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Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Azazelx: Thanks, and I think you are right about how they will look when they are all together. That's the nice thing about hordes; each individual model doesn't have to be amazing. I will be looking to beat this year's total completed models next year.

While I'm intending to paint the Dark Imperium Plague Marines, I've gotten a bit sidetracked. Over the last three days or so (with a little bit of work each day) this has happened:

Still a few more base colors to block in, but definitely making progress. I'm painting the stasis bomb separately before I attach it to the fighter.

I hope to get started on the Death Guard guys soon, as I want to finish them by the end of the month. Hopefully I can knock out the flyer by then as well. Wish me luck!

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

Sadly, nothing much happening on the painting front lately. It's been a stressful couple of weeks. I may give up on doing the Plague Marines right now, as I'm just not feeling much inspiration to get them done. They are certainly cool models and I do intend to get them painted eventually, but since I'm putting my whole Death Guard army on hold for now, I think I'll probably shelve them until I come back to the army. Which means that Morty will also be moving down the queue. While I haven't been doing any painting since my last post, hence my lack of posting, I have gotten quite a few games in with my Chaos Space Marines. I had a tournament yesterday which thanks to some incredibly stupid play on my part didn't go terribly well. I don't know why I keep making such dumb mistakes in tournaments; when I play casual I do alright, and I definitely feel that in this latest tournament I had a pretty strong list, but it's like I leave my brain outside the door when I play tournament games. I'll get it figured out one of these days...

In other news, while I haven't been painting, I have been acquiring some new swag since I've had some extra money lately.

First, here are a couple of box sets I found relatively cheap on eBay:

I've been wanting both of these sets for a while now, but after seeing Celestine in action in a game against my friend I pulled the trigger on getting the Triumvirate (since I also want Greyfax). I also wanted to have at least one of each Assassin, so I went ahead and got Execution Force. I've got some board game loving friends who, while they aren't interested in playing 40k, might be interested in playing Execution Force. The other thing that influenced me to buy it was the fact that I really need more Chaos Cultists. I now have 57 of them, but I really still need more...

Also on eBay, I found these Chaos Marines, most of whom have special weapons (good for making Havocs or Chosen squads):

I love that whoever assembled these put one of the plasma guys in the "Oh god I hope it doesn't blow up" pose. The bare metal model on the far right is an old metal Sorcerer with a force sword. I did a little research and found that that sculpt is at least 20 years old, so that was a nice find. I needed at least one sorcerer that wasn't on a bike, so now I have one.

Finally, my FLGS was having a 20% off sale on their used model bins, so I dug around and found this:

The photo is garbage, but the model is a World Eaters Dreadnought from Forge World. I don't care for the weapon loadout, but since I scored it really cheap and I don't play World Eaters except in casual games I was happy to find it. I also bought a couple of squads of used Obliterators, but I didn't take a picture of them. I'm wanting to get a couple more units of those for my next tournament list. Also not pictured is my recently acquired Maulerfiend, which I got by splitting the kit with a friend who just wanted the Forgefiend guns for a kitbash.

In other other news, I actually assembled all of the Assassinorum: Execution Force models over the last three days (needed the cultists for the tournament). Here is a pic of them:

I may paint the assassins sooner rather than later, as one or more of them may make it into my Adepticon list. I might also need to build and paint Celestine for the same reason.

I hope to have some painting progress of some kind to report soon. Things have somewhat calmed down now, so I can get back to work on the Dark Talon if nothing else. Whatever I end up painting, you'll see it here!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/11/13 06:14:25


My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

Well, I lied, I am indeed pushing on with the Plague Marines as I can't think of anything else I want to paint right now. It's looking like I may indeed be bringing Chaos of some flavor to AdeptiCon next year (that's what my fellow team members are bringing), so I need to be mostly painting Chaos stuff anyway, although these guys will be unlikely to make my list other than perhaps for the Friendly tournament. Here's my latest WIP shot:

All I've done so far is the green armor and the metallics. I'll add a couple more base colors and then give the models a thorough shade of Agrax Earthshade to make them look grimy. Then I will start coloring in the details like tentacles and stuff. There are a lot of little details, so picking them all out will be a challenge. I think I can do it though!

Meanwhile, I've also assembled Inquisitor Katerinya Greyfax from the Triumvirate of the Imperium set:

She'll be fun to paint, although she's pretty low in the queue (especially with Adepticon just 4 months away). I've also begun assembling Saint Celestine, but I'll most likely paint her in pieces before doing the final assembly since it looks like the model will be fairly delicate when fully built.

That's all for now, hope to have more progress on the Plague Marines soon!

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in au
Unstoppable Bloodthirster of Khorne





Melbourne .au

That's a nice Haul there, Zerg - and the Plaguemarines are coming along nicely, despite your reservations.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

With all the heresy around here, you might want to bump the Saint and inquisitor up the queue a bit, on peril of your immortal soul...

Nice progress.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Wisconsin

The Plague Marines are looking fine Zerg, as a fellow Deathguard player you really need to finish them up before any more of those foolish corpse followers.
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Azazelx: Thanks! Now that I've gotten started, progress has been much easier. Sometimes you just have to take that first step.

@Nevelon: Thanks! I'll have to take the risk on my immortal soul since those models you mentioned are low priority (was going to probably take Celestine to Adepticon, but since I'm going Chaos for that event...).

@York: Thanks, and I plan to!

More progress on the servants of Grandfather Nurgle:

I've gotten the main shade down all over them and also highlighted all of the main colors. The all-over shade really worked well to make the models look dirty and grimy. Next up will be the task of picking out all of the little tentacles and tongues, and these models have quite a few of those scattered everywhere.

In other news, a friend of mine recently gave me a pair of Chaos Rhino kits, minus a few of the bits that he needed for another project (very generous indeed). I've already assembled one of them:

This one, and the other one that I have yet to assemble, will be for my Alpha Legion and will ultimately be painted as such. I'm still trying to decide exactly how I'll achieve the Alpha Legion look for my guys. I'll probably do what I've seen a lot of people do and just paint them blue with green edge highlights. That will be easier to paint quickly with Adepticon coming up. I know I have like 4 months to prepare, but deadlines have a nasty habit of sneaking up and this isn't something I can cram for like a college exam.

For my last purchase of this pay period, I picked up a set of Blightlord Terminators for my Death Guard, and one of the new Citadel Painting Handles. So far I like the handle, but I don't really think it's all that practical for a batch of models. It'll come in handy for painting character models for sure, though.

Anyway, hope to have more progress to show soon! Thanks to everyone for chiming in with encouragement and advice, it really helps me stay motivated!

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

This will probably be my last WIP shot for the Dark Imperium Plague Marines before I finish them:

Only major detail left to do is the bone stuff (skulls, horns, etc.). Otherwise it's just a few highlights and the bases, plus a couple of random touchups where I goofed a little with the paint. For December, I may be painting something a bit...bigger.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Marines are looking nice and nurgly. Well done.

December is alway a rough month for big models. So many things going on. But godspeed if you think you can pull it off!

   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Nevelon: Thanks! As for December, I know I'm taking a risk on attempting a big model, but since I might need it playable soonish, I figure it can't hurt to try even if I don't finish before the end of the month.

Well, after a lot of work with my fine detail brush and a few frustrated moments at different times as I found another detail here and there that I missed, I'm ready to call the Plague Marines finished. Here are the final pics:



I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. These models are full of disgusting detail and were very fun and challenging to paint. I recommend that anyone with any interest in 40k Nurgle stuff get the Death Guard half of Dark Imperium; the models are just amazing. Some people say that the models are too busy; I simply marvel at how much detail can be put on a plastic model compared to how much could be done in years past. I see the extra detail as a positive thing, so I hope GW keeps it up! Next up from Dark Imperium will probably be the two lesser Death Guard characters (the Noxious Blightbringer and Malignant Plaguecaster), but they will probably wait until after the new year as I've got other priorities for paint.

My very next thing may be a few Chaos Cultists that I will paint in Alpha Legion colors. It'll give me something relatively easy to do until December starts, when I'll commence on my entry for that month's painting challenge.

As for what I'm going to do, I was going to wait and announce it at the beginning of December, but what the hey, most of you have probably guessed it anyway. I'll be tackling Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard. With that model, I'm hoping to finish the year off with a big painting finale. I'm already well over my model count from last year, so I don't really need to pad out my numbers, and I might be bringing Morty to Adepticon, hence my main reason for wanting to get him ready for battle. While I paint the big guy, I might knock out a few small projects as I wait for layers to dry on him. Cultists and that sort of small stuff that I can bash out quickly and don't care if they look really good. Wish me luck, I'll need it if I want to get Morty done during the busy Christmas season.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Wisconsin

I do love me some Death Guard, they turned out great Zerg. Looking forward to your take on Mortarion and the rest of the DG.
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@York: Thanks very much! I hope my work on Mortarion won't disappoint. He's gonna be tough to get right.

As the Chinese say, "Even the longest journey begins with a single step", so I've gotten started with Mortarion. Not much to see yet, but here's a WIP shot anyways:

All I've done is put a couple of coats of Rakarth Flesh on the wings, and a couple of coats of Death Guard Green on the armor. Next up will be the various metallics. There are a lot of those details scattered across the model, so that will be a big step.

Today I actually visited both of my FLGS. I picked up my copy of Chapter Approved, as well as this guy:

I've been wanting to pick up Abaddon for some time, so now I have him. The FLGS had recently gotten a shipment of a bunch of clampack characters, so when I saw this guy I pounced.

At the other FLGS, I saw they had a sale table with a bunch of cool stuff on it. Hiding at the back of that table, marked 50% off, was this:

I had originally gone to that FLGS because I heard that they got some new Battlefoam stuff in, but when I saw this I couldn't pass it up. I can pick up more foam anytime, after all. I just couldn't say no to $75 for this amazing box. Now I've got a bunch of Mk. III marines, some Tartaros termies (which rumor has it Dark Angels will get access to), some Null Maidens, and some Custodes, plus the cool Wolf Lord and Ahriman models. I've got some Legion Autocannons that a friend gave me; they will go on some of these guys to make Havocs for my Alpha Legion. Indeed, most of the Marines will become Chaos Marines, although I may turn one squad into Space Wolves Grey Hunters.

More to come on Mortarion soon I hope. I hope to also get a few smaller models done at the same time, like some cultists. I ended up not doing any at the end of last month, choosing to actually start my proper bits box instead. Nice to be able to finally discard a few kit boxes that were taking up space. I've got a looooong way to go on that project.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

wow, nice find on the BoP box. Looking forward to the nurgly goodness.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Wisconsin

Good start on Mortarion, looking forward to the WIP pics. Lucky find on that BOP box, it is chock full of great mini's.
   
Made in jp
Incorporating Wet-Blending





Japan

That Mortarion model is quite intimidating. Where do you start on something that elaborate? I'm looking forward to seeing it in progress and then finished.

Now showing The Fellowship of the Ring, along with some Dreadball Captains!

Painting total as of 4/13/2024: 31 plus a set of modular spaceship terrain

Painting total for 2023: 79 plus 28 Battlemechs and a Dragon-Balrog

 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Nevelon: Yeah, it was an amazing find, hence why I could not pass on it. Rest assured there is plenty more Nurgle stuff coming, at least while I'm doing the big boy.

@York: Thanks! And yes, BoP has some really great stuff in it. At first I didn't care for the look of the Mk. III Marines, but now that I have them in hand they are growing on me.

@Josh: I'm following Duncan Rhodes' method for painting Morty, at least in which parts to paint in which order. I'll use a few different colors here and there, though. I figure tackling it will be like how you would eat an elephant: one bite at a time. I'm not going to rush it though, as I want to get my money's worth and I really want the model to look awesome when I bring it to tournaments and stuff.

Time for an update now that I've gotten the metallics basecoated:

I'm going to go over the armor and touch up any areas where I messed up the green, then it'll be time to shade the areas I've painted so far. Thus far it's been relatively easy to pick out the areas of color; as I get closer to done it'll get harder since I'll really have to be careful to avoid messing up finished parts.

Meanwhile, I've also been assembling some of the contents of Burning of Prospero. I assembled the two characters (Ahriman and Geigor the Fell-handed) as well as these guys:

These are going to be used as Havocs in my Alpha Legion army. I used the Legion Autocannons, but with a modification; the ammo hoppers that normally go on the backpacks are mounted directly on the guns. I was having trouble getting the belts to fit between the backpack and guns, and apparently that is a common problem with the autocannon set, so I stole an idea I found via Google and built the weapons as seen. They look awkward, but this is 40k, so practicality is out the window!

More to come soon, both on the BoP assembly and Morty!

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Conversion for the ACs looks fine.

When I saw the Mk III spures I was struck by their brutality. These guys want to be rammed face first into the enemy. Not that they can’t work as devs, but that’s not their forte IMHO. Also, with the way the legs assemble, just with a simple pivot when glueing them together you gan get something closer to a running gait out of them.

Big guy is coming together nicely.

   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Nev: I'm glad you like the Autocannons. I'm pretty pleased with them myself. I would have liked to be able to use them as intended with the ammo belts and all, but...eh. I think you're right about the brutality of them, but I've seen lots of people loading these models with Autocannons and other long-ranged weapons, so I imagine they'll work either way. I'm really looking forward to turning one of these squads into Grey Hunters for my Wolves.

Another update on Mortarion, and a WIP pic:

I've finished shading and highlighting all of the green armor and metallics, and I've gotten basecoats down on two of the fabric colors. I'll shade and highlight this fabric before I move on to the third fabric color, which will be pale off-white and blend into the smoke around the bottom. Getting that blend to look okay will be a real trick, but Saint Duncan Rhodes showed how to do it in his tutorial for painting the big guy, so I should be able to make it work even though I won't be duplicating the colors exactly.

In addition to getting more work done on Morty, I've gotten a couple more squads assembled from the Burning of Prospero set. First, here is another Havoc squad, with 3 Heavy Bolters:

I went ahead and gave the Champion the helmet head crest, which will work okay for Alpha Legion. I perhaps should have sourced bits online for another one of these Heavy Bolters to make a full unit of them, but honestly I won't be running these models often as Heavy Bolters are just not that great in-game IMO.

The other assembled unit is the Tartaros Terminators from the box set, which will be used in my Dark Angels Deathwing:

They'll look pretty cool in the bone white livery of the Dark Angels 1st Company, I think. I went with the Plasma Blaster on the sarge because I love plasma and the option was there. I also opted for the Reaper Autocannon because it is a better choice than a Heavy Flamer in most situations, especially for a deep strike unit like this.

I hope to be able to continue to get work done on Morty, and have more updates soon. It's been fun painting the model so far.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in jp
Incorporating Wet-Blending





Japan

Mortarion looks great so far. That green and purple combo shouldn't work, but it does.

Now showing The Fellowship of the Ring, along with some Dreadball Captains!

Painting total as of 4/13/2024: 31 plus a set of modular spaceship terrain

Painting total for 2023: 79 plus 28 Battlemechs and a Dragon-Balrog

 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Wisconsin

Mortarion is looking good and nurgly, are you going to finish him before the end of the month?
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Josh: Thanks! I wasn't sure about it at first either, as Duncan used a dark purple, but I like how mine turned out.

@York: Thanks! It's going to be close, but I'm still hopeful that I can get it done.

I'm making slow but steady progress. I've finished up the purple hood and red loincloth, and I've gotten basecoats on the white robe and the smoke/mist:

This is probably the hardest part, as I need to get the mist at the bottom to blend with the white fabric. I'll mostly be following Duncan's guide, but I won't run the mist colors as high on the model as he did (I think he overdid it personally). Reaching in to pick up the inner areas under the model has been a real pain in the butt, but I wanted to be able to use the model. Morty's going to his first tournament tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to assemble the Burning of Prospero models, although after these I'm stopping and I may start a secondary painting project (cultists or perhaps an Alpha Legion character or two) between coats on the big guy. Here are my assembled Adeptus Custodes:

I went with sword and board on these guys, as the extra durability will help protect the expensive models in games.

Here are the assembled Sisters of Silence:

These are the Witchseeker variant, with the flamers. They'll hopefully do some good work when I return to playing Imperial armies, probably after Adepticon. I will be picking up the new Dark Angels stuff tomorrow when I'm at the FLGS for the tournament. I've got the codex, a set of the dice, the robed Primaris Lieutenant, and a box of the Hellblasters on preorder there.

More to come on Morty (and more!).

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Tail-spinning Tomb Blade Pilot





My ancient "lab"

Nice work on Morty indeed! I really want the guy but my money went towards DI Some AL dudes would be fun IMO, though i'm biased cause I love teal.

My Necron Blog! http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/693066.page
My Screw-Around Blog http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/701938.page
My personal favorite YT WH40K channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnHCy9ID33sHp6Quirb1-XA

DA:00-S++GM+B--I+Pw40k12+D++A++/areWD052R+T(M)DM+ 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Justaerin: Thanks! I think given the choice you made the right decision. DI is a better place to start if you're building Space Marines or Death Guard. You can always pick up Morty later. It's good to do some smaller DG models first and then try to tackle something really big and complicated like this. As for the Alpha Legion, mine won't be teal, but rather just blue with green details and highlights. I'm figuring on doing some kind of scale motifs on at least some parts.

Yet another update on the big guy, this time with not one but TWO photos:

I wanted to show the progress I'm making on both his body and robes as well as the wings. The wings just have a couple of steps left to call them done, although they've turned out a bit messier than I had hoped, and the rest of him is not far behind. I think I'm going to finish this month, even with Christmas coming up.

In other news, I picked up my Dark Angels codex, dice, Hellblasters, and the new Lieutenant model on Saturday while I was at the FLGS for a tournament. I went ahead and put the Lieutenant together, so here he is assembled:

He's going to be fun to paint. I've enjoyed doing all the Primaris models so far, but this one will be even more enjoyable for me because I love the Dark Angels robed power armor aesthetic.

I'm still trying to decide which Alpha Legion stuff I'm going to do as a secondary project, if any. I've got so much that needs done, I'm having trouble deciding where to start. I'll probably do something for next month's painting challenge, but I want to get started on something else now. I need to get cracking if I want to have a fully painted army in time for Adepticon.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

Just a small update here in the very wee hours of Christmas morning (just past midnight local time). Work on Mortarion continues, with all but one of the major details at least basecoated:

Just got to basecoat and highlight the black cables and pipes, plus the flies in the smoke that goes on his back. Then I have to detail the base, which has a lot more detail than I thought (doh!). It's like Mortarion actually makes the very rocks and ground sick just by being there. Some slime, maggots and stuff to pick out, shouldn't be terribly hard, but I have no idea how it's all supposed to look. I guess I'll have to be creative. Fortunately, the vast majority of the model is indeed finished, and I'm happy with what I've done so far, with the possible exception of the wings. They've turned out somewhat blotchy, probably due to going way overboard with the shades. The only real way to fix it would be to just basecoat the wings again and start all over, and I'm absolutely not going to do that. To be honest they still look passable.

Still nothing doing on the Alpha Legion front, but I'm getting more stuff assembled. This time, it's a bunch of Nurglings that I got cheap on eBay recently:

These guys are actually going to be part of my next Chaos tournament list attempt, along with the Changeling, who I will have to pick up later. I'm hoping when the Daemon codex drops the trick I'm planning still works (Changeling protecting Tzeentch Obliterators). The Nurglings will be there to fill out a Battalion detachment and to hog the board (preventing deep strikes).

Still in the mail is the old metal Bjorn the Fell-handed model for my Space Wolves army. Got him cheap, so he'll be a late Christmas present for me to put together. I've never put together a metal Dreadnought before, so this will be interesting.

