WiP...All Is WiP

OK, it's clearly been way too long since I've posted here. Frankly, it's been because I haven't actually finished anything so far this year. I finally decided I just needed to do something, so here's a pile of what I've been working on over the last few months:

First up, Shadespire! I also have Magore's Fiends built, but they're currently primed black, so nearly impossible to photograph well.

I don't like un-armoured Dwarves, so these guys have been getting some serious work done. It's been taking forever, but it's the most ambitious sculpting project I've ever attempted, so that seems reasonable.

The Skaven are close to done. They're certainly usable, but there's more I want to do with the metal and their skin and fur, plus touching up around the bases.

The Farstriders have all been converted with heads from Statuesque Miniatures, and some trimming on their armour. The heads look a little small, but it's just because the regular helmets have so much bling on them. The actual heads are about the same size.

I'm taking a mixed CSM/Daemon Slaanesh Army to the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge this August. I have essentially none of it done, so I really need to get my butt in gear. Some of the stuff for it is getting pretty involved, like this Noise Marine Dread (with groupie):

The pose is supposed to be doing the Steve Harris foot-up-on-the-amp-playing-out-to-the-crowd thing, but Castaferrum Dreads don't really have the joints necessary to make that actually work. I still like it.

The Twin BlastMaster was made from a couple of Plasma Cannon, along with some heavily modified 90s searchlight bits

The Big Bad. I started working on this because I was getting nowhere trying to make myself finish some painting before I started another Modeling project. It's also going to be in my OFCC list, and part of the reason for doing it is that it cut my Model count by like a third, and it's easier for me to do one big project like this than another 20 Daemonettes and dozen Noise Marines.

I always go overboard when I do anything even remotely scenic with a large base. There's going to be so much more cork and talus and sand and stuff when I'm done.

Very loosely inspired by the general idea of the old Epic Hellscourge Chaos Knight. In particular, that had a Castigator Cannon, and when FW did the Knight Castigator, that turned out to be a dual gatling gun-type thing, so this ended up with dual Avengers

Slaaneshi stuff is supposed to be more agile and maneuverable. It's hard to get a good pic of it, but in person, the motion works out pretty well.

Also in the Chaos Folder, I got some Plague Toads a while ago, and finally got them put together. Took me a while because they were just terrible casts. So much gap-filling needed. Going to use them as extra Beasts of Nurgle.

The one with the greenstuff on the base is going to have the whole thing be a giant lilypad that it's sitting on.

Necromunda! Still haven't managed to play, but I've got several gangs in various stages of progress. Hopefully going to get to try it with my brother next week. Not pictured here are The Violet Hellcats (Escher, because they're shuffled away somewhere and I didn't feel like digging them out), and The Children of the Emperor's Embrace (Stealer Cult. Like Magore's Fiends, they're newly primed and impossible to photograph).

The Reds. Basically done, I'm keeping these guys simple because I'm not really into the Goliaths, but I want to have as many options as possible for other people using my gangs. Also going to use them as Iron Warriors Chaos Culties, which is why they're on 25mm Bases.

The Rustbucket Crew. Heavy overbrush to help me see the detail while I'm working on them, and I find it kind of pulls the whole lot together. Did the same for The Reds with Leadbelcher. They were also the first Gang I built after realizing how much of a pain it is to paint the Sector Mechanicus bases with dudes on them.

As with the Farstriders, some of the Orloks have also been converted with Statuesque Miniatures heads. I like having more variety than GW tends to provide.

Last, but not least, the stuff I was supposed to have finished back in fucking February for various challenges:

I mentioned Statuesque Miniatures a couple of times in there. I found out about them from Azazel, as I recall, and was really happy when I finally got around to picking some up. The heads used here are from the Heroic Scale Narrow line, which I think worked out pretty well, tho I'd like to get some of the regular Heroic Scale ones as well at some point. The Orloks' gear is heavy enough that they actually work pretty well with just the head swap, and no other conversion work. If you're looking for conversion bits for female Models, I highly recommend them.

Hopefully I will soon have something actually finished to share, and until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

The Many Heads of the Hydra

Finally got around to cleaning up the FW upgrade bits I picked up in July and putting together some Lernean Terminators. Not sure if they'll actually see the table as a Heresy Unit, but I can also run them as CSM Terminators (call the Volkite Calivers Combi-Plasmas) in my 40K Alpha Legion Army, and with a bit of house-ruling, I could actually run them as a SM Unit as well.

One of the really cool things about 8th is that, with the Points all laid out and standardized, it's easy to come up with reasonable Points values for things like this. As long as no one's being a dick about it, there's no reason not to allow some modification beyond the listed options, so in friendly Games, I can take a Squad of Cataphractii Terminators, give them Volkite Chargers (normally an option in the Tartaros Terminator entry) and Power Axes, work out the appropriate Points, and good to go. Especially in a case like this, where it is an official Unit, just from 30K rather than 40K. Anyhow, here's what you're really here for, the pics:

Oh, yeah, I did a Contemptor Mortis to back them up as well. Had an extra Assault Cannon because my Iron Warriors one always has the Multi-Melta.

I did some hard offsets on the bases to try to differentiate them a little more, and emphasize what motion it is possible to get from this kit

There's nothing like seeing these full size to show off every last place I screwed something up or forgot to clean a mold line or whatever.

I had used a set of the shoulder pads from this kit on another Model, so I had to improvise for one of them. The bottom pad there is a modified left side one that I had available because the Power Axe set has those molded on.

Same dude who has the Heavy Flamer. Magnets!

Because they're so stingy with the shoulder pads for these guys, I had to magnetize that as well. I can also do Combi-bolters for the whole Squad.

Sarge

The best pic I could get of the Alpha Legion shoulder pads. I probably need to get out my white backdrop again if I'm taking pics of resin details.

Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Dude. Want.

Damn, those Domitar-Ferrum Automata look great. I really can not afford to go on a FW binge and pick up a Mechanicum Army right now, but holy shit are they making it steadily harder to resist.

I've got a bunch of stuff at boring halfway stages right now. But it's all getting pushed back because my StormHawk just showed up this afternoon, and I can't wait to get building on that. Hopefully some pics and a bit of an after-action report on it Sunday evening or Monday. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Kytan Rising and other WiP

Some recent posts by Rob and Thor have inspired me to start kicking my basing up a notch or two, and the biggest beneficiary has been the Kytan Daemon Engine that I got a little while back. That said, it's also been slowing down building the thing considerably, because I couldn't just build it flat and then put it on the base later. Also, this is another place where I get sort of frustrated by FW. There are so many parts to the legs on this thing, and having to use super glue instead of plastic cement means that I have way less working time, so I'm having to do them in stages, checking the remaining bits with blu-tac as I do each one, to make sure that they'll actually both meet up at the hips when I'm done.

You can also see an Ironclad, some old Chaos Hounds that I'm rebasing to use as Flesh Hounds, and my attempt at getting something decent out of the awful Champion pose from the Wulfen boxed set. The Ironclad and Kytan have had cork used to build up some areas of the base, and then all of them had extra variation added by pouring/spreading on various consistencies of fine sand/Mod Podge (thanks for introducing me to that stuff btw, Thor!) slurry, since I hate working with spackling paste, which is the other cheap and easily available option I know of. Then I added coarser sand to parts, trying to break up the different areas of slurry, and once they're painted, they'll get either snow or grass powder and static grass added to break it up further. I'm also going to try to do a little stream across the middle of the Kytan's base.