From StuartL - Unleashing the 3D Printed Demons

Hello again.

I'm steadily (and very slowly) pushing on with my to do pile. There is still no chance of me getting the vaccine anytime soon as the roll-out here in Japan is incredibly slow.

In the meantime I have painted up my first 3D printed minis. A friend of mine recently bought one of these modern marvels and printed up some figures for me. I have to say that I am impressed by the quality of the minis.

I'm trying to put together a collection of Samurai-era Fantasy models to use for Saga: Age of Magic and saw these Oni figures online. My friend was kind enough to print them out for me. They are from a designer called Artisan Guild and they are very nice indeed. The two headed chap above is on a 50mm base, as is the black fellow below. The red boys and girls are all on 40mm bases, so you can get an idea of scale.

These figures have all been printed on a resin printer, so I was dubious at first as I really, really don't like working with resin. Thankfully my friend had done most of the clean-up work after the printing and I just had a few odd supports to trim off. The detail is really good and the figures went together perfectly on the first try. Unlike traditional resin casting, there were no bubbles and no warping to be seen. A couple of the models have very faint lines where the printer didn't quite line things up perfectly, but they are barely noticeable once painted.

The figures are all very characterful and are great for skirmish type games. I would still prefer plastic for more rank and file, mass-battle games, but I'm sold on the benefits of 3D printing. Sadly due to the number of chemicals and the smell they produce I don't think my wife will ever let me get a 3D printer myself, which is probably for the best. Having the ability to produce armies of minis from home will eventually lead to me having to buy an extension (or two) for my house.

I'll keep plugging away at the lead mountain. Finger crossed there will be more to come from my painting table soon. 

From TeemuL: Sheriff's office, heavy weapons and an aeroplane (90 points)

Here's my second last post. I'll get my first dose on Wednesday and I have some unfinished minis on the table. I'll finish them and post tomorrow, I hope.

But in the meanwhile I have been cleaning my table of half-finished projects. Here's a Sheriff's office from Warbases. I started this during the main Challenge and I was hoping to finish it for one of my Wild West entries, but time run out and it went to the backburner. It is ready now, not super pretty, but functional. I didn't really think about the colors when I painted, I was kind of "in the character" of the wild west house builders... It was easy to assemble and the roof can be removed, so the interior can be seen. Excellent for jail break scenarios.

This one is a Nieuport 17 biplane for WW1. I started this scale model during the Challenge 10, continued during the Quarantee Challenge, worked a little after that, did something during Challenge 11 and it is now ready. I'm not sure if it actually fits in the puritan view of the Challenge, but it is kind of toy and I painted it, so why not. :) Now, any 1/32 scale WW1 dogfight rules anywhere? Empty sheds? Anything? This is from Academy Hobby Model Kits bought six years ago from an Event. Do you remember those? I'm not superhappy with the decals, the big ones are a bit too big and I'm quite sure I could have painted some of the freehand anyway. On the other hand, they were much easier to put in place than the GW decals for example, very easy to use. The paintingi is from the insctuctions, although I didn't have the exact paints and not all the necessary hues, but it looks pretty in the photos. In the real life it is not that pretty, but it will do. Oh, and this was the first time I glued strings to represent various cables and stuff. Tricky business that, not perfect, but looks better than without.

And finally three heavy weapon squads for my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) Imperial Reenactment 7th. More bullets and laser bolts for the various theathers of war, painted mostly with Contrast paints again. I usually keep my 40K bases quite clean, but these were so empty, that I glued some tufts on them. There are two heavy bolters and one lascannon team, not a perfect mix for a heavy weapon squad, but in the Guard you need to fight with what you have.

The house is about 6x6x3, so 10 points. Biplane is roughly a 28mm vehicle, so 20 points. 3 crew served weapon teams, each with a gun and 2 crew, so 20 points a piece, 60 in total. 90 points total for this post.

Yes, one more post from me coming up, I don't know if there are others still participating or not, but I'll keep my eye on this blog for a while anyway.

From GregB: One More Post - Sons of Horus Space Marines

A Veteran Tactical Squad for the Sons of Horus. 28mm figures from Forge World

Good day everyone! I am pleased to share that I received my first COVID-19 vaccine jab yesterday, and so this will be my last submission to the Analogue Hobbies Quarantine and Vaccine Challenge. The group of figures you see here in this submission is a Veteran Tactical Squad, clad in the colours and livery of the XVI Legion Astrates, the "Sons of Horus". These are resin figures from Forge World, part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, often referred to as "30k".

Trooper carrying a meltagun, flanked by Marines carrying fancy bolt guns.

