Saturday, December 28, 2013

Technique Tutorial: Fixing bent plastic miniatures

Sometimes you'll unbox a model or a bit only to find it has bent in the packaging or in storage. Fear not! Like with most hobby things it can be fixed. After all it's only plastic and we are apex predators. Here's the quick and dirty on fixing it.

dip it, dip it good

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Army Showcase! CubanNecktie's Sons of Titan Grey Knights

A long time coming. Here's what I've done so far with my Grey Knights. Can you spot the influence? A quick browse through the blog should tell you that this is still a work in progress. However, what you see here is done and staying as is. Enjoy!

Edit: Pics were a bit sloppy so I took them again.


 

Army Showcase! imm0rtal Reaper's Red Scorpions 4th Company

Army showcases need no explanations, especially this one expertly crafted by immortal Reaper. Been a year since I bought it and still love the work. To see this army's development go here: project log thread.


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Conversion: Kaldor Draigo, Grey Knights Supreme Grandmaster

14 Dec 2013
Primed, washed and ready for the paint table. Incidentally it is the same table I do everything else on. Don't know why I felt the need to specify. Getting a bit delirious after so many posts...alright, Draigo!

Conversion: Grey Knights Terminators-Paladins

14 Dec 2013
It should be pretty obvious to see what I did here. The day I saw the Dark Angels Deathwing Command multi-part kit I decided that these were the best paladin torsos in the line. I took all the steps and accumulated all the bits only to keep them in storage for most of the year. When I finally got around to building and magnetizing I hit a speedbump that added days to my kitbash. Due to the long tabard on the DA Knights, the terminator waistguards on the accompanying legs are sculpted out and almost opposite each other on the hip. Most plastic termie kit waist guards are substantially closer to the belt buckle. In practical terms this meant the awesome cloth torsos didn't fit my GK termie/paladin legs. I had 9 target paladins to make since my 10 was a Justicar Thawn optional that could as easily be a terminator captain, a paladin or Thawn, without switching bodies...

In Progress: Grey Knight Elite

14 Dec 2013
Some GK elite models with barely any changes done to them combined in one thread for the sake of simplicity.

Crowe with a shiny new head, one of my favorite characters in the field

Conversion: Justicar Thawn, Grey Knights Terminator (and resurrection enthusiast)

Conversion: Grey Knights Brotherhood Champion

Salvage: Red Scorpions Captains

14 Dec 2013
I believe strongly in using "every part of the horse" so to speak. This (on the right) is a salvaged Sicarius alternate model I picked up with a lot. It had its claws cut off and was in pretty bad shape overall.

The new pictures show (on the left) a small initiative I'm pushing throughout this army: Apothecary-Captains. The RS fluff speaks to a zealous stewardship of the chapter's gene seed as a defense against corruption. The Red Scorpions have a unique tradition of Apothecary-Captains who lead men into battle and administer to their medical needs as well. Aside from this salvage I picked up two Heresy-era FW apothecaries which match the current army's armour mark.
To maintain consistency I may push this guy into the Deathwatch or Exorcists crew. More on that later.


The third captain will be an old servo-arm Techmarine just for random variety. He will play as a normal captain or a tech. I'm building a blitz armour force around the Scorpions so it seems fitting to have a tech lead at some point. That, and the servo-arm kinda looks like a banner/decoration. 


Thursday, December 12, 2013

EdiTutorial: A look back at the past year - Part 1

Some time late last year, around the holiday season, I was fortunate enough to come across two 40K armies that truly inspired me. imm0rtal reaper's Red Scorpions and Michael Knightley's Grey Knights forever changed the lenses with which I view army concepts. One of these armies I eventually bought; the other started a chain of events that led me to undertake a grinding rebuild of my Grey Knights force.

Allow me to indulge in a stroll down memory lane as I recount a few lessons learned since last December. Having only been in the hobby since April 2012, that moment marked a substantial milestone in my journey through the magical universe of sprues and glues.

Ohai! Continue on to see what CubanNecktie thought was a passable original paint scheme...

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Photo Tutorial: Broken Blacktop by Zuzzy Miniatures

As promised, here is the tutorial to help you tackle the unusual task of painting your very own Zuzzy Miniatures mat. This is the Broken Blacktop model in the 6'x4' cut.