Search the Community

A while back I experimented with some new Space Marine paint schemes and found one I liked. I just was happy with the one I had originally chosen. I finally let loose the arrow to land where it may. Now at this point I have a conundrum. Is the red bolter housing too busy; should I go with a more neutral off-black? The squad and chapter markings are going to be red, if that makes a difference.

Hello model makers! Any of us collect a lot of models over the years - especially the first ones, unpresentable and unfinished. They are stored in boxes and crates, sometimes forgotten, sometimes causing nostalgia to take them out, be horrified and put them back. I have been into Warhammer for 17 years, during this time I have many various models, and each of them keeps its own history. But the time has come to give them a second life: remove the old paint, get rid of dust, fix the shortcomings and prepare them for new battles! They are waiting for reforging...... In this project, I will demonstrate how the models looked before and after restoration, and show the process itself. I hope this will inspire you to update your old works, and not leave them in oblivion! 1) The first tank to open the list is the "Predator".

Greetings I have a question for the fellow hobbyists. I am about to embark into a long term project of painting the monopose Primaris Space Marines kits, which come from the following sets: - Dark Imperium - Shadowspear - Indomitus - Leviathan - Easy To Build, Intercessors, Reivers, Redemptor Dreadnought, Aggressors, Firestrike Servo-Turret, Primaris Invader ATV. So the question is which space marine chapter to paint? I am reliant on the transfer sheets which came with the boxes, I also want this to be a classic codex chapter so company color on shoulder trim, red helmets for sergeants, etc. What I don't want is this to be one of the main chapters so successors or Ultima Founding. Also every Easy To Build or monopose model from the future boxsets is going to be added to the collection. As I have said, this is a long term project and I am now in an analysis paralysis which chapter to paint. Thank you for your input.

