Break in construction

There has been a halt in the painting process. I've been away for a holiday for two weeks, and when I got back we started to tear down the kitchen. We are now in the last part of the process of building the new kitchen, but I expect I have to work on the kitchen for at least a couple more days and then I expect I will need at least one day to help the wife get everything back down from the attic and back in to the new kitchen cabinets.  But as soon as that is done, the Imperial Guard will get their reinforcements, and I will start to paint my River Trolls for my Goblin army.

Had a trip to Games Workshop the other day, and brought home a solid reinforcement for my Space Marines. In 6th ed. the Stormraven is allowed as a flyer for all chapters, and as a result of that I had to have one. I had planned to get one some tine in the future anyway, but this gave me the kick to get it now. Imagine a Stormraven comming in to a hot landing zone flanked by two stormtalons... 

I admit I only have one Stormtalon at the moment, but I expect to have at least one more sometime in the future. But I won't buy the second one until I have built my first. If it is crap to build, then I will manage with one.

I also got some more Ogres to make up my army. I will sum up what I have here in a later post, as I don't remember right now what is down in the basement.

The Imperial Guard get their first psyker later this week, the Primaris Psyker. He has been ordered through the collect in store option at Games Workshop in Oslo and they hope to have it in store on Thursday afternoon so that I can collect it after work on Friday. In the same shipment is also a unit of Regimental Advisors.

The Ogres gets a maneater in the shipment, but I am thinking of using him for another position after having a chat with one of the team at GW. It is the Maneater with the treassure chests (Paymaster Maneater), and I look forward to working with him. 

The Goblins gets some Gnarly Cave Squigs. I have been wanting to get those squigs since I started to collect Goblins, so they might be bumped up to be the next Fantasy project after the Trolls. But they are really not a big job, so I might do them in between other projects as well. I'll see how it looks when they arrive.

The final item in that shipment is an Inquisitor. I will probably field him with the Sisters or my Marines, but I really got him because I love the model. I have been looking for it on Ebay for a while, but now it is released in Fine Cast and I felt it was the time to get him home. It is the Inquisitor who looks like he could have been on the Mayflower when it first came to found English colonies in North America.

Well, off to the kitchen for some IKEA assembly-work...

New edition, new rules

Warhammer 40.000 has now come out with the new rules (6th edition I believe) and the rulebook is massive. Hopefully there aren't too many changes in what is allowed for regular armament as I would hate to have units that is no longer allowed in the game before I even get a game in with them.
What I know is a new (or rather a returned rule I believe) is the rule about the allies. You are now allowed to take an army and add allied forces to it given that these allied forces uses a different codex. For me, this means that the Sisters of Battle might enter the battlefield alongside the Space Marines, or I will be able to field an army combining Space Marines and Imperial Guard in regular games and not just in Apocalypse.

I have decided to use the same basing material for all my 40K troops more or less, I will make some small variations, but the basic feel will be identical to make it believable that they all serve on the same planet when using them together. This also saves money, as I don't need to buy yet another basing material. 
The basic feel is black, crumbled rocks or ashes, with some grey rocks for the bases of Dreadnoughts and some patches of grass or different kinds of mossy vegetetion on some of them.

For the Warhammer Fantasy armies there will be more variation for the different armies. Mostly different kinds of grass and rock, separate or in combination. Might also be some water effects or cornfields or other kind of terrain. I will see what I do when I work with each individual army.

Guard and Marine update

I had a plan! That seems to be the way things are for me these days. And the thing with me and plans is that things never happen according to them...

The plan was to have the Heavy weapon squad finished this weekend and also the remaining 3 troopers of the 5 troopers needed to make a 10 man squad for the army along with the 5-pack built a long time ago (in a hobby room not too far away)...

I have fixed some flaws of painting on my Commissars, and also fixed some small chipping of paint after I had an accident with the box they were standing in. Apart from that I haven't gotten much done but I will try and do more this week.

When it comes to the Space Marines, I have painted the chapter markings on all my scouts, on my Chaplain Dreadnought and on a regular Dreadnought (my only "plain" dread so far).
This last dreadnought has been added to the 3rd company with a red rim around his missile launcher. I also did a refresh of the red paint on the missile tips, as this was poorly done originally.
For this dreadnought I had to paint over an Ultramarine insignia with Ultramarine blue, and I gave it a good wash later. I haven't seen it after the wash dried completely, but so far it looks like someone had fixed some battle damage on it, and that might be ok when it comes to looks.

While I was working on my Space Marine list, I also found a Chaplain in Terminator armour. He has a bolter in one hand and a crozius in the other. This is a metal miniature, and I see it is slightly modified when it was released in Finecast. Still, I like my old chap, and plan to add him to the Chapter pretty soon. 

There are a few small details to paint up still, and I need to wash some parts of him. Hopefully it won't be long until the 1st company has gotten a chaplain that wil fit in to a drop pod. The Venerable Chaplain Dreadnought Moses is a little to big, so he will have to come in his own pod.

Making a Space Marine Chapter..

I did NOT expect it to be such a time consuming puzzle to assemble my Space Marines in to the right companies and squads. I had thought I might do that and also repaint Chapter markings on my scouts and some of the few Marines that doesn't have it. But it has taken me most of the day to get the first part done.
Now I have one dreadnought, one devastator (the only one I've got painted up so far), one terminator and one vanguard veteran to fix minor details on. As well as 17 scouts that needs chapter markings (remaining 3 have capes over their shoulder).
I have managed to paint up a little under 2465 points of Space Marines. The reason I'm saying it is a little under is that I in some cases have had to take the points of an entire unit even though it is not complete yet. But I have all the minis needed to complete them all, so it's just a matter of getting the time and inspiration to paint.
I have several minis that is close to completion, so it will not be long before the army is more than 2500 points.
Some of the units waiting to be painted up is a Terminator Chaplain, terminators (close combat), assault marines and regular marines. So all I have to do first is to fix the remaining Imperial Guard troopers that are on my table at the moment, and then make 3 River Trolls for Warhammer Fantasy, and then it is time to add points to the Gatekeepers.
I will also see if I should re-write the fluff a little to make them more believable, and I will stretch the rules of the company strength a little, in order to be able to use all my terminators in a game of apocalypse in the future (If I add them all up, I believe I have about 100 terminators) while still being able to use sternguard and vanguard veterans.

Well, that's it for now, I'll try to put in an update on the progress with the small adjustments later tonight.

Creating armies

Today I decided to count up my armies, and also finally fix the washes and chapter insignia on my space Marine scouts.
I made my Imperial Guard troops in to units, marked them to show what trooper goes with what unit, and counted up their points. Each trooper has an individual number, so if I want to name the characters or a special trooper in the unit I can do it with reference to the number.
The system is very easy. Company - Platoon - Squad - Number in squad.
1st company, 1st platoon, 2nd squad sergeant would then be numbered 1 1 2 1.
497 points of infantry, 685 points of tanks, and 50 points of other units, adds my Imperial Guard army up to 1232 points.
This is 2 platoon command squads of 5 troopers, one 10 man infantry squad (decided to add it even though 3 troopers are under construction), one heavy weapon squad (missing minor details, but are ready to go to war if needed), one super heavy tank, one Leman Russ tank, one sentinel and a bodyguard for my company command squad.
This is not a legal composition to use in a torunament, but it could be used as a part of an apocalypse army where there are no unit composition rules.

Tomorrow I will do the same job with my Space Marines, to see what I have to work with here.
The numbers will be a little different here, as the first number will be the company, second will be squad, and third number will be number in squad. So the commander of the first squad of first company will be 1 1 1. This will be a captain wearing terminator armour.
For the masters of the chapter I will designate them 0 company, and I will make up designations to describe the other units that need to be explained.

Imperial Guard progress

This long weekend has actually been productive. I have three Commissars that has their uniforms and skin painted, and all that is left to paint on them is the details on two of them and the weapons on the third. Then they need a general clean-up to make sure that all areas have been covered in paint and that there are no places where paint have blotched on to where it shouldn't be.
I ended up doing one minor change from my original plan, and that was on the officer caps that they're wearing. I thought of painting them black with a red trim, but ended up painting them all black.

The heavy weapon squad is is ready to be sent to war if needed, but I'm working on adding the ammo pouches, canteens and other equipment. I had planned to add backpacks to the unit, but decided against it as they probably have to slog enough equipment around and don't need the extra weight of backpacks. 

I'll use the backpacks on another ten man squad at a later time instead.

The five man fireteam are now a seven man squad. The sergeant and the heavy weapon trooper can march in to battle if needed. The remaining three men needs to have their arms painted and attached.
I also need to paint all the extra equipment for these five troopers, but I will finish the extra equipment for the heavy weapon squad first so I don't mix it all up.

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.