Tag: assembly

Deimos Predator Progress

A little more progress on the Predator done tonight. I’m dry-fitting the turret pieces right now and figuring out how to do that back part. Used half of a ping pong ball and a 40mm base for the turret.  Pretty happy with the front, though I’ll probably do some trim work to match the model from Forge World.




Deimos Predator

I’ve been wanting to try and do some custom building lately to try out some new techniques to bring my build quality up, and decided to try and built a Deimos Predator.  You can see the model I will be attempting to build here from Forge World.

Really enjoy some of the ascetics of the vehicle, though my conversion won’t have everything, but it should be fun to see what I can come up with.  I did some experiments bulking out the front tonight with some plasticard, actually I am using for sale signs which are much cheaper.  The shape isn’t right yet, but the main point was to try out the material and nothing is glued yet, so it will look much better in the final version.



Painting a Storm Raven

So with one Storm Raven down, I figure I should learn a few things from the first build and painting that I could really do a better paint job, with much less effort.  The first thing was not gluing everything together, rather do sub assemblies that can be combined when the majority of the painting work was done.  So I built the wings, engines, and hull separately and then primed and airbrushed the base coat.  I’m much better with the airbrush now as well, and the finish on this one is much better.  I’m using Vallejo GC Heavy Ochre as my base color (thinned down about 1:1).

I also masked off a couple parts of the model that will have the checkered pattern on it.  I used blue painters tape, and then cut squares out and laid out in the area to do the black.  Much easier than free-handing all of them, though I will need to go do some cleanup.  I’m planning on adding more black and red details to break up the yellow and give it some nice contrast.  This model is also magnetized, and I made sure the polarity lined up with the other Storm Raven so I won’t have to keep the different bits separate from each other.  The result should be finishing the model in a fraction of the time, to a higher quality.




Wraithseer Conversion WIP

Wraithseer conversion

Wraithseer Conversion

I finished up my conversion for a Wraithseer for my Mymeara Eldar.  It was not too difficult and I’m really pleased with the result.  The base is just a plastic Wraithlord kit and a D-cannon from a Support Weapon platform.  The spear is made out of the wraithsword cut off on top, plastic q-tips for the shaft and then the fuel tank from a flamer from the wraithlord kit for the butt.  There is a wire run through the whole length of the spear to give it strength.  The shield is just made from plasticard with a spirit stone glued to it.  Really excited to get this painted up and ready to play.




Ice Table WIP #3

 
I managed to get all of the white portions painted yesterday and it is really coming together.  I will give the snow areas a coating of Future floor to give a nice glistening effect and then I just need to figure out how to do my ice.  I’m thinking clear resin with a little blue and a little white ink or paint mixed in.  I’ll try to pick some up this evening for testing purposes over the weekend.



Terrain Failure – Ice Crystals

Cutting the ice pillars
Painting the ice pillars
Gloss varnishing the ice pillars fail!
Last night the wife and I had a crafting/Star Trek night.  While she worked on some crocheting I pulled a bunch of scrap foam from building the table to work on some ice crystals to use as terrain.  Managed to make a whole bunch of various sizes and was pretty pleased with the result.  I used some cheap acrylic craft paint (only slightly darker than the actual blue of the foam) and dry brushed the edges white.  This morning before work, I took them outside and gave them a spray of gloss varnish to give them a nice shinny look, but to my dismay they started dissolving away despite the paint!  Generally I use a thicker latex paint on foam which will protect it enough that spray paints and varnishes will work, but the acrylic paint is not thick/strong enough.  Probably half are ruined beyond repair, the other half should be alright, but I’ll need to make more.  Next time I’m going to use Future Floor polish through the airbrush instead to avoid further failure.



Ice Table WIP #2

 
 
I managed to do more work on the ice table.  I attached the foam to the plywood and put a base coat of light blue paint on the whole thing.  Also picked up the rest of the materials for the third board section, as I didn’t have enough of the 1.5″ foam to do the board.  Also you can see the test fitting of some of the details that are going to be added.  For the third section I’m considering narrowing the river down and maybe building some sort of bridge over it.  Though I want to be able to stack these boards on each other, so most detail needs to be removable.  Also I need to figure out what to do for the pumping station in the middle of the river. 



Ice World Board for Mymeara Eldar WIP

I picked up the supplies tonight to start my new board.  I’ve been having an itch recently to build some terrain for a while now and decided to do something different and build an ice-world board.  It will go well with the Mymeara Eldar, but could be used for any army really.  The first picture shows my concept drawings.  The board will consist of 3 modular pieces (maybe expanded out with a fourth for variety later on) that can be put together in different ways.  The main feature is a large river that runs through the middle of the board that will be iced over.  I’ve marked where on the board the river banks need to line up so that they can be placed in any arrangement.  The other permanent feature will be some pipes that run out of the river from a pumping station.  The rest will be modular.  A few ideas that I would like to build: crystal forests, communications/sensor tower, islands for the river and outposts.  Also thinking a few Eldar specific bits like a webway portal.
After I finish cutting the foam up, I will paint with a light blue latex paint to seal the foam up, and then apply a fine sand to the foam portions to act as snow.  The real trick will be to do  the iced over river.  I figure I can paint it a dark blue and then use either a clear resin or water effects and than scratch the surface with sand paper to get an ice look, but I’m not sure yet.  Will have to experiment a little to figure something out.  If anyone knows a good tutorial on doing ice, especially in large scale post a comment.

Ice World Board Concept Sketch
Ice World Board WIP 1
Ice World Board WIP 2
Ice World Board WIP 3




The problems with second hand miniatures


I love to get a good deal on some cheap miniatures.  I always keep my eyes open at thrift shops and about once or twice a year I will find something GW releated.  I recently got a nice haul of miniatures, though a number of the models were quite poorly put together.  My favorite is the top picture where his torso got put on upside down.  The second photo shows the lovely overflowing of glue used to attach them.  Luckily a lot of the minis were unassembled.  Just getting the Land Raider made it worth the cost, so everything else is just bonus.  Here was the haul all for about $45 dollars:

New or not assembled:
1 Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer
1 boxes of Chaos Space Marines still in box1 Space Ork Dreadnought (old metal one) still in box
1 Ork Warboss with attack squig (metal)
1 Metal Space Marine Chaplain in Terminator Armor
1 Metal Eldar Warlock

1 Metal space marine veteran
1 box Chaos Space Marines10 ork boys

Assembled:
5 Chaos Terminators
3 Tau stealthsuits plastic (one missing arm)
1 Tau stealsuit (old metal)
10 Tactical space marines
1 plastic space marine captain
5 Assault marines
1 Plastic Dreadnought w/ Assault Cannon
Blood Bowl Minis:
7 Orcs from Orcland Raiders
1 Human
Other:
1 Dice Cube
1 Dice Tin
3 files


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Starting a new army.

I’m starting a new army for 40k and this blog will the journeys through building, painting, and playing it. I currently have a decently sized Eldar army, and wanted to go with something that plays differently. I finally settled on the Blood Angels codex as I wanted something that was still fast moving, it’s hard to play something slow after having played the Eldar, and also pretty hard hitting in close combat. I will mostly be playing jump troops and a couple bigger vehicles in Storm Ravens and Land Raiders. Wanted to avoid the whole Razorback spam as it just didn’t look very fun. Here is my starting list for 1500 points that I hope to get painted up this summer. I will then expand it out from there until I have a nice sized army.

1500 Pts – Lamenters (Blood Angels)

Total Roster Cost: 1495

HQ: Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 125 pts)
1 Librarian in Power Armour w/ Jump Pack

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
7 Assault Squad
2 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant w/ Power Fist

Troops: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
7 Assault Squad
2 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant w/ Power Fist

Elite: Sanguinary Priest (2#, 180 pts)
2 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour w/ Jump Pack and Power Sword

Elite: Sanguinary Guard (5#, 250 pts)
1 Sanguinary Guard w/ Infernus Pistol
1 Sanguinary Guard w/ Power Fist
3 Sanguinary Guard w/ Chapter Banner

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (5#, 225 pts)
5 Terminator with TH/SS

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 245 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship w/ EA, Multi Melta, Plasma Cannons, and Hurricane Bolters