Hobby Diary 11/12/16

An interesting week for me, I'm now up to six frigates for my UCM and more or less have my colour scheme nailed at this point. It's still not perfect and it's not what I had envisioned by any means but overall it's about as good as I'm going to get and I'm looking forward to getting the fleet done at an increased pace right now.

There has been so much vitriol levelled at Dropzone Commander recently. Disgruntled backers are something that I am certainly used to having backed my fair share of Kickstarters some of which have gone spectacularly awry, but this is a level of toxicity that frankly makes me ashamed to be a part of the community. Let's remember that this campaign, although running late, (I am still awaiting one of my pledges after all) finished barely a year ago. That's a brand new range and game produced and (mostly) delivered in a year. I'm sorry, but in comparison to many Kickstarters that is damn miraculous. Still, it must be said that Hawk have NOT covered themselves in glory here, their organisation and communication has been sub par and as with so many companies it seems that they have woefully underestimated the shipping process. Really six months was a VERY optimistic timescale and it is no surprise they didn't meet that target.

All that said, I would like the game to succeed and look forward to facing Lee in orbital combat sometime soon. Though I don't think he has done much with his fleet, I think he has been focusing very much on Heresy stuff recently.

Which I should be really, and I can assure you that that time IS coming, I have made some progress on my Contemptor but a road bump or two has somewhat curtailed my progress.

The Contemptor was looking really good, Though I am still but the most novice of airbrush users I have to say I am incredibly impressed by the way that  you can build up layers of  paint, both as a time saver and for the finish you end up with it just cant be beat. I'd added some Ultramarine Blue Vallejo Air, improvised some highlights and I was feeling pretty good about the way it was looking.

Until I compared it to the captain that I had already done. Upon comparison the Contemptor was SEVERAL shades lighter, far too many to get away with. I had two options, either lighten up the Captain or darken the Contemptor.

Anyone who has seen my painting (hell the picture of the UCM frigates enough is illustration enough) will know that my 'style' as it were is NOT bright and colourful. No, I tend to paint things very dark, sometimes I think too dark. So I opted to try to bring the Contemptor down a bit. It was the wrong decision. I tried to add a heavy wash of Drakenhoff Nightshade to bring it in line with the Captain a bit more. However, it collected and pooled and overall ruined the nice clean finish I had. Damn and Bugger. I tried to fix it by adding a mid tone and blending the colours a little but it didn't really work. That is the main reason the Contemptor is not finished yet. A shame, I had got it looking really quite nice, I particularly liked the Gold Trim. I'll be doing some heavy weathering to it to hide my painting sins and mistakes.

So with the Contemptor put to one side for now I did what I should have done all along, tried to lighten up the captain.

Really all it involved was trying to bring it up to the Ultramarine Blue through a number of midtones, I was at least partially successful, it's another one of those where I'm just going to leave it before I make it any worse, It's in the it''ll do' category. They at least look like they belong to the same army now. I'll look to get the Contemptor finished and then compare them again, providing I can live with the results I'll be in the position to proceed full steam ahead with the Ultramarines.

So overall this week I'm fairly happy with my progress, I have never been the fastest or most proficient of painters but as long as I am painting something it's gotta be worthwhile right? Christmas is just round the corner but my main plan is to get a cruiser and three more frigates done for the UCM as they are half done already and to get the Contemptor done as well. On the side I have the Silver Tower stuff undercoated and ready to be worked on. I have made a start on some Screamers but I'm mainly going to focus on the stuff actually being used in the game at the moment.

Speaking of games I played some Silver Tower with my Girlfriend. We already had one amulet piece so the choice of challenge was up to us and we got our arses handed to us as we chose one of the harder ones (can't remember which one). Next time round we played a different one and succeeded in securing another amulet piece. I really hope  that GW do an expansion to the game at some point, the base game will only last so long.

The other game we have been playing a lot of is Formula D. I do intend to do a full review of the game for the Conclave at some point but I will say it's a lot of fun. I'm grateful to Wil Wheaton's Tabletop for making me aware of it's existence. Vroom Vroom!

So what has Lee been up to then?

Well Allen is absolutely correct with his comment that I have been concentrating on my Heresy stuff and here are the results, two more completed units! So far this month I have completed the plastic Contemptor from the Calth box and a Rhino to transport my Tactical Veteran squad, or as is more likely once more units are painted, my Heavy Flamer unit.

