The Oppo: Bonehead's Lost, Damned and in all likelihood Disappointed

[Dr_Ruminahui]

LOL - your reaction kind of made me think of that internet meme - tell me you don't paint space marines without saying you don't paint space marines (as marines use their shoulder pads for unit designation).  Anyway, glad both my suggestion and my quick sketch helped.

 

As for the khorne unit symbol, I think I would avoid making it also a rank symbol and keep those seperate.  Rather, I would put a stripe(s) or dot(s) or such on one forearm or the front of the helmet instead - and wouldn't bother for anyone below squad leader.

 

As for what you suggest for the khornate symbol, what you describe involves far more detail than I can get with a brush, so good luck with that!  As for daft systems, not sure how much I can help there either, but if you end up needing some help undafting, I'm willing to lend a hand.  

 

As for lenses, don't put me down for a n option yet - I want to see what they look with their symbols before casting my ballot, as it were.

[Bonehead]

Twelfth page already. Well, I have been spamming the log recently. Blame dry January, I've been bored out of my mind.

Anyway, as you correctly deduced, I've not painted a space marine in decades. Not to say I wouldn't, mind, but I just don't find them very interesting any more. I suppose the power fantasy of being unusually large and strong doesn't have much to offer when you're six foot four and go to the gym a lot- or maybe the humanity of guardsmen is more compelling? I dunno so much about that, on reflection, because I've been collecting 1st & 2nd edition eldar and original genestealer cult models for the last year or so, in a relatively small way. Don't expect a log on either of those for a while yet.

I'm afraid the good doctor will have to wait for some images of the Kur guards with unit and rank markings, because I'm fresh out of heads and legs for them, so there'll be no more painted until those arrive.

That does mean that it's time to un-neglect the maligned Mari Landsknechts, so I have done just that. Found a few hours spare this evening, so I cobbled together the two loaders I needed to make up my two full squads for platoon two. I also managed to adress another of the doctor's observations: for a guitar tech I sure don't use a lot of old guitar strings on my models. Well, now I do, because I gave the five extant Mari stormtroopers power cables and backpacks for their hotshot lasguns.

And here are all seven models:

Matey boy on the end there has noticeably massive hands; not a weird oversight but a fun little mutation. It took some doing, I can tell you, but he's got the hands off of a kroot. freakishly large, with two thumbs and two fingers. I love this kind of subtle little thing that only the truly nerdy and meticulous are going to pick up on. It makes for a little in-club of the polar opposite of whatever a stylish cool clique is.

The other loader's just a standard guy with an ammo box on his base. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time, I reckon.

I think the cables really add something to the stormtroopers, but I still need the shoulder pads. It's going to be a while til those get here, I imagine. VM orders tend to move slowly.

Closer up, I'm reasonably pleased with how the cables hang; and damn if I'm going to move them now. Getting them in place was a total slog. They kept pinging off onto the carpet.

Meanwhile, I also received a package I'd been waiting a little while for from Checkpoint Miniatures, a small company here in the uk I'd never heard of before someone mentioned them on FB. Some useful conversion parts for the cultists were within:

Lots of tentacles and other nasty little appendages. Perfect for silly gullible cultists who've been messing in things better left alone.

Also some bigger ugly things that just seemed worth a punt:

Vaguely Tzeentchian terror-bird monster nope-asaurs: sure, why not. They'll take some care in assembly but they're characterful and fun to have for the final stages of the Augustine Crusade when Xiah Hesh really gets desperate. And also because, really what's the point of a chaos cult army if you don't get some daemons at some point? And all I have is a couple of blue horrors that came free with somthing or other. I'll absolutely need a few more fun things eventually: definitely at least one og Lord of Change, because they're cool as hell. And we'll see about what else; but that's all for later on down the line.

I also got some menacing wraith things, because, well, look at them. They look evil as living s***. Are they daemons? Are they just men in robes with silly hats? Do they look exactly, I mean, EXACTLY the thing you least want to see coming over a foggy marsh towards you at dusk? Yes. So I bought them, as any right-thinking person would:

These are going to make for some absolutely great photos, I'll say that.

In other news, yes that's right we're doing two 'other newses' today, I spent my christmas bonus on shelves for my workshop. This meant that finally I was able to take the mounded up piles of tools, projects and parts off of my desks and free them up so I actually have room to do things. Result.

A side benefit is that I now have, by no actual intent, a room with spare floor space and a pair of two foot by three foot tables, raising the entirely unexpected spectre of actually getting a game in some time this millenium. Didn't see that one coming, I won't lie.

Pretty confident I haven't doxxed myself with this one. Anyone who can identify my house among the millions of indistinguishable uk hovels with a view of a dreary fence out the window probably deserves at least some of my stuff, honestly.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

As for doxxing yourself - unless its okay to tit about on a ladder in most of the UK but not in one small area around your house, you should be fine.    And yeah, its great to get a clean space to work - I should really do that.  Doesn't ever seem to stay that way, though, at least for me.  Hopefully you can get some games in before your tables disappears again - doing so is certainly incentive to keep them clear as well.

