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Deathwing looking good. Scale creep is a thing you get used to. At least your guys are reasonably new. When the new guys drop with 10th mine are going to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with my old metals. Or shoulder to mid-torso more likely.

Think you will be able to clear the decks before the new edition gets here? Going to be a lot of shiny models, which can take some steam out of finishing old projects.

I considered grabbing that box with the dread and missile guys, but just couldn’t justify it. Looks like a nice batch of guys though. How are the missiles guys in the flesh? A lot of pictures didn’t seem to show their good side.

I knew you’d be chuffed for the Lion. Such an awesome sculpt. Wish Guiliman was cut from the same cloth. Much prefer the understated determination to the gilded flair that the Ultras got.

Join the hive mind. Free hugs and all the biomass you want to eat. Also, a completely different style of paint and play to marines, which is a nice change.

@YWS: Thanks, I'm looking forward to having the Lion to paint.

@Nev: Thanks. I think I can live with the scale creep; after all I used to have old metal Azrael standing in the middle of a crowd of Hellblasters in my mid-8th edition lists. As for clearing the decks, I'm hoping to at least get the rest of the Indomitus Marines painted; it would be nice to have the previous edition's starter set models painted when the new edition drops! Regarding Strike Force Agastus: I personally like the Desolation Marines, but I can understand why some would not. The guns do look better in person IMO, and of course will look even better painted (with gaudy red casings since I'm doing Dark Angels). And I personally think the Guilliman model looks just as cool as Lion, but in a different way. I had loads of fun painting Guilliman (way back in 2017, hard to believe it was 6 years ago now!), and I was pretty happy with how he looked. I am really looking forward to painting Lion though, and since I like to think I've grown as a painter in the last 6 years I think I can make him look even more spectacular. And as for the Nids, I mainly want them as a very different type of painting project. I've seen how you've been doing yours, and I really want to give it a go myself. I would probably need to drop a different army to make room though. I just don't have shelf space for everything, although I suppose I could pack some of my stuff in a box or something until I have a bigger place.

I got the Deathwing done for the monthly challenge, so here are the final pics:



Nothing super spectacular, but they'll do the job on the tabletop. I'm happy that the Space Marine Heroes series 2 models fit in well with the actual Deathwing kit models; much better than the series 1 guys would fit in with regular Tactical marines.

In other news, I've started on the back half of the Indomitus Assault Intercessor squad. They've been waiting far too long, and the next starter set is coming in probably 3 months or so, so I figured I'd better get moving on that. After them, I've still got the Lieutenant, Bladeguard Vets, Bladeguard Ancient, Eradicators, and the Relic Shield Captain to paint yet. And I wouldn't mind getting started on the Agastus models as well, and Azrael, but I'm waiting for a window in the weather for those so I can prime them (still too windy here most days).

Another thing I'd like to do if I can somehow find time is get the few remaining Sisters models painted; they've all been primed already, so the hard work is done on them. I want to be able to take an epic full army shot of my collection. I still need to paint the Novitiates, some Celestians, a few random Battle Sisters, and 3 Paragons, as well as finish the paint jobs on Morvenn Vahl, the Mortifiers, and two more Rhinos. That's the closest I am to having a a full collection for an army finished. Okay, technically all of my existing Knights are painted, except I do have a Questoris still on sprues and a (probably recast) Cerastus Knight-Castigator that need to be built and painted. Not likely to happen this year, so yes, Sisters are indeed closer.

And in other project overload news, I also want to find time to work on my Grineer Votann army. There's just so much to do and so little time! I could probably take two months off work and not make a significant dent in my backlog, and that's just for 40k. I've also got an AoS army and multiple Middle-Earth armies, and even stuff for other games (like Ankh, and the Primal kickstarter that should be fulfilled here in the next few months). I need to increase production and start cranking things out faster, but not so fast that I burn out. That's a delicate balance that I've been on the wrong side of more than once.

Deathwing turned out quite well. A classic look, well-executed. No shortage of cool things coming up, either. Too bad we can't paint everything all at once, right?

Nice work on the deathwing.

Too many projects, not enough time is an old song, one we all sing. It’s not like minis go stale, just keep plugging away at them.

@YWS: Thanks! And you're right about not painting everything all at once; I just don't have enough arms or eyes for that.

@Nev: Thank you for the encouragement, as always!

I'm off to kind of a slow start on this month's painting challenge. I chose to do the Chaos Marines from Assassinorum: Execution Force, as it will give me a suitable entry for the Doomsday theme and allow me to check another box on the projects list. Here's the WIP of those models:

I went with a blue and magenta armor color scheme, because I wanted these guys to look like Tzeentch-worshippers (the colors sort of match common Tzeentch Daemon colors). The scheme will come together better once I paint the armor trim in gold.

I'm also working on getting the Assault Intercessors done to make progress on the Indomitus set. Here's the latest WIP shot:

The green armor is done, and I've blocked in pretty much all the other colors except for the silver metallics. These guys aren't too hard to paint at all, which is good because I want to finish them and move on to the more exciting stuff from that set, and have it all done in time for 10th to drop yet another launch box's worth of models in my lap.

And as something to give me a little variety to paint, I got most of the way through painting a few Battle Sisters. Here's where they are at:

I was just feeling the itch to paint some of these up. My color scheme is just so satisfying to paint for some reason, especially with Contrast paints.

I do have a tournament I plan to attend in June, which will almost certainly be the final event of 9th edition for me. I'm planning to run Dark Angels, but I don't want to spend money on more Hammer/Shield terminators since we've got better-scaled models incoming. I might just run a few Deathwing off in my good ol' 3D printer, assuming the presumably-upcoming Balance Dataslate doesn't nerf them or something (DA are squarely in the crosshairs for the nerf bat currently). Otherwise, I might just print more Middle-Earth stuff, or something a bit...bigger...

Slow start he says, as 15 models work across the bench...

@Nev: Yeah but they're slowly making their way across the bench.

Apologies for going 2 weeks without updating. I'm making progress, but not as quickly as I'd prefer. The Chaos Marines are coming along:

All the basecoats are basically done, now I need to shade and highlight these bad dudes. Basecoating the trim reminded me of one reason why I quit playing Chaos Space Marines...

The DA Assault Intercessors are coming along as well, albeit slowly. Next steps for them will be shoulder pad decals (gloss coat is already down for that) and some highlights on the red weapon casings. WIP shot:

I really need to step on it with these; 10th edition is coming up fast and I've still got plenty more 9th edition starter models to do.

Finally, I did finish up the Battle Sisters I was working on. Dragged out the lightbox this morning and got a few nice pics of them:


I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love the Luxion Purple contrast paint. It gives a much better color than Shyish Purple, which I had to heavily dilute to avoid it looking black.

More to come, hopefully very soon.

Ah, so you did change your purple! I was just about to ask before I scrolled down to the last line.

You Chaos Marines are delightfully vivid-- Tzeentch would be proud. I feel your pain re: all the trim. Years ago, I painted up a bunch of CSM that I got as a job lot, and that was probably my least favorite stage of painting them.

Good looking stuff, all around. Sisters are quite nice.

If I wasn’t half and army deep into Shyish purple, I’d ditch the stuff. It’s not one of the better contrast paints. I would not recommend it to new people starting projects now that it’s not the only purple in the range.

Nice work and good progress! keep on painting.

@Josh: Changed to the newer purple a while back and it's made all the difference in the world. And regarding CSM and their metal trim: I have to think a lot of potential CSM players have turned away because of that. It's a royal pain to paint even though it does look good when finished.

@YWS: Thanks!

@Nev: Agree completely, and thanks as always for the encouragement.

Unfortunately the month got away from me regarding the painting comp in April, and although I did submit a set of late-stage WIP shots as my entry (so I'm 2 for 2 on entries so far) the models are not complete. They are mostly there though, so I'll go ahead and share the pics here:


I might go ahead and polish these off if I need a break from my Dark Angels push; there isn't all that much left to do on them.

Those of you following (or participating in) the current painting challenge know that my entry is the boss Dark Angel himself, Lion El'jonson, freshly returned to join his sons once more. Thanks to a fortunate window in the weather I was able to prime him as well as some other stuff, so I've started painting him now. Here's where he's at so far:

Lots more to do, but it's been a ton of fun so far! Doing him in subassemblies is the only way; trying to do it while he's glued together (especially on his base) would be absolute torture! When he's done, I'll probably grab a quick pic of him next to his brother Roboute, because such a thing is probably obligatory (and it should show my progress in painting skill).

The Assault Intercessors from Indomitus are basically done; just a couple of small things to pick out and the bases to do. Here's the latest WIP:

Next, it'll be on to the Primaris Lieutenant. I'll probably get started on my Desolation Marines as well since I'll need them for my tournament list.

