Landspeeder Storm Part I

Alright folks, the blogs been quite as of late as we are all enjoying the mild summer in Chicago (well at least I am!) been pretty busy with trips outta town and what not so haven't really be modeling or painting much lately. One thing I have been dieing to build (doubt I will ever actually play it in a serious competitive game!) is the new land speeder storm. Finally got mine in the mail on Friday and spend what little free time I've had working on it this weekend. I recently saw a post on... honestly can't remember where i saw it, probably WarSeer or Bolter and Chainsword... any how someone else posted a nicely done storm with magnets to be able to take the scouts on and off. But I'm pretty sure (can't seem to find the original post) that their plan was to just use regular scout once the magnetized ones were 'dis embarked' from the storm... I really liked this idea but thought I would try and take it a step further and actually make bases with magnets too so that the actual Storm scouts could be used... so here we go...
First off this is a WIP... will try and take more pictures and as I touch stuff up with green stuff and all but anyhow is are the first pictures...
First up is a photo of the top view of the actual storm it self.



The picture isn't the best but hopefully you can see the 5 magnets I added. Two on each of the passenger side foot steps, two in the rear passenger section and one on the front passenger seat. First off, I am using These magnets from K and J magnets (I ended up having to use 4 other smaller ones just for stabilization purposes on two of the scouts) as the basis for this project. The magnets are small enough, yet also strong enough to hold the scouts both on the Storm and on bases.

I first assembled everything with just small amounts of glue for tacking purposes, just in case I needed to 'Change' things later on, which I am glad I did as I had to take arms and legs off more than once.
Anyhow... After assembling the scouts (which I did first) I started to build the actual storm. And as you may have noticed in the picture I left the rear passenger seats out and also cut out the rear of the 'T' top section (for a lack of a better description) This was total trial and error (with not much error thankfully)
But basically I followed the GW instructions to the T with most everything...
Once I had everything built to 'spec' and figuring out where everything was suppose to fit. I then started drilling away with first a pin vice drill and then a full on 12v drill with an 1/8th in diameter bit on it. (should have taken more photos, but i don't actually own a camera and had to borrow one for this post).
Here is the bottoms of the scouts feet with magnets in em...



Haven't had time to green stuff em but that will be easy enough..

So really it was just a bit of here is how GW says its suppose to go, now lets see how we can make em fit with magnets.. hence having to remove some of the original pieces from the Storm.

Next... here is a couple picts of the magnetized scout actually in the Storm...






Ok next up is a pict of the bases with magnets on em


Here i've added a little bit of green stuff just to make the model and the bases magnets fit together better, but pretty sure there will be much more green stuff involved before this is all done...
Lastly here is a pict of the scouts on their respective stands...


There is still some work to be done to make em look ready to be painted but wanted to at least write something here as its been too long!
Cheers and as always would appreciate feedback and or comments.
Eric

Epicly Epic!

I recently finished my Epic: Armageddon Blood Angels army - 10,000 points in all! I still have a little finishing work to complete, but I couldn’t resist getting started on the complimentary force…Abaddon’s Black Legion. I’ll detail my Blood Angels force as well as my ruined city table in future posts, but for now, here are a few work-in-progress photos of my Black Crusade.

Bloodletters

Chaos Space Marines with Autocannon

Plaguebearers

Bloodletters en masse

The end goal will be to produce two opposing forces (roughly 10,000 points each) and construct a series of thematic scenarios that will tell the tale of an embattled Imperial city. My current progress looks something like this:

• Blood Angels: 10,000 points - COMPLETED
• Imperial Titan Legion/Navy - In progress (40%)
• Black Legion: 10,000 points - In progress (5%)
• Chaos Titan Legion - In progress (0%)
• Chaos Navy - COMPLETED
• Terrain/City - COMPLETED
• Scenarios/Background - In progress
  

Completed Epic Table

Still a ton of work ahead of me - but I can honestly see the light at the end of the tunnel. One of the great things about Epic is how satisfying it is to paint entire units in a single sitting. At this pace - I just might complete this project before the next re-release of the game!

