Project: Imperial Fists, milestone 1000+ points painted

Tonight, I passed a milestone. I now have 1000+ points of Imperial Fists fully painted. 1,224 points to be specific. Two Vindicators, Assault Squad with Chaplin with jump pack and Three tactical squads are complete! Next I am going to work on the 2 Dreadnoughts, Razorback and Drop pod I need to finish out the 1,850 list.

Apocalypse Megabattle

Great fun over the weekend at the Apocalypse Megabattle Dallas Adeptus North Texas. The event was part of the worldwide Apocalypse Megabattle coordinated through apocalypse40K.com.

It was my first Apocalypse game and I will say it was fun. It took me a while to warp my mind around the idea of Apocalypse. As far as I can see the idea of Apocalypse 40k is to play big battles without caring who wins. The last part is important because there is no real balance or tactics. This is all about huge numbers of big models. I brought 3,500 points in steel legion and wasn't even a factor in this game. Don't get me wrong I have a blast! Once I realized I should stop trying to think andfocus on playing my big models, the game got a lot more fun.

Flickr Stream

Here was a big thing for me in the game. Painted models. It was soo much more fun playing painted models against painted models. You can see from the pictures. The game looked great. I only had the camera on my cell phone and wished I had my full sized camera. The game was amazingly visual. You loose that playing unpainted models.

On the Bench: Up and running

Airbrush got setup up this week and I started in on my Sgt, heavies and specials. Tactical squad 1 and 2 are both going to have Lascannon and flamer so they can break into a AT fire team and assault team. There was a couple of big game this weekend and I wanted to get a least 3 colors on 750 points so that the Imperial Fists could play if needed. I ended up playing the Apocalypse 40,000 megabattle with my IG instead but it was good motivation to get the airbrush are put together.

Speaking of the airbrush. Wow did it need a cleaning. There is this place where the color cup meets the expansion chamber that I have to watch. It is hard to reach without doing a full break down of the brush and it tends to be the spot where paint collect and dries. I thought my mix was off then I was base coating these guys. It was coming out very thin. So I thickened my mix, wrong answer. That was a disaster, the brush stopped shooting paint at all. Turns out it was a dirty brush. I like I said a while a go, the first thing to do when you have a problem is break the brush down and clean it.

3rd Battle company is coming along here is the current progress:

Complete Battle Company (3rd) of Imperial Fists

• Planning - Done
• Buying - Still 90%, 1 Rhino, a couple of assault marines and HQ models left
• Assembly - 70% up from 45%a week and a half ago
  
• Painting - 35% up from 30%, 2/6 Tactical Squads in done 80% done, 1/2 assault squads 80% done and 0/2 devastators and no HQ yet.
  

That is what is on the Bench this week. See you next time.

Project: Imperial Fists, Rhinos

Rhino 2 and 3 are done. This is the last paint project I can do without setting up the airbrush. sigh.. I may have gone a bit over board with the weathering but I was having fun with it. Now off to the garage to see how much I can get set up.

Quick tip - Wraithbone

A friend of mine is working on a Eldar space hunk board and emailed me for help on making Eldar looking terrain. Looking at some of the picture this is what came up with for a quick way to make Wraithbone pillars. It seemed a good way to visualize the shape. It very much reminds me of the old 'how to draw a X' articles that used to be in the back of comic books. Before comic books became cool (yes I read them way back then).

Project Status - Imperial Fists Full 3rd Battle Company part 2

So after some more assembly, I need to stop gluing and start painting. There is a point where you have too much bare plastic in a project. I find that it can hurt my motivation. Completing a squad at time you have this vision of what the whole will look like. There is an identity to the project and the more bare plastic the less I can see it.

All unpainted armies look the same to me. But with paint on them they turn into something more real. It is like without yellow this project would be about plastic which I have no real emotional tie to. Paint them yellow and I suddenly they are now Imperial Fists connected to all the great books, fluff and other painted Imperial Fists armies I drooled over.

So I have two painting projects before I have to have the airbrush setup. There are 4 marines that need weathering and two of the Rhinos need detail work and weathering. After that it is get the airbrush setup or die.

Project Status - Imperial Fists Full 3rd Battle Company

Here is a state of the project for Imperial Fists 3rd Company. Yes I am building the whole battle company. After looking at it I am not that far off. It was kinda a wild off in the future statement when it was suggested, but now I can see it coming together.

