Okay I know it has been like six weeks since I last posted. I assure you all I am not dead. It's just that I work in retail and guess what? It's the Christmas season. So time has been fleeting asset of late. Also making the video log takes time. Also fixing errors in the video log takes time. Those times add up. But I have part 2 complete and loaded now.
In this video I talk about lighting up the belly thrusters, building a new flight stand and the base which I had done as a commission from Dragon Forge Design.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Okay, so 4 months ago I started brainstorming how to modify the Storm Talon model into something a bit more palpable to my tastes. The current model just makes me think of a 40k version of a Cobra Trouble Bubble from the 80's G.I. Joe cartoon. It was goofy then and it's goofy now. In all honesty the intent of the model, the way it operates in game and what I feel was the intent of the design itself all say to me "Space Marine Apache" so that's what I'm going for.
I've been able to put some work into the project, though I'm ham-strung right now because I've waiting for the green LEDs to come in that I ordered. So yeah. Have to wait for that to come in. So I've started a video log for the project. Check it out here.
I've been able to put some work into the project, though I'm ham-strung right now because I've waiting for the green LEDs to come in that I ordered. So yeah. Have to wait for that to come in. So I've started a video log for the project. Check it out here.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
So I have been working on some stuff of late. I seem to be going through
a phase of army builder attention deficit disorder as I've been jumping
from one project to another to another to another. The first major
thing I've completed is... well... cleaning.
One of the big steps I have a bad habit of skipping in my model building process is cleaning up the model itself. As you can see here I've built up a rather sizable stock pile of kits and pieces in my "Going to work with" pile. I know there's a Dark Angel Raven Wing Battle Force, a Space Marine Talker, an imperial guard sentinel, 2 Space Marine Storm Talons, a Grey Knight Dreadknight and a Goblin Arachnorok kit in that deep sink soaking in the warm water. So yeah all of those kits are now washed and should be good to use as my modeling progresses.
During one of the breaks in the Apoc game, I hosted a couple weeks ago, I picked up a Grey Knight Dreadknight kit because it looks like it'll be an interesting kit to build and paint, but I wanted to make it stand out so I built up the base. Using 2 layers of cork and some large piping I built up a thick and large base for some added scenic value to the model.
I used a similar approach to the base of my first Centurion. If you want to see my thoughts on the model itself you can check out my review over on Bolter and Chainsword.com. I opted to leave the massive sholder pads off and am rather happy with this this look. Something akin to a 40k version of Iron Monger from IronMan.
Game Vault, the closest thing I have to a local gaming store, is running a 40k Slow Grow and paint program for those of us who were looking to start a new army. Short version of it is you sign up for it, and you get a discount on a battalion box set, and meet the painting deadlines up through March and they hand you a GW army case. Nice deal huh?
And what army do I pick? Nids! I already got a Batallion box, and big props to Cathy the owner of Game Vault for running this program. The Tyranid batallion box is $125 normally, but I got mine for $100 flat. You rock Cathy!
So I've got the Gaunts, and Warriors built and primed. Still need to build the GeneStealers and Rippers built. I'm gonna get another box of Warriors so I can build a Tyranid Prime for my first HQ. Down the line I might do a Tervigon as well. Definitely going to add a Trygon/Mawlock. Will be using the Cork basing technique to create a 'upturned ground' effect for it.
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| cleaning up my stock of models |
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| large size base for Grey Knight Dreadknight |
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| Blood Ravens Centurion Devastator |
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| the Tyranids arise |
And what army do I pick? Nids! I already got a Batallion box, and big props to Cathy the owner of Game Vault for running this program. The Tyranid batallion box is $125 normally, but I got mine for $100 flat. You rock Cathy!
So I've got the Gaunts, and Warriors built and primed. Still need to build the GeneStealers and Rippers built. I'm gonna get another box of Warriors so I can build a Tyranid Prime for my first HQ. Down the line I might do a Tervigon as well. Definitely going to add a Trygon/Mawlock. Will be using the Cork basing technique to create a 'upturned ground' effect for it.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
So... been working on some stuff lately. Anyone remember my post about 4 months ago about building a better Storm Talon? Well I'm working on it. Slowly right now. First step I'm undertaking is installing colored fiber optics in the cockpit so that it will be illuminated.
It's a slow process and annoyingly I have to get more resistors for the LED circuits I will install. So I've ordered them. They'll probably be in next week. As it is standing now I've installed a series of 24 colored strands of fiber in various groupings around the cockpit. Now the crappy part... is I have to wait for the resistors. Sigh. Next week it is.
It's a slow process and annoyingly I have to get more resistors for the LED circuits I will install. So I've ordered them. They'll probably be in next week. As it is standing now I've installed a series of 24 colored strands of fiber in various groupings around the cockpit. Now the crappy part... is I have to wait for the resistors. Sigh. Next week it is.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Okay, so it's been close to a month. Getting ready for that Apoc game really took it out of me, combined with several issues at work it wasn't an easy time leading up to the game itself and I didn't get a chance to rest or recover from it right away either.
But I've been able catch up at work, rest and recover. And now that I've got the time to do I'm back to talk about the apoc game. So it was a fairly straight forward setup with 2 teams of three players each, wielding approximately 17,000 points each.
Team Imperium came out to a solid 17,000 points while Team Xenos came in a bit lighter at about 12,000. To help shore up the difference I gave Team Xenos a selection of an a combination of any of the Apoc stratagems or any of the 5 super-heavy/Gargantuan creatures I brought which included a pair of Scratch Built war hound titans, a Shadow sword Super-heavy tank, a Greater Deamon of Khorne, and a Maurader bomber. They selected 1 War Hound, the ShadowSword, the Maurader and 2 additional Strategic Assets. So with teams more or less evened up, we began. There was simple too much happening to go through the entire length of the game so I'll be posting pictures of the high lights.
I had several surprises in store for the players. The first of which to be revealed revolved around a glowing rock in the middle of the field. Imperial Gaurdsman Marbo was the first to come into contact with it, though he was killed by Tau cannon fire in the process, his life energy was still used to awaken the entity that resided with in it:
The C'Tan was fast to unleash its wrath on the closest targets, a trio of Dark Eldar Raiders. Though one of them were able to avoid the worst of the blast, the first two were wrecked and the embarked sadists were sent to their feet amidst the wreckage. The Dark Eldar quickly unleashed all their poisonous fury on the C'Tan and killed it though it's exploding body sent out an energy pulse that ravaged the near by Orks.
Across the battlefield a group of Ratling Snippers were quickly pinned down as they inadvertently activated an ancient store house of Combat automatons that burst free, their targeting optics searching the battlefield for any movement, not caring who the movement was from. Realizing that staying still was their own hope for survival the Ratlings froze where they were and preyed that the ancient constructs would find another target to engage.
Slowly, and with a ponderous certainty they began to track on the fast moving Dark Eldar and began to move away from the Ratlings. But the match was ill-suited to the lumbering machines as the quick footed warriors of Commorough simply danced around them until they were able to destroy the offending machines.
Hoping for force the Imperial forces away from their point of honor, Team Xenos then deployed their Maurader Bomber and dropped a monstrous payload of 6 bombs on the imperial forces holding the Cathedral, the bombing run inflicting serious casualties in its effort.
With both Dark Eldar forces and Tyranid forces behind their lines, Marneus Calgar himself stepped up to meet the threat and supported by squads of Terminators and Devatators engaged a monstrous Trygon in combat while high overhead Dark Eldar flyers and Space Marine Storm Talons engaged in combat.
Through out the game I had feed information to select players about "Army objectives". These were objectives that ONLY certain armies could claim. One example of these army Objectives were given to the Dark Angels. I supplied a model to Team Xenos and explained to the Dark Angels player that he is a Fallen and if you capture him you gain 6 victory points, but ONLY the Dark Angels player could claim that objective. If he was killed by anyone else there were no victory points from it. Annoyingly fate seemed determined to thwart the Sons of Caliban effort to capture the fallen as it wasn't until very late in the game that he was even able to get forces to the side of the board where the Fallen was hiding.
With a timely intervention from an Orbiting Chaos battleship, the Reaver titan was destroyed as a lance strike came crashing down through the skies to obliterate the machine god.
At the end of the day the Imperial forces held and the Xenos threat had either been eliminated or driven off!
Thoughts from the game:
It was a lot of fun to run, a royal pain to organize and overall a trying experience, kind of like climbing a mountain. You spend months training for it, which you hate. You get to the mountain and look up and think "Holy crap! What made me think this was a good idea?" and then you start climbing. A few hours in your huffing and panting as your muscles ache but you keep pushing on. It's not until you get to the top of the mountain and are able to look out that you can really appreciate the achievement.
Pretty similar situation here. "Hey it'll be cool to run an Apoc game!" turned into "Oh wow, I've got a lot of work to do for this." which became "oh god, why are Apoc games so much effort to put together?" which then became "Good lord, what made me think this was a good idea?!" but once the game actually got going and I got to see titans stomping across the battle field, and heroes making legends for themselves as they battled across the board I remembered why I had wanted to run an apoc game.
In short: I got bored with the battle missions in the rule book. I'm not necessarily interested in a fair fight, I want a fun one. And thats what Apoc gave me the chance to provide. While this was by no means the largest Apoc game I've ever seen seen (I know this years Apocalypticon clocked in like 600k points) it was a huge difference to a normal game of 40k with lots of thematic elements popping up, heroic charges, vain glorious defeats, and outrageous occurrences you won't see in a normal game.
I did manage to do two things that I feel made a big difference to the game and it's expediency though.
Firstly there were the Kill tokens. These were just 25mm bases with "1" painted on them. I made about 200 of them.
I then provided a cut to each player. So whenever that player earned a victory point, I tossed a counter in their cup. This made it easier to keep count of kills as the game went on, and turned out to be another benefit when the teams realized that they could use their victory points to bring back units (The Tyranid player brought back his hive tyrant like 4 times or something). So they just removed the number of counters they needed to bring back the units they wanted, handed them to me and I dropped them back in the box. No counters? Sorry, can't bring the unit. End of story.
The other thing that helped make the game work better, and I admit I wish I had done more with this idea, was the use of burning wreckage markers.
These helped the game for a couple reasons. Firstly they looked really cool, but they were also very useful to help keep track of what the effects were on various vehicles, which ones were wrecked, and which ones were destroyed outright.
I had mentioned I wish I had gone further with this idea. I mean there are lots more effects that I could have created for the game that I see in hind sight. One example would be during the 2nd turn when the Xenos team captain used the smoke barrage stratagem. It's basically a wall of smoke that lasts for one turn providing a cover save to everything on one side of it that is shot at from the opposite side. It would have been simply to make a dozen 6" segments of smoke that could have been laid across the line where the effect would be in effect. Another option would have been for vehicles with Smoke launchers. It's these sorts of extra efforts that can really help a game come alive and really make a difference.
One thing I did learn from running this game is never assume the players will know what needs to be done in prep for the game. I don't know how many times I said "I want to start the game at noon so I'm asking people to show up between 11 and noon ready to play" figuring that people would understand that I meant for them show up with a understanding of how many points worth of models they had. But apparently that didn't translate to "showing up with points totals" for the players. As they had to sit and figure out lists and total up points till after 12:30. So if you want to start at 12, you need to list out what the players need to have done to be ready to start at 12.
Another thing I learned is that if you can avoid it, don't put all the young people on one team while having all the not-young people on the opposing team. When I did the game I separated teams based on armies being played. Imperial Guard, and Space Marines on one team. Xenos and Chaos on the other. Which would up with 3 teenagers on one side, and 3 adults on the other putting team xenos at a noticeable disadvantage. If I were to do this again with the same teams, I think I would swap The non-Ultramarines Space Marine player with the Chaos Player to help balance out the teams a bit more.
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| Enter the Apocalypse! |
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| Team Imperium |
==VERSUS==
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| Team Xenos |
Team Imperium came out to a solid 17,000 points while Team Xenos came in a bit lighter at about 12,000. To help shore up the difference I gave Team Xenos a selection of an a combination of any of the Apoc stratagems or any of the 5 super-heavy/Gargantuan creatures I brought which included a pair of Scratch Built war hound titans, a Shadow sword Super-heavy tank, a Greater Deamon of Khorne, and a Maurader bomber. They selected 1 War Hound, the ShadowSword, the Maurader and 2 additional Strategic Assets. So with teams more or less evened up, we began. There was simple too much happening to go through the entire length of the game so I'll be posting pictures of the high lights.
I had several surprises in store for the players. The first of which to be revealed revolved around a glowing rock in the middle of the field. Imperial Gaurdsman Marbo was the first to come into contact with it, though he was killed by Tau cannon fire in the process, his life energy was still used to awaken the entity that resided with in it:
 | ||
| A vengeful C'Tan construct emerges to wreak havoc on the battle field! |
Across the battlefield a group of Ratling Snippers were quickly pinned down as they inadvertently activated an ancient store house of Combat automatons that burst free, their targeting optics searching the battlefield for any movement, not caring who the movement was from. Realizing that staying still was their own hope for survival the Ratlings froze where they were and preyed that the ancient constructs would find another target to engage.
Slowly, and with a ponderous certainty they began to track on the fast moving Dark Eldar and began to move away from the Ratlings. But the match was ill-suited to the lumbering machines as the quick footed warriors of Commorough simply danced around them until they were able to destroy the offending machines.
Hoping for force the Imperial forces away from their point of honor, Team Xenos then deployed their Maurader Bomber and dropped a monstrous payload of 6 bombs on the imperial forces holding the Cathedral, the bombing run inflicting serious casualties in its effort.
With both Dark Eldar forces and Tyranid forces behind their lines, Marneus Calgar himself stepped up to meet the threat and supported by squads of Terminators and Devatators engaged a monstrous Trygon in combat while high overhead Dark Eldar flyers and Space Marine Storm Talons engaged in combat.
 |
| The Tau attempt to follow up the destruction wrought by the Marauder by inserting a strike team. |
Through out the game I had feed information to select players about "Army objectives". These were objectives that ONLY certain armies could claim. One example of these army Objectives were given to the Dark Angels. I supplied a model to Team Xenos and explained to the Dark Angels player that he is a Fallen and if you capture him you gain 6 victory points, but ONLY the Dark Angels player could claim that objective. If he was killed by anyone else there were no victory points from it. Annoyingly fate seemed determined to thwart the Sons of Caliban effort to capture the fallen as it wasn't until very late in the game that he was even able to get forces to the side of the board where the Fallen was hiding.
 | ||
| Look under the rock! |
Thoughts from the game:
It was a lot of fun to run, a royal pain to organize and overall a trying experience, kind of like climbing a mountain. You spend months training for it, which you hate. You get to the mountain and look up and think "Holy crap! What made me think this was a good idea?" and then you start climbing. A few hours in your huffing and panting as your muscles ache but you keep pushing on. It's not until you get to the top of the mountain and are able to look out that you can really appreciate the achievement.
Pretty similar situation here. "Hey it'll be cool to run an Apoc game!" turned into "Oh wow, I've got a lot of work to do for this." which became "oh god, why are Apoc games so much effort to put together?" which then became "Good lord, what made me think this was a good idea?!" but once the game actually got going and I got to see titans stomping across the battle field, and heroes making legends for themselves as they battled across the board I remembered why I had wanted to run an apoc game.
In short: I got bored with the battle missions in the rule book. I'm not necessarily interested in a fair fight, I want a fun one. And thats what Apoc gave me the chance to provide. While this was by no means the largest Apoc game I've ever seen seen (I know this years Apocalypticon clocked in like 600k points) it was a huge difference to a normal game of 40k with lots of thematic elements popping up, heroic charges, vain glorious defeats, and outrageous occurrences you won't see in a normal game.
I did manage to do two things that I feel made a big difference to the game and it's expediency though.
Firstly there were the Kill tokens. These were just 25mm bases with "1" painted on them. I made about 200 of them.
The other thing that helped make the game work better, and I admit I wish I had done more with this idea, was the use of burning wreckage markers.
These helped the game for a couple reasons. Firstly they looked really cool, but they were also very useful to help keep track of what the effects were on various vehicles, which ones were wrecked, and which ones were destroyed outright.
I had mentioned I wish I had gone further with this idea. I mean there are lots more effects that I could have created for the game that I see in hind sight. One example would be during the 2nd turn when the Xenos team captain used the smoke barrage stratagem. It's basically a wall of smoke that lasts for one turn providing a cover save to everything on one side of it that is shot at from the opposite side. It would have been simply to make a dozen 6" segments of smoke that could have been laid across the line where the effect would be in effect. Another option would have been for vehicles with Smoke launchers. It's these sorts of extra efforts that can really help a game come alive and really make a difference.
One thing I did learn from running this game is never assume the players will know what needs to be done in prep for the game. I don't know how many times I said "I want to start the game at noon so I'm asking people to show up between 11 and noon ready to play" figuring that people would understand that I meant for them show up with a understanding of how many points worth of models they had. But apparently that didn't translate to "showing up with points totals" for the players. As they had to sit and figure out lists and total up points till after 12:30. So if you want to start at 12, you need to list out what the players need to have done to be ready to start at 12.
Another thing I learned is that if you can avoid it, don't put all the young people on one team while having all the not-young people on the opposing team. When I did the game I separated teams based on armies being played. Imperial Guard, and Space Marines on one team. Xenos and Chaos on the other. Which would up with 3 teenagers on one side, and 3 adults on the other putting team xenos at a noticeable disadvantage. If I were to do this again with the same teams, I think I would swap The non-Ultramarines Space Marine player with the Chaos Player to help balance out the teams a bit more.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Seriously, wasn't it just July? It seems like every time I turn around another 10 days has zipped on by me. Maybe it's because I'm busier now. Between work and everything else those 24 hour chunks of time just seem to be flying on by too fast to grab. But I have been busy on a couple different projects.
First up: The Shoa Khan Blood Thirster
I've glued all the joints so the pose is set. Next I'm going to go in with Green stuff and sculpt in muscles over the joints, expand details in other locations where the joints have caused problems and generally just lock the entire piece down so it won't move. I attached the Hive Tyrant wings to the back using brass rod and super glue. Provided he doesn't try and take a tripe down any stairs they should stay on very well.
I have been making progress on the titan as well. There are a lot of places that seriously bug me about the build and the only reason I'm letting them stand is because this is meant to be a speed thing. I need this guy built and I need it finished. Pronto. I've got a little over 2 weeks until the Apoc game I'm hosting and these pups are to be the field levelers if someone wants to be a smart alec and show up with 4 titans armed with super-anti infantry weapons.
But there are the feet with servos. The servos are just lengths of brass tubing glued into one another and then glued into place. If I were to do these over again with more time, I would have build an skeletal structure for the pistons to attach to and then built around that struture. But time and trials and all that.
First up: The Shoa Khan Blood Thirster
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| I am Shoa khan, Conqueror of Worlds! |
I had to rebuild the entire shaft of the hammer because the PVC it's molded from is too soft and it has a tendency to bend under it's own weight. So I cut it off, passed a length of brass rod into the head, and attached a larger sheath of brass tube to the that. I added the toothpick at the bottom to give the hammer a spike. Why am I going with the hammer? Simple, as Brother Chaplin Kage said when I posted this idea on BolterandChainsword.com "Be different! Not every Bloodthirster has to carry an axe, does he?" I admit it's a bit of cop out but I think I can make it work. Add a Khorne symbol on the side of the hammer head, add spikes to the head. When I paint it add some gore effect. It should work I think.
But there are the feet with servos. The servos are just lengths of brass tubing glued into one another and then glued into place. If I were to do these over again with more time, I would have build an skeletal structure for the pistons to attach to and then built around that struture. But time and trials and all that.
Here we have the Turbo Laser cannons. I've been building it up to some degree. Once again using Brass Tubing for the cannon barrels. Rather then the basic block for a housing that the plans give me, my friend who's building the second titan stumbled on an idea: Using the body from the Plasma Cannon for the base of the Turbo Lasers. I think it adds a lot more visual interest in the weapon and I went with it. I'm going to be adding energy cell tanks on the under side when I get the chance.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
So had the day off from work today, and managed to get a notable amount of work done on my Titan.
The first time I tried to build this template the biggest problem I encountered was the mounting strength of the waist assembly standing up the weight of the body and keeping the legs attached to the waist assembly itself. The legs tended to tear away from the hips while there was just no easy way to attach the body to the waist. So I needed to make sure that the assembly was rigid enough to both support the body and provide a basis of attachment for the legs.
Sadly I didn't think it through properly when building this attempt otherwise I would have handled this problem differently. Here's what I did: I glued lengths of brass tube to the pvc conduit piping and then passed tooth picked through the tubes and into the assembly itself. I then filled the crotch with hot glue to both secure the tooth picks and to shore up the strength of the assembly.
Looking back on it I would have built an internal support across the whole of the assembly rather then using hot glue to secure it all. Still Live, learn and apply and all that.
Sadly I didn't think it through properly when building this attempt otherwise I would have handled this problem differently. Here's what I did: I glued lengths of brass tube to the pvc conduit piping and then passed tooth picked through the tubes and into the assembly itself. I then filled the crotch with hot glue to both secure the tooth picks and to shore up the strength of the assembly.
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| And a crotch full of hot glue... |
Thursday, August 29, 2013
It's so great to have friends to use as cheap labor. What cheap labor have I been using my friends for? Titan construction of course!
Contained with in these bags are the cut out pieces for 2 titans based on the Paperhammer template floating around the internet. All in all it took the two of us about 8 hours or so to cut out all the parts. Next in construction. Basically each of us is going to construct 1 Warhound titan as we see fit. Should be a bit of an interesting experience to see what two different hobbyists come up when they start from the same point.
Another update: I added the Tusks to the Squiggoth
Next step will be to build up the musculature around the tusks with green stuff and texture it to match the skin.
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| Bag-O-Titans! |
Another update: I added the Tusks to the Squiggoth
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| She's got some bite! |
Monday, August 26, 2013
So I haven't been able to get a lot of work done on the Squiggoth recently for a variety of reasons. First and foremost has been time. I just haven't had much of it lately. Second reason is... well there just isn't a lot I can get done on it right now. I cut off the heads of the two Dino toys to find that they are basically sold latex forms stuffed with... well pillow stuffing. Needless to say, this does not make for a particularly strong support form. Particularly when we're talking about supporting a large structure like the Howdah and a dozen boys. So what did I do to address this? Simple. Filled the head of the T-rex and the body of the Trike with resin!
Now the next major thing for the work is the fact that the Squiggoth has a large pair of tusks connected to the back of it's jaw. So... what am I going to do about those? Well I have a giant bitz box so I have to have something right? So I went and did a bit of bitz Box Diving and I found something. The Tusks from the Elphander Zoids kit. Only problem is they were angled. So what do I do? Simple, convert. I cut them apart so the large turn could be removed and then glued the parts back together and fill in the inner spaces with miliput.
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| a little extra strength with resin |
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
So life has been life of late. Work and school have been mounting of late and it takes a toll on the time tables. So there's several things to talk about in this post.
First big thing: I will be hosting an Apocalypse game September 28th at the Game Vault in Fredericksburg Virginia. So if you're going to be in the area and want to get in on the action drop me a line with you email address in it and I'll keep you informed of details and arrangements.
Next thing: I've hit a rather odd streak of inspiration recently, one that has lead me to Toys 'R' Us. I've found several things there that I believe I can convert for various 40k usage.
First up is a 6" Shou Khan figure.
With some creative conversion work I think I can build up a nice large scale Blood Thirster figure. Something larger then the Games Workshop model, but smaller then the Forge World model and something different then either of them but still comparable. Right now I'm figuring I'll cut off the back panel from the helmet, add on Dreads and sculpt in a lower jaw bone with teeth to go with the skull mask. I'm not sure weather I'll keep the hammer or build an axe or build a pair of axes. All three options have an appeal to it. I'm going to add the Hive Tyrant wings to the model and sculpt over the joints to secure the pose of the model.
Second project is a bit of a divergence from my normal, it's orky!
I ran across these two dinosaur figures for $10 and had a thought that I could convert a combination of them into a Ork Gargantuan Squigoth.
So what do you think?Can I combine those dinos into something that resembles this?
I think by replacing the Tricerotops' head with the T-rexs' and sculpting on new details, like a tongue, larger teeth, horns and various Orky accoutrements I'll be able to get a reasonable Ork mammoth monster. From there it'd just be a matter of building the howdah and adding the Ork crew members.
Last thing: in preparation for the Apoc battle I figured I needed some extra materials for it. So I called on a friend and we spent a couple hours producing some of the materials.
Remember those burning damage markers I made a while back? Well we made 3 dozen more. I expect the apoc battle will involve lots of burning wrecked machines so this way we'll get to see it in action.
The last Apoc game I was involved in we had a really hard time keeping track of kill points and strategic victory points through out the course of the battle. So for the game I'm hosting I'm gonna try and make that simpler, with these:
200 1-point tokens! Each player will have a cup and each time they earn a victory point they get 1 token to put in their cup. When we finish the game, they can count up their tokens.
First big thing: I will be hosting an Apocalypse game September 28th at the Game Vault in Fredericksburg Virginia. So if you're going to be in the area and want to get in on the action drop me a line with you email address in it and I'll keep you informed of details and arrangements.
Next thing: I've hit a rather odd streak of inspiration recently, one that has lead me to Toys 'R' Us. I've found several things there that I believe I can convert for various 40k usage.
First up is a 6" Shou Khan figure.
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| Shou Khan figure |
Second project is a bit of a divergence from my normal, it's orky!
 | ||
| Toy Dinos |
So what do you think?Can I combine those dinos into something that resembles this?
I think by replacing the Tricerotops' head with the T-rexs' and sculpting on new details, like a tongue, larger teeth, horns and various Orky accoutrements I'll be able to get a reasonable Ork mammoth monster. From there it'd just be a matter of building the howdah and adding the Ork crew members.
Last thing: in preparation for the Apoc battle I figured I needed some extra materials for it. So I called on a friend and we spent a couple hours producing some of the materials.
|
| burning damage markers |
The last Apoc game I was involved in we had a really hard time keeping track of kill points and strategic victory points through out the course of the battle. So for the game I'm hosting I'm gonna try and make that simpler, with these:
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| point tokens |
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
So I'm building a new Iron Clad dreadnought for my army. But I've already got one of the GW Iron Clads in my army and I like variety. I've ordered a Forge World Iron Clad as well so that's 2 different models. But the army is going to have 3 Iron Clads. So... what can I do? Simple: Convert one!
So I've got a Space Marine Ven-dread kit from GW that I'm going to convert into an Iron Clad.
I took the more angular armored front section so that it had a
flat front and then added the thick strip of Styrene around the
gorgette. Took some green stuff, put a base down and attached the piping
to it and then added the vent from a Space Marine back pack. The tubes
are Dragon Forge designs medium power cables. I built up an armor paneling similar to the Forge World dreadnought style.
The armor panels are sheets of styrene cut and glued. So far I'd say it's off to a good start.
So I've got a Space Marine Ven-dread kit from GW that I'm going to convert into an Iron Clad.
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| The converted Iron Clad so far |
The armor panels are sheets of styrene cut and glued. So far I'd say it's off to a good start.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Yeah I know, I haven't posted in a while. Life gets that way. I have managed to get a few games of 40k in over the last couple weeks though. Learned some stuff. Saw where I made some mistakes. Made mental notes to try and not make the same mistake again. Also I got a new job at work. So been busy the last several weeks.
Finally got some time off and got to work on a new project. Still waiting for the bionic bits I ordered to come in so I can start building the cybernetic Space wolf Thousand Sons though.
So my current project:
You can see one pair in the upper segment and the other pair in the lower segment. This way the turret can rotate a full 360 degrees with out fear of breaking anything.
I'm also installing head lights in the Predator as well.
Finally got some time off and got to work on a new project. Still waiting for the bionic bits I ordered to come in so I can start building the cybernetic Space wolf Thousand Sons though.
So my current project:
Yeah, it's the turret to a predator with some wires in it. Basically I'm building a predator with LEDs installed so it will illuminate in various ways. The big part of this is that there will be 2 blue LEDs installed in the Lascannon barrels of the turret. Now You may or may not remember a prior project where I did something similar with a Shadow Sword. One of the major problems I had with that was the side sponsons. By passing the wires up through the turret I can't turn the turret much more then about 45 degrees with out fear of breaking the connections. So this project is keyed to deal with that exact issue. So I built a sort of rotational joint by using 4 segments of copper piping, each pair sized to fit inside one another.
I'm also installing head lights in the Predator as well.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Hey all, been a little bit since I posted. Been really busy with Work, school and some other stuff. Because of that I haven't been able to really commit any period of time to anything of singular note. I've been squeezing in quick little hour sessions of painting here and there as I've been able. Now I have to remind you that I am a rather slow painter and thus far I've largely only gotten base colors down.
That being said...
The army is shaping up well enough. I still have to proxy a couple things, like the 3 Iron Clads and 2 Storm Talons, though does it count as proxying when you're using the official model until you can build your custom one?
That being said...
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| my 2000 point army |
Sunday, June 16, 2013
So I've decided to branch out a little bit and start looking at my Chaos force. The one that's been sitting on my shelf basically ever since I got the Dark Vengence box set. Rather sad really that it's sat there this long. But I'm looking at it again. We'll see where it goes.
One unit I want to add is a unit of Thousand Sons, but I don't like the standard GW models for them. And honestly I have intentions of fielding something all together... a bit more insulting. I've built this particular idea once before so I'm looking at returning to it.
Yes, those are space Wolf models. Here's my idea: Captured marines are turned over the Dark Mechanicum where they are lobotomized and rebuilt into heavy company servitors with the extensive use of Bionics. Stick a dark Techno Magos of some form with the unit as the Sorcorer and I think I'll be able to use them as count-as Thousand Sons.
I've been looking at different options for bionics, mainly from third party companies. I think Anvil industries has the answer I'm looking for in their armory. By combining their various bionic pieces with a Space Wolf kit, add some battle damage, and paint 'em up in Space Wolf colors... I think I'll need to watch my back around Wolf players. If the twisted irony of Space Wolves being controlled wasn't bad enough, I think the irony of using Space Wolf models in a counts as Thousand Sons unit will require some measure of vengence be taken.
One unit I want to add is a unit of Thousand Sons, but I don't like the standard GW models for them. And honestly I have intentions of fielding something all together... a bit more insulting. I've built this particular idea once before so I'm looking at returning to it.
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| These are the original version I built a couple years ago. |
I've been looking at different options for bionics, mainly from third party companies. I think Anvil industries has the answer I'm looking for in their armory. By combining their various bionic pieces with a Space Wolf kit, add some battle damage, and paint 'em up in Space Wolf colors... I think I'll need to watch my back around Wolf players. If the twisted irony of Space Wolves being controlled wasn't bad enough, I think the irony of using Space Wolf models in a counts as Thousand Sons unit will require some measure of vengence be taken.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
So I've managed to get a couple games in against a friend and I think I'm getting a better handle on how I'm going to run my Space Marines. I've come up with a 2k list I'm calling the Iron Wind fall.
HQ-
Space Marine Captain on Bike with Relic Blade, HellFire Rounds, Melta Bombs
Troops-
10 man biker unit with a Multi-melta armed Attack Bike
10 man biker unit with a Multi-melta armed Attack Bike
5 Man Scout Squad W/ Telion
-4 Sniper Rifles
-1 Missile Launcher
5 Man Scout Squad
Fast Attack-
2x StormTalon Gunship armed with Skyhammer missile launchers
3x- Landspeeders W/ 2 heavy bolters each
Elite-
3x Iron Clad Dreads with Seismic Hammer and Meltagun, 2 HK missiles and Hurrican Bolters in Drop Pods.
Fortification-
Aegis Defense Line with Icarus Lascannon
My plan is to put the Telion Scout squad in the Aegis defense line, that way I can use Telion to control the Icarus and thus get BS 5 against enemy flyers while his Camo cloak will give the Scouts a better cover save. My biker squads and Captain move forward hitting the enemy in concentration. As the Dreads become available I'll drop those in behind the enemy lines causing a pincer between the bikes and the dreads while the 2nd scout squad follows behind to grab another objective.
At least that's my plan anyway. We'll see if I can actually pull it off.
In the mean time I am building the list. I've already built the Bike Squads, the scouts, one Ironclad and one drop pod. Now I'm working on the second Drop pod.
Thus far I've been working on the internal sections of the drop pod. A solid black base coat followed by a healthy dry brushing of bolt gun metal with a wash of Nuln oil works well as a machine base for the drop pod. I tried to paint the center console like it was glowing red indicating that it was time to deploy. I figure as a drop pod comes smashing down from the sky, the indicators inside it will flash red when it his ground and the marines come charging out.
I picked out some of the details in the upper engine in Runefang steel and then back and washed those details with nuln oil.
HQ-
Space Marine Captain on Bike with Relic Blade, HellFire Rounds, Melta Bombs
Troops-
10 man biker unit with a Multi-melta armed Attack Bike
10 man biker unit with a Multi-melta armed Attack Bike
5 Man Scout Squad W/ Telion
-4 Sniper Rifles
-1 Missile Launcher
5 Man Scout Squad
Fast Attack-
2x StormTalon Gunship armed with Skyhammer missile launchers
3x- Landspeeders W/ 2 heavy bolters each
Elite-
3x Iron Clad Dreads with Seismic Hammer and Meltagun, 2 HK missiles and Hurrican Bolters in Drop Pods.
Fortification-
Aegis Defense Line with Icarus Lascannon
My plan is to put the Telion Scout squad in the Aegis defense line, that way I can use Telion to control the Icarus and thus get BS 5 against enemy flyers while his Camo cloak will give the Scouts a better cover save. My biker squads and Captain move forward hitting the enemy in concentration. As the Dreads become available I'll drop those in behind the enemy lines causing a pincer between the bikes and the dreads while the 2nd scout squad follows behind to grab another objective.
At least that's my plan anyway. We'll see if I can actually pull it off.
In the mean time I am building the list. I've already built the Bike Squads, the scouts, one Ironclad and one drop pod. Now I'm working on the second Drop pod.
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| The base, painted and assembled. |
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| The upper section of the drop pod. |
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| The parts of the new drop pod next to the previous drop pod. |
Friday, June 14, 2013
Okay, so I got a little bored and started rooting around my bitz boxes. I ran across a pair of Dark Vengeance Terminators and some Forge World Ultramarine terminator shoulder pads. So I thought "Hey why not? I'm a good converter. I bet I can convert these Dark Angeled Termies into Ultramarine Termies.
The chainfist was adorned with very Dark Angel-ly iconography so it had to go. Only problem was that same iconography was laying across the cable going to the chainfist so I had to re-craft that lost segment. I used a segment of wire with the insulation cut into segments. Surprisingly it worked out really well.
Here is the first one. I had to carve down the shoulder so it would allow the Forge world shoulder pad to fit on it.
The assault cannon armed terminator was a bit more of a challenge. The amount of small details on the model made it difficult to effect any change quickly and I found myself having to work very slowly over an extended period of time for little noticeable change to the model. The best example of this approach is the feathers that had previously hung under the body of the assault cannon. I didn't want to have to rebuild the under carraige of the cannon so I went for a minimalist modification and only removed what I had to. In this case the feathers on the cannon. I decided to keep the hanging skull as decoration.
For the moment I am leaving the hanging sword icons between the legs (that sounds like a dick joke just waiting to happen) simply because I can't easily remove them with out being forced to replace them with something else. Which I may do. I might add some purity scrolls or perhaps a different tabard.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
So I haven't had the chance to give a proper update on this particular project. My model builder Attention deficit disorder as been kicking in a lot lately as you can see so I've been jumping from project to project almost with out pause for the last week. But the Helbrute is shaping up as you can see.
I've begun attaching hoses, made from Green Stuff using Green Stuff Industries Tentacle Maker, to the crown around the face that had previously sported horns. It's my hope that by adding these hoses to the crown it will make it look like materials and psycho-tropics are being pumped into the body of the warrior at the heart of the Helbrute driving him on in his rage.
I still have a moderate amount of work to do on the monster, not the least of which is making the three remaining tubes and fleshing them out into the body. That way the tubes will look like a part of the body and not just something that was stuck on.
When I removed the arms I had to resulpt the muscles connecting to the shoulders.
I Will need to make a new should pad for the right arm.
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| Chaos HelBrute with 2 Power fists |
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| A close up of the HelBrute's face showing the cables coming off the crown |
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| A close up of the Musculature of the left arm. |
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| The musculature of the right arm. |
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