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Friday 26 December 2014

Ace McCool

"The guns fell silent across the galaxy as the ancient tradition of Christmas was observed. 
On a distant world Eldar and Imperial troops crossed the radiated no-mans land to exchange gifts; Gemstones, Wraithbone flutes, Whisky and Holo-video porno...
They played friendly games of blood-bowl and shared stories of their homeworlds...

That was yesterday.

Today, at dawn crack Imperial pilot Ace McCool burns through the early morning mist leaving in his wake only a vapour trail and a string of paternity suits stretching from Nercomunda to Armageddon. 
He has been attached to the 93rd Sand Rats Airwing as he leads fighters and bombers in his Thunderbolt on a suicidal raid of the Eldar encampment to catch them unprepared."

AKA - I Painted some thunderbolts on Boxing Day.

Edit: requested close up added.








Wednesday 24 December 2014

Baneblade and more!

'twas the night before Christmas...

Completed a nice trade where by i got rid of some Epic Armageddon Orks which i'd probably never use and got some Imperial Armour and Thunderbolts.

As my Eldar force is in sight of the finishing line (just a couple of Tempests and Dire Avengers to do) I thought i should make a (re)start on my Imperial guard army.

I did a test pattern a few months ago after changing my mind about the original 'Olive Drab' i had started painting, and i much prefer it.

I've always been a fan of desert camouflage patterns and it reminds me of WW2 Africa, and modern day Middle East conflicts. It should also contrast well with the Green/White Eldar, Blue Ultramarines, Yellow Imperial Fists, Red Blood Angels and White/Blue World Eaters...

Anyhoo, here's what's on the bench;







Saturday 20 December 2014

Seasons Greetings! (Epic - Eldar Reinforcements Update 3)

Just painting up the Revenant Scout titans in keeping with the rest of my Biel-Tan force when it suddenly struck me how festive the scheme is! (all they need is some gold tinsel and they could be Christmas trees!)

I think i might tone the gem stones down to a bit more of an orange highlight when this coat dries!


And here they are finished! (Not bad for a days work!)



Friday 19 December 2014

Epic - Eldar Reinforcements Update 2

Finished off the Biel-Tan i was working on. Next up;

Revenant Titans
2 More Tempests
Striking Scorpions
Exarchs
Harlequins

Then...

Sourcing Nightwings, Firestorms and an Avatar.

Then it will be complete!

Apologies for the quality of some of the pics - the lighting was poor and my hands were a bit wobbly!

P.S - Yesterday I was lucky enough to win a copy of Spartan Games new 10mm tabletop game - Planetfall, which is part of the Firestorm Armada universe. I've heard it's been touted as the 'new epic' - anyhoo, once i get it i'll get the units painted up and have a few test games!












Wednesday 17 December 2014

Epic - Eldar Reinforcements Update 1

Base coats done.

Tomorrow;

Detailing! Biel-Tan logos, Basing.


Tuesday 16 December 2014

Epic - Eldar Reinforcements

The Web-way has opened up, and reinforcements are pouring through to bolster my Biel-Tan forces...

Having penciled in my first game of NetEpic in the new year it is high time that i complete my half-finished Biel-Tan army.

So tonight i've based up the units needed to complete my Spirit Host and my Wind Rider Host, with some support from weapons platforms, aspect warriors, scouts and a Warlock Titan.

I'm also very excited to have finally sources some Revenant Titans! and a detachment of Tempests. this should push my options up to about 6k worth of space elves in old (SM2) money.

I reckon a FireStorm, Avatar and some Nightwings would give me back something close to the old army i used to field against my brother all those years ago!




Saturday 29 November 2014

Epic - Pre-Heresy World Eaters Update 3

Had another hour to spare mid week and started the remainder of the Rhinos/Land Raiders (just need to do the tracks and details to finish)

Also rescued a couple of guys i had steeping in Detol (make-shift paint stripper) and i'm adding them to my traitors...

A Storm Hammer and a Warlord Titan, which is getting a 'Storm Lords' paint job.

Thinking once i add some dreadnoughts, or Robots this suitably "Space Marine 1/AT" era force will be complete.

Work continues!


Monday 24 November 2014

Epic - Pre-Heresy World Eaters Update 2

We are Legion!

Tactical Company completed (just need to tidy up the bases and rhinos!) with support from Terminators and Thudd guns.
Not bad for a couple of mornings painting.

More land raiders and a super heavy by the end of the week hopefully.


Sunday 23 November 2014

Epic - World Eaters speed painting tutorial

Just a quick update/sharing of tips;

I'm sure most of you probably already use these techniques, but when it comes to painting a companies worth of foot slogger troops you could go mad painting them individually!

The disclaimer here is that i'm far from the best painter around, and my lack of attention to detail often lets me down, perhaps i'll spend more time on the character units, but this guide allows me to paint ~100 troops in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

First things first, clip the sprues to leave the models attached at the base only and clean up any crap left on the top joint.

I then prime the lot black (I prefer Army Painter spray but in this case Citadel Imperial Primer works well if you can't spray)

Once the primer is dried i give the whole lot a semi-dry brushing of their base coat colour - Ulthran Grey in for these guys. this leaves the recessed areas black and negates the need to use ink/shade later on i reckon.



This coat dries almost instantly (if you are doing a companies worth)

I then go back to the first strip and apply the shoulder colour, in this case - Ultramarine Blue (or what ever its called now)
Thinned down with a drop of watter it flows into the MK7 pads without any effort and leaves the edges clean, for the MK6's i just put the edge of the brush flat against the pad and wiggle it slightly to cover the curved surface.


While the shoulders are drying i paint the bolters - Leadbelcher silver, these can be fiddly, but i'm not overly fussed about being too neat and often cover the hands holding the weapon too!


Now that the shoulder pads have dried i add a spot of detail to represent the legion logo (red jaws surrounding a green/blue planet)
for these guys i simply add a spot of Valejo model colour red. I know there are people out there who can probably do the fully detailed logo, but i'm not one of them!

For the terminators (as they have a bit more space) i've attempted the logo with a line of red at the top and bottom of a green spot, which looks OK.



After this comes basing... and my downfall;

I'm yet to find a quick way of doing nice basing, i had some round, pre-holed bases from SCP that i used for the first batch, which was really easy. a bit of PVA and a dip in some sand  and a spot of static grass pretty much completes them. Now i'm back to using 2p Pieces for the rest and as the model sits on the surface rather than flush with it it can look a bit crap.

Hopefully i'll figure out a way to do it and let you know.

Cheers,




Saturday 22 November 2014

Epic - Pre-Heresy World Eaters

A wee while since my last update - been having a clear out and just keep finding boxes full of unpainted epic! its all a bit much.

Trying to sell of the bulk of my 28mm stuff, i plan on leaving just enough behind for some simple, out of the box Red vs Blue style games of Necromunda/2nd Ed 40k in case it ever takes my fancy, and i find someone to play with!

Facing a massive box full of Space Marine kit (mk6/7 marines, rhinos, land raiders and the rest) i decided i'd do something a little different to what i was planning (a Dark Angels army) and go instead to MM31 for some pre-heresy action.

I liked the world eaters colour scheme, and thought it would contrast nicely with my other forces.
So the plan, as usual is to paint up a couple of companies - probably a tac/vet coy and a land raider coy.
Then look at some support options, keeping it old school, and looking at what i have i'm thinking Thudd guns and maybe mk1 Predators.

Beyond this i'm not sure how far i'll go, the scheme is pretty easy to paint and aside from my various attempts at getting the 'red jaws around the planet' logo right (you can see some bad examples on my first batch of Rhinos/LRs) i reckon i'll enjoy putting this lot together.

My plan with them is as usual to get some simple games going, some Loyalist vs Traitor games would be cool, as I've got a few titans that could be used by either side and some Imperial guard that could also fit on either side of the fence.

Anyhoo, here's the first couple of test detachments (Tactical Marines and Terminators)



Thursday 30 October 2014

Epic - Overgrown City

Been re-playing 'The Last of Us' recently, which has some beautifully realised post-apocalyptic near-future overgrown city settings, combined with recently seeing this Epic Eldar diorama > http://www.coolminiornot.com/366389 and this 10mm Dropzone commander board > http://i.imgur.com/GF5WQ.jpg
Has inspired me to have a bash at my own overgrown city board.

As usual my ambitions far outstretched both my abilities and my patience, but i think its a decent attempt, and I've left plenty of scope to improve and add more detail further down the line. (also, in the photos the paint is still wet and the water effects haven't set, but i was too impatient to shoot it)

During the process i took so snaps in a project log stylee, showing its initial design, then the addition of the details. I've made the trees removable to make it more gameplay friendly.

Also, there some glossy pics at the end depicting an imperial scout force seconds away from an eldar ambush among the ruins...















Tuesday 14 October 2014

Eldar and Beaches


 A quick couple of snaps to show off the Eldar Warhost in its current painted form I've added;

Warp hunters, a Fire Prism, Dreadnoughts, Jet bikes and Viper jet bikes
on the painting table I've got the rest of my Spirit host, Scouts, Howling banshees, striking scorpions, dire avengers, fire dragons, warlocks, doom weavers and tempests and support weapons... so not much left to do!

I've kind of rush/half-arsed the painting recently and it shows, but its the only way i'll ever get through this pile of stuff and get my spare room back!

Also - completed some terrain pieces; Hills and a modular set of beach tiles

Anyhoo, here's the pics;

Eldar pose for photos as they secure the beach-head of the imperial city of Scarborough IV...

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Space Crusade!

Not got any updates on painting - got a load of stuff on the bench in various stages, so will hopefully have something to show shortly!

In the meantime i've been distracted by board games...

had some friends over to play King of Tokyo and Forbidden island, and have been playing a bit of the Zombicide with my newly acquired Toxic City Mall expansion.

Also - just managed to tick something off my nostalgia bucket list and play Mission 1 from Space Crusade, not too shabby, although i got my ass kicked!




Arrghh! Dreadnaught!

Monday 22 September 2014

Terrain, Basing and Imperial Guard

Hi,

Not painted much since the Phantom Titan, (finished, based photo below)

toying with a test pattern for my Imperial Guard - going with a Tallarn/Modern warfare desert look, think it will contrast well with the bright blues, yellows and greens of the other armies - only issue is they might be too hard to spot on my desert tiles!

Also, been making some terrain for Recycled bits - including Pizza bases, chocolate boxes, ink cartridges, polyfiller and some plastic plants things i picked up from a fake grass seat at a music festival (always on the hunt for bitz!)

Going to finish the big pieces off as an intact(!) research/science campus and the other one will be some sort of civilian space port. I've left enough room to maneuver between the buildings so should make for decent objectives/cover.

As for the craters, i'm pretty chuffed with them - probably about 10 minutes work each (excluding drying/setting time) so will definitely do more!