Some Basing Tests

I had a go at painting up two bases today. The first is for my Heresy Ultramarines, and is based on Sidney Roundwood's World War I basing scheme. 

I'm happy with this scheme. I plan to paint the helmet in the colours of the Sons of Horus, the legion of fellow Dark Pact member Craig, and then once that is done to get a bit of grime on the duckboard and helmet. Painting time was incredibly fast, and really easy. 

I also painted up a quick urban base for my Deathwatch Kill Team. These are made of cork for the most part, so the texture naturally drybrushes well. I used some photos of real world examples to guide my colouration and ended up with this.

I did the road marking with a little masking tape and some yellows. I think it is a little luminous, so I am going to try and tone it down a little, but other that that I am quite happy with it. Again, painted up in no time.

I would be curious to know what readers think, so please do comment. Once I have refined the method I will post a tutorial for those who would like to see a step-by-step guide.

Arrival: Some Heresy Toys

This evening the UPS man surprised me at around 18:00 with a box full of Forgeworld goodies. Pride of place goes to this gorgeous tome that weighs a tonne and is more beautiful in person than I could possibly have imagined. It is, simply put, a piece of art, and worth every penny in my opinion. I haven't even read it yet, so I am talking about it purely as an object at this stage.

Also in the box was a whole bunch of accessory pieces, such as shoulder pads, torsos, heads, bolters, weapon packs, and command upgrades. Alongside these bits and pieces were my captain and standard bearer, and five Mk II marines. 

In the next few days I will get on with washing these so that they are ready to be used as I build my forces up. In many ways this is a milestone for my Horus Heresy Ultramarines as I can know write up a list and paint to that rather than sort of aim for something without a sense of cohesion as a whole force. I am rather excited. 

Return to Ultramar

I have been feeling rather under the weather for the last few days, and last night I was restless. I decided to visit my happy place at the hobby desk. However, painting wasn't going to happen, coughing and generally feeling rough precludes pretty much everything except basecoating. Instead I decided to assemble some more Ultramarines for my Horus Heresy Army. 

I must confess that since the release of the Battle for Calth boxed set I have been reticent to "waste" my resin on Line Marines. But at the end of the day, the miniatures I have are essentially just line bods anyway, besides converting a few as nuncio-vox operators or standard bearers. There is little virtue in dwelling on the resin-plastic gap and feeling sad about it all. 

I am in the process of a little bit of a reorganisation with my Ultramarines. Firstly, I have decided that I simply cannot afford to give everyone a moulded shoulder pad, it simply isn't cost effective, so decals it shall be. However, I have decided that Veterans would get moulded shoulder pads, so as to elevate them above their line infantry peers. The results will become clear once units start taking shape. At present I have two veteran squads planned, and two tactical squads. 

There is also the matter of base sizes. Games Workshop's decision to move Marines to 32mm bases might be met with cynicism some, but I think that the aesthetic pay off is worth it. For now I will not rebase my miniatures, I don't think I have the heart to pry them off of their bases just now, but all new built miniatures will use the bigger bases. The added space leaves me with the ability to do a little more with their bases, so I have been thinking of ways in which I can decorate them to look more interesting. 

This leads me to theming. At present I do not own a Heresy sourcebook. At £80, I was keen to wait for the Ultramarine one, and it is now here. In due course this will be purchased, but this pause gives me a moment to consider what I want the shape of the force to be. I have been thinking about it for some time, and my thoughts consistently wander back to a trench war/siege force. I ostensibly want an infantry force, and I think a trench line theme would look pretty awesome. 

To that end I will be using Sidney Roundwood's excellent technique for painting World War I Western Front bases, which I have used with my Polish. I have the corrugated iron and trench boards, I just need some bricks, which I'll get off eBay. The varied colours one the bases should hopefully give them some dimensionality. 

Painting Update

I am currently wrangling with a lighting problem. My trusty hobby lamp's bulb died an untimely death a couple of weeks ago, and despite replacing it with more bulbs, I can't seem to get hold of proper, natural light bulbs. I've had a chat with the chaps at the club, and they have directed me towards something that might work.

The frustrating part is that I had quite a productive weekend, and finished off a fair few bits that were sat upon the painting table. I took photos, but had had to play with them extensively to get the colour to look half true to life.

Here they are:

Two more Ultramarine brothers, this was the only decent photo.

I have completed two more Ultramarines for my 30k army. I still have a fair bit of resin waiting for paint, a lot of which was donated kindly by Mr. T before he absconded to Canada. I am holding back a bit on this front with the promise of Ultramarine specific things next year. But I just can't help but work on these in parallel with whatever else is on the table.

