Saturday 31 December 2011

Terrain is everything - Dawn of War Plasma Generator part 1.

MasterSlowPoke made a good call about the following bits are the component parts of a DoW Plasma Generator. But also a couple of doors from some modular sockets...


And here's what I'm aiming for. Now despite my suggestion this was complex and detailed, with hindsight there's so much more detail I could be adding to this. More rivets, cables, vents, lights, changes to the base structure - currently mine is just sloped whereas the pic shows it as a step that intersects a slope. But I'm just doing a half decent simple copy. If anyone wishes to add to the final design feel free.


Not so sure I can replicate the underground cabling either, I'm such a cop-out! Ha, ha!

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Better off Dread - Dark Angel AoBR Dreadnought Update Update Update

Here's how Brother Cask is shaping up. Some of the metals have been 'verdi-gris'd', which is cool. I've managed to make a dirty Bonewhite so it's not the same as the Deathwing for parchments and the sculpt on the front of the sarcophagus. The Ferron Red is in place but due to it's shiny nature is 'telling me' not to add any highlights as it will just go orange. Equally the Dark Angels green is telling me the same. I'm thinking messing about with it now will just make it stand out and I don't want that neon feel for my Dark Angels.


Side view, and I love the parchment and the seal actually looks like wax, hence my reluctance to add anything else to that. Also the base has been done [uncharacteristically early], but not the Mechrite Red edge as there is still a bit to paint and the edge will be handled a lot which won't help the finish.


The back view, where the verdi-gris comes into it's own. A mix of the bronze/brass effects I like with a touch of weathering, so I may be able to add it to the Tactical squad afterall, so long as I am subtle about it. Still might make the skull on the back 'dirty white'...



The other side and the red is just a bit too shiny here, I need to take it down a bit, Devlan Mud anyone?


Couple more shots, with better lighting and close-ups. I'm pretty sure this is not far off complete but I know I haven't actually done a lot of painting on the green and the finish is a bit lumpy which I'm sure I could make it work for a bit of battle damage. However, with all the metals and effects so far I'm convinced the plain green makes those bits work better and if I add to them the whole model will be just too busy. So another model 'on hold' for the time being while I make more terrain.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Terrain is everything - "Can you tell what it is yet?"

As Shakin' Stevens once said "Merry Christmas everyone", I always wonder if folk in other countries 
get to listen to some of the classic British Christmas tunes like Noddy Holder, Wizzard and Jona Lewie. There's a very British feel to all the shops playing the same old festive favourites and I wonder if that travels internationally. Anyway, I digress.

Here we have the component parts for what may be my most complex piece of terrain yet. It's certainly iconic and will have a lot of detail packed into a small area. I say complex, maybe I mean fiddly, I'm not sure, but the STC to go with it will also be available and as the crafting of this structure will be dependent on the thickness of the cladding card you use, then there will be some bits you will just have to figure out for yourselves. For instance if you use 1mm thick card then you'll need 7mm wide strips of card to cover the cladding on the edges. 1.5mm and you'll need 8mm strips. As I say - fiddly. 



The upshot of this is that not being able to be 100% accurate with the STC means I may get it Mechanicum approved sooner rather than later. I've also got another structure I'm going to be working on that will blow your minds, quite literally and it will be a step by step guide only, no STC because this baby just does go that way. Of course all this terrain craft is coming at the expense of my figure painting but we'll gloss over that fact purely because my creative juices are flowing else where right now and I'm enjoying the ride. Have a good one.

P.S. If you know what it is, leave a comment...

Friday 16 December 2011

Deathwing Progress 2

So right when I was coming up on the anniversary of the blog and feeling the least motivated to actually do any painting I suddenly had a flurry of activity only for it to blow as I once again reached a 'painters block'. I did all the antique bronze and then applied my verdigris washes to the Deathwing and I think they came out awesome, but they now don't fit the look of the rest of the army, in particular the Tactical squad. Anyway these pics show how the verdigris looks, under natural light and I even attempted some glow effects on the eye lenses.


I'm not entirely convinced with my efforts on the Crux Terminatus. The Ferron Proxima stone effect doesn't look like stone, it's particularly reminiscent of my old Empire army figures, not sure how to tone it down or whether some drybrushing might make it more dusty, therefore more stone-like...


The other issue is battle damage, which I want to do, but it's going to be tough as I don't want to put silver in any scratches. I want perhaps black to show through as the fluff suggests that underneath all the Bonewhite there's black but what's underneath that? Again a decision that is choking any further progress.


And here lies the other side of the equation. The antique brass here is great, I don't want to touch it but it looks odd next to the Deathwing, although the verdigris being greenish does tie in with the tac squad colouring I wouldn't want their brass to have this effect. The same brasses are on the drop pod and dreadnought. Too much thought is stifling this whole project, no wonder I haven't touched it in weeks.


 The sad thing is that aside from the battle damage, targeting lenses, chapter markings and bases I think these are nearly done. There's not a whole lot left to finish the Deathwing off which I know would be a real boost to my motivation. The Tac squad isn't too far behind either. The fact is my priorities are fixed for the next few months but come April I may well be spending a lot more time and effort getting these things done but any little bit I can do between now and then will just make things go smoother.



Tuesday 13 December 2011

The art of 40k - Yet more Gary Harrod

OK, look when I started this 'art of 40k' section I hadn't planned on getting stuck on Mr. Harrod, I don't owe him money/represent him/want his children. It's just there seemed very little artwork online and as times gone by I keep stumbling across more and more of his work I've missed/forgotten that I've rediscovered and I need to share before I can move onto the next artist. These pics were rediscovered in my copy of the 40k Compendium.

Oh WOW! How could I forget this beauty, the original Deimos Pattern Rhino and this pic makes a mockery of the current design. Sure the central transport area is disproportionate to the acutal model, but have you ever seen a picture that quite captures the feel of an armored transport vehicle about turn you into spatula fodder?


An original 'Land's Speeder' and it seems there was less use of an anti-gravity plate on the bottom and more a vectored jet to keep it skimming above the ground in Rogue Trader days.


Next we have an original jet bike with an extremely early mark armored Space Marine, check out the pipes going into his 'beaky' helm. Practically AdMech in design and I can't make out the insignia on his shoulder, anyone? Also of note is the rocket homing in on the bike. There's a real sense of activity and motion in this pic, love it. Lastly, some Orks, not much to say but I really like the way the picture breaks out of the frame with the Stormboyz helm poking out the top.


In an attempt to move things on I'll drop a taster of my next favorite 40k artist, a no-prize if you can guess. Not sure how to progress with it though as I've noticed my scanning destroys the subtle pencil work and I think showing these pieces this way won't do them justice, still guess away


Saturday 10 December 2011

New Ferron Proxima

As promised I finally got around to producing a larger print out of my Ferron Proxima Battle mat. Thankfully scaling the image to the new table size of 150 x 90cm [a 5' x 3' table!] which translates to 127% more width and 118% more length didn't degrade the image. However, I did find the output varied from our plotter. Now I think I recall something similar happening first time around but as you can see below I ended up with two versions, one that has significantly more darker detail and thother which is equally vibrant but without all the lowlights. This time around I think we will be suing the high contrast version for gaiming but I did print and laminate both.


Here's another shot so you can see how much detail has suddenly been picked out.


And again, by laying them on top of eath other you can get a decent comparrison, particualarly in the large crack in ground and the shadowy area below the pale triangular shape.


And a nice shot to end on



Wednesday 7 December 2011

Land Raider and Rhino History

I was looking at BoLS the other day and the lead story was a new Forgeworld Land Raider Armoured Proteus


It's a beautiful little beast but the accompanying YouTube video was also cool for those of us with a penchant for GW history and some interesting back story on the modelling of these iconic vehicles.



Now without wishing to look like I just cribbed someone else's news, here's a reminder of my particular interest in these fellas:


Which made me realise a massive omission from the blog, my original Land Raider Proteus has never been photographed, nor has the second Deimos Pattern Rhino, so here's a couple of phone shots, I'll photograph them better some other time.