Assembly-wise, I finally added a couple of victims to the Brutalis Dreadnought, using leftover Chaos Marine parts (turned out I had enough for a complete Heretic Astartes, plus parts of more). Here's how it looks now:

The guy under his foot is probably already dead (probably already was before the Dread got there), but the one in his hand is in the process of getting his guts squished out. I'll probably add some blood and stuff once I get around to painting this brute (probably not real soon unfortunately). I probably shouldn't have glued the guy to the claws either; not sure what I was thinking, because now painting will be a bit more complicated.

I also put together the Bladeguard that came with Lion, bringing my total of Bladeguard to 15.

I love that the Bladeguard kit has so many pose options, because it allows for a kit with only three bodies in it to be stretched a lot further than many other kits (looking at you, Death Guard Marines and Terminators).

And now, I think I'll take a page out of Nevelon's playbook and give my thoughts on the revealed contents of the 10th edition starter box, Leviathan.
Space Marines:
Terminator Captain: Besides Belial (also rumored to be getting a new model this year or early next year) I have only one other Terminator Captain, that being the one from Space Marine Heroes season 2. It'll be nice to have one with a different loadout. The model itself is awesome, and I can probably add some DA bling to it to make it really belong with the rest of my guys.
Terminator Librarian: This will be my third one of these; I have the limited-edition one from a couple of years ago, plus an old resin Finecast one. The new one is cooler than either of those though, so I'll be happy to have it.
Phobos Lieutenant: Yay, another Primaris Lieutenant. This will be my 7th for my Dark Angels. The model is pretty cool and unique, at least.
Gravis Apothecary: Probably my favorite of the new characters. Nice to see a new and different role for a model (more of a battlefield researcher rather than a medic).
Infernus Squad: Possibly the only Greenwing unit in the whole box? An all-flamer unit is at least something different, and the previewed rules look cool.
Terminator Squad: Compared to my current Deathwing Terminators, the models are pretty plain, but at least they look more anatomically possible. I can probably use bits from the Deathwing kit to make them look cooler.
Sternguard Veterans: Dark Angels have never had access to Sternguard before, so this is new and exciting. From the one pic of the decal sheet, it looks like these are meant to be painted as Deathwing, which is interesting to say the least.
Ballistus Dreadnought: A mobile gun platform with decent guns. It looks cool and will look even cooler in Caliban Green with some DA bits on it.
Tyranids:
Winged Prime: Not sure why the hate for this model, it looks pretty cool. I'm glad he's modeled on the ground so we don't have to screw around with annoying flying stems.
Neurotyrant: Kind of like a Neurothrope on steroids, and I am here for it. Lots of painting potential there.
Screamer-Killer: He's cool and all, but I'm not sold on the pose. Maybe if there are some shots of it from other angles, I'd like it more.
Von Ryan's Leapers: I keep thinking of an old WW2 movie with a train when I hear the name of these bugs. They are cool models though.
New Termagants/Ripper Swarms: A great update of a classic. Since I'll be starting Nids from scratch, I don't have a ton of the old ones kicking around, which means I'll definitely need these.
Neurogaunts: A new type of gaunt; the models are pretty cool and have enough different textures to provide a decent painting diversion.
Barbgaunts: Yet another new type of gaunt, now with added artillery. The poses on them look too erect; makes them look a bit top heavy.
Psychophage: Probably my favorite of the new bugs. He looks really dangerous and like he'll be pretty fun to paint.

For me, the Nids will represent a new and exciting thing to paint. I've never painted anything quite like them, so it'll be different. The Marines will all be welcome additions to my Dark Angels; any new stuff there is always appreciated.

More to come folks, stay tuned!

How many phobos Lts? I know I’m not one to talk about overstaffed officer corps, but that seems excessive. I’ve got a total of 6 Lts collectively in all armor styles and firstborn. Anytime you can say “I’ve got more of these then those crazy guys working on their 1d3+2th companies” you should take a step back. And then cackle manically. Related: You mentioned that the flamer guys are the only greenwing? How do DA treat phobos guys? They are scouty, but not on bikes like the ravenwing. They get green paint?

Other wise stock up on whatever paint you use to paint bone armor, as this is a very vet heavy boxset

I think the folded wings on the flying prime put people off. I think it’s the first time a winged nid has not been shown in full flight. Also I might have swapped the wings to the upper socket (and still might once I get him in hand). He’s also cut very much from the same cloth as the existing range. Nothing really new or exciting from a modeling POV. I like him, but he’s a little short of the “wow” factor that some of the rest of the box has.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the box. At worst I’m neutral on a few things. Don’t hate anything, and actively like quite a few.

