Not Yet Done

Codex Legiones: Iron Hands

2010-01-29T11:03:00.002Z

I've been working on this project off and on (probably more off than on) for over a year. Admittedley, I haven't been working on it full-time - only when I'm pretending to do work... So I've finally gotten the document to a readable state and am now fishing for feedback on this. A lot of this document is based on the SM codex, generally with ommissions or additions that I thought were appropriate.

No Special Characters yet, just the bog-standards for now. So yeah, if you'd be so kind as to give it a read and let me know what you think - whether you think I'm bonkers or not, that sort of thing - that would be great.

Link: Codex Legiones: Iron Hands

02/02/10: Tweaked a few entries, mainly the combat servitors. Reduced their initiative to 3 and reduced the points cost of their power fists to 15pts, seen as they already ignore armour saves. Also added the Dedicated Transports section at the end. May move it to just after the Troops section though.

Going on Campaign

2010-01-25T11:29:00.002Z

This has nothing to do with Col. Corbane's Going on Campaign blog (though it's a great site for reference material and advice, you should have a gander if you get the time), but a Planetary Empires campaign that will be taking place at the club I attend, starting 4th February. We'll have about fifteen players and it's looking to be a two-month/eight-game campaign with the one who has the most territories.

I thought I'd post up the rules ahriman sent me (he's organising it) in a preliminary format and see what you guys think of it.

FEB-MAR 40K Campaign

Welcome to the Barming Wargames Club’s 2010 campaign.

Enclosed you will find the general guidelines for selecting an army and aiming it towards Glory!

All official Army Codices are accepted for use, as well as additional rules for units from the Imperial Armour books.

The official Start Date of the Campaign is Thursday 4th Feb.

Before then it is advised that you agree who you will be facing off against for both week one and two.

In fact planning two weeks ahead will give you, the player, a much better chance to plan your list and deliver to your opponent a swift kicking… on the battlefield..

Contacts for all members of the Campaign will be provided – so please keep the list safe.

Basics:

Games should be set at a 2,000pt limit

The Planetary Empires Campaign Rules are all in full affect, this means that all players will be randomly allocated _ tiles at the beginning of the campaign, and your main objective will be to create a stranglehold on the surrounding territories.

The Winner will be the player with the most Territory or in case of a draw, the Highest Win-Loss%

What type of mission you play is left totally up to you and your opponent to agree: i.e. planet strike, cityfight etc. can all feasibly be done- The Campaign will be deliberately left open for you and your opponent to choose what sort of game you wish to play.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS

To add some Historical Value to your games there is a special rule concerning the use of all Special Characters:

You are free to use them in your games, however should you accidentally (or deliberately) get Him/Her killed then you cannot use them for the rest of the Campaign. (The only possible exception would be Lucius the Eternal).

However, as this ruling may turn out to have a negative effect on the armies players are able to field, the restrictions for things such as Chapter Tactics and Special Rules Concerning Force Organisation Modifiers are lifted. So for example if you were planning on taking a Salamanders Army, and you accidently got Mr. He’Stan killed last week, fear not as you can take a normal HQ choice and still receive the bonuses he provides in his Special Rules for Chapter Tactics.

(In case of any questions/confusion speak to the GM)

I'm very glad for that last rule concerning special characters, as I'll be using a Wolfwing list for this... I'm going to propose that Special Characters that were taken out of action during a game receive a 4+ roll to see if they survive their injuries and return to battle (maybe missing a game). I think this reasonable as removing a model from the board is not necessarily indicative of someone dying, just being out of the battle for the 10-20 minute duration the average game represents. (If you're reading this ahriman, and I haven't sent you the e-mail, I probably forgot... :D).

I'm also not sure on the win-loss % as a tie-breaker, due to the low(ish) number of games meaning that if you miss a week or two, you could be seriously handicapped/advantaged depending on the situation (as each game will count for quite a high percentage).

Any thoughts guys?

FAIL: Priming polystyrene...

2010-01-21T16:16:00.001Z

Picture from Make:Online - used without consent

So, I've been making a piece of terrain, using vac-formed plastic from Amera Plastic Mouldings over the last week for our club session tonight. The club has a scheme going where one painted piece of terrain to add to the inventory = 1 free night of gaming. I, being me, left it until the last possible minute, of course.

So, Monday night, I mounted the building on an MDF base (kindly cut by Zygx, over at 7th Day of Creation (TIP: Get a friend, or yourself, on a model-making degree - very handy... :D)). I had to add lengths of sprue to the base so as to obtain a greater contact area, then just added superglue. I also added a few brocken up blocks of expanded polystyrene to serve as rubble at the ruined end of the building. I stuck them on with superglue.

Once all that was done, I came back to it the next day (got a bit bored with it and wandered off that night...), spead a generous amount of watered PVA down on the board itself, the polystyrene (made sure I covered the whole thing) as well as selected bits of the building itself and stuck some (unused) cat litter on there. Left that for a good eight hours then came back to it and added another layer of watered PVA over the top (dabbing the brush so as not to dislodge too much of the stuff) - I literally drowned the thing, as I do with my Imperial Guard bases.

Left that until the next night, made sure it was all dry, and started priming - thinking that the two layers of PVA and the cat litter on top of the polystyrene would protect it.

WRONG!

When you've been spraying for a while, and just can't seem to get those white spots of white disappear, stop. PVA, it seems, doesn't seem to protect anything (at least in it's diluted form). I suspect a few more coats of PVA would have been needed to protect it from the stuff completely. Oh, and with expanded polystyrene, at least, distance from the can makes no difference...

Luckily for me, it doesn't look too bad - mainly because there is cat litter literally all over it (though it was frustrating dabbing black into all the recesses). As it stands, I've just got to drybrush the rubble area (was still waiting for the black to dry last night) with codex grey, then a lighter grey drybrush all over when I get home tonight.

All that just to save £3.50... Well at least there'll be an extra piece of terrain for the club, which is always good.

A couple of links to interesting topics related to this:

http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14579 - this guy had a terrible time, but there are several interesting suggestions on what to use when working with expanded polystyrene. Chief suggestion being NOT to use expanded polystyrene...

http://www.thepalantir.org/ca/terrain/azo001/azo001.htm - this article suggests the use of a sand/PVA mix, which, I would assume, would protect the foam from whatever is in the spray primer better, as well as disguise the bubble-like texture it has. He doesn't use spray primer here though. Some very nice rocks, too.

I think next time, I'll get hold of some Polyfilla (the English equivalent of Spackle, I think) and coat the blocks in that...

Oh, and a quick question: If I try and spray varnish this thing, will that melt it as well?

Does your GW lose out to the internet?

2010-01-19T14:10:00.001Z

Image from Games Workshop - used without consent.

I was walking past my local Games Workshop during lunch today, and realised that I hadn't been in there (in a buying capacity) in quite a while. I came to the further realisation that I had no reason to do so... I just don't shop there anymore.

I used to spend quite a fair bit of my money in there each month, but I think that had more to do with the fact that I didn't have the internet and the store was literally around the corner (I miss the 2-minute walk to work...).

We don't even have what you could call a FLGS in our area that could be sucking away my business. The closest one that I know of is in fact in Aldershot, about 2 hours drive away (it's called The Games Shop, and if you're in the local area, is well worth checking out).

The main reason I don't shop there is probably the internet. Try Wayland Games, for example. Even with shipping, you still make a saving on full GW price, and it's delivered straight to your door - you don't have to worry about all the pikeys giving you weird, calculating looks on the bus before you get your new purchase home. Then take Bits and Kits or BitzBox and suddenly, the lack of a meaningful bits service from GW doesn't matter so much anymore... and you have even less reason to go in there.

Another reason I used to go in was just for a chat with some of the staff (back when I knew some of them). They'd fill me in on news and rumours and I'd come out looking forward to purchasing something in the not too-distant future. Since my access to such information has greatly increased, again, due to the internet, I find myself seemingly knowing more about what's coming up than the staffers do themselves. Well, either that or they're all playng the ignorant.

I'm now also part of a gaming club that meets weekly - so I'll be getting regular games in with no need to attend "veterans night".

I suppose the brick-and-mortar stores aren't really aimed at "us" anyway (by "us", I mean 16-18+ year olds who are using their own money to buy miniatures), it's more aimed at children and their loaded parents...

Was beng in a GW fun when you were young? I would be curious to know, as I only joined the hobby when I was 17...

Do you still shop in GW? Why? Have the staff in your area made it a really great place to be? Or do you have no other choice? Is it just the most convenient place to go on your way home, or would you go on a mission to Town Centre specifically to go to the store?

Oh, and are FLGSs far more common in America, or is that a false impression I get from reading so many american blogs? :D

Planning: Iron Hands (non-Morlocks)

2010-01-13T15:08:00.000Z

Hope you're all well on this fine winter day. With the weather the way it (still) is, we're (still) getting barely any post in at work - which means I've been sitting here, fiddling with army lists and planning my future projects. I may even get round to completing some of them...

Sadly, there's not much hope of a camera coming on a permanent basis any time soon - new TV trumps it. I'll try and have the other half bring her camera down at the start of february - she'll be staying for the week, so expect plenty of juicy piccies around about then... You'll just have to make do with my random maundering until then.

So I got all my currently-constructed and half-painted Iron Hands out the other day and did the whole "laying out" on the table thing (pictures available here). I realised that the squads don't really mesh together very well - some are running, some are shooting, etc... all within the same squads. So I started reassigning them to take advantage of their various poses. Add in all the spare space marines I've scavenged from my older armies, and I suddenly had 100+ of the blighters all lined up...

The plan is to take a squad at a time, between my other projects, and get them done completely before moving on. There is no hurry, as I have the Morlocks to game with in the meantime anyway (not that I get that many games in anyway... I should probably add that to the "Intentions"...).

So from this reshuffling, I ended up with a 2000pt planned list - with a few planned conversions to keep things fresh. This will act as the basic force, to which I can add whatever strikes my fancy. Here's a short summary:

Captain w/relic blade, combi weaon
Command Squad(5) w/ Thunder Hammer, Lightning Claws, Champion, Power Fist
in a Razorback w/T-L Assault Cannon

Iron Father (MoF) w/ Power Weapon
Sternguard squad(5) w/Power Fist, 3 Combi-Meltas, Heavy Flamer
in a Razorback w/ Lascannon and T-L Plasma gun

3 Tactical squads(10) in Rhinos

2 Assault Squads(10) in Rhinos

With the added options (which I left out for brevity), this list comes to exactly 2000pts. It's funny, I prefer to take a more expensive combi-weapon rather than a boltgun, just so I end up with an even number at the end of the process...

I'm hoping to use Chapterhouse Studios upcoming MkI Rhino conversion kit for the transports - depending on what the kit looks like, and whether they ever get round to sticking the thing on their website... Grr...

Alternatively, I'll probably have to break out the plasticard...

The razorbacks will be represented by old-style predator conversions. The ones with the thinner turrets that are mounted forward on the tank. Part of the Predator back story mentions that during the Great Crusade, it had a small transport capacity which was eventually substituted for more ammo.

I left special weapons off the assault squads because flamers reduce the number of attacks you put out (especially when the squad starts to get whittled down) and the lack of jump packs means they don't have the mobility I would want for a horde-thinner unit. The plasma pistols are just too damn expensive. The sergeants do have specia CC weapons though.

I have to say, I'm not used to using Rhinos. The idea of getting out of a transport and just sitting in front of someone - especially orks - just begging to be assaulted is a bit nerve-wracking, but I'm hoping that an anvil-and-hammer approach to this will work (fingers crossed!).

When I find time to scratch some cheap drop pods, I should be able to switch out the Rhinos and end up with a drop-pod army (though I'm not particularly sure how effective that would be...).

So what do you think? Any suggestions on potential weaknesses that I need to look out for?

Army List: 3000pt Istvaan Drop Site

2010-01-07T12:03:00.001Z

Afternoon all,

With no work to keep me busy, and no piccies to show you, I thought I'd show you a list I wrote up the other day (during another slow period), to represent part of the Morlocks deploying on Istvaan V to crush the Warmaster's rebellion.

So rules are:

- All infantry must be Terminators
- All units must be deployed by Drop Pod (so Terminators & Dreadnoughts then)
- Two characters: Ferrus Manus and Gabriel Santar, both in the same Drop Pod

I thought I'd leave Land Raiders behind too - they came afterwards, and mostly directed fire at the Titans...

So, I need Terminators as Troop choices, which means either Dark Angels or Space Wolves. Dark Angels have 130pt Belial - who would make a good Santar stand-in, but the codex has nothing that could be used for Ferrus Manus... Space Wolves, however, have Logan Grimnar. Hmm...

So, I'll list the, um, list, then share a few thoughts on it with you. Once that's done, you can all have your say on this army, and I don't mind if you wish to "bandwagon FAIL" me for using Space Wolves, those comments are usually quite comical, as long as the poster goes off on a rant (hint,hint)... :D

3000pt Planetary Assault List, Iron Hands (Space Wolves).

HQ.

1. Ferrus Manus (Logan Grimnar) - 275pts

2. Gabriel Santar (Wolf Lord) - 190pts
w/ Terminator Armour
Wolf Claws
Belt of Russ
Talisman

Troops.

1. 3 Morlocks (Wolf Guard Terminators) - 199pts
w/Combi-Melta & Chainfist
Frost Blade & Storm Shield
Thunder Hammer & Combi-Plasma
Drop Pod

2. 5 Morlocks - 310pts
w/ Assault Cannon & Power Fist
Wolf Claws
Chainfist
Power Fist
Frostblade
Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher

3. 5 Morlocks - 310pts
w/ Assault Cannon & Power Fist
Wolf Claws
Chainfist
Power Fist
Frostblade
Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher

4. 5 Morlocks - 310pts
w/ Assault Cannon & Power Fist
Wolf Claws
Chainfist
Power Fist
Frostblade Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher

5. 5 Morlocks - 310pts
w/ Cyclone Missile Launcher & Power Fist
Wolf Claws
Chainfist
Power Fist
Frostblade
Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher

6. 5 Morlocks - 310pts
w/ Cyclone Missile Launcher & Power Fist
Wolf Claws
Chainfist
Power Fist
Frostblade
Drop Pod w/Deathwind Launcher

Elites

1. Venerable Dreadnought - 275pts
w/Heavy Flamer
Plasma Cannon
Majesty
Extra Armour
w/Lucius Pattern Drop Pod w/Locator Beacon

2. Venerable Dreadnought - 260pts
w/Heavy Flamer
Twin-Linked Autocannon
Twin-Linked Autocannon

Extra Armour
w/Lucius Pattern Drop Pod

3. Venerable Dreadnought - 250pts
w/Heavy Flamer
Twin-Linked Autocannon
Extra Armour
w/Lucius Pattern Drop Pod

Grand Total: 2999pts.

Right, so that's 9 Drop Pods, 5 of which are armed with Deathwind Launchers, 3 of which can be assaulted straight out of (the dreadnoughts).

You may think that everyone seems to have a lot of wargear - which would be true. Within the limitations I set myself, there is literally not enough space on the Force Organisation chart to fit more stuff in... Hence why every Dreadnought is venerable and has a Lucius drop pod (not that I mind, of course! :D) and Gabriel has a wolf tail talisman.

I left the terminator squads mostly intact from my "normal" build. They're versatile and can deal with most situations with a reasonable spread of re-rolling wounds/hits, S5 power weapons, S6 Rending and S8 Calm-Downs.

I did add a couple of Cyclones to two of the squads (basically replacing the flamers), which should, along with the TLLC dreadnought, help against the heavier armour while the standard squads and two other dreads deal with the transports and their squishy contents.

I thought Logan Grimnar was a suitable match for Ferrus Manus (in an under-powered counts-as sort of way) with his ability to split between frost blade and power fist attacks (metal arms and Forgebreaker attacks, respectively). Should be interesting to see what he can do...

This isn't an army list I can field right now - but I want to be able to slap this down on the tabletop at some point in the future...

