Secret Santa Mini Exchange

Back in about 2004 when I was living in Japan, a friend of mine invited me to participate in a Christmas mini exchange. There were a bunch of bases nearby with a surprising number of fellow gamers, so the idea was that we would exchange addresses with someone on an online forum, & we would exchange painted minis with some of the other soldiers, sailors (and some civilians) around the Pacific. I ended up exchanging a Thousand Sons rubric marine for a Dark Elf shade painted by a guy in Australia. 

Fast forward to 2013. I decided to bring that little tradition to my hometown in Oregon. I proposed the idea to our local gaming group, & some jumped at it. We had about a half-dozen participants, and we made sure that each of the miniatures that were exchanged were ones that could be used in the recipient's army. I ended up painting Ulrick the Slayer for a friend of mine who played Space Wolves, and I received a Raven Guard assault sergeant from another friend.

This year a buddy suggested we do it again, and we had a lot more participants. I ended up with a friend that I'd already painted a mini for in the past. You may remember the Mega Nob from this year's Mini Madness. This time I decided to paint up a Killer Kan for him. 

I managed to snag a Kan from Yorrick and started right away. Yorrick had already started painting it, but I didn't have time to strip it, so I used the Krylon Zenith painting technique that I used on my Khador warjacks a while back. 

It worked pretty well, and I was rather pleased with the results. I know I have a rather "clean" painting style, so it was nice to practice Orks again. I think I've gotten better over the years,and I've been able to use more weathering and shading techniques that give a dirtier, oily look. Here's the result.

Sunday the various painters met at a local pizza place to exchange minis. Some folks weren't able to make it due to the holiday weekend, but the bulk of us were able to get there. 

After a little pizza we exchanged our miniatures. We'd pass each one around the table after it was opened so we could get a good look at the gift. There were a number of impressive paint jobs. Yorrick your received a Red Corsair miniature from a Betrayal at Cath mini, there were a few Daemon minis, a Dark Eldar, a few Orks, & a host of Inquisition minis (all painted by Yorrick). I made out like a bandit, since I received a Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch on Flaming chariot, plus it came with the extra Herald, both magnetized so they could be switched easily. This are the minis that were opened at the exchange.

If you've got a good group of gamers I'd recommend you do an exchange of your own. I imagine we'll do this again next year too.

~Muninn

Leaked Images: New Tau vs Raven Guard

This morning brought news of a particularly exciting supplement for me. Tau vs Raven Guard: My original army against one that I've been building for some time now. It looks like a Stormclaw style "Space Marines vs" box. If it is, I'm almost certainly going to get it. Looking at the minis, there's a bit of redundancy in the things I already own (like the pathfinders & stealth team), but I still need the Piranha, & all the Space Marine side.

The new Tau include a great looking new Ethereal. It looks like an updated version of Aun Shi. I like it.

The Breachers are also neat looking. Sure It's basically just a new helmet & weapons, but I still like the angular design

There appears to be a new fortification called the Tidewall Rampart. Maybe a heavy duty Aegis?

The Raven Guard side has only one new model, a captain with a grav pistol. Not super Raven Guardy, but not a bad design. I haven't been buying minis for a while, but I'll 

I'm currently in high school classrooms & at college, working on my Masters in Teaching so life's been a bit hectic, which is why I've been away from the blog for a while, but I'm updating where I can. I have a few things that I'm working on slowly, & I'll post those when I get the chance.

Take care all.

~Muninn

Leaked 30k Plastic Marine sprues

I just came across this & had to share. It looks like the sprues of Heresy Era marines that've been rumored. They look pretty great & should make some great armies. 

The special characters

The chests & packs

The arms & bolters

Shoulder Pads & Special Weapons

~Muninn

Day 11: Deathwing Terminator

Again, I got a little behind, but now it's complete.

I bought the Dark Vengeance box when it came out and have been picking away at it mini by mini ever since. I'm probably halfway finished, but there's still a lot to do. This is actually the first Deathwing Terminator I've completed.




















I used the Deathwing Bone spray technique I picked up years ago, but the bone areas are not as daunting as the detailed areas. I noticed there are quite a few colors on a mini most people think of as just being bone colored. There's silver, gold, grey, green, red, browns, etc. I hadn't thought about it until I'd bucked down on this guy.

While I was at it, I went ahead & completed another Sister of Battle. I've had her for years & completed it a few months back, but I changed my scheme a bit & had to fix her up.

More later today.

~Muninn

Day 10: Necromunda Malcadon Spyrer

When I first picked up this mini I had an idea for a gang comprised of an entire family of Spyrers: two older brothers, the Yeld & Orrus, a middle sister, the Jakara, and twin brothers, the Malcadons. The whole gang would use a black, white, and gold motif, and I even painted the first as a proof of concept.

This is the second twin.

The most notable thing about this paint job is that it's using the brand new Retributor Gold paint that came out this week. It's a pretty close analog to Shining Gold (Gehenna Gold was the next closest, but it's a little orange). Technically I'm just three minis away from having a whole gang of Spyrers, so maybe I'll just make that happen.

~Muninn

Day 9: Legion of the Damned Marine

I was in a bit of a slump in 2010.

My willingness to paint comes and goes sometimes, and I was in a long dry-streak going into that Summer. It probably didn't help that I had just moved into a new place, and was weeks away from getting married, but that's hardly an excuse.

These Legion of the Damned minis were one of the few things that piqued my interest. I picked up a pair, but never got around to starting them until starting this project.

I didn't notice until I went to edit this third picture that his head is awfully skinny. Weird.

