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That's a serious pile o' primed work to tackle... I salute your ambition!

 MacPhail wrote:
That's a serious pile o' primed work to tackle... I salute your ambition!

It’s getting a little big, but my primed pile tends to swell over the summer to prepare for the cold winter months. Actually working a job is cutting into my productivity as well, so it’s not getting chipped away as much either. Still need to do a lot of building, I might pick a more manageable painting goal for Aug. and get some more plastic built.

Speaking of painting:


I’m done with 3/5s of the lander. And put the sloppy base grey down on one of the remaining bits. Not sure if I’m going to finish it by month’s end. After lunch I’m hitting the road and going to be AFK for a week on the beach. And month’s end will be here before we know it. But I can enter what I have.

I might check in over the week, we’ll see what the internet situation is. If not, take care all. When I get back, it should be with the new codex. Looking forward to that.

Those pesky jobs getting in the way of our painting!! *shakes fist in air*

The crashed lander looks good, tbh. Looks like it's been out in the weather for a while. The glass on the main hull part looks good, it catches the eye well.

Enjoy the beach (and martinis that will more than likely accompany it)

 Zambro wrote:
Those pesky jobs getting in the way of our painting!! *shakes fist in air*

The crashed lander looks good, tbh. Looks like it's been out in the weather for a while. The glass on the main hull part looks good, it catches the eye well.

Enjoy the beach (and martinis that will more than likely accompany it)

I’m back, and only mildly sunburned. (and yes, I did enjoy a few martinis, but more scotch and bourbon.) Trying to finish up the lander today, as the end of the month is rapidly approaching.



The tail section still needs the scratches done, but will then be ready for its wash. The other little fragment still needs a chunk of work. If I can’t get them done today, I might just take pictures of the parts I’ve done for the month’s competition. Next month is going to be “Brutal” I’m leaning towards painting up some of the 30k destroyers I’ve got sitting around. Would be nice to get a 5 man stick done, but we’ll see. Alternatively I could do the last of the chaos marauders or the lone homogaunt. August is going to be another short month, as I’ll be heading down to KY for a week near the end. I also need to dedicate more time to building, so it might be worth picking a easy project.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Quick phone pic. Need to charge up the camera’s battery and get formal shots.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


And done!

Those scenery pieces are the reason why I occasionally look through eBay listings looking for a Battle for Macragge set. You really did well on them!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Those scenery pieces are the reason why I occasionally look through eBay listings looking for a Battle for Macragge set. You really did well on them!

Thanks. Like most vehicle size things, I run out of enthusiasm about halfway through. Nice of the competition to give me a time frame I needed to make.

Next month is “Brutal” and I’m going with the 30k destroyers. Although I almost changed my mind to do some of the old RT lead assault guys I stripped a bit ago.

Got a game in yesterday. 50 PL, supposedly fun lists for the new GW campaign.



I’m playing a fluffy little fun marine list, he’s packing a pair of FW dreads and loaded dev squad with Cpt/Lt. re-roll buffs. To be fair, I also have a captain and a LT, but not doing the stacked gunline thing. This is the same guy playing necrons a few weeks ago. I either need to bring multiple lists, or politely decline playing him. I was tabled, but at least took down the leviathan dread. He also seized the initiative and my dice were cold, so lots of bad luck.

Wow, I guess your opponent doesn't realise "brutal" is for the painting challenge only...
I got almost tabled last night too. The re-roll buffs are frustrating (but at least its not formation-level rules BS).

How does the Campaign stuff work? Not looked into it.

 Zambro wrote:
Wow, I guess your opponent doesn't realise "brutal" is for the painting challenge only...
I got almost tabled last night too. The re-roll buffs are frustrating (but at least its not formation-level rules BS).

How does the Campaign stuff work? Not looked into it.

I know there is a new scenario each week, and they favor certain elements. I know our local store us waving entry fees if you buy an appropriate kit for the week, not sure if that is normal. I got a free card of punch out objectives/wound counters and a stratagem card for the week. As I was playing for free at least the first week due to picking up the 8th box on launch day, I figured I’d show up and give it a shot. Not sure if my schedule will let me play in the other weeks.

Got some paint down this week.


Finished up the hurricane bolters for the raven. At their price, it seems criminal to fly without them these days. Also put the first basecoats down on a test destroyer. I think I’m going to drybrush the armor grey, and nulan oil him. Should fit the gritty nature of 30k and his unit. Golds and blues will get the same treatment as the rest of my 30k marines.

