Goonhammer Hobby Round-up: March 2020

This month’s edition of the Goonhammer hobby round-up is stuffed full of painting from the team. It’s been a productive time now that we’re all huddled inside our homes avoiding the gaze of the Great God Co’vid, and so we bring you a diverse range of models, from Space Marines of all colours and Chapters to Chaos Daemons, Tyranid bio-beasts, a great many Sisters of battle, the perfidious Tau, and even some Age of Sigmar Chaos Warriors and Necromunda weirdos. 

Corrode

March was an especially productive month for me. At the beginning of the month I was meant to be crunch painting some Crimson Fists for a tournament. I started off well, painting the slam Captain, Devastators, and finishing off the Thunderfire Cannon I’d nearly completed in February (and let’s face it, a TFC is not exactly a daunting painting prospect). Next was meant to be the Assault Centurions, but instead I painted the new Primaris version of Mephiston because he was there and, having painted in a few basecoats, I got some Mad Hobby Energy and bashed out the rest on him inside a day. This could have been bad for any further progress but I had a few days off sick which enabled me to blast through the remaining Centurions before the tournament they were needed for, and then the following week it was Covid time and we went to enforced WFH which cut a lot of commuting time out of my day. It also meant that I no longer had to rush to a) paint anything for tournaments, since there weren’t going to be any and b) get terrain ready for my own event which was meant to be this coming weekend. As such, there’s been a bit of a flowering of other projects which had been on the backburner as I grimly edge highlighted Space Marine after Space Marine, with some Fulgurite Priests (yeah I know their bases aren’t finished – I completely imagined a pot of Valhallan Blizzard sat at home, and so they stay bare. I have some in the post), Battle Sisters and a Reaver Titan all seeing time on the desk. I did also finish some more Marine stuff, including three Aggressors who’d been languishing in a nearly-finished state for several months, and “blue Shrike.” Shrike was a fun opportunity to play around with some details on the base, including scrawling the KVLT symbol of my nascent Genestealer Cults on the wall he’s fighting over, adding a little Fist transfer to the poster attached to the inside wall, and playing around with some staining and corrosion details on the wall. I had a lot of fun with that guy.

Next month, project number one has to be the Infiltrators I almost finished in March – there’s 4 of them and literally all they need done is the armour highlight, but Infiltrators are absolute agony to highlight and so they’ve been ignored in favour of more fun things – I bought a box each of Vanguard Veterans and Sanguinary Guard at the end of the month and built another slam Captain each for my Crimson Fists and Blood Angels out of the Vanguard Vets, as well as having assembled another Reaver and Warhound from the Adeptus Titanicus starter. There’s lots of options for progress – so watch me forget about all of them and do something completely different instead.

Jack

When we closed out February I was just under 2 weeks out from a tournament, needing to paint up 10 Intercessors, a Librarian, three Eliminators, and a Thunderfire. Frantic painting finished up five Intercessors and the Thunderfire, with a few days yet to go, and then the tournament canceled due to COVID-19. No longer panicked, I kept cranking on those things (though haven’t finished the Eliminators) and have been able to shift and paint a Knight that I wouldn’t normally have been able to find time in my schedule to fit in. Having no upcoming events is a bit of a relief, I anticipate spending April working on a few more random options instead of having my nose to the grindstone of tournament Fists.

Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

I went on vacation with my family the first week of March, only to come back to the start of the greater NYC area becoming an epicenter for the US Coronavirus pandemic. So as soon as schools started closing I packed up the family, a dozen or so sprues of Death Guard, and booked it to my parents’ place in Texas, where we have grandparent support and a yard large enough for a three year-old to run around in. Ironically, I picked the Death Guard/Nurgle stuff because I’d already made headway on them and they have a pretty limited palette. It had nothing to do with the virus, though in retrospect it’s kind of grimly funny.

Anyways, enough chatter. The big thing is this big, fat, smelly asshole I started painting at home and finished at my folks’ place:

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

I”m really happy with how he turned out, and the various textures I’ve been able to apply on different parts of the model. Painting this thing was an absolute blast and I’m very happy with how he turned out.


In addition to this guy, I also got several miscellaneous models painted before I left for my folks’ place, including another Plague Marine, a Noise Marine, and a Tzaangor for an upcoming How to Paint Everything.

