Progress has slowed, but it is still progress.

Inking and shading on a tervigon's sacs. Giggle all you want.Still have more shades to apply here but it is coming along.

And some detail work on the heads assuming I can get them to display properly.

Shaded bellies...of doooom!!!

I have tried lightening the bellies of the tervigons to give the perception of severely stretched skin. It appears that they are just glowing instead, which still kind of works ofr me. I will be adding numerous ink washes into the darker recesses to give some color and better definition. Currently you can see the effect of the first of these which used the Leviathan purple ink that GW no longer sells. Soon to have blue, green, and ogryn flesh added to the mix. Doing the armour plates is going to be tedious, and I am still not 100% happy with the teal on the body. So I will be doing some more work on those areas as well to clean them up and hopefully blend some of the shade transitions better.

Also included is a shot of the tablet of monstrous creatures with which to terrify enemies. There are still a lot more coming for this army but this is a taste of what I am wanting to get done for this force. And yes that is the slowly evolving (hah!) hierophant biotitan at the back, along with his two hierodule buddies..

Project Tervigon: the walking wombs

Just a quick update shot of the tervigons wip. Also included a family photo of my 3 hive tyrants despite the shitty lighting. 

And yet another Nid unit done! The end times approacheth...

And the Hive Guard are now table ready. Not sure why but I have had a real desire to paint recently, to the detriment of everything else unfortunately. Still another unit under the belt and a tervigon on the block. It will require some prep work first but it will be minor before I can prime it. Not sure I will leave them with the satin finish. Its a little too glossy for my liking.

The 40Kegger Beer League 2013 - 2014 Nid Edition

So plans change again. I was asked to join the xenos horde faction for the beer league so I elected to field my tyranids instead of the Eldar. The league requires a core list between 300 - 500 pts that includes one HQ and troop that will always be in you game list. I selected  a flying Hive Tyrant and a Tervigon/Termagant combo to serve as my core, requiring a flying Tyrant model. So I caved and bought one. It is the first thing off the table and has already had a successful debut against my first league opponent.

So it looks like I am committed to Nids for the foreseeable future. Now back to work.

Summer Wind Up

So I was in Portugal for three weeks and had little interest in modelling projects for the last few weeks of school. Thus a long delay between posts. But the new school year is fast approaching, another trip is scheduled for August, and I find my attention torn around my admittedly vast model collection (which is a constant theme if you have been a regular reader of my meaningless ramblings). So on to the stuff that has managed to hold my attention for more than 10 minutes:

First up, I have been building a lot of Eldar recently. Seven tank hulls in all, a wraith knight, two flyers, and numerous aspect warrior squads. These have been stored for a long time (aside from the new models naturally) and are overdue some attention. Careful viewers will see a project that has not seen the light of day since the initial posts on this blog.

Second, the base of the hierophant is more or less done. It is a bit flat for my tastes but it allows more of the model to be clearly seen. The heaviness of the forelimbs can be a bit distracting and from certain angles they block the view to portions of the model. More green stuff works continues as well but it is getting done in stages.

Hierophant Test Fit 002: Now with green stuff

Some of the preliminary sculpting work on the hierophant. I am not confident in my sculpting abilities but being committed as I am will inevitably drive the project forward. I have stuck to the easier parts of the sculpting work i.e. the foldy bits at the limb joints. However I did also get a rough shape down for the hooves of the hind limbs and the 'palms' of the forelimbs, but that was tough to try to get them to slightly appear like each other. I get the feeling that I will have to build up all of the greenstuff work a single detail ata time. I have started with the muscle bundles on the (creature's) left 'palm'.

I am happy with the posing and the base size. I have cut the base out using a powered saw and sanded the edges slightly. The model should be very useable in games, and with an upcoming Apocalypse release, this bugger might be ready to rock some really big 40K playgrounds.

Test Fit No. 1: Hierophant Biotitan

So this is roughly the posing of the model as I am currently shaping it. Apparently I need to go back and fix the alignment on the beasty's upraised limb. Other than that it essentially meets the requirements I set out at the beginning of this project: three limbs on the ground and a smaller foot print for the base to allow the creature to be useable in games.

The limbs are still too thin to fully support the model. I noticed this when I first got it as the previous owner had used it frequently and had not based it. All of those fine limbs were bent from the weight of the model, causing them all to bow outwards. Even with the hooves as a better support point for the rear limbs, the thinness of the limbs look like they will start to bend out again even when mounted on the base. So I may have to have a set of ruins on the base that will serve as further supports for the rear limbs, thus taking some of the weight off of them.

In some photos you can see a white, vaguely  triangular-like shape under the bio-titan. That is the shape of the base and it has been cut out of a piece of masonite already. And yes, I am still ducking the green stuff work. Don't judge me.

Hierophant Legs: Forelimbs continued (finally)

Wired these up too and prepped the plastic bits I will be using. Still a bunch of greenstuff work that I am avoiding but am working towards getting this project back on track. Here are the initial setups for both forelimbs.

Sidelined...but on the bright side.

Well I had to take a pass on the 40Kegger tourney due to an impressive headache and lower back pain.  So overall my weekend was less than optimal. Still I got some production done. My Ultras now have a second Terminator squad and a Terminator Librarian, so that's cool. I also got molds made of my FW Ultramarines Rhino doors to gussy up models and bases. I even assembled a Whirlwind and Vindicator using my newest casts but these will not see paint for a while. Other projects await my attentions again. So here are some photos of the Ultras. I realized as I looked at these, and the previous work I have done on this army,  that these are not my best paint jobs. I feel I have a lot of respect for the Chapter as described by I do not really feel anything resembling the passion I feel towards my Wolves. Weird. Still there is a lot of conversion work throughout this army that I am quite happy with. Check it out.

Section 1: Launch Rails is essentially based

So continuing with my mad idea of doing a ship's deck as my first terrain board, I have managed to get the first section covered in card over a base of foam sheeting.I really went for relatively random sections of card shapes but all made with clean cuts to emphasize the mechanical nature of the setting.

I have included shots with what will eventually be detailed hull/portal supports, including one from the perspective of a terminator model. Unfortunately I do not know why the page insists on displaying this photo sideways.

Speaking of terminators, the 40Kegger tourney is coming up and it will be my first experience at it. Players are bringing 1000 pt lists and I am taking an Ultramarine all-foot army. The list requires me to paint a second terminator squad and a terminator librarian. I was not looking forward to purchasing a new character models as prices have risen to the level of insanity, but then I remembered that I had a copy of Space Hulk in the Closet of Shame (TM to the Fijalman). So the models have been assembled, converted, and based. Now to paint with two weeks to go. I'll put up pics when they are painted as they are primed black currently so detail will be hard to see.

Third of three projects on the go

So I apparently just can not get excited by the Nid codex. There is a 1000pt tourney coming up in May and I planned to take Nids. I really did.But there is no play style in that book that I like or could make effective. So I am bringing my Ultras instead. An all infantry list led by a Terminator librarian (from the Space Hulk box), 2 tactical squads and a pair of Terminator squads with Cyclones. The list necessitates the painting of a Terminator squad and the Librarian. Six models is not too bad and it will expand my 1st company and character complement as well. There are alternatives however. A pair of Thunderfire canons would cost only 200 of the 2nd Termie unit's 230 pts.Or a landspeeder unit...or other stuff as will be decided shortly. 

The hierophant is still in progress but I have not yet done anything new to it recently but I do intend to get back to it soon.

And the newest project, the table of terrain #1. And I have really decided to go big. Originally intended to be an Adeptus Mechanicus forge world table, it has morphed into a space ship launch deck. I am trying to incorporate my Space Wolf display base.

The intent is to have a large frame structure throughout the entire table. I had played with a lower profile for the arch portions you can see in these shots but I decided to go with the taller profile. I wanted the launch track to exit out of a large profile that would dwarf the ships.  I am hoping to give players the sensation that they are reaching into a ship to play a game. I am hoping the frame throughout the table will strongly convey this feeling. Here are the initial concept shots. The teleport pad is in some of the shots and I have laid out what will be a cargo elevator in the floor behind the Thunderbolt.

Storm Eagle Control Surfaces Template

Hopefully this works. Near as I can tell I can not post a file for download so I have scanned in the images and posted them as a jpeg instead.I have included a legend bar to show the scale of the drawings as well (the bar marked as 5cm).

I do not have any templates for the body itself, but I can tell you that I extended the main body by about 2 inches. This portion was done on the fly and completed before I thought to keep a record of what I did to convert it.

Hopefully these are helpful to whomever wishes to use them. I want to say I would appreciate a mention that these came from this blog (i.e. mine) but considering I am copying a design conceived of by someone else, it would make more sense to say "Have at it".

And then this happened....Astro 2013

It almost seems fitting that the 13th Astronomicon tournament in Winnipeg would see the remnants of my 13th Company army (re-tasked as a Space Wolves drop pod army) take the Best Overall trophy. It was a bit of a surprise as my playing while admittedly better than normal, was not spectacular. Astronomicon is best classified as a hobbyist's tournament in that your painting scores, army composition scores, sportsmanship. army list, display base, etc....all go into your overall score. So while my points earned for playing over the weekend was not overwhelming, my high scores for painting, conversions, and theme put me over the top. Oh and I should mention that over the top means that I took top place by only 1 point, so things were very close indeed.

I have played in numerous Canadian GTs in the distant past as well as one Chicago GT back when GW recognized the value of such things. Inevitably in a weekend with 6 or 7 games with total strangers you will probably encounter a player whose play style or demeanor just does not mesh well with yours. Astronomicon has yet to produce such an experience for me over the 13 year span that I have played in it.

Worth mentioning is the fact that amongst the winners there were two people whom I have known for years who had their first trip to the podium ever for an Astronomicon. Neil Spears, playing a Blood Angels army, won the award for Best Army list. Alex Bedard won a well deserved award for Best Army for a heavily converted ork air cavalry army.

I was also pleased to finally get an Astro game in against Dave Violago and his Eldar Sword Wind. Dave has been playing Eldar for as long as I have known him, and in a game where victory requires some luck and some mistakes on the part of your opponent, Dave makes very few of the latter.

In all I had a superb set of games against a good range of players, and I feel I must thank them all again for their patience as my experience with 6th edition wh40K was limited to two games before the tournament. I know I still managed to screw some things up but in the end I had a blast and found the weekend mentally draining in trying to out maneuver and out play an exceptional group of players.

My opponents for the weekend were:

Dave Violago - Swordwind Eldar (In my mind Dave is the epitome of a true Eldar general....the fight will happen on their terms foolish mon-keigh).

Jim Baidacoff - Dark Eldar (his Vietnamese restaurant themed army list was a joy to read; and never have so many Dark Lances done so little to a flier; the effects of Drahzar on Grey Hunters was another matter entirely).

Darrel Hoover - Space Wolves with Imperial Guard allies (my face hurt from laughing so much during this game. Darrell was just a lot of fun to play against e.g. this was the only game where I lost the Storm Eagle, but the explosion finished off his Rune Priest while he was locked in combat with my Rune Priest)

Charles Janke - Crimson Fists and Blood Angels, Including Pedro Cantor (mental note: never again will I drop pod a dread in front of a Contemptor Mortis dread... there wasn't enough left of my poor dread for a dental record check)

JP Perrault - Night Lords Chaos marines (perhaps my best tactical performance but we ran out of time before we could make a boss fight happen; by the way the Helldrake bale flamer is nasty, killing 12 Grey Hunters before my Storm Eagle finished it off with a lascanon enema)

Sean Habing - Necrons led by the Storm Lord (apparently the Necron's true strength is in completely nullifying my ability to roll anything more than a 2 leading to two of the most pathetic close combat performances by a pair of Space Wolves dread and the almost complete nullification of my melta weapons; another game where I laughed a lot but mainly at my bad luck...what else can you do?).

I have a few pics but there are a bunch from my game with Dave that I can not locate so they may be on another hard drive somewhere. Once I locate them I will post them. Luckily Dave will be posting his pics on his gaming group's blog, including great shots of the armies that were there,  which can be found here:

 http://wpggamegeeks.blogspot.ca/

The results of the tournament: 

Best Overall:	Mario Rocha	- Space Wolves
Best Sportsman:	Greg Ritchie	- Space Marines
Best Army:	Alex Bedard	- Orks
Best Appearance:	Brock Jansen	- Tyranids
Best General:	Mike Knudsen	- Dark Eldar
Best Terrain:	Kevin Nelson	- Jungle
Best Single Miniature:	J.P. Perrault	- Chaos Sorcerer
Best Army List:	Neil Spears	- Blood Angels

For more info about the Astronomicon tournament can be found here:

http://www.astronomi-con.com/

I recommend checking out the Astronomicon scenarios as it is this aspect of the tournament that really sets it apart. That and the fact that this tournament is run in 4 cities in North America (Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver, and Dallas) and the TO's consist of 3 guys doing all of the heavy lifting. This is truly a labour of love for them.

I should mention that while some of the pics below were taken by me, Mike Major and Christian Augst (2 of the TOs) are also responsible for some of them too.

And pics:

Photo by Christian Augst

Photo by Mike Major

Photo by Mike Major

Photo by Mike Major

Photo by Mike Major