Monday 8 August 2016

900,000

I ticked over 900,000 hits the other day but given the recent spate of Russian bots, or unemployed Olympians with time on their hands it's probably only right I don't immediately jump on the achievement.

It was Valentine's Day this year when I last hit the 800,000 milestone, which was 5.5 months since I hit the 700,000, you can see that means my hits are just going up. Reality is I had a good few months with the 40kaddict Terrain Competition and Reddit contributions and since then it's reduced and flattened out again [aside from the bots]. Regardless folk are still coming to the blog, still putting up with my ramblings and still interested in the little models I'm painting. I'm humbled by your continued supprt

Recently Michael Corr discovered 40kaddict was the 2nd most popular result in a google search for 40k blog. Since then I've dropped behind Cadian Shock and Mike himself so forget humble I was second only to Faeit212 and above Goatboy and Spikeybits for a short while, how did that happen?!

I've been quite for a few days as I go through some issues with moving the Land Speeders forward until then I can only thank you all for the continued support. 

Friday 5 August 2016

Dark Angels - Crashed Aquila Lander the cinematic shots!

Some phone shots of the Aquila Lander, thankfully not as blurred but they're a little darker than I'd like.



And the pilot "I'm sure I can buff this out"



Gotta love hazard stripes


"look it's still working"


Fingers crossed this project will help feed into my Bastions so I can get them done, maybe not in time for the end of the season but within the next couple of months.

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Dark Angels - Crashed Aquila Lander TO DONE!

Firstly, I'll apologise for the 'good pics' I was in a bit of a rush and subsequently noticed they're a bit blurred. Still there should be sufficient to get you fix of my hobby goodness.


I must admit I was unusually concerned about the Tamiya Clear Red X-27. I'd liked the shading and highlights I'd already done and the initial coat stripped all of that effort away. So I ended up adding another coat of Army Painter Dark Tone [Badab Black] to shade the lower area even more then another coat of Tamiya Clear Red X-27 managed to bring the depth of colour I was after.


I also decided against Vergdigris, it just didn't seem necessary and rusting the damage was not going to work with so much orange 'dirt' already scattered on the debris.


I went with blue energy cell, it pays to practice these things ahead of doing them ;) 


Again the gloss varnish just to add a bit more highlight and 'glow' effect was circumspect but I think while it's on the board the occasional reflection off it will add something matt varnish does not.


The company marking came out particularly well I think.


And the glass too, eventually.The original intention was to do it Tamiya Clear Orange X-26, which is why I bought it, but given the Nephilim/Dark Talon I went red for consistency.


The glass turned out OK in the end.


And the rest of the crashed Lander.


Another slightly blurred shot of the energy cell, I still have to paint up the removable one that was an objective in the Macragge set. It was originally going to be embedded in the ground on a 20mm base but as it fits in the other engine bay perfectly it would make sense to leave as is.


A while back when we held a tournament amongst ourselves I took this terrain and my board to Ben's he asked me if the Lander was complete, which obviously at the time it was not. He said it was really not good enough to go on the board in the state it was in so it was consigned to the box. I hope it now meets his standard, it certainly gets the big green stamp of approval from me - TO DONE! 

Monday 1 August 2016

Dark Angels - what next?!

So you probably thought I'd be back on the Ravenwing Land Speeders... well by now you know better than that. Somehow the 'crashed Aquila Lander' pricked my interest. I thought this would be a one week job, get it all green and some simple metallics a few wires and job done...


Having done a quick highlight with Caliban Green I did a second highlight with Waaagh Flesh. It's not really what I normally do with my Greenwing' but for this terrain piece I think it's fine.


I then used Vallejo Goblin Green as a highlight. Once again it's an extreme version compared to the more understated nature of the rest of my 'dark' greenwing.


But again, as a terrain piece and something that needs doing I'm happy with it.


I also went on to paint the windows, although all this gorgeousness will probably be covered up by Tamiya Clear Red X-27.


