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Feels like it's the start of their business going down the tubes, to be honest. They started out pretty much specialising in providing "third party hosting". Unfortunately, it's a bit of a hobbyist apocalypse across so many forums and blogs.

Anyway, I've been working backwards all day, rehosting my images posted here to Imgur and the wordpress ones onto wordpress itself. While doing so, I found this post from the 10th of last month (on wordpress, sometimes/often they get out of sync), which I don't seem to have posted here. So I'm posting it here, now.



So we have a have a blast from the past. A quonset-style sci-fi bunker that dates from the 1990’s. I assume that it originated from either Amorcast or Epicast, though I can’t find it in Armorcast’s current online catalogue and it’s not made from the weird, expanded foam-like material that a bunch of my other Epicast buildings are made from, so…. dunno? I know if I could find it available again, I might be tempted to pick another one or two up.

With the recent release of Shadow War: Armageddon (aka Necromunda: Redux), my copy of the hardcover finally winging it’s way over to me, and the impending release of 40k 8th Edition, I thought it appropriate to share some of my older scenery pieces that perfectly fit both games. Of course, it's already been seen here on Dakka in the background to my Iron Warriors and Minotaurs army shots.



I actually painted this thing back in the day when I got it, which means it’s also been used in any number of games through the years. I picked it up and painted it during the days of Necromunda, which explains the blue-grey of the base, and the hazard stripes around the door. Which to be fair, does look like it’d cut you in half pretty easily. At least it’s got some warning lights!



The rear view shows the sloppiness of what was considered good enough by many terrain makers of the day, especially for larger pieces like this. Not to mention my own indifference to filling small bubble holes. It looks like a Tamiya product lid of some description was added in by the original “sculptor” for some detail.



A Minotaur Space Marine provides us with scale for the terrain piece. Looks like it’d be a little crowded in there. Perfectly in keeping with Warhammer 40,000, then!

Pretty simple, but to be honest I quite like my scenery that way.

I think your paintjob brings out the best in it, just little touches like the greenery between it and the base help to make it look more "real".

It might not be too crowded if it enters to a stairwell leading down to a facility . Cool piece, I remember seeing them as well, but not sure from where. As for going through old pics, I just rearranged the basement and hooked up a computer that has windows 95 on it. Lots of old family photos including a beloved dog who has been gone almost 10 years now .

So with your Dark Imperium haul you have about 5500 points of Primaris Marines...insane stuff. What do you estimate your amount of painted and unfinished/unmade miniatures to be...and how many homes do you own to store them in ?

Uh... thousands, if not tens of thousands unpainted. I'm pretty much have OCD (seriously). Painted... somewhere between one and two thousand, at a guess - counting scenery objects, etc. I've been painting and collecting for 30-odd years, but have really cranked it up in the last several years. In 2014 I started keeping track of how many figures (from giants to each bit of scatter terrain) I get done every year:

2014: 319
2015: 388
2016: 368
2017 so far: 346

So given my output of the past few years has been WAY more coordinated and productive then in the past, I'd say around 1500-1700 painted at a guess.

I'll get some pics up at some stage.

Anywho. Here's a post showcasing a single model.



I’ve always found the background of “The Fallen” of the Dark Angels quite an interesting one. While some seemed to treate them as just another flavour of Chaos Space Marines, I always preferred the angle of them being fugitives from the Dark Angels, but still basically loyal to the Emperor and Humanity, of not the Imperium proper. One of the positives that came from The Gathering Storm series (aka 40k End Times) was the release of Cypher and a bit more of an exploration of The Fallen as a tabletop force beyond bland CSM, with rules and a bit of fluff explaining how they pretty much fall on all points of the spectrum – from loyalists to die hard chaos worshippers.



This suited me well. I’ve got a lot of the old metal Rogue Trader-era Space Marines, though most are earmarked for other projects, but there’s a few of them that I’ve always wanted to turn into Fallen. Something about Brother Holt (so named in that first catalogue from 1988) always struck me as being a perfect Fallen Angel. The damaged, incomplete armour, scarred visage, and just something about the overall sculpt just placed him there for me.



So like so, so, many other models in my collection, he sat barely started for a solid decade or more until recently. Spurred by reading through The Gathering Storm books and once again – the imminent (at the time) coming of 8th edition, I went looking for this guy in my old figure cases, got him out, rebased him and finally got him finished. Well, completely repainted him from the little that was barely started. I went for original Dark Angels livery, but scratched up, weathered and damaged in the extreme of the Forge World style that I usually eschew in favour of the cleaner look, which I did retain on his bare skin.



I will build at least one squad of Fallen Angels, and possibly/probably expand that to a small “warband” style “army” that can run in smaller 40k games, and serve as an ally to non-DA imperial forces in larger games. I like the idea that they would openly declare themselves to be a mobile, Crusading force of Dark Angels (sometimes joined by Cypher) when assisting human forces/IG/PDF or even other Marines – and given their clear stature as Astartes, their livery and their gear – generally speaking, who would know to question them more deeply?

I don't even remember seeing that guy in catalogs, a true blast from the past .

I haven't been keeping up with GW fluff for the past year of two, I stopped reading the HH series at Vulcan lives of unremembered empire. So the fallen are a mix of the good, the bad and the chaotic? A ragtag fugitive faction? I can live with that. Better than half a legion of butt hurt marines who just need a hug from papa Lionel.

Yeah, pretty much - though like the Traitor Legions, they've been shattered and scattered, so my army of Fallen might be loyalists on the lam from the law, while yours have gone full chaos worship, or whatever. There was also some stuff about how they were fighting their own civil war on Caliban before Lionel's boys turned back up, and even those lines aren't drawn strictly on the Calibanite or Terran Legion side - or even the Lutherian side and the side who was what fighting with Luther side.

Just catching up after a while away, very excited to see you started a viking project! You've been very productive, I can't believe how much stuff you've done to such a high standard.

Seems like some of the pictures aren't showing up for me due to photobucket, so I'm going to go check stuff out on your blog now.

Edit: On checking out you blog, I saw what is going on with Photobucket. What a crock of gak!

Thanks, DB!

Yeah, it's bs. I'm making my way back through my stuff slowly on both the blog and here. I've gotten as far as partway through P71 here so far, and working on March in the Wordpress. I've got to take my wife to the doctors today, and then we have friends coming over, so I probably won't get much time to repair a lot more until tomorrow, though I might try to fix a few entries now.

Because I'd much rather be pouring all these hours into fixing my blogs instead of something worthwhile like painting! Bunch of pricks!

Nice work on that Epic/Armorcast quonset hut. I recognize some parts of that model from other, similarly-bubbly buildings.

Brother Holt is lovely. He and your recent Terminators, where you take classic models, avoid or minimise conversions, but then paint them with contemporary techniques, are always a treat. They remind me of what my favourite tattooist calls "New School" -- taking traditional "Old School" tattoo motifs (skulls, hearts, the lot!) and inking them with modern techniques such as water-shading etc.

Holt in particular reminds me of some of the characters in the Bloodquest graphic novel trilogy: former Space Marines, mostly Blood Angels but I think there's at least one Dark Angel in there, with varying degrees of... codex non-compliance. Everything from, "still trying to do the right thing but would probably be regarded as traitors" to full-on converts to the Chaos Powers. I've not read the Gathering Storm fluff but am intrigued by the prospect of more variability in Fallen makeup.

Thanks guys, and I really appreciate the comments there, Ian. I'd never really thought of it like that or at least in that level of depth, but it really is what I've been aiming to do with a lot of the old-school models that I've been painting in the last couple of years. Josh has been doing very much the same kind of work with his endless series of Oldhammer Elves, painted in his much more modern style.

New models!





Back in April, I reviewed a pair of Russian Alternative's Fire Canyon Berserker Dwarfs - essentially Chaos Dwarf Slayers. At the time I was very happy with the sculpts and their quality. Recently, I managed to finish off painting that pair, and so I present them to you today.

The palette I've chosen to use is influenced both by previous Chaos Dwarfs - as I'll explain - and also GW's Dwarf Slayers with a few tweaks, as I want them to be immediately recognisable as a mutation of the Slayer Cult, while also being distinct in their own right. So I've gone for deep red hair and beards rather than orangey-ginger. The tattoos on these Berserkers are in a different, angular style rather than the rounded, Maori/Tribal/Celtic style of my Slayers, and the colour used is a deep turquoise/sea green (Vallejo Panzer Colours "Periscopes") rather than the deep blues used on the Slayers.





Similarly, both the Berserkers' weapons and their bling are done in a cold brass, shaded with a hint of green rather than the warmer tones I use on the Slayers. The green is carried across to their pants, as I decided that going for stripey trousers was just too close, and too jaunty for Chaos Dwarfs. I could have gone for other patterns, triangles or whatnot, but again - I decided against it on these guys. Simple, grim and functional.


NOT MY WORK! - Khazek Doomlord painted by Qiao Zhong

While the Chaos Dwarfs of the past few decades have had very much an "official" scheme of Red, Black and Brass, I have a strong and influential memory of a Model from the old Chaos Dwarf Renegades box, released in 1986, that has stuck with me. Specifically Khazek Doomlord, in his deep green armour. I can't locate the decent-quality 'eavy Metal White Dwarf pic right now, and the SoL image is unfortunately poor quality, but Qiao Zhong's modern interpretation of the original scheme shows the overall "feel" pretty well.

The original really has stuck with me through all these years, and was echoed in my Chaos Ogre that I painted a couple of years ago (link to be inserted after I fix those posts), and the vision I have for my Chaos Dwarf army is one that will incorporate both the red/black/brass of modern Chaos Dwarfs and the red/green/brass typified by Khazek.





The second of the two Berserker Dwarfs of Fire Canyon is painted in pretty much the same scheme as his fellow. With his more "open" back, there was space to go a little further with his tattoos, which, as with his fellow, are a mixture of the various dwarven runes conveniently compiled over at Chaos Dwarf Online.





Basing was done with GW's "Martian" basing paints, and slate painted dark grey/black to represent obsidian. I felt that the parched grass was needed to add a little bit of additional contrast in texture. The skulls on both figures provide interest, and also direction when they get used as champions in our games of Gorechosen.


L-R: Warhammer Quest Slayer, Daemonslayer, Fire Canyon #2, Skull Pass Warrior, Fire Canyon #1, Giant Slayer.

To finish up, a scale shot comparing them to some of the most appropriate and one of the most common figures from the Dwarf range. Unfortunately, I only have one other Chaos Dwarf painted, and he's one that dates from that Renegades boxed set, so he's useless for modern scale pics. I've been slowly working on this pair alongside my regular dwarf Slayers, as it seemed the easiest way to do it. Unfortunately, I'd misplaced the box with the unit of regular Bersekers - as well as their awesome looking trolls, both of which I had intended to review and then paint by now, but I found 'em after typing this up!

They are a nice take on the CD berserker - The tusks and the classic beard style showing that these aren't your normal Slayers

The bases look good - Is that the GW paint? The only time my mate tried it the results were nowhere near as nice as those...

Thanks mate - and yep, that's GW's Martian Ironearth and Martian Ironcrust on the bases. It involves a bit of playing around,m but gives a pleasing effect. I also used it on the Legion of the Damned (though that was the other ones - Agrellan I believe)

Not a huge fan of the chaos dwarf berserkers, paint scheme is great, but the models and style don't strike me. I think it's the confrontation style dwarf aesthetic that I'm just not a fan of. That and silly weapon design. I do really like the green dwarf though.

They're ugly bastards, all right - but being chaos dwarfs I can accept it. The troopers, which I'll be starting soon - are much more "traditional" looking and could probably pass as regular slayers with just a different style of axe and the odd filed tooth.

See I'm fine with dwarves that have bad dental hygiene and misaligned teeth, but horns .

Well, they're Chaos dwarves. They're mutated by Hashut and stuff.

Man, you've been downright prolific.

Crazy 8e haul.

Yeah, I'm probably going to try and at least do the Greenwing portion of the DV sets before doing any Primaris. They'll be my reward. I also need to figure out how I'm going to portion them out to my PA armies (no Primaris Army here!)

How are they going to get around the whole "we have a secret" Schtick of the DA? Or will they be initiated as well? They don't have the DA geneseed, so will they be trusted with "the truth"?

Nice work on those CD berzerkers. They are truly ugly models, but in the best, Chaos-y sense of the word. I had a bunch of veyr od Chaos Dwarves that I sold off (which I regret to this day), and these guys would have made a lovely addition. Do yo uhave enough of these guys to make a unit?

 Theophony wrote:
How are they going to get around the whole "we have a secret" Schtick of the DA? Or will they be initiated as well? They don't have the DA geneseed, so will they be trusted with "the truth"?

They've thought about that. Chapters have been given the means to embiggen their own guys. It makes as much sense as the rest of the handwavium of the plot here, so I'm ok with it.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Nice work on those CD berzerkers. They are truly ugly models, but in the best, Chaos-y sense of the word. I had a bunch of veyr od Chaos Dwarves that I sold off (which I regret to this day), and these guys would have made a lovely addition. Do yo uhave enough of these guys to make a unit?

Thanks Theo. I found the boxed set that contains 10 of their grunts, so pretty much. I've also got that Mantic Army Box from a few years ago that I got super cheap which apparently has some berserkers in it as well, so I should be able to fill out one or even two KoW regiments of them. The RA ones are surprisingly cheap anyway. so I could always buy a second box if I had to.

New models!



"He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace..."
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Book 4 Ch. 3 "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit"



Amongst my many projects that are theoretically on the go at any given time are usually a bunch of "one at a time"-type things, where I have randomly gotten enthusiastic about a model or even a unit from an army that I haven't really even begun on, and started painting them. These Harad Abrakhân Guard are an example of that. They took me about 6 months, on and off to get painted - mostly because I'm easily distracted and small amounts of indecision on how to paint an accoutrement can result in literally months of delay before getting back to a model.



