My best figure of 2024

I have not painted a lot of miniatures this year, mostly the Legions Imperialis Army and a couple of figures here and there. So when the time came to choose the "best" mini of the year, it was easy, the Cozy Bust I painted back in January!

This is the second bust I have painted and the biggest one so far, I had a blast doing it and I already have another one waiting... I really want to get to it in 2025!

(there are many more pictures in the original post linked above)

10th Anniversary

Hoy se cumplen 10 años desde que publiqué el primer post un 8 de diciembre de 2014.

En ese primer momento no tenía muy claro si realmente me gustaría tener un blog o no, pero desde luego que no era la primera vez que me picaba el gusanillo. Y como siempre he sido muy ordenado y metódico con el hobby me atraía la idea de tener un sitio donde podía guardarlo todo categorizado.

En un primer momento, los objetivos del blog según los definí en aquel post eran:

La idea de este blog es echar la vista atrás y hacer memoria para recopilar lo que coleccioné en el pasado así como seguir el día a día de mis colecciones actuales.

Tengo ahora mismo tres proyectos activos:

• Una colección de los personajes de la Herejía de Horus de Forgeworld
• Un ejército eldar de Iyanden
• Un ejército oldhammer de Skaven

Diez años después puedo decir que sigo totalmente de acuerdo con la parte de seguir el día a día de mis colecciones actuales. Aunque de los proyectivos activos, tan sólo dos de tres fueron completados (Eldar y Skaven); el proyecto de los Primarcas es algo que he ido posponiendo cada año dándole prioridad a pintar otros juegos y ejércitos, sin embargo es algo que me gustaría retomar en algún momento.

Echando la vista atrás, en estos diez años he conseguido completar muchos más proyectos de los que podría haberme imaginado. Realizando un pequeño repaso serían:

• Un ejército Eldar (que vendí)
• Un ejército de Culto Genestealer
• Un mini ejército de Tiránidos
• Un ejército enorme de Hijos de Horus para Horus Heresy
• Un Kill Team de Templarios Negros
• Un ejército de Hijos de Horus para Legions Imperialis
• Cinco equipos de Blood Bowl
• Un ejército de Skavens enorme que sigo usando (ahora para The Old World)
• Dos bandas de Warcry
• Una banda para Age of Sigmar de Nighthaunt
• Un ejército de Romanos para DBA
• Un HeroQuest clásico
• Un Space Hulk
• Un Silver Tower
• Un Walking Dead: The all out war
• Varios juegos de mesa como el Forbidden Stars o Scythe
• Además de muchas otras miniaturas sueltas de diferentes colecciones tanto de fantasía como ciencia ficción como de vitrina

En cuanto a los números...

• He publicado un total de 388 posts siendo 2019 el año que más publiqué (61)
• He pintado 1070 miniaturas siendo 2020 el año que más pinté (185)
• He acumulado más de 100.000 visualizaciones y 150 comentarios siendo este post el más popular de todos con casi 2k visualizaciones (no entiendo el motivo, imagino que salió publicado en algún sitio que le dio visibilidad).
• He jugado un montón de partidas a muchos juegos aunque menos de las que me hubiera gustado, y he publicado incluso algunos pseudo informes de batalla y reports de torneos

Mis objetivos para el blog siguen en la línea iniciada en 2014, que se resume en seguir publicando todos mis proyectos.

De tal forma que los tenga todos clasificados y catalogados, esto me permite retomar y ampliarlos incluso años después de haber "terminado" ya que tengo guardadas las recetas de pintura, las ideas o incluso las extensiones que nunca llevé a cabo. También me ayuda con la motivación para seguir y completarlos, ya que me proporciona mucha satisfacción acabar un proyecto, postear el "Armies on Parade" y poder continuar con otras ideas. Además, al marcarme unos objetivos cada año y realizar un inventario de la montaña de plástico y plomo me permite también evitar acumular sin sentido y mantener la cantidad de proyectos abiertos bajo control.

En resumen, estoy muy satisfecho con la trayectoria hasta la fecha y ¡espero seguir por otros 10 años!

Terminator Support

Since I started to play with the Sons of Horus and I included a Thunderhawk, I always wanted to be able to field 8 Terminators, which is the maximum you can.

Unfortunately, there are only two bases in the starter box and another two in the Infantry Support, so that makes it complicated. But luckily, 3D printing comes to the rescue! I sadly still do not own a printer, but a colleague of mine was kind enough to gift me enough terminators for another 4 bases which I promptly painted and had ready to play.

These models are great. There are more variety and they even have a Standard Bearer, a Techmarine and a couple of Centurions. There is even a base with Heavy Weapons. I have painted them in the same way I painted the others so they can easily blend in.

Here they are!

Warhound Titans

After having painted all the Knights it was the turn of the first Titans of the Army, a couple of Warhound Titans!

First, I needed to choose a Legio. After reading the lore of traitor Legions, I had a winner: Legio Mortis! Not only they are the most obvious one for the Sons of Horus, but also they match quite nicely with House
Ærthegn that I chose for the Knights.

I have adapted the patterns seen here for my Titans and I plan to do the same for the Reaver and the Warlord.

After having painted a "clean" version of the Titans, I chose to apply different weathering techniques to give them a worn feel that fits better with the rest of the army, but without making them look destroyed. I was aiming for a well-worn and dusty type of look.

One interesting thing to mention is that I have used decals like I did for the Knights, and after applying Micro Sol I added a fine layer of matt varnish, to protect them from the weathering that was coming. It turned out exactly as I wanted and I am very satisfied with the result. They look like freehands and that is amazing. I will be using this technique more often in the future. I have done a few close-ups of these decals. Most of the photos turned out blurry, somehow I was not able to capture the whole miniature in focus.

In the last few photos you can see that all weapons and body are magnetized so I can easily choose and swap whatever I need for each battle.

I had a lot of fun painting these and I am super excited to start with the Reaver which is already on my desk!

Cerastus Knights Lancer

These are the last two Knights of the Army and the first time I paint a Cerastus (in any scale) although I still have one in the box for my 28mm scale Sons of Horus!

They belong to the Ærthegn House, same as the Questoris I painted before.

The House symbol is a freehand and everything else is a decal with Microsol with a bit of weathering. I also applied some splatters with Typhus Corrosion and some light weathering on the armour plates on the legs.

I have roughly followed the paint scheme shown in these pictures. I hope you like them and next onto the Warhounds!

Questoris Knights

Honestly, after having tried Knights and Titans in Legions Imperialis I am not sure that they are worth their points, but I still like to have them as part of the Army. They have a tendency to die very fast without killing enough enemy points but I just love them.

They belong to the Ærthegn House, same as the Knight I painted for 28mm scale for my Sons of Horus Army (see here and here).

They were painted quite fast following this recipe:

1. Paint all metal areas with Boltgun metal
2. Nuln oil wash
3. Dark brown wash on some areas
4. Paint black all armour panels
5. Paint base following the same recipe as the rest of the Army
6. Add red stripes and details to armour
7. Paint details (some gold, blue for windows, etc)
8. Add light weathering to weapons and exhausts
9. Add decals
10. Varnish

This is also the first time that I have used Microsol for decals to make sure they adapt to non-flat surfaces like the pauldrons and other areas of the miniature, after having read about it for years and being skeptical I must say I am deeply impressed by the results. After applying a couple of thin layers the decal pretty much dissolves and blends into the colours that you have painted so it looks like a freehand. The only thing that pops out is the white, which I tuned down with a very thin layer of watered black. After that, they were ready for battle!

One thing to mention is that I did not have proper decals for the house symbol so it is the only thing that is freehand from the miniature, aside from the red/black/yellow stripes of course.

Thunderhawk

After so many years in the hobby I can finally say that I am a proud owner of a Thunderhawk! Well, it is not the classic 1997 metal one but the new amazing plastic kit for Legions Imperialis which is fairly similar to the original one.

I have painted it in the same style as the rest of the Army, and thanks to the green done with airbrush it took roughly 2 hours to paint. Following the same style as the rest of the Army, it is just tabletop and ready to be played!

Legions Imperialis Civitas Imperialis Administratum Sector

After having painted all the infantry and tanks of the Army I thought it was the right time to take a group picture to see what's left. Basically, I have 10 "miniatures" pending: 5 Knights, 4 Titans and 1 Thunderhawk. I hope to paint at least a couple of those before the end of the year, as stretch goals.

Now that I have an Army that is big enough to play up to 2k games, I decide to buy some scenery so that I could host games at home. I bought one Administratum Sector and one set of Ruins and after removing all of them from the sprues I was a little bit overwhelmed... you can see in the picture below the insane amount of pieces I had. I think I spent around 5 or 6 hours just removing them from the sprue and cleaning mold lines, and a couple more assembling them. After building several of the "standard" ones, I decided to build a super big one, enough to hide a Titan (Reaver though) behind it!

Once I deploy all the scenery is more than enough to cover 5'x4' which is the standard Legions table size. I hope to paint them using airbrush experiment a little bit with different shades and weathering techniques.

Legiones Astartes Support

And this marks the last post with all the miniatures of the Support Box and therefore all Infantry and Dreadnoughts of the Army! I have completed the stretch of the original goal!

Here you can see two Rapiers and four Tarantulas. Honestly, I don't like them too much. I only field them if I need to add some units for the points, but usually I'd rather not field them. You will also notice that two Rapiers are missing as I gave those away to a friend that will put them to much better use since he plays Iron Warriors.