The first 6 PHIGs are complete.

o/

Their dirty uniforms go well with the rusty body armor and weapons. Clearly these guys aren't mere parade troops.

Despite a busy week, I've managed to make some progress on my new PHIGs army. That said, heading into the week leading up to Christmas, and a trip immediately following thereafter, I'm not likely to accomplish much more for this year in terms of hobbying. 

The squad insignia/number/name/something is visible on the left pauldrons.

The right side pauldron armor shows a squad color stripe for ease of identification, as well as a good view of their rifle grenades for use with that lovely 'Grenades' stratagem.

Some enterprisingly individual (probably in the propaganda division) decided to have their army icon added onto some of their backpacks. However the combination of daily use and/or grit has rendered several of these icons into little more than a unidentifiable mess.

I've been pondering a name for the army beyond merely PHIGs. Maybe the Pirate Heavy Interdiction Group, or perhaps the Palachian (P'Lachian?) Heavy Infantry Guards? Hrmmm...the search continues. Regardless, 'PHIGs' has stuck in my brain, so I'll need to utilize that acronym somehow. 

Neverness had asked for a size comparison pic, so here ya go! 

As you can see, this PHIG trooper's height is not quite on par with that of 808 Linum of the Admech, not to mention he/she's a tad more rotund. Were the primaris marine also standing up straight, he would likely be about eye level with the top of the PHIG trooper's pointy helm. 

Lastly I hope all of you have a fun, safe, & enjoyable Christmas and

New Year & I will see you all again on the other side!  

New Guard Army (WiP)

 o/

A few of the new recruits! 

Back in October, Zzzzz posted his belated entry for Nevereness' Inquisitorial conclave, and I immediately fell in love with the 3D printed minis in his post! A link shared later, three squads quickly ordered and I was off to the races! 

These guys will be accompanying my Whippet tanks (I now have three, though two will remain boxed up until after the holidays). Lacking a proper name for the army, I (currently) refer to them as the 'PHIGs' (Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen). 

No, they aren't pretty folks. Indeed I call this the 'ugly stage' of my painting process.  Next up is a million little touch ups and whatever I missed will hopefully be hidden under inking and later added grime. 

There are only a dozen individual poses for these guys which is a bit limiting, but I'm pretty sure I have 'em all worked out to where they'll work fine. After the holidays, when I'm not spending a shit-ton of $$$ on a daily basis, I'll order two more squads which will round out my force to a thousand points. 

Above and below are the first batch of ten that I'm working on:

Some basic grunts with autoguns. The bodies are 1-piece prints with only the heads being separate, plus whatever base you want to add.

As you can see, these guys are pretty heavily laden with gear. 

Squad sergeant and SAW gunner (more on the latter below). The sergeant is actually one of the superfluous standard bearers like the one seen in the first pic, just with a hand-swap.

The missile teams are currently on little bitty 20mm bases for ease of painting. Once they're ready to go, they'll be transferred to the new Iggy weapon teams' 50mm bases.

The Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) gunner. 

In Zzzzz's linked post above, he was treating this model as a heavy stubber trooper, but to me that weapon didn't quite fit the bill. With only a small stock/barrel extension and a drum magazine a SAW seemed to be more appropriate. 

However while my opponents don't have any issues with my proxies (well, Hogzillaries aside), inventing new weapons will likely give them pause. However, if I just use the stats of the IG Grenade launcher while omitting the Krak round, it works out quite nicely actually. Also, no one ever complains when I make weapons worse to justify a proxy. 

Autogun:  R:24" A:1 BS:4+ S:3 AP:0 D:1 SP: Rapid Fire 1

SAW:        R:24" A:D3 BS:4+ S:4 AP:0 D:1 SP: Blast  

Slightly better, but not too far removed from the stock autogun. I'll retain the Blast ability not because it actually is a blast weapon, but rather the extra hit per 5 models in the target unit is akin to the gunner holding the trigger down for a longer burst of fire. 

Anyways, its on to the touch ups!

Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?

 The same thing we do every night Pinky...

No, he won't chew a hole in your wall, instead he'll punch his way in!

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale for PhD candidates to be careful with their test subjects. Or, perhaps its just a tongue & cheek gift for a PhD candidate who happens to study mice. Yeah, its probably the latter. 

I was tempted to try an paint targeting reticles on the eyes, but was concerned that I'd more likely fuck them up and so left the eyes as just red.

Lacking a bedroll, his pack instead holds a mouse pad...

This is another Robot of the month club model that I got some ways back. I showed it to my friend (and Screech's now girlfriend) Loren when she was over at the house right after I got it in the mail. She liked it and I told her I'd paint it up for her birthday. Her birthday was in October, so a Christmas gift it is! 

I thought that I was for sure going to snap the tail off prior to gluing this to the base!

Speaking of, I got the base on ebay for a few bucks and with a bit of dry brushing and a few tufts, it turned out quite nicely I think. 

I'm sure she's forgotten about it, so Screech just keep your mouth shut about it for the next three weeks, thanks.

Spess Mahreenz

 o/

Two more Incandescent Coyotes cross the finish line.

Well I hope all of my fellow Americans are all still fat, happy, and finally done with eating Thanksgiving leftovers. While it was nice having four days off (Sorry Zzzzz), I can't say that a whole lot of time was spent hobbying. 

Primer doesn't count buddy!

That said, I did at least manage to finish these two Coyotes above as well as get my third game of 10th ed. in, where I maintained my winning streak. Screech had to call the game due to time as he had a movie date to get to, though had we gone all 5 rounds...I'm not sure who would've won that one. Oh well, a win is a win.  

Lacking a black tactical arrow for the missile gunner, this rune will have to suffice.

Finally, a better view of the 2nd Company's pauldron markings.

With a mere three painted minis, my v2 Coyotes are already halfway to the v1 Coyote's total number of painted infantry!

Reinventing the wheel (again...)

 o/

Some armies will not go quietly into the night...

It seems that whenever I get rid of all of my Firstborn marines, somebody gives me their Firstborn marines. Indeed, I've gotten rid of virtually all of my Firstborn (barring a few buried stragglers) TWICE now. Yet, once again here we are. Rejoice Zzzzz, your boys are back!

Currently I have 4 of the 10 needed.

The weekend before last, Neverenss and I were getting in our 2nd game of 10th ed and Rob swung by the shop and handed me another box of Orks and grots (3-4 sealed boxes of the latter), these being the last remnants of the horde he gave me last year. In the bottom of said box were some AoBR marines. In addition, I had a 2nd ed 40k missile marine that Kushial gave to me to pass on to Neverness. Instead Neverness suggested I keep it. 

1 of 10...sounds like a Borg name.

Neverness likes to give me hell about repeating armies and I certainly expect to hear such shenanigans again here. Curiously, I missed the Coyotes as soon as I got rid of them, though not their difficult paint scheme. Indeed, the Black Dragons were borne out of an attempt to reverse their colors, but to no avail.

The pauldron rim and tactical arrow are now in black, and the IV indicates the squad number.

Having a handful of firstborn again thanks to Rob, I thought I'd give my Coyotes another try, the marine above is the result. I ditched the infernal Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint that caused me so much grief, and used Jokaero Orange instead.  Black, leadbelcher, a Vallejo brown for the leather and a sepia wash layer and there ya go, easy-peasy. 

Its not really visible here, but the chapter icon is the same.

The basing was also simplified with just sand glued to a bone colored base with some tufts. In addition to the slight color changes, and squad numbering, there is a "II" above the chapter icon on the pauldron, marking this marine out as a member of the 2nd company. 

Rob said he thought he had a few more of these, worst case I'm sure I can scrounge a few from Kushial (NO MORE ARMIES Kushial, just a few if Rob can't find 'em) to flesh out a single tac squad to add to one of my Primaris armies for variety's sake. 

40K Whippet Tank

 o/

On patrol in the mossy wilds of the Appalachian subsector.

This is the first model painted for another, new 40K army (because...you know, I play so much of the game). I've been bouncing's back and forth between Iggie and GSC lists. On one hand I was leaning towards the Iggies as the GSC is a bit too convoluted for my tastes. That said, the faction icon resembles that of a Ymgarl genestealer so maybe the GSC would be better.

The decals came out kinda crummy for who knows what reason as I applied them the same as I always do. I'll probably go back and paint over the decal sheet haloing appearance. 

I've ordered a platoon's worth of Infantry which was recently displayed on the Devos IV's brick of scrutiny. As cool as those minis are, there only seem to be 12 individual poses which is terribly limiting. The solution to that is obvious: add tanks. 

Judging by the bizarre glyphs that presumably say something, clearly this is a local, planetary language and not the high or low Gothic of the Imperium. 

As such, the Whippet is the first one. Originally I had intended to use it as a Hellhound proxy, only to discover upon its arrival that it came with a whole slew of weapon options, and all with magnet holes included! 

A better view of the Ymgarl Genestealer-esque icons, as well as a few kill markings.

Hemming and hawing on whether or not to use it as a Leman Russ hull or Chimera hull tank proxy, I instead went for option #3: a Carnadon Proxy. The Carnadon is a none too pretty, hideously expensive 30K Imperialis Milita tank (or 40K legends) produced by the now defunct Forgeworld. 

I only seem to have taken this one pic of this side of the tank. Note the laughably useless pistol port. 

All told, the aforementioned 36 Infantry models and this tank clocked in at roughly $100. The same as 2 boxes of Cadians. Very much a bargain, even if I am terribly limited in regards to the lack of variety amongst the infantry. They however have yet to ship, so for now this tank has taken up residence in my display case. 

Faction icon and more of their strange glyphs/writing on the tank's only hatch. The rear also has a pistol port as well. 

Edit: I did paint around the decals and they do look much better now. 

The Roger Rogers

 o/

As fragile as B1s are on the table top, I have no idea how this OOM security droid survived that shot to the chest. 

Now...I don't know what horrible rumors that you've all heard about how hard it is to assemble B1 Battledroids, but rest assured when I tell you that they are not rumors! These spindly little guys are indeed nightmares to assemble and said assembly was done so with much cursing and swearing. 

Oh look, a cheap box o' droids! Then I got home and realized that they were all specialists for squads that I didn't yet have.

As such, after building the four that I have, I just went on eBay and found a reasonably priced auction containing a dozen pre-assembled B1s and promptly bought it. No more assembly required. 

I built them as three grunts and the OOM security droid, and with the aforementioned eBay auction will have enough for two regular squads with options.

As stated previously, these old, still activated droids are rusted all to hell, though somehow still functioning. They paint up quick and easy enough, and their basing is fairly easy as well. As you can see, I'm well on my way now to building a third army for this game that I don't actually play...

Had there been a 4th comms pack, I'd have built all four as regular grunts. The specialists kit however doesn't allow for that. Honestly, I was surprised that I could even build them as regular grunts!

Black Dragons Ballistus Dreadnought for Dreadtober 2023 is Complete!

 o/

Its well after dark, so my apologies for no outdoors/natural lighting pics.

This time around my buddy Neverness crossed the finish line ahead of me, but I wasn't too far behind. Technically this isn't 100% done as I still need to matte varnish it and the 'ard coat the few shiny bits. However those details are negligible in the grand scheme of things and due to a busy schedule, I likely won't get to that till the weekend at the earliest. 

Some paint chipping was added to the shoulder stripes for some visual interest.

Speaking of that busy schedule, my beautiful and insanely smart wife defends her dissertation for her PhD in Biomedical Sciences tomorrow. She's almost done, wish her luck! 

Rather than prattle on about this project which I've already covered fairly well in its first three parts, I'll let the pics do the talking (well, and maybe the captions). 

Went kinda basic on the side the normally I only see.

The same paint chipping treatment was given to the other arm.

A close up of Olen's name banner, I got it on the first try!

Close up of the alien flora on the base...

...and again on the front of the base.

Many thanks to Marc and all of the other participants (many of whom's projects put mine to shame) for giving me the impetus to paint up the Venerable and Mighty Olen, of the Black Dragons.

Black Dragons Ballistus Dreadnought for Dreadtober 2023 (pt.3)

 o/

Now we're trucking!

Its been a busy week, but I did manage to get some brush time on my Dreadnought, which I've named after an old friend from a now defunct FLGS. Olen was a good old guy who played Warhammer Fantasy Battle with his kids and anyone else who dared come within range of his laser-guided guess-ranged artillery. Olen worked in construction his whole life and could guess ranges with unerring accuracy!

Several years ago, well after Olen's passing I got some custom decals from fallout hobbies, and had a few of these made in his memory. Now I just need to paint his name on that leg scroll.

You'd be playing on one side of the shop and hear his cackling laughter followed (or preceded) by his trade mark battle cry of:

'You'll die like bitches!' 

While Olen was never much of a fan of 40k, he did like Dragons. As such, I figure naming a Black Dragons dread after him would be an acceptable compromise.

Speaking of Fallout Hobbies' decals...

Unfortunately Fallout doesn't do personally customized decals anymore which puts my Black Dragons in a bit of a quandary as the majority of my Dragon icons were used up by my now defunct Silver Drakes. 

Another worrisome of this discontinuation is that when I had the decals made way back when, I only had left side large decals made, meaning I can't have my chapter icons on both sides of any vehicles. Or at least not any full sized ones. 

I had to get a little creative for the right side, and so used a small icon as well as the written saga of Olen's mighty battlefield deeds. 

Black Dragons Ballistus Dreadnought for Dreadtober 2023 (pt.2)

o/

The flesh is weak?

Were this an Iron Hands dreadnought, then I'd be damned near done as large swathes of the machinery bitz have been dry brushed with leadbelcher. A few other bitz and bobs have had other metallic colors applied, but that's about it. This however is not an Iron Hands dread, so instead this week's forward progress can best be described as: minimal.

Its all so...monochromatic. Its seriously giving flashbacks to my old 4th ed. Iron Hands army.