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Loving the army shots. Massed, well-painted models rule.

Looking good.

Devs sound like a good choice for your next unit. They can take some scary weapons and put out potentially a lot of damage.

EDC

Love the army shot, looks really good!

Do you have any special set up for taking these photos? Yours always come out so well, and mine are often arse

Thanks guys!

Yeah, for the Devs I'm thinking a pair of Lascannon and a Pair of Missile Launchers. That way I can go all-out on hurting big nasties, or split fire and do some damage to infantry/lighter troops/vehicles as well. I've gotten distracted by some rebasing, though I don't get much painting done during weeknights, so simple, more "craft"-y aspects are often easier to work on.

Honestly, my photo setup can range from this (rarely):


To (mostly) my makeshift light box, which I can't find any pictures of right now - I'll take some this weekend, but it's made of one "cube" worth of a cheap plastic shelf unit with some baking paper over the top and three cheap lamps from the hardware store with white LED globes in them. The army shots from the last couple of posts are just on my game table with the flouro lights on, the spotlights on (cheap purchase and easy install from a sparky) and my wife holding one of the light box lamps at a low angle to bounce some light off the table to act as a fill light



And now for something New-Old!





Last week I shared some photos of Armorcast’s “Short” Sci-Fi Walls that I picked up during the ’90s. This time it’s the “High Tech Walls” from the same era. Back in the day they had three sets, all of which I picked up, and even got them painted! You might have spotted them in the background of the previous two “Army so far” posts.





Once again, these were painted in a quick and dirty manner back in the day, and could probably use a bit of a touch-up today using some of my more modern techniques and materials. Some more detailing, a bit of a wash, edge highlight, some powders, etc. Tone down the coloured metallics a little and make a few more bits pop a little more.





Obviously, these are perfect for games like Necromunda, Shadow War Armageddon (aka Necromunda V2) and of course – 40k. As well as many other sci-fi and post-apoc games. Given their low-end-high-tech look, they wouldn’t look out of place for DUST, Konflikt ’47 or This Is Not A Test/Fallout.





I think the random transfers I used throughout these sets of walls also improves their look a fair bit over the simple paint I applied. While these are no showcase models, either in terms of their sculpts or my rather basic paintjob of the 1990’s, even like this they look good on the table, particularly when paired with other complimentary scenery pieces. Perhaps I’ll buy some more?



Oh, and here’s a scale shot of these walls along with the Short Sci-Fi walls.

Whoa, these last few posts have been epic. You have a couple of really nice armies there. Also, an amazing amount of metallics on display.

Fancy walls. Looking good.

Thanks guys. I've also started rebasing my few squads of finished Dark Angels over the past few days, and finally cracked open my copies of Dark Vengeance to paint those DAs as well.

While the painted stuff is similar to the IWs and Minos, when you count all the DV models, it turns out I have ...quite a lot of Dark Angels. Like way more than a full company of "greenwing", and possibly three companies. So I need to decide what to do with them all. Ideally before I start spraying them black and green.

Successor chapter using the Winged Sword icon? But if so, what's the point if I already have a bunch of "proper" DAs? Fallen don't sit with me since the DV armour is too new for guys with their roots in the Heresy, so I'm a little stumped.

The DV models are great, I look forward to seeing what you do with them!

Personally I would go vanilla DA to expand on what you already have, but it depends if you will find that tedious or not...

Yeah. I'll build at least a full company of DAs - 6 Tac and 2 each of Ass and Devs (though I won't likely have 10 transports for them). I've easily got more than 2 dreads, though I can start with two. (Not counting DW/RW - they can come later)

It's just what's worthwhile beyond that first company which concerns me, as I'll have a lot left over and aren't really sure if it would be worth painting them since I dunno if I'll ever field that many? Like, will I ever field 2 full companies (or more?) of Dark Angels? That's gonna be a lot of points, after all!

Can you hear the lulling sweet voice just floating on the wind just outside your hearing?.......*Giiiiiive them to Damoooooo, Giiiiiive them to Damooooo*

Yeah I can just hear something, trying to tell me important stuff.... ;-)

I'm not trying to get rid of them, Damo - I'm trying to work out how to paint them! Though if I do decide to clear some of them out, you'll be first on the list.
In fact, some more of the red-primed marines I bought off you are in the process of being reconfigured for either green or bronze armour. Not many of those left, now!

Oh, and I've restarted on my Flesh Tearers as well. I'm not quite All Marines All The Time, but right now there are eight different liveries of Powered Armour on my painting desk, with another four just off to the side, long ago started but waiting for some space to clear. Then I get into those that haven't been started yet...

So I spent a bit of time last night rebasing my existing Dark Angels. Cutting slots into 32mm bases for older metal models ain't a lot of fun! Still got to do a bunch of Assault Marines, because I needed a break from all the drilling and cutting.

I also glued 50 washers onto the bottom of 32mm bases out in the war room. Went back in there a bit later and the cyanoacrylate fumes in there were enough to make my eyes water.

So now I'm looking at my long-unfinished Robed Marines. I've got 6 metals on new bases, and of course there's any number of plastics. At the moment I'm looking at 2x 5-man squads of Company Veterans as Command Squads no longer seem to exist. Thinking one as a CC based squad, and the other as a special weapon type, all with either pure specials, or Combis. The question is: 5x Combi-Melta, 5x Combi-Plasma, skipping the "combi" part of that, or some sort of a mix? Any thoughts?

Oh, and I have NFI at this stage what to stick on the CCW version of the squad, either - especially as they won't have Jump Packs

At least they're selling the Blood Bowl slotta 32mm bases separately now so if you want you don't have to do any cutting!

I've been toying with doing storm bolter + storm shield on a squad of five... I'm pretty sure that's a legal gear selection.

Storm bolter on it's on is 4 shots a model at double tap range for 2 points which isn't bad at all.

Plasma combis seem good if you're podding or otherwise able to "deep strike", they do well at that 9" range you're stick with and if you have reroll support you could always choose to fire both guns. Overcharged plasma hits for 2 damage and wounds more stuff on 2 also, but only in desperation or with reroll support. If you're driving up you may be able to hit flamer range... dual firing those would be a slew of hits, and the flamers would ignore the penalty for shooting both. Melta seems expensive.

Stormshields on melee guys seems pretty autoinclude for 5 points each, or at least take a few for high AP shots.

The various power weapons are all similar and cheap, maybe take a variety. Fists/thunderhammers are awful expensive and feel like you're trying to make budget DW Knights, but maybe one?

Sweet stuff! That Iron warriors army looks great, and I loved those flagellants. Nice clean painting style you have.

Looking forward to seeing you do some Dark Angels! As for the slotted bases, I cut the tabs off the bottoms of old minis. That's what I did with my DV guys when I rebased them on 32mm bases. Then all you have to do is possibly file the bottoms of the feet flat, and you're set.

That is some nice looking terrain there!

Well, this week quickly turned upside down and into horrific. I'll write something about that later, and just stick to models for today, though.

I've already gotten hold of a ton of non-cut 32mm bases. It would have been great to be able to get hold of the BB ones earlier, but c'est la vie. I prefer to cut the bases over the models. Just not wanting to chop up my older models when it's almost as easy to cut the bases which then means less wear and tear on the paint of those being rebased after being finished at one point. Not needing to pin them to the bases also helps!

Thanks for the kind words, Ustrello.

I haven't had a chance to consider the Vet weapons in the last few days. At the moment I'll just rebase them on autopilot and have a proper read through. I have a few unbuilt pods somewhere - the plan for those is to eventually paint them without any chapter iconography, probably in plain, weathered imperial greys with Aquilas as their only icons, so I can use them across my many PA armies, since I'm not taken with the idea of buying a dozen or however many more pods when there'll only ever be a few in use. I know we can say the same about actual marines in PA, but the different armies will have character and be built differently, and I see the pods are merely a one-off delivery system for the odd squad in games rather than as units in their own right - so less even than Rhinos or Razorbacks. I suppose I could magnetise some chapter icons. I'll worry about that when I get to it. As long as I make sure they look good, I don't think there'd be any bitching.

I thought I’d share some more of my older paintjobs today and over the next while – only now “updated” in the past few weeks with new 32mm bases. Specifically, three of my old Rogue Trader Space Marine models painted as Legion of the Damned. As can be seen, these models are from the days before everything was covered in sculpted details, and ironically, before 90% of those details were skulls. Hence, all of the flames and skulls on this trip are entirely freehand. Oh, and I know that their flames “should” be yellow at the base and red at the ends, but on my models it depicts paint on armour, not actual flames (as sometimes retconned in Black Library). I don’t care what was written in an eBook or short story in 2015 or 2016, my guys have a direct lineage to White Dwarf 99.



The first model, on our left has 1987 on his tab, as well as “Medic”. It’s based off of “Brother Harris” from WD 99 in March ’88. The range in this particular advert are listed as having been sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry. Amusingly, Brother Harris in this particular advert is painted as a Legionnaire of the Damned, but I declined to do so myself as he had his helmet off. This model obviously predates the Medics that came later, as it completely lacks any medic gear or even an embossed caduceus on his pauldron, though interestingly there was a designated medic model (via sculpt, as opposed to the ones defined by paint that everyone just copied) from the very early RT01 Imperial Space Marines batch of sculpts.



The central model of this trio is one of the initial range of Space Marine Chaplains, circa 1988/89. Three of the initial six Chaplains had what we know as the Crozius Arcanum, though the other three did not. One having a Bolter and (crazily thin) Power Sword, one with a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, and this fellow, with what I presume was/is an early combi-weapon. Note the “gatling”-style barrels behind the “regular” bolter detail. His armament, early skull-helm and especially his nifty shoulderpads got this guy drafted into my Legion of the Damned, where he has served as the squad’s sergeant for many years.



Finally, the model on our right. He is listed as Brother A Skull in the advertisement for the RT01 range of Marines from White Dwarf 98 in September ’87, back when they still gave models interesting names. I chose him to be a LotD figure because of his unique, skull-like helmet. Years after painting these guys, I came across the sculpted LotD backpacks from the Second Edition squad box, and so pried off several of the original backpacks that some of my LotD had, replacing them with the skull-sculpted versions.

Aside from the backpacks, Brother A Skull and the Chaplain’s old-school helms, and obviously the Chaplain’s sculpted shoulders, the rest of the skull, flame and bone detail on these guys is all freehand. Even today I’m particularly proud of the pauldron-skulls and the skull-helm that you can see here. And yes, I know that the colours in actual flame work the other way, but here it’s based on contrast and rule of cool. Some of the more recent writers and artists have taken things like the flame iconography way too literally, so I'm happy to Highlander 2 those, and ignore them in my own head-canon...

Those freehand skulls on the shoulders are simply outstanding - Remind me of Eavy Metal back in the day!

Man those are fancy.

Excellent legion of the damned figs. Great work on the skull face masks too. Is the basing their victims, or future prospects?

These minis are nice. Well before my time, mind.

That's super-great. I love your use of random models for lotdammed. I think I've got that medic in a box somewhere

Love them! I think your succinct history lessons are just the icing on the cake when talking older mini's makes me value any i've got more.

Thank you, Damo. I find the bit of information, and doing a bit of research makes things a bit more interesting for myself, and hopefully for the reader.

And thanks, AoV and Weety. I always figured if the figure fits, in they go. It helps that I started on these guys long before any official models existed, but even so, it ties them in with the older side of the fluff. I hope I can one day find some of my old RTB01 LotD (or even their parts!) to fix up and add to these guys.

Today we’ll look at a trio of the often-maligned 2nd edition, MK7 “Aquila” Power Armoured models, painted as Legion of the Damned.



The first model on the left is the 2nd Edition starter box Space Marine trooper. A simple, push-fit model made of the same three parts (bolter, backpack, everything else) that even the most recent of his kind, the marines from Dark Vengeance 6th/7th edition are. These guys are looked down on today mostly because of the rather static pose and the complete lack of variation in their pose. Yes, all 14 of the basic troopers were identikit models, the specialists were the same model again with a flamer instead of a bolter, leaving the two sergeants and two missile launchers for “variety”. Truth be told, I quite like the Missile Launcher guy, and think that model stands up quite well even today. The trooper is pretty workmanlike, and I feel can most effectively be used as a single model mixed into squads of other marines that have a lot of MK6 in them. Like this Minotaurs squad that hosts two troopers and a Missile Launcher from the 2nd Edition box.

Anyway. One guy in my LotD. I gave him fingerbone gloves before they were cool, shaved the skull off his forehead (little skulls were hard to get back then!) and went with an all-bones, no flames motif on his armour. I think the freehand skull I painted on his shoulder looks cooler than the sculpted one on his battle-brother, though!



The next one of our little friends, in the middle is one of the first multi-part plastic marines since the venerable RTB01 box. Space Marines: Warriors of the Imperium was released in ’93-94 and was the direct precursor to the 3rd edition MK7 multiparts, and therefore, to all modern Space Marine infantry kits and even the Forge World HH infantry kits. Basically, six models made of one repeated torso, two leg sculpts – again repeated, and a couple of the 2nd edition metal marines’ Backpacks-and-bolters-and-shoulders, and arm sprues. Pretty bloody simple, but well enough for making some troopers. I only got one of those boxes from memory and never even painted them all, but one of them is here. I replaced the left shoulderpad with a “proper” Legion of the Damned one after that boxed set was released during 2e (pried the old one off his arm) – so the scroll and skull are sculpted, but the “kill” is freehanded onto the scroll.

This guy in the middle has much more extensive bonework on him than many of the others, I’m still very fond of the long spinal pattern that runs the length of his left leg.



The final model of this second triptych of the Damned was originally a 2nd Edition Death Company marine. Released in late ’92 or early ’93, I never got around to painting or using any of them as Blood Angels. Instead a couple of them, with their death iconography got drafted into the Legion. Some blood drops carved away and others repainted as bone charms. In the second picture you can see that the skull on his right shoulder is a little different. A nod there to the Legion’s past, and specifically the one that appeals to me the most. The right shoulder on two of these guys is an attempt at a flaming tactical arrow, again a nod to their past. The break-up of the upper triangle’s shape may have been too much and rendered them a little too subtle, which is why I bother to point it out here.

A big part of updating my old Legion of the Damned has been rebasing them onto 32mm bases. Their previous 25mm bases were in my usual “brown dirt and static flock” style, and so I wanted to go a bit more extreme with these ones. A bit of slate, two types of GW “cracked earth” paints, drybrushed and washed and some tufts. I also went to town with skulls on almost all of their bases. I usually try to avoid the overuse of skulls everywhere, as I typically find it rather silly and more than a little camp in that GW way.

In the case of Legion of the Damned though, I felt it appropriate. To answer Theo's question - Perhaps their sheer presence on a battlefield somehow adorns it with the skulls of the truly damned, their past opponents, or those who have died before on those same battlefields. Do the skulls appear when the Legion arrives, only to disappear when they suddenly depart? Fluffwise, I think that these skulls do. Practically, of course they do! - they're glued to the models, innit?

Man Dems fancy.

I love the flames tactical arrows . Also the leg with the spine on it is great. Makes me want to redo the song "the footbone is connected to the ankle bone." Into something like "the traitors spine is connected to my power armor, his face is splattered on my boot "

More cool models, perhaps i should do a 'Legion of the Damo'd'?

I'd love to see what you can do with them, Damo. But finish the Minotaurs first. And then don't sell them! Then do a squad or two that can be legit allied to the Minos. And then make sure they've got the same glasses as the skull in your avatar...