2019 Year's Review

So what didn't I achieve this year, Guard are still untouched, Harlequins still haven't had any Starweavers and the Titans apart from 1 occasion where I got one Warlord out of the box have been untouched since February, and now with no one in my immediate group playing it I think I can probably sell those this year.

The Lion's Blades

Definitely got the best deal of the year as I now have 2 Demi Companies, Primaris and Phobos Astartes, and the sexy Forge World Contemptor got released as well at long, long last. I also pulled the Boltstorm Aggressors out of The Hounds box and repainted them for the Lion's Blades. As it stands today I'm 3 Inceptors off having a full 5th Company, obviously unpainted so once the bank holidays are over and I can see the damage to my bank account I can either get the last bit of buying done, Psychic Awakening book 3 is out "soon" with the new character, so I'll pick that up as well. Lastly and it's the only reason I'm keeping the Conquest subscription going, is the Repulsor tank comes in February, I'm hoping that the local shop gets 2 copies in again as I'm planning on adding these to The Lion's Blades. Now with the leaked images of the land speeder and bikes I'm currently unsure what to do about them, need more information before I can make up my mind on where we go with those.

The Masque Of The Breaking Dawn

Nothing happened, I keep saying it and one year I will buy some of the Skyweavers to go in there.

The Exodites Of Telvig

Again have barely been touched and their case is also falling apart as well. So maybe a new case I'd in order at least.

The Emperor’s Loyal Hounds Of War

Had a bit of a rough year, they lost most of their dreadnoughts to Chaos and the Recruitment Fleet, and the Boltstorm Aggressors to the Lion's Blades.

The Star Leopards

Have also not had a great year as most of the stuff I was going to put in there are now going into the Lion's Blades 5th Company.

Palidus Mor Legion

Want buy some Titans?

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

January to February

So in a step up from last year I have been taking notes so I have a vague idea of what I did get done, I'm running this like I run my monthly vow, 12th to the 12th. There was 3 more Inceptors for the Hounds, as well as 5 Reivers, a single Reiver for the Star Leopards, that later got repaint and promotedin The Lion's Blades, the Lion's Blades got a Lieutenant and the former Captain of the Knights of Blood got a repaint for the Lion's Blades 1st Company. I redid the Terminator Librarian for the Lion's Blades, who'd later go into the 5th Company, some Dreads got started for my first Dread Filled Month and the Wargames Exclusive Cypherella was done.

February To March

So according to the list the last 2 Warhounds got painted, one of them has just given its feet for a mk4 dreadnought I've got coming. The Terminator lightening claws squad got started with the other 3 getting done to go with the one from last month. The copy of chapter approved arrived eventually and I reworked my lists. The Knights of Blood Storm Raven got a touch up for The Lion's Blades, the Knights of Blood Apothecary got a repaint for Ordo Astartes. A Yorkist Knight was killed for the Warhound bases. A couple of Rhinos from Conquest were painted for the Lion's Blades, and lastly the extra weapon pack for the Page Class Dreadnought was magnetised.

March to April

The first dread filled month, the 2 Conquest Redemptors got painted for The Lion's Blades, 4 Casterferrum dreads got done, the second 3 Boltstorm Aggressors got painted, I did an extra Death Guard dread and 10 Intercessors.

April to May

The Primaris Apothecary ruined me for a while, it's just not a nice mini, and I had 2 to paint, the Primaris Chaplains got done, as did the 2 Phobos captains I got, I sold one of the Librarians and painted the other for the Lion's Blades, it was at this point I re assessed the years target and went with 2 Demi Companies instead of the battle company.

May To June

3 Primaris Captains got done for each army, 2 Phobos Lieutenants, 3 Suppressors, 10 Infiltrators, the 6 Eliminators all got painted for the Lion's Blades new Vanguard Company, and painted 6 Inceptors plasma guns. Lastly there was the Master of Possession from the Shadowspire box, this is my favourite mini of the year hands down.

