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@EDC: Thanks very much! I'm pretty pleased with the results on the Primaris guys so far; the DA scheme seems to work for them, as I've gotten compliments both here on Dakka and at my FLGS. As for those characters, they are going to be on the back burner paintwise. I've got a lot to do on my main armies before I can mess with those guys unless I just really need a diversion.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I'm glad to be able to inspire someone, especially someone with your talent and years of experience.

Small update on the Lieutenants. I'm finishing them slowly but surely. I've gotten the decals on and have just a couple of highlights left:

I intend to have them completely done in time for a tournament on Saturday. I can then register them as a painted unit for the ongoing Konor campaign.

In other news, I've finished assembling the first squad of my Berzerkers:


And I've started assembling the project that will immediately follow the Primaris guys, a Dark Talon:

Not much to see now, but the completed plane will be cool! Despite how much I really want to use a Dark Talon in games soon, I am rigidly sticking to my Primaris Marines, with the only possible sidetrack being the Berzerkers because of the monthly painting challenge. If I don't push through the Primaris guys, they'll sit around forever and never get painted, and I really don't want that. So onwards and forwards with them!

Hope to have more progress to show soon!

Holy crap, did not realize I've reached 12 pages now. That's nothing by many Dakka blogs' standards, but for me it's pretty cool! I've gotten the Lieutenants done, so here are the final photos:



These photos don't really do the models justice. Some of the metallics look really flat where they look much better in real life. That said, I'm pretty happy with how these guys have turned out. So far so good on the Primaris guys. Feel free to throw a vote for these pics in the Dakka Gallery! Now it's on to the second squad of Intercessors. Hopefully I can knock them out quick and move on so I can finish by the end of August, or at least by the end of the Konor campaign.

In other news, I just picked up 2 of the First Strike box set, just for the models. It was cheaper to do that than to cherrypick the sets I wanted 2 of. I wanted the Poxwalkers, Plague Marines and Reivers; pricewise I got $10 off of those by buying the boxes, plus some free Intercessors. And I could potentially use the box lid terrain features in casual games if I wanted to.

To all my loyal readers of this blog, thank you for the continual interest and encouragement. It has really helped to keep me going on this project! I hope to have more cool stuff to show very soon, so stay tuned!

Nice job on the Lieutenants.

EDC

Yeah nice work. The completed Dark Angels definitely look the part!

I'm planning to grab a couple of First Strikes as well for the models.

Nice work on the LTs. I like the DA bling on them. I’m mulling over thoughts about putting together at least one normal power armor LT myself, and trying to figure out how to make him look like more then a sarge, but not a captain. You have a good mix with these guys.

@EDC: Thanks!

@Azazelx: Thank you! Definitely a good buy getting 2 First Strike boxes for the models. The individual Easy to Build kits cost enough that if you buy 2 boxes its cheaper that buying 6 of the kits (which I wanted anyway), plus I get some "free" Intercessors. You get enough of the Reivers to make a squad of 5 plus an extra sarge, enough Intercessors to do the same thing, same story for the Plague Marines (plus Blight Launchers, which is cool!), and you can never have enough Poxwalkers. Certainly a good buy if you play both Marines and Death Guard.

@Nevelon: Thanks! I wanted my models to look like Dark Angels, and not just Green Primaris Marines. I like the stock models just fine, but I figured a little bit of DA-specific bling would be appropriate, and a lot of the locals around here seem to like how the models turned out, so I guess I got it right.

Finally got to work on my second squad of Intercessors. They are fully basecoated other than the sergeant's skin:

I'll probably basecoat the skin and then shade all the details; the armor is already done other than some edge highlights.

In other news, I've been trying to assemble a Primaris Repulsor, but the kit is one of those where if you don't get the parts lined up just right to within a micrometer, it doesn't go together right. So I'm going to have to haul out the ProCreate putty and fill some ugly gaps where the hull parts are supposed to fit together. I thought GW was past these fit problems with their newer kits, but I guess not. Oh well, the model will still look awesome in the end.

Hopefully I can knock out these Intercessors quick. I'm way off the pace at this point if I want to get all the Dark Imperium Primaris models done by the end of August. I think I may just try to get them all done by the end of the Konor campaign instead.

I like the LTs. For some reason they gave me a flashback to the cover for the 1st edition of Space Marine. Awesome old-school Fangorn art vibe.

Man, you're really cranking these out, and with great paint jobs as well.

The Intercessors are looking fine so far. And yeah, I just ordered 2 sets of First Strike today.

@youwashock: Thanks! I think GW was trying to tie a lot of older stuff together with the new when they designed the Primaris marines, so I'm not surprised if they evoke images of older artwork.

@Josh: Thanks! I wish I could crank faster!

@Azazelx: Thanks! Have fun with your First Strike sets; I sure enjoyed putting them together. I will say be careful with the Poxwalkers; a couple of them have parts that really don't want to push fit together at all; be prepared to cut off the stud things and just glue them instead.

So, a lot has been happening but not too much with the Intercessors, I'm afraid. I've gotten their details shaded and the sergeant's skin basecoated, but not much else. I just haven't been able to motivate myself to paint them lately; I'm not sure why.

Instead, I've been assembling stuff like a madman. I've gotten all of the First Strike minis put together except for a couple of the Primaris guys (because I didn't need the extra sergeants). Here are some pics of these models:
First, the Plague Marines:

I really wanted these guys because they include Blight Launchers. The sculpts are very busy and will be a real challenge to paint well, but I think I can handle it. I actually built both Champions, but the first had some unsightly gaps where the glue dried before I could push the parts together good. Glad I had an extra one!
Next, we have some Poxwalkers:

These models bring my total Poxwalker count to 32. I've got some spare Cultist bodies that are missing some arms that I will probably sculpt some tentacles for to round out my Poxies to an even 40.
And on the Primaris side, we have some Intercessors:

The one on the far right is not actually from First Strike, but rather the free mini from the "Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000" book. He's actually the same sculpt as one of the First Strike guys, but I'd rather have three like him than two with the little auspex thing honestly.
Finally, here are the Reivers:

I look forward to painting these. The skull masks look badass, and the unit looks like a lot of fun to use in-game!

Just because I haven't been working on my Intercessors doesn't mean I'm not going to paint. I figured maybe I need to paint something completely different, so I'm going to see how far I can get on these Bloodreavers today:

I've set aside all the paints I should need, and the models are primed and ready. If I get them finished today somehow, tomorrow I'll put up some pics. If not, I'll put up a WIP shot or two tomorrow and finish them ASAP so I can get back to the Intercessors. Hopefully I'll be ready to get back to painting power armor again by then.

Can't wait to see what these guys look like when you are done with them!

@shaso: Me neither, thanks for the encouragement!

So, I didn't finish the Bloodreaver Berzerkers yesterday, but I think I made pretty good progress (at least for my usual pace) in one day. Here's where they are at as of this morning:

Still got plenty more to do on them starting with the basecoat for the brass trim. There's loads of that brass trim on the weapons, so that'll take a while (like all those leather straps did, not to mention all the little belt buckles everywhere...), but I'll get it done. Then I've got to touch up the black areas like the horns on the helmets and the boots, and then I can start shading. The skin is mostly done already; I decided to do a heavy drybrush instead of trying to highlight all those muscles the hard way (tried that on one guy, gave up quick!). The effect actually works okay, but not perfect, but way easier than just about any other way. I still need to highlight the scars, but that will be relatively easy. Hopefully I can finish them today, otherwise I'll do it tomorrow after the total eclipse.

I'm finally done with the basecoats on these guys. Here's the latest WIP shot before shading:

Plenty of work still to go on these models. I thought I could finish them quickly. I obviously underestimated the amount of detail and how long it would take to pick it all out. It's turned into a bit of a slog. Maybe it's the fact that I've never really tried to do 10 models at once; I usually break squads down into groups of 5 for painting.

The total eclipse was a lot of fun and very spectacular despite the haze in the sky. We barely missed having it completely covered by clouds, so I'm just happy I saw totality at all. There's nothing quite like it, so if you ever get a chance to see a total solar eclipse, don't pass it up!

Well, I finally got those Berzerkers done, it only took about a week longer than I planned... Still, better late than never, right? Here are the pics, note that the way I've got the minis divided in the pics is because some of them are my final photos in the monthly painting challenge:
First, here's a shot of the entire squad:

Here are a couple of shots of the Champion:

Here's the guy holding the Icon of Wrath:

Here are some shots of the regular joes:


And finally, here's a shot of the ones that are my entry in the aforementioned painting challenge:

I had loads of fun painting these guys! They aren't my best work, but I think they turned out fine. The only part I'm unhappy with is the Icon; I think I went way overboard with the Golden Griffon drybrush and ended up basically coating the whole thing in that color. Oh well, it still looks okay. These models are packed full of detail; plastic models have definitely improved over the years and that detail is the reason they took so long to paint (takes time to pick out all the little belt buckes, Khorne symbols, straps, skulls, etc.). Please feel free to rate these guys in the Dakka Gallery!

