Finished - Deathwatch Watch Master

I mostly fished this guy back in Nov 2016 during the first wave of Deathwatch madness. I didn't know how I wanted to finish him though. I ended up using a Deathwing head that I bought during a bit buying spree long ago. I used the shoulder guard (or pauldron if you want to be a smarty pants about it) from the Deathwatch: Overkill set that I am currently cannibalizing.

I love how this mini turned out. I think that I was right in that giving him a Chapter and a different head not only really sets him apart but also gives him a lot more personality. I don't know if I could pick out 3 things that I particularly like or dislike about how this mini got painted up. I think I made some good choices on picking more simple colors. I stayed away from the gold and I feel like it is over-done on some of the Deathwatch minis.

This min retails for $25 and that sexy alien base he is on was $2 if memory serves. The paint job took a long time to finish with all the detail and cloth. I value the paint at about $40. Total replacement cost is about $65.

Up next I am finishing a commission and three more Deathwatch Marines.

Painting The Roses Red

I had previously griped about how the GW Deathwatch dice had the sexy Chapter symbols on the "1" side. I have since played two games with them and it is unbearable. When you are taking Terminator armor saves and that Ultramarines symbol comes up, I get extra cranky. I felt it starting impact both my satisfaction with the dace and my fun with the game.

I had some inspiration at the last game. I knew that I could replaces the 6s with 1s and thus effectively change the symbol faces to 6s. It just needed to be done. We'll see how this changes my satisfaction. 

Finished - Ork Big Gun

No idea why this conversion jumped to the front of the painting line. Maybe it was getting excited about defogging my Battlewagon or maybe it was seeing piece of shit Earthshaker Cannon poking out of my bits box. Perhaps it was because I was too drunk to paint but you are never too drunk to ruin a mini by converting it to Orks.

All I did was glue some magnets to the bottom of the Earthshaker platform that matched where the magnets are on the top of the 'ard Case bit for the Battlewagon. After that, I just glued a bunch of crap to it. There is not really a formula to it. I also put some magnets on the cannon s it locks in either a level or elevated position.

I regret that I didn't magnetize the whole cannon so it was removable. That would have been useful for Weapon Destroyed results but also if I wanted to use this mount for a Liftadroppa or other weapon.

This would make a good proxy for a Kill Kannon if it was not for the fact that the gun is fixed and does not rotate. 

Finished - Deathwatch Scouts

Ok so they are not completely finished. In the picture, I forgot to do the grey hard-edge highlighting on the hands but other than that they are finished. 

I had some difficulty fitting the heads on the bodies. I really wanted the vox mask for the Salamander Scout but it would not fit in the very small space facing the way the gun was pointed. I had a similar problem with the sexy goggles on the Blood Angel. In the end, I ended up liking it as it adds variety to which direction the model is facing. 

I did a little conversion to the Ultramarine "leader" by giving him two scopes. The big scope is an Ork scope with the Orky bits filed off and the smaller scope is a SM scope. I accidentally mounted it backwards with the angled part mounted forward but I don't think it maters. 

Finished - Deathwatch Specialists

From left to right, Shotgun and Storm Shield, Infernus Heavy Bolter and Power Fist/Lightning Claw Marines. 

Swapping the Bolter for a Shotgun is free and the Storm Shield only costs 10 points. I really like the look of the Breacher Marines from Forge World and want to make my own with these sexy tower shields. I like the idea of a Marine that wants to get up close to use the Shotgun but also is smart enough to not want to die first. 

I want as many of the Infernus Heavy Bolters as I can get. They are move-and-shoot Heavy Bolters and Heavy Flamers. Best of all, the Heavy Bolters shoot at full range rather than the 18" of previous editions and the Heavy Flamers are not one-shot like I thought they would be. You can also add in Hellfire shells for 5 points if you want to be able to take down those high Toughness creatures like the Carnifex and the Wraithlord. This is my new favorite weapon perhaps of all time. 

Up last if my favorite combination of weapons if it is possible to take them. Because of the way the Speacilist Weapon rule is phrased, other weapons with that rule add an addition Attack even if they are not the same weapon. Using Power Fist and Lightning Claw give you versatility depending on what you are facing. I knew that I wanted to do this on my Black Shield as his special rule only work in Close Combat to double the number of attacks in special circumstances. It would have been more useful if it also worked at range too. Since it does not, I am absolutely kitting them out for close combat. I forget how splitting Attacks works in this edition, but at least I have the option of attacking at Initiative or last with S 8. My plan for the other Black Shield is for Thunder Hammer and Lightning Claw for the same purposes, but I'll likely proxy it with a Power Weapon for aesthetic reasons.

I just need to finish Chapter pauldrons for these Marines.

On The Table Now - Deathwatch Terminators, Bases

The Deathwatch army is the only army that I am using entirely custom bases. I started doing this because Deathwatch was never supposed to be more than 10 models. It started as the old White Dwarf formation from a thousand years ago. The army expanded a little when Deathwatch RPG picks up and I get excited and want to make another mini. With the release of the Deathwatch Codex and the Overkill box, this handfull of minis is going to expand to a full army. As it expands, I decided to carry forth the custom bases that look like deck plating or alien stuff. 

I think the bases in the picture are from Secret Weapon Minis from the Tau Ceti range and from and Steel Invasion. 

I made the choice to continue using 25 mm bases rather than the new 30 mm bases for consistency sake. I am old school and the new larger bases just look silly to me. 

Slaanesh Chaos Lord Revisited

I felt like the Slaanesh Chaos Lord from earlier was missing something so I added a Possessed back pack to the mini. While it does not quite fit because of the angle of the back and the slenderness of the Dark Eldar frame, it does add a CSM feel to the mini and round it out a bit. 

On the table now - Tau Barracuda

The magnets are in and the nut is glued into the bottom of the flyer. I got my basecoat down of Fenresian Grey and have started shading with Drakenhof Nightshade. I am having to do some of the painting piecemeal due to the complexity of the mini. 

I have also done some interesting conversions. I have the secondary weapons magnetized in such a way that I will be able to swap the secondary weapons out as needed. The downside is that because of the way that I chose to do it and a few other reasons (like breaking one of the cupolas on the side that holds drones when trying to pound in the nut on the bottom), I will have to glue the drone turrets on the side in place. I am a little sad as I won't be able to rotate them to shoot someone behind me but the benefits outweigh the losses. For instance, these rotating turrets always end up rubbing off the paint where they contact the cupola. That alone would bug me more than not being able to rotate the turrets.

Look closely at the bit at the top of the picture. The Ion Cannon comes standard on the Barracuda. I have ideas to increase the points cost and let it use the overcharge mode that lays down S8 AP3 templates. I also envisioned a "tank hunter" variant as I talked about in my previous post (and likely every post about this mini from here out). I loosely based this idea on the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, a plane that was built around the GAU-8 Avenger rotary cannon, a big bad phallus if there ever was one.

Finished - Slaanesh Lord

I have wanted a Slaanesh Chaos Lord with a snake body ever since I saw the WFB Slaanesh Lord on mount model. I could not find one for a reasonable price (dudes on BT and eBay wanted $40 plus for it), so I decided to add a Dark Eldar Sslynth to my recasting order with the idea of converting my own Slaanesh Lord. 

The mini retails for $16 but only comes in resin. The recaster sold for $9.50 including shipping which is just over retail and also comes in resin. The quality is not great with lots of air bubbles. The tiny arms were also poorly cast and misshapen. My "buyer protection" through Aliexpress (the Chinese version of Paypal), has expired so I decided not to pitch a fit over it. I would likely have replaced them anyway.

For the large arms I used a regular CSM arm and a Possessed arm. The shoulder guards also came from the Possessed box. The smaller right arm with the knuckles is part of the kit and the other smaller arm is a Dark Eldar Wytch arm. It is difficult to see, but I also added a Bolt Pistol in a holster on the left side. The sword is from the Dark range. I picked it because it fit the theme of the model better than a CSM sword. I also usually color my Power Weapons green on CSM but chose to just do silver on this one. I thought the green would be too distracting. 

