A review of my accomplishments for this year, and what I hope to accomplish in 2021.
So for 2021 the 3 core goals are the Necrons from The Indomitus Crusade box, finish The Lion and rework the Dreads that I can from last years, unused, Armies on Parade board for the planned Battle of Gate 9 or at least the Imperial side of it.
Plans for the Lion's Blades are nebulous, I need 3 more Blade Guard Veterans, which I hope to pick up when the new box drops, as well as 3 of the new varient Land Speeders and 1 more Ridge Runner to round out the updated 2nd Company.
The Harlequins will be getting a few minis from the Underworld game at this time, I just need to get that box of Khanite Shadow Stalkers, any more additions will be as and when and if I like how it looks and can work it into the theme.
Review of the year.
Jan 1st to Fed 12th.
From the first 1st of January to February cut off point I mostly on the Armies on Parade board, with a few other bits here and there, those Forge World mk4 Dreadnoughts were a bit of an expensive buy but very, very worth it, I really enjoyed painting all the ones I found for this project.
February to March
I made a start on the Night Haunt and Stormcast Eternals as a break from the main focus of the Armies on Parade board, I was using the contrast Black Templar on the Night Haunt and was still using the Tau Ocher method on the Stormcast. One of the cobbled best minis so far was the Throne of the Brier Queen, you just know its going to loose though roses at some point.
I had picked up a Knight Models Dementor for the oldest, adding some of the Tomb Banshees from the Night Haunt to add some intimidation factor to the single Dementor. I also picked up a knock of Voldemort and Nagini.
This one of the 2 I got from the Conquest series sat in a box until late June, the other I sold on to a mate, who also rather regretted buying that one.
As I said above the main focus was on the Armies on Parade board, at this point it was getting close to finished, just a couple of dreads and officers to go.
This was an initial test piece for the finished board.
March to April
First up was Nagini after I'd got the choice of colours from the oldest, as well as Voldemort, who was done at the same time as the Salamander Tartarus Terminator.
I'd picked up the Talons of The Emperor box, I'm not taken with golden armour but it was easy to get done.
As I said I did a green night with Voldemort and the Salamander, followed by a white night, with the Sons Of Horus Venerable Dreadnought and the 2 Tartarus Terminator marines, a Son of Horus and a White Scar.
As a break from the 40k and Dreadnoughts I ordered the Abraham Lincoln from The Wild West Exodus range, which was a nice mini to paint.
And the other part from the blue night was the long delayed Night Lord dread and officer still unsure between the axes or lightening claws. The Ultramarines Dreadnought had some donated feet, and is a slightly converted Forge World Grey Knight dread, with a fist from a Reiver Titan to give it some extra size.
And the completed Armies on Parade board.
April to May.
Oh yes the Repulive month.
I'd ordered the Master Lazarus mini when it was released and had a play around with updating the 3rd Company Master crossing the Primaris Rubicon.
I then made the mistake of starting the Repulsor, which killed my drive for a while. It is definitely not one I want to do again.
May to June.
I started this month off with a Wraith Knight kit from Mortal Realms, and another white night, while I also got the start of an idea for one of my Harlequins Troupes started.
At this point, after watching one of the on line preview events I had an idea to update one of my Harlequins Troupes, okay it was a 2 Troupes and some others in there, the first ones I did were the Cru Ella Devile and I was able to pick up a Dire Avenger Exarch cheaply to replace a couple of the regular Troupers in the Lords Of Old Troupe. I at this point I had a few of the other Phoenix Lords on watch on Ebay as well as another of the Warp Spider Phoenix Lord conversion planned using the new version of Drazhar.
Which I got started and roughly assembled, the stance is kind of dictated by the lower leg position.
June to July
I started this month with the rather nice and refreshingly uncluttered, sprue wise, Gouf Custom from the Gundam series. Its about the size of an Imperial Knight, and very easy to build.
Next up was the up date to the Lords of Old Troupe, if you are keeping close attention you'll notice the Swooping Hawk Phoenix Lord is different from the first one pictured.
And the latest Warp Spider Phoenix Lord conversion.
At long, long last, and about the time 9th was announced I got my First Born Astartes 2nd Company finished with the last attack bike.
This was definitely within the 9th edition run in as this Company Master got a few more options.
The Repulsor got finished, I have nothing more to say on this. My only hope is the grav plates on the other grav tanks are a better fit.
And here's how I know this is in the run into 9th, I was finishing off the orginal Vow for 2020, as it had suffered a revision after the 9th edition announcement. There were 6 Inceptors, 10 Hellblasters and 10 Intercessors, the Intercessors got put to one side at first.
The Hellblaster squad was finished with some little extras.
The last of 6 Intercessors squads got finished.
July to August
As I was checking the 2nd Company I found I needed to touch up the old Land Speeders.
And the last squad of Incursors, which finished off the 10th Company.
The first part commission piece was started for a Co worker who really liked what she saw.
I even got confident enough to buy some Led's for lighting.
