Overall I'm happy with how it's turned out - at this point I'm considering what to paint up next. It's a toss-up between more Orks (likely the Stormboyz) or taking a crack at the Hypaspists for the Adeptus Mechanicus army... Hmm.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 2
Spent some time finishing up the Ruzzbot - I kept it fairly simple, going for the 'less is more' approach on a vehicles of this size. I think I may end up weathering the edges a bit more, it ended up looking a touch too 'clean' on the upper portion of the hull.
Overall I'm happy with how it's turned out - at this point I'm considering what to paint up next. It's a toss-up between more Orks (likely the Stormboyz) or taking a crack at the Hypaspists for the Adeptus Mechanicus army... Hmm.
Overall I'm happy with how it's turned out - at this point I'm considering what to paint up next. It's a toss-up between more Orks (likely the Stormboyz) or taking a crack at the Hypaspists for the Adeptus Mechanicus army... Hmm.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Heavy Artillery - Manticore and Charybdis, Part 1
With the release of the new Deathstrike/Manticore kit, I knew I had to have one for the Mordian 7th. The first step was to determine what I wanted to build. The kit is unfortunately designed in such a way that you can only assemble it as the Deathstrike OR the Manticore, though I give them credit for designing a kit that gives us the option, it's rather ingeniously designed! I'd built a Deathstike carrier a while back and as potentially devastating as it may be, I found it to be a bit too random for anything but the largest of battles. So, Manticore it is!
The new kit was a breeze to assemble, and with careful gluing the missile rack can be raised and lowered, which I thought was a nice touch. I left the Storm Eagle rockets separate to facilitate painting, and am somewhat regretting not leaving the launch ramps separate as well, but I'll muddle though.
While I was at it I'd picked up a Whirlwind model for the launcher, as I regretted selling my previous Charybdis Assault Launcher (which I use as a proxy Griffon) and have been itching to build another one. I decided I wanted something a bit more animated with this one however, and decided to use a pair of missiles scrounged from the new Sentinel kit to represent it in the process of firing. I tried to sculpt a bit of flame from greenstuff, and will be using some orange or red clump foilage to represent some smoke billowing from the rear of the weapon system. I still need to build a hull for it, but while I was fiddling around with it I was pleased to note that the collar ring on the base fits the various Planetstrike weapon platforms. I may have to build a few more of these to build an ersatz Hyperios Air Defense system!
The new kit was a breeze to assemble, and with careful gluing the missile rack can be raised and lowered, which I thought was a nice touch. I left the Storm Eagle rockets separate to facilitate painting, and am somewhat regretting not leaving the launch ramps separate as well, but I'll muddle though.
While I was at it I'd picked up a Whirlwind model for the launcher, as I regretted selling my previous Charybdis Assault Launcher (which I use as a proxy Griffon) and have been itching to build another one. I decided I wanted something a bit more animated with this one however, and decided to use a pair of missiles scrounged from the new Sentinel kit to represent it in the process of firing. I tried to sculpt a bit of flame from greenstuff, and will be using some orange or red clump foilage to represent some smoke billowing from the rear of the weapon system. I still need to build a hull for it, but while I was fiddling around with it I was pleased to note that the collar ring on the base fits the various Planetstrike weapon platforms. I may have to build a few more of these to build an ersatz Hyperios Air Defense system!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Ruzzbot - Proxy Battlewagon, Part 1
I spent some time working on the Ruzzbot - Holy moly was it a whole lot of Yellow! I started off by giving the whole model a fairly heavy dry-brush of Boltgun Metal and overlaid that with Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange on the parts that I intended to end up yellow. Once I had the oranges laid down, I went back over them with Golden Yellow, and did some extreme edges with Sunburst Yellow. I find that GW yellows are too translucent to cover properly directly over a black primer, but an orange undercoat has fair coverage and 'shines' through giving the yellow a nice rich glow.
Once I had that done I went back over the model and tided up the parts that I want to be exposed metal with Black and Boltgun Metal once again.
After that I started blocking in the various black flames and checkerboard patterns, though they still need highlighting. Plenty of detail work remains to be done as well, but it feels good to have the majority of it complete!
In game, the Ruzzbot is a counts-as Battlewagon with the 'Ard Case and Kilcannon upgrades, as well as a Reinforced Ram and 4 Big Shootas. The big claw is represented in game by both the Grabbin' Klaw and Wrecking Ball upgrades. I also wanted to include a dedicated-transport Battlewagon but opted to keep the points cost relatively low - 4 Big Shootas and a Deffrolla. It's intended for the Bad Moon Nobz so it will also need to get the yellow treatment!
Once I had that done I went back over the model and tided up the parts that I want to be exposed metal with Black and Boltgun Metal once again.
After that I started blocking in the various black flames and checkerboard patterns, though they still need highlighting. Plenty of detail work remains to be done as well, but it feels good to have the majority of it complete!
In game, the Ruzzbot is a counts-as Battlewagon with the 'Ard Case and Kilcannon upgrades, as well as a Reinforced Ram and 4 Big Shootas. The big claw is represented in game by both the Grabbin' Klaw and Wrecking Ball upgrades. I also wanted to include a dedicated-transport Battlewagon but opted to keep the points cost relatively low - 4 Big Shootas and a Deffrolla. It's intended for the Bad Moon Nobz so it will also need to get the yellow treatment!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Force Psi Phi
Now that I have the Hypaspists assembled, I figured I should rummage around in the Closet of Doom and pull out all the various Ad-Mech units I've been hoarding over the years.
Once I got it all sorted out I realized it actually is a fairly good sized army. Plenty of infantry to hold objectives!
The two units of Imperial Robots provide an impressive amount of firepower, and several units of Servitors are always a plus. In the background is an unassembled Knight Errant, a half-assembled Biologis Land Crawler, and a Knight Paladin. The swarm of Servo Skulls are used to mark wounds and special effects during a game.
On the other side, the Tech Magos Cabal, a unit of menials, and a few extra Techpriests take up the fore, while in the middle rank are two units of Hypaspists, the Skitarii Consul and a unit of Protectors, and their Termite Tunneler Transports (say that five times fast!). In the very back is the Myrmidon Assault Engine and the unassembled Anathema Assault Tank (proxy Malcador Defender).
There are still a few units that I have planned, mostly on the Fast Attack side, but for now I'm going to focus on what I have assembled. I'm actually pretty excited to get the Hypaspists painted next, even though it'll be 23 of 'em at once. Ah well, it's only suitable to utilize the assembly-line method when painting models for the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Ave Omnissiah!
Once I got it all sorted out I realized it actually is a fairly good sized army. Plenty of infantry to hold objectives!
The two units of Imperial Robots provide an impressive amount of firepower, and several units of Servitors are always a plus. In the background is an unassembled Knight Errant, a half-assembled Biologis Land Crawler, and a Knight Paladin. The swarm of Servo Skulls are used to mark wounds and special effects during a game.
On the other side, the Tech Magos Cabal, a unit of menials, and a few extra Techpriests take up the fore, while in the middle rank are two units of Hypaspists, the Skitarii Consul and a unit of Protectors, and their Termite Tunneler Transports (say that five times fast!). In the very back is the Myrmidon Assault Engine and the unassembled Anathema Assault Tank (proxy Malcador Defender).
There are still a few units that I have planned, mostly on the Fast Attack side, but for now I'm going to focus on what I have assembled. I'm actually pretty excited to get the Hypaspists painted next, even though it'll be 23 of 'em at once. Ah well, it's only suitable to utilize the assembly-line method when painting models for the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Ave Omnissiah!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
"The German Guns" by S. Baldrick
Baldrick: "Boom, boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom, boom..."
Edmund Blackadder: "Boom, boom, boom?"
Boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom, boom..."
Edmund Blackadder: "Boom, boom, boom?"
Baldrick: "How did you guess?" -- S4.Ep6
I figured that particular poem would be appropriate for the last Thudd Gun post. I've been agonizing about repainting all the bases on my guard and it occurred to me that while the infantry wouldn't be too big of a deal, most of the larger bases have some sort of urban-themed terrain built on to them and as such would look sort of silly with buildings jutting up out of mud and grass. That being the case I've decided that I'd go with my original plan of adding snow to the various bases instead and took a crack at it on the Thudd Gun. I don't think I had the snow/glue mix quite right, but it's a passable effect overall. Practice makes perfect, after all!
Secondly I painted up a test model for the Hypaspists (Tech Guard) for my burgeoning Adeptus Mechanicus army. A fairly simple scheme - red cloaks, white piping, grey armor plates and various metal and gold detailing. It painted up rather quickly which should help when it comes to painting up the other 30+ models.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated...
Well it's been a seriously hectic past three weeks and I had very little hobby time unfortunately - Real Life(tm) had me very, very busy. Couple that with the fact that I managed to misplace my camera for the better part of a week and I was unable to take any pictures of the little bit of modeling and painting I did manage to complete. However, the camera was found, and I was finally able to snap a few pictures!
As I'd mentioned I was suffering from "Guard Guilt" as I haven't done much work on them recently. I took a bit of time and assembled the Thudd Gun I'd picked up a while back and got the initial base colors on the model. Can I just say that I am sick to death of the red/grey paint scheme? I suppose that's bound to happen after painting 5000+ points in that scheme, but I have to say it's getting harder and harder to get excited about painting it.
During the downtime I got the most recent package from Forge World so I took a little time to build and paint up the Mekboss Buzzgob that I'm using for my Bad Moon Bigmek. I really enjoyed his oiler grots, especially the faux-Opus Machina one of them is carrying!
While I was at it I cranked out the AoBR warboss in Bad Moon colors to accompany the unit of Nobs. 10 PK-and-Big Choppa-wielding Nobs and a Warboss makes for a darn scary unit!
Also in the box of FW goodies was the belly gun and head for the Stompa. I'd never assembled a Stompa before and it was way more involved than I expected although it was a hoot to build. The FW additions to the kit? Not so much. The parts were warped rather badly and even after hours of hot water dips and bending they still didn't seem to fit very well. I ended up having to utilize a fair bit of plasticard and rivets to cover up a few unsightly gaps, but once it was primered you can't really tell the difference. I left the arms separate to facilitate painting, we'll see how that goes. It's going to be a lot of black and yellow once it's done!
Last but not least, one other package arrived - the Iron Brotherhood models I'd ordered way back in April for use as Hypaspists for my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Due to the Yyjafjallajokull eruptions, the order was delayed for the better part of a month. Disappointing, but hey, what can ya do? The models were cleanly cast and although they looked a little static initially, a bit of mix-and-match with the arms and weapons sorted that out. They were nice enough to throw in a set of extra models as an apology for the delay so I'll be building a unit of Sagittarii (heavy weapons teams) as well, though I'm still pondering how I want to build the weapons platforms.
Here's hoping this month will be more conducive to hobby work!
As I'd mentioned I was suffering from "Guard Guilt" as I haven't done much work on them recently. I took a bit of time and assembled the Thudd Gun I'd picked up a while back and got the initial base colors on the model. Can I just say that I am sick to death of the red/grey paint scheme? I suppose that's bound to happen after painting 5000+ points in that scheme, but I have to say it's getting harder and harder to get excited about painting it.
During the downtime I got the most recent package from Forge World so I took a little time to build and paint up the Mekboss Buzzgob that I'm using for my Bad Moon Bigmek. I really enjoyed his oiler grots, especially the faux-Opus Machina one of them is carrying!
While I was at it I cranked out the AoBR warboss in Bad Moon colors to accompany the unit of Nobs. 10 PK-and-Big Choppa-wielding Nobs and a Warboss makes for a darn scary unit!
Also in the box of FW goodies was the belly gun and head for the Stompa. I'd never assembled a Stompa before and it was way more involved than I expected although it was a hoot to build. The FW additions to the kit? Not so much. The parts were warped rather badly and even after hours of hot water dips and bending they still didn't seem to fit very well. I ended up having to utilize a fair bit of plasticard and rivets to cover up a few unsightly gaps, but once it was primered you can't really tell the difference. I left the arms separate to facilitate painting, we'll see how that goes. It's going to be a lot of black and yellow once it's done!
Last but not least, one other package arrived - the Iron Brotherhood models I'd ordered way back in April for use as Hypaspists for my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Due to the Yyjafjallajokull eruptions, the order was delayed for the better part of a month. Disappointing, but hey, what can ya do? The models were cleanly cast and although they looked a little static initially, a bit of mix-and-match with the arms and weapons sorted that out. They were nice enough to throw in a set of extra models as an apology for the delay so I'll be building a unit of Sagittarii (heavy weapons teams) as well, though I'm still pondering how I want to build the weapons platforms.
Here's hoping this month will be more conducive to hobby work!