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I love the concept. It makes just the wrong amount of sense to fit right in to 40k. I think the white looks a lot better. I think the brown would pair better with a red.

Cool idea, that would give quite a variety of options to keep the entertainment up. As for names, maybe something like the Emperors Pride or Pride of the Emperor?

Craziness. The zebra stripe looks murderous, but looks better, I think.

That's impressive!

Those zebra stripes will drive you insane. I reduced the amount I did on my Necromundian Guard as they take so long...so be warned.

CB

As a rule, my hobbying has been pretty disciplined for the past 18 months or so, maybe a bit longer, but I'm concerned that some of my flights of fantasy are taking away my focus and turning me back into a hobby goldfish at the moment. My attention span is close to zero!

I should be working on the Executioners and finishing Gitsplitta's Mantis Warrior Ancient, and maybe my Undead. Whilst I can allow myself the distraction of a long-term side project like the ZM project, here are the other ideas that have distracted me in the last week or so;

1) Building 3rd party Ogryns to use in Necromunda, even though I know I probably won't use them!

2) Piddling about with Space Marines. Two different projects have now merged into one... I have been testing out colour schemes, some seriously, others... well, still seriously, to be honest. The actual schemes were meant to be for Primaris, but I tested them on spare Firstborn... (There were others which didn't make the cut to get photographed)




But I also had another couple of Firstborn I got in a trade, and other bits I picked up. These have bits of Imperial, bits of Chaos... I've always wanted to find a way to use them. I've considered Sternguard, Fallen, etc...



I recently started bashing some bits together myself, with patchwork repairs and so on...



During a chat with a friend on Facebook, I had the idea that over in Imperium Nihilus, everything is going a bit tits up. There must be Marines scattered all over the place who can't find their chapter, or can't reach it, or are the only survivors. They'll do a lot to survive. They'd probably team up with other marines, some individually and some in small groups. Some might skirt closer then normal to Heresy, but overall they probably still have the vague notion of being loyal to the Imperium and hatin chaos, but they are now semi-mercenary. They have to survive almost like nomad-predators, but with a veneer of being on the side of the surviving Imperials... Using the Deathwatch rules for them. And then I thought of these guys from the Rogue Trader rule book, and immediately tied my crazy colour schemes to my sinister looking chaosy/imperialish dudes.

There would be ENORMOUS scope for modelling fun, painting fun, gaming fun, narrative fun. I even know how they would fit in with a 40k story I have written about 20,000 words for, in a sequel.



3) I also dug our some bits for trade and realised I can do a 25PL Corsairs force EASILY, and get it up to 50 without too much hassle, then add two Phoenixes and a Vampire Hunter to push on...

I have models on here from AGES ago relevent to this, plus some models I started converting in about 2009 (Just a few shown here as examples) I reckon I might need to redo the GS work, and some old, old Guardian and Jetbike models... The Falcon is at least four years old. The Autarch is older by far.






4) I've been playing around with making some Chaos Spawn...




Then, by chance, a friend mooted the idea of a 1500 point Oldhammer 5th Edition campaign weekend once lockdown ends, so I've been sorting through and looking at units of beastmen, marauders, warriors and knights. Quite a commitment!

I've got more bits for more Spawn on the way too, but the painting will be the big part of the job, not the modelling.

I think I need to knuckle down to get the Executioners up to 100PL or maybe even 125PL, then decide which project from the above to pursue first...

I don't know what to do!!!

Go with what you feel will give you the most pleasure painting (you know it's the old metal Eldar).

My two cents,

CB

Oh man, I really love those animal patterns with the turquoise. I think the idea of an army of those with different squads taking different animal totems is awesome - but also exhausting! The plain white and red quartered has a nice retro vibe to it somehow and the yellow on the other guy is super rich.

The fluff and art for the space marine mercs sounds awesome - funny how inspiration can just strike!

I am a sucker for old metal anything and the eldar and spawn both look promising. That falcon is lovely too - smart work with the glowy lines.

harlies...harlies...harlies...

I love the idea of a band of RT style SM mercs. Your inspiration pic showing the old stylings really is the coolest idea. And the way you describe them, fluff-wise, super plan. It reminds me a bit of a story by Kid Kyoto over on Dakka Fiction
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/711894.page
Band of Astartes left behind seek to rejoin their chapter and make a long journey on it. Very nice read if you're thinking along these lines.

Painting-wise, I don't know. If you have a work thing and a fun thing you could reward yourself for putting the work into a unit of something by painting a fun thing after. Incentivise to drive progress.

Can't help you to make a decision, but I would have fun to see every project develop And in regards to the "animal print" marines, the leopard one reminded me immediately of Wag the Dog. I believe they made some animal print on the uniform of the fake regiment. Maybe it got picked up in the 41st millenium as a historic document

All of them! I think theCrowe has the right idea though, have a business mode and a fun mode. The roving band of Merc Marines would be my choice of fun project, perhaps tying them together with a common icon somewhere? The business one would be whichever you intend to use first, the Chaos 5th Ed campaign sounds cool

Love the piping on that eldar vehicle!

gak, after noticing it ages ago, planning to do something special for quite a while, and remembering it days before, the ever-present tiredness that follows Covid made me not even realise that the post I made on the 15th Jan marked the ten year anniversary of my blog.

