Had a productive time this afternoon

I spent some time in the garden today cutting some hedges, and while doing that I found the perfect spot for spraying basecoat on the scenery pieces I have made.
So this afternoon I sprayed the four Quke Cannon Craters, followed by the two Shrines of the Aquila starting with the one built almost straight out of the box. Since that looked to work ok, I got out all the other assembled scenery as well.
So now I have based the Honoured Imperum set, the Vengeance Weapon battery (both towers), and the imperial bunker. I also based that weird communication tower I bought on Ebay a while back.

All in all I think it worked ok for my first ever spray basing attempt. I see there are some places where I will need to use a brush, but I was thinking of adding some drybrushing to all the wallsections and the metal pieces and details would need painting anyway.

This is why it's important to spray your miniatures where it's ok to make a mess...

So apart from making a mess of my old staircase, I got some paint on the scenery as well...

As you can see from these pics there are areas that I didn't manage to cover with the basecoat, but I will fix that with regular black paint. Here are some pictures of the scenery that is painted, and I think it looks quite ok for a first time of spraying.

 More pictures will follow as I paint it up...

Chaos is comming...

A Chaos warband have found their way to the planet "curently with no name". It is not known how they arrived or why they are there, but they mean business and will kill anyone that gets in their way. It doesn't matter if it's Orks, Imperial Guard or regular Space Marines...

Their excact numbers are not known, but some Imperial Guard scout planes has seen the following:

Chaos Lord

Chaos Terminator Lord

10 Chaos Terminators

3 Chaos Obliterators

2 Hellbrutes

6 Chaos Chosen 

1 Aspiring champion

23 Chaos Space Marines

25 Chaos cultists

No demonic machines or vehicles has been spotted so far, but that doesn't mean they don't exist or will follow at a later time.

The Chaos Space Marines has been identified as a warband named The Knights of Oblivion. They were identified from their green armour with silver details, and it was obvious that they were tainted by Chaos as several of them had horns and other mutilations. 

What's left to make... Space Marines - part 2 troops

We'll start with the heavy stuff...
I have 1 box that can make 3 Centurions. These can either be assembled as a Devastator squad or an attack squad, but I am quite sure I will go for the devastator version as I figure the big clumsy suits fits that role best. But I might change my mind once I start assembling the kit...
Even heavier than the Centurions are the Dreadnoughts. I have 2 Ironclad Dreadnoughts that I have clipped from their sprues and glued the sarcofagi togheter. Being the toughest dreadnoughts there is, they will be packed with firepower. One of them will also have a seismic hammer.

The Devastators are represented with 1 Devastator squad box, 2 single Devastators that just needs some wash, and 4 single Devastators that are primed and ready for painting.

The 1st Company will have a lot of Terminators at their disposal, and this is explained in the fluff with the fact that there are always a lot of Terminators on duty for the fleet, guarding this section of the universe.
I have 3 blisters with a single miniature Terminator in each, one of them has a cyclone missile launcher and another a heavy flamer.
I have 5 Wolfguard Terminators (1 box) from the Stormclaw boxed set, and I am not sure how to use these yet. The Space Wolves look quite different from the regular vanilla marines, but I'm sure I'll find some fluff explanation to make them fit in the army.
Two characters are clad in Terminator armour and still in their boxes, and that is two librarians (one metal mini and one finecast).
I also have some Terminators I have started on. Quite a lot as a matter of fact. I have 1 metal captain that is almost ready for basework, 5 partially painted Terminators ,15 that are primed and 10 close combat Terminators (5 with powerclaws and 5 with hammers and shields) at various stages of assembly/painting.
But that's not all... There are also 12 Terminators from the re-release of the Rogue Trader boardgame, 11 of them are regular Terminators, and nr 12 is a corpse sitting on a throne. I also have 1 Terminator almost complete just waiting for a wash and basework, and 1 Terminator chaplain that seems to only be missing his basework.

One unit that will stand out is the Legion of the Damned. I have 2 blisters with 2 legionnaires with heavy weapons, 2 blisters with legionnaires with regular weapons and 1 blister with a squad. Total is 11 legionnaires.

There are more veterans for this army. I have 2 boxes of Vanguard veterans, 3 boxes of Sternguard veterans (1 is a finecast box) and 1 single metal Sternguard mini.
I also have several Dark Angels veterans in my army. The original plan was to use them as either Sternguard or Vanguard veterans, but then the plastic boxes came out and I just had to buy them. I am thinking they might be specialists in a certain kind of warfare (maybe fighting Chaos Marines or Tyranids?).
But I degress... I have 2 boxes of them waiting to be assembled, 5 single minis that are partially painted, and 1 single mini that needs washing and a new company markings.

I have 4 tactical squads still in the boxes (2 old boxes and 2 new) and one Combat squad. I also have 1 Wolfpack (Space Wolves tactical squad). On the shelves there are also 15 tactical marines that are started on and in various stages of painting and assembly, and 14 tactical marines that are primed.
There are also several assault marines. 1 box with an assault squad, 6 single miniatures without backpacks and 20 single miniatures with backpacks (some of them are not glued on yet though). I also have 4 that are partially painted.

The Space Marines need some fast and light troops to do the scouting and infiltration for them (say what you want, but I doubt a Space Marine in a full battle suit can be very stealthy) and that's where the scouts come in. I have 1 box of scouts along with 18 scouts just missing some wash. The 18 is a mix of plastic and metal scouts, and there are also quite a few of them with shotguns (metal minis).  There's 1 metal scout that I haven't had the heart to do something with yet. He's painted up increadibly nice, but when I got him the paint was chipped. Since I don't know exactly what colours have been used (think some blending have been done), I need to repaint him to get him in to the Gatekeepers. He was the inspiration for the colour scheme I have on my scouts. He is armed with a shotgun, and I am quite sure he will be painted up and included in the Gatekeepers scout company quite soon.

But the Space Marines needs characters and leaders. I have two command squads, 1 still in the box and 1 partially painted and assembled.

Two of the most rare characters are Interrogator Chaplain Seraphigus (who is assembled and ready for painting) and Krom Dragongaze (still on the sprue). Seraphigus is a special character that was released and Master will most likely be made from Marneus Calgar, as I have a box of him with honour guard (metal and plastic), and there wil be at least 1 techmarine with servitors (metal set) and 1 more librarian.

The final minis for this are two sets from Forgeworld, an Apothecary set with 2 resin Apothecaries, and a set of 5 resin Space Marines that appears to have at least one sniper. I tried to find the set on Forgeworld yesterday but had no luck. Guess I will have to look more closely on the bits to see what it is...

When I said this was the final minis it is a truth with a small modification as there is one more set of Marines. It will be a part of a small Chaos Marine army that will be mostly for diorama purposes. It is a box with 3 "snap tite" Chaos Marines. They will probably be joined by the ones on the new starter set some time in the future. The Dark Anges in that set will go right in to the Gatekeepers and will fit in the same company as my Dark Angel veterans presumably, and the Chaos Marines will be a small Chaos warband.
I have been drooling over the Chaos cultists since they came out, so this might be an excuse to get them.

What's left to make... Space Marines - part 1 vehicles

Like the Imperial Guard update I have to split this army update in two. This first post will list and talk about the vehicles, and Part 2 will talk about the troops.

I haver lots of vehicles for the Space Marines, and if I just get to work on them I will be able to field quite a lot of points on the battlefield.

I have 1 Stormraven gunship and 1 Stormtalon gunship, I plan to add one more Stormtalon in the future, as it looks way cooler to have 2 fighters escort another ship in to a hot landingzone than just one. But that will wait until I have built a lot of what I already have.

I also have 1 Landspeeder and 1 Landspeeder Storm (Scout verson of the regular Landspeeder), and these will be used just as they are intended in the rules. This time I will assemble it correctly so I don't get the same disaster I got when assembling my first one (see several very old blogposts about this) with lots of greenstuff and the tailsection being assembled the wrong way...

I also have a Droppod to deliver one of my units, but I haven't decided what unit this will be. No matter what I decide I will paint it so that I can use it with whatever unit I like from game to game.

I have 3 boxes that can be assembled as either Stalkers or Hunters, and I plan to have both units in the army but I don't know if it will be 2 Stalkers and 1 Hunter or the other way around.

The Landraider I have will either be a Crusader or Redeemer, this will be decided when I assemble it. I have to see what the different configurations have when it comes to weapon systems. There migh be more Landraiders in the future, but I will not buy more before I have assembled much of the army I already have.

I have started to paint and assemble 1 whirlwind and 1 Vindicator, they will be finished as soon as I get some room on my worktable. They are the first vehicles that I have started on since Games Workshop came out with their new range of paints, so I am doing some experimenting with them to find the look I like. So far I think I have ended on a one tone sceme of Kantor Blue.

There are also quite a lot of bikes in the army. They are a mix of Ravenwing bikes and regular ones. I am not sure yet if I will keep the "tails" on the Ravenwing bikes or if I will cut them off, but I try to remove most of the Dark Angel symbols from the bikes and riders, and just keep what needs to be on to look cool. For the new sets that I build from the box some of this can be arranged by swapping the Dark Angel shoulder guards with unmarked ones from my bitbox.
I have 1 Ravenwing command squad and 1 bike squad as well as 3 bikers from the starter set (Dark Vengeance) and 3 Ravenwing bikers of unknown origin that have the "tails" of the Ravenwing.
Along side them I will field a Space Marine bike squad, 1 space marine on bike (the one with the missing torso), 1 in bubble wrap, and 2 chaplains on bikes still in their boxes. I also have 2 Space Marine attack bikes that just need some final brush-up. There are also 2 scout bikes that will join the 1 already assembled (just missing some weathering) as a scout bike squad.  So there will be a formidable fast attack capability in this army.

New sets and some updates

My wife was at a hobby store a few days ago and they had a small Warhammer section on a clearance sale. So she brought 3 sets back with her as a gift for me.
One was a small box of Ork Boyz, with 4 "snap-tight" Boyz. They are now glued to their bases (slotted bases), and I have dry fitted the heads and arms and found the right pieces for the right Ork. But seeing how much easer it is to paint as I assemble, I have decided to wait until I have painted them before I glue them together completely.

She also brought a Space Marine Biker, and this is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. The biker was missing the front and back pieces that makes the upper body, but everything else was there. And the box was wrapped in plastic. If I had bought it at Game Workshop I would have brought it back to complain, but with 50% off and a long drive to the store I'll fix it. I have plenty of spare parts in the bitbox, and I am sure I can scramble up an upper body...

The last box she brought me was a set of 3 Chaos Space Marines. Now I don't have any Chaos Space Marines yet, but for a while I have been drooling over the starter-set with Dark Angels and Chaos, so this might be a reason to buy that. I will not start to play Chaos Space Marines, but they'll look good in dioramas, and on the shelves. Maybe I can join someone who does play them at a doubles game sometime, one never knows. The Dark Angels will fit with my Gatekeepers Space Marine chapter.

On the update part I have started to put the different parts of the trukk together. The engine with carborator and fanbelt is mounted, as well as the drivers compartment, the flatbed and the side walls for the flatbed.
I have cut all the remaining pieces from the sprues, and started to assemble and paint the parts so that most of it can get a good finish. This includes among other details both the driver and the gunner, the gunners tower, the wrecking ball and the entry planks.

I have also started to build my fist box of Meganobz, where there will be two meganobz and a Big Mek in mega armour. The Big Mek will be Big Mek Gyvver himself, so I thought I should do something speicial with him.I have a box of basing materials for Warhammer 40K, and in there are a few lovely bases to use for customising a base. One of them is typical urban with pieces of Space Marine items (top of a banner and a helmet), bricks, rubble and tubes on it, so I decided to make Big Mek Gyvver stand out a bit by putting him on that.
I have glued the resin slate to his original base, so he will gain a few millimeters in height, and base painted the base black. On the two other bases for the Meganobz and the grot oiler base I only attached smaller details from the basing box, so these three miniatures arealready glued to their bases.
The Grot oiler is only missing the head, while the two Meganobz and the Big Mek misses arms, heads and lots of details. This will be added after some painting have been done.
I plan to do something more with this kit before the weekend is over, but I don't think I will manage to finish it off this weekend.
The plan is to paint what can be painted on the trukk set, and while that dries I work on the Big Mek and Meganobz.