40k future container scatter terrain - UPDATE

You may recall while back I made some 40k future container scatter terrain out of Mentos Cube boxes. I promised I'd do an update on the painting so here we go.

As you can see a bit of judicious brown and orange, some silver here and there and these little beauties really come into their own. I'd agonised for ages over these, the washes really took a while to work but using a really big brush to do the dry brushing helped. When I say really big I mean the sort you use when decorating, cutting in on the walls etc.

But I didn't stop there. I wanted to put some markings on the containers so I made some little masks and you can just make out the NUMA markings I added below [I'm a big Clive Cussler fan and the colour was perfect]. Close up they look even more grimy!

Since then I've added another seven containers [what can I say I like gum] I've got some Bioazard waste ones, some OOCL [they'll still be doing containerisation in the 41st millenium] one of the mesh wrapped liquid containers and a reinforced Dark Angels container, which makes a nice objective marker, who knows what or whom is locked up inside, I'll never tell... I'll get some pics up eventually when I grime them up. I really enjoyed playing around with the different colours because I feel most container ports are all different but part of me thinks I should have stuck to the turquoise and pale blue of the first three, hmm

Epic Adeptus Titanicus part 1. - War Griffons Insignia

War Griffons were my Titan Legion of choice. I came across a relatively easy way to paint my Titans, whic I'll come to later. Did a couple of Titans that way and then abandoned it for a slightly more laborius but much better solution that was really easy to do, again have patience. Meanwhile here's a promo pice from a White Dwarf older than my adult teeth. Not sure where the rest of the insignia pages got to, or why I never bought Codex Titanicus, the book this plate was from, but we'll just have to enjoy it for what it is.



Yeah right, Land Raiders and Rhinos as supprt vehicles for the Titan Legion! Those were the days. Funnily enough I keep forgetting about Hive Fleet Leviathan. According to the Tyranid Codex Gryphonne IV, the forgeworld home of the War Griffons was destroyed by Hive Fleet Leviathan. Many worlds in the system were evactuated or destroyed as the Hive Fleet approached but they thought the forgeworld would survive with their massed titan legions and Skitarii support. They were wrong. So it's kind of odd that once again I chose a force that later on in my GW history would be diametrically opposed to my son's choice in armies.

Some Warlords coming up next, showing the two paint schemes.

Terrain is everything - Because you asked for it - 40k outpost, that got bigger Pt 3 'big pictures'

Warhammer39999 asked for some bigger pictures of the '40kOtgB'. Here's some straight from the camera at 2MB each click for the embiggen. Ignore the Trygon, you haven't met him yet, don't worry you will. If you still want the plans for the tower are here.

'nids part 7. Strangleweb conversion [for what it's worth, which ain't much!]

++ Contact 06/45#a ++ Xenos bio-symbiote evidence ++ Web-based non-lethal excretor ++ Threat level - zero ++

I think in the first game my son played with his cousin the flamer and it's template really cam into effect. A huge slew of Termagants were BBQ'd. So when I was looking in the Tyranid Codex I thought I'd found an equivalent in the Strangleweb upgrade, I was wrong, but at the time I didn't see it.

Anyway, I actually think this was the first conversion I completed. I think the Tyranid Prime was started at the same time, but of course this was so easy to do it was completed in minutes, if not seconds. All I really needed was one of the many spare Deathspitters from the original Tyranid Warriors from Advanced Space Crusade.

The arms are already attached and you just need to add a bit of pressure on the joints to bend them a bit into position and hold them in place as the Poly-glue bonds the joints. Lastly you need to ensure the Termagant's head is angled a little bit so it looks like he's actually looking at what he's about to 'gob' on!

Here's the model on it's own, instead of the Inquisitorial vid-feed...

 

I mean he looks impressive, especially when you're looking down the barrel of that 'thing', but there's two flaws. 1. the balance is quite difficult, he's prone to tipping and 2. The Strangleweb is effectively useless. I don't actually think my son's ever fired it, in anger or other wise.

However this forum thread seems to indicate it odes have it's uses, so long as all the planets are in alignment!

http://thetyranidhive.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Tactics&thread=23707&page=1#433323

What's in a blog?

Interesting question, most of you probably realise this ones about 40k and I think I've managed to keep going with this for a good few weeks and I've even got people reading. Of course the pressure is on to keep adding content, which at the moment is every couple of days.

What is in this blog is actually a 'retrospective'. Most of what I've written about and documented is content and gaming I've already done. The terrain and buildings, the Tyranids are all things I've done over the past year. The Epic stuff and Dark Angels are coming from my childhood nearly 20 years ago. Having such an abundance of content makes this blog easier but eventually that content will run out and I'll have to be doing new things and touching on new topics to keep the blog going.

