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I made some good headway in the last week or two, pushing to get ready for a game this past weekend.

Celestine and the first unit of Seraphim, done to at least tabletop standard, but still needing purity seals and other details.


Close-up of Celestine and one of the Seraphim, whose skin randomly turned out better than the others.


And a terrain project for my FLGS, some tiered hills for the corners of a display case, with my new Inquisitor for reference. I got a hot foam knife from a going-out-of-business sale at a model railroad shop, and I'd been itching to try it out.

I've had good success with a proxy Aegis Line (paperhammer cutouts) and Quad Gun (an old Tarantula), so it was time to get some real models on the table. I used IG Autocannons, Sentinel legs, Rhino accessories, and the cap to an old Super Glue tube. Still need to paint it fully, but I got it on the table last week with Leadbelcher and a Nuln Oil wash.

Nice work on the quad gun. kind of makes me think of the way the guns were mounted on those mek suits in the matrix. My only thought here would be to maybe add some kind of swivel at the base to show how it would change direction unless it's implied that they can swivel independently of one another.

Thanks! The pairs of guns swivel independently because they're the feet of the Sentinel, little ball-and-socket joints. I considered using a single leg and mounting all four guns on it, two over the foot and two under it. I actually have 2 more autocannons, so if it's a runaway success I could potentially split the legs up, scrounge 2 additional guns, and build a second one on a similar base. I think there's a point of diminishing returns, though... my BS5 Canoness means this gun kills its points in flyers and skimmers most games, but a second one might be overkill, and a second Aegis might be better with a Comms Relay to help my Dominions and Seraphim in reserves.

Also, you've made me want to watch the Matrix movies again.

I got some paint on the Servo-skulls last night... they'll need lenses and maybe another layer of bone white, but they're ready for the table. Store-bought on the right, scratch-built center and left.


More importantly, perhaps, I finally did some bases! The skulls were an easy test batch, plus I mocked one up with the fancy GW crackle paint. I'll rework the shading and drybrushing strategy, and I still need to decide if I'm going to clip all the tabs on the Sisters into pins and drill a bunch of painted bases (vs. texturing and painting with Sisters already mounted). But it's fun to be underway!

Nice work on the Servo Skulls, especially the scratch built ones.

EDC

Thanks, Doctor. I started out with some fantasy undead, but they were too scrawny... Those are from an old chaos tank accessory sprue. I might take them down to GW and try their new technical lens paints.

If you do, make sure you report back how they work out!

EDC

This will keep me busy for a while. It will bring the shared motor pool for my White Scars / Battle Sisters to a total of 9 hulls. I'll need lots of extra doors and turret rings to make extras for both paint schemes, Green for the Sisters, red for the Marines. I might try scratch building some doors at some point to make up the difference. I wonder what plasticard thickness matches a Rhino's hull.

Does anybody know where I could buy Rhino doors and both open and closed turret rings and bits for pretty cheap?

eBay would seem like your best bet, or bits sites?

It seems both doors and top hatches would be common by-products of any tank based on a rhino chassis. I can’t see how they would be hard to come by. I know I have a small pile.

Long overdue for an update... Battle Sisters and White Scars have each taken a few steps forward. The Sisters got some detailed bases underway, and the White Scars, having lost most of their arms in the Simple Green bath, got them back again and got basecoated.

I also resurrected some old Kasrkin to use as Scions-as-Inquisitorial-Stormtroopers. I found all the parts to a half-built Chimera to roll with them and got the basecoat done.


I built a converted Coteaz to command them as a wing of my Sororitas Castellans force. He's a Sternguard body, a basic head, the bird from Jetek Suberei, and a hammer made from cut-down Dark Angels pickaxe things. He'll get his psyber eagle attached once he's basecoated.


And I ran another batch of classics through the Simple Green. Commissars, IG Commanders, a Culexus assassin, and a couple other oddities. The ones I'm most likely to actually repaint are the Arbites. I think they'll make good Acolyte meatshields for an Inquisitor.

Love love love the old mini finds! This is all shaping up so nicely!

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Love love love the old mini finds! This is all shaping up so nicely!

Thanks! I'm having fun running them through the Simple Green bath to see what's under the paint I slung in my reckless teenage years. I think I'm going to get arms and guns on those officers, commissars, tech gangers, and human bombs to be acolytes and maybe some AM militia followers for my Inquisition forces.

Here's the current situation of the White Scars. The vast majority lost arms and guns coming through the Simple Green, and several came completely apart. I cleaned them up, reassembled them, and kept their guns separate for the spray basecoat. I'm thinking I'll do chest insignia before gluing guns back on... at that point, they're halfway done. The resin grav cannons I bought from Bits of War still need cleanup and assembly, so that's why there's a few Marines with no arms. I also have some resin Mongolian heads I got from somewhere... not sure yet if I'm going to use those.

Sounds like you're making good progress with the White Scars.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Sounds like you're making good progress with the White Scars.

EDC

Thanks... they still feel a long way off. I've got multiple bikes to build, scouts, Rhinos, plus all those damn chests to paint and arms and guns to glue. But I'll get there!

Here's a few more overdue updates. I realized I'd posted the WIP display terrain for my local GW store in pink foam above, but not the finished product. Here's a crappy photo through the glass of the display case. Next time I'm down there I'll have David open it for me... he's since based some models to match and it looks pretty cool.



I also posted pictures of the bases for my Sisters army finally getting underway. I've finished the first set, which is only about a fifth of the army. Thank the Emperor I chose flying bases for the Seraphim or there'd be 30 more of these things to do. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. The detail with the crackle paint, cork rocks, and grass tufts is more than I should have done given how long I take to do anything, but hey, I think it looks cool. On my next batch, I'm going to wash with Nuln Oil instead of Agrax Earthshade for a pure gray instead of slightly beige finish. That's the look in the trial piece below.

Nice looking stuff! Keep on painting, love to see those old guys return to life.

Thanks Nevelon... everyone else as well.

More updates this week: I finished a fun magnetization project to what I consider the halfway point. I magnetized the Scouts from my Landspeeder Storm so they can disembark onto their own movement bases. Each got a magnet either in their rear end or their boot and a matching one on deck. I tried to recess the magnets, but my Dremel bits melted the plastic too quickly and a blade was tough to use in tight quarters. I did what I could, but ended up surface mounting some of them. I rebuilt parts of the model with green stuff and base coated them. I still need to build the individual movement bases before I can say I've maximized the value of that box, but if I can disembark and play the Scouts on the table, it will be the best $30 I've spent on this hobby in a while.



I also finished shoulder pads on the bikes I've built for the White Scars with the exception of four grav gunners whose assembly is too tight to allow them, so I'll need to shave down the grav guns to make them fit. After all the damage I did stripping the paint with Simple Green (lost arms, guns, heads), it's nice to have that many rebuilt and ready for paint. I still have to build the Khan (Jetek Suberi), a Chaplain (thanks to cast-on-demand), two more Librarians (using the robed rider from the Ravenwing sprue), three Attack Bikes (I'll magnetize them to existing bikes), three Scout Bikes, and maybe one extra box of Bikes at some point, for more than 20 bikes all told.

When I built my LSS, I thought about magnetizing the guys in the back. Decided it was too much work. I Just built them and stuck them on bases. I should really get a second storm one of these days, they are a lot of fun on the table.

You might have a different dremel then the one I use, but I find it’s far to powerful to work on plastic. I’d rather have a slow hand on the job. Do you have a pin vice?

Nice array of bikes there. I set up my last attack bike so I could field him as a normal bike if I wanted to, but never have. If I was more competitive, I might have. Honestly, the fact that he’s a bit wobbly is more of an issue day-to-day then the potential flex he brings to a list.

I do have a pin vise, and I mean to try the Dremel bit in it. It's the exact diameter of the magnets, so I was bummed when it didn't work. I definitely want another one of these Storms. Now that I've done it once, I'll magnetize it before assemble it. They're great on the table, a good value in both dollars and points, and they unlock cool formations too.

The attack bike plan is mostly to try the White Scars formation that's all about leadership penalties and pinning tests. The penalties are driven by units that hit, not by wounds, so a bunch of solo HB attack bikes should be effective.

The new look Sisters with the Nuln Oil look more...I cannot find the right word...Imperial looking with the Grey. Perhaps it is the old gamer in me that thinks Grey with Imperial (OK my Necromundian Guard are Grey and that makes me a bit biased). Any way I like that wash better than the Agrax Earthshade.

Cheers,

CB

Cool stuff. Loving the Land Speeder Storm.

EDC

Thanks, Captain-- I'm going with the Nuln Oil, but may not go back to change the others. EDC, thanks as well-- it was a fun project! I'll have to get the movement bases done ASAP, as I have a game in a couple of weeks.

I shifted gears last night and made a bunch of headway on another terrain project. These are designed to line the glass display cases at the local GW. My last one was some simple hills/cliffs with basic texture and grass. I wanted to go a little bigger this time, so I went for a ruined temple.

The tools of the trade: single malt, baby monitor, X-acto knife, insulation foam.



I laid out a one-inch grid in Sharpie on pink insulation foam.



I roughed out the shape with a utility knife. I either need longer blades or thinner foam, both of which exist. Only the 1" foam comes conveniently pre-cut in 2'x2' tiles, though, so maybe longer blades are called for. If I can go through the whole thickness at once, I can eliminate the rough edges.



I used a smaller blade to engrave the joins between "blocks" and then sanded the rough edges. A drywall sanding block works great for this.



I accidentally cut one row too deep on the left side and had to glue it back on. Measure twice, cut once, they say. Or maybe don't drink scotch while working with X-acto knives, I'm not sure what they actually say. You can see roughly how it will sit in the back half of a 17"x22" glass display cube. One remaining question is whether to lower the back wall slightly or to keep it tall and cut doors into it. You can see where I've roughly marked out possible doors on the right rear wall. Doors or no doors?



Finally I used some scrap to experiment with battle damage. What do you think? Should I keep the look clean or tear up the walls and floor with blast craters and bullet holes?

Love the battle damage, I’d run with it.

A a good drink is a vital hobby tool. You do need to be careful when using both that and the knives though.

Moved ahead tonight with the weathering and battle damage. Not sure about the density or degree of polish on those details, but I think I'm ready to glue and paint. The left half is further behind.

I've made some major headway on the White Scars over the last few weeks, mostly motivated by a mini-tournament (I placed 3rd out of 6...).

I finished one Command Squad on Bikes, complete with Apothecary and Librarian (who brings the Hunter's Eye for Ignores Cover grav love). I shouldn't say done, as they've got tons of detail and weathering to go, but table-ready at least, and not too embarrassing.


For Troops, I built and painted a Landspeeder Storm full of Scouts. These Scouts are fully magnetized for actual disembarking, but I have yet to build little magnetic scenic bases for them to land on.



Until I finish that project, I'll need to use separate Scouts... so I painted up this group.


I painted up an old Landspeeder I had after magnetizing the Typhoon pods.


Four more grav gunners on Bikes underway... these will be a second Command Squad led by a Chaplain. Next to them is a pile of unbuilt grav cannons from Kromlech to run two Dev squads in a Gladius.


The rest of the bikes I own currently are coming together. These will be the Chaplain, two more Librarians for the Conclave, and Apothecary, and a few bullet catchers. Note the replacement of plasma guns with bolters (these were Dark Angels Black Knights), and also Jetek Suberei in the background waiting to become the Khan.



Here is the infantry for my Gladius. Most of them lost their guns and arms coming through a Simple Green soak, so it's been a while putting them back together. The good news it that I can do chest eagles before the guns go back on, and the guns are already silver. You can just peek at the bag o' bolters and bag o' backpacks in the background.

Nice update dude. The Hunter eye is pretty sick with Gravesend bikers.

EDC

Thanks EDC... the cheering section keeps my going through uncertain times (8th is freaking me out with a commitment of this size... who knows how this army will hold up?).

Like any edition change, some things will get better, some worse, but the game will go on. Your might loose some options (the one I could see getting the axe are full grav command squads) but for the most part you should do fine.

What the new hotness is will be the big question. But for casual play, you should be able to keep on rolling.

Nice work, keep it up!