Dice for the dice gods

I'm back from the business trip I took last week and I have to say I'm really excited!  I took some models with me to paint during my free time, and even though I wasn't able to finish them (some details need to be finished) I did get a big jump on finishing my troops selection.  I have three almost fully detailed squads.  Two more and I'll have all the troops I'm planning to need for games up to 2000 points.

Still to finish are the highlights on the ranged weapons casings, metal features on the weapons, the black circle around the red scorpion icon, and painting the bases.  Also the Sgts need their faces painted.  I'll probably take my time on those since painting flesh has never been my forté.


Now to my great surprise when I got home right there on the front door waiting for me were my custom ordered dice.  These dice are not cheap but they are worth it in my opinion and tie the army theme together.  They are a very dark grey (just like my termie's armor) and include the "Red Scorpions" symbol on the 6 side.  Although the pips are not quite the same color hue as the symbol, I have to say I'm very pleased with how these came out.  

As always all constructive criticism is welcomed.  Any tips to make me better at modeling and painting are appreciated.

On the Fly!

Quick update from Dallas/Fort Worth.  I’m currently at the airport waiting for my next connection, and yes I know, work related traveling on a holiday is not much of a holiday.   I won’t be able to post any WIP picture updates for the next 10 days while I’m on this business trip so I’ll add a quick one now that I have some free time.  Last weekend I pulled an all nighter and finished the second landspeeder conversion to make sure they were ready for the local tournament.  I’m actually quite content on how these two came out.  I added some base coating to the new landspeeder and touched-up the first one to make them look identical.

Besides that, there has been not much progress on the rest of the army.  It has been a busy week at work and home which pretty much puts a hold on hobby related activities.  I managed to paint a base coat on the predator, which now is ready for highlights, shadowing and weathering.

Fortunately I was able to squeeze a couple of Terminator squads and some paint into my luggage so I’ll use my spare time to hopefully get them done.  If everything goes to plan I should have two more painted squads for the next update.

More work in progress pictures

When I originally built my Landspeeder Tempest conversion I had planned to include two of them on my army list.  While I was working with the plasticard conversion parts I measured and cut two sets in case I ever decided to build the second one.  I've recently acquired a second landspeeder and have now begun the process of converting it into my second Tempest conversion.  Unfortunately I only cut two sets of conversion plasticard parts so I won't be able to reproduce identical versions of these for my army.  There's still lots more work to do on these; plasticard, green stuff, Forgeworld "Red Sorpions" etched brass symbols, and adding some GW bits I cut and converted for the multi melta.  Let me know what you think.

 

 

 

I'm Baaaaaack!

Hello one more time from the land of the seriously sporadic posters!  For those of you that know me, you'll understand that military life is seldom predictable and sometimes you have to put life on hold for a bit.........  And although I've been back for a while I haven't had the time to update this blog, so again I apologize.  Of course I haven't been idle all this time I've finished putting together 25 terminators for the First company (pictures to come) and have started painting the second and third squad of terminators.  I've also painted the inside of their Land Raider Crusader and finished the conversion for the Dreadnought right arm TL Autocannons.  Having said that, most of my limited hobby time has been spent in modelling and conversions.  Here is a sampling of two conversions I made inspired by some great "Forgeworld" kits.

The first one is my version of a Pre-Heresy Predator Destructor Mk-III.  After seeing Forgeworld's awesome pre-heresy kits for both the "Predator" and the "Rhino", I decided to take a stab at converting my own pre-heresy predator.  I didn't like very much the original Mk-I Predator (although FW's version looks really good) so I decided to convert my own Mk-III Predator Destructor inspired on both the original metal Destructor kit and the new FW resin Mk-I kit.  Let me know what you think?

I also love the Landspeeder Tempest model.  I really liked the enclosed cockpit configuration, so I decided to convert one of my old Landspeeders into a Tempest but with weapons that were allowable in the current DA codex. 

As always any and all constructive criticism is welcomed.  Again sorry for the lack of updates, but with me back on track on finishing this army, and the rumors that DA are getting a new codex soon, the Red Scorpions first company will rise again!

Down but not out!

Sorry for the lack of updates but the combination of several work related trips and my computer dying, have kept me out of contact for a couple of weeks.  If you have been following Red Corp's blog you will have seen that the vote tally came in for the create a character competition for his fan dex.  I have to say that when I saw the final results on the competition I was ecstatic that I got second place.  Thanks to all of you who voted for my entry and thanks to Jack for providing an incentive to get my creative juices going (so to speak). 

Unfortunately I haven't had much progress on my Red Scorpions Deathwing count-as.  I have only one squad painted so far.  As I said before, work has been pretty hectic lately, and my 11 year old now wants to start playing orks.  So as the Warhammer geek and dad that I am, I'm putting together a small ork army for him (500 - 750 pts).  I may post some pictures of the 'ard boyz I've been working on later.  Hopefully I'll soon have more updates on the Red Scorpions' First Company. 

