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 Gitsplitta wrote:
That's a great shot Nev, really puts things into context. Nice work.

Edit: Adding picture again due to page rollover


Thanks. And that’s before I add another ~30 marines to the pile. Depends if I can get all the guys on the bench done in time.

So each battle company takes about a third of a whole shelf. Firstborn a little less, primaris a little more. And that’s not just the primaris being on 32’s as opposed to the 25mm the old guys are mostly still on. But the primaris are using a lot of odd units for FA and HS, while the originals are pure infantry/basic JP. But everyone is spaced out to take reinforcements from the YTD shelf. The empty space in the middle is just dreads and command squads. Top shelf is all the vehicles except the Land Raiders, which stayed down with the vets and command. I could probably space guys out a little bit better. We’ll see. I still have the idea of making movement/display trays, which I should get back to.

To compare and contrast, here are the ultras about 10 years ago:


And about 20:

I hear ya on trying to find shelf space. That is the main reason I'm selling my Space Wolves; they are taking up two shelves and I never actually play them or really work on them. With them gone, I'll have a whole shelf each for Knights, Guard, and Votann.

Love the full army shots of your Ultras! You've got a very nice collection there. One of these days I'll do the same with my Dark Angels (a full army shot, that is).

That's quite the force of sisters. Sorry to hear about your friend, Phil. Glad the ladies could find a decent home.

1d4+1 is plenty of assorted glassware, roll out the Emperor's Armies! Extend the Emperor's might!

And if you were looking to hear someone tell you not to buy the sisters codex and have a fourth active army, you probably shouldn't have posted on Dakka.
After all, the white armor would give a nice contrast to try a different style of base.

ZergSmasher wrote:I hear ya on trying to find shelf space. That is the main reason I'm selling my Space Wolves; they are taking up two shelves and I never actually play them or really work on them. With them gone, I'll have a whole shelf each for Knights, Guard, and Votann.

Love the full army shots of your Ultras! You've got a very nice collection there. One of these days I'll do the same with my Dark Angels (a full army shot, that is).

What I should do is get everyone off the shelf and onto the battlemat for another mega army pic. But that’s a TON of work. I also need to get more display space for the other armies. Unfortunately the nearest Ikea is like 4 hours away and shipping costs are brutal. Not sure where else to get affordable display cabinets.

DJJazzyJeff wrote:That's quite the force of sisters. Sorry to hear about your friend, Phil. Glad the ladies could find a decent home.

1d4+1 is plenty of assorted glassware, roll out the Emperor's Armies! Extend the Emperor's might!

And if you were looking to hear someone tell you not to buy the sisters codex and have a fourth active army, you probably shouldn't have posted on Dakka.
After all, the white armor would give a nice contrast to try a different style of base.

We are a bunch of enablers here. The issue is the hobby budget. Do I spend $55 on a book I might use once before it’s obsolete, or on another box of minis? Which admittedly might never see the table, but I’d enjoy building/painting/on display. I don’t want to pick up minis without the corresponding rules, but hate the codex treadmill GW tries to keep us on. I might still pick up a centerpeice model, but that circles back to the lack of display space.
If I go back and rebase all the sisters it will be in a grey rubble base. It’s what I did the modern plastics on.

So some progress:

Marines are done with basecoats, onto drybrushing and washes. Nids are at the blackwash stage for the reds. Moving along.

Happy/Merry Christmas to all of you out there. Have a great day and hopefully find some new hobby stuff under the tree.

The two gaunts are off waiting to be based. Second blue coat down on the marines, ink next. Started the guns, and also a spare set of lascannon sponsons. Both those are blacked/drybrused. Moving along.

Since I’ve still got stuff moving across the bench, it’s a little early for the year-end wrap, but I’ve got a quiet day off, so I should start my woolgathering. Let’s look forward.

I’ve got a lot of stuff to build. Mostly the 30k boxset. I need to figure out what I want for my army. Need at least 5 more assault volkites (but kinda wish they came out with assault marines so I could do some on running legs). Also need to decide how I want to build the chaperacti and the remaining Mk 3/4 marines I have. Part of the issue here is I don’t know what kind of army I want to build from a mechanical POV, and there isn’t a fluff template like a 40k battle company to build towards.

I still have a lot of the mooks from the cursed city box. And a few other undead guys from previous buys sitting in the PoS. I should chip away at them.

I think the Eldar and Tyranids are pretty clear. Few odds and bobs, but nothing really pending.

Some intercessors need to be built for the company. I think I’ve got 5 more on sprue set to be the back half of a rifle team. 3 assaults I picked up from the magazine series, which unfortunately have sculpted detail. Which you would think would be fine, as it’s UM details, and that’s my chapter. But I’ve been mirroring my shoulderpads from the official sides, so they are backwards to me.

So planned purchases:
If we get 10th this summer, I’ll grab the box. This seems likely. I need a handful more basic intercessors and a box of heavy ones. We’ll see if any are in the starter, or if they have alternatives that can swap into their company slots. Besides that, the codex, UM supplement if needed, and anything especially shiny and cool.

I would like to clear the decks of nids before buying more. I suspect I’ve got enough built and ready to last the year. That said, a new codex/shiny stuff will break me. As there were rumors that the 10th box was marines vs. nids, this might be a bad summer. Or good, depending on the PoV.

Speaking of clearing things up, I should paint some Eldar before getting more. From this year’s purchases I’ve painted a singular autarch. I’d like to get some of the other new things I missed (storm guardians, Avatar, another box of spears) but I really need to work on what I have first.

Planned paint:
So I’ve got enough stuff on deck to keep me out of trouble. The question is what gets paint? I think polishing off the battle company might be a bit of a stretch. If my math is right I’ll need 26-28 guys to round it out. That’s doable, but represents a large chunk of my output for the year. Aiming for ~20 guys again and finishing it early 2024 might be a better pace. It is a stretch goal.

I’ve got a little over 40 nids left in the built/primed piles. Would it be nice to clear them all out? Yes. Doable? Also yes. Would it end up looking like this year’s YTD shelf where it’s either a nid or an UM trooper? Yes. If I aimed for both this and the company, I could do it, but that would be almost everything. Mild smattering of other projects in a sea of blue and purple. I’d like to be more diverse than that.

I think instead of my paint 5 different factions goal I might go to a 2 units from 4 different factions. I want to get more then token projects done.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now.

Sounds like you've got things well in hand.

The big question is the unknowns.

I’m assuming the 10th starter. That’s a pretty well known unknown. The only wrinkle is if they do something like they did for 6/7th where the marine half is chapter locked. Life is too short to be scraping iconography off a starter’s worth of troops.

Will they do another big 30k box? While I’m still not done with the one I have, FOMO is a thing, and contents could entice me. There are also a number of other 30k things out now I’d kinda like to pick up

Wave 2 Eldar or a big revision to the Tyranid range might trigger more sales or projects.

A Kill Team box with contents I care about might drag me into that.

And shiny model syndrome is a heck of a thing...

So paint progress. Hellblasters got their ink. Edges, clean up, and the sarge needs some face work. Guns got their first blue.

Some work on the TLLCs. Technically only 2 “bits” but if I can get these done I’m counting that as a minor victory on my paint spare bits goal. They would let me field both my LRs as classic phobos patterns, which are 30k compliant. Even if the exact model is a little bit of a stretch.

Cleaned up the jetbikes a bit more. They need magnets for their bases, which means some GS work before i can progress.

Have tomorrow off, so hoping for some good progress. I do have to go to the dentist mid-morning, so not uninterrupted hobby time. Still have until Sunday to wrap up yearly projects.

Good progress yesterday. Marine bodies are done, arms still WIP. More work on the LCs. Hopefully finish tonight/tomorrow. We’ll see how today goes and how much life I have left in me for hobby time.

Wow, you keep plugging away, right up to the end. No wonder your UM army is so huge.

Looks like you and me are both trying to sneak a few more things in at the end of the year. Looking forward to your wrap-up post as always!

JoshInJapan wrote:Wow, you keep plugging away, right up to the end. No wonder your UM army is so huge.

Stubborn persistence past the limits of sanity is normally an Imperial Fist thing, but I do what I can with my Ultras.

