Old stuff day 2021

Morning #warmongers and #WarhammerCommunity it's #OldStuffDay 2021. A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

Here's some great posts from other bloggers [apologies to the many great bloggers out there I haven't included, you do sterling work too, these are just the ones I was reminded to remember over the last 12 months]:

Remember when we didn't have a Tyranid Spore Pod and we had to make our own? Eventually we got the Tyrannocyte but there were some who made some pretty great versions of their own. Davyart created this spore pod, the post is from 2019 but the model was built in 2012. You can follow it from concept sketch through to painting. I recall seeing the model at the time but I never saw the build or the finished article. As I'm still basking in the glow of my own scratchbuild success it's a fine example of what you can achieve. Also, the rest of the blog is worth checking out too ;)

https://paintinginthedark.blog/2019/05/20/tyranid-drop-pod-scratch-build/

This isn't Warhammer related but it is a pretty interesting article about perfectionism. I think we all strive for perfection in the hobby and this is helpful in keeping those expectations in check.

https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/perfectionism-the-enemy-of-the-artist

My antipodean twin Marc has been regaling the hobby community with his own blog for 7 years. It's a constant amusement how often our personal tastes in the hobby intersect, despite thousands of miles between us. One particular shared passion is our love of the 'blessed verdigris'. His technique is far more involved than my own, probably backed up by some real science. So take a trip back to 2015:
http://oldschoolg4m1ng.blogspot.com/2015/02/iron-snakes-verdigris.html

Also from Marc, here's his entry into my terrain competition, the ultimate winner of the Imperial Knight:
http://oldschoolg4m1ng.blogspot.com/2016/04/dawn-of-war-thermoplasma-generator-to.html

Speaking of terrain, how about Mike Corr's collected works on terrain. With a focus on gaming it's interesting to see how diverse you can be with some of the older Citadel terrain kits. Sadly some have been discontinued but it's well worth seeing what you could do, as well as what he did for my terrain comp.
http://standwargaming.blogspot.com/search/label/terrain

Last year Rob suggested I should take sole 'ownership' of Old Stuff Day, as I am more proactive in its celebration/promotion. I understand his point but I can never dismiss its origins - credit where it's due I'm not one for reshaping history. So, I'm going to throw even more credit his way with a flurry of great posts - like when he made a Gormiti toy into a pretty awesome Tyranid Bastion. And credit where it's due I told him about it after I saw it mentioned on a Tyranid message board.

https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/tyranid-bastion-progress-green-stuff-and-gubbinz/

And yet more 'nids

https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/category/warhammer/tyranids/page/19/

How to dip your 'nids

https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/dipping-tyranids-hopefully-for-the-last-time/

And an interesting piece of terrain ;)

https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/an-unofficial-terrain-piece-for-a-horrible-rule-that-only-applies-to-a-bad-unit/

Lastly, I refer to Garfy's Hierophant strengthening/pinning whenever someone asks about making bases for them or how to make them stronger. It is the best guide and if you're in the market for one you will need this if you have the balls to cut it up and put steel rods inside it.

https://taleofpainters.com/2012/03/wip-tyranid-hierophant-biotitan-1/

What about my own posts? Well I'm going to wimp out a bit and just point you directly to my FREE terrain templates page:
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html

and my freebies:
https://www.40kaddict.uk/p/free-downloads.html

I may not have created a new template in a good few years but that enhanced feeling of satisfaction I got from building the Tyranid VSG is something I wish I could share with everyone.  These templates may go some way to allowing folk the opportunity to build some terrain [mostly] from scratch . Maybe they'll feel as fulfilled as I did, maybe it'll encourage me to try and make some more templates, who knows?

Wait a minute, I just got a reminder that 4 years ago me and my mates organised a 40k tournament! We may never do it again but it was a really great experience at the time and worth remembering. We started thinking about it well before we let the world know in November 2016. Tickets went on sale mid-December and we'd got the venue at the old WarGames store [now Dice and Decks] all sorted. I got 36 unique objective cards created for all those who came for the bash [and check out those winners certificates]. The day was an absolute blast, or should that be bash? And the quality of armies on show were really high. And I had 1, 2, 3 great games.

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team Last 4 - WiP

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my Nurgle #BloodBowl players. This has been concurrent with my Aberrants. I may not be a fan of huge batch painting - 10 termagants can be a nightmare. But, this was quite refreshing as the models are all so different it was just the colour that was the same.

Mainly I was adding a variety of washes and Khorne Red. Even if I've peaked to early with the red additional washes and colours will help add depth and character, so I'm not worried.

I've added all the highlights to the orange and picked out all the pus filled buboes.

I also decided to half the trouser colour on the purple rotter on the far left. I just thought I needed another player with halved pants.

On top of that I thought some could do with Orcidas stripes down the side. It could be challenging to get them to stand out on the pale cream background but I'll see what I can do.

So close to getting these last players done and then the full team is complete. At some point I want to consider creating a proper display board, fully coated in tar. That could be a challenge for later int he year though.

'nids part 315 - Genestealer cult - Aberrants

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my Genestealer Cult Aberrants. This may even qualify for #Squaduary... Anyway, I haven't posted about these in a year but with so much out of the way I thought I'd crack on with them. They'd all been basecoated, so it was time to wash them. I also was thinking about how to identify units, so the one on the far left has had his skintone changed to a 'turq'. It seemed the easiest one to do, until I realised he has a clone pose on the far right!

I applied a number of washes to the skintone - strong tone, red and purple washes. I then added thinned Khorne Red to anywhere I though might be 'angry'. I'm thinking that step was done too early as I know have to add all the highlights without disturbing that effect. In some respects I even like the way they currently are, but the original test model on the right is where they all need to be.