I had intended to write some sort of retrospective and make a fuss. I guess I still will, just bummed that I missed tha actual day of it :(

Congratulations Fifty! It's been a great ride!

Well, well done regardless! A mighty milestone!

I was planning this post for the 15th January, to celebrate ten years of my blog! It doesn’t have as many pages as many other blogs, but it certainly has some experience. Sadly I missed that date. My mind is not operating at full speed since I had Covid in December.

A lot has changed for me since I started the blog. I gave up American Football about five years ago due to encroaching old age. I’ve played a lot of tag rugby since then though. (For those of you in the US, tag rugby is the rugby version of flag football, with the Velcro tags to pull off, and so on) . I no longer work in Hackney, but now work in Kilburn instead. I gave up the whole Head of Year stuff too. In fact, I’ve gradually given up ALL of my extra responsibilities so that I am “just” a teacher and I on;y work four days per week! I’ve moved from East to South-West London, meaning I commute for two hours to get to and from work in Kilburn, up in the North-West! Most significantly of all, I got married and so now I have to balance my desire to spend all of my money on toys with buying “nice” stuff for the house. My wife does not agree with me that framed pages from my “spare” Slaves to Darkness are “nice”.

Anyway, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to give a little retrospective of my blog!

I started with Badab and it has remained my main passion. This fella was right there at the start of my first post, along with the first replies from Gitsplitta and inmygravenimage. Thanks for all of the support, fellas!

I still think this Baal Predator from page 5 was my greatest accomplishment from the early days of the blog.

Astral Claws stuff starts popping up from about Page 5, and by the end of Page 7 it was already January 2017! That means the next 25 pages came in the last 4 years. At least I am getting faster! These from late 2015 are still unfinished though! (I’ve made progress, I promise!)
Just before Page 8, I bought in big-time to Afterlife via Kickstarter. That led to a friendship with Joel from Anvil Industries, a great bloke and the creative mind and co-director of what I consider one of the best hobby companies out there. This is my original take on one of my favourite Afterlife minis.

And then, we’re really into the “modern era” of my blog, and still only on page 8!
I still want to finish a GSC army, but I like what I did with them for early Necromunda. Those yellow bases are gone though!

I really got into it with my Eldar, and they became the first army I ever truly “finished” I remain super-proud of what I made there, and still plant to keep expanding on them, probably for the rest of my life. I even did some sculpting, making and casting a sword and green-stuffing some real conversions I still love to show off, as well as some very cool Guardians and Warlocks.



And that brings us to the halfway stage, in terms of pages! The second half of the blog all comes in about 18 months, real-time!
I started my Executioners, but it was my Mantis Warriors that I finished first. I’ll never love them the way I love those Eldar, but they are a completed army, and I am pleased with them.

Parallel with the Mantis Warriors, I started my Nighthaunt. They are a simple army to paint, but as tends to be the case, I like to make life hard for myself, with details and extra conversions. I even taught myself how to sculpt 28mm roses!

I was very pleased with the recent addition I made to my Nighthaunt, and I’m getting ahead of myself in terms of page numbers now, but this is the photo I want to use to show off my Nighthaunt, simultaneously with their display board and some of the terrain I made to go with them.

Back to the correct sequence, and something I am really proud of. I made a chance comment to John Blanche about auctioning some art to raise money for the NHS during the first UK lockdown. Not only did he say yes, he asked me to help organise it! As a thank you, he sketched my wife and I!

After that, I returned to the Executioners that I started before the Mantis Warriors and pushed on to 50PL. My favourite part is still the magnetised Scouts coming in on their choppers… I mean Land Speeders Storms, listening to Wagner. The Executioners are almost up to 75PL, and I will get them to 100PL before putting them away for a while before pushing on to 125PL. (I have another project about to take over!)

I have to include a picture of this chap. I actually did a little more work on him, adding some red into the recesses that I decided I had mis-painted as other colours. I have finished two of these guys and five more are mid-paint. They are now what I turn to when I want to paint carefully instead of quickly.

And that brings us pretty much up to date.

I’ve made a decision regarding where to go next. The Oldhammer Campaign that I mentioned is looking like a certainty to happen. ArbitorIan, real-life friend (for over ten years now! Wow!) and inspiration for this blog, is also taking part in it and he and I are planning something big for it! I just have to hope he doesn’t simultaneously start the Badab campaign he’s been promising as I am not sure my painting speed is up to the Oldhammer project AND getting to more 40K Badab armies done in the next year!

I’ll be posting some preparation and plans for my Oldhammer project soon, so for now, I just want to say thanks to EVERYONE who has posted in this blog, especially those like Gits and Graven who have been around the longest, and those who have given me the most encouragement over the last few years as the pace has picked up. It is great to know people like Captain Brown, Gobert, Nevelon, Viterbi, The Crowe, Youwashock and others will help me to maintain my enthusiasm!

Here’s to ten more years!

