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PAINTING UPDATE
I’ve learnt three things today, firstly a little regular progress lets you keep things moving along and gets things done, secondly having a blog helps give me a little extra drive, and thirdly a quite like painting the tyranids. I’ve just finished all 10 of the termagants, at least to a table top standard, and now just need to base them. I’m quite happy at the speed in which i got through them - and so if only i could apply that to my marines I would be ecstatic! The scheme is easy enough today, has a limited palette which speeds things up, and is a little forgiving (always helpful!). In terms of bases i think I will likely go with a snow theme - and I’ve just received some basing material so i have no excuses now. Hopefully I will get time over the weekend, and then I will look to get some finished shots of them (I’ve not been too happy with some of the quality of the photos so far, so the misses has said she will help try and make them look good).

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I also took the opportunity through the week to complete a little inventory of what I had, which was a bigger exercise than I thought it would be. Over the years I’ve acquired a quite a few things, but I have sold some things on whilst always retaining a core of models to paint and build. Hopefully it will mean i can add a bit of variety into what i am painting and I can get a lot of the old things completed (I even discovered a couple of unopened blister packs!). In my head i think i have categorised models into various sections for the army with most going to form part of the Ultramarines but others providing support as part of various other factions. What i had been worried about was finding a 6th tactical squad for my company, but as luck would have it i discovered some spare tactical bodies and a sergeant or two to choose from, so i just need to get building and painting now.

Sing it, brother! Having a community with which to share progress makes it that much easier to sit and make the progress! Like you, I find that if I can just force myself to sit a down and even touch a paint brush, the next thing I know I'm looking around asking "how did two hours go by?".

The hardest thing about my most recent project (now complete) was getting even one small thing done each day, to keep up the inspiration to do one more thing the next.

Very nice pieces here- rock on!

I love your Farseer, and those GK-Ultramarine Librarians are a thing of beauty. Exalted, excited to see what comes next!

The tyranids having differing, yet similar carapace colours is a nice touch too!

PAINTING UPDATE
No photos tonight, but a quick update on where I am. I failed in my attempt to do any basing over the weekend - but managed to get a little painting done instead (and I’m not going to lie working from home and meetings can sometimes be a useful excuse to dabble with a paint brush if your able to mulit-task!)
The two librarians are completed, with bases painted ready to be flocked (if thats the correct word), I’m going to try one on a snowy base and the other on grassland so will see which one is the favourite. I like the idea of both (although my goblin green dried out many years ago!), so plan on having a mixture of both for the army, I’m just not sure what the split will be - help and advice/guidance always welcome.
The devastator (veteran) sergeant is finished so will take the opportunity to complete the bases on the rest of the bolter guys for his squad as well.
And the Farseer is done, base and all - so he is technically the first model finished this year (yey - go me!). I think the cloak turned out well although i am considering whether a red glaze is need on robes - one for me to ponder before he is photographed.

With the tyrannies and elder off the bench, i have been thinking what might be next, I’ve opted for the Prime and the Parasite - slightly larger so i’m interested to see how the painting scheme translates up to the bigger monsters. I had also planned on building a few guardians tonight to add to the painting board - but life, chores and children put paid to that idea! Maybe tomorrow!

@Meer_Cat - it does seem to be a black hole for time sometimes when painting, I find that I sit down with the intent of getting loads done and only get two or three base colours on, or it ends up being 1 in the morning but you just need to add a final highlight!
At the minute I'm enjoying a little variety, although still need to keep one eye on the marines and moving them forward.

@bullisariuscowl - thanks, the Farseer was fun to paint (and I’ll post a completed shot in a day or two). I think the GK kit leads itself well to spare parts for marine librarians, I have another two terminator versions built and just needing to be primed which i will need to find. The swords will help them stand out a little from the average trooper, it was my first attempting to paint using a wet palette to aid transitioning between colours, so will be something to practise in future!
I think i’ll continue mixing the colours on the tyranids, I just don’t know whether to stick to the standard colour scheme for the characters or use the lighter turquoise - any thoughts?

MINIATURE UPDATE
As promised here is a photo of the completed Farseer, and after a session with the glue I have finished basing all the termagants, the genestealer and the librarians - so I can now officially say I have completed 14 models. Which is a new personal best for me ever!
I tried two different techniques for the bases, either applying glue and then the flock or doing a mix of glue, water and flock and the applying it ti the base. I can honestly say I cant tell the difference which is a relief. I think the second method is probably more robust so will likely stick with that.
I have completed a grass base and a snow base each for the librarians, I think i prefer the grass but open to thoughts on it - unfortunately the photos i took didn’t pass the QA /QC screening from the misses so will look to take them again tomorrow.

Making good progress! I love to see it.

HOBBY UPDATE
Afternoon / Evening all, apologies for the lack of updates recently. Life / work and stuff has managed to get in the way of things. And I’m currently sitting with my “angler fish” light trying my best not to disturb the Misses as I type.



Things have been slow on the hobby front, I’ve not progressed much with painting the marines unfortunately – a bit of shading and highlighting has been done but not enough to write home about. I’ve manage to build some guardians, a Tyranid prime, the Parasite of Mortrex, a Tau stealth suit and a few Tau pathfinders and drones, all have been primed and waiting to hit the painting table. I have also built 20 tactical marines so things are moving on that front as well. The Tyranids and Eldar colour scheme will be easy and follow what I have done previously, but I haven’t figured out a colour scheme for the Tau, I’m thinking purple and green (and my advisor agrees so I’m just a few paints short of being able to continue - due for arrival tomorrow!)

In more exciting news, the shed has been sorted, the office has been tidied and display cabinets have now been purchased and built (I’m not sure who is more excited me or my partner), so she has demanded looking through what has been completed to determine what can go on the shelves. I’m taking the approach that they need to be based first, so I have been working towards that. I have tried taking some photos but the colours just don’t seem to work using my iphone camera, so I will be getting my proper camera out tomorrow and seeing if that makes any difference. Then I promise there will be a bigger update.


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The glare isn't ideal, but everything painted and based this year is in the cabinet. Plenty of room for expansion thou!

ARCHIVE - ULTRAMARINES 1ST COMPANY
I’ve spent a bit of time recently basing some of my painted models to enable them to be promoted into the new built cabinets, so over the next few posts I’m going to provide updates of what I have finished and been able to put on display.

In my quest to develop my marine army I thought it wise to provide some support from the first company (now let me say the thought was not wise in any way, shape or form but that is long in the past now!). I grew up playing the space hulk computer game and had a friend who had the original board game. So when they re-issued the game in 2014 it was too good an opportunity to miss. The miniatures are awesome, slightly larger than the existing terminator range at the time (scale creep anyone…!), but the poses were dynamic. There was the minor issue of the Blood Angel iconography, but a sharp knife and some patience solved that problem (a lot of the blood drops became diamond pendants). So with the addition of a spare terminator captain, I managed to find myself with two terminators squads ready to face the xenos filth!

Brother Claudio and Sergeant Gideon are currently awaiting completion (or being started to be more accurate) but will lead a close combat squad each, one with Thunder Hammers and the other with Lightening Claws, so that will be two more squads to add to the mix.

Also, as an aside I acquired a spare Brother Omnio, his pose is quite unique with the palm scanner, and I figured with some help he could quite easily become an apothecary. So, with a sharp knife, some spare gubbins, and a bit of trepidation he has undergone a transformation and now needs a lick of paint to finish him off as a terminator apothecary. So he will become the subject of a later post when he gets a lick of paint.

Hopefully the photos do them justice, although given the feedback from the misses I'm not sure - she wasn't too impressed with my photographic skills so took it upon her self to take a squad into the wild and take pictures of them in the jungle (back garden) - see the collage below.

Nice batch of terminators. Both pics look good.

If having a goal of a company worth of Space Marines is crazy, then you are in good company.(Looks at my Crimson Fists company still WIP)

Great to see that you are putting firstborn to good use, and those terminators look awesome.

Thanks @Nevelon - very diplomatic - it brought a smile to both of us!!

@TinyLegions - lol, crazy is believing you can paint them in a normal time frame - the collecting is the easy (relatively) part. How much of your company have you completed?


ARCHIVE - ULTRAMARINES
Here is another update from my basing progress - and an obvious update given there is only one natural leader for the army.

I’m a big fan of the Horus Heresy and the extended lore, I think the book series is great (there are some exceptions I will admit) and they add so much background to the 40k and provide details about all of the legions and the primarchs. I find it fascinating learning about the Ultramarines during the heresy; Calth, Second Imperium, Pharos, etc. I must admit my big hope was also learning about the missing 2 legions and finding some details about what happened (alas it was not to be!). I did however become interested in the Loken and the Sons of Horus (before they fell), Garro and the Death Guard and then the Knight Errants, the Dark Angels and the Lion’s background, anything to do with the webway, the Emperor and the Sigillite.

