Custodes WIP Part 1

(or Who had the bright idea to start a new army?)

Custodian Guard about 90% complete

Okay, this should be no surprise to you - I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.  My two Space Marine armies are in disarray, my Imperial Knights are only halfway painted, and even some of my Rogue Trader era models still need a lot of work.  So why would someone in my position even start a new army?

Adepticon 2018 Debrief

(or Why do they call it a Swag Bag instead of a Swag Suitcase??)

One of these years I'll just have to bring an extra suitcase for all of the swag at Adepticon!  At least each year I manage to offload a lot of it on my good friend and chauffeur, +Christopher Bergeron . 

Custom Custodes Contemptor

(or This won't hurt a bit...)

Just a simple head swap, right?

This was one of those projects that started on the spur of the moment to JUST LOOK at how a conversion might be done, and ended up taking more time out of my night than I had planned!

Custodes - Time to choose!

(or what is wrong with a "rainbow" army?)

Now it comes down to a moment of decision.
Which of the schemes do I commit to, and more importantly, which will look good on each style of Custodes figure?

All the pretty Custodes Colors

With the release of the Adeptus Custodes codex, there is now sanction to the variety of color schemes out there on the Interwebs...

Now I'm not saying they should look like the "Bag of Skittles" that is the usual Multi-Chapter Space Marine battlefield...
So let's talk about a few concepts ideas I've seen between Adepticon and a Google image search!

Custodes in the field - Round 1

First game with the new Adeptus Custodes Codex is done (and I proved I can lose with ANY army!)

Okay, so in defense of the game designers who wrote the Adeptus Custodes rules, I WAS winning until turn 6 - when my opponent ran away with the Victory Points!

Back at it! - and look at these new Knights!

Wow, time flies when you aren't blogging!

Over the last 7 months my hobby time has been crushed by work travel, photography workshops, and renovating a 1950's house for family.  The sad part is I have even packed up miniatures and paints on several of these trips - but to no avail!

Anyway, enough complaining about me, have you guys seen the preview of the new Knights over at Warhammer Community?

Weekend plans - SHOT!

(or What was I thinking when I ordered ANOTHER box of miniatures?)

Well, there goes the weekend...
Here are my thoughts after unboxing and assembling the first of what will undoubtedly be a LOT of Primaris Marines.

Gaming Table - Part 2

(or How I came to love my garage full of tools, again...)

The table frame, minus the actual game boards

The progress on the table continues!
Here is where I stand with it, now:

The March of the Primaris Marines

(or where did I leave my tinfoil hat?)

Don't worry, brother - I have your back...

Okay - I'll admit I'm getting all "conspiracy theory" here in this post, but when I saw the new Primaris Reivers this weekend, it all started to fall into place for me regarding the Primaris Marines eventually supplanting the current Space Marines in the GW fluff / IP.

Primaris Marine Schemes (Part 1)

(or Isn't white primer technically a "paint scheme")

GW was kind enough to provide a blank to work from!

I gave in - I tried to not order the boxed set, but I did - and now I have a bunch more models inbound. Now the tough part becomes assembling the paints I need and developing a paint scheme that I'll enjoy painting a whole new army in!

Gaming Table - Part 1

(or leave it to me to over-engineer something!)

Yes, that is a scale model of a frame for my gaming table... why do you ask?

Primaris and current chapters

Let's be honest... all of us Space Marine players are in awe of the Primaris Marines and what it can mean...  Closer to True-scale??  Yes, please!

Primaris Smurfs, FTW!

The real problem for me is that I am stuck in the Rogue Trader Mk 6 era.

Back to the Blog

(or have I neglected it for a whole 3 months?)

Yes, yes I have...
So with that it is time to get back to this Blog and update everyone on what has gone on!

Display Case - Progress - Pt 2

(or Why not have an unpainted display case for my unpainted miniatures?)

An unpainted display for a half-painted army?

I've made a little progress with my display case over the past few months.  Cork walls with wood dowel reinforcements have been assembled as the fortification curtain walls.  They are modular allowing me to remove them in sections, and to access the cable pass-through that is hidden behind the central platform.

When I was looking for a good way to create some gothic-looking balconies to display figures on, I remembered that I had some of the Syberclicks terrain set that fit the bill perfectly.

I still haven't decided about the upper balconies - whether to put the miniatures behind the windows, or to simply place the windows flat against the outer wall with "stained glass" behind them.  I guess a little experimentation will be in order once I paint the wall itself!

Alternative Tech Priest

(or Say, what's in the AoS bits box over there??)

That's right 40k fans - I used an AoS Stormcast Eternal as the base model for my "Alternatively Styled" Tech Priest Dominus!

<insert cries of "Heresy" here>

Well now that we got that out of our system, let's see what I did to build this guy...

Aquila Gate - Pt 2

(or Why did I build large terrain pieces?)

Since I've made a bit of progress since I last posted it, here are some more WIP update photos on the Aquila Gate.

Back from a few month break

(or Once again the rumors of my demise are over stated!)

So there has been a lot of non-hobby work (and play) going on in the past few months since my last 40k blog post.  Photography workshops, work travel and a few vacations to make up for all the work travel to my wife!  Sadly my miniatures have only made it out of the display case a few times, but at least I have managed to get in a game or two along with some modelling in the intervening months.

Flyer carnage in the middle of the battlefield

One of the more fun events was a 14-hour slugfest using modified 40k:Carnage rules for a 4-way fight between Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Tau and the Deathwatch.  I may post more details of the forces involved later, but suffice it to say at one point there were 11 flyers in the game at once!

Prep is ongoing for Adepticon in March (assuming my work travel doesn't create a conflict) and thankfully I'm only participating in small 500-point events, so I don't have too large of an army to bring.  More to come on that army build later this month.

I hope the holidays were enjoyable for everyone and I'm happy to finally have enough breathing room to update you all on my hobby progress!

The Grand Army of Shame

(Hey, they're not cardboard proxies! You ought to be pleased!)

A few weeks ago I drove down to Jacksonville, Florida, to participate in a day of gaming and 40k nerdery (that is a word!).  The week that proceeded it was a flurry of model building, basing and priming.  I didn't actually get any more models to a finished state, but at least it wasn't a Grey Tide swamping the enemy there!

Display Case Flooring

(or Is there such a thing as too much supporting detail?)

Currently my armies reside in a two-part display case that also serves to support a printer, scanner and Network Storage.  I really don't have room in my current space for a large mutli-tier transparent case, and to be honest, I don't think I'd fill one, anyway!