This blog started back in September 2013, and has charted my progress for [almost] 4 years in this hobby.
I've been a 40k player for the vast majority of that time, seeing myself through multiple projects. I'm thoroughly enjoying painting the new Primaris Marines and playing The Ninth Age right now.
This blog has seen me through a White Scars army, Imperial Guard army, Imperial Fists army, dabbling in Eldar, Maelstrom's Edge, Warhammer Fantasy, Silver Tower and other assorted minis.
Currently, I'm working on trying to hit the sweet spot that is a whole company of Marines, plus some Primaris Marines. Not to mention the rest of my Silver Tower boxset and some Descent: Journeys in the Dark minis...
Welcome to my Blog. My main reason for this blog is to chart my progress (from the very start) to the finish - well, as finished as any painting project gets. I've not made any major contributions to my personal 40k models since the end of 2012. I got into WHFB with the Warriors of Chaos when they were released and amassed a horde of them. But, back in May, I went to America to work in a summer camp. Those 3 months distanced me from the hobby and when I returned I badly wanted to get back into 40k to play - Its been around 2 years since I last played a game! So, roll on late August (when I got back) and we start to see the new Codex: Space Marines. I thought it would be fitting to reenter 40k with the SM.
Having picked up the new codex (and liking it alot), I decided where I want to go with my Space Marine army: White Scars. Over my multiple years in the hobby, i've had various flavours of SM (Salamanders, Blood Ravens, White Scars). Some of my main reasons to go with White Scars is that their new rules, and the rules for bikes in general, are pretty awesome. Also, back in the summer of 2012. I first started to explore the White Scars. I didn't get vary far with them (around 1k) and eventually sold them off to move on, but now i'm back!
This is everything I brought for this project - No doubt i'll add to it, but this is the baseline. What do we have?
30 Space Marine Bikes
5 Attack Bikes
Scouts
a Land Speeder Storm
Sternguard Vets
Vanguard Vets
Masters of the Chapter
Space Marine Captain on a Bike (my Khan counts as)
2 Thunderfire Cannons
a Land Raider
2 Stormtalons
and a Stormraven
(it's a heck of alot, right?)
Mainly I have the core of most (if not all) bike armies - lots of bikes. Also some other units for flavouring.
I predominantly want to have an army that I can game with - that is the aim. The models I have now allow me to built a variety of lists, and as my gaming goes on, I'll likely buy units that are considered 'more competitive'. I'd love to go to a tournament, but that goal is somewhere out of reach (with every piece of plastic i unbox).
And my workstation:
I think we should get accompanied - i'll be spending a large amount of time there.
Well, thats the outline of my project. Stick around and see where it goes.
very ambitious. My only question is why did you by the bikes as separate boxes and not buy the old ravenwing battleforces? would have been cheaper and given you some trade bait in the process.
Thanks everyone for the interest. The internet has been down here for the past few days, which has ment less dakkadakka and more painty-painty. Should have first model up tomorrow
And Theo, the bike boxes are the boxes of 3 (Space Marine Bike Squad). The cost of the ravenwing boxes is £70, for 6 bikes and an attack bike, the cost is £56. I know I get a LS too, but i have no interest in using them so i'm not going to buy them. When you're bulk buying, knowing you've made little savings like that can help you justify clicking 'checkout' when your online basket is £500+
This is something I have contemplated doing over the years but never had the guts to attempt (given my current mountain of full grey sprues). I look forward to seeing progress here ... and maybe gleaning some inspiration!
Zambro wrote: Thanks everyone for the interest. The internet has been down here for the past few days, which has ment less dakkadakka and more painty-painty. Should have first model up tomorrow
And Theo, the bike boxes are the boxes of 3 (Space Marine Bike Squad). The cost of the ravenwing boxes is £70, for 6 bikes and an attack bike, the cost is £56. I know I get a LS too, but i have no interest in using them so i'm not going to buy them. When you're bulk buying, knowing you've made little savings like that can help you justify clicking 'checkout' when your online basket is £500+
You also get three of the ravenwing sprues. While packed with DA iconography, there are some generic bits that can be used to spruce up your bikes. I know I used some to make my Ultramarine bike captain (who can be seen in my blog if you are interested) It might be easier to just get the one or two parts you need form friends and/or bits sites though...
Looking forward to seeing how your army comes together.
He is the TH Captain from the masters of the chapter set.
That is one hideous looking mouldline. Its not that noticable on the mini, i think the light hit it in a 'perfect' way to emphasise the line.
This, being the first model, is a way for me to slowly get into the swing of painting the White Scars theme.I think i have the white down, which is good to know. I also attempted a shaved head look (you can see it a bit in the last picture). I'm pleased with that, for a first time effort. Also the red cloak on his back is the part i'm most pleased with. Thoughts? Improvements for when i come to cranking out the bikes?
...and speaking of bikes... This is on my table now. Over the next few days and the weekend, i should make considerable progress
Kiwidru wrote:i cant believe you bought all that retail... looks good though!
Haha... i'm not stupid enough to buy it all from GW. Got the finecast stuff from them (cause only they sell it) and the rest from a LGS with a 10% discount (compared to GW)
Rabid Ferret wrote:I will be watching. That is a hell of a pile. How do you plan on keeping motivated?
Well, thats a good question. I'm well overdue in playing a game, so the thought of heading out to my LGS to play each week keeps me going - i so badly want to play Also, if it's not on my worktable, it's in the closet. Having all of the boxed/unstarted things away in the closet stops me mulling over the huge pile - out of sight, out of mind. And when it comes to sitting down to paint, i use the 1-2-3 go method. At some point each day, i just go to my work table and paint. I dont overthink it. I dont make excuses. I just go.
shamikebab wrote:The captain looks good, what method are you using for the armour?
Well, for the armour my current method is to prime in grey, then airbrush white over it. Then, once all the details on / around the armour are complete i put a thinned black wash onto it to line the details. I usually have to go back and touch up the armour in some places due to spillage. My brush control is getting so much better - get it right the first time, and you dont have to do the touch ups, right?
Theophony wrote:The white looks good , any plans for doing the red dags on him?
Not on the Captain, i dont think. I'd rather my first effort be on a biker, where i have enough uncluttered armour to do the tribal patterns. Trying to get it on the leg of the captain would be a PITA because the cloak covers so much leg, and there are other details on it too. My WiP dudes are going to get somthing simple on their knee pad, and a tactical arrow on their shoulder - just to gauge my ability in freehand. And then we'll go from there.
Thanks alot everyone for looking in. I have no lectures in university today, and seeing as we just started back i have very little to do at home, so i should be able to paint a bit today
I noticed to glued the bikers together entirely. I've been leaving the arms off mine, and glueing them on when I glue the rider on the bike. It seemed it might be a little awkward to get them on the bikes with the fixed arms. Have you had any problems? If it works your way, I could save myself a step...
It's totally fine to glue the arms on before putting the biker on. All you have to do is ensure the arms are at the right height / angle on the body to sit on the handles properly.
What i do is put the legs/body/head/backpack together then put them on the bike. Then i put the hands onto the handle bars and then glue them in place on the body. After around 24 hours, when they are completely solid, i take the rider off the bike. Its a nice snug fit, no glue holding the biker onto the bike, but still tight enough to hold it on when it gets tipped upside down. After that, i just pull the biker off, taking extra care with the hands. I've not broken anything yet, but i would go carefully just in case
I've always wanted to try a white scars or a white scars successor chapter! Great jobon the white, looks very clean and crisp!. Can't wait to see some bikers up and running!
Thanks Azalle. Bikers are on the table, ready for some love. I'm all over and done with my first week back of university and have relatively little to do this weekend. Should be able to devote alot of time for the Scars
flibjibchaoscookie wrote:really cool chapter master he looks great
Thanks a lot! He was the first of my Scars, so it was the concept mini, i guess.
gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:Wow... loads of minis.
Yeah...
Seeing someone with that much is one thing, being the person with that much is a whole nuther story... I refuse to open my closet to look at them, I only look at what I gotta paint.
So, this weekend has been a good one for painting. It's dark now, but tomorrow i'll throw up a picture of the fruits of my labour for this weekend.
Holy crap that's a lot! Good luck fellow Dakka-er! I also have an insane amount of units I have to paint but most of them are already put together. Can't wait to see your completed White Scars I don't see many White Scar armies out there.
@Darthnatus. Never heard 'Dakker-er' before. Dakkite and dakkanaught, yes, but never that I think the bigger question is, what do you call a dakka user?
As promised, here is my progress since I last updated you guys.
Overall, these guys look like a great start. (its depressing to think i'm 1/10th of the way through the bikes!). As you can see, my free-hand is 'passable'. The tactical arrows and tribal knee-pads look good. The next lot of guys will get some more details like that. I'm also concerned about the mud on the tyres. Too much? Also, do you think it matters that they are that muddy yet they are driving over rock? Also, I think the white on the marines looks a little too dark. I washed the whole white mini in black (yepp, that'll definately make the colour darker) to pick out the details, I think i'm going to add a step in next time: a final layer of white. That'll line the details and make it 'white' again Your thoughts?
Here is one dude for some close ups (the 3 guys are pretty much the same)
One thing you can see in the picture is the Yellow eye lenses. My go-to colour of lenses on marines is usually red, but I have plans to do tribal markings over the helmets which are also red, meaning the lenses wouldn't pop. Yellow is the tertiary colour for the White Scars - only really showing up in their chapter icon - so I thought this would be a fitting colour. What do you think?
Oh, and a sneak peak of what's in the works...
I've also looked into a light box. What is your take on it? Price is reasonable, so are the components etc. I could see myself buying it in the near future.
Overall, these guys look like a great start. (its depressing to think i'm 1/10th of the way through the bikes!). As you can see, my free-hand is 'passable'. The tactical arrows and tribal knee-pads look good. The next lot of guys will get some more details like that. I'm also concerned about the mud on the tyres. Too much? Also, do you think it matters that they are that muddy yet they are driving over rock? Also, I think the white on the marines looks a little too dark. I washed the whole white mini in black (yepp, that'll definately make the colour darker) to pick out the details, I think i'm going to add a step in next time: a final layer of white. That'll line the details and make it 'white' again Your thoughts?
One thing you can see in the picture is the Yellow eye lenses. My go-to colour of lenses on marines is usually red, but I have plans to do tribal markings over the helmets which are also red, meaning the lenses wouldn't pop. Yellow is the tertiary colour for the White Scars - only really showing up in their chapter icon - so I thought this would be a fitting colour. What do you think?
As always, comments and criticisms encouraged
Z
The first thing that jumped out at me was the amount of mud, contrasting with the rock bases. From the amount of muck on the wheels, I'd expect more thrown up onto the biker and the rest of the bike. And to have them on swamp/jungle bases. The fact that the bikes are white, and should show every splatter, makes the disconnect a little more drastic. So I guess that is a "yes, you went to far" I like the bases, I like the mud, and I like the bikes themselves, but the three don't match up. The mud, as the middle layer, does not match the clean top or bottom of the mini. If one or both of those was as dirty as the mud, it would work as a transition layer. If the bike was dirty, the WS just outflanked whoever you are fighting through a swamp they was though impassable, but are now on the firm rock of the battlefield. If the base was swamp, rather then rock, but the riders were mostly clean, they just hit the muck, and haven't had a chance to get truly dirty yet.
I can be hard to tell with whites in pictures, but I like what you have there. You are obviously not going for parade ground pristine, so I don't expect to see pure polished white armor. You have a nice range of edging and highlights, looks good. And the yellow lenses look fine. If you went with red, I think it would a little too much of the same secondary color. It's good to get a third one in there.
One of the things keeping me from starting a biker army is that dreaded center mold line, which is also noticeable on your bikes. Are you any good with green stuff?
I wish you luck on your project, it's future looks bright! (and white!)
Master Azalle wrote:Love your bikes! Nicely done indeed!
Thanks
Dinamarth wrote:One of the things keeping me from starting a biker army is that dreaded center mold line, which is also noticeable on your bikes. Are you any good with green stuff?
I wish you luck on your project, it's future looks bright! (and white!)
You dont know the half of it... I tried to file it away on one bike, but it ended up filing into the plastic, and decided against continuing. My GS skills are poor, through lack of use. I dont think i've used GS properly, ever. What do you suggest doing with it? Just putting it on to level out the pieces? I dont think i'd be able to flatten it out properly :(
Nevelon wrote:The first thing that jumped out at me was the amount of mud, contrasting with the rock bases. From the amount of muck on the wheels, I'd expect more thrown up onto the biker and the rest of the bike. And to have them on swamp/jungle bases. The fact that the bikes are white, and should show every splatter, makes the disconnect a little more drastic. So I guess that is a "yes, you went to far" I like the bases, I like the mud, and I like the bikes themselves, but the three don't match up. The mud, as the middle layer, does not match the clean top or bottom of the mini. If one or both of those was as dirty as the mud, it would work as a transition layer. If the bike was dirty, the WS just outflanked whoever you are fighting through a swamp they was though impassable, but are now on the firm rock of the battlefield. If the base was swamp, rather then rock, but the riders were mostly clean, they just hit the muck, and haven't had a chance to get truly dirty yet.
I can be hard to tell with whites in pictures, but I like what you have there. You are obviously not going for parade ground pristine, so I don't expect to see pure polished white armor. You have a nice range of edging and highlights, looks good. And the yellow lenses look fine. If you went with red, I think it would a little too much of the same secondary color. It's good to get a third one in there.
Ahh, I love criticism! Without it, we can never truely improve.
Nevelon, you are right. What do you think guys, do something about the mud, or about the base? I really like how the bases look - i'll try and get a pic of them before i glue the bikers on. Whilst i like muddy tyres on their own, they are probably going to be done differently with my next few bikes. What do you suggest, tone the mud back alot, or take it away completely?
They are painted great zambro, and grats to you for undertaking quite a lengthy challenge!! I must agree agree with the above criticism however, more just interms of fluff. The mud all over the tires came from where? To have such a dirty filthy tire, you must have a dirty flithy base. All that mud would have flown off in seconds had there not been a continuous source of it. Id either redo the base (which you seem not to want to do), or redo paint the tires and weather them the matching color of grey, which in this case would be more of a dust than a flying wet mud spackle. But thats just my two cents. Either way, the hard part, painting sweet white scars, is taken care of Bebop
flibjibchaoscookie wrote:yer welcome have you started on the storm raven yet?
I dont even want to think of that yet... lol
I have a 'rough' list of the order i want to paint things. I'm trying to spread out the non-bike units, which helps avoid me having 3 or 4 solid updates of the same old bikes. I'm working on more bikes, scouts, building a captain and a chapter master (for the great marine swap, the master, not the captain). But what you guys want, you'll get you just might have to wait a week or so while i clear the paint desk for more room.
...Actually, come to think of it, i've never built a SR before. I'm actually a little excited for it
bebopdrums2424 wrote:They are painted great zambro, and grats to you for undertaking quite a lengthy challenge!! I must agree agree with the above criticism however, more just interms of fluff. The mud all over the tires came from where? To have such a dirty filthy tire, you must have a dirty flithy base. All that mud would have flown off in seconds had there not been a continuous source of it. Id either redo the base (which you seem not to want to do), or redo paint the tires and weather them the matching color of grey, which in this case would be more of a dust than a flying wet mud spackle. But thats just my two cents. Either way, the hard part, painting sweet white scars, is taken care of Bebop
Thanks man I'll see what i can do with the grey weathering on the tyres. What do you recon, straight up dry-brush of grey ontop of the tyres?
It's been a long, long week since I last updates you on monday. University is keeping me pretty busy and tired, luckily, I have thursdays off, so I decided to finish all of the work i needed to last night to give myself all day today to paint.
And look at whats hot off the table:
I really like this head! It captures the essence of 'Im driving really, really fast!' A bedroll I found in the ol' bits bag. From the scout sniper sprue, maybe? And just a side shot to show the purity seal.
And this guy... I worked some freehand onto him. The jagged tribal markings are hard! lol. I also went all out and tried hazard stripes for the first time, looks good imo. What the was I thinking when I was painting that thunderbolt?! lol
Went for some tribal markings on the helmet. It was a series of mistakes that lead to how it looks now, but for so many screw ups, I think it looks awesome! What do you think of that exhaust? I went so some really subtle 'brown oil' weathering liquid to make the exhausts looks used.
And a new adition to the table: This fellow and the scouts will be the main focus of my weekend.
Curse the two-part bikes and that center join line! It really draws the eye, which is a shame, because you did a great job painting them.
I like the free hand tribal markings you did, as well as the hazard stripes. I would re-do the lightning bolt on the back of the bike though. If the helmet markings are a series of mistakes, I need to learn how to screw up like that, because the end result looks very nice. Freehand is something that scares me. It's not just coloring inside the lines anymore. And it has the potential to make of break a model. The beakie marine has a lot of character added by the work on the helmet. Awesome job there. But then the lightning bolt on the back of the bike just falls flat. Looking at the quality of the rest of your work, I'm sure you can improve your freehand work, just need to practice some more.
The brown wash on the exhaust helps a lot. Your bikes look like they have some road dust on them, and having distressed exhaust helps drive home that these are not factory fresh, parade ground marines.
nice rust effects and the biker with the wind blown beard hair looks good. Don't let uni get you down ive kind of got the same thing with my GCSE's mock exams and all.
Nevelon wrote:Curse the two-part bikes and that center join line! It really draws the eye, which is a shame, because you did a great job painting them.
I like the free hand tribal markings you did, as well as the hazard stripes. I would re-do the lightning bolt on the back of the bike though. If the helmet markings are a series of mistakes, I need to learn how to screw up like that, because the end result looks very nice. Freehand is something that scares me. It's not just coloring inside the lines anymore. And it has the potential to make of break a model. The beakie marine has a lot of character added by the work on the helmet. Awesome job there. But then the lightning bolt on the back of the bike just falls flat. Looking at the quality of the rest of your work, I'm sure you can improve your freehand work, just need to practice some more.
The brown wash on the exhaust helps a lot. Your bikes look like they have some road dust on them, and having distressed exhaust helps drive home that these are not factory fresh, parade ground marines.
Absolutely right with the centre mould line!
The helmet was suppose to have jagged lines from one side with the with the tip of the dag hitting the centre of the helmet, but after 2 or 3 mistakes, i'd painted too much red to do that so went with 1 half solid red and dags on the other half I rescued it well (if only my other mistakes can be rescued that well lol)
flibjibchaoscookie wrote:nice rust effects and the biker with the wind blown beard hair looks good. Don't let uni get you down ive kind of got the same thing with my GCSE's mock exams and all.
Thanks man I'm glad i have marauder sprues here lying aroud lol. When i found that head i was like, this IS coming into my army, then i remembered the 20 marauders NoS i have lying around and was like, YEAH! Do you think i could put another of the same head into the army? I dont think i should...
shingouki wrote:This is looking promising.I like the marauder head used and think similar heads will add to the vibe.Keep on going my good man.
Definately man! Someone linked these in another P&M blog and i decided i have to get myself them But thats for when i build more bikers which wont be for a few weeks atleast (i have some bikers already build but focusing on my captain and scouts now)
nicely done zambo, Are those the same bikes with the fized tires? I like that much better than the muddy ones, whatever youve done. About that mold line....ssssssssssssssssssss...if you really wanted to push yourself, youd fix it with a blade and repaint the top. an easier fix than imagined i assure you. They are a bummer to an otherwise fantastic job. Hehe, apologies for the criticism but i get vik in here to really get on you about it!
haha, thanks bebop, i'm fine with criticism - one of my philosophies is that criticism is [not an insult. The other bikers still have the muddy tyres. I spend a while trying to think about how i can remove the mud without dunking the whole bikes into some kind of stripper and i came up with nothing. These were 3 different bikes, with a different technique - well, i say technique, it was more like a drybrush of straight up grey, nothing special
to tell you bikers apart you could do a varient trim or different marking on them and the bikes, you could also number the bikes acording to squad. also i added new pics to my marine
@flib I could do sinilar tribal markings to make them stand out, that could work.
I dont think the scouts will take very long to finish. The majority of them is going to end up brown, with spots of red and silver. Whats going to take the longest is the faces. Man, painting skin is tough. Also, I finished the bases for them the same time i did the bases for the last lot of bikes, so atleast i dont have to do that.
Looking good, I've thought about trying a White Scars army for a while but I hate painting white!
As for the centre mould line I find that getting some liquid poly cement with a brush applicator and drawing that across the line after assembling, then scraping with a scalpel totally removes the line.
I think the white looks brilliant. Too white on white scars looks washed out. This gives them some depth. Loving it.
The mud effect is missing something... kind of looks like peanut butter. I would take a nice dark brown ink and wash it. It should give it some tonal variance and really pull it together. You could even mix a tiny bit of bone into the mud color you used and dry brush the surface to give even more depth to it once the wash is dry.
I've kinda dug myself a hole... lol. My weekend has been really busy, and I only managed a total of 4 hours hobby time on saturday. My university work is starting to fall behind, so I have to full my finger out my and catch up, which unfortunately means my hobby time is cut short. Luckily, this problem should rectify itself over the next few days so i'll be back to painting by the middle (or the end) of the week.
Here is the fruits of my measly 4 hour painting session
Not too shabby, imo. All that its needing is for me to hit the silver parts, the head and then probably a wash / another layer on the white. Oh, and the decals / varnish right at the very end.
And I just wanted to say, that i'm greatful for every comment, gallery vote and view this blog gets. Each of which, is very motivational for me. And for that, I am really greatful. It takes me around 10-15 minutes to update this blog, but the motivational return I get is incredible. It gives me a sence of pride and achievement over my Scars. So thank you!
Scouts are looking good, will be nice to see them finished.
You went pure BP/CCW bare bones? It's been a while since I fielded non-sniper scouts, but I favored a mix of shotguns in with the CC boys last time I fielded them. Which admittedly, was back in 5th ed. Not sure if it would be worth giving the sarge a power weapon. Considering how dirt cheap the unit is, that would boost the price up a bit. Just wondering what your thoughts were when putting the squad together. Was it pure aesthetics, or some game mechanics tossed in the mix?
Well, the idea of these guys were to ride in their LSS and be a 100 point objective holder that can hide in reserve. The list I built them into had 2 STs, a SR and the LSS in reserve. So the LSS would come in on my own board edge, escorted by a talon. Then proceed to hold home objective, while talon moved off to deal with other threats. I tested them as an outflank unit to come in, and charge an enemy unit holding a home objective, but they lacked luster and the charge out of reserves to be truely effective. They are also my only scoring infantry unit, so i have the option of capping objectives on different levels of ruins if the game requires that. For a 100 point, fast scoring unit they do well. They keep up with the aesthetics of the army and provide a little bit of utility for 100 points.
If I can find them, i'll post the lists I had in mind when I purchased the models
The first of these lists was the one I intended to play and the second is more 'fun' to allow me to buy other models to break up the painting of constant bikes. It gives me the core of all bike armies (lots of bikes) and a flavoring of synergetic units (is that a word?). Plus, I'll have some variety when I play lower point games.
probably free hand. with snake fangs and the chapters name ive got a question though would you prefer a chainfist or a chainbolter.
hows your mini coming along?
The scouts are doing well. All painted up pretty I just trying to put some decals on their shoulders and it's not fitting properly. On layer 3(ish) of microsol, so i'll keep going until they are smooth. Then, it'll be a varnish and upload to the blog. I did some free-hand on their other shoulders. Just some tribal markings and a lightning bolt - Which is much better than my previous lightning bolt attempt! lol
How's your freehand? I hope its better than mine lol.
And chainfist or chainbolter...? Thats a tough one. I like the look of both, so i'd probably have both, just on different minis. You could do that? Or if you dont like the chainfist, go with chainbolter and make it a 'counts as' chainfist
yeah i could do the chain fist on this one and the chain bolter on the next one.
same thing with the standard i could put it on the sergeant.
also im gonna get some green stuff this friday so i can start sculpting.
Afternoon folks, today has been one heck of a day...
I woke up at 7, and have since been toiling away at the ol' desk. Aside from a few errands i needed to run, this day has been hobby filled.
The finished Scouts:
Individual shots: Well that lightning bolt is better than before lol! ...There is 1 other scout that has some freehand on his shoulder, i'll grab a shot of him when i have the camera out next.
Now, those scouts didn't take all that long to finish. Here is today's real labour: The master of recruits. This fella is gonna get some love then i'm going to send him to flibjibchaoscookie as part of the great marine swap
I built 2 of my 5 attack bikes: As you can see, they are magnetised. I think i'll be doing this with the other 3 too. It gives me 5 extra bikers at the expense of attack bikes should I need or chose to do that I think the next guys will get their guns magnetised too. Mainly because i can but it also allows me some flexibility in loadouts.
My Khan counts-as:
3 Sargents: 2 with CCW and 1 with a combi-melta
3 bikers - 2 with meltas:
The mighty LAND RAIDER: You can see i put the magnets in two different places to see if there was any real difference. It was alot easier when i didn't have to drill a hole
Air support?
I'm proud that, all this time spent with a knife in hand, I only managed one accidental slip resulting in a small cut on the thumb lol. So if you see red smears on the STs, that what it is
Now, this is a ridiculous amount of stuff built in a day, but lets take bets on how many days it'll take to paint it all Mine's on 45 days - a month and a half But, we'll see.
That's a lot of stuff cleaned and assembled. Nice work!
Did you stack magnets for the attack bikes? I did the same thing for the bike I just put together, and the grip just feels weak. when I pick up the bike, the sidecar just falls off. It looks like you are using the same size magnets as I did (2mm?) but you might have stronger ones.
My fix is going to be to add more magnets in the tires for when I base it. The thought would be to mount the sidecar on a 60mm dreadnought base, with magnets under the contact patches for the tires. That would give me 3 points of contact, which would hopefully be enough to support the base/sidecar when I pick it up. A seperate, normal sized, bike base would also get some magnets set up for when the bike want to roll without the gunner. Less mass/torque there, so the 3 magnets will be overkill.
No Nev, i didn't stack magnets. The grip is pretty loose, but I dont mind. When it's on the table, it looks fine. Picking it up is a little bit of a problem but I want to magnetise the wheels to the base(s) so that would help hold it together.
nice master of recruits. also give your khan artificiure armour so he has a two plus armour save and a 4+ invun save thanks to his iron halo it's like terminator armour but twice as cheap.
i like the storm talons, are you magnatising their weapons too for a different loadout for any battle?
looking forward to seeing the land raider painted also, if you mind me asking whos gonna go in it?
flibjibchaoscookie wrote:nice master of recruits. also give your khan artificiure armour so he has a two plus armour save and a 4+ invun save thanks to his iron halo it's like terminator armour but twice as cheap.
i like the storm talons, are you magnatising their weapons too for a different loadout for any battle?
looking forward to seeing the land raider painted also, if you mind me asking whos gonna go in it?
My Khan counts-as is going to play as khan, so he'll have all the rules for him. So no AA, unfortunately :(
The STs dont have magnetised weapons. I only ever write lists with them having Typhoon missiles or Skyhammer missiles. And they both look incredibly similar and it'll probably go unnoticed if i ran it with skyhammer missiles. And even if i went with lascannons or heavy bolters, that'll probably be in a friendly enviroment as they aren't really competitive so proxying shouldn't be that bad.
As for the rider's of the LR, well i'm going to make some honour guard from the vanguard vets boxset. I need to pick up another power sword, and some regular backpacks, but that's the plan.
40kFSU wrote:Scouts looks great. This is quite an army you are putting together.
Thanks man. The little shelf they all live on is starting to fill up. I have no idea where i'm going to store the SR when i make it
Been working on some Uni work this past weekend. Man, it's hard to learn C# lol. If any programmers can offer any advice, i'd appreciate it
I've put an hour here, and an hour there in and come up with these WiP. These pics are from my phone, is it me, or are they better than my actual camera?
Forgot to spray this fella's backpack, so it'll get lumped into the next priming lot. So he wont be 'finished' untill i start the next bunch.
I got a new phone recently (hence my testing of the camera) and i plugged a micro-SD card into it. Turns out it had loads of pictures of my OLD Scars army i had, over a year ago. lol. They are the pictures I used when i ebayed them. I'm glad i found them, was slightly annoyed with myself when i deleted the pics
From a casual browser standpoint, the new pics look the same as the old ones. I haven't gone into your gallery and tried to zoom in on details, but I can only assume that a real camera would have more resolution then a phone.
The captain is coming along nicely. I know the guy on a bike is just a perspective issue, but he looks like he has giant stompy legs and a tiny torso. Made me chuckle.
I would be fun to compare and contrast the new vs. the old White Scars.
On the topic of school, my advice is a little dated. spoilered to not drag things too OT:
Spoiler:
I got my BA in comp. sci. back in '98. We mostly used C++, but I've been exposed to around a dozen different languages. Not that I ever programed professionally though, just a little scripting work. I worked desktop tech support for a small, liberal arts college (the same one I attended)
Some generic advice:
You can never have too many comments. It helps you keep track, and also your professor. If you can't make it work, you are more likely to get partial credit by explaining everything. There were projects where I had more comments then code.
Don't be afraid to add error checking/debug bits. Like incrementing and outputting a counter. You can tell where things go south in your code this way. You can trim them out later
semicolons are out to kill you; watch them carefully. (same with parenthesis)
You do not, in fact, do your best work at 2AM, traditional as it is.
Be sure you are compiling/editing and running the same code. A friend of mine once spent a frustrating evening attempting to debug a program. She didn't get it to work until she realized that she was making corrections to one file, but compelling another. This ties back to don't code at 2 in the morning...
Anything is easy if you can break it down into small enough pieces. Don't be afraid to chop things up into little bits and handle things piecemeal. You can always streamline things later once everything works.
Don't forget your edge cases. Most problems arise at the end of loops or oddball situations.
Name your variable useful things "X" might work, but "Loopcounter" helps you keep track of what's where, particularly when passing them around.
Online help can actually be helpful. Give it a try.
The colour seems alot 'richer' on the phone. Maybe it's because i used artificial light? who knows. I'll do some further comparison when it's actually brigh. Our slow creep into winter makes it seem like every day is gloomy and overcast :(
Hi legs are stompy and ridiculous The main problem with him i find is that his torso and right arm/weapon is metal, making him incredibly lop-sided. He topples easily, so i piled up some cork on his base under the bike to help support him.
I think your right about the new vs. old. I'll get some group shots of the new ones when its bright and upload them all.
That programming advise is sound. And most appreciated Your absolutely right about those darn semicolons *shakes fist angrily*
Hi all. It's been about a week or so since I last updated you properly, so here we go:
So, i've finished the Master of Recruits for the Great Marine Swap with Flib. Flib, how is the marine your doing for me coming along? A few issues with the sculpt, due to fine(fail)cast, but painted to a good standard (imo).
Just some progress with this fella. If i continue to avoid my uni work, i might just finish this guy by the end of the day.
And it occurred to me, i've not shown you a clean shot of the bases before they get the bikers attached. Personally, i really like them. When i was doing the bases the first time, I was very sceptical about them. But, the very last wash made me change my mind and now I really like them. Shame you cant see that much of it beneth the bike.
Also, I found a tournament in Feburary 2014 that is really local to me (Storm of Iron). I think this is going to be my first tourny It's in feburary, which gives me 5 months to get 2k points ready and play test. I definately think that is do-able, especially with the 4 weeks i get off Uni over christmas. No tickets brought or anything yet, going to wait until the date is closer and i have a better idea of whether or not i will actually make the painting deadline
Oh, and a quick real life update: My family went to France for 5 days, taking my camera with them(!). So I'm stuck with my phone for a little while. Also, I joined the gym at the uni (feel the burn, baby!). This is having a bigger impact on my painting than i though, i'm just so drained when I come home lol.
Looking good zambro. My only thought on the master is that the gun looks a bit blinged out. As in hes holding a giant fake casio gold bolter. Maybe simply a brown wash will break up the shapes a bit. It looks good on the outser side, and perhaps its just the photo, but the inside seems to be more a giant golden mass in his hand. Just a thought. Still, great progress so far And the bike bases are fab
@geektom: Thanks for the compliments. Have you seen the Bike Captain GW sell? That's the model. I just checked out your blog, really nice stuff. I like your Lightning bolts, better than mine, haha!
@Bebop: Your right about the bolter. I was trying to make it look like the, or atleast pass for, The Primarch's Wrath relic-bolter. I'll go back and hit the grip with some colour to break up the mass gold. Oh, and the simile made me chuckle
Haha still great models, the bases look fantastic, how do you do them? And I agree that you should add a little colour to break you the gold, otherwise it looks like he bought it in da hood, not from the chapter armoury or something
The bases aren't overly complicated. Start with some cork. Put whatever shape / size you want, leave the PVA to dry. Then, some grit on any of the base that is left. My grit is a mix of Large, Medium and fine grit. I dont recall the ratios (it was a long time i mixed that up), but so long as you have more medium grit than anything else you should be golden. TOP TIP: When you glue the grit on, leave it to completely dry, then come back and water down some PVA glue (its water based, so it'll work) to about a wash consistancy, then 'wash' it onto the grit. It should soak into the grit and dry between the pieces, meaning the grit will be harder to come off - good for when you drybrush, it saves pieces of grit going flying off. After this, prime in black. Drybrush the cork a dark grey, then a lighter grey. Now, i load up the airbrush with a mid tone brown and spray the grit. Dont worry too much about stopping the brown hitting the cork. Once the grit is done, i spray brown patches of various shape and size on the cork in random places - this gives it that little extra 'something'. Dry brush the brown with a lighter brown, then wash everything (cork and grit) with Agrax Earthshade. Paint the rim your chosen colour (Personally, i like black). Hit the entire thing with Matt Varnish. Finally glue on some flock in light patches. DONE.
Like i said, nothing complex - although maybe a little lengthy? Well anyway, i like to do a batch of bases at the same time as painting a model. The long dry time of PVA and washes let me paint while i wait.
How's everyone doing? I tweaked a muscle in my back not an hour ago in the gym and it feels incredibly weird, I cant seem to be able to stretch that part of my back I digress...
The family still has my camera in France, but i've been pushing on with my bikes anyway. I completed Khan (well, my khan counts-as) a few days ago. He'll be seeing alot of table-top time Here he is: You can see in the first picture that I stacked up the cork to help his balance issue. I'm pleased with how the white Lightning bolt came out. Gives it a nice little variation
And in terms of regular bikers, it's melta all the way. 2 Meltaguns and a combi-melta on these three guys. The bikes only need a drybrush on the tyres, decals applied and weathering on the exhaust and they are good to go.
These guys need a little more work than the bikes, but it's only the details to pick out, so it may take around an hour or two for the 3.
There are 2 (well, technically 3) products I brought at the start of this project that i've never used before. Microsol & Microset and Master Brush cleaner and preserver. They are awesome guys. I seriously endorse them. The brush cleaner has brought life back to my dying brushes and kept my size 1 work-horse in order, and the microsol/set gives the best results to decals i've ever had. So guys, look at them
My mother has been nagging me about what I want for Christmas. And because I dont think too far in the future (if it isn't happening tomorrow, I dont want to know about it ), i've not given much thought into what I want for Christmas. I cant bring myself to ask for models - I'm a child no more! I buy my own warhams - but a new camera wouldn't go amiss. Anyone know any good camera's to look at? Or even the things I should be looking for in a camera for taking pics of warhammer. Would appreciate any directions with this
Nothing wrong with figure for christmas! My wife and son get me mine, guilt free spending! although I'm ancient so might be trying to act younger or something.
It'll only take you an hour to paint those guys? Thats impressive, especially to that standard!
Just discovered this thread, and I am very interested in the progress of this army. Lovely paint-jobs so far on the bikers, agree with what others have said about the mud though. Looking forward to seeing further progress.
Your right about the whole guilt free spending, Badger. But I wouldn't inflict 40k pricing on anyone, especially seeing as they have 3 other kids who are actually kids who want real toys Besides, what is my student loan for? Food, alcohol, and warhammer lol.
Flib, if your reading this YOU SHOULD BE STUDYING! But seriously, study lol.
And welcome EmperorsChosen Always nice to have a new reader saying hi. The muddy paste was somewhat of an impulse buy. I saw it and thought 'ooo, looks cool' and clicked add to cart, i was spending a metric tonne of money so a little more wasn't anything
I dont know what it is, but i dislike painting in the dark and under artificial light - just me? It's a PITA seeing as it's pitch black by 5 now. Guess i'm going to have to buck up and get on with it. I hit the black parts on the 2 bikers before it got dark, so i'll probably do the silver tonight to catch them up to the other guy.
Try getting a nice headorch and painting in a bright room, the multiple sources help with shadow, and all those little bits which seem to hide until daylight shocks you the next day.
Good call on the Daylight bulbs Nev. Will look into that Sounds like you have a nice man-cave in your basement haha. I wish I had more room to stretch my hobby out - i'm restricted to a window desk and a few shelves :(
Good point about the multiple sorces of light reducing the shadows. I dont think a head torch would be helpful though. It'd be too bring on the areas facing the torch and throw really dark shaodws.
Sorry i'm a day later than I would have liked. Spend my free time yesterday boxing up some WoC I had to ship to a dakka member. We're doing a trade, and i'm getting a considerable amount of eldar I probably wont do much work on them (want to do as much white scars as possible before the new year), but at least I have another codex I can read.
So, hobby wise, i've painted up those 3 melta bikes from the previous update. Here is a group shot:
And a sargent rocking a combi-melta: As you can see from the last picture, symetry is not a strong point. probably wont do that again. Although, I am pleased with the tactical arrow. My freehand is coming along nicely.
I was trying to find a 'cool' way of doing tribal markings on the normal helmets. It's a little hard to see the dags here. Also, i've decided to do lightning bolts on the front pannel to the side of the bolters on all special weapon bikers. Also note the melta barrel. I really like it Usually I paint it silver, then dry brush bronze on 2/3 of it, then black on 1/3 of it and it looks ok. But this time, I used my Modelmates weathing liquid. Rusty red was applied to all of the barrel. Using a damp cotton bud (Qtip), i rolled it over the barrel gently picking up any excess. Repeating the process using Soot Black but only on half of the barrel. What do you think?
This helmet markings look alot nicer than the previous one. Anyone have suggestions for more helmet markings?
Well thats it for now folks. I have a MM attack bike sitting by ready for painting. So, i'll be seeing to that over the next few days. I am, however, low on some supplies. Almost out of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, also low on airbrush cleaning liquid, and i want to buy some bits for a grav gun squad. I might also buy a base for the attack bike (what size should i use?). Additionally, i'm officially retiring my dry brush, i'm somewhat ashamed of how bad the bristles are . So i'll be putting in orders for that this week (with hope they arrive before the weekend).
I've put my trikes on 60mm bases and it looks ok. I like the helmet markings, have you looked at mongolian script for additional inspiration? Its a pretty cool writing system, thinkjng of doing a few back banners and stuff in it. I like the melta barrels, bit hard to see on my phone tho, got a close up?
I looked at some mongolian script and its definately interesting. I could definately see it making its way onto a banner (might do a banner on a command squad)
All the bits and pieces have been ordered, and are on there way to me. Couldn't find any grav guns(!!). If anyone has any and want to trade / sell them to me, please throw me a PM
hey zambro i looked at the codex and found out that you can't wield dual lightning claws also the metal jump pack so i swapped the model for a metal model (crimson fist) with a jump pack power sword and a bolt pistol
Grav guns are rarer than packets of dried Unicorn nipples. If you look on eBay you can sometimes pick up forgeworld ones (test bike on my blog, if you want to see one) and to be honest I think they look a lot better. They come with the MK3 breacher squad and are often just listed as 'mk3 special weapon'.
@Badger. Your right about the unicorn nipples. There are constantly no grav guns or unicorn nipples on ebay. But when some grav guns popped up, i nabbed myself 3 of them more money than sense (but still no luck on the unicorn nipples front)
Looking very nice. As someone who started an almost identical project about a year ago (albeit much more slowly and less competently) I wish you luck...
I'd consider at least a couple of plasma guns as they benefit very nicely from the relentless bikes, and mean you don't have to find quite as many grav guns.
Also, it may be too late (or you've found a way around it) but don't glue the attack bike gunner seat and legs in place before priming and painting the floor.
Currently I'm up to about 1400 (1500 if I really push the characters and kit), and I started this project with the release of the 6th edition box set, over a year ago
Thanks for the feedback on my models - it's nowhere near your level, but I'm pretty pleased given my overall lack of painting ability. Tabletop quality is amazing by my usual standards
Haha, thats pretty slow But i'm starting to understand real-life issues and their impact on my hobby time *shakes fist in the air at university*
And thanks for the compliments on my painting ability. It means alot I'm trying to paint an army to play, so when it comes to it, i dont mind sacrificing some quality for speed.
I've come up with a deadline for this army too. January the 1st. Thats when i want everything done. Its gonna be tight, but i predict me painting over the Xmas break like a deprived addict
Anyone know anything about playing guitar? I got my brothers acoustic guitar on a whim the other day and i've never played before
Enjoy
Z
Just cut all the strings off to use for tubes/wires. What are you, some kind of noise marine?
Lightning bolt freehand is looking better. On the attack bike side wheel, with it being trimmed on 3 sides, I might have gone for for jags along the side, or start the bolt in the corner. Just connecting it to the back edge looks a little awkward.
You just going to get flat bases for the attack bikes, or one of the sculpted ones (like the dreadnought's)?
Haha. I wish i was a noise marine But give me some time and i'll be banging out some good tunes lol. (lots of time)
Yeah, your right about the bolt. It looks like it should be going the other way. top right to bot. left.
And I have a lose plan to pick up some regular, flat bases for the attack bikes. I want to put some cork on it, and drill out the cork for magnets. So i can swap between an attack bike and a regular bike (the sidecar is removable). But as the list that i want painted for a tournament doesn't have any attack bikes in it, i'm in no rush to get that done
Wow... its been three weeks since I last updated this. That is almost too long.
What have I done in the past 3 weeks? Not alot. I finished the primed grav squad from the last update, and have primed and base coated another 3 grav bikers. That is all. But here is where it changes. I finished university for the holidays today, and assigned myself an incredible target: finish my white scars army (everything i have) before I go back to uni in January. Possible? maybe... I have 10 days before I move back to my parents, and 0 coursework / exams to do. So before Christmas I should get a fair amount done. And I can finish up the rest in the ~10 days after Christmas before I go back to uni.
Not only am I diving balls deep into my Scar's, i've entered Bebop's competition. So i'll be loggin my progress of the guardsman in here too
Picture time: These are the guys that I mentioned above.
I built these 6 guys today. 2 Meltaguns, 2 Grav Guns, 1 Combi-Melta, and 1 Combi-Grav. I'll be letting the glue dry for a little longer on them, then i'll drill them out and put them on some cork to prime tomorrow.
In addition to priming them, tomorrow should see me build my Command Squad on bikes, honour guard, and some vets on foot (using the Sternguard, Vanguard, command squad and bikes).
Looking sharp! Not a bad 500 point list either. Don't forget to grab a melta bomb or other 5 point upgrade with those last points. I noticed that your sig says you have 1050 points complete. Can you put together a 1k list? Or are the other points just random odds and ends? It's not like you are running into FOC restrictions, your 500 point list is just a HQ + 3 troops.
Your army is coming together nicely, looking forward to watching it grow.
My sig includes this 500 point list, and additional 2 chapter masters, a squad of 5 bikes with melta, and a MM attack bike.
So i cant quite make a (good) legal 750 list
I just finished basing black on 3 bikes and their riders. Painting black over white primer is easier than painting white over black primer. But there is so much black areas, it takes forever Going to try and base the silver and brown areas tonight too
bebopdrums2424 wrote: Congrats on having even 500 pointts of a painted white army! They look great too!
BB
Thanks matey
No pics today, unfortunately. I have almost completed the 3 Melta bikers that were in-progress in my last update. Just got to polish some of the base off then paint the bolters and glue them in place. Shouldn't take all that long.
Another 3 bikers are primed and ready. Leaving me only 3 (troop) bikers left at bare plastic. I'm getting there slowly...
I have also made my guardsman ready for Bebops comp: (ok, i lied about no pictures )
I did. I got some nice hobby related gifts. I got IA1, a shiny Iwatta revolution BR airbrush and a very nice camera. Very much looking forward to using both of them. I am also planning an IG army after this is done. The IA book is soooo cool. I'm looking into a mech regiment and possibly even using the armoured battle group army list.
I went to a hobby store today, and found a selection of warhammer with ridiculously good discounts. Like, battle forces for £40, LRBTs for £20, codices for £10 and even the imperial bastion for £12!!! I exercised some massive self control and walked away with the IG codex (future project) and SW codex (allies for my scars) for £20 total! Heading there for my warhammer needs in future.
Anyway, i'll be moving back into my house tomorrow, so it'll be back to the paint station for me.
Been painting hard for the past few days, and come up with 6 finished bikers... Leaving only 3 biker troops left. I have fully painted 21 (out of 30) bikes. I'm relatively please with myself for that
I used my new airbrush for the priming / base coating etc and I love it, such a breeze to work with. And made me realise my old (cheap-o amazon) airbrush is actually a piece of turd.
Here are the pictures:
Pictures taken using my new camera. I was experimenting with the exposure rates, hence it being a little darker / lighter. I'm going to do some research into miniature photography later, if anyone has any interesting threads / web pages, feel free to share them Also, i'm right about to click buy on this lightbox. What do you think?
Wishing you a happy new year, and even happier new year's eve - drink responsibly, make good decisions, yada yada yada...
Just joined the site to say well done on the scars mate. I know your pain at doing the white. I'm halfway through painting The 3rd company task force from hunt for Voldorius. 72 bikes is no fun anymore.
Loving the work anyway man, keep it up.
Martin
@McManiak: Welcome to Dakka! I'm glad my army has inspired you to join ...And 72 bikes... Are you insane? How many have you done so far, and how long has it taken you?
@Nevlon: Photography is one of those things where you can get by without knowing much (anything). Literally, you can point and shoot and come up with passable pictures. But better quality pictures require some research and reading around.
@Paradigm: Looking at my Scars all lined up together makes me realise that a fair few of the models are painted uniquely. It's nice to break up that sea of white
I ordered that lightbox i linked in the previous comment. What with the new year and such it'll probably arrive on the weekend or early next week.
Not completely finished the paint on even one of them yet. All (more or less) at the 3rd layer of white now and ready for varnish and wash then add the non white. Bases are remarkably similar to yours. Taking 1500 pts to throne of skulls at warhammer world in a few weeks and the rest is for the cabinet and apoc games. Lists out as
Korea sorro
Command squad
4 librarians
Chaplain
All on bikes
6 10 bike squads with attack bike
2 dev squads
Scout squad
3 10 man assault squads
3 predators
Vindicator
6 storm talons
3 storm ravens
Thunderhawk (meant to be 10 thunderhawks but £4k is daft)
And still got to buy 8 rhinos......
Apoc in February so gotta get busy..... Keep me motivated with your army and good luck with your first tournament. Any tips for playing scars I'll gladly help
...If you had 4 thunderhawks, i'm sure you'd qualify for some kind of record/award.
Never the less, once you get all of that finished up, you'd have a remarkable collection. You'd definately put mine to shame (I dont plan on expanding the Scars much after i've done everything I have)
I see in your sig that you have 11k of Nurgle, 3k of Deldar, 2k of Eldar and 1.5k of Nids. Thats ALOT of miniatures.... I'd love to see pictures some time
Here is a pic of the bikes so far. Still got 4 talons and 3 ravens to build. I've assembled the dev scout and assault but not put em on bases yet and I may do a wip blog for the thunderhawk.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Damn it's upside down. Can I change it on here??
@McManiak: My condolences... Thats a heck of a lot of bikes to paint. I couldn't fathom painting so many - it was soul destroying towards the end of the 24 bikers i achieved the past 3 months.
@Mulletdude: Do it! Come jump on the bandwagon of project blogs! If you do start one, post a link here and i'll check it out
So, I made a new personal record today. 3 Bikes, from primed to finished in a day!
It was a bit of a rush towards the end, but worth it! No more troop bikes! woo hoo. I'm thinking Stormtalon or TFC next... what do you recon? (I still have the command squad bikes to do, but i'm taking a well earned break from bikes)
I'm fashionably late to a party, but tomorrow when i get some time i'll line my bikes up and take a picture of them all.
You put me to shame Zambro. I am applying the varnish today and have been doing the bases for the rest. I'll be interested to see what you do with your talons...
Silverthorne wrote:This army looks fantastic! You're crushing it. I'd love to play against them... a ravenwing-white scar biker brawl!
Thanks I'm a week, maybe 2, away from my first trip to the LGS to play (just gotta paint up some other units to fill up a 1.5k list). And if i play a RW army, I wouldn't know who's more powerful. RW puts out alot of firepower with the dakka banner and has a few other toys, but we have cheaper bikes, grav and beat-stick CMs. It'd be hard to call...
McManiak wrote:You put me to shame Zambro. I am applying the varnish today and have been doing the bases for the rest. I'll be interested to see what you do with your talons...
Here is a massive group shot of all my bikes together:
I decided to go with the Stormtalons next, seeing as they were already built. Here they are, primed, base coated and ready for some detailing.
I also thought i'd put some effort into this by painting the techmarine pilot. I'm going to be leaving the canopy transparent, so hopefully people can still see this guy inside:
I particularly like his eyes. They came out really well, IMO.
I've been on a roll recently. The 2 talons are done! (In 2 days...).
Some hastey pics:
My lightbox arrived from amazon today. I spent 5-10 minutes experimenting with it. Tomorrow when i have more natural light, i'll throw it up and re-take the ST pics.
interested to see how you paint the talons
Well, lets see. With airbrush: Prime grey, hit black or silver areas with black, spray white on all white areas. Using Nuln Oil, pick out all of the panel lines. Then brown -> red -> red highlight on all red areas. Silver on metalic areas. Pick out details, and then your done. One thing i would suggest, varnish the model after your done with the airbrush. It'll protect your base coats. I didn't do this, and ended up scratching some of the paint off.
The bases aren't done. Will work on those tomorrow as I build my pair of TFCs. To keep them easy to transport, there wont be anything extravegant on the bases.
Also, McMainiak has his own white scar's blog here
I was wondering if you were going to use the larger "canvas" of the talons for freehand work. But with the decals and contrast panels, there isn't room for much else.
Good luck on the TFCs. Getting mine done was not a pleasant experience.
Good work man. Yeah I varnish everything after airbrush. I would advise getting some steel rods to make your flyer bases as it makes them much easier to transport. I use ones with a thread on each end then put a nut in the talon and a nut in the base. Just screw it in when ready to play and base is flat for transport.
Fantastic clean look. Will be doing mine over weekend.
Nevelon wrote:
Good luck on the TFCs. Getting mine done was not a pleasant experience.
If your sculpts are as bad as mine... I have some pieces warped and bent and others with holes in them :S Not to mention it was a PITA to built. I'm actually glad the painting process will be quick. Going to hit the cannons with several drybrushes of metalic, and a splash of colour here and there. And the techmarine will take longer, but at least he wont be white (red).
McManiak wrote:I would advise getting some steel rods to make your flyer bases as it makes them much easier to transport. I use ones with a thread on each end then put a nut in the talon and a nut in the base. Just screw it in when ready to play and base is flat for transport
Thats a fantastic idea. The STs are done now, but i'll bear it in mind for my future projects
The TFCs and LSS is built (except the scouts inside the storm). These'll be the focus of my hobbying now, as when these are done, i'll have a list of 1499 points. Which means i can rock on down to my LFG and play! ...Getting excited at the prospect of playing
This is shaping up to be a truly awesome force you should be proud to throw on the gaming table, and that your opponents will be privileged to play against. Looking at the setup, it should be pretty fearsome too.
I've heard good things about that light box, I know it's used by a fair few people on YouTube, if you're still interested I think you can get it for slightly less on eBay. Also big thumbs up for doing clean white, it's definitely the hardest colour to do.
Once the TFCs and STs are done, it'll leave 6 bikes, the sternguard and vanguard vet boxes, 4 attack bikes, the SR and a built LR. (wow, thats still quite a bit...). Enough for a command squad on bikes and a Chapter master on a bike - which will be right after whats on my table atm.
@gianlucafiorentini123: Yeah, too late on the lightbox already got it. And thanks for the kind words
Thanks snrub Is it right that my reds take longer than my whites?
I've been slow on progress recently. I'm really bogged down by Uni work at the minute, and it's sapping the enjoyment out of everything.
Never the less, i'm pushing through (slowly). It took me all week to do around 2 hours worth of work.
Here are some final pics of my talons. I'm using my lightbox and new camera.
The main focus this past week was on the bases (which are now finished). And that is the talons completly done.
The TFCs and techmarines are built and primed. The harness on the techys was a PITA to assemble. The arms coming off of them wouldn't stay in the right position. I ended up cutting the backpack part down and drilling and pinning the arms in, just so they would stop moving around. I'm not really looking forward to painting it, TBH. The TFC will be easy, yet time consuming (mostly metalic) but the techys will require some more detail - I also had a brain fart and glued the harness on them, so i'll have some hard to reach areas.
My IG entry into BB's comp is also slowly moving forward. I did another layer of grey on his armour panels. I'll take a pic of him when his whites are done.
Also there has been no progress on the LSS since the last update :(
My package from Helbig arrived this week too (took a month to arrive). I now have a NIB Grey Hunters. This should cover me for my SW allied unit and enough spare pieces to kit-bash a rune priest on bike.
For my techmarine's harness I rolled a little ball of greenstuff up, dropped it into the cup, and pressed the arms in. Far too much wiggle room otherwise. I primed/painted in 3 pieces: Marine body w/auspex arm attached, assembled harness, and left arm. Seemed a good compromise between getting a brush into tight spots and having a dozen bits to work with.
While I like the fact that the TFC itself was finecast, the marine was a bit wobbly and bendy with those harness arms. Would have preferred metal on those. OK, that was a lie. I'd prefer plastic. Both the warping/bendy/sagging nature of finecast and the weight of metal are not suitable for a techmarine's harness.
Talking comp over in McManiak's thread made me want to progress some on my army. Finished the Cannons. The Techy will be a little longer, i have painted and washed the silver, but thats it.
Made some good progress this weekend. Here are the TFCs
One less thing to do!
I'm getting ever closer to having a full painted army list for the tournament I want to go to. All thats left is 4 veterans for a command squad (with apothecary, 2 guys with meltaguns and a regular guy), a Chapter Master with TH and shield and then the Space Wolf detachment consisting of a Rune priest on a bike and 10 grey hunters (2 with plasma) in a drop pod. Next up will be the command squad. I'll be mixing and matching bits from the sternguard, vanguard and command squad box to make them unique
In terms of gaming, I ordered some foam from Feldherr, which was shipped the other day. It's coming to the UK from Germany, so I hope it will be here before Thursday - If it is, I can go to the LGS and play!
I'm leaving the LSS for now. There is a month until the tourny, so i'll be focusing on what I need so I can get them done in time and have a practise game or two.
Interesting to see how you interpreted some of the bits on the techmarine. I painted the thing sticking up top on the backpack the same way I paint plasma coils. For you, it looks more like some heat control radiator. Were you going to put chapter marking on them? I might be missing them due to the angle of the shots, but they should have something on them to tell what chapter they belong to.
The all red nature of them makes me want to see some white tribal markings, just as the inverse of the normal marines. But that’s just whimsy and crazy talk before I’m fully caffeinated.
Solid work as always.
Do White Scar veterans have something special they do? Besides the normal crux terminus? The Crimson Fists paint their other glove red, as an example. Just curious. I could dig around in my old fluff looking for something, but was wondering if you knew.
@Nev. To be honest... I forgot about the chapter markings on the techmarines. I could put the chapter markings on their left shoulder pad, but i'd need to paint white over red (a lot easier said than done).
I'm not sure about WS Vets... There is no mention of specific things they do in the current or old codex. The old codex has the squad sargents in tactical/bike squads have their right foot painted red with tribal markings reaching up their lower leg from the foot.
I dont really have any solid ideas for this, I was going to make it up on the fly I had a plan to do one bike in a 50/50 scheme with the dags going down the centre. The rest is up in the air. I would appreciate some suggestions, to help the creative juices flow.
I also just realised that the Apothecary is usually denoted in white. How am i going to make him significant? Just off the top of my head, I could do the bike red with a white '8' apothecary symbol on the back of his bike. And then the biker white, with red showing up on his apoth bits?
I also just realised that the Apothecary is usually denoted in white. How am i going to make him significant? Just off the top of my head, I could do the bike red with a white '8' apothecary symbol on the back of his bike. And then the biker white, with red showing up on his apoth bits?
I know we talked about apothecaries over in McManiac’s thread. Not sure what he decided on. Obviously some combination of red/white is the way to go. I would load his bike down with all sorts of extra kit. Not sure if you have any ravenwing sprues kicking around, but there are a number of saddlebags and the like there you could use for that.
I agree about too much red on the techs and think that a shouler pad would break it (oh the pain of more white).
As Nev said we have looked at some ideas for apoth's on my thread and I'm probs going with a beakie helmet Red right arm and pad and red feet with the left shin in red too. Defo agree with putting 'supplies' on the bike too.
Get your touney booked mate, your scars will love it and you owe it to THEM to do it.......
My command squad is built! They're a kitbash of the bike marines (obviously), sternguard, vangaurd and command squad boxes. I've not pictured the bikes, but i've run out of 'interesting' bits Mostly just additional purity seals in terms of modelling. Will try and make them stand out with the painting.
The apothecary. Pretty basic stuff. Apothecary bits from the Command Squad box.
I really like this guy. His chainsword combined with the plated shoulder guards makes me think he is the Chapter's Dualist.
Just a melta guy with half a face.
I really like this guys head. It screams White Scars in my opinion.
That is all in terms of modelling.
I got an awesome trade in the swap shop section last night. I am trading my big (500 page) fantasy rulebook - which I dont use, and I have the small paperback book anyway - for a built and unpainted Drop Pod, and 5 Tactical Terminators w/ CML (also unpainted). The DP will finish off my Space Wolf detachment and the terminators will be most welcome. I've always entertained the idea of scout bikes with a teleport homer calling in terminator reinforcements Maybe that idea might become a possibility... Additionally, the past 4(?) years i've been in this hobby, most of which I was collecting and painting Space Marines, I've never owned or finished painting a terminator squad!
Also, I think i'm set to head down to the LGS this week and play (and buy a tourny ticket ). I brought a mini rulebook, some foam (Feldherr) and a few gaming accessories from GW. The foam and rulebook arrived today, and the GW stuff is due tomorrow, which means thursday i'll have everything for a game! (...getting excited) I also built a 1500 point list, using mostly painted models. I've never like the idea of being a new guy to a LGS with a strong army that is totally unpainted. If i'm going to play an 'op' army, I want to show some commitment to it and paint it I'll spoiler the list below.
St's don't need typhoons. I take sky hammer and get a good result. I loaded out with mb's in each squad then was suggested not to. I still have 2 squads with them and gave nog used them once in about 15-20 games.
With the points saved you could either take cloaks and sniper rifles (always wound on 4's and rend on 6's) for scouts and maybe give Sergs' power weapons or veterans.
I like the way they look, but the gamer in me has a few things to say…
So your command squad is going to be apoth, 2xmelta, 1 basic guy? Don’t you need one more? Melta is also an odd choice. I’d either go with plasma (FNP mitigates the Gets Hot! rule) or grav (because you can stick 4 in the squad, and they work well in mass) if you want to retain a shooting squad.
If you go for a CC command squad, you need more stabby bits. On that note, you have the company duelist, but he’s got a chainsword, not the powersword he comes with. Also, no standard bearer? Have you no pride in your company? (I admit, they might not be worth the points)
And before the boot the gamer side of me back to the army list and tactics portions of Dakka, your list is mean. Remember to make friends BEFORE playing. Might be harder afterwords...
@McManiak: personally, i'd rather keep the MBs. For the sake of 5 points per pop, it somewhat insures me against vehicular combat. Also, you make a good point about the scouts. Maybe I could counts-as?
@Nev: Your right about needing 5 guys for command, but I'm running out of bikes I have 2 bikes left on sprue and they are reserved for the Chapter Master and the Rune Priest. I think I will pull the beakie marine with the pistol and put him into the command squad if/when I run them.
You are right about the Melta being an odd choice. I'm building them with my tourny list in mind, and in said list they have 2 meltas. I have 3 grav squads in that list, and only 1 melta squad. Once the list was built, I had 20 points knocking spare and decided to go with Melta on the command squad to bump my anti-tank ability up.
Also, when I said company duelist, I meant in terms of modelling - he looks the part.
I'm going to use the models still left in the command squad box to make Honour Guard - that is where my standard is going
You're right about the list being mean :( I'm going to make a post on the LGS's forum to introduce myself and look for a game, I'll say i'm playing white scars so there is no nasty supprises
Oh man... I just had a mini heart attack! I was cleaning my airbrush and I dropped the nozzle, which was abruptly englufed in my carpet. I was on all fours, with a torch looking for it Thankfully I found it. I've dropped pieces the size of heads and bolters, and lost them to the carpet, I was lucky to not lose the nozzle
...And yes, I was doing some airbrush work. Command squad members primed and based. I made a beginner level mistake. I decided to airbrush the red for the Apoth's bike, but didn't wash all of the red out of the airbrush and ended up putting a patch of pale pink on the bikes. Woops!
Also, I made a post on my LGS's forum. I'm planning a game with a regular on thursday evening. He'll be rocking the Dark Eldar (hints, tips?), I'm looking forward to it!
As for Dark Eldar I can help. There are a few typical lists taken but won't go inti them. Let's just break it down to the basics. 90% of de are t3 with a 5+ save so your bolsters kill on 3's twin linked. Your thunder fire will ignore their feel no pain as it's s6. Get in and smash them with bolster shots rather than melta as it's t/l so more reliable then batter them in combat. The thing with de is they are so fast but very much a glass hammer. Their vehicles are easy to pop (remember they are open top so +1 on damage) but when they shoot they poison you on 4+ so ignore your bike toughness! plus they shoot LOTS. Those little venoms put out 12 shots over turn so strike vehicles with grav and melta then troops with bolsters. Keep out of combat with wyches. They are lethal. Also if he has jet bikes then get rid of them first, they can move 48" and attack a unit they pass over. Your speed should counter theirs.
Good luck and keep us informed. I'm taking my nids out tomorrow with the old codex.
Well, just got back from the FLGS. It was great. Met a few people, played two games (against DE and Nids). And I paid for a place on the Storm of Iron tournament Just got to finish painting everything (The guy I was trading the BRB to sent his parcel today, so the DP should arrive soon).
As for the games: I lost my first one against the DE. But I learnt alot. I was a little too agressive, and deployed too wide so he was only shooting one squad at a time. I also think I paniced, when he placed his bastion, I blasted forward with melta to destroy it and left myself in the open. Some unlucky rolling on the TFCs ment that his 3 man unit of (wyches, wracks, something like that) made 2 5+ FNP saves that would have levelled the unit and kept my scouts alive with the Relic. I came away with a some lessons learnt. A good game overall.
Against the Nids, I won. Using the new codex, the guy I was playing wasn't 100% on them, and didn't have a particularly 'competitive' list. It was more him just throwing together some units and seeing where the nid 'dex was at. I played this game alot smarter. Took advantage of the terrain, made smart assault moves and played the objectives. Watching his unhurt Deathleaper die from charging the TFC was hilarious (3 wounds from an overwatching flamer!). And also pinning his squad of 20 genestealers when they came in 1" away from a TFC was pretty lucky for me, too.
@Kelly502 & BrotherofBone: Thanks for the comments, and double-thanks for the kind words Kind words are flattery... my favourite, hehe.
@Nev: At this stage, no. I was going back and forth on dropping the Typhoon Missiles for Skyahmmer instead. But the fact that I ID'd a few tyranid big bugs with the krak missiles makes be want to keep them for the potential of future instant death on other models.
@McManiak: Thanks man. I'm realising just how 'elite' a bike army actually is. When you have 25 bikes and 4 supporting units, your fighting force is significantly reduced with each loss.
You remember the trade a talked briefly about? Well the stuff arrived this morning, and holy cow!
It was the big fantasy rule book for a drop pod and 5 tactical terminators. I let him know I posted them, and told him I unexpectedly had to pay £12 for postage (thought it would be around £5 or £6 - turns out the book is really heavy)... He added stuff to even it out, and what shows up is a Drop Pod, 5 tactical terminators, 5 Assault terminators (the captain model is lysander) and 5 tactical marines with bolters and plasma (mostly plastic, and part built). AWESOME! And the drop pod is really well built, no issues with the doors at all
Those termies should paint up nicely and add some hard-hitting melee power to your list. Since I missed them the first time, the techies are looking good too.
As for your mini-battle reports, it's good you've figured out so early on that bikes can't afford to deploy along the whole board edge. Moreso than any other type of SM, you need to concentrate force on one weak point of the enemy and hit it with everything you've got, using the mobility to your advantage. Most armies can't outrun you, so you should be able to pick when and where you fight. This should be a good lesson to learn going forward and especially with the tourney, so it's good this came up early on.
Wow! Nice deal!! That's really fantastic mate, good on you. Can't wait to see what you can do with the Assault Terminators (hopefully better than what I've done, and probably knowing you ;D).
Thanks for commenting on my thread x'3 2 weeks and 3 comments, woo, if we keep it up at this rate I'll have another comment next week! XD
But anyway, back to business. YES PLEASE THE POWER SPEAR SOUNDS AWESOME.
I've not had too much hobby time over the past couple of days. Enough to almost finish the apothecary and start another command squad vet. I have started to listen to recordings of my lectures while I paint. I tell myself it's ok to paint for a few hours, because i'm studying too (I'm kidding myself, aren't I?)
The apothecary was weird to paint. I'm not sure how to describe it, but you know when you paint a scheme for the first time and you are very tentative and almost 'on edge'? Well I had that. It was really weird because I'm at the stage where I knew exactly how to paint my bikes; how long it'll take, which order to do the colours, etc. I guess I was having an off-day. As for the apoth himself, he's looking good. Personally, I think I got the white to red balance right on the rider. The bike looks a little strange, but I'm attributing that to the fact that the scheme is reversed and its the first time I'm seeing it.
Having seen the pictures there are a few things I want to touch up; mainly hit the chest eagle with a wash and redo the white on the shoulder pad. It looks blotchy. I also have a few decals for the bike, to break up that red - so dont worry about that.
I started this guy today:
He is at the early stages of painting. I'm going with red hands, what do you think of that for the command squad?
@BoB: Thanks man. I've not thought much about the termies, tbh. I'll see what ideas I can muster up. And dont worry about your P&M thread People are looking. Just keep with regular updates to battle with staying on the first few pages of the P&M sub-forum. Even post a few of your finished stuff in the Showcase and maybe people will check it out from there.
@Paradigm: Yeah, assault termies in a scouting land raider will be a lot of fun! (for me, anyway. ). If anyone fancies themself a writer, you should check out this thread. Paradigm, Fifty and me are doing a few writing exercises. Might be fun?
@Snrub: It was really good of him to throw that extra stuff in! I couldn't say thank you enough
All good z. Different from how I'm thinking of mine but I like the apoth. Not 100% on the bike at the mo but maybe with some transfers and possibly some accessories it may pull together. Defo check out the dark angels spruce for bike bits that may make if more diverse
Zambro wrote: Hey all, I hope you had a good weekend. I did.
I've not had too much hobby time over the past couple of days. Enough to almost finish the apothecary and start another command squad vet.
I have started to listen to recordings of my lectures while I paint. I tell myself it's ok to paint for a few hours, because i'm studying too (I'm kidding myself, aren't I?)
The apothecary was weird to paint. I'm not sure how to describe it, but you know when you paint a scheme for the first time and you are very tentative and almost 'on edge'? Well I had that. It was really weird because I'm at the stage where I knew exactly how to paint my bikes; how long it'll take, which order to do the colours, etc. I guess I was having an off-day.
As for the apoth himself, he's looking good. Personally, I think I got the white to red balance right on the rider. The bike looks a little strange, but I'm attributing that to the fact that the scheme is reversed and its the first time I'm seeing it.
Having seen the pictures there are a few things I want to touch up; mainly hit the chest eagle with a wash and redo the white on the shoulder pad. It looks blotchy. I also have a few decals for the bike, to break up that red - so dont worry about that.
I think that's all for now?
Z
Listening to lectures is a good use of time, as long as you don’t cross the streams. For example, as much as your techmarines will tell you, the proper way to debug source code is not “Apply the sacred salves and oils, and light incense to appease the troubled machine spirit” and Java is -not- techno-heresy.
I might have added a little extra color to the apothecary. Pick out some details in gold, or put some blue in the vials. With marines we are locked into a very tight palette of colors, I try to take advantage of opportunities to break out.
The bike with the reversed scheme is looking good, I think. I can see how it's different, but it works.
Thanks for the shout-out for the writing thread, more views for our work is always good. I've posted another one down there if you haven't seen it yet. Hope your own work is coming along well.
I hadn't even thought of scouting the LR, that's just brilliant. T2 combat with termies will be fun. Be sure to grab a chaplain for all those re-rolls.
Hi Zambro, I am really enjoying your thread, your white scars look fantastic. Your project inspirers me to keep going with mine. Almost loosing airbrush parts that drop on the floor made me smile, that's happened to me to, but I have been lucky so far and always found them "phew"
@McManiac. The apoth's bike is still not doing it for me. Been trying to think of something interesting to do with it, so far, nothing
@Nev. If only programming was as easy as rubbing oil onto the computer I went back and hit a few little details on the silver parts of the apothecary specific bits with gold. Just a small, subtle change.
@Paradigm. Thanks mate. I'm going to start my next piece of writing in a bit, watch out for it later tonight
@gianlucafiorentini123. The bike does stand out, alot. A single red bike in a horde of ~20 white bikes... it's going to be hard to miss!
@Brother Ectus. I'm glad I inspire you You do a great job. The power weapons (specifically the thunderhammers) you painted last week-ish look great. Gonna have to work something like that out for my termies when I get around to them.
If you guys haven't seen Ectus's Sons of Medusa blog, look here.
@Snrub. I'm pleased with the white / red balance. It's enough to say 'im a veteran apothecary' without being overwhelming. Shame the bike is still not looking quite right.
Thank you all! It's nice to have people comment postively on your work I've been slowly wading through the next vet in line. He is almost done. I'll paint his head at the same time as I paint the other vet's heads.
I also worked out what I want to do on the bikes for the regular command squad veterans. I'm going to paint the front wheel armour red. So there will be just that single block of red and everything else will be white.
I organised a game for tomorrow's trip to the FLGS. I'll be taking a slight variation on the list I took last time. And i'll be against the new tyranids. I saw the guy playing against Tau last week, he was really putting on the hurt. Had them pinned in the corner with lots of little gribbles and big baddies surrounding them. I'm hoping I can cut a swath through them
Maybe make the front gaurd white so that is the opposite of the vets and also stick a transfer on front to break the colour?? Other than that you could decorate it with trophies/casualties.
As for the nids, framers wreak havoc on grunts. No armour or cover. Melta or your grav on mc's and be sure to get rid of the venom throne first that gives the shrouded to the others. Don't be intimidated by the big gribblies just jeep at them with melta and grav and multiple hits with your tcf.
McManiak wrote:Maybe make the front gaurd white so that is the opposite of the vets
Eureka!
*high five*
That is an excellent idea. Thank you!
Brother Ectus wrote:Good luck in your battle mate.
Thanks mate
I'm picking up bits and pieces of information about killing 'nids from all over the place. McManiak's advice is solid. And I got a taste for 'nids last week in my battle with them. I'm feeling relatively confident in being able to put up a (good) fight.
Hey guys, I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
I'm not too sure why, but things are really grinding to a slow pace for me at the minute. I dont want to 'force' anything, but with the Storm of Iron tourney 3 weeks away I know I have to push. I have 3 weekends (including this one) to get everything done. My to-do list is: finish painting bike command squad, build and paint a Chapter Master on bike, build and paint a Rune Priest on bike, build and paint 10 grey hunters, and paint a drop pod. 6 bikes, 10 infantry and a drop pod. Definately do-able. I'm thinking, if I can finish the scar's stuff by next weekend, I'll be well on track.
I played a successful game against Tyranids the other day too. I was a little too agressive, and finished the game with 2 bikes left alive, and the TFCs. But it was a victory none the less... by a single kill point! I think the finishing results were 12-11 or 11-10 to me. Woo It was definately a nail-biting end. And I now have a 2:1 W:L I think i'll put that in my sig and keep track of my progress.
Congrats on the victory. I always prefer close games; it’s less fun for everyone involved if someone is getting tabled.
I’m glad you think you can get that done in 3 weeks. I know I paint far to slow to get that done. Do you have a paint scheme in mind for the wolves? By this point you’ve got the scars down pat, but you don’t have time to paint and strip the wolves until you find something you like. You also don’t want to have to run out last second to buy a pot of the right shade of blue/grey.
How are you planning on building the wolf priest? They don’t make one of those on a bike IIRC. Should be a fun build.
I've got something rough in mind for the Wolves. I plan on using Sombre Grey from VGC (The Fang in current citadel paints), with edge highlights and red shoulder pads just to help them blend a little better with the Scars. See page 324 in the big rule book. That is the shade I'm aiming for. I'm hoping the darker look will contrast with the white bikers with a tie-in from the red.
And the priest should be interesting. I have one bike reserved for him, and a box of Grey Hunters that I will scavenge for bits to make him approriately wolf-y
Zambro wrote: I've got something rough in mind for the Wolves. I plan on using Sombre Grey from VGC (The Fang in current citadel paints), with edge highlights and red shoulder pads just to help them blend a little better with the Scars. See page 324 in the big rule book. That is the shade I'm aiming for. I'm hoping the darker look will contrast with the white bikers with a tie-in from the red.
And the priest should be interesting. I have one bike reserved for him, and a box of Grey Hunters that I will scavenge for bits to make him approriately wolf-y
I was wondering how you were going to make him look rune-y, and not just a wolfed up biker. But looking at the one over on GW’s page, he’s not that different from a normal wolf HQ. I guess I’m so used to the robes/psychic hood on SM librarians I forgot the wolves don’t do that sort of thing.
If your freehand is up to it, I might put lines of runes above the trim on the bike. Just little faux-letters around the edges to send the message that this guys is not your mundane wolf lord. If you want to try some greenstuffing, make your own rune talismans. Roll a ball of greenstuff and then mostly flatten it into a rough disk like shape. Press your hobby knife into it to cave some runes. Using tiny rings/chains/wire loops to attach it to the bike would be cool.
I have no idea what’s in the new grey hunter box. They’ve changed it since I picked one up during 3rd (only place for plastic melta guns at the time) I still have some wolfy bits hiding in the dregs of my bitz box. There might be enough to bling the guy out without having to resort to these tricks.
There are a tonne of bits in the GH box, so you should have plenty. I'd recommend one of the torsos with the wolf cape and the wolf head helmet to make it obvious he's the boss. You also get plenty of wolf banner-tops that could be made into a great Runic Weapon.
The Fang or equivalent will make a nice basecoat, noticeably blue but darker than the sky-blue GW scheme. It will contrast very nicely with the White Scars.
I openly acknowledge to everyone i'm going slow, and now, a day later, everything i'm working on is done. Whats up with that?
They're not yet put together. Still running some micro sol over the decals. Will glue the guns on and hit with a varnish for complete finish tomorrow or tuesday.
So, I repainted the front wheel hub of the apoth's bike white. Definately an improvement. I also changed it up with the decals, using the lightning bolt ones instead. I think they look suitably cool.
With regards to the wolves, i'll try some free-hand runes on the priest's bike. But cant promise anything spectacular
Nice work on the command squad. If I might offer some constructive criticism, I'd suggest a brown wash over the gold to really make it pop and take on a metallic look, but other than that they're great. The reversal on the bike colours and the decal choice works well.
@Paradigm: What gold areas are you looking at? Everything gold has been washed with brown (99% certain - small chance I brain-farted and missed something). I can always wash and highligh again if necessary.
It was mainly the Sgt's chainsword hilt that looked a little flat (might just be the sculpt, though). I also thought the shoulder pad on the left of the last pic looked a little flat, but with the light behind it it's hard to tell.
It may just be a matter of taste, though, as I like to go for very strong contrasts on gold and use washes a lot.
I like the stripes on the chainsword, looks sharp. Whole squad looks good (even if they are a man down)
As for the list…
It’s a little disconcerting to see the meltaguns on the command squad in the pictures, then scroll down to see them as flamers in the list. Do you even have any flamers on your bikes? While I’m not normally a fan of flamers on bike squads, I could see it for a command squad that’s planning on charging into CC. Although if that’s the case, I might spring for the company champion for the squad.
I don’t see the need for meltabombs in the full melta bike squad. I’d shuffle it over to the command squad, or spend the points elsewhere.
Just a few notes on the list, Can space Wolves take Divination?? Most marines can't other than Tigarius (don't know about wolves) and I take it that double Force Org is open at 2k hence the 3 HQ. The only other thing I would debate is the expensive Typhoon missiles over the skyhammer ones?
Agree with Nev about the Mbs too. Your melta should never get to need them. (i dropped mine) and hadn't noticed the melta/flamer issue. (Some TO's require WYSIWYG and might get funny)
wolves get Divination, so do DA, and he has 2 HQs for prim and 1 for allied that’s right, or am i missing something, command squads are "free" choice with a caption, lib or chap. the list looks solid.
Command Squad look neat, and I rescind my earlier comments about the gold, I think it was only the close-up and lighting that made it look flat, it looks fine in the new pics. The only thing I'm thinking is that the red on the front is maybe a little strong, I'd be tempted to throw on some white stripes or markings on the top of the front mudguards. That's only a minor thing, though, and they do look great.
The list looks solid, nice and fast with some great potential for short-ranged damage. I think you are short-changing yourself on the GH, they get the second Plasma for free at 10 men, so it's only 160 points for the 10 with 2xPG. Other than that, it's great list.
Paradigm wrote:I think you are short-changing yourself on the GH, they get the second Plasma for free at 10 men, so it's only 160 points for the 10 with 2xPG.
Well that's good news! Thanks for pointing that out
Nevelon wrote:It’s a little disconcerting to see the meltaguns on the command squad in the pictures, then scroll down to see them as flamers in the list.
Well that is a lesson to you all about blindly copying and pasting... I shall fix it immediately.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Ok, list fixed.
I have 10 points freed up (from the GH) and possibly 5 if I drop the MBs on the melta bike squad. Where do I put those 15 points? Some kind of CC weapon on the GHs? Or a CC weapon in the command squad? Maybe something snazzy on the priest?
Also, I think JotWW is better on the priest, compared to Divination. Re-rolling an orbital bombardment is fun, but taking of MCs from a failed ini test is more fun
15 points? I'd grab a Wolf Banner on the GH (gives them a re-roll 1s on everything in the following assault phase, including overwatch, attacks and saves). Alternatively, MOTW would also be a nice surprise for anyone wanting to charge. I've seen the d6+1 rending attacks do horrible things to all kinds of enemies.
Paradigm wrote: 15 points? I'd grab a Wolf Banner on the GH (gives them a re-roll 1s on everything in the following assault phase, including overwatch, attacks and saves). Alternatively, MOTW would also be a nice surprise for anyone wanting to charge. I've seen the d6+1 rending attacks do horrible things to all kinds of enemies.
The White Scars part of your list seems pretty tight, so I’d give the wolves some toys to play with. Exactly what I’d leave up to someone who has looked at their codex more recently then 3rd edition (which is me)
Johnnytorrance wrote:Ok guy, I'm interested in what you do for a living. That's a lot of duckets to be spending at one time.
Hehe... Just a lowly student
Paradigm wrote:15 points? I'd grab a Wolf Banner on the GH (gives them a re-roll 1s on everything in the following assault phase, including overwatch, attacks and saves).
Hmm... I think I will go with this one... So that is 10 points of the 15 used up. And with the 5 points left, i'll just throw melta bombs back on the melta bikes(?). I'm going to post my list in the army list section for some more helpful info, the list is posted here.
And say hello to my Chapter Master:
Lots of people I see modelling the TH + SE variant either put one in each hand leaving no grip on the handles and thus looking silly, or they put the shield on the bike, which IMO also looks silly. I like the way this is modelled, it looks alot more practical . The TH is from the VV box, as is more of the other bits. The shield is Lysander's shield. The IF insignia has been filed off, leaving enough room for a Scar's decal. It should all come together quite nice. Hopefully I can prime today
The command squad looks sweet Z. A good balance of red to white, with just enough gold thrown into the mix.
The chapter master is certainly looks good too. He must be damn sure of his own abilities though. With so much weight on one side, one swing of his weapon would unbalance him. A trifling matter for a chapter master I'm sure.
Snrub wrote: The command squad looks sweet Z. A good balance of red to white, with just enough gold thrown into the mix.
The chapter master is certainly looks good too. He must be damn sure of his own abilities though. With so much weight on one side, one swing of his weapon would unbalance him. A trifling matter for a chapter master I'm sure.
I was going to make a quip about the purity seal on the other side balancing him out, but when taking a closer look, noticed the bolter strapped to to same side as everything else. So he is either REALLY pure, or needs a little something on the other side to balance things. Maybe a purity seal on the front plate flowing back, or some grenades stuck to the back/side. I might also have angled the seal on the back to point back a little bit more to give the illusion of flowing in the wind.
Between the crest and the laurels the helm looks like it belongs on an Ultramarine. But then, I painted my bike captain’s helm to look like a White Scars’, so who am I to talk. A little red and white and I’m sure it’ll fit right in.
You're right about the right hand side being very 'busy'.
With the use of such big bits, I dont think there is much I can do about it...?
I was leaving the left hand panel blank for a Scar's decal.
And Nev, I'm going to be doing the helm cress red and yellow
For those of you who are particularly eagle-eyed, you may have noticed an additional loss in my W:L ratio
My trip down to the FLGS was enjoyable, never the less. I played a 2k point tau-dar army, that was a test run for the tournament in a few weeks. My 2k army was a little bloated on upgrades. Removed a few things and added termies, a LR, CM and command squad to the list I ran last time. Not great, but definately nothing to sneeze at.
I learnt a few things:
-Wraithknights with invisibility are crazy. Real crazy -Be careful with your outflanks. Certain armies can completely deny a board edge, and thus deny a unit the ability to move onto the board (Lost a unit of bikes this way)
-Just because a chapter master has The Shield Eternal, doesn't mean he is 'invulnerable'. Throw enough dice and he will die.
-And finally, play the objective. In our game it was kill points, and despite having an uphill battle, I think I played the KPs right. One of my bike squads came in on the wrong side for outflank and never saw battle (decided to deny that kill point), and I chased down the remnants of weakened squads with the TFCs. We finished 10-7 to him.
Close call mate. I don't tend to outflank my bikes as with scout they can be where I want on turn one and not then relying on reserve rolls to get them into the game. Against taudar first turn is imperitive as you need to shoot up any pathfinders and melta those riptides. Ignore the wraithknight (unless you fancy charging Kahn in for an instant death on a 6 like me) as he does not ignore cover so you should be in other combat by the time he is a threat. Hit and run is your obv friend and as long as you remove the pathfinders and d-scythes then all should be ok. If they control a table edge then tfc them to bits, (tau will run away)
Good run tho,
I'm playing a 2k game in a few weeks and have to decide what to throw into the mix. Cant justify the points on the command squad tho for what they bring, could get another 2 melta squads for the same sort of points.
10-7 sounds like a bloodbath on both sides. Don't forget that the denied flank is also something SM (and especially bikers thanks to mobility and low model count) can easily pull. It's a handy trick if you deploy second as it can really help with force concentration if your opponent spreads their army out.
Overall I like him a lot, but I do have a few bits of constructive criticisms:
On the left side on the bolter shrouding, there is a little bit of white on the red that could use a touching up.
The thunderhammer needs something. Possibly some harsh white or silver highlights. But it’s giving me a “I’m painted blue” vibe, not a “I’m surrounded by a field of death energy” one.
Overall your palette is rich tones, but the laurels are a pastel green. The ones on the shoulder look a little darker (thus better) might just be the lighting. I might hit them with a dark green wash.
Love the browns, smooth whites, and the gold and other details.
Got to agree with Nev on the blue hammer.Other than that I kind of like it. It is so different from the rest of yuor guys that he stands out in the 'right' way. Good work Z
Nice work. I'll second the comment about the hammer needing something more, maybe some hard edging in blue/white or some energy lines. Other than that, very cool model.
Snrub wrote:Oh he's grouse looking. The banding on the helmet plume is really tidy.
haha, I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think it's good(?). Thanks
Nevelon wrote:Overall I like him a lot, but I do have a few bits of constructive criticisms:
On the left side on the bolter shrouding, there is a little bit of white on the red that could use a touching up.
The thunderhammer needs something. Possibly some harsh white or silver highlights. But it’s giving me a “I’m painted blue” vibe, not a “I’m surrounded by a field of death energy” one.
Overall your palette is rich tones, but the laurels are a pastel green. The ones on the shoulder look a little darker (thus better) might just be the lighting. I might hit them with a dark green wash.
Love the browns, smooth whites, and the gold and other details.
Nev, I love your feedback I cant cut any corners with you on the case, lol. I'll fix the white on red, shouldn't take a minute. As for the TH, I get what you are saying. Perhapse a bright blue edge highlight? I was really tentative about painting THs. It's probably down to the small surface area and blending. Maybe I could blend the blue lighter to a bright blue on one edge like the TH master I painted back on page 1? What do you think?
McManiak wrote:Got to agree with Nev on the blue hammer.Other than that I kind of like it. It is so different from the rest of yuor guys that he stands out in the 'right' way. Good work Z
Thanks, McManiak. As soon as the Wolves are done, I'm going to get a nice big 2k point group shot. He'll really stick out then
I’m no expert on power weapon effects, you might just want to poke around the Dakka galley a/o tutorials and find something you like and try to reproduce it.
What I might suggest is starting with a high intensity white/electric blue on the front and taper it back to a darker blue at the back. Your Captain on foot back on the first page has his hammer in a “standby” mode, its powerfield is in an equalibrium state, with just a few flickers of white highlight. This guy on the bike is putting the hammer down. The field should be concentrated on the point of impact.
Just a thought.
When going back to page one to check on the hammer, I was very impressed with the red fabric on that guy, very nicely done. I don’t think I commented on that before.
Grouse. It's and Aussie/Kiwi slang word for excellent.
Oddly though it can also mean "to grumble or complain". A Grouse is also a chicken-like game bird.
In this instance though I'm mean it in the excellent way.
Snrub wrote: Grouse. It's and Aussie/Kiwi slang word for excellent.
Oddly though it can also mean "to grumble or complain". A Grouse is also a chicken-like game bird.
In this instance though I'm mean it in the excellent way.
Snrub wrote: Grouse. It's and Aussie/Kiwi slang word for excellent.
Oddly though it can also mean "to grumble or complain". A Grouse is also a chicken-like game bird.
In this instance though I'm mean it in the excellent way.
I'm pushing to finish my 2k army before the tournament (10 days). Today I built the Space Wolves, and tomorrow I'll prime and base coat them.
Here are some pics:
I really enjoyed making these. The kit is amazing. So many cool pieces to chose from. Alot of alternative weapon options to use. There is a 2 handed axe, that has runes incribed into it. I love it Shame I cant use it on these.
Anyway, the models in question aren't quite WYSIWYG (there should be a bolter, pistol and CCW on each), but I think it should be alright seeing as I have represented everything across the unit. The guy with the banner is going to be my Wolf Standard. And the 2 wolf head helmets are going to have plasma guns. With the tonnes of extra bits I had from the kit, you can see the Priest I made. I'm not sure if you can see it too well, but there are runes on his helmet, and inscribed in his sword. That and his wolfy pads / backpack make him look suitably space wolfish. Also, the DP I had from the trade a while back is going to be done up as Space Wolves. I clumsily put it down next to the 10 hunters, and the doors fell open and knocked them all over the place So I decided to magnetise the doors to avoid any future issues like that.
I had an idea for the colours too. The sombre grey is going to be the main colour. And I want to do a dark brass / copper colour on the metalic trims and aquiilla with a dark maroon red for the pads. I want them to look really dark. As i'm typing, I having a brain wave: What if I airbrush the runes on the priest's sword to a bright blue, the paint the sword itself a really dark blue (like the dark areas on the TH I just did) with the bright blue runes shining through? What are you thoughts on my painting ideas?
Funny enough, your Wolves are sounding like they're going to end up remarkably like my own. Grey, with maroon and bronze/copper detailing. For what it's worth, I can tell you that scheme does work, so go for it.
The RP's sword lends itself to a very high-contrast paint scheme, so your plan should definitely work, but I'd go with almost a dark metal on the blade to really make the runes stand out.
Nice looking space wolves. Tons of details on those guys, good luck making your deadline. I’d not worry about every model being WYSWYG. You have a good mix represented in the units, and there is no doubt that they are grey hunters.
You paint job sounds fine, my only concern is how well they will look next to your Scars. I assume you are going to base them the same, so that will make your list look a little cohesive. But if you completely change your palette, I’d worry that there would be a bit of a discord in your painting harmonics.
If you can do the glowing rune thing on the sword, that would be awesome. Going for something subtle, or branching out into OSL?
Hi Zambro, I love the command squad and Chapter Master, they look amazing. So is that the White Scars all finished now? Will you be going straight into the Space Wolves?
Paradigm wrote:Funny enough, your Wolves are sounding like they're going to end up remarkably like my own. Grey, with maroon and bronze/copper detailing. For what it's worth, I can tell you that scheme does work, so go for it.
The RP's sword lends itself to a very high-contrast paint scheme, so your plan should definitely work, but I'd go with almost a dark metal on the blade to really make the runes stand out.
Nevelon wrote:Bow-wow bark woof woof!
Nice looking space wolves. Tons of details on those guys, good luck making your deadline. I’d not worry about every model being WYSWYG. You have a good mix represented in the units, and there is no doubt that they are grey hunters.
You paint job sounds fine, my only concern is how well they will look next to your Scars. I assume you are going to base them the same, so that will make your list look a little cohesive. But if you completely change your palette, I’d worry that there would be a bit of a discord in your painting harmonics.
If you can do the glowing rune thing on the sword, that would be awesome. Going for something subtle, or branching out into OSL?
Thanks fellas The basing is the same, so they will tie in a little better. And I had an idea from these two comments, go with a dark metal (almost black) sword with blue OSL coming from the runes. It looks great in my mind But it is my first time trying OSL, so we'll see how it comes together...
Brother Ectus wrote:Hi Zambro, I love the command squad and Chapter Master, they look amazing. So is that the White Scars all finished now? Will you be going straight into the Space Wolves?
great work, cants wait to see the Sons of Russ.
Thanks Ectus! And dont worry, I still have some scars to do. I need these guys for a tournament in two weekends time, but right after that i'll be back into the Scars Just off the top of my head, I have sternguard, vanguard, honour guard, LR, SR and a whole bunch of termies that still need painting! The end is within sight, but just a little out of reach
I had a solid 2 and a half hour airbrush session this morning. All the Wolf stuff is primed, and based. I didn't realise how much surface area there is on the drop pod... It took a while.
It's been a (long) week of no updates - I decided against doing regular updates on my Wolves. A combination of just wanting to finish them without distractions and not wanting to clog up a White Scar blog with Wolves. But alas, we are finished.
I really enjoyed painting this colour. Such a pleasant change to white.
The drop pod was rushed, in all honesty. I spent all day today on it, and an hour or two yesturday. So, imo, it is just about on par. I've clearly got 3 colours minimum for a tourny, but it's at basic TT quality. In an ideal world, i'd spent more time on it, but this just aint the case. Tomorrow i've got 9-5 legal training in uni followed by (relatively heavy) drinking, and I dont think i'll be doing any drunk, late night painting sessions. And of course the tourny starts at 9 on saturday, so I cant even paint in the morning before. I hate doing this, but I'm just going to have to settle for the quality it is now.
I think, the OSL on the priest is pretty good for a first time attempt. I used a paint brush (not an air brush) and it was a lot easier than I expected. The wolf that is accompanying them is my Chooser of the Slain. In the codex, it says that the chooser usually takes the form of a psyber raven and is constructed by a fusion of flesh and steel. I haven't had time to dick around looking for a Psyber raven to use, so I exploited the use of the word 'usually' and just got a wolf The model is smaller than the Rune Priest model (as is it's base), so it still complies with the rules in the Codex.
Remember the game I was telling you guys about a few weeks ago? Against Eldar-Tau. Well, I have a rematch lined up with him tonight It'll be our last practise games for the weekend. Hopefully, I can pull a win, but mainly I want to learn something useful that will help me on the weekend I'll let you know how the game goes.
Very nice wolves, the posing in particular is very good. The scheme definitely works, and is well-executed. The OSL works nicely and the basing is fantastic.
I shouldn't worry about the Pod. It's clearly painted and serves its purpose, and you can always go back and edit later if it really bugs you. Besides, anyone you play who's ever have the misfortune to have to build one of those things is going to completely understand why you've left it alone. Pods are evil incarnate, I tell you!
Any drop pod that gets off the “to-do” list is a good pod. But your’s looks clean and solid, can’t complain. If you are looking to do more it might be a good place to try out some weathering/chipping effects. One of the perks of being the allied force is that it does not need to match everything else, so it’s a place to experiment.
The Wolves seem almost too drab. There is no real “pop” or focal points on them. Realistic, yes; but on a small mini, they tend to blend into the landscape. A minor complaint, but it stuck out for me.
The same could be said for the rune priest. I like what you did with the blade, but I kinda want to see an electric blue, or even a blue-white in the bottom of the runes. Like the core of the blade is raw power, shining though where the runes were carved into it. I think he could use a little more wolfy bling as well. The tail talisman on the front is a good start.
My game this evening was incredibly intense. It was hammer & anvil, regular objectives (5 of them) and I had first turn.
Lets just say, I have an incredible alpha strike. The pod'd wolves destroyed 2 out of the 3 warwalkers when they hit, then proceeded to tie up a Wraith Knight for 3 turns. The turn 1 orbital bombardment took out 2 of the hornets, too. I finished off the WW and stacked a HP on the remaining hornet with the TFCs. I also maneouvered around the LOS blocking terrain in the centre of the board to minimise the reaper's comeback.
In return, his damage output was wrecked and he had not that many things to shoot at.
A few notable things as the game went on:
-Jaws'd the tide on turn 3
-4+ to deny a power is crazy good.
-I over-committed the command squad on turn 4, and lost them
-I ID Elderad (the warlord)
-I killed all his scoring units
All in all, an excellently played game (by the both of us), and a real nail-biter all the way through. The final result:
Eldar/Tau - 3 (STW, FB, LB)
Me - 4 (STW, 1 objective)
A victory! woo! I'm feeling alot more confident about this weekend.
Sounds as though you gave him a good and proper thumping Z.
The Furries are looking good. The glowing runes on the sword are perfect looking. As for the rush job on the pod, I think it looks fine. It's not like it's streaky or anything.
Wow, sounds like a real bloodbath of a game. You seem to have picked up the fairly simple way of using the pod-wolves straight away. The Rune Priest certainly adds a lot to the army, the 4+ to deny any power, not just maledictions and witchfires, is awesome, and Jaws is great against Riptides, Tervigons, Crons of all types, Ork Warbosses, anything with low initiative. What other power did you take with him? (I'd recommend Living Lightning as you've already got a reliable cover save and some long-rage firepower never goes amiss.)
McManiak wrote:
I'm sure I speak for all the followers of this blog when I wish you best of luck.....
Thanks Martin
Paradigm wrote:(I'd recommend Living Lightning as you've already got a reliable cover save and some long-rage firepower never goes amiss.)
...Oh wow... How'd I overlook that?
S7, AP5, assault d6 with unlimited range is pretty good (compared to the alternative options).
I went with fury of the wolf spirits... List's already been submitted, so I cant change :(
Fury of the Wolf Spirits can be useful, if a little limited, against some armies. The ability to force a Ld check and two 'ammo' types can be pretty good against low-Ld targets, so might come in handy running off things like small Loota squads, Fire Warriors without a Fireblade/Etheral. Heck, you might even get lucky on a Riptide.
Still, you'll be using Jaws most of the time as it's a great character killer (I don't think you can LO,S it). Good luck.
Mate I love your space wolf allied attachment, they will make a lovely contrast to your white scars on the table top. You have definitely inspired me to add a possible allied force of my own.
Thanks Ectus, keep working on your SoM. They're too pretty to get distracted by something else
Storm of Iron 2014.
I do a quick summary of each game, then a conclusion at the end.
Game 1: against Tom. Crusade, dawn of war. Grey Knights, Imperial guard, inquisition. This being my first game against GK, IG and inq I was a little apprehensive. He went ahead and deployed across the entirerity of his board edge, and with me going second, I loaded up my bikes on the right flank. His servo skulls denied my scout advance, so I just shuffled around for a better flanking maneover. On the right, he had 2 chimeras, in the centre his coteaz/aegis/some-kind-of-unit in a defencive formation and on the left he had most of his foot guard. Due to my deployment, he was only able to target my TFCs in turn 1, and destroyed one of them. In return, I got rather lucky, and scored first blood and slay the warlord in my very first shot (orbital bombardment). My grey hunters came in on his left and shot up some foot guard, and the TFC targetted the soft taget that is the remaining guardsmen. My rune priest did manage to get Jaws off once, claiming a priest, another dude (psyker maybe), a guy from coteaz's unit and the quadgun. Then he died horribly the an assassin's sniper. The Chapter Master pounded face, then died to Coteaz. We called it on turn 5. He had barely anything left on the table, I had all objectives and all three secondaries. He had nothing. I found this game to be really enjoyable, and my opponent said he enjoyed it too. I played really well and make him think about everything he was doing. His list wasn't exactly 'optimised' (judging by the result) but the fact that it was my first time playing them helped him a little. The final results: Me - 18 points (and 13 kill points which are used in the case of a tie) Tom - 1 (and 8 KPs)
Game 2: against (another) Tom. The Relic, Vanguard. Daemons w/ CSM. My solid victory catapaulted me into the top tier (I was playing table 2!). There was a Scar's list on table 1 and a Scar's list on table 3. I guess bikes dominated the first game. As expected, I had a hard game ahead of me. I faced screamer-star. First time playing daemons, too. I was going second. It started as just a slow slide down hill, then it built up to the eventual vertical plumit. I tried to play smart, keeping my bikes in a massive block together, with their backs to the board edge. I ignored the screamer star as best I could, and I took first blood on my first turn against an invisibility DP (I was pretty happy about that!). much started to fall apart after that. Lost my command squad, khan, CM and priest in combat with the screamers and decided to focus on his troops - It's an objective game after all. We finished on turn 4, and all I had was a Talon and a TFC left on the board. Luckily I gunned the horrors holding the relic down with my final shots from the talon, making it a non-victory. He still won, from secondaries, but didn't get the relic and thus not the extra points for winning (I'm not sure how other tourney's work, but here we get an extra 3 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and 1 for a loss - We got 2 points each in this game as no one had the relic). I felt a little overwhelmed at the start, and frustrated throughout the game. He rolled a crazy number of sixes (to the point where I thought to myself, are his dice loaded?) and me a crazy number of ones. I couldn't get the rune priest's nulify off for the life of me! But Tom was cool about it, I explained it was my first time against daemons and he was patient with me about the rules. Looking back at it, I'm pleased I could deny his relic and force the draw. The final results: Me - 3 (3 kill points) Tom - 5 (11 KPs)
Game 3: Against chris. The empy's will, dawm of war. He was playing Orks. I felt a little sorry for chris at the start, he had just come from a game against another scar's list (playing on table 3 right next to me) and he lost. I held back in this game, not enough to be noticable, or patronising, but enough to make it more enjoyable. I soon found that Chris is one of those guys that has an awesome time just throwing dice, and this was my most enjoyable game so far (and probably of the weekend). Gazgul (spelling?) and his squad ground through my stuff in CC. GHs, command squad, and a lone Nob with 1 wound left made it to my back line and took out my TFC! It was really enjoyable. The focal point of the game was; my Chapter Master, Khan and one guy left in the command squad failed moral, and ran (the chapter master with 3 wounds remaining). Then his dakkajet came on, and dakka-dakka'd into the remaining command squad. 3 wounds to take. 'My chapter master will tank them', I declared. Promptly followed by rolling 3 1s!!! Dead. We laughed hard. And for a while about that. I won the game, with 2 bike squads and a TFC remaining, he had a Dakka jet left. The final results: me - 15 (10 KPs) Chris - 2 (10KPs)
Game 4: Against Sid. Big guns, vanguard. Eldar with Dark Eldar. Sid was running a jet-counsil with all the trimmings. This game was really intense, up untill turn 4. Due to the deployments, we weren't going to be able to move into effective range in a single turn. Meaning we'd get counter assaulted. So there was a massive 24" strip of board that was effectively no mans land. I nabbed first blood, and was dealing with the weak stuff he was bringing on, but he eventually committed and blasted across no mans land. Once they were in, there was nothing I could do. They made short work of me. All I had at the end of turn 6 was the drop pod left. That jet counsil was really intimidating. It started as a slow roll down hill, then a sharp plummit off a cliff when they got in. Looking back, I was rather flustered at the start of the game. Showing up 15 late, and having been rushing for an hour previously wasn't good for my state of mind at the very start of the game. The final result: Me - 4 (7 KPs) Sid - 18 (13 KPs)
Game 5: Against Ashley. Kill Points, Dawn of war. 'Nids. I know what you're thinking... Kill points. 'Nids. Bikes. Exactly that. He conceeded on turn 4. Being that last game of the weekend, I figured this is my last attempt to bump the number of tourny points i had up. When I saw Ashley with his 'Nid codex, I felt confident and relieved. Then a little sorry for him. He was running the tyrant, 2 tervigans, 2 trygons, a smattering of littler bugs and 60 gants. I had first turn, and it went exactly like you imagine it to go. Grav to the face. I lined up my jaws to hit 2 tervi's and the tyrant (all the while thinking, 'I'm such a ****'). Then proceed to roll double 6. He got away lucky. My first turn took out a zoanthrope, a tervi, and stacked a few wounds on the other tervi. Through the game, he managed to kill a single bike squad. We took the game relatively slowly, and talked a fair bit. It was definately an aweful game for him (I hope I didn't come across as an a-hole). The final result: Me - 20 (11 KPs) Ashley - 2 (1 KP)
Wow... What a weekend. I went in with a goal of trying to win atleast 1 game, and instead won 3! Crazy! And that's not even the best part, the people are (There were 15 tables on the go, and around about 30 people). I met alot of people from the tuesday club (I go on thursdays) and a bunch of other people out of of the area who were all amazing. It was such a great atmosphere. And the armies were incredible. There were 3 Scar's lists there. Mine, a black scars and a bronze scars which were all FW bikes and speeders etc. A few Tau, few eldar, chaos (of both varieties), a healthy smattering of marines, all of which were painted and looked great. I had a lot (and i mean, a lot) of people come over and say, 'Mate, those Scars are incredible' - or words to that effect. The guy who won best painted definately deserved it. He had an incredible Night Lords army. A lot of conversions, really cool lightning effects and LEDs in his vehicles (the drake looked ace). It was just jaw dropping.
I was talking a lot with one of the local guys (from the club) and his not-so-local friend. They do tournaments fairly regularly, and invited me to tag along with them to future tournaments. An offer which i'll take them up on. The one regret I have, and it's more of an after thought really; I should have taken my camera. Just a few snaps here and there would have been great. Maybe the TO took some pictures and has uploaded them somewhere? I'll have to look around.
Anyway, the all important results: I placed...
Spoiler:
FOURTH!!! FOURTH!!!! (4!!!)
I was stunned. 3 wins and 2 losses and I placed that high! I nabbed 60 points, 3rd place had 67. He was running a (Black) scars list. Sid took the second place trophy with 71 points (my game 4 opponent). And 1st place (dont recall his name) had 82 points. He list was a nasty eldar wave serpent list.
4th!!
Anyway, i'm abolutely buzzing from the weekend (and bone-tired). I bid you all, goodnight.
That is a fantastic question. To put simply; I dont know.
The meltas in the command squad weren't used, and there were no infiltrators for the chooser of the slain to block. Also, the GHs got torn apart in shooting, so the banner was kind of useless. I could strip the MBs off the bike units too, they were only used once or twice throughout the weekend. So, a potential of 60 points to play with. I dont think I need to worry about it too much at the minute. If/when I line up the next tournament, I shall revisit that question.
It’s better to have melta and not need it, then need it and not have it. With the proliferation of super heavies and mega-forts, keeping a little melta in you list is a good thing.
Sound like you had a blast, and grats on your placement. Do you have a picture of your army as deployed? It’s one thing for us to watch your army slowly get painted, but I do love the shots of armies mustering up before being packed. Nothing like all that hard work, sitting in a functioning list, ready for battle.
Sounds like you had a great time, and congratulations on the placing, 4th is a very respectable position, especially for your first tourney. It's also great that all the players were decent and that you didn't run up against any rules-lawyers or super-cheese lists, as I imagine that would've ruined the experience somewhat and there are a fair few tournament horror stories out there.
Best of luck getting another tourney lined up, and on recovering from what sounds like an awesome weekend of gaming.
Nevelon wrote:Do you have a picture of your army as deployed?
...Not the full 2k list. I could muster everything together and get a picture tomorrow when the sun is shining.
Paradigm wrote:...and on recovering from what sounds like an awesome weekend of gaming.
It's astonishing just how tiring playing 40k is.
I slept through my alarms and woke up at noon today, I was gutted (not really) about missing my 3 morning lectures
Nevelon wrote:Do you have a picture of your army as deployed?
...Not the full 2k list. I could muster everything together and get a picture tomorrow when the sun is shining.
Paradigm wrote:...and on recovering from what sounds like an awesome weekend of gaming.
It's astonishing just how tiring playing 40k is.
I slept through my alarms and woke up at noon today, I was gutted (not really) about missing my 3 morning lectures
Your studies are important, don’t get in the habit of blowing them off for fun and games.
[/Parent]
That said, I slept through my share when I was in school. When I’m at my FLGS playing in our little tournaments I’m constantly reminding myself to sit down when I have a chance. And usually ignoring my own advice, but that’s beside the point. The other big thing is to eat well. While gamers can traditionally survive exclusively on soda/beer and greasy cardboard masquerading as pizza, eat some fruit and veggies. You will be surprised how much it helps.
Haha, thanks Nev. It's nice to be looked after I'm pretty good when it comes to food. I break the norm of students eating gak. Although, I think a little less alcohol might be beneficial, lol.
Also, I just got a PM from flibs. We're finally exchanging minis for the Great Marine Swap
McManiak wrote: Purley because I wont be doing any I would like to see the Termies and LR.
I was just measuring the top of the hull on the LR for a potential lightning bolt going down the top of the hull.
I think i'll do it... It's gonna be a real test of patients and finesse
You don’t see many White Scars LRs. Lots of space on those things to have some fun; big canvass. I was going to vote Vanguard, but I think I’ll side with McManiak on this one.
Army is looking sharp, thanks for the pic! Any plans on doing a display board?
Do the bolt, it will look great. I'm doing a large bolt behind an aquilla on each side of the thunderhawk. One nitpick if you will, is the apoth bike could do with some trim colour. IMO. Great otherwise mate.
Thanks everyone for you kind words, always appreciated. And dont worry Hedgehog, no pressure!
@Para: Ahh, totally forgot about that if i'm honest. It's late now and i'm busy all day tomorrow so i'll take a look tomorrow evening
Went to the Tuesday night club at the LGS tonight (met alot of them over the weekend), and I enjoyed it more than Thursdays. Played Eldar again, won twice against his 1650 tourny list. He was practising for a tourny to qualify for another bigger tourney, or somesuch All but tabled him twice, lol. It's funny, cause before I started to come he had the massive winning streak and people were finding it hard to beat him. You should hear some of the banter
Final thoughts before I hit the sack: 9 pages?!
Thanks alot for sticking with me!
Was that the same Eldar you lost to at the tourney? If so, congrats on revenge. If not, then still congrats, as Eldar can be tough for SM to crack in general.
@Para. Unfortunately there was no sweet revenge. This guy is a local player at the club. And his list's kryptonite is grav bikers. It's like a round-house kick to the throat from chuck norris, every game Jaws loves to eat MCs - Especially when concussive (from the gravs) reduces them to I1
Quick note for everyone: The guys came up with a way to single out the rune priest in a squad of Scar's bikes. Focus Fire 5+. All the Scar's get 4+ jinks from chapter tactics, and the priest is only rocking a 5+ regular. So you can target him out. Just something to keep in mind for playing White-Wolves.
@Tiggy. Generally, it's all painted. The majority are TT quality, some above and some below. Not seen any bare plastic around.
@Snrub: Yeah, the tourney was a blast. I loved it! Up next is the sternguard and LR. Late last night, I set everything up to airbrush them, thinking this morning I can roll out of bed and get straight into airbrushing it. It didn't happen. lol.
After that, i'm dead set on the vanguard and stormraven.
Hey mate just a tip rgarding the Storm raven. Dont bother painting the inside. You really cant see in tere once its assambled. I have even saved the detail pieces (screens and arches) for my Thunderhawk. I found it easiest to assemble the tail. hull and wings seperatey then paint them before gluing together.
I intend to clean mine tonight and then detail them and put some more pics on. After that comes the BIG choice???
Zambro wrote: Hey, flib, the image isn't showing up?
@Snrub: Yeah, the tourney was a blast. I loved it! Up next is the sternguard and LR. Late last night, I set everything up to airbrush them, thinking this morning I can roll out of bed and get straight into airbrushing it. It didn't happen. lol.
After that, i'm dead set on the vanguard and stormraven.
Z
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Any plan that starts with “I can roll out of bed and…” just isn’t happening. Unless the second half of that sentence is “...stagger into the kitchen and get a cup of coffee” or “land on the floor”
You already have the sternguard and LR cleaned and assembled? How did you put them together? Both are fun kits.
Thanks Maniak. I was looking at the spure for the SR thinking about the assembly process. I'm always a little hesitant when putting things together for the first time, so your advice is welcome I was thinking about magnetising the wings and maybe the tail. I will have to take a closer look at them both, and potentially look for videos on how to do it.
The sternguard kit was really fun to put together. Lots of options (even after I scavenged the kit for the command squad). I went with 2 combi-grav and 2 combi-melta and a sarge with the sword on his hip. They look pretty sweet.
And I built the land raider a while back (it's been gathering dust on the shelf for a while now).From what I recall, the sponsons were a PITA. Kept getting the bits the wrong way I'll put some pictures up once they are primed and based
I thought about magnetising the wings but even with 10-20mm magnets it would not sit well as they are big. There is then a piece to go on top of them. It would make transport so much easier though. They are gonna take up pretty much a whole 4.5" battle foam tray each.
I'm not too worried about fitting it into a case. When I carry the LR and DP around with me, i toss it into my backpack with the codex, dice etc.
The wings are one of the parts with not a lot of contact to the main hull, so if they do break off in my bag, then magnets will allow me to just put them right back on.
So, I'm glad you guys are checking in on the blog. I was working on the lightning bolt on the LR, and I know if you guys were'nt expecting it, I would have bottled it and just done it white. It was really hard! It was my first time taping off a shape on a model and I made some mistakes / learnt a few things. I was really worried about how it would look, right up untill I took the masking tape off. As soon as the tape was off, however, I thought, 'Hell yeah!'. I 100% want to do something similar on the stormraven now. It just looks TOO good not to xD I need to tidy up some of the lines (it was far from perfect), but below are some shots of it.
The sternguard are primed and based white ready. I'm going to do the cloth on the Vets red, like the chapter master back on page one. I was looking at the details and there would have been a lot of gold and white areas, but not a lot of red. With the cloth being red, I can get the red / white balance right for vets.
This took all morning (9:30 - 13:00), there's a lot of area to cover on a LR! So it's unlikely i'll do anymore painting today.
Did you say you just tossed you beautifully painted models loose into your backpack? I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that, so I don’t have to reach through the computer and slap you.
LOVE the lightning. If there are faults, I can’t see them from here. You have anything special planned for the side doors? Or the sides in general?
I can’t get enough of the new sternguard. I don’t think I’ve seen a bad model come out of the box, and your are no exception. From a rules POV I don’t think c-gravs are the best option, but they do look cool. Looking forward to seeing some paint on those guys.
...Only the large stuff that doesn't have space in the Feldherr foam bag (so far, only the -then unpainted- land raider and the DP have ridden lose in my backpack).
I was planning on doing lightning bolts on the side doors. And red on a few other minor things.
Sorry, “loose in my backpack” triggers some bad flashbacks for me. Not 40k related, but from when I worked at a college computer help desk. Students would come in with floppy disks they just tossed loose in their bags (some with the little metal shutters missing) and ask if I could recover the (only) copy of their thesis off of it. Idiots.
Backpacks are full of grit, crumbs and other abrasives. They are not designed to protect things. They get tossed around and banged into stuff. If you are going to use it for overflow model transport, see if you can find a shoebox or something, just so you have some protection. Barring that, wrap your minis in an old t-shirt of flannel. Anything is better then loose
Nev, you are a legend. Your parental advice is amazing and always said with sincerity.
I doubt Zambro even remembers floppy disks tho. He definatley wont remember green screen BBC computers with massive hard disks which were actually floppy as opposed to floppy disks being hard....
Nostalgia again, I want to plug my 48k speccy in and play Jetset Wily and Manic Miner
That lightning is looking amazing, 'Hell yeah' is pretty much exactly what I thought seeing it. It's always a challenge working to break up those large flat areas, and that's a great way of doing it. The Sternies are great too.
Thanks Paradigm, and thank you everyone for your support. I spent 10 minutes looking at the LR, and just thinking about how far my painting has come. I remember, back in 2011/12 when I got back into warhams, I painted a LR for the first time. It was done in Salamanders colours with a detail brush! It looked aweful (and took ages). Whilst my painting isn't flawless, I am incredibly proud of how far I have come.
It's been 11 days since I last updated you, and I have ridiculously little to show for it... A single (almost) finished sternguard. He is waiting on weathering for his melta barrel. The other 4 are roughly half way to complete and the LR is untouched since you last saw it.
But there is something new I wanted to talk about...
I've been wanted to do an Armoured Regiment IG army for a while now (since I got the IA1 at Christmas). I've been mulling over some fluff, and considering a lot of aspects of the army for the past few months, and I'm certain this is where I want my hobby to go next (It's not some shiny distraction that caught my attention for a week or two - looking at you: Ultras DP and Nurgle Daemon Prince ideas xD). I decided that I would start IG after finishing all of my Scars, and when the new codex came out. But, at my FLGS, we're starting a campaign. It sounds really cool, and I really want to be a part of it. But I dont want to be 'locked into' playing my Scars for the 3(?) months it will be running. So I've decided to start IG now. The campaign is starting small (at 1250), so I can fesibly buy and build a decent list before April 1st (the proposed starting date). As far as I'm aware, there are 3 flavours of Marines, and an IG army already. So, I'm going to be building an IG army based on the Armoured Battle Group army list in IA1, with a sprinkling of Imperial Navy for more fluff than competitive reasons. The organiser said that's awesome, as it brings alot more story to the campaign (they're going for narrative over competitiveness). The first phase, which (I think) is 3 weeks long will be at 1250, then phase 2 is 1500 (using the 1250 list + 250 points). What I have started to do is to look at some 1250 lists that are relatively fluffy, but can still hold their own, so I can pick what I need to start. I found that I have 30 guardsmen (10 catachans, 10 karskins, 10 NoS cadian) - no idea where/when I got them, and a leman russ. I want to include these in the first list as it reduces my need to buy stuff.
Here is the 1250 list i'm thinking of: HQ: Armoured Fist Command Squad w/ Company Commander, Autocannon, Flamer - 120
(For those of you unfamiliar with the list, chimeras are included in the costs for the armoured fist squads)
That is my list at the minute, what do you think? I still have the best part of 300 points to go crazy with. I want to keep the lists relatively narrative driven, and less balls-to-the-wall competitive (And use the 30 guardsmen and LRBT I already have).
I know this leaves my Scars hanging. But they wont be 'shelved'. The next few weeks will probably see me putting together the IG stuff, but after that i'll be spending roughly the same amount of time on each project.
Wait, is that a White Scar with his boots on the ground? Surely we are living in the end times! Looking sharp as always Z.
As for the IG, all I can offer is generic advice. I don’t own any FW books, and the last guard codex I owned was back in 3rd. Are you locking into the list for the whole time before upgrades? Or can you swap around on a weekly basis, as long as you keep the army? Can you take allies? That way you could start with some of your Scars, and phase them out as more guard units come online.
The one glaring thing that leaps out at me is the lack of AA. Adding some hydras seems the fluffiest way to cover that, but bumming some fighters from the navy is probably the best bet.
And if you are doing an armored regiment, what kind of baneblade variant are you going to use? I have no idea if they are even on the list, but if you are going down the road of the tread-head, you know you are going to get one...
I'm not as familliar with the ABG as I am with standard IG, but I know the basics, and that list looks solid. There are a few things I'd mention though, as you might find them handy:
One of the standout features of the ABG is the option to take a HQ tank, which comes with BS4 and a few other tricks/options. If you have the model/points, then a Vanquisher Command Tank with a Lascannon and 2 plasma cannons is just awesome, great against almost any target type and the two main guns benefit hugely from the BS4. You can also get Beast Hunter shells as an upgrade, I think, which confer Instant Death to the Vanquisher Cannon, meaning it's goodbye Nids/Wraithknights/Riptides. Might be something to consider as it gives you a load of flexibility, as well as a great modelling opportunity.
The loadout for the Armoured Fist squads is fine. With the FW rules, can you not take a 5 point upgrade to turn the multi-laser into an autocannon? Because if so, then they both doubles your long-range firepower from each squad (making them more dangerous than otherwise against light/medium vehicles) and looks awesome to boot.
The last thing is more of a general point, but with IG of any kind the key is specialisation. Where SM kind of have to/can make most squads perform multiple roles, IG generally have enough slots/points to bring unique tools for each job. This is where the LRBT loses out and it's better to pick specialist tanks, which you've done with the Exterminator (synched AP4, turns light/medium vehicles to ash). If possible, I'd suggest a LC/PC Vanquisher if you don't go for a command one, and then either another Vanquisher or identical Exterminator depending on whether you need more anti-infantry or Anti-tank.
With the leftover points, you'll probably want to throw in at least one aircraft (vendetta/punisher Vultures are the best) and maybe an ADL depending on how defensive/aggressive you're looking to play.
Wow, didn't see the IG coming. (Must have all been in camo)
Thought you were looking at a nurgle list? Good news either way tbh. It's nice to take a break from Scars. I'm in a 15-20 game league at the moment with no changes allowed and am already bored if mine. Plus taking them back to throne of skulls in May with the Fire Raptor.
Don't know anything about guard really to pass comment but wish you luck with the build. Played an all tank list once and was tough as hell.
Traitor guard? Combine the two. Just slap some pus and tentacles on those tanks, mix up some cultists with the troops, and go spread filth for the plague lord! The rust/filth/weathering will be as far as you can get from your clean white Scars.
Nev, I think i'm going to get multiple baneblades An actual baneblade would make sense as a first super heavy, but I love the stormlord(?). 15 twin linked vulcan megabolter shots. That is awesome. I'm not sure if we're going to reach apocalypse levels, but I for-see super heavies in my collection... We only keep the 1250 list for the 1500 list. After that, it's fair game. I'm going to try not to take allies. We already got lots of Marines and IG playing, so I'm going to keep mine to armoured regiments and Imperial Navy. ...And no! No heresy here. Maniak does enough of that over in his blog!
Thanks, Para. You know what's going to be even more awesome...? My planned paint scheme... (read more below). The Vanquisher command tank is definately my plan. After having IA1 for a day I found that build and fell in love with it. It's a shame about costing 230 points, cause it's only viable above 1500 points. I probably wont start with ACs on the turrets, but maybe i'll buy some from FW. Trying to keep the cost as minimal as possible.
@Maniak, yeah, the nurgle list didn't hold up too well. I saw that awesome looking DP and started thinking. I looked at the possibility for a list, but lost interest after a week xD
The campaigns first phase is at 1250, and phase 2 is at 1500. But after that, we are free to swap out lists around. So the 1250 list only carries through until the 1500 point list then I can revamp the army. I decided to add the punisher vulture and 2 hydras. I love the look of the vulture, especially armed with the gatling cannons. Who doesn't love 20 twin linked S5 shots? And two hydras to keep with the theme. They deal with fliers well enough. I want to keep the LRBTs normal in the first two lists. It seems more fluffy, to me. Save the twin executioners for 2k xD
Also, I know there is a new IG codex due any time soon. I will be getting it, despite not playing it in the campaign. I'm going to try and build these IG to use as both ABG and mech vets. And in terms of painting... You thought a white army was difficult... I'm going to do digital camo! xD
If you're looking for cheap alternatives for autocannons, rather than the overpriced FW ones, then check ebay. As Autocannons aren't the most popular option for HWTs, there's every chance you'll find some pretty cheap. Just lop off the Multi-Laser and glue on the AC.
@para: Yeah, I dont want the FW one. I've looked around and RabbitFerret did a great tutorial in his blog. He took a Basilisk and used a maxmini turret for the hydra part. Albeit, the total cost of that is more than the FW Hyrda, his tutorial shows that I can easily have different turrets on the back. So while it does cost more for one, I can take it as a Basilisk OR Hydra... I'm going to do it that way, imo.
@Maniak: Thanks for the direction with the digital camo I've already checked it out, and it is definately a good way!
I hope everyone's day is going to be as productive as mine.
@BoB. Thanks matey! I got the sternguard all done on thursday/friday.
These kits are awesome, I hope I did them justice
Now for the good / bad news... Bad news: This will be my last Scars update for a little while... Good news: I should have some IG pictures up for you next...
As far as my Scars go; I have remaining: NoS: Stormraven, 3 Attack Bikes, Command Squad, Vanguard Veterans and 2 Masters of the Chapter Built(unpainted): Land Speeder storm, 5 Tactical Marines, 10 Terminators, a Land Raider and 1 Attack Bike. As soon as I get to a place where I can play IG models in the campaign, I'll come back and chip away at the last few things.
In terms of Imperial Guard, I changed my list again (*sigh*) . I replaced the 150 points of the hydras with an Imperial Navy Avenger. The FW Avenger looks aweful in my opinion. So, I'm going to get the FW Thunderbolt (which looks sweet) and magnetise the weapons for both the TB and Avenger. I've not brought any of it from FW (yet). But what I have brought is 4 Chimeras and 2 Leman Russes. They're in the system, slowly working their way towards me (hoping the Chimeras show up later today).
But for now, back to the guardsmen i'm building Have a good one Z
It's officially happening... My main focus is now IG - hence the blog's name change.
This weekend has been... interesting, to say the least.
I built the 10 guardsmen I had lying around, and they are primed and ready for some infantry colour scheme tests (They probably wont get colour for a while, but atleast I can play them!)
And I attempted digital camo on the Russ that I have lying around. I experimented with the Russ for a while; here is the pic:
First things first... I was dissapointed by the digital camo. I gave it a solid effort, but I didn't like it. The lines were crisp, and you could tell that it was digital, but it just didn't look right. It seemed very flat and 'bland'. I went ahead and continued anyway. I tried some weathering on it, and i'm not sure if I like that either... (If digital camo doesn't please me, what will? More white?). I started with a whole model wash (to line the panels etc), the sponged some black on, followed by silver. I used some brown wash to make rust marks where water would run off, it looks a lot better that the other side, which was done using rust coloured weathing liquid (it came out WAY to red xD). Finally, I fired up the ol' airbrush and put some soot on the exhaust bits and mud along the bottom. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that airbrushing the brown will cover the paint scratches (invalidating a fair amount of the previous 30 minutes). As a first piece, it was good. I learnt a lot of good / bad techniques to use, and got a feel for painting a LR (Not a total waste... )
But a few things I want to ask:
-If not digital camo, what scheme? This IG army will be Urban themed. So that put a few colour restrictions in place. I was thinking maybe a 2 tone camo. But i'm going to look around for something I like, before I try again.
-How much weathering? I dont like what I did (looks too busy). I think light dusting of mud, soot and with paint chips will be my limit. How do I do the dusting of mud without covering the silver paint chips?
Thats all the IG for now. Chimeras and more LRs will arrive some time next week.
Z
Camo looks nice, but if you don't like it, then there are other options. The most obvious would be to stick with the same colours but do a more free-form camo, more akin to traditional aircraft/tank patterns.
Bear in mind that the purpose of camoflage on a tank is not to hide it but to break up the outline to prevent critical parts (sponsons, engines, drivers) from being easily distinguished. To that end, you'd want organic shapes crossing over multiple components. Something like this:
As for weathering, pigments/chalks could the what you're looking for. Applied lightly, it will leave the chipping showing through.
Have you thought about using stronger contrasting colors for the camo? Maybe not all the way to white/grey/black, but something you can tell you are using different paints. If you asked me how many different shades you used for that tank, I couldn’t answer you. They are subtle enough that it looks more like uneven fading (albeit along straight lines) rather then camo. I’m not talking about going all the way to the crazy quilt black/white zebra-esque camo patterns that work more for breaking up the silhouette rather then hiding the tank, but just something that shows a bit better.
Good camouflage is a lot of work to make something look bland and boring. Very realistic is not very fun. I suspect once you add the guns and details, the tank will liven up a bit.
I like the weathering. It’s been used and run around a bit, but not overpoweringly so. The understated weathering, coupled with the subtle camo makes this look like a real tank. An army painted like this is not going to draw the eye from across the room. It lack the brightly colored cartoony punch that most 40k armies do. But it looks like an army of actual troops holding the line, and from across the table or at arms length, should look quite sharp.
Thanks guys I slept on your comments and realised it isn't the end of the world
I'm going to give it another few attempts before I make any final decisions about changing the scheme.
When i'm at the LGS tomorrow, i'm going to pick up some better colours. I was using thinned VGC paints, and they dont have much of a selection of greys. I'm going to use the same colours as buypainted in this video - Which are vallejo model air medium sea grey and dark sea grey
All tanks I need for the opening of the capaign are in the post making their way to me. 4 Chimeras from my LGS are awaiting a delivery from GW - IIRC, when I got my scars, I had to wait until a wednesday for GW to deliver some stuff to them. 2 LRBTs from an online store. It says the order is being processed, so I guess it's the same deal with the Chimeras. And I just picked up A Vulture, a Thunderbolt, Punisher Cannons (for the Vulture) and a bunch of ammo creates (It's about time I have my own objectives ) from Forgeworld. My guess is these will arrive first.
Next on my to-do list whilst waiting for things to show up:
-source my IG infantry needs for the opening of the capaign. I'm hoping a few IG players at the club can help me out by loaning me some models (only need about 15 guys and 4 weapons teams)
-Work out exactly what I need for home made decals, and get that stuff together (already done the research).
-Research how to properly use oil washes (input appreciated ). The last (and only time) I used it, I made a complete botch of the job...
-And finally, find out how I'm going to do flying bases for my Navy fliers. If i'm understanding right, they dont come with the marked 'X' underneath for the GW stands. So I'm going to be looking at how to make something that can hold it, and at the same time be removable for transport.
Hopefully, my next update will show some FW goodies...
That Land Raider looks amazing. I'm assuming you airbrushed it? I've wanted to stencil stuff for a while, but am too cheap to pony up for an airbrush. Can you get the same effects with brushes?
I'm an IG player, so I'm very excited to see how you tackle my army.
Mate, for the stands you can but threaded bars (I use 5mm) and then glue/epoxy resin them to the base and flyer. That way you can unscrew the bar for transport. I airbrush and varnish mine black but they work great. You can buy the threaded bars on eBay etc or even tap and due your own.
As for oil washes, I use mig oils and odourless turpentine. Getting the mix right us just practice. Always use it over satin/gloss varnish though so you can take off any excess.
I'm interested to see how you get on with the transfers as I'm looking at doing some god my Scars.
@TheNightWillEnd. Thanks mate. The LR was the first time I masked an area off, and it was a little rough along some edges. The airbrush definately helps, but I dont see why you couldn't get a similar effect with a brush. It would take time and a lot of patients, but you can do it. I have done a boat load of lightning bolts and dags on a much smaller scale with relatively good success (see spoiler tag below), I dont see why doing it on a larger canvas would be much harder.
[spoiler]
A few examples of hand painted jags and lightning bolts:
@Maniak. Thanks mate, I was trying to remember exactly what you said you had used. Can you link me to the stuff you have used? In terms of oil washes, odourless turp. would be awesome (I opened the stuff in an enclosed room last time xD ). I'm going to be using winsor and newton oil washes. I know about putting down gloss varnish first, but what do you use to remove excess?
And in terms of home made decals, I made this thread the other day. I got some pretty good info for making my own decals from it.
I have 1 Vulture, 1 Thunderbolt, 2 Leman Russes, 4 Chimeras (some stuff not pictured). I had a great sense of smug satisfaction when I opened the door to the postman who was balancing 2 massive boxes
Anyway, the FW stuff is great. I've never had any FW stuff before, so it was a blast looking through the pieces. Definately got to wash them, I could feel the release agent on my fingers. As far as I could tell, there are no hideously miscast pieces. I did notice some minor twisting of some pieces (9/10 people wouldn't notice). I'm going to try and fix them before I put it together. I was really supprised by the Vulture. I get a valkyrie sprue, with the vulture bits seperate in resin. The supprising bit was, the entire back part of the vulture (the circular engine part all the way to the back) is a solid piece of resin. And a pretty heavy piece at that. It turns out they actually come with flying stands and additional bits you can attach to make the 'X' needed. I'll see how much hassle it is to install the bars, if it's too much, I may not bother and just use the regular flying stands.
As for the regular stuff; the chimeras arrived yesturday. And as a result, I've already built 2
They're a nice kit (first time ever assembling one). I made a mistake or two magnetising some of the pieces, but I know how to do it properly now. I left the tracks off, in order to paint seperately.
It'll be relatively slow going this week (imminent coursework deadlines), but I look to get at least another chimera done this weekend, possibly two - although i'm running low on magnets.
Looks good mate. I would definitely recommend the bars ax transport is so much easier.
The rest of the Valkyrie will make for some good scenic bases. If you get stuck for inspiration then just ask nev, he's full of great ideas
McManiak wrote: If you get stuck for inspiration then just ask nev, he's full of great ideas
QFT
I didn't think about using the valkyrie bits as a scenic base. Would it look weird to be flying over my own guys, considering that most people put 'enemies' on their bases?
Snrub wrote: Got any infantry to go along with those tanks?
Yeah. 20 guys I have lying around. And an un-known number of catachans in a box (pretty bad condition, maybe I can salvage something).
10 of the guys are Kasrkins I painted almost a year ago. They're in the scheme of Cadian 8th (The guardsmen in the IA11 Doom of Mymeara book).
The other 10 are assembled and primed. I started working on a colour scheme today for the infantry. I've got a scheme i'm happy with, but i'll finish the model before I throw it up for you guys to comment on
The only reason I started the infantry today, was because I hit a small problem with the tanks... I ran out of magnets. lol. 4 Chimeras are built, 2 of which are primed. I need to put a few magnets here and there, then I can start on the Russes. Does anyone know any good videos on how to magnetise russes? I've looked on here and youtube but nothing exemplary jumped out. I've looked at the sprue and I have a decnt idea on what I will do, but it's always nice to see someone else do it before I mess up
In all honesty, you won't need to magnetise the Russes. The turrets are detachable, and the sponson and hull weapons are easily held without glue, allowing swapping.
For the main gun, rather than magnetising, it's easier to glue a piece of sprue on the end of the gun, kind a 'lever' to hold it in place. Might save you some time/money, and holds up well to use.
I think I picked the worst time possible to do a new army. This past week has been rammed with uni work. But now that that is (more or less) over, some warhammer time
First on the agenda; Infantry.
I've decided on a scheme I like. My regiment will be engaged in an urban conflict. As a result, I've decided hard armour is going to be a dark, gritty green and fatigues will be grey. Here is an (unfinished) mock up:
Below are some extra shots of the above model next to a previous test model:
As you can see, a few things changed. I disliked the gold. It almost gave it 'too much' colour. Also, the brown gun stock looked aweful, so that went too. Other than that, not too much changed. I switched up the mixed colour for the highlights on the new guy. They're incredibly suttle, but they are there. I may try and go a bit brighter, and do them from above, but we'll see. Also, the boots. On the first test mini they are just glossed black, and on the second they're a dark brown. I know they're both quite dark and hard to see, but what do you think?
Next up; Tanks.
I've not really had much time working on these recently. I've built another 2 chimeras. Some magnets arrived today, so the 2 chimera's will get some magnets. Also, now that the 5x1mm magnets have arrived, I feel more comfortable making progress on the Russes. Para, you said I wont need to magnetise the russ's sponsons. Are you sure the sponsons are held on without glue? It doesn't look like they will...
Additionally, today I painted my first 2 chimeras. I got home from uni and started work on them around 11:30, and by 17:00 I was done 2 Chimeras with the digital camo pattern put down. I appreciate your comments, guys. If it wasn't for you I would have bottled it and not done a digital camo scheme (based on the last attempt). Nev, your advice about upping the contrast was ace. Take a look:
IMO, the camo scheme looks great. I'm a fair way from finished, but I can only imagine that lining the pannels and hitting the details will make it look better. The colours are much better than last time, and this time around, I only pulled the paint off down to the plastic 3 times when removing the masking. And 3 small patches, in unnoticable places, at that . I painted the tracks silver, too. I got a silver airbrush paint and laid down the silver onto the tracks in less than 5 mins. I cant imagine how long it would have taken with a brush. Next thing to do on these chimeras is an oil wash.
All in all, I'm pleased with my somewhat limited progress. This weekend is going to hold the progress of my russes. The opening night of the campaign is this tuesday, and I want all of my tanks built for the night (I'm running an ABG list, after all). The FW fliers are probably going to wait until next week (I'll probably proxy the fliers I need using my STs).
VERY nice tanks. Looking forward to the details and some of the light weathering you did on the russ earlier.
I’m going to give you the same advice on the trooper as on the tank. Real camo is boring. He needs more contrast. What I might do is to change his pants. If you brightened them up a shade it would help break him up. Right now you have to look close for where the jacket, pants, and boots separate. A brighter highlight pass might also fix this. Another option would be to do the pants in a camo. Either a freeform one, or a tiger stripe would be easy. Digital would be awesome, but probably cost you your sanity.
The fact that he’s no based yet doesn’t help. Dark mini on a dark base, done in subdued tones. There is no “pop”. If you are not careful, these guys are going to get lost and forgotten on the table. Be sure to count them coming out and going into the case
Both trooper and tanks look good, nice and grimdark. I agree about maybe adding some more spot colour (maybe squad markings in white?). Brown boots as well.
To clarify, the sponson weapons can be switched without magnets (what I thought you were referring to), but to switch the sponson itself you will need magnets. I may have umisnderstood if you originally meant the second one.
Nice camo on the tanks, it looks like you hand painted them. There is somewhere that sells little square bits of masking tape or something, the last person that I saw painting digital camo on their tanks used them on their tanks so take a look around, might save you some time.
I can't really see the infantry but from the description it sounds ok.
I don't like the tank camo. It makes the tank look like it was constructed out of Lego bricks.
I just plain don't like digital camo though. I think it's stupid. So it's not your rendition of the camo that's the problem per-se.
As far as the camo itself goes it's hard to fault. The edges are sharp and there's a lot of variation in the shape. We'll see how it goes once the whole thing is finished.
I do however like your guardsmen. The green and grey I like. Add a little bit of (non-digital ) camo to the fatigues and I think they'll look grouse.
@Para. Yeah, slight mis-communication between us I was refering to the actual sponsons, opposed to the weapons in the sponsons. @OneManNoodles. Yeah, I have camo masking tape. I cant imagine doing it without masking it off.
I found a few camo schemes I like on the interweb (for the fatigues). I'm going to repaint 3 previous test guardsmen in a few different schemes too see what I like. Paradigm suggested white squad markings, but i'm going to stay away from that for one reason: I can't make white home made decals. I like the idea of a dark, gritty red as the spot colour. I'll do some tests and see what happens...
As for the tank progress, I tried an oil wash again. Similar experiance as before (except I didn't use water to clean up this time ). It didn't turn out well, good job I only used 1 Chimera. Looking at it now, it's not completely bad... I was just trying to line the pannels with the oil wash, but it didn't work as expected. It looks dirty, and well used now, which isn't entirely bad. I'm going to make some more progress today and tomorrow on it, and I'll show you some pictures soon.
I also built 1 Leman Russ. Para, you were right about the sponsons/hull weapons not needing magnets. They have a nice snug fit, as is (so i'll save myself 11 magnets per russ). I did manage to magnify the sponsons, it was remarkably easier than expected. I magnetised the turret weapons too. They droop slightly towards the left, but it'll be unnoticable once on the TT.
This was easily the most challenging/frustrating/enjoyable kit i've built in recent time.
The kit itself was superbly cast. The additional armour pannels on the tail booms were the only thing that was warped. Super easy fix; hold under running hot water for a minute, place piece on tail boom and hold under the hot water for another minute (Pressing it up again the tail boom gets the shape right), then hold under cold water for a minute. Easy.
The pieces have some massive blocks of resin sprue attached to them. They were a real PITA to take off. I spent a fair few hours on Sunday cutting and cleaning the kit. In the end I just took it down to my parents and used the old man's power tools to take the pieces off (It was also mothers day on Sunday... two birds ). Whilst I was there, I got the holes for the threaded bars and nuts done. Mcmaniak, thank you for suggesting it. The bar is great. It's a solid fit, and easy to take apart for transport. In the pictures above, the bar isn't quite straight. This has nothing to do with the fact that I cant use power tools for gak, and everything to do with the fact that it looks more dynamic... I also got a block of wood and block of resin drilled out for the base. I'm going to glue these onto the regular flying base for a little bit extra stability. Nev, how can I make the block of wood / resin look scenic, whilst not getting too tall (for transportation reasons)? Some ideas would be appreciated, i'm drawing a blank on how to make it look better.
If one of the ammo belts on the punisher cannon looks like it's held together with copious amounts of super glue and GS, it is! I broke the belt in 2 places... And they weapons themselves are poorly attached to the wings. There were no instructions at all with them, so I was just guessing based on the pics on the FW website They're incredibly delicate and I expect them to break tomorrow at the LGS, i'm going to have to be really gentle.
There were some pieces of this kit I looked at and thought; 'Thats going to break off in less than 20 minutes'. So I went ahead and magnetised it, to save me fixing it later.
I also included a scale pic. I think the bar is 150mm tall. It really towers over everything!
I also finished the other Russ. The sponsons and weapons are magnetised
Here is a group shot of my Armoured Company so far:
All's going well for the start of the campaign tomorrow, Z
Looks great mate. Maybe trim the bar down a touch though. If your flyer is too high people will complain about distance fir range and cover etc.
As for the resin blocks they can be cut to make 'barricade like' terrain very easily and slur waddy have the Vadim shape. The bonus is the weight they add to the base. A few cracks and bullet holes looks great....
, any plans for doing the red dags on him?
Also, if it's not on my worktable, it's in the closet. Having all of the boxed/unstarted things away in the closet stops me mulling over the huge pile - out of sight, out of mind. And when it comes to sitting down to paint, i use the 1-2-3 go method. At some point each day, i just go to my work table and paint. I dont overthink it. I dont make excuses. I just go. 
was I thinking when I was painting that thunderbolt?! 
It really draws the eye, which is a shame, because you did a great job painting them.
