It dawned on me this week that I'd slightly neglected my (almost) weekly post over the last couple of weeks Si I thought I'd have a catch up with what I've been up to. Namely some more Stormraven work and some shopping (for 40k/model related gubbinz).
A question to the modellers out there; do you ever feel like you've not really achieved much yet wonder why your desk/table/workspace looks like this:
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| ? |
That's how I've felt this week and also how my table is currently looking. A mess. Now, I'm not an organised (swap the 's' for a 'z' there all you Americans) chap, quite the opposite. It's therefore no real surprise my space is a tip. Anyway, on with the pictures, here's why it's such a mess:
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| Sorry for the iffy pictures throughout todays post... |
My second Stormraven build is almost complete. For those of you that want the reason I've altered the 'Raven like this take a minute to click here and catch up...go on, the rest of us will wait here for you.
You're back? Good. Let's press on.
So I boarded up the big gaps left by the missing cockpit and nose sponson with some pretty damn accurate plasticard pieces (if I do say so myself). I made a mini subframe for the lens arrays to stand on and add a little internal strength. I like the new profile it has:
Next I filled in the front side pod areas and popped in a couple of magnets:
Which were then matched to a trimmed and drilled out multi melta and heavy bolter like so:
The 'spine' from the Valkyrie was wider than the original piece from the 'Raven so a little work was needed to fill a deep gap round the back:
You can also see in the picture above the dent to allow me to lift out the wings for transporting it.
The worst thing about converting Space Marine vehicles is that everything is so precise. Ork vehicle? Yea, just glue that but anywhere. Tau vehicle? Don't worry about spending hours getting everything straight, we're all curvy. Space Marine vehicle? measure that angle, sand it smooth, is it square? Flat? Straight?
It's worth the effort to take the time to run over your work with a grade or two of fine sandpaper - it really blends the model together and means the gaps will be near invisible rather than obvious after the first couple of layers of paint.
I also started making a decent base for it based on some milliput, 'barbed wire' and some pistol (?) shell cases I had lying around from some old army show.
The area to the left of the barrel will be filled with water/sludge to let me try out water effects. The rest will be covered in a couple of grades of gravel and will be suitably battle field-ish.
A few hours work here and there and I'm really pleased with my new version and how it ties in with the scratch built version.
I guess this progress mainly justified all the mess and clutter on the desk, most of it is plasticard/strip, glue and bits so at least it's all useful stuff. Still it needed a tidy so I cleared it off of all the other stuff, some of which is new and exciting acquisitions like:
I rediscovered eBay recently and all the magic bit from yesteryear it contains. My first 40k purchase was the limited edition Gideon Lorr inquisitor figure who I've wanted for a long time. He wasn't cheap but I'm looking forward to opening that blister! When painted he looks something like this:
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| Awesome. |
Next up is a set of Mig pigments:
Which I have NO idea how to use. Learning curve ahead me thinks. Hopefully these will let me add some nice effects to my vehicles especially.
Last but by no means least is a couple of purchases from Masquerade Miniatures Workshop. The tube tool I've had my eye on for a long time and I finally bit the bullet and bought a set (there's three sizes) to do cables for my Honour Guard storm shields and bulk them out a bit:
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| Use the above link to the Masq Mini site to see a video of these in action. |
I also took advantage of their deal of the month to get a whole bunch of their metal skulls:
There's two different sprue, each of five skulls with some nice details - see axe wound and bullet hole above. They're a little more varied than the ones I've been using recently which are great as I got a lot very cheap but lack these dude's personality!
So, I think that's everyone up to date. Nothing mega but I'll update with a full picture of the Stormraven before I spray it. Beyond this I really, really must paint. PAINT! Ugh, painting makes me feel like this.
I'll leave it there. Have fun all.
