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.

Rusted Oblit

Here are pictures of the finished Oblit.  Still need to do the base.  I am undecided about putting some Nurgle Rot on him to make him look a bit slimy.  I will wait to see what it looks like after the base it complete.

Up next...Magnets!

Obliterator before rust

Only thing left to do with the Oblit is to add some corrosion and rust to the metal bits then he might be done...depending if I want to do more with him.  I don't like the way the washes came out as much as I did on the Plague Marines.  I will have to try something different on the other one unless the look really changes with some rust on this guy.

Full Album

I got some pictures of the games from today also that I will upload soon.  Got stomped in one game and tied the second.  As usual, I learned things to do next time...and things not to do.

I need more pictures of my games

I came across this picture taken last week at Atlantis playing against Necrons.  Here we see the vicious Heldrake about to torch some Necrons.  In the background you will see a squad of Plague Marines and Typhus after killing some scarab swarms that were eating the Land Raider.

I love the look of the Heldrake but the mismatch of the marines behind them and the grey Land Raider needs some attention.

The Heldrake will get an article discussing the paint job once I decide to finish it.  It is mostly Death World Forest and Leadbelcher.  I have not went back and done washes or any additional layers which I need to do...but grey models have been getting more attention.

The pieces of paper on the table are objective markers.  Neither of us had real ones.  We were playing one of the new Tactical Objective missions.  Tons of fun and the game is up for grabs by either side till the last turn.  This one ended with me winning 10 to 6.

Having this shot of the game is cool, but seeing the game unfold over multiple turns would be more fun.  I am going to try to do that this weekend.

Obliterator work and thinning paint

Tonight I finally had some time to get some painting done.  The tournament at the nearby gaming store is weekend after next so I am not going to have as much done as I would like but I am going to play regardless. 

This is the work in progress Obilterator.  It was converted from a Terminator and some random weapons I had lying around.  I am not a huge fan of the GW model, so I decided to make one of my own.  This is just the start with some base coating.  Death World forest, Leadbelcher, Bugman's Glow, and Emperor's Children were the paints used so far.  I ended up over thinning everything and did 2 coats of green.  The flesh around the weapons will get another coat, then some Rakarth Flesh to make it look pale and sickly.

Tonight was also the first time thinning with Liquitex flow aid.  It worked a little too well.  I have tried water - ok, GW Lahmian Medium - expensive, but good, Liquitex Matte Medium - not great for thinning.
I am going to keep trying with it, but I need to use a lower ratio of thinner to paint.  They all were too thin and showed a lot of primer through them.  On the other hand, it looks like the paint went on very smooth.

Plague Marines

I have been working on a few squads of Plague Marines recently.  They are very tough troops and they have been fun to paint....rusted armor filled with a plagued, almost dead marine.  Once I am done, I will have 3 squads of 5 with two special weapons in each.

I did a base coat of Death World Forest then a heavy drybrush of Nurgling Green.  Metal bits were Leadbelcher.  Skin was Bugman's Glow followed by Rakarth Flesh. Then washes of Agrax Earthshade and Seraphim Sepia.  Finally, metal bits received some Typhus Corrosion and Rysa Rust with a little Ironbreaker to show some wear and chipped edges.  I will probably end up basing these like the zombies.

First Finished Plague Marine:

Work in Progress Album:
https://imgur.com/a/ZvrVv

Behind on posting

In the past 6 weeks that I have not posted:

   7th edition rules came out

   I finished on squad of plague marines.  (Pics soon)

   I added more models to my army that need to be painted

   A tournament was scheduled at my FLGS for the end of June

7th edition rules have not been too bad overall.  I like the new Psychic Phase.  I would very often forget to use psychic powers at the start of movement, so this way I do not forget anymore.  Still trying to figure out the best use for several powers, but at least I am using them.

I have so much stuff to paint.  I am going to really try to get as much stuff base coated at possible before the tournament.  I have way to many models in my army that are just grey or black.

Sculpting work on Obliterator

I have set aside one of the 5 Chaos Terminators to convert him into an Obliterator.  I finally got around to doing the green stuff today.  I am going to let it sit overnight to make sure it has completely cured, but I am excited to see what it looks like once it is ready to paint.

I am also going to test out some paint schemes on some of the regular Space Marines to see what I want to do for my Plague Marines.  I am thinking of doing something different from the normal green everything and have some other colors going on.  Before committing that to the Plague Marines I want to try it out.

Obliterator WIP from modeling and green stuff:

Edit - After Priming:

Learning the rules

After last weekend, I decided that I need to stop relying on my opponent to tell me what I can do and start really learning the rules for myself.

I have been reading through the rule book bit by bit through the week.  With the way that things have went, I have not really had that much time to get far but I plan on doing a lot of reading tomorrow.  Taking the time to re-read it after playing several games I think is being helpful.  The book makes a lot more sense to me than it did before I really had a concept of what a lot of the rules were saying.

Aside from that, I have not had much time to work on modeling or painting this week.  I have my 3rd Rhino together through step 3 in the book...enough to play it, but the big pieces not glued together so that painting will still be easy to do.

Thoughts on today's game

I played a game today against another Chaos player.  I have played him before a few months back when I was stretching it to field 2k points.  This game went better, but in the end I lost.  Here are some points I need to try to remember for next time.

1.  Play to the mission.  We had 6 random, mysterious objectives.  instead of trying to find out which ones were on my side of the board I played very aggressive and that did not work for me.  I ended up losing both of my squads of Plague Marines on the way to kill his guys.  I only held one on my side.  On his side, he held 2.  I sent my heavy hitters at the one worth less points since it was closer instead of staying in the land raider and going for the one further away.

2.  Know what rolls I need.  I am still relying heavily on the other person to tell me what I need to roll to wound or hit in close combat.  I don't think anyone has intentionally led me wrong, but I think I would do better knowing this since I would have an idea of what my odds are before getting involved in a situation.

3.  Don't be afraid to contest rules.  A few times I pushed back on something I was fairly confident about and ended up being right.  No one has been mean about having to look up a rule, so I should keep doing this.  This will also help me to know what the rule is for the future.

4.  Think ahead.  I wasted some of my units by having them move one direction, then another the next turn.  If I try to plan ahead more, I will be able to have a better strategy and maybe anticipate moves.

5.  I need to learn the stats on other models.  Today would have been a lot better if I had known what I have that can hurt specific models of his.  If I am thinking about that, it will also hopefully help me to remember any special equipment that I have that could be effective.

Aside from playing more games, I am not sure of a way to get better.  Maybe reading through the rule book again so I have a better understanding of things would help.

Completed Zombies (Almost...blood soon to come)

After many hours I have finally finished the Plague Zombies.  Last night and today was spent doing the bases for the zombies.  Throughout the week, I was trying out various ideas before deciding on which one I liked the best.  Various attempts...

I was not completely satisfied with any of these.  I was going for some ooze or nasty green stuff that the zombies would be slogging through that would look as nasty and grotesque as they were.  The bottom right and left were the most promising.  Both were created with green, Death World Forest, mixed with regular glue.  Krazy glue was then added to the top.  The one on the left had rocks added and painted which was cool in some ways, but not the look I was going for.  In the end, I decided to go with doing big drops of Krazy glue on the paint glue mix, wait about 5 minutes and then put Krazy glue on the rest of the base with a toothpick to avoid more circles that come from using big drops.

Once it had all dried, I added a green wash, Athonian Camoshade, inside of the circles to create a dried out organic looking nasty thing on the ground.  The rest of the base was covered with Nurgle's Rot to give it a slimy and oozy layer.  I think it turned out pretty good.  The bases were finished with black around the edges.

For the champions, I did mostly the same thing, but I put them on pieces of cork to represent rocks.  They were primed black, painted Skrag Brown, drybrushed Nurgling Green, and a light layer of Typhus Corrosion before covering the feet and tops with more Nurgle's Rot.

Let me know your thoughts.  These guys took a long time from assembly to finish for models that die quickly...but it was fun and I think I learned a lot in the process.

Here is a series of images through several steps of the same model.