Tactical Squad Epsilon

   After a five year hiatus arising from new hobbies and a more active social life, I've decided to get back to work on Warhammer 40k, in part due to being a poor uni student and not having enough money to do much else for now, and in part due to the pang of nostalgia I felt when I walked into a Games Workshop this Summer for the first time since I was 16. I guess I'm no longer going through the stage of life where I'm more worried about what people think of my hobbies than doing what I want.

   Hopefully this time, I'll be able to keep it up. So far, so good, though, as I've spent the last week or two working on the Tactical Squad that have been gathering dust for so long.

   So, here is the first squad I've ever completed: Squad Epsilon of the Ultramarines 3rd Company, armed with flamer and heavy bolter.


   The keen-eyed among you might notice that there are only nine marines in the squad as opposed to the usual ten. There is a tenth marine, but he's a shoddily painted dude I've inherited from someone else who I happen to think will look good in this squad when painted up properly, and he'll be instated as a full Epsilon member when I start stripping the paint off him and other models I've inherited that I want to add to my army.

   And I'm not finished there! In the past few weeks, I've painted more than at any other point in my life! Tactical Squad Delta are primed, basecoated and I'm now working on the highlighting. Here's a WIP photo of my progress:


Courage and Honour!
- Jon.

Captain Invictus WIP IV

The plasma blaster (probably the most unique feature of Invictus) is finally finished. Added a bayonet taken from a Dark Eldar helmet and a winged skull from the Forge World Ultramarines brass etch. The body and shoulders are filed down too.







Also, took a picture of the flamer from Squad Epsilon just to prove I'm not twiddling my thumbs when it comes to them.

Games Day

Right, I haven't died and I am still painting Ultramarines. There are currently three Ultramarines of Squad Epsilon in various stages of completion sitting on my desk, but that's not why I'm posting.

I bought my Games Day 2008 ticket today and am starting to gather the necessary pieces for a planned entry in to the Godlen Demon Youngbloods, since it's the last year I'll be eligible. The plan is to create the legendary Captain Invictus from a Captain Lysander model, some plastic terminator arms, some plasma guns, guitar string, UM brass etch, resin shoulder pads and a shizzle load of dead nids. I'll keep you posted.

Disaster!

I'm really quite bad at this whole blogging business aren't I? It's been over a month and I haven't posted any updates. The bolter marine I mentioned in the previous post has been finished for quite a while and I'm about halfway/two thirds of the way through the flamer marine. However, my trusty fine detail brush is a little too fine for my liking (i.e. it's only got one bristle left), so flamer will have to wait before I can proceed with any fiddly details. As well as that, my files have been sucked into the warp so I can't properly begin work on a new marine. It seems the Ruinous Powers have cursed my endeavours! I'll remain strong though and I've started work on one of the more craptastically posed marines of Squad Epsilon so I don't really mind if he's covered in mould lines.

Salute 2008

I got up at half 5 yesterday morning after putting up with my friend's heavy breathing for a whole night after he slept over and we got on a train to Paddington at seven. After the joy that is London public transport we got to ExCeL 25 minutes late at 10:25, thus rendering our Q-Buster tickets totally useless! =P

I bought plenty of stuff including plenty of Forge World goodness like the new Death Guard conversion kits and the Great Unclean One (Heresy, I know!). However, I didn't totally sell my soul to the dark gods since I bought the Red Scorpions Terminator Commander, Culln which I'm planning on converting into an Ultramarine. I was going to buy more stuff for my UM; more specifically the Mark IV dreadnought and some UM brass etch and icons. However, I couldn't really afford to so that stuff will have to be bought later. Maybe at Games Day?

It was a great day altogether and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Anyway, the flamer marine has been put to one side for a while since it was irritating me. I prefer to paint space marines with one arm off so that I can get to the whole chestplate and arms. Sadly, I assembled Epsilon a long time ago meaning that there are not only loads of mould lines but the arms are all attached and with a lot of superglue too. That means the flamer's arms are there to stay which got on my nerves after a while. Because of that, I'm painting another bolter marine and he's currently done to a high gaming standard but there's still a while to go before he's done. Onwards!

Squad Epsilon II

Edited the pictures of the other two marines that I've painted. I'm much happier with some of the highlights on the armour on these two than I am with Brother Genesis' though the face grills are a little messy on these. Anyway, they're still awaiting squad markings and the chapter badge but I'll probably do that in bulk when the whole squad is finished. Fun, fun! ¬_¬

The photos are even worse this time around but they're still okay.

Front

Right

Left

Back

Pad Detail


I'm currently working on the flamer wielding marine so I should have that up in a week or so with a bit of luck.

Squad Epsilon I - Brother Genesis

The first marine to be fully painted up and ready to hunt down the xenos scum in the name of the Emperor. I picked a suitably nondescript tactical marine to paint first so that if I wasn't happy with the scheme or messed up; he wouldn't stand out too much in-amongst the other Ultramarines. Luckily, all went according to plan and I was very happy with the result. Truth be told, although he's the first Ultramarine to be fully painted and I took the pictures today, I actually finished him last year in October sometime. Since then, I've painted errr... two others.

Don't judge me.






Apologies for the poor picture quality. The pictures were taken in my back garden due to lack of a proper photography set-up. Once I'm moved into my new bedroom, I should be able to sort out an area in which I can take better photos.