1st Post of 2010

2010-01-04T12:30:00.001Z

Hello peeps,

Hope you all had good holidays and all that shebang. Just thought I'd give you guys a quick update as to what is going on.

So I went on about intentions in the last post - and I'm glad I did... I've gotten absolutely no work done on the Morlocks since that last post, and probably won't for the next week or so, mainly due to the package that came to me on Christmas Eve, holding a nice shiny Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer which I'm currently at work pre-heresy-fying (first new term of 2010! :P).

So although I haven't done what I said I would, I have been doing some hobby. I completely forgot that I need a working 2000pt army by this Thursday (I think, I hope) for a campaign going on at the club. The easiest way to do that was to just add a couple of Land Raiders...

I also have to reassemble the Iron Father, who has been sitting on my desk in bits for the past few weeks...

So yep, once I've had my fun with the plasticard and stuck Reverend Steel back together, I'll be back to my intentions...

Small Progress Update and Things To Come

2009-12-22T11:15:00.001Z

Right, having got the after effects of reading the Space Marine Codex off my chest, time for an update on my current progress.

I must admit that I've taken an impromptu break from the modelling/painting side of the hobby recently. I think I burned myself out, rushing to get an army finished within a deadline, which all proved for naught in the end as I was unable to attend the event the Morlocks were meant for. This means I didn't really do anything with them until two days ago, when I broke out the paints again.

Looking at the Morlocks all lined up, I got that "overwhelmed" feeling you get when you just have too many models to paint. So the new plan is to do a squad of Morlocks, then return to the Hellebronian Helghast to do a squadf Storm Troopers, then on to a squad of normal Iron Hands, maybe some Jyshites, then keep rotating. I'm hoping the diversity will distract me from the fact that I'm painting a very similar set of models silver over and over again...

That said, I can't see myself doing much for the next week, what with Christmas coming up, and Assassin's Creed II winging it's way to me as we speak...

So, for the new year we have... intentions (I won't say resolutions, they always fail dramatically) to keep rotating my paint line to keep it fresh.

Also, once Prospero Burns and A Thousand Sons come out and I've devoured them, I'll be planning a small force of Thousand Sons. I'm not too sure how many of them - it could range from a Sorcerer and his sect to a small skirmish force, depending on whether I get bored of modelling them or not...

Here are some of the pictures I'm using for inspiration:

Uthizarr

Phosis T'Kar

Ahriman

And of course, Magnus

Three out of four of these guys have Terminator sects, so I'll be uing these as a test bed. I want to try and improve on the method I used for the Morlocks. The more I look at them, the more I see the flaws... So these guys should allow me to try some stuff out in preparation for doing Ferrus Manus and his bodyguard - including a newer, better Gabriel Santar.

I'll be using the new Crusader Legs from Micro Arts Studio for these guys, as they should fit quite nicely.

So that's the plan as it stands. Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?

Jyshite Initial Concept

2009-12-10T12:29:00.001Z

I've had this idea buzzing around in my head for a while now so I thought I'd stick it down on "paper" and try and give it some shape. The astute, or just generally curious, among you may have noticed that I have a second blog with absolutely nothing on it, named "The Lay of Jysh". It was created a bit prematurely, mainly to test out new blogger templated for NYD, but has been staring at me for a while now, begging for something to be done about it.

The whole point is to create a campaign setting - in a similar vein to Forge World's IA books, mainly for my friends and I, but also anyone interested in the milieu. I want the battlezone to evolve as we play games/campaigns in this context so that, in the end, we have a massive narrative that has occured as a direct consequence of our actions.

So, Jysh is an orc-infested system that caught the tail end of a Waagh about 400 years before Terran forces first came across the system (this setting is during the Great Crusade). The Waagh was broken, but so were the Jyshites, their population greatly reduced, their cities mostly destroyed and mines ransacked. Since then, the orks and the Jyshites have been competing with each other and amongst themselves for resources. Reduced to a hunter-gatherer/scavenger existence, the Jyshites are a pale shadow of their former state.

The models I'll be using for these guys will come primarily from their Feral range (I'll be stripping my Penal Legion squad as the basis for the first hunting group), but also from their Rebel range to represent them scavenging Hellebronian equipment after skirmishes and battles.

Regardless of body, they'll all be using one of the Feral heads:

The force will be using the Imperial Guard codex, so I should be able to integrate them seemlessly into my army for bigger battles. It will of course be a more feral (sorry about the pun...) interpretation of the army list. Penal Legion for individual Kin Bands, Enginseers for Tech-Shamans, etc...

I want to include some desert-style rough riders in there, and the Tallarn Mukaali seem quite fitting - either as rough riders OR ogryns, maybe. I was wondering if anyone owns these models or has had a look at them in the flesh. If you could let me know what parts come separately on these kits, I would be very grateful.

So that's a rough outline so far. Any comments or suggestions?

Helghast Planning: Storm Troopers

2009-12-08T14:10:00.002Z

It's been a while since I had a look at my Helghast-based guys - mainly due to the fact that my collection has been stuck round my mate's for the past few months...

This is just a quick one really. I had originally intended for the Storm Troopers to be based on Pig Iron's heavy infantry models with the Inner Guard heads. But now they've brought out a new boxset:

They're perfect for the look - I'm going to test out a "chipped" black armour highlighting method that Rev from Warseer has used to great effect. These will kind of be test minis for my final Iron Hands colour scheme, strange as that sounds.

However, I'm not sure whether to keep the standard heads or switch them for Inner Guard heads:

I'm thinking I'll hold off on adding the heads until then end of the month and order some inner guard heads anyway just to see what they're like. Any opinions on which I should use?

Mini Pre-Heresy Guide

2009-12-01T15:48:00.006Z

I received an e-mail yesterday (someone used the button! :D) from a certain Levi, asking for various bits of advice, so I thought I'd stick some of it down in a blog post for future reference. So here's a small guide to starting out with a pre-heresy army - particularly Iron Hands.

So, let's start with the basics, then move through the armour marks.

The Iron Hands Tactical Squad box set is a good place to start. While it isn't the steal it used to be, it's still not bad at 25 squids. You actually get almost enough pieces for 12 models (you need two extra backplates) and some very nice bionic-y metal parts. Remember though, that pre-Heresy, only the Emperor's Children were accorded the right to wear an aquila (two-headed eagle) on their breastplate, so you'll either have to file off or bulk out the chests with that detail on.

Of course, you don't have to use that box set. If you're feeling adventurous, you can make the bionics yourself by cutting off sections of limbs and replacing them with various bits, ranging from electronics from an old remote, to bits of wire and plasticard (styrene) rods/tubes. Using the standard box sets, you can achieve some very good results. Here's a decent tutorial.

And here are a couple of projects I've been tracking for inspiration:

G-Relk's Iron Hands
Kikkala's Iron Hands

Get lots of these. Shaving down the skull will give you a perfect cog and a nice flat surface for your clan marking, although you could leave the skull and have that as such.

These power cables are also VERY useful - both for bionics and adding random detail to just about anything. The bag comes with a series of different-sized wires, ranging from vehicle-sized to ones more suited to infantry.

For pre-heresy armour marks, I'll go through each one with a few comments.

Mk.I: Thunder Armour

This is the original power armour used by the barbarian tribes of earth. It only enhances upper body strength - the legs and pelvis are adorned in the 30-something-k equivalent of plate mail. This type of armour was only really used during the Unification Wars, as it's lack of respiratory equipment - as well as a sealed environment - make it practically useless in space. Elements of the design can however be ported over to different marks for variety, such as the layered shoulderpads and the thunder/lightning ornamentation - the Emperor's own heraldry.

Here's a great tutorial from Horn over at My Wargame on converting MkI Armour:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Mk.II: Crusade Armour

This armour came into use universally at the start of the Great Crusade. The outer planets of the solar system were taken using this armour. It provides a sealed environment and full auto-senses. Some models seem to have had a fixed helmet.

Converting this type of armour would be quite a challenge - the amount of layered plates all over the armour and the distinct breastplate mean you're probably going to have to break out the modelling putty. You could always use the Armour Through The Ages box set, but metal is a pig to convert with, and you'll definitely want some different poses - the original has an unnatural "leaning forward" pose that just doesn't look right. It might be worth picking up that box set for reference as you work on different armour marks though.

Oh yes, High Marshal Helbrecht is wearing either an ornamented MkI suit, or a later design artificed to look like Crusade Armour.

Mk.III: Iron Armour

Iron Armour could be considered prototype Terminator Armour. It's basically a MkII suit with extra armour plates added on the frontal parts over the chesplate and legs and a new(ish) helmet. You can find a few examples of iron armour in GW's current range:

Master of the Arsenal - very ornate example, perfect for a Pre-Heresy Captain, and there seems to be enough flexibility in the model to be able to perform weapon swaps relativeley easily.

Sergeant Chronus - This pack is a pretty good deal - you get a full suit of MkIII with a variant type of helmet and a MkIII torso in the same blister. The ultramarine symbols are a pain to remove without scuffing the rivet detail.

Iron Warriors Warsmith - This guy just looks awesome - and is perfect for Iron Hands, especially. Though not true MkIII (he has a MkVII "boot" on), he's customised himself enough for it to not really matter.

Iron Warriors Conversion Pack - Though the chestplates are definitely useful (you could probably use them as a basis for MkII armour types), the best thing about this pack, in relation to Iron armour is the helmets which are some of the most appropriate bits you could get.

My Wargame also has an excellent tutorial for MkIII armour which Horn has just finished:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Mk.IV: Maximus Armour

This armour was supposed to be the final Mark to be produced - the epitome of armour engineering (at least until the Legions were completely re-equipped with Terminator Armour). Though it became available late in the Crusade, a few of the Legions were well along in switching to this new Mark. It's features are much closer to the current types of armour, so make it one of the easier armour types to convert. It's main differences are the snout on the helmet, the breastplate, groin guard and kneepads.

As with MkIII, there are several models/bits in the current GW range which can help us here:

Red Scorpion Upgrade Kit - this pack has been the bread and butter of pre-Heresy modellers ever since it came out. You get 11 MkIV heads and torsos, as well as a powersword-armed bionic arm and a pair of shoulderpads that My Wargame thinks suit the MkIII armour very well.

Red Scorpion Vanguard Veterans - This pack is less useful to the pre-heresy enthusiast. Though it does give you 5 MkIV torsos and heads, they are so covered in religious ornaments as to make them almost not worth it. The thing of greatest note would be Sergeant Culln's legs - they are true MkIV legs. Buying a pack per marine is not really feasible, but you could get hold of one for reference though.

Black Templar Upgrade Kit - This kit contains, by virtue of having two of the same sprue inside, two MkIV helmets and torsos. The detail isn't as crisp on these as it is on the Red Scorpions, but it is serviceable and the two don't look completely weird next to each other. It might be an advantage to start a Black Templar army and just save those torsos from the packs you buy...

Black Templar Sword Brethren - This would again be for reference - one of the Brethren has MkIV knee pads (bottom-right on the link). Apart from maybe Imperial Fist Huscarls or Word Bearers, the model itself is a bit useless for our intentions.

Mk.V: Heresy Armour

As the Heresy broke out, MkIV armour was found to be lacking due to the exotic materials that were needed to construct it. MkV was brought out as a stop-gap and could conceivably be patched up with any old armour the Techmarines had lying around. The helmet itself is a prototype for the Terminator project and due to the inferior materials used in it's production, molecular bonding studs had to be used on the areas most likely to be facing the enemy.

By far the best tutorial I have seen for Heresy armour is on the blog Eaters of Worlds:

Pacific's Mk5 Armour Tutorial

Pre-Heresy Modelling

Now, I've rabbited on about all these armour marks for quite a while (for me at least, I've spent half a day, between working, writing all this up), and it may come across to some that this time period makes for very niggly army construction. This can be very true, if you want your army to be as canonically accurate as possible. Most of us, however, would like to get an army on the table in the first hald of this century...

So, a small list of things that help:

- Avoid the aquila breastplates - either that, or file them down.

- Reserve the blank breastplates (the one with the skull in the middle of the chest) as well as any filed-down aquila ones for marines with boltguns or heavy weaponry. You don't want to waste bits that cost a lot (in terms of money or effort) on a model that is going to hide most if not all of that detail.

- It may be an idea to have your pre-Heresy army as a side project while you focus on your main army. That way, you can buy the bits you need for your current army and just set any useful bits to the side for your Pre-H one. If you go out to actively buy bits for a pre-heresy army, you'll find the costs mounting up VERY fast. I've found it better, for my peace of mind, to let the bits build up naturally.

- AOBR marines can be converted, quite easily, to Heresy era ones (as shown in this tutorial) and make a great way of bulking out your forces.

- If you're going to start cutting up individual components, like say, legs, cut up the ones you need then do the conversion - don't cut them all up in advance. That really didn't help with my motivation...

Right, I think I'm burnt out for now, so I hope this helps Levi (and anyone else looking into pre-heresy modelling). This is by no means a complete article - the amount of depth it's possible to go to with this subject is staggering. For the interested, I suggest you check out The Great Crusade - a forum dedicated solely to Pre-Heresy with some great (and very helpful) characters on there.

A few blogs from known Pre-Heresy offenders:

Eaters of Worlds by Pacific

Wolves of Cthonia by Yvraith

Halcyon Daze by Anodyr

My Wargame by (White)Horn

Ithmaril's Wargaming Blog by Ithmaril

Zen40000 by Aventine

While they don't all have pre-heresy stuff on them, they are well worth a look-see.

So, hope you enjoyed this. Any questions or comments, you can use the space at the bottom or e-mail me (USE the button, you know you want to... :D )

A Few Iron Hand Pictures

2009-12-01T15:48:00.004Z

In response to an e-mail I received the other day, I'm just posting up some pictures of my non-Terminator Iron Hands. These pictures are quite old, and none of the models look the same as they do today, but they're close enough. Sorry Levi, no devastators though - they're too recent an addition.

So first up, we have my first PH Iron Hand - a Standard Bearer. He was supposed to be entered into a contest over at The Great Crusade, but was not finished in time and has since been disassembled. The right arm was based on a necron with added wires, though if I were to redo the conversion, I would add far more bulk to it.

At the time, these were going to be following CSM rules, hence the double special weapons. I've since changed my mind on this (interesting, related article here) so will have to build enough normal guys/heavy weapons to double the amount of squads I have.

1st Squad

2nd Squad

I've since added some Debastators as well as two characters to the army, and they're all stuck down my friend's place at the moment - which is probably a good thing, considering how hard it has been for the past few weeks to concentrate on the Morlocks.

Miscellaneous Gallery

2009-12-01T15:48:00.000Z

The following pictures represent my meanderings into other worlds and designs.

Jyshite Resistance Gallery

2009-12-01T15:47:00.002Z

The Jyshite have been fighting for their homeworld for three generations now. What was once a great mining and industrial world has been reduced to blasted dunes and shattered plains by the greenskin menace.

Elites

Troops

Fast Attack

Heavy Support

Mechanicum Gallery

2009-12-01T15:47:00.001Z

Guardians of lost knowledge, the Mechanicum will stop at nothing to recover humanity's forgotten secrets.

Elites

Fast Attack

Heavy Support

Iron Hands Legion Gallery

2009-12-01T15:47:00.000Z

With bodies and minds of iron, the sons of Ferrus Manus relentlessly prosecute the Emperor's Will wherever they may be.

Elites

Troops

Fast Attack

Heavy Support

Helbronian 2nd Army Group Gallery

2009-12-01T15:46:00.000Z

The Helebronian system was bought to compliance early on in the Great Crusade, and their soldiers have now faithfully served the Emperor for over 150 years.

HQ

Elites

Troops

Fast Attack

Heavy Support

"Done" Gallery

2009-12-01T15:45:00.002Z

Welcome to the Gallery Section. By clicking on any of the banners below, you will be able to view any squads that I have deemed complete so far. Enjoy!

2nd Helebronian Group

Iron Hands Legion

Mechanicum

Jyshites

Others

Does My Blog Look Big In This?

2009-11-14T19:58:00.003Z

Well, that was fun... As you may have noticed, I've changed Blog templates, and after lots of "insert address here", I got the menu bar at the top working, as well as the feedburner e-mail signup in the top-right. Not sure what those RSS "Full Posts" and "Comments" buttons do - they just bring up a load of HTML gibberish for me, so I think I'll leave them well alone... (If you'd care to give me a brief explanation, fire away. Just don't hurt my head too much. :D)

I'm also on Twitter now, so if you're on there and actively use the thing, "Friend" me or whatever so I can see what you're up to... :D Maybe I'll stick something up there from time to time if it isn't worth a whole blog post...

If for some reasons you want to talk and the comments don't cut it, there's also a button up there for my googlemail address - I'll try and wade through the spam and find you.

Any comments, criticisms? I can't see myself changing template again for a while, but if people really don't like it, it may speed the process along a bit.

Anywho, cheers chaps, good night!

1st Game For Morlockwing

2009-11-06T14:09:00.004Z

Took my Morlocks down to the local club last night to pop their "game cherry" and had a good match against Friend Matt. He was using his CSM:

Lord in TDA w/4 Champion Terminators in a Land Raider

Summoned Greater Daemon

2x10 CSM in a Rhino

2x 8 summoned Daemons

Defiler

Obliterator

There may have been some more stuff, but I'm not sure. It was a 1500pt Annihilation game with a Pitched Battle deployment. I took everything I have made up (so five squads and two characters).

We didn't finish the game in the end - we got to Turn 4, but we had a bash at it anyway. Highlights include him shooting my first squad to land, getting three wounds and me rolling, individually, three 1s in a row... Auspicious start, but it would seem that I was just flushing out my bad luck for the rest of the game. The Mr Claws from the aforementioned squad bit the dust the next turn, but the guy with the chainfist went on to weather a round of shooting from his whole army, go all "Hulk Smash!!!" on his Land Raider (with 3 Destroyed results), then weather another round of shooting before finally being dragged down by weight of numbers in assault (there's only so many 2+ armour saves you can take before your luck runs out - my limit was nine...).

A short distance away from this, two successive waves of Daemons landed and tar-pitted one of my squads, reducing it to 2 members before they got countercharged by another squad and disappeared under a flurry of power-weapons.

Meanwhile in the centre, the Belial+Interrogator+Company Banner combo Command Squad first charged the Greater Daemon in cover. He took two wounds off the Iron Father, who managed nothing in return, before, again, a flurry of power/chainfists popped him back to where he came from. The squad thgen consolidated into cover just in time to receive charges from both the Chaos Lord and retinue as well as the Defiler.

When the dust settled from that assault, the command squad had been wiped and both the Iron Father and Santar had been reduced to a Wound a piece. However, the Chaos Lord had managed to score himself a Thunder Hammer to the face, three of the Terminators were gone and the Defiler had been reduced to scrap metal (with 3 Destroyed results) by the Chainfist guy.

All in all, I won 6-2KP - but a lot of that was down to lucky dice rolls on my part.

MAN OF THE MATCH

This guy really held his own - shrugging off two dozen-odd shots of various types, from Lascannons to Bolt Pistols, before carving up a Land Raider in a single round. He earned his space in the annals just for the distraction he caused...

I liked the club a lot and felt welcome there. I'll definitely be wanting to become a member at the end of the month. It'll be nice to have a regular game every week. I have one organised against my eternal nemesis army - orks next week, which should be fine - the list has the joy of nob bikerz with der warboss nd painboy... Should make it interesting at least.

So, this game is going to be 2000pts, and is kicking off a campaign using planetary empires and the veteran skill rules in the back of the rulebook. That means I have to add another 500pts to my current list, but I won't be allowed to change the list once I start it. My current list can be found here, and I was hoping for some advice on what I can expand it with. Should I just plump for two Land Raiders (and hope someone can lend me a proxy for one of them), or should I maybe take something else - I'm not necessarily going for pure-Deathwing - to even out the force?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Must have unit: Terminators

2009-11-05T16:58:00.002Z

I've always loved Terminators of every type, be they Assault or "Tactical". They were the first Space Marine box set I ever bought. There's just something about a walking man-tank that ticks all the coolness boxes for me, and I could count on half a hand the number of games I've played without them.

It's not even due to their effectiveness on the tabletop. My prized warriors have probably, over the years, spent more time sitting in reserves and never showing up, getting "pwned" by power weapons (especially before the 5+ Invul), or Deep Striking into impassable terrain than they have on the tabletop taking names (I can be ridiculously unlucky with these guys).

It's the idea, the fluff, that makes me take them every time - they just ooze awsomeness. Scenes such as Forrix's in Storm of Iron, the assault on the Whisperheads in Horus Rising or the original story I read about them, during which a Wolf Guard champion got trodden on by a Titan, dug his way out of the rubble then sauntered back over to the squad he was just talking to, taking the conversation back up with a casual "As I was saying...".

So yes, my must-have unit: Terminators (or failing that, dreadnoughts... :D)

Morlockwing Pt.14: Still alive!

2009-10-22T01:13:00.001+01:00

Evening all!

Been silent(ish) for the past three weeks but, as you'll see, I haven't been (that) idle... :D

Let's just dive right in, shall we? I give you Terminator hell (in more ways than one):

That's the full 1500pt army. The plan, for the "normal" troops was to give them a badab wash then drybrush them quick and dirty like to be ready for the Gedren Prime event this weekend. Sadly I won't be able to attend due to family issues, but the silver lining is that I can spend a bit more time on them.

I used a can of Army Painter Plate Mail primer in a bid to speed things up. It did work a treat, though for the exo-skeleton bars, I'm going to have to paint black then tin bitz over the top...

Plain Plate Mail (basically Chainmail equivalent):

And with a heavy Badab Black wash:

I'm going to try for a high contrast look - practically pure black on the underside with a nice sheen on the top of the plates. I've never liked painting with metal beyond the whole basecoat-wash-drybrush method. Any attempts I've made before have been inferior to that effect.

And finally, we have the two characters.

Gabriel Santar, First Captain of the Iron Hands, Equerry to Ferrus Manus:

And the Iron Father:

The primer on both characters was done in sub-optimal conditions (it's getting cold in blighty), and that's all they've had so far. I need to go over with a chaos black basecoat, then they're going to be painted in standard Legion colours, which should make them stand out from the rank and file nicely. They're both based on Chaos Lords with a bit of pro-create work, and I felt they both deserved a face to make the more individual as well. I'll be trying to emulate Rev from Warseer's method of painting them - no grey highlights on the armour but mithril silver "chips" on the edges of the plates. The faces will be rotting flesh highlighted up with skull white (they're blu-tacked onto the models at the moment).

The secondary arms on the Iron Father come from the Iron Brotherhood minis by Micro Art Studio and the bionic hands on the end of his mechadendrite "tabard" come from a set of conversion bits made by the Phoenix Wargamer's Club.

Oh, ignore the bases completely - they're just mountings for painting. The actual ones have jad their basecoat of tin bitz then will be getting a boltgun drybrush and a couple of washes to make the look weathered/rusty.

Let me know what you think - I kind of feel that the IFs axe is a bit plain at the moment and am considering adding a power cable for it.

Morlockwing Pt13: Pro-Create Greaves and Rivets

2009-10-01T10:16:00.001+01:00

Things are coming along nicely. I expect to have this ten done by the end of the weekend, hopefully, then I'm past the half-way mark. I haven't been able to do anything about the shoulderpads or colars yet because I got IDed for new hobby knife blades... ho hum. I swear I used to get IDed less when I was UNDER 18...

So, pictures:

These are the squads as they stand this morning. I added the straps and groin plates last night (except for the first Honour Guard - I still had some work to do on him. I'm waiting until tonight to start bending the strips to give them a bit of life. I'll probably have to remove them from the bases for that.

Close-up of the HG. I'm quite happy with the right-hand greave (only a tiny bit of cleaning to do on the edge) but am not so pleased with the left one. The second tooth in on the cog pattern fell off this morning, so I had to re-stick it and will have to file that down tonight.

And a close-up of the rivets, done using Ithmaril's method. They need some cleaning up around the bases. I'm thinking I drilled a bit too deep into the sprue, but I think that problem can be solved when I reshape the stamp to reduce the amount of material left over around the rivet's base.

So, a list of what's left to do:

Stick the remaining set of straps and groin plate to the remaining Honour Guard and bend all of them
Go rivet-crazy on the lot of them
Cut 100 strips and 100 "buckles" for the shoulder straps *groan*
Finish the shoulderpads and collars
A bit of putty work on the reaper's autocannons

So there's light at the end of the tunnel... :D

A Battle Report That Should Be Read

2009-09-29T14:47:00.001+01:00

Afternoon all,

Thought I'd do a bit of cross-blog advertisement. Suneokun posted his report "Down To The Wire" before the weekend. I don't usually read battle reports - I must have stumbled upon too many "dry" ones over time... This one, however, is very entertaining and a lot of effort was put in to include a clear, labelled, map of the action on a turn-by-turn basis. He even made an animated version of the maps so they circulate one after the other. It really does set a good standard for what battle reports should look like.

So if you've got ten minutes, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Morlockwing Pt12: Strips for the Strip God!

2009-09-28T21:25:00.001+01:00

Shock Horror! I came through on a promise for pictures! I think I need to see a doctor...

So, as you may have guessed by the title, I've spent most of my night on these:

That's 50 (well 45, one set is already on a model) lengths of leather straps and 50 buckle-things to go on their ends. That took me through an entire episode of Dice Like Thunder. My arms aches...

I cleaned up the Pro-Create on one of the models and not much else yet, but I thought I'd stick the pictures up before I lose the will to live, so here you go:

2nd Squad:

3rd Squad:

So now I've delivered the eye-candy, I'm going to go do some laundry, then get cleaning the rest of the putty and have a look at those storm bolter barrels. Catch you later!

Small Update

2009-09-28T11:14:00.001+01:00

Morning guys,

Thought I'd give you a quick update on where I'm at.

I ordered the terminator heads and they arrived on saturday. Promptly found one of the missing ones this morning... typical.

Also ordered some Army Painter Platemail Primer from Wayland Games. I'm hoping this will speed up the process of getting these guys painted considerably. I'll try it out on some Grey Knights I have knocking about first. If it fails, I'll just strip them a second time... Has anyone else had experience with these sprays? Any pitfalls I should look out for?

Finally also grabbed a bunch of the assorted microstrip packets from Antenociti's Workshop, which will allow me to finish up the leather straps, though I'll probably have to wait a while for them - the local sorting office is striking tomorrow and already today's post is disrupted... Go figure. [They arrived while I was typing this post, so I'll be getting on with those tonight as well...]

Having finished chest and leg details for the two squads, I got some putty work done this morning, which should have cured once I get back from work and so be ready for the files/knife. I'm picking up some vaseline at lunchtime so I can get to work making some rivets using Ithmaril's Method.

I'm hoping to be able to give you all daily-ish updates this week as there is going to be significantly less distraction going on this week. I'll get some pictures up tonight fo you all.

Cheers!

Morlockwing Pt11: Oodles of piccies.

2009-09-22T07:22:00.002+01:00

Morning all,

Finally regained control of my finances after a bit of fun with the fraud department at my bank, so I have a bit of a pic-heavy post here for you. It's a bit early for thoughts that are too coherent right now, so I'll get straight to the piccies and stick any comments that occur to me as I go along... :-)

First we have some better pictures of the squad that won me the squad competition over at The Great Crusade. It was a great competition with some really nice entries, especially Pacific's World Eater Assault Squad and BIGWILL's Sons of Horus Squad led by Little Horus Aximand. I would like to thank anyone who took the time to vote in it. On to the pictures:

The power weapons were painted with asurmen blue over boltgun, but now I'm going to change them to follow Ron's Method of Space-Hulk style power weapons.

As you can see, a lot of stuff needs going over, it's painfully obvious this was a bit of a rush job... *blushes*

The next one isn't a very good picture, but I liked the effect. If I had some properly painted terrain (or photoshop skills) I could probably make it quite cool.

So that was the first squad, now for some piccies of my current progress with the next two squads:

All ten termies together. It's amazing how much space they take up on the table... Not a very well focused pic - I think you can see my DVDs better than the termies... Ho hum.

These two will be power weapon wielders, though if I'm using Tempus Fugitive Rules, they would be Primarch Honour Guard (Relic-Blade-wielding-nutters).

Two Chainfists. Converted on to have a more dynamic pose and had to use one of my old Termi heads (from the previous plastics) for the other one because heads like to run away and hide under the sofa with me...

More Claws. I'm keeping the winged skull on the right-hand guy as some kind of honour for valour or whatnot.

Two standard power fist/storm bolter guys. The power fist has since been cleaned up (it comes from a AOBR terminator).

And finally two Reapers. As you can see, they have the runaway head problem as well - I lost them within five minutes of each other...

So, I have some minor putty work and general cleaning up to be done on some of them, then I need to add plasticard detailing, the straps and shoulder plates/collars. I can't do the straps at the moment due to my running out of Microstrips of the right size (I'll be getting some more next week, when I get paid) so I'm doing some detailing now, while waiting for PVA glue to dry...

Oh, also, I finally received the rest of the army (two new termi boxes and two chaos lords) as well as my order from Dragonforge (you may be able to spy them in the background of the first group shot - they're in better focus than the models...). If not:

I have to say I don't have much love for the Royal Mail employees who are striking at the moment - every year that they do this, I lose half of my bonus because the company's income gets crippled and we don't achieve budget targets... /rant

Anyhow, yes, got my order from Dragonforge, and boy am I impressed. I'll stick a review up once I've painted them. In the meantime, you could say they are thoroughly recommended!

Oh, and you may have noticed a progress chart at the top of the main column, tracking how much of the army has been done. I think it's pretty self-explanatory and looks ok on my laptop - though my work computer doesn't seem to like it much (XP, I presume).

So I'll be off to get ready for work now. Catch you all later!

HELP NEEDED: What camera should I buy?

2009-09-08T14:41:00.004+01:00

Good afternoon everyone,
I have a slight dilemna. Due to life circumstances, I will soon be losing the use of a digital camera. This, of course, is unacceptable - you would all be deprived from bathing in the magnificence of my amazing miniature projects... :P
So, I need to look at buying a new camera, have a look around the web, and come out of that experience more confused than when I went in - all those model numbers and ridiculous tech spec lists translate as one great big "meh", to me... So I thought I'd ask my fellow bloggers for some advice.
I only have two criteria:
1. It should take good photos of minis (duh)
2. It should preferably be mains chargeable (a li-ion battery?)
Oh, and of course, the price shouldn't be ridiculous... But that's a given really - I spend enough on plastic crack.
So what cameras do you guys use? Are you happy with them? What have you heard good things about? Any advice or opinions are more than welcome!
Thanks in advance!

Morlockwing Pt10: By The Skin Of My Teeth

2009-09-06T23:10:00.007+01:00

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

Well I did it, just about. I'm not quite happy with them yet, so wouldn't call them actually complete (especially considering they're on stand-in bases at the moment), and they have some more painting to go. What I'm most unhappy about is my camera - it died after I took three photos... Not impressed!

Well, here they are:

Enjoy!

Morlockwing Pt9: Last Minute Update

2009-09-05T16:29:00.006+01:00

Evening All,

I've now called a stop (almost) to the modelling stage for this squad, else I'll just keep going. They just need to have their procreate trimmed, be primed then painted - something I need to have done by tomorrow night to enter TGCs contest. Should be fun.

So the plan is to sit down after Jim Beam Teryaki sauce-marinated drummers, stick on the third Lord of the Rings and have at it. I've never had such a tight deadline before. Theoretically, I should have had these guys primed by Thursday and have been well on my way to finishing them by now, but real life got in the way, as it often does, so it's going to have to be "on the bounce", not my usual procrastinating style of painting.

So I'll leave you with some pictures, and get to work...

Oh, the bases are temporary. I knocked them up quickly last night using a tutorial on Bolter & Chainsword, then magnetised them. I'll stick down Mr Promethium and Mr Versatile for the final photos as the magnets make them a bit wonky...

Cheers!

Morlockwing Pt8: Reference Pictures and Santar Helmet Mockup

2009-08-30T15:06:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd post up some of the pictures that I'm using as inspiration for the Morlockwing. They're from the Horis Heresy: Collected Visions artbook. It's a fantastic resource for any 40k modeller - whether they're into Pre-Heresy stuff or not. I (unfortunately, in retrospect) picked these up as they came out in four separate sections. These pictures are from Vol III and represent about half of all the Iron Hands pictures in the book [/grumble].

For the fluff fanatics, these pictures (and their sometimes erroneous labels) should serve as inspiration, not concrete canon.

This picture is of Morlock Terminator Squad. This was taken by Graham McNeill and fleshed out into Ferrus Manus' bodyguard corps in the book Fulgrim. While he changed their colour scheme to "unpainted iron", this picture is one of the best Cataphracti (prototype) pictures in the books.

That picture had glare in it so I took another one in the dark:

This next one is the better of two IH dreadnought pictures in the book, and again, one of the best dreadnought pictures in the books (I've posted two of them because I couldn't decide which one was less bad...):

Finally, we have "Santar - Ferrus Manus' Bodyguard" which shows a very early versions of the terminator armour we know and love today. McNeill turned this into Gabriel Santar, First Captain of the Iron Hands, Equerry to Ferrus Manus. I thought I'd take the helmet design and use it on my "counts-as Belial", though I will be using the same cataphracti pattern for the rest of his armour. I want to include what looks like three floodlights into the model as well. I'll be using the Chaos Lord's lightning claws for his armament.

I made a couple of modifications to the standard terminator helmet and came up with this:

I just balanced it in a blank terminator torso to photograph it due to the inherent fail in the cameras focusing abilities... It still needs some serious smoothing and the addition of details to the faceplate. I'm also going to procreate the area where I removed the vents on the top of the helmet to give it a more rounded appearance.

In other news, I had been meaning to get the rest of the squad's shoulderpads done today, but it turns out that, during a massive clean-up of my front room, the templates went missing... I miss my organised chaos... So for the moment, I'll be working on the shoulder straps and magnetising some more arms. I'm going to have to up the pace though - I only have a week until these guys are due in for the competition...

Morlockwing Pt7: Prototype Progress

2009-08-28T21:05:00.001+01:00

Evening guys, I got Mr Versatile's shoulderpads and collar half way there last night. Thought I'd show you a few pictures:

The more of these photos I take, the more I notice the horrible bits that need touching up... The pads went together ok. They need some putty work done to them, and of course, I need to add the leather straps to the shoulders.

It was a bit silly to use this one as the test model. I'd previously butchered it quite a bit for some unremembered conversion project. As such, it had no collar line, and one of the tabs on the side of the torso (which I use as a guide to attach the pads) is missing. As such, they're not exactly level. I also need to work on making sure I use the same bit of the clay shaper handle to bend them every time - these two are a bit inconsistent in that respect as well...

In other news, I received this month's money prescription today and ordered a bunch of tech-deck bases from Dragonforge, as well as the final two boxes of terminators and bits and pieces I need to complete the army. So from now on, I have everything and it's all ahead full.

I had to prevent myself from buying three Dreadnought Torso and legs sets from one of the bits sites. I don't have to deal with them for a couple of months (after the event) but got myself all fired up thinking of this conversion (check out the rest of his stuff, it's great).

Right, I've just had a nice dinner, so I'm off to be a couch potato. Catch you later!

Morlockwing Pt6: 2 Layers = WIN

2009-08-26T09:54:00.003+01:00

Morning all,

Just a quick update to say that the 2 layers came through. I only had time to do one shoulderpad last night, nut it turned out really well. A couple of spots will need some putty work, but nothing drastic. Will hopefully get a tad more done tonight, though I'm not promising anything (we all know how that usually turns out...).

Cheers!

Morlockwing Pt5: 3 Layers = FAIL

2009-08-25T09:23:00.002+01:00

Morning all,

Didn't have much time for hobby last night (and probably won't tonight either), but I did manage to cut out one set of templates and have a go at bending them... I'm just glad I only cut out one set. Turns out I used too many layers (I used two for the trim and one for the base of the pads). When I did bend them, it turned into an absolute mess. Ah well, you live and learn... While the pads did look nice and chunky, it would have taken a massive amount of puttying to make them presentable.

So this morning, I quickly drew out a new set, with only one layer for trim and stuck them on the single base layer. Hopefully, they'll be dry enough by tonight for me to try again... If the pads need extra bulk, I'll just use putty to give that impression. I also intend to bend the two plates individually before sticking them together - this will hopefully cause less damage to the top plate's front and rear tabs.

Another thing to remember when working with these templates is to make sure there is a full two layers of card underneath the top plate for the vast majority of it's length - my ones last night bent downwards at the end...

So what projects have sent any of you guys back to the drawing board over and over again? Any good tips for avoiding these problems?

Morlockwing Pt4: Basing Options:

2009-08-24T14:52:00.005+01:00

While building the first squad, I've been wondering about basing options. Having decided that all my slate would be for my IG, and wanting a nice easy basing solution, I've decided to go with resin bases.

Having had a look at Dragonforge, I've found two types that I like so far:

Concrete rubble:

These are some very nice-looking bases. They would fit in reasonably well with my Helghans (in that there is rubble) and contrast nicely with the metallics of the models. There is however, only one set of them - so I'd have 5-6 of each type of base throughout the army... I could make variant ones myself, but that would go against the reason I chose resin bases in the first place...

Tech-Deck:

These ones, again, look really good, however they pretty much demand a metallic paintjob, creating insufficient contrast between the model and the base. I could paint them grey, as in the photos, or go for a rusted/worn look - as if they're raiding a Space Hulk or somesuch. One major advantage is that there are ten different casts, resulting in only 2-4(max) repititions of the same base. They would also reinforce the Iron Hands "feel" of bionic-machine-madness.

So what do you guys think? Have you seen other bases resembling these ones on other sites that may fit as well? If so, please let me know.

Cheers!

Morlockwing Pt3: First Squad Progress

2009-08-23T21:40:00.004+01:00

Evening guys,

Just thought I'd do a quick post to update you on my progress with the first Morlockwing squad. Looking at the pictures now, I realise that I should really have brushed the models off before snapping them... Ho Hum...

The additions to the breastplates were done with a combination of .25mm plasticard and plasticard strips from Antenociti's Workshop. I tried two different methods for filling the gaps - procreate lumps added then sanded off for Mr Claws and a small smattering of plastic glue for Mr Versatile (power sword and s.bolter). They both turned out pretty well. Though Versatile doesn't look like it did in the photo, running your nail across it, it's absolutely smooth... The thunderhammer guy didn't need any gap filling - just sanding.

On to piccies. The squad:

And close-ups:

Mr Petroleum:

He still needs a groin guard, though I suppose it's useful so you can see how the leather straps were set up.

Mr. Versatile:

Mr. Claws:

His is the pose I'm happiest with - just got to smooth out the lines (on the greave and lightning claw) for him. Will have to get hold of some fine sandpaper when I get paid.

Mr. Whaddyawant?:

Mr. Itsmyflag:

This guy will end up as the standard bearer. I thought that distinction merited a variant helmet. Well not really, I fouled up pn the helmet I was doing for Santar (belial), and that was the best I could make of a poor job.... Didn't turn out too badly. I'll probably need to get hold of some smaller magnets to be able to stick the banner on without gouging too big a hole in him - and the banner pole. I've smoothed down a standard Storm Shield for him and will be printing off a gauntlett-shaped design tomorrow, which I can then transfer to card, apply to the shield then go nuts with procreate and plasticard to come up with a nice custome one for him.

Here are the templates for their collars and shoulderpads. I've cut out the inside of their designs and have stuck them to their third layer of card (the card I have is a bit thin). They're drying at the moment, and I should be able to start getting them done tomorrow. Only another 22 of the sets after this...

Right, I'm off to bed, catch you guys later!

Morlockwing Pt2: WIP Torsos and Legs

2009-08-20T21:03:00.004+01:00

A Picture?! Surely not!

Evening guys, just a quick post to show off the torsos and legs I've been working on. Having managed to pull/cut/pry the models apart, I set about filing down most of the decorative detail on these guys and have started more Iron Hands-ish details. Bear in mind that these are still very WIP.

The ones with cables are awaiting procreate to blend them into the torsos, which I'll do when I start putting more magnets in, and the ones with plasticard details will have them trimmed down, filed, dowsed with acetate-diluted Squadron Green Putty then filed down some more until they look presentable.

The legs have had their abdominal cables added by cutting away the fron part of the ball joint connecting them to the torsos, drilling some holes, then inserting the cables with some superglue, tilted whichever way I want the torso to be facing. I'm hoping this will help to "merge" the top and bottom half.

Catch you later!

Morlockwing Pt1 - Revised Army Lists

2009-08-19T16:55:00.006+01:00

After some very good constructive criticism from raptor1313, I have come up with a revised 1500pt army list, and two more to fit into the scenarios devised for the Compliance. So without further ado:

Morlock-wing - 1500pts

HQ.

Gabriel Santar (Belial) w/Lightning Claws - 130pts

Iron Father (Interrogator Chaplain) w/Power Weapon & Storm Bolter - 145pts

-Terminator Armour

Troops.

1. Morlock Squad - 250pts

-Standard Bearer w/THSS

-Heavy Flamer

-Chainfist

- Pair of Lightning Claws

2. Morlock Squad - 225pts

- Heavy Flamer

- Chainfist

- Pair of Lightning Claws

3. Morlock Squad - 250pts

- Reaper Autocannon (Assault Cannon)

- Chainfist

- Pair of Lightning Claws

4. Morlock Squad - 250pts
- Reaper Autocannon (Assault Cannon)
- Chainfist
- Pair of Lightning Claws

5. Morlock Squad - 250pts
- Reaper Autocannon (Assault Cannon)
- Chainfist
- Pair of Lightning Claws

So with some rejiggling from the original list, I managed to cram a chainfist in every squad, 3 assault cannons and two heavy flamers to go in the squads accompanying characters - I want them in close combat anyway to use them to best advantage. Every squad has a guy with lightning claws to counteract all those I1 attacks. I think I'm happy with this one as it is - I'm not going for a very competitive list here, it is a story-driven event, after all, just an army I can have fun watching as it gets splattered by ten tons of armour-I-can't-touch sitting across the board from me... :D

Morlock-wing - 1000pts

HQ.
Gabriel Santar (Belial) w/Lightning Claws - 130pts

Iron Father (Interrogator Chaplain) w/Power Weapon & Storm Bolter - 145pts
-Terminator Armour

Troops.
1. Morlock Squad - 250pts
-Standard Bearer w/THSS
-Heavy Flamer
-Chainfist
- Pair of Lightning Claws

2. Morlock Squad - 225pts
- Heavy Flamer
- Chainfist
- Pair of Lightning Claws

3. Morlock Squad - 250pts
- Reaper Autocannon (Assault Cannon)
- Chainfist
- Pair of Lightning Claws

The simplest thing to do for this one, was to just cut out two of the squads that cost 250pts, so that's what's been done. This will be the first game played and involves perpetual night-fight rules, so cyclone launchers and, to a lesser extent, assault cannons are likely to be of little use.

Morlock-wing - 500pts

HQ.

Gabriel Santar (Belial) w/Lightning Claws - 130pts

Iron Father (Interrogator Chaplain) w/Power Weapon & Storm Bolter

- 145pts-Terminator Armour

Troops.

1. Morlock Squad - 250pts

-Heavy Flamer

-Chainfist

- Pair of Lightning Claws

This does look like an all-you-eggs-in-one-basket type of list and, well, it is. Luckily, the scenario for this one is a team-based Planetstrike mission, so they'll either get support from the rest of the team, or be able to take down an uber-unit or somesuch on the turn they deep strike (thanks to being able to charge on the turn they arrive) before getting splatted by the enemy defenses... You never know though, they may manage to go on a mini-rampage...

So, bearing these three lists in mind, I will need the following components to complete the army (figures in parantheses are how many I have at the time of writing up to the amount needed):

- 2 Chaos Lord Bodies (0)

- 25 Terminator Bodies (15)

- 25 Terminator Heads (15)

- 1 Pair of Chaos Lord Lightning Claws (0)

- 5 Pairs of Lightning Claws (5)

- 6 Power Weapons (1)

- 15 Storm Bolters (5)

- 1 Thunder Hammer (1)

- 1 Storm Shield (1)

- 5 Chainfists (1)

- 9 Power Fists (5)

- 3 Reaper Autocannons (2)

- 2 Heavy Flamers (1)

- 1 Standard (not sure what I'm going to do with this yet)

- 27 Groin Guards (10)

Most of the missing components will be acquired when I buy two boxes of terminators next week, along with two chaos terminator lords. Anything else, I'll probably get through BITS&KITS.

I know I promised you pictures, but my room was being most uncooperative - it felt like being cluttered and hiding the batteries... So once I've whipped it into shape and made the retrieval, I'll get some of those up for you. In the meantime, you'll just have to make do with the Paint-doodle I made...

Cheers!

Pre-Heresy Terminator Shoulder Pad Template

2009-08-18T11:02:00.004+01:00

Right, I have a little modelling aid for everyone here, it's a set of templates for Pre-Heresy Terminator Shoulder Pads for those doing PH armies, or who just like the style. These are mainly for use with Ron's Pre-Heresy Terminator Shoulderpads Tutorial, but could also be used with plasticard (preferably thin stuff, easier to bend and all).

You can download the JPEG directly here.

This is an updated version with labels, a scale bar and 21 sets of templates. It shouldn't require resizing as long as the application you use isn't stretching it to fit a page or whatnot. As an extra reference, the base of the collar template should be 16mm wide. I've left the previous version at the bottom for reference. Enjoy!

Plans afoot!

2009-08-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

Heh, been a while, guys (and gals)!

After some upheaval in my personal life, I'm back at it - but not with the Helghast at the moment. I know I said I wouldn't do this... but I've been distracted. Thankfully, it's back to an army I already do, so I can justify it. Almost :D

The Great Crusade has announced it's first official event, The Compliance of Gedren Prime, which is surprisingly not too far from me, in Aldershot, hosted by The Games Shop. It's a weekend event, with a cool three-part story-campaign set during The Great Crusade, as well as a painting competition and a Pub Quiz. The games are 500pt, 1000pt and 1500pt, so I'll need a 1500pt army to take along to this event.

I chose the Morlocks, Ferrus Manus' elite terminator-armoured calm-downs. The great things about these guys are that there are only 27 of them in a 1500pt army and they are all (apart from Gabriel Santar) going to be in metallic colours ("unpainted iron"). Considering I've painted fifty models over the last few months, 27 should not be such a problem.

Following a small back-and-forth with Paul Wu on his blog, concerning army lists and motivation (in this post), I decided to put it into practice with this project. Here's a summary:

HQ
Belial
Master of Sanctity

Troops
Deathwing Squad - Heavy Flamer, Standard.
Deathwing Squad - Assault Cannon
Deathwing Squad - Assault Cannon
Deathwing Squad - Cyclone
Deathwing Squad - Cyclone

Thanks to my "recycling" (read snapping apart) of my Black Templar terminators (1 Tactical, 2 Assault), I only have to buy two tactical termi squads, a couple of reaper autocannons and a chaos lord in termi armour to complete the army. With a nice discount from Wayland Games, this army will be of minimal investment (I got the 2 assault squads for half-price when my friend was working at Hobbycraft during a 25% off week. Good times...).

I'll be using Ron's method of making PH shoulderpads, though I'be made my own templates. I've just printed them out at work, so will go home, see if they are the same size, then if so, post it up in JPEG format for all to enjoy.

I also want to bulk out the grieves, but am still not sure whether to do it like Ron's Counts-as Belial, use thin plasticard, existing components (3rd and 5th image down) or tubing of some sort... Any suggestions?

Progress so far has been the removal of purity seals and sculpted ornamentation of the 10 pairs of legs and torsos I have with me, as well as preparation of the termi heads, insertion of magnets into the torsos and a few of the pairs of arms, with gaping holes in the rest of the sets waiting to be filled.

I'll try and get some pics up tonight. If not, tomorrow.

Cheers!

I'm back!

2009-08-03T12:56:00.002+01:00

Afternoon all,

After a week off from work - which turned into a week away from just about everything, I have returned to my cubicle and will be trying to catch up with what's been going on for the past week...

I had that game on Monday. As predicted, I got there at 4pm and we started Turn 1 at 8.30pm... Nine and a half hours later and we were on my Turn 5 (I went second) and it was time for Kev to get to work (he should have been slated for 1pm but they changed his shifts recently). But not to fear - we left everything as-is (the joy of having his own gaming room) and will be finishing the game one evening this week... I think this is a procrastination record for us.

In the end, he was playing a cult of speed-themed army so had two squads of nobs in battlewagons, one of which had the warboss accompanying them, backed up by a full squad of lootas to be used as meatshields for the Shokk Attack Gun-armed Mek, a tank-specced battlewagon (so much for a bunch of flimsily-armoured vehicles...), two trukk-boy squads a gunwagon, a deffdred (troops choice) and three killa kanz. He ended up leaving out any special characters (I was expecting sneaky-guy and pirate-boy...), as did I.

It was(is) a Spearhead, 5-objective game. I didn't want to put anything down on the table to start with but apparently had to, so stuck the infantry platoon on foot and the company command squad down as sacrificial lambs while retaining the rest of my force in reserve (though the ironclad and one of the tacticals came down on turn 1 due to the dp assault rules). The ironclad proceeded to rip all but one of a battlewagon's weapons off before getting immobilised and sitting there, useless for the rest of the game (ho hum), but the tacticals did much better with their meltagun - causing the other battlewagon to blow up nicely. They cheered for a second before they realised what the battlewagon had been carrying...

A squadron of sneaky deffkoptas were responsible for the demise of my company command squad (they were outflanking). I spent the first three turns of the game playing with about 1200pts of my force - nobody else wanted to come on. Thankfully, last turn, everyone decided to turn up.

We came up with a "dispute" (in the loosest of terms) during the turn in which the other half of my army turned up. It turns out that my scratch-built chimeras are 7" long, and I have to travel 6" or less to allow the squads inside to unleash lovely flamer-death on everyone (specifically a bunch of nobs). So I moved them on six inches then pivoted (which is free movement) them so that the tail-end came on to the board, like so:

Kev let it go, but wasn't convinced this was legal (I think the subsequent demise of his nobs may have coloured his outlook on this point, I know it would mine). What do you guys think?

Anyhow, as it stands, I have a tac squad on one objective getting minced up by some boyz, a nob squad w/ Warboss on another objective hopefully getting minced up by the MoForge, Chapter Master and a thunder-hammer termie, with some help from rending penal legion (mwahaha).

I think I need to invest in a Vindicare and start popping his painboyz - I hate the damn things. Anytime he was called upon to make two FNP saves he would pass - with a double. No word of a lie - every single time.

The deff dread has been immobilised and one of the chimera squads is speeding towards an unclaimed objective. I always end up ignoring the lootas - they're usually holed up in a ruin in his deployment zone with wide open spaces around him. I get so preoccupied with the stuff he has jumping onto my half that they really just get left out to dry - I think they've gotten two turns of shooting for this game so far. This should make for an interesting last few (or one) turns.

Oh, another query we had - and couldn't seem, for love nor money, to find a concrete rule for is firing Ordnance (not ordnance barrage) weapons. Do you need LOS? Does it scatter more when you don't have LOS?, etc... I kept flicking through and just couldn't get a solid instruction on it (the two pages the index refers to are quite vague and mostly irrelevant). In the end, I allowed him to fire the SAG without LOS but with full 2D6 scatter instead of 2D6-BS... I was probably being blind though, so don't hesitate to illuminate me... :)

As a consequence of the game having lasted a week, I have gotten a grand total of naff-all done modeling/painting-wise in that time. Hopefully, this will get back in gear once I have my collection back, but I can see it slowing down - I recently aquired a game called Valkyria Chronicles which has been quite efficiently sucking up a lot of my free time, so we'll see.

Right, now I'm off to actually catch up on what all you guys have been doing. Between waffling on and actually working, I've had to change the greeting to reflect the time of day better...

Cheerio!

Preparations Afoot!

2009-07-25T22:02:00.005+01:00

Evening all,

I'm currently preparing for a game on Monday - my first in months, and only my second in 5th Edition. Thankfully, with Kev having moved much closer to where I live, and Chris saying he's finally going to get his room cum gaming room sorted, it would seem that I should be playing much more often from now on. So Monday, we have a nicely-sized 3000pt game. This is the usual point limit Kev and I stick to - lots of room to play around with your list, and it feels more like an army. If we start doing games during the week though, the points totals will have to come down. It sometimes takes us as much as twelve hours to finish up a game, mainly because we like to take it at a leisurely pace, drink a few beers, discuss the hobby or specific tactics while we're at it. We're notorious for going off on tangents for half and hour here and there. It may take longer, but it makes for a pleasant experience.

So for this game, I'll be fielding 2 detachments - one of Space Marines and one of Imperial Guard, which is great considering I have yet to play with either of these two codices. Should be a fun learning experience. I though I'd show you my list quickly:

Imperial Guard

Company Command Squad
Bolt Pistol (it's on the model)
Vox
Medic
Master of Ordnance
Astropath
2 Bodyguards
Heavy Bolter Team

Infantry Platoon 1
Command Squad w/ Vox, Medic, 2 Plasma Guns
2 Infantry Squads w/ Vox and Flamer
Heavy Weapons Squad w/Heavy Bolter and 2 Missile Launchers

Infantry Platoon 2
Command Squad w/Heavy Flamer, 2 Flamers in a Chimera
2 Infantry Squads w/ Vox and Flamer in Chimeras

Penal Legion Squad

Hellhound

Iron Hands:
Chapter Master w/Power Weapon, Meltabombs

Iron Father w/ Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

5 Assault Terminators in a Land Raider Redeemer w/Multi-Melta and Extra Armour

Ironclad Dreadnought w/Heavy Flamer and Assault Launchers in a Deathwind Drop Pod

Tactical Squad, Power Weapon, Meltabombs, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter in a DDP

Tactical Squad, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter in a DDP

Tactical Squad, Meltabombs, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher in a DDP

3 Predators w/ Heavy Bolters

This all comes to a grand total of 2992pts. I'll try and find somewhere to spend an extra 5pts. I'm seriously considering lopping off the Captain's bolt pistol and replacing it with a pointy hand - I don't like the way it skews the point total... The idea is to have the Ironclad and one of the tacticals drop down in the first turn to cause havoc in the ork lines.

I love dreadnoughts - in one of my old games, mine single-handedly weathered almost ten stikkbomb attacks only to grab the Warboss mid-leap, do some spinney-spinney then throw him back into the midst of his Nob bodyguard - who promptly legged it and got run down... Ah, good times!

While the initial distraction goes on, the assault terminators will be bombing across the board in the Redeemer with both Space Marine characters, supported by the Hellhound, Predators and flame-taxi chimeras. Beyond those ideas, I don't really know what will happen, but it should be fun finding out!

So in light of this, I've spent the day arranging my models, and filling gaps that need filling to complete the list. Now I'm down to two scratch-built transports which I will finish tomorrow. I've had to change the design in light of finding 3D models for them (more on that in a later post). So the first one will be scrapped for parts and I've drawn up some new templates for myself to go by.

So how long do you guys generally take during games? Do you like to stretch it out like us, or do you prefer to keep the pace up and get it over and done with as soon as possible? Which approach do you think is best? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

[EDIT]: Blogger irritates - all the line breaks were removed when I uploaded the picture... Not impressed.

The Big Terrain Post (TBTP)

2009-07-20T15:24:00.003+01:00

Afternoon all,

I've been looking at ways to start making a dedicated board and some scenery to go on it recently, in preparation for my completed army. I suspect it'll look a bit better than a couple of MDF board with a bunch of unpainted COD buildings lying on top of them...

As I've been looking around, I seem to be falling more and more out of love with the COD sets - they really are a bit too busy to feasibly be believed in as normal buildings. I'm going to have to have a look in at disassembling the sets I've already constructed and using them with spacers - though that may prove too great a challenge considering the amount of plastic glue I poured over those things...

Anyway, I thought I'd gather together a few links, for both me and you lot. They lead to projects, Q&As, etc... that I've found particularly inspirational while surfing around for ideas. If you have a link yourself, or one of the links dies and I don't notice, drop me a line via the comments and I'll add it in to the post/try and restore the link as soon as possible.

Cheers chaps!

Gaming Board Construction Projects:

The Battle for Kasr Tannenberg by Light of the Emperor
icebergman's modular cityfight table
Eternal "Dam"nation by Anvils Hammer
Massive Board by kendoka
Modular Trench and COD board by Trooper PX

Painting Gaming Boards:

How does one paint a gaming board?

Stuff to put on gaming boards:

Forgeworld's Trench Tutorial
Industrial Terrain by Digit
Fallout 3-themed scenery by Deserter
Great terrain pieces produced by macineczek0 for Adepticon
Wild West terrain by macineczeko

Done, Done, Done and PIP

2009-07-18T06:23:00.002+01:00

So I thought I'd do a post for each completed squad, so that I could track my progress via the "Done" label on the right, but it seems I'm too lazy, so I'm just going to lump these three squads together. Two were painted at the same time anyway, and the painting points total will do just as well for tracking purposes.

I do have the majority of one more squad of Cadian hybrids done, but haven't gotten round to finishing the flamer-guy and the vox-caster's head due to my Paint or Die 2 competition entry taking up the entirety of my (meagre) hobby time.

Anywho - on to the good bit: Piccies!

Attention! Squad:

2nd Squad, 1st Platoon:

And Penal Legion:

So next on the bench are the final elements of the 2nd squad of 2nd platoon, then these guys:

Once they're done, I'll have two troops choices, so I'll be concentrating on getting the company command to a minimum standard so that I have a minimum strength force (of 60 models, sigh...)

Catch you later!

Shoutout: mrjustin.com

2009-07-13T23:51:00.002+01:00

Evening all,

Now I know I should be blogging more (I still have the three squads I need to do "Done" posts for as well as some progress made on the Penal Legionnaires), but tonight, I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to Mr Justin who has a great blog. Of note, he recently bought out a series of video tutorials for simple weathering techniques. Seeing the techniques being applied in real-time is a real eye-opener, and has given me a much more concrete view of how I want to paint my tanks, once I get round to them. He also has a pretty extensive back catalog of comissions he has done, which are always worth a look.

So head on over and peruse at your leisure, there's some great stuff to have a look at!

Cheers!Modelling

Painting Points

2009-06-29T12:43:00.006+01:00

Afternoon all,

Just a small post to say I've added a Painting Points tally to the side of the blog. The idea is, of course, shamelessly pilfered from a number of different blogs, though I can't remember the exact pointing systems used, I quickly came up with my own:

Infantry: 1pt/Wound - that includes Heavy Weapon Teams, Officer's, etc... Basically anything with a Wound Stat.

Vehicle: 5pts/model

Super-Heavy Vehicles: 10pts/model

If I come across any irregularities, I'll just adjust the system.

This gives me a total of 39pts so far - the first four squads of my two troop choices (minus 1 flame-trooper who is waiting to be undercoated). Considering I only started painting in April, I'm quite pleased with my progress so far, especially taking into account that I've never painted this much of an army before...

So at the moment, I have the flame-trooper and 10 Penal Legionnaires awaiting the brush. The legionnaires will need to be done by the 17th for the Paint or Die 2 competition, and I'll be working on the command squad for the 1st platoon after that (they've had most of the solid colours blocked in, but I haven't "officially" started them yet - I just slapped surplus paint on them during the assembly-lining for the other squads).

In other news, I got nothing done this weekend - the (ridiculously hot) weather and an impromptu shopping trip (during which I got soaked and managed to lose my flip flop in the middle of a road while holding what seemed like two tons of shopping) conspired to keep me away from little toy soldiers. Did do some gardening though! :D

I received a few sheets of moulded styrene from Col. Corbane the other day with perfect patterns for the vents on my APC, for which I'm very grateful. Even the sprue sections they came on are going to be useful.

From now on, I'll be taking a couple of nights during the week to do some hobby-related stuff, as Real Life has taken over on weekends.

Have a good one peeps! (In case you're wondering, that picture is just the first one that came out when I stick "painting points" into Google Image Search...)

Massive Update 1

2009-06-23T19:56:00.008+01:00

Evening all, lots of lovely piccies for you tonight.

First up, we have the two squads that are nearing completion. I just have to finish up their bases and dot their eyes. The second squad is missing a guy - the one with the horrible flamer conversion. I was going through one of my bitz boxes and found a flmaer set as well as quite a few grenade launchers. So that guy needs priming and doing up.

1st Platoon, 2nd Section

2nd Platoon, 2nd Section

Next is the Penal Legion Squad. You get ten heads with the Feral pack, so I combined those with the Rebel pack I got and came up with these guys. I had to use the weapons from an already-undercoated corporal for the Custodian as my last set of weapons seems to have gone missing...

I'm going to paint all the cloth in different muted colours, then give the whole models a wash with one of the brown washes to tie the colours together. Their defining feature will be the vivid-red cloth that goes over their death masks.

And finally, we have my efforts at scratch-building the Chimera-equivalent grav tank so far. The pictures aren't that good, I'll get some done against a non-whitish background once I've made some more progress. Any gaps you may be able to spy will be filled with Squadron Green Putty diluted with acetate.

The multilaser barrel(s):

Front(ish) views: (Notice the sole remaining cushion from my previous, very retro, 3-piece suite)

Top view: There's a gap in front of the turret as I want to add some ventilation grilles in that part, so it will have to wait until I go down to Halfords and grab some aluminium mesh. I am considering getting some tread-plate molded plasticard sheet but the only english source I have found so far charges about a tenner for and A4 sheet of the stuff, so the mesh will probably be the best way to go about it.

And a picture from before I trimmed and sanded the top-back and back plates down.

Details will be added to this basic frame using .5mm plasticard. Once I have that done, I'll move on to the skirting as well as the engine blocks which go on the sides in line with the turret.

I was pleasantly surprised with just how easy it is to work with plasticard. Even if your measurements are a bit off (hopefully bigger than you intended), you can always just stick the piece down, wait for it to set then trim it with a craft knife or clippers (if the overhang is too small to snap), then sand it down. Plastic glue is essential in my opinion, as well as two types of sanding paper - a fairly rough one to get most of it off then a super fine one to smooth it completely. Don't just get the super fine one - the paper will wear out way before you finish sanding...

It's funny, though I followed the basic process that I planned (from my last post), most of it got ignored. I did the two side-plates and the base, stuck those together, then added spacers close to the top to try and make sure the side were perpendicular to the bottom and parallel to each other. After that, it was just a case of going around the frame sticking on panels. For the turret ring, I just cut a hole out of one square using a compass cutter then stuck it to another sheet os the same size which then went onto the frame. In retrospect, I'd advise someone who's just starting to scratch-build to just get a good idea of what you want something to look like and have a quick thought on how that shape could be made using sheets then get stuck in. Until you have some experience with styrene and co., making an elaborate plan is a bit of a waste of time. So start with a project that isn't necessarily important for your army - just a cool little addition and have fun sticking plastic to itself to get an idea of how it all works. Precision-measurement and all that mumbo-jumbo can come later.

I'm definately going to be investing in some more tools though - a mitre, steel square and I want to find a perfect cube of some sort, so that I can stick a right-angle together and just leave one side resting on that cube (and therefore guarantee that it will be perpendicular when I come back to it), as well as a scriber and plenty more rods of different shapes and sizes.

Catch you later!

A cure for brain flatulence...

2009-06-19T11:30:00.003+01:00

Morning all,

I feel like a bit of an airhead right now. I was lying in bed, waiting for my brain to shut down last night when I went through one of those half-asleep Eureka! moments... And realised that all my planning on the frame for the APC had been, for the most part, one great big brain fart - you know, the kind that shakes the walls and kills/puts to sleep anything alive in the same room...

I realised that I didn't need to build such an elaborate support structure for the damn thing - I had originally planned to put the side panels on - maybe as two pieces per side with a gap in the middle - after the whole structure had been built. This, upon sleepy reflection is simply wrong. All I need to do, is cut out the side panels in one piece each, then stick the other outer hull pieces to them. I will still add some support struts in the middle, like so:
This will support them in the middle and lend the structure some strength.

So yes, my advice - if an idea seems overly complicated, sleep on it for a bit - doing this tends to clear the air...

Planning: APC Support Structure

2009-06-17T13:09:00.003+01:00

As promised, I have some wonderful MSPaint masterpieces for your perusal this morning.

A quick reminder of what I'm trying to build:

There are two concerns I have for this build: structural strength and opportunity for errors. I suppose structural strength won't matter too much as long as it survives the mold-making process - though if that fails miserably, I would probably want to scratch-build every one of them - in which case the stronger design would be better.

So here are the two plans I came up with. These are both side-views, and all sheets bar the bottom horizontal one are 53mm "deep" to account for the outer hull being 1mm thick on each side. Each join will be reinforced with a piece of square rod:

This is my initial design. The idea would be to assemble the coloured-in sheets first as the main structure then base all other parts on this frame. This design saves on plasticard compared to the second, but more importantly, I think it also reduces the risk of the final structure being wonky as there are comparatively fewer angles that have to be set.

This one goes for an initial box as the base, with all the relief based on top of that. It provides a more durable structure, but seems to make it easier to make a mistake (this is my completely uneducated opinion, by the way...). Quick note: I forgot to add in the sheet underneath the turret mounting (as I did in the first picture), just imagine it is there.

I also wacked out some plans for the turret. I really like the way they have turned out, I just need to transfer it to paper to get the appropriate measurements.

Right, well that's it, let me know what you think.

Cheers!

A quick thank you.

2009-06-16T13:47:00.004+01:00

Hello guys and (I assume) gals...

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who took the time to go over to Realms of Equinox and vote on the contest.

I'll be assembling and painting the command squad as quickly as I can once it arrives.

Mini-update: I'm currently trawling through the clean-up stage of both the Pig Iron and Cadian squads at the moment, before going wash-crazy with them. I've found that getting up a bit earlier and just doing one model stops it from becoming too much of a pain.

I've also succumbed and assembled the Penal Legion squad, which I will be entering in another contest over on Rites of War (I find these things to be really good motivation to get stuff done). They need some putty work done to their bases and then they're ready for priming.

I've also mapped out the main body for my chimera-equivalent grav APC and started listing out the dimensions of each piece I'm going to need - a joyful task that one (I stopped at 13). I'm still debating how to assemble the support structure for the outside facings, and will probably have to MSPaint some diagrams to show you.

Anyhow, see you later!

A few pictures!

2009-06-09T22:11:00.008+01:00

Wow, three posts in two days... I'm spoiling you. :D

First up, we have a WIP Skitarius (Mechanicum foot trooper). Bits used include a Feral head, Micro Art Studios Iron Brotherhood arm, Phoenix Wargamers Club bionic arm and a Bretonnian Men-at-Arms body, all mounted on a Daemonscape resin base. I've been accumulating stuff in my bits box to make a Mechanicum army for a while now, so it was nice to actually assemble a trooper. I allowed myself to as a reward for highlighting the black on one of my troopers this evening. The putty is still a bit rough, but as you're reading this, it's being cleaned up (it should have cured for long enough once I've finished this post).

Next up, we have my three company advisors-to-be. While the astropath and master of ordnance don't need any further modelling work, the fleet guy needs the top of his head chopped off, a pig-iron head added and something done about his right hand. Come to think of it, I may look in to giving the astropath a gas mask as well...

Next: two minimum-sized platoon troop choices... (two command squads (though I'm thinking that if I win the Attention! contest, the one on the right will be reassigned), each with two squads behind them - PIPs in the middle.

And lastly, he-who-was-going-to-be-my-captain (sorry about the blacked-out parts, by the way, I realised as I was typing this that I'd be disqualified from the afore-mentioned contest if I showed the pictures unedited...):

Keep in mind that the PI minis on the left are raised by about two or three milimietres. This guy is a beast - he even towers over the standard cadians (with smaller heads, granted, but still...).

Now, should I still go with him (with a suitable head swap) and pass it off as him being gene-bulked, in the manner of the Geno-Two Chilliad, or should I look for another model? I'm considering, the DKOK Commissar from Forgeworld (he is very nice!), but I can't seem to find any pictures online of him standing next to a standard figure...

Anyway, that's me out for tonight. Catch you later!

Preliminary "sketch" for Hover APC

2009-06-09T13:15:00.005+01:00

I've been thinking a lot about scratch-building tanks recently, but nothing beats getting stuff down on paper - be it digital or "analog" - to really solidify your thoughts. I've been doing a few (very bad) sketches on paper, but these are generally while I'm at the Dearest's house trying to ignore Hollyoaks on the tv *sigh*. So without my reference material, a lot of the sketches had to be scrapped. The hardest part, I find, is taking a two-dimensional drawing and imagining it, in detail, in three dimensions. It's especially hard with the APC and Light Tank as I cannot seem to find a single screenshot of them (so am working on these side-views alone).

Here's something I whipped up between spurts of actual work this morning:

And here's the original image:

The green part is the main body, and should hopefully be one piece, then everything of a different colour will have to be separate (as I intend to reproduce these as many times as I need). I've tried to simplify the individual planes of the original, while maintaining the general shape.

There will be several gun attachments - hopefully, I can make them all compatible with either the APCs turret or any of the tanks' hull mounts for easy interchangeability.

It's hard to represent the sloping of the top half of the hull - I think mt next task will be to sketch that out on it's own so that I can get a concrete idea of what exact pieces I'm going to need and how it's going to be assembled. Once I have the planning done, I'll be starting work with a few sub-assemblies first, to get into the swing of things...

Any advice on this process would be most welcome, I am a first-timer, after all! ;)

Helghast Planning: Heavy Weapon Teams (Pt2)

2009-06-08T12:50:00.004+01:00

Hello All!

This isn't quite the update I was aiming for: picture taking has been lax recently. Soon-ish though!

Right, on my thoughts this morning (and for a few days now) are the heavier weapons (lascannons and autocannons). Having asked Si over at Pig Iron, it would seem Kolony versions of their Chaingun and Heavy Laser teams are a long way off, so I'm going to be using the Heavy Infantry ones from their "old" range. This will be justified as being a platoon seconded to my company from the regiment's Heavy Weapons Company.

A very good thing about this is the Platoon Pack they do for Heavy Infantry:

This is the larger of the packs, there's a smaller one for £30 that comes without the 3 Assault Squads at the top of the image.

As it is, this pack gives me:

1 Command Squad for the HW platoon
2/3 of a Lascannon Squad
2/3 of a Missile Launcher Squad
2/3 of an Autocannon Squad (the chainguns)
and a full 6-man Heavy Bolter Team.

On top of that, I get five casualties (the kneeling one of which, depending on how he looks when I see him, might be up for conversion) who can be used as makeshift objective markers and nine Heavy Indantry to go towards that three Storm Trooper squads I want to build. Not bad for £45.

After that, I need onlt pay another £42 to end up with two full six-man teams of each heavy weapon (barring heavy bolters).

I think converting and painting that squad for attention has really changed my outlook - I was originally quite adamant about having every single model in a trenchcoat, but my stance has shifted, and will probably keep doing so throughout this project, i suspect.

In other news:

I bought the Commissar With Bolt Pistol off Ebay the other day, and got it in the post. He is one hell of a chunky so-and-so. He looks ridiculously out of proportion compared to the rest of my guys. I'm considering passing this off as him being gene-bulked in the manner of the Geno Five-Two from Legion, but want to look into alternatives first. Does anyone happen to have a DKOK comissar that they could compare size-wise (in a photo) to a standard guardsman at all? If you could, that would be a great help: I've tried googling it, but the closest I got was a comparison between the Kolony models and a Cadian on Warseer...

Also bought a nice alternative model for an astropath from Heresy Miniatures: The Dark Lord. Thoroughly recommended online store, the models are great, and the service excellent. Though the postage section does give a few days, every time I've ordered from them, I've received my models the next day. With the pilot model from the BFM box set (whom I will need to convert), I have all my Advisors accounted for.

I also bought a pack of the new Kolony Ferals as well as a pack of Rebels, and I'm going to combine them to become a Penal Legion Unit. I'm considering buying more Rebel heads for the Ferals, as I think their original heads are uniquely suited for making Skitarii (Ad-Mech). I'll butcher one up and stick that in the next round of photos, see what you think. ( have a few Men-At-Arms lying around).

Right, I think I'm all news-ed out. Oh wait, remember that BUM-UGLY sofa featured in a couple of my pictures (at least, Drax does, I'm pretty sure). Well that's gone now, I have a spiffy new sofa chair and poof(sp?) suite in a Dark Blue scheme - I am no longer mr Martian Wastes Camo-Pattern... Shame I had to cut a bit off the top of the chair to get it in my place though...

Now I really am out - off to look at all of your blogs. Catch you later!

EDIT:

Thanks for reminding me Klaus. The helmets will be the ones supplied with their open visor greened over. Crating the eye-piece should be easy enough - two balls of greenstuff pressen down in the centre with a styrene rod should do the trick!

Attention! has begun!

2009-06-01T13:25:00.004+01:00

Afternoon chaps!

The contest is a go! After pulling an all-nighter (well, until 5am that is, thanks to time difference), my entry was received loud and clear and is now up on Equinox's blog for your perusal. Though there is only one other entry, I have to say it's gorgeous. The guy seems to have taken a bunch of Tau legs and done wonderful things with them. The variety of poses and the sheer character of each one is great. My favorite's are the standing plasma gunner and the grande-launcher dude - tons of attitude!

So head on over, and have a look-see (and of course, cast a vote!).

Another update coming soon - maybe tonight!

Paint-fu Stormtrooper

2009-05-27T10:02:00.002+01:00

Through my considerable (hah!) talent with MSPaint, I give you a preview of what my Stormtroopers should look like...

I like the look of it (allowing for the innacuracies inherent in resizing the head and superimposing it upon a model whose original head might not have been at the same angle anyway...

In other news: Didn't get anything done on the section last night - was watching Saw with the Dearest. Like Fight club, it just isn't as good after the first time.

Also ordered 5 rebel kolony models and 5 of the new ferals to combine as my Penal Legion squad, so just got to wait for them to arrive and I'll have three troop choices! I would have bought the models required for my company command this month, but had to reduce my budget due to scratchbuilding supplies being purchased, as well as other overheads imposed by Real Life.

I'm also looking at aquiring a tripod for the digicam so that I don't have to take three to five photos just to get a decent one... Anybody have a preferred model for this, or will a dirt cheap one do the job just as well?

Helghast Planning: Stormtroopers

2009-05-26T09:54:00.006+01:00

Morning all, and welcome to another planning session. Today, the subject is the often denigrated glory-boys: Storm Troopers. While seemingly quite expensive, these guys should make a nice addition to my forces. They will of course be airdropped in most of the time, either via Deep Strike or Valkyrie. My goal, once I get the first squad and decide whether I like it enough, will be to have three of these, all mounted in Valkyries, thanks to Wayland Games. I doubt I'll use them all in a normal game, but they'll certainly look more impressive. So, piccies, the idea is simple enough, I'll be using trooper from Pig Irons older range who don't have greatcoats, but have the same, if heavier, armour type:

They also have bigger guns than the standard infantry, which fits perfectly.

These are the heads that I'm looking at using:

They look nice and heavy - for the whole carapace armour thing. I'm still on the fence as to whether to add grieves and gauntlets though.

There is an interesting pack that they do which includes a support weapon:

The problem is, I've already used that weapon with my standard boys as a heavy bolter, so it would seem unviable to be used as a plasma gun in anything but the friendliest games, so I'll just keep them with no upgrades, and if I need to remove a tank, I'll just have to use krak grenades... :D

In other news:

Bit of an update on the Assault! section:

The shot isn't too clear - it's the only one of a mediocre series of shots I took that was presentable, and sadly my camera died before I could take any more. Luckily I get paid before the end of the contest so will be able to grab some batteries before then. I've changed the eyes, and I have to say, while up close, they do look a bit silly, the effect from a foot or so away is very striking, I like it. So much so, that I've already redone the forst section in that style, as well as all the other primed models (some of which you can see in the background). The idea was to set them up on the one piece of assembled terrain I have with the painted squads at the front and primered squads at the back with just the eyes glowing. Hopefully it will work once I get the snapper back up and running.

I finished doing the bases this morning before work, and will be doing the red armbands and metal bits and pieces soon, so there aren't likely to be anymore photos of these guys until they go up on Equinox.

In other news, I've gotten round to drawing out the Leman Russ and Hellhound grav tanks enough to get a good idea of how I'm going to build them, though I'm still working on the chimeras.

Also, as a general appeal, has anyone played the original Ground Control game on PC, and do you happen to have a better screenshot of the Crayven "Hog" Artillery Terradyne:

I would be most grateful if you could send it over to me - I want to use it as a basis for all the artillery units. My email is: adalpheus - at - hotmail.com. Thanks in advance!

Anyway, back to work!

NEWS: Pig Iron Range Expanding

2009-05-22T14:55:00.003+01:00

Just had a quick look-see on Pig Iron's website and found some new additions, the Kolony Ferals:

And their heads:

These look damn good, and all sorts of Mechanicum ideas sprang to mind as soon as I saw them, head over and check them out: Pig Iron Productions

Helghast Planning: Tanks (Pt1)

2009-05-21T23:07:00.001+01:00

Right, guess we'll start planning what many a guard player would consider the "bread and butter" of the army: tanks!

I had a look at the new price list on Warseer earlier, and noticed the prices for tanks. I don't know what these are like compared to the current prices, but they're certainly above my "worth it" threshold (especially considering I find the Chimera and Russ chassis to be slightly on the ugly side). So it seems I'm going to be scratch-building/kitbashing, which is cool as it presents a challenge that will hopefully broaden my "modelling horizons", so to speak.

I though I'd give out a couple of really good links when it comes to scratchbuilding (and casting, but we'll get on to that in a bit):

http://ultrawerke.blogspot.com/: great guy, he hasn't updated his blog in a while, but if you have any questions, e-mail him, he is still around.
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/techmain.htm: stumbled upon this the other day, great resource, though not quite the type of models I'm looking at for the moment.

Feel free (as in, please do) to stick your favorite links or advice on this subject in the comments... (looking at you, Klaus) :D

Anyhow, here's some pictures of vehicles I like (with what they would count as in paranthesis):

Killzone 2:
Armoured APC(BS3 Land Raider):

Tank(not sure, but I would like to use the turret design):

Killzone: Liberation/Killzone 1:
Heavy Gravtank (Leman Russ chassis):

Video link:
Light Gravtank (Hellhound-type vehicles):

Grav APC (Chimeras):

Jet Bike:

I've decided to go with the hover variants, for two main reasons: 1. They look cool and 2. I don't have to build/allow for track links (Win).

It's very hard to find three-dimensional pictures, or footage of all these vehicles so I'll be taking the basic concepts and modifying them to my own designs. This will also help to make them easier to build.
Of course, I don't just want one of each, so shall be plunging into the adventure of casting the basic components myself using RTV moulds. Hopefully this will work out, though it is a long way off. Luckily, Chris (who appeared in one of my original posts), is taking a model-making course at University, and so has some experience with moulds and such. If worse comes to worse, I can try and get him to do the moulds on campus.
I'm also fortunate enough in that Chris has access to the campus supplies shop, so will be getting three A1-sized sheets of plasticard (styrene) for a tenner at the end of the month, which should hopefully sort me out for a while and allow me to start construction.

I knocked up a small sketch of the turret for the heavy tank the other day, while the Dearest was watching Hollyoaks. It ended up almost as big as a Chimera, so should be suitably impressive.

I'll be producing some proper schematics as soon as I get hold of some graph paper, just so I can get a definite plan down and know exactly what I'm doing at every stage of the construction process. I'm going to start with the tank, as it's the one that inspires me the most (it just looks really good), then probably move on to the APC and lastly the Light Tank. I'll also need to plan something for artillery pieces (maybe a different turret for the heavy tank). Sometime in the future, I may end up doing the AAPC (as a Land Raider), but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Ooh, I also found a very nice concept, by a guy called Dethelmm on the Playstation forums, for a stalker-type tank. Though interesting, I think I prefer the tank that Colonel Cobar pilots in Killzone Liberation, and may try my hand at that (link underneath the picture).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80WFvVlG1kc

Coming Soon: Planning: Special Characters, Veterans and Storm Troopers!

Cheers!

Section Taking Shape

2009-05-18T13:11:00.006+01:00

A little update on the Attention! section - and the rest of the first platoon. I've found it quite useful to have other models around waiting to be painted. If you finish a batch, but still have some wet paint on the palette that won't be used for that run of models, just extend the batch, do as much as you can with that colour on the other models waiting to be started. The way it's shaping up, by the time I've finished this competition section, I'll have most of the 2nd infantry section, 4 heavy weapon teams and the command section for 1st platoon done - bonus!

Anyhow, onto the bit you're actually interested in, visuals:

The whole section:

Sergeant, Flamer and Vox-caster:

The rest of the guys:

Please note that I having been playing around with the histogram in GIMP (especially the last two pictures), so the colours are a bit off. This is the best representation of what they actually look like (all the other photos were done with the curtains open, so suffered from glare):

I wasn't sure about the colour of the fatigues to start with, but they've grown on me. Maybe not the most realistic of colours, but I like the style, and they are simple to paint - Codex Grey basecoat, Wash Badab Black, heavy C. Grey drybrush and light Skull white drybrush then 4 or 5 of the washes again to tone them down and make them darker.

Remaining things to do are (a lot of) cleaning up the highlights for the black[Note: If you have consumed most of a bottle of port, do not attempt to paint, especially not extreme highlights...], giving them a couple more black washes then redoing the uppermost edges with Codex Grey again, highlights on the brown pouches, the bases and, of course, the eyepieces.

I want to try out a different approach to the glowing eyes with these guys. If it works out, I'll redo the previous squad too. The first time around, I wasn't too keen on adding orange and yellow to the model - I hate those colours. The problem is, I went back to look at the first section the other day and thought "meh" about the faces in general - instead of piercing bright red eyes, with glow spilling out, it just looks like they've painted their faceplated a really really dark red... It seems literally impossible to get a really bright light-source type red.

I also had a look around at various articles on OSL techniques and got a bit more grounded in the rules you should follow. So the new plan is the basecoat of Red Gore (what's in the picture), which should only be visible in the extreme corners, the Blood Red a bit further in, then yellow (not sure which colour - I hate it that much...), and a tiny dot of white. This will probably be just as long a process as painting the rest of the model in it's entirety, but hopefully, it should pay off. The glow will be toned down as well - that's why the facemasks have been highlighted in grey. There will be a line on the edge of the helmet - the only real place, when you look at the heads properly, where the light will fall - as well as some of the weapons, where the head is close enough to them. Hopefully this will look better.

On a functional/display note, I'm looking into getting myself a three-column template. Hopefully, this won't mess with the existing (few) features of the blog, but if it does, these should be back up and running soon enough (this will likely happen at the weekend).

Cheers!

I Hate Painting Cadians!

2009-05-11T13:58:00.003+01:00

Small update - I've done most of the cloth on the cadian-pig-iron hybrids and some of the extreme highlighting on the armour and I'd forgotten this since last time I did a unit of these models. I find cadians to be an absolute pain to paint. I'm not sure what it is about them - maybe the ridiculous number of folds in their trousers, their jacket "skirts", their weapons or the whole arms-getting-in-the-way deal... Probably a combination of them all. I'll be glad to get back to the Pig Iron minis, once this squad is done.

Am I just an isolated case, or do others share my dislike?

Product Review: KR Multicase

2009-05-07T10:49:00.009+01:00

I've had a real problem with GW cases, ever since I bought my one when I first started. For one, the slots are 9 by 4. It is a rare person who consistently has only nine troopers in a squad. It always irked me to have to stick the sergeant/specialist in another section of the case. There's also the foam itself. I'm not sure if I'm the only one here, but I hate the scratchiness of it - inserting and removing models feels like your sanding them down to me, plus it feels unkind to my lovely soft hands (ok, I'm kidding...).

So I started looking into alternatives, going through battlefoam and sable - gawking at the price for the former and finding the layout for the latter such that I quickly resumed browsing blogs. Then I found KR Multicase, a UK-based company (Win), who do foam trays and cases for them (double Win) and, best of all, the prices they display on the website include shipping (Sold).

So I had a look around their website, got a feel for the different sized trays they do, as well as their carrying options. They have lots of options, and it can get a bit overwhelming at first, you just have to stay focused on what you want. I found a tray that holds 40 models in compartments just slightly smaller than the GW ones. Perfect for Guard.

In the end I ordered the original Card Case with 4 of those trays inside (Product code: KRMN4) - storage for 160 men at the nice price of £22. That's about a third off the price of a GW case for about a third extra storage capacity. Nice.

The case came within two working days (though, as usual, I had to pick it up from the sorting office), so nice and prompt.

It came in a simple package envelope, which I wasn't so pleased about - but then, it bore up well to the general manhandling that Royal Fail tend to give any of your items.

Here's what it looks like:

The contents (there's a top sheet which I managed to hide under one of the trays):

Compared to a standard GW case:

With models inside:

The compartments, as you can see, are perfect for Imperial Guard, but slightly cramped for Space Marines, especially with dynamic poses. That's ok though, they do another type of tray with larger compartments.

The foam is nice and soft, but still rigid enough to support the models, which is great. The card the case is made of is indeed (as claimed on the website) top quality stuff - thick, rigid and durable - to a point. The cases also stack beautifully. Once I get rid of all but one of my GW cases, my place will be much neater with a stack of cases in the corner/in the wardrobe, easily accessible, and not hidden in every cranny I can find that will fit a GW one.

So I would say these card cases are not so much for army transport as for army storage. Though the card is good quality, it is still card, so will wear a lot more than your plastic case, especially if you're in to the whole tournament scene, etc...

That's where the rest of KR's range comes in - they have a series of bags and aluminium cases that fir the card cases themselves inside, making them ideal for transport to and from your gaming location of choice.

One thing I do think I'll be doing, is taking some electrical tape to apply to the corners and edges of the card to hopefully reinforce and protect them. It should also make getting the handle out, which doubles as a locking mechanism, much easier.

So, in summary:

I like:

- the quality of the trays

- the speed of service

- the price

- the ease of storage

- they do GW case-sized trays as well

I dislike:

- that the card needs reinforcing

- the handle can be a pain when you're trying to get it out (you feel like you're risking damage to the case itself)

Which gives it:

4/5 Sackboys! - Definitely recommended for the right person!

The Host Starts to Take Shape

2009-05-06T21:04:00.005+01:00

Evening all, nice big update for you guys tonight (aren't you lucky!). Finally wrested the camera from The Dearest(tm), and got a few snaps. So, let's jump straight in!

First up, we have 1st Platoon's Command Section

From left to right: Vox-caster (missing backpack, which I'm going to have to get hold of at the end of the month), Plasma Gunner, Lieutenant, 2nd Plasma Gunner and Medic.

1st Platoon's 2nd Section

Same set-up as the first section - Vox-caster and Flamer.

2nd Platoon, 1st Section:

These are the guys for the Attention! contest - though you'll notice I've switched out the grenade launcher for another flamer (that is, if you decided to go to the trouble of squinting at the last post while trying to avoid the shocking camo-pattern sported by my furniture...).

2nd Platoon, 2nd Section:

These guys are sourced mainly from the one squad of cadians that I managed to half paint up. Notice the absolutely naff flamer conversion. Luckily it gets pretty lost in the crowd when they're all grouped up, so it's fine.

You may be wondering about the flamer spam, to which I need only say one thing (ok, maybe two): Orks and Tyranids. My main opponnent has an enormous army of the former and is starting up an army of the latter, so it's a no-brainer, really...

2nd Platoon, Command Section (WIP):

These guys have 2 grenade launchers, medic and vox-caster.

Close-up of the lieutenant who is a mish-mash of pig-iron and, as all you treadheads out there will know, tank commander parts:

Still have to do the second half of his trenchcoat, find another arm for him, and also, probably, ass larger cuffs to his wrists.

Next we have my first four heavy weapon teams:

Missile Launchers

Heavy Bolters

The loader on all of them is magnetised to the base for wound-counting purposes (not that that will matter, the amount of S6 I expect will be flung at them...

A couple of meltagunners:

These guys aren't assigned to squads yet, but will be used as extra options in the meantime. I'm sort of planning on having three standard squads of infantry per platoon then whatever extras I can fit in, but we'll see how that bears up after some playtesting. I would prefer to keep the command section:normal squad ratio quite low if possible to maximise on orders.

And, as a reward for getting this far (bear with it, it's nearly over), here's a look at my first Advisor: the Master of Ordnance.

The body was originally going to be used as the command squad vox-caster, but I thought that it would detract from the advisor's uniqueness if he was the same as a different model in the same squad, just with a different head.

And the group shot:

Finally, we have this guy:

What do you guys (and gals) think I should do with him?

So, that wraps up the progress. Next step is to undercoat them all. I'll be doing the compo boys first as I get the feeling I'm getting to the end of the can, then it's on to painting them all.

I also bought a case from KR Multicase this month, which I'll be reviewing in an upcoming post.

Boy, am I glad that's over - it took half an hour just to upload the damn pics!

See ya soon guys!

Attention! Squad Pt.1

2009-05-02T01:57:00.005+01:00

Hello guys, it's two o'clock in the morning in my neck of the woods so, for me, it's technically the 2nd May, meaning I can stick up my proof picture for the competition, which is a picture of your unpainted squad on/with the new codex in the background. So here it is:

My apologies for the picture quality - the photo was taken using the webcam on my laptop because the missus has appropriated the camera...

Anyhow, depending on the weather and whether I get my platoon command squad done tonight, I should have these guys undercoated tomorrow. I'm going to try a different way of doing the glowing eyes with these guys - add some orange and yellow to make it more intense, and also reducing how much the glow travels to other parts of the models... Should be interesting.

Right, back to the workstation and the D6 Generation Warmachine podcast - wish I actually knew the rules they're yabbering on about...

And the results are in!

2009-04-29T16:02:00.005+01:00

Well they were in most of a week ago, but I hadn't gotten round to them until now...

So we have, in order of popularity:

AEWWII Krieghunds 9 (52%)

Cadfael 4 (23%)

Reaper War Dog 2 (11%)

Heresy Hellhounds 1 (5%)

AEWWII K9s 1 (5%)

Turnout for the poll was 17 (though there were probably a few who were unable to use it due to blogger being the essence of FAIL when I posted it), which I don't consider bad for a first poll, thanks everyone!

It seems a lot of people love the Krieghunds, which I can understand completely. I'm not sure whether it's the models themselves, or just the amazing paintjob, but they look absolutely gorgeous. I'm definately going to use them, but not, I think, for rough riders. I think the variety of poses, even though there would be only five or so models in the unit, is a bit lacking. So I'm thinking that I'll paint a pair of these guys up as-is and they can either be mascots, cadfael-style, or count as the officer-in-question's bodyguards. I may also do the War Dog for another officer, though we shall have to see...

I'm leaning more and more towards the Heresy Hellhounds for Rough Riders - to the point where my mind is pretty much made up. The only question that remains is "how to do them".

Should they have handlers, or should they be controlled by a box modelled onto the back of their head armour? If they do have handlers, should I have them leashed/control boxed, or should the handlers be riding them?

73rd: You said you had one of these guys, are they big enough to be used as ridden beasts, do you think?

I'm personally not sure they would be, and won't be definate until I see them in person.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Progress Update:

Received my second package from Pig Iron today (hooray!). Also have done some highlighting on the HB Teams, but I'll probably leave off those now until I have the lot of them assembled so I can batch paint the hell out of them.

Also now have enough heads to (for the most part) convert my 30 Cadians into Higs, so, once this latest order is assembled, This will be the grand total:

1 Command Squad w/officer, standard, medic and two plasma gunners

1 Officer converted from cadian tank crew (I've added half the skirt of a greatcoat on at the moment - shall have to get you guys a photo soon).

2 10-man squads of "Umbra" Helghans.

3 10-man Squads of "Vektan" Helghans (Cadians).

2 HW Heavy Bolter teams

2 HW Missile Teams

Oh, and one chimera - which I'm currently just using to try and find a scheme for the tanks - I've never properly painted a large vehicle...

Anyways, that's a good 40 minuted of work-time wasted, thank you all for helping me achieve that!

See you anon.

Helghast Planning: Heavy Soldiers

2009-04-27T13:14:00.002+01:00

Heavy Soldiers stride through the battlefield, practically immune to all small arms fire. In the game, these guys are hulking monstrosities seemingly immune to anything you can throw at them (until you learn how to kill them). The first time you go up against one, it's certainly a bit rattling. They can even take a couple of missiles in the face and still mow you down with their nasty HMGs.

These guys are rather large:

However, I'm not too keen on the helmet design (at least, how it came out in-game):

I prefer the look of this guy, who is an advanced version of the Heavy called an Arc Trooper, due to his lightning based calm-down cannon:

To this end I'll be using the following models, as suggested by Cohinor in the comments to an earlier post (thanks for that, by the way):

It is going to take quite a bit of sculpting-fu, but I think it will be worth it in the end. In terms of counts-as, with the lightning arcs, these guys will be used as armoured sentinels with plasma cannons. They may be a bit small, but I think they will do quite nicely.

Before I was pointed to those models, I was eyeing up the APEs from the Incursion game:

Though they are quite expensive - a six-man team costs about 40 squids - I will also collect a squad of these guys to use as "little brothers" to the arc troopers, counts-as Ogryns in normal games and Terminators in Apocalypse games.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Small progress update: After a few delays (real life got in the way), I finally have the two Heavy Bolter teams, two sergeants and the flamer-boy primed and ready to go. Waiting on my copy of the IG Codex so that I can photograph my cadian head-swaps on it and get cracking for the comp.

Also ordered another 22 models. With this and next month's order, that will be one troop choice ALMOST complete...

Also expect a post soon concerning the poll.

WIP: Heavy Bolter Teams + Converted Cadians

2009-04-19T17:35:00.005+01:00

Hello again guys. So... Heavy weapon teams. I have to admit, I did try the diagram I drew on my previous Planning post. It ended up rather fail - then again, my compass wasn't designed to take a hobby knife... I got the two circles of plasticard out ok, but then had to cut out the base for the models as well. In the end, it ended up looking a bit messy and had taken me four hours... not an efficient use of time. So, I plumped for 40mm bases (because I have tons of them) and I think they turned out quite well. In the end, I'm only likely to play friendly games anyway. If someone has a problem with that, I can just plump the whole model on a 60mm circle for measuring purposes.

So here they are:

I apologise for the bad picture quality - my camera cut out half-way through the shoot. That means you don't get to see the other sergeant and flamer guy to the right of that picture or the way the rifle-armed models on the hw teams are magnetised so can be removed for wound-counting.

I also have these guys:

They're being prepared for the ATTENTION! Contest started by Equinox over on his blog.

The rules demand mostly GW models (though conversion is ok), and that the squad be a legal choice in the new codex. I'm pretty sure these guys should be ok: 10 men, sergeant, grenade launcher and vox. They're missing three heads, but they will be attached when my next pig iron order comes through.

As I have a grand total of 30-odd cadians, I'm thinking I'll buy some spare heads and get neck twisting. They will be a platoon attached to my main army from a different Helghan battalion to explain the difference in uniform.

Cheers guys!

Additional: Attack Dogs

2009-04-18T13:46:00.004+01:00

Well I got a lot of very good suggestions on what models to use - thank you very much guys! So, now you can help me choose! I've stuck a poll in the right-hand column, you can select multiple answers (if you're indecisive, like me...).

So, here are your options:

1. Cadfael

2. Hellhounds by Heresy Miniatures:

3. War Dog by Reaper Miniatures:

4. German Krieghunds by Darkson Designs:

5. American K9s by Darkson Designs:

So fire away guys, let's hear your opinions and any reasons why in the comments! (I'm personally routing for Cadfael! :D)

EDIT: I've tried to change the War Dog entry from Rackham to Reaper but Blogger doesn't seem to like me...

Helghast Planning: Attack Dogs

2009-04-17T13:16:00.003+01:00

And another round of planning. Here we have an attack dog concept for the PSP version of Killzone. I'm not exactly sure what I would be counting these guys as - Rough Riders, maybe? The twelve inch charge is what makes it seem appropriate.

The main spanner in the works for these, is finding a dog model of the right type - short-furred and lean-looking, a boxer dog, basically. I'm very tempted to grow these guys completely out of proportion and use the Heresy Miniatures Hellhound minatures, shaving off all the spikes (they're going to be covered in greestuff anyway). If I include handlers as well, I may be able to pass these off as Ogryns too - have the handlers carrying grenade launchers.

I would like to find some decently-sized hounds instead though. If anyone has any good links, I'd be extremely grateful.

Helghast Planning: Heavy Weapon Teams

2009-04-15T07:13:00.008+01:00

More planning today, mateys(sorry, watched POTC 1&2 last night...). This time, on the subject of heavy weapon teams. Someone recently directed me to a terminator-style model (with a german helmet) and suggested that I use them as "counts-as" heavy weapon teams. I'm personally not too keen on the idea. For one, as will be seen in a future planning post, I have plans for the Helghan "Heavies" already, and secondly, it's to do with the base size.

Current ruling, as far as I know, is that you must use a base that is either the same size or bigger than the one supplied for the model in the box. For heavy weapon teams, this is (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong) a 60mm base which, when you get down to it, is pretty damn big. I know I'll be having trouble fitting these things in, for example, ruins or cover with such a massive base. So I came up with that amazingly technical drawing there.

The idea is that I can use the standard 60mm base for any game that isn't with one of my regular opponents then, when playing "the usual suspects", I can just remove the outer section (the dark one) and end up with an effectively cavalry-sized base. The main problem is going to be keeping the thing secure, but, thinking about it, once the team is set up, it's not likely to move for the whole game, so it won't be much of a problem.

So what say you? Yay or Nay?

*EDIT*

Just to clarify the model's I'll be using, for King's benefit:

Missile teams

The left-hand models will be heavy bolter wielders

Eventually, heavy lasers should be coming out for the Kolony range, but here's a preview from their previous range. If it takes too long, I can just convert them anyway.

Pict Captures: Assault on Pos13

2009-04-13T23:01:00.006+01:00

These picts were recovered on the planet Devros III, official designation 34-65, during the 7th decade of the Great Crusade. They were originally taken by the vis-feed of a Devran sergeant during a Helghan night assault on that detachment's fortified city ruin.

Helghan soldiers are famous for their utter ruthlessness and cold disdain for weak opponents, which, considering most of the Devran Defence Force was mostly composed of peasant levy, included the vast majority of their foes in this theatre.

The greatcoats and characteristic white stripes down the sides and on the cuffs indicate that this squad is from the 8th Battalion, "Umbra". The lack of a clear image of their squad and platoon markings precludes any exact determination of which squad is being depicted, especially as several squads would have taken part in this assault.

These Helghan wear the standard gear for their forces during the Great Crusade. They are completely sealed from the environment by heavy duty synth-fibers and their standard issue H-315 gas helmet. This design includes redundancy systems in case the main filtration unit is breached, night-vision optical set as well as a vid-feed on the side of the helmet, allowing his Sergeant, Lieutenant or Captain to receive tactical updates and follow his movements on the field. These feeds are relayed through the squads' comms set.

The planet fell three weeks later when a strike force from the Iron Hands Legion annihilated the resistance headquarters thanks to intel gathered from captured prisoners.

More painting progress

2009-04-12T22:20:00.005+01:00

Evening Peeps,

I've theoretically finished the squad, but am not sure. What do you think of the glowing effect? At first I tried white with red wash over it but, of course, it went pink... So I went over it and used scab red then blood red. Is the effect any good, or should I just go over in black and do them like the rest of the armour?

Oh, and I'm also going to change the cuffs to a single white line going through the middle. I think the full white cuffs are a bit much...

The last picture is further to the hint in the last post. Don't worry though, his arm isn't stuck in that position... I have the remains of two assault and one normal terminator sets, as well as a squad of the old-style plastic termies, which I'm going to turn into a detachment of Morlocks with magnetised arms. Hopefully, I'll be able to sculpt the straps on the terminators' arms and, thanks to the set nature of pre-heresy shoulderpads, be able to chop and change the arms as and when needed using magnets.

Enjoy...

Helghan progress (better pics)

2009-04-08T18:21:00.004+01:00

Quick one: I'm late for dinner...

Sergeant and squad:
And a hint of things to come...

Progress Update and another scale shot.

2009-04-08T07:43:00.004+01:00

Just a quick one guys, to let you know I'm not slacking...

Ignore his eyes, that's just the basecoat. The whole ten man squad is at the same stage. Just need to wash the highlights a bit, finish the base, start on the glow and get the metallics done, then we have the first painted squad.

Having realised that it's not going to take me a whole month to paint a squad, I've started another project to tide me over until the next payday (I'll also be buying more each month to keep my hands mostly full...) Details forthcoming...

Oh, and pardon the crappy pictures, they were taken this morning ten minutes before my bus left, so I just grabbed one with and one without flash. Pick which one you prefer and just look at that one. I'll actually set up a photo booth when the squad is finished.

Using Non-GW Products

2009-04-03T12:39:00.003+01:00

Hello all,

I just read a post over on The Great Crusade concerning the use of non-GW models for GW games. I think it's pretty obvious what my stance is on this, but I was just wondering what everyone else in the blogosphere thinks.

A couple of people on that post said that they either used to or still are GW purists - they'll only ever use Games Workshop models for their hobby. I personally don't see the sense in this, GW can't be the be-all and end-all of miniatures, can it? Admitted, their sculpts, especially in recent times, do put a lot of the other companies to shame; but I've seen plenty of lovely figures created by non-GW companies that I'm dying to get my hands on, whether they have a use in-game or not.

I suppose the questions are, if you're a "purist", why just GW? And if you're not, is there an "appropriate level" of non-GW sculpts that should be brought to a game of Warhammer or 40k?

I'd be interested on your thoughts and opinions.

Basic Tip: Always Thin Your Paints

2009-04-02T19:06:00.003+01:00

Hello all. Quick tip for beginners here. This is my opinion though, so feel free to ignore it... :D

As the title says, always thin your paints before applying them to the model. Two or three thin coats are infinitely better than a single globulous one... (New word for you there).

I like to add two parts water to one part paint, but that's just personal preference. Always best to be safe though. If the mixture is too dilute, you can always leave it a few minutes and test it again until you're happy with the consistency. You're looking to avoid obscuring any of the detail on the model and the paint should flow nicely onto it.

You can practice on a sprue (or a metal model which you can then strip afterwards anyway) to get a feel for it.

This applies ESPECIALLY to white, which is, truth be told, a horrible shade to paint. The best way that I have found is to, starting from a Chaos Black undercoat, apply layers of grey, gradually getting lighter. So start with Codex Grey, then Fortress Grey, than a mix of Fortress Grey+Skull White then finally Skull White itself. Always make sure you have a uniform coat of the underlying shade before you add the next layer. This will help the white be solid afterwards. If it is splotchy, then just wait for it to dry and add another layer of the same colour until you have the smooth finish.

As long as you keep your layers watered down, the lovely detail on your model will remain intact, and you'll have a nice solid colour to bring that detail out.

I used Shadow Grey on the sergeant in this picture, but it's the same principle (he was (and still is, to my eternal shame) PIP at the time):

The Helghast are here... at least, some of them.

2009-04-01T07:31:00.006+01:00

Ok, a bit later than I intended, but finally, we have some actual models!:

Sergeant. Added a single pro-create shoulderpad.

Vox-boy. Had to cut the vox unit in half to get it on him.

Flamer guy with added green-stuff shawl - my first try at sculpting cloth.

And the rest of the squad.

The squad's transport. I still have a few winged skulls to remove, as this is a pre-heresy force, but I got a bit impatient...

After a few unsuccessful attempts to take an unblurry picture of the turret, I had to lay it next to the chassis. I'll probably leave it unattached so I can get hold of some extra weapon options for it (if I remember correctly, the scatter laser is a bit meh, weapon-wise...).

Concerning colour scheme, the trenchcoats will be black with very muted highlights (black with a drop of codex grey), the weapons will remain black but with a sharper highlight, as will the body armour. The fatigues pose a problem though. I've been looking at camouflage schemes online and really like the MARPAT urban digital camo:

But I have no idea as to how to go about painting it... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I want to do the same scheme for the tank as well, but that should be easier as it is larger...

Helghast Planning: I've found my snipers!

2009-03-31T12:23:00.004+01:00

Afternoon all,

Progress Report: Finished assembling, sculpting and basing for the squad last night, went to take a photo, and the batteries on my camera died... Typical. So shall take photos this evening.

On to the subject of the post. I was shirking off a few minutes of work this morning hunting for urban digital camo schemes on google when I came across a tutorial with THE perfect model for this. That tutorial led me to the Urban Mammoth site (one I'd visited a fair few months back to look at the Legionnaire models) and this box set:

How perfect are they? The kneeling one doesn't really need work doing to him, the top middle and bottom right just need head swaps and the top right needs a green-stuffed hood. Enough snipers for two special weapon teams in one go for under 20 squids...

Also found these little gems:

They will be becoming squad sergeants and/or aides - I'll figure it out once I get my mitts on them.

Product Review: Pig Iron Productions

2009-03-28T17:08:00.005Z

Afternoon all,

I went and picked up my Pig Iron miniatures from the sorting office today, and I'm very happy with them. I sent my enquiry about a week before I got paid and received my invoice the same morning from Lisa. I even changed my order the day before pay-day and it was done in twenty minutes.

Paid on the 26th and received a post office note in the door on the 27th saying I needed to sign for them - so next day delivery with proof of receipt, great!

I was expecting a box, but then these are hardy metal models, not flimsy resin. They came in a jiffy bag, all sorted by pack like so:

Everything was intact (the bags look messy in this pic, but that's just light reflecting from them). In terms of service, I can thoroughly recommend Pig Iron, they are great and I'm definitely happy with my decision to use their models.

Here is the contents layed out (pardon the shoddy picture):

At the top are the NCOs, middle two rows are the standard troopers with both HQ head sprues next to them, then at the bottom are the special weapon troopers. It's interesting to note that there are ten different variants of body for the standard troopers, which came as a bit of a surprise, being used to GWs old "units in threes" approach to Warhammer models. Mould lines are as standard, none of them look hard to remove.

And here's a scale shot for a standard trooper:

That's Chris in the background... :D

They are a tad smaller than standard guardsmen, but I see that as a plus - they make the space marines look nice and big, as they should (note that he is standing on a metal tab that adds to his height).

I'm not sure how to do the basing - I am intending to rebase all my Iron Hands anyway, so I could just stick the Kolony guys straight on and blend the tab into the base with green stuff, or I could try and remove all the tabs before sticking them to bases - though that method would probably make them more fragile. Any opinions?

So there you have it, Pig Iron are great, there prices are reasonable and the customer service is excellent. Check them out at their website. Meanwhile, I've washed the models and am off to put these boys together. See you soon!

Helghast Planning: Command Squads

2009-03-27T12:42:00.006Z

Being the right time of the month, the components for my first squad are being shipped as we speak. It cost me 35 squids, but this also gives me the basis for three full squads once I buy extra booster packs, so it averages out at £21/Squad with most of the bits and bobs for a fourth squad as well (would just need an extra sergeant body). Pretty good, in my opinion.

Anyways, Command Squads.

I'm not sure what to do with the robot in this pack, though I'm thinking of maybe using him as an ammo carrier for a heavy bolter team. A solution for a medic will also be needed.

The guy with the control panel will end up as the vox-caster.

The officer for the first platoon is self-explanatory - I love that crossed arms pose, and there's a gap in his equipment pouches at the back so I can stick on whatever weapon he ends up with in the list. Most junior officers will be basically the same, but with different bodies, while the senior officers will be based on these guys:

My heroic senior officer will be based on Radec:

The post on BOLS mentioned bodyguards for officers, which played right into my plans for these guys:

They were originally used as croud control in the games, but I think they'll be rather effective as bodyguards. I'll be using the left-hand head from the set above, then green-stuffing the collar and armour pads onto an NCO body. The main challenge will be the shields. I want to make them clear, so will probably have to construct a frame for them and then insert individual panels of blister pack after painting has been completed.

That's about it for these guys. Apologies for the long-windedness and lack of self-made content. I mainly started this blog as a way of organising my thoughts, laying them out plain and simple, and keeping them in one place, which has worked well so far.

I'll be adding a review for Pig Iron's services once I receive my package, and be assembling the models as soon as possible, so don't worry, pictures are coming! :D

Helghast Planning: Snipers (and more on grunts).

2009-03-25T10:10:00.006Z

Greetings,

Right, well I've had a few days to simmer on it, and I'm thinking of using the middle heads in this picture for the sergeants instead:

Looking at the accompanying model on the right, they have about the right shape (I can always file them down a bit) and the gas mask will match the grunts' ones. On top of that, I get four of the right-hand heads per pack, which will be going on vox operators.

Anyway, what's cooler than two glowing red eyes? Three, of course!

These are some of the coolest guys in the KZ2 game, and I'm wanting to do them justice. The obvious route, I suppose, would have been to use Space Marine Scouts (for the cloaks) and Dark Angel robed heads. They would end up too chunky, especially as the pig iron models are slightly smaller than standard guard. So I've had a look around the internet and seen a few possibilities for conversion, though heads will have to roll, and sculpting-fu will have to be developped for the poncho and faceplate...

None of them are ideal solutions, though I think the first one is the best match so far... Shall have to mull over it for a bit...

Helghast Planning: The Grunts

2009-03-20T13:19:00.004Z

I've liked the Helghast since the first Killzone came out, but the recent release of Killzone 2 has elevated their design to lofty heights of AWESOME and WIN (as Vredesbyrd would put it). There's just something about the glowing red eyes...

This, combined with the desire to start an army from scratch and the pending release of the Guard Codex, just turned the question of what 40k modelling project I should do into a no-brainer.

So I went off into the webs and flexed my google muscles to dig up some cool concept sketches.

So here's the plan for the basic infantry squads.

The basic troopers are going to be from Pig Iron's Kolony range, mainly because they have more modern gas masks, seem more "german" and won't break the bank as much as Forgeworld Death Korps.

I'll be keeping the cloth-over-the-mask idea for special weapons troopers as well as trying to add some padding for them, something along these lines:

This will make the stand out nicely and also make the "special weapons" squads mentioned in the recent BOLS rumour post seem suitably distinctive (Ignore the sniper rifles, they'll be covered in a different post).

Finally, the sergeant will come from the NCO pack, of the same range:

But I'm in two minds as regards the head.

Should I keep the standard covered helmet or try and come up with something looking more like a field cap? I've seen some very nice gas-masked german field cap heads on West Winds Productions site:

With a couple of greenstuffed eye lenses, these could look really nice, I'm just teetering on the fence concerning them though... Any opinions?

That about rounds it up for the basic squads. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, be it about the subject material or blogging in general (are there too many pictures?).

Next time: Scouts/Snipers