Keep up the work! You’ve got a lot on deck. Get those last touches down so guys can get off to the finished pile and make room for the new stuff incoming!

Lion on deck! Also looking forward to the bladeguard.

@Nev: It's 7 total Primaris Lieutenants, not Phobos ones specifically. Good sweet Lord, who would need 7 of those?! I'm keeping count of my Primaris Lieutenants mostly because of the memes. If we count non-Primaris ones too, I have 10(!) Lieutenants, as I have two Ravenwing Talonmasters and a firstborn Lieutenant that I kitbashed. I've probably got more total Captains than there are companies in the chapter though, if you count named characters. As for Phobos Marines in general, they get green armor kind of like scouts (I kind of assume they are 10th Company, but I'm not sure that's fluff accurate). As always, thanks for the discussion and encouragement!

@YWS: The Bladeguard from Indomitus should be soonish; the ones that came with the Lion will probably be much later, but you never know. For now, the Lion is my priority for paint.

Lion is coming along well, his paint scheme is definitely taking shape. WIP shot:

The green on the cloak is done to a point I'm happy with it; nothing super fancy but it works (I don't want to try to learn advanced blending and stuff on a model like this). I still need to highlight the hair and beard, and shade and highlight the red on the shield, sword arm, and sword grip. Then it'll be on to the metallics. Gonna have to be careful there; the gold trim on the cloak is gonna make me nervous because I don't want to ruin my hard work. The lion pelt on his back will probably need another drybrush or something; it just doesn't "pop" to me.

In other news, I finished the Assault Intercessors, so they can move on to the finished pile (disclaimer: it is not an actual pile). Here are a few lightbox photos:


Nothing fancy going on with these guys, but it's nice to have them done. Time to paint the more exciting parts of Indomitus now.

Next on deck besides Lion is the Primaris Lieutenant from Indomitus, plus all 10 of my Desolation Marines. The Desolation guys are going to be needed for my tournament next month, so they get to jump the queue. I'm actually excited to paint them too, as unlike a lot of people I love the models. Those giant awkward weapons will look interesting in red, I think. Hope to have more updates very soon!

Between you and Nev, I might just have to go buy the Leviathan box now. I don't have any Nids, so there is that. Good work so far.

@Jeff: DO IT! (you should have heard that in Ian McDiarmid's voice) The stuff in the box looks pretty good. Thanks for the encouragement.

Quick proof of life post, hobby work is going far too slowly, but I'm not gonna rush it and paint when I really don't feel like it. Still, progress has been made. Lion is really coming together:

Still more work to do, but he's getting there. It's been a blast painting him, and I'm looking forward to running him next month, and of course in the upcoming 10th edition (hope he's still good then...).

I got started on more stuff, including the Lieutenant from Indomitus. Here's a WIP shot:

Early WIP shot is early, but the scheme is starting to come together.

I've also started painting both squads of Desolation Marines. Early WIP shot:

Not much to look at now, but once I get a few more colors blocked in, they'll start to look awesome. The armor on these and the LT is already done; nowadays I paint that completely before doing anything else on my Dark Angels (thanks to a tutorial from Artis Opus that inspired me to change up my green armor recipe). Getting to their chest emblems was difficult or impossible on most of them, but honestly they can hardly be seen so if it's not perfect, who cares?

In other news, I'm planning to participate in a Kill Team campaign starting next month, so I actually need to paint my Ork Kommandos that I got last year. Thankfully they are already primed and ready for contrast paint, but the extra painting burden will be a challenge. I don't think the models will be terribly difficult to paint, at least.

I've got some thinking to do about how exactly I'm going to paint my Tyranids once Leviathan drops. I think I'm going to call them Hive Fleet Kukulkan (named for the Mayan winged serpent deity), so perhaps some kind of jade green would be one good color to use. I'm debating picking up some kind of cheaper Tyranid unit explicitly to test out paint schemes; maybe the used model bin at my FLGS has a squad of gaunts or something I could buy for that. Not gonna happen right away, too much other stuff to worry about first.

It took plenty of work, but I finally finished Lion El'jonson, and a week ahead of the painting challenge deadline too. Here are the final pics:



Not to toot my own horn or anything, but this might be my best piece ever. I'm super happy with how it turned out. My photography has room to improve (mostly I need a better camera but I don't want to pay for one), but it's getting there. The model itself was a blast to paint; easier than the previous Primarch (Guilliman) by a good margin, as the model is less busy. And speaking of Guilliman, here's a quick pic of the two brothers together:

Kind of an obligatory shot if one owns both models, I think. They actually are about the same size, which makes sense. It also lets me see what six (!) years of painting skill improvements have done for me. At the time, Guilliman was probably one of my best pieces, and yet when I look at the model I can see plenty of areas where I could have done better (but I didn't know how at the time).

As far as the other stuff I've been working on, I've made some progress but nothing particularly photogenic as yet. I need to keep on going, as that tournament is only a little over a couple of weeks out. Thanks as always for looking!

Great job, Zergsmasher! The cape is awesome, and the detailing on the shield really turned out well. Toot that horn, man. Glad you are happy with the results, too!

Wow! Amazing work. You deserve to be proud of him. With time to spare as well.

@YWS: Thank you very much!

@Nev: Thanks!

Big photo dump incoming, as I've got a lot of irons in the fire currently. Gotta at least make a credible attempt at clearing the decks. Some of these models have been worked on for that tournament that is now over a week past. First, here's a WIP of the Bladeguard Veterans from Indomitus, my entry in the June painting challenge:

Not much done yet, and they'll look odd until I do their armor, but with Contrast I prefer to do dark colors first as it's easier to clean up.

Next up, here's the Indomitus Lieutenant:

He's mostly done actually, just a few details to pick out, and I need to highlight the metallics. He'd probably be done if I hadn't had to prep for the tournament and work on a bunch of Desolation Marines. Speaking of, here's where they are at:

These guys are also nearly done, actually, with only relatively small details, plus shading and highlighting on the metallics and gun casings. I also broke with my usual procedure and actually added squad numbers, as I often deploy the units together and needed a way to tell who was in which squad easily.

Also needed for the tournament, my Bladeguard Ancient:

Needs a bit more work, but again he's mostly there. I needed to paint him to complete Indomitus anyways, so it worked well that I had another reason to get him painted.

And finally in the category of WIP stuff, here's Ezekiel, the Dark Angels Chief Librarian:

For being such an old sculpt, I think he holds up well. He'll look better when I'm all finished painting him, but he did the trick for the tournament.

And now for some new acquisitions, all picked up while I was on the tournament trip.
First, I stopped by the FLGS in Springfield, MO (Meta-Gamed Unlimited) on the way down to the tournament (it was held in Branson) and picked up the Rohan Battlehost set for Middle-Earth. I've put together the new plastic Eomer from that set, as well as a few of the Rohan Warriors so far:

Eomer is a nice looking model; went together easily enough and should look great painted. The ancient Rohan warrior sculpts, while needing very little in the way of assembly, have a ton of mold lines that I've had to remove and look really dated next to their leader. Seriously, the sculpts have got to be almost old enough to drink as they came out around the time the Two Towers movie did.

On the way back, I decided to stop by the very new Warhammer store in Springfield to see how it was (it's only the second ever time I've been in a GW store). I mainly wanted to see about picking up some kind of Tyranid unit to get a feel for the models (Meta-Games was completely sold out of Nids when I visited), so I snagged a box of Warriors, but the shop guy managed to talk me into buying a bit more to get the cool Tyranid coin, so I ended up picking up the King of the Dead for Middle-Earth as well. Got them all put together after I got home (decided to go with ranged weapons on the Nids):

Definitely spent a bit more money than I had planned to (those GW salespeople are sneaky...) but it's all stuff I kind of needed anyway. That Winged Prime is going to need some buddies to lead after all. In addition to those, I got the current free mini from the store:

Not sure when I'll get around to painting this little guy; I have no plans to start a Seraphon army, no matter how awesome the new models are.

Anyway, I hope to have more to share soon. Sorry for going so long without an update, I'm trying to do better.

Plenty going on there, ZergSmasher. The DA are looking good. Ezekiel does still hold his own, a testament to the lasting appeal of old minis.

@YWS: Thanks! Things are hoppin' around here for sure.

The Bladeguard are getting there, but it's gonna be down to the wire as the month is nearly over. Here's where they are at currently:

I'd be further along, but I've been distracted by a certain new box set. Speaking of which:

Yep, I assembled all the models, and did it pretty quick too. My fingertips were sore from pushing so many plastic pieces together! As much as I'd love to get stuck in on the painting for these new models, I'm going to hold myself to finishing the Indomitus models (and the Desolation Marines that I've got nearly done) before I start. If I get a chance to get them primed, I will do so, as the weather around here can be pretty fickle.

