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Too bad you cannot find a middle ground with those drippers. Do you have anyone else that may be interested in working with you on it?

Well, at 30 cents each (17 for the top, and 13 for the bottle), and the $10 across 20 make it an additional 50 cents, so 80 cents each total.

In reality, it's not that bad. That's about $16 for 20 of them.

Granted, that still excludes the S&H and Tax.

I'm liking the corrupted wraithbone idea. Good to see the other damned craft world getting a little love.

So they end up being a buck a piece? not too shabby imo.

Hey! This has been really fun to read through your creations and musings. I tried what you were doing with the crystals and I can't believe what an awesome and easy a detail it is!

I've liked Altansar since Eye of Terror, rock on!

Keep up the great work!
T-

Very cool painting, I'd like to see more!

Wow, that jetbike looks incredible! Love the spots. As one improvement, try to blen the spots more, and as a personal tip, if you want 'black' go for a 1:1 of red:black. IMO looks much better. You can change the red for anything, though!

And A Partridge In A Pear Tree!

So it's been a while since I've last posted; a lot to do with life, weather, and the holidays.

So this time around I tried out a few new things, the first of which was a wet palette. I actually went to my LGS, and saw that you can buy one... for like 12 bucks. I decided to take Chris Borer's fiscal approach to Wet palettes.

It's interesting what you can do with a generic paper towel, a piece of parchment baking paper, and an old Chinese food container. It was pretty interesting using it. The paint didn't dry out while using it. It made mixing the mid-highlight color later on pretty easy, since I only needed a little and it didn't dry out on me. And clean-up was a breeze, just throw out the paper. Granted, I might not be able to perfectly match the mid-highlight color.



So with that out of the way, I decided to continue on with painting the spirit stones on the bike. If you remember, I previously tried painting them with some old Vellejo paint. It didn't work out so well.



So I went to my only LGS and found that they no longer carry Vellejo. They now carry Reaper Minis MSP. After using it, I'm not sure that there is any difference between the two other than the fact that Vallejo paints tend to bubble up when you open them. I ended up going with my original plan of Jade for the gems, and I highlighted them with Pale Olive (I guess also called swamp green).



The head on image didn't turn out so well, but I couldn't take another picture since my camera's battery SUCKS. I finally got around to buying a replacement for it today. But you can tell where I ended up painting off of the stone in a few places, where I'll end up having to clean it up.

Learnings From An Idiot Painter

So a few things that I learned this time around:

* Do not mix mid-highlight colors with a 7 dollar brush, when a 1 dollar brush will do. It really messed with the brush, but at least it didn't ruin it.
* Jade looks like a really good choice for the Gem Color. I guess simple color theory works: Reds with Greens, Oranges with Blues, Yellows with Purples.
* Having your painting station outside in your garage, in a place with cold winters, sucks!
* A wet palette doesn't mean that you don't need to thin down your paint.

Ah, a fellow Eldar from Altansar I see. I'm also in the midst of an Altansar CW army build. Interesting take on the paint scheme. I do have one question, what black are you using or how are you applying it, as the the surface looks 'gritty' ?

Look forward to seeing more.

I think that the main issue with the black was the primer that I used. It ended up bumpy like that. I was just too lazy to actually take the time to sand it smooth.

I used Army Painter Primer... probably about 3 to 5 years old. Over that I applied some thinned down GW chaos black.

Thinking about things some more, I realized that I forgot something on my list from above...

* A wet palette doesn't mean that you don't need to thin down your paint.

My paint actually was too thick while I was applying it to the stones. So I need to remember to thin it down more next time.

Looking good so far.
Will follow this with interest.

Happy New Year!... Delayed

So it's finally after all of the Holiday seasons, and birthday for me. It's been a while since I've last posted, and I really haven't done much in the way of work on any of my army. I did get a couple of things for Christmas/birthday, and I've solidified how I'm going to go about trying to convert a few future pieces.

On the "OOO, Look what I got!" front:

* I got a new airbrush. Because of the cold time of year here where I live, I haven't had any time to use it, but I'm really excited for when the weather finally warms back up.
* I also got a seam scraper. So in reality, I should be modelling in the winter, to prepare for the spring when I can start painting again.
* I still have to make an order for the paint bottles, so I can start getting everything ready while I wait.

On the "Hmm, how about I try doing this" front:

So I have this Wraith Lord in my garage, waiting for me to start working on it, but I've been at a loss as to how to model it. I liked how the golden demon striking scorpion Wraith Lord turned out, and I wanted to do something similar:



For the longest time I was trying to figure out how to set it up to look like a Howling Banshee, but for some reason, any pose that I could thing of would have to be leaning forward to look like it's running, and wouldn't be very stable and probably a bit fragile. I would prefer that my model wouldn't fall apart/over if a slight breeze hit it.

Then it finally dawned on me what to do: Wraith lord Dark Reaper. I'm planning on having it loaded with an Eldar Missile Launcher, Bright Lance, Flame Thrower, and Sword. I'm thinking of taking the Missile Launcher and Bright Lance, and fashioning them similar to a dark reaper tempest launcher, then attach the sword to the front to look like a scythe coming from the front of the weapon. Kind of like a huge version of Maugan Ra.

I think I'm going to have to break out that seam ripper and finish off the other two bikes, and move on to the Wraith Lord.

As always, Comments, Questions, criticisms are all welcome.

Cool! Like the Maugan Ra idea.

For a minute I thought 'That's your Wraithlord... And you're gonna change it?'

lol

HAHA!!!!

No that is definitely not my Wraith Lord pictured! Nor is the Golden Demon that it won.

A Delayed Birthday Present

So as a delayed birthday present from my wife this year, I got to go play a game of 40K while she watched the kids. Amazingly enough, I don't get to may games in. I actually missed all of 5th edition. So before the small game that I posted about previously, the last game I played was using 4th edition.

I ended up playing against Ork with Tau allied. He was a tournament player, using his tournament army. I on the other hand build a list in about 5 minutes using army builder. I didn't stand a chance, and the game was so one sided after 2 rounds, I conceded.

I have a few pictures that I'll see about getting posted, when I have time.

This got me to thinking about what I want to bring to the table, and what I should be doing. My errors for this game started before we even started the first round. My deployment was bad, and I forgot to buy a psychic power for my warlock.

I know my first error in the game was going towards him, and his 2 mobs that were coming at me, but then again, I wasn't used to be a shooting player, without rangers on the board. His two mobs decimated my Wriathguard, Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, and Storm Guardian, His shootas, took out my Dark Reapers, and one of my Wave Serpants. It was slightly humiliating.

BUT...

It was fun, and I ended up making a new friend, who's pointed me to a few places to read up on what changes I can be making.

I've thought about everything from what I brought to what I did. I'm hoping that next time I'll do better, but I really need to think about it. That and realize that I really shouldn't be playing against tournament players.

As far as my army is concerned. I'm thinking of finding a way to add in Harlequins. We'll see.

Sigh... I Hate The Cold!

As usual, with my work station out in the garage, I haven't been able to get much work done. But I have been able to get several projects out of the planning stages, and into the 'buying this and that' stage. The first model I've been getting out of the planning stages, is a bit of a kit bash (I think that's what it's called).

I have this idea that the Eldar of Altensar are a bit angry. How you would feel after being trapped in The Warp for ten thousand years. I figure that would be really angry. Almost Dark Eldar angry... but not quite. So I was thinking that for my main Farseer, I would mix and match a few pieces from Dark Eldar, and some from Normal Eldar. Here are the two figures that I'm planning on mixing together:

and

I'm planning on using the arm with the singing spear, and the head off of the Farseer, and putting that on the body of the Medusae. I've already cut off the arm, the chains, and a few of the spiky doodads.

The only problem that I really have is that this is my first experience with GW Finecast Resin. I HATE THE STUFF. A lot of bubbles, and some of the detail just isn't there. I see a lot of green stuff, putty filling, and sanding in my future.

The other fun thing I'm going to do is make this model on a small round base, and make a second larger base that it'll fit into that'll have a jet bike mounted on it. That way I can use the same model with jet bike or without. I know it's the lazy man's way out of modeling a Farseer on jet bike, but this way I can use the same model for either/or (I like the idea of versatility).

My other project is going to be more complex. I'm going to be making a remodeled Maugan Ra. 1) It's one of my favorite characters, 2) What is an Altansar army without one, 3) It seems like the guy is getting a lot of love out on the tournament rounds, so I wouldn't mind a different looking one.

I already have the original one painted up... From almost 20 years ago... it was actually the first GW model I bought, and painted. From that one I would need the backpack and Maugetar. I would then take the following model as my based, cut off a lot of unnecessary stuff, and use a lot of green stuff to build it back up to looking like Maugan Ra... with some armor missing.



I'll post images of the in progress Farseer later this week... I promise!

I'm liking the Farseer idea a lot, may in fact copy it. But the Maugan Ra one is a little random, based on the model you are making it from. None the less change is good and shall be watching.

Well, the Maugan Ra remodel is going to be a bit time consuming. There is going to be a lot of stuff from that model which is going to be coming off. The wing, the sword, the weird bat thing, the cloak from the back, the spikes on the armor.

Then I have to build it up some of the Maugan Ra armor on top of what's left. I want to keep the main shoulder that still has a shoulder pad on it, but modify it to be the big skull thing that Maugan Ra uses.

Right now my dilemma is if I want to have him holding the Maugetar one handed strait up, or one handed out to the side at an angle.

Probably straight up and leaning forward to the side(if you know what I mean) rather then to the side. Looking at the stock models pose, it may help keep the forward motion.

Finally... An Update!

So I finally got around to doing some modeling today. First of all, I found a few things that made me happy. First, I found an additional Shuriken Cannon Jet-bike upgrade. Actually I found a bike that already had Shuriken Cannon upgrade. So I now have two bikes with it. One I just recently put together, and one that might be about 10-15 years old.



I finally got around to finishing the construction of the second base. I think it ended up pretty good. I added more sand inside of the crater where the gems are coming out.



Farseer construction

So here is the look of the base for him. Same thing as the rest of the army. You'll see it with some sand on it in a few pictures below.



Here are all of the parts for the Farseer. As I mentioned earlier, I cut off the right arm of the Medusae to change it out for the one holding the singing spear. I haven't done anything with the head, and I don't think I'm going to. Well, obviously I'm going to clean it, mold lines and flash and such.



I didn't take much in-process picts, but here are two series. The first set shows the current progress, partially assembled, sand glued down, waiting for green stuff in a few spots. Mostly in the chest armor right where the left arm connects to the body. I decided not to do anything about the look of the left foot, but in truth not too many people are going to pay attention to that.



In this second set, it's just the same as above with the head placed on top... not glued on.



So all I need now is some warmer weather to get some priming done.

Gaming News

So I played in a team game yesterday. 2k points each. 8k on the table. I brought a Wraithguard Deathstar list, with Tau allies. Didn't bring Eldrad, so I didn't have that third Psy power. It was fun and great, and we got handled. It was close during the first two turns, before they got into assault range, and ripped us up. it was fun though, lasted about 5 hours of fighting.

I've been really liking the Deathstar with the Tau allies, now I just need to learn how to play them well, and figure out how to set up the rest of the army. I haven't tried the war walkers yet, but I'm starting to lean towards using them. I really like the Jet-bikes, but I keep using them wrong. I keep forgetting that I can't shoot and turbo-boost in the same turn, it's one or the other.

My other problem was figuring out how I would bring the Tau to Mars, Fluff-wise. Then one of the players gave me the perfect reasoning. Eldar are always looking into the future.

"Oh, the Void dragon is waking... we're going to need some help here. Who's available??? The Tau... Hey Tau, do you want to help out over here, for the greater good of the galaxy... Yeah, we said greater good... Oh, you need a ride? We have these webway portals, if you need a lift."

I know it's a bit cheesy, but it makes sense to me.

Now I just need to wait for the new Tau codex to come out, Before buying new models. The rumor I've heard is that it's coming soon, right before the new Eldar codex. Please be true!

One thing that I failed to mention, is that instead of using the rounded 'cut' method on my bases, I'm changing to the uneven 'tear' method.

That Farseer looks great! You'll definitely want to add a squad or 2 of Warwalkers. 24 S6 shots (from Scatterlasers), especially when guided by a farseer are pretty deadly. If you're bringing Tau allies, however, you may be shooty enough. You should look into Harlies and an Avatar or other fisty options to shore up your CC soft spots.

So it looks like I ended up getting a bit of a mention on Second Founding. Yes I did play against one of the guys from the pod cast, and lost to him... but I had a great time playing.

http://www.secondfounding.com/?p=1211

He mentions my army at about 1 hour and 4 minutes into the podcast, but I would suggest listening to it all. I did

The farseer turned out well, its slightly off scale with between the helmet and the body. Otherwise nice job Insacrum.

Hows the other one going, or is it started ?
I'm Currently working on making Maugan Ra a ride, its going well so far. Some greenstuffing coming up so dreading that as my skills at that are hit and miss.

I haven't actually started on Maugan Ra. I'm a little scared to start it, to tell the truth. I know it's going to entail a ton of work.

Some nice stuff going on here

A Warm Day... And Other Stuff!

So we finally had a nice warm weekend up here in Northern Ohio. It meant I finally got around to modeling... and priming. Though not exactly what I originally thought I would be priming. I want to focus on getting my Farseer done, but I seemed to have misplaced my greenstuff. Which means I was forced to start on Maugan Ra. I was actually happy with the amount of progress I got done.



I managed to get the wing off pretty easily, but now I have a stump where an arm should be. And after looking around at the model a bit, I still have to figure out a way to get a Shuriken Cannon in there. Granted I also want to add in a few other things, to make him look more Eldar, then not. Right now he is more not to me.

I want to file down that fur at the top of his cloak, but keep the cloak. I really liked the cloak, but I might have to modify it in order to get the Shuriken Cannon to fit. But I think to avoid that, I'm going to be doing some chopping on the Shuriken Cannon. I want to find a nice gun that I can put under the left arm that's going to be sticking out, so his gun will kind of be pointing out.

Other than that, I managed to take a lot off of the model that I didn't want, without doing to much damage to the model. Although I'm still not happy with the head currently.

The other thing that I'm not sure about, I want to cut out that chunk of rock that his Right foot is currently standing on, and rebuild it using cork and a Necron body on the front. I want to keep the shape and look the same, but just make it fit in more with my current bases.

Right now my modeling is going to focus on the Farseer, Maugan Ra, and 10 bases for my Wraithguard.

Can Black Be A Prime Number?

So like I said, I did a little bit of priming. I'll show you some picts before I tell you want I'm working on.



I'm sure you noticed that these are parts that going into some type of grav tank. The last time I played, I ended up proxying in a Night Spinner. I might not have done the most damage, but I loved it. Now I have a problem though. In my army, I'll be running 3-4 Heavys.

Night Spinner
War Walkers
Wraithlord
Dark Reapers

So I think the order, in terms of which I want to use, will end up being War Walkers, Night Spinner, Dark Reapers, Wraithlord. I'm thinking that I might model up my war walkers to look like Wasps, so that if I'm ever in a situation that I can use them as such, I can. I saw this done by finnan here, about page 9 or 10. It looks really good, and I have no problem stealing another persons idea (We all do to some point). I just won't have the forge-world engines sticking out the back.

So I've contacted my local gaming store, and he's going to sell me just the top turret of the night spinner/fire prism, so I don't have to buy the whole tank, since I don't need the whole tank.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not Quite Finished!

So a quick update. I just picked up the Night Spinner/Fire Prism turret. Half the tank, for half the price. I also picked up some dark eldar items with the intension of getting them into my new Maugan Ra.

I think I have figured out my arm issue, and it came from somewhere I didn't even think about before. I'm going to see if I can use the arm from the Medusae that I previously cut off, and saved (Save everything people!!!). I just have to pin it in place, and then scupt up some green stuff around it... Once I find my green stuff.

Which means my projects currently stand at:

2 Eldar Guardian Jet Bikes - 1 unassembled, 1 needs primer
1 Eldar Farseer - Assembled, Needs Green Stuff
1 Maugan Ra - In peices, Needs Green stuff
1 Night Spinner - Part Primed, Part still on sprue
10 Wriathguard bases - just round peices of black plastic
1 War Walker - In the box

Also, expect a pict later of the current progress of Maugan Ra's Base.

In other news...

So one of the things that I have in my garage are Space Marines. A ton of them. Mostly still on the sprue, some primed, some with a bit of paint on them. I never got too far into them because my mind always shifted where I wanted to go with them.

I like the Dark Angels, but terminators are expensive. I liked the idea of a leader who used jetpacks, with a possible honor guard, or command squad using jetpacks, but I didn't like the Blood angels fluff too much. I wanted to go pure Vanilla marines, but I didn't like the troop choices, and now in 6th troops are key.

It took me an Aha moment last night... Allies! I could take Belial, for some terminator love, and also use Blood angels. I could fluff it away that it is actually one army, but the rules let me use Terminators and Jump Pack squads.

Here is what I was thinking at 1500 pts.

DA:
Belial
Deathwing Command squad/Apothecary/Champion
Deathwing terminator squad x 5
Deathwing terminator squad x 5
Nephilim Jetfighter

BA:
Captain with Jetpack
Deathcompany x5

so I have 2 HQ, 1 FA, 3 Troops, for 1500 points. all for 22 models, and 1 plane. The only thing I would possibly change out is the Jetfighter, but I don't know what for.

The other funny thing about this list, is it can all deep strike. I kind of like it... I know I'll get massecred if I try to use it, but it'll still be fun.

I like the idea of having them be a DA successor chapter. Since I want to run the fluff as one army, I was thinking of treating the Ravenwing of this chapter as jump squads, rather than bike squads.

I'm thinking of going with Angels of Reclamation. Half Green and Half Red, similar to Angels of Redemption, or Angels Sanguine.

Well, I promised you pictures of Maugan Ra, and here they are.



I've done some additional work on him since these pictures were taken yesterday. I want to do a little more before I post some more pictures.

Enjoy, and as always, Questions, Comments and Suggestions are always welcome.

oh shet that jetbike is coming out pretty fuq'n swell, good job
that farseer conversion, FUQ'N SWEET, i just hate how static the farseer models are, it would appears you do too
it would also appear that ur not a fan of the reaper models as well, their just so outdated its not even funny, ur maugan ra looks pretty damn awesome right now, keep it up, maybe add a pointy stick bursting out of that crons chest or neck or its face melted off or soemthing, it would look better that way

And So It Continues.

So I have been steadily making progress on Maugan Ra. There are certain parts of it that I like, and other parts of it that I don't like. You can take a look at the model so far before I go into what I have done, and what I like and what I don't like.




So far I have take the time to get the form of the majority of the model done. Most of it is pinned, without gluing so I can take it apart as needed for filing and sanding purposes. I'm pleasantly surprised with the look of the Maugetar, I just have to add in a little bit of GS in order to get the Shuriken Cannon to meld better with the DE Cannon that I'm using as the part he's holding. As of right now, I can still choose to flip the blade that is hanging down, but I currently like it as is. Obviously the thing looks huge on him, but most heavy weapons do. Yes, I know it's not technically a heavy weapon, but it's just semantics at this point.

I've done a bit of mold line cleaning, but I need to do more. I managed to file down the horns that were pretty prevalent on the Vampire model, but now it looks pretty good. There is still that hole to fill in on the back of the armor, but I want to get all of the main model filing done before starting in on the green stuff.

The proportion of the right arm doesn't quite match up with the left arm, but unless you pick up the model, you don't really notice it. I need to file down a lot of the cloth that is currently on the arm, and I'll probably have to build up some muscle mass on it afterwards using GS. The back of the hand has also seen some better days, having a few bubbles from the resin. Oh well, just more for me to fill in.

I really want to get rid of the fur on his back, like I've previously stated, but I don't know if I want to put a bit of a Dark Eldar back there, for some extra texture, or use some more of my spare parts to create something that looks like a backpack. Either way, the fur is going to be gone. This will at least help get a head to fit on their, once I choose one. I'm thinking I might want to add a back fin thing, like from the Eldar guardians.

The base looks a little empty. I'm thinking that I'm going to take the Necron gun, from the now dead warrior on the base, and put it there. Perhaps even find a way to make it look like it used to be attached to the dead warrior. I'll probably add some object source lighting when I get around to painting. The pylon that he's standing on needs to thicken up around where it meets the base. I'm thinking a little extra cork there, or some other items might help it out. It obviously doesn't have a Necron Gem in it yet, so I might find a way to get one sticking out of there. More OSL for me when I'm painting.

If anyone cares about what parts are currently used in there:
- The Winged Vampire Count is the main body.
- A Necron Warrior on the base.
- The arm from the Medusae model that wasn't used in the Farseer.
- The gun or cannon from some Dark Eldar vehicle sprue. I'm not really sure from what though. In the codex it looks like a Disintegrator Cannon.
- The Shuriken Cannon from an Eldar Falcon Grav Tank, or Vyper Jet Bike.
- The Blade from a Dark Eldar Hellion.

As always, Question, Comments, and Suggestions are welcome.