To paint, or not to paint ?

Between the paint and the knife , what do you chose ? I choosed the knife and started the preparation of the missing minis. I must say that after hours spended brush in hand to finish in time the 8 terminators required for Med Tour , I was "calmed down" with the brush.

So I prepared the command squad and various missing terminators. The bitz box was put to use without restrictions, and I don't want to stop here!

Two figures are missing in this army presentation : Belial and the Dreadnought. A new Belial is in preparation, equipped with a pair of lightning claws. And rather than take the already painted dread , I'll paint a new one, based on the Games Workshop plastic venerable Dread kit.

Belial and it's command squad

Two years ago, I tried to add a command squad to Belial. I painted the banner bearer and... stopped. But now I am on an -almost- all new 3k Dark Angels army project for the Med Tour 2014, I'm motivated ! 

Belial and it's command squad

Using bitz from the Deathwing Knights box, I mounted an apothicary, a slayer and two guards to escort Belial. All the shoulder pads are from Scibor. They need some work but are totally worth it !

Belial is equiped with a Space Wolf lightning claws. I founded them better than the Dark Angels ones. (And I  love the idea of having wome SW bitz on a DA mini).

And to apologise for being late, here is a WiP of the all new Dreadnought.

Plan. To know where to go.

My major problem, apart from the volume of minis in stock, is to plan painting. Not that I don't like painting minis. But I don't know anything more frustrating than spending hours on a mini to see it waiting on the shelf. For a long time. A very a long time.

This is why I prepare, plan, anticipate and try as much as possible to stick to my painting planning. It runs over one year, from September to July, August being booked by vacancies, family and Med Tour. And this year, I set the red line : to mount and renew, a 100% Deathwing army for the Med Tour 2014.

3k Dark Angels army, Work in Progress…

In order to motivate myslef, I started by leaving the figurines out of the shelfs. I disposed the army on a plate, with empty bases for the missing terminators, in the center of the "Holly Hobby room". Permanent recall of the objective to be reached…

To mount and renew. My first Dark Angels appeared in 2008, the color diagram changed since. This is why I decided to renew all my 4k+ points DA army...

Are new Space Marines shiny enough ?

Let's be clear : this won't be another all Games Workshop hate post. I jus't won't buy the all new Space Marines Codex.

I'm a Dark Angels player, enjoying GW games since 2002. I started with Warhammer and started 40k one year after. 

I enjoy 40k and Space Marines. I played SMC(v3), Necrons(v4), Tau(v4), Dark Angels(v4), Space Marines(v5) and finally came back to my first love with 40kv6 : Dark Angels.

When I saw the new SM minis, I cried tears of joy ! The Vets sprues are what I dreamed about since I played. They avec good postures, helmets and armors are awesome, we get all the guns options... But I won't buy anything. [Cymbals !]

My working place.

On the picture, you can see a red coach. Which is completly full of 40k minis... All unpainted. And the black one under is full of non 40k minis. All un painted too. I think that's two good reason.

The other reason is I won't race for the top anymore.

The new codex contains new guns. New units. All new and shiny. All new and SO FREAKING POWERFULL ! Space Marines will be the army to be played for the next month. Many will buy it, mount it and play it. -I didn't say paint it, too hard-

During my last tournament, I met three gamers type : 

1. only here to win (ready to cheat)
2. wanna be a player (unpainted army) 
3. "cool bro, it's only a game"

Gamers like #1 and #2 will buy this damn new codex, play a cheesy army and feel like the king of the world. I will stay with my Dark Angels, play an army with tactical squads, assault marines and so on. And it won't be an army to win at any price, it'll be an army to have pleasure with !

Forget players 1 and 2, they won't understand. I had a fantastic game with #3. We both were fighting... for the last place ! We wanted it !

But we didn't play crap. We both had good but cool armies, fully painted, and we throw everything we had in battle to win this fight. If you don't offer a challenge, where's the pleasure ?

It gave me another point of view : we can play for pleasure, for the game, for both of us. This is why I'll keep playing Dark Angels, the army I dreamed to play since I saw a Deathwing terminator on a Space Hulk box.