Another Monday in quarantine, another hobby sessions with people. As well as my opponent (still in Marine land), two other wargaming friends jumped in to work on some projects (tiny Knights and yet more Space Marines). I of course was working on something totally different…
Space Marines! Wait…
Yeah, I’ve finally finished assembling all the Primaris Space Marines I suddenly seem to have collected from various places. They still need to be undercoated and then painted but I seem to have enough guys for maybe a small force for 40k. I don’t intend to play 40k but I might end up in a situation to play some games with my friends who have their own groups. I do need to bulk out the Reavers and the Inceptors (probably) and I would like to order a few extra units (I’ve always wanted a Redemptor Dreadnought and the Heavy Intercessors look perfect).
The final few models done, I then moved on to assembling the last few pieces of MDF from the Sarissa Alamo packs I backed on Kickstarter earlier this year. Having now built it all, it’s a pretty impressive collection. There are plenty of buildings to use, as well as some smart design within them.
I can already see plenty of different layout that would work using them, and can’t wait to get some figures on it and play a few games. I have some other opinions on it (and especially but they will be in a separate post.
As a final thing, I made up the Technical Charlie from Spectre that arrived earlier this year. Really nice construction, great quality on them with very little clean up required. This will pop up later once I finish painting.
Not sure what I’ll be working on next week – part of me wants to finish off this Cypher character on my desk but I might do some more Enforcers or finish tweaking my Brits. But another SITREP next time I hobby!
Another Monday, another long-distance painting session with the Dastardly Regular Opponent. While he started work on some more armour for our chain of command games, I decided to take a break from painting Space Marines to assemble some more of my Enforcers. Remember them?
Well, I have managed to start putting the basic list together so might as well put a few more cool guys together. As in the first SITREP, the idea is to make some Sci-Fi Mercs ready to act as enforcers in the Underhive.
First up, we have the Captain. One of the McNespy boys, sent by his Dad/Boss to clear our the Underhive and make some coin. The bald PMC head + shades seemed the most appropriate for the leader, and I decided to combine that with the stance used by the leader in the box. Additionally, I liked the image of him with pistol raised, ready to finish off a downed foe. As you can, I also added a load of kit around his waist including some Black Templar bits with a short command staff. I shaved off the Black Templar icons so it now looks suitably utilitarian.
Next up, we have a standard bolter armed trooper. However, rather than using the usual enforcer one, I discovered I had a few of the classic boltguns in the bits box. Suitable for a veteran Merc, I had to do some surgery to attach it. However, as you can see, it looks pretty damn good. The pouches big enough for bolter mags were a final addition to make the trooper.
So this guy was definitely the “oh damn the sprue is almost over and I need to make a final figure”. It doesn’t help that the Concussion Rifle on the sprue only has a single hand version so it can only be used in a single designed pose. Not wanting to use the pose recommend, I ended up with this slightly idle pose, the handgun twisted slightly to add some movement. Biker PMC head and all the kit in the world were the final touches.
Finally, we have the sniper figure. The leaning forward sniper seemed a little lacking in tactical look, so I went with a classic crouching look. I’m not technically finished with her (I need to smooth the join between the cloak and the armour) but she’s already looking pretty cool. The Female PMC head is really nice as well, with maybe a few painting tweaks to make it look a little more 40k.
At the moment I have seven assembled enforcers, six Palatine and a single Subjugator. I’ve still got the rest of the two boxes to build and plenty of parts to do it with, so there will be plenty more of these posts to come.
I’m also thinking about the colour scheme. I’m definitely not going the classic look, but I’m still not 100% on what I’ll choose. With the idea of some classic grungy mercs in space, some Colonial Marine inspired colours might be high on the list.
Last weekend was my Dastardly Regular Opponent’s birthday. (I got him a Crusader to replace the Matilda I shredded with a 50mm AT gun in our last Chain of Command game before lockdown. Because I’m petty like that.) And seeing as he was stuck in the middle of an Imperial Fist painting spree, and all of us stuck in our houses because of isolation, we decided to jump on and assist as morale support/hangout.
