Adding a bit of value to your models.

Plastic models are the way forward and GW is bringing out more and more plastics. This way they can keep the costs of producing lower then with metal models and for us it makes it easier to convert models. The amount of detail is getting better and better with plastics but it has one drawback, plastic models are very lightweight. They have the tendency of boouncing to the other end of the room when you drop them.
But there's an easy sollution for that. I stick a 5cents euro coin in the bases to weigh them down a bit and it works really well. Models don't get knocked over on the table and stay in their place nice and sturdy. I imagine that every currency has a coin with the size of a base so if you're not in the euro zone you might have to have a look wich coin fits. This way you also add a little value to the models. A unit of 10 models costs me €0,50 so that's not much .

But why stop there? I also magnatize all my bases. I started doing this with my fantasy army as they have to be placed on movement trays. so when you magnatize the bases and get a metal sheet and cut that to the size of your unit they will never fall of and you can easily move them araound on the table.
But why do this with 40K models then,.. well you can put your models on any metal tray for easy transport. the models will stick to the tray even if you turn the tray upside down. I have seen DIY cases that fit metal serving trays and have magnetized units on them.Also you can imagine that when you attend a tournament and have to move between tables a lot that it's very easy if you have one or two of these trays and you don't have to worry about people bumping into you when you make your way through the crowded room with your precious painted models.

I take a pen and draw the outline of the bases on a magnetsheet and cut them out with a pair of scissors. These magnetsheets are available at the better hobbystores and some DIY stores. Internet is your friend to locate them.
I then superglue the cut out magnets to the bases.It's better if the magnet is a little bigger then the bases. Because once they are glued properly you can take a knive and cut away the excess.

Once the magnet fits perfectly I paint the sides of the base and you can hardly see the magnetsheet underneath.

If you want to see the whole gretchin unit with magnets then click here.

And then there's one more good reason to do this....



Waaagh!



How else would you mount that vertical assault on the washing machine to claim that unreachable objective on top of it.

Seb

January Round-up

That’s it, the first full month of blogging is over and it’s been a blast and a real eye opener. After reading a few interesting blogs myself  I thought it would be fun to start my own blog. The idea was to upload my recent projects and keep track of my ongoing hobby progress.

First I posted some content of which I think it was interesting for anyone to read. A real mix of different subjects. Then I joined the FTW blog group and my Battle damage tutorial was an instant hit and thanks to Ron Sawakowski who posted a link of my tutorial at the top of the FTW blog my own blog got a lot of traffic and before I knew it I had some followers of my own. It was a great feeling that people found my blog worth following and a special mention goes to B.Smoove of A Gentlemans’s Ones who was the very first follower.

I continued posting content, mostly of my Space marines but I also visited many blogs and started a bloglist to keep track of interesting blogs. I have collected a huge mountain of unpainted plastic and my new year’s resolution was to paint up everything this year before I would allow myself to buy something new. Unfortunately I found some inspiring blogs with Orky goodness. Digital waaagh,  A Gentleman’s Ones , Musings of a smurf and Porky’s expanse to name but a few and these blogs gave me the green itch and so I ordered a 40k Ork codex, some nobz and a gretchin unit which I finished recently because I couldn’t resist painting them up. The new year not even a month old and already I had succumbed to the “new model itch-syndrome”….nice.I uploaded my progress of the Gretchin unit. First the bases and later the completed models.

I also took some advise of N++ from wargaming tradecraft he posted a topic on organising your blog to make it easier for the reading public to navigate their way around on my blog and so I took down some pages and will I get them sorted out soon to make them more user friendly. Therefor some of my pages are currently under construction and unavailable. I know I’m only a month in but you can never start improving your site too early.

And then now some numbers…My blog has had 1.575 pageviews already. An amazing amount and largely due to my FtW membership. I’m planning on joining more blog groups but only want to join those that I value for their content and members instead of generating more traffic to my blog.

The top 3 subjects on my blog for this month were:

-Tutorial Painting battle damage = 280 views

-Heavy Bolter conversion = 198 views

-Space marine scout snipers = 95 views

Right now I have 27 followers but I hope to add some more next month when I’ll upload some more content which I think should be interesting. Special mention goes to Papa JJ, Porky and B.smoove for keeping commenting on my blog. Your input and feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you all for reading and stay tuned for more warpaint goodness.

Seb

Da Gretchin Crew

As promised here are my newly finished gretchin with Runtherd. I had so much fun painting these little fella's. Each and every one has so much character and I tried to make them all look different and still fit within the unit. The yellow binds them but most of all their bases make it work. (which were a lot of work)

The bases took me a few hours to put together but in the end I really think it paid off. If you want to see a before and after shot then have a look here.The bases are really a nice little canvas for the Gretchin to stand on and really brings them out. Not two bases are the same but still have a proper uniform look about them for the army.

As I said the little gretchin are really fun to look at. They each bring a sense of character and I wanted to emphasise on that. I painted them all individualy so one has a tartan blue cloth, and one has a red tartan cloth. I have made one with an orky smiley t-shirt and put extra strong red lenses on the gretchin with the goggles. They look like a crazy gang when you see them together.

Have a look and let me know what you think. In the pictures the skincolor is a little bit of. they have a bit more depth. I am still considering if I should highlight them more or just leave them like this.

If you look carefully you'll notice something funny about their bases that I haven't mentioned yet before so that's a nice little teaser to leave you with untill the next post. (here's a little clue)

Seb

New Army!!!

Recently I decided it was time for a new 40K army. With my current 40K army painted for about 90% I want to set my sights on a new project. If you are a follower of this blog you will probably know I'm going to start a WAAAAGH...uhm,...Ork army. I got a box of gretchin and a box of Nobz to try out some painting techniques and themes.

As I'm painting these units up, in my mind I go through the different army options that are available and that brings me to the core of this topic. How do you go about setting up a nice playable and fun army list when you start a new army??

Right now I'm reading the codex and try to imagine what units have real good rules and what units might look nice on paper but actually suck when you play. The codex is a good resource for the background, story and available units for any army but will not give you a standard plug and play army list.

In the games I played I have taken some notes of units that worked really well against me and what units I would never take. I go mostly by memory but have a few opponents army lists from which I can draw inspiration.

At my gaming club I have seen players proxy about 50% of their 1500 points army when they started a new army. That's fine by me but it's always a bit awkward when you say "that unit of space marines are actually necron destroyers and that whirlwind is a monolyth". This way you will get a good feel of the different units without buying them. Personally I don't really like it.

When I started my warhammer fantasy army I just started with some units that seemed fun to paint. and it was fun to paint up all these units but when I had to make an actually playable armylist I got stuck. I needed more core units and had plenty of lords and hero's. I now have about 1500 points worth of Warriors of Chaos which have never seen the green felt of the battlefield. They are nicely painted units that look great in my cabinets but other then that they are no use to me.

Then of course there's the internet, a great source of information. but maybe a bit too much information because anyone can write anything.. If you post your armylist on the interwebs there are always enough people to shoot down your ideas with good argumentation so that you have to go back to the drawingboard over and over again.

So there are a lot of ways to start a new army but I'm curious to find out how you, the readers got to a good armylist that you are happy with. Please let me know and inspire me...

Space Marine Chaplain

The Chaplain



Click to enlarge





Because I haven't had time to take pictures of my new Gretchin except for the bases I thought I'd share my Chaplain with you. I painted this model about half a year ago and it goes with my space marine chapter.

So far I have only fielded it on the battlefield a couple of times but it's never paid for it's cost in any game. Maybe someone can to tell me what tactic works exceptionaly well with these fellas.

I must say it was fun to paint and only took me a 3 hours to get him done. (thanks to all the black)

 



Chaplain in action


I hope to finish the Gretchin unit before the end of the week so i can upload them here but it will be tight as I'm real bussy with work and real life.Untill then you'll have to do with pictures of their bases ;o)

Seb

Trashy Ork bases

This weekend I made a start with the Ork army. I didn't have much time because I spend all sunday at my gaming club playing a fantasy campaign with my Warriors of Chaos army.But back to the greenskins. I want to make a real nice army and want to take my time painting it.

I started work on my Gretchin unit because that's a nice unit to get the "feel" of the greenskins. I knew I wanted yellow as the main color but I was still looking for a suitable background and theme for the army. As in most cases inspiration came by accident as I knocked over one of my bitzboxes. What a mess! all those bits and pieces al over my floor. But wait, I've got spare tracks,pipes, tankbits and a ton of crap I'm still keeping but probably never use again. And there it was, the idea for a theme for my army.... A scrapyard!

The general idea is that my army feast on the remains of knocked out tanks and vehicles. They are always looking for more parts to improve their own beastly machines or even themselfs with bionicle parts. In bettle they will always fearlessly attack the biggest vehicles first "Coz them haz tha most parts". They collect all parts in giant scrapyards and even move these if they move to another planet. Therefor as a working title my army is now called "Da Scrapyard Dawgs" but I'm open for suggestions on more suitable names. (still haven't read the codex)

But back to the Gretchin unit, so far I have painted the gretchin for aboout 50% but finished their bases which in this case cost me multiple hours. I had a good dig through the bitzbox and found a lot of bits I could use it was just a pain to get them to fit on those small bases. In the end I'm very pleased how they turned out, You can have a look at the pictures below to see them before and after painting. (they look a bit shiny and not as rusty in the picture .)

 


Click to enlarge



Click to enlarge



Incoming!!! ORKS




The start of the army.

 After a year of painting space marines and Chaos Warriors it was time for a new challenge, a new army. I have always loved the look of the Orks and I think their background is something that I can work with.Now that my space marine army is at 2000 points and 90% painted want to paint something completely different and it couldn't be more different then the Orks . I thought that the Ork codex would be a good start so I went online and ordered it,... but I couldn't help myself and got some Nobz and Gretchin as well.

I have had a peek inside the boxes and really liked what I saw. The models are full of little detail and different options to put the models together.

I really had to contain myself and not put the models together and basecoat them. It's probably wise to have a good read through the codex first and see what weapon options are game-legal. Thusfar I have only had a very brief glimps of the codex.I got the nobz and gretchin because I can really practise painting orks on them. I will need to have a look at what next units to get.

And now the most important thing is having to think about a theme and paintscheme for my Orks. I don't like painting by numbers so probably no excisting clan like the evil suns, bad moons and so on. I do really want to paint with yellow, red and black and I do like the checkered pattern so that will probably all be included. I like the thought of a highly mobile army like the speed freaks so I have to think about that as well.

All and all a lot of thoughts to be considered so if you have any ideas then please let me know.

Ideas/suggestions are welcome for:

Ork Clan name:
Ork Paintscheme:
Ork Background:

share your thoughts. I'm also looking for a good Ork skin tutorial. I don't like the bright green so a toned down green/brown  is what I'll be looking for. If you know where to find such a tutorial please let me know.

Seb

Mini Showcase: Predator Tank

Click to enlarge

Were getting to the bigger vehicles now with my Space Marine chapter. Today some pictures of my Predator Tank. I have put it together like this but I can swap the main weapon for the twin linked lascannon. It's just that this option is my personal favourite.

Click to enlarge

I don't have an airbrush and so this one is all hand painted. Painting armour is a lot easier and looks better if you spray it but I think this one turned out fine. I don't like the clean look anyway and so my vehicles may look a bit bumped and scratched. I also added a bit of mud to the tracks and body.

Click to enlarge

When you look at this model on the table you're eyes are automaticly drawn to all those red lenses and the gunner on top. I still have a little trouble with freehand and letters painting so the name banner could be done better.

Let me know what you think...

Seb

Mini Showcase Landspeeder

Click to enlarge

Well, that's a lot of fire power for such a small fragile vessel! Yes, let me start by admitting that the way this model is put together isn't legal going by the codex. It has an assault cannon,heavy bolter and cyclone missile pods but it can only have either the assault cannon OR the cyclone missile pods.
I made it like this so I can choose either weapon when I put my armylist together. Basicly I was too lazy to magnetize the weapons. So far I haven't had an opponent who made big deal of it.

Most of the time I use the missile pods option instead of the assault cannon and I prefer the heavy bolter instead of the heavy flamer so it doesn't have flamer. If I see what dammage this fast skimmer can do in a game I can only imagine what devasting effect it must have when you field a unit of three landspeeders. I love the fact that you can choose between Krak and Frag missiles so it makes the landspeeder very versatile.

 The only question I have is if I get  (a) re-roll to hit, (b)get 2 rolls to hit or (c)only get 1 roll to hit when I use the cyclone.It has two missile pods so I'm not sure if i should count it as twin linked, two weapons (like two sponsoons) or just as one weapon firing simultaineously. It's not completely clear to me when I read the codex and I have had several opponents all telling me different things so if there's someone who can point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated.

Click to enlarge

Seb

Mini Showcase: Dreadnought



Click to enlarge



One of my first  40k "vehicles" to paint was the Space Marine Dreadnought. I like these little robotic fellas. I love painting them because they heave loads of little different areas and plenty of detail. I also love fielding them in battle, they are a jack of all trade unit and very versatile with all the different weapon lay-out possibilities. In these pictures you see my "close combat dread" as I like to call him. Eventhough  I can swap all the waeapons and change them I like to keep this dread the way it is. It has the assault cannon, flamer and close combat arm so it can really rip enemy units apart from a short distance. Therefor I like to stick them into a droppod and drop it close to or even behind the enemy lines. My opponent usually looks in horror when I land the pod and this beast walks out just a few inches away from his units.

I have another dreadnought which I use for distanced attacks with missile pod and twinlinked lascannon.



 







Seb



Mini Showcase: Devastator Sergeant

I wanted my devastator squad to look like grim war veterans who have fought many wars. The sergeant should really stand out from the rest of the squad and must look as “badass” as possible. There’s not much converted at this mini other then a straight forward headswap. I took the head from a Catachan sentinel pilot and cut and filed the head of the devastator so it would look like an empty helmet and hung that on his belt. It now looks as if he took of his helmet and is overseeing the battlefield smoking a cigar.

Click to enlarge

He’s part of my devastator squad of which the converted heavy bolter marine is posted already, here’s the link.

You can see that the sergeant has a few scratches on his armour. I use the chipped paint technique for it for which I have written a step by step guide with pictures. Here’s the link.  

Seb

Space Marine Scout Snipers

Just a quick one for today. This is a picture of my scout snipers that fit my DIY chapter.

Click to enlarge

I painted their armour Catachan green like the rest of the space marines and armour in my chapter but gave them cammo cloaks with a leafy pattern. You can't really tell from the picture but if you see these models on the table the red lenses really catch your eye. I'm really pleased how they turned out.

Four scouts with a sniper rifle and one with a missile launcher just in case. nice to fire a frag missile or even krak missile at vehicles when there's no infantry to shoot at nearby.

I usually sit these guys behind cover and claiming a close to my edge objective marker and shoot from afar.

Seb

Scenery: Walls and Fences

The Box

Gamesworkshop sells numerous pieces of scenery. For those games who have money to spare and don't want to fiddle about trying to construct scenery of their own it offers great value for money and easy good looking terrain pieces.

One of those things that most fantasy players will have in their collection of scenery bits and bobs is the box set "Walls and Fences". It comes at a low prices and gives you 4 long walls and 5 short walls of wood and stone. (well plastic really) They also did throw in 2 posts.

Now, with very little effort and hardly any real painting skills anyone can make something good of this that will look fantastic on your gaming table. If you follow these easy steps your walls and fences will look something like mine here on the left.

Click to enlarge

Stone:
- cut from sprue and remove all moldlines.
- undercoat with black.
- heavy drybrush dark grey. (codex grey)
- drybrush light grey. (fortress grey)
- light drybrush white. (skull white)
- irregular thinned down wash lightbrown. (devlan mud)
- irregular thinned down wash black.(baddab black)
- flock with static grass and moss.

Wood:
- cut from sprue and remove all moldlines.
- undercoat with brown.
- heavy drybrush dark grey. (codex grey)
- light drybrush light brown.(graveyard earth)
- irregular thinned down wash lightbrown. (devlan mud)
- flock with static grass and moss.

After that you paint in some details like rusty chains and rings and the goglin....yeah it's there! have a closer look. I give 1 internet cookie to the first person to point it out.

All in all it took me about an hour to paint it all up after the undercoat was dry and another half hour to put all the different bits of grass and moss on. I'm very pleased with the result and it look good on the gaming table.

Mission accomplished!

Seb

Heavy Bolter Conversion

Click to enlarge



 I wanted to make the space marine with the heavy bolter in my devastator sqd look a bit more "badass" so I had a look in my bitzbox and found some bits from the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons Team.With very little conversion this marine now looks as if he is ready to unleash a storm of bullets upon the enemy.





Click to enlarge

I painted some battle damage on the bolter and space marine to show that he has seen many battles...The armour plate on the heavy bolter is from the IG heavy weapons sprue and the support legs are from the mortar of the same sprue.

Seb