My name is Lionel Miranda and I am Games Workshop Canada's Retail Operations Manager. I’ve been with the company for about 12 years and I have been in the hobby for 23 years. My passions when it comes to GW models are Orks and Orcs. That being said, I am using the Paint or Die competition to complete my Space Marines. Right now I have about 1,500 points done, which is not enought to suit my needs. You see, in the not-so-distant future we will be releasing an expansion for Warhammer 40,000 called Apocalypse. It is all about playing the game of 40k on a grand scale. The minimum size force that you can play is 3,000 points. So you understand that 1,500 points just isn’t gong to hack it. With the Paint or Die competition to keep me focused, I will add 1,900 points of Landraider and Terminator death!

I will be using a list very close to this on Dec 1st at the Hall of Heroes tournament at the Oakville Battle Bunker where I will be collecting my Baneblades and piling them next to the skulls of my opponents!

Army List

I felt all inspired last week so I just had to finish my company master.  I think I see a pattern developing.  I think the next character(s) I paint will have something other than Lightning Claws for equipmentJ.

And I am done! 

Got to say I would not have completed it as soon as I did if it was not for the competition.  I would have been distracted by something (probably the new Orks) and my marines would have been roughly at the same spot they were.  But now that I am done I feel I need to do more!  I bought the Apocalypse Vindicator box set and now I just have to paint it up.  I also have another 30 marines assembled (2 tactical and 1 devastator) and I want to add an assault squad or two.  There is definitely something to be said about finishing something and then feeling motivated to do more...a lot more.

It has been a long time since I have updated my progress.  We are on the seventh week and I’ve been away for three of them.  But enough crying about it as it is time to play a little catch up.  I admit I am not the fastest painter in the world, especially when compared to speed demons Jay, Cory and Ash, and the only reason I have such a high chance of success is simply due to tenacity.  Knowing myself, I knew I had to get started from day one and I am thankful of my early efforts.  And it is only because of those early efforts that I have completed all my vehicles and my Commander last week.  I have to admit that the Landraider’s took a lot longer to paint than I initially thought they were going take.  There was just a lot surface to paint on the big boys.  I am also glad to get the Commander out of the way.  Contrary to most people I dislike painting characters.  They always take a lot of time and thought and I never get into groove that I get into when I am painting troops.  That being said though, Marines are fairly regimented when it comes to colour scheme and painting the Commander was thankfully easy.  That leaves me with 15 Terminators and roughly 6 weeks, which should be more than enough time.  I must admit that I have been sorely tempted by the new Orks (the new rules are so cool) but there is nothing like the threat of having to buy everyone Baneblades to keep you focused!

So after playing Orks for years I have got to say playing marines is a world apart.  I can’t believe how easy everything is!  When you shoot, you hit.  When something shoots at you, you get an armour save (3+!) and to top it all off, you still kick butt in combat!  I don’t know how anyone loses with this army!

All kidding aside the army is a dream to use and the codex that I have decided to use is the Dark Angels.  I absolutely love the way the codex is written and really like how they have these really cool thematic units.  Besides, the Dark Angels have a primarch with the coolest name ever.