Brother Christopher

I think that it looks great - excellent execution of the idea. The claws being uneven might be something you, as the maker and owner of the thing, notice more than you should. Any potential faults are not apparent in the photos. The stowage is also great: I like the attention to detail in the little straps extending on the right-top armour. The stubber mounted on the side of the turret is also a cool idea. Very similar in spirit to the hull-mounted melta that you made on the smaller tank. I think that the possibilities of 3d printing bits and models are amazing now but (if I may) it's not really that useful for people like us with smaller projects. I have finally had my first stabs at 3d printed bits and they're great and all but I just don't like resin. Don't get me wrong: I appreciate the possibilities and quality (especially when it comes to small bits) but it doesn't quite work as a base for conversions - it's difficult to cut and 'process' - unlike plastic, resin is more brittle. I'm not sure, however, how good it is for larger flat surfaces and a tank turret is just that. Sorry for the aside.

A bit late, as usual, but I like the dude a lot. The base is dope and I continue to like the variety of freehands on the capes. The whip is great and all, but I particularly love the power fist variant with the green power field on the fingers.

So far so good! I'd even say that it's more than good enough as-is.

That's definitely an upgrade! I'm glad you got it - the new banner is definitely more fitting.

Thank you for the reaffirming post! I also think that I was lucky to have that helmet. It doesn't seem bulky any more - maybe I got accustomed to looking at it or maybe it felt bulky by comparison. I'm also pretty happy to have the spare Primaris Techmarine helmet that I'm intending to use for a searge in my heat weapon squad (not sure whether I'll use it for the flamer or the melta squad). Next week I'm taking a holiday so no hobby time. Having said that, I'll have some time to waste and ponder what to do with my Bladeguard Squad. Right now, I have the possibility and idea to organise them into a 5-man squad consisting of 1 Bladeguard Captain (I think I'll swap his relic shield for a regular one, though), 1 Champion model (I will need to shorten his sword and attach a shield onto his backpack) and 3 regular Bladeguards. The decision I'm forcing myself into taking is this: should I consider them veterans and paint them in the Veterans scheme (i.e. white helmets and arms) or should I consider them something else and go with a different colour scheme. The initial plan was to go with the Veteran route but things have changed a bit since then: I got some new models and reorganised things. I could use the white arms and helmets as designators for the 1st company (and paint Sternguards, Terminators and the eventual Vanguards this way). Right now, I'm leaning towards doing something different with the Bladeguards and treat them as a retinue or honour guard unit - a squad who supports the commanders in the Company. This would mean that I'll get to avoid painting white (I love the look but I hate painting it!) and even potentially try out something new. As I'm typing this, I realise that this new-devised conundrum could be a great opportunity to use some of the visualisation @space wolf suggested way back. Another idea would be to incorporate more of the custom sergeants' green. It seems that in this post I'm basically spitballing - but that's also good for me since writing things helps me organise my thoughts and ideas.

As always, inspiring conversions. I envy you your zeal and passion for this kind of work. Also, I want to point out that your 'fix' for the storm shield was so good that GW stole it from you. Congrats - this fact (i.e. the design on the new Jump Captain) is only a testament to how good and, I dare say, necessary your conversion was.

August-to-September model finished:

Just in time, my second vow is done.

Thanks! No, I haven't - old habits die hard. As such, I haven't considered getting outside of the yellow, green, (standard) blue palette for details on a Techmarine. And here are some photos of the finished model: And some close-ups: As always, close-ups reveal some things that I could improve but not this time - I'm calling it done, as part on my journey to learn to let things go. Overall, I'm very happy with this one. It was quite fun to paint (although it has taken me a long time to get him done) and the result is very nice. I've even limited the amount of battle damage to a minium.

I delt with it surprisingly well, to be honest. I'm quite surprised how easily I conceded, after exhausting reasonable measures to make the idea work. Not this time! But old habits die hard: with my Oldmarine Templars, I've almost always used mixed paint schemes, incorporating the Martian reds and Templar blacks. With this chapter, I felt the purple doesn't work so I turned to the familiar. The issue is that it's a bit bulky/wide and takes too much of the gorget but, despite that, I decided to go with this option. I've grown to like it (thanks to GW's best advertising device: Space Marine 2 where I enjoy Vanguard and Sniper!). My only criticism is the weird greaves but I definitely don't hate them. I just think that the heavier, standard armour would work better. It's either from a Stormtalon or Stormraven - or maybe some Dark Angels bike squad upgrade? My best guess is that it's from the Stormraven kit. Regarding what you said about the colours: oh, that's a great idea - I could go with it. To be honest, the main motivation was what I mentioned above. But you've pointed out something that opens more possibilities - thanks! *** I feel I'm very close to finishing the model. I took some quick photos to inspect the work. While the compressed photos are enough to give an overview, the full versions helped me assess what I did... and it appears that the model passed the inspection. The only faults I can see is some superglue frosting around the base of the thin servo arm and some areas where the reds are a bit too flat/undefined. But I don't feel like redoing them again so I'll just fix the frosting, finish the base, make an attempt at taking better photos and call it a day. I'm particularly curious about what you think about the helmet. I'd be leaning towards saying the black is fine (it works well with the black shaft of the axe, bolter case and servo arm) and the random (intuitive?) decision to paint the camera/targeter thingy red was good. However, I'm still open to repainting it red.

Nah, don't do that ;) Unless it's a small project! *** As always, thank you for the positive feedback. The last week has been an absolute roller-coaster of emotions, chores, work and stuff so progress has been slow. I have to get the Techmarine done till the end of the week - that's my no. 1 priority now. I italicised 'now' because I managed to get two cheap phobos characters and spent the better part of my hobby time over the last 2 days trying to fix the leg armour. However, ultimately, the only thing I objectively managed to achieve is slightly damage the models. It turns out that I can't sculpt the added armour on the greaves (to hide the silly recessed bit) and my attempts at making green stuff press-moulded plates also failed. With the latter, the biggest issue - as it turns out - are the shoes. I can't make the armour work in a satisfactory way in all three vital points: connection with the knee pad, the connection with the ankle ball-thingy and to work well with the armour on the shoe (the added greaves cover almost entirely the elevated part of the shoe and make the feet look goofy). Genuinely, it's a pitty. Not only have I wasted time but I also damaged relatively expensive models and failed. Having said that, I must admit that subjectively, I have no real regrets - I had an idea that I wanted to try out and now I know that it's unattainable within a reasonable time frame. If I hadn't tried, I probably would have pondered this on numerous occasions. And now this uncertainty is gone. This is what I call added value. An important part of this entire project is to keep it attainable, entertaining and under control. And knowing when to stop and admit defeat is a part of that philosophy. Trying to remedy the existence armour-shorts was definitely not entertaining and given the time the attempts took and the skills that I don't have - it's clearly not attainable. Getting back to the Techmarine, I found what I consider to be a matching firstborn helmet (I think it might have been a pilot's helmet but am not sure). I'm planning to use it since it's got loads more character than the original Primaris one. The only concern that I have that somehow it looks a bit too big... I'll also give it a shot and try and paint it black for no reason. It should look cool and should make the model more interesting. Also, I decided to pick black as a secondary colour (e.g. for the bolter casing, the servo arm) so it should work fine. If it doesn't, I can always repaint it red. ... Now come to think of it, I could have primed it white and go with that.

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.