Squaddie September: Megavolt Cultists

EDIT: Better photos added!

The first of a few posts for Azazel's Squaddie/Scenic September Hobby Challenge. It's taken me way too long to get this stuff photographed and ready to post, but now it begins.

First off, no, that isn't a typo in the title. When I was a kid back in the early 90s, one of my favourite cartoons was Darkwing Duck, and as soon as I saw the name "Negavolt Cultists", I knew I was going to have to do them up as a tribute to his longest-lasting and most persistent nemesis, Megavolt.

I tried as best I could to go with a similar colour scheme, with a drab yellow for most of the clothes, greenish-blue for the gloves and leg wrappings (Megavolt's boots), red for most of the backpack unit and wire insulation, and brass for the electrical contacts and exposed bits of wiring.

Bangles Approved

Unfortunately, nearly all of this seems to have been washed out by my camera not being able to handle them against a white background. I may have to re-shoot with my black backdrop, but I can't deal with it right now. Dealt with! But I did get this one "action shot" on the black background before I shut down my photo setup.

Megavolt Cultists attempt to hunt down Beastmen within the corridors of the Blackstone Fortress, but are outflanked and ambushed in turn.

Also, on a totally different note, this was supposed to be part of my last post, on my Death Guard army. I made up some "souvenir" copies of my Army List for the event, but it turned out that almost no one wanted them. One guy wouldn't even pick it up. All that, despite the fact that it was just done with coffee grounds and used tea bags and they actually smelled quite nice.

It amused me to wait a moment after handing these across and then say "And here's a copy you can actually read" and give them a non-aged sheet in a much more reasonable font.

That's it for now. I'm going to take a look through the other shots I took and see how many of them really want the black background as well. Hopefully at least some of them will be decent as they are, and I can get them up relatively quickly. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Rot and Rust in Progress

So, yeah, moving sucks. Gradually getting back in the groove here, but the hobby area ended up not working out as planned, and the best place for a backup hobby spot is still in flux for a while to come as well. Similarly, I don't have my light box set up again yet, so the pics are kind of crap, but I wanted to get something up, try to get back in the habit of another hobby aspect. And I have been making some progress, just not actually completing anything. Most recently, a bunch of Nurgle stuff, most of it for the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge this summer.

I've got a couple of trios going here, with the Blight Haulers so they can cover more area and also get the +1 BS, and the Predators so they can get off a Killshot. Well, hopefully at least, on both counts. It's entirely possible for either group to lose a member before I get a chance to shoot. Also, the threes grouped like this bring to mind the Mark of Nurgle, so they feel reasonably fluffy as well.

I'm almost done with the modeling on these BlightKing Terminators. And no, that's not a typo. They're a mix of parts from the BlightLord Terminators, the Putrid Blightkings from AoS, and some regular Chaos Terminator/Terminator Lord parts. Still need some more putty work, but not much, magnets on two more Combi-Plasmas, and some fiddling with the base on the Champion with Flail of Corruption.

This last one isn't actually part of my planned OFCC Army, but since I was stippling browns and oranges all over Vehicles anyhow, it was easy enough to add this guy to the line-up. It's a Scuttlebug Transport, from Miniature Scenery, just about perfect to use as a Rhino. Their Chaos-ish stuff isn't that great, because they can't really get the fine detail for spikes and such from MDF, but it still looked cool enough, and was cheap enough, that I decided to grab one anyhow. I also got a couple of their Terrain kits (I think I posted at least one of them. It was a couple of years ago.), and I'm really happy with those.

Here's hoping my next post both comes sooner and has more finished stuff, but regardless, until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Moar Slaaneshi Conversions

In addition to my Keeper of Secrets and Noise Marine Dread, there were three other Conversions that were the driving force behind making the Slaanesh Army I took to OFCC. Everything else in the Army was basically just there to let me use these five Models, and/or fill up Points.

First up is this Chaos Lord on Steed of Slaanesh. I'd been wanting to use that Steed Model for a 40K Chaos Lord ever since it was released back something like 15 years ago, and finally got around to it:

I wish I'd had some more time for it. The Steed in particular could have been substantially improved by a wash and then bringing some of it back up to Rakarth Flesh, and there was more detail I didn't get around to picking out in gold. The only thing that really bugs me, tho, is that I didn't get the edge of the base finished off, which was a common "theme" with this Army.

He got massively overkilled in most Games, because the Model ended up looking much more impressive than his statline actually justified (He's essentially a Chaos Lord with Jump Pack, Power Sword, and a couple of minor stat buffs), so people would line up an attack on him suitable for taking out someone like Abaddon, and then splat him with the first third of it.

Next up is another that I wanted to do since I first saw the base Model. The amount of conversion required here was actually very minimal, basically just scraping off some detail, and replacing the feet and one hand.

Really, most of what went into changing her from the Yncarne to a Daemon Princess was just tweaking the colour scheme, and even then, a lot of the colours are in the official colour scheme for the Yncarne, just used differently. Again, really could have used one more round of wash and highlight, and some gem effect paint on the spirit stones, but I'm still really happy with how she came out.

One of my teammates, who has an Ynnari Army himself, just about lost it when I unveiled her, totally pissed that I'd turned an Aeldari Avatar into basically its exact opposite. Which, honestly, was pretty much the kind of reaction I was hoping for. Chaos should disturb people.

Finally, we have The Vindication of The Devine. (No, that's not a typo. House Devine was the first Knight House to fall to Chaos.) Blending together some rough concepts from the old Hellscourge Daemon Knight from Epic (which had a Castigator Cannon, but was so lacking in detail that it was impossible to tell what that actually was, and was also terrifyingly fast and maneuverable for a War Engine of its size), Forge World's Cerastus Knight Castigator, which established the Castigator Cannon as some sort of dual Gatling gun arrangement, the options available to Renegade Knights, and the general theme that Slaaneshi stuff is faster and more maneuverable and more capable of acrobatic feats than a similar Unit that didn't have the blessing of the Dark Prince would be.

Even with a ton of 1/16" brass rod running through all that, it ended up sagging a bit from its intended pose. The original version had the knees bent in a little tighter, like it was in the process of springing off of that crag and suddenly reversing direction. The left foot was originally up higher as well, which helped the sense of motion, and kept the detail I added to the bottom visible, but it didn't hold. These pics were a total pain to take, because the thing barely fits in my light box at all. I took a bunch more, trying to get better shots of things like the head, but these were the only ones that came out even halfway decent.

 Again with the gloss causing problems for my camera. I added an eye where there's usually a little viewport or something (I'm not really sure what that's supposed to be) in the hatch above what was the pilot's compartment, before it got turned into a Daemon Engine. Similarly, I left off all the grab rails and ladders and such, since no one needs to be able to climb up there and get inside anymore.

 I added some plasticard and putty and a bit from the Chaos Hatch Sprue to fill in the foot, but it ended up sagging down to the point where it wasn't visible, so it ended up unpainted because of the time crunch.

A shot focusing on the base. I get way too into it sometimes when I'm working on these big Models. There's just so much room to go wild with, and the larger bases look so flat and featureless if you don't do something to break them up.

Currently, I'm working on finishing up a bunch of things from the Silver Tower set for Azazel's Neglected Model September Hobby Challenge. I should have enough to do a decent post sometime in the next few days, but it might take longer before I get around to actually taking pics and processing them and stuff. How ever long it ends up being, until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

OFCC Aftermath

Last weekend, I went down to Portland for the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge. It's a team event, superficially similar to the ATC/ETC, but with a major difference: The goal when making matchups with the other team isn't to set them up so you'll win more, but to set them up so that everyone has the best chance of getting a fun and interesting game. It's pretty much always a great time, and is the one 40K event that I never miss, even in years when I'm not really otherwise playing 40K, or I'm too broke to go anywhere else, or whatever. 11 years in a row now, I've made it happen.

N went above and beyond, getting us this awesome banner and some cool 3D printed tokens to give to our Opponents

I've tried a couple of times in the past, but this was the first year I've ever managed to pull together a themed team. I went down this time as the captain of the Infil-Traitors, with each of us running one of the four Traitor Legions dedicated to one specific God of Chaos. We had R with a World Eaters force, L representing the Thousand Sons (including both Ahriman and Magnus), N with his Death Guard (including both Mortarion and Typhus), and then me, mostly following the theme in general, but running only a Patrol of actual Emperor's Children alongside a much larger contingent of Daemons of Slaanesh and a Renegade Knight.

Anyhow, that's mostly just the lead-in to the pictures. The three big projects I've been working on were for this event, and two of them (my army and a Sector Mechanicus table) were sufficiently finished to use.

My army as a whole. This was my big impetus for getting the Keeper of Secrets finished, as you can see.

A better picture of her. All of these can be clicked for larger versions. They were posted by the TO; I was way too frazzled to get pics myself.

My Renegade Knight. I included it in the project for two reasons. First, I wanted to reduce my model count, since I'd had issues with my back the year before, and it was giving me trouble during the months running up to the event. Secondly, and more importantly, I had the idea for the conversion, and really wanted to make it happen.

You can sort of see part of my Noise Marine Dread at the bottom of that pic, and it's visible, along with my Daemon Princess and Chaos Lord on Steed of Slaanesh, in the first one, but I can't find the better shots of them that I thought were in the album. I'll have to do dedicated photo shoots for those now that I actually have some room available to set my light box up again.

Here's my Sector Mechanicus table. The railings on the walkways and platforms were unfortunately another area where I didn't manage to get everything I wanted done, but it still worked well. This was apparently taken during round three, since that's me sitting there, and my opponent for that game (who was a great dude, with an awesome Custodes Army) standing there, but I don't remember the pic being taken at all.

Pulling over a pic of his army, because it was too awesome not to share

Honestly, I'm still really not recovered from it. My sleep schedule is a mess right now, and I'm trying to edge back into getting some modeling/painting done. I'll hopefully get around to taking more pics of my various conversions for the Army at some point soon. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

...if Two of Them Are Dead (Jewel of July)

Tell me all of your childhood fears
I live on emotions
I eat your dreams
Nothing's ever what it seems

Nearly two years after I finished the modeling, I have finally finished the painting on my converted Keeper of Secrets. At least for a certain value of "finished". There's definitely touch-up and more highlighting that could be done, but as far as I'm concerned, she is complete.

You better believe me
Every word
Tell me secrets you might have heard
Ugly rumors are all we need
Tales of murder, guilt and greed
 

Bite your tongue dance and burn
Reality a world of hurt
You may say no but not to me
Silence, silence

Remember, remember this
Remember treachery sealed with a loving kiss

She's on a 150mm oval, like the plastic Bloodthirster and Lord of Change. Technically, that's not the "correct" base size for a Keeper of Secrets at this point, but it fits with most of the other Greater Daemons, and seems like a reasonable prediction for what the eventual plastic Keeper will be on.

This was the best pic I managed of the base. This is one part where I may well go back and add some more detail, but for now,  I'm happy with it.

Truth is lies 

Stand on me
Reality a fairy tale
We do not come to bend the knee

A couple of close-ups of the more detailed areas. Trimming down the Slaanesh CSM shoulder pads for the icons on her helm and breast was incredibly fiddly and time-consuming, but I think it was worth it. You can also really see in these some of the places where the Pallid Wych Flesh highlights ended up being too thick or heavy. I did some touch-up, but I can't really afford to spend more time or energy on that right now.

Finally, thanks to this little blast from the past, she is now known as Danglethrust Sinhammer! Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Truth is all a children's game
Reality a bitter pill
We do not come to set you free
Silence, silence

Silence when you speak to me

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!

Inside the Gamer

I forgot to mention this*, but when I was at the OFCC at the end of July, I found out that a guy I know from there** is part of a group blog called Inside the Gamer. They've got a bunch of cool folks on there, talking about gaming of all varieties. Lots of it is podcasts, but even for people like me who prefer text, there's plenty of great content over there. Go give 'em a look!

*It would have been part of my OFCC Post, if I had gotten around to it :P
**I met him when I was running my Khorne for the first time, back before DaemonKin were even a thing, and Kharn ended up defeating Lysander in an absolutely epic Challenge.