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I still remember the first time I went into the GW store, and coming out with one of those little introductory booklets they did at the time. It showed a wide range of their models, but it was a Blood Angel marine that caught my eye, so when Christmas rolled around and I got the 2nd edition starter set, thats what my guys got painted as. I did enjoy gaming but not as much as the fluff and the modelling and painting. I drifted away from the hobby around the start of 3rd edition but made a brief attempt to get back to it shortly after. After moving to my own place once high school was over, I basically just kept everything packed away, but would still occasionally enjoy the nostalgia of the old rulebooks and Codices. A couple of years back I started building Gundam model kits. As I got more and more into that the urge for more little plastic men came around and the youtube channels Tabletop Minions and Glacial Geek were my gateway back into thinking about GW, and more specifically 40k. I've been on here for a few weeks but thought it about time to start this topic to share what I'm working on, and get some advice from time to time too.

I'll start by showing some of the things I've worked on so far. Mostly older kits I still had lying around and went hunting for in storage once I'd decided on giving the miniatures thing a go again.





I picked up the Battle For Vedros kit in Game as I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I'd painted my original 40k Orks as Goffs, and then done some weird colours for Gorkamorka, but wanted to try something different. As formerly primarily a Blood Angels, and then CSM player, I rarely got a chance to paint blue, so went for Deathskulls. tempted to give some of them warpaint but liked how the faces came out on these new (to me) models.



Last rulebook I'd gotten was the Eye Of Terror Codex and at the time I'd been really interested in the idea of Traitor Guard. I'd never been too interested in Imperial Guard but the plastic Catachan and Cadian kits had come out around then, and looked good, but I didn't want to build a whole new army, so being able to add Traitors to my existing Chaos force seemed like a good way to have some variety, and try a new thing without having to spend a whole lot. There was even a special mail order promotion for them and I amassed a sizeable mix of Catachan, Cadian, Warhammer Fantasy skeletons and Chaos Warrior parts. I know I build some, but they're still lost to the back of a pile of boxes somewhere, but I did find the unused sprues, and got to work recently building them. The above are the only ones painted yet. I like them well enough but thinking of changing up the colourscheme every batch, so as to keep the idea that these are most definitely not the Astra Militarum.





One of the things I love is converting minis. With my Renegades and Traitors pretty much everyone is going to have to be some kind of conversion, and I'm hoping this will give them real character on the table, even if they're not all that great. I've been looking at the HOR Kill Team rules for them, but will grab the Shadow War rules when they're released and see what I can use. Another idea I've had for them is using them as Cultists for CSM. The current Cultist kits looks damn nice, and I may see about getting them any way, but if I can kill two birds with one lasgun, why not?

I'd always liked the look of the Eldar,but it wasn't until the DE that I actually got any. I prefer plastic to metal, and back then it was really only the basic troops that were in plastic, so I didn't build much of an army. With my return, and the Gathering Storm/Ynnari stuff, I'm definitely keen to build some Eldar, inspired greatly by Ynneadwraith's painting blog on here. Thought I'd start off slowly, and with SWA being a thing now, I went and bought a box of Harlequins. The points costs aren't small, so looks like if I actually plan to play any games I'll be looking at just being able to take 3 to start with, so yesterday I made it my goal to get them all up to tabletop standard.







I'm not sure my skills were necessarily up to the task I'd set myself, even eschewing the more fancy traditional Harlequin patterns, but am satisfied that they're at least doing their job of being visually disturbing. Used the trick of clear colours over silver to do the gems and I'm happy with the result. The Age Of Sigmar bases were originally planned to be painted in outlandish colours but I instead decided on a basic grey to make the models themselves stand out.

Finished off some more Renegades and Traitors.
Saw someone use a bright "safety orange" base colour for GSC and wanted to get some use out of some of the orange paints I have, so imagined these guys as either escapees from a prison or maybe Hive maintenance personnel gone rogue. Intended to highlight the overalls after shading but loved the grimy look of them. Probably going to do a few more up in this scheme as it's a nice alternative to the usual darker colours I've been using and I feel works really well with Catachan legs.