PART I: THREE WERE ONE Three Bodies, One soul The ash stuck to everything. It clung to our boots, softened our steps, turned every movement into a whisper. But even then, we were loud in how we moved. Not in sound, but in intention. We weren’t perfect. Not by technique. But we flowed. Vasik advanced like a storm surge, blunt and brutal. Every blow he made was one I didn’t have to. Maerik danced, not elegant, but deliberate. He never wasted a step. Never struck first. But the moment you lost your guard, he was already there. I cut between them. Fast. Playful. Sometimes reckless. I was the flicker, the one who filled the gaps, confident they'd hold the line. We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t analyze it. We just moved. I don’t know who we were fighting. It doesn’t matter. They moved like individuals. We moved like muscle memory. One formation. One will. Three bodies. One soul. The fight ended as fast as it began. Vasik knocked the last one down hard... too hard, maybe. The poor neophyte bounced off the sparring field’s edge with a grunt and rolled onto his side. Before anyone else could react, I clapped my hands once, loud, and shouted, "We’ll stitch his pride back up, too!" Maerik snorted. Vasik shook his head and muttered something about me needing a muzzle. I just grinned, arms wide, ash clinging to my armor like paint. The sun was high and hot. The world was still gray with smoke and dust. But we laughed. We laughed together, not for long, not loudly. But enough. Just enough to remind ourselves we were still alive, still together. That kind of laughter... it stays in the bones. It’s the sound you remember long after the voices are gone. But not every day was like that. Not every day let us fight side by side. They split us once. Just for a day. Said it was to test our individual strengths. I remember Maerik raised an eyebrow, and Vasik just shrugged. I didn’t say anything. We all obeyed, of course, we were still too young to question orders, and too proud to admit we hated the thought of it. I trained with a different squad that day. Good fighters. Focused. Efficient. But none of them moved like Maerik. None of them held the line like Vasik. No one shouted my name when I got ahead of myself, and no one laughed when I tripped into a barrier because I wasn’t watching the field. Everything worked, technically. My strikes landed. I hit my marks. But something was off, like training inside someone else’s armor. Like wearing your brother’s boots and pretending they fit. The silence after drills felt louder. The meal tasted flat. And for the first time, I realized something I didn’t know how to say: Without them, I was still breathing... but half the rhythm was gone. The next day, they put us back together. Nothing was said, no reason given. Just a nod, a lineup, and the three of us were back in formation. But I never forgot that day apart. Afterward, we sat on the edge of the sparring field. Helmets off, sweat drying, ash still in our hair. We didn’t speak. We didn’t need to. Maerik passed me his canteen. Vasik leaned back on one arm, watching the horizon like it might try something. I closed my eyes and listened to the silence, the good kind, the kind that only existed between us. I don’t remember what that day’s training exercise was meant to teach. I don’t remember who landed the final strike, or how many points we earned, or what the instructor yelled at us afterward. But I remember how we moved. How the three of us circled and crashed and shifted without a word, like limbs of the same body. I remember the weight of Vasik’s shoulder brushing mine as we turned. The soft hiss of Maerik’s blade just inches from my arm, always precise, always trusted. That rhythm. That rightness. We were three. But we weren’t. Not really. We were one. And those first steps... they still echo in me, louder than any war cry since. I Never Had to Look I don’t remember the name of the world. Might’ve been something with "Primaris" in it, or maybe a number. Doesn’t matter. It was dust. Rocks. Heat. A canyon with sharp drop-offs and wind that howled like it was in pain. The enemy wasn’t impressive, fast, loud, overconfident. Thought they’d flank us from three ridgelines and cut our force off from the drop point. They never got close. We were sent as a forward element, a standard sweep operation. Three of us. No need for command vox or squad-wide coordination. Just the three who had trained together since they could walk upright in Astartes plate. We moved without a word. Varneth was already sliding up the side slope before the vox even hissed. Maerik adjusted our formation without speaking, tightening the wedge, shifting our advance angle to trap the lead pack in a cross-pattern before they even realized they were spotted. I kept the center. Shield up. Axe forward. That was always my place. We didn’t call it strategy. We just knew what to do. That’s the thing I remember most. Not the fight. Not the noise. Just the way we moved. I knew where they were before I looked. I knew their rhythm better than my own heartbeat. And when the strike came, when the second wave burst from the ridge behind me, I didn’t turn. I didn’t see the blade. I heard it, maybe, somewhere behind my right flank. But I didn’t shift my footing. I didn’t check. I just kept swinging forward, one strike at a time. Because I knew Maerik was there. And he was. His blade caught the attacker low, swept them off-balance. I felt the brush of movement behind my shoulder as he passed. I didn’t flinch. Varneth came next, laughter in his voice as he drove the kill in deep. I didn’t have to speak. Didn’t have to thank them. Didn’t even turn around. We just kept moving. That was the rhythm. That was the bond. Not because we trained it. Not because someone taught it. Just... because it was true. I always struck second. I always knew I could. When it ended, we didn’t talk. Maerik sat against a half-shattered rock, hands resting on the pommel of his blade, eyes closed, not sleeping, not praying. Just... still. Varneth was wiping gore from his gauntlet using the edge of his own cloak. He said something. A joke, probably. His mouth moved like it was. But I didn’t catch it. Didn’t need to. I just stood there for a while, axe resting against my boot, the weight of it settling deep into my arm. The wind had picked up again. The canyon below us was quiet. Still. The three of us didn’t move for a long time. That was how it was, sometimes. Not silence because we were tired. Not silence because we were angry. Just... the kind that came from knowing nothing needed to be said. That was a good day. A quiet one. A day we’d forget in every way but one. We were whole. We were exactly where we were supposed to be. And I didn’t have to look to know that. That day? It didn’t mean much. Just another patrol. Another fight. No medals. No names. But I still think about it. Because that was the day I knew, no matter where I stood, no matter how the lines shifted or how loud the war got... I was never alone. Not then. Not with them. Words I Needed to Say He was staring at the names again. The roll of the fallen, etched into cold stone across the Apothecarion wall. Varneth stood there longer than he needed to, his hand resting on the hilt of his scalpel like it was a relic instead of a tool. He wasn’t praying. He wasn’t reflecting. He was... listening. That’s when I knew. Not fully. Not with words. Just that feeling in the marrow of my bones that something had shifted. Like someone had stepped back from a fire, but left their shadow behind. We weren’t neophytes anymore. Varneth had taken the white, the scalpel, the rites, the silence. He bore the lives of others in his hands now, and he carried that burden with grace I never envied, only respected. And I... I had been named Arbiter. Not a mere pathfinder of souls, but their guardian. The voice in the silence, the flame in the dark. The duty that watches even those you love most and holds them to truth. I never told him I was proud. I thought he already knew. Maybe he did. Maybe that’s why he looked away when he noticed I was watching. It didn’t happen all at once. Little things. He stopped laughing first. Not entirely, but the kind that echoed, the kind that used to make even Vasik smirk, that was gone. Replaced with half-smiles, short exhales through his nose. He stayed longer in the Apothecarion after drills. Said he had to restock or sanitize or finish reports. But when I passed the doorway, I saw him just sitting there sometimes. Not working. Not moving. Just... still. He missed cues in our rhythm, minor things. A delayed nod. A strike that didn’t land with us. Not enough to draw comment. Enough to feel. Once, Vasik threw an elbow at him during a lockup, half-playful, half correction. Varneth didn’t dodge. He didn’t react at all until it hit. He blinked. Smiled like nothing happened. I should have said something then. But I told myself it was fatigue. Or duty. Or... just life. But it wasn’t. The space between us was growing. And I knew it. And still, I said nothing. The Chapel was quiet. It always was. I knelt before the Scales, not to ask for strength, but for clarity. The Scales are not ornamental. Not to us. They are judgment. Balance. Truth. We don’t pray to them, we weigh ourselves against them. And that day, I felt myself tilt. “If you must take him,” I said, barely above a whisper, “let me not be blind when you do.” The candles flickered. The censer’s smoke drifted across the tiles like fog. I stayed there longer than I should’ve. Long enough for the ache in my knees to settle into the stone. Long enough for me to hope I was wrong. But I wasn’t. Because when I left the Chapel, I passed the infirmary again. And Varneth was still there. Sitting in the same place. Staring at the same wall. And I didn’t go in. There was a day, months before the signs, maybe years, when we sat and watched a storm break over the hills. No drills. No patrols. Just stillness. A day between deployments. We remained in full armor, disciplined even in rest, but no one spoke of tactics. No one moved to break the silence. The sky above was too clear at first, almost hollow. Then the clouds rolled in, thick, dark, alive. Lightning arced across the horizon, and thunder pressed itself into the stone beneath us like a slow heartbeat. Varneth made a quiet joke. Said the storm looked like my temper and Vasik’s breath. Vasik replied with a low grunt that might’ve been amusement. I didn’t speak. I didn’t need to. We weren’t analyzing. We weren’t training. We were just... together. And it was enough. That moment clings harder than any sermon I’ve ever given. It was the last time I can remember when none of us were being anything but brothers. No command. No watch. Just the sky, and the sound of breathing that didn’t feel heavy. And now I wonder if Varneth already felt it then, the pull, the quiet whisper of the Vault. And if he did… Why didn’t I? Moments when we were alone. When I could’ve asked what he was thinking. When I could’ve told him I was afraid. That I saw him changing. That I didn’t want to lose the shape we had always moved in. But I held back. I told myself it wasn’t the right time. That he would speak when he was ready. That whatever was pulling him inward would pass. I was the Arbiter. I was supposed to guard their spirits. I was supposed to feel the weight shift before it cracked the stone. And still, I let the silence settle. I loved him, not with the love of duty or oath, but with the love of a brother born of my blood, shaped in the same womb, carried through the same rites and fires. I thought he knew. I thought that knowing would be enough. But truth unspoken does not echo. There were no words. But I should’ve found some anyway.

Airsupport is crucial for any raging war. Whether it is supplies or protection that must be provided, maintenance of the aircrafts used is allways of utmost importance. This Landing Platforms provide maintenance and refuelling and therfore are crucial for any raging conflict. Combine this set with the Fortification Wall and or Defense Tower to create even more narrative on your tabletop. This PDF will give you a Landing Platform Design and four different Barrels. The Landing Platform and Barrels are fitting for 28mm tabletop games with a Modern or Future-Fantasy setting. Make sure to check out the fitting models of the fortification series available and coming soon. Get the set here: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/457149/Tabletop-Battlefield-Scenics-Landing-Platform Create a mission where airsupport has to land or take of in time to win the battle. Or win / keep control over the Landing Platform to gain advantage in your campaign. There are lots of narrative possubilities! We wish lots of fun with building and playing with this terrain piece. C&C is welcome. Just print, build and play!

Having been barely keeping up with the hobby for several years, Indomitus reignited my passion for 40k last year, so I decided to try to actually build a force. This time it will be Primaris space marines, but still my beloved 3rd Company of the Ultramarines. The plan is to build the complete company, including officers and attached specialists and a dreadnought, plus a ten-man Deathwatch kill team, and such a project needs a fresh thread, so here I am. In terms of bulding the company, I will be dividing it into combat squads, to avoid becoming overwhelmed or bored, and alternate those with Deathwatchers and officers, so that it will go Combat Squad > Deathwatch > Combat Squad > Officer > Combat Squad > Deathwatch... and so on. This should offer a decent balance between progress and sameness of models. I started an Intercessor veteran sergeant (the 30th anniversary model) as a one-off before I decided to make a full army, so I decided to finish him before doing the rest of the combat squad. If you visit the Ultramarines subforum, you may have seen him, but here he is again with one of the Necrons the 3rd is fighting: The Necron is really just a color scheme test model, not the start of an army, any time soon at least. The rest of Combat Squad Ardias is in progress, with their bodies only needing cleanup: The bolt rifle arms are coming along too, I just need to highlight the black and tidy up everything before gluing them on. Then it's just the other arms, backpacks and heads and then finishing touches. Of course, an Intercessor squad isn't the end of it. I have plenty of plans for all the squads and in particular the command cadre. I don't feel like typing out all the minute details of my plan that I've spent the last nine months overthinking, so for now I will just finish off with something black for now:

