Jump Vanguard Veterans

Well, Holy Crap! How long has it been? Almost a year! Heck, I had another kid since the last time I posted here! So I guess I've got some catching up to do painting wise...

So, I decided to tackle these Vanguard Veterans I've had sitting around for a long time. I didn't have a lot of time and, to be honest, I don't really expect to use them much so I didn't do anything special with them painting wise. My Veterans wear black so a little drybrushing to bring out contours and some detail painting like blades and purity seals and what not and that was pretty much it. You'll also note that there are only nine of them. Well, forever ago, I bought the actual Vanguard Veterans box. Unfortunately, one of them is a beakie and those of you who have been following this for a long time (which is really nobody, but that's not really here or there) know I pretty much hate beakies. So I gave it to Battleforge Games which is now a distant memory. So I need to make one more to finish this squad, but for now, I'm cool with only nine.

No, I haven't finished the Fortress of Redemption. And It taunts me, sitting there unfinished. I should do something about that.

Recently picked up a bunch of close combat and power weapons so I intend to make at least one more Vanguard squad on foot. I'm thinking that I'll have five with power axes and shields as their own team and maybe one with all power weapons, too. I'm definitely making one with all relic blades to be an Honor Guard on the off chance I ever field a Chapter Master.

The other reason I picked up a bunch of weapons is because I have recently started experimenting with resin casting. i made some molds for some power swords, a power axe and a power fist. My first experiments haven't been great, but a few of them are usable and I think I know what I've done wrong (not having the molds warm enough during casting). A couple of them haven't been too bad and even the not great ones could have use so this has potential. Eventually, I want to cast legs and torsos so I can just put on some of the bazillion extra arms I have for things and fill out Tac squads that way. I especially want to do building parts. If I could make my own panels for Imperial buildings, Watch out! I'll have the most awesomely large and complex buildings you can imagine. I've already got a lot of ideas I would make if I had enough...

Other than that I've made some more acquisitions. Picked up a handful of 2nd Ed. Tac squad jobbers to add to the ones I already have. As you all know, I think they're great fillers to squads. Picked up twelve old school Space Hulk Termies. There's even a couple od librarians in there. Don't know what I'll do with them. I already have an entire Termie company once I finish painting them all. I'm sure I can find some grognard like myself to trade them to or something. Picked up a couple of Honored Imperiums but only one is assembled at this point. Finally got a Venerable Dreadnought. Been wanting one because I like the detail on the model and it looks like fun. It also brings me up to nine or ten Dreds now. I do believe that this will be the very last one unless I decide to make an entire Chapter and even then I'd have to consider it. Lastly, I picked up a new Devastator squad. Part of me feels a little bad about this because, if you scroll back a few posts, you'll see a picture of the one I still haven't opened yet. However, I think that the latest iteration of the Dev box is now my choice for best value of all (my previous choice was the Commander box since it had enough bits to make three commanders). The Dev box comes with two heavy bolters, two lascannons, two plasma cannons, a multimelta and a missile launcher. Yes, that's eight heavy weapons. That's two Dev squads worth of weapons and you know I have enough bodies to build them all. I may get one more and then I'll have enough Devastators for Companies three and Four. And with all the Tac jobbers filling the other spots, they'll be full squads, too.

Lastly, my foamcore empire has drastically shrunk. The apartment doesn't have enough space to keep them all so I kept a few key pieces and have been giving the rest to Dragon's Lair. It's good to know they're being used. And I must admit, I get a little thrill when I see a battle report video on Bell of Lost Souls and I see a piece of my terrain.

Alright, that's all for now. Heck, it's enough. I should have more to talk about in the near future. This man's gotta build and this man's gotta paint...