'nids part 183 - Tyranid Void Shield Generator part 4.

Well this just happened! With all the mixed feelings about my other projects every time I enter the shed I've seen this thing languishing on the shelf. September was the last time it got any attention, although there were other things that definitely took precedence to push it down my list of priorities.

Now it should still be low down on that list but I just needed to do something and as the plastic forms for the Chitin plates are actually one of those 'obstacles to progress' I regularly suffer from if I actually felt the urge to overcome this hurdle then I would be a fool to ignore where my mojo will take me.

I think that's one of the advantages of having numerous projects on the go, when one gets tedious it's really easy to switch to another project to maintain momentum. As it was I couldn't quite remember how to do these [I've done 10 spires so far!] so it was lucky I had a blog to go back for reference. I think the main spine is a bit ropey in places but the smaller ones came out pretty well and the hot melt glue didn't melt too much of them.

I drilled out the emitter ball too, I've found the second one so should I want to make another VSG it's possible, although I'll kick myself for not doing the two at the same time...

There's a curtain hook for the very tip of the spine and I'll be adding more down the inside. I put a Genestealer on the battlements for scale too.

All good fun, I need to pack out the plastic with PVA and tissue next, then a coating of tile adhesive/grout. I don't envisage this replacing any of my other projects but it's nice to take a break so I can make progress on it and return to the other ones afresh.

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. | 

Moar pics from Wargames

Last year we hardly ever got chance to go to Southport, my wife often works weekends so I'm genuinely surprised we got chance to visit again so soon after our last jaunt. We actually went so we could go bowling and having trounced the rest of the family we then wandered from the sea front into the town centre proper. Of course Wargames is on the way on Lord Street [y'know where Napolean got his inspiration for Paris] and the youngest wanted Pokemon cards and I need that intermediary gold colour - settled on Breass Scorpion, turns out I was wrong so still need to find a better match. Anyway, I saw quite a striking White Scars display so decided to share pictures.

I've played against some pretty amazing White Scars armies and although this might not quite match them I'm really impressed with the consistency throughout. It definitely serves as a fine example of how much impact your army can make en masse.

And there are all sorts of simple extra details that have been added to lift everything up.

And who doesn't love a Thunderhawk?

Also of note were these 'hen's teeth' or Forgeworld Capillary Towers, now Out Of Print and they could make some of these in plastic now?

I also sspotted Aceface's Hierophant on display. As Wargames is sponsoring him on his Las Vegas Open adventure that's a nice touch

Anyway, it's just stuff I saw in shop and thought I'd share.

Aceface in Las Vegas

I met Aceface a few years agao at Throne of Skulls, before I even knew he had a YouTube Channel, and right now he is in Las Vegas, for the Las Vegas open 40k tournament. He's been painting and playtesting his Tau army on YouTube for the past month or so and now he's there and sharing updates on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Aceface-Hickers-611255408889511

Most of us won;t ever get the opportunity to attend such an event so it might be worthwhile 'liking' his page so you can see what 300 gamers in one place looks like... and also if he gets 500 followers by his return there'll be a freebie given away so sign up :)

Dark Angels - Jefighter!!!

All that glitters... having been metal crazy over the past few nights I really needed to mix things up a bit. I was already starting to feel restlessand so looked again at the Jetfighter. The pilot was definitely something that needed doing and having tested the canopy effect I was convinced he'd have to be 'high contrast' to show through [even if the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 was playing hard ot get in it's coverage]. I was really happy with the end result, the shoulder pads are a bit bright but that would be for a standard Ravenwing biker, inside the cockpit he'll be fine. Part of me wants to OSL the rest of him, like the eyes but I'm not sure it'll make any difference.

I know, I know, there's nothing to this, just a Red Oxide Primer, wash and white buttons and dials but I honestly don't think anything more than this will be evident once the cockpit goes on.

The pilot in-situ.

And as you can see the cockpit obscures quite a lot. Sadly there seems to be a lot of masking tape adhesive still stuck at the edges. I'll have to find a way to clear that up a bit more. The top down view shows of some pseudo-highlighting I did on one of the larger screens on the control panel. As you can see there really was no benefit for anything other than white. Sure some darker buttons would have been nice too but this is more than adequate.

Side view are difficult to take but the pilot is in there.

This pic shows just a little more how the high contrast highlights blend perfectly under the red canopy so I'm really pleased with the results.

Good progress once again!

Throne of Skull - Carnage

Just after Christmas Ben sent out a distress message saying he thought we'd been away from Warhammer World for too long. The original suggestion was a special Dark Angels event on the weekend of my birthday, which sounded cool for quite a few reasons but also not for a few others. Instead we opted for a more traditional Throne of Skulls event a couple of weeks later. So our tickets and hotel are booked and we'll be attending Throne of Skulls: Carnage on the 12th and 13th March.

Now there are a number of unique things to consider about this, particularly since our last visit. First up the points value is 1700 now, which makes things both easier and harder. Secondly there is no restriction on army choice, insomuch as you can actually play using a different army every game! So as much as I wouldn't want to play Dark Angels all weekend it might be tempting to play them just once... another issue is that the event does have a running theme of 'carnage points'. Some vampiric Dark Eldar is pupeteering these conflicts to siphon of the hate fuelled killings and use it to keep him pretty [Photoshop might be cheaper].

This is where I’m really going to struggle in a competitive sense as nids or Dangles I don’t particularly have what I would term a ‘killy army’. As much as I persevere with kill points missions [and Blog Wars always handled them fairer than most] I go into each and every one under the assumption I won’t do very much. Now there are going to be unique Maelstrom objectives for the games, I think the Carnage Points will be for overall scoring and potential impact in the game but it does make me question my army lists.

I'm looking once again at a combination of Manufactorum Genestealers for board control and distraction [with added killing power should they be able to get into combat in groups]. Add in my Skyshield to keep things alive as long as possible, obligatory twin Flyrants and Twin Carnifex to lay down the Brainleech and I'm weighing up my Malnthrope versus my Venomthrope. Of course I could tweak my list for every game, which will guarantee I'll do one list that will lose me one game but be perfect for another! Still, umming and ahhing over lists, it might be nice to mix things up so I can see which is more effective.

Bottom line I'm not sure there is anything hobbywise that will queue jump into my painting schedule as I doubt any new project would be completed in time, so I best stick to my current tasks and look forward to March.

Brass, Bronze and Brassy Bronze Brass

Having done a fair bit of the metallics on the Knight I spent my next hobby session bringing other elements to the same finish. In particular the Reaper Chainsword needed highlighting. It's one of the main weapons for the Knight so it deserves priority status.

The Power Fist is not a 'primary' weapon but for some reason I was compelled to spend some time on it instead of focusing on higher priority items. The actual finish turned out really well so I'm glad I did spend time on it.

OOH, now this is exciting, actual Ravenwing! All but the bolters, front wheel trim and the trim on the wings have been highlighted. More significant progress even if the bikes aren't completely finished at this stage. The very nature of these are a stumbling block so to have achieved 65-75% of this stage is huge for me. The next lot of highlights should be easier to do as there'll be less of them, I don't want to go too bright on these afterall. Then I can get onto the real challenge of the black and then the 'not-white' wings... now those will be hurdles to overcome.

While I was at it I also highlighted the Dark Talon ornaments. Despite the pans to use it as a Jetfighter I think the Dark Talon may be my preferred flyer, who doesn't want Vortex templates dropping all over the place?!

 I also did the Balthasar gold highlights on the rest of the jetfighter. While I was also putting Tamiya Clear Red X-27 on the canopy I had my printed acetate to test the look of. It's a shame they didn't do a straight canopy, it's much more streamlined because of it.

Another good hour or so of effort.

40kaddict Terrain Competition update and tips for bloggers

Hopefully you will have noticed the Competition Fund totaliser has changed, we are now at £42.79 having made £16.73 in the last 28 days! So that's great news, your efforts are certainly making the difference. Actually lets just take a minute to point out that's £16.27 in one month, something that previously has taken over one year! I'm not going to do a break down of which country did what because I'll be looking a little more into traffic and how that may have influenced the balance.

It does however suggest that as we're less than a quarter of the way to completing my target the competition will have to begin in earnest. Should I have another bumper month we could well have reached the £60 mark by my birthday which means entries for the competition really need to start coming in. So, as things are advancing quicker than expected I'm going to formalise a couple of things. I will keep checking the balance but given it could reach target at the end of February or more likely March I am going to provisionally state that competition judging will begin at the end of March and take place over April with the final decision being made then.

If funds are not sufficient I will adjust the dates. Equally if the deadline for submissions seems too tight please let me know and I'll push things back. But with things progressing so fast I wanted to start seeing entries and set some end point for folk to work toward. I'll take stock again midway through Feb and then promote this wider, which may well increase the click through [£3.78 got added to the fund on the 7th Jan, the day of my last  update so that's definitely a catalyst]. Whatever extra is made I will put towards a second place prize which will be a £10 voucher for the hobby shop of your choice, I thought just a winners prize was a little unfair so maybe that sounds like a nice idea.

Now, tips for bloggers, hopefully this doesn't come across as egotistical, I know there's a lot of readers with their own blogs and these observations might be of use. This last month you can see from my stats below I broke my record for page views, finally smashing through the 30,000 page views in one month, sadly it then reconfigures the graph so it looks less impressive but it is cool to see 40,000 up there permanently though. However, you can see that there was a period prior to that where my page views weren't comparable with January or even my most popular period back when I was making my Skyshield and pimping the blog as much as possible on forums and social media. So my average fluctuates quite wildly and therefore you're probably interested to know what changed.

It was a combination of factors really. Predominantly is was the publication of my last Print & Play terrain template. These are always hugely successful and something I'll always endeavour to update the respective posts on forums to bring in traffic [and hopefully more entries to the competition]. So that added exposure on forums and social media really drove more traffic to the blog. On the day of publishing I got 900+ hits then the following day I shared it wider and got 3,236 with a further 2,570 the next day [you can also see on the map Rob Barnett clicking furiously in Alaska ;) ]

Having a unique feature in your blog is always good and if it's something like a freebie or a really solid tutorial then they can gain traction on their own. But the main driver for these figures was a random decision to engage with reddit you can see over 3000+ hits came from there in the last month. If I'm honest I still don't know what it is or how it works, they suggest you should operate a 1 in 10 posting formula where you post 1 item of your own for every 10 posts you debate other people but that doesn't seem the case, everyone's - 'look at my stuff'. Again I don't see it as a be all and end all, the traffic dissipates pretty quickly and I've only added a few extra followers since then so it's not going to continue at that level either. As an exercise in supporting the blog it was definitely worth doing. I was initially amazed at that first days stats then immediately realised how ridiculous chasing numbers was until midway through the month when I though you know I could break my record here, so I did but I'm over it now. As a test I even used reddit to promote Liam's blog and he went from a 100 hits to 809 in one day and he hasn't posted in 3 months!

So, if you're chasing numbers it may be worth giving it a go, whether it translates to regular followers or moves you up a level is debatable but I'd advise using it sparingly as I could see myself spamming it otherwise. Far better to grow your blog organically than constantly force-feeding it. Hope there are some interesting observations in there for you.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 10

Moar Balthasar Gold, as I'm totally confused about my feelings towards this and my other projects I should probably keep my commentary to a minimum. I'm flitting between frustration at the slow progress, desire to tackle each and every project and pleasure that I'm still achieving something that meets my expectations. Some positives, some negatives so it's very confusing even if overall things are going well.

The balance is definitely in my favour, it's just tought trying to reconcile that in the light of day sometimes.

Next up was to mix the Balthasar Gold with my Valejo Gold, I probably need an intermediary paint for this instead of constantly mixing this up.

The texture is definitely there, so even if I can't remember the exact process for previous attempts I;m still able to egt the results I'm aiming for.

Some more highlights yet to come though, while spreading myself thin...

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

GW Manchester

I was in the Arndale in manchester the other week and I thought I may as weel pop into the GW for some Warplock Bronze, as a I'm running low - all these metallics! While I was in there I took this picture of some frankly awesome set of terrain tables. I love the height to these, allowing battle on different levels. What's even more impresive is by the looks of it once the sort the city tiles out in the right hand picture this could very well be a complete board, possibly 18' long!

Also of note is the scratchbuilt ship in the picture on the right and the Age of Sigmar floating rocks in the picture on the left. With hindsight I should have taken more pics of these but I was in a hurry, maybe next time.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 9

Onwards and upwards. Although the he knight seems to have become my majority focus, I'm still flitting between projects. Here I started to add in the texture on the bronze. I never quite know how I feel about this, the layers are pretty simple to do but the amount of it does make it a bit laborious to do so I end up wanting to just get it done. I also was a bit forgetful over the exact process, so I have the cerastus on hand to try and match up [of course I could try reading my own blog right?]

Although I'm not sure the technique is too important as I'm pretty sure successive stippling and a variety of washes will result in an impressive finish regardless. And any verdigris will most doubt cover up anything I never intended anyway! So at this point I add a little extra stipple/drybrush of Warplock Bronze to the shadow washed metal, sometimes I wish I could just stop here...

Next up was Balthasar Gold, that's the one on the left, the right is still to be done.

I then continued on the legs. Where I wanted a Brass colour I was more liberal and applied it neatly, elsewhere it's just a weathered highlight of the bronze so it was just drybrushed so it enhance the look instead of overpowering it.

Legs and shin guards were done.

The real advantage fot doing this aspect of the paint is it feels like you've reached quite an important milestone. Once the metallics are done that feels like at least a third has been dealt with, despite having not yet completed this part. But it feels like an accomplishment anway because I know it's such a big part of the painting. Once that's done it'll be

• picking out the pipework, 
• armour plates
• heraldry markings
• bronze weathering
• battle damage
• plasma glows

Which covers most of everything, no doubt I'll have to fit some other bits in and certainly some mettalices are still to be done - like handles round the cockpit but they have to bedone late rin the process.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Tidy mind/tidy workspace

With the Man Cave's case of Nurgle's Blight [which I've been keeping on top of and preventing outbreaks with judicious anti-mould spray applications] I've been a little down on the whole hobby room enjoyment but I realised in part it was becaus of how untidy my workspace was. I'm untidy at the best of time but the apathy and constant shifting of the paint table meant I just didn't care. The fact is I sit facing the computer anyway so the paint space is irrelevant. It was annoying me though and depsite not wanting to sacrifice a good deal of hobby time rectifying the situation I arrived at a moment where that was possible, because there really wasn't very much else I could do in that time.

Now some would say this isn't much better, and I admit since this picture it's begun to deteriorate yet again. However, I cannot underestimate the feeling I got from this experience. I'm sure there's a single word, like schadenfreude, untranslatable from another language that would explain the feelings I had whilst doing it. It's a sensation I've had numerous times before of 'rediscovering something long lost, like a memory from childhood', it's a peculiar mental process that then evolves into an emotinal one, not unlike losing The Game [Tom Widdows]. It's quite a nebulous emotion that when I feel it I keep reaching inside to capture why it make me feel that way.

Of course that all sounds like a whole load of nonsense but this is the hobby slump time of the year and I'm trying to harvest positive feelings when everything else is seeking to drag me down and stop progress - and yes I've been struggling with that due to:

• Numerous tasks at hand
• Sheer amount of dull and tedious jobs that are the priority
• Lack of completed To Do items
• Man Cave mould
• Bad weather
• Fatigue

They've all combined to sap will and its worth me noting that a simple tidy up has done wonders to my psyche, so I best keep it up and not leave it so long next time.

'nids part 182 - 6 Stealers

There was me bemoaining the slow progress of my forces of the Imperium and then I take a little detour to do Genestealers! What the flip?! Rest assured I pretty much loathe doing them so I takee no pleasure in scampering off to the Hive for a bit. These 6 were done over three nights btu in concert with my Imperial bits too.

I managed to paint all the legs and chests in one night, they're the easiest bits really. Then the next night I did the arms, back and head on one and the head and backs on the remaining 5. Night three had me finish of the 20 arms, which of course are split in two parts and I have to rotate them to get top, right, bottom, left sides - this is why I hate Stealers! Of course I was riddled with doubt prior to this on whether to go full bonewhite or add in some Chitin colouring on the back. I haven't gone full bonewhite since my first Stealers so snap-decisioned to see how they would look. Of course a better decision would have been based on disposition of miniatures so I could find ways to group them safely into broods but we'll go with it.

That currently gets me 16 of my 31 Stealers basecoated in bonewhite. I'm really regretting not using a Bonewhite primer now. With hindsight the bases and all the red fleshy bits could have been added quicker than using that as the undercoat and cutting in all the bonewhite colours. That realisation, alongside the reminder I hate painting them was one of the reasons they've been stagnating for a month or two but now I'm over half way I feel a little more relieved.

Of course this is only the basecoat of one colour. I still have the blues to do and then the washes and then it's the highlights - which for each coat will take just as long , if not longer than the they did to basecoat. I've just done a quick estimate of time

• 9 days - Bonewhite base coats [15 models at 3 days per 5]
• 2 days - shadow wash
• 18 days - Bonewhite highlight 1 [31 models at 3 days per 5]
• 18 days - Bonewhite highlight 2 [31 models at 3 days per 5]
• 2 days - Chitin highlight 1
• 2 days - Chitin highlight 2
• 3 days - Claws
• 1 day - teeth and eyes
• 1 day - wraithbone chips on bases
• 3 days - varnishing

These are rough estimates and may be speeded up or delayed but that's  59 days of work right there! Ho hum! Will have to measure that to see how accurate an estimate it is [once again I don't like to keep track of time spent so why would I be doing this?]

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 8

Aah, the opportunity to get back to some nid, welcoming me inot the Hive Mind's warm embrace!If I'm honest though, those chitin striations are pretty ropey though! Not to worry I'll probably be covering this with a lot of blood and gore so it doesn't really matter[unless it's brain matter!].

I did rather like the darker soft-tone washed bonewhite but it doesn't fit with my current lighter version of my colour scheme and the subsequent highlights do work much better. I've got to pick out a couple of those fleshy ridges on the legs and then a few fine highlights, pick out the hooves and any other odd thing but it'll probably all be covered in blood splatter anyway...

With the base almost finished things feel like they're progressing. However, with so much still to do and by simultaneously doing the same elements on various projects it's also a little overwhelming. It's a pretty bi-polar affair at the moment, pleased to have got everything shadow washed then depressed at the thought they then have to have all the metallics done - three or four lots of highlights with washes too, then weathered. Then I paint the coloured panels then add the battle damage and I have to do that for all the weapon options too!

And all the time I'm doing this on the Knight the bikes and the jetfighter I'm thinking about my Tyranid VSG and the Dark Angel Tac squad that should be my number 1 priority. I mean I've finished my Azrael conversion and Dark Angels Company Captain but not varnished them - two To Done's just waiting for ten minutes of attention! To help combat this I've resorted to session planning - actually writing down tasks I hope to achieve each session. Actually achieve isn't quite right, these are just things I want to focus my attention on during the next session, just get my efforts in order. Which can be a bit odd for someone who refused to 'keep score' of their progress. Still, ever onwards.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |