Tallarn Regiment

The Tallarn regiment has always been my favorite and I picked some up when they were initially released. Of course back then I didn’t have enough money to actually buy a full army so now I’m left with just enough models to field a pair of squads and some heavy weapons. I was thinking I could just convert a few Cadians to be Tallarn. After a few trials I came up with these three. I just added turbans/headcloths and I think it’s perfect. Just enough to be distinct from a standard Cadian squad.

Sector Mechanicus Pt.1

I've finally managed to get working on my Necromunda and 40k terrain. Here is a short video showing the first of many buildings I'll be working on over the coming weeks. I've a campaign coming up, well a few actually, and I need terrain for them. With that in mind I've been beavering away trying to get a prototype done.

I don't know much about videos so this one might be a little poor in quality. I don't seem to be able to get it to display correctly but I'll persevere and make improvements as I keep making these.

Casting 40k Terrain: Initial Tests

With the New 40k coming out and the imminent release of Necromunda, I've found myself needing some terrain. I bought a Ferratonic Incinerator but I quickly realised that this wasn't going to go far in covering a 4x4 table, never mind a 6x4. I can't really justify spending the amount of money I'd need to buy all the sets. So instead I had planned on making my own terrain. I bought a few builts to scratch build panels I could cast but to be honest they just weren't coming out as well as I'd hoped. After wondering what to do I thought that maybe I'd try casting some of the pieces from the sets I had. In the picture you can see where I made a few holes in the casts. This was as a result of not having mixed the Stewalin plaster at the right ratio and probably demoulding it too quickly.

I bought some silicone and Stewalin plaster. I have used the plaster and the silicone before while maing some scatter terrain for the Old West. You can expect a post on that at a later point. To make the mould I just followed one of the plethora of videos online. It was really simple and worked a charm, though next time I might break them into single pieces as that way I can judge what I need to cast them better and also I don't have a huge amount of working time with the Stewalin and it taes a lot of time to work it into a mould this highly detailed. Anyway I have to approach this project as a learning process. I haven't moulded or cast anything like this before.

This is a picture of the mould. As you can hopefully make out its pretty detailed. It is 100% bubble free which is impressive. The crevices are deep and tight yet the silicone was able to flow into them. I used an electric toothbrush as a vibration device which wasn't very effective. It seems I didn't need it or it was far more effective than I thought it was. The plan for this project is to make a few low structures with walkways connecting them. I'm going to keep them fairly modular for storage purposes. I'm going to concentrate on getting a  single structure done and then I'll know better how to get these mass produced quickly. Just as a note to the curious: I won't be selling, trading or otherwise giving away the moulds or the casts I make from them, please don't ask. The purpose of this blog post is to show whats possible and to track my progress.

 

Sanctifier Test Squad

I've been painting some Warhammer 40k recently and these are the result, my first combat squad of marines. I've painted a few Space Marines over the years, individual models here and there. I have never however managed to get a squad, albeit a small one, done. I had started these as Ultramarines but I got a little bored with them and as I thin I said a friend of mine has just brought his Ultramarines out to play. I therefore switched the scheme slightly and went with white arms. It does serve to make them look distinct from their primogenitors but I think I would have gone for a completely different scheme if I was to start these models from scratch. Its not that I dislike the scheme, I just think I could have done something more striking.

40k Campaign - Malleus

My map making for 40K continues apace. I love the background provided in the Forgeworld supplements, especially the cut aways to various planetary descriptions and such. They provide a lot of flavour and atmosphere without it being too dense. I decided that I would make out some similar descriptions for planets that we would fight over. As we have been discussing and actually writing background for the campaign it turns out that we are fighting elsewhere but this description of Malleus isn't wasted. Eventually the war might arrive here and if not at least there is some nice bacground to other planets in the Viator System.

40k Campaign - The Thorn Sub-sector

We are starting a few Warhammer 40K campaigns in my local area and online very soon. One has actually kicked off on VASSAL already. I'll be playing in them all and as such I wanted to have a map that we could use to track where the action is taking place. Its always nice to have a setting for the battles we fight on the tabletop. The overall campaigns won't really be linked but they can at least all take place in the same area and from that we can start filling in some details on that area. This might mean it comes to life and gets us more enthusiastic about playing or well it can just be an interesting read for the players if they want to come back and check out what we did. Anyway this location will be the Thorn Sub-Sector. I placed this on the fringes of the Imperium where anything we do won't really be effected by anything else that happens in the fluff. As we will have a heavy Ultramarine participation it would be best close enough to Ultramar, at least the marines won't have to travel far to fight. I shall be playing an Inquisitorial force that mainly consists of a homebrew Space Marine Chapter: the Sanctifiers. At the start of the year I painted some Ultramarines but as a friend already has them I instead modified them to have white arms and shoulders. A sufficent change to make them distinct but identifiable. 

