The Oppo: Bonehead's Lost, Damned and in all likelihood Disappointed

[Bonehead]

Dr R, you commented at just the right time. And may I say, that land raider is cool as hell.

Thanks for the kind words. Mind you, better wait until I've actually fixed Nick Bayton's guitar- he's not been in touch yet. Or at least, I hope not. If he has that means Outlook's terrible filtering has put him in the spam folder. Matron? Feels like maybe that deserves a matron. Anyway, I've only done a guitar for the guy who passed my details to Bayton so far, not Bayton himself.

You're right about the guitar string situation, honestly- No idea why I've not been using them. Well, I do have a practically infinite supply just as you say so I'll get round to it at some point. Maybe on the Malcador, come to think of it.

Anyway, to the Malcador. I've been struggling a little with the conversion. The idea juice isn't flowing especially fast. This is where I am now:

So, not far away from stock, basically. I've mostly been too busy to do any work on it the last couple of weeks, so I've been limited to crowning it with rebar and green-stuffing and smoothing out the join lines in the plastic.

I've left the mould lines on the tracks, because track links are individually cast in moulds and probably turned out in sufficient numbers and with enough drive to hit production targets that they wouldn't get the attention. That's my justifcation for not doing a complete pain in the arse job anyway.

My real problem is with the wire chaos stars. I really don't want to place them in a position where they'd obscure the sponson guns; I like my dumb sci-fi tanks to look as if they have a hope in hell of working, and also I managed to not balls up gluing them enough that they still move and I don't want to obstruct them. But I don't want to place them to the rear, over the hatches, because they look like useful, functional hatches to me. And I think they'd not look very good there anyway.

So I'm mulling over the idea of doing smaller stars forward of the sponson guns, and perhaps especially small ones at the rear. But possibly doing especially large ones that sort of frame the sponson guns instead; making them read as chaos stars when they're a) oval and b) not going to have the crossed members in the middle could be a big challenge though.

I don't want to cut some plasticard to make a jagged star because I feel that sort of detailing is more a chaos marine-suited grandiose design. I want this to look human-scale and not at all artistic.

Thoughts would be appreciated.

I did at least manage to find some helmets at long last to make trophies to dangle from the rebar spikes, so there is that. It should really help.

In other news I successfully appealed to the FB marketplace for more heavy bolters, and with judicious application of money, four more turned up. I think I'll do two platoons of traitors with flamer command squads and two squads HB/melta each. Then another three-squad platoon with missile launchers and more meltas throughout, to keep up the flavour.

That'll leave me enough HBs for a support squad of those along with the lascannon squad.

I also just put in a frankly ridiculous order with VM. Enough for 65 more models, combined with the parts I have already, so it should keep me busy a while. The order included plenty of extras, like lots of different arm poses so I can get as much variation as I can in terms of posing the troops, and converting gunners for heavy weapons and that.

Just got paid for a lot of big guitar jobs, so it was finally time. Hopefully there'll be enough there to keep me busy for the rest of the year and beyond.

Might have to fetch out the defibrillator for my wallet though..

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

You're welcome, and thanks for your complements on my very, very heavy tank. 

 

Ah yes, sending a package to Mr. Bayton to give to his minion to give to you seems a step too far - I had better wait, then. 

 

Your Malcador looks nice so far - I like your rebar spikes and the stowage scattered on the "turret" top.

 

Interesting connundrum about the chaos stars.  I think its a good idea to keep with the industrial feel and not go with plasticard stars, for the reasons you have given.  I also agree with trying to keep the tank functional - they may be a bunch of degenerates, but I feel being able to kill stuff is still (or even more so) their main priority.

 

That said, I think you may be able to do the stars using the same material but in a different way that would work better with the restraints put on you by the model.  Your stars on your russes are essentially 5 components - the ring, then each cross piece which forms 2 spikes.  If you broke up the cross pieces so they didn't travel through the centre of the ring (so that each spike is its own piece, rather than 2 spikes to a piece) that might allow you to put the ring around either the side gun or the hatch, and then attach the "spikes" to the ring so that they protruded beyond it and a bit inside, but didn't interfere with the operation of the gun/hatch.  Much more fiddly, and probably harder to do, but if it works I think it would look good.

 

Another option is to break the ring in half(ish), and put one "half" on in front of the side gun, and one behind, and then do spikes in a similar fashion to the above,  This would likely permit longer spikes if that is what you are going for, at the expense of not having a full circle and having to work out how to make that not look weird.

 

Look forward to seeing what you do with all your new wallet damage. 

Edited July 23 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Gnasher]

Smaller star (WITH red hand hand underneath) on side of turret?

[Bonehead]

Good points both. I read them earlier today- after I'd finally got the third HB team sorted.

It took bloody ages to work out what I was going to do, but once I had a plan, it was pretty simple. The main problem I had was what to do about the third loader- I'd run out of usefully posed robe arms from Anvil and I was struggling to think of a good conversion that would read as heavy weapon crew.

Then the epiphany hit: These aren't soldiers, they're fanatical idiots, suckered into being cannon fodder by even more fanatical bastards.

So instead of struggling to think of how I'd convert the drum bloke I picked up with the old '80s fanatic models, why not just put him on the base as he is? These people are cultists, after all. What could be more culty than one robed bloke firing a big machine gun while being egged on by another robed bloke chanting heretical nonsense and banging a drum?

Thus:

Happy coincidence that I had one cultist left who had no feet- so I put on bare ones I removed from a traitor guardsman, before I had my drum bloke moment, and now they match.

The plastic bit I made to link the gunner's hands to the gun is frankly not very good, but it is just about good enough. And the poses of the two guys really do go nicely together, so that's the final say in the matter. Rule of cool.

As for the Malcador, I like both of your ideas. The split-up chaos star around the sponson and the smaller one on the turret/casemate. So I'll do both. And definitely leave the turret one off so it can have a nice big red hand under it. Gnasher's dead right, that is going to look great.

So I'll try and model that up tomorrow. i think I'm also going to sculpt up some sandbags to go on the upper front hull: it's a pretty easy job and it should give the model a bit of a veteran feel.

I will also, I swear it, remember the damn trophy helmets!

Edited July 24 by Bonehead

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I like what you've done with the newest heavy bolter crew - yeah, the connection at the back between the model and the gun is a bit clunky, but its serviceable and I doubt anyone will notice once its painted.  BTW, what happened to the poor man's feet?  In any case, his new ones look great.  I also kind of like how he seems to be recoiling backwards as if he doesn't have the gun properly braced - really plays into the "fanatical idiot" vibe.

 

I think your use of the drummer as the loader is inspired - on its own, I think the model might have been too "fantasy battles" but by placing him on the bigger base with the big gun, its a definite tie in to him being a sci fi model now.  I do think he would benefit from the addition of a rifle of some sort strapped across his back to both reinforce him being part of a sci fi army and that, no matter how much he might like his drum, he's there to fight if absolutely necessary.

 

Glad to hear Gnasher and I were able to help sort out your Malcador star problem - I look forward to seeing what you do, as well as your various other planned additions to the model.

 

Is that a candy tin in the background?  I think I have a similar one that I've used as a dice box since I was a teenager.

Edited July 24 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

It is indeed a candy tin- Simpkins travel sweets. I keep 'em in the glove box. Great for a long journey when you're thirsty but can't stop. This one has all my robed cultist bits in it.

As for what happened to the cultists' feet, he was an ebay find. One of three, heavily damaged, but extremely cheap. Came without feet. Only a quid or so each, so bit of a no brainer.

You're right about the drummer- I think the easiest thing will be if I just give him a holster, maybe a grenade on the belt. Easily done.

Right, Malcador:

I found that I could get a big chaos star round the sponson gun without obstructing it pretty easily. So all that worrying was a waste of time. Oh well, at least it's done.

Only one side though. Imagine this: for the first time in my life, I used up an entire tube of superglue. The thing didn't dry up or get clogged, I actually used every drop. So I had to nip out to get more, and then someone asked me to go fetch Kreig parts from Warhammer World and mail it to them, so that's as far as I made it.

I hope you note, Gnasher, that the upper chaos star is merely leaning against the hull. I've drilled sockets for the mounting brackets, but it won't get glued down til there's a damn great red hand under it. Same on the other side.

One more side-mounted star to go, some sandbags, and dangling trophies, and it's ready for paint. Should be undercoated at the very least next week.

 

 

[Tallarn Commander]

Yay! The star fit. The Malcador is coming along nicely. Glory to the Dark Gods!

[Gnasher]

Yep that's cool, deffo buy that for a dollar!!

 

That looks top, well done!

[Bonehead]

Quick progress report:

Basically, modelling done on the Malcador. The only thing missing is liquid green stuff on the metal chaos stars to better replicate rust texture. Barely a few minutes' work.

Temperatures have gone a bit high in the uk and it might make spraying the undercoat tricky- or it might not, we'll see. It is the uk, it won't last.

In this view, you can see the trophy helmets and weapon. The helmet being positioned like this gives me an opportunity for a pretty digusting stain to spice  up the paint job.

Next, the other side: Alternative star position and more trophy helmets.

And finally, a view form the front, showing the sandbags. They're pretty terrible honestly, being just about one digit within the minimum percentage of modelling standard before I tear them off and start again. If there were more of them, I definitely would, but being as they're a minor feature, I'll live with them.

Just about good enough to pass. hard to see in this photo but I did press a fine cotton cloth into them to give them a decently convincing texture.

Ok, next stop; paint.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Looking good and I'm looking forward to seeing it get some paint.  And I think the sand bags are fine - really, they are the right shape and it looks like they are consistently sized, and really that's all you need.  That said, if you feel a need to be sure picky about your sand bags, Tamiya makes some, which work fine, though as they are plastic they obviously can't flow or droop without considerable conversion work.  That's what I used for my wardog bases (only with the sandbags from the old cadian heavy weapons sprue - those are the bunched up/droopy ones). 

 

The stars look great - glad they were pretty easy once you had in your head what you wanted to do.  One thing, though, is the larger ones seem to be held in place (visually, I'm sure there is also glue involved) by loops at the bottom - from a practical perspective, I don't think that would be enough and I think you should add some similar loops at the top.

 

The trophies (and their placement) are also really nice - I like your thinking on the placement of the helmet(s) for optimal stainage.

 

Going back to your drummer, I think grenades and a holster are good ideas, but might not be enough to "sci fi" him - so if you have one and it isn't too fiddly to do, I would go with a rifle over the back instead (or in addition).

Edited July 31 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

I think you're right about the drummer, Dr R, so I'll give him one of my many spare shotguns on a strap. Should be a quick and easy one. I could even give him spare shells. Maybe if I get the malcador done in time I'll add the weapon team to the pledge. Hell, maybe some more troops will have arrived by then and I'll be able to add even more. Probably not though.

On which subject, your observation regarding the stars is a result of my sneakiness- There are loops at the top holding them up, but I put them next to the upper diagonal points  in order to try and keep the outline of the eight-point star more clear. It seems it worked more wellerer than I thought it would.

Anywway, paint is under way. Block colours are in. At this point I'm going to have to refer back to my own posts and see what I did next. I think it's going to be the green wash, but I've remembered stuff arse-backward before.

And it is also at this point that I remind myself the russes looked pretty terrible at this stage too:

#

Damn me, but this would be easier with rattlecans or an airbrush. Anyway, other side:

I absolutely should have masked off the tracks before spraying the grey. Well, bollocks. I suppose it won't be much more work to mask the thing up the other way round and spray the tracks and various crevices black again. Damn it. Would have been fine on the russes, but with these voids here, I need the interior to be properly black.

Crap.

 

[Bonehead]

Brother in a medical emergency this week (now fine), so not a lot of time for painting, but i did get the tank washed and drybrushed.

As a side note, it turns out that filling a previously mobile joint with green wash can have a seriously negative effect on its mobility.

Tried to loosen it up by just pushing it.  Whoops. Oh well, easy to fix......

That was after the wash. Here's how it looks now, after two stages of drybrushing:

There's a couple of irritatingly rough spots on there where for some reason the darker brown drybrush mix I put together really didn't want to be drybrushed. Weathering will sort them out, but they definitely got right on my nerves.

Anyway, here's a couple more angles:

Using the same beige/cream colour to lighten all the base colours for the highlight does nicely draw the whole thing together. Plus it also makes it look quite dusty.

Right, now I have to remember what I did next. Fortunately there's a record of it round here somewhere.

 

 

 

Edited August 8 by Bonehead
Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelling

[Bonehead]

Small progress on the tank.

Me dad's been having heart trouble and generally giving me the vapours and my brother's got phlebitis and can hardly walk, on top of which at my second job it's enrolment time a.k.a no-you-can't-sleep-there's-work-to-do month so it's been hard to finsd time for painting.

In the last fortnight I've managed to build a few things and get about an hour on the Malcador.

Here's where it is now:

Very minor progress, as you can see. Did all the rubber mats on the treads, got the rusty metal colour mixed up and daubed on and coloured in the pintle gun, crates and trophies. Also got a brown wash onthe lower hull in, ready for the weathering.

Still got red hands and the sandbags to do, before giving it some matt varnish and moving on to chipping and weathering. And nasty stains of course, Gnasher.

It's very nearly at a stage where I can legitimately claim to have it finished; not that it will be of course, but I'll at least be able to make good on the pledge I made.

Couple more shots:

Yes, that is my keyboard. I have a kid's one with extra large keys because I have big hands and twitches...

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sorry to hear about your family's health issues.  Good to see that you managed to slip some painting time in around that and your busy employment.

 

Your tank is looking great - its really coming together.  I do think you need to do something with the sand bags (so they don't exactaly meet the colours and, more importantly, stripe patterns on the tank) before calling it provisionally done.  I say that understanding that such is more of a conceptual term and that you have every intent to do your full weathering job on this guy that you did to your russes.

 

BTW, I really like how the green helmets and fuel cans provide contrast to the richer red-brown and yellow of the tank - and think it might look nice to do the large boxes on the top in a similar manner to the fuel cans (you could use a different colour of green if you don't want them to be too samey).

[Bonehead]

Appreciate it, Doctor!

As you say, the sandbags needed doing, so I did them. Managed to grab an hour of painting time after a pretty long day enrolling confused teenagers. The boxes will remain black, because I've done the ones on the russes in black- But I'll probably give them a red hand each. They did get a drybrush highlight and some more conventional highlighting around the sides. I also dabbed in a few details- metallics on the trophies and sponsons, a little more detailing on the trophies, and some narsty stains- somewhat subtler than Gnasher would probably prefer, but I'm not finished with them yet.

I also did the driver's glass and the top periscope (under the stubber), which of course you can't see at all in these photos.

Very nearly fit to call finished well enough for the call to arms:

Just needs a wash on the tracks and a ton of red hands, followed by the upper chaos stars fitting, and it'll be ready for varnish and weathering.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those sand bags look great!  I think the pale tan was a great choice, as it looks both very natural and provides a nice bit of contrast.

 

Makes sense you want to make the boxes match those on your russes - I hadn't thought to compare the tanks when I made my comment.

 

Is your plan to keep the stubber black or do it in leadbelcher or the like?

 

Anyway, I think its fantastic already, and can't wait to see it with all of the final details done - in particular, when you finish the rebar spikes I expect it to really pop.

[Bonehead]

Still slow progress- and I had an email saying that an attempt was made to deliver my order from VM last week; pretty sure they didn't. Regardless, they're in the neighbourhood somewhere. Probably got import tax to pay. Fortunately I've done a lot of work lately, so it should be no problem.

Busy with both jobs so not much has got done, but I did find an hour to bung on a bunch of red hands:

Just got to re-attach the smaller chaos stars and give then a paintjob.

