The predator recovery project

Greeeetings non-existent readership!

In this post i figured i'd catalogue my efforts in recovering one of the very first vehicles i did.

This lil' beauty was one of my vehicles that suffered pretty noticeably from when i had an air leak on the compressor connecting hose, resulting in me needing to thin the color down quite a bit (mistake number one) and then using too high a pressure to compensate for the lack of an even flow (not the song, but misstake number two)

the result from this is a pretty regular occurence and is easy to identify, if you have a very runny color that pools in places and runs of other surfaces, you have simply thinned the paint too much and had too high a pressure, the problem was, for me, further amalgamated as my dark colors in the metallic scheme pooled rather extensive, leaving a mottled color, that i thought looked a bit reptilian in nature. Sleep addled as i was i let it dry and headed to bed, only when i woke up did i recognize my mistake.

However,  having as of late, gained some rudimentary skill with my airbrush i figured i'd try my dab hand at recovering the vehicles, and in so doing, getting a uniform scheme for all future vehicles.

Now most of what i am doing here is exactly what i did with my Sicarian tank. But in a couple of more turns, to properly use all the colors.

This is what i started with

As i mentioned you can see that the green and blue layers have pooled and gives a mottled effect, now had i gone for an overtly reptilian or draconian theme, like the 40k work that does, it might have looked good. But as it stands it just looks blotchy and haphazardly done, if not lazy.

Now, as with the sicarian i gave it a nice thin layer of the vallejo acrylic

As close as love comes in a bottle

 The first layer, great as it is for coverup (thusly eliminating entirely the need of doing black basecoats) will leave some colored spaces, if you want a good impression of what the light hitting it will be like, you can leave these areas untouched, and then have the lighter color (silver for metallics, for me at least) Now, after my two layers of acryllic metal, i move on to Vallejos "silver" not covering the entire tank, but rather where the light will hit it, like the front arc of the tank, the areas at the top front, and the edges to the side. Imagine sun filtering through a broken, twisted hab-block, and how the light would fall on your tank.

 it should leave you with something like this. , not a great picture, but the difference will be more tangible later, particularly in regards to the blocky turret for the Mars Autocannon (left) as opposed to the cupola shape of the plasma executioner, giving both different light 

while the quality isn't great, it gives a decent impression 

 Now, for me, this is pretty much what i was going for, lighter "patches" here and there that really looks great when you see it on the table.This is after only two light layers of Calth blue. A simplified FW recipe is

* Metals as before
* 1 layer calth blue
* 1 layer mortarion green
* 1 layer calth blue again

it gives a good AL scheme, with none of the tamiya hassle (if you consider it thus, that is)

 Kindly notice that this is a NEW tank, the "restored one" is below, with all the gubbinz i'm going to gush about

Forgeworld gushing in, 3,2,1.....

 i think that my love for Fw gubbbins is clearly documented at an earlier juncture. But the thing is, if you buy some plates for your legion, and a pintle mounted weaponry set (two of each netting you six weapons) and a tank commander set (you get three alternatives) you can EASILY make your transports, Deimos or Mars patterned, look unique. Which i know is something that a lot of people working on a budget for is worried about. Above is (in no particular order) a tank commander, two pintle sets, and two deimos turrets, that, in my opinion, works GREAT for the mars pattern. or the Deimos pattern brand of turret..... moving on!

Now we only have details left

* Stripes around the vents (see above) either black or white is good, i use white for command tank designations.
* all rivets in leadbelcher, all "steps" in leadbelcer, the chimney stacks in leadbelcer and drybrushed with a good copper, and whatever hatches you fancy
* i did the back vent (on the top) with copper, nuln oil, and an easy highlight of lighter metal (what-chu fancy) to get some variation.
* lenses. i did them in red, for matching the rest of my army, and did the whole "half moon with white dot" that you can find GOOD painters to describe better


Let dry

And move on decalling. Now, if you don't use microsol or similar, you can always use 'ardcoat under neath the decal, and the use another coat ON the decal to keep it down. It's passable.

