Space Marine

One of the groups I play with have been getting all nostalgic for Space Marine the 6mm game produced by GW back in 1989. A little digging around the garage turned up my copy bought on the day of release.

Original Box

Rule Books for Adeptus Titanicus (1988), Space Marine and supplement Codex Titanicus

Selection of Space Marines and Imperial Guard

Eldar Titan

Lots of Orks on Sprues

Original polystyrene Titanicus buildings and card ones from Space Marine

Warlord Titan

Of course now I'm looking at the proxies available and thinking of a proper Heresy sized showdown!

Empire Army: Knights

Some knights to add to the Empire Army. I'm still making my way through an old Warhammer starter army purchased many moons ago. Nice change of pace, most of the Empire foot troops are cheap and wear leather or fabric, these were mostly metal.

Small group of knights

Quick and easy paint job, metallics and white with wash, everything else contrast paints

Try hiding that flag behind a tabletop hill!

 

Necrons

These have been in the paint queue since 2018 when I picked up the Forge Bane box set at Warhammer World and then supplemented it with a few additional pieces.

These were a simplified colour scheme; spry painted in Iron Breaker then given a wash with Nuln Oil (the Gloss version) and finished off using Nighthaunt Bloom (blue/grey), Hexwraith Flame and Tesseracht Glow (for the greens). There's a random bit of gold in their too. I used my standard Mars type basing to fit in with my Sector Boards.

Scarabs

Overlords

Warriors

Immortals with gauss blasters

Lychguard with warscythe

Annihilation Barge 

Indomitus Box Set

What's in the box? 

Every time GW release a new version of Warhammer 40K I immediately pledge not to get sucked in again. I have books that go back to the original Rogue Trader tome from 1987 and given I've only played the game a couple of times in the last decade (solo at that) it should be easy. But... then GW publish another new box set with another collection of fine sculpts and there goes this months spend.

There is no doubt, like countless others, I am addicted to the plastic crack that GW are pushing.

The latest box set proved no exception. It sold out in minutes on release in July and GW nearly had a customer relations disaster having promised that anybody who wanted one would get one. But GW are not the company they were ten years ago and within 48 hours announced that they would take orders for a few weeks and then do a second run.

Mine arrived last week and as is usual with GW the standards are very high.

The back reveals the potential for a moulded plastic Nirvana.

The GW Trolls like to tease with gorgeous cardboard sleeves before you reach the actual riches beneath!

Finally the heavenly sprues are revealed in all their intricate glory.

These are push fir models which GW have gradually been getting better at over the years. It does cut down the pose options but in general GW's figures are pretty much unique this doesn't matter. Hopefully a combination of quick assembly and the Contrast paints I drone on about incessantly will mean getting them to a table top won't take long. There are two armies Primaris Space Marines (as always) and Necrons.

In addition there is a scenario book:

 And a limited edition version of the new rules:

Guess I'm off to the Grim Dark Future, again.

Empire Crossbows and Great Swords

 Finished these units up a couple of months ago. First up some crossbows:

And an elite unit of Great Swords:

As the norm with me now when painting GW stuff, everything was done in Contrast paints under a white base coat for clothes and cream base coat for flesh. Metallics were finished off using standard acrylics. It's fast and good enough for my tabletop.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw

This is the Emperor of the Empire contingent from the Warhammer world that was (and will soon be again given the previews coming out of Forge World). Terrific model, plastic allowing the sculptor to do something to a true scale (as far as you can with mythical beasts) whilst keeping the price low (in GW terms) and ensuring the gamer doesn't have to reinforce their table to deal with the weight.

The warhammer carried by Karl, which I believe is THE Warhammer, seems a little superfluous as I doubt he could reach anything from the back of Deathclaw.

Still it's the look of the thing that counts. Feathery and metal bits are done in acrylics, the eagle claws and lion rear end Contrast.

More Chaos Marines

Some reinforcements of the psychic kind. First up a Dark Apostle and his damned attendants.

Then a Master of Possession from the Shadowspear box accompanied by a couple of his experiments.

Base colours are Contrast, metallics are standard GW paint.

Imperial Fists Scouts and Psyker

Seems to be a theme this month and that theme is Warhammer 40K. Not deliberate, just got on a roll with the Contrast paints which make churning out fantasy troops very easy.

These guys are from the Shadowspear box set released in the middle of 2019. I'd always wanted yellow marines but had avoided them due to the difficulty I always had with yellow. In these guys it simply a base coat of Wraithbone followed by a coat of Iyanden Yellow taking care to avoid pooling.

The only non-contrast colours are the red trim which is traditional acrylics.

Roboute Guilliman

The ying to Abaddon's yang. I'd had this model since it came out but hadn't quite got round to finishing it. With the completion of Abaddon, however, I felt that I needed to balance out the forces of Chaos with something Imperium just in case anything got anywhere near a real game.

Because this model was started before the advent of Contrast paints I had to go back to the old tried methods of three step shading coupled with inks and glazes.

Abaddon the Despoiler

This was one of GW's most popular models of 2019 and was the first time I'd encountered a new(ish) phenomena with GW releases - it sold out on the day of release. This has happened a few times since and I believe it's a case of GW actually underestimating the popularity of a new release. Abaddon's original model was sculpted in the 90's and I had held off purchasing it in the hope of a replacement for more than 10 years.

As ever these days the base colours are all Contrast with metallics and details being completed with the old fashioned three shade acrylic method.

 

Grey Knight Terminators

These have been sitting on the painting desk for a few years just needing some finishing details and basing. Finally, their moment came.

Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command

I've been collecting and playing this game for a while. With lockdown now in full swing I suspect I'll be playing it a little more. Cunningly the game is actually co-operative in nature and designed to be played against a card drawn/dice driven AI. Only when you have 5 players does one of them actually play the baddy. Because of this it can be played solo with no change to the rules.


It also has a campaign system and provides envelopes to put your characters into 'suspended animation' whilst you pack the game away.


Interestingly, GW have furnished Blackstone Fortress with a collection of villains which have been part of the meta but not supplied with miniatures. There are now Traitor Guardsman, Ogryns, Commissars, Beastmen and Psykers prowling the corridors and all come with WH40K stats.


As well as the base set there are also several add-ons and the troops below come from Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command. Everything except the metallic are done with Contrast paints.

The Commissar and Ogryn from the Traitor Command set