A while back I had the luxury of painting during my lunch breaks, which I can't really do now, so the blog takes up that space but really I'll sometimes need to do actual 'stuff' to discuss as opposed to discussing stuff. Funnily enough I think I used to treat White Dwarf the same. I would think should I be buying White Dwarf to read about the stuff I should actually be buying with that money?

Anyway, the point being that some of my future posts may be less frequent, but if you're on the RSS feed you'll know when they come up. More likely though the content may not be quite as comprehensive. Posts may be individual steps instead of a number of steps making up a part of a whole. We'll see anyway. I always wondered why I started this blog, I always knew it was a time thief and I've actually got a whole lot on my plate at the moment and the addition of a fledgling blog seems rather mistimed. Blogs are 'fluid' anyway, changing and evolving over time so this shouldn't be too bad.

So what we may end up with is the obligatory - 'what's on my project table at the moment' for instance, which in this case is this baby:

I'll no doubt fill you in on the details later, piece by piece, from the initial sketches through to completion. Blogging this way should spread things out nicely and take the pressure off. Oh, and yes that is a Mega Bloks Plasma Hatcher in the background and that will be a Mycetic Spore and I will touch on these in a future post. Most blogs die out and this one may do but if I take it easier, then perhaps there's more life to it, especially with recording my son's Eldar efforts coming up...

'nids part 6. The Tervigon Tutorial part 3.

This bad mother hubbard is taking shape now. The second pair of scything talons have been glued in place. They're in the Codex picture and it makes a lot of sense to add them in a gaming purpose, re-roll misses - awesome. They really help sell the idea the Tervigon is using the extra limbs to support the weight of all those embryos. Alternatively the Tyranid Warrior rending claw arms might have been used. I would have put them in the middle limb sockets and had them gripping the birthing sacs.

The middle limbs were pva-ed onto rocks, so it looks like they're resting. It's a simple protection feature because those talons are easily broken as evidenced by the fixed left front talon. I used poly-glue but a straight break like that is never going to bond properly, the first attempt had already snapped. So I tried again but also added a masking tape support around it. It's not indestructible but it should survive with a bit of care.

You'll also note the middle picture has had and adrenal gland added. It's inverted because it made sense that these biomorphs, when taken, are passed onto the Tervigons progeny. Attaching it to the join between the carapace and the birthing sac biologically works. What doesn't make sense is the rule that these biomorphs are passed onto ANY Termagants within 6". How does that happen? Anyway, a few more veins from the base of the glands and some PVA blend it all together. Actually you can see the PVA has just been applied. I think it's a great material but it's easy to get complacent, this was too much, the glue shrinks but it's not magic!

You can see here that the extra slate, and some volcanic lava stones are lifting the Tervigon up a bit. This would help with the pose of the birthing gribbly [you can see where he's going to be in the slightly cross hatched area].

Painting our Hive Fleet
So I haven't really given a step by step guide of how to paint our Hive Fleet, until now. As the modelling is finished all the future parts of the Tervigon tutorial are painting guides.

Usually I would undercoat the figures white and then all the pale bits start with a Bonewhite base coat. However this became a bit laborious so I got a satin 'Ice Cream' Plastikote spray paint for that. It was about £6 and doesn't have quite the coverage of a dedicated undercoat but it served a purpose of undercoat and basecoat in one. No more need for individually bonewhiting all the 'nids. A couple of sprays and the a whole lot of time was saved. I think the last picture illustrates my undercoat best. It's not quite as dark as Bonewhite but the future washes fix that and as far as I can tell the washes could probably do the same job without any basecoat.

Part 4. coming up wherein this mother gets a bit more colour...

'nids part 5. What's the point in Rippers?

Taking a little hiatus from the Tervigon tutorial I ask the above question, just what is the point in Rippers? Don't get me wrong, I love them, I love the fluff [as they say] I like the fact you can put 4 on a base, or 3 if you're cheeky, the fact they come as part of  the Termagant, Hormagaunt and Warrior sprues, and you can have them winged or tunneling for deep strike shenanigans. But why take them when two Hormagaunts in their place would do a better job for a few points more and not take up another troops slot?

I mean I've had some good results, a brood of three killed a terminator once and another time they deep striked [using tunneling] and secured an objective, until I got home and read that the GW store manager was wrong - swarms can't capture objectives [but Hormagaunts can, another +1 for them].

Please, someone give me a solid reason to have them. My son's got 3 bases so far and I've another 2 to add but seriously the only reason they'll be on the battlefield is if he chooses them in a list or we've run out of Hormagaunts, which isn't likely.

P.S. did I not mention they have a WS of 2?!