Epic - Black Templars - Blitz Objective

I blithered in a prior post (possibly two) about the idea of using one of the new 28mm plastic BT champions as a blitz marker.

I got one at Cancon and it ended up in a Kill Team squad, but I got another one online...

It's been sitting, like many new projects do, in a drawer in a box, awaiting. Awaiting inspiration.

Anyway, last night I looked at the drawer contents with the notion of starting something up. The draw closed again and I wandered upstairs and spread a tiny bit of paint around. I then wandered downstairs as though possessed, pulled the champion out and cut the shrink-wrap.

Within a couple of hours it was desprued, glued, awaiting the next phase.  and this phase had been the difficult phase... dealing with fiddly shiz - which seems to be my bugbear at the moment.

So this morning i was going to print a plinth for the model and discovered my printing laptop was no longer charging (always something) and after looking at the Imperial Fists diorama I made I decided to see if I could making something from bitz instead.

This is what i came up with. A couple of different size and shaped bases, a bottle cap and some aquilas from the bitz box.  I have a bottle cap piece on the diorama and really like it - it uses some foliage which looks great and i may do something similar here - like a vine climbing up the statue.

I did sculpt the model a tiny bit, removing a couple of widgets I didn't like - the chest shield, the 'lantern' thingime, the ribbons off of the backpack. Just simplifying it a little.

It's currently on the paint desk waiting for the undercoat to dry, might need two as the acrylic disc doesn't hold paint as well as 'regular' plastic. 

Am looking forward to working on the statue painting and seeing how it turns out. Kind of exciting. 

On Inspiration

I was contemplating hobby inspiration before. I think it's important or helpful to realize when you're uninspired vs when you're being lazy.

There's nothing specifically wrong with either state but they are different.

Sometimes if you're being lazy and manage to haul your buttocks off the couch and picking up a brush you can paint for 2 hours and achieve something worthwhile. It feels good to have achieved something.

If you're actually uninspired then you can spend 2 hours painting and not enjoy it at all. For some stuff like base coating you don't really neeeeed inspiration, probably similar with assembly - maybe it's worth doing anyway but hobby is largely about fun, it doesn't matter if you do it or not to anyone except yourself.

I guess the main point is that if you're not inspired then it not worth feeling bad for not picking up a brush - but if you want to and what's holding you back is laziness then consider dragging yourself to the paint bench.... 5 minutes here and there...

Anyway, I've enjoyed having some inspiration and motivation over the last few weeks after being over hobby for so long. The final sentence of the previous section demonstrates - "Am looking forward to..."

A little later...

Undercoat dried sufficiently. Now the base coat, plain, light grey. 

Once this dries I'll be up to the 'creative' part (hence the blurb on inspiration, wasn't completely random).

The model and aquilas will be this base colour with washes over, probably null oil and blue, for kind of a marble effect, then dry brush the high points with white.

For the column i'm thinking... probably a lightly textured astrogranite (lightly sandy, more than rubble) dry brushed up to a lighter grey. maybe some heavier rubble on top of the plinth and around the column... unsure, all of this kind of flows out when doing it, so you kind of have to be in the mood.

2022-03-18

This turned out as well as I'd hoped for. Maybe even better because i was worried i might stuff it up and it would come out sub-par. Nope, it's as good as I'd hoped.

Wont walk through the various painting that was done but dry brushing was the hero for this model.

Speaking of heroes...

"St. Nattan Balez - Hero of Aerenu Primaris

During the Infernum Centralis campaign Nattan Balez, chosen Champion of the Emperor, proved pivotal in the defeat of the Ork forces assailing the planet Aerenu Primaris.

While his efforts were duly commended by his brother marines, the population of Aerenu were left spiritually humbled by this stern warrior striding valiantly against the swarming green skins, smiting them with violent fervour.

The accounts provided by rare surviving eye-witnesses tell of the warrior cutting his way through several of the ferocious Ork Nobz before slaying a huge mechanised Ork Walker single handedly.

Such was the populations' adulation for their adopted Champion that a statue celebrating his deeds was erected during the rebuilding of the planet."

For context...

This is intended to be the Blitz (back line) Objective for my Epic Black Templars. I'm sure it will spike me in the gizzards as I lean of the table. Superglue and swearing forthcoming...

Another project down.

Until next time...