The only downside is the complete lack of women. I have to get my fill of the fairer sex whenever I go on vacation. And of course, the lack of women explaine how I'm able to devote so much time to my Tau army, lol!
Home is in the USA, roundabout Tampa FL. The place has more strip clubs per capita than Vegas, and believe me the girls love it when you feel them up. So, coming here after that is like night and day. Honestly, Saudi Arabia wouldn't be such a bad place to work if not for the women thing. I can even deal with the no alcohol and such, because I can make my own pretty well. But me and the rest of the dudes hang out, play video games, pump iron and do dude stuff in a very general sense. I wish one of my coworkers played 40k (my bro who does is in Riyadh, 4 hours away), but by and large the guys are just geeky enough for me to not be the odd man out.
bossfearless wrote: Home is in the USA, roundabout Tampa FL. The place has more strip clubs per capita than Vegas, and believe me the girls love it when you feel them up. So, coming here after that is like night and day. Honestly, Saudi Arabia wouldn't be such a bad place to work if not for the women thing. I can even deal with the no alcohol and such, because I can make my own pretty well. But me and the rest of the dudes hang out, play video games, pump iron and do dude stuff in a very general sense. I wish one of my coworkers played 40k (my bro who does is in Riyadh, 4 hours away), but by and large the guys are just geeky enough for me to not be the odd man out.
Sounds good and bad all at the same time. How long are you/have you been there?
Yours is just the latest story I have heard that makes me go "Saudi Arabia sounds weird."
I sometimes wonder if even the guys in Dubai think the Saudis are weird. "Why, yes, we did just spend $100 billion on a skyscraper shaped like a sea anemone on crack, thank you for noticing, we had the money lying the around and we are having fun with it. Why do you guys hate fun?"
(Meanwhile the rest of the Arab world is staring at them both and thinking "What.")
Actually, it's the Saudis who look at all the other Arab countries with a mix of scorn and pity, because they're all going to hell for not being true muslims like only Saudis can ever be. I kid you not, that is the prevailing wisdom here. It gets better though. God loves Saudi so much, that he can only see within the Kingdom's borders. The second you're out of here, the rules no longer apply. So these guys pop across the border to Bahrain every weekend, sin their asses off with liquor and hookers, and then drive back with the belief that they're still pure because God couldn't see them.
I've been here almost a year. Now, contrary to most guys who had some military experience prejudicing them against arabs, I came here straight out of university with an open mind and an open heart. I said to myself, "Self, you have the privilege of visiting an ancient, holy place. Set aside your preconceptions and embrace this culture and all it has to offer, and you shall be richer for it." Took me all of two months to realize that this place is in permanent derp mode. This is a time when I realize how the colonial explorers must have felt, as though there was some sacred duty to civilize the people they found. But no, I'm not gonna go there. I'm gonna just sit here, content to rake in money and laugh at the sheer idiocy of it all.
Okay, back on topic for a moment. I almost feel ashamed to post these WIP pics of the pimp suit, but this is about as done as it's going to be for a while. I'm out of green stuff. Not completely, I still have a tiny bit left, but I'm going to save that for modeling emergencies, like when a piece absolutely won't stay on without it or when I just need to fill a little gap.
So for now, here's the horrendous looking job I've done on the pimp coat:
I cannot stress enough that what I was doing was laying down a base layer I intended to build on top of. The finished product will be nowhere near that hideous.
So...now what? I suppose I could switch gears a bit and go back to painting, especially since I've got the whole tank crew sculpted and ready. I have a few minor bits I want to add to the tank (like something to cap those wing tips), but not much else that I feel like I can build at the moment.
Small builds that I can finish:
Tony Stark Tau
Diplomat standard bearer
2 Desert Pimps
So I can finish those up, base them, and paint them, as well as Darkblade, the new Broadside and the Remora drone fighter. The quad suit is going on the back burner for now unless divine inspiration strikes. Hopefully, what I've listed here will be enough to occupy me until my GS gets shipped over here.
bossfearless wrote: Okay, back on topic for a moment. I almost feel ashamed to post these WIP pics of the pimp suit, but this is about as done as it's going to be for a while. I'm out of green stuff. Not completely, I still have a tiny bit left, but I'm going to save that for modeling emergencies, like when a piece absolutely won't stay on without it or when I just need to fill a little gap.
Is Green Stuff that hard to come by?
Anyway, it looks like it's going to be awesome in the near future, so that's good enough for me. I mean, not for you, obviously, you have high standards, but at this point in the thread I ain't gonna dicker about how the 99th awesome thing you've done has only powered up to 50% awesome so far.
@Brother Payne: Tape and tack to block areas where I don't want spray primer getting into. On the engines, it's so that the primer doesn't cover the LEDs inside. The tape is to protect the speakers from any possible damage from the spray, whatever it might be.
@Sister Sydney: If you live in Saudi Arabia, then yes, green stuff is a finite resource. There is no such thing as a game store anywhere remotely near here or even in the entire country as far as I know. They would probably consider 40k haram, since it deals with religious themes that are non-muslim. Anyway, I have to wait anywhere from a week to a month before more green stuff arrives via mail. It all depends on the fickle APO mail system.
Okay, I need to browse some modeling forums and find out whether or not the cold weather will affect primer right now. florida native here, so I don't have too much experience priming in cold climates. The desert has been getting mighty cold overnight, so I might have to wait until just before my shift at 5pm to spray my models, or else face the dreaded fuzzy primer syndrome.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh! Before I forget, I've had a slight stroke of genius. I think I have come up with a (slightly labor intensive) method for building LED-lit components that are ALSO capable of being magnetized and swapped out!
I absolutely do not think this has been done before on warhammer miniatures. I may be the first to successfully implement this, and it's got me all giddy. Of course, I have to successfully implement it before I go getting ahead of myself and getting a big head. So, for right now I'm just going to leave it at that, a teaser, until I get to the next big modeling project. Probably going to try to implement this on the quad-broadside or the next riptide, because Crisis suit weapons are just a little too small for what I have in mind.
No worries, lol. Everything is super purple now! At least, the models that needed to be purple are purple, but Darkblade is just primed black since I'm going to paint her suit up similar to the black side of Silvertongue.
I am all out of black primer now. It is staggering to think that I've allowed myself to get so low on some of the most basic supplies out here. Of course, my supply chain being what it is, it's no surprise that some special materials don't reach me in time. Strange, though, because bits I buy on eBay tend to reach me in a week or two, and I've been waiting for green stuff for over a month.
I'll do that once I get this batch of models painted. It's going to be a significant addition to the painted force when it's done. After all, I think I've finished painting...maybe...nothing? Nothing since the last big army shot. Some great builds being put together, but more paint needed. I suppose though that I could include all the guys who are still unpainted, just as a WIP shot. Maybe I'll do that later tonight.
That's a complicated question. Given the nature of the cadre and the alliance of which they are a part, there isn't any one specific answer. One of the key tenets of the alliance is an exchange of knowledge as they try to piece together the shattered past of the 40k universe and establish the point at which everything went wrong. A lot of the forbidden lore of 40k gets traded between factions amid all that research. As such, the Farsight Enclaves are a known quantity, though it takes a while for the Tau of the Dubstep Cadre to accept that knowledge as a fact. The newer blood, meaning tau who transfer in or are raised within the cadre, all tend to deny the possibility of such a pocket empire at first, chalking it up to an attempt at razzing the new guy or some such. Eventually, it does sink in and it's a bit of a strange concept, but it gets accepted like much of the other strange lore that gets dredged up.
As to their relation, that's a yes and no answer. No, the Dubstep Cadre is not affiliated with the Farsight Enclaves by anything other than a species relationship. However, they are similar in concept because of their organizational structure. They are apart from the Empire and swear no overriding allegiance to their fellows, knowing full well that they might be called upon to battle other expeditionary cadres in the course of Akira's crusade. However, this was not done out of any grand iconoclasm like Farsight's departure, but was instead ordered by the Ethereals of Bork'An before the Cadre departed in the wake of the crusade. The Ethereals recognized the merit of the mission and gave special dispensation to the Cadre leadership to act autonomously in support of the crusade to euthanize the Emperor, knowing that the end result of their success would mean the destruction of several dire threats to the galaxy as a whole.
However, knowing the inquisitive nature of the humans, there were no Ethereals dispatched with the Cadre. Several individuals from the Water caste were trained in the fine art of "faking it," such as Envoy Musashi, so that if the humans ever decided to turn on their tau allies and "research" the mystery of the Ethereals, they would only find normal Tau of other castes. In this way, the Dubstep Cadre is similar to the Enclaves as well, because both of them are divorced from the direct leadership of the Ethereal caste.
Edit: I just want to point out that some of the "forbidden knowledge" that got traded to the Eldar was how to speak plainly and stop being so freaking useless all the time. This knowledge was "passed on" through a series of hard back-handed slaps to the face and repetitive strikes to their genital regions, along with a nearly endless series of wedgies and more than one farseer ejected into space for being annoying jackwagons.
The piecing together of the 40k past is the point of the whole alliance in general, as the past holds the key to (insert a thousand collective eye rolls and groans) finding the missing primarchs. Something vague about needing some primarch blood to build a weapon to kill the Emprah. And of course, the most logical choice is to go after the lost primarch Brosephius in the galaxy's southern fringe.
bossfearless wrote: The piecing together of the 40k past is the point of the whole alliance in general, as the past holds the key to (insert a thousand collective eye rolls and groans) finding the missing primarchs. Something vague about needing some primarch blood to build a weapon to kill the Emprah. And of course, the most logical choice is to go after the lost primarch Brosephius in the galaxy's southern fringe.
Ever see the movie Dogma? If not, shame on you. It's kind of like that movie, they've got God incapacitated by putting him in a coma and keeping him on life support. If he ever died, boom, straight back to heaven and reincarnated immediately at full power. In my imagining of 40k lore, the Golden Throne is a life support system that also drains massive amounts of power away from the Big E. The Inquisition are his jailors, and also the ones slowly changing the prayers and hymns one word at a time over many centuries so that human worship no longer gives the Emperor power. Hence the immediate need to kill him as quickly as possible, before he crosses the point of no return and is lost forever.
Well, back when I came up with all this, I had no life. So, there's that little edge. I had a lot of time to think about it, a 500 pound waistline and thus no girlfriend, and kind of a screwed up brain to begin with. It's fertile ground for creativity. Currently don't have a girlfriend either, but it's for different reasons now. Just saying.
Okay, so...I did this:
It's a good start, and of course like everything I paint it looks awful right now, but the cleanup will vindicate my efforts. And as requested, here's a big group shot:
Don't mind the kind of stupid pose on the Rex. It's not glued in place yet and I was just trying to balance it on the base I'm building.
So for now, here's the horrendous looking job I've done on the pimp coat:
That made me laugh - in a good way of course! I love it, wonderful.
If you are struggling with GS coats and the like I recommend using cloth of some kind.
Example 1: Leather coat.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
I used my own leather jacket as an example and just made one to scale and stitched it together using material from an old wallet.
Example 2: Camo Cloak.
Spoiler:
I used an old handkerchief for this, cut to shape and then painted with watered down PVA glue.
bossfearless wrote: Well, back when I came up with all this, I had no life. So, there's that little edge. I had a lot of time to think about it, a 500 pound waistline and thus no girlfriend, and kind of a screwed up brain to begin with. It's fertile ground for creativity. Currently don't have a girlfriend either, but it's for different reasons now. Just saying.
I guess we can put this lot firmly in the Thorian camp then? Have you read the RoC books? There's also a snippet in the back of the novel Eye of Terror (great story, one of my favourites and well worth the read) that might be interesting to you.
Hmm, thanks for the references! I'm not having trouble with the coat, and in fact it's going rather well except for the fact that I am completely out of Green Stuff to work with. Which is why it must languish at this hideous half stage. I wasn't worried with doing much with it besides laying the foundation so that the actual finishing work would have something to stick to. I will, however, use the coat reference you provided as I sculpt the rest of the coat, weeks from now when my mats actually arrive. Til then, I shall paint!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also yeah, I suppose I'm a Thorian at heart. I haven't read the...I'm assuming that stands for Realm of Chaos? I haven't read it. Eye of Terror is another I haven't read. Maybe you can help me with something. I remember reading a few pages in a 40k novel, maybe you can help me out? It was a long time ago and I had just grabbed the book off the shelf and flipped through a couple pages at the very end. Something about a space marine, maybe a Dark Angel, trapped on a daemon world or in the warp somewhere, and he was talking to some kind of Tzeench demon. And the Tzeench demon was the narrative voice of the chapter and it went on an internal monologue about how the Emperor could never be allowed to die, because it would free him and he would be strong enough to force all the chaos gods to work in harmony. Ringing any bells?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Another wip as I blunder along tonight, spurred on by a healthy dose of Kennedy's bath tub booze:
I wish I had some Sprite to cut this stuff with, because it tastes kind of horrible on its own.
It looks like there's a bar of buttons at the top of the screen. Maybe that's actually a tablet that he stuck in there, or a smart phone? Actually, a smart phone would be kind of a cool mod on a super heavy of some kind, since you can make them do just about anything.
But yeah, looks like I've been beaten to that particular modification. I might argue that there is more technical challenge in pulling off a mod on a smaller scale, but I don't really want to downplay how impressive that is. The only thing I don't see are speakers, so if that is a phone or tablet, you're not looking at a lot of sound coming out of it. Which is a shame, since there's a rock and roll stage set up in the belly and you should really be able to blast tunes from it.
That would be Eye of Terror. Yeah, RoC is Realm of Chaos. The whole Star Child background is largely irrelevant now I suppose but the Thorian background is really just an update of it so it's well worth the read if you can hold of a copy.
bossfearless wrote: The only thing I don't see are speakers, so if that is a phone or tablet, you're not looking at a lot of sound coming out of it. Which is a shame, since there's a rock and roll stage set up in the belly and you should really be able to blast tunes from it.
If thats a phone in that stompa,then there plenty of sound; have you not seen the kids walking around listening to their music on their phones without headphones? just clutching them in their hands usually. (personally its a right pet peeve of mine; the music would actually sound better through headphones AND not piss off everyone and anyone within 15foot
But point stands that most smart phones have plenty loud enough speakers - logic says it has to ring loud enough for you to hear it and answer lol so the speakers are atleast that powerful. (just dont expect any bass, or mid range in the sound hehe)
I'm one of those people who lets music play out loud on my phone speaker, lol. However, there is a significant loss of clarity and audibility when you're trying to play music from your phone speaker in a crowded, noisy room with lots of cross talk. You'd need something slightly bigger like the mini speakers I'm using to get any kind of appreciable sound in a 40k tournament, especially the larger events.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Still, I won't deny there's some appeal to the idea of playing angry birds on a stompa's belly.
I am impressed with your conversion work. And I am totally using your Metal Gear Rex idea for my tau army. =D
I wonder if you could use a Lumin Disc as part of a display board and set it to sound activated. Perhaps even find a small one and mount it on a model. Or a plasma ball.
Have you checked local hardware stores for green stuff? IIRC it was used by plumbers and the like to fix leaky pipes before modelers adopted it for sculpting. There are legitimate, non-sinfull uses of the stuff. You don’t need to tell the guys at the store you are going to sculpt tiny little breasts with it…
I honestly have no idea what the shopping is like where you are, but a lot of hobby supplies can be found in mundane places.
Well, the concept of a "hardware store" is utterly foreign out here. The closest thing is something like SACO or Carrefour, which are both along the lines of a Walmart in that they carry a bit of everything. But of course, they aren't going to have anything all that specialized. Stores like the Home Depot exist in America because of the DIY trend, but Saudis are the exact opposite. Nobody wants to do anything themselves, because that's seen as the kind of thing that only lower class people do. And if you're a Saudi, you can always afford to pay a Bengali to do it for you, which means you never need to know how to do anything.
Now, you do have a point that there is a lot of epoxy used in plumbing, and I've made heavy use of that material on the bases of all my models. It's a great alternative to green stuff in that it is cheap and fast to cure, but you certainly can't do much sculpting with it.
I'd actually suggest, instead of getting "Green Stuff", get Pro-Create (gray stuff) or Kneadatite (Green Stuff) in their original brands, in the massive yet cheap gallon buckets that only cost, like, 10 or 20 dollars apiece. Or maybe less. I've yet to use them, but... There's people on here that use it a lot.
Anywhoo- if you don't buy from GW or the other branded places, it's a ton cheaper, and comes in much larger amounts.
You know, I had never thought about getting the generic version of the stuff. And if I got a gallon bucket of green stuff...it might tempt me to do some truly absurd sculpting. I'm thinking greater titty demon of Slaanesh's raunchy older sister, Steve the Pirate. Steve the Pirate asks that you respect her life choices.
Edit: I just want to up and say that there are way too many freaking Ultramarines blogs on here.
Ugh. Please don't mention Slaanesh Land Raiders. My buddy out here won't shut the hell up about his two, and only two, ideas for chaos land raiders. It's infuriating, not because he really likes these ideas, but because he refuses to (a) ever build the damned things and (b) whenever he does embark upon the epic conversion, he does the same stupid thing over and over again and never, ever, not under any circumstances, learns from his mistakes or tries to fix anything.
It goes like this. "Yo dawg, what if you like, *grafted* all the land raider weapons onto the sponsons and made a lnad raider obliterator, and it had all the techno virus stuff all coming out of it everywhere." Does that sound cool? Sure it does. Because you haven't seen him ruin land raider after land raider doing the same stupid thing every time. When he says "graft all the weapons onto it," he doesn't mean what you think he means. He means "mix up an entire pack of green stuff into a big ball, stick it to the side of a land raider, and then shove one end of the gun into it, and then pour a whole bottle of Zap a Gap onto it because Zap is cruise control for cool." When I say he ruins the land raider, I mean that there is an inch thick layer of superglue across the entire surface, forever entombing his "technovirus" crap that looks suspiciously like more packages of green stuff with thumb prints mashed into it. And then? And THEN? You get the land raider handed to you, and he wants you to "fix it."
Because of this, I have a seriously low tolerance for chaos land raider conversion ideas.
I have realized now what, precisely I would do with a giant bucket of green stuff. I would have to build a fortification of some kind, and it would come in the form of a pillow fort.
bossfearless wrote: I have realized now what, precisely I would do with a giant bucket of green stuff. I would have to build a fortification of some kind, and it would come in the form of a pillow fort.
I figured you for a skyshield landing pad done up like an elevated dance floor.
bossfearless wrote: I have realized now what, precisely I would do with a giant bucket of green stuff. I would have to build a fortification of some kind, and it would come in the form of a pillow fort.
I figured you for a skyshield landing pad done up like an elevated dance floor.
That's actually a really good idea with the dance floor. I had, at some point considered making a stage part of the display board (eventually), but I like the idea of having it actually count as something worth having. We can bring back that idea posted earlier about the lumin disk, and set that into the floor for a crazy sound operated spectacle. I'm gonna confer with my legal advisor on this issue. And in this case, it so happens that my legal advisor is a flying robot anti-paladin.
Oh, fun fact about this model. The red LED in the head showed through the resin, as well as the black primer. So on the head, I had to go over with several *very* thick coats of black paint in some places. I realized about five minutes after the paint dried that I could have used that red glow for a sweet effect. Unfortunately, I rather blew it.
One more thing, a very very early WIP of something I've got in the works for later on. A new kind of LED setup for my second double fusion suit. Glowing Fuel Rods:
The picture is a little bit deceiving, because the overall structure of the jetpack assembly is going to change a lot before it's done. I'm going to widen it and mount it so that the jets look adjustable.
You know you can still use the glow- scrape lines through the thick paint where you want it to shine through. You could get a cool 'Tron Lines' or 'power fragmenting from within' effect going, with a lot more control over the line weight than you can get even with really fine brushes. The full effect will be hard to see in light, but still...
bossfearless wrote: I have realized now what, precisely I would do with a giant bucket of green stuff. I would have to build a fortification of some kind, and it would come in the form of a pillow fort.
If you do, it'll need a cardboard sign out front that says "No Xenos" in childish handwriting and a severe-looking Space Marine staring out a nearby window.
Hokely dokely, 'ere we go. I've been focused entirely on the two suits for the past couple of days, popping back to my villa every now and then to get another step or two done. First, here's the current state of Darkblade:
The sword is still off to one side waiting to be focused on separately. Biggest problem I'm having is the two Tau symbols on her shield and back. They seem to need some kind of extra oomph but I'm not sure how to give it to them. Up next is the Broadside, Shas'Vre Chump:
Yes, he is aware of what it means in your language. No, he is not amused.
Why not treat the symbols to some of that glow in the dark UV paint, and watch them shine?
Or an LED between the backbody and the wing section (big tau symbol, like a backlight?
Could get a nice red, orange or blue effect from either
Yes, but she's been lost for quite some time now. Good job spotting the reference :3
Why not treat the symbols to some of that glow in the dark UV paint, and watch them shine?
Or an LED between the backbody and the wing section (big tau symbol, like a backlight?
Errr....neither of these can really work here. I don't plan on playing in the dark much, so the UV paint wouldn't exactly shine much. And it is WAY too late in the game to add another LED to the model. That has to be done before the model is even built, as it requires drilling and cutting and soldering and all sorts of other things that at this point would ruin the paint job, not to mention destroy parts of the model in the process.
Right now, what I'm trying to figure out is a color scheme or effect I can do on these symbols using paint. They don't have to be the same on both, necessarily.
Looking good! Love them both. Darkblade's colours are really coming along.
If I'm honest, I'm not too sure about the hole through the GK head at Darkblade's belt though - looks a little ... Severe? No. Too cartoonish or something like that. It's like it's too large and obvious, there's no subtlety to it.
... Wait this is an army with naked tau chicks and pimp suits. Never mind.
It's still WIP, and one of the next few steps will be to put a black wash over the hole to dull it just a bit.
I took a moment to apply a little something I picked up from Grogsnik's pic of the coat he sculpted. I noticed something that I had failed to do, which was taper the coat in toward the waist. I went back and (VERY carefully) pushed the wire until it bent inward around the model's waist, giving it a tailored look. Eventually. Hopefully. Stupid Saudi mail, give me my green stuff already!
Hooray for everything! The mail came in today with three packages for me, one of which was my shipment from Spikey Bits that included primer, paint and an excessive quantity of green stuff. This is my first time buying it in the large tubes instead of the tape strips, but it doesn't seem like it will cause any real problems for me. If nothing else, this is going to give me plenty to use on my robot pimp coat.
Another fun thing I got was a universal clip-on macro lens for smart phones. After trying it out, I can safely say that it doesn't seem to do much more than what my phone was already capable of. It helps a lot on the standard camera app that came with the phone, but I recently discovered that you can get better results just by installing better camera software.
Hokay, so I'm going to try to finish up the two suits I'm working on and then move on to sculpting on the pimp suit again.
The one I have installed is called CameraMX. It's free and has so far worked great for photographing miniatures. It also has a built in photo editing and effects suite so you can adjust your pics if (like me) you have issues with lighting making your colors look wrong. Only down side to it is that it takes a little longer to load than most camera apps.
There's actually a character like that planned for the next book in the series I've started. I don't have a good name for the character yet. At first glance he's a little bit of a knockoff of Inigo Montoya, a spaniard sword master out for revenge. However, things get weirder from there. You see, he started out in life as a charity case taken in at a local academy, where he displayed remarkable aptitude for the sword and was taught by the instructors and other masters until he became something of a virtuoso. Eventually he grew bored and set out into the world for adventure.
While contemplating his newfound quest to find a quest, he spent the night drinking heavily at a rowdy tavern. Various local bravos would, from time to time stand up and give a boast proclaiming their great deeds or their martial prowess, occasionally vowing to defeat a rival or perform some other great show of skill. Our swordsman, *very* intoxicated, got caught up in all the enthusiasm, leaped up onto the table and, loudly and publicly, vowed to avenge his father.
When he sobered up, he realized just what he'd done. You see, his father wasn't dead. Or wounded, even. He was alive and well, dirt farming as always just outside of town. Worse still, his boast had spread like wildfire and he found himself the talk of the town. If he hung around, he would surely become a laughingstock, and so he set out at first light and booked passage on a ship sailing far, far away.
Of course, that ship sank, very predictably. He spent several days adrift under the punishing sun, nearly starved to death, drank a TON of seawater, had numerous heat strokes, invented a new form of yodeling out of sheer boredom, and by the time he was dragged aboard a passing ship he had completely lost his memory. He now only remembered two things, his masterful skill with a rapier and his quest to avenge his father.
No longer knowing where he came from, who his father was, or why he needed avenging, the swordsman fell in with the piratical crew that harvested him from the sea. Every boarding action is for him a chance to find and kill the man who slew his father, and he enters every duel bolstered by the knowledge that his vengeance is finally at hand. He accuses barmaids of having slain his father with terminal syphilis, fishmongers of poisoning him, and just about everyone else of having stabbed the man cowardly in the back.
The pirates find the swordsman just too amusing and useful to toss him off the ship.
bossfearless wrote: There's actually a character like that planned for the next book in the series I've started. I don't have a good name for the character yet. At first glance he's a little bit of a knockoff of Inigo Montoya, a spaniard sword master out for revenge. However, things get weirder from there. You see, he started out in life as a charity case taken in at a local academy, where he displayed remarkable aptitude for the sword and was taught by the instructors and other masters until he became something of a virtuoso. Eventually he grew bored and set out into the world for adventure.
While contemplating his newfound quest to find a quest, he spent the night drinking heavily at a rowdy tavern. Various local bravos would, from time to time stand up and give a boast proclaiming their great deeds or their martial prowess, occasionally vowing to defeat a rival or perform some other great show of skill. Our swordsman, *very* intoxicated, got caught up in all the enthusiasm, leaped up onto the table and, loudly and publicly, vowed to avenge his father.
When he sobered up, he realized just what he'd done. You see, his father wasn't dead. Or wounded, even. He was alive and well, dirt farming as always just outside of town. Worse still, his boast had spread like wildfire and he found himself the talk of the town. If he hung around, he would surely become a laughingstock, and so he set out at first light and booked passage on a ship sailing far, far away.
Of course, that ship sank, very predictably. He spent several days adrift under the punishing sun, nearly starved to death, drank a TON of seawater, had numerous heat strokes, invented a new form of yodeling out of sheer boredom, and by the time he was dragged aboard a passing ship he had completely lost his memory. He now only remembered two things, his masterful skill with a rapier and his quest to avenge his father.
No longer knowing where he came from, who his father was, or why he needed avenging, the swordsman fell in with the piratical crew that harvested him from the sea. Every boarding action is for him a chance to find and kill the man who slew his father, and he enters every duel bolstered by the knowledge that his vengeance is finally at hand. He accuses barmaids of having slain his father with terminal syphilis, fishmongers of poisoning him, and just about everyone else of having stabbed the man cowardly in the back.
The pirates find the swordsman just too amusing and useful to toss him off the ship.
So now I'm idly contemplating the idea of a Jetseer and some more eldar jetbikes in case I want to do Taudar. Rather than go for a Craftworld theme, I would go with something like corsairs or exodites. Maybe a combination of the two. I like the idea of a sort of feral, sci-fi wood elf look to them with lots of woad and not much else on them, riding chopped-down crotch rockets almost buck naked, one hand on the handlebars and eldritch fire trailing from the other. I'm wondering if I could actually build a group of elves who look like they would really kick your ass. Part of it is wanting an excuse to get my hands on a Wraithknight kit. And of course, naked elf tits.
I really want to say elf tits again. Elf tits. Super classy up in here.
...
...
Watching Bellator at work right now and this guy (with a name like "Spirit Wolf," you know he's a tool) got kneed in the nads. But you can tell he's faking how bad he's hurt by it, and he's milked it enough to get the fight stopped because he'd been losing from the start. Freaking sad to watch a guy wuss out like that.
Finished! Edit: Not quite finished! I see a few places where I still need more cleanup. Thank you, zoomed-in camera lens. Thou art a merciless witch! Also, this is my official test to see if the word "witch" gets filtered by the forum. Edit again: Yes, it seems the filter changes it to witch. Which is a highly inappropriate use of the word witch.
XV-88 Broadside ace, Shas'Vre Chump, member of the Order of the Plume.
Yes, he knows what it means in your language. No, he is not amused.
Some more angles, as well as a shot without the lights:
Parts list:
Broadside body and main weapons
Sentinel Missile Launchers on the back
Menoth Vanquisher flail
Rhino hull chunks on the base, because Ultramarines can suck it
Chest lens from Bandai option kit
Various bling from Space Marine kits
Feather from High Elf infantry
Chump is actually the reincarnation of a lone Fire Warrior from my original Tau army, wayyyyyyy back in 3rd ed, when assault was king. I inherited a large number of second hand tau models after tons of people jumped on the very first tau bandwagon, when they first came out, and then jumped off the bandwagon a week later, when it turned out they required actual skill to play. After the first couple of learning games, I was all but undefeated with them for the rest of 3e.
Chump is meant to be the lone Fire Warrior with photon grenades, who should have been nothing but a speed bump to the charging Wolf Lord and his full bike retinue. However, due to the vagaries of fate and only the one guy actually getting into base contact, Chump survived the first round of melee. His return stroke knocked the fangs out of one of the bodyguards. They broke and ran, escaping Chump's paltry initiative 2 only to run screaming into a crossfire between two units of crisis suits, cut down to the last man. Chump has retained his strange proficiency in melee, training extensively to make use of the XV-88's augmented strength and utilizing a flail crafted by Astartes artisans to maximize each strike, since it's unlikely he'll ever get more than one chance.
I've covered this a few times throughout the thread. This cadre fights alongside a large renegade Imperial/xeno alliance and so the battle honors accumulate from all sides.
Now that I have green stuff in large quantities, I couldn't help but put some more work in on the pimp coat. I've finally got the rough structure of the coat all laid out:
As I have said before, this is meant to be the bottom layer of GS, so the splotchy, ugly texture is by no means going to be an issue. Once this cures in a few hours, I can go back over it and start laying down a smoother layer, as well as filling in the few remaining gaps and adjusting the shape a little bit at a time.In the end, I will hopefully wind up with a much more tailored appearance than what I have right now.
I've covered this a few times throughout the thread. This cadre fights alongside a large renegade Imperial/xeno alliance and so the battle honors accumulate from all sides.
... That still doesn't justify why Space Marines/Guardsmen are handing out purity seals to Tau. Guardsmen wouldn't have any, and Space Marines only give them to their own men, and even then they're only granted by the Chaplain who sure as hell wouldn't ally with foul Xenos.
I've covered this a few times throughout the thread. This cadre fights alongside a large renegade Imperial/xeno alliance and so the battle honors accumulate from all sides.
... That still doesn't justify why Space Marines/Guardsmen are handing out purity seals to Tau. Guardsmen wouldn't have any, and Space Marines only give them to their own men, and even then they're only granted by the Chaplain who sure as hell wouldn't ally with foul Xenos.
*coughcough* Space Marine/Tau battle brothers *coughcough*
*coughcough* Ultramarines *coughcough*
You talked about doing eldar as an allied force, how about using the dark eldar jet bikes? They look more in line with the half naked look you'd be wanting with the skintight clothes and such. They are also posed more aggressively and have neater looking weapons. As for looking more natural, you have greenstuff so cover the bike body to look like tree bark, you could even add foliage/flock to it. And I yo ever did an exodite avatar I would love to see you do this.....
Ultraforgeminiatures.com tree woman
Just a question about the type of Dubstep your Tau are. Slow Dubsteb or fast Dubstep? Personally I think Tau of these colors seem much more like fast paced Dubstep fans.
Other than that Great work! It looks amazing and the LEDs add a nice effect to your force!
I'm curious whether they're "Pop" Dubstep or "Legit" Dubstep. IIRC dubstep actually originated on the mean streets of Britain and has a lot more vocalizing and 'cut' than most people think.
Basically, the difference between WUBWUB and Skrillex, magnified.
Uh oh. Anvildude, are you becoming some kind of Dubstep hipster? Anyway, I imagine these guys as a king of medium Dubstep in both beats per minute and overall severity of the noise. Not quite "takingabigdumponyourface-step," but much harder than "chill-step".
@Theophony: I don't mean that I actually want to make my space elves tree-huggers and have them riding tree-mobiles. I was thinking more along the lines of "wild" elves in the sense that they are entirely unregulated by either the craftworld or the kabalite philosophies. The pissed off teenagers of the pointy eared world. Although, if I did an Avatar, you already must know that it would be a giant naked woman of some kind. I mean, it's me we're talkling about.
For the jetbikers I was thinking of a kitbash between Hellions and Reavers, using the Hellion legs and arm holding the chain, and the Reaver jetbike body minus most of the body panels. The resulting model would (in theory) be a mostly naked elf (all the details sanded down with muscles and bodypaint painted on) standing up in the saddle with one hand holding the reins of a giant, flying jet engine. I might go for even more of a dieselpunk look to them by adding Nob Biker bits like big exhausts and custom pipes, larger vints and burners, and do an LED rocket exhaust with transparent flame bits lit up from within like my pimp cane.
bossfearless wrote: I was thinking more along the lines of "wild" elves in the sense that they are entirely unregulated by either the craftworld or the kabalite philosophies.
Exodites? They're kind of like Amish Eldar, they left to go live in the woods before things went bad for the Eldar, they're very low-tech and ride dinosaurs and dragons and stuff. Your Tau could easily have corrupted a group of them with their influence, and now they're biker drunks or something.
Eh. Not quite where I was going with it. I don't hink this group would fit into any of the known niches for eldar in the established 40k canon. And they might eventually be based on Raging Heroes' dark elves kickstarter, when they eventually put that out. Still waiting for my Jailbirds to become available to order. Pouty face, engage. But still, it lets me put all the polish I want onto my Tau before becoming distracted by another shiny project.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Did a lot of sculpting on Upgrayedd's pimp coat today. I used liquid GS to smooth out a lot of the surface, gave that a light sanding, and then I went to town using way more green stuff than I think I've ever mixed up at any one point before now. Simply knowing that I have a lot of it lets me be a little more ambitious and provides better results as such. The coat is rapidly changing from a mismatched looking potato sack to a tailored coat with fluffy fur trim. I sculpted the fur trim along one sleeve so far, on the arm holding the staff. I'd never really sculpted fur before, but it was easier and more satisfying than I had hoped. I'm going to let it cure and get some sleep, then do another round of sculpting tomorrow before I get any pics. I want the next update to be really substantial.
Did a fair bit of sculpting today, and the coat is looking much better overall.
Before:
After:
I'm going to do a fur trim all the way around all the edges of the coat, as well as a high fur collar. Got to finish getting the whole coat nice and smooth before I can do that.
I prefer Imageshack for one of many reasons.
This among them.
Sucks they're pulling another 'pay only' thing again, but this time it's only US$1 a month, rather than the US$4-5 or so a month it was before, so I'll probably sign up for it this time.
FantasyBob wrote: yup.....looks like it! probably you must upload them again!
the tree woman is incredible.....and a pain to sculpt, i presume!
I didn't sculpt the tree woman. That's from Ultraforge I believe, and I don't even have the model. As to the photobucket thing, no I do not have to upload everything again. I just have to wait a couple days for that account to reset its monthly bandwidth. In the mean time, I'm going to switch to my other account so I can keep posting. I might eventually sign up for the whole unlimited whatever account. It's not like this job doesn't pay enough for a couple bucks a month.
Work is progressing at a great pace on the pimp coat. I'm going to try to finish the fur trim tonight, and then I'll get some pics up.
