The GW manager tricked me into painting a space marine + projects on the desk

 Until last week, I'd only ever painted two space marines. One cool chaos one from the new Slaanesh range, and the worst model I've ever painted. Well, last tuesday, I needed a break from the grind of the past few weeks at work, and headed to the Games Workshop to get the free miniature of the month. It's a habit, and it's usually nice free kitbashing fodder, don't knock it. I usually use the tiniest drop of glue and chuck them in the little box before running home and obliterating them with putty and bits. But the manager is a nice guy and he's been asking me to paint one of them for a while, so I'd decided the free mini would be the first thing I'd paint on my vacation. Unfortunately, that miniature was a space marine... 

 

Space Marines. O Space Marines. The gateway into minis for a lot of people, but not me. Before getting into miniatures, my largest exposure to them was through profile pictures of the human dregs of twitter. So I wasn't especially hyped to get into them when I took the plunge. Also I'm a huge snob and I didn't want to get into the poster boys.  But hey, the manager is cool, he likes indie games and I feel bad only coming for the free stuff. I started converting him in the store, changing the helmet for this one I'd just seen on Ex Obscuris' blog :

 

The chest also got a quick mod, as the wings are not really my speed. For some reason the theme of "blood and ice" given by the store immediately gave me this idea of the model tracing a line of blood in the snow in front of him. So I did some very basic hand surgery. The weapon and index fingers were cut off, and a new index was sculpted on. To complete the drama of the pose, I added a bayonet to the gun.

Looking for inspiration on how to paint the non helmet parts of the model, I found this video by  Bene Crafts which sold me on the dark metallic idea. From there, it only took reading this blogpost by friend of the show Terry to take the final step and make the model a Black Templar. 

This was a surprisingly fun little project to be honest. The battle damage, the chipping, the blood effects, all techniques I'm not super used to doing, complimented with the obligatory warhammer checkers I love. I guess trying the popular thing (and mangling it with putty) isn't so bad. Still, I'm definitely not gonna become a space marine guy (reminder to add the link here when I inevitably make more space marines). Which is why the later part of this article focuses on other hobby projects that will be mainstays on here for a while.

 

First up is the Genestealer Cult Gang for Necromunda. This is the only model that exists for now, which is still a work in progress. There's a bit of a timer on these guys, as I'd like to enter them into the local Armies on Parade thing (yeah GW got me good, you can laugh). Mostly just to say I did, but also cause I want to crush the locals. What can I say, I'm a spite motivated guy, and I want to stunt on some very annoying people. Anyway, what this all means, is there is a deadline of early november for the gang to be done. I'm shooting for a dozen models give or take (preferably a playable list but nobody at the store plays necromunda so I can cheat on that front), along with a little piece of terrain to display them. The other big implication is the need to stick to GW bitz. This can once again be sort of subverted by banking on people not recognizing non warhammer parts, as I'm already doing here with a Miniart head. 

The core inspiration for these is the art of Tsutomu Nihei. I recently read Biomega for the first time, and have been eagerly awaiting the french releases of Tower Dungeon, which are very behind and kind of ass. So I guess nevermind, I haven't been that eager. Look, I just want the book in my hand to read. Anyway, I'll delve into it more as I work on these, but I love Nihei's designs. Especially how elegant and light even his most disturbing monsters look. The Nihei inspiration is also a huge reason why I want to do a display board, as it feels like these creatures could never be whole without the cityscape they grew out of.

 

Second project is a Necropolis warband. If you don't know Necropolis, you should immediately go check it out, it is wonderful. This project also happens to be for a thing in november, but it's thankfully a smaller project. I started the power couple above as a Tomb Kings warband for Mordheim. The great Mummy reanimated by the local Egyptology Nehekarology professor. They're dating. It's a little bit more of a pulpy set up than the grounded 17th century rathole of Mordheim, so I don't mind translating the concept to another setting. Since the entire point of Necropolis is that life disappeared, I imagine the professor was himself reanimated by the tomb queen post apocalypse. Still, he'll probably need a little extra work to fit in the new setting. The rest of the warband is also underway : 

 

These goons will need some friends and proper equipment once I settle on a list for the game. These undead are alright but I want to get weirder with the rest.

 

That's all for now,

xoxo

-Noé