I should have final pics of those Bladeguard in the next day or two. I will hopefully polish off the Bladeguard Ancient and the Indomitus Primaris Lieutenant soon after. That will leave me only the Captain and Eradicators left to paint and I can finally wrap up Indomitus.

Blade guard are looking great and looking foward to seeing what you do with the leviathan sets

Nice work. That box went together fast! Keep the paint flowing!

@Barry: Thanks! I may not get started on Leviathan right away, as I've got some other stuff that needs finishing first. Thanks for looking in, though!

@Nev: Thank you!

Finally got the Bladeguard Veterans finished. Here are the pics:



Not my best work by a long shot, but I was tired of looking at them and I've got other stuff to work on. Sometimes you just need to call it good enough and not worry about it anymore.

As for the other stuff, I still haven't done anything else to the Desolation guys or the Bladeguard Ancient, but I did put the shoulder decal on the Indomitus Lieutenant. No pic, but he should be done soonish, probably this week unless I'm REALLY slacking. I've been on more of an assembly kick, as I picked up something at the FLGS and just had to put it together:

I'm not sure a can of Raid is gonna work on this bug! For those who don't know Nids, this is a Tyrannofex. Basically a big walking tank, with a big gun to match (this particular weapon is the Rupture Cannon, and is one of the few ranged anti-tank weapons Tyranids have currently). Getting the front legs and the gun to stay positioned was a major pain in the ass, as there's no locator pegs or anything. Maybe I was spoiled by the Tau I used to have.

As for planned further expansion of Hive Fleet Kukulkan, I did pick up a discounted box of Genestealers from my FLGS (they were marked down as they had no shrinkwrap, probably someone opened them and decided they didn't want them or something). Combining them with my 12 from the Lost Patrol box will get me to a nice round 20, which is 2 full squads. Happily the sprues also contain a Ripper on each one, so between the sprues from Lost Patrol and the new ones I'll have enough to make another base of them to go with the two from Leviathan, making a game-legal unit of Rippers. As for future purchases whenever my hobby budget allows (I'm probably tapped out for the next month), I do plan to pick up at least one Haruspex, as those look strong in the Index. I also would like to pick up some Carnifexes and/or Old One Eye, and I probably want a Broodlord to go with my Genestealers. Might check the usual sources for some STL files and maybe make the 3D printer go BRRR for more bugs if I find some interesting alternate sculpts.

July's painting challenge is Renewal, and I'll be painting the new Primaris Azrael for it. He's going to be in some of my 10th edition DA lists, so I need to paint him anyways. I'll see if I can squeeze in the rest of the Indomitus models this month as well. Stay tuned!

Loads of progress there ZergSmasher.

Cheers,

CB

@CB: Thanks for the encouragement!

I finished the Lieutenant and Bladeguard Ancient last week actually, but just didn't get around to dragging out the lightbox and taking pics until this evening.
Lieutenant:


Fairly basic paint job, but it'll do the trick. Glad to finally have this guy done. That makes 5 Primaris Lieutenants down and 2 to go (the Strike Force Agastus one and the Leviathan one).
Bladeguard Ancient:


I feel like this guy turned out better than the LT, but that was kind of a low bar. Sad thing is, this model will probably be doing shelf duty unless he gets better rules whenever the Marines book drops.

With those done, that only leaves 4 models to go and I can finally call Indomitus done: 3 Eradicators and the Captain with his relic shield. I've already started on them, just not much to show yet. I'm sort of doing them alongside Azrael, who is my challenge entry for the month. I really need to get moving faster, as the month is already half over and I have a ton of work to do.

In other news, I really needed to pick up a Primaris Apothecary, as he's a very useful character for Marines in 10th. Unfortunately both of my FLGS's were fresh out, and I didn't want to order online, so I decided to rummage through my bits collection and see what I could put together. This is the result:

I took the body and backpack of an Easy-to-Build Intercessor (one of the promotional ones with the sculpted base included), put the helmet, left arm, right shoulder pauldron and accessories from a Ravenwing Apothecary on, then added the back lights from a Deathwing Apothecary, the Heavy Bolt Pistol and holster from an Assault Intercessor, and a DA shoulder pauldron from the older accessory sprue (NOT the Primaris one). Painting will help sell it, as right now it looks kind of janky. Nice to make use of my spare bits and save myself a bit of money at the same time.
I also managed to pick up a Broodlord from the used model bin at my FLGS recently. The model was in pretty rough shape, with thick paint absolutely glopped all over it (random colors too for bonus points) and the tongue broken off and missing. Sadly I don't have a picture of the state it was in when I got it (forgot to take one, d'oh! ), but I decided to try my hand at stripping it with Isopropyl Alcohol and this is the result:

I didn't get all the primer off, but enough came off that I'm happy with it and it'll probably look okay once I re-prime and paint it properly. I also added a tongue from a spare Genestealer head; it's nowhere near as long as the one that the Broodlord normally has, but it looks better than nothing. Feels kind of good to rescue an abused model; it'll feel even better once I get it painted and maybe play with it some.

Since I am a fresh Tyranids player, I think I'll take a page from Nevelon's book and give my opinions on the newly-revealed Tyranids models from this past weekend:
Termagants: Not gonna lie, I'll be fairly salty if the squad can take all the specials, as it'll mean the Leviathan ones are just sad and stuck with the basic fleshborers. The models and new weapons do look cool though, so I'll probably pick up a box or two.
Hormaguants: I don't have any of the old ones, so I expect I'll get a box or two of these at some point.
Genestealers: I've got 20 of the old ones, so these are not a priority even if they are really nice looking. At least now I have an excuse to add the base extenders to my old ones so they aren't stuck in 25mm hell (with the arms sticking out they look comical on 25s).
Lictor: Cool new model, not sure it's a priority unless they get really good rules or something.
Neurolictor: Same story.
Deathleaper: I don't know why, but the flesh cape is just silly to me. Like why would a dinobugalien have a cape? What advantage would the Hive Mind see in giving this particular creature a cape? It just doesn't make sense and actively detracts from the model.
Biovore/Pyrovore: I need some Biovores, so I'm glad they are getting a new kit instead of the old derpy one. I was going to 3D print some otherwise. Pyrovores I'm on the fence about, but we'll see.
Norn Emissary/Assimilator: OMG I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE! I LIKE BIG BUGS AND I CANNOT LIE! Seriously this is probably the coolest of the new Tyranids that were previewed. I hope it's easy to magnetize between the two variants.

That's all I have for now, stay tuned for more.

Nice work on the ancient and the Lt. Are there deathwing lieutenants? I know you guys get extra rules for 1st company stuff. I was looking over my collection the other day, thinking of what I could assign to the veteran company, and kind of regretted not giving the indominus Lt. white trim on his shoulders. He doe fit in very well with the BGV and similar primaris vets.

Is your lightbox all high-angle light? The ancient’s shadows really stand out as obvious. With my box, as the lights are separate, I don’t just point them at the middle of the sides, but slightly lower and to the front. While it diffuses the light, it’s not homogeneous. I’ve painted/photographed that mini recently enough to know there is detail I’m not seeing, that you put work into. If you can’t adjust the lights in the box, try taking some pics with an additional light shining into the box from the front, or lower front corners.

Nice work on the apothecary. He should serve you well. It looks like he can pull some nice tricks in plasma-forward lists.

Interesting to see a new hive mind’s perspective on the new swarm. For the termagaunts I’m hoping it’s kinds like a devastator box, where you get more guns then you have bodies. That way spare basic ones can be tricked up and used to backfill squads. I try not to borrow salt from the future. At least you have a 3D printer, so if you just need a barb launcher or spike rifle or two, you can troll around for the STLs. There are probably going to be a lot of nid players looking to modernize old collections.

Broodlord leading a pack of stealers seems like a nice missile to toss down the table. A bit of a glass cannon, but has the cannon part down, and some shenanigans to help with the glass bit. Nice rescue/repair.

Nice work on LT and the Ancient. Apothecary conversion also looking good. Congrats on reviving the big bug. Any chance of a group shot once the Indomitus boys are complete?

@Nev: There are Deathwing Lieutenants; in the game they are under the profile of the Deathwing Strikemaster (not sure that term exists in the fluff or not). I'm sure there could be non-Strikemaster Lieutenants (like the Indomitus one) but I chose to paint my LT in the standard green of the battle companies. I'll also be doing my Sternguard that way, despite the fact that they would almost certainly be in the 1st company of most Marine chapters (I want mine to be more like the former Company Veterans unit). As for my lightbox, yes the lighting is fixed in two strips at the top of it (one on either side). It's not an ideal arrangement as it does tend to cause shadows in lower parts of models. There is an accessory that I believe adds some lights to the front that I should probably get, as the lamps I have are equipped with daylight bulbs that glow in a much different color to the lightbox lights. Thanks as always for the encouragement and advice!

@YWS: Thanks, and there will certainly be a group shot of the Indomitus Marines (how can there not be? ).

A thousand apologies, dear friends, for my (checks calendar) two month hiatus from this blog. I've been doing a little bit of hobbying, but mostly it's been assembly of stuff. I have gotten a bit of paint down here and there, but I've only finished one thing, and that is Azrael. Here are some lightbox pics of him:



He's far from my best work, but also far from my worst. I'm happy with him, and he's a big improvement over the old metal one that was one of the first character models I ever painted for my Dark Angels. It looks like he's gonna get plenty of work from me in 10th; more so than even The Lion, as his abilities are stupidly good and he even got a points cut in the latest balance dataslate.

In other news, as mentioned I have been doing a bit of work behind the scenes, both getting a few colors down on some models and assembling/priming a lot more. I got everything from Leviathan primed and ready for paint, so whenever I finish the long-overdue Indomitus models I can get stuck in right away. Speaking of, here's where the final models are at so far:

The Eradicators are nearly done, just some shades and highlights on the weapons mainly, plus the shoulder decals. The Captain has a bit further to go, but shouldn't be hugely difficult (it is a fairly busy model though).

The only other WIP I really have to show currently is my Paragons that I was going to enter in the August painting challenge. Unfortunately I ran out of motivation partway through the month and just haven't been feeling these models for some reason. Here's where I did get on one of them:

All of the color on the model so far is Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0, and I have to say I like those paints. I picked up a set from one of my local shops and I've been pretty happy with them. There's even a couple of metallic colors in the Essentials set I got (one gold and one silver), although I've only tried the silver so far and found it not to be very, well, "contrast-y" (it looks basically like Leadbelcher with no shading). I've been happy with most of the other colors I've tried so far though, and I'll probably use at least some of them for my Tyranids.

I have put a lot of paint down on one other project, but I'm not going to share any WIP photos of it. The project is my Ork Kommandos Kill Team, and I want to wait until they're done before I show them (don't get too excited, I don't think they'll be anything too special). They've been getting some of the AP Speedpaints too, and again I've been happy with the results, if not exactly blown away.

Finally, the assembled stuff. Get ready for yet another photo dump!

First, an Exaction Squad of the Adeptus Arbites:

I originally picked these guys up to run in regular Warhammer 40k in addition to Kill Team, but since they have now been nerfed into uselessness in 40k they'll be used only in Kill Team. They are one of the weaker teams, but I absolutely love the models and look forward to painting them (eventually).

Next up, some Custodian Guard:

I picked up the Custodes Combat Patrol from Amazon at the same time as some 3D printer resin, and so far I've only assembled these guys. Custodes got hit with the nerf bat real hard, so I'm not in a hurry to put the rest together.

And here are some Aggressors:

I've already got three of these guys, but I needed three more to have a full unit of six to go with my Apothecary Biologis and destroy stuff in games.

New bug time, a Neurolictor:

Hive Fleet Kukulkan grows, albeit slower than I'd prefer. I actually want to get another one of these, for redundancy and because it would help lean into their gimmick of causing Battleshock tests.

3D printer go BRRR! And now I have some Zoanthropes:

I'm super happy with the STL file I found for these, as the models look very much like the official ones, just with somewhat smaller heads. For the cost savings ($80 for three bugs is ridiculous) I just had to try it, and I might print a bunch more of these things in future. I might have to touch up the primer on these ones though, as my rattle can was nearly empty when I primed this batch (along with some other bugs). I say $80 for three bugs is silly, but I did buy one box of that kit and built them as Venomthropes. Partly that was to size compare the printed models so I could see that they would be appropriate or if I would have to scale them up or down (turns out they were spot on).

And finally, for something COMPLETELY different:

Yep, I picked up some Kings of War stuff. Actually I bought the Sands of Ahmun starter set back in like April or so and just didn't bother showing it as I felt pretty silly for taking on yet another project. I kind of had to do it though, as Tomb Kings were probably my favorite looking army from old WHFB and the KoW starter includes their analogue, the Empire of Dust. Ironically, having now assembled everything in that starter, it's the Ogres that are inspiring me more, and if I find time I might enter these guys into the monthly painting challenge (Sun's Out, Guns Out seems appropriate for ogres with giant guns in their hands). There's not a whole lot of month left and I really want to finish the Indomitus stuff, so I may not have time, but we'll see.

That's all for now, I'll try not to wait two months to post again. I might be feeling a bit of my old painting mojo again, let's hope I don't lose it.