WH40K - Trukk Crater painted

Here's the Trukk Crater, with a slap of paint and ground cover. Paint as follows:
- light grey acryllic spray paint for the undercoat
- Tamiya Light Tan and Dark Yellow sprays
- Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash in the fissures
- drybrush of Citadel Rotten Flesh over the crater.
- Citadel Scab Red, Bolt Gun Metal and Tin Bitz over the 'trukk' pieces.
- Quick spray of Citadel Purity Seal (matt varnish) over the whole thing.

The ground stuff is the same material I use for basing most of my miniatures. It's a mix of stuff bought over the years, but mostly railway modelling 'gravel' or 'ballast'. I find that the light grey is a nice, neutral colour. However, since it is railway modelling material, it is a bit uniform. My favourite material, when I can be bothered to make it, is bits of concrete ground together. That makes a grit of differing sizes (less than 1mm) which looks a bit more realistic on the base of a toy soldier.

WH40K - Battlewagon with KillKannon finally painted (and photographed)

Some photos taken on my phone, of the Battlewagon with BFG. I used paint markers to pick out the glyphs, and some of the weathering. I also drybrushed a lot of Citadel Bolt Gun Metal and Tin Bitz to make the armour and working parts look worn. Lastly I sprayed Tamiya Light Sand to make the chassis and wheels look dusty. I was a bit heavy handed with the last part, but I won't bother repainting. The wagon just drove through a big muddy puddle before the photo was taken!

WH40K - Crater or Trukk Go Boom!

I didn't want or need six of the 'Moonscape' craters in the terrain pack from GW, so I bought a single crater from a stack of 'bits' being sold off by my FLGS.


I have made this: an Ork Vehicle Crater. Although I like the flame and smoke tokens I discussed previously, this piece is supposed to be what is left when one of my wonderful Ork creations goes 'ka-EXLODE!'
I just added a few bits of cut up plastic and leftover Ork vehicle parts to the crater. All the bits are polystyrene, so it is all glued together with ordinary model glue. That's the beauty of plastic models - easy to cut and convert.

WH40K - Ork Battlewagon with KillKannon, a bit of paint and a lot of salt

I started painting the Battlewagon with Kill Kannon, as follows:

- undercoat of Citadel Black spray

- coat of Mr Hobby 'Steel' spray

- coat of Tamiya 'Light Gun Metal' spray

- first ever attempt at using salt to part mask a metal colour, and have paint chips when the next colour goes on

- coat of Tamiya 'Dark Red' spray.

I left the model overnight to dry between colours. I used the two metallic colours because I wanted to come up with a method for painting a vehicle quickly, but with some depth. I am never going to produce a Golden Demon level paint job, but I am happy with the way these toys look at arm's length, on the table top.

As it happens, I overdid the salt (dabbing on water and sprinkling salt) and it only stuck well to the top of the model. I let that dry and sprayed with the red colour. Once that was dry, I scrubbed off the salt, revealing worn 'metal'. It looks like the Orks have been stomping up and down the roof of their car with steel boots on, which they probably have. Next time I might salt the top surface, wait until that dries, and then do each side in succession. However, I am going to have a bit of a bash with more gun metal (actually GW Bolt Gun Metal) and an old tank brush. That should even things up. Then weathering with paint marker pens and a very light spray of Tamiya 'Light Sand'.

WH40K - Ork Battlewagon with KillKannon

Another project which is taking a looong time from impulse buy to playable model: a KillKannon armed Battlewagon. (Orks are strong advocates of the BFG. They also approve heartily of More Dakka.)

I have made some minor conversions on the hull, adding a few glyph plates, some height to the uprights on the rear deck and closing up the cabin with various spare bits. Most of the work was put into the turret. I used polystyrene tubing for the barrel and mounted that on the gun that comes with the kit. The rear half of the turret is made from the sides of a spare turret, taken from another battlewagon kit. 

The gun barrel is much larger than the one supplied with the Deff Rolla sprue (extra bits that you can buy from GW or some games shops.) I think it is also a bit smaller than the resin Supa Kannon from Forge World, but it would probably be acceptable to represent that weapon in an Apocalypse game.

When I put the turret on the vehicle, it looked like it was just sitting there. So, I used some leftover parts of the turret to make a sort of basket. I also used one of the 'boarding ramp' pieces to make a ladder on the basket. It would be a tight squeeze for an Ork but I figure that the gun is operated by Grots.

WH40K - Fernvale Specialty Scenics

Another project finally makes it off the 'to do list'! I bought these resin scenery pieces a year or so ago. They are from Fernvale Specialty Scenics. (Although I don't see these pieces on the website; there are still some nice looking terrain bits for sale.)

They have been undercoated in cheap spray paint, then lashings of Tamiya Dark Yellow and Light Sand spray paint. I brush painted the rocks in Citadel Codex Grey, dry brushing in a mix of grey and white. I dry brushed some of the grey shades on the 'ground' but that looked a bit odd, so I touched it in with swabs from a Floquil Enamel Paint Marker (the colour is 'Earth'). This leaves a thin coat of 'dirt'; the markers are supposed to be used to weather AFV models, but once more I am finding that paint markers are the way to touch things up quickly. Also I find that scenery doesn't need the same level of care in painting as miniatures or vehicles do. Unless the dry brushing is too heavy handed, the only painting necessary is a couple of sprays of whatever colours are lying around. I used Tamiya Clear spray to varnish the pieces, but that turned out a little shiny, so I went over it with a dusting of Citadel Purity Seal, which seems to have worked.

The Ork graffiti is also done in paint markers, but it would be too easy to overdo that so I stopped. Sometimes the Finishing Fairy has to visit the work table and take your work away, letting you know that you have done enough and you can stop now.

WH40K - Ork Trukk finally painted

I have had a few days off work and therefore the opportunity to do some painting (at last!).
Many months after I bought it I have finally finished one of my Ork Trukks (bottom of that post for the unpainted version). I added the horizontal roll bars at the back - they are just polystyrene tube or girder with bits of metal and masking tape. I also added some bits to the sides to make the tray look like it is one piece, with glyph plates and scrap plastic, so that they fill in the gaps. (These are where boarding ladders can be glued if desired.)

The main reason for converting them relates to my only criticism of the Games Workshop Ork Trukk model kit: It is a wonderful model of an Ork vehicle, that looks like a truly individual creation, bashed together by a mad engineer. That means that loads of models look like the same truly individual creation! So I convert mine to make them look a bit different to each other and any others on the table top.

The trukk was undercoated in Citadel Black spray, oversprayed with Tamiya Dark Red and then bashed about a bit with Citadel Tin Bitz and Bolt Gun Metal. Dirt was added with a Floquil Enamel Paint Marker, but this was a bit shiny, so I dusted a little bit of Tamiya Light Sand from the spray can, just around the wheels and chassis. The runes and emblems were picked out in a variety of paint markers: Pentel, Zig and Gundam Marker. These pens are also a bit smelly and sometimes paint comes out more thickly than with a brush - but they are great for quick touch ups and Ork graffiti. Lastly, the paintwork was covered with a light coat of Tamiya Clear.

Lego - Super Troopers!

Here are the Lego Super Troopers:

The .45 Auto is from Brickarms, as are the smoke grenades. The Glock 17 and torches are made by STC. The utility belts and nightstick are from BrickForge as are the Ranger Hats. The figures and the yellow head are the original Lego Collectable Minifigures Series 2 Highway Patrol figures, as is the speeding ticket. The handcuffs are a Lego part. I like BrickForge because they sell via PayPal, but I generally buy Lego weapons from Minifig World, the Australian distributor for Brickarms, STC and BrickForge.



The minifigure heads have cool sunglasses, but don't have moustaches. (Rabbit has been growing his for a month.) Also, I appear to have bought the Ranger Hats in Dark Tan, rather than Reddish Brown. It looks like BrickForge have some more cool items for sale, so I can easily fix that!

Speeding ticket from the Lego Collectable Minifigures Series 2 Highway Patrol figure.

WH40K - Tokens

Ork Trukk on fire, or 'Turn Two' as it is more commonly known.

I have bought some game tokens from Litko Aero Game Accessories and Gale Force 9. I bought the Litko tokens from their own website and the GF9 tokens from Maelstrom Games.

The flame and smoke tokens can be used to mark barrages, dangerous terrain or objectives. I put them on destroyed vehicle models to show that the vehicle is now a wreck. The tokens aren't as realistic as carefully painted cotton wool but they are handy and robust enough to be dropped back in the troop trays after the game.

I bought the following Gale Force 9 token sets a few months ago:

GF9 Fire and Explosion Markers (set of 6) 

GF9 Smoke Markers (set of 6)

GF9 Sci Fi Infantry Status Token Set ('Pinned', 'Morale Check' etc) 

GF9 Sci Fi Vehicle Status Token Set ('Weapon Destroyed', 'Immobilised' etc)
The last two sets are thinner pieces; black plastic backed with a velvet material, and are handy to use as reminders on the WH40K battlefield. 



Smoking: Makes an Ork look serfisterkated.








   

Recently I bought some Litko token sets and they arrived a couple of weeks ago:

Flaming Wreckage Large (set of 3)

XL Flaming Wreckage Marker

Mini Wound Marker Set (set of 10 little skulls)

  

I has got... erm... lots of wounds left.

I use the wound markers by putting them near models that have lost some of their wound points (explanation for non-players: most toy soldier figures in WH40K have only one wound point, but a few models have two or more, such as leaders and characters.) Previously I had used dice, with the number of pips representing the wounds remaining, but occasionally they would get knocked over, or even rolled! Now, I will put a number of skulls down to represent remaining wounds.

Comparison: Litko vs Gale Force 9

The GF9 tokens fit together better than the Litko ones, and are made from slightly thicker plastic. They have a good range of basic tokens that would suit a lot of tabletop games, including the big names: Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warmachine and Flames of War. 



The Litko tokens are more interesting to look at, and their store has a much bigger range, to suit all the games already mentioned, and a lot of other well known roleplaying and wargaming products. However, the plastic stock is a little thinner, so the tokens need to be glued together.

In any case, I glued all the tokens with 'Tarzan's Grip', so they should stay intact under gaming conditions. (Whoops, drop, clatter...)

No worries Boss - dat will buff out!

Overall verdict: these tokens aren't mandatory for a tabletop wargame, but they are handy and colourful. Both ranges are quality products, at reasonable prices. I recommend you choose a token set that suits your game system first, and then go for the style that you prefer. The GF9 products fit together better, but the Litko have a wider range and are more visually interesting.

Lego: Collectable Minifig conversion idea

The second series of Lego Collectable Minifigures have been released in Australia. I bought a few and ended up with three of the 'Traffic Cop' figure. Then I was browsing the Brick Forge website and I had an idea:

Collectable Minifig Traffic Cop
+ The Brickforge 'Ranger Hat'
= Super Troopers Lego!

;

I wonder what pieces I need to build Farva?

WH40K - Movement Trays from Litko

I bought some movement trays for my Warhammer 40,000 Ork army. These are from Litko Game Accessories, who make a wide range of tokens, trays, counters and other items for roleplaying and wargaming. They also let you make custom markers and tokens.

The Litko movement trays are made of plywood - two layers already firmly glued together. They look like random shapes, but each pack has the same variety of shapes. The circles are 25mm, suitable for GW Slottabases, or competing brand names. Litko also do 20mm in this range, so be sure which ones you order.

The trays are neatly cut out, and definitely feel solid enough for play. The figures end up quite close together - they are about 5-6mm or a quarter of an inch apart. Usually, in the game, I tend to spread my figures out a bit more, within the bounds of the coherency rules of course, but I will be happy to try this product out and see if it speeds the game up.

I bought two sets of the ten-figure trays (with four trays in each pack), and one of the five figure trays (with eight trays in the pack). I will give them a quick blast of grey spray paint and some of the same 'ground cover' as on the bases of the minis. The results won't be very pretty but they will do nicely for the game.

Since I have over a hundred ork figures in my army, and they can be put into 'mobs' (or squads) of up to thirty models, these trays will make it much easier to shuffle them around the table top.

I have also ordered some of the Litko tokens: fire and blast markers, to adorn burning or wrecked vehicles on the 'battlefield'. I will show pics of them when they arrive, and compare them with the Gale Force 9 items I already own.

WH40K Converted Baneblade links or Vanity, thy name is TOMB

In a fit of vanity I googled my own work. These aren't new links, but my Baneblade conversions were noticed in a couple of wargame/modelling forums.

Les Guildes

and

The Whiz Store Forums

Go me!

Lego - Sorting and Storage

As might be evident from a minority of posts, I don't just play with Warhammer 40,000 models - I also collect and build Lego. "Collect and build"? OK - I play with Lego.

My collection has been built up from what a lot of AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego) call my "Dark Ages". That is, the time after childhood, when you put your Lego away, until adulthood, when you pick it up again. So, I have been buying Lego for over ten years - since about 1998 when Star Wars Lego first came out.

In that time I have collected about 70,000 pieces of Lego, and that is a lot of bricks to pick from when building. There are lots of ways to store Lego. I use tray boxes - the sort that can be used to store stationery. I also use Fischer compartment trays (which I also use to store WH40K figures.)

The tray boxes are stacked in rough categories: from left to right they are Technic, transport (wheels, engines, wings), flats, the all-encompassing 'misc', bricks, slopes and creatures.

The stacks rest on a few kitchen cupboards, which are used to store other toys and games. Lego instructions and catalogues are in a filing cabinet. This is all starting to sound more than a little retentive - but without some sort of storage system, it would be chaos!

Minifigures and things minifigures use like tools and weapons are in the Fischer trays.

I use Keji storage boxes, which come in 5 drawer, 4 drawer and 3 drawer versions. Most of these were bought from Officeworks at about AUD 15 each. I also have a few slightly larger ones bought from KMart.

Because some of the drawers are getting full, I try to keep pieces of the same colour attached. (Sorting by piece type first is easier than sorting by colour.) This makes them easier to find in the drawer, and reduces the chance of an accident sending some crucial Lego part into the unknown recesses of the room.
There are also two much larger seven-drawer boxes, also bought from Officeworks. They can be seen on the lower right in the big pictures, in line with the cupboards. They are used for bulky parts like Lego train tracks, or parts for which I have accumulated a very large number like the classic 2 x 4 Lego brick.

Sorry about the blur.

Keji 5 Drawer storage box.