I have been a busy little Warsmith recently. Other than the updates I already had to the army, I have converted 3 LasPlas turrets. I have also gotten the Rhino chassis for those Razorbacks built and base coated. Hopefully if I don't have to work crazy late hours tonight I can get them painted and together. I also built another Warsmith, got him painted, but haven't hit his Chooser up yet, I'll probably put that on the list for tonight also.
Then I went about and converted 6 combi meltas from some spare melta guns, then I put those and more power fists on a few Sergeants that I had the bits for thanks to my Maxmini order coming in finally, and then I got those 6 Sergeants painted. Now, while those 6 Sergeants work perfectly for the 6 line squads if I feel like using them that way instead of going with just a powerfist and bolt pistol, there is a problem of my Devastators/Long Fangs not having Sergeants done at all.
Well, last night I put together three Sergeants just for them. Since one of each of those squads in addition to his missile launcher has either a hammer, a sword, or an axe held in his hand, I built the three Sergeants to combine with that squad. One has a rather bitching sword, one has a rocking axe, and the last has another Maxmini hammer that I got in that last shipment.
Oh yeah, and I got them painted as well.
Need to get the last vehicles and Warsmith done, along with the two targeting servitors, but once those are done it's all cake, everything will be done, and my half of our Team Tournament team will be done, and my own championship army will be done. Adepticon here I come.
Iron Within, Iron Without
A rambling, halting attempt at creating a preheresy Iron Warriors army for Warhammer 40k.
Showing posts with label maxmini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maxmini. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
This weeks painting commitment.
Tournament this coming weekend. I want to be able to actually field my army as a painted army, without having to just have some of it painted and some of it either base coated or gray plastic. So, that said, tonight 22 marines made it to the half way painted mark. The marines who are getting painted are the sword squad, all of the missile launchers, five of the Forge World assault marines, the Forge World boarding marine, and one Scibor commander.
What does this mean?
Well tonight with them being half way to the painted mark, tomorrow when I get off work they will push the rest of the way to the fully painted mark. Once that's done, as long as the weather stays nice and not bitterly cold and nasty with wind, they will all get the dip, that's slated for either tomorrow night, or Wednesday night. Hypothetically I dip them Wednesday night, Thursday night I'll be able to seal the dip and start work on the bases.
Hurrah, this will finish all, and I do mean all of my troops choices will be painted, as will all of my heavy support, one of my fast attack, and one of my HQ.
That ignores the Terminators, who are still done.
The thing it doesn't do, is touch the vehicles, which makes me a sad panda.
Meh, ah well, it's been a rough year so far with mom's health problems, personal issues with life and everything else, and... enough excuses. It's less than two months to Adepticon, I am well beyond fallen behind, it's past time to get cracking and get it all done.
Spent a bit over $200 on a bits order from Max Mini, I'm out of heads and backpacks. Which wouldn't be a huge deal if I weren't to the point where I need to start building guys beyond just the basic troops squads. Gonna stick with the helmet pattern of one for all the squad members and another for the leader, but still... more work ahead. Hopefully these 60 heads and backpacks will keep me going for a while.
Iron Within, Iron Without
What does this mean?
Well tonight with them being half way to the painted mark, tomorrow when I get off work they will push the rest of the way to the fully painted mark. Once that's done, as long as the weather stays nice and not bitterly cold and nasty with wind, they will all get the dip, that's slated for either tomorrow night, or Wednesday night. Hypothetically I dip them Wednesday night, Thursday night I'll be able to seal the dip and start work on the bases.
Hurrah, this will finish all, and I do mean all of my troops choices will be painted, as will all of my heavy support, one of my fast attack, and one of my HQ.
That ignores the Terminators, who are still done.
The thing it doesn't do, is touch the vehicles, which makes me a sad panda.
Meh, ah well, it's been a rough year so far with mom's health problems, personal issues with life and everything else, and... enough excuses. It's less than two months to Adepticon, I am well beyond fallen behind, it's past time to get cracking and get it all done.
Spent a bit over $200 on a bits order from Max Mini, I'm out of heads and backpacks. Which wouldn't be a huge deal if I weren't to the point where I need to start building guys beyond just the basic troops squads. Gonna stick with the helmet pattern of one for all the squad members and another for the leader, but still... more work ahead. Hopefully these 60 heads and backpacks will keep me going for a while.
Iron Within, Iron Without
Friday, February 17, 2012
2/16/12 update
So I got a chance finally to put miniatures together and get pictures taken. I also have a small rant to make about Forge World, but I'll save that for when we do our next Podcast. Allow me to present to you the Forge World Mk. II Assault Squad (with Meltagun, because everyone needs at least one.), the Forge World Boarding Marine, and my kitbashed hero guy.
And yes, all of them are obviously going to be Iron Warriors. The kitbash is made of a pair of legs I found in a bits box that I had to cut and repose as they were obviously intended to be used as riding something, the cloak from him was from the Chaos Lord on Manticore, the head is a Chaos Lord head from 40k with the horns shaved off his face, the backpack and shoulder pads are from Max Mini, and the hammer head is from Scibor.
Now, let me say this. I have done a LOT of conversion miniatures over the years. I have built stuff from several companies when it comes to miniatures, I have done GW bits orders, Forge World orders, Max Mini, Rakham, Scibor, and other companies now long out of business. I have dealt with flash, with poor molds, and with miscasts, especially with finecast. That all said, out of everything I have done, the GW miniatures in plastic have always been of the highest quality when it came to the figures. But these forge world ones I just put together? My god, I had more flash, more mold lines, and each and every single one of them has stuff I will have to cover up with green stuff because of a bad mold or poor cast. This is nuts. I've seen smaller companies with better quality control, and bigger ones with the same. If this is a representative of how Forge World runs their quality then I highly doubt I will purchase more from them after my Adepticon order.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
And yes, all of them are obviously going to be Iron Warriors. The kitbash is made of a pair of legs I found in a bits box that I had to cut and repose as they were obviously intended to be used as riding something, the cloak from him was from the Chaos Lord on Manticore, the head is a Chaos Lord head from 40k with the horns shaved off his face, the backpack and shoulder pads are from Max Mini, and the hammer head is from Scibor.
Now, let me say this. I have done a LOT of conversion miniatures over the years. I have built stuff from several companies when it comes to miniatures, I have done GW bits orders, Forge World orders, Max Mini, Rakham, Scibor, and other companies now long out of business. I have dealt with flash, with poor molds, and with miscasts, especially with finecast. That all said, out of everything I have done, the GW miniatures in plastic have always been of the highest quality when it came to the figures. But these forge world ones I just put together? My god, I had more flash, more mold lines, and each and every single one of them has stuff I will have to cover up with green stuff because of a bad mold or poor cast. This is nuts. I've seen smaller companies with better quality control, and bigger ones with the same. If this is a representative of how Forge World runs their quality then I highly doubt I will purchase more from them after my Adepticon order.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Road to Hell
They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Be that as it may, it was a road that the Iron Warriors found themselves walking down and while I am certain that at first it was paved with the very best of intentions, when it came to Istvaan those intentions were long gone.
That said, I have my first batch of custom shoulder pads coming to me on January 23rd, which means that once I have those 40 shoulder pads coming, which will be enough to utterly redo the right arm shoulders of 4 of the squads. Once I see how these have come out and if I am satisfied with them I will go ahead and order enough to finish up the rest of the guys I have either finished or on the list of "to build".
That said, I have decided that the Iron Warriors that I'm painting up need a bit more than just "Generic blah", I'm going to make them utterly my own. With that said, I have decided that when I paint the chevrons onto the Iron Warriors left shoulder pads, it will be 3 striped of yellow, and either 3 stripes of black, or 4. The total number of chevrons will indicate that they either belong to the 6th or 7th Grand Company, which I'm not certain of yet honestly.
That said, we recorded another podcast tonight, Episode 5, go us!
And I completed two more missile launchers, which brings my total up to 7 complete, which means once everything is done together and painted/based I will only need to do another 8 missile launchers to fill up my heavy slots with two spare (if Chaos gets to take 5 heavy weapons in a squad akin to the Space Wolves).
If I am limited to just 4 per Havoc squad, it's not a huge loss as I will only have 3 extras, which won't be horrible, I'll still find a way to use them somehow I know.
That said, I've got another Tactical Squad box sitting here and I'm wondering what, exactly it is that I plan to do with them. I know I can always use more marines for the army, but what style I want to put them in I am not yet sure. I'll probably make this batch another group of swords men, that way I can have two of each squad, Pioneers, Engineers, and Guards. Each squad obviously armed and equipped identically to their similar squad, which in my mind is perfect.
Gonna try to get these guys together tomorrow if I can, and after that I'll get the Forge World stuff done hopefully.
Sadly I need to order more heads and backpacks from Max Mini, I'm nearly out of all the heads I use.
Then again, I also need to see if I can find a decent source for power armor lightning claws and pre heresy fists. I think I have a few character conversions to work on. Oh, and I need to get hold of 2 more terminators so I can bring myself to a full 10 man assault terminator squad.
So much to do, so little time and money.
Iron Within, Iron Without
That said, I have my first batch of custom shoulder pads coming to me on January 23rd, which means that once I have those 40 shoulder pads coming, which will be enough to utterly redo the right arm shoulders of 4 of the squads. Once I see how these have come out and if I am satisfied with them I will go ahead and order enough to finish up the rest of the guys I have either finished or on the list of "to build".
That said, I have decided that the Iron Warriors that I'm painting up need a bit more than just "Generic blah", I'm going to make them utterly my own. With that said, I have decided that when I paint the chevrons onto the Iron Warriors left shoulder pads, it will be 3 striped of yellow, and either 3 stripes of black, or 4. The total number of chevrons will indicate that they either belong to the 6th or 7th Grand Company, which I'm not certain of yet honestly.
That said, we recorded another podcast tonight, Episode 5, go us!
And I completed two more missile launchers, which brings my total up to 7 complete, which means once everything is done together and painted/based I will only need to do another 8 missile launchers to fill up my heavy slots with two spare (if Chaos gets to take 5 heavy weapons in a squad akin to the Space Wolves).
If I am limited to just 4 per Havoc squad, it's not a huge loss as I will only have 3 extras, which won't be horrible, I'll still find a way to use them somehow I know.
That said, I've got another Tactical Squad box sitting here and I'm wondering what, exactly it is that I plan to do with them. I know I can always use more marines for the army, but what style I want to put them in I am not yet sure. I'll probably make this batch another group of swords men, that way I can have two of each squad, Pioneers, Engineers, and Guards. Each squad obviously armed and equipped identically to their similar squad, which in my mind is perfect.
Gonna try to get these guys together tomorrow if I can, and after that I'll get the Forge World stuff done hopefully.
Sadly I need to order more heads and backpacks from Max Mini, I'm nearly out of all the heads I use.
Then again, I also need to see if I can find a decent source for power armor lightning claws and pre heresy fists. I think I have a few character conversions to work on. Oh, and I need to get hold of 2 more terminators so I can bring myself to a full 10 man assault terminator squad.
So much to do, so little time and money.
Iron Within, Iron Without
Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Iron Warriors
Ladies, Gentlemen, and all points in between. Allow me to present some of the Iron Warriors. Now, I know this isn't anywhere close to all of the Iron Warriors I've got done, but it is all of them that I have with dry bases. Yes the bases are currently a very boring gray rock color. That will be changing tomorrow once the rest of the bases are dry and I can paint them with my volcanic ash scheme.
Until then, enjoy the current paint level. Part of two squads, the Pioneers and the Engineers. Also two missile launchers, the Sanguinary Priests, and some of the lightning claw and thunder hammer & storm shield terminators. Every head except one of the Sanguinary Priests is from Maxmini, as are the back packs.
With luck as I said, I will get more of them based up tomorrow and closer to finished, and maybe I'll get a chance to start cracking on one of the war smiths. Probably the terminator one.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Well, that was expensive.
Put in another order from Maxmini. I decided that I didn't want to bother with the extended wait for the shoulder pads to come out and I went ahead and ordered another 50 of their heads. 40 of my regular guy heads, and 10 veteran heads.
I also ordered another 50 backpacks. I'll use the last of the ones I have, and the heads that go with them this week when I put together the second batch of Devastators and do a couple other guys.
$85 later I should have my stuff eventually. Until then, I get to wait. Wait and see if I can finish fixing the rest of my guys up.
Right now I'm in a bit of a crunch with work and the overtime I'm getting, and the house, and working with the crew of gamers I play with in a SUPER SECRET AWESOME IDEA that may involve a large room, lots of tables, and the initials G.T. That's up in the air for now. What is not up in the air however is Adepticon.
I'm not in the Team Tournament, but I am in the single tournament. However I am #10 on the Team Tournament wait list, and I've got two other team members who have committed to joining the team if we get a spot. Currently the plan is James using his preheresy Space Wolves, and me rolling with my preheresy Iron Warriors in a partial recreation of the great crusade. We've got an army list worked out (or at least, mostly worked out), and luckily, James has enough of his Wolves to do half of the army already.
Now, I've got one list done for it, which means we are 3/4 done with the list, I just need to finish another... what is it... 50 marines? Hmm... my my my, how many heads and backpacks did I just order? Of course, this is all just building of the guys, this doesn't even begin to worry about the painting ordeal. Which honestly, I am horrible at, and hate with the heat of a newborn star.
So I talked my buddy Ben (who paints wonderfully) into painting my guys for me. Luckily, he doesn't have to do a basecoat, I already did that and an awesome hammered steel coat on all my guys. I just don't want to do the rest, because on the one Terminator, and one power armored guy I did, I hated the job I pulled off.
Which just proves my point, that I suck at painting. I may have been decent at it 10 years ago or more, but that 10 year laps in painting murdered me.
Still on the To Do list. Meltaguns, combimeltas, and more hammers/axes. I guess some time in the nearish future I'll be buying around 4 more boxes of tactical marines and then scavenging them for the bits I need. (Torso's, legs, meltaguns, missiles, hands, shoulder pads) and taking the rest of them and dumping them into the bit box over at the other store for other people to pick through.
I gotta admit, getting free access to the bits trays over there has been a godsend when it came to getting more axes and hammers the last time. Hopefully there will be more of what I need there soon.
Ben promised to have my marines painted and handed over to me by this Saturday. Which is convenient, as there is a 1750 point tourney at the store this Saturday. Maybe I'll finally get to play my Iron Warriors. We'll see. In the meantime, work and overtime tomorrow night, followed by a Wednesday full of making the last 5-6ish marines I can put together with the heads and bits I have on hand.
Until Wednesday then.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
I also ordered another 50 backpacks. I'll use the last of the ones I have, and the heads that go with them this week when I put together the second batch of Devastators and do a couple other guys.
$85 later I should have my stuff eventually. Until then, I get to wait. Wait and see if I can finish fixing the rest of my guys up.
Right now I'm in a bit of a crunch with work and the overtime I'm getting, and the house, and working with the crew of gamers I play with in a SUPER SECRET AWESOME IDEA that may involve a large room, lots of tables, and the initials G.T. That's up in the air for now. What is not up in the air however is Adepticon.
I'm not in the Team Tournament, but I am in the single tournament. However I am #10 on the Team Tournament wait list, and I've got two other team members who have committed to joining the team if we get a spot. Currently the plan is James using his preheresy Space Wolves, and me rolling with my preheresy Iron Warriors in a partial recreation of the great crusade. We've got an army list worked out (or at least, mostly worked out), and luckily, James has enough of his Wolves to do half of the army already.
Now, I've got one list done for it, which means we are 3/4 done with the list, I just need to finish another... what is it... 50 marines? Hmm... my my my, how many heads and backpacks did I just order? Of course, this is all just building of the guys, this doesn't even begin to worry about the painting ordeal. Which honestly, I am horrible at, and hate with the heat of a newborn star.
So I talked my buddy Ben (who paints wonderfully) into painting my guys for me. Luckily, he doesn't have to do a basecoat, I already did that and an awesome hammered steel coat on all my guys. I just don't want to do the rest, because on the one Terminator, and one power armored guy I did, I hated the job I pulled off.
Which just proves my point, that I suck at painting. I may have been decent at it 10 years ago or more, but that 10 year laps in painting murdered me.
Still on the To Do list. Meltaguns, combimeltas, and more hammers/axes. I guess some time in the nearish future I'll be buying around 4 more boxes of tactical marines and then scavenging them for the bits I need. (Torso's, legs, meltaguns, missiles, hands, shoulder pads) and taking the rest of them and dumping them into the bit box over at the other store for other people to pick through.
I gotta admit, getting free access to the bits trays over there has been a godsend when it came to getting more axes and hammers the last time. Hopefully there will be more of what I need there soon.
Ben promised to have my marines painted and handed over to me by this Saturday. Which is convenient, as there is a 1750 point tourney at the store this Saturday. Maybe I'll finally get to play my Iron Warriors. We'll see. In the meantime, work and overtime tomorrow night, followed by a Wednesday full of making the last 5-6ish marines I can put together with the heads and bits I have on hand.
Until Wednesday then.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Project log update. 11/7/11
Ok, so I finished off the Pioneer squad. I finished fixing the Sergeants for the three squads I have finished.
Right now we have the following finished.
Garrison Squad. 8 marines with varying weapons, either axes or chain swords plus bolt pistol. 2 guys with real meltaguns. 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol. The Sergeant has the head that I have denoted into being the veteran helmet. These guys were pictured before on the blog.
Construction Squad. 8 marines with bolt pistol and hammer. 2 guys with meltaguns (1 real, 1 Duncan brand kitbash that I need to do a tutorial on). 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol, as the above Sergeant he has the veteran helmet. No pictures yet, will get those up ASAP.
Pioneer Squad. 8 marines with axes and bolt pistols. 2 guys with meltaguns (1 real, 1 kitbash). 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol. Again, veteran helmet, and still no pictures.
Now, I have gone through all my bits boxes, I scrounged, I scavenged, and I finagled my way into finding enough bolt pistols, kitbashed meltas, powerfist, heads, backpacks, and torso's to do up a total of 7 more marines. Sadly, doing this will use the last of the heads I have from Maxmini so I'm going to have to order more before I can continue building. Now, if I pull the heads from the two built devastators, I can bump the squad up to 9, including the Sergeant. Only one problem. No legs. Not a single set unless I crack open my last box of tactical marines to steal their legs, which I will probably do.
But I won't have any devastators built, except two without heads. Now, I've got a different weapon batch for this squad, the Chaos Warrior/Chaos Marauder swords to go with their bolt pistols. Which gives each squad built so far individual appearances. One with cloaks, one axes, one hammers, one swords. Sure the sword squad will only have 9 marines (if I pull the heads off the Devs), but I won't have any of the Devs built.
I also won't have any characters built in the style of the army at all, which I really need to do. Also, all the marines so far have the regular, shitty style shoulder pads which I hate. Also, the majority of pieces in each squad are imperial, with insignia shaved away. Sure they look heresy, and sure the backpacks, heads, and weapons look damned good, but that's about all.
What I really need to do is put together the Forge World stuff and magnetize them with the 10 spare backpacks I'll have left over after doing whatever it is that I end up doing with the Devs/Sword squad.
I guess I better lay out a plan for the next little bit.
#1. More heads and backpacks from Maxmini. Either I've got three fully completed squads and two Dev squads fully complete (I've got two spare of the Veteran helmets, but not enough missile launchers), or I have three fully completed squads and one nearly complete. I figure I'll bulk it out to 6 squads of 10, just in case I ever field them, say... in Ard Boyz or something. So, just on the assumption that I'm going with the Devs being complete... I need 27 heads for the three squads, minus the 10 for the Forge World guys, and 3 total of the veteran helmets. Which still leaves me without having completed a single character figure. I guess I better figure to finish off the third squad of Devs also. Even if I just bump the Devs up to 6 people in total (if I ever feel like playing as Space Wolves, or as a just in case for the rumored Chaos Legion codex next year) and don't go with a single body after these... I'm going to need...26 heads. Truthfully... I may as well grab 40 heads of the regular heads, so I can build more special weapons as needed (I have plenty of Plasma Guns laying about), also that way I can bump the Devs up with a few spare bodies. Vet heads however, I only need 4 of. Better push that to 20 of those heads, so I can do a swap in when I start making characters and so I can make more Termies. Though I may want to get different heads on them just for differentiation. Backpacks... crap on a stick. I need nearly 50 more.
#2. Legs. Better buy more. Ditto with some meltaguns, the kitbash works, but I prefer real meltaguns.
#3. Hand weapons/bolt pistols. Yep, gonna needs some of those. Just for the one final squad, that's 10 bolt pistols, and 10 of some kind of weapon. Maybe I'll go with chainswords for those guys, I dunno yet. Must ponder.
#4. More missile launchers. I may have enough to finish the one squad of Devs if I go that route. But that still leaves me either 8 or 10 short. Better get that corrected.
#5. Shoulder pads. Ugh, I really hope that Maxmini gets those new pads released soon, I wanna buy them and cut the shitty pads I have now off my guys. At a ballpark if I only go with one shoulder per guy, that's still nearly 100 pads, and if I go with two pads per guy, as I want to... that's probably 200 pads. Lemme see here... 50 guys in the troops section, 15 in the Devs, misc in the characters/spares... call it ballpark 150 in reality. So, just on the safe side... 160-170.
#6. Vehicles/Dreads. Contemptor pattern dreads are fairly obvious. The Rhino's I can go with the ones I have and just add bling, or I could go all nuts and order Forge World Doors. I also should grab a Land Raider or two for my guys.
All that on top of painting. Fucks sake, this is going to be expensive as shit. But, I knew that when I started this project, and for the first time in a long while, I am going to follow it through when it comes to building this army in the way that I want to.
After all that... painting. Which I truly hate to do. I'm going to need more paint and shit.
Thank god for the new house I'm getting, at least I'll have a dedicated hobby room/man cave to build this stuff in.
For now... sleep.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
Right now we have the following finished.
Garrison Squad. 8 marines with varying weapons, either axes or chain swords plus bolt pistol. 2 guys with real meltaguns. 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol. The Sergeant has the head that I have denoted into being the veteran helmet. These guys were pictured before on the blog.
Construction Squad. 8 marines with bolt pistol and hammer. 2 guys with meltaguns (1 real, 1 Duncan brand kitbash that I need to do a tutorial on). 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol, as the above Sergeant he has the veteran helmet. No pictures yet, will get those up ASAP.
Pioneer Squad. 8 marines with axes and bolt pistols. 2 guys with meltaguns (1 real, 1 kitbash). 1 Sergeant with powerfist and bolt pistol. Again, veteran helmet, and still no pictures.
Now, I have gone through all my bits boxes, I scrounged, I scavenged, and I finagled my way into finding enough bolt pistols, kitbashed meltas, powerfist, heads, backpacks, and torso's to do up a total of 7 more marines. Sadly, doing this will use the last of the heads I have from Maxmini so I'm going to have to order more before I can continue building. Now, if I pull the heads from the two built devastators, I can bump the squad up to 9, including the Sergeant. Only one problem. No legs. Not a single set unless I crack open my last box of tactical marines to steal their legs, which I will probably do.
But I won't have any devastators built, except two without heads. Now, I've got a different weapon batch for this squad, the Chaos Warrior/Chaos Marauder swords to go with their bolt pistols. Which gives each squad built so far individual appearances. One with cloaks, one axes, one hammers, one swords. Sure the sword squad will only have 9 marines (if I pull the heads off the Devs), but I won't have any of the Devs built.
I also won't have any characters built in the style of the army at all, which I really need to do. Also, all the marines so far have the regular, shitty style shoulder pads which I hate. Also, the majority of pieces in each squad are imperial, with insignia shaved away. Sure they look heresy, and sure the backpacks, heads, and weapons look damned good, but that's about all.
What I really need to do is put together the Forge World stuff and magnetize them with the 10 spare backpacks I'll have left over after doing whatever it is that I end up doing with the Devs/Sword squad.
I guess I better lay out a plan for the next little bit.
#1. More heads and backpacks from Maxmini. Either I've got three fully completed squads and two Dev squads fully complete (I've got two spare of the Veteran helmets, but not enough missile launchers), or I have three fully completed squads and one nearly complete. I figure I'll bulk it out to 6 squads of 10, just in case I ever field them, say... in Ard Boyz or something. So, just on the assumption that I'm going with the Devs being complete... I need 27 heads for the three squads, minus the 10 for the Forge World guys, and 3 total of the veteran helmets. Which still leaves me without having completed a single character figure. I guess I better figure to finish off the third squad of Devs also. Even if I just bump the Devs up to 6 people in total (if I ever feel like playing as Space Wolves, or as a just in case for the rumored Chaos Legion codex next year) and don't go with a single body after these... I'm going to need...26 heads. Truthfully... I may as well grab 40 heads of the regular heads, so I can build more special weapons as needed (I have plenty of Plasma Guns laying about), also that way I can bump the Devs up with a few spare bodies. Vet heads however, I only need 4 of. Better push that to 20 of those heads, so I can do a swap in when I start making characters and so I can make more Termies. Though I may want to get different heads on them just for differentiation. Backpacks... crap on a stick. I need nearly 50 more.
#2. Legs. Better buy more. Ditto with some meltaguns, the kitbash works, but I prefer real meltaguns.
#3. Hand weapons/bolt pistols. Yep, gonna needs some of those. Just for the one final squad, that's 10 bolt pistols, and 10 of some kind of weapon. Maybe I'll go with chainswords for those guys, I dunno yet. Must ponder.
#4. More missile launchers. I may have enough to finish the one squad of Devs if I go that route. But that still leaves me either 8 or 10 short. Better get that corrected.
#5. Shoulder pads. Ugh, I really hope that Maxmini gets those new pads released soon, I wanna buy them and cut the shitty pads I have now off my guys. At a ballpark if I only go with one shoulder per guy, that's still nearly 100 pads, and if I go with two pads per guy, as I want to... that's probably 200 pads. Lemme see here... 50 guys in the troops section, 15 in the Devs, misc in the characters/spares... call it ballpark 150 in reality. So, just on the safe side... 160-170.
#6. Vehicles/Dreads. Contemptor pattern dreads are fairly obvious. The Rhino's I can go with the ones I have and just add bling, or I could go all nuts and order Forge World Doors. I also should grab a Land Raider or two for my guys.
All that on top of painting. Fucks sake, this is going to be expensive as shit. But, I knew that when I started this project, and for the first time in a long while, I am going to follow it through when it comes to building this army in the way that I want to.
After all that... painting. Which I truly hate to do. I'm going to need more paint and shit.
Thank god for the new house I'm getting, at least I'll have a dedicated hobby room/man cave to build this stuff in.
For now... sleep.
Iron Within, Iron Without.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Finished Squad #2 and the problem of Squad #3.
Got squad #2 put together. Sadly, doing so used all the hammers I had save for 2. Also, I ran out of meltaguns when I finished squad #1. So... since all of Squad #2 has hammers except for the two flamers (which truthfully I will only rarely ever use), and the Sergeant who has a powerfist, I think I need to make two more marines for that squad, and I probably should get around to making an extra guy or two for squad #1. Also, the squad #3, which was supposed to be nearly identical to squad #2 will now not be identical, because I am out of hammers.
So, I think since I have a lot of regular swords from the Chaos Warriors box, I will use those. I also have a number of axes left over, and if needed, I can start popping those onto the guys for Squad 3, that way we have some type of variety. Squad 4 will probably end up with chain weapons. Squad 5 will be the Forgeworld non assault squad, armed with... I don't know yet, probably a mix of weapons. Squad 6 will be the Forgeworld assault guys, with magnetized backpacks so that they can pull duty as jumpers as needed. Axes, Hammers, Cloaks, Swords. That's pretty much the delineation for the squads planned.
Sadly, I also ran out of cloaks for squad #1 when I finished squad #1 so I can't put together two flamer guys that would be able to go with squad #1. Which isn't that big of a loss honestly, as I said, rarely ever do I use a flamer when a meltagun is an option. But, in going through my stuff that I have to put these guys together, another slight issue came to light. Sure I have torsos, not the ones that I want, and honestly not enough that will work for me, but I have some, I also have lots of backpacks and heads, which is awesome. What do I not have?
Lots of bolt pistols. Lots of arms that can be sliced and repositioned to hold some hand weapons, and most important of all, legs. In fact, I think I have somewhere around 4 legs left. Total. Which yes, that will give me a start on putting together the next squad, but uh... that sucks, because it means I probably won't get the guys all assembled for this squad before I go back to work on Tuesday. (I had 5 days off, tomorrow is day #4. Yes, it was glorious, and my god, did I ever need the break.)
So, on the to do list...
#1. Acquire meltaguns. 5 squads. 2 meltaguns per squad, that's 10 meltaguns needed. At the current rate on the interwebz, I am looking at something like... hell, I dunno, anywhere between 30 and 60 bucks before delivery.
#2. Acquire legs, because honestly, while the one image I saw a while back of a marine made out of shoulder pads and nothing else was cool, I don't wanna go that route. Just to complete the next squad, I need at least 10 legs. That makes the 4 legs I have left become 2 for Squad 2's meltaguns, and 12 for Squad 3. Now, I could go out and buy just 10 tactical marine legs from the Battlewagon Bitz or somewhere like that, or I can get legs that look good. Besides, the 10 tactical legs are either $16 just for those, of $20 depending on the legs, and they are all bland and boring. I want spice, I want awesome, and those legs do not need to apply. Which probably puts me with either Chaos Marine legs, or Khornate Berzerker legs. Both of which need just a bit of work to make them nearly perfect. The Khornate ones need the Khorne symbol carved off, which isn't exactly hard, but the regular Chaos marine legs need to have those fucking chaos stars shaved away. Which is a pain in my nuts to do. So... fuck those legs, more than likely going to go with the Khornate legs. $8 for 6 legs, which makes it $16 for 12. Not quite a $1.20 per leg, but not a bad price at that. That is what I will most likely go with.
#3. Torso's. Yeah, the ones with the Imperial eagle and winged skull are great for space marines. This is preheresy, the Imperial Eagle was not allowed to be worn yet, that was for special units as a decoration. So, once again we have to back to getting different torso's. Now, what I have been doing so far is taking whatever torso I have and shaving off whatever logo existed there at first. The ones that worked best for me were the Assault Marine torso's, as those required a lot less work and looked better. But I ran out of those. I have lots of torso's with Blood Angels or Space Wolves regalia on them, but that's a lot of effort that I can better use elsewhere, and I could trade those bits or use them later. I've looked at a lot of torso's so far, both from GW and from the various other people online. Truthfully? The best looking torso for what I am working on is really the Berzerker body set. Sure all of them have the Khornate icon that's gotta go, but they all also have decent bits of fiddlery on them that look nice. 8 of those? $4. May as well grab two of them since I need enough for at least 1 squad.
#4. Shoulder pads. Damn this part sucks. Now, I've got the guys I already made, and I kinda wish I had held off on making them because of two reasons. #1, Maxmini is in two months time, making Preheresy power armor shoulder pads. #2, I found a site online that will do up custom pads with whatever design I want on them for about $1.25 per shoulder pad after a $25 set up fee. Now, that's still almost a hundred bucks for 60 total shoulder pads if I go with the custom ones. Or about $70 if I go with Maxmini if I like their pads depending on their price. Also, I'm going to have to pop off 20 shoulder pads (or 40) on the two completed squads. Personally, I'm thinking I'll hold off on the shoulder pads for now until I see what Maxmini has to offer. They haven't failed me yet, so I think I can wait just a bit.
#5. Weapons/bolt pistols/meltaguns. Now, hand weapons, I can get piecemeal from friends who are doing stuff with chaos warriors. Bolt pistols however... those I need to get. Nope, not going for the Berzerkers on this as their pistols are fucking ugly and huge when compared to the rest. 5 Chaos Bolt pistols are $3.5, and Assault marine pistols are $4.50 for 5. I'll probably go with a mix, which comes out to $8 for 10 total. Meltaguns however... well I talked about them earlier, $5-9 per meltagun is the average.
So, let's see here... Ignoring the shoulder pads for right now... $46 to put together squad #3. Considering that a base tactical squad from GW costs $37.50 right now, or a squad of 5 assault marines for $33.00 that price isn't to bad. Less than $10 more than a vanilla tactical squad, and that's counting two meltaguns. The only thing it doesn't count is shoulder pads, which I will deal with later.
That said... I guess I better find about $50 for this squad.
Guess I won't be getting them done tomorrow.
So, I think since I have a lot of regular swords from the Chaos Warriors box, I will use those. I also have a number of axes left over, and if needed, I can start popping those onto the guys for Squad 3, that way we have some type of variety. Squad 4 will probably end up with chain weapons. Squad 5 will be the Forgeworld non assault squad, armed with... I don't know yet, probably a mix of weapons. Squad 6 will be the Forgeworld assault guys, with magnetized backpacks so that they can pull duty as jumpers as needed. Axes, Hammers, Cloaks, Swords. That's pretty much the delineation for the squads planned.
Sadly, I also ran out of cloaks for squad #1 when I finished squad #1 so I can't put together two flamer guys that would be able to go with squad #1. Which isn't that big of a loss honestly, as I said, rarely ever do I use a flamer when a meltagun is an option. But, in going through my stuff that I have to put these guys together, another slight issue came to light. Sure I have torsos, not the ones that I want, and honestly not enough that will work for me, but I have some, I also have lots of backpacks and heads, which is awesome. What do I not have?
Lots of bolt pistols. Lots of arms that can be sliced and repositioned to hold some hand weapons, and most important of all, legs. In fact, I think I have somewhere around 4 legs left. Total. Which yes, that will give me a start on putting together the next squad, but uh... that sucks, because it means I probably won't get the guys all assembled for this squad before I go back to work on Tuesday. (I had 5 days off, tomorrow is day #4. Yes, it was glorious, and my god, did I ever need the break.)
So, on the to do list...
#1. Acquire meltaguns. 5 squads. 2 meltaguns per squad, that's 10 meltaguns needed. At the current rate on the interwebz, I am looking at something like... hell, I dunno, anywhere between 30 and 60 bucks before delivery.
#2. Acquire legs, because honestly, while the one image I saw a while back of a marine made out of shoulder pads and nothing else was cool, I don't wanna go that route. Just to complete the next squad, I need at least 10 legs. That makes the 4 legs I have left become 2 for Squad 2's meltaguns, and 12 for Squad 3. Now, I could go out and buy just 10 tactical marine legs from the Battlewagon Bitz or somewhere like that, or I can get legs that look good. Besides, the 10 tactical legs are either $16 just for those, of $20 depending on the legs, and they are all bland and boring. I want spice, I want awesome, and those legs do not need to apply. Which probably puts me with either Chaos Marine legs, or Khornate Berzerker legs. Both of which need just a bit of work to make them nearly perfect. The Khornate ones need the Khorne symbol carved off, which isn't exactly hard, but the regular Chaos marine legs need to have those fucking chaos stars shaved away. Which is a pain in my nuts to do. So... fuck those legs, more than likely going to go with the Khornate legs. $8 for 6 legs, which makes it $16 for 12. Not quite a $1.20 per leg, but not a bad price at that. That is what I will most likely go with.
#3. Torso's. Yeah, the ones with the Imperial eagle and winged skull are great for space marines. This is preheresy, the Imperial Eagle was not allowed to be worn yet, that was for special units as a decoration. So, once again we have to back to getting different torso's. Now, what I have been doing so far is taking whatever torso I have and shaving off whatever logo existed there at first. The ones that worked best for me were the Assault Marine torso's, as those required a lot less work and looked better. But I ran out of those. I have lots of torso's with Blood Angels or Space Wolves regalia on them, but that's a lot of effort that I can better use elsewhere, and I could trade those bits or use them later. I've looked at a lot of torso's so far, both from GW and from the various other people online. Truthfully? The best looking torso for what I am working on is really the Berzerker body set. Sure all of them have the Khornate icon that's gotta go, but they all also have decent bits of fiddlery on them that look nice. 8 of those? $4. May as well grab two of them since I need enough for at least 1 squad.
#4. Shoulder pads. Damn this part sucks. Now, I've got the guys I already made, and I kinda wish I had held off on making them because of two reasons. #1, Maxmini is in two months time, making Preheresy power armor shoulder pads. #2, I found a site online that will do up custom pads with whatever design I want on them for about $1.25 per shoulder pad after a $25 set up fee. Now, that's still almost a hundred bucks for 60 total shoulder pads if I go with the custom ones. Or about $70 if I go with Maxmini if I like their pads depending on their price. Also, I'm going to have to pop off 20 shoulder pads (or 40) on the two completed squads. Personally, I'm thinking I'll hold off on the shoulder pads for now until I see what Maxmini has to offer. They haven't failed me yet, so I think I can wait just a bit.
#5. Weapons/bolt pistols/meltaguns. Now, hand weapons, I can get piecemeal from friends who are doing stuff with chaos warriors. Bolt pistols however... those I need to get. Nope, not going for the Berzerkers on this as their pistols are fucking ugly and huge when compared to the rest. 5 Chaos Bolt pistols are $3.5, and Assault marine pistols are $4.50 for 5. I'll probably go with a mix, which comes out to $8 for 10 total. Meltaguns however... well I talked about them earlier, $5-9 per meltagun is the average.
So, let's see here... Ignoring the shoulder pads for right now... $46 to put together squad #3. Considering that a base tactical squad from GW costs $37.50 right now, or a squad of 5 assault marines for $33.00 that price isn't to bad. Less than $10 more than a vanilla tactical squad, and that's counting two meltaguns. The only thing it doesn't count is shoulder pads, which I will deal with later.
That said... I guess I better find about $50 for this squad.
Guess I won't be getting them done tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
So, started work on Squad #2.
Right, so tonight I got cracking on putting together the first half of Squad #2. Remember, this squad is one of the two line squads, so there will be very little differentiation between these two squads. So far, these Gothic Backpacks from MaxMini are a little bit larger than I had expected. In fact, they are significantly larger than I had expected. So much larger in fact, that they would easily fit on the back of a Scibor hero fig and not look out of place. I know, I thought about it rather hard.
That said, I'm going to make a comment about Maxmini here. I ordered 4 sets of backpacks. At 6 backpacks per set, that's a total of 24 backpacks. I did not receive 24 backpacks. I received 40. Yes, 40. No, I was not charged extra, no I did not receive anything via e-mail saying that they goofed or anything like that. Just 40 backpacks. Now, I also ordered 20 total heads of the style I am putting on the power armor. I had 3 heads left over from the last order. And on this order, I received a total of 20 heads. I've got 6 of the heads I used for the Termies still left, which is enough to make bring their total up.
But regular power armor heads? After putting these 5 together tonight, I have 18 left. At two squads of 10 per, that leaves me 3 heads over. Now, I am utterly certain that I made a mistake with one of the last batch of marines which left me with 2 power fists guys wearing cloaks. What I will probably do is pop the cloak off him and stick one of the other backpacks on him, which technically starts off Squad #3.
But that's not what I wanted to mention. What I wanted to make mention of is the 40 backpacks I got sent. Now, there is a chance that they goofed and thought that I was supposed to get 10 per, rather than 6, which is just fine with me. However, the first order I did with them was for 30 total heads, and 30 total shoulder pads. In that order, I managed to discover a thunder hammer and storm shield that I am utterly certain I did not order. So, twice now I have made orders with them, and twice they have tossed extra stuff my way. If this is intentional on their part, this makes me a very very happy man. If this is accidental then hmm... well, their mistake is my gain.
Either way, Maxmini has earned my repeat business for as many bits as I ever need. Now, if only they did regular power armor shoulder pads, those I would love to order from them. Off to bed with me, and then to work tomorrow before I come home and start putting more marines together tomorrow night.
Thank you Maxmini, ya'll made my day even better.
That said, I'm going to make a comment about Maxmini here. I ordered 4 sets of backpacks. At 6 backpacks per set, that's a total of 24 backpacks. I did not receive 24 backpacks. I received 40. Yes, 40. No, I was not charged extra, no I did not receive anything via e-mail saying that they goofed or anything like that. Just 40 backpacks. Now, I also ordered 20 total heads of the style I am putting on the power armor. I had 3 heads left over from the last order. And on this order, I received a total of 20 heads. I've got 6 of the heads I used for the Termies still left, which is enough to make bring their total up.
But regular power armor heads? After putting these 5 together tonight, I have 18 left. At two squads of 10 per, that leaves me 3 heads over. Now, I am utterly certain that I made a mistake with one of the last batch of marines which left me with 2 power fists guys wearing cloaks. What I will probably do is pop the cloak off him and stick one of the other backpacks on him, which technically starts off Squad #3.
But that's not what I wanted to mention. What I wanted to make mention of is the 40 backpacks I got sent. Now, there is a chance that they goofed and thought that I was supposed to get 10 per, rather than 6, which is just fine with me. However, the first order I did with them was for 30 total heads, and 30 total shoulder pads. In that order, I managed to discover a thunder hammer and storm shield that I am utterly certain I did not order. So, twice now I have made orders with them, and twice they have tossed extra stuff my way. If this is intentional on their part, this makes me a very very happy man. If this is accidental then hmm... well, their mistake is my gain.
Either way, Maxmini has earned my repeat business for as many bits as I ever need. Now, if only they did regular power armor shoulder pads, those I would love to order from them. Off to bed with me, and then to work tomorrow before I come home and start putting more marines together tomorrow night.
Thank you Maxmini, ya'll made my day even better.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Built part of the first assault squad today
For the time being however, tomorrow will be a slow workload, I'm headed to the bank to do up paperwork for buying a house, so bloggery and working on mini's may be a bit lax for a while.
Pictures follow.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Iron Within, Iron Without.
I'm going to use this blog in an attempt to detail my journey into creating a Pre Heresy Iron Warriors Army for 40k. Now, I already own an Imperial Guard Army, and a Blood Angels army, and I owned an Iron Warriors army many many years ago, which sadly through mischance, hazard, and theft has gone missing. Much like my original Blood Angel army has.
But that aside, I still love the Iron Warriors, even if the current Chaos Codex sucks a gigantic bag of donkey cock.
So, Iron Warriors it will be. Now, I have some forge world stuff, (20 MkII Assault Marines, and a 5 man squad of MkII regular marines) so as that armor style is older, and more in line with the Iron Warriors being one of the original legions, I think I'll be using them as the primary stylistic basis for the army. I'm also starting out with 10 assault terminators, which I ordered heads and shoulder pads for from MaxMini. So, with the idea of using the current Blood Angels codex (Because screw the current Marine Codex), I'm going to set up my Iron Warriors in the following format.
My HQ will obviously be a warsmith of some kind, what type of warsmith, I do not yet know. I do know I won't be using a psycher, because I don't really care for them to very much. I think that instead I'll either roll with a reclusiarch as the HQ, or a Terminator captain of some kind. I may roll with Tycho, as his army wide boost is a nice bump as opposed to the rest of the special characters.
Elites, probably not to many Sanguinary Priests to be honest, while their ability is nice, it doesn't really fit to well with the idea for the Iron Warriors. I will however use a few of them, but probably not nearly as many as I normally would for my Blood Angels. I'm thinking the Terminators and possibly a chaplain will be the primary focus of my Elites. The chaplain can be the junior warsmith, or something along those lines. Possibly the Warsmith's Equerry.
Troops however is the rub. While the Iron Warriors are known for massive embankments of traps and fortifications, that doesn't really work to very well for 40k. I admit that I could go with a tech marine in the elite slot for the bolter defenses bit, and is admittedly something to think about, right now I'm just not quite sure about it. I am certain however that I want the Iron Warriors to be a line breaker company. Which will mean lots of assault squads, probably in vehicles, backed up by heavy firepower. Probably 4 full strength assault squads in Rhino's, and possibly 2 tactical squads if I get around to them.
That sets the HQ, Elite, and Troops sections up, at least, it gives me an outline with which to work. From there I have a need of actual firepower, and the only real way to get that is either in a vehicle (which is fine with me), or with Devastators. Personally I love vehicles, but for this situation I think I'll be going with the Devs. Probably going to magnetize them at least somewhat, and primarily I think I'll be going with Lascannons and Missile Launchers.
Fast attack however, I am uncertain about. The Vanguard are a possibility, but I don't really want to do more jump packers, and because of that I may well just opt out of those guys utterly. Land speeders are nice, and I will probably end up with a few of them in the end, but for now... no. Bikes however, those are a distinct possibility, as are Baal Predators (With suitable Iron Warriors alterations of course).
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the first two of the Iron Warriors I have managed to slap together, without paint so far of course.
Two of the terminators I have. One dual lightning claws, one thunder hammer and storm shield. And because we are going pre heresy, there won't be an actual thunder hammer, how about instead a thunder mace, and rather than the current style for the storm shield, I'll be converting Chaos Warrior shields for these guys. So... Thunder Mace and Shield, and Lightning claw.
Yes, the termies are converted, I used different heads, the maxmini shoulder pads, and bulked their legs up a lot to make up some of the difference so that they actually look larger and more imposing. Forgive the horrible lighting in the pictures, I'll try taking better ones eventually. I'll also include a horrible picture of the idea I had for doing a Sanguinary Priest in termie armor for these guys, as I may end up using them together eventually, like I said, for right now, I'm not quite certain and will figure it out eventually.
But that aside, I still love the Iron Warriors, even if the current Chaos Codex sucks a gigantic bag of donkey cock.
So, Iron Warriors it will be. Now, I have some forge world stuff, (20 MkII Assault Marines, and a 5 man squad of MkII regular marines) so as that armor style is older, and more in line with the Iron Warriors being one of the original legions, I think I'll be using them as the primary stylistic basis for the army. I'm also starting out with 10 assault terminators, which I ordered heads and shoulder pads for from MaxMini. So, with the idea of using the current Blood Angels codex (Because screw the current Marine Codex), I'm going to set up my Iron Warriors in the following format.
My HQ will obviously be a warsmith of some kind, what type of warsmith, I do not yet know. I do know I won't be using a psycher, because I don't really care for them to very much. I think that instead I'll either roll with a reclusiarch as the HQ, or a Terminator captain of some kind. I may roll with Tycho, as his army wide boost is a nice bump as opposed to the rest of the special characters.
Elites, probably not to many Sanguinary Priests to be honest, while their ability is nice, it doesn't really fit to well with the idea for the Iron Warriors. I will however use a few of them, but probably not nearly as many as I normally would for my Blood Angels. I'm thinking the Terminators and possibly a chaplain will be the primary focus of my Elites. The chaplain can be the junior warsmith, or something along those lines. Possibly the Warsmith's Equerry.
Troops however is the rub. While the Iron Warriors are known for massive embankments of traps and fortifications, that doesn't really work to very well for 40k. I admit that I could go with a tech marine in the elite slot for the bolter defenses bit, and is admittedly something to think about, right now I'm just not quite sure about it. I am certain however that I want the Iron Warriors to be a line breaker company. Which will mean lots of assault squads, probably in vehicles, backed up by heavy firepower. Probably 4 full strength assault squads in Rhino's, and possibly 2 tactical squads if I get around to them.
That sets the HQ, Elite, and Troops sections up, at least, it gives me an outline with which to work. From there I have a need of actual firepower, and the only real way to get that is either in a vehicle (which is fine with me), or with Devastators. Personally I love vehicles, but for this situation I think I'll be going with the Devs. Probably going to magnetize them at least somewhat, and primarily I think I'll be going with Lascannons and Missile Launchers.
Fast attack however, I am uncertain about. The Vanguard are a possibility, but I don't really want to do more jump packers, and because of that I may well just opt out of those guys utterly. Land speeders are nice, and I will probably end up with a few of them in the end, but for now... no. Bikes however, those are a distinct possibility, as are Baal Predators (With suitable Iron Warriors alterations of course).
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the first two of the Iron Warriors I have managed to slap together, without paint so far of course.
Two of the terminators I have. One dual lightning claws, one thunder hammer and storm shield. And because we are going pre heresy, there won't be an actual thunder hammer, how about instead a thunder mace, and rather than the current style for the storm shield, I'll be converting Chaos Warrior shields for these guys. So... Thunder Mace and Shield, and Lightning claw.
Yes, the termies are converted, I used different heads, the maxmini shoulder pads, and bulked their legs up a lot to make up some of the difference so that they actually look larger and more imposing. Forgive the horrible lighting in the pictures, I'll try taking better ones eventually. I'll also include a horrible picture of the idea I had for doing a Sanguinary Priest in termie armor for these guys, as I may end up using them together eventually, like I said, for right now, I'm not quite certain and will figure it out eventually.
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