What's on my palette?

"It's been two months since my last confession" and it's been 3 years before I actually had the good sense to drop that line! So I've beaten the hobby blues and rediscovered my mojo. I've done the following

• Chaos Cultists 
• Capillary Towers - modelled
• 2 Print and play terrain pieces
• Started my Reaver Titan

Boy, that doesn't look a lot but what has happened is a sense of pace. We've booked tickets for Throne of Skulls in March. Even though that is three months away, a quarter of a year it actually feels not too far away and there are certain things that I want to do for then:

• Land Raider Proteus [the original one not the Forgeworld]
• Whatever the new Tyranid Codex throws at me
• Capillary Towers Painted
• Next lot of Cultists
• Reaver Titan

Now the bottom three aren't essential and there are projects 'X and Y' which aren't on there. X is way, way off but Y is a different matter [cryptic enough don't worry I'll explain soon enough]. The Land Raider kind of is important because I want to enter a machine in the painting competition and I think it will do me good to get something Dark Angels completed. Although I don't want to rush it so although it's a priority I may re-think.

The funny thing is I've been thinking about this list over the past week since I started writing this post and the situation has changed even more. Escalation and Stronghold Assault have been included in the rules for Thrones so I'm no furiously trying to work out how to survive against the potential forces. This will become a blog post in itself  but in relation to that list I'm not holding anything sacred aside from what the new Codex brings.

One recent rumour suggested that making Tervigon's troops would come at the cost of a full brood 30 Termagants. I don't have that amount and enough for spawning, which I gather can be paid to never spawn out and even upgrade to 4D6. Regardless I do need more gaunts, I have 14 unpainted, with another 10 in the post. They will need painting but I don't know how I'm going to kit them out just yet so I will hang fire for the Codex.

Also I am having reservations about the cost of the lovely new big monsters - £44 for the Exocrine  and £47 [£48?] for the Harpy. They may be game changers, we'll find out in January, but I can currently pick up a Tervigon for £24.50. I know I never wanted to paint another but if I'm going to max out on gaunts I may as well 'be that guy' with three of them. At the very least I suspect that the real world cost may go up significantly after the Codex release so if I pick one up with some Christmas money even if I decide I don't want to go down that route I may be able to offload it, maybe even profit if they do hike the prices...

So in the mean time I'm prepping a lot of things and trying to plan ahead. I've based some of my Dark Vengeance Terminators:

I've even gone back to my finished Deathwing and added some yellow flock to the bases to make them a little more interesting. Also the Mechrite red edging on the bases had 'frosted' with Purity Seal so I added another coat of Vallejo Heavy Red to make them neat and tidy again [sorry no pictures just another shot of the DV Deathwing].

Overall I'm flitting from one thing to the next, I've more fingers in pies than I know what to do with and still trying to get it on the blog. It's getting a bit difficult to juggle everything and release info in a coherent order, not to mention I'm in the mood for 'doing' again and 'recording' gets in the way of that. Additionally I'm fighting a losing battle on keeping the SKY box free of cool [and some not so cool but I'm stuck with them now] TV shows. Lots to do, lots to share, just need to strike that balance.

And the third re-think on this post, just this morning I had another epiphany, I get those a lot don't I? Anyway, with what I would consider an already full schedule and taking into account I highlighted just two Dark Angels last night and it took me two episodes of Revolution to do them - that's 1.5hrs! and it's not like they're insanely great either, I mean I like them but there are deficiencies. However, even though there are things that I have to do that are going to be quite time intensive I've suddenly added a few more things to the mix and they're Capillary Tower level effort! Hopefully I can let you in on the grand plan before the years out. Whatever happens time and project management is going to be the key to getting this done, that and a lack of sleep, but I can do that really well.

666

Apparently my last blog post was number 666, in celebration here are some pics of my favorite Space Marines bearing that Chapter number - Grey Knights [links to all these battle reports on the Battle Report page]

  

  

  

  

    

 

 

 

 

 

Cowardly sod!

