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.

A small amount more completed, I've primarily been using painting as a mental break from study, hence the painting in very small doses. I decided to make my own tank commander for the Excelsior, just the mount/hatch for the HKM to go now. Again I've faced issues with having to force things into place which has resulted in the paint being damaged and glue being in places it should not have (all down to a lack of pre-assembly) I've got the bits for the crew going inside, some work to do on the metallics and perhaps a little touchup work on the joins and I'm calling it done.

HKM is now glued into place, just touch-ups to the model, some panel lining, and edge highlighting now. I'll likely be ordering the new HH boxset along with one or two of the upgrade kits. I'm really looking forward to some of the FW pieces coming over to plastic - especially the recon squad as eliminator proxies! The boxset will provide plenty of beaky helms for my fast attack units, I've got a box of MKIII primed and will likely grab a set of MKIV so a nice variety of heresy armor to mix and match into the army, perhaps a Leviathan when they arrive.

I've managed to get my hands on the final bolter variant for my Dev squad, two sets of HQ Tank boxset Rhino armor decorations so the whole Castigator/Whirlwind kitbash cost has just drastically decreased/changed, also another Aquila armor panel for the front-facing Lascannon/weapon on the Terminus and a FW Templar Brethren helm for the gunner/crewman, a couple of FW DW Companion helms alongside a few other pieces for the Inceptor and Suppressor squads. Most importantly I picked up some Crusader track armor/launchers? for the Terminus and the more decorative torso and legs for a future Centurion Dev squad.

Those EC clowns have no idea about bling and more relics than Lion El'jonson can shake a stick at! (some cool bits potentially in the next month or so depending on other demands)

My paints are close to two years old now and are starting to dry. I'm looking to replace all my core colors from the GW range, I'll certainly be buying BB's for the pots,pre-diluting everything, and using my existing pots for even weaker mixes in an effort to increase my actual painting time. All this and the miscellaneous characters - I'm confident that's a year or two's painting right there.

I've ended up making a different sergeant for the Devastator squad as my order from Element is taking GW quite some time to stock what I'm assuming is their last run of the Warpsmiths and also the Jokaero weaponsmith seems to be out of stock on GW's side, I want my bloody (black) primer! I've just replicated what I previously had done with the Sternguard and Tactical Sgt's minus a little bit of cloth, I'll do the same for the Multi-Melta Dev squad I have planned to keep some kind of regimental/unit clarity.

I have the replacement heavy bolter model for Rodicus painted with the exception of the gun, arms, and pauldrons again I'm just waiting on orders to continue, I'll likely make a mix and match Dev squad with Volkite, Plasma, and Rocket Launcher marines so Rodicus has his place.

I've also just tallied my painted models to a total of 1880pts, which is a nice feeling (not a legal army but who cares) as I'm close to the 2000 mark.

No painting for the time being and foreseeable future but in preparation for my customized Whirlwinds I've ordered two sets of SoB Immolator side and rear panels, I've trawled the internet for exhausts but can't seem to find any (I've got a feeling this is going to be a long wait to source these items - The circular side doors covered in insignia on SoB tanks are another expensive issue, I'm leaning towards plasti-card here). I picked up a combat arm Multi-Melta from the Ironclad Dreadnought set for a little variation on my Venerable Dreadnought which will be equipped with a kitbashed Multi-Melta made/painted previously plus two Castigator side sponsons and bolters for a LR Terminus Crusader. Finally, I picked up a few more decorative items.

With the new HH releases, it's looking like tanks are on the menu. Terminus, Terminus Crusader, 2 Excelsior, 1 Spartan, 1 Kratos, and 2 heavily customized Whirlwinds - yes please. That is the long-term plan alongside completing a squad of Venerable Dreadnoughts. (Looks like a costly three years ahead)

Having nearly reached 2000 (potentially another 1000 unpainted) points, I went back through my eBay/site invoices, the army is costed at around the £450 mark excluding paint/materials. This really isn't bad considering it has filled a good portion of Lockdown and now the scant spare time I have. £15/Month really isn't bad - excluding the time invested and frustration involved

With a little bit of perseverance, a lot of patience, and plenty of theorizing followed by trawling bits I've managed to make my HQs at a fraction of their stock counterpart's cost - likely 1/4 of the cost. The customization has been the main source of enjoyment for me despite being very small changes/tweaks when army-wide it's starting to make me smile.

EDIT (06/06/22) I've had a closer look at the side panels for the Immolators, it looks like I'm going to have to cut a little panel shielding as they have more armor on the top plate/sides compared to Rhino's, I'm confident I can make it work still (hopefully). I also picked up a modded Shrine of the Aquila from eBay which had the standard panels and 3 of the eagle panels for quite a steal, I've been watching their prices on eBay and impulsively bought this given the price, I also lost two bids on other Shrines, outside of paying >£200 they are fairly in demand! (rerun GW ). This will be the foundation for my scenery.

Whilst giving in to unneccassary purchases I picked up a reasonably priced, fresh in the bag FW Chaplain Dreadnought. Being the inspiration for my own kitbashed Dread I'm looking forward to painting this regardless of resin rather than plastic.

Some more grey items arrived and are ready to be painted grey (which won't be for a considerable amount of time), terrain, and a long OOP LR front hatch/door. Just waiting on the FW Chaplain Dreadnought now - I've got a really nice weapon mod in mind for it but that will be the last of my eBaying now until I have time to devote to completing what I have already awaiting primer/paint.

Edit 18/06: Chaplain Dreadnought has arrived, he's going to be equipped with the custom Multi-Melta and the spear combat arm from the Furioso Dreadnought set, I picked up a MKIV Seismic Hammer also which will be saved for the Ironclad. The remaining Furioso sprue will provide some variation to the rather drab current Close combat choices, the Chainsaw arm in the Ironclad kit will also make a nice addition.

Some primer and basic blocks of colour down. The SoB bits are a nightmare to merge with SM kits and the concept is being benched for the time being, the wheel/track mounts appear to be slightly different sizes and the rear hatch is a different shape/configuration. I've decided to chop the SoB rear hatches down in an effort to make them fit with a little bit of borrowing from the original doors. Given I have 2 more sets of the HQ command Rhino panels sitting there I'll come back to this ball-ache at a later date.

A lot more grey to prime, my single rattle can didn't get me very far, with that said I got most of the backlog of vehicles and MK III squads ready for some paint, I'm now in need of paints as my original order is beginning to run out and a few have dried out. Given its summer I'll likely finish what I am capable of with the kit I have and then revisit the project again this winter.

The Rhino will have one of the original (I want to say triangular) front armor panels from the new HH kit, am I correct in believing they contain these? rather than what is in the image. The two Whirlwinds planned will have the same style as the Rhino but with other HH front armor plus some additional SoB bling. Both the LR and Rhino kits fit perfectly (a little checking before painting/full assembly so the issues with the last kit were just due to the plastic warping - a 10 year old sprue).

Very slowly coming to completion, lots of other components are painted for future models so when they arrive all the additional items/decorations will be ready to go. All still WIP both assembly and paint wise. No idea why the last image is flipped, correcting my side and re-uploading isn't fixing, oh well.

Okay, divergence from the plan.

The dreadnought squad taking shape.

Finally had a little bit of free time despite the 7-day weeks. Sidelined the dreadnoughts for the time being and moved on to the Land Raider Terminus, just a few pieces to spruce up and mold/join lines to hide on the guns now, I cut down a set of LR doors as I didn't like the gun mounts with door recesses behind so I problem solved that with a few spare parts. Plus a set of custom Rievers (yes the correct British spelling) I'll be swapping the heads over for MKII World Eater ones (buying 2 sets so they will have the slit visors and spikey helms, the nuln/metallic wash I use needs more nuln as the metallic speckling is looking OTT from the images uploaded). the rest will be used on 2 squads of infiltrators, Finally found the Blackshields shoulder pads for them after over a year of searching!. Had some real issues squeezing shoulder pads onto Primaris arms and they are still awaiting some wet blending, glazing on pads and edge highlights (second day of painting on them so far)

