Last night and this morning

Group progress, I has it.

I finished the "whites" last night and did the chapter badges to boot.  I'm getting close to the end with this batch, close enough that I might get there tonight.  If you exclude basing, and discount that all the jump packs are unprimed and that a few of them need greenstuffing.  This is a very achievable goal, provided I finish blogging and get started soon.  The only problem is I like having some of the pictures be off to the side, like this one, but am loathe to not have a paragraph cradling the photo like a caring mother.  This naturally requires extra time writing, not to mention things to write about, and the problem only compounds the more pictures I have.  In a situation like this, where I want to turn out something quickly but have half a dozen pictures, it's a concern.

Shoulder cross also lined.

Still, I will forge on all the same.
To-do list to finish the second batch:

Flexible armor
Weapons/silver areas
Company badge
Writing
Armor highlights
Basing
Touch-ups
Varnish
Decals
Varnish

Don't have varnish or decals on hand, so the most possible today is through basing.

I really did highlight that chest chalice.

My Warstore order came in yesterday.  I finally got the Uncharted Seas 2nd edition book.  While I haven't read any of it yet, I have taken a hearty flip through it and there's a lot more artwork, especially of the sailors from the different fleets in drawn or miniature form, plus updated army lists for all the races.  It's been a while since I played US, so it'll be good to get a refresher as I make my way through the book.  I also got a new pin vise, an Army Painter one.  I have an ancient"GW" one that's just a tub with chucks at either end.  Only one side of one chuck is usable with the bits I have, and using it for any amount of time results in gouging my palm as I press the bits into the model while twisting.  This new one has only one chuck, but the other end is basically a large nut that rotates, giving me something larger to press down on while also rotating to not eat into my flesh.  It came with new bits to boot, so a solid upgrade overall.

Some chapter badge detail.

 I ordered some dice I've been looking at for a long time, black with red pips and yellow with black pips.  I like having colors match when possible, and while the blue dice did fine they didn't exactly fit in with my Blood Angels scheme.  Or Iron Dwarves.  Or Khador.  They'll see the field again with Empire stuff though, and perhaps Orks as well, so they're just getting some time off instead of heading out to pasture.  In a final bit of impulse, I got a Warrior Priest as well.  He'll probably serve as an Arch Lector for a while because I love the model and will probably be using one for my general.  I wouldn't mind figuring out a way to put him on a War Altar, but that's down the pipe.

My beside-the-photo paragraphs are losing steam, but I still have two more pictures to go.

A blank naming canvas.

While looking over this batch to see what I had left to do, I started thinking about what to put on the various scrolls on the armor.   Much as I'd like to put "Clubhouse" on the Marine to the left, I think the scroll is long enough to fit "Sanguinius" on instead, and that's more in keeping with the theme.  The chest scroll on the Marine with the chalice above will require a bit of delving into the Iliad for Trojan names, but my copy isn't handy at the moment.  What is handy is that it looks like I can have overlapping pictures, so that whole lengthy paragraph thing I was going on about might prove to be less of an issue in the future.

I've started thinking of this guy as "Clubhouse"

When collecting links just now, I saw that the Warstore is stocking a new line, Scibor's Monstrous.  I think I've seen some of their stuff before, and certainly found a few things that caught my eye(!) this time, so when I get that urge to paint something that looks nice but has no real gaming value I'll have some ideas.  I could certainly use those as Space Marines or Fantasy models, even if the aesthetic would be a little off, but I already have lots of GW Marines, so the need to use one as a Librarian isn't high.

I have this problem where I want my models to be "useful."  Not in an over-arching, real world sort of way, but for my hobbying.  The myriad color schemes for Marines are one of the things I like most about them, but I know that if I paint up a handful of Space Wolves, Black Templars, or some scheme I think would look nice I'll eventually need bodies for a new Blood Angels squad.  Then I'll curse my "waste" of a Marine and start thinking about re-purposing it.  Something like that Spartan fellow is different enough that it wouldn't really fit in with the GW stuff, so there (hopefully) will be less desire to use it as a gaming mini, thereby allowing me to exercise these flights of scheme fancy.