Olthannon wrote:Looking good man, I have some of the old rangers as well to mix with my new ones.

They seem slightly bigger, but not hilariously so. Different bases make it hard to judge. I'll try to get some pics of them side by side.

Dirk Reinecke wrote:Looking good, looks like the New Eldar are ace.

I love the fact that the new stuff fits in so well with the old stuff. Nothing wrong with the aesthetics of the range, just needed to be in plastic.

So I lost power the Thursday, and it seems that something might have happened to my laptop. It was working fine until this morning until it told me it was out of juice. I tried a couple different ways to get it some power, but nothing seems to be working. Still some hope, but not much. I can still connect via my iPad, and am putting photoscape on my game PC. Which is where I'm typing from now. I'm a bit of a fossil, and like to do my text entry with a keyboard and a mouse. Hate doing anything more then a quick reply on my phone/tablet. Next step will be to try to see how I can sync my cameras with my PC. Shouldn't be hard (he says, fingers crossed)

Slowly building stuff, need to paint more as well. But right now having fun with tech issues.

Enjoy your weekends all!

--Nev


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OK, side by side is seems a little worse then I thought. The new guys do have a little bit better posture, but not the crazy stance difference of early firstborn marines vs. new ones.



Where the workbench is at today.


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This is with my new camera, and on the PC. Don't have all my fonts and settings. Came out OKish. Better than nothing.


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And the rangers are built. Bit of fun with them. Still need to decide on heads, but that can wait.

Bikes are zipping along. Need to magnetize the flight stands, and clean and build all the riders/gunners. Everyone gets a helmet. There is a time for protective headgear, and jetbikes is one of those. Not just for crashes, but to keep your face from being blown off. One of the reason I didn't glue the heads on the foot rangers is that I saw a lot of interesting ones on the bike sprues. It's so refreshing to have compatibility in the Eldar range.

Edit: Was able to test and borrow a spare charger for the laptop. Looks like the old one got borked in the outage. Working now. New power brick ordered. Glad it’s just a $30 part, and not a new computer.

First bike built, riders not glkued on for painting. Still need to magnetize the flight stand.

No paint down recently, need to fix that. I’d like to get the marines off the paint handles to make room for another 5 to do next month.

Charger seems to be working for now with the laptop. Hopefully it is the fix and keeps running.

Those two-seater bikes look pretty cool. Looking forward to the paint.

Oh, new toys.

CB

youwashock wrote:Those two-seater bikes look pretty cool. Looking forward to the paint.

Captain Brown wrote:Oh, new toys.

CB

Yah, quite happy with the new guys. Glad I got over my hangups and hit ebay for the half box. I suspect they are going to wait until spring to get primed/paint. Which honestly is not that far off. But I still have a lot on my plate. Put the second blue on one of the marines, need to finish them. We are almost out of month, and I’m going to need the space to start up the March challenge. Which will be more marines, probably the assault intercessors. But I like to start with a clean deck, and still have a lot of work to do. I should also get the speeder done. Put the drybrush on it’s silvers the other day, so it is making progress.

So we wrap up another year of the painting comp, I put together another composite.


Just a pic for now, I’ll do the woolgathering part over the weekend with coffee. Need to get ready for work now.

Here's to another year. Great work, Nev.

Took the day off work as a snow day. Did a little building after shoveling. I’ll try painting later.



Only ended up swapping one head for the rangers. I should glue them down now. Also the lady in the middle could use a scope on her rifle. The stock alt build that leaves her with a free hand is with the scope detached and her using it as a monocular. If I’m not using that bit, it should go on the gun.

Put the blue on a second marine last night. I should start on the guns and the other 3. Or finish the 2 and get them to the ready to base/decal step. Or both.

All my Rangers are metal from RT/2nd. Is this the first time they have had female sculpts?

 youwashock wrote:
All my Rangers are metal from RT/2nd. Is this the first time they have had female sculpts?

There is the lady from Blackstone Fortress? But otherwise I think so. I’d have to search the archives to see if there were any others. But 2/5 of the foot rangers and 2/6 of the bikers are women.

Nice build, I've just finished my Autarch and working through the rangers, think I will leave my jetbikes until last.

Looking forward to seeing you painting them up!

I need to figure out how to build my autach. I’m guessing backfield support, leave the forward stabbing to the one on bike. Going to wait til after I get the codex, but magnets is the obvious answer.

So, game happened. And not vs. The Boy. Shocking, I know. Local GW is starting a crusade event.


My list is a dysfunctional mess of old stuff. Mostly I wanted to get the classic RTB01 boys onto the battlefield, just so they can claim to have fought on every FLGS, every basement that I’ve ever thrown dice down on. I added the old metal dread and the classic TDA captain to round out the retro theme.

Opponent is someone I knew from AoS, nice guy, but new to crusade/9th. Well rounded little sisters list. 2 BSS, rets, canoness and celestine. Mission is assassinate, he’s the attacker. My captain starts under the building with the ML combat squad on top, dread is behind the wall out of sight for the pic, but in LoS for a lot of his stuff.

First turn he moves up, shoots a bunch of wounds off the dread, and then charges with the saint and kills it in CC. Ouch. I don’t have a lot of units in this list, so that hurt.

No meek prey is the captain, so he steps out for a little vengeance. He’s packing the rapid fire 4 relic bolter that re-rolls wounds vs. non vehicles, and the WL trait that MWs on 6’s to-wound. He shoots up the saint and her bodyguard, and then steps in for CC, but fails to put her down.

Celestine flys out of CC, leaving my captain exposed to shooting. Lands up on the building with the ML guys. He unloads into my army, some into the troops, but save some nasty stuff for the captain. Probably should have started with him, as some cold dice and good invuln save sees him still standing, and quite mad.

He starts walking up the center of the table, an avatar of death. Supporting fire from the stalwart marines both thins down the sisters, and put down their saint. But not for long...

She gets back up and clears the building turn 3. The canoness starts a drawn out fight with the marines on the ground. Some shots land on the captain, but nothing seems capable of stopping him.

Eventually he makes it to the backfield and crushes the last of the sisters there. The canoness is slowly working through the tac squad, but he should be able to make it back to finish her off. But lo! Back from the dead the saint swoops down to avenge the sisters slain by his hand. In a brutal display, the Ardent sword lays low the good captain, ending his reign of terror.

Victory sisters.

MVP was my captain, he killed 3 separate squads, not quite single handed, and put the saint down once (which doesn’t count as one of those kills) The relic/WL trait is kinda nasty, but so was the power fist.

I had the tac sarge alive at the end of the game, to his saint and mangled canoness.

From a narrative POV, kinda glad I lost. These are not units I’m going to field in my general crusade list. I’m going to start with phobos recon and fast moving units, on the search for the captain and his lost patrol. Tune in later for the next chapter! It’s a bi-weekly thing, so works nice with my free weekends.

Nice to see you getting a game in. Sisters are pretty good, although hit heavily by the recent nerfs. Your opponent's list sounds pretty brutal for a friendly game and you still almost won, so good job!

I really do look forward to seeing what you do with the new Aeldari stuff. The assembled Shroud Runners look great and should be a ton of fun to paint; easily some of the coolest of the new models (but then I love bikes so maybe I'm a bit biased lol).

We weren’t really using strats, as it was partially a teaching game. So we both could have leaned into making it more competitive. My build was intentionally soft, to include the tac squad. In a PL game there is no reason to bring a bare-bones ML/F squad with nothing on the sarge. In the crusade list vs. my son I rearmed and re-equipped them to MM/M c-melta/powerfist sarge. I was also only 24PL due to how the math worked out.

My next list is going to be phobos LT, Chaplain, incursors, outriders, and supressors. The idea is as points go up to add more line units, intercessors etc. and drop the recon stuff.

Painting the eldar should be fun. Things come full circle. When looking for arctic camo for the phobos, I looked back to the rangers. But they were painted back in ’15; I’ve come a long way since then. So the cloaks are going to be more like what I’ve been doing for guys like the phobos chaplain/librarian. Armor is going to be grey, rather than the black from most of the craftworld. Helmets still red, and most of the other elements will match. Although the rangers use a paler leather than the deeper brown of the the rest. Matches the armor; similar, just less saturated.

Captain, my Captain...

Sounds like a fun game. Neat to work a story into it, too.

My goal is to get his new plastic version done when I reintroduce him into my lists.

So not a lot of paint progress. I was hoping to clear the decks for March, but that never happened. Moved 3 of the guys off the handles to start this month’s comp entry. The idea is to get them going, finish off the last 2 guys who are at the ink stage, and then stagger guys until everyone is done.

Work is sucking hard, so not a lot of motivation. Still need to move forward.

So Cursed City is going to be on a 2 week MTO at the original price, and then later this year back in the store at a regular option. Which I’m guessing is going to be at a higher price. So I’ll probably put my name down for a copy now and save a little. Next time I’m down at the FLGS.


Some Assault intercessors ready to go.


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Got the blue ink on the two guys. Was going to paint more, But I made the mistake of sitting down in my recliner, and now have a napping cat in my lap. Oh well.
Edit: She woke up before bed time, so I was able to get the base blue down on the 3 new guys.

One guy done, moved a new guy to his spot. Need to edge highlight the other one, and then he’s basically there as well. Bases and decals can wait for a bit.

When painting the new guys I realized I never glued their arms on. Will make it easier to get their backs and shoulderpads done, but a little wobble at this stage.

Hope everyone’s weeks are going well.

--Nev

Nice, the next company is progressing well!

Vejut wrote:
Nice, the next company is progressing well!

My goal for the year was to get 20 more brothers done for the company, and 10 are at various stages of progress on the bench right now. I took stock as the primed pile was getting low for 3rd co units. Just the hellblasters and aggressors waiting. Stalker intercessors in the to-prime pile, with the ABR and Assaults in progress getting paint. To build is 10 more basic riflemen for the back half of squads. One of my initial thoughts was to make some of these guys work for Kill Team, but not sure how I feel about that with the new rules. When marines eventually get some real rules, I figure I’ll need to make new guys anyway. And they might end up joining the 10th co. in camo. Another thought that works kinda along those lines would not to make a KT, but gear guys up like a command squad. Comms trooper, field police, some specialists, but not strictly the old KT ones. Of course, they should be Company Veterans, and outside the 10 squads of 10 marines and outside my count. Field on the table as veteran intercessors. Although I feel I should source some vet shoulderpads, not sure how many I have kicking around. anyway, I should build at least 5 basic guys just to keep the primed pile topped off with marines for me to paint over the year.

Some work:


Broke out the GS, superglue, and magnets to finish the final step for these guys. My GS is really old and stale. Not sure if that’s actually a thing, but it was real hard to work.

Next up to build is the autarch. Going to magnetize both arms and the backpack, just to future proof it, but I suspect my primary build is going to be JP/Glaive/Fusion. Although the reaper launcher is probably going to get some use with backfield camping. I was thinking about just glueing the glaive on, as the chainsword is very niche, but if they ever do open up options for other builds (like wings) I might want the part to move. The only reason not to run the JP is to ride in a transport, which with the new Falcon rules might need to happen.



Assaults got some more basecoats down. Cleaned up the speeder a little. 3 ABRs are waiting for now. Moving right along.

Glued the helmet on. The Banshee one is wider, would not let me get a good angle on the head. Not that this one is great, but better. Arms and back magnetized. Glaive should have glued, but kept for future options. It’s a no-brainer choice from what I’ve seen. Just did the fusion gun and missile launcher for now. Spinner seems a viable choice, but not one I think I need in my list, so it can hang in the bits box for a while. Jump pack is probably going to be my default build. It’s a little pricy, but gives him a lot of movement and options. The basic no upgrade keeps the points down, and lets him ride in transports. Per the reports, Falcons get turn 1 DS/deploy like drop pods. Him and some Fire Dragons can get into a lot of fun that way.

Anyway, that’s the last of the Eldrich Omens box built and in the to-prime pile. Which is getting full. But spring will be here soon.

Put some more layers down on the marines. Plugging away. I’ll try to grab pics next time I’m at the bench. Few more basecoats to go.

Work continues to suck, but they are listening to me, so things might improve. Did my taxes tonight, will be nice to get the rebate checks. Also hit my 5 years at work, so got a pile of reward points which I was able to turn into amazon gift cards. Guilt-free money all over the place. Which is a good thing.

New Tyranids spotted on the deep augers. The combat patrol is tempting. Do I need 36 more termagaunts? No. Would it help carpet the table in gribbles? Yes. Do I need a tyrant on foot a/o swarmlord? Leaked stats say yes. Do I need warriors? Probably. Do I want to drop that kind of cash? One perk of it being a new combat patrol is there is no fear of missing out. It should be around for a while so I can take my time. I am in for the codex and parasite when they drop though. And plan on getting the Eldar book and pre-order cursed city this weekend. Good thing Friday is a payday.

Ah, nice to see the Autarch without the tactical rock, the cloth parts look much better now once they don't need to defy gravity :p Thanks for sharing!

That's a very nice looking build Nev. Well done!

MobileSuitRandom wrote:Ah, nice to see the Autarch without the tactical rock, the cloth parts look much better now once they don't need to defy gravity :p Thanks for sharing!

I’m not generally opposed to tactical rocks. But this guy’s was completely wrong, for the reasons you gave. The entire flow of the model wants to go the opposite way he was standing. Just not using the bit helped immensely.

Gitsplitta wrote:That's a very nice looking build Nev. Well done!

Thanks. I had a lot of fun building the new Eldar. Great kits, with a lot of options, which is refreshing. Hopefully the weather will give us a nice day to prime. I could just risk it on an iffy one, but I’ve got a full plate at the moment.

Put some washes on the marines this morning. Which is a little out of order, still need to do the red basecoats. But it was a quick thing to do before logging in.


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Edit:
WIP picture

Marines chugging along. I like the look of your Autarch. The reaper version has a cool flow.

 youwashock wrote:
Marines chugging along. I like the look of your Autarch. The reaper version has a cool flow.

I agree, of the options that’s my favorite. Who gets more use on the table will depend on the codex.

Which will eventually probably be a new guy on a jetbike. I’ve got my old one, but he looks real dated at this point.

So arms are off and first layer of red down. Next step is the back cables that are almost never seen, and the blue cleanup. And the brown wash on those who need it first. Plugging along. Hard part with all the arms off if to keep track of who’s are where.

Was hoping to hit the FLGS for a game, but we got a bit of a snowstorm here. It it clears up early afternoon, might still make it down. If not I might head down tomorrow to pre-order Cursed City, and maybe play some AoS. Ordered the new Eldar book via Amazon. Gift cards to burn. Should be here sometine next week.

Enjoy your weekends all, stay safe and warm.

The game looks like real fun. Excited to read updates from the league and how your Phobos fare. I tried them against my friend's Necrons, but wasn't enamored with them. They lacked the punch to get those nasty space skeletons down. My sisters did this a lot easier

Good progress on all things blue and happy to see more Eldar coming our way!

Didn’t make it down yesterday due to snow. Going to head there to place my CC order, maybe impulse buy something. Sundays are supposed to be the AoS path to glory campaign. Don’t think I’ve got the rules for that.

Did some painting yesterday. Lot of layers, not a lot to show. But everyone should be ready for their second blue coat.

I feel like I should be building something. Probably should clean up some stealers. Although who knows what the new codex is going to do to them. Starting to get real leaks.

Edit:
Clipped 2 stealers, started cleaning them up. Sage got his second blue coat.

Went down to the FLGS, watched some AoS, but didn’t bring an army. Don’t have a copy of the Path to Glory rules, and need to brush up on the rules a bit. Pre-ordered a copy of Cursed City, and grabbed Imperium #3, with a pot of Macragge Blue and 3 assault intercessors. Couple of problems with them. They are not as easy to mod as the ones in the indominous box. More personally relevant is that they have sculpted iconography for Ultramarines. You might think this would not be an issue for me, but since the days of RTB01s, I have alway put my chapter markings on the right shoulder. Some HQs and specialists might swap, but not for the rank and file. So these are going to have to be carved and smoothed down, which seems a waste. I am also going to need one to lug around a bolt rifle to fill a slot in a regular intercessor squad, so we’ll see how we can mod that. If not, it’s not a huge deal, I just need to replace the body I poached for the apothecary.

It's good to see that you're still plugging away at the Marines, including the Land Speeder. I look forward to seeing how you approach the Eldar.

Sounds like you got the snow that rolled through my area a few days ago. Weather in my area is going to be much nicer this week; might even get some priming in! Your Marines are coming along nicely.

I really did consider subscribing to Imperium, but I've already got 2 Marine armies and don't want to start a third (and if I did it would be Black Templars, not Ultras), and I don't really want to start Necrons either, despite the fact that I have a cool color scheme idea in mind for if I did start them. So that definitely kills it for me, but at least my wallet is breathing slightly easier.

Like GW bundle boxes it’s a great deal *IF* you want most of the content. As I have the indominus box already (which makes up a chunk of the marines) and have no interest in the necrons or other imperial factions, it was a bit of a non-starter.

The to-prime box is very full. I need the nice weather. Fingers crossed.

Work has been very ugly, so not a lot of progress this week. Got 3/5 of the guys their second blue coats. Hopefully get some more done and maybe even finished this weekend.

Agreed. This week has been a mess so far. Also holding out hope that the weekend bears painted fruit.