THe Mantis Warriors and Night Haunt are coming along great.

Really get a warm feeling for those Chaos Spawn, I know it's just nostalgia from the metals, but they look fun.

Good to see some old Eldar popping up again.

Been a real joy to support you Fifty! Looking forward to many more years! I'm sure Solar-lion would love to see those Lamenters!

Here is to another 10 Fifty.

Cheers,

CB

A lovely recap, and good to see you going strong! Teacher-gamers are strange, strange people

Amazing collection of stuff. Well done!

Congrats on the first decade. Here's to 10 more wonderful years. Those Chaos Spawn are perfectly Oldhammer.

Great collection of stuff, nice to reminisce about the thread. Looking forward to the next steps!

Thanks for sharing

Lovely retrospective post! Sorry to hear about the Covid, that was my nightmare this year as well.
That Blanche piece is something to treasure!

Theophony wrote:THe Mantis Warriors and Night Haunt are coming along great.

Really get a warm feeling for those Chaos Spawn, I know it's just nostalgia from the metals, but they look fun.

Good to see some old Eldar popping up again.

Thanks Theophony. You are another whose encouragement I value!

Gitsplitta wrote:Been a real joy to support you Fifty! Looking forward to many more years! I'm sure Solar-lion would love to see those Lamenters!

Yes, Solar_Lion was a regular commenter when I was still sticking to my main love, but I've been away from them for so long...

I'll get back to them soon, but in the meantime, I think my new project will be taking up a chunk of my time...

Captain Brown wrote:Here is to another 10 Fifty.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Cap'n!

inmygravenimage wrote:A lovely recap, and good to see you going strong! Teacher-gamers are strange, strange people

I am not sure if I am strnage because I am a teacher, or a teacher because I am strange.

Nevelon wrote:Amazing collection of stuff. Well done!

Thanks. I am surprised by how little there was, as I have left out lots of stuff over the years. I am showing a lot more of what I do now though, which is why I think I am racking up the page count.

youwashock wrote:Congrats on the first decade. Here's to 10 more wonderful years. Those Chaos Spawn are perfectly Oldhammer.

Thanks As for the spawn, yeah, I feel really pleased with how well I have caught the Oldhammer vibe with them. I have obtained two more minotauts from the same range to make more with, plus I am converting some minotaurs from other eras too. I want at least five of those C25 Citadel minotaurs to make a squad of five though.

IGtR= wrote:Great collection of stuff, nice to reminisce about the thread. Looking forward to the next steps!

Thanks for sharing

Cheers, and it has been nice to see you start following

I think the Eldar are my favs too but that Predator is some serious Oldschool cool. Always a fun blog to visit. Congrats on ten years of hobby blog goodness.

 Da Boss wrote:
Lovely retrospective post! Sorry to hear about the Covid, that was my nightmare this year as well.
That Blanche piece is something to treasure!

You replied so close to my own reply that I missed yours!

Thanks, and yes it is a nightmare to recover from.

I am lucky with the effects of Covid that I am quite happy with my own company and entertaining myself, but even if I weren't, the Blanche portrait would be a great bit of compensation!

 theCrowe wrote:
I think the Eldar are my favs too but that Predator is some serious Oldschool cool. Always a fun blog to visit. Congrats on ten years of hobby blog goodness.

And then I missed another response! Much appreciated. Glad you like the Eldar.

For now, the Executioners are tucked away in the project box. Once I get warning of Badab action coming up, I shall have to rush them into final form, but for now I can relax a little as I know ArbitorIan, the man most likely to provide Badab action for me, is busy with a few other things, including this...

Oldhammer has always been a keen interest of mine. I have collected every single Jes Goodwin Chaos Champion, for example. I've never properly assembled my Oldhammer armies though, due to lack of people pestering me to do so. With an Oldhammer campaign weekend on the horizon and the lure of potential warm-up games, not to mention something very special on the way from ArbitorIan, now is the time. The man producing the campaign pack is basing it on the one written back in the day for the 5th Ed rule book by Tuomas Pirinen, but he put out a call for pictures of our miniatures to include for our own personalised pack.

I obliged by using my very few painted miniatures, the one or two stable bits of terrain I could find and the back of a felt Blood Bowl pitch! The Chaos guys on the left, plus the Ogres are painted by me. The Beastmen and the Champion with them are from EBay... I had to do very clever positioning to hide unflocked bases, black rims, broken terrain, etc!

Two Chaos warbands clash over control of a stronghold on the edge of the Haunted Forest...


They are so focused on their taunting that they do not even notice the tower's resident, a powerful sorceror, watching them from above...


Later, their differences settled through bloody conflict, the survivors arrive at a town, set on pillage and destruction...


...but mercenary Ogres bar their way!


That was Saturday. Sunday saw me restoring and reinforcing terrain. Here's an example, though probably the worst due to the repairs bing exposed. I need a black sharpie!

A bonus from this piece though is that I could use it to re-enact The Battle at the Farm, from Rogue Trader!

Man that brings back memories...

Nice terrain. And, consider yourself pestered! I'd love to see you do an old school chaos army with beastmen and stuff.