As we head into April and it looks like my stay here may extend another month or more until things calm down enough to travel back home, I’m looking forward to putting in some more hobby work on my Death Guard and getting the army to a state where I can actually play games with it. I’m imagining a Battalion of Death Guard and a Battalion of Chaos Daemons eventually, and I brought almost all of my Death Guard with me — the only stuff I’m missing is basically a few marines, a Plagueburst Crawler, and Mortarion, who I didn’t think I could get back home after assembly in any of the cases I currently travel with. Here’s the pile for April:

 

Greg

I literally made zero hobby progress in February – no games played, no models built or painted, not even any purchases – due to I was busy getting married. March rolled around, and after about a week of normal married life, things went well and truly off the fucking rails, and well, at least I have more hobby time? This month I added another 700 points to my Jack’s Tau army – 15 Fire Warriors (letting me run a second Battalion), 3 XV25 stealth suits, 1 Devilfish, 10 various drones, and this, a second Riptide:

XV104 Riptide
Riptide Battlesuit (credit: Greg Chiasson)

I genuinely enjoy painting this scheme – it’s got such great contrast, and the heavy panel lining makes Tau look exactly as anime as they should. I’ve already got another unit of 6 Crisis Suits I’m working on, but despite the mass of nervous energy I’ve been riding all month, I maybe have bitten off more than I can chew trying to batch-paint that many, because I already hate them and I’ve barely gotten the first layers down.

Silks

What a perfectly normal month, time to rush through painting my Ossiarch Bonereapers in time for the tournament at the end of the month… oh, ok I don’t need to get those done anymore…

Instead of painting what I needed to get done I decided to have fun instead and start work on my Sisters of Battle army. It’s a bit of a crazy theme, I call it “synthwave” since that’s what folks on Twitter said it reminded them of, but the original idea was the Sisterhood entering into a blade runner sequence hive that has fallen to chaos ready to purge them.

Sisters of Battle Celestine
Credit: Silks

I’ve really been enjoying this and have decided that when Warhammer World reopens I’ll grab a realm of Battle board and some scenery packs and make an Armies on a Display board for them.

SRM

March has been a tough month for me, as it has been for everyone – especially those of us who were planning on kicking it at Adepticon. I remained On My Chaos Bullshit for much of the month, working on some of the now-classic plastic Chaos Knights. While they aren’t actively hateful to paint like the Start Collecting ones, they don’t look anywhere near as nice. Their proportions are chunky, detail is a little soft, and poses are real stiff in comparison to how sharp and dynamic the new ones are. Their shields are also too busy to paint on any freehand woading, which is my army’s signature. Still though, that’s five dudes on horses painted:

Chaos Knights. Credit: SRM

I built up some of my on-foot elements by building and painting the command section for my classic Chaos Warriors regiment. I used the leftover Start Collecting heads on the old bodies with some extra bits from the Knights, and I think they look a little more interesting than they would out of the box.

Chaos Warriors. Credit: SRM

Speaking of Start Collecting, I’ve finished my Start Collecting: Slaves to Darkness box with the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak. Unlike the Knights, he was actually remarkably easy to paint, as his pose is nice and open. I feel like I blitzed right through him, and I’m thrilled with how he came out:

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak. Credit: SRM

I decided to flex a little and get some freehanding in on his cape. He has this cool rune dangling on his necklace and I thought it would make for a cool personal heraldry to repeat on his back, integrating some of the woading typically reserved for shields in this army:

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak. Credit: SRM

Rounding out the Chaos models this month was my second Sorceror Lord. Readers of January’s hobby round up will remember how much I love me some muscle wizards, so I converted up a second one. This dude was based on the Slaughterpriest I got in White Dwarf forever ago, plus bits from the Start Collecting Chaos Warriors, classic Chaos Knights, Chaos Chariot, Empire Flagellant, Citadel Skulls, and Space Marine Tactical Squad kits, plus Green Stuff. 

I used the Warhammer TV tutorial on sculpting fur. For my first time Green Stuffing fur, I think it came out pretty well!

Chaos Sorceror Lord. Credit: SRM

Fortunately, before everything went on complete lockdown, I was able to place a Forgeworld order and get to work on some of the goodies therein. First up is “Big Cum” himself, Bigby Crumb:

Bigby Crumb. Credit: SRM

He came together exceedingly quickly, in part because he’s just such a small model to work with. I mostly painted him during a social distancing hobby get-together over Google Hangouts with about a dozen friends and fellow nerds. I especially had fun painting the hotpot and contents therein, including painting the burner like it was red hot. This led to my wife walking up behind me, devoid of context, wondering why the hell I was looking at page after page of active burners on the Internet:

Bigby Crumb. Credit: SRM

Next I got swole out of control and painted the Goliath ‘Zerker. Now, I’ll never not know him as “Mungo Meatfist”, but I don’t think that’s really a bad thing. I haven’t gotten around to breaking out the Macro Mat and taking some better pictures of this beefy boi yet as I’m a bit dissatisfied with my current photo setup, but here he is from the painting desk:

Goliath Zerker. Credit: SRM

He’s full of all kinds of gross details like tearing flesh and bulging veins that I’ve never had the chance to paint before. The chem tanks on his back were fun too, and set the precedent I’ll take for the similar ones on the Stimmers I’ll be working on next.

Goliath Zerker. Credit: SRM

Lastly, Dan and I recorded our landmark 69th episode of The 40k Badcast. It is surely the horniest hour and a half of Warhammer-themed podcasting you’ll ever hear, and it was stupid fun to do. As of this writing Dan is still editing it, but hopefully that will be in your ears before we’re far into April. Just… don’t listen to it around your kids. Or partner. Or pets, just to be safe.

Pendulin

Being cooped up in the house all month meant I had a bunch of time to both paint models and continue messing around with my photography setup. Both of which I’m really pleased with the results.

First up is a full box of ten Skitarii, built with all their special weapons. I absolutely love the aesthetics of Skitarii, and they’re one of the reasons I got into Warhammer in the first place, so it was a joy to work on these guys. I always go over-the-top with Skitarii, including magnetizing all their heads, and magnetizing the arms of the two in the front. It’s not really necessary for models that are under 10 points each, but I like putting a little extra into my Admech.

Adeptus Mechanicus - Skitarii
Adeptus Mechanicus – Skitarii
Credit: Pendulin

This month I also built and painted my third Tech-Priest Enginseer. Given the Rule of Three, this one will likely be the last one I ever paint, and it feels weird to be “done” with a model. Makes me a little sad, as these guys are just as fun to paint as Skitarii.

Adeptus Mechanicus - Tech-Priest Enginseer
Adeptus Mechanicus – Tech-Priest Enginseer
Credit: Pendulin

With a brief interruption from the Admech stuff, I also painted a Skaven Clanrat. Just a single rat, but it’s my first step into Age of Sigmar, a game I know almost nothing about other than it has evil murder-rats. And I really want to play a game with evil murder-rats. The model was painted almost entirely with Contrast paints, which is another first for me. I’ve used Contrast in a couple places on other models before, but this was my first time using it for an entire model. I cycled through about half a dozen different colors for his cloak before trying Nazdreg Yellow with a very thin red wash and falling in love with it. The effort on the model pales in comparison to the effort I put into the base, however. It’s a rather simple base, but I couldn’t decide on which textures or colors I wanted. I built around 30 prototype bases on small wood disks before I came across this one. So much effort for such a small, evil, murder-rat.

Skaven Clanrat
Skaven Clanrat
-Credit: Pendulin

Last but not least is this big boy, a Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill. This was my first Forge World model, so I wanted to do a little something extra with it. I got out my weathering powder, which is something I bought ages ago and haven’t touched. The stuff is a bit finicky to work with, as weathering powder just fades to nothingness when you varnish the model. It took a couple layers of powder/varnish for it to stick around, but I love the gritty, rusty, dusty look it ended up having. I also magnetized the weapons for this model, and that wound up being a lot of work. The kit only includes two of the bits that go between the weapon and it’s mount, but I needed six of them. So I had to fumble my way through Blender, design some of my own replacement bits, and print them with my resin 3D printer. Fortunately all my measurements were spot-on, and my first batch of them worked perfectly.

Terrax-pattern Termite Assault Drill
Terrax-pattern Termite Assault Drill
-Credit: Pendulin

It’s been a busy month for me, but I plan on keeping the momentum going. My goal for next month is the other 19 Clanrats from the box I opened this month, and then something else from my backlog. Haven’t decided on what yet, but I’ve certainly got more than enough boxes to pick from.

Pvt_Snafu

And on from a busy month, to a slightly slower one! Despite saving lots of time due to not having to commute anymore, in terms of finished projects, I only have a few extra finished projects this month. First up is the final piece of my Milites Christi force, their Warlord. This rounds out my Saga force for the time being, however I’d like to revisit the project in the future to add some flavour with a standard bearer and some other fun stuff.