On the table - Thousand Sons

I am super-excited about a new painting project that I am getting ready to start. It is fitting that since one of the first posts on this blog (and still one of the most popular) was about Thousand sons, that this post is about them too. I just hope it is not also the last.

I have been enamored with these third party Thousand Son bits since I first saw them. I thought there were Russian but mine are coming from somewhere in South America. I feel like they may be recasts as well. If they are anything like the pictures, then I'll be happy.

There should be enough bits there to make a full squad of Thousand Son Marines (8 plus a Sorcerer) with one or two left over. I plan to rehab an old mini into a pre-Heresy Sorcerer like in my other squad so that will help to bulk up my numbers.

I also ordered some Khopesh bits to give them that little bit of extra Egyptian flavor they need. I am really looking forward to converting them all up.

Thinking about a Deathwatch army

I picked up Deathwatch: Overkill for $130 including shipping on Bartertown and it has gotten me thinking. Once all the minis are painted up and combined with my existing Deathwatch Marines, I would have the start of a pretty nice Deathwatch army. I have outlined everything below with a little padding and estimated points costs with current rules. 

Chaplain - 90pts

Librarian, bolter - 65pts

Librarian, pistol, Mastry 2 - 90pts

Chapter Master, Power Ax, Combi-plas - 150pts

Sternguard x10, Heavy Bolter x2, Combi-melta, PS/PP - 280pts

Vanguard x5, Lightning Claws x2, Jump Packs - 120pts

Terminators x5 H Flamer, Combi-melta - 190pts

Bikes x3, Power Sword - 78pts

Finished - Custom Keeper of Secrets

In return for painting a big ole pile of Khorne Cultists, My buddy Greg over at CrankyOldGamer converted me up a a custom Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, the Keeper of Secrets. I supplied the bits and he did the converting. He also did a bang up job taking my idea and running with it. I was going to use the weapons from the Daemon Prince kit but Greg swapped them for the swords from some weird Dark Elf WFB kit. I sent the trygon tail but Greg wisely changed it to the Hive Tyrant tail. He put together a better conversion than I could have. 

As far as painting, I tried to paint it in the same scheme as the other Daemons of Slaanesh that are already finished and to a lesser extent the Noise Marines. For the Daemon Princess, I swapped the pink skin and black armor for each other because I am better at painting black than the weird pink that the Slaanesh minis have on them. I decided to keep that theme going as this would have been a LOT of pink skin to paint. 

Finished - Kaptain and last of the Flas Gitz

Finally, the Gits are done. This was a monster project. In the time it took me to paint a single git, I could have painted 4 Space Marines. The bodies are the size of Nobz and take the same amount of time to paint, but their guns are huge and have layers of armor over them. Once that is done, then there are the thrice-damned back banners. So much detail everywhere.

I spent a little extra time on the Kaptain as is warranted by his station. I most often see people paint the trench coat model with a black coat but I wanted something ostentatious and nothing is more stone-cold pimpin than a purple coat. I really wish the gun did not cover up the front of the chest so it was more noticeable. 

Finished - Two More Flash Gitz

I am really excited to have these two Flash Gitz finished especially the one on the right. Not only does this give me a total of 7 Gitz, but I am super-pleased with how one of them came out. 

This is a story about converting and how a single bit can get you thinking about building a whole mini around it. It all started with the cigar bit. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to use it. Initially, I wanted to use it for the Kaptain as he smoked and directed his Krew while a few Grots carry and fire his giant Snazz Gun. This proved far too complex to pull off so I settled with using it on a Git. 

At some point I knew that he would need an ashtray. I wanted him lazily gunning down Beakies or Umies while ashing to a hand made ashtray set on his gun. Since he was smoking with one hand, this dictated that there would need to be a handle on the gun. Also, I didn't think it would be stable enough with one hand on the gun and the shoulder strap to keep the ashtray from sliding off. Also, I wanted to have the gun resting on the ground to add the lazy factor. I had already used the "ground claw" looking gun mount so I opted for the bipod mount. 

