Brother Christopher

Well, it is heresy but the design of modern Chaos Space Marines is so much more interesting, creative and fun than the cookie-cutter Primaris. It's not enough for me leave the light of the Emperor but, man, do they look fun. Great scheme' the pink and black work well.

The progress on the Dread is outstanding, there's a lot going on, but in a good way. The shading on the panels would have been impressive enough to make the model stand out. The added freehand details takes it to another level. I also like the base - the colours work very well, especially the grey stone/rubble. Really, my only remark is that the banner seems a bit off - I find it too small. But this is a matter of taste - I hope you don't take it personally.

You've described something that I've done - doing a marine from another squad by a mix-up. I'd say that this was exactly the same thing, but I can't - my marines are loyal ;) I'm glad you went for colour-coding squads - it's a great way to make things more interesting while painting... and it's probably useful on the tabletop, too. I also missed some of your previous updates. I must say, the Lord Exaltant is great - I particularly like the gradient on the icon.

I, Brother Christopher, continue the 12 Months of Hobby Challenge, and for the month of September re-pledge to finish 1 Primaris Techmarine that I have shamefully failed to finish in the moth of August.

I'll reiterate what others have said - the marble looks great. I'm glad you decided not to 'fix' the panel and lean into the marble thing. And the tank with all its variants is also awesome. Nothing wrong with a giant purple machine, ey? I think I like the one with two barrels the most.

I understand the frustration. On the bright side, the model doesn't look bad. But it's clear that the wash didn't cooperate - probably because of the size of the surfaces. I don't have enough experience to offer any proper advice how to fix this. Maybe try reapplying the base silver in the most problematic parts (i.e. where the larger dark spots are) and redo the contrast layer? Or try varnishing the whole model to even the finish a bit and see if you still feel that it doesn't work for you.

I think in my case, this boils down to a lot of practice with script on purity seals and freehand crosses plus a 1/3 of luck. For whatever reason, some days are good for painting details while on other days I somehow can't get the paint to flow properly off the brush. The details on the knee pad are a combination of these two days: on the first day, I did an okay job buc couldn't nail the 'sharpening' or 'refining' that I somehow seemingly effortlessly achieved on the second day. Regarding the pad, that's very interesting. I somehow feel that my chapter purple doesn't work well with the red of the Techmarine. That's why I decided to keep it to a minimum, i.e. the should pad. But what you said is reassuring. You know what, you're probably right. I checked the head and it's too shouty. Thanks for pointing this out. I might have misremembered the mental note that I made: I've been quite positive I liked the head for a Techmarine but the 'note' was probably taken when I intended to kitbash a Techmarine. I don't have an eradicator kit but I do have some assault intercessors and I think I know which particular head you have in mind. Also, I might consider getting either a face with a rebreather or even scour my Firstborn leftover bits box to see if I have something suitable. That's some out of the box thinking. I have to take a look whether I have that head. I used to remember everything I bought for 40k. Now this isn't the case: I know I bought the Captain second hand but don't remember whether he had that head or not. Also, if I have it I just might push it a bit further and perhaps even incorporate some design cues from the face mask from Dead Space - I have very fond memories of the series. *** I've been away for the weekend on a family occasion. Regrettably that is, since I got bored out of my mind and haven't had the time to paint more Warhammer :P Things were even worse, though. My hobby progress got ravaged by some assembly issues: annoyingly, I couldn’t get the axe arm and shoulder pad fit properly. The effort of gluing, removing, re-gluing, removing, scraping and filing took a long time. However, I think I succeeded... sort of. I think that the shaft isn't supposed to touch the base and mine does, which causes the thing to bend... I'll live with this, though. I also made some more painting progress not yet documented photographically. I'll have to reiterate what I posted above: I still need 1-2 painting sessions to get the model done. It seems, however, that I won't make it in time for the 12 Months in the Hobby Challenge. Here are two photos taken in some better lighting than those above: In addition to having an arm attached, I updated the edge highlights. In the previous photos, they didn't seem contrasty enough. I attempted to add another layer of warm highlights to the most prominent and edges and I think it worked quite well. You know that I'm not one for overestimating my work so please take my word for it: the reds/highlights look pretty cool in real life. Perhaps I'll manage to reproduce the real-life look of the model when I take the final photos.

@gaurdian31 That's very kind of you. Thanks for the support :) I decided to take photos a bit sooner to benefit from the magnification. Even when I look at the models using a magnifying glass, I find myself discovering more when looking a proper photos. I don't know why, there's a bluish/purplish tint to the photos that I couldn't remove in post. Regardless, the photos below should give you a good idea of the progress I've made. And a close-up of the knee pad. I put some more work into it since I've last mentioned (and complained about) it and I think it looks better now - the cog, as well as the cross are somewhat better-defined and I can't see myself improving this any more. I now must decide on a head. I think that I'll go with a helmetless option; however, the original one is a bit too Mad-Max-y/Mechanicus-y for my taste. I might use the one from an Indomitus Chaplain - it always felt like a nice head for a Techmarine. As for the pouches included in the kit, I don't think I'll be using them - I don't want to cover up the nice backside armour (that's a combination of words I didn't expect to type in my life).

The use of a Librarian model for the Techmarine was a great idea. The added bulk works very well. The modified backpack with more going on on the servo harness is also top-notch - I consider this a nice throwback to Techmarines of old editions. I must also say that I love the photos with the 'scenic background' - the result is well worth the effort. I know that you've been doing this for a while but somehow the tank in the background particularly caught my attention.

@Brother Carpenter This means a lot, really. Personally, find it a bit hard to find the motivation to keep going. However, I'm not one for quitting. I will finish what I've started. But I'm becoming more and more disillusioned about me playing the game. And having the option to field different squads of different men in an actual game has always been a major driving force behind growing and painting the collection. I really hope that the next edition of the game will be more, I don't know, streamlined? Or that perhaps we will have a 'friendly-game' mode where one won't have to follow all the rule updates. I suppose it worked very well - it maintains the retro vibe but the material is infinitely more durable than paper. And not as fiddly as green stuff, too.

