Paint for Panthers

So given my current financial situation I have had to resort to alternate means of aquiring the minis that my hobby addiction craves.

With that in mind I reached an agreement with a buddy of mine who had some spare mini's but not the time to paint some of the plethora of models he had. So thus came about the "Paint for Panthers" scheme. I would paint up some of his FOW Hungarian army and I would recieved some of those spare minis.

The green BFG cruiser and the 3 sword frigates were part of that deal as well as a FOW panther. For that I painted 3 Hungarian Toldi 1's, 2 Nimrods and 2 Pz38t's.

Toldi 1's - White balance was all off so these dont look as good as they should.

Nimrods - These were interesting to paint due to the crew members being crammed into the small turret.

Panzer 38t's - Fun and easy little tanks. I really like these tanks a lot and if I can figure out how to fit some into my list I will.



Black Library <---I ownz it

Yesterday I finally got around to unpacking my 40k books after the big move. The thing that struck me is that I really didnt realise I had quite so many 40k books as I thought I did.

I was wrong. I have a bloody library full of the things. All shapes and sizes. All authors and subjects. Dont get me wrong, I love having and reading them I just wish they didnt take up so much space :)

From Left to right in each pile.

Back row: Space Wolves novels, Dan Abnetts Isenhorn and Ravenor novels, Soul Drinkers (just need Phalanx to finish it off), Grey Knights novels, stand alone books including short story anthologies, Sandy Mitchells Heretic series, Bastion Wars series

Middlerow: Tanith first and only, Ciaphus Cain, Space Marine Battles, Salamander series (need Nocturne to complete), Ultramarine novels.

Front: Both piles are Horus Heresy books just lacking Outcast Dead and Deliverance.

The Fleet expands

A loooong time ago I posted some pictures of 2 Battlefleet gothic cruisers that I had painted up. That sadly never lead anywhere since there was noone in the area to play and I wasnt prepared to spend money on a game that I would never play.

Fast forward almost 2 years. I am in a new country with new gaming buddies who play a variety of different systems. One being BFG.

With that being in the case I have come into possession of a Lunar Class Cruiser and 3 sword class frigates.

The cruiser was part painted in a green scheme which I decided to leave intact as stripping it down would have been too much of a pain. I did however complete the painting of the bow in my fleet colours as well as repair the ram thingie that had broken off. Used a random bit that looked a match. I also painted in the ornamentation along the sides.

The frigates were unpained which allowed me to go wild. I decided that I wasnt going to paint them in my capial ship colours but something different to contrast. A quick perusal of the interwebs gave me this picture.

I set about painting it tem as close as I could though I substituted a dull bronze for the gold to tie in with the test of the fleet.

All in all I am quite proud of how my little fleet is coming along and hopefully I shall get a game in the next few weeks.

Panther Redo and Heavy Gear Sidewinders

In a previous post I posted some pictures of a FOW Panther. Despite how I said I liked the result in that post I started to feel that it just didnt look good. Detail was obscured, it looked too dirty. It didnt help that it was painted over 2 different base coats.

With that gnawing at me I decided to repaint it for the third time. This time I stripped it properly, basecoats and all down to the bare resin and metal. This fun and exciting process took 2 days with the tank sitting in a container of Green Stuff and hourly scrubs.

This time I also painted in the battle damage where the zimmerit has been blown off. I used the flash to highlight it in one picture and its very glaring but under natural light it is far more subtle.

I have to say that I am much happier with this iteration. Camo is clearer and not so muddy and detail is highlighted and not obscured. I also painted the rubber tires on both the inner and outer road wheels.

Flash reveals battle damage and rust, most noticable on the left side of the picture by the machine gun.



In other news I have also finished up 2 Sidewinders for my Southern Heavy Gear Army.

These buggers were the devil to prepare. Lots of flash and heavy mould lines. First time I have run into this with DP9 mini's which are usually quite well cast. Took me about 90 minutes each to get the 2 guys prepared.

After that painting was pretty easy. Had an issue with the matt varnish causing the purple to bleed all over the place and covering all the drybrushed detail but I managed to sort that out as well.

Facelift

Way back in the dawn of time I kitbashed an Ultramarine Captain with Lightning Claws. I loved how he turned out but I was never happy with his claws as I was forced to use ones from the Assault Terminator kit.

See for your self

As you can see they are very disproportionate to his body. Far far to big and ungainly. Its played on my mind loe these many years and finally I decided to do something about it. I decided to get rid of the claws and give him the tried and true Storm Shield and relic blade combination. But what to use?

I eventually went with a Chaos Knight shield with the chaos icons filed off which made a good base for the shield.

His relic blade gave me more of an issue. I wanted it to look roman-esque but didnt want to use a spear. I eventually decided I wanted a gladius type blade. However there are no such weapons avaliable which sent me to the bits box for some inspiration.

I eventually used a fairly standard power sword arm with the blade cut off while still keeping the skull attached. I then cut down a high elf prince sword and cut a deep groove down the middle of the skull which I slotted the blade. I then shaved the power conduit off the old blade and attached it to the new one. The result....... well pretty damn awesome truth be told. Granted its longer than a real gladius would be but then its a relic blade that grants +2 strength so would need to be a bit bigger.

And there we have it. A simple arm swap breaths new life into an old model. I now cant wait to send him back onto the battlefield.