Demons be warned

Here is the first of my Grey Knights. I'm planning on adding a few as allies for my Space Marine army. I'll be running this model here as a Grand Master and he'll be brining a retinue of Grey Knight Terminators with him.

Painting this model was a bit more challenging than I expected. The model is more complex than I thought but certainly worth the effort. I magnetized his sword hand for transportation and primed him using Krylon Ultra Flat Black. First time using Krylon to prime. I was nervous about it but I think he turned out well. I primed outside, which is dangerous here in Florida with the crazy humidity. I've never used so many metallics on a model before, but the effect is pretty sharp. I kept the base simple, for now, with plans to add some flocking to it in the near future. There are a few areas I'm going to touch up as well. There's always something I miss on a model when I think I'm finished. Oh well.

I tried to do a little source lighting. Very little... but I think I didn't ruin the paint job, and that's a win in my book. In fact, now that I feel a bit more confident, I think I'll try more of that in the future. Here are some detail shots:

Jump on in

Here's my first metal model! I picked this jump Chaplain up at a GW store while I was back home on vacation. I had been planning on adding one of these bad boys to my army since I had 10 assault marines and all. Unfortunately my assault marines don't have the most stellar record on the battlefield. I deep struck them off the board on their first game. I had them almost completely vaporized by a monolith three times. The most humiliating though, was when the sargeant lost in hand-to-hand against a Necron Destroyer. One game, they managed to do some damage, but even then it was mitigated by another deadly monolith attack and some withering fire. Maybe this Chaplain will give the Prodigal Sons fifth company's assault marines the inspiration they need to turn things around!

Extremely fun model to paint. Dead easy, if you ask me. One of my favorite things to do is to paint lots of little tiny symbols and scripts, and this was the PERFECT model for just that. I even put a red aquilla logo in there. I've got another metal model waiting in the wings, so I'm hoping to keep things on a roll here. Here are some more detail shots for ya:

Complete Vindication

Now with my Vindicator done, I've really only left with two Rhinos to finish. That's not too terribly much to ask, but I've got much less than a week to complete them. I'm basically going to have to double my usual pace with these last ones. Once they're complete, however, I'll have all my 1500pt list completed. I'll had much more than that in potential points that I can put on a table. Well... maybe not MUCH more, but more nonetheless. I'm very excited to be near completion and I just can't wait to put these suckers on a table and play a real game of 40K. Soon! Less than a week for sure. Wish me luck. Here are some more shots of the Vindicator:

Down to the wire

Here we are. I started painting this army back in mid March. I've got a week left on the clock to finish it off. Just over 1500 points of Space Marines form my very first 40K army. My very first table-top war game army, to be honest.

What's left?

I've got just some vehicles left. I have a Vindicator, a Rhino, and a Predator that I'm really going to be running as a Rhino (magnetized to also run as a Predator). I've got a week to finish all three. Not an impossible feat for most painters, but I'm still new, and I'm slow. In addition to that I've kinda slacked off on basing all my units as I finished them. I find basing to be the most tedious activity of the modeling portion of this hobby so naturally I sluff it off. My Vindicator is underway and my Rhino is assembled. The Predator is not assembled and will be the last thing I paint.

Why the time limit?

I'm not competing in a tourney or anything like that. I'm traveling home to Texas at the end of next week. When I arrive, my good friend will have a brand new 1500 point Necron army waiting for my Space Marines. See, he's also new to 40K so we're going to have some learning battles. I'm a little OCD about things, and I'm determined to have a completely painted army. Bases might have to wait, but paint is the utmost importance.

Wish me luck as I race against the clock to finish this army out.

So long as this banner never falls...

This standard barer completes my Command Squad. This is probably the most amount of freehand I've done to date. I'm satisfied with the results, but I feel that I could have gone a lot further with this. I don't have enough paints, and I realize that now that I REALLY needed them. I think the banner is understated and that is just fine by me. I also realize, as I'm typing this, that I should have taken a photo of how I made his banner arm removable. I was worried about transporting this guy, for obvious reasons, so I decided that I'd make that arm removable. I knew that the small magnets wouldn't work, and that the larger magnets wouldn't grip the banner hard enough such that it would just rotate down. I decided that I would magnetize AND pin the arm. I ended up using two pins, and a pair of magnets. I decided to add a furter bit of metal to help the magnets "grip" just a little bit. Works like a charm. Now all I have to worry about is how this setup will wear. This figure signals a completion of the infantry for my first army. I have three vehicles to go, then I'm finished with my first 1500 point army. Here are some detail shots for your enjoyment:

What we need is transport.

My Battlefoam P.A.C.K. 432 arrived today. WOW what a bag. It was a little pricey at $150, but I'm ever so glad I did it. Lots of storage space. I just went for the standard Space Marine foam package and I have plentiful space to grow. The foam is perfect; just rigid enough to provide amble protection but not such that it would damage the miniatures. It came with three thin sheets of foam, perfect for covering each tray. Everything fit wonderfully and I've already packed my templates and dice... just need to finish my army. Getting close though... getting close.

MEDIC! Um I mean APOTHECARY! Doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?

Completed the Apothecary for the Command Squad. If I never have to paint a solid white figure again, that's just find to me. I shaded with a grey-blue mix and I think that worked well. I decided to dirty him up a little to give him a slight worn in look. The shoulders, backpack, chest, helmet, and crazy Apothecary arm became my focus as I knew those sections would end up defining this white figure. I actually did have a lot of fun with this model, and learned a few nifty techniques for highlighting. This is also the first time I've painted each feather on the chest aquila and I think it shows that extra bit of love. Here are a few more shots:

Animal Magnetism

So I have these five scouts from my Space Marine Battleforce that I've not really figured into my 1500 point list. I've been thinking that I could possibly modify them in such a way that I can easily choose their weapons so I can kinda throw them on a table with different specializations in mind. I drilled out the torso about where the arms would attach. These are 1/8th inch rare earth magnets and they hold really well. I recommend buying these from Amazing Magnets as they're VERY cheap compared to what you find in stores. The arms have 1/16th inch magnets. I approximated the left hand position for the heavy weapon and glued it on with some super glue. All done! Now all I have to do is magnetize the other weapon choices (shotguns and bolters) and I'm good to go. I'll most likely skip the close combat options. Here are some detail pics:

Two more done!

So I've completed those two marines for my Command Squad. They ended up looking very nice indeed. I need to work on how I shadow white. That's possibly the hardest mixing I've had to do. I think I ended up with just too much blue in there. It looks a little too shocking in the photos but in real life it looks better. This Command Squad is going to be fancy. Very fancy indeed. I'm going to start working on my extra scout squad. I want to try out some magnetization on them and see how they look. My goal is to make a very fexible group of five, all with changable weapons. I'll let you know how that comes out. In the meantime, here's some more pics:

Command Squad Flunkies

I was working to try and finish two more marines for my Command Squad. I was SUPREMELY distracted today with a barrage of mostly good movies. First Blade Runner, then Total Recal, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean . Spent the morning on the beach as well so I really didn't work efficiently at all. All I have left to do one these two, however is to do some passes with a few washes. Here are their current state: