Heldrake conversions part 3

So I managed to get a bit more done on the heldrake conversions.  This mainly included building the remainder of the zombie dragon kit in terrorgheist form for the second heldrake.  I did do some further greenstuff work to the first one too.  And then promptly ran out of green stuff. Balls.

I have, however managed to order a 3 foot strip of green stuff. so hopefully will do a bit more this weekend!

Eldar?

Ok, it’s been a while….

I could bore you with what's happened during my hiatus but ain't nobody got time for that, so I’ll just get straight into it.

Eldar.

I didn't want to go down the typical Eldar channels as Aspect Warrior colour schemes bore me to tears, so I developed some fluff in order to allow me to paint my army up without being restricted to goddamn blue Dire Avengers. In a nutshell, an Exodite world is attacked by an Imperial Fleet, a deserted Craftworld drifts into the system, the Exodites then use the Craftworld to repel the attackers but the humans launch a salvo of Anti-Plant missiles to render the planet uninhabitable, forcing the Exodites to become permanent residents of the Craftworld, blah blah blah.

If I feel brave enough I’ll post it up here one day.

So, the first thing for your eyeballs is the Avatar.

I was disappointed that GW didn't make a new model when they did the new Eldar Codex, the current model is pants and, as awesome as the FW model is I couldn't find one on eBay and I couldn't stretch to £60 to get one direct. Thank god for the Dark Elf Cauldron of Blood, got one cheap, used the statue, job done. I was worried that it looked a bit static, but it still looks better than the proper model.

Painting it was a ball-ache, and I'm still not entirely happy with it, the look I was going for was a blackened iron effect, as if the Avatar had been repeatedly heated up and cooled over thousands of years. I mixed in some weathering powders to the paints to try and give it a pitted and warped effect. Did I pull it off? Nope. Totally unhappy with the blade as well but quite chuffed with the bloody hand though, at least that's something I suppose!

Your organ donation is accepted.

More to follow, more regularly.....

Heldrake conversions part 2

Following on from part 1, I made a bit more progress yesterday...

I've been chipping away pretty slowly, but I'm doing my best to make sure it looks right. As it stands, by the end of this post, you'll see that I've got everything sorted out (but not attached!) apart from the back legs.  So far so good.

Trimmed down zombie dragon head and neck

Trimmed down "collar" area of heldrake torso

Head & neck fitted into "collar" area

Side view

From below. There is a lot of gap to fill at the moment.

Standard wing assembly. Less of a ball-ache to put together than I was told.

Right view with a little green stuff at neck join.

And from the left.

Into the eyes of madness.

Closer look at the green stuff filling and sculpting WIP.

Weapon fitted to "throat".

Heldrake conversions part 1

I've been saving up bits and kits for a while now to try and make hopefully 2 Heldrakes.

Thus far, bits will be sorced from the Heldrake kit, the Vampire Counts Zombie Dragon / Terrorgheist, and the Dark Eldar Talos Pain Engine. No doubt with extra green stuff when it all goes horribly wrong...  Place your bets for when it all turns out that I've bitten off more than a large bear can chew.

I started out by looking at the sprues from all 3 kits to see what I had to play about with. I decided that I'd start out with the standard body assembly for the Heldrake.  See the captions for further notes...

Before adding the Heldrake tail piece I trimmed it down. I had other things in mind...

Other things being a couple of bits from the Talos for a longer tail

Bit of a dry fit (with blu-tak)

Seems to capture the desired effect thus far, so all good.

All glued in place. What will happen next?

Nurgle Soul Grinder

It seems that I am going to make a mono-Nurgle Daemons force. Against my better judgement, obviously...

The other week I headed up to Stockport for a friendly tournament being held by www.corehammer.com and it just so happened that while I was there, a bring and buy sale was going on. I managed to get an Orcs and Goblins Arachnarok kit from the Warhammer Fantasy range for cheap. Wasn't exactly sure at the time what I would use it for...

...then it came to me in a dream (or more likely whilst sat on the train or the bog) that I could make some approximation of a Soul Grinder with hopefully minimal effort.

So that's what I did.  I just built the spider part of the kit, and added some green stuff pipes, which I made using a friend's tentacle tool (very useful - cheers Lee!!) and a couple of stray Nurglings. Beyond this, a spare imperial guard flamer went into the fanged maw of this monstrosity and that's all she wrote...

I will say, this kit produces one big-ass spider. Not a big ass-spider. That's disgusting.

The original dry-fit of the flamer

From the side

Come at me, bro!

Run for it!

Liebster Award

Liebster Award

The other day I was kindly nominated for a Liebster Award by a mutual appreciator of Grandfather Nurgle, Dai, who writes The Lost, The Damned and The Stunted   http://lostdamnedstunted.blogspot.co.uk/  

Dai is Welsh, and now lives in the USA, and we’ve been following each other’s work for a while now.  Top bloke, go and have a look at some of the interesting things he’s been painting and building. He has a pretty old school approach, which is pretty inspiring. And also an uncanny supply of classic out of production models, seemingly!

In the tradition of what has gone before,  I also am going to be rather lazy and copy and paste all the info explaining what a Liebster is and what the whole phenomenon entails once one receives one. In the fine words of Dai, (well, paraphrasing for a bit of slight variety, and he took it from someone else, so I will too, even if it is kind of like copying someone’s homework at high school!!) yes this is blatant plagiarism, but hell, it seems fairly well explained, so I am going to just nick it. And correct minor spelling and grammar errors. If the internet inquisition chooses to purge me for this, so be it...

Essentially this is all an effort to help get more traffic on other people's blogs, but in a "benefits the blogging community as a whole" type way, not as a cheese dripping self aggrandizement sordid affair. 

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it you.

2. Pass the award to your top 11 blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

3. Sit back and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you have made someone's day!

4. There is no obligation to pass this onto someone else but it is nice if you take the time to do so.

First off, we are supposed to give 10 truths about ourselves. Not really sure why, but in the spirit of the thing, I’ll go along with it...

7 Truths About Me (Tony of Nurgle only creates lists in 7s. Technically this should be ten. All power to Grandfather Nurgle. Breaking the law, breaking the law...).

1. I am a Yorkshireman exiled to the wilds of Croydon
2. London public transport induces a beserk rage type state in me
3. This rage is containable only through looking at photos of cute baby animals
4. The most famous person I’ve met (well the one worth hearing about) is David Prowse a.k.a Darth Vader (for UK folks that grew up in the 80s a.k.a the Green Cross Code man).
5. I go running. I do this under duress. I do not like it.
6. I used to run a record shop specialising in punk and metal
7. I used to DJ ‘punk nights’ for a good number of years

As previously iterated by Dai, in his nominations, I'd love to be able to pass on this award to some of my very favourite blogs, but in actuality, either other bloggers before me have already nominated them, or they have too many followers anyway. I’ll do my best not to list blogs that already got an award, but if it happens, sorry.

Anyway, I therefore take it upon myself to pass on some of my favourites, who I feel are very deserving of a Leibster and the respect that comes with the award. 

In no particular order, 11 (I can’t wriggle out of this one on a list of 7 regrettably) blogs that I can only describe as “legit” that you need to check out:

1. The Tears of Isstvan - http://isstvan.blogspot.co.uk/  - Tim (Fulgrim) is a good friend of mine and is the guy that inspired me to try and be a better painter, rather than just slapping on a basic paint job. His blog deals more with the aesthetics and the ethos behind the hobby, and was also the driving force behind me starting my own.  Some great imagery on here. Sadly he doesn’t post so much these days.

2. The Sky Mother’s Nest- http://fortheskymother.blogspot.co.uk/ - Another friend of mine, Lee is a horticulturist with a penchant for the Inquisition and genestealer cults

3.  Officio Convertorum - http://convertorum.blogspot.co.uk/ - a relatively new discovery for me, but this blog literally bleeds the Grim Darkness...

4.  Corehammer - http://www.corehammer.com/ This one is something of a newly realised behemoth made flesh, which is aimed at people in the punk scene that also take an interest in the world of war gaming, role playing and miniature painting. Self-proclaimed as “punk lifestyle for punks without lives”, these guys have so far hosted 2 tournaments in the UK and are full to the brim with useful tips as well as the inside track on underground music. I’m loosely associated with the crew and have contributed the odd piece.

5. Adeptus Imago - http://adeptusimago.tumblr.com/ - not too sure how many of you are familiar with this Tumblr account, but this is a collection of the most inspirational images. Food for the imagination. Visionary shit. Check it out.

6. Death of a Rubricist - http://apologentsia.blogspot.co.uk/ - Cool painting blog

7. Jugger’s Garage - http://juggersgarage.blogspot.co.uk/ - This dude has boundless enthusiasm for all things chaos – recommended!

8. Rumplemaster Miniatures - http://rumplification.blogspot.co.uk/ - Awesome conversions in bountiful numbers. Search out the Nurgle Heldrake, amongst other wonders...

9. Err. I’ve kind of run out... And I broke my own rule of 7s too.  What more do you want from me?

Dai’s 11 Questions (Which are also Keiran’s, which are also Drax's 11 Questions) which are also the same questions I pose to my nominees!

1. Why did you start blogging?
It wasn’t something I’d ever considered before. I didn’t even know what it was. I assumed it was the type of thing total arse-trumpets used to spout off their worthless opinions.  I was then shown my friend’s blog (Tim/Fulgrim), which opened up a whole new side of the internet for me.  I realised that it was something I could use to make a record of my work over time, and to gauge my level of progress as it (hopefully) advanced.

2. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?
Get rid of the stigma attached to the hobby in general. It’s largely illegitimate. If that’s not an option, introducing the prospect of soap and water to those out there that let the side down with poor personal hygiene. Or maybe a blanket ban on fedoras and “I am Alpharius” t-shirts. Any of the above.

3. What is best in life? 
Love.

Ale.

Good TV dramas.

Curry.

War games.

In that order. 

4. Do you want to live forever?  
Dying young just didn’t work out, so I guess I’m dying old. Or less cynically speaking, sure, why not? Only if I can be surrounded by those I love and if life can still bring us enjoyment.

5. Fame or fortune? 
Infamy? Can I say that?

6. What miniature are you most proud of having painted? 
I expect that is going to change over time. Thus far, probably my Blight Drone. Which now looks less good since it fell off a table. Sad times.


7. How do you deal with burn out?
Drinking fine ale, eating good food.

8. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
When did I begin to think practically all music was shit? Probably around the same time I was forced to use a raven as a writing desk. Could just be a coincidence.

9. Star Wars or Star Trek? 
Star Wars, man. Grew up on that stuff. Extended universe, the whole lot. Asides from anything prequel related. I’m still pretending that didn’t actually happen. Star Trek I also like, but it’s also an example of what can happen when quantity is taken above quality.

10. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be?

I can’t lie. Probably Games Workshop (I’m including Forge World in this).   The ethos and vision of their whole mythology is too encapsulating. For all that they are widely criticised (often by me), I’d be kidding myself if I thought this was going to change. A lot of bad decisions would have to be made for this to change for me. If they keep making models I want to buy and paint, and I can afford them, I’m in.

11. What is your favourite take away?.
Chicken tikka karahi, garlic naan, pilau, paneer tikka massalla and onion bhajis.

Anyway, if you managed to get this far without glassing yourself, hearty congratulations. You got some staying power, son. Keep it real on them mean streets.