 

'nids part 115 - Genestealer Cultists

www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=9400024-gws

While I was painting my Dark Vengeance cultists I came across Nick's [from the Warhammer World Events Team] kit-bashing of them for the Praedis Zeta weekend event. He converted them up for use as a 10 man Genestealer cult . According to the rules if you were the Xenos you got 10 free Stealer Cultists and if you were non Xenos you got 5 free Xenos hunting Marines. I loved this idea so much I decided to kit bash the remaining 10 Cultists of my own to further expand the fluff of the Free Radical Collective but also connect them that little bit more with the Tyranids. Even though I'd already primed them I thought what the hell [and this had nothing to do with my assumption that maybe, just maybe, these guys might have the wherewithall to fire a Quad Gun! Hmm?!], I really do like kit-bashing/modelling so here we go...

This was the first up, swapped out his auto-gun and replaced with a redundant Fleshborer. Also got a spare Hormagaunt Scything Talon for extra mutation and a toxin sac.

Flushed with success I carried on with a spare Spinefist, actually, aren't they all spare?! Removed the other arm and got a Stealer arm in there. These Cultists do have rending attacks afterall!

Yet more Spinefists and a Sytal. I used a Toxin Sac to hide the join, it's so easy. Kit-bashing this model made me realised his twin had gone AWOL, which luckily resulted in me finding him in the bin, incomplete but intact.

However because he's ended up in the Stealer Cult group [because the Chaos Cult group has the be-robed maniac who leads the assault Cultists] I needed to add some form of Stealer hybridisation. I decided to just go simple as I already liked his iron bar and I'd done a fair bit of painting. I removed his stub gun, attaching it to his belt so he still had a ranged weapon and replaced his hand with a Stealer claw. So simple and understated. BIG HANDS!

Working with these models you can tell how the 3D design of these allowed them to flip a model left to right. This is the mirror version of the first one I converted but given my parts I was able to make him right handed with the Fleshborer and added 2 Scytals so he's a proper 4 armed Hybrid.

I didn't know how to approach this guy, he's covered in robes so made it difficult to add extra limbs. However the sleeves were copious so I just slipped a couple of Stealer claws coming out too. It just about works, thanks to some plastic shavings that were glued over the top of the join to look like more wrappings/bandages.

Another simple conversion, swapping out the arms for a Fleshborer and Spinefist with Toxin Sacs to hide the join. It's going to be quite a task to get all these meshing colourwise. They will need the Hive Fleet Colour scheme in place on the Tyranid bits but still need to work as extra members of the existing Free Radical Collective. It'll be greta to mix all 20 together for that truly mixed mob of heretics.

Spinefists,, an extra Scytal arm with a Toxin Sac to cap it off. Now I did want an Adrenal Gland on hi sback but typically I lost the piece. I swear I spend more time on my hands and knees looking for bits that have fallen than actually modelling! I've since found the piece and added it on, I've also got some more Termagant extra Chitin plates so may add a few here and there on the rest of the models too.

I loved Nick's take on this guy, just adding a couple of huge Genestealer arms really fits his bulky stature and they just be plonke don and they somehow look like theyre part of him without the supporting musculature that should be there. Anyway, if it ain't broke don't fix it so I did pretty much the same thing just used some of the different Stealer arms. I even had a spare Termagant Chitin piece to add to his arm for added hybridisation.

And here's where my luck ran out. I went a bit OTT here. I really didn't want another gas mask so took the front of a spare Tyranid Warrior face and shaved it down. He's ended up looking a bit like a mutant rat, still nevermind, he can go at the back ;)

Another two Spinefists and Fleshborer with Toxin Sacs to finish and my 10 'men' are done.

I really love kitbashing this was a solid sitting of cutting and glueing. Total improvisation, I hardly planned anything which is why the last one went a bit awry but 9 out of 10 isn't bad. Having a nice supply of bits, some already broken or deemed surplus helped to make 'something from nothing' and I love that these unloved parts have got a second life. Now I don't know when I'll get to paint these. They're still time intensive and they're not going to fit in my schedule for the foreseeable future but we'll see and I've had tonnes of fun making them which is the most important thing.