GW - Manchester

Just a little blog post about GW Manchester. I nipped in to get White Dwarf for the Armies on Parade info and discuss AoP with the staff, not that I'm entering there, just so I can get the inside scoop. Anyway I took a few pics while I was theres because I'm a 40k addict and that's what addicts do, alright?! This store, situated in the Arndale Centre is great value - hobby-wise. They always put in a lot of effort in their display, this fantasy diorama has been there for a a year or so now but it's still awesome and if I'm correct was recycled from a previous display that was 40k related but they managed to reconfigure it to something completeyly different.

I love the magical flames made from expanding foam. But I actually can see these turned upside down to make some truly organic fleshy towers as quick LoS blocking terrain. Use some sort of support in the middle - a plastic coat hanger arm perhaps, attach to a base - wooden disc or CD. Spray on the foam and then build a crater round it so it shows a ruptured demonic tentacle or alien flesh probe bursting from the ground

Great use of the Citadel terrain kits too and also the green fairy lights in the tower on the right. What crazy spells and incantations are being wrought to defend the keep or is it just the largest Warpstone gem ever discovered? Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I just forged a narrative all over the blog, I'll go get a tissue and clean it up, sorry, couldn't help myself.

Every GW has a table set up to showcase the Dark Vengeance box set and run taster games on, but I particularly like Manchester's as the colour scheme is awesome. Granted it's not red, but it's the next best thing and this isn't just yellow, it has plenty of black in there to give a painterly to the table not unlike the artwork in the books.

I love the background too, the dieing star/warp storm in a flame red sky. These are touches the board doesn't need to have but they'v egone the extra mile just to help create that first impression for those kids that drag their parent into the store to see what it's about.

Apologies for the reflection but there's no way to see this Imperatur Titan any other way, except for the back. It's really quite a construction. Scratchbuilding Titans is a massive undertaking. My matel Liam managed to make his Warhound and Warlord brilliantly. The Warhound is a thing of beauty, potentially better than the Forgeworld model but the Warlord was an exercise in understated but effective execution. He didn't get bogged down with the detail, which may have stalled the project, put just enough on to make it interesting and managed to reproduce the design accurately enough so it didn't look daft. So many times you see Titans that are just boxes on legs but his wasn't and I think this Imperator achieves the same goal. It's simple enough to have got made but detailed and accurate enough not to look like wasted effort and resources, the glowing red eyes help too.

There are a number of other good displays and their glass cabinets are full of high quality painted miniatures. I'll try and get some more pictures next time but if you are visiting Manchester it's worth nipping in to see what they've got on show.

Support your local blogger - 18charlie.com

Back when I was looking at creating some transparent walls for my Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad there was one website that was providing most of the inspiration for how I could achieve my goal. Sadly, I was not as adventurous as www.18charlie.com and in the end I stuck to what I was comfortable with - air drying clay. It's clear that 'VetSgt' and his son 'SirWitty', the driving forces behind the site are the sort of folk who enjoyed melting stuff as kids. Probably burnt through a lot of toxic plastic fumes to get to the level of confidence now to create some truly unique terrain pieces.

I first saw VetSgt work on terragenesis where his alien plants created from melted plastic spoons and then painted really showed a new way to populate your battlefield for not very much cash outlay. http://18charlie.com/2013/11/23/gelatinous-alien-plants-part-one/

Additionally, he then started working with silk flowers which showed another cheap but highly creative way of populating your battlefield with amazing results. gone are those drab gothic ruins, instead a verdant alien jungle that is alive with possibilities and endless variety.
http://18charlie.com/category/scratch-built-terrain/area-terrain/vegetation/petal-forests/

Yet more uses of clear plastic resulted in the ever popular 'crystal fields' but VetSgt took their creation to the next level and the greta thing is all the experimentation and WIPs are recorded and explained so you too can create these effective, but more importantly cheap pieces of terrain.

http://18charlie.com/making-a-large-tower-part-one/

There are even some amazingly effective Tau apartment buildings for those with access to wood working tools. You need a bit of confidence working with more heavy duty 'crafting' tools but the results speak for themselves. Latest updates show they're dabbling in the world of 3D printing which may be out of the league of most people but with these guys experimenting now, hopefully when 3D printing becomes available to almost anyone we'll once again be able to learn from their experiments.

So, go take a gander at www.18charlie.com and see what there is that you can add to your own battlefields.

 

Incidentally I've not forgotten some of the additional requests to be included in Support your local blogger, I promise I will get round to them all, there's no order so don't feel slighted if it's later rather than sooner.

Dark Angels - Devastators and Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad

Given there are only two new pictures of the Devastator squad I thought I'd bundle in the Tactical squad too. Anway, greens gone on, black lined in places and Tin Bitz ready to do my bronze effects. All very slap dash at this stage, except around the base which needs to be kept tidy as they're done.

Once again it's slow progress as I'm doing these altogether with other squads and quite frankly I don't enjoy doing the metallics. Still there's only five of them and they should progress quickly once the metallics are complete.

Just a little reminder of how these used to be:

Dark Vengeance Squad is at the same stage.

I hadn't planned to do these so soon but thought I'd just go ahead and prepare them alongside the Devastators.

That way I can focus on the Devs but throw some paint on these at the same time and then when I get bored there's no pressure for me to carry on and I can pause as it's something else that's done.

It's amazing what a few Bolter straps, scopes and combat blades can do to just make these a little more individual. If you recall I was a little critical on the variety on these models so I did something about it.

Looking forward to doing the Plasma weapons, they're going to be yellow plasma I think.

And at least it will be a relief not to have to free hand the Chapter symbol, I suppose that's one bonus against the AoBR models.

Onwards and upwards

Dark Angels - Dark Vengeance Deathwing

Quick Micro Blog of my Dark Vengeance Deathwing. I'd teased some pics of this on my last 'confession' so thought I'd share the remaining WIPs

Lots of red on these, I may regret not sticking closely to the standard GW colour scheme but I need them to tie in but also look different to my Assault on Black Reach Terminators.

With the red done I'll now Army painter Strong Tone the lot to bring out the shadows in the red and the metallics, which will then be ready for my Turquoise verdigris.

I'm pretty sure I can do a good job on the Bonewhite, its not like I don't get the practice on the nids, it's just all the other bits. I'm also looking forward to playing with that Chaos Space marine helm on the Sergeants base. I know which chapter it's going to be but I wonder if you can guess?

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned but it's one I think will tie in nicely with some existing and future fluff for Ferron Proxima so get your thinking/guessing hats on.

'nids part 148 - TO DONE! - Genestealers, more of them!

11 Stealers, not on my list but they were always going to be necessary should I go ahead with my Armies on Parade board. I need MOAR! figures should that happen and stealers fill that roll admirably as they're cheap and plentiful on ebay and they are visually more impressive than Termagants and take up more room.

Here's the potential extra Broodlord, although I think any of the ones that are standing on the defeated remains of my very own Deathwing could also pass as Broodlords. He may well be added to my 9 Ymgarls to fill out their brood to 10, just because he has the additional armour plates on his back.

Love my little ground burster nod to the old Ymgarls, he's still nearly as tall as a marine though!

They all look like they have pinstripe pants on thanks to my fibrous grain effect on their Bonewhite.

Although the Chitin plates look quite cool.

"What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster?" - Yep!

The Brood advances.

The view from Servitor Satellite X-Delta-37i

Veiny temples.

Come at me!

Here are the remaining Genestealers to compare and contrast [although I foolishly left 7 in my figure case].

Twin Broodlords, "why?" These should be good in 7th, what with Dominion making them Synapse Creatures, even with only a 6" Synapse range. Look forward to trying these out.

Quite a difference with these old ones, no grain on the Bonewhite, the old liver [brown] colour on only the muzzle, hands and feet. At the very least I need to repaint all the Mechrite red edges with my Vallejo Heavy Red. It's not as opaque as the old Foundation paints but three coats will put a nice durable finish on these. 

Whether I go the whole hog and re-tint all the liver bits red is something else. Probably not, too much else to do and these are effectively done.

They add some variety to the mix, old skool, nu-skool, Chitin armoured, Scytals. A nice blend of Stealer variants to help identify broods.

The next thing to do is add some with Adrenals and Toxin sacs for more variety and maybe do Turquoise on the front of the chests so they look like the Broodlords with their body warmers.

The old Ymgarls didn't even have the grain effect on their limbs, they did have highlights on their fleshy red bits, something I chose not to do on my new ones.

The relentless horde.

Old and new, together as one.

Another picture of Genestealers...

Servitor Satellite X-Delta-37i picks up another shot of the advancing horde.

Big blue tick for being a good boy, now go do some Dark Angels!

'nids part 147 - Genestealers, more of them!

Micro-blog, not much today as I try to keep my blogging activity under control, i.e. keep you up-to-date/keep painting/keep blogging. So this is my eleven Stealers that will help bolster the 12 original Space Hulk Stealers, 12 Macragge and 9 Ymgarls [and 2 Broodlords]. 44 in total, not quite enough to fill out the entire Leviathan data-slates but getting there.

I also have the new Space Hulk model on the left with the Warrior Scything Talons. It's not the Broodlord model but given how big he is I don't see why he couldn't pass as one. I'm going to keep an eye out for any other cheap ebay 'steals' hopefully add to the broods.

On the plus side these are now complete so I'll treat you to their 'To Done' shots next time [although I have since added a little bit of flock to the bases] and some with almost all of the rest of the horde, I think I missed off seven of their number :(