The colour scheme was pretty simple. I wanted to avoid the purple and turquoise seen in GW's scheme entirely, and instead go for black with a splash of bright red on the sash. I think black keffiyeh/shemaghs always look sharp, so again, that was a no-brainer for me. A bit of gold retained for bling, and the clothing looks pretty good. I painted the flesh tones in a light brown tone, similar to people of Lebanese and Jordanian descent that I work with, since unlike GW until just a couple of years ago, I don't think everyone in the world has caucasian skin pigmentation. My Tallarn (if I ever finish them) have similar skin colouration to my Haradrim. (I get the TE Lawrence/SAS reference, but I prefer the Bedouin one for them.)



As with a lot of the LotR metal range, these figures do suffer a bit from GW's "three poses only!" policy, but mixed together in a unit they still manage to look decent.





Finally, the Kings of War-oriented unit shots. Until I get a lot more Haradrim painted - which won't be anytime soon - these guys will get shoved into one KoW force or another as a unit of some sort of elite humans who hit hard but have light armour. I may also be able to use them as proxies for something in games of SAGA - Crescent and the Cross. Honestly, I haven't looked hard at that since I've got very little Crusade-Era stuff painted right now.

But hey - these guys are done, and I think they turned out pretty well, so it's all good!

Need an Indiana Jones type leader figure in there .

Oooh, nice job on those!

I should get onto Harad and Easterlings some time around 2020 at the current rate

Lovely job on those Haradrim, very vibrant colours.

I love that range, the designs are gorgeous.

Really nice work on those Haradrim dude. Got a nice skin-tone on them and the black clothing is very well done.

Thank you guys, I'm really happy with how they came out. I've got a unit of Watchers of Karna hovering around my table, but they're still in their blisters, so need cleanup and everything else before we get near the painting. I might try to do the prep work done in the next couple of weeks, and then do the actual painting at work during my lunchtimes. Pretty much entirely black robes there. Or I could do a careful drybrush and knock them out in a fraction of that time...

We have another trio of my old Legion of the Damned models today.



The first of this trio, from WD 102 in June '88 is from the RT103 Space Marine Heavy Weapons set, sculpted by (I believe) Mark Copplestone, as he and the other sculptor listed, Aly Morrison had distinctively different sculpting styles of marine helmet. This one was simply "Gunner 2" and he's armed with an early model Lascannon, from the relaunch of Imperial Army as Imperial Guard, from a year or two later. Of course, with Index: Imperium 1 being designed entirely around "Models currently available for sale", the Lascannon option is technically illegal, as LotD can only have Multi-Meltas and Heavy Flamers. I guess I'll be prying apart my classic model that's been painted for a deca.. I had you there, huh? feth no. I'll just work out the points difference between the Melta or Flamer and a Lascannon and run it like that. I don't play in tourneys or even PUGs in game stores, so I don't have to worry about people being TFG.

Anyway, lots of bone on this guy and a complete lack of flames. A freehand skull on one shoulder, and a ribcage on the other, because why not?



The middle guy here is an official Legion of the Damned model from their first official model release in 3rd Edition, 1998/9. They're from the days of metal models with plastic arms. The Legion are essentially the late-Rogue Trader (1.5) edition metal-bodied space marines with skully and firey bits sculpted on. I think I managed to purchase them all, yet this guy is the only one of them that I've actually painted. Once I get the Minotaurs and Dark Angels I've got on the go out of the way, I'll try and rectify that.

I found this one to be a particularly nice model, I chose to paint it because I really liked the sculpted ribcage. No true freehand on this guy, either. The flames, crossbones and the shoulder pad's detail are all sculpted.



The final model of this trio is a "Death Eagle" Space Marine, from 1989. These three were released with no real explanation of what a "Death Eagle" actually was. A new chapter? An armour variant? A unit type? What we can see is that Mark Copplestone's trio are the forebears of MkVII Aquila Armour, predating even the 1990/91 exploration into Archival and Artificer armour variants by a couple of years. Anyway, this guy got inducted into the Legion and like several others had his backpack replaced later on with one from the '98/99 set. All of his flames and most of his bone work are freehand - with the exception of the bone eagle on his left shoulder - which was the main reason he was chosen for the Legion - and again, I'm quite happy with the ribcage that he wears, this time on his left greave.



I do have a (un)healthy collection of Legion of the Damned models from the various releases through the years still sitting around in boxes, from 2nd Edition through to the newest ones - which admittedly aren't especially new anymore unless you're an old grognard like myself. Once I've finished rebasing and touching up my old/painted LotD models (there's 3 more unfinished old-school models on my painting desk right now), the collection will give me another set of models I can paint a few more of from time to time for interest and enjoyment. Who knows, maybe at some point in 8th they'll become an independent force again, as they briefly were in 3rd via a Chapter Approved supplement? But I guess that would only come alongside a new plastic kit, so less likely than a whole lot of other things...

The Thuggees look awesome, as do the latest LotD. Always nice to see the OOP goodness.