I’m not sure if I’m going to put the nulan wash on this guy, kinda like him with just the drybrush. Although I think the grenades could use it. And I need to freehand the squad symbol on the shoulder, that should be fun. Plus the normal basing stuff. And then bang out the rest of the squad, or at least 4 more guys for the month’s comp.

Thoughts?

Also in fun news, with the new codex in hand (or more accurately battlescribe) I did my 8th edition points tally. Counting everything on the marine shelf (which includes things like the Deathwatch and my ADL, not just my Ultras) and adding in the stuff from the YTD shelf, I’m just shy of 13,000 points. 12,975 is what the tally actually is, but there are weapon swaps and more upgrades I could take to boost it to the nice round number, so I’m going with 13k.

I should probably do a new tally on the Eldar, and the primed pile. That can be tomorrow’s project over coffee.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends.

Edit: Also in the news, I just gave a soapy bath and rinse to the Kromlech bits I ordered. Fall is looming, need to build.



Not bad. Probably easier to do a white circle first, then carve out the divots. I tried freehanding it as is, then did a (large) cleanup in blue to make the curves smooth. Also freehanded an U on the other shoulder, and felt that he needed a helmet stripe, so I gave him one.

Between coats I clipped out the sternguard I’m going to build for The Boy while listening to Ratius’s albums

Looking nice! I like the helmet stripe.

 brushcommando wrote:
Looking nice! I like the helmet stripe.

Thanks. He needed a little more color. And the Mk. III helms don’t have any of the vents up top to get in the way.

Put the base black and gold down on the sarge and one other basic guy. Plugging along.

Hey Nev its been awhile since I checked on your blog, too bad about having to face that "guy" in a fun campaign game. There is always going to be those players even on fun nights seems they just can't tone it down.

Adding the hurricane bolters to the ravens is a great upgrade, they really do the work on infantry especially those with poorer armor saves. I would not take more than one though for fun games, recently I played a friend running orks and the raven pretty much did him in. Having Dante close by for re rolls to hits allowed me to cut apart his 30 man ork mobs.

Your destroyer is really coming along, and the added stripe on his helm helps. Your freehand is definitely better than mine, keep up the good work.

Yorkright wrote:
Hey Nev its been awhile since I checked on your blog, too bad about having to face that "guy" in a fun campaign game. There is always going to be those players even on fun nights seems they just can't tone it down.

Adding the hurricane bolters to the ravens is a great upgrade, they really do the work on infantry especially those with poorer armor saves. I would not take more than one though for fun games, recently I played a friend running orks and the raven pretty much did him in. Having Dante close by for re rolls to hits allowed me to cut apart his 30 man ork mobs.

Your destroyer is really coming along, and the added stripe on his helm helps. Your freehand is definitely better than mine, keep up the good work.

I only own one raven, so can’t spam them. Not that I would. There is actually very little I can spam. Tac squads I guess. Potentially dev squads if I empty out the swap shelf, but with the exception of MLs and HBs, I don’t have more then 4 of any other heavy weapon. If dread spam ever becomes a thing, I guess I’m poised to do that. But given the choice between a second of something, or a shiny new model, I’ll always go for the new thing.

Busy morning puttering around. Almost done with the first 3 destroyers, need to base them (and finish backpacks) Also started cleaning mold lines off the sternguard. I’d say I keep forgetting how tedious that job is, but I don’t forget; just dread. Anyway, working through them.

And playing Civ and running laundry through the machines. Lazy and productive Sunday.

Making progress. Almost done with the first 5. Just need to finish off the ML, then base.



Slowly cleaning the Mk III sternguard. Once I finish those, I think I’ll reward myself by building some of the new primaris stuff. Really want to try those guys out, but need to get them painted first. I also want to put together another LT. Probably with a JP. The hard part will be making him fancier then a sarge, but not a captain. Fine line to tread.

To make mine stand out, I kitbashed a sort of Vox-Array on his backpack. It worked pretty well. That is one idea

Those are some nice destroyers there. I really like seeing space marine with alternate legion color schemes.

AUGmaniac wrote:To make mine stand out, I kitbashed a sort of Vox-Array on his backpack. It worked pretty well. That is one idea

Not a bad idea. Might be a little odd if I do a jump pack. On the other hand, none of my JP guys have much like that, so it would help him stand out.

TheCustomLime wrote:Those are some nice destroyers there. I really like seeing space marine with alternate legion color schemes.

It was fun to paint them up. I remembered reading somewhere that destroyer squads were done in either black or grey, dug a little deeper and found that UM ones were black. Then the trick is to tie them into the rest of the army, so they don’t looks like some deathwatch or something fighting along side. So the shoulderpads got my normal treatment, particularly the gold to tie in with the 30k guys, and the sarge got the red crest of his peers. Basing is also a huge deal for making them look coherent.

Freehand was irritating, but probably good for making me a better painter. At some point I’ll need to do it again for the second half of the squad. Here is their final shot:


So that’s another half year down for the monthly challenge.


Overall quite happy with my work. 4/6th of them were squad level entries (counting the lander, as it’s 5 parts). So for 6 months, I’ve done 20 guys. And one of those was a vampire on a giant skullbeast. I think my quality is also on the rise, particularly on the single entries. Quite proud of the medic and Manfred. Considering everything that’s been going on this year, things are progressing smoothly.

Now I need to get back to cleaning mold lines. Enjoy your weekends all.

I like the dual wielding pistol chaps.

 ColonelFazackerley wrote:
I like the dual wielding pistol chaps.

Thanks. They were a lot of fun to built/paint.

Unlike cleaning mold lines, which is tedious at best. The new primaris aren’t bad though. Gota love new kits with fresh molds. Here is my weekend progress:


Minor kitbash on the Primaris sarge. He can take a power sword, so I gave him one. From the RW accessory sprue; the larger size works well here. A close up shot.

I love the attiture rolling off him. “You want a piece of this you xenos?!” Part of his body language tells me he’s swearing.

I need to figure out how I want to make auxiliary grenade launchers. For 1 point they seem a no brainer. I also need to figure out how I’m going to build my JP LT. And what gear to give him. Right now leaning towards bare-bones, but I’ll probably end up magnetizing him anyway.

Went to the FLGS this afternoon to give some random bits to a fellow working on a undead project. While I was there got in a game of the AvP board game. Fun game, lots of flashbacks to Space Hulk, with some interesting mechanics. Nice looking minis as well. Shame it’s made by Prodos games, of which I’ve heard nothing good.

Hope everyone has been having a nice weekend.

--Nev

Nice work. It's cool to see the collected shots. Cataloging progress is a good thing. I may try it, if I ever make any progress.

Looking good. Looks like we've similar ideas (again) on Lts. I was thinking of doing a shooty buffing one with just the MC bolter and a PW (prob Axe) and a JP variant to buff a DS attack group with either a SB or PP and a PW (axe still). These loadouts keep em cheap but effective I think. I still won't use any Primaris though, I think they won't be in my force (though no judgements on you/others for doing so).

I'm still a little irked with the fluff and their existence, but the models are quite nice.

I think the LT will end up with a sword, as I have a ton of them and they look cool. Still on the fence for the shooty bit.

Yeah, I'm just not sold on them, though the Intercessors are great models the rest of the range I find a bit embarrassing (Aggressors? Termiitubbuies 2). Nice to have Lts back and for them to be cheap and useful.

youwashock wrote:Nice work. It's cool to see the collected shots. Cataloging progress is a good thing. I may try it, if I ever make any progress.

(sorry I missed replying to this earlier. Phone browsing sucks, and is not good for quotes/lengthily replies)

I find keeping a YTD shelf and periodically doing retrospectives helps keep me focused. It’s easy to get lost in the pile of shame, or the backlog of stuff giving you disapproving glares from the back of the bench. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and look at how far you’ve actually come. Also don’t get intimidated by others. We all paint at our own pace and skill level. Find your zone and work from there. I originally had “accept it” but decided that that’s not the right answer. We should always strive to improve. But be sure to keep goals reasonable. Do a little better every year, and take the long term view. But don’t think you can bang out a 2k point army in a month, or win a Golden Demon next time if you are like me and are lucky to get a table-top mini done a week. In life in general I think we hold ourself to unreasonable goals far to often, and it’s stressful. Be happy where you are, but always strive for improvement. But the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with but a single step. Sit down and pick up the brush, and progress will flow.

(I feel the need for a Zen ork emoticon.)

RandyMcStab wrote:Yeah, I'm just not sold on them, though the Intercessors are great models the rest of the range I find a bit embarrassing (Aggressors? Termiitubbuies 2). Nice to have Lts back and for them to be cheap and useful.

I think the farther the primaris stray from classic marines the worse they get. The basic guys are fine. Intercessors, Hellblasters, LTs, Ancient. All great minis. But basically just upscaled marines. I’m a little hit or miss on the other basic armored HQs. Chaplain is cool, Lib is OK, medic is kinda meh. PA captains are decent. All overpriced, but that’s nothing new.

