Back to Basics

I was very excited to spend the last of my dwindling X-mas money on these bases. A few years ago, I would have been pretty cranky to have spent almost $25 just on bases but now I gladly spend that amount on quality bases. I did custom bases for all my Dreadnoughts in the past and loves the different attitudes and feelings that the bases provide.

It is less so with the Deathwatch army. While it does not give individual models personality, it does give the army and overall feeling of cohesion for the army. My only regret is that I started the army on 25mm bases before the 30mm bases came out. I may go back and replace them but at this point I am too far in to change.

The two bases in the back are for the DW Dreadnought and Venerable Dreadnought. The pipe base on the right comes from Micro Art Studios and the one with the alien eggs on the left comes from Secret Weapon Minis. The difference in quality between the two is noticeable. MAS base was pre-sanded on the bottom where the SW was not and needed to be filed to even make it flat. The SW has a noticeable gap between the best and the slope of the side that needed to be filled and filed while the MAS had good detail and needed no touch ups.

The giant head is from Scibor and is a work of art. I plan to use it for the metal replacement for Be'lakor. I found a great deal on a complete metal Be'lakor and have traded my only model. I don't really miss him as his rules make him a friendship-ender. The model is awesome though and I think I can paint it even better now. 

On The Table - Ultramarine Terminator Shoulder Guard

Just got some Forge World shoulder guards in for the Deathwatch Terminators. Blood Angels and Ultramarines are over-represented in my Deathwatch army. The former because they are my largest army and the latter because they are over-represented in Space Marines in general, both on the table top and in the fluff. In Deathwatch RPG, Ultramarines make awesome leaders. They make Awesome everything really. For that last reason, I have made an effort to include an Ultramarine in every type of unit I have in the Deathwatch Army.
That and blue is easy as hell to paint.
The shoulder guard in the picture(call em "pads" if you want but my Marines wear armor and not pads) is not finished but is pretty close. There is a little more work to do on the Purity Seals but it is close to done.
I am going to use 1 or 2 more shoulder guards and try to trade the rest. I think that the passion for the new shiny that is Deathwatch, but I think there will still be some people on Bartertown looking for interesting Terminator pauldrons.

On the Table Now - White Scars Face

The Deathwatch Vets box is awesome. I love all the heads (though some are problematic), but there are no good White Scar ones. I like the classic top knot, I like the mongol-style beards. The head from Overkill is good but it is attached to the body. The face above is clearly meant to be a Space Wolf. With the addition of a CSM top knot and some creative painting of the chin as beard, as we have a first class White Scar head.
I've tried to up my face painting game recently. There was a time where I would do a basecoat of a mid-range flesh tone, wash it flesh, touch it up and call it good. I experimented with extra highlighting but the faces turned out looking more corpse-like that I wanted.
On a whim, I picked up Bugman's Glow thinking that I could use it to highlight leather in an interesting way. While, I never really integrated it into my leather paining, I did start using it to shade the deep wrinkles on faces. I still undercoat with Tallaran Flesh and basecoat with Cadian Fleshtone, but then I paint on the Bugman's Glow into all the places that need more depth. There is a little touch up of Cadian Fleshtone and only then do I wash it with Reikland Fleshshade. A little touch up and it is done.
Integrated into that mess, I have also started putting a little purple wash around and under the eyes. It started off on a fluke but this technique has really started to pay dividends.

Damn I Am Good

Sometimes I impress even myself. 

Not to sound conceited or arrogant, but I did a really good job on this tower-style Storm Shield. I love this bit so much. It is a shame that there are only two in each Deathwatch box. I have one already on this Terminator and I think the next one will be used on a breacher Marine with a Shotgun and a Storm Shield. I am really looking forward to this conversion. 

I took some inspiration for the colors from the Deathwatch Codex. If I had not seen those then I might have just painted it all silver looking. I really like the black and red that the Codex colors added. 

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. 

On The Table - 4 Deathwatch Terminators

Oh what a difference a day makes. I spent a few hours figuring out what Deathwatch Terminators I want to make from the bits that I have on hand. I had some left over Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminators that were never going to get used for anything else. May as well induct them into Deathwatch. I also needed to use up the BA Termie arms that are covered with BA iconography. 

The Deathwatch rules don't really allow for much variation in Terminator load outs. You are restricted to Powerfist/Storm Bolter, Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield, dual Lightning Claws or a heavy weapon. The meat and potatoes of Terminator squads are going to be the PF/SB so I don't mind having some redundancies. It is not like these minis are ever going to be used for anything else. 

Thanks to the Overkill box, I already have an awesome Salamander with a Heavy Flamer and the sexy new PF/Meltagun. I know that I want a Dark Angel because I have some awesome bits that are laying around. I am going to try and use up the shoulder guards by magnetizing the model. I threw some magnets in the tops of random models for later adding some Missile Launchers but I don't have those bits spare. 

I digressed a little there. 

The last mini is a Black Templar. I had some Forge World Cataphractii Terminators that are now obsolete by the plastic ones. I wanted something that looked more knightly than the other bits that I had available. I used a Grey Knight head and legs and paired them with a Grey Knight sword and a Dark Angel Storm Bolter. I think the mini is going to come out really well. 

Finished - Deathwatch Imperial Fist And Jump Packs

I finished the last of the normal Deathwatch Marines and the Jump Packs.

I am very pleased with how they came out. I tried to give each of the jump packs some character to the Marine who will be using it rather than making them generic and interchangeable. Each has a color that is part of the Chapter the Marine came from (Blood Ravens, Dark Angels and Ultramarines respectively). This is also necessary as I was not paying attention and some of the polarity in the magnets are reversed from what I normally do.

The Devastator Marine turned out well too. I had to shoot from the hip on how to do the yellow as that is not a color that I am very experienced with. I was concerned that I may have made the yellow too bright. Seeing the Imperial Fists next to the more muted tones of the Space Wolf makes me think that my concerns are valid. That yellow is bright! I ended up trying to mute it a little with some Gryphonne Sepia wash. I am not very happy with the result but it did mute the color. II am going to try and limit the amount of yellow that I use in Deathwatch Marines in the future.

We are closing on a house right now or at least in the process. There is a 11 day waiting period that kicks in as soon as everyone presses the go button and we are still waiting for that to start. Since I could finish quite a few minis in 11 days, I am going to start on the Deathwatch Bike and Terminator. I won't have time to finish the other 2 Bikes and 4 Terminators to complete the squads though. This might be a good thing as I may want to wait for the Deathwatch Codex to come out to make any choices for wargear. 

Shapeways Deathwatch Pauldrons

I spent some of my fun money early and bought the solution the my Deathwatch terminator problems from Shapeways. They skipped super-fast. I had them in my hand before the week was out. The quality is pretty good. I think that they are comparable to the GW ones on the Deathwatch: Overkill box.They are not a precise match but they are close enough. It really makes me want to get a micro 3D printer but I would never be able to make my own scupts even with my decade-old knowledge of CAD design. The best I could hope for would be to get in with a community of people that publish 40k bits templates and copy or modify them.Best case is I could sell them or rent the machine to locals.

One of the pauldrons did come shattered but the rest are fine. That is more than I need. I hope Shapeways will replace the bit but don't care if they don't.

Buying Bits for Deathwatch Project

I just placed my first order from Shapeways, a 3D printing bits and mini company. I am going to try out some Deathwatch Terminator shoulder pads (pauldrons) first before placing additional orders from them. My friends that use Shapeways for X-wing minis seem pretty pleased. I initially thought that I would try and make a new friend that was a good sculptor or caster from 40k social media, but that proved to be a fruitless endeavor. I had two people that did casting in Seattle but one was a flake and the other was creepy and unreliable. They both did good work tough and I still have a lot of it both painted and still in bits.

These 10 Terminator shoulder pads are more than I need to complete my project. I had only planned on 5 termies total but this will give me the option of 11 or more if I shoehorn in some Grey Knight pauldrons.

There really are no no better options for Deathwatch Terminator shoulder pads. The only other ones are in the Overkill box and the blank Terminator shoulder guard pictured to the right. I think the black shoulder guard is ugly and breaks my head cannon in that it lack the text on the background.

I also ordered some bases for these Terminators and for the future bike too from Amazon.

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

On the Table - Future Combi-weapon Bearers

I just made a purchase of these minis from Bits-World on eBay for about $7 with shipping. This will let me make bearers for my Combi-weapons for quite a while. 

I don't know that they are going to be worked on any time soon but I am glad to have them in the bullpen. 

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.

Finished - Wolf Guard got a hammer

I don't know how much play time that this guy will see but I love the model. I tried a different pattern with the Blood Claw markings and painted them horizontally. I was unsure as to how that I was going to paint the hammer but like how it came out in the end. If I had thought twice, I would have chosen a different head. I wanted my Blood Claws to all look young and wild but this gut is rocking a Chester A. Authur chops and I love it. 

Next up is a Wolf Lord. I am going to give him Storm Shield and a Frost Blade. I really wanted to use the Frost Axe bit, but with the changes to the Power Axe rules and them striking last, I am less likely to put that on my I 5 leader. 

In semi-related news, GW put out a new load of FAQs that fix the specifics on Sanguinary Guard power weapons, Dante's axe and the rest. Maybe SandWyrm will be able to stop his temper tantrums and play now. On second thought, I don't think the hobby misses him. 

Oh GW, it is like you are not even trying any more

For YEARS, many of us wanted a bits pack with decent-looking combi-weapons in them so we would not have to cut up a flamer and glue it haphazardly to a bolter. GW through that I would be a good idea to make our dreams come true by cutting up a flamer and haphazardly gluing it to a bolter.

The combi weapons are awful except for the melta which is a direct cast of the one from Space Marine Captain sprue. The flamer and plasma are little better than even the most untalented hobbist could do with 5 min of effort. I think anyone could do better than the combi-flamer really. What is it with GW wanting to make spindly little bits that hand off their minis then make them out of a material that make glass look like steel.

PuppetsWar.com Review

The crew over at BoLS have been chatting up PuppetsWar.com quite a bit lately. First it was the Necron jetbikes and the Vindicator stand in. More recently they talked the Ork plane and the Dreadnought Autocannon arms. Now, I don't know if this is more embedded sponsorship like the dull and droll Man Boy Genius and his inane Spikey Bits plugs that masquerade as content, but they are decent reviews of decent-looking products. That's right, aside from that little tear on MBG for his crappy articles and even crappier conversions, there is no hate in this post. We're gonna keep it positive. I am going to give a brief overview of some of the interesting bits and models available over at PuppetsWar.com.

Thank you Tony!

 

My buddy Tony sent me some precious bits to finish the CSM Iron Warrior Rhino that is currently on the table.  Without these, I could not have finished it as the smoke stacks are currently sawed off. 

THANKS TONY! This Bud Rhino is for you!

Now I just need one more to complete me monster!

FINISHED - Iron Warrior Rhino

At long last, that flippin Rhino is done!

"Pleased to meet you. Hoped you guessed my name."

I finished this a few days ago, but waited to try to get some good pictures for this write up and to post it on Cool Mini or Not.

When we last saw this Rhino, it was still missing its hatch and doors. I had not even begun to weather it either. After the failure with the Charadon Granite, I gave up on doing any sort of dynamic weathering on the silver parts. I settled instead on giving it a light drybrush of Runefang Steel (formerly Mithril Silver) and stippling Ironbreaker (formerly Chainmail) on the areas that got too much was on them. All of the shading on this model was done with Agrax Earthshade (formerly Dev Mud) by painting it in the areas I wanted it. You just can't dip a large model like this. I thought I was going to have to use some Nuln Oil (formerly Badab Black) but turns out that the Agrax Earthshade did the job pretty well.

Yellows

The yellow areas on the front started as Averland Sunset (formerly Iyanden Darksun). After being washed, I brightened them up just on the hard edges with Yriel Yellow (formerly Golden Yellow). This left some dirty spots on them but still made the edges bright enough to match up with the rest of the model.

On The Table Now - IW Aspiring Champions

After finishing the Thousand Sons minis and that epic write up, I banged out three Aspiring Champions for the Iron Warriors.

That handsome fellow on the left (the one that is not the Iron Father and closest to the bristles of the brush), was finished long ago. The other three were the ones that I finished today. I mixed bits from the CSM box, Possessed, Iron Hands legs, Forgeworld Mk III armor, and WFB Chaos horsemen. Each of my Aspiring Champs have the GW Iron Warrior metal shoulder pads rather than the transfers.

I admit, I went a little crazy with the backpacks. I wanted something that would set them apart from their brethren, but it might be a bit much. I am happy with them for the most part, but they are a pain to fit in the GW case. Also, they are deadly if you step on them in the dark. OUCH!

There are two model with power weapons and two with power fists. One of each of those has a plasma pistol. I doubt that I'll often field a PF/PP combo as that makes for a pretty expensive model (15 +15 +15 + 25 = 70), but it is nice for variety.

I'll detail these guys later when I finish the CSM section and break out the photo studio again. I have a lot to go before I start that. At least I have all the Aspiring Champions I'll ever need.

Still on the table are Huron and that Warsmith.