Deimos Pattern Rhino with Dark Angel upgrades and some 'spotlights' on the front made from Space Crusade bits...



Monday 5 December 2011

New Forgeworld goodies

New from Forgeworld:


CONTEMPTOR PATTERN AUTOCANNON




Awesome for Mortis Dreads but £7.50 each? I know that's the price of a Dreadnought weapon but it's a shame they aren't more affordable. Still, they're better looking than the other standard Dreadnought Autocannons so on balance they're good value

MINOTAURS SHOULDER PADS


MINOTAURS TERMINATOR SHOULDER PADS




And finally...

GRAIA PATTERN RAPIER LASER DESTROYER


The Rapier Laser Destroyer was one of the first 40k models that came into our house, in fact it was not my figure but my brothers, which I painted. I'm pretty sure I have the chassis knocking around in a bitz box somewhere though the tracks and lasers are probably long gone. I'm not entirely convinced by this sculpt. I think if you were going to make the trapezoidal shape less regular which, is the right thing to do given the current anachronistic Imperial design, then although this is the right direction it needed to be a little more exaggerated. As it is it almost makes sense!

Thursday 1 December 2011

Terrain is everything - Can't see the wood for the trees

I mentioned in April my concerns over trees and after a 12 month wait I finally got to nip back to Dobbies, our local garden centre [and craft shop] to pick up a pack of their model Christmas Trees. These are really popular in the USA for 40k. I've seen loads of battle reports that feature these particular festive flora.


That's the set you get, 21 pieces from a company called Lemax for £13 which I think is good value. Clearly there's at least two that are just a bit too big, they're the same size as my 40k outpost that got bigger! but great line of sight blockers for a Trygon!


Of course there's one big issue with these trees, the seasonal kind. Ferron Proxima is not known for it's snow and chlorophyll as a substance does not exist in it's standard green as evidenced by the Ferron Bindweed. So initially I will be undercoating them all in Red Oxide primer and will be then repainting them in shades of yellow.


More to follow...


Sunday 27 November 2011

Apocalypse - Out

...finally

For some silly reason we ran the Prime at the Librarian squad and because he doesn't have fleet wasn't able to assault them. Stupid really, he only got 3" and didn't need them to make the assault but we abided the decision just because it was a valuable lesson. Thankfully we didn't need him as the Termagants managed to Poison the remaining Blood Angels and win the day, but non of the objectives.


Over on the other side, the Broodlord was squished, I think one weapon had been destroyed on the dread but it moved off in search of the Trygon. Nothing much happened apart from a few more of the other Blood Angels from the Rhino being picked off, though by warrior fire or Necron gauss I don't recall.


So my thoughts? We had a lot of fun. The last Apocalypse battle we went to was very hectic and the age range was significantly lower which made things more like herding cats. This time there was a lot of experience, maybe too much because we were often bemused by what was going on. Our little corner was pretty much self-contained. But, with so many taking part it was also a bit frustrating to suddenly have swathes of figures wiped off the board without much chance to use them or retaliate. For the most part we faced a squad of five marines, with a Librarian and they pretty much squashed the entire 'nid force flat! Maybe this is how most current games play, perhaps we're still not experienced enough about this to expect that the army you spent hours compiling doesn't get to do half the things you plan on it doing, I don't know. Maybe it's a peculiarity of Apocalypse, again I don't know. Don't get me wrong, it's not sour grapes. Neither my son nor I care whether we win or lose - there's nothing more fun than a spectacular loss but somehow we didn't even get that out of the poor Hormogaunts for instance. And deep-striking was pointless as we only had a couple of turns each and the wee-little Rippers never even got to gnash their teeth.

Saying that though we did have a lot of figures left and in another turn I think the Trygon would have squashed the dread, the Termagants could have captured the objectives and the Warriors would have mopped up anything else knocking about so we were well placed for further battle. Overall we enjoyed ourselves immensely and everyone was super nice and made us feel welcome but I was reminded of how much more fun it is to have a proper 'crew', a group of friends you can banter with and really enjoy the games. I may have some more to say on this in a future post, as a wise-man once said "things are afoot at the Circle K"

Saturday 26 November 2011

Apocalypse - and

Continuing on, here's the rest of the board, though I haven't a clue what was going on. I know my son suggested to the guy with the Necrons who had some power to take control of vehicles why didn't he target the Baneblade [which was actually a Tower of Skulls] which prompted a furious round of high-fives and cackles of glee as they hadn't thought of that!


Another shot of the lay of the land, which I love the board colours, almost 'Ferron' ;)


In their turn all the Hormogaunts were killed by an Orbital Bombardment thanks to Marneus Calgar half a board away. Only the Bonesword Prime left alive, with a Legion of the Damned  squad materialising in front of him to pick off the remaining gaunts. I think at this point the Tervigon had been killed as well, I think that's why the squad left the building to take it out and that Librarian did awful damage. Only 4 of the spawned Termagants died in the Psychic backlash from the death of their Brood Progenitor. Our next turn, the Mycetic Spore arrives with a plop, Devgaunts jump out ready to take on the now decamped Blood Angel squad. With 30 shots I think the managed to take down 1 or two, maybe the Fleshborers did something but 


The Trygon Prime burst from the ground, his Containment Spines perhaps taking out a Space Marine. Meanwhile the Adrenal Stealers were killed off with the Broodlord the only one left.


More Necrons sweep across the board.


I'll conclude tomorrow...

Friday 25 November 2011

Apocalypse - Over

Last Saturday was the Apocalypse battle at the local GW and having finally set on a list me and my son hto footed over to enjoy the 'early' Christmas party. We set everything up and waited for the rest of the eager combatants to turn. By a twist of fate we ended up on the side of the newly resurrected Necrons and as one guy with a number of Monoliths hadn't arrived a mass of the stores Chaos Space Marines turned up to take the middle as we started on the left flank opposite some Blood Angels in Rhinos. You can see the Tervigon, a Prime attached to the Hormogaunt Brood and the two broods of Genestealers by the tower [which contained three objective markers. 


Slightly further over were the Gargoyles and the shooty Tyranid Warriors and attached Prime. In the first turn Tom, the young lad with the Blood Angels burned up in the Rhino and managed to gain entrance to the Tower [damn] he also had the Death Company Dreadnought drop pod in just behind the shooty warriors as you can see below [yes the Drop Pod is that WFB tower...]


I'm not sure how long after these shots were taken but at some point the guy with the other Necron force turned up and the Chaos crew turned traitor [of course they did] and what followed was the chaos force proceeded to shoot/assault us in the same turn we assaulted then, it was all free-flowing and dynamic, mad, fun but also very weird. My son's Tervigon managed to spawn 15 Termagants [the max possible without pooping out]. We decided to barrel the adrenalin fueled Stealers over to the Dread, hopefully the rending Broodlord would have his wicked way as so often before. Th Hormies moved forwards and the Warriors poured fire into the tower hoping to thin out the Blood Angels squad in residence. The Termagants didn't do much and the Toxin Sac Stealers assaulted into cover and were pretty much wiped out as the Blood Angels Librarian with Might of Heroes and another psychic ability decimated them one by one.


Here you can see the whizzy Monoliths doing all sorts of weird Apocalypse things - Null Fields and such, I've no idea. The more experienced guys seemed to know what was going on and I wasn't on the receiving end of it but all these quirky rules were a bit hard for us average gamers to follow. Meanwhile the Adrenal Stealers seemed perplexed by the Death Company Dread. Where in the past they've done really well - rending claws tearing my Dark Angel Dread to ribbons on many occasion, this time nothing and they were whittled down for their efforts. The shooty warriors also suffered a number of wounds spread out over the squad.


The Gargoyles decided to have a bite of the Chaos Warriors hiding in the ruins, the ate one and then proceeded to be slaughtered to one plucky little flapping thing...


More tomorrow...