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Nurglings look good Zerg, thanks for the tip on the bases I have a whole lot of Blood Angels that I may some day change over to the 32 mm bases. Will you give us a pic of your adepticon army when its done?

@Josh: I did the bases in gray on the Nurglings so that there would be more contrast (the models won't blend into the base). I've never really even seen the metal Nurglings so I can't attest to how easy or hard they might have been to paint. As for the base ring adapters, they do have to be glued. Super glue works well, but you could also use plastic glue if you are putting these on unpainted bases as they are made of the same plastic GW uses in their bases.

@York: Thanks! You really should rebase any Space Marines onto 32mm's as they do look better, but if you don't play competitively I don't think there's any reason to rush it. And yes, I'll certainly put up a pic or two of my Adepticon army (actually 3 lists since I'm playing in 3 events). The pics might not be terribly impressive, as some of the models I'm using were bought secondhand and not painted by me, which means the schemes will not match.

I'm getting work done on my various models. I finished the first 3 bases of Nurglings, so here's a quick pic of them (didn't bother with the formal photo setup):

I'm satisfied with how they turned out. They certainly aren't difficult to paint, although it is easy to miss spots with the paint since there are a lot of little surfaces.

I've also begun work on Abaddon the Despoiler as my entry in the March painting challenge. Here's the first WIP shot of him:

Just a couple more basecoats to put down, then I'll clean up the black and move on to shading.

I've begun work on several other models as well, including my Dark Apostle:

He's got quite a bit more work needed, but I should at least be able to get him to a minimum standard in time for Adepticon.

In addition to the above, I've started on 3 more bases of Nurglings (they are nearly done, needing only some texture on their bases and a little more shading on their horns) and my other 10 Khorne Berzerkers (the Bloodreaver models). I recently tallied up the remaining models I have to paint, and it came out to 35 models, plus about 21 more that need basing work (but are already otherwise painted). My work is cut out for me, as I've only got 16 days and counting. It's gonna be close!

Looking forward to that picture Zerg, hopefully I can catch up with you at Adepticon too.

@York: I'm looking forward to being ready to do the picture, and I'm sure we can arrange to meet at Adepticon!

I'm making more progress on my Adepticon project. First up for this evening, here is my second unit of Nurglings, all finished:

Like the first unit, they are up to a decent tabletop standard, but nothing fancy. I'm happy with how they look and they were pretty easy to paint.

Next, here's a WIP (basically done) shot of my second unit of Khorne Bloodreavers (counts-as Berzerkers):

While I'm calling them done other than their bases, they aren't up to the standard of my other set of these guys. I simply don't have time to finish them properly before Adepticon, but once I get their bases done they'll certainly be good enough. I even contacted the event organizers to make sure these would be an acceptable "counts-as" for Khorne Berzerkers and they said they'd be fine, so that's one concern I don't need to have anymore.

Finally, we have a WIP shot of my second Alpha Legion Chaos Rhino:

I only started this thing this afternoon, so I'm pretty happy to be this far on it already. I'm hoping to get some decals and freehand details on it before Adepticon, but we'll see what I have time for.

Not pictured, I have done a little more work on Abaddon, and started on a few more Cultists. So lots of models are in the WIP phase right now. I've got 12 days left in which to get all this stuff and more done, so I'm definitely sacrificing quality for speed at this point, and it shows. As long as everything is at least minimum tabletop standard and based, it's good for the events, so I'm sticking with that for now and I'll come back to certain pieces to make them nicer if I have time. Wish me luck!

Okay, small update. I've got basically everything I need at least basecoated, with the exception of a few more cultists and my Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Here's a WIP shot of the Prince:

He's coming along nicely, I'm really happy with how the skin turned out. Next up will be the armor and loincloth, then some of the little fiddly details.

I do have a few bases to finish, but that will be easy as I'm keeping them very simple. By this weekend I should be ready to post up a few army shots, and then I'll be ready to head on up to the Windy City. My gaming club is sending like 20 guys in total (5 teams in the team tournament), so we'll hopefully be making our presence felt this year. Adepticon 2018 will be my first major tournament(s) since I began playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago (September 2014), so I'm super pumped already and counting down the days.

I finished the Prince, here are the final pics (worthy of setting up my formal photo area):


I'm super thrilled with how this guy turned out. The photos here do not do this model justice at all. I tinted the shoulder pauldrons and chestpiece purple, and that hardly shows up in these pics, where it is very obvious when I look at the model in person. I need to figure out how to adjust my camera better so I can show these models off properly.

Progresswise I'm done painting stuff other than a few more details on the last 6 cultists, plus a handful of bases (on those cultists, my Obliterators, Abaddon, and my Dark Apostle). Abaddon and the Apostle are not truly done, but are far enough along to pass muster at Adepticon, so I'm counting them. Other than what I've mentioned, the only thing I've got left to do is to paint my display board for them. I'm keeping it very simple, just a cork bulletin board that I've spraypainted blue and will paint a green Alpha Legion hydra symbol on. I may also add the words "Hydra Dominatus" at the top. Technically my list for the Championship is a soup list, but my lists for the Friendly and Team events are pure Alpha Legion, hence my choice for the board. Once I get that done (won't be hard as I'm not going too fancy on it) I'll put up some army shots for you guys to check out.

After Adepticon, I'm figuring on getting back to painting my Sons of the Lion. Frankly I'm sick of painting Chaos stuff at the moment, so a change of pace is definitely called for.

Nice work on that DP. The violet shading is a nice variation on the usual colors.

Wow Zerg prince looks great, I can see the purple tint on the armour really sets off the green. Can’t wait for the group shot.

Nice work on the prince. I might have gone with something with a little more contrast for the eyes, but that might just be the photo. Looking forward to the army pic.

Why are you going back to painting your DA if you are sick of chaos? I kid, it’s always nice to shift gears, especially after a hard push for a deadline.

Good luck at Adeptecon. Be sure to crush all who oppose you, and drink deep of their bitter tears. And have fun!

@Josh: Thanks! I figured purple is a Slaanesh color, so I went with it and it turned out as good as I had hoped.

@York: Thanks, but there isn't any green. Must be the bad lighting on the photos making the skin look green (it does a bit).

@Nev: Har har har, very funny! You're right about the shifting gears thing. That's why I have no regrets on having several armies, as they all look distinct and have different types of models to build and paint and play with.

Well, it's time. Time for me to embark on my greatest hobby adventure yet: Adepticon 2018! All the models are painted, all my plans are made. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if I can dance. (bonus points for whoever gets that reference!)

As promised, I've got some army shots to show my faithful blog viewers. First, a shot of my hastily-painted display board for my forces:

Nothing fancy, but I had fun making this and it will suit its purpose.

Next, we have my army for the Championship event on Thursday:

All of these models except for the blue Obliterators were painted by me. The blue Oblits were purchased as-is from the used bin at my FLGS a while back; all I did to them was redo the bases.

Here's my army for Friday's Friendly tournament, which they are calling A Most Excellent Adventure:

Some of these models are ones I bought in a couple of different used lots and so were not painted by me, nor in actual Alpha Legion colors, but that's okay as they are in fact painted.

Finally, here's a shot of my army for the premier event at Adepticon, the Team Tournament:


All my efforts over the past three months have come down to this. I'm excited enough that I'm not sure I'll sleep much tonight. I'm leaving town tomorrow morning to get there and check in that evening to pick up my event badge and stuff. Then over the next four days I'll be playing a total of 12 games of Warhammer 40k. I'll probably be pretty fried when it's all over, so I did take an additional day off work for Monday to cool my jets. Hopefully I'll have some cool new swag to show off on here too!

Those of you who said you want to see my stuff in person at Adepticon, PM me on here or just find me during the events (my display board is distinctive enough I hope!). I'll be pretty busy since I'm playing in events on all four days, but I'd love to see you guys and maybe find some time to talk in person!

Hey Zerg, I've been off Dakka for a while, but now I'm back. Your filthy army of heretics is looking really good. Good luck at Adepticon

Everything looks ready to rock. Good luck in your games!

Looking good Zerg, hoping to be there on Saturday, would love a chance to see your army. Have a great Time!

@WK: Hey welcome back! Thanks for the kind words!

@youwashock: Thanks!

@York: Thanks, I look forward to seeing you there!

It's almost time, I'm leaving in a few minutes so I thought I'd post a last minute reply here first. As I've said before this will be my first large event since I started playing 40k about 3 1/2 years ago. This will be a new experience for me, so I look forward to sharing about it on here, and hopefully showing off some shiny new toys that I get while I'm there.

See you all on the other side!

I really like the forces you've got going on there!

