Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Welcome back!

Did a bit of jiggery-pokery with a Las Rifle that I had already cut down, not sure I'm a fan:







It was a monumental pain in the arse to do. However, I am a big fan of the rolled-up sleeve look!

Kind of Elysian-y looking. Rolled up sleeve is definitely cool. Might be easier to add sleeves to a Catachan arm and add the FW gun though.

I think I'm just going to go with un-converted Las Rifles and do the rolled-up sleeves: much easier, less time consuming and fits in better with the Cadian look.

As for the arms, the Catachan ones are just obscenely huge and would need shoulder pads sculpting.

I've had a somewhat fruitful evening: I stripped a load of paint off of the Kasrkin that I bought from Ebay (got 6 out of 10 done) and tidied all my hobby crap in the study.

I'm going to attempt to do some sand dune bases for the Kasrkin: they will be my test minis for the colour scheme.

 Elnibbus wrote:
I think I'm just going to go with un-converted Las Rifles and do the rolled-up sleeves: much easier, less time consuming and fits in better with the Cadian look.

As for the arms, the Catachan ones are just obscenely huge and would need shoulder pads sculpting.

The rolled sleeves are definitely cool. Paired with the scarves that you were showing earlier:

I wouldn't give up on the lasguns just yet; it would be a shame to put so much effort into each model only to have stock guns. What if you chose one part, either the handle on top (which I think could be done easier with the natural shape of the lasgun) or the shortened stock and longer barrel.

Yeah you may be right there Rawson... I could just lay a strip of plasticard along the top of the gun.

In other news, I have a tonne of plasticard on the way and a slightly improved method of doing the road wheels on the tanks. However, I will beed to get my hands on another Chimera as the Hellhound suffered a catastrophic disassembly accident.

Nice. Really digging those Las guns with the extended barrel.

EDC

Thanks EDC but I think I prefer the standard lasgun casing over the shorter one with the long barrel. I'm going to get a few more vehicles built and painted before I start on the infantry: at least I can play some small games with an armoured list first.

Perhaps Santa will bring me an armoured column of Chimeras for me to chop up over the holiday period...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Fresh from their date with paint stripper and an old toothbrush:



They didn't come out too badly at all! This has to be one of my favourite sculpts of all time:



Looking forward to getting some paint on these guys.

I've just posted a question in the painting and modelling section but I might as well put it out here too:

Does anyone have any other good ideas for cutting cylindrical styrene rod? I have a mitre-box and use a hobby saw (the small tenon type) but I still end up with wonky cuts. Not ideal when I have to cut a tonne of 10mm diameter rod to make the road wheels for my tanks...

 Elnibbus wrote:
I've just posted a question in the painting and modelling section but I might as well put it out here too:

Does anyone have any other good ideas for cutting cylindrical styrene rod? I have a mitre-box and use a hobby saw (the small tenon type) but I still end up with wonky cuts. Not ideal when I have to cut a tonne of 10mm diameter rod to make the road wheels for my tanks...

If you're already going to that much effort, the only other thing I could suggest would be sandpaper to straighten things out afterwards. Good luck!

Have you tried a plumbers pipe cutting tool??? Think you can get a 10mm pipe cutter from Wicke's or home base. Very handy especially if you can find an adjustable one that can do a variety of diameters.
Quick search n eBay found this.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311732938872

I resorted to getting out my DeWalt cordless hammer drill and chucking up the rod with the saw siting flush with the edge of the chuck mouth: spinning it up gives a really nice starting point which I can finish off by hand (it's not 100% square but it's better than I was getting with that w*nky mitre box!). I knocked a few road wheel units up this evening:





I also made myself a sanding board using a small piece of wood left over from some project, coarse and fine sand paper:





Kinda like a hobby emery board

Just checking in as I have been quiet over the past few days. I must confess that since the silly season is almost at hand, I haven't been able to hobby as much as I would have liked: house parties and all too frequent visits to the pub have been putting a jolly spanner in the Guard works...

Still, I managed to bugger about with some 1/2" styrene tube and some thin plasticard to make a sprocket wheel for the front of the tracks (I won't post a picture until it and the rear drive wheel are done).

I'm also going to try and paint over the Crimbo break which leads to a question: what colour to prime my minis? Black, white or grey? I am aiming for white armour and light tan fatigues.

... damn those pesky pubs and their tempting wares... a jolly spanner is right!

Looking forward to seeing the progress though!

And for me... with my highly dubious painting / priming skills... I would go for grey.... just feel like it can give a nice matt / almost dusty and dirty look when painted thinly over....

Had a bit of an 'accident' on Tuesday night as it happens...

My gut was telling me to use grey primer given the light colours I will be using and such. Plus a lot of the good painters on Dakka seem to use grey primer to great effect: if it works for them, it *might* work for me

I will do my utmost to get something painted but I'm still trying to figure out the scheme somewhat. I will have a play about with the Kasrkin and see what happens.

What grey primer do people use? Is Army Painter stuff any good?

UH OH! lol.... hope it wasn't too severe!

Ye I would definitely say Grey is the way to go.... and speaking for myself.... a big can of Grey Plastic Primer from Halfords is an excellent choice! Really nice finish and priced well!

I use the halfords stuff everytime. Grey for most vehicles or their white primer if I want a vibrant top colour. Probably buy two of the big cans in each colour over the year but then I'm not painting every day.

Read through this whole thing, some amazing work and real inspirational stuff, can't wait to see more.

Halford grey, just make sure you do not buy the one with filler in it.

Final hobby post before Ascension Day!

Thanks for the kind words Cam: I judt need to learn to actually finish things! I shall give the Halfords primer a go and see what happens

Also, I made an alteration to the road wheel trunion things and I think they look much better. I had thought of doing all sorts of hydraulics and what not but since these are going to be made for a lot of tanks, I decided on the KISS principle.

Hi folks! I hope everyone had a merry whatever-mas!

So I've been thinking over the lasguns and I want to revisit the ones I did for my previous plastic guardsmen: the conversions using the Empire Handgunner guns. Problem is, I can't find the spare guns anywhere! Is this kit on its way out or something?

After looking at the trunions, I decided to make another version:



I'm much happier with this. It's a bit fiddly but now that I have all of the components figured out, it should be more straightforward.

I was also trawling through pictures of converted Cadians and came across this:



This was exactly what I had in mind with my first botched attempt so may just copy the above (sans buttstock pad and the extra detailing: looks like he has somehow managed to carve out the gun with an amazing amount of precision).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just spent an hour knocking these up:

Just took a shot of the trunions with the front sprocket wheel (left) and the rear wheel. Should look alright when they're all on the tank!



Anyhoo, it's currently too cold to prime any of my Kasrkin and I don't have any other infantry to build/paint so I'll be making a start on repainting my tanks.

Happy New Year folks! I hope everyone had a suitably festive period filled with booze, food and merriment?

Did I get anything hobby-related from Santa? No. I did however receive an idea for a Marbo-type person in the form of a 40k equivalent of a pseudo-Lawrence of Arabia using parts from the plastic Cadian command HQ that I found in a box... Essentially, I'm just going to use the commander's torso, arms and legs and make a karambit/janbiya type knife along with a suitable pistol. Adding a scarf and a backpack should finish the desired look.

In addition, I have ordered two armoured fist squads as the basis for my Mech-Vets. They will probably be with me next week which will give me enough time to determine how to arrange the road wheels on the tanks... It will also allow me some extra time to decide on what conversions I'm going to perform: like I said in an earlier post, I'd like to add in some characterful poses like someone drinking a brew or smoking.

Any suggestions?

So while I'm waiting for my armoured fist squads to turn up, I've been rummaging around in boxes which have lain undisturbed since we moved house in October 2015. I've pulled out some of the Command HQ models I built yeeeeears ago and have decided to take part in the unofficial Dakka monthly competition with a Sly Marbo type chap, the basis of which follows below:



I also felt the need to take a picture of my new workspace which is in 'the study': that's right folks, we have a 'study' (it's basically a spare room with a desk and bookshelf). But it's tidy (for now at least).

So what's better than a Mauser M712 Schnellfauer? A futuristic, drum magazine-fed, suppressed version!



Also tried a bit of carving for a jambiya styled knife:



And a some views of the arms tacked on:





Thoughts?

Looks like he's going to be quite the badass, those are some cool weapons!

Cheers. I didn't have a plan for them, I kinda just messed around with plasticard until they looked ok. The pistol turned out bigger than anticipated though (but this is 40k and everything is XBAWKSHUEG). What about the pose?

On second review, the pistol needs reducing in size- comparing it to FW laspistols it's excessively huge (As it is, it's bigger than a bolt pistol). I'm hoping my armoured fist squads turn up this week which means I can get cracking next weekend!

I may order some more FW parts this week too... I'll post a picture of the modifications to the pistol later this evening.

I do have a question regarding my 'Marbo' and the rest of the infantry: all helmeted/mask heads or a mix of open face helmets and bare heads?

I reckon mix in some bare heads, just to add some variety and personality in there. Rule of cool and all that.