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I've been a part of the Warhammer hobby since around 2002. Like many, my first exposure to Games Workshop was the Lord of the Rings miniature game on display at my local Barnes & Noble. After learning more, I gravitated towards warhammer fantasy, until meeting friends at school who were into 40k. I saved up enough cash and asked my dad to take to me to my first gaming store where I purchased a chaplain, rhino, and tactical squad; I was hooked. For nearly the next two decades, I collected, painted and battled across multiple editions, armies and game systems, eventually amassing a Tau, Imperial Guard, and Space Marine force. I ended up trading away my 40k armies for Warmachine/Hordes forces, as they were all the range in my local area. Misfortune and regret...

My imperial forces circa 2014:


Tau arm photo taken around 2016:


This blog has been a long time coming. I've always wanted to share my hobby experiences, not because I am the most talented, or consistent, or the best tactician, but because the majority of the time I spend in the hobby is alone-time, and this will hopefully give me the chance to connect with others as I share my projects. The majority of my photos are poorly lit, taken while the varnish is still drying with models atop my wet palette.

Fast forward to 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to grip the country. I'm in a new city, and a new friend finds out that I was a Warhammer 40k enjoyer. He was primarily interested in Kill Team (1.0) and I jumped at the chance to paint and play again. I decided to start with Tau, as the updated Crisis Suits, Commanders and infantry looked great compared to the older versions I previously owned. Rather than the bright colors of my previous tau army, I wanted a more modern, sleek scheme that would appear both realistic and alien.

For my test model, a lovely Shield Drone, plague of 8th/9th Edition and bane of high strength weapons across the galaxy. Looking back there are things I would change with my initial re-entry; primarily, I didn't use primer. I had always assumed "primer" and "basecoat" were synonymous, so just a layer of vallejo black onto plastic here. I was also overzealous in the number of surfaces I considered "lenses" and may go back and repaint them black. As with anything, they look good the first time, but could be updated to simplify and streamline the scheme.



In terms of basing, I was looking for something that was both alien and desert, and settled on a combination of cork, texture putty, and dry-brushed highlights:


The Drones multiply! Tau make it easy to perfect schemes with so many drones. I'm not a fan of the clear bases so everything is flying over rocks in a desert.




I also picked up an old legacy Shas-o R'myr as a test for Crisis Suit schemes. Pretty happy to see how the scheme translated from drone to suit. I committed to sub-assembly painting, and you can start to see this approach with the Shas'O. There's definitely some inconsistent panel shading going on, for some reason I was only shading the distinct armor panels.





That's it for my first post. I hope to be back soon with some more historical updates.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the progress! Welcome to Dakka's P&M Blogs!

Welcome back to Post #2. In this post I'll recap how I expanded the Tau army and provide a bit more background.

As I was primarily focused on Killteam, I built and painted the majority of my infantry and drones first. My first purchases were a few ebay lots that included the older start collecting with Crisis Suits, the firewarrior killteam from a Killteam starter box, a Ghostkeel, Stealth suits, and a random job lot that had plenty of old drones and 3rd edition firewarriors. Here's an early army shot as the squads and scheme start to come together.


My process for painting is the start with the base and then I typically paint from the feet up. This allows me to be messy with the bases, and then focus more as I move higher up the mini.

Here's a breacher that shows the paint scheme and markings. I'm a big fan of decals as I can't freehand to save my life. In the background you can see how I am sub assembling and painting the miniatures, apparently using khaki paint as the "primer/basecoat." whoops!



I tried the "shifting" effect on stealthsuits; not the greatest up close but looks pretty cool on the table. Stealth suits were pretty fun in KT1.0 so I rushed to get these ready:


The army continued to grow as I was primarily focused on infantry and drones. It was a grind, but I literally had nothing else to do with my time being locked in doors. I really like the look of the infantry en masse.




The breacher contingent doubled in size; not sure why as the weren't great in 40k at the time. I think there was just a need for balance across the army. 20 firewarriors, 20 breachers.


The addition of pathfinders provided some firepower to my killteams. I need to go back and fix all of the carbines across the army. I was overzealous with the lenses and painted the grenade launchers as glass.



Picked up some overpriced Kroot Hounds.


I also started working on Crisis Suits; I love the new kits and flexiblity, but don't like the guns mounted on the sides. I went for magnetized underslung weapons to make them look sleeker. I eventually ordered some 3rd printed hands as well to add variety to the Crisis Suits. My goal with the decals on the Crisis Suits was to have every suit with a different pattern and highlighted armor section to add some individuality. I imagine that Crisis Suit pilots are offered some flexibility in markings and use them as a way to standout to friendly infantry.




I also purchased a Commander; which really got me hooked on adding hands to Crisis suits. Again, I feel like the underslung weapons look more streamlined and modern. I really like the size difference between the old and new suits.


Here are two suits finished. Leaders and Suits get white helmets while commanders get red helmets. The red helmet pays homage to the 1st Tau army I collected. Adding hands really help the suits interact with each other.


I also had so much fun with the first commander I got a 2nd. This time I went for an enforcer who takes a more "shoot over there" approach to leadership. Used the enforcer as the first weathering test. Additionally, I started adding the "II" decal to all of the miniatures to denote that they are my second Tau force.



The Ghostkeel slowly got some paint. It's magnetized as well. At the time it wasn't great in 40k and I think I got it for $30-35. The model is fantastic.


Having not played a game of 40k, and only playing 2-3 games of Killteam, my Tau force continued to expand:







Kitbashed a Cadre Fireblade. I really dislike the GW model. I wanted it to stand out, without looking silly so its the only infantry model without a helmet. I started adding the "II" decal in 4 places: side of Helmet, both sides of weapon and shoulder pad. I don't trust my freehand to the point where I use decals for two lines...



Floating disc ethereal. This is the 1st non Aun-shi ethereal I've owned. I didn't want him to standout too much from the troops, a true leader pretending to understand the plight of the soldier while flying around on a disc with a useless paddle.




Missile Turrets. I'm literally painting everything.


Recon/Marker Drones. So yes, I drill the barrels out of everything, including marker drones. Doesn't it just look cool? After watching the news so much during the pandemic, I thought the decal on the marker drones looked like a "CNN" logo and was fitting for a mini designed to fly around the battlefield and observe/record enemies. The pandemic was obviously getting to me at this point.


Thats it for today. Thanks for sticking around and watching the journey of my Tau force. One more closing picture with preview of what's to come.

I decided that I wanted to expand into a 2nd force, this time, Space Marines. My first 40k minis were Space Marines, and I painted them as Ultramarines, then various successor or custom chapters in different paint schemes. I always like the halved or quartered paint schemes, but could never quite pull them off when I was younger. Given that my first minis were painted as Ultramarines, it only made sense that my next Space Marine force would be successors; the Novamarines. I really like the knightly look of Space Marines and planned to have as many unique heraldries and markings as possible. I imagine that the Space Marines are given the freedom to decorate their armor with tales of their accomplishments; this will translate via Tilt Shields, Purity Seals, Tattoos, Campaign Badges and additional script.

I'm once again using sub-assemblies to maximize reach and detail. Remember, all of this was happening during the pandemic so I had plenty of time to focus on getting the absolute best product I was capable of. In terms of the miniatures, I was blown away at the size of Primaris compared to older marines. Much more palette space and clean lines and panels.

Here's the first test marine:






Throughout this project I am plagued by shoulder decals; I use the micro sol/set combo with layers of varnish, but can never seem to get them to lay perfectly.

My next purchase for the Novamarines was the Indomitus half. I had to get right to work on the Chaplain to test Purity seals and Tattoos. I'm not super happy with my highlighting on the black armor; it looks too thick but I like the model with all of the decals applied.






That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by.

I got into warhammer after reading Malus Darkblade and playing DoW2.

I am digging the two colored armor style!
the decal work is good too.
That is ALOT of work man!

Thank you for sharing your process.

Wow, nice. I love your collection.

Thanks for all of the comments and apologies for the delay in updates.

Continuing with the Novamarine updates:

Assault Intercessors: These guys were fun to paint and decorate. Part of the Novamarine lore is that marines tattooed their faces/bodies (?) with their battle honors so I wanted to represent this with decals. Also wanted to make sure any Marine without a helmet on his head had it attached to his belt. Made sure to magnetize all of the Sergeants to swap weapons.




Eradicators: Pretty straightforward with these guys. I don't want the Gravis armor to be too heraldic so will keep it relatively light on scripts, etc. to signify that it is newer and hasn't earned as many honors.



Primaris LT and Bladeguard Ancient: Bladeguards are probably my favorite Primaris kit so far because they really fit the knightly aesthetic of this force. Lots of tilt shields for individual heraldry.


Bladeguard Captain pre-decal: This guy was really fun to paint. I enjoy the open helm like a medieval knight surveying the battlefield.



Redemptor Dreadnought pre- and post- decals. The only decal missing is a tactical symbol for its off-white shoulder pad. At the time I couldn't find anything large enough to fit. This problem was solved with GW's new SM vehicle decal sheet. I think I'm missing one white square on the knee paint. Might try to add it in the future.




Here's a picture of the force at the time.

Amazing work, you do such a good job on faces.

 toasteroven wrote:
Amazing work, you do such a good job on faces.

Thanks! Definitely not my favorite part! The bare heads offer the chance to show off the face tattoos and stick to the lore!

I'm back with some more Novamarine progress; almost caught up to real-time:

Standard bearer: WIP vs. finished with decals. I think I'm going with the 3rd company here. I need to find something to put in the middle of the circle and find appropriate sized font. I tried using a 10-pointed star in the middle of the circle but it looked silly.



Outriders: Fun to paint. A little tedious but cool to translate the quartered scheme to a different sized model. I'm probably going to go back and pick out and shade the rivets.




Aggressors: No decals in this photo but the 1st gunfire effect. I like the yellow cables and how it pops against the blue/off-white. I'm not sure the lenses on the ammo cases need to be lenses.



Weapon Effects: had fun spreading these out across the different squads. Here you can see each squad has a different squad # on the off-white shoulder pad.


WiP Librarian: Needed a different shade of blue that wasn't Ultramarines blue. Looks different enough to me!



Bladeguard Vets: Probably my favorite Primaris kit for the knightly look.




Sons of Horus: Here's a preview of my Sons of Horus force. I'll go into a lot more detail about this guys, but pretty proud of these pictures and wanted to share:






Thanks again for looking!