On the table now - Tau Barracuda

Things are coming along with this giant project. It is hard to see but I have all of my base colors and most of the highlighting done. Really it is just detail work at this point. Unfortunately, that is the part that takes the longest time and is the most frustrating part. 

I am close to being done with the main body. The weapons and accessories may take a while though.

On the table now - Tau Barracuda

I am taking a bit of a giant project. Normally I hate large vehicles as they take too long to complete. I have been putting off starting this Forge World Tau Barracuda for a while now. I needed to figure out a few things. First, how to properly mount the ship on a stand. Second, hot to magnetize and convert the ship. 

The Barracuda does not come with a sane way to mount it. It predates the current flight stands and only had a randomly-sized hole in the middle of the bottom. I could use a brass rod to hold it up but that would not reliably hold this beefy piece of resin.  What I decided to do was to get a wooden base from the Christian-run hobby store and some nut and bolts from the hardware store and make my own base. I drilled though the base then widened the hole from 1/8" to 1/4" with a spiral bit being careful to keep my hole perpendicular to the base. After that I drove a partially threaded bolt through the bottom and Gorilla Glued it into place. After trimming up the predictable overflow, I packed the hole with super glue just to be sure. 

Finished - Tau Remora

Also from the China recasters, are these Tau Remoras. They retail for $25 each not including shipping which is insane. The Recasts are not awful. The detail is good, the lines are nice and deep and the wings are all almost straight. For $25 shipped, I got two Remoras which is fine by me. Depending on how they actually perform for me on the battlefield, I may be getting more. 

At 110 points each, they are expensive to fit into small games. They also eat up a very valuable Fast Attack slot int eh Tau army. That means less these days, but I tend to think in the old Force Org chart even in these Unbound days. For only 20 more points, you can get a Barracuda, which is superior in my opinion. 

Finished - Tau Tetras

Ugh, I just wrote a huge write up for these minis and I lost it. So frustrated now. 

I went into a lot of detail on how I paint the Tau minis and now I don't feel like rewriting it.

When I lost the document I was writing about hard edge highlighting. So many people, when they try it, just trace the edges in one solid line. (I tried to find some examples but gave up) With hard edge highlighting, less is truly more. You want to put the least amount of paint down needed to achieve the illusion of a three dimensional surface. On my Tau flyer, I used too much in some places, but even then I was still figuring out how to paint such large minis with this technique/pattern.

The mini was $20 each and the paint was pretty good for me *8 of 10) and detailed. I value the paint at $60 because of the detail work on the drivers. Total replacement cost is $100. 

On the table - Tau Tetras

Also in the package from the Chinese recasters was these two Tetras. Forge World pricing and shipping as well as lackluster rules in previous editions made them not worth the expense. Before X-Wing took over my gaming world, I had a game of 40k with Charles and he brought Tetras. 

They dominated the battlefield. The Heavy Markerlights were able to get 4 or more hits each turn. The unit is amazingly maneuverable and able to get into position quickly as compared to the static nature of Pathfinders. Even for AV 10 vehicles, they are tough thanks to their special rules and cover. I fell in love and had to have them. 

As far as painting, I am doing them in my standard "ice blue" Tau colors which is proving difficult to paint at the same time as other projects. I am noticing that red and brown paint is contaminating my rinsing water and sticking to my brushes. When I go to paint the white/blue colors on the Tau, I can tell that my paint is discolored. It is so frustrating that I have starting to keep a third was pot on my painting table: one for colored paint, one for metallic paint and one for light paint. This would be fine except I also have a water cup, a soda and a beer on my desk. Sometimes, I get confused as to which one is which.

Finished - Sonic Dreadnought

Glorious! I finished the Sonic Dreadnought and I am pretty pleased with the end results. 

I decided on gold trim rather than black and that necessitated alternating pink and black armor plates. I have already talked about some of the things that I dislike about the model in my previous post and the large armor plates was one of them. I could have broken up the armor plates more with some freehand, but I stink at freehand. It would have also not fit in with the established pattern of my Noise Marines. 

I think that the mini turned out as well as it could have and still fit in with the themes of the army. 

I am very proud of the base. I decided on Ultramarines as the Dead Dread on a whim. The Emperor's Children and the Ultramarines never had any beef or direct conflicts that I know of. I kind of just wanted to paint dead Smurf. 

On the table - Nurgle Rhino

I traded for this Rhino with Death Guard doors a while ago on Bartertown. I didn't realize that it was missing the headlights until I was doing the shading just now. I threw on some CSM searchlights and I don't know how I feel about them. On one hand they look insectoid and mutated and on the other hand, they are kind of distracting. I can always cover them up with spare headlights later if I continue to find them unappealing. 

The plan is to have a Rhino painted in the colors of the four CSM Legions dedicated to each of the Chaos Gods with the Forge World doors and front plates. I want to do some little extras on each of the vehicles. On the Nurgle Rhino, I had a new friend Greg sculpt a spinal column into the top hatch. 

Finished - Bloodslaughterer

I got this mini, like so many others, in a trade. I was excited to get him and got a great deal. I am glad the deal was good because he was assembled so poorly that I considered scrapping it. Glue was gooped everywhere and the legs were a jumbled mess. It was also missing a few bits for the legs.

I started painting this mini back in June 2014 before I got married and moved across the country. He had to be packed carefully because he was not clear coated and shipped almost 3,000 miles in a moving container. On the other end, he was unpacked, finished painted and assembled.

I don't know that I did anything really special here but it does get quite a few comments whenever I bring it out. I think I made a good approximation of the way the Blood Slaughterer on the Forge World site. I think there is a little more orange in their red and my shadows are a bit darker.

I like the final product and it is a good clean paint job for me and at about 8.5/10 for me. I could have gone for a little more detail but the kit already took forever to paint. I like the little extra details on the base (Chaos symbol, skeleton and SM helmet).

In The Beginning...

Every 40k player longs for the good old days. Back when women were women and men were geneticaly enhanced super soldiers. when brother fought brother and the GALAXY ERUPTED IN WAVES OF BLOOD THAT BROKE ON A SHORE OF SKULLS. Wait... what?




That's right, kiddies. Forge World just made a license to print money.

As if the Heresy-era Power Armors were not a big enough seller and everyone and their brother are trying to do a "Pre-Heresy" army. As if the Horus Heresy series of books are not the best selling novels that the Black Library has ever printed on dead trees or sent out over the interwebs. As if all that was not enough, I feel like I am being mugged by Forge World because I know and they know they I am going to have to beg, borrow or steal to buy these books.

I love the series on the Badab war even if it is a bit repetitive with ties pictures. It is an immersive campaign that I would love to play out. With the Heresy books, I expect the same. There is plenty of material that has been written over the past three decades or so (there is hardly a Codex out there that does not touch on the Heresy not to mention the Black Library books) about this era, so I am sure that these books will be jam packed with beautiful art, history awesome gaming ideas!

Needless to say, I love this idea. This is not only going to be a blast to read and play, but it will also really help out with the Pre/Post-Heresy Project where I do all the first founding Legions in their Pre-Heresy and Post-Heresy colors. It is hav been in the planning for at least 3 years and I am always glad that I wait. The bits and kits keep getting better and with this advent of these books (I am assuming that this is going to be a series because they KNOW people are going to buy them and why sell one book when you can sell three) I'll have lots of additional ideas for conversions and painting.

WOO!