Monster March TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

March has passed us by and I somehow managed to complete this monstrosity for Monster March. Having used winged Tyrants in 40K for ages, I was excited to have a go at creating an old school version. The key was to find wings that were the right scale, I think, and these Dark Pegasus pieces really tick that box. 

The arms were left over pieces from the Tyranid warriors that I worked on last month. With only a few days to go before deadline, I realised I didn't actually get a tail with this guy, so I used one of the toxin spikes I had left over from my 9th Ed. Trygons.

To make him usable in 2nd Ed. 40K I created two custom biomorphs, Chiropterous Wings (which work like a jump pack) and psychotropic sting (which works like a one-shot digi-weapon, that also uses the hallucinogenic effects table). If you want to check out the full rules you can download them from the 2nd Edition Army Challenge Month 3 post. Be sure to check out the other completed projects for this month too, there were heaps of amazing models.

Overall, I am really happy with how this model turned out and I am looking forward to adding a bit of a flying circus to my list, with some old school Gargoyles. Next post I'll have some photos of my main projects for Month 3 of the challenge, a more traditional Hive Tyrant and a Zoanthrope (with legs!).

See you across the table,

Marc

Monster March Progress

 

Hi folks,

I have just realised that March is almost over (madness!!) and I haven't posted anything about #MonsterMarch7. I bombed out the challenge last year due to a horror run of bad health, so have been hoping to make amends this year. With the 2nd Ed. Army Challenge about to reach the half-way mark, I was also keen to work on a project that wouldn't feel like I was dividing my efforts. For that reason I have chosen a 2nd Edition Hive Tyrant that will work well with the rest of the army I am currently painting. I have converted it to have wings, which was not an option back in 2nd Edition, but makes for a fun custom biomorph. It opens up an opportunity for me to write a unique Codex entry that can also contribute to the overall challenge. At the moment I am painting it parallel to the other two units I actually pledged for the 2nd Ed. Army Challenge this month: another Hive Tyrant (armed with a barbed strangler, bonesword and spinefist) and a classic Zoanthrope.

So far, I have been able to block in the main colours on each primary sub-assembly, as well as some washes, highlights and other details.

At the moment, I am working on blocking in the main colours on the smaller sub-assemblies, including the arms, bioweapons and tails. This is about as much work as painting a whole unit of little bugs, so I still have a lot of work to do, followed by the basing. I feel pretty confident that I will get them done, though.

To complete one of the side-challenges (secondary objectives?) I have also constructed a faction specific terrain piece. In this case, I have a built a Hive Node, designed to look like a coral outcrop with stinging fronds. The colours fit my swarm pretty well, I think!

That's it for now, hopefully I have some good shots at the end of the month to show off these finished projects.

See you across the table,

Marc

Hobby Diary Part 3: Monster March TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Monster March has come to an end I managed to get my Forest Dragon finished just in time. To achieve this I had to graft a more modern elf rider onto the old metal legs. I kept the classic Wood Elf shield with the S shaped glyph on it, but swapped the spear for a Sisters of the Thorn wand. I imagine that would be a more useful weapon to use from the back of a dragon. I used a bunch of bright colours on the rider that I wouldn't use, inspired by some artwork of the elf-like Sitha from Tad William's Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, which I love. 

I painted the hair a very dark brown, which was a suggested by my daughter. Apart from that, I used a lot of metallics, but tried to match them with the colours of the dragon as much as possible. Overall, I am very happy with how the project has turned out. It has earned a prized position on my daughter's model shelf, with the rest of her Wood Elves.  Here are some final photos:

See you across the table,

Marc

Hobby Diary Part 3: Monster March and Razorback TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Last night I added the final touches to the Razorback I have been working on for the 2nd Edition Army Challenge. I added a whole bunch of decals. Unfortunately, most of them have left some kind of water mark around them, perhaps from the adhesive spreading. I am not sure at this stage whether it is worthwhile trying to get rid of it, perhaps by sealing the decals with a setting agent. I may try it on a small section. Otherwise, I am very happy with how it has turned out and really excited to use it in a game. The combination of lascannon and plasma guns is really fun.

As soon as I finished the Razorback I got cracking on the Forest Dragon. It is going to take a special effort to get it finished in time, but with 11 days left, I think I should be able to do it justice. I have started working on the base early as well, as I can see it is going to take a bit of time to add all of the components that I want.

See you across the table,

Marc

Hobby Diary Part 2: Monster March and 2nd Edition Army Challenge

 

Hi folks,

Just a quick post today to document my progress, as I am literally busy painting. This week has been excruciatingly busy at work and next week will be no different, so I have to get as much done now as I can!

I have added the first layers to my Forest Dragon for #MonsterMarch, including a nice blend on the wings. Tomorrow, I am hoping to get the head and neck section done, which should help me understand how the rest should look. In fact, once the head is done, I feel like I will have broken the back of the project. It has the most colours that I need to execute, due to the horns, eyes, teeth and open mouth.

Apart form the wings, the project is at that stage where it looks like rubbish! I know that the greens will get brighter and more defined, the tan will get deeper and warmer, and the horns will get colder and blended dark towards the tips. The open mouth will contrast against the green nicely too, but all of that stuff is just in my head at this stage and it drives me a little crazy. Ah well, keep at it I guess!

The Razorback is really close to completion, though I think I am going to have to attempt to free-hand as I don't have the characteristic Razorback decals. A stencil is probably the way to go about it.

I need to make sure that I remember to paint the hatches, which I kept separate to make the gunner easier to paint. I also need to give myself enough time to do the decals, as they are going to take quite a while.

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

Monster March: Space Hulk Broodlord

Hi folks,

It feels like Squaduary finished only yesterday; it always takes me a while to recover from February. Painting a squad from start to finish in a month is a real challenge for me, primarily because I am such a hobby butterfly but also because teachers (who are also parents) are so time poor. Let's just say sacrifices had to be made at the altar of midnight (i.e. the paint table of 2 am).

Anyway, I was taking a close look at by blog roll just after March rolled in and what I saw was pretty sad. It's worth a blog post this weekend when I have wrapped my head around it. Short story is that I spent a couple of hours hunting down active blogs, particularly of the people I have been talking to online. My blog-fossicking led me to Path of an Outcast and something called Monster March.

During Monster March hobbyists are encouraged to work on and, hopefully, complete a monster from their chosen game system. For my inaugural year, I'll be painting the Space Hulk Broodlord!

It is a fearsome model with a great pose and lots of small details. I'll be painting it in the classic blue and purple scheme, though I am hoping to achieve a lot of contrast between the armour and the skin tones. To this end, while everyone else in Sydney was buying toilet paper, I was stocking up on paints:

I'll be aiming for something a little bit like this, though I have chosen a warmer purple for the skin. Note, the picture below is not my model, just the reference photo I am going to use for inspiration.

It will be a real change from my usual Tyranid scheme:

Wish me luck! 12 days down already!! WEEEEE!!!

See you across the table,

Marc