Finished - Brother Art E Miss

I love how this mini turned out. 

I have already talk about how painting a mini that is not 32mm Heroic scale is. 

In the fluff, Brother Artemis is a member of the Mortifactors Chapter, a fairly morbid successor Chapter of the Ultramarines. I could have painted him as a Blood Angel as theya re my chosen Chapter, but I wanted to stick to the fluff, you know like you do. 

Everything else is pretty standard regarding the color scheme. I did incorporate the red stripes to denote squad number on the right knee, a new addition to the Deathwatch heraldry. I also had to use a vehicle transfer for the skull emblem on the right shoulder guard. 

I tried to do a dumbed-down version of the Grey Knight-style Power Weapon but I think it got lost in the dry brushing. I intentionally skipped the white hard-edge highlighting that I normally do on Power Weapons didn't think it would look quite as good on a mini of this scale. The buled metal seemed like enough. 

This mini is out of print and goes for an average of $55 on eBay. I feel like I spent about that worth in time on this mini and value the paint job at $55. The custom base is worth about $2. Total replacement cost is valued at $111. 

Up next are more Deathwatch minis but before that I need to finish the Aberrants that have languished on the painting table.

On The Table - Brother Artemis

This bad little monkey is coming along well. Now, I don,t play Inquisitor and likely never will but this model is awesome. My friend Matthias gave this to me and I almost broke my legs trying to get him home and get some paint on him. 

Painting it is a different story than 32mm Heroic scale minis. For starters shading is a lot harder. I had to wash and touch up this mini twice as much. The blacks do not look as black as his small brothers. I will say that highlighting is a dream. I feel like I have such fine control on this size of a mini. Even my worst detail brushes feel like lasers on a mini of this size. 

I ended up using vehicle transfers on this mini for the Chapter symbol and the "I" on the knee. It has been a long time coming for this mini that will never see a second of table time but he is almost done.

Finished - Cypher of Deathwatch

Finally finished my dual-pistol, Cypher for Deathwatch and I am rather proud of how it turned out. 

For starters this is a completely illegal model at least the way that I plan to field it. As I have already discussed, you can't give Veterans two pistols. I could have given him a Jump Pack and it would have been completely legal to swap the CCW for a Plasma Pistol, but that was too far outside of the fluff for this mini. Cypher is not a Descent of Angels Jump Pack Marine. He is a bad ass, up in your face, foot slogging, two gun killing machine. I feel that this deference to the fluff makes up for the mild rule breaking that this model does. 

Base cost is 22 points per mini for a Deathwatch Veteran which is steep given the downward trend we have seen in 40 points over the past 10 years. For that you get a Veteran stat line compete with two Attacks and Leadership 9. Other than that, they die like Marines. The Plasma Pistol runs you 15 points weather you are Veteran, Vanguard or Watch Commander. That seems a little strange as the application of each is uneven. It just seems lazy.


That makes this mini 37 points but for that you get a Special Ammunition shot and a Plasma Pistol shot on the charge and 3 Attacks base (4 on the charge). That is pretty nasty as that is potentially 2 or 3 dead minis from this one guy or more dead given best circumstances. 

I made the choice to paint him in Pre-Heresy Dark Angel colors as Cypher would not deign to adopt the colors of the Heretics. It makes him overall very black in tone but the robe helps. I added the Dark Angel wings and some detail to the face to finish off the model.

Lights, Camera, Back To Work

The shelf is installed and the lights are hung. It's time to play the music; it's time time to paint the minis. I had to buy some extension cords and get creative with how I am supplying my computers, lights, Dremel, paint shaker and other accessories. It makes me nervous as I have power strips plugged into extension cords at this point but at least the computers are just plugged into a single power strips.the light is great though. 

I went to Lowe's the other day and one of my least favorite kinds of people were there. You all know this person. She is bossy and a know it all but most of all she is an idiot. Her confidence is wildly out of wack with her confidence. She is a genuine moron, but think she is next in line for the Nobel Prize. I was asking for natural light bulbs and she says that she knows where they were. She takes me to to the light bulb isle (where I just was) and shows me flood lights. No no no, crazy pants, I need normal-sized lights. I feel like that was implied. Rather than acknowledging that she had no idea what she was talking about, she conveniently wandered off to help someone else. This is the Dunning-Kruger effect in practice.

/end rant about awful people

The Den Takes Shape

The move is complete and the unpacking begins. My new Den is also in the basement but this one is finished! I ha e the same desk and computer set up but now have this fucking post to work around. I decided to make the best of it and use fit to make a shelf over the desk to mount my lights. Since the shelf is so big, I can also store my bits on it. Due to a measuring error, I am unable to stack the smaller bins that store my paint. No big deal as I can replace them with larger bins later. The boxes in the background hold books, painted minis and a legion of bits. I don't know that I will have my workshop set up before the weekend is out but the goal is to get back to painting soon. 

I Have Way Too Much Stuff

We are packing and moving for what is the third time in 6 years and hopefully the last. The picture is just the hobby stuff and painted minis. It is unbelievable. I have spent about $1,000 a year since 2004 and have rarely sol or traded anything. I could probably paint every day for 8 hours like it was a job and have months of project ahead of me. I've shipped and moved this mess twice and hated every second of it. 

So much of the collection has no dedicated storage. I really need to get some foam to put them in. As much as I hate Battlefoam because of their atrocious customer service, their product is really great. I am going to get some for the new Deathwatch army as it rolls out. 

Deathwatch Army Grows

I worked a extra shift rather than taking a three day weekend and used the funds to buy the new shiny for Deathwatch. I needed that DW Captain in a bad way. I always wanted that new plastic Blood Angel Terminator Librarian and now with it bundled with the Deathwatch shoulder guards, it became too good to pass up. How can I not get Corvis Blackstars? That was a no-brainer. 

I need the new bits from the Deathwatch book for conversions and bulking out my force. The spectrum of Chapter shoulder guards is astounding and much easier than trying to hunt down other shoulder guards in trades. I shoudl be able to make 10 Marines out of a box made for 5.