This is why I maintain two Photobucket accounts. If I'm getting a ton of traffic on the one, I can switch to the other after a while. Speaking of which, I have finally finished the vast majority of the sculpting on the pimp coat:
The right side still looks a little off to me, and I plan to adjust it as much as I can, but by and large I am really happy about how this came out. I've got that "just leveled up" feeling, and it's pretty badass. Now, if you look real close you'll see that there are still a few trouble spots, and I'm going to keep working on those to smooth them out or adjust proportions where needed. After this step, I'm going to attach the pipe and sculpt the thumbs for both powerfists (can't believe I lost BOTH thumbs!). The two girls for the base are going to wait until the models are painted before they get glued on. I'll do a mock up of the whole thing at some later point.
So Boss, I have a question for you. I could ask elsewhere, but figured you're the only guy that can really give me the help I need here. I'll keep it short and sweet: how do I pimp a Riptide without LEDs?
sierra 1247 wrote: Awesome stuff mate is that a 3rd street saints chain??
Actually it's a New Orleans Saints chain. I have a lot of family in the bayou.
@Liquidjoshi: That's a very good question and a lot of it depends on what you want to do with it. There are a ton of options. Did you want a tutorial on how I built my XV-117 variant, or were you thinking of trying another style of build? I need to know what general idea you have in mind, or I could pitch you some various ideas and help you hammer it out from concept to execution. Always happy to help.
Just to give fair warning, today's update is more NSFW than most.
Let's start the party off with one of the girls accompanying Fio'El Upgrayedd:
There's a bit more to do and a little more clean up, but this is pretty close to done. She actually wasn't ginger until the last minute. I had this great, tanned skin tone going and then I went for the next highlight and kind of overdid it. She wound up ginger in an attempt to fix that. The only thing I'm really unhappy about with her is her face. A great big part of the problem is the sculpt itself. The face has this really absurd expression on it and the bangs make it really hard to get in and do the eyes at all, let alone doing them well. So now she'd kind of stuck with this expression on her face like "wtf am I doing here?" Maybe she's wondering why she elected to come onto a battlefield with no freaking pants on. Whatever, I don't care what she thinks because she's basically just a fashionable accessory.
Okay, so, next up we have a big leap forward on Shas'O Darkblade. I finally figured out how I wanted to do the shield icons:
Fabulous, no? And then there's the other accessory that I haven't shown yet:
It took me a while to work up the courage to finish this freehand work because I wasn't quite sure I'd made a good choice with the design. I need to do a little more cleanup, but I feel it's in a good place aesthetically. And so I finally attached it:
More to come as I meander through the various parts of the project.
See, the people over at Raging Heroes would beg to disagree. I've got a bunch of their Jailbirds female infantry on the way and those are some seriously sexy models.
Thanks. I'm actually a little displease with the way some of the lines are crooked, so I'll be going back and fixing it a bit when I do the next round of touch ups.
I've mentioned the Raging Heroes TGG kickstarter many times throughout this log. I'm really pleased with how the products are shaping up, though there's been considerable delay so far (with plenty of good reason!). A lot of people are getting impatient with that, but for me it's a good thing. The extra couple of months will give me plenty of time to finish just about everything I want to do with this Tau army. On top of that, the TGG troops should have their first wave arriving right around the time the new IG dex drops, so it'll be a win/win for me.
Anyone else excited about the rumors of Knights in march? I'm interested to see if there will finally be proper Knight models and rules for 40k and, like any obsessive modeler, I can't wait to go crazy with the kits. Of course, if there's an appropriate option for it, I'll end up using Metal Gear as a knight in a lot of games where a Warhound just isn't appropriate.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Philosophical Rambling Follows
If you just want to skip to the boobs, those are further down.
I want to take a moment to talk about sexism. Strange subject matter coming from a guy like me, I know, but let's not get bogged down in that. Believe it or not, I actually do give a lot of thought to the implications of a project like this and what it says about my mindset towards women, specifically concerning the problem of objectification. If you want to get all technical, which I do, the objectification of women is when you cease to think of a woman as a person and instead see her as just a thing, a conglomeration of pleasant parts you believe exist only for your own gratification. Now, at one point or another in our lives, every guy has done this to some degree. In reality it's not nearly as evil as it sounds. But is it a good thing? No, it's really not. But just as a fat man undoubtedly knows that his extra helpings of cupcakes are making him fat and that this is an unhealthy behavior, the frosting and sprinkles are far too tempting to resist and he goes back for another mouthful. So too are our unhealthy urges to objectify women far too tempting and pleasant to resist entirely, and even the most hardcore of internet white knights (who have rescued many maidens in forum discussions, but whom those maidens have never rewarded with sex as he'd hoped) will occasionally dip his toes into the refreshing pool of sexist thinking and misogyny.
How does this relate to my project? Well, we're dealing with objects here, and my objects are a lot more female than most. Now, while these are only inanimate figurines in reality, on a conceptual level they are meant to represent real or possible iterations of the female form. This goes a step further when someone like me gets too creative and starts coming up with names and stories for the concepts the figures represent. Now we're crossing into the realm of conceptual realism. Sure, these are still fictional characters, but who reading this has not at some point had a fictional character they wanted to screw up against a wall (Hermione Granger)? It's not a purely male phenomenon either, and don't get me started on that Team Edward garbage. The point is that even when a character is fictional or abstract, we still think of them as real enough in many senses and how we think of these characters influences the way we think about real women. Now, in this project I have completely and utterly objectified some of my female characters going so far as to declare the girl in the last post to be nothing more than a fashion accessory for the (male) main model. When one realizes that they are demonstrating an unhealthy behavior such as this, they must take a moment to look inward and ask themselves, "Am I okay with that?"
That's a more complex question than it seems at the surface, and could spark any number of other debates on the topic, and frankly that would just devolve into white-knighting and feminist shrieking (I'm all for women's rights but I despise feminism, fyi) and soon after that my thread would be locked and that's not cool, yo. So instead, let me just give my own answer to the question and leave it at that. I am okay with this. I am very okay with reducing the conceptual female in this situation to naught but an accessory, a novelty of pleasing shapes and intriguing parts. As I see it, one theme of this project is absurdity and there is little more absurd in this world than objects representing humans reduced to objects (except maybe vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires).
Okay, I'm sure I've bored you with my rambling. Here, have some Space Boobs (patent pending):
One thing I've noticed is that Hasslefree's sculptors seem to have a great grasp of figure but their faces look like garbage.
1) I like Melissia.
2) Objectifying women is bad, but objectifying tiny pewter women portraying fictional characters (eg your models) is much less bad than objectifying real women portraying fictional characters (eg Emma Watson), which is in turn less bad than objectifying real women who are being their actual real selves in direct personal interaction with you (eg her, right over there, dude, stop drooling, it's not cool). I have done all three of these things.
3) feminism =! screaming. Some feminists scream, just as some misogynists scream, but let's not mistake a subset for the entire population. (Eg I consider myself a feminist, even though I'm a man, and as the father of a daughter I'd damn well better be).
4) "I'm self-conscious about [sexism/violence/racism/other obnoxious thing] so I'm really parodying it" is a thoroughly played out excuse, but "here's this thing that bothers me about this other thing I love, let me talk about it, BUT I'm not going to stop doing what I love" -- that is a awesome.
Oh, I like Melissia too. Doesn't mean she can't be terrifying when she wants to be. And I share a Minecraft Server with her, so there's actual possible consequences involved :p (by the way, if any of you play Minecraft, check out the DakkaDakka server. It's pretty awesome).
Anvildude wrote: Oh, I like Melissia too. Doesn't mean she can't be terrifying when she wants to be. And I share a Minecraft Server with her, so there's actual possible consequences involved :p (by the way, if any of you play Minecraft, check out the DakkaDakka server. It's pretty awesome).
I don't have any particular dislike for Melissia, even though I find those things annoying rather than terrifying.
Yeah I've got zero clue about this Melissia person. Glad to see more people jumping in on the thread discussion though. Imma come right out and say that I assumed SisterSydney was a female in real life. Female name, female avatar and stories written from female perspectives all seemed to point in the right direction but it seems that there are once again no girls on the internet
And for the record, I define feminists as the subset of women's rights activists who are freaking crazy and scream all the damn time. Women's rights activists are something we need, because they address the real issues in a progressive and productive manner. A feminist is that psycho bitch who ambushes you outside of Starbucks and throws her used tampons at you and screams and calls you a rapist when you're just trying to get your morning coffee and you are NOT awake enough for this gak right now. A feminist is that female professor who throws out an open ended question to the male students in a lecture as bait and then when a guy answers she pounces on him by using her position of authority and pre-prepared remarks backed up by prepared evidence and sometimes slideshows for why his answer makes him a dickless rapemonger. A feminist swoops in when you're leaving a party with a girl to go back to your place and sprays you with pepper spray, then calls the cops on you for attempted rape when everyone was just out to have a good time. This is all real crap that's happened to me.
I freaking hate feminists, as defined above.
Women's rights activists, on the other hand, present arguments in the correct forums intending to bring positive change to real problems of equality faced by all genders, aiming for a more perfect coexistence of these groups within out modern world.
I freaking love women's rights activists, as defined above. But they aren't nearly as entertaining to talk about, because responsible activism is not much of a train wreck.
Okay, so that's that. Let's get on with some more models. There are two new Deser Pimps being painted, and here are some WIP shots of them:
This one uses one of the Basicks Amazons torsos, which has a breastplate over a layer of scale mail. I thought it was appropriate given the scale cloaks of the Pimps. The arms are standard Fire Warrior arms but they've been cut and reposed for a dramatic look.
And this one uses the torso and arms from Zealot's female tau sprues. At first I wasn't a fan of the zealot torso's take on the whole "boob armor" thing, thinking that the breasts looked kind of flat and oblong, but when the whole model goes together and gets painted it seems to work. It's kind of like exaggerated pecs more than breasticles. You might be able to tell from the pics, but I am completely out of the little FW antennas that would normally go on the sides of the helmets. I don't think they lose anything.
I've been thinking about the whole boob armor problem. Any time you see boob armor, you get an armor enthusiast who chimes in with a million reasons why it's a stupid modification to realistic armor. And of course the Tau, being ever-practical, really should not go for boob armor, even if their females have breasts (which many argue against). So I've kind of reconciled this concept in my army. The way I figure it, the female troops in the cadre did not originally have any difference in their wargear from the males, and aside from a slight comfort issue (easily fixed on an individual basis) the standard breasplate worked for both sexes just fine. Then they joined the crusade, and suddenly the concept of boob armor was introduced. Despite the Earth caste's continued insistence that boob armor was a *terrible* idea, many individual female warriors consistently came to the artisans with requests for such a modification. This mostly stemmed from the extra attention the female humans seemed to get from their boob-tastic armor, more than any utilitarian purpose. Eventually, the green light was given for the development of more flattering gender-specific wargear for various roles in the cadre, leading to a wide range of prototypes and numerous marks of production armor being issued throughout the ranks. Battlesuits stayed exactly the same after the Fio'O put his hoof down and drew a line in the sand over a proposed "boob suit." That gak just would not happen.
So that's my justification for why there is boob plate present in my army, as well as why there are so many various versions cropping up from time to time. Yes, I really do feel the need to come up with an explanation for every little thing, it's just in my nature to think about the minor details.
Okay, let's throw down with some more models. Remember my drunk, mostly naked tank crew? I decided that the insides of the taus' mouths would be green.
And that they would also have green vaginas. You can't really see in that pic, but there's a stripe of bright green happening in there. I really miss being able to have a girlfriend, lol!
And one more, the girl who'll be chillaxing on top of the cupola:
Nothing really interesting about the last one, she's just kind of there.
Again, these are all still WIP pics, so there will be lots of cleanup and more details added as time goes by.
2) Objectifying women is bad, but objectifying tiny pewter women portraying fictional characters (eg your models) is much less bad than objectifying real women portraying fictional characters (eg Emma Watson), which is in turn less bad than objectifying real women who are being their actual real selves in direct personal interaction with you (eg her, right over there, dude, stop drooling, it's not cool). I have done all three of these things.
If we're being totally honest, then I have to point out that despite all the unspeakable things I would to to Hermione, I would probably so some even nastier stuff to Emma Watson, plus I'd be doing those things to her on the bathroom floor in a clown suit. That gak would get NASTY and then I'd be all like "Ten points to Gryffindor!" And that's all before I even bust out the salad tongs and the cool whip and the gimp suit and...you know what? Let's just leave that bit to the imagination.
Look, you're free to go and make your own sexy naked tau project Actually, I just don't fancy putting that much thought into what tau wangs would look like. UGH! I just got the most hilarious flashback to playing Dante's Inferno. Got to the last level and I really, really was not prepared for Lucifer's enormous, furry junk flopping all over the place during the boss battle. I must have died ten times because of sudden fits of laughter. The physics of the game were a little extreme, so this five foot long fuzzy penis had a life of its own, writhing around like a literal trouser snake while I tried to hack its owner to death with a giant novelty scythe.
bossfearless wrote: And for the record, I define feminists as the subset of women's rights activists who are freaking crazy and scream all the damn time. Women's rights activists are something we need, because they address the real issues in a progressive and productive manner.
I feel I should point out that feminists are women's rights activists, not a subset. If you want more equal rights for women, then you're a feminist yourself. Like any movement, feminism can have extremists and such, but plenty of feminists are perfectly reasonable people.
bossfearless wrote: it seems that there are once again no girls on the internet
You'd be surprised...
Just tell him... sis? Brother? Dammit, I don't know. Why is the internet so confusing?!?!
It would be quite the internet event if the person calling themselves Sister ended up being a guy, and the person calling themselves Brother ended up being a girl.
Hey, lookit that! My finished pic of Shas'Vre Chump is on the front page! If anyone wants to be awesome, you could go vote on the image so it sticks around :3
Yeah, in hindsight it was probably not my best move to give myself a female username... though "Sydney" actually is my real name, yes with that spelling it's complicated don't ask unless you want a long explanation involving early 20th century Jewish immigration.
Eh. It's the "Sister" part more than anything. I've known, iirc, three guys named Sydney or some variation of it, and never known a single girl with the name.
bossfearless wrote: Eh. It's the "Sister" part more than anything. I've known, iirc, three guys named Sydney or some variation of it, and never known a single girl with the name.
Read the latest rumors on BOLS about the supposed Knight release coming up in March. I'm a little excited for it, sure. The fact that I already have the Rex model is one thing, but I'm kind of wondering just what mischief I'd be able to get into with a larger scale GW plastic kit like that, and of course my inner modeling addict salivates at the thought of the builds I could achieve.
bossfearless wrote: Read the latest rumors on BOLS about the supposed Knight release coming up in March. I'm a little excited for it, sure. The fact that I already have the Rex model is one thing, but I'm kind of wondering just what mischief I'd be able to get into with a larger scale GW plastic kit like that, and of course my inner modeling addict salivates at the thought of the builds I could achieve.
Actually, he was banned a good 2 or so years ago, and decided he wouldn't be coming back once the ban expired.
He did some stuff on another forum for a while, but I don't believe I've seen any of his work since about 3 months after he was banned from here.
Yet his threads remain in the most exalted of all time even now, and whenever anything a little too crazy, or a little too lewd crops up, when the right brand of insanity is revealed, his name is invoked again.
And we honour it with every crazy conversion, every mad kitbash or slight splatter of blood on a model. For the legacy shall live on; we shall forever ride for Doomthumbs
*Ahem*
Back to the topic...
Aside from Knights, what else do you have planned for the future Boss? More guard, stuff perhaps?
liquidjoshi wrote: And we honour it with every crazy conversion, every mad kitbash or slight splatter of blood on a model. For the legacy shall live on; we shall forever ride for Doomthumbs
*Ahem*
Back to the topic...
Aside from Knights, what else do you have planned for the future Boss? More guard, stuff perhaps?
Hey! Riding for Doomthumbs is what this thread is all about! That and party Tau, but the party tau take a distant second. But as far as what I have on deck, well I'm currently painting the Pimpwagon, and once I get through the current batch of infantry models I'll have to go and paint Upgrayedd as well. Both of these models are going to be a slight departure from my usual color scheme, because they're very different sorts of concepts.
Now, as far as builds are concerned, I am still waiting on a few things to come in the mail. As much as I tout the awesomeness of http://www.HLJ.com, there remains the problem that everything has to be shipped from Japan, to the States, to my APO, to Germany, then finally to Saudi. So...it takes a while. Anyway there are some parts in there for the titan, in the form of a couple of Gundam models (Strike Freedom and Shenlong Custom), as well as an SD-style Armored Core model (Noblesse Oblige) that I plan to turn into another cool crisis suit conversion, with lots of changes of course. That'll probably be a double crisis suit slash secondary commander.
I kinda have this idea for an army list to run 10 or even 15 Piranhas. Unfortunately, being so far out in the middle of nowhere, I have no way to even proxy a list to playtest it. But think of it, think of the sheer carnage of 10 Piranhas. Anyway, I do plan to buff out my current Piranha squadron but I don't know how many. That'll be a thing eventually, though.
Hey if anyone out there plays Tau, can you please proxy a list using 10 or 15 Piranhas? Or hell, even if you don't play Tau and you just feel like helping out. I really think there's something to this swarm idea.
Ahh.. Pirhana spam.. That reminds me of when a friend and I went through the old 4th Ed Tau codex and figured out that it was possible to get an army with over 100 Drones in it- a normal sized army, that is.
Anvildude wrote: Ahh.. Pirhana spam.. That reminds me of when a friend and I went through the old 4th Ed Tau codex and figured out that it was possible to get an army with over 100 Drones in it- a normal sized army, that is.
5 Piranhas, detach the drones, add a drone controller w MSSS. have some strength five my friend
I think that's actually the wrong way to go about it, Payne. The piranhas work so well in my mind because they are totally inexpensive. Throwing a buff commander into a drone squadron does make the drones better, but he could be used elsewhere to greater effect. Instead, just be at peace with the idea that a good portion of the drone shots will miss, and augment with a couple marker lights if you have them to spare.
bossfearless wrote: I think that's actually the wrong way to go about it, Payne. The piranhas work so well in my mind because they are totally inexpensive. Throwing a buff commander into a drone squadron does make the drones better, but he could be used elsewhere to greater effect. Instead, just be at peace with the idea that a good portion of the drone shots will miss, and augment with a couple marker lights if you have them to spare.
I totally agree for larger points - that number actually comes straight out of one of my 500pt lists (my favorite points level). At 500, the flexibility two of units over one and shear number of S5 shots the army puts out is crazy!
Yeah, the 4th Ed list utilized the way Crisis Suits could forgo any and all integrated weapons systems for Drone Controllers- meaning you could get 3 controllers (or 4?) per suit, with, like, 3 drones per controller, and 3 suits per slot (or more? Not sure). Plus the Drone squads you could get in Fast Attack and as other basic Troops choices.
Anvildude wrote: Yeah, the 4th Ed list utilized the way Crisis Suits could forgo any and all integrated weapons systems for Drone Controllers- meaning you could get 3 controllers (or 4?) per suit, with, like, 3 drones per controller, and 3 suits per slot (or more? Not sure). Plus the Drone squads you could get in Fast Attack and as other basic Troops choices.
Except, you can't do that.
It quite clearly stated you could only take each option once. So while you got 2 drone per controller, you could only get 1 per model.
On some suits (characters and HQ choices) you could potentially take a Drone Controller, and a Hard Wired Drone Controller, but that would only allow max 2 Drone Controllers and 4 Drones.
The most I can think of legally getting, would have been:
Spoiler:
2x Commander, with 2 Bodyguards, each with 2 Drone Controllers and 4 Drones each +24 Drones. 3x 6 Stealth Suits, w/ Drone Controler, Character w/ +1 Controller, for +42 Drones. 6x 6 Firewarriors w/ Character w/ Drone Controller, with Devilfish w/ Gun Drones +24 Drones. 3x 5 Pirahna for +30 3x 3 Sniper Drones for +9 2x 3 Broadsides w/ Drone Controller, Character w/ +1 controller for +16.
That's around 106 purchased drones, 30 with Pirahnas and 9 Sniper Drones. But that's 1060pts just in bought drones, then at least 2-3 times that in the units to purchase them....
- I was curious as to what that'd cost, pointed as a sensible army:
Well, this idea isn't so much about the drone spam as the deployment of clusters of mobile units on either side of the battlefield as flanking forces. You'd have a full squad of Piranhas, a Riptide, and the drone unit moving up one flank, and a mirror cluster on the other side. It's fast enough and strong enough to hit whatever you need, and having the two flanking formations moving up to midfield in tandem creates a crossfire that will punish enemies for turning to confront either unit.
There was a book you could. Maybe the 3rd? There was one that had no limiters on the number of similar equipments on the suits.
But yeah. I'm actually surprised more people don't go for Str 5 shooting spam with Tau- between drones and Vespid, you could have a nasty, nasty army. And one that does pretty awesomely against Marines too, because of the Ap3.
3rd Ed book has it at 1-2 drones per controller, can only take 1 of any given support system, though again, some models could take a Hard Wired one too (characters, HQs).
And the reason people didn't mostly, is that Battlesuits with Broadside / Hammerhead support, was far, far better.
Personally, my 4th/5thed tau list was 84 Firewarriors, Maxed Sniper Drones, a unit of stealth suits, 1-2 of battlesuits, 1 broadsides
It was very Str5 spammy, and... wasn't that amazing tbh. (Far better with 6x6 FW, and Hammerheads).
These days, my current list is 6x12 Firewarriors, 2x9 Sniper Drones and 2 Ethereals, and 216 Str shots at 15", plus 54 BS5 Sniper shots at 24" is brutal.
S5 is great in large quantities, but you still need something really heavy to take out the enemy's tougher units, stuff with great armor or FNP or both. I actually have an IG Allied "Plug n Play" list that is about 600 points, brings something like 15 autocannons, a couple lascannons and a Manticore to the party and provides a ridiculous saturation of scoring units. And Marbo, if I have the points. Because, well, Marbo. Anyway, the point of that is that, for all the Tau's toys, IG have (and probably still will, with the new dex) had a lot of cheap and numerous ways to bring tons of big guns to the party in FOC slots that the Tau don't always shine in. Like basic Troops that can spam Autocannons. Well, if anyone's wondering, that's exactly the sort of thing I plan to focus on with my TGG Kickstarter troops.
Also I really hope the new IG dex makes Sentinels really good. I want an excuse to field more robots, especially the sexy TGG ones.
bossfearless wrote: Hold on, I'm getting an anomalous reading here. Let's see...adjust the dials, compensate for interference, yep. Payne, the auspex says you're a dick.
Bahahahahah! There are some wicked thing you can do at low points levels
BLARG!! I need some help from you guys, because I am in this nasty creative funk right now. I can't write, can't paint, can't sculpt, can't do squat. Anything creative and I just can't get interested. Hell, if you gave me a galaxy, I might not even burn that sucker.
So, help. I have a whole bunch of green stuff and an impressive array of bits. Somebody pitch me an idea. Anything at all. I'm trying to push-start my creativity, like maybe if I get it up to a certain speed it will pick up on its own again.
Throw words at a page, anything at all. Write a R+D style report for something maybe. Something in the Cadre. A report of some sort perhaps. Hell, move in entirely the other direction. Write grimdark, write real world stuff. Hell, not like it uses actual resources, and if its gak then you can just bin it later. Might spark something useful.
bossfearless wrote: BLARG!! I need some help from you guys, because I am in this nasty creative funk right now. I can't write, can't paint, can't sculpt, can't do squat. Anything creative and I just can't get interested. Hell, if you gave me a galaxy, I might not even burn that sucker.
So, help. I have a whole bunch of green stuff and an impressive array of bits. Somebody pitch me an idea. Anything at all. I'm trying to push-start my creativity, like maybe if I get it up to a certain speed it will pick up on its own again.
Hate it when that happens.
Make some terrain for all that cool stuff: the possibilities are endless.
Check out your craft area, sometimes it gets to be such a mess I do not want to be in there. = clean.
Find some great music to play in the area as you do stuff.
Paint a backdrop for your army, make mini-posters for your terrain.
Look up DIY ways to make things you always wanted for the hobby.
Go to a craft store and look at the stuff there and think of all the things you can do that was unintended for that stuff.
Go to a mainly toy train store and do the same thing.
Make a cosplay weapon that lights up like what you did for your army.
Go listen to "Dr Steel's: Build the Robots"... "I'm gonna have to rob a bank again... I'm spending all my time and spending every dime... build the robots!"
Use power tools, even randomly at first, try to laugh manically while doing it.
Hrm...thanks for the ideas. Nothing's really catching, though. The Sanghelii idea is neat, but way beyond my skill level at this point. This funk is so nasty that even video games aren't any fun. I'm playing through the new XCOM game and even though the game is brilliant, it just feels like work to make myself play it. I tried the whole throwing words at a page thing but I just kind of sputtered after maybe a sentence.
DO NOT WANT!!!
What's screwed up is I think I know what's causing my funk. Ready for the kick in the pants? It's my diet. I'm doing my best to lose weight before I go on holiday to Japan, but that's got my blood sugar low and it's making me apathetic to everything. At least, that's what I think it is, since the two things started at the same time. How messed up is that? I either sack the idea of getting my waistline under control, or I forgo being creative or enjoying anything. This is pure crap. Bollocks, even.
When I'm in that sort of low, I've found reading is a great outlet, so maybe pick up a good book?
Sci Fi wise I'd reccomend anything by Peter.F.Hamilton (Especially the Commonwealth Saga) or Neal Asher (all of it.), and can dig out a list of noteworthies later if you want.
I should probably try to read something. Or better yet, put on an audiobook so I don't just give up on it. I'll give that a try. Also, I tried sitting down and forcing myself to finish up two fire warriors for the pimps. It went well enough, but didn't seem to help much with the bigger issue of general malaise.
I'm completely out of grenades and fw antennas, so those bits are missing. Forcing myself to paint just gave me a headache.
Well they look great as per usual, not sure what to recommend about the lack of motivation though. Certainly nothing that will help with the diet, that much is certain.
Funk stinks. I Am Not A Psychologist (IANAP?), but in general, when stuck on a creative project, I advise taking a break to
- exercise!
- meditate!
- masturb.... Um.
Anyway, anything but sitting still feeling frustrated. I recall your job involves a lot of sitting still, which sucks, but at least you can do some breathing exercises or something to drain that pent-up negative whatever from your nervous system.
Also if you're trying to restrict your caloric intake without keeping active, your body's just gonna go "aha there's a food shortage, time to hunker down for the winter" and a 100 million years of mammalian evolution are gonna slow your metabolism down to the point that (1) you can't think for sh*t and (2) you won't lose any f***ing weight anyway.
Fight someone. Get pissed. What do you hate- really, really hate? Do something about that (if it won't lose you your job/get you killed). Find one of your buddies and start a fight club. Take up knitting. I've found anger is remarkable in how it can pierce through even strong depression to let you at least start moving- once you've started going, then you can often keep going a lot easier, and so pull yourself out of a funk with activity.
Or burn something. Do you have any models you don't want? Any spare Mahrines or KAOSS or Orks or something that you can use capacitors and wiring to melt big messy holes in that could later be used as the example of what happens when you get on a Plasma Broadside's bad side?
Errr, although I Am Not A Psychologist, allow me to strongly counsel against channelling your internal frustration into violence, destruction, and rage. Having had "anger management" issues for most of my life, I can say with some confidence that this is a high-cost solution with only short term benefits. Exercise, meditation, and introspection are a lot less painful for you and those around you.
Nevie wrote: I challenge you build a squad of firewarriors possessed by Bloodletters?
Maybe Daemonettes
I am sickeningly curious about how that would look...
And I know that feeling quite well, its the reason my army is not as painted as I want it to be, I mostly take a break from my normal routine when it happens and a week or so later everything is good.
Hrm. Pardon. I think my language/delivery/intent might have been off.
I understand there are some hypothesized (not sure what exactly the research is on this) effects of violent 'catharsis'. I'm not exactly suggesting honest-to-god Pissedness. More the sort of "Angry" that coaches try to get linebackers to show/feel. It's more a hyper determination fueled by being unwilling to let anything stop you- most often and easily brought about through 'anger', or getting yourself worked up, whether mentally or physically. Fighting (and as Fearless is working as a merc (if that's the PC term?) I imagine there's no shortage of other guys he works with that'd be willing to do a quick'n'dirty stress fight) is one way to get to that state- releasing the adrenaline and other hormones that are aggressive enough to power through the 'depressant' neurochemicals that cause funks.
But saying "Get Pissed at something and have a punching contest with a buddy" is easier and quicker.
Here is some more forced painting, this time on the Hammerhead itself. Glad I got the crew mostly done before the funk hit. It's much easier to color inside the lines and panels on a vehicle than to try and come up with a color scheme for alien genitals.
Also, mail came today with an Armored Core D Style model. Google Noblesse Oblige from the armored core series and you'll see my next crisis suit, more or less. I'm almost motivated to work on it.
I really hope this clears soon. I want to try and finish all my Tau that I currently have before the Guard and my TGG troops form a huge backlog.
Automatically Appended Next Post: @anvil dude: Two things. First, the PC term is "security contractor," which sounds totally stupid so I prefer merc lol. Second, you really don't want to do a quick stress fight with most of these guys. This job rarely attracts people with stable emotions. I'm surrounded by MMA douchebags who can't tell the difference between sparring and "at last, my opportunity to dislocate something!"
Ah. Well that stinks. Still, hope you get over your funk soon.
Have you tried listening to Dubstep? :p
...actually, did you know about Digitally Imported? It's an electronica music streaming online radio site. di.net or something- maybe di.org? It's Digitally Imported, anyways. Pretty good mix, and you can sort by subgenre.
Well, even under a creative funk, I wasn't able to stop myself from attacking the Armored Core model. Here's the finished product (minus the head, which was stupidly big):
And here's the all important scale shot next to a crisis and a broadside:
Obviously, I misjudged it just a bit and it is too large to be a crisis on its own. However, I never truly expected the thing to be compatible out of the box, so I'm looking at this more as a collection of useful parts. This piece is going to be the chest of my next broadside, those wings are going on the "raptor" suit I've been wanting to build, and so on and so on.
@anvildude: I need to look that up. I've never been much into the internet radio sites, which I'm pretty sure has caused me to miss out on some stuff over the years.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Quick wip of the hammerhead hull. I decided it needed more speakers.
I thought the same thing when I looked at it the first time. Those vents are hella deep, and I'm not sure how successful I would be if I tried to accentuate that look. But I'll try for it when I have some time.
Okay, so, decision about the quad crisis. I'm going to separate the torso and legs into two different models. The torso will get a set of reverse joint legs and rock the mad cat look. The quad legs will get repurposed. The two parts weren't looking right together.
I feel that you can't really go humanoid with quad legs- that is, arms tend to look odd, unless it's a straight up Centauroid look. Maybe pull from the other races (you do have Astartes and IG in your cadre, right?) and have a torso with the weapons mounted directly on it? A sort of mini hammerhead? Could call it the Squid.
bossfearless wrote: It's my diet. I'm doing my best to lose weight before I go on holiday to Japan, but that's got my blood sugar low and it's making me apathetic to everything. At least, that's what I think it is, since the two things started at the same time. How messed up is that? I either sack the idea of getting my waistline under control, or I forgo being creative or enjoying anything. This is pure crap. Bollocks, even.
Only thing I can suggest that worked for me (lost 90 lbs in 2 years) is every 2 hours you must take in calories of about 90 - 120.
I use Fiber1 bars (100 calories) so the suckers keep me from being hungry and fix that low blood sugar issue.
Keeping easy to reach snacks like this handy can get you home without feeling you need to hit some fast food on the way.
Finally at a stage where I feel full at half the quantity of food I used to and find the strong salt/oil of fast food offensive (??!!) which is a blessing all it's own.
Something I know works but takes effort is to ONLY eat protein/fats OR Carbohydrate for snack or meals with a 2hr space between = never the two to meet.
Never lost faster but was more work than you think managing so I felt it was unsustainable.
Anyway, I am in the middle of a bit of a funk myself, it was more my hobby area became a dumping ground for everything and I finally bit the bullet, cleaned up and was able to actually enjoy my hobby without feeling crowded.
Anvildude wrote: I feel that you can't really go humanoid with quad legs- that is, arms tend to look odd, unless it's a straight up Centauroid look. Maybe pull from the other races (you do have Astartes and IG in your cadre, right?) and have a torso with the weapons mounted directly on it? A sort of mini hammerhead? Could call it the Squid.
I'm having an idea for this now, and that idea involves Mickey Rourke from Iron Man 2 saying "No suit. Drone better!" over and over in my head.
Drone is better!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Quick poll:
Does the "Tau Rule" graffiti on the front of the tank work? Or should I take it off?
bossfearless wrote: Does the "Tau Rule" graffiti on the front of the tank work? Or should I take it off?
I don't think it works very well at the moment. The problem is the rounded corners - it doesn't look like big writing scaled down, it looks like the small writing it is.
Jefffar wrote: Put it in withTau letters (guide is in the codex) and it should look about right.
And then the effect is totally lost, because nobody can actually read Tau letters
Actually, I think I'm going to leave it for now. As Nevelon said, it might just look stupid by itself. Once everything else is done and the crew are attached, maybe it will work. If not, then I can always paint over them later on.
I had a surprisingly good valentine's day, despite where I am. Lots of real booze, and actual female contact. Got me some numbers, too. Learned something about my coworker. Despite how much he's always talking about how great a dancer he is, he's a little bitch when it comes to actually getting on the dance floor. Meanwhile, I organized one of those dreaded dance circles and got a bunch of Filippinas shaking their booties.. The "robot" goes a long way in these circumstances.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and leaked pics of the Imperial Knight dropped today and have been making the rounds. GW needs to get its collective head out of its ass and out of the 80's/ The Dreamforge knight is vastly superior, and I think I will stick with my Metal Gear knight, thank you very much.
bossfearless wrote: I had a surprisingly good valentine's day, despite where I am. Lots of real booze, and actual female contact. Got me some numbers, too. Learned something about my coworker. Despite how much he's always talking about how great a dancer he is, he's a little bitch when it comes to actually getting on the dance floor. Meanwhile, I organized one of those dreaded dance circles and got a bunch of Filippinas shaking their booties.. The "robot" goes a long way in these circumstances.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and leaked pics of the Imperial Knight dropped today and have been making the rounds. GW needs to get its collective head out of its ass and out of the 80's/ The Dreamforge knight is vastly superior, and I think I will stick with my Metal Gear knight, thank you very much.
At least the Dreamforge Knight will have its proper place now.
And make all these people using it as a Warhound Titan cry. : D
Check this out:
I came up with another revision of the hammerhead. Popped out the front sponsons and I am attaching the particle accelerators from broadsides in their place. In this context they look like giant speakers, and the tank always needs more of those.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, that is an epic brofist
A couple of things happened before work today. First, I embraced my inner Mechwarrior and used a set of spare sentinel legs and some ball joints to create a badass Mad Cat. Here's an early mock up with tacked joints:
Riot suit shown for scale. There are a lot of tweaks that need to be made to the pose once I'm happy with it enough to use glue. Also I need to wire the thing and light the guns.
so that happened. And then I looked at the other half of the quad suit, and I thought about Ghost in the Shell, specifically Major Kusanagi and her ass in general. Priorities, you know? But then there were also those little Tachikoma tanks. And so this happened too:
I only have one problem, and that's that the Tachikoma doesn't appear to light up. Otherwise, I love it. I mean, you just made me squee a little. I'm gonna go eat some raw meat, that'll make me feel manly again. Yeah.
bossfearless wrote: A couple of things happened before work today. First, I embraced my inner Mechwarrior and used a set of spare sentinel legs and some ball joints to create a badass Mad Cat. Here's an early mock up with tacked joints:
Riot suit shown for scale. There are a lot of tweaks that need to be made to the pose once I'm happy with it enough to use glue. Also I need to wire the thing and light the guns.
so that happened. And then I looked at the other half of the quad suit, and I thought about Ghost in the Shell, specifically Major Kusanagi and her ass in general. Priorities, you know? But then there were also those little Tachikoma tanks. And so this happened too:
Quick question... where did you get the green flourescent rod? The place I found produces rod that is just barely more green than yellow. Completely unusable for my Necrons. (I hate the fact that the new 'Crons don't come with the Gauss Rods so I'm providing them, in theory at least.)
There are also very strange comic books (I've never actually seen the films!). Comic!Kusanagi walks a delicate and uncomfortable line between "empowered female warrior-philosopher" and "fetish model."
@Lord Hat: The reason those rods seem so suitable for Necrons is because they came from Necrons. I bought them off a bits seller on eBay for 99 cents a sprue.
I finally came up with a good idea for the army's gun drones. I had some built but they've been collecting dust for a while til I manage to figure out a way to make them better. Then it hit me earlier while I was painting on the Hammerhead. Wub wub drones. Each drone is going to have its carbines replaced with a speaker gun. Step three is profit.
After adding all my speakers to the Hammerhead, I've decided that I'm not going to even bother putting dedicated guns on it. WHenever I write up my lists for tournaments, etc, it will read something like this for a standard IonHead loadout:
By the greater wood and all there is holy... this is just... perfect!
It had already won a million and two of my awesome points, and that was before the Tachikoma and Piercing Suprise Buttsex Bass. Never have I seen so awesome tau figures (the paintjob could maybe be a tad better) but that there is humor as well... This is just amazing
So here's the thing. Idk if I've mentioned it on this blog, but elsewhere I have bemoaned the difficulty of adding a smoke effect to plastic models. However, I got in touch with a man who found just the right parts. Now I really wish I had found this out before having built the hammerhead.
Pics don't really exist yet since I haven't even ordered the parts. But if you're curious enough to search for them, the smoke generators are Seuthe #5 smoke generators for plastic train engines. The units are little more than a small metal tube that holds smoke oil and heats it up. This exact model is very important because it puts out almost no heat. All the other ones will melt your plastic into sludge. It's 4.5 to 6v, which means it should run on 2 of my disc batteries. I'll probably get creative and add switches to whatever project uses it. The tricky part is the tube needs to be vertical for best performance, which limits the applications.
bossfearless wrote: Pics don't really exist yet since I haven't even ordered the parts. But if you're curious enough to search for them, the smoke generators are Seuthe #5 smoke generators for plastic train engines. The units are little more than a small metal tube that holds smoke oil and heats it up. This exact model is very important because it puts out almost no heat. All the other ones will melt your plastic into sludge. It's 4.5 to 6v, which means it should run on 2 of my disc batteries. I'll probably get creative and add switches to whatever project uses it. The tricky part is the tube needs to be vertical for best performance, which limits the applications.
But can you make it puff out smoke to match the beat and strobe of the lights?
Is the smoke heavier or lighter then air? If for a train, I’m assuming lighter. And can you use tubes to vent it where you want it, or does it have to exit the generator and stay there?
Sounds very cool, looking forward to seeing what you do.
Could you put it in the main body of the devilfish and funel it through small tubing to the engines, and leave a little to come out around the hot tub, like steamy water?
I'd have suggested the rhino, but I think you already put your mp3 player in there.
And never having seen the size I have no idea if they would fit in the engine pods, whicha re already built up....
dantay_xv wrote: Could you put it in the main body of the devilfish and funel it through small tubing to the engines, and leave a little to come out around the hot tub, like steamy water?
I'd have suggested the rhino, but I think you already put your mp3 player in there.
And never having seen the size I have no idea if they would fit in the engine pods, whicha re already built up....
Those little smoke generators have to fit in an HO (about 1/8 of an inch = a foot) or N (about half that) scale train models, the smallest one can't be more then an inch long and a 1/16 of an inch wide.
Hokay, lots of questions about the whole smoke thing. I'm not gonna quote anyone specifically, but I'll go through and answer what I can.
1. Dry ice: No. It's too volatile and any suitably small chips would sublimate in a matter of seconds. Dry ice just doesn't work on such a small scale.
2. Tubing: No. The smoke is actually a vaporized oil. Once the vapor cools, it condenses back to a liquid. One side effect is that you get some residue built up after prolonged use on the area around your model. This also means that if I were to try and run it through tubing, it would just cool in the tube and congeal before even coming out.
3. Questions about placing: the generator has to be placed vertically or at worst at a slight slant. So a lot of applications don't necessarily work unless I do a really well thought out build.
4. Anything involving the Devilfish: Look back through the thread and you'll see photos of the inside of the devilfish hull already. Nothing else is fitting in there, it's packed. And the engines are totally glued shut and the whole thing is painted already and the Devilfish is just not gonna happen.
5. The Rhino: While I would not be able to put the generator in the Rhino itself, I am considering putting it amidst the wreckage on the base I'm making for it so that you get a smoke effect rising out of the ruins. That will likely be the first application of this medium within my cadre once my generators arrive.
I've been struck by yet another odd bit of inspiration. I'm wondering if, on the quad riptide project, I might fill the swimming pool with clear resin tinted with blue ink, and set some LEDs into the bottom to make it glow.
Also, a big box of goodies came today. Gundam Nataku (endless waltz,strike freedom gundam, and 5 12mm coin cell holders with matching 3v cells. The 12mm batteries should allow me to put together a workable 25mm powered base for standard infantry.
bossfearless wrote: I've been struck by yet another odd bit of inspiration. I'm wondering if, on the quad riptide project, I might fill the swimming pool with clear resin tinted with blue ink, and set some LEDs into the bottom to make it glow.
It's a possibility and has been, but with a crazy project like that, the theory and the execution are two different things altogether. All I know is that I really, really want a swimming pool full of naked bitches in this army, and this Riptide build might be the only realistic way to get that.
bossfearless wrote: I've been struck by yet another odd bit of inspiration. I'm wondering if, on the quad riptide project, I might fill the swimming pool with clear resin tinted with blue ink, and set some LEDs into the bottom to make it glow.
Wait.... you weren't already planning to do this?
Yeah pretty sure we all thought you were already onto that one boss...
The whole speaker project with the hammerhead has made me a little hesitant to get completely set upon getting an idea to materialize exactly how I want it. The hot tub is an almost certainty, but right now I'm still finding it so painfully hard to do any creative work that I'm not ready to start another big build. At least not til I get my current projects to a good stopping point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Wanna hear some gak? This has been a hell of a week. Found out that all the packages I've been sending home have been sitting in a saudi's office in a big stack being used as a doorstop. Then my coworkers decided it was a great idea to sabotage my diet as much as possible, so they've been taunting me with pizzas and ice cream all week, really rubbing it in. Then my debit card got ganked and some donkey-cave bought a bunch of terrible EA games with it, so now my card is deactivated and I likely won't have any ATM access when I go to Japan. And then last night one of my teeth cracked in half. And today, I had to get a root canal with no anesthetic. The list just keeps going, too. I could go on for hours. This is one of those times when I know that I have a target-shaped birthmark on my ass, and there's nothing I can do about it.
If I were back home I would usually vent my frustrations by tabling someone ruthlessly. Here? Not so much.
Another WIP of the hammerhead to prove I haven't been completely idle:
I keep changing the model a little at a time, and I think it keeps getting better. Though I really should have finished all this *before* putting paint on it, as it's led to some extra touch ups being needed throughout.
I really wanna see a 'dwarf' cover of that song, though. It's got the right tempo, lyrics, feel- It's just the folk guitar and tenor singer that take away from it. Get a bass with a backup acappella men's choir in there, and you got yourself another song for Thorin and company to sing.
Like anything, I'm sure there'll be covers done of it here and there. What's important is that a piece of music from a fantasy movie has made it to such a high spot on the international charts. That in and of itself is a big deal in my eyes, as mainstream music has traditionally been closed off to geekery in general. Personally, I think that the singer and tone of it have the right kind of melancholy for the themes of the films, though I would enjoy hearing a deeper voice have a go at it.
Yeah, exactly. Perfect tone, perfect lyrics- it's just the choice of instruments and the high pitch of the voice singing it. I wonder if Ed can go low enough to do the Dwarves justice.
If you search Youtube, there are already a lot of other vocalists covering the song. A large number of them are women and, if anything, even the men are singing it just a bit higher. Give it some time and I'm sure there'll be a classic gamer neckbeard belting it out in a deep bellow. I've got a notoriously deep, powerful voice (can't tell a dirty joke without everyone in the building hearing it and getting me in trouble), and I'd give it a go if not for the level of public embarrassment I'd have to deal with on Youtube.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I managed to get something done! Did someone say Time Lord?
WEE WOOOOOOOOO!
...okay, my inner child is satisfied. Mr Tennant is done, even though his shoes aren't painted. You won't be able to see them down in the turret cupola anyway. There was also some incremental progress on the Hammerhead itself, as well as a bit of clean up done to the crew. Here's a quick preview:
Still a ton of painting left to do. I'm making judgement calls with each little element and kind of crawling forward as best I can. Not sure what I'm doing about the missile pods beneath the wings. Not even sure they work with the whole thing.
I leave for Bahrain in 12 hours to take a three day weekend full of debauchery to reinvigorate myself. But before I take off, I decided I wanted to get a few bits done. You know, stuff I've been neglecting.
It's hard out there for a pimp.
WIP and will undergo some changes as I map out the color scheme. It almost looks like I could fit another ho on the base if I spaced them out more. Originally, the seated one was supposed to be perched on his right arm. But then the pipe happened.
Wow. My mom started reading my posts here. I had to ask her to take a step back from this unholy mess before she got to the naked drunk driving aliens.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Here's something else that happened just now:
I need another ion cannon lol. This thing is going to look just brutal when it's finished. I kind of wish there was such a thing as ion Broadsides. The whole "gets hot" issue would be a big deal if it put wounds on your suits, but they'd be fairly safe given their 2+ armor save. Obviously, it shouldn't be the full Hammerhead ion cannon, but a middle ground between that and the Pathfinder ion rifle. Heavy ion rifle, same as they did with the Rail rifles. Also, just found out that I am out of large bases. Slight problem, that. I might see if this guy will fit on a 40mm base at all, then put him on it andsee about fitting a magnet underneath so it can plug into a specially prepared large base for when it's being run as a broadside.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Alright, here's the basic color scheme I've come up with for Upgrayedd:
The actual battlesuit is going to be my usual purple scheme, Xerues purple with ice blue edges, going to aim for a bit more blue tint, maybe do an Asurmen blue wash over the purple before moving forward.
The coat is started with Naggaroth Night, the darker purple I sometimes use, and it's going to stay fairly dark with a few highlights to really sell the purple.
The fur trim is going to be leopard print, which means I need to find a tutorial for doing leopard fur, or cheetah, or whatever looks good. Whatever.
What I'm stuck on is the staff. I was thinking a metallic gold, but it might also look good if I did it completely in NMM gold. That would be quite a challenge for me. Not sure if I want to do the spherical jewel at the top in a red to organge gradient like I did on Darkblade's shield. If I do the NMM gold, it'll be a lot of yellow and the whole thing might blend together too much. Maybe green instead? Blue? The alternative to gold on the staff is either White or Black, and they each have their own pros and cons.
Greetings from Bahrain, land of booze and bitches. I have to issue a public service announcement for the good of all. Do not pay money to see the new Hercules movie. It will give you cancer and probably also AIDS.
Back from Bahrain feeling rejuvenated and itching to get the creative juices flowing again. It's amazing what a brief change of venue and a couple dozen hookers can do to lift the spirits. Speaking of spirits, I must have drunk three whole bottles of Southern Comfort. Feels good man. Anyway, I got back with my artistic gumption at least partly restored and I made some real progress on the Hammerhead already. Pics to come later when I feel I'm at a good stopping point. Right now I'm going to put words to paper and see how my novel comes along.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also: don't know if I mentioned this but I'm working on a tutorial for lighting a space marine infantry model since I got so many replies to my first tutorial to the tune of "How do I Spess Muhreen!" It really is just a matter of adapting what the first tutorial already does, but I guess making that leap can be tough.
Converting a full Tau army has made me realize how infinitely spoiled I was as a marine player for so long. It really is just a matter of picking whatever bits you fancy and gluing them on. Tau are hard to convert. Seriously.
Oh, speaking of. I found a few examples online of other piranha conversions. I have at least two more that I'm going to build in the near future, and I guess that the piranha squadron will end up being a mishmash of various conversions much like the suits. Probably going to be some early build pics later today.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I'm looking at something now and I think that there could be some merit to a single glowing eye at the front of the Mad Cat. Not completely sure yet.
@Hokiecrow: I don't even know. When they ban you from that forum you're prevented from even viewing the forum anymore and you can't get any info from the mods. Someone was always whining about one pic or another, or that my text was offensive, or something. Might have been me saying how asian girls are great in bed. That's a wild guess though.
Here's an update on the Hammerhead. Been working on the wings and engines and such.
Next up, an early WIP of the pimp suit with a first try at leopard print.
and I believe someone complained that the Tachikoma guns didn't light up.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Last but not least, I actually managed to write about 1000 words on my novel earlier. Have I mentioned Trevor? Poor kid made fun of a passing old gypsy woman and was cursed to be forever teabagged by goblins. So as soon as he lets his guard down, BAM! Face full of slimy goblin balls. Poor guy is a nervous wre k nowadays.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I did the base color for the rest of the leopard print, and the model just got staggeringly cool. I should have a near finished product in the next day or two. I'm still torn about how to paint the staff. NMM gold seems off now that the leopard print is started, like the color wouldn't quite jive with the whole thing. Maybe white with lots of black lining, or should I go purple like the armor? Decisions.
I like the white staff less and less the longer I look at it. I think I'm going to go the opposite direction and do it like I did with Farsight. Black with orange glow.
I wandered quite by accident into the idea of painting the staff with a wood grain effect. It will either look amazing or terrible.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, I had a burst of late night (early morning) inspiration and started putting together Krom from the Desert Pimps. He's almost finished now and just needs a weapon and his lower legs resculpted. There were certain liberties taken with the design due to his size.
There has been some frogress, and so I feel the need to post about it:
Some cleanup has been done and some low-lights were added. The leopard print is mostly finished. There's a splotchy highlight and a wash left to do and that will tie it all together. The brown staff elements are where I'm going to try some kind of a wood grain pattern. At least I'll try it on part of the staff, then try NMM gold on part, and more than likely it will look terrible and I'll paint over it in solid black and have to work out something new. I just can't figure out how it should look, honestly.
Here is the mostly completed addition to the Desert Pimps, Shas'saal Krom, who spends most of his time powerlifting in the human gym:
There's only a little bit more to do here, some cleaning of the pieces and a decision about what weapon he should carry. I kind of want to just run cables to his fists and call them hado'ken gauntlets. "Can you believe the humans only use power fists for punching?"
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh! i almost forgot. No picture to add just yet, as I want to wait until I have the "surprise" further along, but I've got the beginnings of something *really* cool on my table. I just hope the damn thing will stay upright when it's finished...
@Brother Payne: It's a bit of both. There's the corsair cloak which was already painted/washed green when I got the bits way back when, and then I added GS to make the hood and the front, and also to extend it out over the shoulders more to blend the pieces of the torso together.
Here's the (almost) finished model of Krom:
I spotted one more gap I have to fill, where the ammo feeder connects to the gauntlet.
Okay, so the wood grain was a terrible idea. So was the NMM gold. And the metallic gold I tried after that. I'm working on doing it in purple with some silver trim now and it's basically working. I'm going to see this color scheme through to the end because it's the only one that's worked so far and I don't want to put any more coats of paint on the thing and possibly lose (more) detail from the staff pieces.
@Payne: He's so big because he spends all his extra hours powerlifting in the human gym. I used the head from the basic, bald headed tactical marine that has been sitting in everyone's bits box forever. I cut off the nose, dug out the nasal trench thing, I think I carved off the forehead studs if there were any to begin with, and I also did a little reshaping of the mouth to give him less of a frowny face and more of a roar. I had wanted him to be smiling really big, and I might try that with GS later on, but for now this looks great. His minigun is actually a Hypersonic Implosive Iridium Submunition Projector (counts as pulse rifle because fething GW can't be bothered to give fire warriors heavy weapons).
Now that that's out of the way, this thread needs an Upgrayedd.
See what I did there? As always with these big collage images, please take a moment to give them a vote in the gallery if you like them.
I meant that thing I did with the thing in the place with the guy that one time. You know, the thing. That I did. There.
Been on quite a painting/modeling/soldering kick today since it was my day off. I finished wiring up the second cannon on the Tachikoma suit as well as the eye, so now I think it's ready to start assembly of the whole critter. I might change out the railgun in the center for something, though. Or I might leave it. No idea yet. But I also painted a bunch more on the Hammerhead, which is such an unbelievably time consuming project on account of how many details and glow effects and things there are. And I only JUST started on the underside. Stupid hover tanks...hovering all the time...pout. This thing really is going to be like my magnum opus despite the Rex being larger.
I put the base colors onto Krom earlier today and moved another step or two further along on the pimpwagon. You know, this project log has evolved curiously.
Originally, there was a more serious tone to the builds. I wanted to overload the viewer with pure awesome and aggressive styling. On some models, like Chump or Darkblade, I am bold enough to think that I succeeded in that. But very early on in the first few builds, I started getting a lot of silly ideas. The topless women and the pimps started to creep in. The Doctor showed up. Insanity prevailed. Fun fact: Shagnasty was originally meant to be the only silly thing in the army. I thought to myself, "If I just do one model with pimp flare, it'll satisfy the urge and I won't do anything too absurd like a whole pimp unit or anything like that." And then the feather in the cap inspired the "Order of the Plume" idea, and they started cropping up everywhere on my more outlandish builds. And then next thing you know, I've got drunk driving alien party girls and fething Upgrayedd macking out all over the place, with a naked pathfinder squad and a pool deck on the drawing board.
bossfearless wrote: I put the base colors onto Krom earlier today and moved another step or two further along on the pimpwagon. You know, this project log has evolved curiously.
Originally, there was a more serious tone to the builds. I wanted to overload the viewer with pure awesome and aggressive styling. On some models, like Chump or Darkblade, I am bold enough to think that I succeeded in that. But very early on in the first few builds, I started getting a lot of silly ideas. The topless women and the pimps started to creep in. The Doctor showed up. Insanity prevailed. Fun fact: Shagnasty was originally meant to be the only silly thing in the army. I thought to myself, "If I just do one model with pimp flare, it'll satisfy the urge and I won't do anything too absurd like a whole pimp unit or anything like that." And then the feather in the cap inspired the "Order of the Plume" idea, and they started cropping up everywhere on my more outlandish builds. And then next thing you know, I've got drunk driving alien party girls and fething Upgrayedd macking out all over the place, with a naked pathfinder squad and a pool deck on the drawing board.
I have truly lost my way, and it is glorious.
And stories like this is why inquisitors will put a bolt round through your head for just a minor deviancy. First it’s just a naughty thought or two, next there are alien hookers all over the place.
Of course, those are the more traditional inquisitors. Radical Ordo Xenos would just crack open a cold one, slip into the hot tub, and “suggest” the location for the next stop of the party train.
"Hey, green tits (hic), didja ever hear 'bout thish time I pronounshed Exterminashush -- Esherminatish -- Exert matush -- (hic) blew up a fething planet?"
I wanna show you guys something. It's...well...it's a thing. A thing that happened just now. And it might be a thing that's already gone too far.
But still, it's a thing.
...
...
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.......still looking? Okay check dis out.
Quite the thing, eh?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, I don't know if you're interested in such things, but I have a Krom here that you might want to take a look at:
Shas'saal Krom of the Desert Pimps, the Black Plume, Mama's Boy, avid powerlifting enthusiast and loveable screwup.
Oh wow, nice work on Krom's. Must say I was expecting more purple but either way nice as! Also is that the same skin tone you use on the rest of your guys? Just it looks somewhat lighter...
Quick mock-up of the super broadside next to a regular suit. I went ahead and used the whole body/legs assembly from Noblesse Oblige aside from the feet.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Quick tidbit of a design note. The "super broadside" is a nod to my original tau army, way back in 3rd edition (couple of those floating around here). I was poor as gak and didn't really have any money to spend on the right figures. I ended up buying another kid's army on the cheap because, like so many bandwagoners of the first dex, he got fed up when the much-hyped tau didn't automatically win the game despite his lack of skill. They were hideous, botched attempts at snow camo and ugly, glaring mold lines everywhere, but I took some time and got them to a semi-respectable low tabletop standard. When it came to broadsides, I had none. Paying 30 bucks a suit was just too far out of my price range. Instead, I took all my spare crisis bits and I jammed as many guns as possible onto the most static posed suits in my army, creating three "broadsides" because there was simply nothing else they could really count as.
So this new suit is my nod to that earlier idea, achieved with the greater skill afforded me by experience. There's more posing and of course wiring and painting to be done, but fairly soon I think it will impress quite nicely.
Hey Boss. In the course of vetting leads today I saw this. Your Tau WIP was the very first thing that popped into my head. Perhaps you could use a 'propaganda caster'?
That's interesting. Not sure what exactly I would use it for just yet but it's good to know it exists. I had thought before about using the little mini digital photo frames to play a constant slideshow of images, which might end up being easier to work with than an actual TV, because remember you have to have some kind of signal input. I'd have to hook it up to something, and that would end up canceling out the cool factor of the tiny screen.
Looking back at my earlier paint jobs I'm seeing a lot of places where some of my more recent techniques would have really helped with the look of the final product. Mostly this has to do with the way I've been shading and highlighting purple. When I started this off I wasn't all that good at painting purple, despite having done it a lot. Now I have a few tricks and I know what to do when I eventually go back and fix all my initial models.
Black undercoat
Lich/Xereus Purple in however many layers it takes to get it solid
Asurmen Blue in the crevices and along joints to give shadows.
70/30 xereus/space wolves gray for edge highlights
T-minus four weeks until I head to Japan. I really want to have the majority of my Tau done in that time. Here's what I have on the workbench:
3 Piranhas
2 Crisis Suits
Quad Riptide
Tachikoma
Super Broadside
Finish the freaking Hammerhead
Shas'la Psycho
2 more Diplomats
Considering all the lighting and basing and all the crazy paint work, that's a tall order for only four weeks. And most of those aren't even started yet. You might be wondering where the titan is on that list. The titan is in parts on the shelf collecting dust until I get those smoke generators to put in the base. And I might also end up being an idiot and trying to crack open those guns and put LEDs in them because I can't understand why in the world I hadn't done that already. I'm kinda dumb like that. Although honestly that battery is already pushing six lights. I might just skip it and not destroy the guns I built on it.
Okay, so I want to get at least one crisis done, all the current models painted and maybe start the Riptide before my trip. That's plenty of time and a relaxed schedule to work with.
I was thinking of your hot tub dilemma, I forgot if you figured a way to set one up on a vehicle when I thought why not just make it an objective? That way your army can be headed to the tub to chillax. You could also do a Beverage objective and a medicinal objective(though I don't condone that )
lists, they're mostly just for show. I also have a very competitive meta at my 
