Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I dug a couple of my older marines out of the box to nab a quick shot for comparison to the work I'm doing now.



The one on the left is one of my old plastic beakies. Only god knows what he was painted originally, I'm thinking a Dark Angel scheme similar to the guy in the middle. The other two guys are from a 2nd edition plastic space marines box. Back when Tactical marines had a bolter, bolt pistol, AND a close combat weapon. of course you had to buy squads of ten and they were 250pts before options... The Marine on the right show a poor repaint to the newish ODFAK color scheme. Many of the poor bastards in my collection have multiple layers of paint. My marines went from Dark Angels to Green Knights (I painted over the DA symbols because I was too cheap to buy the DA codex when I already had the SM codex) and then various models became Ultrasmurfs, Black Templars, a couple legion of the damned, and finally the Omega Doom Fist Angel Knights.

I've settled on the home brew chapter because it will essentially allow me to use the same models to play with any chapter codex I want, hence I can justify buying that Ba'al and those cool robed DA veterans.

I've gotten the Storm Scorpions painted up finally. They're nothing fancy by any means but they'll get the job done. I'm still working on the two special weapons guys but I'm almost done converting them.



Yep, they still need based up. I've got some cork and some sand so filling the gaps caused by using slotta bases isn't going to be a problem.

Not a lot of progress this last week. I've been sick. Sinus infection that spread to both ears and some gak in the lungs. Fun fun.

Since I'm jittery with a brush when I'm healthy, painting hasn't been on the table when I'm shaking and coughing. So instead I've started stripping the paint off some of my models.



Trying a slightly different approach than last time. Jar full of minis and I'm just gonna leave it in there and shake it up every now and then.

I've come to realize I have way too many regular bolter marines. I think I'm going to have lots of fun with them. Make up some sternguard and some vanguard vets, and probably some more devastators. Man packed heavy weapons are in short supply in my army, unless you count the dozen or so missile launcher armed dudes...

Still under the weather, but I'm on antibiotics so those Dire Avengers will see finishing paint soon. Darn sinus infection and that ear infection... and really darn you you other ear infection!

On the marine front I've got more stripping while I ponder over what to do with these old plastic terminators. I've got over a dozen, mostly SB PF armed BORING dudes that need some life.



I've thought about chopping up the legs and repositioning some, and adding a crap load of bling, but still not sure what look I want overall. The new plastic kits have so much more variety and pizzazz. I'm tempted to get some TH SS bitz and kit up half a dozen like that, but I doubt I will use them. I tend to go mechanized in my lists and for some reason still don't own a land raider.

These might slide onto the back burner until after the sternguard get kitted out and made awesome. I've been using my old beakies as sternguard, but I want something a little flashier, something more veteran looking... something less bland. And more dakka

Comments and suggestions would be appreciated. If not I'll keep mumbling to myself over here

I think I need a plan...

I'm staring at my boxes and boxes of little army men and I have no clue where to go so I think it's time to make a list of what I need to do for each army and prioritize those tasks. This is efficiency! ...

And procrastination since I'm not really in the painting mood.

Richard's Eldar:
Add some battle damage to the tanks.
Paint the rest that's assembled
Strip and repaint the dozen jetbikes
Get an Avatar since his list is so foot sloggy...

Marines:
Model/paint Sternguards because they will be cool.
Do something with all the old Terminators since I have so many.
Acquire more HQ so I have options for actually making fun lists (I'm looking at you Pedro)
Repaint 80+ marines to the new color scheme.
Touch up tanks, make custom rhinos.

Orks:
So much to list.....
Model and paint the few boys I have (60+)
Scratch build some BW using WWII tanks, truck bits, and whatever else I have laying around
Finish the Burna conversions.
Finish the trucks
Find something fun to do with all the Defkoptas...
Okay that's a good enough start...

Tyranids:
Finish painting everything. So many bugs.
Convert up some Tervigons, because frankly they're too awesome not to field.
Maybe a T-fex... if they don't release a plastic kit by the time I finish all the other to-do's
Fleshborer Gaunts... lots of them... To be pooped out by said T-gons

Genestealer Cult:
Finish the damn cultists to go with the 80 genestealers...
Make a patriarch to count as swarm lord.

Necrons:
So back burner right now since everyone and their mom is doing Necrons...

Imperial Guard:
Even more on the back burner than the Necrons... I'll probably use them as fodder for my GS cult and for my orks...

Terrain:
Oh good idk... gotta make something if for no other reason than to make my dudes look cool when I take their photo...

Okay..

That's officially more than I'm going to get done this year. Hopefully I'll be checking off some of the items on this list. The Eldar are the bigest priority since they were supposed to be a Christmas present.

After that, then the fun will start!

As always, C&C always welcome.

Since I've stopped coughing I've started making more progress on the Eldar.

I've finished up the Fire Dragons.



Well okay mostly finished. The glue is still drying on the bases and once done the base will get a wash and a highlight, as well as brushing the sand off the sides.

Other than that though these bad boys are finished. I didn't do too many of the gemstones as I'm going for speed and it takes forever to paint all the little gem stones. I tried to find a balance of gemstones painted vs not painted and mainly hit the stones that definitely look like gem stones. Overall I'm happy with my feeble gemstone painting skills. Luckily I used to have a High Elf army so I've got a little bit of practice on them otherwise I don't think I would have attempted them.

I got my tax return a few days ago and got a little buy happy. Picked up several odds and ends, bits to make my sternguard, a couple more rhinos. I know the general consensus is to buy razorbacks instead of rhinos, but I bought the bits online to assemble the rhinos and it ended up being around $18 for each rhino. Plus I have grand plans for these bad boys to be so much more than mere rhinos.

I picked up this:

with the intention to make that fancy rocket launcher doodad into a Whirlwind launcher. Once it arrives I'll throw down some scale comparisons to see how it looks. If it is too big for the whirlwind it'll go into the Orkificator and become something else just as awesome.

The Apc part of the kit? Well, who knows. Once I get it in hand I'll figure something out

And I also snagged one of these from Toy Soldier Depot as well:

The photo's kind of blurry but it's apparently a plastic model kit.
It looks to have some good orky potential so I've got my hopes up. If the dimensions are good it will need very little modifications structuraly to be a counts as trukk, or if it's too big it'll make a good starting place for an awesome BW.

When I came home from work I saw some packages sitting on the front stoop. I was so excited as I ripped open the box and saw the APC and Missile launcher come in. I popped it open, unscrewed the launcher from it's stand and plopped it on top of the rhino for a quick size check.



Okay, well maybe it's a little big, but on the game table there would be NO question as to what that tank was. I think I'm going to go for it and paint it up nice to match the tanks I have.

I've gotta say I'm impressed with the quality. For being a toy the model is fairly well detailed and is made of hard plastic as opposed to soft plastic like many other toy tanks.

The APC if BIG in comparison to a rhino...



Obviously not going to become anything in my space marine armory, but the I think I've got that more than taken care of. It may become the starting point for one of my Battle Wagons. It's tall, long, and skinnier than a LR so that's a good start. A lot of hacking and detailing is in it's future

Just look at that Kill Kannon

Tax time purchases have all come in. I'm swimming in little army men at the moment and there's so much work to do. I'll start with some "before" shots of the newest addidtions. They're going to need a lot of tlc...



This was apparently part way converted into a redeemer... at least going by the description in the Ebay listing. It's part way to being torn apart so I can rebuild it as a regular LR...

And these poor dreads... That paint has got to go...


There's also a squad of "converted sniper scouts" as well as a whirlwind. All of the vehicle hatches have the crew stuck on top rather than in through the bottom and so many of the upgrade bits are assembled incorrectly.


Even though it's going to be a lot of work reviving these poor models it was still such a great deal. The best part is it looks like most of these were put together with super glue so it should be pretty easy to pull them apart for reassembly.


I've also started pulling apart some of my other tanks.



