Hobby Progress Update!

Alright so I've been doing a lot of hobby stuff since I've been looking for work after school has ended. Now not only have I been doing stuff for my armies I have also been doing stuff for my roommates Raven Guard army. Recently a trade went through and I was able to add a lot most stuff to my Angels of Vengeance army and it's rounding out quite nicely. Yet I've still been a bit hampered on getting some stuff painted. I just need to start sitting down and painting it honestly.

However I had the unpleasant experience of having my old airbrush break on me while I was using it! So I went out and bought a Badger Patriot for a good deal on amazon and everything seems to be working out well. I had to wait a few days for an adapter for my air hose, but otherwise everything has been going amazingly. I also got some airbrush cleaner which is working far better than anything else I've used and I'm very glad for that. I also got a new needle and nozzle part for my old air brush which hasn't gotten here yet, but if everything works out I'll now have two air brushes!!! This excites me because then I'll be able to get more colors done faster. Yet that also means more clean up... *shrug*

So as far as my roommates army is concerned I was able to prime 2 of his 5 man Scout Squads. Each one has a Veteran Sergeant, Sniper Rifles, and a Missile Launcher. So hopefully these will be able to get done fast. I was also able to prime 2 of his Contemptor Dreadnoughts. One is Mortis pattern with two twin-linked Autocannons and also has a Cyclone Missile Launcher. The other Contemptor is equipped with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons with Grav Guns. I'm sure he is going to upgrade it to have a Cyclone Missile Launcher as well soon. I also have his Raven Guard Captain, a Chaplain, and Shadow Captain Korvydae with a helmet on. My roommate doesn't like his Marines to not have their helmets on. Still the models look awesome and I can't wait to get down to painting them. There is a lot more to paint of his army but I'm taking it in chunks so I don't get overloaded.

As for my armies I mentioned they had grown a bit. Well in the deal I had with my roommate for painting his army he finally decided what he was willing to part with from his Space Marine collection. I have now welcomed 3 new Dreadnoughts, a Landspeeder, a Predator, and an AoBR Captain to my army. This now brings my army total up to 5 Dreadnoughts, 6 Land Speeders, 2 Predators, and 7 (YES SEVEN) Company Masters. Once I'm able to add in my Contemptor Dreadnoughts (which I still need to buy) I should be rounding my Angels of Vengeance out at around 10,000 points.

I also bought in conjunction with my roommate the Adeptus Astartes Storm Wing. We went about half and half in on it and I got the Storm Raven and he got the two Storm Talons. He is using a guide he found online to make his Storm Talons sleeker and look more bad ass. Which I have to say they do look bad ass. I'm looking forward to painting them.

As for my Storm Raven I went ahead and got the Chapterhouse Studios Storm Raven Truescale kit. I used that to beef out the fuselage of the Storm Raven. Now I know I can't take a Storm Raven in Codex: Dark Angels (which is stupid, but whatever) so I made my Storm Raven into a Storm Eagle! I had some spare bitz lying around so I was able to use some plastic card and make some Lascannon upgrades for it. As for the Vengeance Missile Launcher I used a couple of Havoc Launchers I had spare. I didn't upgrade it to be a Storm Raven if I ever get the option to take one, but I did save the bitz and I left the front hatch unglued so I could make changes down the line if needed. Also I have pics to show you so you can see the finished product. As well as what is on my workbench at the moment.

Currently my main issue is saving up enough money to buy the correct storage I need for the models I have. It's going to be tricky, but I hope to be able to get everything sorted out soon.

Enjoy these pictures.

Photo Update!

I said I was going to take pictures and here they are! I took these during the middle of airbrushing some terrain I was in the middle of building. Which explains the green paint and the gloves.

This is the work in progress of my roommate's Raven Guard Vanguard Squad. This is the test model for the color scheme so things could change. However I think this is pretty damn good for what he was asking for. Enjoy!

A New Deal and a New Year!

