April works

With the coming of april came lots of work. i am spending the next couple of weeks away from home. atleast i have the weekends to work on some projects. So i have been working on the Drop Pods. i painted them, which was more work than i was expecting. i have been using a couple of tutorials on modelling and painting to get some inspiration.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?31535-Space-Marine-WIP-Part-2./page4

this has helped with the painting. Starting with a Black base coat, i then airbrushed burnt umbra over top to give the rusted look. To seal it against the worst damage, i sprayed future floor polish across the model. for the weathering, i used hairspray and salt. when the hairspray was dry, i started the blue paint layers. unfortunately i used too many layers, and unlike normal painting, i didn't need to begin with a really dark blue. so the paint layer was a bit thick, but i think it came out pretty good. but no photos yet.

As for the models, i am using both these site:

the Praetors of Calth
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146205

Captain Uriel Ventris (True-Scale)
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=95015&st=50

hope you enjoy,

cheers

and onto march

so i feel like a jerk. i started posting sporatically and then i stopped for a bit. if i want to get anywhere i have to keep posting. so i will be posting.

First off i found this photo and i am going to post it as a motivator.

it was originally done by cpl_saint, so good on you.

Second, i completed the four plastic drop pods. they are primered black and ready for painting. i am currently working on the second Tac squad. Stretching the models is hard work.

completed so far is 1 tac squad and 1 assault squad.

i spent the weekend in ottawa, where i went to Fandom II games. A pretty good little store with plenty of models and a really large reference material library for sale. I picked up a number of cool things too.

-a box of shermans for flames of war
-a british airborne mortar platoon
-A bridge too far, rule book
-a box of Warlord Roman Legionaires
-some reaper masterclass paints
-and a bag of Cthulhu from fantasy flight games



so i'll be busy, until next time

cheers

no pictures today

pictures todasorry no pictures today. been kind of busy with work and other things. Damn you Command and Conquer: Generals. its a sick game. At the low price of 19.99 for all the C&C games of the last decade, who could resist?

anyways, outside of that i was able to build the rest of the Assault Squad and another Drop Pod.

"On flaming wings they descend into the chaos below. These Angels of Death."

i'll post the finished product this weekend. unless i end up working this weekend, which is unlikely.

until then enjoy the scratchbuild model that i found online. i made one once, but it was so labour intensive that it was cost prohibitive.

http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/eg6l4M251duW

cheers

Long Awaited

Not sure if i can call it long awaited but alas here it is, a new post. Sorry, I haven't kept my word again. Damn, I'm not very good at this whole keeping up with things thing. At least I have been working on models.

Apparently, as those who know me already know, I am slightly off my rocker though. Although I started work on this project last week, I have only completed construction on one drop pod, a full 10 man tactical squad and have begun construction on an assault squad. This would have been quicker if I hadn't decided that the entire army should be true scale. If you don't know what i am talking about, i wouldn't be surprised. This is where the insanity begins.

When Games Workshop started producing models, they were made at 28mm scale. Meaning that from the ground to eye level is roughly 28mm. As the years pass, the models got larger and larger, meaning that Games Workshop models were 'Hero' Scale, i.e Larger than Life. The 28mm is meant for an average person, roughly 6ft. Space Marines, as per their fluff, are roughly 8 - 10ft tall. So the models for marines should be larger than 28mm. I have taken to converting each and every model to about 33mm. This was achieved using plasticard to lengthen the legs and the torso. The head and shoulders are roughly the right size already, So the torso was expanded using a disc, to lengthen to torso, and the legs were segmented and two 2mm discs were put in the legs.

This model is the Sgt. for the Tactical Squad. It is definitely a kit bash. The pistol hand is from the chaos space marines box, the sword arm and legs are from the assault squad box, the back pack is from 2nd edition marine models, the helmet is a third party modeler named maxmini and the shoulder pads are games workshop.

this is part of the tactical squad and includes one of my favorite models so far. the legs are from the free terminator in a white dwarf.

he is carrying the 2nd edition bolter with a new scope. i love the way he is about to post the grenade.

And here is my favorite so far. The assault squad Sgt.

hope you enjoy this post. and I'll post as soon as i can.

cheers

Flames of War

So a Buddy of mine just posted the photos of a Flames of War table we made over the christmas holiday. We wanted to make a Normandy table, not a specific beach, but a beach with a small town, a cliff face and some bocage. Here is the beginning of the project. you can see my feet in the photo. the table is 3 planels deep, wach one in 4 ft wide and 2 ft deep. The table starts at a low level and works up into a substantial hill on the back right hand corner.

The Cliff face was made using insulation foam, the edge was cut using a sharp exacto knife, and then a steel brush was used to scrape down the sides. the roads were made using weather stripping foam, and plaster to give the raised edge of the road ways.

The greenery started out as vinyl railroad grass, or varying colours. then different types of flock was applied. It is truely amazing the stuff you can pick up from your local model train shop.


I love this table. although it is a pretty symple design, it was constructed to force a mobile game. Can you say beach assault? Hope you enjoy.

cheers

Another Year and Another Post

So i haven't posted as much or as regularly as i would have liked. Guess my New Years resolution is gone again. So Sue me. New resolve to post every two days. lets see if i can keep it up.

Anyways, work has been busy, although i haven't been doing anything. its funny, either there isn't anything to do, or i get put on a job which gets cancelled before i can begin, or i am over qualified so i don't get to work because it will be demeaning to someone of my position. Really i'd just like to be doing something.

so i'm resolved to work on models. I can't promise photos every time, but i hope to give input on a regular basis.

i am starting work on a heresy era Ultramarine army. I know, I know, everyone hates the smurfs. but hear me out. The first 40k codex i ever bought was the Ultramarines codex for 2nd edition.


I loved this book to pieces, literally, it has fallen apart. So i am planning on building this army using parts i still have from 2nd edition, some parts i've bought from other companies, including Maxmini.

I remember this photo from the codex, and it is the kind of feeling that i want for this army. I've also recently watched HBO's Rome seasons one and two, and want my army to follow in the same vein, no so clean, but still beautiful.



The army is also going to be a Drop Pod army, ready to wage war from the skies. i'll post the list as soon as i have figured it all out.

cheers

After the Christmas Rush

Just had christmas with the family, and i'm feeling tired. given that i'm used to working 80 hrs a week, when its busy, this seems kind of awkward. Good news is i'm getting annoyed and that means i'm going to be modeling.

I am currently working on Forgeworld's Thunderbolt. I have yet to pick out a colour. I'm thinking end of World War II Me 109. We'll see how it works out. Given that i stopped being a cheap bastard and actually bought the model last year, i am pretty stoked to get to this point. I had puchased the model back in Nov '08, with the hopes of completing it over the christmas break. The model didn't arrive until i was already back to work. So i waited another 6 months, until i got a chance to come home again. This time my semi-half brother (Disclaimer: not related to me in any way) had borrowed my model masterclass book. i was not impressed. so finally, after much waiting i arrived home to complete the model. Some of the parts had gone missing, good thing it was only in one place, and they were easy to recover.

so for your pleasure, in a couple of days i will be posting photos of the new model. until then, here are some photos of a marauder destroyer i scratch built out of cheerios boxes.


This is the nose work i hand painted. i called the destoyer "Between the Sheets" because i am a fan of the drink and the implications.

The next photo is a top down view of the entire aircraft. the whole process took a really long time because i wasn't sure how i was going to do it, i had never seen one in real life, and i didn't know how big it was. So i found out how big one of the decals was and then worked back from there. once i had the appropriate measurements on a sheet of paper, i began working on a virtual model. then used that model to make templates to cut out. then i started cutting out paper, and then putting the whole damn thing together.


This is the final product. hope you enjoy it as much as i did making it.

I'll write again in a couple of day, i promise.

cheers.