Conversion: Grot Flier

Roald Dahl! I've never even heard of this.

25-28mm scale is a funny thing, especially 28mm Heroic. It totally makes sense in terms of being compact enough for gaming but large enough to have some detail in the miniatures. But still, it becomes problematic when trying to adapt materials and models from other manufacturers that were not intended for gaming let alone this scale.

Chapterhouse and Wargamma Defense Walls / Aegis Counts As

I saw this morning on Apocalypse 40k that  Chapterhouse, on the heels of the relatively advantageous (to them) court decision has initiated a Kickstarter for army-specific defense walls.

It's a clever idea for those who don't relish aquilas on their Eldar, Tau, or Ork wargear. It's also an idea that was implemented by others before this Kickstarter.

Finishing up the Hive Fleet

I've been distracted a bit by the immediacy of Warmachine: painted up 5 figs and I'm ready to play.

But I've been staring at my 'nids, and they are crying out for completion. So I figure if I formalize it for everyone to see, I can be motivated to finish it posthaste.


Gargoyles
You know what I hate about gaunts and gargoyles? Painting fleshborers. Their fingers are so intertwined in the gun symbiote that it becomes almost impossible to paint with contrasting colors. Had I thought about it before starting, I would have just painted them the body color...either Red Gore or Bleached Bone. But no, I had to make them black. So my 10 gargoyles are ready except for those guns and a dip...but it's going to be a total paint.

Hormagunts
I have about 24 of them unassembled.

Genestealers
One of the first units I painted was a group of genestealers. Not knowing anything about anything, I did 11 of them with normal heads and rending claws, and one with feeder tendrils and scything talons. I have another dozen in the box, and I've procured a few more tendril heads, so I'll do 11 with feeders/scythes and 1 to match the original guys. The Cthulu looking stealers can double as Ymargls.

Hive Tyrant / Swarmlord
I got a great deal on one of these via Ebay, and I was considering magnetizing the arms, but I seriously think it will actually be cheaper for me in time, materials and effort to buy another tyrant. The boneswords for the swarmlord will be purchased HERE at Paulson Games.

Tyrant Guard
Two are assembled, primed, and ready to paint.

Zoanthropes
I have 4 on the bench, primed and pinned, but the little back fins are a colossal pain to attach. If anyone knows of a way other than greenstuff, I'm all ears.

Termagants
I have about 36 of these to paint, with 10 of them almost completed except for the gun symbiote. See the gargoyle text above to see what the hold up is.

Doom of Malantai
I was going to convert a Zooey for this, but I think I'm just going to buy the Alien Brain @ Troll Forged.

Warriors
Three left, unassembled. One may become an alpha.

Wow, I never realized how much is left...but it IS a finite amount. I still have Tervigons to model and paint, but I'm not worrying about that right now.

So after this, I have a full 2000+ points of CSMs and the AoBR set. If anyone wants to suggest a marine and chaos marine chapter, I'd love to see comments. I'm going to do the orks fairly traditionally, so I'm going to have to research them.

In other news, there's still time to enter the giveaway. I don't know if I should be pushing this more aggressively, but you have a huge opportunity here since there are so few entrants. And international folks should not hesitate to enter...I'm a big boy, and I can afford the shipping.  :) Good luck!

Progress, slow and steady.

With the advantages of learning from my mistakes while painting my Nids, I proceeded to gingerly dip my toe into both Orks and Chaos Space Marines.

Orks
When I got back into 40k last year, I really tried to avoid Orks. I thought they were too comical and brought down the gravity that the game deserved, after reading through the fluff and some Black Library novels, I've had a change of heart.

This AoBR boy is undergoing a skin test. That is not striaght green on the skin. It's Sunburst Yellow followed by a heavy wash of Thrakka Green. It's a little bright, so I may go over it again with Devlan Mud. The AoBR models are surprisingly detailed, and I look forward to painting more of them.




Noise Marine (WIP)

I'm doing my Noise Marines as Patchouli-smelling ne'er do wells, so the tie dye scheme seems to work. Obviously, I still need to trim with black, and the other shoulder pad is black and gold a la Black Legion.

Now, for something completely different...

I ended up putting the termagants, along with a canoness and gargoyle, into a 50/50 Pine Sol/Water solution to get rid of the rest of the little paint remnants. It worked well...I only had them in for about 1 hour, but I think the plastic may have gotten soft.

And then via Dakka Dakka, I happened upon a Deff Dred tutorial on Miniwargaming.com. This dude made these Dreds (oversized killa kanz, really) out of cardboard. While I didn't think that they were very convincing as kanz or dreds, I thought they were perfect to practice conversions and painting. Plus, my daughter likes it.

I guess I need to do something about the feet, but these aren't for anything but my own amusement.

OK, tomorrow, I'm going to prime 16 genestealers, 16 gaunts, and 5 termagants.