June To July

I did a good conversion on the Plague Burster Crawler, giving it a mk2 Predator turret that I magnetised so it could have either the autocannon or the twin las cannon turret. A Conquest Rhino became a multi purpose Rhino, with Vindicator and Razorback options, which was a fun build. I'd bought some Harry Potter stuff and painted the Unicorn and the rather dynamic Dumbledor from The Half Blood Prince, the Lion's Blades got a Vindicator, a captain, the second Infiltrators and 3 Suppressors got finished, this left me waiting for the Infiltrators box to be released, as well as upgrading the Spartan to the Terminus Ultra version.

July To August

The accidental dread filled month. I converted the dread knight to what I didn't know at the time was an Invictus War suit, will make it more Invictus like when I get the kit, I added some bits to a Redemptor in an attempt to give a Calgar look, but failed, I used the incinerator from the dread knight to make a flame cannon for a planned dread, a number of the Hounds dreadnoughts fell to Chaos, turning to the Death Guard with the aid of the Conquest boots, and the Warden In White of the Lion's Blades got stripped and repainted.

August To September

It was about this point I decided to stop the planned Star Leopards marines and concentrate on the Lion's Blades, with the Boltstorm Aggressors and the 1 Star Leopards Reiver getting painted for The Lion's Blades. 1 bike squadron got done, I'd got lucky in an ebay lot and got an Outrider bike this went with the Conquest bikes into a squad, with the Kenada pose rider. The Scoutsarrived with Conquest and I was able to get a few in and make 3 squads of 10, 1 squad of bolt pistols and knives, 1 squad of shotguns and 1 squad of bolter scouts. I'd picked up an Iron Warriors Contemptor this month planning to use that for the Typhus Contemptor conversion, but it was way to nice fir that so I bought a plastic one and painted the Contemptor in its Legion colours. And the last couple of things from the Glorious 1000 got reworked, a new paint job and becoming a heavy bolter Mortis Casterferrum dread and the Storm Talon got a new paint job

September To October

This month included Dread Tober which I'd been planning since March. The September half of the month got the Dark Vengeance Terminators painted, the long awaited 1st Legion Contemptor arrived and it's probably the 2nd best miniature I've painted this year. I'd lucked out and picked up a Deredo cheaply, and the Typhus Contemptor got done, I just wish I'd gone with Legion colours for this one. The October side was the Calgar Honour Guard Redemptor, the White Scar dread, DA mk4 , the Salamanders dread, a mk4 Heralds of the Emperor, the Ultramarinedread and the Emperor’s Children dread got done.

October To November

The Alpha Legion stripped and painted twice as the first time was just wrong, got to say I think this was my first major fail , but it was the first time I've used contrast paints. The Raven Guard, Night Lords and Iron Hands dreads got done, then I got stuck in to the 2 I'd been looking forward to the most, the Björn Contemptor and the Metal venerable dreadnought. The November part of the month. It says 2 squads of bikes but I know I didn't do those as I only got 1 set of bike rider legs during December, the DV Librarian got painted and stuff got bumped as the Incursors Infiltrators box got released.

December To January

Knights Models released the Chamber of Secrets box for pre orders in October and it landed in November along with Hagrid and Harry on bike and side car as well as the Order of The Phoenix blister pack. I was really pleasedwith how Ainsley Shacklebolt came out and the method of doing leather coats I started using on these was rather good.

November To December

At last one of the Conquest issues I was waiting for arrived, the Cataphractii Armour captain and the mk4 Chaplian. The Björn in Cataphractii Armour was converted, as was the last of the lightening claws squad was finished. Again it says bikes and attack bikes there's time yet and I have got some of the scenery from Conquest done over Christmas.

Last Of The Plasma Capacitors

Bang on target! Sort of . . . As I was getting ready for work tonight I did find a 4th Haemotrope Reactor on the sprue that had fallen down the back of the chair, although I think I'll still stick with the plan I orginally had and donate this to the games room at Rogue Games.

Looking good linked up and there's a mess of extra pipe work and ventilation arrays not touched but I didn't need to do those.

And over Christmas I've picked up a couple more dreads, plans are to paint the metal venerable dreadnought for the Luna Wolves, after it and the Chaplian dread both get a bath. I'll repaint the Chaplian dread just with a bit more ability now. The mk4 World Eaters dread needs some feet, I do have another Blackreach dread that I can use the feet from but the main plan is to see if the new Warhound feet fit which could mean a sacrifice here.

The mk4 will get the arms from this guy to replace the broken chainfist it used to have and of course any traitor icons will have to be removed before I can paint it in those lovely Legion colours. Next up should be the year's end review and plans for 2020.

The Last Of The Haemotrope Reactors

The last of the 3 Haemotrope Reactors finished tonight, and rebased the Gregor and the Reiver Lt actually needs a bigger base

Double Capacitors

Was waiting for my dad to drop by this morning, so got 2 of the Conquest plasma capacitors done while I waited, also made a start on promoting the 21st Reiver up to a Lieutenant for the Vanguard Company, I just to swop the bases around for this one and the actual Gregor Fell Hand and give him one of the ice bases which I'll do in the morning when I get home.

2nd Of The Haemotrope Reactors

Was majorly stressed yesterday with the disaster of getting our of Preston, so didn't get anything painted, today I just painted one of the Haemotrope Reactors.

Costing Stuff The 2019 Version

I worked out the odds of this being a good idea or being something REALLY stupid, and went ahead and did it anyway.

I've found that while I can't paint anything I've had masses of time on my hands the past few nights, so I've taken the Field Manual in and worked out some points cost for a few of my armies, firstly The Lion's Blades, this does include The 1st Company, 2nd Company, 3rd Company of old marines, 5th Company for the Primaris Astartes, the Vanguard Company, the Scouts, the tanks and the dreadnaughts. All in this lot was coming in at 17,686, with half a 3 squads of Intercessors, 1 squad of Hellblasters and a squad of Inceptors to paint, there are various character minis that I need to add as well as I'm not sure of what is on the box. The Vanguard now have 2 Lieutenants, one Reiver, the other Phobos, I just need to stripe and rebased the Reiver Lt.

Using the new plastic version as Björn I've got 966 points here. I'm thinking of giving the Wolf scout version a Reiver squad or a wolf guard squad to give me a totally stupid 1000 point force, if I go Reivers I don't need to buy I can re paint 4 of The Emperor’s Loyal Hounds Of War for this.

And this crazy idea is sitting at 2089, there are a couple of changes to be done to this army on parade 2020 board to be done. After Armies on Parade the Night Lords dread is going to be repainted for the Lion's Blades and the magnetised mortis arm is going on probably the Raven Guard dread and that's going to also be re painted for The Lion's Blades. So what's left? The Masque of the Breaking Dawn and the Ordo Astartes strike force. I have the Harlequins army listed already just need to update the points costs and I have to see what the Strike Force has before I can commit to costing them, so that one could be the new year before I get around to it.

Something Plasma From Conquest

Did a minor spot of on source lighting from the active light

First Haemotrope Reactor

So my working week involves sitting overnight at hospital with my client, which means no painting at work, so the plan will be to the reactors and the other things, I want to say capacitors but that's not what they're called. The aim will be to get one done a day. By Boxing day I'll have a back drop.

It's That Time Of Year

Take care of yourselves, take care of others and try to enjoy yourself this year.

Background For Photos Sorted

With another lot of Haemotrope Reactor sprues this week I dug out some of the other scenery sprues and rushed them together, got a few hours tomorrow morning when I can get some of the spray paint on them. Hopefully can get them finished off before Christmas.

Grey Knight Forge World Dread

I bought some satin black spray on my way home from paying the monthly gas and electric and got this old boy painted when it was light and not freezing outside. When it started getting dark I brought it in and left it alone for a bit longer. Tonight I gave it a lead bleacher dry brush on the body, any mechanical bits got a brass scorpion dry brush and and then I went over the sword and shield with Storm host silver, as well as edge highlights with that. Eyes got a coat of evil Sunz Scarlet as did some of the wax on the purity seals some others got temple Guard blue as did the lenses on the weapon arms. I've had a message from work today and I'm fairly sure that my painting plans are out of the window this month, complex work patterns broken out.

Getting The Gang Back Together

With the latest version finished I broke the box out again and got the latest group shot. The only official version missing is the finecast dreadnought but I'm not worried about that, to do another dreadnought version I'd need one of the Forge World mk4's if I wanted to do that and a Tartarus plate version but I'm not sure about either of those, those really are, currently, "nice idea, one day maybe" thinking. All that is left is to get minis for both Sapphire and Steel to go with them.

Blood Claw version, powered armour version and the Cataphractii Armour version.

The Casterferrum dreads, the newish plastic version, the orginal metal dreadnought and the old metal Venerable Dread conversion.

And the Redemptor Dreadnought version from 2017, and the Forge World Contemptor version.

Monthly Vow, December the 12th to January The 12th

What's the plan for the last month of the year? Not sure, there's 20 Sniper Scouts and 16 bikes and 2 attack bikes, I think I need a third attack bike to finish the 2nd Company properly, but can check that on Thursday. I do need some more bases for the second lot of bikes though. There's also a confused buy of the Forge World Grey Knight dread, it was a steal at £22, and I have got Christmas shopping out of the way, so it's not that bad. My purchase plan, vaguely is one lot of Inceptors, hopefully there's still some of the Space Wolf ones on ebay, 1 attack bike and some bases for the bikes.

Review Time

First thing done this month was to green stuff the magnet on the frame and front wheel of Hagrid's motorbike, as I know I'd drop and brake it off at some point.

Painting the bike took a couple of nights, with an interesting find with doing Hagrid's jacket. Hedwig was a nice change of pace and I thought I'd gone on a wrong path with it until I put the bird on the coat and it looks great.

The Keyboard player got a tiny bit of work done on it with the Storm host silver edging.

The replacement Night Lords dread got it's assembly finished with those lovely Zinge Industries bendy ammo feeds put on. Once Armies on Parade is done this is getting painted for the Lion's Blades to join the Mortis Talon.

I also magnetised the missile launcher on this guy so I can use it as a Mortis with optional weapons, there's the assault cannons, plasma and multi melta so far, just need a las cannons set to finish the options. For now this is getting painted for the Death Guard dread Allurn of Dale and used on the Armies on Parade board, after that, I'll strip it and repaint it for the Lion's Blades, to round out my Mortis Casterferrum Talon, will also take one of the dreads out as well.

Moody , Ainsley Shacklebolt and Tonks got based coated and block coloured.

Before I focused on Mad Eye Moody, doing the coat in the same method as I'd done Hagrid. I think I've got this very close to film accurate.

Ainsley Shacklebolt is pretty much spot on film accurate.

Tonks less so. I do like this range.

I think that Myrtle isn't right but I went more ghostly with her and Dobby was really quick and easy to do. Colin Creeve and Tom Riddell both got the same steps of layers of grey then the house colours.

Filtch was nice to do and I had to compare the 2 versions of him.

The Basilisk had me worried at first, I knew, like the spiders I was not going to keep it film accurate, and with plenty of blues I chose to paint it in blue, only point I'm not 100 happy with are the eyes but outside of that I think I did a great job on it. Even my dad was impressed with it.

I borrowed the spider from work and will be doing some work on advancing the Necron Knight, although I think it might just become a bespoke Doomsday Arc / Ghost arc yet.

The issue of Conquest that I'd been waiting for since February arrived at long last, and I was able to finish the Relic Armour Terminator squad off.

These 2 came with a couple of plastic Contemptors that are planned to be used to make the Lucius and Arhiman Contemptors, I cut one of the multi meltas off and magnetised it, happily I guessed right when fixing the magnets in place and this can be used on the other magnetised Contemptor weapon mounts.

The replacement Blood Angel dread, the lead and backing singer all got a bath.

And I went on a bit of building binge for the armies on parade board.

As well as putting together 12 Intercessors, 2 Hellblasters, 1 Inceptor 4 Lieutenant's and 1 Ancient, although some of those Lieutenant's and the ancient are going to be used in the Intercessors squad. I still need 10 more Intercessors to finish this project off.

And lastly this month I got my 8th alternative Björn finished. Ordo Chronos Inquisitors Sapphire and Steel are going to have to sort this cross dimension crisis out.