Good to read your review on the Painting Challenge for another year Nev, really cranking out the minis! Cool to see your build of Eldritch Omens, it's a lovely set and I've just started painting mine. I didn't go for magnetising my Autarch in the end.

Ultras are coming along nicely as well!

Some ramblings for the morning while the coffee jitters wear down so I can start painting.

Weather is warm, snow is melting, but grey and raining today, so no priming. Soon.

So the Tyranid codex is leaked out on the web, lot of changes. Now I’m building more for theme than power, so the min/max minutia is something I’m not overly concerned with, but I do want a legal force that could hold it’s own. Some of the big changes that happened was FOC slots moving around. Both genestealers and rippers left the troop slot, while gargoyles joined it. I can still muster 3 troop picks (termagaunts, hormagaunts, gargoyles) but there are a few issues. One is that termagaunts can now only be monogun, so no 50/50 split. Also devourers were nerfed hard. The other issue is that both my stabby and flappy boys are min 10 man squads, so feel a little anemic filling troop slots. Gargs might be fine with that, I think they are more of a table corner/action monkey unit than a combat threat. And even though the hormagaunts got more lethal, I do think I need more.

Flyrant took a bit of a nerf. No Model, No Rules rearing it’s ugly head again. While it still gets some claw attacks if it takes a gun, they are kinda pathetic for it’s points/size. Might need to paint up a bonesword. Also seriously considering a foot version, which could be a duel build with the swarmlord. The extra arms not being used for wings lets it have both quality CC and shooting. It also gets a point of T and armor over it’s flying cousin.

Genestealers moved to elite and lost the advance/charge thing, but gained infiltrate. Head options became less relevant, but are still free. Oddly, the unit size is 5-10, despite them being on sprues of 4. I think I originally had plans to build extras to flesh out each half of my types to 12 each, but 10 it is I guess. I’m not doing a lot with my Elite slots, and we generally get plenty of them, so it’s more of them not being troops anymore that bugs me.

Heavy support seems kinda crowded. The hive guard got moved in, but the trygon moved to FA. Biovore/Exocrine/HG/Carnefex all going to be fighting for space. Not like I need to field them all at once, but I can’t put everyone in the same detachment.

FA again with guys shuffling around. Gargs out, Trygon and Rippers in. My collection is less focused on them, so not the traffic jam that the HS spot is. That said, I need to grab the parasite, which will take up a slot here.

My overall army goal is to have the classic swarm look. Horde of little guys, backed up by a few medium node monsters, with the Boss Monster for each line. I’m doing pretty good, with a few gaps. Getting the parasite will give me a medium flyer, and some warriors will help the mainline tyranids. Raveners would help fill out the snake line. Still want some zoenthropes for aliens psychic weirdness.

So, the plan:
Things to buy (pretty much in this order):
Codex
Parasite (Midsized flappy, fast synapsse)
Combat patrol (I want another tyrant for foot, the warriors, and another solid block of gants. Might not need 36 more, but at least a dozen or two, so why not the CP box?)
Hormagaunts (the dozen I have just doesn’t seem swarmy enough)
Zoenthropes

Lower priority things I’d like to have
Raveners (2 boxes?)
2nd box of Zoes.
Warriors (3 from the CP box might not be enough)

Build:
Stabby arms for the Flyrant. Probably the bonesword. She’s magnetized, so not hard.
Evaluate the Dakkafex build. Is it worth using them as a platform for mid-S shooting anymore? Or just field them as OOE and a SK.
Finish building the stealers I have. This will give me 2x10 bug squads, with a bunch of spares.
Clean up old metal gargs. I don’t want to buy another box of plastic ones, but the squad could be a bit larger.
Clean up old tyrant on foot. Probably works better as a Warrior Prime at today’s scale, but I could use one of those.
Evaluate old shattered wrecks of plastic warriors to see if they can be salvaged.





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WIP. Put the blue ink down on 3, other two still need their second basecoat of blue. As do all the arms. But I can start the edge highlights on these and get them moving.

Finished building a stealer. One more clipped in parts, and then another frame of 4 to finish off the squad.

Heck of an analysis. Looks like you'll adapt (heh, Tyranid evolution puns) to the shuffling well enough.

Waiting for the actual book and not just the leaks before making firm plans. Plus there is the whole Pile of Shame neutrality thing I’m aiming for with them. Kinda want to lay everyone out on a table, with gaps for things I’d like to have, just to see the shape of the swarm. That can wait till we have a better picture. Going to be an expensive year, but I knew that.

But the tax returns were good to me this year, so the hobby budget does have some flex. Although houses are holes in the ground that you poor money into, so the hobby is not the only thing with an eye on that cash.

Eldar codex showed up, started thumbing through it. Need to sit down and do a cover to cover read. But also need to sit down and paint.



Did the the blues down on the 3 sets of arms. Need to ink them. And start highlighting. Sarge also needs his eyes done.

Work also needs to ease up a little so I have more energy to do things, but not much for that.

Coming along. I look forward to the Tyranid status photo. Good luck with work!

Good progress Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Put the ink on the arms, and the gloss green on lenses/plasma. Still a lot to do and running out of time. Hopefully I can push through. Need to get at least something across the line.

Previews were cool, but mostly a miss for me. We’ll see if HH grabs me this time round. I’ve got the two prior boxes, so could make a go for it if it takes off. Plus a bucket of RTB01s.


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Edit: eyes and edged the sarge. Cleanup pass and he’s done. Barring his arms.

You'll make it. You always do. And your entries are always pretty good even if they don't get as many votes as they probably should (we're in the same boat on that one).

Regarding HH, it seems like it would be right up your alley. I know you'll want to get your hands on some Mark VI armor for your Smurfs!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
You'll make it. You always do. And your entries are always pretty good even if they don't get as many votes as they probably should (we're in the same boat on that one).

Regarding HH, it seems like it would be right up your alley. I know you'll want to get your hands on some Mark VI armor for your Smurfs!

I think my consistency is actually hurting me. I’ve entered so many Ultras I suspect voters are just blasé about them. More of the same, nothing to see here, next. I know I pass on voting on some of the top guys just because while amazing, it’s nothing I’ve not seen from them before. So I vote for the up and comers, or people I know are pushing themselves, even if they fall a little short. The usual suspects hit the podium anyway.

I’d like to bring my Ultras up to legion strength, but honestly it’s more of a budget thing. And the odds of actually getting games in. How much do I want to spend on more things that are just going to warm the shelf? Especially as I’ve got a ton of bolter boys there already.

Not ruling it out. We’ll see.

The captain is and his patrol are overdue. Multiple hostile forces in the sector. Tau cadre receiving supplies near the captain’s last location, investigate and terminate.


Fast moving, hard hitting advance recon in force.


Fireblade, fire warriors, breachers, stealth suits, vespid.

Mission is supply drop, I have the first turn.

Incursors and breachers hiding in the back behind buildings.

Turn one I surge forward and unload into the filthy xenos. Many frisbees give their lives for the Greater Good. It may have been a mistake to focus on the stealth suits and ignore the breachers, but the position of the objective made it hard to be able to claim it and shoot them. Easier to get the boots on the prize and use the ignore cover/mods on the stealth, which did both. Some pretty crappy rolling overall on my part. Failed to get the litany off, and failed a charge with the bikes, even with a re-roll.


I’ve got all the objectives, but am a bit exposed.

On his turn he deletes the phobos marines and shoots up the bikes, killing one and wounding another.

Turn 2 starts with me scoring 2 of the objectives. In tactical docrine, so the supressors don’t need to deal with -1 to hit and are in range for both the chaplain’s litany of fire and the Lt’s aura. Their cannons reach out and sweep most of the fire warriors from their building in a spray of explosive gore.

Meanwhile, the bikes continue to disappoint. Their fire might have done a little work, but again, not able to get into melee. I forget if they died in overwatch, failed their charge, or what. Not doing their job, that’s for sure.

His turn things start to get real ugly for out heroes. The vespid drop down on the middle objective and cash out the suppressors. It’s a pair of glass hammers fighting. While the suppressors can dish out the pain, they take punches just like a basic marine, and the vespid are packing the right tool for that job. His breachers do some tau agenda thing on their objective. Lt. takes some hits once the troopers are dead.

My turn I’ve got my characters left, and they are MAD. They both charge into the vespid, and systematically butcher the winged aliens. A few survive the carnage, and when the dust settles one is still in combat with the marines.

On his turn the lone vespid flees combat, and heads to the objective in the ruins that I was holding. Incoming fire drops the Lt and gets some wounds past the rosarius. But the chaplain stands defiant.



“Do I need to kill all these xenos myself?” The chaplain says as he casually looks over his shoulder and puts a mass-reactive round from his absolver bolt pistol into the last of the winged vespid, splattering it’s internal organs across the ruins. He than shifted his glare to the shimmering forms of stealth fields that were unable to find cover to blend with. “Nowhere for you to hide now.” Benediction of Fury in hand, litany of hate on his lips, it was time to show the stealth suits the fury of the emperor.

So up until this point I’d not actually killed any units. That changed this turn. I used the UM strat to make one attack auto-hit, and pulped the last vespid. Stealth suits might be filled with lies and deceit, but against the wrath of a vengeful chaplain, nothing could avail them.


If I need to describe what happened next, you’ve obviously never played Tau.

Tabled bottom of turn 4, victory Tau.

Later, as the main body of the marine force arrives at the battlefield...
“He's still alive! Someone get the apothecary over here.”
“Forget him” the chaplain said. “Bring me a techmarine; I’m going to need a new skull. This one has served me well, but might not be up to the task anymore. And there are Tau that need killing in the area”

So new paint (which was everyone):
Incursors I probably misused. Forward deployed without support. Can’t really fault them for being shot off the table by tau.
Supressors can put down the fire, but are crazy fragile. I probably should have kept them in reserve. Coming in T2, in tac doctrine they can move and fire w/o issue. Did not help that I didn't really have a lot of options for other things to shoot at when the vespid dropped.
Bikes had a lot of dice failure based issues. Part of that is being fast and outside support range. I maybe should have blown more CP on them to help. Little disappointing.
Lt. did OK. Was able to buff the suppressors. Probably should have DS’d him next to the incursors, not that they lived into T2. Would prefer to have the infiltrating one, but the stupid phobos Lt. datasheets...
Chaplain was the MVP of the game. Got my only kills. Not happy with the litanies failing 1/3 of the time. Classically their advantage over other buffers (mostly libs) was that while not as powerful or useful, their buff was more focused but reliable. Still, he’s a blender in combat (helped by a WL trait and a relic) and caused some harm.

So when doing the post battle stuff, the chaplain rolled poorly and picked up a battle scar. He also got enough XP to level up. I burned the RP I got from the battle to heal the wound, and the battle honor to give him artisan bionics. So now he has +1S and a 5+++ ignore wounds check. And a grudge against Tau...

Feeling the lack of bodies in this list. Might need to swap things around a bit to get more boots on the ground.
--

Some paint:

2 guys done, barring bases and decals. One guy just needs blue highlights (arms are done) and touchup. 2 guys ready for ink. Arms need the second blue. Getting there.

Fun report. Looking forward to more from the chaplain. Nearly there on the latest boys. Need to finish up, myself.

 youwashock wrote:
Fun report. Looking forward to more from the chaplain. Nearly there on the latest boys. Need to finish up, myself.

At some point the chaplain is going to swap his phobos armor for full mk. X tacticus. Mostly so I can the indominus one to the table as well. The one with half a bionic head. Now we know why.

Got the last of the blue ink down this morning. Edges and highlights next, plus cleanup. Need to get moving quicker. Might forgo my lunchtime walk to get more layers down.

Edit: blue edged one of the marines, all the arms over lunch.

Edit2:
Automatically Appended Next Post:


And on to basing.

Great batrep and that Chaplain did good. Too bad he was a little bit let down by the other troops.

 Viterbi wrote:
Great batrep and that Chaplain did good. Too bad he was a little bit let down by the other troops.

Some of that was on me, other parts on the dice. Some was just how the battle unfolded. Trying to figure out how to change up my list. Not sure how much AV firepower I need at this point level. There is a dread kicking around, and some DG terminator guys, but no real tanks. Might be able to skimp a bit and just go for more light guns. The suppressors need more saturation if they are going to live. They are such a clear-cut fire magnet.

The bikes might work if they could have got the charge. Or some support. I need to grab that bike chaplain just to keep a HQ with them. Wish we had other options for mobility primaris HQs. Not that there is anything wrong with the bike chaplain, I do covet him. But he’s it.

In painting news I put the flock down on the marines. Decals left, and then photo shoot time.

Edit: done. Just the pics to do.

Edit2: put the second blue on one of the riflemen. Would like to finish that squad before the end of the month.

Took pics over lunch, but didn’t do the collage yet. Off to the YTD shelf. Hopefully to be joined by some other stuff before I do my Q1 review.

That's a charge for Macragge, right there. Nice stuff. It is a small thing, but the snow on the sarge's legs really helps sell the motion and setting.

 youwashock wrote:
That's a charge for Macragge, right there. Nice stuff. It is a small thing, but the snow on the sarge's legs really helps sell the motion and setting.

Dirty little secret: the snow on the legs is mostly just held on by static from the swish in the flock from basing. I guess if I wanted to make it more permanent, I could take a pin with some glue and just dot a few spots on the legs. I agree that it really helps tie everything together.

So here is the formal pic:


Going to crash now, long day.

Nicely done on those Assault guys; who cares if they are the push-fit ones, they still look good and are fun to paint. Looking forward to your Q1 report!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Nicely done on those Assault guys; who cares if they are the push-fit ones, they still look good and are fun to paint. Looking forward to your Q1 report!

The issue with push fits is that because they are in less parts, you often get more chonky undercuts or transition blur where there should be crisp edges (shoulder pad rims are a good example of this). Also, generally harder to modify, but if you are just building them stock, not an issue. But these guys from the indominus box were great. Minimal undercut issues, and the arms/head are easy swaps.


(I need better lighting on the YTD shelf)

So a quarter of the way through the year, not doing too bad. 13 models, which is a little behind the curve, but I’ve got 5 guys and the speeder in assorted stages of WIP, 2 of which are basically finished.

Well on track for the 3rd company project. I wanted to hit 20, and once I finish the guys on the bench, that will be 10. Even if the loiter around for an other quarter, I’d still be on track.
My paint more then I buy goal is about to head straight into the crapper. Just got the notification that my Cursed City box shipped. Once I pick that up I’m going to have to add it to the tally, and there are a lot of minis in there.
I’ve not painted any spare bits. When putting together the new Eldar I made a bunch of the options, and I’m going to start cleaning up some stuff in preparation of the new Nid book. Need to keep up on this.
I started the year painting old stuff to get it out of the way, once I finish the speeder, this goal is set.
Still a good blogger, still keeping the pace.
Good variety so far, need to keep an eye out for what to do for the other options. Probably one of the heroes from the CC box, but maybe I can get the last of the Deathwatch out of the primed pile.
Still going strong on the painting challenge.
Less so for the LoER one. It’s a 2 month cycle, and I said I’d enter, but haven’t started. Some of that is weather based. I need to cut foam, and really want to do that outside, or at least in the garage with the doors open for ventilation. I’d rather not fail, even if I just phone something in.

Overall, on track for my goals. Some I need to work on more, but year is young.

So that’s the old business, on to the new.

Weather today looks like it might be suitable for priming. Which is good; lots of stuff in the box. Including all the new Eldar, some nids, and the gladiator. Hope the rattlecan has enough life in it, if not trip to the hardware store.

Still a crap-ton of stuff on my to-buy list. Going to try to spread it out over the year. No need to just have it sit in the Pile of Shame. That said, I’m probably going to grab a box of shining spears soon, and when the nid book drops get that and the parasite right off the bat. Due to trying to keep the Nids PoS neutral, I want to clear out a lot of what I’ve got. Right now that’s a lot of genestealers. I’ve got 4 being built, and more in the to-prime pile. I think there are just rippers in the ready for paint stage. The local GW store is doing a monster painting comp, so I’ll do my remaining ‘fex for that. Might change his arms around first.

So things to expect in Q2:

Buy Spears, parasite

Finish building 4 stealers
Build/magnetize spare nid arms (venom cannon, boneswords)
Start in on building Cursed City.

Finish painting the 3 ABR guys, decal/base the squad.
Finish painting the speeder. I don’t want that loitering on the bench all summer. I can push through and get it done.
This month for the comp I’m painting my TDA captain.
Two more comp entries for the quarter.
I would like to push through my Nid stocks, so I can grab the combat patrol. 10 stealers, 1 fex, 3 rippers. Should be doable.

Try to keep at the crusade league at the FLGS. Might miss a week, as I’m going to visit my folks for a week for The Boy’s spring break. Which will also impact what I do this month. But the comp goal is only one guy, so doable.


Speaking of which, this guy moved down to the paint bench.

OK, out of coffee, time to get moving. Have a great weekend all.

That Terminator captain is the exclusive Captain Centos figure, is it not? I remember when that came out, and that I mainly passed on it because it didn't look very Dark Angels-y (which obviously isn't a problem for you!). Your production for Q1 is a lot better than mine, although that isn't necessarily saying much (I'm off to a VERY slow start ).

Very excited to see the updated Terminator Captain painted.

ZergSmasher wrote:That Terminator captain is the exclusive Captain Centos figure, is it not? I remember when that came out, and that I mainly passed on it because it didn't look very Dark Angels-y (which obviously isn't a problem for you!). Your production for Q1 is a lot better than mine, although that isn't necessarily saying much (I'm off to a VERY slow start ).

youwashock wrote:Very excited to see the updated Terminator Captain painted.

Cpt. Centos was a different classic captain re-imaged. He had special rules in 7th that let you use the tactical doctrine an extra time, equipped with a bolter/powerfist. This guy I think is the store opening exclusive from 2020. That’s where/when I got him.

I was hoping for a stronger start to the year, but it is what it is. Just paint at whatever pace we can and keep chipping away at the pile of shame.

So I primed about half the box yesterday. Eldar rangers, autarch. Nid carnafex, 6 stealers, GSC cultist. Still need to do the tank, intercessors, shroudrunners. Didn’t get a lot of painting done. Put the blue on another marine and the first coat on the captain. I feel that he needs personal heraldry on his shoulder. It will either be something from the RT painting guide, or based on the quartered scheme from the old mini. Which is what I’m leaning towards.

Not a lot of work this week so far. The squad is ready for ink, arms need reds and the second blue. Layers going down on the captain.

Cleaned a bonesword/lashwhip and HVC for the nids, need magnets. Still have the stealers in blisters waiting for mold lines to be removed.

Slow progress, rough week. Might not get a lot done until the weekend.

Edit:
Put reds on the arms over lunch. Should have been getting exercise, but meh, whatever.

As always, you're doing some fine work on the Ultramarines. I'm looking forward to your UM Captain this month.

I haven't played 40K since 5th Ed, so I'm behind the current meta, but is it normal for the table to have as much open space as in your BatRep? In Frostgrave and Deadzone (the games I play most often), we try to never have fire corridors longer than, say, 6".

 JoshInJapan wrote:
As always, you're doing some fine work on the Ultramarines. I'm looking forward to your UM Captain this month.

I haven't played 40K since 5th Ed, so I'm behind the current meta, but is it normal for the table to have as much open space as in your BatRep? In Frostgrave and Deadzone (the games I play most often), we try to never have fire corridors longer than, say, 6".

No, tables should be more crowded and have more stuff that blocks LoS. These days my FLGS is a one-man GW store that’s only been open a couple years. Not a lot of terrain, and it’s spread over 2 tables (which are generally played as halves) He’s working on getting more done up, but it has to be done the official GW way(tm) which means we can’t just bring in 3rd party stuff.

I should probably tune my list to take advantage of it. Need to rework things anyway.

Went down and got a game in. Dropped the bikes and the Lt, added 2 5 man intercessors squads, one with rifles, the other with ABRs. It was brutal. Assassinate mission, I was the attacker (so went first) and he agressively lined up in the front half of his deployment zone. In this mission, there is only a 10” no-man’s land (he gets a whole half table to deploy in) Needless to say, I rush forward and blow 9/10 of a repentia squad, about half a 10 man BSS squad, and a few of the special weapon sisters off the table with shooting. I charge in and kill the whip mistress with my chaplain and the rest of the sinners with an intercessor squad. Pretty brutal start.

His turn he charges the remnants of his sisters into my intercessors after shooting them a bit, and his HQ joins the fight against my phobos marines on the other side of the table. My chaplain puts down his other support HQ, and I we both loose a few models in the ongoing fights.

Top of turn 2 my chaplain goes over to put down his target, while my ABR guys flub an easy charge to help out their brethren. His HQ has some holy relic armor which stops me from just swatting her down with the chap. Who, by the way, hits like a truck. But the incursors pick up the slack and pull the last wound off her, ending the game.

Victory Ultras.

I felt a little dirty. He deployed poorly, his dice were a little cold, and I just opened up hard. Fist volley was with the ABRs where I burned a Ultra strat to re-roll misses, and used the litany to give them +1 to wound. Vs. T3 repentia. Brrrrrt. Dead sinner bits everywhere. That last one was blessed with grace though. She should have died in the opening salvo, but lucked out with the Emperor’s grace. Then I dedicated 2 riflemen to try to put her down, and she lived. It took knives and riflebuts to finally end her, and her sacrifice helped sheild the characters behind her

Fresh paint was the ABR intercessors, who did just fine shooting, but missed an easy charge. (Which I could have re-rolled with a CP, but the game was ugly, so I just left it) The general plan is for these guys to move up with the chaplain and support him. Which they did.

I actually fielded my indominus chaplain this game, not the phobos one. Time for scouting is over, now it’s time for wrath. Against sisters it wasn’t a big deal that he’s swinging a relic around at S8 6 times on the first round CC, but he should be good for putting the smack down on just about anything.

2 units gained battle honors this game. For their part in the assasination, I gave the free honor for the mission to the incursors, and rolled for fun. The sarge just earned himself terminator honors. Kinda neat. The suppressors rolled up marksmen honors for +1BS which is a little broken, but I’ll gladly take it.

While I was down there I picked up the cursed city box. Going to start reading and looking at the cool models.

Paint is going down, will try to grab a pic later.

Getting flashbacks to 3rd edition, when a charging chaplain was something to be rightly feared.

Cursed City making an appearance is an exciting proposition.

 youwashock wrote:
Getting flashbacks to 3rd edition, when a charging chaplain was something to be rightly feared.

Cursed City making an appearance is an exciting proposition.

Amen

Every edition has had HQ’s who were in the spotlight, and those in the shadows. 3rd was the day of the Chaplain, and it’s been downhill ever since. Mind you, that’s not stopped me from fielding mine over the years. I do miss his aura just being on all the time. This 2/3rds of the time is for the birds. We librarians at the whim of the warp here?

It was good to see him on the table carving a bloody path through the enemy. None of this castling up around a captain to min/max auras. Go out, kill, repeat until victory or death. The codex approves of this action.

Slow progress.

Marines arms need the second blue, then ink and highlights all around. I’ve been dragging my feet hard on these guys.

Captain is doing better. Almost done with basecoats. Then I need to start with the washes and freehand. Going to quarter and put heraldry in the tilting shield, and do the Lt. Commander pad for his shoulder. Top 2/3rds white with an :ultra: with the bottom in blue with 3 gold stars. We’ll see how much I can get done in the next day or two. Going on vacation next week, so will be away from the paintbench. Going to be a rush at the end of the month when I get back.

Sounds like solid plans for the Captain. Good luck getting him done.

 youwashock wrote:
Sounds like solid plans for the Captain. Good luck getting him done.

My freehand skills are not the best. Still needs a lot of cleanup.


Getting there.

Coming along nicely.

 youwashock wrote:
Coming along nicely.

Looking forward to finishing him up. AFK for the rest of the week, next week is going to be a race to the finish,

The game sounds brutal, but congrats on the win!

Captain is coming along nicely, freehand looks good!

Ooh. It's really cool to see the termie captain getting some paint. Is that the one who canonically led the 1st in the polar fortress battles?

Terminator Captain is looking pretty good so far. That sculpt is so cool! I can't wait to see how it looks when it's all finished.

Thanks guys. I’m back and need to finish up the good captain. Hopefully get some work done tonight.

Cpt. Invictus was the TDA captain who died holding the fort. He had special rules in 3rd (maybe 2nd, missing that codex) but is not this model. He was equipped with a plasma blaster.

Cpt. Agemman is the current 1st co. captain, and as far as I know does not have special rules or gear listed. Although I don’t keep up on a lot of the non-codex fluff.

running out of time, but getting there.

Looking good Nev. Stick with it.

Now I can't help but feel he needs a plasma blaster. Strong finish, Nev!

There is a plasma blaster in the tarteros terminator kit. But this guys is the rebirth in plastic of the original RT guy, so no kitbashing here.

Put the blue ink down last night, edged the blue this morning. Need to do some work on the cape, fix the face, and a lot of cleanup. Getting there. I’ll try to grab a pic later.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

He's looking great Nev!

Zoom is not kind to him, but done with the paint. Need to flock and put a transfer on his shoulder. then pictures.

Nice work on the skull-encrusted scabbard. A great holdover from the original.

Zoom is never kind to anything... I think he looks great Nev. Pat yourself on the back for that model.

That looks excellent; one of your better pieces in my opinion. Be proud!

Yeah I think he looks great! Nice blending on the red and the face looks really nice.

Thanks guys.

All done here:


So this guy was a lot of work, but fun. Throwback to the old RT TDA captain, so I took a lot of cues from that. The shoulder pad is from the old “How to paint space marines” pamphlet as the markings for a lieutenant commander. This was the old RT rank of the second in command in the chapter (CMs were just Commanders back then) so I figured it would fit for the 1st company captain in the modern structure. The quartered tilting shield is from the belt buckle heraldry that was on the original model. Tons if little detail on this guy, as befitting a captain of his stature.

I think this brings me up to 13 UM captains painted. I might have a problem...

And a “Then and now” pic


I also finished building on stealer. Need to keep at them so I can start on other projects. Next month looks to be “Mayhem” and I think I’ll paint as many as I can, hopefully priming and doing 10 total. At least all the ones in the primed pile. And I still need to finish the marines that have been WIP for 2 months now? Ouch. I blame Izzy for my lack of progress. When the kitty decides to come and take a nap in your lap, you need to scrub all other plans.

Going to head to the local GW today. They are giving away the old store terrain with purchase, scaling depending on how much you buy. I figure the new Nid book and a box of something like shining spears should put me in a decent bracket. Sure, I could get a discount online, but pre-painted 40k terrain makes up for that, and I need more for my home table.


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There were people waiting for the store to open when I got there. Free stuff did not last long, but I got mine.

Also ordered a Nid codex, as they were out of stock.

Started work (again) on some hills.

Captain looks great! Love the side-by-side pic

Interesting idea from the store to give old terrain when you buy stuff, nice stuff you got there.

 Viterbi wrote:
Captain looks great! Love the side-by-side pic

Interesting idea from the store to give old terrain when you buy stuff, nice stuff you got there.

I think it’s GW policy that they only want to use what they currently sell on their tables. So rather then bin the old stuff they did a promotion to generate sales. There were a handful of people waiting for the store to open and more to follow shortly after. The staffer was ringing people out pretty much from when the door opened, and it went FAST. There wasn’t a huge stock of terrain, but he probably did $600-$1000 in sales in the first half hour.

I’m trying to think of how many models I’ve done that have direct inspiration like the captain here. There is Calgar and maybe my old metal-faced chaplain. I should get a side-by-side of him. I’ve also had a hankering recently to gather all my captains together for a group shot. I’ve got far too many.

Second guessing myself if I just want to do stealers for Mayhem month, or swap out one for the cultist or ‘Fex. All the bugs need to get paint. Gotta keep the army Pile of Shame balanced.

Captain looks great, I particularly like his face. Job's a good 'un!

Really cool to see the two side by side like that. You get to show off how far your painting skills have come while maintaining the continuity of the character. And much like the orks and their dakka, I'm not sure it's possible to have too many captains...

 Nevelon wrote:

There were people waiting for the store to open when I got there. Free stuff did not last long, but I got mine.

Also ordered a Nid codex, as they were out of stock.

Nevelon scores!

CB

MegaDave wrote:Captain looks great, I particularly like his face. Job's a good 'un!

Magic of contrast paints on the face for the most part. Still some fine detail work, but a lot easier these days for the bulk of the face.

Captain Brown wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

There were people waiting for the store to open when I got there. Free stuff did not last long, but I got mine.

Also ordered a Nid codex, as they were out of stock.

Nevelon scores!

CB

It was a major victory to grab those bits. If not a polar fortress, my other theme for my table was going to be abandoned, frozen over, mining camp. These fit right into that.

brushcommando wrote:Really cool to see the two side by side like that. You get to show off how far your painting skills have come while maintaining the continuity of the character. And much like the orks and their dakka, I'm not sure it's possible to have too many captains...

So, I had the thought to do it, so why not? First, the chapter commanders:

Calgar and Guiliman. Don’t get much table time, but they are the guys in charge. Old Calgar is collecting dust, not pictured.

Skipping around a bit, the lieutenants:

Reasonable number here. 2 firstborn for my old battle company, 2 primaris for the new. And one each from the 1st and 10th. Don’t really feel the need to get more. There is the rever Lt. who could join his brother in the 10th, and maybe some alt weapon builds. But pretty happy here.

And now, the Captains:

All told, 16 of them. We can get a little technical on the counting. Not pictured is my old metal Ven Dread who wears captain’s bars. Dreads are not formally in the chain of command, so he got to stay home. The guy who I used as my first avatar here on Dakka, between the old metal TDA captain and the 3rd ed one is a lieutenant commander, not a captain. And the new TDA captain also wears that rank.

But they would all hit the table using Captain’s stats, in some form.

1 bike
1 jump
3 TDA
1 counts-as Sicarius
6 assorted other foot captains
1 primaris
(3 unpainted primaris, one in gravis armor)

And I could use a few more.
I’d like the phobos captain. The 10th is growing, and actually has a pretty decent command element. Would like the Captain to head it up. Not a huge deal, as I’ve got the Chaplain over there, and they commonly head up demi-cos.
I’d also kinda like to grab one or both of the other Gravis captains. No legit reasons. The rifle guy would make for a decent backfield buffer, but I have other guys do that job. And the multi-option one just looks good, and could be magnetized for flexibility. But doesn’t offer much over the gravis captain I already have. I’d say I’d look forward to picking them up in a bundle box some day, but honestly I don’t picture me getting a SM one again. I’ve got WAY to many marines on the shelf as it is, hard to justify just bulk troops to fill out the roster, which is what they mostly are.

As an aside, these are not all the captains in the house, just the Ultras, and ones slated to get the blue treatment. Few in black and red kicking around, and who knows what else in the Pile of Shame...

An impressive array. I think the I like the newer TDA, the painted Primaris, and the old Lieutenant Commander models best out of the bunch.

A fine assortment of Ultramar's greatest heroes.

youwashock wrote:A fine assortment of Ultramar's greatest heroes.

brushcommando wrote:An impressive array. I think the I like the newer TDA, the painted Primaris, and the old Lieutenant Commander models best out of the bunch.

Now I need to think about my favorite.

From the unpainted, I really like the fist/plas guy I built. If I don’t screw up his paint he has a lot of potential.
Of the old lead there is a lot of nostalgia. The Lt. Cmdr. is probably the oldest serving officer in my Ultras. If you look close, he’s got red eye lenses. I switched to green early on, mybe sometime in 2nd, could have been late RT. But he never really saw the table a lot. The 3rd ed captain with the SB/PS saw more time, but still not a huge amount. Chaplains were king of the roost in 3rd. That said when I started my move to a full company, he was my captain, a position he held for years. The TDA captain saw some play as my only one suited up, but his wargear was often a little sub par. The other metals are newer paints, with little nostalgia despite the age of their sculpts.

The bike captain was my go-to for a while, still proud of his helm. Modded the BaC guy, but the rules changed. Should have left the c-melta. Not particularly happy with the Sicarius. I do really like both the jump and foot captains in the center. They see a lot of play. Probably favor the foot as a model, but the JP gets more work done. BaC guy is OK, not unhappy with him, but he doesn’t do a lot. I like the new TDA, technically probably one of the better ones, and a nice nostalgic throwback. And I’m very pleased with my primaris one painted. Rules are a little lackluster, but he’s a great model.

If I had to pick 3 as favorites, it would probably be the 3rd edition (lot of nostalgia) the foot captain with the teeth of terra, and the primaris. But it’s hard to weigh them against each other.

Just to say I’m still painting, got the flesh wash down on a pair of stealers. Working on cleaning the others. Will try to grab a pic later.

Red down

First 2 stealers are off the handles waiting for flock, next two working across. Just put the flesh wash down. 2/3 of the marines and 1/3rd of the arms got their blue wash. I realized when doing the arm that they never got the clean up blue. Not a huge deal, but wanted to catch the other two.

2 of the 4 stealers in the build stage are now done. Progress. Painting them at the same time as building helps. Cleaning mold lines on old models might suck, but it’s the hard part. They paint so quick and easy. Or course, I have far more then I’ll ever need, but that’s life. There are still 4 more on sprue, but I suspect that they will stay there for now. Switching the squad size to 5/10 took the need away to get both of my broods to 12 stealers.

Got another game in yesterday. First time I’ve seen Death Guard across the table. They can take a hit, and are pretty nasty. Mission was assassinate, where he was gunning for my freshly returned captain. I might get the pics off my phone and do a full batrep. He had terminators, a plauge doc, blight lord, and some plauge marines. I fielded 2 intercessor squads, incursors, the TDA captain, and a Lt. I spent the game keeping the range open while pouring fire into him, with some mid game charges to help tie him up while my captain performed a fighting withdrawal. End of the game my Lt was dead and most of the rest of my army was mangled. All he had left was the blight lord, who I could have charged with the remnants of all my squads, but decided I didn’t want to risk all the potential out of action rolls for a posable kill. The game was already won as my captain was alive and well.

Fresh paint was technically the captain, but he was just a new mini with old stats. Vengence of Ultramar was really nice here, needed the re-rolls to wound. With the Paragon of War, he did a lot of the heavy lifting. Although shear weight of fire helped a lot. This was the first game my opponent’s blight terminators were killed.

The autobolt intercessors are pretty nice as well. Lot of shots is sometimes better then fewer ones with a pip of AP.