Through the years in the hobby i always had a love-hate relationship with terrain. It is a absolute must to have a fun and balanced game experience and it tells the story. Building your own with scrap, foam or whatever and then painting it up is very time consuming. Most terrain you can buy is very expensive and then takes a lot of time building and painting to a decent level. As a fan of papercraft modeling i decided to combine my skills and hobbylove to create some papercraft terrain that is neither costly nor tremendously time consuming. A friend of mine, a very skilled digital artist, joined the journey and creates all the fantastic looking surfaces for our models. In this BLOG we present our new and growing modular table-top-terrain-system that enables you to expand your battlefield without limits and customize it according to your wishes, to experience the greatest possible gaming fun. Buy once and print the sheets as often as you like. Under the following link you will find an overview of our entire and expanding product range with buildings, terrain elements including additional parts and usefull gimmicks. https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/11303/mpconstructions Paper Terrain, is the smart alternative! Create stunning looking gaming scenery pieces without any painting necessary. Combine our different kits and create worlds full of excitement and adventure. Save time, money and the environment. Just print, build and play!

Communication of Information is crucial for the outcome of any battle! Defend or destroy the tower to gain a vital advantage in the raging war your troops are fighting. Combine this set with the Fortification Wall to create even more narrative on the tabletop. This PDF will give you a Tower Design with Communication and / or Defense Tops. The Communication / Defense Tower fits all 28mm tabletop games with a Modern or Future-Fantasy setting. Make sure to check out the fitting models of the fortification series available and coming soon. Get the set here: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/480630/Tabletop-Battlefield-Scenics-Communication---Defense-Tower?src=newest_since We had a blast in our mission where on player had to place detonators at the Communicaton Tower and the other player had to stop him. I hope you have lots either. C&C is very welcome! Just print, build and play!

Working on the test model for my own chapter, the Thalassians. The green armor is done. Looking at this, I see that I need to add a few point highlights to the helmet. I've overshaded the tabard and need to bring that up a bit, but I think the texture on it is coming across well. C&C is welcome! This is going to start with a six-man firstborn kill team, and then I'll be working on the Leviathan box.

Storming the fortress or defending it, is one of the coolest scenarios for tabletop battles in my opinion. I proudly present the first element of the coming fortification series. Highly modular and versatile you can build a fortified site any size you see fit. This PDF will give you a modular Fortification Wall Design. The Fortification fits all 28mm tabletop games with a Modern or Future-Fantasy setting. Make sure to check out the fitting models of the fortification series available and coming soon. Get the set here: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/481421/Tabletop-Battlefield-Scenics-Fortification-Wall During the design process we had lots of fun planing, building and storming our fortress. I hope you have lots either. C&C is very welcome! Just print, build and play!

Hey all! Welcome to my shiny new thread. Some of you will know me from my 30k Iron Warriors and Dornian Heresy White Scars threads that I’ve had up here over the years, among other things. In the last year I’ve moved across the country and, unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of room to bring those projects with me! A crying shame, I know. However, that has left me with a clean slate to start a new force! No more half-finished projects staring at me, begging to be completed. At least not for a while. So, I’ve decided to go ahead with an army I’ve wanted to put together for years - the better part of a decade, actually. Black Legion! Some of you may faintly recall my Fifteen Fangs warband, which I built way back in 2018, when Kill Team first came out. That was my first foray into CSM, but, after finishing the conversions, the project never went anywhere. Until now! When visiting home a couple months back the models caught my eye and I got inspired to take them and expand them into a full Black Legion force. But more on that later. Today my offering is the one and only, the unmistakeable, Warmaster of Chaos: Abaddon, the Despoiler. Abaddon has been my favourite character in the setting for a long while now - ever since I first got my teenage mitts on ADB’s Talon of Horus, an experience I’m sure a lot of you can agree with. Needless to say - other characters from the book will be cropping up here and there in this thread. Over the last few weeks I’ve chipped away at the big guy, and finally finished him up today! He was an absolute blast to paint, and a really excellent model all around. A few notes about creative decisions: • I decided I wanted that infamous red underglow, and it was the first part of the model I’d say was in anyway completed. Looking at it reminded me of the iconic Horus V the Emperor painting, so I decided to paint that fallen marine on the base as a Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard - with an mind towards making the broken wing statue on the base appear as though it was the wing from said Sanguinary Guard’s jump-pack. I wanted Abaddon, clad in black and gold terminator armour, wielding his father’s talon, and stood over a winged, golden-armoured warrior to look the spitting image of his own father - a sort of meta life-imitates-art take, with an ironic twist in that Abaddon probably would hate to know how similar he appears to Horus in this moment I have captured him in. • Left the cape off - I wanted that classic Abaddon silhouette that alluded to his old mini. Cool as the cape looks, it doesn’t feel like Abaddon to me. Plus it obscures some cool details to be found on the back! • Trophy rack - I had so much fun painting up some of my friend’s armies as trophies mounted on Abaddon’s spike rack. We have an Ultramarines lieutenant as played by my friend James, and my friend Raj’s green-and-black Tyranids. I’ve purposefully left the left-most skull (which has Space Marine Bionics attached to it) partially unpainted, so I can add another space marine faction if desired. Coming up - I’ve got plans for a terminator retinue for Abaddon, with a member representing each of the chaos gods. I also have a squad of possessed, and the aforementioned Fifteen fangs kill team, which I will re-photograph to be added to this thread later on. And that’s all for today folks! Cheers for reading, stick around if you wanna see more! If you want more frequent updates, my Instagram, @jallens40k, gets WIP photos as often as I work on my minis. Laters!

Theoretical While building an army, one might find themselves having crossed a line, where the project begins materializing beyond the Kill-Team or individual squad level. Like models in their squads, the units begin to coalesce into a recognizable force. It's not something I can really visualize with grey plastic - the painting lends itself to the phenomenon. The small slips and errors made on specific models goes away, and the trees become the forest. Practical With my Tactical Squads and Devastator Squad complete, things are starting to come together for the Cardinal Guard's 5th Company. 1,000pts of 4th Edition Space Marines doesn't stretch very far; with 15 models complete, that leaves 6 more in power armor, a Dreadnought, and a Razorback. My opponent has been working away in the background on his Salamanders, and needs to tackle 7 Terminators (Commander, Librarian, and Command Squad) and 2 Dreadnoughts. Hobby Progress Looking at this quick snap of a Tactical Squad, he's leaning into 3rd Company's lore - these sons of Vulkan look like they've been through Hell. I'm excited to see what he does with the Terminators and Dreadnoughts. Devastator Squad Donetal (and the rest of my army) look downright inspection-ready compared to the battered Salamanders. At this point in time, with every model assembled, we could play some games. I'm juggling self-control and curiosity, playing with only painted models versus learning the rules and our army lists. Finding openings in our schedules and speed of painting will be the decisive factor.

Theoretical It's largely unnecessary (and generously self-indulgent) to explain the concept of Compulsory Unit Selections to the B&C crowd. With his previous experiences in 3rd Edition Age of Sigmar (playing the big orks whose name escapes me - 'Ardboyz? Irongutz?), my opponent grasped the concept pretty quickly. Personally, I first learned Compulsories during my initial forays in Warhammer, playing Horus Heresy from 2015 until the first rendition's untimely demise (there's another conversation to be had elsewhere about the HH2.0 update and the loss of "the magic" that made that system appealing). We both enjoy playing around inside of tight boxes of rules, and I find that limitations and regulation breeds creativity, to a certain point. At no point, however, have the 40k rules writers ever needed to convince Space Marine fans to take Tactical Squads - they're the in-universe and tabletop backbone of a Codex-Compliant Company (or Demi-Company), and a great hobby exercise - an opportunity to showcase the distilled essence and character of a Chapter. The colors, heraldry, and any weird quirks can be presented and not overwritten by duty-specific wargear or markings. Practical I committed to make the two identical Tactical Squads of my 1,000pt list the first units I completed in the project. Tactical Squads Andreus and Mattean are 5th Company's 1st and 2nd Squads, and in 5-man form, both armed with a Plasma Gun. The Sergeants are armed with Power Swords (denoting induction into the Velocitari), wear laurel wreaths (denoting secular rank and the stewardship of a particular shrine on the Company's Charge-World), and each wear a copy of the Lectio Divinitatus on their hip. Their tilt-shelds display the 5th Company's battle-heraldry, a simple-to-freehand red stripe on a grey field. I tried to add some sort of gubbin or bit to each Marine - a purity seal there, ammo and grenade pouches here, etc - just to add some interest to the units. Painting itself was a pretty straightforward tried-and-true method. For the undercoat, a tricolor zenithal + purple wash + drybrush, to create shadows, add depth to recesses, and strengthen highlighted areas without any sort of cerebral labor. After that, I added colors (sometimes all at once, sometimes progressively layering) with speed paint. The lack of any sort of finesse will show to the trained eye at 2" away, but I'm at a stage in the hobby where I really don't mind okay-painted minis, so long as I get to roll dice and make pew-pew noises.

I think of this guy as "The Grey Hunter", out on a solo slog across Fenris to slay a monster between campaigns. Think he's probably the sole survivor of his pack, and maybe fresh home from a rotation in the Death Watch? Converted from a chaos warrior. Going to experiment with some snow effects to do up the base, and then weather the cloak to match. Would love c&c if you've got any - i know its not the best photo so might be hard to comment.

Theoretical Following a few years of what I can only describe as 'bumbling around' in the hobby - jumping around and enjoying dalliances in Heresy, 40k, Kill Team, Age of Sigmar, Battletech, etc - my buddy and I decided it was time to 'lock in' and commit to some hard-and-fast hobby and gaming, preferable in a system that wouldn't change its clothes on us as soon as we finished slapping paint on our models. I did a deep dive into some of the older editions of Warhammer, looking for an edition that hit a sweet spot of completed-ness, nostalgia, and ease of play. I came up in (what's now) 1st Edition Horus Heresy, and was leaning towards diving back into that system, but the mere task of tracking down rules across several black and red books seemed like a chore, and the uphill struggle of building new armies for a game at 3,000pts wouldn't have us on the table anytime soon. Enter 4th Edition. Cheap books, smaller armies, and locked in a past that won't be altered. I picked up a smattering of books: the core rules and codexes for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, and Eldar. The older books are a treasure, and I'm reminded of HH's USR's, tables, and vehicle systems. We agreed to construct two forces from the same codex (Space Marines), and got to work hammering out some 1,000pt lists. The Dramatis Personae While my opponent opted for the ever-popular Salamanders, I decided that this would be the right time to finally get my on-again-off-again homebrew, the Cardinal Guard, onto the tabletop. For the purposes of list-building, a codex-compliant, by-the-book chapter. For the purposes of the hobby, a chance to flesh out the concept practically. Looking into the far future, I want to smash out some Wraithhost style Eldar, as well as some World Eaters - and my opponent's love of green doesn't just extend to Space Marines. Practical The wonders of the at-home STC device - a bevy of creators online, the ability to 3D-bash custom parts, and keeping it on a budget. I'm no master painter and firmly abide by the 3ft principle - get the models on the table, characterful from that angle and distance. What To Expect 50yd Target: hobby progress on our armies as we build to 1,000pt and later 2,000pt sizes. 100yd Target: game reports, what we like and don't about 4th Edition, and musings. 300yd Target: more armies, more games. Standby for more.

Well, its certainly been a hot minute this time hasn't it. I'm not really sure where 2024 went but I didn't get an awful lot done last year, and I'm determined to do things better this time! Last year I progressed a bit more with the Leviathan boxset, and by year's end had just eleven space marines left to do. Which sounds good until you consider that in my last post that number was eighteen and that the space marine contingent started off at twenty four. Yeah, I didn't hobby well. There's a lot of reasons I could give as to why this was the case but it doesn't change the fact that it happened. That's why I want to try and do better this year. To that end, I'm looking at setting myself some challenges. These will be aimed to either do something I've not done ever while also tackling my pile of potential. Let's dive in to it shall we: First challenge: Complete Leviathan Yes, a hold over from last year. This one should be obvious yet the most easiest as all that's left is to finish the Sternguard Veterans and the last five Infernus Marines. The Sternguard are currently at this stage- They've been base coated, washed, had the blue, white relayered. The Sargent has even had further work with his tabard and helmet getting cleaned up. The Infernus Marines are blue, not much to say there. With that in mind, I'm wanting to try something that was suggested to me in the Forums, that of barrel drilling! I've loaned a small drill for a different task (more on that one in a bit), just need to see if I've got the right size bits. Of all the challenges I've got planned, this is the one giving me pause. Had I done this before undercoating anything, I think it'd be easier to get my head around on doing. The second challenge is probably the hardest painting wise. Simply put, I'm painting a Primarch. Lion'el Johnson to be precise, and I'm not just doing it once, I'm doing it twice. See, I got him as part of my desire to collect loyalist primarchs (pretty easy since there is only two of them so far!) However my son also wanted and got him as part of his dark angels army. Benefit here is that in keeping with the rest of his army, he wants winged helmet, while I'm going bare head all the way. Once they're done, my aim is to paint Dark Angels till July comes around. Third Challenge...is a presumption on my part, that there's going to be another Call to Arms event. If there is, it's bug time once again. I've been slowly expanding my Tyranids with 9 more Leapers, a full brood of Hormagaunts and a Hive Tyrant. The Hive Tyrant is the reason I got the drill. Someone at my FLGS suggested that by magnetising all the weapon options and wings, and using the Winged Tyrant legs and tail, that I could have my cake and eat it. I would have a modular Hive Tyrant that could serve as a normal one, a winged one and the Swarmlord if I also do the head (if I can). My original option was just to buy a torso piece from somewhere and have two Hive Tyrants...May still do that, comments are welcome! I'm still tempted to grab a few more bugs to add to the pile maybe a Tyrannofex or a Biovore, maybe one of the new Lictors. Got six months to figure out what I want! After September...depends on how things turn out GW release schedule wise. If a certain faction of Space Marine is released, my nids will finally have their true base rivals (i like to base my armies in opposing pairs, Ultramarines vs Necron, Tyranids vs...well, let's see). Though GW may not get much more money out of me due to another company entering the tabletop market with a franchise I love, I'm sure there's plenty of painting in my future. My plan is to update the blog whenever I hit a milestone (like finishing these bloody Sternguard for instance!) Till next time! (Will hopefully not be another year!)

