One Lone Devastator

This is a bit of a cheat, but it's still something I got done, so it gets a mention.

Over the last couple of nights, I've been rearranging my bits.  Noticing that I seemed to be running out of things, I thought it might be a good idea to organize what I have so I could actually, you know, find things.  Turns out that I have a little more than I thought I had and I certainly would have used some of them on my Librarian if I had known.  I also dropped $20 on some new bits and a special spear/lance for the Sergeant of my Black Lancers.  I'm glad I made the purchase and, truth be told, it was needed anyway.  It's not like I'm buying new sets and keeping the extra bits or anything these days.

Anyway, while I was doing my sorting, I found this heavy bolter dude.  His body and weapon were painted.  His other arm was not.  So I took 5 minutes to paint the little stub arm, mixed up a little JB Weld, and put him together.  There are a few places where the paint could be touched up, but he's not bad.  Definitely fine for the table on the day I get around to playing again...

Under him is the sorted case of bits.  Marines everywhere...  And a couple of Ork heads.  Don't know where they came from but I'm sure I can find a use for them.  Behind him are fourteen (count them FOURTEEN) Terminators in various states of paintedness.  They're  from last year's Terminator Saturday.  I've got a few more bikes to assemble and basecoat and Devastators I promised to work on, but I can't look at these guys (especially the Space Hulk Termies) and not feel the urge to finish them.  Heck, another Terminator Saturday could do it.  Not that I see that happening anytime soon because of my current schedule and situation now, but a man can dream, can't he?  Maybe I can do a few per night until I have them all done.  The other thing is that I also found the objective markers I started forever ago and kinda want to do them, too.

The real takeaway from all this is that, well, I'm totally schizophrenic about what I do.  I've still got Rhinobacks undone, bikes needing assembly and painting, Devs needing assembly, and now I want to add on this new project.  No wonder I have so much undone.  I guess, though, I'm doing something.  Slogging forward in a haphazard way is better than being completely stalled.  That, and if I'm doing what I feel like doing, I may have more of a chance to keep going and not burn out or anything like that.

But when that spear gets here, I'm totally making that Sarge ASAP.

Terminator Saturday: Before and After

Alright. Saturday was a painting day for me. My wife was out of the house. My in-laws had taken my daughter to an event and I was to be alone for the entire afternoon.

I thought I might get a lot of things done on the paint table but it never quite works out that way, does it? After running a couple of errands and then fielding driving inquiries by various people, along with the typical everyday distractions, six free hours turned into two and a half to three.

As you can see, there is a before picture and an after picture. The primary accomplishment is that I got everything based coated in Blazing Orange and got the helmets and the fingers and a few details in UM Blue despite the hate affair I was having with both my paints and brushes. It's nothing wrong with them specifically (though my paints needed a bit of thinning). It was just a bad day. But painting was done so it wasn't that bad, I guess.

I am going to take a moment and make a gripe. So the Space Hulk Termies that I'm working on look like crap. At first I thought I was doing something wrong but that wasn't it. You see, I have a friend who bought a couple of Space Hulk sets. He didn't really like the termies that came with it so I traded him some older termies for a set of the Space Hulk ones. That's great except for one thing: he spraypainted them all white. And not lightly either. He totally oversprays all his minis in white. so I had to drop them all in Pine-Sol to get as much of the paint off as I could. So now they don't look right when I paint them because some of the finer detail is a little squishy from the stripping becuase they are a different quality of plastic than normal termies and not all the white paint came off so I had to spray over it. When I'm done with them, they'll be OK but they won't be great. What a shame, too. They're not perfect to begin with, but they are nice minis. They could have been so good...

Bits & Pieces, Pieces & Parts...

Well, I've been looking through my "bitz" containers and have decided what I'll be working on for the next few days. If all goes well, by the end of the week, I shall turn this big mess of parts into seven painted Terminators (some are half done already) and at least 5 Vanguard Veterans with Jump Packs. I've got 5 old school metal packs at hand right now. I have another 5 or 10 plastic ones stuck back somewhere. Eventually I'll find those but for now I'll concentrate on getting these five done. Besides, once I have five done, I'll want to finish the squad and make it ten. So this is the goal for Sunday. Of course, what I actually get done will be a different matter.

Posed Terminator

So, I've had this one sitting around for years and today I finally decided to do something about it. The picture is a little dark but this is a Terminator knocking the head off of a Genestealer Hybrid. I put this together several years ago and every now and then I'd look back at it thinking that one day I would paint it and it would look cool. Well, it took years but I finally decided why not and just did it. It's not sexy and Golden Demon winning or anything like that, but it's mine and it's done.

So tomorrow starts something new. My friend who's got IG and hasn't played for years is going to be playing me tomorrow in his first 5th Ed. game. It's going to be a tiny one (500 pts) so he can learn the new mechanics and get a feel for how things work. If he's cool with it, I'm going to make a battle report of it. Sure, it's small, but a battle is a battle. And the plan is for this to be the kickoff of an escalation campaign between us so he has time and motivation to reassemble and paint things. I kinda hope he doesn't field a Russ but, knowing him, he might. On the other hand, the Land Speeder I intend to field may give him some pause...We'll play it by ear and see what happens.

