Sunday 26 July 2009

Warlord Titan (5)

Well after a highly deserved break with my family it was time to continue with the Titan. It has been a long and laborious process without the workshop space that I have a work but I have completed the plastics including the eagles for the bottom of the legs and the windows for the torso of the model, these came from two shrines of the Aquila and I think the look pretty spiffing. The model still need a large amount of delicate filling to fix issues that were created when cutting up the eagle section for the bottom of the legs but it's going to look cracking when I get it done.
Its now time to think about pistons and mechanical details for the legs and hand crafted stained glass windows for the torso and shoulders I have also ordered the parts from forge world (so I should see them in the next 2 months) I am starting to see the point where I can start thinking about the head and arms. I am struggling to think of the weapon load out that I want in the first instance does anyone have any opinions on the best way to go?

A close up of the legs, you can see where the filling needs to be done.

The left leg.

How the thigh measures up against the bottom og the leg.

A 3/4 of the torso.

A closeup of the front of the torso.

The side of the torso under the shoulder.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

GW Hull banner ready to go!

The Games Day UK banner for Hull will be delivered tomorrow, as long as I can get it into my car! Its all finished and ready to go I have just finished pinning the flag to the banner pole and I have now glued in the finial. I hope thay like it. Only the Hulls Angels banner to do for GD 09 now.
I have to say thanks to my mum who has been a great help on this project helping with all of the technical sewing and fabric based information. Thanks Mum!

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Warlord Titan (4)

After spending a few days thinking about what I really wanted from this model it occured to me that all of the God machines tht I have seen seem to me to be overly technological. Now I understand that thats how the epic models look but if your going to make your own then you might as well make it individual.


As far as I see it these bipeds of destruction would be like walking Cathederals to the Mecahnicum and Emperor, so thats what im going to do. This model will eventually look like a walking temple to the two powers of the Imperial eagle. The images below show how i have got on today most of the plastic sections are now on with only a few more to add tomorrow. I am going to scratch build a series of gothic arch windows to put all over it and I intend to have some fun with two of the chapels of the aquila that come out this weekend.



Top: a general view of the whole model as it looks tonight.

Above: a rear shot of the same.



A close up of the back of the Titan, still quite a lot of work to be done here I plan to add a balcony on the left shoulder.


A closeup of the front of the Titan I intend to use some Forge world products in two areas as well as some scratch built gothic arches.



A closeup of the leg plates, the thing that started this all off for me it just so hapened that the leg plates and the wall sections from the ruins are the same size

Monday 13 July 2009

GW Hull banner complete!

With the UK Games Day fast aproaching I wanted to get the banner I promised to the manager of Hull GW closer to completion. Its been slow going over the last few weeks on this project with only the finnials made for the banner poles. Finally I got the last of the printed fabric and the tassles for the edge of the banner ready to be assembled. A few broken needles later and what you see above is the result. A complete banner ready to go on the pole, we should complete it tomorrow and I intend to present it to the manager of the store on Thursday of this week. Lets hope they like it!

A close up of the finnial for the banner pole.

Sunday 12 July 2009

Sunday Silliness

Thought you might like this for a giggle. One of my kids liked the Imperial eagle I was making for the Hulls Angels banner that he has decided it makes good manly jewellery. Enter the Imperial Chav! ( for those of you living across the pond, a chav is a person of low social standing and low self esteem with little brain. see devvo on You tube and think Red neck)

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Warlord Titan (3)



So today I began to concentrate on the "wonky" areas of the titan, the bits that maby dont fit together too well. The thing about building models like this is that you have to constantly rethink what you are doing and typically adapt how you are going to make the structure. One of the ways in which I did this was to fill all of the "wonky" areas with household filler and then use a series of tools and sanding equipment to smooth the surface down to an acceptable level. You can see from the images below that it goes on very rough but after some sanding it comes up with quite a clean solid surface to work from.


Would look good as a Nurgle Titan...hmm now there's an idea!



Once I had cretaed a strong surface to work from I decided to see how well the plasticard panels would fit onto my newly strengthened structure. As you can see the panels look really good very sraight and true. They still neede a bit of filling to make them look sharp but luckily the excess came of really easily and left no marks.








Next step is to clad the whole model and start thinking about details. I think i'm going to cast some sections from various models to use over again. Time to start looking though the bits box.

Monday 6 July 2009

Warlord Titan (2)


Today was a lovely suprise, I got to work to find all of the children I teach today were on a trip. Time to get on with the Titan I hear you call!

Well thats exacty what I did. I have really made some progress today mainly by bulking out the waist, adding more structure to the thighs and putting a sloped series of panels on the upper torso to make it look more like the original model. I have also enlarged the feet and worked out a way to put it torgether so it can be transported in pieces.


The back of the model is coming on nicely with a good ammount of interesting surfices to add detail too. The next job I have is to add filler to all of the areas that I made a little "wonky" this will allow me to have clean surfices after a bit of filling and sanding. I can then add of the top detailed panels using plasticard. This is available from most good hobby stores and comes in a number of thiscknesses, im using 20 microns.

This is a close up of the back of the leg. I have some problems here as I made the model before I really looked at the original so I now have to work out a way to create the gears and mechanical gubbins that is shown on the original.

I am really happy with the front of the legs now. Yesterday they looked a bit skinny and the waist was too thin but just by adding the thigh plates the body looks much more in proportionand I dont feel that I have much more work to do on it.

More Croch for ya!

The feet are much bigger and heavier now I have added the new layer of MDF. This is 12 mm thick and should provide a good solid heavy base for the model so I wont have to create a separate base for it.

I have just pinned the feet in using some wooden dowl I intend to model round it to create a solid attachment for the feet in the long term. I have not decided wheter I am going to make the feet detachable for transport like I have the torso I dont want it to be to rickety so ill probably attach them at a later date.

Here is a close up of the upper torso. Ive still got loads to do but its beginning to look pretty sweet to me. Tomorrow i intend to fill and sand the gaps to make a good layer for the deatiled plasticard panels to go in then im going to have to think about rivets...oh no not rivets!

Sunday 5 July 2009

Warlord Titan (1)

Well its been a while, almost a month since I last posted. I have however been very busy. I began work on a Warlord Titan in the last month and along with all the other projects that I have ongoing this has kept me pretty busy. But now I bring you the first images of the 28" tall monstrosity. I have based it purely on the image to the left and a little artistic licence. There is still a lot to do and I imagine it will take some time, the last one I tried is still sitting in my garage after 4 years.



As you can see from the images below I am currently blocking out the shape and form of the structure. I will then clad the whole model in plasticard and add details to it like the correct placing of panelling on the epic model. I still have some work to do on te shoulders and the waist as I think that it looks out of proportion to the rest of the model. After I have finished this I will begin to concetrate on the detail.



I have seven weeks off coming up and I am determined to get as much modelling and painting done in that time as possible. This will be my major modelling project and mu Space Marines will be my painting task. Enjoy the images if you have any questions please dont hesitate to comment.








Monday 15 June 2009

Now were getting somewhere!

This weekend we have finally managed to get the printed elements of the banners sewn on. We started by adding gold braid between the back and yellow areas, be warned if you ever want to do this, it takes a lot of braid. we bought 20 meters and that was just enough!

I think you'll agree this example looks great and we're only half way through. I have decided that the scrolls with the names on will have to be printed in the same way so I will be looking at creating them this week. Meanwhile the poles are well on their way to completion I measuerd them up yesterday, they just need to be put together and stained then we're good to go.

More next week...

Friday 12 June 2009

What iv'e done this week

Well my Space Marines have got no further as I have been distracted by another task. The image above shows an illustration I started this week, its the first 2D artwork i have done in some time and i'm really enjoying the process. I still have a significant ammout of work to do on it, the image above shows it with just the first layer of paint on it. I still have the highlites and shading to do. I will then scan it into the computer and play around with it on there. The last stage will be to make a background for it seperatly and then marry the two together on the computer.

I am hoping to have it done by September so that I can put it in for the art competition at the UK games day.

As an aside the printed parts of the banners came today I should have an image of the next stage of the GW banner next week. Then I might get some models painted...possibly.

Saturday 6 June 2009

Finially!

Well I have finally finished the first of many Space Marine squads. This devastator squad is the test unit for my space marine company, 2nd company of the Crimson Castellans. Although it has taken me over a week and a half to paint them that is only because of other constraints on my time. I have worked out the actual time that I have been working of these and it looks to be around 5 hours overall, not bad for full squad. The tones and contrast of the models really seems to have come out well it gives them a really worn look that I think the 40K universe would have. The speed that these can be painted at has given me hope that I will finish all of the infantry in the force by the end of our school summer holidays, wife and son permitting. I have now started on 3 more squads that I hope to finish by next weekend. Ill post what I have done by then.

As usual if you have any comments on the painting or any advice please post.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Tiger Stripes!


An image of the triangles at full size


The banner after it has been trimmed



Just a quick one for you tonight. The images above show how I am getting on with my local GW stores Games Day banner. So far I have worked out the sizes, cut the cloth using a template for the black tringles and pinned them together. As you can see i made the triangles all the same size but a little too large for the orange background, this enabled me to position and cut the black to size maing it easier to get it right.

The next step will be to make the blue shield and white imperial wings shown on my previous post below). I am thinking of having these printed onto a banner and then cutting them out this will make them look more effective and will be much quicker than trying to make them out of material.

As I move on with the project I will keep you updated. If you have any comments please dont be shy.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Time to paint?


I don’t know about you but the thing I find hardest to do is paint, or to be exact have time to paint. I regularly spend time forcing myself to paint an army just so I have something that looks good on the field. This does work I even completed 2000pts of Tyranids in 7 days last summer. The thing I had a problem with was whether the models that I painted looked rushed or not? I recently spent quite a sum of money on a complete Marine company with all its ancillary support I wanted to paint this completely before I start using it in apocalypse games. I did play with the idea of making it a white army but the reality of this quickly became apparent. I eventually stuck with a templar imagery based codex marine force in red and bone with some key models in white for contrast (I was trying to get a mirror of the original Knights Templar) This seemed like a good idea to me and it certainly looked good in the tests that I did my biggest problem was…having the time to paint!
This brought me on to my next question, how can you paint a large amount of models well with as little work as possible? Now I know that this is an age old question and that people far wiser than me have gone mad musing over this but the other day I was perusing the info on BOLS and there was an excellent post from Goatboy on themes when painting a 40k force. His comments made me think about what I really want from a force for 40k. I don’t want to win golden daemon and I certainly don’t want to make my models look as clean and crisp as the Eavy Metal models. I want my forces to be dark and textured with vast contract between dark and light much like the fictional world in which we set our weekly playing with toys. With this in mind I began to play with how I would paint the rank and file troops in the force.



The image above shows the first 3 models that I have painted for the army they are part of one of the devastator squads and as such will probably not be used much from day to day in games so it won’t matter if they have gone a little wrong.



I started by spraying all the models with a red primer. I got mine from Halfords it’s a great paint with a low price they do it in grey, black, white, red and mustard yellow (good for bad moons me thinks)
I then played with paint then ink and just paint if you look at the image of the 3 marines the one furthest right is 3 layered and the one in the middle is 2 layered. The 3 layered version was one layer too many it had no real bearing on the overall look of the model so I scratched it and just started to ink then layer on blood red. This gives a good stark basis for the detail to be added. I completed each model in around 20 mins with a bit of waiting around, this seems awfully quick and will look effective on the battlefield, which is after all what I paint models for!

Well that’s the space marines covered I will add posts as I complete more of them, especially the vehicles it will be interesting to see if the same process works on a larger model.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Well that didn't work!


After my first battle with my Imperial Guard I can honestly say that the 1500 pt list I posted the other day doesn’t work. This is the first time that I have used the imperial guard, having wanted to field an army of guardsmen for many years. The list was toothless, it had no real punch and didn’t allow me any way to take objectives or knock the enemy off theirs. The best unit I found was the Valkarie and even that got downed the turn after it arrived. My placing of the models didn’t really work for me as I treated them too much like a space marine army. I didn’t realise they were so easy to kill! My veteran unit with Harker in died to a man in 2 turns and did very little damage and the creed was a massive waste of points, he would be great in a larger force though.

So with this in mind I have decided that I need more teeth. I have a number of tanks that I have collected over the years so I have decided to re model the force with a few more tanks and a few less foot troops. Here is the list that I have decided upon for my next game this week.

1500 pt Imperial Guard list. (take 2)

Company Command

2 snipers, astropath, heavy bolter 100pts

Elites

5 Ratlings 50pts

Troops

Platoon Command, 2 snipers, heavy bolter 50pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle, Autocannon 65pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle, Autocannon 65pts

Platoon Command, 2 snipers, heavy bolter 50pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle, Missile Launcher 70pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle, Missile Launcher 70pts
Mortar Squad 60pts
Mortar Squad 60pts


Veterans, power fist, 3 meltas 115pts


Fast Attack

Valkarie, las cannon 115pts

Heavy Support

Leman Russ, heavy bolter sponsons 170pts
Leman Russ, heavy bolter sponsons 170pts
Manticore 160pts
Basilisk 125pts

Tactics

The essence of this army is stand and shoot. One thing that I did learn was to kill the enemy before even thinking about moving to take objectives. The infantry have been given more killing power with the heavy weapons and the command squads will be more effective due to positioning. They will not move so I have much less of an issue with where to put them on the table. The armour will work to flatten the enemy line using its big guns. These can also be put in cover to give them more survivability. The valkarie will outflank and deliver the veterans to an objective and then cause havoc in the rear of the enemies lines using those excellent missiles to great effect.

So let’s see how this works I’ll give an update at the end of the week after I have tried this force out.

Monday 18 May 2009

For the Emperor!


As I’m about to undertake the task of creating the 2009 banner for Hulls GW Store I thought I might as well make one for the club as well. Hulls Angels is a club I have been running on and off for 3 years now. I’m determined to get a faithful following for the club and the new manager at GW Hull is really encouraging it, go team! I’m intending to run the club every 2 weeks for the foreseeable future and we’ll see where it goes from there.
One of the major job is to get a good corporate image for the club. I have had the imagery aid down for some time but a banner would be a great addition. The banner will be a Space Marine Company design and will be full size, the image above shows how it will look. I intend to make it as realistic as possible with metallic colours and as many additions as possible. I’m even looking into making my own red wax stamp so that I can make real Purity seals.

Sunday 17 May 2009

Listen up you maggots!


With Games Day UK only months away I was talking with the manager of my local GW store this week, he was complaining of the lack of a decent banner at the store. He wants a new one and for some reason I seem to have volunteered to make it! Anyhow you do what you can. After a small amount of worrying what I was going to make I have decided to create an Imperial Guard banner based on the City of Hull and its respective imagery. The Black and Orange of the local football team, the name tigers (also from the football team) and the blue shield and crowns from the cities logo. I think it’s quite striking. It’s amazing what you can get from fabric shops to make effective textile art like this I already have all of the materials required now I just have to learn how to sew. I’m going to start making it this week so watch this space for pictures of me sown to something.

For the Greater Good


I have never taken part in any type of campaign and I suddenly have a real need to take part in one. I have a feeling that I won’t do very well, but that is a different story. I would like to give it a go, not for the competition but to get involved in a large narrative run by others, to be able to get lost in the story through games. I have been looking at a Tau army for a very long time now but have never seemed to get myself to start it.

I really like the idea of a Tau Hunter Cadre; it works in a very similar way to a theoretical modern military force. I like the way that you have to depend on all of the disparate elements of the army to win a game. I have been told that the Tau are very hard to be a success with but I love the narrative concepts that the codex creates in my warped mind, so I’m going to give them a go regardless of whether I am any good with them. I’ll still have fun trying them out.

1500pt Tau Cooperation Cadre

HQ

Shas’o, plasma rifle, missile pod, multi tracker,
drone controller, shield drone. 135pts

Elites

2 battle suits, shas’vre, bonding knife, multi trackers,
Missile pods, plasms rifles, 139pts

2 battle suits, TL fusion blasters, targeting arrays 124pts

3 stealth suits 90pts

Troops

6 Firewarriors, Shasui, markerlght, 80pts

6 Firewarriors, Shasui, markerlght, 80pts

6 Firewarriors, Shasui, markerlght, 80pts

6 Firewarriors, Shasui, markerlght, 80pts

12 Firewarriors, shasui, markerlight 140pts

Fast Attack

8 pathfinders, Rail Rifle 106pts

Devilfish 80pts

Heavy Support

Hamerhead, Railgun, Burst cannons, multitracker 165pts

Skyray 125pts

Broadside 70pts

Tactics

I’m not really sure what I will do with these guys…the basic concept is to use the markerlitghts to support the shooting every turn ad try to blow the enemy off the table. The small firewarrior teams should slow down the destruction of my firebase by the enemy not being able to overrun any longer. The crisis suits will be tasked with pinpointing enemy threats like terminators and destroying them. I also have two suicide suits equipped with Fusion guns and a raised BS, these will target high value enemy armour or leaders. The stealth suits will lurk around at the back of the enemies’ deployment zone distracting my opponent and killing what they can. The pathfinders will infiltrate and not use the Devilfish, which will be used by the large Firewarrior unit and will work as a beacon for my battlesuits. My heavy armour will target high value targets first and then focus on destroying troops so I can dominate objectives.
I don’t really plan on taking objectives but to destroy the enemy to a man. To me this fits in with the way a Tau Cadre would work. I am not sure how this would work in a tournament or gaming weekend. Once I have tested it and built it ill give it a go and see.

For more Tau fun and frolics go to http://warhammer-tau-army.blogspot.com/


GrimJaw

Sunday 10 May 2009

New Imperial Guard Codex

With the new Imperial Guard book out I am itching to try out some new army lists that work well as part of a story line but are still competitive on the table. After finally getting a proper look at the book this afternoon (children take up a huge amount of time) I have noticed that there are so many cool options in it. I have decided to give the list a go to create a force that focuses on one of the main elements of the IG force; orders. For me these really epitomise how the Imperil Guard would work. The theme is going to be a basic light infantry company backed up by specialists and a small amount of armour, let’s see what I can do with it?

1500 pt Imperial Guard Orders list.

Company Command

Creed, Kell, 1 sniper and full advisors 315pts


Elites

10 Ratlings 100pts

Troops

Platoon Command, 2 flamers 40pts
Infantry Squad, flamer 55pts
Infantry Squad, flamer 55pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle 55pts

Platoon Command, 2 flamers 40pts
Infantry Squad, Grenade Launcher 55pts
Infantry Squad, Grenade Launcher 55pts
Infantry Squad, Sniper Rifle 55pts
Mortar Squad 60pts

Veterans, Harker, sentries, 3 snipers,
missile launcher 185pts

Veterans, power fist, 3 meltas 145pts

Fast Attack

Valkarie, las cannon 115pts

Heavy Support

Leman Russ, heavy bolter sponsons 170pts

Tactics

The essence of this army is orders. I have used Creed and Kell purely for their skills in giving orders and the likelyhood that the orders will be followed. The sniper rifles of the ratlings will support all teams by pinning key enemy units and slowing them down; with any luck they should kill a few too. The Mortar squad will support in this.

The infantry squads are split into 3 types, flamer squads for taking close objectives. Grenade launcher squads will work as tactical teams and sniper squads will support from a distance. The two platoon command squads will linger behind the infantry squads and add the weight of their flamers to any units that they can and give orders when appropriate.

The real objective takers are the veterans. The first squad with hark in it will work as a infiltrating firebase that should be able to deal with most enemies at a distance. The second squad will enter play in the valkarie; these are designed to be an armour killing.

Finally, you can’t have an IG army without a Leman Russ. This will be tasked with destroying enemy armour and /or large units and drawing a large amount of fire.

This army seems to me to be very balanced and while not particularly effective in any one phase should be challenging to play with and against. I’ll give it a go and see how it gets on.


GrimJaw
Related Posts with Thumbnails
Emperors Tarot © 2008. Design by :Yanku Templates Sponsored by: Tutorial87 Commentcute