Misdirection

15 Termagants to paint and I've done them in 10s before so initially the concept is not putting me off doing this. In reality I delayed over a few nights and then when I actually started doing the Chitin plates I managed two complete sets of Chitin before I was bored rigid and just wanted to stop. Now I may not need these extra 15 but with Throne of Skulls on the way, however unlikely that I'll need the extra bodies - dice rolling simulations with double Tervigons rarely spawns more than 30-40 extra 'gants, I thought I'd use the deadline to get 'em done.

But if I'm going to stall at two I'm in deep doodoo. From experience I know that forging on ahead regardless can be detrimental. This isn't primarily a physical stumbling block it's mental and with that creativity stumbles also. So trying to continue to feather these babies would have resulted in a shoddy finish. What I have learned to do though is to redirect what energies I have, because I am compelled to finish them and in so doing misdirect the negative energy.

So what I end up doing is little bits, as pictured above. The central spines, I can't go wrong with that. The first collar plate, the plates on the gun, perhaps outline the leg and back plates. Anything, simple and quick that when I return to the model with a bit more willpower and motivation I'll have shaved a minute or two off. Take a task and split it further and further into smaller chunks so that it can be achieved in a quicker time.

I took my time got myself degraded.
I close my eyes see you suffocating.
We took our chances well it's always a start.
Look at our faces tell me

We're not sleeping, not sedation.
Misdirection, overrated.

I set the fire while you demonstrated
I close my eyes ‘cause it's so frustrating
I wanna touch it but it's always the same

We're not sleeping, not sedation.
Misdirection, overrated.

I took my time. I closed my eyes.
We took our chances. Look at our faces tell me

We're not sleeping, not sedation.
Misdirection, overrated.

'nids part 64 - Nu Tervigon updates

A quick apology if these pictures look a little 'rustic' thanks to the random background. Having reached a point where I was happy to consider the Tervigon complete I wanted to capture it before I applied any varnish. Considering my last experience with Purity Seal you may be forgiven for thinking me daft to even consider trying this again. However, with a bottle of olive oil to hand I was safe in the knowledge whatever crazy imperfections that could happen could be fixed. I was also going to prepare a little better.

The spray can was dipped in warm water and shaken vigorously beforehand and sprayed at a distance ultimately with perfect results.

As to the model there is perhaps more that I would have liked to achieve with the birthing sac. More colours would have been nice and I eventually want to try some Tamiya Clear Red blood effect splatter on the birth canal but for the time being it's complete and I can move onto other things.

I keep feeling tense that the model is only attached in the four places but then I realise my original Tervigon kitbash has even less connection with the base thanks to smaller hooves.

Now it's sprayed I may have one final update with it's glossy claws but maybe that'll be when I do the blood effect too...

'nids part 63 - Nu Tervigon updates

So lets just rewind time a bit to prior to Throne of Skulls and here's where my Tervigon was at, before it got finished [obviously]... please dismiss any past tense mistakes

Progress, I've added the green toxicy bits, they may be too bright at this point, but there's still some highlights to add to the birthing sac which may equalize the tonal ranges being used, still lots more to do, obviously.

Chitinous highlights mostly in place. This is just endless to do hence why I switched to that pre-mix of my highlight. The results are a bit neater than the head but it's still dodgy in places, isn't it always? Once all the highlights are done I'll be doing a small amount of secondary highlights on the most important bits. Spines are also done in a golden flesh, this will have some striations added with Bonewhite and white.

All the separate limbs, highlights done, Bonewhite highlights to do next and all the highlights for the black. I'm also going to add the Adrenal glands to the legs, another separate thing to paint. Part of me wants to magnetize the front arms. It'd be cool and a new thing to get my head round but I don't know if I've already gone too far painting it to potentially muck it up trying to hold it down while I drill out places to add the magnets.

Close up of the claws and stuff, I hope you can make out the very faint set of highlights on the claws, talons and hooves.

More to come but currently I'm super excited about my Tyranid Aegis defence line and quad gun. So I may be committing a lot of work to something only to have it be wasted, but it's the thing exciting me at the moment and it's better to ride that wave than force something else.

What GW should do - Merchandising

In case you didn't know I've bought Citadel Miniatures and GW products since the late 80's. I also have a blog, it's quite cool you can view it here. Those two facts alone qualify me to make 'suggestions' to Games Workshop and their subsidiaries in how they can grow their company/improve their products. So, free of charge I will be sharing some of my sage business advice to them and just you wait as 'we're bound to see them take forward my ideas with gusto.

If you didn't know GW released a new version of 40k earlier this year [hooray for delaying these posts ;) ], I may have mentioned it but if not what the flip have you been reading on this blog? Anyway they decided to celebrate that release with a number of items to help promote the new edition. Now I think this is a good idea and something I've thought for a while they should be doing permanently, not just on special occasions. First up we have their Beanie Hat. I was definitely up for one of these, despite the rather small embroidered badge on it. I said to myself if it was less than a fiver [but predicted it would be £6] I'd get one. I'm partial to a hat being follicly challenged and was amazed at the £4 price tag. I was even more amazed when I got home and saw they were going for £16 on ebay! By that stage I'd already discovered it was too small for me and I'm pretty sure my head isn't particularly large, small-medium in fact. I'd gifted it to my son and then immediately regretted it once I saw the resale value, ha, ha!

Next up a rather cheap looking belt, I wasn't interested but to each his own.

And here's the doozy - Lanyards. Now I'd been suggesting these for months to our local GW manager. I saw his official GW lanyard and when the 40k 25th anniversary pin badges came out I recalled some of our holidays at Haven Holiday Parks. They sell lanyards and have dozens of pin badges for a couple of quid each. they encourage the kids to buy and swap the pin badges with their friends and to bring them each time they come on holiday to add to. The kids go mad for them and being only 'pocket money' priced they'll buy a couple. I suggested it to the manager but he didn't think they'd go for it, but lo and behold they'd already got it in the pipeline. GW still need to step up the pin badges to stick on it. A range of half a dozen should do because what else, aside from a pot of paint, can you get in store for about £2?

 

There's more though - t-shirts. When was the last time GW did T-shirts? Certainly not in the two years I've been back gaming. It's not like you can't make a big return on a T-shirt anyway. I can't imagine anything less than £10 for a T-shirt and more like £15 and most t-shirts I've looked to get printed you can get them for about £5 for 50 printed. Given the economies of scale GW could get printed they're bound to be cheaper increasing their margins. More importantly though, like any good sports manufacturer will tell you, slapping your logo on an item of clothing and getting your customer to pay you to then advertise for free as a walking billboard then that's just win-win!

Of course there are plenty of items at Warhammer World but I think there's still room in your average store for merch. So some of my ideas they've somehow stolen from my mind, lets see if they start expanding their merch range?

A freebie - Objective markers

Just before Throne of Skulls [G.O.D. you must be sick of me banging on about that weekend, tough!] I decided that I needed some objective markers. Personally I'm happy with the Tyranid models I've got but given the new Mysterious Objective rules and mixed value objectives of 'the Scouring' Eternal War scenario I knew I was going to have to make some of my own.

So below was the first version, however

I also decided to revisit these in yellow and black as the magenta in the orange is making my printouts a bit 'muddy' and also the 'sabotaged' marker doesn't mention the blast template. Once again just print, stick to mounting card, cover in sellotape for instant lamination [though try not to get creases in them like I did :( ] and then cut out.

And I think they probably look a whole lot better in yellow, but you choose, although don't forget you'll need more mysterious objective markers than VP markers [as they're only needed in the Scouring].

 

Of course I then add my Tyranid objectives next to them so they look cooler, large Synapse Node for the 4VP, 3 Node for 3VP, twin node for 2VP and Spore Mines for single VPs.

Meanwhile I shared my wound markers on the dakkadakka forum and actually got this request:

Not bad, but they would be better in black and white.

White backgrounds black numbers. Simple is better.

Now I could have been mightily offended that my not inconsiderable time and, all modesty aside, talents had been summarily dismissed in favour of something anyone could do in Microsoft Word but I was prepared to listen to the critique of one of my 'customers'. So I cranked up the old Illustrator and in 5 minutes I gave my punter exactly what they wanted:

To which I got:

Now that rocks!

So clearly there's a market for simple stripped down markers so I thought I should share them with you also, if that's your bag. @ 100% each square should be 9mm Anyway, I can't say I understand the preference but I'm all about giving the hobby what it wants so if there's anything you think I can do to help out with I'll certainly look to try and do it. Just drop a note in the comments here, or the Freebies page and I'll promise to get around to it [eventually].

Usual step-by-step:

1. Print
2. Apply double sided tape to back
3. Stick to mounting card
4. Carefully apply sellotape to top if you want them pseudo-laminated
5. Cut out with craft knife/scalpel
6. Amaze your friends and enemies with these cards
7. Tell them to visit 40kaddict.blogspot.com for their own free markers.

To done! And now limbo...

Now that the dust settles on Throne of Skulls despite being hyped on gaming adrenaline and desparate to paint more figures I find myself in a bit of a limbo. With a new Dark Angels Codex due now or whenever I don't want to paint any more Dark Angels until I know what the new rules will bring and how I can load them out so they're on hiatus, which includes the Dark Vengeance figures too.

It does make me look at my To Do List 2012/13 and I realised I can cross the first 3 off my list [to done!]. So I may just focus on five and six for the time being. Get the BloodBowl teams complete and then see where we go from there...

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new STC is found!

Techno-archaeologist Avro Vulcan continues his research in the Ferron Proxima badlands. It has been months since he revealed a newly discovered Standard Template Construct (STC) to Tech Adepts at the Adeptus Mechnicus Oversight Cohort on Ferron Proxima. This does not mean he has been unsuccessful in his discoveries, in fact the opposite is true, his very success has been his undoing by malicious data attacks by the group known only as the Free Radical Collective!

The Free Radical Collective have been targetting Avro Vulcan's data banks and releasing his discoveries prior to aproval by AdMech Overseers. Th people of Ferron Proxima have seen benefits from this, technologically speaking but wanton disregard for testing procedures and the free distribution of advanced technology has caused the Adeptus Mechanicus to bring in a specialised unit of Tech Inquisitors to discover the true identities of the FRC.

Meanwhile Avro Vulcan brings us another innocuous, but perhaps revolutionary STC, the Standard Manifold Coupling, aka the Modular Plug Socket. The details of this coupling has been kept secret by Vulcan due to the interest from data-hackers who have sort to gain control of this valuable information to share outside Adeptus Mechanicus control. Once private enterprise can access this information they will utilise it to gain control of all Mercury Plateaus suitable for Plasma Generators, thus reducing their need to pay tithes to the Ad-Mech administration. The Modular Plug Socket is more than just a connector for Plasma Generators, it also functions as an underground storage portal, watch tower base, heavy weapons turret mount and lift shaft. In time these STCs will also be shared with the world.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbUm1VQ3hKNF8xNDQ/view?resourcekey=0-ZT2qov4nLJ-2ojJ3gGkybw

This STC will be uploaded to the full Ferron Proxima STC library shortly. You can access the database here:

http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2011/02/terrain-is-everything-standard-template.html