Promethean Sun, Basecoating finished, brush work underway

Last month Black Library released a collectors edition novella for the Horus Heresy. It is called Promethean Sun (do you underline or italicize novella names?). I believe that it is primarily about Vulkan and the Salamanders Legion, battling against Exodite Eldar; however, two other primarchs and their legions also feature. Not having read it yet, I'm not sure how the focus breaks down.

I bought one for myself and one for a friend who plays Salamanders Space Marines and Eldar. The novella will make the perfect b-day present for him. I myself am not a huge Salamanders fan. Of course I think they are a cool legion, but I would say the same for any of the legions (except for the Imperial Fists, who I would rate as freaking awesome). It's just that I don't have any special appreciation for the Salamanders, relative to the others. My desire for owning and reading the book comes simply from it being a collectors item dealing with the Horus Heresy.

                                                   Novellas with and without the sleeve

                                                                     Author's signature
                                                               

In other news, I have solved the problem with my airbrush. It wasn't the airbrush at all. The compressor I was using is not suited for prolonged use. After 20 minutes, it would overheat, the air coming into the airbrush would be hot and dry the paint, clog the nozzle, and shut down my spray painting fun.

I borrowed a much higher quality compressor from a friend. The thing turns itself off when you stop spraying with the airbrush. Awesome. It also has a vapor chamber to keep moisture in the air from diluting your paint and changing the consistency of the paint coming out of your airbrush while you're painting. Doubly awesome.

As a result, I finished basecoating everything (that was primed) on Monday night. Didn't take long to do at all. The army is coming along nicely. Below is a quick preview. The lighting was was poor, but I promise that the models do, in fact, have light blue grey paint on them. Once I get a model completely finished I will borrow my friend's photo booth thingy.

Dystopian Wars, Fed up with airbrush

Last night I played a game of Dystopian Wars. It was rather fun. A friend of mine bought the mega bundle, containing the starter boxes for all four fleets currently available. I played with the American (FSA) fleet and bought it from him after the game. Their play style was appealing. The FSA ships are effective at long range and can take a good beating. This is a nice change from my space wolf force, which is effective at mid range and in the assault. When I got home I ordered the carrier and scout airships. The models are really nice, highly detailed, and require little to no assembly.

The size of the ships surprised me, as did the level of detail.

If you have played Battle Fleet Gothic, then Dystopian Wars will not be too unfamiliar to you. There are several notable differences in game mechanics. BFG has modifiers to hit depending on ship vectors. Dystopian Wars does not. Instead, in DW you will typically hit on four's. However, the number of shots you have will depend on how far away you are from your target.

I began base coating my Space Wolf army tonight. Everything was going fine until paint stopped coming out of the airbrush. I'm not sure what the problem was. The paint mix was fine. This has happened every time I've used the brush, and I no longer think the problem is with me. Tomorrow I'll be purchasing an airbrush from a different manufacturer.

Converted Vindicator, Summer time!

One year of law school is now under my belt. The last term was busy, and while it has been 4 months since my last blog post, it has not been four months since I last worked on something for my Space Wolves. I have assembled most of an 1850 point army, including this:

Leman Russ found the STC for the tank bearing his name, and damnit, my army is going to include one! And there it is, in converted form. I wanted a Leman Russ tank and a vindicator in the army, and this covers the both of them.

The siege shield, cannon, and vent at the back are from the Vindicator sprue (thanks ebay). The hull is from the old Leman Russ kit. No idea if the new kit would result in any difference.

Looking back, this conversion would have been fairly easy if I had known what I would be doing before I did it. As it happened, I put the Russ together, and then did the converting work. Made things more difficult, and next time around I would do things in reverse (proper) order.

I tried doing a rope on the side of the tank, similar to Night Runner's wolf tooth necklaces.  You can see his excellent tutorial here.

I managed the rope. The teeth were beyond the patience level I was currently possessed of. Instead I took the rune from the bottom of the storm shield in the Wolf Pack kit. Note: make sure the surface you roll out the rope on is completely clean. Any bit of debris that is picked up is hard to get off.

Basecoating the army will soon commence. Priming is done (except on the vindicator).

I plan to post my thoughts on 'counts as' models sometime next week. My vindicator is counts as, and so I wanted to say a few things on where I think the line between acceptable and not acceptable for using such models is.

Astronomicon Vancouver 2011

The Astronomicon tournament organizers run annual events in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Dallas. They're also hosting a tournament on a cruise ship this year.

