Monday 4 March 2024

Dark Angels Suppressors TO-DONE!!!

 


Hi folks,

Another quick post today, just to record the completion of these Suppressors. They were in pretty bad condition when I got them off eBay, to the extent that I figured stripping them all the way back to plastic would be a waste of time. Instead, I just painted straight over the top. I had to gloss varnish the shoulder pads to make them smooth enough for decals.

I have painted them in my standard 3rd Company scheme and given them 10th squad markings. I have no idea if that's a squad Suppressors can be drawn from, it will just have to do.

The basing of the original models was pretty awful, but I didn't think I could safely remove the flying stands to replace them with my usual urban bases. I made a compromise by painting the dirt like concrete and adding some rusted Imperial Knight parts. One base has some left over Venomthrope bits, just to spice things up a bit.





That's it for this army for now, I probably should shift gears and get my next 2nd Ed. Army Challenge unit painted.

See you across the table,

Marc


Saturday 2 March 2024

Old Stuff Day

 


Hi folks,

Old Stuff Day has to be my favourite event of the 40K hobby season. I have somehow managed to miss it a few times recently, mainly because "real life" has been biting so damn hard. One of the things that has kept me going the past 5 years is the 2nd Edition Army Challenge. Dr The Viking ran the challenge for the first 4 years, but recently stopped after facing some really tough times. The camaraderie between challengers was so strong though, that we couldn't fathom not continuing. As a result, the Wachtmeister has taken up the mantle of collating and publishing the results each month.

For old stuff this year, I wanted to provide some links to the previous season's final posts, so that people could take a look at some of the fantastic old school armies that have been born out of this challenge. 


2nd Ed. Army Challenge 1 (2020)

Finding myself deep in a hole of grief, when Dr The Viking put out the call for challengers, I was pretty quick to put my hand up. I didn't even have any idea at that stage if I had the models to build a 2nd Ed. Dark Angels army. As it turns out, I need not have worried; I had three seasons worth of old miniatures just waiting for love. I managed to paint 1500 points worth of Dark Angels in the first challenge.



2nd Ed. Army Challenge 2 (2021)

Knowing now that I had a bunch of Dark Angels left to paint, it was easy to sign up for the next season. Some absolutely incredible models were painted in this challenge, including an Eldar Exodite army with dinosaurs in it that is to die for. 



2nd Ed. Army Challenge 3 (2022)

For the 3rd Challenge I decided to go all the way back to my first 40K army: Legion of the Damned. To achieve this I had to purchase some extra odds and ends on eBay, which cost me a small fortune. Finally painting Sergeant Centurius, though, was a teenage dream for me. I love the army that I painted so much: 100% nostalgia.



2nd Ed. Army Challenge 4 (2023)

Picking through the rest of my bitz box, it was clear that I had enough Tyranids for at least one challenge. One of my mates heard that I was considering them for the challenge and gave me a box that roughly doubled my model count, and wifey bought me a couple of the old Armorcast epic-style figures. The hardest part was coming up with a paint scheme that did the 90's 40K era justice. I'll let you decide if I achieved that. In this challenge we also worked on and produced a 2nd Edition campaign, which paid homage to Jurassic Park in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. Playing some of the missions with my son is some of the best fun I have had with 40K in a long time. I helped out by designing the rules for special terrain; seeing people model those things and play with them was fantastic.



2nd Ed. Army Challenge 5 (2024) 

That brings us neatly around to the 5th Challenge being run by the Wachtmeister. We are just through our first month and I am again working on brightly coloured Tyranids, as I work at expanding Hive Fleet Proteus from the previous challenge. First on the paint table was a second Screamer Killer because, let's face it, why stop at just one! 




Even with all of the experience of 5 challenges under my belt, I am a bit worried that I am not going to make it though this one. I am not one to withdraw, however. I'll keep you posted with how I go!

See you across the table,

Marc


Friday 1 March 2024

Deathwing Squad TO-DONE!!!

 



Hi folks,

Just a quick post today to record the completion of my Deathwing squad. I wanted to paint the new models in the OG Space Hulk scheme which I used on my 2nd Edition terminators, with even more weathering to help them fit the urban Dark Angels army I am constructing. I also really wanted a cyclone missile launcher to replace the assault cannon, which required a bit of arm swapping. All of the terminators have little Dark Angels daggers on their hips. Most of them also have rondel/shield painted in Belial's livery. One had a purity seal where a rondel/shield should fit, so I doubled down and added another seal. His armour is faith!




I used the sword from the Deathwing command sprue for the sergeant, but added a Tyranid Warrior head to make the pose purposeful. Less blood was more, in this case. I also added some other Dark Angels touches and a Native American head from Puppetswar.





Another project complete, which is a big win. Only a couple more to go and the 1000 points will be complete. Next on the table is some Supressors that I saved from Ebay.

See you across the table,

Marc





Friday 26 January 2024

Deathwing Progress and eBay Rescue

 



Hi folks,

With the family away looking after a friend's horse ranch you would think I would get some more time to paint. The start of the new school term has pretty much nixed that, unfortunately. Last night I managed to work on my Deathwing Terminators for a while, getting all of the arms and weapons done.




I am going with the classic white OG Space Hulk scheme for them, with some grey shading to make it look a little bit more like they have just coated themselves in ashes. As you can see, I have fiddled the arms around to allow one of the terminators to carry a cyclone missile launcher, to help alleviate some of the vehicle/monster issues my 1000 point list has. I have also used the powersword from the Deathwing command squad sprue, which is a controversial choice in some circles. To make up for the fact that the sergeant is clearly not respecting the machine spirit of his blade by sticking it straight down in the ground, I have placed a Tyranid Warrior head on the base for it to fit into, with a whole in the skull for the sword tip and a lolling tongue for lols.




The head is another 3D printed native Aamerican sculpt from Puppetswar, to help fit the Last of the Plains People theme. I spent the last bit of my painting session painting the sword, hopefully adding some ghostly colours in there; I was inspired by the colour scheme of the Army of the Dead from LoTR: Return of the King. It is not as neat as I could do it, but my mind at the moment is awarding big points for "finished". You can see I have chopped the bottom of the blade off a bit as well, just to really sell the idea that it is deep in the warriors head. 




With the rules for the Vanguard combat patrol army being released in the last White Dwarf, I spen a bit of trolling on eBay to see if I could score a cheap squad of Suppressors. I didn't realise at first that there is no actually box for them yet, only the full Vanguard set, so prices were ridiculous! I managed to find two squads being sold by a person I have ordered from before and snaffled one with the flying stands intact. they sustained a bit of damage in transit; three grav chutes broke off the backpacks. I was kind of expecting that this may happen and fixing them wasn't too hard using polystyrene glue and some superglue later to strengthen the join. You can see some frosting on the backpacks from the superglue, which I will sort out during the painting step.




With the addition of these three models I will have everything I need to field the combat patrol in the White Dwarf, which gives me a handy option for smaller games with my mates. All I have to do is finish painting them...

See you across the table,

Marc