Filling Gaps in Metal Models

Well, I'm making incredibly slow progress on my fiend. As to not be too boring, I present some progress photos with instructions on filling gaps with green stuff.


The biggest problem with metal models is that the joins aren't as tight as plastic models. I guess it's just the nature of the beast. Above you will see one of the joins that has been pinned and glued in place. It should be a nice strong bond, but it's pretty ugly.


I usually start this process by rolling out a thin rope of green stuff (the thinner the better).

Here's your first tip: When working with any polymer putty (green stuff, brown stuff, grey stuff), have a smooth surface on which to work. I use a piece of plastic that used to be the front of a picture frame.

There are several reasons for this. It protects your work surface. This is especially important if work on a wooden desk or some other porous surface. The putty doesn't stick to very smooth surfaces very easily like it does to porous ones. Also, it's easier to thoroughly clean this surface before every use. Putty will pick up dust and grit on your work surface and this will show in your final product. Instead of being smooth, the putty will be gritty.

Anyway, after I've rolled out my rope on a suitably smooth surface, I apply it to the gap.

Then I pull out these...

I've heard them called a lot of of things but the set I have calls them "colour shapers." I've also seen them labeled clay shapers. My set was made by Royal Sovereign and I'm not sure if anyone else makes them. I got the idea to use them from this project log on Warseer.

Green stuff barely sticks to the smooth, silicone tips, so they're great for moving putty around and especially smoothing it.

I take the colour shapers and begin to smooth it into the gap. It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that I had used way too much green stuff (see my notes at the end).

I used my hobby knife to trim the excess putty away from the gap and went back to smoothing.


After several rounds of smoothing and trimming, I have a nice smooth transition. At least I hope I do. The moment of truth will come when I actually paint the thing!

Notes:
I bought my colour shapers at Dick Blick and there's plenty of info on their website. This is not an endorsement of this store. It just happens to be close to my office.

I bought the mini set of 5 (Soft, Size 0). While very little sticks to them, you can get even better performance if you keep them wet while using them (you could just lick them). Keeping your tools wet, is a fundamental step when using putty

When working with Green stuff I always find that I mix way too much. I've gotten better and better at it. A tip I read recently on From the Warp suggests estimating the amount you'll need and then make only half of that. you can always mix more if you need it, but if you mix it and don't use it, you're just wasting.

Scenic Base for a Fiend

Lately, I've been trying to make my bases a little more interesting. I'll talk about what I've been doing for my rank-and-file troops some other time. Right now I want to show you the base I just made for my Fiend.

Since this Fiend of Slaanesh is a larger model of an Elite unit, I knew that it needed a base to help it stand out.

I started with this door from the Sanctum Imperialis box.


Using my trusty craft drill and a wide variety of drill bits, I drilled a bunch of shallow indentations into the door. I drilled a couple holes near the corner all the way through. I was trying to make it look like chunks of the door had been blown out, but I didn't want it to just look like it was riddled with bullet holes.

Then I cut the door at an angle and glued it to the base with some rocks and cork.


Finally, I filled in the gaps with some sand and smaller rocks.


I usually mix the glue with black ink or Chaos Black. After the glue on the base has dried a bit, I coat it with another layer of thinned ink and glue. This seals any porous materials on the base (like the cork). When I prime the miniature in white, some black usually shows through on the base. This provides a little built-in shading.

I realized after the glue dried that I need to add more sand around the base of the door. It needs to look like it's mostly buried in rubble.

Pretty simple overall, but hopefully it will help the miniature stand out.

As for the fiend itself, it's coming pretty slowly.

I've been really taking my time to make sure it's built right. This is probably the biggest all-metal miniature I've ever built. I don't want to put it on the table and have it fall into 8 pieces.

Also...

As a follow up to my last post, yes, you do need to use a vice of some kind to use the craft drill. I'm not saying I'd use it for everything, but for pinning metal models, it can't be beat. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it cuts drilling time down to a quarter of doing it by hand (maybe an eighth).