30K terminators and a dollop of Dystopian Legions

I put these terminators together in Aug 2015 and they have been languishing in a foam tray ever since. They represent the start of another push at getting more 30K stuff done and some games played. I love the setting but we’ve given it a woeful amount of time especially in light of the number and quantity of forces we have.

These were put together from Scibor bodies, Anvil heads and shoulder pads and GW terminator arms. I liked the chunkiness of the Scibor bodies and thought they looked good as prototype Terminator armour.

I’ve done heavy battle damage and wear on all my previous 30K stuff so these took a similar pounding from the sponges to distress them. I like the look of it on the power fist knuckles. Looks like they been smacking the crap out of stuff!

I’ve also been getting all of the DL stuff undercoated and it all stands ready now. Sadly they weren’t paying attention and the GoGX Sylvaneth army slipped into the queue in front of them. I still do intend to get them to the table this year.

The termies have helped my Net tally but the recent Sylvaneth haven't. Figures for the year are now:

Purchased: +85

Painted:      -48

Net:            +37

I'll need to concentrate on the Sylvaneth over the next few months to ensure that they are done to deadlines however I am still determined to get the bulk of my unpainted 30K stuff finished and make good inroads into the DL & PC stuff.

TTFN.

He looks a bit Goofy at the moment...

...but this bad boy is destined to become a DREAD SAURIAN!!!

Quake in fear!

Yeah. Looks a bit dum at this stage but there'll be modelling clay round the horns to merge them into the body and some extra armour plates. I'll be adding some harness straps to hang Seraphon-esque adornments from. Quietly hopeful on this one.

The Seraphon painting pile is also enjoying progress and the big infantry mob got their yellow wash last night. Now its the long task of picking out all the spears, jewelry, shields & claws etc etc. I really want to smash this job and have the lion share done before Xmas.

Lunchtime work is also coming along as I continue to prep other stuff for the 365 challenge. Firstly more Dystopian Legions.

A Kingdom of Britainnia Tank....

...and a Prussian Zappy Killy artillery thingy.

I nailed the last two Pulp City figures and also knocked together the free White Dwarf Gorechosen figure. Great game. Ask the Silverfox. He lost his head over it! Twice!  ;-)

TTFN

0 : 6/359

And so it begins

Junt, Urn and I have been egging each other on quite a lot this year and the result seems to have manifested in to a challenge.

What challenge? To paint 365 figures in a year. This obviously equates to one a day which seems daunting but casting my eye back over the last year I seem to have painted well over 200+ items and that includes big scenery pieces that have taken more than a week for each one. I’ve also prepped and made lots of figures and scenery. Given that I often batch paint big groups of figures the target of 365 seems less scary.

A year dedicated to clearing some of the backlog of figures? Yeah I’m up for that.

Junt also mentioned that we should try and maintain momentum with the gaming itself and suggested 52 games in a year. Given how easily life distracts us from fun things, I think this is going to be HARD but hey…..I’m up for that challenge as well!

The 365 figures that I’m hoping to get done include:

40+        40K Eldar

140+      30K Marines, Mechanicum & Solar Auxilia

20+        Pulp City heroes and civilians

80+        Dystopian Wars for both the KoB and PE

70+        Seraphon

50+        Dystopian Legion for both KoB and PE

150+      Massive Darkness figures yet to arrive from a Kickstarter.

Okay, that actually total in excess of 550 figures which will be something of a reach to achieve but that’s the reason for the challenge. Soooooo many figures waiting to be painted. I wish it were all that is sat unpainted in my study. Gotta start somewhere I suspose!

I was planning to start on January 1^st but I need to get cracking on the Seraphon for February and as such I’ve started the challenge already. 11^th December 2016 is the day of commencement and by this time next year I want to have completed at least 365 figures from the list above. We shall see.

The GoGs are heading for Nottingham on 10/02/17 and I need to have an army ready. I have the BFG’s seraphon on loan under the condition that I paint it and this is a convenient starting point. I’ve got 2 months to paint 70+ figures and I’ll be happy to get 30+ figures done per month as it’ll show me how difficult it is to keep on track.

Now the Seraphon should be a quick paint….

  

…but as usual I find a way to complicate the process. I’ve gone for a wash effect for the main colour scheme but I wanted to have their armour plates in a different colour but also tonally similar to the main colour. This means adding a base colour to parts of the model prior to the quick wash. Probably doesn’t actually take much longer but just feels like it when you’re trying to do 37 in one batch! Probably will only take one more evening to finish the first stage and then onto applying the wash.

Only one thing left to say.

0 finished in 3/362 days

Gulp!

TTFN

An inconsistent week but....

...I've still managed to make more progress on both the DL figure prep and the DW PE land forces.

Wave one of the DW PE are all but finished now. I only need to glue a couple of shrubs to the bases to break them up a bit and they will be totally done. the next challenge with these is to work out what to store them in?

I'm about half way through the DL figures but of the ones I have left there are a fair number that will need extra pinning work. Hopefully most of the standard infantry types will be prepped next week.

I fairly pleased with how these PE tanks have turned out. I'm glad I resisted the urge to try a camo scheme as they probably would have ended up looking to 'busy'. I'm not sure the choice of the grey for the electro bits on the sides worked out but I was hesitant to have more metallics on such a small figure.

  
I'm also quite pleased that i'd textured the tracks behind the tanks. A bit of Devlan Mud picked them out quite well without them being to obvious. Shame about the one that I'd managed to mess up by having the tracks come out of the front of the model. Doh!

 All in all this lot is about 1900 points which I suspect is more than enough basic forces. Still to add is wave 2 made up of artillery, massive robots and several Zeppalins.....oh and the ginormous land aircraft carrier.

I suspect however that I will do the basic KoB forces first to give me two fieldable forces.

What next? Well more DL at work during the lunchtimes and also a small amount of KoB DW stuff to bring them closer to being at a similar strength to the PE.

I might have a break from DW for a week and get a couple of Infinity figures done. Especially as it appears that I have another game scheduled for Thursday. :-D

TTFN

Starting to muster the troops

Another lunchtime and some more progress.

This time just some infantry.

I really should decide on a paint scheme for both forces. I think I'm pretty much going to stick to redcoats and blue trousers for the Brits but it is the Prussians that I keep changing my mind on.

Do I go with a very historical grey uniform or opt for something different? I saw a nice sandy desert style colour scheme that someone had posted on the Spartan forums and a few with dark green tunics that look good. Decisions decisions!

TTFN

Progress on all fronts

Despite my children's attempts to stop me getting anything done I still managed to get some more done on the first wave of my DW PE last night.

I gave them all a wash of Devlan Mud. I was hoping that it would pick out the detail a bit more and to some extent it has but it also added a touch more mottling than I would have hoped for. That aside I am still fairly pleased with how much of the detail has been retained on these models.

Just the basing to do on these and I'm not quite sure how to proceed with that as I normally do a black base highlighted up with browns for 28mm figures. Somehow I think that will be odd looking at this scale. I shall quiz the Spartan forums to see what others have done.

Also managed to get a couple more DL done at lunch today.

The pile is growing.....slowly.

TTFN

Trundling along.

Got some additional bits prepped for DL.

This time the KoB tankies and a specialist weapon for the PE.

Still loads to do but I have a sneaking suspicion that these might get bumped in favour of some Age of Sigmar stuff.

We shall see.

TTFN

Excuse me Rene....

...can I show you my little tankie?

Dinky little tanks ain't they!

Nice enough models. The interface between the track sections and the main body could be better. These are just stuck on the side and they could have quite easily have had a better join between them. Still they look pretty good.

TTFN

Slow Going.

The decision to use a Vallejo air brush paint applied with a brush is still one that I would make again but......sheesh it makes for slow painting. The thin paint takes at least three layers over the white undercoat to give a decent finish. It is worth it in the end as it really helps keep the fine detail on the lovely little Spartan figures.

So....I'll just keep plugging away at them.

TTFN

A little DW progress

On to stage two of painting the Prussian Land forces for DW.

I'd started with a layer of sprayed white undercoat and onto this was painted a steel colour that I'd watered down with an airbrush dilutant. I don't really use water anymore because the dilutants give such a good result.

Once dry, the steel colour was given a coat of Nuln Oil and between this and the watered down steel I've managed to keep the detail on the models clean and sharp. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased how they are going so far. I just hope that my choice of main colour doesn't let them down.

eek!

They make a nice change from painting 28mm!

TTFN!

And now for something completely different.

The big game at the weekend was a real blast! It was really awesome to see all the 30K armies on the table as I think everyone has really stepped up their game painting wise.

Just a shame that I neglected to take.....any photos at all.

I was really rather caught up in the game so that's my excuse.

However having painted something in the region of 1700 points of Iron Hands since February, I think a break from the scarlet and gold is in order. So this has lead me to start on some of my Dystopian Wars land forces as I've had loads of this stuff lying around for ages untouched. I am resolved to get at least one force of this completed over the next month or so.

Last night saw the start of this with the diddly wee tankies getting their first lick of paint. I suspect that the massed Prussian Empire forces that I seem to have acquired with take a little while to get through.

Arse. just noticed that I've missed painting the base trim on that front one. Harumpf.

I know what I'm doing first tonight now.

TTFN

Bring me sunshine...

...oh..no need. it's here already! Huzzah!

It meant that I got to put to the undercoat on the massed Prussian Empire forces that have invaded my desk. Hopefully I'll get the chance to start painting them at lunchtimes next week. The paint scheme has more or less been decided to be steel & dunkelgelb with a little added brass to pick out the fun stuff like Zzzappy guns.

Quite looking forward to painting them. I haven't painted anything at this scale for a while.

TTFN.

Paint-a-thon!

My drive is not diminishing!

The Paint-a-thon is forging ahead. I'm aiming to put brush to figure pretty much every night (excluding gaming nights) until I have done the main core of the infantry for the both the Iron Hands and Iron Warriors for 30K.

This does constitute quite a large number of marines in both power armour and also Terminator armour.

To be precise:

IH Marines 60
IH Terminators 15

IW Marines 60
IW Terminators 13

It's going to be a bit of a slog but I am committed to getting them done once and for all! I also have the added incentive of all the fun stuff to paint once these are out of the way.

Last night I was getting the first coat of red done on another 5 marines. This time it was some autocannon fellas. Tonight I've got 5 guys with Volkite Chargers to do and then I'll have the first thirty Iron Hands showing a decent amount of progress. From that point I'll probably work on all thirty at once as I do the second coat of red and the finishing touches.

I'm still also trying to be constructive in my lunch hours so today I applied some glue and sand to the bases of my PE land forces. Fingers crossed the weather will stay dry and allow me to get these sprayed tomorrow and then I can start slapping a bit of paint on them as well. I've more or less decided on a steel and Dunkelgelb colour scheme with a limited amount of camo stripes on the non-metallic areas.

TTFN

Even more little tankies!

After all the prep work I've been doing on my 28mm Horus Heresy stuff it has been a nice change to prep the DW stuff as it takes hardly any time at all.

 Some medium Prussian tanks and...

A whopping great mobile airfield!

Also had enough time to spray some HH figures ready for next week when I intend to get stuck in to getting the Iron Hands done after sooooooo... much procrastination!

Ferrus and some friends.

Yet more Robots....

...and some artillery!

Not too mch more to do then I can look to texturing the bases prior to undercoating them.

I'm currently thinking of a light brown and green scheme for the KoB and a simple Dunkelgelb scheme for the PE. I want to carry the colour schemes over to the DL forces in 28mm that I have so I'm not rushing the decision on what colours to go for.

TTFN

Landships Ahoy!

Couple more tanks prepped for DW.

Still not sure whether I should go for a grey military look or something more colourful like dunkelgelb with stripes. This said, I haven't decided what scheme to use for the KoB and they've been undercoated for well over a year.

TTFN

Lunchtime Tinkerings

I've tried to kick myself back into gear at home in the evenings to get my Horus Heresy stuff done (hmmm probably should do some blog posts about that as well) but I've also tasked myself with being a bit more productive at lunchtimes once again.

With that in mind I am going to try and bring Dystopian Wars to the table again in 2016. Not naval warfare this time as I'm not sure that it really caught our attention that much. However I've always had a hankering for a game with lots of iddie biddie tanks and the land based DW stuff is just the sort of thing that flicks my switch!

My Kingdom of Britannia land stuff sits at home all put together, based and undercoated and I fully intend to get some serious batch painting done, after a chunk of the HH stuff, to get a sizable force table ready. My lunchtime aim is to get the Prussian Empire forces, which I seem to have a lot of, to the same point so I can do the KoB and move straight on to the PE. These things aren't complicated builds and the Spartan castings are usual top-notch so they don't take long to prep.

 I painted up some smaller landing craft a couple of years back and I'd picked this one up cheap as I do have the hope of doing a beachhead game at some point.

Some clanky fun!

Some even bigger clanky fun! The dreaded Metzer! The robot bases need texturing but then they'll be ready for a spray.

Two of the six Zeppelins that I find myself owning. The others are a bit smaller but a nice start to my airbourne floatilla.

Still to do?

Mobile airbase (Huge monster!)
Loads of tanks of various sizes
Some more robots
and some planes.

It might be a good idea for me to cost out the points for both the Kob and PE as I suspect the plucky Brits might well be outnumbered and....hey..I need an excuse to buy them some more air support!
;-)

I brought some 6mm buildings a while back and the scenery maker in me is screaming to start that. I've got all sorts of ideas about nice contoured pieces with little lane and hedgerows. Can't wait.

But i must wait.

Until I've finished a big chunk of my Heresy painting.

Too many toys and not enough time to play with them!

TTFN