A New Grey Knight Inquisitor Arrives

After getting a few friendly games in earlier this week I decided to move forward with the new list I'll be taking to the Alamo 40k GT.  It's very similar to the one I took to Astro but I've decided to change out the Inquisitor for a Terminator one to go along with the new terminators I'll be adding to the army to come in and deep strike along side they strike squad brothers.

Inquisitor Silth (not settled on a name yet) is armed with a Daemon Hammer and Psycannon and rains the Emperor's justice down on his enemies where ever the ground trembles beneath his feat.

I had had the Inquisitor Rex model sitting on my shelf for about two years now waiting to be put together and could never really find a reason to play with him and his rules, but I've always loved the model.  So after a little hacking here he is, minus the sword and shield, but who needs a shield when you've got psybolts exploding your enemies' head.

I hope you like the model, and I'll have it painted up here soon along with all of the other models I'm going to have to work on to get this army on board.

Magnetizing your Landraider

Hey everyone, today we're going to talk about magnetizing your Landraider so that you can get all of the variants out of it. This is really my first time magnetizing anything to this extreme, and I spent a bit of time thinking about it, while slicing open my thumb, but I believe I've actually come across the easiest way (at least for me) to magnetize the landraider with out having to do to much extra work other then gluing some magnets in place.


So first thing first, I wanted to be able to swap out the weapon sponsons on my landraider. Now I had been thinking about green stuffing an inset that would fit in the holes and putting a magnet in that, but first molding it so it had some design on it, yadda yadda yadda. And as I was watching my finger bleed I kept going wow that's way to much work, and I've got quite a few models I need to work on today. And that's when it hit me, how my poor Eldar with there magnetized bases keep getting stuck to each other sideways.

That's what I ended up doing here. I placed a single 1/8 x 1/16 magnet at the top of the inner hull. Which I would then use as my anchor point. Knowing that all I have to do is have enough resistance to keep the sponson from sliding out, because it will actually be resting inside the hole.


I then put two magnets at the top of the of the sponson, making sure to test out the polarities before gluing (always sucks having your magnets glued the wrong way). Once again using the 1/8 by 1/16. I found that it would work with one magnet here, but that if you held it upside down it would fall out, but with two magnets you can hold it upside down and do the hokey pokey and everything is fine.


Now here's the tricky thing. With the side hatch doors you would think that you would want the magnets going the same way as you do on the weapon sponsons, and that's what I thought too... until I glued it in place, and tried to put in it there, turns out that because it is much more shallow then the weapon sponsons they actually repel each other.

That is why you must remember to flip the polarity on the door hatches, if you do this they will stay in there amazingly.


And here are the two pieces being held into place by the magics of magnetism. Now if you have the bits (or have bought the bits) to make the other sponsons you can freely change your landraider between all three variants.


So now that you can change the variants, what about those weapon upgrades, well I ended up gluing two 1/4 by 1/16 magnets to the bottom of the top hull pieces of the landraider.


I then did a slight bit of stratch building to get a 1/8 x 1/16 magnet on the bottom of the Storm Bolter and Hunter Killer weapon ungrades.


And again, with those magical magnets you can place both upgrades on the landraider, and pull them off when you do not have them purchased, or with the Hunter Killer Missile, once it is used you can simply pull it off without any problems.


Now lastly, we can't forget about those Frag Launchers that help out our dear poor Terminators who for some reason can't hurl a grenade. (Don't ask me, I'd just build them into the armor personally)


So once again I glued a couple 1/4 x 1/16 magnets to the bottom of both of the pieces, using the larger magnets to get more pull here.

With both pieces magnetized, you can now swap the Frag Launchers on and off for the variants that use them.

Now remember as you're working to double check before you glue that everything continues to fits and is in the right spot.

Another thing you'll want to keep in mind is that you should keep all the polarities the same on items you want to be able to share spots with. It'll do you no good if you can't swap between spots because you have the polarities reversed and they are repelling each other. ;)

-CKR

My "Mighty Beast" The Lord of Change

Hey Everyone, I present to you my "Mighty Beast" 40k Entry for the Hobby Town painting contest. As you can see it's a dreaded Chaos Daemon, the Lord of Change bursting forth from the body of a Tzeentch Chaos Lord. This model was a blast to work on, and I'm sure there are still hours that I could spend on it, but at this point I'm calling it done. For my sanity and because I purchased a miniataur a couple weeks ago for the same contest and it's still laying in little plastic pieces.



I think the hardest thing about this model was getting all of the base colors down on it. I have always found throwing base colors on models to be very tedious and boring and with this model it was no different. After trying out one color scheme on the wings, I decided that I didn't quite have the talent to pull it off and ended up priming over it and starting over again. Luckily things went rather smoothly after that but it still took about 3 nights to actually base color.



With the base colors down, I took a heavy black ink and inked the entire model, everything that was blur, grey, green and so on. I did not black in the flesh tones or the white canvas but instead used a regal blue paint, thinned it greatly in water and used it as an ink, and did the same with a couple different browns on the skin until I got it a color I was happy with.