So I haven't has as much progress as I would have liked with my 40k armies. Life got in the way and I needed to take care of that first. However a deal was struck a little while ago between my roommate and I. See he plays Raven Guard and doesn't really like to paint. So instead he offered to trade me an Imperial Guard Armored Company army for painting his whole Raven Guard army! So yeah I took the offer lol.

In the exchange I was able to get:
- 3 Basaliks
- 2 Demolishers (Cannon, Hull Lascannon, Plasma Sponson)
- 3 Leman Russ (Hull Lascannon No sponsons)
- 3 Hellhounds
- 1 Chimera
- 20 Guardsmen

With the possibility of also getting:
- 3 Dreadnoughts,
- 1 Predator
- 1 Captain (AoBR)
- 1 Landspeeder

The Space Marine components are subject to change. Yet that's alright by me because I get the chance to paint up a whole army who's backstory I love, and help to make them come to life on the table top.

So far I have primed and painted a Lucius Pattern Drop Pod. Yet adding a stencil of the Raven Guard symbol on the doors is being explored. I'm just not sure how to do it and make it look awesome just yet. I have also gotten about half way through painting one Vanguard Squad. Having all the details of their armor painted mostly white is a bit of a challenge, but I think I got it down. Just painting a light grey and then using a 4:1 ratio of Skull White to paint over it. The Grey stands out on the edges while giving the details a white appearance. Essentially they look like white gold with silver. I'm not sure if I'll need to highlight or not. I hope not as I don't really like to highlight.

I have also assembled my other Helldrake! Now I'll just need to do the Greenstuff work on him and all should be done. I have been looking for work so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get done. Yet I'm hammering away at this bit by bit.

I'll try to post images as they become available because I'm not afraid of posting crappy smartphone pics at the moment. More on that when I get more accomplished. Anyways stopped to take a break from painting so back to work I go!

Hobby Progress Update!

So if it isn't one thing it's another. I was able to get the money to work on a few projects. However with some midterms hitting me right now I've needed to focus on them. So I haven't really had the time to be able to dedicate to my 40K Hobby that I'd like to. Yet as I find myself finishing projects for school and having some more free time I get done with a little bit here and a little bit there.
One thing that is holding me back is my hobby supplies. I've had to go through some of my older stuff and find replacements for them. Since I'm in a new city the internet has been my friend. I want to get to some projects but am unable to because I do not have the right equipment or supplies.

1) I needed some new paints. I've ether run out, or they have dried out. I'm going to give Vallejo Model Color a try and see how I like it. Hopefully it's as good as some of the 40K Hobby sites I've been going onto say that it is. So until those supplies come in, which should be sometime next week, I can't move forward on a few projects.

2) I realized that I didn't like that a few of my Tactical Sergeants had Power Axes with the rules change. Also I didn't like the way I had painted my power weapons in the past. So with that I went onto eBay and found some bitz. Once they got here it was a simple weapon swap, prime, and paint. I like that now all of my power weapons look like they all belong to this army, and no longer look like they are from different collections. I'm really happy with the way that it's all turned out so far with them.

3) I've been working on storage for my armies. Now that I have the money for it I'm trying to get the storage for my armies to where I'd like them to be. Seeing as how most of my armies are complete as it is (for now) I want to make sure they are stored as best as possible. So I'm still waiting on a package to come in, but once it does hopefully that will be the end of a lot of issues I've had with army storage.

4) I saw when searching for the Power Sword Bitz a way to complete my second Ravenwing Bike Squad. Seeing this I jumped on the chance and bought what I needed. Now I just need to assemble them fully. Yet the chainsword on the Veteran Sergeant has already been swapped for a Powerfist.

5) I also got some more magnets in sizes I had run out of. They should be here sometime at the end of the week or next week. I wasn't happy with the way the wings I made were attaching to one of my new Heldrakes. So after looking at how to solve the problem it was more magnets. Once those come in both Heldrakes should be, at least, modeled by the end of November.

