I got all of my original 72 Firewarriors removed from their base, and pulled up all of the old railroad ballast. In many cases the clear PVA glue had either rubberized or shrinked to where it pulled the ballast up off of the base.
Once the ballast was removed, I used a heavy hobby knife to remove the Firewarriors from their base. I did this because the first time I was basing the Firewarriors I was using alot of PVA glue to coat a base and "swished" it around in a plastic container. The result did turn out pretty well. Using the railroad ballast lasted about nine to ten years. If I wanted to push it I could have easily used super glue CE glue and glued the ballast back down to the base. But I think its time for something different.
So 210 Firewarriors are quickly on their way to being repainted. I am actually very excited of getting the Firewarriros done. The Firewarriors make up a very large part of my army and I want to make sure that they match with the other units.
Of the 210 Firewarriors, the first 72 have been removed from their base and have one side, air brush painted. I started to paint the other side and I just couldn't get the mix right with the air brush. I kept gumming up the air brush. Either I didn't thin out the paint or the paint was too thin and came out really watery. I started to run out of time so I called it a night. By the up coming weekend. I would like to have all 210 done. That will leave the the six original Devilfish, the Pathfinders, The Piranha's, and the last formation consisting of six XV-88's and 12 XV-8's.
I am still surprised of how much time the air brush is saving. Although some times it is very frustrating to use, it definitely is worth it. I think if I was using it every day or for work I would invest in the $200.00 model but I cant really justify it. I am still wondering if I should have bought a more powerful air compressor. I think that 20-30 psi might be too light. The other thing I have been thinking about is, looking for a different head for the airbrush that might allow a finer line for painting.
I would like to be done with at least the initial basing of most of the models by the end of next month. I think that is a Conservative estimate. From there I can start adding the sept marking and the offset color, in this case gray. Farsight's colors seem to be maroon and gray. With other supporting colors of light and dark blue for plasma guns, black-highlighted with gray for under workings, and for lenses, I am going to try something different. For the lenses I am going to try yellow instead of green or blue.
Many years ago in 2nd Addition 40K there was an actual Deathwing Squad of Terminators. The color (colour) scheme was skull white with bone white for highlights, red for lenses, and green for wings for the Dark Angles symbol. The overall effect was "Christmas" themed Terminators. I have seen the same recurring colors being used on different models in showcases in different combinations. I just have a hard time envisioning white XV-8's, highlighted with bleached bone, with red lenses and green highlights. That just screams wrong on many levels.
I think that this color scheme will stay much closer to what Farsight's shown in the Codex.
So once all the the army is based coated, I can start knocking out squads with gray highlights and appropriate color schemes. I need to write these down and make sure I stick to them and not get sidetracked.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Rebasing
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?
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?
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.
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