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Hi Dakka,

I've tried to find time to get a blog started for a while but work's been a hurdle. However, I've finally got to the point where I thought "bugger it, it's now or never"

I've always been into sci-fi and about a year ago started to develop a slightly obsessive interest in 40k miniatures. After reading a bit of the backstory and browsing sites like this one, I decided to try building an army and eventually getting around to playing a game. So after about a year I've managed to paint a few squads to various levels of "finished". Having said that, I can promise nothing better than table top or "I may have been a little toasted when this happened" quality.

But like I said, it's taken about a year to get a few squads out. This has been due to many of the normal things that happen in life, not least of all distraction by things that were suddenly more important or looked shinier at the time. Which brings me to the point of the post. There's nothing quite like feeling responsible for something to make you look after it.

But on to the army at this point. I decided to go for a vanilla marine army due to their belligerent hero status that isn't afraid of whacking the little guy with a bit of Exterminatus. Sure, other people do it too, but the rank and file of the Guard seems to have a general conscience, while the Inquisition... look like they're good at what they do. As a quick qualifier, I'm seriously not much of a fluff nut so I'm willing to politely smile and nod if I got that last bit seriously wrong.

Anyway, some squad pictures to date.












And finally, a Techmarine WIP.





Feel free to throw any c and c you feel is necessary.

Dude, that assault marine is awesome, and that techmarine looks like it could be great

Thanks, I was listening to Knights of Cydonia when I fleshed out some ideas for the assault marine. Nothing like a little muse to get some ideas.

As far as the techmarine... it's going to be my first real large ( maybe small ) scale scratchbuild. I couldn't really justify the cash for a legitimate techmarine when there's spots that would be better filled by "condoned" minis.

On that note, a bit more of the push to the techmarine.

Some very nice painting there, very crisp. Looking forward to the tech.

I like your work.
Apart from the scouts. I am getting a space wolfish look from this army, maybe the scheme suits it or that awesome banner suggests it.
Either way your army would benefit from a few subtle space wolf bits here and there to spice it up. Even if you are playing vanilla marines. You could always play both as well.

And does your username refer to a "4L Goon bag"?

Ha, yes. I was born in WA, so it was an attempt at a subtle reference.
As far as the SW's go, for several reasons I haven't been a massive fan. Nothing serious, I've just haven't really gelled with their deal. But I do get your point about more of a custom look. I'll try to sex up the techmarine a bit more. Thanks for the feed back.

A bit more WIP on the techmarine.





Not sure if it's the flash or the camera but the armour looks a little lifeless. It's currently got a single coat of sepia which gives it a little depth in natural light. Either that or I'm trending toward bright shiny happy marine colours instead of grimdark. Maybe another coat of sepia...
Might have to seriously tone down the head as well and maybe learn to paint flesh properly.

The Techmarine is looking fine! Gives me some ideas when I think about building one for me.

By the way, I forgot to say I love your yellow. Having tried yellow myself I know how hard it can be to get it to look good! You have done it well.

To be honest the yellow was a bit of a lucky find. I was planning on a desert style scheme along the lines of the Rats of Tobruk / Afrika Korps, and to save time on large squads I bought an airbrush. I'd heard Vallejo had some good airbrush paints so I went for their white undercoat and middle stone. In the bottle, middle stone's a dead ringer for the brownish colour I was looking for but a light coat over the white turned it yellowish. Still need to try it on a black undercoat to see how it goes.

The techmarine is now largely finished. The basing is a little dodge and will probably need some attention in the future, but its good to go for now. Any c and c are more than welcome.

4LG,

Great job! R those GW helmets on the Scouts? If not, who makes them?

Thanks

The heads are from Pig Iron Productions. They're the HD.7 Heavy Infantry Closed head sprues at http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/hd7-heavy-infantry-closed-head-sprues-p-23.html. I've got a bit of a fear of painting flesh and I also didn't like the heads that came with the scouts. I sort of felt that the scouts job required a bit more of tech edge. Particularly for targeting and observation, so I liked the look and it gave them a bit of a unique aesthetic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I was listening to the radio the other day and they had a program on about procrastination. Apparently it's a killer way of doing something while achieving nothing. It made me realise how little progress I've made so far trying to get an army off the ground. It was then that a line from Mystery Men struck me. Spoken by the Sphinx - " You must lash out with every limb, like the octopus who plays the drums" I thought that maybe doing some octopus drumming might push the progress meter up a bit.

So with this in mind I decided to do the following.

Convert this briefcase into an army case...



...using these foam boards that apparently have something to do with gardening.



I'm also starting a stormtalon...



... which concerns me a little because to date, my only vehicle has been this rhino. It probably wasn't difficult to make, but I swear it took about two months.



And finally, to keep things interesting. This librarian needs to be finished.



Not sure if this is going to be a good idea, but it's worth a shot.

At this point I'd like to thank an organisation called "work" for allowing me to spend more time there. So much for that idea I guess.

Anyway, despite being one of the billions who pay bills a little progress has been made.

The Librarian has a bit more colour.





And the Stormtalon cockpit has been undercoated.



Not 100% sure on the internal colour for the cockpit yet. I was tossing up between a light stone or straight black. I like the lighter idea because I'm not keen on a cockpit of doom look, but the hull's going to be yellow / brown so it'll contrast a little better. The pilots also going to be yellow brown so a black cockpit might scream "It's all about me!!" a little too much. Dunno... there's always metho if it goes pear shaped I suppose.

one word: hooligon

Thanks man, I'm hoping to finish the army with a few more units and then move on to some Inquisition allies. Kind of hoping the new codex throws out some exciting possabilities.

But a bit of WIP.

Time to move onto the hardest part... the basing. I always find this to be the bit where things tend to stop and I'm left with accusing mini's gathered in a corner of the desk.

Thanks to an opportunity to focus a bit, the librarians been finished. Now it's time to focus on the stormtalon and the case, and back to paying the bills tomorrow. Bugger.





Not pictured is the wash fail on the pack.

And finally, ta da, the Stormtalon.


With a little battle damage.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
... and a servitor for an upcoming inquisitorial detachment.

To keep the first of three servitor's happy I've started on it's inquisitor. To explain his relaxed state, he's currently having his left arm temporarily glued on so he gets to wait around for a bit.



I plan on giving him a hellrifle ( pictured in the background below ) to mix in a bit more with the plasma cannon servitors, but his power armour offers very few options to carry it in his rather limiting pose. I tried whack it on his back in both a sling and large holster arrangement but both ideas looked dodgy to the extreme. I'm thinking the best option is a cherub / familiar in the style of the servitor above. Don't know how successful this'll be, but it's where things are atm.



Also, apologies for the picture quality, I had to use my phone due to some battery issues.

And the finished product.




'
Now it's on to some Henchmen.

Looking very nice! I'm really digging the almost minimalist color palate. Very clean and very smooth conversions.

All looking very good especially like the tactical. Would say your selling yourself short on your ability as a painter he looks high end table top to me almost a display piece

Nice work thus far - the servitor is very humorous - reminds me of the aliens from the Disney film Chicken Little with those spindly legs

As for the bottle top bases- that's a very unique idea - I like it

MWHistorian wrote:Looking very nice! I'm really digging the almost minimalist color palate. Very clean and very smooth conversions.

Thanks. I've found trying to work with too many colours becomes a little mind bending and ends up in a crazy rainbow effect. I've seen the multi colour style done well a lot of times on Dakka, but I accept that I'm not quite there yet.

soitra wrote:All looking very good especially like the tactical. Would say your selling yourself short on your ability as a painter he looks high end table top to me almost a display piece

Wow, thanks man. All up I've been plugging away at it for about a year now and have been leaning heavily on places like Dakka for ideas and tutorials, so it's largely been learning by osmosis.

Ruglud wrote:Nice work thus far - the servitor is very humorous - reminds me of the aliens from the Disney film Chicken Little with those spindly legs

As for the bottle top bases- that's a very unique idea - I like it

Guilty secret, I was probably channelling a mix of the drones from Mega-mind and the robo suit Mr Burns wore at the end of the BoBo episode, with a decade or so of general Disney robo villains thrown in. The bottle caps were aimed at throwing a little bit more of the homebrew effect in.

So at last I've had a chance to start on some henchmen for the Inquisitor... and to get shot at before the marines. It's still fairly early days and I'm honestly struggling a little with the paint scheme. My original idea was to go with an Iraq security contractor look. The general idea being that the henchmen are replacements after a recent schlacking being made up of available and random planetary militia's and mercenaries. However, the first henchman seems to have turned out a little like a WW II pilot complete with mae west. But I'm thinking I'll crack on see where it heads.


"Biggles" with plasma gun.


Very WIP of a bolter henchman.

The outcome of the first two henchmen. I was planning on making three plasma gunners and four or five with boltguns with each one having a slightly randomised colour scheme. Then after smacking my head against a failing attempt at random with the first two, I've decidied to go with "Bugger it, a little uniformity goes a long way". Well... maybe.

The first bolter acolyte. Not sure if it's just me, but I think the head either looks a little oversized or the body looks a little small.




The first plasma gunner, conducting a pre-battle warm up squat.