Boomdakka snazzwagon

Painting up 40k stuff is bit of a love/hate affair with me.  I’m a fan of the setting and the minis can be really interesting, they should be fun to paint up. Like most people my first 40k minis were space marines specifically the new metal devastators and predictor tank. They were amazing especially when compared to my spare crusade marines. I remember them being incredibly threatening looking and dreamed of one day owning a dreadnought. I was also really drawn to the elder but never picked any up in fact those are the only sci fi minis I remember owning until I was in my 20s.

I was on leave from the navy, flush with cash after 3 months at sea and stuck at my parents house with nothing to do. I can’t remember when I stopped painting, it was sometime in high school it’s not easy to keep going when no one else is interested, but this was my first restart. I picked up an Ork war buggy and some fantasy boys. It was a lot of fun painting them up and I remember being really impressed with my paint job getting some nice chipping effects on the buggy and human skin on the Orc shields and drums. Then it was back to sea and I never got back to my painting for the same reasons as high school. I would pick up the odd white dwarf here and there but that’s about it. 

It wasn’t until I started in a new job 5 years ago that I once again had the time and money to get back into it. Cruising through the internet I found a few blogs that got me inspired again namely ‘Realm of Chaos 80s’ and ‘Hoodlings hole’ I also found miniwar gaming on YouTube. One day I decided to pull the trigger and bought the Army Painter starter set online and a couple of goblin shaman from the game shop where I had first seen blister packs in the 80s. Since then I have bought a pack of space marines and a couple of characters but have only painted two tactical marines which I never enjoyed. I also bought a predator which I did enjoy although being quite inexperienced then I think it was painted in too many sub assemblies and it was all brush painted rather than using a rattle can. Safe to say that although I love the look of many 40k minis the space marines really put me off. A lot of the minis have that same power armour look that I don’t think I would enjoy painting. Until they made a Mad Max war buggy!

This was an instant buy for me. It’s amazing and I want more, if my Goliath gang is fun to paint I will definitely be buying another one to convert as a gang buggy. I tried a few new things with it including my new scale 75 paints. The reds are scale 75 and I spent a bit of time trying to get a nice blend although it’s not really noticeable I think it needs more contrast between the dark and light reds. The black is chaos black with a dark reaper highlight which looks fine too. I like how the goblin skin came out but not so happy with the orcs. Again both were painted with scale75 and I think the orks needed a lighter highlight colour. I was focusing on trying to do smooth blended highlights it needs more practise though as the skin looks a little flat, it’s also too dark but there you go you have to try these things. The road is cork with dry brushing and washes which I think turned out nice.  

All in all it was a lot of fun to paint up and I’m also slowly working away on a knight titan which has been enjoyable so far. While it’s unlikely I will pick up any primarus marines I have ordered a Swarmlord as my valentines gift and who knows I might even pick up a dreadnought and some elder at some point. 

Thanks for reading.