What Happened To Those Space Wolves Again?

Well, today I managed to semi-sort the internet AND I moved downstairs to where it was marginally cooler, so I was able to crack on with some painting of my own things to get myself back to a headspace where I can work on commissions. So that involved finishing off the Necron Immortals and the Pariahs, and looking at the Space Wolves and going "mmm, not in the mood at the moment". What I was in the mood for, apparently, was a repaint/fix-up of some medieval peasant types I bought way back in the very late 1990s, and which I think I can now repurpose for stuff like Mordheim: Empire In Flames, Guards of Traitors Toll, or even just basic RPG games.

The last five Immortals for the squad. These Necrons are tough and mean and carry Gauss Blasters rather than the Warrior's Gauss Flayers. 24" range, S5, AP4, Assault 2  - brutal weapons that'll turn anyone wearing anything lighter than Power Armour to mince

They're pretty brutal looking from the rear honestly - wide and intimidating

Pariahs - eventually there'll be another five. These are technically meant to be Lychguard in modern parlance but pah, fie upon that, I say

They're bulkier than the Warriors but slimmer than the Immortals and I deliberately painted them to have a little more in common with the Necron Lord I have

And from robot skeletons from the depths of time and space to random medieval types. I thought these were Redoubt Enterprises, but I can't see them in their catalogue. Then I thought maybe they were Gripping Beast, but also no. I'm at a loss! I remember buying them as a very young teenager at, I think, Warfare in Reading. Although it may have been Salute! or possibly even Attack! in Devizes... All I can now remember is painting them in these colours (not as neatly) sitting at my then best friend's kitchen table in about 1999. Anyone who happens to know who made these, please let me know. 

L-R: A wealthy sort, a stallholder, a leper, and a drunk in the stocks

I particularly like the colours young me chose, all those years ago - all I did here was clean them up and paint them a bit more carefully

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the commissions, and maybe some more peasants and civilians. I'm rapidly coming up on the 300 miniatures painted from the Pile of Opportunity before July the 17th, which I honestly wasn't sure I'd do, so I'm very pleased with that. Just four more to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 4 (+ those 10 Necrons above that I finished last week that I didn't get a chance to post about)
2025: 368
 

Rally The Horse

I spent a bit of time today working on the English Civil War commission, blocking out the horses and starting on the saddlecloths. I need to finish those, then do the leather, trousers, sashes, and details on the standard bearer and musician before whacking them all with Agrax Earthshade and then picking out the metal. I'm hoping to do this by the end of the weekend and then make headway on the other two units.

In other news, I also dug out the last remaining Necrons - five more Immortals and five Pariahs - undercoated them and started painting their metal basecoat. I need to do a bit of work on the barrels of the heavy gauss blasters carried by the Immortals, but I reckon I can get the Immortals and Pariahs finished up tomorrow.

 Also, not this coming weekend but the one after, I'm going to Death Unto Darkness, the 40K LARP, as my Sister of Battle Superior. A friend of mine, M, gave me a 3D-printed bolt pistol a while ago and I've given it some paint to match my chainsword, and a name, because you have to name your wargear.

I'm looking forwards to pointing this at people and yelling "SANCTIC BOLT" at them like the huge nerd I am.

 

The Ten Thousand

Of Xerxes, the Shahanshah, are not, in fact, what I'm painting at the moment. But they are Immortals - Necron Immortals. I managed to get them done today, which was nice, and means that all the undercoated Necrons I own are done. Hurrah! 

Shinier than the Warriors, because they're more important

And now I can make a start on the Red Redemption lot, I think. Lots of red, yellow, and metal (as well as flames) so that should be quite a striking look when finished. 

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2024: 191 (342)

The Pile Shrinks

This year has so far been my most productive year in terms of shrinking the Pile of Opportunity (or shame, if you prefer), probably ever. I didn't really get into gear in terms of speed of production until 2014 as it became a way for me to stave off a nervous breakdown, and since then I've got a lot better at batch production. Lots of skeletons this year have helped to make the number go up, as it were. Anyway, the latest batch of (metal) skeletons are all done now:

The whole lot, which brings me to a total of 44 Warriors

A squad of 15...

...and the remainder of a squad of 14 to accompany one of the two Necron Lords

Then I went downstairs to get the Redemptionists, to have a go at painting them while the Cawdor-fancy was in my head, and found the five remaining undercoated Necrons, and thought, "you know what... might as well". So that's what I've made a start on today:

Immortals - those massive Gauss Blasters are pretty potent

I'll probably be able to get these finished in the next few days and then make a start on the Redemptionists, which you can actually see in the background of the photo of the Immortals.

