Thursday 31 March 2016

Showcase Cerastus Knight-Castigator

In my last post I was undecided if I was to paint up my scouts or start my second knight.

Well as you can see from the title I made my decision.

This is my CERASTUS KNIGHT-CASTIGATOR.





It is the same colour scheme as the lancer and here they are together. I still need to do the transfers, but i will do them both together now they are complete.



I am a big fan of this type of knight rather the the normal one from GW. My next purchase for the knights has already been made…..

In the long term want to complete a household, but I need to figure out how to get the “GW” knight to fit in with these taller models. Maybe I just have to build them all as crusaders with the top weapon to give the added height.

I am currently working on my 3rd squad of centurions. This time armed with heavy bolters, and I have started the camo cloaked scouts


I hope to have these done in the next few days when I can hopefully look to start either a fire raptor or a storm eagle.

Monday 28 March 2016

The Cypra Incident, Scenery WIP

Hey all,


Bluddtoof here with a quick update on my work on the scenery set for mission 2 of our upcoming narrative campaign.
I've now completed the build of the fencing (20 uprights with various configurations of panel supports and a total of 14 panels, 3 of which are ruins and a set of hinged gates) and have started on the first watchtower.
Here's a few pics of the tower ....









The first 3 are the balsa carcass in progress and the last 3 are with the watchtower complete with a basic roof and with some fencing in a couple of possible configurations.
The issue now is whether I leave the tower as is and paint it, in which case the grain will show, or I'm considering plasticard cladding to simulate metal, complete with rivets. The second option will look far better but will involve a lot more work and this is tower 1 of 4! I'll make that decision tomorrow I think. One thing I will change is the mesh flooring on the other towers; I'll not cut out the central hole in future, it doesn't really show once occupied and limits model placement, a full mesh floor with a hatch will be better.

More to come soon, as ever comments welcome...


Bluddtoof.

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Perimeter Breach! The Cypra Incident, Scenery WIP.

Hey All

Bluddtoof with another WIP post for my Fencing Terrain project.
I've completed all the uprights now and 2 more damaged and breached fence panels.
I currently have enough tubing to make 5 more panels but with an order on the way I'll soon be able to complete plenty more. As I stated in the previous post I want at least 12 intact panels so we can simulate a large intact compound, the broken one swill allow for a ruined compound effect.
Here's a couple of pics of the work so far...





Hope you like, as ever C and C welcome.
More to come soon...

Bluddtoof.

Sunday 13 March 2016

"Don't Fence Me In.....", The Cypra Incident. WIP.

Hey All

Bluddtoof here with the first WIP post for a new terrain set I'm building to be used in our upcoming Narrative Campaign; "The Cypra Incident".
As I said in my last post Doc and I need to represent a military compound in the 2nd mision of our story, whichever way it goes; either an Imperial Compound or an Orky scrap yard. So we decided a set of fences and watchtowers would fit in either scenario.
To this end I've started on a set of fencing panels and uprights; I wanted a flexible but simple set which would be easy to store and light and manageable on the table. Here's what I've come up with...



The above shot is of 2 uprights and 1 panel, the 3 pieces are separate and thus the whole set will be flexible enough to lay out in lots of ways, some of the uprights will have supports at right angles and a few will be 3 or 4 way supports to allow for more flexibility.




Above shows a damaged panel in 2 different positions, to provide stability and strength the uprights on either side of the broken panel are fixed. I intend to make a max of 3 of these breached panels, the rest will be intact and fully flexible.
The bases of the uprights will also get some scenic work; tufts of grass and vines and such. I'll also be adding a few rivets to the upper panel supports.

The raw materials are pretty basic;

Uprights: small GW round bases, Plastruct 4.8 mm styrene tubing, 1 mm plasticard and Plastruct 4.8 mm styrene column.

Panels: Plastruct 3.2 mm styrene tubing and Isopon aluminium mesh (for repairing holes in car bodywork)

The mesh I bought at my local hardware store at a couple of quid per sheet which makes 4 of the 5"x 3" panels , the Plastruct products I got from Antics on line, they can be a bit pricey but you get 6 or so lengths per pack.

I'm planning on a dozen panels or so, a gate section and then 4 watchtowers which will comprise a small square bunker 6" tall with a roofed parapet on top, the top section will be removable to access the interior. In terms of area, they will house a small squad of infantry; 5 models I think to allow for combat squads or weapon teams. I don't want them too big or to be major bunkers. The towers will have panel supports in the middle of all four faces to allow full flexibility of set up.

As for the paint job; I'm planning on rusted metal, I'll be trying some rust effects I've not tried before.

More to come soon. As ever C and C welcome and stay tuned......

Bluddtoof.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

The Cypra Incident; Ork Lootas ready to roll!

Hey All

Bluddtoof here with some more of my Orks; these are the last models I need for the first day of gaming in our upcoming narrative campaign, The Cypra Incident. Both Doc and myself are using this campaign to motivate ourselves to paint up new stuff and old stuff which has been sitting on shelves and in dusty cupboards for years sometimes, I'm sure a great many of you know exactly how that feels!
Anyway on with the Lootas, I've painted all 12 I own but only 11 will be used in the first mission of the campaign, I'm sure number 12 will have his day later on though.
I was looking at my Ork collection as I put the Lootas in my cabinets and I noticed that even though I've constantly tried to maintain a consistent look over the years (17 years now collecting my Orks!!) they have changed slightly as I've progressed; originally they were really grubby and dirty with only a few splashes of colour, usually the red, black and white teef moteef and yellow and blue rokkits as well as a very few spot colours. Now though they are far more colourful, I haven't consciously made this change but I am using a much broader palette and keeping the grubby patchwork feel by using heavy and dark washes on all the otherwise bright areas. All in all I'm really pleased with the newer stuff, I think with new washes being very flat I can inject colour and high contrast without a glossy look.
So enough waffle, on with the piccies... Quite a lot....






And some individual shots....


























Hope you like them, as ever C and C welcome.
My next project is some new terrain for the campaign; mission 2 will take place in and around a military compound so we want some fencing and watch towers, I've got a cunning but complex idea to try so watch out over the next few weeks for more on that...

Bluddtoof.

Monday 7 March 2016

SHOWCASE CERASTUS KNIGHT-LANCER and a new hobby home


It’s been a while since my last post.

I have finished* renovating my new house and have moved in.
*in that it is liveable, with some odd jobs and touch ups still to carry out

Importantly I have got a space for my painting station



 It is near a large window, so has a great amount of light.

I have been able to spend a fair bit of time back on my models. We don’t have a TV in the living room now so that distraction is no longer there. More time for painting!

I started a Knight Lancer before I moved but it has been on hold for a few months. Anyway it is now complete.






BUILD/CONVERSION:

The base has an old broken rhino modelled on to it. This was a £2 purchase from eBay, which I thought I could save. It has been put to better use. The knight itself is pretty much as is. There was a slight issue with positioning of the legs as the pistons weren’t long enough so needed some green stuff to fill in the gap. Same for the power cable on that side. This is my first big FW model. It was quite easy to put together. My big bug bear is the lance. It has had 3 hot baths and still didn’t sit straight.

PAINTING/BASING:

The models are undercoated with Army Painter ultramarine blue and chainmail.

Blue: I thought the base was a bit pale, so I painted it in macragge blue to deepen it. I pained the recesses of the carapace with drakenhoff nightshade and highlighted in calgar blue. I should have washed the other plates edges but didn’t. I was hoping the gold would make a better edge. I was going to do another level of highlighting, but I’m going to see how this looks for a while. I would rather not have them that do them untidily
Gold: as per the recipe for painting stormcasts. It’s a little red than the gold I wanted but it’s a nice colour. The lance was done slightly different with a wash of the turquoise technical paint and a blue glaze
Metal: washed in nuln oil, highlighted in Ironbreaker and then dry brushed in Necron Compound, odd areas washed in agrax earthhade

I still have a lot of transfers to put on it to finish it off but I am pretty happy with it.

WHAT NEXT?

I had 2 presents of scouts so I have combined them.




The first is camo cloak scouts with silenced bolters. These fall in to the category of cool looking, but not good in game. 



I am lucky that I seem to have hit the point where I can now model units with options that aren't "competitive" as I have the "good" ones; these are for fun.

Second is another close combat squad. 


I am a few arms missing after the building the first squad, but I have some scout bikers turning ups so I may have some spare parts to complete the unit. This squad will need a Storm to carry them in.


I have built them, but I’m not sure if I want to paint them yet, mainly as I have started building a Castigator…….TBC