Thine arms shall be forged in resin

I've been putting it off for but the time has finally come to delve into the dark art of resin casting.

Like many other Grey Knights players I've seen the merit of the Rifleman Dreadnought but I was really not enthused by the look of the Aegis Defense line Autocannons as arms. What better opportunity to experiment with resin casting. I already scratchbuild all the time so I knew I could make some decent looking arms, I also left out all GW bits and made them entirely from plasticard. This way I have a 100% original bit (in case I ever want to sell a few on the side). I should also mention I'm not looking to start a model business I really just wanted the requisite Dreadnought arms for my own army.

Here are the originals that I'll be making a mold of. I've always liked the Reaper style autocannons, and Forgeworld does a great AC arm so I took a look at what I liked about both of them and tried to get as much as I could into mine without having to work all that hard.


Unfortunately this is just the beginning of the process but barring some terrible disaster I should have a pair of new resin arms by the end of the week. I'll post again with my first time casting experience once I've figured out what not to do.

Finally the recipients of the arm transplants with some shiny new bases and dull flat paint jobs.

Christmas List

Some friends have asked me what I want for Christmas. Since we pretty much only buy each other miniature stuff these days, I thought I'd put up a list of what I need for my new Dark Eldar/Eldar Corsair army. This is primarily for internal use, but if any strangers want to buy me stuff, feel free.

HQ:

• Archon (1)
• Medusae (1)

Elite:

• Incubi (5)
• Fire Dragons (6)

Troops:

• Wyches (20)

Dedicated Transports:

• Venoms (6)
• Raiders (3)

Heavy:

• Ravagers (3)

I'm planning on slightly modifying the Fire Dragons, which should be easy now that they are available in finecast, and running them as Trueborn. The Medusae will get an overhaul and become a Warlock-esque Haemonculus. Everybody else will be what it seems. I've already built my 20 warriors--they are a combination of standard DE Warriors and Eldar Guardian parts.

Dreadnoughts!

These guys got upgraded to be fire support dreads (at the NOVA they had assault cannons, and DCCWs with heavy flamers).  Now they are sporting twin-linked lascannons and missile launchers.  I know rifleman dreads are probably better in a mathhammery way, but I think these guys look better, plus I like lascannons.  I just wish those missile launchers were cyclones (two shots would make a huge difference).

Iron Hands!

Terrain!

I needed some terrain, so last night I built and primed, and made this stuff:

Plus a little Dark Eldar Warrior fun:

Grey Knights Dreadnoughts

So I've had some Dreadnought kits floating around for a while and I've begun getting them ready for a Doubles tournament I'll be playing in with Dr. Lazarus at our FLGS. I took an old standard marine dread and used the death company bits from the Blood Angels dread kit and made the first of the two. The second dread is the remainder of the Furioso kit using the librarian chest plate. I swapped the standard head with a GK termie head to make him look a little meaner.



I experimented with making him a little bit taller using some plasticard rod in the leg pistons (I've always thought that the current version of the Dreadnought looked too stubby so a little more leg helps him out some).



I wanted to be able to swap out bolters and flamers for when I'll be using close combat weapons so I placed them similarly to the Forge World Dreads' torso mounted weapons and use a pin and magnet to ensure they dont fall of in transit.



I also liked the Forge World Dread feet so I replicated them with some cutting and plasticard,




Also in the works are some homebrew twin linked autocannon arms. I've been been planning on doing these for a while and have only recently started moving on it. Basically I want to make a pair of nice looking arms that are pretty detailed then cast them in resin for myself. I know everyone is saying "just use the Aegis Defense Line AC's", but I really like the old style "reaper" AC's so I wanted to get close to them without having to buy anything. I also wanted to avoid any GW bits on them in case anyone ever wants to buy them from me. Hopefully I'll have a casting kit in the next 2 weeks so I can get these done prior to the tournament.



Here's a shot of the arm blue tacked on.



Other than that, I've finally started to collect some of the terrain for my GK themed "Shrine World" table. I'll be posting about that once of got some real progress to show off.

How I Photograph Miniatures

In response to a question Warflake asked on his blog, I decided to post some information about how I take pictures of miniatures.

The setup:

The gesso bottle is for priming and keeps the paper from sliding

The result:

The details:

The background is a piece of 8.5" x 11" construction paper in a neutral('ish) grey.  The light is a hobby light with a daylight-balanced fluorescent bulb.  The camera is a Canon SD1300 (flash on) set to macro mode.  This works for a couple reasons:

1.) camera meters adjust the exposure based on a neutral (18%) grey overall exposure, using grey instead of white paper makes the colors of the models appear truer without much processing (I don't do any).  If you take a picture of a white object on white paper the camera will expose it so everything appears grey; and

2.) My hobby light is daylight balanced, and so is the camera's flash, so I can use them both without introducing a color cast (i.e. green fluorescent lights, or orange incandescent lights).

It works for miniatures too: