Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XLIII: "This Is A New LoW For Us All"

[Wraith]

Model of the Year 2023 has been called - Commander Farsight was #3, and Angron was #2 behind the Lion. The tiniest of tiny upsets, it was bound to be one or the other.

[Avaris]

Model of the Year 2023 has been called - Commander Farsight was #3, and Angron was #2 behind the Lion. The tiniest of tiny upsets, it was bound to be one or the other.

The fact that the highest ranked AoS model was 5th is a travesty: so many more interesting models in AoS than 40k!

[Cheesegear]

The fact that the highest ranked AoS model was 5th is a travesty: so many more interesting models in AoS than 40k!

But people don't vote for the best model.

They vote for The Model They Remember The Most, and Their Dude.

[Wraith]

I think Farsight was a bit of a surprise, simply because its so... unremarkable, I guess is the word?

The new Farsight looks virtually identical to the old one save for the pose and a few CAD'd details like the ribbons at his waist. It's barely changed, it wasn't until this round-up that I even realised it was a new model this year. It's not a bad model, but there's barely anything to it to make it stick out, except that its probably one of the only new Tau models to have come out in the last 12 months. If Tau players are numerous enough to swing the entire vote to place it over ALL of the AoS range simply on My Dudes, I have seriously underestimated just how unpopular AoS is in comparison to 40k.

[Artanis]

I think Farsight was a bit of a surprise, simply because its so... unremarkable, I guess is the word?

The new Farsight looks virtually identical to the old one save for the pose and a few CAD'd details like the ribbons at his waist. It's barely changed, it wasn't until this round-up that I even realised it was a new model this year. It's not a bad model, but there's barely anything to it to make it stick out, except that its probably one of the only new Tau models to have come out in the last 12 months. If Tau players are numerous enough to swing the entire vote to place it over ALL of the AoS range simply on My Dudes, I have seriously underestimated just how unpopular AoS is in comparison to 40k.

There might also be some pushback on the CAD stuff. Just look at these threads for plenty of complaints about over-designed models.

Come to think of it, it might also be a relative lack of in-faction competition. How many big-name characters do the Tau have, after all? If every single Tau player votes for Farsight, while all the Chaos/Astartes/Stormhost/etc. players are divvied up between eleventy-three bazillion different models...

[Kyberwulf]

Okay, So this might be a silly question. Is the only difference between the Unit "Master of Exactions" and "Khorne Master of Exactions" a paint job and a head swap? The same question with the Chaos Terminator Squads and the Daemon Prince and "World Eater Deamon Prince"? and whilst I have you here.... Is the Bel'lakor guy not able to be in a World eaters Army? I thought he was able to be in one. I am asking because I downloaded the Warhammer app.. and its showing me my army.

[JNAProductions]

Okay, So this might be a silly question. Is the only difference between the Unit "Master of Exactions" and "Khorne Master of Exactions" a paint job and a head swap? The same question with the Chaos Terminator Squads and the Daemon Prince and "World Eater Deamon Prince"? and whilst I have you here.... Is the Bel'lakor guy not able to be in a World eaters Army? I thought he was able to be in one. I am asking because I downloaded the Warhammer app.. and its showing me my army.

Be'Lakor can be in a World Eater's army, but only as a Daemonic Ally.

He's 350 points, so you need to be at a Strike Force (2,000 points) game to include him in a World Eaters...
Oh wait, they took away his God Keywords. Nevermind, you cannot.

[Cheesegear]

Okay, So this might be a silly question. Is the only difference between the Unit "Master of Exactions" and "Khorne Master of Exactions" a paint job and a head swap? The same question with the Chaos Terminator Squads and the Daemon Prince and "World Eater Deamon Prince"?

Aesthetically? Yes.

Rules-wise you can't take anything that isn't in the World Eaters' Index.
Remember that Chaos Marines can't have nice things; And that World Eaters are not counted as Heretic Astartes.

Space Marines have Sub-Factions; Chaos Marines, don't. The Chaos-side Indecies are actually mutually exclusive.

Is the Bel'lakor guy not able to be in a World eaters Army?

Correct. Be'lakor can go in a Khorne-heavy Chaos Marine army. But I suspect the intent is to run Angron and Be'lakor and, well...No.

I downloaded the Warhammer app.. and its showing me my army.

Unfortunately the Indecies take precedence over the app.

[Kyberwulf]

So I have another about the whole Knight Questoris. How hard are the rules about what weapons can be on what model, for it to be that unit? I wanted to run the Gatling gun and the .... I don't know the names. They don't have them on the back of the booklet. The I assume laser one. Can I do that and still be considered a "Knight Despoiler"? Since I wanted to run it with some Chaos Demons. OR Same kind of Loadout but run it with some Dark Angels?

[LeSwordfish]

All the rules for anything that doesn't have a book yet can be found here, including those for Imperial Knights and Chaos Knights if you scroll down a bit.

If you want to run double guns, the Knight Crusader can take both the gatling cannon and either the thermal cannon (big melta) or rapid-fire battle cannon (artillery piece). You can't take the special Las-Impulsor (fancy laser gun that's not a melta) and another gun. On the Chaos side, the Knight Despoiler can take up to two of any of the Thermal Cannon, Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon, and Gatling Gun - so you can double up on guns, or run both the thermal cannon and battle cannon. They don't have any access to the Las Impulsor at all.

[Cheesegear]

How hard are the rules about what weapons can be on what model, for it to be that unit?

Very.

[Gatling Cannon & Laser Destructor] Can I do that and still be considered a "Knight Despoiler"?

Negative. The only Knight that can have a Destructor is the Desecrator, and he has a Melee weapon in his other hand.

OR Same kind of Loadout but run it with some Dark Angels?

Again, the only Knight with the double guns is the Crusader, and it runs a Thermal Cannon/Battle Cannon, and a Gatling Cannon. No laser. Without knowing specifically what weapon you're talking about, I assume you're talking about the Preceptor.

I want to run the two best guns on the same model because it would be so ****ing good.
Well that's exactly why you can't.

[Kyberwulf]

I didn't want them because they were good, I wanted them to look good. :(

So the Thermal Cannon and the Gatling gun, I assume the Heavy Darkflamer is the little guy un the underside of the Gatling gun?


Also I assume the Meltagun is the Boob gun? Which can be replace with a Stubber?

[Cheesegear]

I didn't want them because they were good, I wanted them to look good. :(

In that case, you can more or less do anything you want.

With [insert real world] going on, people are a lot more forgiving over WYSIWYG than they used to be. Unless you're playing in a tournament (...and even then, a lot of them are starting to be forgiving, too), or in an actual Warhammer store; If you adequately explain that your model isn't actually the thing it looks like, most opponents should be okay with it.

Generally speaking, players are going to make decisions based on what they can see; The big Knight has two guns, one of which is a big laser, and the other is a Gatling. Cool. Your best move would be to Charge it since it only has its feet, and you know that, because of what the model looks like and your passing knowledge of the rules. It's not a Melee Knight, it's easy pickings.

Thanks for Charging...Did I mention that it's not a Crusader? It's a Preceptor. There's no Gatling Cannon. The Cannon is just because I think it looks cool. I actually paid points to run the one with a big Chainsword...I can - and will - fight back. Charging was certainly not your best move - in fact you probably should've Charged something else you can actually not get destroyed by.

If you clearly state at list creation (with an army list you can give your opponent [i.e; Not one on your phone]), during deployment, and occasionally remind your opponent that your model is not what it appears to be. Then I wouldn't care. If you tell me three times (and I acknowledge it), and I have a piece of paper in my hand with the same information that I can look at any time I choose...Any mistake I make based on the model's appearance is on me at that point.

WYSIWYG only matters to your opponents, and we're random people on the internet.
Do whatever your actual opponents find acceptable.

[Kyberwulf]

So I take it, if it has a faction symbol in the weapon index thing. Only they can use that weapon?

[Avaris]

My advice with knights in particular is to either magnetise them (there are guides online), or obtain additional arm pieces, so that you can switch the weapon options around as you need to. There are various places to acquire the bits from, look up Taro Modelmaker for example!

[Anonymouswizard]

My copy of Rogue Trader just arrived, and I've got an itch to prep and run a game of it. Sadly my friends who'd be interested are in other parts of the country and best, but I can still prep some squads and a campaign outline.

Looking at it it really does seem like it's primarily designed for humans vs humans, and I'm not 100% sure their presented points values and formula actually add up. Although honestly their suggested points for a Space Marines are probably better, as you'll still set their war gear towards either melee or ranged.

[Renegade Paladin]

So last weekend I ran a successful 36 player Grand Tournament. The top three were Thousand Sons, Death Guard, and Imperial Guard. Both first and second place went undefeated, but the third place Guard list was extreme infantry spam, and his only loss was to the Death Guard player, 99-90.

[9mm]

So last weekend I ran a successful 36 player Grand Tournament. The top three were Thousand Sons, Death Guard, and Imperial Guard. Both first and second place went undefeated, but the third place Guard list was extreme infantry spam, and his only loss was to the Death Guard player, 99-90.

infantry spam is the best spam.

Also thanks for the reminder that poor GoonHammer had to split up all the events across THREE articles.

[Cheesegear]

So last weekend I ran a successful 36 player Grand Tournament.

Well done! Around my area these days there are lots of people playing 10th Ed. (1000-1500 Points, though), but there are scant few tournaments. Which is really weird given how competitive everyone is in 10th. (For the record, "everyone is competitive, now" started in 9th Ed.). Obviously the lack of TOs (or willing TOs) cripples the ability to host any tournaments.

Both first and second place went undefeated, but the third place Guard list was extreme infantry spam, and his only loss was to the Death Guard player, 99-90.

Flooding the board has always been effective for as long as I can remember. However there are massive barriers to it for the "casual" player, which is obviously time, cost and effort. However, if you're gonna play competitively, why not invest in 120 Termagants?

[Renegade Paladin]

Obviously the lack of TOs (or willing TOs) cripples the ability to host any tournaments.

Tell me about it. I have been not subtle about the need for someone else to step up and swap out TO duties for our tournament series, but no one will.

[comicshorse]

Quick question from a complete newbie
Does the Storm Raven Gunships ( Space Marine book p190) Hurricane Bolter REALLY give Rapid Fire 6 or has that been ettata'd
And for future refrence could you give me a link to GW's officail Errata

[Renegade Paladin]

Quick question from a complete newbie
Does the Storm Raven Gunships ( Space Marine book p190) Hurricane Bolter REALLY give Rapid Fire 6 or has that been ettata'd
And for future refrence could you give me a link to GW's officail Errata

It's six boltguns bolted together, so yes. Errata documents are here, and there's no mention of the Stormraven in the Space Marines errata document (which is currently quite short). I would not expect the hurricane bolter to have its shots nerfed anytime soon, though.

[LeSwordfish]

It's also in the app, yeah - that means you can put out twenty-four shots from a stormraven at close range, since of course you have two of them.

[comicshorse]

Thanks to you both for the replies

[Wraith]

I wanted to share this one-off project that I've been working on. I definitely won't be making a habit of it.

Just for the record, this was written more-or-less in real time over the last 2 weeks of the project, so it switches between Week 8 and Week 9 without warning. This isn't important, but it helps to keep it in context.

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I Am Poor And I Say Stupid Things

I know a guy who makes a lot more money than I do. The bastard.

No, wait. I take that back; he’s one of my dearest friends and I won’t hear a single word said against him. “Yay, capitalism!” or something.

That being said, by way of proving the old adage that ‘money cannot buy happiness’, he has spent a lot of it on plastic soldiers. Like, A LOT a lot. Way more than he can reasonably commit to assembling and painting despite all his best intentions, even before his house flooded in October 2023 and he was forced to throw away approximately 10% of his earthly possessions, which only highlighted further just how much of his remaining (not to mention, water-proof) net worth was represented by grey polystyrene.

This probably sounds familiar. We’ve all been there, we’ve all done that. But you don’t get it. You see this?

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Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/QOUrTBF.jpg

This is a sixty (60) litre plastic tub full of Space Marines. JUST Space Marines. And it’s overflowing at the top. For the weirdos out there, that’s over THIRTEEN IMPERIAL GALLONS of Space Marines.

(Actually, I tell a lie. It’s 13 imperial gallons of Space Marines and one (1) Free Cities General Mounted on Warhorse, for some reason. He doesn’t feature much in the narrative from hereout, but were I him, I wouldn’t want to be glossed over, either.)

And I have been commissioned to paint it all, because I was bragging that I ‘needed a project to work on’ but also ‘needed some practice’ before I tried to tackle my own pile of shame, which may or may not feature 3,000 points of Grey Knights which I started buying in 2009.

I guess it’s Money-Where-My-Mouth-Is time.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like 13 Gallons of Space Marines?

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The answer is: Spreadsheets and podcasts. Lots of podcasts.

I’m not a great painter - I’ll never win a Golden Daemon - but I’m decent at batch-painting to a solid tabletop standard. Absolutely no shame cast or shade intended, but I’m proud of the fact that I almost never field grey armies in a game.
Similarly, this isn’t my first ‘commission’. About 15 years ago I painted a 40k Ork army under similar circumstances, and last year a friend of mine set up a 3D Printing company and asked me to showcase a mini for his Facebook page - hardly a side-hustle at this point, but something I can legitimately put on my CV.



Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/hLDlxYm.jpg

This is Captain Ska’Ar, when he was 95% finished. He was fun to paint, and this is absolutely not a stealth plug for #3DKingdoms.

I started off by up-ending the tub onto my dining room floor and figuring out just exactly what I had to deal with. There was some old metal stuff, some assembled stuff, a lot of broken stuff, and even more that was still on the sprue. By the first weekend, I’d established 3 classes of pile to get through - stuff that I could paint right away after minimal fixing, stuff that I would have to put together basically from scratch, and the stuff that would realistically end up on eBay. Even if I WANTED to paint 11 metal firstborn Scouts and a single Vanguard Warsuit, what would be the point?

The ‘assembled stuff that I could start painting right away’, I affectionately termed ‘Phase 1’, and it looked like this:


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/ZxLRRDw.jpg

Yes; that’s 7 HQ choices (including essentially one of each of the non-Special Characters from the Codex), 10 Bladeguard (with custom 3D printed Salamanders Storm Shields) 9 Aggressors, 3 Brutalis Dreadnoughts, 3 Eradicators, an Infernus Squad, and 40 assorted Intercessors, Reivers and Infiltrators.

‘Phase 2’ - or ‘the stuff that was worth building’ - included about a dozen Terminators, 2 squads each of Suppressors, Eliminators, Inceptors, and Hellblasters, more Librarians, more Captains, and a squad of Primaris Sternguard. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Primaris Sternguard. Neat.

For reference, Phase 3 - the stuff that we decided we were never going to need or want - includes Guilleman, Marneus Calgar and his bodyguard, more (plastic) firstborn Scouts, 2 firstborn Dreadnoughts, a single Invader ATV, three Deathwatch Combat Patrols, another 3 Aggressors, another 50 (fifty!) Inter-Reiv-Filtrators, and a metal Vindicare Assassin. I presume he shot the partridge.

Welp. Time to put on those podcasts and get started. When all this stuff was bought, it had already been decided that they were going to be Salamanders (hence the Bladeguard shields) so it looks like I’m going to get more practice painting green.

Cue The Montage

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We’re just about to start Week 8 of the Project. Phase 1 is complete, and I’m ~50% into Phase 2. Here’s the tally so far (everything has since been based with Technical paint and some gravel for texture too, if you were wondering about the work-in-progress pictures).


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/NI3L2tK.jpg

The Terminator Captain was the only model specifically requested to be painted ‘early’, presumably to lead a Combat Patrol-style sized game ASAP. I did the Apothecary because I really enjoyed painting them for my own Dark Angels army, and simultaneously it meant that I didn’t have to break out the white paint ever again for this project. Yay!


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/yDNOnWF.jpg

The ‘Combat Patrol’ in question. The Aggressors were also specific requests, which was fine by me - it sounds great to tell someone you’ve finished painting 3 squads in a week. No one - NO ONE - needs to know that they’re three-man squads.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/Aw9NTca.jpg

Bladeguard with custom-printed shields. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Bladeguard Ancient is pulling double-duty as a normal guy to make it a legal squad of 10 individuals, but frankly I love it when elite squads carry their banner to war; it makes the battlefield more interesting and three-dimensional when some squads are different heights to others.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/jV1tCyp.jpg

Close-up of the Salamanders’ customised shields. I don’t know where they’re from, but I bet #3DKingdoms could ship some to yo-... okay, sorry, I’m done with that bit, I promise.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/9zrQyE1.jpg

Inter-Reiver-Trators. Apparently you need these in a ‘normal’ army. I wouldn’t know; I got Grey Knights.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/gSyrc2b.jpg

The Mad Lads.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/hnK1Nqk.jpg

Phase 1 complete. Sixty Salamanders Space Marines, based and ready to get fragged by a completely unrelated force of mysteriously black-painted Dark Angels from… somewhere. *side-eye*.

Phase 2 took a little longer to get started. Phase 1 needed about ~20 various guys to have their arms stuck back on and a couple of dozen bases dug out of a bits box; Phase 2 was stripping down another 30 sprues and building them from scratch, which took about a week in and of itself.

No work-in-progress pics for these guys; I can see the finish in the distance so I’m production-lining the lot to get them green’d up and then finish them squad by squad.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/76iYRhk.jpg

On the tail of assembling a pile of stuff, “two squads painted in one week” strikes again. In my defence, painting models with flight-stands is a horrible way to spend an evening - I know you can blu-tac a mini to a base, paint it up, then attach it to the stand with glue, but I find that so very uncomfortable and still manage to get fingerprints on everything regardless. Instead I just learned to be careful, and only break them two or three times, total.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/IU8fdfp.jpg

The only non-legal unit in the army, because I just really, really wanted to paint a cyclone launcher. So long as we’re honest and make sure he’s always the first casualty to ensure WYSIWYG, I don’t foresee there being much fuss caused by it.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/Z9xhUYd.jpg

Fun fact; most of my own Falle-... I mean, completely loyal Dark Angels army is basically 50% Hellblasters and Eliminators, because they’re cool and do horrible things to pretty much everyone they meet. Weirdly, my friend/commissioner doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about them - help me out here, am I the weirdo, or…?


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/MHLNaVE.jpg

One of each, mostly for fun. I don’t foresee them actually being used much, but at least we have options if the meta suddenly and radically shifts some day. By this point, painting something blue felt really weird.

The End

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Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/PMGIrK9.jpg

9 Weeks. 90 Primaris Salamanders (or like, 91 and ¾ if you include whatever was left to be scraped into the three Dreadnought). Built. Converted. Painted. Based. Ready to go to war. This is more than double what I own for my own army. You know, the one that has sat in a box through 3 house moves and still hasn’t been painted, and that these Salamanders were intended to get me back into the mood for painting. The irony is not lost upon me.


Imgur link: https://i.imgur.com/IooHydn.jpg

Fun fact; 90 Primaris and 3 Dreadnoughts without sprues fill up approximately 11.6 litres, or about 2 and ½ gallons. MATHS.

So What (If Anything) Did I Learn From All This?

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I like to think that I haven’t done too badly, considering… well… *gestures broadly at everything in the world*. Some of the edges are a little scrappy, but most of the time you can’t tell until you pick them up and look, and why are you picking up someone else’s minis while they’re trying to play a game, man? Rude.

Even so, here’s some observations that I made throughout this project.

= Making minis out of blue plastic is evil incarnate. Even after priming in black, and basing in green, and layering in more green, some of these guys STILL have blue-ish edges poking through in the recesses. I don’t have the time or inclination to prime everything twice and still have to fix the edges afterwards.

Better painters than me won’t care about this, but if you’re of even average skill, it takes twice as much work to cover it, compared to grey plastic. Red plastic minis (like those used in the Dungeon Bowl boxed set) must actively chain-smoke while beating puppies with hammers, I assume, but I have no intention of finding out for certain.

= I’m thoroughly impressed with GW’s Technical Paints range. This is the first time I used them for the bases and I really like what I see. I wish I had gone for Martian Ironcrust instead of Ironearth, though - I was just short of ladling the latter onto the plastic with a spoon, and the effect is still more subtle than I was hoping for. Apparently you should base, varnish, then Technical to get the best effect? An experiment for another day; I just painted two coats and hid the worst of what was left with sandy gravel.

= I really miss The Spoony One. Re-listening to the Counter Monkey series got me through the early part of Phase 2 and was nostalgic in great ways. Hope you’re doing okay, man.

= Paying someone to paint an army for you should be WAY more expensive than it currently is. As an amateur, I’m essentially being paid in tips and product for this (those Primaris Sternguard are going to look GREAT in black….) and someone with a decent setup could probably churn out this much work of this quality in a 40-hour week if they needed to, but man… what a way to make a living on what can’t be much more than minimum wage.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I hope that none of you read this, then ever feel bad about your ever-growing pile of unpainted minis, because more than ever I appreciate what it takes to sit down, focus, and force oneself to get it done. The best advice I can give you is… just keep going, even if only a little bit at a time.

At some point, everyone will - or probably already has - played a game with their custom chapter, the “Black Shadows of Darkness” Space Marines whose lore involves wearing no insignia and carrying only matt-black boltors. That’s fine. It really, really is. Don’t beat yourself up over it; just take pride in the fact that next week, your guys might all have silver weapons, or have eyes that they can see through, or something. One colour per day, painted onto 10 minis, gets you a whole squad per week. If you can do that, you’re already way ahead of the pack.

Just ask my Grey Knights, who have been resolutely living up to their name for… Jesus H. Christ, 15 years!? Man, I’m old….

[LeSwordfish]

That was great to read - and a great achievement too! Sincerely doubt I could manage ninety models in nine weeks to any standard, given that I **** out a batch of MESBG Gondor recently as 24 models in a month and it nearly made me pack the painting away.

So - we'll be seeing the pictures of the Grey Knights soon then, now your mojo is back?

My own hobby goal this year is to really sincerely break the back of my backlog - I'm preparing for an international move in 2025 maybe, and while I want to take models to play games with me, I need to have a serious think about all this grey plastic and what I want to pay to have it shipped transcontinentally and what not. I started the year with about 170 unfinished models, and my goal has been to finish or sell ten a month more than I buy. That's been very feasible so far (I'm at 84 models out, 15 in) but is only going to get more challenging as time goes by, particularly as I finish all the big batches and get down to the monsters and heroes that take as long or longer than whole squads. I'm doing some more Crusaders now, and next on my list is Farsight (thanks to the glow up he had in the Tau codex) and ooh boy, I can't help but suspect I'll be working on him until summer.

[Cheesegear]

I wanted to share this one-off project that I've been working on. I definitely won't be making a habit of it.

First off; At the very least it's inspired me to keep track of my own journey in creating a Chapter Master and 10 Captains. That way I can post it here later in a way that I can't really do on Reddit.

This is a sixty (60) litre plastic tub full of Space Marines. JUST Space Marines. And itÂ’s overflowing at the top.

Hard relate.
The vast majority of the stuff I have is also Firstborn and depreciating in value by the month. I really, really, really should either build it or get rid of it whilst I still can.

The answer is: Spreadsheets and podcasts. Lots of podcasts.

That's how I got through painting a Gladius back in 7th Ed.
I was inspired by The Mordian 7th, and that's how I create painting spreadsheets to this day.

it sounds great to tell someone youÂ’ve finished painting 3 squads in a week. No one - NO ONE - needs to know that theyÂ’re three-man squads.

Feels very different to batch-painting units of Tyranids.

It's literally the reason a lot of people played Grey Knights in pre-8th, or Custodes now.

"How the **** did you paint 2000 Points in a few weeks!?" ...Shhh...Don't tell them my army only contains about 30 models.

Inter-Reiver-Trators. Apparently you need these in a ‘normal’ army. I wouldn’t know; I got Grey Knights.

You need - yes, I actually mean need - exactly one squad of 5x Infiltrators. Maybe you can squeak by with a second squad, but it's not necessary - but the first squad absolutely is!
The rest is Scouts. I actually quite like the Kill Team models. It's two squads of 5! That's all you need, baby.

(The 3-limit spam rule is so good when your squads come in boxes of 10. Buy one box and you already have as many as you need.)

Phase 1 complete. Sixty Salamanders Space Marines, based and ready

Ideally I try and do one Infantry model per day, and up to three (or a Character model) on weekend-days.
So generally at most I'm looking at ~11 models per week (or, if I buy a box of 10 on Saturday, I can have them done by next Saturday...When I buy another box...)

So sixty Marines would take me...Six weeks? ...****. I have no idea how I painted my Gladius so fast...Oh wait, yes I do. I was nearly 10 years younger*, work was less demanding, my significant other was less demanding back then, I had less responsibilities than I do now...

*7th Ed. was 2015!? Suddenly I feel old. For no reason I can think of.

On the tail of assembling a pile of stuff, “two squads painted in one week” strikes again.

...Once upon a time I could do that...I did do that...Not these days.

In my defence, painting models with flight-stands is a horrible way to spend an evening

Can confirm.

Fun fact; most of my own Falle-... I mean, completely loyal Dark Angels army is basically 50% Hellblasters and Eliminators, because theyÂ’re cool and do horrible things to pretty much everyone they meet.

Weirdly, my friend/commissioner doesnÂ’t seem as enthusiastic about them - help me out here, am I the weirdo, orÂ…?

And unlike Purgation Squads (I hate typing/saying the full name, but Purgators was taken, we don't talk about it...); Hellblasters and Eliminators haven't even been nerfed twice! A squad of Eliminators with Las Fusils and a Phobos Librarian has annoyed the **** out of every opponent I've played. Well, obviously if you can't shoot 'em, you should Deep Strike on them and- ...Ahh. No my friend. I have one squad of Infiltrators. You have to destroy the Infiltrators, then you can Deep Strike on my Eliminators.

One of each, mostly for fun. I donÂ’t foresee them actually being used much...

Terminator Captains are dope...Just not the one out of the starter box. Fortunately it's a matter of a simple hand/weapon swap, and not too much work is needed to make the model usable.

Apothecaries are good.
Primaris Librarians are fine if you have them in the right unit (i.e; Hellblasters).
Chaplains are fine in the right unit (i.e; Bladeguard in a Transport)
Judiciars are...Bad. They work, sure. But you could spend the points on literally anything else.

Gravis Captains are dope...Just not the one out of the starter box. Fortunately it's a matter of a simple hand/weapon swap, and not too much work is needed to make the model usable.

Phobos Captains are pretty bad, which is very upsetting 'cause I kind of really like the model. If you replace the head with an Infiltrator's head, the model is neat.

...Even in 10th Ed., I still hate it when Space Marines don't wear helmets. The Inquisitor game (****. Wait. Am I old?) really did scar me for life. The Deathwatch RPG did something similar, but not as overt.

9 Weeks. 90 Primaris Salamanders...

Yeah. That sounds more my speed. But also it's important to remind people - especially newer hobbyists - to understand just what actually is realistic. I often tell people that they're not really going to get off the ground for 3-6 months when starting 40K. Oh, no. I totally understand that you can buy 2000 Points in two weeks, maybe a month. But you aren't going to be tournament-ready for a long, long time.

90 Marines in two-and-a-bit months - and that's from someone who is presumably trying.

Fun fact; 90 Primaris and 3 Dreadnoughts without sprues fill up approximately 11.6 litres, or about 2 and ½ gallons. MATHS.

When we play 40K, we have to use Imperial measurements?
...Geddit?
I'm hilarious... Yes I know where the door is...

Making minis out of blue plastic is evil incarnate.

Fffuuu...

Better painters than me wonÂ’t care about this, but if youÂ’re of even average skill, it takes twice as much work to cover it, compared to grey plastic.

Oh...Trust me. It pisses everyone off. The fact that every Underworlds Warband is molded in a different colour causes no end of madness.
...Just why!?

Paying someone to paint an army for you should be WAY more expensive than it currently is.

As someone who does the occasional commission (even in 2024! Still!); If you're not literally the best painter ever, you have to price your service just under where the client might say "For that price, I'll just do it myself, even if it is bad."

Which unfortunately means underselling yourself. Because you have to be able to paint better than the client, but still price under what they're not willing to pay for toy soldiers. It's a big pain in the arse.

The best advice I can give you isÂ… just keep going, even if only a little bit at a time.

How do I start painting?
...Have you tried starting to paint?

But yes. You already mentioned it earlier. You have to be able to visualise the goal; How much you've done, and how much you've got to go. Spreadsheets, baby!

You also need something to make your brain work. I suggest putting something on in the background that you've already seen/heard before.

Oh. I've been meaning to watch this new show; I should put it on while I paint.

No. What's going to happen is that the show is used as a distraction to the painting, and the distraction is something you want to watch (whereas presumably the painting is something you don't want to do). Which ultimately means that you're going to find yourself more and more watching the show. Ultimately to the point where you're not painting anymore.

At some point, everyone will - or probably already has - played a game with their custom chapter, the “Black Shadows of Darkness” Space Marines whose lore involves wearing no insignia and carrying only matt-black boltors.

HEY. Excuse you.
I played with my custom Chapter; They were a white-coloured Chapter wearing white camouflage, and had made sure to cover all their shiny metallic areas with white paint (the reflection of a sun would give them away in the snow). By making everything on their armour white - including their leather pouches - my Chapter was an incredible fighting force...In the snow.

[Artanis]

The Mad Lads.

"Mad" angry, not "mad" insane, of course!

D***, this is impressive. I don't really know what else to say

HEY. Excuse you.
I played with my custom Chapter; They were a white-coloured Chapter wearing white camouflage, and had made sure to cover all their shiny metallic areas with white paint (the reflection of a sun would give them away in the snow). By making everything on their armour white - including their leather pouches - my Chapter was an incredible fighting force...In the snow.

ROFL

[Grim Portent]

It's a damn good turnaround for 90 models.


