Long time between pics

Hi all, sorry for the lack of content, but Uni has been kicking my ass, and I'm lazy.

Enough excuses, on to the content of this post. Alternate BFG ships!

None of this blood is mine . . . * Finished Sons of Horus and WIP World Eaters

*Quote shamelessly stolen from ADB's blog.

Hi guys, been a little while since the last update, but I have been busy.

I've managed to finish 3 more sons, and 2 WE (bar their backpacks which is why they count as WIP).

Firstly we have my home made Praetor (I have another set of the FW praetors I will be painting for myself, hopefully as well as the ones I did on commission), he was going to be used as a counts as Azreal, but will now probably be used as a sternguard SGT.

The base features a salamanders helmet, or a really dirty SoH helmet, its a pretty standard feature on my bases, and I tend to forget I'm doing PH/HH and just paint them whatever colour I have to hand.

I'm not actually that happy with the sword on this guy, but being a gaming army, and still not having played a game with it I think I can let the fact the back side is better than the front side slide. I also painted the plasma in a more subdued orange because its not actually pointed at anyone, so it makes sense for the weapon to be powered down.

Next we have some apothecaries, which given their uselessness as a buff bubble ala sang priests will probably just get used as regular Tac marines.

I haven't managed to get my hands on any of the new technical paints yet, so the blood here is done the old fashioned way using Tamiya clear red, and a second coat with a touch of black. But I'm pretty happy with the effect, even at a million times magnification.

Next we have the reason for the title of the blog post . . . WIP World Eaters. I personally see the change in coloration from white to red as a result of their blood letting. The human body has between 4-6 liters of blood, and an Astartes would have considerably more, so they would make a hell of a mess when hacked up with chain weapons.

I intend on writing a piece of fluff eventually that describes how some of the berzerkers as a symbol of there heresy decide not to wash off the blood of the slain from Istvaan, and as time went on, armour broke and was replaced, but painted red to maintain the connection to the betrayal and dropsite massacres.

Thoughts on the paint job, the fluff and the amount of blood?

Thanks for looking.

Sons of Horus Praetors

Hi again, more procrastination sees some more models finished in a familiar scheme. these aren't for me though, but a commission.

FW sent through some very nice casts, though I didn't realise til I painted the face that the right eye of the terminator was miscast, so I turned it into a scar, and in a first for me, the swords were all straight! No hot water required. 

The bases are from Dragon-forge, and were quite nicely cast too. 

Following my normal tradition of taking poo photos though the bases and gold lack depth in the shots, I really need to set up a proper photo booth.

What do you think of the base colour? Should I change mine from the urban to this? I kind of like how the sea green pops off the base.

Thanks for looking.

Gun servitor WIP 2

Had it pointed out on a forum the mechanical inadequacies of the design of the mount for the autocannon. Usually its just a case of "because 40k" but I came up with a quick fix I hope you like.

I suppose you could call it a hydraulic lock, opposite to the direction of the recoil. I imagine the barrel assembly slides backwards within the body of the weapon like a howitzer. and it has a slow rate of fire.

Also added more mechanicus bling, and tiny rivets to appease Matt.

Ad Mech Magos #2

Firstly, the blog passed 2 milestones this week, this is the 50th post I've made, and secondly it just passed 25,000 views! Thankyou all so much for dropping in an viewing my work, and especially to those who take time to comment, I really appreciate it.

Now on to the real reason for the post. Finished the 2nd Magos, this guy will be used as a sorcerer in the current list, just to get some magic potential to the list, but also because puppetmastering a vehicle is so much fun :)

The base model is the plastic necromancer from WHFB, and a 4th ed necron wraith tail. the axe head is from a dwarf i think, which I carved the cog detail into. The head is obviously a necron warrior, and so it the third arm.

I might add some rivets to the arm, just to remove it from the necron shape a bit. Mechandrite tentacles are guitar wire bent with pliers.

The other thing I've been tinkering with is a gun servitor. Not exactly sure what I'll be using him for at this point, but mostly is just been an exercise is seeing if I can get the 1/48th scale kettenkrad to fit the 40k aesthetic.

More rivets and details to add obviously. Most of the time I see scale kits turned into 40k models and shudder. The weapon isn't fixed, and so could be changed at this point for any of the imperial guard heavy weapons. I hope I can make something decent out of this guy, either way let me know what you think I should add.

Thanks for looking.

Ad mech WIP 4

I have no idea how this happened, but it was too cool not to share.

I was on google looking at dinosaur pics because of the leaked Lizardmen shots, and a notification popped up in my google account, and this was in there. Apparently google stitched together a gif for me from my last upload.
If this is the new evil empire, I for one welcome our new google overlords.

Ad Mech WIP 3

Assignment submitted, drank too much coffee, so I finished this guy because I couldn't sleep.

 And he looks pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

 Additions since last update have been rivets on the cog motif on the shoulders, cables to the head, a smoke launcher, the shoulder cannon, and some manipulator arms.

Plenty of images this time around.

The rear is almost unchanged from the stock dreadknight kit, the only change I can think of is the removal of some cables on the legs that got in the way of the reposing. And since the legs are mirrored I had to remove them from the other side too.

I may go back and add some cables to the legs, and some purity seals, but the major components and pose are locked in.

This shot shows the tracking of the shoulder cannnon relative to the head, I imagine that the cables snake in and out of the torso so as not to get too long or short and reduce the likelyhood of them snagging on anything.

Close up shot of the head and manipulator arms. They were made with some necron warrior arms I found in my bits box, the hands were removed, and claws made out of plasticard tube and rod the same as the cultists, I think it gives some nice scale, and would allow the machine to manipulate small objects/assist in battlefield repairs of other robots or tanks in an emergency situation.

The cannon was converted from a sensor piece I found in my bits box, it comes either from the aegis line or the fortress of redemption set. I picked it up in a trade a while ago. The armour plating was made with putty and plasticard I-beam. The rotator mount from plastic tube and tube, and the arms of the articulator from square rod and L-beam.

The conversion has made me very happy, and is alot more involved then I had initially planned. The only additions I might make from here are the previously mentioned purity seals and leg cables, and maybe extending the plasticard cog motif to the knees or shins.

Thanks for looking and please let me know what you think.

Ad Mech WIP 2

Oh hello again . . .Wasn't expecting to be doing one of these again so soon.

I'm never going to finish this assignment at this rate. . . but I will have a finished knight, so its not a complete waste.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with it to be honest, especially that white space behind the head, everything else is curved, and its just a panel of negative space. I'll admit I've just been making it up as I go along so the continuity of ideas is a bit disjointed.

The head is a cast of the SM apocalypse upgrade sensor cut in half, a half again removed and glued back together, there still needs to be some smoothing, but I have to wait for the GS to cure.

The torso has been filled out some, managed to fit a cog motif into the detailing, there will be some more on the shoulders to come. Replaced the tabard with something grander, more space for free hand.

I bought a small bag of brass cogs from watches from a seller on ebay, and they've come in handy for some quick detailing. The shield will be split into thirds, with more free hand on the top two thirds split vertically.

I have a design for a shoulder cannon teasing me in the back of my brain, I just can't seem to get it to work in plastic or putty yet. plus I still don't know which shoulder to put it on, and once i do, what to do with the other shoulder.

The one thing I am worried about is that the head looks a bit too "tau". I blame the riptide, I wouldn't be thinking it if it didn't exist.

Any ideas or comments on my wandering thought processes would be greatly appreciated.

Magos stabby

So in between studying and playing the good boyfriend, I've managed to compete in a tournament over the last weekend, where despite my massively hung over state on the Sunday I managed to pull a respectable 5th, and won best painted with the nids. The gift voucher went towards fodder for the Ad Mech, more specifically a plastic cairn wraith, and a box of flagellants.

And from that, and a dip in the bitz box I made my first Magos.

One of the features I'm most happy with is the gun on the end of the mechandrite on the models left, it looks suitably Mech-y to me, that strange mix of hi-tech and archaic that suits the Ad Mech so well. The stubber/support las and target in the groin mount are magnetised, so when I figure out the actual rules I'm using I can customise him for WYSIWYG tournament play.

I'm really happy with the design, I think the legs could have been better, next time I will vary their lengths more, and make them fit the base, not the base fit them.

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

More Sons of Horus WIPs

Well its been a while. Things have slowed down due to the start of the uni year and the running around that is involved in that, I'm expecting it to be a very slow year of hobby until the holidays because of the amount of time I'll have to put into my degree.

However, I have some more progress to show:

Firstly, the model that I am most happy with so far, Bannerman "TBD":

Continuing the mixing of the Mks of armour, I also added one of the FW bionic arms from the character upgrade set they released. The banner is the standard from the SM command squad, with various purity seals which I have used to cover up an abortive attempt at damaging the standard.

 Betrayal say the Sons used to gild the skulls of worthy opponents, this is the first time I have added skulls to a model in the SoH force, though they should be making more of an appearance from now on.

Secondly, a Sgt for the new squad, armed identically to the previous one, he does however have a bionic arm.

 Next we have some troopers, one of which will have a plasma gun.

And finally we come to something different, I have been trying to figure out how to make my assault marines stand out, and didn't want to go with the named company of black armoured marines. So I decided that my assault marines will be a unit of World Eaters seconded to the Sons, or simply picked up in the heat of battle. In this way I can explain why they just get thrown out in the thick of the fighting, with no regards to casualties (I'm pretty terrible at keeping assault units alive) as the SoH commander simply doesn't care.

I need to buy some more of the FW chainaxes, and maybe one of the new sets with the pistols before I can finish this squad.

Thanks for looking.