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I can still add it. Most of my guys have the combi-weapon add-on like a pod that can be clipped on the side of the gun (of course they're glued on for real). I can take a pic of one of my combi-plasma guys and you can let me know if you want the add-on or not.

There's idea, post a pic and I'll see whether or not it would be suitable.

He's looking great with a finished base. I'm just glad he survived the trans-warp conduit that's called international mail!

those are some hot models, nice scorpion Endtransmission!

I like the Red Scorpion Sergeant made by endtransmission. The FW powerfist clutching the rock is clutch...did he manipulate the fingers a bit? I also like his scroll work.

Just thought I'd check in. Took several days off to hang out with my family and re-charge my batteries.

Painting between now and Christmas will be very hectic. Money's a bit tight so I told both boys that as part of their Christmas present they could pick an element or two of each of their armies and I'd paint them up for them. Thing 1 asked me to finish painting his last 4 Necron warriors (which will bring him up to 40 total) and his two monoliths. I'll also see if I can get his last wraith done for good measure. Thing 2 has asked for his Tervigon and a bunch of Termigants to go with it. Also some Raveners. That's a *lot* of painting in only 6 weeks.

My mantis warrior painting during this period will be limited to finishing my LS storms properly and continuing to make progress on the GMS marines.

Keep an eye on the appropriate blogs for updates.

Gits

Good luck painting for the things Gits! that's gonna test you I think! :-)

Time to speed paint me thinks!

Luckily the necron warriors and monoliths are at least started. I don't like where the monoliths are at the moment however so I've been rolling ideas around in my head for several days now & I think I have a plan. The nids will be a bit tougher as even though I have a good conversion kit for the Tervigon, there are some aspects I don't like that will require significant modification. That, and painting a lot of termagants will probably drive me insane. I might need to go buy some extra gants as well... have to see how many are in the stockpile.

On the side I did start another ork tank... might dabble with that from time to time just to give my brains a break... that and my GMS marine projects will probably keep me sane oe'r the Holidays.

I am kind of looking forward to the monoliths... I have some interesting (if not novel) ideas and they'll be a real challenge.

Gitsplitta wrote:That, and painting a lot of termagants will probably drive me insane. I might need to go buy some extra gants as well... have to see how many are in the stockpile.

Well, nine days after sending away my package to you I found a box of about 14 termaguants and 13 hormaguants. If you don't mind paying shipping I could send you them (in fact I should be able to acquire more of each before christmas).

Let me pay you for them GS, I owe you enough favors for one lifetime.

PM me.

Well, I actually got most of those guants for free!

And I'll PM you.

Thanks, he'll be excited... he was contemplating spending his own money on gants... now I can have him save it for HIS Christmas buying! Hmmm... I want a new car, and a new air compressor, and ...

7001th Post is MINE!!

Dude I love your work. I don't know much at all about the Mantis Warrior, but I will keep up to date with this Blog cause it is ROCKING!

LOL! Thanks Nightfall! Glad you like it! Don't be a stranger... more to come.

Gitsplitta wrote:Hmmm... I want a new car, and a new air compressor, and ...

Hmmm... I'm not sure if I could ship a car over?

*chuckle* Naah, I was talking about my kid saving HIS money for buying other people stuff for Christmas!

Sorry to highjack a thread, but I'm looking for a couple of dozer blades for SM rhinos. does anyone know if there is a kit that has the real dozer blade you used for your Razorbacks?

or a site to buy some.

SL

That weren't no kit. Those be the dozer blades for the 2nd and 3rd edition SM Preditor tanks. They might also have come on some of the IG tanks as well back in the day.

I think they originally came in a "rhino upgrade sprue".

Yeah, back when you could direct order bits and sprues from GW.

I am pretty sure they didn't come in the rhino boxes sets themselves...at least not the ones I bought for my SW back in the days. I did get those frames in my two preditor box sets though.

Too bad I sold my annilator to a friend...as it eventually became orcified...though not on purpose

The old timers are right - it's the 2nd edition vehicle upgrade sprue that had those. They were mostly with IG vehicles (almost all IG vehicles came with it!) and with 'later' SM vehicles (So, Razorbacks, Whirlwinds and Predators).

Hey SL, let me look through my collection and see if I have more blades than rhinos... if I do, you can have them.

I'm hoping to get back to the brush tonight. Have been exhausted for some reason at night when I get home, so even though I want to paint... I just don't have the energy. Going to try to finish up a couple of projects quick to boost my morale, then I'll be ready to attack some of the larger projects. Have been glad for the time off though... after painting night after night it gets to me after a while and my interest starts to fade. Nice to take a week off and let my mind clear so I can approach some new projects with a fresh mind.

Excellent progress I've been following this thread for a while. How do you like the LS Storms? I've considered getting a few but I'm not fond of scouts so I haven't.

They're very effective. You can deploy and scout move them into position anywhere within 12" of the enemy, they move a further 12", the scouts deploy. Speeder multi-meltas, scouts w/ combi-melta shoot, then can assault on turn 1 w/ melta bomb. Excellent unit if your going to try and alpha stike.

Conversely, they can cruise around as a very fast moving scoring unit with some teeth to it... or they can outflank forcing your opponent to bunch up their armor in the center or risk losing it on the turn they arrive. It's why I like them in combination with the scout bikes... both units are very flexible and can fulfill similar roles, so support each other and multiple missions well.

Page 180 (in a darts announcer voice) Slowly but surly getting there. Dam my work getting in the way of reading such an epic blog lol.

Well M0rdian, you picked a good time to catch up. I'll be doing a lot of painting but not too much on my marines until after Christmas... so it probably won't grow a heck of a lot.

wyomingfox wrote:I like the Red Scorpion Sergeant made by endtransmission. The FW powerfist clutching the rock is clutch...did he manipulate the fingers a bit? I also like his scroll work.

A couple of the fingers were repositioned, yes. I lost one for a while... so if you try it, be careful to keep track of the fingers

Gitsplitta wrote: That, and painting a lot of termagants will probably drive me insane. I might need to go buy some extra gants as well... have to see how many are in the stockpile.

As a man with 120+ gaunts (Of which 44 are painted at the moment) I KNOW YOUR PAIN. Gaunts will make you crazy, yes, precious. They may make you less than sane, precious. All the same, all the same. Precious. So many fidgetty details. Precious.

@DSS: Well, I went to collect up the various gaunts so I can start working on them and lo and behold I can only find 3 of them. Now I know we had over to 20, a box full (one of the older, larger boxes) and a bag full that I traded for, plus a few odds and ends. Now I can only find the odds & ends. Damn. I really didn't want to have to buy a bunch of gaunts. Will have to tear my hobby spaces apart to see if I can find them.


I apologize for not having anything substantial to post recently. Have been under-the-weather for several days now. Still going to work but I don't have much energy afterwards. I have made a little progress on the LS Storms. Added the chapter badges to each on just below the rear spoiler on either side. I keep thinking that they'd benefit from some racing stripes... hell, they're already British "racing green"... perhaps some off-center stripes and a white circle with the number "4" would look good on them. Seriously though, I am thinking of some striped or banding on the fins to set them off a bit, but that's an airbrush project and will require some proper thought and set-up.

Probably the biggest issue around the house is that I've signed us all up for a painting competition at our FLGS on Dec. 3rd. The competition employs what I call "State Fair Judging" as I don't think there will be any specific winners, but points will be awarded over 5 judging criteria with different colored ribbons being awarded based on your cumulative score. That makes it pretty kid-safe, though the more competitive among the adult entrants may miss the opportunity to "crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women". Thing 1 has embraced the challenge and is doing probably the best paint job of his life with essentially no involvement from me what-so-ever. Every once in a while he'll bring it to me for approval or he may ask a question about a wash or something... but basically I'm letting him decide what hes going to do with the figure without my interference.

The judging criteria are as follows...

Basic Paint Application – Maximum score of 10
Use of enhanced techniques: -- Maximum score of 10 (Layering, dry-brushing, inking/washing, shadowing, patterns)
Scratch-building/Conversions – Maximum score of 10
Basing – Maximum score of 10
Overall artistic effect – Maximum score of 10
Maximum Score: 50

Ribbons will be earned as follows:
40-50 Points = Blue Ribbon
30-39 Points = Red Ribbon
10-29 Points = White Ribbon
0-9 Points = Certificate

So... with Thing 1, I think he'll be very strong in the first two categories, but by choosing to paint a "set" figure (he's doing the marine scout w/ heavy bolter), he'll get nil in the third category. I'm trying to think of some minor changes he can make to at least get a couple of points... perhaps adding the ork ejecting shells to the heavy bolter, drilling out the barrel, perhaps adding some gear to the scouts kit... not sure. At this point, major changes to the figure are out though, so we're limited to what we can add in near the end of the process. We'll do something nice for the base, probably my "fall" basing which the rest of his army has, but with some extras added in. So I'm assuming hell get a decent score there. Also assuming the overall effect will be good. Given this, we're probably looking at a red ribbon unless I can pull enough conversion ideas out of my shorts to get him some decent points in that category. He is, however... taking it very seriously and I'm very impressed at how good his figure is turning out. Boy can really paint when he feels like doing it.


I'll be entering the following as I feel they fit the criteria very well (you can enter as many items as you want).

Gitsplitta self-portrait:


Sternguard (minus the chapter master of course):


Scout Bikes:


I chose these because a) it gives me a chance to show them off to folks at our local FLGS as completed units. Most of my friends have seen pieces of these units over the last couple of years as they've slowly developed, but few have seen the whole units laid out as complete squads. b) they're all heavily converted with a variety of advanced painting techniques in evidence, so they should score well in the first three categories. My big problem is my basing. Now, I like my basing, and if you look through my tutorial it's actually fairly complex involving 3 sizes of grit, a wash or two (more on the bike bases), and 3 different types of foliage, some large rocks, etc. However... they're essentially all the same, so I'm concerned that the judges will become bored seeing the same thing repeated over and over again and I'll lose points accordingly. Granted, the bases are made specifically to go with my home gaming table, which is why they're all similar... but I am thinking of doing some interesting things with the display around the base to make them more interesting from the judges perspective.


The real issue is finding something for my little one to do. He isn't anywhere near as advanced as his older brother so I'll have to guide him through the process step-by-step. That isn't so much of a problem... he's done enough I think I can walk him through the process. Trick is trying to figure out what he should be painting. We started with something simple and small like a hormigant... but then I thought there might not be enough there to do anything special with and of course with Nids there isn't much conversion to be had (at his level as an 8-year-old)... so he'll have the same problem as his older brother by completely missing out on one category of scoring. Then I thought about a fex that we got used that needs repainting. All the arms and the head are magnetized, so it'll be easy for him to take apart and paint neatly. But it's so big I'm worried he won't be able to get it done in time. So I'm left scratching my head a bit... he *really* wants to do something... but I don't want to set him up to fail by not getting it done, or to get slaughtered in the judging. I'd like it to be a fun, positive experience for him. He could do something else of course... I have a million ork bits around and I think I could lead him through that as well. At least there he'd be able to get conversion/kit bashing points.

Thoughts??