Sunday, December 8, 2013

Kabuki Models - Napoleon-X


Sat down to paint some Imperial Guard and ended up starting and finishing the Napoleon-X model from Kabuki Models instead.  I'm thinking about using him for the Astropath or Master of the Fleet in my IG army.  Fun model to paint, well detailed.  Note that if you plan on using the Kabuki Models in your IG army the scale is a little off.  The Kabuki miniatures run true to scale whereas the GW miniatures are a bit bulky.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Space Wolves Drop Pod Completed

First of all I have to say that I loved working on this model.  For the price it was by far the best GW model I have had the pleasure of building.

It took several steps to get right but having quality products like Secret Weapon Miniatures pigments and The Army Painter spray and bottle paints made a big difference in the overall outcome.  As mentioned in my previous post I used The Army Painter Wolf Grey spray base/primer followed up by a coat of their Daemonic Yellow spray applied to carefully masked areas.  Those areas were again masked off for a coat of black.

At the time of my last post I had left off with my first layer of weathering.  In the first picture below I have applied the second layer of weathering.  I used a blend of Secret Weapon Miniatures rust tones mixed in water.  Using the same technique I used for The Army Painter Dark Ink, I applied a line of this rust mix to the underside of all overhanging edges and then dragged that downwards with a dry brush.  For the bronze areas I applied some aqua color paint to the areas and then wiped away the excess with a sponge.  After applying this technique to all sides I went over it all again with the Dark Ink.  The idea here was that by applying layers of weathering it would look more natural than a single application.


After finishing my weathering it was time to add the "burn" effect caused by orbital insertion.  I started by lightly sanding the hard edges around the base.  I then dry brushed some Citadel Chainmail to these rough edges.

Using some black craft paint I mixed up a dark wash and sponged it onto the lower portions of the model around the door hinges.  I rested the model on it's top and dragged the wash down the model.  I then went back and using a dry sponge wiped away some of the excess.  I repeated this process again with the black wash and once more with The Army Painter Dark Tone.  This process was also applied to the upper ailerons as well.  After I was happy with it all I applied multiple coats of clear matte varnish to seal it all in place for tabletop play.









Sunday, November 24, 2013

Custom Space Wolves Stormraven Landing Gears

Tonight I finished the landing gears for my Space Wolves Stormraven.  This wasn't so much because I wanted a custom look but because I don't have the originals.  I purchased the bulk of the model off of ebay for around $13 and have been piecing together the rest of it out of scratch.

I wanted the landing gears retracted because, let's face it, deployed landing gears don't convey a sense of forward movement.

The rear landing gears were the easy part.  I cut 1mm thick blank sheet styrene to fit the void left by the original model parts and followed that up with some corrugated metal sheet styrene.



The forward landing gears took a little more work.  I created a box of styrene based off of the shape of the rear landing gears.  I made these a little shorter as I imagined the gears would get tucked up into the fuselage.   In addition to the 1mm thick styrene I added .5mm thick styrene with small details cut in to add some texture to keep in style with the rest of the model's details. This was all topped off again with the corrugated metal styrene I used on the rear landing gears.


With this completed I moved on to working on the main engines.  I am using the intake ports on the F-35 and other similar fighters as my point of reference.  So far it is proving a bit frustrating so it may be a while before I make some real progress in this area.

Custom Space Wolf Stormraven - Update

I've finished my scratch built vertical thrusters and I have to say I'm quite happy with them.  The problem I had with the originals is that they looked more like intakes than vertical thrusters.  So I took a bit of styrene tubing and corrugated cable protector to create these.


Once installed they looked a good, but a little unfinished.  I thought they were a little too simple.



So I added a little bit of guitar wire and some heavy cable I made by wrapping wire around some styrene tube stock.



Now I think they looked finished.  Next step? Main engines.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

IG Alternatives?

Something I've always loved about the Imperial Guard fluff is that IG regiments hail from all over the galaxy and no two are the same.  Each system boasts it's own unique guard such as the Catachan Jungle fighters, Cadians, Elysians, and Valhalla.  Games Workshop currently only offers models for the Catachans, Cadians and Vostroyans.  So if I want to field an army of Tanith, Vitrians or a regiment of my own creation it is up to me to customize, kitbash, and find alternatives.  Below are examples of some third party alternatives that are out there and links to their online stores.


Mantic Games tabletop wargame "Warpath" provides gamers not only with alternate models for IG, and Ork, but an entire alternate game which includes races overlooked or forgotten by GW.  Veer-myn are space Sci-Fi ratmen and Forge Fathers are Sci-Fi dwarves.  At $75 US for a 43 model starter army these models are priced right for anyone looking to add a custom feel to their GW army or looking for a more affordable alternative game.


Pig Iron Productions produces near future and Sci-Fi 28mm miniatures and miniatures bits.  Whether you're looking for completely unique miniatures or just some bits to add some flare to your minis Pig Iron has a solution for you.



Victoria Miniatures has a wide selection of highly detailed guard alternatives.  They have their own Penal Legion Squad for example which is truly breathtaking.  In addition to the penal squad they have a line they call "Border World Rangers" which would make a great Tanith substitute.




Maxmini produces a wide variety of bits for any army you play.  They also have some complete miniatures including the above pictured Ogryn alternatives "Space Ogres".



Puppets war produces bits and many alternative models for the 28mm wargaming community including many vehicles.  




Secret Weapon Miniatures offers an amazing selection of bases and weathering pigments.  I personally use their line of weathering pigments on my models.  In addition to pigments, they also sell some great bits and a few models like the badass tank pictured above.

Anvil Industry produces some sweet weapons and other bits for 28mm miniatures.  I have a few of their heavy weapons and a bionic legs kit.  The also produce some unique miniatures like those shown above.


Brother Vinni's produces high quality custom miniatures and even do commission work.  They have a few alternative IG models including the above pictured commissar.  I'm currently using this model as my Lord Commissar and will be using him in the future for General-Commissar Gaunt.



Chapter House Studios produces some great bits for use with IG including the above pictured wheeled Chimera conversion kit and a female guard unit.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Custom Space Wolf Stormraven

So I picked up some bits for a Space Marine Stormraven off ebay.  I didn't really have any plan when I picked them up, I just thought for the price ($13) that I could use them for something Orky in the future or maybe a piece of terrain or a kit-bash of some kind.

When the parts showed up I cleaned them up and started playing around.  I was happily surprised to find that for $13 I nearly had a complete stormraven.  That's when I knew that I would have to create a Space Wolf Stormraven in hopes that it would be completed by the time the new Space Wolf Codex hits shelves sometime next year.

I will be using styrene to fabricate the missing parts and to add some custom flare to it.  For instance I don't like the vertical thrusters on the current model or the intake ports on the main engines.  I plan on diverting from the original designs on those.  I also plan on magnetizing the crap out of this so I can adjust the weapons load to meet the unforeseen options in a future codex.  I also want to make adjustments to this and my dreadnoughts so that I can attach them to the rear section of the aircraft.

So far I've only gotten as far as creating doors from scratch.  Here they are,





Space Wolves Drop Pod- WIP

My Space Wolf Dreadnought is still a work in progress but it is coming along so well I thought I'd post the progress to date.  First off this was a great kit for the price ($37 at my local retailer).  The kit is very detailed and the moving pieces are well articulated.

I base coated the model with The Army Painter Wolf Grey spray Primer/Base Coat.  I then masked off the areas which I wanted yellow and applied The Army Painter's spray Demon Yellow.  I again masked off the areas I wanted black and sprayed those with a generic black primer.

 The interior portion of the pod was painted black and dry brushed with GW Chain Mail metallic paint.  I then detailed the lights with various colors and painted the dome and sergeant's screen with a light green color and added additional details to those screens in white.  I then weathered the metal areas with Seceret Weapon Miniatures rust powders.

The same metallic technique was used for the engine.  I still need to add the rust weathering effects.



I was going to leave the edges of the drop pod doors Wolf Grey but I decided they would look better in the matching metallic.




This is the pod door prior to weathering.

 In the above and below photos you can see the first stage of weathering which I have applied to the outside of the pod.  I have done this by underlining the the edges with a dark wash from The Army Painter and then pulling the wash downwards with a dry brush.

After I finish the rust and oil staining on the outside I will apply burn effects to show the scorching caused when the pod burst through the atmosphere from orbit.