Genestealers - tick!

 

First painting of the year proper and finishing a long outstanding project.

Never too Late

 

Halo*Star was been (slowly) painting up some Space Marine Scouts, and has just finished them in time for GW to phase them out! Timing is everything as they say.

Preping Another Project

Overlapping projects - we all do it. So here I am preparing for the start of another warband. These are Gorkamorka orcs (and an old Goff) after scrub number 1 from the meths bath.

By 40k Orks of almost any later era they are small, but these are actually perfect to accompany my box of RTB02 Ork Raiders that were fantastically gifted to me by my brother a few years ago. They might actually get a paint!

Old School 40k Razorback - Finished

Finished the Old MKI Ultra Marine Razorback. As my Ultra's are all smooth clean blue I resisted the urge to weather the armour. I've also kept the surface free from any visual clutter, which again fits in with the Super Blue "theme".

There obviosuly short comings with the model (aside from my painting!). Being a cheap second hand buy there is always some compromise between condition and cost. Here I only had one side hatch for the gunner, so left it off and one of the exhausts is missing. The side rails were in poor condition so again were pulled off and a common problem with these old rhino kits always seems to be how well the sides are attached.

All these I knew before parting with my cash, so I'm obviously not too bothered. Quite happy with the end result.

As a footnote, the armour is sprayed with Army Painters Ultramarine Blue. The GW old paint for Ultramarines (Mordian Blue?) is a good bit darker. If anyone has a comparison with the new range equivalent, Macragge Blue, it would be very useful.

Old School 40k Razorback - WIP

As a bit of a change for the holidays I thought I'd paint the 40k Razorback I'd picked up at the Glasgow Modelfest back in October for Arabiansquire. Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" picture - DOH!

I've re-sprayed the entire model in Army Painter Ultramarine blue then dry brushed in a lighter blue, which will have to remain nameless as it doesn't have a label (just to say it's a 90's Citadel paint). Everything is very blue!

Next I've painted the metal parts black and dry brushed bolt-gun metal.

More to follow...

Space Marine Reinforcements

Well with the hobby shed now committed to a Space Marine army I did what any frugal father would do and hit ebay. Managed to back a wee bargain for £36 all told:

1 x Spacemarine captain
1 x Spacemarine standard bearer
1 x Techmarine with power axe
1 x Spacemarine rhino
1 x Spacemarine bike
1 x Spacemarine land-speeder
3 x Spacemarine tactical squad
1 x Spacemarine devastator squad
1 x Spacemarine terminator squad
1 x Spacemarine commander (Master of the Ultramarines, Marneus Calgar)

by my rough calculations when combined with what we already have  this takes the point count well over 2000 pts (albeit very infantry heavy). I'm pretty sure that we'll be advised about the necessity of buying in some armour but we'll see. I've still to fully go through the box they came in and get all the arms back on the torsos. The figures would appear to be around mid 90's - especially as it came with a 2nd Ed Ultramarine Codex (which makes nice reading with the old mini's!)

Don't hold you're breath for them getting all painted mind you...

The Catachan Job Lot

A few years ago I picked up a job lot box of GW 40k Catachan figures for a bargain £20. I don't play 40k, but I like the generic, flexible style of the figures on the tabletop.

Recently though, Arabiansquire has become old enough to be left on his at our local gaming club on Saturday mornings (at his own request I should add), whilst unfortunate Dad has less interesting chores to do. He enjoys the whole club thing and is quite happy at the moment to play his own game on a spare table, sometimes roping someone in to play his own basic rules. But I though it would be good if he could play a proper game with someone, and as the kids in the club are attracted to Warhammer 40k I thought I'd see what I had in my Catachan box with regards to a workable force.

The previous owner had conveniently monikered the bases of the figures, so I've managed to roughly group squads together with the help of an older codex in the club library. So this is what I appear to have:

Infantry Command

1 x Officer
1 x Lasgun and  Commlink
 3 x flamer 

Infantry Squad #1

1 x SGT
5 x Lasgun

1 x Lasgun and Commlink
Missile Team
1 x flamer  

Infantry Squad #2

1 x SGT
7 x Lasgun

1 x Lasgun and Commlink
 1 x flamer  

Infantry Squad #3

1 x SGT
7 x Lasgun

1 x Lasgun and Commlink
 1 x flamer  

Command HQ

 1 x Officer

1 x Lasgun and Commlink

Standard Bearer (Lasgun)
 1 x flamer 

1 x Meltagun

Elite Veterans Squad

1 x SGT
4 x Lasgun

1 x Missile Team
 1 x flamer 

1 x plasma gun

2 x Meltagun

Spare: Heavy Bolter team

Not pictured: as a separate purchase I have 3 Sentinels.

From what I can tell the force looks legal enough (aside from 3 flamers in the Command) , but I seem to be left with a spare Heavy Bolter team. The codex I have (don't know if it's 4th or 5th Ed) adds up to just over 700 pts depending on minor options.

I suppose this should be enough to get started with, but any advice via the comments below would be gratefully accepted.