Other Side of the Portal: Another Hellcannon

With my Infinity figures painted and my motivation for the Arabian Knights is rock bottom, I decided to do a project that I had in mind for quite some time now. Some of you might remember my other hellcannon, her sister actually (yes, it is a she, problem?). The monster is in fact a SPAWN action figure. It was in the form of siamese twins, both of which I used as the monster part of my hellcannons now.

The idea I had in mind was a scene of the summoning, with the monster is just about the step (stomp?) in from within the portal. I first started with the portal. The portal was done brick-by-brick with Pegasus Hobbies' bricks. Then I glues a cardboard between the brick frame and did the swirling portal effects with Vallejo's Oxid Paste. That stuff also helped closing the gaps here and there. Before it was completely dry, I buried some tiny skulls in the portal.

After the foundation of the portal was done, I had to decorate it with some bits. I started with a couple of torches. I think they were Ainsty Castings stuff; but since I had them forever, I really can't recall. I thought a couple of hooks and hanging skulls on the side were enough, all of which were GW's bits. Finally, I cut a Hashut symbol from balsa to go on the top of the portal.

As for the crew, I must say my bitzbox made me a very happy man. There's a metal hellcannon crew (guy that carries the chain) with his hand bits are from OOP dwarfs box. There's the other guy with the hook. His body is from Forgeworld's infernal guard, head from Mantic's abyssal dwarf and weapon from OOP dwarf box. And the last guy were made of FW torso-Mantic head again, and also his scepter was from Mantic's halfbreeds. The bit with the book on top should be from Ainsty Castings again.

Originally, my plan was to place the summoner guy on a higher ground, only accessible with spiral stairs; but since the monster occupied a huge portion of the base, I had to drop it. Baaad planning...

So, that's all for today. Here are some more photos, enjoy...

Display Board for my Chaos Dwarf Army

I think that my Chaos Dwarf army is sizeable now and they deserve a display board. I had some ideas flowing in my mind; but I was also aware that I would be needing space on the display board with the big monsters in my army. Before, when I was doing the dawi display board, I had done the mistake of filling the display board way too much, to a point that there was not enough space to put the army on. I think this time I nailed it, although it might look a little plain and simple. But, hey, it is there to display the army, right? My original plan when building the display board was to provide a step by step tutorial on how I did things; but I forgot to take photos due to my enthusiasm. So, I will only be presenting the final result here.

I started with a 80x60cm wood for the base of the board. My first step was to cut the foam to the size of the board which is the base of all the display board. Since I was using foam, I used PVA glue to make the foam stick to the board, as the super glues eats through the foam in time.

The ziggurat was built with Fenris Games scenery and Pegasus Hobbies bricks. First, I decided when the building will sit on the board roughly, then I started to build it brick by brick. I had to use PVA again not to harm the foam accidentally. Once the bricks started to form a building, I placed the stairs and then the pyramid, once the foundation was complete.

The lava pool is one of the craters from Games Workshop's Moonscape scenery kit. The tree is from Woodland Scenics with its trunk is modeled with a Citadel Wood bit. Once everthing was in their places, I started carving the foam. First I carved lava rivers, then trimmed the edges of the foam to give it a "rocky" look. By this time, the outline was formed.

Before moving on to painting, there were a couple of more steps. To prevent the edges of the foam from chipping, I applied PVA glue again, to each and every side of the foam. Especially the cracks in the rock formation. Once the glue was dry, I went on to apply Vallejo's Black Lava on the foam to create some texture. I think it would have been better to use Red Oxide here, due to my color selection; but Black Lava was all I had at the moment, so... :)

The painting was pretty straightforward, with the only delicate job was the lava pool. First, I sprayed the entire board black, except for the inside of the lava pool. Crimson-like earth color was done with Vallejo's Red Leather. After the major parts done, I moved on to paint the ziggurat. Codex Grey base, followed by Fortress Grey and White highlights did the job for me there. The tree was rather simple. Highlighted it with Grey again, after spraying Brown for an "ashen" look.

As for the crater, I started with spraying the pool with Vallejo Gold Yellow. The spots where the lava meets the rocks were done by gradually spraying Vallejo Bright Orange and Vallejo Red. Only the highest spots where the lava is expected to be "cooled down", were sprayed black for some contrast. Once they were done, the only thing left to do was highlighting the hottest parts of the pool, in the form of a Yellow+white mixture at the middle of the pool. All airbrush work, pure and simple... :)

Since I had applied PVA glue to the edges of the foam, it provided a protective layer so I was able to spray varnish to seal the display board from a can, without fearing that the propellant gas would eat through the foam. And that was a wrap.

I so wanted to finish this one before the last weekend to show off during the tourney held on last weekend; but just could not make it. But then again, what can you do sometimes right? By the way, the army on the board is the army I fielded in last weekend's tournament.

Let me know what you think about the board.

Terrain Attack: Moonscape as Lava Pools

Big news: I bought an airbrush! I know, I know, you are shocked to hear that I didn't have one and that all the beauties you have seen on my blog were done with good old brush work :) Since I have my airbrush now, I thought it was time to practice on how to use it and a couple of terrains were lying around...

The idea is simple: Lava pools would be a nice touch on any chaos themed battlefield. They look even better when you play a Chaos Dwarfs army and have a vast array of fire creatures. Actually, I was planning to finish it earlier for the Artisan's Contest which was held by Chaos Dwarfs Online; but I couldn't make it. The contest was about Chaos Dwarfs themed terrain piece and I thought that it would have been a very good entry for my first contest. Next time I guess...

The craters I used here are from Citadel's Moonscape kit. At first, I was looking to buy Pegasus Hobbies' craters, due to the outrageous price of the Citadel ones; but then I noticed that our local gaming club had some of them waiting to be painted. If you like the idea of lava pools and decide to do yours, I suggest you to consider Pegasus' ones before making a purchase. It would be a decent buy with a good price.

Even though I am a n00b with the airbrush, painting these ones were fairly quick for me. I believe they didn't take more than 2 hours combined. First, I undercoated both of them black, then sprayed the craters yellow. Then did the rocky parts with Vallejo Red Leather. The places where the lava meets the rocks were gradually sprayed with Vallejo Bright Orange First and then I sprayed some blacks to the "cooled" parts. The hottest parts of the lava were done with a yellow+white mix. For finishing, I used some more blacks between the rocks before highlighting the rocks with Red Leather+white mix. Full airbrush work...

Here are some photos, enjoy...

Terror from the Deep: Second Hellcannon

Here I am again, with yet another monstrosity. I have another hellcannon to show off; but this time, it is entirely different from how Games Workshop interpreted it.

Before I talk about the mini at hand, I have to say that I am not a fan of GW's current hellcannon sculpt. It looks too "machine". Hence, I looked for ideas on how to build a hellcannon which looks more "monster", less "machine". I found my answer in Ordo Fanaticus forum. The user JMGraham's beauty was too good to pass and I decided to undertake this project.

The base model here is a SPAWN action figure again. It is called GEMINI from Warriors of the Zodiac series. I am familiar with working on action figures lately. As you might remember, my second K'daai Destroyer was also built off of a SPAWN figure.

So, I started building this model by creating an effect that it is hoisting itself from inside the ground. The height of the model was crucial here due to the "firing point" of the monster. To make it right, I placed it side by side with an original hellcannon. Once I adjusted its height, I buried it into the ground by using putty and then surrounded the putty with balsa pieces. Finally, I applied -a lot of- Vallejo Black Lava for the lava surfaces, as well as the rabble on the rocky parts.

The painting has no real trick. Flesh is Tallarn foundation, Ogryn wash then HL with Tallarn again. The gems are done with Vallejo Golden Yellow and GW Chaos Black GW Orange base with a touch of white dot in the end, a very common gem painting recipe.

I painted the crew miniatures separately and placed them after that. There are many conversions on the crew miniatures and bits from various sources. As a last minute touch, I ransacked my gf's accessory box to find the chains and the bollards (?). They look OK, don't they?


In the end, I am very satisfied with the result to be honest. I am looking forward to displaying this piece in upcoming events and hopefully, I can bag a trophy or two with it. Who knows...

Enjoy.

 

Pimp my Ride - Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

I'm a little tired of dealing with monstrosities, so here's something small for a change: A bunch of hobgoblin wolf riders.

Being the only fast cavalry, I think these little annoyances have great potential in a Legion of Azgorh list. I can see them being useful at usual redirecting duties, as well as hunting a war machine or two, earning more than their cost in the process. Also, they might prove invaluable as screen units, which will provide screens for my monsters from cannonballs, hopefully...

Of course, there are some cons about them too. The most important thing is the hobgoblin animosity. They tend to fail their animosity rolls at times that you need them most, so they are not exactly a dependable unit. Also, they are not very cheap pointswise. One of the other handicap they have is that they are listed on rare slot. It's quite a problem for them since they share that category with hellcannon and k'daai destroyer. It's the tightest slot for chaos dwarfs and it's sometimes hard to squeeze these buggers in.

The miniatures I used here are from GW's Goblin Wolf Riders box, so nothing fancy here. The lava bases are still there and I am still using the Black Lava of Vallejo. When painting, I tried to make them look as ragged as possible, so I used earthly colors like khaki, leather brown on their cloths as much as possible. As for the metal parts like the helmets and the horn, I applied some flesh wash for a little rusty look. The skin tone recipe is very simple: Paint with knarloc on brown undercoat, wash with Thraka then highlight with Knarloc first, followed with Vallejo's sick green.

With one other test model I have done before, they are now 5 guys and can be fielded in the games I'll play. I think I really need to return to basics and do some more cores, as I am stuck at 3k points now due to the core requirements. Expect some more cores soon, most probably in the form of hobgoblins on foot.

Enjoy...

Forgeworld Bull Centaurs at Games Day Barcelona 2012

Rumors were around that Forge World guys were working on bull centaur models for quite some time and finally they showed up at Games Day Barcelona it seems. The photos are not the best; but it can be seen that they are very bulky, yet dynamic looking models. I really liked them to be honest. The only criticism I can come up with is the ridiculously small looking shields and it is no biggie, no biggie at all...

BUT, and yes, there is always a but, well, they are BIG. I'm afraid they are so big that it will not be possible to mix-match them with GW's bull centaur models from 90s or Mantic's half-breeds, which are to be released by the end of July. Non-FW ones will just look so tiny beside them.

Another crucial point is that they seem to be on 75x50mm bases, which is the same with giants or demigryph knights of The Empire. Previously, an FW employee answered an e-mail of chaos-dwarfs.com community member, stating that the BCs will be on 50mm bases. The bull centaurs I have are on 50mm square bases and I will be very upset to see that they move it to 75x50mm. Not just because of the effort required to do it; but also my old BCs will really look tiny on those bases, basically rendering them unusable.

Oh well, already rambled more than enough. Below are the photos of the new bull centaurs, enjoy...

Painting on the Move

"More light!"

Real life issues suck, plain and simple. I have been doing lots of traveling for almost a month now due to work and trainings. As you can guess, it takes its toll from the time I spend in my workshop. Luckily, I was quick to invent ways to paint on the move, like my good friend Mr. Lee did. As you can see from the photo on the right, I sometimes went for the extreme...

During my travels, my destination is Istanbul. The biggest advantage I had was that my company has rented an apartment in Istanbul. It is easy to customize the apartment for my needs and there are no cleaning ladies waiting to toss your stuff into trash or stash them in someplaces. Big win! Hopefully I won't be traveling for some time now though. Fingers crossed...

So anyways, I have some stuff to show you. Since I have been living a roving life, the products are also different from each other. Firstly, I have a couple of bull centaurs: A standard bearer and a musician. My eBaying skills could not earn me any command guys, I had to convert my own ones. The base model is Mantic's Abyssal Half-Breed Lord for both of the conversions, with various bits from WoC boxes. I tried glow effects on the standing stone beside the standard bearer; but you will be the judge of that.

Next, some more infantries, 5 more to be precise. Nothing fancy here, except that I placed them on a regiment base. You know that I am suffering from ranking up issues and this might just be the way to solve it in style. Also, when gaming, they generally don't die or die in droves (damn I or die spells), so it won't be much of a problem in games. I am planning on doing more of them in the future. Oh, also, I have to mention that I finally gave in and went on to buy Vallejo's Black Lava and used them on the bases of the infantries and the bull centaurs. That stuff looks -and smells- like olive paste (a very low quality one that is). I used them to provide some texture on the lava parts of the base. From the photos you can see the difference between the bases of the wolf rider and the other bases. I think i will be using that stuff from now on.

Lastly, there's a test model for Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders. No conversions there, just the good old Wolf Riders of Games Workshop. The painting schema was originally from Mr. Lee; but I modified it a little to achieve the look I was looking for. Let me know what you think...

So that's pretty much it. For those who are interested in bull centaurs, I have to tell you that Mantic's Half-Breeds are in pre-order currently. Their pricing is a steal at 2GBP/model, so I advise you to check them.

Here be photos...

FW 101: Introduction to ForgeWorld

Recently, Forge World's siren song proved to be too strong for me and I went on to buy an infernal guards package. My plan was to use the Mantic guys as cores and the ForgeWorld ones as elites. This way, the cores and elites would look different from each other, yet have decent amount of character in them.

During painting, I used my usual recipe. The painting process was rather quick, due to the fact that they are armored to the teeth. I spent some time on the freehands on the shields though. I think the flame designs turned out to be quite OK; but it is up to you to decide.

There are two points that left a sour taste in my mouth. First, the ranking up issue. I generally took my time and plan ahead of time before placing the miniatures on their bases to avoid the ranking up problems. In this case, no amount of nudging, tweaking and moving around solved it unfortunately. Checked the stock photo after I gave up and I still can't see how it could be done. Maybe they used bigger bases, hmm...? :)

Another point which bothers me was the size of the minis. Don't get me wrong, their scale is correct; but they are small compared to the Mantic ones. The Mantic ones have decorations on their helmets and that's the main reason that they look bigger; but as are the old-skool GW chaos dwarfs. I don't see that the ForgeWorld guys will blend in with them nicely too to be honest. I have 10 of these guys now; but I think I won't be buying more of them.

You can see the photos below. I'd recommend you to check the size comparison shot with Mantic mini to get a better feeling about the size difference.

New Recruits: A Unit Filler and Some More

After a sub-optimal painting weekend, here I am, with a few more models for my Chaos Dwarfs army. I painted some more infantries to make up a few more ranks, so nothing new there, except the very first unit filler.

Educated eyes would have already recognized the bits used i believe. Most of them are from Mantic's again; but there are some bits from Games Workshop products too, like Marauder flail, Chaos Spawn bits, etc... The base is 40mm square so, this one will occupy 4 models' places, which i think the best size for a unit filler. Like before, the base is built from balsa and painted by myself.

This conversion idea was in my mind since the first time i saw the Mantic sprues, though I suspected that I'd need to storm through my girlfriend's ornaments box to make it happen, say, for chains and stuff. That plan was deemed unnecessary when I saw the flails of the Marauders box. When I asked my good fella, Mr. Lee, about the looks of it during the WiP stage, he suggested me that the doggies need to look more "chaosy". Hence, I added the spawn bits to make it happen.

There are a few more photos, to show the other regular infantries I managed to finish. My Chaos Dwarfs army is growing slowly, and sooner rather than later, their skills will be put to test. With many proxigors of course...