Magnet Installation helper / tool

  Did a quick tutorial / how to for a magnet installation tool that takes the guesswork out of magnet polarity and makes installing them easier.  Someone may find it useful??

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!!

The Darkwing Knights... or changing my fluff

  Well, I did it again...  I changed my fluff for my chapter.  At least I haven't painted a whole mess of them yet...

  Why you ask?  Hell, I don't know.  I was just never happy with the Black Templar background, so I am playing it down quite a bit.  I have always loved the Raven Guard and the Blood Angels.  My play style is WAY more BA than RG though, so I am going down that road.  I will be using BA for my main CAD and using BT as allies to maintain the proper fluff/game ratios :)

So, the banner...  At the top we have the chapter logo, no it is not a Batman logo :)  It is close though.  I have been associated bats for as long as I can remember.  Everything from call-signs to Squadron patches and logos have been bats.  I like bats.  It's my chapter, back off ;)  Also, bats are terribly under-represented as far as I can see searching google for chapter ideas! 

  Under that is the Latin "Post Tenebras Lux" which translates to "From Darkness, Light", yes, we spread the light of the emperor!  (It is actually, After Darkness, Light, but it gets the same message out :)

  Next is the Imperial Aquila, Hail the Imperium!

  Then, the crossed swords of Loyalty.  Loyalty to the Imperium, glory to the Emperor!

  Beneath that is the Laurels of glory in battle!

  The Darkwing Knights scroll follows that.

  On the peals are the symbols of the Blood Angles and the Black Templars, in homage to our parent chapter(s).  In the center is the flaming skull, an homage to our desire to strike from the sky in a burning hellfire of the emperor's truth and glory!   Yeah...  Boom, there it is...

The decal and Symbol of the chapter;

The Darkwing symbol, in black and red, to honour the mother chapters and the cross, our symbol of knighthood.

  And the new, improved paint for the marines;

  Simple, easy to paint and looks pretty decent, I think.  Sergeants will have red helms. 

  Vehicles will be black, with some attempt at camouflage!  They will also have the Teal and Red on them for flavor.

  So, that's it, the new look...  for now...  until I change again!  LOL

LR Achilles WIP #2 - Details

  Back home, and got the airplane crud.  Fever and chills, you know, the stuff you get from being on an airplane for 8 hours...  Oh well.  I felt ok for a while and decided to do some more work on the Land Raider Achilles.  And here it is...

 The side door had to be 'wallered' out (enlarged) in order to be able to get the 9 volt battery in and out.  I could have used the cool small battery that PoweredPlay gaming sells (I got two with the kickstarter package) but I wanted to save those for really tight spaces.  I also magnetized the door so it would pop in and out easily.

 Well, every big gun needs ammo, and the more ammo, the better, right?  So I tossed on a bit more ammo.  Added some brass Black Templar bits too.  The Ammo crate didn't look right though.  It would fall off if the thing accelerated...

   So, I put the twist on some copper wire and made a couple of swages.  I used  bent up paper clip for the grab irons. 

   Then I got a bit crazy with the grab irons and I figured this beast would need a tow cable too.  So on went a few more grabs and a tow rope.  Had a little fun with it.

 Every tank needs a number, Thank you MrJustin at SecretWeaponMiniatures for the roman numerals!

  Last, but not least, Squadron green putty to fill all the gaps.  I still have to sand it all smooth and make it look good, but she is basically ready to prime.  

Land Raider Achilles - WIP #1 - Lighting

  Well begun is half done, right?  I started the Land Raider Achilles from Forgeworld tonight.  Got quite a bit done, a lot of the build is complete.  Went together very well, haven't had to re-work any of the resin pieces at all.  I decided to light up the headlights with an Alpha set from PoweredPlay Gaming, and that went well also. 

  What follows is the pictorial history of the evening.

 Pretty standard land raider build to start off.  In the instructions, they say you need to glue in the engine piece to the interior, trouble is, that does not fit.  The slope of the rear glacis prevents the engine piece from sliding in.  Even in their images for the build, it shows it removed from most of the pictures.  I left it off.  No sense fiddling with something that will never be seen by anyone.

   5 Minute epoxy was used to join the plastic and resin pieces.  I like the epoxy better than super glue, it holds more solidly.

   Testing the PoweredPlay set to make sure it works.

 The initial install of the lights.  Fairly simple process to drill out the headlights to 1/8" to fit in the LEDs.  I used orange and white, orange for the fog lamps...

   Holding down the wires with hot glue so they don't muck about while I'm trying to glue the top down.  Had to drill out a small channel for the wires as well.  The tin foil was just used to prevent the LEDs from bleeding light everywhere since they are set back.  I don't like the look of the LEDs sticking way out of the headlight frames.

   Mounted the board with hot glue to the rear glacis and the screwed the switch in to the bottom after cutting a hole for the switch.  The battery is actually outside the hatch in this shot.

  And there it is, all lit up like a death dealing christmas tree.  The tracks are off getting primed in painted to metallic glory.  A little green stuff work done to make a couple of gaps go away.

  That's all for now.  More to come...

Review: IA Model Masterclass Vol Two

  As promised, here are my thoughts on the second volume of the Imperial Armor Masterclass series.  If you thought (or believed me when I told you) that volume one was good, you ain't seen nothing yet!

