A few WIP shots

The dreadnought's coming along nicely, but my pot of Skull White has turned rock hard in the year since I finished Squad Delta, so progress is stalled until I can get some more white paint. In the meantime, I started work on a squad of Scout Snipers, but soon realised that they too would have to be put on hold, as I plan on painting the fatigues and cloaks with a snow/arctic camouflage, and that requires white as well.

Instead, I've started filing some mold lines off of a squad of assault marines that I've had assembled and crappily basecoated for fucking ages - they may even have been the first squad I started to paint, before getting distracted by some other shiny things. The white trims are because I started painting them before the introduction of Citadel's foundation paint range, and red is a pain in the arse to paint directly over black. Since then, I added Mechrite Red to my collection of retro paints, so I use that instead now. Irritatingly, my glue has gone hard as well, and there have been a few accidental amputations during the clean-up process, so I think a trip to the shop for some hobby supplies might be in order soon (If I can resist the temptation to buy anything 'unnecessary').

Courage and Honour!
-Jon

Tactical Squad Delta

   My second tactical squad, ready to kick ass and take names. I finished painting these guys some time last year but have only just got round to getting them uploaded. I'm definitely pleased with them, and tried to incorporate a bit more dynamism and action into their poses than I did with Epsilon.

I've also accidentally uploaded them publicly to imgur rather than just to my profile to be linked to, so there should be some interesting comments coming my way!

Currently on my table is the first of the 3rd company's three dreadnoughts, who played a crucial role in the fluff for the company's victory at the Northern Polar Fortress during the Battle for Macragge. The blue, red and gold are all done and it's just the more fiddly, and more time consuming, details to be done. Hopefully I should have it finished and uploaded within the next month.

Courage and honour!
- Jon.

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

Thankfully, after practically pulling an all-nighter on Friday night filled with much swearing and cursing, I finished him in time!.

I give you the late First Captain Heracles Maximus Saul Invictus, Regent of Ultramar and Hero of the Battle of Macragge.







Sadly, he didn't even place but hey, it was worth a shot, and I'm happy with him regardless.

Captain Invictus WIP VI

The nights are drawing in now and it's taking a lot longer than expected to get the basecoat done. Hopefully, everything else will take a lot less time (fingers crossed). Only three more days to go! I really hope I get this done in time!

Captain Invictus WIP V

Today was a frustrating day!
I spent most of last night filing down a screw (see if you can spot it in the pictures) and I assembled it all this morning. I had one last thing to do which was to attach the guitar strings to the plasma blaster and body. Hours later and the guitar strings are ruined and the back banner and hydrogen canister's come off! Another few hours and it's finally finished much later than I'd've liked. I'd been hoping to get him undercoated and basecoated by this evening but it's getting dark now and I find it difficult to paint without natural light.

He's outside now with the black undercoat drying so I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to start painting. It's going to be a hectic week! Apologies for the unedited pictures; I'm in a bit of a hurry.

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.