Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Back when I fist posted pics, one of the things I wanted to do was show that there are normal people doing solid table top work out there. It’s easy to be intimidated by the mind-blowing work that some of the folks here put up. But just getting paint on a mini and fielding a fully painted army is no small accomplishment, and something to be proud of. I never posted in the showcase forum due to one major restriction: All minis needed to be based. And baseing my army is one thing that I never really got around to. But lately, I’ve been working on that. So I figure that now is a good time to start a showcase thread for all my finished works. If you are interested in the WIP side, pretty much everything I do is documented in my blog. I’ll try to link the relevant parts of it when I post here, for those who want to see the work done in a piece.

To start this off, here is my collage of entries from last year’s unofficial painting competitions. It should give you a good idea of what to expect from this showcase.


--Nev

They're some very nice looking Ultramarines - I particularly like the warm gold (I can never quite get the 'warm' look, so I settle for a cold gold.) Well done!

EDIT: I also fully agree with the idea that there needs to be some 'layman' type paintjobs. I'm often put off from showcasing my own minis because as soon as you open the showcase forum you get blasted away by the sheer skill of some people and it ends up sapping your enthusiasm at your own paintjob.

The gold is quite simple. GW’s old “Shining Gold” with an equally old “Chestnut Wash”. Slight drybrush of the gold back over top if it needs to be a bit brighter.

And for some more pics:


For those who don’t recognize them, these guys hark back from the legendary RTB01 box set. I think the only part that isn’t from that box is the binoculars the sarge is looking though, which came from the plastic space ork box of similar vintage. They were painted in much the same style I do my marines today. Base coated blue, with a blue wash/glaze on top of that. Guns are black with a silver drybrush. Helmet stripes were the order of the day, with the sarge being picked out by parallel stripes in a secondary color. Yellow in the case of Ultras. The whole red helmet thing had not been thought of yet.

These guys have been fighting for the glory of the Emperor for a long time now. While ML/F might not be the best weapon loadout for a tac squad, I still try to include them in lists when I can.

Here are a few more Ultramarines done a little more recently. Sneaking a tank in. No basing required




And a little Eldar:

Nice Nev.

OK, took the camera downstairs and fired up the lightbox to get some more final squad pics. First off, 2nd squad.

These guys are from the 3rd ed starter set, and painted around that time. ML/F were the only options on the sprue those days, so that’s what they are packing. But besides that, they are very similar to what you can get these days. To help distinguish them on the table, they have larger then normal ultra transfers on their shoulders and white purity seals. At the time I was still using RT-era transfers. The sarge has his detailing in gold, rather then the silver of the rest of the squad. I don’t do shoulder trim. I don’t want the old RTB01 guys to feel out of place.


These lovely chaps are from the 2nd ed box. I never actually purchased it, but bought the marines and rulebooks of someone around the start of 3rd. 2nd (and 4th) editions were down times in the hobby for me. I played a few games in each, but not a ton. The odd editions seem to like me better. I like to refer to these guys as "bolter huggers", or "I <3 my bolter marines”. The look fine on the shelf, standing at attention like that. Not so much on the table. That’s OK, as they spend most of their time on the shelf. They were painted up in an effort to get my company up to strength. At one point I had two squads of RTB01 marines (1st and 4th squads), two squads of 3rd ed (2nd and 5th) and two squads of 2nd ed huggers (3rd and 6th squads). Since then, These guys have been replaced with the pushfits from the Battle of Macragge box. They were some of my early experiments in basing. You may notice that they are not all consistent, as I tried a few techniques until I settled on the one I use. Also, I need to clean up that sarge. Looks like I was a bit sloppy on the ink.

Great to see you showcase some of your stuff, but there's an awful lot of filthy xenos in here...

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
Great to see you showcase some of your stuff, but there's an awful lot of filthy xenos in here...

I’d say there is just a tiny bit, but we all know that any amount is too much.

Anyway, some more formal pics. And yes, they are Ultras. My Honor Guard. Mostly made from the sternguard box, but with all sorts of other bits and bobs added from the bitzbox.



Champion is the guy with the cape. Relic blade was my entry one month for the competition (so is pictured in that collage) Banner of Macragge, a guy with the sheathed sword and an axe round out the squad.

Just finished the decals and bases for the capheractii terminator squad.



