2nd Edition Army Challenge Round 3 Complete!

 

Hi folks,

May was the final month of the 2nd Edition Army Challenge, run by Dr The Viking over at Cowabunga Journal. With over 20 2nd Ed. enthusiasts contributing it was amazing to see the final showcase of armies. The forces painted were diverse, painted in all different styles but each oozing with that '90s 40K flare. My model count at the end was a little embarrassing, you really don't get many Legion of the Damned marines for 1000 points, but I don't think I would have had time to do more even if I wanted to. Each required a huge amount of preparation time and the free-hand work was wonderfully time consuming. I really have to tip my hat off to the folks who painted 50+ models, just amazing!

Reflecting on what I have managed to put together, I have to say I am very proud. This was the kind of army I was dreaming of when I started in 40K. It's not prefect by any stretch, but it has the vibe I have always carried in my heart. When I painted them back in the '90s I encountered heaps of painting, modelling and logistical challenges that I never really overcame. For example, I always wanted a model for Sergeant Centurius, but being a limited edition model that was only available overseas, I was told time and time again that I would never get my hands on one. I could never settle on a way to paint the Dreadnought's powerfist, so repainted it many times. One time I painted it (as I have done during the challenge), but decided it was too garish! It's back now in its old glory. I also simply did not have the brush control to do much free-hand back in those days; all that work on my Iron Snakes has finally brought me to a level where I can give it a go.

I still have a few models to paint before I can truly call this army complete. I think I am going to aim for 1500 points in total, which will include some more bikes, a techmarine and a Chaplain (both on bikes). The techmarine I had put aside as a bonus model will probably now get bumped down the line and join a future 2nd Ed. army, which means I need to convert one of the bikers I have left over.  At this stage, I am not sure whether I will punch on with them immediately or have a little break, as I am feeling a little burnt out from the scheme.

The last model I painted for the challenge was a Landspeeder. I painted it in a bunch of sub-assemblies but it went together easy enough. They are a bit of a pain but if you take your time and let certain parts set before you do the rest it is a lot easier. Overall I am very happy with how it turned out, though I wish I had added another bite of bone to the front somewhere.

The best part of the challenge has been catching up with other vintage 40K collectors and gamers from around the world online. We share so much more than 40K in common, it is a shame we can't all meet up and have a few games together. Im hoping to meet up with the Australian challengers, so hopefully I can post some retro battle reports here soon.

See you across the table,

Marc

Legion of the Damned Landspeeder Progress

 

Hi folks,

A couple of months ago this Landspeeder showed up on eBay for a princely sum. Knowing how rare they are to find complete and unassembled, I put my order in very quickly and added it to my Christmas list. Landspeeders are one of the few vehicles that Legion of the Damned can field according to the 2nd Edition army list, so I really wanted one to add a bit of variety to my army. I could take a Rhino as well, but I prefer to teleport my marines in; it is so much more characterful!

All of the parts were accounted for and in excellent condition. I think the base is a more modern one, which I am not going to complain about. The original was such an awful thing. As it is, the model will be prone to snapping due to the weight of the model on such a fragile stem. I am sorely tempted to use metal rod instead, but I'll give the clear base a go first. If I ever have to repair it, I'll be using something a lot more robust.

Interestingly, two of the pieces have different year stamps on them. It makes me wonder if this box was a "Frankenstein's Monster" kind of deal. Again, I have nothing to complain about, especially considering they are both from the mid-90's.

I spent an hour or so trimming metal flash and mould lines with my hobby knife. Metal Landspeeders are notoriously difficult to assemble, so I have taken my time putting it together. I left the engine block overnight to set and will keep it as a sub-assembly. Attaching the seats was probably the most frustrating part (so far, at least), as slight bends in some of the parts have left odd gaps. I doubt you will notice on the finished model, otherwise I would pull it apart again and carefully bend the parts back into shape. 

Hopefully, I'll get some time tomorrow to undercoat the parts and get started with the free-hand flames. 

See you across the table,

Marc

Legion of the Damned Combat Squad 2: TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

During the Easter long weekend I went down the south coast of NSW with my wife and kids. After a pretty horrible couple of months, I really needed to get away and reset. The place where we stayed is very dear to me and has a way of reminding me who I am. My family has been visiting here for over 50 years (before I was born!) so walking out to the beach is like travelling back in time. So many important things that have shaped me as a person have happened right here. Interestingly, it is also the place where I first played 40K, on an old camping table with folded cardboard figures. 

When I got home, with sand in my pockets and nothing on my mind, I realised I had very little time to get my project done for the 2nd Edition Army Challenge. I have really loved being a part of it, so the idea of falling short in the 5th month didn't appeal to me. I quickly put together some subassemblies an undercoated some things, then raced off at the start of the new school term to a Year 8 camp (supervising 60+ 14 year olds). By the time I returned I had less than 48 hours to finish the squad! Knowing this, I promptly procrastinated for another 24 hours and spent time with my son, playing board games and watching Fellowship of the Ring. During the last 24 hours I posted WIP shots as I burned my way through the painting stages, it was pretty epic and the other challengers gave me wonderful support. Here are some photos of the finished Legionnaires:

This month is bonus month and I have a large backlog of extra models I didn't get around to earlier. I'm hoping I can make a dent in those, or even get them all done. It would be really great to have the whole force complete before I move on to some more modern models and other things.

See you across the table,

Marc

Legion of the Damned Combat Squad TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

It has been another tough month on the "real life" front for me, but I still managed to scrape some hobby from the bottom of the jar and serve up this Legion of the Damned combat squad. The free-hand flames and bones were gloriously painful to paint with the deadline looming, but overall I have to say the artistic process was cathartic. The finished projects for the challenge this month should be posted soon, so if you would like to see some more retro goodness (the Eldar painters in particular are killing it), please take a look at the Dr The Vikings Cowabunga Slice and Dice blog. I have been writing a bit of fiction for each of my entries, so if you are interested on my own personal take on the nature of the Legion, you can catch up with the previous posts too. Here are a couple of close up shots of the finished models for this month. I am particularly happy with the squad leader, the base model for which was one of my first purchases in the hobby. They came in blisters of three back in those days! the rest came from a Warriors of the Imperium box my mate Heinz gave to me at some point.

I am a little concerned that I am running out of arms for my tactical marines at the moment, so I think next month I will have to do a scavenger hunt in my garage for spares. I am also ashamed to admit that I have nearly blown the deadline for Monster March. I'll see if I can salvage my project today.

See you across the table,

Marc

Legion of the Damned Dreadnought TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

It feels like it has been ages since I posted anything, primarily because it literally has been ages. So far, this year has been horrible. My son was pretty sick with COVID at the start of the school term, which also happens to be a rotten time to have time off, due to the workload all teachers have as we try to get everything going. A week after returning to work I became unwell myself, with some random thing, that put me in the hospital within a couple of days and made me profoundly unwell for 8 days. In total, I lost 8 kg of weight during this time, which is over 10% of my body weight. Within 2 hours of me returning to work, something else happened, which has taken weeks of active management to settle. The short of it is, real life has really put me in a dark hole the past couple of months. I'm slowly digging myself out, but it is going to take some time. During the last coupe of days of my illness, when I could stomach sitting up for a while, I managed to finish this Dreadnought for the 2nd Ed. Army challenge. I even wrote some fiction to go with it, which has been published on the challenge blog.

A fun challenge for the month was to paint something red (it is a 2nd Edition challenge, after all!). I chose to start working on some objective markers, starting with this Khorne helmet. Poor guy must have had some seeds in his pockets, because Khorneflowers have bloomed where he fell...

At the moment I am constructing a combat squad for the next challenge deadline, and feverishly painting a Tyranid monstrosity for Monster March... more about that later!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge: Legion of the Damned Bike Squad Complete!!!

 

Hi folks,

I have been a bit quiet lately as we have had a lot going on at home and work; it has not been a smooth start to the year by any measure.

For my January slice of the 2nd Edition pizza I had 6 bikes planned, including an old school Chaplain. After working for a few days on cleaning the models up, priming and free-handing the flames in Corax White, I realised the folly of that decision. I could either do 6 in a rush or 3 really well! As you can see from the photos, I chose the latter (if I am permitted to call my own models "really well" done).

I added a lot of fun little free-hand details, as I didn't want to pull them completely apart to add any Legion of the Damned specific bits. I don't have too much of that to go around anyway, so I am saving them for other units. I am really glad now that I chose purple and green as spot colours. They are a bit outside the box when it comes to Legion of the Damned, but I think they add a bit if interest to the scheme and contrast well with the flames. Additionally, where the scheme in White Dwarf did flat Boltgun Metal, I have added some components that are tinted with sepia.

For the first time ever (ever!), I had a go at painting the digital displays on the bike. I painted them like the motion trackers in Aliens as best as I could; it required me forsaking caffeine for a couple of hours.

The faces on Legion of the Damned models are always a challenge. I have seen them painted up as skulls, on done very pale, in White Dwarf magazine. For the sergeant I went for higher contrast, I very ghoulish look, based on Rakarth Flesh. I used Agrax Earthshade as the wash and highlighted with Rakarth/Ushabti Bone mixes. I painted the eyes bright green, to maintain commitment to the chosen spot colours (all of the eye lenses are purple).

Here's a big fat stamp for my efforts:

In February I will be repainting one of my oldest miniatures for the challenge, an old school Dreadnought. I have also just noticed that fellow bloggers and 40K friends on MeWe are starting to work on Squaduary projects, so I am going to spend some time this afternoon picking something to do as well!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge Round 3: Legion of the Damned Commander TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

The 2nd Edition Army challenge has gone live for another round. Over the next 6 months I will be painting the Legion of the Damned Army of my dreams. If you have been following the blog for a while, you will know that my very first army was Legion of the Damned, back before they had the White Dwarf Codex. Back in those days you could only take a Tactical Squad of them, so I had to extrapolate how much the other units would cost and what their stats would look like. After a while, my gaming mates complained that the army was too cheesy, so I repainted them as 100% Codex legal Dark Angels. A little while after that the LotD Codex was released and it was pretty much exactly how I used to run them (though Terminators were conspicuously missing from the list...).

Having repainted the Dark Angels over the last two challenges, I felt it was time to revisit Legion of the Damned. With only a couple of 2nd Ed. figures to fill out the list, I hit ebay pretty hard for a couple of weeks to get everything that I needed. some of the models were once in a lifetime level purchases (looking at you Centurius and NIB metal Landspeeder!). Others were a lot cheaper to source. If you are interested in seeing my challenge list and intro, check out the blog post at Dr The Viking's Cowabunga blog. 

My first 200 point "slice" was a Legion of the Damned Commander, which I converted to carry a thunder hammer. The Codex says I must take one of these and the model used is an old Chaplain, so converting the Crozius Arcanum was always going to be the challenge. A thunder hammer or power axe are the obvious choice, as it only requires changing the weapons head. 

I chose a dedicated LotD bolter for the right hand to keep an open pose; I really wanted people to see the detail I had spent hours painting. Originally I had planned a Brother-Captain Tycho style combi-melta, but it would have covered up the combat blade and leg. The paint scheme is pretty standard for a 2nd Ed. LotD figure, though I will drop the hint that I painted all of the flames Corax White before painting over with yellow and orange, to make the flames brighter. The fireball on the right shoulder pad was inspired by the mana symbol for mountains in Magic the Gathering!

The backpack covers some of the careful flame-work I did on the left shoulder pad, but that could not be helped. You can still see it from the right angles, which will have to be enough.

 

The finish is not quite as crisp as my Dark Angels, but I am enjoying the free-hand work. It feels more like artistic expression, than the safe "colour-by-numbers" schemes I have used previously. Over the next 5 months I will have an awful lot of free-hand to do; let's see if I am still this enthusiastic in June 2022.

See you across the table,

Marc