Legions Imperialis is the newest incarnation of Games Workshop's epic-scale miniatures rule sets. In a future post I'd like to expand more on the history of this game series, but to put it succinctly, this is the fifth edition, or incarnation, of a miniatures game that uses epic-scale (i.e. 6mm, or in this case 8mm) miniatures to create sweeping apocalyptic battles. Legions Imperialis is a return to the rules used in first-, and second-edition Space Marine, rather than an evolution of the rules after Epic: Armageddon.
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These models are fantastic, and paint up pretty quickly. The longest parts were blocking in the black, and touching up the red afterwards, but they were a real pleasure to paint, and I feel like I'm on my way to really having an epic army. Let me show them off to you:
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Here's how I went about painting them (Note: I used an old '90s hex-pot Citadel paint called Blood Red. It's different than the Blood Reds that came before and after it. Close analogs are: Khador Red Base from P3, Demon Red from Two Thin Coats, Blood Red from Coat D'Arms, and Evil Sunz Scarlet from the current Citadel Colour. Most of these are as or slightly-less vibrant than '90s Blood Red. The imitation Blood Red from Warcolours Nostalgia '94 is slightly darker).
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I painted the infantry on the sprue with the exception of the devastators, and any assault marine that had two connection points. These I glued to spare bases (25mm x 50mm) with PVA glue. The dreadnoughts were glued to spare 20mm square bases and painted once built.
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Paint the whole model Blood Red (Citadel—hex pot era)
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Wash the model with Carroburg Crimson (Citadel)*
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Drybrush the model with Blood Red (Citadel—hex pot era)
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Dryrbush the model with Angel Red (Coat D'Arms)
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Drybrush the model with Khador Red Highlight (P3)
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Paint all the areas you want black (guns, holsters, helmet crests, etc.) with Black Templar (Citadel)
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Highlight black areas with Dungeon Stone Grey (Two Thin Coats)
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Paint the areas you want metal with Pig Iron (P3)
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Wash the metal areas with Nuln Oil (Citadel)**
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Paint the areas you want gold Rhulic Gold (P3)
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Wash the gold areas with Reikland Fleshshade (Citadel)**
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Paint the plasma coils & power weapons Fluorescent Lime (Green Stuff World Fluor)
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Paint the lights on the dreadnoughts with Fluorescent Yellow (Green Stuff World Fluor)
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Touch up any mistakes on the red with Demon Red (Two Thin Coats)***
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One apothecary model I painted fully white, which was simply Bold Titanium White (Pro Acryl), followed by a wash of Soulblight Grey (Citadel).
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*I used the current formulation of Carroburg Crimson because it flows into the recesses better, and it let me work faster on such small models.
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**When washing metals, I like using the gloss versions of these shades, which was the case with these two. You could just use the new formulation versions (though I haven't yet), but I figure when I run out of these pots (which will be soon) I'll switch to P3's washes (Armor Wash and Flesh Wash, respectively).
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***The reason I used Demon Red as opposed to the original Blood Red is because Blood Red doesn't really have good pigment. Demon Red covered better, which allowed me to fix mistakes easier, and isn't really noticeable at first glance. I just like the tomato-y red of Blood Red, which is why I didn't just start with Demon Red.
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So there you have it! Simple. For the bases, I followed the guide from Mediocre Hobbies, but used Gun Corps Brown, 'Jack Bone, and Menoth White Highlight (all from P3) in that order with a sponge. I hope this gives you some inspiration, or at the very least makes approaching the painting of epic-scale space marines a little less daunting.
It's time for another year-end post, wherein I reflect on the previous year and look forward to the next. I'm sure your feed, email inbox, timeline, or wherever else you consume content in this late-Web 2.0 era is full of these kinds of things, so thanks for taking the time to read this one!
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So how was 2023? All-in-all pretty good, despite the fact that I didn't complete my hobby goals. In spring of this year I decided that I would completely paint the Blood Angels Combat Patrol, and the Orgoth Sea Raiders Core Army Starter. Sadly, I end the year with the Orgoth somewhat built and primed, and the Blood Angels on the cusp of completion.
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I got back into gaming this year. The pandemic really affected me, and continues to do so, but this was the first full year in a new job away from the public, and a year where I started to really take steps to figuring out my place in this new world. These are all pretty heady topics that are outside the scope of this post, but suffice it to say I took small steps towards getting back into the gaming rhythm that have done wonders for my mental health. I've been hosting monthly game days amongst a close group of friends, and I've let their whims carry me in terms of what I'm playing, which has been fun, but has probably been the greatest factor in my not meeting my hobby goals. This year has seen a lot of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th edition, and Warhammer 40,000 10th edition.
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I also decided 2023 was the year that I began to wean myself off of the gaming nostalgia trip I've been on since (according to my Instagram) 2019. It's been fun revisiting Oldhammer and Middlehammer, but there's so much cool stuff happening in the GW hobby, and wider hobby world, that I felt I was missing out by immersing myself in nostalgia. This has been gradual, and is less of a matter of moving past nostalgia outright, and more about carrying over parts of it that I still find useful into modern gaming. Of course this sounds strange considering I've been playing lots of sixth edition Warhammer, and equally strange when I talk about what 2024 holds, but it's not zero-sum. I'm trying to just put my nostalgia back on the shelf, to probably dust off later.
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So what does 2024 hold for me, and this blog? I'm going to set less-concrete goals for myself, and continue to reorient my focus towards feeling good about the hobby, and (more-importantly) the world outside of it. I'm going to continue to host my game days, and I'm even going to try and finish my Orgoth in time for a tournament this year—we'll see how that goes.
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While I want to focus less on reveling in nostalgia, Games Workshop's not exactly making that easy with the release of Legions Imperialis and Warhammer: the Old World. In a way these are both new, and old, games, so I'm going to consider them the synthesis I've been looking for, and embrace the two this year. My hopes are to have a 3,000 point Legions Imperialis army of Blood Angels (and maybe some Ultramarines), and a brand-new 2,000 point High Elf army for Warhammer: the Old World on the new-sized bases. These are less of a checklist of things I want to have finished around this time next year, and more of a representation of the direction I want my hobby efforts to go.
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Really, the goal is to find that my efforts result in something I'm happy with, and can enjoy with my friends.
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So what about this blog? I love it! Whether people read it or not I'm happy to type away at it, and I'm hoping to include more of that as part of my attempt at increased focus this year. I have some ideas for articles that may include:
Writing's good for me and I like it. Another goal of mine in 2024 is to step further back from social media. I do social media at my day job, and I find that it's no longer personally rewarding. Just today I deleted Threads from my phone, and haven't been on Twitter in months. I'm still liking Mastodon, despite the fact that it's definitely more boring than Twitter and Threads, but I think there are better ways to interact with like-minded hobbyists, and I'm going to use this blog as a base of operations.
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So to wrap things up here, 2024 will be continuing to find my footing after the pandemic had knocked me off kilter. It will be made up of small steps taken with purpose and effort, and the focus will be on how these discreet actions I take at the paint table, online, or at the gaming table contribute to the feelings in my head and heart. As corny, and cringe as it may sound.
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This blog (purposely) does not have a comment section, but feel free to find me on the few social media sites I'm on, and let me know your thoughts, and what you're looking forward to in 2024!
It should go without saying that from this point on there will be spoilers. If you haven't read Galaxy in Flames, and are bothered by spoilers, then come back later after reading it.
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Galaxy in Flames is the third book in the Horus Heresy series, and the third in a trilogy of novels that revolve around the same cast of characters. It was written by Ben Counter, and I first read it when it came out in 2006. This is my second read-through.
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A criticism that gets levied against Warhammer fiction is that it is no more than descriptions of battles, and amount to little more than narrative battle reports for $10.99 a pop (that's Canadian, of course). This is pretty reductionist, but less so with Galaxy in Flames. Now to be clear, the battle scenes were good, and it's hardly Ben Counter's fault when so much revolves around the fight on Isstvan III. This novel carries forth my complaint from the last novel vis-à-vis the pacing of Horus' downfall, and expands it into a more holistic problem I have: the pacing of the opening three books in general. Were the story of Horus' downfall, and the battle of Isstvan III, kept at the pace Dan Abnett set with Horus Rising, it would've been a longer story, but a more even one. Sadly, I think poor Ben was left with the aftermath of Abnett and McNeill, and told to craft a conclusion out of it.
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Our remembrancer friends are still here, though admittedly without Karkasy we've lost the soul of the group, and while Sindermann's attempts to grapple with the Lectitio Divinitatus is worthwhile character development, it can't sustain my interest in the humans alone. In a way, this is balanced by the conflict between the titan moderati later in the book, but is only related to the remembrancers by virtue of space marines not being the focus.
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Saul Tarvitz remains my favorite character in the trilogy, which isn't surprising, as he's definitely written to be. Loken is (of course) the star, but Tarvitz takes more overtly heroic actions in this book by taking fate into his own hands and flying down to the planet to warn everyone. By the third book, it's pretty much determined that Loken is at the mercy of the events surrounding him. A tragic figure to be sure. Before we leave Tarvitz for the moment, I do want to comment that his friendship with Lucius was very well done. We know Lucius is a psycho, we know he becomes even more psychotic in the intervening ten millennia, but I (at least) was engaged in the depiction of their relationship.
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Before I conclude, I do want to comment more on the two moderati of the Dies Irae: Aruken and Cassar. I give praise to Ben Counter for writing tense and claustrophobic scenes on the bridge of Dies Irae as the two ostensible friends—though in retrospect, coworkers is more appropriate—grapple with what's going on. Cassar's conscience prevents him from going along with this slaughter, and he mutinies against Princeps Turnet, but he can't win alone. He's stuck in a stalemate with the princeps, and relies solely on Aruken to tip the balance in his favor (morality's favor). Aruken cannot be relied upon, though. Once described as a sympathetic figure—he helps protect Keeler against Maggard—he turns on Cassar, unwilling to risk his advancement in the titan legions. He chooses the status quo, slaughter and all, over his fellow moderati. I don't know if we see anymore of Aruken in any novels, so we may never get to see him grapple with the meaning of his actions. Though astute Black Library readers will undoubtedly be aware of Dies Irae's fate ten-thousand years later.
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In summary, I think it's the weakest of the opening trilogy, though its well-written battle scenes, and tense standoff in the titan bridge keep it from being my least-favorite Horus Heresy novel I've read. Let me know your thoughts in the comments/replies of wherever I post this (Facebook or Mastodon). Next time I'll tackle The Flight of the Eisenstein.
It should go without saying that from this point on, there will be spoilers. If you haven't read False Gods, and are bothered by spoilers, then come back later after reading it.
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False Gods is the second book in the Horus Heresy series, and the second in a trilogy of novels that revolve around the same cast of characters. It was written by Graham McNeill, and I first read it when it came out in 2006. This is my second read through.
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This book continues the direct story line from Horus Rising. First, we are introduced to Petronella Vivar—a noblewoman from Terra—and her entourage, including the surgically-induced mute Maggard. She thinks very highly of herself, and is supremely confident in her task to become Horus' personal remembrancer. We then pivot to two crewmen of the imperator titan Dies Irae: moderati primus Cassar, and moderati pirmus Aruken. Afterwards we get a vignette of life on Davin, as lodge priestess Akshub watches the trails of light heralding the Warmaster's drop pods descend from the sky, and revels in the fate that will soon befall her and her masters. It's only at the end that Horus sets foot from the drop pod onto the surface of Davin, a world he conquered sixty years ago.
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Davin is where his inevitable turn to Chaos happens. We know this, and have known this since Space Marine debuted in 1989. It's here that we see what turns Horus and where many a reader expressed disappointment at how it was depicted, myself included (though not as fervently as others). It's perhaps no slight on Graham McNeill, but instead on the fact that such a tale should have had more time to breathe. We should've been treated to a steady erosion of Horus' will, or (my preference) a reaction to changing material conditions of the Crusade and the Imperium.
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What we are given as reasons for Horus' betrayal are his discontent at bureaucrats interrupting the Crusade—his Crusade—and demanding he institute taxes on conquered worlds. This, coupled with his failures to peaceably bring the Interex and the "False Imperium" into the Emperor's realm beginning to seed doubt in his mind regarding his ability as Warmaster. To add to this doubt, the betrayal of Eugen Temba on Davin brings to the fore his guilt at assigning him the position, one Temba begged Horus not to assign him for fear of not being able to live up to the responsibility. Sound familiar?
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I don't have any trouble with that stuff, nor do I have trouble with Erebus' (boo!) plot to use the anathame stolen from the Hall of Devices on Xenobia to wound Horus, leading to his fever dream in the Davinites' fane to Chaos. In fact, that whole plot tells a lot about the astartes and their blind loyalty to their primarch. They love Horus so much that they would reject the secular edicts of the Emperor if only Horus could be healed. The Emperor's science has failed. The primarch's so-called perfect body can only be healed by the Emperor, and he's gone back to Terra to work on projects he couldn't even trust his sons with the knowledge of. The astartes that take Horus to the fane have already made their choice, no matter what happens to Horus.
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My greatest issue is the dream in the warp that Horus has. I think it's cool that Horus is tricked by being shown a vision of a future he helped create with his betrayal (very like the Chaos gods to do that). My problem is that Magnus reveals it all as a ruse by Erebus and Horus still buys it? I found that to be a let down. Throughout this book we're given a little glimpse into Horus' psyche. He fears the responsibly he's given being the Warmaster, he's frustrated by the Emperor's absence and the bureaucrats appearance, and he fears what will become of him and his warriors at the Crusade's end. Magnus' appearance in this novel felt shoehorned in, his reveal feels inconsequential, and the dream felt like it should have been the beginning of Horus' betrayal, not the end.
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I think it would have been more compelling if the story showed a Horus wracked with self-doubt throughout the rest of the Crusade. Let the nascent Imperial cult grate on him more. Perhaps show more jealousy displayed by his brother primarchs, and have the vices of Imperial bureaucracy get ever tighter.
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Some further stray thoughts: The moderati primus' relationship to each other was cool. Maggard was also pretty cool, if not a little frightening. Petronella herself felt pointless; more like a Maggard delivery vehicle. The battle scenes in the swamps of Davin's moon against the horde of Nurgle zombies was one of the better battle scenes I've read so far in the series (considering the fact that I've read the first twelve books as they came out). I think if there were ever a show or movie made of the first two Horus Heresy novels, a good actor to play Ignace Karkasy would be Michael Gladis.
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Well, I hope you liked this review. If not, let me know through email, or in the comments/replies wherever I post this (Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon). Next time, I'll tackle Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter.
It should go without saying that from this point, there will be spoilers. If you haven't read Horus Rising, and you are bothered by spoilers, then come back later after reading it.
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Horus Rising is the first book in the Horus Heresy series, and the first of a trilogy that revolves around the same cast of characters. It was written by Dan Abnett, and I first read it when it came out in 2006. This is my second read through.
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This is actually also my second attempt at writing this post. The first time I got too bogged down in synopsis and backstory, and was staring down the barrel of a veritable essay. Instead, I'm going to assume you've read the book, and know enough about the parts of Warhammer 40,000's background that brought us up to the end of the 31st millennium.
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First, I want to talk about how much I love Dan Abnett's writing. Horus Rising opens with some misdirection—we think for a second that this is the Solar system that's the ship translated into. In doing this, he has us engaged in the story, and not overwhelmed with details and background. A lot of writers—sadly, some of which write Horus Heresy novels—dole out too much information when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy. This isn't an issue with Abnett.
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What's always struck me with this book is the Imperial Truth, the secular philosophy of the nascent Imperium. The remembrancers are bearers of this, and are a great addition to the 40k canon. I remember reading this and thinking about how much more horrific the 41st millennium is in light of what could have been, and one of the fun parts of this series is clutching the books in tense hope that things will turn out better. But we know how it turns out. This is one of the ingenious parts of 40k, that at first blush it brings you in with these heroic and daring tales, and only then pulls back the curtain to show you how wrong you were.
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The Imperial Truth is only slightly more appealing than the Imperial Faith, and the two are constantly played against each other as the burgeoning cult of Emperor worship begins to take hold of the humans in the Crusade. From early on in the book we see the characters grapple with the immensity of what they're engaged with. Even Loken begins to wonder, if not question, why they couldn't have just left "Terra" alone. What will the Imperium mean if it's built on this violence?
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It's violence we see not only on the battlefields, but in the relationship between the Astartes and the humans, who are regarded as lesser by the space marines. This is a source of tension in the book, the Astartes know that their sole existence is to create a galaxy for humans to live in, and one day the Crusade will end. What will become of their warrior culture then? Some space marines don't believe there will ever be peace, while some are content with their lot. But it's this tension that causes rifts between the Astartes and the remembrancers, which boils over later in the novel.
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Before we get to that, however, let's dwell on Horus. He's a great guy in the beginnings of this book. I was charmed by his character as I was reading, and it's easy to see why everyone is awed and in love with him. But he's just as much a victim of this tension as anyone. It comes to a head at the end as his attempts at bringing the Interex into compliance go up in flames. He's left alone in the Crusade. The father who he's fought with for hundreds of years—Horus was the first primarch recovered by the Emperor—has left him. Sure, the Emperor has given his son his confidence, but there are other primarchs who don't feel that he's deserving of the title Warmaster.
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Horus is also troubled by the question of what would an Imperium built on violence be like, when he's troubled by his "mistake" at handling "Terra." Violence is fit for the perfidious xenos species, but for humanity it seems heavy-handed. Was the Emperor wrong in leaving the Crusade in Horus' hands? How much of this doubt was seeded by Erebus, the Word Bearer 'ambassador' who has inserted himself between Horus and the Mournival?
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This is what I love about this book, and what lies beneath even my least-favorite Horus Heresy novel in the series: The tension between the ideals of the Crusade and what it takes to keep those ideals alive. When the Interex' museum is in flames and its caretaker dead, Horus even pleads to the heavens for help. Maybe the Crusade is too much for his shoulders to bear. It's interesting at this point that Loken decides that he's never been more confident in Horus. I think this speaks to Loken's humanity that he can see nobility in flawed individuals. Or perhaps it just speaks to his utility as an Emperor's soldier that this nobility comes across as Horus fights his way back to his ship.
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I think one could look at this book, and see an indictment on humanity for the brutality inherent in what's considered the 'natural' human empire taking shape. I prefer to see it as an indictment on the Emperor. After all, he has built all of this. He created the primarchs, he created the Astartes, he created every aspect and method of the Crusade since before he began his unification of Terra. If humanity's conquest of the galaxy is hard, and full of tension, it's really on the Emperor himself. Even more so now that he's not in it.
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Well, I hope you liked the format of this post. If not, let me know through email, or in the comments/replies wherever I post this (Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon). Next week, I'll tackle False Gods by Graham McNeill.
I've decided to read all fifty-four Horus Heresy novels and write about them on this blog. I'm hoping to do one post per novel, and get my thoughts out about what I've read. Back when I was studying English literature at university I had to do this a lot, and really enjoyed it. It's been a while since I've done it in earnest, so you'll be spared any detailed structural analysis, or postcritique musings, which you should be thankful for. I also think I may have misled you about the whole "book club" aspect, as this blog—intentionally—doesn't have a comment section. I will be making a post on Facebook to accompany each one on the blog, so you're more than welcome to share your thoughts in the comments there. As to why I'm doing this now, seventeen years after the debut Horus Heresy novel…
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Unless you've ignored Warhammer Community this summer, you'll have noticed that Epic is coming back in its fifth edition as Legions Imperialis. Though I don't think I've professed my love of Games Workshop's Epic-scale games here on this blog, those who know me personally are well aware of it. This time—like its first iteration in the late '80s—the game will be set during the Horus Heresy, rather than the 41st millennium. This has naturally rekindled my interest in the Horus Heresy as a setting.
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When the first of the Horus Heresy novels came out in 2006 I was working as a redshirt at the Burnaby Games Workshop in the illustrious Metrotown mall. The debut of this series was big! Not only was Dan Abnett kicking off the series, but it promised to reveal all sorts of tidbits and insights into things that had only been hinted at in the background of the 41st millennium. I jumped on board and rode that wave for the first twelve books. I don't know why I stopped reading around then. I imagine it was because I got really into other game systems—namely Warmachine and Dark Age—or felt that the only way to interact with the Horus Heresy beyond the books was through Forge World's gaming and art supplements, which were prohibitively expensive and tied to a few editions of 40k that I wasn't really interested in playing.
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Regardless, I'm back. While I've already read the first twelve books as they came out, it's been thirteen years since I've opened one. So, what better opportunity to start from the beginning again? After all, what's really the difference between fifty-four novels and forty-two?
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So, join me on this little adventure. We can see if I can make it all the way to the Siege of Terra, or if I get pinned down under the sheer weight of the illumination of the Imperial Truth.
Bolt Action is a World War Two miniatures game designed by Rick Priestly (creator of Warhammer), and published by Warlord Games and Osprey Publishing. It's a lot of fun, and a well-designed set of rules that appeals to a wargamer who doesn't do much historical stuff such as myself. Rather than being an in-depth review of the rules, or the models, I'm going to instead talk about the process of speed-painting an American army (around 650pts) in two weeks. This force is made up of just three purchases: a box of infantry, a tank, and a weapons team from a blister pack. I used primarily Contrast paints from Citadel Colour, and I followed a video tutorial done by Sonic Sledgehammer on YouTube.
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Berlin or Bust
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I chose an American army for Bolt Action for a personal reason: my grandfather fought for the Americans during World War Two. Beyond that initial choice I picked what would make up the army as I usually do: I start with a leader and a box of line infantry, and go from there. In the case of Warlord Games' plastic sets, I was able to construct both (and more) out of the same box. Now, the box of Infantry I used to build this force is actually an older kit, and is no longer sold by Warlord Games. Instead, they currently have a better-looking box with more miniatures in it, so anyone taking inspiration from this post is in a far better position than I was when I first bought these models. Because I purchased these models right when Bolt Action was first released in 2012 (or thereabouts) my models might be different than what is currently offered by Warlord Games. Yes, these models have been hanging around in my to-do pile for over a decade.
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Mustering the Troops
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I'll say, right off the bat, that what I don't know about armies during World War Two could fill a warehouse. I love history, but I always concerned myself about big picture stuff, rather than what uniforms soldiers wore, or what their guns were called. If you quizzed me about American army structure—past or present—you'd find my knowledge lacking. Which is why I was glad to see a pretty simple breakdown of terminology and general practices in the Force Selection section (try saying that ten times fast) of the Bolt Action 2nd Edition Rulebook.
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Equipped with this knowledge, I found out what the minimum I needed for a playable force was. There are army speicific force books that provide more detailed army lists, but to start out I opted to stick with the army list from the core rulebook, at least until I have some games under my belt and can figure out how to modify and expand my army. The reinforced platoon is the example they give, which says that the minimum required to play a competitive game is one lieutenant (first or second) and two infantry squads.
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Seeing as the box I bought only came with twenty-five models—now they come with thirty—I opted to not go full-strength for my infantry squads. I have another box floating around somewhere in storage, so I can always beef-up my squads later. I built three models for my first lieutenant, and nine models each for my infantry squads. I should also mention that I decided the experience level of my army would be regular across the board. As I'm learning the game, I can adjust this down or up as I see fit.
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With four models unbuilt, this allowed me to build some other units such as a sniper and a bazooka. After all, the components were there… Why not build them?
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My next purchase, of course, was a tank. Tanks are big, flashy, and cool, and for the United States at the time, the most common tank was the Sherman. When I first bought this Warlord Games offered resin tanks, but now they appear to be plastic ones designed by Italeri, which makes me a little jealous. All the more reason to try and shoe in another one for bigger games, I guess.
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Finally, I decided that it might be good to have some more support in the form of a machine gun. Now, the army list only has one entry for a .30 CAL M1919 machine gun, whereas I appear to own a .50 CAL M2 HMG. Perhaps my FLGS' distributor only had these in stock at the time, or perhaps I was planning on grabbing the American force book when I bought it. Regardless, I threw it in the list, and decided I'd worry about it later. A more historically-minded gamer might also cock an eyebrow at the fact that I stuck all four models on a single 60mm base, whereas the Warlord Games site now displays the same product with three men to the gun base, and an ammo porter on his own. Again, this is something I'll worry about later.
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A Uniformed Approach
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So how the hell do I paint these things? I don't have access to my grandfather's uniform, so I have to rely upon the knowledge of the Internet, which as it turns out is pretty extensive. Honestly, the hardest part is just figuring out which paints correspond to which colors on the uniforms. There is a bit of an information overload when it comes to historical miniatures painting. Besides, I wanted a fast method for painting this army. I'm not the quickest painter, and I didn't want these figures languishing any longer than they already have. A simple YouTube search yielded me a video done by the YouTube user Sonic Sledgehammer. His video had a really easy guide, that only used thirteen paints, many of which I already owned. I substituted Black Legion for Abaddon Black, and P3's Boiler Black for Iron Warriors, but that's it.
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In fact, I was so impressed by how great his infantry guide was, that I went and looked up to see if he had any guides for painting Sherman tanks, and sure enough, he did. I deviated a little bit from his guide in this instance. I see that I had already primed my Sherman with a can of US green from Battlefront's discontinued spray paint range, so I just found the closest P3 paint (Thornwood Green), and added Rucksack Tan for the highlights. I also used Typhus Corrosion instead of Stirland Battlemire, which utterly annihilated the brush I was using, so grab a cheap-o one.
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Reporting for Duty
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So there we have it, a 650 point platoon (well, 646 points to be exact) painted in two weeks! I could cut that down to 500 points for games where it might be a hassle for my opponent to meet 650, and gives me a starting point to find out what I need to do to get up to 1000, which is the standard size for Bolt Action games. Now if I can only find my order dice and pin markers…
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Note: I apologize for the sub-par pictures. In fact, I sat on this post for months because of the quality of the pictures. I decided to go ahead and just post them, and learn for next time. Photography is an aspect of the hobby I'm still working on.
Lately I've been—what I'd describe as—pleasantly adrift, hobby-wise. I don't have any plans to hit the tournament scene any time soon, so I feel guilt-free in painting whatever I want. Combined with my desire to improve my painting skills, this has led me to collect a motley assortment of models on my paint table, all in various states of completion. Each model was an attempt at trying out a new technique, or a certain color, and they were all great learning experiences. They have, of course, mostly been Reaper figures.
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Around the time of the two Reaperarticles I posted on this blog (early September) I got the idea in my head that I'd try and do some YouTube videos. They didn't turn out super well. There were a lot of things I didn't like about them—some stuff I did—and it just showed that I wasn't ready to take even a rudimentary plunge into that arena. There are still some delightfully amateurish videos out there on YouTube, but by and large hobby videos have gotten better, and what I had attempted to accomplish didn't match what I wanted. In my typical style, though, I didn't get discouraged. It's a learning experience, like everything in this hobby. Maybe I'll get back to it again, with a decidedly smaller bite to chew.
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Really, what it did was make me realize how much I love writing. It seems so passé these days in hobby circles, but it's really how I want to connect to a broader audience on the Internet. Social media is fun (we'll come back to that a bit later), but it can be hard to break into being someone people want to talk to, or with. Not to mention, we're all experiencing how capricious it can be vis-à-vis its management. Live-streaming, as well, just wasn't my thing, and while I have had some success in video making in the past, this YouTube experiment has shown me that what knowledge I had is woefully rusty.
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There are still hobby bloggers out there who are doing it right. The one that inspires me the most is Mengel Miniatures, who you really should give a visit and maybe a follow. I think writing is a medium that I have some competency in, with fundamentals that I won't have to (re)learn.
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I'm still taking classes in technical writing, and should be finished next year. It's really teaching me how to communicate effectively—especially over the Internet—and has been a lot of fun. I was skeptical (even a little jaded) about going back to school, but it's been worth every penny and every goddamn hour learning how to use MadCap Flare.
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Oh, and remember how I said we'd come back to social media? Well, my new job is effectively that. I'm a marketing coordinator for a municipal library here in my region, and while that may sound like a fancy title, it's effectively a poster. I love it actually. Everyone I work with is real nice, the job is very chill, and it's great to work for a public institution that does good. If you're reading this, and you haven't been to your local library in a while, it's worth popping by and seeing how it's changed. While social commentary is outside the scope of what I want to touch on with this blog, I do want to say that I think our society is becoming more alienating despite our digital connections, and I think the answer to this lies in public spaces like libraries.
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Anyway, back to hobby talk.
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I'm going to spend the remaining weeks of this calendar year clearing off my paint table of all the little eclectic models I've been working on, and starting in 2023 I'm going to dive into some projects in earnest. By my count I've completed 1/8th of my 2022 hobby New Year's resolution, but that's not going to stop me from making another one for 2023! I was hoping to leave Oldhammer behind for a little while, having spent a considerable amount of time painting older figures and collecting older paint. Alas, I got suckered into an army challenge for Warhammer 4th/5th edition with a good friend of mine, so I'll be working on at least 500pts of High Elves from the '90s. After that, however, I want to step back to the future, and work on some new Warmachine models (the Orgoth), and some Lumineth Realm-Lords. And if there's time, I'll throw some 40k in there. Why not?
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Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this. I know this isn't a destination in anyone's hobby Internet circuit, but I do feel bad about not writing more. That will have to change.
This is part two of a series on Reaper's Bones lines of figures. The previous article,titled "What's the Deal With Reaper Bones?" concerned itself with a brief history of Reaper Miniatures and their Bones lines, and what their differences are. This article is going to describe how to get started cleaning and painting your Bones once you've figured out which ones you want. Some of the info in this article is linked to the previous one, such as the differences in removing mold lines between the three lines. This is because I felt it was better to cover such detail in a direct comparison article. So without further ado, crack open those blister packs and follow along.
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How to Handle Bones
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Washing Your Bones
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All three Bones lines need to be prepared similarly. Once you've opened the packs you need to wash them in soapy water. This is because they still have some of the release agent residue that is used to remove the models from the molds on them, so it's good to get that off. This is simply done by filling a bowl with water and some dish soap (like Dawn, Sunlight, etc.). Let the model sit in the soapy water, give it a bit of a stir, and then grab a toothbrush and give them a gentle scrub until you see a lather. For this I use a crummy toothbrush that I bought at a dollar store solely for working with models as opposed to teeth. Rinse the model off under tap water and you're ready to move onto the next step.