Painting Points:
Today: 24
This Week: 37
2024: 186 (337)

Marching On, Rank By Serried Rank

 Today I painted all the black bits on the Warriors black:

...look how different they look to last time, ha ha ha etc.

However! Now I just need to do the little stones that are on all their bases (for some strange reason), gloss varnish all the green bits, and then base them. They should be done quite easily tomorrow. Hurrah!

Endless Metal Skeletons

Last night I went rooting around in the drawer marked "Necromunda and Necrons" which contains, you guessed it, unpainted Necromunda and Necron miniatures. I discovered a load of Warriors, five Flayed Ones, ten Immortals, and five Pariahs. The Warriors were about half done, the Flayed Ones were undercoated, and of the Immortals and Pariahs, only five Immortals have been undercoated. So I scooped up the Warriors and Flayed Ones and took them upstairs to my painting station. Today, I did some painting!

These are the plastic Flayed Ones, and though I recall the kit being a bit of a pain to assemble they painted up easily and nicely

As always, a mix of skin tones and colours, because humans don't just come in one shade, and it makes the squad look a little more ragged and chaotic, suiting the violent and brutal nature of the unit

The Warriors - all 24 of them - had previously been got to a point where half had had their green glow applied and half hadn't. Today's work got them to this point:

All that I need to do now is to paint the black bits - the wires and gun casings - then gloss varnish the green areas, and base them. Should be able to crack through that tomorrow or maybe by the end of the weekend. 

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 13
2024: 172 (313)

Living Metal And Sinister Green Glowing Things

Yes, it's the Necrons! I have finished the Wraiths and Heavy Destroyer, which - predictably - didn't take very long. A quick highlight of the blue armour plates, a few details here and there, some Tesseract Glow and gloss varnish, and Bob's your relative:

The Gauss destroyer or whatever it's called ended up being black because I checked how I'd painted the Gauss blasters on the Warriors I did a few years ago. I don't think they got theirs highlighted, but this is quite a big model so I think benefits from it, and it also differentiates the piping a bit too

I really like the sort of brushed metal effect on the body of the machine

I particularly like the little mini-scarab you can see on top of the rock on the top left of the base here

The funky Necron glyphs on the side probably do actually mean something, but I have no idea what

Without checking my army list, I think I need another two of these to complete the unit, but they are fieldable on their own so that does mean I have a Heavy Support choice for the army completed now. The Wraiths, which look very different to the 3rd Edition ones, are a completed unit entry as they came in sizes of 1-3 per unit:

I actually much prefer these to the 3rd Edition ones - these look really alien and menacing, like hideous mechanical insects, coiled and threatening, ready to strike

I ummed and ahhed over whether or not to paint the little globes-on-sticks in the glowing green, but decided not to in the end. Who knows what they are, these strange ancient alien pieces of technology

I have a bunch more Necrons to paint up, I think - some Flayed Ones, some Immortals, more Warriors - so I might well work on them while I have the Necron mojo in my system. Those poor Royalist Quar are going to be waiting a while, it seems.

Painting Points:
Today: 8
This Week: 8
2024: 167 (308)

Beeping And Booping

Not much actual painting done today but because the Necrons paint quite quickly, I've actually got to a point where I think a few more details and a bit of gloss varnish will have these finished soon:

My Tesseract Glow technical had completely separated but the judicious application of a long matchstick as a stirrer got it to a usable point again. 

In other hobby nonsense today I found an interesting website that allows you to create your own Battlemechs and generates Alpha Strike Data Cards too, although it is missing a few bits - I can't seem to add AWS, ECM, or similar stuff to 'mechs for some reason. Anyway it is still handy, and I used it to generate an Alpha Strike card for my preferred homebrew Firestarter version, the FS9-HM (M here standing for MacLeod's Light Horse, my mercenary company):

This version takes the standard FS9-H and removes all the weapons, replacing them with six Small Lasers and as much armour as will fit on the chassis. The end result is a machine that sacrifices its Medium range damage output of 1 for a doubled Short range output of 4, has one more armour point, and costs 1 more point to buy. I've got some 3d print files that I've asked my friend R (who is looking after my 3d printer for me) to print when she can. So that'll probably be a 2025 project.

And that was my day in silly toy soldiers!