It has been a while. I'd like to apologise to all of you for not responding sooner. As an excuse/explanation, being a real-world freelancer, I'm taking every opportunity to earn some extra money before my planned holiday. This is a bit exhausting but I'd like to believe that it'll be worth it. With the additional workload, between painting miniatures, taking care of chores, doing exercise to combat the consequences of a desk job and trying to have some time for myself and my friends, I'm finding it difficult to "allocate time" to the forum at the moment. This is something that bothers me a lot but it's also a result of prioritisation and I take full responsibility for my decisions. Regardless, I'm very sorry for not engaging more, especially since many of you have put in an effort to respond my my progress. Looking at the previous photos, I'm glad I updated (upgraded?) the helmet highlights. I'm glad you thin the result works. @Firedrake Cordova As for the colour(s), unfortunately, I don't have anything specific. I mixed Vallejo's 70.891 Intermediate Green (a bottle of green that I've been probably using for 8-10 years) with a certain amount of black, until I felt that the shade works with the purple. I didn't bother to note the proportions since I've mixed what feels like enough of the dark green to deal with this project. I have my custom green in a separate pot for the sake of consistency. For lighter tones, I added some beige and for the extreme highlights, I mixed in some yellow. Everything was done at a "more or less" basis. Once again, I'm super happy that it works. To be honest, the green wasn't my idea. This was something my wife suggested and I kinda dismissed this idea on the basis "she doesn't know what she's talking about.' Later, irrespective of my wife's suggestion, a friend of mine who used to be into 40k and is more art-inclined that me recommended the same. I then reconsidered and still hesitant, decided to give it a go. Mainly because I wanted to incorporate as many colours as possible. That is, without making my marines too garish (slightly garish is okay, though). Thanks for dropping in. I'm trying to keep myself motivated by posting here. I'm exploring the application of glazes and learning how to use them. I will be experimenting on faces, in particular. And thanks for the feedback RE: bases, too. Thank you! I'll bear that in mind. This is very valuable - it's probably not 'colour theory' as such, but delving into custom stuff (instead of using the tried and ready-made colour scheme of the Black Templars), I'm discovering that there's A LOT to consider. And even the slightest changes or smallest additions can make a difference. *** As some of you might have noticed, I took a small break and recently painted some Firstborn Templars. Right now, I'm painting the newest addition to my collection: a Techmarine. The road to add a Techmarine was full of back-and-forths: I wanted one but couldn't justify the price; I wanted to wait for a Techmarien to get bundled with some other models; I convinced myself that I don't want one in my force. In the end, I got one as a bargain and decided to give painting reds a go. In the new world of colours and techniques, I decided to try sponge painting (if that's what the process is called) to paint/shade the armour. I must say, the results are quite cool to the naked eye. I'm apprehensive about taking photos of the model but I like what I'm seeing so far. The only drawback is that there's a bit of a texture here and there: I'm not sure where it came from but I'm sure it's because of user error: I've either patted down pieces of sponge into the paint or I might have allowed sand/dust to mix with the paint on my palette. The other criticism I have at the moment is that I definitely overestimated my skills/brush control with a freehand on the kneepad. I decided to paint a Mechanicus cog outline surrounding a Maltese cross. The idea is great but the implementation fell a bit short of the concept (probably due to the limited space). The details are there if you know what they were supposed to be but they're not as well-defined as I'd hope. The whole thing seems a bit cramped, too. However, I decided to keep the pad as-is since I spent what feels like a lot of time on doing that. Regardless, if time allows, I'm planning to finish the body within the next 1-2 painting sessions and am intending to post WIP shots before moving to painting the axe arms and servo arms. *** I'm also amused by how deeply thinking through the lens of game squads is rooted in me. I'm trying to definitively decide how to organise my purple dudes and am struggling to break away from the game-imposed limitations. I find it a bit silly how much time I'm devoting to pondering on how to organise my men. Right now, I'm leaning towards trying to use a modified older structure and stick to organising units into 5-man squads. However, the second appealing option is to introduce elements of old tactical squads into the Primaris line and perhaps move to a variation on the 3-men squads that GW introduced. The problematic part boils down to two variants: Variant 1 3x 5-men bolter marine squads 5-men plasma marine squad 5-men flamer marine squad 5-men melta marine squad Variant 2 3x 6-men bolter marine squads + special weapons marine (a different special weapon - plasma/flamer/melta - for each squad). 6-men plasma marine squad 6-men flamer marine squad 3-men melta marine squad (to mimic the Eradicator squad) I think that Variant 2 is perhaps a bit more interesting from a modelling perspective (I'm thinking of adding a melee weapon option for the sergeants in the special weapon squads) but having principles from 4/5th editions in the back of my mind, I can't stop to prefer multiples of fives for a Force Organisation. So Variant 1 would be absolutely perfect... But there's the open question of the 3 Blade Guard Veterans - I'd either have to buy another 2 to make a 5-men squad or consider them as a separate thing altogether, e.g. bodyguards. While I'll probably still be pondering this, I'd better get back to work and painting my Techmarine.

Good one. I have been struck by an enormous amount of real-life stuff this week which leads me to be a bit concerned about my success. Especially since I'm discovring that the model has a fair bit of details that I've glossed over. Thanks!

I totally understand your situation - there's something off about this August. I can only say this: Good luck. I'll race you with my own 1-model vow!

Thanks! I'm glad you like that - I figured that's a nice way to smuggle some more colour in. And it's super quick and easy, too! With an old brush, I paint the inside blue, wait for the paint to dry, and them apply a lighter layer of a mix of blue and white.

I, Brother Christopher, further vow to complete another model, a Techmarine, by month's end. Given my track record, this might be pushing it At this point, as always, I'd like to extend my congratulations and respect to all who are able to push tens of models per month.