Things do not always turn out as you plan

In my last posts I have hinted at a reinforcements for the northern ghosts in the form of a Warlord titan. This has now arrived, but since it was delayed from Forge World and the delays in our house building made the arrival coincided with wall paper work, it resulted in it now time to start with the clean up. Once the wall paper stuff was done we received visitors that stayed for a week and hence still no Warlord work. But it turned out the the guests were really interested in Wh40k, which meant that I got to exercise my models in a number of tutorial battles. We started out with the Dark Vengeance box and played two battles, one ended in a close win for the chaos forces, the other was a total wipe from the imperials. The next day we played a 1000p battle using codexes, Chaos vs Dark Angels/Adepta Sororitas which also ended in an imperial victory.  Sadly it becomes more and more apparent that I have forgotten or mixed up rules from over two decades of playing (due to lack of continuous practise) and I am not so sure that all things were actually according to the correct rules. Anyway, it was great fun and I am reminded why I started playing once upon a time, and it is always nice to see my lovingly painted  models actually dish out some damage.

Our guests became so enthusiastic about the whole thing so they decided to also paint up the Dark vengeance set, but they needed some hints at how to paint, which meant that I got to do my first tutorial in a very long while, painting a mk IV marine in pre-heresy Dark Angels black.

So my Warlord is still sitting in its boxes, waiting for me to get some time of to start with the cleaning and so, but I will get back on that subject as soon as I have some progress.

CCW Knigth Green Stuff WIP

Vacation is slowly moving forward, and in between house work, barbecuing and socializing with the family I have been managing to work a bit on the Knights, more specifically on the green stuff. I have been practicing my skull sculpting skills and I think I am making progress. The trick is to get the proportions right and to let go of any misconceptions about what I think it should look like and in stead focus on reference material.

I am also still waiting on my titan from Forge World that has been delayed due to low stocks. As they were kind enough to send me a mail telling me this I also took the opportunity to ask about the possibilities to get hold of the mars beta head, if there were any options rather then fly in or buy from ebay. Sadly these seams to be the only options at the moment. I have been checking what it would cost to visit warhammer world, which is something I would like to do in any case, but that would cost almost as much as the titan for us, so then the only option seams to be ebay, that or I convert the alfa head to look more like the beta. That could be an interesting thing to do, but as the head is the focus of the model it is kind of a big risk if I screw it up. On the other hand it will be a chaos aligned titan so a funky head might not look to strange. Comments or thoughts?

Kastelan robots

It is vacation time! Which means that I might get some hobby time in between all the things that is needed to be done around here. To start off I finished the pair of Kastelans that I have been working on at my place away form home (i.e work in another part of the country). This one also have the combo fists/guns as I did on the first one. I also decided to twin link the auto cannons, using both provided in the set. To do so I needed to shift them from the right side to the left so that I could stagger them without having the ammo boxes colliding. I think it turned out really nice. Now I just need to finish of the bases (which i am notoriously bad at doing). I really like these robots, apart form the head, and I can very well imagine me getting more. To bad about the data priest as he is mono pose and having multiples of him in the same pose will look a bit strange.

I still have a few models left from my 40th birthday present from my wife, but I still decided to go a head and get my self a little larger present from my self (with the wife's consent and blessing). So I order up some big time reinforcements for the northern ghosts in the from of a warlord. This means that project titan will start up again. One thing I am not happy with with this model is the head choices. Not that there is anything major wrong with the Knights head but the warhammer world exclusive would fit so much better for what I have in mind for the Varangian (name of titan). It is a bit strange that they would make a part of such an expensive model exclusive to the ones visiting warhammer world. If you pay top money for a collectors model you would like to have all the options without having to get on a plane and fly in to Nottingham to get it in person. Well I will see if I can get hold of one some how. Until then I think it will be headless. I will use the shields though as they are better looking. Of course I will do it in the same transitional mode as the rest of the titans of the northern ghost, but this time I will have to sculpt the chaos parts instead of the imperial. I am also thinking about building an interior in the main body, as there are such in the other titans. I will have to see if it can be done without compromising the stability of the model. I am also thinking about making a scenario base, but I am generally not a big fan of those, so I am a bit apprehensive about it.

Well I will get back about it when the package from Forge World arrives.

CCW Knigth WIP

I have finally managed to get some work done on the knights. The Close Combat Knight is almost fully assembled so that I can start with green stuffing. One thing I realized is that the kit is not meant to have this leg pose as there are pistons mounted on the inside of the thighs that are very hard to fit in this case. Also I had to bend the cables on the backside of the legs and I am not to happy with the shape. I also decided to add some tentacles from the defiler kit to the back, hanging form the carapace. I have also been working on the shield, which is not done yet, but I have magnetized it so that the rest of the model is not dependent on when I get it done to my satisfaction. Well, it is taking shape and there is a possibility that I might finish it at some point.

Dune Crawler and Data smith

Finally got some hobby time and finished of the Dune Crawler, which I am very happy with. I also managed to try out a mechanicum character in the form of a Data smith for my robots. I am not so sure about the palette. I tried to have an okra colored armor and a deeper red robe. But it tends to be just red on red, not what I was going for. Well we will see what happens with the next one...  I am doing some sort of boss and then I will use a metal color armor and red robes. He will also get an escort of skitarii vanguards painted in the same scheme. But now I will try to get some build time in with the knights.

Dune Crawler WIP 2

I am slowly getting there, but it is slow. Finally managed to get some painting time in on the dune crawler. I really like this model and it might happen that I will get a second one. This is a more or less straight forward build. I removed the vision slit next to the lens on the front armor and I built an ion-laser for the back to give it a bit more interesting profile, and I liked the look of the gun and could not choose be tween that and the missiles and auto cannons. It still lack the commander in the top hatch, but hopefully I can finish this one soon so that the ,model will be done.

Hope you like it

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Dune Crawler WIP

After finishing the Iron strider I went for the dune crawler from the mechanicum starter set I got for my birthday. Of course I could not just build it as is so it took me some time to get it assembled. I started out with the lower body and the legs and then I went on to the main body. As with most of my mechanicum I opted for the green scheme with bone details and a lot of chipping rust etc. I like the monochromatic look were the shade are in the same color instead of shifting color between fields to break up the surface and show the detail.

I have also tried my hand at some airbrushing. I got a basic "air brush set" some time ago, but I have not found the time to play around with it. So I pulled out a building and sprayed it black (yes it was completely black) before repainting it in gray tones. Now it almost looks like plastic again. Sadly the air brush and the paint do not go well together as the machine is feed from below through capillary forces and not gravity feed. It is also single action with a very large spray foot print. The result was that I could not get an even base coat due to problems with paint supply and once I started with the highlights they ended up as big blotches. But all in all I can see the appeal with an air brush, especially on larger models. I need to think about whether I should invest in a better set up or if I should stick to dry brushing.