Another Year Another Resolution

So here we are, 1/1/12 and I'm sure you're wondering where I've been.
First off I got a job in April and its been requiring a TON of my time. The last few months I've been working 7 days a week and turning the lights on and off.
So what have I painted this year?

Space Marines:
Built and painted 3rd Company Tactical and assault marines
Built and painted 3rd Company Chaplain and Librarian
Built and painted Damocles Rhino
Built and painted 10 Space Marine Veterans
Built and painted 4 Dreadnoughts
Basecoated 9 Landspeeders
Built and painted 3 Apothecaries
Built 24 Death Company
Built 17 Marines
Built 6 Chaplains
Built 4 Librarians
Converted 2 Librarians
Built 7 Commanders
Built 4 Apothecaries
Built 10 Tech marines
Built 3 Standard bearers
Built 8 Command Squad models
Converted 2 Company Champions
Built 5 Terminators
Built 9 Servitors

Grey Knights:
Built and painted Grand Master Test Model
Basecoated Land Raider Redeemer
Built and painted 2 Librarians
Built and painted 2 Heavily Converted Dread Knights
Built and Painted Giant Display base
Built and painted 48 Servo Skulls
Built and painted 4 Familiars
Built and painted Castellan Crowe
Built and painted Tech Marine
Converted and Basecoated Lelith to Callidus
Built and painted 4 Crusaders
Converted and Painted Megan Fox figure to Callidus
Built and painted 3 Vindicare assassins
Converted and painted Vindicare assassin
Built and painted Culexus assassin
Built and painted Imperial Assassin
Built and painted 3 Witch Hunters
Built and painted Nearly 150 Purifiers
Built and painted 1 Fallout mini
Built and painted 3 Inquisitor Rex bodyguards
Built and painted Dark eldar to Callidus Conversion
Built and painted Culexus Conversion
Converted 34 Crusaders
Converted 9 Tech marines
Built 60 Terminators

Imperial Guard:
Stripped Fixed and painted Stormblade
Stripped Fixed and painted Baneblade
Built and painted 20 Sentinels
Built and painted 14 Commissars
Basecoated 90 Stormtroopers
Basecoated nearly 200 Guardsmen
Built and painted 16 Enginseers
Built and painted 10 Adepts and Servitors
Built 1 Commissar

Terrain:
Painted 6 feet of Aegis Defence Lines
Built and painted 10 Sentry Guns
Converted enlarged Punisher cannon

Commission:
Built and painted 4 Servitors
Built and painted Enginseer
Built and painted Genesis Chapter Assault Squad
Built and painted Vulkan Hestan
Built and painted Dreadnought
Built and painted Full Ultramarines command squad
Built and painted Ultramarines Tac squad
Built and painted Crimson Fist2 Tactical Squads
Built and painted 2 Crimson Fist Dreadnoughts
Built and painted 1 Birthday Present Cygnar model

Played:
15k Apoc-a-strike with no super heavies
Wargames Con
25k Apocalypse Game
1k Tournament GW Frisco (2nd)
2k Feast of Blades Tournament (4th)
2k Sideboard tournament (2nd)
AMPS modeling contest Silver Medal
Hobby Town Dallas Super Heavy Painting contest (1st Place)

So my hope is to try and do at least 1 update a week.

30th Post - Back from WARcon, LoTD Guard conversion

Well I've back from WARcon.
I ended up getting 3 wins, 2 Draws, and 2 Losses. The points were a little weird (going from 0 - 50 per game in most cases) and I played a couple of jerks and some REALLY great opponents but all and all I had a blast. Hanging out with Bradford, Michael, and all the people we met was definitely the highlight! Dave Taylor taught and awesome class and I learned some sculpting tricks that I'll be trying out later.

But now that I'm home it's time to go back to painting. First up I put the orange down on the flames of the Legion of the Damned.

27th Post - Legion of the Damned,small commission update

So, now you're asking "Why now, after all the posts you've had why do you chose now to do a history of your marines?" Well the answer to that is simple. I've started working on them again.

I'm afraid I went a little Legion crazy when the new Legion of the Damned models were released. I picked up 1 of every model released and then got a deal for an extra box minus the sarge. So I have 2 full squads, 1 10 man using multi-melta and melta gun, 1 10 man using heavy flamer and flamer.
Here's some pics of conversions I did to make the duplicates from the boxed set not look so samey.

26th Post - Ultramarines History part 6 - Random Stuff

I also built a Vulkan Conversion

25th Post - Ultramarines History part 5 - 8th Company

When the blood angel PDF came out I knew it was a perfect time to come up with a new marine army. So I decided to make the 8th company.

24th Post - Ultramarines History part 4 - Chapter Command

Chaplain Cassius

23rd Post - Ultramarines History part 3 - 1st Company

With the release of the “new” plastic terminators I picked up a box and made a 4 man command squad,

22nd Post - Ultramarines History part 2 - 2nd Company

When I started the 4th edition update I decided to do all my models in drop pods with 2 melta guns in each tactical squad.
Here’s some pics of the squads on my city fight board

21st Post - Ultramarines History part 1 - Starting the army

Well here we are another history post, this time it’s for my Ultramarines.
You may want to get something to drink while this loads.

As y’all have read I originally started 40k with Tyranids. However due to the lack of a codex I decided to start Space Marines. After I read the 3rd Edition Space Marine codex I found I really liked the Ultramarines fluff and special characters, so I started painting my models in the original blue and yellow scheme.

Fifteenth Post - Straken's new arms, finished Psykers.

Well I finally finished off the last 2 Hydras. These 2 didn't seem to like the older magnets I'd installed in their turrets so it took some work to cut them out and put new magnets in them

Then I finished the Psykers.
I'm trying a new color around their bases. I don't know if I like it yet. It does have the benefit of creating a definite separation of models.

Finally while waiting for the Pyskers to dry I decided to try out those new Max Mini bionic arms!

I also primed the 2 mystics and assassin.


So now I've got to:
Paint 2 mystics
Paint callidus assassin
Weather Hydra upper 1/2s
Double check magnets for Vendettas (a couple were loose the other day)
Weather Vendettas
Install cockpit in resin Vendetta
Install Canopies in Vendettas
Decide if I like the new base ring color
Decal new guardsmen
Touch up old models

All this by the 28th.

Fourteenth post - Battle psykers, weathered missiles

Another night another layer of paint!

I added sand to the Vendetta's bases.
I added some slight weathering to the manticore's missiles so they don't look so factory fresh. I realize they're 1 shot but I figure they'd be driving around for a while before they spotted a target worth firing one of the rockets at.
I also flattened the psykers and overseers and added some green and metals to them.



Also I built another hydra, this one seems to stay together better so now I've got some experimenting to do with the others.

Thirteenth Post - Vendetta Lascannons and Psykers

First up is the battle psykers I managed to get their base coats down and dipped them in minwax like the rest of my guardsmen.
Here's some photos of the lascannons for the Vendettas and the missiles for the manticores.
I color coded the lascannons so I don't get them mixed up.

Next up is highlighting the psykers after they dry, painting a callidus assassin and 2 mystics.
I'm down to 16 days before it all has to be done so its becoming crunch time.

Twelfth Post - manticore nearly done, hydra treads done

Well I've been working on the now WarCon army.
I've painted and rusted the treads for the Hydras

I also painted up the bases for the vendettas. Next up is some drybrushing and sand.

The Vendettas got some touch ups and sealer. They're still lacking their guns.

Next up is the nearly finished Manticore. It's only lacking it's missiles now.


Well I'm off to another family funeral this week so it'll be a while before I get another update in.

Eleventh Post - Death Company Done, valk progress, more guard stuff.

It's been a while, I totally forgot to update the blog in the flurry of BoLS prep I've been doing.
I got the death company finished and delivered as well as the characters I was working on with them.
Pictures below (more pics in my photobucket)




Overall the figs came out good and Bob was happy thus I got paid.

Considering that was nearly 2 weeks ago I've got more news.

Next up was the Manticore for my guard. I converted it so I could magnetize on the kit's 3 missiles or put on a deathstrike missile (to be built later).


I also decaled up the valkyries. The forgeworld decals are a bit horrible and could have been put on as 1 large piece but they didn't include enough space in between for the panels. Instead you're expected to disassemble to decals and the put them down. If they would have added some spacing on the decal sheet this would be fine but there's barely any room to get a pair of scissors in there! They turned out ok, I've got some touchups to do with paint but them's the breaks.




Next up I started work on my Hydras. I've decided NOT to just stick something on my chimeras as that'd look goofy. Instead I'm going for a leman russ chassis (it's higher ;) ) with a special add on... take a look.



I've got some more work to do before I'm happy with them. Right now they keep falling over because they're so blasted top heavy.
So that's it from me.
BTW blame Bradford for my lack of posts. He recommended Fallout 3 to me and after picking it up I can't stop playing it.

Eighth post - Commission break and Straken

I finished the last of Mac's minis. This time they're Tallaran Models, everyone of them had a conversion of some king. The lasguns had been converted to look more like carbines, others had simple weapon swaps.

Sarge, melta, and lasguns

Some guardsmen vox, 2 snipers and more lasguns


Heavy Weapon team


My favorite pose, it has a lot of story to it


Lately I've been trying out my BOLS list and I've decided to try out Straken. However I have no model for Straken so I needed to convert one, as the current and old straken models don't fit my army's look. So I came up with the following.


I had tried the scout biker shot-gun on the hip pose, but it didn't look very good so I went with the giant glaive.

I also ordered 3 foam trays for my vendettas, my first carrying case order of the year. It only took 6 months for me to start on my resolution.

Sixth Post - 275 finished Cadians, a GT, and PBS

Well it's been a while.
First off I had to finish this semester and that was a little crazy, with 2 major projects during finals week.
I finally finished all of Bob's 275 Cadians you can see them here
Here's a pick of all of them together:

Before that I went to a GT in San Antonio Texas the Alamo 40k GT. The first of it's kind. I ended up coming in 21st out of 46 so a little above the 1/2 way mark (my goal). Results can be found here.

While there I took some photos of some of the neat armies (and X boards) and a few of the sights. Those photos are here.

While waiting for some of those cadians to dry I built the start of 3 squads of Psyker Battle Squads. Here are the front of the overseers for the units.

And the back. The one pointing the pistol doesn't have his finger on the trigger. I plan on putting some text on the book like "How to tell if your charge is possessed:".

I figure this is the 3 steps of battle psykers. Step 1 wait till the enemy is about to be shot by the army and break them (guy with binoculars). Step 2 drop the LD debuff (guy with sword). Step 3 fail psychic check and kill off some guys (guy with book).
And here is one of the 12 battle psykers I built. I'm trying to round up more of those stockade arms from the flagellant sets so if anyone has any let me know.


Hopefully I can do some more updates as I paint these 3 squads, 3 vendettas (which need tons of work), and build (and paint) 6 hydras all before the end of July!

Second Post - My Guard army up till now

I was originally writing this as a piece for the 40k radio webzine but due to some recent problems I will not be submitting it there.

I originally picked up the Steel Legion models upon their release as they were the coolest thing I had seen. I built a rather crappy army and took it to the 2001 Dallas GT, and got STOMPED I took second to last place.
Here's a couple of crappy old photos.