Heading To The UK

While pondering the insanity of finding out that I am UK bound next week, I thought, why not invite all those 40k author-celebrities a chance to meet me? I mean seriously, they probably don't have anything better to do right. I'm not picky, I mean I'm willing to meet just about anyone. I started the game when the game started, so there is some nice symmetry there.  So who wants to throw down some dice overseas, or down a few pints discussing our favorite hobby?

Bueller

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Bueller

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Original Rhino, Predator, And Vindicator Refurb : Before Shots

I haven't posted not because I haven't been working, or wanting to post, but because I bit off more than I can chew! Despite an accurate assessment from Ron, I couldn't resist dunking my old Iron Scythe armor in two tubs of simple green. Three rhinos, a predator, and a vindicator will be added to the pre-heresy heavy Ultramarines force I've always wanted(always is relative here...I am a collector after all!). I think these tanks will look spectacular next to a FW Proteus Land Raider, maybe a few bikes and a load of space marines ready kick ass and take names. It was really cool seeing a nice paint job on an old kit. I've had these since they were released, so these things have been lingering near my painting desk for a very long time.

Anyone know when this kit came out? Maybe it is the whole 25 years of 40k, but I am considering entering this new force in armies on parade instead of my minty Necrons. The neurons are certainly better painted, but nostalgia has its place as well.

Newt Gingrich Is A Space Marine?!

There is a CNN article where the author states several flamboyant things about Newt Gingrich, the Republican Presidential candidate tar pitting Mitt Romney. The reporter, Timothy Stanley, writes that Newt is "a visionary, a historian, the inventor of supply side economics, a space marine a latter-day Casanova."

This made me smile while having my morning coffee here in overcast DC. New Gingrich is a Space Marine. Who knew?

Original Rhino Re-Paint

For some time I have been collecting everything Ultramarines, slowly building my stock until I am ready to begin painting my new 'vanilla' army. I knew when I began collecting that I had to come up with a different style for my ultra-marines. I want them to look as cool as I think they are story-wise. So with drive to start a new army slowly building, I decided to test paint a tank to see if my new recipe for blue would work. I did not feel like building a tank specifically for the task, so I reached back to one of my original space marine Rhinos, stripped it of paint, and gave it the blue treatment.

The Rhino is currently sitting on my desk exactly as it is in the photos. The base coat is done, and a light wash of dev mud has been applied, finishing off the pre-weathered chassis. Two thing stand out when I look at the model.

1. How do people paint ultramarines? I started with a black/enchanted mix followed by enchanted, followed by Ultramarines blue. I think I am close to a recipe that works, but I am just not sure. Maybe a light wash of Badab black at the end?

2. Is it possible that old rhinos can look good again? I think regardless of the color decision, I am going to push this Rhino forward. I can always strip the paint away again after the experiment. I have a lot of these rhinos, and could easily field 5-6 of them, so long as a few of them end up as donor chassis for damaged pieces. The real question is whether or not they would look good.

My old tanks have many layers of paint on them. Stripping the paint is almost like a mini-course in archaeology. This specific tank was originally purchased to provide transportation for an Imperial Guard platoon, and had IG markings two layers down. In honor of it's previous designation 3rd Rhino F company command, this tank will retain the number three somewhere on it.

So what is the verdict? Is miniature restoration worth it from a hobby perspective? Should I strip all of the old Iron Scythe Space Marine tanks and repurpose them?

Daemons So Far..

I completed a squad of 10 pink horrors, adding them to the 5 metal ones I had already painted years ago. since the models were so different I decided to paint them purplish to match the greater deamon. This way I have pink and blue horrors.  I'll try to get better photos of these, as the pink horror models are really quite nice. The Chaos Spawn models are a different story altogether....

I hated painting the chaos spawn. In every way I feel like I should love the models.

Pro-Spawn

• They are Spawn!
• They have spikes
• They are fallen-fallen (sort of like twice baked potatoes)

Con-Spawn

• The models are ugly
• The joints between limbs do not fit properly
• Details are poorly sculpted
• They are huge, which amplifies the detail problems
• There are really hard to paint because there are few distinct details. 

So how would I fix spawn? I'd put broken bits of space marine armor all around them, hanging off their tortured frames. If there were more to distinct areas to paint it would be easier to give the impression that these are space marines who failed the emperor, failed their legions, and then failed their chaos patrons. They are thrice damned! Thrice-baked potato, does that work?

Building A Better Abbadon

Abbadon is one of the original Sons of Horus/ Lunar Wolves, however the highly detailed finecast model just does not match his age or awesomeness. What the fin cast model does provide is an easy to dissect base from which to build a better Abbadon.

This conversion is not perfect, but the flaws are easily hidden with the terminator chaos lords cloak. Basically I took the shoulders and torso of the finecast model and married it to the plastic chaos terminator lords legs. The goal was to make it look good from the front. The back could be easily hidden with a cloak, which would make the model look more imposing in any case. After the body had its new legs, I used plastic terminator arm pieces to extend the arms holding the weapons. The original Abbadon model has weird stumpy arms, but huge hands. This turns out to be a benefit, because the forearm of the finecast model ends up fitting really well onto the plastic arm extensions.

All I need to do now is paint this guy up in black legion colors  and give him an honor guard.

Daemons Based! Army WIP

I've now based 30 models, and am nearing the place where I could actually take these guys to a game store and play a game. Given that this is an accidental army, meant originally to used with the Chaos Marines Codex, I have a weird assortment of units. I think I can pull together the following list:

1 Greater Daemon 250
x15 blood letters 280 (plus all upgrades)
x15 blood letters 280 (plus all upgrades)
x5 Plague Bearers 75
x5 Pink Horrors 85
Daemon Prince 80
Soul Grinder (If I paint it) 160

This is about 1210 points, so I am a little shy of a 1500 point game. I could paint up another 10 Pink Horrors in addition to the Soul Grinder. Do people play at 1k? Maybe I should just try a small game.  Ultimately I just want to see some Daemons on the table. At the bogey man of the 40k universe, I think it would be really cool to see some marines or guard assaulted by daemonic forces. That fits my movie/fluff based vision for what a game should look like. Winning a game played this way does not even matter so long as really cool stuff happens.

Oh My God, It's Full Of Daemons!

The Daemon army progresses! With a major milestone accomplished at work, and Moby songs in my head, I sat down and pushed through all of the tooth/hoof/blade portions of the Bloodletters. I was worried about the green blades, but after getting more of them completed and the first eight based, I am pretty pleased. I don't think I have ever painted this fast.  The messy job of casting more bases has started, and I have little doubts that the army will be done by this weekend. I picked up one of those half robotic spider/ half deamon mutant vehicles things to add to the army, and some older models to rebase, and I think I am good to go. I was supposed to be making a slight diversion into chaos in order to recover from speed painting my minty neurons, but like many slight diversions, it snow balled.

Maybe I'll take a break from my Daemons to paint some squats or something... who knows.