Can't Keep a Good Necron Down!

Boy time sure does fly!

Here's a quick update showing off some Necron Warriors I painted last night.

These were painted for the annual Toys for Tots Freebootaz 40K Charity Auction, where a bunch of us try to help some kids in need have a happy Christmas. If you are interested in bidding, stay tuned and I will post updates when the auctions go live, hopefully with some high resolution photos as well.

Anyway, enough with the wordy words.

Throwback Thursday: Eldar Flashback

Thursday is a salute to all things throwback. In this ongoing series, I will feature articles showcasing older hobby/game stuff for your enjoyment! This will focus on models in my collection, or old games, or even new projects with older models. Today, we take a quick look at some original Rogue Trader Eldar!

These are the original Eldar models from Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000.

I picked these up as soon as they were released way back in the late 80s, and painted them up in the Eldar Pirates colours from the Rogue Trader Book, minus the tiger stripes. They later became Alaitoc colours, which became the basis for my long term Eldar army.

Since then I've painted and sold two armies of Eldar, but have kept the original unit, plus a bunch of the old Rogue Trader models, as well as the 2nd Edition metal models with plastic arms. The plan is to use them as a foundation for a Void Dragons Corsairs army, allied to my Alaitoc army, as the esoteric weapon style, and weapon combinations work well with the Corsairs list from the Imperial Armour Volume 11: Doom of Mymeara.

Links:
Games Workshop
Forge World

Throwback Thursday - The Redemption Returns

Thursday is a salute to all things throwback. In this ongoing series, I will feature articles showcasing older hobby/game stuff for your enjoyment! This will focus on models in my collection, or old games, or even new projects with older models. This week the Necromunda Redemptionists return with a lick of paint!

In our previous Throwback Thursday - The Redemption we had a look at my new Redemption gang for the Necromunda campaign some friends and I are playing.

So far we've had a bevvy of fun games, with the previous session results at the end of the day being one of my gangers (a Deacon) was captured. The gang itself has made quite a name for itself, cleansing the heretic and impure with redeeming flames, and have had a few lucky rolls on the equipment and search tables.

On top of that, there has also been some painting going on. Now my group prefers to play with painted miniatures, but we always allow people to play with unfinished miniatures that are works in progress, which is the case with these.

I've been quite busy over the last little while, with little real time to paint, so unfortunately I get it in where I can, in fits and spurts. One such evening resulted in me getting the models primed, base coated, and the first general blending of colours, as can be seen here.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of WIP shots because time was short and I just wanted to get some painting done. 

First I fully primed the whole gang using Vallejo Surface Primer Black with my airbrush. Once that was dry, I went back and did some preshading, by applying Vallejo Surface Primer Grey over the models. I used the zenithal highlighting technique, which left a nice gradation of light to dark in the shadow areas with a nice bright light grey in the highlight areas.

After that was fully dry (which doesn't take long when airbrushing) I started adding colours. I began by laying down a thin coat of Minitaire Red on the whole of the models. By keeping it thin, the shadows were retained, and the miniatures kept a natural looking highlight. 

I then followed this up with Miniataire Yellow, which I sprayed in a downward line, keeping the colour mostly on the bottoms of the robes. I wasn't worried about overspray as that will be corrected by hand later. I also used the yellow to add a touch of colour in the highlights. Again this was done by spraying downward on the highest points where the light would fall, in the zenithal fashion. 

Finally, to blend the colours, I went over the reds with the Minitaire Ghost Tint Red. This softened the sharper yellow highlights and colour shifted them into the orange and red. I also used it to soften the edge of the harder yellow and red transition on the lower robes, to give it a more fiery glow.

When painting the miniatures, to make handling them easier, they are taped onto the tops of screw on caps for medicine bottles. This gives me something to hold on to so I don't mar the wet paint. It also gives the model a more stable surface so they don't fall over if I jostle the table.

Here you can see a bit of the blend between the red and the yellow, and some of the natural shading. By using a tint, as described earlier, you can make darker/black areas take on a complimentary hue to the base and highlight colours without looking like it's just black underneath.

Stay tuned! There's more to come next time!

Related:
Throwback Thursday - The Redemption

Links:
Games Workshop

Throwback Thursday - The Redemption!

Thursday is a salute to all things throwback, so I thought I would begin feature articles showcasing older hobby/game stuff for your enjoyment! This will focus on models in my collection, or old games, or even new projects with older models. This week we have a treat in the form of Necromunda Redemptionists!

Towards the end of last year, we were wrapping up a year long 40K campaign, and one of the players had enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do another campaign that he would run, in the Hive City of Necromunda!

This appealed to the group for many reasons. Partly it allowed us to change up our hobby and painting. When you paint larger armies for big game systems, it's very easy to get in a rut and then just churn your gears trying to get inspired to keep painting the same types of models. Playing the same game all the time can have the same problem. This was a great avenue for refreshing ourselves in terms of inspiration to model and paint, as well as to just have a bunch of smaller games with some small skirmish units. The added complexity of continuing campaign scenarios, experience, growing wealth, and skills to attract more members to our gangs just makes it that much more appealing.

I decided that I would take this campaign as an opportunity to dust off and paint up some older models that I haven't gotten around to before. In this case, my Redemption Crusade. I bought these models for an aborted campaign my friends and I were planning on playing in the heyday of Necromunda, when we were staff, but for many reasons (probably new shiny syndrome with a fresh new edition of 40K) it never happened. I kept the gang promising that one day I'll get to them. And that is now!

Normally, when people devise a gang for Necromunda, they start by picking their gangers, selecting their gear, and then building the models to represent them. Instead, I chose to build a gang around the basic Redemptionist set. I had those specific models, so why not use them as is. It would reduce the conversions necessary to field them, and allow me to just get stuck in with painting...

However, I couldn't bring myself to not do something special with them, so I decided that I would dress up their bases a little bit with some scrap bits of sprue, wire, and plasticard to make it looke like the detritus of the underhive.

Here you can see with the simple addition of some plain plasticard, you can add texture to a plain base to make it look like it's made of metal plating, or scrap metal lying about. I also added debris texture using some Liquitex White Opaque Flakes, and Liquitex Resin Sand. When mixed, this gives the impression of piles of trash, rust, and accumulated dirt.

Another trick I used to make the preacher stand out was to raise him slightly on the base. To do this I took some odd sprue out of my old sprue bin, and chopped off a corner. I glued it down, then added some more sprue and a plasticard plate on top to make it look like a sidewalk and curb. By carving out chunks, and lines, you can give it the impression of old damaged concrete or metal.

On the back of the base, to give it more visual interest, I drilled some cross holes to make it look like a prefab type of concrete, with some conduit and rebar simulated by some solid copper wire. Elsewhere, I have used cut up sprue that has been drilled out to make it look like clay fired bricks, and used it as scatter to add more texture.

Another visual touch that gives these crusaders the appearance that they are missionaries in the underhive was to add a vertically standing sprue with some wire sticking out of the end to make it look like a broken concrete support column.

This rounded out the miniatures quite nicely as it places them within the underhive in a convincing manner, with some very inexpensive materials, and an hour or so of work.

Thats it for today's throwback. Next time you should see these with a bit of paint on them!

Links:
Games Workshop

Minotaurs Space Marines Part 9: Raining Cows!

Hi, everybody. It's been a while since you saw an update on my Minotaurs. Due to time constraints and other circumstances, I shifted gears from that as a full time project, and it's now a side project that I'm working on in dribs and drabs. Even so, I haven't done anything with it in months. Until this week, that is.

Some time during the summer of 2014' a friend and I did a trade, out of which I received a pretty rough Forgeworld Dreadnought Drop Pod. It was in pretty bad shape having been assembled and disassembled, because of how bad the casting was, and poor fitting parts. But I knew with pinning, bending, and extra plasticard I could get it back up to snuff, so took it off his hands, to his relief.