Now I'd done some sponged brown in places following Duncan's guide on WarhammerTV and then followed it up with Gun metal but although I thought it was pretty cool I splodged on some Typhus Corrosion to tone it down.


It may well have toned it down dramatically as I think only 15-20% of the metallic is still showing but I do think it's more realistic which is odd considering the rest of it is a bit cartoony.


Despite my idea that it was just a quick job I listed all these things to do [of which some were subsequently crossed off as shown]


It would still be within a week but it did seem so much still to do...

Saturday 30 July 2016

'nids part 201 - All the Genestealers [well, almost!]

While I had the 31 Stealers out I thought I'd put them all on my AoP board.


As it happens I seem to have misplaced a dozen or so original Stealers, at least I have 4 in the back ground and I know I have a box of them knocking around somewhere.


So I had to just get on with it as the wife was already looking dubious at my efforts to record everything, not to mention I'm also missing my other Broodlord that Otty has and I haven't swapped out for the one I got in my ebay bargain.


The 'Ymgarl' mutants all had a bit more pink in them than the new ones, subtle differences are now obvious throughout the Stealers in Hive Fleet Gorgom.


Still, the old Broodlord isn't as bad as you would think leading the field. 



Here come the phone pics...











Anyway, hope you like these extra pics now on to my next project.

Friday 29 July 2016

'nids part 200 - 31 Genestealers TO DONE!

I guess it's fortuitous that I mark my 200th 'nids post with the completion of these here 31 Genestealers.


It's taken a good while to get here, which is understandable as other projects and thankfully that includes the Dark Angels have taken priority.


But they needed doing and I thought it'd close out my hobby season with a bit more quantity.


I also thought that it'd get them off the decks and I could therefore focus on new things for 2016/17. Then I went and got Deathwatch Overkill with it's 38 Genestealer Cultists and then got Space Hulk with a further 22, and  10 or 12 more when I got an ebay bargain! 


So I've got yet more stealers to paint, whether that's another two year deal who knows but it's going to keep me busy regardless. Bloody hell that Genestealer Cult Codex better turn up.


I still think the Toxin Stealers are the best I think if I do any more I'll be doing some more random sac mutations like the  one on the right.


There were also these five 'urban' based brood. The metal bits are all from my previous Space Hulk stealers which had their bases trimmed to fit 20mm bases and so the spare parts made up these, which is a nifty trick which I'll be doing again with the new batch.






 

These original Space Hulk Stealers are nearing their two year anniversary!


These are five of the ten that I received as a mystery gift from my kendo friend Tom Widdows.


It was also hear that I realised why the original sculpts are superior in a way than the newer models - they're mostly leaping off the back foot which gives far more momentum to their attack than the newer ones which are leaping off the front foot.


Here are the other five together with their brothers, these were converted with Scything Talons and extra carapace armour just to see what they'd look like and for variety.


It's amazing how they still work and again makes some interesting variation in bio-forms as Hive Fleet Gorgon mixes things up to find the optimum stealer variant.


Meanwhile Tom has his own Epic 40k blog here: epictitanlegionclub.blogspot.co.uk go check it out.


These five have scy-tals, carapace armour and bone carapaces.


My second 'Davey Jones' staler.



Five Scy-tals with 'enhanced' carapace armour and chitin carapace colours. These armour plates are all made from Carnifex and Warrior armour plates. I made one previously and liked it so much I did a whole brood.


This poor stealer has had a rending claw shot off, the ubiquitous UHU glue creating the blood drip.


Brood of 6 Toxin Stealers.



This brood have carapace armour and chitin carapace. I also mixed up the arms, so some have two pairs of the three claws.


Some also have two pairs of the five claws. 


There really didn't seem any sense to always have them with a pair of each, why not mix it up?


So there we go and other one ticked off the To Do List The big green stamp of approval - TO DONE! Now, just a bunch of phone shots and then whats next?