Make way for the Inquisition

Hey guys and girls,

So its been a while and not much has happened on the hobby side of things - work has been kinda hectic and I have been diverting a lot of my attention towards Magic the Gathering with the release of Gatecrash at the beginning of February. However, I did manage to devote a couple of evenings to painting and was able to complete High Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz - read on to check him out...

I have always wanted to add an enamel type effect to Coteaz's armour as I thought it would really make him pop and when arrayed against my army of silver knights. My girlfriend was able to find me a lovely Tamiya gloss white acrylic (White X-2). While it looks great, painting with it is a pain. It gets tacky very quickly so make sure to give it a really good shake before use, also it doesn't mix very well with water. However, it only takes a couple of coats to build up a really strong colour. 

I am planning to use the same effect on the Crusaders to continue the theme of a "pure" force of Inquisitional troops. The perfect complement to the most hallowed of Space Marine Chapters. Although I am giving some serious thought to experimenting with tinting the plating to see how it looks with the glossy effect. Of course, no Inquisitional units look quite complete without some red thrown in; the bright red of the cloak really helps to contrast against the glossy white plate. The Cyber-Eagle was an interesting aspect to paint. I decided to base the colours on an American Bald Eagle as they are kinda the iconic poster-child for eagles. After doing a number of gem types / lenses on my Stormraven, I really think I nailed it first time on the Eagle's bionic eye!

So, there isn't too much time left until Vanquish in April and I need to get the final two squads finished so the rush is on to get them done. The Crusaders will be up soon, they have had their base coats and I have done some sculpting to make their shields a little more "Inquisitiony". The real challenge will be completing the Death Cult Assassins in time... until next time!

-Lucifer

Storming into 2013

Hey guys,

Welcome back after a very busy December and Christmas period. Unfortunately, life has been rather hectic over the past month or so and as a result, I have not been able to devote as much time to hobbying as I would have liked. However, I did get a load of new toys to play at Christmas including a custom, handmade wooden hobby station from the girlfriend, which has allowed me to dive straight back into things with reckless abandon!

I finally finished my Grey Knights Stormraven and updated BLOODYdice with a small showcase which should be up in a couple of days. I spent a lot of time painting it all nice and pretty then ruining ruining it all with weathering to add some character. I was very pleased with final result and got some lovely pictures for you all!

Of course, the model would not be complete without a suitably epic base. Initially I just created a very plain base as I didn't want to detract from the model itself but that just looked to boring and very much like it was a last minute addition "because it had to be done". So I stripped it all down and went back to the drawing board with my box o' bits...

I took a hacksaw to a spare Chaos Bike I found and added some bits from the rider. I decided to go for a nice red and gold theme to mirror the Chaos Space Marine's World Eaters... my friend Dave is a little obsessed with them and we find it fun to depict their shattered remains on some of the bigger bases! I think this scenic base adds a lot more life to the model and allowed me to experiment with loads of basing supplies I also got for Christmas (my girlfriend kinda spoilt me a little!).

Lastly, I want to share with you an awesome technique I have only recently come across called Focus Stacking. For the uninitiated, it involves taking a load of photos while focusing at different depths across the target, then stacking them together to create a perfectly in focus picture. The program I am using to achieve this is called CombineZP. I attempted to create a few pictures to show the development of the Stormraven's base. Please appreciate that I am still experimenting with this technique so the photos are by no means perfect!

Stormraven base - Initial build.

Stormraven base - Base coated and detail painted.

Stormraven base - Completed base.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much I as enjoyed taking and messing around with them. Keep posted, more to come soon!

-Lucifer

Conversion to Crusade (Part 1)

Hey guys,

Just a little update on what I have been up to this week. Work has been absolutely manic for the past couple of weeks and as a result, I have had hardly any free time to devote to the hobby… I got a little spare time this weekend and thought I would start working on my Grey Knight Henchmen to combo with my Stormraven gunship (there is a Pictures in Progress article on BLOODYdice detailing the Stormraven's progress).

So, I ordered a box of GW’s ‘Warriors of Chaos’ for the Crusader conversions and ‘Dark Eldar Wyches’ for the Death Cult Assassins. They arrived earlier in the week, around Monday I think, so I started playing around with the Warriors as I only needed to make up four for the unit. The bodies are fairly free of Chaos symbols; however the shields were not and needed some serious work to get them cleaned down to a smooth layer. Even now, I think they could do with a bit more work – I have a plan to make them look awesome which I will be showing you in the next post or so :D

The bodies did require some gap filling and removal of mould lines although although taking photos always reveals bit you have missed D: After that, I had to root through my massive box of bits to try and find some heads and weapons for these guys. I managed to find some without power armour helmets or too much in the way of augmentation and dry ran them before deciding which to use.The next major issue was trying to decide how to represent the Power Axes these guys were supposed to be sporting. The weapons from the Warriors box were too medieval as they naturally come for the Fantasy Battle range. I decided to go with the common Grey Knight theme of halberds. I reduce the length of the handle so they would look less like pole arms and more long-handled blades. I am not entirely sure how successful this was but I thought the effect was nice!

The next moment I get some free time, I will be working on the shields and hopefully finishing off the final bits and pieces for the Stormraven. In the meanwhile, keep posted and enjoy the pictures. Also feel free to check out BLOODYdice for more table top hobby and interests.

-Lucifer

Welcome to the Relaunch

Hey guys and girls,

I know it’s taken a while but I am finally getting the blog up and running again! It has been on a long list of things to do for quite some time but work and life have a habit of getting in the way! It was actually an offer to help out on a friend’s blog that got me back into the swing of things so to speak - decided if I could find time for that I had better get back to doing this one...

I have been working hard to try and finish my Grey Knights, and they are so close to being finished.

I am currently working on a couple of units that have found their way into my current Grey Knight list after I bought a Stormraven on the eve of 6th Edition. And what better to wrap up in that deadly delivery system than the most points efficient combat squad the codex had to offer – Crusaders and Death Cult Assassins! Not being a fan of the models I decided to convert my own from some Dark Eldar Wyches and Warriors of Chaos - hopefully, you guys will get to see the results of over the next couple of weeks!

Following the completion of the few remaining Grey Knight units (and some minor touching up to do) I will finally be able to back to my Chaos army of Nurgley goodness - it has been in development for about 4 years and never really got finished. I had been doing odd bits and pieces in between my other armies, which was never a good idea as this introduced a degree of variance between these different units as ideas and concepts changed over time. I decided to shelve it shortly after I heard there was a new codex in the works. Now with the new codex, and a boat-load of ideas, I am starting to gather the bits and pieces I need to get them looking awesome!

I should have some more articles up soon, full of lovely pictures and a break down of what I have been doing… in the mean while, I will leave you with these teasers from some of my completed projects (although the Rhino is my girlfriend's work :D)!

-Lucifer