Saturday 23 February 2008

Venatio Accipiter - Project Start

Try as I might when it came to the crunch there was one in stock and I could'nt resist. So yes, I've gone an bought a Mars Pattern Warhound Titan, looking at the kit now it really is an even nicer model then I imagined, though it really is going to be a modelling challenge by the looks of things. All parts are in the box, theres little excess release agents so I'm hoping the kit will be nice an easy to clean with soap an hot water, and as a bonus there seems to be no miscasting and minimal flash.

Taking this one on now means putting on hold a number of other projects, that'll mean the Leviathan, Russ and Basilisks all get put on hold for the time being, sculpting and painting the Leviathan will continue - and I'll probably stil sneak in the Sentinel I've started on - and those proecjts will be replaced with the other put back ones as and when completed, but for now at least this will be the focus of my attention.

I'm dubbing it the 'Venatio Accipiter' which translates roughly to 'Hunting Hawk', I've not decided on the colour scheme yet, though it'll almost certainly not follow an existing Titan Legions scheme - none of the ones I like are in the right Segmentum to serve alongside the Praetorians and the ones which are I'm not so keen on, so I guess I'll create my own. I'm gonna start by working on the head, and then I'll move to the legs and work up, I'm half tempted too try an make the weapons swapable so I can scratch build some Turbolasers, though the thought of cutting such a lovely (and expensive!) model scares me somewhat so we'll see!

Sunday 17 February 2008

Saturday 16 February 2008

Sculpts (Part 3)

A slight update on the sculpting process, the first two pictures demonstrate better how I'm currently planning on doing the Guardsmen's Lasgun Arms, with the arm seperate from the Lasgun down one of the easiest to cut points while making use of as much of the original as possible.




Secondly the first two faces, on the left one for the Guardsmen, on the right a slightly smaller one for the Roughriders, I'm afraid the picture is'nt great, I'm finding it difficult to take pictures of such a small component but you should be able to get the idea. The basic heads will be the same as the classic Praetorians, one bearded, and two clean shaven - one mouth open, one closed for each model set. I'll probably do one additional head for each set, something a bit different though I've not decided what exactly yet (open to suggestions!).



I'll start on the second lot of faces later, probably the other two clean shaven examples, continue work on the Roughrider Legs, first set of Guardsmen arms, meanwhile plodding on with some other bits an pieces for other projects.

Monday 11 February 2008

Sculpts (Part 2)

Just a few pictures of the ongoing work on the sculpts for the Praetorian Guardsman kit and the Praetorian Roughriders, of which bar the collars which will probably be adjusted the torso's are now finished. Though the pics dont show the details particularly well it does show the scale when compaired to the comparable models (classic metal Praetorians for the Roughriders, plastic cadian for the Guardsmen).







I'm now beginning work on the heads for the Roughriders and the arms for the Guardsmen, more progress shtos soon I hope!

Thursday 7 February 2008

Malcador, Sculpts and stuff!

Progress on the Malcador continues with the other side now finished, I'm now working on the belly of the beast. I'd hoped to have it finished for the end of this weekend but that seems very unlikely now, still not to worry, I'll get it done!



I've decided on my solution for Chimera chasis hull mounted Gatlings, in the end I fitted a corner section of plasti-strut into the normal Heavy Bolter mount, the Gatling was then fixed to this, quick, simply, and stops the weapon from being rediculously prominent against the silouette of the hull.



Finally on the painting/modelling front I've started work on a Sentinel, which I'll arm with a Lascannon, but using magnets so I can add other weapons options later on. The reason for this until now unplanned addition is the playtest copy of 5th edition and the continueing evolution of my play style. Simply put I dont want to be restrained to infantry crewed, static, anti-tank that I currently tends to be the case, likewise though I don't wish to switch my Russ to this role. I've also grown fustrated with Meltabomb equipped Roughriders supporting my Lascannon, they tend to work once at best against most opponents, and for such a fragile unit come in expensive - especially when compaired to their Hunting Lance equipped colleagues.

Last but not least, I've now finally got something I'm happy to show for the Praetorian resin kits for the Phoenix Club (now perhaps more useful then ever given Praetorians being noteable by their absense from the new GW catalogue - granted that was to be expected).

Torso's for Roughrider Troopers and Guardsmen are both nearing completion, basicly just needing buttons, work on the belts and some general tidying.

The Roughrider torso is in scale with the metal Praetorian's, the legs are also comming along nicely, though I'm finding getting the boots matching sufficiently for my tastes a little fustrating.



The Cadian to Praetorian conversion kit torso is larger in fitting with the Cadian kit, to keep bits to a minimum there wont be alternative legs, and I'm hoping to pull off something a little clever to avoid trying to sculpt weapons instead making use of the existing cadian ones, more updates in the near future.