My local GW, and the website it seems, have got Gangs Of Commoragh in again, finally. So I went in after work to grab a copy. Not sure I'll be customising these too much, but looking forward to getting some jetbikes and goblin gliders built up. Wait! Yeah, I want the hellions to look like they're out hunting Spider-men. Guess I will be customising a little.

Knocked up this guy a while back to be a Rogue Psyker for my Renegades, but not entirely happy with him. A bits lot I got off ebay had some robed legs, so...




The pose is maybe more Psycho than Psyker, but hey, I'm pretty sure Norman Bates would be classed as a follower of Chaos. Not sure about putting anything more on his back, but I'm not overly keen on seeing those gems fastening them to him.

Been painting more of my "Inmates" although I have also started some more in different colours than the orange. Lots of special and heavy weapons this time.

Cool stuff. I actually really like the Psyker kitbash.

The orange overall look works really well too.

EDC

thanks evildrcheese!

I like the orange a lot but have been mixing it up. My rationale is that these are criminals and turncoat lawmen or military. Whatever world they've come from has seen a gang of criminals take over (part of*) a Hive and free their incarcerated allies, whist disguised as guards, or turning some to their cause as Chaos broke out. I have some modelled with replacement limbs who are to have been either unfortunate victims of police brutality, or unlicensed medical experiments on prisoners, but I could really do with a little racoon trying to steal one of their robotic legs.

Done a little more work on the special weapons guys and my Kill Team leader.



Quite happy with this guy. Still undecided on the colour for armour on the sword arm but very pleased with the bronze I mixed up and the variation on the cape. The exposed arm was my first proper attempt at making my own glaze. Started off bone white and added on a watered down pale, sky blue, then a similarly reduced purpley red. Looking forward to trying the technique out properly on my Plague Zombies.



Did this guy up to go with my cyborg dudes, hence the one handed grenade launcher look. He originally just had dark hair but talking with friends about some older films I felt the need to give him a Simon Phoenix 'do to make him pop.


The parts lot I got the Psyker's robed legs from also had this Cadian head with the cigar. Had to go on a flamer guy, and a bit of chopping up other bits and pieces gave me a nice pose for a Comedian-esque entry to my team.



for my Plasma guy I tried to do a little OSL. Not really up to snuff compared to others' work but it's a definite step forward for me.

With these guys and some of my earlier "Inmates" I'm pretty happy with a little SWA Kill Team selection. Need to get a fair few more sorted before I'd be able to run a HOR Kill Team. Want to get a Sentinel for that, and paint it up as an Aliens Power Loader. However, with this lot, my Harlequins, Orks and Fallen, I can run 4 different SWA Kill Teams, so going to try and get some friends to try playing for an afternoon or something soon.

I love your stuff man. Sure it's not as objectively good as a lot of the stuff on Dakka (i don't know about you but I occasionally find it disheartening seeing all the stuff that's better than mine), but it's imaginative and you're enjoying yourself, which is the most important thing.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
I love your stuff man. Sure it's not as objectively good as a lot of the stuff on Dakka (i don't know about you but I occasionally find it disheartening seeing all the stuff that's better than mine), but it's imaginative and you're enjoying yourself, which is the most important thing.

Over 10 years out of the game and I was never that good to begin with! There are some amazing painters and modellers here, but I'm slowly feeling like I'm improving, and definitely enjoying the journey!

One of the things I've always had a problem with was sticking to one army but with the various rule sets for smaller forces, I can finally branch out and enjoy a bit of everything.

Great conversions, really. They have a very old-school feel to them, which i enjoy a lot. I'm looking forward to your progress.

