Friday, January 20, 2006

WIP - Pathfinder Team Leader - Profile View


















Here is the Team Leader from my Pathfinder squad. He started out as one of the basic metal Pathfinder figures.

I added a flash suppressor to his pulse carbine, fashioned from a short bit of the stem from a cotton bud. He also carries one of the plastic bonding knives from the fire warrior sprue.

I still have a bit of work to do on the paint job but the basic colours have all been blocked in and the shading and high-lights have been added to helmet and the yellow areas of his suit. Posted by Picasa

Idle Chuntering

Doing a spot more tinkering at the modeling bench last night. I've now got two Human Auxilieries completed. The second one is armed with a Pulse Rifle and is again made from Cadian Shock Troop parts with a couple of extras from the Tau bits box. I also knocked up a nice looking Tau enhanced Vocaster using the basic Imperial model with two battlesuit antenna replacing the clunky looking standard issue ones. Hopefully I'll get some work-in-progress pictures up next week some time.

WIP - Hammerhead Gunship - 3/4 Front View












This is a work-in-progress shot of my Hammerhead gunship. There is still quite a bit of work to do to it before it's finished. The secondary weapons are still witing to be painted, as is the commander figure. I'm using on of the Forge World Tau Tank Commander figures to add a little variety to the model. Posted by Picasa

Finished(ish) - DevilFish - 3/4 Front View













This is the first Tau vehicle I built for my army. It has a few extra features over the standard Devilfish model. The side hatch hinges have been drilled out and fitted with pins so they open and close properly. The interior detail has also been fully built and painted. The burst cannon s fully movable, as are the engine pods, and the two drones are detachable.

The model is basically done, but I can't quite bring myself to call it finished. I fully intend to apply some more weathering to it at some stage. Currently it just looks too well cared for to be an operational vehicle. Stay tuned for further news. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Finished - XV15 Suits

Here are the other two regular members of my Stealth Suit squad.

The paint scheme for this unit is very quick and effective. First I undercoat with Chaos Black spray, followed by dry brushing with Tin Bitz then Boltgun Metal. Next I dry brush 3 or 4 succesivly lighter shades of green going from Catchan up to Cammo. If the green layers have made the model too dull I finish with a very light dry brushing of Boltgun Metal to put a hint of metalic sheen back in. Various edges then recieved a further highlight of Cammo Green. It takes about 25 minutes to paint a squad of three to this stage.

After that I add the helmet lenses and the green stone on the chest emblem as well as a touch of Boltgun Metal on the gun barrels. Next the white shield on the chest and pack as well as the antenna tips.

On the Squad leader (see last post) I went one step further to paint the helmet and shoulder guard in white and to colour the cables from the marker light red and green.

Job done!

The bases are covered in medium modelling sand painted Bestial Brown and then dry brushed with two lighter shades, Snakebite Leather and then a mix of Snakebite and Bronze Flesh to end and give it that orange tint. The final step is to apply patches of grass. I use a mix of Green Flock and Static Grass, which I think gives a more realistic look than either of the two on their own.

I prefer black bases to the green that seems to be more comman. After everything else is finished I go back over the base with a thin coat of Chaos Black. I don't mind if a bit of the texture ing material is hanging over the edge of the plastic base, but I make sure that anything not part of the texturing is clean and black. The very final step is a coat of varnish, in this case gloss to give the suits a bit of extra shine.

Finished - XV15 Suit: Team Leader





Here are a couple of pics of the Team Leader for my XV15 team. At the moment they normally take the field as a squad of three with a couple of drones controlled by the leader.

Their main function is to harrass the enemy flank by jumping out from cover and straffing with their burst cannons before disappearing as quickly as they arrived. They also work quite nicely as a hard-hitting fast-attack unit because of their heavy armor combined with jetpack movment.

All my unit leaders are distinguished from the rank and file by having a white helmet and shoulder guard. I find it makes them stand out from the rest of their unit, without requiring a hugely different paint job. This way you can include them when batch-painting the unit and then quickly add the white bits afterwards.





Finished - Ethereal: Aun'shi - Front View
















Here is a pic of my Aun'shi figure. He normally takes the field as a generic Ethereal when I include him in my army

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Finished - Space Marine Biker - Front View



















Notice all the mess left by the last chainsword victim.

Finished - Space Marine Biker - Side View


















This is the first finished model in my Marine force. He started life as a basic marine bike kit I got cheap on Ebay. I added quite a lot of stuff from the parts bin and ended up with the result you see here. I intend to use him as a free roaming special character to begin with, but if I get as far as adding a unit of bikers he might end up joining them as a squad leader.

update - 17/02/2006 This model is now up on Cool Mini Or Not, where it is currently scoring

WIP - Gue'vesa'ui - Rear View



















And here is the rear view. I've removed all the Imperial Eagles from his kit, seeing as its all copied from patterns rather than being original Imperial Guard issue. As a Gue'vesa'ui he carries a Pulse Carbine instead of the standard Las Gun. His webbing is also a mixture of copied imperial stuff as well as a Tau backpack.

WIP - Gue'vesa'ui - Front View



















This is a sergent, or Gue'vesa'ui, for my Tau Auxiliaries. I put him together last night using parts from the Cadian sprue plus some stuff from my Tau spares box.

First post: My Workbench














I thought I'd start things off with a shot of my workbench - also known as half the dining room table. Plenty of plans to keep me occupied in the coming weeks and months. On the worktop at the moment is a sizeable chunk of my fledgling Marine force. One Dreadnaught, 12 Marines and their Commander. The chapter is one of my own devising, although to date they don't have a name, a banner, or any fluff - just a colour scheme. They are in the early stages of painting right now, but I'll get some close-up pics posted soon.

The observant viewer may notice some Cadian Shock Troop sprues in the left of shot. I'm currently playing around with some ideas for a squad or two of Human Auxiliaries for my Tau army. I'm waiting on some Catchan sprues from Ebay and then I'll be mixing the two up along with some bits from my stock of Tau extras. Posted by Picasa