He's fairly straightforward. I used a few more layers of grey than I usually do on the black & didn't use any black washes, but I think he looks good. More in the morning.

~Muninn

Day 8: Primaris Psyker

Well, I missed a few days there, but I'm all caught up now.

I actually completed this guy on Wednesday, but I didn't have my little portable studio set up to photograph him. In my original plan I'd slated this guy to be completed "May the 4th" (be with you), since he's the closest thing to a jedi I'd be painting all month. Alas, I had to postpone.

I bought this mini the week it came out in the mid-2000s. I really liked how regal it looked, which is probably why I made his coat purple. I wanted him to have a look of aristocracy, so I tried to make him look a bit older, and wanted his staff & armor gold. I shaded all the metallics, and some of his face, purple as well to tie it all together. It isn't particularly noticeable on the golds though.

~Muninn

Day 7: Rainbow Warrior Space Marine

Last year, Imperium week mostly consisted of Space Wolves & Celestial Lions, so I wanted to be sure to switch it up a bit this time around. So I thought I'd paint up a rarely seen chapter.

This guy has been sitting, half-painted, in my display cabinet for years.

I'd originally started him to demonstrate the zenith spray painting technique at my friendly local game store. A buddy wanted to see if it'd work for his army, so I gave a quick demo on the armor panting using regal blue Krylon, and never bothered to finish him. The armor took maybe 15 minutes to paint, standing up, which is why so many of the lines are sloppy (or at least that's my excuse).

When I was picking through the minis to paint this month he stood out, although I wasn't sure how to complete him. I started by searching through all the Space Marine chapters that had dark blue armor. Crimson Fists would've been the easy choice, but I've done that already. Then I was going to paint him up as a Dark Hunter (since I've never really heard of them before), but in April it occurred to me that the scheme also fits with the oft-joked about Rogue-Trader era chapter the Rainbow Warriors. Not sure why I didn't consider them sooner.

The leftover details were relatively simple, although the rainbow stripe gave me pause. There are several depictions of how the head stripe should be painted and several of them have conflicting designs, so I went with the symmetrical white, red, yellow, green scheme that seemed to be the most common.

This marks day 7, so I've complete a week of minis so far, and still feeling pretty good. I'll post again tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 6: Catachan Jungle Fighter

Imperium week marches on.

Honestly. I don't know where I got this guy, or how long I've had him. There's a pretty decent chance he used to belong to my old Navy roommate. I just know I've had it for a long time, and I've never had any kind of need for it. I don't play guard, and I don't have any place in my armies for one half of a jungle-warfare missile launcher team. So, like the Kroxigor, this seemed like an ideal time to see what I could do with this guy.

It's a Catachan, so it seemed only natural to paint his clothes with Catachan Green, Camo Gree, and Nurgling Green with an Athonian Camoshade wash. I wasn't sure what kind of boots to give him. I was in the Navy, so I never had to worry about the various types of footwear that Army guys had to deal with. I seemed to remember them wearing tan suede boots under certain circumstances though & I thought that'd make for a clear delineation between mini and base.

I'm close to done with Tuesday's mini already, so there will be a new update tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 5: Sisters of Battle Seraphim

Welcome to Imperium Week. We're starting off with a homebrew Sororitas order I've been calling "Order of the Ivory Wings"

This is one of two minis I purchased during a "rally" to show support for Adeptas Sororitas in March (the first is here). I never did hear if anyone at GW noticed the sales spike, although I read a few blogs where it was noticeable how much SoB stock was sold out.

I went for the flame-toting Seraphim in part because flamers are fluff appropriate for the SoBs, but mostly because I like the face mask.

I'm sticking with the original color scheme I tested in March although, at the suggestion of Yorrik, I'm painting the weapon casings a dark red color to cut down on the hard contrast between the ivory armor and black cloth. It's benefits are more noticeable on the other sisters I've painted. If you want you see how to paint the ivory armor I have a brief tutorial in the link above. I'm also thinking about sticking with the blonde hair for all of the sisters. It's different from other groups & looks pretty good with the armor.

I had a little difficulty getting this mini on her base. I'd originally had her leaping off of her right foot, but it looked unbalanced & ended up snapping off the base, so I swapped feet & pinned her in a more natural position. She's still a bit unbalanced, but I can still put some weight in the base.

~Muninn

More photos from Cult Mechanicus: Battle Servitors & Priests

Some great new shots this afternoon clearly showing some of the new line of minis. I like the electro-priests a great deal more than I was expecting based on the first poster shot.

More Cult Mechanicus: Kastelan Robot Maniple

This morning we also have some clearer views of the Kastelan Robot Maniple.  I'm still not totally sold on them, but I'll hold off on judgement until I see them in person.

New Cult Mechanicus leaks

Today we have a fresh leak of shots from the New Cult Mechanicus line. Surprisingly it looks like we're seeing four, or maybe five, new units in a single photo. It looks like they put all the new Mechanicus units onto a poster in a White Dwarf. The more the merrier I say.

I dig everything but the big robots. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but round-edged mech-warrior style suits wasn't it. Other than that, the Tech Priest Dominus, Electro-Priests, and Battle Servitors all look stellar. I'm super excited at the idea of converting those treads onto some other unit. I'm not sure yet, but I bet you could fit Centurion torsos onto the bases to make rolling space marine tanks. Kinda like mini Lord of Skulls.

Also, on the back you can see the cover for the new codex in the lower left.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I was hoping for a fast attack unit that featured some kind of steampunk wings. Kinda like the Convergence's Clockwork Angels. I guess it wasn't in the cards.

~Muninn