Those Bugs look nice and nasty...

Looking forward to seeing them in a battle report...  

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

If you are planning on doing another force via dipping a local pal who does this on a regular basis recommends doing basecoats lighter than you really want them to appear. Sometimes significantly for lighter colours.

He has done an entire 40K Tyranid army via dipping (as well as some LoTR minis) and gets some great results.

Did you use a thinner in your dip for these figs or did you use it straight?

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Guns don't break formations. Blast Markers break formations.

Cheers PG,
The dip ended up being thinned for the smaller infantry models and to about a 50/50 mix with meths/white spirit; i didn't want to swamp them; i also put a bout a teaspoon of washing up liquid per 50ml of fluid in there to help with surface tension retention. This required about 2 coats on small minis'
For the larger mini's i used it straight and found it very important to 'turn' them to different angles during drying to get the required results. Again; two coats.
A friend (Edgar San/BEN) used dips on some of his models using a more commonly found 'ingredient' (ronseal) and it should be noted that i used a random bottle of 'Rustins Woodeye (walnut)' that i had sitting around. Ben used i straight and got better results all over.

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MoK,

Great section on the Nids but I also hate you for showing me a quick and simple was to get fantastic results , this has prompted me to raid EBay and buy Nids!! Something I said I would never do!

The Warp powers must be strong in your mind and the subliyinal messages seeping through the board!!!!!

Bwuahaha!

ACtually i'd rather you didn't; i'm trying to get my hands on sjust a *little* more at the moment!
 

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DRM bugs come highly recommended. Worker bugs and Vampire bugs are extremely good bipeds -- genestealers or what have you.  A little short on ranged weapons is the only thing. Their 'leapers'/gargoyles are a little gargoyle-like -- i.e. the kind on the walls of certain universities -- but it is abundantly clear what they are intended to proxy.  Claw beast make good raveners...

On the other hand, the G/W 'nid sprues have their problems -- not least they bear a passing resemblance to paper cut-outs. The biggest problem with this is that their legs are weak, so be prepared to re-mount your $0.20 hormagaunts with pins or mono-line.

It's true; they are horrendously fragile and flat in places; however, if you're cooking for authentic vintage kitsch there's no where better!
Personally the DRM stuff doesn't do it for me but i'd happily play someone with them, can easily tell what's being proxied, and with the right coulour scheme in EA don't think i'd tell the diffrence all that much!

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Wow !!!  Very Nice !!!!      

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Right; back on the Ork Bandwagon again; this evening has bought a small amount of progress to a Gargant and to those battle/gun fortresses from before.
Last time they looked like this:

and now they look like this:

Expecting slight progress as the week goes by but it's gonna be a busy one...
R>

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Couple things about basing that might be helpful.  Firstly, I wouldn't base anything on wood filler again.  In my experience, it is pretty fragile stuff and you could do much better with Magic Sculpt/Milliput, CA & aggregate, or resin as a basing mix.

Secondly, you may try using CA+ with baking soda to rebase some of your loose minis.  It's a trick that has worked for me where CA+ alone wont cut it.  Outside of that, there is always 2-part epoxy and, if you get really fired up, Liquid Nails.

I'm a fan of dipping, but I'm not sure I'd use poly dip on 6mm infantry.  Even when thinned, you are going to have an easier time with an acrylic based dip.  Future Floor polish or matte medium lightly thinned with some ink + paint can give you an equivalent result without the fumes.  Not to mention you won't be dealing with a solvent.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

CA+ with baking soda?  What does this do?

The baking soda makes the CA+ cure faster and it creates a better bond for some surfaces where CA+ alone won't work.

For the basing issue, I'd dust in a thin layer of baking soda over the base where your model is going, apply your CA to the bottom of the model, and then stick it on the base.  The excess baking soda can be brushed off afterwards.

