Have been thinking a lot of how to proceed. I have been thinking it may be better to "attempt" to rebase one squad of Firewarriors and see how that goes. If all goes well and I manage not to cut the heck out of my fingers then I will rebase all six squads. If the rebasing goes well then I will finish off the last of the XV-8's.
The rebasing doesn't need to happen all at once, 72 Firewarriors will take some time. The 25mm bases come ten to a bag and the 40mm bases come five to a bag. I will make sure that I stay on track. I still have the rest of the A-X-10 to finish off, six Devilfish, the Piranha's, three unpainted XV-88's, and some Pathfinders.
I have been draining the local stores of mechrite red. Between a special order of ten jars from a local gaming store, and clearing out a GW store a little at a time, I have managed to lay low and not come up on anyone's radar.
The painting has been going smoothly, much better than I had thought. The investment of the airbrush really has paid off. I am no longer limited on the type of color I want to use as a base. Also the paint seems to come out much smoother, or more constant. The paint doesn't seem as "heavy" as from a can. I will defiantly recommend that if anyone is planning on painting a large army, as in over 3000 points, get an airbrush. Its really paid for itself and save a ton of time, while being fairly inexpensive. Like anything else, you need to get familiar with using the airbrush, but the results and benefits are well worth it.
I am thinking that for the bases, I will leave the bases black, and then use another type of railroad ballast, one of the more coal like ballasts. The good thing with using a darker color is that it wont take much to lighten it up or show some contrast. A coat of dark gray, and then a second coat of some light gray may work well. There will be allot of experimentation next month to see how things work out. I am not sure if I want to go into using static grass just yet.
I bought a modeling book that covers 40K models and how to base them. The default seems to be the light green with flocking. I wasnt quite sold on the brown or desert base. The city scape could work, with bits of tubing or polystyrene parts.
There are a few pictures around the net that show models standing on top of some "mesh like" material. I was thinking that some of the mesh from a window screen might work. While in a crafts store, I found some plastic mesh. It came in a grid and looked to be about a 1'x1' piece. It was flexible and it also came in different colors. I was thinking that either black or gray would work well. It would be easy to add some depth on to one of the bases that way. It would also be easier to have a piece of mesh to easier identify what formation that model belonged to.
I haven't been thinking about how to tell the different formations apart. The Farsight Bodyguard isn't bad. However the other 50+ suits are going to be a problem. Whats going to be worse is the problem with the Firewarriors.
With a current total of eight-teen squads I am thinking its going to be a nightmare. Add to that the leader has to be identified with certain markings. Its not going to be as easy as, painting the helmet white on the leader, then have the rest of the squad follow him around the board. I am thinking that if there is a gun-line then there will be multiple squads in close proximity to each out and could possibly get mixed in together. So again, do I use the bases to differentiate each squad, have different squads painted differently, or a combination of both?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Decisions
I have decided to make some decisions..... First I am going to go ahead and purchase some more 40mm bases for the remaining twelve XV-8's and six XV-88's. That in turn will require the purchase of even more mechrite red.
Right now I have a Farsight Formation that is maxxed out. That formation has six XV-88's and twelve XV-8s. There is another formation called a Broadside Destructor Phalanx. It is XV-88 heavy and has some really cool rules if you are facing a heavy mech opponent or someone who has say... an Ork Gargant or a Warhound.
So, if I pull the XV-88's from the Farstrike formation and dump them into the Destructor Phalanx, I am still three shy. So... if say over the next month or two, nine more XV-88's were to materialize, I could... field both formations.
Screw this with great power comes great responsibility crap. I am thinking more railguns is mo' betta'. Perfect fix for bugs... more railguns. Perfect way to literally turn a mech army into Swiss Cheese a al railgun. Perfect way to make the RV on wheels-Baneblade go 'Boom', with a railgun. Rhino rush meet Railgun gun line, yes thats 72 freaking inches of range with my railguns. Did I mention that when I look for the strength of a railgun I automatically go all the way to the right of the table where it should say.... "railguns only"?
Whats the only thing better than eight-teen railguns on the table? Maybe twenty-one railguns on the board, you might think? No but wait theres more.... How about a destructor weapon on a mobile platform that moves no less than three feet per round, and whats the main armament on that platform: a railgun so fricking big it autokills stuff.
Ok my meds are kicking in.
I am making the decision to standardize the remaining suits in the army. I am even going so far as to include the XV-25's that I already had painted up in another paint scheme. After the suits are done, the Piranha's will follow, then lastly the remaining Devilfish. Once I have completed the base painting for the rest of the army, the last hard question will be addressed: do I want to remove 72 Firewarriors and put them onto new bases for repainting.
Pros:
The Firewarriors can be painted painted in mechrite red and then inked.
The Firewarriors can be painted quickly and assembly lined.
This would allow all 216 Firewarriors to be done in 1-2 days.
They could be finished fairly quickly.
Army would look uniform
Cons:
I spent a hell of alot of time painting the initial 72 Firewarriors. Not sure if I want to make that all go away.
