Chapter Expansion

I have been reasonably productive this last month. My main 2015 objective is to clear the back log of models i have.

First up here are a Tactical Squad and a Drop Pod.

The tactical squad is my 10th for my chapter, and the 3rd for my drop pod company. It is made up from bits I bought in a job lot a while ago. I stripped them down and repainted them. The Sergeant is an old MkII veteran model. Originally he had a bolt pistol and chain sword. I have enough squad leaders’ armed like this and wanted something different. Initially I was going to give him a plasma pistol. Unfortunately I didn’t have any in the left hand only right handed ones. In the end I rummaged through my bits box and found suitable kit options for him, a Grav-pistol and a Power Fist.

 The other change is the blue cloak. I noticed on this model there was book. So it got me thinking why would he be carrying this item? The story I have for him is that he starting to show some psychic potential and so has started his training with the companies librarians. He has the honour of wearing a blue cloak as a result of this

 

The Drop Pod is another one of my cheap purchases. I got a load of pods about 4 years ago for about £10 a pod. Unfortunately they were painted already. Some of my paint has had difficulty covering it. Over all I am happy with it as a gaming piece, rather than any well painted model.

 

I have also been buying more Forgeworld goodies.

First is Bray’arth Ashmantle, the Salamander Venerable Dreadnaught. I have completed about 80% of him and am currently working on detailing him.

 

Next up is a Battle-Automata. I really like the model, but don’t see collecting an army of Ad-mec. I do see an inquisitor with close ties to the Ad-mec being given one as a body guard. That is how I will use him. Again he is about 80% complete with a bit more detailing and highlighting required.

 

Finally I have built up some more models I got in the job lot. In total I got 8 Assault marines, 30 Tactical marines, 5 Devs, 10 Terms  (AoBR) and 5 scouts, all for £30. This month I aim to do some terms and some scouts.

The terms I have converted to lightening claw ones. I had a full set of claws so I only needed to buy some shoulder pads. I was able to pick them up off eBay for £3.  Here they are all built up.

 

The scouts I wanted a close combat squad. They will eventually get a storm as transport. I think a good load out for them is close combat blade and bolt pistol. They were all armed like this. I wanted the sergeant to be armed with a combi melta and a power fist. I had loads of spare combi weapons from the sternguard squads I bought a while ago, and the fist came from the command squad set I got with Sevrin Loth.

 

Both of these squads have now been under coated and are on my painting table. The expansion contiues

Thunderbolts Forges Working at Maximum Capacity!

Hi All

Continuing with my Thunderbolts 1500pt Drop Pod army, I've now completed the 5 man Devastator squad. This is the first unit I've painted exclusively with GWs new paint range and I'm generally impressed by the improvements, particularly metallics, specifically leadbelcher, ironbreaker and runefang steel which I use to layer up the silver armour and brass scorpion which replaces brazen brass, all four give much smoother coverage and a brighter finish too. Instead of ice blue I'm now using Lothern blue which is slightly darker so I mixed in some white for the base coat and then more for the layers and highlights and it worked out quite well I think. The other colour of note is moot green which is used for the cabling and also gives a much smoother and consistent finish. In all this led to me needing less coats to get the desired finish and thus a much quicker process which is a major bonus since I paint at geological speeds!
Here's a few pics of the finished squad...........

 

Next will be their drop pod...
Till next time.......

Thunderbolts from the Skies

Hi All

With SvaXIII done and dusted I can now concentrate on my next tournament, a one day affair organised by Doc and others from the code. This will comprise 3 games at 1500pt with all comers and using the "Swis System".
I'm going back to my Marine Drop pod list for this as it gives me an incentive to paint up at least a couple more pods and my Sternguard finally.
I've squeezed a suprising amount into 1500pt; 41 marines and 4 pods to be exact. Once it's all done I'll post piccies of the complete force, for now though you can see here the latest addition; a squad of 5 vanguard veterans with jump packs and power weapons..........

Aaaargh! Resin kits

Hello again.

So here it is .... the model I've been dreading!Guess what..... it was as tricky as I'd expected. I've now built 2 of these bad boys, the first one was an utter pain.

If you've never built a resin model before then this is not a good choice for a first go, I'd recommend a more organic model, eg warboss on bike or chaos sorcerer, I found both of these to be much more forgiving with their curves and rumples.

The biggest issue with the drop pod is the inevitable warping of the parts, an unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of the casting process. This manifests with glaring obviousness in the 3 vertical vanes which form the frame of the model, the solution.... submerge all the parts in very warm soapy water, this will soften the parts in a couple of minutes so you can reshape them into nice straight (or nearly so...) vanes instead of grey bananas!! At the same time you need to wash the pieces so as to remove as much of the residue lubricant from the casting process. Leaving this infernal substance on the parts will dramatically reduce the adhesion of paint, as I discovered with my first attempt at a resin model!

My second tip for building resin kits is..............PIN EVERYTHING!!!! That's right pin all the joints where practical. The drop pod is very heavy when complete and needs all the joints pinned for extra strength. I failed to pin the first one I built and it fell apart after I'd picked it up a couple of times. For pinning I use 18 gauge (1.20mm) jewellery wire which is readily available from many craft outlets, get the unpainted stuff cos the paint will come off inside your joints and they'll fail! This gauge fits nice and snug in holes drilled with the 1mm bit you get with the citadel pin vice. I find that this tight fit along with super glue works a treat.

So below is a photo of the base top part with pins fitted and ramps in place ready to fit the base bottom part, a good splodge of glue and some patience along with 2 pins and it all went well.

As an aside, forge world conveniently put a dimple in each of the 2 base sections to show you how they should be positioned, just align the dimples and the pieces fit nicely....after a lot of filing and shaving of flash, another of resins big issues.

I then pinned the joints between the vanes and the base and the vanes and the central turbine, the assembly of these pieces needs to be done quickly as the glue needs to be on all pieces and can dry quickly. I find the key here is to do several dry runs and to be patient! Very very patient!!

Below is the finished build..

I'm quite pleased overall, it's better and stronger than the first one, not perfect by a long way, there are small gaps between the ramps and vanes when it's closed up but after all it'll be open when it's on the table so it should be all good.

To conclude I have several points to make regarding the model;

1/ Typical resin kit.... lots of small air holes which needed to be filled (green stuff works well).

2/Really badly warped vanes, I got these virtually straight with warm water.

3/On the base top piece the holes for the ramp hinges to slot into are very thin and prone to breakage, in fact one of them had a bad case of air bubble AND flash and I had to remove it and replace with some green stuff which I shaped to replicate the original...only time will tell if this holds...

4/ Resin kits are tricky but well worth persevering with..... patience, patience and more patience.

My next post will be the finished article.....

Hope you found this interesting