Edit: I almost forgot to include my fluff justification for having these bare-chested barbarian models alongside my other Chaos Marines. They are feral tribesmen from a planet close to the Eye of Terror who after being visited by a Herald of Khorne have started brutally battling each other and openly worshipping Khorne. In reward, Khorne has enhanced their physiology to where they can take tremendous punishment before dying (their skin, muscles and bones together are almost as resilient as any power armor). They have since been found by Kharn the Betrayer and recruited to his forces, where they continue to carve a bloody swathe through the galaxy in the name of the Blood God. I know it's a stretch, but the models' weapons are great analogs for the actual Berzerkers' weapons (chainswords and chainaxes) and the guys themselves are much bigger than Cultists or Guardsmen, being about the same size as a Space Marine (but definitely not as big as a Primaris Marine).

Now that I've painted something other than power armor I'm ready to get back to the Primaris Marines. I was feeling some serious burnout, and I think it was very helpful to step back and do something else for a little while. Hopefully I can finish my partially done Intercessors very quickly and get on to the rest of them. After they're done, I may start tackling the Death Guard half of Dark Imperium in preparation for the Death Guard release.

Those are some wicked looking models. I really like how you picked out the scars.

Will you use these for 40K exclusively? If so, have you considered adding some SF bling to them? It's a little late for that, admittedly...

The Bloodzerkers came out really nicely. If you're wanting to touch up the icon, you could easily give it a wash with thinned down brown, dark green, or nihliakh oxide (for three quite different effects).

@Josh: Thanks! The scars were something I really wanted to stand out, as it shows that these guys have been in some fights! I didn't add any sci-fi specific stuff to them so that I'd have the option to run them in AoS in the future (although I currently do not play that game). I really considered adding a Space Marine helmet to a couple of the bases, or maybe a discarded bolter or Tau pulse rifle or something. Maybe I'll add some of those things later, or at least on my other squad of these guys once I get around to painting them.

@Azazelx: Thanks, and thanks for the suggestion on touching up the icon. I might do that in future; right now I'm just trying to knock out more models.

I'm finally back to work on my Dark Imperium guys, with the second Intercessor squad very near to completion. Here's the latest WIP shot:

The decals are on; now I've just got a couple of edge highlight colors to add, the red on the eye lenses, and the Sergeant's skin to finish, plus the bases of course.

I'm probably going to go ahead and start on the Captain even before these guys are done, as I'm way behind where I wanted to be on these models. I'm hoping to start on my Death Guard models before the codex drops, although at this point that may be a forlorn hope. And yes, I will be getting the new Mortarion model when it is released as well, so look forward to seeing me paint that in the future (probably before the year is out!).

This month's theme in the monthly painting challenge is "Armor Up", so I'll be doing a Razorback for my Dark Angels. Since the Primaris Captain is just one model, I'll probably do them simultaneously, although I expect the Captain to be a lot quicker since he's smaller (which is good because then I'll move on to the Hellblasters). I hope to do a better job of keeping up with my painting and this blog over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more updates.

Nice work on the DA Primaris so far. My own Primaris have completely stalled out, and I probably won't get back to them until I've cleared the decks of the other stuff I started, but i's great to see yours in DA colours, especially since I haven't decided how to allocate mine yet. Make sure you share the finished products as well.

@Azazelx: Thanks! I hope you can get back to your Primaris guys soon. I've been enjoying seeing your take on the Unforgiven, especially the older models. And don't worry, you'll see my finished models here if nowhere else!

Okay, I'm done with the second Intercessor squad from Dark Imperium:


I'm not as happy with how these guys turned out. I don't think I did as good a job as I could have with the edge highlighting on the armor because I hurried and thus missed some parts. I also experimented with putting some Agrax Earthshade in some of the grass tufts on the bases; it didn't really work well. And when I went to add the transfers, let's just say some mistakes were made and I had to use a couple of replacements from older kits that don't look nearly as good (not easily visible in the photos). Still, they are at least tabletop standard, so I can move on to other models, namely the Gravis Company Master and the Razorback I'm getting ready to paint for the monthly competition. I really want to finish him before the end of the Konor campaign (so, Monday), but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I'll certainly give it the old college try, though!

Those guys look just fine to me-- better than tabletop. Personally, I can't see any flaws that can't be touched up. Can't wait to see the Company Master.

Really solid work on the DA Zerg, cant wait to see how DG turn out.

Another good looking squad. Looking forward to seeing the Gravis.

@Josh: Thanks, that's very kind of you to say. I'm usually my harshest critic when it comes to my models. Way too many that I called finished and took pictures and then said, in the words of Homer Simpson, "D'oh!" when I realized I missed something or got paint where it shouldn't have been.

@Yorkright: Thanks! I hope to get to the Death Guard ASAP, but I'm going to slog my way through the rest of my DI Primaris marines first.

@youwashock: Thanks!

Time for a WIP shot of the Gravis Company Master. He's not nearly as far along as I had hoped, but I was busy over the weekend with stuff, including a 40k tournament. Here's where he's at right now:

Got the armor all done, as well as the white on the back symbol and the silver metallics, and the gold is basecoated in Retributor Armor gold. I love that color, so much more vibrant and shiny than regular Balthasar Gold. I hope to make more progress very soon, as I'm chomping at the bit to get to my Death Guard models. And yes, I've already preordered Mortarion from my FLGS, along with the Death Guard codex.

In other news, I finally got around to assembling the Forge World XV88-2 model for my Tau army. I got it from a friend over a year ago I think along with parts for a second one (but missing some bits). Pretty sure it's a recast based on how there's more than one color of resin parts, but oh well. Here it is, waiting its turn for some primer:


I also went to my other FLGS this afternoon and picked up a new paintbrush as well as a couple of Reaper Bones miniatures to use as Malefic Lords in my Chaos army:

Okay, this picture is garbage, but one of them is a sorcerer with flames arching over his head (with faces in the flames), perfect for representing a Chaos psyker. The other is a female wizard who will make a decent counts-as Malefic Lord (or Malefic Lady!). Yes, I expect Malefic Lords to get a nerf soon, but as cheap as the models were I couldn't resist. I just hope reports of how hard it is to prime Bones are exaggerated.

That 40k tournament I mentioned earlier did not go well for me at all. I ran a combined World Eaters and Alpha Legion list, and lost all of my games. I faced an Ultramarines list with Guilliman first, followed by a Chaos soup list with 2 Iron Warriors Sorcerers, 3 30-man Cultist squads, like 8 Malefic Lords, three units of Nurglings, and over 900 points of summoning reserves that all ultimately was used to drop Slaanesh heralds. Like 20 Smites a turn once the Heralds dropped. The third opponent was a Guard gunline that just chewed up the Rhinos that my Berzerkers were riding in and then most of the Berzerkers themselves. I clearly need to rethink my Chaos strategy as far as list building, because that was my worst tournament outing in a very long time. I just pulled difficult opponents for all my games and my inexperience with my army really showed. I do like the stratagems and stuff that Chaos Marines have access to, and at least that first game was very fun and ultimately very close as well.

The Gravis captain looks promising so far. I've been thinking about building one myself in DA livery, and how to best go about kitbashing him to my satisfaction.

So.. uh... keep going on yours. I need the inspires!

@Azazelx: Thanks for the encouragement, I'll certainly try to get him done soonish!

I'm making some progress:

Next up will be shading and highlighting the cloak. After that he's basically done, needing only some touchups on some parts and the transfers, plus of course his base. Getting to the underside of the cloak I ended up making kind of a mess, so some cleanup will be required (nothing I can't handle).

I still haven't even started on that Razorback yet. I'd better hop to it if I want to have it done for the painting challenge. I probably could have gotten away with using the Captain himself as my entry, as he is wearing armor, and it's bigger than most Marines' armor at that. I do really want to do a vehicle, as I haven't done a SM vehicle in a long while.

the captain is coming along. I suggest adding more reds before shading to the cape for increased depth.

Looking good. I like the cape color against the armor. Good choice. I like the addition of the icon, too.

@cormadepanda: I would have done that, but I'm afraid that if I try to get too fancy with the blending and stuff I'll end up making the model worse rather than better. Eventually I'll start trying those advanced techniques. Your suggestion is still appreciated!

@youwashock: Thanks! I like the way it looks too; I wasn't sure if magenta would look good with the green at first, but once I tried it I was very happy. And I'm definitely happy with the icon; makes the model look more Dark Angels-y (is that a word?), which is what I was aiming for.

I'm calling the Company Master in Gravis Armor done at this point, here are the final pics:


I'm satisfied with how he turned out, although as always I see places I probably could have improved. The only thing I'm really not very happy with is how the highlights on the back of the cloak came out; I need to learn to paint fine line highlights better. Maybe I should have just stuck with trying to drybrush it, but I wanted to experiment with actual edge highlighting. I clearly need practice.

Next up will be the Hellblaster squad. I've been looking forward to these, as I just absolutely love the look of plasma weapons. I hope I can make them look really awesome!

In other news, I picked up Mortarion and my Death Guard codex, and I've started assembling the big guy. Not much to show there yet, but soon I can show some assembly WIP shots. As I've said, he's gonna wait a little while for painting because I want to paint some regular Death Guard first to get the feel for how to make them look good. Then I'll be ready to tackle the Primarch. As expensive as that model was, I really want to be sure and get it right. When I get to work on it, you'll see it right here. In the meantime, stay classy DakkaDakka!

Gravis Cap came out cool. I wish I could boast half as many completed Primaris marines as you.

Captain looks good, I think your skills are good enough to try some of the more advanced techniques. Excited to see what you are planning next to tackle.