I've got a huge backlog of models and some spare time in the evenings now so I hope to be getting through my backlog of half-completed models not I have all bits purchased, well almost all.On a side note, why am I getting 18ML of Nuln for the same price as 24 GW, especially with the obligatory price rises incoming please leave Nouln out of the increase #trollfinances

Terrain-wise, I'm up to 7 shrines of the Aquila and multiple cities of death terrain so that's almost completed (in theory and lacking paint). Two or three more big purchases to make on that front and the diorama for the Legions Battle Barge will be completed.

That is an impressive land raider. The ultramarine eagles really fits into the EC aesthetic quite nicely.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
That is an impressive land raider. The ultramarine eagles really fits into the EC aesthetic quite nicely.

Cheers bud, it is indeed one hell of a Land Raider!

Now fully immersed in the Infiltrator kitbash, blocked in colour, and added very rudimentary dark/lights to start the blending work from, very much WIP paint-wise and waiting on some FW bits to complete the models. MKII World Eater heads, MKIII upgrade set for the Sgt, and a vox for each of the squads plus Mediant multi-melta's for the upcoming second Dev squad and Kalibrax Autocannons for what will be my custom Supressors. With that order, I'll be close to completion (purchase-wise) for all of the custom/kitbash infantry ideas I've been sitting on for literally years now - finally! :(Just a matter of adding paint to plastic) I've given up trying to prevent wool fiber from ending up on my models and just deemed it as an acceptable casualty now

Another kitbashed Captain/Lt/HQ model. Touch-up work where the model has been handled, glazing and final edge highlights to go now. This one has been quitte an enjoyable little project due to the variety of colours used rather than the usual mass of grey.

A couple more Dreadnoughts arrived, the BA Furioso kit provides some much-needed variation on the close combat arm which is a welcome change. World Eater heads are en-route for the infiltrator/incursors along with MKIII comm's upgrade for each, Sanguinary guard for the next Vet Vanguards (power swords) and finally a set of Medant pattern Multi-Melta's for an upcoming Dev squad.

A little more progress on the Venerable Dreadnoughts. Blending is half done on the main parts, the start of glazing to smooth over the blends and the rest to be blocked in.FW items arrived so the Infiltrator and Incursor squads are awaiting heads to be primed/painted and the Dev squad are primed ready for painting and their Medant pattern Melta's.

Been a long time since posting/painting but I've had a day or two's downtime and put this little guy together. I'd like to go back in and sort out some of the details but alas reality prevails. Going to be 4 more upcoming at some point but it was nice to just sit down peacefully with a paintbrush again. I've got 3 Landspeeder Tempest which I've very very slowly been tackling over the past half a year but they are still awaiting bases and the final few parts to be painted before posting. A lifetime of grey miniatures in boxes now at my current rate of painting/hobbying.

Welcome back! The latest flamer dude is looking great! Just looked back a few posts too and that Land Raider is insane! It might even have enough dakka!

 gobert wrote:
Welcome back! The latest flamer dude is looking great! Just looked back a few posts too and that Land Raider is insane! It might even have enough dakka!

Triple thanks bro. Had a little bit of a binge on my days off, another Captain I don't need but looks cool (assault from black reach model) and the custom bladeguard I started about 3 years ago. Put the FW World Eater helmets on my infiltrator/incursors, I just need to base them now before photographs are inbound. A 3/4 complete Dev squad of Multi-Melta - again FW Medant? pattern with one modern Multi Melta just for a bit of variety, again these need basing. It's been nice to get a little bit inspired again after such a long break.

It's all in boxes/bits currently but I've about 6 Shrine of Aquila kits, 2 Fortress of Redemption, a Plasma Obliterator and a serious amount of cities of death terrain which will be their home, waiting on being able to justify buying another Obliterator and they will have their home - should make a much more immersive background for photos, designing it to look like the top of an Imperator titan with the Plas Obliterators being the titan shoulder weapons ontop of a couple of spires, I dread to think of the price premium paid for all that OOP terrain but it will hopefully look good once built, sits about 5ft width with 3 levels of Shine Aquila walls so roughly 3 foot height!

That’s a nice purple on the captains cloak! The terrain sounds epic too!

It's been quite some time since I've even thought about, let alone bought or painted any miniatures but I finally mustered the enthusiasm to put the two Whirlwinds and Razorback together which I ordered a couple of years back. I've recently picked up some old FW doors and Vindicator side armor which was the main catalyst for putting glue to plastic as they were reaching the stage where I envisioned them to be. 1 more FW Landraider front door top hatch (needs cutting like the one in photo) and a pair of side doors to complete, alongside a couple more of the venerable dreadnought decor pieces.

The front hull will have the sides from the SoB Exorcist rear door added over the chopped sprue used to fill the gap from the FW hatch, with a bit of filler it's fine but why not add a more decorative mask. The SoB decor is a bit cooked as the floral patterns are wrong as I mixed up the pieces - Razorback front hull and Whirlwind launcher but I can live with it as I dont think I'm lifting them without ruining.

My main focus with the vehicles has been to remove the "oh another rhino" (or varient) feeling by breaking up the uniformity of all the small pieces and generic shapes, just one more Rhino to go and that will be the last of the tanks for the army, I've a demios pattern damocles in mind with a recreaton of the old FW release with the crew inside with a couple of LED's and additions from a Land Speeder Storm and Tornado kits plus the computer displays from the Land Raider internals. That will be 5 Rhino chassis and with the addition of a SoB Rhino front hull plate I will have managed 0 repeated generic doors, panels and armor which I'm pretty happy about.

I have most of the army packed away in boxes or unopened though its coming close to completion purchase-wise (scenery excluded, which has become it's own gigantic mass or grey).

Lots of cleaning before primer and the glue marks are from where decor will be placed once primer and the main vehicle is complete, I much prefer sub-assembly painting but given my paints have dried and I got bored, here we are.

Crazy to think, 6 years since I started the project and after dismantling some of my earlier hero models I'm down to about 2000pts (now mostly legends) of painted mini's. Thats 333.33 pts per year, 27.77 pts per month, 0.91 pts per day. Speed painter of the century!

Chopped up the old spare door I had to see how the pillars looked after removing the previous sprue pieces alongside some very careful trimming of the FW door to make it fit - damn scary to do given their scarcity, it'll need a little filling but I'm happy with it, the other FW doors and LR hatch are in the post plus a few more immolator doors as I've decided I don't like how boring the flat armor of the side panel is on the back hatch of the Rhino's. With a little cutting I can add some ornate decor pretty easily.

The next mini project is removing the las cannon gun tips from the Terminus as I've decided to replace them with Venerable Dreadnought ones I have spare, which adds laurels and also gets rid of the horrible very visible join/mould lines on the guns.

I got the scenery boxes down from the loft this morning and had a dig about for anything suitable for the Demios/Damocles. I've got 3 Attack Bike kits ready to be bashed with a Ravenwing Bike and Command squad so there will be 2-3 spare sitting legs/torso/arrms from that for the Rhino internals. I'm looking at a GK Strike squad for the pointing finger and open hand - plus some other goodies which are useful on their sprues. I'm also missing a Falchion for one of my custom Assault squad so the box will solve that issue also.

Unsure how its going to work as yet but I know I have the bits to make something interesting. May go with one sitting marine, one with bolter covering the door which will be removed/magnetized to view inside and a Scout from the Storm Speeder box manning the consol. Plus driver, cutting away the window screen/wipers on the rhino's is entirely viable so another led in the Rhino front compartment will be used also - hence the chair from RT.

The pipe from the same RT sprue will be really nice for the two Autochoral's and the drop pods will make nice additions to the inside of the fortress I'm constructing (the construction time on this makes HS2 look swift!)

I have Derrago from the Hero series in the post en route to me. I'm going to discard all the marine aside from the banner and kitbash him into a Terminator Ancient by mixing firstborn DA and GK terminator pieces.

