Spring update...

There has been a little while since my last update, so I have managed to do a litte more building than usual since the last time I updated..

First I built an Ork Boss for 40K called Ufthak Blackhawk. He has a big hammer with spikes, and a big gun mounted on his squig. I think the only one who can use the hammer is an Ork or a Space Marine as it is very big. 

Also for 40K i built an Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. The hospitaller is the Sisters of Battle equivalent to the Space Marine apothecary. She stands over a wounded (or maybe fallen) Battle Sister laying on the ground one what I believe is a 50 or 60 mm base. I am not sure how I would like to paint the hospitaller, as I think she should be a little different from my regular sisters to show that she is another order. 

Then we go to Age of Sigmar, and the first unit I built was for the Cities of Sigmar range, and was a Freeguild Marshal & Relic Envoy. I basically built them as the models on the box, where the Marshal has a sword and shield. There are also a version you can buld with the sword and shield in the other hands or with a warhammer instead of a sword, and also with two pistols instead of sword and shield. I am thinking I will get one more box in the future and make the version with pistols to fight alongside my fusiliers.

Next up was another Cities of Sigmar model, the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal. He is basically a General of the Army for the Cities of Sigmar range, and my plan is to spilt my army in two. I will use the old Empire and Bretonnian models as a militia and use the Cities of Sigmar figures as regular army. I might paint them up a little different too, I will see about that when I start painting the new Cities of Sigmar stuff.

When I had a Cavalier-Marshal, it was also natural to build a unit of Cavaliers. So I started to build a unit with five cavliers armed with hand weapons and shields. Before I was done I got the dogs, so I took a little break, but when the dogs were back with my Ex I finished this unit. It was quite clear in the manual that you had lots of choises for parts, but when it came down to it there was a lot that did not fit seemlessly on everyone. One good example were the horses, where you built the legs first and then you built the barding and the rider and joined them together later. But the legs basically only fit on one specific barding, so the variation if you make more units is not as great as you are led to believe.
I think I will get one more box and make a unit of 10. I also have riders in the militia and Bretonnian knights, so I think that might be enough.

One thing that bothered me with the Cavaliers and the Cavalier-Marshal was the banners. When you ride, it is natual that the banner flows backwards as it is flapping in the wind. But on the Marshal the banner goes forward and on the Cavaliers it goes sideways. How is that possible? I'm just asking...

Next I assembled two metal minis that came in an old fashioned blisterpack (only whing missing was the foam). They were supposed to be released in the Bretonnian range back in Warhammer Fantasy, but for some reason they were never released. But for The Old World they have been released as they were originally intended in metal on slotted bases. The blister is called Lord with great weapon, and it is a Bretonnian Lord with long flowing hair leaning on his longsword (or maybe it is a broadsword) and a squire carrying his helmet. The mort work with them was cutting away the metal treads left from the casting, then it was only a matter of glueing the sword arm to the Lord and the models were done.

Next I went back to the Cities of Sigmar army and built a Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk. This is one of the weirder models for the range as it is a totally new ogor model that looks nothing like the ogor range, except maybe his height. He is not as bulky and muscular, but looks more like a really big human. He has a rig around his waist with a big pole sticing out from it, and on the top of the pole there is a lookout platform where the Fusil-Major stands and gets a good view of the battlefield. From there he shouts orders to the lines of fusiliers on the battlefield. I have a few boxes of those so that is a build for the near future. I think I will get one more Fusil-Major so I can have one on each side of the battlefield.

I then wanted to build something completely different, so I built the Rogal Dorn Battle Tank for my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army. I did a mistake (not sure what really happened, except I built it like I have done with all my other tracked vehicles) with one of the side sponsons so the first belt did not fit as snuggly as it is supposed to do, but I think once I paint it up it will not be very visible. It is just a track at the back that looks a little crooked. The second side sponson I assembled exacly like the instructions said and then it worked as it should. So guess it is some issue with the belts and sponsons needing to be supported from all ides during the build to be steady or something like that. Now I know that for the future. Apart form that it was a very nice build and I don't mind that there is a big part under the middle of the tank that is open. It gives me an excuse not to paint too much underneath...

After the tank was done I wanted to do one more build, so I found a box of Ogor Leadbelchers and built them. But instead of building four of them with the big cannons as the box lets you, I made one of them with a sword and a banner. I don't remember what set the banner is from originally, but I modified it with adding a big skull a long time ago and it has been laying on my desk since. So I made one of them a banner bearer, and I think this unit might be a sort of command unit rallying lots of other Leadbelcherst to their side when the Ogor Mawtribes (as they are called now) march to battle. 

I have quite a lot of Ogors in various stades of painting, some are almost complete while others are primed white or in various stages of painting. 

I see now that the square bases are back in stock, that is one reason I stopped making Ogors as the new models had round bases, but I have checked now and the old ones are on 40x40 mm bases so I can increase the army further by buying boxes for Age of Sigmar and just buy packs of square bases to glue them on. It is not that I need to have a square base army, but when most of them are mounted on thst I think it looks better to have all of them on that. I don't think it will be a big issue as I don't think I will play with them that much, but they will be a display army. Maybe I can bring them to a future Armies on Parade? Time will show... All my Existing ogors are on square bases except the pirte one who seems to be on a round 50mm tht is sculpted. I will see what I do if I move him to a square base and give it some extra love, or if I keep him on the round. His small followers (two squats, a bird and a monkey are also on round bases, but they should be easy to move if I decide to do so).

Another plan I have (maybe I will do something about it tomorrow after work) is to get some more paint on my Sons of Behemat army. I think I have 5 regular gargants and one Mega-gargant that only are primed, so I would like to start and paint some skin on them so I can batch paint my gargants and try to get them finished.

Plans for 2021 - Warhammer 40.000

The main army I will work on for Warhammer 40K is my Imperial Guard (or Astra Militarum as the range is called now). They have the highest priority in this range. I have lots of both tanks and infantry built and primed and still lots to build. This is one of my two main armies for 40K, and I have all my models at home so it is "just" a matter of finding the time to work on them. Most of my color schemes are quite clear for this army, but I am still considering how to do the airborne part of the army as I haven't built any of those yet. But I think I know how I want them to look, so it is just a matter of building and giving it a try. I have another army I can use both as a separate army and as allies to this, and that is my Imperial Knights.

I have Imperial Knights that will serve on both sides of the conflict. So far I have built and painted one for the good side and one for Chaos. My plan is to have two Chaos Knights. The rest of the knights will be Freeblades, and some will have Imperial symbols while others will have the symbols of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They will fight as backup for their factions, or together as one army of Freeblade Knights.
I plan to give the knights many different paint schemes and all knights will have their own back story. I might paint some in the same scheme to be remnants of a once mighty household, but I will see what I end up doing as I work with them. All of a sudden I find a paint scheme I really love...  This army will take some time though,  the models are big and require a lot of work.

My other main army is the Space Marines. Unfortunately Games Workshop has started to face out all the old units to replace them with Primaris, so I don't think I ever will be able to field my dream of an entire chapter of 1000 Gatekeepers. I have thought out a back story to allow Primaris Marines in to my chapter though, so I will try to field those units eventually. I still would like to finish all my Marines and make an entire chapter though, but that will not be finished by the end of 2021...

Another Space Marine army is The Deathwatch. I have all my Marines assembled and primed for this army, except one little group of Space Wolves that need their shoulderguards with a wolf symbol (they are primaris marines). But I only have my Watch Master done so far, but the five commanders of the Watch companies are on my table being painted, So far I have done the base color on their capes and the silver arm, and I have also done the base color of the silver arm on four Dreadnoughts. This is an army I have some hopes of maybe finishing in 2021. They might need a little support in the future, and I have two Corvus Blackstar flyers that I would like to build, and they should probably get some drop pods and Landriders a well sometime further down the road.

If we stick with Space Marines, we get the third individual army, my Chaos Space Marines. I have no idea if I can play them as one army (but I hope so), but no matter what they will all be the same chapter, the Knights of Oblivion. I am not sure this army will be done by the end of 2021, but I sure hope I will have gotten to paint up a sizeable army. I am still arguing with myself what colors to use exactly, but I think I am getting there. I'm painting up a few test models to see how the colors I want to use will work with the marines that are originally Deathguard, and also to see if I need to change my original plan.
I have some regular Chaos Marines to do the changes on as well. The army is one part regular Chaos Space Marines and one part Nurgle. Both have a Chaos Knight to fight along side them. This is mostly an infantry based army, at least in my mind, so I am little uncertain how they will function on a battlefield.

The fourth big army is the Orks. I love the Orks for so many reasons, one of the big ones are the possibilities of doing modifications and kitbashing and make new and crazy stuff for the army.
This is an army that actually have some finished units already. One of the finished units is my monster sized vehicle that was built by the staff at Games Workshop Oslo, and I also have the units I built for the Armies on Parade in 2018 including a Stompa called Da Punisha. I have several units primed, some are painted almost to completion and some are just primed. I have lots of units to build for this army, and like the Chaos Space Marines I hope they will have grown to a bigger force by the end of 2021. Actually I am quite sure they will...

Another slightly weird army is the Adeptus Mechancus. I have some finished units for this army as well, and several units still to assemble and paint. I know how I want the paint scheme to be for this army, but I have a long way to go before I can call it an army. I hope that I might have sort of a battleforce done by the end of 2021.

My Genestealer cult army is a lot like the Astra Militarum, so I don't think that will be a full army in 2021. I will need to buy more units to field it as a stand-alone army, and I am not entirely sure where I want the army to go. But I do know I want to paint this army and play it some day, so hopefully I will finish something this year

Then I have the armies that are separate entities, but maybe too small to be fielded as separate armies. For now they will sort under the Inquisition. They are the Sisters of Battle (they might be a separate army in the future though), the Sisters of Silence, the Adeptus Custodes (might be able to field them as a small army), some Grey Knights and some Inquisition models. Some of these models are partially painted. I have a fully painted Land Raider I plan to use for them, and lots are still on the sprues. 

Then we can wrap it all up with an army I want to work on during 2021, and that is the Necrons. This is an army I want to see grow slowly but steady during 2021. I know how I want my them to look, and some minis are almost complete (just missing some basework). I hope to be able to put a lot of work in to this force, as I think there are so many great models in this range. They should not be too hard to paint up either as it is quite  simple but effective color scheme with just a few colors and washes needed. After all, they are metal skeletons. The big problem with this range is actually having enough hands to hold everything together as you attach the arms and weapons, but I guess that gets better as you build a few batches of troops. I do not have all the units I would like for this army yet, but I do have quite a good start. As soon as I get the new rule book (sold out from Games Workshop at the moment) I can start making these models in to the beginning of an army. 

As for Necromunda I have put that on the shelf for now. I do love many of the models for this range, and I have enough Escher models to make a nice gang to start with, but I just got a big turn-off when I broke several models trying to get them off the cardboard after I had primed them. I have put the starter set in my pile of models to sell, but I am not entirely sure I will stay away, so it is just in the pile for now. Maybe when I sum up 2021 it will show that I have a small band of Clan Escher models... I will paint up the Enforcers though, as they might be used in regular 40K in some way. And even if I decide to sell my Necromunda figures I will keep the Enforcers.

General update on Warhammer 40K

In the last post I talked about my Age of Sigmar armies and the status of those. So as a natural follow-up, here is the same sort of status update for my 40K armies.

Adepta Sororitas (Sisters of Battle) has now been released as plastic models, and I have always said that I would have a small Sisters army when that happened. So far I have a few special characters, and two boxes of basic units, and I look forward to painting these up to look like they com for m my own invented order. They will all have blonde hair instead of the white they usually have. Why, you ask? Just because I can, and also because I really suck at painting white. I will work out a backstory that explains why they don't have the white hair.
I don't know how big the army will be yet, but I aim to get an army that can be used by themselves on the tabletop. I have some old metal minis and I will buy more of the plastic models when the ones I have now are built and painted. I will look into the new rule book and then I'll decide what units to get. There are a few I really want...

Adeptus Custodes are the Emperors own guardians, and I have some of these golden warriors. I think one or two are almost done, but I have several units that are primed black and then sprayed gold, and more of them still in the boxes waiting for assembly. I do not have a big Custodes army, but I plan to field them alongside other armies like the Sisters of Battle, Sisters of Silence or Space Marines so I don't need the biggest army. They might also show up backing an Inquisitor, that would probably raise some eyebrows. I have made up my color scheme, and I'm currently working on their back story.

Adeptus Mechanicus is an army that will have quite a nice size. I love all the weird vehicles they have, and plan to use this as one of my main armies but also as a support army for other armies. I don't like all the units from this army, so I am making a back story to explain why my units deviate from the standard and why the units I don't like is not part of the army. 

The main reason for this is that my army is part of the vast Mechanicus Exploration Fleet. The army is designated Cohort 9-1 Alpha and is under the command of Magos Explorator de Orellana, and the Cohort is serving aboard the ship The Gloria Inveneris that is under the command of Arch Magos de Sousa.
I love the Kastelan robots, so my army have a lot of those. They are part of the Legio Cybernetica, and the leader of the Legio is Magos Dominus de Vaca.
I also plan to have some of my Imperial Knights army made up with marks showing allegiance to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Astra Militarum (who used to be the Imperial Guard and are tagged as such in this blog) is one of my three main armies for Warhammer 40K.  I have made up my own planet called Walpurgia (named after St. Walpurga who is a real Catholic saint) and my army is the Walpurgian 3rd and they have everything from the tiniest Ratling snipers to Super Heavy tanks. They are built up mostly by Cadians and Catachans, with some special forces made from Militarum Tempestus and some modified models from the Genestealer Cult range.
I have some of the units done, and lots of units both soldiers and tanks that I am working on at all times and they are in all stages of the building process from in the box to almost done painting. Most of the stuff is quite standard out of the box, but I also do some conversions and among the things I have made is a recovery vehicle for recovering damaged tanks from the battlefield as I feel this is a must have. Also I wanted the Earthshaker cannon to use as a bellygun for an Ork Stompa.
I hope I can post several units on the blog in the near future as many vehicles are only missing small details before I can call them done.

Deathwatch was not supposed to be a big army but then something happened and I now have a lot of them. I have all the troops that serve from the Watch Fortress Alamo Bexar. They are all primed except for two Corvus Blackstar ships that are still in their boxes. This army has a lot of different chapters as the Deathwatch are supposed to, but some chapters are represented more often than others. 

They all have the etched shoulderguards that came in the Deathwatch boxes, and I plan to try and paint several different successor chapters to put as much variety in the army as possible. I have only one figure that is truly done and that is Watch Master Barret Travis. I had one regular marine as well, but he was sent off to Games Workshop to be a part of the Deathwatch army of the Northern Europe Store Managers and was supposed to come back to me when they were done with it but he is still out there.
I have an extensive back story for this army and some of the characters, but still working on more as every one of these Marines is some sort of character or hero. I have these Marines standing in boxes on my shelves with one unit in each box, so hopefully I will be able to get some progress on them in the near future. I recently watched a video that gave me tips for their eyes, so I am quite interested in seeing how that will look, and if it works then I might use the same color for other eye lenses.

Grey Knights is something I bought because I loved how the figures looked. I don't intend to ever play a Grey Knight army, but I would like to use them as support for my Space Marines or Inquisition forces. I painted my first unit dark blue as I wanted them to mix with my Space Marines, but I might go back and strip them and paint them again unless I can think of a real good reason why they are blue. It seemed smart at the time, but now I am not so sure...

Imperial Knights was an interesting supplement as support for Imperial armies, but all of a sudden they got their completely own codex and rules to field them as a separate army if you would like and I was lost. I wanted to make my own Knightly House and have quite an extensive army, but then I got cold feet along with an idea to build four of them as the Knights of the Apocalypse (inspired by the Riders of the Apocalypse from the Holy Bible and perhaps even more in Good Omens) and that idea led to me scrapping the plans of my own House and instead planing to make a vast army of Freeblade knights fighting together. Some will have markings that say they are Imperial, and some will have the markings to say they swear allegiance to the Mechanicum. I plan to use some Knights as reinforcements for other armies when called upon, but I will also like to field them as a Knight army.
I have one Knight that is done, but it is not built or painted by me. However I will keep it just as it is, as it is a masterpiece made by one of the kind former staff members of Games Workshop in Oslo who has given me lots of support and good advice over the years. I will not be able to replicate his work, but his Knight (I will always think of it as his even though I own it officially) will be a guide and inspiration for me when I make my own Knights and hopefully I can make it look that they fight on the same battlefield. I will have to make some sacrifices though as I also would like them to fit with my other armies.

Inquisition was never intended to be a big army, but more of an addition to other forces. Imagine a Space Marine Army with an Inquisitor and a band of Grey Knights fighting alongside them. I have several Inquisitor models, and I like making small warbands to work as their aids. Also they are able to call on the help from any army when needed, so they can fight alongside any of my Imperial forces.
If the Inquisitors join forces they will be lead by Lord Inquisitor Van Dorn.
So far the only thing finished is a Landraider that was painted up as a masterclass in learning how to add battle damage and how to paint white vehicles. I don't know how many more specific vehicles they will get, maybe the rest will be requisitioned from other armies as needed.

Sisters of Silence is also just a small thing. I got some when I bought a collection box of Custodes and sisters way back when they were first released, and have not started to assemble the sisters yet. My plan is to have them fight alongside other armies, and I am working on a back story for them. I just build and paint the units I like as they will never be a stand alone army.

My Space Marines chapter, The Gatekeepers, was originally supposed to be my main 40K army.
At the moment they are second, behind Astra Militarum, but I still have a dream of building an entire chapter over a long time.Now that the regular Marines are slowly disappearing from the stores to be replaced by Primaris Marines, I might revisit this idea. I've already designated two of my companies to Primaris due to heavy losses in a well known campaign where The Gatekeepers fought hard.
The Gatekeepers is an Ultramarine successor chapter, but they do have some other elements within their ranks because I have a lot of different Marine models, but that is all explained in the lore. 

The chapter has their home in the distant stars on a planet named Luminus Prime, and the Chaptermaster is a former Ultramarines Champion by the name of Otho Vitellius.

Chaos Space Marines is not supposed to be a main army for me. I do love the name I came up with for them, The Knights of Oblivion, and I would love to get them built up to an army I can bring to the battlefields. The chapter master is Arch-Commodore Falstaff.
My original idea when I started this army many many years ago was that they would be all infantry because they were stranded on a planet far from their home in the Eye of Terror. One idea was that they were a small warband left behind when the rest of their chapter left the planet for some reason, and another was that their ship was shot down in a big battle above the planet, and that they crash landed here. But after the Death Guard miniature was re-released some years ago I ended up with them too, and they do not look anything like my original Chaos Marines. This can be explained with the fact that the Death Guard Marines have been on an expedition farther in to the Eye of Terror and have been exposed and warped or mutated much more than their comrades. Being away from the others for so long has also opened their eyes to the Chaos God Nurgle, maybe they have fought alongside other Chaos Marines who worship him on their mission. I guess the lore will give a hint if not an exact answer to this question. They might get some vehicles in the future, but for now they are infantry. Sometimes they fight alongside a Chaos Knight that has fallen from grace. His name is Plague and he used to be one of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse, but he got seduced by the powers of Nurgle.

Genestealer Cults is an army very much still in the making and planning. The main reason I started with them was that I wanted to make some Planetary Defense Forces (known as PDF-forces) for the planet where I think most of my armies clash, and that led to using some Genestealer and small Tyranid models I got in a boxed game, and so the Genestealer Cult was born. I do like a lot of the models that Games Workshop has released for this range, and especially the ones looking like miners or Imperial Guard soldiers, and as of now I just have a few ideas of where I will take the army. I have a color scheme that I will follow, and I have started to paint several types of units both characters and vehicles.

Necrons is my newest army. They got to be an army because I bought a boxed set with Mechanicus and Necrons in it. For a long time the Necrons were just left as pieces, but I got a good idea with the new Contranst paints from Citadel and decided to give it a try. I use the Contrast colors over metal, so I get colored metallic look, and I liked the result so much I decided to make a small Necron army. I have no idea how big or small this army will be in the end though as it seems to grow from time to time. The regular Necron warriors are a pain in the butt to assemble as the two-handed weapons and the wobbly shoulder joints are hard to keep together when gluing, but I do like the models, so I guess time will tell... No matter how big the army will be, it will have its own lore and I am quite sure the Necrons will come form some unknown dynasty.

Orks is the final army, and one of the big armies I have for 40K. One of the main reasons for having this army is that it is a crazy army. I can do lots of funny or cool conversions and generally just have fun with it.
The leader of this army is Hazza Hoff (sometimes known just as The Hoff) and he has his Big Mek Mek Gyvver who creates lots of crazy stuff for the army. He has a lot of tech Grots that work for him, and they are dressed in red robes, just like the Mechanicus and Techpriests of The Astra Militarum (and also Space Marines even though they don't wear robes as such but have red armor instead). They build everything from weird weapons to Stompas. This army contain the figures I won 3rd place for in the Armies on Parade in 2018, and the main "vehicle" there was the Stompa Da Punisha! There is another Stompa in the making now, with a big (or at least long) bellygun and a plan to replace the big chainsword with some sort of flamer, and the big guns on its shoulder will among other things be replaced with a big Deathstrike Missile. But I will rant more about that in a later post...

What's going on

After Armies on Parade was over this weekend, I wanted to do something completely different for a little while. So I sat down and assembled 5 Tartaros Terminators (these can be used both in 30K and 40K games), 5 Ork Nobz and 3 Kurnoth Hunters. The Nobz actually came on 20 or 25 mm bases, and I've been told a long time ago that Nobz needs at least 32 mm, so I put them on that. My regular Boyz might get 25 mm bases, but the Nobz are a bit more powerful and needs to stand out a little more so they need bigger bases. I will come back to these units in more detail when I have primed and painted them up in the future.

I think I have presented this unit, or at least the females earlier in the blog before they were primed. This is my first attempt at making female guard soldiers, and based on this I am quite sure I will make a few more in the future. I have just replaced two heads with the most human looking heads from my Daemonettes of Slaanesh boxes and I will stick to that making more in the future. I will not have very many females, but I still think I need more than just two. This unit has a female sergeant (the one with purple hair) and a trooper with blonde hair. I have not done anything with the bodies, as the armor is quite bulky and comes as "one model fits all" from the producer. I have wanted some female guard models ever since I read the "Valor"-series written by Tanya Huff where the hero is a female Marine sergeant called Torin Kerr.

When I was looking for basing material for my AoP board I stumbled across a little box with miniatures. These are my only unit of veterans so far, but I will add more in the future. This is my way of giving Imperial Guard troopers some special weapons, as veterans can use almost everything as they pick up things on the battlefields.
Back in the days there was a character named Luc Bastonne. He came from a "fine" family on Cadia and could have been an officer if he wanted. Instead he joined as a private and has been promoted to a sergeant. He remember every trooper that has died under his command and have their named tattooed on his body. Ever since I read about him in the rules I have wanted him for my army. And even though he is no longer an official character, I will have him in my army. I changed his name and home planet to fit my army, so he is now Sergeant Bastion, and his squad is known as Bastions Bastards.

The final figure I have taken a picture of is a Sister of Battle figure that was released as a special figure. For some reason I can not get her to stay glued to the base. As you can see from the glue puddle on the base I have tried several times and with both thin and thick superglue. Recon I'll take her with me to the Games Workshop store and ask them to give it a try for me. Maybe they have a trick. Worst case I will have to do some drilling and pin her to the pile in front and greenstuff her other foot to the ground.

After this I also managed to finish another figure that has been around for a while. That is not a Games Workshop miniature (don't have many that aren't) but it is a female Commissar. She is also made of resin, but she was quite easy to glue together with thin superglue. I plan to paint her up and put her in my Imprial Guard army, but I will leave her out of the game if I go to play at Games Workshop. I plan to prime her along in the first batch of figures to be primed, and paint her up soon after that is done. I know most of the colors I want to use to paint her.

What is planned for the future - all army update - Warhammer 40.000

This blogpost follows up the one with the almost identical name, but this time focusing on my Warhammer 40K armies.

As with the Age of Sigmar update I'll start with the chaos. Chaos daemons have been covered in the Age of Sigmar update, so I will leave them out of this.

I have a small Chaos Space Marine army planned. It will consist of Chaos Space Marines and Cultists. It's not a huge number of models, but the Chaos Marines have quite detailed power armor, so it takes some time to paint them. I plan to keep it quite simple, but still make them look nice.
The first thing to be finished here will be the miniatures that I have painted already (ten Chaos Terminators and a Terminator Lord). They are just missing their bases, and I will do them the same way as with the Space Marines I fielded in Armies on Parade 2015. I will have to do some variations on the bases to break up the monotony in the future, but that is the same with the existing Space Marines that I have. I will also try to finish Cypher - The Fallen Angel, as I have assembled him but not primed or painted him yet. The idea with Cypher is that the Chaos Marines can be used as fallen Dark Angels if I like to.

This will not be a huge army, but it will be stand-alone. It might be an army that I get some trouble winning with as I don't have vehicles, but I know that if I start to buy that then this army will grow rapidly in to a new army the size of my regular Marines, and I don't want that. I want to have a small band of warriors on a mission or stranded on the planet, and then they have gotten some cultist followers who originally were inhabitants of the planet where they are. I will see where the fluff goes, but I like the idea of a small, hardened warband.

Space Marines is perhaps the biggest army I have and also plan to have. I have lots of unassembled units and many assembled in need of painting. I am always working on the fluff for my Marines, but basically I have my own chapter (The Gatekeepers), and I build it with Dark Angels and regular marines (Ultramarines) as an Ultramarine successor chapter. My original dream was to have minis for the entire chapter (1000+ troops), but I have modified that a bit. Still it will be a big army when I have built and painted everything that I have, and I might buy some more some time in the future (but not until I have built a lot of what I have already). I have plans for how I want the units to look, so it is just a matter of sitting down and working to get them done.
I also have two boxes of the "Betrayal at Calth" board game, and one of them will be painted as Chaos Marines and the other as my Gatekeepers.
In one of the campaign boxes there are about twenty Space Wolves but I have not decided if I want to build them or if I should try and sell them. At the moment I am leaning towards the latter as I don't think I will ever field them. They don't go too good with Dark Angels, and I plan to be able to use the Dark Angel miniatures as a Dark Angels successor chapter in some games as they have some special rules that I might like to use in some games. But for the most part all Space Marines will be Gatekeepers and played with Ultramarines rules.

There is a small contingency of Grey Knights on the shelves, and I have decided to paint them dark blue to blend in with my Imperial Guard special forces (Militarum Tempestus) and my Space Marines. When it comes to fluff this is done because they do not want to make their presence known among the population on the planet.They are very secret after all... A unit of five is already painted and just awaiting wash and basework.
They will mostly be played as a retinue for my Inquisitors. They have one Landrider Redeemer that is assembled and painted white with a lot of chipping and dirt, but for the reminder of vehicles I plan to just use regular Space Marine vehicles. I originally had a plan to give them their own white vehicles but I think the price is too high considering how rarely they will be fielded as a separate force.
This force will also include a handful of Sisters of Battle (Adeptus Sororitas) that I have picked up from Ebay way back in time. I just plan to paint them up and have them in the display case to break up the blue of the Space Marines. Still, I have the rules for them, so they might also join some Inquisitor on occasion, or see some action in a game of Apocalypse.
I have a few Inquisitorial Retinues as well, and they will serve alongside the different Inquisitors as I find fit depending on the missions.

A loyal and trusted ally to the Space Marines are the Astra Militarum, or the Imperial Guard as they used to be named.
I have almost as many units here as I have of the Space Marines, and among them are the super heavy tanks (three of them) and I do love tanks. My big goal is to build and finish enough tanks to field one super heavy tank company and one regular tank company. With the new sprays that have been released (that I already have) painting them is quite easy. All it takes is priming, spraying, painting tracks and details and washing the entire tanks. It should be possible to get a lot done in a short time, especially on the Leman Russ tanks, as they are very easy to build.
The Imperial Guard is split in to three different series, with the Militarum Tempestus as the one that sticks out the most. They are the elite soldiers, and have their own figures and vehicles. I am not sure how to paint their vehicles, but I have painted up a unit of troops so I know what color to use on them. The vehicles will probably be quite similar to the regular guard units, as this binds the armies together. The Imperial Guard is split in Cadians and Catachans and I have both. They have a lot in common when it comes to colors, but some small variations too. I have a general idea as how I want all my units to look, and a unit is added to the finished army from time to time. They will have the same bases as my Space Marines with a few modifications here and there, and I think I have several painted units that just needs their bases done.

Mechanicus is also a small army in my collection, and they also serve as allies for other armies, especially the Space Marines. I am not sure exactly how to paint these up, but I have a general idea. The idea here is that they are a small force on the same planet as the other armies, with a mission to solve. I look forward to building and painting their Dune Crawlers as they are some of the coolest tanks released lately.

Apart form the Chaos Space Marines there are mostly good guys in my Warhammer 40K armies. The exception is the final army in this blogpost, the Orks.
I originally got in to Orks because I wanted to convert stuff. That is still my plan, and I have several projects on my shelves that's just waiting for me to find the time to start that. Among the plans here is making the old, small Trukks in to mobile weapon platforms and fielding them with warbuggies rules. Then I will field the Trukks as troop transports and trucks.
The Orks are a little fiddly to paint as there are a lot of details, but they are also very cool. I have several ongoing projects at all times, and I plan to finish some of them soon. Some are just missing their bases, while others just miss small details before they can be completed. There are also a lot of units still in their boxes waiting for assembly. This army is something I do in between everything else, and I do love working with them, so I expect some units to be done in the near future.
I also hope to be able to start with my Stompas in the not so distant future, and when I do I will not build them in between other projects but see them through.

I love red!

That's one sentence I thought I would never write, but I do. More precise Mephiston Red...

I just painted the lining on my commissar with the bolt pistol and whip. He will be the first commissar to go in to action in the regiment. 

For the time being he will be given the responsibility of keeping everything in order both for the foot sloggers and the cavalry, but he will get two more commissars with him quite soon. There will also be a commissar in the tank regiments, and I think he will ride to battle in a super heavy tank.

Paining my first commissar in black and red also makes me want to paint up a lot of Sisters of Battle, as the scheme I am thinking of for them is black, red and white for their uniforms. They will not get the white hair as most sisters have, but that is just because I like to do a little twist on all my armies.

Update on the Armies

I see I did a "what to come in the future" for my armies some months back, and thought it would be nice to look in to the crystal ball again and look at my futrure plans:

Scenery:
As stated in my last post, there are things happening here. Temple of Skulls is the first thing I plan to work on, to try and get the good vibrations for my way of painting rocks before I get going on all my towers and buildings. I will also prime and paint the forrest that I have started to build, as I have a good idea on how I want that to look as a finished piece.

Bretonnians & Empire:
I don't think I ever will have my own armies for these miniatures, but I plan to paint up Brets and Empire to use as citizens for my town. I might get the Empire rulebook sometime in the future to use those rules if I end up playing with this army. But for now this will purely be a good exercise in Diorama making. I have several core units of Brets to paint, and with the new paint range from Games Workshop it should be cool to paint colorful knights. I also have an Empire witchhunter to paint up, and I think he will be done first as he is intended as an inhabitant of the Skullvane Manse.

Chaos (Warriors of Chaos):
This army is looking at an update containing more warriors (one unit of Khorne followers and some general units), more knights (currently only have two knights painted up, but these are not based yet), some chosen warriors, special characters, Lords and heroes and let's not forget the Marauders.

I will also finish the bases for my hounds.

Dwarfs:
This is an army that I do intend to play with. The next things to come for this army will be Thundrers and Quarrelers, a Gyrocopter, some special figures (White Dwarf subscription minis for 2011 and 2012) and then I will expand the army with the minis I have on the shelves. There is at least two units of regular warriors, I have the metal Thorek Ironbrow and his smitty, a metal Goblin heaver, one or two cannons, and some minis bought from Ebay and other places (among them a unit of miners and an almost finished Avatars of War dwarf to lead some thunderers).

Goblins:
Next thing to do here will be my River Trolls, a unit of three trolls are already partly assembled and will be painted up as soon as I have finished painting my ongoing 40.000-project.
Then there are several units of Goblins of all kinds to paint up, along with an Arachnarok spider or two and a giant who can work both in this army and my Chaos army.

Imperial Guard:
The first thing to come here is the Cadian heavy weapon squad I am working on at the moment. Then there will be a veteran unit (Bastion's Bastards), the remaining 5 troopers to make a whole unit of my five loose troopers, and there is a myriad of troops and special characters to paint up here. I also have lots of vehicles to paint (including two super heavy tanks and several Leman Russ tanks). I should also finish up the unit of Ogryns and a command unit that has been standing on my table for a long long time. This army will grow in to a solid army over time, and what I plan to paint next changes from day to day as my mood shifts or inspiration comes and goes. But a good bet would be that I will do my best to get the units already started off my painting desk.

Ogres:
There are two items to paint up here. I have a unit of Leadbelchers that is standing on the shelves, and also a special figure (Bragg the Gutsman). Of these two Bragg is the one being painted first, but I would like to try and paint another resin figure that is a little cheaper before I start on him as he costs as much as a whole unit from another army.

Sisters of Battle:
There are some semi-painted minis on my work table, and I plan to finish painting these up. At the moment they will only be used for adding some detail in a Space Marine or Imperial Guard diorama, but in the long term I hope to be able to have a small force of Sisters to field in games of Appocalypse alongside my Space Marines.

Space Marines:
There are so many things to paint up for this army. I have started to paint lots of Marines, and I will need to finish them. Then there are all the Marines I have bougth that are assembled but not painted, and lets not forget all the units still in their boxes and on their sprues.
I have an entire first company in Terminator armor to paint up, and several other first company veterans. There are also lots of different troops and vehicles that needs to be painted.

thoughts about what to do next in the armies

Just a little blog post to let my mind wander, and to get some drive for the different armies that I have.
The post is a sort of "what to come" in the future for my armies:

Imperial Guard:
Finishing the Baneblade is first priority. Then it is time to finish the 10 veterans I have on my desk (Bastions Bastards), and then the old metal Cadian command squad (6 figures) and 5 Cadian troopers (ment to finish off a unit together with the 5 troopers who started off my army). It is also high time to finish the details on the orgyns  standing on the table, and I really need some heavy weapon teams. Also it would be nice to assemble and paint the second Baneblade and the Shadowsword, and some other vehicles to get the boxes away from the shelves.

Space Marines:
Finishing the bike and attackbike standing on the workbench, and also paining up the comand squad and the terminators I have started on are the first tasks here. Then the next step will be to paint terminators I have bought on Ebay, and painting the marines standing on my workbench. It would also be nice to finish the dreadnoughts I have cut from their spues, and build some of the different vehicles I have to get some more boxes away from the shelves.

Sisters of Battle:
A temporary codex came out with the latest issues of White Dwarf, but as far as I have understood there will be no new models at this time. So my only task here will be to paint up nicely the models I have on my workbench. When the new codex comes, and models are re-made in plastic or resin, I might take this further.

Warriors of Chaos:
First item on the agenda here is to assemble and paint up my warriors of Khorne, and doing the same with the remaining 3 knights of my unit of 5. Then it is a matter of making units and single figures from the shelves and get them ready for the battlefield. I have no special priority on any of the units, just a general wish to get a playable army painted up.

Bretonnian:
No really big plans for this army. They will stay on the shelves for a while longer, but when I get some of my scenery done, I might paint up at least the foot soldiers to get some people to stand among the buildings for picture purposes.

Dwarfs:
I look forward to getting back into assembly and painting of my dwarfs. The first units that will get attention here are a unit of thunderers. I will also make quarrelers and rangers, but I will see what order I make them in. Also I have a resin Gyrocopter and two very nice White Dwarf subscription minis that I would love to build and paint. I also have several other dwarf units to build and paint up to get a playable army from the boxes on the shelves.

Goblins:
My "all Goblin" army have several large and small units that I would like to see ready for use on the table. Everything from the Arachnarok spider throught the doom diver and down to the Squig Hoppers or normal units of Goblins, night goblins or forrest goblins (spider riders). But the first thing I will make here, are 6 River Trolls (2x3). I think the trolls will be the next item to build.

Ogres:
My first plan with the Ogres is to finish the unit of 6 "regular" Ogres that I have started. After that I might go for a unit of Leadbelchers or Ironguts, before adding more "regular" Ogres and some of the larger sets in the army at a later time.

Scenery:
First thing to make here is a forrest, a dark and a quite scary one. The next thing should be to make a ruined tower...

new week again

As yet another weekend have passed, once again I have failed miserably when it comes to my painting.
Only thing I can truly say that I have achieved this weekend is that I have decided on the colour of the banner for my unit of chaos warriors known as "The Shining". The unit will be *drumroll* Kommando Khaki. This will be washed gently with Devlan mud. The golden symbol will be washed with Sepia as I do with almost all gold details I paint.

I have also arranged for my dad to get me a large cardboard box (he works in a store and get a lot of supplies in cardboard boxes) that I can use for a simple indoor paintstation. I have spoken of my mobile paintstation (the coca-cola cardboard box) before, but this will be for priming large models (and small models if I should decide to start priming them too).
I have a plan to start working on my Temple of Skulls this winter, and to make sure it is nicely primed I think it will be good to prime it indoors in a controlled temperature. I even found the perfect location (at least until I finally get around to paint the rest of my basement). I will need to find out some arrangement for making sure the very fine paint particles doesn't go all over, but I've got an idea for how I will do that also, and then we'll see if it is a good one after I've primed my first model this way. This can also serve as a station to coat the finished miniatures, as I haven't coated anything except my first 15 Chaos Warriors and a few test miniatures.

The Sisters of Battle will get a few reinforcements in the comming weeks, as I won a couple of auctions on Ebay. Won't be that many, but at least they might be spotted in a battle scenario fighting alongside the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines.

And speaking of Space Marines, I have once again started to doubt myself when it comes to company markings. It's stupid I know, but it's better to have doubts when 18 minis have gotten the new symbol compared to when all painted minis have it.
As of now the symbol is a black # on white background and between the company colours and the markings of the 1st Company there is a thin black line. I sort of liked the white shoulderguards, but I see that the # is impossible to get to look the same for all guards. So now I'm looking for other solutions.
I have a few general ideas, but nothing close to a desition yet. Hopefully I can find a symbol that stands well both in appearance and with the name Gatekeepers as I would like to keep that name for the army.
I'm thinking it must be a very simple symbol, as my freehand painting really sucks. Still it must be something that stands out as a little unique, still also easy to paint exactly the same for all shoulderguards. Updates will surely follow on this...

A new week, new goals!

Finally I have finished the entire unit of Chaos warhounds. 20 hounds is now painted, washed and glued to their bases, waiting along with other miniatures to get their basework done. There are some extra room on the cavalry bases that comes with the hounds, so I am thinking of adding some small shrubbery, some skulls and other stuff to give them some character. This basing will begin as soon as I have cleared some room on my workdesk.

The next project for the Chaos army is a unit of 12 warriors called "The Shining" (pun intended). The unit may grow in size at a later time, I'm quite sure that will happen... This unit will definately have the Chaos feel, but they will be a lot brighter than other units in the army. They will also have a similarly painted knights unit to follow at a later time.
The Shining are all powerful warriors that have been corrupted by the forces of Chaos. They all use swords and shields, and the unit will have full command. Their leader will be a champion named Kubrick and it is said he gets his orders straight from Prince Sigvald. Their armour will be Mithril Silver with gold detail (Shining Gold or Burnished Gold will be decided later), their chainmail will be painted Chainmail (surprise!) and all leather will get the usual browns.

But before I start on this project it is time to do a Warhammer 40.000 project, and this will be the first tank for my Imperial Guard army.
It will be a Leman Russ, but what variant is not decided yet. There are possibilities of making several versions with one kit, and also interchangeable weapons parts, so I will see how I will do this as the project goes forward.
The tank wil have either a two tone or a three tone camouflage pattern, I am still working out the details of the colors. But it will most definately fit with the colours of the remaining elements of the army.

Also I will try and spend some time finishing my units of Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Sisters of Battle standing on my workdesk, in order to be able to start basework on several otherwise finished models. Also I look forward to seeing them completed, as they have been standing on my workdesk for way too long. The longest waiting miniature is probably the Forgeworld Dreadnought; it has been standing there for ages. This is also the model that has needed the most work, but I know how to do all the remaining touches and look forward to seeing it in the glass cabinet along with the rest of the Space Marines.

A month is over...

June has it's final day today. Tomorrow it will be July 1st, and I still have the same miniatures on my table as I had in the beginning of this month.
Granted, something has happened with several of them, so it is not a complete stand-still.

My Imperial Guard veterans are being detailed at the moment, adding backpacks, helmets, grenades, daggers and other equipment that fit in.
Some troops will get a lot, others barely anything at all. It is all depending on how much availabe space there are on them. I hope to have most of this work done by the end of this weekend.

The Scout Sentinel is washed and ready to be pinned and glued on to its base. It actually turned out quite nice, and I look forward to assembing more of these Sentinel models in the future.
The base is primed in earth colour, and will receive some flock and other details before it is ready to receive the miniature.

The Space Marines on the table are all in a different state of ready, but all of them are now painted with their base colour of Ultramarine Blue. Some have also gotten their boots painted Necron Abyss.
For the Assault marines I have gotten all 5 on their bases, and started to paint their arms as well as their jump packs.

The Sisters Repentia are getting close to complete, I just have some challenges with the one sculpt that I have to try and resolve. Apart from that there are just minor details missing before they can go to basing.

The Ogres are also just minor details and a god wash away from going in to basing.

And so it is June...

Summer is slowly getting to my part of the world, and with that comes more spare time. The band I play in has taken summer holliday allready, and in a few weeks the School Band I'm conducting will have a summer holliday until mid-August. This means more afternoons to spend at home, and when I get to be more home I might also get more time painting. 

This weekend I managed to get two painting sessions in to my schedule. I have a Venerable Chaplain Dreadnought that has been laying in pieces on my worktable for too long. The first session this weekend gave this a good facelift, and after a few more sessions it will be ready for assembly. I chose to go for the regular blue body instead of the black armour the chaplains usually are seen with. I am not sure if this will be the rule for my regular chaplains, but I felt it was a nice touch for the dreadnought. After all, dreads are very old and vise warriors, so by giving it a blue body I signal that it is a warrior first and foremost. I also managed to do a lot of the painting on my first assault marine with jump-pack. I believe he will be ready for final assembly after the next session. This is a marine with both legs planted firmly on the ground. I am still working to find good ideas to pose the other four that hardly touch the ground at all unless I make them look very wobbly (and I don't intend to do that). 

My Imperial Guard veterans are only missing the wash and extra detailing, except for one dude that will need to get his face re-painted after I accidentaly gave him a big stripe of black with a runaway brush. 

I really like the way these veterans have turned out, and I am quite sure Forgeworld will see another order for veterans (the batch I didn't get this time) in the future. 

 The Scout sentinel got the final touches this weekend too, but I see I need to go over some details on the lascannon as the black brush ran away again... 

 My Sisters Repentia are also almost ready. There are some minor details to paint, and I need to decide what is what on the one mini that looks to be badly sculpted. I don't think the Sisters will see much action, as I don't intend at this moment to buy a full battleforce. Still they will look nice in the glass cabinet of my workspace, and I might find a way to incorporate them in some Apocalypse or Imperial units in the future.

Status update May 25th

As usual things are taking way too long...
But here is an update on what is going on.

The Space Marines have got their new insignia, and some of the 1st Company are on their way into the glass cabinet in the near future. Just need to check them a final time for details. The insignia for my Marines are a black # on white background. For the troops of the 1st Company the background and company colors are separated with a thin black line. The remaining companies will not have this line.
The Marines are now called The Gatekeepers, and their home planets are located in the Cygnus Arm and can be seen as a smal cluster of bright stars just North of the Eye of Terror.
I will use som time working on their fluff, to get it to be as good as I want it Hopefully it will be almost as detailed as the Imperial Guard fluff I have written for my IG army.

For the Imperial Guard, I noticed that I had not finished painting some of the details on the Scout Sentinel, and I will do this as soon as I have the time.

The Veteran Squad is just missing the fine details and the wash. I am quite happy with the way they turned out. I will add some grenades and extra ammunition and things like that before I put them on the base-work box.

The Ratling snipers are also underway when it comes to painting. Skin color is applied, and more will follow shortly. They have proven to be a little hard to paint, as they are both smal and detailed and that is not the best combination for me. But still I am sure they will turn out very nice in the end, as they are great miniatures.

I bought some Elf heads (wood elf gladeguard?) with free hanging hair, and hopefully these heads will make for nice female Imperial Guard heads with just small modifications.

I also got hold of a few Sisters of Battle miniatures, and they are a nice change to paint. I have not decided if they will be part of a small Sisters fighting force, or if they just will be minis that sticks out a little in the glass cabinet where my 40 K minis (Marines and Guards) will be standing between games.

The plan for the future is to paint the minis on my table at the moment, so that I can get room to do the base work on these and some previously painted miniatures.

Then when these minis are done (some Imperial Guard models, many Space Marines, and a few Sissters of Battle) I will make one Fantasy and one 40.000 unit at the same time until I have solid armeies to field in tournaments.
The plan is to make a unit of Chaos Warriors as the next new set for Fantasy, and some Kommisars for my Imperial Guard army.