(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge” [II/IV] January 2025

"Having fought their way clear of the Sol System in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra..."

With the opening quarter of my Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge (PPPP) now in the books, I'm hoping to spend this month predominantly tackling many of the 3D printed miniatures I have abandoned in the past, as well as instigating a (probably highly optimistic) 'Two-For-One' purchasing/printing policy for any future figures I want to buy/produce. I'm also currently a little behind schedule in achieving my target goal of getting one hundred previously-pigmented 28mm scale models tabletop ready before the end of March. However, that goal was arguably always a little overly ambitious, and some current projects, such as fielding a post-apocalypse British force and opposing Russian army using "Athena Miniatures" aren't eligible as most are still 'untouched in their wrappings'.

In addition, I really want to finally field a 500-point strong Sons of Horus traitor force so I can play some "Horus Heresy". These plastic space marines by "Games Workshop" have already taken far too long to complete due to the grinding nature of all their "Vallejo" Gold armour, chest-buckles and helmet decorations. So I thought finishing one of the Mk IV wearing Adeptus Astartes from the now OOP (Out Of Production) Betrayal At Calth stand-alone boxed game would make a great start to new year.

"...The Sons of Horus eventually fled to the Eye of Terror and established themselves upon a Daemon World."

The miniature was initially undercoated with "Citadel" Sons Of Horus Green, before I used a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Gold, and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade on its shoulder-pad, as well as anywhere else which I intended to be gold. I then picked out the edges using a smidgeon (more) "Vallejo" Gold, before applying some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the knee-joints, elbow-joints, right shoulder-pad, backpack and Bolter.

I next treated the model’s breathing tubes and firearm to a little "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and plonked some "Scalecolor" Speed Metal and "Citadel" Flesh Tearers Red into the Space Marine's eye slits. Only once all this work was finished did I shade all of the MK IV armour with "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and dry-brush it with (more) Sons Of Horus Green. Lastly, I attached a couple of the numerous decals found on the "Games Workshop" Sons of Horus Legion transfer sheet onto the traitor tactical marine's shoulder-pad and lower-leg.

"Rocket Pig Games" WIPs - This WoodWard has been primed, base-coloured and shaded

Alongside my latest Sons of Horus recruit, I have been busy resurrecting an old project from 2021, using a number of 3D prints I bought from "FullyCycled". In brief, I envisaged a battle between the forces of nature and 'man-made' clockwork creatures, which could then spill out into other realms (such as death) if the notion proved popular. Unfortunately, despite painting a few of the models I found the bizarre scaling (or rather downsizing) of the sculpts by the “Etsy” store incredibly frustrating, and eventually ended up buying some of the STL (Standard Triangle Language) files directly from the "Rocket Pig Games" studio once I owned an "Elegoo" Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer.

Rather shockingly, I then discovered just how different in height/size the original sculpts were from what "FullyCycled" had been sending me, and resultantly realised I would probably have to completely restart the endeavour if  I was going to use my own self-printed miniatures - plus abandon all the rather expensive 3D prints I had previously bought on "Etsy". Perhaps unsurprisingly, this 'nuked' any interest in the project until just recently, when I stumbled across the WoodWard I produced myself...