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

Iron Snakes: Captain Orestes, Master of Relics TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Happy New Year!! I don't really know what to make of 2021; it seemed to go on forever, but at the same tie I feel like very little got done. A good example is this model, which The Trooper and Sgt Waz printed for me for my Birthday back in July. After a minor bit of kitbashing, it has taken me 6 months (on-and-off) to finish the job. I think it is a very imposing figure, looming over the Centurions in my collect. I will have to put together some home-brew rules for him, as the closest I can find to legitimate ruleset is Tor Garadon of the Imperials fists, and he only has one Fist of Defiance. With the lack of a ranged weapon, I will look at giving this guy a small buff. He is a special character, after all!

See you across the table,

Marc

Van Diemen's World Veterans: Grog Ard-Nogg TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

I have realised that I am posting most of my WIP photos on other platforms, so the blog is looking a little sparse. I don't like that, because my main motivation for blogging is to have a record of the journey I take with these models. I'll have to do something about that in 2022, I think; these miniatures don't just paint themselves!

I spent 7 hours on Christmas Eve painting this Ogryn bodyguard for a good mate for Christmas. The model is a sculpt from Victoria Miniatures which I have to say have been great to us the past 6 months. Their new sculpts are really wonderful, shipping has been quick and customer service has been both thoughtful and personal. Everything you would want from a little miniatures outfit.

So... 5 minutes before we had to leave for the Christmas Party I was up to this stage of the job:

Gah!!! So frustrating! 

Anyway, I had set the deadline with my family and I wanted to keep my word, so I held onto it for a couple more days (thankfully I had a back up present prepared; a newly released treatise on traditional samurai weapons).  Today we got together again to play some boardgames and I was finally able to pass the model on. Noticing an errant highlight, I had to sit down and do a quick correction, but after that I was really happy with the finish. See if you can spot the mistake that I had to fix ;-)

Over the next couple of days I am going to really try to push my 9th Edition Dark Angels army towards completion, starting with some Hellblasters. I also have some board game pieces to finish that I am fairly proud of, which I really need to get finished.

See you across the table,

Marc