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.

 

Warboss Grimrak

I recently finished my Orruk Megaboss, Grimrak. He came out surprisingly well for the amount of time I put into him. I've slowly been collecting Ironjawz over the last few months and painting them up. As a lazy blogger I haven't been posting shots up but I hoping to get a few more regular ones up here. Anyway this is just a taster of whats to come with my Ironjawz.

Wasteland Bases

It's not the greatest of photographs but I think it gets the message across. I usually always do the same type of bases for my armies as it makes it easier to mix and match them as I want and it fits with my terrain collection. For the Ironjawz however I really wanted to do something different. I had tried a few ways that would combine what you see here with what I have done previously and well it just didn't work. I had been wanting to play with the new GW texture paints too so this served a double purpose. I could do some new basing techniques and try out the new paints at the same time. While this isn't finished its close to being done. The addition of the skull adds a lot of character and evokes the landscape in a way that the colours and texture just don't manage. I'll stick with this scheme for now and add a few more elements. Some dried grass tufts and low bushes would also be good. I just have to get some wire thats fine enough to make the style of thorny bushes I imagine growing in this wasteland.

Ironjawz, how did that happen?

It seems I've started a new Warhammer army... I'm not sure how that happened. It's been nine years since I really started a new army for Warhammer. Actually I suppose the Stormcast I got count as a new one too. I've been eager to get some Ironjawz since they released. I have a fair collection on 'Ardboyz already so ading only a few units to them makes the army relatively cheap to collect. I'll be painting these in the same scheme as the 'Ardboyz I've shown here. Its going to be fun.

I have managed to get a few games under my belt recently an that's set my enthusiasm for the game at an all time high. We are getting a small but regular group together in Hamburg finally. You can find us on Facebook under Age of Sigmar Hamburg.

Celestial Vindicators Liberators

There is nothing as good as a bunch of finished miniatures. I am pretty happy with how these Stormcast came out and I think the colour scheme of the Celestial Vindicators was a good choice to base mine upon. I think the more muted tones suit the models better too. While I haven't seen that many other painted Stormcast models I think the metallic ones aren't great and those with a more primary colour as the dominant colour are worse. I had considered doing mine in a darker copper scheme but I am glad I didn't despite the fact that they would have been much faster to paint. I might keep the copper scheme for my upcoming Khornate force.

Celestial Vindicator Liberator Prime

Finally this model is complete and the regiment is too. I will take some group shots tomorrow and post it up on Friday or Monday. The fact that there is a little more gold on this model actually made him faster to paint. I am hoping that this will make the Paladins quicker to paint too. I haven't checked out their armour much but from memory it is more ornate. However I think I will paint the Prosecutors next. I am not looking forward to the wings however. I haven't decided on a colour for them but I think I will go with white shaded with grey. The models have enough blue on them that I don't think they need more and I want to keep the sky colour theme going so grey is definitely within that scheme.

I don't like the purple on this models plume but so far I haven't figured out what better colour to use. I felt that the purple would be a homage to the dawn but I haven't captured the colour I wanted. As I mentioned previously I hate purple and I will have to experiment more to get the shade I want I think. The base is hard to make out here as the camera insists on washing it out at the moment. As the Liberator Prime models are standing on rocks it makes them hard to merge into the basing scheme I am using. I think I managed it here but it is going to be hard with the Prosecutors and Lord Celestant on Dracoth. I am not sure how to approach those bases just yet.

Another Vindicator

The fourth is complete and the end is in sight, for this regiment at least. Again nothing special here beyond what you have seen on the previous three. I still can't decide upon the shoulder pad scheme and I haven't even attempted to improve the hammer head. It will come eventually but now it is feeling good just to get these to this state of completion. You can expect the Prime next week.

Witchfate Tor Part 1

I bought this model at the same time as the Dreadstone Blight. I pretty much instantly regretted the decision as I bought them without paying any attention to the pictures. Once it arrived I realised that they are more or less the same model with an additional layer on top.I put it together last year but didn't do much with it. I decided the other day that leaving it on top of my display cabinet gathering dust probably wasn't getting the best use out of it even if it is an impressive dust magnet. With that in mind and the strong possibility of an Age of Sigmar campaign coming up in the next few months I decided to get this piece done. I will approach it a level at a time working from the top down. I went with Averland colours as that represents my opponents colour scheme and offers a decent contrast. The darker stone work had already been painted so I went back and painted a lighter stone colour. So far this is what I have managed. Only three more levels and a base to do, that can't take too long right?

Stormcast Triumvirate Completed

Three done and a lot more to go. I am actually starting to enjoy painting these more. The blending of the blues is a little annoying but it has started to go faster. It still takes an age to get a single model done. The sheer size of the models means I can only do one at a time as otherwise my paint mixtures would dry too quickly. I don't know if it really effects my speed but I am unaccustomed to painting single models like this for regiments and it really feels wrong.

I am really happy with how the bases are coming along. The ruined temple theme gives me good material to work with and here I did a small broken pillar. It is a little thin and I only realised after I had finished it. I don't really mind and it still looks fine. I might however bulk it up when it comes to doing it on another model. I am going to stop doing the smaller flag stones on the bases and go with larger surfaces before breaking them up. I think it is more realistic, especially when considering marble and of course it looks better. I have tried it on the other bases I have been preparing and it is an improvement.

Celestial Vindicators

Very slow progress is being made with my Celestial Vindicator Brotherhood. I haven't made any changes to the scheme and I dont intend to really. I do have a few decisions still to make. I want to work on my silver a little more to make it pop. I am pretty boring when it comes to silvers and stick with washes mainly. I think I could improve this if I went with a darker basecoat and then a wash, finally I would build it up as I do gold. Usually when I do this I don't get the results I really want. Practice is needed I think. I also need to decide what exactly is going to go on the left shoulder pads of these guys. I just can't seem to get a freehand scheme I like at all and it is driving me nuts. I may well go with the basic design on my previously completed model but I don't know. I shall have to admit that I am coming back to these guys in the future once I have figured a few things out.

The Last Halfling

I have had this model for quite a while. He was even painted. However when I found him hiding at the back of my shelves I decided that this halfling deserved a new look. I didn't even strip the old paint. I don't have a good medium to remove paint with anymore and while Biostrip 20 has been recommended I haven't been able to source any here in Germany. I painted him in Averland colours as there has been talk of replaying some events from the World That Was, centered around Waaagh Gorbad.

Duardin Auxillaries

These Duardin prove that I am unable to stick with a project for very long. I am not really sure why I started painting these but somehow I did. All I wanted to do was a sample model.



I have had these models for a very long time. I collected a Dwarf army for sixth that was composed primarily of these models. I kept all the enclosed helms and I had intended using them on a single regiment. They were by far the hest heads in the box and I wanted to make a really attractive unit out of them. I painted them up and then quickly replaced them once the next set of plastics for the Dwarves came out. Still for some reason they were never forgotten and on my last trip back to Ireland they wre retrived from the assortment of models there. I think the helmets are so evocative of Games Workshops Dwarves that I just had to update them. As to what I will paint next I am hoping I can continue with the Stormcast Eternals.

Orcs, Orcs and more Orcs

I have been painting.... honest I have. The thing is I have been painting Orcs, lots of orcs and they pretty much all look the same. So really there hasn't been much point in putting up a post which would show all the same models over and over. Here are soe of my rank and file orcs finished except for shields and basing. I don't want to base them until I know what is up with 9th edition fantasy and I don't have any materials here in Finland to use. I am happy with the results but they take way too long to paint and I have little time to be painting as usual. Getting four done a week is excellent progress for me but basically all my free time at the weekend has to be devoted to painting which is annoying. I also painted another eight not shown here but they are for a different regiment which is much further along than the spear boys. Once I am back in Germany permanently I will base and photograph everything.

I stopped painting the Savage Orcs. They were turning out fine but they were boring as hell to paint. Instead I took out some very old Orcs, I bought them around 1998 I think. I cleaned them up replacing the damaged pieces of which there were few thankfully. I didn't seem to be too dedicated to the removal of all the mould lines back then so clean up took longer than anticipated. The paint job was terrible but not too thick so I could just paint over these guys directly. I hate having to strip models. It takes ages and is never too easy with plastic. I have another twenty eight of these to paint so I will be busy with them for the summer at least. I have the old metal command group that came with them originally too so I will have to get them painted up also. I can always get a few more Savages done as a break from these if I need it.

A third of the way done

There would seem to be a lot more Night Goblins in my army in comparison to Orcs. I have brough sixty spearmen with me and now I am almost a third of the way through the regiment. Not bad going for ten days painting. I have absolutely no basing materials so I can't do anything more a this stage with the bases. Having the models done is of paramount importance and as I won't be gaming with them anytime soon I don't have to worry. Hopefully I can keep the pace up over the coming few weeks and knock out the entire regiment before Christmas. I am slowly getting tempted to just continue with Night Goblins and get a large army of them done. It would involve buying and converting a fair few models so we shall see if I get really motivated to do it, I doubt it.

Flesh Comparison

I have started painting one of my old Chaos Spawn models today and I was wondering what I would do to match the tones I used over two years ago. None of the paint I used is still commercially available and so I am fairly stuck. I used Tallarn Flesh as the skintone for my entire army. I pulled out all the skintones I had and put them side by side to compare. It looks like Cadian Skintone is the closest. Has anyone else come up with something closer to Tallarn than this? The change in tone would be quite drastic and I imagine that when highlighted the results would be significantly different!

Fimir... a new hope?

So forgewrold have gone ahead and created some models for my all time favourite Gamesworkshop army, the Fimir. It looks like I had beter start saving now. I can't imagine these being cheap. I wonder are these going to be a full army such as was done for the Chaos Dwarves or are these just an ally that some armies can take. The next book out from Forge World is Monstrous Arcana and I can't see that it should contain a new offical army list. Especially as the Fimir don't have all the special toys that the Chaos Dwarves have. Maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up.

A Tale of Three Gamers

Together with two of my good friends, Alan and Gareth, I will be beginning a new Warhammer army soon! The three of us have been playing Warhammer Fantasy together for close to twenty years. I am a bit hesitant to actually count back the years as I know I will be shocked. Twenty is a fine round number and I am sticking to it. We started in a small club in our hometown and eventually migrated to Dublin and the Irish tournament scene. Nowadays we are all living apart from each other and never get to really play like we used to. Its all about tournament builds and nasty combinations whenever we do get to play. Over the last few weeks we got to chatting again and of course it was mainly about Wwarhammer, one of the common threads we all share. We discussed new armies and various developments over the last year. When I was home last week we got to chat about starting a new Warhammer project, inspired in part by Heelanhammer and in part by the old White Dwarf and now web series. So from November 1st we will be doing a "Tale of Three Gamers" here and on a few of the popular fora.

As much as I wuld like to start where I began all those years ago with a Goblin army I will be doing a Beastman army instead. The plan is to paint 300pts a month and within eight months we will have a decent 2400pt army complete. We will also do some terrain at the same time so when we do eventually get together to play we have something to accompany the armies on the table. The first model I intend to paint is this old albion giant. I bought this a long time ago when he was new. It was a cheap way to pick up two giants back then when I had a goblin army. I will make some small conversions along the way as I think I will use him as a Ghorgon. The head can definitely be made to look more bestial and the weapon might need a change to suit the cleavers the Ghorgon has. I would also like to add some armour to bulk the model out slightly, even some shields and chainmail should help. At the moment he is really thin and scrawny, he doesn't look like a T6 monstrosity.

I will try to preview all three lists next week. They are guidelines and very much subject to change as the project develops, especially if new books come out. Alan is doing a Spartan inspired Chaos army while Gar is doing some additions to his already massive Dwarf army. He still has so many core units to do that it was easy to still make up an army from them. Strangely none of us are revisiting the armies we started with. Alan has always played Dark Elves while Gareth started with Beastmen. So you can look forward to a good chunk of Warhammer content here over the coming few months... that is as long as we can all stay motivated, the biggest challenge when it comes to painting an army!

Some new undead

So these images just arrived in my inbox! Some very nice new stuff!
This Ghoul King looks awesome. Its a pity that the plastic ghouls are not equally as nice! Thankfully i have pretty much given up on my idea of an all ghoul army due to the difficulty of picking up the old metal models. If I was doing it this model would be straight in there. Its really great, much better than the hideous Zombie Dragon.

The Cairn Wraiths are nice, not much of a change from before. These are seemingly becoming haracters in the new update. Thats a good change but I can imagine that with the need for magic in a Vampire army these will be more of an after thought when constructing lists.

I really like this piece. I will definitely be getting myself one. It isn't a very practical piece as you won't be able to pop a regiment inside it. I guess at a stretch you could count it as a building or something. I think it will be really nice when added to the chapel and some of the walls. It could make for a very atmospheric graveyard. I really like the direction GW are taking with terrain. They have really come out with some great kits. I would love though if they would make some generic houses though. The kit seems fairly modular as the individual tombs are separate pieces. I guess then I will be buying two and making a slightly larger piee. It doesn't seem to have an overly large footprint. Hmmmm I should get the Dreadstone Blight finished first.

More of the same?

No I hope it isn't too boring. I really want to get the Dreadstone finished and with a decent paint job too. Getting the base correct if going to be one of the hardest parts to do. I spent some time last night with a brown pigment and I dirtied up the base and outside a little. This didn't have the effect I wanted, that of muting the rust in the centre so I will have to take some corrective action there. Exactly what I don't know but the orange has to come off some how. It is just too stark. The brown came out fine without too much of an effort. With some plants and debris on the model it should work out really nice.

Here you can see a shot of the stone work outside. This came out better than the flat floor pieces. Working the pigment into the stones was simple. You can also see that I based the tower. This makes it easier to handle in general and in my mind at least frames the piece. I have seen a few comments, mainly from Rob Hawkins on the Privateer Press Blog, about not basing buildings but I really think this looks bad. Firstly with a self constructed building it strengthens the piece. This is really important for the long term use of the terrain which tends to be bashed in use. Also aesthetically it improves the piece as you can tie it into other terrain and the board quite well.

So tonight I won't get any progress made as I have a work training day and I will be wrecked tired. I will hopefully get this piece done over the weekend. I just need to get some propellant for my airbrush so that I can fix the pigments before continuing. I hope I am not boring you all with the slow progress on this piece!