'nids part 269 - Rippers - Forgeworld inspired conversion

I'm continuing my Big Build theme and finally plucked up the courage to do my next three Ripper bases in the style of the Forgeworld ones. As you can see they got built and are considerably bigger and more representative than my first press-mold prototype.

I had been struggling to work out how to build these up, then I just started gluing chunks of hardboard to a 40mm base with the press-mold Rippers coming out of the base [plus one Warrior face pushing through the ground].

All in I think there are 12 Rippers on the base, 4 of which are the plastic ones.

  The next base I tried to use some of my Ripper side pieces glued to a vertical strut but it looked really odd and I ended up with the three heads running up the spine of the strut to try and hide it. Hopefully it won't be noticeable that those two halves are different.

I'll need to blend them in with a bit of ground material as they burst through the dirt. I think there are 14 on this base.

The last one, I think there are 15 or 16 on this, including 4 plastic and one Warrior face again. I pretty much used all my plastic Rippers.

All I have left are the Spinefist Maw variety, the two other upright versions [one with the horn on its head] and a couple of the others, in case I ever need to make any more press molds. It's unlikely though. The Spinemaw Rippers might make a base but it's an odd one I don't really need.

Now to blend them into the ground...

'nids part 268 - Genestealer cult - Aberrants - Big Build TO DONE!

I finally ordered some bases for the Aberrants. I didn't get the same ones as the rest of my GSC, something similar but some other urban rubble bases off ebay that were slightly more 'urbany' and slightly more 'rubbly'. I'm thinking they'll fit well with my Sanctum Imperialis ruins. The Hypermorph in particular looks very impressive on this raised bit of debris.

The Abominant's base is the same one I have Deathleaper on, I'd had a spare for a long time. I'll be doing the banner as a Free Radical Collective 'sacred colours'. He fit so perfectly on it I couldn't not use it.

I actually made the effort of pinning all these and super-gluing them, whereas all my other GSC models were just glued.

I still have the two Ork Boy/Aberrant conversions to finish, they're partially built, just need green-stuffing to complete them.

I've since undercoated these 8 so they'll be ready to paint their bases. I'll probably do that as a block, with the 5 Termagants, Warrior, Hive Guard and Redemptor Dreadnought. However, I don't want to to that just yet as I know as soon as I do they'll be tempting me further away from the Dark Shroud...

 Big Build - TO DONE!

I builds it, I gets the badge!

Hobby project management - trello

Every Hobby Season I write [or re-use the same] hobby 'To Do List'. I have a couple of apps on my phone to tick off when things are TO DONE! but I've not really been dilligent about it for a few years. Usually I just cross them off on my To Do List blog post and have a showcase. However, I wanted a better representation of projects and their progress and decided to have a look at trello. This is a site [and app] some of my colleagues were using for project management and I thought I'd adapt it for my own nefarious hobby needs.

So I set up my 'board', unfortunately my efforts to embed it directly in the blog have failed but you can view it here: https://trello.com/b/NssOU5zc/40k-list

I have my first list of Things To Do, granted it doesn't match my Hobby Season To Do List, but it's a little more fluid. It's difficult to explain the criteria but these are projects that keep imposing themselves on my consciousness and I had to just acknowledge their existence, even if I'm not actually doing them.

From there I have the Building list, clearly these lists are pretty self descriptive, so obviously these are things being built. Basing is the next stage, which again speaks for itself and then the Painting list. I've tried to colour-code priorities with the most important Green, but you know how I flit from one thing to the next. Again these are mainly guidelines, although I appreciate the irony of going to all this trouble to organise my efforts and then dismissing them, but the hobby is both order and chaos so I'll persevere :)

Finally I have the TO DONE! list, so I can further record what I've completed. A number of my recent blog posts have been trying to reconcile hobby and home life and this isn't a solution to that problem; but when you're constantly thinking about projects and possibly trying to find a way to not spend time hobbying, this is another form of 'methadone' to at last feel like I'm on top of things, even if I'm not actually doing something

Anyway, thought I'd share. I'm sure there are other tools to achieve a similar sort of thing or you too may find this useful.

Ad Mech - Ferron Proxima Forge

Since their creation I've always had a fondness for the Ad Mech range. Back when I was disciplined enough to stick to just my Dark Angels and Tyranids as armies I said to myself if I ever had a third it'd be Ad Mech. Then along came Genestealer Cults and as is their insidious nature it was such an easy step to build a complimentary force to go with my Tyranid Genestealers. Deathwatch Overkill also supplied a Deathwatch Kill Team [but that's not REALLY another army is it...] and my one Imperial Knight, became two which became six! And the Forgebane box that gave me the Warglaives finally provided me with the beginnings of my Ad Mech force. As time has gone on it seems I want to paint them too and as they make a more reasonable CP 'farm' than my Dark Angels for the Knights I may need to paint them as well.

Ad mech have already featured briefly in the history of Ferron Proxima and I always had an idea they would be yellow, how that fits with the yellow parts of my GSC I don't know. Despite being my favourite colour I'd not wanted to contemplate a yellow army [until the GSC] purely because my Elf Blood Bowl Team was yellow [sadly a lot of those image links seem to have come undone ☹️]. This has nothing to do with the almost universally known difficulty painting yellow, because the chevrons on my Imperial Knights convinced me I can do it no bother. So I wanted to use that as a basis - instead of red with white cogs I was going to go more construction - yellow with chevrons and wanted to see what that looked like - Photoshop! I probably wouldn't do that much chevrons on the edges and on occasion would increase the scale but I was reasonably impressed with my rendered vision.

I also was considering trying out the new contrast paint to achieve the yellow because the results for that colour look great and it would be so easy. The hard part is accepting that process when in my head I have my yellow recipe and I'm not sure I want to compromise on it. It would save time but would I feel the result is as good? I know these figures are fiddly to paint so time saving would be a good idea but would I 'feel' I'd not put my best into it? Then again how awesome does that yellow look?

And then I considered an alternative. If I was going down the Contrast route why not go full Grimdark - oily brown leather overcoats, with dark weathered oil-stained armour and clothes with faded orange markings. Finally trying to do some Blanchitsu...?

I've no immediate plan to follow up on these concepts, I may build some if I can settle on their load-out but it's either go with something that totally fits my existing 'world' and painting or go completely left-field [not to mention does not have the same impact visually for the likes of painting comps...]. Lots to think about still but at least I have two interesting opportunities to explore.

GW Manchester Battle of the Brush - May - Large miniatures

The Battle of the Brush Challenge was judged the other week, I'd put in the Sanctum Imperialis and if I'm honest I was hopeful for one of the placings, despite the many entries and high quality. Therein lies a problem though as my priority is purely taking part and the competitive aspect and how that manifests in me is not something I'm comfortable with.  The completion of projects and sharing my hobby is the prize and feeling this fell somehow short of top recognition makes me feel like a brat. It took me a long time to put most of my ego behind me, but clearly it's lurking there to trip me up. Then again if Golden Demon Award winning painters can feel disappointment at the risk of their celebrated miniatures falling short I suppose it's just human nature

Anyway, these were some of the other entries, Ridge Runner and some Tzeentchian nonsense.

Scythed Hierodule/

Zombie dragon.

Magma-thingumy-bob

Awesome Slaaneshi Greater Daemon and Deathwatch dreadnought.

Adeptus Titanicus Titan, with an awesome mottled drybrushed highlight. The new Goblin terrain which would have got a vote from me [if I was judging].

Storm Talon and Canis Rex which either won or placed in the top 3.

This Knight got the Warlord's Award - that's the prize voted by the 'warlords' who are store hobbyists who completed last years 12 monthly challenges. So if I manage it this year I will get that honour. It was well deserved.

Robo-Ambulls.

The Soul Grinder was great.

Custode and Orruk warboss.

Abaddon.

Tyranid Hive Tyrant.

I also noticed they're preparing a new gaming table, here it is unprimed so you cna se eit;s construction.

Liberal use of aquarium gravel for varied rubble.

Loads of really tall ruins.

An  expensive array of plastic!

Characters for June, so that's either the Assassin - because it should be painted and will be so unlikely for a prize it might cure me of my hunger for success. Alternatively I have my Space Hulk Librarian [my most recent completed 'character' I think] or Deathleaper - one of my favorites but the 3rd party base is also unlikely to rate it highly, so it'll purely for taking part which is good.

'nids part 267 - Tyranid Warrior and bits Big Build TO DONE!

After the sleep post I'm thinking my mojo is on the wain at the moment. I honestly cannot entertain that Dark Shroud and the Assassin isn't much more appealing. What's frustrating is I 'want' to do so much, I just can't bring myself to do it and I think fatigue plays a hand in that. However, I have felt the urge to build, even if the end result feels less productive despite the cool new model to drool over.

So, after convertingthe  2 Warriors to Hive Guard I went back to my 'docked' Warrior and re-attached its tail and thought I'd base him on one of the bases I'd prepared but didn't fit the Hive Guard. I'll probably paint it alongside the gun-beasts for convenience. I fixed his tail with some greenstuff too.

And I had a couple of Termagants and Hormagaunts knocking around that I just made into Devgaunts and based. I've 20 Devgaunts already, so this just adds to them, though I could do with another 5 so I cam make a full brood. I'll get these and the Warrior primed so I can paint them 'someday'.

Whilst I was at it I based the Redemptor. It was all a little flat so I added a Genestealer infiltration node too. I'm much happier with it but less so at the missing right shoulder guard! That's the thing about building stuff - bits always disappear. I'm sure I'll find it eventually but it's things like that that just scupper further progress, the loss of the relic lanyards being another example. With some spare greenstuff from the Warrior's tail I added some chunky ribbing to hide the out-of-socket torso ball joint [you'll see it eventually]. With the remaining greenstuff I did some more press molds of Rippers. I think I'll build the 3 Ripper bases next.

 Big Build - TO DONE!

I builds it, I gets the badge!