2nd Edition Army Challenge: Dark Angels Tactical Squad TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

I have been taking some time off blogging this month to enjoy the hobby and to spend time with the family. Last month I completed the first half of this Tactical squad, and it was a real push to get the last five finished in between Christmas parties and my father getting married. I posted the entry photo at 11.55 pm on the night of the due date!! Ah well, finished is finished! The squad includes a Sergeant with powersword and plasma pistol, a meltagun, lascannon and seven glorious monopose marines form the 2nd Edition starter box. I never rated these models very high back in the 90's but the nostalgia effect is powerful. Next month is the bonus round, as I have finished my 1000 point quota. I am thinking about doing a transport and perhaps a techmarine as well. I am feeling the need to balance that with some of 9th Edition aspirations for my Dark Angels, as I don't want to be fulfilling my 9th Edition plans when 10th inevitably rolls in. In the meantime, here are some close-ups:

See you across the table,

Marc

BattleTech: Ghost Bear Command Star TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

After burning myself out pretty badly in October, I am starting to regain my hobby mojo, buoyed (no doubt) by the start of the school holidays. A few weeks ago the first wave of the Clan Invasion Kickstarter reached my front door, and the product is exquisite. Most of my pledge was sunk into Wave 2 rewards, but I still managed to blag a Star worth of Clan mechs, two salvage boxes, a legendary mech (Morgan Kels Archer) and a novelty Urbanmech figure, as well as a bunch of mapsheets to play on, record sheets, extra rules for characters, posters, tokens and just lots and lots of cool stuff.

The two salvage boxes had great mechs in them (a Dire Wolf and a Summoner), so I swapped them straight into my Ghost Bear Command Star. Not wanting them to be another project that sits on the shelf for years, I got stuck straight in with the airbrush and painted them in a week's worth of hobby time.

For those who don't play BattleTech, this unit has a LOT of long range clout. Seriously, there are nine extended range large lasers between the 5 mechs! There is quite a bit of manoeuvrability in there as well, heaps of armour and three of the mechs are jump capable. Overall, very happy with the composition of the Star as well as the paint scheme.

The paint scheme is representative of the Ghost Bear's Rho Galaxy (Bear Essentials), which my group of mates picked for Joel's canon character. Perhaps a little bit more about that later. In the meantime, here are some close-up shots of the finished mechs.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Tactical Squad Progress

 

Hi folks,

It has been a while since I posted last because the last couple of weeks have been a hot mess. Just over two weeks ago my supervisor passed away suddenly during a game of indoor soccer, leaving a gaping hole in the universe. Between his tragic passing and his memorial, I went away for a school camp with a young group of children (including one of his little ones). As you can imagine, the word exhaustion doesn't even come close to how I feel, physically, mentally and emotionally. I have passed beyond the point of "running on vapours".

Just before I left, I spent a whole day consumed by painting this combat squad. It was something I had to do to get my head in a different space, that would provide me with some kind of peace that I could draw upon while I was away supervising 24 hours a day. The result, if not perfect, is very cathartic. I think I have captured the 2nd edition vibe well, particularly with the gold trim on the shoulder pads and the skittles flavoured plasma pistol.

Next month I will be working on the final 5 figures, including a lascannon and a meltagun marine. They will be the final models in my 1000 point list for the challenge, leaving me with an extra month to paint a bonus project. I am torn between working on a special character or a vehicle... perhaps I'll do both?

See you across the table,

Marc

9th Edition Dark Angels: Phobos Ezekiel TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Backing up after DreadTober I knew I had a pretty sharp deadline. Today was the final day of submissions for a psyker/priest/wizard themed painting competition at my local GW. I have been entering these local comps pretty frequently to help support the community, store and also give myself some motivation. Well, having narrowly completed by Imperial Knight last month, I can tell you there wasn't much in the tank.

But it is not in me to withdraw, sooo...

To kick off the project I sculpted a bionic eye out of green stuff. It didn't have to be perfect as it is in Ezekiel's background that the bionic eye is crude; he refuses to update it in honour of his dead comrades (I nearly said Fallen comrades just then, and that just wouldn't do. I salvaged an old Veteran DA backpack with candles (because that is the most sensible thing to help you read a 10 000 year old chapter relic book). I also converted a new right arm to hold a sword from the Ravenwing Knights sprue and found a large plastic book to represent the Book of Salvation. Conversions complete, I then painted him over about 5 hours. I am really happy with the finished product, particularly the close resemblance to Ezekiel. The name on the shoulder-pad scroll work will have to be re-done, I think. I made the mistake of painting the K in the centre first. Whilst this was logical at the time, it didn't take into consideration the extra space two E's and a Z take up on one side! I am still happy I gave it a red-hot go though, as I have never written anything so small before.

Even though I have done this conversion, I am still hanging out for GW to produce a modern version of Ezekiel, my favourite Dark Angels character. I will definitely buy it when it is released and use this as a Phobos Librarian, who I have already jokingly named "Incognekiel". 

In terms of the competition, I don't think I have much chance of winning. But considering the point was to try some things that you have never done, and that I have had this conversion on my mind since the Phobos Librarian figure was released, I feel really happy about my entry. It will be a treasured piece in my 9th Edition "Last of the Plains People" army.

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober 2020: "Achilles" Aeternum TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Real life sure did get busy in October, which is a challenge when so many great 40k community events are scheduled. DreadTober has been a priority for me this year, and this particular project has been on my To-Do list for a long time. Before heading down the coast for the weekend, I added the final touches to the las-impulsor, which I ordered several months ago from Taro Modelmaker. As with all of my knights, I have added red as a spot colour to one weapon, mainly to contrast against the colder blue and silver. I added some bright blue to the the space between the coils, as well as a central energy capacitor.

Achilles is also armed with a reaper chainsword (though I prefer to use the stomp attack for most combat). I didn't have a thunderstrike gauntlet to spare, to make some kind of counts-as Canis Rex, and liked the idea of making something unique anyway. The image of Achilles with twin swords had stuck with me for a long time, so that is what I went with.

Now, for those of you who have seen my other knights, you will know that there is one (well, three...) quirky details I have added to each of them. One is that I try to include a snake somewhere, to reflect the close ties these knights have to the Iron Snakes chapter. I paint them up as Bandy-Bandy snakes, thanks to the suggestion a mate gave to me the first time around. Here is Achilles snake, warming itself under the fusion generator:

 

That's a big DreadTober project complete, in half the time it took me to do the last one. I have one more unit to go before my 1500 pt Imperial Knight Army, "The Walls of Ithaka", is complete and ready for games. But, for now, it is time to give myself a badge and set my sites on the next GW painting competition: psykers!

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober: Free-hand Shenanigans

 

Hi folks,

We are now into the final week of Dreadtober! October has gone by crazy quickly and I am a fair few steps behind where I would have liked to be at this stage with my Imperial Knight. It doesn't bother me though, painting a Knight in 4 weeks was always going to be an ambitious goal. 

To move me a little closer, I spent a couple of hours on Sunday completing the free-hand images on the shoulder armour. This step is always the one that makes me a little nervous, but I know that once it is done everything else is comparatively easy, so I tackled it early to get my mojo flowing. I won't include too much commentary and just let the pictures do the talking. It is another one of those processes where it looks really bad for a long time! Hopefully this will inspire some other people to push through the early agony to reach the rewards at the end. Here we go...

Here is the reference image I used while I was painting; it is a shower curtain 😂

I compressed the main a little to fit the space and didn't quite nail the angle, but that just helps make it my own. 

I also managed to get some construction done, so (at the moment) "Achilles" Aeternum is looking something like this:

Now, it is definitely time for sleep. Hopefully, if I get all of my work done tomorrow, I'll be able to push the project forward a little further by finishing the legs and sketching out the base.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Scouts TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

As I have mentioned previously, October is a very busy time in terms of community challenges and hobby projects. My 2nd Edition Army Challenge project for this month is a little light in terms of points, a fair way shy of the 200 pt goal, but that balances out the Deathwing Terminators I did last month. The project is a squad of 5 Dark Angels scouts with close combat weapons and bolt pistols. These models are some of the first I ever bought for myself! 

The sergeant is equipped with a chainsword (2 point splurge on wargear!), but otherwise I run the squad lean and mean. Their job is to steal objectives, throw grenades and to disrupt enemy advances where possible. If I can spend a couple of extra points, I usually give the sergeant something that will damage tanks; just in case.

The other scouts are just bog standard grunts with bolt pistols and close combat weapons. Such beautiful and complicated sculpts for such simple troops! I think that was one of the reasons I loved them so much.

Next month I'll be pulling out all stops to paint a Tactical Squad with all the guns. But I have A LOT of things to paint before then.

See you across the table,

Marc

DreadTober: Painting an Ork Deff Dread with the Boi

 

Hi folks,

A few months ago I was trolling through eBay when a Deff Dread caught my eye. It was pretty badly wrecked but going cheap, so I put a conservative bid in. I was winning that bid for the rest of the auction until the last couple of minutes when the price shot through the roof. I wasn't going to play that game so I let it slide, but that night the seller contacted me to say the buyer had just flipped his lid, overbid the hell out of it and run away. After agreeing on a price I had it sent over for the Boi and I to work on. He really loves my Dreadnought and wanted something to go up against them with. That was big. And stompy.

October is really busy in the 40K community, as most of you know really well. With most of my energy being poured into my Imperial Knight for DreadTober, my son pointed out (quite insightfully) that this model would fit DreadTober AND OrkTober in one hit!! So, while I originally had it slated as a Christmas school holiday project, we got stuck right into it. I helped him focus on each task by asking him questions such as :look at this arm, where do you think the metal/red/black paint should go, then letting him go for it. I can't tell you how proud I am of his brush control. He put down all the layers and even most of the detail work. After that he watched me add the final touches, including washes (we are both afraid he will spill them and with the current supply issues, that would be disastrous). The white section was particularly heinous, but he persevered with me and learned a great lesson I think. Thin coats. Thin coats for days.

The blood on the saws was his idea (honest). The conversation went something like this:

"What do you need red for?"

"Blood for everywhere?!"

"OK. Don't tell your mother."

I haven't introduced him to Tamiya Clear Red yet; he'll have nightmares. The orange rockets are also his thing. I don't really understand it but [shrugs with Australian but semi-patriotic Dutch cultural identity irony]. As I mentioned at the start, the model really was a wreck when we got it. I added some wires to add something to the worst bits.

So, that's and OrkTober and DreadTober project To-Done!!! I think I'll give myself a big stamp to celebrate:

See you across the table,

Marc