This is my tank commander. the XX on the cupola is due to it being the ONLY iconography missing on the rest :)

Front pic, i'm pretty satisfied with the angle of his arm, he's scouting for targets

And here's a picture of the new one i did, the entire squadron will have the stylized" 3 on the right side, and an Omega on the left side, I magnetized the sponsoons, and with a wide variety of turrets each tank can be what i want it to be, the hydra way.


Final pic of everyone together

And there you are, two out of three done, and one extra turret for my last one, i think the command tank will be deimos patterned. Since i managed to get my mitts on one.

Thanks (if you did) for the read

keep stronk!

#powerfullsweden

Veteran rhinos for My alpha legion 108'th navigationary expedition

Phew 


This is a post for my Veterans rhinos, and just a quick note regarding color choices and alterations



Now something that is applicable for all my rhinos so far is that i've used Mars pattern Rhinos. Now i know that there is some confusion regarding the fact that the "40K main rhino" isn't allowed to be played /even fukken existed in the thirtieth millennium. But as a matter of fact these not only exists, but was used during the Great crusade, the only issue is that while it is an easy enough vehicle to mass-produce, it is not as wide-spread nor as commonly replicated during the Horus heresy, since Mars is in a bit of an uproar due to some Horus feller.

point in case. This is from Horus heresy extermination 

Meaning that depending on your fluff for "your guys" it might not make the most sense that they have ready access to a vehicle that is not really in production. Now for fluff reasons i'm relying heavily on the book three annotation mentioning that the AL had been in the field and actually doing undocumented work (assumed to be work that the emperor kept out of even the jaded annals of the great crusade) and as such would have had access to a lot of experimental/ not widely disseminated materials. 

Now, crunch reasons i would rather have used the Deimos pattern, as i think it looks a tad beter but also conveys the proper feeling of the HH experience. But, honestly, i had two Chaos rhinos lying around ,and i wanted to try out my scheme. 

Now for both of the rhinos so far (and planned for the upcoming ones as well) I am using Forgeworlds Pintel mounted weapons set  as well as the Alpha legion Rhino door as i think that they make even the humble mars pattern rhino look spectacular. I actually bought quite a few of the latter, as i will use the hatch on my Predators as well ,and the doors can go to Deimos rhinos in the future. 

I am also using the Alpha legion decal sheet which are, as i might have previously mentioned, simply. The shit. I will be using them to show squad= rhino markings as well as pimping the top hatches and the rear ramps. For no other reason than that i like it. 

I also tried doing some gentle sponge chipping for the first time, meaning that i took sponge blister and dipped the edge in Leadbelcher, and then gently traced areas with that. Something i quickly learned was that you want to follow natural edges (hatches, thread bottoms, doors) as it gives the best result there, and on larger surfaces it just looks splotchy. I can also say that the effect looks absolutely best on black. So IH players rejoice once more. Except....for the whole......Pricmarch thing *cough*

moving on! 

For front plates and doors I've intentionally gone for a darker color (with skipping silver and just doing black= leadbelcher= layers of clear blue) so as to get some contrast. This was actually also an experiment on my behalf, but i think it actually turned out pretty well. 

looking at the rhinos themselves 

So here i actually added a gunner for my HB sponsoon as i though it looked neat. And the VET squad itself will also have two HB, so i get a good narrative theme going immediately.  Further more this one has damage to the tracks, speaking of a shitty history in rolls....

really happy with the transfer. These look GREAT. Thanks FW- 

And here i want to document some mistakes i need to rectify. 

Looking above i want to point at the sponge chipping mistake i did. In my mind it looks pretty good at the edges and around the hatch, but looking at the smoke stack on the right, and the bottom of the same stack you can see some areas that just look like random sponging. So this is where i need to amend it.

like i was talking about the rear ramp

And on this one i simply had the sponson hatch be kept open, indicating someone coming to man the gun, or bailing from a vehicle soon to be abandon'd

So those are my rhinos so far, mainly for my vets, but i have another one for my destroyers about 50% done, and i want to get at least two more going.

Seriously, those FW gubbins are great, if you take something away from this look at them.

Hydra dominatus y'all

Elder Mieza of the 108'th navigationary expedition

Featured here is the elusive "elder Mieza" a former centurion of the 108'th, he has been registered as participating both in the "The stalwarts" actions in the Rangdan xenocides, as well as their subduing of the laputan technocracy, and the bloody withdrawal at the burning of balbibarbi. More vexing is his reputed destruction at all of these events, as well as his reported sighting at several other critical junctures for the 108'th.

Did some touch up in time for the group photo. 

Mieza, long before being formally acknowledged with the cognomen that in later parts of the great crusade came to define him as a teacher of the 108'th was a centurion assured with the great honor of infiltrating key positions long in advance of the main imperial force, lying in wait for weeks or months at an end, while still remaining at the ready to strike with a moments notice might seem like a natural parts of his particular legions modus operandi, but as he would be quick to point out it was, like all facets of war. An art that one either had the inclination for, or lacked. 

As a vigilator Mieza had a long and distinguished career for the 108'th, serving as a skirmishing and guerilla elements. Fading into the background white noise of combat, only to reappear at critical junctures to serve his legion with fist and plasma. 

long after his internment Mieza would still offer his wisdom and relish the possibility of once more serving in ambushades. Now showing a clear inclination for unorthodox warcraft and an unerring choice of weaponry particularly well suited for eliminating Astartes foes, we must in retrospect wonder at the accident that placed him in place to act with such unerring precision against his loyalist brethren. 

I have to say, of all the legion special sculpted units I've done so far( one) this jas to be my favorite. The iconic hydra and all the loving details shaped in this kit is just a wonder to bring out with silver, and the extra detail on the knee joints are a great chance to do some lifting out on. The pose is my attempt at trying to emulate the one on the FW homepage, and the base is snowed and bare, so that i can add  some trophies if he serves well. 

I actually used him in the two matches i've played, and so far, has served with distinction. He has a kill tally of 18 marines thus far (sweeping advancing a squad of IW) and the flamer and plasma cannon is expected to serve in ZM as well. I've no doubt that Mieza will rise again. 


Hydra dominatus y'all 

A ride worthy of a Herald of Nurgle/ How to do a quick palanquin of Nurgle

I wanna build a palanquin of nurgle

That was more or less how my discussion with my veteran friend went, now he was sure that there was a model available. I mean, there is one for a herald of Slaanesh ( a fiend) and one for a nurgle of tzeentech and Khorne ( disc and juggernaut respectively) so why isn't there one for Nurgle? he said that epidemicus is sufficient, but i pointed out that two out of four ( no naughty for nonnie Slaanesh) had Named characters (blue scribes and headtaker) where both easily done, and STILL had a riding model available. So this should be remedied. And that was why i took it upon myself to build one. And tell others of how i did it. 

Now, to start with, i am a better painter than modeller. And i am not a great painter. So if  you have better ideas, and know what to do. Shoo, out you go. But if you want some inspiration. Here we go. 

You will need 

1. 60 MM round base or equivalent (Since the modell is very bulky it seems sporting to me, but 40 is probably sufficient. As long as you don't droop over the edge) 
2. A razorback hatch (or an old Rhino RB combo hatch or pred hatch or whatever) preferably with the "middle" sprue still in the hole. Otherwise you can cut a sprue length to the bottom of the hole (flat with no detail) to straddle the hole. We'll get to the why later
3. some assorted nurglings, from either the nurgling pack. Or the plaguebearer pack, 
4. A rhino side door. 
5. Some nurgle decorations (plaguebearer kit or rotbearers) 
6. Leadbelcher, typhus corrosion and ryza rust. As well as some decent copper and Nikilakh oxide. 

And that is it. Assembled mostly below. 

disregard the top hatch in the top right corner.

Now, first off. Paint the Nurglings in the appropriate color and do some basing details. I know that is usually what we do last. But this is gonna be harder later. 

Then place the nurglings around the plate making sure that they are seen at the edges, but also have some in the middle so as to even out balance.

look at it from the side to make sure there is approximately an even height to them

Now, Paint all the rhino parts in leadbelcher, when dried add a LOT of typhus corrosion. Let dry. Seriously. Do that. Now, get out your dry-brush. And start dry-brushing Ryza rust all over it. The en-tropic presence of nurgle does it's magic work. 

NOTE: i know this is the "official" GW way of doing rust. But hot-diggity-damn! it looks real good with a minimum of effort. 

Now paint all the nurgle details and offerings in Copper. or leadbelcher and dry brush copper. Then add some nihilakh Oxide. Let pool around the three ringed details. And see hotdog comment above. 

Now. Take the rhino side door. And glue to one of the short sides of the hatch. Letting it stand up, reminding you of a particularly lonesome tombstone commemorating someone who felt the gleefull joy of papa nurgles bounty. Add the nurgle details around the Hatch. And attach glue to the hands, feet, and upward facing butts of the Nurglings. Then attach the hatch on top of them. 

As such

let it dry. TRUST ME.

Now. Here's the reason we had a cut off sprue in the hole. Provided you used the RB hatch, and the there is a sprue in there. Your herald will stand properly, without wobbling, and pointing with scorn at the enemies of the father. 

as such

To the right, no, the OTHER right. O for nurgles sake. Just go forward. 

Meaning that you have a quick and good Palanquin ready to play. It takes about an hour or two to do. Can be readily repeated. And costs less than five bucks.

here he is a with a squad of plaguebeareres and a rotting sergeant. 

SO there you are bob's you uncle. And now we have a good way of doing rust as well. 

How does anyone else do their palanquin?

Hydra dominatus y'all. 

painting a forge world sicaran for my alpha legion

wooof!

it's been a while since i sat down and actually blogged some about what I've been up to and what I've had on my painting desk (a glorified name for the joint kitchen area that my family share) well i could blame the move or me taking a stab at getting better at the parenting role, and alleviating somr of my partners responsibilities in the home. But mostly i have just had to choose to either put aside time to blog, or putting aside some time to get down to painting. And occasionally neglecting both to put some time into the Witcher III (witchiester-est of the games) / working myself into an early grave. But i s'pose balance is the key. To what i do not know, but as a literal minded person i assume it is to some legendary chest giving me more time to paint. IE crack.

But still. i'm going to actually share my first "real" tank painted. And the first tank i can honestly say that i look at and go "yeah, that's alright".  Which, as anyone who has painted for more than a forthnight, and who has had the time to look around a bit, can tell you. Is actually something of a hard thing to do.

The thing is, i usually look at a finished product and think. This needs another layer of shade, this needs a steadier highligh, this needs scrapping and going back to basics. But one of the reasons i picked AL for my 30k Army was that i wanted to up my game in painting. It was, to that date, my third power armored army,  and i was getting real tired at cranking out models. Which i needed to do to play my more experienced buddies. Not because any of them gave me flakk for putting up unpainted greys, or half finished models. But because it felt like a shame for deploying unfinished armies when they had so much greatness deployed, and it REALLY detracted from the immersion. Which scratches some fluff. And we are more of fluff players, all of us.

Now the reasons above, as well as the fact that resin heroin is more expensive and as such i am reduced to purchase it at a lower rate. I wanted to try new techniques and get better stuff on the table, as such i have tried new techniques, such as sponge chipping, soot effects and realistics metals, and am really happy for doing it. I have also tried getting better at transfers, and the FW transfers are no joke. I have only really tried the Alpha legion ones. But they are Toight. And i will wholeheartedly reccommend them to anyone.

but still. Moving on to my Siccarian tank.

 First off, the actual kit. Now putting it together was a bit harder than i thought, and certainly took more glue than expected. The only advice i can give for the actualy Chassis is that you get some rubber bands to make sure it "fuses" correctly. Otherwise, you can do what i did. And Put it on it's side. Making sure there is a book on each side to make sure it remains standing. So for the pic above you are missing a track side on either part. And that is what i reccommend putting on it's side.

This is what you end up. Now, i would reccommend not gluing the
- Turret
- Sponsoons
- Heavy bolter

As they all need more attention and love, and the turret is stable enough to actually sit well when not glued in place.

Now the next two parts actually involve a jump cut. So far i've done a basecoat of Vallejo black primer airbrushes. And then added a simple coat of "vallejo acryllic metal color"  .Now, this is just ONE coat, and i can tell you. It is a delight to work with frankly. There is no clogging of the brush. No metallic residue dripping, and no flow control issues. You get an even, good and realistic color for vehicles. I have, so far only tried two (copper and gun metal) but both of these are GREAT starter paints for anyone, and i can't even imagine what a pro could do with them. 

same for the turret above. I then taped the tracks, and the barrels. As i found the gritty gun metal a great color for both of these places. It is simple marker tapes.

Now for the jumpcut. The only reason i bought these two colors (for about 10 Euros all in all for both) was that the local insistent retailer, was rather convincing in effacing their efficiency. By all accounts he did military modelling. And what he lacked in social skills me more than made up for in knowledge about military vehicular painting. So with that in mind i bought these two

love in a bottle for good prices

And went to town.

Now the next step is going over the chassi, the turret and other select parts with Vallejos air silver. And then giving it two light coats of Calth blue form Forgeworld. I've just recently nutted up and gotten the actual FW colors. And AGAIN. Let me tell you. Deh-liiiight.

After that i used the acryllic copper for the back of the turret gun, and the front of the barrels. And then did a highlight with heshtut copper.


Which resulted in this

Pretty nice so far i think. And now on to the details.

If this little project has taught me anything. It is that you really need to make time for details. I estimated about three hours. Which was a bit light. In reality i needed about six to get into fine detail work.

But first i did the following parts in leadbelcher
- Rivets
-Hatches
- Joints and seams
- Metal protrusions.

Following into doing two thinned coats of abaddon black on

- Sides of the frontal glacial plate
- back striping
- Front of the glacis
 - Sides of the threads

 

And then some simple white on chosen markings. 

The rationale of the black is to break out certain parts and make it catches the eye to them. As well as giving some background for those sweet, sweeeet transfers. The rationale for white is to denote a command color for my sicarian. As it will serve as a command tank in my tank lists. And i want my opponents to readily be able to distinguish them from ordinary tanks. 

The i finished with doing some red for lenses on the turret, shading copper and metal parts and fastening the HB and sponsoons. After which i did some light sponge chipping, and adding transfers. 

The end product is as follows. 

All in all, i am super happy with this piece. 

Hydra dominatus y'all. 

Alpha legion Dactylic cell 895 -Tactical squads

Whoa so, catching up is almost finished, after that i guess i need to actually accomplish something new. Pressure mounting an' all that.

Still on to what i've finished.

Below are my first squad. Squad ENA. 

180 pts 

This is the long awaited despoiler squad, which is simply a tactical squad that has replaced it's bolter with a close combat weapon. Meaning that you get your three attacks per marine per charge, which is supposed to be a wholly better alternative than simply shooting your opponent in the face. Personally i like the idea of infiltrating Alpha legionairres, waiting, hours, days, weeks. Patiently awaiting the one moment to charge the opponent, shifting them, and giving their legion a seemingly intangible advantage.

But... to be honest? ten are probably far too few to footslog. So i need to finish up a rhino to put my ten guys in.

I have two sergeant choices done, one with a hammer and Power dagger (Since the hammer and sickle....dagger, are two specialist weapons and thusly give +1 Attack) Or a power fist and melta bomb, when you need to smash some tanks.

I realize now that you can hardly see ANY of the transfers i meticulously worked on.  

This was actually the first squad that i finished. And actually served as a sort of milestone. Meaning that i actually had a FINISHED troop choice. ;_;


Next up is a more recent piece of work, and probably my favorite work so far.

I sat down this previous saturday and had the goal of finishing Twenty marines, one vexilia, one more sergeant and some odd extras. ToA= seven hours approximately. 

After you get the scheme down with the metallic parts, what you need to brace for is doing the details. I did it as follows

Silver 
helmet hose
chest fasteners
shoulder pad edges

leadbelcher
service studs
fans
rivets
"soft parts" on joints
gun parts (clip, feed,muzzle end part)

Vallejo painter copper 
"release" button for chest hoses
veteran markings on should pads
Gun parts (aim, barrel)
backpack hoses
fan

black
Gun "frame"
backpack exhaust markers.

Now for twenty models. this took somewhere between seven to eleven hours, with basing and decals included.
But i was still REALLY happy with the end results. It looks better in person, but i think that the pictures give a decent showing of the "sheen" i was looking for.

Another 295 points finished. And now i have the two mandatory troop choices done.

Presenting Squad DIO

295 pts 

Featuring nuncio vox and sergeance with combi-melta. 

Bonus picture. I actually managed to save the guys i did by brush. I am talking about these guys

MAKEOVER TIME

 And managed to remake them into the following.

Company support squad Volkite calivers 

225 PTS

I was happy with the result, particularly considering that i really wanted to reclaim my disastrous first attempts at the scheme, which i consider done, and in so doing, i now have a full squad of 20 S6 AP5 shots at 30". I will probably pop them in cover and have them hunt for infantry from the get go.

Now i have always imagined calivers as the red to the plasma blue hue. So i wanted the look of a weapon charging up, and i was actually given the scheme i was looking for from a really cool dude at the 30k forum named Iamomegon, so cudos for that. I also gave my support squads a black left shoulder pad, which i will use a new transfer for so as to distinguish them as tactical experts in their field.

Phew!

And that is that.

Next i'm really looking forward to doing some Destroyers, or seekers. But i'll probably need to start buckling down with my tanks.


I do have these two rhinos that i had earmarked for my Alpha legion in 40k. But i might just be tempted to try and put them in 30k.

But then i need to find a way to do something about the almost bubblegum blue i have going.

peace.

Alpha legion Dactylic cell 895- Hq& elite choices for my Horus heresy army

So far i have finished up two HQ choices, And i intend to play with both of them as soon as i have a viable army. 

First up is my Legion praetor, The praetor opens up the utilization of my Rite of War (which allows you to use special battle plans that adapt your army by say, adding additional armor, or special squads and of course utilizing special Legion RoW's)

The Praetor was done by adding some extra alpha legion iconography to a standard Forge world centurion. I tend to use legion iconography to clearly show that the character has an artificer armor, as it gives a quickl visual cue, and lets my opponent easily identify what is a sergeant or not. 

The Praetor clocks in at 190 (!) points. But he is something of a swiss army character. Being able to shoot at S6 AP3, has seven S6 attacks on the charge and a 2+/4++ 

My intention is to plop him in a command squad in a land raider. 

I kept with the HH color plates and gave him gold details and the copper coloured shoulder pad. Which denotes command to me. The arcaeotech pistol was bit of a challenge, but i went with weathering it a bit, and then highlighting with copper and gold.

Adding a dark eldar sheathed knife makes for a pretty tangible power dagger

Regarding the standard bearer. My armless alpha legionairre from december finally got his arm. And i have to say. The transfers are friggin' amazing. Easy to work with, and visually stunning. I am really happy with this guy. 

Next up is my Master of signal, nothing really special here modellwise. I went with a subdued paint scheme, and simply highlighted with some copper details and vallejo classic silver. 

Next up are two of the apothecaries of my Apothecarion detachment. Being able to plop three Apothecaries into ONE elite slot always struck me as really good, particularly for a big squad. And i haven't seen a lot of people running them, i guess playtesting will show me if it is a good idea or not. But if not ,i guess i'll just run one of them a Primus medicae, which seems like a third viable support HQ. 

I still have some cleaning up to do on details, icons and vials. But i've got the general gist down. I also have a third one on the way made from spare parts from my old DA kits. 

Paintwise there seems to be three ways of doing HH apothecaries 

I)bonewhite pauldron

II)bonewhite arm and head

III) bonewhite arms and head 

i couldn't settle on one, so i went with what felt natural, and did I) for my MK 3 apothecary, and II) for my MK 4 apothecary. So far i'm happy with the result, but i am going to polish them a bit more. 

My MK III Apothecary, who has a power sword and will go in a despoiler squad. 

And this apothecary will be getting a combi-plasma and go in a 20 man bolter squad,  

All in all this means that now have a choice of three separate HQ choices. Two of which are "support" classed meaning that they won't qualify for warlord nor filling the mandatory slot for Headquarter units. 

EDIT

At the last minute i painted up our good ol' "totally not champion" 

I am actually REALLY satisfied with this guy. He was intended to be a veteran sergeant, but in lower point games he will probably be a centurion.

He has a power sword, artificer Armour, and a Melta bomb. Making him suitable for fighting marines and taking on armor in a pinch. 

he still needs proper basing, and decals needs to added. But i think the linework and rivets are actually pretty well executed. 

Huzzah.