So Whats Left To Paint?

Well, this lot! Predator, Rhino. Drop Pod, Techmarine, Centurions, Bike Squad, Terminators, Sternguard Vets, a Tactical Squad, Command Squad and the Lord Executioner.

Fast Attack: Assault Squad

This unit is a great example of just how far I have come in the last few weeks. As a cheap purchase from eBay this unit arrived into my collection as little more than 5 assault marines, with only basic weapons; and sprayed black. After some converting i.e. on the Sergeant I replaced both arms (one with a minor modification) and added the banner, I also added grenades and a flamer to the other models to really increase their effectiveness and visual appeal.

In terms of gaming; to date I haven't been particularly impressed with Assault Marines however now that they are tooled up and painted I think they will be given a few more run outs to see how they do. Overall I'm really happy with the paint job on the unit. I say that in ever post however the simple fact that I am completing units and my OCD isn't kicking in and making me waste several extra hours touching the models up makes me think that I'm doing OK.

Next up I'm going to tackle a Predator. It currently has 2 broken sponson Las-Cannons but I have just bought my first Pin Vice and set of magnets... time to get modelling and see if I can fix the weapons!

My New Airbrush!

Sometimes (especially last year!) I found my painting progress to be 'biblically' slow. To help combat this I picked up the GW airbrush and although it has its problems (e.g. reliance on canned propellant) I enjoyed experimenting airbrushing and so planned to pick up a more versatile solution. Cue my awesomely sneaky girlfriend! Having noticed that I was looking at them on my ipad I was lucky enough to be greeted by this bad-boy at Christmas!

The GW market on eBay

A recent project of mine has been to custom build a Cypher model from Dark Angels bitz purchased from eBay. I know that there is a metal Cypher model and that the rumour is that a plastic/resin version is to follow however I'm not keen on metal models and I wanted to explore using eBay to get the bits I needed. I will cover the building/painting of my Cypher model in the near future but the purchases I have made recently have highlighted the versatility of the GW eBay market at the moment.

My first experience of this when last year when Bob told me that he bought some Space Wolf bits in order to get a particular 'thing' for one of his units... and he then sold the rest of the bits on for the same price that he bought them. Having bought my Cypher bits from what basically seems to be 1 seller selling individual parts from the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade sprue I am wondering if there is a market to make a reasonable return from buying these kinds of kit from GW and then re-selling as individual parts.

Elite: Dreadnought II

eBay is a wonderful thing especially when it comes to GW! Their prices make my wallet weep so eBay helps reduce the cost of this rather expensive hobby! This particular dreadnought was my first eBay GW purchase and it cost about £10. It is a fairly basic model, coming from an older boxed set I think, and didn't come with any extra weapons however with a bit of blutac placed within the arm sockets I can easily interchange with the weapons from the Venerable Dreadnought kit (model shown in a previous post) so there are options if needed.

I'm happy with the painting standard I achieved on this model. I don't know how often I will use this unit in my lists as my Dreadnoughts seem to have been replaced by Devastator Centurions; however I do want to paint all of my models and I am trying to work through my army based on the length of time the models have been sat half painted in my Battelfoam case. Alongside painting this unit I also forced myself to paint all the weapon options (Las Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Assault Cannon and a further Close Combat arm) that came with the Venerable Dreadnought so that I could close the book on my Dreadnought painting sound in the knowledge that I can, if needed, change the weapons as required... and they would be all shiny and painted.

Next up is another eBay purchase- a squad of Assault Marines. This unit is currently sat on my painting station half painted, and sporting a few conversions. I'm looking forward to getting the squad finished so keep you eyes peeled for my new update!

White Dwarf Is Dead; Long Live White Dwarf

The First of Feb 2014 marked the re-launch of White Dwarf. I'm sure most people will already know that the magazine is changing from monthly to a weekly publication. I picked up my copy yesterday and have to say that this first edition feels pretty solid. The focus is around the new Dwarves, which do not hold much interest for me, but it has the main sections (with some new additions) which were my favourite sections of the old monthly mag. Also, it is priced at £2.40, which if memory serves is the price that the monthly mag used to be around the early nineties (when I was first involved in the hobby).

Without wanting to delve too deep into the topic; I do wonder as to the motivations behind GW changing White Dwarf and introducing the monthly Warhammer: Visions 'glossy' mag and from all the blogs and sites that I have read this is generally echoed by those posting articles/comments. I find it baffling why almost all releases/decisions made by GW are mostly greeted by negative feedback or head-scratching. I know this is the internet but if you consider how Warcraft is based around the Warhammer IP and ponder 'what if' GW was run like Blizzard then it, in simple terms, shows the polar opposites which these two companies seem to do things. Blizzard has equally fanatical fans however, as opposed to GW, they communicate with their community and accept all feedback on the chin. I wish GW would do this as the longer it goes on, the more I fear for the health of what is a truly awesome hobby and set of IPs.