I've gone heavy on the blasphemous script as I don't want these guys getting mistaken for Blood Angels! How embarrassing. With the Contemptor I had considered adding horns above the head but decided against it once I added the missile launcher. As mentioned before my Word Bearers are lacking in heavy weaponry in their infantry selections in my army as the majority are close combat oriented so I have maximised the amount of fire power I can get out of this model.

I could have replaced the close combat weapon with another gun but I like my dreads to be able to punch back in a fight and the two units I am currently working on, a Deredeo and Leviathan, both lack close combat weaponry so leaving this one gives me a walker with flexibility. Plus I want to see mine and Allen's Contemptor's go head to head at some point without me being at a disadvantage. Of course I could always sic a Mahra Ghal on it but that is overkill.

The Rhino is a Deimos pattern with some Word Bearer brass etched icons attached. I didn't do very much to this. I could have really chaos-ified it but I have been giving that a bit of thought and decided not to.

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During the Heresy the Word Bearers were beginning their journey along the dark path. Only the highest ranking and most devout legionaries were manifesting real signs of change. Therefore I will be adding more chaos iconography to the officers and elites and keeping the additions to the line troopers more subtle. I hope that way to show a transition throughout my army. 

Although I also intent to use these models as Chaos Space Marines in 40k I didn't want to just be using Chaos Marines for Heresy games. Still, with the new Legions Codex that has just been release my Word Bearers will be pulling double duty.

Now for the bad news. I broke my airbrush. I was just cleaning it, nothing too rough but when reattaching the fine end nozzle I turned a bit too much and it broke off. This has put a dent in my plans to get on with my Scourge fleet however I have found some £10 airbrushes in China so will be picking one (or two) up after Xmas to get back on track. Till next time.

Hobby Diary 4th December 2016

Bit of an odd week really, the first week that I haven't engaged in hobby everyday despite having a week off work, I did manage to squeeze a game of Silver Tower in though and undercoated the models as I was reminded of just how nice they are. I chose to undercoat the vast majority of the models white as I'll be aiming for bright colours befitting Tzeentch's chosen. Of course there are a few models that require a black undercoat such as the Grot Crawlers and a few of the Heroes.

The game itself didn't go so well, to be fair we were attempting one of the harder trials maybe someway before we should. We were doing well but then a couple of unlucky rolls saw us get attacked by Deathleaper and then finished off by a group of Tzaangors. That'll learn us. Oh well.

Other than that I tried to do some more to the UCM fleet but my back started to play up so sitting bent over a painting desk was a no go. I got a little more done before it gave out but not as much as I liked.

So it was back to assembly, I had done a trade with a mate for another set of Cultists from Overkill so i got those done, converting a few to use the shotguns i had left over from the neophytes box. I'm really looking forward to getting these painted, It's a big job too, there are a LOT of models there. Still, I am determined that they will be my next 40k project.

In the meantime i haven't forgotten about 30k and I had intended to get a Contemptor AND a Tactical Squad but mental and physical problems had killed that plan off. It had not been a good week. I did manage to get one of the Contemptors painted but that was about as far as it got.

So a blip to be sure but after doing hobby everyday for quite some time a small lapse seems reasonable. I have some games with Lee scheduled for this weekend so they will feature in next months diary. I still have two days to get the Contemptor done though so you never know, though it seems very unlikely at this moment in time.

Lee

I have completely thrown my painting schedule out the window and gone on a hobby binge of Horus Heresy model construction. I haven't made all of my models as I have a shortage of 32mm bases and Word Bearer shoulder pads but they are on order. While I wait for them to arrive there is a queue of constructed and primed models awaiting my attention and with time off week on the horizon having I need plenty to do.

First up is Lorgar.Though he is not the most powerful of Primarchs he will be a monster once he gets amongst regular troops. If he is in my army then my Word Bearers get buffs to their leadership and combat results. He is a psyker as well which is hard to come by in most lists.

I converted a Legion Centurion with a jump pack who I will use at the head of my assault force. I have three units with jump packs, one assault squad and 2 Ashen Circle which will be a fast stab into my opponents guts. He is made from the body of a Legion Champion with an added jump pack, I added a possessed head to show his favour in the eyes of the pantheon. He is armed with a thunder hammer and plasma pistol so that he has some real heavy armour smashing ability. My Ashen Circle are biased towards any infantry so they need someone to back them up who can whack dreadnoughts and the like.

As command support I have two Apothecaries and a Master of Signals. The Apothecaries can either be a Primus Medicae upgrade for a Centurion which offers the potential for additional victory points or as an Apothecarion detachment allowing me to attach them to squads and increase their survivability The Master of Signal can call down a bombardment that will help my heavy support starved Dark Brethren detachments.

This Breacher squad is an additional troops choice to pad out my army requirements. They are also my first MkIII armour unit.The Sergeant has been modified with an old plastic chaos warrior head that really looks at home with the simple design of the MkIII armour.

This recon squad is also a troops unit. I aim to have them targeting army characters and special troops. I have a lot of bikes and some jet bikes that I can include later on that will give me a decent scouting army. That needs another squad of these, a character on a bike and some speeders for additional heavy support.

Burning heretics seems to be a passion of the Word Bearers so these heavy flamers fit right in. As they need to get up close to the enemy to give him a severe tan I will likely have them in a Rhino to get them where they need to be.

If there is someone who absolutely positively needs to be taken off the board then these Volkite Culverins will do the job. They spew out 4 shots each and each unsaved wound generates an additional hit. They may not have much in the way of armour penetration but the enemy has a lot of dice to roll for saving throws.

This Deimos pattern Rhino will accompany the Heavy Flamers if they are included otherwise there are Tactical squads that can make use of it.

Another flame unit, the Predator Infernus. All the weapons are magnetised which lets me swap out the Flamestorm cannon for a Magna-melta depending on the situation.

This trio of dreads are added to the two Mahra Gal dreads I have so I have quite a walker heavy force. Each of these is heavily armed and is designed to fill in for the lack of tank busting weaponry the rest of my units have. As well as this I have constructed my corrupted Knight who has magnetised carapace weaponry that I can swap depending on whether there are flyers in the opposing army.

I have a lot of daemons so so took this time as an opportunity to put some together. The three Plague Toads can double up as Beasts of Nurgle and the Fiends of Slaanesh can dole out a lot of attacks. You don't see them on the battlefield often so I reckon they will surprise a lot of people once they get into combat. With Codex Traitor Legions due out shortly I will need a lot of demons as this appears to be what the Word Bearers are most famous for ten thousand years later. I'll get round to them once this lot are painted.

Hobby Diary 20/11/2016

Though I have done little on the painting front, I have nonetheless done a bit of hobby each night. I still had two tanks to assemble for my Genestealer Cult. Now, it might surprise you to know that I have NEVER assembled a Chimera or Leman Russ. Thankfully they are both very easy kits. One a night was no problem at all. I wanted to magnetize the Leman Russ Turret but due  to the design it's not really possible. Oh well.

Another night was spent spraying my UCM fleet as I got to grips with my Airbrush for the first time in an age and another couple of nights went on painting them though I was far from happy with the results in the end.

Y'see I had a vision in mind for the fleet. I was going to aim for a Sulaco look, a military green/grey that would convey the sense of scale I was going for. I had a look at some colour swatches and Vallejo German Green looked about right. It was even a sod to get hold of. Imagine my annoyance when I realised that it was FAR more green than i had planned on, more akin to the base colour for my Emperors Blades than anything I had envisaged.

Bugger,

Even after mixing in some black and Drakenhoff Nightshade it was still not right. Well, fuck it I thought. Stick it in the airbrush and get it done.

I love airbrushing, though I am but a novice and haven't yet got to grips with the even the most basic of techniques. It makes basecoating so incredibly quick and easy. Yes the airbrush requires a fair bit of cleaning and maintenance but I consider that worth the saved time it would take to basecoat this lot by hand..

So a bit messy to be sure as I got to grips with Airbrushing again, but I got them all basecoated, Sadly they were still dark green so a few coats of Drakenhoff  Nightshade were thrown on top and this helped somewhat. However, it still wasn't the colour I wanted so I knew that I was going to have an uphill struggle painting this lot. They were barely basecoated and already I wasn't happy with them

.

I threw on some mid range metallics and mixed up the basecoat with some Vallejo stone grey and black to get a kind of dark grey olive  which I ustilised on some panels here and there. Overall I wanted to add some bright blue energy to the ships, it looked rather cool in Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and I wanted to try to replicate it. Sadly it just wasn't happening.

In the end I was just about satisfied with the way it turned out. I'm far from happy with the scheme but it'll do. I'll need to see how it looks on one of the larger capital ships before I can form a final opinion on it.

Still, my confidence had been knocked. Somewhat deterred I turned my thoughts towards the PHR. I wasn't writing off the UCM but I definitely needed a break from them. So I started to put together the other fleet.

The PHR frigates are very easy to put together and with a single hull configuration it means the only bit that was going to vary was the underslung piece. They would be easy to magnetize and swap out but in all honesty with the low squadron numbers and the high number of models I had it wasn't necessary. I had all the Frigates done over the course of a couple of evenings.

The cruisers are a lot more fiddly, however, the principle is still the same, the flanks of the ships have weapons just like Battlefleet Gothic models they could be magnetised but a couple of the configurations are repeated so I haven't bothered at this stage.One point I must make is that a couple of the sprue connection points are in very frustrating places. One is right on the top of the hull, nigh on impossible to clean up.

The Kickstarter Exlusive battlecruiser was a different matter entirely with many of the components being resin, There was a lot of warping and hot water was required to straighten things out. Worse, the two hull sections really didn't want to go together so elastic bands were employed. There isn't even a hole for the flying stand, very disappointing overall.

And that was about it for this week. not bad but the UCM fleet not turning out the way I wanted was very disappointing. I really didn't want UCM green. Oh well, I have a week off of work and only a few plans so hopefully i'll get a a lot more done then, and then there is my Heresy entry to think about as well as Lee has surged even further ahead, as you can read below....

I didn't do one of these last week as I spent all weekend with my other half being in hospital so got no hobby done at all for those two days. Despite then being in hospital myself for two days during the week I have still managed to hit one of my hobby goals and completed November's Horus Heresy unit on time, my Word Bearers Sicaran tank.

I'm really pleased with how quickly this got done. I'm always a little bit intimidated whenever I start any Forge World piece but there was not a lot of exterior detail that wasn't going to be red which really sped things along. I even got the tank tracks done first as those are the parts I hate most on any tank and probably helps explains why I like Eldar so much.

The build was easy enough, there are some mould likes that may be visible in the pictures that I had no chance of getting rid of but that's fine. I justify them still being there as battle damage or the beginnings of blessed change.

Colour wise the tank was airbrushed all over with a mix of Forge World's Word Bearer and Gal Vorbak red. From there I painted the tracks Runefang, washed black and dry brushed with Runefang again, I really didn't want to spend too much time on them. The track housings were painted Corvus black same as my Ashen Circle and highlighted with Eshin Grey. 

The red sections were given a Leviathan Purple wash in the recessed areas, tidied with the original red mix then highlighted with a mix of Word Bearers Red and Blood Red. All over are blasphemous excerpts from the Book of Lorgar picked out in white. I didn't bother with the transfers as I was happy enough with this effect but didn't want to overpower the model with them. You'll notice I used the Lascannons on my Sicaran (which are magnetised for transport). The Word Bearer's special formation, the Dark Brethren, only permits one heavy support choice so whatever I take has to be able to knock out the heavy hitters in my opponents army.

I've already decided on December's Horus Heresy model. As I want to be able to spend more time on my Wild West Exodus models next month I've chosen a single model, the plastic Calth Contemptor. I should be able to knock that one out pretty quickly giving me a couple of weeks to complete some Hired Hands. 

After that I really need to get back to an infantry unit. Most likely another tactical squad of 10 men or maybe the MkV assault squad I have as they also count as troops. One I get a regular unit done I will treat myself to something more exciting, like some Gal Vorbak.

Hobby Diary 06/11/2016

Lee:

Hobby wise this hasn't been a particularly eventful week. It has mostly comprised preparing projects for the rest of the month and re-jiggling my projects. It is irritating when you have a plan but new things shove the items you had wanted to get done out of the way. 

Preparation wise this week I constructed a 500pt Scourge fleet. I enjoyed putting these models together. Even though all the Scourge ships have the same basic hull the additional parts really do set them apart, at least as far as the frigates are concerned. My fleet is mostly frigates organised into Groups that have specific purposes with a light cruiser along to provide a bit of heavier firepower. Now that I have had a chance to read through the fleet list it is easier to recognise the ships as their individual classes instead of a succession of weirdly shaped vessels. I'll discuss my fleet when Allan and I get our first game in, I don't want to tip him off to my plan.

I intend to spray all these ships metal with silver along the tips of the protrusions. Over this I will apply washes. Then once these are dry I will pick out the detail traditionally. I will be paying particular attention to the unique parts of each ship so I can easily identify them on the board. Rather than go for the usual purple and greens that the display fleet are painted I will be looking at sea creatures for inspiration.

I was disappointed that I did not find Khalida during a search of my carry cases but determined to complete a Warhammer Fantasy model this month I chose a Tomb King instead, with a Scarab Swarm base as an optimistic hanger on that may also get done at the same time. This is going to follow the same method as the Liche Priest from last month, paint the gold, skin and bandages then brown wash the lot and then highlight and pick out the details.

