(Meagre) forward progress...

o/

Not much better than they were in my last post...

Curiously, I've not violated my vow to not paint any of my new Chaos Marine forces until the last three Silver Drakes are completed. Well, I did just a little, but the Drakes were slathered in ink and untouchable/paintable at the time. Regardless, real life interference has slowed progress to a crawl.

Video gaming (part of that 'real life' interference I just mentioned)
is easily impeded as well by a kitty on the keyboard. 

Just about ready for inking.

Base coats completed, I then went thru the usual stages of detailing, clear coating, decals, more clear coat, inking and base coating their bases...and now I'm on the cusp of finishing them. Well sorta.

With as much ink as I slather on, I can't help but wonder if the Army Painter 'dip method' would be better suited for me than this one...

All I have left is a bit of sprucing up (i.e.: dry brushing over some of the harsher spots of ink that pooled in one spot or another), followed by some dirtying up via yet more dry brushing before flocking, a final layer of clear coat and then calling them done!

If ya squint you can just barely make out that roman numeral IV
on this previously painted marine's pauldron.

A note on the decals...I couldn't find the decal sheet with the tiny roman numeral unit numbers. However given that they were both a pain in the ass to apply and more importantly, difficult if not impossible to read when the mini was finished,  I'll admit that I didn't look too hard for said sheet.

The hobby Butterfly lands (somewhere else) again...

o/

Yes, just yes.

Yeah I know, you're not at all surprised. 

Slow progress is in fact being made on the Silver Drakes and I've vowed not to apply any paint to my new toys until they are finished. However if I break that vow...I'm just not going to tell anybody. :-p 

After getting a rare bonus from work (in lieu of a raise...so the term 'bonus' is more of an oxymoron), I decided to buy some toys before bills and other real life expenses obliterated what I estimated to be approximately 90% of said bonus (sadly it would be more than 90%).

Getting there...well sorta.

I perused the various Primaris options for something I could add to the Silver Drakes...but nothing was hitting any of my buttons. Thus I instead wandered aimlessly about the gaming category on eBay (a dangerous place to be) when some new (to me) shinies caught my eye!

With the Drakes all tied up fighting the Nids, and all of da emprah's other minions quarantined under Inquisitorial lock and key due to the depredations of Papa Nurgle, it only seemed fitting that I add some chaos marines to my painting queue. However not plague marines as the new minis' aesthetics aren't my cup of tea and...well I already have enough green armies.

Pay no attention to the other new toys shoved to the rear.

These 10 are the first arrivals, with three more (including my leader) enroute. To these I can add the 10 cultists that I already have (of which eight are painted) as well as my half painted and assembled Venomcrawler. All told that clocks in at about 400 points, which is both a decent start and probably more than I'll ever paint before moving onto something else. 

Now, I wonder if I have and Space Wolf bits with which to decorate their bases...

A minor reversal...

o/

It's subtle, but can you see the difference?

It seems I make army lists more than anything else these days. 40k, Battletech, Kill Team, etc., even Bolt Action (which I don't really even like), whatever my gaming obsession is on that particular day. Few, if any of these lists ever see the table top. But they're a good mental exercise at least, and they tend to fill up the little dead spaces in my day. Most are done with pen and paper, or else a word doc. with a PDF open in the background on my computer. 

More recently I've been mucking about in Battlescribe due to a lack of 'current' codexes. It's not the most user friendly program and even a bit nerd-rage inducing but hey, ya get what ya pay for right? Anyways, the past few days I've been making Silver Drakes lists which are mostly theoretical as I only have eight actual minis in my collection currently. 

Far more trouble than that was worth...

Still, I can make a legal if unfieldable (and I say that as at 260ish points...it isn't even worth the drive for a game) Silver Drakes Patrol force org., so long as I have a space marine to serve as an HQ (the no-force org Inquisitor doesn't count...apparently). As he's already on his original 40mm base, my thrice demoted Lt. has been restored back to his original rank, or...as he was called in my prior post: the superfluous Lt. 

Lt. WTF?!? won't arrive till Halloweenish (at best) so someone will be needed to (not?) lead the troops until then. Thusly I added a Lieutenant's helmet stripes and on that note: what the hell??? Whomever thought that little white stripes bordering a red one was a good idea is either a vastly better painter than I am, or an idiot! Most likely it's the former, but to assuage my bruised ego I'm going with the latter as it took what I feel is entirely too long to accomplish this minor little feat of painting. 

A close up, to more easily see any errors.

Hell, after this experience Lt. WTF?!? (who likely isn't even manufactured yet!) is suddenly in-line for a brevet promotion to captain just to avoid having to repeat this particular endeavor! Ugh. Whilst I'm aware that my painting skillz plateaued quite some time ago, these stupid little stripes are making me wonder if I've now begun the downhill slide into paint-challenged oblivion...

Silver Drakes update!

o/

Only five got painted before I ran out of steam...yeah that sounds about right. 

In response to last week's rant post, Siph kindly offered to send myself and Neverness each one of the new Primaris Lieutenants at the UK price + shipping rather than the exorbitant price of ordering one directly here in the USA. Curiously I didn't think the Lt. in question would be available till October, though Siph has already painted one up. Not sure how he has accomplished this little feat but...the Relictors are renowned for their little heresies, so I'll just chalk it up to that (btw Siph, it looks great!).

As such, I thought it a good idea to unearth my Silver Drakes and take stock of the meager force that said Lt. will be leading. Currently, my Silver Drakes total a whopping 8 minis. Five painted with my KT comms. specialist having his stalker bolt rifle reduced to a standard model this past Saturday. With so few marines, I need basic grunts more than I do a superfluous Lt. with grandiosely modeled Stalker Bolt Rifle.

His original gun.

Speaking of: scope, no scope, drum magazine or curved...they're all standard bolt rifles in my book. GW's paltry attempt to add spice to an otherwise bland lack of options for these minis upon their initial release holds no water in my opinion. Besides stalker and auto-bolt rifles aren't that great anyways.

KT 'combat footage' from what seems like ages ago...

Sarge got a new, 32mm, textured resin base rather than his ginormous original one (can't have him outdoing his forthcoming superior officer now can we?). These remaining three are now primed and awaiting paint. I ought to be able to accomplish that in a reasonable period of time, though painting here of late seems to be a struggle, with little accomplished beyond priming the bare plastic/resin/3d printed masses.

Raptors we are not!

The basic grunt next to sarge is enjoying some fresh air (or hell just air in general) following his 18-month sojourn in the simple green (I don't know why it's always 18 months...it just happens that way). Currently I'm out of mechanicus grey which I need for the bolt rifles, so I had to order a bottle off of ebay as every FLGS in the region is currently closed due to the predations of Papa Nurgle. But I suppose I can get these started in the interim...

The whole Silver Drakes chapter. (Gulp!)