So the warhammer fest revels are a bit tempting. Not sure if they are enough to get me to pull the trigger. New KT box actually has marines, and terrain I like the look of. That could happen. The HH stuff I’m really torn on. “Less then $300 (aka $299)” for the big box is a lot of bang for the buck. The special/heavy weapon boxes to upgrade the guys is a real nice perk. I’ve got plenty of bolter boys, and still a chunk of 30k marines on sprue from the prior boxes. But would I ever actually play? Is this the next project after I finish my primaris battle co? How much hobby budget do I have for the year? Rumors have it that there is a pay boost in the pipe, in addition to out annual merit-based raises, so there might be a little more cash coming in. Of course I have a house to pout money into and the cost of living is going up.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Don’t forget to do something nice for the moms in your life.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: done building the stealers. And a chaos cultists who hopes that genestealers don’t discriminate against those who follow a different kind of cult.

4 down. Moved the last 2 primed ones to painting handles. Need to break out the rattlecan and hit the ones I just built. Would be nice to have all 10 done for the month, choose the best 5 for the comp. Those 2 marines are patiently waiting for their brothers to show up for the decal/base stage.

"Are you SURE this is the right party, brother?"

"Shut up and chitter."

Nice stealers. Fingers crossed for the raise.

 youwashock wrote:
"Are you SURE this is the right party, brother?"

"Shut up and chitter."

Nice stealers. Fingers crossed for the raise.

This month seems to be pretty good for motivation, I hope I can get a lot done. Thinking about working on the rest of the marines after dinner. More money would be nice, took the car into the shop for some routine stuff, and of course they found more stuff that needed to be done. On the plus side, the more I spend, the more guilt-free Amazon points I rack up. Between the car and the dental work I had done Monday, things are looking good for the hobby budget.

So I’ve been slowly digesting the new Tyranid codex (pun intended). Overall, I should be fine with my little bit of everything approach. The big change is the synaptic link. There is a lot of power to be had by having the right units to click off the buffs, and a continuous web of synapse covering the army. Having multiple nodes, and some fast moving ones to bridge gaps seems like a plan. Visually, I'd like to have small/medium/large expressions of most ‘Nid forms.

What I have
(what I plan)
*Synapse*

*Broodlord*
30+ genestealers

This is all I need for these guys. Probably too many with the move from the troop slot and adjusted squad size. And the odds of getting the 30+ I have painted are low. 2x10 modern ones and my 6 old ones will probably be it for a while.

*Flying Hive Tyrant*
( *Parasite* )
10 Gargoyles

This is the winged contingent. Adding the new parasite will give me a medium bug (shrikes would have been nice) as well as a mobile synapse node. Gargoyles are troops, and have decent guns. I think I’ve got 8 metal ones. Not sure how useful adding more to the list would be. They do make good action units and harassers, but are kind of a pain to build and have a huge footprint and are hard to hide. Passing on getting the actual flyers, as I’m not a huge fan of the models.

*Trygon Prime*
(Raveners)
6x Ripper swarms

This is the burrowing group. It goes from extra big to extra small. For theme I really would like some raveners. Kinda low priority though. While they don’t seem bad, they don’t really bring anything unique to the table. Good for fleshing out a list, but nothing to build around. Plus the models are a little dated.

Exocrine
3xBiovores
3xHive Guard
Spore Mines

Gun bugs. This is the living artillery. No synapse, but otherwise fine.

( *Tyrant on foot* )
( *Warrior Prime * )
2x magnatized carnafexes
( 3-6 *Warriors* )
15 (40) Termagaunts w/fleshborers
15 (20) Termagaunts w/devowerers
13 (25) Hormagaunts

Yes, I’m thinking about the combat patrol. I want warriors and a warrior prime. With the new synapse, they seem vital. Winged tyrants are no longer an auto-take. Sure, they give you mobility, but at quite a few tradeoffs. So a foot Tyrant (magnetized for swarmy) would fit. And with the changes in troop picks, I need more gribblies. Another box of stabby ones was always in the cards, but another swarm of shooters seems like a good investment. Now I have an old metal tyrant, and 3 broken shards of old warriors. So I might be able to do something with them. Old lead is probably closer to a prime than a tyrant these days.

( *Nerothrope* )
( 5x*Zoenthropes* )

Brain bugs. They were on my initial wish list, and the new codex just reinforces that. 2 boxes of 3 each would get me what I need. While the big brain bug seems very powerful, and would fit the role thematically, I think I can pass for now. Although the more I look, the more mechanically advantageous it looks to be. Still, a long list of models ahead of it.


So on the to-get list:
Combat patrol (tryant, 3 warriors, 36 gaunts, some rippers)
Maybe another box of warriors
1 box hormagaunts
2 boxes Zoentropes
Parasite
Raveners

Lovely day out, should have gone for a walk over my lunch break. Instead I broke out the rattle can, primed a few things, and put the red down on some stealers. I did the basecoat before work and the flesh on my first break.

Hope everyone is having a good week,
--Nev

Edit:
The two WIPs are basically done. Need to give them a QA check to see if they need any touch ups before swapping out for the next 2. All marines and guns are done with the blue ink. Next step is edge highlighting. We know how fast that will happen. Still: progress.

Stealers are coming along nicely. I'm jealous that you're having nice enough weather for rattle can priming; the weather here went from rainy to windy to extremely hot and muggy with nothing in between each of those. It's like whoever's in control of the weather is just trolling me!

Nice looking stealers, is that the Kraken colour scheme?

ZergSmasher wrote:Stealers are coming along nicely. I'm jealous that you're having nice enough weather for rattle can priming; the weather here went from rainy to windy to extremely hot and muggy with nothing in between each of those. It's like whoever's in control of the weather is just trolling me!

We normally get a mish-mash of weather exiting winter, but are enjoying our week of spring. Which is about over, as it’s getting into summer temps now. I need to get a fresh can and do the rest of the pile. Not sure if there is enough juice left in the one I have.

Olthannon wrote:Nice looking stealers, is that the Kraken colour scheme?

Leviathan. Although without the purple from the carapace, hard to tell. No armor for these guys, just fleshy and stabby bits.

Edged the blue on one marine, and then my neck told me it wanted a martini and a pillow, so that’s enough painting for one night. Shoulders have been bugging me all day. Need the weekend and some down time.

Marines are all edged, need assembly and final clean up pass. Stealers need a cleanup pass but are otherwise done.

And then decals for the squad of marines and bases all around.

After that I need to figure out what to do. Thinking about building the cursed city stuff. But something should be getting paint. 2 more stealers to do, maybe a marine character and some hellblasters to keep an eye on them.

Enjoy your weekends all.

So some paint going down on a rainy Sunday. Grey Seer on the stealers and the apoth. Decided to start on the BGVs, although no paint on them yet.

Over on the build and base side:


Cleaned and assembled 3 of the CC heroes. Not glued, just push-fit. FIddly models, mold lines are not bad, but tons of thin bits. I should probably glue them, as some seams/joins could use the help.

I should just start cranking through the bases. It’s going to be more work than I do in one sitting anyway, so no need to wait on the last 2 stealers. Marines also need their shoulders.

Stealers and Marines are looking good. I like the little flash of green on the ymargrl? strain. Excited to see the Blade Guard hit the bench. Really cool models. I don't recognize the last trio though, are those from AOS?

 brushcommando wrote:
Stealers and Marines are looking good. I like the little flash of green on the ymargrl? strain. Excited to see the Blade Guard hit the bench. Really cool models. I don't recognize the last trio though, are those from AOS?

I use the tentacle heads (which might be the ymargrl strain) as acid maws. Helps them stand out.

The new builds are the heroes from Cursed City. I think they do have warscrolls for AoS play, but they are from the box game. Finished a few more of them last night. Only a couple more and than I start on the baddies.

Looking forward to the CC heroes. Good job keeping the swarm growing.

Quick progress pic on the basing front. Tops got a little white to hide the slop, black rims on the stealers.

Put the blue on one of the BGV. Need to drag out my old apothecaries to use as guides. Also decide if I want to do the vets with the white trim of 1st company, or the gold of chapter heroes.

Edit:
Rocks and tufts glued to the stealers, marines black rimmed.

Edit2: Stealers all done, just need formal picks of the best 5.

Got all the pics, just need to sit down and do the collage. Rocks and tufts on the marines done. Flock and decals left.

Stealers look great all finished Inspires me to get my terminators on deck.

Nice work Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

brushcommando wrote:Stealers look great all finished Inspires me to get my terminators on deck.

I’d kinda like to get some modern terminators, but have so many old ones. The good captain will have to represent them.

Captain Brown wrote:Nice work Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks. And done:


Nothing fancy here, but getting more of the Pile of Shame ready for battle. These guys have hands, rather then talons like the last batch. Should help keep the broods apart on the table if they go after the same meal. Running low on bugs, probably time to buy some more...

All 10 I painted:

Hadn't noticed before, but I am a big fan of the classic 5 fingers/3 claws look.

 youwashock wrote:
Hadn't noticed before, but I am a big fan of the classic 5 fingers/3 claws look.

Same.

I did the first batch with the talons for a few reasons. Mechanically, they were a free upgrade that gave options, so why not? From a fluff POV, these broods were spawned as part of the hive fleet. They are combat models, designed to infiltrate and blend on the battlefield. Less need for thumbs, more for extra stabby bits.

But I wanted something to separate the 2 squads, and preferred this look anyway. Sometimes thumbs are useful. Plus with the new codex, all their attacks just get lumped together. No reason to have claws and talons


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Finished basing the back half of the ABR squad, off to the YTD shelf. Also done with the CC heroes, next up the baddies!

So I’m punting on going to the FLGS this weekend. Allergies are kicking my ass, and I’ve got other going out plans, need a lazy day. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a decent 25PL nid list to bring down, and not really coming up with anything fair and fun. Really want more than one synape unit, but don’t want to bring something like a flyrant or trygon prime at that level. So I cashed in my rewards points on my credit card and picked up the combat patrol and parasite. They should get here Thursday. Mr. Flappy will be a nice node for the initial invasion wave, while the warriors can shore up the swarm in later phases.

I’ve got to stop looking at the HH leaks. The big box is such a deal. The more I think about it the more it grows on me. I’ve still got a chunk of Mk III/IV bodies, and some more RTB01s to clean up. I’ve got a pair of period rhinos, and 2 land raiders. The spartan would make a great centerpiece for an armored spearhead. And I also have enough boots on the ground to just march for Macragge. Especially if I add another 40 beakies. The praetors don’t do a lot for me. But even if I ignore them, the value is still crazy. It will be interesting to see how they price out all the parts.

Anyway, build the big bad for CC. Didn’t go together as smooth as the heroes, but whatever. Put more paint down. First blues on everything, including the pilots for the speeder. Which I need to finish.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Stay cool; it’s hot out there.

Eh, if you want the HH box, I say get it, especially if it'll be any kind of passion project for you. I know you'd enjoy yourself with it. I wouldn't mind getting it myself, but I literally don't have room for the models to yet another game. I'll probably get a Sicaran whenever that kit comes out, as it has 40k rules and I absolutely love that model!

I hope you end up getting at least one box of the new beakies if for no other reason then to maintain the continuity of your collection. In your full army shots you can see elements of every era of 40k represented and It would feel like the sundering of a royal line if you passed on them entirely... But seriously, I do understand the problems associated with over-collecting so no pressure.

No worries, at least one box of beakies is on the table. And probably a sicarian, as that is one sexy tank. The only thing keeping me from getting one was the issues with FW and resin.

At this point the only games I’m playing are 25 PL crusade games. It’s hard to get behind big full army projects, but that’s kind of 30k HH’s thing. It’s my hobby and I enjoy it, but budgets are a thing. It is hard to argue with the massive discounts in the launch boxes. We’ll see what happens.

So 2 of my friends are packing up and moving to Colorado. As part of their lightening the load, my friend Ben is getting rid of a lot of his minis. Ironically, some of these guys are returning home, as I unloaded the nid side of the 4th ed starter on him, and glued and pinned his classic Hive Tyrant.

So surprise supply drop to shore up the swarm:

30 termagaunts, assored guns and paintjobs.


Just the other day I was thinking “I could use another two dozen genestealers” Oh well, they can join the queue.


17 Hormagaunts (Tippy will be glad to see another metal stabby gaunt)
1 Genesteler
3 Termagaunts
8 Spore mines
3 Ripper swarms (who could be rebased to more)
Terrain thing.


Carnefex (claws and cannon, not a bad loadout)
2 foot tyrants (classic VC/ BS+LW) (Newer but still metal VC and rending claws)
Lictor
2 warriors (damaged, talons and devourers)
Zoenthrope (finecast, needs base work)
3 raveners (need work)


And a dusty and battered 2nd ed box set, with rules and a lot of cardstock.

Also nid codexes a 2nd ed, 6th? (it has the flyers) on one from in between. 4th? maybe. I’d have to do the research. And a NIB on sprue modern Tyrant.

Also a crap ton of Clan Wars lead and rules, and some hobby supplies.

So how will this change things?

I’d rather not strip stuff unless absolutely needed. That said, there is a lot of bare plastic/metal here, and the pre-painted stuff can be used for filler as needed.

the 8 bare Horms added to dozen I have now will bring me up to 20. That feels like a much more legitimate brood, so I can drop the second box of them off my to-buy list.
The lone Zoe is a little odd, but a good thing. I wanted to be able to field a squad plus the HQ version, which required 2 boxes. With an extra here, I can use him to fill the space in the squad left by promoting one of them.
Similar with the warriors. These guys need a little fixing up, but can help fill the squad that’s on the way.
Metal Lictor is gold. Wanted one, especially for my vanguard wave crusade list, didn’t want finecast.
Raveners are nice, not plastic, so would be hard to expand on the squad, but should be easy to give them the arms they need to play.
Tyrants. So many tyrants. The RT metal might be downgraded to a warrior prime. Not sure what to do with the alien queen version. And when Amazon delivers on Thursday, I’ll have 2 modern plastics to build. One I’ll do as a magnetized foot, and I think I’ll just glue the other together as the Swarmlord. Not that the magnetized one couldn’t be put together with bits for that job. Might just stay on sprue for a while. There is also the metal RT one I have in parts. Not going to build her now, although a second prime might not be bad?

Cleaned up some of the low hanging fruit. Some mold lines were not as neat as I like, so I went over them. Much harder when built. The gaunts also were painted and striped at some point, which complicated things a little. They can go off to the to-prime pile. The RT tyrant went straight to the to paint box.


Slowly getting layers down.

Hope everyone’s week is off to a good start. Mine was a little rough, but moving forward.

That 2nd Ed box is treasure. Unexpected mini windfalls can be a real treat. Hope the week improves.

Sorry to hear your week is off to a rough start, but hopefully it gets better. Congrats on the new loot. I used to love buying cheap lots of unloved warhammer minis on ebay and sifting through to find the occasional rare treasure. Hopefully these bring you lots of enjoyment.

Week has been better. Did some minor repairs and primed today at lunch.


So thinking about the lictor: Do I paint him in the typical scheme, or do him up in a mottled arctic camo? Not as easy as my normal camo, would be hard to get it to look right, not be bland, and mesh with the army.

Some of the construction on these guys needed some help. Not sure how many hands they have been though.

Some cool stuff there. I'm interested to see what you do with the Alien Queen hive tyrant. I imagine it's a very unwieldy bit of metal, but I always thought that model looked cool. Don't really have any advice on the lictor dilemma one way or another. Camo could be cool, but there's also something to be said for him matching the rest of the army... Do you have any minis you could try out a scheme on before committing to the vintage metal?

 brushcommando wrote:
Some cool stuff there. I'm interested to see what you do with the Alien Queen hive tyrant. I imagine it's a very unwieldy bit of metal, but I always thought that model looked cool. Don't really have any advice on the lictor dilemma one way or another. Camo could be cool, but there's also something to be said for him matching the rest of the army... Do you have any minis you could try out a scheme on before committing to the vintage metal?

I could try a gaunt or a genestealer. The question is what to do?

I think I’d keep the stabby bits in bright red, to match the swarm. Makes camo sense? Nope. But it keeps the mini interesting as a model, and gives some points of focus.
I’d like to separate the flesh from the armor. Maybe tint some apothecary white with the normal color, so it’s very pale and washed out. Or do that for the flesh, and stipple some light purple on the armor, and then glaze white?

Really don’t have a solid vision for if/what would look good and be doable with my paints/skills.

In other news; new nids showed up yesterday, almost done building the parasite. Wings did not want to mesh nice with the body, used a little GS. Also put the beige on the marines.

Edit: started putting together a modern foot tyrant. If the right competition comes up, I might see if I can do a 3 sisters entry. Or just paint them seperate. Who knows. Parasite just needs to be glued to its base.

She went together pretty quick. Interesting that I built her off just one of the sprues. I assume the winged sprue (which did include things like an alt swarmlord head) were added later. I’m really feeling the Pile of Shame right now. I’ve got boxes of stuff sitting waiting to be built. Not just the influx of nids, but still some marines and the shining spears. With every day that passes the KT and 30k box tempt me more. The crushing weight of grey plastic is starting to be felt.



It’s not much progress, but it is moving forward. Need to get some more layers down. Not sure if I’ll be able to clear the decks before next month starts, but I can try.

Enjoy your weekends all. Long ones if you are lucky.

The unexpected nids lot looks very cool, although not many people would be happy about this sudden appearance of bugs

Bladeguard are coming along great, they are lovely sculpts and not to shabby on the field of battle.

