Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 5 - Bases.

One of the joys of putting the army together was the bases.

Old gaming friend and talented hobbyist Alex Akers made some custom bases for my army. I talked about these in a previous blog post.

At the time of sculpting the largest base GW had in production was a 60mm, and the flying base came out as Alex was finishing the project. He did sculpt some, but I'm not sure what happened to the master model.

So with a flyer in my army I needed to get creative!

Some cork, some plasticard, some skulls (Secret Weapon Miniatures), pumice from Vallejo, metal from one of GW's basing sets, some mouse bones (yes, really) and about 20 minutes of work....
(The masking tape is there for the flight stand. Peels off nicely when all is dry.)

This sloppy mess:

After an overnight dry, and a drop of paint...

Making bases for large pieces is something I really enjoy, and I think it will be what pulls be towards military modelling a lot more.

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 4 - Marines

World Eaters Paint Scheme

I was wanting to keep this simple, ala the Forgeworld scheme.

Primer - Krylon White:

First wash with Vallejo Grey Wash:

Zenithal airbrush to smooth out the wash - Vallejo Model Air White:
(no picture).

FW Wash "recipe":

 

Three coats of Vallejo Model Air White, at about a 45 degree angle:

GW Boltgun metal:

Flat back wash:

Backpack added:

Shoulder pads:

 

 

Based:

Final Squad picture:

I've not had enough time to do full weathering on the units, but I will be adding chipping to everything, and some significant paint damage to the vehicles.


The army has been a absolute blast to paint; less than 3 months from start to finish (nothing like having a hard deadline). I learned a lot about both modelling with resin, which surprised me considering how many years I've been doing it, and how to airbrush. Airbrushing is now my new "hobby" passion - it is such a powerful tool to have in your kit.
I'll be adding to the HH force with units from other Legions, aiming to use signature units such as a Breacher Squad in Sons of Horus colours, and heavy weapons as Iron Warriors. The World Eaters will get a Contemptor Dreadnought at some point, only because there is a cool one in the first HH book, and I have a slot for one in my Battle Foam tray..

More pictures to follow, some shots from AdeptiCon I'm sure.
If you are there, come by the Friendly on Friday - that's where this army will be playing!

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 3

With travel only a few days away, many AdeptiCon attendees, myself included, are in the final push to get armies painted, Crystal Brush entries perfected and probably clothes packed.

I'll post my World Eaters WIP page once I've headed south (and then east).

Looking forward to catching up with old friends, making new ones, and 4 days of silliness!

an interlude.

Whilst I write drafts of my AdeptiCon progress... whilst actually preping for the event... I've been playing in a couple of events.

On January 1st we had a tourney at our local store, titled "No Rest for the Weary". Yes, some people were hung over, but as a) I have kids, and b) I'm old, I was not one of them - I was in bed by 11pm!
It was a fun event with no soft scores, but some limitations on composition (no SH, LoW, smaller fortifications only...).
Some how I managed to go 3-0, and lost out on overall by one point (I tied my secondary objective in the final game and got zero battle points for it.... grrr..).
It was a really good event, and the turn out bodes well of a revitalization of year round, small, tourney events in the Metro Vancouver area.

Next up is Vancouver's first Highlander event, for which I suggested the name of "Toss Yer Caber" (it is being run by a Scot..) which stuck.

I have a hankering to play my Space Wolves - for the first time with the new codex.

Since 7e came out I've been somewhat skeptical about the psychic phase, hell I've historically avoided magic in Warhammer for many years. But with the Wolves I had an idea.

The HH books, in particular the Prospero arc, have hinted at the Wolves' belief that their powers are not warp driven but is "earth magic" from Fenris. This I can embrace. To this end I have been toying with the idea of the Malefic Powers, specifically the summoning of daemons; or in the case of Space Wolves "Spirits of Fenris".
The whole project took about 5 hours.

Here is my "Greater Daemon of Fenris". Built from a WE Treeman (obviously!). I'll run it as a Bloodthirster.

 

Pretty basic paint-job, using Minitaire paints, airbrushed and layered on. A wash of Army Painter strong tone added depth.

Snow, which is melting - done with Secret Weapon Miniatures product, represents the recent arrival from Fenris. The Snowy Owl... well, he is the psychic link!

And of course, where the big guy goes, little ones will too.

Hopefully I'll get to use these next month - but not against loyal space marines...
I'll post how it went.

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 2 - Delay

We've has a bit of a cold snap here in the Lower Mainland since Friday - it has barely been near freezing and we've been as low as -12C.

Consequently I've not been able to prime the bases.

I'm taking the "down time" to build marines. Though I have a bit of a dilemma whether to run them as Space Marines, or Chaos Space Marines, for the AdeptiCon events I'm playing in.
Luckily at this point I don't have to firm up my choice, as the models and list I have can switch between either.

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 1(b) - Bases

As I posted on Monday I successfully survived AdeptiCon... well the registration portion - which is no mean feat unto itself!
Now, with a mere 113 days until the event (112 until I fly), it is time to get on with the project.

A couple of years ago a group of us were going to play in the team event. It was the first year after the Forgeworld Heresy books had been announced, so we decided to go with a 40k 30K-Heresy theme.
Unfortunately one of the team fell ill quite early on in the process, so it was dropped.

I still have all the models, so for 2015 I'll be completing the army. And by completing I mean starting!

For the event one of the guys sculpted and cast vast quantities of Istvaan themed bases for us.

So today's update is base prep.

Stage one - wash! I use Simple Green (which is a good degreaser). I can't stress this enough - wash your models. This is especially true for resin models which have a demolding compound on them from casting. It also applies to metal models which often have a powder releasing agent, as well as plastic sprues which may have oil from the steel/aluminium dies.

The number of times that I read about bad primer reactions, or paints flaking off later on is astonishing. This simple step can dramatically help reduce the fail rate of primer/paint adhesion.

The other one is using the right (and an actual) primer. But that is for next time!

AdeptiCon 2015

So today was "that" day, THE day for North American Gamers... AdeptiCon Registration
(queue mood drums).

Yep, at 6pm PST, me and about 1000 (literally) other gamers logged on to the new (and vastly improved) webcart and attempted to register for our desired events.

After 20 minutes of "ogodthisissoslowdon'tyoudaretimeoutonmewherethefuckaremyclassesandwhyismyzonemortaliseventsoldoutwhenIhadaspot"
I was registered. Phew!

Now begins the countdown - only 114 days until AdeptiCon 2015 and I have an army to build and paint.

I'll be sharing.