Freehand

I just banged this little beauty out free hand. It made me think of the days before custom transfers when, if someone wanted to play a Chapter that was not on the transfer sheet, they would have to free hand each of the Chapter badges. It was such a nightmare. These days you can get transfers printed any way you want. You can even print them at home. 

On The Table Now - Genestealer Aberrants

I am refining my techniques on painting Genestealer Cultist skin and trying to speed up the process. My first experimental mini took way too long but I learned a lot. Now, I am basing the mini Mournfang Brown, drybrushing Tallarn Flesh and then drybrushing Cadian Fleshtone before calling the base colors finished. Then the skin areas get a flesh wash and a touch up. To make them look mutated I wash on some purple and touch it up with flesh color. 

Finished - Deathwatch Assault Marines

These minis turned out great!

They took forever because they were so detailed and involve so many different colors. From an armlength, they just look like overly black minis with a smattering of blue and red, but up close I used at least 6 different color techniques on each mini. I tried to keep it simple, but I could not resist adding details. Fir instance, the Tyranid skull on the Raven guard base is washed with a purple wash to tie it into the purple that I am using on the Genestealer Cultists. 

I am sticking to the 25 mm bases on these minis rather than using the new 30 mm bases because the Deathwatch minis I already have are on the 25 mm bases and I think the change is dumb. Though, it would have been useful for stability on these minis with a high and heavy center of gravity. 

The plan is to paint up three metal Vanguard Veterans as Deathwatch Marines. I am never going to use all the Vanguard Vets that I currently have and they make great Deathwatch Marines. They make it difficult to select wargear and all of them have at least one arm in a static position. For Chapters, I have selected Ultramarines, Salamanders and a Blood Angel of sorts. I can't decide if I want to try and free hand a Flesh Tearers symbol on a Marine or wuss out and use a BA decal. 

Finished - Tau Baracuda Base

I have had the base of the Tau Barracuda staring at me for about two months. I knew I wanted to do a more scenic base than just sand, but eventually phoned it in a bit. Two small walls, some razor wire and a land mine/hatch. I will add some patches of grass to it and many of my other minis in the future. 

The goal was to make a base with a soldier looking up at the flyer. I can always add that later, but for now it is done. 

On The Table Now - Deathwatch Assault Marknes

I am loving how these minis are turning out. The detail on them is great. Probably the only thing that I don't like is that they are multi-piece but mono-pose. 

I am swapping out the bases with metallic-painted techno bases from a variety of sources to match the rest of the Deathwatch Marines.

They are almost done too. Just a little detail and the face on the Blood Angel and we are finished. 

Finished - Genestealer Cult Aberrant

I have to be careful what I post about the Deathwatch game because I know that at ;least one of my players reads this blog. 

I need a mini for a "Genestealer Cult Champion" for the Deathwatch game. The Final Sanction calls for a General-type but I thought it might be fun for the Kill team to square off against a hulking monstrosity. As I am painting the Deathwatch: Overkill game, I have a Genestealer Aberrant available. 

I painted him up with flesh tones but worked in some purple wash to certain areas. It was a good experiment to test out the color schemes that I plan to use on the rest of the cultists. I think the mini turned out over all very dark so it may need a little extra highlighting on the skin. For the most part I am pleased. 

Deathwatch Final Sacntion

We have had our first Deathwatch game last week and it was awesome. I ran the free downloadable adventure, Final Sanction. 

Charles played Konrad the Black Templar Assault Marine. New friend Kevin played Lucian Tyco the Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest. I brought Ulf'yngve "Rufus" Blumgren the Space Wolf Scout. 

After a small mix up with start times (I had said to meet at 4pm but the place did not open until 5pm), we got down to business. In three short hours, I set the scene of Avalos, a planet in flames. The team's transport, the frigate Invincible, was destroyed shortly after entering orbit by Tyranid Hive ships (but I failed to make the joke about the Invincible not living up to its name). 

The module of Final Sanction starts with a box of flavor text and the team deploying via Drop Pod into a battle on Lordsholm. Before letting them deploy, I made them some a small problem. To make the danger seem real, I had the corridor to reach the chamber with their gear collapse. I wanted them to come up with a way to solve it on their own but perhaps it was too soon to make them think creatively. They ended up going through the obstacle with the brute force. 

On The Table Now - More Deathwatch

I really should have just waited to post pictures of the Iron Hands Deathwatch Marine as it finished it right after taking the last pictures. 

I had a bit of hard time getting the minis to fit together. The joints fit together really tight and only in one way. They are not meant to be posed in any way. In the future, I think I will trim off the pegs that fit into the joints.

On The Table Now - Deathwatch Iron Hands

I started work on The Deathwatch: Overkill minis because that is what is attracting my attention over the other projects that I should be finishing. I should just wait to post pics of this mini as it is pretty much finished. 

Finished - Gawain, The Green Knight (AKA Green Man)

The Green Knight is complete. I snagged the name from an old story about a foolish knight, Gawain, that challenged a magical knight and lost his head. After reading that article, I realized that I could have named him Green Man. I like that name better anyway. I would love for him to charge up and land a Destroyer Strength hit right in the nards of a Stompa.

Forgive me. I've been drinking and binge-watching Always Sunny.

I made one big conversion by taking off the weird square sword and replacing it with a Dreadknight sword. The place where it joined is a little janky but overall it is a decent conversion. I had bought a Chainsword arm for a more convincing Knight Titan proxy. Thanks to how easy it is to swap out arms, that is not a concern right now.

Finished - Deathwatch Wolf Scout

We have our first game of the new Deathwatch RPG group next week. Of the 5 other people that expressed interests in playing all but 2 canceled. One was a seasoned GM but knew nothing of the 40k setting. I was really sad to see him drop out and hope he comes back. We are going to start with two solid players and hopefully add two more. 

I had rolled up a character even though I see myself being the GM until a challenger appears. I strategically chose the Wolf Scout advance for the Tactical Marine so that when I don't want to role-play him, I can have him sneak off to "scout" leaving the PCs to do the heavy lifting. 

The advance costs 200 XP and allows the player to use Perception for Concealment, Shadowing and Silent Move so that they can benefit from the Wolf Senses Solo Mode Ability. It also take some of the emphasis off of the social aspects of the Space Wolf. I am not particularly adept at playing a "face" character and would feel uncomfortable in that role. 

On The Table Now - Leviathan Crusader

Long time between updates but I have been hard at work. These Dreamforge minis are insanely complicated to assemble and paint. I have not assembled my GW Knight Titan yet but the Dreamforge Leviathans are more difficult to to assemble than anything I have ever experienced. They also take a lot of work on the front end when you paint before you assemble but really come together quickly at the end. 

At this point, all I have to finish on the body are the shoulder pads. The arms are in progress and should rap up soon. Because I skipped adding the armor on the arms, They should be able to be swapped for any other arms. The exception will be the gatling cannon. It has an awesome belt feed that it too cool to skip. It will only be able to be mounted on the right arm because of this.