Moving On

Model?  Check!  Paint?  Check!  Extremely sugary drink?  Check!  Absolute Classic Rock on the main PC?  Check!

Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you but I’m actually painting again 🙂

It’s not much, but it’s a start

I started this quite some time ago but, as regular readers will know, so many things go in the way.  Especially lately.

It’s now been just over a month since Dad died and I’m so glad that I’m now in a place healthy enough to start painting again.  Originally I wanted to finish my Heldrake as it’s so damned close to being finished but I really need to get my eye back in and what better practice than a project like this?

I probably won’t get this all the way finished that quickly as I really want to get stuck into more pressing half-finished projects however I reckon if I aim to do at least a couple of panels a day it’ll be done in no time.

That’s the theory, anyway…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely something.

Well, it’s built.

I won’t be able to completely paint it for this weekend’ game however I should be able to make it presentable enough then worry about the details next week.

Ruined… something

Now that my squad of Chaos Cultists is almost complete I decided to try and get a new piece of terrain completed for the game next Saturday. I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew…

It’s only about half-built but all the other pieces have been clipped and tidied so I have a tiny chance of having it ready.

Manufactorum – WIP 1

Not bad for a couple of hours. As well as four Manufactorum sprues worth of walls, I also used some plasticard to block the open windows and a spare Modular Movement tray for the roof.

I also left a couple of gaps to enable walkways to be attached later to link this to future buildings. You can also see some gargoyles which will help support them when they’re in place.

All that’s left to do is base it, I have some MDF that I’ll cut to size this evening, and then it’s on to the painting.

And so it begins…

After a gap of at least two years, I’m finally getting more scenery built. I picked up an Imperial Sector box ages ago (when it was considerably cheaper!) but never really got round to doing anything with it. I also picked up a few other IS sprues on eBay along the way.

This evening I’m going to try to build a whole manufactorum. Not a big one, more a tool shop than a Titan assembly facility.

This is the first completely new project since moving to the new house in December. I’ll stop pissing about now and get on with it 😉

Construction Time

That’s my weekend sorted!

I bought this with money from eBay sales over two years ago and have added a few extra sprues since then but until now I’ve not had the time to really get started on it.

Hopefully I’ll have some work in progress pics to show soon.

Modular Trenches for 40K?

I have to admit that despite devouring the Chaos Codex I missed this. According to this article on Bell of Lost Souls, a picture in the codex shows some forthcoming battlefield terrain.

I really hope this is true since my many attempts to make decent looking modular trenches has met with little success. Hopefully we’ll find out soon.

Terrain on the cheap

Over on Bell of Lost Souls they have a great article about how to make your own cheap terrain, you can read it here.

I have to say that the article made me feel incredibly nostalgic. Back when I stared gaming there really was no such thing as bespoke terrain, at least not for 28mm games. We had to make do.

I remember cutting the bottoms off two litre cola bottles, painting them grey and using them as futuristic bunkers. Likewise, cut up pan scourers glued to card make effect (but well trimmed, for war zones) hedges.

At my most desperate I cut some card into wide strips, painted it blue and used it as a river! I think I still have that somewhere actually.

That said, there’s something special about making one’s own terrain. I think it’s a vital skill that all wargamers ought to invest some time into learning because I feel that your terrain says as much about you as your painted armies.

Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’m off to root through our recycling bin for useful stuff…

Building the ruins of the future

When I first started gaming our terrain was made out of whatever we could find. Hedges were made out of pan scourers, bunkers were cola bottle ends and large buildings were usually converted shoeboxes. It was a more innocent time, a time when – if you wished – you could arm your Space Marines with bows and arrows and Zoats roamed freely across the plains.

I remember when the Necromunda boxed set heralded the arrival of the plastic bulkhead / card floor design which brought our games to quite literally higher levels. It was therefore quite a shock to the system when I returned to wargaming and found the wealth of new plastic kits available.

As I was rebuilding my Imperial Guard into a viable army I decided to invest in a few of GW’s 40K buildings. Since my modelling and painting abilities were still in the process of waking from their long slumber I elected to construct the buildings as shown on their boxes and paint them with a simple black undercoat and basic Boltgun Metal drybrush.

This approach served me well for a year or so but as time went on I grew somewhat dissatisfied and even a bit embarrassed at the rather rudimentary job I had done. With this in mind about a year ago I decided to give them a makeover. The buildings were glued to balsawood bases which I then detailed with sand, slate and various kit parts; I then set to work repainting them to a far better standard. Here are the results.

Basilica Administratum

This was the first one I completed; I kept the scheme fairly simple, a Boltgun Metal drybrush for the walls with Shining Gold painted onto the raised details. After it was finished I washed it in Gryphonne Sepia to give it a corroded look.

Sanctum Imperialis

I wanted to give this a very gold look so after drybrushing the walls in Boltgun metal and washing in Badab Black I applied some Chainmail to the statues before washing them in Asurmen Blue. The raised section of the base was made by building a hill out of modelling putty then pressing a floor piece into the top before it set.

Manufactorum

This was the most complex conversion out of the three. I wanted to create an improvised strong point that had been hastily set up in the middle of a city war zone, something that’s ideal to represent the Command Centre Stratagem in Cities of Death.

I took spare Imperial Guard ‘Dozer Blades and other scrap metal looking parts and set to work making them look beaten and worn. If you look closely you’ll see that I’ve placed a Sentinel’s front armour plate over a large hole in one of the blades. The camo netting was made out of part of a laundry tablet sack then drybrushed with the same colours I used to paint the bases, Adeptus Battlegrey, Fortress Grey and Space Wolves Grey

The building itself was painted fairly simply using a Boltgun Metal drybrush and Dwarf Bronze for the Mechanicus Symbol before a liberal wash of Badab Black was applied to the walls.

The problem I am now faced with is that three ruins do not a city fight make so up till now I’ve been forced to also use my old Necromunda buildings if I want to create a dense urban war zone. With this in mind I recently purchased the Imperial Sector set which I intend to combine with the old Necro bulkheads and a few other bits and bobs to create what will hopefully be something special. I’ll keep you posted.