RandomArmyChallenge - xmas 2018 (Part 2 - finished!)

It took some doing, but I've completed the Deathshroud unit I decided to build and paint for the "Random Army Challenge" over on MeWe.

If you recall from my previous post, I  had an old unit of plastic terminators and some Forgeworld Manreaper scythes that I was going to hack together. Some greenstuff would be added to scabby them up a bit.

So I did, and this is what I ended up with:

The Unit

Individually, they look like this:

This:

This:

This:

And finally, this:

These guys are a bodyguard unit for the Death Guard Primarch, Mortarion. So here they are with the boss-man (it's a "counts-as" model rather than the Forgeworld original):

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

RandomArmyChallenge - xmas 2018 (Part 1 - preparation)

This one took me by surprise.

Historically, like a lot of other people, I tended to share a lot of my blog posts over on Google+. With the impending demise of the G+ platform, many of us have migrated over to MeWe.

So, I'm happily burbling along, painting stuff, posting stuff and sharing stuff and I receive a message inviting me to participate in an event on MeWe called the "Random Army Challenge".

The basic idea is you pick something 40K-shaped that you haven't worked on before and are challenged to complete a model, squad, kill team or army before 2018 winds itself up on New Years' Eve.

I got this message a couple of days ago.

No rush, no pressure.

The closest thing to hand was a handful of minis I bought off eBay ages ago when I was getting excited about Horus Heresy and collected a bunch of ancient models to build a Death Guard army out of; I grabbed a load of RTB-01 Space Marines and 1st Edition Rhinos, Predators etc. I figured it'd make a good force and decided to - as far as possible - stick with vintage minis. Death Guard needed a Mortarion. Mortarion needed a Death Shroud unit. So, I bought a bunch of old plastic Terminators and some Forgeworld Death Shroud scythes.

I did a test paintjob on this guy over a year ago, and painted a dreadnought for Dreadtober in 2017. And there the project lay with no further progress. Until now. The terminators are what came to hand when I was invited to join the challenge, so, at the moment they look like this:

As soon as I get a moment, I'll get some texture on the bases and get the spraycan out and then the real work can begin.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 4)

Getting near the end now. In my last post I laid down all the flat base colours. The model still looked pretty ropey at that point (some may argue it still looks ropey now!).

Since last time, some washes have been applied, some drybrushing on the metallic bits, the lenses, buboes and Nurgle's Rot has been painted. A little drybrushing has been done on the base too. It's shaping up and the final form is becoming more obvious.

SO, I need to find somewhere to apply a decal (not easy on this model), apply some weathering and do some more work on the basing (there's a dead Marine down there somewhere, remember) to finish it off.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 3)

It's DreadTober 2017 Week 3 and my aim for this week was to block in the model with colours - no shading or highlighting, just base colours so everything would at least suggest the final look of the model.

So, things definitely don't look too spectacular at this stage, but as I'm really just working out where each colour will fall I'm happy enough.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 2)

It's week 2 of DreadTober 2017 and things are going to schedule.

My collection of bits & pieces has now been assembled into a viable model. The model is intended to represent a dreadnought for the Death Guard Legion from the Horus Heresy so I have added a very few Nurgle-y embellishments (a few buboes on the top, a bit of Nurgle's Rot on the left foot and (just visible from the rear) a suspiciously fleshy-looking gash on the left hip.

As the old Rogue Trader dreadnoughts came with two different lengths of legs (yes - really. You can see one of the taller versions as part of my other Marine army here) and this is the shorter version of the two, I needed to boost it up a bit. Anyway, they were quite a bit smaller than a modern dreadnought model. So, I've used the builders' foam to build a rocky base to give the model a bit of loft.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (Dreadtober 2017 - Part 1)

Woohoo! It's Dreadtober time again!

I had a blast doing this last year and have been looking forward to it again since.

I'm only doing one model this time.

One of my (many) projects at the moment which is just getting underway is a Death Guard army to represent a Heresy-era Legion.

My intention is to (as far as possible) build this legion using models from the Rogue Trader period - First Edition Warhammer 40K stuff.

So, with that aim in mind, I've been digging out all my old RTB01 Marines and picking up bits and bobs from eBay.

For DreadTober, that manifests as a Contemptor Dreadnought, armed with what were (in the day) twin-linked bolters on each arm, but (using current rules) will count as a pair of close-combat fists with a storm bolter on each.

Here is the pile of bits I'm planning to use:

You can probably spot some RTB01 Marine parts and a chunk of
builders' foam in the pile. These will form some basing details.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:
More DreadTober 2017 stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 4

I almost forgot this guy!

I painted him months ago along with three other Warlords and a Reaver. For some reason he got overlooked when I photographed the other Titans. All the other Titans got put away, along with their interchangeable weapons.

When I realised I hadn't photographed this model, he ended up set to one side as all the weapons were put away.

Anyway - I stumbled across him a few days ago and decided to right that wrong.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Bike squad 1

It's been a long time coming, but a modicum of work has been picked up on my Epic-scale  Ultramarine force.

I have to say I dislike the Epic bike models - I've always avoided actually painting them. I've not put a huge amount of effort into these as I simply couldn't be bothered so they've been given a basic "tabletop standard" paintjob.

All that said, one of the models is slightly different than the others: the rightmost model  on the centre base is a metal bike. Back in the day, GW used to bundle a metal model in the blister of any model you bought (buy a Titan, get a randomly selected model (might be a Marine, Bike, Thudd gun etc.) for free).

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Primarch Mortarion

I was browsing around ebay looking for viable models to represent Mortarion when I stumbled across this guy. He is apparently a model made by Reaper and now long OOP. Being a pewter model he has some serious heft to him!

