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That camo cloak is looking aces dude, love it.

Whoa. That is killer. No joke, solid work.

Thanks guys. Quite happy with him.

Did some basing this morning, here is the YTD shelf:


Interesting looking at the gallery. The 5-28 YTD pic I took was pretty barren. Month and a half later, it’s getting pretty packed. And not just with the flood of ‘nids. I was worried about not making my 52 for the year, and I just passed that a little over the halfway point. End of May the Zoat stood alone. Now he has 3 biovores, 9 spore mines, and 10 assorted gaunts around him. But even without them, the addition of all the phobos marines and the sisters would have put me back on track for my goals.

The two sisters on the bench are in the fussy clean up stage; not my favorite part. Need to push past that though. Moved down two more gaunts and the phobos librarian. Running low on Hormagaunts. 8 painted, 2 WIP, and 2 in the primed pile. Once I finish them I think I need to dedicate some bench time to doing things like finishing the Infiltrator squad, some of the ancillary SoB squads, getting some Eldar done, or paint something blue. Plenty of options for that last one.

Phobos Librarian. I believe he's also of the cloaked persuasion. More sweet camo incoming! Good job on the productivity.

 youwashock wrote:
Phobos Librarian. I believe he's also of the cloaked persuasion. More sweet camo incoming! Good job on the productivity.

That’s why he got bumped to the top of the queue. I figured I’m on a roll, got the procedure fresh in my mind, let's get this done.

It’s sometimes a little odd how I choose what to paint. Part of me wants to save the cool models for the painting challenge. So they end up lingering in the primed pile, waiting for the right topic to come out and get paint. Which is exactly the opposite of what should be happening. The idea of the challenge is to motivate, not hinder. So when I was looking for a lone model to move down, I almost passed him by, but decided that was being silly. I like the model, he offers new options on the table, why not now?

When building armies, there is always the split of stuff you need to do and stuff you want to do. If you spend all your time painting cool looking HQs, you don’t have the backbone of troops to put down the army. I always found it best to intersperse projects. Reward yourself for slogging though the rank and file with the cool stuff. Mix it up, keep it fresh. Burning out is not a good thing. Luckily I’ve got so many things going on, I can shift things around, so I’m not just painting the same thing over and over again. One of the downsides is that if I push this too far, I never get squads done. And as an established player, there is nothing I “need” to do to play a game. (for the non-nid armies, as the bugs are very fresh and still spinning up). I do want to wrap up projects. One of these days I think I need to put together a spreadsheet, with everything in the primed pile and when it was built/put in there. Start weighting the old stuff for painting priority. Some of it has been there for a while now.

You've been busy! I really like the way that Phobos Chaplain came out. The arctic camo cloak really looks cool over his black armor and skull helmet.

Thanks. More work then the camo I did before, but worth it.

Not much painting progress, as I’ve got The Boy for a long weekend. Got a game in yesterday. No pics. Played the supplies drifting one, 4 objectives that tend to drift around a bit. He played more of a gunline, so for most of the game I held 3/4ths of the objectives and ate a lot of fire. Ended the game with one intercessor hiding in a ruin out of LoS, hugging an objective. But while the task force was butchered, they secured the needed supplies, and I won something like 13-8.

Fresh paint:
Infiltrators did pretty good. While I might occasionally rant about every new marine getting a snowflake-special bespoke gun, the marksmen carbines what auto-wound on a 6 to hit are pretty nice. Don’t mind the loss of the AP1 as I play vs. Salamanders. They started deployed on an objective and held it almost all game. Medic did his job, standing one guy back up, and then patching the wound next turn. They were eventually mowed down late game.

Chaplain: I like the new options for powers not just the re-roll in melee. I took the +1 to wound for shooting, it was nice. Not a big fan of needing the 3+ to make it work. He charged to his death end game. He stayed behind to secure the objective one final time, but knew there would not be another turn for him, and rather then being unceremoniously gunned down, charged the named Salamander captain. Put 4 wounds on him before eating that thunderhammer.

Primaris Ancient. Did OK. Took the +1A banner, which gave Calgar an extra swing a couple times. Let some hellblasters get extra shots off. Nothing earthshaking, but did some work. He was out of position for a bit.

Really love your camo marines and their chaplain looks ace with his snazzy camo cloak!

Still here, still slowly painting. Always a little rough back at work after a vacation, so little dip in motivation.

These are the last two hormagaunts (for now) Eventually I’ll get another dozen, but probably in some bundle box.

Two sisters are in the clean up stage. This needs me to sit down when focused, not jittery from morning coffee, or having had an adult beverage. Might be a bit.

Phobos librarian is almost done with sloppy basecoats.

Not pictured, but two spare backpacks are in progress. For if I want to field AMs or VVs on foot. But bits getting paint.

Built a dozen spooks over the weekend. Something to do while slug boy slept the day away. So something in the primed pile. I started to clip the second dozen, but didn’t get far. Should finish them up to clean the build decks for the new box.

Looking great, as always. Your take on the phobos stuff with camo is very cool. Also loving your hive fleet progress. Side note: Are spooks genestealers?

 brushcommando wrote:
Looking great, as always. Your take on the phobos stuff with camo is very cool. Also loving your hive fleet progress. Side note: Are spooks genestealers?

Woops. In Hive Fleet context, Spooks are Licors, IIRC. But unless they make one of those in plastic, “spooks” in the context of this blog is Nighthaunt stuff. With GW’s naming conventions I have trouble remembering which undead thing is the Nighwarden Gravehunter, and which is a Dreadspector Murderhex. Back in my day we had “ghosts” and “wraiths” and the new girl, the Banshee. So I just kinda lump all of them together as “spooks”

More specifically, chainrasps. So little spooks, on small bases, with hand weapons and chain bits. The occasional lock. No keys.

Ah yes. GW naming conventions. Got my first taste of the absurdity to which these were headed when my friends and I got our hands on the 5th edition Blood Angels codex with its bloodcaptain bloodface shooting bloodstrike missiles out of his bloodtempest bloodmissile launcher. Thanks for the clarification. I forgot you also do Warhammer fantasy or whatever name it goes by these days, but I now remember you did some pretty excellent work on some sort of wraith reaper thing. It will be cool to see some of those on your blog again.

 brushcommando wrote:
Ah yes. GW naming conventions. Got my first taste of the absurdity to which these were headed when my friends and I got our hands on the 5th edition Blood Angels codex with its bloodcaptain bloodface shooting bloodstrike missiles out of his bloodtempest bloodmissile launcher. Thanks for the clarification. I forgot you also do Warhammer fantasy or whatever name it goes by these days, but I now remember you did some pretty excellent work on some sort of wraith reaper thing. It will be cool to see some of those on your blog again.

GW names are all over the place. It used to be just the flanderized BA and SW, with Blood-this, and Wolf-that. But now it’s the NounVerbs AdjectiveNouns, or the new Primaris Inter-I-words. I’m trying to remember when it got bad, might have been 5th. But after Chapterhouse, GW has made sure almost everything has a special name.

My undead mostly come out in October. Mostly.
/newt.

The odds of them ever seeing the table are hyper slim, but I do enjoy painting them. Which is what counts. They also tend to lead my polls on votes in the competition.


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Mail drop. For those of us who can’t freehand squiggles very well. Second kickstarter I ever backed.

Transfer sheets look cool, excited to see you use them and how they will hold up.
And good to see the Phobos Librarian getting paint, an amazing sculpt, had lots of fun painting mine.

I like the Aliens reference, love that movie. Those transfer sheets looked packed!

I think first up for the transfers are going to be a few spots on the banner, and the long ribbons of parchment on the chaplain. When I get around to it. There is a lot of transfer back fill I need to do for the guys on the shelf. Chapter markings, units sigils, etc. One of those projects that just seems huge and daunting, but is really just a lot of simple steps. But as with so many things, tends to get pushed aside.

Did some basing work this morning while on the second cup of coffee. Not a lot gets done over the first, and typing this drinking the third.


That’s the last of the hormagaunts. Tippy will be so happy. I need to get a formal shot of her and her new sisters. YTD Nids:

Also finished the bases on the last of the stealers. So nids are fully based. The old stuff is 6 stealers, the second zoat, and Tippy. The rest is up on the YTD shelf. I can understand why people just keep their nids in a shoebox. With claws and tails going everywhere, they do NOT want to line up neatly on the shelf. And getting them into foam would be an exercise in pain. Not that these guys are ever likely to leave home. But magnets and cookie sheets seem a smart idea. December is going to be a fun puzzle when it comes time to move the YTD shelf to general population.

Edit:
Back from the FLGS. 2 boxes, one for me, one for The Boy. Cracked it open. Smell the pile of shame. Mmmmmm. I’m going to cheat a little; I’m not going to count the necrons vs. my pile of shame. While there might be a chance of me paintnig them, they are basically a free bonus for the marines in the box.

OK, thumbed through the box a little. Minis are as awesome as I thought, going to be fun to put together. Some thoughts:

Probably going to head swap the judicar, maybe the captain
Ancient is going to loose the hand on a chain. Going to dig for a thurible/censor. I should have a few kicking around.
I might hold off on glueing the arms on the intercessor sarge, in case he gets access to options when the codex drops. Same with the bike sarge. Also tempted to MSU the assault intercessors into 2x5 man squads. But the battle company wants 10 man ones when it can,
All those Iron Halos need to go. One captain in the box. Darn vets getting all uppity.
For the most part I think I can just build these guys and prime them together. The melta guys look to be the only ones I’d want to leave parts off for painting.