It's been a while since I did a blog post, in fact I haven't posted since completing my Call to arms vow back in the summer. I'd like to say I had a great excuse for not posting, but it was mainly just being distracted by other things such as playing Space Marine II. I have still managed to carry on building and painting a fair few models in this time and having a free time over the Christmas holidays I've gotten quite a bit more finished. 2024 Completed: Following on from my Tau army additions with my Call to Arms pledge I just wanted to add a couple of things to finish off the army with a second broadside suit with magnetised weapon options and with the release of Hivestorm I had to get the Vespids both for my Tau army and as a Kill team in their own right. I now don't need anything else for my Tau (with the exception of a Taunar supremacy suit and a Tiger shark, but they will have t wait until I win the lottery). Next up is the additions to my homebrew Primaris marine army starting with an infernus squad using the Combat Patrol magazine exclusive miniature and the start collecting set one. A converted Captain in terminator armour using one of the ones from the 2 copies of Combat Patrol issue 1 and spare parts from the multi part captain kit and lastly a Phobos strike team for Kill Team with a small amount of kit-bashing to add two reivers to the squad and give the medic a full apothecaries back pack and accessories. I also revisited my Deathwatch, using the other terminator captain to create this rule of cool Deathwatch captain. I also had the idea of building a custom primaris killteam for the deathwatch, kit-bashed from numerous kits and including some 3d printed parts many of which I created myself (and available here if you are interested). Looking at the updated rules for primaris killteams in 40k I might even be on the right path for when they ever get around to updating the Deathwatch in Kill Team. On a whim after seeing numerous Death Guard army lists that included sorcerors in terminator armour, I kitbashed this one to add to my army. Lastly, I also manage to get quite a bit of scenery tabletop ready as well. Into the New Year: Looking forward, I already have several miniature partially painted on my desk, to hopefully complete in the next couple of weeks, namely 5 infiltrators and 5 incursors along with the company heroes squad to add to my marine army. I want to participate in the "Knives in the shadows" Kill team painting challenge, but don't fancy painting up the Tempestus Aquilons from the Hive team box and was intending to sell them. Fortunately I got the Inquisition Agents kit for Christmas which should make for an interesting Kill-team, to bring them up to full numbers I have just ordered a box of Sisters of silence to fill out the team. While on the subject of the Inquisition, I also have sitting round waiting for paint the Warhammer+ Inquisitor and cohorts along with the previous years Kasrkin sergeant and a random sister of battle, that want to get painted and off my desk. I also have this xmas present to myself, I hope to get painted up and find a suitable place to display it. Looking forward to the rest of the coming year I expect much of my hobby time to be Eldar focused with the new miniature due to arrive in the not too distant future. I also need to play more games, rather than just amass more unused armies and kill teams. With it seemingly more difficult to get together with the couple of friends I usually play with, I intent to try and join a local gaming club to hopefully address this imbalance. Anyway, thanks for reading and Happy New Year

