Showing posts with label Modelling. Show all posts

Striking from the Shadows  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , , , ,

Time for the full unveiling of the finished project! Cadian Snipers, which will be count as Ratlings. I have no illusion to mediocre effectivness of the squad gameplay-wise... But I think they're quite damn effective model-wise!



And obligatory group shot!


And onto the individuals...



The simplest one - using the plastic Sniper Rifle that came with the Cadian CS.





You will notice they have different bases than the rest of the army. Considering fluff-wise they're supposed to be a spec-ops squad, I thought it fitting, that they occupy a different area than the rest of the army. The bases however still retain the basic elements used in the rest of the army. I even wrote up a bit of fluff on that. Generally speaking, those are ruins of an old Imperial defensive structure...


A running sniper with a helmet. She is running past a gunport. Perhaps a Heavy Stubber was mounted there once, perhaps something else.


Zemthar Secundus is an arid mining world located somewhere within Segmentum Obscurus. Back in M39 it was a rich world, capital of the subsector, it's southern hemisphere laden with huge mining complexes. Due to it richness and position multiple defensive structures were erected dotting the entire southern hemisphere and protecting the mines and hives alike, by a slightly paranoid governor. Since the sector was always a peacful place, his predecessors never thought it neccessary. They were finished circa 567.M39. It turned out it was just about time...



My favourite - casually smoking a lho-stick while leaning onto a ruined wall. I think you can picture her personality just as fine as I can! She will need to have a Russian name...





Shortly after the constructions finished a vast Orkish Waaagh! Bloodspilla started to pillage the entire sector. Around 590.M39 it has reached Zemthar system, the Imperial forces unable to contain it, due to the great speed in which it conquered weakly defended worlds and moved on.


The first shooting one - my favourite head. I guess I like ponytails.





The Waagh! has smashed into Zemthar Secundus with great force. It however met uprecedented resistance, only thanks to great defensive network. While the north was ravaged, the south has managed to hold for a very long time. It was only when the Orks managed to capture the elements of the local PDF Artillery company were they able to break through the powerful bastions.

Second shooty - this time wearing the hood. It didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but there had to be at least one hooded!



However it was too late. The defence lines have bought enough time for an Imperial Guard task force to arrive and save the day together with the aid of an unspecified Astartes chapter. Zemthar was saved, most of its defenses were ruined however. And it was not the end of bad news.


Lastly, the sergeant. While such a thing does not exist amongst the Ratlings, it sure does in disciplined 42nd! I finally managed to use that nifty laspistol from ForgeWorld, only a power weapon remains, yay.





Not even a century later dreaded reports came from Magos Geologists working within the mines - the rich veins of ore were running dry. The planet slowly declined, with its population either leaving to seek fortune elsewhere or simply dying of starvation. It was estimated that within a few centuries the world will only remain a small backwater colony, if it will not die out entirely... The once mighty defensive structures and mines rusted and were slowly reclaimed by the desert.

And lastly, a group shot of the cloaks. This time I sculpted them using modified Col. Corbane's method.





It was only two hundred years ago that Zemthar Secundus unexpectadly rose as a power in the sector once again. By accident vast deposits of resources were found deep under the northern hemisphere, which was previously believed to be barren. While the planet's economy flourished again, the sector is no longer as safe as it once was and war came to Zemthar system once again...


And that's it. I hope you liked the models and the little background story! What's next? Probably shots of some Wolves I still haven't posted. As for the Guard - another Chimera is finished and more vehicles are to come as soon as I have some disposable income. I really want to paint the snipers too, but unfortunately I ran out of black primer again.

I also have one more fun Guard project - Colonel Mordechai Emmet, which will be a count as for some monstrous special character.


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Bases... basics?  

Posted by Hal'jin in ,

A quick one this time. I did some rebasing of my Wolves (wasn't a lot of them to do..) hopefuly to achieve a much better result.

But... I am not entirely sure if I did. Here are a couple of shots.









Help me out! Do they look good? Aesthetic? Realistic? If not, what should be changed about them?

I really thought I'll nail the proper look this time but there's just too much uncertainty so I have to ask for aid. Then again, I wasn't sure about the Guard bases for a long while and it seemed everyone loved them...

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How to Make - Combi Weapons  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , ,

Here is the promised first Wolf-oriented tutorial! The exam sessions is giving me a little break, just enough to squeeze it in. The weapons I make are for my Wolves, but of course, the same idea can be used to make combi-weapons for pretty much every army (Imperial that is, not the Ork ones) that uses them! Hope you'll enjoy it.


First of all, what a list of needed things. First, a bolter, any will do (the one I used is actually a bit harder to work with).


In this case I am making a combi-melta, but the same idea can be easily translated to a combi-plasma and a flamer. Generally you will need the other weapon you're attaching. In case of plasma, a pistol would suffice. You don't need the entire weapon just a muzzle and some sort of ammo container. For melta it's the barrel shown below. For a flamer it would be a small tank. For plasma, the cooling system would work great, though it would require a bit of additional work.


Lastly a bit of plasticard. Some green stuff will help a lot too!


Now what? Click below to find out!


First of all, cut the bolter into pieces shown below. Yes, it is not cut into a straight line, but rather has a sort of a "step" there. Do not lose the tiny muzzle, you will need it!


File both halves of the bolter to make sure they're even. Then glue a small plasticard piece onto the "stair". My green stuff was exactly the thickness I needed, yours might need a bit of filing/green stuffing.


Now glue another plasticard bit onto the upper part, this time it should have the length equal to the one between the front of the weapon and that small wheel-thing on the bolter. Also glue a small plasticard piece onto the other half, just like before.


Now glue the two halves back together. Before you do that however, you might want to make a small hole in the lower-half plasticard to represent the shell exit hole(however you call that in military terms).


File the sides if they are uneven. The next thing is to cut off the protracted parts of the shell exit holes on both sides.


Now glue the melta/flamer bits onto their spots. The new muzzle takes the place of the old one, while the bolter one goes below it. The melta container could go a bit more into the middle, but in this case the skull got a bit into the way.
If you're doing plasma, attaching the radiator to the side might not be the best idea. Try cutting off the top of the bolter and attaching it there instead. Make sure it doesn't stand out too much


You're almost done! Now just cover the plasticard bit in green stuff to even it out further. But most importandly, fill in the shell exit.. ports?


And here are some examples of models with those weapons.




And well that's it. Hope you liked that little tutorial. Let me know what you think and if you know how is that shell exit thing called do tell, I will fix it in the post.

Also the end of my exams is drawing near, hopefuly there will be a lot of painted stuff to show soon.
Thanks for reading!


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The Howl  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , ,

Time for some Wovles update now! Got a moment of break between the exams and finished something that's probably the grandest thing in the entire army! Its leader - Wolf Lord Sven Bloodhowl. On a Thunderwolf...

And here he is, in all his glory. Armed with "everything" that is, a Thunderhammer, a Storm Shield, Wolf Tooth Necklace, clad in Runic Armor and sat atop a Thunderwolf.


There are, of course, more pictures!




As you can see I also added a couple of other things, like the sculpted GS cloak with fur on it. I know it's texture is not perfect, but I will use that to make the cloak dirty and soaked with blood of his enemies. Or something. It turned out there isn't much room for anything else so the Runic part of his armor is going to be more painted, than sculpted.

Perhaps you noticed, that I used the same head, storm shield and backpack element as the terminator version of him. I just totally forgot about service studs I've added to the terminator later and so will have to add them here too. Ooops.

And for fun, size comparison with a regular Grey Hunter and a Rhino:


Now, some of you might wonder where did I get that wolf? It's been sculpted by a skilled polish sculptor and sold to one of your bits shops. You can see the other variants/get them here. (Now you guys owe me for a free ad!) I'd contact them via mail before purchasing it abroad though, I have no idea how/if they ship far away. I feel that this sculpt perfectly embodies what a Thunderwolf should be.

I have no idea how to paint it though, as in, what colors. I'll have to do much more research before that. And buy a can of primer...

Coming up next: Psykers Chimera and the first Space Wolves tutorial that you most likely will find handy for a lot of armies.


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I Hate Right Hands - Part 3.5 - Strapped Lasguns Tutorial  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , ,

What is this? A new post?! Cannot be! Yes, it can! I found my camera, found its charger and finally found some time to post something. There's an exam session going on here right now, but once it's over, expect a flow of posts, both about Guard and the Wolves (And not just regular SW models, you'll see...). But first, the tutorial I promised a while back!

Truth to be said, this one is quite simple and short, however I think someone might find it useful. It is part of IHRH series as it's focusing on IG veterans, once more! This time, how to make your very own strapped weapons, just like the single lasgun available both in FW upgrade pack and the Cadian CS. Without further ado, let's begin!

You're going to need:

  • A lasgun arm (even if you're not doing a lasgun!), one of those "wide" ones, like below


  • The weapon itself
  • A little bit of green stuff



The first step is to cut out the lasgun, like shown below. It's easier to first cut out the weapon leaving the butt and cut it out later.

Be careful not to damage the trigger finger! Now, take the weapon you want to fit. The picture shows a lasgun, and I'll go through with it, being the most popular weapon people will attach. My veteran however, is getting a shotgun.


