ETL VII +++Space Marines Outpost+++

[MajorNese]

I, MajorNese, rise to the challenge of E TENEBRAE LUX VII, on the side of the Adeptus Astartes and for the glory of the Iron Hands, Mars and the holy Toaster, vowing to complete one Armiger Moirax with volkite and claw (150p) as well as a primaris chaplain iron father (77p) for a total of 227 points, before 1st September 2019. Success will bring me eternal glory and failure will doom me to wear the Badge of the Oathbreaker until the year-end.

Vow 5 done.

 

 

...which proves one thing - I can get more done in 2 months of ETL than in 6 regular months. Final group shot:

 

 

Now it's time for me to sit back and grab some popcorn - or do non-Astartes stuff. Which popcorn probably is too, but that's besides the point.

[Apocalypton]

Vow 4 Complete!

... followed by a couple of Army Shots from ETL this year:

Thanks Semper and all involved! Good luck everyone for those last min completions!

[VulkanLives]

Vow Complete!

https://i.imgur.com/WhHFJbj.jpg

[Canadian_F_H]

If i can managr to not get landed with too much overtime this week, ill finish my vow. The last 2 models are agonizingly close to being finished!

[MajorNese]

@Apocalypton:

Damn, that's absolutely impressive. Painting yellow well is already an issue, but doing that plus weathering and some nice contrasting colors on base and model really knock it out of the park. Especially as it's done consistently for an entire force, not just a display model or two.

[Apocalypton]

@Apocalypton:

Damn, that's absolutely impressive. Painting yellow well is already an issue, but doing that plus weathering and some nice contrasting colors on base and model really knock it out of the park. Especially as it's done consistently for an entire force, not just a display model or two.

 

 

Thanks MajorNese, I have to give credit to Contrast Paint for all of it apart from the sponging of dryad and ironbreaker. Not the easiest medium to use if your looking for a certain result but you get used to it and how it behaves after a while. I'm still worried they look a bit 'cartoony' with the high contrast base but at least they all came out relatively consistent! 

[MajorNese]

Well, most paint recipes the local Fists players used around here were based on yellow wash or glaze, rather similar to the Contrast approach. But that rarely worked well on large flat areas as it pooled and stained a lot, so what you've done here seems to work better.

 

And no worries about cartoon look - Fists are meant to be visible, but weathering instead of edge highlighting and blacklining helps against that cartoony look and get closer to what they are supposed to be.

[TheOneTrueZon]

Vow Complete!

 

[CantusMaximGloria]

Vow complete!

 

[Captain Semper]

I'm totally taken aback by this stream of completions by the SMs!

 

Congratulations guys - this is an amazing performance! But keep going though - your chief rivals are also very dedicated an produce stellar results... No respite!

 

UPDATED TO THIS POINT!

[Dracos]

Some beautiful stuff out there guys .... this isn't one of them, but it is done to my tabletop level. Maybe I'll go back and spiffy them up for a tournament someday but I'm on to my next project (not a Vow) of 20 Intercessors. I want a playable painted army by time the Raven Guard Supplement is released. Until then ...

We have a holo-vid from Inquisitor Dracos of the Warhawk's Shadow Council in action. They may seem like normal Primaris Aggressors but their connections have produced a small caliber Assault Bolter that fires at volumes that would melt a lesser weapon's barrels. These masters of close combat are experts at infiltration and laying down fields of fire before a final assault with their powerfist.

[Captain Semper]

Is this a completion?

[Canadian_F_H]

Is this a completion?

 

 

idk...

 

but this is!

 

 

more picts in my Crusade plog.

