100 40k Posts WOOHOO!!!
This is a cool milestone to hit, though its taken me a while given my long period of very intermmitent posts. Anyways thanks to everyone who reads this blog, My goal is to reach 200 posts before this time next year, ambitious I know but as long as I keep making new stuff to post about its doable.
Normally most other bloggers add some large expansive retrospective monologue about how much their blog means to them and reviewing works they've done over time. Rather than do that I'll just say that this blog has been a cool way to show off my work and that its nice to see how my skills have improved over the last few years. I could also talk about my feelings towards GW's products as well as other games, but the summary is GW's games really aren't very fun to play for me anymore and haven't been for a number of years. The game's become a series of fixed outcomes where half the time there's really no point in playing out the match, you can just look at your opponent's army and know exactly what will happen before either player even sets up. By contrast X-wing is a great game which very much relies on and rewards in the moment decision making and player skill is the single most important factor in who will win.
So to compare in my opinion the outcome of a 40k games vs a X-wing game are determined by:
40k X-wing
List Building: 70% 30%
Luck: 10% 20%
Skill: 20% 50%
Again that's just my opinion based on my own experiences. I love 40k's lore and 30k is a lot more fun, but playing matches of 40k nearly always tends to be a big let down. The game could improve with time, and seems to be right now, but in my view the core rule set of of the game needs some dramatic changes as it has a lot of anachronisms left over from 3rd edition which no longer deliver the experience they were created to deliver.
Oh and oddly if I really wanted to boost my viewership I should just post articles and conversions of X-wing stuff. My most viewed 40k conversion posts have about 300-500 views a piece, and every x-wing post has between 1,800 and 3,500 views. Does anyone have any advice on how to draw more eyes from the 40k community?
Ok enough of that, onto the actual post!
Truescale Batch #3
As I mentioned before I decided to make a number of MkIV armor legionaries in this batch for variety's sake and for the challenge of it. I'm very pleased with how this batch came out, all of the poses work and I've refined the anatomy quite a bit. I have come to the conclusion over time that the arms are about 15% too thick, and this has been causing some issues when posing the models. Now that my molds are officially worn out I'll revise the masters a bit and decrease the arm thickness for future batches.
Here are the individual models.
MkIII Helmed Sergeant #2
While fielding a 20 man Legion Tactical Squad is awesome there is the issue of needing 2 compulsary Troop choices, that and a 20 man squad can be quite unwieldy in smaller matches. So I made this guy who can either count as a sergeant or as a standard model depending on how I decide to run them in a match.
His pose screams "Casual Badass"
MkIV Legionary 1
I decided to make this guy in a low ready position, so many of the Legionaries to date have been very dynamically posed so having a relaxed static posed model helps provide visual variety.
Maglocking Chain Axes to the backpack helps add more variety for the Close Combat Weapon upgrades for the squad. I feel it looks pretty sweet.
MkIV Legionary 2
Simple firing stance pose for this model. I've gotten a lot better and achieving this sort of pose, its actually very challenging to pull the angles of the right arm so that it looks natural. Do it wrong and he'll look like he's holding the bolter out at arm's length away from his chest instead of firing.
As I was saying the Bolter is placed so it just barely in front of his chest, which achieves the desired pose.
I've realized that I'm nearly out of close combat weapons and pistols to use for the Assault Squad!!!
MkIV Legionary 3
He might not look it but this model has one of the most challenging poses I've attempted to date: Firing while stepping forwards with the right leg. This pose is very challenging as its an extreme Contra Posto pose, meaning that the torso and legs are each rotated nearly their full range of motion opposite each other. Making this stance look natural isn't easy, this but it came out really well.
As you can see he really looks like he's moving, the illusion of movement is a result of the extreme counter rotation of the upper and lower body.
Legionary 4
Another firing stance, nothing too special.
I really like how the ammo pouches on his waist actually look realistic size wise and don't take up his entire thigh!
Legionary 5
Legionary 6
Volkite Charger 1
This model really exemplifies the problem I mentioned with the arms being too thick. Most angles its not visbile, but on this guy it really is.
Volkite Charger 2
I tried to give this guy a proper low ready stance, I think he looks quite menacing. He's definately in the running for squad sergeant.
I think I'll just include a scale shot in each post from now on as I usually get at least 1 request for one every time I post more Truescale pictures. Th standard marine modle looks REALLY tiny in this picture, I'm curious if the never Tactical Marine models are taller, their legs are all much straighter than the perpetually bent kneed legs of the ancient Chaos Space Marine kit.
Deimos Predator
A long while ago I decided to attempt to make Truescale vehicles for this army as well, and my first test model was a Deimos predator. Simply put it did not come out well. Extending the sides to have 1 extra axle and increasing the width and height by about 1/2" was a ton of work and it just didn't look good enough to be worth it. So I abandoned that attempt, but I kept the turret and sponsons I converted for the model. Add a Deimos Rhino kit to the mix and we have a pretty cool looking Predator.
The sponsons were made by first sticking a jetbike flying stand's base over the side hatch hole. Then I took a turret cupola and flipped it upside down and added some hatch parts. The arms from a Havoc Launcher were used to hold the Heavy Bolters. I magnetized the sponsons so they can elevate and depress and so that the Heavy Bolters are detacheable, I still need to make Lascannon Sponsons for it though.
The turret was made using the turret from an ancient Rogue Trader era plastic Predator tank I picked up for 5 bucks a few years ago. The tank was pretty beat up, but the turret and one lascannon were salvageable. The sponson boxes were made using styrene, and the mounting arm for the Havoc Launcher is the shoulder from a Contemptor Dreadnought.
The armor plates over the sponsons weren't that difficulate to make.
I was a bit lazy with the top of the hull, I originally intended to add some more vents on the top of it, but given that most of the details would be covered up by the turret anyways I didn't bother.
Oh I noticed that most of my Rhino bottom hull pieces are missing, so I ended up making one with some plasticard.
This guy was actually the very first test model I made for this army. It was about 4 years ago and I hadn't started work on the current armor component masters yet. I had previously made a set of Truescale Ultramarines for a friend and one of the copies was used as the base of the model. It didn't turn out very well, The proportions were horrible on those old conversions, so I scrapped the model for a few years. When I was looking for a vehicle crewman I decided to salvage the torso from that old guy, everything else got redone though.
Here's what he looked like originally, these guys have definitely come a long way
Like I said those original test models were pretty bad!
This is a cool milestone to hit, though its taken me a while given my long period of very intermmitent posts. Anyways thanks to everyone who reads this blog, My goal is to reach 200 posts before this time next year, ambitious I know but as long as I keep making new stuff to post about its doable.
Normally most other bloggers add some large expansive retrospective monologue about how much their blog means to them and reviewing works they've done over time. Rather than do that I'll just say that this blog has been a cool way to show off my work and that its nice to see how my skills have improved over the last few years. I could also talk about my feelings towards GW's products as well as other games, but the summary is GW's games really aren't very fun to play for me anymore and haven't been for a number of years. The game's become a series of fixed outcomes where half the time there's really no point in playing out the match, you can just look at your opponent's army and know exactly what will happen before either player even sets up. By contrast X-wing is a great game which very much relies on and rewards in the moment decision making and player skill is the single most important factor in who will win.
So to compare in my opinion the outcome of a 40k games vs a X-wing game are determined by:
40k X-wing
List Building: 70% 30%
Luck: 10% 20%
Skill: 20% 50%
Again that's just my opinion based on my own experiences. I love 40k's lore and 30k is a lot more fun, but playing matches of 40k nearly always tends to be a big let down. The game could improve with time, and seems to be right now, but in my view the core rule set of of the game needs some dramatic changes as it has a lot of anachronisms left over from 3rd edition which no longer deliver the experience they were created to deliver.
Oh and oddly if I really wanted to boost my viewership I should just post articles and conversions of X-wing stuff. My most viewed 40k conversion posts have about 300-500 views a piece, and every x-wing post has between 1,800 and 3,500 views. Does anyone have any advice on how to draw more eyes from the 40k community?
Ok enough of that, onto the actual post!
Truescale Batch #3
As I mentioned before I decided to make a number of MkIV armor legionaries in this batch for variety's sake and for the challenge of it. I'm very pleased with how this batch came out, all of the poses work and I've refined the anatomy quite a bit. I have come to the conclusion over time that the arms are about 15% too thick, and this has been causing some issues when posing the models. Now that my molds are officially worn out I'll revise the masters a bit and decrease the arm thickness for future batches.
Here are the individual models.
MkIII Helmed Sergeant #2
While fielding a 20 man Legion Tactical Squad is awesome there is the issue of needing 2 compulsary Troop choices, that and a 20 man squad can be quite unwieldy in smaller matches. So I made this guy who can either count as a sergeant or as a standard model depending on how I decide to run them in a match.
His pose screams "Casual Badass"
MkIV Legionary 1
I decided to make this guy in a low ready position, so many of the Legionaries to date have been very dynamically posed so having a relaxed static posed model helps provide visual variety.
Maglocking Chain Axes to the backpack helps add more variety for the Close Combat Weapon upgrades for the squad. I feel it looks pretty sweet.
MkIV Legionary 2
Simple firing stance pose for this model. I've gotten a lot better and achieving this sort of pose, its actually very challenging to pull the angles of the right arm so that it looks natural. Do it wrong and he'll look like he's holding the bolter out at arm's length away from his chest instead of firing.
As I was saying the Bolter is placed so it just barely in front of his chest, which achieves the desired pose.
I've realized that I'm nearly out of close combat weapons and pistols to use for the Assault Squad!!!
MkIV Legionary 3
He might not look it but this model has one of the most challenging poses I've attempted to date: Firing while stepping forwards with the right leg. This pose is very challenging as its an extreme Contra Posto pose, meaning that the torso and legs are each rotated nearly their full range of motion opposite each other. Making this stance look natural isn't easy, this but it came out really well.
As you can see he really looks like he's moving, the illusion of movement is a result of the extreme counter rotation of the upper and lower body.
Legionary 4
Another firing stance, nothing too special.
I really like how the ammo pouches on his waist actually look realistic size wise and don't take up his entire thigh!
Legionary 5
Legionary 6
Volkite Charger 1
This model really exemplifies the problem I mentioned with the arms being too thick. Most angles its not visbile, but on this guy it really is.
Volkite Charger 2
I tried to give this guy a proper low ready stance, I think he looks quite menacing. He's definately in the running for squad sergeant.
Scale Shot
I think I'll just include a scale shot in each post from now on as I usually get at least 1 request for one every time I post more Truescale pictures. Th standard marine modle looks REALLY tiny in this picture, I'm curious if the never Tactical Marine models are taller, their legs are all much straighter than the perpetually bent kneed legs of the ancient Chaos Space Marine kit.
Deimos Predator
A long while ago I decided to attempt to make Truescale vehicles for this army as well, and my first test model was a Deimos predator. Simply put it did not come out well. Extending the sides to have 1 extra axle and increasing the width and height by about 1/2" was a ton of work and it just didn't look good enough to be worth it. So I abandoned that attempt, but I kept the turret and sponsons I converted for the model. Add a Deimos Rhino kit to the mix and we have a pretty cool looking Predator.
The sponsons were made by first sticking a jetbike flying stand's base over the side hatch hole. Then I took a turret cupola and flipped it upside down and added some hatch parts. The arms from a Havoc Launcher were used to hold the Heavy Bolters. I magnetized the sponsons so they can elevate and depress and so that the Heavy Bolters are detacheable, I still need to make Lascannon Sponsons for it though.
The turret was made using the turret from an ancient Rogue Trader era plastic Predator tank I picked up for 5 bucks a few years ago. The tank was pretty beat up, but the turret and one lascannon were salvageable. The sponson boxes were made using styrene, and the mounting arm for the Havoc Launcher is the shoulder from a Contemptor Dreadnought.
The armor plates over the sponsons weren't that difficulate to make.
I was a bit lazy with the top of the hull, I originally intended to add some more vents on the top of it, but given that most of the details would be covered up by the turret anyways I didn't bother.
Oh I noticed that most of my Rhino bottom hull pieces are missing, so I ended up making one with some plasticard.
This guy was actually the very first test model I made for this army. It was about 4 years ago and I hadn't started work on the current armor component masters yet. I had previously made a set of Truescale Ultramarines for a friend and one of the copies was used as the base of the model. It didn't turn out very well, The proportions were horrible on those old conversions, so I scrapped the model for a few years. When I was looking for a vehicle crewman I decided to salvage the torso from that old guy, everything else got redone though.
Here's what he looked like originally, these guys have definitely come a long way
Like I said those original test models were pretty bad!
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