Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Dreadtober Update - Bjorn's Bodyguards


Hi all

So my youngest has invited Papa Nurgle to stay with us for a week or two so blogging time has been scarce (and there's been fantastic models/painting on here this month).

However it doesn't mean I haven't been busy :)








The honour guard are 90% done and so I'm leaving them til the Old One is finished.
I know, I said Bjorn was my goal but if I'd start him 1st these would never have been done :)

Cheers all

https://dreadtober.blogspot.co.uk/

Monday, 16 October 2017

Showcase - Belisarius Cawl

Evening all

Sorry I’ve been somewhat lax with my blog updates of late, trying to write blogs on the IPad isn’t conducive to great writing I’m afraid! 
Anyway, I thought it best to catch you up with my latest finished piece.

Belisarius Cawl......

Oh my - What a model. 

99% of the time I’m a HUGE advocate for painting minis fully built, I like to see them complete so I can get a feel for what I’m trying to do with the colours but a with Cawl I felt I might have erred on this choice. 

Frankly he is a complete and utter pain in the back to paint as a complete unit. 

Anyway, seeing as I’d already glued him together there was little I could do about it so just set about him with the brush, attacking the metal work with the airbrush to get a base of lead beltcher down before painting the robes. 


Something I have noticed with my painting of late is that whilst previously I would often block out all the base colours of a model before going back to add washes and highlights at a later time, I’m more often focusing on one section until completion before moving to the next. So as the pic above shows I started and finished the robes before going to do the metalwork with a brush. After the silver of the bodywork I went to the copper edge work and so on and so forth, trying to complete bits - looking for the ‘wins’, those bits where your happy with a part and can call it done. 




Cawl seriously tested my patience, I must have somewhere in the region of 30 hours or more in him? He was daunting by his sheer level of detail. Moreover, the fact that I could (and did) spend 5 hours painting him one Saturday and couldn’t really see where the time had gone was infuriating, it was simply swallowed in the lower level of the model. But I feel the ground work payed off and as the final few hours started I was able to see parts coming together quickly.

Here’s some pics of him in his final form :) 






Anyway, there you have him. Personally I’m pretty chuffed with him, I think he’s one of my personal best and I learnt a lot from him. 

I hope you like him as well :) 

Thanks all for reading, until next time. 

DB

Monday, 9 October 2017

Arming for the Cypra Incident....Gorkanaut.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with my latest piece of work towards my ever growing Waaaghhh!
This is my Gorkanaut.....


  



This kit has been sitting in its box for a good couple of years now, until the need for a big hitter arose with our return this year to our narrative campaign and the advent of 8th edition 40k.
I love dreads and walkers of all sorts, they're my favourite unit type in 40k and have been for decades now, see my Thunderbolts marines for evidence of this addiction!!

I've seen a few 'nauts over the years, both gorka and morka varieties, some looked awesome, some not so much. My biggest issue with the basic kit is it's very static and squat pose, so I determined to ensure that I did something to avoid that as I built it.
Once I started it was immediately apparent that getting movement in the legs wouldn't be too hard but that the amount was limited by the kits proportions, I've gone for a lurching stride with the legs, the boxy torso swaying to the side as the beast lunges forwards with it's Klaw!

A few wip piccies...















I also decided that it was time to advance my paint style with the Orks more to the general level I paint at with other armies, I started my Orks in the late 90's and over the years I've maintained the level of painting so as to keep the overall look of new models matching the established standard of the army.
I found the GW paint app to be quite useful as I developed new ways to get colours to match my existing models whilst putting more work into shading and in particular highlighting (which is rarely seen on my older Ork models).
I'm very pleased with the outcome; the Gorkanaut has the same patchwork feel of dirty rusted metals and the random splashes of bright panels. Darkening the white I feel has made a huge difference too.

Some finished piccies..






and a couple of sneaky peeks of it in action in the campaign! More on that in a future post!!




Both Doc and I are really enjoying the campaign and benefitting hugely in taht we've been motivated to paint lots of stuff we probably wouldn't have done otherwise.

As ever c & c welcome.

Bluddtoof

Thursday, 5 October 2017

Dreadtober is here again


Good Evening All,
So...  many years ago I bought a Space Wolf dread kit (the one with 1 body and multiple character parts), I took the Murderfang bits and made a contemptor for Dreadtober '15 but the rest has waited and waited and waited (you get the idea)



But now after sitting on the shelf staring at me here's the motivation to get some done :).

So the plan is to get as much of 4 Dreads done in a month, if i can finish Bjorn I'll call it a win


This is how it begins, this will make Bjorn and an honour guard of  Dreads 
More to follow 

Cheers


Monday, 25 September 2017

The Cypra Incident, "Birth of the Beast". The next mission

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with an update on our progress with our narrative campaign; both Doc and myself have had pretty busy lives over the last year so we had to suspend activity in this area for a while.
We're both busy beavering away at the models we want for the next planned mission; "Airfield Assault" however with the code boys having a geeky get together this next weekend to play as much 8th ed as we can fit into 1 day, Doc and I decided to take a second day (as we're in the same place) and advance the Cypra story a bit!
Alas we're neither of us ready for the airfield mission (still got some scenery to make and a model of 20 to paint!!) so we had a chat and I set to work writing a side mission we could play.

I looked at the last mission write up and decided to hang it off an element of that, we'll be playing the story of an Imperial strike on an apparent marshalling area for Ork forces in the area, with the intent of stopping the immediate Ork threat.

The mission plan;

            THE CYPRA INCIDENT; BIRTH OF THE BEAST OF CYPRA
MISSION 4A
“THE MARSHALLING YARDS”
Intro;
During mission 3; “Running the Gorklet” the Imperial recon forces saw signs of increasing Ork activity near the edges of the swamplands; a great many trails leading off into the dense jungle and swamp. One notably alert ratling reported a huge plume of dust and dense oily black smoke rising out of a deep valley, barely glimpsed through the jungle walls as the convoy fled at breakneck speed for safety. Imperial cogitators have analysed the reports and correlated other data and determined that the Orks are not merely a newly appeared colony as seen on countless worlds within known space, but are in fact well established and technologically developed, far more so than should be possible if the colony originates here on The Forgotten Hole. Reports show that the Orks are massing in the swamp, presumably for a major offensive!  Analysis leads the Imperial commanders to believe that the Ork presence must originate off planet and immediately order sensor sweeps of the Cypra System and order all forces to full alert.
Meanwhile the Dicers plan a strike on this newly identified mass of Ork activity whilst simultaneously planning a lightning strike on the Ork airfield identified by the recon force.
Mission;
Crucible of War; SABOTAGE (pp204)
The target is a huge Stompa! The monstrous machine is incomplete and unpowered but if mobilised has the potential to obliterate the poorly equipped Dicers here on the planet. It must be destroyed at all costs!
The construction yards are bustling with activity as Ork forces move in from the surrounding areas to prepare for the awakening of the Stompa and the launch of a massive assault on the Guard HQ.
NB. The Stompa does not activate during this mission.
100 power lists. No requirement for battle forged but stratagems are available.  

Here's a pic of the target...



He's looking a bit dated now; I built him a great many years ago, still cool though!

We'll be playing in the same way as we have throughout the campaign; that's to say we're not too bothered by hard and fast rules, rule of cool wins! and if something goes awry then we'll have a chat and change what needs changing. It's a really good way to play. We'll be having a good read of the narrative play section of the 8th rule book too.

There are several posts about the campaign on the page, a few can be found using "The Cypra Incident" picture at the top left of the blog page.

Stay tuned for the mission write up next week!

Bluddtoof