++++INLOADING DATAFILE 054++++ Hell Blade WIP 2

I didn't have as much time to work on the Hell Blade this week, but the top is mostly finished.

Here you can see the first blade wing's visible base layer being put down. What I mean by visible base layer is that it is the deepest layer of plasticard which will actually be visible on the model. This allows me to cover up errors and gaps on the earlier layers and refine the final shape.

A close up of the cockpit, the majority of the detailing is done there.

The second blade wing's visible base layer is now done. I made a mistake on this one originally and punched the rivers out on the wrong side, thankfully it wasn't hard to fix. It also turned out that this blade wing was about 1/3" shorter than the first one so I had to build it out with a few extra pieces of scrap plastic card. Now you really can't tell that there was a difference Trina at all.

I really need to set up an actual photo booth for my models, the lighting in my apartment as it is just too unreliable I'm finding and a lot of the detail is getting washed out whenever I take these pictures.

Slightly updated detail work on the cockpit.

Here you can see all the rivets on the two blade wings. These are actually easier to do than I was expecting so doing the deed to same detail on the bottom side shouldn't be that time consuming. There will still be additional doodads an extra bits of detail work you'll see on top of the visible base layer but that's for next week.

As you can see I took the time to cut out the appropriate slots in the bottom of the model such that it's actually able to go on a normal GW flight stand. So it's cable usable at the moment as it is. As always let me know what you think of my work.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 053++++ Chaos Hellblade WIP 1

So I have gotten two games in with my Chaos Renegades. I am having a blast with the army so far, the three main things I have learned to date are:

1. Line of sight blocking terrain is REALLY important in this edition.
2. Buildings with multiple stories are just plain stupid. I played vs a marine army which fit the whole force on the 2nd or third story of a building 8" from his table edge. There is no feasible way to assault that if you have a massed infantry army, but that's what I get for not suggesting we set up differently or that we play a mission rather than kill points.
3. I need some anti-air units. 

I have had a Hellblade for a few years but never bothered putting it together.

The model

 It's a great kit, I just didn't enjoy 6th enough to build it. Now that my L&TD have a "codex" again though I decided to build a few of these awesome jets.


If any of you follow Dave Taylor's blog you may have seen his Locust Chaos Fighter conversion from a few years ago. Using this as basic inspiration I started converting a second Hellblade, and here it is.

Surprisingly this is after a single evening and afternoon spent on this thing, it's coming along quite fast. Sadly I am now all out of superglue so the rest has to wait.

 Here it is by the actual Forgeworld model. It's a little larger, but that was determined by the size of the drop pod stabilizers more than anything else.

 Getting the positioning and angle of the "wings" in relation to the cockpit was the hardest part. As you can see at the very start the model didn't fit together as well.

 The detailing has begun on the upper fuselage. All the lines around the cockpit are because I used a bunch of scraps to make this layer. It's actually way easier to make a very complex layer of plasticard from a bunch of smaller pieces as you can cut each to fit a different part of the layer rather than working really hard to cut a perfect single piece. The seams are easy to cover up later on with greenstuff.

Side profile.

 The air intake was made using some 'metal siding' styrene sheeting I picked up last week on a whim. So much easier than making each vertical slit on it's own.

 The bottom has yet to be detailed at all. More on this guy later.

***************************UPDATE******************************

I worked on it a bit more today before class, managing to squeeze just a tiny bit more glue out.  As you can see I've started working on the details.

The rivets are achieved by placing a very thin sheet of plasticard with pushed out rivets on top of a thicker "shape" layer.  Its the simplest and quickest way to rivet a vehicle model I've found, though anyone with other recommendations I'd be happy to learn them.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 052++++ Advanced Tau Battlesuits

I have a friend who has molds of a lot of the Forgeworld tau battlesuits and he gave me a tone of miscasts, I think I have enoughg bits to make around 15 battlesuits. The challenge is that the bits are meant to be made into different model kits, so I have to custom job them together to make things work.



