I've decided to start logging the building of my dream army of Blood Angels.
Some background introduction. I have been into 40K as soon as I saw Rogue Trader in a local bookshop some time during the late eighties. Space Marines looked so cool back then; cooler than star wars, cooler than what was on Robotech morning cartoons or Judge Dredd, cooler than anything I could think of! The Rogue Trader cover art stuck to my brain like crazy. I knew there and then I had to get some of that stuff into my life..
So I've been following and participating in the "hobby" on and off since all those years. Sometimes leaving it for a decade, only to come back to it later. Throughout it all, I've always been drawn to Space Marines, and particularily to Blood Angels specifically.
Blood Angels were the posterchild marine chapter in the first edition of Space Hulk "3D Roleplaying Hobby Game". I absolutely loved the metal Terminator models back then, and found the whole colourscheme of "Red vs Blue/purple" evocating. Space Hulk was my favourite game back then; We were too young to get involved with 40K proper at the time (The logistics of owning a full Space Marine army was out of our reach both financially and otherwise).
So now I'm old as heck and feel like I want to finally scratch the itch properly. An itch I've had all those years. To own a Blood Angels army of my dreams. I've long been planning to do it, but was unsure how I'd want the Army to look, both stylistically and in terms of unit choices. There are so many options.. so for years, this has been puzzling me. I knew I was going to do it but wanted to be sure about the "vision" of the army.. Which brings us to the present.
40K as a whole has changed significantly in its lore and visuals. While the roots of the game can still be found pointing all the way to Rogue Trader, things have evolved with the times and current day Space Marines have a very different feel to them. However, my first love to the Space Marines in the Rogue Trader book never waned. So What would be a more fitting style for my army than the look Space Marines had in the times of Rogue Trader and 1st edition Space Hulk? That's it! I finally found the solution to my "vision". As my research into the history of 40K deepened, I have narrowed my favourite 40K "period" down to 1991 or thereabouts. Power armour of the time was still Mk VI (although Mk VII was the new shiny on the scene) and the majority of the Space Marine lore had been fleshed out, we had Terminators, Jump Pack Assault marines, the classic rhino variant vehicles, so most of the core of a Modern Space Marine Army had been conceptualized.
So I am going to build a Blood Angels army that takes the visual aesthetics of that era as much as possible, and combines that to what exists now. Marry the old and the new, but keep the original "generic scifi" vibe which was present in the late 80s / early 90s instead of the newer "Knights.. In SPACE!" grimdark gothicness. But this wont be limited to just the looks. No sang guard spam or smash captain nonsense here! The army will have a more "modern warfare" style, and I also want the army to reflect the portion of the lore which depicts Marines as a scarce and prescious resource to the Imperium. This means an army which leans towards being heavily mechanized, multiple small units, vehicles and autonomous systems heavy. Lots of apotecharies to heal the wounded and to collect the geneseed of fallen brothers. And emphasis on jump packs, flyers, skimmers, Drop pods and Battle Automata!
As for the Flaw of the Blood Angels, this is a bit problematic. Rogue Trader era BA didn't have it, nor were the Angels vampiric back then. I've never liked the vampiric aspects of BA, like, at all. So my army will have none of that. However, I do like the idea of the Flaw and Black Rage in general, so I'm definetely including that part of the lore for my army. But I want to twist things a bit.
The way I see it, homicidal, uncontrollable anger and Psykers are a very, very bad combo.. basically we're talking about severe Heresy against the IoM and I cannot see the Imperium ever consenting to such a thing tbh. Therefore, if I'm accepting the Flaw, I don't see how I can accept any Psykers in my army - the risk of them turning into Daemons of Khorne is just too great to leave to chance. So no psykers (Sorry Mephiston, you're out! LOL). For dealing with psyker enemies, I'll have two allies to rely upon; Inquisitor who is a psyker, and the Sisters Of Silence..
Now the next part might be hard for oldhammer purists to swallow: I intend to include Primaris Marines in my BA army! I don't see any reason why I couldn't do it. Most Primaris marines have the sleek "generic scifi" look to them, so they will fit in with all the legacy units if I plan this right. Scale difference makes things a bit problematic, but I have decided to keep the amount of Primaris Marines low, and favour special units instead of interecessor spam, so we're talking Mk X Gravis armour for the most part.
Troops will mainly consist of Mk VI & Mk IV armour. Mk IV armoured helmets are visually somewhat close to the beaked Mk VI armour, and the pauldrons can also be pretty much interchangeable. Mk IV helmet also maintains a visual link to the Primaris Mk X helmet, so this all should hopefully work out to make for a somewhat unified look for the whole infantry.
Vehicles will be Rogue Trader -inspired. The current Forge World kits offer the classic kits and variations of them, so they will be used along with other GW plastic kits.
The colourscheme will most likely end up being inspired by the 1991 Space Marine Paint Set, which had a cool Terracotta/Orange colour. Besides, Warhammer 40,000 Compendium states "The Blood Angels wear Vermillion coloured armour" - it is official GW canon from 1991 so I'm running with it.
Now that the idea is in place, I've been slowly amassing bits and kits to start building the army. I'm thinking of building and painting the units one by one, in order to keep ADHD from running amok and preventing progressing with the project through distraction. I'm not sure if I'm ADHD but I get distracted easily, which is why I never got around to building this army in the first place! EDIT: Turns out my concentration didn't hold in the end, apologies..
So I'm starting with the most basic building block of any Marine army - The humble tactical squad.
Rybrook wrote: Will be looking forward to this, good luck
Thanks! I'm kinda hoping starting this log will help me keep the building going. I've already blu tac'd the tac squad first draft, I'll try to post pics soon.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Here are some pictures I've compiled to give insipiration and ideas to the visuals. If including them here violates forum rules or otherwise infringes on copyrights severely, feel free to take them down or notify me.
(I assume no cooyright over these pictures - they have been obtained from the public WWW via search engines)
Some more research material.. Whoopsie! Just realize the "black BA" scheme is actually some other chapter altogether! EDIT: OMFG its the original Dark Angels colourscheme! All these years I thought.. *facepalm* Oh nevermind, it will still serve me as insipiration for my Fallen brothers..
I've been obsessing over the exact red shade for years now, and I still prefer the venerable OOP colour "Mechrite Red". It's sort of an amalgation of all the various BA colourschemes through the years: From Blood Red to the orange/terracotta and back.. I still prefer the way Mechrite Red looks on a black basecoat vs any other shade of red I've tried. Looks more grimdark, for lack of a better term
Mechrite Red can still be bought via Instar Paints, they make a vintage paint in the same shade.
EDIT2: Here's one more RTB01 reference image I found on BOLS (I remember it well from back in the day but cant remember where it's from)
EDIT3: In the end, the colour eventually changed to vermillion, as you will see..
I like the black stripe that doen't extend all the way down.. Looks pretty cool! Also seems like the sergeant has a light trim on his helmet stripe..? Also loving that camo on the Captain! (not sure about the red bits though..)
I've almost done a first draft of the tac squad with blu-tac. The bolters will still be swapped to proper Umbra pattern FW bolters later, and I might also swap out the backpacks later, but this is what I'm starting with.
The sergeant and squad veteran (he acts as a 2nd sergeant when splitting into combat squads) have Mk IV helmets. The plasmagunner is a Mk VII armoured Marine, my idea here is that plasmagunners tend to be among the first brothers to die as they overcharge their weapons every now and then, so they would sport a "newbier" mark of armour. Thoguhts on that? Does the lone Mk VII suit stick out too much from the rest of the squad?
Also wanted to ask opinions about the chest plates. I have accumulated quite a lot of Mk VI bitz over the years, enough to kit out the whole squad with the plain, aquilaless version of the Mk VI chestplate. Do you think I should use those as much as possible? Or should I mix it up with the Mk VII aquila chest plates like I've done now? I seem to recall artwork of Mk VI armour with the Mk VII chestplates, so I guess there is no right answer either way.. Using the RTB-01 style chestplate would be the most minimalistic choice, but might end up looking too uniform/boring across the whole squad? I'll swap out the chestplates and do some comparisons..
Spent some more time with the drafts. I remembered one cache of spare bitz I had aquired earlier this year for this project, and swapped out the missile launcher marine bitz to the better ones I had planned for it - kneeling Mk VI legs from the most recent devastators box recut, which have the heavy weapon recoil bracing thingamajigs. Also, swapping out some chest pieces into the RTB01 Mk VI pieces, found all of them and there's now enough for the whole squad.
The RTB01 chestpieces change the appearance significantly for the better, more towards my original vision, so they will be used as much as possible gping forward, even if it risks looking more boring than changing it up now and then. I will just need to rely more on leg pieces, helmets, poses and battle damage for making the models feel less repetitive.
Also swapped the skull adorned chestpiece of the plasmagunner to an aquila one. Better!
After I have swapped out the remaining chestpieces, I'll start messing with these lovely FW umbras <3 Bayonets and chainblades will give the tacs their much needed BA "flair". After all, Blood Angels love CC!
The final pic makes me wonder - should I splurge on the FW Mk VI legionnaires? I don't know any other source for the RTB01 looking backpacks, as the vintage plastic ones look out of scale on the current miniatures.. Any ideas?
IGtR= wrote: Thanks for sharing - I agree the chains look to BT (as a BT player myself, it jumps straight out at me).
Really looking forward to seeing this develop!
I was thinking of starting this project when that Black Templar upgrade kit was the only source of "flavoured" bits for plastic marines; I think that's where the idea originally came from hehe! Just goes to show how long I wanted to start this..
Yes, the chains do not fit in in this context. On a Death Company marine, I could perhaps understand the chains a lil better, as DC marines are supposedly "gone" so it might make sense for the Chaplains to chain their weapons to the Fallen, but not on a "compus mentis" tac brother. Doesn't jive with the generic scifi look either. I've already removed those arms.
I must admit being quite inexperienced with handling FW resin. I've had probs getting acrylic paint to stick on the resin in my earlier dabblings with them. So I hope I will be able to tame it, as I already know this army will be resin heavy!
One more thing - I am torn between making these 100% WYSIWYG or not.. I think I have enough holstered bolt pistols and krak/frag grenade bits, but I'm not sure if always having them on the model will limit my poses too heavily? Any suggestions welcome!
Spent this morning rummaging through my bits bags and found enough pouches and grenades to fit the whole squad with them. Unfortunately, I couldn't find enough holstered pistols, so ordered some more from a bitz store. I'd also need two empty bolt pistol holsters for the Squad veteran and the Missile Launcher marine. Where can I get empty pistol holster bits? Which kit has those? Anyone know?
I've decided to go all in with this so now am waiting until I can get my hands on 10 forgeworld beakies before continuing. I want those original looking backpacks for these tacs, nothing else will do. Costs be damned, I've spent too much on this hobby to turn back now hehehe
I've also been brainstorming on the army as a whole, and have already devised a "roadmap" into an army of ~2500 pts. So plenty of stuff to build and paint for this project! But like I said, I don't want to distract myself so I'll keep all that in the backlog for now..
Scoured through all of my mini archives while looking for bits & inspiration, and even found a long forgotten batch of my own RTB-01's from ~1989! Does anyone recognize this flag design? I think it was photocopied from the Space Marine Paint Set booklet but I'm not sure anymore, that set is long gone now.. Ah, and also found a set of vintage BA transfers!
I'm digging the flag and the halved look of the Captain.. So I reckon this army will be from the 2nd Company as well!
Cool project, that’s a lot of beanies you’ve managed to build up. They’re going to look great as a RT inspired force. Makes me want to get out my RTB01 boys! I love how your old Captains eye lenses invert colours, that wouldn’t be disorientating at all!
gobert wrote:Cool project, that’s a lot of beanies you’ve managed to build up. They’re going to look great as a RT inspired force. Makes me want to get out my RTB01 boys! I love how your old Captains eye lenses invert colours, that wouldn’t be disorientating at all!
I've been gathering beakie bits throughout all my hobby years, so have managed to get a modest amount together. Although that all feels a bit in vain now with forgeworld beakie kits existing.. And remember that captain was painted around 1992-94 (IIRC), I didn't think much about realism back then hehe
Thanks for the link! This army is in the same spirit as I intend to go for, but I'll try taking it a notch down by one ruleset edition (very few Mk VII models to be included etc). But that colour of red is very close to my target!
I got some levelups in my hobby tools this week, and found some pistol holster bits online, but I'm afraid nothing much is happening during December, skint right now and those forgeworld beakie packs wont be here until early next year. But rest assured once those are in, I'll be sure to post a significant update. Will probably be able to finish assembling those umbras by then as well; they are a bit fiddly to get the bayonets/chainblades securely in place.
One small update before the end of 2020 - something came in the mail today! Here he is, posing on a 32mil
Not sure yet if he'll make the cut for the final army, or if I'll just use him as a study piece for a similar conversion.. I adored this model during its heydays, but time marches on and the pose is a lil derpy by contemporary standards. You know what I'm going for, its the chap in the research pic illustrations (I am presuming later lore named him as Erasmus Tycho?)
But hey, I'm getting waayy ahead of myself here - Back to building the tac bolters!
Cool purchase! I think he became Tycho with a conversion of his Bolter in to a Combi-Melta/Bolter for a White Dwarf Battle Report just after 2nd Edition came out. I hope he or a new version makes the cut on the final Army.
With the forgeworld beakies still stuck in transit/customs (thx Brexit!), I've been getting distracted again.. Almost impulse bought a 3D printer and some epic HH marine prints from ebay! Thankfully reason won out this time and I tried concentrating on other parts of the army building. I was supposed to stick to the tacs and tacs only but since they cant be progressed right now, I got started on an inceptor squad I've been thinking of adding.
I bouht the Dark Imperium box when I got back to the hobby because I wanted the current rulebook and some Primaris on the cheap for playing some games with. Well, turned out the Dark Imperium marines were a bit of a letdown in the sense that you could not add BA iconography to the shoulderpads, there were no weapon options for interecessors nor hellblasters either.. But I was hell bent on getting both done. So I decided to convert the DI inceptors in the meantime while I wait for the beakie stuff to arrive. Had bought replacement bits to swap out the bolters to the multipart ones (they are more detailed) as well as one primaris upgrade sprue just for doing it.
I got it done but messed up quite a bit hehe! I damaged the sergeant model accidentally while cutting off the left arm to swap out to the multipart arm, so made a bunch of simulated battle damage to the left side to make the mess look more intentional. Also noticed that one of the model had broken its left leg "sneaker pump", so battle damaged that one too. Also on the sergeant, which I worked on first, I made a bit of a mess cutting the old right bolter arm from the elbow joint and while reconnecting the multipart plastic weapon to the elbow, snapped the cable in two! After a lot of cursing and faffing around, I finally managed to glue the snapped cable back in place. Whew!
After the weapon swaps were done, I realized I was missing two right shoulderpads since I only had spares for tacticus primaris and forgot the inceptor shoulderpads are gravis-sized. Oof. So now the inceptors wait for new shoulder pads bits to ship from the UK.
I also finished my first painting test for the upcoming army. Wasnt too pleased with the result, it looks a bit too washed out. The shade of red I tested wasn't mechrite red, and it shows. Nothing beats that mechrite! Next test I'll make with that. Tested the AK weathering pencils on the model a bit and can already tell they will be something I want to use for the final models as well.
I'm also brewing up some kitbash ideas for the Death Company.. can already feel concentration slipping away! Must stick to the plan dammit
My beakies from Forge World arrived finally! Ordered on Xmas eve, so they took almost two full months to reach me.. Brexit FTW
Comparing the forgeworld beakies to my multipart plastics reveals another difference - The studded shoulder pads appear to have slightly larger studs on the FW resin versions. So I will switch to using them exclusively.. Aargh! This is going to be a slight pain as I'll need FW studded pads for my assault marines as well, which don't need the backpacks.. But no way around it.
Here's also a comparison pic of the OG platic RTB-01 backpack vs the current FW one. You can see the FW pack is slightly wider and the exhausts are larger. There are slight differences in detailing as well.
But the main thing is, building can finally resume!
Built up one FW beakie to compare better to a multipart plastic one.