Matt varnish next, then chipping, weathering and rust. Shouldn't take long. Definitely going to make the deadline for the challenge.

[Bonehead]

Turns out it wasn't a tax thing. Don't know what it was, but regardless a nice bloke knocked on my door and handed me a box this afternoon, and here we are. Now we get to have two moreplatoons and some heavy weapons crews:

:cuss: if I know why they put the Monty python guys in there, but whatever. Maybe they'll make more cultists.

Also damn if I know why that text came out the way it did, but can I be bothered to find out? Nah. It's fine. I've got like 60 guardsmen to wash the mould realease off of...

[Bonehead]

Got one word, and that word is . Hard to think of a more appropriate one, honestly.

Damn varnish bloom.

I guess I get to see how effective the old olive oil trick can be. Man...

Edited September 5 by Dr_Ruminahui
Removed swear dodge

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yikes!  That sucks!  Let us know how the olive oil trick works - I've also heard spraying it in high gloss varnish, then again in matt also works, but I haven't had the courage to try myself when I've accidentally frosted a model.  So, maybe look into that one a bit more before trying it yourself, as I can't vouch for the quality of my source.

 

That said, for the purposes of Call to Arms, I think you can definitely post your "newly handed" photos as proof of completion.

 

Also looking forward to seeing your growing horde of nutters and what you do with your surprise Spanish Inquisition.

[phandaal]

 

Yikes!  That sucks!  Let us know how the olive oil trick works - I've also heard spraying it in high gloss varnish, then again in matt also works, but I haven't had the courage to try myself when I've accidentally frosted a model.  So, maybe look into that one a bit more before trying it yourself, as I can't vouch for the quality of my source.

 

That said, for the purposes of Call to Arms, I think you can definitely post your "newly handed" photos as proof of completion.

 

Also looking forward to seeing your growing horde of nutters and what you do with your surprise Spanish Inquisition.

 

I have rescued fuzzy matte varnished models myself by spraying them with gloss then matte again, and it does work just fine! Just have to be careful not to spray on too much and thicken the fine details.

 

Paint-on varnish is also a great option to avoid things like matte fuzz.

[The_Worker]

This plog is incredible. I am hugely impressed by the conversions, the kitbashes, the painting, and the way you put careful thought into posing, composition, and the overall effect. Frustratingly, it's so inspiring that I now want to finish my own traitor Guard army and cultists rather than carry on working on what's directly in front of me... *shakes fist*

By the way, if you'd ever like to roll these fellows out in a game of 4th/5th edition at WHW hit me up, I have a bunch of Guard / Space Marines / Sisters of Battle who could oppose them :)

[Bonehead]

 

This plog is incredible. I am hugely impressed by the conversions, the kitbashes, the painting, and the way you put careful thought into posing, composition, and the overall effect. Frustratingly, it's so inspiring that I now want to finish my own traitor Guard army and cultists rather than carry on working on what's directly in front of me... *shakes fist*

By the way, if you'd ever like to roll these fellows out in a game of 4th/5th edition at WHW hit me up, I have a bunch of Guard / Space Marines / Sisters of Battle who could oppose them :)

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words a lot- especially because this part of the forum is pretty quiet most of the time. Any time you have questions about how I've done things, just ask them. Everyone loves talking about how clever they are, right?

I'd absolutely love a chance to have a game with them- but I think the mostly non-gw nature of the traitor guard models themselves might get me in trouble at WHW. I've not played 40k in a long time- I think it's closer to my actual date of birth than today that I last played, actually, which makes me feel old. The current version of the game with all the special rules to remember just looks like too much of a chore to get into, so I'd jump at the chance to get a game of 4th/5th ed in. I guess there's a couple of independant places in town, but I've literally never been to one to play a game- I think some of them have memberships? I'll have to look into it. I reckon the Vraks army lists should work well enough- apparently they're not competitive, but who cares about that. I'd love to do a few games traitor guard and cultists v loyalist guard. I always liked the more ordinary side of the setting; regular people are more compelling to me than super-soldiers. That said, I probably should finish a few more squads and get some heavy support weapon teams done first; 25 infantry is not enough.

You're definitely on for a game sometime though; sounds fun.

Come to think of it I also need to get some kind of carry case. Haven't had to take models out the house in forever, and when I did I just stuffed them in random boxes with tissue paper. Not doing that with a horde army of hundreds.

On the other hand I do have a very legit GW loyalist guard army- the old rogue trader lads in my other blog. Desperately need to paint the vehicles for them though.

I've never thought about this before, but I am pathologically disorganised. Been painting and modelling for about three years now since I started back into it and the only thing I've finished is the almost all infantry guard army that I never did a blog on. Except I haven't finished really- got ten rough riders unpainted, and half a platoon waiting to be built. Haven't finished the traitor guard yet -haven't even finished the first set of cultists- and I haven't done a single chimera for my mechanised RT guard, even though I have like seven of them. What am I doing?

Hell with it. I'm having fun.

Oh, and here's a little bonus- I almost forgot that I finished the malcador. Apologist reminded me that mineral oil will work just as well as olive oil- but also won't go rancid. Thus:Found this amongst my shaving gear- for a clipper that I broke ages ago.

It did the job:

Then I gave it another varnish- being more conscientious and shaking the can proper and not leaving the model in my garage:

Then came the paint chipping and mud weathering powder:

Then the rust effect- again, weathering powder in white spirit, which flows nicely into the lines of the model. Then a clean brush with some white spirit drags the rust to make streaks. not super-visible on this model, but good practice.

I reckon it came out pretty well- almost convincing as a massive piece of machinery that's been used a lot and not washed. The white spirit managed to somehow re-activate some of the bloom, so I had to cover it over with more mud weathering, which is why the model looks a little filthier than I'd intended- a bit more than the russes.

And for Gnasher, close-ups of the trophies and stains:

The red hands under the stars got basically obscured with all the rust and dried blood, which is massively irritating. And I imagine that maybe you were hoping for more lurid and grisly mess, but I tried to keep it restrained. The vehicles are on their way to becoming mobile shrines, but they're not there yet. The theme for the Mari Landsnechts (name drop) is that they're still professional more than they are fanatical, so I've tried to keep the vehicles looking mostly functional.

Speaking of, I'll sign off with the three as a set:

p.s. I like the crowns of spikes so much I was going to name the demolisher 'demolishasaurus rex' in graffiti on the back, but I restrained myself.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm glad you got that all sorted out -I'll have to try the mineral oil thing on the models I've frosted.

 

Your malcador looks awesome, and is great next to your other tanks.

 

As for finishing an army before moving to the next - well, everyone hobbies in different ways.  Typically, I only work on one army at a time (though, with chaos I've been throwing the odd unit of knights, demons or chaos guard occasionally), though in the past I've painted the odd unit for friends as a break.  So I've never really had the "multiple armies on the go" problem you're describing.  That said, I can't say I ever finish an army either - each of the armies I've stopped working on was because my interest was no longer in it, not because I had run out of models to paint.

 

So, do whatever works for you - which it seems (at the moment anyway) to paint whatever it is you want to paint.  Which isn't a bad way to go about it - though if you do start gaming again, you'll probably want to swivel slightly to painting units that will help you get the force you want on the table.

Edited September 9 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Yay! Your mineral oil came to the rescue. I love your completed Malcador. There are some nice kitbashes on there that I want to try on Reaver and Khorne's Ire, my 2 Traitor Russes.

 

You said it well when you noted...."Hell with it. I'm having fun." I've never worried too much about the order of my projects (unless I'm getting ready for a tournament.

 

If you do end up using the old Vraks list I think you'll find it us a fun, fluffy, army that does fine in casual settings. And, of course, it has plenty of zany rules like Marauder Squad's "In it for the money" rule. They are effectively fearless unless they roll a 1 on morale. If this happens, the Marauders decide they are no going to get paid and they run off the board! 

 

Congrats!

 

Edited September 9 by Dr_Ruminahui
Removed weird bolding