Brass Tax on a Sniper Scout

Hi Everybody!

This plastic Sniper Scout was randomly added into an ebay auction. I paid $20.69 US for the scout, 9 tactical marines, a librarian, and a captain from Dark Vengeance.

Why 9 tactical marines and why is one pewter?

Technically I paid 1.60 for the scout. I’ve got a ton of pewter scouts and this is my first [and likely only] plastic scout.

"Get 'em boys! And don't be afraid to use your nails

I know it has been said a thousand times (once more won’t hurt) but the head on the plastic scout is the single most heinous crime GW has ever committed.

I am predominantly a Blood Angel player, having called “DIBS!” when Mr. Pink and I first looked through the 1996 GW catalog. Mr. Pink scoffed as we reach the last ten pages of the Warhammer 40k catalog. “Fine, I’ll collect Tyranids” he said with a devious smile...

So let’s get down to Brass Tax: I’ve got a sniper scout bundled in with the Dark Vengeance Dark Angels. I remove the Scout’s head without a single regret, and throw it to the breeze.

I was originally going to replace it with an Elysian head with a re-breather, but all of my pewter scout have their beautiful (mold lined) faces exposed. Also the Elysian head seemed a little too small. So instead I decided on the head of the Sergeant from the Dark Vengeance set.

The Green Stuff is just covering over the damage I cause removing the scout head

I prefer painting models that are completely assembled. I want my miniatures to be sturdy. Nothing makes me more uneasy than knowing that part of my models has been poorly adhered. I shutter to reflect on the late 90’s when I painted all my pieces separately before gluing them together.

The skin tone I settled on for my army is much darker than the standard “I’m from the Grim Dark future of Predominately Caucasian People”.

The Blood Angels' homeworld is a desert, and its denizens are nomads. When I think of desert dwelling nomads, I think of Bedouins. Also the first time I tried painting scouts, I got carried away trying to make each guy a 'special little snowflake'. One black guy, a white guy with green hair, and old guy with grey hair, blond hair, brown hair... the lack of uniformity made it a terrible eye-sore. I decided they should all look the same. An army of blond haired, fair skinned super-soldiers is not the kind of army I want to command, and slightly controversial. I discovered that if I went with a deeply tanned skin tone and black hair, it looks pretty interesting. Plus Mephiston with a sweet tan and black hair looks like my Grade 3 French teacher!

"Brother Pink, we are going to the Bibliotheque!"

When I paint I like to keep my greasy fingers off my model. I usually glue my models to wine corks (which lead to massive cork hoarding and theft between Mr. Pink and I) but recently I discovered some super sweet tech. There’s an arcade in my city and their metal tokens are magnetic and fit perfectly inside a 28mm base. They add a good amount of weight, look snazzy, and distinguish my models. I took my best cork, glued in a rare earth magnet and now I can attach it to whatever model I happen to be painting at the time!

All about that base!

Last week I spent 2hrs using a hand saw to cut a coin in half to fit in a slotted base. I’ve got a lot of pewter slotted base miniatures (collecting since 1996).  The metal minis really benefit from the extra weight in their base, and it facilitates handling them during the painting stage. Moving forward I’m going to have to find a better way to cut through these metal coins

The Sniper scout is now complete, but that means that I've got a Sergeant walking around without a head. Fear not; next time on Brass Tax, I'll discuss my work on the Tactical Squad Sergeant from the Dark Vengeance set. 

Stay tuned for:

"I think I'd rather be a Blood Angel"

"OH MY GOD! THEY GAVE ME TWO!!!"