And as part of this, I got to finish off my Intercessor Squad! You can see them arrayed above – entirely illegal in 40k, probably not great in Killteam but also a fun different thing to paint.
The final three figures I stuck on some female marine heads from Statuesque, just to add a little variation to the squads look. These heads are lovely – cast in metal rather than resin, covered in hair styles and biotics to make them look like “female Space Marines” as opposed to “Female space marines”. In other words, they fit perfectly. I had great fun painting the lady with cornrows and I think she’s my favourite in the squad.
The Squad Leader on the other hand… I’m not quite as keen on? When painting her face, my attempt at a new flesh tone came out very dark, almost covered in ash. So, working from references of soldiers post-explosion, I decided to add a few additional touches of Blood for the Blood God (focusing on the forehead and the nose) and make it seems like she’s just had her helmet blown away by some high explosive blast. I’m not sure the effect works, but it definitely has a look to it that makes her really stand out from her team.
So what’s next? Well I have my WW2 brits on the go, the Enforcers need building there are more modern miniatures to finish and I do actually have my hero character to finish off in the same colour scheme…
Oh and I started assembling this Dark Imperium set I have. I’m not going to assemble the Death Guard side, but a few more marines (minus the fancy shoulder pads) should be a neat expansion for my squad of elites. And totally not the start of an army with.
I didn’t get up to much painting over the break (catching up on sleep and a little bit of prep-work took up my time). However, I did manage to get around to painting up one of my squad of Deathwatch Intercessors (that I assembled for some Killteam play over 18 months ago).
I decided pretty early on that I didn’t want to paint the normal Deathwatch pattern. Partially because I’d rather avoid having to hunt down/use transfers and partially bevause it saves me painting different coloured shoulders. The other side to this is that I’m not 100% sold on running them as Deathwatch. From my reading of the rulebook, not being a core space marine means missing out on some of the cool toys, especially as I’m only really interested in collecting the big marines (the normal Tactical Marines look too much like Marinelets at this point).
So instead, I’ve come up with my own chapter “The Punished”. Their arms painted red to match their chapter master (and because I’m a MGS V fan), their decorated left shoulder a sign of veterancy, I’ll be adding more to the lore for these guys. For now, here is the basic paint plan:
Black Undercoat
Black armour
Left shoulder – Natural Steel
Left arm – Natural Steel then carmine red
Left shoulder – Black
Rim + skulls – Game colour 72.034
Pouches – Mahogany Brown
Painting space marines is different from painting all my modern troops. For one thing, they are much larger, meaning all the details are larger as well. There are also much more large flat or rounded areas, without the texture for my usual techniques to use. However, I’m looking forward to painting the rest of them up!
Spending an evening watching films (Greyhound) I did the last few bits of camo and then finished off these four guys. They have turned out a little bit lighter than usual, although not different enough to be a concern. However, I feel happy spending a little extra time to finish them off, and they look pretty good alongside the other ones on my shelf.
This guy was perhaps the most interesting one to do. His helmet was the original test piece I did until I repainted it. Other things to mention was the mags on his chest (rather than the pouches most of the other figures have) and the water line running over his shoulder. Painting these up in the right colours really makes him look better, rather than just tan – perfect for a squad leader.
I also tried painting him up as an African American. Out of all the Marines I’ve painted so far, none of them have been black. So I thought it was time to make the group slightly more diverse. I’m still learning how to paint it – my current recipe is Burnt Umber, drybrush Beige Brown, highlight Beige Brown and then Agrax. I’m probably going to paint a few more using this technique.
Well with three fireteams done and an NCO to lead them, I’ve got myself a USMC squad. This, of course, means it’s time to break out the fun stuff. And seeing as I’ve been re-reading some Terminal Lance (and with his next book coming out end of the month), it’s time to paint up some Assaultmen with SMAWs.
A very WIP in post – this was the work from my Twitch stream on Wedneday night – fixing up the base colours, getting some details on and the first stage of the camo. It was a nice chill time painting and chatting, especially as I got to talk about some of my rules writing plans.
I’m aiming to finish these guys off later this week, so expect another SITREP then!
Warhammer 40,000 is one of those worlds and settings I really love. However, being a lore fan, I find the dissonance between the actual game and the lore to be so much that I’ve never really got into collecting a full sized army. However, collecting the occasional model has always been fun – for all of Games Workshop’s fault, they do on occasion make some rather fantastic models. For this reason, I’ve bought a fair few, normally then tweaking them to look cool rather than technically useful for the tabletop.
I have a soft spot for the Dark Eldar, the piratical murderous elves that live in their city in the webway. They appear in the fiction as everything from “the terror in the night” to “moustache-twirling villain”. So as things happen, you start thinking up ideas and then suddenly Mi’kael Drakonis, Archon of the Ascending Spear was born.
The Archon available from GW, while cool, is a little limited – a shame seeing as in the lore, Dark Eldar leaders seem to have a huge variety in their exact gear and appearance (hard not to when you raid and pillage everyone else). Out of the Dark Eldar, I really love the Incubi – the totally not Aspect Warriors that act as the best bodyguard for an Archon to hire if they want to stay alive. In my concept, I decided to use the Incubi model (with their cool armour, trophy racks and brutal klaive) for my Archon, seeing him as a former Incubus returned home to rule his family’s Kabal. But no mere troop model would be suitable – Drazhar (a special character) seem much more appropriate, with a dynamic pose atop Eldar ruins.
In terms of tweaks, I got to work. The first part was removing the chain of soulstones around Drazhar’s neck. I think they look a little much, almost too much detail. This just meant I had to trim the chain away, leaking the shoulder pieces with less support. I also replaced his head with one from the Kabalite box (you need the bare head to show he’s a leader). Finally from the front, I removed the blade in his right hand and turned it into a pointing gesture. This makes him look more commander-y (if we obey the Games Workshop rules) while also being perfect for claiming that a rival’s soul is yours. In terms of assembling it, the finger is actually just an offcut of plastic I found while working on some models. I could have attempted to green stuff it, but this method was much faster and will look fine once painted up
Moving to the back, you see two tweaks. The most obvious is the sword. After trimming it down to only one sword, the model… lacked something. However, one of my writing buddies while talking about Dark Eldar came up with this alternative setup for a double klaive. It may look a little over the top but the idea of it being a weapon that is dangerous to use sounds Dark Eldar as heck. It also gives the model a little weight – the Archon has swung his blade and is now calling out his next target.
The other part is the cape. I was going to green stuff this, but then realised that Anvil Industry has plenty of glorious capes to use. To attach it, I trimmed off the pair of trophies at the bottom and then glues the dynamic cape into place. I need to do a touch more greenstuff to blend the edges but I’m happy with it.
So that’s the first update on the Dark Eldar project. I’m really happy with how he looks, a glorious leader that would be a nice centre point of a small Dark Eldar collection (currently made up of Incubi, Kabalites and Scourges
Next step (after finishing the green stuff) will be to get it undercoated. And as a first, I’m painting these Dark Eldar in pale colours, so I’ll be using a white basecoat. This is uncharted territory for me, so I’m a little nervous about it. But we shall see!
So a quick update on the Gage Commando – after the first post went up, I decided to add a few little tweaks to it.
Smoke launchers: pulled from the Spectre accessories kit, these two mounted on the turret seemed pretty much perfect for an internal security vehicle. Possibly launching other types of grenade if needed.
Aerial: taken from the Tigr kit from Empress, the aerial seemed sturdy enough for my purposes and is just a neat additional touch.
Fuel tank. Just to break up the lines I added a jerry can on the side. The aim with this vehicle is not to make it loaded down/designed for long-distance work. Most of its operations will be on-road or in suburban areas, so much of it’s kit is just not needed. I also wanted to reduce how much equipment could be torn off the side of it, if it ended up in a civil disobedience situation.
With these stowage options added, I think the vehicle is ready for the basecoat. It will then get a pure tan base colour, before I go to work on the details.