Lots of intricacies on the power packs - you also can see the handy chainswords carried by the veteran troopers.

I am a huge fan of this setting, and I generally love how GW has, over the years, issued a huge variety of models and figures for the 30k setting. There are many different variants of power armour for the Space Marines, many different variants of weapons, and a large assortment of bespoke accessories, such as the shoulder plates featuring the symbol of the Sons of Horus legion. This huge assortment of components, broadly speaking, are all compatible with each other - this is an awesome feature, and for dorky fan like me, allows for many components to swap in to the different units.

Vox operator on the left, Vexillary on the right.

More detail on the backpacks - I quite like the bizarre little details on the communications pack.

The squad sergeant's ominous "power claws" and plasma pistol point, while in the background you see the trooper with the heavy bolter, a support weapon.

A lot of rivets and segments in the Mark II power armour...a bit of a challenge to paint, and I was pretty rusty in terms of painting these guys, but they still came out OK.

These particular Marines are wearing Mark II variant power armour - an "early" pattern of armour, but carrying "later" patterns of bolt guns, with box magainzes. The chainswords they are carrying are spares from the plastic Mark III marine figure set, as are the special weapons seen on the officer. The heavy bolter is a plastic accessory from the plastic Mark IV marine figure set. So a lot of different component packs came together here, which was great. Besides, I figure veterans would be the sort to keep the older armour, but ensure they got their choice of the nicest/newest weapons :)

Horus for hope!

You may note that the transfers are still quite glossy in these photos - it has not been "safe" to spray the final coat of matte spray on these figures, so that may wait for some time - that is something I will get to at a later time.

The embossed shoulder armour plates are great - not the cheapest thing to decide to like, but I do love them.

So that's a wrap for me! Thanks all who participated and shared comments. I look forward to seeing you all again in the next edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Cheers. 

From GregB: XVI Legion Moritat - Horus Heresy

"Moritat" in the colours of the XVI Legion Astrates - the Sons of Horus.

The wait for a vaccine continues in Northern Ontario. Hopefully it won't be much longer. So here is some more painting to share. This is a 28mm Space Marine "Moritat", painted in the colours of the XVIth Legion Astrates, known as the "Sons of Horus", part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. This is a resin figure from Forge World...which is part of GW, but still separate...or something...I really don't get that, but I digress.

Guns drawn, ready to fire...and the helmet of a previous victim lying on the base...

So what is a "Moritat"? Well, the "Horus Heresy" was a giant civil war which tore the Imperium apart. Space Marine Legions fought against Space Marine Legions, and the fighting caused the odd Space Marine here and there to crack up a bit, the nature of the conflict being such that it wrecked the careful mental/psychological conditioning/programming that was part of their creation. While still physically fit, such mentally damaged Marines could no longer be fully relied upon to fight effectively as part of their units, and so were pulled from the battle line. The Legions would never "waste" an asset, however - a Space Marine is still a Space Marine...and so such mentally fractured Marines are made in "Moritats", and sent to battle as one-man armies. Not suicide missions per se...just loners at the fringe of the battle plan. If they survive, great. If not...well, they will still have cause serious issues for the enemies of the Legion.

The cabling is a pain the @ss...some crude "green stuff" repairs were needed - I've got no skill using "green stuff", but you have to start somewhere? Practice is practice.

The Moritat seen here wears Mark IV power armour, with extra plating. He has fancy special guns - they are dangerous to use, but whatever - this guy is going into battle on his own, so who cares, right? He is equipped with a jump pack to get close to the enemy as fast as he can and start shooting. He has a variety of extra targeting kit to help his shots land more accurately.

For the Warmaster!

It has been almost a year since I last painted some 30k figures, and it was fun to dig into the packing crate and pull out some figures like this one. It has been waiting for paint for just over a year - I first assembled it during my previous burst of 30k output, in spring last year. There was a particular challenge with this figure - the cables running from the weapons to the backpack of the armour. Resin features like this are not easy to assemble, and even with careful use of hot water etc. the cables can break because they need to be bent/turned into position. That happened here, requiring "green stuff" to be used for repairs on one of the cables. I have almost NO experience using "green stuff" to do anything, so my repair execution was pretty crude...but it still worked enough to get the figure into the line.

Thanks for reading everyone - hope you are well!  

From TeemuL: Genestealer Cultists (15 points)

Tomorrow I'll be able to book my first vaccination, but I have no idea how fast I can actually have it. But it is coming and this Challenge is going. There's at least one post coming up after this one, I have been lazy doing the finishing touches and photographing them, but they are coming.

