Painted: Battlesuits and Weapons

Last night I finished up the weapons for my Tau Battlesuit squad.

I magnetized all the weapon options that come in the kit so it took a little while to do all the fiddly line highlighting on each weapon.  Still, I think the overall effect is pretty good.

The magnets I used are a little bit small, and even though I doubled up the connection still feels a little wobbly.  I'm worried about the weapons coming off during gameplay and losing them. I'm not sure what I'd do differently if I were to do it all over again since the magnets were the largest I could possibly use on the small weapons.

One day left and one project to go to get my project list done for the new year. Harlan Versh here I come!

Painted: Bull Snapper

2016 is rapidly approaching and I've got the Bull Snapper checked off my project list.

I don't have much use for him in a game of Warmahordes. I simply don't have enough Minions models to put together a worthwhile force. Bull Snappers aren't one of my favorite units anyways. Why take a light warbeast when you can have a heavy for twice the price? But he does look good next to Rask, and if/when I get a chance to play the Hordes version of the Iron Kingdoms RPG I'll be rocking a fish man character with attendant hungry crocodile.

Now to close out the year I just need to wrap up the Tau battlesuit weapons and finish Harlan Versh.  Versh is starting too look like a stretch goal at this point, but the battlesuit weapons just need one more line highlighting pass and they'll be set.

Painted: Devastator and Sorcha

I had a chance to finish up the base on the devastator the other evening, so Sorcha and her warjack got some time in front of the camera.

I (obviously) didn't spend a huge amount of time painting up the interior of the 'jack.  Just brass and metal and a few highlights.  Oh well, He's meant to be viewed from above or the sides anyway.

In my desire to get him finished I picked the wrong color for his side and front face markings.  Again, oh well.  They will serve the purpose until I get around to painting over them with the grey the other models use.

I really dig the grass bits by Army Painter.  These are the Highland 6mm tufts and you can buy them on Amazon here (affiliate link). I ended up having to pick up another pack because my first one got lost somewhere in the Basement of Doom.  The packs look pretty small on store shelves, but even a large base like a warjack's can't really have more than two or three tufts on it without looking crowded, so they last a really long time.  They're an especially good way to kick a very simple basing job up a notch.

So with these guys out of the way I'm down to the Bull Snapper, Harlan Versh and a pile of Tau Battlesuit weapons, and I have just shy of two weeks to wrap it all up to meet my goal.

Journeyman Warcaster

Junior is wrapped up.  I first put paint on this guy four years ago so that I wouldn't feel too bad about fielding him along with a bunch of other models that were already painted.

Now at long last I've got him to where I can say he's done.  Filling in the eyes, touching up the base and maybe adding an insignia onto his right shoulder would be nice, but probably won't be done this year.

Working toward my year end goal, I've got some progress now on the Tau weapons and finishing the bases on Sorcha and the Devastator.  Actually Sorcha's base is done and I'm only just waiting to take pictures until I can show off Sorcha and the Devastator together.

End of Year Painting

With four weeks left in the year it's time to wrap up some hobby projects.  I've been hoarding miniatures for almost two decades now, so my hobby backlog runs longer than people graduating high school have been alive. Still, it's nice to close out the year on a high note so here's a shot of everything I'm trying to wrap up before January first.

We've got pSorcha and a Khador Devastator. These guys are completely done except for some paint, grass and gravel on their bases.  Should be a slam dunk and they'll get my small Khador force completely done.

Then there's a Cygnar Journeyman Warcaster that's been half painted for a few years now.  Time to get him done.

Harlan Versh is there on the left.  I had a very productive painting session where I got some key pieces of him done but haven't gone back to him since.

On the bottom there's a Bull Snapper to go with my Rask model. And lying in a pile on the table are the magnetized weapons for my Tau Battlesuits.

So with four weeks to go in the year I have set for myself what should be a pretty modest goal.  Time to buckle down and get it done.

Tau Battlesuits

Hot(ish) on the heels of my last post, I've managed to get three Tau Battlesuits to completion.

This brings my fledgling Tau force to:

• 3 Battlesuits
• 6 Stealthsuits
• 2 Drones

I have a half dozen or so drones that came with the battlesuits that still need assembly and painting, and also all the weapons for the battlesuits.  The full set is magnetized so I can swap around for whatever loadout I like.  Magnetizing them all also had the side benefit of making it easy to prime them all at once

All the weapons should get knocked out in a few hours.  I can spend that time deciding on the next Tau piece to add to the collection.  I'm thinking either a Riptide or Stormsurge to serve as a centerpiece for the rest of the army.

Been Painting

Despite the lack of activity on the blog, I have in fact been paying some attention to my hobby work. It's been sporadic, but I've manage to get paint on a dozen miniatures in the last few months.  I like the results and wanted to share them here.

First up is Azrael for Warhammer 40K.  Occasionally a buddy and I team up and combine our Dark Angel forces.  We both usually run Belial as our Warlord when not teamed up, but taking two Belials in one force feels a little silly.  Now I have an alternate warlord that provides some serious buffing to whatever unit he joins.

A new Khador miniature to go along with the rest of the band.  He's actually been done since last year and has even seen combat since he got paint.  I see in the picture there's a tiny spot of blue on his base in the back. I'll have to fix that up.

I've owned the Rask model for a while, but was inspired to get him painted up when some friends of mine started started playing the Hordes RPG.  I've got a half painted Bull Snapper to go along with him and I have yet to use either of them in any sort of game.

Getting Rhyas finished brings me that much closer to being able to field the Legion of Everblight army that I've always wanted to have. Rhyas has a theme force that lets you run blighted ogrun, typhon and a whole bunch of other cool models with lots of synergies.

Tau stealthsuits!  There's one missing from the picture.  These guys were an experiment in a particular color scheme and painting technique.  I like the results and they deserve a separate post detailing how I did them up, if for no other reason than so I can keep track of what paints I used on them.  There's also a trio of battlesuits that are half finished that will be joining the fight for the greater good.

Warhammer Fantasy army work. I really like the color scheme on these guys.  The witch hunter model was Finecast, which I'll never do again. Thank goodness Games Workshop seems to be phasing that out. This is part of a larger army that a friend and I are putting together.  My half of the force has a steam tank, master engineer and 18 more swordsmen on top of what you see here.  The release of Age of Sigmar as opposed to a proper new Warhammer Fantasy edition has muted our enthusiasm for the project. We do plan to try the new rules at some point but it's not a high priority with all the 40K work that we have on our plates.