A tip of my hat to paintedpotato over at dakkadakka who has already completed a Imperial Fists Full Battle Company.

HQ 50%

• Buy Master of the Arsenal (Captain)
• Assemble Apothecary, Standard Bearer and Command Squad

Tactical Squad (1) 95%

• Paint Lascannon

Tactical Squad (2) 80%

• Paint Lascannon, Sergeant and Flammer
• Finish Weathering Rhino

Tactical Squad (3) 80%

• Paint Sergeant and Plasma gunner
• Finish Weathering Rhino

Tactical Squad (4) 20%

• Paint Squad
• Assemble Rhino

Tactical Squad (5) 10%

• Paint Squad
• Assemble Rhino and 5 Tactical Marines

Tactical Squad (6) 5%

• Buy a Rhino
• Paint Sergeant and melta gunner
• Assemble Rhino, 7 Tactical Marines and Heavy weapon

Devastators Squad (7) 10%

• Paint Sergeant and 5 Devastator Marines
• Assemble 4 Devastator Marines

Devastators Squad (8) 0%

• Buy one more Devastator box
• Assemble Sergeant and 9 Devastator Marines

Assault Squad (9) 90%

• Paint 2 Assault Marines

Assault Squad (10) 0%

• Buy one more Assault Squad box
• Assemble Sergeant and 9 Assault Marines

Armory Support 60%

• Paint 2 Dreadnought s
• Assemble 1 Vindicator

So to finish things out I need 1 Assault Squad box, a Devastator box, a Rhino and a Master of the Arsenal. Everything else, I have already. Need to assemble 3 Rhinos (maybe two more for the devastators), 12 Tactical Marine with bolters, 13 Devastators plus another Sergeant, 10 Assault Marines, command squad and a Vindicator. Painting is coming along, but has a long way to go. Once I get the airbrush set back up I will start cranking through that again.

I think tonight I will work on Rhinos.

Project: Imperial Fists, Assault Squad

I finished up weathering and details on the Space Marine Assault Squad. The helmets turned out good, although they do kinda look like a football team.


The weathering on the jump packs turned out great. I had to dry brush some Chaos Black to get the scorch marks dark enough.

You may wounder why only 8 Marine, the reason is to keep them down around 200 points. I found that the durability of 8 vs. 10 is not that great and keeping them around 200 means I can field this squad in a 750 point game.

On The Bench: New work area

We’re in the new house and things are getting back to normal. So it is time to set up the work area and start painting again. I thought I would write up my thoughts on setting up my new bench to get back into the blogging habit.

Here is the new work area. The airbrush setup will need to move to the garage. I will be setting that area up in a couple of weeks once the house is unpacked. As you can see I have a smaller area but lots of storage. So far it is working well. With the area being more central to the rest of the house I can paint and be around the family. The old painting area was in the dungeon area of the house and so far away as to be out of reach if I was needed.

So first up on the bench is finishing off the Space Marine assault squad. I am done with the ink wash and will weather them tonight. Once I get the airbrush set back up I will start on tactical squads again. I have a set of sergeants for each squad (one with bolt pistol and chain sword and one with bolt pistol and power fist). This way I can change out weapon load outs as needed for adjusting points. My 500, 1000, 1500 and 1850 lists are stabilizing (more about that later) and I need to complete all of those models.

I am starting to line up projects again. Here is what I have on the horizon:

Complete Battle Company (3rd) of Imperial Fists

• Planning - Done
• Buying - 90%, 1 Rhino, a couple of assault marines and HQ models left
• Assembly - ~45%
  
• Painting - 30%, 2-3/6 Tactical Squads in process, 1/2 assault squads and 0/2 devastators

Build an Imperial Fist 10th Company Army of Scouts and Bikes

• Planning - Theme/Paint Scheme done, working on army list
  
• Buying - ~60%, 2 squads of scouts and most of the bikes
• Assembly - 0%
• Painting - 0%

Eldar Army

• Planning - Vague idea of what type of army I want to play, not paint scheme yet
• Buying - ~20%, Battle Force, Fire Prism and Warp Spider, Ranger and Farseer boxes
• Assembly - 0%
• Painting - 0%

Magnetized Imperial Guard Shadowsword / Stormlord

• Planning - Researching
  
• Buying - 100% being shipped now
  
• Assembly - 0%
• Painting - 0%