2nd Edition Army Challenge: Deathwing Squad Ramiel TO-DONE!!!

Hi folks,

I think it goes without saying that these models are fairly old school. My mother purchased most of them for me from my FLGS when I was 15 years old, just in time for Christmas. I can remember telling her what I wanted and, because she didn't drive, walking with her for 45 minutes to the store to order them in. It was a walk we used to do fairly often and I talked all about what Deathwing and the Dark Angels were. 

Like all good parents, she suffered in silence 😉 

Now the folks at Megohm were a loveable but crotchety bunch of neckbeards. They were used to me dropping in after school and pouring over the blister packs, scheming army lists and such. The guy who owned the joint scowled at me when I said I wanted to order some Terminators; he was an Imperial Guard player and hated Terminators. The lady who worked there seemed happy to meet my mum though, if a little intimidated. My mother loved... fiercely. When they rang up the total price she looked at me and said "Are you sure you want these little men?" with that look in her eyes. "Yes, I do" I said solemnly.

I remember painting them at the kitchen table while mum cooked dinner, because in those days I could paint a squad in one sitting. They looked terrible, but yeah, all in one night! I distinctly remember painting the holes at the end of the assault cannon barrels, by blobbing black on the whole thing and wiping around the edges with my finger! I never removed the metal mold lines and flash either; I still found some when I was prepping these models, 25 years later.

This time around, I spent about an hour on the assault cannon arm alone. The eagle-eyed among you will recognise that it is actually a Wolf Guard assault cannon, packaged incorrectly in my original blister pack. I had a whole backstory about how this could happen, involving an allied force of Dark Angels and Space Wolves conducting a Wolf and the Lion trial on the eve of a battle. The Wolf Guard wins the fight, but during the battle the next day he is struck down. The Dark Angel champion, Ramiel, picks up the assault cannon and defends the prone Space Wolf until help arrives: they both end the story with their honour satisfied. It seemed right to name the squad after that champion, with the assault cannon being a fitting memento of the battle.

I also remember having a wretched time with the lightning claws. I particularly enjoyed repainting them, now that I have a better idea of how to do it. When 3rd edition changed all lightning claws and thunder hammers into power fists, I was gutted. I never really used them anymore after that, and they ended up in my bitz box for over two decades.

I am so glad that this army challenge has come along and given me the push I needed to do these venerable old models justice. Now I feel like honour has been satisfied; they were worth the walk.

See you across the table,

Marc

The Hobby Table: August 2020

 

Hi folks,

I feel like I need to write this post just to get back in the groove. This month has been exhausting at work and, while I have been busy doing some painting and modelling, I haven't been in the headspace to blog about it. Instead of pottering away on the blog, I have spent a bit of time on ebay snaffling some cheap additions to my 9th Ed. Dark Angels. I usually wouldn't do this, but took on an intern student this term which earned me a bit of money to spend. They don't pay you much (despite the huge amount of work it entails); just enough to fritter away on something fun.

On my table at the moment I have my September project for the 2nd Edition Army challenge: a full squad of Deathwing Terminators. I am hoping to finish painting them today, if I can. Either way, I have to get them done before the 25th of September. I have not quite perfected "white" yet, but gosh, I have put in a lot of hours. White glazes for days...

I am working on the arms and weapons now, which take a solid 30 minutes to do each. Gosh I love the Deathwing Sergeant sword. I have been waiting 25 years to own one of them.

A few more ebay purchases have rolled in over the past week or so, to help fill my 1000 point list, including a Lascannon Devastator NIB (my fingers are literally trembling), Dark Angels sergeant (with an old school plasma pistol: yay!!!)  a techmarine (so I can take a Dreadnought and Predator) and Brother Bethor. I have a Bethor figure already, which I use as my Assault Squad Veteran Sergeant. It is literally my favourite model and my own personal avatar on the battlefield. I couldn't bear to pull it apart to actually use as Bethor, so I bit the bullet and bought another one!

Wade and I played an intro level game of 9th Edition a few weeks ago and it was tremendous fun. Considering we haven't played in over a year, it felt so good to be across the table from someone again rolling dice. I got him some more Van Diemen's World Veterans for his birthday, so keep an eye out for them on my paint table over the next couple of weeks. 

So... heaps going. I've been mucking about with 9th Edition Dark Angels lists, colour shift paints, Mechanicum on the Nintendo Switch, prepping an Ork Deffdread with The Boi, looking at Necron schemes with The Wifey and all kinds of other things I haven't posted about. Hopefully this resets the mojo and I can get back into it. 

See you across the table,

Marc

2020/21 Hobby Season To-Do List

 

Hi folks,

The past couple of years I have been fairly conservative with my To-Do lists, and still not managed to complete them! This year I think I will put down a whole bunch of projects and see what happens.

