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Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

***EDITED FIRST POST***
(Original first post in spoilers at the bottom of the new post)

Welcome to my blog. I'm primarily an Ultramarine guy, with a dash of Eldar and Tyranids. I've been playing since the RT era, so there will be a mix of old and new stuff worked on here. I started this blog when I sold the last of my MtG cards and re-booted my Eldar army. Due to some problems, that got sidetracked, so most of the actual progress in here will focus on my Ultras. If you have any questions about anything you see, or want close ups or alternate angle shots of anything, let me know.

One of the major goals of this blog is to try to keep myself motivated, on track, and focused. I will endeavor to paint at least one model a week and post a status update on a weekly basis as well. I’m going to use the first post here like a notepad, to track my progress on a number of things.

Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 0/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 3/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 7/20
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 0/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. 2/8
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 Paint models to be able to field the SM/Nid combat patrols. 3/14

Money spent on the hobby: $137
Spoiler:

$110 Kill team Salvation
$27 4x brushes


Games played: 0
Spoiler:




Minis Painted: 7
Spoiler:

Ultramarine Phobos Lt w/ combi - 70 points
Ultramarine Gravis Captain -
2x Ultramarine Librarian in TDA armor -
3x Tyranid Von Ryan’s Leapers -75 points


Year end summaries:
2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 -2023

Original post:
Spoiler:
I've been meaning to start a blog for a while, but didn't really have any projects, just a few odds and ends. The problem was lack of funds. That is going to change. I finally decided to sell the last of my MtG cards on consignment at my FLGS, and take the proceeds as store credit (I get the most value that way) As all the cards I had left were my alpha and beta cards, it should be enough to fund my hobby for a while. The fact that I'm taking store credit does limit my options. No 3rd party bits, no forgeworld, just the stuff he can get through normal distribution channels.

I have some ideas for my Ultramarines, but I'll get into those later.

Right now I want to talk about Eldar. I started collecting them as my second army back in 2nd edition. It was the falcon grav tank that drew me in. Once 3rd hit, I couldn't field anything resembling an army, so they got shelved. With the new codex coming out, and funds coming in, I think it's time to restart them.

Here's what I have:



16 guardians troopers
6 weapon crews w/ 4 platforms, assorted guns
4 warlock/farseer types
Jain Zar
Avatar
4 wraithguard
6 swooping hawks (inc. exarch)
4 warp spiders (inc. exarch)
One pile of wraithlord parts which don't like going together.
19 assorted harlequins
8 assorted old eldar trooper
2 falcons
1 viper
1 old bike
1 banshee, and some extra parts.

Some of these guys are going to be my first try in stripping old paint off of minis. A few of them just didn't fit in the 3rd ed. Eldar codex (the last I picked up), and I doubt will fit in the new one. I like the guy hefting a ML over his shoulder though, shame not to have a place for him.

I've got some ideas on how to build an army, but they have no basis in the rules. Swift moving, hard hitting, everyone mounted in some sort of anti-grav vehicle or otherwise highly mobile.

HQ on bike
2 bike squads
1 guardian squad in a wave serpent
sniper squad (for camping home objective)
Aspect warriors in the falcons (Thinking dire avengers in one, fire dragons in the other)
Viper squads for support
warp spiders/swooping hawks for zipping around fun.

Obviously, points values, rules, and the FOC might have something to say about what actually gets on the table. Right now I'm just knocking the dust off the old stuff and hitting refresh on the rumor page. With a new codex, everything could change, but I'm curious if I'm completely off base on building an army like this. I would appreciate feedback form someone who's played Eldar more recently then 3rd edition...

This message was edited 749 times. Last update was at 2024/03/10 17:04:14


   
Made in gb
Steadfast Ultramarine Sergeant





Liverpool, England

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, I really like the old Eldar models. I like the idea of it too, keep us posted bro.
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Well that went quicker then I expected. Mark, the owner of my FLGS has already managed to move my cards. So now I have a budget to work with and some orders to place. Total budget is a hair over 2k. While my RT beakie marines are worth about what I paid for them, my alpha black lotus gained some value. I plan on saving a chunk of this for in the fall, when rumors say the new C:SM codex will drop.

This is what I have ordered so far:

Old Eldar Stuff:
Eldar Fire Dragons
Eldar Dire Avengers
Eldar Rangers

New Stuff (for when he can actually place a pre-order):
Eldar Codex
Farseer
Hemlock Wraithfighter
Windrider Jetbike Squadron - 2x
Illic Nightspear

Marine Stuff:
Space Marine Thunderfire Cannon
Dark Angels Battleforce
Space Marine Commander
Space Marine Command Squad
Citadel Northern Wastes Basing Kit

So now we get to the projects I have in mind. This should be in the first post, and I might edit it up there, but here it is for now.

Restart my Eldar.
--Learn how to strip paint, clean up old stuff.
--Buy new rules, add units to make a viable army.
--Construct a webway portal, either purely scenic, or as a skyshield landing pad.
--Base army with a grass/maiden world scheme.

Flesh out my Ultramarines.
--Add bike captain, and enough bikes to fill 2 troop picks.
--Add more sternguard, with weapon options I currently lack (HFs, more combis).
--Expand HQ options (counts-as Lysander, MotF w/bike/cbeamer/foot).
--Fill out army with new toys.
--Construct polar fortress display board.
--Base army in an arctic scheme.

Get some new cases, foam
--Figure out what I need, verify, place order.

Get better at photography
--Build a light box.
--Learn to use more features on my camera.
--Photograph and upload pics of my collection.

Write some tactica articles (not really P&M, but on my to-do list)
--I find I'm repeating myself a lot in advice posts, would be good to organize my thoughts and just point people to them.

OK, now that we have the list, we can start checking things off of it. First is the foam issue. I spent some time on KR's website and put together what I think I need. Spoilered to prevent wall of text.
Spoiler:

Kaiser3 transport bag including 3 cases with custom trays, $219.99

KRU#1:
SM10+11 (Drop pod, 3 rhinos) full hight
SM34 (Stormtalon) 3/4 hight
N4H (20 troops) 1/4 hight

KRU#2
SM10+10 (2 drop pods) full hight
SM24 (Land Raider, 2 dreadnoughts) 2/3 hight
N3H (20 troops) 1/3 hight

KRU#3
SM4+22 (2 land speeders, 6 bikes) 1/2 hight
SM1+20 (Predator, Thunderfire Cannon) 1/2 hight
SM2+3 (2 rhinos, vindicator) 1/2 hight
N4H (20 troops) 1/4 hight
N4H (20 troops) 1/4 hight

So all told, that should be
3 drop pods
5 rhinos
1 LR
1 pred
1 vindi
1 stormtalon
2 dreds
2 speeders
6 bikes
1 TFC (plus 3 bikes/servitors)
80 troops

Which should be enough for any random take-all-comers Ultramarine list I put together. While not everything on the shelf, it should be more then enough to go out and play. I might get a few more cases in the future, but need to pick up and paint a few minis I've had my eye on before getting more foam. I've sent an e-mail to the KR guys to make sure that will work. Once I hear back, I'll forward the list to my FLGS to order through them.

OK, I've rambled on long enough for one morning. Next up will be the plans for what to do with the marines once they arrive.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just had a lightbulb moment. A few years ago my brother-in-law gave me a weird light up decoration thing called a Lumindisk. Desk art kinda stuff. As I have enough clutter as it is, It got tucked in a corner and forgotten about. Until today.

The webway portal is now open.



It is made to hang on a wall, so conveniently sits flat if you lie it on its back. The top of the disk will be 3" off the table, and measures 6" across. Works on either batteries or an AC adapter. I could probably mod the case to make it lower to the ground, but if I want a count-as skyshield, those things are pretty high up. Might need to hack it a bit anyway to move the switch to somewhere more convenient for play. Or just do something else to show the open/closed position of the portal and leave it on all game.

This could be fun...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/05/22 16:04:20


   
Made in us
Perfect Shot Ultramarine Predator Pilot






San Jose, California

coool!

being recalculated~4.5k 750 875 My p&m blog where there are space marines http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/545810.page DA:90+S+G++M++B--I+Pw40k12+D+A++/wWD-R+T(M)DM+
 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Holy crap, you have been pumping out Smurfs like a man-possessed
 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Morris, tragically sold his soul to the Chaos Gods of Flowers, Dancing, Laughter and Friendship. The Morris Heresy is on record as the shortest and least successful heresy in Imperial history.
 Camkierhi wrote:
thats the best group of ass I've seen on the net, and I've looked at alot.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York



It doesn't take a farseer to tell what's in store for that old harlequin. Let's see if this is as easy as everyone says it is. If so, I've got a chunk of old minis that need a fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately, I'll have to decide if my old Blood Angels will retain their colors, or join the ranks of Ultramarines. They have nostalgia and inertia working for them, but have done nothing but collect dust for a few decades...