Finally a painted model

After spending most of my hobby time putting the final touches on my entry for Red Corps special character competition I had some free time this weekend to put some paint on my first test model and continue painting the interior of the Land Raider Crusader.  The test model took me a little longer than I wanted, but I was deciding which colors to use as I was painting him. I'm hoping the next 25 will not take as much.

The base now only needs a couple of weeds or dying grass sprouting from the edges of the rock and I think I can call him complete.  One of the things I don't like about him is the Red Scorpions chapter symbol.  I just can't get the detail to look quite right.  Has anybody else had a similar problem?  What did you do to ensure your painting gave justice to the great detail on the FW shoulder pads?

Having said that, I had no problem getting the details on the left shoulder "Crux Terminatus".  I really liked how this turned out.  Well now that I have finished my test model, hopefully I'll be able to start cranking them out a little bit faster.  As always please let me know what you think,your critiques are highly welcomed.

Brother Aslan takes shape.

I can't believe it's been twelve days since my last update.  Real life has a way to get in the way of my plastic addiction.  Unfortunately there hasn't been much progress in the terminator modeling/painting side.   On the other hand I have finished modeling three terrain pieces for my cities of death table:  a bombed out factory, a leaking oil reserve tank, and a small ork bastion.  I'll probably post pictures later in the week. 

I have made some headway on Brother Aslan's background/fluff. As I said last update he's going to be my entry into Jack's FanDex special character competition (over at Red's Corps Red Scorpions Blog), and I want to come up with a suitable back-story to be included in the codex.  I have saved it as a pdf please take a look at it and let me know what you think.  Cleansing of Kaspion IX.  As always critiques are always welcome.

 

More Terminators on their way

It has been over a week since my last update but real life has again got in the way of my plastic addiction.  I did manage to put together another Terminator Squad. 

This time it's my first Assault squad.  Unfortunately I suffer from OCD when it comes to  putting models together. I can't stand seeing a great paint job ruined by mold lines on the model.  I spend way too much time cleaning every last bit of flash and mold lines, even in areas that people will never get to see. So it takes forever to get a squad ready for paint.

I have also started on my Terminator apothecary conversion for the command squad.  I really liked the new Grey Knights terminator apothecary arm but it just didn't feel right.  My apothecary will be armed with lightning claws so if I had used the termie apothecary arm it wouldn't have had the right feel, plus it wouldn't be WYSIWYG. 

I started the conversion with a power armor apothecary plastic arm.  I cut off all the power armor parts and shaved the inside of the Narthecium/Reductor until it almost fit on the outside of the left lightning claw.  I then had to shave off a little bit from the lightning claw to make it a perfect fit.  Even though it still needs some green stuff work on the inside arm, to completely connect the power cable from the shoulder pad to the Narthecium/Reductor, I really like the final result.

Finally, most of my time has been spent either painting the inside of the command squad's Land Raider Crusader or working on Brother Aslan.

Brother Aslan is the Red Scorpions' Vexillarius Primus (Chapter Standard Bearer) and will also be my entry into Jack's FanDex special character competition (over at Red's Corps Red Scorpions Blog).  Let me know what you think.  As always critiques are always welcome.

First Company taking shape

Here is a quick update, of what I have been up to lately.  The first two squads are almost complete.  They just need to be based with some sand and they'll be ready for priming.  Unlike most lists I've seen floating around the internet, I actually like the assault cannon on my ranged terminators.  Don't get me wrong I have plans to include two CML in my list but I just don't like the thunder hammer cyclone missile launcher spam that I'm seeing everyone use. 

As some of you might have noticed, these are a mix of regular terminators and AoBR terminators.  I have a total of 25 terminators in various stages of assembly on my desk with 10 of them being AoBR and the other 15 being regular or assault terminators.

I have also done some work on one of my 1st company dreadnoughts.  I just love the look of the regular Forgeworld dreadnought.  In my opinion, the FW dreadnought has so much more character than the standard plastic dreadnought without being too gaudy like certain chapter specific dreadnoughts.  Weapons have been magnetized so I can exchange them at will, also the helmet has not been glued yet so I can paint it separately from the sarcophagus.

Last but not least is my Belial count-as.  Definitely going for the thunder hammer / storm shield version to make him more survivable since he lacks an iron halo or eternal warrior.
 

I wanted to make him stand out from the standard metal space marine terminator captain so I added the pauldron to his left shoulder pad, and sealed the banner slot at the back of his armor with brown stuff.  I also shaved the skull from the storm shield and added Red Scorpion brass etching to it, added one more power cable from the storm shield, added some height to his boots with plasticard and raised him on a bigger salient rock just so he didn't seem that small when compared to the other terminators.  My real goal is to get Forgeworld's Lufgt Huron in terminator armor and use him as the base for a major conversion of my Red Scorpions First Company Captain.  Let me know what you think.  See you with an update in a couple of days.