Also watched the twitch stream this morning. Need that tank. Maybe 2. I suspect it could be built as an impulsor with minimal work. Will need to see the sprues. Just a mater of cobbing together more lightweight top options to replace the turret with the impusor’s choices. Should not be hard.


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And so it begins...


Bit more mold lines than I’d expect on a new kit, but I’ve done worse. Crest added, not 100% on it.

New hotness! Like the idea of the crest, just think it might need to move a little bit forward on the head.

 youwashock wrote:
New hotness! Like the idea of the crest, just think it might need to move a little bit forward on the head.

I gave it a wiggle, and it was still a little loose, so I was able to adjust it. Looks better.

Ultramarines just scream helmet crests. Good job,especially if you are able to move it forward like you said .

Took the un-earned iron Halo off the LT’s backpack. He also seemed like a guy who didn’t want to wear a helmet, so got a nice concentrating, stern face. Not a screamer, but someone is about to get a facefull of martian death rays.


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Built the chaplain. Was able to swap his shoulderpad for a Ultra one. Little less spiky, but more sedate. Thought about a head swap, but if a half bionic screaming head is wrong, I don’t want to be right. I think my personal head cannon is this is my old chaplain who crossed the rubicon.


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Polling the crowd time! Who would you least like to see coming at you across the battlefield?

1 - Reiver helm. Skull helms never go out of style. And I think the Judicar is supposed to fall under the recusiarch in the command structure, so fitting.
2 - Reiver half helm. All the fun of skull helms, plus the PITA of doing eyes.
3 - Simple, bare, menacing. nothing fancy, just coming to kick your teeth in.
4 - This guy wrestles tyranids for fun, what can you offer? Like the disdainful sneer. He’s sorry he took his helmet off, because now he can smell your failure.

These are just tacked on for the pics. Hard to get the exact angle I want. The goal is very much 3, head leaning forward, determined with the sword at rest, confident stride. So angles on the others would be tweaked to match.

Last one, I think. The other bare head looks good, too, but the last one has a lot of personality.

Yeah, I'd agree, either upper left skull helm, or lower right scarface.

+1 for Scarface!

Part of me wants the more basic bare head, as it reminds me of my old EQ character. Scar has a lot more personality. I glued both heads to a spare bit of sprue. Going to paint them both up and see how they look when done. I suspect Scar will win in the end, as I’m not sure I could get the skin tone right for an Erudite Paladin.

Just spent some time carving detail out of a censor from the RW accessory sprue. Why does an ancient need a hand on a chain? If bits are falling off the skeleton on the banner, you should fix that before the battle. Not just slap some chain on the scraps and bring them with you.

I'd go option 3. Nothing says master duellist like a perfectly smooth face.

I agree with JamesY. The bare head is just more sinister. It gives me this vibe:

It’s a toss up between “quiet menace, radiating an aura of power” and “BAMF who is going to chew you up and spit you out” I could go either way. There is no wrong answer. One reason I’m asking for imput.

Personally, in RPGs I tend to gravitate towards the first. So am a little biased. But there is no denying that the scared version means business.

I don’t need to buy another one of this guy, just to do both. I don’t need to magnetize. Paint both heads, use the best. Save the other for a different project.


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Because that skeletal hand was just not working for me. I don’t think I’ve built any of these guys stock yet. Little minor tweaks on all of them.

And a group shot of the characters.


Clipped one of the vets, going to do them next. Might not be today.

If your still taking votes I go for #1. All the others I have a chance of a head shot on. Basically he’s saying you don’t even get to stare him in the face as he slices you in half.

 Theophony wrote:
If your still taking votes I go for #1. All the others I have a chance of a head shot on. Basically he’s saying you don’t even get to stare him in the face as he slices you in half.

Votes are open until I paint and glue bits together. If I screw up painting the bare heads, I’ll go with the helmet. From a modeling standpoint, it’s the “safe” option. Not as cool or characterful as the bare heads, but easier to paint. I think I’m going to try the bare heads first though.

Going helmet-less in a war zone is a psychological thing. He has so much distain for you, he’s not even taking basic precautions. You are not a threat. You are just a target to be killed, and nothing you can do will stop him. You can try, but you will fail.

Helmet less characters also help them stand out on the table from a practical stand point. Not that this guy is going to need a lot of help.

Nice conversions. Personally, I would also like to vote for scarface. The Tyrannic war veteran look suits the illustrious 3rd company.