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York



Victory. I was a little worried. There is a thread where people were saying that simple green changed formulas and didn't work as well anymore. But the jug I picked up worked just fine. Not sure what the old harli was primed with, I know I didn't spray back in those days. Time to dump a few more guys into the drink. And then figure out if I'm even going to be fielding them. Can't wait to get my hands on the new codex.

I've been working on some back projects while I wait for the new stuff. A friend asked me a while a go to paint up some stuff for his IG ally force. Been working on the lord commissar. Bad pic, I know...



Also working on painting up the old battle for mccrag tac squad. Not that I need more bolter marines (although they will replace a squad of 2nd ed monopose in the company) but I was going to use them as basing experiments once the supplies drop. I was thinking of painting them step by step in a row so I could have a "how to paint" lineup with all the stages. But it would probably be easier just to take pictures along the way.

   
Made in us
Basecoated Black




PA, USA

Welcome to Simple Green territory - the land where unwanted paintjobs go to die ;->

Look forward to following your project.
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Yay! Eldar have arrived. Well, most of them.



3 boxes of jet bikes
fighter
farseer
fire dragons
Battleforce (new w/viper)
codex

I need to read the codex before I get too into this project, just to make sure I get the right weapon mounts I need. Of course, I'll be magnetizing the vehicles, but things like what gun to give the fire dragon exarch need to be chosen.

From a modeling POV I'm going to diverge from the stock models in a few ways. I already have 20 guardians, which is more then I think I'm going to need. So the squad in the battleforce is going to donate their torsos and heads to the guardian jet bikes, to keep a more uniform look in the army. Also the Viper gunner (probably)

One of the bikes is going to go to the farseer. Another I'm going to make an autarch, but at the moment I have no idea what gear to give him. He's probably going to be made from spare dire avenger bits. Once I read the rules and knock a few army lists around I'll settle on something.

   
Made in gb
Three Color Minimum




London

Awesome! I bet you were a happy bunny when you left the shop. Like to see how much that all cost ya...
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

 Tappers wrote:
Awesome! I bet you were a happy bunny when you left the shop. Like to see how much that all cost ya...


I try not to think about the costs. As I have a chunk of store credit from selling the last of my Magic cards, I regard this as found, guilt free money. There were some things that my FLGS was ordering from a different distributer that didn't come in, so I'm not sure exactly how much of my credit went "poof" today.

But I am quite happy.

Finished my initial read though of the codex. Need to digest it now and hash out a list.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

I put a list up over in that section of the forums:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/530868.page

The only thing I don't own for that is a fire prism, which I think I may just have to pick up. Not sure how I feel about the new longer barrel on the cannon. I liked the old stubby one. But it's built on the oh-so-sexy falcon chassis and is capable of vaporizing anything from hordes to hardened bunkers, so that's a win-win. All at a quite reasonable 125 points.

I might have to pick up some striking scorpions and warp spiders. They look quite nice from a play perspective, and don't look half bad. Of course, I own 3+1 old spiders, and the minimum size is 5. On the bright side, they are the same sculpts I picked up ~15 years ago, just in fine cast.

On the subject of fine cast, the fire dragons I picked up didn't have any obvious flaws. I haven't cut them off the sprues and cleaned them up in detail, but did open the box and gave them a quick inspection. Which they passed.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York



I have to say, after putting together the flying brick that is the stormtalon, this is one sleek, sexy bird. I'm not going to bother magnetizing it, but it would be simple to do if you wanted to. Swapping out the side wings might be a little rough if you wanted to do everything, but the weapons are in convenient recessed bays to hide everything. One nice thing about the kit is that they included a plug for the flight stand hole, incase you wanted to mount it using a different system. Not that I'm going to, but it's a nice touch.

I might use the seer head from the wraithfighter option for a warlock, we'll see.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On that topic:



If you cut the dangling runes off the front torso, you get a reasonably flat surface. There are a few gaps in the back that will have to be filled, but they are mostly hidden. The spear arm and flowing sleeve meshes well with the bike. We'll just assume that one of the many psychic powers he uses is one that keeps loose clothing from being sucked into air intakes. I'm not sure if I want to mod the other arm to hold the handle bars, or just use the outstretched casting hand that came with the farseer and assume he's steering with his knees at the moment of focusing his mind. It's not like he's a SM captain on a bike with a powerfist/lightning claw combo, where you wonder how he's keeping that bike moving.

If I do decide to keep a hand on the bike, it might just be easier to sheer off the sleeve on the mini, glue the standard biker arm on and greenstuff a new sleeve. Right now I've got stuff poster tacked together, so it's a little wibbly-wobbly. Once I glue the torso together it might be easier to get an idea of the angles and how much bending/carving it would take to keep the existing sleeve.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/06/03 16:22:21


   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Nothing much going on, just cleaning a lot of mold lines. Weather has been either windy or rainy, so no painting going on yet. Hopefully it will clear up next week and I can get some stuff primed

Almost done with the wave serpent, and finished a rough pass over the fire dragons. It seems the places they use to shoot the resin into the molds are a lot blockier then metal. Lots of clean up and carveing little chunks away from the mini. Not something I noticed on the other two finecast models I've worked with in the past.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York



Finally got a nice day. Still a lot of clean up to do with the rest of the lot, but at least I can start painting something to break up the time spent with the files and hobby knife.

On closer inspection one of the fire dragons had some major bubbles in his thighs. Called GW and they said they'd get a new one in the mail to me. Still not sure what to give the exarch. Seems a waste to give him the flamer, but how many melta shots do you need from one unit? My FLGS is out of small magnets, but is going to get more in. Next time I'm up there hopefully I'll pick up some 1mm and 2mm magnets. I've got a stack of 3.2mm ones, but they are a bit large for arm work.

Also need the small ones for head swaps for the farseer/warlock on the bike.

Speaking of bikes, anyone have any good ideas on how to mount a shuirken cannon under one? I'm not fond of the idea of buying the kits from GW and I've got plenty of spare guns lying around.

And now for the down side of nice weather, I need to mow the lawn.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

OK, I'm a bad blogger. Need to update more often.

See all that primed stuff in the last post? Need to strip and re-do it all. I'm not sure if the weather was too dry, or I sprayed too far away, or got a bad can, but it's all grainy and powered. Sort of sucked all the wind out of my sails. So back to more assembling/cleaning or minis. Working on the dire avengers. There are enough spare parts to have the exarch's torso assembled separately, so with a quick magnetic swap, I should be able to go from a bare bones 5 man squad, to a slightly more robust 4+exarch.

I looks like the easiest way to get the new guardian torsos on the bikes is to reposition the handlebars. Still a work in progress.

Also in the news is a new supply drop of marines. I just finished putting together a TFC. I can see why people complained about it when it was metal. It was rough enough in finecast. I'd hate to have to clean one up for professional level work. The resin pour/sprue connect points were in some bad places. The tracks specifically had bits in corners it was impossible to get a knife into, but you could still see. I also used a hot/cold water setup to bend resin for the first time. It worked fairly well. I was able to get the bits close enough to what they were supposed to be that the superglue could do the rest. Some of the detail was a little mushy and warped, but close enough for my lame tabletop level of painting.

I haven't put together the techmarine yet. Still haven't decided if I want him as-is, or if I want to add magnetic option for using him as a MotF with upgrades.

   
Made in gb
Steadfast Ultramarine Sergeant





Liverpool, England

Sorry to hear about the priming dude, it happened to me a fair few times, I prime by hand now for that reason.
Looking forward to the updates that you've promised you'll put up though, you know I like your work, so keep those updates coming.
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

So I can hear you all out there saying "Nev, you're a loyal son of the Emperor, when are you going to stop larking about with these xenos and get back to your Ultramarines?" Well, today is that day. With the release of the new apocalypse book, I thought I'd finally polish off a few things on the off chance I get to play a game on that scale.

First is to get some paint on plastic, to help clear the mind and get back in the habit. I've been cleaning moldlines for far to long. Just some WIP tac marines from the Battle of Macragge box set. While I don't need more for my company, they are slated to replace one of the two 2nd ed mono-pose squads I have.


Next on the list is to get another assault squad. While I do own a full battle company, one of my assault squads always take the field on bikes and speeders, so I only have 11 marines with jump packs. Fixing that.

After working on dire avengers, it's a relief to get back to marines. So much easier to clean these guys up. I'm actually enjoying it, rather then looking at it like a chore.