The thing I made the most progress on this month was my Sicaran. As a main Word Bearer unit this is painted red but with charcoal black sections echoing the shoulder pads of my Astartes. I am making good progress so far and hope to be done by the end of next week though you know how it is with plans and reality matching up.

The first project that looks like it will be completed this month is my random Emperor's Children. The Emperor's Children for 40K are one of my oldest armies and I have quite a bit painted. This model found its way to the window sill when I was unpacking and was left behind so that when I started to paint it was to hand. Wanting to expand on this army rather than junk it I have painted this Marine as a test bed for my newer scheme. The main change is changing the banding from the same blue as the weapons to green. I think it works and will make sure that any new or touched up units match this guy. As it stands there are just a couple of details to finish and then to base and he is done.

As far as November's plan goes below are the changes. 

Definite

Word Bearers Sicaran

Emperor's Children Marine

Queen Khalida Tomb King

Planned

Scourge ships

Squats

Warrior Nation Braves

Khalida is out and the Tomb King is in and the Squats have been relegated to the sidelines to make room for five Warrior Nation Braves for Wild West Exodus. I have all the paints I need now to do justice to their skin so these will be my test bed. I had intended only to paint one but there is a new hobby challenge beginning on the Wild West Exodus Facebook groups and the minimum requirement for month one is five Hired Hands. Whether they get completed or not really depends on how long the Sicaran takes but if I keep up the pace I have set thus far then I should meet my deadline.

AL:

Like Lee, i have had a pretty quiet week comparatively after last week's mad rush. It's mostly been back to watching Star Trek Voyager while building cultists. I did get my UCM fleet undercoated though, ready for the airbrush, i've undercoated them black and i'll drybrush them with grey and white in an attempt to pre-highlight them before I give them the base coat. It's all a bit experimental at this stage. Still, i'm looking forward to getting them done and of all things, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare has been a major influence with the ships in that game being rather well realised and giving me a few ideas for my UCM. 

So like I said, in the meantime i've been adding to the ranks of the Cultists, i've actually finished all my Overkill sprues and though I have a box of neophytes (which are to be assembled with all the options and intermixed with my normal squads, it's been the Cadians that i have been working on this week. 

So one of the main things i have realised of late is that the Hybrids are FAR superior to the Cadian models. OK there are ten years between them but you can see every single one of those years when comparing kits. The Cadians are crude, oddly proportioned with massive mouldlines (thank the Emperor - Beloved by all - for the mould line remover tool) and just don't go that well together. Well overdue an upgrade i would say! After spending as much time cleaning the model as it took to assemble a dozen cultists I started to assemble them. I wanted to try to improve the way they looked a bit and in all honesty the removal of Aquilas and addition of cult bits and heads only goes so far with that. I'll be painting them quite drab so that they don't stand out too much compared to the much more interesting cultist models.

I managed to get three complete squads of ten and with a bit of creative hacking have tried to vary the models up a bit with backpacks and the like though i have to confess i am not absolutely happy with them, it doesn't help that the superior Command kit has a lot of options that the cultists just CAN'T use like powerfist and plasma and melta guns. This variety would have improved the models considerably. Stupid Codex. 

Oh well, never mind, I moved onto the heavy weapon squads, a little bitz order a few weeks ago meant I was in a position to utilise more of the heavy weapons than normal and indeed I actually seem to have all options available which is handy. I do like getting the most out of my kits. The main place I had to be creative was with the missile launchers, they needed a bit of cutting to make them a bit shorter so they look like they could be fired without the need of the tripod. I think i've just about managed that. 

I've also been creative with the hybrid bits. I used Overkill models to utilise as many bits of the sprues as possible and have turned basic Acolytes to make Metamamorphs and a standard bearer. Though the models needed a fair bit of cutting, the conversion is actually fairly simple and I think i have got away with it. 

So that's the cult mostly done! The tanks are yet to do and another box of Neophytes, and i have a commissar from the start collecting box to get creative with - probably double up as another Primus. Oh, and the rest of the Cadian Command, OK the cult is not quite as done as I thought, good thing that we are only on season 3 of Voyager. 

I did also construct a glass cabinet to display my Star Wars Armada fleets, that counts as hobby right? 

Still, i'm casting my mind to other things, (i'm like a hobby magpie) and whilst I try to resist the lure of the wavering post Trump election dollar making a Kickstarter very tempting i'm thinking about what is next. I really want to finish those three busts i started, it shouldn't take too long, a couple of evening sessions maybe, in between i can do my UCM and 30k Ultramarines. As you will see from the picture i have the ventilated spraying station all set up so next time I hope to have much more than just construction done...