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Built a Deredeo and made my first LItbash!

I wasnt happy with the included seregeant models, since they have those weird HH helmet plumes, so weapon swapped a left arm from one of the sergeants and transplanted it onto an Apotechary body. Took a while, was fiddly AF, and in the end I messed up reattaching the arm a bit (looks anatomically wrong when looked from behind the model), but all things considering I did all right! I'm going to be doing more of this sort of bashing going forward..

I also realized one can build RT style Razorbacks and Whirlwinds by bashing together bits from a Predator, a Rhino and either Tarantula turret from the Astartes Support kit. I'm going to need more Rhinos, stat..




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Wrapping up for today. Got a Leviathan and a Rapier built, LItbashed the Levi to have two sets of siege drills, which is the build I'm going to use for the 28mil version. Such a build is illegal in LI, but what the heck.. wont be playing it for a long time hehehe!

I'm getting the Drop Pod box by early next week, starting with one Deathstorm and one regular, to mirror the ones I already have in 28mm. Until next time..

Built my first Drop Pod yesterday. The kit is pretty inpressive, I felt like a swss watchmaker putting it together. I did mess up again, one of the door pieces was accidentally clipped slightly from its corner, and I lost one of the deathstorm central column supports, it fell from my hobby table and was never seen again, despite almost an hour of intense searching.. Just means I have one less full deathstorm assemblies, so will need to make one of the pods permanently fixed into a transport model instead.

I hope some GW bitz sellers eventually start selling individual LI bitz as well, I have lost two important parts already, and not looking forward to having to buy an entire 40€ kit just because of one missing piece.. FFS

Other than that, I am really getting hooked on working in this new Epic scale.. I feel like building these kits is improving the tightness of my overall modelling skills. The absolutely micron scale operations you need to do with these in terms of cleaning and sanding neatness is both challenging and rewarding.



You dont actually need to glue down the drop pod completely in order to have a playable model. You can leave the pod in three distinct pieces, this allows you to swap the insides so you can get maximum flexibility from the kit. You might even be able to magnetize the transport harness/deathstorm launcher insides, there is room for one circular disc magnet in the inside of both central pieces, although to be honest, the fit is super snug, no magnets really needed. Here are the subassemblies:



Decided the best way to deal with the "turret" is just to use the deathstorm build turret for both varieties. You can always claim it has a storm bolter tucked inside it somehow :p

This kind of loosey-goosey drop pods might irritate some people, but I figured since the pods never move after entering the table, the fragile build should still be adequate.

I have been toying with the idea of Recreating Space Marine 1st edition & 1st edition Adeptus Titanicus with the modern models (including Codex Titanicus rules / units), and finally decided on the Traitor legion I'll be running with. I will make one side my IXth, of course, and the traitors shall be from the.. I want to say XIVth (Death Guard) legion?

Anyways, to start off small and un-ambitious, the plan is to make micro-HH2 armies from both first.. LI kits are actually genious for this sort of thing, the amount of models you get per kit is not very generous for LI, but quite generous for HH2, especially if you go halfies on the two sprues in each kit.. So anyway, that is happening before any LI-army as such..

On the 28mm front, I am waiting for the Command upgrade (that banner mainly), and next kits in the requisition queue are the new resin MKV & MKVI Apotecharies and the BA upgrade gubbins set. Those iconographied weapons will add some nice flair to things, I'm even contemplating on ditching my resin Captain sketch for a kitbashed version of Dominion Zephon, now that there are more decent looking two-handed weapons available..

Got some more kits, so finished assembling my "Whirlwind" and built a Spartan for my Terminators. I'm almost at the point where I have most of my 28mil army builds mirrored in Epic scale, and Land Speeders are coming to preorder next saturday, soon I'll have everything in place..

Here's the Epic stuff assembled so far

Started work on the AT18 starter box contents! Working this kit takes me back to my teenage years.. to a certain Dual Plasma Blastgun, Warp Runners metal Warhound mini I built and painted back then! The current kit is lightyears beyond the one I built back in the day. Stoked to get this bwoy built upright!

The AT18 Warhound Dual kit is a masterpiece in many regards. You get just enough variation bitz that a dual kit can actually build 4+ distinctive looking models. Seam lines only in the guns and leg "bones", the canopy is a brill design which hides partically everything unsightly

Been a while hehehe!

Got the resin Apocathery models, just sketching a Sang Priest. The model looks actually better IRL than in the picts, somehow the pose doesnt "work" in 2D. The cape makes him look off in the picts, like hes stunty or something, but when placed next to the plastic MKVI the scale is on point.



Will be needing more oldskool resin jump packs..

I think he looks pretty cool here, even his chainsword looks a bit surgical with its extra vents.

I always wonder with jump pack + robes if it flies up in their face when they land

 Cap'n Facebeard wrote:
I think he looks pretty cool here, even his chainsword looks a bit surgical with its extra vents.

I always wonder with jump pack + robes if it flies up in their face when they land

Of course it does!

Heres the MKV version. MKV Assault resin kit on backorder, so more packs will be a while..



I really love the new MKV look here and am starting to lean towards making my DC MKV, all black and paudlrony, with red Xs as the only decorum besides Studs. Headcanon could spin it as those actual MKV suits were used by brothers who boarded the Horus's ship, they have seen the end and the death, even if the brothers within have not.. Some great battle damage modelling potential there!

I could also imagine a MKV Chaplain model, would look dopez

Well, seems like those jump packs became hard to source due to GW having sold out on the product. From now on, jump pack collecting will require digging into the 2nd hand market..

Back to the epic - Starting with the "Space" portion of my force so far..



I have been without a hobby desk for over 6 months now. Yesterday I finally got a desk set up, and got back to the epic scale builds. Now we know you can actually fit a Deredeo with Missiles into a Dread Pod! It's tight but fits

Hadn’t spotted your MkV apothecary until now, such a cool model. I hope you go MkV for the Death Company, it’s such a cool kit. When they bring out the plastic version I doubt I’ll be able to resist!
Love the deredeo in the drop pod… too cute!

Loving the builds! Really characterful. And I too love the old metal scouts. Some of the best models in the range and still the best scouts. I think they scale up great!

Also I'd love to know where you got those jetpacks. Are they third party casts or prints?

Thanks guys!

The Jump packs are from the sadly now OOP "MK V Assault Squad" FW resin kit. I managed to score ten more of them from ebay at insane expense, they are shipping to me and I whould receive them within two weeks. I reckon 15 jump packs will have to be enough for the whole army, that means two squads of 5 Marines plus 5 spare ones for HQs/characters.

that mk5 apothacary is delicious...

lovely stuff all round.
...and the "honey I shrank the bloodangels" side-project is a great way of doing stuff too expensively prohibitive in 40k scale. not that epic (or whatever they call it. Im too much of a curmudgeon to call it anything other than epic) is cheap these days...

..it certainly isnt. I've been buying a kit here and there after the initial hype, their price makes them tempting to buy every now and then like once a month. But I think I'm getting into a much more representative look at the army in the smaller scale, just need to replicate the results in 28mil later..

Made a DIY flying stand for the Land Speeder. GW really dropped the ball by not making clear stands for the plastic kit. So I took a spare flying stand rod, cut out the ball bit and drilled the thing onto the original LI base I'm supposed to use for the Speeder models.



Also started work on a Thunderhawk, should be done with it in 2-3 more sessions..

Thunderhawk is getting there.. Its a big one! A Land Speeder looks tiny next to it..



Overall, I feel like the army is finally starting to feel "Space"y enough.. Replicating this in 28mil would be expensive though!

Looking good, and yeah, the inclusion of a Thunderhawk would make it rather pricey in 28mm!

…

But think how cool it would be

It would be very cool, and it's not totally off the table.. But I'm holding out hope that GW will re-do the model in plastic. The resin model is undoubtedly super heavy and impractical for any sort of gaming, even my lil resin Caestus Assault Ram weighs a bunch!

Got the Thunderhawk chassis built up. Just weapons and final tidying up to go..

So my desperate Jump Pack aquisition attempt went through! Got my hands on 10 HH era Ultramarine Locutarus Storm Squad models with jump packs, and boy have I got some salvage work ahead of me!

I thought I scored 10 MKV Jump packs.. Turns out, only 5 of them were MKV Packs, the remaining five were some other batch, which looks almost identical, but has different kinds of details on the lower side of the large tubes. They also have two ball-shaped thingamajigs in the back as opposed to only 1 on the MKV packs. These are what, MKII Jump Packs? I have no idea.. Anyhoo, I appreciate this slight difference in their looks, this will be another subtle way to give further individuality to my Jump Pack Marines

The bits on the models were superglued in place and primed blue. Superglue in itself is no problem, it dissolves well enough with white spirits, but these resin bits are ancient by now, very brittle, so they tear apart if I try to apply too much force to pull the bits apart. Already tore one Jump Pack while trying to get it off the backside of a model

Fortunately, some of the parts came off easily by applying white spirits on the joints with only a little force applied, so my theory is, as long as I strip all the paint from the models (which is covering the CA glue so white spirits doesnt reach it), down to bare resin, I should be able to get the pieces off from each other without further tearing. If worse comes to worst, I will resort to using a razor saw for cutting off the pieces, I can use my spare resin MKVI backpack bits to repair some of the damage from identical looking sections.. Hmm, perhaps sawing/cutting will be the better approach regardless? Just one vertical cut along the back should remove the pack, right? Will make reattaching them a bit tricky, but I can just use magnets I suppose..

Now then, anyone have a use for FW Horus Heresy Ultramarine Locutarus heads, swords and torsos? I hear these are quite rare these days.. PM me, I can let go of these bits if you got something to trade.. but you'll pay for the shipping

Good luck with the jump packs, eBay rescues can be a challenge. I wasn’t aware that white spirits breaks down super glue, that will come in handy, thanks. Also, the previous owner of the kneeling legs really didn’t like mould lines!

 gobert wrote:
Good luck with the jump packs, eBay rescues can be a challenge. I wasn’t aware that white spirits breaks down super glue, that will come in handy, thanks. Also, the previous owner of the kneeling legs really didn’t like mould lines!

It doesn't remove all the gunk, but does seem to break the bond between parts. Further cleanup can then be made with products such as AK Interactive's Eraser:

https://ak-interactive.com/product/eraser-cleaner-for-cyanocrylate-glue-excess-remover/

You mean they didn't clean the mold lines?

I think these models were bashed from just the helmets and MKIV style breatplates from the FW resin upgrade kit and plastic arms, legs & other parts.. Also, the undercoated blue seems on a bit thick..

I mean, they removed some of the thigh when they did the mould line

That eraser stuff looks quite handy, might see if I can source some locally. Cheers and good luck with the rescue

Second and third Jump Pack removed! I sussed out a pretty good way of getting the packs off from the models intact. Applying one to three passes of AK Paint Stripper to the area around the glue join removed enough paint so the white spirits worked their magic, snapping off the packs neatly without any tearing. Now kind of regret messing up the first one due to impatience.. Oh well, its easy enough fix.

With enough classic style packs now at play, I have all of the bitz required for DC, Assault squad and up to 5 Character models. Not much infantry stuff missing from the complete army.. Assault Terminators, and more characters and I am just missing some vehicles

Great to see your tips for removing and stripping parts here. As a fellow model rescuer, sometimes there are parts which simply won't come apart and I often accept that they have to be broken.

I'll try some of these tips next!

As free time is finally sliding into view, its time to get back to army building and that.

Heading to the countryside, will re-introduce myself to the number 2 brush and hand painting, testing my newly refined colour scheme with suitably thematic models - the plastic monopose Marines from the 2nd edition starter box!

I was offering these for fellow oldhammerists for a while on Dakka's markeplace, but since no-one showed interest, I will just paint these up myself. These models will be a great practice for the real deal later. I might even go for the old style green bases for these ones, since I still have the og GW sand and everything

The new refined colourscheme sees the main red colour change once again. I am still going to use AK Red Primer for the primer layer, but this will be overpainted with the new Blanchitsu Vermillion colour. I mean, what else could I possibly use for my Angels, than the same colour Mr Blanche used for his 2nd edition cover art? (At least this is what Fiery Vermillion looks to me old eye to be, anyways..)

AK Interactive also released new "Contrast" paints. The leather ones in that range interest me greatly, they look hella realistic for painting realistic lookin leather textures to me, will buy those soon enough to test for myself. you know me, always going for the gear over having to learn advanced painting techniques hehehe!

A small update. My attempts to utilize Warpaints Fiery Vermillion over AK Red Primer, both applied with a brush, are proving to be a no-go. For whatever reason, Fiery Vermillion has an absolutely horrible coverage, requiring 3 to 4 coats to cover the primer tone. I'd rank it to the rubbish tier as far as acrylics coverage, right up there with whites and yellows.. Which means one of two options: Either applying it with an airbrush, or applying it on top of a white primer layer. Successive paint layer caused "caking" on a miniature finish is one of my top icks, so airbrushing, or forgoing Fiery Vermillion completely, is looking probable at this point. As for these test minis, paint stripping and starting from scratch is always an option.

The most frustrating thing about this is, Fiery Vermillion is the closest match I've gotten to the classic og Blood Angels colourscheme as far as color tone is concerned. Here's an A/B pict how the color looks vs the AK Red Primer. Brighter, more vibrant.. I'm confident the end result would be super close to the old WD colourscheme after adding some washes etc

Another observation - a good painting light has become a non-negotiable item for me. I cant see flock all here in the countryside, forget about any sort of detail work without one

The dabbling continues..

PS: Note to self, best white/black pairing I've found so far - Warpaints Blanche Ivory White (good coverage, off white but still reads quite white) and AK Smoke Black (off black which still reads black)

Still have not sorted out the hobby space dilemma but some progress nonetheless.

I got the new MKII Assault Squad kit, and here is the first Assault Marine with all plastic bits!



I think the plastic Jump Pack, being larger and chunkier, feels right for the IXth. I am also experimenting here with the chunkier MKII arms, might give me a bit more "Samus Aran" style silhouette to a beakie.. In any case, the Jump Pack suit is already sturdier looking, why not add to the difference by giving those models chunkier arms as well? I could get used to some of these bolt pistol patterns.. I'm certainly going to mix up pistol patterns more with the old models!

Looks like I'm not the only one making this type of an army. User Starblade on Reddit posted this pict of their collection thus far. A superb reference for myself going forward. I'll also attach it into the gallery, in case the original post gets deleted or lost in time..

We don't see 100% eye to eye on all the little details of the aesthetic, but this is as close as I've ever seen someone else come to my own vision. Stored for future reference! He calls the style "Grimbright", but im personally not down with any fancy painting microtrends, so meh, whatever..



Couple of things I really love about this pict. First of all, the yellow RT-style helmet stripes on the Assault Marines looks as good as I hoped it would! Certainly going to reconsider doing those.. Second of all, the dude is using the old metal Terminator Captain in his army! While I applaud the work he has done on it, I cannot help but think it looks TINY next to his fellow Terminators..