I'm thinking of making gone huge bath for everything I want to strip and getting it over with...

So much going on right now. My Warhammer persuits have sprawled all over the house.

I'm in the process of stripping, remodeling, repairing, and repainting my entire space marine army.

This alone would be a feat, but I've added a good chunk of forces from some fantastic ebay deals that also need the same treatment.

I've got squads and squads and plenty of vehicles all competing for my love.

Here's a dynamically way to big photo of the ongoing madness.



Plus for EXTRA BONUS MADNESS the cats love to jump up and knock little army men flying.

The new goal is to have a 1600 point Space Marine force ready to rock for an upcoming tournament March 31.

Deadlines are fun. I've already established a bad habit of NOT meeting them, so hopefully I can make this one and bring my average up.

I just started THIS THREAD in the 40k army lists area. Looking for feedback so if anyone wants to head that way and give me some advice it would be appreciated.

Gotta figure out what is a painting priority for the tournament.

I mean, it's not like I anticipate winning (just hoping not to get tabled by turn 3) but I want to look good doing it

No update In a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

I've gotten a good bit of progress painting space marines. Tried a couple different techniques to see how they worked and I think I've figured out how I'm going to be doing all of the little bastards.

Here's a WIP shot of a couple units. An AOBR Tac squad, a Dev Squad, and the AOBR Terminator squad.



They look a little flat at the moment, but that will change. They were all experiments in one way or another, some for the gold, some for the black, but they all taught me something. Now on to the other hundred or so marines.

Also, my FLGS had a Market Day this weekend. It's basically the nerdiest flea market ever where gamers go and hawk their unwanted wares in exchange for store credit.

I made out like a fat bandit. Got rid off all my old stuff and scored some sweet ork loot.



$45 spent total for a Battlewagon, 2 modern style trucks, 4 oop trucks, 2 oop wartracks, most of 60+ boys, and enough bits and gubbins to make any mek cry tears of joy.

I told myself I wouldn't start on my Orks until I was done with my marines, but man...

I really want to fix sum up good an propa. Wid lotsa dakka!

Orks are just so much fun.

Still pluggin away...

I spread out all my marines on my drafting table to get a sense of what I still had to do...

It's honestly rather depressing to think of that much paining...



I'm going to concentrate on getting a 1500 point core painted up and then add to it from there.

I reckon that way I'll at least have a fieldable army painted up.

More progress on the sternguards



And another shot:



I've also made a couple combi-weapons. Here's the Combi-Melta take 1. Need a few so there will be a variety...



I'll take better pics when they get more completed. I Figured I'd post these now while I'm looking up more ideas for conversions for them. Any comments, criticism, or suggestions would be appreciated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
After an afternoon spent modleing I've almost finished my Vindicator conversion.



I still need to smooth out the mounting area for the cannon and add a little more detail there, but it's mostly done. Eventually the siege shield will be attached to the front hull piece so it can be swapped out as needed, but I plan to have some cool looking hydraulics for that and don't have the size tubes I want. It can wait until after the tournament...

Not quite done.



Click to zoom in. It's a fairly sizable shot.

Think I'm missing my goal again... dang...

The biggest things that slowed me down was trying to convert a Vindicator and a Rifleman Dred.

The autocannon arm is a work in progress, but I'm happy with the way the Vindi came out.

I had a lot of fun at the tournament Saturday.

I got spanked pretty bad, but I learned a lot.

Lost game 1, won game 2, lost game 3. Overall placed 18th out of 20. So... Not dead last...

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. I really wanted to try and document what I did so I could learn from it better, but I'll just describe it for myself.

Game 1:
Dawn of war deployment, Random Mission objectives to be rolled for on turn 3.
Playing against Eldar...
The librarian was mostly a waste this game. Runes of warding pretty much kept me from trying anything. I took force dome and machine curse. MC came in handy, FD was worthless all three games. Psychic hood failed to stop anything any game. Guide and Doom made a horrible mess of my tactical squads. Should have combat squaded to be better prepared for the objectives. Should have had another full tac squad to help claim objectives. I lost pretty bad, as all of my scoring units where eliminated. Dark Reaper Exarch eliminated my entire Dev Squad in one round of shooting. I had them too bunched up in cover.

