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It looks like some are done in 2 tones, with a dark and a light shade, others just plain. Not a lot of consistency from GW here. But i think they are only accidentally in the DR’s colors.

WIP with some alternate takes on what I had in mind. Still need to flock the first one, but I plan on going hard on the overgrowth. Might even have some climb the statues



Brown wash down, next up is the cleanup on the blue.

I like the overgrown look of the shrines you are painting.

It's different than what I'm seeing other Eldar players do, and I like it.

I'm liking your take on the shield. Well done.

Quixote wrote:I like the overgrown look of the shrines you are painting.

It's different than what I'm seeing other Eldar players do, and I like it.

I honestly have no clue what everyone else is doing with them. They were spare sprue bits until the 10th ed codex dropped. Never seen a lick of paint on them before anywhere.


4 done and off to the YTD shelf. This should be plenty for any reasonable game for now. I’m still going to do the rest, and they take very little time. But wanted the handle space for the exarchs.

Nozeminer wrote:I'm liking your take on the shield. Well done.

Thanks. Getting there.



Captain got his second blue cleanup. Ink wash is next. Then a ton of cleanup. Need to get the vets up to speed as well, they are at the cleanup blue stage.

Pair of exarchs getting paint.

Marines are looking good, and I like how those little aspect shrines are turning out too.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Marines are looking good, and I like how those little aspect shrines are turning out too.

Thanks. Hopefully I’ll get some good progress in today.

But decided to do a little bookkeeping this morning. With me being able to break out the rattlecan last week, let’s look at the primed pile and see what’s on deck:
Part 1:

Eldar:
4 aspect shrines
1 fire dragon
1 striking scorpion
1 Lhychis
3 shining spears
3 shroudrunners

The FD and SS were free minis of the month, and thus are not needed for squads. Low priority, except to just clear the decks and paint them while I’m rolling with an Eldar vibe. The bikes are things I actually want to put into lists, so a higher priority. Same with the PL.

30k
1 praetor
5 CTDA marines
5 Volkite troops

So when the 40k rules for a lot of the 30k stuff was dropped, it kinda sucked the wind out of my sails. I still have a chunk to build, and paint. I think I am going to try to do 2 units a year min, just to get them moving. It’s not that I dislike them, just other things are going on, and the odds of me getting them to the table are pretty low.

Odds and ends:
Assorted FMotM (Squat, swamp ork, arbites, CSM, Skaven, mini rhino)
Cursed City Heroes
2 deathwatch w/ SBs.

The free minis of the month are there for when I’m bored or more likely need something to cover a painting challenge. Probably the same with the CC heroes. The DW were an effort to kitbash more troops with stormbolters for getting a viable army to the table. That’s basically dead. Eventually they will get caught up in my paint the oldest things in the pile goal.

Marines:
2 3rd co. KT intercessors
5 3rd co JP intercessors
5 Terminators
10 Sternguard
10 new scouts
2 centurions
1 old scout
1 biologis
1 DW inceptor (should be over in the other box)

So these are the 40k Ultras on deck. All the 3rd co stuff should get done this year, as well the the old scout and cents to meet my goals. The other stuff I actually want to get done and to the table, so good odds of being snuck into challenges, or just painted on the side.



Tyranids:
6 hormagaunts
10 devegaunts
10 spinefist gaunts
11 neurogaunts
3 ripper swarms
1 neurotyrant
2 brain buddies for above

I’ve been working the gaunts across the spare painting handles as I work other projects. If we ever get a comp theme that fits them, I’ll probably try to flush out the box and do as many as I can in a month, similar to the nighthaunt last October. Until then, they are a great side project.

Undead
3 flappy feral vamps
1 fuzzy flappy feral vamp
5 blood knights
1 mounted wight king
5 black knights
4 cursed city named villeins
1 foot vamp
assorted rats, bats, cats, and other misc CC stuff
30 skeletons of assorted vintage and quality
10 zombies
3 nighthaunt grave stalkers

So a lot of dead stuff here. Priority is to get some of that soulblight up and out of there. I’m going to start up a path of glory campaign, and they will be needed. The mounted stuff especially. I can use legacy models as a counts-as for some of it, but they are off scale and on the wrong bases these days. And for a chunk of it, I don’t have a old world equivalent.

Not pictured:
Tanks: a Sparten, Sicarius, and Gladiator.

At least one of these is on the books this year as a goal. The primaris one could actually find a home in 40k lists, so is more probable. But all need paint. Hopefully before they get taged as part of my 3 oldest model goal.




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Captain needs to dry and then get decaled/based. Just put the clean up blue on the cent, ink for him next. Still need to clean up the BGVs.


