2016 Project To Do List - PROGRESS

This post will track the progress against my 2016 TODO list. I will update it as progress continues with each update showing changes in BOLD. This should prevent spamming the blog with repeated posts of progress text while still allowing me to compare the original TODO list post against the final progress post. Check back to see changes and watch the LAST UPDATED date to track my updates to this post.

[LAST UPDATED: 12-27-2016]

Ordo Xenos:

• Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and Retinue assembled and painted
• Inquisitorial Land Raider Redeemer painted - ASSEMBLED
• Deathwatch Watch Master assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Watch Captain assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Watch Captain w/jump pack assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius assembled and painted - 11 PRIMED
• Deathwatch Dreadnought assembled and painted - DONE
• Deathwatch Terminators assembled and painted - 6 PRIMED 
• Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans assembled and painted - 5 PRIMED
• Deathwatch Veteran squad assembled and painted - 5 PRIMED
• Deathwatch Veteran squad assembled and painted - 5 PRIMED
• Deathwatch Veteran squad assembled and painted - 5 PRIMED
• Deathwatch Veteran squad assembled and painted - 5 ASSEMBLED 
• Deathwatch Land Raider assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Rhino/Razorback assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Drop Pod assembled and painted - Painted to Tabletop Standard+
• Deathwatch Dreadnought Drop Pod assembled and painted - PRIMED
• Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar assembled and painted - ASSEMBLED

Red Hunters:

• Red Hunters HQ assembled and painted
• Red Hunters troop choice assembled and painted
• Red Hunters troop choice assembled and painted

Dark Angels:

• Dark Angels Nephilim jet fighter assembled and painted - ASSEMBLED
• Dark Angels Assault Squad painted - PRIMED + Partial Paint
• Dark Angels 30K Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launchers) painted 
• Dark Angels 30K Dreadnought Talon painted
• Dark Angels 30K Predator painted
• Dark Angels 30K Tactical squad assembled and painted  

Imperial Knights:

• Freeblade Knight Paladin painted - Partial Paint
• Determine plans for remaining knights still on sprue

Terrain:

• Complete terrain project (6 buildings assembled and painted) - ASSEMBLED

Progress...progress...progress...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Project To Do List

As summer draws to a close with the promise of cold and less clement weather soon on the horizon, I thought it a good time to document a to do list for the coming cold season. I was further inspired by this post from Confessions of a 40K Addict. Anything we can do as hobbyists to keep the hobby mojo going can't be a bad thing.  So that said, here's my list in no particular order...

Ordo Xenos:

• Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and Retinue assembled and painted
• Inquisitorial Land Raider Redeemer painted
• Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius assembled and painted
• Deathwatch Veteran squad and transport assembled and painted
• Deathwatch Veteran squad and transport assembled and painted
• Deathwatch Vanguard squad assembled and painted
• Deathwatch Watch Captain assembled and painted
• Deathwatch Corvus Darkstar assembled and painted

Red Hunters:

• Red Hunters HQ assembled and painted
• Red Hunters troop choice assembled and painted
• Red Hunters troop choice assembled and painted

Dark Angels:

• Dark Angels Nephilim Jetfighter assembled and painted
• Dark Angels Assault Squad painted
• Dark Angels 30K Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launchers) painted 
• Dark Angels 30K Dreadnought Talon painted
• Dark Angels 30K Predator painted
• Dark Angels 30K Tactical squad assembled and painted  

Imperial Knights:

• Freeblade Knight Paladin painted 
• Determine plans for remaining knights still on sprues

Terrain:

• Complete terrain project (6 buildings assembled and painted) 

So lots to look forward to!  I will come back to this post and update it regularly as progress is made so check back form time to time...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius

Here's a pic of the assembled Deathwatch kill team from the Deathwatch Overkill boxed set.  I managed to get them finished earlier this month and ready for paint just in time for the new codex release! The bases are traditional glue-and-gravel with some additional bits added from on of the GW 40K basing kits. The servo skull is on a custom resin base from Secret Weapons Miniatures - just a spare from the bitz box. This guy may end up used with an Inquisitor or other model so I wanted it to have more "visual interest".    

Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius WIP

Speaking on visual interest, these new models are really great looking.  The details are amazing in the plastic as we've come to expect and the poses are fun too. I will have the new Death Masque boxed set soon to bulk out this initial force and I'm looking forward to the bitz form the new veteran Deathwatch sprues.

In addition to that, I already have two five-man squads assembled and mostly painted from the past.  One is a Deathwatch Veteran squad I purchased on eBay a while back.  It's already painted and can fit right in, though these are converted models and will lack the flair of the recent releases.  I'll use them to bulk out list in larger games. The second is a Deathwatch Vanguard squad I built as a fast attack hit team to join my Imperial Inquisition forces form time to time.  These guys are well on their way to being painted, but need chapter pauldrons completed among other details. I built these using the new Assault Marines sprues so they look a bit less dated though still lack some of the veteran panache. :). once I see what I have for bits left over from the new sprues and can compare looks, I may make some modifications to the existing models before completing their paint jobs.

