Starting the Storm Eagle - ugh - We're in the warp now!

  Howdy!  Well, I have started the Storm Eagle.  I have to admit I was very nervous about starting this one.  First, because it is a pricey model and second, because it was pretty warped to start with.  But after a while of hot water, and an aluminum plate, I have them relatively straight.  At least the sides.

  I plan on getting the sides and floor done, as well as the bulkhead and the door so that I can prime and paint the inside areas.  Even though you can only see it from the front assault ramp and the side doors, I just feel like I have to do it.  It would be weird to build such a nicely detailed model and not have the interior done.

  So, for the warpage.  I had to boil up some water then let it cool for a short time.  Then the whole side went in for a few moments, not even a minute.  I didn't want it to turn to mush!  Once they were out of the water, they were soft, I must say.  I had to get them down on to the aluminum plate quickly.  Mostly because the pieces were hot...

  I could not put them square on the aluminum sheet, because the pieces are not flat, they have a lot of raised details.  I had to pre-plan a method to get most of the surface area onto a flat plane and then know that I might need to use a blow dryer or even another hot water bath to adjust the rest of the piece.  They actually came out pretty well, considering how they started...   Here is the blow by blow for the progress thus far.

The original warped sides.  Warped across 2 dimensions too, so it would be harder to straighten...

The floor of the craft.  Massively warped, but very easy to fix with hot water and a few moments on the aluminum plate.

Here they are clamped to the aluminum plate.  You see how I had to fit them on in a way that didn't warp them around the raised details that they have on the inside.

Clamping on the engine covers and landing gear bays.  They were epoxied on with 5-minute epoxy for strength.  You can also see the engines are built, but I'm not going to attach them yet.  They will get primed and painted first...

  So, there it is, started.  A lot of work to do going forward!  Getting a lot of inspiration from TemplarsCrusade01 and his Thunderhawk build...  Thanks mate!!

WH40K 7th thoughts and Achilles LR WIP

  Well, 7th is here and the posturing has begun.  There is much love, much hate and lots of opinions.  I, for one, will not venture forth much for opinions, because it is still too new, but I have to say  like what I see so far.

  The Tourny crowd is much disappointed, and I am too, for them.  There is alot that will have to be modified to make the game competition friendly, but I think the tourny crowd actually likes that, even as they outwardly bemoan the holes and issues with the rules.  This gives them a chance to dig in their heels and get dirty, making the rules work better.  I'm sure they'll figure it out, too.  They're a pretty smart lot.

  For me, I love the rules, and I love the FAQs that came out.  Although my Necron's lost the douche canoe (Ind Char on a CCB) it is still a powerful piece with a standard Necron Lord aboard.  The Grey Wolves got a serious smackdown, and I can only hope a codex issues forth soon for them so they get their identity back.  I love the destruction of JoWW, but still, it leaves the wolves alot like any other chapter of marines, albeit adding wolves and fangs.  But still, I love the clarifications, the straightforward style of the rules and the reduction of ambiguity that has taken place.  The psychic phase is replete with fun, I think, although the boys from Frontline gaming certainly showed how it can get weird... I LOVE the mission cards, and yes, I saw the batrep from FLG on that too.  That was so one sided it almost seemed to be destined to show the cards at their very worst.  But, I have also seen numbers of reports of the cards being just great fun, and not that one sided.  I'm looking forward to using them.  My munitorium edition of the rules came in last night, but I had a 16 hour day at work and will do the unboxing tonight!

  But now, the Achilles!  I got alot more work done, although it doesn't look like it.  I added some more iconography and ended up making molds to cast some pieces for my chapter.  The mold making process chewed up alot of time, because I had to do all the mold making, clean up the hobby room, organize the shelves and so on.  Like any other project, what seemed simple turned into a memorial day weekend consumer. 

  Here is where I am so far, emperor willing, I'll get it primed tonight!

 I cast a smoke discharger from an older kit, I hate the new ones.  This one nestles nicely on the right fender.  It came out well, too.  Once drilled out, it looks very good.

 Yep, newbie model maker mistake #1...  I painted the tracks, then glued them on before I primed the model.  So, my punishment for stupidity is I got to mask them...

More templar icons,  The winged templar icon I made myself from some old Blood angel and templar bits.  My chapter, the Templars Sanguine, fit quite nicely with the logo.  Ready to prime now...  yay!

  See ya soon, be well!

White Dorf, Stormraven and Icon WIP

  Well, it's the day of the Daytona 500.  Not much will get done today, but the new White Dwarf is out, Chaos Daemons everywhere.  Again, the catalog format is in full swing, but the battle report is quite good.  Adam Troke did up some nice Daemons and plays a good game.  I wish they had gone more into the details, but it looked like a fun game.  Overall, the issue is as good as any recent, but not anything to write home about.

  Did make progress on the Stormraven yesterday.  Got the wings attached, finished all the cockpit painting, painted the crew parts,  tinted the cockpit glass and generally built it out.  I was going to leave the wings off and magnetize them, to save storage space... but...  The wife told me that we would be building a display case for the Dining Room to house our miniatures.  Ok, sold!  (She fields Nids like all girls do :)

Cockpit finished

Crew colored

Cockpit tinted and weapons magnetized

Wings!

  I also worked on the Templars Sanguine icon mold.  Version 2 is made, I just need to mix up some resin and go to it.

  Ok, maybe more later, have to watch the 42 rednecks chase the girl now....  lol, Go Junior!!!!!

Update 1 : What the hell happened to Picasa? It went from a little photo aggregator to something that now wants to index my entire hard drive and send everything to Google.  Well, deleted that damn thing.  Hey Google, go screw your mad selves!!

WIP - Storm Raven, Aquilla, Icon Mold

  Long weekend, short on ability.  Story of my life, it seems.  I did something to my arm Friday night and spent the whole weekend aching.  It falls asleep a lot and tingles just about all the time.  Methinks this is not good.  Anyhow, between that and some other malady's, my hobby work was cut quite short.   So, first off, a big "huzzah" to Danica Patrick for taking the pole for the Daytona 500.  you go, girl!

  Next, I was able to finish up on my Aquila.  This version does not suck nearly as bad as the last one.  Here it is, it still needs dullcote and some final tweaks...

  The next thing I worked on was the new icon for my chapter, the Templars Sanguine.  I will be putting up a whole page of their goodness, with preliminary fluff and designs very soon.  What I needed was the blood angels wings with a templar cross.  I can't have my brand spanking new chapter going around with the wrong iconography.  So, since I was working on my Storm Raven anyhow, I decided to cut apart the wings from one of the icons.  I also hacked up a banner from the Black Templar upgrade box to get the cross.  I had to chisel off the skull and re-shape it a bit, but it made the grade.

WIPs and Chains and DFA!!

  Ok, no whips and chains, really...  I meant Works in Progress.  Get your minds out of there!!

  I am posting a pic of my new improved Aquila from the Honored Imperium set.  I think the stone look came out ok, but I think it will really pop when the background is painted on.  I am following the same basic thoughts as the Warhammer Lady (see link to the right).  I want that look of fallen stone, not the fallen metal Aquila I had tried before.  In retrospect, it looked garish in metal.  I'm glad I stripped it.  Hopefully I can knock it all out this weekend.

  Got a new piece of Pegasus Hobbies Terrain, the small Gothic City Building kit.  Very cool kit, it really is a decent investment, and I am just about to plunk down the money for the bigger set.  A great alternative to GW terrain and will make the board look a little different.  The picture just gives you an idea of what's in the box.  It snaps together, but for any real gaming, it will require glue and a lot of mold line work.  All the usual prime/paint stuff as well.  But again, their stuff is modular, so you can combine the kits in a particular range to get something really cool.  Odd part on this kit, no floor or roof.  Easy enough to fix, but just kind of odd.  Also, the conical caps for the columns, only 8 in the kit, but there is a crap-ton of columns.  I wish they had tossed in a few more sprues of those.  I may just have to cast some of those from plaster or something like that.  These are not a lot cheaper than the GW stuff, but the change in design and look is worth it, I think.

Also, just ordered Death From The Skies.  GW's new compendium of aerial rules.  Yes, I paid the $33 for the book, like a good GW fanboi should.  But it looks really cool.  And the promise of being able to use the Storm Raven with VSM and Templars is just too good to pass up!  Especially now that I have redone the fluff of my chapter to be a cross between BA and BT.  I have heard a lot of arguments that say this is a bad thing, GW selling this direct order only, with no pre-release hype, but I cannot say as I mind.  There are no secrets in this hobby, everyone knew it was dropping today.  I'm looking forward to it!

    

Templars Sanguine WIP

  Here he is, the first of the Templars Sanguine in the new livery.  Highlights and washes applied.  I think it's better than my first attempts, by a long shot.  I attribute a lot of this to the How to Paint video...

  Anyhow, a 360degree view follows.  Still debating on the black or the red Templar icon decal for the left pauldrons...

For the Rest of the Pics... hit the "Read More" thingy ...  10 photo's in all.