Next up is another addition to Legio Tempestus, with a completed Reaver Titan. I decided to push the weather a little harder on this one, and actually went back to touch up my Warhounds as a result. I’m very happy with how to projects come out and I’m looking forward to making a start on the Warlord, although it may mean buying some liquid mask for all that trim!

I wanted to continue making progress on my terrain collection, and in particular my World War 2 board for Chain of Command. I had a pile of home made woods bases I’d made a start on laying around and thought this would be a perfect time to knock a couple of them out. After buying the supplies for some homemade pine trees, following Luke Towan’s guide, I knocked up half a dozen and set about on the woodland bases for them. I’m pretty happy with how these have come out and I’ll be making up some deciduous trees for variety next month.

Woodland bases. Credit: Pvt_Snafu
Woodland bases. Credit: Pvt_Snafu

I felt like doing something quick and dirty late last week, so I grabbed a couple Sherman M4A3Es from my backlog and knocked them out for a little bit of fun.

M4A3E Shermans. Credit: Pvt_Snafu
M4A3E Shermans. Credit: Pvt_Snafu

That’s it for my Hobby Round up from March. Looking forward to April, my current plan is to start my Warlord Titan and stretching myself a little bit with a new AoS28 conversion project.

Soggy

I had one main motivator for most of this month, which was fear. The Gibraltar GT in April was closing fast and my Blood Ravens consisted of Dark Imperium Primaris and a bunch of dreadnoughts. I was opting for Raven Guard infantry spam and needed to get a load of work done and maybe even a game or two so I knew how they worked. The month started well, cranking out two more units of Infiltrators and some suppressors.

Blood Ravens Vanguard. Credit – Soggy

As things started to escalate with Covid-19, but it was still unsure as to what everyone’s response was going to be I started work on my characters, getting a smash captain, smash chaplain, Phobos Captain, Phobos LT and a Phobos Librarian mostly completed.

Blood Ravens Superfriends. Credit – Soggy

By the time I was finishing these up it was clear that things were going to change for the foreseeable future I found myself replacing fear with boredom as a motivator.
I recently picked up the Conquest issues that came with a repulsor and used this to mix things up after doing a load of infantry.

Blood Ravens Repulsor. Credit – Soggy

All in all it was a pretty productive month. Unsure of what to paint next, I put up a poll on the Goonhammer discord and the people have spoken. Yikes.

Knight Households are a bit janky….

Beanith’s Hobby Progress Mar 2020

  Models Points
BUILT TOTALS 14 610
PAINT TOTALS 16 306

Wow did this month have a lot of ups and downs.

Building

I’ve done ok this month, my favorite things that I built this month would be the six Death Guard Plague Marines from the Space Marine Heroes Series Three sent to me by family travelling in Japan just before everything went down the drain (Home safe now thankfully). Wonderful models full of character and nurglings. I’m looking forward to smooshing paint on these models very soon.

Death Guard Heroes

Painting

I finished off the 9 Incursors plus some other bits and pieces for some Goonhammer articles. I also smooshed some paint on a Dwarven Cleric that a mate spun up on a resin printer for me. Started work on some other projects too but not much progress with them yet.

Beanith’s Incursors

Games

I finally got a chance to play some Necromunda with mates in our Law & Misrule & Dominate campaign which we kicked off with a fun take on the Gang Moot mission before getting started on battling for control of various rackets and territories using the random mission generator recommended in Goohammer’s Necromunday: All the Missions – A Better Way. My Genestealer Cult is sitting pretty for now after three games but my leader has taken a beating having to sit out two games because of various injuries. My big boy, Handsome George the Aberrant, tore through some Delaque smashing the leader, two champs and two gangers. He was that day’s best boy.

Handsome George the Aberrant

Sadly there are no more games to report this month as after the Necromunda games day, Isolation and Social Distancing kicked off in Australia so we’ve all been doing the smart thing and staying home. I can report I am getting antsy for a game or three.

Hobby

I wrote words and smooshed paint on some Intercessors for HTPE: Space Wolves and started my newest Hobby Project: Beanith’s Road to… NoVA? where I am taking the Death Guard I’ve collected so far from Warhammer Conquest and doing my best to turn them into my first competitive style army on the cheap with a lot of help from fellow hobbyists.

And an update on my Hobby Progress on the Death Guard Project. Using the very handy article Project Management in Warhammer I created my own Kanban using Trello which you see here.

Hobby Project Death Guard Trello Kanban Board

I’ve colour coded each card as well so I can tell quickly which one I should be working on first. Green is Necessary, Yellow is Optional, Orange is Nice to have, and Red is Zero Priority. I threw in Orange as there are a few models that I think are cool but don’t have a place in my army list currently and I will use those as a palate cleanser when I get distracted from the main army and still kinda stay on point… that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I’ve only made minimal progress since the article was posted building the second Foul Blightspawn and the six Death Guard Plague Marines mentioned earlier.

Plans for April

April is going to be a busy month for me but I hope to have more progress completed on the Death Guard Project and not get distracted and paint all my Primaris a blueish grey…  awwwwuuuuuuuuuu

Beanith’s Space Wolf Intercessors

Coda!

Well.

This has been a wild month.

I should be in America right now, but let’s not focus on that, for many people have already written many, many words already about Covid-19.

Let’s instead focus on some positives I’ve seen in the last few weeks of social distancing.

  • The online hams hobby community is not only present and damn strong, it’s also immensely supportive. People are finding ways to hang out and hobby with each other, be it on tabletop simulator, vassal or just a webcam on a desk, hams are still finding ways to check in with their mates and keep spirits high. My hat off to all of you. Please keep taking care of each other.
  • Games Workshop is really chipping in here with daily hang out and paints and the commitment to see the adepticon goers still get their cool stuff. The WHTV team especially really needs a public pat on the back for this, they are doing solid work in trying conditions with the goal of helping people and that needs to be applauded.
  • Outside of GW, other streamers are doing their part to take people’s mind of things and fill that social void that we have during this time. Ceri of the hobby room and the Honest Wargamer crew are knocking this out of the park.
Swords of Davion Intercessor Sergeant Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

Anyway. Let’s get back to hams, I finished my second contemptor dreadnought and intercessor sarge and with that I have my 2000pts ITC list fully painted! Huzzah.

Balan of Squad Safir. Swords of Davion Contemptor Dreadnought Credit: Tyler "Coda" Moore
Balan of Squad Safir. Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

Balan joins his brothers, forever united in undeath, Andred and Orhalt. Not pictured (as I don’t have their models yet) is Hewin and their squad leader Safir.

Squad Safir, Swords of Davion Relic Contemptor Dreadnought . Credit: Tyler "Coda" Moore Credit: Tyler "Coda" Moore
Squad Safir, Swords of Davion Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

Ben Bailey of Warhammer TV fame challenged me to paint a Jade Paladin, in exchange he would paint a Sword of Davion. Here’s my effort:

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

This kicked off the #paintapaladin which has been an awesome anti Covid distraction. The scheme is a blast to paint up and is fairly easy to execute! Seriously, a quick spray of leadblecher, a 50:50 mix of Contrast Medium and Terradon Turquoise and boom, you’re halfway to having a cool and good space marine. If you want to have a crack the the challenge, you can find the deets here:

Some of the entries have been pretty baller. I totally have to go back and edge highlight mine now, I swear those steps where added after I finished mine, honest!!!

In other news, the new Watchers Of The Throne book, The Regents Shadow while awesome and featuring ~~Valerian~~  (and also Aelya and Jek, I guess) hasn’t influenced me at all.

The Regent’s Shadow Cover Credit Games Workshop

I remain unbuyable. Unyielding like a mountain but only cooler and much gooder.

Chris Wright, even with his awe inspiring word skills, couldn’t make me buy a new army. In fact, it’s functionally impossible for him to make me to do this.

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

I mean I would have to buy a ton of new paints. Again, reader, I’m a literal beacon of self control. I’m like that wise guy on a mountain top, subsisting solely on moss or something equally cool. Also that guy is probably a ninja. Maybe he has a baller sword. That would be not only be cool, it would also be very good.

Yeah I’m totally that guy. Rad.

Then again….

~~Valerian~~ and Aelya need friends right? Like what if they get money on my display shelf? Maybe I could buy like, one box of custodes to keep them company. Right? Riiiiight? But then I would need more to make a battalion of them right? Also, did I mention how cool, good and also dreamy ~~Valerian~~ is?

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

Ah fuck.

Also, the book owns. The audiobook? Even more better(er). Read it. Listen to it. Do it now.

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

Irresponsibly purchasing aside, I still have a few things to tidy up for the swords. Some TH/SS stand ins and I wanted a flyer on hand so I had something for every force org slot. Lucky for me Condit had gifted me a stormhawk interceptor for this years secret santa. I really like the A-10 on steroids look of this model and I’ve been hammering away at it on my streams, as you can see it’s pretty close to being done.

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

I’m planning to weather the hell out of this model and using my time in the aerospace world to make affectionately named ‘awesome airborne death guppy’ a bit more grounded. I think this is a cool and good move on models like this, I mean obviously DEATH GUPPY wouldn’t be the most aerodynamic thing out there but if I can make it more real I might be able to trick the brain into thinking, even for a second, that it could actually fly.

Credit: Tyler “Coda” Moore

As for April, well I have CODA DAY (keep your eyes peeled) to look forward to. Also I’ll be appearing on Tweets of War in a ludicrous costume on the hobby room, again, keep your eyes out for a post on that. Also I’m taking some much, much needed rest leave before I move interstate for work.

Tweets Of War. Be there or be SQUARE.

Anyway, just before I go and finish writing the best article this site has ever seen, ever (seriously, I’m not kidding, it’s going to own) and overthrow THE CORRODE REGIME, I will ask you, dear reader one thing.

Please keep taking care of each other and if you need it, don’t be afraid to ask your mates for help. This year will be hard but if the last few weeks are anything to go by, we’ll push through it as a community.

Alfredo

Like most, I began the month under the illusion that I’d be at Adepticon this past weekend so a lot of my hobby focused on that, with a pivot once it became clear that wasn’t happening. I started my month by focusing on getting my Crisis Protocol minis ready for Adepticon. That got cancelled with one mini left to go so Captain Marvel will likely be an April project. Still, I’m pretty happy with the three I did, I’m now only one mini away from finishing all the heroes and villains in the core box. I like these models quite a bit when they’re done but they definitely aren’t my favorite to work in. The sculpts are cool but the quality is nowhere near what GW puts out so they’re not quite as fun to paint for me. Still, I’m rather pleased I didn’t destroy Spidey’s suit lines as I’ve heard a lot of people end up filling that in accidentally since the detail is so fine.

In between the two above, I was briefly distracted (as I perpetually am) by a quick Eldar Guardian model for How to Paint Everything: Craftworld Saim-Hann, which was in fairness 90 minutes of work so didn’t distract me for too long. He was done in 90% contrast paint with some additional shading and highlight and I was really really happy with how Flesh Tearers Red and Apothecary White worked for me.

Saim-Hann Guardian
Saim-Hann Guardian Credit: Alfredo Ramirez

Once Adepticon got canned, I went off on even more tangents than usual and basically painted random things. I had a real itch to do a Sisters of Battle so I picked the really awesome Simulacrum Imperialis sister from the recent battle box. Then I diverged into awuuu territory to paint Haldor Icepelt (a model I’ve had since that stupid Tooth and Claw box released) for How to Paint Everything: Space Wolves. And finally I rounded out the month with Bigby Crumbs, the ratling cook. Bigby is probably the shortest period of time between a model release and me painting it, just because he was so damn cool. I tried some new things with his face and was reasonably successful. I used the Vallejo Fairy Flesh skin set for the first time and basically followed the instructions and was happy with how that worked out. With this whole pandemic situation resulting in no games for the foreseeable future, my immediate hobby goals are to push myself as a painter and try new things and learn some new skills for my next major project.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing for April. I’m feeling a strong pull towards fantasy so I may do so some Warcry models but I’ve also been meaning to finally do the Darren Latham masterclass so may give that a shot.

 

Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

Despite the pandemic, I’ve made good hobby progress and am using the time to clear my backlog. Namely, the Blackstone Fortress original boxed set! I’ve been working on contents since January, but here’s a snippet from March:

Traitor Guardsmen

Traitor Guardsmen for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
Traitor Guardsmen for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
Traitor Guardsmen for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
Traitor Guardsmen for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

Renegade Chaos Space Marines (Servants of the Abyss)

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines / Servants of the Abyss for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

UR-025

UR-025 for Blackstone Fortress by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

Custom Bases

Blackstone Fortress Custom Base by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

I wanted to create an atmosphere around the minis conducive to the board game, so I’ve been painting custom bases for all of them!