I did one of them for the April painting comp:

A few more squads done and based. First is a 30k vet tac squad. Although as I paint more of the BaC guys, their role might change.


While I had the flock out to finish them off, I put some on some older guys. Batte of Macragge pushfits. Two pictures of them, one out-of-the-box, and another at their shelf deployment. Many a ML and flamer got removed from active duty squads and shuffled off to the spare swap shelf. But the core of 3rd squad is the BoM guys.



This should round out the different eras of marines for the tac squads. Already pictured are the RT, 2nd, and 3rd. I never picked up AoBR, so don’t have the 5th edition pushfits. While I did get two boxes of the modern tac squads, they were spread out over other projects, and not put together to form cohesive squads. Until the BoM squad replaced the 3rd squad, I had 2 squads each of RT, 2nd, and 3rd. When I get the rest of the guys based, I’ll post them here. Starting with the 3rd squad here, you’ll notice parts of my modernization campaign. Replacing some of the sub-par gear choices to things I’d more likely field. Because I got tired of always having to hit the swap shelf for more relevant guns.

Another tac squad based and ready:


This is the second squad of RTB01’s. Well, mostly. They were part of my modernization plan. For the longest time the shelf deployment of almost all my tac squads was ML/F. That was wat came in tactical squad boxes, and it was a bit of a pain to get the other weapon options. So the few odd heavy weapons I had lived in the Dev squads, and the melta/plasma guns were on the swap shelf. So I made some replacements for these guys, notable a new sarge and heavy. The flamer, while new-ish, dates from 3rd edition. The two completely new marines were courtesy of the 6th edition tactical squad box, which included all the parts to make a suit of Mk. VI armor. The HB/C-flamer are from the sternguard box released at the same time.

Also note a change to the bases. Ran out of GW snow flock, so I switched to Woodland Scenics. Bit grainier and more translucent. Will probably need to adjust my technique.

On that note, here is what that little packet of flock you get in GW’s basing kit will do:


Edit: on a roll basing things. Here is the 6th squad. I did them out of order, as I wanted to experiment with a layer of white under the snow. Not completely dry, so they might get less white later.
But here is another squad of 2nd ed bolter huggers. Still in active service. Not sure if I’ll formally remove them and replace them as 6th squad with the BaC guys a few posts up.


And for something even older, but not nearly as lame looking, a captain and a lieutenant:

Because I’m just that retro.

That’s the last of the tac squads painted. I’ve still got one more BaC veteran tac squad on my paintbench to do. The 5th squad was the first to be modernized. The meltagunner is a solid chunk of metal, and the MM was assigned to them when I picked up my first plastic Dev kit back in early 5th? It’s been there a while. Sarge is within the last few years. Before the new tac kit and sternguard in 6th, combis were very hard to get. These guys, along with the 1st squad, probably get the most table time. MM/M, c-melta sarge works well for me, either in a pod or rhino.



And here is the first of the Dev squads. In an ideal world, they would be 4xLC. I have 4 painted, but one of them lives in the 3rd squad. So they have the compromise shelf deployment of 2xML, 2xLC. Roughly half my non-ML heavy weapons are hybrid plastic/metal kits from 3rd edition. If you think modern plastic devs are irritating, be glad you never had to assemble any of the old ones. Both those LCs are metal. The sarge is also a chunk of metal from the 3rd ed command squad kit. The bolter boys in the back were spare beekies I had. You can tell they were painted later, along side the modern ones, by their green eye lenses. The ones I painted in RT/2nd just had black eyes. The guy in the middle might actually be lead. He’s really old. And deserves more then to be a bullet sponge in the back of a dev squad...

OK, I’ve had a productive few days with the basing supplies and the lightbox. So here is a few more squads for your viewing pleasure.

The second Dev squad:

2xHB, 2xPC, c-grav sarge. This squad is supposed to be more anti-inafantry to the 9th’s anti-armor. They don’t see a lot of time on the table. I do love the chain-bayonet on the HB though. Old RT bit there.

The Assault squads:

These guys are fully magnetized. Both flamers, each of the sarge’s arms, and all the JPs. This is the newest complete squad in the company. Before, the 7th squad was a mix of bikes and speeders. When the 6th edition apocalypse book came out, I wanted to have a full battle company by their math, which required the assault marines to be fielded as such.


