Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Smoggy Camo

Well... "Work" has tipped the balance and consumed more than "Life" in my "work / life" balance, so I don't have a ton of progress to report this week on the Avenger or the Weapons Battery.  However, I did get a nasty, smoggy, brown base coat down on to the bottom of the Avenger [pic pending, will edit this post with that step when I get it downloaded from my camera.]  And, I had time to take that one step further, and get a mottled orange look on the underbelly.  It still needs 1-2 lighter tones, and hopefully it looks like WWII camo, rather than a bad airbrush job in the end!!!

WIP -- 26 Sept 2013

The other reason I haven't gotten much done on the Avenger and the terrain is that MORE terrain arrived last week!!!  These big boys are the Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape Tiles.  They obviously are a little worse for the wear after the trip from the UK to the Land of Sand.

Special Delivery!

I am REALLLY impressed with the Wall of Martyrs series.  And, I think I'll be buying more.  Oh, wait, I did!

WIP -- 26 Sept 2013

The trenches have a tremendous amount of detail, and the Macro Cannon is just awesome.  I've never seen a molded piece of plastic the size of that thing... seriously, they CAN do plastic Thunderhawks and Titans if they can crank these things out.

WIP -- 26 Sept 2013

We'll see if I can get some progress made on those tiles.  They are Bad-A . . .

Monday, September 16, 2013

Death from the Skies!

Among the few units I haven't fielded often in Warhammer 40K are Flyers.  I've always liked the look of F/W's flyers, and in fact have two Tau Barracudas, however before 6th Ed there really wasn't much of a point.  I LOOOOOOVE Apoc games, but organized events are so few and far between that I find myself wanting to put a Titan- or Fellblade-class vehicle on the board rather than my flyers when I'm limited to one "Apoc" force-org slot (which is typical of narrative style events over the past several years, and fits the HH:Betrayal Lords of War model too).

Obviously, all of that changed last year with 6th, and I thought it was time to catch up with the program!

In the middle of my Imperial Fists building bash, I also picked up an Avenger (needed *something* to get me over the free shipping threshold, but didn't want any more Legion models to paint!)  I had to put it on hold until the VII Legion was ready for WW, and now that I've back from the event, I am taking a break from the VII Legion to build and paint it.

WIP Avenger 4 Sept 2013

The model went together like a dream.  It was one of the best Forge World models I've received from a casting and fit perspective.  There were very few spots that required green stuff, and almost nothing that required a soak in hot water to fix warpage . . .  rare for an all resin build.

Below you can see the model and the canopies masked up for a trip to the airbrush table.  I've decided to do the underbelly first.  I'll be going for a smoggy orange/brown, mottled appearance no the belly.  I figure the skies of Terra in the 30th Millennium probably look like the skies over China today -- that is to say a perpetual haze.  So, ground up we'd be orange . . .  Top-down -- it would seem the "ground" around the Imperial Palace would entirely be fortified, so I'm going to go with a mottled urban-grey for the top.


WIP 13 Sept 2013

And, just to keep things interesting... I figured I'd do up a few of the new Wall of Martyrs set pieces in said urban-gray appearance to start pulling together an overall "look" for this corner of my collection.

WIP 13 Sept 2013

Hopefully more back in a day or three off of the painting table!

Monday, September 9, 2013

The LIST goes on . . .

Well, work has gotten the better of me, so I haven't had time to take pictures of the army as it stood when we walked away from the "Betrayal" event, but I did update the project log.  I had to add a new category ... "Table Legal" to my model count because I have so many models that need revisiting.  ;-)


VII Legion Project List -- 28 August Update

One model you'll see on the list is a "MM Turret" under the heading "3D Models."  I realized about three weeks in to building the models on this list that there are a decided lack "Pintle Mount" options for any Land Raider other than the flimsy MM mount that comes with a LR Crusader ...  and there are none available for purchase from F/W.

I got this little number modeled and 3D Printed right before heading off to the event (while I was in the US for a couple of weeks), then promptly forgot to paint it until the night before we were supposed to be on the tables!  Please pardon the chipping and wear to the paint job itself... that's an artifact of not putting a seal coat on before transporting the model back to Saudi from Nottingham!

Mini Turret -- WIP

Here it is on a Land Raider to give a sense of scale.

Mini Turret -- WIP (In Context)

And, while the shot below is atrociously crappy from a photographic perspective, I think the colors are the "truest" of any pic I've take yet of the models in the army...  love the "cold light of the morning."

Mini Turret -- WIP In Context

Monday, September 2, 2013

Based, and ready for action!!!