With the ink down, I then gradually started working on dry brushing the rest of the model. Working with Light Greys and Up, and then Light Blues and up. It was interesting how difficult it was to plan out where to work with this model as Dry Brushing the stones meant I'd get grey on the primordial chaos of the ground and vise versa. I ended up getting it worked out and continued on my way.



With all of the dry brushing done it was time to add the small details, the stones, the silver trim on the garments, the eyes, mouth, teeth, and talons. The entire model probably ended up taking me 40-60 hours to complete over a three week period of time. I could have probably gotten in done in about a week and a half, but with the learning curve of green stuff and waiting for items to dry it just took a while.

I hope you guys enjoy the model, and like everyone entering the contest I'm hoping to pull off a win ;)

But with this one done, it's time to start working on my fantasy entry as it's due this weekend... hurry hurry... luckily it won't be as extravagant as this one.

-CKR

My "Mighty Beast" Teaser

So here it is, the Mighty Beast I've been working on. No not my Kantor Conversion but that giant tzeentch turkey. Hehe... so you can see this was the rough starting stage. Everything is pinned together, and I do mean everything. I had the unfortunant accident of tipping it over when I had simply glued it and it shattered. So I then spent the next day pinning the entire model so that I could throw it against a wall and walk away with it still in one piece.

The entire model has a single electrical wire running through it. This wire is very strong and does not bend very easily making it the perfect option for connecting all of the pieces together and using it to build up on.

As usual feel free to click on a picture to see it larger ;)



I then started to green stuff the chaos power coming out from the ground. This was really my first experience with working with green stuff as a modeling medium.



A closer image showing the chaos power twirling up around out of the ground about to burst through the chaos lords body.



Here you can see some of that energy escaping from the powerfist and forming a chaos spawns arm as the raw power of Chaos rips out from the ground.



Here you can see the larger image, I also ended up green stuffing around the wings to fill in the gaps.



Here that chaos power is bursting from the chaos lord and wrapping around the leg of the Lord of Change, from which the lord of change is actually being formed.



Another picture, with some of the chest plate being ripped open to let the powers of chaos out.



A closer up picture, showing the powers of chaos. I found that the key to working with green stuff was keeping a bowl of water next to you and constantly re-wetting your hands, tools and the green stuff to keep it from sticking.



With the model being so tall it was very top heavy with a very low center of gravity causing it to tip over constantly. So I went and got a bunch of fish weights, snipped them in half and used a hammer to squish them down enough to fit the base. It helps alot.



I then used some cement spackle to add even more wait to the bottom of the model. With this down the center of gravity is actually over halfway up the model making it much more stable.



Here's an Image of it primed. I was very excited to get to this point as it was almost a week getting there. I used new Krylon Primer, and found that you have to shake it very very very well before using otherwise it leaves little strings of paint. Luckily I found this out on a test model and not this one ;) But the primer worked better then GWs white and was not grainy at all.



So with it primed I've started painting. I'm hoping to get it done this weekend and I'll have more pictures once it's done. And then I still have the miniataur I'm going to paint for the contest. It's going to be a busy week but I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

-CKR

Grey Knight Escalation League Army Buildup

So this really has been a long time coming, about 4 months ago I won a painting contest over at Hobby Town USA Dallas, and picked up a box of Grey Knight Terminators. They were really nice and couldn't wait for me to start blogging about them.

Well it's taken me a while to get to the point of building them (wanting to finish my eldar army, and had a heck of a time choosing what bases to use) but the time has finally come to get them going. I ended up getting my bases from DragonForge.com let's just say I was pleased with how they look.

To move the story along, I started on the Grey Night Terminator Brother Captain today, who will be leading my Escalation Force. For this army I wanted to do things right, and to do that I needed the tools.



So here are my Tools. You might be asking yourself, why in the Emperors name does he need a power drill. Well it's quite simple. My Grey Knights can take different kinds of weapons, and instead of buying a bunch of GKs and glueing all the weapons on, I've decided to magnetize them.

To do this I find where the two part line up, it's quite easy with the GKs as there's a nub on the body and a hole in the arm, I snip off the num and start the hole there with the pin drill. Then I take my 1/8 inch drill, and power drill it out even wider, and boy does the power help save some time.



After that it's simply putting the Magnet in the body, and making sure that you're putting all the Magnets in the same way so that they are interchangeable. You don't want any of the magnets swapped on polarization as then they'll repel not attach.



With the body done, I then simply used my power drill to widen the holes that were already in the arms. Glued some magnets in and boom, now my Brother Captain can have 3 different arms, and once I'm done with all the other Termies all of there arms an weapons will be interchangable.

With this model started I'll get to working on some Power Armor GKs later today or tomorrow. It should be exciting, but I've also been working on another secret project for the latest Hobby Town Painting Contest. Expect to see some sneak peaks of that next week ;)

-CKR

Building and Painting a Wave Serpent

Ode to a Wave Serpent, oh how yea brings the flames of war upon the heads on my enemy so that I can see them melt at my feet.

Lol, CoolKidRoc here, so for many of you, you probably know that Eldar is currently my main army having started them last year I've gone through quite a few units, but my favorite has to be a Wave Serpent filled with those fiery dragons you see above. I usually run two squads and they've yet to fail me.

But this isn't about what I run it's about the easiest way to get your serpent built and painted, or vice versa.



Ok, so as usually excuse the bad pictures, I've not been able to scrounge up money on that new camera yet :P

But as you can see above is the waveserpent with the bottom put together, and the top together. I primered the bottom in white and the top pieces in black. For the bottom I then used chaos black to blacken the engines.



Here are all the individual parts that are not together when I start painting, you can see that the pilot is together and painted. It's very important to do this before you put it together if you want to actually get any details on the pilot.



So after painting the pilot I usually go back and start working on all the green that goes into my tanks. I used to start off with Dark Angels Green, but then I would just end up repainting most of it in Snot Green, so now I start off with Snot Green, and paint everything that will be green in Snot Green.



Here again is everything in Snot Green.



So with the first coat on, It's time to add the pilot and the windshield, make sure to be very picky with the amount of glue you put on otherwise it'll go to the windshield and it won't be able to open.



Here you can see the Pilot and the windshield, there is also that special Y shaped piece behind the pilots head. Make sure you have that there because it holds the windshield in place.



I usually place it where it needs to go, flip it over and make sure the windshield will open and close. Then glue around where the seat touches the hull of the wave serpent.



With the pilot and windshield in place you can glue the top and bottom together, just glue where they should touch and grab some rubber bands and let dry for a bit, usually about 5-10 minutes is fine but if I'm watching a good TV show I'll leave it there a while ;)



Ok so with the glue dry I start on making the green pop by dry brushing the entire hull in Goblin Green. Be generous, as it gives it a nice weathered look.



After that then highlight the raised areas with Scorpion Green.



With the greens done, I then start adding the Vines, I usually go thin almost like using a pen to trace out where I want the vines to go, and then I go back and thicken the vines aftwards. You can also see I've painted the Shield Generators white.



















After that it's all about adding the little details, the vine needles are pretty easy to do, and finding the runes you would like to paint red. With those done add some decals and you've got a Wave Serpent ready for the table.

-CKR

Lone Star Dallas: Avatar Painting Contest

Hey Everyone, just got done with another painting contest. This was for the Lone Star Dallas Avatar Contest. It was to show off the guy that represents your army on the field of battle. I entered 3 times :D Yeah I know... But they had 3 categories, Warhammer Fantasy, so I put in the Blood Thirster, then 40k and I put in my Wraithlord, and then Purchased Models, and this was ones that had been purchased with a receipt, so pretty much 3 weeks to buy build and paint. And for that one I converted Pedro Kantor into a Deathwatch Marine Captain. Look below for some more pics of the conversion and the model.

So here are all the bits I used for Pedro. You can see I'm using a different backpack so I can put a new banner on him. I also was able to get my hands on a Death Watch Shoulder pad (which was a little bit of a beating)



So Deathwatch fluff says that when a marine serves his time in the Deathwatch he takes his left shoulder pad and moves it over to the right side, leaving it painted in it's original state to keep the machine spirit of the armor happy. Well with Kantor that's kind of a pain considering it was attached to his arm. I ended up sawing it off, and then taking my drill and drilling out the rest of the arm from the shoulder pad.



So here's the right shoulder pad, the one that needs to be replaced with his left. I had considered sawing the arm off again, but it was starting to mess up the armor as I got going. So I needed up pulling out my wire clippers and drill. It took me about 3 hours to get off enough to be able to place the other pad on there.



Here you can see how I green stuffed the arms and pads back together. Note green stuff doesn't actually hold things in place, so after the green stuff had dried the arms were a bit wobbly, so I pulled them off and used super glue to actually glue them onto the body.



First time trying white as a base coat, I was actually really happy with what it did for my colors, but man was it a pain repainting everything black.



Here are pictures of the final model. For the banner I ended up printing a banner off the internet and painting over it. I'm very happy with the way the model turned out.







And I'm sure you're wondering what the final results were, well here's the list of the winners :D

•Best Overall Avatar: Mark, Chaos Space Marines Lord of Khorne
•Best Warhammer Avatar: Michael, Chaos Daemon Bloodthirster of
Khorne
•Best 40K Avatar: Josh, Chaos Space Marines Lucius the
Eternal
•Best Youngblood Avatar: Brady, Tyranid Red Terror
•Best Store-Purchased Entry: (name unknown), Deathwatch Space Marine

So for some reason they didn't take down my name when I dropped off my DW Kantor but here's the proof of me building him ;)

*Last Names have been removed to respect everyone's privacy on the Internets :P