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Just as I was starting to get back into my Orks, I come across this:

http://www.starwars.com/news/fully-operational-fandom-incredible-custom-x-wing-miniatures-gaming-table

It's not fair!

I'm not entirely sure why I've decided to post this now as I won't be able to do any more building until 2015, but WTH, right? I'm also not sure if I'm going to keep this little thread going anyway since I'm not sure why I post. I'm looking for feedback, I guess, but most of the time there isn't anything to really critique because it's not done or it's pretty... meh I guess. I'm not Wazzoo, or Klaus, or Vik, or Camkierhi , or any of the other guys who really inspire me. Mostly because I take forever to get anything done. I'm mean, I've been working on that damn Battlewagon literally since the my first post; the Dakkajets for probably more than a year. They're not even ready for paint. I guess I don't know what I expected, and so now I'm reevaluating my what I wanted to get out of this great community. I don't know, I feel like I should just have a beer and shut up.

Anyway, here's what I've been working on. I've spent probably as much time reorganizing and figuring out what I want to work on, what bitz I've got, and what I need to scrounge up. Since my buddies have really been on me about them, here's the current status of the dakkajets. Not much progress since I was working on them before, but a little:



Then there's the surprise project. I had been reading how stuffing MANZ squads into trukks was working out for some people. I didn't have any trukks so I though I could crank a few out. They're a mix of the Normandy beach landers and a half-track. I like them and I'm making decent progress on them. We'll see if that keeps going after the new year. The biggest issue so far has been the wheels, but I think I've got a handle on them.



So thoughts, ideas, concerns? And thanks as always for checking in.

While small or irregular updates don't lead to much feedback in general, you shouldn't think of the quiet as being a lack of interest. Many people just like to watch and even the most "popular" of threads can go quiet from time to time.

Also, a good way to get more feedback is to ask for specifics. Showing a large vehicle/building/etc and saying "thoughts?" won't get as many responses as a picture of a suspension fork (or other small part of a model) and saying "what do people think of this, should I do a, b or c?"

It's also difficult to pass comment on part builds or concepts as the reader doesn't know what the builder can see in their head of where it may be heading. It's good to add a paragraph on your own thoughts and ideas and people will find it easier to get involved.

Also, also, don't put yourself off, or put yourself down, by comparing yourself to others on these forums. Every person has a different life outside of DDakka and will commit wildly different quantities of time in each day/week to the hobby. Someone may only get an hour a week and cannot compare what they produce to someone that spends 8 hours a day on the hobby,

There's many people out there that could say the same about your work.

It's a hobby, do what you enjoy, and work to your own level, do your best and you will improve in time.

I see my own blogs more of a broadcasting of my work and thoughts, rather than a conversation. If people just want to listen then it's fine, if they want to get involved then it's great.

That's quite a lot of babble, but hope it helps in some way.

The jets and trucks are shaping up well. Keep at them and if I or anyone else has something to add at some point, we will let you know.

Have a good Christmas.

Yep, what the doc said


Never worry about how fast you're getting stuff done, we all work at vastly different speeds before we even factor in outside influences on our hobby time. Go back to the first pages of my cybork or chaos blogs and you'll see plenty of stuff that's still sat on my workbench Hell, off the top of my head I think I've only finished one thing this year - and that's still sitting in front of me waiting to be repaired!



As to the trukks, I like the idea of the high rear cab, always good to see non-standard designs

Love the trukk designs, often thought orks would do something like that, just an open topped front ramp type thing, land based landing craft. Looking like a good start, watching closely as always.

The planes are great and would be nice to see them progress, but exactly as the others said this is YOUR hobby.

I am honoured to be mentioned, but honestly I feel I get a lot out of all of you guys and inspiration is all around us. My blog is exactly what Dr says a broadcast, more hoping to help someone and give thoughts out than gather any praise. I really enjoy feedback when I get it, but often don't . And if anything working as fast as I do at times, means I do whole projects without people even noticing, I do somethings and am really chuffed, and no one even looks at it, then I am on the next and the page is turned and it is lost forever.

I really hope you continue here, I enjoy your work and your contribution my hobby, thank you.

Thanks guys. I think that's probably how I should have been looking at it all along. I'm definitely going to keep posting and keep checking in on you guys. I think part of the problem is that while I don't have a lot of time at home to build, I'm here wandering through Dakkadakka A LOT. It feels like an empty hall sometimes when I can't wait for the next post or pic and I'm thinking, "what are you lot doing!?! Where is everyone?"

I'm hoping to do a little building tonight. We'll see what I can plow through.

Thanks again.

I really like the idea of your new Trukks!

I'm tempted to make some of my own but... I've got a unit of Boyz that I need to finish first. And Warbikers. And Tankbustas. And MANs. And...

Keep up the good work!

I think we're all there with you.

Thanks again for all the support, guys. I've not been too busy (busy at work, but not at the manufactorium), but I cranked through this last night. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out this time (I've had 2 other abortive goes at this ship). I'm just thinking that I want to make it thinner. This is what the reference looks like:



And this is what I've got so far:




I'm torn, because I like the idea that you can fit/dock a large ship like the YT-1300 between the pincers, but it feels like a different ship than what's in the reference. I can pretty easily chop up the connecting spans and squeeze the ship together, but I can't decide.

What do you all think?

Thanks!

I like the idea of it being able to dock with the larger freighters.

There's this image:

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Which shows it docked with a class720 freighter, comparable in size to a YT-1300, so that seems to work ok. If in doubt just claim it's a knock-off copy produced at a shadowport.

Thanks, monkey, I was thinking that too. I think I'm going to slim it down, but only a little. It will give me a chance to give the wings a little more angle too. I think I'm close as far as the scale goes. Right now I'm at 16" long so that's a little longer than the CR-90.

So I've actually been pretty busy, but not necessarily as far along that images would be drastically different. I'm going to post images next week.

In the meantime, I had a great find at Goodwill last week:



My work list is already too long (and now with this new addition)...

BACK TO WORK!! WAAAAGH!

Good job on the shape of the corvette. While your front prongs are not a narrow compared to the rear section than in the picture, if you want something to dock in that gap you want to compare it to the thing you want to dock in there. If it fits in there with enough wiggle-room for your average pilot to work with, then job's a good 'un.

Nice find, fits well. What is it?

I wasn't sure about the spread of the prongs, but I think I'm going to go that route after all. Right now the YT-1300 just fits and that's kind of cool.

As for the tank: It's from the "Small Soldiers" movie. It's the Buzzsaw tank (which is a cool/hilariously Orky idea anyway) toy. It's huge and I'm going to turn it into something like the Skullhamma here:(http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:Skullhamma.jpg). I don't plan on doing too much to it, just closing up gaps and missing panels and adding sponsons (right now I'm thinking of 2 on the turret - as well as another turret on top of the yellow one, and 2 or 4 on the sides of the tracks, plus a gun position in front).

But I've been working on the Dakkajets and trucks, as well as the IMP Corvette and another freighter class ship for X-wing. I also want to crank out a couple more MANZ and I have Stormboyz bodies coming from ebay...

...so much to do.

Speaking of so much to do: I hauled everything out last night for a group shot. I also have bodies for 15 MANZ and 20 Stormboys and I'm going to make a mold for the monobikes and start casting them. My goal is to finish what's on the table as well as the MANZ, Stormboyz, and bikes not shown. I'd also like to do a Stompa, but I'm not going to start any more projects until these are done (as well as the X-Wing stuff I'm working on).



I've also got a game coming up so I'll need to do some maintenance on some of my Eldar and get some more paint on them (not to mention basing, which I've fallen behind on as well). I feel a bit more motivated lately so I really want to harness that.

that is an impressive collection of scratch vehicles...love the doom wheel monocycles.

Nice group shot. Can't wait to see what those Trukks look like with some rivets and a coat of paint!

Thanks. Painting is for some reason even more of a challenge. I suspect I'll always feel there's always more to do, another detail or rivet that I should do before I prime and paint.

Gotta move ahead though! I go on hiatus in 11 weeks and want to be ready for paint by then. That's my goal!

Whart? You want to finish what you've already started before moving on to any other projects

That's just not natural I tells ya!

Looks like a great little force in the group shot

I took a little break from building this past week and decided to do a little painting. Mostly it was just to catch up my Eldar for a game this weekend, they've been showing up unpainted for too long. I did manage to get a little building done, however. I have been running a jump pack Autarch for a while now and so I thought I should have something a little more WYSIWYG. He's pretty much a mishmash of a whole bunch of the Eldar Aspect Exarchs: torso and head from the Shining Spear Exarch, with added DA helmet crest; arm from Fire Dragon Exarch, arm from DA Exarch with Striking Scorpion Chainsword; legs from Howling Banshee; warp jump pack is scratchbuilt; standing on the hand from an old Wraithlord.





I also did a little work on a Warp Spider as a test. I'm not loving it, but I don't hate it. I'm curious what others think about the blue and where else I could add copper to tie it together a bit more.

Backstory:
1) I may have dreamed this, but at some point one of my good friends who's an excellent painter teasingly mentioned that my army looked like it had just been primed gray. I don't disagree.
2) Many CWE schemes feel very similar to Tau where panels are painted different colors. I felt like that was a trap I'd fallen into.
3) I chose my Craftworld because they are described (in their extensive 1 paragraph) as being master artisans, especially of Eldar grav-tanks and titans. I feel like I'm not giving the best demonstration of what warrior-artists would do with their vehicles when they weren't fighting.

Anyway, I stole the idea wholly from someone online, but that's what the internet is for, right? So what do you think?



This is what my Wave Serpents look like, but I'd add this Maori-like motif (while keeping the other aspects, the blue and the red elements).

It looks great!

It takes a relatively simple paint job to the next level.

Awesome scratch builds, great paintwork, yup great job all round bud. Like it all.

Orks most obviously.

Thanks guys. I did the Wave Serpent last night. It's the most "completed" tank I have so far and I was curious how the red motif would work with the blues panels and spirit stones and all of that. I like it. I think it makes for a more unique and interesting army. I feel like I've turned a corner to something better.





I'm also playing with OSL and want to incorporate that into the fleet as well. It's not great (yet), but I like it and am excited to keep developing it.

You're definately onto something there with those WS designs!!

I'd be happy to play against 6/7 wave serpents if they all looked that good. Ok, well, maybe not. But atleast I would get to look at something pretty

Where do you get your design inspiration from?

It's kind of scary, actually. I have tons of images. Of everything: Eldar, Orks, SM, SW, a few Necron. I have no idea where most of them came from. There is one I have of a Fire Prism with a similar motif in blue. There's also a grav tank with a similar OSL scheme. I'll have to look around Dakka and see if they're here.

Dude, this entire thing is awesome. EXALTED!

Thanks Matthew!

Hey, I found them! Here's the inspiration for the Maori-ish motif:


And here's for the OSL on the bottom:

Good work on the markings. Looking great.

I got a little more work done on these guys. I like how they're turning out - it's good to have some vehicles that feel a little more completed. Still a little work happening on Orks, but I enjoy being distracted by the army I actually play. I also like that I'm painting again. I don't even know how long that's been since I really painted on a regular basis. Anyway, here are the Wave Serpents. I'm going to try to start knocking out the other tanks I have next week. I'll post a group shot next.

The Wave Serpents:





And the OSL:


What do you guys think about the copper engines?