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Straightening Your Bones
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If you see any bits of the model that are bent, you need to get them back into position by submerging them, alternately and carefully, in hot, and cold water. Some models take to this method better than others, and I can't say I've had the patience of a saint with every figure I've tried to bend back. I have a skeleton with a spear that simply does not want to straighten no matter how many times I've tried this method, but for other figures I've found this to be successful.
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First I grab a bowl and fill it with boiling water. I drop the model in, and wait about five to ten minutes. I carefully grab the model using tongs or chopsticks and bend the pieces to where I want them to be with my fingers. I then submerge the model in a second bowl that is filled with ice water, and hold it there for another five to ten minutes. This process may need to be repeated, but should eventually yield a straightened model. I noticed that this is more necessary with Bones, than Bones Black, or Bones USA, but your milage with all three ranges may vary.
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Cleaning Your Bones
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After the model is completely dry from washing and straightening I begin removing mold lines. The differences between the three lines in this respect are detailed in their sections in the previous article on Bones.
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Painting Your Bones
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After the model is cleaned and ready to paint, I dig right in. There are three methods you can go about doing this, and I'll talk about them in order of least to most recommended:
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Spray priming is not recommended, though you can do it. The material on Bones and Bones Black don't take aerosols well, and your models can be tacky to the touch after the primer dries. Just don't do it.
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That being said, I noticed that after a decade of sitting in a figure case, the models I did spray prime when I first got my Kickstarter in 2012 and didn't know any better, seemed to lose most of their tackiness. However, I doubt anyone's going to want to wait ten years to paint their figures.
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Slapping some paint on to your figures is perfectly acceptable. This method is pretending your model is already primed and just painting it like you would any other primed figure. There are some caveats to this, though:
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You should begin with an undiluted, un-thinned, paint. Don't add water to your palette, don't use a wet palette; just take your paint straight from the pot/bottle, and paint it on. This goes against everything I've ever known about painting, but the Bones materials are very hydrophobic. If you add water to your paint, it will bead on the figure.
Once the Bones material is fully-covered, you can begin washing, shading, highlighting, and/or blending like you normally would, because you're painting onto the base coat of acrylic paint as opposed to the material. This actually leads us to my preferred method:
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Hand-applying a paint-on primer. I used Vallejo Surface Primers, and Warcolours' Nostalgia '88Smelly Primer, and while they felt tacky when they first dried, after twenty-four hours they felt normal, and were ready to paint. As described above, this doesn't actually need to be an actual primer, either. I also used some cheap craft acrylics that I bought at Michael's, and they worked well. I used Plaid's FolkArtMatte Pure Black (479), and Pale Gray (6463), and while they were a bit chalky, they worked fine, and are cheaper than Vallejo's paint-on primers. You could also just use a regular ol' acrylic paint in a neutral color, or in the main color of the figure, and work from there.
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The reason I like this third method is that it still provides that primer-like experience, and helps define the details of the model for when you start painting. Using the second method I described (just painting right over top the Bones as if it were already primed), I found it was a little tough to figure out what part was what on the model, and led to some paint bleeding over from one element of the figure to another. Obviously this is more of an issue with the original white Bones, than the gray Bones or the other two materials. If you keep this initial, all-over, coat thin yet water-free, it should create a great base over which to paint.
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No Bones About It
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So that's it! A little different than the way we're used to working with models, and a few more considerations to take in when doing so, but in the end you'll find that these models are satisfying to paint, and look great on the table. Like I said in the previous article, I love these figures, and though they've become more-expensive to get here in Canada, this won't affect my enthusiasm in trying to find the perfect, tiny, avatar for my role-play characters by combing through Reaper's catalog.
In this article I'm going to describe the main differences between Reaper Miniatures' various lines of plastic models: Bones, Bones Black, and Bones USA. I'll talk about what it's like working with the material, what I see as their various strengths and flaws, and even a bit of background between the ranges.
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Don't Fear the Reaper
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Reaper Miniatures is easily in the top three of my favorite miniatures companies. Their figures are high-quality, and the sheer size of their catalog simply can't be beat. Back in the early '00s they were a staple in almost every game shop, and while I'm sure that's still the case in the USA, up here in Canada they're harder to get. To my knowledge no Canadian distributor carries the full range of Reaper miniatures, and we're now relegated to ordering direct from their website, which, of course, comes with the specter of shipping fees. That being said, back when there were more Reaper packs on the shelf of my friendly local game shop, I would often base a new role-play character primarily on which model caught my eye. Even if the game I was playing didn't involve battle maps and miniatures, I would still paint one up to proudly sit near my character sheet.
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Originally Reaper miniatures were cast in pewter, and some still are. However, in the late 2000s/early 2010s Reaper began to experiment with different materials to make their models out of. This was because the price of tin (of which pewter is an alloy) was going up, and it became more expensive to cast figures out of it. They went for a 60:40 lead to tin ratio for their P-65 range, they toyed around with pre-painted plastic models with their Legendary Encounters range, and in 2012 they introduced a new plastic they dubbed Bones.
