The ICs 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge: I begin my new Flesh Eaters army

Firstly Happy New Year to everyone.

In a burst of new year confidence I have signed myself up for the The Independent Characters 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge.

http://www.theindependentcharacters.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=76

This is a motivational competition all about collecting, painting and getting new models/armies on the table top, with a new unit completed each and every month.

You know I’m all about painting challenges, so I have (perhaps over confidently) signed myself up to paint a Flesh Eaters army.

I like all the old chapters who don’t get as much love as the ‘Big Boy’ chapters, and after all who doesn’t like space cannibals?

You can follow my progress here:

http://www.theindependentcharacters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=6268

So firstly here is my list; I don’t know if it will be any good but it just felt right:

1000 Point Flesh Eaters (Blood Angel) Army

HQ –

Reclusiarch
Terminator Armour

Elite –

5 Man Terminator Squad
Heavy Flamer

Troops –

5 Man Assault Squad
Jump Packs
Melta gun
Sergeant = Storm Shield and Power Axe

5 Man Assault Squad
Jump Packs
Melta gun
Sergeant = Storm Shield and Power Axe

10 Man Tactical Squad
Plasma Gun
Missile Launcher
Sergeant = Bolt Pistol Power Axe Teleport Homer

 

We will have to see how I get on, because I have to complete my own challenge, and then get my first model painted for the end of February!

Wish me luck.

Ravenwing Bikers and friend

This time I have been working on the Ravenwing Bikes from the Dark Vengeance box set. Ravenwing as you probably know are black, and black can be a tricky colour to do right, I prefer to use a light grey highlight and use successive black washes to dull down the paint so it looks black and shiny. these models look really cool and I’m happy with the paint job , I could have spent a bit more time on them but as I have only five models to go I’m keen to get them completed.

 

I had a bit of an issue when I finished the bikes, which is that I have nothing else undercoated and ready to go (they are currently with my friend James waiting for a dry windless night, so they may be there a while). So I painted Vulkan H’stan! I had been gifted him recently pre-undercoated I was really pleased with the cloak; I painted it yellow used a green wash and then used a blue wash to create the gradation at the bottom. I was very pleased with the cloak.

 

Chaplain on Bike

 

I’ve hit a bit of a personal milestone.

I bought this Chaplain on a Bike in 1998, so I have had him hanging around for 15 years taunting me with his lack of paint.

For me this figure personified my issue with unpainted models and the very reason I started my Clean Slate Challenge. So to get my oldest unpainted model completed was a big deal to me, even if in reality he is just another model on a bike .

I won’t tell you how to paint Chaplains again, as I’ve painted a few in the challenge already, but its a nice simple paint job that looks pretty effective on the tabletop.

Is he the best painted? No, but he is one of the miniatures I’m happiest to see come of the list.

Happy Birthday to my Clean Slate Challenge

It was exactly a year ago last Friday that I started work on this project. Unfortuneatly with work, social and family commitments this is the first chance I’ve had to get on a computer and write a post.

Firstly thanks to everyone who has come on and had a look around my blog over the year, because it’s really encouraging for me to see that someone has taken the time to look at my articles and pictures. So again thank you to everyone who has visited, helped, advised or given me words of encouragement over the year.

I was really wanting to get everything painted before the end of the year, and I’m sorry but that didn’t happen. Instead I pushed myself to get as much done as I could, and I managed to get another eleven models completed off the list. This has left me tantalisingly close to completion, with just nine models left to paint.

In the big scheme of things that’s really not so bad.

  

Over the last few days I’ve managed to get my five Drakkarim models painted (and yes they are pink as requested by Dan, who kindly gave them to me for my Birthday on the understanding that they would be painted pink), an Imperial Priest, the last two Hasselfree miniatures, who bear an uncanny resemblance to the guys from Shaun of the Dead, and I painted and converted two of the three Space Marine Sergeants into Plasmagunner Space Marines for my Dark Angles army (one of the three sergeants  was so badly damaged after stripping I had to throw him away, as he was unsalvageable) .

All in all it was a pretty good attempt at getting as many models finished before the year was up.

lets have a look at how the list currently shapes up:

Things Left To Paint:

3x Ravenwing Bikes

1x Dark Angel Captain

1x Space Marine Captain

1x Librarian

1x Converted Marine Standard Bearer

1x Chaplain on a Bike

1x Cthulhu

This is a total of 9 models left to paint from an original list of 378, meaning I’ve painted a total of 369 models so far.

That means I’m 97.6% complete.

Now I agree that’s not the 100% we were looking for, but what’s 2.4% between friends.

So what happens now?

I plan to finish these last 9 models in the next month and then I can start looking at the future. I’ve lots of fantasy models to paint from Mantic, as I did their Kings of War Kickstarter, I have few 15mm models that need finishing off too.

What I think I will most likely be doing is ‘project based’ work for 40K; so for example I want to do a Veteran Squad with Combi-Weapons for my Dark Angels, and I can now plan and execute that project in one go, without being held back by being distracted by all other things that need to be finished off first.

