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Hope you'll get a good game in this weekend, I've played a lot of 9th this year (more than 8th in the three years previous) and it really is a fun game with good mission design (most of the time).

And Re: RL, just taking it slow and steady is always the first and often biggest step and after that it might snowball... in a good way, not the avalanche kind

 Nevelon wrote:
Just a quick report to say I’m still painting. Put the second blue coat on the bike this morning. So much space, so many bad angles. Going to need a lot more clean up. I’ve already got a deep feeling of “screw it, good enough” and still a lot of work left to do. Oh well. Will get there.

If you haven’t voted for the comp thread, consider going over there and tossing a few around. My flyrant is actually doing quite well, probably the closest I’ve been to a podium spot ever. Probably end up tied for 5-6th, depending on how things fall out. But 3rd place is actually a fairly tight race.

Re: bikes and Marines: Are you putting contrast over a white base coat? You might get better results putting it over a blue base-- it wouldn't be so patchy and would require fewer coats. I feel you pain on the bikes-- I painted a squad of five years ago (back when I thought I might play 40K again someday), and man-o-man were they a hassle to paint. I should have painted them on sprue, assembled, and then done touch ups.

Re: real life:: I'm in no position to give anyone life advice, so I'll just say "hang in there." I'll leave it to you to imagine the kitten hanging from a branch.

Also-- you're this close to third place in the painting comp. Good luck!

Tyranid Horde wrote:That Tyrant is one my favourites for last month's challenge Nev, the contrast paints worked a treat on the organic body.

Classic marines are looking good so far, they've got a great charm to them in their sculpts.

'Grats on the full vaccination, I'm still waiting for mine but great to hear you've decided to go out and be more social. Give the dating a go, I met my GF through Tinder of all places, so there's hope!

A lot of people seem to like the flyrant as well. I was looking back at prior stuff I’ve done that did well in the polls, I’ve had a handful of entries that got 4-5% of the vote, but not many. And none this close to the podium. Few more hours for the vote. As I write this I’m on the podium, but it’s a bloody knife fight for the spot this month. 6 of us basically tied.

The Boy just got his first shot of the vaccine, so that’s a load of stress off. Might try other dating sites, not getting a good feel from the first one. Or just give up and get a cat and let life do what it will.

Viterbi wrote:Hope you'll get a good game in this weekend, I've played a lot of 9th this year (more than 8th in the three years previous) and it really is a fun game with good mission design (most of the time).

And Re: RL, just taking it slow and steady is always the first and often biggest step and after that it might snowball... in a good way, not the avalanche kind

Overall I’ve been having a lot of fun with 9th. I would like to play some normal games, as the secondary objectives seem like a good system. But we’ve been having a lot of fun with with the crusade format.

JoshInJapan wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Just a quick report to say I’m still painting. Put the second blue coat on the bike this morning. So much space, so many bad angles. Going to need a lot more clean up. I’ve already got a deep feeling of “screw it, good enough” and still a lot of work left to do. Oh well. Will get there.

If you haven’t voted for the comp thread, consider going over there and tossing a few around. My flyrant is actually doing quite well, probably the closest I’ve been to a podium spot ever. Probably end up tied for 5-6th, depending on how things fall out. But 3rd place is actually a fairly tight race.

Re: bikes and Marines: Are you putting contrast over a white base coat? You might get better results putting it over a blue base-- it wouldn't be so patchy and would require fewer coats. I feel you pain on the bikes-- I painted a squad of five years ago (back when I thought I might play 40K again someday), and man-o-man were they a hassle to paint. I should have painted them on sprue, assembled, and then done touch ups.

Re: real life:: I'm in no position to give anyone life advice, so I'll just say "hang in there." I'll leave it to you to imagine the kitten hanging from a branch.

Also-- you're this close to third place in the painting comp. Good luck!

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

I painted a lot of bikes earlier in this blog. I remember getting bogged down and very tired with them at the end. These guys are following right along. I’ll probably get the bike chaplain, but besides him, I think I’ll keep it to just the one squad.



This is after the second blue, but before the ink. Much cleaner looking.

Also in the news, I swapped the painting and building desks. Still need to clear some boxes and move stuff around, but getting there.



Have a great weekend all.

So got a game in yesterday vs. The Boy. Relic.



