troops – Twitchy Bristles

Before, After, and Next Steps

Pictured, Guardian from 2018 vs. Storm Guardian from 2020.

Felt like I needed a win today, so I’m posting something fun. When I started painting Warhammer again back in 2018 I started with a handful of Guardians, Howling Banshees, and psykers, and after a couple of years I thought it would be neat to compare some of the first models I did with the models I’ve been painting more recently.

Pictured, Howling Banshee from 2018 vs. Howling Banshee from 2020.

I’m happy to say that I think I’ve made strides as far as my painting goes – the more recent colors pop better and I think I’m getting better at picking contrasting colors that look good together. More than that, though, using occasional resin bases, kitbashing, and my basing have all moved a little out of my original comfort zone and I’m excited to see what kind of improvements I’ll have made in another two years’ time.

Lastly, I want to add that because I’m working on a thesis right now and moving into “crunch” time I’m likely not going to be uploading much over the next month or so. Hoping to focus on that for a while and hopefully come back to painting refreshed – I have a few Eldar and Death Guard projects primed and ready to paint and a new “mystery” army I’m excited to build too.

Thanks for the support and views, and see you on the other side!

Storm Guardians

I said a year ago to some local friends I play with that I was never, ever going to build Storm Guardians because of how niche they are and how much the upgrades would cost. As fate would have it, though, I ended up with an extra few sprues of Guardians, and since I already have a regular 20-person Guardian blob I decided to do something different – so I tackled part of my shame pile and supported my local FLGS all at the same time.

Pictured are the whole ten-person squad with Flamers, Chainswords, and Aeldari Blades.

I’m happier with how these look than my regular Guardians and after playing with them a little (especially the chainswords!) I think I’m going to bring them along with my regular army a little more often! The resin parts were surprisingly easy to work with, my only complaint is the distribution of parts in the GW Storm Guardian kit – I ended up buying 2 upgrade kits and still didn’t have enough chainswords to equip a default squad.

In the most desperate of circumstances, the strategic needs of the craftworld will call for a group of Guardians to deploy as Storm Guardians – warriors specifically armed to fight in the maelstrom of close combat with shuriken pistols and elegantly balanced chainswords.

Plague Marines (Easy-to-Build)

Pictured: The Plague Champion, my personal favorite of the ETB models.

After the handful of Chaos Space Marine bits a friend gave me, I picked up the Death Guard painting kit and split a First Strike starter with the same friend, which gave me enough to put together a five-person squad. The Easy-to-Build kits were a fantastic place to start – they went together without any issues and looked wonderfully horrific.

Pictured: New ETB Plague Marines together with my kitbashed Plague Marines.

These were a lot of fun to put together, and for being “starter” or ETB marines they’re kitted out pretty decently too! The Blight Launchers are useful and the combination of Power Fist and Plasma Gun on the Champion are nothing to scoff at either. Really looking forward to running these and the rest of my Nurgle army once 9th Edition drops.

Abominations against nature, the Death Guard advance within clouds of flies, their weapons spitting death, their miasma spreading unnatural disease. Truly, Nurgle has blessed the Death Guard – their flesh bulging with corruption – and they wish to share these gifts of virulence across the galaxy.

Death Guard (Chaos Lord and Plague Marine Kitbashes)

Pictured, left to right: a Chaos Lord w/ Balesword and Power Fist, and two Plague Marines.

When I started getting back into 40k and painting I thought I was gonna go all in on an Eldar army and not really work on much else – but a local friend I play with had other ideas, and gifted me some Chaos Space Marine bits to play with. I was immediately hooked. The bits I was gifted turned into my first step into a tremendously fun, almost year-long painting project.

Pictured: A Plague Marine with a Plasma Gun on a Very Useful Engine ™.

A lot of the painting was done with sponge work – which was a new tool for me but I learned a lot by doing it, and ended up with some really interesting results. Drew a lot of painting inspiration from Spekd on Youtube (who is awesome, by the way – you can check out his community, reviews, and painting tutorials at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLsaW52-xDnFL2WsLhe0bmQ)!

The Heretic Astartes, also known as Chaos Space Marines, are fearsome foes. They have a Space Marine’s abilities, along with his gear of war, but since turning to the darker powers many also now bear powerful mutations or gifts from their patron Chaos Gods, making them mightier still.

Dire Avengers

Devotees of Asuryan himself, those who walk the path of the Dire Avenger become adept at both attack and defence. Their exarchs are masters of a swift and flexible warrior-stance that capitalises on everything it means to be Asuryani.

Dire Avengers were a change of pace for me! Up to this point my only Troops units for Eldar have been Guardians or Rangers, but when a friend gifted me a box of them last year I was thrilled to be able to work on them, and to add them to my regular Eldar lists.

Pictured is yet another Fire Emblem reference – the fam’s all here!

Most of these were just done straight from the box but I did a little kitbashing with a couple of them to make homages to Fire Emblem characters, since the friend who got me to the box is a huge Fire Emblem fan. I’m very happy in the end with how they turned out, kitbashes and all, and I’m excited to see how they do on the tabletop.