  Again, volume two does not show you how to build a model or even how to paint it.  It gives you techniques and ideas (tools for your tool box) to use when building your models.  This volume also spreads the love around the universe, but just a bit more.  Imperial guards are still the star of the show, but there is Eldar, Chaos, orky bits and terrain in here too.  What you get is a host of ideas and step by step shots of how to take your models to the next level.  These things are not beyond the level of the avaerage modeler, they show you how it's done.  You can take these techniques to any model from any race (or even any game!)

  First up is some beautiful effects on a Reaver Titan.  Everything from the enamel (looking) paint on the large surfaces to some amazing details on the pumps and gears.  After that we get a Red Scorpions Land Raider.  Lots of good detailing and weathering here, but for a Spess Mahrine vehicle, so it's not too overdone.  Lots of weapon effects and trackwork.  Some photos of an Eldar Phantom Titan bust are next, but no good hints here, just beautiful pictures.

  Coming in next is an amazing winter scene board made from 2 sets of Realm of Battle boards (4' x 12').  A great deal of extra terrain, hills and plaster cast rocks, are added to the boards and then snow effects are done.  The ideas are applicable to any board you may have.  Great photos of the Eldar are here too, all from the Mymeara campaign book.  

  You should have the idea by now, everything here is high quality, great looking stuff.  There are chapters for Nurgling things, diorama-ing things, aircraft and lots more tanks.  Everything is well done and well presented.  The ork themed board at the end is very cool too, lots of bits box ideas.  The book finishes with a chapter on using the Forge World Weathering Powders.  While this is a great, albeit short chapter, I would tend to rely more on the recent videos and ideas from Secret Weapon Miniatures and other web sources for even more ideas.  There is a lot of emphasis on weathering with pigments and powders these days, but it does not take away from the usefulness of the info here.

  All in all, another A+ effort from the boys at Forge World.  A high quality book, great presentation and photography makes this a valuable add to your collection.  I know I don't regret it.

Review: IA Model Masterclass Vol One

  Am I late to the party on this one, yep, sure am.  This book was first published in 2008.  But maybe, if you're on the fence, I can help nudge you one way or the other.

  I got my forgeworld order in the other day, and there was my cool books.  I was really looking forward to getting these two master class books, as the descriptions made them sound very useful.  They are, indeed!

  The book is beautiful, as you would expect from a forgeworld publication.  You will not be disappointed with the quality of this book, from the binding to the pages and printing.  Very durable and worth the money.  But what about the guts, you ask?

  Well, here is where you get your moneys worth.  I am not going to break it down chapter by chapter, but I will overview the book.  The first thing to know, and they tell you this on the web page, it is not a "how to build a model" book, this is a master class level item.  Not to say that the techniques in the book are beyond the 'average' modeler, far from it, they teach you well.

  The first chapter is, as you might expect, about tools and equipment.  What you may not expect is that it is not the typical fact sheets for GW tools and such.  It is a good, solid run down of things you'll need, and things you never even thought about needing.  And lots of stuff not made by GW even?  (Heretics in forge world department, inquisition please report to forge world!)  For instance, they talk about taking apart a water filter to get a lifetime's supply of rivet heads, and how to use them.  Bang on!!

  They then move on to building tanks (Armour is the focus of this book... go figger).  They show a step by step build of a Renegade Medusa tank.  From bag-o-parts to finished product.  They do not show you how to build and work with resin, but rather how to doll it up and take the existing vehicle and dress it for war.  In the article they make tank tread holders from old brass sprues (never throw those away!!!!).  They also run some hydraulic lines to the dozer blades and put rivet heads everywhere.  In short, they take this chapter to give you ideas for how to take your models to the next level, how would the crew be using it, how it would look after a fight.  There are SCADS of pictures, and the keyed text is great at not just saying how to do a step, but in many cases why.  Another cool idea, hairspray to make some great use/damage effects on the plow blade.

Space Battleship Yamato... And a PK-PRO mini-holder!

  Before Robotech, there was Star Blazers!  This was one of my favorite shows ever, before Anime was cool, it was what I ran home from school for.  Well, lo and behold, I was looking around the interwebs and I found a 1/500 model kit for the ship.  I just got it in the mail the other day and is it ever cool.  Can't wait to build this bad boy and get it on display (somewhere...) First done in 1974, it really did lay the groundwork for a lot of the space anime that was to come.

  There is a much bigger model of this ship (1/350) and it has sound and motion, but also a $400-500 price tag.  Sheeeesh.

  This plastic model is really well done by Bandai.  The instructions are totally in Japanese, but I found a site that had them all scanned in and translated to english.  Woooot!  The turrets all rotate and the pieces are really beautifully done.  They are molded in colors, but it will get a paint job, that's for sure.  I'm also pretty sure I will be getting another light kit from PoweredPlay Gaming to light this bad boy up.

  Also, I picked up this pretty cool mini holder from PK-PRO in Germany.  It's quite cool, but this is a lousy picture.  It is a nice, ceramic base with a split cork in the center.  The metal rod wraps around and gives you a VERY comfortable place to rest your fingers, not on the mini, marring up the paint job.  The split cork is very nice, because you can put the pin (if you pin your figs to the bases) into the split and it holds it very securely.  You can also just glob on the hobby-tac as well.

  Not a great image, but I will be putting up more about it.

  And one last Star blazers image...