2024 - YEAR IN REVIEW THE SIN EATERS My first major project on returning to the hobby - well, the first once I liked enough to stick with properly - finally hit that all-important 2,000 point mark earlier this year. It's currently 2,070, meaning I can swap out a character as required, as I did this last weekend in a final spurt of tabletop play for the year. I'll go into the individual units in a moment, but just at a top-level, I'm very happy with these chaps. The Crusade, though shortened, was a blast. Killed a lot of Tyranids, was killed MORE by Tyranids, and generally had fun marching up and down the board and blasting away in Firestorm. I have now played two games with the new Grotmas BA detachment, which... Would have been way, way better with my heavily character-focused Crusade army. Ah well. I'm happy with the scheme, and they look nice as an army, which is what really counts. Fallen Martos, and the Firestrike Servo-Turrets. My second Ballistus - chosen mostly for availability, and because I did need some more anti-monster blasting - was a delight to paint, and a cleaner job than I managed with the first one. Much of my 2024 painting on the Sin Eaters came out nicer than 2023, though not all, and I'm egnerally quite happy with how the scheme applies to this big, flat-panel models. Gives me a lot of room to freehand those checkmarks. The turrets were oddly compelling, too. They did good work in Crusade, mostly in keeping some monsters wary with that 4+ overwatch. I'm glad I cut off the Techmarines, they look so much nicer as fully automatic blasters. Said techmarines saw some new life a little later, too... Headtaker of the 3rd, Techmarine Stahl, and Primus Medicae Malcos. I did say the army was character heavy. Where 2023 was spent building and converting Chaplains, I branched out a little in 2024. The techmarine is made from some printed bits and a body and head cut from the turrets. Headtaker - a Judiciar - is a mashup of bits from all over, and the Apothecary is mostly spare parts from Leviathan and an ancient metal servitor arm. I'm most happy with the paint on Stahl, the green really pops, and I almost wish I had managed to fit more of it into the greater army. Maybe when I finally get some hellblasters as I slowly get this force to 3,000 points. Headtaker is a killer, though, he put in some work in the final few Crusade games. Captain Cominius, and 3rd Company Command Squad. Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Wormwoods, buddy, it's a Crusade, why did you only finish your general with like 3 games to go, ensuring he would be WAY behind on XP?' Look. The Command Squad wasn't out yet, and I didn't have the parts. Whatever. He's proven to be absolutely useless, and his friends even more-so, but who cares? It's a lovely kit, and a fine excuse to go even more ornate and over-the-top. Quite happy with the stolen Custodes banner, and the headswap on Cominius. Minimal other conversion work, just head swaps, and the sneaking suspicion that the Company Champion really is just short, and not just unfortunately posed. Immortals of The Plate. The final addition to the army in 2024 was this charming little gang of psychos. An easy arm-swap with some spare claws from a fellow hobbyist who prefers the hammers, I like how they came together on Leviathan bodies. They're even a little cleaner than the normal terminators, and slightly less garbage! They didn't get to join any real games for the Crusade, but put in some work over the weekend, buzzing through Khorne Berserker and having a wonderful time. That's it for the Sin Eaters for now. I'm taking a break from them to focus on my next summary topic, and army for an upcoming Crusade starting in 2025, along with some non-40K work in The Old World. Painting Empire State Troops is like eating popcorn chicken, I can't stop! Still, I'll be adding more Sin Eaters at some point, likely some Hellblasters, some Death Company, more Jump Intercessors, and maybe even - horror of horrors - a tank! We'll see what happens.

Hello fellow Blood Angel brethren. I finally decided to step out of the shadow and share my stuff with you. It took me quite a while (years) to even create an account for B&C, but here I am. I hope to get some painting motivation by sharing my stuff with you and please feel free to critizise my work and help me improve. So, who am I? I live in Germany and mostly play friendly games with my friends. We have some competative thoughts behind our lists, but mainly it's for the fun and not the victory. As a teenager my first encounter with GW was Space Quest, or for the non european people Space Crusade. Since then I was driven to the guys in red and after I got the 2nd edition starter box, I decided to clad those space warriors in red. Here I am, over two decades later and sharing my stuff with you. BA are not my only army, but my most beloved and by far most played. I still have some minis from back then and don't mind using them in games. As this thread grows, I'm sure you'll see some sins from the past and many models that are still WIP for more then ten years or even longer. Also my painting skills have improved over the years, but as I am a slow painter I never bothered to touch a finished mini again, bare the most severe cases. Since the realease of contrast paint I switched to them, as I think they really speed up my painting and used right can give you a wonderful result. So here I present you some of my finished HQ choices:

I’m building a Landraider and want you to help me decide whether it be a Crusader or a Redeemer. I play Black Templars as the main Astartes. Crusader is fluffy, but I love the massive flamer … don’t want to magnify anything just will choose one or the other.

I mean, that literally is just the same unit with fewer options, which is pretty sad. GW's modeling and rules trends over the past few years have been to reduce and reduce the available options, which is just much less interesting from both a modelling and gameplay perspective. Each release seems to be stripping more and more away from peoples' options, GW has become obsessed with controlling how people can build their stuff.