You do want to be careful not to put too much baking soda down and this method can take a bit of practice.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

YES!!! I'm BACK!!!! Dammit; after too long a break from painting i'm setting myself a challenge, to turn this lot:

into what i hope to be a top class 3k painted army ready for open war at the end of april; that then...gives me about six weeks!

Seeing as i don't think i can do much worse than last time (I came last at FSA '09 but my marines did win judges best painted [there was no way i could top Kev101's scratchbuilt SoB's to win Players Choice]) i'll let people know what this heap of mini's will turn into (ish!)

-5 Bulked up Coven's: 2 in Transporters, 2 with Big mutants, 1 for summoning demons permanetly. 3 of these have princes.
-2 formations of juggernaugts pretending to be rough riders
-2 lords of battle (mwuahahah!)
-greater demon of khorne, 5 lesser demons
-4 Hydra that will go in there for air cover somewhere!

Without adding more demons that's about all i can spend my points on for lack of models and i can't seem to fit my demon engines and hellcannon in there at 3k!

So; what can you expect these next six weeks? Well; i'm going for a khornate beastman uprising with a few misled humans thrown in there for good measure; i'm attemping for a darker feel but with lots of classic 40k imagery in there; chevrons, red las-barrels etc and to experiment with basing materials; i'm gonna see if i can match Vaiish's bases before i try matching his painting!
In the meantime i need to remove some shitty bits of sand from the bases that do exist, to clean up the undercoat on a few models and to use a shed load of plasticard to convert some old ork battlewagons into human looking 'things'...Oh! And i ALSO need an Angron model or something like an OOP bloodthirster to act as my third demon prince; as well as some OOP Hydra's; if you can help out then i'm sure i can find a cash renumeration for you :-)

if people like i can post the army list i've got planned and you can pick holes in it for me :-): my intention is to get plenty of practice in with a more 'standard' force than marines in planes!

See you soon!
R>

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Woo-hoo! I'll be looking on in anticipation of this MoK, I'm always looking for inspiration and ideas for my own Cultists and I've got to say your background ideas sound great. Alas, I only just sold my spare bloodletters... if I come across more I'll give you a shout.

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My head is full of War...

[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

Anticipate no longer! Today i bring you progress on base reclamation and the Mk1 MoK Pattern Land Transporter which i'm VERY happy with :-)

Bases first.
I bought my chaos stuff about a year ago and thinking that i'd paint them up fairly swiftly everything got shoved on bases (square ones...:-( ) and then i lued a load of grit to them with shoddy PVA before priming them; the grit didn't stay on and the bases ended up looking like this:


Ive scraped as much of the grit of as i can so as to allow me to access the feet and afterwards the army will be based in a Vaiish inspired way if i can pull it off. Note also that all the Lasguns on my traitor PDF have been 'snipped' at the ends.  First reason is to differentiate them from my techguard army who are all armed with long las' and secondly so as i can paint them up easily as autoguns instead; by clipping JUST behind the 'groove' in the silencer (?) of the with a pair of straight edged nail clippers it also leaves a enlarged barell at the end, like ===I as opposed to just ===, which i prefer.  The picture may not show this too well but once a wash has been applied it should show up!

Now then: after all that let's get on with the land transporters!
I took a SM era battlewagon, a load of plasticard and - without going into details - here's what happened:


Needs a few inprovements; such as the 'walls' being a little lower (meaning the floor needs to be smaller to give me room) but overall i'm really pleased with the result. Rivets and ladders were relatively easy to do and i'm of the opinion that the use of the battlewagon turret as the cockpit is somewhat inspired...
The 18 (4 will be hydra's) that i've got to make will have a ramshackle feel to them so a few details changed here and there. Some will retain the turret, have mudguards, keep the skull on the front etc...what do people think?

I'm going to try getting a couple of test schemes for the infantry done now but (paid) work calls and so this may not turn up till tommorow.
See you then folks!
R>

PS: a big thanks to Major Gillbear, Dptextys, Couchmonster and Mephiston all of who have helped provide additional infantry, roughriders and vehicles for this project :-)

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