Old school minis 2

Had this one sitting around for a while, and finally took the time to give it a decent paint job.  Space Marine Exo Armor, the Pre-Heresy version of terminator armor.  I just went dark gray for the paints (black base, adeptus battle gray, codex gray, paynes gray wash, fortress gray dry brush) to really make the guy looked old.  Came across pretty well.  I'll replace this photo later with one in better light so I can at least use a higher aperture and get everything in focus.  The base is a Secret Weapon Ruined Temple which seemed eminently suitable here.  I was going to use them for my Dark Angel Deathwing, but those look like they are just becoming Ultramarines so I can use the Ruined Temple bases for something else.

OK, a few more photos that show this thing off a bit better. 

Valkyries

On the way home I was listening to a disc that had Ride of the Valkyries on it.  Made me wonder, when you hear that music, what do you think of?

Melta equipped Veteran squad being flown on a tank hunt.
A huge viking woman with a cleavage you could ski down, ready to escort you to Valhalla.
Helicopters flying out the sun, the smell of napalm in the morning.
Flying Nazis.  In a station wagon.

Me?  Definitely the flying Nazis.

Rogue Trooper

Got around to repainting my old Rogue Trooper mini.  Think he'll have to be a Marbo counts as once I've finished him up.

The IG get some armor

I was at the FLGS last weekend and there were a couple of cheap Russes in the the consignment case.  My slowly accumulating IG army was completely lacking in anything for the heavy slots so I thought this would be an excuse to add something.  I chose the better looking of the two and took it home for an appointment with some Simple Green.

Well, those weren't regular paints on it.  I'm used to the paints flaking off after 24hours in the Simple Green.  This time though the paint instead went to mush and took a lot of time to remove with a toothbrush.  And that was the topcoat.  The primer stayed in place, and I was starting to realize the funny surface on parts of this model were from the primer being way over applied.  Detail was completely lost in some places. Add to that the large amounts of battle damage that I hadn't noticed in the store and things aren't looking too great.  Still, it was cheap.  Photo below is the nasty layer of crap left after 48hours of simple green, a toothbrush and a file.

I had the model down to the funky looking primer, busted off the sponsons, some accessories, and some of the extra armor, replaced the lascannon with a heavy bolter, and repaired some of the battle damage.  Now I'm down to a basic LR BT but its still kind of funky looking.  In the end I decided I'd just go heavy on the dirt/grime look.  I went with the same gray (fortress over adeptus) I used on one of the sentinals, then put a lot of fairly thick wash over it.  Once that was dry I broke out the SecretWeapon pigments to dirty it up more.  Exhaust black on vents, exhausts and weapons, iron oxide (watered down) all over the place and then terracotta earth and metallic iron (from the treads tutorial I'd been wanting to try) on the treads.  All looks good.  The yellow panel on the side of the turret is where unit decals will go.

Until I sealed it.  I was pretty gentle this time but I still seem to have lost pigments in some areas.  I'll redo those and respray afterwards.  The thing that really seemed to vanish was the metallic iron.  Second shot shows some of the rusting, as well as the nasty bobbly surface of the tank.

Exciting Status Update

Well OK, maybe not, but things have been gradually becoming a little more colorful.  So below is the current status of the armies.

Morgan's Orks
Primed and ready
Battle Wagon, 3 Killa Kans, 5 Storm Boys, 25 Boyz, 5 Nobs, 5 Burnas, 1 Trukk
Under way
35 Boyz, 10 nobz, 3 Deffkopters, 2 Trukks, Looted Wagon, 5 Lootas, War Trakk,
Done
Warboss, 10 Gretchin and a runt herder, couple of ammo squigs.

Fletcher's Ultramarines
Needs Assembling
10 terminators
Primed and ready
10 scouts

Done
55 Marines, 5 Scouts, Scout Bike, 5 Termies, Captain, Termie Captain, Chaplain, Termie Librarian, 5 Vanguard, 15 Sternguard, Land Raider Crusader, 2 dreadnoughts, 2 Razorbacks

Marcus's IG
Primed and ready
10 veterans, 5 command

Done
Vendetta, Leman Russ Battle Tank, 2 Sentinels, 10 Psyker Battle Squad, 10 Penal Legion, 3 Snipers, 2 AC heavy weapons squads, 25 guardsmen, 5 IG command squad, 1 Commissar


Marcus's Rabble (stuff I picked up because it was cheap and looked interesting to paint)
Primed and ready 
6 Tau XV25s, and 20 Eldar Guardians
Done
Necron Destroyer