(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!)

It's Lieutenant WTF?!?

o/

BIG Games Workshop reveal yesterday! HUGE!! (if I'm honest...), was is it you ask: Yet another Primaris Lieutenant of course! 

Who'd a thunk it?

Its this year's cancelled con-exclusive mini. Making it available to everybody (for once) rather than just con-attendees and idiots with more dollars than sense who are willing to sell a kidney to buy one off of ebay, is pretty cool in my opinion. To be honest, my usual primaris ranting aside...I even like the model. 

This guy might even gallantly lead my Silver Drakes out of the case in which they're imprisoned! To my eyes he looks more like a captain than a mere Lt. given the iron halo gubbins. Thus I thought: what the hell let's order one...

yay.

I log onto GW's store, create a new acct. (can't put him in my cart without one) and I haven't ordered from them in so long that my old acct. has been deleted, and okay boom: I'm good to go! Back to the home page, I click to order (by 4/10/20). Orders over $65 get free shipping, however this won't be ready to ship till October, so anything you order with it ain't coming till then either. Skipping the free shipping I see that the cheapest shipping option is another $10, sigh.

Of course there's free shipping to your 'local store' for a convenient pick up. However my 'local' store is 122 miles away in Knoxville. When visiting Knoxville its always to visit family who live on the opposite side of town from my 'local' GW so nix that option.  

Adding to the $$$, GW's North American headquarters is inconveniently located in Memphis Tennessee (or 503 miles distant), meaning I get add some good ol' in-state sales tax for good measure resulting in a grand total of: 

Hence the blog title of Lt. WTF?!?

Yeah, no thanks. Kinda sucks too as I was (for a few minutes anyways) looking forward to splurging for this model.

So, is everybody all castled up?

With walls so low, ya gotta wonder why I even bothered...

Good. Sorry to say that those fortified walls won't do any actual good, but at least they make you feel better. 

My beloved Wolfy and I took the weekend off, spending it up in the mountains of North Carolina to celebrate our anniversary a little early (originally we were to see a now postponed show in Asheville). The ongoing zombie apocalypse made finding dinner a bit challenging, but we managed. With our actual anniversary a mere 10 days out, we figured movement restrictions would only be worse by then so kept our Airbnb reservation. We only came into contact with 1-person at a drive thru during the whole trip, so 'social distancing' was still achieved, lol.

Oi! Hoo yoo kallin' fugly?!?

It was an easy drive 1.5 hour drive, so after settling back in at home yesterday I gotta little bit of brush time in. I'd gotten the really rough/basic colors in on my new warboss  previously, and so added yet more color to bring him up to the next WIP stage going from 'fugly', now to 'still fugly'. He's slowly getting there though. 

With rain forecasted for the next three days and the slow breakdown of civil society an on-going thing, odds are we'll stay hunkered down and I'll be able to work some more on Da Noo Masta Cheef!

My Bolt Action motor pool has quadrupled!

o/

There's an excess of transport capacity, but not much in the way of firepower...

Expanding further on my minis for unplayed armies theme, my Vickers Light Tank Mk VIb, 15 CWT truck and tilly arrived for my Bolt Action Quar 'army'. All scale nicely with each other as well as my universal carrier which is always a concern when mixing manufacturers, even within the same scale. 

No flash, no warping? Hey Forgeworld, PAY ATTENTION!!!

I hack-sawed my last unpainted Quar in half to fit in the turret, and cut the gunner's hatch in two. I also added an antenna and the crew kit and stowage came from spare Quar bitz.

The tank is from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. This was my first purchase from them, and was both quick to arrive and flawlessly cast, I highly recommend them! It was a little pricey, but I'm okay with paying for quality products. 

Yeah there's print lines, but these are among the better end of my 3d printed mini collection so far, and light years better in quality than that wrecked dreadnought!

Going on the cheap however, I bought the truck and tilly from Rosa Miniatures and Games, an ebay seller with a large catalog of 3D printed vehicles, most of them for WWII. They worked with me as I only wanted one of each (they're normally sold in pairs, one canvas covered and the other with an open bed). Good communication, and good minis in my opinion. I'd buy from them again. 

It may have wide doors, but there's only room
for one pot-bellied Quar in that tiny cab!

The cab of the tilly seems a bit small for the pear-shaped Quar physique. Initially I was thinking it was too small for any use but then recalled looking in real life cars of the 1930s and 40s and thinking to myself 'there's no way I'd ever fit in there...' (I'm 6'6" tall and none too slim for those who don't know). Besides, in the 1940s, ergonomic crew comfort wasn't even a consideration for wartime production. 

So just the driver will ride in the cab I guess with my officers, or maybe the AT-rifle team riding in back (if anything at all...these two vehicles will likely serve as terrain more than they will as transports).