That's a nice looking army. It must feel great to be able to say "I'm finished." Good luck, and more importantly, have fun at Adepticon!

Looking forward to your report Zerg!

@Knightley: Thanks, that means a lot coming from you!

@Josh: Thanks, and yes, it's a great feeling to have a finished force.

@WK: Had a blast, read below!

Well, I'm back. What an experience I had at Adepticon 2018. I played more Warhammer in a weekend than I usually play in 2 months, although I'm going to start trying to get more games in nowadays as it was painfully obvious I've got a lot to learn on both the hobby and gaming sides of 40k. So without further ado, I'll tell you guys about how it went.

My local 40k club sent a total of 20 people to Adepticon, entering five teams (FIVE!) in the Team Tournament. Not all of us played in the Championships or any of the Friday events (although many of us did). A lot of players were commenting on how there were so many of our jerseys among the crowd. I'd be willing to bet that we had more people there than any other single club, but I can't swear to that of course.

So first up, the Championships, which was my Thursday event. I did not do very well at all, finishing 1-3 and barely winning the one I did win. Looking back I think my list was bad and I played it poorly. My first game was against Orks, and we barely got 3 turns in. My Oblits kept getting 1's for their damage even with rerolls, meaning I couldn't very well hurt any of the vehicles. Plus I didn't have nearly enough anti-infantry to handle the very numerous Boyz squads. My next game was against a brigade of Alaitoc Aeldari with a Vanguard of Ynarri led by the cat lady (Yvraine). I only lost this one by 2 points, and it was a pretty crazy game. My Khorne Berzerkers did some work taking out some Warp Spiders and Warlocks as well as some Rangers, but I don't think they made their points back. My Oblits did good work as well, taking out a Wraithlord and a Fire Prism (which exploded amongst my opponent's backfield and took out 3 Warp Spiders, 3 Dark Reapers, and wounded a bunch of other stuff) and some other things. Again, those Oblits did not really make their points back. What cost me the game was that the mid-table objective was on top of impassible terrain and so I could not get close enough to it to take it. Not sure that was fair, but oh well. Game 3 was against an Astra Militarum Catachan gunline. I got first turn here and managed to take out a bunch of infantry with my infiltrating Noise Marines. My opponent focused down my entire Cultist blob to prevent me from using Tide of Traitors to just get them back. It ended up being a slugfest with me only having a single Obliterator and some characters left. If the game had continued, I might have lost, but I ended up winning by 3 points. Fourth game is the one that made me salty, playing against a Daemons player. He dropped a couple of big Bloodletter bombs and managed to coffin both of my Rhinos thanks to me not screening them properly (to be fair, I was salty at myself rather than my opponent, as I felt really stupid letting that happen to me). When those Bloodletters also took out Abaddon, I did something I swore I would never do: a ragequit. I didn't act all rude to my opponent or anything, but I was visibly upset, mostly with myself for playing so sloppily, and I just conceded the game, grudgingly shook my opponent's hand, and walked away before my his patronizing attempts to console me made me do something really stupid. At this point I was actually feeling sorry I came, but fortunately I cooled off and came back on Friday for the friendly tournament.

In the Friendly event, for which the theme was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, we had some wacky special rules and stratagems. I faced a Drukhari opponent in the first round, and he absolutely paddled me since he seized the initiative and went first. I lost way too much of my firepower in his initial attack. My opponent and I both agreed that if I had gone first, it would have been the other way around, as Drukhari don't have a lot of staying power. In the second round, I played against Chaos Renegades with a pair of Decimator Engines and a Hellwright. I won this one fairly handily, as my opponent's list was somewhat friendlier than mine was. It was still a fun game for both of us. In the third round, I faced a mechanized Iron Warriors player. I beat him fairly soundly as well, but it was a little harder than the previous game. In this one, my Obliterators were the lame duck of the match, as they just couldn't roll more than 1 damage for 4 out of 5 turns. While I personally finished 2-1, my team finished 3rd of 8 teams (players were assigned a team color at the beginning; mine was black). It was still a fun lighthearted event.

So, on Saturday me and my team played the Team Tournament. There were some absolutely incredible display boards around, although my team actually didn't have one ourselves. The effort put into these things was jaw-dropping. Anyhow, the games. Our first matchup was against a team of pure Death Guard. The pair I faced were running three units of Blightlord Terminators, two Daemon Princes, four units of Poxwalkers, and some characters and vehicles. Our team won this one on both tables. Our second matchup was against an Imperial team, with three of the players running various Guard regiments and the fourth running Deathwatch. I was paired with our team captain, who like me was running pure Alpha Legion. That saved our bacon, as despite winning the roll-off to go first our opponent's seized the initiative. Had it not been for the -1 to hit, we would have lost way too much of our army. As it was, we brutally counterattacked and despite playing the mission wrong and missing out on some points, we ended up winning by a few points. Our teammates on the other table also managed to squeak out the win. In game 3, we faced a mixed Imperial team. In my game, I was paired with my World Eaters teammate facing a Cadian player and a Blood Angels player. We might have got our butts handed to us but for one thing: despite rolling 3d6 and having a reroll, their 15-man Death Company blob FAILED THEIR CHARGE from 9 inches. Our Berzerkers did a number on them in return, wiping the unit. My Obliterators took out Pask and a LRBT in this turn as well. It was still a very near thing, but we managed to win. My team also won on the other table, meaning that we were actually undefeated on Saturday and the best finishing team of our club for the day. On Sunday unfortunately, it didn't last. Our first matchup was some French Canadians with a beautifully-converted Dark Angels and Grey Knights army. Their theme was a homebrew chapter that fights Tyranids, so all the models had Tyranid skulls and boneswords and stuff as trophies. It was truly a thing of beauty. I was once again paired with our team captain, and we barely lost our game (if we had killed just one more model in our backfield, we would have won). Our teammates lost their game badly, though. Our opponents were also very pleasant and fun to play against, so it was a good experience despite the loss. In the final match of the event, we faced a team of pure Nurgle Daemons. That one went very badly for us, as we got seized on again and just could not kill enough Plaguebearers to matter. Worse, my teammate fired his huge Cultist blob's autoguns into a Plague Drone unit, with Veterans of the Long War and Endless Cacophony for double shots. He killed four of the models, but my opponent used a reroll to get a 1 for morale and got all of the models back. Very frustrating. Our opponents were at least nice guys about everything. Overall our team went 3-2, so not bad at all, especially since for our club we were kind of a throw-together team with no real practice playing together. The World Eaters guy normally plays Guard, so he did really well at using those Berzerkers right. It was a fun experience for all of us, and we all agreed we will probably go back next year.

So, as for my swag, I purchased the premium badge, which netted me an awesome swag bag full of cool stuff. Here are some pics of what I got:

First, a sprue for a Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar Assault Squad model:

Two of the pieces popped off the sprue, but they stayed in the bag thankfully.

Next, a set of bases by Elrik's Hobbies and a sci-fi door scenery piece by Tiny Terrain:


Then we have a selection of sample miniatures from various new and upcoming games, including Godtear, Blood & Plunder, and Tabletop Tactical Simulation (the mini is a modern US soldier I think). The final miniature is from Victoria Miniatures, and is an Adepticon 2018 exclusive.

The reason I have two of the Godtear ones is because my bag came with a Malifaux mini, and one of my teammates plays Malifaux and wanted it (and I had no use for it), so we traded.

I also got some paints in the swag bag: a bottle of Master Series Paints Mint Green, and an airbrush primer (pity I don't have an airbrush):


Now, we get to the really good stuff:


I'm glad I never bought that 30th anniversary Primaris Sergeant, as I now have him anyway. I've also got some cool books even if a couple of them are not from game systems I actively play, and those two boxed games will be fun to try and at least give me something different to paint.

In addition to these things, there were a few little trinkets and doodads in there, and I did order a couple of sets of Adepticon dice (which were pink and purple this year). I also bought some stuff:

I got two boxes of Primaris Inceptors and Asmodai for my Dark Angels, a Dark Angels Purity Seal (when I saw it I just had to have it!), and I won a set of Elrik's Hobbies bases to put those Inceptors on. I also ordered some Mortis Dreadnought Lascannons from the Forge World Booth, although I'm kicking myself for not going ahead and buying either a Sicaran Battle Tank or even a Fire Raptor (although those might have been a little outside my budget). Still, I got a decent haul on this trip, and there was a nice discount on the GW stuff (which is why I bought it).
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Overall I had fun, despite what happened in the Championships. There, I really just had unrealistic expectations for my first GT, and I got burned for it. The other days went a lot better for me even when we lost all our games on Sunday. I look forward to returning next year if possible!

Sounds like one heck of a few days! if you were to rejig your list, would you have taken anything different?

Sounds like a good time. Glad you had fun!

Sounds like you had a good con Zerg, sorry I did not make it had some other things come up. The thing that I see happen when a person goes to big event is it really re energizes them, all those wonderfully painted armies and display board really gets the creative juices flowing. Looking forward to your next projects.

Adepticon sounds like a blast. have you started planning your army for next year?

Geez I need to get to Adepticon when I get the money, with all the cool stuff you got!

I'm so jealous

@Knightley: If I changed my list, I would probably have either skipped the Nurglings and brought more Cultists (not an option for me as I don't have enough more cultists to matter), or I would have doubled down and brought a full Battalion of Daemons alongside my CSM (2 characters and 3 Nurgling units).

@youwashock: Thanks, it was a total blast!

@York: Yeah, sorry I didn't see you there. It really did get me charged up for the hobby, plus I am already planning on going back next year. The whole thing was full of inspiration for both the painting and modelling side and the gaming side of the hobby.

@Josh: It totally was a blast! I'm hoping to take my Dark Angels next year, but outside of that, with the way FAQ's shake up the meta every few weeks, who can say what I'll be bringing?

@WK: If you get the chance, I highly recommend you attend Adepticon. Don't go by yourself, though. Get some friends to form a team for the Team Tournament; you can all save a bit on hotel expenses by sharing a room. If you plan it out well, you can probably make the whole thing happen for about 500 bucks total, and that includes some spending money at the vendors. Get the premium badge if possible, as the swag bag more than makes up for the slight added cost (the Guildball box game alone this year was worth $75 retail!).

Okay, now that Adepticon is over and done, I can get back to business as usual. First, I finally truly finished Abaddon the Despoiler for the monthly painting challenge, so here are the final photos (with an experimental new background):



I'm very happy with how he turned out overall. I wish I'd had time to finish him to this standard before Adepticon, but I was able to get him good enough for that and finish him after, so better late than never, right? I do feel like these photos turned out better than the ones I've been doing on the white background. I'll make some kind of gray background with something eventually; this was just a dry run with a foam tray and my kitchen table surface to make a darker, more neutral background.

In other news, I got some new stuff assembled:

From left to right: 30th Anniversary Primaris Intercessor Veteran Sergeant, Asmodai, old metal Bjorn the Fell-handed, and a Ghar Assault Squad model from Beyond the Gates of Antares (from my Adepticon swag bag). I'm also building some new Tau models as preparation for an upcoming tournament next weekend. I picked up a new Commander kit (which will be a Coldstar, of course), some more Pathfinders, and I'm finally going to assemble the Fire Warrior kit from the 7th edition Kill Team box set because I badly need more Fire Warriors.

I'm hoping to get the Tau stuff built very soon and start assembling and painting some Dark Angels soon. My entry for April's painting challenge will be one or more of the Assassins from the Execution Force game, so look forward to those!

Abbadon looks cool. Size aside, the sculpt on that model still rocks. Old metal dread, so awesome. And assassins to come? Sweet!

Failbaddon the Armless is looking lovely Zerg. Although the presence of arms that actually seem to be staying on is baffling to me.

Now I kinda want to paint some Black Legion models...

@youwashock: Thanks buddy! I agree that Abaddon's sculpt is cool. Made the model a joy to paint despite being FailCast.

@WK: Thanks! Not sure what you mean about the arms unless you are talking about the metal Abaddon model, which I can imagine would be a pain in the ass. And by all means paint some Black Legion; they have one of the coolest-looking paint schemes among Chaos Marines IMO.

Nothing new to show as far as paint, but I did get my Tau Coldstar Commander put together, along with his faithful drone companion, Shieldy McShieldface:

Probably not going to paint this model real soon, so I didn't glue him to the flying stand. He stays on there pretty well even without glue or even poster tack, so I can still game with him. I put magnets on the inside edges of the thrust packs and on the arms in order to attach up to four weapons, which on this model will often be fusion blasters. Magnets are your best friends when it comes to setting up Tau battlesuits, especially in 8th edition where the meta is constantly shifting, making different weapons good.

Next up for assembly will be some Fire Warriors, and next up for painting are my Assassins, so look forward to those in the days ahead.

Abaddon looks really good Zerg, cant wait to see how you do your assassins.

Abaddon looks good. Cant wait to see what you do with the Tau

Stepping your game up with Abaddon!