There were two major issues with it. The first being the fins are too thin, resulting in 2-3 mm clearance in mounting the slots. I fixed this by shimming the fins with plasticard, which gave a nice solid gluing surface, and made the structure much more rigid. I also pinned all the joints to ensure extra strength, which really helped. This worked well, and the only issue that remains as a result is a tell tale gap when the doors are closed.

The second issue was that the floor plate was too thin. This was clearly a result of it going concave when it was casted due to too little resin being used, then the lip being sanded down too much by ForgeWorld to make it flat. This is what frustrated my friend as he complained about the doors not working when it was glued together. This was because there wasn't enough room in the hinge openings, causing the doors to physically bind. It also forced the doors upward by 3mm, leaving an unsightly gap at the bottom.

I fixed this by building up the thickness of the floor plate bottom using some 3mm thick sprue, which I carved and shaped to match the corners of the floor plate. The angle of the sprue sides was also a decent match for the taper of the floor. Finally, as part of the original owner's build attempts (I'm the third owner), the thruster base plate had been roughly carved/gouged in an attempt to make clearance for the hinges, but that didn't work, and made things worse due to poor fit and alignment. I hid that damage by running a band of plasticard around the top of the base, on the door sides. This squared up the edges and gave a better glue surface and alignment.

As as a result of these, and after about four hours of work I now have a pretty solid Dreadnought Drop Pod. The doors sit flush on the floor, and open and close easily.

The only issue now is the gap, which won't matter much when the doors are open.... Though I am considering fixing the gaps by adding plasticard, it really will have a declining rate of return, so probably won't bother. There are still a couple of blemishes that need cleaning and filling, and the main thruster needs to be heated and made round, but otherwise I am happy with the build, as I've always wanted one!

I didn't take any WIP shots ( I was too into it, and find interrupting for progress photos kills my progress), but here are some pics of it assembled.

Here it is with the doors closed. The door seals are visible due to the gap.

Directly below the door, you can see the strip of plasticard I used to hide the carved section, and rebuild the thruster plate. You can also see the grey plastic sprue I used on the bottom of the floor plate to give the door the correct clearance to open/close, and sit flush on the floor.

Top Tip: The empty Coke Zero bottle is a toy for my dog when he bugs me while I'm working on something delicate (especially to distract him from stealing my project - true story). For some reason empty plastic bottles are his favourite toy ever.

The doors all open and close nice and smoothly. You can see the gaps in this picture easily. Those doors are fully shut. Lots of work to fill if I decide to do it, as I'll either need to fill the gaps with plasticard, then add new sliding bolt detail, or use green stuff and sculpt in the detail. I could cheat it, and just put the plasticard on the front of the door to hide the gaps, but if I am going to do it, I want to do it to as high a standard as I can.

Top Tip: Keep shrink wrap from your packages (pictured in background). You can use it to blot up excess super glue, or to clean the tip of your superglue bottle.

Finally, this picture shows all the doors deployed. You can see in this picture, the door gaps are irrelevant with the petals open.


Links:
ForgeWorld
Games Workshop

Freebootaz 2014 Toys For Tots Charity Auction Results

Well, another Freebootaz Charity Auction for the Toys for Tots is wrapped up and the results are really great!

The total raised in auction are approaching about $1750 for the combined auctions, all proceeds of which will be sent to Toys for Tots.

I'd like to thank all of you for viewing, supporting, and spreading the word on these auctions, or bidding if you have bid.

I'd also like to thank the Freebootaz forum for once again putting together some great projects for a worthy cause. It's become quite a tradition, and starts early in the year, with planning, assigning project leaders, building teams, selecting project themes, collecting materials, building, painting, and all the other hard work that goes into completing these projects.

The Freebootaz are once again starting a new Toys For Tots Charity Auction project for 2015, and there promises to be some great new armies for auction at the end of 2015. One of the things we are hoping to do this year is to have a front page where you can see work in progress, and follow along with regular news of the projects.

If you want to further support this endeavour, you can join the Freebootaz Forum at the link below. There's an annual fee, but the benefits can be worth it. If you can't join, but want to contribute, you can still do so. Just contact one of the moderators at the Forum and let them know you want to help. Alternately, you can also make donations directly to Toys for Tots, also linked below.

Auction Links:
Da Ork Dynasty Toys for Tots Auction
Tau Empire Toys for Tots Auction
Dreamforge Leviathan Toys for Tots Auction
Ork Stompa (With Sound System) Toys for Tots Auction
Crimson Fists Toys for Tots Auction


Links:
Toys for Tots
The Freebootaz

Freebootaz 2014 Toys for Tots Charity Auction - Crimson Fists

The final Freebootaz Charity Auction for 2014 has been listed! This time for a Crimson Fists army for Warhammer 40,000.

All proceeds will go to the Toys for Tots!

This army was constructed and painted from donated materials as a joint effort by some stalwart volunteers from the 40K Radio Freebootaz Forum, including myself. I've taken photos of the army on my display board (NOT INCLUDED IN THE AUCTION)

This army can be taken as a 1500 point unbound army, with select wargear. It will make a great starter army for somebody looking to get into Space Marines, or Crimson Fists. Or will make an excellent add on detachment for any existing Space Marine Army or other army as allies...

Army Build is as follows:  Unbound!

HQ

• Captain ( or Chapter Master) 
• Anniversary Edition  Standard Bearer

ELITE 

• Venerable Dreadnought with  Assault Cannon and Close combat arm. With  Drop Pod,  
• Dreadnought with  Missile Launcher and Las Cannon  
• 10 Man Sternguard Squad with all weapon options available
• 5 Man Terminator Squad (6 models) with the option of an Assault Cannon or Cyclone Missile Launcher

TROOPS

• 10 Man Tactical Squad with a Power Fist, Grav-Gun and Missile launcher with Rhino
• 10 Man Tactical Squad with Flamer and Missile Launcher.   

This auction also includes a set of special custom laser cut and engraved templates in blue acrylic, as well as the remainder of the Forge World Brass Etch which wasn't used, so that the winner can continue adding models to this army.

See the whole army in the following picture spread, and please go check out the auction. Bid with your heart, and please spread the word on this auction to help get as many people bidding as possible.

Captain and Standard Bearer take centre stage!

Two tactical squads and a Rhino give this army a solid anchor for holding objectives.

Terminators with deep strike will be able to home in on the drop pod, or any Sergeants carrying teleport homers. There are 6 models, so that you can choose to use the squad with either missile launcher, or assault cannon.

Two dreadnoughts will give some solid mobile firepower, and with a drop pod, will have some great flexibility in terms of deployment.

While modelled for use as a Dreadnought Drop Pod, this could also be used for dropping in the Sternguard or Tactical Squad to keep your tactical options open!

Following are pictures of the whole army without display board, and unit specific photos to show them in better detail.

This tactical squad with Rhino has matching gun and trim colours.

The Rhino has Forgeworld resin and brass etch detail.

The dozer blade is magnetized so you can use the Rhino either way, and the hatches are not glued on, so you can position them either side.

The drop pod has two weapon options magnetized. It's also got opening doors.

The dreadnoughts have had a flourish of Crimson Fists detail added to them, and the weapons have been magnetized, so you can mix and match the choices.

The captain has some brass etch detailing added.

25th Anniversary Edition Standard Bearer.

Tactical squad on foot, with flamer and missile launcher.

 

Sternguard Squad, with magnetized weapon for maximum flexibility, can also be used as Command Squad or Honour Guard, especially if used with the BSB, making it a proper Battle Forged CAD army.

These are all the weapon options included with the Sternguard. They all fit at least one model, though not all guns will fit all models, due to the poses and weapon stocks.

And the final touch, the custom templates. The acrylic is a crystal clear blue. The paper has been left on the acrylic to protect them from scratches.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this picture spread. Please go bid, and share this auction to get as many people bidding as possible!


Auction Links:
Da Ork Dynasty Toys for Tots Auction
Tau Empire Toys for Tots Auction
Dreamforge Leviathan Toys for Tots Auction
Ork Stompa (With Sound System) Toys for Tots Auction
Crimson Fists Toys for Tots Auction


Links:
Toys for Tots
The Freebootaz
Games Workshop