By this point I'd got hold of the Indomitus Crusade box, and the first thing I did was convert the Judiciar, into the Flashiest of Flashy Gitz.
I bought this guy from Black Scorpion miniatures because its 2020 and what's better than plauge doctor?
The Outriders were the first thing I did for the Lion's Blades, just when you do them, paint inside the fairing before you put it together, or you end up with this.
I've covered my misgivings about these in various posts throughout the year.
I bashed one of the HQ sprues, getting assembly and bases done the priority.
Before I focused on the Judiciar for The Lion's Blades.
And getting a massive ego boost. I don't do this for anything other than me but this was a nice thing to have happen.
August To September
When I started the Indomitus Crusade box Captain I gave myself the extra challenge of not using metallic paint on it, using a variety of washes to get the leather look on the belt, the amber look on the icons and an obsidian look on the blade, I also did some digging on names and found that Blackadder is also a leaderless Clan in the Boarder regions of England and Scotland, so yes I used the Scots spelling of the name, which lead me down a theme when painting the characters.
The Chaplain, Barton Wells was again a part of the challenge to use a minimal amount of metallic paint.
This appears to be the only picture of the first 3 of the Eradicators, a nice mini to put together and paint.
I painted the Blade Guard Veterans in a similar style to the original Deathwing Companions with a segment of armour painted bone to signify a part in a major victory, I had also reworked the 1st company to follow this style.
Lieutenants Percy and George added to the tally with minimal metallic paint, just there neo vulkite pistols.
And with these 10 assault Intercessors this was slightly more than the marine half of the Indomitus Crusade box finished.
And as its getting late here I'm going to save this here and start again at some point on Sunday.
Back to the commission work here and I was able to knock this one out in a day.
And later in the same day I started on the 2nd and 3rd squads of bikers.
My second Judiciar conversion, this time going for a mysterious Astartes in archaic Dark Angels colours.
I started these as a separate commission piece for the Co worker, after I mentioned the Blood Bowl teams, and the leaked / preview, of the Necromantic horror team, these 2 were a test for the rest of the team.
The second squad of Eradicators had the Forge World rota cannons fitted as an option as I thought they would look cool and the last minis I'd put these on had pretty much sat in a box since I finished them.
After I'd got everything out of the way I started with some for fun conversions for myself with Azrael and Asmodai, I bought the orginal metal Azrael and the fine cast Asmodai and pulled bits from those to make these 2 conversions.
I rather enjoyed doing this one, and was really glad I'd bought the magnifying head set for when I started painting it.
I also put some effort into making one of the Captain shields a bit more Dark Angels in feel.
The Clan Wren box set finally arrived after an annoyingly long delay, I'm assuming because of the plauge.
September to October
The first thing from this period was 2nd Assault Intercessors squad, I do like these.
Next up was the 2nd squad of Blade Guard Veterans, again with the black and bone.
I took my time on this, really trying to get the sword handle to look like it sat right when the sword was on the arm, and making sure The Lion's Roar, while looking like a pistol, looked okay.
I also spent some time working on the Chapter icon so it would fit o well the shoulder.
Painting wise I kept the green more muted on the armour, I know I fluffed the hexagramnaton on the tilt plate.
I started painting the Asmodai, I get the tabard the wrong colour, going green rather than cream, but it works better, giving it a more brooding feel.
Again this was a really nice conversion to do.
Back on to the commission work for next couple of bits, with the second lot of Azyrite ruins done first.
Before I did the Stormcast Eternal Redeemer, this was a pleasure to paint and I put that bit more work into getting the robe to have a sunrise look.
Halloween came and went.
As well as another Black Scorpion miniatures Plague Doctor 
When I first saw the Necromunda Rogue Doctor I was sure that they'd used my technique for leather.
I got these re-enforcement for the Night Haunt done.
November to December 31st
The Rogue Doctor mercenary was started on the 12th. This is a very characterful mini.
Big question I still have is, did the studio painter trail my method here?
The Necromantic Horror team was finally released, again this is a hugely characterful team, with plenty of humoures bits to use.
My youngest has even asked for her own version of this team, that's planned for after I've at least got the Pedro Kantor Primaris conversion done.
This was a proof of concept rather than concrete first step, all the bits have landed for this now, so I'll make a start tomorrow.
I had bought this not long after the Lumineth Realm Lords were released and bottled it when it came to painting it. I had a run up to Preston before the November lock down for some of the flesh tone contrast paint. I was really impressed by this contrast paint and will be using it again.
As I very much doubt I'll be using the Greiving Mother much, I left the front of her head gear off. This was the most intimidating mini I've painted to date.
The Invader ATV and Ridge Runner, I've spoken at length regarding these 2, and going forward the plan is to get another Ridge Runner to round out this phase of the 2nd Company over the less pleasing Invader.
And the last thing I did before New Year was a weapon test for the Kantor, I think I'm going to go with the 2 mk3 bolters on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment