Stormbird scratchbuild - progress update

I haven't made too much noticeable progress but have completed a couple tedious tasks that were outstanding.

The engine nozzles we're foremost in the list tedious items to build. Again, taking lessons Blackadder's Thunderhawk scratchbuild, I started with some generic Target brand mouthwash caps. After a little sanding I measured the cap into three segments and made a guide mark every third ridge of the cap. Then about a weeks' work of meticulous cutting and gluing of 1mm by 1mm styrene bar, first in half inch pieces down the length of the cap followed bending and wrapping with the same size styrene around the cap at the base of these half inch pieces. Yeah it was as tedious as it sounds.

I also added a cone to the inside of of the completed nozzle, just in case anyone looks in there. Eventually there will be some LED effects so this may be seen at that stage.

Finally, I was able to get the pivoting arm for the front landing gear built and integrated into the gear housing. There will need to be an arm that runs the length of the vehicle and ties into the rear gear so I can control it with one mechanical operation. Bearing in mind that this finicky piece may have problems down the road I decided to make it removable via screws. I built some recessed screw holes for the outside of the gear housing and wrapped the nuts with styrene so they could be glued in place with plastic glue on the inside of the Stormbird. 

Not a lot to looks at but this stuff sure took a long time to get together. The next tedious task is to build the rear landing gear which will be a lot harder since I need to make the same components twice and keep things as exact as possible. Hopefully I'll have that and the final engines build before the new year.

Stormbird scratchbuild - progress update

I've made a little more progress on disembarkation ramp doors and the interior area that will be exposed once the doors are open.

I've also begun building the landing gear feet and hinged arms. Ultimately the landing gear will be servo controlled so I'm going to begin building the mechanical components that will raise and lower the gear. I want to have a single servo control the front and rear landing gear so I'm going to have to figure out a lever system to get a longer range of motion since the rear gear sits higher on the hull. I won't be adding electronics till most everything cosmetic is done but I've left enough room to run wires for servos and LEDs and I'll be managing the rods and gears to run everything now.

Once the landing gear is built completely I can work on the 4 ball turrets. They'll be the last big piece to build before I can do all the detailing and layering that will make this look like a finished model.

It's not technically Stormbird progress but also bought a cool Tamiya motorized hobby drill. It comes a a model kit that requires assembly but was a fun little side project as a break from plasticard fabricating. It'll probably be really useful when i start adding the fine details.

I hope to have another update in about a week once I have at least the front landing gear mechanics working..

Scratch Built Orbital Cannon for Apocalypse

Our local gaming group has been playing a lot of apocalypse lately, and in preparation for our upcoming 12,000 point game, the biggest we've tried yet, I decided to build a special terrain piece.

It's obviously inspired by the fortress in the Apocalypse supplement book, and I really hustled to get this built in about 2 weeks. While it lacks loads of detail that the Apoc fortress has, I'm happy to have built something on this scale to completion.

Here are a few WIP shots with some models for scale. I'll be getting paint on this eventually but for the meantime I need a terrain break, time focus on the Iron Hands.

Grey Knight Strike Squads WIP (almost done!)

I've been using these two squads of Strike marines in nearly every game of 40k I've played since the 5th edition GK codex was released and they became my primary army. That was almost 4 years ago and I've made such a pitiful amount of progress on this army in that time. Part of the delay is that I made a decision early on to try to paint every model to the highest standard I was capable of, but that's not the reason I still have incomplete paint jobs on loads of my core units. The real reason is gamer ADD and flat out laziness.

Over the last six or so months I've really been trying to wrap projects up an I'm happy to say the end of the journey is near for these guys. I noticed a few incomplete details while taking these quick and dirty pics but I think I'll have these guys done with one more painting night. Once the last few details are tied up I'll take some better pics.

A little more Grey Knights Stormraven progress

I played a game over the weekend during which my Stormraven performed admirably so I decided it deserved to get its paint job finished up. I probably have few more evenings of work by its getting real close.

Iron Hands progress: 3 down 17 to go.

I've got the first 3 of my new space marines pretty much done. I have another 17 built so I need to keep painting but I've got my method down to the point where I can pretty much paint one whole guy a night (that's really fast for me).

I have a contemptor dreadnought, a drop pod, and a landraider behind these guys so I'm gonna have to keep my momentum up. I think I'll be shooting to have all of these infantry plus the afore mentioned vehicles painted by the new year.

Farseer W.I.P.

 I figured it would be a good time to introduce my in progress Farseer with a blurry picture taken with my crappy phone (better pics to come...I promise). The model is made by Cool Mini and I think it's pretty amazing. Her golden hair is actually artificial, her Ghost Helm, her simple armor studded with wraithbone.

 She wields a witchblade and I decided against trying to strap a pistol to her, as it looked awkward. I think I can get away with mounting it on the base in a less awkward manner.

 I've used a Farseer before and have enjoyed it immensely. Shutting down psychic powers with Runes of warding is a blast and the Divination powers always bring something to the table. I plan on running her with some harlequins to maximize her survivability and hopefully boost their combat effectiveness.

   Really, I just want an excuse to use this mini. I love it! I'll reveal her in all her glory and fill out her back story a.s.a.p. She definitely needs a name...

WIP: Grey Knight Librarian

To follow on the heels of the Dr. Ew's Archon, I've got some shots of my favorite HQ unit from the Grey Knights codex. I love the flexibility of the Librarians (in all marine codex's) and I especially love the synergy he provides to a Grey Knights force.

So without further ado...

I loved the pose of the classic Terminator Librarian from GW but I preferred the style of the Grey Knight Terminators so I tried to mimic the pose that was so interesting to me.

(image property of Games Workshop)

Since he's just a composite of Grey Knight parts I wanted to add a little classic Librarian iconography to make look the part a bit more. I followed a tutorial Ron posted on From The Warp a while back and after a few trial runs on the side of an old Leman Russ I had a pretty successful result.

I also tried to add some gold touches to the Stormbolter to make it look like his wargear is a little more embellished than the rest of his battle brothers.

You can see his book of Secrets he keeps on fanny pack, and the skull of a daemon that he's attached to his shoulder since he's a show-off.

Finally, here are a few shots of the current progress on his force weapons. So far I've only begun work on the halberd since that's how I normally run him on the table, but I have a warding stave that's in progress too. I put a small magnet in his wrist on the arm as well as in each of these to weapon hands. The piece of brass rod prevents the hands from falling off if he gets bumped in the course of moving him around the table top.

(Sorry some of these are so blurry, I used my phone)

I've got some more details to finish up on him but I'm really happy with how he's coming along. Now just the small task of painting 20 more terminators and 40 more marines and I'll be close to done.