05 Thursday Dec 2019
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
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Just a quick update before I get to some juicy stuff later… Brother Russkikh is a lovely old Rogue Trader Chaplain which has some fantastic details on it but a horrible helmet. I did the best I could with the face but it doesn’t look very skull-like. I have to say that it looks better in the metal, as it were. The picture here is not very flattering at all! Oh well, its hardly spoiling my chances of getting called up for an invitational 😀
18 Thursday Apr 2019
Posted in Space Marines
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Its been a long eight weeks or more since I moved house again. A very busy eight weeks in which I have hardly managed to do any painting at all. But fortunately the Steel Guard paint-scheme is very forgiving, so here’s a Razorback in the colours of the 7th Company. Really this was an excuse to paint the rider, Lieutenant Ryen, as he hops a ride. I don’t think that modern GW does miniatures like this one anymore – he’s never been a gaming model, always just a spot of character sitting on a rhino chassis somewhere. I love his expression, chewing on a cigar, never mind that his pauldron (is that the shoulder pads?) is missing. I’ve also tried to paint the gunner as a techmarine – once upon a time all drivers and gunners were techmarines I think – well, they are in the Steel Guard! Happy Eggmas to all my readers, think of us sad diabetics when you’re guzzling your chocolate eggs!
11 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Another Steel Guard squad, plus another Captain for the Command Team. I’ve painted one of the Space Wolf Captain minis before, for the Captain of the 3rd Company. That time I experimented with non-metallic metals, attempting a gold armoured marine. It wasn’t especially a success, though I might try again sometime now I’ve had a few more years practice. I’ve been trying to clear my leadpile recently, having moved countries to glorious Cymru and having therefore to have to confront the sheer piles of stuff I own. I’ve sold off all the mid-period miniatures, leaving only the cool old stuff and some of the brand spanking new sweet miniatures the GW workshops are cranking out these days. Thus this squad is all classic minis from the days of Rogue Trader and 2nd Edition, and I think it looks before it, don’t you?
01 Saturday Dec 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Next out of the leadpile is a rebuilt Rogue Trader dreadnought. I do like these models, whether long or short of leg they really feel like an archaic machine. The face on the sarcophagus is great, giving a sense of the inhuman and megalithic! It feels like quite a dramatic mini, considering how slab-like and immovable the sculpt is. That’s the sign of a good sculptor, I think. You can imagine this pulverising its way through a battleline, small arms fire bouncing off it and power-fists laying low anyone who came near! This particular one has been rebuilt. The left side (facing the dread) has had the circular shoulder piece replaced by green stuff as it was missing. One of the bolters was also missing and has been replaced with a standard bolter. Due to the lack of detail this is a challenging mini to paint, and I think I did OK considering how average my painting skills are.
25 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Another Techmarine. I think I need to start painting some of the other specialists of the Steel Guard, they’re lacking Librarians and Chaplains. The Techmarines are fun to paint though.
I must say that I have real trouble getting enough light and no shadows in my photography. Learning to paint (ish) has been hard enough, learning to get good photos seems to be something else I need to do now.
Brother Baris is in a very artificial pose here.
25 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Ancient Binahus is a great hero of the chapter whose mortal body was reduced to a thick meaty paste by Orks one afternoon. His brain, bits of nervous system, and a few rashers of crispy marine bacon were interred into a dreadnought so that he could fight on. But his dreadnought is also his chapter’s secret shame. Don’t tell anyone, but this Steel Guard paintjob hides an earlier Ultramarines job! Can it be that the Steel Guard have yoinked one of their allies’ dreads?
Binahus is a dedicated tank killer with a multi-melta and power claw.
15 Thursday Feb 2018
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
I’ve had these knocking around for a while now waiting to be posted up here. I am still struggling with eyes, but I’m getting better I think. I liked the early scouts much more than the modern ones – these plastic ones aren’t exactly dynamically posed but their outfits are fantastic. I love the mix of military and flouncy, kind of like Prince!
Sgt. Fe and his squad prepare for an infiltration and elimination mission.
14 Saturday Oct 2017
Posted in Dark Imperium, Finished Work, Space Marines, Uncategorized
I love that the title of the captain of the Seventh Company is Chief Victualler. I wonder if he goes to the shops himself, or if he just writes the shopping list and sends some of his company to go? Maybe they get tesco to deliver. The Steel Guard are a fleet-based chapter with a Star Fortress and a number of Fortress Monastery-Garrisons so it might get a bit complex. Perhaps he just writes the menus and hangs around the kitchen harassing the kitchen-workers like the manager at restaurant I worked for. I’d hate to have to do the washing up after a big dinner for over a thousand hungry Space Marines.
So this chap is a Primaris Captain in gravis armour – which I think means that his armour makes him look pregnant! I am glad that Games Workshop haven’t completely lost their playfulness.
The snow effect looks a lot better in the photo than it does in person.
I hate painting cloaks. Haven’t quite got the power sword effect right yet either.
11 Wednesday Oct 2017
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Another quick update, from big marines to littler marines. The old RTB01s look piddly next to many of the new miniatures. I have to say that while I am not wedded to any particular scale I think that some of the modern miniatures are too big. I am not so much thinking of the warmachines, the super heavies and all that, but instead of the AoS giant figures, Nagash, for example, or the Verminlords. Too much going on, too big compared to the other models… and that’s quite apart from the price. Magnus and Mortarian are lovely miniatures, but £80+ is too much for me. Of course, the quality of workmanship is completely different, there’s no denying that. The RTB01s were the best they could do at the time and are really quite rubbish compared to the modern stuff but they were my childhood rubbish and that’s that!
This squad is a mixed batch of Oldhammer marines; you can tell these were hand sculpted, but that just makes them better!
Sgt Aden
Fourth Company, 2nd Squad
10 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
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One can’t help but notice that there have been some new Space Marines about. I’ll come out and say that I think that the new stuff, miniatures and fluff are great. Part of the allure of the WH40K universe is that it is stuck at a permanent 3 seconds to midnight, technologically and socially moribund, hatefully fascistic in every way, whilst the sharks circle and none of them are any better. But Guilliman is a goody, or at least not as much of a baddie as most of the Imperium, and the Primaris marines and all that lot are new technology, new discoveries, etc etc. Guilliman can undo most of the bad stuff, except that he hasn’t got the time because the Eye Of Terror has turned into the Great Rift and he’s needed everywhere… The balance is maintained! Anyway, I bought the 40K box set, and started on the marines, as if I don’t have more minis that I can ever paint already.
I’m pleased with these. I think I’m getting better as a painter, learning new techniques, my fine motor control is improving, and in general my marines are looking great. Of course, I’ve already painted the entire 2nd Company, some of which are my earliest paintjobs for the Steel Guard and looking a bit crap… So I’m going to try and spread out the company colour trim, so that all the companies will contain a mix of squads over time, and no one company will be so much worse than all the others. Except of course the 2nd Company, but maybe they can disappear into the Great Rift…
the flying bases on these are a f**king nightmare. one of them is attached by green stuff, because neither glue nor pinning would do the job.