Just a word on my process: I cut the bits for each guy off the sprue and put them in old blisters, to keep all the parts for each guy separate. For models where you need certain arms to go together, or matching backpacks to guns, it helps keep things straight. Also prevents loose heads rolling off the table. For troops I like to toss one extra (pouch, spare clip, pistol, knife, etc) on each guy just to mix them up. What's the point of having a bitzbox if you don't use it.

As for why I have 11 assault marines, it's a very flexible number for any squad that lets you field one special weapon per 5 guys. 2 Sergeants, 2 special weapons, and 7 guys can be fielded as either 2x5 man squads, or 1x10 man.

Also on the things to get my army apocalypse ready is the master of the chapter formation. I have the old Marneus Calgar in power armor, and don't feel like buying the new box just for the honor guard. So I need to rustle up some guys to count as.

Old RT era marine officers. Power swords and bolters? Check. Artificer armor? It's RT-era, I think that counts. The next problem is getting the 4+ captains. I have two at the moment, one on foot in PA, the other in TDA. I have plans and parts to put together a bike captain, so that'd be a third. Still one shy. I'll have a spare assault marine left after I finish fleshing out my company, so he could get gussied up to captain. A few problems with this. One is that my company is going to need its captain attached to it, not the command formation. So I'll need another. The other problem is that if I want to stick them in a LR/bunker, the bike is not going to fit. This might be time to think about my Lysander counts-as. Or just select some of my cooler looking models to receive brevet promotions to captain. The sternguard sergeant could probably pull that off.

   
Made in il
Perfect Shot Ultramarine Predator Pilot






San Jose, California

you have alot of cool stuff . can't wait to see how it turns out.

being recalculated~4.5k 750 875 My p&m blog where there are space marines http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/545810.page DA:90+S+G++M++B--I+Pw40k12+D+A++/wWD-R+T(M)DM+
 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Holy crap, you have been pumping out Smurfs like a man-possessed
 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Morris, tragically sold his soul to the Chaos Gods of Flowers, Dancing, Laughter and Friendship. The Morris Heresy is on record as the shortest and least successful heresy in Imperial history.
 Camkierhi wrote:
thats the best group of ass I've seen on the net, and I've looked at alot.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

More stuff going together.



The assault marines are just five basic guys. As I said before, I've got a spare sarge. I think I'm going to wait till the new codex drops before I pick up the last 5 guys. If they change the weapon options, I might need different specials then what I have. The snow on the table is fallout from the bad primer

Bikes are starting to get done. I doctored up the captain's ride with stuff from the DA sprue. I figure the ravenwing stuff with a gold paintjob will do nicely as imperial eagles. I'm really tempted to plaster those flowing purity seals over the whole bike. But that will be done in post-production. I'm not sure how the captain is going to sit on the bike, or even what gear I'm going to end up with (might just magnetize) so I don't want to glue stuff on that might get in the way.

Now for some paint.



Finished 3 bodies for the old push-fit marines from the Battle of Macragge box. The finished guy was my test bed for some of the new paints, I did him a while ago. Bolters and backpacks will come later. I know at this point, you are all asking yourself "Wow! How can I get the same mediocre table-top results on my miniatures?" The answer is so easy, anyone can do it. No fancy airbrush, wet palette, or even paint mixing needed! Just a brush, pot of paint, and mostly steady hand...

(N.B: A number of my paints are older then some of you reading this, you may have to substitute modern equivalents)

Prime white.
Base with Macragge Blue (my older stuff is based with Ultramarine blue)
Chest eagle, and the odd skull is painted in Codex Grey
Belt, bolters/pistols are in Abaddon Black (formally Chaos Black)
Pouches/holsters in Beastiel Brown.
Purtiy seals and other parchment is Bubonic Brown. The wax is Crimson Gore, with Blood Red on the raised bits.
Hoses are Deadly Nightshade.
Lenses (eye and targeters) are Glistening Green

Now that everything has a coat of paint on, drybrush Chainmail over the grey and black bits. Depending on how that turns out, a black wash over the grey/silver adds a nice depth, but I often skip this step for basic troops.

Next step is cleanup. This is basically a second round of the blue around the edges of everything else to tidy up the edges. If I notice a missed bit or a splotch, Now's the time to fix it.

Then a Blue Ink wash over most of the model. I cover the eyes and hoses, but not the rest of the details.

Last step is to check for anything I missed, and black the base. At some point I'll base my army, but for now, I like a uniform color, rather then the splattered mess left from painting.

A few notes. I don't do shoulder trim. Well, my sternguard have it, as do some characters, but not the basic troops. Some of my guys are old RT beakies, and they lack the trim on their pads. So rather then have some with, and some without, I just skip it. A lot of my paint techniques are this way because that's the way I've always done it, and I want my army to look uniform. If I had to start over, I'd probably do more highlighting.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

I was hoping to have something cool and awesome here for my 2,000th post, but that's just not happening. And I found myself posting less and less as I approached 2k, passing by threads where I normally would have pitched in my two bits of advice. So I'm just going to post a status report, so I can get back to my regularly scheduled Dakka-ing.

But first I'd like to thank everyone out there. Dakka is a great place, full of cool people. I don't get games in as often as I like, but chatting about the hobby here with you all helps keep me sane.

I didn't get as much as I'd have liked done over the summer. Cleaning mould lines off of Eldar wore me down. A pair of bad primer batches took the wind out of my sails. Most of July got sucked away being supportive of The Wife as her best friend had some medical issues (hopefully past at this point). And last week was spent away from the workbench on vacation. But soon it will be September. Which means two things: a new Codex, and The Boy goes back to school, freeing up a large chunk of my time. So things should be picking up around here.

I primed the assault marines I was working on. It want on clean and smooth this time. The weather was a lot milder, and I held the can closer to the minis. It was probably the heat/humidity or distance that was causing problems before. I'm also slowly assembling the bikes. Just the bikes at this point, not the riders. I'll see if the options change in the new codex before putting the marines on

Speaking of new stuff, I'm loving the leaked pics of the sternguard/vanguard vets. A box of each, plus the new box of tactical marines is probably going to be my miniature purchases next month. While I like the look of the new AA tank, what I hear of the rules leaves me feeling "meh". The exo-suits look OK, but I don't see a role they fill better then more traditional units, so will probably just pass. I think an extra box of one of the veterans will solve my apocalypse captain problem. A few extra bits and a spiffy paint job should be enough to elevate them to command status. Once I have the new rules, I might add a few more things to my list. Time will tell. Some of the rules changes might make me grab a few new things. Land Raiders going back down to 10 man capacity, while not surprising, might prompt me to pick up a LRR/LRC so I can get a 5 man squad plus a HQ into the tank. Not sure.

But I'm not going to worry when all the information I have is 3rd hand rumors at best. I've weathered edition/codex changes before, this is nothing new. Just the dust-to-table ratio of units will be shifting again.

Edit: Woot! Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran. I knew all the hard work clensing the polar fortress would be reconized some day...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/14 21:16:04


   
Made in us
Perfect Shot Ultramarine Predator Pilot






San Jose, California

Wait where did you get the landraiders down to 10 man thingy? thats ridiculous. I REFUSE to believe it :(

anyway i hope to see some great stuff from you soon!

being recalculated~4.5k 750 875 My p&m blog where there are space marines http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/545810.page DA:90+S+G++M++B--I+Pw40k12+D+A++/wWD-R+T(M)DM+
 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Holy crap, you have been pumping out Smurfs like a man-possessed
 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Morris, tragically sold his soul to the Chaos Gods of Flowers, Dancing, Laughter and Friendship. The Morris Heresy is on record as the shortest and least successful heresy in Imperial history.
 Camkierhi wrote:
thats the best group of ass I've seen on the net, and I've looked at alot.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

 Largeblastmarker wrote:
Wait where did you get the landraiders down to 10 man thingy? thats ridiculous. I REFUSE to believe it :(

anyway i hope to see some great stuff from you soon!


http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/278011-new-codex-space-marines-rumor/?p=3423612

Has a nice summery of what's rumored/leaked. LR/LRR/LRC with a capacity of 10/12/16. Land Raiders have classically always had a 10 man capacity, the 5th ed. C:SM is the anomaly. It was nice while it lasted though. Depending on how the points and options go, I think a unit of vanguard vets might be taking over from the terminators in my LR. I do like sitting back popping things with the lascannons, then moving up to assault where needed. That does just not work as well with the other variants. Magnets for the jump packs it is.

But those decisions can be made once I have the book in hand, rather then relying on 3rd hand rumors.

   
Made in ca
Perturbed Blood Angel Tactical Marine




canada

looks good so far, i really like the older marines

 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York



Look! Painted marines! Next on the list is the sarge/ML/flamer for these guys, as well as the pilot who came with the set. But as I have spare sergeants, and special/heavy weapon marines waiting, they are fieldable if needed.

