Crossroads

Yep, a crossroad: those things in life that you have to choose and stick to it for better or worse, and now I am (or rather was) upon one...

So after thinking about it (while I was cleaning up mouldlines on one of my marines) I decided to not participate in the grand tourney, waiting up instead for the Blood Angels codex... I've just read the new Space Wolves codex the week before, so many goodies and hope the BA codex treads the same general direction of the past two (SM and SW) codex with regards to the army list...

That doesnt mean I wont be busy during the weekends, have to do some real-life stuffs (*cough*pay-bills*cough*), I can still squeeze in time when I get home: hobbies should be relaxing

Rushing forth for the national GT

Our country's GT is just around the corner (next month) and I still have a bunch of stuffs to paint (real-life issues ) Sure many people would say they can finish a squad in less than a week, or by having two or so hours a day for the hobby... but I'm a bit OCD for my tabletop quality, bread-and-butter marines

GW Whirlwind turret+accessory: Forgeworld-style

Let's face it: Forgeworld stuffs are DA BOMB! And I'm not a fan of the current GW Whirlwind plastic. After acquiring some spiffy magnets (see separate entry), I decided to get my bits out and magnetize one of my Rhino chassis to accept the Whirlwind turret.

This post is useless without pics

This is to follow up my post yesterday.

Another month, another blog entry

June has passed by quickly, July's about to end... So what's new in Baal Dropout's world?
- MAGNETS! Yep, smaller, badder magnets!
- +1 squad of snap-fit marines (unfortunately from BfM) (+230pts for my collection)
- +1 squad of blood claws (I mostly need the torso+legs, extra bits are always welcome) (+275pts; as I plan them to be mechanized RAS instead of jumping around)

Another toy soldier will be added to my to-paint batch

Indeed, another figure is seeing completion: another vetsgt to replace this guy.

Corbulo and Attack Bike sidecar "done"

Yep, you heard me right: "done" (mind the quotation marks ).

Needed to vent my frustration (and turn the energy instead to something positive) so worked on these and declared them "done". Perhaps I may work on them in the future, but as they they stand now, are good enough for the tabletops (For example, I got lazy on adding coats of Blood Red to get the proper hue and be consistent with the rest of my army). Nonetheless...

Official WIP update (2/2)

Oookay, another update time, let's see if I could spot the difference between the first update and these batch of pics:

Tactical Squad finished! Here's their group shot, though I'm not happy with how the photo turned out, but heck! To tell you the truth, this' the very first squad I ACTUALLY finished painting for my army


Next item: BA SHP Corbulo:

Let's see: he's 75% done: needs touching up, another (brighter) coat of red and some missing details. Topcoat, and only then I could say this one's finished...

Next: attack bike sidecar...

What can I say? Meh, let's say 65% finished...

Last item: Venerable Furioso Dreadnought... progress? Bah... still the same 25% overall progress...

Oh well...

Update time yet again!

I'm excited to nail the coffin on this squad: but I have to be patient and wait for glue, cement and as well as some enamels to cure proplerly before I topcoat them.

Here're the final pieces of the 1st Squad puzzle:

The grenade-lobber and the 2nd-in-Command. As I mentioned somewhere before, my 2iC, should I choose to combat squad it, will lead the other demi-squad. Therefore, I had his 'side-loincloth' with yellow (originally planned black, but decided otherwise coz of the limited number per decal sheet) BA icon over red (not seen much at their rear-view). I also experimented with a rattle-can red, but found it too deep for BA (as you may notice on the 2iC left greave).


The 1st squad's dedicated transport, driven by tech-adept Balthazar. Main colors painted by a friend, I just painted the searchlight, smoke launchers, details (such as scriptures, squad/company marks, army badge and rivets) and the BA icon plate at the front. The extra armor doesnt appeal to me much rulewise, so it's just there for cosmetic purposes.

Next off would be the attack bike sidecar+passenger and Corbulo! (coz 'counts as' is sooo in nowadays hehehe )

Cheers!

Quick addition; gonna put in a short one: BARE HEADS!



While tedious and frustrating to paint, everything goes away once it/they are finished. Learning curve? It's like a plateau, with a mountain just before the crest... why a mountain for the climax? The EYES! Gawd it's hard to paint those without the proper brush, or one fine enough to hold paint and keep it wet till you're comfortable and dot the iris... I also noticed that the newer bareheads have smaller eye/sockets, or rather less prominent... just my bitter observation though :P ahh well, in the end it's worth it

Official WIP update (1/2)

This entry is my first official update for the LPC (should've been last Jan31, but real-life takes priority :blink: ) Anyways...

Of the tactical squad I've committed, most of the marines done can be found in my blog entry below...

As for the rest, here they are hung upside down while waiting for their turn to be painted :P


And some on my work area:


1. The front plate for my Rhino. From the Baal Pred box, actually a test piece for the red I'll use as spray... turned out OK though...
2. Heh, not much to say for this one: it's left shoulder's where I throw my extra putty to bulk things up before I do the actual shoulder pad shape...
3. Four searchlights, four smoke launchers and a head. Didn't want to waste time on doing just 1 set of these vehicle accessories. Why just the head? It's a test mini for item #4
4. Test pieces (colors on primer gray). To speed things up, I'm looking for a shade of red equal to GW Blood Red+GW Purity Seal since for some reason, GW Purity Seal darkens the red a bit. For example(s), compare these two (I swear it aint because of photoshop)

Cheers!

1st Tactical Squad roll call

Blood Angels 1st Squad (Tactical)

Click on the thumbnails below to see full view:



- Squad pic TBA (when all squad members are done)
- Rhino WIP

Attack Bike sidecar: assembly homestretch

*Sigh* I'm having a headache because of this so am keeping this entry simple


Passenger/gunner
Quite the boring guy. Cut up a standard bolter marine leg, repositioned, and the rest is putty. Still needs another strip of parchment on his purity seal though.


Multi-Melta
Replaced the MM canister to the other side. Added a 'blood' seal (just another purity seal shaped for BA, like BT's crusader seals =P ). Mount is made of sprues and plasticard. An putty 'rivets'


Sidecar
Plasticard, sprues and putty and extra bits are the order of the day. The back of the seat is kinda simple. And oh, more putty rivets!

Cheers!

Corbulo conversion/assembly done...

Now to wait for attack bike sidecar to be done and off to the paintshop for him Kept the Red Grail simple with it being stowed (imagine the belt pouch of a canteen, only upside down with flap)...

I think next time I should radically alter the face if ever I'm gonna use the same head bit, I dont want to see clones of him, since this represents a unique character

Anyways, here's a pic:


Cheers!

1st Tactical Squad marines

Meh, forgot to post these figs: these were done before B&C's LPC proper...

These still need their weapons (rightmost will have a flamer) and topcoat

Puttying is like a relationship: it doesnt always go the way you want it, but if you do go for it, the results can be very satisfying :P

Did a bunch of assembly work the past couple of days: firstly concentrated on the attack bike sidecar. I'm still not yet sold on the cut-up legs I did for the passenger, though I'm taking my pace. If I hasten it, it'll become a 'chore' for me and it's gonna take out the fun in this aspect of the hobby (main reason why it takes me 2-3 days just to paint a single figure, rank-and-file or otherwise). Too much tasks for the sidecar to list here

But...
The (2iC) for the tactical squad is ready for painting (again have to wait on that tho till I finish assembly of other models for batch spraying). That single ornament on the left greave became the crux of the figure

Hmmm... I also need to cast/do an army badge... oh well...

Corbulo, Ayayayayay... for one I'm talking about his greave ornaments: winged blood drop on both greaves... Kinda done with them: the putty is curing at the moment and have to revisit it later to get the edges right. Also did the final touches on his badge-of-office right pouldron.

Still about Corbs: I have yet to get over his Red Grail wargear: the 'counts-as' piece of equipment I did doesnt bling much to me anymore, so I might go back to that cup I made back then (I still have it somewhere havent I? )

Here're the pics:

^this pic was taken earlier, evident on the lack of wings at greave ornament on my WIP Corbs (lower left)

[LPC]1st Squad (Tac) Norm 2 almost done (for topcoating)

Time for an update (though not the LPC-kind required update as per LPC rules).

Another marine (almost) done! But alas, having a photo op of your fig thus bring out the best, and the worst, of it. From the pic below, I just remembered to get rid of that gash-o-paint on the upper part of the backpack, to 'trim' that Mithril Silver highlight on the bolter and fix that rogue highlight on the left couter. You may also notice the mould line at the bolter... boo-hiss!


Here's the next to be done for the squad. Assembled (Grnade) marine to be holding one in his left hand (simple cut-and-paste of the arm/hand+ a grenade) and the (2iC) with a conversion MkIV helm. I also need to put a small BA blood drop onto the left greave of (2iC) as well as on the backpack of (Grnade). Regarding the MkIV helm: I wanted the skull so I chose that particular helm to sculpt on (again, no way to acquire the bit). They needed their bases done as well.


Before I go and undercoat these boys, I need to do Corbulo and the Attack Bike sidecar stuffs as well so I could undercoat these all in one go.

1st Squad (Tac) HWProxy almost done (for topcoating)

W00t! Another marine (almost) done! Rank and file for that (yeah I know, it's crazy and kinda overkill) but heck, it makes me happy

Here's a pic:


Aargh, I noticed I need to make the barrel sooty...

4 more to go: the 2iC, Grnade, Norm2 and Rhino; their weapons and batch spraying with topcoat

Need to make (sculpt) an old Mk helm for my 2iC...
Need to clean the mold lines on the Grnade dude...
Reg2 needs some cleaning/soaping: for some reason, after I painted VMC Red Hull and letting it sit for a week or so while I work on the rest one-by-one, there are spots that paint doesn't adhere to (I doubt my gf handled the fig as some of the spots are pretty hard to get to).

Oh my eyes hurt

I have to work on the lighting for my photo-ops: as I always loose the highlights on my red every time I do post-processing

Tac Squad Composition

Oookay, I always have trouble coming up of a way to 'spice' up the BS4WS4 pose of a regular marine and in the end, the poses of the squad itself. It takes too much of my time procrastinating the 'next big thing' in posing my rank-and-file marine (overkill eh? :P) so I've made myself a couple of guidelines with regards to how individual marines in my [Tactical] squad should pose like.

At the moment I have these (the list applies to a 10-man Blood Angels Tactical squad)
1. Veteran Sergeant (VetSgt): Anything goes here: plastic conversion, metal, hybrid, I name it, I got it, make it something 'special' not just a BS4WS4 appearance (well, I already have my lineup of Tactical VetSgts so no problem here) Loincloth over the left thigh (red BA icon on black cloth)

2. Second-in-Command (2iC): basically the combat squad leader. Nothing too fancy or special. Any pose that doesn't use the standard tactical marine leg (unless cut-up or reposed). Helm with Iron Skull. Loincloth over left thigh (black BA icon on red cloth).

3. Special Weapon marine (SpcWpn): just your regular BS4WS4 pose marine with a special weapon

4. Heavy-weapon proxy marine (HWProxy): Ok, I'm an oldschool 3rd ed BA guy (back when the BA 'dex is just a supplementary one). Nowadays the marine carrying a heavy weapon can still shoot [with his bolt pistol], but I tend to move my forces around too much so I wont be able to use the HW to full effect. Uses Mk6 tac legs (the one without the kneepads).

5. Running marine (Running): who doesn't love the legs from the SM Assault Squad box? Normal bolter-totting-upper-torso pose.

6. Kneeling marine (Kneeling): those kneeling legs from the SM Devastator Squad box are a godsend. unfortunately I don't have any of those, so I have to fabricate my own. Odd-numbered squads are right-kneeling, left for the even numbered squads

7. Grenade-lobbing marine (Grnade): I have an abundance of right hands holding a grenade, so I have to use some of those. Standard tac marine legs.

8. Snap-fit marine (SnapFit): as the name sez: snap-fit FTW! Either BfM or AoBR (I only have BfM ones, spare me my life from my own misery). He'll be the first one I take out as a casualty.

9. Aiming marine (Aiming): boohoo BS4WS4 standard posed tactical marine, but wait! There's MORE!. His arms must be converted to look as if he's aiming his bolter manually (ie. shoulder-braced, looking down the sight) He's next in line for casualties.

10. Normal tactical marine#1 (Norm1): If the VetSgt nor the 2iC doesnt know how to operate an auspex, this guy will. Also the second guy to go as a casualty.

Some other guides (mainly distribute all the nifty bits and pieces included in the SM Tactical Squad box) like:
- Except for SnapFit, all should have at least 1 purity seal (counting the one on the legs, VetSgt and 2iC at least 2), a Krak and Frag grenade, 1 long and at most 2 small pouches. (individual grenades and pouches, not the pair o' grenades or the triplet small pouches)
- as the content of the SM Tactical Marine box, distributed evenly among the marines (excluding SnapFit): 1 auspex, 2 nunchaku-scroll-thingy, 2 scopes (on bolter or stowed on belt), 4 combat knives, holstered pistol, 2 (whatchamacallit) cloth/parchment
- 2 with studded pouldron (left), 1 with name-tab pouldron (right)
- 2 bareheaded, 1 Mk6 helm, 1 different styled helm (Mk4, etc)

[LPC] Opening moves...

Alrighty, I've commited myself to the Challenge...

To start off, the pic below shows my commitments:

• the left half of the cutting board (including the leftmost plastic tray) is the 10-man tac squad+rhino I want completely painted up. Most of these may look done already but no: only those two on the top rhino hatch are 100% done, the rest needs either:
• final details (like highlights and weathering, as the case of the rhino)
• missing bits (like their handheld weapons, the row of painted marines in front of the rhino)
• paint up to standards
• assembly and paint
• upper right half: the Venerable Furioso Dreadnaught I have spotlighted in this thread. Still some ways off, but I'm confident it'll be completely painted for the challenge
• lower-rightmost of the pic is the tray containing the bits and bobs I'll use for the Multi-Melta Attack Bike sidecar with passenger/gunner scratch/conversion... (no, the dice is just there coz I got lazy putting it somewhere else)
• middle tray-lower right: My converted Corbulo, a few things left to do before I paint him: WYSIWYGing on the Red Grail (it's inside that 'container' just below the bottlecap he's mounted on) and his bolt pistol (just below the aforementioned container, obscurred by the tray lip

Now to get myself to painting