You can purchase these bases from Canny Miniatures in New Zealand

I added resin crystals from Spellcrow Studios and Green Stuff World. I covered any gaps with Stirland Mud before undercoating the base.

These bases were inspired by a tutorial from Heroes & Bosses, but my method differs slightly:

  • Basecoat Abaddon Black
  • First highlight of Stegadon Scale Green
  • Second Highlight of Sotek Green
  • Final highlight of Temple Guard Blue
  • Edge highlight the plates with Baharroth Blue, dot the corners with your choice of Blue Horror or White.
  • Go over the cracks with Nuln Oil.
  • The Secret Sauce: Glaze (lightly wash) the entire surface with a 4:1 mix of Contrast Medium and Akhelian Green
  • Varnish to taste (I used Satin Gloss varnish for a slight sheen – but you can use Dullcote as well).

Contrast Paints are great for glazing, which will help blend your layers. If you’re not confident with wet-blending, glazing is a great shortcut!

Wings

Painting for events is what drives most of my hobby time so with those cancelled for the forseeable future it’s reasonably likely that my output is going to slow down a bit. However, prior to the shutters dropping at the start of the month I finished off the nine Heavy Destroyers I was working on last time.

Necron Heavy Destroyers

These are done in a relatively simple scheme, which is good because although they’re not complicated it turns out doing nine of them is still pretty exhausting. For these, the canopies are sprayed Caliban Green over Chaos Black, and then edge highlighted with warpstone glow and moot green. The bodies are just Leadbelcher spray > Ironbreaker > Nuln > Necron Compound drybrush, and after that it’s just a few bits and bobs of detailing and sticking subassemblies together. I now have to live with the constant fear that before I get them out onto the table whatever drops in PA for Necrons will force me to revamp my list again.

The other mini I’ve completed was the final part of that same army list, the C’tan Shard of the Deceiver.
The Deceiver
This was done mostly with drybrushing. The body was Retributor Armour > Druchii Violet > drybrush 50:50 Retributor Armour/Stormhost Silver, with some further drybrushing with a mix with more silver to bring out some of the highest points, and do a fade towards silver on the back of the horns. The swirling robe, meanwhile, was base-coated Nagarroth Night, washed with druchii, then drybrushed with Xereus Purple, Xereus Purple mixed with Evil Sunz Scarlet, then very gently with just Evil Sunz. It hasn’t worked exactly as I hoped but looks serviceable, and I don’t think I’ll improve it much if I tinker. I did also try using thinned Shyish Purple contrast over the gold to fade the bits where the robe joins the body. It hasn’t super worked, but again at least manages to look plausible. I’m struggling a bit with Shyish Purple in general – it seems to be one of the harder contrasts to work with, which is annoying because I like painting purple a lot.

After that, most of what was left was painting the scenic base the model comes with, including the Necron who looks most like he’s wise-cracking of any in the range

“What’s the deal with our eternal soulless servitude?”

And that’s kind of that. A cool 500pts of additional Necrons, now I just need a chance to use them!

Charlie A

To add to what I’ve been told is “our longest post that no one reads,” I’ve recently completed some Alpha Legion models that I’m rather proud of. For me, these have helped deal with the stress that comes with the current times and have most definitely been an outlet. All in all, I completed fifteen Chaos Space Marines, a Dark Apostle, a Sorcerer, and a Master of Possession. The two little dudes that accompany the Dark Apostle are still a work in progress, though it should be trivial to finish them. I need to base them all, but I’m going to wait until I finish painting the eighteen possessed and three obliterators before I base everything at the same time.

Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A
Credit: Charlie A

Kevin

This post isn’t long enough yet, so let’s add some bugs to it. Not shown are the Spore Mines and other Ripper Swarms that I haven’t finished yet because it’s really difficult to maintain motivation when you’re working from home and all you want to do at the end of the day is play Stellaris and Bannerlord II, but I managed to keep going. What I’m really happy with is that I’m pretty sure I’ve come up with a color scheme; blue Contrast over drybrushed bone, blended red-black talons, and yellow carapace with black spots. It’s just going to take awhile to do, which is the exact opposite of what I was hoping to do with this scheme. Yes, the color scheme is obnoxiously bright and looks like they’re in the bottom of an aquarium. I love it.

 

Credit: Kevin Genson
Credit: Kevin Genson
Credit: Kevin Genson

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