On the coloured plastic minis, they're mostly what I think of as boardgame pieces rather than miniature figures, if that makes sense. You can open the box, build them and play straight away with each team being a different colour for ease of identification. You see it in other companies, especially ones that don't necessarily expect the consumer to paint the miniatures in their product. Got an old D&D boardgame that has purple, off-white, brown and green as the plastic colours for the models in it.

[Wraith]

So - we'll be seeing the pictures of the Grey Knights soon then, now your mojo is back?

Back in 5th Edition, there was a Grey Knights special character called Grand-Master Mordrak. He was an otherwise normal GKGM with a Hammer that cost ~500 points, but his special ability was that he got a 'free' unit of Terminators to join him. They're the ghosts of his former squad, brought back Legion of the Damned-style to fight. They don't do anything special, they're just a normal squad that can't separate from their Unique Character leader.

I have to admit that I'm this close to painting one GKGM (for smaller games) and one GMDK 'normally' and then doing the rest as spectres. I can crap out ~50 models in a week and just be done with it, but... I *like* how normal Grey Knights look...

My own hobby goal this year is to really sincerely break the back of my backlog

I'm not moving, but this is where I am, too. I *need* to clear out my old stuff, if only to make room for new stuff. At some point I have to decide what to do with 10 litres of Magic cards that haven't seen daylight for 8 years, for example, but as long a I'm painting minis I can pretend I'm working towards that, one successful goal at a time.

Feels very different to batch-painting units of Tyranids.

"A squad" always means 10 guys as far as anyone else knows. Basing and dry-brushing 20 Termagaunts to look like Xenomorphs is still two full squads. True fact.

*HQ Evaluation Stuff*

More to the point, I was asked for the Terminator Captain and the Gravis Captain, and my friend didn't even know he had the others. They were just my idea of 'value for money' - there's 3 more Librarians still in that big tub that he didn't know about, and even I won't bother with them.

If you're not literally the best painter ever, you have to price your service just under where the client might say "For that price, I'll just do it myself, even if it is bad."

Let's break a taboo about talking about money, shall we? I was paid £150 plus given whatever I asked for out of the left-over stuff, which amounts to 3 Aggressors, 10 Primaris Sternguard and a Librarian. The combined equivalent value is less than half of what would be minimum wage for the time I put in, not even counting the extra glue and paints I had to buy.

I was doing a favour for a friend who was having a rough time, so this absolutely isn't a complaint; I'd have done it for a lot less and a round of drinks if it would have helped out.
At the same time, could I imagine paying someone ~£500 to put the same amount of time into a similarly sized project and getting even my amateurish level of quality? No way. Maybe that's just me and I don't separate the two sides of the hobby - I'm here for painting and playing equally - but even for a 'professional' tournament player who wants an army back in two weeks to spend the same money as they could on their next army...?

I know that it's not inherently intended that gamers outsource their painting, but at the same time I'd love for the artist industry to be better recognised and appreciated. Unfortunately I can't think of a better solution than "just have more money".

...Have you tried starting to paint?

Turns out that the part I particularly dislike about the hobby is the setup. Not having brushes within reach, keeping my paints in a box under the kitchen sink and my desk being covered in the crap I use for work... By the time I've sorted all that stuff out, its been 30 minutes and I no longer feel like making the effort. Because I've been painting constantly for 3 months, I've had everything right where I want it, ready for when I want it, and I've run out of excuses to not paint.

Guys; go to your local hardware store and spend twenty bucks on a desk-tidy, preferably one with drawers like this, you will thank both me and yourself for it. Brushes in one, tools in another, bitz/glue/whatever in a third, and the rest for organising your paints. Keep it under your desk until you feel like hobby-ing, then in one easy move you have everything you need right in front of you and when you're done it goes back out of sight.

This is elementary stuff, but I'm frankly embarrassed to tell you how long I've been doing this without making this small effort to save myself so much effort.

Spreadsheets, baby!

The dopamine bump you get from changing a line from Yellow ("assembled but not painted") to Green ("ready for table-top") is real.

On the coloured plastic minis, they're mostly what I think of as boardgame pieces rather than miniature figures, if that makes sense.

Absolutely makes sense. I just wish that (especially for the bigger games) they'd use White, Grey and Black plastic; it does the same thing for playing, is easier to undercoat *and* has the added bonus of being especially friendly to visually-impaired players, compared to trying to tell the different between blue and dark purple.