'nids part 184 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 5.

With these scratchbuilds there are a number of elements that I would consider 'obstacle to progress' but in reality are actually quite simple tasks that only require an evenings effort to achieve. As such that should be quite rewarding - I fill all the plastic out with PVA's tissue paper and by the end of the night the job is done the next part begins and I should be happy.

Unfortunately I have to get through the tissue and PVA process, which is yucky and I don't like it so it becomes a hurdle but in this case I was still motivated from overcoming the chitin plate obstacle and hopefully the momentum will carry me through the icing and sculpting stage too. As you can see I was a little creative with the tissue, using an old brush cleaning paper towel that really was only good for the bin but I've been using it for so long I thought it better to enshrine it within the structure.

I did use a load of tissues that came from a coffee shop which mashed up much better in the water and PVA. I guess there really is a difference between tissue and paper towel consistency [I know how obvious that sounds, but it's worth noting].

You can really see the difference on the other side of the spine, this has become more like papier mâché than glued paper. I'm going to be covering it all up anyway so it doesn't matter but if your sculpting skill aren't great that's two different option of how to detail your model. The paper towels make an effective musculature, I'm sure with a few successive coats of PVA you could easily just paint it red, cover it in Tamiya Clear Red X-27 and it'd look awesomely disgusting. Alternatively the tissue makes a different, more mineral looking finish that could be equally effective.

The smaller supports will also have fleshy joins to the main battlements. This is something I considered on the Bastion but never did, having the bone walls join directly to the Chitin towers, but for this I'm going to have exposed flesh between the armour plates and the walls.

And just because here's a close up of the paper towels, that really looks like some fibrous meaty musculature. You probably could even get away with not painting it, it's already got some crazy colours going on.

And again at this point I'm wondering should I have prepared the second one...? Next up - lets ice this sucker!

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. | 

Moar pics from GW Manchester

I felt a bit bad that I'd posted some sparse hobby shop pictures recently so when I nipped to GW Manc to try and resolve my intermediary brass metal issue I thought I'd try and remebdy that. First up I remebered to take shots of the WiP fantasy... sorry Sigmar galleon

Thats a lot of clothes pegs and coffee stirrers, not to mention actual GW marketing materials.

I got anothe rpic of this amazing Spawn of Cryptus.

These Knights are so awesome.

The checks were brilliant and the weathering subtle but higghly effective and well applied.

I thought the diamond formation for the banner was particularly ingenious, something I may steal myself. I was also impressed with the banner pole, very reminiscent of th eoriginal banner poles for the Epic Reaver Knights. I asked what it was made from and there was a significant list of bits so whether I can replicate it down the line we'll see...

They make a pretty impressive army.

Some Space Mongrels.

Iron Hands, sorry about the blur, the display was rotating at the time.

To be honest I only really took the pictures because of Red Planet BASE!

This Knight was also quite interesting. There was a subtle camo pattern built into the grey.

Close up I'm not sure it's the best quality in the world [no disrespect] but there is definitely a level of skill in that pattern and the spotting that's been applied. But it's also heavily influenced by the War Griffons so I really like that.

Some pretty standard Necrons, but dark Red Planet BASE! makes them look awesome. It's a different way to do it but it really works, so versatile.

Alternatively Martian Iron Eath gives you a different take on Red Planet BASE! , so versatile.

I don't know what chapter this is but it was pretty striking and consistent.

It looks like the store's hive fleet - the green one has had some reinforcements with the blue [Fleshborer Hives FTW]

mmm, gribbly

'nids part 183 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 4.

Well this just happened! With all the mixed feelings about my other projects every time I enter the shed I've seen this thing languishing on the shelf. September was the last time it got any attention, although there were other things that definitely took precedence to push it down my list of priorities.

Now it should still be low down on that list but I just needed to do something and as the plastic forms for the Chitin plates are actually one of those 'obstacles to progress' I regularly suffer from if I actually felt the urge to overcome this hurdle then I would be a fool to ignore where my mojo will take me.

I think that's one of the advantages of having numerous projects on the go, when one gets tedious it's really easy to switch to another project to maintain momentum. As it was I couldn't quite remember how to do these [I've done 10 spires so far!] so it was lucky I had a blog to go back for reference. I think the main spine is a bit ropey in places but the smaller ones came out pretty well and the hot melt glue didn't melt too much of them.

I drilled out the emitter ball too, I've found the second one so should I want to make another VSG it's possible, although I'll kick myself for not doing the two at the same time...

There's a curtain hook for the very tip of the spine and I'll be adding more down the inside. I put a Genestealer on the battlements for scale too.

All good fun, I need to pack out the plastic with PVA and tissue next, then a coating of tile adhesive/grout. I don't envisage this replacing any of my other projects but it's nice to take a break so I can make progress on it and return to the other ones afresh.