Realized the blood knights are going to need the large monster handle, so cent needs to get moving,

Getting some blues down. Going through touch ups.

I noticed the Centurion Sergeant has moved up front.


Someday you should update and post the Ultramarines on parade. I think it would be cool to see a sea of blue power armor in all its glory.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I noticed the Centurion Sergeant has moved up front.


Someday you should update and post the Ultramarines on parade. I think it would be cool to see a sea of blue power armor in all its glory.

The last whole army pic I have is like 5 years old. I should get a new one. But it’s a lot of work.


Edit:
Got a few more paints down over lunch. In good news my new progressive glasses don’t seem to be harming my paint. Stupid getting old and eyes wearing out…. Grumble grumble

Excellent group photo.

It must be a pain to get all those models out... but they do look really cool.

Have you collected them to all be from one company?

 Quixote wrote:
Excellent group photo.

It must be a pain to get all those models out... but they do look really cool.

Have you collected them to all be from one company?

It took a chunk of a Saturday morning with help from my son last time I did it. I don’t pull them all out except when moving, or for the grand army pics. When I put the Year’s new addition up they do get shuffled around, and sometimes I take parts out for focus groups. One of these weekends I’d like to break them all out again.

With only a handful of exceptions everyone who’s from a battle company is either unmarked, or wears the red of the 3rd company. 1st company vets and 10th company scouts have their own colors.

I didn’t paint shoulderpad rims for a while. The foundation of my army was RTB01 marines, who’s mk. VI armor didn’t have them. Sometime around late 3rd edition I started to push to get a full battle company. I chose the 3rd for an odd reason. In very early texts, the Ultras were the 3rd chapter of the 1st founding, and some of my old banners had that number on them. The chapter list in the back of the 3rd ed codex had them as slightly understrength, so a bit more accessible to collect. It took a while (sometime in 5th IIRC) before I finished the company, and I rejigged the lineup a few times. Early versions had the assault squads mixed up between JP/bikes/speeders.

Firstborn 3rd company, circa 2016:


Some squads have been swapped out since then. They still hold a place of honor in the display shelf.

With 8th and the introduction of primaris, I’ve been slowly working on getting the company across the rubicon. I’m not sure when the madness took me and I decidded to do another battle company, but it did. I should be on track to get it finished in another year or two.

If I assembled the assorted spare marines and old stuff I could probably get close to another firstborn battle company. But they are not marked or organized as such.

In addition to line marines, I’ve extensive supplies of vets and scouts. Close enough to the point where if I wanted to push them up to 100 man full strength companies it would not be out of the relm of possibility.


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Cent done, ready for decals and bases. Both Exarchs down, ready for base. One BGV got his blues cleaned, other is up next, but my back is telling me to stop for the night.

Got the ink down on the cleaned BGV. started the cleanup, and he’ll need edgeing. Other guy still needs to be cleaned/inked.
Dire Avengers are flocked and off to the YTD shelf.
Cent and Cpt. are rocked and tufted, waiting for flock. And decals. I’d like to get both the BGVs ready before I hit that step.
Started work on the cent’s grav gun. Big guy kinda needs a weapon option.

So I stayed up and watched the Adeptecon preview. It was only an hour off for me, so 10-11. a little late, but not crazy.

Old World: Not my game. The Wood Elves do have a place in my heart, but not enough to get me into another game. Cathey stuff looks awesome. But not my jam.

Kill Team: Conflicted here. Death noodles! But I think the KT does not suit them. I am not a fan of most of the “specialist” options. I’d rather just have 5 warriors. which I might get. Nid terrain is cool looking, but I play at a store, not at home. Do I need it? Cog boys are cool. AdMech is not my army, but in the past servitors have had a place in marine armies backing up techmarines. This is not like the last KT box I picked up where I wanted both the scouts and scorps. Realistically I only “want” like a third of the box and am lukewarm on the rest. As I suspect the price point is going to be on the high side, probably a pass. But who knows. We’ll see how I feel when it comes out.

Spearhead/ GHB25. I like the game of spearhead I played. Do I need to buy a new board/book/cards/terrain? I did not get the impression that it was vastly different then the core SH game. Just new decks with new objectives/twists/etc. If I was playing so much that I was burning out on the two decks I have? Maybe. But honestly I don’t get to the table that much. Minor plus that it’s Undead focused, so thematically good for me. This is a maybe. Seeing that it’s probably going to be $65+ for it (judging by the current set) that’s a lot for a rules set that’s not going to be used a lot. 4 new box set spearheads for armies I don’t play, so pass.