ZergSmasher wrote:Looks like you and me are both trying to sneak a few more things in at the end of the year. Looking forward to your wrap-up post as always!

I’d like to get them done for the year-end pics. It’s a little bit of silly perfectionist, but is what it is. If I put all of my summery pics together it does not cover all the models I painted in the timeframe, due the things WIP at picture time. The biggest one (literally) that stands out is my Stormraven, but there are probably more.

Also, getting them done will let me click off to more “completes” on my goals, so I’d like to be able to do that. I might cheat a little and give myself an extension due to the weekend, but would like to get things done today.

No picture at this time, but I just put the blue ink on the arms. They still need edgeing, plasma coils/wax glossed, and touch up. Plus final assembly. Another blue coat down on the LC parts. Getting there.

Bikes are up on their flight stands. GS’d magnets and did up the stems while I was at it. Next step is the little wings and the riders.

Enjoy the weekend all. Happy New Year if I don’t post again before tonight (which is a moving target depending on where you are reading this). Stay safe out there.

Edit:
Everyone is down off the handles and over to be based. Finished the black rims, next step is tufts and rocks. Little clean up on the orange and the LCs are done, the sponsons need a second blue on the cowls, and then ink overall. Might put a wash on the cables for some depth. Plus assembly and touch ups.

Edit2:
Rocks and tufts down, orange cleaned, cowls blued.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So random numbers time:

For the year, 2814 points, 94 models,

Ultras -
Year - 1,142 points, 33 models
Total collection - 17,114 points

Nids
Year - 1,313 points, 56 models
Total collection - 3,360

Eldar
Year - 299, 3 models
Total collection - 4,559

Deathwatch
Year - 60, 2 models
Total collection - 1,409

Last year was 97 models, 2,600 points. So this year was a few less models, but a bit more points. Also I think the first year where the Ultras are not the dominant force on the YTD shelf. The triple tyrant month for the nids really helped there. But also the waves of gribbles.

Only 4 factions this year, and Eldar/DW were really light. Need more diversity.

I’ll get pics once I finish basing stuff



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: flocked. Nids off to join the swarm, marines waiting for transfers. Blue ink down on sponsons. Need to do undersides of cowls, and then assembly.

Picture time!



Very two-tone between the nids and Ultras, but good volume. Got shots of everything that wasn’t previously in the light box. Not going to link them all, feel free to poke around my gallery if you want.

I had to reorganize the nid shelf. They really need more space, but for now some of them are in the boxes I got to magnetize, just so I can fit layers on the shelf. Still a tight fit. But while I had everyone out, here is a state of the swam pic:


Compare to the prior plan:


I didn’t include the bugs that were previously painted by my friend Ben in the new plan pic. They will be there if I need extra claws form some mega game, but trying to keep things in the leviathan colors.

While I’d like to get all of them kicked out of the to-do pile, it might be a stretch for one year. At least half. Let’s call it two dozen as a target. Then I can think about grabbing some new guys to add. I’d like a box of zoenthropes, and maybe the big brain bug.

OK, it’s been a lazy day, but I should motivate and do some stuff around the house. I’ll do more year end review and reset my goals for next year later.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK, time to look at goals.

Last year I wrote:
Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 20 members for the primaris battle company 22/20
2 Paint more than I buy. 94/119
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magnetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options. * /12
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least one unit for 5 different factions. 4/5
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain. Try to enter the new format LoER contest at least once.

1 - 20 troopers, and 2 characters. The plasma/fist captain has the red trim of the 3rd, not sure if I’m going to formally replace my current standing captain. But even if I count him as an extra, still made the goal
2 - OK, this was a miss. Between the Cursed City and 30k box, plus the Nid combat patrol this was just not happening. And those weren’t the only things I bought. Dropped a lot of cash on the hobby this year. Which to be fair is my major vice. I’m pretty tight with money generally.
3 - I’m counting this as a win, but it’s a little fuzzy. Finished the TLLCs for the LR (as well as 2 eldar bits) As each sponson is composed of 4 different bits, I’m calling this a technical win.
5 - I keep blogging away. 10 years this May.
6 - Doing the 3 sisters instead of undead in October killed this one. And the non-ultra/nid factions were really phoned in. Not very diverse this year.
7 - Still going strong. If my math is right June will be the 100th competition.
8 - I technically entered a LoER comp, but did not feel the one hill I completed was worthy of entry, so didn’t finish. But technically a win.

So 6 wins, 2 fails. Not bad.

So normally I just roll over last year’s resolutions with a few changes. Finishing the company is roughly 26-28 more guys. While a nice stretch goal, it’s a little much. Not going to aim for 20 again, as I feel that will just push me towards a similar year to this one, which was very monotonous. I think i’m also going to drop the spare bits one. I’m better about painting up all the options while I’m doing the mini, and the back log of bits is kinda reasonable. I do still need to chip away at what is left, but don’t want to stress over it. With The Boy’s lack of interest in playing 40k, I think I’m going to drop the terrain goal. No longer a need to get my home table up to fighting trim. I do want to add a counter for the Nids. They were supposed to be PoS neutral, but there is quite a pile there now. I also need to get their transport option sorted.

1 Paint 13 members for the primaris battle company (stretch goal: finish it)
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. (stretch goal: clear the decks of all old nids)
3 Paint more than I buy.
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. In addition paint at least one model not for an active army.
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Finish magnetizing the bases and boxes for my Tryanids, at least to fill the boxes I have (stretch goal: add more boxes and cover all the bugs)

I’ll update the first post and archive things later. Enjoy your evenings all.
Old first post

Just a quick proof of life. Things have been rough at work, and the post-holiday exhaustion is not helping. Also not helping is the Steam winter sale, which yielded up the Battletech game from a few years back, which my aging PC still has the power to run.

This month my comp entry is going to be the ancient from the indominus box. I also did a survey of old stuff to see what’s at the bottom of the PoS that needs to be scraped off. Winners for the 3 things I’m going to try to get done this year are the stormhawk, a jetseer, and a 5 man destroyer squad. And maybe the jump packs for them and the front half of the squad I did a while back.

No paint down so far, but the month is young, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Layers going down. Slowly.

Bikes getting cleaned up, and progress on the nid magnet issue


So the magnets in the bases don’t stick well to the rubberized magnets glued into the boxes, but fine to my metal ruler. Amazon has a 10 pack for $20. I don’t care how cheep they are (and don’t want the nice cork back) so let’s see how they work. Answer? Fine, but not what I need. The little bit of extra space at the end for the hole to hang them up? Makes them too long for the useful boxes. Quick search shows I can just get 12"x1” strips of steel for about for a little less than I paid for the rulers. But I wonder what kinda of markup I’m paying on those. Might be worth a trip to the hardware store. Also bought some fresh green stuff, as I think what I have has gone stale. It’s a bear to mix.

Anyway, that’s enough hobby for one night. Back to giant stompy mechs.

Nevelon,

Great progress in 2022.

Good luck in 2023.

Cheers,

CB

Dude, your description of the career arc of a Space Marine (over in the Painting Challenge thread) made me snicker. I look forward to seeing where you take the model.

I hope you figure out your storage issues-- I've had to slow down my own painting because I'm running out of places to keep the models I finish.

Bladeguard Ancient is coming along. That's a model I'm sure I'll have fun with once I get around to him (this year hopefully, before 10th comes out would be best). Mine will be painted in Deathwing colors of course.

You've set yourself some pretty nice goals and you did great on last year's. Given that you're pretty good at maintaining a steady pace of work I think you'll do fine. I hardly noticed any lack of diversity from you, but going back I could see what you were getting at. I had the opposite problem; I didn't finish very many models, but the ones I did finish were from a variety of factions/games. Looking forward to seeing what you produce in 2023!

Thanks all.

I keep on being tempted to just have some Ikea Detolf shelves delivered. Wait never mind. Just went to their webpage and prices are seriously jacked up from last time I looked. I recall them being ~$60 and like $200 for delivery. Crazy, but a flat number, so if you got like 3-4 it evened out. Now they are like $109 w/ a $350 delivery charge. Screw that. At that price I can go to a real furniture store and get another actual quality china cabinet. Or order a bunch of KR cases or more useful boxes and magnets.

