More pictures of Billy the Subjugator (Titan)

Billy's been giving me some problems lately.

You see, being more of a painter than a sculptor/modeller, I was in a bit of a rush to get paint on Billy, and have encountered an interesting conundrum.

I feel some areas on Billy are a little bare and need more detail, but I only realized this after the model was pretty much close to fully painted.

Kind of an unavoidable problem in my opinion, and a side effect of building complex models mostly from scratch, in that you aren't really sure if the model has enough bling on it as you're working. I've had similar problems with terrain before, but as that sort of thing can be rescued with freehand and weathering, and managed to solve the problem that way.

Billy, on the other hand, is somewhat different. As a daemon engine of Slaanesh, he's supposed to be all whippety-sleekness, and not really given to massive spikeyness or corrosion.

My solution? I'll add wires I reckon.

It will reinforce the Noise Marine connection, and hopefully add a little more colour to the model, which I see mostly as black/gunmetal/gold so far.

Other than that, here are some of the points of note I've added since we last saw Billy:

He's got a shiny new loincloth, cut from the Ogre Bulls banner, trimmed and freehanded with a purple chaos star. Also all of the larger studs (except the gimp ones on the legs) have been painted as turquoise gemstones, and the chain + skull thingies have been painted.

We'll see how the wire idea works out. Planning to add it to all the under-carapace areas. Should be a nice boost to surface detail, especially with a nice stripey yellow and black colour scheme.

Here goes.

PS: Building your own model from odds and sods taught me another interesting lesson -- it's really hard to declare a scratch-built model 'complete'.

How geeky are you?

Sooooo..... What's makes a person geekier than another in this hobby, other than creating a survey to see how much of a nerd you are? *ahem*

I was having drinks with a gaming kaki when we started wondering what means we could use to measure involvement in this hobby (read: geekiness).

We sorted things out into 5 categories, then came up with 4 statements about each. The idea is you score 1 point for each of the following, to come up with a total 'geek' factor.

It's subjective as hell and utterly inaccurate, but it's all for a good laugh.

Also we're thinking of adding a points weightage to the system, since some statements have more nerd-weight than others (haha).

See anything that needs adding? Let me know in the comments.
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Background knowledge:

1.Writes own fluff
2.Knows fluff of armies not in own collection
3.Able to identify fluff changes
4.Has strongly disagreed with fluff before

Hobby:

1. Paints in a group on weekends regularly
2. Paints at home regularly (2-3 times a week)
3. Scratchbuilds/kitbashes models involving parts from at least 4 different models
4. Converts models for purely aesthetic reasons

Rules:

1. Familiar with rules from at least 3 codeci for army not in collection
2. Has played at least 3 games without needing to check rules
3. Owns a copy of FAQs for armies outside of collection
4. Has played a game from each expansion at least once (Battle Missions, Cityfight etc.)

Collecting:

1. Owns non-competitive choices and used them at least thrice
2. Able to field at least 80% of an army's available units, less unreleased models
3. Owns Apocalypse-ready force (3000pts painted including 1 formation/super heavy)
4. Able to max out one section of the force organization chart with multiples of 1 unit type (not HQ)

Buying behaviour:

1. Orders new releases the same month they are made available
2. Owns at least 1 Forgeworld fully-resin kit of at least 60 pounds in value
3. Has bought at least 1750 points of models in one go
4. Owns at least 4k of models for one army, painted or unpainted

Internet behaviour:

1. First to know about a new rumour on an army not in own collection, on at least 3 separate occasions
2. Visits at least 5 unique wargaming related websites a week
3. Regular visitor to a website focussing on one faction in 40k
4. Regular contributor to a gaming forum

It walks!

The secret project's not so secret no more.

It's a Subjugator Titan for Apocalypse, one of the more obscure Chaos titan variants back in the days of old Epic.

It's mostly scratchbuilt, barring a pair of defiler arms and a few pieces off the Chaos vehicle accessory sprue.

Lots of fun times had sourcing for parts and endless sanding, and sanding (and sanding) all of that Milliput. Lots of frustration at times too.

You know you're enjoying a project when you want to look at it first thing in the morning after a night spent working on it, and you sketch it endlessly during work.

Now it's mostly complete, just needs more time on the paintwork. I might also add a rivet or two here and there to break up the plainer areas. It's funny how you only notice these things when there's already colour on the model.

Hope you like it!

Secret Project Time!

And here it is!

Care to guess what it is?

(Shh to those I've told about it already)



















Next: need arms!

Where's all the painting hauls gone, ya lazy git?

Well I'm glad you asked, sonny.

The simple answer is that I spent the last two months on a new Chaos list for a local tourney and on another top secret (until I get around to posting pics anyway) project.

Here are pics from the tourney, shamelessly filched from the organisers' Facebook:














Sardaris's new look! Still can't get the girls though.

The list of models I completed for the tourney:

1 Land Raider
1 Vindicator
1 Daemon Prince
5 Berserkers
11 Chaos Space Marines

Oh and Sardaris got an update, with a shiny new blue sword, face and wings. Plus I did sundry icons, combi meltas and other whatnotz to get the army tourney ready.

Lots of little details left to add, like detailing on rivets, bandages and other odds and sods that I will work on every now and then, but pretty good eh?

So how did I do? Better than expected I guess. Won three games on the first day, then crashed out on the second, but it's already better than I'd hoped.

Got voted Best Painted though, so no regrets!

So here's a big chunk of my painted Chaos army as it stands now:



Sardaris missed the group photo above, and there's still unfinished Terminators, Bikes, another Defiler, and sundry power-armoured dudes.

Oh and The Secret Project!

The Painting Haul - March 2011

Late February pics + brand new camera = Late March pics.

So much for getting this lot of pics done on time, like I promised myself two weeks ago. I will try harder, haha.

Simple reason for another batch of late pics, really, I much prefer painting to taking pics. It's hard to take pictures that make your models look good, I feel. Not that these pictures do, they're just the best of the worst =p

Maybe it's time to get the other half that camera *hint hint*

Anyway, not too much done for March, and the reason's that huge Orky sub I worked on with the other Ork players for our Armageddon campaign (!).

Intrigued? Pics to come... eventually.

Here's March's Haul:



40k:

Ork Battlewagon #2:




Updated Ork Buggy #1:




Random Historical (!):





Thanks for reading, and fingers crossed I get the next update up in good time eh?

The Painting Haul: February 2011

Here's my new monthly feature -- The monthly painting haul.

This is simply a list of models I have completed each month, to track my progress, with photos

To make it clear, some of these models have had prior work done to them, but they make the list now because that they are fully finished and varnished this month.

February's Painting Haul:



Super Dungeon Explore:



Kobold Flinger
Kobold Knucklehead
Kobold Ironscale
Kobold Dragon Priest
Kobold Gougerx2

Warmaster:





Grand Theogonist on War Altar

40K:







IG Valkyrie/Vendetta







Ork Deff Dread

Squig Power!

Gitz go in this end! (Borat approves)


Rrraaaawwwwrrrr...raaaaarrrrgghh


Grrraaaaawwwwrrr... ok I stop now.


The gun platform -- 6 guns in all


Good news: There's a driver. Bad news: It's an Ork!


Yes, he definitely has line of sight.

She's done!

I picked up this Gargantuan Squiggoth about two years ago, and only recently got her done. Why's she a she? Well her name's Roxy... Let's just leave it at that.

In all the model took me about 3 weeks or so to finish, jolly quick.

So why am I putting up pictures only now?

Turns out she has a rather epic backstory.

When I first received the model in the mail, I cleaned it up with detergent, as is usual for resin kits, before starting to paint.

Half way through the model, I was checking out the paintjob one day, when I ended up with a handful of wet paint, when the model should have been dry for hours.

Roxy, through a cruel twist of fate, was leaking uncured resin.

Thankfully I was able to get a replacement in the mail (thanks Nic!) and Roxy was back on track. But other projects crept in (like 3,500 points of Imperial Guard) and she was pushed back.

So it was a while before I got back to finishing this great model, and I'm glad I did. While all of the Forgeworld Ork stuff is suitably Orky-looking, nothing quite does 'Ork' like this model.

Must be the big teef wot eats ya.