Here we some shots of the first test models I have made.
The battlesuits are supposed to be XV-88 Crisis suits, and every suit will by subtlely different from the others. The great thing about using just forgeworld components is just how posable the final model winds up being.



As you can see I had to fill in a bunch of gaps in the basic model for things to work right.



I intend to sell the finished kits once I have them done, if anyone is interested in them let me know.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 051++++ Imperial Armour 13 reflections and Arch-Heretic 1

So I have just gotten my hands on a digital copy of the Imperial Armour 13: Warmachines of the Lost and the Damned and it is awesome. I actually have a large renegade army which I have never posted pictures of before. It has the following roughly at the moment:
• 60 infantry with 6 autocannons and 6 plasmaguns.
• 2 platoon command squads
• 1 company command squad
• 2 special weapon squads
• 1 veteran squad
• 4 psykers
• 5 priests
• 8 ogryns and 3 hounds

I also have 140 cultists for my chaos space marine army as well.

And I made some test models of mutants but didn't actually go through with making a bunch of them yet as there were no rules.

I plan to make two separate forces. One will be led by a Primaris-Rogue Witch and have be made up of the renegade imperial guard troops. The other will be led by a master of the horde and be made up of the cultists.

With the horde army I will FINALLY be able to make an appropriate fluffy Word Bearers army with hordes of sacrificial cultists flung at the enemy with reckless abandon before my chaos space marines. Dark Apostles are awesome as allies to a L&TD army as they grant Ld 10 to units within 6". I'm excited as CSM cultists are a TERRIBLE unit, even as cheap as they are they are over costed for what they do. With the ability to potentially recycle my units when they die I can make a cool themed force, especially if I get the warlord traits where you score VPs for getting your own units killed.

The other detachment will be a more complete army on its own.

I had an original Lost And The Damned army back in 2002 which I converted for the eye of terror campaign. Model wise it was terrible but it was a ton of fun to play. It was also my fastest ever army in terms of how long it took me to make it, with the entire army converted and painted in just over two months!

Now for some pics, here is my Arch Demogogue for the horde force. He is my favorite character model to date, a Priest of the Ruinous Powers that I have named Kali'Ma.



The base for this model was a wizard from the Empire Celestial Hurricanum/Luminark of Hysh kit. The head is a Corpse Cart Driver and a skull from some beastmen Kit. The book is from the Empire Flagellants Kit and the chaos stars are mostly made by using a stamp mold I made.

The chest was greenstuffed and while they are hard to see in this picture he has realistic musculature.



The heart was a pure from scratch sculpt that I free handed from memory.



The base model is one of the most dynamically posed cloak wearing models I've ever worked on.

To date I've done about 5 fallen priests that I will use as Enforcers, more will be posted later.

As always let me know what you think of him.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 050++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.2

I just realized I forgot to upload this before. Just another quick in progress shot. This one is next to a regular CSM model for reference.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 049++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.3

Ok he is most of the way done now. Lots of work has been done, a quick rundown is:
• The feet are built and ready for detailing
• The torso has been reworked a bit to blend the ribs into the rest of the model
• The mk IV helm has been corrupted and now connects to the tongue
• The shoulder pads have been blended and the screaming daemon face has been integrated
• The stamp molded tabard has been fitted
• The arm posing has been reworked to make the model more dynamically posed
• Lots of small details



FORWARD FOR THE FOUR!!!








The right arm is just pinned on for ease painting, someday...


Gotta connect those pipes!

The next post should have the finished model. The amazing thing is that I have only worked on this guy for about 8-10 hours so far over the course of about two weeks. That's compared to 60+ hours for the original test model from 2012. And the finished model is more detailed and easily dynamically posed as well!

Making the truescale masters is paying off.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 048++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.2

Here is another small update on my second truescale wordbearer. As you can see the model is coming along, I've started on the detail work already. I will shrink the thickness of the arms on the next model I do, as they are a tad too thick. Otherwise there has been a lot of small details added and problems solved as I figure out how to use the master kit I have made.

He is next to a regular scale marine for reference.