Time for a Soak?

I'm closing in on a week of soaking my Marines and I wonder if I'll ever get the primer off of them.  I've probably spent close to 3 hours scrubbing so far.  I have 20 Marines, 20 backpacks and 20 weapons soaking.  At this rate  I'll have them all cleaned up sometime around Christmas!  At least the Super Clean isn't showing an wear on the models so it looks like time is on my side.

Maybe my Marines will soak up some of the Purple and make it easier to paint?  If only I could get so lucky!

Meltdown Prime

So my first priming event was unsuccessful.

In a way I'm glad.  You always hear the first time is always the hardest, well it's true.

In order to fix my mistake I'm now soaking my Marines in a Tupperware tub filled with Super Clean!!!

They've soaked for a day but need a little more time.  I couldn't find a hard bristle brush at Wally World so I ended up with a medium bristle.  I tried scrubbing for about a half hour on two pieces with mixed results.  I'm thinking that density difference in the brushes makes a big difference!  I'll give it another run tomorrow tonight and we'll see what happens.

Prime Time Priming!

So I finally caught a break in the weather this afternoon!!!!!  And priming quickly commenced.

For my first attempt at it I was pretty impressed with my results.  I definitely learned a lot!  A few got powdery and I'll have to figure out how to fix them.  Should I sand them down or just rub the powder off and add a second coat of primer?  Guess I'll wing it unless anyone has a suggestion?

While I was working on the weapons and backpacks a storm sprung up and I had to rush so I'll have to refinish some of those as well.  At least when I get the priming done I can get serious about painting and I wont have to worry about the weather.  The joys of having four walls and a roof!

Rainy Days

Well so far weather has been my biggest obstacle in priming my army.  If it's not raining it's been way to humid for me to get up the courage to attempt it.  I'm hoping things will clear up by this weekend so I can get down to work.

In the meantime I've been playing Dawn of War II and I must say some of the new elements are a lot of fun.

I've always considered myself a Space Marine type of guy but some of the game modes have caused me to reconsider this stance.  I played as a Nid tonight and really enjoyed it.

I was afraid I'd feel dirty, but low and behold I feel untouched by the filth of the Warp.  Wonders never cease.

Current Army List

OK so here's what I've got so far:

1 Chaplain

1 Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer

1 Terminator Squad

1 Space Marine Bike

1 Dreadnought

2 10 man Tactical Squads

1 Space Marine with Plasma Gun

So my questions are these:

How many total points does my army have now?  ( I still don't have a Codex, CHG was out this weekend)

What do I need to fill the gaps?

Soul Drinkers

So I've made a decision on my army.  I'm going full bore with the Soul Drinkers.  I'll probably add a Death Watch Squad at some point to help keep an eye on things.  The above depiction is the color scheme I've decided on.  I think it's rather flashy if I don't say so myself.  I wanted to do something out of the norm and I think I've accomplished that.

Now I've got a lot of work to do, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I think I've got a good start to my army list, I just need to flesh it out.  I'll post everything I have so far in the coming days and I hope to get some feedback on what I might be lacking.

The Work Begins!!!

Just got finished gluing my Marines to their bases.  Went pretty good for my first time.  Had a couple of expansion cracks, but I guess that's to be expected from a Newb.  In and hour I'll be ready to take everything outside and start priming!  Assuming the weather holds up of course.

I'm looking forward to this part the most.  This way I at least feel like I'm accomplishing something.  Since my Marines are 2nd Edition they are posing some interesting road blocks when it comes to painting.  My squads hands are literally attached to their guns, unlike the new models where the bolter is completely separate from the Marine.

I have also noticed that these Marines all have scabbarded swords and pistol holders on their bodies.  I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to approach painting those.  Should be interesting and I'll keep you posted.  I'll also let the cat fully out of the bag later on with which Chapter I've chosen to go with.  Stay tuned!