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I backed their first Kickstarter for Bones in 2012, and when I received my shipment of plastic models it contained over two-hundred miniatures in a bright-white, bendable, plastic. I'll admit at first I wasn't impressed. The models were too bendy and didn't set easily by bending them back, they didn't take spray primer well, and they felt a little cheap. This last gripe of mine is now one of their selling points as models have become more expensive in general in the last decade, while Bones has remained on the low end of model pricing. I eventually warmed to them as my preference of model material evolved with the industry from metal to plastic, and the quality of their Bones material only got better. I also became more accustomed to them once I figured out just how to work with them, as they're not the same as the high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) plastics I was used to from companies such as Games Workshop.
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So What Are Bones?
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"Bones" is the word Reaper uses for their plastic ranges of miniatures. There are currently three lines: Bones, Bones Black, and Bones USA. All are touted as being ready-to-paint right out of the pack, but do require a little bit of preparation like any model (see next week's article). They're 25mm in scale (roughly 1:72–1:60), feature integrated bases (sculpted on), and mostly come in one piece, however a few come in multiple pieces. They're made from a polymer plastic, but are not the same as HIPS. Though once they're painted the three lines are virtually indistinguishable, there are some differences that you'll notice when you see them on the shelf of your local game shop, and when you crack them out of their blister packs to start working on them.
Out in the wild you may see two different versions of this material, but they act mostly the same. The original Bones are pure white, and very bendy. Modern Bones are a light gray (which makes them look like they have more detail, but it's the same), and a little stiffer. I don't know if you can still buy the white Bones on the website, though you may see the photographs using the original material. You may see older packs of the white Bones in stores or through online shops, but you'll probably mostly see the new light gray stuff these days.
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This is my least-favorite of the three materials because it's really bendy and soft. It requires the most work right out of the package, but is fairly inexpensive. It's a bit tricky to clean mold lines off from. I found I had to peel away with a hobby knife like I'm paring fruit, and using metal files created little burrs. I read online that you should file in one direction multiple times, creating the burrs of plastic, then file in the other direction to remove them. I tried that and it seemed to work.
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I won't refuse to buy this material, but I will say, if I can find the same sculpt in Bones Black or Bones USA, I'll gladly pay the little extra to get the figure in those materials.
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Bones Black
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Bones Black is a much darker material than Bones, looking like a dark gray. They have the same amount of detail as Bones, but the material is harder. For this article I worked on Daschelle, Female Rogue.
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I really like this line of figures, as it's closer to a HIPS material in terms of hardness. It's not the exact same, though. You'll find that polystyrene cement doesn't work on gluing these figures. They were easier to clean than Bones, but I found that it wasn't as easy to clean as models made with HIPS.
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I don't have much more to say on this material other than to recommend the use of a good file and knife to get rid of any mold lines, and to be patient. If I can find a figure that I like in Bones USA or Bones Black, I'll get it before I start looking through the Bones Classic catalog.
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Bones USA
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Bones USA is the newest line of Bones, and my favorite of the three. For this article I worked on Lars Ragnarson.
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It has the smallest catalog at the moment, but it's steadily growing. As you can tell from the name, these models are cast in their factory in Texas, as opposed to the other two lines which are made in China. This line uses the new, and much-talked-about Siocast method. Siocast has two types of material that are known to outsiders as "soft" and "hard," with "hard" being newer and rarer than "soft." Though I don't have any definitive information, based on working with Bones USA and based on the fact that "hard" Siocast is incredibly new at the time of writing, I imagine Bones USA is currently being made with Siocast "soft." I won't go into detail about Siocast in this article, but you can find out more about it through the link I've provided above.
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Bones USA has great detail, has the fewest bent parts, and is a dream to work with. I used cyanoacrylate glue to attach the pieces, and didn't bother priming the figure before slapping paint on, and though it took a couple coats to get a good finish, it turned out really well. I haven't tried an aerosol primer on the one Bones USA figure I own, but I will on the next one I acquire.
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Cleaning the figure was easy, and I went about it the same as I would for pewter or HIPS, with the exception that the Citadel Mouldline Remover (which I normally love) took a bit of a chunk out of his shoulder pad. I didn't mind this, as the model represents a hardened Viking warrior, but on a model I don't want battle damage on, this would've been a bad thing. I would stick with files and knives on this "soft" material.
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Parting Shots
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As my taste in miniatures turns from pewter to plastic, I find that Reaper's Bones lines of figures exceeds my needs and wants. Not only do I gravitate towards their catalog when it comes time to plan out a character, but I love just digging into my big box of Kickstarter figures and grabbing something at random to paint. They let me practice different color schemes, or techniques, without having to worry about matching the other figures in an army. All the while they're a delight to paint, without sacrificing detail. My order of preference for finding figures definitely goes Bones USA > Bones Black > Bones, but at no stage do I feel like I'm settling, and there's a novelty in painting a model without primer.
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I hope this article was helpful in understanding the different types of Bones material, and I hope you'll give Reaper figures a shot if you haven't already. Check back next week when I talk a little more about getting these figures to the paint table.