Here's three three-armed Genestealer hybrids from the Cult. Actually I don't know what they actually are, these are the first ones I painted, which look like this. They came from the Deathwatch Overkill box by Games Workshop. I have a small army of these guys now, more than enough for Kill Team, not enough for Deathwatch Overkill and definitely not enough for WH40K (even for a small crusade). My color theme for these is the purple skin with light blue eyes, tongues and robes with green protective suits - armored kind of things are drybrushed with blue, the other parts with yellow to get some variation. Much of the equipment is painted with pale white and everything is washed with Drucharii Violet before the drybrush or highlights (even the metal parts). I seem to use Drucharii Violet for many things, these Genestealers, my Sylvaneths and even for my Death Guard. But it gives a nice tone and shadow effect, which I like.

Thanks for reading, next time something with no violet! Take care, stay safe and paint!

From GregB: Knights for GW's "Adeptus Titanicus"

Acastus Knights for Adeptus Titanicus - kits from GW.

Hi everyone! It looks like it will still be quite a while before any meaningful vaccine supplies make their way to my part of Northern Ontario here in Canada, so I hope you won't mind seeing a few more submissions...for this one, we continue with the war machines of Games Workshop's grim and dark future. These particular machines are "Knights" - specifically, "Acastus" Knights. They are multi-part plastic kits from GW, part of the model range for the game Adeptus Titanicus.

Rear view showing the armour plates on the back of the torso and legs.

What is a "Knight" in the dark sci-fi world of GW? No horses here. It is, rather, yet another large walking war machine. Of course, in the grim darkness of the future, "large" is a relative concept...you see, the Knights are large war machines - they would tower over normal humans. But they are nonetheless small compared to the massive Titans. Knights only have a single pilot. The weapons mounted on a Knight, while destructive to enemy vehicles, infantry and fortifications, have a limited impact compared to the neighbourhood-and-city crushing armaments of the large battle Titans like the Reaver class example I posted last week.

Energy weapons ready to blast enemies to particles.

In the world of GW's Adeptus Titanicus, the Knights are organized into "households", pseudo-medieval orders which serve as a sort of combat auxilia to the Titan Legions. Thus when the Titans go to battle, the Princeps of the great war engines are often accompanied by groups of Knights. These machines need to act carefully on the battlefield where Titans are present, but when used with cunning they can be a serious pain for your enemies. They can harry flanks and distract opponents - and if they get close to the enemy Titans, they can cause critical damage and even score kills on their much larger opponents.

There are some rocket launchers mounted on the top of the hull...you can model them closed up, but where is the fun in that? :)

There are many, many different classes of Knight available. These Acastus Knights are the largest class of Knight available...about as large as a Knight can get, nearly, but not quite as large as the small "scout" Titans. As such, the weapon systems on them hit hard, and their armour is a bit more robust. Acastus Knights can certainly threaten enemy Titans, and even take a bit of a beating, but are not as mobile (even if they are much more mobile than the huge Titans). These two Knights are painted in the red-and-black-gold colours I use for the loyalist Knights in my Adeptus Titanicus collection.

Ready to fight in the name of The Emperor. I'm sure Horus is laughing somewhere...

These kits are very, very nicely done by GW. Real beauties to work on, with tons of tiny details. As far as backstories go in GW's 30k/40k setting, I must say I am indifferent to the stories of the Knights (the Titan Legions are SO much cooler), but there are many out there who enjoy all of the Knights. If you are one of those folks, you will be blown away by these kits. The detail is insane - you even get a choice of different auxiliary weapons (either lascannons or autocannons). Wow. 

"Family photo" of my upgraded loyalists for Adeptus Titanicus.

With these two Knights now stepping into the line, the rebel and loyalist sides to my collection are balanced out, with the same amount of God engines available to each side. I'm not sure why that should matter - we can't even get together to game anyway - but is it the sort of thing that lingers in my hobby brain. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this recent run of Adeptus Titanicus kit. I think some other GW subjects will soon be appearing here as I continue to wait for a chance to get a vaccine...

From TeemuL: Spite-Revenants (25 points)

Today I present you some Spite-Revenants, plastic GW models for Sylvaneth army in the Age of Sigmar. I painted these in the similar colors as my dryads, the wooden part is pale purple, leaves are metallic red and skin is yellowish purple. The aim is have angry looking fellows and I think I have succeeded. These sculpts are quite angry looking themselves, but the the painting enhances that. The bases are dark brown mud, kind of a swamp with some skulls. The colorful things represent spiritfolk, they are bright colored, but monocolored. You might guess, they are simple Contrast jobs.

 

No idea about my vaccination, but my next post is almost ready. Stay safe, stay sane!