I set up the table before we rolled the mission. You are normally supposed to have a clear spot around the relic in the middle, but he said leave the webway, as it looked cool. Pro tip: Don’t do this.


This is the end of turn 1. I was able to start my infiltrators on the objective, and moved up the tacs in their rhino to cover them/block fire. I killed one intercessor and chipped 4 wounds off his dread. Infiltrators grab the mcguffin.

He started his forces a bit behind the 12” line, so wasn’t able to punish me for being so aggressive. I take some light fire, but nothing serious. My speeder is down to it’s last wound, but I think that’s it. He’s out of charge range, which considering how much chop he has in his list is a big deployment error on his part.

Turn 2 I take my ball and head for home. Infiltrators drop down the back of the hill, out of LoS of his army. Tacs deploy to cover their exit. I blow up both his vehicles, kill a couple guys.

His reivers and Lt. drop down to try to stop me. Unfortunately, they have 12” pistols, and I’ve got omni-scamblers.


Turn 3 I focus all my fire on them and delete them. Extra shots go towards thinning out his lines.

He realizes that the objective is out of his grasp, and concedes.



Giant LoS blocking hill in the middle where I could grab and run, coupled with his conservative deployment which let me dominate the center of the table pretty much ended this game in deployment. He might have been able to come back if he advanced aggressively first turn, but he didn’t. We had a good debrief chat at the end.

My captain leveled up, and got promoted back to chapter master. He held that rank at the start, when we were playing before the codex dropped. He also picked up a frenzon injector. He’s going to be a lot meaner with that hammer.

Edit:
Put the second blue on the captain, and primed everything in the built pile.

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

That sounds like a lot of work. The bike does look good though, so I guess it works.

Been a while since I checked in, and it seems you have been busy. Nice to see your flyrant doing so well in the voting; I haven't even really given the challenges much thought lately as failing two in a row has taken much of my will to even look in on it away. RL has been stripping my painting motivation bigtime lately.

Always cool to see you getting a game in (even if it was one-sided), and I look forward to seeing how the old Marine models turn out (and the bike too).

ZergSmasher wrote:Been a while since I checked in, and it seems you have been busy. Nice to see your flyrant doing so well in the voting; I haven't even really given the challenges much thought lately as failing two in a row has taken much of my will to even look in on it away. RL has been stripping my painting motivation bigtime lately.

Always cool to see you getting a game in (even if it was one-sided), and I look forward to seeing how the old Marine models turn out (and the bike too).

Motivation is always a fickle muse. And RL is a . We gotta keep moving on though.

JoshInJapan wrote:

The blue is 2 thin coats of Macragge Blue followed by a coat of blue ink. Not contrast paints specifically, but similar technique of glazing. None of the blue contrast paints looked like they would match my existing scheme. It does tend to look a bit unfinished until the final coat, which is a little irritating.

That sounds like a lot of work. The bike does look good though, so I guess it works.

It’s just one more step then the “two thin coats” standard. With a glaze of ink instead of the layer/shade step. And it does make a difference in saturation and smoothness. The guy on the left hasn’t had his second coat yet, and it shows.



I also realized I need to put a helmet stripe on the vet. Can’t believe I almost missed that. But I got the eyes done, and most of the details. Getting there. Hopefully finish them up by/over the weekend.

Put the blue ink on the vet, a few more details (like the helmet stripe, little work on the severed head). Getting there. Looking at the backpacks, I noticed that the RTB01’s will not work with the old metals. So I’ll either have to drill out a spot for the mounting nub, or dig deeper into my spare parts looking for another age appropriate one. There is a chance there isn’t one kicking around, in which case the drills and files come out.

Also, today marks 8 years of blogging. Persisting little bugger, aren’t I?

Edit: Found a backpack, did a little scrubbing. Going to need more.

Congratulations Nev! That's quite an accomplishment!

Gratz on 8 years Nev! Here's to 8 more!

 Nevelon wrote:

Just wanted to share a congratulations to Nevelon on finishing third in the Monthly Painting competition with this great model - "Travelling in Style".

Cheers,

CB

Thanks guys. I’m going to use this as an excuse for a little retrospective. Not the full time of the blog, but here are some of the also-rans of my work in the comp. Best of each year, voted by you, the viewer.

Year 1 Contemptor dread


Nothing too spectacular here. My basic UM scheme, (30k variant) executed on a slightly larger canvas. Still, pretty tidy work.

Year 2: LDS


A little outside my normal comfort zone. Lots of little details, not part of an army I automatically know how things get done. Technically, I think one of my better works. Probably got a lot of nostalgia votes for painting old stuff. I get a lot of that when I do.

Year 3: Mannfred


He was the first modern Death model I painted, and broke the ground for my nighthaunt. I love how the cape came out, and the model overall. Honestly, on the podium for my best model ever. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, just skim through my entire collection and pick what IMHO is my best work. It’s always a fun exercise.

Year 4: Nighthaunt


These guys are cut from the same spectral cloth as Mannfred. Which isn’t a bad thing. I should really try to get my undead to the table some time. The new soulblight stuff is pretty tempting.

Year 5: Dryads


These guys surprised me. I think it was getting both barrels of tight adherence to the theme, and nostalgia. One of my first major forays into contrast paints. Not bad work, just a little shocked they were so popular. Although year 5 was not one of my better ones overall.

Year 6 Infiltrators, old school



Technically the old RT guys edged out the infiltrators if you go back to the numbers and check the rounding. Listing them both, as I think they both have some strong points. Old guys get the nostalgia boost, but I also like they way they turned out. First time painting a tattoo, worked out well. I should do more, but generally they are not very ultramarine-ish. The infiltrators were the vanguard of the arctic camo on my marines, and I’m quite fond of how that’s been working out.

And year 7 (so far)


My first podium spot, in a knife-fight 6 way tie for 3rd. It’s a win, and a milestone, so I’ll take it. Feels a little odd though. This guy went from plastic to paint in about a week. Crazy fast. And from sprue didn’t add much to that. Might be one of the fastest turnaround times I’ve had. Normally there is months of lag, as things get bought, built, primed, and wait for their time on the paintbench. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty, but the contrast paints do really feel like cheating. But they were born for organics. Seriously. Tyranids are their perfect showcase. And they scale from gaunt to tyrant. I should probably go back and highlight the purple a bit, but that can wait.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. I should try to get some paint down, but I’m still working on my coffee. And need to buy a new mower and hit the lawn at some point. Yay homeownership.

Edit: Put the blue ink on the remaining 2 guys. Also, raised the banner of Gondor over my house. Because some times, you just need to let you geek flag fly.

Nice little retrospective there, and congrats on the podium finish! That Hive Tyrant really does look great. I've got more than one friend who use contrast paints for their armies (one plays Death Guard), and they swear by them. I feel like I get decent but not exceptional results from them for my Sisters. They are definitely perfect for Tyranids though, and I imagine just as good for most Daemons.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Nice little retrospective there, and congrats on the podium finish! That Hive Tyrant really does look great. I've got more than one friend who use contrast paints for their armies (one plays Death Guard), and they swear by them. I feel like I get decent but not exceptional results from them for my Sisters. They are definitely perfect for Tyranids though, and I imagine just as good for most Daemons.

I used the white contrast on the sisters I painted, but I don’t know if I’d use an actual color contrast for flat armor. It really shines on organics, or probably the quasi-organic mutants over in Chaos.



So all the blues are done, leaving just the edges, highlights, and the finishing bits. Plus the two backpacks. Plugging away.

So the heavy intercessors came out. $60 for 5 guys. Ouch. I shouldn’t be surprised, but was hoping for something a little more reasonable. I know, I know, “first step on the road to disappointment”. I’ve got enough of a backlog I’m not going to run out and buy a box. Maybe if I’m good, they will show up in a bundle box for Christmas. Not going to hold my breath though. The primed pile is so full it’s hard to find motivation to build stuff. But I should. More genestealers, some more intercessors, or break out some of the old lead in the ‘nid box. There is a metal tyrant there on foot, which would probably work better as a warrior prime. Also 8 gargs, which would help fill out the flock. Speaking of which, I added magnets to the ones I built. Need to do the stems, but they can borrow them from the Eldar jetbikes if needed.

And now I should probably go mow the lawn. Been like four and a half years since I’ve had to do that. Didn’t miss it.

 Nevelon wrote:

Also, raised the banner of Gondor over my house. Because some times, you just need to let you geek flag fly.

Man, nice work. A great introspective. You’ve had a solid run and I’m glad to see you on the podium. Should have been already, imho.
I love the mental image of the flag of Gondor flying over your house and I also now really want to get one. Going to come up with a good argument to convince the wife. She’s almost as nerdy as me, stops just shy of painting miniatures. Probably won’t be too hard of a sell.

It might seem like a small thing, but I was really psyched when I came back from grocery shopping and saw the White Tree flapping in the breeze. A man’s home is his castle, and should have his colors flying. When I go for walks around the neighborhood, there are plenty of American flags, a chunk of rainbow pride flags, and scatted sports teams. I put a lot of thought about what I wanted to fly. While I love 40k, a lot of the images they use could be taken out of context. Even something like an Ultramarine symbol would probably just be mistaken for being a Colt’s fan. Almost went with a SW rebel alliance flag (and might still) but a little sour on the franchise. Of the LoTR factions, I could have flown the colors of the Mark, but I’m in Saratoga Springs, a horse town. So the geek symbolism would be lost on the heathens. So I went with Gondor. Took a stand with the free people, against the evils of the world.

Quality of the one I picked is not as good as I’d prefer. Tons of them on Amazon. One side is darker black, the other a little lighter. Problem of getting things online.

When I was growing up I always kept my hobbies under cover. Being a geek was something that would get you picked on. As I get older I find I don’t care as much what other people think. I still don’t advertise much, but will occasionally post hobby stuff on my Facebook feed, and will honestly answer any direct question. But I am who I am.

The White Tree stirs the heart.

Congrats on the contest and 8 years of blogdom. It's cool seeing the old entries.

Maybe this year as an advent calendar I’ll post one pic a day, but focus on chronological progress. Start with the old, and end with the new. I’ll probably forget, but it was fun to do last time I did one. Although before it was more centered on favorite models. Which I could do again. Would be interesting to see what gets repeated, and what gets bumped down for new favorites.



Vet has his highlights, backpacks ready for blue ink, pair of gargs just got their flesh wash. Painting them on magnetized flight stands is irritating. I taped up 2 to keep them clean of slop. I can just grab bits of the model, but worry about oils on my hands affecting the flow of the contrast paints, or rubbing off if I hold a painted bit. Probably wouldn’t be too bad, but old habits. Running out of month, need to get stuff done.

Edit: put red down on my first break. Working from home has a lot of perks.
Edit2: black down and second wing layer. Just touchups and details left. Love how fast these guys go.

2 flappy gribbles done, captain edged. backpacks inked. Need a white pass on the studs, then those are done. Assault guy needs his edges. Then decals and bases. Plus the bike. Running out of month.

So, it’s been about a year since the great devourer sent a tendril into this blog, where do we stand?



Better close up pics of almost everything can be found in my gallery.

Still small, but getting there. Able to take the field in small games, with some options. Little over 1,000 points all told.

On deck:

About 450 points primed and waiting for paint. Or in progress for the next two gargoyles.

To be built:

20 more ‘stealers on sprue, and two dozen rescues in a bag.
3 old, pretty broken warriors
1 metal tyrant
8 gargoyles
6 VERY old gaunts


(work break over, will ramble later)

Zoats front and center. Excellent. Great pic!

 youwashock wrote:
Zoats front and center. Excellent. Great pic!

I wish there was a way to get them to the table. Might be rules for the new one they made, not sure how he fits into the Nid army. And these old guys are not the same scale.

So, one thing about the Nid project was to keep it pile of shame neutral. Paint a unit before I buy a new one.

Painted:
Flyrant
Trygon
Broodlord
Biovores
Spore Mines
Rippers
Homorgaunts
2x Termagaunts (enough of these guys to count as 2 units)

Not going to count the legacy stuff. That gives me 9 units.

Units purchased:
1 hormagaunt
1 termagaunt
3 genestealers (1 from the SC box, 2 from the big box, counting 8 stealers as a “unit”)
1 tyrant
1 exocrine
1 gargoyle
1 trygon
1 broodlord
1 hive guard

11 units purchased. Almost back to parity.