2nd Edition 40K

Deathwing Terminator squad

Tactical Squad

Scout Squad

Ezekiel

Asmodai/Sapphon

Azrael

Predator Annihilator

Techmarine

Brother Bethor

3rd+ Edition 40K

Ravenwing attack squad

Chaplain on bike

Belial (Storm of Vengeance)

Dark Angels Tactical Squad

Dark Angels Librarian

Fallen Tactical Squad (Squaduary)

Fallen Landraider Proteus (Armour in April)

Cypher (Jewel of July)

Fallen Dreadnought

9th Edition 40K

Interrogator Chaplain

Bladeguard Veteran Squad

Bladeguard Ancient

Deathwing Squad

Ravenwing Knights

Hellblaster Squad

Imperial Knight Special Character "Achilles" Aeternum (DreadTober)

Objective Markers

Fortress of Redemption

Necrons? (With the Wifey?!)

Ork Boyz (with The Boi)

Ork Nobz (with The Boi)

Ork Warboss (with The Boi)

Ork Painboy (with The Boi)

Ork Deff Kopters (with The Boi)

Van Diemen's World Heavy Weapons Team

Van Diemen's World Ogryn Bodyguard

Age of Sigmar

Sylvaneth Dryads

Druanti the Arch Revenant

Kurnoth Hunters

Chainrasps (for Penny's game)

Gryphounds (for Oscar)

Forest Dragon (Monster March)

BattleTech 

Foxfire Company

ComStar Level II Unit

Marauder (Red Baron for Laurie)

Ghost Bears Binary

Space Hulk

Blood Angels Boarding Party

Deathwing Boarding Party

Genestealers

Objectives

Well, that sure is a ton of stuff. Realistically, it will probably keep me going for a couple of years, but by casting my net wide, I'm hoping to catch a lot of fish. At the moment, the 2nd Edition projects for the Army Challenge and 9th Edition Dark Angels are the priority, with everything else being blissful distractions!

See you across the table,

Marc

2019/20 Hobby Season Review

 

Hi folks,

When I was preparing for the 2019/20 Hobby Season I was coming off the back of a pretty hard year, so I wasn't too ambitious with my To-Do list. I was a bit disenchanted by 40K, so focussed mainly on aiming to get my Space Hulk set painted. As you all know, this year really has been balls. I spent most of summer in Tasmania, which was amazing, but when I came home I always had one eye on the horizon and the other on my Bushfires Near Me app. With some time spent working from home due to the pandemic, you would think that there would be some extra time for painting, but it just wasn't the case. As a teacher, I found my workload more than doubled; things that I could usually do quickly were taking me a lot longer. Despite that, I did manage to do a whole of bunch of stuff I would have never imagined when I wrote my To-Do list. And, no, I didn't get my whole Space Hulk set painted...

Here is a trip down memory lane:

Warhammer 40K

Iron Snakes

A big year for my Iron Snakes, I managed to finish a 2000 points army that included some new Primaries figures. Squad Damocles, a 10 man Intercessor squad equipped with boarding shields, was completed for Squaduary.

Imperial Knights

For DreadTober I completed the second knight of my Walls of Ithaka detachment. This is "Theseus" Ferrum Fortis (Strong Punch!). 

Dark Angels

For Armour in April I finished this Landraider Excelsior, just in time for it to be relegated to "Legends" (or whatever they call those things now). Ah well, still a cool model, and very likely to be used in my casual games.

2nd Edition Army Challenge

Recently I have embarked on a 6 month challenge to complete a 1000 point army using 2nd Edition sculpts. I have opted for a classic Dark Angels scheme, starting the challenge with a repaint of two of my oldest figures; a Deathwing Master and Dreadnought.

Age of Sigmar

This year I managed to finish some figures that my daughter had chosen for herself. I also caught the Age of Sigmar bug and dove into Sylvaneth. To help motivate me as I started I entered some painting competitions along the way, all at my local Warhammer store. I won the Brushmaster title for the Treelord Ancient and the Kurnoth Hunters, with both the Kurnoth Hunters and my daughters Sisters of the Thorn featured for a short time on the Age of Sigmar Facebook group! Small wins, but they sure did keep me going during the tough initial slog through isolation. To be honest, the Treelord is probably my best work, it really, really, challenged me. 

Space Hulk

Well, this was meant to be the focus of my season. If you have managed to get to this stage in the post you can see just how distracted I was! I did manage to get the commanders done for each of the teams apart from the Fallen, which I painted the full team for. Calistarius, the Blood Angels Librarian was the real highlight, completed for The Jewel of July community challenge. The Broodlord was my Monster March entry.

Kill Team

I managed to speed-paint a H. R. Giger inspired Kill Team, as an alternative to my 4 Lictor murder list. I haven't tried it out yet, but I sure am looking forward to the Aliens quotes.

BattleTech

I know most of you are here for the 40K, and perhaps meander into Age of Sigmar like I do as well. But I also play a couple of other systems that do a great job of dividing my attention. With the delays to the Clan Invasion Kickstarter, BattleTech hasn't drawn my attention as much as it could have this year, but I still managed to paint a neat lance of mercenaries and a larger scaled piece for my mate Wade.

 

Phew, that's it, I think. 2019/20 has been crazy busy. I managed to get a lot more done than I ever intended, but I am still glad to put this year behind me. Tomorrow I will post my To-Do list for 2020/21!

See you across the table,

Marc