, but if you don't play competitively I don't think there's any reason to rush it. And yes, I'll certainly put up a pic or two of my Adepticon army (actually 3 lists since I'm playing in 3 events). The pics might not be terribly impressive, as some of the models I'm using were bought secondhand and not painted by me, which means the schemes will not match.

I'm getting work done on my various models. I finished the first 3 bases of Nurglings, so here's a quick pic of them (didn't bother with the formal photo setup):

I'm satisfied with how they turned out. They certainly aren't difficult to paint, although it is easy to miss spots with the paint since there are a lot of little surfaces.

I've also begun work on Abaddon the Despoiler as my entry in the March painting challenge. Here's the first WIP shot of him:

Just a couple more basecoats to put down, then I'll clean up the black and move on to shading.

I've begun work on several other models as well, including my Dark Apostle:

He's got quite a bit more work needed, but I should at least be able to get him to a minimum standard in time for Adepticon.

In addition to the above, I've started on 3 more bases of Nurglings (they are nearly done, needing only some texture on their bases and a little more shading on their horns) and my other 10 Khorne Berzerkers (the Bloodreaver models). I recently tallied up the remaining models I have to paint, and it came out to 35 models, plus about 21 more that need basing work (but are already otherwise painted). My work is cut out for me, as I've only got 16 days and counting. It's gonna be close!

@York: I'm looking forward to being ready to do the picture, and I'm sure we can arrange to meet at Adepticon!

I'm making more progress on my Adepticon project. First up for this evening, here is my second unit of Nurglings, all finished:

Like the first unit, they are up to a decent tabletop standard, but nothing fancy. I'm happy with how they look and they were pretty easy to paint.

Next, here's a WIP (basically done) shot of my second unit of Khorne Bloodreavers (counts-as Berzerkers):

While I'm calling them done other than their bases, they aren't up to the standard of my other set of these guys. I simply don't have time to finish them properly before Adepticon, but once I get their bases done they'll certainly be good enough. I even contacted the event organizers to make sure these would be an acceptable "counts-as" for Khorne Berzerkers and they said they'd be fine, so that's one concern I don't need to have anymore.

Finally, we have a WIP shot of my second Alpha Legion Chaos Rhino:

I only started this thing this afternoon, so I'm pretty happy to be this far on it already. I'm hoping to get some decals and freehand details on it before Adepticon, but we'll see what I have time for.

Not pictured, I have done a little more work on Abaddon, and started on a few more Cultists. So lots of models are in the WIP phase right now. I've got 12 days left in which to get all this stuff and more done, so I'm definitely sacrificing quality for speed at this point, and it shows. As long as everything is at least minimum tabletop standard and based, it's good for the events, so I'm sticking with that for now and I'll come back to certain pieces to make them nicer if I have time. Wish me luck!

Okay, small update. I've got basically everything I need at least basecoated, with the exception of a few more cultists and my Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Here's a WIP shot of the Prince:

He's coming along nicely, I'm really happy with how the skin turned out. Next up will be the armor and loincloth, then some of the little fiddly details.

I do have a few bases to finish, but that will be easy as I'm keeping them very simple. By this weekend I should be ready to post up a few army shots, and then I'll be ready to head on up to the Windy City. My gaming club is sending like 20 guys in total (5 teams in the team tournament), so we'll hopefully be making our presence felt this year. Adepticon 2018 will be my first major tournament(s) since I began playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago (September 2014), so I'm super pumped already and counting down the days.

I finished the Prince, here are the final pics (worthy of setting up my formal photo area):


I'm super thrilled with how this guy turned out. The photos here do not do this model justice at all. I tinted the shoulder pauldrons and chestpiece purple, and that hardly shows up in these pics, where it is very obvious when I look at the model in person. I need to figure out how to adjust my camera better so I can show these models off properly.

Progresswise I'm done painting stuff other than a few more details on the last 6 cultists, plus a handful of bases (on those cultists, my Obliterators, Abaddon, and my Dark Apostle). Abaddon and the Apostle are not truly done, but are far enough along to pass muster at Adepticon, so I'm counting them. Other than what I've mentioned, the only thing I've got left to do is to paint my display board for them. I'm keeping it very simple, just a cork bulletin board that I've spraypainted blue and will paint a green Alpha Legion hydra symbol on. I may also add the words "Hydra Dominatus" at the top. Technically my list for the Championship is a soup list, but my lists for the Friendly and Team events are pure Alpha Legion, hence my choice for the board. Once I get that done (won't be hard as I'm not going too fancy on it) I'll put up some army shots for you guys to check out.

After Adepticon, I'm figuring on getting back to painting my Sons of the Lion. Frankly I'm sick of painting Chaos stuff at the moment, so a change of pace is definitely called for.

@Josh: Thanks! I figured purple is a Slaanesh color, so I went with it and it turned out as good as I had hoped.

@York: Thanks, but there isn't any green. Must be the bad lighting on the photos making the skin look green (it does a bit).

@Nev: Har har har, very funny! You're right about the shifting gears thing. That's why I have no regrets on having several armies, as they all look distinct and have different types of models to build and paint and play with.

Well, it's time. Time for me to embark on my greatest hobby adventure yet: Adepticon 2018! All the models are painted, all my plans are made. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if I can dance. (bonus points for whoever gets that reference!)

As promised, I've got some army shots to show my faithful blog viewers. First, a shot of my hastily-painted display board for my forces:

Nothing fancy, but I had fun making this and it will suit its purpose.

Next, we have my army for the Championship event on Thursday:

All of these models except for the blue Obliterators were painted by me. The blue Oblits were purchased as-is from the used bin at my FLGS a while back; all I did to them was redo the bases.

Here's my army for Friday's Friendly tournament, which they are calling A Most Excellent Adventure:

Some of these models are ones I bought in a couple of different used lots and so were not painted by me, nor in actual Alpha Legion colors, but that's okay as they are in fact painted.

Finally, here's a shot of my army for the premier event at Adepticon, the Team Tournament:


All my efforts over the past three months have come down to this. I'm excited enough that I'm not sure I'll sleep much tonight. I'm leaving town tomorrow morning to get there and check in that evening to pick up my event badge and stuff. Then over the next four days I'll be playing a total of 12 games of Warhammer 40k. I'll probably be pretty fried when it's all over, so I did take an additional day off work for Monday to cool my jets. Hopefully I'll have some cool new swag to show off on here too!

Those of you who said you want to see my stuff in person at Adepticon, PM me on here or just find me during the events (my display board is distinctive enough I hope!). I'll be pretty busy since I'm playing in events on all four days, but I'd love to see you guys and maybe find some time to talk in person!

@WK: Hey welcome back! Thanks for the kind words!

@youwashock: Thanks!

@York: Thanks, I look forward to seeing you there!

It's almost time, I'm leaving in a few minutes so I thought I'd post a last minute reply here first. As I've said before this will be my first large event since I started playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago. This will be a new experience for me, so I look forward to sharing about it on here, and hopefully showing off some shiny new toys that I get while I'm there.

See you all on the other side!

@Knightley: Thanks, that means a lot coming from you!

@Josh: Thanks, and yes, it's a great feeling to have a finished force.

@WK: Had a blast, read below!

Well, I'm back. What an experience I had at Adepticon 2018. I played more Warhammer in a weekend than I usually play in 2 months, although I'm going to start trying to get more games in nowadays as it was painfully obvious I've got a lot to learn on both the hobby and gaming sides of 40k. So without further ado, I'll tell you guys about how it went.

My local 40k club sent a total of 20 people to Adepticon, entering five teams (FIVE!) in the Team Tournament. Not all of us played in the Championships or any of the Friday events (although many of us did). A lot of players were commenting on how there were so many of our jerseys among the crowd. I'd be willing to bet that we had more people there than any other single club, but I can't swear to that of course.

So first up, the Championships, which was my Thursday event. I did not do very well at all, finishing 1-3 and barely winning the one I did win. Looking back I think my list was bad and I played it poorly. My first game was against Orks, and we barely got 3 turns in. My Oblits kept getting 1's for their damage even with rerolls, meaning I couldn't very well hurt any of the vehicles. Plus I didn't have nearly enough anti-infantry to handle the very numerous Boyz squads. My next game was against a brigade of Alaitoc Aeldari with a Vanguard of Ynarri led by the cat lady (Yvraine). I only lost this one by 2 points, and it was a pretty crazy game. My Khorne Berzerkers did some work taking out some Warp Spiders and Warlocks as well as some Rangers, but I don't think they made their points back. My Oblits did good work as well, taking out a Wraithlord and a Fire Prism (which exploded amongst my opponent's backfield and took out 3 Warp Spiders, 3 Dark Reapers, and wounded a bunch of other stuff) and some other things. Again, those Oblits did not really make their points back. What cost me the game was that the mid-table objective was on top of impassible terrain and so I could not get close enough to it to take it. Not sure that was fair, but oh well. Game 3 was against an Astra Militarum Catachan gunline. I got first turn here and managed to take out a bunch of infantry with my infiltrating Noise Marines. My opponent focused down my entire Cultist blob to prevent me from using Tide of Traitors to just get them back. It ended up being a slugfest with me only having a single Obliterator and some characters left. If the game had continued, I might have lost, but I ended up winning by 3 points. Fourth game is the one that made me salty, playing against a Daemons player. He dropped a couple of big Bloodletter bombs and managed to coffin both of my Rhinos thanks to me not screening them properly (to be fair, I was salty at myself rather than my opponent, as I felt really stupid letting that happen to me). When those Bloodletters also took out Abaddon, I did something I swore I would never do: a ragequit. I didn't act all rude to my opponent or anything, but I was visibly upset, mostly with myself for playing so sloppily, and I just conceded the game, grudgingly shook my opponent's hand, and walked away before my his patronizing attempts to console me made me do something really stupid. At this point I was actually feeling sorry I came, but fortunately I cooled off and came back on Friday for the friendly tournament.

