Warhammer 40K the next generation

Typical, after the high of #dreadtober - both with my hobby progress and surge of joy blogging about it I ended up with a bit of burnout, coupled with a number of things meaning I didn't have time or motivation. But we've been there, done that, many times before so I won't bore you with apologies [again].

What I will say is one weekend had us visit Liverpool, the well-spring of my hobby journey and aside from peaking int the Cat Cafe and Worlds Apart [independent comic shop] I was allowed to visit Warhammer. I wasn't going to buy anything but the youngest did comment he's the only one never to play 40k [which isn't true but I wasn't about to argue with him], so I decided to rectify the situation.

I set up the Warhammer Conquest intro board with a number of my future containers, that in pairs perfectly fit a Munitorum Container footprint. A couple of other bits of scatter scenery [which I really must paint] and we were ready. I gave him 3 Tyranid Warriors and I took 5 Space Marines, one with a Flamer, so I was outgunned from the get-go. Conquest give ethe Space Marine player first turn and I moved forward. Oscar moved the Warriors behind the containers, but one had just enough line of sight to target a marine and killed 2 for my hubris.

I would subsequently get into combat but after overwatch I only had the Sergeant and another Marine left. I did some damage to a Warrior.

But I was utterly outclassed by this stage and he wiped the floor with my Dark Angels.

We couldn;t have played for more than 20 minutes but I was struck how hard it was to try and introduce some of the concepts - AP for instance is a minus modifier but when you describe it it's always a 3+ save becomes 4+. Try explaining to your child 3+ -1 = 4+!!! Anyway, he enjoyed it, said we'd play another game a few hours later after 'a rest' but it didn't happen, which is fine. I'm more inclined to want to try Deathwatch Overkill with him again, it seems a lot simpler and might be more of a springboard game.

Meanwhile, a little elf has mentioned how he may want to paint some things with me, these things would appear via a mystery red-suited fat man. So I have to think about things I would like, that might be suitable for a novice to also paint. I immediately though of the Warhammer Underowlrds Sepulchral Guard - Skeletons are easy to paint. Bone and rusted armour, or spectral skelly-bobs with rusted armour a doddle, but they only come as a box set without the cards now. I also thought of some Death Guard, as again Nurgle is very forgiving to the novice painter - rust, corrosion and slime hides a multiple of sins.

However, I think I might suggest the Nurgle's Rotters Blood Bowl team. OK that may seem left field, I hadn't played Blood Bowl since 2017 [I actually had a game last week  but that's not necessarily a call to arms]. But this has the same sort of advantages as the Death Guard painting wise, and has at least a couple of each model type so he can paint one and I can paint one and then I'll do all the bases to tie them altogether. Seems like a plan but if you have any suggestions for alternatives, or ways to teach 40k to a novice I'd be very interested.

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - Touch ups

Just a quick one, in amongst completeing the previous future containers I decided to embelish this older green container. It followed a similar pattern to the Maersk Line container and I had a spare stencil template to put a big number on so it was rude not to.

Now although I firmly believe big numbers make anything look cooler there is something about this one that doesn't quite work, perhaps it's just too bright. I also added some more Rhinox Hide sponging and Ryza Rust as well as Valejo Red Oxid paste in places to cover up where the paint has already chipped off. I also weathered up the base a lot to be more durable and fit with the three previous containers.

As you can see its overall colour 'silhouette' has changed dramatically. The overwhelming green its now competing with 25% white and the orange and brown is significantly more noticeable. So I'm a little sad I've lost a solid block of colour but I've just got to accept where it's at now.

Maybe a little more toning down of the number 5, some silver in places and a varnish. There was no urgency in doing it just something I felt it needed.

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - TO DONE!

Although I was occasionally naughty when i was painting the Bio-titan in that I would get distracted and do some of my future containers there is a benefit when it comes to tackling them alone - there's so much already done.

And so they were pretty easy to finish off. That said I can't find a consistent approach to my rusty/scuffed weathering. Sponging Rhinox Hide is a start, followed by Gun Metal and usually a wash to tone it all down. 

I try Ryza Rust but it just doesn't look right and wouldn't have worked on the Hapag Lloyd containers anyway. The Maersk lines isn't too bad though.

I just love these containers and as I've said before it's such a shame Mentos discontinued the gum they contained. I've started on a foamboard STC but haven;t had time to perfect it yet.

I'm also thinking that you can get wooden, chamfered blocks off ebay and making some reinforcement templates you could achieve something similar. That's not to say Munitorum Containers aren't also up to the task but we like cheap terrain solutions too.

Giddy with excitement I have taken my green container and applied a big number to it and for once I'm thinking it was a mistake. 

Adding some weathering has shifted it's overall 'greenness' and it looks very different to what it previously was. Nevermind, we'll see if I can rescue it. 

These were great fun to do though and another item that started as a Big Build project, once again reaffirming that although making models is not my favourite part of the hobby setting aside some focus does provide projects that can be completed. Without the making I can't get to the painting!

I've a dozen of these now and as I say, although I can't get a consistent approach to weathering I'm definitely happier with how I do them now than years ago. I also have the 'water container' that could be finished off at some pint the construction is flimsy at best so I may not bother with it.

Here's my Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval, I've a few Camera360 shots to share too and then it's my Razorback which also got TO DONE!

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - Detailing!

With the Armigers out of thesurprisingly it was the future containers that drew my attention. The orange ones requiring four coats of paint to achieve the orange I was after and that's not including all the priming, shading etc. Strong Tone picked out all the shadows and then my pumpkin craft acrylic edge highlights.

Then I noticed that some Aquila decals would fit perfectly in the top space so they both had gloss coats, decals and then matt varnish [can't find my Lahmian Medium :( ], two side on both.

I've shipping company logos to add yet and then some more weathering and damage, probably not as much as the OOCL ones but we'll see.

The third container - I decided on grey.

Once again BIG numbers look awesome, painted some scuffs too.

Maersk Line shipping company, I did consider switching it for Magnus but decided to leave it as is.

The other big number. A simple stencil, tidied up and then scuffed.

The Maersk logo - a stencil with grey dots for the centre of the A, R and nicks in the S. The blue square was stencilled, then the white star stencilled and tidied up afterwards. Again still more weathering to do, as I say I got carried away with the amount of sand in the basecoats, it's a bit too rough but there's not much I can do with it now.

I then went and did the Hapag-Lloyd logos. Obviously with less success - stenciling the name was really difficult. Given the spacing between the letters I only really cut out the H, p, g, L, l y, and d and then hand painted the a, a, - and o.

Then I went back and filled in all the 'counters' [the holes in all the letters, like the o and d]. I tidied it all up, added some shading'highlights to the blue logo and although it's not perfect it'll do. Some weathering will help but I do need some additional decoration on the sides.

These last two pics were originally going to form the start of the next post update but I've since realised these will have to go on hiatus while I focus on the Bio-titan, so thought I'd share them now. And one day I still need to create an STC for a foamcore cube to replace the OOP Mentos cubes that form the base for these, one day...

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - Big Build To Done!

You know the deal by now - I set a number of tasks and targets for myself and go about sabotaging it by taking on yet more projects but the muse compels me. Having completed 2 of these containers earlier this year I had found the last three Mentos Cube boxes I'd collected - I so wish I'd bought more. I thought I could do the 'reinforcing' in my lunch break at work. So the plastic got sanded for more of a key when it gets painted, my current ones do chip very easilt but it's soft plastic. I used PVA to stick them on, it;s worked in the past. I wasn't hole punching the circles on the corners/middle I bought some small 2mm adhesive jems to make rivets instead.

Now the original plan was for these two to me MSC shipping containers  [yes, I appreciate the tautology]. Having done OOCL I wanted another global container brand and the yellow would stand out, except I changed my mind at the last minute as I already have the two biohazard containers that are yellow and wanted to try something different. So I chose orange instead and luckily there's a container company for that - Hapag-Lloyd. Now I'd undercoated these with grey primer and black primer, I then painted them with black masonry paint mixed with PVA and some fine sand [too much fine sand actually so they're far grittier than I'd planned]. All of this is to try and make them more durable. I then primed Red Oxide and the first orange paint was a Dark Orange craft acrylic which had really poor coverage. I had to stipple it twice to get coverage I was happy with but even then the colour was not the 'papaya' orange of the Happag-Lloyd container.

 
It would go on, be quite bright and then dry very matt, semi-transparent and much darker than I was after. I picked up another orange craft paint from The Works, it was only a pound and the same make as my lime green I use for toxic stuff. It's amazing because it's very like my Vermilion in that it's relatively thick but still goes on thin and also very glossy. It's hard to tell in the pictures above but the container on the left is pre-glossy orange and again the right one required two coats to get the colour I was after, it's almost a glaze! I took this picture in daylight so you can potentially see the difference.

Anyway, it might be a right palaver to do, four coats of paint to get what I'm after, and that's before washes but I'm finally happy with it. I still have some of the earlier stages to do on the second H-L container and I've changed my mind about the third too. Originally the third container was supposed to be Dark Angel Green but I might go for light grey and make it a Maersk Line container, for yet more giggles. Obligatory B&W art shot.

So I do get a Big Build Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval.

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - To Done!

Following on from the Deathwatch and the sentinels I finished up two future containers. These pieces of scatter terrain have been knocking around for years. Whereas I'd completed six of them and been using them in games these two had stalled because I wasn't convinced about the weathering I'd done and my reluctance to tackle the OOCL logo I was set on branding them with.

But with my AoP board relying on these sorts of items to sell the storage facility theme [and not being in a position to get some Munitorum Containers] I had a crack at finishing them off. Thankfully Typhus Corrosion and my efforts at sponge weathering on my Bastions and Drop Pods meant fixing the weathering was a doddle. Equally the OOCL logo was much easier than I had feared, mainly because it was just an 'L' shape and a series of circles I stamped on with a pencil rubber and then cleaned up afterwards. A couple of stnecilled numbers and some weight details completed the effect I was after.

I've three more of these Mentos Cube boxes left, they haven't even been converted yet but I would love to find time to get these done to add to the set. Yellow MSC containers and an orange one perhaps? Anyway, that's enough self-congratulations, well, except for my Great Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval. However, I've just finished my two Ripper bases which will need To Done! pics but you'll be pleased to know the blog will be back to WiP pictures for the foreseeable future ;)

Terrain is everything - 40k future container scatter terrain - OOCL

For those that have been following the blog since 2010... Holy Throne the blog is going to be 7 in a couple of days, finally getting into 'big-boy pants'! Anyway, you may recall I created a number of 'future containers' back before there were Munitorum Containers.

I made quite a variety of them here, here, and here. In the second and third post I make reference to and show the start of the OOCL containers which I'd added some unrealistic weathering to and had never finished up. As my Armies on Parade board used some of the other containers I thought I could quickly finish these off with added Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust.

Not to mention the OOCL logo, which I love. It was relatively easy to do. I sliced the end off an eraser tipped pencil so I had a circular stamp. Stamped three circles, added an L and then went back and added the void in each letter and a simplified cherry blossom. It;s not perfect but it doesn;t have to be.

Naturally some big numbers, and the Tare Weight index.

I've then added some gunmetal scuffs and scratches with a sponge, perhaps I should have looked at the previous containers as I was far more restrained with the metallics on the older ones and they looked better for it. Still, it's another two pieces of terrain to hide behind.

I love this logo.

I'm quite fond of this version with passive/aggressive strapline too ;)

Incidentally it's sad that the Mentos cubes are no longer in production, so it's not possible to recreate these, even with my FREE reinforcing STC template. I keep meaning to make a foamboard cube template to use as a base instead, or to redesign the the template to fit standard bevelled wooden cubes I've seen available on ebay. I'll try and get something sorted before the end of the year...

Terrain is everything - Standard Template Constructs - FREE Terrain Templates

Standard Template Construct (STC) systems were advanced computers created during the Dark Age of Technology, which are said to have contained the sum total of human technological knowledge. An STC system was possessed by every group of human colonists before the Age of Strife, allowing them to build all of the equipment necessary for survival on an untamed colony planet. It enabled the colonists to build efficient shelters, generators and transports without any technical knowledge and using almost any locally available materials. The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans.

One of the primary goals in this blog was to formalise any tutorials and templates that I had, to help other hobbyists. The 'STCs' I've created so far for my buildings have received a lot of hits on the articles, although I'm not sure how many new structures have been built but I'm appreciative of all the good vibes coming my way, thanks. In the 10 years since I first posted this article some of the links have been misplaced. I'm working through editing it to be up-to-date so people can access both the original page and the .pdf of the STC.

