Daemon Prince of Tzeentch!

The Demon army is assembled!  Whew!  I'm really looking forward to painting these models.  There will be so much variety and new things to try.  First I have to knock out a little commission work though.  A couple of days ago I started on 2 Ork Weirdboyz.  When they are finished, I need to paint Lysander of the Imperial Fists and some tactical marines to go along with him.  THEN I will get to shift my main focus to my Demons.....soon, very soon!  I should have some fresh paint jobs to show off soon though....and hopefully I can squeeze in a how-to article for painting something.  In the mean time, here's my Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.

I'm not to sure about the mohawk.  It's not what I originally intended; but it's how it ended up.  I may leave it in homage to the dreaded "Red Era" of Games Workshop when I first got involved with their games.  I'm quite pleased with the rest of the model and how the sculpting/conversion work turned out.  I'm looking forward to lots of color fades on him and painting some magical fireball goodness!

A little wych fire on the head of his staff.   I may do a little more work on the staff; filling it in some so it will look like a heavily carved wooden staff.  I have a little time to decide.

I thought about picking up some feathered wings to bring him more in line with the Lord of Change but didn't want to spend any more money on the army at this point.  I DID want to play up the "change" aspect of Tzeentch so I sculpted a few feathers on each wing; both inside and out.  You can also get a pretty good look at the trailing "tail" of the fireball he is throwing.  I was trying to add some motion to the model.  Not sure I pulled that off, but I'm happy with how it looks.  Comments?

Skulltaker....and Rant in GW Major

So, finally getting back to the blog.  I actually tried a few days ago, and Blogger was having issues and wouldn't save anything.  It kept telling me I had logged out.  I decided that someone didn't want me to post that day, so here I am, trying again. 

First, I need to get something off my chest.  Sometimes (more and more often) Games Workshop really irritates me!  The latest reason has to do with coverage from the various Games Day events around the world.  Last week, via a post by Mathieu Fontaine (winner of many, many Golden Demon trophies) on Facebook, I found out that there were a few photos from Games Day France (specifically Golden Demon winners) up on GW's website.  This was about 4 days after GD France.  North America Games Day was the end of July and there's still no photos up from it!  Three months!  Where is the coverage from the other Games Days?  Games Workshop, you make some really great games.  You also make some really good miniatures (don't get cocky, there's LOTS of other awesome miniatures these days.)  The way you interact with your customers/fans; not so good.  You're getting more and more competition all the time GW: better watch out, people are getting tired of dealing with you. 

Now that I've vented a little......here's some pictures of my Skulltaker-on-a-Juggernaught conversion!  I've seen a few of these over the years, and they never look right.  Always, Skulltaker is just stuck on the back of a Jugger and is balancing there like he's a circus act.  I gave him reigns to hold on to; which meant I had to swap his sword from one hand to the other.  It went smoother than I was afraid of, with only a little putty work to finish him off.  What do you think?

 I cut away the flaming skull, and then repositioned his hand so he could be holding the sword.  Swapping the sword; easy.  Repositioning the hand; tricky.  I didn't want to try sculpting an entire hand, so I carved away until I had just the hand with a cylinder shape in it that would look like the sword hilt.  I then cut the fingers at a knuckle joint and bent the hand around the "hilt."  Rebuilding the joint with intact fingers on each side of the gap wasn't too tough.

 

  Here, I had to cut the hand free from the arm so I could reposition it....without damaging his armor!  I then pinned the hand to the arm, and built a new wrist from Green Stuff.  Some plastic chains from the Skullcrusher kit finished off the look.  I'm pretty pleased with the overall look.  This was a pretty fun conversion to do.  This was my first conversion using a Finecast model.  Finecast definitely has some problems, but this project was much easier to pull off with resin as opposed to metal.  Comments?

Daemon Assembly Nearing Completion.....

Like the title says, I'm almost done with the assembling stage of the Chaos Daemon army for 40K.  Yes, I'm slow at assembling models.  I want them to look good when I'm done so I'm careful about poses and getting the mold lines cleaned good.  I'm also not sure which I dislike more: assembling and cleaning models, or base coating them?  Both suck.  I'm down to the last 4 models for the 2K list I'm play testing.  After a game Monday night, I'm 0/1 at 2000 points, and 1/1 overall with the Daemons.  I'll play a few more games first, but I'm not sure how much I'll like Skulltaker and the Bloodcrushers.  They're just seem to be SO slow!  I probably just need to figure out how to use them.  Brand new army and all that.  Like I said; play testing.  As far as assembly goes, I need to fill gaps on Be'Lakor (Slaanesh Daemon Prince), fill gaps on the one metal Bloodcrusher I have built, and finish a couple conversions.  Skulltaker is the first.  He's mounted on a Juggernaught, but I'm going to swap his sword into his left hand so I can put reigns (made of chain) in his right hand.  I think that will look pretty good.  The last model will take the most work.  I'm making a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch out of the plastic DP kit.  I've got lots of ideas on this one, but not sure exactly what all will make the final cut and be a part of the model.  You'll just have to wait for pictures of the finished product....hopefully within the next couple of weeks.  Wait For It!

Here's a couple photos of my conversion for The Masque.  I have a serious dislike of the GW model.  I bought the Lelith Hesperax model the week it came out with this conversion in mind.  I finally got around to it!  Its a pretty simple conversion.  I gave her one Daemonette claw.  The other arm is stock other than being lengthened slightly.  The one foot has been sculpted over to make it look daemonic.  Lastly I gave her a couple of small horns....which didn't photograph well.  They look better in person, I swear!  Hope you like it!

You can also see she has a stacked laminate base like I wrote about back in September.  She's pinned and glued to the laminate base, and the laminate base has a magnet epoxied into the bottom.  The plastic base has a scrap of sheet metal glued to it; she's easily swappable to a square Warhammer Fantasy base when the time comes.  What do you think of her?

Flamers are Gross!

So, I played my first game with Chaos Daemons last night.  The only models I had on the table that were painted were my Silver Demon winning Plaguebearers.  They did exactly what they were supposed to do; grabbed the objective (the Relic) and walked off with it while the rest of the army beat faces in.  It was a 1500 point game vs. a fairly generic Blood Angels list that my buddy Kirk has been experimenting with.  We quickly arrived at the same conclusion: Flamers are disgustingly, grossly, powerful!  I'd consider buying more and running multiple units but I really hate spam lists like that. 

To give you an idea of how powerful they are, here's the breakdown.  In 2 turns my 6 flamers (138 points) killed 10 assault marines, a priest, (I think) 10 Death Company, a Chaplain, and 2 Devastator Marines.  I don't have an exact points total, but Kirk said it was over 500 points.  In between killing the majority of that, and killing the Devastators the unit soaked up 100% of the remaining firepower of Kirk's army which left 1 model with 1 wound remaining.  Now, in all fairness, the Flamers were helped out by The Masque and her shooting Pavane of Slaanesh 3 times per turn which let me clump up the Death Company for maximum template coverage.  So, you factor her cost in, and 238 points killed one third of Kirk's army in 2 turns!  Yikes!  The Masque was Pavaning other units during this time too in order to shorten the Bloodletter's charge range.  In all fairness, I believe Kirk moved to charge the Flamers with his Assault squad to see if they are as scary as we had read.  They are.  Don't charge them!  Shoot them.  A lot. 

It was a fun first game with Daemons.  Both Kirk and I learned a ton about Daemons in 6th Edition.  I'm sure the next time we play, the Flamers will be a high priority target for his shooting.  I'll need to be careful with their deployment and keep them screened to get them in close enough.  I'll also have to choose their target well to get good use of them; I don't expect to get 2 turns of shooting out of them from now on unless the dice REALLY favor me!  Not likely!

Assembly is moving forward.  I'm almost done with all of the big annoying models.  The worst thing I have to deal with is finishing the assembly on the pewter (previous edition) daemonettes, and a bunch of mold line cleaning.  Then, on to painting!  Stay tuned!

Tyranid Defense Lines!

So, just a quick update for now.  I'm building Daemons as fast as I can which is not very.  This whole job thing really drags down the important stuff sometimes!  The bills are getting paid though so I guess that's good.  I'm getting close to having 1500 points ready to start playing which I'm looking forward to.  More on that hopefully in the next post.  For now, I've got a couple photos from my buddy Chris from his blog Lordokaos.  The photos are of a Tyranid (Aegis) defense line.  He recently painted up a bunch of these pieces for his bugs now that you can buy a defense line in any game.  I originally sculpted these pieces a couple of years ago when Planetstrike dropped.  I thought it would be cool to have actual Tyranid scenery when playing as the defender in games of Planetstrike.  I sculpted the original, and then made a mold and cast up a bunch of them.  Chris wanted some once he saw them so I traded him a bunch for some miniatures.  What do you think?

 I based the original sculpts on a single Aegis line piece for size.  These are a tiny bit wider, but don't provide as much actual coverage due to the shape.  They look good on the table so I think its a good trade off.

With a couple of models for scale.  Careful with your firing angles on that Carnifex; don't give him the better cover save!  The marine is from Chris' own chapter.

Incidentally, check out lordokaos to see Chris' long term project; 40K of 40K.  He's working on getting 20,000 points painted of two separate forces to be able to play a 40,000 point game of 40K!  The two forces are Tyranids, and Imperials.  The Imperials include Space Marines, Imperial Guard, and Titans.  He's well on his way too!  I believe he's around 16,000 for Tyranids, and I think he's just over 10,000 for Imperials.  Lots of people have big armies, but how many people do you know with armies that big that are fully (and well) painted?

Progress! Slow But Steady.

Well my Daemons are starting to materialize out of the warp!  I now have the Bloodthirster, 4 Fiends of Slaanesh, 6 Flamers, and 5 (old-school metal) screamers assembled.  All of these models have been based so they can quickly and easily be swapped from round to square bases.  I'm really feeling the draw to get some paint on some of these models too!  I also have all of the pieces prepped to assemble a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (Be' Lakor The Dark Master.)  I think that model will rock for Slaanesh!

Not much else in the works currently.  More Daemon assembly in the near future.  Here's the photo I promised last post though.  This was the first stacked laminate base I ever made.  Ignore the paint job; it was the best I could do about 4 years ago.  I'm still pretty fond of the flamey writing on the cloak though!

Making stacked Laminate Bases

Sorry for the length between posts.  Real life and all that.  But, the bills are getting paid, and now I have time to post an update!  I haven't gotten much done since I posted last.  My desk is still in a shambles as you can see below.  No painting done, minis in various states of assembly, new paint to get transferred into dropper-style bottles.  Its horrific.

I've started making some progress though.   I'm getting some assembly and green stuff work done on my Chaos Daemons with the goal of getting 2000 points assembled for 40K so I can start learning the army.  I will then move forward with painting consignment work, and start actually painting said Daemons.  The big slow down has been figuring out what to do with bases for the larger models since I want to use the army for both 40K and Fantasy.  Rank and file infantry is easy: put them on round bases, and make movement trays that hold the round bases.  Something kinda like the War of The Ring trays GW has out but cheaper.  Single model units, and skirmishers are another story.  Here's what I'm doing so far.....until I figure out something faster anyway!

This is the base I'm working on for a Bloodthirster.  I've made a base from counter top laminate (Formica, etc.)  I snap a few pieces up to roughly the correct size with pliers, and then glue them all together into a stack.  I then took my Dremel and routed out an area to epoxy in a rare earth magnet.  I epoxied a scrap of sheet metal I'd cut to size onto a stack of the old thin style 60mm round GW bases.  I use epoxy for this type work because superglue is too brittle when cured and I've had it break a number of times when magnets were involved.  The stacked laminate base is sized so it will also fit the correct 50mm square base the Bloodthirster needs in Warhammer Fantasy.  

Where do I get counter top laminate you ask?  Well, I actually have some scraps of it left over from the last remodeling project here at la casa de Bob.  If you're not so fortunate, then I have 2 suggestions.  First, contact a local cabinet maker and ask for some scraps and/or broken pieces too small for their use.  Unless yesterday was garbage day they'll let you grab some out of the trash.  If that doesn't work, go to your local DIY store.  The closest one to me happens to be Home Depot.  Lowe's works too, as will anyplace that sells kitchen cabinetry.  Wander through the kitchen showcase area and you'll see little 2 inch by 3 inch color samples of laminate.  They are free.  Grab a couple big hands full and go build some bases.  A note of caution: be careful of wandering through the new kitchen area of the store with your significant other.  You may end up with new kitchen cabinets instead of that new toy from Forge World!

 

In the past when making bases like this I've used green stuff to fill in gaps to make the base look like something other than a stack of thin scraps.  I'd read in a WIP post over on Coolminiornot.com about using this Heavy Carvable Modelling Paste  to build up scenic bases so I'm giving it a try.  Check the clearance section at the hobby store!  This bottle had been dropped or something and the lid had come off, making a mess.  I checked it in the store, and the material inside was still good, and 95%+ of it was still there.  I bought it for the discount you can see, and then cleaned the cured paste from the cap threads to make sure the lid seals properly.  I very large container of modelling paste for a much better price!  I just scoop the paste out with a sculpting tool and smear it into the edge of the base, filling in the gaps.  I went back and wiped excess away with my finger.  The last step was to use the corner of a sculpting tool to recess the paste a little bit so it looks more like layered shale/slate type stone when done.

Here's the Bloodthirster on his base!  He still needs some green stuff work where he was pinned together (every joint was pinned.) but you get an idea of what the base will look like.  The best part is he is easily swappable from the round base to a square one when I need to!  The only down side to making bases this way is that it is slow.  I'll keep plugging along though while I research faster ways of getting a similar result.  I've got photos on another computer that show a painted version of this style of base.  I'll transfer one of those over and include it in the next post so you get a better idea of what this will look like.  Until next time!

Papa Nurgle is Back!

So, this time I'm going to show you some painting done by somebody else.  I have a gaming buddy who likes to get his Nurgle on.  He's a relative newcomer to 40K and painting, but he likes painting and wants his models to look good.  He also doesn't like playing with (or against) unpainted models.  I really respect that in a fellow gamer!  He'd been pretty frustrated with his painting results.  Combine that with him being crazy busy at work and he had pretty much dropped off the local gaming map.  His motivation had not been helped by his wife being an art major; she can sit down and paint a model in much less time and it looks really good.  Yeah, frustrated would be a good adjective to describe him. 

When he told me he'd picked up a box of the new Plaguebeareres, I told him to meet me and I'd demonstrate the basic techniques I used to paint my unit of Nurgle goodness.  Here's the result:

Yes, I know the bases aren't done yet.  He didn't want me to take them and photograph them yet, but I wanted to show you that it CAN be done!  We spent about a half an hour, or maybe 45 minutes total over two sessions.  I painted one of these models, and James worked on another.  He went home and knocked out the rest.  Win yourself a genuine, original, mint condition, out of print No-Prize if you can tell me which model I painted out of this group.  Yes, a relatively inexperienced painter can get this kind of result with the right methods.  FYI, I'll bring them back for more photos once he has the bases done!

After painting these models, my buddy's enthusiasm for painting has been rekindled.  He's done a bunch of painting in the past couple of weeks, and he's started playing again too!  He's looking ahead to how he might expand his army, and is even talking about what army he might start once he has his Nurgle stuff painted.  He's also making noise about making the trip to The Alamo 40K GT next spring with me.  Say's he wants to give me a run for my money for best painted.  I say, "Bring it on!"

Silver Demon Winning Plaguebearers!

I should have gotten this posted last week, but I didn't.  Just didn't get enough other stuff done so I could get to it.  This post is the last of the "background" posts.  After this, we're all caught up with past work, and can move forward with new projects and/or commission work.

In my last offering, you saw my Ultramarines army that was entered in Armies On Parade at Games Day in Chicago this year.  Entering AoP was an afterthought.  My main reason for attending Games Day this year was to enter the Golden Demon painting competition.  Last year, entering Golden Demon was an afterthought and I didn't make the first cut.  Disheartening, but I'd read offerings from better painters than I who were shut out in their first attempt as well.  This year I had many entries planned, but as so often happens, time got the better of me.  I only got 1 of my serious offerings finished;  A unit of 20 Plaguebearers which will ultimately be used in my Daemons of Chaos armies (I want Daemons so I can use the minis in both 40K AND Fantasy.)  I'll start the photos off with a unit I painted as part of a trade, which gave me the idea to paint Plaguebearers for Golden Demon based on how fast I was able to get the basic paint jobs done.

'Ere we go!

Here's 4 of the 5 models I painted for the trade.  I knocked these out in one evening and they look really good on the table.  Their owner is quite happy with them.  I figured this basic technique could be built upon to paint an entry for Golden Demon.  Would you be happy with models that look like this if you only had a half hour or so into each one?

Here's the next evolution of the technique!  Push the contrast a lot, and decide on a really bright, eye-catching spot color; check!  Use all of the composition knowledge I gained from Mathieu Fontaine's Master Painting Class a couple of years ago to try to keep the judges' attention on my entry; check!  Try out brand new techniques like using weathering powders to rust the weapons; check!  Try ground glass product (from Secret Weapon Miniatures) to make the snow sparkle on the bases: check!  Nurgle up the command group by adding color coordinated ooze to them; check!  Up the Nurgle factor by making nasty yellow and brown patches of snow; Check!  Result: my first Demon trophy!

A little more table level view.

The unit from the back

Command group from the front.

Command group from the back.

A few random models.

The same batch from the back.

A few more random models for variety.

Rear view of the same group.

The whole gang partying in front of the trophy!

Obviously, I'm pretty proud of winning the trophy.  More important though is the validation of work I've done (in collaboration with a friend) over the past few years to build a set of skills that let me paint good looking models fast.  Ultra high end painters like Todd Swanson (won his 5th Slayer Sword this year in Chicago) put hundreds (plural) of hours into 1 single model.  I can't do that.  I paint armies and play the games.  I need painted models on the table, and I want them to look good.  This entry (20 models) was painted over the course of 2 weeks.  I did not keep close track of my per model time, but I know its well under 3 hours per model.  In truth, I'd be really surprised if it was over 2.5 hours per model.  I normally try to keep my per model time under 1 hour per model.  Two and a half hours per model to win a Silver?  I'm down with that.

So why do I bring up the painting time?  To brag?  Not really, although I admit it will look that way.  My goal is to get people to realize that they can have nice looking models and great looking armies without having to spend hours and hours to get each model ready for the table.  A few basic techniques and you have an awesome army instead of the gray tide.  A few more expansion techniques and a relatively small additional investment in time, and you too could take a shot at the Golden Demon.  Believe it!

Ultramarines!

So, a slightly longer than hoped for delay before this post.  I'm not complaining though!  Work over the past few weeks has been a little bit slower than I would prefer, and this week was busier again.  It's always nice to be able to pay the bills!  This is going to be another photo heavy post, with lots of photos of my most recent army, my Ultramarines.  The Smurfs seem to be a very polarizing army.  People seem to either love them, or hate them.  Me, I used to hate them, but that was due to their color scheme (shuddering at the thought of the second edition uber-bright paint jobs!)  Since their paint job was updated I'm pretty ambivalent toward them.  Why go to the time and effort to build an army I'm ambivalent toward?  I decided years ago that "some day" I would build an Ultramarines army so I would have a vanilla marine army that was obviously vanilla marines.  This past spring, while deciding what army to build and paint for the Alamo 40K GT I decided it was time.  I also built the army with primarily infantry models.  I get SO tired of all the mechanized forces on the tables!  Yes, Razorspam is a good, strong list, but be different!  Show some originality!  As I was building models, I also decided to clean out my bitz box some.  I built 1 full tactical squad from just bitz!  With the help of a friend (a backpack or 2 and a couple of arms if I remember correctly) I also fleshed out 1 devastator squad and built a second.  Toward the end, seriously scrounging through the box, I built a Vanguard Veteran squad too!

A few years ago, I bought a couple of cans of Ultramarines Blue spray paint from some friend's hobby store.  I'd nursed those cans along, shaking them up every couple of months to nurture them until I was ready to paint blue.  The big day came, and after 1 short burst, the first can clogged up!  Nothing I tried got it working again.  I tried the second can: same thing!  I knew I didn't have time to base coat all of those models by hand and still get them done in time for the Alamo in May (this was about mid February.)  Out came the previously unused airbrush.  I re-read all of the articles I had downloaded, and went to work familiarizing myself with this new tool.  After a couple of weeks practicing with ink on paper I figured it was time to bite the bullet and shoot some paint.  Long story short, I sprayed the base coat, and a couple of highlights on over 100 models in about 5 hours.  That time included cleaning the airbrush in between each color for practice doing it.  With all of the time I saved NOT base coating with a brush, I was able to spend more time on detail.  I've received many compliments on these models, and they helped take me to Games Day again this year. I still have 3 or 4 units to paint, but well over half of the army is done.  I'll probably try to finish them off, and be done painting Smurfs by the end of the year; see how it goes.  Here's the boys in blue:

At Games Day!  "Primus Inter Pares," "First Among Equals."  Ultramarines.  A received what I consider to be a HUGE compliment on this army while at Games Day.  I was speaking to Phil Kelly, Games Designer, and having him autograph my Space Wolves Codex.  I mentioned that in addition to Golden Demon, I had an army in Armies on Parade again this year.  He asked which one.  I told him, "The Ultramarines display with all of the columns."  His eyes got big, and he stood up saying he wanted to shake my hand.  He told me the display was , "Spot on. You totally nailed the Ultramarines with that display."  He asked what the Latin on the display meant.  I told him, and he got a grin on his face and said, "Nice!"  That brief exchange made my day!  Little did I know the day would get even better that afternoon! Thanks for the compliment Phil, you have no idea how much it means to me!

"Dirty Steve" formerly of White Dwarf photographing my display.  Youngsters tripping across this won't remember Dirty Steve, but us Old Timers do!  It was a pleasure to meet him in person and chat while he was taking these photos!

The army as it was when I made the trip to San Antonio for the Alamo 40K GT.  The vast majority of what is on the display was painted in a 3 week binge.  The Inquisitorial Drop Pod, and the black (Deathwatch) marines in the foreground are Sternguard Veterans.  I've always liked the Deathwatch, and when I saw the Sternguard rules in Codex Space Marines I KNEW that I would have a unit painted as Deathwatch.

Tactical marines.  Yep, there are 3 full squads of them and the rest look just like these! Well, different squad markings.

The 3 tactical squad sergeants; with banners color coded to their squads.....yeah, its a sickness.

A squad of Devastators ready to provide covering fire!

 
A couple terminators with their sergeant.  Forge World shoulder pads.

Assault Termies this time.  FW pads again.

The drop pod; Inquisition icons on all doors!

Opened up.  Object source lighting inside.  Forge World etched brass above each doorway, and on the floor in each doorway....did I mention its a sickness?

Some of the Deathwatch/Sternguard.  There are 10 total, 11 if you count their Librarian.  Of the 11, 6 of the chapter symbol shoulder pads are ones I sculpted myself.  The muzzle blast bits came from a friend of mine.  Yep, more brass etch on each of their backpacks.  I HAD to help designate them as Inquisition didn't I?  Well, DIDN'T I?

Some assault marines, including a captain with jump pack.

Another view of the captain.  You can get a pretty good look at the "cross hatch" style highlights I used extensively on these models.  Its an artistic technique I've seen in graphic novels and first saw used on models in a GW store that had been painted by the store manager.  Its fast, and looks pretty good on the table top I think.  I get quite a few comments on the style; all positive so far!

The cloak.  I was really pleased with how this turned out.

The 2 Librarians.  One Ultramarines, and one Exorcists Chapter, seconded to the Deathwatch.  I got lucky with this model because the Chapter symbol for the Exorcists is the same horned skull as the symbol for Librarians.  I changed the skull on his belt buckle to a horned skull so he has a Librarian symbol on him and I was set!  Green stuff is your friend!

Heavybolterbob!  In case you haven't noticed, most of the models are on assault legs to look like they are running forward to get into position.  The Devastators are all kneeling since they are holding position and steadying heavy weapons.  All of the models have free hand on them as well.  Litanies, squad markings, and a Roman numeral 13 on a knee pad for the 13th legion.

Another angle to show the kill markings on his Heavy Bolter!

This Land Raider isn't mine!  I traded the assembly and painting of it for some models.  I knocked it out (along with lots of other stuff) the week leading up to Games Day so I could include it on my AoP display board.  I think it turned out pretty well, and the owner is happy with it!  As an added bonus he can say it was displayed at Games Day!

These on the other hand, ARE mine.  Two of the very few vehicles that will be in this army.

 An old school pewter dreadnought that I was given in pieces!  He had 3 or 4 nasty-thick coats of paint on him and he was missing a foot!  I stripped the paint.  I converted him slightly using feet from a Imperial Guard Sentinel I had in my bitz box.  I pinned him all together and pinned him to the base.  I jazzed him up with some Forge World icons, and here he is.  I probably should have named him, Phoenix.

Last but not least, me with the AoP display, and Jawaballs Ultramarines banner.  This was Jawaballs' 4th straight winning entry in the banner contest at Games Day.  He was gracious enough to let me display my army along side it AND he took the photo.  Thanks Jawa!

Yes, that is a Silver Demon from the Golden Demon painting competition next to the army.  That's for another post!  This one is for the Ultramarines!  I learned an absolute TON while painting this army.  They won me my 2nd straight Best Painted at this year's Alamo 40K GT in May.  I also won 3rd Player's Choice at the Alamo.  They won best painted at a local tournament in Montana in June while I was visiting family and friends.  They won me a second Parade Day qualifier, which paid for my ticket to get into Games Day.  Models from this army have also been featured in the Photo of the Day on Bell of Lost Souls.  If that's how you feel about the Ultramarines, you can hate on them all you want, but I like my Smurfs!

40K 6th Game 2 Plus Space Hulkamanders!

So, I got in my second game of 6th Edition last night.  I lost again, but it was a ridiculously close game with lots of back and forth, and good and bad dice rolls on both sides.  The game would have been a draw except my opponent scored points for First Blood, and killing my Warlord....gotta love advancing into the guns playing Tyranids!  The silly part about the game is my opponent won with 1 wounded model left on the field.  His Nurgle Sorcerer in Terminator armor had 2 wounds left.  Stupid toughness 5 and 2+ save!  I had around 30 models on the table; mostly free spawned termagants.  Fortunately (for him) I had explained to James earlier in the game how he could use "Look Out Sir!" to protect his Sorcerer.  Oh well, it was a fun game.  I still don't like the random charge distance, even though I generally rolled better for it this game than last.  I also didn't need to roll well, because I tried to set myself up so I COULD roll crappy and not have it matter.  In one case I only needed to roll a 2 on 2d6 which was good, because I rolled a 4!  On 2 other occasions I rolled 12 on 2d6 (unheard of!)  Again, it didn't matter because I only needed about 5 inches in both cases.  The jury is still out.

Enough of that!  Here's some painting!  Still showing stuff I have done over the past few months; these models were finished back in March or April.  These models are the Space Hulk Terminator models.  I painted them up as part of a trade with a friend of mine.  I was originally supposed to paint them "just like the ones from the box."  Before I got to them however, my friend decided that since he doesn't often play Space Hulk he'd rather have them painted in his army's colors, green for Salamanders.  He carved all of the Blood Angels iconography off, based them, and then I was off and painting.  He added Forge World shoulder pads wherever he could.   He also included 1 old school pewter model with a bionic leg (he has a "thing" for models with bionics) and converted up a power fist into a narthecium so I could turn the kneeling model into an Apothecary.  He also requested a crazy half, half, and half color scheme on the Apothecary.  After painting 1/2 of these models I took a break, learned how to use my airbrush, and base coated all of the armor on about 100 Ultramarines models in 1 day.  THEN I had to go back and look at Hulkamander squad two!  Did I want to painstakingly build up the highlights by brush, or dig out the airbrush and have them look better in a tenth the time?  No, they needed to match, so I went to work with the brush again.......here's the results:

All of the models

The Librarian and a couple dudes.  I was happy with the armor and the robe on the Librarian.

The commanders and the flamer.  I like how the sword turned out.
 

Another angle

Just an assortment of the models

The last 3 models I finished.  I was pleased with all of them for one reason or another.

Top view!

I'll hopefully have more pics up by the end of the week. It depends on how work goes.  With the next post we'll be getting into my most recent stuff.  I'll be showing my Ultramarines army!  I also started teaching a local guy how to paint last night.  He hadn't touched a brush in about 10 years because he just never got a model he was happy with.  So far he's tickled with the results he's getting.  Hopefully more on that front after next Monday night.  With luck we'll finish the 3 models he's working on.  If not, then it will be the following week.  Either way, watch for updates!