That’s some blinged out Rhino chassis’! Jealous of Derrago, he’s 1 of 2 from the heroes series’ that I’m missing (I’m not counting the wierd Dark Angels one)

 gobert wrote:
That’s some blinged out Rhino chassis’! Jealous of Derrago, he’s 1 of 2 from the heroes series’ that I’m missing (I’m not counting the wierd Dark Angels one)

Cheers man, its been a slog waiting for the bits to appear on ebay thats for sure. Yeah he's pretty cool (the banner) the rest is kinda bland. There is one on ebay currently, almost double what I paid but its NOS. I just checked out your space hulk stuff (and necrons/demons) they look really good buddy.

I like your gems - especially the green and how you've built up the armor, I've been considering changing from red to green/emerald as its on the edge of acceptable with purple and will provide a good contrast, I think yours have inspired me to change them. Nice pruple on the demon too, makes me want an airbrush.

I hesitate saying rare models names, feels like the second you type their names they vanish from ebay. With that said, I can't bring myself to pay the price but there is also a Brother Captain Thessarius up for sale currently.

Just waiting on the final set of FW doors to arrive now, it's not perfect as there are a few gaps and glue across the model from trial and error, I will fix the gaps and I hope the primer and sponging on colour after base coat will help disguise the glue marks and some have decor to be reapplied.

I've now chopped up the spare SoB rear vehicle doors and added more to the backs of all vehicles including some pretty cool eagle heads I picked up from an Imperial knight kit.

Chopped and moved around the marines legs for the Damocles to fit kind of okay in the chair and also removed the lower section of the chair to better fit the Rhino, conceptually the idea is complete, I just need to order a HH Demios and the FW radar upgrade.

I just found these Land Speeder Tempest I forgot I'd even painted, I had diligently bagged the antenna thankfully. They were amongst another box of bits I was quite happy to find alongside another whirlwind still boxed. I will rebase these sometime in the future as I hate the clear plastic bases.

Squidworth wrote:
Cheers man, its been a slog waiting for the bits to appear on ebay thats for sure. Yeah he's pretty cool (the banner) the rest is kinda bland. There is one on ebay currently, almost double what I paid but its NOS. I just checked out your space hulk stuff (and necrons/demons) they look really good buddy.

I like your gems - especially the green and how you've built up the armor, I've been considering changing from red to green/emerald as its on the edge of acceptable with purple and will provide a good contrast, I think yours have inspired me to change them. Nice pruple on the demon too, makes me want an airbrush.

I hesitate saying rare models names, feels like the second you type their names they vanish from ebay. With that said, I can't bring myself to pay the price but there is also a Brother Captain Thessarius up for sale currently.

Yeah, the rarer Space Marine Heroes go for absolutely silly money, Thessarius is particularly mad. Early on I nearly bought him for a halfway sensible price but it wasn’t meant to be and my army has cooler looking Captains now anyway. Glad you liked the gems, I got plenty of practice on the Space Hulk Terminators. As Green gems, they go really well with purple especially if you throw some lime green in there. If you’re thinking of replicating the Daemons colours, there was no airbrush involved, just purple spray primer from below and pink from above and 45 degrees.

Great work blinging up the rhino, hopefully the glue marks are recoverable. The driver is looking good in his throne. For the door, you might be able to use magnets to get it in and remain openable to see the insides?

Those three speeders look fantastic! The black nmm style on the armour panels works really nicely on them and somehow makes them seem faster. I’m with you on not liking the clear bases though, I think I swapped mine for a normal 60mm base which looks much better imho.

 gobert wrote:

Yeah, the rarer Space Marine Heroes go for absolutely silly money, Thessarius is particularly mad. Early on I nearly bought him for a halfway sensible price but it wasn’t meant to be and my army has cooler looking Captains now anyway. Glad you liked the gems, I got plenty of practice on the Space Hulk Terminators. As Green gems, they go really well with purple especially if you throw some lime green in there. If you’re thinking of replicating the Daemons colours, there was no airbrush involved, just purple spray primer from below and pink from above and 45 degrees.

Great work blinging up the rhino, hopefully the glue marks are recoverable. The driver is looking good in his throne. For the door, you might be able to use magnets to get it in and remain openable to see the insides?

Those three speeders look fantastic! The black nmm style on the armour panels works really nicely on them and somehow makes them seem faster. I’m with you on not liking the clear bases though, I think I swapped mine for a normal 60mm base which looks much better imho.

Yeah they are quite pricey, I understand why the premium is there as it's OOP but it has its limitations before it gets unrealistic pricewise. I paid £40 for Derrago which I consider the cost of a Hero unit to be close to, when you start going into the double/triple cost of a similar unit I've lost interest and wait for cheaper to appear (MARKET OPPORTUNITY GW: re-runs with ^20% markup will very likely sell well - my opinion and banks wishful thinking ). The gems I will be moving to green and indeed I'll put the Dorn yellow from my cloth highlights into the green for the lime.

Thats really good to know with the spray cans as I'm considering a small Eldar diorama. I will copy what you've done and contrast over them - I'm excited to paint something vibrant after all the grey. Flyer bases I have plans for. The Rhino insides is out of the window due to model size, the concept will go back to my original plan of a land raider, which will be a Crusader variant, with more room I can get the best out of the models which will be inside that way. I'm on the magnet thought with you already. Standby for that one in 2030.

The terrain has been half prepped, I need perhaps a couple more boxes of terrain and several sets of Necromunda floor tiles. I ran out of primer yesterday sadly (rhino's are primed too). The third floor I can make out of what remains but I want to continue the Aquila Shrine windows onto that floor rather than Cities of Death.

I have smaller imperial gun emplacements for the first floor, the voidshield, autochoral, pipes, and plasma reactors on the 2nd and the Fortress of Redemption centered on the third, the two towers I'd like to extend which I will do once the Shrine of Aquila walls are purchased. (I may add a couple of the hive datastacks to the 2nd floor terrain, considering some of the craft plastic transparent paper sheets idk wtf its called to create some glass for the windows as a final flourish)

I will be able to store all my models once painted inside the gate/1st floor so it will eventually double as storage. The Imperator fortress begins - considering one of the Nemesis Titan back cannons for the central gun ontop of the first floor plus some Cities of Death walls to mount it on, I will get another Plasma Obliterator to mount on the second tower/spire and bam my diorama is complete. Probably quite close to correct for scale once the three floors are assembled luckily not that it was intended.

Looking forward to seeing all that terrain painted.

That’s some serious terrain you’re putting together! It’s going to be an awesome storage/display area for your minis

Cheers lads. It's certainly enough to keep me occupied for the next 2-3 years. I've added a couple more ideas to the list for the terrain.

Currently working out the side walls to connect towers and the recess on the 2nd floor which houses the void shield and generatorum.

The cities of death manufacorum bits will be added to the two towers to give more height, the open hatches I'm considering getting an assortment of Lemen Russ battlecannons for some extra firepower. There is one more AA gun from the Imperial Defense scenery en-route.

I've also got some Ravenwing bikes coming before they go OOP, the bikes will go to the 3x attack bikes I have unopened and the bodys will be used to kitbash some jetbikes with the Custodian Vertus Praetors set. I also got my hands on a sprue of the Sector Imperialis oval base set for the Land Speeders, Jetbikes and remaining Dreadnought.

Some World Eater MkII legs to finish the flamer squad plus a Pyroclast squad I picked up from Ebay for the backpacks, a FW DA Inner circle? helmet for the Champion - going to remake the model, I like the pose on the Watcher just not the armor. Finally, I got my hands on the Upgrade kit from the SM HQ Tank set in perperation for the LR Crusader. Oh and I picked up A Cataphractii box which has just gone OOP - No idea why as they were some of the coolest models I've seen and brought back MLS death of hope moments which was actually the main catalyst for me buying models for the project again after decades.

What a guy, what an animation!