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

The one where I make excuses

 Early in March I mentioned that I was all prepped & ready for my May Mini Challenge. I posted that I have 50+ minis based, primed, & ready for some attention. That's 20 more than necessary since I don't know if my school day will go long, or if the kids need some extra help getting to sleep some night, so I'd always have an easy mini to fall back on. Either way I was ready. Turns out I was wrong.

I can see them from where I'm typing. They're sitting there on the shelf of my china cabinet.

Judging me.

At the beginning of the March post I also mentioned that I was accepted into a graduate program in a nearby city to become a teacher. Before classes started in late March i was painting every night, getting base coats blocked in, planning color schemes & figuring out the order for each day of the month. Since classes started on March 31st I haven't once picked up a paint brush. It turns out 16 credits (13 graduate-level) is a bit of a burden when you're also balancing a part-time job, family life and friends.

Up until a few days ago I convinced myself I'd be able to buckle down and add painting to that list of daily tasks, but I've come to the conclusion that it would be untenable. School is my full time job now, which means I need to be responsible and not play with my toys until my homework is done.

and there is so much homework.

Long story short. I'm putting May Mini Madness on hold until the end of the term. It'll happen, but probably not until July. At that point I imagine it'll have to be Just for Jollies July, or Muninn's Month-o-Minis.

Back to homework,

~Muninn

Codex Craftworld Eldar leaks are here

Just today we've gotten our first images of the new Eldar cover and minis. This includes the much-needed Jetbike Warlock (now called a Skyrunner) and what appears to be a Swooping Hawks themed Autarch. Everything looks good so far, and I imagine we'll be seeing more in the next few weeks (fingers crossed for plastic aspect warriors). As a side note the fact it's called Craftworld Eldar gives me a glimmer of hope that we may someday see an Exodite Eldar mini-dex. It's unlikely, but I can dream.

More Adeptus Mechanicus: Ruststalkers & Inflitrators

We have more Adeptus Mechanicus today. Looks like a nice sized release for the Omissiah worshipers.

I'm not as big on the Infiltrators, in part because the heads remind me of the Privateer Press Convergence, but I am pretty fond of the Ruststalker leader mini. Come to think of it, anyone could use convergence minis for Mechanicus models. It's not as grim-dark, but it'd be a pretty easy to turn a few into special characters at least.

 

Sister of Battle Test Mini & Ivory Tutorial

Early this month there was a "rally" to show support for Adeptas Sororitas by purchasing SoB minis at 8amon March 4th. In theory that'd create a sales spike, and demonstrate that there were people interested in seeing new Sisters of Battle minis.

I did my part, and bought a Sister with a Multi-Melta (because everybody loves AP1) and a Seraphim with hand flamers. They were delivered last week, and I thought I'd try a new color scheme. Here's the result:

I don't have a name for the Order yet, but they look like

The color scheme is borrowed/stolen from Stahly over at Tale of Painters. He originally used it to paint up a Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest conversion. I've found it to be a nice, neutral, off-white. My other method, like for Deathwing terminators, is warmer, with a yellowish cast. This also happens to be faster (no waiting for washes to dry).

The Method is simple:

1. Prime White
2. A solid layer of Pallid Witch Flesh
3. Line shadows with Karak Stone
4. Highlights with a Pallid Witch Flesh mixed with White Scar,
5. A final highlight of White Scar

I like this method for a few reasons, namely, It's quick, easy to retouch, and looks sharp. I was able to paint the armor, robes, and some of the metallic bits in a single sitting, so painting a whole unit of these ladies shouldn't take too long. When your armor uses washes in the painting process it can be difficult to go back and fix mistakes, or areas where you've overpainted, but with these basic steps it's easy to recover. I had several areas where I dripped black wash, but it was repainted in no time.

I spent a while deciding what color to paint the robes. I liked the look of my Hospitaller from 2013, but I thought black might end up looking better due to the cooler shade of ivory. Even after I'd finished painting the robes I was uncertain. The off-white and black together had too much contrast for my liking. It wasn't until I added the metallics that I found myself liking the combination. Now I can see a while army in the same scheme.

~Muninn

Adeptas Mechanicus photo leaks have arrived

I've just saw these and I had to share. White Dwarf leaks for the new Adeptas Mechanicus range. I'm not sure what they all do, but I like 'em. I already want the Skitarii Rangers.

A Week in the Life of Muninn

Quick real life news: I've been accepted into a graduate teaching program at a local University, so starting later this month I'll be working toward becoming a middle/high school teacher. May God have mercy on my mentor teacher.

Back to your regularly scheduled nerd post.

Now that the Night Wolf commission has been sent off to its new home I've been able to shift my focus to other minis.The most pressing project is painting characters for my newest D&D game. There are five PCs in all, and for once it was easy to find minis for all of them. I still have to purchase two of the minis, but one is already painted, and two others are prepped and ready.

I was even able to save a bit of money by finding Bones versions. I still hate the floppy, warped, bendy  weapons so I swapped them out.

This ranger is Reaper's Deladrin, female assassin, but the swords come from a pair of loose GW Lord of the Rings elves I found at one of my game stores. The blades are a little long for short swords the character is supposed to wield, but I think they look pretty good.

This one was a little harder. The character concept is a Bard bowman, and there aren't a lot of non-ranger human bowmen minis on the market. I found this guy, Reaper's Eando Kline (not yet for sale), amongst my recent Bones kickstarter minis and decided to fill his empty hand with a bow. You can see instead of pinning the bow in place I just cut away the back of his hand and glued the bow in place. I then used greenstuff to replace back of the hand.

Finally, I've also been getting ready for this May.

My May Mini challenge is about 2 months away, so I've been prepping all the minis I might want to paint. If you recall, the challenge is to complete 31 minis in 31 days. This will be my 4th year of the challenge, but somehow I still have a ton of minis to choose from.

You can see there are a lot more than 31 minis here. Part of that is because I like to have backups. I set out a plan for which miniatures I'd like to paint each day, but sometimes work goes long, or the kids get since, and I need an easier mini (the servo-skull in the lower right hand corner, for instance). So I won't be completing *all* of these minis, but any of these minis could be completed in May.

One big change this year is that they're all Games Workshop minis. It's still a rather eclectic mix of minis. There are fantasy, 40k and even a few Specialist games represented. I've owned some of these for almost 20 years, but there are a few I purchased a few weeks ago.

There are a few conversions too. Here's an Amber Wizard I completed a few nights ago. I'm happy with how he turned out.

The upper body comes from the Empire Deathclaw box, the legs are from a Chaos Marauder, and the top of the staff is taken from the Empire Battle Wizard box. Aside from the obvious kitbash I also has to reshape part of his cloak because it was modeled to look like it was hanging on a high-backed saddle. I also trimmed the gem from the back of the snake staff. Ideally, he'll get painted during "Fantasy Week" in May.

Hope you enjoy the little preview of things to come. It should be a busy month.

~Muninn