 

Not faulting you on not painting marines - they certainly aren't for everyone, despite being the poster boys for 40K.  It took me a long time to get to them, foraying through 1st ed necromunda, 3rd ed sisters of battle and 4th ed IG first - ultimately coming to chaos marines not because I have any affinity for that power fantasy but because I had the models and I wanted to paint purple and gold.  Just thought it was a funny illustration of the internet meme.

 

Love your power cabled up guardsmen - a great representation of hotshot lasguns.  Also looking forward to closeups on the kroot claw, but that can wait until you paint him.

 

Nice pick up on the gribblies - they will make a great addition to the cultist force.  In some ways its kind of too bad the cow-skull cloaked things are all tentacley - while that isn't necessarily out of keeping for your force, I could totally see your regular cultists putting on a robe and picking up a cow skull to go out and scare their Emperor fearing neighbours, rather it being some kind of actual spooky demon.   That just seems the appropriate level of stupid for them. 

Edited January 21 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

'An appropriate level of stupid'. Perfect. Another quote for the wall of fame. Yeah, I really am tempted to get rid of the tentacles and model in a couple of shoes poking out from under the robes now...

[Bonehead]

Just to keep the log ticking over, here's a quick shot of the modest progress I managed today. Not a lot of time spare, but I got the 13 troopers of platoon 2 neatened up ready for the drybrushing of highlights on the black armour and guns, and also managed to get the bases properly basecoated in black templar. Not just that, but I also realised I'd forgotten the spots of light grey in the camouflage. So I bunged those in, and then got to go back over everyone re-doing the black where I'd got the grey all over it.

Pretty decent progress, considering the sheer number of them. Not actually too many steps from this point until they're done, barring the odd trooper here and there with actual skintones to do.

[Bonehead]

More modest progress on the landsknechts:

The drybrush came out really nicely, I think. Couple of less than perfect spots, but overall, definitely good enough. With the browns and metallics in, they'll really start to look good. Hopefully tomorrow will see that stage accomplished.

But also, an unexpected bonus: my VM parts arrived, on the same day that my heads arrived from the 3d printer. Ever wanted to know what 260-odd cadian respirator heads in a box looks like? It looks like this:

120 of those are simply plain ones. Most of those will be Kur Guards in time. To start with, I've got legs enough for about thirty, counting the contents of this care package from VM:

These will be the last legs I order from VM for the Kur Guards. While I normally don't like to have 3d printed large components, it's just so much cheaper, and VM have released .stl files for the style of leg I use for the KG. Not only can I have lots of legs, for less, I can also have effectively twice as many poses, because you can just 3d print them mirrored. Too tempting. It's now an inevitability.

There are also finally more armour plates for the Mari stormtroopers as well as the shoulderpads, so hopefully I should be able to rattle out two full squads of those. Happy days.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

They are looking good - and you seem well supplied for future projects.

[Bonehead]

'Well supplied' is a good way of putting it. 'Stuff coming out my ears' is probably also accurate. Not to mention I still have something like 50 models in the stash for my Rogue Trader IG army, approaching 100 RT Eldar, and a platoon or so worth of Yantar guard waiting for building and paint. And the Cawdor models, and the scavvies, and the 2nd ed cultists, and all the various cult head honchos.

Had an absolute pain of a time over the weekend and in the early days of this week with a very fancy Ibanez, but I finally got that sorted. Couldn't really charge for all the time I spent on it, but I did at least get paid for most of it. And finishing it meant I got to do some painting today, at last.

Boots, gloves, webbing and such done in brown, and metallics blocked in. Even got the skin done on most of the models that have it. Missed on, dang it. Just fine details to go, and a wash on the metal.

Flash:

No flash, but terrible focus:

Platoon 2 is cooking, at last. Just got three more models to build. Officer, Specialist, Radio man. I'm percolating pose ideas. It might be worth my time to just fetch out a bunch of parts from the stash, spread them out, and see what idea presents itself. If one does, but it usually works. Plus I can build a load more storm troopers now, too. And a couple more lascannon teams. And more heavy bolter teams.

Of course, this is all presuming I can resist building more of the shiny new Kur Guards. Probably not a good assumption to base plans on.

[Bonehead]

Aaaand they're done. Mostly. Need to do the base rims and touch up a couple of details here and there, but they're basically ready to roll.

Took these long after the sun was down, so the camera was in full moody mode; better photos once they're properly finished, I suppose.

Nevertheless, here's Olympus' roughly 20-year old budget best:

This was intended to show off a bunch of red hands and other detail, but it mostly just shows a bad focus. We'll all live.

This view shows the basing situation:

The bases need some washes on them, just to knock everything back and unfiy it all, but you get the idea. I'm happy with the way that the small existing sample of Kur Guards fit nicely with their fellow Red Hand regulars now their bases match.

[Bonehead]

Strange development. Bagged another vanquisher turret on eBay. This one is different to the one I've already done. Think I'm going to paint it and model it to fit the existing tank, then switcheroo the existing one over to my RT guard, because that matches the conqueror turrets I have for that army.

Uneccesarily convoluted? yes, but that's how it goes sometimes when you're collecting oop stuff.

[Gnasher]

Hmm cleaning all the heresy from the current turret .... gonna be a job of work

 

 

 

Edited February 12 by Gnasher

[Bonehead]

To be honest, I'm probably just going to take the spikes off, give it a light sanding where the glue is, and just paint over it. no need to fix something if it isn't broken.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Would it be possible to keep as an alternate turret - so, for example, to swap between fielding a demolisher and a vanquisher?  That's another approach that doesn't require you to erase your great paint job on it.

[Gnasher]

Yeah I'm with the good Dr on this, keep it chaos & buy another turret fot the loyalists. 

Edited February 12 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

I agree with the doctor and with Gnasher on keeping the Vanquisher turret Chaos. 

 

Mortian has a nice Vanquisher turret that you could make loyalist:

 

https://mortian.shop/product/minox-turret/?v=e5ecf956e6d6

[Bonehead]

Well, I've already bought the new vanquisher turret; it's in the mail. The problem is the styling: the conquerors my loyalists have are the 'Gryphonne' ones, and the vanquisher turret I already have is also that styling. Meanwhile, the coming vanquisher turret is the 'Stygies' type and it doesn't match.

It's just not going to do, not at all. I can't have a mismatch like that, it'll drive me nuts. Not to mention, the new turret's styling is actually a better match for the demolisher. I may be being weird and needlessly obstructive about this, but hell, that's my privilege. Being dumb as a bag of hammers is its own reward and punishment, simultaneously.

Plus I get to mess about with LEDs again, and much as it's entertaining to write weird little footnote jokes about it, I thoroughly enjoy that sort of thing.

Not only that of course, but I already did the decent paintjob three times, and that was on entire tanks. I can certainly do it again on just a turret.

I also bought a bunch of oop sprues for my eldar project yesterday, because I've been having a very busy month at work and I felt I was flush enough to afford it. Naturally this evening the accelerator on my car broke. Should have seen that coming.

Oh, and in actual progress news, I got nine more traitor guard based and undercoated this week. Still just three more needing to be built and that'll be the platoon.

[Gnasher]

Looking forward to see what you come up with matey, I already know it will be good!

[Bonehead]

I think the source of my OOP Forgeworld turrets on eBay might have something I'd probably best refer to as a 'surprsingly large supply' of them. I bought two turrets off them, and while the vanquisher one was right, the other one (an executioner for my RT guard) was wrong. It was still an executioner, but the 'Ryza pattern' one, not the plain one. I messaged them to ask about a swap and they just said, to paraphrase, 'aw dang it, I'll chuck the right one in the post now'. I asked if they wanted me to return the other one and there hasn't been a reply.

There has however, been another pair of the exact same two turrets listed by them since. I mean, they must have bought dozens of them back in the day. Right? Yeah. I ain't going to ask questions, the quality of them is superb. So the Mari armoured are definitely going to get a second vanquisher in due course, is what it boils down to.

I had to take some time off this week, I was jsut completely knackered, so there's not much progress to report. I've built one more Mari stormtrooper and one more man for the platoon command squad, so the platoon's down to needing two more men. One flamer guy and one officer.

For the officer, I think I'm going to try and do a Mari version of this guy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285136142826

It's a hell of a model. But I ain't shelling out 75 squid for five infantry models. I really like the idea of seeing what I can do to come up with a version of him with the parts I have. So far I haven't done a single Mari soldier without a helmet and I think I won't change that in this case, but I do have some pretty cool heads from Maxmini to shove under the helmet. Not sure what I'll do about the arm grafterd into a chainsword though. Ignore it, emulate it, or just do something completely different? We'll have to see how inspiration strikes me.

[Tallarn Commander]

 

I love that model! In my army he is Renegade Commander Buzzsaw.

 

In this game, Buzzsaw almost got me a draw--if only the enemy had failed a charge against him.

 

 

Here is a link to the game, Renegades and Heretics Chaos Militia vs. Imperial Fists back in 2019, if you are interested:

 

 

https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/321042-tallarn-commanders-chaos-wip-traitor-guard/page/7/#findComment-5384839

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:56 PM by Tallarn Commander

[Bonehead]

Forgot to add pictures.

Here's the turrets I got, including the one I didn't order:

And here's the three existing platoon command models:

I've just realised that the theme of the poses so far is very much 'advancing', which means the FW model's pose won't work here. So I'll save my version of that for the overall force commander. Back to the drawing board. Probably time for a variation on the classic 'wave a weapon and point'.