Ooff. Been a while. What do you think of my Centurion mod?

So the rumours going around say Tigurius will be rather more brutal after next month's codex. Supposedly his points cost goes down, he's mastery level 3, and he can choose from any psychic discipline and can re-roll the dice roll. In fact he can re-roll a lot of stuff, like reserve rolls and psychic tests. Dude.

So it seems like a good time to break out my old 2nd edition Tigurius model. This guy hasn't seen the light of day since the nineties - except for one photoshoot in 2008 (see page 1) - and his paintjob dates from my first year or so of painting efforts. I was in high school, and it shows.

 Actually, the lightning on his staff isn't too bad. Anyway, first I use Nuln Oil to shade the model, and some Calgar Blue to highlight. There are times I feel like redoing the whole army in this lighter shade, but I doubt it will happen.

 And then I fixed up the staff and bolt pistol a bit. Tidied up the face a little. Silver highlights on the gold. Orange on the red. I think this will do for tonight. I'll fix the base before too long and give him a backpack.

 On the shelf with the others:

Marine tac sq progress

Dreadurion

Experiment: Dreadurion-

or:

Seeing some success with this '2 plus 1' idea. Starting with 2x tactical squad 1 marines, plus 1x Tyrannic War Veteran.

 Most of my rank and file marines just need touchups - new arms, heads, guns, loinclothes and paint in places. Many models need Macragge Blue added to highlight their (too) dark blue arnour.

Annoying how good the bolters look in blue. Might have to repaint them ALL this colour.

I had the squad number in gold too, but it looked to bland. Stark white makes a GREAT contrast to silvered-gold and two-tone blue, as you can see here: 

The white trim looks good too, but you still need gold to add richness to the palette, IMHO.

Added a drum magazine and metal loin'cloth' to the veteran. There are still a few points to touch up, but he's table ready, which is what counts.

On to the next three!

I've noted a tendency on my part to update old miniatures in part or whole, but to abandon them incomplete, and move onto another model in turn. This is not entirely useless as it inspires me to re-examine old models like this land raider and maybe get them done some day soon.

 The issue however is the sheer number of models in a full battle company plus support - I've got a lot of models to treat this way.

There may be a solution that works with my problem however. I have recently noted the ratio of models in my collection - for every 2x 2nd company marines I have one other model at least, from terminators up to land raiders. I can paint 2 regular marines and 'reward' myself with something special for a change. Even in a lazy world, I can reasonably expect to paint a couple of these set each week.

  I've played around with transfers and brass etch on my LR, and keep having trouble with the large square icons. I think this one needs the gold wreath and chapter icon repainted in white - that or the whole thing redone in bronze like the 'Courage and Honor' plate on the front left.

 On the other hand, rewriting the 'ULTRA' on the scrolls works much better now I've got a fine tip permanent marker. It always seems dry and takes a while to leave a mark, but it does clearly work. Success!

I've noted you can see the first 3 or 4 millimetres of my LR crusader. This model is at least ten years old has never been painted...

Predator WIP

Some more shots of the 1st Predator. Magnetized Lascannons and a turret 'bustle', probably containing more Autocannon ammo. Still weighing up 'extra armour' plates on the turret.

Spent a week out at my mother's tidying up. Plenty of stuff lying around still in boxes after they moved house last year - no-one had time or energy to deal with it during dad's illness. 

There'll be another service back home for him in a few months. We were talking about what to put on his headstone/memorial. Mum stood firm to avoid any of the usual sentimental tosh, and it looks like it will simply state something like 'Stockman Extraordinare'. Not sure I'd use that word - not one dad'd use, but Stockman certainly fits, so I'm happy with it.

On the warhammer front, my other dreadnought is coming along. Added a new leg pad from Scibor and tried a new metal loincloth like the assault marines - see below. I think it needs a few rivets, but it looks good to me, and the battleship prow look is really emphasised now.

I have been slowly but surely refurbishing my predator tanks. These date from the mid to late 1990s. One was assembled by a friend - and he didn't go to much effort. I bought it off him and kept it in a box for well over a decade.

Done properly they should be great additions mostly for when my marines play 30K - Predators in that codex have a Heavy 4 Autocannon that makes them really worthwhile again. 4x S7 shots plus either 2x S9 Lascannons or 9x S5 Heavy Bolters (2x sponson guns plus 1x pintle mounted Heavy Bolter) should provide reasonable firepower at bargain prices.

I can't find one set of sponsons, so I spread the other set between the two tanks, layering some plastic over the hull doors, and will magnetize the newer plastic sponson weapons so I can optimise as required. Also added tracks from the Imperial Guard, really bulks up the model - I HIGHLY recommend this if you've got old school rhino hulled vehicles around.

Some experiment with Anvil Industries armour plates have led to a new look for my assault marines. I must say I think they look absolutely spectacular, and quite unique.
My two assault squads are without jumppacks as the codex at the time (4th ed IIRC) let you reduce their cost to regular marine levels if you ditched the packs and used them as footsloggers instead. I'll probably adapt them into a 30K Heresy era tactical squad with additional CCWs.

Also tried this. Adding a submachine pistol style magazine to the bolt pistols. Again, love it.

I've done some more work with my terminator sergeant. I found the right diameter of plastic pipe to match the groin piece of extra terminator armour. Also removed the brass etch eagle that was cluttering up the throat guard. A less cluttered frontal aspect should help with his look. I am growing concerned that he is a little too different to the regular Assault terminators to fit in with the squad however - he might be about to receive a promotion to captain...

I'm back. My father passed away last week. The service was simple and done ASAP but a good number of friends and relatives attended.

He was a genuine stockman - horseman, cattleman - not one of these kids that ride bulls at rodeos, but a real and genuine pro at handling cattle, horses, and working dogs. He did his national service in the late 1960s, found a niche working on a cattle property in central Queensland, and remained there for 40 years. A wife and two sons - my brother much like him, and me, a little more like mum. Whole generations of dogs and horses adored and worshipped him.

He was a quiet man, with a slow smile I'll never forget. He liked to perch on a chair in the corner of a room and listen to all the hullabaloo - that much we have in common. He had no interests outside his work and the lifestyle that came with it. We seemed to have little in common at times, apart from a certain shyness, but had no trouble appreciating the important things together. I never truly understood him, but I will miss him very much.



I've had a few days off work. I didn't think I needed it, but people insisted. I've made sure mum's OK - she is an organized soul and had 18 months to prepare for this, so she is taking the chance to rest and get over the stress. I also did some house work and some conversion work on my Ultramarines.

I went to town on the second dreadnought, once a metal BA Furioso Dread. He was always my least favourite, but is now in the contention for the most spectacularly over the top 'Not-a-Venerable-Dreadnought' Dreadnought.

I am going to magnetize the gun arm, but his default weapon will be a Forgeworld Dreadnought flamecannon, which is either a 'counts as' twin linked heavy flamer or the str6 ap3 monster found on the seige dreadnought - in HH 30k Legion lists this is a regular dreadnought upgrade: