40K Spiky cacti

I made some of the iconic sci-fi cacti. I had overthought this project for too long, but they were quick to make and paint and I'd love more.

Construction:

• MDF coasters, 60 & 90mm, with bevelled edges
• polystyrene balls of varying sizes held together with glue and cocktail sticks
• cocktail stick spikes
• Vallejo rough grey pumice paste

Painting:

• Spray Vallejo Desert yellow
• SpeedPaint Shamrock Green, drybrush Daemonic Yellow
• Spikes SpeedPaint Blood Red, Vallejo Vermilion.

The extra highlights really brought these up a notch and I'm glad I did them.

40K Lamenters Chaplain and Librarian

Here are two more characters I've painted up for my Lamenters. It is nice to have them done.

First we have a Chaplain with a jump pack. I went for blue-ish rather than grey-ish highlights on the black.

Chaplain with jump pack

I tried not to go down the rabbithole of highlighting and distressing the leather pouches; maybe I should...

Next we have a Librarian. I struggle with painting glowy effects into his armour. His leather coat has had multiple coats of matt varnish; I think my bottle has aged out.

Librarian

Skull-o-meter™: 21 (Chaplain) + 10 (Librarian)

Last War 4. Stuck

Before:

Mission 0. The Pals- Roll call

Mission 1. Only the dead...

Mission 2. Rescue the medics

Mission 3. Rust

After an uncharitably long wait, I present the latest Last War exploit of our unlucky pals...

AD Specific and Sing have no melee weapons and couldn't harm the Mud Ghoul on the left. West is better in combat, but even he struggled and then couldn't escape the Trench Maggot's tentacles. I didn't find the crucial intel I wanted, but I did keep everyone alive.

The Trench Maggots are scaled down 3D prints from Goonmaster.

I do not think that is the last our friends have seen of The Thing From The Fog... all will be revealed!

40K Lamenters Company Command

Here's a Captain and his Ancient (banner bearer). I've painted them to represent the Lamenters' Third Company.

Or, a bend sinister gules*

I wasn't really a fan of the Captain, but after the cape got some colour (Army Painter Speedpaint Blood Red with some highlights) he grew on me. I'm happy with the striped crest on his helmet, and the chequers on the shield came out OK as well.

Lamenters Captain

I've always wanted a banner bearer for my Lamenters*, but would have been happier to freehand a simple design based on the heraldry above. This miniature came with a sculpted pattern, and I scraped most of the bottom off to allow me a bit of creative freedom. If I was really bold I'd have scraped off the rest of the banner as well. Ah well, next time. I used some decals from Forgotten Chapters for some of the text. I used Microsol and some varnishes to get them sitting well. I freehanded the heart; I wonder if the circle needs a black border to help it pop. I did the LAMENTERS text with a paint pen and tidied it up with beige. Not perfect, but good enough.

Lamenters Ancient

No more Lamenters for a little while, something else next time.

Skull-o-meter™: 23

*From the fantastic Drawshield.net, a throwback to how the web used to be.

** Any last stand requires a banner

40K Lamenters Vanguard Veterans

Will the grimdark ever cease? Not whilst I'm trying to plough through my pile of potential!

These are veteran marines, denoted by the white helmets, and are close-combat oriented with jump packs and swords.

The depiction in miniature of airborne figures is an eternal conundrum. I don't usually like figures perched precariously trying to look like they're flying, but these sculpts have really done well in giving a sense of motion and weightlessness despite mass..

All these close-up photos under a bright light really help pick out the flaws.

Skull-o-meter™: 43

40K Lamenters Eradicators

More yellow marines! These are Eradicators, with the bulky Gravis armour and wielding heavy bolters. If I must quibble, I wish they were backpack-belt-fed rather than magazine-fed, just for rule-of-cool.

There are shell casings pouring from the ejection port on this heavy bolter. I'm not really a fan and would have left them off if I could have.

Skull-o-meter™: 17

40K Lamenters Intercessors

These are the latest Intercessor miniatures; Intercessors being your base model Space Marine. They're superb sculpts with great posing and motion.

They've got a subtle mix of different armour parts that I can live with.

I painted them with my yellow technique and then hand-painted the chapter iconography. The left knee colour shows Third Company, and the right pauldron is for the 5th Battleline Squad.

Sergeant has a black stripe on his helmet.

Blips on the auspex

There's impressive motion implied by the twisting sling.

Underslung grenade launcher.

Skull-o-meter™: 25