In the run-up to the Horus Heresy Gaming Weekend, much frantic painting occurred, all of the infantry models shed their plain plastic bases for bases from Dragonforge, and very few hours of sleep were obtained by myself.  My lovely wife was a HUGE help in getting minis table ready (as she is with every "push" to hit a Con' or Event), and I will owe her big for months to come as a result.

Here are the Dragonforge bases.  I tried to keep them muted and gritty -- I think that maybe they are too muted, and I might go hit them with some additional dry-brushing as I go back and work through better shading and detailing on each unit's spot-colors.

Dragonforge Bases, ready to glue -- 21 August 2013

Below you can see most of the VII Legion separated from their plastic bases, and ready for their new resin upgrades.

VII Legion, Ready for Basing... 21 August 2013
And, lastly, here are two shots of "Team Bumblebee" (as my son decided to call them through the whole event.)  At this point, there were still several hours of mad scambling ahead to get every mini table-worthy at a three color minimum... and, at midnight the night before the event I finally got over that line!

VII Legion, nearly ready for battle -- 21 August 2013

VII Legion, nearly ready for battle -- 21 August 2013

At some point in the next week I'll get everything out of the Battlefoam shipping crate and take properly white-balanced photos of their current state... that will probably make a good place to start a better PLOG.

Last, but not least, here is a photo from the event itself!  In game three I was up against "Damien" and his BEAUTIFUL Deathguard.  Here you can see my Assault Squad hammering in to his 20 man Tactical Squad...


Shut! Them! Down!!!!

More thoughts on the event itself, how the army played, and why I like "30K" better than "40K" to come in a later post!

Cheers!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Armour is coming!!!

While my blog hasn't been getting much love, our models have...  I took my entire collection on travel from Saudi to Alaska with me, and NOTHING broke [thanks to my trusty new BattleFoam Black Label case!!!  no, I am not getting paid for that endorsement, it is simply the most magical toy box I have ever bought...]

Here are thumbnails of most of the vehicles on the work bench after getting three shades of yellow, and a glaze.

The Jet Bikes ... 4 Heavy Bolters, 2 Vulkites

WIP Misc 9 August 13


Two Rhinos... all the better to deliver your pizza in.

WIP Rhinos 9 August 13


Two Land Raiders (yes, only one pictured) for delivering Termies.

WIP Land Raiders 9 August 13


The Spartan!!!  The most stylish heavy transport going, I think.

WIP Spartan 9 August 13


A Storm Eagle, super dope looking, and tactically flexible.

WIP Storm Eagle 9 August 13


And, of course, a Fellblade for when you absolutely have to squish your foes dead from a healthy distance.


More to post in the next couple of days... however, I'm making the final push to get things ready for the Heresy Gaming Weekend, so I may not have time to post until I get back.

Monday, July 15, 2013

A daunting Project Schedule deserves a post of its own...

When you put it in black and white (and add some snazzy color) my project list looks much bigger than I thought it was . . .  I have a mere 160 models to get painted in the next month.  Here's what it looks like:

Spring_2012_Project_List.xlsx


Hopefully my airbrush and compressor won't let me down any time soon.  :-')

Saturday, July 13, 2013

A busy four day stretch!

I have a reasonably insane schedule set for myself to get 6000 points of Imperial Fists table-worthy for the Horus Heresy Gaming Weekend in August, so I've been at it hard the past few days trying to get models churned out.

Here's what's new:

The Legion Fellblade is fully assembled, primed, and ready for pre-shading on my airbrush stand... this pic is from the 80% built point, because I just couldn't resist taking a picture of this handsome devil!!!

Legion Fellblade WIP

Six Legion JetBikes now stand ready for a wash down to get the accelerant off of them, and get them in to the "paint booth" for priming.

JetBike Squadron WIP

Twenty Legion Tactical Marines (my first 20-man squad) are complete, washed, and ready for priming this afternoon.

20-Man Tactical Squad WIP

Two Land Raider "early Mark" Phobos conversions are now fully assembled, ready for gap filling and then priming.

Land Raider Phobos (Phobii?) WIP

And, last but not least, I've gotten the interior of my Legion Land Raider Spartan painted. This shot is early on, before I shaded these panels. I've sealed these bits with Matte Varnish, masked them off, and put the exterior on the air brush stand next to the Fellblade for pre-shading.

Land Raider Spartan WIP


Whew! It's been a fun four days... and I'm right back at it trying to get 15 Assault Marines done today! Wish me luck!!!