Friday 11 February 2011

Drop poding



I write this blog in a weird way [I think], prepping many stories in advance because I had a years worth of experiences to get off my chest and a shedload of old miniatures to photograph. I hope the shattering of any illusions hasn't put anyone off the blog, it still leaves me with opportunities to move stories up or down the running order and interrupt my 'one day on one day off schedule' when there's big news. It doesn't really matter anyway because if I was writing articles on a bi-daily basis there'd be no stories at all, so that's the way it is, anyway...

However some stories do get missed or outdated, in particular I forgot to mention my good friend Pete got me a Drop Pod for Christmas. Now, bizarrely I didn't take any photographs of the construction process, it's almost as if I forgot I wrote a 40k blog. I'd read one decent review of the model and assembly and kind of felt another would be unnecessary. What I didn't do was try and find that review because I know it highlighted a number of issues with the model and perhaps a bit of understanding beforehand would have saved some frustration!

Anyway the Drop Pod currently is in bits. I have the passenger area and the five ramps in place with the 5 fins and the turbine separate. I think it'd be really difficulty to paint this fully constructed, this way may be easier but it's also a bit fiddly. Everything has been undercoated and boltgun metal applied where appropriate. I need to get some other metallic colours, copper, bronze etc. to make it suitably archaic inside.  There isn't much to see because the undercoat removes a lot of detail but here ya go.



Overall though it's a nice model and although some bits fit nicely together the center console that the harnesses attach to tilts at a funny angle. There's a special harness with a skull on and that's supposed to fit at a specific point on the console. Of course when you realise that you've already glued the plain one in that spot! I think there was reference to that in the review I read but, as I say, I forgot where that was. It doesn't seem to have done any harm which begs the question why have it?

Pete was extremely kind to get it for me, he wasn't sure if I wanted one but pointed out that it could be scenery as well, a really decent objective to capture so I think it'll be a valuable edition. Of course drop pods are 15pts more for Dark Angels and only have the option of a storm bolter but there's definitely going to be something satisfying about putting one on the battlefield and unfurl the ramps after making 'explosive bolt' noises and having a squad of marines barrel out.

Here we go - here's the tutorial I should have re-read by teamsnakeeyes. For instance getting the boltgun metal onto the centre console before I glued the harnesses on would have been 'advantageous', shall we say.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

'nids part 16. Tyranid Prime Tutorial, part2

So here's the Prime with his Deathspitter in place. G.O.D. that was a nightmare. Like many my workspace is a little, how should we put it? Like a Landfill! Trying to find that Deathspitter was like a needle in a haystack. Actually the weapon was fine it was the left arm attachment which was missing. Looked high and low, tried Termagant arms in replacement - too small and even considered buying one on ebay. In the end I found it because it was no longer what I was looking for, insomuch as I had already cut the forearm off just leaving the bicep and the pipe. The forearm was being used in my Doom of Malantai conversion, as it's neck! More on that another time.

Getting back to the missing forearm, I ended up using that Termagant Fleshborer arm, chopped down and glued to the stump and pipe. The advantage is it was now double-jointed, 2 elbows and gave plenty of clearance round the chest plate [something the Termgant arm alone couldn't do and looked puny] now it's better than if it was the Warrior arm alone.


You can also see I've added a tongue [it's snapped off once already and yet our current Prime remains undamaged, touch wood!] Lash Whip was added, more PVA coated string to add musculature to the whip and a Trygon spine was heat-welded to the paper clip. The Bonesword was added without hassle.


So there you have it, I'll probably do some painting shots for kicks, it's content for the blog at least. This is a really easy conversion to do, the hardest part was probably the Lash Whip but nothing anyone wouldn't be able to achieve. It can be done in a couple of hours really. I actually thought of getting another Original Warrior to do a Prime to sell on ebay, hopefully funding another box of Warriors which I'd have to decide on bulking up the existing squad or finally tackling the Shrikes...

Meanwhile this full-frontal shot shows you why the gun's up top - to shoot over any intervening terrain/models and the combat weapons are at Human height, where it needs to be.




Monday 7 February 2011

Epic Space Marines part 9. - Ultramarines part 5. Odds and Sods

Nearly at the end of my Smurfs coverage and these are a little interesting because of the odd lead (PB in the Periodic Table) Epic miniatures. First up my Ultramarine Terminators. They look so cool in squads of 5 but I was missing one so co-opted a lead Space Marine with Power Fist, he's nearly the same size and actually looks like some form of Terminator Captain.



Mole Mortars, another useful little cheap artillery unit. In this case the lead figures are massive, surely the largest Space Marines in existence! Look at the size of the fella compared to the standard plastic marine.



Here's an unfinished Devastator squad. Again I used accent colours on backpacks and weapons to differentiate the units. These were obviously the red label [gold and silver being the alternates] I really dig the white missile launchers. Humbrol Matt Whit Acrylic had gorgeous flat opacity and it was really easy to apply. I also had quite a few technical drawing pens at the time so you can see the yellow shoulder pads have all been outlined in Black, something I'd try more often for different things in the future.



Thanks for sticking with this 'Epic' Ultramarine memory lane, there's one more post with some group shots of everything to come and then I'll pick up on my remaining unfinished Titans and that'll probably be the end of my Epic journey.

Saturday 5 February 2011

'nids part 15. Tyranid Prime Tutorial, part1

Here's your basic common or garden Advance Space Crusade Tyranid Warrior last seen on ebay with an upside down 'old-skool' Deathspitter and two rending claws. As you can see they've been removed, along with the top of his head. It's a painless procedure if you wedge it in a piece of blue-tac and shave pits off. Well painless until you absent-mindedly stab your thumb [but I mentioned that already].

Then you need a current Tyranid Warrior head, which is cool because each Tyranid Warrior box-set comes with two heads per body. Now I sliced the lower part of the head off but I've since seen another tutorial that slices the front of the old warriors face off and uses the New Warrior parts instead. Anyway this bit's tricky because it's harder to balance the head in the blue-tac without causing damage to yourself, so be careful!


First picture below is the side on view of the head glued in place. Then next up is some new bits added on. A couple of Monstrous Creature spines [although there's one of these, without the nicks in the chitin, on the Warrior Sprue. Also an Adrenal Gland on his front, bulks him out a little on the mid-riff. 


Toxin Sacs were added to his head. The one on the left is a double MC one but they're all the same on the sprue so would have been upside down on the right side of the head, so I used two Termagant Toxin Sacs. On my first Prime I used only one Termagant Toxin Sac on each side. Game play you can run them as the toxin, or say they are Enhanced Synapse to raise your Warriors BS and WS. Really they're only there to mask the join between old and new head! You can also see a Termagant spike attached to the back of the head, this is also to mask the join.


Last shot is going to be the Lash Whip. This Prime is going to be armed with a Deathspitter [up top] and Lash Whip and Bonesword down below. Our current Prime is always footslogging with the other Warriors and having all out combat is useless. Having a Deathspitter will add an extra 3 shots, which have been quite effective to date, more so than his assault results. Alternatively a Devourer could have been an option to help lower Leadership but I'd rather go with firepower over the chance of a morale check...

Anyway, a donor Devourer had it's muzzle cut off and a paper clip was bent for the Whip. Don't worry about mounting it, drilling a hole isn't necessary, hold the wire over a candle with some pliers for a bit and it can be pushed straight into the handle. A bit of care and common sense with naked flames and scalding metal but it bonds real quick.

Next step, adding the arms and armaments...

Thursday 3 February 2011

Epic Space Marines part 8. - Ultramarines part 4. Dreads and robots

Epic Ultramarine Dreadnoughts. Not a whole lot to say except the two Dreads with banners managed to do something spectacular in a battle to warrant such displays. I think one in particular took out my mate Chris's Eldar Avatar in one game. So they got the banners and some of the IG decals which look kinda cool if not totally Codex in today's gaming circles.


Just a little shift in focus to pick up on the back dread.


Robots, I loved robots in Epic because you got them on both the Space Marine and Imperial Guard Sprues so you could field quite a lot in your army if you'd bought both box sets, which I had. |I think they had specific 'programs' to follow but they weren't quite as restrictive as you'd imagine and if you paired them with the dreads for a little versatility all your bases were covered.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

My mate in the news

As you know it takes a rare moment to interupt my 'every other day' blogging schedule but today is one such moment.

My mate Liam made the BoLS Wargames Gallery yesterday. I've got a post coming up [eventually] about our 'old' gaming crew and Liam was very much a part of that crew 50% of games were held in his house. His painting and modelling skills are even more advanced now so please stop by BolS and show some love if you can.


Feel the earth tremble!

Tuesday 1 February 2011

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.