Inquisitors reply: SOD OFF!!! I'm busy investigating a SM chapter that fights its ass off defending humanity...I don't have time for silly things like this! Fool!!

Love from Inquisitor

XOXO



Imp. Monkey

Dear endtransmission. THANKS for the instructions to build this Chimera!!! Today I orered a Chimera and an Autocannon-turret (FW). I hope it`s ok that I `m going to copy your perfect conversion
Thanks a lot!!!

I think you're doing some nice stuff here, the concept designs you did were cool. I especially like the bulkiness it of it all. The tank conversions are tops.

Your pictures also remind me of my pictures!



err.. sorry about the size.

Imperial Monkey wrote:Inquisitors reply: SOD OFF!!! I'm busy investigating a SM chapter that fights its ass off defending humanity...I don't have time for silly things like this! Fool!!
Love from Inquisitor
XOXO

Imp. Monkey

Pretty much

Dear Ordo Xenos

Please don't burn/dissect [delete as appropriate] my Tau pilots, Joe and Jack. They are very nice now they aren't being controlled by those pesky Etherials.

Anti-zombie operations are going well; wish you were here (not)

Yours Truly
Inq Bob. Ordo Hereticus (Rogue), MA, Phd, DipEd


Automatically Appended Next Post:

greenkeeper wrote:Dear endtransmission. THANKS for the instructions to build this Chimera!!! Today I orered a Chimera and an Autocannon-turret (FW). I hope it`s ok that I `m going to copy your perfect conversion
Thanks a lot!!!

You're welcome and it's more than fine. That's why I put up the instructions
I'm looking forward to seeing more of this pattern Chimera around as I'm tired of the old, standard version, so don't forget to post pictures.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Finch Claw wrote:I think you're doing some nice stuff here, the concept designs you did were cool. I especially like the bulkiness it of it all. The tank conversions are tops.
Your pictures also remind me of my pictures!

Awesome sketch. Great minds obviously think alike
I need to do more sketches of all the ideas I have in my head before I forget them all. Even if there are no plans to build them in the near future... (or ever)

endtransmission wrote:

Pretty much

Dear Ordo Xenos

Please don't burn/dissect [delete as appropriate] my Tau pilots, Joe and Jack. They are very nice now they aren't being controlled by those pesky Etherials.

Anti-zombie operations are going well; wish you were here (not)

Yours Truly
Inq Bob. Ordo Hereticus (Rogue), MA, Phd, DipEd

Dear Bob

We are going to have to get you soon, whether or not Joe and Jack are under control! BTW how do you put up with the fishy smell?
pls use ye olde txt speek cos last letr was 2 long...
I wish I was there, haven't been to a good zombie cull in years.
Will see you (executed) soon
Ordo Xeno's secretary Rob.

xx

Imperial Monkey wrote:
Dear Bob

We are going to have to get you soon, whether or not Joe and Jack are under control! BTW how do you put up with the fishy smell?
pls use ye olde txt speek cos last letr was 2 long...
I wish I was there, haven't been to a good zombie cull in years.
Will see you (executed) soon
Ordo Xeno's secretary Rob.

xx

Dearest secretary
Has the Ordo Xenos not heard of deoderant?
No love.
Bob
xxx



On a different note. IA8 just turned up and it's stunningly nice to look at compared to the older IA books as it's in full colour. I'm looking forward to having a read and seeing if the Imperium of man actually wins this one...

If only IA was a bit cheaper then I might have a look at getting it

I've placed an order with the birthday fairies for a copy of the FW masterclass book though.

SilverMK2 wrote:If only IA was a bit cheaper then I might have a look at getting it
I've placed an order with the birthday fairies for a copy of the FW masterclass book through.

The Masterclass book is really nice read with loads of inspirational photos. I've bought loads of the gubbins that the book recommends, now I need to get around to putting the camo onto the tanks so I can start on some of the weathering instructions.

Glad to get a good review of the book from someone who's work I love

SilverMK2 wrote:Glad to get a good review of the book from someone who's work I love

I'm not sure how you can say that about painting as I've only got a couple of bits painted... but I'll take the compliment anyway, thanks

Awesome. Amazing.Good work

endtransmission wrote:I'm not sure how you can say that about painting as I've only got a couple of bits painted... but I'll take the compliment anyway, thanks

Well, I love your stuff in general - as well as your ability to come up with fun things to make

do you have any advice on mold making, if so could you PM me some, i was thinnking of doing that, and these are very cool

It's been a while since I did an update. Given my limited time at the moment the progress isn't as much as I wanted to have done by now. The general aim is to get base colours on everything and give it a wash of Delvan mud so that everything is painted before Silver Sorcerer. If I get time before hand I'll start adding proper highlights and details to tidy it all up.

So. Where's it at?

The Vet squads have got most of the base colours on now, I just have to finish the leather and clean up the blacks on these guys


I've also managed to finish (to a certain degree of finished) the platoon that you saw in my last actual update


After these I've still got the PCS, CCS, Valk and three chimera left to build/paint. Unless I change my mind about the list I'm bringing... I'm actually further along than I thought. Cool

Those vets kick bottom.

Looking good!

What? Two updates in less than 24 hours? How can this be?!

This morning I've been fiddling around with the Valkyrie kit. This is one nice piece of plastic and I can't wait to have a go at Da Leeshun Warkopter based off it. Anyway, I"ll let the pictures do the talking.



I can't stick the wings in place until I've attached the top... and I can't do that until I've painted inside... which can't be done until I"ve finished filling the holes under the engines. *sigh*

If you paid attention to the pictures you may have notices... Tau is my co-pilot

Yes. I know his harm has become detatched. I need to try and fix it somehow, but it's securely superguled in place...

I need to stop for the day as I'm getting a little high on glue/filler fumes!

A tau co-pilot?

Madness!

Very nicely executed though

Your infantry are looking ace aswell.

I love the tau, be careful with those fumes.

The Tau influence isn't finished yet

Meet Kraw, one of my Rogue Trader's mercenary Kroot. Kraw is part of his retinue and wields a fusion gun (counts as melta) that was found on one of their adventures.

The pictures are just quick snaps, hence the slightly fuzzy nature of their being... sorry!



Kraw is still a WIP, so there are mould lines left to remove and more details to be added to the bionics and head (such as a bionic eye and tubing on the leg), but I thought I'd give you a sneak preview to see if you guys had any more ideas on how I can make him look more humanised as he's been with the crew for some time now.

I'm thinking of using the rest of the box of kroot as stand-ins for ratlings, sometime after Silver Sorcerer. We shall see...

I think he's looking quite good.

I dunno. The fusion gun doesnt seem to look that well executed, IMO. I like the bionic leg though, and trousers on kroot? Genius!

The gun's not quite finished yet either. What would you suggest, improvements wise, to make it look better?

how did you make the back packs?

They are just a variety of different size plastic tubes inside each other with a piece of guitar wire coming out of the bottom, up and over the shoulder.

That is an awesome Kroot Merc! Consider the shorts stolen. *nod*

Amazing work over all. I am surprised I lost track of this blog. Your work is superb. I'll be pulling some inspiration here too, with out doubt. Great work.

Hey endtransmission! Just realised I've never commented on this thread - absolutely incredible work, you have so many original ideas! I've been following for a while now from the shadows, and I love how varied your army is.

I've made a guardswoman with an underslung meltagun using a technique inspired by (sod it, stolen from) your own. I've attributed it to you though, and it's here if you fancy a peek!

Thanks so much for posting your stuff where we can all be inspired by it

Lovely stuff! great work!

Still great.

Things are looking good. I finished my stolen chimera a while ago. I hope to put some pictures up soon. Your idea for the chimera is amazing though. It adds so much charcter to them. I wish I had seen it earlier and I might have done it to all of them.

Great work as always. Keep it going!

Thanks for all the compliments

Tonight's update isn't a modelling/painting update as such, it's more a status update for me to keep track of what I've got left to do before Silver Sorcerer as I've just acquired a new project for work that involves a few weeks in Austria, plus overtime... *argh!*
So sadly this list isn't looking like it wanted to...

Platoon - Built and painted
Penal Legion - Built and painted
HWS - Built, partially painted
Vets 1 - Built, partially painted
Vets 2 - Built, partially painted
Chimera 1 - Build, partially painted
Chimera 2 - Built, partially painted
Chimera 3 - Built, partially painted
Valk - Partially built, not painted
Kroot Scouts (count as Ratlings) - Built, not painted
PCS - Built, not painted
2 extra flame troopers - built, not painted
CCS - Built, not painted


[Update - 15th July] Everything is now built and ready for an undercoat! *YAY!*
I feel slightly more happy about going away for a week now... kinda.

I know that feeling! What's worse, after Crucible, I know some *minor* tweaks I'd like to make to my not intended list - but I will be concentrating on the paint, and I doubt I'll have time to model anything other than finishing up Deffkopta II... (even though my list is scarily further along) Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing you again at Silver Sorcerer!

As promised... a few quick update shots of last night's work.

First up is my Ratling squad. The front shot doesn't really show it, but these guys are carrying a lot of imperial issue extras such as packs, grenades, pouches and canteens. I"m sure eventually I'll have some decent pictures with rear view shots too. (yes, I know I still need to drill the barrels...)



This next one is a very quick officer for the CCS as I'm not going to have time to do the slice n' dice I want to do for the Rogue Trader proper. When I do get around to making the proper one, this guy can drop down the ranks to lead a PCS instead... so nothing wasted.



So why all the alien love?
As has been previously covered in the Fluff posts... this force is the remnants of a mining colony. Their colony came under attack from some Fydae strain zombies that annihilated pretty much the entire colony. An Inquisitor and his pet Rogue Trader arrived just in time to pull the survivors off the colony before they were completely wiped out. These survivors have vowed to hunt down the individual that released the virus, doing whatever is necessary. The Inquisitor, seeing what was done, has agreed to help... damning himself to be an outcast for hiring the services of the Rogue Trader's contacts to fill in vital tactical support roles (such as scouts/snipers).

You have GOT to make an evil genius for the creator of the zombies....

White lab coat, goggles, huge lazers that are obviously over compensating for something...

Wow i really like that rouge trader, its not too over the too with huge feathers and such.

For the kroot snipers, if you want them to keep looking imperial try chopping off the axe bayonets on the rifles, I think it would make a huge but subtle difference.

Also maybe GS Flak Armour?

I'm fond of the "Kroot ratlings"... I have a similar concept for ratlings in my wip renegade army, with ghoul bodies & kroot rifles... The concept mini looks good to me, and their ragged appearance matches well the WS2 / S2 / T2 of the ratlings...

Anyway, they look Imperial enough to me, so that'd be ok for me!

I'm really enjoying all the additional zenos on here good luck with the deadline.I know how away work can effect a painting schedule.....

It's great to see such an individual guard army. keep up the good work.

grrr

Thanks for all the nice comments

As the Silver Sorcerer tournament is this coming weekend I'm spending every spare moment painting, rather than taking update photos I'm afraid. So you'll just have to put up with a written update instead. I'll be taking the camera on Saturday, so hopefully I can get some good photos of everything amongst the Warhammer World terrain.

So where we at?

Platoon - Built, based and painted
Penal Legion - Built, based and painted
Chimera 1 - Build, Camo complete*
Chimera 2 - Built, Camo complete*
Chimera 3 - Built, Camo complete*
HellHound - Built, Camo complete*

HWS - Built, based, base colours finished; ready for washes
Vets 1 - Built, based, base colours finished; ready for washes
Vets 2 - Built, based, base colours finished; ready for washes
PCS - Built, based, base colours finished; ready for washes
2 extra flame troopers - built, based, base colours finished; ready for washes
CCS - Built,based, base colours finished; ready for washes
Kroot Scouts (count as Ratlings) - Built, based, partially painted

Valk - Partially built, undercoated

When it says painted this means they have reached tabletop standards (3+ colours and a wash). After the tournament I"ll be going back and adding highlights and weathering to them all. I"m also not sure what to do about the Valk as my magnets have gone walkabout, which makes swapping the weapons around tricky, and I'm not sure what to do about painting the inside in such a short time space. I wanted to do the full weathering treatment on it, but I don't think I"ll have the time.

* the tanks have camo and the tracks painted. If I get the chance before friday morning I'll be adding some transfers and a few little details. After Silver Sorcerer these will be getting the full weathering treatment

Update! Yay! Looking forward to seeing the progress in person this weekend at Silver Sorcerer - seeing as you keep declining to put up photos! Could you get away with blu-tacking the Valk weapons? I don't think anyone would penalise you too much for a single model that didn't quite make it (given that WYSIWYG is the only requirement...)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On second thought, I don't want to face a Valk. I therefore deem it unacceptable!

Arakasi wrote:Update! Yay! Looking forward to seeing the progress in person this weekend at Silver Sorcerer - seeing as you keep declining to put up photos! Could you get away with blu-tacking the Valk weapons? I don't think anyone would penalise you too much for a single model that didn't quite make it (given that WYSIWYG is the only requirement...)

Automatically Appended Next Post:
On second thought, I don't want to face a Valk. I therefore deem it unacceptable!

I think if I don't find the magnets by Thursday, I'll use just enough glue to attach the weapons that I want for the weekend and then carefully remove them afterwards. It's not as if I'm doing more than base colours on the vehicles at the moment anyway. I could always drop the Valkyrie and Hellhound for you; leaving enough points for a Russ Exterminator. Where'd your boyz go?! ;p

What colour should I put around the edges of my bases? The tops are mostly mud with tufts of grass...

Just a mid brown to tie in with the mud?

And I'm really looking forward to seeing these guys at the weekend.

SilverMK2 wrote:Just a mid brown to tie in with the mud?
And I'm really looking forward to seeing these guys at the weekend.

I was contemplating old school goblin green trims, especially on the Imperial Beastmen, but I think you're right. Some sort of brown trim makes sense.

You're not the only one looking forward to seeing it all together at the weekend. At the moment I'm painting everything at once (50+ figures), one colour at a time. It seems to be going quite quickly, but it's giving me model overload and I can't quite picture them as a finished force yet.

I shall be bringing my camera, so expect lots of pictures (of everyone and their armies) to be taken on Sunday or whenever I'm not actually playing.

I'm going to spend the rest of the week painting up the bits that I need to take with me. Nothing special, just making sure that they are not just the basic 3 colours

Though I should probably decide on my army list before I do this

That's good news. At least I'm not the only person that hasn't settled on a final list yet

Haha, I'm pretty sure of some of the units I want to take, but I know I don't have enough models of a particular type to take 2 units of them, which is annoying. I usually just proxy them, but since this is WYSIWYG, I can't do that

And since I can't take 2 units of them, I don't want to take just 1 unit, as they are fragile and a pretty big target compared to the rest of my army... which means I might have to rethink my usualy army list and come up with something new

Disclaimer; Okay... I cheated. I never read the whole blog (voraciously scrolled for pics though ).

Really nice... heh, and ambitious project. Being a xenophobe about IG as I am (not even bringing ratlings or ohryns into my army ) I can't much comment on the aliens, but the trooper conversions are just... let me paraphrase a legend, gorgeous!

I really like the colour of that squad, the conversions, the helmets... gak, they look brilliant! Looking forward a ton to seeing more of them, and hopefully you'll get the casting under wraps (unless in the latter posts you've expanded on the earlier difficulties and I haven't read up).

I like the yellow you threw into them. You gonna keep that yellow to your human troopers, or make it a theme for the army? Would be kinda cool, I think, to keep those kind of colouration highlights to let's say, the actual miners, and all the peripheral units like Kraut... er, Kroot, with just a hint of other colour highlight.

On a final note.... good GOD what a project Big ups!

Don't paint the inside of the Valk. Glue the doors shut. s'much quickerer.

"At the moment I'm painting everything at once (50+ figures), one colour at a time."

Ouch.

Zzzzzz wrote:Don't paint the inside of the Valk. Glue the doors shut. s'much quickerer.

Ah, it may be quicker, yes.

But is it -better-?

Think about that

What a fantastic thread! I sill can't get over the chimera, it looks so much more like a "real" tank!

Wolfed wrote:Really nice... heh, and ambitious project. Being a xenophobe about IG as I am (not even bringing ratlings or ohryns into my army ) I can't much comment on the aliens, but the trooper conversions are just... let me paraphrase a legend, gorgeous!
...
I like the yellow you threw into them. You gonna keep that yellow to your human troopers, or make it a theme for the army? Would be kinda cool, I think, to keep those kind of colouration highlights to let's say, the actual miners, and all the peripheral units like Kraut... er, Kroot, with just a hint of other colour highlight.

Thanks, it's been a struggle to keep going at times, but now it's starting to finally come together I'm really pleased with them. The casting went on hold for a while, but I intend to go back to trying to make my own bodies and legs after this weekend, so we shall see how that all goes. The orange is definitely for the miners, it's a safety colour more than battlefield camo after all

As for the Valk... I'm just about to give the inside a light spray with cream and lightly sponge some mud and paint chips onto it. Hopefully that wont take too long, then I can carefully spray the outside and get it done this afternoon, along with finishing the basing on everything and the tracks on 3 Chimera and 1 hellhound. The end is actually in sight!

Lucky people with a day off...

So. A quick update as of 2pm today...

I seem to have far more completed than I was expecting, but some of the items I need for the weekend aren't as complete as I remembered them being. This morning involved LOTS of basing, spraying the Valk and Chimera 4 as well as finishing touches to the CCS and HWS. Quick note... some of the items in the list below are NOT for the tournament... but it may mean I can have larger games on sunday after all

Platoon - Built, based and painted
Penal Legion - Built, based and painted
CCS - Built, Based and painted
Vets 1 - Built, based and painted
Vets 2 - Built, based and painted
Chimera 1 - Built, painted
Chimera 2 - Built, painted
Chimera 3 - Built, painted
Hellhound - Built, painted
Sentiel 1 - Built, based, painted
HWS - Built, based, painted
Kroot scouts - Built, based, painted
PBS - Built, based, painted
Priest - Built, based, painted

Valkyrie - Base colours done; interior partially done; pilots, base and construction left
Chimera 4 - Built, base colour done
Primaris - Built, painted
Iron Hand Stracken - Built, painted
Master of the fleet - partially painted

After lunch we'll see how much of the rest I can do. then I need to remember to decide upon which list to bring and print out a pile of them...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well. It seems I now have 1500 points worth of painted bits and bobs. Not bad considering I barely had 500points finished last friday!

Below are some teaser pictures to tide you over until next week

Looking good!

Well. Silver Sorcerer was fun (and I still have some more games tomorrow to play), but I seriously need to rethink the list a bit as I got seriously mashed in every game! I'llbe posting the list on Monday to the forum to see what they can suggest for improvements.

I suspect fewer flamers and more heavy weapons is the answer as I was having serious issues slowing anything down enough to avoid combat... Which I'm obviously rubbish at. I'll also try and post some notes on the battles, trials and tribulations that plagued our valiant Rogue Trader.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On the plus side... I currently have Panic's Grots being held hostage in my hotel room. Muhaha!!!

Doh - I forgot to check out your army after all that! Tomorrow!

I love that valk good job on the army man!

Thanks! Some more, better photos are on the way. Probably tomorrow morning as I need sleep now

Your army was very impressive in the flesh - even as they were being crushed under my mighty armoured boots

I look forward to seeing how/if it evolves, and also playing against it again in the future

Looking forward to your atmospheric photos. Got a chance to look a few close up - they are great, and I'm sure will be awesome once finished.

With great awesomeness comes... an inability to crush all before it? Seriously, I hope you had as great a weekend as I did (or better, better is good too!)

Oh, I do so love that infantry! I didn't know the DKoK grenadiers had shotgun options! I have GOT to check those mothers out! All that personalized infantry looks like a true b*tch to set up though! Really nice and mottley crew!

Edit: Okay, I give up. I checked Forge World's webpage with no luck in finding DKoK with those... drum-fed shotguns... or whatever they are. Did you just gimp the lasguns or what am I missing?

Wolfed wrote:Oh, I do so love that infantry! I didn't know the DKoK grenadiers had shotgun options! I have GOT to check those mothers out! All that personalized infantry looks like a true b*tch to set up though! Really nice and mottley crew!

Edit: Okay, I give up. I checked Forge World's webpage with no luck in finding DKoK with those... drum-fed shotguns... or whatever they are. Did you just gimp the lasguns or what am I missing?

Thanks!

The DKoK shotguns are called Combat Engineers (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Death-Korps-of-Krieg/DEATH-KORPS-OF-KRIEG-ENGINEERS.html). Sadly they only come in groups of 5, but they are very very nice models

I've just seen the painting scores for the Silver Sorcerer and I'd be interested in seeing how they came up with the painting scores. It was never going to win, but I would have liked it to be a "little" higher than I was. Very bemusing. I can only assume that as it's quite dark that they assumed it was very basic and that as the tanks weren't highlighted that the rest wasn't either... :/

And now some pictures of everything that's painted, including stuff that didn't make a showing on Saturday.















Seeing the models, even unfinished ones like the Primaris or the Tech Priest, on some terrain makes them look infinitely better than any of my other photos. Looks like I need to make me some terrain soon so I can carry on taking nicer pictures. People seem to actually be voting on these ones...

Some rather cool mood pictures there

Also, someone posted this image on another thread - the robed classified guys look kind of like your miners

Ill be honest... I have very mixed feelings about this army. It is amazingly well painted/converted/posed/and the execution is flawless...but...on te other hand...Im disappointed in the fact that i have to go cut up the two chimeras I just finished assembling today >.<!!! Seriously well done!
>

Great work, I really like the force. The beastmen abhumans are a great addition. I must say the terrain your pics were taken on seems to be quite impressive. Dead sentinals and warhound very intense. I would love to see more pics of your minis and the terain

I'm loving the beastmen Idea.
It's making me feel the need to start a Cultist force again.
HURGH

SilverMK2 wrote:Also, someone posted this image on another thread - the robed classified guys look kind of like your miners

Thanks for pointing that one out. I shall have to write that into their background now... even if that does mean changing their planet of origin
I could see their planet being wiped out in an exterminatus, with the Inquisitor taking command of the survivors and going off after the big bad... I shall have to think some more about that.

Sorry to give you more work

SilverMK2 wrote:Sorry to give you more work

I should think so too
I've started to write up and expand the background stuff off forum, so feel free to nose around there too: http://www.endtransmission.co.uk/games

tcraigen wrote:Great work, I really like the force. The beastmen abhumans are a great addition. I must say the terrain your pics were taken on seems to be quite impressive. Dead sentinals and warhound very intense. I would love to see more pics of your minis and the terain

Oh how I wish that terrain was mine! Those photos were taken on the massive boards at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Each table is a miniature masterpiece!

As for the beastmen... thanks
Now if only I could make them effective in a game...

I will take a look when I get home

RE the beastment - don't let them get assulted by a MoN DP (or two)

Though I would try and do the same as I did with my DP's/raptors - hide them behind another unit's transport for as long as possible so they are not shot to pieces.