Yah, I'm a slacker. But all that should change this Friday. School is back in session for the year, so once The Boy gets on the bus, my free time skyrockets. I think I'm going to try to maintain a 4 model a week goal. I know it worked for me when I was hammering out SoB for my friend, so hopefully I can keep that pace for myself.

I officially placed my order for new stuff with my FLGS. Book (basic), a box of both Sternguard and Vanguard, and the strikeforce. While I don't need everything there, it contains a number of things on my wish list.

Want:
Drop pod (I only own 2. Three is a magic number for drop pod assaults)
Razorback (The only way I can field one is to use the chassis from my pred and the TLHB from my LR)
Ven. Dread (I love the kit, inspired by what I've seen here on Dakka to make my own)
Tac squad (New, mostly for bits and bodies)
Assault Marines (need another 5 for the apoc. battle company formation)

So that adds up to around $200 worth of stuff. So for $25 more I get:

Sniper scouts (I own 10, 5 more is a little overkill, but might see use)
Captain (I was looking to get more for the apoc. HQ thing anyway)
Command Squad (might pick up some bikes for these guys, or build them as sternguard)
The second tac squad (I only wanted one, guess more can't hurt.)

A second battle company is looking more likely as my collection grows. I have two squads of RT plastics that were painted up as a home-brew chapter from way back that might get stripped down and repainted to bulk it out. The two assault squads can be formed from my bike project and land speeders. I have a number of heavy weapons side-boarded for swapping, they can be squadded up into dev squads. I'm also getting more and more of the 1st and 10th. After this supply drop I should have around 42 vets and 28 scouts either painted or planned.

What I might end up doing is painting the extra tac squads with actual company markings, to differentiate them from my normal marines. This way I could use them to represent an allied force of marines using a different set of chapter tactics. We'll see how viable that is once the rules come out.

   
Made in us
Perfect Shot Ultramarine Predator Pilot






San Jose, California

Do you line the shoulderpads in gold/red/other colors , or do you not like company specific marines?

EDIT: oh i didn't notice. sorry about that.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/09/06 01:27:23


being recalculated~4.5k 750 875 My p&m blog where there are space marines http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/545810.page DA:90+S+G++M++B--I+Pw40k12+D+A++/wWD-R+T(M)DM+
 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Holy crap, you have been pumping out Smurfs like a man-possessed
 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Morris, tragically sold his soul to the Chaos Gods of Flowers, Dancing, Laughter and Friendship. The Morris Heresy is on record as the shortest and least successful heresy in Imperial history.
 Camkierhi wrote:
thats the best group of ass I've seen on the net, and I've looked at alot.
 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

 Largeblastmarker wrote:
Do you line the shoulderpads in gold/red/other colors , or do you not like company specific marines?


Hm, I thought I mentioned that upthread. Yup:

A few notes. I don't do shoulder trim. Well, my sternguard have it, as do some characters, but not the basic troops. Some of my guys are old RT beakies, and they lack the trim on their pads. So rather then have some with, and some without, I just skip it. A lot of my paint techniques are this way because that's the way I've always done it, and I want my army to look uniform. If I had to start over, I'd probably do more highlighting.


I love my RT marines, and don't want them to feel out of place or unwelcome in my army. But they don't have rims on the shoulders, or even kneepads for company markings. I also don't do things like the red helmet for sergeants. I guess you could say I'm painting a 30k legion Ultramarine army, without any of those modern codex markings. And I've been doing it before FW/BL made it cool /hipster

Of course, if I do go with a second company, it will get some refurbished beakies as well, unless I swap more squads out of the 3rd Co. And there is a limit of how many modern marines I can pull, as they have a lot of upgrades and gear that the beakies just don't.

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

OK, I got my supply drop today. In addition to the Codex, Vets and the strikeforce I picked up 100 2mm magnets and a pin vice. Should help get things together.

The new veteran kits are made out of 100% awesome. Well, that may be an exaggeration. I think they cut the awesome with some "sexy" at some ratio, not sure on the percentage. Not to sound like a gushing GW fanboy, (Too late!) but I love these kits. The detail, the bits, all the options. Just wow. They might just be a little too awesome. My captains are looking very sad and dejected. Any marine not made out of these kits is just some schlub in power armor, regardless of where he is in the command structure or FOC.

I am also very impressed with the Ven. dread kit. If yours looks the same as someone else's, you are doing it deliberately. There are a lot of options in this kit to personalize it. It also looks like it will be fairly easy to magnetize the weapon arm for the different gun options. More importantly, I think I can get a MM option on there with minimal fuss. As someone who never picked up a AoBR set, I don't own a multi-melta dread. Which is a problem, because shy of Ironclads, they make a nice cheap option for a drop pod dread.

Also on the modeling front is getting the razorback turret set up. I have a whole bunch of spare assault cannons from the ravenwing sprues I got when I picked up my bikes. I should be able to shake a few plasma guns free from all the new stuff I picked up, so hopefully can get it so I can field all the options.

An a word of advice: If you have old, boring, push fit marines as a WIP on your bench, FINISH THEM BEFORE BUYING THE NEW KITS. I'm champing at the bit to dig into the new stuff, but need to finish the old guys first. It's painful working on the old Battle of Macragge guys after gazing upon the new shinies. But I will persevere...

   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Remember the bike project? Captain is tacked together





Biker legs, right arm
Multi-part captain's torso, backpack, Ultramarine shoulder pad, chainsword
Head from the new Vanguard box
Helmet crest, right shoulder, from sternguard box
Bike front and banner pole from the DA accessory sprue.

I plan on magnetizing the weapon arm. Not sure if I want to do this at the wrist or shoulder. Shoulder would allow things like lightning claws and power fists, but would mean I'd have to use different shoulder pads for each arm. A wrist mount would let me keep the Ultra's pad on full time. The chainsword is a bit of a placeholder. I like the stats on the new relic chainsword, but don't know if I want to model something fancy, or just slap some bling on that one. I also didn't notice until I was tacking it on that the chansword arm from the captain's set has a bionic hand. IH players take note.

While I like the look of the new sternguard, I'm not sure how well they will integrate into my current collection. It's mostly the legs with the long tabards. I might just swap out for some tac legs. I'm thinking those legs might be the foundation for some honour guard. Take spare bolters from the sternguard, add a few power swords, and poof! HG squad. I think I have some holstered/slung bolters kicking around if I wanted to go with sword/BP. We'll see.

   
Made in gb
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





Nottinghamshire, UK

Hey. Clicked on your sig after you commented in my Honour Guard thread, and after reading your post on the new kits, I 100% agree. The new Veterans, especially the Sternguard, are so high quality it's just ridiculous. That said, just the fact that the SG kit has arms with a choice of pointing/clenched/open hands is enough to make me very pleased, so obviously liking everything else is just a given.

I agree that they are good for Honour guard, I'm combining them with the Vanguard plastics and other loose bits to get that effect. I was trying to keep my army looking pretty austere and no-nonsense, but now all these robed and bling-covered guys are showing up. I couldn't help it.

If you're going for the relic chainsword I'd say the one in the Sternguard box is ideal. Or perhaps you could try converting one of the swords from the Vanguard box?

I predict that the helmet crest is going to become one of the most sought-after bits for Marine players who like converting. It's tailor-made for an HQ model.

Driven away from WH40K by rules bloat and the expense of keeping up, now interested in smaller model count games and anything with nifty mechanics. 
   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Well, now that we are a bit into 6th edition, I've finally finished the tac squad from the 4th ed starter box


Also shown is the TLLC option for my pred. With the drop in points, I might actually use it, so slapped some paint on it. I'm counting it as model 4 this week, along with the sarge/flamer/ML from the squad. It's a bit of a cop-out, but I've been working on the modeling side putting stuff together.
Speaking of which:




Standard bearer, champ and normal guy for an honor guard squad. Mostly built from the SG box with a dash of captain/command box in there as well. Still a WIP. Especially the standard bearer. I wanted to use the raised rim shoulder pads for the whole squad, but the angle of his arm makes them clash with the backpack. I could do one of the bolter arm, but wanted to keep him mostly in the classic Mk6 armor, with the studded shoulder. Three guys is the minimum squad size. Not sure if I want to use the rest of the SG kit to make more, or just bump up old marines to fill out the squad as needed. Which was my old plan. The odds of me actually fielding them is low, barring apocalypse games. And those don't show up often in my area/schedule. Should be fun to assemble and paint though, so having these three is worth it.

I think next on my paint list is some old terminators. Unless we get some good weather and I can prime some of the new stuff.

   
 
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