Return of the Fists

What started off as a few days break from painting yellow ended up being two months long. However finally after much delay I've started back on adding additional units to my pre-heresy Imperial Fists army. First on the list of things to do is building a ten astartes strong Volkite Tactical Support squad. So far I've completed three (including the Sergeant) with another two part painted on my desk.

Low Standards....

The sudden arrival of weather vaguely resembling a UK spring has curtailed the amount of time I have had to paint things. Unusually for me, I found I couldn't sit indoors during the evening while the sun was still up. No doubt this won't last and I'll soon be back to my usual, bunker dweller demeanour soon.

Normally two miniatures would take a couple of evenings work maximum, however these two have been knocking about for several weeks now. As previously mentioned, the fact that one is a Standard Bearer didn't exactly help.

Death Guard Cerberus Completed

If anyone was wondering why I hadn't posted much in the last week it was for a number of reasons, one of which was I was trying to complete the Death Guard Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer I'd built a few weeks back.

Having finally completed the weathering this evening, here's the finished model.

The limits of multi-tasking

As I've previously posted, I have a low boredom threshold and historically have suffered from painting army fatigue (better known as oh-good-grief-not-another-one syndrome). In order to make much progress I have to paint more than one thing at a time, else I grow bored of the latest paint-scheme and get distracted by the TV, latest video game or other stuff.

However there comes a time where painting multiple different armies at once becomes counter-productive. This happened to me last week.

Random update is.... Random

I'm not sure if it's the side-effects of too much chocolate but my latest batch of miniatures has taken a bit of a random turn.

Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought

I find public holidays are great for getting things done and yesterday was no exception. In-between buying chocolate eggs for the Lord-of-Terror I found the time to complete a couple of projects that have been cluttering up my work-desk for the last few weeks.

Death Guard Praetor and Command

A quick update today. Due to a number of non-painting related issues I've hardly had anytime in the last week to put brush to model. I finally found enough time tonight to complete my Death Guard Praetor and another Command Squad Astartes.

Death Guard Progress

One of the reasons I've been nervous in the past about collecting a Death Guard Heresy Era force has been the somewhat daunting prospect of painting one or more vehicles. White on an individual miniature is fairly easy to achieve reasonably well but I wasn't sure how I would tackle a larger model.

Therefore before I went mad on the Forgeworld site with next month's mortgage (I joke - just in case my Lord-of-Terror is reading this), I 'borrowed' an unpainted Diemos Pattern Rhino and tried out an experimental paint scheme.

Legion Apothecary Part Two

After finishing my Imperial Fists Apothecary I have managed to find the time to complete a Death Guard one.

Legion Apothecary Part One

In between all the Death Guard, Daemons and other random models I've painted this week I managed to complete a Mark IV Apothecary I'd had on my desk since Christmas. Here are a few shots of the finished model.

Painting Pre-Heresy Death Guard

As previously requested by a few readers, here is my method for painting Pre-Heresy Death Guard. After a few test models I've been pleasantly surprised how quick it is to execute.

Deimos Predator Executioner

The last week has been more hectic than I would have liked. Unfortunately as a result the time available for painting random things yellow or green has been severely curtailed. It has taken considerably longer for me to finish my first Predator Executioner than I hoped (or expected).

However it is now pretty much complete.

Progress, if a bit random....

Has to avoid low bridges...

One side effect of trying to keep a level of momentum up by painting multiple armies at once is that I don't make much progress on any single army that quickly. Especially when they're yellow... However I have completed the Vexilla Astartes for my 20 legionnaire strong tactical squad and have made a good start on four more Astartes.

Mark IV Sergeant and Vox Astartes

Imperial Fists; The Dancing Legion

I finally have got bored of taking photo's with my Camera Phone and resolved to dig out my old camera (which at least could pretend to have a variable depth-of-field). What I had forgotten was how complex even the most simple of dedicated digital cameras feels compared to the simplicity of a camera phone. I've spent much of this evening, which I'd ear-marked for painting, muttering darkly and clicking at random buttons in a photo editing tool.

Breacher Squad Part 4

Another two Astartes completed

During the odd moments I managed to drag myself away from Dead Space 3 I managed to complete a few more Breacher Astartes. I must admit, I'm getting bored with painting shields (and I'm rethinking whether I'll include another squad) but overall, I'm pleased with these two.

Death Guard Test Model

Grubby

While waiting for various shades of yellow paint to dry, I spotted a set of sorry looking Mark III astartes I'd painted at the beginning of last year (when GW brought out the new paint range). They looked like I'd hit them with a paint roller and I immediately hit them with a large dose of Fairy Oven Cleaner (cuts through acrylic paints pretty quickly). However the intricate nature of Forgeworld's armour designs meant I struggled to get all the pain out of the crevices and ridge lines.

Given the cost per miniature of Forgeworld is considerably higher than GW's plastic range, I resolved to find a purpose for these 'not-quite-pristine' miniatures.

I've always wanted a Pre-Heresy Death Guard army, all the way back to when I read the original 6 line fluff in Space Marine around the seizure of the frigate Eisenstein (the was about may 1990.......). However previous attempts have never really met my expectations (and certainly won't be posted here).

Standard Bearer

Finished... at last

I may have previously mentioned that I dislike painting Standard Bearers. I dislike it... a lot. However this particular miniature has been knocking about on my painting desk for several weeks and no amount how much I pretended otherwise, I needed to finish him.

So I gritted my teeth and got on with it.

Excuse me, I think the blood bank is that way

My sudden alergy to all things yellow continues and while I still want to keep the momemtum that I've built up in the last month. So... I started painting Pre-Heresy armour different colours including Blood Angels, Emperor's Children and lurking half finished on my desk, a couple of Sons of Horus.

Here's the Blood Angel.

Not a yellow in sight

Mark IV Tactical Squad Part 2

I'm always surprised when I manage to get more than half a miniature done in a day. Given that the whole world outside seems to have succumbed to snowmagedon I've had the chance to get my head down and paint. As a result, I've have completed the next three of my Mark IV tactical squad.

Mark IV Vexilla and two Tactical Marines

Land Raider Armoured Proteus

It has been snowing heavily all morning which has granted me the chance to complete a couple of additional projects. The main one being the Land Raider Armoured Proteus I've had knocking about in a part-finished state since Christmas.