That's a hell of alot of cutting
New basing
Getting new bases and flocking
Again much pondering. But honestly I am making alot of progress. Once the entire army is in its mechrite red stage, whats really left?
Painting canopies, lenses, and viewing ports
Painting Plasma weapons
Painting exhaust ports and vents
Painting intakes
The bad one: tracing armored plates with black
Maybe doing some battle damage with silver and black paint
Doing some sept marking in gray
Painting bases
I am leaving the basing for last. For me that tends to go very quickly. I am thinking off gray for for bases and maybe some sore of black flocking or ballast. That might give these models a more weathered appearance.
Still a long way to go but I am still chipping away at my goal. At least I am getting a little bit done at a time. I am also finding out that having a plan and sticking to it, is helping a lot. Having the "no plan-plan" is not the way to go. I am thinking that I will be done before the end of the year. I would really like to post some pictures of a fully painted Apocalypse Tau Army in excess of eleven battle formations, or three full 40K army's.
Right now I have a Farsight Formation that is maxxed out. That formation has six XV-88's and twelve XV-8s. There is another formation called a Broadside Destructor Phalanx. It is XV-88 heavy and has some really cool rules if you are facing a heavy mech opponent or someone who has say... an Ork Gargant or a Warhound.
So, if I pull the XV-88's from the Farstrike formation and dump them into the Destructor Phalanx, I am still three shy. So... if say over the next month or two, nine more XV-88's were to materialize, I could... field both formations.
Screw this with great power comes great responsibility crap. I am thinking more railguns is mo' betta'. Perfect fix for bugs... more railguns. Perfect way to literally turn a mech army into Swiss Cheese a al railgun. Perfect way to make the RV on wheels-Baneblade go 'Boom', with a railgun. Rhino rush meet Railgun gun line, yes thats 72 freaking inches of range with my railguns. Did I mention that when I look for the strength of a railgun I automatically go all the way to the right of the table where it should say.... "railguns only"?
Whats the only thing better than eight-teen railguns on the table? Maybe twenty-one railguns on the board, you might think? No but wait theres more.... How about a destructor weapon on a mobile platform that moves no less than three feet per round, and whats the main armament on that platform: a railgun so fricking big it autokills stuff.
Ok my meds are kicking in.
I am making the decision to standardize the remaining suits in the army. I am even going so far as to include the XV-25's that I already had painted up in another paint scheme. After the suits are done, the Piranha's will follow, then lastly the remaining Devilfish. Once I have completed the base painting for the rest of the army, the last hard question will be addressed: do I want to remove 72 Firewarriors and put them onto new bases for repainting.
Pros:
The Firewarriors can be painted painted in mechrite red and then inked.
The Firewarriors can be painted quickly and assembly lined.
This would allow all 216 Firewarriors to be done in 1-2 days.
They could be finished fairly quickly.
Army would look uniform
Cons:
I spent a hell of alot of time painting the initial 72 Firewarriors. Not sure if I want to make that all go away.
That's a hell of alot of cutting
New basing
Getting new bases and flocking
Again much pondering. But honestly I am making alot of progress. Once the entire army is in its mechrite red stage, whats really left?
Painting canopies, lenses, and viewing ports
Painting Plasma weapons
Painting exhaust ports and vents
Painting intakes
The bad one: tracing armored plates with black
Maybe doing some battle damage with silver and black paint
Doing some sept marking in gray
Painting bases
I am leaving the basing for last. For me that tends to go very quickly. I am thinking off gray for for bases and maybe some sore of black flocking or ballast. That might give these models a more weathered appearance.
Still a long way to go but I am still chipping away at my goal. At least I am getting a little bit done at a time. I am also finding out that having a plan and sticking to it, is helping a lot. Having the "no plan-plan" is not the way to go. I am thinking that I will be done before the end of the year. I would really like to post some pictures of a fully painted Apocalypse Tau Army in excess of eleven battle formations, or three full 40K army's.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr
I did a lot of conversions today on my Farsight model today. I had been putting this off for quite some time. I have always used Farsight as a deterrent putting a power weapon armed XV-8 on the board. As the main Commander for my army I wanted him to really stand out. I finally had the right parts and tools to make some good conversions. Again this model is over eight years old, has been around the world once, has been dropped a lot, and has been in many tournaments. This model really has some mileage on it.
The model above has had the legs glued together at least two or three times. I finally pinned the lower legs to the foot assembly. Most of us have been told to always use the right tool for the right job. Well finally after buying, a rotary tool, an air compressor, a thing with two arms that have an alligator clip on each end, a good pair of tweezers, and a hand drill, I now have the options to do some really neat things to my models.
Between the CE glue and accelerator forming the crystalline bond and the heavy duty paper clip rod, the legs shouldn't snap off anymore. I actually drilled though the feet and then at least half a centimeter into the leg. The model shouldn't budge since I even pinned the feet into the base.
I was also able to snap the right leg out of the hip joint and turn it a good 45-90 degrees for a more dramatic pose. I didn't want to go as far as cutting the knee and for a leaning forward look. I wanted to keep it simple and not make the model look over complicated.
I think of the things that I really wanted to change on the Farsight model was the sword, or the Dawn Blade. The sword really doesn't really look all that impressive. It really looks closer to a hatchet of if you want to reach, like a Kopesh Sword. Also the "sword" is.. well.. small. Lets face it, in some situations size does matter. There have been times I have thought, "hello this is my army leader Commander Farsight, he has a power butter knife, that lets him cleave though armor and vehicles." If you are going to have one power weapon in your entire army, make it fricking count. Give the guy his props. If hes got a fabled sword, make it cool, not like it was made from scrap metal from a pick-a-part. Make a sword that people look at and say "Oh $h1t".
I used some pliers and snipped off the "powered butter knife". I then selected a grinding bit for the rotary tool and proceeded to grind the handle out of Farsight's hand. I wanted a good snug fit for the new weapon. I have seen a few pictures were the handle was left in and a sword or other weapon was placed on either side that made the hilt look longer as if it the weapon was made to be two handed. I stole the idea of using the sword from an Eldar Wraithlord.
With some minor modifications the sword is an excellent choice for a new "dawn blade". Its large enough to catch some attention. It is also made out of plastic and is able to be customized for other models. The hilt was separated from the Wraithlord hand with two very simple cuts with an exacto knife. The sword and hit were then glued back together with some accelerator, and then placed into Farsight's left hand.
Again, I used a rotary tool with a grinding head to grind out the previous left over pieces of a hilt. Once the remainder of the hilt was removed, the sword was placed into Farisght's hand to make sure it looked right. I used an exacto knife remove the remaining metal between the fingers. After a few times and some minor adjustments, the sword fit into the hand like a glove.
The shield was moved from the sword arm to the opposite arm. I still cant figure out why you would place a shield on the same arm as your main weapon. Maybe the sword was place as an afterthought? Or was the plasma rifle supposed to be Farsight's main weapon, which goes against everything about him. Also the plasma rifle was removed from the outside of the arm and with some minor modifications, moved on to the top of the arm behind the shield... common sense? I also made another small modification; I straightened out the arm. The forty five degree angle arm for single XV-8 gets old.
This would technically allow Farsight to use both the shield and sword at the same time..... ok ya its fluff, but still. Only bad part was the original arm was all metal. With only a slight curve the sword arm in its current position is what you get. With the sword mounted in the left arm with a slight bend, the model looks much like its about to do a "bitch slap" or a back hand cut. Yes I have a weird sense of humor.
Finally I stayed with the markerlight head. With four antenna's slightly bent out, it really makes the head look sharp. I also repositioned the head to look off to one side for a more dynamic look. The head was then strengthened with some CE glue to make sure it stayed in position.
I think if I were to do make any further changes to this model it would only be one thing. I saw one picture where someone had taken the top of a drone and used green stuff to put a sept marking on. It would be easy to get a drone base and saw the bottom part off. The tricky part would be to get the green stuff all the same thickness and then cut out a Farsight pattern. The red circle would be easy, but the "T" part I think would be tough. Then once you have that done, the symbol would need to be placed just right onto the drone body. I have never sculpted before, lets keep it simple stu....
The model above has had the legs glued together at least two or three times. I finally pinned the lower legs to the foot assembly. Most of us have been told to always use the right tool for the right job. Well finally after buying, a rotary tool, an air compressor, a thing with two arms that have an alligator clip on each end, a good pair of tweezers, and a hand drill, I now have the options to do some really neat things to my models.
Between the CE glue and accelerator forming the crystalline bond and the heavy duty paper clip rod, the legs shouldn't snap off anymore. I actually drilled though the feet and then at least half a centimeter into the leg. The model shouldn't budge since I even pinned the feet into the base.
I was also able to snap the right leg out of the hip joint and turn it a good 45-90 degrees for a more dramatic pose. I didn't want to go as far as cutting the knee and for a leaning forward look. I wanted to keep it simple and not make the model look over complicated.
I think of the things that I really wanted to change on the Farsight model was the sword, or the Dawn Blade. The sword really doesn't really look all that impressive. It really looks closer to a hatchet of if you want to reach, like a Kopesh Sword. Also the "sword" is.. well.. small. Lets face it, in some situations size does matter. There have been times I have thought, "hello this is my army leader Commander Farsight, he has a power butter knife, that lets him cleave though armor and vehicles." If you are going to have one power weapon in your entire army, make it fricking count. Give the guy his props. If hes got a fabled sword, make it cool, not like it was made from scrap metal from a pick-a-part. Make a sword that people look at and say "Oh $h1t".
I used some pliers and snipped off the "powered butter knife". I then selected a grinding bit for the rotary tool and proceeded to grind the handle out of Farsight's hand. I wanted a good snug fit for the new weapon. I have seen a few pictures were the handle was left in and a sword or other weapon was placed on either side that made the hilt look longer as if it the weapon was made to be two handed. I stole the idea of using the sword from an Eldar Wraithlord.
With some minor modifications the sword is an excellent choice for a new "dawn blade". Its large enough to catch some attention. It is also made out of plastic and is able to be customized for other models. The hilt was separated from the Wraithlord hand with two very simple cuts with an exacto knife. The sword and hit were then glued back together with some accelerator, and then placed into Farsight's left hand.
Again, I used a rotary tool with a grinding head to grind out the previous left over pieces of a hilt. Once the remainder of the hilt was removed, the sword was placed into Farisght's hand to make sure it looked right. I used an exacto knife remove the remaining metal between the fingers. After a few times and some minor adjustments, the sword fit into the hand like a glove.
The shield was moved from the sword arm to the opposite arm. I still cant figure out why you would place a shield on the same arm as your main weapon. Maybe the sword was place as an afterthought? Or was the plasma rifle supposed to be Farsight's main weapon, which goes against everything about him. Also the plasma rifle was removed from the outside of the arm and with some minor modifications, moved on to the top of the arm behind the shield... common sense? I also made another small modification; I straightened out the arm. The forty five degree angle arm for single XV-8 gets old.
This would technically allow Farsight to use both the shield and sword at the same time..... ok ya its fluff, but still. Only bad part was the original arm was all metal. With only a slight curve the sword arm in its current position is what you get. With the sword mounted in the left arm with a slight bend, the model looks much like its about to do a "bitch slap" or a back hand cut. Yes I have a weird sense of humor.
Finally I stayed with the markerlight head. With four antenna's slightly bent out, it really makes the head look sharp. I also repositioned the head to look off to one side for a more dynamic look. The head was then strengthened with some CE glue to make sure it stayed in position.
I think if I were to do make any further changes to this model it would only be one thing. I saw one picture where someone had taken the top of a drone and used green stuff to put a sept marking on. It would be easy to get a drone base and saw the bottom part off. The tricky part would be to get the green stuff all the same thickness and then cut out a Farsight pattern. The red circle would be easy, but the "T" part I think would be tough. Then once you have that done, the symbol would need to be placed just right onto the drone body. I have never sculpted before, lets keep it simple stu....
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Shelf Turns Red
I made a lot of progress today. The last week really put me behind schedule. I do believe that I did make up for it today. I have all but twelve XV-8's completed. I am still wondering if I should make them look like the rest of the army or keep them as is so they can be designated as a separate unit. If I do decide to paint them like the rest of my army I will have to get some more 40mm bases.
I got Farsights bodyguard reprimed, and repainted today. Considering the models came out around '02, the models are still holding up really well. The heads came out really well. The new markerlight heads really make the models stand out just enough. I really wish I would have discovered that conversion about five years ago.
For my color scheme I am going to do mechrite red, black and a dark gray. Plasma will be a combo of dark blue and light blue. For lenses I am going to stick with light and dark blue, with some white. I have issues with using the standard paint chart. Way back in second addition, when the Deathwing Terminators first came out, they were, because of the fluff, painted in Christmas colors. Being bone white, trimmed in green with red highlights, they had everything short of a beard and eight tiny reindeer. In the dark future there is only war, and someone forgot to add the kick ass, foreboding, unchristmas colored terminators. Maybe for lenses I might try yellow. I will have to experiment and see how it comes out.
These guys below are the command section for my Nighthunter Stealth Formation. Supposedly the more experienced or veteran pilots use the smaller suit XV-22 instead of the XV-25 because of a smaller signature. In the game there really doesn't have any difference. I used to have six of these guys but I traded them away for another Devilfish and some other units. Besides the new XV-25's had just come out, so it made sense at the time. I was lucky enough to come across about 24 of the metal ones. If I really wanted to I could field two complete Stealth suit formations, if I was going with out any Rapid Insertion Formations.
Sometimes I will run one of these with some marker drones to stir trouble up in small games or in Apocalypse games run a team of three, put a positional relay on one, hide it and watch people get mad.
I also started painting the A-X-10 tonight. Its about half way done. I will post a picture when its completed. I have to say, that plane looks down right evil even partially painted. Its like a giant bloody wing just hanging in mid air.
I got Farsights bodyguard reprimed, and repainted today. Considering the models came out around '02, the models are still holding up really well. The heads came out really well. The new markerlight heads really make the models stand out just enough. I really wish I would have discovered that conversion about five years ago.
I absolutely love the new color. The mechrite red really has a blood/maroon color that is closer to what I believe Farsight is supposed to be depicted in. Originally I wanted to follow the fluff about the 'breakaway faction" and use some sort of rust color. Then I saw another model that had been painted by one of the 'Eavy Metal' team and really liked that color. It was a deep red not quite a maroon but not quite a blood red. For two months I experimented with different colors with no luck. I ended up settling on a mixture of a black and red. Depending on the ratio of black to red, you can come up with a very deep rust brown. However now finding out that the Tau use some sort of crystalline armor, rust really isn't an issue now is it?
For my color scheme I am going to do mechrite red, black and a dark gray. Plasma will be a combo of dark blue and light blue. For lenses I am going to stick with light and dark blue, with some white. I have issues with using the standard paint chart. Way back in second addition, when the Deathwing Terminators first came out, they were, because of the fluff, painted in Christmas colors. Being bone white, trimmed in green with red highlights, they had everything short of a beard and eight tiny reindeer. In the dark future there is only war, and someone forgot to add the kick ass, foreboding, unchristmas colored terminators. Maybe for lenses I might try yellow. I will have to experiment and see how it comes out.
These guys below are the command section for my Nighthunter Stealth Formation. Supposedly the more experienced or veteran pilots use the smaller suit XV-22 instead of the XV-25 because of a smaller signature. In the game there really doesn't have any difference. I used to have six of these guys but I traded them away for another Devilfish and some other units. Besides the new XV-25's had just come out, so it made sense at the time. I was lucky enough to come across about 24 of the metal ones. If I really wanted to I could field two complete Stealth suit formations, if I was going with out any Rapid Insertion Formations.
The Xv-25's below came out very well. I was able to paint almost three times as many XV-25's than XV-8's with the same amount of paint. Painting the stealth suits really went quick. Much quicker than I had expected. I was will able to complete 30 stealth suits in just over an hour. I have six left I am not sure if I want to paint over or not. Jury is still out. Yes the antenna's are in different positions on the XV-25's. Forward on the top of the "helmet" means part of a 'Rapid Insertion" Formation. An antenna on the jump pack means the suit belongs to the Stealth Hunter Formation. The drone controller is a free floater.
Sometimes I will run one of these with some marker drones to stir trouble up in small games or in Apocalypse games run a team of three, put a positional relay on one, hide it and watch people get mad.
I also started painting the A-X-10 tonight. Its about half way done. I will post a picture when its completed. I have to say, that plane looks down right evil even partially painted. Its like a giant bloody wing just hanging in mid air.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Staying on track
I have a total of four paint jars but I can only find two. Those two should allow me to get the eleven XV-8's completed. That will leave me with twelve XV-8's left in their orgional paint scheme and the eight in the Farsight Bodyguard for a total of twenty. The Farsight Bodyguard still needs to get primed black before it gets painted mechrite red.
After the XV-8's are done I will move onto the XV-88's or Broadsides. I have three that are primed black, and six that are still in their orgional paint scheme. Again the XV-88's will have to be rebaised. The good thing is that the railroad ballast is comming right off due to the clear PVA glue that I used. Not saying that the glue is bad, just that it has gotten old and has cracked, leaving the ballast to crack and rise off the base.
After the XV-88's are done I will move on the the Stealth Suits or the XV-25's. I should be able to get more done per jar do the the fact that the XV-25's are half the size of the XV-8's. I have a total of 48 Stealth Suits, six of which are the old XV-15's. The XV-15's are the older all metal Stealth Suits that orgionally came out when the Tau were first started in 3rd addition Warhammer 40K.
In the Apoclypse style of games there are formations. One of formation is the Nighthunter Stealth Formation. That formation mainly has multiple squads of Stealth Suits with a command section. The Apoclypse Book had XV-15 series of suits in the command section becasue the more experienced warriors favored the smaller suits because of a smaller signature. Hey its Games-Workshop, its their game, its their fluff, its cool, I have XV-15 miniatures in my command section.
Overall things are comming along pretty well. I have almost turned all the models on one shelf mechrite red. After that its downhill with six devilfish, nine piranhas and one A-X-10.
That leaves 216 Firewarriors left. I have been going back and forth on how to do the Firewarriors. I want them to match my army I am in a bind. If I paint the metallic parts of the XV-8's black the red plates wont match any of the Firewarriors. If I prime the Firewarriors grey then I have to hand paint 216 models with mechrite red. I am really leaning twords making the army look like a cohesive force and I am still leaning on airbrushing the Firewarriors mechrite red and the filling in the underarmor gray. That would make the army look like it belongs together and would stay true the colors that are supposed to go with a Farsight Enclave.
Ok so I am still so far staying on a path going forward.
So the current is for the XV-8's is mechrite red for base, tracing with 50/50 watered down black, and with gray sept marking. (please GW dont write Farsight out of the next codex. I really dont want to have to change to Fal'shia). The interworkings will be black with gray highlights and I am thinking for blue lenses for the face and multitrackers. Highlights will be in red. Not sure what color the sept markings will be in. I am not sure wether to go some sort of blue or gray.
After the XV-8's are done I will move onto the XV-88's or Broadsides. I have three that are primed black, and six that are still in their orgional paint scheme. Again the XV-88's will have to be rebaised. The good thing is that the railroad ballast is comming right off due to the clear PVA glue that I used. Not saying that the glue is bad, just that it has gotten old and has cracked, leaving the ballast to crack and rise off the base.
After the XV-88's are done I will move on the the Stealth Suits or the XV-25's. I should be able to get more done per jar do the the fact that the XV-25's are half the size of the XV-8's. I have a total of 48 Stealth Suits, six of which are the old XV-15's. The XV-15's are the older all metal Stealth Suits that orgionally came out when the Tau were first started in 3rd addition Warhammer 40K.
In the Apoclypse style of games there are formations. One of formation is the Nighthunter Stealth Formation. That formation mainly has multiple squads of Stealth Suits with a command section. The Apoclypse Book had XV-15 series of suits in the command section becasue the more experienced warriors favored the smaller suits because of a smaller signature. Hey its Games-Workshop, its their game, its their fluff, its cool, I have XV-15 miniatures in my command section.
Overall things are comming along pretty well. I have almost turned all the models on one shelf mechrite red. After that its downhill with six devilfish, nine piranhas and one A-X-10.
That leaves 216 Firewarriors left. I have been going back and forth on how to do the Firewarriors. I want them to match my army I am in a bind. If I paint the metallic parts of the XV-8's black the red plates wont match any of the Firewarriors. If I prime the Firewarriors grey then I have to hand paint 216 models with mechrite red. I am really leaning twords making the army look like a cohesive force and I am still leaning on airbrushing the Firewarriors mechrite red and the filling in the underarmor gray. That would make the army look like it belongs together and would stay true the colors that are supposed to go with a Farsight Enclave.
Ok so I am still so far staying on a path going forward.
So the current is for the XV-8's is mechrite red for base, tracing with 50/50 watered down black, and with gray sept marking. (please GW dont write Farsight out of the next codex. I really dont want to have to change to Fal'shia). The interworkings will be black with gray highlights and I am thinking for blue lenses for the face and multitrackers. Highlights will be in red. Not sure what color the sept markings will be in. I am not sure wether to go some sort of blue or gray.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Conversions
Last two days I have been looking at painting techniques and conversions. I like to find conversions that easy, simple, and look good. The conversion listed below is one that I found for XV-8's that combines the idea of the modular weapons feature from the Forgeworld suits and applies that feature to the standard suits. Whats even better is that the person who came up with this idea shows you how to do this:
These are some other weapons the person made:
The Tau Sept Marking on the shield is an excellent job.
The result is.....
I think this is enough to make a model stand out and still keep the XV-8 looking like an XV-8 and not something out of a Gundam cartoon. This technique be easily applied to a whole squad or even to a Farsight Enclave of say twenty plus XV-8's.
These are some other weapons the person made:
The Tau Sept Marking on the shield is an excellent job.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Targetlock heads
Continued making "targetlock" heads for the rest of the Farsight Bomb/Squad/Bodyguard. This involves taking a targetlock piece, cutting it in half, and gluing it to the front of the XV-8 head. This gives the head more "depth" and makes it look alot cooler.
The first step is that you have to cut the target lock so the back part is flat. I had to eyeball the fit and position the target lock so it was in the right position infront of the head and not off to one side.
The second step is that you need two drone sprews. The conversion calls for two drone antennas. I made the mistake in removing the antennas first and then cutting off the triangular mount. Bad move. On the bottom of the antennas there is a groove that fits into to the slot that is on top of the drone body. That groove needed to be removed before being mounted onto the side of the head. The first one was the test dummy. The second attempt went more according to plan.
I was somewhat skeptical when I first saw this. But I am now a fan of this conversion. The heads look much better than the standard head. The new conversions stand out at a distance from the rest of the regular XV-8's. I think this was a good choice for an Army Commander unit.
What I didnt want was the Gundam head of 1000+ parts. If I were only doing one model, I could see doing this, however not for a full squad. The person who did the two conversions shown below not only has imagination, but has some serious skillz: 
I am looking forward to this weekend repainting this unit this weekend. First will be a light coat of primer black to let dry over night. The second will the the Mechrite Red. This will make this unit look like its a part of the army while being somewhat different.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Farsight Rebasing
Bought new Xacto knife blades today. Wanted to get a better edge for removing the XV-8's out of Farsight's bodyguard so I didnt cut the heck out of my fingers again.
I was lucky in the fact that the old bases I used clear PVA glue and railroad ballast. It made short work of cutting the feet off of the bases. It was easy using the back of the blade to remove the ballast that was still attached to the bottom of the feet. The feet came out suprisingly clean and free of any excess ballast.
Next step was to remount the XV-8's on new clear "flying" stands. This also went relatively quick by drilling out two of the XV-8 holes in between the jumpacks. All of the remaining XV-8's were not mounted so they took a new stand easy.
Two XV-8's lost their feet. The ankle part on an XV-8 is extremely weak and brittle. You can see older models that have a large amount of CE glue and accelerator "caked" up where the shin meets the foot, or ankle area. One is mounted on a stand, the other is leaning back on a stand on the base.
Farsight fared the worst. Not only have I reglued his feet back to the legs, but when I tried to remove the feet from the base, the center "toe" cracked off from the foot assembly. After I got the toe off of the base I reglued the toe back to the foot and set both feet on the new base. Farsight is currently set on a stand with both feet underneath him.
I am also considering of giving farsight a new sword, probably a wraith sword variant. I have seen two or three different models posed with the wraith sword and I think its a significant improvement over the "kopesh" styled blade. I my opinnion the regular blade looks way to small to be used on an XV-8. The pictures below I think are by far the best conversions I have seen for the Farsight XV-8 with a new sword:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9830/oshovahcomplete.png
Here is a more detailed link of how he did this and what he used:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/269850.page
Currently five of the XV-8's still need to be converted to the "marker light head" style. Most likely this will be done tomorrow night. At least three are completed and I do think they look really sharp. At least when I put them on a table there will be no doubt that the opposing player will know that this is indeed a special unit. Not only that, I will be able to tell the suits apart so they dont get mixed up into different units.
When the rest of the conversions for the heads are completed, I will most likely rebase the unit in primer black. The next coat will be the machrite red. From there I am in a bit of a toss up of where to go from the standard paint scheme. I have seen a few articles on weathering models and am thinking of going in that direction. Farsight Enclaves are supposed to be a "break away faction". So a fair bit of weathering will most likely be applied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKyb35C-mw&feature=related
This was a good tutorial, on painting in a desert camoflauge. I found this video intresting in the fact that the author not only use Flames paints but also GW paints. For the weathering he used a simple technique of applying black first (one of the Flames colors), and then bolt-gun metal (one of the GW colors).
If you are noticing a pattern, yes I do surf the web alot. I do retain the right to use, borrow, and out right steal other peoples ideas for their models. Likewise if there are items I have made and conversions I have done, that I have passed on to other players I have come across over the years. If you see me 'incorperating" an idea that either you or one of your friends have used or come up with, take it as a complement and not an insult. On the same note if you see a conversion that I have done and you want to copy it, please feel free to do so. I give out the details on what parts I used or how I painted the model.
I was lucky in the fact that the old bases I used clear PVA glue and railroad ballast. It made short work of cutting the feet off of the bases. It was easy using the back of the blade to remove the ballast that was still attached to the bottom of the feet. The feet came out suprisingly clean and free of any excess ballast.
Next step was to remount the XV-8's on new clear "flying" stands. This also went relatively quick by drilling out two of the XV-8 holes in between the jumpacks. All of the remaining XV-8's were not mounted so they took a new stand easy.
Two XV-8's lost their feet. The ankle part on an XV-8 is extremely weak and brittle. You can see older models that have a large amount of CE glue and accelerator "caked" up where the shin meets the foot, or ankle area. One is mounted on a stand, the other is leaning back on a stand on the base.
Farsight fared the worst. Not only have I reglued his feet back to the legs, but when I tried to remove the feet from the base, the center "toe" cracked off from the foot assembly. After I got the toe off of the base I reglued the toe back to the foot and set both feet on the new base. Farsight is currently set on a stand with both feet underneath him.
I am also considering of giving farsight a new sword, probably a wraith sword variant. I have seen two or three different models posed with the wraith sword and I think its a significant improvement over the "kopesh" styled blade. I my opinnion the regular blade looks way to small to be used on an XV-8. The pictures below I think are by far the best conversions I have seen for the Farsight XV-8 with a new sword:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9830/oshovahcomplete.png
Here is a more detailed link of how he did this and what he used:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/269850.page
Currently five of the XV-8's still need to be converted to the "marker light head" style. Most likely this will be done tomorrow night. At least three are completed and I do think they look really sharp. At least when I put them on a table there will be no doubt that the opposing player will know that this is indeed a special unit. Not only that, I will be able to tell the suits apart so they dont get mixed up into different units.
When the rest of the conversions for the heads are completed, I will most likely rebase the unit in primer black. The next coat will be the machrite red. From there I am in a bit of a toss up of where to go from the standard paint scheme. I have seen a few articles on weathering models and am thinking of going in that direction. Farsight Enclaves are supposed to be a "break away faction". So a fair bit of weathering will most likely be applied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKyb35C-mw&feature=related
This was a good tutorial, on painting in a desert camoflauge. I found this video intresting in the fact that the author not only use Flames paints but also GW paints. For the weathering he used a simple technique of applying black first (one of the Flames colors), and then bolt-gun metal (one of the GW colors).
If you are noticing a pattern, yes I do surf the web alot. I do retain the right to use, borrow, and out right steal other peoples ideas for their models. Likewise if there are items I have made and conversions I have done, that I have passed on to other players I have come across over the years. If you see me 'incorperating" an idea that either you or one of your friends have used or come up with, take it as a complement and not an insult. On the same note if you see a conversion that I have done and you want to copy it, please feel free to do so. I give out the details on what parts I used or how I painted the model.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Paint
Bought a total of four more malachite red paint bottles and one bedab black wash. I am going to disect the wash for consistency with regular citadel (tm) paints.
Just in case I am going to make an unoffical/offical statement: I am making a disclamer, I use games-workshop stuff, models, paints, and tools. Its for my own enjoyment and I am not seeking compensation in any way or form except for maybe having the chance to stomp (many) future opponents face into the dirt and say bad things about their mom. While I am stomping said opponents face in the ground, saying bad things about their mom, I do reserve the right to have a cold refreshing beverage, and maybe a hot pocket or a burger.
Lest I digress, four paint bottles should be enough to paint about 24ish more XV-8's. Meaning I can fisnish off the XV-8's except for Farsight and his body guard.
Main issue is that there are 15 XV-8's that are already based as is Faright and his body guard. I have to pry, cut, remove said XV-8's off of the old bases and put them on to new bases. The bases arent the problem, its removng them. Last time I removed an XV-8 off of a base I put a centimeter cut into my left pointer finger. Blood everywhere, not cool. So I am thinking heavy work gloves, or sawing them off. The liquid that breaks down the bond in CE glue will litterally melt plastic, on both sides. So in order to save the feet, this needs to be done slowly.
Another reason I am redoing the bases is that due to the age of the bases, the PVA glue dried, and the railroad ballast I used has hardened and cracked and pulled away from the base of the model. Of the orgional seven XV-8 models I started with, Farsight, a command team, and an elite choice, all of the ballast as started to crack and come off of the bases. The same has happened to all three XV-88's-Broadsides. So maybe its time for a bit of chage for basing, something a little different.
After the XV-88's are done. I will start on the XV-25 Stealth Suits. At least only six are painted and based, so redoing them should go much faster.
Just in case I am going to make an unoffical/offical statement: I am making a disclamer, I use games-workshop stuff, models, paints, and tools. Its for my own enjoyment and I am not seeking compensation in any way or form except for maybe having the chance to stomp (many) future opponents face into the dirt and say bad things about their mom. While I am stomping said opponents face in the ground, saying bad things about their mom, I do reserve the right to have a cold refreshing beverage, and maybe a hot pocket or a burger.
Lest I digress, four paint bottles should be enough to paint about 24ish more XV-8's. Meaning I can fisnish off the XV-8's except for Farsight and his body guard.
Main issue is that there are 15 XV-8's that are already based as is Faright and his body guard. I have to pry, cut, remove said XV-8's off of the old bases and put them on to new bases. The bases arent the problem, its removng them. Last time I removed an XV-8 off of a base I put a centimeter cut into my left pointer finger. Blood everywhere, not cool. So I am thinking heavy work gloves, or sawing them off. The liquid that breaks down the bond in CE glue will litterally melt plastic, on both sides. So in order to save the feet, this needs to be done slowly.
Another reason I am redoing the bases is that due to the age of the bases, the PVA glue dried, and the railroad ballast I used has hardened and cracked and pulled away from the base of the model. Of the orgional seven XV-8 models I started with, Farsight, a command team, and an elite choice, all of the ballast as started to crack and come off of the bases. The same has happened to all three XV-88's-Broadsides. So maybe its time for a bit of chage for basing, something a little different.
After the XV-88's are done. I will start on the XV-25 Stealth Suits. At least only six are painted and based, so redoing them should go much faster.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Beginning
So this is the first post of my trying to stay on track of finishing my Warhammer 40K army. It sounds easy, but if you know anything about Warhammer 40K it is always a work in progress. Somehow you seem to acquire or accumulate more models. So after playing for over twenty years since the second edition, I need to finally finish up all of my Tau models. The army consists of:
So, whats the current situation of my army?
Farsight and his bodyguards are still painted in their original paint scheme, 3 modified with markerlight heads/5 no change
12 XV-8s in their original paint scheme
11 XV-8's (airbrushed and need repainting)
31 XV-8s (correct color)
10 Hammer Heads (correct color)
5 Devilfish (correct color)
3 Skyrays correct color
6 Devilfish (original paint scheme)
72 Firewarriors original paint scheme
72 Firewarriors basecoated black w/padding painted
72 Firewarriors basecoated black
6 Broadsides original paint scheme
3 Broadsides base coated black
6 Stealth Suits original paint scheme
42 Stealth Suits base coated black
I think that I will try to get at least one squad of XV-8's and one Hammer Head semi completed....kinda.....
- Commander Farsight
- 65 XV-8 Crisis Suits
- 9 Broadsides
- 48 Stealth Suits
- 9 Piranhas
- 11 Devilfish
- 10 Hammer Heads
- 3 Sky Rays
- 216 Firewarriors
- 1 Tigershark
- 60 Drones
I once had a full force organization fully painted. But as I said before I acquired more models from people leaving and sales and other what not. Then Games Workshop did about the most evil thing in a long time, they didnt raise prices, the made the game bigger -- they introduced an expansion called Apocalypse. This created rules for games more than 3,000 points. So, my army doubled in size in less than two months and has grown to its present size within the last year.
Doing some reading around the internet I finally started getting the right tools for the right jobs. I purchased an airbrush with an air compressor. I was amazed how much this sped up the base painting process. I also purchased a rotary tool (a Dremmel) for conversions I have been looking at.
So, whats the current situation of my army?
Farsight and his bodyguards are still painted in their original paint scheme, 3 modified with markerlight heads/5 no change
12 XV-8s in their original paint scheme
11 XV-8's (airbrushed and need repainting)
31 XV-8s (correct color)
10 Hammer Heads (correct color)
5 Devilfish (correct color)
3 Skyrays correct color
6 Devilfish (original paint scheme)
72 Firewarriors original paint scheme
72 Firewarriors basecoated black w/padding painted
72 Firewarriors basecoated black
6 Broadsides original paint scheme
3 Broadsides base coated black
6 Stealth Suits original paint scheme
42 Stealth Suits base coated black
I think that I will try to get at least one squad of XV-8's and one Hammer Head semi completed....kinda.....
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