Yes I will still keep updating the blog as I get these ‘projects’ completed, as I know the reality is that any 40K army is never really finished, you are just pausing between the painting new units.

Thanks again for reading

Andrew   

The big push at the end of the year, and image dump.

It’s almost been a year!

I started working on my Clean Slate Challenge on October the 11th 2012, and wow the year’s gone quickly.

I wanted to get all my models painted in a year, and I have to facet the fact that it simply won’t happen.

BUT that hasn’t stopped me trying to get as much done as I can before the year ends, and I still have a week.

So for the last few days I’ve been working very hard to get as much done as I can, and I’m pleased to say I’ve painted all my Grey Knights, a Dark Angel, my Scrunts and some of Kev White’s excellent Hassel free Miniatures, and I will keep pushing to get as much done as I can before the time runs out.

So excuse the massive image dump, but I’ve been painting flat-out to get as much done as possible.

If you have any questions about any of the models please feel free to ask.

Enjoy

 

And the Orks are DONE!!!

Ok I have some good news; the Orks are finished.

I had a massive push and painted the whole of my Ork army. That meant I completed all 15 Lootas , the last four Defcopters and the one random Ork Warbike.

I have to say it feels pretty good to be finishing of one of the my forces from my list.

    

 I wanted to finish my Clean Slate Challenge in a year, and I was under no illusions that it would be an easy task, or one that I could realistically complete, it was more a target to aim for.

So as we approached a year in to the challenge I decided I was going to focus on getting the last of the Orks done and dusted.

 

The Ork force was by far the largest component of my unpainted models, so it would be a real moral victory to get these guys finished.

I haven’t sat down and worked out exactly how many points this army comes too but it is a sizeable force and one I can be proud of. I had a Bad Moons army when I was about 15, and I had always hoped to come back and paint myself another Ban Moons army, when I was a bit better at painting.

Now I know they are not the best painted models out there, I could have spent a lot longer painting these models, but it would have taken me another four years to complete them all. That said for Orks they will certainly do the job.

 

 

 

I will now try to concentrate on getting the Grey Knights completed, as there is only eighteen of them, and they are dead simple to paint.

Even More Ork Boyz, but this time with Shootas

So the endless green horde continues, and this time we have another mob of 30 Boyz painted, this time however with shootas.

A word of wisdom from me for 6th edition 40k and using Orks, Shootas Boys are much better than Slugga Boyz.

When a squad of Shoota Boyz can throw out 60 shots a turn without worrying about being struck first by higher initiative models it’s quite fun (I’ve watched them just delete squads of marines). I find the extra range and extra shots from Shoota Boyz to have much more flexibility, and power than the more situational assault from Slugga Boyz.

I used my usual technique of a yellow spray, a sepia wash for the yellow and two green washes for the skin finally picking out the odd piece here and there. I used a darker blue this time as a unit identifier, I find it very useful to have on colour on every model in the units to mark them as an individual unit, as for example having 4 units of 30 Boyz on the table in multiple combats can become quite confusing very quickly.

Once again I’m happy with the results, and I’m looking forward to getting all these Orks finished.

 

Grots

 

Every Ork army should have a few Grots.

These guys are only 3 points a model, and a scoring troops choice.

A minimum squad of 10 models, with their Runtherd is just 40 points, which is a great cheap option for sitting on your own board edge claiming objectives in your own deployment zone, and of course they are really fun models as well.

I enjoyed painting these guys, and i used the same system of a yellow undercoat (Daemonic Yellow from Army Painter) I used a Sepia Wash on yellow, and picked out the metal with Lead Belcher with a black wash. Their skin is much lighter so I gave it a single wash of Biel Tan Green ink.

They turned out really well, were so much fun to paint and I know will find a place in my army lists so I’m very pleased

Ork Deffkoptas

 

I do love the plastic Black Reach Deffkoptas.

If you have a look at my list you will see I have eight of them to paint, and I’ve painted my first four, which gives me a minimum sized squad to field in my games.

I used the Daemonic Yellow Army Painter spray for the undercoat again with the Strong Tone  wash from Army Painter. Then I used two Biel Tan green washes for the skin and picked out he metal and teeth and some patches of blue as per usual.

They turned out pretty well I think, one thing I had to do was mend the broken flying bases. Anyone who knows GW flying bases will know they can be brittle and snap off in the model. SO for a couple of these I have drilled the base and used some wire from a paper-clip to replace the flying base stem. They work quite well I think.

I’m very happy and I look forward to painting the next four.

Dark Vengeance: Interrogator Chaplain

 

This model was an absolute pleasure to paint.

My friend Jim gave me the Dark Angel models from the Dark Vengeance box set, and part of that was the limited edition Chaplain.

All the models from this set are so nicely modelled that it’s great to paint them.

I went fro a simple paint scheme and I think he turned out really well.

The smoke wasn’t hard to paint, and I was a bit worried about painting it, but I decided to go for simple white/grey smoke  rather than something crazy.

Again a very enjoyable model to paint.