Terrain and Foam Cutting

I received my hot foam cutting tool and got to using it as soon as I could. Our group at my old office really needs terrain, and I'm more than happy to spend some time making it. This article will be mostly about the terrain, but I'd also like to point out that it's a new Fire Warrior team there that I painted. So they'll help show case it. I know they're not hot women laying on shiny cars like most show case models, but hey! They're sleek and fancy alien men! That has to count for something? Right?

Devil Fish and Fire Warriors

I tried helping the troop painting process this time around, by painting something fun as well as troops in the same go. They do after all, have the same color scheme. So I assumed it would be a fairly ok thing to do, and so I did, and it was.

Tau Tank

Finished this one now, it was sort of the reward for having finished the entire Tau army box as well as 5 suits. I now have a heavy vehicle to add to my lists where I see fit. Hopefully he'll be useful. I ran into a few disappointing blunders with this guy, mostly with assembly and especially with priming. I've looked up online videos of how to use Army Painter, and I'll give those a try. If they fail, I'm never using army painter again and I'll suffer with black primer from GW I guess. We'll see. I'm torn... I love how the Desert Yellow Primer saves me time, but it's destroyed more models than I care to mention.

Front Line Defense

So you know how artist kinda have their "This is my peak best?" The "magnum opus" or something like that. I think this is it. It's a real bummer that it happens to be on a couple of walls, but, these things are pretty freaking amazing I think. Feel free to say otherwise, but I'll just delete you =P

Land Raider + Magnets

I am finished with yet another model. I've had this one in a box for a while, and due to focusing mostly on my Tau forces, I just never got around to assembling this monster of a tank. Here it is though, and Land raider Redeemer/Crusader. I put the slash in there because it really is both. The guns are magnetized to fit both flamer and bolter mounts. This wasn't at all an easy thing to magnetize and to some degree I regret having done so. So let me start with the magnets.

Shield Drones

I bought a small shield drone pack before leaving for Colorado some months back, and just now got around to fixing them up. They went pretty smooth, and I'm really glad I had an airgun on hand to help with the white. It's amazing how clean that airgun get's these light colors onto a model, leaving no brush strokes. I do learn every time though that patience IS required. You can't just lay it on. You do a bit and rest. Let the paint dry... then do a bit more until it's the proper color. Just take your time and you'll do wonders.

Recovered Piranhas

This set of models was a little tricky. So the story is that I sprayed them up long ago and bought the "Air Gun" from games workshop. Using that gun, I discovered airbrushing is awesome! However, I also discovered I ruined 2 Piranhas and a Devilfish in the process. The Devilfish is currently not recoverable and has been turned into terrain. The Piranhas on the other hand, I took and tried "Super Clean" to get the paint off. It worked great! I wasn't convinced at first, but when I laid down the primer, they were smooth and sleek like they should be and I finished them up.

Firepower from Afar

I finished off my broadsides now, and I've learned a thing or two as always. These were the new resin models that they came out with. The base body is made of hard plastic, but the guns are out of the fine cast materials. Same with the arms actually in this case. As I said in the last post, I'm not a huge fan of the Finecast series, but I have learned to work with it. You can even note in the picture above that the one gun is skewed just a little, and that the barrels squeeze in a touch. Trust me, it was A LOT worse, but a simple hair drier solved the problem in the end.

Tau Battle Suits

It's been a bit, and a lot has happened. Currently with out work, and a lot of time on my hands when I'm not trying to find work. I've made the effort yet again with my model painting though. I now actually have a full Tau suit troop, I think. Or well, one that I can at least field. It now consists of a commander and two standard suits. They're all equiped with interchangeable weapons and gear where applicable. I still haven't found a way to attach the "gear" in a way I like. The magnets are way to small to have a strong hold on the location they are attached too, so they seem a little, wonky.

The last of the Kroot

This is it, the last four kroot for my kroot squad. That makes 12 of the suckers. I will probably buy another 12, or 24 in the future, but for now, this works and this is good enough. Kroot are a lot of fun to paint and I really enjoy them. The style is a lot like the Tyranids and you're allowed to be a little sloppy and they still come out looking as good as ever. So they make me happy, unlike armor which when it comes out good looking is definitely awesome, but takes so much more work to accomplish.

Sneaky Drones

More little guys done. I read a strategy about using drones in conjunction with stealth suits, and so I decided I would actually give that a try. In order to try that strategy by MY standards, that means I'd like to have some drones painted up in the color scheme my stealth suits are. And so, 4 stealth drone were crafted! I need to do more, actually. Since I have 3 stealth suits, I need 6 total drones. Another day though. This will do for now. It took me an evening to paint these guys up. They're really not that hard.

Cratered Hard

I recently picked up an airbrush and a compressor. That set me back a few hundred, but I'm already really enjoying what I'm getting out of it. So in order to learn how to use it a bit BEFORE messing up hundreds of dollars worth of models, I decided to spend 40 bucks on a bag of craters and play around with it. I'd say these came out PRETTY good!

You'll Never See Them Coming.

This weekend has been pretty productive. Friday I didn't do much, so we'll count Thursday as Friday. Let's just say that I started these guys on Thursday, and finished them up on Sunday with plenty of time to spare. It didn't feel like that much effort and the end results are actually pretty awesome! You tell me?

Battle Suit Fiasco

I say fiasco, because I think it was. At least, it was beginning to turn out that way at the start of things. I actually assembled the guy a while ago [4 or 5 months?] and never got around to actually painting him up. So, now he's painted up! I got him ready to prime with my new fancy Army Painter Dessert Yellow... and that's where the shit appeared it was going to hit the fan. I recovered gracefully I think...

I begin again

And so I begin again. Funny how there seems to always be a few months of the year where I'm just like "No, tired, don't want to paint any more tiny little men. GO AWAY!" Well... That time is over. I've begun again. I decided to start this time with four more Kroot, because they're easy to get into and not as scary to paint up. This is the result. I'm quite happy with them, despite a few blemishes I was too tired and done to fix up. They're pretty awesome though, and just in time for the new rule books coming in.