But the alternate armor guys are just bad. Gravis captain looks a bit tubby. JP guys are just a bit off; they look like slow and purposeful assault troops. The heavy guys are like diet centurions. Nothing is truly horrible, just getting a solid 80’s Saturday morning cartoon vibe from them. Which is not where I want my marines to be. The dread doubles down on that.

The reivers I’m torn on. They are somewhere in between. The Repulsor would be there too, due to being massively overgunned (with random, non-traditional guns for the most part) but it still has the overall aesthetics of a marine tank, and rubs up nicely against my soft spot for grav tanks. (Stupid FLGS was sold out of them yesterday. Grumble)

The other thing that really toques me off is the stupid rules/options. This no model=no rules thing needs to stop. I assembled my CC Primaris LT this evening. Basic guy with a power sword/bolt pistol. Would be stupidly easy to give him some weapon swaps, mix it up a bit. Maybe give him a TH and a Salamander paint job? Plasma Pistol? Nope. Build the kit as-is if you want to field him on the table. The gutting of all the legacy options out of the index when they printed the codex also left a very sour taste in my mouth. Sure, it’s legal to use the index now, but how long will there be rules for some of that stuff? And I’m not talking about odd esoteric builds that were on the fringe of legality, but core things like any bike HQ not a captain.

While I think the rules, communication, and company in general are making great strides forward, I think the hobby side is in the weird, twisted place. We are getting some fantastic kits. But the rules are basically just build that unit out of that box, with only the choices within. Some of the rules just make no sense from a fluff POV. Only when you look at it from a business sense do the reasons become clear. And there is a unhealthy dose of “turn it up to 11” which I think was unnecessary.

<deep breath>

Sorry about venting. GW has gotten a lot better.

As I mentioned, I put together the CC LT from the DI box. Next up will probably be the ancient. He’s all clipped, just needs cleaning and glue. Then I should probably get back to those sternguard. Probably the Hellblasters after that, but maybe a squad of the jump guys. We’ll see. Only a half week of hobby. Thursday I fly down to KY to visit my folks, watch the sun die, and drink top shelf booze. Be there for a week.

Anyone heading to GenCon, I’m jealous and enjoy yourself. Fond (but tired) memories of the few times I went.

I agree on most of your primaris points and too am finding the minis inspirational but the rules (and fluff in my case) the opposite. Since I'm not building a whole force, I'm just trying to make some sort of legal combo with each fig even if it doesn't line up exactly as intended by GW. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you do with your' s.

Nevelon,

Very nice work on the crashed lander and the Destroyer Squad.

Cheers,

CB

OK, back from vacation. Always nice to go home and visit the folks. Got to go watch the flaming sky-orb get what it deserved, if only for a couple of minutes. Too long has its burning reign of terror run unchecked. I’ll have to crawl back into the shadows and wait until 2024 now.

Anyway, some new stuff built. Some done before the trip, but now with a pic:


Sarge for the Salamander SG squad. Gave him a powerfist. Rough build of a new JP LT for me. Just tacked together at this point. Going with grav pistol/sword as his stock load, but will magnetize both. In the background are the primaris ancient and CC LT. Built stock.

Weather is mild but breezy, if it calms down I’ll prime. Pile is big enough.

Also in the news, I hit a new reward level at my work’s fitness rewards program, and got a chunk of bonus points, which I can spend for Amazon gift cards. So sometime between now and early September a Repulsor tank and bottles of micro sol/set should be making their guilt-free way to my door.

With the tank on the way, I need to bump the hellblasters up the build queue. And decide if I want to upgrade one of the other primaris HQs to a captain, or just build the gravis armor one first.

That went quickly. Now to check the weather for priming (and get some exercise in)



And a lovely day out. The pile of shame gets a little smaller as things get built, and the primed pile grows. The inercessors and hellblasters will probably drift to the top of the paint queue as I’d like to field them. I think I’ll build a trio of the jump guys, and finish the last 4 of the sternguard and then get back to painting. Nice to get some building in.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends.

Hey look, paint. And filthy xenos paint at that.


2 new guys (well, as new as old metal models get) and the 3 old ones. Going back and touching up the old guys to make them fit in a little better with the army. And you know, clean up my crappy 20+ year old paint job. I probably should have stripped them, but that would have taken some foresight.

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update that’s something besides just building stock models out of the box.

I am doing the same thing with my Eldar. Nice painting all metal figs, brings back memories of earlier editions. Although I think my Warp Spiders might be the last squad I repaint as they are not likely to see the field anytime soon.

Good luck,

CB