The series I thought was great in bringing to life the Primarchs, providing details on who they were and their personalities. Now, when they started bringing back the Primarchs to 40k, initially I wasn’t sure. I suppose it was inevitably going to happen for them to move the narrative forward (still not sure on the Primaris marines but they are growing on me a little). I have to admit both Mortarion and Magnus look impressive models. The Guilliman model is good but the detailing is a bit OTT. I think the ornate armour is more typical of a chaos warrior rather than a chosen of the Emperor (hopefully it won’t be future storyline). I saw a version online which removed a lot of the detail on the armour and I thought it infinitely improved the look so I wanted to emulate it (I didn’t like the braziers either). Here is my version of the Primarch, ready and eager to lead my Ultramarine force. I think it is one of my better models, I like how the sword worked out, comments and feedback always welcome.

So much unneeded gilding on that armor, was not fun painting it. I also left the torches off.

Great work on him. Gotta have our centerpiece!

Gulliman is a great model. Also cool because he gets painted a lot, and it is interesting to see the subtle differences in how different people approach him. Yours has turned out well.

 JordySteve wrote:
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@TinyLegions - lol, crazy is believing you can paint them in a normal time frame - the collecting is the easy (relatively) part. How much of your company have you completed?

Probably like most people on here. Mostly assembled and primed, but not much painted.

Another loon working on a company of space marines! Looks like you’re making solid progress towards that aim, plus a Demi-company of the first . The ex-Blood Angels look good in Guillimans colours as well, especially those white helmets. The big boss turned out well without all of the ornate trim, must’ve been a big job removing it all without taking away bits you wanted to keep

@Nevelon – Thanks, even taking some of the gilding off it took ages to paint all the gold. He does make a great centrepiece thou.
@youwashshock – It is a great model, glad you like how it turned out?
@Tinylegions – Good effort, whats your plan for getting it finished? I think I have two tactical squads unbuilt, and a few more squads unpainted, and I need to catch up on my characters!
@gobert – A company is the easy goal for all the weak minded! I’m getting there slowly, and the 1st company numbers are building up slowly – which is a worry! Not going to lie, but it was a real pain trying to remove the excess detail, but I think it was worth it.

I've enjoyed catching up on your last few updates. Your display cabinets have me thinking about getting some too...

Guilliman is great. It's such an intimidating model to paint, but you've done it justice.

And I completely agree with you that Norwich is horrendous to travel to - such a bad part of the country for travel (especially coming from the North!)

Display Cabinets really do make the whole hobby way more visual than minis stuck in a box somewhere (even if display cabinets are clear boxes...)

@Zambro - I want to take full credit for the display cabinet idea but the misses pushed me to it, and I’m loving it - such a great excuse to get things based and finished and they all look awesome in there together. Kind of makes me a little proud having them on display.
I think that will be my last Norwich trip, which is a relief and a little sad but time to move on to new things. What do you head down there for?

ARCHIVE - ULTRAMARINES 2ND COMPANY
Carrying on the trend of things I have already painted for the 2nd company and have now just finished basing, here are the beginnings of the devastator squads, 9 & 10. The combat squads of bolters are completed (just) and all of the heavy weapons marines are built (well part built for painting). The devastators include a few of the older shoulder mounted weapons, but also a mixture of the newer plastic models as well. I’ve got more weapons than I need for the squad - at least 5 each per squad - but in my head I can mix the squads up as needed when I play games (but I don’t play games – so not sure what I’m thinking but it obviously made some sense to me when I built them!).



What is a good heavy weapon combination at the minute for the latest edition? Missile launchers and lascannons used to be my favourite, but that was a while back (2nd / 3rd edition). Fortunately, due to the plethora of heavy weapons bits you get in the boxes I have a number of spare weapons which can now be used to supplement the tactical squads when they get built (if I remember - which by the way I didn’t / haven’t to date). So, if I mention in future, I’m going to build a tactical squad can someone please remind me!

I have no clue what the go-to dev load is these days. I always kept a swap shelf full of spares to change into my dev squads as needed. The “shelf” deployment almost never actually saw the table. What they took to battle was generally dictated by what else was in the list, and if I thought I’d need more AV or anti-horde firepower.

It’s less relevant these days now that you can freely split fire, but when mixing weapons I tried to keep things at least in the same range bracket, and not so widely disparate that it would be a waste if everyone had to shoot at the same target.

(For reference, my devs stand at 2xHB, 2xPC for one, and 2xML, 2xLC in the other)