To all my friends here on DakkaDakka, I wish you a very Merry Christmas! Hopefully you all find lots of great hobby stuff under your trees and in your stockings.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

Good news, everyone! I've finished work on Mortarion! He's now ready to lead the Death Guard into battle to spread Grandfather Nurgle's blessings to all the Imperium. Here are the final photos (I just had to do 7 of them because Nurgle):
First, a shot of the whole model:

Here are two shots of the front, one of the whole body and one focused on the face:

The face one is somewhat whitewashed despite me turning down the brightness on my camera. Not sure what gives on these close-up shots.
Next, shots of the sides of the model, featuring The Lantern and Silence:

Here is a shot featuring the smoke on his back, as well as the wings:

Finally, here's the base:

I'm actually very pleased with how this guy turned out. He was a lot of fun to paint, and in the games I've played with him he's been pretty fun to use. I feel like this model is a great way for me to cap off the year, as far as painting. I keep saying I'm going to do some other small models, but I keep being too busy. I've got a few days left in the year, and I really need to get to work on stuff for Adepticon, and now Morty's done, so no more excuses. Time to knock out some Alpha Legion stuff. Anyhow, feel free to vote for the pics of Morty in the Dakka Gallery, I'd really appreciate it.

Coming soon, I'll do a year end review of everything I painted in 2017.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Damn fine job there! Have fun spreading the plagues around. Looking forward to your recap. I need to sort my own out as well.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Wisconsin

Awesome job on Mortarion, for me he was probably the most fun to paint of everything I did this year. You will have to tell me how does on the table so far I have not had a chance to run him yet.
   
Made in jp
Incorporating Wet-Blending





Japan

Wow. That came out really nice. I'm amazed that you made the purple work with the pale green.

Now showing The Fellowship of the Ring, along with some Dreadball Captains!

Painting total as of 4/13/2024: 31 plus a set of modular spaceship terrain

Painting total for 2023: 79 plus 28 Battlemechs and a Dragon-Balrog

 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

@Nev: Thank you very much for the kind words! He was a ton of fun to paint and pretty awesome to run in games.

@York: Thanks! He's been beastly on the table in most of the games I've played him in, although he did not fare very well against a Tau Commander spam list that went first against me.

@Josh: Thanks! I was a little worried that the more magenta color I chose for the hood would be too garish for this model, but it worked better than I thought. Now he matches my other Death Guard stuff better than if I had chosen a darker color.

Okay, it's time to take a little trip down memory lane and look back at what I did this year, hobbywise. I painted 65 models in all, which for me is amazing although there are plenty of people who do 200+ in a year. I'll get there eventually, I hope. I'd like to paint more than I buy for starters, though, as I bought a hell of a lot more than 65 models. That's what happens when I'm working on like 4 armies at once (Dark Angels, Tau, Chaos, and Space Wolves). More if you count small ally forces and sub-armies in Chaos (like Daemons and Death Guard). Anyway, here's a pic of everything I painted in 2017:

I actually didn't paint much big stuff this year, with only one vehicle and one monster (2 if you count Bobby G). But, I did not one but TWO Primarchs! In last year's review, I had painted more Tau than anything, but this year I only did one Tau model, and more Dark Angels than anything. Here's a breakdown of what I painted:
IMPERIUM OF MANKIND
Ultramarines
Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines
Dark Angels
DI Primaris Master in Gravis Armor
DI Primaris Lieutenant with Master-crafted Auto Bolt Rifle
DI Primaris Lieutenant with Power Sword
DI Primaris Ancient
2x DI Intercessor Squads (5 models each)
DI Hellblaster Squad (5 models)
DI Inceptor Squad (3 models)
Devastator Squad (5 models)
30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine
FORCES OF CHAOS
Death Guard
Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard
DI Plague Marines (7 models)
DI Poxwalkers (10 models)
Chaos Space Marines
Sorcerer on Bike with Stave
Sorcerer on Bike with Axe
Khorne Berzerkers (10 AoS Bloodreaver models)
Chaos Space Marines (5 models)
T'AU EMPIRE
Longstrike's Hammerhead Gunship
So now that I've gone over what I got done this year, let's look at my goals from last year and how well I did accomplishing those:
1) Paint more models than I did in 2016. That means 51 or more models. I got that one done, yay me!
2) Finish my partially painted models. This includes, but is not limited to, 3 more Dreadball convicts, a Nephilim Jetfighter, 5 Dark Angels Devastators, 3 Ravenwing Command Squad bikes, some Chaos Raptors, a Land Raider (may not happen as I've screwed it up badly by not thinning paints), and others. I did the Devastators, but didn't touch any of the other stuff. I'm being very generous when I say I'll call this one partially done.
3) Paint the right combination of models to take a completely painted army to a tournament. I'm tired of missing out on painting points! This one didn't happen at all. It's almost guaranteed for 2018 since I'm going to Adepticon.
4) Win a 40k tournament. May not happen due to some pretty stiff competition around my area, but I've come close in the past! This goal is not very important to me, as I have a good time playing no matter how I finish. I won a tiny little 4-man event, so maybe that counts?
5) Specific model goal: complete all of my Dark Angels flyers to run the Ravenwing Silence Squadron. Nope.
6) Specific model goal: paint my loyalist Imperial Knight. The Chaos one is mostly done, but I haven't even started building the other one. Also nope.
7) Improve my freehand painting, and learn to paint neater in general. This is one area in which I really struggle badly. I've got to learn how to keep my hands more steady. I'll give myself a partial here, as I'm better that I was, but I still have plenty of room for improvement.
8) Improve my photography skills. Perhaps I should invest in materials for building a lightbox to help with this. Didn't do a lightbox, and my photos are still kinda crap. Fail!
9) Buy fewer minis. I've been spending way too much money on more models; I've got plenty of models now, so I need to knock out some of what I have before I pick up yet more. There are a few specific things I want (like a couple more boxes of Black Knights), but other than that I need to keep my wallet on a tight leash. We won't even talk about this one. Nothing to see here. Move along...
10) Set up some bits boxes. I'm getting very tired of having to search through many many kit boxes and sprues to find specific parts. I meant to do this in 2016, but I never got around to it. I started it toward the end of the year, but I'm not even close to done. Partial credit.
11) Update this blog more frequently. It's no wonder I don't get a lot of replies or feedback; most people probably think I've dropped off the planet! Updating once every two weeks is not going to cut it. Gonna call this one a win since my blog got through 8 pages in one year compared to 6 in the previous 2 years.
Okay, so new, hopefully more realistic and clear-cut goals for 2018, in no particular order:
1) Paint more models than 2017, meaning 66 or more.
2) FINISH THE PARTIALLY PAINTED MODELS, DAMMIT!
3) Take a fully-painted army to a tournament in 2018, besides Adepticon, which I have to bring fully painted models to.
4) Finish the Dark Imperium set's models. Still have a Lord of Contagion, Noxious Blightbringer, Malignant Plaguecaster, Foetid Bloat-drone, and 10 more Poxwalkers to do.
5) Get a lightbox and take better photos.
6) Stop buying every shiny thing that comes across my path. That may mean staying away from eBay unless there's something specific I really need. Specific goal for this is to paint more than I buy and therefore reduce the pile of shame.
7) Finish working on the bits boxes.
8) Bonus Goal: Finish an army. As in fully painted and based. Not likely, which is why I'm considering it a bonus rather than an actual goal as it's unlikely to happen in 2018.
I think I can handle most if not all of those.

Finally, here are my 5 best paintjobs of the year (in my opinion, feel free to disagree!):
#5: Longstrike's Hammerhead

#4: Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines:

#3: Dark Angels Hellblasters

#2: Khorne Berzerkers

#1: Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of Nurgle


Happy New Year, and see you all in 2018!

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 12 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Impressive work for a year. Good mix of different armies, multiple centerpiece models and a good stock of rank and file. Anything over 52 models (my one-a-week goal) I consider a major victory. I particularly like your DA; solid work on them.

It’s good to fail on a few of your goals. If you make them all, it mean you aren’t stretching far enough. Sounds like you have a good list to work on it 2018.

Happy New Year!

   
 
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