Game 2:
Divided battle. I don't remember the set up very well, just that there was a line of pylons across the middle that prevented us from crossing, shooting, or casting onto the other side. Objective in opposite quarters.
Playing against eldar again.
I deployed all my camping units on the right, where the objective was in my backfield and all my aggressive units on my left. I took a page from the last game and concentrated fire on my opponents scoring units and managed to wipe out his guardians and immobilized two wave serpents he kept trying to load his dire avengers in. They couldn't cross over fast enough to take my objective and he lost his (though I couldn't clear it so it was close game).

Game three...


This was just before everything got wasted.

Even though I did poor, I think I learned a lot. We'll see though...

Been slowly making progress on everything.

I tend to jump from one unit to another after a while of getting bored.

I finally finished painting up the Dire Avenger / Guardian squad. I blame work for the ridiculously slow progress lately.



They came out pretty sweet. As with many of the other Eldar I've painted I pretty much just ignored the gem stones. It's time consuming to get them looking good and I'd rather not even attempt than have a poor gem stone. The mediocre ones I did on the fire dragons were not worth repeating for the time invested.

I also made a little bit of terrain. It helps break up the monotony of painting to cut up some foam.



So much fun. Comments and suggestions appreciated

Just a quick update. Things have been going slow. The nice weather has meant a lot of yard work, grilling, and just generally getting out of the house.

I've started to participate in MiniWargamings weekly painting pledges though to help keep me motivated and moving forward.

I just finished up a Rhino for my space marines.



Dutiful IV shall serve the chapter faithfully.

And muddily...

I converted and painted up a warbuggy. It's got a massive engine to give it that teeth rattling burst of speed that Orks just love.

I've been playing a LOT of Diablo 3 so I haven't done much in the way of painting or modelling.

However I did whip out some terrain in the off time.

Here's an Ork Rok I made. A little bit of LOS blocking cover does a battlefield good.



And I did a few little orky barricades before that.

It's been a while since I've updated, but I've been busy.

I have several scratch builds coming along nicely. Well, not so much scratch builds as conversions I guess. I've taken a couple different models and am bashing out a trio of battlewagons to carry my orks into battle and a looted wagon with an optional boomgun to add some much needed heavy hitting.

My desk is a MESS!




But totally worth it. Building orky vehicles is a lot of fun (with the exception of riveting).

Once they're finished it's on to painting. I've got about a hundred various boys and six trucks also awaiting paint so there will be a party in the next couple months.

If I remember to keep the camera charged I'll take some more pictures of the various builds once they're getting to be something worth showing off.

Just picked up dark vengeance. Finally...

Drove up the my closest flgs (which is well over an hour from my home) to show a friend how awesome and nerdy it is. Stumbled upon the limited edition version with the LE Chaplain and just HAD to pick it up.

I'm finally going to be playing in 6th edition. Yay me.

Also talked a friend into the game. It's gonna be nice having someone local to battle with.

I've discovered I enjoy sculpting fur. Which is good because I've started ANOTHER project. This time I'm making up some space wolves.

I've gotten another friend into the glory and fun of 40k and we've played a couple of games, him playing my space marines and me running at him with some nids. I took him to our FLGS and he geeked out over the tunderwolf calvery. Luckily I have plenty of space marine bits and parts to play with to help get him started. He offered to help me out with some electrical work so the least I felt I could do would help get him started on his plastic crack addiction.

I'm starting with an HQ this time and have modeled up and painted a Wolf Lord to lead the bearded ones.



I've also finished modeling a 5 man pack of Blood Claws and a 5 man pack of Grey Hunters that are awaiting the brush. That will give him an HQ and 2 Troops to start with clocking in about 350 points. Just about enough for a small skirmish.