These guys all date back to 3rd edition. Also, one of the few squads I’ve taken a knife to. They used to be two 5 man squads, with a pair of plasma pistols in each. A few editions and rules changes later, that was either illegal or impractical. These guys are all firmly glued. I couldn’t bring myself to cut all the plasma pistols off. They do look cool...


The command squad is a mix of old and new. The standard bearer and apothecary are from the old 3rd command squad box. The champ and two vets are cobbled together from newer boxes, and were built in 6/7th. The vets are set for arm swaps, but this is their shelf deployment. In an ideal world, the standard bearer would be more CC oriented, but I just love the old guy.


Dreads and HQs. Fun Fact: there are two captain Fabians in that picture. When I first started on the road to building the 3rd company, it was lead by Captain Ardias. For my purposes, he was the captain that came with the 3rd ed command squad, stormbolter and power sword. Back in 3rd, that wasn’t a bad combo. To reconcile the fluff that had different men leading the 3rd, I put the name “Fabian” along with the RT-era rank insignia for captain on my old lead dreadnought. Flash forward to now-ish. I want a captain with a slightly more relevant wargear choice, so I put together a new one. Enter the new guy (who is magnetized on both arms). While I am willing to kick the old guy down to the swap shelf, he has been filling the role of Ardias for so long, I can’t bring myself to strip him of his name. Thus the new captain takes the name of Fabian. He and the dread are a different points of his life. Chaplain is another old chunk of metal. He can swap his pack and BP to sub in for Cassius as needed.

For those keeping track, that’s the company. Ultramarines, 3rd company, Scourge of Xenos.

spoilered for size


And a group shot:


As always, if you have any questions, comments, or want to see other shots of what I have, let me know.

--Nev

Ok, how have I not noticed this thread yet. Dude they all look great!

 40kFSU wrote:
Ok, how have I not noticed this thread yet. Dude they all look great!

Compared to my blog, this thread is very new, just a few months old. The whole “Minis must be based” rule in this section held me back for years. But now that I’ve gotten in gear with that, I can start showcasing my finished stuff here.

You can never have too many HQs. So many different ways to field them, and they are fun and interesting to paint. At some point, I decided that I want to have the full HQ matrix. Every HQ, with every option on how they could take the field. Now, I still need to get paint on my bike mounted techmarine, but here is the rest of the crew.

Foot, jump, TDA, bike.

Spent some more time getting bases done this morning, so that means more final pics for this thread. Today: Vanguard Vets.



Part of me wanted to do full detail pics with multiple angles for each of them. But I thought that’d be a little much for a while squad of guys. I do like how each of the vets is unique, but still works together in the squad.

They are fully magnetized, both arms and packs. The only wargear hardwired onto them is a pair of meltabombs.

Hrm. I’m pretty good about keeping my blog up to date, but less so with my showcase thread for my finished shots. No good excuse for that.

Just because it’s been all Ultra here lately, here are a few minis to shake that up.

First some old jetbikes:

Not going to lie, they were a chore to paint. Not a lot of detail, and what there is is soft. Ugly riders as well. But if I want to claim to be a Saim-Hann Eldar player, I need to have a bunch of them. I’ve got another 3 old ones, and then 3 new ones on my to-do list. One perk about the old bikes is they help prove I’ve been playing (or at least collecting) Eldar for a while, and am not just a bandwagoner.

Having old metal likes these guys also helps with the old school cred:

Did some touch up/repaint work on two of them, who had been painted for a couple of decades. The other 4 are newly done. While in general I’m a fan of metal, it does have some drawbacks. I’m guessing that finecast guys are not nearly as unbalanced, and plastic would be great to have. As it is, I just grabbed the biggest rocks in my basing supplies and hope for the best. Might glue some extra weight under the base, but slottas make that rough. The guy with the shaved down helmet is the result of younger me not liking the heads on these guys. Older me is fine with them, but it would be hard to replace a/o fix the knife work of younger me, so he gets to stay. I’ll try to keep him towards the enemy to get shot first.

While we are on the nostalgia train, here is a Zoat.

While it doesn’t show up that well in the pictures, I used the new soulstone gloss paints on his gear, to give it a chitinous look. I think it turned out pretty well.

As we are getting all xenos/heretical here, I’ll close with some Ultramarines. Pair of c-melta sternguard.


At this point all of my Ultras that need snow bases have them. The scouts still need grass bases, which will match the style of the swooping hawks. I should grab pics of my old terminators at least, as their squad composition is unlikely to change. I’ve still got some more sternguard that need paint, so their squads are still WIP.

Thanks for reading. Comments/criticisms are always welcome, either here or over in my blog.

Looking good, as always. I'm really liking the snowy bases you've done.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
Looking good, as always. I'm really liking the snowy bases you've done.

Thanks!

I just posted how I did my bases over in my blog. Although I was just noting techniques, not supplies.

The flock is Woodland Scenics "Soft Flake Snow", and the tufts are Army Painter “Frozen Tuft”. Both pictured here in my June supply drop. Earlier work was with GW’s Northern wastes kit.

Finished the second squad of BaC marines. Well, they still need transfers done, but that is often pushed to a back burner. Painted, based, and ready for battle though!


One of my goals is to paint one mini a week. With a bunch of caveats. I count tanks/large vehicles as 4 minis, and bikes as 2. And while I aim for 1 a week as a pace, my real goal is to do 52 a year. I recognize there will be ebbs and flows to my desire and ability to paint. And with this squad, I’ve met my quota for the year. Everything from this point on is gravy. As I’ve been basing as I go this year, they are all suitable for the showcase thread.

The fruits of my workbench, YTD:


I also painted up an Ork, but he has shipped of to join his Waaagggghh. Also, as he is slated to be based at his final deployment, I never did, so he didn’t get to show up here.

I’m swiftly working my way through basing my Eldar. The bulk of them are in progress right now, but here is a squad of guardians ready to go. My grass bases are now in bloom, with the addition of some wildflower tufts.

Oh wow Nev, those look really cool. I am really digging the paint scheme! Yes the tufts add that special quality as I've learned too

As the descriptive theme I’m aiming for for my Eldar bases is “Maiden World” I really wanted something that says “clean, healthy, and pure” Flowers do a good job at that.

Finished up the last of my Eldar.

Second squad of guardians:


Some spare gunners:

That’s a missile launcher and a scatter laser for those who don’t recognize them. No shame in that, as those designs have been OOP for a couple of decades or so.

Some old harlequins that serve as warlocks/farseers.


Something not 20 years old:

My latest seer. Probably counts-as Eldrad.

Do you remember the ’80’s? Because they remember you


And I’ll wrap this up with an angry war god.


There are some odds and ends that don’t fit into squads that are not based, but that’s the last of my Eldar that needed to get done. Once I tidy up my table, I’m going to try to get a full army shot. Of course, I’ve still got more to paint, but have enough for a fully painted and based army. At a reasonable point level at that!

Edit:

Army Pic!

And just to fend off the accusations that I’m just a filthy xenos, here’s a librarian who’s’ fed up with all that malefic summoning going on.

I like the scintillating effect on the force axe!

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
I like the scintillating effect on the force axe!

That’s probably my favorite part of the mini myself. Just the metallic blue base, with the green towards the edges. Cover the whole thing with the soulstone green paint, and then touch up the blue at the roots a bit.

I like how it says “I’m a force weapon, not just a measly power axe!"

Don't get me wrong the models look very good, but they seem to be missing highlights which would make them pop a lot more.

compdrag wrote:
Don't get me wrong the models look very good, but they seem to be missing highlights which would make them pop a lot more.

I only highlight sporadically. I’ve been doing more of it with my recent Eldar. Part of the reason is backwards compatibility. I want the new stuff I paint to look the same as my old stuff, this way the army feels like a cohesive whole. So the highlighting I do tends to be very subtle, and not on the rank and file troops. But the most recent librarian has some on his hood/metalics, and most of the BaC stuff has some going on on the golds. It’s just not that noticeable, especially in photos.

Thanks for the comment though. I do recognize that it’s something I should do more of.

Some more Eldar for your viewing pleasure. Each squad has a little bit of history in it. From my collection of old RT lead, there were a few Eldar that had gear options that could be fit into a modern army. Captain Aetolia Lightfoot will lead the Fire Dragons when the exarch with the firepike is unneeded, and Commander Lessei Moondance will lead the Dire Avengers. Yup, those minis are so old, they date from when GW named each individual model in their catalog.