Changes to my Chaos

After playing a game with a friend of mine, we discussed the painting end of the hobby. I had always enjoyed that he picked a custom scheme for his Imperial Guard army, with his own background/ideas instead of a pre-packaged GW theme. I had mentioned that I was starting my second army using a Black Legion colour scheme, and he suggested that I make my own faction up and do it my way. Now, while I enjoy the game-play a great deal, I think that the hobby end gives me some of the greatest enjoyment, it's certainly a focus for me. At any rate, here is what I've come up with so far: It's just a test scheme, but I enjoy how it looks so far. I figure my veterans will have bone colour helmets and a slightly different chapter emblem, while the less experienced marines will have green helmets with black as a secondary colour. I think I'll base them on a bit more of a wasteland look, with dead grass. I tried to keep the tones muted, yet give it enough oomph to stand out on the table, I think the contrast in the shoulder emblem really works for this figure. I'm really trying to think of a good name for the chapter that suits their theme. I feel that this groups is more on the space pirate/raider/marine renegade of the spectrum (a la Red Corsairs etc) than the "I'm crazy and mutated and tainted" end of it.

Continued sickness

After a brief recovery for a few days, I'm back to being sick again. I spent yesterday down in the dumps and today is actually worse than yesterday. Seems to be the same cold rearing it's ugly head. Some hobby update.


I picked up the new Greenskin codex for fantasy. Really impressed with the binding/presentation. Finally GW is going full colour. Good layout, easy to read and built for the beginner or the vet. Haven't delved too far into it yet, but hey, gives me an excuse to at least basecoat what I have laying around.

Put the finishing touches on a Chaos Lord on a bike, with a daemon weapon. Banged out a scenic base - basically a cliff/jump of stone, with space marine helmets underneath. The lord is a bit of a kitbash, using a unique head, one of the less possessed posessed backpacks, and the flaming sword from an empire wizard kit. He looks awesome. I'll post pictures as I work more on it.
Only thing I am concerned about is that the scenic base is going to give me LoS issues, since he should be able to safely ride behind a rhino without being seen at normal base height. I'm sure that the rulebook covers scenic bases though if I recall. At the very least I can clear it up with my opponent before I start any games.
Also primed up some Chaos. Giving up on the Black Legion scheme for my army, going to go with my own scheme/chapter. More on this later.

Played a game with my Tau vs IG doing a battlemission. Great close game. It really looked like it was anyone's game in the last few turns, but in the end I managed to get the victory.

In the next few days I plan to get my but in gear and get the start of the planetary empires campaign that I'm promoting off the ground.

Sickness

It's official, my daughter is a germ incubator.
I've just been off two days of work, one to take care of my family, the other to have them take care of me. The good news is, I had some time for hobby.

Now that the dust has settled after the move, I've organized up my hobby.

Today was a bit of off topic hobby. Though I didn't think I'd ever try any tastes outside of the GW hobby, I picked up a starter warmachine force. Realization that to play the game required very little models (I have four to start with!) made it pretty approachable as a side project. After all, that's maybe a week's worth of hobby work. With that in mind, I plan on putting extra work into the figures as I do them, really take my time.

In the past two days I did up the bases for the starter force.

Since I'm doing a Menoth force, I opted for dry, cracked earth, to lend itself to some of the desert/fire themes in their background.

Here's how I started, filling the bases with GS, using bark for some extra rocky detail. I textured the greenstuff with crumpled aluminum foil, a toothbrush and a sculpting tool:


Then I primed in black, basecoated in a medium brown and drybrushed lighter colours to achieve this look:


With a model:



I also wanted to experiment with off-whites of late, so I've been working on this marine for fun, painting him to a higher standard than I would an army. Still thinking up a unique chapter symbol/name.




I should have some pictures of a Chaos Sorcerer and standard bearer for my Black Legion up soon. As well, my Tau army nears completion. All that remains is some finishing touches on a crisis suit squad and a bit of vehicle painting.