The colour difference of the materials makes 1:1 comparisons a bit difficult, but there seem to be subtle diffs. The helmet shape is perhaps ever so slightly refined in the FW model and the shoulder pads are a touch bigger; they also seem to fit better overall. Have to say the bigger shoulder pads and the better fit makes the FW model look slightly better than the plastic one.
So I think that I will prioritise FW bits for the helmets, shoulder pads and backpacks at least; I can use multipart plastic legs, torsos and accessories to spice things up a lil more. So I'll rebuild everything I've made so far and see where I'll end up.. I don't really like the idea of being froced to use the plain right side shoulderpads, so I'll still check if I can make the BA iconographied pads fit better; perhaps the more loose fit is throwing off my judgement and that the slightly smaller size of the plastic pad won't be too obnoxious?
Here's also a quick test of the first umbra pattern bolter fitting. The chainaxe bayonet makes hand positioning extra finicky for the left arm, but the extra effort required for the fit will be well worth it methinks! I was thinking I'll make one extra kneeling brother and one who is reloading his bolter, the reloading pose should give me extra flexibility in posing..
EDIT: Fortunately, it seems I was mistaken about the shoulder pads! On closer inspection, both the plastic pads and the FW pads are exactly the same size after all. My blutacing job was sloppy which caused the poor fit on the test midel. Furthermore, the colour difference must have thrown me off; I have read that the human eye tends to perceive a lighter coloured object to being larger than a same sized darker coloured one. This was the case in this instance as well.. So the BA chapter iconographied shoulder pads are back on the table! Phew
Cool project. I’m also a big fan of the older WH40k aesthetic that got so many of us into the hobby. Really looking forward to seeing you get a few guys built and painted. Beakies with Umbra bolters is going to look great. I think the first test model is a bit dark for the way I envision Blood Angels but go with what you think looks best. (And it may just be the lighting of the photo.) There is no wrong shade of red.
The Riddle of Steel wrote: Cool project. I’m also a big fan of the older WH40k aesthetic that got so many of us into the hobby. Really looking forward to seeing you get a few guys built and painted. Beakies with Umbra bolters is going to look great. I think the first test model is a bit dark for the way I envision Blood Angels but go with what you think looks best. (And it may just be the lighting of the photo.) There is no wrong shade of red.
I'm constantly agonizing over the shade of red I'll end up using for the army! Now I'm thinking that maybe I want to go for the vintage terracotta style after all.. I'll need to do another test model. I keep going back to my old RTB01 captain, that orangish red is looking better by the day. AK Interactive's Red Primer might give me that shade with a single colour, I'll order a bottle and do some tests.
And yeah, I totally feel you on the older aesthetic! Got bit by the 2000AD bug recently (Mainly stuff like Nemesis The Warlock, ABC Warriors, Strontium Dogs) and am now looking at the entirety of 40K with a new shade of "UK scifi" tinted glasses. I got most of the Blackstone Fortress boxes for my birthday and am going hard back to the Rogue Trader era, but using modern minis to do it. It shows a side of 40K that I miss dearly and I want to bring that vibe back to the present, but want to keep the retro miniatures in the past (Modern plastic and resin sculpts are superior IMO).
But that's enough rambling hehehe! Also got this fella with the FW beakies, shown here on a 40mil. I'm considering converting him into a beakie version but since the model is now sold out from FW (maybe the mold died? This one has slight QC issues), maybe I'll just not risk ruining a classic model. But maybe he needs a jump pack?
Looking forward to seeing you make progress on these guys now your FW order came in. Even better that they fit with the plastic beakies too. As for colours I’m partial to a bright Blood red for classic blood angels. The terracotta base never worked out for me
gobert wrote: Looking forward to seeing you make progress on these guys now your FW order came in. Even better that they fit with the plastic beakies too. As for colours I’m partial to a bright Blood red for classic blood angels. The terracotta base never worked out for me
I reckon you wont be happy then as a bright "Santa Claus Red" was never on the table for my minis. I never liked my BA like that, even when I did paint them with a bright red, I always made them have a red "urban camo" pattern on top, made up of sections of more orange and brownish reds. Unfortunately, the minis from that era are lost now, so can't reference what that looked like anymore..
I'm 95% sure It is either going to be Mechrite Red or German Military Red Brown (AK red primer) for me. The reason for this will become clear in due time
I've also decided to ditch the Mk VII plasmagunner. It will just be Mk IV & Mk VI + Indomitus TDAs for now. I made a Kill Team list for fun for this tac squad, used the random KT random generators of the Core Manual and tweaked a bit from the base results. This Kill Team list will also guide me further on how to develop more character for the whole squad, treating each mini as an individual with a name and a background of sorts..
Blood Angels Kill Team = Squad Lorenzo 10 Marines (1 Leader, 3 Specialists, 6 Troopers - 135 points)
Background: Tactical Strike Force
Versatile and strategically balanced, these warriors can adapt quickly to any situation.
Squad quirk: Zealous
Unusual amongst their kind, Brothers of squad Lorenzo are true believers in the divinity of the Emperor. Lorenzo himself claims to have been saved by His Will more times than he can count. Even Syras believes He is watching over them, and never cracks jokes about Him. Castivar believes that the Emperor is leading them to their fate in the form of a final sacrifice, one which he has seen many times in his dreams.
Leader: Brother Sergeant Lorenzo Attitude: Dour
Nothing surprises or shocks Lorenzo anymore, but neither does anything bring him joy. Lorenzo lost his closest battle-brothers during the siege of Xhin, and has felt survivors guilt ever since. Regardless, His Divinity asks Lorenzo to serve, and serve he shall, to the bitter end.
Tactical Marine Sgt with Combi-Plasma
Comms Specialist: Brother Furian Attitude: Xenophobic
This battle-brother hates the perfidy of aliens with a particular vehemence. Furian's family was killed during Kabalite raids on his home world, and the desire to unleash vengeance on all Xenos has turned into a perverse obsession for him. Chaplains have been concerned about his temper, and he is under constant supervision for any signs of the Flaw. Nonetheless, Furian is an excellent vox-caster on a good day, and has inspired squad Lorenzo to perform their best countless times.
Tactical Marine with comms array
Demolitions Specialist: Brother Castivar Attitude: Mysterious
Castivar rarely speaks, and his pronouncements are laced with prophecy and dark insinuation. He seems as serene as a priest during battle, his clarity of mind being a great asset to the squad in the heat of battle. Castivar's past is unknown and he rarely speaks about himself. Syras likes to make jokes of Castivar's stoic demeanor, but he pays them no mind.
Tactical Marine with Missile Launcher
Sniper Specialist: Brother Syras Attitude: Castellan
This battle-brother excels on the defensive, at digging in and eliminating all foes who approach. Syras once held the line singlehandedly against the Orks for three consecutive days without a moment's rest, holding out until reinforcements arrived. Syras is the squad's joker, always coming up with morbid jokes no matter how dire the situation.
Okay, I know it's been way longer than I thought since my last update, but here goes..
I got another batch of 10 FW beakies so as to not run out of shoulderpads until my army has been built up to my current "roadmap". Also been gathering some more bits which I will need to complete everything. I know I've only shown you the tacs and the Inceptors but there's lot more stuff coming! I've got most of the main ideas already conceptualized, it'll be awesome!
So now back to the tacs. I am about 80% done with the squad build, the biggest hurdle remaining is the missile launcher conversion for Brother Castivar. The vintage RTB-01 launcher is proving to be tricky to install onto the model because I also want Castivar to have the modern ML backpack with the missile feeder arm.. Got the back exhaust bit sawed off today, and probably will need to move it up on top of the launcher instead of having it on the side, since the missile backpack is too bulky and fills up the space where the exhaust is originally placed.
Here's the whole squad at this stage. Sgt Lorenzo and Brother Furian are still waiting for some Mk IV bitz, and I haven't finished adding in all the ammo mags/grenades/pistols/knives, but I'm getting there. In the end I abstained from attaching the bayonets & chainblades to most of the umbras as I actually prefer them without any after all. Besides, those things will probably be breaking off all the time during gaming, IIRC that's what always happened to the RTB-01 bayonets as well
Things are progressing painfully slow, but I think it'll all be worth it in the end.. Unless I fudge up the paintjob
And now, a quick peek at the next unit on the list. Here's the first HQ I'm making, a Captain with a master-crafted power fist (thanks to @Green Is Best!) and an inferno pistol. He's probably also getting a jump pack, but I'm still trying to decide the most fitting one for him.
I’m loving the classic look you have going here. You are putting a ton of effort into the look you want. I really enjoy the classic old school style. Keep it going.
The Riddle of Steel wrote: I’m loving the classic look you have going here. You are putting a ton of effort into the look you want. I really enjoy the classic old school style. Keep it going.
Thanks for the encouragement! Its funny, in 2021 the original beakie look has aged well - it almost looks fresh again weirdly
After the tacs are done, I want a change from infantry. I think a support dreadnought for Sqd Lorenzo is going to be next in line.
Castivar is finally coming together! Just a bit of filing to do and the pieces will fit. But now I need to get me some polystyrene rod in correct thickness in order to rebuild the back of the missile launcher properly. O'well, that can wait a bit I suppose..
Now that most of the squad is done, I felt that Sgt Lorenzo didn't match the image I had in mind, so I remodeled him again. Now he's clad in Mk VI like the rest of his brothers, leaving only brother Furian donning the Mk IV.
I also received a test batch of 2 HHBA shoulderpads I bought from ebay. It's a good thing I only bought two - despite the claims of these being for Mk IV armour, its clear the trim on them is too thick to match a studded Mk IV shoulderpad. A minor niggle, but I still prefer the look of it over the plastic 40K one for this particular model. The plastic one was meant for Mk VII anyways..
Looking at Furian again, I'm not sure about the BA symbol on his chestplate anymore.. Seems like there's too much going on with two symbols and all? I'll probably try something else there, although I do love the raised collar of that Mk VIII breastplate. He also needs something on his backpack to signify the comms specialism.. It's possible he too will end up getting the Corvus treatment
You might have also noticed that in addition of sporting Umbra pattern bolters, I've also secured a cache of matching pattern bolt pistols for that Rogue Trader style! I'll be using these for my assault marines further down the line.
Update: I was digging through my cousin's old White Dwarf magazines and struck gold! I found out that those BA transfers were actually sold in official blister packs and they had transfers for all the biggest chapters of those times (Ultras, Space Wolves, BA, DA etc). I have to seach ebay and elsewhere if I could locate nore of those somehow..
What was also an unexpected delight is the fact that White Dwarf issue # 119 contains a copy of the 1989 Space Marine Paint Set booklet! So now I have access to that venerable old resource once more.. That flag design I had is also from that exact same booklet. I'll study the contents in detail, I think I'll want to come up with a way to adopt that orange/terracotta colour scheme to these models.
I finally started using oil paints for miniatures, and this old Black Reach starter dread was used as a test model for some oil wash techniques. I fell in love with oils immediately, they can create superb colour modulations and really make large, flat areas come alive!
This model had already been airbrushed and edge highlighted, so the colour isnt the sort of red primer/terracotta looking I am now planning for the army, but the oils even make "santa claus red" looking good! Still need to gain more exp in using oils as I find the colours settle a lot more after drying completely.. This makes judging the effect a bit tricky. I've included pics after finishing the oil paints as well as after basing was done (they are chronologically roughly 24hrs apart), so you can get some idea how drying changes things - I suppose this is why people generally prefer enamel washes?
Red Primer and complementary oils for it are on their way now, soon I can test the actual colours I'm planning to use for the army.. assuming I like the way it'll look hehehe!
Since my progress has stalled even more, lack of concentration has finally won over mental discipline. My tacs are still unfinished, but have instead started sketching up other infantry units for the army.
I have been coming up with many versions for my death company, but this is the look I've settled on for now. The DC has more "freedom" in its execution in a Rogue Trader universe since no official models nor even rules for them existed back in the day (AFAIK? Please correct me if I'm wrong). I wanted to incorporate more bling to them to contrast with the tacticool look of the pure corvus armoured units, but still didin't want to go with the official GW style as it looks very played out to my eyes, not to mention the fact that GWDC uses Mk VII helmets and armour quite liberally, which I find wanting to avoid more and more as my army project progresses.
I am pretty pleased with the look tbh. Adding the current BA chaplain with jump pack model is planned, and I think these will match his look quite nicely in giving a more or less thematic coherence to the DC portion of the army. I'm still going to swap out the chainswords on them with Mk III plastic chainswords, to further the distinction against the gear of the upcoming assault squad.. I like the Mk III chainsword look, looks more chainsaw-y and brutal
Oh yes, and here's also a WIP of the DC dread which I'm adding to the roster (eventually). The fingers will take ages to suss out pose-wise hehehe!
...And in addition to the DC, I've also started sketching out the Assault marines
Still waiting for some bits, so the Sgt and Eviscerator marine will have to wait. I will also swap out the bolt pistols for the umbra pattern pistols, and also include a full set of accessories like pistol holsters and grenades later. I'm deliberately using the harness chest pieces without skulls for everyone in the squad, the chestpieces with the skulls are all reserved for DC, I'm not a big fan of GW's skull spam tbh
Kitbashing the current Assault squad plastics and FW beakies is a blast! I love the variety of poses you can do with the combinations, so much so that I'll probably need to make another squad of five soon. This is also giving me ideas about the tacs, I'll be switching things up a bit more with them too, wanna break the monotony a little more..
Refined Sgt Lorenzo and Brother Furian some more. Furian got a new pose and Lorenzo got a FW special edition umbra. Ended up cutting the Mk IV combiplasma from two places, taking the hand as well as the plasma part of the combiweapon. Stressful cutting but got it done in the end! I still want to make Furian's backpack a voxcaster version, add accessories etc but the backpack bit isnt here yet..
IGtR= wrote: These latest two are looking snazzy! Great variety of bits
Thanks for sharing
Thank you sir! I am not 100% satisfied with the poses yet but the character models are improving no doubt.
Some more bits arrived today so got the Assault squad completely sketched out. Also headswapped Brother Syras so now he's looking like a proper Sniper specialist
The Riddle of Steel wrote: The skull faces work well in this context as being specific to your Death Company to separate them from the beakies. Cool idea.
My original idea was to make the DC as the misremembered "black BA" (who were in fact DA all along..) from my childhood, wearing black beakie helmets with red stripes, with the beaks covered in blood.. I always thought the beakie marines could use their helmets in battle, kind of like how predatory birds use their beaks to rend their prey.. But I felt that I wanted to make them stand out a bit more than that. I accept the official BA lore where the Death Company members wear decorated suits of armour, and my take on it is that the Chapter honours their "fallen" by grafting them artisanal armour and arms them with prescious relics of the chapter, playing up the "Death Visions of Sanguinius" angle to the max. In a way its also a way to honour the DC, as those lost brothers are considered dead already, they are just living out their funeral ceremony at this point..
Besides, with the colour scheme taking a twist towards a more terracotta shade, I can now make the Std Assault squad troopers' beaks bloody, and it'll still show
Looking at the talented oldhammer works of Ninjabread, I'm starting to get an itch for outfitting the Assault squad beakies with the "period correct" style jump packs. What do you think? I dunno, the modern jump pack is so bland somehow, and has a lot of unsightly gaps to fill out.. I can't understand why I never seem to nail assembling them perfectly either.
Nice work on the death company. Those helmets fit the theme really well! Hopefully your motivation comes back soon, so we can watch this cool project continue
gobert wrote: Nice work on the death company. Those helmets fit the theme really well! Hopefully your motivation comes back soon, so we can watch this cool project continue
My motivation isn't what is stalling progress. I don't spend all that much time working on my minis (other things in life, other hobbies getting in the way) and also I want to take my time with this project. I don't want to rush anything, I'm only going to be making this army once in my lifetime.
I still need to get a hold of several kits and spare bits for everything, and sourcing those down is also taking my time, as well as researching for options. For example, I didn't know that the Grey Knight kits had that spare marine hand clenching a severed daemonette's head, its was a happy accident I ran into while just casually skimming through ebay. As was Lorenzo's umbra combi weapon. And now I just found out about the vintage jump packs...
I'm also thinking of keeping the models together on blutac until I have most of the army sketched out, as the idea is to make each model in the army unique somehow, be it in terms of bits used, the pose of the model, or both. This is probably not a realistic option to sustain,as blutaced poses slump and deform over time, but I'm taking pictures and will verify all the poses once finalizing things with glue and putty begins.
Meanwhile, the colour tests continue, waiting for new paints to arrive ATM.
TL;DR - Sorry the builds are progressing so slowly. I can only hope the end result will be worth
Got a chance to sit to down for another sesh today and took some of the ideas I got during sketching the Assault squad and tweaked the tacs further.
Now the tacs are getting to a point where almost the whole unit has enough flavour and variety! There are still four brothers who have a very similar pose but a few helmet swaps help to mix things up some more. I had one pair of assault squad kit legs in the squad and that marine always jumped out somehow, so changed his whole build to a knife holding version, which actually made the legs make much more sense.
Once Furian's voxcaster backpack arrives, I'll finalize each model's accessories and I'd say its a wrap build wise for the tacs! Their Drop Pod has already been built earlier so all that remains is a Rhino/Razorback transport option for them, which I will probably postpone tbh. I want to build a rapid deployment force first, so that means drop pods and flyers take priority, as they should since we are talking "Space Marines".
I'll finalize the DC sketches after the tacs. They are pretty much done, just need to do a few conversions to add DC some bionics. After that I'll probably build another drop pod (deathstorm) and the rest of my tarantulas for some mechanized fire support. Assault squad should be getting their vintage jump packs by that point, if budget plans are favourable.
I got a shipment of oilbrushers and made a new colour test. I feel I'm getting very close now!
My camera doesn't capture the colours properly, but here you can see the new test model side by side with the 1991 SM paint set BA colours, and it's not very far off - less saturated for sure, but the shade is a reasonable match. One caveat is that I can't remember if I applied a red glaze over the terracotta/orange paint job back in the day, if I did, that might explain the difference in colour saturation. But I don't mind the lower saturated colour of the test mini, if anything it'll probably result in a more "realistic" end result after weathering..
I'll let the oils dry for 24+ hours and reinspect the result, as previous tests with oilwashes showed significant change of shades as the oils settled and dried. But getting very excited already!
I was a bit heavy handed with the cleanup stage and the thinner tore up right through the primer at few points. Gotta learn to be more careful with the cleanup
Interesting project!
Looking forward to see how you progress with the painting.
One thing you could try with the oil washes, is to cover the model with an acrylic varnish before applying it. Then you won't have to worry about losing the primer / base coat.
I'm too lazy to do that step myself, but might be something to consider.
Ezki wrote: Interesting project!
Looking forward to see how you progress with the painting.
One thing you could try with the oil washes, is to cover the model with an acrylic varnish before applying it. Then you won't have to worry about losing the primer / base coat.
I'm too lazy to do that step myself, but might be something to consider.
I am a complete noob when it comes to working with oils. This was my second model I've used them on.
The wash evaporated almost completely as it dried. I have applied the wash three times now, each time with a different consistency, using less thinner in the mix each time. I find I don't even have to use thinner for cleanup as long as I use a really thin brush and apply the wash directly into the crevices.
I hope I'll nail it eventually. The wash effect looks gorgeous as long as the wash is wet, I'm sure its just a matter of finding the right dilution ratio.
I will probably try the varnish after I get a good base colour modulation, since I will need to add more oils in the actual weathering stages. I hope the varnish doesn't destroy the previous work, I have bad experiences using varnish before and therefore dont usually use any.
Love this project from the old (OLD) metal minis to the proliferation of beaks to the squatpack jumperdudes.
Good luck with the oils mane, that's an exciting path to take. Have seen some awesome results but never been brave enough to try myself. Can't wait to see how they shape up!
Today was not my day it seems.. I was really happy how the oilwashed armour looked on the test mini so thought I'd try finishing it quickly. And ever since I grabbed the brush today it was just a clusterflock of mistakes, one after the other
Don't know if I've mentioned this, but I suffered catastrophic eye damage late 2017 and my eyesight will never recover. Its been a bitter journey trying to relearn painting, and a constant struggle with the fine detail work due to nonexistent peripheral vision. I can't match the painting quality I attained even just a few years ago anymore, and its really making loving this hobby hard at times!
I am still going to finish the testpiece but I need to reapply the washes etc. This is where the basecoats ended up, I messed up in bunch of places and ended up tidying up way too much, lumpy paint layers and everything. Ach! I even felt desperate enough so added heavy chipping fx to some areas of the nodel with bare metal showing, will be interesting to see how the oil washes will affect those.
It was a good learning excercise for me though, and I made notes of everything I messed up so that I will avoid all of the most serious flockups when it comes time to paint the real minis. When you can't tidy up your brushwork anymore without fear of creating even more mess, you start to think about optimizing the painting process to a sort of industrial workflow, which minimizes the amount of difficult stages from the total workflow.
Oh, and spent my jump pack budget plus my remaining "candy money" on a new desktop lamp.. Daylight Lumi incoming, hopefully a superb light will help with the detail work.
Love this project from the old (OLD) metal minis to the proliferation of beaks to the squatpack jumperdudes.
Good luck with the oils mane, that's an exciting path to take. Have seen some awesome results but never been brave enough to try myself. Can't wait to see how they shape up!
Thanks! The oils are actually quite easy to use, kind of like using contrast paints. I just need to get some more experience under my belt in order to get consistent results everytime.
I don’t recall the eye issues, but it certainly sounds like it sucks! Despite that I think the test Mini looks pretty good. A heavily weathered look might help overcome any neatness issues the eyes may bring. The Army is gonna look awesome if the tester is anything to go by
gobert wrote: I don’t recall the eye issues, but it certainly sounds like it sucks! Despite that I think the test Mini looks pretty good. A heavily weathered look might help overcome any neatness issues the eyes may bring. The Army is gonna look awesome if the tester is anything to go by
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm going to finish the oilwashes on saturday and then I'll base and add last touches on sunday if all goes to plan.
The eyes thing does indeed suck but I'm learning to compensate by using better tools. Better lighting and magnification lens for the small details, slowly getting used to the lens and the weird focal point it has, and since I got an airbrush my basecoats with difficult colours such as yellows and reds have improved immensely, good coverage while still having plenty of surface detail left from the thin paint coats.
Cheers
PS: I caved and ordered the vintage backpacks.. Noodles and porridge for me during the next two weeks
Got a chance for some hobby time a day early so finished the oilwashes and added some weathering details.
In hindsight, it was a bad idea to try any varnish on this model. Again, as has been my experience for decades now, the varnish changed the underlying colours unacceptably. The shoulder pads and all the spots where I tried applying a little varnish, look totally different in shade than the rest of the model.
I'll do the base during the weekend and will make at least one more test model before I'm done with the painting tests. The shade of red isn't exactly where I want it to be, but it is darn close already. Now it's more about getting all the smaller details done acceptably, with just a lil tweak for the colour with a glaze or adjusting the shade of the oil wash a bit.
On the plus side, I am finally getting semidecent pics taken with my iPad! The trick seems to be twofold:
1) Disable HDR
2) Disable Automatic Focus & Exposure and set both manually
I got the Lumi Daylight lamp last night, the colour temp is a lil different than the lamp I used earlier, the colours look slightly different now but nothing too drastic, thank the omnissiah
..And he's done. Despite many failed stages of painting this one, it turned out aight in the end. Well, except for the mold lines I didnt bother cleaning.. and the messed up sections with the varnish.. And the few mistakes in the helmet details. Oh well.
UPS is showing new stuff should arrive next week. Then I will have all the rest of the bits for Squad Lorenzo.
gobert wrote: Looking nice and beat up tauist! How come his chapter symbol is on his right shoulder pad? Is it to fit in better with the mk vi marines?
It is?I didn't realize Primaris have swapped the chapter symbol to their left side, my mistake there.
The transfer tore up while trying to get it to hug the shoulder pad better so that's why a part of it is modeled to have been rubbed off. I used to have some chemical for softening transfers up to better conform to uneven shapes, but that bottle is lost somewhere so had to do it the old fashioned way. I need to get more of that transfer softener again..
These colour test models will probably just be used for gaming, I haven't really inteded to use these in the beakie army. I am only going to include Gravis armoured Primaris with the actual force, as Gravis armoured Primaris are closer to Tactical Dreadnought Armour sized. The Tacticus and Phobos sized primaris make firstborn look small and weird, since those Primaris models aren't chunky enough to give the appearance of a significantly bulkier suit. I will probably mount all Gravis on 40mils to make the distinction even more obvious.. or wait, arent all Gravis models on 40mils already?
Another infatry unit joins the sketchboard - My counts-as Eliminators with bolt sniper rifles. That's right; I intend to use firstborn models as counts-as Primaris with this one, why the heck not! These will be on 32mils instead of 40mils, so not 100% halal for tournaments and such but I'm a filthy casual until death so whatever
Cutting away the Raven Guard insignias is a bit time consuming but I reckon it'll look better for it once I finish the conversion and tidy up the joints. Thankfully, I only need to do two more.. I'm not sure if I'll end up keeping the nonstandard studded left pads, but Im going to leave them on for now, just removed the Raven guard wings from the corner.
I decided to use the triple blood drop insignia for all the sniper specialists in the army. It was a choice between that or the skull one from the DC kit, I want to try to incorporate the skull shoulderpads into my DC models somehow, if at all possible.
Also started using Adobe Lightroom on the padd so the pics should be a bit crisper from now on. Dakka scales down images a bit funny, the downscaled preview images are always blurry somehow (?)
Yeah chapter symbols have been on left shoulders since 2nd edition I think? Not sure what the new conversion is, maybe a reiver or scout but with a beak?
gobert wrote: Yeah chapter symbols have been on left shoulders since 2nd edition I think? Not sure what the new conversion is, maybe a reiver or scout but with a beak?
Funny, I've never realized this before, but you are right! Even when looking through GW publications from the early nineties, the chapter symbol seems to be on the left shoulderpad for everyone else except for Mk VI suits. Just shows how fixated on the beakies I've been all these years
Jump Packs and the new Drop Pod are arriving next monday. I'll reveal the new model when its fully sketched out, that will have to wait for now. The eliminator squad needs to be built up in the meantime..
Got some of that polystyrene rod and started finalizing Brother Castivar. Since I had to cut the Missile Launcher up in order to make the build possible, I thought why not also use the opportunity to mod that launcher up a bit! So intentionally wanted to lengthen the rear exhaust of the weapon. What do yall think, is it distractingly long now? I want to keep it linger than the original but maybe not this long..
Also reposed the bolter reloading marine since the previous pose had started to bug me.. I'll call him Brother Sholta from now on. His pose looked too similar to Castivar's crouching pose, both of their torsos were turned to the left earlier, so now Castivar is leaning more to the right with his gaze to the left while Sholta is leaning more to the left but with his gaze to the right. I think the new pose looks more dynamic, its as if he's hugging cover more now.
Can't wait until the Jump Packs and Furian's voxpack arrive on Monday!
MobileSuitRandom wrote: Ok, that's some serious dynamic posing going on here! The two crouching beakies work really well IMHO. Cool project overall!
Thanks! I really enjoy posing multipart models. The new GW kits which are sort of monopose are gorgeous no doubt, but when I get to decide on the pose by myself, that's when a miniature starts feeling more like my own.. I envy experienced converters who can kitbash and convert models which look like they've been sculpted looking like that, maybe one day I'll be able to pull something similar off.. But until then, posing and slight kitbashing is all I can do.
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Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote: Yeah that might be a bit long. I can see that knocking over other models as you try and move it.
I don't know about the knocking model over effect since the launcher is pointing towards the ground so the rear exhaust is pointing upward more than sideways, but yeh, maybe it's still a tad too much.. I'll keep the current rod just in case I change my mind later but I'll make a new shorter one and give it a try.
I came up with nametag tranfers for the tacs while sipping my morning coffee today. Does anyone have any recommendations how to get these printed nicely? I know modelling shops sell printable transfer sheets, and I actually still have a sheet left from the old days, but I don't have a printer anymore so I'd have to get the sheet printed somewhere..
I still need to take measurements to figure out the size of the nametag on the shoulderpad.. Unless someone has already measured these for their projects? Castivar doesn't actually need one since his pad is without the nametag (lorewise, Castivar has seen visions of his death in battle and considers himself already dead in a way.. "The dead have no need for nametags" he often says), but I might as well print one for everybody just in case.. maybe I can add a nametag to his Missile Launcher?
The font is a free font from dafont.com (Fasigeko) and should be free to use for noncommercial use. I really like the mix of gothicness and angularity of the font, reads like space fantasy to my typographic sensibilities.
IGtR= wrote: Some great posing on those latest chaps.
And really interested to see whether 'print your own' transfers work. I find the ones in the kits is enough of a difficulty
I checked a few youtube videos about them and at least one video recommended the laser printable ones. Do you use MicroSol? I used to have a bottle of it and I swear it was the first time in my life I really got satifying results with decals. Which reminds me I need to buy a new bottle of it!
here's a good video about using MicroSol:
Custom decals supposedly require some sort of varnish to properly seal them and apparently are overly sensitive to MicroSol, so its going to be a challenge. Also, on further contemplation, I'm not sure my font choice will cut it in the end since I need to make the nametag decals really tiny.. I'm thinking of printing at 300DPI so reso should be enough, but worried about legibility etc. Last option would be to ditch the decals and freehand the tags but with my visual impairment the result would probably look awful.
The vintage jump packs got delayed by almost a week, so will only be getting Furian's voxpack later today. A bit of a bummer, but I'll have more than enough work to do in the meantime. Weaponswapped two of the Assault squad Marines last night, now they too have the Rogue Trader period bolt pistols
Okay so the Mk IV command upgrade arrived and Furian's looking very smug right now..
Tacs have all the bits now I think. There are two models which I will still tweak a bit (Nolan & Belaria need to swap heads etc) but then its time to finally wrap them up. I also got a Deathstrom Drop Pod today, which will become a "decoy" for Squad Lorenzo's Drop Pod. Every time they deploy the pod, the Deathstorm accompanies them, so enemy AA batteries will have two targets instead of one and any defenders will have to pick "heads or tails" until the pod doors blast open..
On Microset/sol, I was far too scarred by my childhood experiences to re-try, but I keep hearing very good things about it so I suppose I will have to give it a go - thanks for sharing the tutorial!
With so many models/units in unfinished stages, I'm trying to keep the momentum going and have at least something done to progress things every day. So today I started assembling the Deathstorm Drop Pod, and got about halfway with the plastiv assembly. I had forgot how much of a PITA the plastic drop pod is to build, spent ages removing mold lines and some remained even after my best efforts to remove them.. I'll try to finish the rest of the plastic parts tomorrow.
Deathstorm basic assembly complete. Now I just need to clean up the resin and add battle damage to the plastic hull, to make it match the actual drop pod more in appearance. Once those are done I'll probably paint them at the same time, although havent yet decided if I want to paint them just yet..
Had to reglue two of the doors due to them not bonding properly.. Tamiya thin cement is not a good glue for big jobs like those doors
Started assembling my second HB Tarantula, will be finishing its leg assemblies tomorrow.
While the superglue was setting, I made a 25PL list I'll be starting our upcoming Crusade with. I'm not sure if it's a very effective one, but it's following my fluff 100%. Squad Lorenzo, deploying by "Heads & Tails", accompanied by Sanguinary Priest Adonai.
(The Tarantulas are just for show, I know you cant include fortification units in a Combat Patrol However, they will be addded to the OOB ASAP )
I really like your poses and your multitude of interesting bits. I really hope you get back to painting them eventually. I know you were a bit frustrated on the painting previously but I think just spraying them red right out of the rattle can and then pin washing Nuln Oil will get you a simple bright red. Then it is just blacking in the black and gold areas. Your models look amazing so hopefully you get some color on them eventually!
The Riddle of Steel wrote: I really like your poses and your multitude of interesting bits. I really hope you get back to painting them eventually. I know you were a bit frustrated on the painting previously but I think just spraying them red right out of the rattle can and then pin washing Nuln Oil will get you a simple bright red. Then it is just blacking in the black and gold areas. Your models look amazing so hopefully you get some color on them eventually!
Thanks! I'm quite happy how the squad has matured from the first sketch I posted.
Regarding the painting, I'm going to paint the entire 25PL Patrol very soon, at least to a basecoated level. I just need some masking putty for the airbrushing work, which will be arriving by next tuesday, along with the vintage jump packs. Oh but I still need to get some Isopropyl Alcohol for the milliput, to deal with all the gaps and cracks.. "Gotta get the gear" hehehe! But basically we shouldn't be too far off from the actual painting. The colours have been established by now which was my main concern. I have been looking at colourtest #3 for some weeks now and I still prefer it's colours to my previously painted models.
I appreciate all the encouragement yall are sending my way! Without this log, I probably still wouldn't have started building this Army..
Second Tarantula assembly done. Started building the next addition to the army, a FW Retro Landspeeder 30th anniversary model I scored from ebay back when they still were somewhat reasonably priced..
Now I feel a bit stuck with the build - the resin engine blocks on the rear are heavy buggers! Any ideas how to mount this thing onto the included flight stand so that I can actually choose the angle of the speeder myself? Ideally, I'd like to angle the speeder so that it looks like it's making an attack run towards some target on the ground, ie. with the speeder nose pointing slightly downwards.. but with the weight of the engines and the flight stand mount at the center, gravity is making this prospect seem quite challenging!
Any of yall built one of these speeders? Is there some alternate way to mount the flight stand that is still robust enough to game the model with?
I think you are going to have to brave a couple of brass rods personally - the supplied flight stands will struggle to do anything weighty, and I would have thought the chunky engines were far too much for it to cope with.
But I defer to others who have actually built it in resin!
IGtR= wrote: I think you are going to have to brave a couple of brass rods personally - the supplied flight stands will struggle to do anything weighty, and I would have thought the chunky engines were far too much for it to cope with.
But I defer to others who have actually built it in resin!
I don’t like the idea of using brass rods tbh. If it comes to that, I’d rather buy a sculpted stand instead.. I’ve seen some really slick looking rocket exhaust smoke pillar ones which could maybe work, I don’t recall any land speeder artwork showing exhaust smoke from the speeder, but I could live with such a cheat..
I started glueing the model together today and it seems I can actually get the model to about level position by attaching the flight stand from the right direction, but the stand itself will have problems supporting the weight of all the resin. I will have to at least fasten the clear plastic pole to the base with considerable support, maybe by creating some sort of counterpiece to the underside of the base with milliput, and then attaching the pole into it while the milliput sets. But the result is far from robust, it wont take much for the model to dive towards the sky. I can’t see any other option right now than to glue the model onto the pole, which will make transporting the model a nightmare..
Continued building the landspeeder today. Maybe I'm nuts but it seems that if I twist the model while its connected to the flight stand, I can make it change the angle and have it stick. Not sure how well this will work in the long run, as the stand pole will undoubtedly wear out eventually..
Just dryfitting the pilot's side of the cockpit and man are the tolerances tight on this thing! I dont get why FW gets such bad rep for their resin models, the completed assembly will be flush without any messing about, for both arms (!) assuming I can attach the pilot exactly like this once everything's painted (yes, will certainly be painting this one in sub assemblies!). For anyone who hasn't built one of these, the joystick and the throttle on the pilot's arms are parts of the hand pieces, and the cockpit controls themselves are two separate pieces which need to be glued to both sides of the seat, so that's quite a few pieces which have to fit almost perfectly for the result to be flush like this
I've really started to love the AK Black Widow superglue while building this model! It's the first more elaborate resin model I've ever built and once I started applying the glue with a toothpick, it's worked perfectly every time, strong bonds and the glue doesnt crack like most other cyanoacrylates. I also like that its black in colour so its very easy to see where you put it. But buyer beware, you don't want to be applying Black Widow straight from the bottle! A little goes a long way..
Finished the preliminary assembly, will finalize once I have painted all the subassemblies. Still going to swap out some bits of the pilot and the gunner, I want to find the best heads and torso bits etc. Besides, building it was pretty painless in the end and really love the way it looks so reckoned I'll get a second one at some point If I swap out one pair of legs from this kit with the legion one, it'll be easy to beakify both speeders even though the legion one comes with Mk IV bits.
I just picked up the kit from UPS pickup point during my lunch break!
The Mk V Assault Squad kit is quite impressive tbh! Each model has separate arms and hands so you can easily swap out any weapons. These arms will be great as general purpose conversion material, as they are resin, You can even bend them to change the arm poses slightly
The included Mk V studded shoulder pads seem to be a 100% exact match to the FW Mk VI kit ones. Therefore this kit is my first recommendation if you already have plastic Mk VI multipart bits and just want these jump packs, some arms for conversions and the larger studs on the shoulderpads, which are very hard to come by in plastic bits (only a single plastic bit with the larger pauldrons exist AFAIK).
The vintage Jump Pack has lots of design cues from the Mk VI backpack. The Mk V armours also use the same style of backpack, right?
Lastly, I just had to spend a few mins trying out one of the packs on my Assault Squad! How does it look?
Okay, I'm going into some nasty eye operation tomorrow so wont have time to continue the builds until saturday, the eye being treated needs to rest.. but just couldn't wait that long to see the whole squad kitted out with the period correct 'packs!
On the first model, I wasn't 100% sure I preferred the vintage pack look, but now, on the whole squad, I think it looks better than the standard plastic jump pack.
I also got the masking putty finally so painting can theoretically start after the recovery period.
gobert wrote: That’s a serious Resin habit! Which is a good thing as you’re cracking on well with this project now tauist!
I hope the eye surgery goes well and you get to rest the eye
The eye operation went flawlessly, my central visual field feels a bit sharper already.
The resin thing is getting out of hand but I kinda suspected this would be the case when I started this log. Can't help it, GW's plastic kits go only so far as far as reproducing Rogue Trader era marines are concerned.. But tbh I've really started enjoying working with resin, I love carving resin much more than carving plastic, resin behaves almost like wood somehow, whereas hard plastic is merciless to work with and results in unsightly bruises and scrapes on the surfaces much easier than resin, which is softer and more porous somehow. Only thing I dislike about resin is the weight of any bigger pieces and the pesky mold release agents on the surfaces which will refuse to take paint unless thorroughly removed before painting.
Now that a few days have elapsed since working on the Assault squad and those jump packs are sorted, I'm growing discontent on the squad's poses etc. I think I will redo the arms at least, the poses still need a bit of work. Why not use the Mk V resin arms a it while I'm at it, that's going to mix it up some more.
Also bought the current GWBA Jump Pack Chaplain model at last, ships next week. He will be leading my DC into battle. Lying bed recovering from the operation also gave me an idea how I might want to build a Sanguinary Guard unit, but I'm not sure yet if I want to pursue it.. would involve kitbashing two separate FW kits and then I'd still need to convert a bit and find suitable heads for them.. We'll see.
Unexpectedly, the chappie shipped already today! Here he is leading the DC.
This unit too looks still slightly unsatisfactory. I'll try tweaking some things.. and yes, I was supposed to convert a bionic arm to one of the DCs. Already got the bits for it too, just need to find them first from a mountain of unlabeled ziplocks bags
I've hit a modelling rut since the eye operation, started playing Death Stranding on my spare time. Was just about to come back to the building and now I've read about a new Horus Heresy game box which will contain resculpted plastic Beakies!
Therefore, this build log is suspended until we know what new Rogue Trader -era plastic models are coming along with the new HH box launch. I may have wasted a ton of time and money....
Definitely not wasted! Your stuff looks amazing! I'm doing the exact same thing as you with a raven guard army and although plastic mark VI would have made things a lot easier half the fun is the pile of bits and the kitbashing!
By the way, regarding those speeders, i have 3 ad they all have the "twist action" thing going on with the ball joint stands. Its not a fluke abd mine have held up just fine since release date (i bought them the day they came out) so I wouldn't worry about brass rod down the line.
Bobug wrote: Definitely not wasted! Your stuff looks amazing! I'm doing the exact same thing as you with a raven guard army and although plastic mark VI would have made things a lot easier half the fun is the pile of bits and the kitbashing!
By the way, regarding those speeders, i have 3 ad they all have the "twist action" thing going on with the ball joint stands. Its not a fluke abd mine have held up just fine since release date (i bought them the day they came out) so I wouldn't worry about brass rod down the line.
Thanks for that! Its good to know that the speeder works as intended in that case.
Also, regarding the upcoming plastic kits, I'm hoping the old bits will still be reusable with them. It has been speculated that only the legs have been resculpted, and if so, then it's just a matter of kitbashing my existing models with the new plastic legs. If the rumours are true, the HH box will contain 30 beakies, so plenty of parts to bash with. I will also end up with two different looking Umbra bolters, and two different looking Mk VI backpacks for more variety And looking at the pics, the new box is also coming with the Mk VI legion command upgrades, and I didn't have those even in resin since they've been OOP for years now.
I bought one set for my Death Company already (Large size is the one for firstborn, Medium size is for Primaris), the reiver helmets will be replaced with these.
Bobug wrote: Definitely not wasted! Your stuff looks amazing! I'm doing the exact same thing as you with a raven guard army and although plastic mark VI would have made things a lot easier half the fun is the pile of bits and the kitbashing!
By the way, regarding those speeders, i have 3 ad they all have the "twist action" thing going on with the ball joint stands. Its not a fluke abd mine have held up just fine since release date (i bought them the day they came out) so I wouldn't worry about brass rod down the line.
Thanks for that! Its good to know that the speeder works as intended in that case.
Also, regarding the upcoming plastic kits, I'm hoping the old bits will still be reusable with them. It has been speculated that only the legs have been resculpted, and if so, then it's just a matter of kitbashing my existing models with the new plastic legs. If the rumours are true, the HH box will contain 30 beakies, so plenty of parts to bash with. I will also end up with two different looking Umbra bolters, and two different looking Mk VI backpacks for more variety And looking at the pics, the new box is also coming with the Mk VI legion command upgrades, and I didn't have those even in resin since they've been OOP for years now.
I bought one set for my Death Company already (Large size is the one for firstborn, Medium size is for Primaris), the reiver helmets will be replaced with these.
In case you are interested Red Warden Also has BA Specific Beakies. Looking forward to more; hopefully you get all your resin completed before the HH release.
I thought about you when I heard about the HH beakies. I certainly wouldn’t see it as time wasted, more an opportunity to add even more variety to the army! Hopefully the hobby mojo returns and we can see some painting of the marines you’ve already built
Bobug wrote: Definitely not wasted! Your stuff looks amazing! I'm doing the exact same thing as you with a raven guard army and although plastic mark VI would have made things a lot easier half the fun is the pile of bits and the kitbashing!
By the way, regarding those speeders, i have 3 ad they all have the "twist action" thing going on with the ball joint stands. Its not a fluke abd mine have held up just fine since release date (i bought them the day they came out) so I wouldn't worry about brass rod down the line.
Thanks for that! Its good to know that the speeder works as intended in that case.
Also, regarding the upcoming plastic kits, I'm hoping the old bits will still be reusable with them. It has been speculated that only the legs have been resculpted, and if so, then it's just a matter of kitbashing my existing models with the new plastic legs. If the rumours are true, the HH box will contain 30 beakies, so plenty of parts to bash with. I will also end up with two different looking Umbra bolters, and two different looking Mk VI backpacks for more variety And looking at the pics, the new box is also coming with the Mk VI legion command upgrades, and I didn't have those even in resin since they've been OOP for years now.
I bought one set for my Death Company already (Large size is the one for firstborn, Medium size is for Primaris), the reiver helmets will be replaced with these.
In case you are interested Red Warden Also has BA Specific Beakies. Looking forward to more; hopefully you get all your resin completed before the HH release.
Nice find! these look way too blingy for my sensibilities but I'll probably buy them just in case I want to make that Sanguinary Guard unit in the future. These would look suitable for them, as well as maybe for distinguished officers, like Captain and lieutenants. Thanks for the share.
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gobert wrote: I thought about you when I heard about the HH beakies. I certainly wouldn’t see it as time wasted, more an opportunity to add even more variety to the army! Hopefully the hobby mojo returns and we can see some painting of the marines you’ve already built
I'm really sorry but I will not be committing to any firstborn builds until the scale of the new plastic HH beakies is confirmed. I cant risk the new models making the rest of my army look stunty. I can wait for the new kits, this army has been brewing up for 30 years, a few more hardly matters hehehe!
Best I can do in the meantime is to concentrate on vehicles, Gravis Primaris and my Terminators. I also have a few dreadnoughts to work on. I've actually been looking forward to getting to the terminators! They will be kitbashes of course, and I hope to make every one an individual, while still remaining somewhat faithful to the more tacticool look of the og Space Hulk era. And not a single pignose storm bolter in sight, I promise!
About four months have passed and the new Horus Heresy box is still nowhere to be seen, not even so much as teased by GW. Some rumours are now saying the new beakies box will not get released until 2022, and the thought of having to postpone everything until then has left me in perpetual hobby limbo. I've mostly been concentrating on my other hobbies during this time, and procrastinating like there's no tomorrow! However..
Kill Team 21 happened in the meantime, and I ended up adding more terrain to my collection. Loving KT21 and the thought of playing 40K now seems more distant somehow... There will be time to finish the army, no rush.
On the army collecting front, finally managed to find a counts-as-stormraven gunship I always wanted, so can cross that one off the bucket list! For my sensibilities, drop pods go together with the caestus assault ram like peanut butter & jelly!
Next, I'll need 2 Stormtalons and my essential MEQ backbone is in the bag. It consists of 3 Tarantulas for securing vital firebases on the field (2 Anti-infantry, 1 Anti-Armor), 1 fast scouting vessel (Land Speeder Proteus), 1 Main APC (Stormraven) with 2 escorts (2 Stormtalons), 1 Fire Support Dreadnought (1 Deredeo class Dreadnought) & 1 Main Battle Tank (Land Raider Proteus). Alternatively, one squad can deploy from orbit (1 Drop Pod) with Fire Support (1 Deathstrom Drop Pod). Sound mechanized enough?
How many Techmarines yall reckon a MEQ backbone like that would require, hmm?
Was messing about with the BA models I have painted since returning to the hobby at around 2009 (there was a period of inactivity between 2011-2018). Got so much catching up to do.. These. will not be a part of the final army, this time all shall be beakeies clad in vermillion coloured power armour. It shows some of the various versions of the red armour colour I had been experimenting with earlier, as well as two examples of red camo pattern, made by segmenting colour areas with a thin copic marker.
IGtR= wrote: Kill Team board looks awesome - is it possible to get close ups?
Thanks for sharing
Hey,
apologies, I only read your reply just now! That wasn't really meant to be a board as such, I had just unboxed my Sector Imperialis board and wanted to take a quick look at what kind of layouts I could come up with. I did take one more photo from the other side, attached below. didn't take any closeups since it was just a quick test. PS all the images in this thread are attachments, so just click on them for fullsize image, in case that helps?
Anyhoo, I am finally returning to this project now that rumours are stirring up saying that the new HH box might be announced at Adepticon 22, in less than a month! I started collecting resources for building my Honour Guard for the army, which will consist of 8 terminator models: Captain, Chaplain, Ancient with the Company banner, and one squad of Terminators. There will be some kitbashing and tedious magnetizing ahead, but I'm confident I'll be able to pull everything off as long as I take my time with it. Ah yes, also bought Dominion Zephon (obvsly LOL)
Once the Captain and Ancient pieces have shipped, I will have more to post about. I am really pumped up about the models, didn't even know they existed a few weeks ago until I ran into the captain in one of the P&M threads about using metal termies with plastic arms IIRC. The Captain is an obvious homage to the RT era metal Terminator Captain, and my intention is to try to play it to that angle as much as possible. Also love the banner on the Ancient, it will be a perfect opportunity to use one of the larger oldschool BA symbol transfers from my collection
only just found this thread. bloody good work going on here. the paintjob is realistic and nicely weathered. really love that dusty grubby vibe going on.
good luck finishing the landspeeder. Its a very nostalgic model...
osjclatchford wrote: only just found this thread. bloody good work going on here. the paintjob is realistic and nicely weathered. really love that dusty grubby vibe going on.
good luck finishing the landspeeder. Its a very nostalgic model...
Thanks! I know I'm really lagging with the painting process and the project in general, but this one is really going to be a once in a lifetime thing for me and I want to get everything done to a level where I can feel I have done the project justice. If only I had your eyes and your painting skills.. But yeh.
I got really lucky buying the speeder kit when I did, as its ebay price seems to have skyrocketed since! I'm going to make two of them, I'm buying a regular HH Mk IV manned one and will split the pilot legs from both kits 50-50 in order to get two beakie crewed ones and the full complement of weapon options for maximum variety in armylist builds (so can take both, or just one but will have all wpn options for it).
The ancient model already hit customs, so should be showing him off real soon.
Okay so the Ancient and some bits for the Captain have arrived!
Space Marine Heroes kits indeed seem to be made by another manufacturer than regular GW plastic kits. The sprue gates are tiny, the plastic itself is more gunpla kit tier than the gray bulk stuff GW typically uses, and there are no visible mold lines anywhere The tranfer sheet that came with the Ancient was an unexpected delight, all the banner details are in fact separate transfers, so it will be trivial combining the kit's transfers with my vintage transfers.
Captain kit should arrive early next week. Yall know the now iconic Jes Goodwin 1989 metal design? I think I found a pretty good match for the head from Primaris Eradicator respirator heads. Here's two options, one with the exact same haircut and another with a crew cut with stripes on the left side. Right now I'm thinking I wanna go with the exact one but I'll paint both and see which one complements the model better once basic acrylics are in.
I'm going to kitbash the Cap a bit further though! i might convert his knee pads because that's always a point of interest when people paint that mini, some quartered designs or chevrons or something...? I also have already bought a resin storm bolter I want to swap with that awkward scoped pignose atrocity the Ltd ed model comes with. And hey there's a big skull on his crotch on the original? That's going to be tricky.. Anyone know any Indomitus pattern TDA kits/bits with a skull crotch? If I can't find a suitable piece, guess I'll just go with the tabard style crotch of the Captain base model.
Thank you sir! Have you still been writing more of your bleak lore descriptions about the Imperium of Man? Always enjoy reading those.. Ah, I actually see you have whipped up some new Descendant Degeneration material, need to catch up on the thread, nice one
Adepticon is only two days away! I hope I'm not going to be disappointed, but there is some hope that the new Horus Heresy kit with the new beakies will be revealed on Thursday morning. Of course, even if the box gets revealed then, it's still going to be a month or two before it hits the stores but then at least I'd have an estimate on when to expect to be continuing the corvus builds.
Meanwhile, the honour guard bits hoarding is progressing as planned. All that remains is one regular Blood Angels Terminator Assault Squad kit, and perhaps some single bits from the Deathwing combo kit..
Got a short holiday coming up next week, so planning on starting the Honour Guard builds next weekend.
Woke up 6AM local time and there it was - The new Horus Heresy announcement! Along with the trailer, GW showed a single new beaky model, which I swiftly 'shopped to a more matching colourscheme, in order to get a better idea on what to expect. I know I won't be able to match the Eavy Metal painting quality (I'm also more partial to a weathered military modelling look anyways), but this shows some sort of reference.
Thre seem to be subtle tweaks to the Corvus armour in the new kit. The helmet shape has changed, the curvature of the beak part is markedly different, as well as the vents look bigger somehow? All in all, the new sculpt reminds me of a metal Marine I owned back in the day; couple of the details match, like the toes being this segmented piece with lines, and the curvier helmet beak shape. Maybe this model was one of the inspirations behind the new sculpts?
Anyways, I'm hella stoked! There was also a new Plastic Praetor kit announced, and there is some evidence in the new HH trailer video to suggest that the Praetor kit comes with a Corvus head option with a completely new helmet variant design which I think looks gorgeous. Even if the Praetor himself is looking to far removed from RTB-01 sensibilities (far too ornate looking), I know I will want to use a helmet like that on some HQ model.
Early rumours are estimating the new Beakies will drop around June-July. I've got more than enough to work with until then..
As soon as I saw the announcement I thought of this blog! Can’t wait to see more progress, and hopefully they’ll match size wise with the old plastic beakies you have for even more variety.
Ooh, and the SM Heroes Marines are a cool addition too. Did you get a full set? I’m missing the Banner bearer
gobert wrote: As soon as I saw the announcement I thought of this blog! Can’t wait to see more progress, and hopefully they’ll match size wise with the old plastic beakies you have for even more variety.
Ooh, and the SM Heroes Marines are a cool addition too. Did you get a full set? I’m missing the Banner bearer
All the heads and shoulderpads will at least be compatible, so I'm not too worried about it. I'd think the kneeling marines will probably look OK even in the old scale, as well as vehicle crews which are sitting etc, and those would have been the hardest to replace anyways at this stage. At most, it's looking like I might have to "truescale" my assault Marines due to the HH 2.0 kit having supposedly much more static poses, but thankfully that's only 5 models at the moment!
I'm also excited about the new helmet designs. Those new top vented beaky helmets look superb, I will want to have at least a few of them for sure. The plastic backpacks and bolters coming with the new kit will also give a bit more variety, I can mix and match these with my existing resin ones in the squads.
I did manage to get the complete SMH2 set. The last one I got was Feurran, he is currently getting expedited from the USA. I also bought all the remaining pieces I need - A BA Terminator Assault Squad kit and some bitz from the Deathwing kit, mainly the Terminator Apotechary bitz and a few backplates with the curved exhaust ports.
Decided I will add a 9th member to the Honour Guard, but I cannot field a TDA Apotechary in current 40K so it's just going to be for display. Going to make him some sort of Sanguinary Priest, probably using some appropriate torso and shoulderpad from the BA Assault termie kit. I don't intend to use the BA Assault termie torsos for anyone else as they are too blinged out, but the blinged out look might be sort of appropriate for a Sang Priest, he's going to be hanging out with the Chaplain Tarentus model anyway, and that one is blingy also.
The rumoured Spartan coming with the HH 2.0 box will be my dedicated transoort for the Honour Guard. I'll probably sell off the Catapractii termies but am keeping the Contemptor.
Holiday! Finally got a chance to sit down and get started with the Honour Guard builds.
Here's where I got to today. Everything is still in the sketching phase, so things are probably going to change before I lock down the builds but I'm happy with how things are shaping up. The end result is looking more like Classic 1st Edition Space Hulk / Deathwing expansion than the current "Space Vampires have ALL THE BLING!!11" BA termies, but still having interesting poses and unique Indomitus suits, exactly what I was looking for. Keeping it 1991
All the pignose Storm Bolters will be swapped out to properly modeled two barreled ones. I bought 5 SoB Storm Bolters from a bitz shop, will just take some cutting and pasting to get the pignoses swapped out. All the rightside shoulderpads will also be swapped out to the FW resin ones, right now I just wanted to rough sketch the whole squad with the Ancient to have a better idea of the poses and such.
Apotechary bitz are still on their way, so that one will be the last one to get a sketch build I think. I made a spare torso for him from the BA Assault Squad Sergeant torso, but then realized that these SM Heroes Terminators are actually a bit taller than the older multipart plastic kit sculpts! Which means that I can't really hope to mix and match the torsos too much..
gobert wrote: Glad to hear you’ll not have to rework much to fit the new beakies in to the army.
Great work on the SMH2 Terminators, all of the tweaks came out great and added a bit more Blood Angels bling without being to gaudy
Thanks! I'm still going to add those little armpit shields from BA Assault termies kit, and perhaps a few purity seals if needed, but certainly don't want to go overboard with the decorative elements. Also thinking of getting some of those Deathwing kit right arms, they have separate pieces for the hands & weapons, which would give a bit more flexibility to the right arm poses. ATM I'm not compeletely satisfied with the right arm poses, they are still a little too samey - being able to add slight angles to the hands/wrists would go a long way towards adding some variety.
After the squad was done, I had to rush and make quick sketches for the Chaplain and the Captain as well. Interestingly, the 2020 Tarentus model is also a pushfit and has identical plastic sprue gate size & quality to it as the Space Marine Heroes kits. the Captain however was from 2016, has that seemingly smaller scale (? or does it just seem like it because I haven't compeletely seated the legs yet?) and is a regular GW multipart kit.
The custom Captain head will require some more delicate cutting and fitting for a perfect fit, but with patience and a lil luck it should turn out great! He'll also be getting my most ornated FWBA shoulderpad and a resin Storm bolter before he's fully built.
youwashock wrote: That is a sweet looking couple of minis. Good luck wrapping up the rest of the build on the Captain.
Cheers man
Apotechary bitz arrived, so made a first draft of the Sanguinary Priest. His pose is super static ATM, might get a remake.. Not sure about the combiweapon either, it feels too big for him somehow?
Also kept on modifying the Captain and got the head to fit this time around Added some BA flair while I was at it (shield icon might still get a swap later). But now I think I need some of those Deathwing right arms, at least one for the Captain would make life soo much easier with regards to the resin weapon swap.
Hey,
Cool! Your blog is doing a fine job of preserving the flavour of the era, kudos! Mine is only inspired by it though, I will be taking artistic liberties in the actual implementation. I wanted to take a piece of my hobby history and sort of "remake" it with modern minis. Nostalghia, its a helluva drug hehehe!
I wasn't happy with the Flamer Marine, so thought I'd try converting the Cyclone Missile Launcher Hero into an alternative torso for it. The CML termie has this nice alternative cabling on the armour, and the pose is quite appropriate for any heavy weapon, as the pose is sorta like bracing for recoil. Only problem was that the Cyclone Launcher is modeled on the back half of the model kit! Some conversion work needed to be done..
I though this would be a great opportunity to introduce more armour variety by replacing the back plate with a Deathwing one. I love the arched vents of those bitz! So, with some patient razor sawing, I cut the back half of the kit from the back plate joint, carved out the redundant fillings from the DW back plate interior, and the combined result fits pretty snug, just as I hoped The end result will be perfect with a little gap filling after final assembly.
As an unexpected bonus, the helmeted head of the CML hero is also a unique sculpt, with some kind of enhanced filtration systems on the helmet. (Note to self: remember to drill open the flamer nozzle holes! With the piece hollow like it is, there's no excuse not to do it EDIT: Noticed the CML torso lacks the TDA camera mount, remember to add one from a spare chestpiece bit)
I think the Flamer Marine torso swap worked better than I expected, what do yall think?
Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote: Some great bashing of these Terminators! Who knew there was such variety in Terminator bits!
Thanks! I have to give credit to my fellow Dakkanauts for that, up until about a month ago I never realized how sweet the Space Marine Heroes kits were. I remember seeing them at my FLGS at the time when they originally came out, and totally dismissed them as worthy kitbashing material just because there seemed to be no way to buy the whole set without having to chance getting a bunch of redundant duplicates. I never knew they were sold as complete sets at the time, and also thought they'd all be helmetless
I ordered those Deathwing bolter arms, once they ship I can get back to finishing the Honour Guard builds. Still need to figure out how I intend to do the flamer / assault cannon Marine though.. Magnetizing the right arm just below the shoulder pad might be my best option..
All the pignose Storm Bolters will be swapped out to properly modeled two barreled ones. I bought 5 SoB Storm Bolters from a bitz shop, will just take some cutting and pasting to get the pignoses swapped out. All the rightside shoulderpads will also be swapped out to the FW resin ones, right now I just wanted to rough sketch the whole squad with the Ancient to have a better idea of the poses and such.
Pignose Storm Bolters! Ahhh can't unsee them now. I just went through and looked at all my terminators and realized how ugly the Space Hulk storm bolter models are! Ha and the very old Space Marine Terminator Captain in pewter actually has individual barrels on his storm bolter. Even the new Captain Karlaen has pignose! Good to see your attention to detail though. Did you end up getting all 10 of the SMH2 boxes? I spent quite a bit of time hunting for them when I was in Japan and took me quite a while to get the ancient banner bearer with the paint set.
All the pignose Storm Bolters will be swapped out to properly modeled two barreled ones. I bought 5 SoB Storm Bolters from a bitz shop, will just take some cutting and pasting to get the pignoses swapped out. All the rightside shoulderpads will also be swapped out to the FW resin ones, right now I just wanted to rough sketch the whole squad with the Ancient to have a better idea of the poses and such.
Pignose Storm Bolters! Ahhh can't unsee them now. I just went through and looked at all my terminators and realized how ugly the Space Hulk storm bolter models are! Ha and the very old Space Marine Terminator Captain in pewter actually has individual barrels on his storm bolter. Even the new Captain Karlaen has pignose! Good to see your attention to detail though. Did you end up getting all 10 of the SMH2 boxes? I spent quite a bit of time hunting for them when I was in Japan and took me quite a while to get the ancient banner bearer with the paint set.
Hey, apologies for the late reply! I did finally manage to buy all ten, Feurran was the last one to arrive.
And speaking of the pignose Storm Bolters, I think they can be modeled to look decent, but not with my crappy depth perception and subpar drilling skills. In fact, I find the whole topic of barrel drilling very stressful, I always mess mine up one way or the other! Either I get the barrel hole slightly off center, or end up with a crusted barrel hole, with an ugly edge extrusion at the front, or with a barrel hole that doesn't look even remotely smooth from the outside looking in.. you see this junk inside the barrel which refuses to clean itself even with the help of some filing or slight melting with some thin plastic cement
I've long been curious about applying more advanced scale modelling techniques to my miniatures. So a few weeks ago I bought a book by Lincoln Wright called "Sci-Fi FAQ", which is all about making high end Science Fiction models. It's a 400+ page affair, shows a lot of advanced techniques, and reading it is giving me a bunch of ideas and inspiration on how to take my modelling further.
Next week, I'll be heading to a local military scale modelling specialist store to pick up some new gear I want to start experimenting with right away. I built a Munitorum Container last night which will serve as a test bed for some of the stuff I want to start using on my 'Angels. The timing of this is great, as the new Horus Heresy box set is supposedly entering preorder in the next week or two! I'm already eyeing up the new Contemptor Dreadnought kit as a perfect start for applying the full knowledge of the book. Lincoln is a diehard Maschinen Krieger nut and I'm confident that his many Ma.K tricks can be applied to the Contemptor (they're both heavily armoured battlesuits after all). The bare, somewhat large surfaces of the Contemptor will be perfect for surface texturizing, colour modulation and chipping etc
Coming back to the beakies, WHC have kindly supplied me with a new reference pict (just dont look at the gun barrel LOL). I am going to go less edge highlighty and more weathered on my beakies, with black helmet lenses (as shown in the og Space Marine Paint Set guide) and metallic coloured "toes", but its nice to have some reference using the exact same model(s) as I'm going to be using. Not too thrilled about the left shoulderpad being a 2-piece build, but it is what it is. Will put my sanding sponges and putty skills to the test
Started working on the Storm Bolter swaps today. After two hours of careful cutting & pasting, I got the first one done. Messed up cutting the weapon off from the knuckle side a bit, leaving a scrape along the bolter bottom edge, but with a bit of putty it should be OK.
Still going to add a small shield to the left armpit, and am thinking about maybe swapping out the Sergeant's "flagpole" to a BA themed one (maybe the symbol with three blood drops, hmm?), but he's pretty much done otherwise.. Assuming I don't flock up the barrel drillings later!
Good attention to detail! Really like the separate gun barrels on the storm bolter and look forward to seeing them painted up. Now time to go through my collections and see what I can do about my "pig noses".
All right, Horus Heresy 2.0 box has landed and it's time to resume the builds.
Before we continue, some observations and a tool tip. This was the first time I used a sanding stick for fine cleanup of a model and I'm telling yall its the bees knees! Everyone needs to try this AK Tri-Stick, using it feels almost like cheating! My cleanups look flawless now Ok, onward to the observations..p
The new 2021 (Sprues date this kit internally as a 2021 design, even though the actual kit release is this year) MKVI Corvus is a great reimagination of the classic Beakie.
The proportions have been slightly tweaked. Not only are the thighs significantly elongated, the chestpiece also seems a touch wider? (need to make a test conversion...) Fortunately, all the older heads, arms, shoulderpads and weapons can be bashed with the new kit, which is good. EDIT: upon later tinkering, the chestpiece width issue turned out to be psychological. The chestpiece is still the exact same width as before, but now the way in which the torso is cut on the sprue makes refitiing chestpieces fiddlier than what would be ideal..
You can see the new pauldrons are an exact match sizewise to the old FW resin pauldrons. And yes, the new plastic pauldrons are built from two halves, resulting in a slit aross the shoulderpad even when you glue it as tight according to the sculpt as possible. You will either need to leave them be, or putty those gaps up. Thankfully, they can be substituted with the resin pauldrons!
The new Backpack design is bulkier in the middle, and the design is a bit more minimalistic. What sucks is that GW ditched the age-old backpack connector socket type, making all the old backpacks incompatible with the new torsos without modding / conversion work.
Finally here's two picts showing that you can use the new MKVI arms & weapons with the old kits. So at least conversions where one transplants vintage chestpieces into the new legs seems doable, with the exceotion that backplates probably need to be in the new style in order to accomodate the newly shaped backpack "connection point", which is no longer the round hole like it has traditionally been up to this point.
The subtle tweaks on the 2021 sculpt do make the old sculpts look derpy, just as I feared, so I will need to use the new torsos as much as possible going forward. Probably will need to learn to do thigh modding conversions as well, probably no way around it.
I'll tinker with the new bits for a bit and see if I can come up with an upmodeled Squad Lorenzo next. All in all, as a Beakie fan, we've never had it so good! Stoked!
Thanks for the comparisons tauist, really useful to see the side by sides. The join on the shoulder pad seems max, just to get more rounded studs! The torso does look a bit different, almost like there’s more of a gap between the chest plate and the belt, but if the old ones fit, then it must be psychological! The poses definitely seem to be less squatting, even the thigh connector pipes aren’t as horizontal as the old beakie. I wonder if they’ll rescale the other marks to match?
gobert wrote: Thanks for the comparisons tauist, really useful to see the side by sides. The join on the shoulder pad seems max, just to get more rounded studs! The torso does look a bit different, almost like there’s more of a gap between the chest plate and the belt, but if the old ones fit, then it must be psychological! The poses definitely seem to be less squatting, even the thigh connector pipes aren’t as horizontal as the old beakie. I wonder if they’ll rescale the other marks to match?
I'm confident we will see rescaling of other armour marks eventually. The new anatomical proportions are such a significant improvement. However, I'd wager we will first see the unreleased marks first, such as MKII & MKV before we are goong to see rescales to MKIII, MKIV & MKVII.
I am really enjoying assembling the new MKVI, the kit is challenging to build but clearly a lot of love went into it. The pieces are easy to clean of moldlines, and the little pegs are a cool way to make sure you can assemble a pose 100% as intended, but it is also easy enough to ignore/cut the pegs and go more freeform with the pose, at least in the case of armature. Only one model out of five is giving me a hard time during assembly, the pose V. It's the only one where you have to glue in both legs to the torso. I tried finishing that one as the last model yesterday, but one leg kept falling off (I use very little glue with the legs in order to avoid glue spillage from the joints).
Anyways, here's where I got to yesterday. Still need to add nades, pistols and few bayonets, but almost half of the squad done. When seeing a group of the new models, you really start to appreciate just how much better the new proportions are. I even went as far as to ebay a SMH1 series kneeling marine, just so that i can get Castivar's model to match up the size of the new models better! (Yeah, he's still going to end up kneeling)
Next morning, and I finally tackled pose V - well, sort of. While I did manage to glue both legs in finally, I flocked up gluing the left leg a bit, resulting in a slightly modified leg stance. Turns out, the leg assemblies are actually pretty ruthless in the sense that if you mess them up once, any partial glue residue in the socket from a failed attempt will mess up the tiny pegs, and make it almost impssible to get the leg back to it's intended position/angle.
So here's the primary Combat Squad of Sqd Lorenzo. Still need to add accessories, and was thinking of adding a scope to Sgt Lorenzo's Bolter, now that he lost his combiweapon, I think I still want something extra for his weapon..
Olthannon wrote: Nice squad tauist. I have been keen to see how the new HH box is put together so I'll be following with interest!
Thank you sir! Speaking of the rest of the AoD box, I'm afraid it will take some time before I get to build the Contemptor and the Spartan though. I'm in the middle of transforming from the traditional "GW mini painting school" into "Advanced Sci-Fi Model school", so am trying to learn new modelling and weathering skills, which I want to be applying to the AoD vehicles. Next big one I need to practice with some test models is surface texturizing, I want to try to apply a slight armoured texture to the hulls of vehicles, and need to test a few options with some "disposable" modelkits first. In theory it should be a simple affair, stippling some undiluted Mr Surfacer 500 or 1000 to the armour panels, but I've yet to test this with any GW miniatures, so don't know if the result will look realistic in-scale or not.
Anyways, I reckon most of the western world has assembled & painted their AoD boxes before I'm anywhere close to finishing mine LOL. I like to take my time with this army.
I had been hunting for a Heavy Weapons upgrade kit for the MKVI locally for a few days, and finally found a LGS which had stock. I should be getting the SMH1 kneeling Heavy Weapon model in a week or two, so can finish assembling the rest of Squad Lorenzo soon.
My new tungsten drill bit set also arrived from China. Looking forward to seeing if it helps with obtaining clean, distortion free gun barrel holes for my minis. The price was surprisingly reasonable compared to how much something like Tamiya drill bits cost. And these were recommended by at least one modeller on youtube, supposedly high quality tools. Can be readily found on ebay.
EDIT: Opening up the Heavy Weapons upgrade kit reveals another undocumented surprise! Seems like there are a bunch of extra arms on the sprues, and there's two of them! This was unexpected but a great bonus for anyone who is looking to kitbash some MKVI but also wants to use the "official" arms for their kitbashes. Someone high up in the GW foodchain must really love Horus Heresy!
The SMH1 series kneeling ML marine arrived, but regrettably buying it was a waste of money! Although the standing marines in the SMH series are all upscaled to CSM (and therefore Beakie 2021) proportions, seems like the kneeling model is the exact same size as the oldmarines from, say, Devastators kit. F41L. So I ended up using only the base from the SMH1, to give the crouching model a big more height so he wont look all miniscule next to his brothers..
I also made another observation regarding the new MKVI kit. The new helmeted heads are smaller than the old sculpts! This will make helmet swaps slightly problematic going forward, I'll need to check I wont go overboard with larger helmet spam.
Managed to build two more, Castivar and Furian. I'm not 100% sure either one is final yet. The 2021 Missile Launcher is gorgeous, but not sure I like the crouched pose anymore. Furian looks OK except for the torso pose, the "pose 1" from the MKVI kit feels too static for him, need to try a more dynamic torso with maybe some twist to it.. I broke off a glued leg assembling Furian AGAIN! Dunno if the heat is affecting the glue or if these MKVI leg joints are just a PITA to assemble properly. Anyways, its getting late, more tomorrow..
So today I managed to fix Furian's leg and rebuilt Castivar in an upright stance. Also managed to build one more bolter marine, so only two more to go for Squad Lorenzo.
What do yall think about Castivar? Should I go for an upright or the more exotic crouched pose? What about the helmet, should I keep it plain or use the HH sergeant one like on this pict?
I like the way the chainbayonets connect to the bolters! I was concerned they'd be fiddly to assemble, luckily the are solid and easy to add. Will be adding more of them to the squad for sure.
Squad is taking shape nicely. I found the kit great is some aspects but a letdown in others. Seems it's hard to get more than 5 unique models out of the kit as the sprues are identical between each 5 man sprue. Add in the additional sergeant and that's all you get unless you kitbash some other weapons. I like how you've sprinkled in the special weapons in yours and I might have to end up trying to hunt down that upgrade kit - sneaky GW tricking us into spending more money!
Eggroll wrote: Squad is taking shape nicely. I found the kit great is some aspects but a letdown in others. Seems it's hard to get more than 5 unique models out of the kit as the sprues are identical between each 5 man sprue. Add in the additional sergeant and that's all you get unless you kitbash some other weapons. I like how you've sprinkled in the special weapons in yours and I might have to end up trying to hunt down that upgrade kit - sneaky GW tricking us into spending more money!
Yeah, I have to agree with you. The five poses feel quite limiting. I can only hope we will be getting an Assault Squad kit to go with the tactical at some point, which would give us five more poses to work with.
As for the MKVI upgrade kits, my plan was to buy them all from the beginning. I suppose it's a bummer having to buy the guns separately, but it does make sense considering the MKVI kit is for 30K, where bolters and bayonets are the bread & butter for tac squads. I still need Lascannons from the unreleased upgrade kit for my Devastator squad. I was thinking of going 50/50 Lascannon and Heavy Bolter for the Devastators.
In other news, I finally managed to score a Deimos Rhino! My long time plan has been to add that classic Land Speeder + Whirlwind combo to my army, as it's such an Iconic Space Marine thing to do. Even has a specific Stratagem for it IIRC. However, I never wanted the MkII Rhino based Whirlwind, but a Deimos chassis based one. Deimos Rhinos have been out of stock for ages, and when they got back in stock, the FW doors for them were out. Luckily, the stars finally aligned for me and I was able to order both at the same time. Don't mind the shaggy looking Missile turret, it's just a proxy piece from my old Whirlwind; I will be sourcing out a new fresh turret for sure, as my building technique has vastly sharpened up these days. TBH I had zero clue on how to properly clean up model bits back then hehehe!
The tolerances on the Deimos Rhino kit are tight! I have a feeling I wont be able to get a perfectly flush build no matter how much care I take in filing and dry fitting, so will need to resort to gap filling for sure. I've been meaning to learn the alchemical secrets of Milliput & Isopropyl Alcohol for a while now, this is as good time as any to start practicing..
PS: I also preordered a Sicaran, but unsure what exactly to do with it. It's a gorgeous tank but I'm not yet sure how many tanks I want in my army, original idea was to go flyer heavy instead, in order to really push the "Space" angle of Space Marines more than what is commonplace in most Marine armies.. Oh heck, I suppose one "Chapter Relic" can fit in.. I mean, it's our Techmarine's favourite after all
The build is now at ~80% complete. At this stage I'm thinking of keeping the remaining pieces unglued before proceeding with the painting stage, this will make painting the treads and inside spaces much easier.
Wrapping up things with the Rhino took a long time, as I realized the plastic treads of the kit would takes AGES to clean up. Unsightly mold lines running through the entire lenght of the tracks! In the end, I got a Dremel Stylo+ and a pack of 320 grit finishing buffers, and managed to get everything cleaned up with a lot less pain.
I'll leave the side doors unglued for now so that I can go with the Chapter Symbol doors whenever this Rhino is being fielded as a Whirlwind instead. IIRC it was Mr. Roll who commented that the FW Chapter Doors cannot physically open? Well, for a Whirlwind, that's OK Both types of side doors are tightly cut and stay in place well enough even without needing glue.
Next up, the Contemptors. I'll partially assemble a resin Contemptor so that I can compare it with the plastic kit, as I have been thinking of making a mixed plastic-resin build, taking the distinctly 40K-er looking resin torso and building a highly dynamic pose via the plastic bits. I bought a spare weapons upgrade sprue for the AoD box Contemptor, in order to have the same full kit as what's sold separately.
After the Contemptor, my Sicaran should have arrived.
Well, that went together fast! The resin Contemptor kit is a breeze to build, with only minimal cleanup required. Next, I will start building the plastic version, looking forward to this kitbash!
The resin Contemptor is hella cool in every aspect but the posability of the legs. Fortunately the legs on the plastic kt are super posable! I have a feeling the combined kit might come out real nice..
GW still hasn't released a new Assault Squad plastic kit, I have been feeling a bit stuck with the army. Got the Space Marine Heroes Series 1 bundle, now that they were re-released in red plastic, and checking the pieces for kitbashing with the MKVI tactical kit reveals yet more differences between the new and old sculpts.
While the SMH1 marines seem to be about the same height as the MKVI kit, they are clearly more oddly proportioned. Legs look skinnier, heads and hands look bigger. It is becoming evident the MKVI kit resculpt pretty much tweaked and refined all the proportions of a beakie, and IMHO, for the better. SMH marines look tall, but they have clearly "skipped leg day" for a lack of a better term, also the smaller hands on the MKVI improve the overall look considerably. So the initial assesment I had that MKVI kit only gave us a tad longer thigs was naive and simplistic in hindsight. Aesthetically this all is great, but in terms of kitbashing, it's very frustrating!
There's 3 MKVI compatible torsos in the SMH1 set, one crouching, one auspex-scanning and one standing Heavy Weapon one. I used the crouching one for yet another Castivar test, I think I like this one the best so far! Thinking of magnetizing the weapon arm & backpack so as to be able to change his Heavy Weapon between a Lascannon, Plasmacannon & ML. The other two torsos I'm still figuring out, the Auspex one will probably become a Devastator Sgt down the line (I can reuse the strapped boltgun elsewhere), while the Heavy Weapon torso might also end up becoming another Sgt. Some cutting and fitting to do..
I was using Squad Lorenzo in a Kill Team "last stand" mission (He was awesome in-game!), where I decided to swap Lorenzo's combi-bolter to a more standard plasmapistol/fist configuration. I'm really digging the pose he ended up with, and am seriously considering making this loadout his permanent one, just because of the pose. I know that's pretty much the Sgt pose GW gives us out of the box "as intended", so not original looking, but can't deny its not a great pose.
Lastly, got those new resin HH shoulderpads and man do they look sharp! Tempted to swap out all the tac shoulderpads to these new crisp ones, but at the same time I kind of like the more lived in feeling the squad inherits from having several different chapter symbol styles, mixing the resin pads with the old plastic designs.. Fluff-wise, I can imagine a brother sticking with the chapter symbol he is first given on his first armour donning ceremony, and having several different designs emphasises every brother having their own "duty roster", with some of the brothers more fresh-faced than others (Furian is the longest-serving vet of the squad, his MKIV parts make this clear). Sprinkling various Chapter symbols and switching up the accesories of the marines should hopefully give me a bit more variety yet again, add some physical battle damage marks to give further distinction..
I intend to work on my Into The Dark terrain during the holidays, so pretty much just shuffling bits around for the time being. After the new year we should see new Horus Heresy reveals. Jetbikes have been rumoured, so who knows, maybe the Assault Marines will follow after those.. Please, god Emperor, let them be MKVI also!
Small progress update before christmas: Scorpius kit arrived and I finally got my Razorback kitbash pieces!
Am thinking of using the Scorpius Launcher on my Sicaran Chassis instead. Some folks say it looks off, but I feel like mixing parts across vehicle kits yields a more agreeable looking "motorpool" overall. Don't mind if I use a Deimos front armour plate on a Mars pattern rhino, the rule of cool always wins.
I have to say I much prefer the look of a Rhino with the cyclops front armour plate! This sort of vision slit reachess across the whole SM kit range, from Castaferrum dreads, to Caestus Asault Rams et al. On a Rhino, it just looks right, it gives a larger sense of mass to the front "tusk" area, if that makes sense.
Those resin pads look great. I like the idea of mixing in the various options too, as you say, it gives them a sense of individuality. Shame the SMH marines don’t quite match the new mkvi, but en masse they should blend in well enough.
Started working on a Land Raider Proteus Explorator. It's a sweet kit, although some of the sprue gates are a little tightly located. While assembling this one, I finally got the hang of using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement like its supposed to be used, by applying droplets to the inside seams and relying on the capillary reaction to drive the glue home. Results in super neat joins as long as you dont apply too much glue! I think I prefer building this kit to the Deimos Rhino, getting stuff to line up flush doesn't require any sanding
I decided that I will make my Spartan into an oversized Land Raider Proteus Carrier instead. Mounting double Lascannons instead of the quad Lascannons should make the distinction clear enough for casual play.
Proteus Explorator 90% complete! Just needs a final round of sanding and cleanup and it's ready for priming.
I noticed a slightly annoying detail regarding the kit - The supposed firing arcs of 180 degree per side with the Lascannons is physically impossible due to the design of the swivel mounts While there are some ways to overcome this flaw somewhat, by trimming the ends of the cannons or using the larger Spartan swivel mounts, I decided neither method looks as good as building the kit as designed, even if that means that a firing arc of 180 degrees for the Lascannons will remain a distant pipedream. My OCD is bothered a little, but rule of cool always wins, even at the cost of practicality/make-believe-realism.
Interestingly, I learned that the original plastic Land Raider kit had different type of swivel mounts which had a true 180 degree firing arc. As much as I love this iteration of the plastic kit (IMHO the ever so slightly tweaked proportions of this model are superior looking!), I must admit GW/FW dropped the ball with regards to the swivel mount in actual 40K lore..
I went with a pintle-mounted HB and double smoke launchers on the sides, since that particular combo for me personally is the definitive Land Raider build. A shame the searchlights cannot be built as they were originally on the Rogue Trader book (on the front, on both sides), but at least I can model the top hatch to be 90 degrees sideways like in the original rulebook schematics
I'm waiting for one more SMH2 series two-barreled storm bolter model to arrive via mail, once it ships, I will continue bashing work with the Terminator Squad.
While waiting for the SMH2 Storm Bolter arm bits to arrive, thought I'd make the next test model. Thanks to a tip from @AndrewGPaul , I got the idea to check out Tuskgor Fur, a current Citadel colour which is supposedly a good match for the Terracotta colour found in the 1989 Space Marine Paint Set. Well, turned out that Tuskgor Fur is a great highlight shade for the AK Red Primer I have been using
Here is a pict of this testmodel WIP, just before getting oil washes, cleanup and extra weathering. I'll do the oil washes during next week, and let each colour settle for at least 24 hours, with the oils continuing to evolve even past that point in time and all..
Figured I got quite a bunch of the old proportioned Beakies that are useless now, so might as well make more test models out of them
gobert wrote: Those resin pads look great. I like the idea of mixing in the various options too, as you say, it gives them a sense of individuality. Shame the SMH marines don’t quite match the new mkvi, but en masse they should blend in well enough.
Oh hey Gobert, had missed your post earlier. Hope the new year is shaping up to be a productive hobby year for you sir!
Yeahh, the SMH Marine's are in a weird place in the marine miniatures range. Their overall proportions are the same as the plastic marines of old, yet they are about as tall as the new Beakies. I don't know what the designers were thinking tbh. But I will just use a couple of them so it should be fine? maybe using the new smaller heads and arms will help them blend into the others better..
Ooh, good to see some paint going down. Good to know that tusk gor fur over red is a decent approximation for the old terracotta, it was a lovely paint and is in use on some of my old Orks. The Land Raider does look cool, even if the lascannons can’t swivel to face rearwards. Iirc though the OG land raider could only fire rearwards if you turned the cannons upside down (rotate about Y axis instead of Z, if that makes sense). I moved mine a while ago, I’ll have to have a look when I get home
Testmodel #5 has now served its purpose. Notes for next test:
• Ensure masking on weapons when applying red primer (too many paint layers build up a crust)
• Keep on tightening up the basecoat edge accuracy & paint consistency control
• When applying weathering, less is more (went a bit overboard again...)
• Transfers are a PITA to align, more align practice needed (Thank the Emperor for 3D symbols!)
All in all, I found an even better colour/value distribution this time compared to the Primaris colourtest. Adding a touch of Red oil into the Rust wash tints the armour even closer to the muted Orange/Red spectrum I'm going for. Few more of these tests and I'll have basic infantry recipe nailed! (And yes, testing the RT trader helmet stripe with the next one!)
The last missing SMH2 bitz arrived, I should now have all the pieces required for completing all the basic builds of my Honour Guard. Bashed the double-barreled Storm Bolter in place for my most dynamic pose. I'm trying to go for a pose where the Marine is midway in leap, powerfist about to suckerpunch a target, it's not far off now!
In terms of cutting the arms, I realized one of the most stress-free ways to cut into a termie hand seems to be from the back of the arm-to-wrist piece, there's an almost straight line running across the elbow joint and the thicker part of the wrist. The reattachment only requires a bit of filler or sprue goo, assuming you get a clean cut. Doing this takes only a single clean cut with a JLC, whereas the alternative requires two cuts, around the weapon itself no less, and is therefore a more risky option compared to this method.
New FW stuff arrived in the mail today, so a lil update:
The Ultramarines MKVI helmet upgrade gives us the classic "Sergeant stripe" beakie helmet with updated proportions. When I saw the reveal of these helmets, the side grille vents looked uneven (hand sculpted?) and oddly positioned; luckily the final resin heads have cleanly cut helmet grille details and the positioning is a lil better. Here's one of the new Sgt helms swapped on to brother Lorenzo, the differences are subtle but the slightly smaller helmet does look quite nice! Still on the fence about the difference in details tho, I would maybe have preferred just a size difference, will have to see how I feel about the helmet lens side slits after looking at them for a bit longer..
As anyone following this log knows, I'm a stickler for details. FW has announced new Raven Guard MKVI helmet upgrades, and I am really into the retro details of those helmets! I'll be buying a few boxes of those heads for sure once they get released. They will probably come out soonish, way before the new Assault Marines anyway, so no rush (yes, I will not lock down any builds for Squad Lorenzo until I see the new Assault kit - 5/6 distinct torsos are aight but not ideal)
Also got the only upscaled MKVI HQ sculpt I like, the new EC Praetor kit. This model is the only one released so far which IMHO respects the original MKVI armour design language, and just embellishes it, instead of the weaksauce attempts of the two Plastic Praetors which came in the AoD box. Those two Praetors look like they are wearing a more generic, "HH-appropriate" mishmash of armour marks, Artificed up to 11, but not really like beakies at all..
There are a few "III" symbols on the EC Praetor kit, but luckily only one small one on the torso, should be easy to hide/remove.. Here's the new Captain draft, i swapped out the Raven guard jump pack for the Zephon kit jump pack (same connector bit as the resin Praetor, yay!). What do you think? The inferno pistol arm will still probably change, but I love that Sang Guard Powerfist too damn much to let it go. It is very oversized, maybe not perfect after all? The pose of the model itself is bit static for a jump pack model, but I feel its aight, my man is observing the battle in progress, figuring out where to jump off to next.
You might be wondering what I'm going to do with a Zephon model without a Jump Pack? I already have plans for him, he shall become my DC "leader" (DC units dont have a sarge but whatever, he's their leader). I always wanted my DC to have plenty of prosthetic limbs, so the Zephon model will be a perfect foundation for a replacement model to my THDC guy (featured earlier in the thread). The armour has extra skulls and bling, so should fit into my personal headcanon for my DC as well (the most blinged out unit in the army).
Bought a new primer (Mr Color Oxide Red) and thought I'd try a helmet stripe stencil I've been thinking of using.
Got these nifty brass strips in a few thicknesses, and was thinking of bending them to shape. Stripe colour basecoat, followed by primer in the armour main colour applied with the stencil in place, should (hopefully) give me a sharp, straight line across a helmet. I need to determine the exact line thickness, I still want the distinction of a Sergeant stripe and a regular Battle Brother stripe to be clear enough. Starting at 0,5mm strip..
I'll get the airbrush out tomorrow and test out at least one line
Slight detour. I've been into KillTeam21 since it's launch, and with the arrival of Void War bases, felt like it was ample time to get started assembling my KillTeams from the various boxes I've decided to keep. Starting with Eldar Corsairs.
I am still studying Corsair and Eldari lore, but drafted half of the upcoming team. These will be kitbashes, hopefully I can get every model to look at least slightly individualistic from each other.
And back to my IXth, new Raven Guard MKVI heads just hit preorder. I should have some by April. No rush, the plastic Assault squad kit is still months away from seeing release..
Holidays are here! Will finally have some more time to do modelling, and got me some monopose Indomitus Terminator models from the Leviathan box.
I love this new kit! It's quite easy to assemble and clean properly, thanks to the clever cutting of parts on the sprue. Mold lines are practically nonexistent. Time to make some scale comparisons with my previous builds..
Unfortunately, it seems the new models are better proportioned than the older sculpts. Next to a SMH2 series Sergeant, the difference isn't a dealbreaker yet, but next to the Ltd Ed Captain, ouch. The Ltd Edition Captain looks too small and his legs are really awkward looking. Damn.. looks like my Indomi builds will have to be redone using the new torsos at the very least..
We are starting a 40K Crusade Campaign soon, and I'm going to need a Devastator Squad and an Assault Squad (without jump packs) for the games. Probably will need to build those next.. Terminators are getting on hold until the new multipart plastics are released.
Built four out of five now. Swapped some arms around, as I wasnt terribly fond of the preset poses. I have to say these new Indomi termies are as much of a home run as the 2022 MKVI was at the time. Subtle refinements, resulting in superb renditions of the classic armour marks / patterns While the poses are less dynamic as with the SMH2 models, the overall quality of the new sculpts more than makes up for it.
I already ordered a Leviathan Captain, so my Ltd Edition Captain is getting a new torso at the very least.. But I want to keep the original throwbacks to the og metal Captain model, such as the respirator head/haircut and the skull adorned sword hilt
I got the Captain torso, but since I also found that spanking new FW resin head (From the Space Marine Chaacter Heads Set #2) with a crewcut and a respirator, all the bitz are still not arrived.
In the meantime, I've been trying to come up with my custom Chapter Insignia, here are two of my test renders so far. I am aiming for that Rogue Trader Era flair, but with a "tightened up" appearance so that the old symbol wouldn't look as hand drawn as it originally did.. #1 is a version I've worked on for quite a bit, its a sort of extrapolated version from scans of the old logo (Scanned from my own transfers), while #2 is a new idea I thought of, a modification of the Palantine Aquila (the blood drop needs to be redesigned at the very least)
Dunno if it's just me, but the lower res picts look just as awful in Dakka's previews as higher res ones..? Anyways, here's one more "mood board" pict from me before I wrap things up tonight. I know my progress is stupid slow, but I promised my dying father I'd spend years on this army, just to get it right, which seemed to delight him (he was an artist, loved oil paints)
Automatically Appended Next Post:
gobert wrote: Cracking terminators tauist. The FW embelishments you’ve been adding are cool
Ta Gobert! Rest assured, I will be adding the FW shoulderpads to all of the termies. The monopose Leviathan models have non-detachable shoulderpads, so I'm waiting for the multipart plastic kit for the arm bits.
also both symbols above have merit but I prefer the top one of the two. just my twopennith...
this whole project is really brimming with oldskool yummyness and the terminators are a lovely addition...
My thoughts are similar. That grenade harness is just too classic, it has to be included.. The hilted skull adorned sword is a problem, getting it to fit snug will be a challenge, I'll file it down from the backside some.
And the topmost BA symbol has been my idea from the start, so I suppose I'll keep on trying to improve it further. I was thinking of creating custom transfers of the logo for pads & banners, but don't have access to a printer, so will take sussing out..
The FW resin replacement head arrived, here's the new sketch
I think the resin head looks a touch more period correct, although the difference is slight.. I think I prefer the haircut on this one, looks more 90's somehow
Now I just need to suss out how to replace that shoulderpad and the Storm Bolter Barrels (occurred to me one could just saw off the pignose barrel bit and add new barrels from a spare bit), although I might even swap out the entire right arm. Once the multipart plastic Indomi kit arrives, I'll have more than enough spare parts.
In the painting dept, I recently got a book teaching the basics of colour theory, as well as the AK Basic Starter Paint Set, so I should now be able to match any existing paint shade manually by colour mixing. Not sure what I'll use it for yet, but seemed like a useful skill to learn. As a side effect, I got tons of ideas for modulating red/reddish tones, so that was good!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Speaking of colour, just found a killer reference online! I'll be dissecting this one for ideas for sure (not the exact colours or edge highlighting though)
I've been experimenting with color modulation and various weathering finishes, and found a really jawdropping reference for the painting style I'm trying to go for.
Here's a photoshop I made from a model picture which better matches my color pallette. The model is originally pictured in Lincoln Wright's upcoming Lunar Combat modelling book, and is from a Maschinen Krieger range I think? Anyways, this is just a reference, I wont be able to come near it IRL, but it's what I'd like to aim for.
I don't think such a textured finish is possible in 28mil modelling, but I like this look so much, and want to try to emulate this sort of rendering if at all possible. Means there won't be much freehand, just transfers and focus on the finishes
EDIT: Correction - this model is actually built by Alex, but is featured in the upcoming Lunar Combat book. Maybe I'll need to get a copy of the book to get a better sense of the sheer impossibility of my desires..
That is a cool texture on the bot. I’ve seen similar achieved through stippling really thinned paint. I think midwinter minis did it on their Titan panel painting vids and Trovarion has some grimdark space marines that used similar techniques.
gobert wrote: That is a cool texture on the bot. I’ve seen similar achieved through stippling really thinned paint. I think midwinter minis did it on their Titan panel painting vids and Trovarion has some grimdark space marines that used similar techniques.
Thanks for the tips! Already found some info about it:
So then, I'd basically have to find an appropriate stippling pattern for the scale.. interesting idea! I'm a big fan of drybrushing techniques so stippling could be a good fit. I will need to make some tests..
Days are getting super short, so time to get back.
I'm building a 5 model Assault squad without jump packs. Here's the first sketch. I was thinking of adding grenades to some of these chestplates, to give a more high intensity feel. I'm using the old resin backpacks, fluff being that tis Assault squad has a preference for underspecced power plants favouring the increased mobility of a smaller pack..
Good choice with the backpack, it's a nice touch that helps to visually differ them from the rank and file.
That a ravenguard lid I spy? Could have done with some of those for my crimson fists now I think of it. Very rtb01 looking.
What's the arms from. Fw upgrade?
FW breachers kit, yes. Heads are from the Raven guard upgrades, which can work for just about any legion really, those variant beakie helmets are the stuff of legends!
Added some gear - starting to look like an Assault Marine! Will need to integrate the gear better later, but this'll do for now. On to the other guys..
I bought the new 2023 multipart terminator kit, but had to exchange my first kit to a second one due to a missing piece? One of the parts numbered 105 (left shoulderpad bit with a crux) was mysteriously absent from the box.. well, anyway, my LGS sorted it out quickly.
The new multipart plastic Terminators are well designed. Every set of legs seems to go with every torso, giving you a lot of possible posing options. Furthermore, the legs attach in a way which allows slight reposing just by filing down the internal keyed contact points, and the metal plates protecting the hips are separate bitz, I'd wager a talented converter could get away with all sorts of poses.. Makes fitting the models on custom bases a lot easier at the very least.
Hardest part is making the old FW resin shoulderpads fit. This requires cutting down excess plastic from the bare shoulderpad. These WIP's are not yet fitted flush in that regard, that will take some further work..
Decided to use the Space Marine Heroes bases for these. It's a shame to butcher my earlier sketches (those models have their feet modelled on the bases!), but I'm 100% dedicated to doing whatever it takes to get these models looking their best. So clipped off the feet and will retexturize any gaps remaining when finishing off the basing process.
I used my leftover arms from the Leviathan Indomi Captain for the Sergeant, so now my sarge is left-handed. I cut out the Power sword and the hilt, and reattached them to the Captain arms. There are two spots on the arms now without detail, I'll need to suss out some spare arms and transplant them from the spares.
Preliminary squad builds done for now. Used my favourite monopose Marine from the Leviathan set in order to squeeze in a Cyclone Missile Launcher model from the multiparts. Might have to do the same for a Flamer variant! The new Cyclone launcher is a bit fiddly to build, I messed up one of the underside glue joints :| I know it isn't really visible in the full build, but it irks me nonetheless.. Fortunately, the monopose model doesn't stick out from the multiparts all that much (Left shoulderpad Crux is slightly different, otherwise he looks identical), so you can absolutely kitbash the monopose Leviathan models with these multiparts, and the results look seamless.
All in all, 2023 Terminator squad is a lovely kit, can totally recommend (except for the Cyclone launcher hehehe)
I think I want the new Indomi Chaplain now as well?
Figured out how to deal with the annoying 40K/30K dillemma - I will keep the Crux shoulderpads permanently blutaced and will just swap out the blanks for HH-era version of the squad. This leaves another annoying detail though - the cruxes and crux-like symbols on the kneepads? Am I supposed to be buying surplus bitz for the squad so as to be able to replace all the skully bitz from the leg plates with "blanks" for Horus Heresy? This would also mean being unable to use my monopose torsos, as they don't come with interchangeable kneepads..
Cool looking Terminators, good to know that the monopose and multipose work together too. As for the kneepads you could always remove them completely, either go blank, keep the skull or replace with BA iconography?
gobert wrote: Cool looking Terminators, good to know that the monopose and multipose work together too. As for the kneepads you could always remove them completely, either go blank, keep the skull or replace with BA iconography?
Ideally, I'd like to keep the crux looking ones since that is the classic RT era Indomi look. I have been looking at bitz sellers, and nobody, absolutely nobody, wants to sell me just the kneepad bits separately, so it's looking unrealistic for me to buy enough kneepad bits to be able to swap them around with blanks for HH. Only way to do that would be to buy another full kit..
I have very little suitable BA iconography, unfortunately. My BA Assault Terminators kit has only a few tilting shield bitz I'd fancy using. I will be adding those in to these termies however, no doubt about that. Nothing that would work on the kneepads though.
Just wanted to make a quick army pict to see how my overall vision holds up for the entire force. Not a lot missing anymore, jump pack assault squad, three more assaulters on foot, and a devastator squad with 2 HB's, 2 Lascannons and 1 Heavy Flamer to round out the core of the army. Once we get there, I'll start tackling how the heck I'm going to remake my Death Company marines with something that matches the modern firstborn Marine scale. The new MKIII torsos are not entirely out of the picture, perhaps I'll go with those for the DC, they will be five models to start with anyway.. Perhaps I could learn to utilize a modeller's engraver tool for the DC? The new MKIII kit has a lot of blank panel space on it, which could be artificed up with cool looking engraving patterns? Plus a ton of bling on top..
Overall, I feel like what I'm looking for is there, that classic look of 1st edition 40K & 2nd edition Space Marine, remastered for the 2020's, but there's not yet enough "Space" in this force! I either need two more Drop Pods, or two more flyers.. I have been thinking I'd like two flyer escorts for my Caestus Ram, but I'd prefer to use Xiphon Intereceptors instead of those Stormhawk Intereceptors, and plastic Xiphon, who knows if or when those will be out.. I'd also love a Dreadclaw or even a Kharybdis Assault Claw, but again, if they'll come out later in plastic and I got the resin ones out of sheer impatience, I'll be seriously annoyed..
To some of you, it might look like I'm barely making progress.. but when I myself skim through this build log, my doubts about this whole thing disappear, sure enough I've built and rebuilt my infantry units more times than I would have liked, but the much improved proportions of the new kits will make it all have been worth it in the end. For example, I really like the contrast between the Power Armoured models and TDA Armoured ones now, termies looking properly chunky and imposing compared to the rank & file.. This wasn't nearly as much the case with RTB-01 plastics vs the first Metal Terminators, for example.
EDIT: Attached to Dakka (for archival) as well as embedded this one
Great looking army shot! I think you really nailed the modernized retro look. I trust you are going to do some classic shouler mounted weapons for the devastators?
Commander Cain wrote: Great looking army shot! I think you really nailed the modernized retro look. I trust you are going to do some classic shouler mounted weapons for the devastators?
Why but of course, I've got all the Heavy Weapon plastic upgrade kits
I do like the underslung Heavy Bolters though, so will prob keep those, but Plas/Las/ML shouldermounts definitely, keeping it RT
Okay, so here's my first draft of the Assault Squad. Things are still in flux, but broad strokes are established. I want to learn to repose resin with these, in order to get the poses even more fluent looking, but that'll wait for now. Also probably refining accessories and adding some purity seals and whatnot. Decided to go with power sword on the Sergeant, just to make him stand out from Lorenzo a bit more. Meltabombs onboard though, so vehicles wont be safe from him!
Wasn't happy with two of the poses so swapped torsos around. Ended up spoiling two flamer bits from a special weapon sprue, because I took the wrong arms and desperately tried to brute force the hands into a flamer bit that wasn't meant for them. Always double, nay, triple check your poses and bitz when messing with the special weapons folks!
Going to be working on the new Indomi Chaplain next, scored the last kit from my LGS (whew!)
Indomi Chappie build. Loved the kit, used the exact same config as the multipart termies, so could even alter the pose a hair. Used my remaining FW shoulderpad and a spare plastic pad from the Limited Edition Chaplain Tarentus model. The trims on the plastic shoulderpad are much thicker than on the resin one, contemplating on whether I can be arsed to do anything about it later..
One more squad sketched! Devastators this time. Wanted to start with two Lascannons, but am probably going to magnetize these guys in order to coax maximum mileage out of the devs.
Once again, pose #5 turned out to be the most tricky to assemble, that left leg is a
Still need to add pistols and accessories, but quite happy with the poses. I've now built close to 20 of the 2022 beakies, and have to say the five poses on the sprue all have their uses, depending on the type of squad one is going with. I managed to get quite decent variety just by swapping heads, shoulderpads and weapons around. And if the upcoming HH2 Command Squad plastic kit turns out to be MKVI, I will probably get even more variety for my Sergeants with it An in-scale powerfist with a pointing finger on it would be a godsend to be honest, I would give one to the dev Sarge ASAP
You might be wondering, have I ran out of BA Chapter badge decorated shoulderpads? I deliberately left them out for these, for reasons which will become apparent when I get to the painting stages.. Everything happens for a reason!
I have now got most of the infantry in my Strike Force built. That's 25 Battle Brothers (5 Terminators, 10 Tacticals, 5 Assault, 5 Devastators) + Officers done. However, both of my support squads can utilize various battlefield roles, and I have only one role down for each so far. So plenty of building still ahead of me..
So Legiones Imperialis happened! Did I ever tell you I used to love Space Marine 2nd edition to bits as a young un?
Decided to build this army in both scales, just going for a larger force with the Epic scale (including Titans from the Warp Runners Legion). But that is a secondary task, and something I will not take as seriously as the 28mil army.. Which will resume soon as the Jump Pack Assault Squad is finally released by GW on the 16th of December Followed by new plastic Scouts in January..
Those MKVI Assault Marines finally hit the store shelves here last thursday. I had too much holiday things to get back to the builds, but now as work is starting to commence, figured I'd pick up the tools and get cracking. Here's the first Brother for my Jump Pack Assault squad.
I didn't glue the chestpieces together yet as I am still not 100% convinced I want to go with the new reinforced design, but what was a very pleasant surprise was the fact that the new plastic torso gladly accepts the previous gen resin Jump Packs and the fit is almost completely flush without any fiddling about!
Let me know how you like the new chestpieces? I have spare older gen plastic Assault squad harness chestpieces in stock, but the thought of cutting up the new torsos makes me uneasy, especially since some of the more dynamic poses might make retrofitting the older harness bitz more tricky than just a straight up "saw from the belt buckle" affair..
New plastic Marine Scouts are also releasing next Saturday, but as they have been scalecreeped too far to play nice with my beloved NuBeakies, I will be sticking to the old metal sculpts instead. They are my favourite Scout models from the old range by far, and from what I have seen in other plogs on this board, look agreeable scale-wise next to the NuBeaks..
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Wrapping things up for tonight, tweaked the first sketch a bit more and built a second one.
Think I'm definitely warming up to the new chestpiece design! On the second one, it looks even more badass than on the first one.. Besides, the most important detail are the RT era authentic backpacks, which work superbly on these sculpts
The remaining three will all be "special" models, Twin LC sarge, a meltagunner (will be interesting to see how the tac arms line up) and an Eviscerator dude. I'm blatantly ripping two poses from a WHC article pict I saw for the sarge and the Eviscerator. The meltagunner makes me a bit anxious, might end up being a fiddly build (heck, even the tac kit flamer dude I sketched for the regular Assault Squad was tricky)
Sergeant almost done, needs more cleanup (and fingers)
I just love the new Sergeant helmet! It fits perfectly into the established Corvus aesthetic. I'm going to use these heads for my Land Speeder Proteus crew as well, they have that "Robotech fighter pilot" thing going on and I'm here for it!
I glued the torso plates together this time. It's obvious by now that I'm going to go with the new chestpiece design, I've gotten used to their silhouette and am digging the chunkier feel of the new battleplate (also contrasts nicely against the non-jump pack models, which are supposed to be more lightweight and nimble)
Trying to get the whole squad sketched out by weeks end
I was super relieved to find that the same "pose" arms that worked for the non jump pack Assault Squad specialist worked also with the jump pack torso!
Turned out that the Eviscerator pose I wanted to rip off used a torso I already built, so swapped the arms and the head for the meaner looking RG one. Now I just need to assemble the final torso and give it the best looking set of arms I can find (have 4 set of arms to choose from, assuming every pose in the JP Assault kit has unique arm poses)
I have to say this version of my Jump Pack Assault Squad is looking best one so far! All in all the 2022-2023 NuBeakie kits have wonderful kitbashability within each other, every kit adds interchangeable bitz and each torso has several configurations which look natural, just a matter of finding the right set of arms and heads for each model.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Managed to squeeze the remaining sketch before finishing tonight. Here is the squad (sans Sergeant's fingers)
So now, I have about a 1000+ points of stuff minus HQs done.. I'm going to make a temporary HQ out of that Dominion Zephon model for a quick game coming up. Will be interesting to see how my "Codex" compliant army performs on the tabletop!
Further sketching of the Epic scale version of the army
Have collected a metal scouts squad, trying them for the army first. I bought these from ebay, no idea who has painted them, stripping down to metal next
My initial feelings are that these are too small in scale after all, but I'll keep an open mind until I see them further..
Finished stripping the first model. What do you think? Does this dude look like someone who becomes the other dude once they don a Corvus plate? My feeling is that he is too small to pass as an augmented human, but not as an unaugmented one.. In which case I would need to alter my headcanon a bit, so that in my army, scouts are basically still regular humans in appearance, growth hormones et al only get administered after a brother progeresses in rank to a full Marine..
I dont really object to this, as I view Scouts as a separate subfaction within the Space Marine hierarchy - As neophytes yet to be sworn as full brothers, they arent really Space Marines, who perform actually quite close to how modern SEALS etc special ops team might. There is an abundant supply of such Scouts in my chapter.. In pop culture terms, my Blood Angels Scouts are basically the marines from Ridley Scott's Aliens movie, just with added organs and improved reflexes, strenght, endurance etc. Only once the vast minority of them become full fledged battle brothers, they start counting towards the "1000 Space Marines" dogma of the Codex Astartes in this army.
These Scouts are used for recon missions, various Spec Ops missions and for deploying battlefield assets such as Tarantulas and Teleport homing beacons in secret. They deploy either via grav chutes or with a Land Speeder Storm.
I'm going to go with Hive War bases for these, as I might want to use them for games of Advanced Space Crusade later on
Wrapping up for this time. Managed to strip another one and made this scale comparison pict with models from my army. Its not terribly far off the mark I think..?
I see you do the same thing as I do - changing and rebuilding models until you get the right combination.
To be honest, I don't like those metal Scouts at all. They look very lumpy and outdated next to the newer models (but then I've always found Scouts rather lame). I would at least replace their guns with Heresy-era versions, which would also help them to fit in better aesthetically. Maybe also add some studs to their shoulder pads?
Small update, been a while. Been busy with other stuff, and kind of waiting for some more kits to arrive (have a large order from one shop just waiting for Civitas Imperialis tiles to return to stock). Picked up the tools for the first time in months today, and got some progress happening with the Epic scale version of the army.
The new Land Raider Proteus Epic kit is a slight disappointment. The way the pieces are cut make cleaning the gates from the tracks cleanly almost impossible. Also, ended up messing up one of the lascannon sponson assemblies, too damn fiddly and glue spilled on the exposed lascannon details..
Regarding the scouts, they are what they are. I will not be using the modern sculpts, they are just too large in scale. If snord thinks they look lumpy and lame, its his opinion. I think they will end up looking aight once they end up getting their paint jobs. I am not making a Heresy army, but a 40K one, therefore there will be no "swapping out for heresy era weapons". If anything, this army is for playing older editions of 40K, from 2st edition to 10th, depending on the game. Nobody in my group is interested in Horus Heresy, neither am I. Rogue Trader forever!
I wasnt happy with the included seregeant models, since they have those weird HH helmet plumes, so weapon swapped a left arm from one of the sergeants and transplanted it onto an Apotechary body. Took a while, was fiddly AF, and in the end I messed up reattaching the arm a bit (looks anatomically wrong when looked from behind the model), but all things considering I did all right! I'm going to be doing more of this sort of bashing going forward..
I also realized one can build RT style Razorbacks and Whirlwinds by bashing together bits from a Predator, a Rhino and either Tarantula turret from the Astartes Support kit. I'm going to need more Rhinos, stat..
Automatically Appended Next Post: Wrapping up for today. Got a Leviathan and a Rapier built, LItbashed the Levi to have two sets of siege drills, which is the build I'm going to use for the 28mil version. Such a build is illegal in LI, but what the heck.. wont be playing it for a long time hehehe!
I'm getting the Drop Pod box by early next week, starting with one Deathstorm and one regular, to mirror the ones I already have in 28mm. Until next time..
Built my first Drop Pod yesterday. The kit is pretty inpressive, I felt like a swss watchmaker putting it together. I did mess up again, one of the door pieces was accidentally clipped slightly from its corner, and I lost one of the deathstorm central column supports, it fell from my hobby table and was never seen again, despite almost an hour of intense searching.. Just means I have one less full deathstorm assemblies, so will need to make one of the pods permanently fixed into a transport model instead.
I hope some GW bitz sellers eventually start selling individual LI bitz as well, I have lost two important parts already, and not looking forward to having to buy an entire 40€ kit just because of one missing piece.. FFS
Other than that, I am really getting hooked on working in this new Epic scale.. I feel like building these kits is improving the tightness of my overall modelling skills. The absolutely micron scale operations you need to do with these in terms of cleaning and sanding neatness is both challenging and rewarding.
You dont actually need to glue down the drop pod completely in order to have a playable model. You can leave the pod in three distinct pieces, this allows you to swap the insides so you can get maximum flexibility from the kit. You might even be able to magnetize the transport harness/deathstorm launcher insides, there is room for one circular disc magnet in the inside of both central pieces, although to be honest, the fit is super snug, no magnets really needed. Here are the subassemblies:
Decided the best way to deal with the "turret" is just to use the deathstorm build turret for both varieties. You can always claim it has a storm bolter tucked inside it somehow :p
This kind of loosey-goosey drop pods might irritate some people, but I figured since the pods never move after entering the table, the fragile build should still be adequate.
I have been toying with the idea of Recreating Space Marine 1st edition & 1st edition Adeptus Titanicus with the modern models (including Codex Titanicus rules / units), and finally decided on the Traitor legion I'll be running with. I will make one side my IXth, of course, and the traitors shall be from the.. I want to say XIVth (Death Guard) legion?
Anyways, to start off small and un-ambitious, the plan is to make micro-HH2 armies from both first.. LI kits are actually genious for this sort of thing, the amount of models you get per kit is not very generous for LI, but quite generous for HH2, especially if you go halfies on the two sprues in each kit.. So anyway, that is happening before any LI-army as such..
On the 28mm front, I am waiting for the Command upgrade (that banner mainly), and next kits in the requisition queue are the new resin MKV & MKVI Apotecharies and the BA upgrade gubbins set. Those iconographied weapons will add some nice flair to things, I'm even contemplating on ditching my resin Captain sketch for a kitbashed version of Dominion Zephon, now that there are more decent looking two-handed weapons available..
However, they will be addded to the OOB ASAP )