Speaking of which, the GS I ordered came in, but I haven’t cracked ti open yet. Did get some other work done.


Marine is pretty much done with basecoats, but they are extra sloppy. I think it’s time to get some new brushes. The mini is not particularly easy to paint either. Bikes are built, riders clipped.

Month is half over, making very slow progress.

Did some base work. New GS is a LOT easier to work with than the old stale stuff. Minis still have little wiggle on the magnetic sheets. Probably fine for around the house, not sure I’d trust it for a car ride to the FLGS.

Tried bending a ruler. Might need to be scored first for a cleaner angle. Or just use a dremel to cut off the excess.

edit:
A little retail therapy found a new W&N S7 #1 at my door today. It’s my workhorse brush, and was starting to have trouble holding a point. I deserve nice things from time to time.

Started up a pair of stealers just to keep the volume up. And so I can see some progress actually happening. Ancient got his brown wash. Next step is a lot of tidy up and highlight passes. With the guiliman flesh over so much, I need to differentiate the bones, parchment, and golds.

Put magnets in the bases of 20 more gaunts. Also in a base of rippers. For the larger bases that have the features on the bottom to drill through, a stacked pair of 3x2mm magnets superglue nicely into them. I did 2 stacks on the rippers, but on the larger models I’ll probably fill more.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,
--Nev

No paint this morning, but more bases done.

Boy that marine looks great!

Got the blue ink on him last night. Now for the clean up. So much cleanup... Getting a brush to the armor under the robes was not fun. Moving along though. Should be on track to finish him by the end of the month.

Still playing a lot of Battletech on the computer. Running around with a lance of assault mechs is always a good time.

Stealers need a check pass for any cleanup. Marine is getting there. Need touchups with the guiliman flesh where I had to tidy up splashes, and some other cleaning. Plus edges and highlights. Getting there.

The Marine is, indeed, coming along nicely. You are much braver than I am, posting WIP photos like this-- I can't bring myself to share pics of unfinished models, since my process is so sloppy right up to the end.

What is your plan for the standard? As it is now, it looks a lot like the robes...

I post WIP shots to keep myself honest. And to get input if I should adjust things before I am finished.

I’m hoping the highlights will help differentiate things a bit. It’s all very same-y because the robes, golds, bone, and parchment are all slathered with the same guiliman flesh wash. The plan is to hit the golds with their base color and then a few bumps of silver, and the bone with some bleached bone. The parchment already got a little edge work with the base beige when I was cleaning things up. All goes well that will do the job. If not I can try another different wash to shift the tone again.

He is kind of a symphony of earth tones.

 Nevelon wrote:
I post WIP shots to keep myself honest. And to get input if I should adjust things before I am finished.

I’m hoping the highlights will help differentiate things a bit. It’s all very same-y because the robes, golds, bone, and parchment are all slathered with the same guiliman flesh wash. The plan is to hit the golds with their base color and then a few bumps of silver, and the bone with some bleached bone. The parchment already got a little edge work with the base beige when I was cleaning things up. All goes well that will do the job. If not I can try another different wash to shift the tone again.

Sounds like a lot of work, but also like it will pay off. I look forward to seeing the finished model.

He is kind of a symphony of earth tones.

Sounds like my patented Paint Everything Brown technique.

OK, all done. Pretty happy how he turned out. 1st company is getting pretty fleshed out. Is this how people end up with whole chapters of marines? It feels like I’m on that road. 2 battle companies and the 1st and 10th? Not unreasonable from where I’m sitting. Madness.

Also finished the 2 stealers. So 3 minis done this month. A little behind schedule.

Magnetized the bases of another lot of nids. Probably 3/4 of the way done. On the metal gaunts and the larger minis there is not enough strength to keep models in place on the flex magnet sheets, but it is a good grip on the metal. I should probably rev up the dremel and shave the rulers I got down to size. But that’s something that should probably be done on the workbench in the garage, and it’s cold out there. No rush. Or see if I can source affordable 8.5”x12" sheets of thin gauge steel.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Stay warm out there.

Glorious!