The GHB is something I don’t want to pick up. If it’s needed to play at the FLGS I’ll consider it. I chafe enough at buying new rules every 3 years. Having an extra book every year on top of that to play? No thanks.

The new 40k mission deck is a lot of the same. I have no problems paying for minis. But rules and game aids with a crazy short useful life? Pass. Unless needed. If I was more active it would be a good way to keep things fresh. I’m not.

Chaos codexes? Look cool, good for them. All codex plus a model release. The WE and DG look fine and fit their armies. Not a fan of the 1ksons robots. Just look out of place in 40k IMHO. But I’m a loyalist, so what do I know. Not tempting me to the dark side today.

New crusade book returning to armageddon. Seeing that I’m potentially starting a crusade league this Sunday, something to keep an eye on. But again, rule books with short shelf lives do not thrill me.

GK is another codex plus model splash release. Upgrade sprue for the dreadknight which fixes none of it’s issues, still goofy. The whole army is looking real dated.

Space Wolves are looking real good. I’m a little concerned with stat inflation and marine++ syndrome. But the models are ace. And while it might be a little too early to tell for sure, it looks like they toned it back a bit. The only one who looks like he has a frost weapon is the runepriest, which I can get. Everyone else is just using normal marine kit. And while the headhunters have wolf pets, I’m OK with them having hunting buddies. Seeing less of the Wolfy McWolf, with his wulfhammer, on a giant wolf. But there is still time. Fingers crossed. Badass semi-feral space vikings are cool enough. they don’t need to go to 11. But what do I know, I’m just a Codex hugging Ultramarine.

So overall some real nice looking stuff, but mostly not for me. Might pick up the KT box. Might get the spearhead rules. But nothing is calling out to me as a “must have”

Decals and bases left. Almost there.

 Nevelon wrote:
Almost there.

So I rocked and tufted them before heading down the FLGS for a game.

I wanted to test drive my Eldar before committing to them for a crusade league.

Warhost
Jetseer (enhancement for +1D on psychic ranged attacks)
3x Windriders (2 paired cats, one ShCannon)

Falcon - BL/Pulse/ShCannon
- 5 DA exarch w/ extra cat

Falcon - BL/Pulse/ShCannon
- 5 FD, exarch w/ pike

WS - Cannon, TL cannon
- 5 Wraithguard w/ D-Scythe

Vyper - ShCannon



He goes first, runs everything up. What shooting he has is pretty irrelevent. Not sure if he shot at all, as even his longer range guns needed to advance to get to the top of the ruins

I respond by pushing the WS up, dumping the WG out and shooting everything into the 10 man blob of genestealers and broodlord in the forward ruins. The brood lord staggers away with a few wounds on him, the rest are purged. My dice were a little cold. I poured a LOT of pain into those guys.

He pushes up with the swarmlord +guard unit. I overwatch with the WG, but those guys are TOUGH. I hop back into my transport like the cheeky bastard I am. (That might have been when he shot me, I forget) He charges the WS with swarmy, and my vyper with his BL. Vyper manages to live, the WS does not, and explodes nicely scattering MWs all over the place.

I zip up the falcons and disgorge their contents. The falcons paint targets with their ShCannons, andd duse their main guns to sweep his shooters off the ruins. Mostly. One barb and a lone zoe remain. The DA do their job and unseemly things to termagaunts. The FDs kill the guard and start chipping away at the swarmlord. My Vyper falls back, I shoot the BL down. WG charge the big guy to pin him down, and while 3 fall, they do their job.

He’s getting real thin on the ground at this point. His shooting is anemic, chipping a couple wounds off a falcon, wounding a biker. In CC he finishes off the WG and consolidates into the FD.

The dragons feign a retreat, popping the strat to fall back and still shoot. I pour everything into the SL, and when almost all my guns are dry I look to the DA. They do not have the right tool for the job, but are chucking a ton of dice. Bunch of hit, pop the shine for a wound, get 2 more from 6’s. He needs to make all his saves, but fails one and goes down.



We call it at that point, as he’s got very little left on the table and I’d be able to mop up without issue.

Victory for the pointy eared gits!

As the first outing with the new book, everything is kinda fresh paint. Actual fresh paint was the DAs and the shrines, which both did very well.

Falcons were nice. Solid AV firepower. The RR wound buff was nice on the DA, redundant on the FDs.
Serpent did it’s job.
D-Scythes preformed OK? Some of that was poor rolling. 5d6 should look closer to 17-18 shots for the squad, not the 13 I got the first 2 times I clicked them off. But their mission was to hold the center and overwatch things that came near, and they did that.
Fire Dragons are MEAN. When shooting mosnters/vehicles they get full re-rolls. with melta guns. Big ouch.
Bikes are pretty soft. Thematic for my list though. They got some wounds in and added as an extra meat shield for the seer. 3 man squad is small enough to hide.
Vyper was OK? The debuff was kinda useful?
Seer did some work putting wounds down and debuffing things.