It's cool to see the blade-guard coming along. Some of my favorite Primaris models -- even if they are one of the dreaded "Squads of three" that drive me crazy lore-wise. Also, for some reason the way the landspeeder gunner is leaning his head sort of makes it look like he's on the phone with a friend while playing video games on the couch. This is now a conversion I'd like to make/see someone make...

Bladeguard are looking great. Do you find it helps to swap between the marines and nids? Stop you getting burnt out on one project?

Viterbi wrote:The unexpected nids lot looks very cool, although not many people would be happy about this sudden appearance of bugs

Bladeguard are coming along great, they are lovely sculpts and not to shabby on the field of battle.

Heh. My house in under siege by other bugs as well. Gypsy moths all over the place outside. But inside it’s just the fun and happy unsaitable hunger from beyond the stars.

brushcommando wrote:It's cool to see the blade-guard coming along. Some of my favorite Primaris models -- even if they are one of the dreaded "Squads of three" that drive me crazy lore-wise. Also, for some reason the way the landspeeder gunner is leaning his head sort of makes it look like he's on the phone with a friend while playing video games on the couch. This is now a conversion I'd like to make/see someone make...

Do yourself a favor and check the codex entry. They might be sold in boxes of 3, but can be fielded in squads of 3-6. So you can put a 5 man “combat” squad on the table like the Codex dictates. Which is my plan. I’ve got the 3 guys from the indominus box, made 2 more (including a new sarge) from the full box as well as a plasma pistol/power fist captain.
Heh. I’ve seen dioramas with the LS guys sitting down, but not playing video games. He dose look like he’s having fun.

Olthannon wrote:Bladeguard are looking great. Do you find it helps to swap between the marines and nids? Stop you getting burnt out on one project?

Absolutely. If not the nids, eldar, fantasy, or even alternate paint schemes like phobos/scouts. If I was just painting blue all the time, I’d go insane. Well, more insane. I’m already a bit crazy. But I strongly recommend people shuffle up their paint queue to prevent burnout. Obviously, different people work different, but it helps me keep moving.


Progress:

Not as much as I’d like, but some. Grey and browns done. Next up is the golds. Started some spore mines to keep the empty handles ocupied. They are like 4 steps to paint so should go quick. I need to get some numbers in the “painted” column. My “paint more then I buy” goal is looking pretty bleak. And while the influx of retro nids doesn’t count for that, I does bloat the pile of shame to an unhealthy level. Which is bad, as they were supposed to be PoS neutral.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Plugging away.

Also in the news it looks like the KT box does not include the full rules. I thought it did. So going to pass on that one. Saves the budget and model count for other projects.

Not a huge amount of progress from the last pic, but black wash down, which finishes these two mines. They are now off waiting to be based. Two new ones have drifted down and just got their first basecoat.

Man, I love these barn finds! The classic bugs bring back lots of fond memories. I remember playing my metal Orks against a buddy's metal Genestealers in my mom's attic at around age 11 (sooo... 35 years ago? Yikes!).

 Nevelon wrote:
So 2 of my friends are packing up and moving to Colorado. As part of their lightening the load, my friend Ben is getting rid of a lot of his minis.

If they kept an army and land in Denver, especially Northeast, have them holler!

 MacPhail wrote:
Man, I love these barn finds! The classic bugs bring back lots of fond memories. I remember playing my metal Orks against a buddy's metal Genestealers in my mom's attic at around age 11 (sooo... 35 years ago? Yikes!).

 Nevelon wrote:
So 2 of my friends are packing up and moving to Colorado. As part of their lightening the load, my friend Ben is getting rid of a lot of his minis.

If they kept an army and land in Denver, especially Northeast, have them holler!

I try not to think about how long I’ve been doing this. I feel old enough as it is. I’m pretty sure my friends ditched all their minis/armies, but are still gamers. I’ll try to find out exactly where they are ending up.

So here is a state of swarm:
Painted as of now


Here is everything built. Including stuff that could be striped and re-painted, or fielded as-is.


And here is the plans:


Last page I got some thoughts down, but that was before the reinforments dropped.

The WYSWYG part of my is a little irritated at the old raveners, but I’m not going to look a gift monster in the toothed maw. The guns from the gaunts don’t fit, but the ones from the warriors might (haven’t clipped them yet to test). Or I might just keep them pure melee and just play them as what I paid the points for. I’m going to end up with a lot more rippers. I’ll need to check how many I have saved up, but it might be around two dozen of the little biters. I’ve got 6 bases with 3 each. If I do 6 bases of 4 each with the new ones, that gives me a dozen bases that I can differentiate between two halves of if I want to put multiple squads in a list.

More raveners were on the list, but low. With the metals, I can take them off the to-buy list (not that I’d mind some plastics, but let’s not get silly here. Snake/burrowing bugs are all set.

The artillery side got some more spore mines, but are still all set.

Main core of nids got a massive shot. Spoiled for tyrants, although the old RT is better scaled as a prime. New foot tyrant is magnetized. Due to all the options they have, part of me is saying magnetize all the warriors. Just to future proof them. But that’s a lot of work. 4 arm swaps for each one. I might just glue them 2xBoneswords each, 2 spitters, one VC. The 2 black ones that came built are done with repairs, talons and devourers. Pure chaff clearing build. Will probably be used counts-as whatever the rest of the squad is packing. Still kinda want another box of warriors. We’ll see if that holds after building these guys.

Lots of gaunts. So many little gribbles. Just shy of 100. I’ve got some old metals that don’t match the modern aesthetics I could use to hit that number.
I have 15 devilgaunts. 5 more to bring that up to a 20 bug swarm.
I have 15 Fleshbores. 4 in the supply drop. Build 21 more, for a total of 40.
There were 3 unpainted spinefists. Going to make 7 more just to bring them up to 10.
That will bring the ones painted as my Leviathan swarm to 70.
20 in the silver/lavender job, and a half dozen black spotted. 3 left without a brood

Going to glue a swarmlord together to head the stabby side. Right now the SK is filling the middle spot. The thought crossed my mind to make a pure melee prime just to add some mid-range synape, but that’s probably a waste of a warrior body. The 8 hormogaunts that came to me bare are what I need to a 20 bug brood. If I put all the ones on the table, I have a total of 29. Might want to see if I can find some spare claws for a loose gaunt body just to round that up to 30.

Flappy side is doing well now that the parasite has joined them. I’ve still got 8 metal gargs in a box. Not that they are needed.

So the vanguard here is pretty fleshed out. The lictor fills the middle role. And I have far more stealers then is sane. I’ve got 4 more modern ones on sprue. If I add them to the 6 modern ones that were in the drop, that’s another 10 bug squad. The black spot swarm is a little battered, but another 10. The other 10 guys in the back are a mix of odd paintjobs and bare plastic, but old Space Hulk era plastics. I might grab 4 of them to try to match the paint on my old ones of similar vintage. The rest can join the two dozen or so of old metal/plastic stealers I’ve got in my dead box. Frankly the 20 I’ve got painted in my scheme are probably twice the number I’d ever want to field.

Zoenthrope off to the side needs some friends. Eventually maybe the giant brain bug. But no rush on that.

The goal is still to be Pile of Shame neutral. And I’m pretty deep in the red right now. If all this gets done, it should ballpark around 4,750 points. Add another unit or two and some upgrades, and that’s a 5k swarm.

I am proud of the bugs in the first picture for maintaining social distancing. 100 gaunts would be a sight on the table.

 youwashock wrote:
I am proud of the bugs in the first picture for maintaining social distancing. 100 gaunts would be a sight on the table.

You never know when a virus grenade is going to be tossed at you.

The idea was to have them lined up in columns by type, with space to add all the to be done stuff. Not the best army shot, but it was not intended to be. I should get a proper swarm shot at some point.

That's a formidable army Nev and you're making great progress on it. Thanks for sharing the future with us!

 Nevelon wrote:
You never know when a virus grenade is going to be tossed at you.

One of the worst design concepts of Rogue Trader...had a game once where my Imperial Guard had tabled my Space Marine opponent except for a lone Sergeant, who on his turn tossed a virus grenade the then proceeded to kill what remained of my entire army. Do you know how hard it was to beat Space Marines with IG in Rogue Trader?

CB

Man CB... you take me back!

Heh. There was some broken stuff in the old days. I played RT more as an RPG then a wargame, so escaped most of the gotcha crap that could happen. And only a handful of games of 2nd. I get the dislike of 3rd for simplifying the game, but it did get rid of most of the “and now everything dies, I win”

Sometimes it’s good to take inventory and get a plan down. I will often refer back to it as I go forward, to help keep my thoughts in order, and as a checklist of progress. I should do one for the 30k stuff I have. But might want to wait until the rules are out in the wild.

Speaking of things without a plan, stumbling through layers and washes on these guys:

There have been a few times where I needed to pause or skip a step and go back. Like I didn’t clean up the medic’s head before I started doing the flesh wash. Makes it more likely I’ll miss stuff, but no rush, plugging away.

Looks like the challenge for the month is “Underdogs” so I’ll paint up some hormagaunts. Everyone’s favorite little scrappers.


I missed my blog’s birthday a few weeks ago. Woops. 9 years. But today is 10 years for me as a user here. I lurked for a while before that, but that’s when I signed in. I should do something, but no clue what, and it’s going to be a long day.

Keep painting everyone!

--Nev

I never knew you went back that far Nev... color me impressed. RT was really designed more for roll playing than war gaming anyway.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I never knew you went back that far Nev... color me impressed. RT was really designed more for roll playing than war gaming anyway.

Didn’t think I went that far back here on Dakka or with 40k? Back when I turned 40 (which was a few years back) I posted a little blurb on my history as a gamer. I’m Old Guard from way back, roots of the hobby. Not that there aren’t gamers older than me, because there defiantly are. But I take pride in my role as a living ancestor. I’ve never fully left 40k, but there have been ebbs and surges. Probably played the least in 2nd and 4th. 3rd and 5th were big, rest somewhere in the middle.

As for posting here, I’ve been at it a while. 5.2 posts a day on average if the stats are to be believed. I like to think I represent the quiet moderate. I tend to avoid arguments. We all know the hot topics, and the factions involved. I don’t have people on ignore, but I’m not going to engage them. Mostly. I try to have value added in all my posts, and avid “me too” and “plus one” type posts. That said, sometimes (especially with new players and blogs) just having someone respond is enough to help. I’ve got a soft spot for chipping in the casual POV when people start spewing toxins to someone looking for advice.

I used to post more in certain parts. I made it a point to chime in on the local gaming section whenever someone was looking for a group in NY state. Made it easy to search for my own posts in the section and point people to contacts. I also used to do more with army lists. Especially for new players. But as all my 9th is casual crusade games, I don’t feel as qualified to chime in there anymore.

I might be slowing down a bit in my old age, but I’m not done yet. Still puttering around. Still posting, painting, and even getting in a game from time to time.

I’d also like to thank all the people out there reading, and part of this community. It’s great to have an extended group of friends out there to talk to, and share with.

And just so it’s not all rambling,

Finished up 2 more spore mines today, moved 2 gaunts up to start getting paint. Did a little tidying up on the marines. Should do more, but just exhausted today. I’ll grab pics at some point. Although they are at the not a whole lot of visible progress stage.

Ramble on, man.

We had Guard, Ork and Tyranid players. As a result, we also had a gentleman's agreement: no virus grenades, and we took the outbreak out of the strategy deck.

Chittering noises intensify.

It’s crusade day, and as I feel that the Ultras have finished their story arc, I brought out the nids. Who were a bitch to transport, but I knew that was going to be the case.

Early invasion vanguard units. Fist contact for this poor rural world I need to eat.

The stalwart Ultramarines line up to defend. Newish player, I think this was his 3rd game. I promptly ignore my WL/relics and just keep to the book strats. And remind him of all the tricks he can do. Supply Drop, he goes first.

He bravely pushes forward, shooting one squad of stealers off the table, plinking a spore mine to death. His assault intercessors plow into the broodlord in a display of bravery and/or insanity. He carves 3 wound off it, and in response he kills 3 of them. He’s a bit stabby.

On my turn I advance the gaunts up the table and cast onslaught on them so they can still charge. My surviving stealers move down the table, to charge the bikes, which the gargs shoot a little bit. The gaunts pile in and kill a marine. Lot of dice tossed for not a lot of killing, but they are unsupported. Stealers do better vs. the bikes, and reduce them down to a badly wounded sarge. I loose a few bugs to return swings, and polish off the assault intercessors in the middle.


Turn 2 He falls back out of combat to shoot me up. What an irritating ability, not fun being on the receiving end of it. He wiffs on the stealers, but the intercessors (who used the UM strat I told him about to fallback with no penalties) light up the gaunts. Who evaporate. I think he might have had to use rifle butts to put down the last of them, but it was ugly. He charges his captain into my broodlord and brings him down to his last wound, and I carve a few off him in return.

I swing my stealers around behind his captain, but still near his bike. I manage to finish off the bike with garg shooting (who had also moved up to cover that objective) so the stealers were free to help with the captain. Who they put down in a brutal frenzy of claws.

Turn 3 his brave 3 intercessors hold their objective and exact vengence for their captain, killing 2 of the 3 stealers.

The last stealer slinks out of sight to hold the objective while the gargs swing around to shoot, keeping a talon on their own. The broodlord on his final wound moves up to the boys in blue. After a little softening up with fleshbores, he charges in and removes them from the table.

Victory Nids!

As expected, very glass cannon. I wasn’t leveraging a lot of things I could, but it was still a reasonably close game. The BL was on his last wound, so a flubbed save would have taken him out at a few different times. And he did a lot of work.

I deployed very aggressively, and he had a pretty choppy army as well. He went first and took half the wounds of my BL and a whole unit of stealers. It was a risk, but if I had gone first it would have been brutal with me charging pretty much my whole army into CC turn one.

It’s a new codex, so everything feels like fresh paint.
Broodlord is still a blender. Still a little soft. Killed 2 units, probably my MVP of the game.
The stealers who lived were fresh paint, the ones I just finished last month. One kill, but a solid assist on the bikes.
Garg shooting was good. He never shot back at them, so the fact that they are made of tissue paper didn’t come up.
Hormagaunts are fast, especially with a little psychic backup. They chuck a TON of dice, and can get some results. But they are still a little chaff unit. Marines are not their ideal target, but they did OK.
Spore mines went boom, did 2 MWs to the bike. I love having a 1PL unit I can use just to round off the roster.

So the initial invasion is underway. I’ve racked up 2 biomass and 4 crush resistance points. I need 5/2 to progress to the next stage, so should choose a biomass agenda next time.

In painting progress the first 2 gaunts are at the detail/touch up stage. Marines are slowly plodding along.

Oh, and while I was down there I pre-ordered the HH box and a set of special weapons. So that’s happening.

Have a great weekend all.

So a little informal survey of the minis this morning.

I’ve got 5 Mk. IV and 8 Mk. III left on sprue.

The 3’s were going to be deathwatch, and I have a few that were geared with stormbolters/chainswords with the DW shoulderpads in the primed pile. They might get their arms ripped off and replaced with bolters. I’ve still got 5 built as duel-pistol destroyers (one with a ML) magnetized for jump packs. A bit ago GW put out a new unit for UM specific destroyer-type unit with special bolters. I could use my Mk. 3s to represent the hardened armor for the rad troopers, 2x10 man squads. Assuming the new rules are the same.

I’ve got 2x10 man Mk. IV veteran tac squads. 5 on sprue, and I think the other 5 got turned into other projects (like the medic and master of signals). Those last 5 can turn into a special/heavy weapon squad. We’ll see what my list looks like it needs more. I’m guessing heavy. Problems is all I’d be able to give them are HBs or MLs.

I’ve got 40ish RTB01 or other era appropriate troopers. Right now they are on the shelf as 3x10 man tac squads and 1x10 man ML dev squad for 40k. I’ve got about 20 more that still need to be cleaned up. Also 3 on the YTD shelf, might be more scraps of guys scattered around. If I muster them all, there should be 90 RTB01s total, but some will remain in their BA colors. Lot of bolter boys here, probably going to hit the field as basic legion tac squads, with the ML/F set into their own specialized squads.

Plenty of terminators and tanks as well. The army concept of a sparten and 2 LRs plus 2 rhinos full of vets punching a hole in the lines to be exploited by a block of troops could work. We’ll see what happens when the books are in my hands.

So the medic is almost done. He needs his blue ink on the parts that are actually blue (not a lot for him) and edging. Speeder and crew is also ready for their wash. After that dries, the crew will need their belts tidied up, but almost done with that. BGVs need their cleanup blue pass.

These are the second 2 gaunts. First two are off waiting to be based. Just put the base grey seer on, they can get their purple on break/lunch today; we’ll see how busy my Monday ends up being.

Apothecary needs a little cleanup on the white, and then the while/blue edges. Done with washes and the reds.

Speeder needs a detail splash of ink in a few places the big brush I was using wouldn’t fit (the TML pods. While I’ve got that open, the crew could use a bit on the blue parts I couldn’t get to while on the holders.

Gaunts are at the eyes and teeth stage. Then a cleanup pass. After that the next two. I should also start thinking about baseing. I’ve still got some spore mines in queue for that.

Halfway through the week folks. Hang in there!

Edit: apoth and gaunts done and off to be based. Put some blue on the speeder, now the missiles need a cleanup pass.

Next up is the flocking. More gaunts/spores drifting across the workbench. BGV are at the cleanup stage, so I really need dedicated time for that. Not just a quick coat before work or on lunch. Still, they are getting close, I should push them through.

I continue to clean up the nid wave. Still working on the old stuff, but I’ve got a hankering to dig into the fresh plastic. I think once I clean the plastic on the bench I’ll build something new. Still need to fix the snake boys, but that’s dedicated drill and pin work, so again, not before work quick stuff.

I’d like to keep enough stock of gaunts ready to go so i can constantly cycle them across empty handles. I might not be able to make my paint more then I buy goal this year. I’ve been very bad with the purchases. But I’m not going down without a fight. Looks to be around 120 new models bought this year so far. I’d like to hit over 100 painted. At least 45 nids.

We’ll see how that goes.

TGIF everyone. Almost the weekend!

Great to see you still so enthusiastic after all those years (meaning the game, not dakka). Though your dakka record is impressive too!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Great to see you still so enthusiastic after all those years (meaning the game, not dakka). Though your dakka record is impressive too!

It waxes and wanes, but I’ve never fallen out of the hobby. Going to the local store and playing in the crusade league is actually helping a lot. It’s nice to get games in against new players, full of enthusiasm. As much as I like it here on Dakka, there are enough toxic jaded vets that tend to poison conversations. Damps down some of the joy. But 90% of my hobby discussions are here with this community, so I put up with it. It helps to stick to the painting forums as they tend to be a lot more supporting and encouraging.

--

So I finished baseing the guys on deck, and moved the gaunts from the handles down to start the queue for the next batch. This will be the last of the Horms, and 2 more spore mines are standing by.

Finishing the Apothecary is the last of the 3rd company command elements. It feels a little off that there isn’t a primaris command squad/bodyguard unit. I guess as an Ultramarine I could use the Victrix Honor Guard. I should check my spare bits and see if I have a pair of stormshields and swords to make another pair of VHG, but not blinged out the the level of the official models/BGVs, just chapter command levels of bling. I think there is a limited release company champion, with rules, somewhere out there, but the Judicair is going to fill that role for me.

Captain
Chaplain
2x Lts.
Apothecary
Ancient
Champion (Judicair)

I should get a pic of all of them together. And then start plugging away at more line troopers.

On the build front I finished cleaning all the bare plastic but assembled nids from the supply drop. It’s a nice day, I should try to get them primed. Rattle can is getting light, need to grab another. But I want to ensure a constant steam of bugs to paint. And start building more. I think I might alternate building gaunts with other things, just to prevent burnout. So many of them on sprues. I also need to print up some 40mm bases or just order some to make more rippers. Although some came in the combat patrol, I’m going to need more. I also need to work up some of the infestation nodes. While they probably don’t need bases, I’d like them to be on some, just for consistency.

Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a good start.


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I put a swing arm lamp next to the YTD shelf to help with the lighting, but it’s got a crappy bulb in it. Need to fix that. Some guys are packed in the foam to go to the FLGS (The new TDA captain, proxied here by the old one, and 5 stealers). Overall not bad progress. I’ll do a more formal halftime at the end of the month when Q2 wraps up.

Carnifex moving in on that Speeder like Momoa on Cavill. Nice to see the RTB01 boys up front. Nice work, Nev.

 youwashock wrote:
Carnifex moving in on that Speeder like Momoa on Cavill. Nice to see the RTB01 boys up front. Nice work, Nev.

Heh, Speeder better move out quick.

So did some building this morning.

Cleaned up the snakes, and clipped and built 4 gants. Off to the to-prime pile, which needs a fresh rattle can and a clear day.

Clipped 5 intercessors and need to start cleaning and building them. They are going to be the back half of a squad, so nothing too fancy. But they will get an AGL and in lieu of a sarge are going to get a comms trooper. Part of me wants to trick out the rest of the guys as a KT, but intercessors are not the go-to for this edition. Eventually I might grab the new phobos guys. That said, I might trick out these guys for the old edition, just for fun. So a demo guy, vet, etc. We’ll see what I’m feeling. Clean up the bodies first and start the builds, splash more bits on as the mood takes me. Probably need another box of intercessors eventually.

Wow, Nev. I see so many models move across your bench. How big are your armies now?

Very impressive.

 DJJazzyJeff wrote:
Wow, Nev. I see so many models move across your bench. How big are your armies now?

Very impressive.

Somewhere between “big” and “stupidly big” OK, so that’s mostly just the Ultras, which are clocking in at something like 16,000 points. Eldar are a much more reasonable 4k, while the nids are just stretching to get to 2k. And that’s not adding my YTD shelf, which is about 1,100 across the 3. Over the course of time documented in this blog (so about 9 years) I generally manage around 2,500 points a year painted. Some of that is fantasy and one offs that don’t fit into my main armies, but gives you an idea how things grow and my pace.

Almost done with the last 2 gaunts. They are at the touch-up stage. Moving along...

So most of these guys are ready for flock. I just put the black wash on the last spore mines. They just need their bases cleaned and rock/tufted to join the others. Who at this point will probably wait for them to catch up.

BGV still chilling in the back with no progress.

Starting to clean and assemble the squad. I do think I’ll spice them up into a bit of a KT. Even if they don’t match the rules, it will give them a bit of flavor. All will still have the basic rifle, but will toss some demo charges, knives, scopes, etc. around.

So some of the new paints look good. Would have looked better before I started my nids. Always felt the purple was too dark, and lo, here comes on the right shade after I’m halfway though. Oh well. Blue contrast shows promise, might grab a pot to test as a replacement for my ink. Also the grey shade looks better over white then apothecary white to help shade white armor. Not that I have a lot left to do. Little worried about the re-formulation on the shades. I like how the Nuln Oil flows for how I use it. Might grab a pot or two before it goes away. Or just test the black contrasts.

Edit: All the gaunts and mines done and based. I’ll need to start another batch of nids across the bench.

Did the cleanup on one of the BGVs. Gaunts are all ready waiting for me to pick the best 5 and get formal shots. Intercessors bodies are cleaned and built, next step is to clean up the bits and bobs that make them who they are. Haven’t started more nids yet. I should, just been a tired week. But it’s Friday, so almost to the weekend!

So the comms and demo guy are done being built. Demo is not much, just a meltabomb hung off his belt. Need to spice up the rest of the squad. I feel a little bad about poaching ideas from my DW KT, but might just go and echo them in blue.

Weather was nice after work, so I broke out the rattle can. I had picked up 2 new ones a week ago. Finished the last of the old. More stuff for the primed pile, which was actually looking a little patchy. Still some grey that needs to be primed, but I like to do small batches and have been building a lot of stuff.

I posted them in the contest thread, but here are the finished gaunts


and all 8 that I did:


I should get a shot of the full block of 20. Might wait until the year ends, and do group shots of the branches of the swarm.

Hope everyone’s week is going well.

That swarm is getting bigger every week, they'd warrant a stockpile of bug bombs by now

Good to see so much progress and excited for the spruced up new marines squad, sounds like fun.

 Viterbi wrote:
That swarm is getting bigger every week, they'd warrant a stockpile of bug bombs by now

Good to see so much progress and excited for the spruced up new marines squad, sounds like fun.

Coms, demo, and scout done.

Scout/recon guy has a phobos shoulder pad and an auspex. Not a huge amount of stuff, but a little extra character. I made another nid talon knife for the vet/CC guy. Used a spare hilt from the BGV box. He’s up next to build. Last guy will probably be the marksman.

Edit:
Quick run after work to the FLGS to pick up my 30k/special weapons boxes that finally showed up. And 2 pots of Nuln Oil before they reformulate it. So it begins...

Little woolgathering before I start my day.

So I started reading the HH rulebook. Getting lots of 7th flashbacks, which is about what I expected. Cleaned up a lot of things, swapped some to older versions of the 3-7 rules range. Like wound allocation, which I approve. Looks pretty clean and playable, but I’m just getting through the core stuff. I’m sure it will get more convoluted later.

Placed an order for more stuff. Nothing that’s going to impact my paint more then I buy goal (which is looking truly stuffed). The loyalist rules, some more rocks and tufts. Just broke down and ordered a 6 pack of the tufts I use. According to Amazon, I’ve ordered frozen tufts 4 times, and that’s not counting ones from FLGS. With all the nids and 30k guys in the pipe, I’m going to need them. Might as well get the bulk discount. Cashed in more reward points and a father’s day gift card, so it wasn’t too bad on the bottom line, but this year’s expenditures have been crazy. I need to stop.

I’m dithering a lot on how I want to build the HH box. Battlescribe is not updated fully, and my book will not be here for a week or so. I do know I want to magnetize the dread, so might need to get more magnets for that of the right size. Spartan should be fairly straightforward. Options will be magnetized, so I can build that before the book. Despite any other uses for the Mk. VI marines, (which is probably going to be a lot of special weapons) I feel the need to put together a ML/F tac squad. Gotta callback to the old RTB01s. I’ve got no plans to pick up the ML/HB box, but can probably poach one for the Mk III/IVs.

I doubt either of the preators are going to be built stock. Not a huge fan of them. We’ll see what happens.

Have a great weekend all.

--Nev


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So finished the build on these guys.

Scout/recon. Auspex and a phobos pad, light on his feet to rove ahead and find the enemy.

Coms. Keeping the main body apprised of status, intercepting signals, e-warfare.

Demo. AGL and a melta bomb to make things go boom.

Vet. Xeno-talon knife, TDA honors token on his shoulder. Probably acting sarge is these 5 men need to operate alone.

Sniper. Right now his rifle is in battle configuration, but he’s got a optional scope and bippod hanging off his belt, as well as special ammo.

The last 2 guys don’t look like much from the front, but have a lot of extra kit. Decided to use the scarred head I painted for the judicar here. I could just clean up a new one, but why when the work is already done?

And with these guys done I can move on to other projects. Which will probably be 30k stuff, but I might bang out 4 more gaunts just to mix things up from the marine fest this is going to turn into.

Nice! Looking forward to seeing them painted up! That heresey box almost got me, too--going to be a lot of marines like you say. Assuming you're sticking to Ultras?

Vejut wrote:
Nice! Looking forward to seeing them painted up! That heresey box almost got me, too--going to be a lot of marines like you say. Assuming you're sticking to Ultras?

I’m not crazy enough to start a new legion when I’ve got a lot of legacy stuff that can fill the ranks. Prior I was using a slightly different paint scheme for my 30k stuff, to help ease the pressure on the lone pot of blue ink. Might try a few experiments and see what the new paints look like. If it’s close enough, might just adopt them overall.

These guys might float higher in the paint order, as specialists they might get done on their own, and not be stuck as a 5 man squad.

Building some beakies:


And you thought it was just going to be the 30k plastics. I need to finish cleaning up the old stuff I’ve been stripping for years now. Still more waiting, but my hands can only take so much scrubbing in one sitting. But I can get these guys cleaned and in the queue.

Also put the base down on 3 spinefist gaunts. Progress. Not enough for a full weekend, but I helped friends pack and spent some time playing Skrym.

Obviously the new guy is just standing more upright. No scale creep. None at all.

The old is new again. Can't wait to see that new tank get blue'd.

 youwashock wrote:
The old is new again. Can't wait to see that new tank get blue'd.

In general I hate painting tanks. So big, so much area to cover. Plus my ink/glaze system of painting blue does not do them any favors. Needs to happen though.

Not a lot of painting progress. Cleaned up the purple on the gaunts, they need their flesh wash next. Did the second cleanup blue on the other BGV, they both need ink. Not a lot of motivation this week, and I’ve got a lot of things planned for and need to be done by this weekend. Plus the summer hours I’m working kill some of the morning time I use to get a layer down. Still adjusting. I’d like to clear the decks by this weekend on the painting side, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Might try though.

Reds down. They need faces, black wash, and touch ups. BGV still need their ink.

Base stuff showed up yesterday.

Hard to tell from the angle, but that’s a stack of 6 tufts.

TGIF all.

Edit: put the black wash on the nids.

I'm a big fan of good basing.

Army Painter tufts are really nice! I've been using them on my Stormcast Eternals' bases. Your swarm is turning out nicely, and I feel you on the new paints. I want to use the new purple for any future Sisters, but it won't match my existing ones very well. I might just do it anyway because it'll look better than thinned-down Shyish Purple, and to hell with it being a perfect match.

Good luck on the HH models; that's a lot of plastic in there, but just think of how cool it'll look once you get it all painted up!

Gitsplitta wrote:I'm a big fan of good basing.

ZergSmasher wrote:Army Painter tufts are really nice! I've been using them on my Stormcast Eternals' bases. Your swarm is turning out nicely, and I feel you on the new paints. I want to use the new purple for any future Sisters, but it won't match my existing ones very well. I might just do it anyway because it'll look better than thinned-down Shyish Purple, and to hell with it being a perfect match.

Good luck on the HH models; that's a lot of plastic in there, but just think of how cool it'll look once you get it all painted up!

I’ve had a long, spotty relationship with baseing. Spotty is probably not the best word. I started bad and have gotten better over time.

At first, it was just green paint on the base of old RP/Grenedier D&D minis.

For a long time I just tidied up my bases with black paint. It at least got rid of the splatter from the mini and kept them uniform.

At some point in the mid 90’s I goblin greened and flocked my undead army. A more classic base from a more civilized time.

Early-ish in this blog I started snow basing. At first I used GW’s winter kit. Little dime bag of flock, some rocks, and dead grass. I think some icicles and frosted panes as well, I should look for those, never used them. Snow was more powdery, finer grain then the Woodland Scenics I’m using now. No that I’d go back if I could. I like the rougher consistency, and it was like $12 for a lifetime supply.

Working through the GW rocks, I started supplementing them by picking up volunteers on my daily walks. The problem with that was the irregular nature and supply of finding stuff the right size. So fairly recently (few years back?) I picked up a pound of rocks from the company I just ordered more from. They offer a range of sizes. In hindsight, the first bag was a little too small. The new ones might be a little big, but I can sift through them and grab the best fitting ones for the mini I’m working on. These at least seem to offer more hight. The old ones were mostly slivers of slate, which at that size are fairly flat.

Outside of my initial start with GW tufts I’ve always used the Army Painter ones. I’m generally quite happy with them, and have burned through a lot over the years. My only major complaint is when they switched from the tear-off sheets of flowers to a tuft based system. I really liked the old style. Somewhere in the back of my mind is the idea of getting some static grass, colored flock, and spray glue and try to replicate them. But that sounds like a lot of work for something that might just fail hard.

--

Gaunts are at the touch-up stage, I’ll get to that later this morning. Hopefully the marines as well, but I’m having a 4th of July cookout on Monday, and need to prep a lot of things and clean up the place a bit. Mostly because I’m crazy. But also because I don’t have people over very often and it gives me a chance to do fun things in the kitchen.


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Q2 halftime report.

I took a pic a few weeks ago, and this isn’t too far off. More nids done. 47 models, not a bad tally. And the 3 guants on the handles are off and waiting to be based. BGV still need ink. So almost 50ish done, which is not a bad tally.

My New Year’s resolutions wrote:
1 Paint 20 members for the primaris battle company 11/20
2 Paint more than I buy. 47/119
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magnetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least one unit for 5 different factions. 3/5
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain. Try to enter the new format LoER contest at least once.

Doing good on number one. Over half way there, so on target. I plan on doing another 5 man squad this month, so plugging along.
Heh, #2 is bad. If I really push on the nids I might be able to make up ground. 119 is not completely unreasonable with the bugs and the speed i can crank them out at a standard I’m happy with.
Have I done any spare bits this year? Not sure. I should get on this.
TML speeder, scouts, Wave Serpent. Good on this one. I should push past my 3 goal and try to get ahead of the game. But one issue is that things that have been lingering tend to have a lack of interest behind them. Still, needs to happen.
Good blogger, good pace. Almost at my 52 minis a year target at the halfway point.
Eldar Nids and Ultras. Something spooky in October. Need to find at least one new things to mix up the paintbench.
Still going strong on the painting challenge. It’s a little bittersweet that Para missed last month, but I’m now the only person who’s been there for all of them. Bit of pressure to keep at it, but I use it to motivate me, even if it’s a struggle some times.
Technically fine for 8. I picked up some used terrain from the FLGS, and entered a LoER contest. Flocked an old hill, which I didn’t feel was up to the standards of entry, so bowed out of completing the contest. I do wish them the best, and may try again later. With The Boy’s dropping interest in 40k, there is less reason to make sure my home table is stacked.

So overall not bad, but 2 and 3 are looking to be fails unless I get cracking on them.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

That is a pretty solid group for the first have of the year's progress Nevelon.

Happy 4th of July.

Cheers,

CB

You've done a lot better than I have for the first half of the year. Lots of good progress to show! Have a happy and safe Independence Day!

 Nevelon wrote:



At some point in the mid 90’s I goblin greened and flocked my undead army. A more classic base from a more civilized time.

Ahh to be a young 'un basing your minis with the mightiest of paints, goblin green. Those heady days were the grass really was greener. And goblinier.

Great progress Nevelon!

Thanks guys.

Hope everyone had a nice Canada Day (belated), 4th of July, good riddance to the colonials, or just a nice summer weekend. Or winter, for those on the flip side. I think I packed more socialization into the last 3 days then I did the whole prior month. Plus all the prep work to get ready to host a cookout on Monday.

Downside to all this is the lack of progress. I did manage to get the first blues down on 3 marines today. One perk of the rain we got today is I get to skip my lunchtime walk and get some paint down. I want to get the BGVs done, but honestly my shoulders are bugging me a bit, so I’m trying to avoid too much precision work. I should just pop them off the handles and move some gaunts across that space until I’m in the mood to finish them.

The legion book for loyalist 30k rules showed up today. I should start looking at what I can do with what I have. Amusing note: when checking my order on Amazon, their “suggested other products” they were trying to upsell me were mostly resins for 3D printers. Too funny.

Hope everyone’s weeks are going well. I’ll try to get some more paint down and pictures later. And build more stuff. Pile of Shame is not going to take care of itself.

Hey look! Actual painting progress. Got the ink down on the BGV. So many bad angles and nooks that are hard to get a brush on. Going to need a lot of touchups. Luckily, not a huge amount of edge highlights going to be needed. I’m not going to bother on a lot of the shadowed/recessed parts, which is most of them.

Base coats going down on the riflemen. Plugging away.

Need to clean/build more stuff. Kinda stalled on that. Part of that is a little decision paralysis due to thumbing through the 30k books trying to figure out what I want to do. Part of my wants to toss points efficiency out the window and just run 100% on rule of cool. But the number crunching min/maxer in me is having little fits over the idea. For example, you can give legion support squads chainswords, in addition to their guns. But it adds 5 points a model, which isn’t nothing. The concept of equipping 10 of them with Assault 2 Volkite chargers (a free option) and then piling in with sword/pistol has a certain appeal. Worth ~200 points of my army? Plus transport costs? Not sure. For the same cost of the chainswords I could take the Volkite Calivers which are heavy 3 with twice the range.

And I need to switch gears back to the different rules. Can you assault out of a rhino? (no) How many units can embark in a transport? (one, plus characters). These kind of distinctions are relevent and will affect what I build. Like is it worth building a support squad of 5 melta gunners? Kinda pricy, and they would need a transport, but can’t share one. What other ways do I have to get melta downfield?

So yah, decision paralysis.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend,

--Nev

On the one hand I very much understand that feeling--getting it with my CSMs (does this min sized hb-toter squad really need to burn the theoretical points for plasma pistol-fist on the sarge vs. All the bling/bp-chainsword just looks boring...), and there's basically 0 chance they ever hit table. On the other hand, we do this hobby to push cool models around, and the volkite-sword thing or just 10 melta piling out of a rhino just sounds cool.

Quick WIP



Spent my lunch break putting on decals. Just need flock.

And a in-focus picture. But that’s what I get for racing the clock.

Bladeguard looking really good, Nev.

Coming along Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

Those gaunts and bladeguard are looking sound, the red on the nid weapons is very nice.

I’m not going full GW “Red era” as I tone down the brightness with some Nuln Oil, but I do think it adds some nice otherworldly charm to the little buggers.

Better finished shot.

And the BGVs:


Glad to be done with these guys. It’s not just the shields, but just a lot of places it was hard to get a brush on. And due to these guys being the Indominus ones, they had a little soft detail in places. But they look cool, and should do fine on the table. Or will once I paint a sarge for them. 2 guys does not a squad make, although I could field them as victrix HG.

Not a huge amount of other progress. Clipped the Mk VI to make 4 more, base coated 2 nids with Grey Seer. But mostly been spending my free time watching TV (binged Wandavision to watch the new Dr. Strange, which was just OK) and replaying though Skrym (they will make anyone the archmage these days). Not a lot of energy for doing stuff. Vacation next week, going to visit my folks, so not painting, but maybe a bit of a recharge.

Hope everyone’s week is going well.
--Nev

Slow progress, but progress.

TGIF. Have a good one everyone.

Far better than I've been doing lately.. Keep at it!

I'll second that; slow progress is more than I've been doing lately. Which is bad because I'm already WAY behind for the year.

Gitsplitta wrote:Far better than I've been doing lately.. Keep at it!

ZergSmasher wrote:I'll second that; slow progress is more than I've been doing lately. Which is bad because I'm already WAY behind for the year.

Thanks guys.

This week is a no progress week, as I’m away from the workbench. Before I left I finished the basecoats on the marines and the silver drybrush. Next up is washes. And the guns at some point. Little bugs got their red, so need the black wash and details. When I get back home (assuming I survive the 12+ hour drive) hopefully I can get them finished in short order. But there is not going to be a lot of month left to work with. I really want to get all 5 marines done, but we will see.

Great progress however, I have fits of frenzied painting and then burn out, I am always impressed by your consistency. Very Ultramarine, I approve (apart from all the filthy Xenos).

Did you decide the BGVs don't deserve white helmets as they are the dirty new boys? They are (technically) part of the 1st Company but I'm a big fan of Head Cannon as you know.

I look forward to seeing the new MkVI dudes, they are the models I wanted 10 years ago when building my Battle Co. That ship has sailed however and I'm a bit over painting Tacks after so many squads.

 RandyMcStab wrote:
Great progress however, I have fits of frenzied painting and then burn out, I am always impressed by your consistency. Very Ultramarine, I approve (apart from all the filthy Xenos).

Did you decide the BGVs don't deserve white helmets as they are the dirty new boys? They are (technically) part of the 1st Company but I'm a big fan of Head Cannon as you know.

I look forward to seeing the new MkVI dudes, they are the models I wanted 10 years ago when building my Battle Co. That ship has sailed however and I'm a bit over painting Tacks after so many squads.

White helmets? Sure, for apothecaries or the guys in arctic cammo. And the odd one-off, like the bike captain. But vets?

Not here. Next you’ll be suggesting wild things like red helmets for sergeants. Crazy talk. No mention of such ideas in the RT guide on how to paint space marines. You will find no deviant practices here, by the Emperor. I’m barely accepting of shoulder trim. I do gold helmets for some guys. 30k terminators, honor guard. But for the most part I don’t do helmets as status notation. The BGV do get the white shoulder trim of the 1st, but at the same level as the old vets.

I’m not looking forward to painting a ton more bolter boys for 30k. Going to experiment with the new contrasts, see if it’s close enough color match. But also, most of the new beakies are not going to be legion tactical squads, but more of the specialist roles. Still, going to be a lot of them.

The shoulder trims were in the 2nd Ed Codex with the white helmets so they were introduced at the same time. The white helms were actually around in 1.5 and I think were 'eavy metal experimenting. I think they are one of my favourite Ultramarine things so they've made it into my Insignum Astartes. I hadn't twigged your other vets didn't have them.

Have you played 30k (new version) yet? Seems interesting. 7th cleaned up could make a decent rule set and I like the Bolt Action style reactions in principle. I imagine 10th Ed will be rocking them.

Somewhere it does talk about reversing color scheme for vets. Might be a footnote somewhere in the old stuff, don’t recall and am away from my shelf. I never actually has the 2nd ed Ultramarine book, just angels of death. Back in those times my nascent marine force was BAs. And their helmet color scheme is crap. (Sorry to all the blue helmeted heavy support vampires out there). By the time I had embraced The Codex as the one true way, many precedents had been set in my army. No alt-helmets, no shoulder trim, army badges on the wrong shoulder.

I’ve not had a chance to play the new 30k. Part of it is me wanting to get a decent force up and running with era appropriate gear. Also waiting for battescribe to get the data files sorted out. And the final part would be finding a place to play and an opponent. My FLGS is a GW shop these days, and they don’t have a whole lot of space. I’d have to reconnect with the other stores in the area, find out when they are doing stuff, and try to get something going. Which sounds a lot like peopleing. Not a fan.

I do like what I’ve seen in the rules. The reactions seem like a more sensible stratagem system. And it reads like a cleaner 7th, which is a good thing.

Time running out, but back in action. Marines waiting on ink, bugs for the flesh wash. Odds of getting all 5 marine done was basically nil, so I just started more gaunts across the bench.

Also cleaned up a little bit more of a Mk. VI.

And my back is bugging me, so gotta work in short bursts.

WIP



Going to the wire on this one. No way the other 2 guys from the marine squad are getting done (they are still bare primer) These are gaunts 3 and 4, the first 2 are waiting to be based.

Still need to do all the touchups and highlighting, plus decals and bases. But all the washes are done (except on the rifle arms, need to catch up on those).

Getting there, but still a lot to do. Worst case I finish the squad leader and face him off against 4 gaunts.

Making good progress Nev. Keep at it.

Done with the blue edges. Need to trim the red, assemble, touch up and final steps.
And that includes the arms.
All gaunts ready to base. 4 total. Was hoping for more, but kinda forgot I’d be out for a week. Which I will be as well next month, but I’ve got lower goals.


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Edit:



Next step is to rock and tuft. Almost there.

On deck:


Last 2 guys from the squad, more gaunts (these will be 5 and 6 of the 8 ready to go) and the primaris techmarine for “Helping Hand” next month.

Edit2
Rocks and tufts glued. Transfers on. Just flock and pics left.

And done.

Didn’t finish the whole squad, but as next month’s entry is just the tech, I should have time. Should still be on track to make my company goal for the year. We are still in Q3, so if I get them done that just leaves 5 (well 4 really) for the last quarter. And December’s open round is always a good spot to finish goals, although I have something special planned if I can’t work it into an earlier month, so would rather not just marine out the year.

I need to build more gaunts to keep the swarm moving. Right now the build queue has the beakies in it. Not a huge amount of motivation there, but they need to get done. Leaning hard into nids is my one hope of getting my paint more then I buy goal. But to do that, I need to have them in the pipeline.

It’s a little early to look at supplies for the winter, but I need to get stuff primed while I can. Not that I can’t do it in the garage now... No worries about having to buy more stuff to make it through the cold months, PoS is kinda crazy at this point.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend,

--Nev

Those marines are looking really good Nev, very vibrant!

Just as a proof of life, almost no progress this week. I cleaned and built another Mk. VI marine. That’s it. Work has been busy, and I’m trying to sort things out to head on vacation next week. Not a lot of time to paint. Also, moving to summer hours at work kinda killed the 30 min in the morning I used to hobby. not making up for it in the afternoon. Oh well.

Keep safe out there,
--Nev

Not a lot of progress, but back from vacation and alive.

Good to see you still fighting the fight, Nev.

Plugging away. Week’s almost over. I hope to get a lot done over the weekend, but also have a crap ton of stuff to do around the house/yardwork wise. Ugh.

Plugging away. The gaunts on off ready for baseing, next two on deck. Almost done with basecoats on the tech. I should have left his backpack off for painting. So many bad angles and stuff in the way.

Happy weekend all!

--Nev


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And a little something on my doorstep. Not that I need another Vindicare Assassin, but he could be fun.

And some good progress over the weekend. Still a lot to do.

He needs the blue ink at this point. Troopers are ready for the second blue paint cleanup pass, gaunts are waiting to be based. Plugging along.

I really like the work on the axe blade.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I really like the work on the axe blade.

Thanks. Right now it’s my basic gold scheme, with the wash more focused to the back of the blade. I plan on doing a bit of silver edges/highlights on it to sharpen it up a bit.

But I wanted to do something different them my normal green power weapon thing on it. Glad you like it.

All done but the flock. Rocks and tufts just glued, so need to wait for those to dry first. Hopefully I can finish them up and get the formal shots of the tech this afternoon.

Next month is looking like 'That's not a Gun... This is a gun’ is going to win. I have a lot of options for what I can do. Leaning towards the autarch with the reaper launcher. But I’ve also got a pair of DW with frag cannons, and a pair of scouts, one with a HB, the other with a rifle bigger than he is. Might try to do all 5 in the month, see who I feel like entering. Part of me is yelling to do the hellblasters that have been sitting around, but honestly not feeling them right now. The company project could use the heavy picks though.

Edit:
And flocked.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
...And done


With the halftime report:


So low volume, as 2 of the entries were single models, and the one month we had the cap lifted I only did 6. Kinda funny that despite doing 2/3rds of the entries at or above the 5 model cap I still feel this is a low year so far. Especially ironic as looking at prior years, this is the most minis I’ve painted in the first half of a comp. So when I say “Low Volume” I’m really lying. But it feels like I should be doing more.

Pretty shallow from a diversity POV. Marines and ‘Nids. Granted, 2 of the marines are characters. All basic blue though, not even arctic/woodlands phobos/scouts.

Next month should help with that. But unless I build and prime some undead by October, the Halloween special is going to be more terrors from beyond the stars, not the veil of death.

Still, I’m looking forward to painting some special nids, and Oct might be a great time for it.

When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the heath.
There to meet with Macragge.

Congratulations, another nicely painted figure completed Nevelon.

Cheers,

CB

So moved some guys to the bench for the month. Big guns for the month. Going to use the opportunity to paint some non UM/Nid stuff. Also on deck are the last 2 scouts once I get those 2 intercessors off the handles.

Not sure if I want to vary the Eldar’s scheme. Red helmet, black armor is what the basic guys get, but he’s the one in charge. Also need to decide on a cape color. I could do the cape red and the helmet white. Need to mull it over a bit. Thoughts?


Mold lines and clean up. Fun fun fun. The old RTB01 guys are hard on the hands, lot of scraping to get them back into something resembling ship shape. I need to get these off the bench and something I’m a little more enthusiastic about working on. Just slogging here.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Long one if you are lucky.

Might work, I'd lean towards a yellow-white or ivory in that case--maybe your banshees recipe?

Vejut wrote:
Might work, I'd lean towards a yellow-white or ivory in that case--maybe your banshees recipe?

Looking at the options:

His sash/tabard is probably going to be red. Brighter then the normal helmet red.

Armor is black.

Now he’s got options for the back banner and spider backpack. The banner pole/backpack would probably be black, with a red flag. The spider generators on the unit are black, but could be inverted to red.

I have done at least one medium leather coat, and some pale beige leather work on other units (rangers)

One problem with the banshee recipe is that it’s basically the same as my flesh recipe. Got to be careful we don’t get mixed up with those other elves when deciding on capes.

If I go with a pure white helm, and a beige/off white cape, that should contrast with the black and reds that otherwise make up the army.
--Going there, the next question is do I paint the spider pack black to match the squad? If I do, there will be very little of the craftworld red I use.

If I go with a red helm and beige (or even pure white) cloak, I could go either way with the web pack. This would be basically the same as my guardian scheme, just with more bling. No worries about him fitting in.

If I go with a white helm and a craftworld red cape, that gives me the army colors, lets him stand out a bit

Red helm/red cape is a little mono-chromatic, but an option. He’ll still have gold bling and fancy toys to spice thing up.

Put the black down on him and the DQ this morning, cleaned some mold lines. No decisions yet, but progress.

Techmarine turned out pretty solid. Interesting choice to go with blue armor instead of the traditional Mars red that most Techmarines have (with the shoulder pads being in the appropriate colors for their chapter), but it works. Looking forward to what you do with the Autarch. Personally I might lean towards an ivory color for the helmet, but keep the armor red like the rest of your Saim-Hann guys. Not sure what you'd do with the cloak in that case, though. Maybe black? Not sure whether that would look good or not.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Techmarine turned out pretty solid. Interesting choice to go with blue armor instead of the traditional Mars red that most Techmarines have (with the shoulder pads being in the appropriate colors for their chapter), but it works. Looking forward to what you do with the Autarch. Personally I might lean towards an ivory color for the helmet, but keep the armor red like the rest of your Saim-Hann guys. Not sure what you'd do with the cloak in that case, though. Maybe black? Not sure whether that would look good or not.

Painting techmarines red is one of those new-fangled painting conventions introduced somewhere along the line. Probably 2nd edition. Right up there with novel concepts like shoulder trim and red helmets on the sergeants. I get a free pass on blue librarians, but never went down that path with the techs. Some of mine are blue ink over metallics, rather than my normal blue, but I just did this guy straight. If I want my army to look like someone threw up a bag of skittles, I’d paint more Eldar.

Speaking of which, Progress:


So the armor is black, like the troops he leads. While I call them Saim-Hann, and think of them as such, I don’t follow the stock paint scheme. Which is a good thing, as their sub-faction rules generally suck since they started digging down to that level or fragmentation of codexes.

Black armor, red helms. With a thick black ink wash on the older stuff.


Things that are generally fixed across the army.
Armor is black, with grey edges/highlights.
Helmets are red (Khorne red)
Ribbons, tabards, and robes are generally the same red as the helms. This lets me tie the aspects who might not share the same armor/helm colors to the army. On seers who have primarily red robes, I do some of these in either blood red, or the new contrast.
Soulstones are green. Other gems can be anything else.
Guns are leadbelcher, Nuln Oiled, and edged with a brighter silver.
Eyes and lenses are green metalic with the green gloss soulstone paint.
Golds are shining gold with guiliman flesh
Thicker ribbed cables are deadly nightshade
Leather is a dark brown.
(Those last 4 are the same as all my other armies)
Power weapons tend to either be just silver, or blue. At least one green. I’m kinda all over the place.
Hafted staves/weapons and some fabric (mostly on the rangers) is a Zenrathi Dust, or whatever the beige is called these days. I also use it for parchment/scrolls.

Now ya’ll are telling me to go with an ivory helm, but I’m not sure how I feel about that. Not that I’d go with the pure white of the DA’s I’ve done, but the apothecary white contrast, edged back up with a pure white like I used on the SoB. And will be the scheme the shining spears and the other 5 DA in the pile will get. I’ll touch up the old guys at the same time; I’ve learned new white skills since I did them. I think the warm ivory of the banshees works for them, but the autarch strikes me more as a “cool” model. I do have the option to do a little something extra with the flange on the back of the helm.

