I’m still alive

Yeah, it’s been about 6 years. Forgot about this blog. Was pleasantly surprised to see that somehow people still stumble on some of the old posts hahaha. Thinking of reviving it. Facebook posts just don’t seem very… detailed.

Right. Will resume blogging soon. Out.

RX-0 Unicorn Gundam Master Grade

Gundams are so much more fun to assemble than GW stuff! Everything fits nicely with CLEAR instructions and virtually to replication errors on the model!

Got back to ‘the Hobby’ but tried out this RX-0 Unicorn Gundam from Bandai instead of Warhammer 40k minis. Looks pretty good with little effort! (unlike GW minis…)

Anyway, will be back to ye’ol 40k army building shortly…

Distracted by Music

Wow. I haven’t updated in a looooooong time. Haven’t in fact touched miniatures and paint for the same amount of time! Been distracted by the new toy I bought some time back:

Been playing some old tunes that I used to know… and some new ones as well.

Anyway, I should be getting back to miniatures and wargaming soon. A ton of uncompleted projects!

HOLIDAY!

Enjoying myself at a seaside resort with pristine beaches!

Got to witness an endangered species, the sea turtle, laying over a hundred eggs and burying them in warm sand, under cover of night.

Had a good long swim for the first time in ages, too.

There’s a platoon of US marines (I’m probably exagerating) staying at my beach resort… saw them ‘training’ in their fatigues on the beach? What the hell’s happenning?

Who CARES!

Had a fantastic dinner at a place called ‘Alor Akar Seafood Restorant’. Except I didn’t eat any seafood! Just fine herbal whole chicken, stir fired lettuce (with garlic) and tofu with minced meat… strangely a great gastronomic experience!

Elaborate 40k posts will have to be postponed, I’m having too much fun!

Quick Update

Still looking through the new codex Grey Knights… will be writing a post on them soon…

Also started work on drilling and pinning for the other parts of the set piece for a painting competition that has Brother Raphael in it. Once it’s dry, I’ll be doing some green stuff sculpting… something I’m not very experienced with. Ah well, I’ll learn something here, I hope.

I’ll be going on a short trip in a few days to a beach resort… Cherating, and the ‘beautiful’ Pacific / South China Sea. Post pictures if I remember to take any!

Grey Knights are actually Uber?

Ok, I may have been mistaken when I posted not too long ago that the new Grey Knights codex isn’t going to be much impact on the state of the game… because, apparently, it’s starting to make a splash at some tournaments around the world… if you believe internet ‘reporting’.

Really?

I may have to do a complete re-analysis. Am I missing something? Think I’ll mull on it a while and post a detailed look at the new Grey Knights… come to think of it, I haven’t actually posted a write up on the new codex…

So, in a couple of days…

Brother Raphael of the Blood Angels (Non-Metallic Metal)

I originally intended him to be an ordinary Sanguinary Guard, battling Enemies of the Imperium in a set piece for a painting competition. Halfway through painting, I realised that Sanguinary Guards could not wield Thunderhammers! I really liked the Hammertime! pose though, so I went on painting. It’s more or less complete now, and I’ll be doing the rest of the piece before integrating him for the final touch-up.

Still, it bothered me a little that Sanguinary Guards can’t have hammers. So I got the idea to do my own Optional Rules (opponent permission required) for one. But what approach to take to ‘legalise’ this miniature? Should I just allow Sanguinary Guards to take a hammer for 10 points? Or something else?

Looking at other codices, I realised that the new marine ones have ‘upgradeable’ named characters for certain squads – Telion for Ultramarines, Ajax for Space Wolves, Thawn for Grey Knights – but the Blood Angels don’t!

Some people may argue that The Sanguinor’s Blessing is like a sort of ‘upgrade’ to the squad Sergeant. But it’s random, and the dude HAS NO NAME.

And so Brother Raphael was born. I envision him as a unique upgrade character for Sanguinary Guards. Short Background: Raphael was the Sergeant of Assault Squad Angelus in the disastrous boarding action of the derelict mining facility of Asteroid A729 of the Entrax System. The facility turned out to be the secret hideout of a renegade space marine warband, The Ebony Knights. Raphael’s entire squad was killed to the man, save for him. He ultimately managed to cleanse the place, and returned alone with the prize, a valuable STC template, and took the renegade leader’s weapon, the mastercrafted thunderhammer Rayden, as trophy. It was rumoured that he had help – a golden man-shaped ‘meteor’ was sighted hitting asteroid A729 shortly after Squad Angelus arrived… Raphael himself is tight-lipped about what really took place, but he was a changed man from then on. He had taken on a somewhat mystical persona from the experience, and after a century of exemplary service, was elevated to the Sanguinary Guard with the exceptional right to wield Rayden, because of his awe-inspiring skill with it, instead of the usual glaive. He has been nicknamed ‘The Exalted’ for seemingly being blessed by the Primarch himself with good fortune, and extraordinary good judgement calls…

The stats for those interested:

BROTHER RAPHAEL……………………………………+75 points
One Sanguinary Guard squad can upgrade one of its members to Raphael the Exalted

Brother Raphael              WS5  BS4  S4  T4  W2  I5  A3  Ld10  Sv2+

Unit Composition: 1 (Unique)

Unit Type: Jump Infantry (character)

Wargear: Artificer armour, Plasma pistol, Rayden (mastercrafted thunderhammer), Frag and krak grenades, Jump pack

Special Rules: Descent of Angels, Fearless, The Red Thirst

Blessed of the Exemplar: +1 to WS, W, I and A, included in profile.

Speed of Thunder: Raphael’s skill with Rayden is legendary, and the speed with which he wields it is beyond belief. He strikes at the usual Initiative order, ignoring thunderhammer Initiative restrictions. In addition, only in the turn in which he charged into assault, he strikes at Strength and Initiative 10.

Foresight: Inheriting the Primarch’s gift of prophesy, though less potent, Raphael can predict attacks that would have killed him, by divining the method to avoid or overcome them beforehand. He has a 4+ invulnerable save, and once per game, can ignore one failed save of any sort.

WIP Blood Angels Hammertime! (Non-Metallic Metal)

As I’ve mentioned, I’m working on a Blood Angels miniature that’s part of a piece I might be entering for a painting competition… To be precise, I was thinking of a Sanguinary Guard, with all the bling armour in NMM. Halfway through, I realised… Sanguinary Guards can’t have Thunderhammers!!! No matter, this fellow will be a Assault Sergeant. The big question is, how should I paint the hammer? In metallic? Non-metallic metal (there’s already so much of it on the armour)? Resplendent with motifs? In solid colours? Lots of battle damage? Lightning / energy pulsing all over it? I’m still trying to decide…

The Shieldmaiden

I finally found the time to snap some pictures of this miniature. She’s one of several Greco-Roman warrior women I’ll be painting for the Archangels Army.

Standing at an impressive 54 mm, she’s taller than the standard Space Marine, but the same can be said of virtually every ‘maiden’ in the Archangels army. Unlike the others, however, she isn’t proportionately as slim. This makes her noticeably bigger, compared to say, the Toxic Maidens, who are also taller than Space Marines, but a lot slimmer, which makes them look deceptively smaller than they actually are.

This mini is from Hasslefree and came in grey resin. Pretty high quality with hardly any imperfections, which means I didn’t have to do a lot of work before getting to the painting.

The most notable feature of this model, I think, is the gigantic shield. It gave me the idea to use it is as a platform for a large non-metallic metal painted surface, which I blogged about (How To Paint Non-Metallic Metal on Miniatures). I also did the helmet and sword in polished non-metallic metal. The sword and shield were painted in such a way that you can see from the above image that they depict a corresponding reflection.

This model took far less time than can be imagined. About 4-5 hours from assembly to completion. This is because it’s a simple mini that is easy to assemble and has very few details. The large section of bare skin meant that there was very little work required to make it look reasonably OK.

The speed with which I finished painting The Shieldmaiden is not an indication of how fast I paint. I’m actually a slow painter. For comparison, I’m currently painting a jump-pack Blood Angel in Artificer Armour using NMM, and it’s taken me days to do about 75%, with 10+ actual man-hours already invested…

A more ‘aerial’ view, for a better look at the helmet.

I know I should have done a How-To post on painting skin with this model, but I already finished doing most of everything, except the shield, which I had planned to blog about in relation to NMM, before I thought about it (ie taking progress pictures as I painted). This model has a lot of bare skin, making it a suitable candidate for a skin-painting tutorial. Another time, then!

Side note: Although it may not be obvious from the pictures, the skin on The Shieldmaiden was not painted in just one colour. No less than 5 Citadel colours were used, with glazing and blending. Never ever paint skin in just one colour – it looks terrible!!! I find that a lot of newbies aren’t aware of this. The thing is to paint it as if no more than one colour was used (so that your ‘girls’ have a smooth complexion) but use as many as will look good… yeah, that’s why there’s a need for a tutorial for the uninitiated.

Hmm, maybe I should choose a model with a little sheer clothing, so that I can also do semi-transparency painting effects…

Ah, well. There’s always time for that in the future, I suppose.

Quick Update

I’m working on a jump-pack Blood Angel armed with plasma pistol and thunderhammer, in artificer armour. It’s in non-metallic metal (NMM). It’s about half done now, and will likely be part of the piece that I’ll be submitting for a painting competition in the near future.

Also, I should be posting up pics of the completed Shieldmaiden, which I used in my How To Paint Non-Metallic Metal on Miniatures post, in a few days.

Currently reading ‘Prospero Burns’ by Dan Abnett. Yup, he’s the best author in Black Library, which, sadly, isn’t saying much. At least he doesn’t make supposed genius supersoldiers look like incompetent morons. I’m not really a fan of Black Library, but once in a while, being a 40k enthusiast, I succumb to wishful thinking that there would be a true gem in the grim darkness of the far future… I should learn to stick to established authors in contemporary literature. It’s not like I have a lot of time to read just anything I come accross.

My Grey Knights Army will be starting with one humble squad of Purifiers (5-man). It’s not the numbers that count, as long as you look good 🙂 I’m getting someone to help me with most of this army, as I would like to concentrate on the Archangels, and also the upcoming painting competition.

Real-life work is picking up, but there should be enough staff to handle the load. Hopefully, have time to paint!