I really need to decide what I'm actually using them for first. Actually playing 40K was never a strong point. Modelling, fluff and painting have always been of more interest; which is probably why I'm surrounded by grey plastic, even when I'm trying to be careful with spending!

It's one of the reasons I've started expanding the fluff behind it all as it gives me targets without having to worry about strategies

One thing I do need to do fairly soon though is to make some terrain of my own so I can take more photos. They seem to look much better when placed in context, rather than with a plain background.

Well, if you want an IG race, I'm going to go back and convert all my IG to give a WWI British style gun and artilery line. I worked out last night that I have about 3,500 points (without much in the way of upgrades either ).

All of it will need to be repainted, and pretty much all of it will need converting - if I stop working on everything else (I tend to have about 20 things going on at once, never getting very far on any of it ), I could hopefully get 1,000 points sorted out fairly quickly. Just finishing off sculpting 10 heads that I will cast and distribute to my men

I look forward to seeing the heads. Faces are something I've failed at so far

Luckily I'm only having to do some very simple gas masks. Not really very good at actual faces

Edit: Though perhaps I should stop stealing your thread

Ah, I see. Still.. very cool
As for stealing the thread... go for it. It's not like I'm doing much with it this week!
Every bit of inspiration to kick start me again is good

Haha

I've had the idea for a while but after seeing your excellent DKoK models I thought that I needed something to oppose them, so drafted in some English WWI guard

I need to find the rules for the stationary earthshaker cannons from somewhere (I'm taking the guns of a bunch of basilisks and am going to mount them on leg/platforms). Though I guess I could just say they are basilisks and not move them

I guess stationary gun platforms would be in the Vraks books. You might be lucky and find the info in the update PDFs on the FW site. Most artillery won't be moving anyway, so you can probably get away with your plan of just calling it a basilisk.

I am looking forward to being able to take the Moles on a boarding attack using the rules from IA9 too

LOve those pictures, and WHWorld terrain is indeed awesome! That Ork scrap table has so much £££s worth of bits on it its unbelievable! And the one where they broke all the titans and embedded them into the scenery

Ps: Silver, rules are here http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/i/IA1update28AUG.pdf on page 12

Cheers matey*.

And I imagine that some of the stuff is probably from miscasts, returned items etc. Though they probably would spend a fair bit on their terrain, since it is their HQ and main gaming centre



*I'm not actually a pirate, don't worry

Whew, you had me worried for a minute there!

You're probably right but its still insane

endtransmission: mole launchers are indeed awesome! Have you thought about getting a Hades Breaching drill for your engineers, they're kickass.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:LOve those pictures, and WHWorld terrain is indeed awesome! That Ork scrap table has so much £££s worth of bits on it its unbelievable! And the one where they broke all the titans and embedded them into the scenery

We played a big game on the Scrap table and it's a nightmare for Guard. There weren't enough fire lanes to target the oncoming Grot/Ork horde. Didn't help that I was teamed up with the world's smallest Daemon army

I have plans to make some Termites to use as Chimera... eventually, so the breaching drills are certainly on the list of things to get to support this. I'm also trying to work out what an ore carrier would look like on a mining planet so I can make a "counts as" Gorgon.

I did, however, manage to come up with another option for my Ogryn replacements. Originally I was thinking of making some exo armour that would be heavy mining equipment that boosts strength and toughness; but this morning I was reading through the Rogue Trader RPG book and it mentions Murder Servitors. These are super strong attack servitors that are kept in stasis until needed in a boarding action... the description made me think of the Chrono-Gladiator from Inquisitor. They could make for some interesting conversions and a very ragtag looking unit of monstrous creatures

That sounds pretty cool - also fits in with the penal soldiers.

For the ore carrier - perhaps something which is a cross between this and a chimera?

I imagine removing pretty much the entire back passanger section to make room for either a trailer for the ore cart, or a big tipper/bucket/cart.

Big pneumatics/lifter arms for tipping the load out or hitching the trailer to like on the Hades breaching drill.

I would be inclined to go for something which pulls a trailer rather than has a bucket on the back, as this is the Imperium, and a bucket is not big enough

Have you seen these? They are quite cool termite models from ramshackle games!

http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=211

Also, have you read the Eisenhorn books? Theres a good bit in there about a mining world, although its slightly more AdMech than your stuff.

I was thinking more along the lines of some clever soul managing to save a couple of the massive ore carriers in the escape and converting them into platoon sized troop carriers like the gorgon.

To me the Gorgon looks like an old barge where you would drop the coal in the top and, to deliver it, drop the front ramp and scoop it out with tractors...

Ah, sorry, for some reason I was thinking of a griffon mortor [doh]

If you got 2 chimeras, split the tracks, doubled the width and added in some superstructure (a big enclosed ore basket), you could make something which looked pretty cool - sort of like a troop carrying version of the Thor tank in this thread.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Have you seen these? They are quite cool termite models from ramshackle games!

http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=211

Also, have you read the Eisenhorn books? Theres a good bit in there about a mining world, although its slightly more AdMech than your stuff.

I have seen both, thanks. I do need to go back and re-read that part of the Eisenhorn books and make some notes.
Oddly there was someone at Warhammer World that had loads of those Boring machines on the table; nthey looked great. Especially for £8 each!

Rules wise, Termites would work well as Counts-As Drop Pods that ignore difficult terrain and cause massive damage when they surface under a unit (effectively an IG version of the Mawloc's surfacing attack).

endtransmission wrote:cause massive damage when they surface under a unit (effectively an IG version of the Mawloc's surfacing attack).

You mean like the hades!

And yes, £8 is a steal!!

SilverMK2 wrote:Ah, sorry, for some reason I was thinking of a griffon mortor [doh]

If you got 2 chimeras, split the tracks, doubled the width and added in some superstructure (a big enclosed ore basket), you could make something which looked pretty cool - sort of like a troop carrying version of the Thor tank in this thread.

For Griffins I quite like the ones in the Silver Sorcerer tournament that were just Chimera with the top hatch left off and a mortar team in the back. I don't know whos those were sadly.

As for that Thor... that's awsomely scary!. I've seen someone make a Gorgon from the Baneblade kit which looked good too as it was about the right size.


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Vitruvian XVII wrote:You mean like the hades!

Really? Cool! I thought the Hades was for breaching walls rather than burrowing underground. Teach me to comment without reading the Vraks books

Hahaha

Rules are here on page 9 if you want them:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/k/kreig.pdf

Damn! I think I may have to use the Krieg rules for my guard in the future. I love that Hades/Engineers/gas grenades combo!

Not so much melta weaponry floating around, but the Hades assaults would more than make up for that. Hmmmm

Oh dear, sorry if i've given you yet more to think about!!!

That's ok. I seem to be building up a wide variety of Imperium based units so I can run lots of different lists.

For example I currently have elements to piece together normal guard, Elysian, Inquisition (with inducted guard or space marines), vanilla marines or FW Red Scorpions. What's one more list? 99% of the elements are the same as the normal guard list anyway

I havent posted on Dakka for years. But ive renewed my a/c after looking over your blog.

Ive got to say that the stuff you have done is some of the best ive seen for 40k anywhere. I love the sculpted guys you have done and the rag tag yet colur coordinated look of the army is amazing.

U can consider the Beastman penal troops copied

Again thank you for an amazing blog.

Wow, that's a big honour, thank you

Im curious about something.

Ive not played 40k in ages, moved house, had kids etc. I dont even own the newest rule book though i did buy the Guard dex to see what changes id have to make as and when i do start up again. I really only come onto here and the likes of Ammobunker/Warseer to look at the figs. 40k p0rn 4tw.

What is this Dark Heresy ive seen you mention a few times ? Is it a new 40k spin off ? A Necromunda kinda game ? I notice on your website that you have charecter names and stats for them that i dont recognise.

Dark Heresy, along with Rogue Trader and the forthcoming Deathwatch, are all Roleplaying games based in the 40K universe. They are written and sold (under license of course) by http://www.fantasyflightgames.com

Dark Heresy covers an Inquisitor's retinue with investigation style missions. Rogue Trader has more of an exploration/trade focus and Deathwatch is Marines.

I love the fluff of the 40K universe, so I'm having a bit of fun and writing up my Guard army so that all it's elements can be used in these other games too.

Cool thanks for the link.

Might have to see if i can pick these up, especially the Rogue Trader book, if only for the fluff.

Ouch. It's been a while since I last posted anything in here hasn't it?

Just to prove that I've not been completely idle, here are some pictures of the Chimera and Hellhound in their newly beated-up state. This is the first time I've ever tried to weather any tanks, so I'm quite pleased with the results



The next step in the great modelling process is now to actually make some scenery to take better pictures against as people seem to be reacting better to the ones I did at Warhammer World against their terrai...n

Very nice. What technique are you using to get the rust spots/runs?

Also, what are you fixing it to the surface with?

The rust spots/runs were the FW rust powder mixed with some water. I put a dot over each rivet and then used my finger to wipe it downwards.

As for fixing... I've not got that far yet, so I'll get back to you on that one

If you want to keep that effect then dont varnish it. I did my Elysian tauros with loads of powders and then the varnish dissolved most of them

Nice tanks though!

These are looking great! (and much further along than my Trukks )

Looks sweet. Most peeps seem to apply powders after varnish, I've found it can have different effects, possibly depending on the technique used to apply in the first place. A couple of very light sprays, just a dusting really, drying between each has sometimes left the powders as is. Sometimes the spray has turned the powder back into a paint-like substance and coated a larger area. I know some peeps mix with methylated spirits rather than water, after varnishing and it seems to act as a light fixative.

What's this? Two updates in one weekend?! Surely the world must be ending!

Thanks for the comments about weathering powders. I've been reading up a bit more online and have ordered some Mig powder fixative, so I'll let you all know how that goes...

While I wait for that to arrive, I started on my commander proper, and the start of some =I= figures.

I'd like to introduce you to Joran Haxeton, Rogue Trader, Captain of the Heart of Sianna and temporary commander of the Malfian IVth.

For 40K he's my company commander, for =I= and Rogue Trader... well. He'll be a Rogue Trader



Cutting the head off the Vostroyan commander was a job and a half. I should have stolen my wife's dremel, but it's for her silversmithing... not sure she'd want bits of lead in the sanding heads...

Now that is one sweet rogue trader, very nice.

loving the rough trader!

More feathers!

Looks pretty cool to me.

MOAR feathers? He used to have three, but I removed one as it was looking a bit too fopp-ish.

What I do need to do is turn the skull on his hat into a cyberskull to allow him to monitor what's going on around him at all times

I hope you don't do the same to the one on his codpiece

And not really more feathers.

SilverMK2 wrote:I hope you don't do the same to the one on his codpiece

Nah. Obviously that'll have a hidden gun in it
Anyway. that's a belt buckle

So he's not secretly filming "when heretics go wild!"?

And codpiece sounded better than belt

Any thoughts on the colours for this guy?

For colours, I want something that stands out from the browny-green of the miners. I'm thinking light blues, light greys and silver

I should be ashamed... it's been a long time since I last posted any updates... and I don't actually have any to give as work and holidays have gotten in the way.
Still. It's given me plenty of time to work out the next steps... now I just need to find the time to actually do some work on them.

1) I need to work out a faster way of converting Chimera, so I'm going to make and cast the back part so it speeds up the assembly procedure. Yes it involves using GW parts, but it's not for resale and I still need to buy chimera to use it, so no sales are lost. I figure that balances out ok.

2) I need me some Russes. Sadly I really really dislike the Russ model. I think they looks small, fat and very out of place compared to the other Guard tanks; especially the sleeker looking Chimera that I've got. What I do like are the slightly larger russes that iPaint over on Warseer. I'm thinking that creating a new hull that looks like a baby Macharius that fits onto the Chimera tracks could be pretty cool. I even have an idea of where\how to attach the sponsons. I just need to work out the best way of piecing this thing together effectively.

3) I also need me some artillery. But, like the Russ model... I dislike the Basilisk model. Can you tell that I'm picky yet? As I'm going to have to buy Russes to get the turret and sponson weapons, I'm going to look at using the Russ track units for an interesting new Basilisk/Bombard. I just need to decide if the cannon will point forwards, or if it would be more interesting to create a baby Minotaur.

4) Finally I need to get back to the infantry bodies... the problem I have with the bodies is that I don't want to buy boxes and boxes of Cadians purely for the arms and guns. The plan, at the moment, is to try and sculpt the arms onto the body/ies that will allow the attachment of different weapons.

So much to do... so little time. I also think that with all this tank work I may need to start a separate blog to deal with it separately.

In other news... Arakasi and myself are booked onto the Tank Masterclass session at Warhammer World in February, so if anyone in the area fancies a game or two on the morning of the 5th of Feb... just yell

Love the iPaint russ - might be a bit too long at the read, but easily fixed simply by reducing the amount of plasticard. EDIT: Take that back, just had a read through the thread and it looks absolutely amazing

Look forward to seeing what you come up with for the tanks/artillery.

You don't want to sculpt a couple of sets of arms detached from the body so you can get some variation in the models?

I never thought I'd say it, but that is a badass Rogue Trader.

Looks like a space pimp to me I like it

RaegMachine wrote:Looks like a space pimp to me I like it

Surely that's the point of a rogue trader?
No fur coat for him though. We do want *some* semblance of respectability!


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Oh. I forgot the Termites as well. I need to make a few of those to count as the DKoK siege drills.

I've tried making separate arms before and they were a nightmare to cast as they are so small. There's also the added bonus that if they are already attached to the bodies, I know they will fit around whatever armour they are wearing. The plan (in my head) is to make a couple of bodies, cast those up and then make a number of different arm positions on those bodies; and recast them on one sprue so I get more of a squad in one go. Should make building platoons much faster. We shall see.

I think the tanks are first though as I need something to practice on after the masterclass

really like the work here, had to go back and give it all another go. the empire theme you have with some of the models is really well done! looking forward to more updates!

I've been mulling over various ideas for a different pattern for my Basilisk/Medusa units; turns out someone else has had pretty much the same idea. It looks pretty good, so I feel happier about giving it a try at some point in the future.

Since my last post I've been fiddling around with cardboard and plasticard to make a few tanks. Here are the results so far...

First up is the WIP Chimera body. One of the things that always bugged me about my Chimeras was the back door. When I moved the turret to the back I was never entirely clear on how much space inside there would be for people to disembark through the right hand side of the ramp. So with the new one... there is no ramp; there's just a door on the left hand side. Anyone have any suggestions for what I could put on the right hand side?



And then there's the mini Macharius to replace the standard Russ hull. First up is the rough cardboard version with a Russ turret carefully balanced on top to give a rough idea. The plan is to also make pieces that attach to the rear sides that come out over the tracks, like the Macharius.




And the WIP for the plasticard version...


There's still a long way to go...

Looking nice.

Stowage of some kind next to the door? Some sort of equipment rack maybe? Hate to travel in a transport with only that little door though

Like the look of the little macharius, should be cool.

You could put a small shrine?

Perhaps a communication unit so infantry can talk with the crew?

Exhaust pipes?

"Motivational poster"?

Spare gun rack, tow chains, spare track or a large jerry can perhaps?

Dare I suggest an Ork hostage

Wow it's been a while since I've commented on your blog...

Honestly the weathered tanks on the previous page on the thread look awesome, and I really like the mock-up of the leman russ/macharius style chimera chasis aswell. In regards to the new door/back to the chimera you could attempt some freehand art/iconography of your army or assuming you are still holding to their mining world background from ages ago some sort of spare drills/digging gear aswell?

That's a cool profile for a tank... without the treads at least, though they don't ruin the look at all. I can't wait to see more of the plastic version done.

Agreed with monkeytroll : some stowage for a gas can, ropes, maybe a firing point?

Looking good so far, good luck!

Imperial tanks always need more stowage! But - how about double doors? Doesn't matter if one's wider than the other (like on a transit van bus).

inmygravenimage wrote:Imperial tanks always need more stowage! But - how about double doors? Doesn't matter if one's wider than the other (like on a transit van bus).

I believe there is only 1 door as the mechanisms for the turret take up the other side of the rear compartment.

SilverMK2 wrote:

inmygravenimage wrote:Imperial tanks always need more stowage! But - how about double doors? Doesn't matter if one's wider than the other (like on a transit van bus).

I believe there is only 1 door as the mechanisms for the turret take up the other side of the rear compartment.

That's correct. Only the one door.
I know this isn't all that great for a fast exit, but hey

I've still got to rivet it all, but here it is with some wiring and what not on the back to texture it a bit. I didn't want to put too much strong detail on it as I wanted to try and cast it without too many problems. Stowage can, of course, be added after each one has been built so they are all different.

Hmmm... you should of mounted it on its own panel and left a hole in the right for it to slot into - that way you could make and cast multiple different panels.

Oh - looks good BTW

Looks nice...

blah blah blah WoulddaCoulddaShouldda

If I decide I want a different panel on the back I can make one, file a cast flat and mount it on. At this point in time I'm happy with just the one back. Now I just need to thicken up the card panels so that it will cast properly.

Some photos of the other tank coming later...

Looking good. I like what you did with the chimeras, and the mini-macharius is looking promising. Nice job!

As promised. Here are a couple of shots of the other tank coming together slowly, but nicely.





I still need to work out the sides to the front turret as I'm not 100% sure the best way to go about making curved sides to it. The best I can think of is to glue the three bits together, stuff the sides with putty and sand/round it off

Hot water is a good way to soften the plasticard, so you can curve it. But gluing a bunch of smaller strips then filing them down would work too. I think the hot water thing needs a bit of work to get it right, but it's not too bad.

The Good Green wrote:Hot water is a good way to soften the plasticard, so you can curve it. But gluing a bunch of smaller strips then filing them down would work too. I think the hot water thing needs a bit of work to get it right, but it's not too bad.

Looking through my bitz box I just came across some sheets of very thin plasticard that should bend nicely, but I'll give the hot water thing a try if that doesn't work. Thanks

And another quick couple of pictures before bed just showing how the bits look when combined wit the track units and russ turret

Great tank conversion! Can't wait to see it finished.

Man you always make me want to start gaurd

STUNING convertions as always man, befor im off one question:

How will you make the CYCLOPS DEMOLITION SQUADRON? seem like a good fit in your army, litte mining robots that blow tunnels for a dig to start.

bigmek35 wrote:How will you make the CYCLOPS DEMOLITION SQUADRON? seem like a good fit in your army, litte mining robots that blow tunnels for a dig to start.

Thanks
I've not thought about Cyclops squadrons yet. In the short term I could always use the two CATs from Space Hulk

Re: Bending plasticard: if you have anchor points along the curve that will help it hold its shape - if you can add in a strut, or even a bit of sprue, halfway between the back of the sponson mount and the gun mount on either side (if that make sense) that should help. Also, mate, superb work generally: makes me want to go back and do another scratch-built tank o'doom, but maybe a macharius this time!

Yeah, the tanks looks promising...

Good lock with your "curved plasticard thingy"!!

I've found thin plasticard (0.5mm) works best for curves - just don't put it anywhere load bearing! (The original, now replaced, air intake for my latest Trukk was done that way)

It was suggested to me to use several layers of thin plasticard to create curves - bend the first layer, then bend the second layer a little bit more and stick it behind the outer first layer and it will keep the outer layer taught and curved.

endtransmission wrote:I've not thought about Cyclops squadrons yet. In the short term I could always use the two CATs from Space Hulk

I thnk its a start, but i dont like those CATS, they'll look out of place. knowing you youll make somthing cool though

Agreed with bigmek35, and they are really, really small to look efficient as suicide bombers...

The tank looks awesome like a WW2 Grant. If your interested in something similiar to the Russ conversion there are templates about for something called a Fortis Animus which is the same concept by somebody called Patorcah. I don't have a good link so Googles your best bet.

Llamahead wrote:The tank looks awesome like a WW2 Grant.

Agreed. The Grant's profile is really high, more than any other tank I can think of (relative to its length), something that all 40k tanks (except maybe the Macharius?) have as an integral part of their designs - take the standard LR for example. This russ incarnation here is maybe a bit more squat than the M3, which is not a bad thing. Keep up the good work it's looking super-promising!

Llamahead wrote:The tank looks awesome like a WW2 Grant. If your interested in something similiar to the Russ conversion there are templates about for something called a Fortis Animus which is the same concept by somebody called Patorcah. I don't have a good link so Googles your best bet.

I've seen Patorcah's name around before in relation to templates for a Malcador and Macharius, but I've never been able to find any sign of his templates. I did find some papermodel templates for them in the BWC-archive group on Googlegroups that have some possibilities

Updates? Man i got a battle force of the catachan kind and im kinda basing my army of of yours...


so saying that please update befor e this thread needs to get to the point of thred necromancy

Fantastic work on the tanks there. Will you be fitting sponsons to the Macharius-alike?

Regarding the new chimera rear, I would have just used the space as a handy place for the drop tank and left it at that Dangerous to leave, perhaps, but you don't join the Guard for the life expectancy

bigmek35 wrote:Updates? Man i got a battle force of the catachan kind and im kinda basing my army of of yours...
so saying that please update befor e this thread needs to get to the point of thred necromancy

I saw the start of your thread
The tanks have been delayed a little as I managed to run out of plasticard, so I need to find another reasonably priced source. Hobbycraft is a tad pricy for buying lots of sheets at a time

Last night I spent some time on my Red Scorpions (Angstrom camo scheme!), but once that unit is finished, I do intend to go back to doing some sculpting for a bit while I think on the tank progress a bit more. Fear not, things are progressing... albeit slowly.

fair enough endtransmission

It's been ages since I did an update on anything, which is a bit embarrasing. So what have I been up to? Not a lot mostly, but this weekend myself and Arakasi went to the first Masterclass session run by Forgeworld. The Masterclass was run by Phil Stutcinskas and Mark Bedford and was taking people through some of the may tips and tricks that they use to paint tanks for the Imperial Armour books. they are investigating a number of other courses to run which also sound fun. Painting a battalion in a day and airbrush techniques.

It became a running joke throughout the day that Phil and Mark obviously had shares in Gloss Varnish as it's used in pretty much every technique they took us through. Annoyingly they shop hadn't been aware of this and had sold out of gloss varnish; I think everyone on the course had gone to try and buy them and found the rack empty.

If you ever get the chance to go, GO. While there wasn't anything that isn't in the Masterclass book, it was much clearer being taken through it all step by step in person, Mark and Phil were really nice guys and I had a brilliant time. As part of the course we got a prebuilt, undercoated and varnished Hellhound to practice all the techniques on as well as a set of brushes and powders.



The first thing they took us through was how to apply transfers so that they don't peel off and don't look fake. I've avoided using transfers for ages as they always have a slightly silvery look and you can see a slight raised edge when the light catches it. The trick to fixing both these is magic. Well, not really. Before applying transfers, give your model a thin coat of gloss varnish; this give you a nice smooth surface to put transfers onto as the silvery finish is down to tiny pockets of air being trapped under the transfer. After you've placed the transfer and let it dry, painting the panel that contains the transfer with another thin coat of varnish seals it all, so it's never coming off. This varnish also smoothes out the raised edges of the transfer a bit too. I'm converted! They offered some hints and tips on placing transfers onto marine pads, so I'll have a go at those over on my Scorpions blog at some point.

Chipped paint was next up on the agenda. I've tried to do chipping with a sponge before, but never got it looking nice. turns out I'd not quite got it. The first step is a stippling of a lighter colour, then a mix of dark brown and black for the undercoat over the top of that. Putting chipping over the transfers also helps blend them into the mode more effectively. I'd also been underdoing it…



You can also use the sponge for doing scratches, dragging the sponge along the surface will give some nice simple effects.



Aging the tank and starting to build up grime around rivets was an eye opener and something I need to go back and revisit my chimera with for it's simplicity and scale/range of effect you can do quickly.

Tip 1.[/b[ Forgeworld don't like Devlan Miracle, they think it's too grey and takes the life out of models, so they use a mixture of Gryphonne sepia and black for a richer, more vibrant brown.

[b]Tip 2. In order to control the wash more effectively and give you more working time, don't just add water as this will separate the pigments faster. Adding some of Magic, multitool Gloss Varnish as well will create a slightly thinner version of the wash that won't separate the pigments. You can also use gloss varnish to make washes out of any other paints in case there isn't one for the colour you need.

When placing the wash onto the model, work on it one horizontal plane at a time so you don't get the washes flowing down and creating tide marks. For each area we washed it with the mixture and then used a clean brush to carefully remove the wash from the larger flat areas that wouldn't get so much staining.



By adding in oranges/yellows you can create simple rust effects around rivets (very pleased at this point as Phil was very impressed with mine at this stage )



Tip 3 If you've got a dark tank, don't make the washes darker. As mentioned earlier, we can create washes with gloss varnish and any paint, so with a nice sandy colour we can start building up dust around rivets and in crevaces instead. I havn't got a photo of this as it doesn't show up very well on the light grey tank… but it's something I'll try on my own.

The main area that I wanted some help with was weathering powders as I've not quite got the hang of this on my own. Turns out I was nearly there. They demonstrated two ways of using the powders.



The first one (see the track area) is some gloss varnish (see, it gets used for everything!) with some powder mixed in, blobbed in so it clumps up. While it's still wet, put some dry powder on in random blotches so you get a mixture of tones. The wet varnish will soak into this dry powder and stick it on.

The other way of doing it is to apply the powder dry and then carefully put some white spirit onto the area (see rear panel above). You can then use a clean brush and some white spirit to clean up some areas that you don't want as much powder on as well as rubbing a bit off with your fingers.

A light coat of spray varnish over the top will seal it all on forever.

The other option, for a cleaner, but still weathered, track look is to wash the track (painted a dark brown) with a mixture of a light sandy colour and… surprise! gloss varnish. Gently wipe off
the excess so you've only got the brighter colour in the crevaces. Once the wash has dried, gently rub some of the Dark Iron weathering powder (or graphite powder as that's cheaper) over the tracks to give the raised surfaces a nice metallic look.



Rubbing this powder over other raised edges, especially where you've chipped the paint also gived you a nice metallic effect.



The last thing they went through was water stains and running oils. Take a wild guess. Yep, you got it. Gloss varnish and whatever colour you want to stain your tank with. Make this wash very very thin and just do multiple layers, building up the layers.



Some other amusing bits we learned was that Phil and Mark don't seem like the StornRaven either

Thanks for taking us through what you learned

I have the masterclass book, but as you say it is good to hear it from the horses mouth, as it was.

Now I just need to start applying all of this to my tanks so I can see it all in action.

Mark and Phil demonstrated some non tank miniatures that they had applied the same techniques to to great effect, so I'll be trying these out on my guard as well.

Oh... and I should have a nice shiny new Macharius Vulcan arriving this week too

Nice - I look forward to seeing everything

I would be interested to see the airbrushing masterclass as I really want to use mine more (and well... better ).

Yeah, they suggested contacting the Warhammer World events team and suggesting sessions as it shows interest. I know a number of people's ears perked up as soon as they mentioned an airbrush session.

There's also an 'Eavy Metal masterclass day in July... still undecided about that one. Mark was a little bemused about the idea, suggesting that it would most likely be a day teaching you paint a jewel or something equally tiny. He was utterly bemused by the upper echelon's idea to run a Stormraven masterclass though as it's exactly the same techniques as we did on the tank day... I couldn't help but wonder if they had too much stock of the stormraven and needed space in the warehouse

Thanks so much for posting your powder tutorial - I've been using them completely wrong for a while, it seems! Can't wait to see the effects on your armour pool

I think everyone uses the powders in a different way. For instance the gloss varnish route is Mark's preferred method, whilst the dry powder and white spirit is Phil's.

There was also mention of making a paint out of pigments and water, or a wash out of pigments and white spirit. I couldn't for the life of me manage to get the wash with white spirit to work though. Maybe I didn't have enough white spirit in the palette. Who knows...

That weathering technique is awesome...

I think I might have to buy some pigments & try it out...

Note: When mixing Gloss Miracle in with other paints it makes the palette harder to clean afterwards!

That's a hell of a return update! Great stuff!

Now I need to do a decent followup followup post

Best get cracking

Well a Macharius Vulcan should be arriving sometime this week. Does that count?

I need to decide if I'm going to redo all my tanks with a slightly less drab camo scheme, or if I just weather them as they are and carry on with the brown/grey scheme for future tanks as well.

I think the basic foot troops need to be brightened up a little though as they really do look boring on the tabletop, but I"m not sure how as the brown uniform seemed to fit the miner aspect...

Did you think about painting the air tanks with brighter "warning" colours?

You can also add in some hazard stripes I'm sure

SilverMK2 wrote:Did you think about painting the air tanks with brighter "warning" colours?
You can also add in some hazard stripes I'm sure

I may have to, yes. Currently they are the correct colour for oxygen tanks, which I thought was nice... but it does introduce a big black blob into the figure.

One suggestion that Mark made on the tank painting workshop was to put lots of light coloured weathering onto them so it looks like dust has settled in the creases of the clothing in order to lighten it without actually changing the colour scheme at all. So that's on my list of things to try too

When diluting the washes here, is it solely with gloss varnish or do you add a little water as well? Really nice. I will try some of them!!

Most of those templates I was talking about are easiest toget at here, just sign up and they are there. http://paperhammer40k.com/. The Hellhounds looking really nifty. Nice to see some subtle weathering rather than the extremes of pristine or not been maintained for a decade looks.

You can add a little water as well. As I understand it, the gloss varnish makes the wash easier to control and gives you time to touch it up, remove it or blend it. Water, as always, reduces the pigment concentration.

Arakasi has it right. If you just use water to dilute paint, the pigment particles start to migrate towards each other and the paint separates. Using some gloss varnish in the mixture as well prevents (mostly) this separation of liquid and pigments so it's easier to control where the paint is going to go.

At least that's how I remember that part of the talk going...

This afternoon has been a bit of a rollercoaster. I both love Forgeworld for saving me time and hate Warhammer world for wasting my time.

On the plus side... I LOVE the Cadian hostile environment set that's just about to be released. It's pretty much what I've been aiming at for my guys and not quite managing to reach. I have a feeling that I may be about to blow rather a lot of money on these guys rather than trying to make something that's pretty much the same... but not quite as good. It would certainly make it easier to add new units in and allow me more time on the tanks.

At the masterclass Phil was asking what I played, so I told him all about making my own bodies (which he thought was cool) that had respirators, oxygen tanks and hazard suits. He went quite quiet and moved on at that point... related, or co-incidence?

On the down side. The Macharius that I ordered from Warhammer world last saturday *still* isn't here as the redshirts in the shop never passed the ******* order through to Forgeworld to complete. In fact, the guy I just spoke to had no idea where the paperwork even was for my order as it was on the computer, but not in any of the order paperwork!?! Glad I phoned up to check where it was now... *grrr*

Color me very unimpressed with those Cadian torsos. If they just sold the backpacks, maybe, sure. But a little guitar wire or green stuff, and filling in the 'vox head' off of the cadian sprues, and make your own backpacks.

Not like some of the Voidsuit conversions folks have done here.

Anyways, enjoying your work, thanks for sharing the Masterclass lessons!

While Dakka debates the Cadian environmental suit upgrades I decided to start weathering one of my Chimera to start practicing.

One thing that you'll have noticed right off the bat is that the tank we got taught on was very light in colour. Mine are pretty damn dark, which meant that a lot of the techniques didn't quite work as practiced on the model. Thankfully they did give some tips on reversing the colours for darker tanks, so instead of adding dark dirt around the rivets... start packing in lighter coloured dust instead.

First I added four layers of chipping to cover up the original silver chipping. One was a lighter grey, another a lighter granite, next was scorched brown/black and finally there were a few dots of scorched brown/black/vomit brown to add a little bit of extra texture. Sadly I forgot to take a picture with just the chipping, so you'll have to just look at the end of evening picture and work out what's chipping. Unfortunately the chipping isn't all that visible on the darker tank either, which I suppose would be reasonable.

Over that I started to add in a wash of Vomit brown/Dheneb stone/gloss varnish/water to simulate dust and sand getting encrusted around everything. There's also a wash of vomit brown over the tracks, but I'm not sure I diluted it enough . We shall see once the Dark Iron weathering powder goes on at the end I guess.

Anyway. You came for pictures, not inane ramblings.

First up is how it looked before hand


then we've got it at the end of this evening's work.




Some of the things I've learned tonight are:

1) Weathering a dark tank is much harder than a lighter coloured tank
2) I don't like the colours I chose for the camo any more... they look too similar under most forms of light, except daylight. Which is a problem...
3) I quite like the look of the light grey of the test tank.
4) The "add dust to the recesses" technique doesn't work so well on a soldier. At least not yet. I think more practice is needed there.

So basically I'm contemplating changing the colour scheme to be a light grey with a contrasting camo colour. The current platoon can stay with the browns, but future platoons are going to be lighter. I just need to work out what the contrasting colour is.

Looks like you really did a number on it. Sadly, I think I prefer the before pic - though that may just be the photos. I notice you didn't try putting any decals on? I think those, and/or picking out the few details on the sides might add something to it...

It may be worth trying out your colour schemes on the Hellhound test tank from the class - you could put several tests in close proximity, weather, and see which one you like best.

Arakasi wrote:Looks like you really did a number on it. Sadly, I think I prefer the before pic - though that may just be the photos. I notice you didn't try putting any decals on? I think those, and/or picking out the few details on the sides might add something to it...

yeah, sadly so do I. I know it's not finished, but I'm really not liking the lighter coloured sand thing this morning; which is just typical. Still. I had to try it and see if it worked; I think the answer is clearly not. There were some decals on there already, but I mostly wanted the markings to be the red and cream stripes. Before I scrap this completely I"ll try picking out those little details onthe side, but I'm not sure they will be enough to save it.

Of course I'm watching not as a personal friend but for my Trukks - it would have been nice to see the dark base work *before* starting on my Trukks! Hopefully I have more success to share...

Yeh, I'd agree there, the before pics do look better to me as well...
If you want some freshly covered dust though get hold of the tamiya weathering powders, they come with a brush and you just apply it dry, looks good, the Leman russ in my gallery had that done to it...

Weathering powders would have come later. The washes are to create the first layer of dirt and grime, with weathering powders tying together everything nearer the end. I just don't feel like going as far as the powder stage as the colours look wrong and you can't see the camo any more.

I have no idea why the camo scheme seems to have vanished. Maybe it's just the gloss varnish over the paint. Either way, I'vebeen thinking of a colour change for a while now anyway as they do look rather dull on the tabletop. This just seals the deal

Might be the gloss as you say. The two colours seem to have a fairly low contrast in the before pic, glossiness isn't going to help that at all. Hopefully when you matt it back down the camo will 're-appear', although as you already were thinking about changing the scheme that's probably a moot point.

That second shot looks awesome though, nicely worn and aged.
How did you find covering up the previous weathering? I've been playing with sponges a bit and I'm guessing I'll be using it on my urban guard (whenever I get back to them ), which already have some scratches and chips on.

Weathering on both the before and after shots look great to me , thanks for sharing your tips, i shall be sure to invest in some gloss varnish ;-)

monkeytroll wrote:How did you find covering up the previous weathering? I've been playing with sponges a bit and I'm guessing I'll be using it on my urban guard (whenever I get back to them ), which already have some scratches and chips on.

The previous weathering powders vanished with the gloss coating as they hadn't been fixed on, so it was just a case of targeting the previous chipping with the sponge when working on the newer stuff. When chipping a dark coloured tank I'd suggest picking a lighter colour for the chipping, otherwise (as you can see) it won't show up very well. Something like a red-ish brown or lighter grey should do the job providing a contrast.

I've been having a play around with different colours and so far I'm liking a camo that uses Dheneb Stone, Graveyard Earth and Shadow Grey. It's got interesting contrasts, but still weathers very easily.

This really is impressive stuff, and is making think hard about new ways of using tamiya powders. Also, lost your email, eaten by norton - are you going to scratch build a malcador?

Eventually I'll have a go at building a malcador, but I've got quite a few other bits I need to finish off first. Least of which is the tank I started back before christmas!

Is that the plasticard one with a stretched and widened hull?

I'm looking forward to seeing that finished off

YOUR BACK YAY!

I am still here; have no fear. I tried to respray one of my Chimera on friday, so I had something to work on in front of the tv, but my airbrush seems to be refusing to play ball. Air is coming through nice and strong, but no paint, so I need to dismantle it and re-clean everything to see where the blockage is.

Warhammer World's staff continue to lose millions of points as, for the second week running, my Macharius failed to turn up. Once again they numbskull didn't pass through the order to Forgeworld, even though he said he had.

Thankfully Forgeworld gain a billion points for being thoroughly nice people and sending out the order this morning without any indication that I'd ever actually placed the order!

Are you using my airbrush? I'm having the exact same problem

Unfortunately mine is a really cheap all in one piece airbrush, so I might have to just soak it in some cleaner fluid.

And hopefully this means you will get two and only pay for one

I was just thinking that Silver!

2for1 ftw!

SilverMK2 wrote:Are you using my airbrush? I'm having the exact same problem

Unfortunately mine is a really cheap all in one piece airbrush, so I might have to just soak it in some cleaner fluid.

Looking around in them there interwebz. There are two causes for this. 1) the needle isn't fastened in tight enough and isn't being withdrawn when you press the button. Or 2) It's gunked up.

I had a fiddle with mine and I think I need to soak mine as t needle won't come out of the airbrush, even though the locking doofer-ma-whatsit has been removed... so I can only assume that something has gunked up the inside and needs clearing off. Any idea what the best thing is to dissolve dried on acrylic paint?

SilverMK2 wrote:And hopefully this means you will get two and only pay for one

It would be nice, but doubtful. I'll keep my fingers crossed though


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Minor update, but I went back tonight and started working a bit more on the Russ wannabe. Right this moment it is now fully enclosed, smoothed down and the gaps filled with putty. Tomorrow once the putty has dried I can sand that down too, so it's all nice and smooth; ready for some detailing.

Of course, what I forgot to show you all last night was what the tank now looks like placed together. The body is wonky because it's sat on a piece of foam and the side pieces are just balanced on, so neither are lined up properly...



The side trims will eventually slope up to meet the top of the body so they look a little bit more chunky. As for the rest of it, I certainly need to put rivets on there as well as some plate definition and hatches.

I've been sat here looking at it for about 10 minutes trying to work out what looks off about the model. I think the turret might actually be too small. Ah well, at least it gives me the chance to make something that won't castrate anyone looking out the cupola whenever it fires

Looking real good!

Seconded

endtransmission wrote:
I've been sat here looking at it for about 10 minutes trying to work out what looks off about the model. I think the turret might actually be too small. Ah well, at least it gives me the chance to make something that won't castrate anyone looking out the cupola whenever it fires

I have found that, next to the older style of turret, these new ones have a lower profile and, certainly, a smaller demolisher cannon. When I built my extended-hull Russ, it was very noticeable.

The Russ as a whole is a bit too small for my liking, so I'm not sure why it surprised me that the turret looks small on a much larger hull


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Some extra thoughts from this afternoon. The plan over the next week is to assemble bits to make a slightly longer, but much wider turret, with the cupola towards one side, like the standard (not Vulkan) Macharius turret and bump it forwards a bit so I can put some grilles or something at the back of the chassis. First up is to find a piece of pipe that's about the right size to make the cupola...

I also picked up a copy of this months Military Modelcraft International while browsing in WH Smiths at lunchtime as it had a couple of nice weathering articles and a spread of desert camo schemes for the Sherman II in 1942. I've not bought a modelling magazine since I stopped making planes when I was 14. It was a surprise to see things have moved on quite so much, with loads of reference photos and diagrams. I may have to look at future issues if I'm going to carry on building more and more tanks.

Loving your work sir!


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Argh! pesky buttons! I meant to say maybe elevate the turret slightly? Alternatively, try a Stormlord-style turret on it maybe? As in, very broad but relatively shallow?

Thank you sir!
The Stormlord doesn't have a rotating turret, which may bring up odd WYSIWYG rule queries when using this new tank as a Russ if I need the turret and sponsons to fire in the correct firing arcs.

I like the idea though and may use it as a modification to the hull once I have the Russ version done.

Last night I tried a Macharius turret on the body... that just looked stupidly massive. The only other option of a premade turret is the Baneblade, but I have no idea what size that is compared to the Russ and Macharius. Failing that I need to make something...

Size difference between baneblade and leman russ: turret is a little wider than the original body, minus the tracks, and about as long as the body. Not including the cannon


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Here's a couple of pictures to illustrate said difference: (Pardon the slight blurriness, I have a shaky hand and a camera phone)

Thanks for the size comparison, it's much appreciated!

Width wise it's about right for what I want, but it's a bit too long/tall and the armour plates on the sides are too thick. But it has given me a good idea of where to start, so off to the drawing board for me I guess.

Did I send you templates I used for scratchbuilding a Baneblade? You can see the results in my gallery, but it's a squatter version of the turret. Might suit.

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Apologies for cheeky hijack:


So the turret profile is lower, overall; you can use the dozer blade that I used as a cannon mount for quick scale reference. Also, and this isn't so clear, the back of the turret is a separate piece, so you could remove that altogether.

Looking good there.

You did send over the Baneblade, yes. I'd forgotten I had that here... Even if it's too big I can always resize the template before printing it out. Good plan, thank you!

This weekend I wasn't really in the mood to play around with card and I still havn't declogged my airbrush to start repainting the tanks, so I decided to revisit the troops uniforms instead.

Previously I painted them in Charadon Granite as this fitted the mining colony background that I'd come up with.


On single figures, or up close it looks quite nice, but take a step backwards and look at the whole army on a table and it blends into nothing-ness and looks like I've not actually painted anything. Combine this with the colour issues on the tanks and I felt a new, lighter scheme was called for.

The original plan was to switch to cream and/or light-ish blue, but in the end this grey one seemed to fit much more neatly. The blue will probably end up being used on the vets instead in order to differentiate them a bit more.



Wow. See my attention span! I just went back to post 1 and looked at the test scheme I did originally and, blow me down... it's pretty much this one. After 500 posts in this thread it seems I've gone back to the beginning

Aww, I liked your grey scheme

too late

Some elements will retain the original scheme, but mostly just the odd command squad here and there. As a proper camo scheme, the original (granite) paintjob worked too well and they just blended straight into their bases and the tabletop.

You obviously just need to fight in lush green jungle or psychedelic chaos world settings then!

I vote for crazy chaos worlds

This weekend has been a mixture of making stuff for my Guard and Red Scorpions... so both blogs get updates at the same time. Neat

I've done a tabletop quality repaint on the whole platoon (20 troopers and 3 weapon teams) to see how the new camo scheme works in a group. I have to say, I think it looks nicer than the brown, even though I know some of you prefer the old scheme.




I also cleaned up all the pieces for my shiny new Macharius that *finally* arrived. *Mmmm* Macharius.


The Macharius came with a number of different options for the side sponsons, but they are so fragile that magnetising them will be an absolute pain. Inside each sponson is a rotating cylinder that you stick the gun to; no holes, no mounting... nothing. I'd be a bit worried that just sticking the thin barrels onto the cylinder wouldn't last... so I've decided that the better option is to create new weapons that include the cylinder mount so it's possible to just magnetise this whole thing into the sponson instead. It also means that if done correctly, I can use the same weapons for the Russ'

Have you thought about filling the sponson with something like polyfiller so you end up with a nice solid piece to drill into so you can pin/magnetise weapons more easily?

The weapons, other than heavy bolters, that come with it are so spindly that I don't think there's really any point in trying to use them; hence making whole new weapons to go into the sponsons.

Fair enough. Shame the weapons are a bit wussy, as the tank itself looks damn cool.

The tank is really really nice. It weighs a ton (not literally) as the kit comes in very few pieces. What you're seeing in the photo above consists of three pieces. The hull top, the turret and the front sponson top.

I was also expecting to have to carefully assemble all of the track pieces, but they come pre-cast onto the track units. There's very little cleanup to do and only a couple of pieces are warped... so all in all I'm impressed. I should put a figure next to it too as the photo doesn't make it's size clear... it's huge!

Pretty cool. I was thinking that the hull looked pretty solid

I was thinking about getting one of the DKoK earthshaker guns with the money I made from selling my Orks - any thoughts on that piece?

I'm still trying to decide whether I like it enough to buy it over the regular earthshaker mounts.

I prefer the DKoK earthshaker; it looks more like a proper artillery piece. There's just something I dislike about the massive shield on the Basilisk.

It is almost double the price though; plus you'd really need a Centaur to move it

I've added the question to my own PLog so I don't take over yours

But just to say that I quite like the large shield on the Earthshaker and would try to replicate it on the DKoK model.

I've no problem with you hijacking the thread. Artillery is something I need to work on for my guys to, so it's nice to discuss it.

I just received a set of the Cadian hostile environmental upgrades; they are really nicely done. I need to try and work out if I want to just use these guys, or stick with trying to make my own...

The pack has 10 unique body/head combinations with some nice little details such as small pouches strapped to the side of the helmet and 4 with targeting visors. It seems a shame to use the visors for normal troopers rather than weapon teams though.

The additional knives/grenades are a bit of a waste though. I have a pile of them from the Cadian sprues already, so I'm not sure why they bothered to include even more.

As to the problem of the spindly weapons on the Macharius- back in WWI, which is of course a major historic reference for the Kriegian weaponry, thick tubes encased the sponson weapons to protect them from snapping off- you could do this and have some distinguishing feature to show what they protect

Not much to report on the Guard front other than the arrival of a couple of nice packages from FW over the last couple of weeks.

40(!?) of the Cadian environmental upgrades and two Macharius. The Cadian upgrades were exactly what I've been trying to achieve with my fumbling around with plasicard and, IMO, not quite achieving. With these bits here and another Cadian battleforce on it's way, I thought it was about time I did some calculations and see what I've actually got available to play with (or will do once it's put together)

The battleforce and 30 of the upgrades are unbuilt so far and I've another weekend of games against Arakasi in July... so any tips, tactics, ideas of what to build with the 30 bodies and just general abuse is welcome

If you've not seen them, you can seem y abysmal performances here, here and a slightly less bad one here.

So. What's currently built (2015 points):

Company command squad (4xmelta)
+ Straken
+ Officer of the Fleet
+ 2 body guards
Priest
Primaris psyker
Tech priest
+ 4 servitors (2 Hvy Bolters)

8 ratlings
Psyker Battle Squad (full power)

Penal Squad
Vet squad (3xmelta, shotguns)
Vet squad (3xflamer, shotguns)
Platoon 1
-pcs (4xflamer)
-Squad 1 (flamer)
-Squad 2 (flamer)
-Squad 3 (flamer)
-Commissar
-Heavy weapon squad (3xAutocannon)

Chimera (x4)
Hellhound (x2)
Sentinel (x2)
Vendetta

And in the To Build pile we have...
Tauros Venator
Macharius Vulcan
Macharius Vanquisher
30 Cadian upgrade bodies
Cadian battle force (pcs/20 troops/hws/sentinel)
Chimera
Leman Russ (I bought this to use as spare parts and use the turret on my russ, but it's currently untouched and could be built)
and a WIP russ that I keep failing to detail or design a turret for.

The 30 remaining bodies are enough to make everything in the battleforce as it should be, but I was wondering if making more heavy weapon squads would be more effective as I've got plenty of spare heavy weapons kicking around...

I just decided to work out points too. Everything painted totals up to 1965 points before power weapons are added to the platoon, 2015pts afterwards, and is apparently fully legit. Nice

Following Vitruvian's advice, I'm going to make an Al'Rahem counts as and a second platoon to match the first, build the two different Russ variants and the 3rd scout sentinel. Once done that will bring the legit force structure up to 2770pts without upgrading/adding weapons to any of the vehicles, so easily 3000+ if I include things like dozer blades, sponsons and pintle mounted weapons.

To fit the rest in, I need to go over to Apocalypse as the Venator takes up a FA slot I don't have and the 2 Macharius : 3550pts before any vehicle upgrades/sponsons.

You could always make up a HW base and use regular guardsmen to crew it as and when required by just placing them on the base?

Good call, that would certainly allow for making a few more weapon teams out of the 30 bodies

I think the main reason you lost to Arakasi was the table quarter deployment, rather than any glaring tactical errors.

That said, a few more HW squads could be a good idea, autocannons and HBs are always nice!

Have you thought about using an Al'Rahem platoon to outflank? With a bit of luck they could come on a flank when your main line is swamped and hit the Orks in the back.

Making use of the Vendetta is high on the list as well.

Have you played many larger games (above 1k)??

I've played one 2000 point game where I teamed up with Arakasi against a Space marine/Tau team. Other than that... most games are against Arakasi's orks... you think I'd have learned something by now

I have thought about an Al'Rahem platoon, but my luck with dice is appalling. Last time I tried to outflank was with my sentinels. One came on on completely the opposite side of the table and spent the rest of the game slogging across the table to try and join in the fight; the other came on nicely placed to be assaulted by a power claw. doh!

Apparently our next round of games should be somewhere between 1250 and 1500 points. Unfortunately I think that will involve him fielding more mega armour or some lootaz in order to counter the tanks. I think I need to piece together an Astropath to help with the outflanking rolls

Also had a thought that it might be worth using armoured sentinels instead of scout. Would be unharmed by big shootas and more likely to tie up the Orks in assault.

It would be worth a try. They were initially there to be 35 point speed bumps that could shoot off a few multilaser shots before the trukks got close with their power claws

Yeah, but Armoured sentinels could be a road block as opposed to speed bump

You'd have to weigh up the cost though, might be able to hold up a boyz mob but not going to against a warboss or nobs.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I think the main reason you lost to Arakasi was the table quarter deployment

Expand? I think endtransmission said this to me too - but I dislike table quarters because he can set up further from me... we can't *both* be disadvantaged by table quarters can we? I'm happy to remove it as an option from future games

I have no problem with table quarters. I think it's seen as a disadvantage as you have to bunch up in one corner, but as that's my normal (and apparently wrong) tactic anyway that's not so much of a concern.

For me, the setup that I felt most hampered by was where you could set up on the half way line. Again, that's not really a problem as that's the way the game goes, I just need to learn to adapt to these different situations. Once you get into close combat you just roll down the line and take out everything in your path (most of the time).

I just think that against Orks if you bunch up too tightly its too easy for their CC units to get close.

The trukks have to be close together to benefit from the KFF, so if you spread your force out they can only hit a portion of it at once, leaving the rest of your long range weapons free to pick off the stuff not in combat.

Castling is a viable tactic, but you need a few more "layers" around the centre, blobs are good at this if youve then got the close range firepower to kill whatever smooshed the blob.

Then again, i dont play mech IG (only airborne elysians) so i dont really know what im talking about!

Ooooh that's embarrassing. Such a long time since the last update...
Let's start with a full shot of everything that's at least partially constructed. Zoom in for a better view



I realised afterwards that I forgot to include the Vendetta... doh! Once I've worked out what army list I'm going to take to Warhammer World in July, I can finish sticking things together.

After many many months, possibly over a year, I glued together my Tauros. Internet Cookie for the first person to spot the subtle conversion... and I don't mean the upside down roll cage


Finally I've also finished my Master of Ordinance. Obviously blue skin is the way to go as it's much better than any human flesh I've painted. I do like the way the model has the Simon Says game in his hand. "Simon Says... bomb the feth out of the heretics! Blue.Green.Red.Green."

Wow, almost 2 months!! Love the Machariuses, and the whole army looks great!

Ps. the crew have Cadian respirator heads! (I know cos my Tauros didnt have 'em! )

Yeah. Shame on me. Part of those 2 months was spent on the Scorpions, but still.

Well spotted! Which cookie do you want? Login or JQuery?

Urm... I cant decide!!!

Will you be using the Machariuses as Russes??

No, I still plan on building me some mini macharius' to use as Russes. One day I will get back to the plasticard work...hopefully before my weekend of games in July

Simon says is one of the most destructive things in the galaxy

I can't wait to see the big tanks on the left of the group shot get worked on

Great work on the tank how about a KV1/Ragnorak style turret?

I've pieced together some more of the Cadian upgrades last night; ready for an undercoat at some point very soon

Cadian heads on the Tauros Venator?

Also, those FW kits look great!! I really have to put mine together!

(I bet the Sarge's been blessed by Father Nurgle, for it seems he doesn't need any rebreather lol)

I think you might be right on the nurgle thing as half the old guys don't have gas masks either...

I do love me the Cadian upgrade kit. It's going to get very expensive if I grow the foot slogging part of the army much more though!

A very very quick update before I have to run out the door to work. I started weathering the tauros this week. Sadly I was DUMB and forgot to put the markings on it before the chips began... so it doesn't have any. doh!

Doh indeed! I must remember that myself so your whoops is not in vain...

Is that how the wheel attachments look or have you magnetised them?


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Looking good though!

Sweet!

Thats where you stick the wheels onto Arakasi.

Weathering's looking good.

But we expect no less of you since the masterclass


If you just put them up on bricks now...

"Them Orks nabbed me tyres!"

Thanks guys
I hope the level of expectance doesn't go up even further after the Eavy Metal masterclass next month!

Even the Emperors Servants can't park their vehicles on Scouse IX without losing their tyres......

This can't be right. Two updates in one week?!
A little more weathering has been done, including adding some blue and orange into the mixture for unit colours. Next step is a gloss varnish before I start on the washes.

Nice looking blue, was that sponged on?

No, the blue was painted. It's Vallejo Royal Blue, which is a nice rich colour... unlike a lot of GWs blues that I've got

So. I've done some updates to Graven's Star Scorpion (see my Red Scorpion thread); but the main push this week has been on some guard as I've got a few games against Arakasi in a few weeks time and needed to flesh out the selection a bit.

Update 1) Leman Russ.
Now I always swore that I didn't like this model, but I had the bits for one kicking around... so I thought, what the hell. Now it's all together I'm quite liking the new turret shape on the hull; it's made enough of a difference that I may well ad some more normal Russ patterns. It'll be useful against an Ork horde... probably. As I wasn't sure which version to make, I've magnetised the turret weapons, so I can do any of the three from the box. I have a feeling it'll end up being the demolisher that gets fielded, but we shall see. It's now all stuck together and undercoated grey, so I can start on the camo at some point in the near future. the plan is to also make a longer barrel to stick into the Demolisher cannon to have a standard variant Russ.



Update 2) Some paint on the platoon that I stuck together last week


Update 3) Adventures into Finecast
I picked up my first Finecast model last weekend, the Commissar, as I'm going to need him for my second platoon. Either they are getting better, or I struck lucky, as there was only one left in the shop and he was pretty much bubble/miscast free. The only bubble I could find was on the bottom of his foot, which is stuck to a base... so no biggie there! The pieced glued together nicely, butI was confused slightly by was how easy it was to snap the pieces off the frame... I'm sure the WD article had them bending swords to almost 90 degrees, but it didn't take very much before the parts snapped off the sprue. I was a bit too frightened to try bending the sword to test their claims. I did however convert him to be carrying the las pistol he should be wielding.



Update 4) Tauros weathering
I've been doing some more weathering on the Tauros, slowly building up the chips a bit more as well as adding some oil and rust stains. I'm really pleased with it so far... let's just hope that I don't manage to ruin it when I start adding the mud and dust this week!



I've also caved in and bought some Dust Tactics figures... so expect another blog on those soon(ish)

Looking cool so far

Tauros is looking very nice indeed.

Weathering is coming along beautifully there.

I take it you do the flesh last on your guys?

I tend to do base coats of each colour so everything is blocked out; then I go back and shade/highlight each colour after that. It lets me get a good look at all the parts on the model to make sure I know which colour to start with.

This may all change in a couple of weeks though as we (myself and Arakasi) are off to the Eavy Metal Masterclass

Nearly done with the Tauros. The weathering is finished, I just need to put a final coat of varnish over it all and I can take some lightbox photos for you all. In the mean time...

Looking very sweet

That's some intensely awesome weathering. How many layers do you figure that is?

That is looking *VERY* nice. Will I get to see it up close and personal next weekend? Your Forgeworld Tank Masterclass has *really* paid off - now I just need to get my butt into gear...

I wasn't planning on using it next weekend, but I will bring it anyway as I'd appreciate IRL comments



Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Good Green wrote:That's some intensely awesome weathering. How many layers do you figure that is?

Thanks

The layers (as far as I can remember) are:

Grey undercoat
Dark grey camo/details
gloss varnish
light grey chipping
dark grey chipping
scorched brown chipping/scratches
Tau sept ochre chipping (rush)
sepia wash (multiple layers to get some stains)
Mig oil & Grease stain mixture
gloss varnish
rust weathering powder (mixed with fixer and used to create stains and dribbles)
light earth powder (lots of dust)
dark earth powder/varnish/sand (start of mud)
light earth powder/varnish (adding texture to the mud)

Great job on the Tauros, my friend... And I'm glad you chose to show the Executioner version of your magnetized LRBT!!!

lovely. I was actually dissapointed with the leman russ. In making the kit fool-proof they've taken a little of the building fun away...it also leaves little to no room for extra stuff to go on..... ah well, they're good in game. Just don't let Arakasi's ravenwing near them....

