Preperations continue

Wow, less then 1 month until the Apoc game! And my preparations continue for it! Still have a lot of work to do for it. Right now I'm focusing on the Orbital Defense Laser. I've posted images of that previously, but now I'm working on the rest of the building itself. I know I haven't posted much to explain what the intended end result will be, so let me do that:

This is a digital render of the building design. Obviously the hemisphere on the top of the building is meant to represent the Laser cannon I had been building. So I took a half ball from the design, and turned out this:

Well actually that, and this:

So now that I have the cannon itself built, I need to build the rest of the complex. So, where am I going with that?

Well I have part of it built:
Still have a lot of work to do on it, but it is taking shape.

Continue

cannon nearing completion

So got the Orbital defense laser cannon mostly built. Not finished with the over all project, I still need to build the rest of the building that's going to mount the cannon, but the cannon itself is mostly built:

The Defense laser cannon

I have managed to build the platform for the cannon mounting. The platform itself is comprised of 6 lengths of sheet styrene cross mounted so that 3 lengths went one direction while the other three are laid over top in a perpendicular direction.The tiles are then laid ontop of that platform. I've braced the bottom with 1/4" square styrene and that helps the platform maintain it's strength and support the cannon. I'm going to edge the platform in the Games Workshop city of Death fence parts which you can see the corner of already on there.

And then there's the cowling for the cannon mount itself. The cowling is made from one half of a hamster ball with various pieces attached to it to suggest that it's more then... well... half a hamster ball.

Continue

Preparing for apocalypse

So the clock is ticking as I continue to get ready for that Apocalypse game I'm hosting next month. Still have a lot of work to do but right now I'm focusing on building the Orbital Defense Laser for the game. I got the majority of the Cannon itself built today:

Continue

The Death Watch assemble

So I've got the infantry members of the Death Watch like 95% complete. I can do more work on the paint jobs, highlighting and picking out details, but as far as table top worthy go they are such.

The first Death Watch Squad

The Second Death Watch Squad

The Death Watch Captain

I tried to build each marine to be diverse and different but still part of a unit. That's the big appeal of the Death Watch RPG game. You might have a Dark Angels Marine playing alongside a Space Wolves Marine along side an Iron Hands Iron Father being commanded by an Ultramarine. But they are still a unit. So there are lots of little conversions like the addition of a strap to some bolters, or the use of pieces to give some marines the Marksmans honour. I did something with the paints to mark out each squad. Can you see what it is?

I have decided to expand the force by adding a Dreadnought and probably 2 rhinos. The Dreadnought I've been working on by dipping through my bitz boxes. It sometimes shocks me when I manage to find nearly complete kits in there.

The Dreadnought thus far.

I've followed a similar approach to building the dreadnought with what I did for the infantry, subtle conversions to change the model but not re-design it to be something else. In this case I wanted to give the dread some dynamism and reposed the legs to better adjust to the terrain of the base. It's a bit difficult to see from the front the conversion work on the legs, so here's a different angle of the model:

A side on view of the dread on the base

The base by the way is from Dragon Forge Design's Ancient Ruins series. If you're looking for super high quality bases with fantastic detail I would recommend you check out his sight. I have never been disappointed by his bases.

The Dreadnought is going to be the Dreadnought version of Brother Quintus. Yeah, remember him from way back when? So in order to carry the story of Brother Quintus forward I'm going to arm the Dreadnought with a heavy bolter and explain it as being master crafted so I can play it as being twin-linked. If my opponent raises an issue with Dreads not being able to take Heavy bolters out of the current regular codexes, fine. I'll let it count as an assault cannon.

Continue

The Deathwatch detachment

So I'm continuing to work on the Death Watch Detachment for the upcoming Apoc game. All of the models are at least primed, all but five of them have the silvered arms of the Death Watch armor, and some of them even have the shoulder pads for their chapters painted!

Group 1 of the Death Watch detachment

The Three hands. Get it? Crimson Fist, Iron hand, and Imperial fist.

A crimson fist, an Imperial Fist, and an Ultrmarine

I've also found the parts and pieces to build most of a dreadnought to dd to the Detachment. I might go all out and build an army level Death Watch detachment. Toying with the idea. I'll already have 2 Sternguard squads, a Dreadnought and a Captain. That's a fairly sizable starting core.

Anyway, the Dreadnought. I wanted to keep the Dreadnought in an similar design to the marines so I wanted to add the lettering to the left shoulder guard.

The Death Watch Dreadnought's shoulder guard

Reasonable success I would say. I had to file down the surface enough to leave a slight 'burr' so that the the layer of green stuff had something to adhere to. I then used instant mold to make reliefs of the letters on the various parts of the Venerable dreadnought kit. Using those reliefs I could then press mold the lettering on the shoulder guard. I'll need to add the Inquisitorial sigil to it later. But one step at a time.

As an aside I am putting together an online Death Watch RPG game. If you are reading this and are interested in joining in, drop me a comment with you email address and I'll send you the info for it.

Continue