Genestealer Cults and what they mean to me.

Given the recent rumours, hype and reveal for the Genestealer Cult you may be forgiven for wondering why I've not been all over it like a rash. I have in fact been avidly following it and the end result looks to currently be best described as a 'triumph' on behalf of GW. All the information seems to point to a fluffy [plays like it sounds] army filled with all sorts of new units and old favourites. Couple that with some great figures but more importantly [and commercially a genius move] have ensured they can align with Imperial Guard. Suddenly GW has a whole new market to sell decade old Leman Russ, Chimeras, Sentinels and Cadian models to! What a way to inject even more return on these products, throw in a cult icon upgrade sprue - it's genius.

But it doesn't end there becuase you don't just have to go with Cadians for your Acolytes [or Neophytes I'm not sure which], you could use Catachans or even Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii! I mean it'll cost you more but your Cult will be blinged up and interesting. If money's an issue then just go with the push fit Dark Vengeance cultists as above, they're dirt cheap all over the interweb. I'm certainly in a position now that makes life a little more difficult regarding how I'll proceed. Never before have I contemplated any Imperial Guard purchases, now I need to see how to fit them in!

Of course I'm lucky in that I have two set of Deathwatch Overkill to bulk out the core of the army but even so it seems like a drop in the ocean. Luckily large broods of Purestrains are available [not just the Princelings] and their rules make them positively viable if not potentially obscene! Thank goodness I did those new stealers, although I think the Space Hulk ones will definitely represent 'Purestrains' the most. I'm definitely looking at what I can add though and ebay is definitely a treasure trove for cheap Sentinels and Leman Russ so it looks to be relatively cheap to add extra units to it.

What I need to do is balance that with future wishlisting for the Dark Angels. There are quite a few things I want to get to make them more viable and interesting to play but the Genestealers really start to spread my funds quite thin and because it appears Sentinels and Leman Russ look so cheap on ebay it makes financial sense to go down that route.

Bottom line I'll be investigating what I can bring with what I already have, how many points of models and what part of Overkill is essential to make some of the formations. I'll continue to focus on the models I have, that already need painting and are on my To Do List, which should keep me busy enough and hopefully lead me away from temptation, or should that be 'ascension'? Other than that, very excited and intrigued just trying to temper my urges :)

Home made light box

One of the things I've been contemplating for a while is improving my TO DONE! pictures. For the most part I've been quite happy with my recent pictures, with the Camera 360 shots adding some effects that have made the pictures my best yet. The main issue revolves around my background picture. The Ferron Proxima backdrop has always been a favourite of mine as it puts the model in context - Red Planet BASE! needs a red planet to make sense, it also really stands out in blog feeds ;) What it doesn't do is help with colour accuracy and it also fails to meet the GW 'suggested criteria' of a plain white background for submitting photographs. For those in the hobby being featured in White Dwarf is a huge achievement and I'd hope to do that eventually, so decided a light box might help that happen. On top of that I'll be less reliant on daylight [again, discouraged by GW] to get my pictures and they'll be more consistent. I'll still throw in the Ferron Proxima background but I'll be doing these as well

These were my first test pictures on my home made light box, I'll go into the full details and show you a picture later but what I wanted was to spend as little money as possible [cos that will help 'sell' your pics to GW] - to prove you don't have to spend over the odds for decent results.

The light box was made from a transparent storage box, it still needs a proper clean [there's a dead spider in one corner] I then bought two of these clip lights. They have them in the UK at Home & Bargain for £1.99 each. They're rated to 60W bulb and I happened to have two knocking around. I am probably going to swap them out for energy saving bulbs though as incandescent bulbs get very hot. That'll be another £3 but other than that I think that's all you need.

Now I positioned the clips on the side of the box with the bulbs running along the outside with the light shining through the transparent box.

As you can see the results are OK, the plain white A3 sheet used as a background is a bit grey so I decided to move the clips.

 Instead of on the outside shining through the plastic I moved the clip lights round to the front of the box, you can see how much difference that made to background. The only problem with this is the lights kind of get in the way and getting quite hot means you have to be careful as you take the pictures, so you don't get scorched on them by accident.

But for a first attempt and for £4 I think that's pretty good. If I can get some higher lumen energy saving bulbs I might even get cleaner shots.

Here I decided to turn off the clip lights and actually it was pretty good without.

One light on the right hand side did this

And then both managed to fill in some of the shadows and the background is almost pure white. I'm really impressed with the results. Just look at the close up on this, the detail is crisp and sharp and makes the colours really rich. I'm not entirely sure if they want a pure white background for cutting out easily but if that's the deal I can do a clipping path anyway in a snap. I'm pretty sure I discovered even .jpegs can retain embedded clipping paths [which I find rather peculiar, but handy].

I need to make a proper white backdrop, get some large white paper, vinyl, or even cloth so it can be draped smoothly. I may consider adding in some more reflective material on the lights but for a five minute 'kitbash' and £4 worth of light fittings what more can you ask for?

Here's a view of the set up when I was taking pics of the Imperial Knight, it struggled to be effective on such a large model, if I'm honest.

This was probably the best picture, which I could probably fudge with a bit of Photoshop to be more colour accurate, maybe even add in that Ion Shield glow.

But I definitely need to work out a better backdrop, even a white pillow case will be better than three A3 sheets of paper! Can't stand those seems and creases, grr!

So there you go, simple and effective, you could obviously download one of those textured backdrops too but obviously I'm getting that effect already with my Ferron Proxima sheet but anyone else - knock yourself out :) Let me know if you have a crack at it.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 22 - moar shots

Here are the 'cinematic' phone shots, y'know blessed by filters to look them all cool and interesting.

RFemember kids, always take some shots with a bit of 'breathable' space around them, you never know when you are going to want to put something in that space... [I really don't know but it gives me options should I want to].

Face on.

In all his epic majesty.

Moar, moar, moar.

So slight shift in gear as I try out my home-made light box.

Still think there is some colour correction I could do in Photoshop and in all honest my £4 light box is a bit small for such a figure. I have a post coming up that shows the set up and other pics that make it clear it's as good a solution as any bespoke expensive option.

Not sue if these were from my digital camera.

This is clearly Camera 360, throwing in some of it's usual FX.

Lastly some shots with Cozy Magnifier and Microscope which is a bit fiddly but does help capture some really good macro-shots that my other camera apps fail to do.

So there we go, he's complete and ahead of schedule too, by about five days. Which allowed me some nights off actually. I say nights off, I had a game with PeteB and an early night while me youngest was on an Educational trip and the wife was suffering some separation anxiety, so we all watched Bake Off together ;)

Anyway, the Quad Gun and Bastion are next on the painting table. I really need to dig out the Aquila Lander as reference. I managed to storm though that with a bit of concerted effort so I just need to apply the same approach and I should have this done in time for AoP, but what then...?!

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Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 21 - To Done!

21 today, 21 today, he's got the key of the door, never been 21 before! Euronymous is complete I had to concerted last push to get him done with the usual final furlong being more like two or three furlongs - the closer you get to the finish the further away it seems. Does anyone else get that feeling.

I managed to get all the varnishing, flocking, and blood effects and photographs all in the one session!

I have to admit I'm rather fond of him 'sans' faceplate, you can see much more of his face [obviously] but the eyes in particular become a focal point.

Whereas when he's got his face on much of the detail is hidden and also the continuation of the green from the cowl makes the whole head somewhat lost. I'm considering retrofitting some magnets into the front of the head, or alternatively drilling a hole and putting a small rod into the back of the face plate [like I've done on the carapace hatch]. I can just slot it in place then and remove at will.

I think I managed the stomped Termagant gore OK.

The white hot glow might be a bit too far but I think it's much more effective on his carapace than the Cerastus was.

For the time being I'll be leaving the faceplate off but it definitely needed the OSL glow on the inside to even remotely make the eyes work.

I've still to do the alternative weapon options but there's no immediate rush for those, he's AoP complete and I can move onto the remaining elements.

I did try to do proper 'heat bloom' on Thermal Cannon, with blues, purple and orange but I foolishly believed I could do it with paint and not inks/washes. It did not work so I was quick enough to wipe most of it off and just slather on sepia Soft Tone for the orange/brown and then drybrushed it black for the burnt smoke stained charred muzzle as I did with my Dreadnought. I think it turned out all right in the end, saved it from dragging it down at least.

Still dubious about the banner, and it does get in the way of moving the model around as I keep catching it when I grasp the leg but hey, ho!

The view from above.

A Guardsman's eye view.

And again, without cropping off the top of the carapace ;)

And finally he's done.

And with that I get my second Big Purple Stamp of Approval! He's been a really long time in production, make the six months on the Cerastus laughable but he's done and I'll get the other weapons complete soon enough as some of the elements also need the same painting as what I need to do on the bastions and Quad Gun so I'll batch them simultaneously. But so far so good for the season!

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