I stripped off the original paintjob which was, to be honest, a bit of a mess. He was disassembled, drilled, pinned painted and reassembled.

This model (especially as I am using him as a Heresy-era Mortarion) is clearly in a post Isstvan state - Nurgle has visited many gifts upon him. I kept him painted in regular Death Guard colours as I wanted cohesion on the tabletop.

Wings? Why not. They sprout from his backpack and clearly have mechanical elements to them. To my mind they make him look a lot more impressive and they can represent his "fleet" rule.

"Silence" his war-scythe is clearly represented on the model, but - sadly - "The Lantern" his hand-gun isn't.

You can't have everything, I guess.

I've photographed him alongside my test model in order to show scale.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

Heresy Death Guard: Test model

Again! I've done it again! What a muppet!

So here I am with a whole bunch of active projects on the go, and I have added more to my worksheet. Why? Because I made the mistake of starting to read the Horus Heresy series after picking up the first 15 novels as eBooks due to the "Humble Bundle" charity. I'm afraid this particular bundle is over now, but the site is well worth keeping an eye on.

Anyway. A few years back I decided to start a Heresy army. I wanted to do it (as always) on the cheap. I'd also just signed up to the "Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Style" Google+ Community so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I spent a small amount of money on a large amount of models (thanks again, eBay) and added them to some models I already had.

The promptly went into "the dettol-bucket of shame" and have stayed there since.

Until now!

I proudly present my test model for the army: a metal model from about 30 years ago. He will most likely become the sergeant for my first tactical squad.

More Heresy Death Guard stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Veteran Squad 1

Just before I completely derail myself again by starting a project that is going to detract from the projects I'm already working on, I thought I'd test my willpower by completing a couple of the jobs I'm actually supposed to be working on.

So I have a unit of Veterans here for my 6mm  Ultramarines, and I'm hoping to next complete a unitof Zombies for my Undead.

Then I will fall off the "I've been behaving myself for a while by staying 'on-task'" bandwagon by starting something I've been resisting for a while. Nurgle Knights for 30K/40K.

It will entail going totally nuts with greenstuff and developing/testing my sculpting skills to the limit, but it should be fun.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Devastator Squad #1

I've completed (almost) another unit of foot for my 6mm Ultramarines.

I say almost as when I built them I was working from memory.

My wife tells me my memory is terrible, but I don't remember ever forgetting anything.

Until now - my recollection of Epic unit sizes was that they consisted of 3 x Rhinos and 5 x stands of infantry. I was browsing through my NetEpic rules, however, and found that I'm wrong about that and there should be 6 x stands.

So I owe this unit another stand of Devastators. I'll redress the balance when I come to do the next unit.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic: Ultramarines - Tactical Squad #1

Two weeks without a blog post! Wow. Don't think I've ever done that before.

I decided I was well overdue to add some infantry to my Epic Ultramarine force so I dug out and repainted some of my old tactical marines.

They are shown here alongside three of the Rhinos I've already completed as this is most likely how they'll be fielded.

I'll carry on in a similar vein, I think, as apart from anything else I have squillions of Rhinos and this will stop me painting more than I need.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Rhinos #3

This may well be my final post of 2016 so I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to look in on my blog, drop me a comment or "+1". Thanks to all of you.

A third group of Rhinos is complete and ready to take to the field. I'm intending to get some troops ready to be transported in these APCs early in 2017 so stay tuned for updates.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 3

It's Titan time again!

Here is the penultimate Warlord Titan that will accompany my Ultramarines.

I do have one more all painted up and ready to go, but unfortunately it's had an accident (the base snapped off at the ankles) so isn't ready for photographing. What I will do is pop some magnets into the base of the ankles and the tops of the feet so that it can be removed for storage, These fellas were always weak at that point so adding something allows them to deliberately break away and reconnect at that point should solve the problem nicely.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Rhinos #2

So, in a frenzy of drybrushing I've completed another trio of Rhinos for my Epic Ultramarines.

Painting at this scale is easy, spray black, drybrush Ultramarine Blue, drybrush again with a little white added to the blue. Retouch the black on the guns, exhausts, tracks and smoke launchers then back to drybrushing with Chainmail on those parts, allowing the brush to catch a few extra edges for the sake of easy weathering. Paint on the Ultramarine badges - done!

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic: Ultramarines - Reaver Titan

Accompanying my Warlords as they crush the Great Enemy underfoot will be this chappy - An all-metal Reaver Titan.

At the moment, it's missing its carapace weapon (somewhere in my house is another multi-launcher just like the ones in it's armpits). Until it's found, I can always use a plastic push-fit weapon from the Warlords.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Rhinos #1

Still plugging away, switching between projects. I've got a few more models ready for the 6mm Ultramarine army. A few Rhinos. I'm doing them in small batches of three as that is how many is required to support one unit of Marines when playing at this scale (there are 25 Marines to a unit).

I like them!

6mm 40K was always a favourite - I never managed to do the models justice first time around. I have a huge collection that have remained unpainted for a couple of decade as a result. Time to right that wrong, step-by-step!

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic:Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 2

I have completed a total of four Warlord Titans to support my 6mm Ultramarines. This is the second of the four.

All the weapons are interchangeable so the models can be tooled up as you wish. The weapons shown here are just a random selection.

 

More Epic Ultramarine stuff:

Epic Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 1

I've ignored my 6mm 40K project for a while and am determined not to let it fall by the wayside. Whilst Dreadtober was great for getting work done on the Orks it did detract from other projects I have on the table. Time to refocus.

So here is the first of four Warlord Titans I have prepared for this army. Decals are from the Imperial Guard tank sheet.

More Epic Ultramarine stuff: