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 . 

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.

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!

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.

30k Imperial Fists - Breachers

(or Thank God for Black... I may not lose my mind, yet!)

Breacher sample part way through painting

My breachers are getting closer.  The test model took a while longer to paint than I expected.  Here is a quick overview of the colors and plans

30k Imperial Fists - Tacticals

(or What to do with a box of resin?)

Sadly, I've had these Mk III armors for over a year, sitting in a container in the hobby closet, just waiting the right time to get the Imperial Fist paint scheme.

Am I going to paint them up in the same scheme as my 30k Imperial Fist Mk IV squad?

NOPE!

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!

First Company Captain - BaC Conversion

(or if one grav pistol is good, then two is awesome, right?)

I've begun work on my conversion of the Kurtha Sedd figure from Betrayal at Calth.  Not much of the actual conversion process to show here as it is pretty straightforward.

Plastic Contemptor part 2

(a bit of progress, I say...)

Not much to report here other than the fact that my Contemptor is ready for decals!

(Now to find ones that scale properly to the shoulders and armored body of this Dread.)

Holiday progress

(or Primering is progress, right??)

Betrayal at Calth miniatures WIP

Okay, so at least ONE of my models has more than just primer on him, but my lack of progress is frustrating!

Holiday modeling

(or what I did NOT get done over the holidays!)

   With the end of the Holidays approaching fast, I've realized that I have not spent nearly enough time on my models!  Of course the reality is that I spent time with family and friends which is MUCH more important, but somehow it doesn't make me feel any better about the closet of plastic and resin that I am working myself through!

Magnetizing the Plastic Contemptor

(or why I must have options!)

I am slowly working my way through the Betrayal at Calth boxed set, as each of the sprues have an excellent set of options.  To take a break from building Mk4 bodies, I decided to work on the plastic Contemptor Dreadnought that is in the set.

Imperial Fists - Paint Scheme #1

(I'm so glad that painting is easy and I never mess up... oh wait...)

WIP of Imperial Fists

Here is the first test model for my 40k Imperial Fists.  I don't think I want my 30k Fists looking this nice and new.  Well maybe except for the Mk.4 kits!

There goes the weekend

(and the holidays, and the New Year...)

Yes, my copy of Betrayal at Calth arrived.  At least the plastic sprues will fuel some hobby projects for the next few months!

I can't tell you how excited I am to have this many Mk.4 Space Marines in plastic to work with, both for my 40k and 30k armies.  That, and I'm hoping the quality of this is an indicator of things to come with the new Specialist Games division of GW.

Well, instead of continuing to type nonsense onto this blog, I'm off to assemble some Mk.4 goodness!

Painting the Tacticals

(or Green goes the Tactical Marines...)

Now that I'm fielding the goodness that is Grav guns, I need to stop proxying them with old Rogue Trader models with esoteric weapons.

A straightforward assembly from the new Tacticals box, with a custom shoulder pad from Scibor, and this guy is ready for priming.

Marine Devastators

(or Why I shouldn't be allowed to visit game stores...)

I made the mistake of walking into +Atlantis Games & Comics out on the beach while I was in Norfolk this past week.  I knew better...

Three sprues of Space Marine heavy weapon goodness!

I'm just glad I escaped with my bank account intact!

New Codex - Space Marines - Aftershocks

(or Can you hook a [Battle] Brother up?)

Now that I've had some time to dig around in the new Space Marine codex, surf the interwebs for other viewpoints, leave some snarky comments and generally digest the impact of the codex update I think I have a few more observations to share.

I hope the picture above isn't how this codex turns out for the other Space Marine Chapters that have their own codices!

New Codex - Space Marines

(Is that a chainsword or just the sound of Army Lists shredding?)

First off, I'll say I'm pretty happy the new codex is here, and of course there are things that I'm disappointed to lose or see changed from previous versions.

So Be it.