[Halandaar]

Oof some great completions here; I've got some observations of what's going on (which I hope are correct, I used Captain Semper's methodology to do my calculations but please don't take this as gospel)

• Based on the latest completions, we have now beaten our Score and Completion Rate from last year's ETL, and are in a commanding position going into the final few days!
  • Caveat - We have 3 outstanding follow-up vows which, if they remain incomplete, will cost the participants the points they gained for their previous vows. That could bring us back down again, although it's unlikely they will cause much damage if we get more completions in, as their value is relatively small.
• We currently have over 15000 Score tied up in just six unfinished vows! If all six of those get completed before the deadline, we would have a higher score than the one the BAs won the event with last year!
• Even if our competitor forums manage 100% completion rate (which most of them will not), because we have vowed more overall, we can still beat them with a completion rate of as little as ~79%
  • Caveat - The only exception to this is the Chaos Marines forum, who despite having a pretty bad completion rate at the moment, also have pledged substantially more than us and could still overtake us even with a relatively low overall rate of completion.
• Competitor Forums:
  • Blood Angels - They have a lot of outstanding vows and could make up a lot of ground in the last few days. We have ~20k to their ~9k as it stands, and we only need a ~79% completion rate to make sure they can't catch us, even if they manage 100%. For reference, the BAs won last years event.
  • Dark Angels - They were leading the event as of the last weekly update and have an excellent completion rate, but that also means they don't have many more points they can score. Just a few more completed vows completed for us will put us far enough ahead that they can't catch us, even if they go on to achieve 100% completion. For reference, the DAs were 4th in last year's ETL and 2nd in the Astartes faction.
  • Age of Darkness Loyalists - Their completion rate is low at the moment, but there are some HUGE outstanding vows here, to the extent that they could overtake our current score with just 3 completions! That said, they also have a lot to lose, as failure to complete re-vows could cost them as much as 75% of their current total. Their performance this ETL is really hanging on just a few individuals. For reference, AoD-L finished 3rd in last year's event.
  • Chaos Space Marines - These guys have the most potential, but are really relying on coming in late. As it stands they have a higher score than both the BAs and AoD-L, despite having the lowest completion rate out of all 5 forums mentioned in this post. That's due to the sheer number of points they have vowed so far, and means they have a lot of points waiting to be scored. For reference, Chaos finished an extremely close 2nd in last year's ETL.

 

TL:DR - If you haven't finished your vow yet, GET PAINTING! This is the best opportunity the Space Marines forum has had to win the ETL for a long time!

[Brother Christopher]

Vow complete!

 

 

 

I struggled to find time and motivation to work on anything Warhammer-related, but I also remembered that the time is running out to complete the ETL vow. And a pledge is a pledge, there is no way I fail to keep a promise. Now, I'll need some time to get myself up to date on all of your vows and completions!

[Captain Semper]

Good - I see completion coming from all over the place, especially among first vows! This is a great comeback and an unexpected one at that! Having said that, you cannot imagine how close thing are - any relaxation and all will be lost! 

 

UPDATED TO THIS POINT!

[Captain Semper]

THREE DAYS TO GO!

[Dracos]

Is this a completion?

Yes

[Brother Christopher]

Come on, people! Rally! Rally!! Especially those who are still to complete their first vow. You've committed yourselves to something - DO IT! The Captain calls the recent completion of vows "unexpected", and this cannot be. The Space Marines are many things, but its is not "unexpected" for them to be victorious and get the job done! Make the Emperor proud this day (or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow or even the following day!) and paint those plastic soldiers. Remember, your honour is at stake.

[NovemberIX]

Usually when I finish up my ETL vow, I have some vaguely insightful observation about my own building and painting skills and the things I've learned while doing such. This year though, I am happy to just finish. I had thought that this first vow would segue into completing some of my other unstarted projects, but motivation can be a fickle thing, especially when trying to find that balance between work, hobbies, friends, and loved ones. I am satisfied enough that I could repaint my old whirlwinds, add some new units and do a little but of kitbashing. Without further ado, my first vow is complete!

 

1505 point of Ordo Chronos Long Range support

 

The Whirlwinds, these were actually some of the first vehicles I bought for my army, and as such, they started life in wildly different schemes which can now only be found in old pictures. They've been updated to the standard yellow with deep blue accents, and their missiles were re-colored to match the orange used everywhere else.

 

The Whirlwind Hyperios launchers were finally painted yellow to match the army overall, and missiles repainted orange again. Storm Bolter is from Kromlech.

 

I've been wanting a whirlwind Scorpius for a while, and when kromlech came out with a scorpius inspired launcher, I knew what I had to do. Interestingly, while in the process of building and painting this model, I was able to become the owner of a Deimos Style Whirlwind Scorpius from forgeworld, I just have to spend some time with a heat gun straitening it out.

 

Another Kromlech piece that allowed me this time to have a Damocles Command Rhino, my favorite part of this is that I didn't feel the need to paint the interior of the Rhino because it was an expensive resin piece. Honestly though, it is just a good looking radar dish, and the most kitbashed of all my models this time around, front plate from a Baal Predator, doors from a Storm Raven, Hunter Killer Missile from an Ironclad Dreadnought, and the guns and dish from Kromlech.

 

Again Kromlech had a lot to do with this unit. Their turrets looked great, and being able to add a magna-melta analogue for a "modern" Deimos Predator Infernus was too cool to pass up. The base rhino began life as an ebay rescue Baal predator that never really looked ok, but after a fair stripping, and a difficult tear down back to basic components, it got rebuilt to what you see here.

 

More Kromlech stuff, this time I had wanted a techmarine on of their tracked bikes, because what sounds more apt? The Axe and the Combi-Grav were Kitbashed (badly) and then mounted using bluetac, because there's just not enough surface area for all the weapons that this guy is carrying.

 

The Last of the Kromlech based units, this is a stand in for the Rapier Carrier with Laser Destroyer. I think my favorite part was making the marines, especially the shrugging marine.

 

I'll go back and get a better pic at some point, but I'm glad to have another Deredeo to bring out.

 

Closing out with my second Storm Hawk interceptor, again, better pictures later (when it's not nearly 0100 local).

 

As always many thanks to Captain Semper for running the show, and to all my fellow ETL marine painters, while I didn't interact much at all, it's always an inspiring time of year!

 

[Halandaar]

That's one of the big ones we were waiting on  Congrats NovemberIX! Always found your colour scheme very striking 

[Brother Argent]

And thus my ETL effort ends for this year

An atrocious picture to end an atrocious year for what I wanted. I was hoping to push myself. To complete five vows including points heavy submissions like a Guilliman counts as and an Imperial Knight but life and many other factors have gotten in the way. Instead of the over thousands points I hoped for I have done so very little.

My interest in the hobby is at an all time low with the new Marine codex and its lean more and more towards Primaris marines (I know all my vows have been them, I don't hate them I just wish that GW would at least pretend they weren't phasing out normal marines) along with the fact I only managed three games with the whole life span of the last Codex.

So as my vow and ETL effort ends so does my interest in the hobby to a part. But I hope to reinvent myself within the hobby in a lot of ways. I need a slight break from power armour, or at least loyalists. To a point, anyway. I will return. And all the better for it.

[MajorNese]

Yes, I can understand the Astartes burnout. The way the new releases keep stacking up stop-gap solutions, and relentless pushing of the primaris agenda, do take away quite some motivation. Part of the reason why I go for AdMech and knights for a while now.

 

But still, you finished yor vows, so that's going to help. Let's wait and see how this turns out...

[Marshal Reinhard]

In my case the burnout was instant, complete and total, and lasted two years once 8th had hit. I had recently switched over some 150 bases from 25 mm bases to 32 mm bases, because I didn't like they were mismatched... so I wasn't ready to put anotther big upheaval on my plate. 

 

I've acclaimated since. Wait what thread is this? ETL? 

 

Right, none of you other lot get burned out for at least another 2 days, alright? :P

[MajorNese]

Wait what thread is this? ETL? 

 

Right, none of you other lot get burned out for at least another 2 days, alright?

That's the spirit - you can always relax when it's over, and it's almost over.

 

I'm at 5 completed vows, I can burn out all I want. And with the inclusion of IK choices and the Mechanicum LR model, I was able to get away from the same old regular marine models for most vows...