OK, so the move is underway, and in the final tally, here's what I've got lined up on the hobby table for the next...jesus, rest of my life, apparently. This is the last post of this kind to this thread, by the way; I'm going to start up a dinky little painting blog sometime soon to document the rest of it and restrict myself to stabby stabby murder elves here.
There's two more Warriors to paint in the current squad, plus two that I'm transferring over from the second squad and replacing with metal Warriors with Shredders. This is before they settled on what the Shredder actually looked like (the old line is full of quote unquote "fun" inconsistencies like that) and it bears no resemblance to the two-pronged design that came later in the same range and sort of persists to this day, so I'm counting them as blasters and painting them accordingly. I'm also going to be adding armor blades, holstered pistols and other details to the Trueborn squad before priming now that I've found the leftover sprues. And finally, a treat at the end with a single plastic Kabalite Warrior from the current range.
Metal Haemonculus.
Metal Archon, complete with giant stabbyhand, and his retinue of three Incubi, one with a Shredder unless I can figure out some way to kitbash a suitable polearm/klaive-type weapon into his hands.
Seven (IIRC, can't check right now) metal Wyches, including a Hekatrix (called a Succubus back when the model came out), one with a Shredder (WHY DID I THINK THESE WOULD BE USEFUL), and the trio of gladiatorial weapons, plus a lone plastic Wych to put what I learn into practice. They'll all be Red Grief, to complement the Flayed Skull color scheme and their obsession with aerial warfare.
Four metal Mandrakes, from back when they weren't spooooky ghooooosts and were just bondage gimps with big knives.
A classic Raider and crew.
Four snapfit Eldar Guardians to be test painted as
Sky Raiders Corsairs.
The remaining rehab projects:
Three third edition Space Marines from a Blood Angels squad I put on hold during a fairly intense and time-consuming relationship (WORTH IT). I might paint them up in the 30k World Eaters scheme instead of completing the squad since I'm a little sick of painting red at the moment.
Ten second edition Space Marines- monopose, dull, lifeless, and absolutely going to be World Eaters test models.
Three Tyranid Warriors and a Ripper Swarm- some of the last models I picked up before I quit the hobby for good (it is to lol), and as a result pretty much the only ones I'm not deeply embarrassed by. Still some unsightly moldlines, though they'll come off easily, the Ripper swarm is positioned awkwardly symmetrically on its base, and I managed to pose the rending claws and heavy weapon on one Warrior in a way that I couldn't fit on the...what are they called, the cool barbed hook things that shoot out of their chests, but overall quite nice. Hive Fleet Leviathan for these guys.
Twelve Chaos Warriors- the same absolutely cannot be said for these poor sons of bitches. I must have gotten these when I was about 13 and reliable hobby information was much harder to come by. *deep breath* The mold lines are awful, and there are even some sprue attachment points left on; they're all stuck together with superglue and have nasty CA frosting in some unfortunate areas; the champion's head came off in transit (metal glued to plastic) and I'm stuck picking away at the dried-up nub of superglue in his neckhole to try and fix it; until I glued a nickel under his base he was so destabilized by his metal axe that he teetered dangerously every time I so much as looked at him; five of them (not counting the musician and standard bearer) don't have shields, possibly because I posed their arms in such a way that they were difficult or impossible to attach; and finally, they're just kind of awful models. They're squat and hunchbacked and while it was a relief to hear that nearly everyone finds them impossible to rank up it's only a small consolation. There was a neat knife with a serpent-eye pommel on the sprue that I'll be swiping for my Black Legion, though. I'm going to give up on the standard top that comes with it, partly because it would clip into the model's helmet but mostly because it's literally coated with superglue and a thin patch of skin (complete with thumbprint), replace it with a Tzeentch standard from the Chaos Space Marines kit, and paint them in the Brethren of Moeraix scheme from GW's recent PAINT YOU SOME TZEENTCH guide, the one that builds up from Incubi Darkness to a bright blue edge highlight.
Tiny metal Greater Daemon of Tzeentch-
this guy! BEHOLD YE THE DEATH CHICKEN AND KNOW DESPAIR. The magical daemon turkey is going with his mortal buddies as the core of a teeny-tiny Age of Sigmar force; I'm going to try and see if I can convince anyone in my local board game community to try some small, casual, drinking-friendly skirmish games, between the short, freely available rules and Kieron Gillen's invaluable
Hipsterhammer blog providing advice for modeling on the cheap.
The worst Land Speeder in the world- another notoriously difficult kit for new players, and god, does it show. There's a fairly wide gap all around the top and bottom halves, which just flat-out refused to join in any sensible manner. And while I left the gunner and his weapon off, I glued the pilot in, much as an idiot would, so between reaching around him to the intricate cockpit details and the extensive green stuff work necessary to make the speeder look only
mostly terrible it's going to be an intensive- yet unrewarding!- project. Probably going to be another World Eaters test model. Maybe I can pass off its glaring deficiencies as realistic meltagun damage- if I cover it with weathering powders and say it with an absolutely straight face, I think can get away with it!
A classic metal Chaos Dreadnought. If I'm no longer sick of painting things red, I might make this a Word Bearer and use it as a stand-in for the Contemptor when actually playing Betrayal at Calth.
Miscellaneous metal Chaos Space Marines- one with a missile launcher, one (painted, Alpha Legion, badly) with a flamer, one with a Blasted Standard of Tzeentch, one sergeant with a power fist, one Terminator with reaper autocannon half-painted as a Night Lord until I gave up upon realizing that doing so from a white undercoat was a stupid, stupid idea. Thinking I might do this lot as Word Bearers as well, if I can strip the paint properly and fill them out with enough to make them playing pieces for Betrayal at Calth.
My friend's Eldar- ten monopose Guardians, a heavy weapons platform (the early 90s model, with crew members in chainmail), a Warlock to lead them, a Farseer, and a squad of five Striking Scorpions with Exarch. He doesn't want them, so...Alaitoc, maybe? Mix up the colors a bit.
Scenery bits! Just two small ruins from the third edition box and all the sculpted plastic walls from a plastic/cardboard Imperial Firebase kit. The cardboard couldn't be broken down sufficiently to pack, so sadly it had to go; I think I'm going to use the walls as part of a set of DIY Zone Mortalis scenery.
Then, finally, after I've painted ALL THE THINGS, it's time to get cracking on the good stuff. Right now I have the core of four (!) small armies in my closet, accumulated over years of me being too much of a coward to paint anything. I'm going to bounce between them from unit to unit to keep myself going.
Dark Eldar- Kabal of the Flayed Skull (10 Warriors, Raider, Archon, 5 Scourges, 5 Reavers) and undecided Coven (Haemonculus, 5 Wracks, Venom). I know that isn't a playable list on its own, but I feel OK enough about the old models that I'm willing to field them for a bit to give myself a head start while I refamiliarize myself with the game.
Chaos Space Marines- Black Legion. A hell of a lot of these guys; they were my first impulsive hobby purchase at a terrible job 6 or 7 years ago, and I've taken advantage of a couple of heavily discounted box sets since, including a hobby shop that split the Dark Vengeance release. Three tactical squads, a couple of Rhinos, a Vindicator, a Defiler, a Land Raider (seriously, those old huge battle forces were unbelievably well priced compared to today's), a Lord and Sorcerer both in Terminator armor, ten Terminators, ten Raptors, ten Noise Marines (plastic-metal hybrids, dreading even touching them), a Forgefiend, 25 Cultists (a snapfit box and the twenty from splitting DV), the DV characters (a Lord in power armor, five Chosen plus a Champion, an Aspiring Champion with an axe), and the snapfit Helbrute. Maybe by the time I'm done they'll have a decent codex. Hell, maybe CSM and DE will both have an update by then...
Daemons. A box of Daemonettes, a box of Pink Horrors, a Burning Chariot of Tzeentch (and Herald of Tzeentch on foot), a box of Flamers.
30k! A Betrayal at Calth box; if the paint scheme doesn't prove impossible to pull off, these will all be World Eaters. Thirty Marines, five Cataphractii Terminators, a Contemptor Dreadnought, a Praetor in Cataphractii armor and a Chaplain. This will have to wait until I've got the cash to make my first ever Forge World order for resin bits. Spending serious cash on molded shoulderpads, Mk II helmets and chainaxes is something a responsible person would do, right?
...right?
Oh, and: Skaven. I have a single plastic Warpfire Thrower that's all I could salvage from bitz sites before Age of Sigmar shot Island of Blood's demand through the roof. I do love the little ratmans so, and the fuzzier army organization in Age of Sigmar had me thinking about the Tzeentch/Clan Skryre alliance I always wanted to field when I was a kid.
So yeah, there we have it. Writing this out has at least accomplished one thing by at least temporarily convincing me that I don't need to buy another model for the rest of my natural life.
Subject: Re: merzbau's Kabal of the Flayed Skull project log 
Wed Dec 23 2015, 00:09
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