Now you need to cut off a little bit of the back of the shoulder. The picture perhaps doesn't show exactly how, but it'll be clearer with the next.


Now attach the lasgun to the gap you've made. It is important to have the lasgun at the same level, or below, as the part of the arm that's attached to the model, else you will have problems attaching the arm. Make sure the lasgun "sinks" a little bit into the shoulder.


That's how it looks, with a shotgun, glued to the model. Glue yours too, it's very hard to do the next step without that!


Now roll a single strap from the green stuff and cut it in half.


Take one half and attach it first to the butt of the weapon (or wherever you feel it's best, but that's how FW has done it). You can make a small cut on it there, which, when painted metal, will server as a sort of a clasp. Then attach the other end just below the extended finger. That's why it was important not to damage it! Be extra careful now, we want a smooth strap there, no cuts!

Do the same with the other half, but instead attach it above. If you are having problems attaching a smooth strap to the hand, use a little bit of superglue to make it stick, rather then pressing hard with your knife, tool, whatever.

And that's it! Simple, eh? This is how a finished and almost-painted model looks like:

And that's it! I hope you liked it and will find it useful. The IHRH column on the right will be updated for easy navigation to the article.

What will the future bring? First it's going to be the Numerical Methods test and Assembler Languages exam. Wish me luck!

But afterwards, there's one tutorial for Space Wolf players, a lot of new HQs for that, some tactical rambling... For the Guard there's Psyker Chimera, the 303rd and myself considering getting one of those new Leman Russ kits. See you soon!



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Wolves of Fenris  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , , ,

Just a short update, but hopefuly a bit interesting at least! This time it's about wolves. But the real wolves. As in the furry grey canine!

I have acquired a couple of wolves from a friend of mine to incorporate them into my Wolves army. All in all Space Wolves are quite far away from being Codex Marines, but most highly competetive lists get closer and closer to such a thing. After all Grey Hunters are Marines. Sure, they're light blue and have lots of gubbins attached to their armor, but still.. There are a couple of units however that serve to differentiate them quite a bit from other Marines chapters, so that you just take one look and you're sure you're not dealing with regular SMs. Fenrisian Wolves are just such a thing.

But let's have a picture, shall we?

Here we are. These wolves have been stolen from a goblin Wolf Cavalry unit-thing from Warhammer Fantasy. This wolf is... quite boring. Being a mount it can't really have a super-dynamic pose as the rider might then not fit on top of it, plus it's not really the latest sculpt. But that's not really something that'll stop me! Click below if you want to know how I got around it!


With proper use of knife and green stuff obviously. Take a look at this wolf (which is not exactly the same, though similar. Also does this head look a bit like "rabbit with huge teeth" to anyone else?).

Looks a bit better? What I did is just cut it in half and turn the front "torso" a bit. It might not be evidend on this picture, but frankly... It's really difficult to take a shot on those. Since they're still missing their bases (and will for a while, till I order some 40 mm bases) they really don't want to stand still to get a picture. This is the best I could do:


They look a lot better, at least in my humble opinion. There's still a lot of green stuff work to do. So far, I only filled in the gaps. Now another layer will have to come, with fur sculpted on.

But that's not all yet!

Yep, a cyberwolf in very early stage of development. I'm actually pondering on adding more cybernetic enhancements on other wolves with cyberwolf obviously having much more of them and much more evident ones. Thoughts on this?

That's it for now. I'll write more on gameplay terms of those when I actually test them in battle. Also, the 303rd is on hold, still waiting for the SW battleforce to ship with missing shotguns.


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303rd - A Sneak Peak  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , , , ,

Not a lot today, however I want to present you a little sneak peak of the upcoming 303rd Veteran Squad! Hope you like them. There'll be much more on them coming later.

First a little shot on "regular" veterans within the squad:

They all bear shotguns and rebreathers, there'll also be a few purity seals. They're still unfinished, I'll try to get some more on them to make them more unique, even though they should stand out quite a bit thanks to their loadout.


And obviously, there's more if you click below!


Here's the sargeant leading the squad. He's been done for quite a while now, but he gained a, sparkly... green, new rebreather!


And another regular vet. This one will have a tutorial attached to him as a new installment in the IHRH series! Can you guess what it's about?


That's it for now. The melta guys are also out there, but not ready to be unveiled just yet. Alas, I cannot finish the squad just yet. I am waiting for my second Wolves battleforce to arrive with the two missing shotguns! I'm hoping it will be here soon enough, since there is a big tournament coming where I'd like to field them and they would have to be fully painted before that!


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A new Guard project  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , ,

You asked for something and here it is!



Can you guess what it'll be? Shouldn't be too hard

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