Anyway, I’ll mull it over while I put layers down on other places. And finish those marines.

Some building:


So I finished the first 5 Mk VI guys. And might just pitch their bolters and put some volkite on them to make a specialist squad. While I keep thinking I want to do a classic ML/F squad, what would it do but collect dust? Might just do the whole lot of them with extra wacky guns. I’ve got more bolter boys then sense. Especially as I bring more RTB01s back into the fold. I need to keep cleaning them up, and remember to scrub some of the accessories next batch. Everyone should have a little something.

Little irritated that all the guns have both hands molded on. Going to make the sarge hard to do if I want to give him a toy. I’ll work something out.

Started cleaning up some more gaunts. I should really do some of the other bugs, as I have plenty of little gribbles for the small point games I’ve been playing. But there are just so many of them, gotta chip away at the pile. Maybe once I do these 4 (or 8) I’ll do the swarmlord or some warriors.

Anyway, enough rambling. TGIF, enjoy the weekend all.

Looking good, lots of work ahead. Love the beakies

So nothing hobby related got done over the weekend. Did some yardwork that was rough on my hands, did not feel like doing any precision work after that. I did ink the 2 marines last night though, so some progress is happening. Plus thumbing though the HH rules for build ideas. Trying to wrap my brain around the Ultra’s army bonus and how to leverage that. Mechanized shooting lists seem like a decent plan. But who knows. It’s probably just going to warm the shelf. I need to get out to the other FLGS in the area and check the larger scene.

I’m supposed to be blogging here, so an update.
Slow progress this week. Marines still need to be edged, basecoats going down on stuff, month is half over. Plugging along.

One more gaunt left to build of the 4 I clipped. Weather should be nice this weekend, might be time for the rattlecan.

TGIF, hang in there guys.

Nice to see you're still making steady progress. My blog has gotten sporadic enough that I've lost most if not all of my regular viewers . I gotta stop playing video games and get back to the hobby bench more often!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Nice to see you're still making steady progress. My blog has gotten sporadic enough that I've lost most if not all of my regular viewers . I gotta stop playing video games and get back to the hobby bench more often!

Even with (semi) regular updates I feel I’m getting less traffic on my blog. Might be a seasonal thing. I’ve been back to playing Skyrim lately, so that’s cutting into my hobby time. Plus just not feeling like getting out of the recliner some nights. And I can only blame the cat for half of those. Seasonal blahs. Plus homeowner stuff has been kicking me.


So some good progress yesterday. Layers going down, lot of washes. I didn’t bother including the intercessors in the pic, no progress on them. Need to fix that.

On the build front I finished the gaunts and clipped the warriors. All with 2xboneswords, 2 with deathspitters, one with a VC. It might be the old RT plastics calling out to me, but even if they were not the meta-broken choice, I’d still run them with swords. Seems the right thing to do for tyranid warriors. I don’t think I’m going to magnetize their arms. I could, but it would be a lot of fiddly work, and mean I’d not have set poses, parts could get lost, etc. One thing I am considering is doing a torso swap for one of them. While the kit only has 3 legs, there are upper body/head parts to make the prime. Part of me wants to mag one of the legs to swap, but the other part is looking at a spare tail from the flyrant and thinking of making a ravener prime. If I remember I’ll just not glue the torso on for now and can choose later.

Sounds like some nice progress, and the eldar colors seem to be working out!

Thanks. The plan right now is to lighten the sash/tabard and deepen the cloak so it’s not all the same red. I figured I’d leave the helm for last, as my primed white base will stand in for a finished white when looking at the model. If it’s not working as everything starts to come together, I can give it the same treatment as the banshee helms.

One warrior built, working on the next. Fun kit.


Getting there.

Some good progress this weekend. Especially as I spent a chunk of it ripping out a leaky dishwasher.

That's looking very nice Nev.

Thanks.

And (mostly) done:

Need to base him and put some transfers on that banner


And built. These guys were fun. Lots of options on what to do. the cannon guy is not glued to his legs, might make an alt torso, or just stick a pin in that indea until later.

What I do need to do is clear the handles, get stuff done. And have a nice day to prime.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: clipped 4 more gaunts on my morning break. 3 spinefists and a devourer.

Great stuff with that Autarch, reminds me I still have some Eldar to put together.

 Olthannon wrote:
Great stuff with that Autarch, reminds me I still have some Eldar to put together.

Same, but they are taking a back seat to the marines/nids. Plus my indecision. I picked up a box of shining spears a bit ago. Eventually, I plan on making a bike autarch out of that kit. But I also want to field a squad of them. Need another box eventually, but do I want the HQ or the squad first? Decisions decisions...

Hit the FLGS for some paints, took advantage of the buy 10, get the most expensive one free deal. Some new paints, some just to replace pots that are getting low. Also got the free LoV mini. Basic grunt with his helmet on. He’s in the clean and build queue.

Autarch just needs flock and formal pics at this point. But it’s a nice day, so I might prime. Or just nap. Lazy weekends are a good thing. Kinda killed myself last night/this morning installing a new dishwasher. No leaks so far. And it’s quiet, as opposed to the last one which was winning vs. the garbage disposal for which was louder.

Enjoy your nice fall weekends all!
--Nev

I’m not giving up on the other guys, but am just going to enter the autarch. Quite happy how he turned out. And I get to check off 2 spare weapons off my goal list, so at least that’s not going to be a total fail this year.

Now off to clean mold lines.

Lovely work!

Nice work Nevelon.

Good luck in the Painting Challenge.

Cheers,

CB

That guy came out pretty nice!

Thanks guys.

I don’t expect to do particularly well with him in the comp, but am happy how he turned out. And he can keep the banshee and WS company on the corner of the YTD shelf.

Hopefully I can get some progress down tonight, but it’s a rough week at work, and grey and miserable out there. Not a lot of motivation going around. But the end of Q3 will be here in a few days, and I’d like to be able to start the home stretch of the year on a clean footing.

Edit:
Edged one of the intercessors last night. Slow progress, but I wasn’t really up for more detail work.

Both intercessor bodies are done. Wash down on the gun arms. Those just need edge work and the red trim cleaned up. Bases and decal will finish the squad after that.

DW are getting there. I think they are ready for their second black coat. After that the grey edgeing. Gun arms plugging away. Need to wash the golds, pick out some silver details, do the wires, and black/edge the arms. Still a ways off, but getting there. Shoulder pads are going to be random chapters. Might use it as an excuse to test some of the new paints.

Done and dusted.

And the back half of the squad, off to the YTD shelf


Front half was done like a year and a half ago:


I’ll get a shot of everyone together at the end of the year. A few squads getting their back halves and going to full 10 men once I integrate the YTD stuff.

So it seemed OK to prime tonight. Primer didn’t seem to go on as even as I’d like, but didn’t fuzz, so should be fine.

Should keep me out of trouble for a while. Still have the tank and ranger bikes that need to be primed, but can only do so much in one sitting.

Need to polish off the deathwatch. But not tonight. Hopefully this weekend. But I’ll also need to start in on the October spook-tacular.

Some models just take longer than others Nev. No worries!

Ultrasmurfs looking clean as ever, Nev! I'm sure you've got some Nighthaunt awesomeness ready for October, or are you going to change it up and do something else this year?

I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I’ll post here for my loyal readers.

When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the heath.
There to meet with Macragge.

Maiden, Matron, Crone. The 3 witches. Fates. Furies. We see them all the time in stories, even beyond the bounds of the galaxy. I give to you, three sisters:



I should be painting nighhaunt, or digging into the cursed city box. But when I got the nid drop from my friend, with all the tyrants, I just needed to do 3 together. The young, the old, and the one in her prime.

Awesome. Love the poetry. Very excited to see how you "dress" the sisters too!

Just butchering a little shakespeare. They will get the normal leviathan paint scheme I put on all my nods.

So it’s officially October, time for the Q3 report.

The YTD shelf:

There are 5 glass beads and my old captain standing in for models packed in cases to head down to the FLGs. Which I should get back in the habit of doing. From a volume POV, doing quite good. From a variety one, not so hot. Mostly basic blue Ultras and Nids. I really need some lateral diversity, keep the paintbench fresh. Those 3 Eldar in the corner and the 3 non-blue Ultras are not pulling their weight.


So the goals:

1 Paint 20 members for the primaris battle company 16/20
2 Paint more than I buy. 67/119
3 Paint At least 12 spare bits. I've magnetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options. 2/12
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least one unit for 5 different factions. 3/5
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Buy, build, and/or paint at least one piece of terrain. Try to enter the new format LoER contest at least once.

1 - 3x5 man squads and a character. Doing good here. If I hammer out another 5 man stick before the end of the year, should be able to check this one off.
2 - Yah, so many things I wanted dropped this year. Pile of Shame owning me so far.
3 - The only reason this isn’t a hard fail is the fact that I did 2 of the autarch’s swaps while painting him.
4 - Knocked this one out early. As a bonus, I did a pair of vehicles that were taking up a lot of space. Only old one left is the stormhawk.
5 - Good blogger and a good pace. This is less a goal then a reminder. At this point it’s like the free space on a bingo card.
6 - Once I finish the DW on the bench, this will be 4/5. As I’m not doing undead for Halloween I’m going to have to find another option before the year is out.
7 - So far so good.
8 - Technically painted and flocked a hill. And got hand me downs from the FLGS. Not a rousing victory, but enough to check the box.

So on track for all but 2 and 3. And those are looking like bad fails unless I really get cracking. Even so, might not get close.

Primed pile, looking forward:

So not as full as it has been in the past. Not that the 80+ things there would not tide me over until next summer

On the to-build front:
Swarmlord and a zillion more gaunts. Some ripper swarms.
Some more intercessors for the company. Part of me wants to drag my feet a little and see if 10th drops next summer and what that will bring. It might jigger around what I need.
The HH box has a ton of things that need work. Chipping slowly away at this.
Not a lot of Eldar on deck. Need to get the shining spears built.
Most of the CC box.

Yup. Pile of Shame kinda out of control.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good start to your weekends and fall.

That's good progress Nev. I think you're doing very well.

Quick update

Put the basecoat down on the RT tyrant. And that’s probably it for the week.

Depressing personal stuff under spoilers

I am very sorry for your loss, Nev.

Thanks. Getting through things one day at a time.

Some progress:

Deathwatch are waiting for grey edges. Guns need more work. First purple down on the first tyrant.


Cleaned up volkite and chainswords for the squad. Built the HQ. Might field him as a champion consul. Head and cloak/backpack just tacked on now for painting. Pretty stock build. The only thing I changed is snipping off the strap of skulls that hung from his belt.

More gaunts done. Should only be 21 left (4 spines, 4 devs, rest basic)

Ordered some heavy weapons for 30k with the W+ voucher cutting the price by a bit. Also getting the free chaos terminator lord. Eventually I might fall to the ruinous powers, and hey, he was free (and gave the whole order free shipping)

Need to figure out what to build next. Might be another round of gaunts, or the swarmlord. Or something else. Who knows.

More gaunts and rippers won.

One base had 5 biters on it from the supply drop. I popped one off to make 3 bases of 4.
Gaunts are 3 fists one dev. 4 bodies on the sprue, but only 3 sets on the gun one. Next batch will reverse that, so I have the 2x4 I needed to bring the swarms up to strength.

Still need the black wash and a lot of touch-up work. But progress.

Built a couple more gaunts as well.

Lookin' great so far!

Lovely work Nevelon, the Autarch and 'nids look brilliant.

Much love for the classic Tyrant.

RT tyrant is all done bar the base. 3rd ed got her flesh wash, next up is the reds. Halfway through the month, and about halfway through the project. So far so good.

Finished the gaunts being cleaned, started the next batch of 4. This will be the last of the special weapons. After that I think it’s just 17 fleshborers to do.

Got the box of 30k heavy weapons (and chaos lord). Want to check how they fit on older bodies. Work on some heavy support squads.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,

--Nev


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It being a nice mild day out, I figured I better prime while I can. Emptied out the pile and broke out the rattle can. Managed to get the last spinefist done in time, but the devigaunts are still in parts.



Also put the red down on the middle sister.

Middle sister is almost done. Noticed one spot I missed on the cleanup pass that I need to go back to.

Little sister got her carapace on. Next step is cleaning that up before the flesh wash.

And I need to work on her arms. And finish those deathwatch.

Keep plugging Nev, you're making fine progress.

Reds down on the young one. Started the arms. Basecoats down the the one bit of purple. Body needs the nuln oil wash, then details and cleanup.

Minor supply drop today. Magnets, one lot of 4x1mm and some more general 3x2mm. Still well stocked on 2x2mms. I needed the 4s for the contemptor. I’m sure I’ll find other uses for them as well, just not a size I kept on hand before.

Tyrant sisters are coming along nicely, looking forward to seeing them all side by side fully painted since they are different iterations of the same model.

Almost there. Last thing that needs to be done is flock, and glamor pics. Maybe include their flappy sister in a group shot. Still need to build the Swarmlord, but he’s not a big priority.

Need to finish up the DW on the bench. They are so close, but at the irritating edging stage. No more excuses. I’ll try to get them done today. I also should move some bugs across them empty handles. Part of me wants to do something different, but the other part says I should just churn out some gaunts. We’ve still some time before the November poll goes up. I really shouldn’t do the “I’m saving it in case it would be a great fit for the challenge” thing, but I do. I’d like to get some of the specialist bugs painted, but I just did 3 tyrants. I should bang out at least a round of rank and file before I do something wacky. The need for some smaller synapse creatures can be filled by using the old RT tyrant as a warrior prime.

I’ve got 3 devigaunts in blister clipped ready to build. I think next up in the build queue is the dreadnaught. Need to clear out the gribbles first though.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!


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Pictures done. Need to assemble the collage next.


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And done!

Some individual shots:






Painting all these tyrants made me thing back to a great blog here on Dakka. If you are lurking out there Ratius, hope you and Hissy are eating well.


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OK almost there. Need a check after the glue dries to see if they need any touch-ups, and then basing. The two guys that were previously painted are visiting to make sure the squad is coherent. As they were painted <checks calendar> two and a half years ago, I needed the reminder.

DW off to wait to be based in the next batch. one of three of the one deck gaunts built, and 3 rippers and a pair of spinefists getting paint. Arm popped off one, so he’s in time-out for a day while that sets.

We’ll see what the next 2 months bring, but there is a very real chance that the nids might acutally be able to win the YTD shelf war. Had to move the Eldar down a shelf to make room. And it’s not just carpets of gribbles, but some big monsters up there as well.

Great work on the 'nids! I like the Hive Tyrant family.

 Olthannon wrote:
Great work on the 'nids! I like the Hive Tyrant family.

I think the swarm heard me talking about how I had more marine captains than was allowed in a chapter and went “Hold my can of fermented biomass” and showed them how excessive headquarter picks really works.

The Tyranid Fates turned out great. Really like the DW heavies, too.

The Hive Sisters turned out really great; the side by side shot is pretty cool with the models from different eras. More Deathwatch are always welcome too; somebody needs to squish all those bugs!

Nids look great!

All three Hive Tyrants look great, but I'm especially impressed by the oldest (the Crone sister). I remember how, er, vivid that model was in photos in WD and such, and it looks much, much better in your color scheme. She's metal, right? She must weigh a ton.

Thanks for the kind words all.

Both the old and middle sisters are metal, and I’m smart enough not to comment on a lady’s weight.

2nd edition nids were very bright. It was the era, but I don’t think it suited them particularly well. As the range got almost entirely overhauled in 3rd, we don’t see a lot of the old sculpts in more neutral tones in official artwork. I agree that I think they look better more natural.

Edit:
Put the purple on the nids and built the second gaunt.

Gaunts built, 3 sitting in the to-prime pile. That’s it for the special weapons. Nothing but basic gaunts from here on out.

Started on the contemptor. Wow. After building the basically monopose Mk VI marines it’s night and day. Started cleaning and building the left leg. 2 different toe options (flat or slightly bent). Ball/socket ankle. Significant angle in the knee join. Ball/socket on the hip. These guys could do yoga. Going to have to give a lot of thought on posing.

Passing thought as I looked at the guns. I’ve never been a big fan of “rifleman” dreads. They were the meta pick back in the day. Duel mounted twin linked autocannons. Of course, being the old school pedantic battletech nerd, I know that a true Rifleman would mix ACs and LCs. I’d have to cut the guns off the sprues to see if I could set up the arms to have one of each per arm. Which would lock me into that build and unable to mix/match or take a fist. But the thought amused me. First order of business to to get the body built.

On the paint side got the flesh wash on all the nids. Reds on claws/guns/spikes/feet up next.

Red down on the rippers. But I ran out of lunch break before getting to the gaunts.

Edit: and the gaunts.

I’d get more done tonight, but it’s national black cat day. Izzy demands pettings, and the fuzzy mistress must be obeyed.

Edit2:
And a pic:


Next step is black wash the reds and the detail pass (eyes, teeth, tongue). Then cleanup and basing (where the DW await)

Edit3: and the blackwash done

Everyone is off the handles and rocks and tufts have been glued down. Having problems uploading images to Dakka right now, otherwise there would be a pic. Will try to add one later. Which might be after they get flocked.

Edit: trying to directly attach file

OK, that worked.

Everyone done and flocked. Nobody is for the comp a/o a full squad, so formal pics will be at year’s end.