I can also tell that you are getting better and better at taking pictures of your models. The white background helps a lot, but you might also think about using better lighting instead of the flash. Speaking from my personal experience here, the bright spot takes away a lot of detail from your paintjob.

Thanks for the compliments and advice VyRa! It might be an old school sensibility to my work, or maybe just a lack of keeping up with the times, and using all my old bitz.

We'll see soon because I've got the Gangs Of Commorragh models, and a box of Kabalites as well as an eBay lot of Sylvaneth parts on the way for some Eldar/Ynnari custom jobs.

I'll see about taking final pics of my models with better lighting as I go on. Right now I'm happy just snapping away. Mostly working at night so the light isn't great up here. I do have a little light/magnifying glass thing that's never got any use since Xmas, might have to get it out and give it a try.

went rummaging around the back of my wardrobe for my old models. Found a huge box of most, but not all, of my old 40k stuff.

Loads of boxes, some unbuilt, more unpainted, some I wish was unpainted. Thought I'd give you guys a bit of a look at what I've found.
First up, Gorkamorka:



Vehicles for one of the Mobs I painted up from the starter box, Da Rad Boyz, A great example of how my skills (then and now) are exceeded by my imagination. These boyz, and their infantry brethren will be getting repainted in the future, but thought it worth putting pics up here for the lols.


Another Trukk, which IIRC was originally adorned with blue and silver, but I painted over in anticipation of making a new mob. The Yoofs and Spanner were later purchases and not finished being painted for a particular mob, I think I just got em because the new Ork models coming out for the game around this time were the first to employ the then new, current, much cooler Ork aesthetic. I'm looking forward to finishing these boyz off to fit my Vedros ones.



Another Spanner, a trakk from that same blue and silver mob, and a Nob. The spanner boy and bike need a bit of work, but the Nob is pretty decent, and I think will fit in fine with my more recently painted Orks, even if he's a bit bloody.



this bike and Grotherd are pretty good to go already, maybe need a bit of a touch-up on the biker boy, and obviously some glue on the slaver, but otherwise I'm fairly happy with past-me's work.

and finally...



a half-finished, scratch-built, custom built Dreadnought to replace the old cardboard on a stand one I'd been using for ages. I've already looked out some bitz, and started trying to tidy this up a bit. The legs are a bit naff, and I need to massage the arms a bit but overall I'm quite keen on finishing this up to give some support for my Orkses. Thinking maybe at some point I should pick up an official Ork vehicle for some spare parts to bulk it out and make it look a bit more canon.

After real life got in the way for a bit I've finally got around to starting my Dark Eldar/Ynnari Exodites force. Plan on using the old DE Warriors I have from back in the day as regular Kabalites, so the new box of Kabalite warriors were free to use as the basis of my first customisation effort, Incubi. Going to build 5 to this recipe then maybe use the other 5 as Trueborn. I'd originally intended to use Dark Elf Executioners weapons but I had a bunch of these swords from a bits lot I won on ebay, so I don't have to buy another box. I think they'll look nice next to the Visarch.

The Crude Wraithbone arms these guys have are blatantly stolen from Ynneadwraith's thread here. I'm thinking of using some of the Dryad arms I'd got as the "pointy bits" on the Incubi backpacks too but not sure if it's overkill, or if it might be a very good idea to help further distinguish these guys from normal DE. Any ideas or suggestions?

Liking those Incubi. The kill-team leader is a great model, too.

 youwashock wrote:
Liking those Incubi. The kill-team leader is a great model, too.

Thanks! The leader was one I had an idea for, but then felt really disappointed with once I'd built him. Then I got to painting him and came back around on liking him a lot.

I'll probably build up the next 3 Incubi tomorrow. Haven't decided on a paint scheme for them yet. My main DE force is going to be primarily bone white, with purple and copper accents. Thinking of either swapping that so the purple is the primary, or going with a green for contrast.

Glad I could provide some inspiration the sylvaneth arms as crude wraithbone bionics just looks too cool to keep to myself, so I'm glad you're doing it too!

Love how the Revenant swords look with the rest of the Kabalite bodies, and the Klaivex's mismatched horns look really damn cool just give that extra nudge of 'these guys are creepy exodites'

You're posing's great too. They look suitably menacing and aggressive without being OTT perfect for an Incubi

I'd say go for the Dryad arms in place of the Incubi vanes. You're right that they'll make them stand out a little more from Kabalites, and should both look more twisted exoditey and more recognisably Incubi.

Finished up my Incubi. Quite happy with the poses, not 100% on the vanes on their backpacks. Hoping some paint will work magic on them.









Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Glad I could provide some inspiration the sylvaneth arms as crude wraithbone bionics just looks too cool to keep to myself, so I'm glad you're doing it too!

Love how the Revenant swords look with the rest of the Kabalite bodies, and the Klaivex's mismatched horns look really damn cool just give that extra nudge of 'these guys are creepy exodites'

You're posing's great too. They look suitably menacing and aggressive without being OTT perfect for an Incubi

I'd say go for the Dryad arms in place of the Incubi vanes. You're right that they'll make them stand out a little more from Kabalites, and should both look more twisted exoditey and more recognisably Incubi.

thanks for the inspiration and advice. Working on some fluff for these guys and the rest of my DE that will allow me to play them as either their own force or as Ynnari.

Would really like to add some Aspect Warriors to my growing Aeldari force but so little plastic, and the options I'm looking at from AOS might not do the trick. Still, this is now at least 3 squads of DE infantry built, alonside the old metal Archon and a Raider. I really need to get some painted.

Started painting up my DE.
The basic Kabalite dudes are getting a simple bone coloured main armour, mostly variations on purple hair where applicable and I'll add some copper metal to some of them in little details.

The Incubi will be mostly purple, with their wraithbone arms, back pieces and the Klaivex's helmet mirroring the main force. Black and copper accents will tie them with the rest, and I'm hoping to make the swords nice and glowing turquoise.or teal.


Just the base colours on for now, will do shading and highlighting next, and lighten up the skin tones as I go.

Nice! Yeah these will look really cool

The colour scheme of the Incubi has sorted the only issue I thought about the Dryad backpack vanes. They looked like they could possibly make the model too busy, but the contrast really sorts that out

they look like a cross between Dark Eldar and a walking forest. Exactly as exodites should

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Nice! Yeah these will look really cool

The colour scheme of the Incubi has sorted the only issue I thought about the Dryad backpack vanes. They looked like they could possibly make the model too busy, but the contrast really sorts that out

they look like a cross between Dark Eldar and a walking forest. Exactly as exodites should

yep, the vanes looked a little too busy in bare plastic. Very happy that the colour makes them actually break up the design a lot and keeps them different enough from the now quite plain looking Kabalites.

Thinking fluffy, as the idea is an eventual Aeldari army (with a little Ynnead sauce on top) the missing arms fits right in with Morai-heg and Khaine. I'm thinking this particular Incubi Order has been made up of warriors who have sacrificed their limbs, that they might focus better on their swordsmanship. Maybe they're recruited from workers on their Exodite world who've lost limbs to farming accidents, or perhaps they're Dark Eldar or Corsairs who've survived mutilation at the hands of their enemies and retreated to this world but kept their martial prowess up in order to defend their new homeworld?

If I go full Tree-Revenant for a squad of Mandrakes they can be mysterious forest spirits who come to help the Exodite people in their times of need. The Aeldari keyword means I can stick some Craftworld type forces in as well, which is lovely. I'm pretty sure I could run a full DE army at a moderate points value, I want "Moar Space Elves!" so definitely looking at some AOS Black Ark Corsairs and Wildwood Rangers in the future, along with some "counts as jetbike" dino-riders at some point. I figure this Exodite community is not quite as isolationist as some, keeping cordial relations with their Craftworld and Dark Kin alike, as well as entertaining the Harlequins whenever they can. Perhaps as word spreads of the coming of Ynnead many of them feel the time is right for the Aeldari to return and take their rightful place as the leaders of the galaxy again?


--------------

I've also been looking at my Chaos and Space Marine Index books, and my old models. I've a respectable number of Blood Angels, though the number of them with respectable paint jobs significantly decreases my options. Last time I had any involvement with BA, outside of a few special characters they were just red (or black) Space Marines models. Now it seems there are specifically sculpted kits for the majority of the army, or if not, enough spares in those specialist box sets to kit out the rest of a force. I've just been looking through the GW site to see if there's much mention of Hand Flamers, Heavy Flamers or Inferno Pistols as options in those boxes, as those seem to be the USP of my vampire lads. Also a little sad that it doesn't seem I can run a Land Speeder Storm.

Haven't really looked into my Chaos guys yet, and my Orks, mostly pictured upthread, should be ok enough as a generic base group, but I don't have that Index yet to start considering options.

Really like the conversions on the incubi, looking forward to seeing them done

The incubi look neat!

i also loved seeing those old orks. i've got that trukk and wartrakk somewhere too, and yours are in fact painted much better than mine were! and of course you are much better now! so there's some... encouragement?

 amazingturtles wrote:
The incubi look neat!

i also loved seeing those old orks. i've got that trukk and wartrakk somewhere too, and yours are in fact painted much better than mine were! and of course you are much better now! so there's some... encouragement?

Haha! Thanks. Looking out my old models made me realise how far I've come in terms of painting. I don't think I thinned any paint back then. Going to try and finish off those Orks for use in the main game. The Trukks at least. Need the Xenos II index book first though! Maybe work on my Dredd this weekend and get it ready for painting.

Yeah those are some really cool fluff ideas I especially like the tie in with Morai-Heg getting Khaine to cut off her hand so she could drink her own blood and gain the wisdom within. As exodites (at one point in time) were basically religious fanatics, it would be a nice fit if they have a Morai-Heg warrior-cult who ritually sever a limb in her honour.

Black Ark Corsairs work really nicely for exodite stuff Wildwood Rangers have a lot of useful bits and pieces for exodites, but personally I find their bodies a little monopose. Not really a big problem thinking about it as you could quite easily have a squad purposefully striding across the battlefield in unison which would look cool for a martial sect of some sort

more progress on the Incubi. just want to add some highlights, finish off the flesh tone and put a little pizazz on the swords.


and very happy with my Kabalites. Just need to work on the other 18 of them.


Been looking at the Xenos I Index and really liking DE just as themselves. That sweet, sweet Aeldari keyword means I can still smoosh other units in there, but with my Incubi, old school Kabalites, Raider and Archon, and Gangs of Commorragh Wych Cult units I've got a pretty nice selection of units. My Wych cult are going to use green as the primary colour, but mix in a bit of purple and bone to match with the rest of the army.

Yeah looking great man

done a few little details, highlighted the armour and glazed the swords. Waywatcher green is dirty like the girl you never tell your friends about.



oh, and I started a new dude! No Court for him yet (but really want to get some Snakey Petes at least, if only they were plastic!) but going for green hair, bone armour like the rest of the Kabal purple robe, and copper accents.

You are not wrong. That green is absolutely gorgeous

Bit of progress on my Archon. Not sure on the claw, but pretty happy with most of the rest of him. Was never really a fan of this model, just bought him back in the day because I needed an HQ. Turns out though that I'm really happy with him now. I'm still probably going to replace him with the plastic one when I end up getting a Start Collecting DE box, or maybe even a Black Ark Fleetmaster, but he's fine for now. Thinking of maybe running him as a Farseer in a Ynnari/Aeldari list. Big spikey claw hands says "Witchblade" to me.