Painboy - revisited

I have recently been painting some Orks and I thought it high time to update some of the ones I had painted previously. First up were the Nobz and that meant getting the Painboy looking good.This basically involved getting a lot of cecked designs onto the model. I have been getting better at painting these while doing the orks and now it isnÄt so much hassle to get them painted even if they can be a little rough at times. Here is the previous plain painboy if you are interested in having a gander. I also took the chance to tidy up the model a little and add a few highlights where needed. The skin should have also received some attention but then I would have needed to redo the skin on the entire force and I don't want to do that. The updating of the models is really just something fun and quick to do! I will put up the Nobz soon as they are almost finished too. Once they are done I have to tackle one of the larger mobs. I am not looking forward to that!

Plasticard and Looted Wagons

I have been looking around for the last while for some cheap sources of Plasticard. I have a nearby architects store. It is quite bizarrely stocked but it does have a3 sheets of 1mm plasticard for about €10 which seems reasonable. I am eager to get another Looted Wagon made. I really enjoyed making the last one and it needs company. While checking through the Imperial Armour Vol.8 there are some technical drawings for some of the Ork vehicles. They don't look to hard to make it is just a question of scaling up what I have done before.This Gun Wagon would definitely be something I would like to try but the Skullhamma would also be really tempting. According to the Forgeworld website they aren't much bigger than a Battlewagon. I looked around for some other inspiration and I found these Looted Wagons. They are really great looking and some of the ideas I might have to steal.

You're all going to burn!

Okay so it is back to the Orks. This time yet again a vehicle. I picked up the Wartrakk Skorcha with the buggy from last week. It took a lot less conversion thankfully.

This model is fairly old already, from Gorkamorka I think and I wonder when this model will be updated. I guess when the next book cycles through? Both this and the Wwarbuggy really could do with an update. This one is fine but the driver had to be changed. Again the bike driver fit perfectly fine and only a few adjustments were needed. A glyph on the front finishes the conversions. I didn't like the large flat plate there and why freehand a design when you can stick one on ready done!



Once the glue had set I painted it up as normal. It awaits weathering but again I need to base it. I have been looking for 5mm plasticard that doesn't cost the earth. Once I get that everything that is on wheels will have a base and then be weathered. I really wish GW would base their 40k vehicles. It would make everything a lot simpler. I am eager to get a squadron of these too but the models rarely come up on eBay and even then they fetch a decent sum. I have another Wartrakk somewhere in my collection from the original Gorkamorka set and maybe I can figure out a way to convert it into a Skorcha.

Looted Wagon, now this was a project and a half!

A project and a half and it still isn't finished! I was reading Vol.8 of the Imperial Armour Series, which is great by the way, when I got the idea to make a Grot Tank. I checked online and there are quite a few people who had the same idea. Using those as inspiration I started with some scrap pieces of plasticard from my last terrain project. I made the two track sections first in a scale I thought was fine. Once I added the body I realised I had made a monster. I guess it isn't that much bigger than the actual Grot Tank models but it is fairly close to a Rhino. I am estimating it is a little wider and about and inch shorter. So it has become a looted wagon instead!

I am not sure what made me take the design of this the direction I did but standing back and looking now I think it reminds me of a Leman Russ. The silhouette is very similar. I am already thinking what I should make next! Plasticard is impressively expensive though so I am unsure if I really want to invest. It is good fun and I think the results are good. However as I don't play with the army I don't need to go crazy building stuff for it. A solid weeks work went into making the Wagon and if I go for something bigger I know the time will multiply. I am tempted to make a KillKrusha though...

First up however is to wash this model, base it and then get to painting. I will do it fairly similar to the rest of the army, so yellow will predominate. I might get fancy and try to make some of the panels look like they came from an imperial tank. I do want to find a grot though to put somewhere on the back near the engine housing. So far I haven't had much luck.

Bad Moonz Warbuggy

I picked up this buggy and a Wartrak on eBay a while back. They were fairly cheap. I picked up the two of them for about €10 including the postage. I have seen them sell for a good deal more so I was happily surprised. I have been lurking on eBay for a while but finding a deal is a very rare occurence! About two weeks ago I started converting and painting. The orks it came with were of the last editions style and were tiny in comparison to what the orks are now. It was a difficult task to convert this as everything was put in place with polystyrene cement. Some digging and many curses got the driver out while I actually had to drill out the weapon mounting. In the process I broke the banner at the back but that wasn't so bad as I had intended changing it anyway



The driver was easy enough to replace in the end as the biker legs fit into place nicely. I added the arms from the bikes too as they fit to the remnants of the steering mechanism. It was a victim of the drivers removal but fortunately it fit together perfectly. I just changed their angle and rebuilt the shoulders to fit the torso. I added the platform on the back as with the bigger driver I had to give some height to the gunner. He is from the battlewagon as is the gun. I made the armour from some scrap pieces of plasticard. The gunner didn't fit perfectly but that is fine. One of his feet sits on the engine more than the platform but that is the only way he would go. I added the grot as I wanted to represent a rigger. I have no idea if they are useful in the rules but they sound good!

I added to the front another piece from the bike sprue and a few more armour plates to give the driver some armour. I cut the glyphs and plates from plasticard and added them liberally around. It breaks up what is a rather boring vehicle. I would love to get a full squadron of these so I can be a little more adventureous with the next ones. I haven't done any weathering with this one yet as I don't have a base. Once I do I intend adding mud and rust liberally. The effects should be similar to those on the Grotbot from earlier in the week and will really improve the overall look of the buggy.

Grotbot... exterminate!

Time passes quickly. I can't believe it has been four months since I last posted. I have been painting albeit slowly. Here is something fun I finished recently, a Grotbot.I have been painting a lot of Ork stuff recently. As to why I am really not sure. I haven't played 40k since the start of the 3rd edition. I have been playing since Rogue Trader but fantasy took over and I have only rarely ventured back into the 41st millenium. I still love Orks though and I have a huge amount of them lying around in various stages of completion. Mainly I have been updating the units I painted before. They needed some tidying up and detail work. They still won't be winning any competitions but they are looking much better now.

I created the Grotbot firstly as a Stompa. I built the body and then realised that it was slightly out of scale. I then added some 40k shoots and a gretchin pilot. A little bit more work and this is what I ended up with. As to what it is exactly in game terms I have no idea. It is the result of leaving too much useful scrap around the grot tents maybe. I painted it up in the yellow scheme of most of my army. I added a moon symbol as I rarely use it even though I should. As this guy has a base I weathered him up. I haven't really done this with my vehicles as without a base I would just end up picking them up via the panelling and smudging the weathering. I think the rust effect works out well on the yellow but not so much on the blue.

I have a huge amount of work to put up from my break in posting so I intend doing that over the coming weeks. Hopefully I can get back into a positive blogging habit again! You can expect a lot of Orks and also some Circle or Orboros stuff to come.

I am back!

It has been two months to the day since I posted here. I just wasn't painting anymore and so I didn't really have anything to put up. There are enough news and rumour sites around that I don't feel I need to contribute to constant repetition. I was still playing regularly of course but battle reports are or at least good ones are very time consuming to write up. I never get many comments on those that I have done and their pageviews aren't very high so I haven't kept with the habit of doing them. My painting and general hobbying is the lifeblood of the blog and if I am not doing that then the blog has to go silent.

So as the blog moves forward I am hoping I can keep the pace up and keep a regular schedule. My plans for the coming year are three to four warbands for SAGA. I assume I have the models for that much as I bought what felt like a massive saxon army many years ago. These will eventually become Jomsvikings, Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes and then a fourth as yet undetermined faction. It will probably be Irish, Welsh or Scottish as the remained of models are unarmoured cheorl types. I have at least one opponent locally and maybe if I am playing in the club I can entice a few more guys to start. Currently my Menites are fully painted as are my Circle guys. I of course want to get a lot more of them but now that they are fully painted I want to make sure I keep them at that status. Whatever I buy has to be painted as soon as possible. It also means no bulk buys! I had a terrible habit of ordering €100 - €150 worth of models at a time. This lead to them piling up and getting neglected. So I will gradually increase these factions but no big splurges.

I do still have three other factions however for Hordes and Warmachine. I am not a hundred percent sure how that happened. I want to get my Khador army complete. That means a fifty point tier four pButcher list. A few other tier lists would be nice to have but that is the one I want to start playing with. That means I need to do a lot of painting. Also I want to start using my Blindwater Congregation. I have everything for them except a Warlock and Rask will fit the bill nicely. Once he is out I will start using them. Finally I have a nice selection of Mercs bought at various times and with various ideas upon their eventual usage. I want to complete a tier four Drake McBain list and that means steelheads. I have everything else painted so sometime in the near future I have to collect some halberdiers.

Then finally there is my all to massive collection of GW stuff. I will very soon have to cull it I am afraid. I have far too many armies in various states of completion and to be honest they are doing nothing but gather dust. I can never hope to sustain more than one or two of them for each system and so I need to consider offloading what I don't want. I guess at the moment that means I will be selling an Undead, Ogre, Skaven and possibly Empire army. I don't want to but I can't keep them all. Anyway I can still manage to squeeze them all into various storage spaces so it is a problem future me can worry about.

More Goff Boyz

Some more Goffs got finished last night. I feel like I am flying through models at the moment. The Orks have really simple schemes and while the Goffs are somewhat more involved than the Bad Moon Boyz they are still quite fast to paint. The check pattern makes these guys really distinctive in comparison to the other mob I have done. I might eventually revisit the Bad Moons to use some stronger yellow to them. I did most of them in fairly boring colours. So next thing for these guys is to get a heavy stubber in there. I never know if they are that useful but it is better to have them and not need them I guess.

Killa-Kan Mob

I got the Killa-Kan mob finished over the weekend. These are a nice addition to my small Ork army. I have inventoried what I have left to paint for them in the pile. There are two bike mobs, a Deff Kopta mob, a Battlewagon, some Nobz, and some small random bits. I want to get the Goff 'Ard Bozy finished so I will progress with them. I will probably have the Battlewagon as their transport so I will paint it black once I have the whole squad done. I want to get back to the beastmen and my Khador soon too.

Friday Showcase- Ork Trukk

This model isn't finished! I am kind of cheating my putting it up on my Friday showcase. All that needs to be done is to finish the tires. However I don't want to do that without basing the model. I know that 40k vehicles don't come with a base but the model doesn't look finished until the base is done! I don't know what to use but I would like to have it similar to a normal GW base. Maybe one of the new fantasy bases would fit, something a little bigger than a chariot base. I have to find another that fits the battlewagon, that is going to be an even bigger pain!

Another Kan

The Killa-Kans paint up really quickly. I have the second one finished. It helps that I kept the paint scheme really simple. Balck and yellow go together very well and Iyanden Darksun (GW) really allows me to get great coverage really quickly. I just washed the yellow with some Gryphone Sepia (GW). This shades it down perfectly. I pick out some of the highlights in a brighter yellow. Then I add the battle damage with some red and silver. The metals are really dark as close to black as I can get them really. I do some extreme edging highlights to break up the dullness and to define the shapes. I then pick out some of the details in a bright red. The addition of some checking and that is it, really simple!

Killa-Kan

I seem to be plumbing the depths of miniatures backlog at the moment. I bought the Killa Kans when they came out. I was still enthusiastic about collecting Orks at that point. The models are great and I really wanted to have some. The metal ones were fairly boring and expensive. These are relatively cheap. I painted them up to suit the Bad Moonz rather than the Goffs. A simple black paint scheme would have been really fast to do but I wanted them to match the main part of my army. This model was fairly fast to paint up. I think it took about five hours from start to finish which for this standard seems reasonable. I didn't do much for highlights and kept the scheme very simple. The more metal the faster it goes!

One of the problems with these is that you don't really get weapon options. I would have prefered to have more rocket launchers on them but I had to arm them as shown as the box just doesn't have to options available. I guess it would only be a problem in tournaments. Putting the kits together was interesting. A lot of the pieces are fairly complex in comparison to what I expect from GW. These must have been digitally sculpted. I should get a second finished tomorrow!

Friday Showcase - Burna Boyz

Only four Burna Boyz come in the box for some weird reason and so I only have four of them built and painted. I had intended using them as reinforcements for a Kommando squad and then I decided to just build the rest even if I don't use them. I think I have a second set buried in the unassembled pile here so that would give me eight and the possibility for a Mek. I would like to get a custom Trukk for these sometime down the line but that is just dreaming!

Goff 'Ard Boyz

I gave in. After discussing Orks for the last few months and going through my collection I couldn't resist any longer. I had saved almost all the chainsword wielding Orks from three sets of Battle for Black Reach. I was considering using them, with some conversions, as Stormboyz. I never did anything with them and they just gathered dust. Last week I started glueing some of them together adding some armour pieces so I could use them as 'Ard Boyz. I was going to continue with them as Bad Moonz but I got creative and did them up as Goffs. I just wanted to see how the cheques would work out and I think they came out fine. I have four more glued together and I might get to painting them soon. I kind of scratched the itch and I am not too motivated to continue! Maybe showing off some more of my collection will make me more eager to paint them.