In the Friendly event, for which the theme was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, we had some wacky special rules and stratagems. I faced a Drukhari opponent in the first round, and he absolutely paddled me since he seized the initiative and went first. I lost way too much of my firepower in his initial attack. My opponent and I both agreed that if I had gone first, it would have been the other way around, as Drukhari don't have a lot of staying power. In the second round, I played against Chaos Renegades with a pair of Decimator Engines and a Hellwright. I won this one fairly handily, as my opponent's list was somewhat friendlier than mine was. It was still a fun game for both of us. In the third round, I faced a mechanized Iron Warriors player. I beat him fairly soundly as well, but it was a little harder than the previous game. In this one, my Obliterators were the lame duck of the match, as they just couldn't roll more than 1 damage for 4 out of 5 turns. While I personally finished 2-1, my team finished 3rd of 8 teams (players were assigned a team color at the beginning; mine was black). It was still a fun lighthearted event.

So, on Saturday me and my team played the Team Tournament. There were some absolutely incredible display boards around, although my team actually didn't have one ourselves. The effort put into these things was jaw-dropping. Anyhow, the games. Our first matchup was against a team of pure Death Guard. The pair I faced were running three units of Blightlord Terminators, two Daemon Princes, four units of Poxwalkers, and some characters and vehicles. Our team won this one on both tables. Our second matchup was against an Imperial team, with three of the players running various Guard regiments and the fourth running Deathwatch. I was paired with our team captain, who like me was running pure Alpha Legion. That saved our bacon, as despite winning the roll-off to go first our opponent's seized the initiative. Had it not been for the -1 to hit, we would have lost way too much of our army. As it was, we brutally counterattacked and despite playing the mission wrong and missing out on some points, we ended up winning by a few points. Our teammates on the other table also managed to squeak out the win. In game 3, we faced a mixed Imperial team. In my game, I was paired with my World Eaters teammate facing a Cadian player and a Blood Angels player. We might have got our butts handed to us but for one thing: despite rolling 3d6 and having a reroll, their 15-man Death Company blob FAILED THEIR CHARGE from 9 inches. Our Berzerkers did a number on them in return, wiping the unit. My Obliterators took out Pask and a LRBT in this turn as well. It was still a very near thing, but we managed to win. My team also won on the other table, meaning that we were actually undefeated on Saturday and the best finishing team of our club for the day. On Sunday unfortunately, it didn't last. Our first matchup was some French Canadians with a beautifully-converted Dark Angels and Grey Knights army. Their theme was a homebrew chapter that fights Tyranids, so all the models had Tyranid skulls and boneswords and stuff as trophies. It was truly a thing of beauty. I was once again paired with our team captain, and we barely lost our game (if we had killed just one more model in our backfield, we would have won). Our teammates lost their game badly, though. Our opponents were also very pleasant and fun to play against, so it was a good experience despite the loss. In the final match of the event, we faced a team of pure Nurgle Daemons. That one went very badly for us, as we got seized on again and just could not kill enough Plaguebearers to matter. Worse, my teammate fired his huge Cultist blob's autoguns into a Plague Drone unit, with Veterans of the Long War and Endless Cacophony for double shots. He killed four of the models, but my opponent used a reroll to get a 1 for morale and got all of the models back. Very frustrating. Our opponents were at least nice guys about everything. Overall our team went 3-2, so not bad at all, especially since for our club we were kind of a throw-together team with no real practice playing together. The World Eaters guy normally plays Guard, so he did really well at using those Berzerkers right. It was a fun experience for all of us, and we all agreed we will probably go back next year.

So, as for my swag, I purchased the premium badge, which netted me an awesome swag bag full of cool stuff. Here are some pics of what I got:

First, a sprue for a Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar Assault Squad model:

Two of the pieces popped off the sprue, but they stayed in the bag thankfully.

Next, a set of bases by Elrik's Hobbies and a sci-fi door scenery piece by Tiny Terrain:


Then we have a selection of sample miniatures from various new and upcoming games, including Godtear, Blood & Plunder, and Tabletop Tactical Simulation (the mini is a modern US soldier I think). The final miniature is from Victoria Miniatures, and is an Adepticon 2018 exclusive.

The reason I have two of the Godtear ones is because my bag came with a Malifaux mini, and one of my teammates plays Malifaux and wanted it (and I had no use for it), so we traded.

I also got some paints in the swag bag: a bottle of Master Series Paints Mint Green, and an airbrush primer (pity I don't have an airbrush):


Now, we get to the really good stuff:


I'm glad I never bought that 30th anniversary Primaris Sergeant, as I now have him anyway. I've also got some cool books even if a couple of them are not from game systems I actively play, and those two boxed games will be fun to try and at least give me something different to paint.

In addition to these things, there were a few little trinkets and doodads in there, and I did order a couple of sets of Adepticon dice (which were pink and purple this year). I also bought some stuff:

I got two boxes of Primaris Inceptors and Asmodai for my Dark Angels, a Dark Angels Purity Seal (when I saw it I just had to have it!), and I won a set of Elrik's Hobbies bases to put those Inceptors on. I also ordered some Mortis Dreadnought Lascannons from the Forge World Booth, although I'm kicking myself for not going ahead and buying either a Sicaran Battle Tank or even a Fire Raptor (although those might have been a little outside my budget). Still, I got a decent haul on this trip, and there was a nice discount on the GW stuff (which is why I bought it).
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Overall I had fun, despite what happened in the Championships. There, I really just had unrealistic expectations for my first GT, and I got burned for it. The other days went a lot better for me even when we lost all our games on Sunday. I look forward to returning next year if possible!

@Knightley: If I changed my list, I would probably have either skipped the Nurglings and brought more Cultists (not an option for me as I don't have enough more cultists to matter), or I would have doubled down and brought a full Battalion of Daemons alongside my CSM (2 characters and 3 Nurgling units).

@youwashock: Thanks, it was a total blast!

@York: Yeah, sorry I didn't see you there. It really did get me charged up for the hobby, plus I am already planning on going back next year. The whole thing was full of inspiration for both the painting and modelling side and the gaming side of the hobby.

@Josh: It totally was a blast! I'm hoping to take my Dark Angels next year, but outside of that, with the way FAQ's shake up the meta every few weeks, who can say what I'll be bringing?

@WK: If you get the chance, I highly recommend you attend Adepticon. Don't go by yourself, though. Get some friends to form a team for the Team Tournament; you can all save a bit on hotel expenses by sharing a room. If you plan it out well, you can probably make the whole thing happen for about 500 bucks total, and that includes some spending money at the vendors. Get the premium badge if possible, as the swag bag more than makes up for the slight added cost (the Guildball box game alone this year was worth $75 retail!).

Okay, now that Adepticon is over and done, I can get back to business as usual. First, I finally truly finished Abaddon the Despoiler for the monthly painting challenge, so here are the final photos (with an experimental new background):



I'm very happy with how he turned out overall. I wish I'd had time to finish him to this standard before Adepticon, but I was able to get him good enough for that and finish him after, so better late than never, right? I do feel like these photos turned out better than the ones I've been doing on the white background. I'll make some kind of gray background with something eventually; this was just a dry run with a foam tray and my kitchen table surface to make a darker, more neutral background.

In other news, I got some new stuff assembled:

From left to right: 30th Anniversary Primaris Intercessor Veteran Sergeant, Asmodai, old metal Bjorn the Fell-handed, and a Ghar Assault Squad model from Beyond the Gates of Antares (from my Adepticon swag bag). I'm also building some new Tau models as preparation for an upcoming tournament next weekend. I picked up a new Commander kit (which will be a Coldstar, of course), some more Pathfinders, and I'm finally going to assemble the Fire Warrior kit from the 7th edition Kill Team box set because I badly need more Fire Warriors.

