bloodhound23

Highlights look great on the meltagun.

Old photos of an Aquila Lander posted in my personal WIP, and a newer piece.

Thanks! Yes and no. I usually start with what I have or a single model that I'll buy and then will browse eBay or the range on the GW website to look for swappable bits/ideas. I'll google the model, too, primarily to see what kinds of bits scale well together and what other folks have tried. Usually (and I'm certain I'm not the only one here) it starts from just one bit swap for the inspiration, and I'll order maybe $50 of bits every couple of months if I absolutely have to. But I have been trying to do with human-scaled bits what I did with SM/Chaos old scale bits over many years, which is to amass enough kits to start just putting things together when inspiration hits and get most of the way there with what I have. So I have the Skitarii box, the Steelhelms box, the Neophyte Hybrids box, the Solar Auxilia command box, the Blooded box now, you get it. But I'm happy to order a few things if I don't think I'll use a whole box. I have a doc where I put ideas, and if I'm not ready to put something together it might hang out in a little bag with the bits I intend to bash that correspond to what's in the document. But I'm fine with all these kits being barely half-used, I do have ideas for a lot of bits that are just not fully-formed, but I can be patient. It will happen soon enough.

I agree that at the end of the day it's about where I have the will power for it. However, I've had to understand on my end that I just don't complete things for their own sake, and that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed something fully. Other people I guess are more inclined to finish things for their own sake. I do agree that I want to want to complete things in a reasonable time frame though, and that's where the scheduling kicks in.

Same.

Did some painting and building, but the update will just be build photos. Front and back of what could count as a Penal Legionnaire/Voidsmaster, and a third photo of an attempt at recreating a certain metal Delaque ganger from the blister pack era. I'll fill in the gaps that leave the Chaos symbols and replace the powerfist with an appropriately-brutal "knife," probably from the Blooded kit as well.

Their knees look way too low, as does the waist. The fists are a weird choice, the rest would be fine. I do think it was a swing and a miss to not just scale these up. Adding the hip pauldrons would be a fine inclusion, but I'm really not sure why the studio wastes time with redesigns on some of these. It's as if they keep interpreting these complaints about scale as also being about design language. We love the design language! Just change the scale! EDIT: it reminds me of iPhone turnover.

It's like if there were a version of the handsome Squidward meme, but with legs.

Tried some dramatic photo effects. Still a few more stages to go, but enjoying trying to incorporate some time-saving modern painting tips. It would have been basically a faux pas to do this back in 3.5 when I first started, but using a single wash over just base layers on the whole model is great. And now I can do whatever other highlights and re-layering I feel like, but—aside from some essential details like the eyes and the base—he's done.

Me getting into the game right as the 3.5 Chaos codex was released probably explains a lot of my feelings. Hard to live up to that one, tbf.

Commissar, with headswap, blade swap, muzzle swap, and a new backpack.

Had one kitbash I wanted to sneak in for the very end of INQtober, which is this Inquisitor. He's tentatively Ordo Machinum. I had thought to rework it for publication here, but I'll just paste what I have written in a document elsewhere for my idea for this one. "An Inquisitor who owes a debt of gratitude (and more) to the Mechanicum. A changed man, he has roughly converted from an Amalathian to a Recongregator with Xenarite and Xanthite sympathies. After his own brush with death due to bureaucratic incompetence, he has become singularly obsessed in exploring the overlap of the mechanical and the biological. Driven deeply by a desire to reform what he deems the conservatism and stagnation of the Administratum, and—on *his* reading of the Eighth Universal Law—he seeks to incorporate new ideas where possible for the sake of humankind, from whatever source he deems helpful. (Kurzweil style technocrat/accelerationist meets Stannis Baratheon). Played by Ed Harris. Barnes from Platoon." So this is what I came up with, after stewing on this one for about a year. Managed to do it all today, which might be my best time yet for something that required cleanup and a decent amount of cutting to get the head to slot in. Still needs a few gap fillings on the neck and the bolt pistol. See if you can guess the bits.

Welp, bad news brother...

I think it’s happening!

Looks great. Speaking for myself at least, it can be hard to remember here that the cloak is actually done, and it's just a few parts of REST of the model that's still in the "ugly" stage—just unfinished. To me the ugly stage really sets in when the base isn't painted but everything else is finished. And then I paint the base and it looks way more complete somehow. Who knows. It will look extremely cool when finished.