I'm looking forward to spending more time with the codex to develop a list and sort out what I want to build and paint to "finish" a small force of Deathwatch. I have a couple inquisitorial Rhinos that will likely get requisitioned (there were originally targeted as Stormtrooper transports when they were a thing in the Grey Knights codex). I also have an Inquisitorial Land Raider Redeemer that my just be requisitioned into the Deathwatch and occasionally seconded to Transport high value Inquisitors when needed. So I think maybe a Razorback with a couple turret options would be a good add...and of course the new flier/transport!! :)

I also reached out to eBay for a couple additional Deathwatch upgrade sprues to allow me to add a few more marines where necessary to complete new kill teams. This will help me make use of my rich collection of marine kits in the bitz box.

And all of this has me thinking more about the Red Hunters Space Marine chapter that I started working on just before moving house last year...It's going to be a good time for the forces of the Inquisition!  Having completed a Ordos Malleus inquisitor and retinue last year to pal around with the Grey Knights, I now think its high time I completed an Ordo Xenos inquisitor to hang with the Deathwatch...I mean it's only fair, right?

There really is no end to the project opportunities!

Cheers, and Happy Gaming!

Nephilum Jetfighter WIP

Greetings.

It's been quiet here of late so I wanted to catch up with some projects on the backlog.  Here, I have the start of a Nephilim Jetfighter for the Dark Angels. It has sat in the box for too long and with the release of the new Death for the Sky supplement, I felt I needed to get some of my fliers done.  I have a Grey Knight Storm Talon to paint as well as a Vendetta for the Death Korps of Kreig.  But today I'm showing off the initial cockpit work for the Dark Angel's Nephilim Jetfighter.

Unsure that I would find the time for this work, I had come very close to assembling this unpainted with the goal of painting over the cockpit, as some folks do, to obscure the nice details and simplify the overall assembly and painting task. Then I said, "Naw, let's just go for it!".  And so the cockpit assembly sat half assembled with the pilot in two halves waiting to be painted for a month or two now...

Then last night I stuck in, driven by a desire to practice painting black in preparation for the onslaught of Deathwatch being released this month!  This 40K hobbyist has been waiting a LONG time for an official Deathwatch codex and model line...but more of that in a later post.

Here are the WIP shots of the Jetfighter cockpit after initial painting and assembly.

Front view

Rear view

In the extreme close up, the main targeting screen on the dash looks a bit rough.  It's satisfying enough at a normal viewing distance though and will likely be pretty obscured anyway once the canopy is a attached. I can use a lot more work on my free hand, even simply stuff like this...partly my close-up eye sight going and partly that I just cant get even a small detail brush to cooperate when painting lines.  Regardless, I figured this is a case where I just have to leave it alone and not keep fidgeting at it....numerous repaint attempts will only leave the screen piled in paint and blobby looking anyway.

That criticism aside, the front view is the money shot for me.  Definitely a decent table top standard, with enough extra effort to leave me feeling like I did good work there and didn't rush to finish things. One thing I cam away with is that in addition to having trouble with freehand target screen painting, I need a lot more practice with edge highlighting black.  I found this very difficult and had to repeatedly fix blobs where fine lines were desired. Between the Deathwatch and my 30K Dark Angels build, I'll get plenty of practice no doubt...

Happy Gaming!

Fallen Imperial Eagle Terrain

In pushing through to furnish new terrain for my tabletop, I pulled out the fallen Imperial eagle from the Honored Imperium terrain set. Last year I posted an article about painting the space marine statue.  You can see it again at the end of this post along with the new eagle.

The fallen eagle is fairly simple to paint.  I based the whole thing black, then used my Iwata Eclipse airbrush to paint almost the whole thing.  I started with a Vallejo German grey, then a lighter grey to highlight the stone/plasticrete eagle.  The airbrush is great for this.  By carefully pulsing the trigger and varying the distance to the model, it was a simple matter to lighted the raised portions and add some color variations to some of the large flat surfaces.

 

With the greys done, I used two colors of Vallejo browns for the earthy parts.  This included spraying brown carefully on the bits of earth scattered across the grey eagle itself.  here again, the airbrush really helped blend this in and make it convincing with now hard paint lines. 

Once the base coating and early highlights were added, I washed the whole thing with GW Nuln Oil.  After letting this dry, I selectively washed the earth portions with GW Agrax Earthshade. I carefully ashed just the cracks and lines in the stonework of the eagle to give a dirty implression to the stone work without adding too much brown overall.

With all of that dry, I then dry brushed a Vallejo bone color over the earth parts, applying a heavy coat over the skulls so they pop a bit more from the earth.  A dry brush of a light grey then went over all the sharp parts of the fallen eagle itself.  This was then sealed with Testors Master Series Lusterless Flat Lacquer.  This is the best flat coat out there, buy some and use it! :)

 

Above, we have the eagle on one of my new mats from gamemat.eu. These "mouse pad" material mats are the best thing I've seen for a simple, portable game surface. Below, I added the bronze space marine statue I painted last year to see how they look together on the table.

 

I love the way these pieces have come out. My next plan is to experiment with weathering powders in preparation to using powders on my armor and other models.  These simple pieces seem like a good place to try the new powder techniques. 

I also started another building based on the pieces I had left over from the Sector Imperialis box set combined with the sprues form the Imperial Knight Renegade box set. I'll post about that when I have more to show there.  All painted, this will give me a richly appointed 4x6 game board when combined with the game mats.  I look forward to actually gaming on them soon! 

But really, my 40k experience is more about the hobby and less about the playing these days...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!