An Army WIP
I was sent this hobby journal request by one of our readers. I met Jeff at the Michigan GT and really enjoyed talking with him about painting and playing. We're always happy to help encourage the hobby so when he asked to journal his new undertaking with space marines I was more than happy to put it up. He has a long road ahead of him and I hope we can all follow and encourage him through his journey.
-Chris Vinton
Hello, for those of you that I have not yet met, my name is Jeff. I have been playing 40k in the Grand Rapids area for 10 years now. In that time I have built and owned nearly every army including; Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Deamons, Tryanids, Black Templar, Dark Eldar, and recently added a Tau army with some Eldar allies.
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| That's me in the red shirt with my deamons on the ground |
I have always considered myself more of gamer than a hobbyist. Yes I have painted many models but I rarely painted anything that wasn’t for a tournament, or more specifically for an Adepticon tournament. With the birth of my first child I have even commissioned an army as the time required to build and paint it was more than I could accommodate within my schedule.
Although I have a hard time finding the inspiration and time to paint I am finding that I actually miss it as well. Rather than focusing this army for Adepticon 2014 I figured I would use the Dark Future Gaming as a way to keep me motivated to build and paint a new army.
So what am I thinking?
With the new Space Marine book out I am looking to start a new army. Now being a gamer and understanding how expensive this hobby can be I want t make sure that I leave myself with enough flexibility to add units later and not be locked into some predefined fluff by GW as the way I want to play my army will change in the future. I also want to be able to leverage my new army across as many codices as possible to allow me to field the army I want to play, when I want to play it.
I am also looking for an army that is different from Tau/Eldar army which is more of a static gun line. I would like to, at least initially, have units that bring some durability and mobility to my games while also providing some opportunity to leverage them as allies with my Tau.
The final consideration is my painting ability. I am by no means a golden daemon level painter. I am really good with simple techniques, like drybrush & wash, combined with strong color choices.
The idea being that I will chronicle the process of army creation from initial list building through play(proxy) testing, purchasing, building, painting. Giving you an opportunity to see the army progress and help keep me motivated as I work on it.
Here is a brief outline of what I am planning so far.
• Initial Army List Thoughts
• Thoughts on chapter history, fluff, iconography.
• Why Play test
• Lessons Learned from Play testing
• Thoughts on basing
• Army (purchase) list.
• Planned Conversions
• Test Model.
• Assembly Line or Craftsman Painting
• Unit Construction & Painting (1…N)
• Display board construction
Hopefully Jeff learns a lot through this series and can share his insights with us. We look forward to hearing more from you!