If I wanted to be slick, I could count each biovore separate, and the mines in groups of 3. But I’m not. Still, only 2 units behind before I catch up to the damage the big box did to my plans. And the gargs are in progress.

Painting up the 4 stealers I’ve got in the primed pile would let me flesh out my 6 old ones into a 10 man squad, which is a little more viable. I’d like to get a full 10 new ones ready, but that’s going to take more building time. All the units in the pile are needed on the battlefield, the question is fitting them into the schedule.

On the to-buy short list:
Box each of terma/hormogaunts
carnefexes
zoanthropes

The stabby little guys might be last. They seem really pathetic on the table. But I need more then 12. Box of shooty ones is a higher priority. That would bring me up to 30, which seems a good number. Zoanthropes seem solid, and add some MW punch. ‘Fexes are classic. They might suck, but I want them. Of course, that could be said about a lot of the bugs.

There are a lot of other things on the “would be nice to have” list, but honestly I think my plans will cover me until the next codex (aka a few years) so we can see if rules swing to cathc my eye.

Edit: and on the paining side finished the 3 old guys paint. Decals and bases up next.

Morning all (or whatever passes for “now” in your local timezone)

Finished basing the marines. Next up is the decal pass. Might do that over lunch. Or some spare time this weekend.

Gargoyles 5-6 on deck. 3-4 are with the first two and their mommy over on the YTD shelf. Not going to have the unit done by this weekend, but maybe in 2 when I have The Boy next.

Finished the bases on the first 4 stealers I’d built. Printed rings pop them out to 32mm. Instead of my normal plastic glue, I used superglue, both for the rings and to affix the nids to the bases. I figure if GW changes them to a new size I can just pop everyone off and re-base. They feel a LOT better on the bigger bases. My RT captain over there with most of his foot hanging over the edge is giving me dirty looks. Sorry bud, not era appropriate. I know the modern kids get them, but you don’t. Need to re-level my printer and bang out another 20 or so rings.

Right now the vote for next month is tied for “Boots on the Ground” and “Seeing Red” Which is probably going to be a 5 man stick of intercessors, or the Wave Serpent. Part of my is tempted to switch to the new fangled paint scheme for techmarines, and do him in red if that wins. But I don’t think so. He’ll get the metallic blue the rest of the techmarines got.

Great progress. I agree to keep him blue. I've been thinking about Seeing Red. Trying to come up with something other that just red armor. I have a couple more marines and my army is red, but it seems too obvious.
Anyway, keep up the efforts against the pile of shame. I like that you have a tally going to keep yourself on track.

Boots got another vote, so might pull out the win. Not sure how much longer the poll will run.

It’s only the nids I keep a careful eye on. More than just my normal “paint more than I buy” pledge. But starting a new army they had the potential to eat up both all my free time and hobby budget. Apt, for the Nids, especially at the rate I can paint them. I knew that if I didn’t start them up with a foot on the brake, they would get very bad, very fast. I could probably drop another $400 on them without even hitting all the units I’d like to have. Pile of shame does not need that volume, and I want to reserve the budget for if other things I want drop.

Edit decals on, and the last backpack. Just final check and formal pics.



Will break out the lightbox when I have a bit of time.

Lovely colors you're flying at your home! Loved the retrospective and the progress of the oldmarines, middle one is my favorite.

Calling them done. Captain, Veteran, and an Assault marine. Who I’m calling a vet, despite not having any markings. He’s been kicking around since the RT era, that’s got to count for years in service. You just don’t see many severed heads on loyalists these days. Ahh, for the classic era, where the “good” guys were just brain-scrubbed criminals enforcing the Emperor’s will. Captain had the appropriate symbol on his helmet, and the vet has the right stripe.

These guys might be the last of the power armor RT metals I have. Still have some RTB01s, and TDA if I dig a little. Might be a few left wearing BA colors. Was fun getting paint on the old stuff, even if they might not see the table any time soon.

Hard to choose a favorite. Still probably the vet with the bayonet. Although the AM with the severed head is growing on me. A more brutal marine from a less civilized time..

Bravo!

Always nice to see the old metal get painted up.

 Nevelon wrote:
Still small, but getting there. Able to take the field in small games, with some options. Little over 1,000 points all told.

Horde armies due tend to take a little bit of time.

Cheers,

CB