I also wanted more of the Git's chest exposed on the mini as opposed to the other Gitz to draw the focus to his face and arm and add the laziness of the mini. This necessitated having him standing at a larger angle from his gun and not hold it so close to his chest. I had to trim part of where the arm and shoulder meet to get this angle. Easy enough and this is an old trip covered in old GW books and maybe even the 3rd Ed main book. 

Even with the 40mm base, it is crowded. The gun hangs off the edge and only one of the bipod feet was on the base. On the other model with the "ground claw" mount, I just hung it over and planned to glue to some sand to the bottom to cover it up. On the bipod, I didn't feel this was acceptable, so I broke a rule. I changed the shape and size of a base. The mini was already glued down, so I could not just mount him onto a 50mm base. What I did was cut a semi-circle into a 25mm base and glue it to the edge of the base. It is hardly perfect but it does draw attention and it is functional. 

Lastly is the ashtray. I am no expert in sculpting and anything that I do that looks good is complete luck. That is why I keep it simple. I rolled a ball of green stuff and smushed it flat. I used the end of a paintbrush to press a half sphere into the now disc. Then I cut cigar holders into the sides with the edge of a hobby knife. After letting it dry, I glued it downa nd painted it blue to contrast with the yellow gun and draw more attention.

Finished - Nurgle Helbrute

I was so excited about getting my Nurgle Helbrute back from Greg at Cranky Old Gamer that I primed and painted him up in record time. Greg did everything that I asked for. I wanted a central eye rather than a face, eviscerated intestines, smoke stacks like Typhus and Nurgle symbols all over. I lost the Plasma Cannon for the Helbrute kit in the mail and sent a Space Marine Devastator Plasma Cannon along as a substitute. Greg made a good call and went above and beyond to buy a CSM Plasma Cannon. Classy move. He sculpted everything perfectly and just as requested. 

I especially like the way he took extra effort to integrate the three circles of the Nurgle symbol into the details. You can see it in the smoke stacks and in the subtle details on the leg armor. 

Modeling

I didn't have to do much to the mini in ways of converting. Greg did all the heavy lifting. I did want to give him an awesome base though. I have several metal Dreadnought front plates laying around and since they are never going to get used on Dreads, they make great basing material. I used one on my Thousand Sons/Tzeench Helbrute and it turned out well. For the Death Guard/Nurgle Helbrute I wanted to take it to the next level. Death Guard and Grey Knights have a tenuous relationship through Nathaniel Garro. There is also a fair amount of animosity between the Death Guard and Grey Knights. The Death Guard hate everyone but perhaps the Grey Knights edge out enemies out by a hair. 

Finished - 'ard Boyz

I finished these Orks summer 2014 and never posted about them. Recently, I took out the old photo studio and tried to document them. I had some lighting issues in that I did it at night, in a poorly lit area wiht only two halogen lamps for lighting. I am still trying to get my photography skills to the point with it displays my painting skills. I have some programs that will allow me to edit photos (Apple has updated their camera software to include this recently too). Even though I can edit the photos, they still never turn out perfect. Seems that I am no better at editing photos than I am at taking them.

I knew that I was going to do a unit of 'ard Boyz (now called Boyz with 'eavy Armor) from the start and also knew that I was going to use WBF Black Orcs as proxies for them as soon as I saw a unit of the plastic minis. I fell in love with these models. What is more terrifying than a giant unstoppable green killing machine than a giant green killing machine wearing 100 pounds of armor. The kits also had very little Fantasy feel to them. Aside from little chainmail hanging out the cracks, they could easily be 40k Orks. 

Finished - Ork Wrecker Epic Post

I started this project almost a year ago. After a flurry of initial activity, I encountered difficulty in converting this 1:32 scale Army truck into a sufficiently Orky Speed Freak Wrecker. I started cutting up bits of plasticard into interesting shapes and gluing them on. I quickly found that this did not really make things look Orks and rather just kinda made it look like I had glued a bunch of crap onto the model. It was a mess. It like the more I did, the worse it looked. I initially tried to fix it by adding more armor plates, bits and gubbins but that really made it worse. Getting frustrated by converting it to an Orky Trukk, I set that project aside and tried to focus on other aspects of the conversion.

I wanted to magnetize the crap out of this vehicle to the point that as it became damaged, parts would come off of it. I wanted all the doors to work and the top of the cab to come off. I wanted the windshield to fold up and down. As the assembly went forward, I had to stop assembling the cab and paint the interior. The doors were held in by the top of the dashboard. To assemble it further, I would need to have the inside painted. Before I could finish painting the interior, I needed to get the driver and gunner assembled.

Finished - Gretchens

I also finished these in the Summer of 2014 and am just now getting to post about them. there was a lot of painting in that time period that never got documented. Recently, I took out the photo studio and tried to take some good pictures. 

I think I took some adequate pictures. I am still getting the hang of taking picks of colorful and detailed minis and making them look as good in pictures as I think they look in front of me. Part of the is getting my light right. 

My painting studio has two halogen lights and three natural lights. My photo studio has just two halogen lights and whatever else I can grab. I end up with kinda washed out and orange photos if I am not paying attention. I've gotten some photo editing software to try to fix this.

Finished (again) - Big Mek

I had finished my Big Mek with 'eavy Armor and Burna a while ago on a lark. New Ork codex comes out and the rules have made this an illegal wargear combination. Meks of any type can no longer take Burnas at all. The only units that can have them in any way or Burna Boys. I talked about strategy and tactics in an article about this mini and I didn't see any potential for abuse so why this bit of wargear disappeared is a bit of a mystery. 

Meks are now restricted to Kombi-rokkit, Kustom Mega-blasta, Rokkit Launcha, Kombi-scorcha, and Kustom Mega-slugga (a pistol version of the KMB). This list makes little sense to me. The Kombi-rokkit and Rokkit Launcha are the same cost. One is a one shot with a Shoota and the other is a Rokkit shot every turn. WTH? It was not until after I had finished my Kimbi-rokkit bit that I noticed this. 

I am getting ahead of myself. 

What I did was trim the offending Burna bit off the front of the weapon and added in a Shoota bit to make the Kombi-scorcha in the top picture. It took me about 10 min to fix it. 

Then I thought, why stop there? I made another Kombi-weapon. Like I already said, I had finished the Kombi-rokkit before realizing that this piece of wargear is dumb and I would probably never take it. I contemplated breaking it apart the Kombi bit but since I had plenty of Rokkit Launchas, I didn't mind ruining another one. 

Lastly, I banged out a KMB bit as this is the sexiest piece of 5 point wargear in the Ork Codex. 24" S 8 AP 2 is to be drooled over by any army. The only thing holding it back in the Orky BS 2. This means that if you have three of them in a unit, you can reliably expect 1 to connect each time you shoot. They also get hot so for those same three shots, you can expect that you are going to lose one of those guys. Rough

The good news is that now i have a Mek or Big Mek that can take almost any of his Mek weaponry. The downside is that now I have to keep track of all these dinky little bits. 

Finished - Ordo Malleus Heretical Inquisitor

In my last post, I spoke about a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator Armor and eluded to my love affair with the Inquisitor Codex. Thanks to finishing the Eisenhorn books, after finishing the golden boy of a puritanical Inquisitor, my thoughts drift to what a heretical inquisitor would look like. I have had an extra Fabius Bile body that someone had cut the head off of and I have always wanted to make either a Fallen Dark Angel or an Inquisitor. Later, while working on my Iron Warrior Bikers made from Chaos Knights, I saw this Chaos sword that screamed to me "daemon weapon."

At this point the bits I had were dictating the rules for the mini. I knew he was going to be an Inquisitor in Power Armor with a Daemon Weapon. This is far from ideal as Inquisitors are only S 3 and T 3. Give them all the armor you want, but with those stats they are going to get eaten by any other troops in close combat. The Daemon Weapon is also problematic as the particular stats of it are randomly generated. You may end up with something little better than a stick or you may end up with a S 6 AP2 weapon. It is nothing to be relied on from game to game. 

I start to realize that I am making a mini that is just for fun to paint and look at and may never see play on the table top. In some way this is freeing. Now I don't have to worry about effectiveness and posts cost and can just do whatever I want.