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. | 

Moar pics from Wargames

Last year we hardly ever got chance to go to Southport, my wife often works weekends so I'm genuinely surprised we got chance to visit again so soon after our last jaunt. We actually went so we could go bowling and having trounced the rest of the family we then wandered from the sea front into the town centre proper. Of course Wargames is on the way on Lord Street [y'know where Napolean got his inspiration for Paris] and the youngest wanted Pokemon cards and I need that intermediary gold colour - settled on Breass Scorpion, turns out I was wrong so still need to find a better match. Anyway, I saw quite a striking White Scars display so decided to share pictures.

I've played against some pretty amazing White Scars armies and although this might not quite match them I'm really impressed with the consistency throughout. It definitely serves as a fine example of how much impact your army can make en masse.

And there are all sorts of simple extra details that have been added to lift everything up.

And who doesn't love a Thunderhawk?

Also of note were these 'hen's teeth' or Forgeworld Capillary Towers, now Out Of Print and they could make some of these in plastic now?

I also sspotted Aceface's Hierophant on display. As Wargames is sponsoring him on his Las Vegas Open adventure that's a nice touch

Anyway, it's just stuff I saw in shop and thought I'd share.

Aceface in Las Vegas

I met Aceface a few years agao at Throne of Skulls, before I even knew he had a YouTube Channel, and right now he is in Las Vegas, for the Las Vegas open 40k tournament. He's been painting and playtesting his Tau army on YouTube for the past month or so and now he's there and sharing updates on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Aceface-Hickers-611255408889511

Most of us won;t ever get the opportunity to attend such an event so it might be worthwhile 'liking' his page so you can see what 300 gamers in one place looks like... and also if he gets 500 followers by his return there'll be a freebie given away so sign up :)

Dark Angels - Jefighter!!!

All that glitters... having been metal crazy over the past few nights I really needed to mix things up a bit. I was already starting to feel restlessand so looked again at the Jetfighter. The pilot was definitely something that needed doing and having tested the canopy effect I was convinced he'd have to be 'high contrast' to show through [even if the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 was playing hard ot get in it's coverage]. I was really happy with the end result, the shoulder pads are a bit bright but that would be for a standard Ravenwing biker, inside the cockpit he'll be fine. Part of me wants to OSL the rest of him, like the eyes but I'm not sure it'll make any difference.

I know, I know, there's nothing to this, just a Red Oxide Primer, wash and white buttons and dials but I honestly don't think anything more than this will be evident once the cockpit goes on.

The pilot in-situ.

And as you can see the cockpit obscures quite a lot. Sadly there seems to be a lot of masking tape adhesive still stuck at the edges. I'll have to find a way to clear that up a bit more. The top down view shows of some pseudo-highlighting I did on one of the larger screens on the control panel. As you can see there really was no benefit for anything other than white. Sure some darker buttons would have been nice too but this is more than adequate.

Side view are difficult to take but the pilot is in there.

This pic shows just a little more how the high contrast highlights blend perfectly under the red canopy so I'm really pleased with the results.

Good progress once again!

Throne of Skull - Carnage

Just after Christmas Ben sent out a distress message saying he thought we'd been away from Warhammer World for too long. The original suggestion was a special Dark Angels event on the weekend of my birthday, which sounded cool for quite a few reasons but also not for a few others. Instead we opted for a more traditional Throne of Skulls event a couple of weeks later. So our tickets and hotel are booked and we'll be attending Throne of Skulls: Carnage on the 12th and 13th March.

Now there are a number of unique things to consider about this, particularly since our last visit. First up the points value is 1700 now, which makes things both easier and harder. Secondly there is no restriction on army choice, insomuch as you can actually play using a different army every game! So as much as I wouldn't want to play Dark Angels all weekend it might be tempting to play them just once... another issue is that the event does have a running theme of 'carnage points'. Some vampiric Dark Eldar is pupeteering these conflicts to siphon of the hate fuelled killings and use it to keep him pretty [Photoshop might be cheaper].

This is where I’m really going to struggle in a competitive sense as nids or Dangles I don’t particularly have what I would term a ‘killy army’. As much as I persevere with kill points missions [and Blog Wars always handled them fairer than most] I go into each and every one under the assumption I won’t do very much. Now there are going to be unique Maelstrom objectives for the games, I think the Carnage Points will be for overall scoring and potential impact in the game but it does make me question my army lists.

I'm looking once again at a combination of Manufactorum Genestealers for board control and distraction [with added killing power should they be able to get into combat in groups]. Add in my Skyshield to keep things alive as long as possible, obligatory twin Flyrants and Twin Carnifex to lay down the Brainleech and I'm weighing up my Malnthrope versus my Venomthrope. Of course I could tweak my list for every game, which will guarantee I'll do one list that will lose me one game but be perfect for another! Still, umming and ahhing over lists, it might be nice to mix things up so I can see which is more effective.

Bottom line I'm not sure there is anything hobbywise that will queue jump into my painting schedule as I doubt any new project would be completed in time, so I best stick to my current tasks and look forward to March.