Stacking.

Cover me brother!

Two veterans for my Dark Angel Command Squad. I decided to go for a close combat based unit, and as such power weapons abound. I particularly enjoyed building these fellows. The Apothecary is now almost done, the white being an absolute pain, and then all I have to do is the Champion and the Standard Bearer. I also bought the Dark Vengeance expansion set for Dark Angels, a video review of which is now on YouTube. 

At the moment I am looking to bulk out the Dark Angels with a flyer and some vehicles, so a Vindicator should be appearing soon. Additionally, I am probably going to mount my Command Squad in a Razorback for some protection and a little fire support.

I've also begun working on my Warmachine stuff again. Below are my first Warjack (Crusader?) and High Exemplar Kreoss, who has featured on the blog before. I repainted his Menoth crosses to match the 'Jack, and will probably repaint the metal parts of the 'Jack when I get an opportunity as the bronze isn't quite what I want. A club member has a Minotaur Space Marine army, and his bronze is fantastic. He has kindly shared his recipe with me, which I shall shamelessly steal and use for my own devious ends. 

I've made contact with the Warmachine/Hordes community near my workplace of Milton Keynes, and a kind forum member on the Privateer Press forums (Rangerbob) has offered to teach me how to play. So a warm welcome indeed, and impetus to paint my figures. 

Finally, more Vikings. These were painted an age ago, and are undergoing a bit of upkeep following years of neglect. I have a few more on the desk, and then I need to count how many of these hairy marauders I actually have. I think that Saga might now be within reach.

As a final note, I have actually finished my Soviet Strelkovy Company. I tried taking photos, but the lighting was miserably bad, and at 15mm scale, the figures looked awful. Once I sort out my lighting I will post some pictures. 

Dark Pact: Demetrios Poliorketes

Another faithful Brother has joined the ranks of my Ultramarines to fight Horus' traitors.

Demetrios Poliorketes

"The Besieger", a grizzled trench-fighter and siege engineer. Having lost an eye and both legs holding a landing site against all odds, Poliorketes now rivals his brothers in the Iron Hands Legion in the degree of his bionic augmentation.

Close up of his bionics.

More bionics.

And again.

This now rounds out my initial squad of ten tactical marines, Squad Nikator. I have some fluff about the squad and it's famous "Demetrioi". I'll have to post that some time.

 

+ For the Emperor +

This Week in the Hobby 21/02/2014

Another slow week. Having spent most of it down on the Gold Coast engaged in work, I lacked the opportunity to get much done. I did however, manage to finish off my High Exemplar Kreoss for Warmachine, all he needs now is a little basing to finish him off. Quite happy with the paint job I have achieved, but I find these "restic" miniatures a little strange to paint. I've tried using a roughly Menoth palette, but still allowed them a wide enough berth for the figures to cameo in 40k games as Mechanicum or Ecclesiarchy forces if I want them to.

I am going to get started on some Warjacks for the Protectorate of Menoth next, try and get through those so that I can start learning the game with some human aid, as I am finding it hard to absorb the rules ex libro quite difficult. It isn't so much that the rules are unclear or even that complicated, but frankly, I am reading rules that I haven't had a chance to apply in a situation, it lacks tangibility.

Brother Crixus, ready for action.

The Dark Pact isn't forgotten! I also got another 30k Ultramarine done, Brother Crixus who will join Sergeant Demetrios of Orpheus to take the fight to Horus's lapdogs. Next up on the Ultramarine queue is Demetrios Poliorketes, who will be revealed once ready for the camera. And apologies for the poor quality of the above photos, I took them at the painting desk with my iPad camera. Once the last of the three "Demetrioi" is complete I'll do some better shots of them. Here are some more pictures of Crixus.

For those who don't keep track of such things or simply aren't aware of them, do yourselves a favour and have a look at the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge forum. I am currently engaged in the HPC as a means of getting my Dark Angels done, but the real pleasure is the community spirit and seeing other people work and reach their goals. Furthermore, there is some exceptional talent on the forums, and it is inspiring. For my next trick, I will be painting up three more Tactical Marines who will join Squad Raphael. The box of three arrived at Irresistible Force this week, and I picked them up this morning. Hopefully by Sunday night they will be complete.

Believe it or not but Games Workshop make a little box of three Space Marine. The sprue inside looks like this and provides one with a little boost to increase numbers, which I need since I foolishly did three tester marines from the Dark Vengeance set. What a clown. 

Not much by way of customisability but they'll do the trick to get my squad up to ten men. The scouts I won on eBay also arrived this week, there are six in close combat configuration. I am planning on doing a squad of five for the HPC which I may add to as it progresses. Furthermore, I also bought some things off a chap on the http://www.wargamerau.com/ forum, which he sent out today, I expect they will get here mid next week. I got a Command Squad, Tactical Squad and 15 Ultramarine shoulder pads for $65 Australian, so around £30, including postage. What a deal! So the Dark Angels are starting to shape up nicely. 

It is just too hot to paint today. The humidity is simply killing us all, so the pool is the only safe place left to us. Hoopefully I can basecoat tonight when it is cooler. 

Plans for 2014, Australia

So I am currently on an aeroplane over Iraq, wending my way at several thousand feet towards Dubai. After a short stop H and I will head off across the Indian Ocean to Brisbane, Australia and our new life. Packing was hard. Ten years of living in the UK has meant a natural accrual of goods, the detritus of life, being a magpie gamer my quantity of "stuff" is next-level. So a hard decision lay ahead, I had one suitcase, and only 30kg to pack my life into, and of course some of my allowance was shanghaied by Lady Tottington for her various items for beautifaction. In the end I came away with two small, flat boxes of around 20cm by 15cm. Inside these little boxes is a precious cargo...

The pictures above are the lot. I chose to take the Dark Angels portion of the Dark Vengeance boxed set, with a snazzy limited edition Chaplain and four terminators from the Assault on Black Reach boxed set. I have made a start on painting some of them already, the figures are really pleasing and there is the making of something greater amongst the elements I already have. In addition I also packed my Forgeworld things for the Dark Pact. There are two unfinished Mk. III Tactical Marines, and the parts for another three. Amongst the bits are two more Mk. V Marines, and my resin bits, the command upgrade, Iron Hands bionics, Deathwatch Kill Team upgrade kit, and the Mk. IV character upgrade set.

I also thought I would take something totally wild, so I packed my Corporation Dreadball team which remains unpainted. The central idea being that living nomadically leads towards skirmish games/board games. I did toy with the idea of bringing a Deadzone faction, but frankly assembling the figures nearly gave me an aneurysm, so I thought better of it. Instead, I might look into starting Malifaux. I've been listening to the Malifools podcast for months, ostensibly for the bants. Mike Marshall et al are always entertaining, sometimes insightful and always a delight. I especially enjoyed the Malinoobs segment and their guest stars over the last few months. Anyway, I suppose that ultimately it boils down to what community exists in the area we are in, but certainly the proliferation of plastic boxed sets makes Malifaux a good choice being both small and lightweight. Furthermore, with the higher cost of gaming in Australia something with a lower model buy in (a boxed set is enough to get started) is very much appealing. 

So these are my thoughts as we begin our descent into Dubai. It is 0800 local time, the sun is already baking the land below us, and we have another day's flying ahead of us. I'll be listening to more Malifools, some Independent Characters and generally be mulling over what 2014 could hold in store for me on the tabletop front.

Carry on Citizens. 

Painted Figure Showcase for December/January

As I draw dangerously near to my departure date for Australia, I have been hastily trying to get a bunch of near finished stuff on my desk completed. Below is, for your delectation, gentle readers, some eye candy of what I have been up to.

First up, we have Dark Pact 30k Ultramarines. There are two more on my desk to make the first squad up to ten. The lighting outside made these guys look slightly lighter than they really are, still I think you get a sense of the figures. These Mk V power armoured marines actually look pretty good all painted up.

Left to right: Aurelian, Mox Viridis and Cain the Younger.

I also finished my Imperial Officer of the Fleet. Lord Admiral Marcus Erasmus, Hammer of the Eastern Fringe, declared "Soter" (Saviour) by the High Oligarch of Venda, approved by the Cardinals Major and the Volksraad of the same system. I will write more about him in a separate post. My previously published Armsmen are his bodyguard for planetside occasions.

I have also finished a few Orks. The colour scheme is all intimately linked to my Imperial Guard who hail from Venda Prime. I tried doing hazard stripes, and I think with practice I will get the technique down. They aren't a high priority asset for painting, but Imperials always need an opponent. 

 Finally, I have been busy working on the Dark Angels from the Dark Vengeance boxed. These figures painted up a treat and I was very happy with my Deathwing armour. The lighting in these shots doesn't really show the figures as they really look, as I said the colours seem a bit washed out in the photographs. I have done the Tactical Marines with 5th Company Markings.

So, my goal for the end of the weekend is to finish a battalion of French Legere in 28mm and to base my painted Fire & Fury Confederates (15mm). And on Sunday, I shall have to decide what gets to come with me to Australia.

+ The Emperor Protects +