Our other friend who is into Orks gave me a call today. He's really thinking about them and is looking to paint. This is the thing about this friend. He's a phenomenal painter. If he painted more, I think he could have a shot of competing at Golden Demon level. However, he does everything so slowly from painting to assembly. He has Ork and Eldar armies both on par sizewise with mine. However, between both armies he probably has 100 miniatures painted total. And now he has two more armies. He inherited a Necron army and, thanks to Black Reach, he has more than enough Marines to start a small army. When is he ever going to find time to paint them all?

Wish me luck tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to need it, but you never know...

Even More Terminators

Last night I took the evening off from painting, only putting away the Lightning Claws I just finished. Checking through my Termies, I realized that I only have three Lightning Claws, meaning I need two more to finish a squad of ten. More disturbing is the realization that I have 54 painted Terminators of various types and four HQs in Termie Armor for a grand total of 58 painted Terminator models. What on earth does one do with that many Terminators? And what about the 30 more that I have sitting waiting for paint, assembly or whatever state they're in? Eighty-eight Terminators? When I stopped acquiring terminators, I figured that I have a couple of Veteran squads already with plans to make more so 75 Termies with Veterans would make a good First Company. On the other hand, since I have 88 Termies, now I'm thinking why not just get the 12 remaining and have an entire Terminator Company? Sure, fluff doesn't support it since only the most ancient Chapters have entire Terminator Companies (I'm looking at you, Dark Angels) but at this point, why the heck not? Astramalleus fluff already has the first squad of Battle Companies being Veteran Squads of one form or another. Why the hell not?

Oh, and one last thing, I cannot field and entire 3K Planetstrike force in Terminators. I need to paint five more normal Terminators and one with an Assault Cannon or Cyclone Missile Launcher to acheive that...

Assault Terminators

Well, wow... How long has it been since I actually painted a miniature (as opposed to a vehicle or building)? So now I have 5 more Lightning Claw Terminators. I think I have four or five already so I'm close to or now at a full ten man squad. I also think this brings me up to 45 or 50 Terminators painted. When I pulled the unpainted ones out, I found that I had a done one in with them. I was probably using it as my reminder guide and forgot to put it back with the others.

I wonder if someone would like to play Planetstrike? I can field almost 3K in Terminators... Guess I'll have to throw in a couple Dreds to round out the points.

What will I work on next? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm a little tired of terrain at the moment and I have vehicles and Terminators I could work on. Then, of course, I have at least 6 Tac squads and a Dev squad that I've never even touched. Maybe it's time for me to work on Termies, fill out their company with Veteran Squads (I have a couple already but I may use a couple Tac Squads I still have in boxes, sprinkle bits liberally and voila) to finish out my First Company and then assemble the rest of the Tac and Dev squads and see if I can finish out a Third Company. It also occurs to me that if I get to the point where I can field three comapnies, I may just quit acquiring troops and restrict myself to vehicles and support units. Or maybe not.

Assault Terminators

Last night, while I was considering how my two towers from last night looked with walls, I found myself thinking about what foamcore project to do next, most likely another tower. However, a couple of days ago, I was remarking about the new Space Hulk and the possibility of more Terminators being out there and how Terminators are sorely not needed, especially by me. I mentioned this in a web forum and someone immediately offered to take the Termies I had sitting around off my hands. Of course, I demurred. Just because I haven't done anything with them yet doesn't mean I won't ever. So last night, while I was thinking about what to paint, I decided to revisit the Termies I've had sitting around for so long. I had based most them in black with their customary drybrushings in white and Blazing orange. Last night I took out the Assult Termies I hdn't finished (all lightning claws), pulled out the Ultramarine Blue and painted the details (helmets, hands, joints, etc.).

For some reason, Termies always take so much longer than standard Marines and I haven't figured out why. Maybe it's because I choose to take more time with them but I don't think it's that because Termies get annoying after a while. Maybe it's because there's a bit more detail than on a standard Marine but not much more. More likely, it's because there are more details that I actually pay attention to like feet and joints and other little things that add up to make them take longer. Either way, tonight, I'll do the small details and a little highlighting and I should be done. Five Terminators down, thirty to go...

One last note: between these lightning claws and a discussion with my friend with the IG army, I'm reminded of a tip to pass on to anyone who is trying to bulk out their army. When you buy a squad or a box set, don't just buy with no thought. Buy with an eye towards things you can do with the extra bits. Look at these Termies. Notice that one of them is a Black Reach Termie? Well, I bought an actual Assault Terminator set a while back. I've had nine Thunder Hammers for years and wanted a tenth to finish the squad. I used a few for lightning claws but that left several thunderhammer and lightning claw arms. What did I do with them? Put them on some Black Reach Termies. Here's another... I bought the Captain box and used the main parts to make a Commander. But I had left over bits so I put them on a biker and voila! A Commander on a bike! I still have a few bits left but when I build my next Tactical squad, I'm going to spread those Commander bits among them (along with others) and make it a Veteran squad. Don't just look at what they can do for you now. Look at what they can do in the future.