Coming In Hot!

Whats this? Another update!

Work continues on the White Scars, albeit at a painfully slow pace, almost ready to join the ranks is the second Tactical Squad, six strong, armed with a Meltagun and a Veteran Sergeant with a Power Fist:

just a few touch ups and little bits to do on these guys now, drilling the meltagun barrel, the topknot on the bare-headed marine, a few highlights, the usual ;)

Pretty happy with how these guys have come out, a few close ups showing the tribal markings and that kinda Jazz. But wait there's more!

It would have felt incredibly wrong not to paint up an assault squad for this army, seen as you know, they are White Scars. Armed with a pair of Plasma Pistols and a Veteran Sergeant with his trusty Thunder Hammer i'm hoping these guys can claim a few heads on the battlefield...

lastly a shot of the mundane process of painting the shoulder pads (these have all since been used on the guys you see above)

Lightening Fast!

So first things first, cast a vote if you haven't already, whether I should make the Sternguard Veterans a Death Watch Kill Team or a Squad from the First Company of White Scars ----->

Here we are in about to jump into April, I cant believe it has already been three months since I started this White Scars Army, production is still coming on, albeit slowly, I've just about caught up with what I was meant to paint in February and of course I haven't completed March's quota either... but lets see where we are at...

firstly The Attack Bike Squadron:

pretty much complete, just need to add some transfers and do some tidying up and they are done, the Land Speeder Typhoon:

The left hand Launcher has the frag missiles the right hand is equipped with Krak, still have a little bit of work to go on this piece, a real pain to put together, and I lost the drivers right hand arm, not helpful at all...

The Bike squad is almost complete now, a few heads, another rideR to paint up, some metal work and of course some transfers need to be added but they're pretty much ready to go...

The commander is about 60% built now, need to fill some gaps and get him painted, but he'll be a separate blog in his own right...

next month? Another tactical squad will be in the works, have yet to decide what else, but time will tell

Missing Targets

Okay first things first cast your vote!  -------------------------------------------------------------> 

Secondly, is it really already the 2nd of March? Where are the updates? What the hell is going on!?

Yeah, so White Scars bikers, completely under estimated how much time it would take to paint up a single biker, let alone the 7 models I said I would get done during February. Between that, work being a real struggle at the moment and various other things taking up my time and attention, I have fallen short of the quota, and have a group of half painted bikers... but anyway here are some WIP shots for you all to enjoy...

So as you can see the bikes are now all assembled and based, they just need the bolters attached to the front, some touch ups to details and some pesky red tribal markings

Close up of the sergeant, he seems to have lost his head, wasn't a huge fan of the pose originally, but it is growing on me

The attack bike is also at the same stage, well slightly further ahead, but being a larger model its all relative right?

Close up of some details ;)

So the war machine must carry on turning, next month?

firstly finish these guys ASAP

- Captain on Bike w/ Teeth of Terra, Melta Bombs and Auspex (plan to have those to being optional)

- Landspeeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher 

230 pts in total... and seen as its only two models, should be do able...

Sun Tzu Says

"that the art of war is a vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety, or to ruin"

you have to love the relentless fury of Sabaton, and the quote above seems particularly relevant... anyway less babbling, this month's quota is coming along, perhaps a little behind schedule, I may have under-estimated how long it takes to paint one of those sodding bikes... Oh well, there's only like at least another thirty to paint... *Sigh* 

Now before any photos, seen as your here, please cast a vote on the poll at the side of the blog, whether in your opinion the Sternguard should be modeled up as either White Scars Veterans or a Death Watch Kill team... If you have already voted, good on you... if you haven't get to it ;)

here is the test model now complete, complete with bare head and top-knot, something which may or may not become a feature of the army...

the next three bikes as you can see are built and painted, some touching up still needs to occur, but they are coming on nicely, the riders are in the process of being assembled, the main problem is of course that they only have on style of chest plate, which needs to be swapped out as much as possible for variation.

Xarl is also coming on nicely, the bronze banding now complete, I removed the head for ease of painting Executioner, but i'm happy with the progress thus far...

a WIP shot of Tolemion, I wont lie it's been nice to not paint white on a Marine!

Most of these week's progress has gone in to painstakingly painting Tolemion's shield, taken from the Event only Boarding Marine... The Imperial Eagle is now complete, after about three or four hours painting, slow and steady

The Duel as it currently stands... Still have to build a base for these two to slot into, my main concern is that they are very dynamic, the main problem with this was I really wasn't keen on cutting up the Finecast of Tolemion's body but alas, perseverance right?

Through the Valley of the Damned!

Evening ladies and Gents, just a small update for you today, showing that I have made a start on the White Scars Bike Squad for our tale of four gamers project this month... As I mentioned previously, I'm trying this one by painting these guys on the sprue to see if its better for White Scars, here's what I have so far...

The test model mounted on a his base, this was the first one I did separately to get a feel for what I was doing, and I have so say, he's come along quite nicely

Batch painting, slow and steady, but we're getting there...

Found an old commander sprue in my bitzbox, so I've made a start on the commander now, but all in due time right? 

If you've been reading this blog recently, you'll know this isn't the only thing that I'm painting up this month, here is my Duel Entry, slowly coming along, but hey, the end of the month is still a decent amount of time away so... Unfortunately I've hit a little bit of a roadblock, as GW have removed the Genesis Chapter pads from their webstore, and of course I haven't order the bits yet, so Tolemion is going to be a little more tricky, but here is where I'm at so...

I know, baby steps right... 

Lastly, I'm adding a poll to my blog, so if you do read this please take time to answer, very simply, I'm toying the idea of painting up the Sternguard Veteran's squad as a Deathwatch Team, seen as the rules fit perfectly with the Deathwatch Fluff, this would also provide a nice contrasting centre piece to the army and will give the opportunity to add some great character to the army, but i'm undecided, opinions on this would be greatly appreciated...

For The Khan! - January

Okay Ladies and Gents,

here it is, the fruits of my labour for January, may I present to you the first Tactical Squad, their Razorback Transport and an Attack Bike from the White Scars chapter. As I have previously mentioned, painting white for this army has been a steep learning curve and next months painting shall be undertaken with the lessons I have learnt in mind, I plan on trying to paint the models as much on the sprue as possible, this leads to it's own issues but, we shall see how this turns out and then take it from there... anyway, less rambling more photos right?

The Attack Bike, armed with a multi-melta, there will be several of these in the final army, and end result on the next one will be an improvement, that is after all what we're after...

The first Razorback, again there will be multiple examples of these in the army, the next one I may even be as bold as to try some tribal markings on it, we shall see

the complete tactical squad, they may at some point get filled in to a ten man squad, still contemplating this...

Obligatory Group Shot... It was also decided that an initial 1500 point army list should be submitted with this entry so as follows is the roster for the Dothraki Brotherhood:

Captain Drogo Khan
     - Bike, Auspex, Melta Bombs, Teeth of Terra

155 pts

Sternguard Veterans (10)

    - 5 Combi-Meltas, 2 Heavy Flamers

    - Drop Pod

335 pts

Tactical Squad (5)
    - Veteran Sergeant with Power Sword, Flamer
    -  Razorback

155 pts

Tactical Squad (5)
    - Veteran Sergeant with Power Sword, Flamer
    -  Razorback

155 pts

Bike Squad (5)
     - Veteran Sergeant with Thunder Hammer, 2 Grav Guns

175 pts

Bike Squad (5)
     - Veteran Sergeant with Power Fist, 2 Melta Guns

160 pts

Attack Bike Squad (2)
     - 2 Multi-Meltas

110 pts

Attack Bike Squad (2)
     - 2 Multi-Meltas

110 pts

Storm Talon Gunship

     - Typhoon Missile Launcher

145 pts

We're implemented a scoring system for our tale of four gamers, just for a little bit of friendly rivalry, this revolves around making sure you paint the quota each month, and in time, there are also bonus challenges, the first of which was to submit a 1500 point army list... so this month i've racked up 3 points, completing all three tasks... just have to wait for the others now...

so what's next? well I wont be able to resist tinkering with what I've painted, but the aside, next months painting quota is...

A space marine Bike Squad with a veteran sergeant with a Power Fist and 2 Melta Guns as well as a second Attack Bike, this comes in at 236 points, and if I get time, I might have a look at building and painting Drogo Khan to lead this host...

anyway until next time...

A Tutorial... Red Desert Bases on the Cheap...

Okay so, something new and a bit different today, a tutorial on home made bases, these are cheap, quick and easy. I think they look pretty good when done, so I thought I would share my technique with you all

what you need:

Bases (that's a given)
Slate
Sand
Polyfilla


The polyfilla is the trick to this technique, you don't really need to worry about the quality of the stuff, generally, we're not looking for a nice smooth finish, and that can be achieved with a bit of water... I got a tube from Homebase, of their own brand, for under three quid...

so first things first, spread a layer of polyfilla onto the top of the base. Now, depending on what look you are going for, you can either smooth this down, or leave it un-natural and uneven. after a short period (5 to 10 minutes, you can then take a piece of wire, or a sculpting tool and draw some cracks into the polyfilla

This is what you should be looking for, try to make the lines look as natural as possible, don't have them all going in one direction, have them change angels and converge with one another, have them fade out in the middle of the base...

This 60mm base shows a combination of polyfilla, slate and sand, I glued the slate in place, then added the Polyfilla, then the sand, this gives a little variation, almost like the cracked uneven ground, blends into the normal desert once more...

As we're doing our armies on a Martian setting (or similar, I'm sure Mars isn't the only red planet in the universe) the next step was to paint the bases with Khorne red, I didn't actually bother to undercoat these first, the only step I would advise is to use a second layer of PVA glue on top of the sand to seal it place...

the next step was to drybrush the bases using Wazzadakka Red, a medium drybrush should suffice so that the bases pick up a decent amount of the second colour without becoming too heavy handed with it... 

once this has dried using a liberal amount of red wash (I used Baal Wash because I had a pot left over) coat the entire base, the wash shall flow into the cracks, shading them and the unnatural leveling of the base, giving a nice varied appearance for very little effort, as the photos show below

The natural grooves in the Slate will lend themselves to the drybrush, and will be brought out further by the wash, there is no real work involved making these look decent... The last step is to give a final light drybrush of Wazzadakka Red over the top of the base just to give a further easy highlight

The possibilities with this type of basing are not just limited to the red planet, this would work for any desert based army, or using the polyfilla (without the cracks) to build up a mud base, add some thin balsa wood and some barbed wire and you would have a decent, simple trench base... that give me an idea... brb...