Alright, break’s over. Time to grind some backlog.
I painted ten Imperial Guardsmen:
Since the last Astra Militarum Codex got rid of heavy weapons in squads, these guys are mostly fillers for already-painted squads. Of particular note are the four grenade launchers!
Ten off the pile, and only ten of these guys left in my original Imperial Guard force - I only have heavy weapons and command squads to to go after that.
BATG Score: +86
And since I have the self-control of a mollusc, I added some more dudes:
A terminator librarian and a Horus Heresy Praetor.
2 on the pile.
BATG Score: +88
You better keep adding… in case you haven’t noticed, I’m catching up!!!
I’m not sure a high BATG score is ‘good’… but we can’t have mediocre BATG scores either! Go big or go home 
Yeah, I’m dancing on the edge and flirting with disaster! But I’m still dedicated to the fight, there’s plenty of time to get this into balance.
There’s been a few moments in the last couple of weeks where I’ve been very very tempted to add some big batches of models to the pile, hoping to kickstart my motivation - but I’ve stayed strong.
Strong.
I’ve instead cracked open the cupboard (actually wardrobe) and reached into my pile of shame to pull out an old project: Word Bearers.
I started these in 2010 or so, as a “low effort” project to distract me from Warmachine, which I was playing a lot of at the time. It ended up going onto the back burner, as these things do, but it’s about fifty models that are basically ready for paint - although they’re so old that they’re all on 25mm bases!
I ordered some more-appropriate bases for them and had them express posted overnight to strike while the motivation lasted, and they arrived this morning.
I have so far painted and rebased two Obliterators.
Two off the pile, and 50 more models on the painting table.
BATG Score: +86
My motivation is holding so far, and I’ve squeaked out a little more painting time over the weekend and finished painting another 2 Obliterators:
I also put the finishing touches (and bases) on 5 Chaos marines (visible in the last post):
I am… regretting my choice of experiment with this project, to paint the bases separately from the models. Particularly with the Obliterators, where I’ve had to futz around with too-weak superglue and drilling all the way through resin bases - but even with the regular Chaos marines I’m going to spend forever wondering if the superglue will hold when it’s attached over paint.
They look decent enough though, so I’m not going to be too upset.
7 off the pile.
Also, I’ve decided it’s too much hassle to set up extra lighting to use my broken light box, so I’ve finally accepted that I just have to buy a new one. It’s on its way - so future pictures should be back at the standard I started this journey at!
BATG Score: +79
I haven’t run out of momentum yet, so I’m still working on the Word Bearer collection I found in the cupboard:
Five more traitorous nasty pasties.
With that, I’ve finished the first squad:
I think I’ve used a different colour on the base rims in each batch, but I’ll fix that in due course.
There’s about fifty more of these guys left if I don’t get distracted. We’ll see how that goes.
For now, that’s five off the pile.
BATG Score: +74
I lied about the momentum, apparently, because oh boy has it been hard to paint for the last few weeks! My enthusiasm for the Word Bearers waned almost immediately after I ran out of models that were already base coated.
I have been doing a lot of staring at lists and rotating things on and off my desk in the hope of finding something that inspires me to put brush on model, with not much success - the oncoming release of Horus Heresy 3rd edition means I don’t want to get too deep into painting models that might not be valid in the new edition (like… all of my Militia), the weather has been hostile to any big building sessions (it’s too cold to open a window to let poly cement fumes out) and I just wasn’t feeling super inspired to paint models for any of the systems I don’t actually play.
Until… I saw that there’s a Badab War event coming up.
I did get a little excited about Badab earlier this year and put together a little collection of Carcharodons but I’ve realised there’s an appendix in the Liber Badab that adapts 5th edition Imperial Guard to the Badab/Horus Heresy ruleset quite nicely.
And if you’ve been following my battle against the grey much at all, you’ll know that Imperial Guard is one range I have no shortage of models for!
With that little burst of motivation, I’ve pulled up a spreadsheet and put together a 1500 point list that will help me get a few things painted.
First on the list is this pair of Sentinels:
And I’ll just pause here to say HELL YEAH I got a new light booth! Very happy to have it back and hopefully it’ll help with motivation going forward.
The sentinels have both been awaiting paint for quite some time: I bought one of them in the late 2000s when I was still playing 40k semi-regularly, while the other one I bought secondhand late last year and has clearly been well-used.
I didn’t do anything special for them, just a solid basecoat of metal on the legs and grey on the body, with a few washes and highlights.
That’s two off the pile.
Also, in the hope of finding some motivation I did add a little to my collection last week.
You can’t see it through the baggies but it’s five robed space marine bodies to add heavy weapons to my Word Bearers, and a Genestealer Cult Primus that I’m planning to convert into an officer for my Militia.
That’s six on the pile, for a net gain of four onto the pile.
BATG Score: +78
The momentum continues!
I’m sticking with my midhammer Imperial Guard and going to try and get all the infantry done this year - it’s really very close.
This next batch includes two Lascannon heavy weapon teams, counting for two models each:
And some command models - two Vox operators and a Company Standard:
They’re all distributed around Several command squads: Gold (borrowing a Noble to act as the Commander for now), Red and Green:
Finally, here’s one of all three Command units for good measure:
I’m very glad to have the light box back in action but I’m finding my current phone somewhat finicky compared to my last one - before, I just had to focus and crank up the exposure, but these pictures all took quite a bit of post-production to stop them looking completely shadowed.
Anyway, I’ll keep working on that. 7 off the pile.
Total BATG score: +71
I painted 5 Death Guard with Autocannons:
No lightbox, no commentary, I’ve got a dreadful headache.
5 off the pile.
BATG Score: +66
Well I’m feeling a little better and did some more painting today, finishing up a unit of Grave Wardens for my Death Guard:
Unlike the autocannon guys, I put these through the light booth for a brighter picture.
Otherwise, they’re almost entirely the same process. I did try a bit of novelty in the metals, playing with some darker metallic copper colours (ProAcryl Dark Bronze and Army Painter Roguh Iron) but I ended up highlighting both with Vallejo Copper anyway.
I’m experimenting with mixing different metals together to get a paint that behaves the way I want (Vallejo Metal Colour is too runny, the others are too thick) but at this point I might just have to accept that I hate painting metallics and be glad I never got into painting Iron Warriors.
I’m following these up with some ten flamer-armed Deth Guard I built a little while ago, and tried to get them done today but got bogged down - once again - in the metals.
For now, five off the pile.
EDIT: Oh hey, I’ve painted 100 models this year. Neat!
BATG Score: +61
Uh, it’s been a pretty rough week, but I’ve squeaked out some painting time. I painted a Death Guard Support Squad with flamers:
Uh… no light booth again. I squeaked out painting time, not photography time.
Ten off the pile.
BATG Score: +51
So… as we know, my weakness appears to be Horus Heresy space marines.
And, uh… the new box came out, and I wanted it.
So I got it. And I preordered it.
And I’ve been excited about it for around three weeks, community noise aside.
Here it is:
This box is colossal. It weighs more than six kilograms. It’s enormous. The delivery guy was clearly struggling with it a bit, and a heap of people online have reported damage to the models.
It’s a lot of plastic!
Fortunately, my sprues only had some superficial scuffing and mostly limited to places that will be hidden on the finished models, or it’s on the aquilas - and seeing as my Death Guard are traitors, that seems fine to me.
This box includes:
I’m most excited about all the MkII dudes, since my Death Guard project is mainly about mass painting, but the Saturnine stuff is growing on me as I see lots of stuff about their versatility and posability.
This obviously is a huge hit to my BATG score - 50 models, including a couple of beefy things which will no doubt need a lot of love to get done. I’m note quite giving up on a positive score for the year, but I’m certainly no fool. I know what I’ve done here. There’s a 50-point penalty in Shame Golf for preordering this, too, so I’m going to have to sell some stuff if I want to offset that.
The Horus Heresy Discord has a Challenge to paint 1500 points of Heresy by September, so I’m going to try and complete that, but we’ll see how we go.
Also I picked up a Siege Breaker Consul because the one I finished earlier this year hasn’t got a Thunder Hammer and that’s a mandatory piece of equipment now:
So that brings me to 51 onto the pile, for this post. I will need to put some serious work in, and attempt some serious self-restraint, to crack net zero this year.
We’ll see what happens when the Militia PDF for Horus Heresy releases in August…
BATG Score: +102
Oof, it’s been a while between updates again, I’ve been dealing with a lot of Real Life recently so not had much time for painting. Rather than work on a single unit at once, I’ve been doing some batch work on my Death Guard to bring them to a level where I can finish them in occasional short sessions.
The first of those batches is done:
These are the companion models to my very first Death Guard models, finished way back when. These models bring them up to a full strength Tactical Squad of ten, so they might count as a bonus point for Shame Golf (lol). EDIT: They do.
They were painted in the same way as the rest of my Death Guard: Wraithbone, a Pallid Wych Flesh drybrush, Vallejo Gunship Green, Vallejo Metal Colour Steel & Copper, with a diluted Army Painter Strong Tone wash to bring it all together at the end.
I have again not had the time to set up the photo box to get better pictures.
More soon, I promise!
Five off the pile, and I’m back under 100.
BATG Score: +97
Again, I haven’t had a lot of hobby time recently but I’ve taken a few days off and spent day one doing hobby.
Mostly, I did some prep and base coating, but I got this chappy painted up from go to woah:
Now that the new Imperialis Militia rules are out for Horus Heresy 3ed, Force Commanders have a 3+ save so I figured I’d build him a bit more heavily armoured than my last couple of commanders.
I also give him a forward facing crest to evoke the Space Marine Legion Praetors - I actually used the one from the Legion Praetors with sword from the last HH starter box. Peeking out from behind him you should be able to see an original RTB01 space marine backpack, to help sell that 3+ save look.
I’m quite happy with this one.
One off the pile.
BATG Score: +96
Okie dokie, today is one of those “one step forward, two steps back” days, literally.
The step forward? I finished up a Lascannon sentinel for my Imperial Guard, that will do double duty in my Heresy Militia force:
I followed the same scheme that I did for the first two, and I’m really happy with the squad altogether:
I have two more sentinels of this vintage new in box, but I think I’ll test them out on the battlefield before I decide whether or not to bulk the squad out to 5 engines. I might end up wanting 2 more multilaser sentinels or opt to get a third one and build a sentinel squad with heavy flamers, so I’m not going to tip my hand just yet.
The two steps back? When the Heresy Militia PDF released a little while ago I got very excited about the list finally including a unit listing that gives the Genestealer Cult Goliath Truck a home in the Heresy. The spare crew on the back have been tempting me for ages, too, since one of them is holding some weapon controls that would look great behind a Rapier platform.
I went hunting and found a pair almost 50% off with an eBay code, so naturally I had to pick them up. They arrived today:
So, one off the pile and two back on the pile. Now I’m going to stop adding models until I get below positive-fifty.
We’ll see how I go.
BATG Score: +97
These don’t count because the hulls aren’t new but I did paint up these turrets today.
I’ve also got the bike riders from my January hospital stay basecoated and waiting for me to figure out what bits of bike will be what colour.
I’m hoping to get the ten of them done in the next few days, and then I’ll just have my Cargo-8 left to paint for my first 3k for 3rd ed Heresy force.
It took more than a few days, and only half are done, but I’ve finished a unit of Cavalry for my Heresy Militia.
You’ll have to excuse the wonky lighting, I’m still having a hard time figuring out the combination of my light box and my phone camera (my old phone camera was much better, funnily enough!). I had to put this pic through a few filters to get it to look even this clear.
EDIT: here’s a slightly better picture:
Regardless, this unit is done. I have another unit of five to do, but might paint something else first.
Five off the pile.
BATG Score: +92
Hey hey kids, it’s a real update! This one’s been coming for a long time.
I painted ten Imperial Guard:
These specific guys have been on my painting desk for about three months, just kind of mocking me and demanding a little attention every time I’ve sat down to work on something else.
The army has been work-in-progress since the Cadian plastic kit first came out back in 2002.
Why does this matter?
Because these are the last basic infantry out of the 120 Cadian basic infantry in my collection.
There’s still a few heavy weapons teams and command models to do, but this is pretty much the absolute peak of young Fuzzy’s aspirations. Once I’ve gotten everything done, I will of course have to go back and add unit markings to everything but that doesn’t count.
I promise a pic of all of them soon.
Ten off the pile.
BATG Score: +82
OWO what’s this?
Skitarii? Sort of?
I’ve had a pile of Skitarii sitting around, left over from stealing their heads to use on Heresy Militia. I had intended to sell them as just the Rangers but the secondhand AdMech market is pretty flooded - it’s at a perfect point where there’s effectively no market for built or partial Skitarii kits but somehow it’s not quite good value to just buy the full kits for the helmets. I bought them all in previous years so they’re not technically new on the pile 
but they are definitely on the pile now.
I was musing on this and I got a sudden burst of inspiration from a Reddit post showing off someone’s unpainted Ad Mech army, which looked like a fun set of models that I could reach pretty easily. I really do quite like the Ad Mech range, and would love to have a fully painted army some day.
So I pulled my Skitarii off the “for sale” pile and built a few with some Solar Auxilia heads that I had, ironically enough, bought for my Heresy Militia.
Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I put these together roughly following the Midwinter Minis video where he cut off the jackets and used pouches to hide the odd pants.
Then I painted them, I suppose. Somehow they’ve come out looking like Cadians. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but here’s how I did it:
These felt a bit fiddly, and I’m not sure if it’s just me getting the hang of a new kit or if I was taking my time, particularly. I don’t know if I’ll do more of these, it might end up like my forays into Sons of Horus, Aeldari, and Troggoths… (I.e., abandoned).
Anyway, for now that’s five off the pile.
BATG Score: +77
Help I messed up.
I’ve been going back and forth on what I wanted to do about Grenadiers for my Heresy Militia, what with Heresy 3rd edition launching and my list needing a hard reorganise.
So of course I decided on the option that required buying the most boxes of dudes.
Over the course of October, I’ve added:
That’s +51 and I think I need to take a week off to paint terrain before the year ends or I’m going to end the year in positive triple digits.
I told my wife I’d try not to buy any models in November but I think I need another box of Neophytes so we’ll see how we go.
BATG Score: +128
