First Salamander

This is my first painted Salamander model. Up close, you can really see where I messed up on the grey highlighting, but at a distance it does not look that bad.

This one had a wash over the entire model before highlights. I am doing another with just recess washing and I will compare the two.

Also, this was the first model I have used a varnish on. I used Satin varnish per internet recommendations. I think I will go over it with matte to dull the shine.

Activities and Progress

Several things have changed since I last updated.

Army Summary:


Chaos:
I have not done anything with my Chaos Space Marines in a while.  So long in fact, people at my local gaming store have started asking me if I want to sell them since I am not using them.  I am not ready for that yet...especially after putting all of the work into the Zombies.


Dark Eldar:
I started a collection of Dark Eldar, learned how to play them, new Codex came out, had to learn how to play them all over again.

Before the new Codex came out, I was doing well enough to come in second at a tournament in the fall. I could have done better, but the 3rd army was IG which I have had 0 luck against so far.  They have been brutal when I have played them.


Salamanders:
With Black Friday sales and Christmas gift cards, I have started up a Salamanders Space Marines army. These guys have been a ton of fun. I am working on a Null Deployment, Drop Pod everything list.  I am still figuring out what works, but it has been hard for people to deal with all of the master crafted meltas everywhere.


Painting:
Airbrush - A lot of the Salamanders have been basecoated with the airbrush.  I think I learned a lot doing this.

I am trying different types of brushes for regular painting. I am moving away from the tiny brushes to ones that have good tips but still have a body to hold paint. I will do a post on this in the future.


Other:
I have a few pictures of my work on both new armies. I will work to get those uploaded and added here with some comments.  I also want to start timing my work and do some specific projects around that work.

More magnets and Dark Eldar

I have been working on a Maulerfiend/Forgefiend that I need to take pictures of.  Still have to finish the Forgefiend part of it.  Lots of magnets for it.

Also, I have started collecting Dark Eldar so expect some of that to be showing up here soon.

Plague Swamp Bases

For the bases, I painted the top Death World Forest.  After trying, I gave it another layer and then put 2 big drops of Elmer's school glue on top of it and mixed it together to get green glue.  After spreading all around the top of the base around the model's feet, I put drops of Krazy Glue in it which causes it to try out and gives nasty organic looking circles.  Wait 5 minutes and use a toothpick to put a little Krazy glue on the rest of the base to give it some texture, but being sure to move and pull it so it does not make more circles.  After it all dries, I put Nuln Oil in the circles and covered the rest with Nurgle's Rot.

For the champions, I added rocks for them to stand on.  Started with pieces of cork that looked good for the size of the base.  Glued them on (after painting the top green already) and primed in Imperial Primer from the paint pot.  2 coats.  Then painted the cork with Mournfang Brown followed by a light dry brush of Skrag Brown.  Once that was dry I did a little bit of edge highlighting and drybrushing with Ushabti Bone.  Glued the champions on after that and did the rest of the steps the same.

Album of in progress pictures

A few images from the Album

Plague Marines have been based

I am finally finished with the Plague Marines now that the bases are done.  That makes a total of 55 models that are completely done.  Considering that I have been doing this for 6 months, that does not sound that great.  There are several others that I have started on or just need to base to finish (20 cultists) but overall I am happy with the progress.  While the painting is slow, it has still been a lot of fun in the mean time.

Here are some finished pics.  The basing was mostly the same as how I did the Zombies with a few exceptions.  I will have another post for that with in progress pics.


Plague Champions

Plague Marines

15 total for 3 units of 5.  Rhinos to come next

Zombie comparison shot

First Tournament

I participated in my first tournament today.  3 games, 2.5 hours each.  Interesting missions...none were the standard ones.  The guys at the game store had worked to come up with some unique missions to give the day a theme.

First was a planet strike mission where armies were just getting to the planet.  All Heavy Support was in reserve...that really messed up some lists people had.  Second was a mysterious objectives mission with the middle as an exploding ancient piece of technology.  Last was a planet evacuation with a meteor shower of large blasts on the board.  Fun stuff.

I did not do that great, but I had a ton of fun and learned a bit too.  I think the list I ended up bringing was a bit too weak.  Gives me ideas for next time.  And I have an idea of what to expect next time too.

Magnets...here's how they work...

I have magnetized one piece before this, the weapon on my heldrake.  I wanted to change up the weapon on my Terminator Lord so that I could run him with dual Lightning Claws, but I had already glued a combi-melta arm to him before I decided to do this.  With some careful pulling and prying, I broke the super glue bond and began the modification.

I used a small hand drill to start the holes in the arms and the shoulder. Then I cut and slowly made the hole bigger until the magnet could fit without sticking out.  I put a little bit of green stuff behind the magnets with a fair amount of super glue to hold it all in place.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I plan on doing the left arm as well so that I can change out the primary Lightning Claw for Power Weapons or a Power Fist if needed.

First time trying this, but here is a video of switching arms:

And the usual pictures...see if you can spot my assistant who always shows up when I am working on Warhammer models.