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Been a little bit since the last update with a fun combination of life, work and weather keeping me from priming some stuff for a while so I could paint it now and then when I got the chance.
I've looked more at that new BaC box and it'd pretty tempting with the mk4 marines and easy access to a contemptor, but at the same time I feel maybe 30 mk4 is a bit excessive and throws out their impact within this army and then it's not a mortis contemptor.
As for the cataphractii terminators
While cool, I've always liked the look of the tartarus better.
Though ultimately I'll probably get a set of each of the three the indomitus with maybe some of the FW ultra shoulders for them.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/11/10 02:42:03
Continuing along with the Sternguard.
This is the point where they start becoming annoying to paint.
And the start of the next project after them.
Was going to put the front plate on, but I think it looks better without it, like it could actually walk. This one will be the sergeant, not magnetising the weapons on them because I have a pretty narrow view for their use which would either work with grav or assault cannons and they can only take grav of those two. As for the longer ranged las type, I would rather just sit a 5 man dev squad with 4 somewhere and boost a shot to bs5 instead for less points I think. The durability of these guys, I just feel like they should be up close and dealing with infantry or elite infantry, plus it's always nice to have a delete button for stuff like wraithknights by taking an empty drop pod in fast attack so I can pick and choose what goes into it at the start of the game.
All the detail on the sternguard is both a blessing and a curse. They have more bling on them then most character models. The fact that you are banging out a squad of five all at once is a little crazy.
Leaving that front plat off the Cent is one of the key ways to make that model look better. As you say, he looks like he can walk now.
Yeah, looks like it is actually mobile like that. Still plenty of bling if it's done right, anyway.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2015/11/16 09:22:25
Subject: Re:n0t_u's Ultramarines and stuff - 16/11/2015 - The Great Cato Sicarius WIP
Still a little break from the sternguard and now the centurions which have turned out to be a tedius kit. I got the BaC box afterall and wanted to get to throwing together this idea I've had since the dark apostle was shown and I think it's worked.
Took a bunch of cutting which I'm glad I got a new blade for in the end such as cutting off the mace hand but keeping the forearm guard at the wrist still and the belt thing which came from the ultramarines sprue like the sword did however the belt its attached to itself comes from the tactical marines in this box just like the banner does. I really like these banners as well over the standard, they're less obnoxious and even have the iron halo I'd cut down if I were to put it on a sergeant. The ultra symbol on his chest plate looks a bit weird, but actually fits into the shape it has there already anyway so I think it's going to look awkward either way. On top of that I have 20 of the mk4 ultramarine pads and a second assault cannon as well as icons on the way for the contemptor. Planning at the moment to build a bunch but not all of the tacticals as straight mk4. I'll keep some aside to mix and match as I add more bodies for stuff like devastators and whatever even though I think I will end up with 4 tactical squads in my list anyway.
Anyway the centurions are built, they just need to be armed.
Still think they may as well have been snap fit models the way they seem to almost completely lack posability by default. Still even restricted as they are I decided to make the other two able to fist bump as they are in the picture. The way the one on the right points as well, very fitting for when they down things like wraithknights.
Nice conversion work on Cato. I was planning a little light conversion (pistol swap) but couldn’t bring myself to put a knife to him. Very cool mini, and open to a number of possible works.
So FW order finally showed up so I was able to finish building the contemptor
Also came with a badge.
But anyway that means the BaC marines will all be set for both bases and shoulders now having a full 20 as normal and a few of the ultramarine upgrade sprue to mix some parts through them as well. First thing I'll be doing though is completing the centurion's building then finishing off those sternguard I think. Eventually I'll have to come back to the first squad which is finished but not technically because it still needs the transfers.
evildrcheese wrote: Cool. Was incorporating the FW Contemptor arm onto the plastic model easy or did you have to do some cutting and altering.
Could there have been scope for magnetisation?
EDC
It needed some cutting and altering and there's a hole in the bac arm when you cut it so a decent magnet could go in there. What I did was took the normal FW arm, ignored the part that goes into the shoulder, the square part, and cut the bac contemptor's arm at that spot making it flush with the shoulder. You'll see it when you have the parts cause it has the exact same pivot point when you're done.
Yep back to Tau yet again. I realised something really, while I liked the Ultras and their look and I meant to stick with one thing rather than jump around as I have, there was quite a bit to get for them compared to the Tau I had been working on earlier and painting them so many little tedious details. But really I liked the feel of the Tau I was going with, sort of how they were less faceless as the marines would turn out to be. Also being the first time I had ever used a set scheme, I enjoyed the look of it but it felt restrictive at the same time to stick with it. Another thing is I still liked the aesthetic and idea of the battlesuits in the end and more importantly when it comes down to it I have a wedding to be saving up for and a smaller elite army like the original plan for the Tau manage to fit into that a lot easier in the long run. So I ended up trading or selling off parts of the marines for stuff for the Tau and in general cutting losses before getting too deep into the marines. I still have what I'd finished painting and that'll look nice on a shelf. I did keep the contemptor as I really like that model and will come back to it sometime in the future when I feel like painting blue again, something I know that'll come up eventually yet again.
As for the Tau, they're gold now.
Only basecoated there of course, I'll be using dark grey and red to break up the gold a bunch. I had a test model, but it's been redone as I started using the retributor armour spray. The gold from it looked much smoother and cleaner than what I managed to get with a brush alone, but the gold still needs highlighting and such this is just a lazy start to it more or less.
The scheme itself is taking inspiration from this.
And the list is already set out too, I just finished it today.
Bit of a mix of all the suits but in a way I think will actually work out nicely. As for the stealth stuff, I think I'll invert them to have their main colour dark grey and use gold to break it up; keeping to the scheme but I think it'll look better not to have stealth suits bright gold. Though we'll see when I get to it since dark grey can be hard to pull off in large areas compared to using it to break up other colours. OSL colours will be green and blue mainly, possibly pink as well but it depends on the source. For generators and jets I'll be going with blue, and then it depends on the pose of the model too; if it's not jumping it's not getting OSL there.
Nooooo! Once you start an Ultramarine army, it will always be with you. Someday you will return to the fold.
Gold looks smooth on the Tau, but I think the accent color is going to be critical on those guys. Right now they look like they are waiting for some award ceremony to be given out as prizes. I do like your inspiration pics, and if you can make that happen (which I’m sure you can) they should be a sweet looking force on the table.
Since Calgar is spending his time on my bedside table with a couple of random amiibos I'm pretty sure the idea of an Ultramarines army will stick with me for a while.
Probably if I get dragged into 30k at some point. Doing the RT stripes on the helmets would be better than trying to get the red one to look just right.
I like the inspiration. Here's hoping it'll be good.
What's your plan for the naming? Or perhaps better idea, what's your plan for the lore?
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2016/01/08 04:24:58
Subject: Re:n0t_u's Painting Blog -Tau- 8/1/2016 - Drones are fast to paint.
Going with basically same idea for lore I had with the last attempt for them; a somewhat experimental force that fights almost exclusively mounted in battlesuits with the belief that after fighting stuff like the Space Marines it's foolish to fight without one. The big difference being that since I'm not forced to go FSE to do this anymore, I'd keep them closer to the empire a bit. Add in some conversions for more unique feeling suits as well and I think it'll stand out. The name I'm currently stuck on, I want to kind of want a name that feels like it fits well into this. The name of the gundam the scheme is based on basically means dawn which I guess is something that could also fit a bit, but I'm sort of stuck for ideas at the moment so going with the placeholder: Golden Tau for now.
Already finished two drones.
They're pretty easy to get done, but I've been basecoating the grey parts on one of the XV8s today after taking these pictures and I'm pretty sure I want to keep drones as stuff to do in between the suits.
After looking up stuff about the new ones I found out they had new bases as well, which is good cause I always like it when a model gets a larger base; especially when it looks crowded on the current as the crisis did on the 40mm. They're 50mm and that meant I was going to salvage the bases from the centurions for now. However they actually stuck pretty well even without pinning so in the end I got one of the three back and left the others alone.
As you can see on a 50mm it looks much much better. And definitely I think any new suits will be magnetised since fun enough the three types I decided on (dual plasma, dual missile and dual fusion) cost exactly the same each in points. The only difference in the squads really is I tossed a bonding ritual, drone controller, and more drones into the plasma and missile teams as I felt they have more range so they'll live a bunch longer than the fusion.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/01/08 04:25:54
It think he means the drones yeah. Looks like just enough is covered by the gold to make it work, but enough is NOT covered that it doesn't look flat and bland.
The people in the past who convinced themselves to do unspeakable things were no less human than you or I. They made their decisions; the only thing that prevents history from repeating itself is making different ones.
-- Adam Serwer
My blog
2016/01/09 01:54:51
Subject: Re:n0t_u's Painting Blog -Tau- 9/1/2016 - First XV8 almost done
Almost finished with the first XV8, took pictures at this stage when really I could have it finished really soon because I wasn't sure of so much dark grey on the chest piece but after these pictures I think it's fine.
Also the shoulders, I've been tempted to make the little square bits in them dark grey then put squad number on one side and suit number on the other.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/01/09 01:55:59
Decided not to go with the shoulder markings cause the area is small, but I also think the gold is broken up enough from the weapons and other parts so I don't want to go too far that way and take focus away from it as the main colour right there.
Went with the simpler way I did the lenses on the drones as well for this. I kept the face plate completely black so the focus goes right to that lens then rather than the way I used to do it with about 6 different paints I cut it down to 3; VGC White Primer, VGC Night Blue and VGC Electric Blue. So there's a strong contrast there, the only blending is that I don't wait for the darker blue to dry first but it's the same technique overall and I think the stronger contrast makes it look more striking which is handy when its easier to do.
Originally I wasn't going to use OSL on these guns and even then I went a more restrictive way with the colours I used too using only VGC EB and VGC WP. Thing is I like the look of OSL, but not when people spam it everywhere like cooling vents and such it doesn't make sense and I feel takes away from the model overall. However with this I was left with a big block of grey from the scheme I chose, the OSL also fit in place so I just went with it and hopefully it wasn't overdone. The barrels I may touch up on with the metallic paint, but overall I like how they are now.
It wasn't shown in the inspiration art I showed and it was hard to find others, but the thrusters on that gundam were red and I felt like it fits well to do it with all the battlesuits as well. This is one of the first conversions I tried out when I was first building the suits the last time, figured then that I'd call it the XV8-f the f for fusion really. The idea was a little more shielding on the cockpit for any blowback from the fusion blasters and the thing on the back is meant to be for better turning since they're meant to be close ranged suits and the models don't have a waist for turns. It might be visible from the overall picture of them primed a couple of posts ago but I only made a pair of these cause originally I was going to just run a duo of them and a third which I cut and with some plastic tubing gave a waist which then the current ones got to save me a lot of work later.
Just finished the commander I got today with a bit of converting work I planned a few days ago by buying an Exia 1/144 gundam model.
And the drone, surprisingly this kit only comes with one but with the 4 I converted from target locks and gun drones and the planned 4 stealth suit boxes I already had the 8 in my list anyway.
Anyway I planned for the GN drive from the Exia to fit onto the back of this suit from the moment I saw the gap it had.
It takes a bit of work but the gundam part itself actually goes in pretty easy when the bits meant to hold it in place are trimmed down a bit. I'm actually thinking up background for this force and if I can help it it'll be extensive enough to cover many or even all of the units I'm unsure so far but I'd put it with the completed models and in spoilers so those not interested don't have to follow it. Needless to say this will be taking some equipment purely to fit with this I think or rather this conversion will help represent that. Also the shoulders of the Exia gundam fit perfectly over the shoulders for the commander, however while they fit they look stupidly oversized on this suit.
Anyway I just intend this force to be kind of like an experimental cadre of sorts and will be trying to fit in as many conversions as I can going along. This is also officially the first battle suit of the army.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/01/13 11:29:33
I did have the XV88s with heavy rail rifles and it took a bit of work with the list to get them to fit, but the more things i noticed and fixed up the less and less they fit. It eventually came down to like the fusion blasters or the rifles, but not both. They both were originally put in for the purpose of helping with death stars, but I realised I could get more out of the mass of fusion blasters this list has compared to the rifles; such as I think this all comers list can deal with a random knight now and then.
Though I am happy with it that I get a mix of drones and things to work with like putting markerlights onto stealth suits.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/01/15 04:23:13
Thanks Not so much an update as I've been busy today but my fiancée said they'd look better with a green glow since she doesn't like the blue. Was thinking I'd see what opinions you guys have as well. To tell the truth I was going to have a mix with blue for fusion, green for plasma and pink for something else.
Figure it's a good time to get that sorted since what's done could be considered test models.
I like the cool blue glow, but could see where green might work. I'd keep it an the bright side like you have the blue, so it’s really just a tint anyway. Worth looking into. You should do a sample (on a spare gun, if not a whole mini) so you can look into the option She suggested.
You might end up with your gold looking more like a copper, due to the association with vertigitas. And I suspect it will warm up the mini a bit. Not necessarily bad things.
Color coding weapons sounds interesting. Would help keep things straight on the game table.
Sad to see you couldn’t fit the rifles into your list. Purely from a modeling POV. I know that the missile pods are mechanically the better option in so many places, but the railgun is an iconic part of the Tau army, and I just love the look of them.
I'll be looking at ways to incorporate the rifle look bit with missiles if my size estimates are right.
I'll see how I go with the commander, I did some work on it but will try to get an update here before I have to go to work. I can kind of picture the colours, thankfully most of the glw happens on grey so it'll be less washed into the gold. Although the pose of the commander will likely have some happening.
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