Next step is to paint all the bone and orange highlights. Getting all these elements finished and leaving the skintone means I can get some interesting pictures from that almost complete stage for if I ever want to explore this stage of the skintone. I'm already committed to the lighter turquoise but future projects, who knows?

The GSC use their clothing as a camouflage for their ambushes, hence why they match up with the bases so much.

I added some weathering to the debris under the Abominant's 'hero' base. You may not be able to see it when the top piece is on but I know it is there.

Although I'm focussing on those five models it made sense to do the bone and orange on the other Aberrants. This way when I come to do all the skintones o these models it's only small step for them being complete.

And there are some with red clothes on too, which I will do all at the same time when I get round to it. Chunking it like this will help move things along and hopefully prevent burn out.

Considering that approach it might be surprising to learn that I also did all the orange highlights on my last 4 Nurgle Blood Bowl players at the same time, they'll be in an update soon

Adeptus Titanicus - Titans in Manufactorum - Cerastus Knight Lancer TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer #AdeptusTitanics on my Cerastus Knight Lancer. Apologies, it would appear I haven't really recorded any progress on this since April last year. It seems unfair to dump a finished model out of nowhere, but here we are.

The Lancer had got to a stage where I'd done all the metal work, the base [obviously] and the red had been shaded.

So, all that was left was highlight the red, any battle damage, weather the bronze, glow FX and all the markings...

Because I wanted it to match the full scale Lancer I already have.

I'm guessing its a common urge to recreate in miniature, your bigiature.

At some point I'll therefore be compelled to paint up 3 Questoris Knights, 2 as sHouse Raven and one as my Freeblade Euronymous.

I was not especially looking forward to all the markings, freehanding the Raven symbol seemed ridiculous - but a black triangle with yellow halo and lightning wasn't too hard.

The lightning was really easy in fact, it was putting the cogs on the halo that was dodgy, it was so small my fixes work [for a distance].

And here's a 360 spin

The white cog symbol on the black half of his left shin is actually a decal, cut in half.

 

 

So, is this not the cutest little model ever?

Or is it this? Just think, the Cerastus Knight of today is as tall as a Reaver Titan of yesteryear. Amazing and sad in equal measures.

For reasons I can't explain, this I gets me my Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval - TO DONE! Rather than a 'Minor', dunno why that is, but that's what fits in my head.

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity, just a heads up March 2nd is #OldStuffDay A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt. |If you're on the Twitter, try to find a way to celebrate, maybe look at your oldest hobby tweet. Or, that old chestnut - your first miniature. Celebrate Old Stuff Day with the rest of us. 

'nids 314 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 15

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've finished #paintingwarhammer my #Scratchbuilt #Tyranid Void Shield Generator. All that's left is some white background shots, for those that like them, first a 360 spin

And static shots...

Not a lot to say really, as the highlights 2 post is very similar pics.

However, I was trying to add links to all 15 parts of my build and add them to my tutorials and showcase pages.

But I discovered that somewhere along the line I got my numbering convention mixed and there were 9 posts prior to these 15 that featured the VSG build.

So, 24 posts in total! That's more than the Skyshield and its 6 capillary towers and walls!

Rather than go through renumbering them all I've split it into 2 chapters in the Tutorials page, not that there's a reason for where the chapter break came in.

Anyway, it's done now, so just enjoy the rest of the pics.

 

 

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

'nids 313 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 14 - TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've finished #paintingwarhammer my #Scratchbuilt #Tyranid Void Shield Generator. As you can see, it matches my previous scratchbuilt Tyranid terrain perfectly.

I was a little sparing in the end with the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 as it didn't seem to do much. Thankfully though I don't think the gloss varnish has 'ruined' it.

 

It's part of my scheme afterall - the mix of matt and gloss finishes to create additional textures and visual queues.

With hindsight, I may have considered the base of the battlements in the same fleshy colour as the folds around the well. But I wanted it to match the Skyshield.

 

I have this idea that the 'sprout' emitter moves up and down on the stalk and can be retracted all the way through the folds of flesh 🤮

I mean it is pretty grim, I wonder if it sets off people with Trypophobia? Sorry.

And although it's not the glowiest of orbs I've ever done and is very much a sprout in appearance I'm pretty happy with the emitter. The stalk is a little too uniform. I should have added some bits to it to mask the uniformity of the cylinder. A lesson learned for the future.

I thought I'd pop some Termagants on the 'battlements' just to illustrate the original plan.

 

Of course this is now unfeasible in a tournament list, definitely modelled for advantage. However, it depends where you centre the effect of the void shields. If its aura is from its centre it's probably at a disadvantage, because the model itself takes up space that units could use.

 

But if the aura is from the model then it's added a further 2" to the effect. I'd go from the centre, but even so, it's footprint is pretty large and provides a lot of LoS blocking elements that probably wouldn't go down well. 

There's only so much 'rule of cool' can overcome. Then again, I'm not the best of players and this is overcosted and far from optimal. Someone might object initially but by the end it would be seen for what it is.

So I'm chuffed to bits with completing it. I have identified this intense satisfaction is in part because I BUILT THIS FROM SCRATCH! Indeed that creativity from concept through to completion is beyond compare.

Now there was a lot of effort to get to this point but I definitely need to think about another scratchbuild project, as I have nothing in the pipeline... and the Prometheum Relay Pipe is the natural solution.

So, I'm thinking more seriously about it, thanks to this experience, and I urge any and every hobbyist to consider trying some form of scratchbuild in the future. It's is hugely rewarding and creative, I promise you won't regret such an undertaking.

And so I gets me my Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval - TO DONE! One that is unbelievably special to me.

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. |