6) As for the Heldrakes I got some specialized bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures (Thanks Independent Characters Podcast!) and they make the model look even better than I thought they could! I'm now looking at getting some more specialized bases for any future models I might buy. That way they'll stand out more and look even more awesome on the tabletop!

However with all of this going on I have still managed to get some stuff done.

So far here is what I have gotten done.

Painted:
1 Chaos Lord of Nurgle w/ Power Axe
6 Power Swords for Angels of Vengeance Tactical Squads

Modeled:
1 Helldrake
3 Power Axe to Swords for Angels of Vengeance Tactical Squads
1 Chainsword to Powerfist on Ravenwing Bike Veteran Sergeant

As always once I get the chance to I'll post pictures of completed models. I just needed to remember to take them lol.

The Skies are Falling!!!

With the recent progress I've been able to make since my last post in this blog has been quite a lot. I've now run into the issue of having so many projects on my table that I don't know what one to do first. Which is always a good problem to have.

However I've invested in a project I've been sitting on for MONTHS since I didn't have the money until recently. I am now currently working on two custom built Heldrakes! I bought the bits for a couple of the Vampire Counts Zombie Dragon, and a couple of custom bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures. With the plastic card and tubing that I have laying around these guys should look really amazing. Currently I've only built one, yet the only issue I have is finding a way to bulk out the wings so they aren't so think. Yet I'm ok with them not being that thick. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Yet below is the progress I've made so far since my last post.

Painted:

3 Meltagun Veteran Squads for my Imperial Guard

Primed:

Rhino, 2 Plague Marine Squads, 5 Chaos Terminators, 10 Shooting Cultists, 20 CC Cultists, 6 Chaos Spawn, and 4 Chaos Lords

Hopefully I'll be able to make significant progress by the end of October on all of my armies. Seeing as how I have nothing left to do for my Dark Angels at this time. 

I'll post again when some more progress is made.

Rumors of my demise...

... have been highly exaggerated.

So a lot of stuff has happened since my last post. In short life hit me pretty hard. I had to take care of a lot of things and was just unable to hobby at all. School was highly demanding, I moved to a new city, and I've had to reorganize my life all over again. However this is all for the better, and now I have some spare time to be able to focus on hobby progress.

As far as hobby progress goes I have a whole new To-Do List. Mainly due to the release of the new 6th Edition Codex for Chaos, Dark Angles, Tau, Eldar, and now Space Marines. These all are armies I own so there is a lot to do. I've also gained an interest in Forge World models and have plans to get some of those when the finances appear. Yet now I have the proper space and a proper hobby table. Which is awesome. My hobby light for the table should be here sometime this week.

So in my absence things have changed. With that so has the Forge World allowance in games of 40K. This has given me the chance to entertain some new additions to my armies. However some of the rules have changed and don't really sync well with the new codex rules. So I've taken the approach that if it is an outdated upgrade or addition to the unit (Targeting Array for the Tau Tetra) then that's cool and you can still use them. Mainly since you are paying for them. Yet if change has happened to the weapons, Burst Cannon and Grav Gun for example, then the Codex ruling overrides this. So Tau Remora will have an Assault 4 Burst Cannon and the Contemptor Dreadnought's Grav Gun will now follow the new rules from Codex: Space Marines. I also make a point to make sure that these changes are alright with my opponent since it is a grey area. However I have never had an issue with it after I have explained myself.

So with all of this in mind I have new lists of things To-Do and things To-Get. Yet I've now run into a new issue of storage. Hopefully with a little luck and a lot of planning things will figure themselves out. Besides I'm in no hurry and I would rather do this right the first time around.

I'll be updating as I'm able to.

Angels of Vengeance Command Squads

No army is complete without some Command Squads. I wanted to make them have one for each Captain that my army had. That became unnecessary so I stopped at two. So here they are.

 Command Squad of Captain Artemius

Command Squad of Captain Greyston