More 2nd Ed marines

Finished the squad then...

Here are the heavy weapons guys - missile launcher and flamer:

...and here's the squad all together:

More Legion of the damned next I think. Have a nice Wednesday folks.

Rescued marines

I'm back! - been to Vegas, which was excellent, then in hospital, somewhat less than excellent... I doubt you want to see my holiday snaps or my scars though, so here goes with some new minis. I've mentioned before that GW now rather helpfully do metal shoulder pads for the Eagle Warriors. While I'm off work recovering, I thought I'd hack up some old 2nd Ed (thanks Tim) marines and give them the Eagle Warriors treatment to swell the ranks a little. Here's an example with his shoulder cut out (with a combination of sawing where possible, then carving away with a craft knife):

Had to pull the backpack off to seat the new shoulder pad properly.

So after dismembering the poor dear, I then popped and small ball of green stuff into one of the EW shoulder pads, pushed it firmly into place, and trimmed off the residual green stuff with a wetted knife - smoothed it out as much as possible and painted up as usual:

...and here you can see the 'before and after' shot showing the new shoulder in place:

Note the improved basing with static grass - I think this will be my default plain base from now on.

Same treatment on a couple more:

And a sergeant to whip them into shape:

These minis aren't quite as good as the Black Reach ones (all the same pose for a start) but add new shoulders and a quick paint job, and we're well on the way to an extra Tac squad to add to the army, for not much cash as I had these lying around. More to follow here as I'm at home and bored stiff - great opportunity to get some steady painting done. Back in a day or two... (makes up for the recent lack of posting anyway!)

Skeletons and fire

Legion of the Damned quick'n'dirty paintjob today - whole thing took about an hour. Black undercoat, grey highlights blasted on with the airbrush, and a couple of flames and metallics added in at the end. These seem like a real holiday after all of the work on the whites of the Eagle Warriors.

As part of an ongoing commitment to improving my basing, I've added a bit of grass to this one and I'm quite pleased with the effect to be honest.

I've noticed a couple of smudges on the paintwork after photographing this one that I'll have to go back and tidy up - another good reason to take pics of your work I guess. When I'm painting I don't use a magnifying glass but I'm contemplating getting one to help with finishing work so that touch-ups are less frequently required.

Chaplain in Terminator Armour

Arguably one of GW's most bad-ass looking miniatures, and a joy to paint. I've tried to be a little more elaborate with the basing here too (but not too much).

1 Year Anniversary - The gang's all here

This blog has been going for a full year now - hope you've been enjoying the pics. So where have I got to in a year? - well... so far we now have a workable small Ork force, a good start on the Marines, and the beginnings of an Eldar force. Not too bad for someone who has a job and a life to be getting along with, but productivity could certainly improve if I try really hard in the coming 12 months. For my stock gaming figures I now intend to improve things like increasing speed without changing the finish too much, and basing. We'll see how it goes...

Finally to celebrate my first year - here's a pic of the whole Eagle Warriors force as it currently stands (click to embiggen):

Right then - back to the painting table I think - got a game planned against my good lady at the end of the month and the buildings aren't finished yet - battle report only if I win!

Eagle Warriors Terminator Squad

With the 1-year anniversary of this blog fast-approaching (!), I figured the least I could do was finally get the rest of the Black Reach minis finished, and this weekend's change in weather from the recent sunshine into a more familiar delightful grey drizzle, gave me the perfect opportunity to buckle down.

So here we go with the mighty terminator sergeant Xanthus:

...bless him, he has his name written across his chest in case he forgets who he is...

Just noticed I haven't done the stud on his forehead yet - oops.

I've been working on feedback (from here and on Dakka) and drilled out the gun barrels. Also I'm changing my basing colour to a more muddy brown so that my marines don't look like they've landed on a planet of cornflakes. There will be a little static grass applied to these in the near future too.

In this side view you can see a bit of the blending work on his sword - I think it looks a little nicer than just plain metallics (it is supposed to be a funky powersword after all) - feedback and suggestions on how this looks / how it can be improved welcome as ever:

Here's the gang all together looking suitably threatening (new basing colour yet to be applied to the older minis):

Oh. My. Godhammer...

Here she is then - the latest addition to the Eagle Warriors force - the mighty Land Raider. Got a chance to do some painting over Easter and wow, does this beast take a lot of painting! - felt like I was working on this forever and I'm still not happy with it.

 The Eagle Warriors insignia was done by making a paper stencil, airbrushing in a light blue impression as a marker, then freehanding darker blue over the top - maybe a bit of touching up still required. Below is a pic of the stencil I made:

...and here's the Eagle Warriors gang as they currently stand:

Will post some better pics when I've got a mo! Keep rollin' them sixes folks.