Mephiston Lord of Death

Mephiston is the chief librarian of the Blood Angles chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. He is one of the strongest psykers in the Imperium, but despite his prowess, he is also looked at with skepticism by many of his battle brothers. He is one of the only Blood Angels to recover from the Angel's flaw known as the Black Rage. Although he fell to the rage in battle, through the might of his mind, he was able to recover. But there are those who wonder exactly what he did to overcome the Black Rage. Whatever it was, he was certainly changed. He fell as brother Calistarius but was reborn as Mephiston. Though some have their doubts about Mephiston, for many of the Blood Angels, he is a symbol of hope. If he was able to come back from the Black Rage, maybe there is a chance for others who have fallen to the flaw.  

Completed: March 2020 

Painted with: acrylics, enamel metallics

Company: Games Workshop

Death Guard Kill Team

In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, there is little that is more terrifying than the Death Guard. These former space marines fell during the Horus Heresy, and made a pact with the chaos god of plague and entropy. Ever since, they have been known as the Plague Marines, a force that fights not merely with sword and bolter, but with all the plagues of their virulent patron God.

These are actually some of the very first models I ever built and painted. They hold a special place in my heart, and really set the tone for some of my overall style choices with regards to my current painting. That said, there is a lot that I would do differently now. I still like the color scheme, but I would seriously change my shadows and highlights. Those were concepts I just didn't get when I was a few months into mini painting. Now, with much more experience behind me, I could do a lot better. 

I don't really have any intentions of repainting these though. They will live on as the first miniatures I ever finished. 

Completed: Some time in early 2018 

Painted with: acrylics

Company: Games Workshop

Categories

I filled out the 2020 census yesterday. For anyone who doesn't know, that's one of many silly, unnecessary wastes of time that the U.S. government puts us through every so often. My opinions on the way that government wastes people's time aside, the census does have a few thought provoking questions on it. 

These mainly revolve around ethnicity. For my part, I'm just not sure these are useful categories for counting anything. Here's what I mean: in terms of ethnicity, I'm a whole hodgepodge of different things. I've never done a lot of ancestry searching, but from what I know from older relatives, my family has never really stuck with one ethnic group. Instead, they've married and had kids with people all over. All that is to say that in terms of family relationships, I don't have a great answer for what ethnicity I fall into.

So what do I go with? DNA? My parents took one of those tests, and all that did was reflect what I already knew about where my family is from. That isn't useful either.

Now I should mention, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about who I am in terms of ethnicity. Maybe you could say I have the privilege not to think about it. Maybe you could say it's just not as important to my identity as other things. Either way, I don't really think about it all that much until I'm asked to step into a particular category of people. And whatever the category, it's an uncomfortable fit. 

And that's why I wonder if these categories are even useful any more. For a category to work, there needs to be clear, defining distinctions that make a thing actually fall within that category. Think of something like screwdrivers, for example. A flat head and a Phillips head screwdriver are in different categories because they have clear distinctions between them. It's a dumb example, but the category for those tools is useful because they are put to different purposes and we need that category for distinguishing between them. 

But you can't take that thinking and apply it to the infinitely more complex thing that is humanity. I mean, you can try, but those distinctions are pretty meaningless these days. But what do I know? Maybe the various family lines that bring a person into existence are really important to some people. Maybe I would feel differently about it if I wasn't three generations removed from the people that immigrated here from other countries.

I'm also not clueless about what's going on in the world. I am aware that these questions are really sensitive for people right now. I just wonder if all of this categorization for people helps or hurts the way we think of ourselves. It's not an easy question to answer. That said, I'm personally skeptical of the census and its questions. It all seems very unnecessary. 

Maximus Decimus

Maximus Decimus is the fictional roman general from the movie Gladiator. This movie is a favorite of mine, so even though the miniature has been out of print for several years now, I wanted to have it. After a long time of lurking on eBay I was able to find a listing that wasn't a recast. It was a long wait, but I would say it was worth it. 

Completed: April 2020

Painted with: artists oils, acrylics, enamel metallics

Company: Latorre Models

Watch Captain Artemis

Artemis is a Deathwatch captain originally of the Mortifactors chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. He was recruited by the Deathwatch after they took notice of his keen abilities at fighting off xenos incursions, and his first conflict as a member of the Deathwatch was against the Tyranids. Outside of the lore, this model is from the discontinued Inquisitor game. It is in 54mm scale, and is one of only a few models Games Workshop ever made in this scale. Unfortunately, the 54mm game never caught on, so these are really only available after some strenuous ebay hunting, which is exactly how I acquired this model.

Completed: May 2020

Painted with: artists oils, enamel metallics

Company: Games Workshop