I'm hoping to get the Tau stuff built very soon and start assembling and painting some Dark Angels soon. My entry for April's painting challenge will be one or more of the Assassins from the Execution Force game, so look forward to those!

@youwashock: Thanks buddy! I agree that Abaddon's sculpt is cool. Made the model a joy to paint despite being FailCast.

@WK: Thanks! Not sure what you mean about the arms unless you are talking about the metal Abaddon model, which I can imagine would be a pain in the ass. And by all means paint some Black Legion; they have one of the coolest-looking paint schemes among Chaos Marines IMO.

Nothing new to show as far as paint, but I did get my Tau Coldstar Commander put together, along with his faithful drone companion, Shieldy McShieldface:

Probably not going to paint this model real soon, so I didn't glue him to the flying stand. He stays on there pretty well even without glue or even poster tack, so I can still game with him. I put magnets on the inside edges of the thrust packs and on the arms in order to attach up to four weapons, which on this model will often be fusion blasters. Magnets are your best friends when it comes to setting up Tau battlesuits, especially in 8th edition where the meta is constantly shifting, making different weapons good.

Next up for assembly will be some Fire Warriors, and next up for painting are my Assassins, so look forward to those in the days ahead.

@York: Thanks!

@Zambro: Thanks, and long time no see! Unfortunately I'm not going to be actually painting Tau much for a little while, as I'm currently on an Imperial push, but I'll probably get back to them summer-ish.

@Knightley: Thanks man!

@WK: Thanks, he was fun to build, and he'll be fun to paint too whenever I get around to it.

@Josh: Thanks! He might be one of the first Tau things I paint whenever I get back around to painting them. Got a bunch of Imperial stuff (mainly Dark Angels) to do first.

Small update today, just assembled the other half of my Dark Angels Hellblasters box:

I'll assemble some Inceptors and a jump pack Master and then hopefully we'll have good weather to get out the primer. Believe it or not, it's been snowing here in Missouri. In the middle of April.

I've barely begun on the Assassins for the monthly comp. Just did some drybrush highlights to show some detail. I'll do photos once I get a few parts basecoated at least, hopefully very soon as I want to finish these and move on to some Dark Angels.

Quick WIP shot on the Assassins now that I've gotten a few base colors down:

More to come, hopefully soon!

More progress has been made on the Assassins:

Most of the base colors are down now, although some touchups of the black will be needed. These models are some of the coolest in all of 40k, and they have been fun to work with so far!

In other news, my Easy to Build Redemptor Dreadnought finally arrived. I got it assembled today:

It's molded in blue plastic and comes in just 12 parts, which is astounding for a model this size. It's a pretty cool kit, although honestly for an optimal loadout for one of these you need to go ahead and get the full kit. I may add some Dark Angels bits to it to customize it, or else I'll use decals to make it more Dark Angels-y once I paint it.

@WK: Thanks! I can recommend the ETB dread, especially if you aren't too worried about a customizable loadout, as it is a significant savings over the full kit.

@Babouin: Thanks, I agree about the poses. Some of the best 40k sculpts ever. I also thought the Eversor looks like he's straight out of The Matrix with his wall running pose.

@youwashock: Thanks!

Nevelon: Thanks! I do agree about the price of the Assassins. 30 bucks is a bit much for a monopose character model, even a cool one like these. I bought the box because I do play Chaos and I wanted the board game too after hearing it was a lot of fun. And yes, angry washing machines rock (but the Redemptor is still cool!).

No progress to report on the Assassins unfortunately. Having some motivation problems, possibly burnout after all the Adepticon prep. I have been busy assembling stuff to get ready for my big Dark Angels push, which is for (you guessed it) another GT, this one in August. Even if I don't end up going, it'll be nice to have a fully painted Dark Angels force to play with.

So, the newly assembled stuff. First, a Scout Squad with Bolters:


And a full 6-man unit of Primaris Inceptors with Plasma Exterminators:

One thing I hate about the Primaris kits is how monopose the models are. The Inceptors are literally only 3 possible poses, so I've got 2 of each since I bought 2 boxes. If you built the Assault Bolter variant, you could at least perhaps adjust the arm positions with a minimum of modeling effort, but the plasma weapons have cables that are sculpted to be very specific to how the arms are situated, meaning reposing the models would be a monumental task. At least the poses are dynamic and cool, though, and not totally bland or something. That would be horrible! I plan to put these Inceptors on those scenic bases I got at Adepticon. There were only 5 bases in that set, so I had to cobble together a 6th base that sort of matches the aesthetic using pieces of cork and part of a drinking straw. It'll look okay, I think, at least once it's painted. I'll have to paint these guys fully before I can play with them as they really need to be painted before being mounted on their bases, just as the Dark Imperium ones were.

The models I plan to paint in this DA push are:
6 Inceptors (the ones shown above)
15 Scouts (including the above ones)
10 Hellblasters
1 Repulsor
1 Ravenwing Dark Talon (already partially painted)
2 Razorbacks
1 Chapter Ancient
2 Dreadnoughts
1 Redemptor Dreadnought
I also plan to make a Master with a Jump Pack, plus at least one non-Primaris Lieutenant. When I get those built, I'll paint them. This is a lot of work, and may not be the full sum of it, but I'll prioritize as necessary (for instance, since the FAQ I'm probably not going to use a Dark Talon much anymore, so it's low priority).

Hope to have some actual painting progress to show soon. A lot of the stuff listed above still needs primer, which means I need a break in the weather. It's like winter doesn't want to let go around here, with cold mornings and a lot of wind.

@Josh: Yeah, I'm kind of masochistic like that, I guess. While technically the tournament I'm wanting to enter will allow unpainted models, I would become ineligible for prizes other than "best in gray" so I'd rather have painted stuff. Plus I liked the feel of having a fully painted army when I was at Adepticon, so I want to get more stuff painted. Most of that list of stuff won't even make the cut in my actual list, but I want to paint it anyway!

@WK: I get what you're saying about those stands. My 3 Inceptors from Dark Imperium have held up well so far, but I've only used them a couple of times. We'll see how it goes in future.

Finally back to putting paint on models. My Assassins are getting close to done, with all the basecoats down. Here's the latest WIP shot:

Next big step will be to shade and highlight the stone and metal details on the bases, but that will be very quick and easy. After that, just a few highlights and touchups. Hopefully I can knock these guys out soon and get to work on the Unforgiven, starting with the plasma Inceptors.

@York: Thanks! I wish I could say I never went to tournaments without a fully painted army, but sadly that is not the case. Adepticon is the only event I've been in where I had a fully painted army unfortunately. The big DA push is for a GT in August that I'm planning to attend, and I intend to be fully painted for that.

@WK: Thanks! I have yet to run any except the Vindicare in 8th edition so far, but now I might try the others and see how they work, especially with the new FAQ rulings.

Well, I finally finished the Assassins. Only about 2 weeks after I had hoped to finish. Hobby burnout is real, folks, and it's very hard to stay motivated sometimes. Anywho, here are the final pics of them.
First, here are a couple of group shots, with the second showing some alternative detail on the sides and rear of the models:

And here are individual shots of each assassin:
Vindicare Assassin:

Callidus Assassin:

Culexus Assassin:

And finally, the Eversor Assassin:

These were very fun to paint! My personal favorite of the sculpts is definitely the Eversor Assassin; he looks very dynamic running along that wall thing. I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out, although I could probably find some nitpicky things that I could have done better. I wholeheartedly recommend these models to anyone looking for something different to paint in 40k, as they are pretty unique compared to the regular armies in the game.

Next up for me will probably be my Dark Angels Inceptors with Plasma Exterminators. Since next month's painting challenge theme is 3 Color Maximum, I'll probably knock out a few Daemon models along the way. Those should be fairly quick and easy, especially if I'm only using 3 basic colors (shades and highlights notwithstanding).

@Nev: Thanks! I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the painting comp.

@youwashock: Thanks very much!

@WK: Good to know, so thanks!

@Josh: Thanks! As for how I did it, it was literally just a black basecoat with a drybrush of medium gray. Quick and dirty highlights with that method, and I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out as well as it did rather than just making a mess.

@York: Thanks, I'll keep it in mind to post if I play them anytime soon. I'll probably start working on playing my Imperial forces again in June, July at the latest.

No real progress to show on the Inceptors at this point. They have been primed and basecoated with Caliban Green, and the recesses have been shaded, so highlights are next and then the green armor will be done. I have gotten some painting done on my Bloodletters that I'm working on for the May painting challenge. Here's a WIP shot of them:

Skin, bronze, and red cloth have been basecoated, so I'll probably shade and then highlight all that next. I'll clean up the black areas and highlight them last because it'll be easier that way (highlighting the red might be messy since I'll be drybrushing). These are actually really easy models to paint, so I should be able to knock them out quick and put my full efforts into the Dark Angels.

Thanks for all the responses by the way. It really does help with my motivation. Hopefully I'll have more to show you all soon!