 

Here's the STCs for what I've created so far, if it's BOLD then it should be up-to-date [Oct 2021]. But, if you have any issues or the link doesn't work please comment below, I will always respond even if it takes a while to do so:

• 40k Tower Page | STC
• 40k Outpost pg1 | pg2 | STC
• 40k Container pg1 | Scatter container search | STC
• 40k Hex Tower 1 | STC
• 40k Ruins | STC
• 40k Vulcan Plateau | STC
• 40k Hex Tower 2 [now reclassified as the Spyrle Forward Observation Platform] | STC
• 40k Single Storey Ruin [Caffeine Plaza] | STC
• 40k Mercury Plateau | STC
• 40k Standard Manifold Coupling, aka the Modular Plug Socket | STC
• 40k Cetacean 'Vent' Tower and Baleen Roof Extension | STC

'Adeptus Mechanicus unapproved plans' - STC's liberated by the Free Radical Collective that don't contain quite as much detail, instructions or corrections but it's better they're available to you so you can tinker with them. Then one day I may get around to fixing them:

• 40k Dawn of War Plasma Generator | STC
  Build tutorial: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
• 40k Targus Assault Blockade | STC
• 40k Cathedral Tower | STC

Print and Play STC building templates - a variety of pre-textured simple buildings to quickly populate your battlefield. Just print and stick to foamboard, cut out and stick together [be fair warned these templates are all considerably large filesizes - 40-90MB due to the many textures added to the templates. Please do not download if you are unhappy with this. I prefer to spend my time making FREE templates, not working out why one file is bigger than it should be]:

• 40k Administratum Tower 1 [2 storey] | STC
• 40k Administratum Tower 1 [3 storey tall] | STC
• 40k Administratum Tower 1 [2 storey wide] | STC
• 40k Administratum Tower 1 [3 thin and tall towers] | STC

• 40k Black Tower 1 [2 storey] | STC
• 40k Black Tower 1 [3 storey tall] | STC
• 40k Black Tower 1 [2 storey wide] | STC

• 40k Green Marble Tower 1 [2 storey] | STC
• 40k Green Marble Tower 1 [3 storey tall] | STC
• 40k Green Marble Tower 1 [2 storey wide] | STC

• 40k Generatorium [2 storey] | STC
• 40k Generatorium [3 storey tall] | STC
• 40k Generatorium [2 storey wide] | STC

40k future container scatter terrain - UPDATE, AGAIN!

As promised in my last update on 40k future container scatter terrain here's an update on the 7 further containers I produced. Before I begin though lets remind ourselves of the wonderful Mentos Cubes donor skeleton.

And here's the first tutorial that showed how to make them.

First up is my liquid container encased in wire mesh.
Firstly I removed the lid and used a poster tube cap to create a new lid. I got some circular 'granny grating' to go on the top. Two corners had brass picture hooks for lifting, the other two corners had some crafting gems, octagonal shaped, they look like ornate rivets/bolts. Then I got some 'granny grating' and judiciously removed chunks of it to get a mesh size suitable to fit the cube.

As you can see some of the grid that was cut out leaves behind stubs but I like this, it makes it look more like rebar, it's more texture at least. I also added some corrugated cardboard on the base so it looks like it's on an integral pallet. The mesh had to have some bits of wire tied round it to ensure the mesh box stayed together but plenty of PVA 'welding' is holding it together. There are also corner supports on the base. Still got to finish the painting, silver on the mesh and rust effects. Not overly keen on my semi transparent plastic with stagnant green liquid inside but there's not much I can do.

Below is the Dark Angel Container, reinforced at opposite corners with some more octagonal shaped crafting gems for rivets. First level of rust applied, orange still to add and metallic scrapes. Also DA chapter markings.

Here's the Biohazard containers. The two with caps on are obviously the right way up. I removed the lid and used a poster tube cap to create a new lid. I used a template to cut out the Biohazard symbol for one lid and used the blank for the other. Two corners had brass picture hooks for lifting, the other two corners had some crafting gems. The third container is the usual upside down reinforced version with 'granny grating' on the top. Not 100% convinced on the yellow, but as it's not finished yet hopefully the orange rust still to add,  metallic scrapes and markings should tone them down a little bit.

Lastly a group shot with the two OOCL containers. Again the rust is a bit overpowering and it's not quite as beige as I'd hoped but we'll reserve judgement until they're complete. Still not sure if keeping them to fewer colours would have worked better, time will tell.

There's still a little something missing in the paint-jobs, they certainly don't have the realism of my turquoise containers, but I have to recall my fundamental law of painting - 'reserve judgement until complete'. So many times I've been unhappy about a model's progress only to be overjoyed at the final results. The original containers themselves went through this process and came out alright, their siblings deserve the same chance.

.pdf templates for the reinforcements if anyone wants to give it a go.