Other bloggers aren’t cannibals*

*Mostly. (not a guarantee,excommunicate traitoris takes no responsibility for other bloggers who choose to visit with people who may or may not be cannibals)

last weekend I jetted off down a very wet M42 to meet with a few fellow bloggers and roll some dice. Zzzzzz was our gracious host, also in attendance were Admiral Drax (who I found out was at the same uni at the same time as me, for a year. bloody odd place this world.) and Sovietspace who has a new, beautifully painted nurgle army led by an evil thing I'd never seen fielded before.

I took some pictures, but my blackberrycrappycam and the lighting did not aid me in my reportage.

The day saw Drax and I on the side of the imperium, while Zzzzzz and Sov took on the more disloyal side of the fence.

Zzzzzz’s own blog already has a lovely account of the combat patrol we played, in which Drax’s guard gunline climbed out of the trenches and walked slowly towards the enemy, strangely prevailing almost totally unsupported for three turns until my air cavalry arrived in the proverbial nick of time. (actually, probably a bit late, but hey )

We then played a crazy apoc game which saw scores of valks, tanks and light armour, and no less than three super heavies (two Baneblades and a Stormlord)

It was really good to meet everyone and to get some gaming in, I don't do enough of it.

Rest assured these pictures don't do it justice.

Forge World Hydra - Build Guide

In this post I’m going to try to help you go from the bag on the left to the model on the right quickly and easily.

This could be a very offputting kit if you are an inexperienced modeller or if this is your first hydra. but it needent be, a few simple fixes for some of the kits issues will see you autocannoning your opponents into dust in no time.

What you’ll need:

• clippers
• scalpel
• file
• sculpting tool
• clay shaper
• glue
• greenstuff
• plasticard
• lube
• a hairdryer

The first thing is to use the hairdryer to turn the badly warped cannon you can see in the bag into the much straighter cannon you see before you.

Heat the part, one bend at a time with the hairdryer until it becomes pliable and bend it into shape, let it cool and viola. repeat as many times as needed and in small bends untill it looks spot on.

 

Next, assemble the chimera chassis to this point, its worth noting here that this is my first time building the “new” chimera and wow is it an easy kit. brilliant!

 

Attach the hydra top plate to the back piece, creating two sub-assemblies, this can take some fenegling and the pieces may need some heat to reduce warping.

 

Its important to note here which chimera back peice I have used and that I have removed the two big locating studs. this makes the rear panel fit much better imo.

 

Glue the two sub assemblies together. You can now begin to see why I say this isn't a beginners kit, even unwarped and assembled carefully the kit is flawed.

 

But the back seems to fit okay.

While that sets up, assemble the guns. please take pains to ensure that the barells are level with each other.

For this model I’ve decided to add the crewman you can see, simply because on the FW website he looks so comfy in the hydra :)

 

Time to dress the chassis. I’ve gone for heavy bolters here and the usual hatches

 

I did however decide to shave down the internal ring on the cupola so it would sit flush to the hull, I felt this helped the profile of the tank and didnt distract from the turrets.

 

All the panels and hatches in place.

 

The first stage of dealing with this awful holes is to glue some plasticard in place. just sit it inside the seam and run some glue down.

For ease, leave a log strip until the glue is set, then trim off.

The tracks on this generation of chimera couldn't be easier.

 

Just clip off and lay them out for ease of planning. (make sure the track direction is consistent on both sides)

 

And there you go. beats the old one hands down.

 

The its time to infill those holes, and to run some weld seams into any other gaps.

 

Start with a sausage

Flatten and smooth until happy.

other small gaps can either be invisibly mended or run in GS and roughly smooth into ridges to resemble weld seams.

 

There we have it, two Hydra. If I wanted to add more detailing I could do that now, but I’m feeling these as a fairly basic pair, I’m going to let the turrets do the talking.

Next up for assembly, another elysian squad. these guys are getting grenade launchers, which will be harder than the plasma, and the sgt is going to be a real headscratcher as I cant have both elysian sarges have mechanical arms.

The problem is twofold, theres no fat at all ont he squad, no spare bits, and the elysian codex (therefore kit) gives the sgt a lasrifle, which we cant do with the new IG codex.

I’m sure I’ll work something out, stay tuned to see what :)

Trees – quick and easy

I’ve been quite happy with the trees I threw together for my new board.

they are a little fragile, but I can suggest several ways to reinforce them for those who either play more than me, or with younger fingers :)

This most recent style of tree was stolen from the world of model railways, and involves using SeaMoss (or SeaFoam) as an armature.

 

This is what you will need.

A suitably shaped sprig of sea moss for each tree. If you want stronger trees or larger trees you can combine sprigs and bind the trunks with wire.

Glue – watered PVA is fine, wood glue is better

Foliage. you can use anything, foam flock, leaves, but I've found the best in noch foliage.

A base – I’m using a mini base here, but Drax has put me onto some wooden discs I can nab from ebay, so I’ll likely move to those as plastic is a little light for these.

you’ll need to drill out the base and glue the stem of the trunk in place

This should give you a workable armature. you could paint this, but as its a natural product it has a colour variation already, and I promised you quick and easy

Base the tree as normal, you can paint this later to match your table

Give it a good dunking in glue. the more glue you get into the armature, the more the foliage will stick

I use a max of dunking into the foliage and sprinkling on, mainly because i need to ensure I get leaves in natural looking places, and because leaves usually face up and out.

There we have it, rinse repeat and paint the bases for an instant forest.

Hope that was of use, thanks for dropping by!

Black Reach Captain Winner

I used Random.org to select a number for the winner and it told me…

Commissar Dave.

So congrats!

Ironically one of the few without a chapter in mind.

Dave, email me at Karitas@hotmail.co.uk and we can have a chat about some ideas for him, and ultimately a postal adress :)

And thank you to all those who take the time to post, and who continue to take the time to read my blog.

Stylish with the what now?

Damn.

So I’ve seen this floating around the ether like another potentially world-ending Meme..

I glanced at it, and wrote it off as not much better than a chain letter. i tutted and sighed at it’s insistence I share seven things about myself and nominate 10 more people to receive this “award”, full of scorn at this self-propagating thing, a notch above a facebook “send to 10 ppl or ur mom will die” message.

And then I got a mention in someone's list. not just someone. Klaus; you know, the utterly awesome scratch builder and modeller from Dei Greci.

And now I have to recant, because to receive an accolade from a blogger like Klaus is really very cool. I understand now. it’s not the wonderfully designed logo that makes this an award, nor is the sharing of seven wonderful facts the heart warming part of this thing.

It’s the fact that someone out there who you admire says they think what your doing is cool too.

So now I need to pull together a list of bloggers I admire, thats going to be hard, becase there are so many.oh and I need to link back to Klaus.. okay done that.

oh, aaand tell you seven things about me. that’s easy, lets do that first.

1) I teach computer game design in the uk.

2) I have a three legged ginger cat.

3) I originally trained at an avant garde arts college, creating installations and time based sculpture and performance work.

4) i got over it.

5) I am from Lancashire originally,

6) I’m horribly dyslexic

7) I had an eldar army before there were aspect warriors.

 

okay, and onto the blogs. Sorry Klaus, this one is going to look quite a bit like yours.

 

From the warp. - Where would we all be without Ron? fumbling in the dark like a teenager in a cupboard at a party, that’s where.

Dave taylor – I’ve stolen so many Ideas from him I figure I owe him a nod on this list

Massive Voodoo – inspirational painter, generous blogger, read this one.

Admiral Drax – wicked conversions, and an all round good bloke.

Galaxy in flames – Jim was the first respondant on this blog, my first commenter, and his blog is a wicked read, good for breaking you out of your hobby rut and looking at things a new way.

Carmens fun painty time – amazing paint, non-GW models and stunning conversion and photography, whats not to like

Dei greci – Klaus does things with plasticard that make me weep. no, not those things, just check him out.

Tower of heroes – this man’s paint makes me green.

And for slightly different reasons

devos iv – Zzzzz has shown me that it IS safe to go to the house of someone you meet on the internet and play 40k. not everyone is cannibals

from the fang – for organising blog wars. seriously. you should go to this.

I seriously could write twenty more, so please don't be offended if you aren't here. there are sooo many outstanding blogs out there – I’m following over 450 blogs, some active, some inactive; but I at least scan every new post that appears, every day or two.

I wouldn't be without any of them