Space Hulk Terminator Sergent

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Originally uploaded by boyle541

Here's a pic of the Terminator Sergent I'm working on... He's almost done except some gems, the power sword and some other small details.

Biker boss progress

I've finally gotten around to working on this guy. I've been distracted by a number of projects, but I've got to get him done by the end of January, so I need to get going. I've started on the green skin... ork hide shade, dark angels green, snot green, scorpion green so far. I'll probably do a thraka wash and some more highlights when I finish the scorpion green.

Look what Santa brought

Check out what Santa brought me this year: An Iwata Custom Micron airbrush. This will make an awesome upgrade to my Iwata eclipse which I received 10 years ago for Christmas. Looking forward to using this thing on my mini's and sharing the results over the coming year.

Space Hulk progress

With the holidays I've managed to find some uninterrupted painting time. I decided to revisit the Space Hulk terminators I had started. This time I worked on the crux on their shoulders (base coat, shade and 1st highlight done), the purity seals (parchment only needs some writing), and the ropes (done). The crux and parchment was done with the same colours GW recommended in their painting tutorial online, and the ropes were done with reaper paints (Earth brown, Tanned leather, Amber gold and Golden blond).

Japan Grand champion

As mentioned before, I've been following the guy making scratch built mega deff dreads for ebay (and charging far too much). A little while ago he posted that he won the Japan version of the Golden Daemons in the open category with his looted tank. Well, today there's a picture on GW's blog showing the same tank. You can check out his pictures here:
http://puremon.blog91.fc2.com/blog-category-37.html

and GW's mention here:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=6700023a

Space wolves list (Take 1)

As I'm assembling my SW army I'm trying to figure out what other stuff to add and how to put together a 2000 pt list. This will be my first marine army, so its all little new to me. Here's what I'm thinking currently:

HQ:
Canis Wolfborn + 2 wolves (205)

Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Terminator, storm shield, sign of hunter, combi melta, melta bombs, 2 wolves (165)

Elite:
5 Wolf Guard Terminators in a drop pod (315)
1. Assault Cannon, chain fist
2. Storm Shield, combi plasma
3. Storm Shield, storm bolter, Mark of Wulfen
4. Chain fist, storm bolter
5. Power sword combi plama

WG for Grey hunters Terminator, 2 wolf claws (48)
WG for blood claws, Combi melta, power fist (43)

Dreadnought multimelta, storm bolter (105)

Lone Wolf, mark of the wulfen, melta bombs, 2 wolf claws (100)

Troops:
10 grey hunters, flamer, melta, plasma pistol, power fist, mark of wulfen, wolf standard (215)

15 Blood claws, flamer, melta, plasma pistol, power fist, mark of wulfen (280)

Heavy Support:
Landraider crusader, multimelta (260)

Long fangs, 2 lascannon, 1 missle launcher, 2 heavy bolters, leader with powerfist (185)
Dedicated Razorback, storm bolter, twin linked lascannon (75)

Total (1996)

Ebay Mega Deff dread

Here's something awesome (and a little overpriced)... Some guy in Japan has been building Mega Deff Dreads from scratch. He's finally put one of them on ebay Here.



I have no affiliation with this guy. I happened upon his blog a couple months ago and have been following the progress with google translations. This is his 3rd deff dread. He was mentioning that he was waiting for the US dollar to climb before posting, but I think he's listed it way too expensive. Especially since he has 0 feedback and the forgeworld one is significantly cheaper.

Movement trays (again)

Ok, I've written about making movement trays before, but I think I've finally figured out a design that is simple, durable and inexpensive. I used plasticard sheets (0.060" thick) and 3.2mm 1/4 round rods (it'd be a circle with 6.4" diameter cut in 4 equal sections). A little magnetic paint and some rare earth magnets on my bases and I'm good to go. Now I can make tons of different movement trays for much less than the GW modular tray set. Well, if I count the magnets into the price its still probably about half the cost and I'm further ahead of the game. I wrote an article for the members section of www.miniwargaming.com, so I can't write all the instructions here, but I will post a couple pics.

Battle wagon video

Here's a video I did for www.miniwargaming.com back in the summer. They post exclusive videos to the members area for 3 months then release them to youtube. Here's that video.

White Dwarf 359 (December 2009) Revew

This review is going to be a little different from the last ones because I'm going to write it from memory. I've had this months copy for a couple weeks and have been flipping through it a bit reading some articles and drooling over the fortress of redemption.

Anyway, off the top, this issue comes with some great ideas for a WFB campaign using mighty empires. They describe what a couple studio guys have done, including some tables to roll on for casualties, and give some options to transfer it to 40k. I wish they would make firm rules for mighty empires/planetary empires campaigns, but this will do in the mean time. I guess the upcoming 40k battles expansion might help in this area.

Another great thing about this issue is the coverage of the new 40k fortress of redemption. This is an impressive kit that I'd love to own, but probably won't buy because I don't have a table at home. Anyway, the usual great step by step painting article, but also included are the rules that are in Planet strike. This reminds me of the good old days of WD when they would release rules in it and it was actually useful for gaming.

All in all, I enjoyed this issue. I have added a comment to the Space wolves issue mentioning how much I'm referencing it while building my SW army. I think this is where the current format of WD shines. Its still lacking the necessity that it once was 20 years ago (for exclusive rules), and the GW website is a great reference for painting and modeling, so I'm not sure what its exact purpose is meant to be (other than pretty pictures of stuff to buy), but I still enjoy it. Now I just need to pick up that great squat mini (White dwarf in space)...

More space wolves

Here's a second test, but with Reaper paints. I picked up the Midnight blue/Twilight blue/Snow shadow triad plus Ghost white, and I think this will work well for what I want to do. Reaper paints play nicely with my airbrush, so I think it will be a winning combination. Here's another test with these colours:



I'm still trying to assemble my puppies, and am in the process of building an army list. I think I'm going to aim for 1500 points to start with then add another 500 to make it an even 2000. I'd like to keep true to the spirit of the fluff, but also have a useful army. I really like the Fenrisian wolves option, but I'm not sure what models to use for them.

Here's a couple long fangs I've assembled:

Biker boss primed

Here's a couple pics of the Ork biker boss in his current state... black primed. As you can see, he's huge. This is going to make an awesome centre piece for my army. And, yes, that is Canis Wolfborn next to him (also assembled and primed).

Incoming: Space Wolves

Here's something that's been keeping me busy (along with the rest of life)... my next project will be Space Wolves. More details will come, but here's a test model I tried out my paint scheme on. Its the standard colours suggested in GW's "How to paint space marines"; Fenris grey (foundation), Shadow grey then Space Wolves grey. All of these have a blue tinge to them and are a bit darker than the most recent studio army that GW is using for their photos. I'm thinking that I will start with a black spray base, then airbrush the colours on to get a basic highlight, knock it down with some washes then do a little free hand layering to finish.

Goblin Fanatics

See, I have been busy. These guys didn't even get any work in progress shots. Here are 8 goblin fanatics, 3 of the oop metal ones and 5 plastic ones. I misplaced one of the plastic ones when I started these, so he'll have to get painted when I do my next batch (I have another sprue still, so 4 more are coming). In the few games of fantasy I've played I really enjoyed using fanatics. They make the enemy think twice about going after my night goblins, and can be very deadly (albeit a little random).

Space Hulk 10% off at MWG

Here's a PSA for anybody still looking for Space Hulk. Last week GW announced that they found some more copies to sell on their website. MWG was able to get some of these copies, and has 10 copies to sell at 10% off. Also of note, MWG has free shipping for orders over $100 (USA and Canada). Check it out here.

Also of note, I haven't posted this weekend, but have been painting stuff up. Things have been a little crazy at work, and I'm in the middle of exams, so I'll post stuff when I get a chance. Oh, and I'll be announcing some exciting stuff that I'll be doing next year with Miniwargaming.com... expect to see some new armies added to my collection :)

Mega Death Match Painting Challenge

Over at the forums on miniwargaming.com they do monthly Death Match painting challenges. Two (or more) people will thrown down the gauntlet and paint up the same mini over the course of a month. At the end each posts pictures and they are voted on by the other forum members. I've entered a couple of these (and won), but this month is different. First off, since we're entering the Christmas season, its going to be two months, so I have until the end of January to finish this model. Secondly, I'm facing off against Mike, MWG's resident commission painter, and Falknerbitz, a forum regular. The best part is that we're all doing the forge world Ork biker boss. I picked this guy up at Gamesday, and I think this will finally serve as motivation to paint him up. Its an impressive model, and I can't wait to try him out on the table once he painted up.

Spear Chukkas done

Finally. I got a little distracted with Azhag and the Giant, but I'm done them now.

Giant

Ok, so I teased a little yesterday with the Azhag model. I'm not going to start painting him just yet. I still have the spear chukka crew to finish, and I decided to continue on the giant. I had started him a while back (sprayed him and started the flesh). I've made progress on the flesh, and painted up the bone and wood. The bone was with the reaper bone triad, and the wood was GW (Chardon granite - graveyard earth - Kommando Khaki). I've also started on the red for his pants (reaper deep red and blood red).