I only used the battle focus movement thing a few times. When everything already is flying and moving 14”, how much more do I need on a small map. Nice strats though, which is why I want with it over the grotmass armored one.

The Adepticon previews were ace. TOW stuff makes me happy, and hugely tempts me that way. Having been a long time player of Total War: Warhammer (clocking in with 763hrs over the 3 games), seeing Cathay walk out of the game and come to the table makes me very happy. They clearly did the designs etc. for the models when they designed the faction for the game. There are quite a few cool units in the game that don't feature on the table - it makes for good inspiration for kitbashing / conversions. Personally, I'd love to try the "Doom Knights of Tzeentch". They'd make really cool looking Chosen Knights - obviously Warriors of Chaos are the faction that tempt me back!

I didn't realise you almost had 2 battle companies. I mean, it makes sense now you've said it, but crikey, that's a lot of models! A 5 year old Army picture is dated... I would also advocate for an updated picture. But it is a huge faff to get it all out - probably worth planning in advance, and ringfencing a day to do it.

Nice work in the Eldar game. Glad to see their putting the hurt out. I have Eldar on my mind currently, and I think my next impulse buy will be something pointy-eared...

I think the last formal tally had around 500 marines. And that was a bit ago. A lot of that is assorted HQs that are redundant or not part of a company. But the fact that I can put like half a chapter down is a little insane.

--



Off to the YTD shelf. Need to get formal pics for the comp.

Moved the last of the shrines to the handles to paint in the scrap time. Got the first layers down on them.

This should wrap up the last if the Indomunus box. I know I have some Dark Vengeance stuff still kicking around (at least one inceptor) but as I swapped box halves for a double dose of that, can’t make too much of a fuss. Still should get that last guy done.

Pic

Excellent work on getting the Centurion Sergeant completed! (and those other guys too )

I was wondering, do you have the named special characters (ie Ventris) in your army, or do you enjoy painting your own guys?

I was looking at the picture of your battle and I was wondering what the large CD sized markers are for, are those your objectives?

Lathe Biosas wrote:Excellent work on getting the Centurion Sergeant completed! (and those other guys too )

I was wondering, do you have the named special characters (ie Ventris) in your army, or do you enjoy painting your own guys?

Yes? I’m not sure how many have updated rules or are legends, but I have either official models or counts-as for a number of special characters. But I generally prefer my own guys. But sometimes the rules make it worth it to play the specials.

Quixote wrote:I was looking at the picture of your battle and I was wondering what the large CD sized markers are for, are those your objectives?

Yup. There is a 40mm center for the objective, and the whole circle is the control radius so you don’t need to measure it out. No idea where the store got these, but they have a stack for use on their tables. The Adepticon reveals showed that GW will be putting out their own soon.

--

So went down to the store again today for Path of Glory. Was fun, I lost. But it was a learning experience. I may write up more later.

One of these days (probably sooner rather than later) I need to do a tally of how many Dark Angels I've got. Far too few, particularly of the older ones, are painted, but I wonder how much percentage of the chapter I could field. Probably not as many as you!

Also, good job finishing up Indomitus. Welcome to the club! Now we need a pic of the whole Indomitus half all together, kind of like how I did mine (hopefully you can compose yours better than I did, mine was pretty rough and ready lol).

 ZergSmasher wrote:
One of these days (probably sooner rather than later) I need to do a tally of how many Dark Angels I've got. Far too few, particularly of the older ones, are painted, but I wonder how much percentage of the chapter I could field. Probably not as many as you!

Also, good job finishing up Indomitus. Welcome to the club! Now we need a pic of the whole Indomitus half all together, kind of like how I did mine (hopefully you can compose yours better than I did, mine was pretty rough and ready lol).

I thought of doing it, and still might. But there are a few complications. I took half the assault intercessors and gave them bolt rifles. Add to the group? I did later pick up the full box of them so have the numbers I need. Trying to remember what else I did. A lot of cosmetic mods.

That big guy on the far right (a Crusader?) has been in the background of a lot of photos for a long time now. It must be nice to have finally finished him.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That big guy on the far right (a Crusader?) has been in the background of a lot of photos for a long time now. It must be nice to have finally finished him.

Centurion. And yes, glad he’s done. He’s a model I bought primarily for the rules, and those changed. So he (and his 2 buddies) have been lingering in the Pile of Shame for far too long. The rest of his squad might take a while to get paint, as I’m going to need the monster handle for the mounted wight lord and the blood knights.



So going to see how long it takes to paint the vamp. She’s 90% platemail, so should go fast. Going to experiment with how I do it. Results will be applied to the blood knights. Going to start with ledbelcher (done). Then I’m going to drybrush with a brighter silver. Then glaze the whole suit of armor with the red contrast paint. Should make for a nice metallic red. Depending how bright that ends up, might slather the whole model in nuln oil.

Might also put a little brown wash on the hair bats. Hair will be white. Mace and sheild will get gold trim. Dragon emblem on the shield will be red.

Green grass base army wide.

Last of the shrines need tufts and flock.

I noticed that you tend to prime white across the board. Is there a reason for that color choice?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I noticed that you tend to prime white across the board. Is there a reason for that color choice?

Ease?

While I have on occasion primed black, it’s been a long time. When I still painted chaos warriors for WHFB in 5th/6th edition in the late 90s early 00’s long time. I’ve been using a white rattlecan for a very long time. Prior to that good old pots of Smelly Primer.

GW paints, especially their old range, covered for crap. So putting them over a dark base? Nightmare. I’ve also had bad experiences color matching spray paints and brush ons. So I figure it’s just easier to start everything off on a white base. It’s easier to darken stuff down then brighten up.

Amd by just doing everything the same, lets me just batch stuff whenever the pile get big enough to break out the can.

 Nevelon wrote:
...But the fact that I can put like half a chapter down is a little insane...

That took me a minute to process. That is utterly bananas. A testament to your dedication to the Ultramarines.

 Zambro wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
...But the fact that I can put like half a chapter down is a little insane...

That took me a minute to process. That is utterly bananas. A testament to your dedication to the Ultramarines.

Slowly add to something for pushing 3 decades, and it starts piling up.


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Vamping up the place.


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Vamp is kicking right along. Next step is the white contrast on her hair, flesh tone, pick out red eyes and white fangs. Attach the shield and do a little touch up. Tuft and flock. Not going to be finished tonight, but not much more.

Shrines done.

--

So it’s the end of March. Time for the Q1 report.

Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 12 members for the primaris battle company 1/12
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 14/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 44/2
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. 4/8
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 a tank. 0/1
9 Get more games in. At least 6. 7/6

1 - Only one 3rd co marine so far. The cent does not count despite his red trim. He’s a firstborn. Behind. That said if I can get a 5 man squad done buy Q2, I’m back on track.
2 - Halfway to my goal a quarter of the way through the year. Solid start, which I’ll need. I think I’m going to replace the gaunts with skeletons for my spare handle projects for a bit.
3 - Well ahead of the game here. Considering when Soulblight drops I’m probably grabbing at least a dozen minis, this is a good thing.
4 - Got a cent done, so good? Did I say “unit” in the goal? yes I did. Probably should have just kept it as “mini”. Might retcon that. My monster handle is going to be holding the mounted wight king and the blood knights for a bit.
5 - I’m a good blogger, and have 44/52 models done for the year. At this rate I’ll over triple my goal. I’d normally laugh here, but it might not be that crazy. Sure, it will be mostly skeletons and gaunts, but I could probably get 80 bits of chaff across the bench and still paint some main events. No promises. But I’m guessing this is going to be a high volume year.
6 - Right now I’ve got Eldar and Ultras done. Although the marines are a pair of HQs. Nids are not quite there, as the different flavors of gaunts don’t squad up nice. I’m hoping to get at least 2 units for Soulblight done by the end of April. This one is well ahead of schedule, and should be finished before Q2. This year is actually looking to be fairly well balanced. The Eldar got off to a strong start, but the marines caught up with a bunch of high-value elite/HQs. Undead are going to rise up from the grave and make a play for it. Will be interesting to see the year end tallies.
7 - Yup. Plugging reliably away.
8 - Nope. But as this is a only need one thing, not worried. Can’t put it off forever though.
9 - OK, maybe I should have set a higher goal. Just started a Path of Glory campaign. And will also pack a crusade list. That should be an every Sunday event.

So overall well ahead of the plan. Looking closer to a Q2 report then a Q1. Still, need to make sure I get some marines painted. I need to do at least 2x5 man squads. And only have one built. Plus I’d like to get some 1st and 10th co minis painted in addition to the 3rd’s.




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Need some touch ups still, but almost there.

New month, new challenge. Let’s see how much death I can paint.

Red armor looking good, and nice progress on the goals!