My friend and I are planning to attend the tournament in Vancouver this summer. It's supposed to occur in August, as it normally does. We're going to make a trip out of it with the girlfriends. Spending a week in southern BC is always fun. Mountains, wine country, Vancouver, then back to wine country, back over the mountains, and home (I live in Alberta).

The tourney format sounds really cool. You can find it in their rules section on their website: Astronomicon home page.

Is anyone else thinking of going, or interested in doing so after reading how these tournaments are run?

Missions are designed by the organizers, and are made to suit the terrain on each particular table; and the terrain is varied so that sometimes an army will have an advantage, and other times the player will have to get creative to win.

They even give away an award for best list. I don't mean unit selection. I mean the physical representation of your list. One guy one year turned in a guardsman's field kit, complete with the Infantryman's Uplifting Primer from Black Library, with his list and other papers inside.

If you listen to 40K Radio, you can hear an interview with the organizers in an episode from not too far back.

Space Wolves Vindicator/Leman Russ battle tank

Quick post, looking for some feedback.

I happen to have a Leman Russ tank, still in the box. One day I would like to build a small Valhallan Imperial Guard army, and it was on sale at a big discount. How could I resist? Anyway, now that I have a Space Wolves army, I am considering using it to represent a Vindicator. As many will know, the Space Wolves could take Leman Russ tanks before the latest codex came out. Their Primarch is the one who found its STC design.

What do you think? Cool idea, lame idea?

The biggest issue I think is whether it would give me an advantage in game. I don't think it would. The tank is taller, meaning I'll have a harder time getting out of line of sight or getting a cover a save. Also, I can use the hull mounted gun to measure and draw line of sight from, so the raised turret wouldn't help me see and shoot enemy units that a Vindicator model could not.

I know that the people I play friendly games with will think its cool. I'm concerned about tournaments though.

Wolf Lord model, and a little conversion. And Happy New Years!

This guy will count as a wolf lord, or battle leader. Or maybe just a regular wolf guard. Depends on the game. The right arm was originally holding a thunder hammer, but I wanted a frost blade instead.

I haven't decided if I like the model better with the wolf's leg hanging off of the left shoulder. If I leave it off, I'll add some green stuff in the space above the shoulder.

The right shoulder pad is from Forge World. It's not the pad I wanted to use, but it fit much better.

And the little conversion:

The right leg is from the Devastator box. It's for the marine you can have kneeling. I just did some simple sawing and glueing.

Happy New Year!

Warhammer World, My Girlfriend is Awesome

My girlfriend was in Europe before Christmas. Before her flight home from London, she made a trip up to Nottingham just so she could go to Warhammer World to get me a Christmas present. She only knew about Warhammer World because I had told her that I wanted to see it one day. She emailed my friend who sent her a list of things to pick up.

This is what she came back with. I was shocked and beyond delighted. I had no idea she had gone there.

Bugman's board game, Bugman's leather mug, Bugman model, two bottles of Bugman's beer, a Warhamer art book, a book on citadel minatures and the citadel display hall, and a sign that says "My other vehicle is a landraider."

All exclusive to Warhammer world. All fantastic.

Canis Wolfborn, magnetizing the arms and pinning the legs

In this post, I will be going over how I magnetized the model's arms, and attached it to the base over cork board. 

One of my Christmas presents this year was Canis Wolfborn. I wasn't too impressed with the model when it was released; however, after seeing it in person, I love it.

My original plan was to just assemble him as Canis. Then when it came time to glue on his arms, I decided that I also wanted to be able to use him as a wolf lord and give him a thunder hammer. Up to this point I hadn't been interested in using a thunderwolf, but the model is too cool! I make no claim that any of the following is the right way to do this. Its just how I went about it. If you know of an easier/better way, feel free to post a link!

Magnetizing the arms

The main problem I had was figuring out how to glue the magnets to the torso and arms, and have the arms fit flush to the model, as they are supposed to. 

First, I clipped off the part of the arm that was supposed to insert into the torso. Then, I drilled into the model to make a space for both magnets (the one for the torso and the one for the arm) to fit into, with the outer magnet being flush with the torso. Then I put a dab of glue into the hole, placed the magnet, and waited for the glue to dry. Then, I put in the outer magnet (with no glue). This way, I could just put a dab of glue on the outer magnet, place the arm as it is supposed to fit, and then quickly spray the joint with an accelerating agent to make the super glue set before it spread to the rest of the model and glued the arm to the torso. 

Below you can see the drilled out space with the inner magnet glued in place. The space was initially square, but a drill bit the exact size of the magnet and a drill changed that quickly enough.

And here is the model with the magnetized arms 

And the arms with the magnets. The arm on the left did take two attempts when it came to glueing the arm to the outer magnet.

Securing the model to the base. 

It was fairly apparent that simply glueing a giant metal model to cork board would not suffice. 

First, I placed the cork board on the base, and then put Canis on top.

Then, I traced the paws of the wolf on the cork board. These spaces were then cut out.

Then, I glued the cork to the base (with PVA glue).

Next, I drilled holes into the left front and right rear paw.

Holes were then drilled into the base for the metal pins that would be coming out of the paws. The pins were bent at a 90 degree angle and inserted up through the bottom of the base. The wolf was then placed on the base, with the pins in the paws. Satisfied that everything looked right, I glued the pins to the underside of the base, and hit the glue with the accelerating agent. Then, I pulled the wolf off, and filled the holes in the corkboad with green stuff, to both better secure the cork board and the pins. The hole in the cork board for the left rear paw didn't have a pin, but gave a more secure anchor to glue that paw too. Once the greenstuff had hardened, I glued Canis to the base. 

Greenstuff was later pushed onto the underside of the base, over the pins, to further secure them. 

Next up:

I''ll be starting the painting of my space wolves shortly. I'll finish the additional arms for Canis later on. I plan on giving him a thunder hammer and maybe a storm shield arm. 

Space Marine Battles Novels- short post

I finished reading Angels of Darkness a while back. Really liked it. Short novel that's light on combat and heavy with background.  The author, Gav Thorpe, proved that he doesn't need to use battle scenes as a crutch like some of the other members of the Black Library writing staff. Nice little ending, too.

Currently, I'm reading The Hunt for Voldorius, one of the Space Marine Battles Novels. The novel started well and hasn't let up. I don't like spoilers, so don't want to give away much. Obviously Kor'sarro Khan and the Raven Guard are in it. Well, actually, maybe that's not obvious at all after Titanicus. (Those who have read Titanicus will know that the cover art on a Black Library novel might be extremely misleading. Why would someone put the Salamanders on the cover of a book that doesn't even feature Space Marines?).

Anyway, I'll just say that Kor'sarro isn't the only character with a tabletop model.

The Hunt for Voldorius is, so far,  a much more entertaining read than Rynn's World (the other Space Marine Battles Novel that I have read), which was average.

Miniatures wise, my Space Wolf army now consists of a wolf lord in terminator armour, a wolf lord in power armour, one rune priest, one terminator squad, 3 rhinos/razorbacks, one land raider, two squads of grey hunters and one squad of blood claws. I also have 5 power armoured wolf guard to lead the troop squads. I plan on painting as much as I can between the end of this term and the beginning of the next.

The two wolf lords can also easily count as battle leaders or regular wolf guard, so aside from a long fang squad and a scout squad, I don't need to assemble too much more to have a nice sized army with some variety. Of course, though, I do plan on adding much more! However, once an 1850 sized army is assembled and painted, my attention will be turning back to my Imperial Fists. Or possibly something else. Something non Mon Keigh...

Happy Halloween!.. Nemesis was good.

On Friday my friends and I got together for a fun night of pumpkin carving and Halloween themed cupcakes and cookies. And non Halloween themed beer!

The two pumpkins I carved are below.



Boba Fett:

And this guy:

Finished reading Nemesis a few nights ago. I liked it. Learning about the traits of the different clades, appearances by important figures (including a certain primarch of a certain favourite legion/chapter of mine)... all good stuff. For a Black Library book, it was very well written.

 I've started reading Angels of Darkness by Gav Thorpe. Two chapters in, and the book seems pretty good.

Space Wolves Land Raider Redeemer WIP

Fairly basic Redeemer. No magnets or significant conversions. I used spare bits from infantry kits to add some Space Wolf character to it.

Quick painting update for my Imperial Fists

Here is where the vehicles are paint wise.

There are two more Land Speeders at the same stage of painting, Doing a whole army at once is rather daunting.  My next armies will be painted unit by unit.


p.s. If any readers have the time, I would be interested to hear a bit of feedback on my Ragnar conversion. I know it isn't finished, but am curious about what people think of the shoulder guard. Does it look plausible, or need some work?

Ragnar Conversion- WIP

For this conversion, I used the Space Wolf Pack kit, and the Wolf Guard kit, as well as one sword arm from another kit; probably the Space Marine Commander or Command Squad box. I am waiting on the Space Wolves accessory sprue from GW to arrive in the mail. It has the commander back pack that a Ragnar model should have.

Here is how Ragnar's sword arm started. The GW model and the art in the new Codex both show Ragnar with a chain sword. None of the chain swords in the Wolf Pack kit had a pose I liked, so I dug the power sword arm out of my bits box and did some cutting and glueing.

Ragnar is supposed to have fancy shoulder guards. I wasn't too keen on sculpting a laughable imitation with green stuff, and started looking around for suitable bits. While looking over the sprues from the Wolf Guard kit, I noticed this bit:

Perfect! I even had a spare that I had ordered from a bits seller on ebay a while back (thinking ahead/buying stuff I probably wouldn't need). The rest of the cloak has the fur from a wolf's leg that looked like a possible addition to my conversion. It, and the wolf head bit are shown below, trimmed and ready to be attached.

Edit: pictures of the model mostly finished.

Excuse the tissue box with the flowers.

Space Wolves

Courtesy of Maelstrom Games, I picked up a Space Wolves army for myself a while back for a very good price. My original intention was to leave everything sitting in boxes until the summer. I made the purchase when I did because of the exchange rate at the time. So far, my choice remains a good one. Relative value of the British Pound to the Canadian dollar hasn't been that low since.

As it turns out, I enjoy modelling more than painting, and so when I needed a break from studying and felt like doing something hobby wise, boxes of Space Wolves and not yellow paint pots were opened.

My rune priest conversion. Everything I used came from a Wolf Pack box. The staff is a frost axe with the bottom and top removed.

His runic weapon is a bit unusual with the sword at the bottom, but I don't think it looks too goofy.

Next up, my Ragnar conversion and then some vehicles. The Wolf Guard in terminator armour will bemaking an appearance eventually. I need to get some cork board for the basing. The rune priest and Ragnar will get the same treatment. There is only the smallest dab of super glue keeping them on their bases at the moment.

University and hobby time, not the best of friends

I have seen several blog posts about the lack of hobby time people find themselves facing, and how life is preventing them from painting, gaming and blogging. Sorry for posting another one, but I felt that doing so was a better alternative to just leaving my blog quiet without explanation.

What part of life is keeping me busy? I have started law school! I'm not even sure if I want to be a lawyer, but I do know what I would like to do in life career wise. How I will get into the position to do it is not obvious, but law school seems like a sensible step. Even if this step turns out to be one that doesn't take me towards the path I would like to travel later in life, it will still leave me with plenty of other options (and should be a pretty fun path all on its own).

From what I have heard from second and third year students, first year law will be a lot like the first year of undergrad. There is a staggering amount of reading assigned, and even though a lot of it doesn't need to be done, it's only after you've done it all that you will have learned what you didn't need to do, how to glance at something and get everything you need to know, etc.

There is a way to succeed in school and have free time and hobby time. I did it in undergrad (minus the hobby time, since I wasn't into the hobby yet. But if half of the free time I had was turned into hobby time, there would have been enough of both), and I will do it in law school. First, though, I have to learn how. For a while that means my hobby time will be too restricted to game, and paint, and blog about it.

Eventually, I hope to have the time to do all of those things. Right now, I think only the very infrequent blog post will make it up. (especially considering that I'm behind on all my readings. Thanks Bungie.)

When I do manage to put up a blog post, it will likely be on one of the following:

-painting for my Imperial Fists (managed to get quite a bit done before school started. Just need to find time to photograph everything).

-painting and modelling for Dark Eldar (I've wanted them since first getting into the hobby. No way am I  being reasonable and not getting them as soon as they come out).

-painting and modelling for Vampire Counts (hint: my favourite background story in the army book is about a certain fiend from Krudenwald).

-gaming with Space Marines in Battlefleet Gothic (the fleet is ready to go, minus a protective coat of varnish. I'm currently trying to decide how to do it. Two friends very recently had spray varnish frost their models).

To those who have read my posts, and especially those who have taken the time to reply, thank you! I will be checking the FTW blog rolls frequently to check out the awesome stuff everyone is working on. 

Battle Fleet Gothic painting update

The fleet is nearly finished! Drybrushing is done, and the bases have been re painted. All of the engines and turrents still need attention, and the Imperial Fist symbol needs to painted onto each ship.

I'm mostly happy with how the models turned out. Sometime down the road I may repaint them. If I do, I'll bring the colour of the hull and highlight closer together.

The photos below were taken after I finished drybrushing, but before I repainted the bases. The base colour is Iyanden Darksun. This is followed by a wash of Ogryn flesh, which is followed by a dry brush of Iyanden/Bleach Bone mix, and then followed by a dry brush of Sunburst Yellow.