Maximum Heresy

Modeling Tutorial: Cheap Plastic Zoanthrope Kitbash

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Not if I have anything to say about it! Chaosheade the Thrifty Heresiarch to the rescue!

Hey everyone, welcome to the long awaited Kitbashed Plastic Zoanthrope modeling tutorial, A.K.A. the "I'm about to save you a @#$&load of money on Zoanthropes" tutorial. As you may know I am working on making a null deployment Tyranid army and that means I want to have some Zoanthropes. Being the thrifty gamer that I am, however, I have a problem with paying $25 per model for the 6-9 zoanthropes that I eventually want to have in my collection and I'm not going to even comment on the whole "Finecast" issue and the complaints you see all over the internet. I think that poor dead horse has seen enough abuse already.

Getting back on topic, I decided to try my hand at converting a zoanthrope using an assortment of plastic bits. The first attempt was decent but not great and had several areas that really needed some attention. The second version was a huge improvement over the first and will be the basis for all further conversions. In this post I will be converting my third zoanthrope and documenting the process to show you exactly how I made them and how much money I will be saving compared to buying them at retail prices. All right then, enough with the introductions, jumping right into it after the break.

The Bits and Pieces:

Hormagaunt head. I found that hormagaunt heads work best and you will have plenty of extras there from the hormies you will be stealing the talons from. Alternatives: termagant head or warrior face
Termagant body. I have plenty of these from buying a couple battleforce boxes. If you need more termagants for your army than you have extra bodies for like me, extra hormagaunts can replace termagants. Just steal a few hormagaunt bodies and throw termagant heads/weapons on them. You will be stealing the hormagaunt heads and talons anyway, so you should have extra bodies. As a bonus it adds variety to your termagants too.
Warrior tail section. These also come in the warrior kit but if you are going to make warriors or use the warrior bodies for other conversions such as hive guard then you will need to acquire some extra bits. I was able to find these from a UK online bits store for about $1.60 each. Warriors are not super popular in 5th edition so you may be able to get a good deal on these if you look around.
Mawloc Tongue. I use these as an extension for the tail section, plus the spiky end adds some flavor. These come from the trygon/mawloc kit but only 1 per box so you are unlikely to have enough for 9 zoeys. I found these on a UK online bits store for $0.80 each. As with warriors, mawlocs are not very popular in 5th so you might be able to find some good deals on this piece.
Trygon head crest. Each trygon/mawloc kit comes with 3 different varieties of crests so if you have any trygons you will likely have extra crests. Like the tongues, however, you probably won't have enough trygon kits to have crests for 9 zoanthropes so you may have to use other means. I was able to find them on eBay for $1.99 each and they also came with the trygon tail and mandible bits. I used several of those extra tail/mandible bits already for my tyrant and doom conversions so that's even more savings there.
Hormagaunt talons, 2 sets. If this causes you to run out of talons for your hormagaunts, you can always steal some genestealer talons to add to your gaunts. I don't plan on paying extra points for scything talons on my genestealers when I can get toxin sacs so I will have plenty of extras. Again, bonus to variety for your hormagaunts.
Trygon spikes, 2 per model (6 if you don't like the look of the hormagaunt talons I used.) You get a bunch of extras in the trygon/mawloc kit so they should not be hard to find at all. In case you don't have any for whatever reason it shouldn't be too hard to find a substitute. I use 2 per model but if you don't like the hormagaunt talons then you can just use more of these. You can use small parts of termagant/hormagaunt arms that you chopped up for the other pieces to attach spikes that won't fit right on the model without help. There are plenty of sources for extra spiky things so just get creative!
40mm base. One easy source for 40mm bases for tyranid players is the extra ones they throw in for ripper swarms. There are plenty of ways to obtain these.
Green stuff (not pictured). Used mainly for filling out the head and sculpting the brain, but can also be used to create/modify other parts as necessary. (Thank you, Captain Obvious.)

Total cost per model: around $4.40 assuming you have the termagant/hormagaunt parts and arm spikes and buy everything else. That saves over $20 per model and the savings just get better if you already have any of the trygon, mawloc, or warrior parts that I listed prices for. Even if you do buy all those parts the total cost will be under $40 for 9 zoanthropes, compared to $225 for 9 of the official zoanthrope models. With shipping and green stuff factored in you shouldn't have to pay more than about $50 for everything you need, saving you at least $175 which works out to a discount of 75% or more off of the retail price. YES PLEASE!!! Of course there are ways of saving even more money including trading for bits rather than buying them, substituting other bits, or using green stuff and sculpting skills (that are better than mine) to fill in the pieces that you are missing.

Once you're done drooling over thoughts of what you can do with all the money you will be saving, read on to learn exactly how I went about creating these models.

The Process:

Step 1. Talk about split personalities. Have I made that joke before? How about "he's half the man he used to be?"

1. Cut the termagant body halves as close to the back leg as you can. I found out (the hard way) that it is easier to cut each piece with a hobby knife before gluing them together than trying to cut through both pieces at once after it has been assembled. That way you only have to cut through half as much material at a time and there is less stuff like legs and arms getting in the way. I also recommend chopping off the claws at this point as you can see in the picture for step 3. We won't need the back legs for this but they would probably find a nice home in your bits box.

Step 2. We've all seen this TV/movie cliche before.

2. Glue the head and 'gant torso halves together, but leave them separate for now or later steps will be much more tricky.

Step 3. Just a little off the top.

3. The hormagaunt heads usually have horny bits sticking out of their forehead which can cause it to not fit in the trygon head crest. Chop off the top part of the head as necessary. This is where I chopped off the claws on this model since I forgot to do it in step 1.

Step 4. Cheap filler. Also, sprues in the head.

4. Glue the head in to the front end of the crest. Optional: make this cheap conversion even cheaper by filling in the brain area with spare bits of sprue to save some green stuff.

Step 5. Dr. Frankenthrope's Monster begins to take shape.

5. Now shave off part of the warrior tail section and/or the hormagaunt torso to make them fit together. The official model is kind of hunched over forwards so if you are going for something with a similar pose keep that in mind when doing your chopping. I cut the front part of the warrior tail section just above the first "rib" like thing and then shaved the rest to fit that part. If you start off cutting a bit lower, one or two "ribs" down for example, you could have your zoanthrope hunched over even more. Pro tip: the fewer times you have to open your super glue, the longer it will last. I try to glue as many things at once as I can so you can do all the gluing for Steps 4 through 8 at the same time.

Step 6. Nubbin!

6. Cut the other end of the tail and the mawloc tongue so they fit together as well. I used a diagonal cut to match them up and keep the maximum amount of length but you can use an easier straight cut or whatever you are comfortable with. You may notice that I left a little nubbin on the end of the tail. That is where the bit attaches to the sprue and if you are going to use heat in later steps to bend the tail this will shrivel up because the spots where a bit attaches to the sprue are always just funky. Leaving a bit of material there will reduce the amount of filling you will have to do after the heat shrinks that spot.

Step 7. I can't think of any non-dirty jokes for this one.

7. Glue everything together. I used plastic glue on this model but I found that CA super glue works better. As you can see in the next picture the tail and tongue sections separated a little bit during the heating process and I did not have this issue when using the CA glue.

Step 8. Is it hot in here or is it just me?

8. Now that the pieces are together apply some heat to the miniature so you can bed the tail into shape. Obvious safety warnings here, hot things are hot. Don't burn yourself or anyone/anything else or inhale burning plastic. There are a few different ways to do this. I used a Wagner HT1000 Heat Gun on the low heat setting but there are other ways to do this including the Hot Salt Method or even using a candle which is far from optimal but it will do the job in a pinch. It is best to have both hands free while working with heat. You will have more working time with the model before it cools because you won't have to fumble around putting your heat source down without burning anything you don't want burned so things like lighters are not recommended. It doesn't take much exposure for the plastic to heat up enough to be flexible. You don't want to let it sit in the heat too long or else it can start to burn causing issues from releasing toxic fumes to ruining your miniature to burning your house down. This sounds pretty dire and it can be if you are really sloppy with it but it's really very easy to avoid those situations if you just pay attention to what you're doing and keep safety in mind. Remember: hot things are hot.

I found that it takes just a few seconds for the plastic to heat up and I was able to tell when it was ready because it began to slightly bend on its own, whether it's from the heat itself or the fact that I'm using a stream of hot air that could be pushing it around. To really be on the safe side, just apply a tiny amount of heat at a time until the plastic is soft enough to bend. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it but just to be safe I recommend trying it out on a spare piece of sprue or old junk bits or something before you start working on models you care about. When you heat up the plastic, just use a tool (sculpting tool, pen, toothpick, just something so you don't burn your hands) and push it into the position you want it to be in. If the plastic is still warm when you get it into position and keeps bending out of the shape that you want, just blow on it a little and it will cool down quickly and keep its shape.

I fell in love with my heat gun and used it a lot on many of my tyranids tails so they don't all just stick out straight. There are lots of uses for it and I found that it's a nice tool to add to my hobby arsenal and also a great investment. I got mine for under $25 but I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives out there. You could look at embossing tools as an alternative since they are pretty much the same thing.

Alternative steps 6-8: If you are not comfortable with melting your minis just use green stuff or another method to sculpt the tail. It shouldn't be hard at all to sculpt a tail. I would recommend cutting off the tip of the warrior tail and drilling a hole so you can put a piece of wire in there to bend and use as a guide to help shape the tail and keep it from flopping around like a wet noodle while you're working it.

9. At this point I used some green stuff to fill in the gaps left by the heating process with a bit left over that I stuck on the head section so it didn't go to waste. This is also where the nubbin from Step 6 comes in handy. You can't really see it from this angle but on the tip of the tongue section there is a small bump left over from where the nubbin melted. If you cut the nubbin off there will be a small gap to fill in. It still requires a bit of work to smooth out but it's easier to file down the nubbin than to fill in a hole. Heheh... nubbin.

Step 10. That color is so tacky.

10. This is an optional step but I find it useful to take some blue tac and stick the pieces together to make sure they will all fit together and basically just not look terrible when assembled. It also helps me figure out exactly how to line everything up and what position I want the head to be in.

Step 11. Holy guide holes, Batman!

11. I find it easier to glue the head on if I drill a little guide hole first using a 1/16" bit. The guide hole helps keep the head in place while the glue cures rather than trying to keep the neck and a smooth flat piece of plastic aligned. It's like trying to catch a greased up deaf guy.

Step 12. Super glue: that's one way to keep your head on your shoulders.

12. Now glue the head on. This will be much easier if you didn't skip step 11.

Step 13. They're learning! We're all doomed now!

13. Almost there. Here comes the trickiest part of the whole conversion and while it might look complicated it's actually super easy. Just stick a blob of green stuff to the head and smooth it out into the general shape that you want. Once I had the general shape I just took a toothpick and started making rows of little indentations in the brain matter to make it look like folded brain tissue. Just cover the brain with a random pattern and let it dry, and that's it. Like I said, it's super easy and very simple and the results look great, especially considering how little it takes to get there. Between the brains and the face I had some smooth area so I just made some shallow lines using the end of a rubber clay shaper. I got the brain sculpting technique from page 3 of this thread. I think they went a little more in depth with the technique but I kept it simple with just the single step using a plain old round toothpick.

14. Attach to the base. Even though this is a fairly light mostly plastic model there is very little contact area on this model so I pinned it to the base. I was able to align the pin in the tail with one of the holes in the bottom of the base for extra stability since the pin is glued to the side of the hole that you can see in the right picture. Well, you can probably see it if you look closely. Trust me, it's there. Another option is to add some bits or pieces to the base so they Zoanthrope looks like it's floating above wreckage/debris/random terrain features or whatever matches your basing scheme. I am going to go for snow bases and I'm thinking about having a "bubble" around the Zoanthrope where the snow will be packed down and/or pushed out of the way to simulate the psychic field around the zoey that protects it. I might also do something else to raise the pins up a little bit so the model isn't resting its tail on the base itself, but I'll worry about all that later.

Step 15 and done. Now be a good little Terran and surrender your biomass to the Hive Mind. It won't hurt a bit.

15. Glue on your claws/talons and you're finished. Take a moment to enjoy your handiwork and then put them on the table and blast something into oblivion with your phenomenal cosmic brain powers. Or you could paint them I guess. Either one works.

So there you have it. A simple and not very time consuming way to make your own zoanthropes for less than $5 per model. It took a while to get this tutorial up but I finally got it finished. I hope you enjoyed it and get some good use out of it. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment to let me know what you think or any constructive criticism that you might have that would improve the tutorial. In any case, thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings. This is Chaosheade signing out. Catch you on the flip side.

HUGE Hobby Progress Update and WTF have I been doing for the last month.

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:44:00 +0000

This pic makes me want to facepalm so hard but I can't keep myself from laughing at this every time I see it. And now you will too. No need to thank me.
Found here.

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here back from another little blogging hiatus with a status update on what I've been up to that's sooo much more important than this little corner of the internet. (If you don't care about this and just want to get to the hobby update, just skip to the break.) I mentioned in the previous post that I've been getting a ton of modeling done and I've gotten even more done since then, but the main reason I've been out of touch with the blog-o-sphere is work. I deliver newspapers for a living and they get pretty crazy around this time of year, especially on Thanksgiving, so work has been pretty stressful lately. To help combat the extra stress I've been taking refuge in Skyrim which, admittedly, has also eaten up some of my potential hobby/blogging time but work remains the #1 contributing factor. I have been enjoying the game immensely and IMO it's the best Elder Scrolls game yet. I won't nerd out too much on the blog and go on about how awesome my lvl 52 character is and all the stuff he's got, but if you want to chat about the game feel free to email me.

Enough about that, I have lots of great stuff to share with you so sit back and enjoy the show after the break.

I think the last time I did a proper progress update all I had was 10 termagants, a couple genestealers, and a few hormagaunts that I threw together to test paint schemes on. I've shared a few things since then like my spore pods and kitbashed zoanthropes but I've been up to a lot more than just those few things and my army is really starting to take shape. Let's go over what I've gotten done so far.

Termagants!

Previously I had 10 termagants built with the weapon arms built. I now have another 10 bodies put together. They are cleaned up and I took off the mold lines are missing their weapons. I went crazy with my heat gun one day and made all their tails curly so they are not all sticking straight out. I did this with all the models in my army that have tails with varying degrees of success as you will see in the next pic.

Hormagaunts.

I built 16 more termagants, bringing the total up to 20. These need to have the mold lines removed and after trying it out on one model I decided to leave the talons off until I am done cleaning the models up. It's just way too much of a pain to try to get the mold lines off with the talons glued on. I also did a little tail curling on these guys and learned the hard way that it is MUCH easier to do that before you glue the 2 halves of the body together because the feet will get in the way while trying to heat up the tail. As you can see many of these tails are only curled at the very tip unlike the termagants.

All your genes are belong to us.

I got my 14 remaining genestealers built. 2 are de-mold-lined and 4 more are partially cleaned up. All of them need arms. I am looking at getting some old school genestealers fairly cheap soon. These are the only models that I have so far with no conversions. They don't have tails to curl and I can't think of anything else that I could really do to make them unique.

Boneswords. Cost: $0. Awesome.

And here are my 6 warriors. As you can see I made enough custom built boneswords for each warrior to dual wield them. All the arm sockets on the warriors are magnetized for weapon swaps and 2 sets of boneswords are magnetized as well. I am working on the other 4 sets as well as 6 deathspitters and 2 barbed stranglers. Lash whips to come some time in the future... probably...

If at first you don't succeed try, try-a-gon. *rimshot*

The new kid on the block in the current codex and something that makes M4X tremble with fear. The arms are magnetized so I can remove them for transportation/storage, the chest plate is magnetized so I can give him adrenal glands, and the mandibles are magnetized so I can make him a Trygon Prime. No option for a mawloc on this one. I don't see myself using mawlocs any time soon and I kind of stole a bunch of the mawloc bits for a conversion that you will see later on in this post.

Triple Zoanthropes.

My first 3 Zoanthropes. The outside ones are the 2nd and 3rd ones I built using the improved method and the middle one is the first one I built. It has been modified to match the newer zoanthropes and just needs the brains sculpted to be complete.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!

And now my (very close) second favorite model in the army, a counts as Doom of Malan'Tai conversion. I used The Red Terror (eBay purchase) as a base with some Mawloc head parts for, well, the head. I got the idea for using The Red Terror from this thread and also drew some inspiration from this post as well. I just need to sculpt the brains and add the claws. I already have the claws made from some extra trygon mandibles cut to 3 different lengths but I'm waiting until the brain is sculpted to glue them on because the model will be much easier to handle without them poking me.

And finally the big man on campus, Mr. Hive Tyrant Balor of the Evil Eye.

And now for the piece de resistance of my army, my winged Hive Tyrant. The arm sockets are magnetized for weapon swaps and the wings are attached via a magnet and 2 pins. I will most likely be running either 2x twin linked devourers for lots of dakka or 2x scything talons if I find that chasing down and killing tanks is more important, or if I just can't spare the extra 30 points on an already over costed model. Instead of sticking the wings in the arm sockets like I see a lot of people doing, I chose to trim off the front 2 vent things and add the wings on to the armored carapace because I like that look better and I think it makes weapon swaps a lot easier and more WYSYWIG because I won't have to say "oh, the claws on the wings count as scything talons." The wings are the direct order dragon wings from GW. I did a lot of work on these shaving off all the scales and replacing the claws on the wings with tyranid bits so they don't seem out of place like the default claws. The Big claws on the front are from some extra trygon tails and the little claws I chopped off of the small mawloc scything talons. I need to trim them down a little so they fit better and add some green stuff so they actually look like they are part of the wings.

This is his good side.

Closer view of the front of the model. Keeping with the fluff of Hive Fleet Balor, I gave my tyrant a third eye. I got the "eye" from the toxin sack looking things from the same trygon tail section that I took the larger wing claws from. I carved out some space for the eye and will be adding some green stuff so it looks like it's actually part of his body rather than something that's just stuck on there. I will also do the same thing with the wings so there won't be a big gap in between the wing and the carapace and so it will look like the wings are actually growing from his body. When adding the green stuff to the base of the wings I will also slightly re-position the wings because they are just a little bit lopsided at the moment.

I love magnets and pins.

And here are the wings detached so you can see how I did it. One magnet in the middle reinforced with 2 pins so it sticks better without rotating around or getting knocked out of place easily. I can pick up the model by either wing and it won't fall apart unless I shake it fairly vigorously. The model still needs a little cleanup, green stuff, and fine tuning but I am very pleased with how it turned out overall.

And that's what Hive Fleet Balor looks like so far. I don't know why I didn't even think to post a progress update sooner. Until the Doom and Hive Tyrant I had only worked with plastic models and now I have had the pleasure of working with both metal and FAILcast figures. The metal model was a pain to put together and much more difficult to modify than plastic. Also, as I alluded to in the previous post and on Twitter I had some issues with the Tyrant. I purchased a tyrant and did a quick once-over inspection but saw only a few air bubbles and imperfections. It looked like it was in pretty good shape overall. As I was putting the model together I started noticing more and more bubbles and casting problems that would need to be fixed but nothing that would completely throw me off... until I got to the legs. One leg had a huge chunk of the calf missing and there was no way I was going to be able to re-sculpt it. Air bubbles and little bits missing is one thing, re-sculpting a huge chunk of very detailed legs is way out of my league.

It would be more funny if it wasn't so painfully true. Source

Fortunately, GW is much better at replacing faulty Finecast models than they are at casting them in the first place. After a short call to customer service I had another tyrant being shipped out to me on Monday and it arrived by Thursday, but the story doesn't end there. The second Tyrant was also riddled with bad quality and imperfections. Fortunately, I was able to take the good pieces from each kit and make one complete model with no major defects. I still had some air bubbles, gaps, etc. but nothing that I couldn't fix pretty easily. I do have a bonus spare plastic weapons sprue and another full tyrant and even though it has some major issues I can probably find a good use for it somehow.

So that's my massive backlog of Tyranid updates. That's all I have for today. I will really try to get that Zoanthrope tutorial up soon like I've been promising for the last couple months *shame* and I'll try to keep the updates coming a lot more regularly when I'm not in the middle of a rabid modeling frenzy. Now to tackle the massive backlog of almost 600 blog posts that have been accumulating in my RSS reader. Or maybe I'll do that tomorrow. All right, I'm done for the day. Catch you on the flip side.

Basing and painting for Hive Fleet Balor.

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:08:00 +0000

Very cool and inspirational model by The LeadHead. See also: the making of.

Hey all, Chaosheade here again. I've kind of been neglecting my blogging lately but it's mainly because I've been getting a ton of modeling done which is pretty awesome. Also my nice big LCD monitor went belly up so I'm working with an old CRT monitor until I can afford a replacement, but that's another story. Back on topic, I finally decided how I'm going to base my army and I have a slight tweak in the paint scheme that I think will work better with the bases. Details after the jump.

First off: basing. When I was considering which basing scheme to pick my main concern was finding something that would go well with my painting scheme but fluff was a consideration as well. Jungle/forest bases could go well with the fluff of my army since it is mostly a pod army and would likely be landing on unspoiled worlds ready to be stripped of all their biomass. Unfortunately, greens and lots of crazy colors would probably not work well with my color scheme so that idea was scrapped. A couple other ideas I had was a desert scheme that would sort of match the slightly beige tone of the skin or a gray rocky ground that would be more of a neutral color. Both of those ideas would work but I decided to kick it up a notch with something really cool and decided to go for snow bases, probably on top of the gray rocky ground.

I have always thought that snow bases were really cool (Hah! Get it?) but I've also been a bit intimidated by the idea for some strange reason. Don't ask why, I don't know, and after looking up a few ways of making snow bases it doesn't seem too hard and can be done very inexpensively. It will work well with the updated paint scheme which I will get to shortly and, although it isn't specifically fluffy, it's not unfluffy either. Instead of landing on a lush jungle world with lots of biomass to consume they land on an ice world that also has biomass to consume. As long as there is biomass to be consumed the Tyranids will be there to consume it. The picture at the top of the post is great inspiration for snow bases although most of my models will not be on top of huge rocks, and that's all I've got to say about that.

This is my paint scheme. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Actually that's not entirely true. I'm going to change it up a bit so this will not be it exactly.

In the above picture you can see my original plans for my paint scheme. I still really like the blue carapace with purple fleshy bits and the yellowish-green eyes. As I mentioned previously, I am planning to make my basing and painting work together rather than just being thrown together without regard for each other. Almost everything you see here will stay the same but after deciding to go with snow bases I also decided that instead of going for colors that work together on the model, I wanted to go for an overall "feel" for the army. To further explain this last point, I currently have the cool tone blue and purple purple working together since they are analogous colors with the warm tone off-white flesh with the yellowish-green for contrast. My new plan is to change the skin color to gray and go for a very cold feel to the army using only cool tone or neutral colors but keeping the yellowish-green to make the eyes and other various details really pop. Something more like this:

And here's my attempt to use Photoshop to show what the model might look like with the new paint. It's not the best picture but it should give you some idea. Not pictured: snow basing.

Obviously there will be more shading than the picture shows since it's a quick photoshop chop job and not an actual painted model. I ordered a set of Iwata airbrush paints with a wide range of grays and will be doing the same zenithal highlighting technique going from a darker gray underneath to a lighter gray at the top and I will be adding a payne's gray wash which is a gray-blue color to get into the crevices and help define the different parts of the model. Probably 3-4 different shades of gray with the wash sprayed on before the final very thin layer of the lightest color sounds pretty solid to me. I think I have finally found a painting and basing scheme that will really work. I might make a couple tweaks once I get some paint on a few models but I'm pretty sure there won't be any more major changes.

That's all I have for today. Coming soon: Zoanthrope tutorial, a big hobby progress update, and my first FAILcast experience. Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think of the idea or just let me know just how generally awesome you think I am. Thanks for coming out and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Tyranid Objective Markers Concept /w Pics!

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:07:00 +0000

Welcome heretics, xenos friends, and loyalist scum wishing you can be as cool as us. Welcome to another post by your beloved (or reviled) heresiarch, Chaosheade. Life is continuing to kick my butt pretty thoroughly. Work, my wife catching pneumonia and an angry gall bladder, taking care of my family, blah blah blah, excuses, excuses. Fortunately my wife is pretty much recovered now and things are getting closer to normal, or at least what passes as normal for me. I have been able to squeeze in some hobbying and I'm making some decent progress building my nids. Of course my blogging has slowed down a bit but what can you do? I'm here now, ain't I?

Today I wanted to share an idea I had for some Tyranid objective markers that I think are going to be wicked awesome. Yes, I just said that. That just happened. I uploaded some previews of some preliminary conceptual mock-ups of the models on my DeviantArt account and then "leaked" them on the Maximum Heresy Twitter Feed. For those of you who think Twitter is for twits, here's a blog post with all the pictures and info with a more thorough explanation of all the markers and the inspiration behind them. Gribbly goodness after the jump.

I already have some more generic objective markers that would serve for my 'nids but I thought it would be even better if I made a set of objectives specifically for my Tyranids. It was a very low priority on my list so I stuck the idea on the back burner when I happened to come across a picture on DakkaDakka that just screamed "You should make objective markers like this!" The picture is entitled "Ripper Thanksgiving" and can be found at the end of the first post in this thread by Doomthumbs.

Eureka! That looks like a great objective marker!

The idea just grabbed me so I began thinking about how to go about turning it into a set of objective markers. In the fluff I'm working on for Hive Fleet Balor my army began as a splinter fleet from Hive Fleet Leviathan and eventually grew large and unique enough to be classified as a separate fleet. To be consistent with the fluff of my army I decided that the victims in my objective markers would be from the same forces that fought against Hive Fleet Leviathan. I was also leaning towards selecting victims from armies that my friends play so I went with Orks, vanilla marines (Ultrasmurfs), and Blood Angels. The Blood Angels were not directly involved as a chapter but Deathwatch forces were active in the fighting so I decided to make a Deathwatch inducted Blood Angel as one of the victims. I also went with a couple Imperial Guardsmen even though I don't know anyone who plays them because I had a cool idea for one of them. That's enough fluffiness for now, let's get on to the markers!

At this point it's still mostly in the concept phase as I collect all the bits (I'm almost there) to actually create the objective markers. These are just a quick and dirty mock-ups stuck together with blu-tac stuff to get an idea of what they will look like when they are finished. I'm aiming for a very dynamic look on each one as if it's an action scene and not just an immobile figure on the table. Let's get into the details of each one now, shall we?

This first one is an unfortunate Ork falling to ground trying to fight them off and failing. I am planning on modeling him as if he is being overwhelmed and falling to the ground as he continues to desperately fight for his life. Spoiler alert: he's going to die. After taking this picture and looking over the markers I decided that this one did not have as much character as the others so I came up with the idea to add another ripper biting the ork's face off as he is falling. I might add another ripper or two on top of that one just to emphasize the fact that he is being overwhelmed by the little buggers.

The second Ork is doing a little better than the first one (but he's still going to die) and has grabbed one of the rippers by the tail to use as a club after losing his choppa. The pose and position of his ripper-club arm isn't quite right (I'll work on that) but I really like the concept of the Ork using one of the rippers as a weapon. Another thing I like about this one is the ripper staring down the barrel of the Ork's slugga.

This poor unfortunate ~~fool~~ ~~Ultrasmurf~~ fool has already fallen and will have a ripper coming out of him chest burster style. It's hard to really show this using just blu-tac so you'll have to use your imagination a bit on this one but I can guarantee you it will look really cool when it's done. I also have a ripper munching on his dismembered arm/shoulder and will probably add a couple more rippers to this one as well.

This one will be the Blood Angel Deathwatch marine, another one of my favorites of the set. Like all the others, he is doomed to be devoured by the little monsters. He knows he's screwed so he has decided to go out with a bang - literally. It might be hard to see in the pic but he's holding a grenade in his right hand so he can take out as many of the rippers as possible when he goes down. Another bit of action on this one is the chainsword in his left hand. One ripper has ducked under the marine's swing but the second one will be caught in mid leap by the blade with the obvious brutal outcome of the chainsword + ripper flesh combination.

This is another really fun one. This guardsman has had the unfortunate experience of being eaten from the inside out. The ripper is poking its head out of the guardsman's neck and will be wearing the guardsman's helmet on its head. I really love how the ripper looks like it has this crazy grin on its face as if it is very amused with its handiwork. I certainly am. I am still missing the bits for the second guardsman so I don't have any pictures of that one but he will be a lot like the original "Ripper Thanksgiving" picture where he is just dead on the ground and being devoured.

I obviously have a lot of work to do to get these objective markers modeled and ready to put on the table but they show a lot of promise and I'm really excited about them. I really like how dynamic they all are. Action scenes may be a bit unusual for objective markers but I think a little imagination can go a long way towards explaining why an army would want to claim these objectives. It could be to consume the biomass of the fallen fighters, reclaiming Gene Seed, getting revenge on the rippers, just wanting to make sure one or both of the sides in each fight is finished off, or there could be some material object involved in the scene that is important in some way. The objects could be valuable loot, a relic, weapons or ammunition, documents/intelligence, teef, or anything else that would be important to your army. The possibilities are endless and dny of these things, material or otherwise, could be the motivation for any force wanting to claim the objectives.

So that's my idea for some very cool and dynamic objective markers. They are not on the top of my priorities list but they will definitely be awesome when I get around to making them. I'd love to hear some feedback on the idea, both positive and negative, so please feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you think of the idea. I am still working on the Zoanthrope conversion tutorial and have some other ideas for my hive fleet so stay tuned for more gribbly goodness coming to a blog near you! Catch you on the flip side.

New Necrons Theory: Plastic or Finecast?

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:11:00 +0000

Source: iAMiAN_'s photostream

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here. Unless you've been living under a rock or been without internet connection since yesterday you have probably heard about all the pictures of the new Necron units leaked by Beasts of War yesterday. I usually don't go for all the attention-grabbing rumors and news stuff, but after seeing Wayland Games' Necron Pre-Order Page I came up with a theory on which new (and returning) units will be plastic and which will be finecast that I thought would be worth sharing. Ponderings after the jump.

Update 11:47 CST: The pre-order page has been changed since I posted this article. The HQs are listed as finecast as expected. The Command/Annihilation Barge is listed as a plastic kit but the Doomsday/Ghost Barge does not yet have a material listed. All of the infantry kits are listed as having 5 models per box and the Immortals, Praetorians, and Flayed Ones are now listed as plastic. The Deathmarks and Lychguard do not have a material listed but are also lacking the Finecast "this is a product for experienced modellers only" disclaimer that is shown on the Finecast HQ entries which may indicate plastic kits but could still end up being finecast. It's impossible to know for sure at this point. So good news for finecast haters, but the models are still selling at the finecast price even though they are plastic kits.

Update 12:25 CST: Total Wargamer now also has necrons available for pre-order and has all the new infantry including the Deathmarks and Lychguard listed as plastic. No update on the Doomsday/Ghost Barge but I think it's safe to say that the vehicle kits will be plastic. Hurray for plastic! It's not often that I'm this glad that I'm wrong about something lol.

I will go over the prices listed and my analysis of the likely results in some detail but if you want to jump straight to the conclusion then just skim the article and read the parts in green or jump to the summary at the end of the post.

So far we have a lot of pictures that look like scans from the upcoming issue of White Dwarf magazine. These have been plastered all over the blogosphere, forums, and probably every corner of the internet so I don't see any point of posting them all again. What we do not yet know in any type of even semi-official way is which materials that these shiny new models will be made of. I don't know if I am the first to point this out (though it would be cool if I was) but I think I can make some pretty good guesses on which units will be plastic and which will be finecast by the prices on the pre-order screen. The page is copied below as it exists as of the time of this posting. I will use some other recent releases as a baseline for price comparison. Dark Eldar are the most recent line of new releases and also the only recent new xenos models so they are ideal candidates. Eldar can also be good for comparison. None of the other xenos races have many models in finecast except single figures right now and the power armored models are priced very differently so it is unlikely that these armies will provide much relevant information.

Status	Image	Name	Price
		Imotekh the Stormlord A legend among the stars, Imotekh has faced a thousand foes and survived - each time … PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.86
		Trazyn, the Infinite Deemed - by his enemies, as impossible to kill... and described his his peers as Immortal,… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.87
		Necron Overlord The Necron Overlord is the soulless overseer of the relentless and unstoppable Necron adva… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$16.31 $13.87
		Necron Doomsday/Ghost Barge Used to transport the mighty Necron Warriors into battle, theGhost Barge packs a migh… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$48.15 $38.52
		Necron Flayed Ones Necron Flayed ones are a horrifying unit- with claws so sharp they could rip a Space Mari… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Immortals Necron Immortals are the Heavy Infantry of the Necron army. Armed with more powerful Gaus… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Triarch Praetorians Elite, Ancient skeletal warriors, Triarch Praetorians are practically unstoppabl… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Deathmarks Armed with superior guns, Necron Deathmasks are the sharp-shooters of the mysterious … PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Lychguard The Lychguard are elite, ancient Necron Warriors - Armed with superior weaponry to th… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47
		Necron Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge The Necron Catacomb Command Barge - a floating Throne from which your Overlord can gi… PRE-ORDER, DISPATCHED WHEN RELEASED	$31.84 $25.47

First we have the new special characters and HQ units Imotekh, Trazyn, and the Overlord with a retail price of about $16 each. These prices are very similar to the DE HQ units which are finecast and mostly $15.25 or $18.25 with a few exceptions. I am 99.99999% certain the new HQs will be be single figure Finecast blister packs, but that's no real surprise.

Next I'll look at the new vehicles. The Doomsday/Ghost Barge is priced a little under $50 and the Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge is around $32. Doomsday is roughly the same as the DE Ravager at $49.50 and the Command Barge is close to the Venom ($30) but even closer to the Raider ($33). Another pretty obvious conclusion, the vehicles will almost definitely be plastic kits. There is also some pretty convincing evidence that they will be like the Talos/Cronos kit that allows you to build either of the two options with one kit. Again, pretty obvious.

The real mystery is the material of the new infantry models. These are all listed at about $32. The necron line used to be mostly metal with only a few plastic kits so these prices are good news for necron players as they almost guarantees that these will not be single model finecast blisters. Right now there are no single infantry finecast models above $25 with exceptions for larger creatures like Pyrovores and some of the Fantasy creatures and LoTR dual figure sets, so it looks like the days of paying $14-15 at current prices for each blister pack are over. We're not out of the woods yet though, as there are quite a few finecast infantry boxes at the $33 mark and a few at $35.50 with 4-6 models per box. These kits are Eldar and Dark Eldar units including the Farseer+Warlocks, Mandrakes, Wracks, Rangers, Incubi, Dark Reapers, and Striking Scorpions. Power armor finecast boxes are mostly $45 with 5 models per box. Plastic DE infantry are priced at $29 per box of 10 warriors or wytches and more specialized infantry like the scourges and hellions (which are technically not infantry) are priced at $25 per 5 models. If you don't like finecast, this will probably be bad news for you if you wanted any of the new figures. The data indicates that the Flayed Ones, Immortals, Triarch Praetorians, Deathmarks, and Lychguard will most likely be finecast boxes with around 5 models per box at about $33 per box.

Summary
Looking at the pre-order prices compared to existing kits, it looks like the new HQ units will be single figure finecast blisters, the new vehicles will be plastic kits, and the new infantry units will be finecast boxes with an estimated ~5 models per box. Seems pretty obvious looking back at it but at least there is now some evidence to back up these guesses. Lots of new finecast models can be good or bad depending on whether you like Finecast or hate Failcast/Finecost/Failcost/whatever. It's not as good as plastic boxes that give you more figures for your money but at least you don't have to buy dozens of metal figure blister packs at ~$15 each to get all the models you want. Could be better, but it's not as bad as it used to be.

This is, of course, just the first wave and there are many existing models not listed for pre-order including the current HQ units, warriors, pariahs, destroyers, wraiths, tomb spiders, and others that I may have missed. These will likely stay the same (warriors), be released in future waves as finecast boxes (most of the unlisted units), or be discontinued (rumors of pariahs being replaced by praetorians or lychguard???) This is all just guesswork of course and not official in any way, but I think we can make some good informed guesses by looking at the pre-order page compared with existing kits. We will find out if I am right around Halloween when GW gives us the official details. Drop a comment and let us know what you think! Catch you on the flip side.

A HOTcontest and a Terrible Two Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Fun fact you didn't know about me: when I'm having a bad day I transform into an emo chick.
source

Hey all, Chaosheade here. As you may have guessed from the title of this post I have been having a pretty rotten time the last couple weeks due to lots of RL type stuff but let's not bother with that right now, there are more important things to get into first. I'll go over the good stuff right after the jump.

First up: The Contest! It's not a Maximum Heresy contest and I would apologize for that but our contest would probably suck compared to this one. HOTpanda from The Chaos Manifesto is celebrating 100 posts with, you guessed it, a contest. It's pretty complicated so get ready to take notes. Here we go.

Step 1: become a follower of The Chaos Manifesto
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit! Especially if you win, but even if you don't you are still following a pretty cool Maximum Heresy Approved blog. It's extra good because it has extra Heresy.

I know that might be a bit challenging and seem very intimidating but I have confidence that you will be able to handle it. As an added incentive, the more new followers he gets, the better the prize becomes, so go check out the details in this blog post about the contest and become a follower For Great Heresy!

source

And now for my personal drama that's been dragging me down a bit lately. I won't go into all the details but the largest contributor has been that dirty 4 letter word that ends in the letter 'k': work. The icing on the cake is my hard drive failing on me (somewhat ironically) on Monday which is usually my Saturday since I work 7 days a week (more irony?) so I lost all my media, some of which is irreplaceable. Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a "my life sucks, feel sorry for me" post even though it probably sounds like one. In fact, I can't even figure out what I'm trying to say... maybe it is one of those posts... nah! I should be able to recover most of my stuff one way or another, hopefully as ~~cheap~~ inexpensively as possible.

Probably NSFW, but I say screw it! Do it anyway! Disclaimer: Chaosheade is a crazy mofo and as such it is inadvisable to take his advice on such matters. Maximum Heresy is not responsible for any consequences that may occur due to playing this video at work (or any other place for that matter.) Maximum Heresy is not responsible for the viewing of this video while under the influence of not having a sense of humor. Watch at your own risk.

The good news is that even though I haven't been getting any progress done on any of my projects, I did (through sheer luck and/or boredom) happen to upload pictures from my Zoanthrope conversion tutorial except for the step that I'm on right now so I didn't lose all that and have to start the tutorial from scratch. I'd really like to get back to work on that soon, it's been on hold long enough and so has the rest of my hobbying. Once again, blogging saves the day and rescues me from a hobby funk. Huzzah! It still surprises me how therapeutic blogging can be at times. I should have started doing this much sooner. Well, that's all for today. I'll be back soon with more gribbly goodness. Catch you on the flip side.

...I feel like tacos.

Zoanthrope Conversion mk2 Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Translation: "And I'm spent."

Hey everybody, Chaosheade back again. I finally completed the second zoanthrope conversion with many improvements over the first conversion and would like to share the finished product with all of you. Pics and stuff after the jump.

Well, let's jump right to the good part. I put together a pic that shows the finished zoey from different angles so you can see the whole thing.

I debated whether I wanted to keep the talons or switch to the smaller claws but in the end (after trying them both on for size) I decided to stick to my guns and keep the talons. It might not be 100% canon but I like the look and in the end that's what really matters because it's my hive fleet. Overall I am very pleased with the model and while there are a few things that I would like to change for the next conversion they are all very minor tweaks that are not really an issue. I also just noticed that I forgot to file down the little glue bubble on the tip of the tail but that's an easy 2-minute fix. And now for a comparison pic.

Left: first generation. Right: much better generation.

I think that angle best shows how much improvement was made between the two conversions. All the changes really made a huge difference. Next I'll start getting to work on the third zoanthrope and put together that tutorial that I've been talking about. That's all I have for today so thanks for visiting, have a nice weekend, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Zoanthrope Conversion mk2 WIP

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

WIP picture of the new and improved Zoanthrope conversion.

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with a quick update on the progress of the new and improved second generation Zoanthrope conversion. I got a lot of work done and wanted to share my progress so far. The above picture shows my current progress on the second model using the improvements I outlined in my last post. More details on the specific parts and the changes I made after the jump.

I started with most of the same pieces as the first conversion with a few substitutions. I have the head crest, face, and basic shape of the head done, and the torso and lower body sections were cut up, shaved down, and glued together. On the first Zoanthrope I used a heat gun to bend the tail and mawloc tongue into shape and then cut and attached them together. This time around I cut them up and used plastic glue to bond them together before taking the heat gun to it. I am hoping that it will help me shape the tail section more easily and get it into a better position so this model will stand more upright than the first one.

Here's how to make a cheapskate's conversion even cheaper!

For the head section instead of the warrior head and face I chose to go with a hormagaunt head with the trygon head crest. The warrior face by itself is really small and the angles are thrown off when trying to attach it to the trygon crest. I also considered using a termagant head but decided to go with the hormagaunt head because it was a bit larger and the angles of the eyes, mouth, and chin worked better. I shaved off the top part of the hormagaunt head and glued it in place at the front of the crest. Once that was in place, I filled in all the empty space in the hollow crest and some additional space behind the head. This will help fill all that empty space so I don't have to use as much green stuff to sculpt the rest of the head and the brain which just adds to the savings. The new head is significantly larger than the previous one, is much closer to the official model, and just looks a lot better.

The left Zoanthrope got liposuction... except it was more like lipo-cutting. I wouldn't recommend it.

The other major change you can see is how I decreased the size of the hips on the warrior tail section. The hips on the first conversion were way out of proportion with the rest of the body and made the model look awkward. I cut off quite a bit of material and then smoothed down the front of the hips. I think I went a little overboard when cutting out part of the section that attaches the tail to the torso while trying to make it lean back more.

Yeah, it's a bit blurry. That's what I get for holding the models with one hand and the camera with the other.

The amount of difference the hip reduction made is really highlighted when viewing the models from the front. This is the angle that was most out of proportion due to the large hips. The second version is much closer to the official model and looks much less awkward. Below is a picture showing different viewing angles of the official model for comparison since GW apparently only wants to show one angle on their website. You can really see the difference that the smaller hips make and how much of an improvement they are over the regular warrior hips.

Side, front, and rear views of the official Zoanthrope model because GW apparently doesn't want us to see these angles.
by Jason-Alex-Young

And that's what I have so far. Next step will be whipping out my head gun and bending the tail into position and green stuffing the rest of the head and the brain, then putting it all together including the arms. I should have the second model done in the next couple days so stay tuned for more updates. Any comments, feedback, or anything else you want to say is always welcome. Until next time, this is Chaosheade signing out. Catch you on the flip side.

Zoanthrope Conversion Beta Test Model

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Beta version under construction
source

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with an updated look at the Zoanthrope conversion that I recently shared. I have made a few tweaks to the model and have several ideas on how to improve on the design. I will share pictures of the model in its current state and several ideas on how I plan on improving it. Full story after the jump.

I have recieved a lot of feedback from and owe thanks for many of these ideas to members of DakkaDakka and The Tyranid Hive who provided a ton of excellent feedback on my conversion. And now without further stalling for time I present to you the current beta version of the converted Zoanthrope. I did do a bit of work since the teaser pic I posted previously. The only major change was filing out the holes at the back end of the crest and adding a ridge down the middle of the top side to add some character and make it not just a flat plate extending from the plastic part. The rest was pretty much just a bit of cleanup.

This is as large as I could make the picture without going full size that would engulf half the screen including the right sidebar. You can, of course, click it for an unobstructed view of the full size version so you can see all the details. Thanks Blogger.

Overall, the feedback I received was quite positive but there are some trouble areas that I think need some attention.

The head
The brain.
The "hourglass" shape.
The arms.
The pose.

1. The Head

Another unsuccessful head conversion.

The head was definitely the #1 area of concern. You can clearly tell the current head looks like a warrior head and the green stuff extension isn't, mostly due to my inexperience with sculpting, what I would call... good. The solution that I will be using does add a bit to the cost but is quite manageable. I decided to use spare head crests from the Trygon/Mawloc kit which will provide several benefits. It will make the head longer so it is closer to the size of the head on the official model, it will allow me to lower the angle on the head so it's looking more downward like the official model, the change in the head angle in turn will allow me to make the body more upright so it's not leaning forward so far, it will make sculpting the brain much easier, and it will just look a lot better than what I was able to manage with my meager sculpting skills. I found the crests on eBay for about $2 each which is more than I was hoping to pay for them but considering all the benefits I think it is well worth the small additional cost. The Trygon/Mawloc kit comes with 3 different crests so if there are any Tyranid players in your area there is a pretty good chance that they will have extras. I am also considering using a Termagant or Hormagaunt head instead of the warrior face and if I do end up using a warrior face I will be swapping for the one without the barbed tongue. I'll just have to experiment and see which head/face works best.

2. The Brain

This is your brain on my sculpting skills.

The second area of concern is also due to my lack of sculpting skills and not having a solid plan ahead of time, and it is the brain. The first mistake I made was trying to do the crest extension and the brain all at the same time. This did not work out well because when I worked on the top part of the crest it would shift the brain around, but even worse than that was when I tried to work on the brain it caused the crest extension to shift around and screw up the alignment with the plastic part of the head. If I had done the crest first and then used the solid underside to work on the brain without it shifting around on me I think it would have turned out much better and I would have had a lot more time to work on the texture of the brain before the green stuff dried up on me, which turned out to be an issue. Using the Trygon head crest will also correct this problem because I will have a solid piece of plastic to work with instead of the green stuff that shifts with the pressure I am putting on the brain. The second mistake I made was not having a good plan on exactly how to sculpt the brain texture. I had a rough idea and thought I could make it look OK by just winging it but as you can see that obviously did not work. I need to have a plan of attack ready to go before I get to work. I am looking for a good tutorial on how to sculpt grey matter but in the meantime I did get a couple of suggestions. One was to make a long tube/rope/whatever of green stuff and lay that down on top of a basic shape. The other suggestion was using a toothpick or similar tool and instead of slicing at the brain, create the texture by poking holes in it. It's something I need to do a bit more research on.

Since writing this section I was pointed to a short but sweet tutorial on sculpting brains using the toothpick method. It looks like something I can handle fairly easily and looks pretty good too. I also really like the OP's Doom conversion using The Red Terror as a base. I was originally thinking about using a stock Zoanthrope as a base for my doom conversion but after seeing this one I changed my mind. Thinking about how awesome that Red Terror conversion would look with some Mawloc head pieces is getting me all excited. I think I need to go take a cold shower.

3. The "Hourglass" Shape

Looks good on a woman (maybe not quite so literally,) doesn't look right on a Zoanthrope.
source

This next issue was due to my choice of bits to use in the conversion. I didn't want my Zoey to look like a warrior with a big brain like a lot of other conversions I've seen so I chose to use a termagant body for the chest. The other reason for this is that I don't have a surplus of warrior chest pieces but I do have enough gant/gaunt bodies that I won't miss them if I steal a few for these conversions. Unfortunately, there are not many good substitutions for the warrior tail bit. The problem is that the warrior hips are huge compared to the waist on the termagant body. If you look at the model from the front (best view in the picture above is angle #3) you can see that rather than a fairly smooth taper from the chest to the tail like the official model, my plastic Zoanthrope has a teeny tiny waist and some huge friggin' hips. This really gives the model an unnatural look and kinda throws off the feel of the whole conversion. The official model does have a small waist but the hips are much smaller than the standard warrior ones so I need to put Zoey on a diet to shrink those hips. It will also help with the placement of the lowest level arms because the holes for the warrior legs are also pretty friggin' huge. Trying to attach the lower set of claws was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway.

4. The Arms

I'm not sure a caption is really necessary here.
source

There was some concern about using the talons and claws for the arms since Zoanthropes are supposed to be floating brains and basically have atrophied limbs. This is a valid point that I won't argue against but for my Zoanthropes I'm going to invoke the "Rule of Cool" and go for aesthetics over fluff because I personally think the talons look awesome. I wanted a more imposing looking figure even if my Zoeys can't take advantage of the talons in game. For those who prefer the more traditional arms you can always use the small claws on the termagant body, the trygon spikes, ripper arms if you can find a suitable set, or even sculpt some out of green stuff if none of those options appeal to you. One thing that I do need to change about the arms is make them more uniform rather than the 3 different types of arms that I have now. I am planning on stealing a second pair of hormagaunt scything talons for the middle arms and keep the trygon claws for the bottom pair but I will be re-positioning them so they are vertical like the official model instead of horizontal as I have them now.

5. The Pose

Not exactly relevant but good advice anyway.

An issue that seems minor but does have a significant impact on the overall feel of the model. The standard Zoanthrope is basically upright and slightly slouched back while my converted model looks more like it's lunging forward. The effect is that to some people it looks more like a ravener than a telekinetic alien brain monster levitating through the air. Of course a side by side comparison would easily show the differences but the leaning forward position does make the model look/feel wrong in a subtle way. This is pretty simple to fix, I just need to make the model more upright and re-pin it to the base. I might also make it float over the base a little bit or have some kind of rubble or something on the base for it to float on/over.

In Conclusion

So there you have it. The beta version of the model, the things that I think need to be changed, and how I plan on improving the model. I really think the second generation conversion will be a huge improvement over the current version. This conversion will save a huge amount of money compared to buying the official zoanthrope models. Chances are you will have a lot of the required bits lying around already or can scavenge them fairly easily and the bits that you are not likely to have available are inexpensive. Depending on how many bits you already have or can scavenge/trade for you could easily save $150-$200 off of the cost of buying 9 Zoanthropes at retail value. Once my bits arrive in the mail (should be any day now) I will get started on the new and improved conversion and tutorial. The first conversion was done almost all in a single day with a few changes/cleanup on the second day so there wasn't really any opportunity to post updates aside from the twitter feed sneak previews. If the second conversion takes longer than that I will post updates as I work on it. That's all I have for today so stay tuned for more updates and the new and improved Zoanthrope Conversion. Chaoshead signing out. Catch you on the flip side.

Hobby Update: I'm back in the game!

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:30:00 +0000

I'm back, baby!
found here thanks to google image search

Hey everybody, Chaoshead here and I'm very happy to announce that I'm back in the hobbying saddle again. After an extended hobby funk I finally got back to modeling. It started with getting over my blogging funk and then the rest of the bits just fell into place... and stayed there because I super glued them. *rimshot* I am also working on another major conversion that will save me a TON of money and, of course, I will be making a tutorial about the conversion soon. Full details after the jump.

A few months back when M4X came home to visit I mentioned that I had stuck my nids together with blu-tac so I could get them on the table and actually use them. The original plan was to clean the mold lines off of everything before assembly but with all the details and shortage of smooth easy surfaces on my gribblies, that turned out to be an overwhelming task, hence the need for the blu-tac in the first place. I abandoned that plan because it would take forever and a half to get my army up and running that way.

That's how I feel about mold lines and why I procrastinated so much on working on my army.

Between 3 or 4 different types of hobby knife blades (picked up a couple new ones for my b-day), needle files, and some good old fashioned liquid plastic glue to melt the more stubborn lines away, I think I have all the tools I really need to take off mold lines even on assembled models. Worst case is I can't reach them all but if I can't get to them with all the different tools I have then they probably won't be visible anyway. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I am not! In denial that is. Also that other thing.
found here

So with my harder, better, faster, stronger plan I grabbed some models, cleaned off all the blu-tac and instead of removing all the mold lines I concentrated on the stubs left from where the models attach to the sprue and took the mold lines off the pieces that connect together so I could, you know, connect them... together... Then it was super glue time. Side note: Dave G recently wrote an article about the different types of glue you might need in this hobby and has lots of good information on all of them. I learned a thing or two and even got to contribute a little bit. First I glued my 20 termagants together. The first 10 have the interchangeable weapons and the other 10 I haven't put arms on yet. Next came 16 genestealers, also with no arms yet. I assembled a trygon and got it magnetized so it can be a regular trygon or trygon prime and magnetized the arms so they can come off for transport. I am going to add pins (paper clips) to help them stay in place with smaller magnets and to help reposition them a little bit but I have to wait for my new drill bits to arrive because I bent my wookie... I mean my drill bit. Once I had done that I got the urge to do some real converting again and decided to save myself a metric f#&kton of money. That's a technical term by the way.

Before continuing to the next part, try to guess what this pile of bits will become.

These are the bits I will be using in my conversion. As our regular readers know, I'm a ~~cheap bastich~~ frugal gamer so paying $25 each for Zoanthropes just ain't gonna happen, especially since I eventually want to have 9 of them. There is no way in hell that I'm going to dish out $225 for 9 models so I decided to get my conversion on.

You will of course need a 40mm base but I already have extras and 'nid players get a bunch of them anyway for ripper swarms. I already have termagant bodies and even though I don't have enough for all the gants I want and all my zoeys that problem is easily remedied. By putting the termagant weapons on hormagaunt bodies I can have all the termies I need and since I have more hormagaunts than I need I'm not really losing anything. I'm also going to be stealing a pair of hormagaunt scything talons so it works out well in the end. The trygon kit comes with a ton of extra spiky things so those are easy to find. The 2 battleforces I procured includes kits for 2 boxes of warriors which means 3 extra heads per box, enough for my first 6 zoeys.

Saving money. Get it? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough cough* Ahem, now where was I?
found here

Now comes the part that actually cost me a bit of money. Warrior tails are only 3 per box, obviously not enough for 3 zoeys and 3 warriors, so I bought some more online for 1 GBP each and my brother found some more so I can make more zoeys, more warriors, or use them for converting hive guard in the future. The last bit is a Mawlock tongue. You can steal these from your trygon/mawloc kits since mawlocs kinda suck a little bit right now. If you're like me, however, you won't have 6-9 trygon kits lying around. I also found the Mawloc tongues online for 0.50 GBP each. I will also be using some green stuff which is super cheap if you buy Apoxie Sculpt. $15 for 1 lb. is freaking sweet IMO and even with shipping it's way cheaper than GW's crappy green stuff. Not included in the picture is a pair of Termagant fleshborer arms with the gun part chopped off. They were not in the original plan but since I already have a ton of extras thanks to my swappable termagant weapons it's no extra cost to me.

So, once my bits arrive in the mail I will have enough materials to make 6 Zoanthropes. Total cost to me: 6 hormagaunts minus the heads, a little green stuff, some bits that I already had, and less than $20 in bits that I didn't already have. What I get for my investment: $150 worth of Zoanthropes and I don't have to deal with 6 Finecast models. Sounds like major Win to me.

I apologize for the inclusion of this picture. Don't worry, my wife will punish me for it later.
found here

I will be writing up a full tutorial on how I made them once I get the first one finished. It's in the final stages and needs a bit of cleaning up and some tweaking. I already took the brain part off and re-worked it a little bit but I'm not entirely happy with the way the brain part turned out. I never claimed to be a pro sculptor and I think it shows here. It's the one part of the model that I'm not really pleased with. I need to figure out how to sculpt brains a little better or find a mold I can use or something. Aside from that I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Maximum Heresy's Twitter followers got a sneak preview of the bits pic above and the one below which is now available to the masses.

Nearing the final stages of completion. Prepare for mind blowing.
... no that's not innuendo you cheeky little dirty minded monkey.

And that's what I've been doing this past week. That and beating Space Marine single player campaign on "hard" when I needed a break (pro tip: hard is really not that hard.) The whole time I was telling Captain Titus to turn to chaos but apparently he wasn't listening. I plan on trying to finish up the first Zoanthrope tomorrow (today by the time this is posted) and maybe try to figure out how to sculpt a better brain. So stay tuned for more on my conversion and please feel free to leave comments, criticism, or whatever else you feel like you want to say, and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Adventures in Airbrushing Episode IV: Where do I buy this stuff?

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:30:00 +0000

Apparently airbrushes are not high on Google's priorities.
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Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with ~~a quick addition~~ another episode of Adventures in Airbrushing with commentary by M4XVLTG3. I wanted to go over different airbrush retailers and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each one. There is a very brief list in AiA Episode III on compressors but I want something much more comprehensive. The subject didn't really seem to fit in any of the other sections that are being worked on or are planned and it's something I wanted to discuss. This was originally supposed to be a quick and dirty guide but it ended up growing too long to be considered a small addition so it grew up to be a full episode. That seems to happen a lot when I get carried away with my research. More after the jump.
There are many different places where you can buy airbrush supplies both locally and online and each has their advantages and disadvantages.

Bet you can't guess the source of this pic.

Buying Locally
Brick and mortar stores usually cannot afford to offer the huge discounts that you can find at online retailers but there are still some significant advantages. One of the biggest advantages of buying from a brick and mortar store is that you can talk to someone and get advice and other useful information face to face. (If you prefer non face to face interaction, you're already in the right place.) Another advantage is that if something is wrong with your airbrush or it's giving you trouble you can just go back to the store rather than having to ship it back to wherever you got it from. It's also much faster to run to the store to buy your setup or to get more supplies, replacement parts, or more personal assistance than ordering online. Another advantage that should not be overlooked is the ability to actually see in person what you are buying, or even take it out for a test drive in some places. This eliminates the possibility of receiving your airbrush and finding out that it will not work for you, whether it doesn't fit your hand, you don't like the feel of it, or any other reason that I couldn't come up with. I know this is a big factor for me. I'm one of those people who have to feel the action of the brush before throwing cash on a setup. Also its kinda nice to see how loud that compressor is going to be before hand. Oh, you also don't have to pay shipping which can get expensive for big heavy compressors. So while you cannot rely on the steep discounts of online retailers there are definitely some advantages to buying in person and if you do it right you can still get a great deal.

Hobby Stores - Around here we have Michael's and Hobby Lobby. They have a limited selection and prices are high, but they regularly have coupons for 40-50% off one item that you can find in the newspaper, other ads, or online. If they happen to stock the models that you are looking for and you use the coupons, this could be a nice balance between price and convenience.
Stores Specializing in Airbrush Supplies - While you will most likely pay full retail price or close to it, these places will likely have a much wider selection available and a much more knowledgeable staff. They should be able to give you great advice and answer any questions you might have. If you are not on a tight budget and want the full service experience, then look for a store near you. If you have trouble finding one try asking your local paint shop or just do a search for "auto body shop supply" or something similar.
Hardware Stores - If you decide to buy a tool compressor this is probably where you will get it unless you order online from Habor Freight, Northern Tool + Equipment, or another online store. They may have some supplies but don't expect to find any good quality airbrushes suitable for our needs.

To make the picture more realistic, add another hand reaching out of the computer screen and jacking the woman's credit card.
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Buying Online
The advantages of buying online are pretty obvious. You can find huge discounts, you might save on sales tax, you don't have to burn time and fuel to drive somewhere, and you can shop in your underwear. It's easier to look at specific examples of online stores because hey, it's on the internet where anybody can access it while local stores are only good if you are near them. I am going to put all the websites into 3 different categories: airbrush supply retailers, art supply retailers, and general/auction sites.

Airbrush Supplies: Airbrush supply stores will likely have very competitive pricing and an excellent selection including not only airbrushes and compressors but also accessories, paints, and just about any other supplies related to airbrushing that you could dream of. The two online stores that are used most in this series are Chicago Airbrush Supply and Airbrush Depot (A.K.A. TCP Global) so I have more details on them than other stores but I will list a number of other retailers as well, I just won't have much info on them. After doing some more research I found that most online airbrush retailers do not carry a wide range of different brands with some only carrying 1 or 2. Chicago Airbrush Supply and Airbrush Depot seem to be the exceptions since they have a huge number of different brands available compared to other online stores. If you know of any that I missed, please don't hesitate to share and I'll also keep looking for other retailers to add to the list.

Chicago Airbrush Supply - This site comes highly recommended by several different sources. They have a great selection, very competitive prices, and sometimes offer free shipping deals. I have also heard that they have excellent customer service. Chicago Airbrush Supply seems like an excellent retailer and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
Airbrush Depot - (My personal Favorite) The biggest advantage that Airbrush Depot has over Chicago Airbrush Supply is that they carry the cheap knock-off brand airbrushes and compressors. Airbrush prices are very similar to Chicago's but compressors are generally a bit more expensive but not a huge difference in most cases. Their website is also a lot less user friendly but they do have a good selection. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Airbrush Depot but I think Chicago Airbrush Supply is generally better unless you want a knock-off brand airbrush/compressor which by many accounts are just as good as name brand products for a fraction of the price.
Coast Airbrush
TC Graphics and Paint
SM Designs - UK based website.
Airbrushes.com - also a UK based website.
Everything Airbrush - another UK based site.
Airbrushes Online - and one more UK based site.
AirbrushShop.com.au - this one is an Australian site for our friends down under.
Airbrush Manufacturer's Websites: You can buy direct from the manufacturer, usually at a higher price than the other online retailers. You are likely to get great customer service but I can't guarantee that for every airbrush company. I'm not going to list them all, a simple search should bring up whichever one you are looking for.

Airbrush art at it's finest. Here at Maximum Heresy we provide complimentary sarcasm with no hidden fees.
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Online Art Supplies: These sites deal in all kinds of art supplies rather than specializing in airbrush supplies. They usually have fairly competitive prices but cannot match the selection of the airbrshing dedicated sites. This could be an option if you also need some other supplies and want to make one large order rather than multiple smaller ones from different sources.

Dick Blick - A site that I use often for art supplies that I can't find in local shops like high quality paint brushes, the brand of artist's inks that I use, and other things when I don't feel like buying them one at a time with coupons at the local hobby store. They don't have a huge range of airbrush related stuff like the airbrush supply stores but they have a decent selection and pretty good prices.
Art Supply Stores Review - While I was surfing the net I stumbled upon this set of reviews by Top Ten Reviews which goes to 11, rating 11 different online art supply stores including Utrecht, Dick Blick Art Materials (listed above), Misterart, Cheap Joe's Art Stuff, Art Supplies Online, Rex Art, Pearl, Daniel Smith, Jerry's Artarama, Plaid, and finally on the second page is In2art. I do not have personal experience with any of the stores except Dick Blick so I think these reviews should help you find the right place better than I could. I did a quick search on each site to make sure there were no clunkers in there and every one except Plaid had a decent selection of airbrush supplies. I don't think any of them can match the variety of the dedicated airbrush stores, but that is to be expected.
Hobby Lobby - Pretty much the same as the retail store, but you can buy online and might find things they don't keep stocked in stores. Not a great selection but you can usually use the coupons.
Michael's - See Hobby Lobby above.

General/Auction/Other: Lots of stores also store or sell their wares online through their own websites or other websites to increase their customer base and create an online presence or just increase the size of their current online presence. You can also find individuals selling their equipment that can range from brand new to junk. If you decide to buy used equipment, make sure you read the Buying Used section below.

eBay - You can find just about anything on eBay and airbrushes are no exception. It's possible that you can find amazing deals but you could also get stuck with rubbish. Just make sure you shop around to make sure you are getting a good price and follow the usual rules for buying on eBay to make sure you don't get shafted and you should do fine.
Amazon - Another common sense website that you can find a lot of things on.
Hardware/tool supply online websites - Same as the brick and mortar stores but you can shop online and might be able to find things online that they don't have stocked in the store. Beware shipping costs for big tool compressors unless they do free shipping to your local store or have a free shipping special deal going on.

OMG it's the ultra-rare alternate cover art drawn by the lead developer's 2 year old child! I hope nobody beats me to it.
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Buying Used
Unless you want something cheap to play with or experiment with things that you don't want in your good airbrush, buying a used airbrush is a gamble. Unless the seller lets you take apart and inspect the airbrush (unlikely) and you know what it is supposed to look like ahead of time (only if you really do your homework first), you don't really know what condition the equipment will be in, especially when buying on eBay or other online source. You might be able to find a really great deal but if you end up with a clunker then you will really be kicking yourself for wasting money that could have gone towards a better brand new setup. Of course, if you just want a junker to scavenge spare parts from then this might be a good option. It's a lot like cars in that if you know how to fix that $500 beater more power to you. If you don't know or care how your car works go ahead and buy off the lot with a warranty.

Well, that's all I've got to say about that, we hope this information is useful. M4XVLTG3 and I will be back with another episode of Adventures in Airbrushing coming soon(tm)! Chaosheade signing out. Catch you on the flip side.

Painting the Pod, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:44:00 +0000

"Painting the Pod" sounds like it could be some clever euphemism for something else... too bad it's not.

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with a hobby update on the spore pods I created last week. I wanted to have a finished pod ready to show off today but couldn't figure out just how I wanted to paint them so I'll just have to start with the part that was successful. Those following Maximum Heresy on Twitter got a sneak preview of the pod with the base colors done. Details on this and my failed experiments after the jump.

I used my airbrush to do some zenithal highlighting going from VGC Bonewhite on the underside to VMC Ivory with VGC Dead White as the final highlight, the same technique I am using for the skin on the rest of my Tyranid army. That part worked well and you can see the darker shadows beneath with the brighter color on the top of the pod.

After I got the base colors down, painting the slime/tentacles got a bit more tricky. I tried several different methods but couldn't find one that I was satisfied with. Since the fleshy bits on the rest of my army will be purple I decided to make the slime purple as well. I experimented with a purple wash and a couple different shades of purple paint but couldn't really nail down something that looked right. It's so bad that I almost don't want to even share it but it won't do me any good to hide my failures so here she is. Try not to look too closely, I don't want to hurt anybody's eyes. Also, if you have any mirrors facing your computer screen you might want to move them.

Click the pic for larger view

Before I started painting the pod I knew I used too much glue and that the second pod looked much better, but when I started painting the slime it really hit me just how much of a ~~clusterf-~~ difference all that extra glue makes. There is so little exposed "flesh" beneath the slime that the whole thing will probably look like one big ball of purple goo when I'm done. I considered adding some of the metallic blue that I use for the armor plates of my other gribblies but I don't even know where to put it with there already being so little real estate underneath the glue. Well, let's get down to the different experiments.

On the left half of the picture, far right I first tried just a straight purple wash that worked about as well as it did when I tried it on the skin of one of my little gribblies... not very well. After that failed I tried some VMC Royal purple with VMC Purple highlights and the wash (left of the straight wash) that ended up too dark. After that I tried some VMC Purple with the wash (left of the Royal Purple) and out of all the things I tried I think this method worked the best. Unfortunately when I tried to duplicate it on the opposite side of the pod (right half of the picture) I laid down too many layers of paint and made it much darker than I intended. In an act of "why not, I'll try it even though it's probably a stupid idea" I tried dropping the wash onto the model straight from the bottle which was the worst result of them all (left half, far left.) I knew it probably wouldn't work well because the parts that I wanted to paint purple were raised and the wash, doing what it is supposed to do, ran down the cracks and onto the skin of the pod that was supposed to be white/off-white. You can even see where I flirted with drybrushing the purple paint onto the pod and had no success at all (left half between dropped wash and VMC Purple, at the bottom.)

So there it is in all it's... uh... glory? Another chapter in the Hive Fleet Balor saga. While writing this I did come up with the idea of mixing up some of the watered down metallic purple that I drybrushed onto the blue armored plates of my test models. If only I could figure out a way to incorporate some of the metallic blue into the skin somewhere to simulate some armored plating I might really have something good. In any case, I'll keep working on finding something good and will stay open to suggestions should anybody have any ideas on different things I could try. Until next time this is Chaosheade signing off. Catch you on the flip side.

Modeling Tutorial: Cheap and Easy Mycetic Spore Pods

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:12:00 +0000

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with another tutorial. Our subject this time is Mycetic Spore pods, the Tyranid version of drop pods. This is just one of the many units in the codex that does not have an official model, making it a prime candidate for substitution, conversion, etc. There are a number of tutorials out there most often using foam balls or eggs but most of them were either too much work or just didn't look good to me. There are also some models made by other companies such as Plasma Hatcher toys (~$20 or more depending on availability) or the models from Chapterhouse Studios ($35) and Mr. Dandy ($42-48) but these options are quite expensive. I finally found one that really caught my attention in this thread on The Tyranid Hive forums. This method is much more economical than purchasing one of the 3rd party models and in my opinion looks better and is easier to make than any of the other methods I researched. I can't take credit for the original idea but what I have done is create a formal step-by-step tutorial that more fully explains the process of making these spore pods. More after the jump.

The materials:

A base for your model such as an old CD that you don't want or need any more.
An "outdoor play ball." You may have some laying around but I found them at the local sports store (in the baseball/softball aisle) and picked up half a dozen of them for around $25, less than the cost of just one of the comercially available spores. The ones I picked up have logos imprinted on the top and bottom but those will be easy to cover up.
Hot glue gun and glue. Mine is dual temperature and I used the "high" heat setting for this project. I bought the hot glue gun about a year ago mainly for terrain projects and it cost about $20-25, but you can get a basic one for as little as $5. Glue sticks are also inexpensive, just make sure you match the right temperature glue with the temperature of your glue gun. If you get a high heat gun, get high heat glue. Multi-temp glue is a little more expensive but can be used in any glue gun. Also compare the prices on the long and short sticks. I found that the longer sticks are more economical and don't need to be refilled as often but the shorter sticks are easier to manage, especially if you have a smaller glue gun.

Total Cost: Just a little over $25 for 6 spore pods counting the cost of the glue sticks used. If you do not already have a hot glue gun and glue, add ~$10 to the cost for a basic setup or more for a nicer one that you can use for a variety of projects.

I used a CD that got a bit scratched up, left out in the rain, and was just generally ruined. Like I said, it doesn't have to be pretty and it's going to be painted over anyway.

The Method in a Nutshell:

Glue ball to base
Make glue tendrils
Paint

Simple as that. Well, not quite. It takes a bit of ~~finesse~~ ~~awesomeness~~ practice to perfect the technique but even if you screw it up (like I did the first time) it still doesn't look bad. We are creating an alien ball of biomass that plummets to the ground from orbit, smashes open to spew out its payload and flails around a little bit with its tentacles before it dies. In other words, it doesn't need to be pretty. trooperpx the author of the forum thread where I got the idea shares his method in post #7 of his thread.

"In the first pic, I use some blobs of hot glue to keep it in place at the angle I want. I use hi-temp hotmelt glue in a variable hi/low gun. On hi temp the glue will flow and spread out a little. On low it will keep it's shape better. Use the tip of the gun like a pen, and "draw" the glue on. Practice will help you keep pressure on the trigger for an even line.

So then I begin following the dimples in concentric rings from the inner out, second pic. I've been sculpting with hot glue for a long time, so it may take you awhile to get the hang of it. You need to be able to "feel" how hot the glue is by the preassure/resistance on the trigger. On hi, put a bloop in one of the dimples, then "draw" a line out down to the base. Let gravity do the work making a drip. For the lower hemisphere I just went straight down. Following a previous line will allow the other to cling and support it a little, allowing it to be a little thicker.

For the upper hemisphere I follow the longitude of the ball... like the tendrills off a jellyfish. Following most of the lines will allow more of the ball to show through and build up the mass/diameter. Then on the last ring of dimples, I might go inbetween previous lines to draw attention to that last added detail."

Gravity will do a lot of the work for you and the more you let gravity help the more realistic looking your goo tendrils will be. It took me a little while to get the hang of the steady trigger pressure and glue flow but it's easily done with a little practice. He also recommends practicing on something like an empty coke can before starting on the spore pods but I decided ~~I was too good for that~~ to learn by doing and jumped right in. I think I used too much glue on the first one but the second one ended up looking pretty good. You will see the difference at the end of the tutorial.

I did have some trouble deciphering exactly what he meant in some parts of his explanation but I was able to figure it out and the method is not super complicated. I'm also somewhat familiar with hot glue already so I was able to figure it out pretty quick. Now I will show the WIP pictures of the creation of my second spore pod. As you will see in the pictures the balls have a number of "rings" of dimples going around it horizontally. I started with the lowest ring and just worked my way up one ring at a time using the high heat setting on the hot glue gun.

If you look reeeealy close you can see a little gap where the CD warped.

Attaching the ball to the base: I just laid down a ring of glue around the center hole of the CD and put the ball on it. Nothing complicated but be careful because the CD can warp slightly during this step. It happened to this pod and as you can see it's not a huge amount. It's hardly even noticeable and will not have any real impact on playability, but you should be aware that it can happen.

You can see different parts of the glue with and without the camera flash so I have them both together to let you get a better idea of how the whole thing looks.

Lowest rings: Unless your glue gun has an abnormally long nozzle it can be tricky to squeeze in between the ball and the CD to hit those dimples. The way I did it was hold the pod horizontal (rotate the pic 90 degrees or tilt your head sideways if you need help visualizing) and let a drop fall into the indentations, then turn the pod right side up so gravity can pull the glue down to the base. I didn't worry about making a solid line of glue from the ball to the base on every one. It will most likely be covered up by further layers and personally I think it looks good with some drips hanging in mid air at different levels not touching the ground. You can apply the glue to one dimple at a time but I went for 3-4 at once to speed things up and it worked fine.

My camera has a mode where it takes 2 pictures in rapid succession. One without flash and one with flash so you basically get 2 versions of the same picture. A lot of the time I end up discarding half of the pictures from that mode but it turned out to be very handy for this project.

Lower half of the ball: If you are using high heat a lot of the tendrils will be very thin or break and leave a blob on the ball and one on the ground. Again, don't worry about this. Most of those will either end up hanging or get covered up by the glue from higher tendrils. It will look great in the end.

Check out my super expensive extra fancy high tech elevation enhancer with H2O ballast. I can taste your jealousy from here.

Around mid way you can cheat: Once I got to the point where I did not need to tilt the pod to get at the dimples I used my high tech elevation enhancer to raise it up to a level that was easier to work at and easier on my back. YMMV but I found it very helpful.

Check out those layers. It's really starting to come to life.

The upper levels: At this point the dynamics of your tentacles will change (see how smart I am with my big boy words?). They will tend to be thicker as they flow down the side of the pod because they have something to cling to and attempt to defy the gravity that strung out their lower brethren and pulled them apart. This is where trigger control starts being more important to get a nice even flow. Keep letting gravity do most of the work and be careful not to glob too much glue on the side of the pod. This is when you really start to see the layering effect, especially if you left the globs hanging off at different levels.

It's aliiiiiiive! *maniacal laughter*

Getting to the top: Same as the upper levels but with more surface area to cover before the drop to the base. Keep your trigger finger steady and just keep going at it. By this point you should have a good idea of what you are doing. Just keep at it, you're almost done!

Gross. I like it!

And I'm spent: Finally finished with all the hot glue, now it's into the light tent for some glamour shots. Here you can see a side by side (or top by bottom I guess) comparison between the first and second pods with the bottom one being the first. There is quite a bit of difference between the two. The second pod used up less glue and looked better doing it. The first one is also more tilted at more of an angle than the second one but it's not a large difference. I do still need to cover up that logo on the second pod but that will be easy. So there you have it. Now it's time to fire up the airbrush and get some paint on this baby... tomorrow maybe.

So now you know a cheap, easy, fast, and effective Mycetic Spore Pod conversion. Once you get the hang of it you can easily pump these babies out in 30-60 minutes and they shouldn't take too long to paint. My current plan is to prime and base coat with my airbrush (spray paint will work too) and then add some purple wash to the tentacles to match the fleshy bits on the rest of my army. If the wash doesn't do the trick I'll probably use some purple paint but I imagine the tendrils being more gooey than fleshy so I'll see how the wash does first. That's all for today so stay tuned for the next part and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Evaluation Period Over (First and only thoughts on fincast)

noreply@blogger.com (M4XVLTG3) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:14:00 +0000

After spending a afternoon with a few boxes of finecast all I have to say is DOUBLE HERESY!! Which is normally a good thing on this site but holy jello pudding snacks this stuff is a mess. I'm finding extra resin pooled behind claws and let's not talk about thining around detailed edges. I thought they had the process down to a science by now. I guess not. The part that really grinds my gears is that I'm paying the same price for this bs. Pic related, its MFW I spend twice as long preping finecast models than I did with my metal ones.

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Mixing Quick Reference

noreply@blogger.com (M4XVLTG3) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:20:00 +0000

Hello my beautiful cultists. M4X here to let you know Chaosheade and I are considering Putting a quick mix guide in the main menu section. Basically it would be one place to get the parts breakdown for basic wash mixtures and paint cutting/thinning formulas. What do you guys think? If you have any mixes of your own that you want to share comment them at the bottom of the post. If we use it we will give you the recognition in our mixing section. Let us know if this would be something useful to you.

I have lots of recipes to share for all kinds of applications. I'll start working on putting them all in one place.
P.S. I've decided to use green as my added comments color. Blogger's blues are either too light to be manly enough to use or too dark to read against the black background. -CH

New Blood Angel corrupted jumper project

noreply@blogger.com (M4XVLTG3) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:35:00 +0000

So after two weeks of leave and brain mashing with Chaosheade I have ~~scraped~~ put my IG traitors on hold. I'm now going to build a army I have not played since their inception into 40K. More after the jump.

To tell you the truth what finally spurred this was the incessant pounding I was taking from everyone with my Necrons. I really feel like I need a control group for my own purposes. I keep finding that may play style seems to be very hot and heavy. I like getting close to peoples units. Thats the first rule of guaranteed failure with crons. So until LORD Matt Ward issues my SuperHeroGodLikeEpicXenoLikeSomeKindOfTacticalGeni-CREEEEEEEEEED Codex I'll start on this new counts as army of mine.

Pic Related

After raiding all the bits bins in the North Texas area I have decided to make this Blood Angel army with a twist of lemon. Taken your general Null Deployment assault list and mixed in some Chaos for good measure. I Will be using sorcerer models as HQ, Raptors as jet-pack honor guard, jump pack lords for Sang Priests and normal Speesh Mariens for everything else. Well except if a few random mutations in brightly painted red squads. Nothings more neat-o than a valiant squad falling from grace. Decent of Angels? More like Decent of Demons. If course all the Chaos units will be painted in Alpha Legion Colors. My bits bin is full mutations and other ideas, I have one metric ton of meltas and, I even sprang for some Alpha pauldrons. I think this has potential so let me know what all you heretics think out there.

Thrones for the Throne-Skull!

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Dr. Chaosbugs, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Tyranids.

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:28:00 +0000

More of my sweet Photoshop skills... and just a little bit creepy.

Hey all, Chaosheade here again to regale you with another Tale of Interest. This is a story of war, of passion, of love and hate, of joy and sorrow, of frustration and satisfaction. This is a story of the relationship between a Heretic and a strange alien life form from another galaxy whose sole purpose is to consume biomass. This is a story all about how my life got flip- what? I already did the Fresh Prince thing? Oh... well... I guess I'll just get to it then.

Well, it's a new month and about time for me to get off my lazy procrastinating butt, then sit that butt down at the computer and get back to blogging. July has been all kinds of crazy this year. Good crazy, bad crazy, crazy busy, crazy fun, and just plain old certifiably insane crazy *boring details omitted*. I mentioned in my last post that M4X came home to visit for a few weeks but it had to end sometime and now he has left and abandoned us again, leaving me alone to cry myself to sleep at night. On the positive side, I have more free time for hobbying, woo. *half hearted cheer* If only I could have my cake and eat it too.

If you've been following the blog for a while you will already know that I ~~temporarily abandoned~~ took a hiatus from my Chaos roots, surrendered myself to the Hive Mind and began slaving away for several months preparing my Tyranids army. If not, then you know now. More recently I was experiencing some hobby fatigue due to the lack of progress that I have been making for several reasons. Just as I began to despair, I decided to throw some of my models together quickly using blue-tac so I could actually play a game with them. Picking up my Chaos Marines and playing the first game of 40k since last year and it helped rejuvenate my passion for the hobby somewhat, but playing with my blue-tacked hodge-podge "throw together any list I can with what models I have" Tyranid army was almost a religious experience. It was the most fun I've had playing 40k and made me truly appreciate my Tyranids. Since I started reading about them I really liked all the fun things they could do and the overall fluff and aesthetics of the army but actually putting some models on the table and playing a game was cathartic.

Source

M4X, my brother and I got quite a few games in, Chaos vs Crons, Nids vs Crons, Nids and Chaos vs Crons and vanilla marines, Nids and marines vs Crons and every one was a blast. I mostly played my null deployment Nids and there were quite a few highlights including every time my 20 devilgants dropped in and showered my enemies with wormy death, many near-disasters and a few real disasters with scatter dice that gave me a reason to hate them, as well as a great deal of respect for the amount of havoc a Doom of Malantai can wreak on a footslogging army.

Some lessons I learned:

20 Devilgants in a pod dropping in and unloading 60 shots is just as much fun as I thought it would be even if they have wet TP for armor and drop like flies, and I really want to make a tervigon to help support them and poop out more gants.
As for scatter dice, I found out that they don't like me much. One game looked like it would be a total disaster with almost every single deep strike scatter roll sending everything in strange directions that I did not want to go in, but I was saved when my non-scatter dice caught fire and laid waste to everything to make up for it. I was a good thing my spore pods and trygon could deep strike safely as long as they did not go off the board or I would have lost a lot of units, and my Flyrant was destroyed in one game and sent off into the far corner in another game and my blast weapons tended to miss their target about 9 times out of 10. No more HVC for Mr. Flyrant, I'm running twin devourers from now on!
Another harsh lesson that M4X learned the hard way: dropping a Doom in the middle of a foot slogging army is just plain nasty. Even with Ld 10, one bad roll or a few mediocre ones can easily bring the doom up to insta-gib strength that does not play well with We'll Be Back and makes it *really* tough to take the sucker down with limited Str 8+ weapons. Having 10 wounds and a 3+ invulnerable save is tough to chew through and several times soaked up an entire turn of shooting without dying just to gain the wounds back again in the next shooting phase. As devastating (and fun) as the Doom can be, it really is hit or miss and against mechanized armies I will have to be much less brazen with it.
Genestealers are fun, especially Ymargl stealers. They died almost every single game but they tore through plenty of enemies before biting the big one. Outflanking isn't always reliable so I even tried podding in some normal stealers and it still worked pretty well since there were lots of other threats on the table for my opponents to contend with.
I like Tyranids!

I want to get some gargoyles, but $29 for 80 points worth of models says they can wait.

So that's how I learned to stop worrying about all the obstacles ahead of me and all the tedious work I would have to put into the army to make everything perfect and learned to love every minute spent with my little gribblies even if it's tedious work like removing mold lines, because it is all worth it in the end. I never had this kind of experience with Chaos Marines thanks to the state of the current codex. I love the models and the game but the connection just wasn't there. The last few weeks were pretty inspirational for me and hopefully our readers will find the story more inspirational than boring. I've gotten back to work on Hive Fleet Balor and my current project is making some nice cheap spore pods so expect a tutorial on that coming up sometime soon(tm). Catch you on the flip side.

News time: M4X comes home, my brother makes a tutorial, and lots of blue-tac

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:57:00 +0000

Hey all, Chaosheade here with a breaking news bulletin. More like an update on what's happening, but the first one sound a lot more exciting.

I am so good at Photoshop

News Time: M4X, my hetero life mate and brother from another mother is back home on leave for a few weeks so we are finally getting a chance to hang out and play 40k again. I finally got a game of 40k in, the first I have played since the last time M4X visited around X-mas time last year. I gave his Necrons a good old fashioned ROFL-stomping with my Chaos Marines and it felt really good to actually get a game in. We played 1500 points and I used a quad god list with Tzeentch Princes, Noise Marines, Berzerkers, and Plague Marines with 3 units of obliterators thrown in. It was a much more shooty army than I typically play with and I wasn't nearly as aggressive with them as I normally am. M4X brought warriors, immortals, and lots of destroyers with a destroyer lord. The game was C&C with 4 objectives, pitched battle deployment. My princes went forward and wrecked face while my troops captured objectives and the obliterators obliterated things with lots of dakka. Trash talk was exchanged, good times were had, and the forces of Chaos phased out the mechanical horde at the top of turn 6. I might try to put together a battle report for the next game we play if that's something people might be interested in reading.

Plug Time: My brother from... the same mother has also been working on a 40k blog entitled Ferrus Fair. He's a big old fluff bunny and Emperor loving loyalist scumbag. He's been keeping his blog on the down low for a while and figures it's now ready for public consumption. He's got some fluff written for a couple home-brewed space marine chapters (and it's actually not too shabby for loyalist propaganda) and has just put together a tutorial on painting camo cloaks so go ahead and check it out, maybe leave a comment. If you won't do it for me, then do it because he's actually got some decent stuff posted ;-)

And now for something completely different: My Tyranids are calling to me, desperately wanting to see some action on the field. As my progress with the army has been slower than dial up, I decided to try slapping my army together using blue-tac type stuff so I can get them on the table. I think getting some time in with my little gribblies will help jump-start my motivation to get back to the grind stone and get some 'nids assembled and maybe even painted. If the blue-tac works it will definitely help me with my motivation as I can play with them while I take my time assembling and painting them rather than being frustrated at how long it's taking to remove those @@$ %*\#( $@*^$ #% ^)@(!$&*(#$# $(*^ *!$ mold lines. I'm still having some trouble finding the time to get much done but I think things are going to get better in that area soon, for real this time. If I can't find the time, I will MAKE the time. And that's all I have to say about that.

So that's what's been happening around here. Still slowly working on things, hopefully picking up speed soon. M4X and I are also working on a design for making some Maximum Heresy T-shirts. I'll have to get on his ass about writing something for the blog since it's actually within kicking distance now and I know where he's sleeping for the next couple weeks. That's all for now so until next time stay heretical and I'll catch you on the flip side.

A short absence: RL strikes again

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Hey everybody, Chaosheade checking in. As you probably figured out from the title, real life has once again come between me and what I love doing. My spare time has been very scarce lately and I haven't even picked up any of my minis in a week or so. I won't go into all the details but there's been lots of things going on creating lots of stress for us. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still here and still reading even though I'm not writing or commenting nearly as much as I would like to be. I haven't forgotten or abandoned you and hopefully it will be back to business as usual soon. Until then, stay cool and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Tyranids hobby update, a little news, and a bit of a funk.

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:30:00 +0000

Hey all, Chaosheade here after taking a few mental health days off. I figured I would share my progress on my Tyranid army so everyone can point and laugh at my incredibly slow progress. This will also serve as a pseudo-update to the 'Magnetizing' Without Magnets Tutorial that will probably get a real update sometime in the not too distant future. I'll get into the reasons closer to the end of the post. More after the jump.

First, a short news break. I haven't gotten any posts up or much progress on my nids but I haven't been completely neglecting you. I have tweaked the blog a bit, improved the RSS feed, and added a low-res viewing option for those with slower connections or whatever the case may be. I also did something that I swore I would never do... I created a twitter account. You can see the twitter feed on the left side of the main site. I won't twitter what I am doing every second of the day or let you know every time I fart, but it is a useful tool for quick updates to the blog that don't warrant a post by themselves. I have also created a Deviant Art account for hosting pictures of my minis and pics that I take for tutorials and such so I don't run out of room on the default Picasa account that blogger uses. Now that that's out of the way, on to the pictures.

First up is a unit of 10 termagants with interchangeable weapons with fleshborers.

Have I told you all how awesome I think the fleshborer barrels look with the devourer arms? Seriously, I just love how the two pieces combine to make something greater than the sum of the two parts. Most of them are mated up and line up well except for the one right out in front. Figures it would be the one that is front and center, damn you and your laws, Murphy! I have had some thoughts about how to deal with the gaps that I covered in this DakkaDakka thread advertising the tutorial.

And here are those same 10 gants with the standard devourer barrel attached. The conversion process to make the weapons interchangeable is pretty tedious and time consuming and I ended up bending my drill bit a little in the process.

Above: 3 test models including a Two Face wannabe.
Below: Don't worry about the genestealers, they're mostly armless *rimshot*. On the right is the first attempt at testing the original paint scheme. That plan went belly up pretty quick once I got to the actual painting part.

And here is everything else I have gotten done. Seriously, that's it. 18 models assembled, 4 without arms, and 4 with incomplete or crappy and sloppy test paint jobs. That's all I have to show after a couple months worth of work while in the same time frame other bloggers who started at around the same time I did or even later have a large part of a functional army all assembled and even painted.

The going has been slow for a number of reasons. (This is where you skip to the end if you don't care.)

So much to do, so little time. I just don't have a lot of free hobby time and I have to share that time between following other blogs, writing for my own blog, and actually getting some hobby stuff done when I can squeeze it in.
Mold lines, the bane of my existence. I am really anal about mold lines and cleaning up my models. Cleaning and assembling 1 model per day isn't too bad for an MEQ army but for a horde army with 5 times the model count it's not so great. I used to not mind removing mold lines too much when most of my army was smooth surfaces but now I hate them with a burning fiery passion. I need to find a better and faster way of getting rid of the mold lines or quit being so anal about them.
Conversions, awesome but time consuming. Converting all those termagant weapons takes a while to get done properly. Drilling 4 holes, gluing 2 pins, and lots of careful measuring and planning to ensure proper alignment eats up precious hobby time and adds to the tedium but at least I have something to show for my work.
Tedium, brought to you by Mold Lines, the official sponsor of brain atrophy. It is very easy to get bogged down with being a perfectionist when you are planning on making 40 termagants and 20 hormagaunts to start off with. I would get frustrated and just couldn't stand the thought of removing the mold lines from another 50 intricately detailed models so I had to add some ~~distraction~~ entertainment to help me keep going. I started re-watching Archer while cleaning my models which helped immensely. I get to laugh and be entertained while working so I don't get sick of it after 20 minutes. Podcasts and audiobooks also help with this. I used to do the audiobook thing all the time before I moved and I don't know why it took me this long to figure out that I should start doing that again.
Real Life; or, the world outside of 40K. Working 7 days a week and trying to fit in sleep and time with the wife and 2 year old son is one of the reasons for #1: lack of time. Love my family, don't love my job, and trying to find a new one is also taking up time. There was also 2 Father's Day barbecues, one of which we hosted and I was grilling for. Then my brother visited and stayed for about 5 days which was awesome as many good times were had but also leaves less time for hobbying. Again, not that I mind. I enjoy spending time with my family.
Malaise, not as delicious as it might sound. This time for a change of pace, instead of a hobby funk, I just went into a general funk. Don't know why, but I suspect that lack of sleep was the main culprit. It's really important to get enough sleep, at least for me, or else it has a negative effect on many things. Working every single night does not help me get more sleep. Just one of the reasons why I am trying to get a new job.

Which leads me to the conclusion that the universe is simply conspiring against me.

Paranoid? Probably, but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.

And so there you have it. A little bit of news about the site, a few pictures, and a bit of a rant that ended up being much longer than I originally intended it to be. Many of you might not care, but it's good to get it off my chest and share what I've been going through even if nobody reads it. I will continue working on my nids with my priority being getting some more models mostly assembled, meaning without arms in most cases, so I can have at least something to work with so I can start having some fun playing my new army with my friends. It's been a long time since I actually got a game in and I think playing again would really help me get back into my 40k groove. I will also continue working on the Adventures in Airbrushing series with the next post covering additional tools and accessories for airbrushing besides the airbrush and compressor. That's all I've got for now so until next time, take it sleazy and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Adventures in Airbrushing Episode III: The Compressor Quandary

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:34:00 +0000

Or, which compressor should I buy? Similar to Adventures in Airbrushing Episode I, in Episode III I will be listing some guidelines on which compressor to buy as well as some examples. If you haven't read it already, be sure to check out Episode II for an in-depth guide to many of the benefits and features available to be sure you know what you are looking for. So get ready, sit back and let me, Chaosheade, and M4XVLTG3 guide you on your own personal compressor journey.

Where to Buy - General List

Online Airbrush retailers. A couple good online retailers are Airbrush Depot and Chicago Airbrush Supply but don't just take my word for it - find the retailer that is right for you.
Home improvement stores. Any of your local stores or online at Harbor Freight Tools or Northern Tool & Equipment.
Online art retailer of your choice such as Dick Blick. If you go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's either in person or online don't forget to use one of the coupons they regularly issue for 40% or more off a single item.
eBay, Amazon, or any other place where you can find a good deal.

I just want to add that there are large savings that can be made when you perform market research from the very beginning. Ten dollars here and there can add up. That's funding for your next big model! Yep, that's one of the reasons for creating this series.

The Quandry: Which compressor to buy?

Now it's time to get to the meat and potatoes of the article. First we will look at the non-hobby compressors and compare a few of them. After that, we will look at the many varieties of hobby compressors and give you a nice range of compressors to choose from or compare with any other compressor you might have your eyes on.

Non-Hobby compressors:

As you probably know by now I'm ~~a cheapskate~~ very frugal when it comes to buying my gaming and hobby supplies. Ok, that applies to pretty much everything else too but that's beside the point. I figured I would probably get the best bang for my buck by buying a non-hobby compressor, especially if I could find an inexpensive one. For airbrush use there really isn't a whole lot of difference between non-hobby compressors aside from quality and size. Here's a few examples of what you can get in various price ranges.

Campbell Hausfeld 1 Gallon Pancake Air Compressor ~$55 in store

At first this seemed like a pretty good buy. It's nice and cheap, it's got an air tank, and did I mention it's cheap. I would need to buy a filter/moisture trap but I could get one for about $8 and the only other thing I would need to worry about is the right size hoses and adapters if necessary. My inner cheapskate liked it, but I didn't know how loud it would be. A little more research led me to Walmart's website where I found some reviews. 3.3 stars out of 5 didn't look great but I dug deeper and after reading some reviews I quickly lost interest in this compressor. Lots of complaints about the compressor being extremely loud, even louder than most other non-hobby compressors and more than a few people complaining that it crapped out on them after about a year

The Verdict: Don't even think about it unless you're reeeeeealy desperate for the cheapest compressor you can possibly find. It will probably do the job but the prospect of having to replace it after using it for a year defeats the whole purpose of saving money on a cheap compressor. It's like buying el cheapo paint brushes versus buying good quality brushes and taking good care of them. You save money initially by buying the cheap brushes but you have to keep replacing them and they end up costing you more money in the long run. I decided to stay away from the Campbell Hausfeld brand compressors.

Central Pneumatic 3 Gallon, 100 PSI Oilless Pancake Air Compressor - on sale for $60

Similar to the previous compressor but with a larger air tank. With shipping it is a little more expensive than the Campbell Hausfeld and also requires the moisture trap, air hose and possibly adapters. The reviews on this one are much more positive and most of the negative reviews are due to someone trying to use a cheap entry level compressor for more pressure-intensive air tools that it simply is not designed to work with. It's like buying a BB gun and going bear hunting with it and then complaining that it didn't work. Of course it's not going to work on a bear, it's a damn BB gun! LOLZ

The Verdict: Seems like a fairly solid compressor that offers good value for the amount of money you are spending on it. With shipping, moisture trap, air hose, and everything included you can get a decent setup for under $100. All in all this seems like a decent deal.

Central Pneumatic 2-1/2 HP, 10 Gallon, 125 PSI Air Compressor - On sale for $150

The big boy. If you like fast cars, big trucks, greasy burgers, and want a compressor that will jack you in the jaw and say "thanks for comin' out" then take a look at something like this. This type of compressor is definitely more than you really need for airbrushing but its huge tank and powerful compressor does have some advantages. No hobby compressor will ever be able to offer this much power and air tank capacity, especially not for the same price. A compressor like this one will let you fill the tank during the day when you won't wake everyone up and the 10 gallon tank should give you several hours or more of continuous airbrushing without any compressor noise at all. Periodically you might find a similar compressor on sale at your local home improvement store for about $100.

The Verdict: If the word "overkill" is not in your vocabulary or if you want a huge air tank that will let you keep working for hours without running the compressor at all you might want to look into something like this. Make sure you have the space for something like this because it's not small. No, no, no. I'm torn! I think this compressor reflects the manliness that is inherent in my manliness, but I could use the space that I would save with a smaller compressor for a shelf for drying my models...

Review:
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of tool air compressors out there. Just find the one that will get the job done for the right price.

Not quite, but close. Also, very interesting. I might have to check this one out.

Um, Sir? This is a excellent movie. It it available on Netflix as of last month.

Its a subbed movie but if that does not scare you your in for a great and entertaining movie.
You know subbed movies don't scare me. Hell, I watch most Engligh language movies with subtitles since my hearing is screwed up from sticking my head in running helicopter engines.

Hobby Compressors:

There is much more variation between different hobby compressors than the non-hobby compressors. Hobby compressors come with a much wider variety of styles, features, and just about everything else. For this section, I'll go for the cliche'd The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly ratings. The Good will give you the best bang for your buck. The Bad will not necessarily be "bad" per se, but they will not be as cost efficient or have some other minor flaw. Compressors that fall into The Ugly category should be avoided at all costs. If you even think about purchasing one of these, you should punch yourself in the genitals or wherever it would hurt the most until you decide to buy one of The Good compressors instead. For this section is it more important to know what the extra features do and which ones you do or do not want. Here is the link again so you don't have to scroll up to the top of the page: Adventures in Airbrushing Episode II.

That's good, right? Better yet, don't watch the American version with half the action cut out and terrible voice acting where half the characters change voices 2-3 times throughout the series. The original Japanese version is completely different. Subs, not dubs! /rant off

Basic Models: Single piston compressors with few or no extra features past a hose and regulator/moisture trap. Definitely not the best you can get but if you're on a tight budget these will push enough air to get you going.

Good: Airbrush-Depot Model TC-20 and TC-06 - $109.98

Basic off-brand compressor. The TC-20 comes with an 1/8" air hose connection while the TC-60 is slightly more powerful and has a 1/4" air hose connection. Both compressors are much more powerful than any other compressor at this price range and should handle anything you want to use them for. The only concern is that it is an off-brand but it does come with a full 2-year warranty so you should be able to get it fixed/replaced if something goes bad.

Good: Badger 180-10 Whirlwind - $154.95
This one is really starting to push the envelope between The Good and The Bad. It has an on/off switch, suction cup feet and claims to run 30 PSI for most airbrushes. A little more expensive but a solid choice for a basic compressor.

Bad: Paasche D500SR - $104.95

The cheapest name brand basic compressor. If you don't trust the no-name brand but don't want to pay for the "big names" the Paasche offers a nice happy medium. Will push 20-25 PSI depending on your airbrush. This may be a little lower than you need if you want to prime/base coat your whole army at 30+ PSI but for most other uses it will do fine. This would be in the Good category if it were not for the Paasche D300R in the mid-range section that offers more power and features for only $10 more.

Bad: Airbrush-Depot Model TC-09 - $149.95
Similar tot he TC-06 but more powerful. Also has the 1/4" connection. This is simply way more power than you need and you can save money by buying the TC-06.

Bad: Iwata Sprint Jet IS-800 - $189.95
Working pressure up to 35 PSI. Very similar to the basic compressors of other brands but you pay a premium because it says "Iwata" on it. I'm sure it's a good compressor, but I'm equally sure that the Badger, Paasche, or even the Airbrush-Depot compressors will work just as well for much less. If you're in love with Iwata then go for it, but I can't rate it with The Good since one of the points of this series is to save money.

Ugly: Airbrush-Depot TC-60 "Salon Air", TC-18 "Salon II", and TC-16 "Elephant Shaped Mini Compressor"
You should probably avoid anything with "Salon" in the title. These are much weaker than The Good compressors in this category and will cost just as much or more when you add in the cost of the moisture trap and anything else you will need to make this work with your air brush. The "Salon Air" is particularly bad since it costs $20 more than the more powerful and more functional TC-20 or TC-06.

Ugly: Iwata Ninja Jet IS-30 - $129.95
Iwata should be ashamed of this piece of garbage. There is simply no excuse for a compressor with a retail price of $250 for a 1/12 HP compressor that only has a working pressure of 5-18 PSI, especially from the company that is generally considered the Cadillac of the airbrushing world. This thing is weaker than the salon and novelty elephant shaped compressors. Don't let the brand name fool you. All this compressor will be is a very expensive, albeit stealthy, paperweight.

Ugly: Iwata Silver Jet IS-50 - $142.95
Similar to the "Salon" compressors. At least it's more powerful than the Ninja Jet PoS...

The bad touch... not really that bad.

Mid-Range: More features than the basic models but do not come with all the bells and whistles like an air tank. A compromise between price and function.

Good: Paasche DA300R - $114.95

A step up from the D500 compressors that comes with an auto shut-off and pushes 20-35 PSI depending on the airbrush. About $10 for an auto shut-off and a little more power seems like a good deal and will probably save money in the long run due to less wear and tear on the compressor. I would definitely recommend the DA300R over the D500.

Good: SilentAire Scorpion I - $148.85

A brand that, as you can tell by the name, prides itself on quiet operation with sound levels "barely above a whisper." Comes with an on/off switch, auto shut-off feature, and operates up to 30 PSI. It does come with a plastic coiled air hose (meh) and the picture shows an airbrush holder but I can't confirm that the holder comes with the compressor.

Good: Paasche DA400 - $159.95

Probably the only dual piston compressor that will be in the Good category. It offers significantly more power than the other Paasche compressors, pushing 35-50 PSI depending on airbrush so you won't have to worry about having enough power and is still fairly reasonably priced. Comes with an auto shut-off.

Good: Badger 180-12 Cyclone - $189.98

Another model that is very similar to it's little brother, the Badger 180-10, but adds an auto shut-off feature. Same advantages/disadvantages but is really pushing the price envelope between the Good and the Bad. It should probably call Kenny Loggins because it's in the danger zone. You know, from Top Gun.

Bad: Harder & Steenbeck Euro-Tec 10A - $199.95

I have to draw the line between the Good and the Bad somewhere and the Badger Cyclone was already really pushing it for the price. The Euro-Tec has the auto shut-off like all the Mid-Range compressors and has a working pressure up to 36 PSI with a .2mm needle but only 21 PSI with a .6mm needle which puts it on the weak end of the power spectrum, especially for the price. This lack of power puts this compressor firmly into the Bad category. It will handle detail work but not base coating at high pressures and at $200 a compressor really should be able to handle base coating.

Bad: SilentAire Scorpion II - $213.20

A more powerful dual-piston version of the Scorpion I (up to 55 PSI instead of 30) with lots of extra features including 2 air hoses and a table top airbrush holder. This one also falls into the "more power than you need" category. It's got plenty of power and extra features but nothing that you really need or that would justify spending over $200 on a compressor for painting miniatures.

Bad: Iwata Smart Jet IS-850 - $234.95

Basically the same as the Sprint Jet with an auto shut-off and built in airbrush holder. It seems very functional and is an Iwata so it should be a solid product but of course it also has the inevitable Iwata price premium.

Bad: Whisper Aire 1000 - $255.00

Falls into the same "more power than you need" category as the Scorpion II. It has enough power to push ~40 PSI which is more than we need, and it comes with the auto shut-off and a coiled air hose. I'm sure it's a nice compressor if you need the power but again it's hard to justify spending over $250 for a compressor to paint miniatures without a lot more features/extras.

Ugly: Iwata Smart Jet Pro IS-875 - $298.95

You may notice here that the specs are exactly the same as the standard Smart Jet. That's because this one is just a Smart Jet with a fancy looking case around it. That's it. An extra $65 for a case. I don't think anything else needs to be said about this one.

Ugly: Iwata Power Jet Lite IS-925 - $313.95

A dual piston version of the Smart Jet Pro. More power for a slightly larger price tag. It might be a slightly better value than the Smart Jet Pro considering the power you get out of it, but you don't need that extra power unless you are running 2 airbrushes at the same time and if you're doing that, you will probably want an air tank which, at over $300, the Power Jet Lite does not have.

Unlike the Ugly Duckling that grows up to be a beautiful swan, the Ugly compressors in this article will never grow up to overcome their weakness and become cost-efficient like their Good competitors. They just stay ugly.

Full-featured: These compressors have just about everything you could want and some of them are surprisingly affordable. In this category you will find the compressors with the highly recommended air tanks. There are not very many compressors in this category that are within our target price range.

Good: Paasche D3000R - $139.95

Now we're talking. The Paasche D3000R comes with an air tank, auto on/off, and quiet operation but with slightly less power. Like most Paasche compressors it is a bit on the weaker side at only 1/8 hp but it should be adequate for just about anything you want to do and comes with the peace of mind that you're not buying some knock-off brand but still getting a good price.

Good: Airbrush-Depot TC-20T - $149.98

With plenty of power and air flow, a 1L air tank, auto on/off, and quiet operation it's got all the features you could ask for at only $150. Like the other Airbrush-Depot compressors this one comes with a full 2-year warranty in case you are worried about the reliability of an off-brand compressor. Very likely this is a knock-off of the Paasche D3000R but with some extra power.

Bad: Airbrush-Depot TC-196 - $169.95

Also similar to the TC-20T but with even more power with a dual piston compressor. Same features as the 20T but way more power than you need unless you plan on running multiple airbrushes at the same time. The 20T or the Paasche D3000R are probably a better buy.

Ugly: SilentAire Scorpion II-TT - $341.25

It's a Scorpion II attached to an air tank for only $130 more. If you want to go this route, just pick up the standard Scorpion II and add an air tank and some adaptors from your hardware store and save about $75. You will have the same amount of power and features but with a much larger tank for a much smaller price tag.

Ugly: Iwata Power Jet Pro IS-975 - $415.95

If you want an Iwata with an air tank, be prepared to shell out over $400. Yep, that's the cheapest Iwata compressor with an air tank and completely blows the average shopper's budget all by itself. Comes with a 2L air tank, a case, and standard setup for running 2 airbrushes at once. If you're not seriously into airbrushing and don't have deep pockets, don't even consider this one. This is designed for professionals who need multiple setups, not for hobbyists that just want to throw a little bit of paint at some miniatures. Higher end models go up to almost $500 and past that into the thousands. Definitely out of the scope of this series.

And on the 42nd day I rested, having computed the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything compressor related.

Review:

Paasche compressors are definitely the cheapest ones out there but tend to be low on power. The exception to this rule is the DA400 which boasts some fairly impressive power for around $160.
Airbrush-Depot is a cheap off-brand that gives you a lot more power and all the same features for less money than most other makers.
Badger only makes a couple different compressors that seem to be very efficient but are on the borderline between a good deal and too expensive for what they do.
Iwata Compressors are ungodly expensive. I'm sure they are great compressors but I just can't get past the price.
The Basic SilentAire Scorpion I is a surprisingly good deal but the higher end models tend to be on the pricey side.
There are a couple others like the H&S Euro-Tec and Whisper Aire 1000 that are good compressors but not as cost efficient as competing models.

So there you have it. It might not have every single compressor on there but it's got 95% of the ones that are relevant to our interests. You have everything from the basic bare bones compressor to the really nice ones that come with an air tank and lots of fancy features and all the information you need to get the right compressor for you at the right price range. Also, don't forget that the Bad compressors are not necessarily bad, they are just not as cost efficient. If you have your heart set on a compressor that I categorized as Bad and you don't mind spending a little extra and getting less value then I'm not going to stop you. Just promise me that you won't get one of the Ugly compressors. Seriously, I just can't recommend them at all. And that's all I got to say about compressors.

Thanks for tuning in, we hope you enjoyed the show. As always, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or suggestion, or let us know if you think I got something wrong. This is the internet, after all. I think it's written somewhere in the by-laws of the internet that everyone has a quota of telling other people that they are wrong so feel free to fulfill your obligation here. In the next installment of Adventures in Airbrushing we will cover general accessories, tools, cleaning supplies, and anything else you might want/need for your airbrush. Until next time this is Chaosheade and M4XVLTG3 signing out. Catch you on the flip side.

YO JOE!

A bit about me and why I blog

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with some random musings. I've been thinking about this topic for a while and have been meaning to put my thoughts into a more permanent format since my brain's memory banks are so inefficient but never got around to it before now.

I may never be as cool as Laurence Fishburne but I compensate for that with... uh... I'll get back to you on that one.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - your browser closes, you go about your day, and everything seems normal until 99 badger-monkey hybrids explode from your computer and do horrible things to you (I'll let your imagination take care of the mental images on this one.) You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and continue reading this post and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole of my mind goes, quite possibly driving you insane. You're screwed either way, so you might as well enjoy the ride!

First, a bit of history. I might have shared this before but I'm saying it again, so deal with it (or just skip over it.) I've been into wargaming in one form or another for about as long as I can remember. It began with board games such as Risk, Axis & Allies, and many others. I progressed to turn based and then real time strategy video games. I also got into D&D and various other RPGs as well as Magic: The Gathering and dabbled in a few other card games. I first became interested in 40k and other miniatures games when I was a teenager in high school but there was no way I could afford to get into anything like that at the time so I let the idea simmer for a dozen years or so. In the mean time I did play a few less expensive miniatures games including MageKnight and HeroClix. So as you can see I have been involved in all kinds of games from board to video to card to miniature games before I finally got into 40k in the Spring of 2009. Finally, the stars had aligned: I could finally afford it and already had some friends who I could play with.

Philosoraptor breaks the wall of text.
Picture found here

I started off splitting an AoBR starter set with a friend who plays Orks and began working on a Chaos Space Marine army. After discovering the codex was a bland snooze fest of boringness, I started looking for a new army to play while waiting for a CSM codex that didn't bore me to death. I considered a few different armies (Necrons, Orks) but I started gravitating more and more towards Tyranids. In my subconscious mind I could hear the faint whispers of the Hive Mind calling to me, entwining the tendrils of its will with my grey matter, until I could resist no longer. I decided on Tyranids for my new army. While they are not a complete powerhouse army like SW or IG, they are aesthetically appealing, they match my play style as well, and most importantly they are not emperor-loving imperial *censored*. I was toying around with some (mostly) null deployment builds with my CSM but it is impossible to do with the current codex. Tyranids, on the other hand, have all the tools necessary and lots of fun options to create a null deployment army that won't get laughed off the table. I definitely have a competitive streak and I play to win but also I try to keep things in perspective and play for fun, and not be a WAAC neckbeard.

Picture found here. Thanks Google image search.

Now on to why I keep at this blogging thing. The whole thing was M4XVLTG3's idea and he dragged me into it. While he had dreams of glory I like to think I was a little more ~~skeptical~~ ~~practical~~ realistic about my expectations for the blog. I half expected the whole thing to fizzle and die but the darn thing grew on me. But why is that? I guess it's because I've always had a thing for helping people. I don't know why I do and sometimes I wonder why I keep doing it even when I get burned for it, but I keep doing it anyway. It's like some weird drug or something, or maybe I'm just strange. Scratch that - I know I'm strange, but that's beside the point.

For me, Maximum Heresy is a place for me to share my creations with the world without dealing with forums and everything that comes with them. I enjoy sharing my hobby and painting work but the really rewarding part is creating tutorials that people find useful. I especially love creating tutorials on topics that have not already been covered a thousand times already such as "magnetizing" without magnets and converting vehicle combi-meltas and infantry flamers. As far as I know these two tutorials are completely unique and while the combi-melta/flamer post is very much a niche article, magnetizing without magnets can be applied to a huge range of uses. The possibilities are virtually limitless. I also like to come up with and share ways to save as much money as I can since I have a very limited budget, and really, who doesn't like to save money?

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Chaosheade Zone.

So that's my little journey of self-exploration (no, not that kind!) I know there isn't much real meat in this post, mostly a lot of fluff and some insight into who I am and why I do what I do. For those few of you who stuck through and read all of my BS, thank you and I hope I haven't damaged your sanity too much. For those who didn't, you're probably not reading this anyway.

So how about you? Why do you blog? I'm curious as to what motivates my fellow bloggers out there. Fame and fortune? Notoriety? Power? Women? Men? Please feel free to leave a comment and/or make a similar post on your own blog and ~~watch your page views plummet~~ share your thoughts on the subject.

And now on to a quick general update. Hobby and blogging time has been pretty limited lately due to the dreaded RL monster but I'm slowly making progress. That seems to be a recurring theme lately, my time is getting to be as limited as my budget. Anyway, I think that's enough for today. Catch you on the flip side.

Quick post-Memorial Day update and a little Tyranid painting

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:36:00 +0000

From a veteran who is fortunate enough to be here to celebrate Veterans day, to those who are not.

Hey everybody. Chaosheade here hoping everyone's Memorial Day weekend went well. Mine was pretty busy between trying to change my sleeping schedule (I need to quit working nights) and two barbecues. I didn't do much hobby related stuff, but I did try out a couple quick experiments on my 'nids with various washes. More after the break.

Hobby stuff first, since that's what the blog is all about. I started a thread on DakkaDakka about the test models to get some more opinions on the paint scheme and got some good suggestions. I tried a couple washes on the skin and some different colored washes for the eyes and details. Here's the short and skinny with pics from my phone since my main camera is out of batteries and all the fresh ones are currently MIA from moving. (I also realized that I missed a couple armor plates on the legs. And that concludes your random thought intrusion of the day.)

Just for kicks, I tried a blue and purple wash for the eyes/details and don't really like either one. Too dark and doesn't stand out at all. The right model is the lighter skin color with a flesh tone wash. It is better than the next skin wash but it did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

I figured it couldn't hurt to try the purple skin wash. I was wrong. My eyes! It buuuurns!

And with the positions switched from the last picture... Please excuse the eyesore on the left. I won't be trying that again. Bad idea: Purple wash on the skin. Good idea: yellow/green wash on the eyes and details. The left model has a straight green wash while the right has about a 2:1 ratio of green to yellow. I might try a 3:2 ratio but it's already very close to a color I like for the eyes and details. I will probably use the yellow/green mixture to contrast with the blue and purple.

From Sandwyrm's Color Theory Archive (Part III)
I just can't seem to pimp these articles enough can I?

The yellow/green wash, along with the blue and purple, will give me a split-complement paint scheme. The circle on the left is very close to my chosen colors, it just needs to be rotated clockwise a tiny bit. I really like the yellow/green color better than the ice blue that I tried before and I think that will be my final answer. I'm getting very close to finalizing my paint scheme.

And now on to non-hobby stuff and why I haven't gotten anything done lately. Sunday I grilled for the 'out-laws' AKA my wife's parents (who are totally cool by the way, no evil mother-in-law for me) at our new place. I grilled up some hot dogs and squash/zucchini/onions in olive oil (it's a secret family recipe, so don't tell anybody). Nothing fancy, but it's cheap and tastes pretty damn good, especially when you know someone who grows the zucchini and squash and gives it you for free. Monday we went over to my visit my parents and my brother worked the grill. More grilled dogs and sausage, which I don't mind because there are many ways to skin a cat but only one way to cook a dog... I mean hot dogs... *awkward silence*... Hokay, moving right along!

I've been trying to get some work done on the next Adventures in Airbrushing post but just haven't had the time to get much progress done. It's still coming, I promise. It's priority #1 followed by getting the third Tyranid ~~test model~~ prototype (sounds cooler) up with the final paint scheme. The third prototype has been delayed for all the previously mentioned reasons plus I'm trying to get some more models assembled so I am not firing up the airbrush for just one model. Mold lines are a royal PITA on Tyranids, especially compared to my CSM. All those smooth power armor surfaces are boring to paint but sure are easy when it comes to removing mold lines. Maybe I'm just being too much of a perfectionist. I've considered assembling the models first and then just removing the visible mold lines to make it easier on myself. It's something I need to do a little research on and see how other Tyranid players deal with mold lines. Anyway, that's enough blathering for one post. I'll be back soon with more substantial material so stay frosty and I'll catch you on the flip side.

Tyranid painting: test models completed

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Say hello to my little friends! I call the big one 'Bitey'.

Hey Everybody, Chaosheade here with the promised update on painting Hive Fleet Balor and two finished test models. They are a little rough and a bit sloppy but I wasn't terribly worried about perfect results. I just wanted to get some paint on them to see how the paint scheme worked and I like how it turned out. I also have my light box with some more proper lighting set up so the pictures should be better quality than they have been lately. Full details and analysis after the jump.

Well, things went very smoothly for painting my first test models. I didn't test every idea I had in my previous post about the paint scheme but I did stick to the plan and I am very pleased with the results. The only differences between the two test models are the base coat and a couple details on the mouth, eyes, and carapace. One day I will post a full step-by-step guide on how I painted them with pictures of each step. For now I'll go ahead and do a quick run through on how I painted these two models. Let's call the one on the left with the lighter skin #1 and the one on the right #2.

VMC = Vallejo Model Color
VGC = Vallejo Game Color
FA = Folk Art (craft paint)

1. Prime with white gesso. I mixed some plain white Liquitex Gesso with some Liquitex Airbrush Medium and sprayed the crap out of them. Yes, that does mean I got an airbrush setup. I promise the Adventures in Airbrushing posts will catch up with full details.

#1 and #2 to show the difference in base coat colors. I really like the pose on #2. He looks like eager to jump on someone and tear their face off.

2. Base coat: 'Gant #1 was given a base coat of VMC Ivory with some VGC Dead White zenithal highlights that didn't show up as well as I might have wanted. #2 started off with VMC Pale Sand then some zenithal highlights with VMC Ivory and then VGC Dead White. All of this was done with an airbrush. #2 is definitely darker overall and I would like to start with the darker pale sand base but go heavier on the zenithal highlighting for more dynamic highlights and a brighter overall color; closer to the color of #1 but with more depth and shadows.

Top and bottom views of #2 to show the zenithal highlighting. There is definitely a difference between the darker underside and the lighter top side but there needs to be more contrast between the two.

3. Once the base coat was done I started working on the joints and other little fleshy areas on the skin. These were given a purple wash using Les' Wash Recipe from Awesome Paint Job. I started off with a light coat of wash but it was not nearly dark enough so I gave it a second heavy coat which darkened it up nicely. I think it wouldn't hurt to make it a little darker, perhaps 2 heavy coats of the wash. The tongues were painted with FA Perfect Purple and highlighted with FA Purple Lilac then given a purple wash to tie them together.

Whoah! Extreme close-up! This will show the tongues and the details of the mouth and eyes covered in steps 4 and 5.

4. Teeth and gums. #1's teeth and gums were painted with VMC Sunset Red and then I went back over the teeth with VMC Ivory. #2 was done similarly but with the Ivory over VMC Flat Brown base. I am strongly considering using the FA Perfect Purple as the base gum color instead of either of the two test colors I used here.

5. For the eyes I tested out a few different things on #1. I tried VMC Andrea Blue but the color was too strong and stuck out way too much. Then I tried mixing up a faux Citadel Ice Blue using VMC Andrea Blue and VGC Dead White as per the Citadel color mixing chart featured in this blog post. The "Ice Blue" was too light and did not show up very well. The third method I tried was VMC Light Turquoise with some watered down VMC Ivory painted over it to blend it in with the skin color. This turned out far better than the previous two attempts. #2's eyes were painted with FA Metallic Ice Blue. I'm not quite sure which one I like better but I'm leaning towards the turquoise/ivory. Whichever color I pick, I will be using it for all the eyes and most misc. details on the rest of my army.

This is their 'good side'

6. The scything talons and other "hard" parts of the models were painted with Vallejo Panzer Aces German Tank Crew (Black) thinned with black ink to give it a very deep black color and a bit of a shine. I used the Panzer Aces black because every other black paint was out of stock when I placed my order. At some point I would like to pick up some VMC black paint, both matte and glossy, but this will work for now. I plan on testing out some blue edge highlights on the talons but did not get it done on these models. Just for kicks I tried giving #2 a heavy blue wash over the talons to see if it would do anything, but the only discernable difference is that part of the skin got blue on it. You can kind of see a little bit of blue in the picture but there is no visible sign of the blue if you see it in person.

The only visible sign that the blue wash was applied. Also shows the shading/highlights on the tongue a little better.

7. Finally, my favorite part: the carapace. I used my own metallic blue mixture made from FA Metallic Blue Sapphire with a pretty large dose of Daler Rowney "Rowney Blue" ink to make it a nice dark, rich, royal blue color. The FA metallic blue straight from the bottle was much lighter than I wanted it to be. After a couple coats of my Metallic Blue concoction I tried a couple different things on each 'gant. #1's carapace was given a blue wash that did not change the appearance very much. It did make it a little darker and took away some of the metallic shine which is not something I want to do. On #2 I tried to get a purple iridescence and although it's not showing up in the pictures I think I figured out the method to get it done. I started with some very watered down FA Metallic Amethyst and added some Daler Rowney Purple Lake ink to darken it up some. I then drybrushed some of this mixture on the carapace of #2 and I got the results I was looking for. When the light it right, you can see the purple pearlescence show up just like I wanted. The only adjustment I need to make is adding more ink to darken the color some more. It will look spectacular with a nice rich royal purple sheen instead of the light purple color that it has now.

Carapace colors. You can see the effect of the blue wash on #1 but the purple on #2 does not show in the picture.

And there you have it. I will get one more test model painted up with the stronger zenithal highlighting, the blue edge highlighting on the black talons, and the darker purple pearlescence on the carapace. I would like some opinions on the eye/detail color and which one others prefer. I'm leaning towards the turquoise/ivory but the metallic ice blue doesn't look too bad either. Any other feedback or suggestions would also be greatly appreciated. I'd like to know what people think about the color scheme in general or any specifics that you might have an opinion on.

Coming soon: more Adventures in Airbrushing and another Tyranid test model. I'll be back with more same bat time, same bat channel, so don't touch that dial. Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know what you think. Catch you on the flip side.

RUN AWAAAAAAAY!

Hobby update: Tyranids (Finally!)

noreply@blogger.com (Chaosheade) — Thu, 19 May 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Less sinister than this update, but just as deadly... perhaps.

Well then. I believe it's about time for update time. Chaosheade here with an update on my nids. Don't worry, there will be no more repetitive redundancy in this post. It's taken so long to get started back up with them partially because of moving and being busy as hell and partially because having trouble figuring out the paint scheme kind of put me off of working on the army. That should be over now since I think I have a much more solid plan for a paint scheme that I like and I also decided on a name for my hive fleet. Check out all the juicy details after the jump.

First of all I would like to introduce Hive Fleet Balor, named for Balor of the Evil Eye from Irish mythology. Balor was the king of a race of giants called Fomorians and he had an eye in the middle of his forehead that could wipe out entire armies just by looking at them. Full details can be found in the wiki link above or here on Answers.com. I toyed around with several different names before finally choosing one that ties in with my Irish heritage. The preferred tactics of Hive Fleet Balor are to overwhelm their ~~enemies~~ victims with surprise attacks falling from the sky (spores, flying creatures), burrowing underground (trygons, raveners), and approaching by stealth (ymargl stealers, lictors, outflanking/infiltrating units) with a null deployment list. Hive Fleet Balor can also use more conventional tactics when it is advantageous to do so with a more standard army list. The hive fleet is able to quickly adapt to the enemy's tactics and is flexible enough to field just about any type of force (or will be able to do that once I build up my collection a bit more.) I plan on modeling my Hive Tyrant with an eye in the middle of his forehead like Balor. Obviously there is no ranged instant death ability in game for Hive Tyrants so I will probably have the Tyrant's psychic abilities represent the power of the evil eye. I'm not going for strict adherence to the mythology, just a way to tie it in with the theme.

Totally bad ass artist's rendition of Balor of the Evil Eye
From www.creaturespot.com

Now, on to the paint scheme. After getting a test mini about half way painted I decided to give up on the super colorful tetrad idea. I would have to paint way too much yellow and going for the tetrad really restricts the colors that can be used, not to mention how difficult it was just to figure out the right colors in the first place. The original idea was good in theory, but it's just not going to work for me. I am still determined to use the metallic blue carapace though, dammit! I was attempting to have sort of a color changing pearlescent type effect where the blue carapace would look green when the light hit it the right way but this was not working out at all. Hyv3mynd makes this look really good on his Splinter Fleet Colossus with the metallic green carapaces that shine blue in the right light. I was having a lot of trouble with the green dulling down the blue and basically just taking all the life out of it. I am going to try the same thing with purple and black to see if it's the green color that is messing things up. If I can't get it to work, I might do the metallic blue carapace with more standard purple or black highlights or feathering.

My new plan goes something like this:

Metallic blue carapace with purple or black pearlescence
Bone colored skin (not the dirty, sepia washed color that I used before but a cleaner, almost white color). The recesses in the skin will be shadowed with either brown or purple. I'm leaning toward purple on that one.
Purple fleshy bits
Glossy black for scything talons, claws, and other such "hard" parts. I might try purple or blue edge highlights as well, leaning more towards blue I think.
Misc details like eyes and such I haven't made a decision on yet. I can do a cyan/ice blue to keep all the colors near one end of the spectrum or go for some contrast with a yellow and/or light green. I'm leaning towards the cyan/ice blue but I will try them both out to see what works best. If you're not sure what I'm talking about with the color combinations and such see Sandwyrm's Color Theory Archive, especially part 3. It's really an excellent resource.

Here are some examples that I will be using as references.

Carapace with multi-color pearlescence:

Notice the blue sheen on top of the green carapace. That's the effect I'm going for.
http://synaps3.blogspot.com/p/splinter-fleet-colossus.html

Bone colored skin:

This is a good example with the purple recessed areas. Replace the black and purple carapace with metallic blue and change the red to purple and/or blue and it's not far from what I am looking for.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1050112

Slightly darker bone with brown recessed areas.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatm/GW/id/115194

Purple fleshy bits:

(see also: Hive Tyrant pictured above)

The purple details on the guns are not a bad example of what I will be aiming for.
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4694915&postcount=174

Lots of purple fleshy stuff on this Biovore.
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4897259&postcount=286

Glossy black weapons:

The closest example I could find is the Hive Tyrant pictured above (again) but instead of highlighting with red, I will most likely be using blue.

Misc Details:

For Ice Blue/Cyan, see the above Tyrant (yes, again.) The veins on his head are a good example.

For yellow, see the eyes in the above Hive Guard and Biovore and their weapons.

I don't have any examples for green.

Well, that about sums up my revised plans for a tyranid paint scheme. One concerns I have is that there might be too much purple. If that is the case, I can always use more blue or add in the yellow/green on certain details. My goal is to have a couple test figures done by the end of the week if not sooner. Any feedback or suggestions are greatly appreciated. This is Chaosheade signing off for now. Catch you on the flip side.