Thanks guys. Now I just need to work out which version to take for Arakasi to blow up

Endtransmission, I'm disappointed.
You are not living up to your Rank here on dakka (might need a spell check lol)

Disjointed Entity wrote:Endtransmission, I'm disappointed.
You are not living up to your Rank here on dakka (might need a spell check lol)

I will leave you to think about that one for a second...

Dang.
Lol

So. Myself and Arakasi went to GW HQ last weekend for another Masterclass day; this time around we had the pleasure to meet and be taught by two of the Eavy Metal team. I'm not going to go into much detail here as I have plans to start a separate blog to explore different painting techniques and tutorials. Needless to say, the masterclass was good fun, if a lot slower than the Forgeworld tank masterclass; but that would be due to the nature of the two vastly different styles.

Forgeworld clearly want things to look good on the tabletop and fairly realistic with lots of weathing, chipping and stains while not taking forever to paint it.

Eavy Metal, on the other hand, want things to look ultra crisp and as good as they possibly can in order to sell products. If you've seen Eavy Metal miniatures in person, the highlights are over the top and don't always look all that realistic. The reasoning behind this is that when you take a photograph of it, the colour contrasts are toned down slightly so they have to counter this by over highlighting things. The other interesting snippet we learnt is that because everything is painted for the camera, it's not unheard of for some things to only be fully painted on one side in order to meet the deadlines they are set.

We also managed to get in three games over the course of the weekend. My W/D/L ration was better than normal at 0/1/2
All three were very close run things with me being in a winning position on turn 5, only to find the game going on for another turn or two and spoiling things. Arakasi is better at battle reports than I am, so I'll leave those up to him.

Oh. the thing I forgot to mention. On Saturday there was a family fun day at GW HQ, for the kids of all the employees with baby animals, a bouncy castle, climbing wall and Dunk-The-Execs where you could throw balls at the executives in order to try and knock them into water. Hilarious. I was, however, most disappointed in the distinct lack of SKULLS on the bouncy castle and climbing wall. Shame on you GW. Shame on you.

Awesome weekend again - and not just because of the battles I think the Forgeworld *Tank* Masterclass was better, but probably only because it was more suited to the format... Inspired me to make a start on my Orks' Dark Angelz clothing and armour... (and some hints for improving my Ork skin and red in the future...)

Yeah, I preferred the Tank masterclass... but this one has inspired me to go back to basics and learn to paint properly. Which ties into our conversation about doing one or two really nice models rather than a new army

Dang

having just read this entire blog (and your red scorpion one) after stumbling across it somewhere in Dakka, I can safely say I'm gonna subscribe.

Some of your stuff is amazing! Painting.....plasticard work...wowza.

That weathering looks super realistic!

On another note, that story about 'Ëavy Metal is pretty funny. I'll never look at GW promotional shots quite the same way again.

Thanks for the kind words. It's a good kick up the arse to keep going.

I don't know how common the Eavy Metal story is, but there's certainly one of the river trolls that isn't shaded/highlighted around the back

Well, I'd say the 'Eavy Metal method is just good business- do what you've gotta do to sell the product. One could talk all day about how they are being dishonest doing this, how they are just some big money hungry corporation, but really, they're just like anyone else and know how to market their products. After all, we still buy their stuff, so they're doing something right... And the extra colour for the subduing camera is rather clever, if I might say so myself.

Kaesar II

My apologies to everyone for the long silence here, I've been busy working on an inquisitor for Panic's Pimp My Sorcerer competition and relearning to paint. My wife is away, so I've been clearing out my office and decided to see what stuff I've actually got for my Guard so I can calculate which trays I need for a P.A.C.K Air case to store them all in.

Sorry for the line and fuzzyness and the lack of actual painting updates, I just thought it'd be interesting to see where we're at and what bits I've got left to work on.



It seems I have:


I've also got the bits to add the following:


Leaving out some of these items, I can make a 3500+ point Apocalypse force or 2700+ standard 40k FOC out of the built stuff and it will probably hit the 4000 point leve with the unbuilt units. Not bad going... now I just need to finish painting some of these half done units! First up is to finish the lasguns and commissars I think.

good to see you back on ig

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have any experience working out the most optimal tray load outs for Battle Foam bags?

I'm having a nightmarish time trying to work out the best configuration of trays for a P.A.C.K Air, especially as my Vendetta isn't a custom shape and their tray designer doesn't have holes the right size for the Macharius or Venator

Finally got around to doing a load of painting this weekend while watching the Reading Festival. Probably not the most useful unit to paint, but I decided to have a go at some servitors for something different.




If you look carefully you can see the Junos Mole army symbol on the shoulder of the blue servitor under the scratches. I'll try and do a digital version for the blog so I don't forget it on the rest of the army

I would say that it's about time that you got back to this blog...but then we all know what they say about people that live in glass houses!

So I'll just say that it is good to see you back on this project.

Heh. This project has had more love than my Red Scorpion one

Love the painting on those servitors.

AWW YEA! GAURD ARE BACK 8D

Now i envey/look up to you even more!

Very cool stuff. Loving the servitors and that Tauros is great. I'll be looking through the other 18 pages now

Peter

Glad you're enjoying it. I spent last night varnishing another chimera and russ in preparation for weathering... so hopefully I can get some photos of those done over the weekend

Sweet looking for it man

Just for you, I'll try and take some WIP pictures tonight so you can see the pre-powder stage.

On a different note, I'm trying to decide if I want to bid on a box of unbuilt (?!!) rogue trader imperial guard on eBay. they would make perfect conscripts! I'd love to see GW do a new version of the Arcadia Spiders as the uniforms/heads were really nice. I know the design is nearly the same as the Cadians... but it's got some nice differences.

For those too young to remember them:



I've also been thinking a lot about future expansions to my force. Obviously there's a need for more Russes and Vendettas, but I'm thinking of converting my Penal squad over into a full platoon of loyalist beastmen with trainee Commissars as the sergeants. I'm also inspired to follow in FearPeteySodes' Ogre sized footsteps and make a squad of Ogryns using his more upright, muscular approach.

I Really need to work on finishing everything I already have first though.

I hope you get them, some of those older kits are real beauties just craving for some paint.

8 days to go on them... somehow I doubt they will sell for a reasonable price

Hey just found this blog a few days ago a really cool read, i love how the colors come together. Consider this subscribed.

If they go for anything reasonable that wouldnt be reasonable for these

I took some photos of the tank WIPs last night, but Lightroom is playing up this morning, so I'll have to upload those later. In the mean time, I've been playing around with some colour schemes for my basic troops as I *still* can't settle on a colour scheme. Opinions?

I prefer top left, the darker torso really stands out, whereas otherwise I worry it'll just disappear. I like top right for much the same reason, too.

My favorites are either top left or top right look nice they both give me a real bobba fett look that i like

Both left ones are nice... And the vets look good too!

So i decided to go ahead and look from page 1-20 again and i have a request! is there anyway you can make some sort of casting tutorial of some sort, ive never been good at that but i'd hate to have to sculpt my tacticle vests in the 100's for my guard

Weathering is amezin'!

I've got some fw powders but haven't really had chance to use them.

Any chance of posting a quick tutorial on how you used them. (in the tutorial forum I mean so I can save it! )

So top left seems to be the popular choice, thanks! The colours seem to suit a mining colony too, so double win.

Weathering and casting tutorials are certainly something I would like to write soon. I'll do the weathering one first as I've got three chimera lined up to do soon. As for the casting, much as I love the cadian upgrade set... It's expensive, so I want to take another crack at making gas tanks that attach to the back peg on the cadian bodies and cast those, so I can develop that into a proper tutorial too; time permitting

Gone for the one shoulder in colour option. Very nice. It will really make the army pop as a whole.

Of your options, top left and the vets look good. Bottom left might look good if you make one or both shoulderpads and/or gun and/or helmet in that darker grey/black of top left... How about the non insignia vets shoulder pad in the same yellow as top left or the insignia shoulder pad in the same armour grey? Just throwing ideas around...

Arakasi has posted the first of three battle reports between his orks and the brave, if not very skilled, Malfians. You can read it here

i'd just like to say how much ive enjoyed your work and i think that you should go with the top right or middle bottom

One day I'll actually paint enough to do regular updates, rather than these stop/start affairs...

I've been reading through a few IG blogs outside of Dakka recently and a few of them are using painting charts to display the progress of their force. I thought this was a good idea, so here we go. This is mine:


I did forget the colour key on this one. So green is finished, yellow is WIP, white is built, but not painted and red is unbuilt. Technically the chimera are all painted, but I want to redo them to fit with the new army colours... so they are WIPs. Fickle? Me?

After settling on the army colours, I ran a few experiments... none of which came out all that well, or were taking a long time to get looking reasonable. As I'd like to have a couple of full platoons (eventually!) I needed a faster way of painting, which is where CommissarHarris and his Krieg blog came in handy. He'd run into the same problem painting his Krieg, until he stumbled upon painting with washes. Last week I ran a couple of start to finish tests on some guys, which came out nicely for not all that much effort. the first one is a vet, the other two are standard platoon members.



The recipe for the platoon members is:
- White undercoat
- 3 washes of Delvan mud over the cloth parts of the uniform; each wash covering smaller areas, concentrating more on the shadowy regions each time.
- 2 washes of very watered down Charadon Granite over the armour, packs and guns
- Wash of gryphonne sepia over the armour, packs and guns
- Paint thinned black paint over the boots and gloves (not black wash, this was too thin)
- 3 washes of very thinned Tausept Ochre on the helmet and shoulder
- Wash of Gryphonne sepia over Ochre areas
- Paint brown (I forget which one) over the other bits
- Blue wash for the eyes

With that all sorted... I undercoated every platoon member and unpainted vet that I could find... including the heavy weapon teams. Seeing all of that in one place was a bit terrifying, so I limited batch one to just the Lasguns, sergeants, flamers, grenade launcher, comms guys and 2 meltas. Basically anything that could be in the standard infantry squads. After about 6 hours, this is what they looks like


And a nice artistic shot...



The other thing I can happily blame on another blog is the resolution to my Hydra issue. I like the theory behind the unit, but don't like the actual implementation of it with the massive autocannons. Oink came to the rescue with his cunning use of the Stormlord Vulkan Megabolters. He mounted his recessed into the back of a chimera, much like a Griffon. I decided that this wouldn't give it quite the flexibility that I wanted, so I've made mine so that they can simply replace a chimera turret, which means I could also run full Armoured Fist platoons if I felt like it in the future



*phew*
That was a long update!

Oh. Sadly I didn't win the RT era guard as ebay was playing oddly and lost the fact that I upped my limit :(

Less painting charts and more progress! (Pot, meet kettle...)

But... but.. the painting chart will help me keep on track and see what I've actually got left to paint!

The other theory is that I shouldn't buy anything else until I've finished everything on the chart. In theory...

The vulcan-chimera looks epic, the yellowy gold colour on the two helmets looks great!

endtransmission wrote:But... but.. the painting chart will help me keep on track and see what I've actually got left to paint!

The other theory is that I shouldn't buy anything else until I've finished everything on the chart. In theory...

I have made that vow many times. "Nothing new until everything in painted". I have since built a CSM army while my IG, BA, SoB, and FW Elysians still await painting completion. LOL