Kalamadea

Never had a "screw 40K, I'm out!" moment, I just lost more and more interest over the editions as I played non-GW games more and more and more until I stopped playing 40k pretty much entirely. The models are still gorgeous and I have really fond memories of playing 3rd and 4th ed, so I use any excuse to keep buying it and painting it, but rarely actually play anything GW and when I do it's usually a reminder of why I stopped. Was planning to get back in for 10th and was initially very excited by the models, but the rules drops have dented that excitement considerably. I'd still like to get back into regular weekly gaming at the FLGS, but I definitely like using the excuse of "well maybe I'll play with these" to model and paint GW more than I actually like playing GW.

This is really dissapointing, I've been out of the main editions for years and figured 10th would be a great time to get back in, but they really gutted everything that I have painted. Built a super competative 7th ed TWC and Wulfen heavy army with extra GH and BC units so I could also do 3rd/4th edition games against an old friend. TWC don't look too terrible, they just aren't great now, but my 15 Wulfen are just awful, frost claws gone, axes gone, thunder hammers essentially gone, and you still can't put them in vehicles. I see Skyclaws, but no Blood Claws Bike Pack, do they even exist anymore? No Wolf Priests at all, let alone Wolf Priest on bike. My Grey Hunters and Blood Claws are all kitted out for 3rd ed loadouts, so too many power fists and no special weapons on the BCs. GH have plasma pistols listed in the profile, but no way to take the plasma pistols, so unless there's a FAQ to add pistols my GH are loaded illegally. Need to decide if it's worth painting extra Firstborn to add to those units to make them legal or just leave them as-is for my 3rd ed games and paint up the huge backlog of Indomitus/Imperium Magazine Primaris kits as SW. But at that point you're just playing with normal space marines painted grey. I'm a lot less excited about 10th than I was a couple weeks ago

Thanks! I've been busy with other projects since finishing these guys. Lots of infinity and Star Wars and terrain that has been great fun and is turning out well, but isn't suitable for B&C. The Ultras are complete until whenever GW releases new Primaris kits, at which point I'm sure to see you back here :)

Probably around 8 hours or so for a 5 man squad. I'm actually not as fast at painting as you'd assume, I'm just efficient with the painting time and use a few tricks to speed up the initial basecoating and shading process. Usually I'll do all the basecoating, color blocking and decals in an evening paint session while I listen to podcasts/audiobook etc. I can't watch TV/movies and paint unless I've already seen it, I miss too much of the show. Next day (or same day if I spend a day off painting) I'll do the edge highlights, washes and basing. It also helps that I've been very bored with World of Warcraft lately, so most of my traditional video game time has turned into painting time recently. I've done the gloss-on-gloss washes and it works well, but it's still much more time consuming than oil and enamel washes. Very clean results though, and it's good if you're doing decals since you need to glosscoat the area anyways.

finished the Chaplain and added a bit of bling to the army. There's no rules for the Sagittarum Guard in 8th ed as far as I know, hopefully FW comes out with some rules for them beyond 30K, but they are awesome models and I just had to do a squad of them, even if I have to counts-as regular Custodes. Frustratingly, the regular Custodes squads are out of stock everywhere, but I got a unit of the terminators and also Valoris in the meantime. All were great fun to paint, airbrushed Vallejo Metal Color, edged in silver then given a dark brown oil wash to pick out the details and darken them down. I debated leaving the lion pelt off valoris and cutting down the feather plume on the shoulderplate, but decided in the end to do them both as they add a lot of frill to the character. I decided to keep the halberds silver instead of the turquoise to keep the attention on the models themselves, I didn't want a splash of color off to one side

finished the Chaplain and added a bit of bling to the army. There's no rules for the Sagittarum Guard in 8th ed as far as I know, hopefully FW comes out with some rules for them beyond 30K, but they are awesome models and I just had to do a squad of them, even if I have to counts-as regular Custodes. Frustratingly, the regular Custodes squads are out of stock everywhere, but I got a unit of the terminators and also Valoris in the meantime. All were great fun to paint, airbrushed Vallejo Metal Color, edged in silver then given a dark brown oil wash to pick out the details and darken them down. I debated leaving the lion pelt off valoris and cutting down the feather plume on the shoulderplate, but decided in the end to do them both as they add a lot of frill to the character. I decided to keep the halberds silver instead of the turquoise to keep the attention on the models themselves, I didn't want a splash of color off to one side

A coule of WIPs of my Chaplain. Not really that fond of the actual Primaris Chaplain model, converted one out of a Lieutenant, one of the spare Reiver heads (possibly the best Chaplain head ever created), a Space Wolf axe haft and a banner pole from some SM set or another as the crozius. Basing putty is still drying, probably finish it tomorrow. Not very happy with the picture, it's a bit overexposed and it's causing the edge highlights to be a bit more stark than it appears and it's washing out a bit of detail on the chest & leg eagle, might need to play around in photoshop when I take the final of him

Added a few more to the pile. Captain was already painted, I just decided to switch the head to a terminator head. I know there's a Magnus player at my shop, took some preliminary steps. I figure Guilliman doesn't need help, but he won't turn it down

Added a few more to the pile. Captain was already painted, I just decided to switch the head to a terminator head. I know there's a Magnus player at my shop, took some preliminary steps. I figure Guilliman doesn't need help, but he won't turn it down

Thanks I'm normally not nearly so prolific, but I've made a concerted effort the last few years to increase my painting speed to be able to actually complete projects while maintaining a fairly high table-top level of quality. My Gamer-ADD kicks in after a few weeks and I always used to move on to another project and then another, never finishing anything. Carefully layering shadows and highlights and painstakingly going over every deal made for some fantastic looking miniatures, but even when spending 6+ hours on a figure I was never quite at Golden Deamon level, and that was years ago when I worked for an FLGS and could afford to spend all day painting a single figure. These guys are more like an hour and a half per figure and are plenty good enough in my mind compard to where I was when spending 4~6+ hours per figure

Been detailing their WIP over the last few weeks in this thread in the Ultramarines forum. Army is now complete, just 19 days after the last model was assembled and primed blue. Pretty stoked about it,

And that's the base army done. Took a few weeks to get everything bought and built, but got everything assembled and primed on the 9th. Last mini based just now, 19 days later. Still got a few bits and bobs to fill out some options, but the main force is now complete, ready for game night on thursday where I'm sure I'll fight some Imperial Guard player with 20 unpainted, half-built Leman Russ' :P

10 Reivers done. While I do like the regular Reiver helmets, these are all easy-build ones and I don't like the mask with the hair showing so I picked up some PuppetsWars resin heads that I'm rather keen on. Doesn't show well at all in the photos, but the left eyes are covered with a green lens done up in Waystone Green technical paint, I may go back and do them a brighter green just to make them show up a litle clearer. Very close to the initial 2k army complete. Saved the Captain, the Ancient and both Lieutenants for last. I do also have a box of Aggressors, a box of hellblasters and a non-Gravis Captain to build and paint but I want these done in time for game night on thursday. And the comparison shot for all the infantry, now so very close to done :)

Thanks. They're both from 20 years of early impressions. When I started a lot of the 2nd ed paintjobs were still in White Dwarf and codexes, so for me all plasma weapons should have bright yellow (or bright red) muzzles. I realize EVERYTHING was bright yellow or red back then, but for some reason it's the plasma weapons that really stick in my mind. Same for the MK VII helmet, I know the beakies came first, but when I started almost every Space Marine in metal or plastic had a MK VII, so I think of marines having that style helmet. Nothing wrong with the MK X, but I kinda wanted a classic SM look to my figs. Similar reason I went with the lighter blue for Ultras (although I draw the line at yellow trim and aquilas, the gold is far superior on that point)

And last update before bed, got the Hellblasters based up and ready for war. Just leaves the 10 man Reiver squad and the characters left for the initial batch, hopefully by 40K night next week but maybe the week after, I've been slowing down just a bit