Magnets are an attractive option

Progress.  Slow, but progress.

The last week or two seem like a hobby wasteland to me, though on reflection I've actually gotten a decent amount done.  None of that work was done with a brush (well, a little was), so perhaps that's what's causing the wheel-spin impression I've had.  What all have I accomplished?  Another bullet list will illustrate.

• Demo Corps base slots filled, then covered with tiny rocks and ballast.
• Honor Guard assembled, magnetized, and based.
• Ravagore arms magnetized, still no head.
• Khador jack kit assembled, torso and Marauder arms magnetized.
• pVlad got a rock added to his base to get him ready for ballasting, which I promptly forgot once I got to that stage. 

The power of attraction.

So on further reflection the list is pretty sparse, but I will point out that I put in ~45 magnets into little plastic bits.  Though the process is not difficult it is time consuming, but will hopefully yield benefits in the future.  Since I now have all the parts assembled (if not yet primed [let alone painted]) for a pButcher tier 4 list, the Marauder will be seeing some table time as I try out the beefy rush of doom list.  I've been intrigued by the Marauder for a while, especially once I started eating lots of Slams at the FLGS.  Whether it will beat out the humble Juggernaut for the 7 point jack slot remains to be seen.  Having an on-demand Slam (a POW 20 Slam at that) without the need for lining it up a turn ahead of time is very appealing.  I also want to try it out with pVlad since it's a jack that doesn't want much Focus, so I can run it at full speed while also putting up Signs & Portents or Blood of Kings.

(Almost) ready for action.

It's almost time for 40k again.  EV recently came to the cusp of finishing his Dark Eldar, then somehow pooped out a Space Wolves army seemingly overnight.  In response I put some more paint on the horde of Blood Angels dying for attention, mostly helmets and weapons to tie squads together and cut down on what model goes with who confusions.  You'll have noticed the mention of an Honor Guard above, which is a significant development.  I've grappled with the idea of an Honor Guard before (until recently I had a pair of posts-in-progress on the subject) and have never gotten any traction.  The problem has always been load out.  Choppy or shooty, plasma or melta, Storm Shields or Lightning Claws, the options are bewildering.  I could never settle on a build and because I wanted to glue everything together a misstep could be fatal.  I wanted to glue both for strength and because I intended to do up each member in a unique livery.  When I realized that this last condition didn't preclude magnetizing it was a major step forward.  With my recent success magnetizing a Legion beast kit, or at least parts of it, and having acquired a box of Death Company with my Gnarls League bounty, I decided to take the plunge and learn by doing.  My reluctance to magnetize never made a lot of sense to me before, but I was able to explain it away as a lack of magnets.  Having them on hand, combined with a lack of (plastic) plasmaguns, was enough to get me past that hurdle.  As you can see the current build is two plasmaguns and two power weapons which isn't what I'd ultimately like to run (all plasma), but it's the same points and having a little melee punch won't hurt anyone.

I've also done a lot of list building.  A Blood Angels list has emerged from the pack, which I may well post about later, and I've also been working on ideas for the forthcoming Journeyman League.  The idea of running either Circle or Cygnar is appealing, but I actually have Trollbloods and Menoth on hand which trumps the two Cs.  If we run the Journeyman League strictly according to the rules, Trollbloods are out.  I don't want to carry two Impalers for a month and Trollbloods in general have lost a lot of their luster for me.  Menoth still looks good though, and I think I can manage with the jacks from the two player box a lot easier than the Trollblood starter box.  As such I've been noodling through lists for the different stages of the league and feel pretty good about a lot of them.  The current idea is to allow for a month of painting before the league starts in earnest, so I want to know what I'm going with and have it all ready to go for when I can start painting, but there's still lots of time before that day comes.  In the meantime I'm having a good time dreaming about setting people on fire.