1/24/2007

In All His Wraithbone Glory

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This is my Wraithlord. There are many like him, but this one is mine.

I'm debating whether or not I should start adding the runes and details. On the one hand, I know it'd look so fantastic. On the other hand, well... you know. A lot of work.

1/23/2007

Tree H8RZ can suck it

I have 8 finished trees. I now know how to make trees.

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BTW The Woodland Scenics water, in case you noticed, is starting to look a little cloudy, which is weird. That doesn't make me happy. I may have to re-open the official taste test.

1/22/2007

Arbor Day

Here's the finished product.

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Now I begin mass-production.

Absence makes the heart grow fronder

I painted these fronds up first with black primer, followed by Dark Angels Green, then drybrushed with Sunburst Yellow, then washed liberally with Dark Green Ink to give it a nice gloss as well as a nice green look (green ink giving something a green look... who would have guessed?):
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Moving on to the tree itself, here's the stump (already primed black) glued to a large base:
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Glue on a trunk.
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Glue on a trunk with a branch sticking out:
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Paint Scorched Brown:
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Drybrush with Vermin Brown:
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Wash with watered-down black ink:
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Glue on some of those awesome fronds with the aforementioned green effect that's so hard to get:
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Here's a side-view:
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Glue on some sand with some thinned-out white glue:
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Glue on your vines cause it's the jungle. Duh.
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Now some watered-down white glue over it all to seal it:
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Time to watch some illegally downloaded television while it dries:
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Paint black onto the base.
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Beastial Brown heavily drybrushed on top:
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Followed by lots of Desert Yellow:
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Then the magic color: Bleached Bone.
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A dusting of Skull White and Bestial Brown around the base to clean it up.
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It occurred to me that, because I now know how to do this tree thing and it seems to work, that I could try something and put a few drops of GW Water Effects on the base. I used the GW product instead of the Woodland Scenics because it's harder to control it in smaller spaces (both because of its viscosity and the small spout you squeeze it through... not to mention that I still have a bottle full of it).
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When the water is cured, I'll take a snap and show you how it turned out.

Now, to repeat this process roughly 40 more times and I'll have the trees made for the jungle table!

*kills self

1/19/2007

This Warp Spider Sucks

This is the worst fucking Warp Spider in the world. Notice that it sucks so bad, it's even got a pubic hair or something stuck to its shoulder. I am trying to save it, but I just can't.



By the time you read this, it's gonna be soaking in Simple Green.

1/18/2007

Warp Spiders

Imagine how stupid I felt when I realized I'd assembled all my Warp Spiders upside down.


Actually I was wet-blending and I wanted to prevent the paint from running in the wrong direction.

At this point the Warp Spiders look as crap as crap can be because I'm just getting the wet-blending together. And it's taking me a while. Here's the current state:


No cure for Warp Spider foot yet. I'm working on it.

1/11/2007

Right up the middle

Eldrad Ulthran (one of the few names I've heard with four consonants in a row). Still have arms and that big antenna thingie on his head to finish off. Oh, and the cloak and feet... but his middle is comin' along:
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I don't know what it is about the Eldrad model, but it's one of my favorites of all time. Funny, too, because I usually don't like the older 2nd ed models. I think the pose (I assume sculpted by the amazing Jes Goodwin) is what strikes me most; balanced and symmetrical and yet authoritative and powerful. Tons of gorgeous little details, too.

I deviated from my original plan which was to do the entire model with only Shadow Grey, Bleached Bone and Yellow Ink (black and white don't count towards the total, btw). I just couldn't come up with a way to do Eldrad's hip pouches with those colors, so I broke down and mixed up some Scorched Brown, Tanned Leather (from Reaper Mini) and Brown Ink. The gems, btw, are Hawk Turquoise (the color I think makes for the loveliest gems). Ok, once I got that far I just went hog wild and used some Blue Ink around the chest "thing" Eldrad wears and a bit of Orange Ink on the eyes and stripe up the back of his helmet. So much for only three colors. As I said, the arms and weapons aren't done yet, but I imagine it'll continue to primarily be Shadow Grey and Bleached Bone mixes except for where I feel tempted to cheat and use something else.

The Staff of Ulthamar is gonna be the really interesting thing. I won't make it a Froot-Loop-like rainbow of colors on the staff but, instead, will likely build up various blues and greys with some yellow for accent. The thing that's really a challenge for me is the weird tassle thing down by his right foot. Zero idea what I'm gonna do with that.

In other news, my camera makes models look like crap. Seriously. It doesn't look ANYWHERE this rough in person. I swear. Sheesh.

1/08/2007

Orks Vs. Eldar (NSFW)

(A recent MSN chat with Nick. So wrong on so many levels. Don't read it if you're sensitive to nasty talk)

Corey: I got my forgeworld avatar
Nick: well, it doesn't surprise me that an Eldar model would be concerned about the condition of his nails.....they're so.....metrosexual
Corey: Say what you want. That's the Avatar who will be picking chunks of your Ork army out from between his molars.
Nick: bah...he's nothing but a lesser Bloodthirster
Corey: Seriously? There's a reason that the Eldar have an advantage over Orks, though. It's fluff-based: Apparently the Eldar discovered certain artifacts and items long ago which gave them a certain evolutionary options that the Orks just don't have.
Corey: I believe one of those items was soap. Another was toilet paper.
Nick: tough words from a dying race
Nick: did the Eldar use soap and toilet paper to create Slaanesh?
Nick: and besides, Orks HAVE toilet paper, they call them snotlings and grots
Corey: I'll get to that in a minute. First... got a joke for you.
Corey: What did the Ork get on his IQ test?
Nick: waaaaaghn? (one)
Corey: No.
Nick: ok, what?
Corey: Saliva.
Nick: what did the Eldar get on his AIDS test?
Nick: positive
Nick: sorry, I had to some up with something
Corey: The only reason the Eldar got AIDS is because some sick pervert of an Eldar somewhere along the line had sex with a monkey
Corey: Or, as you know him, your Warboss.
Nick:well, he must have been on the recieving end of that exchange, the ass never gives the prick AIDS
Nick: Corey doens't like the highway, he takes teh dirt road
Corey: Oh, we're going personal with this now, huh?
Nick: YOU STARTED IT
Corey: I just insult Orks. I don't insult you. But seeing as you gave me permission...Reminds me of the story about how the doctor told you that he needed a stool sample, a feces sample and a urine sample... and you just gave him a pair of your underwear.
Nick: "needed a stool sample, a feces sample " aren;t they the same thing?
Corey: Sorry. Urine, feces... I lose track. They're all just Ork troop choices to me.
Nick: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Nick: I wonder in how many years will all those abandoned and derelict Craftworlds will be crawling with urine and shit then?
Corey: Hmm. Kinda sounds like an Ork theme park.
Corey: Anyhow, I'm gonna post this chat in my blog.

Eldrad Ulthran Is My Master Now

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usI've always really liked Eldrad Ulthran as a special character. Some terrific stories surround his role in the game and his rules are terrific (especially in the new codex). This is just the starting point for me but, in my mind, Eldrad should be dark and even ghostly. As the greatest Farseer of Ulthwe (and maybe of them all), he should wear the Ulthwe colors and manifest the darkness of the Ulthwe look. Sometimes you come across Eldrad paint jobs that makes you ask "Gee, is it Mardi Gras already??", and that's all fine... but I wanted something dark... so this is the starting point.

Another step forward for Johnny Flame

In case you don't know what's new, it's the bronze on the armor and sword. Bringing it up to gold, you see. Those of you who know my old army will know I put a lot of time into gold. Anyhow... take a peek.
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1/07/2007

The Fusion Gun

My name is Corey. And this is my Fusion Gun.


I got it at Canadian Tire, on sale, for $12.99. It's like a blow-dryer, except about a squillion times hotter. Some smartymen use it to make depressions in foam that can be filled with water effects and turned into ponds.

Here's the chunk of foam that I used for my third and final "tester" table. You'll notice I have three "ponds"; one deep, one shallow, one medium. Just to see how that went.
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Covered with sand, it's hard to see where the ponds are... but there's one of my Fire Dragons.
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You'll see that I put some GW gravel at the bottom of the pond areas (as I am applying Bestial Brown). I thought this was a really good idea until I realized it would cause MORE bubbles...
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As you can see... we have results. Still some bubbles, but it's ok as far as I'm concerned. I sprinkled a bit of GW flock into the water efects as it was drying to make it look a little more shmutzy. Welcome, by the way, to Galadriel, who was painted by my daughter, Dora.
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The winner of the water effects Pepsi Challenge, btw, was Woodland Scenics.

Ace and Gary

Jokes aside, the question of how the Games Workshop Autarchs are equipped is an interesting one. I got both because I wanted to mix and match a bit (as you can tell from my options-obsessed solution here). Fusion gun for one guy, Reaper Launcher for the second, exchangeable back-mounted gear for the rest. I gave some thought to the question of "What if I want the Autarch with Mandiblasters to have the Fusion Gun and I want the Autarch with the Banshee Mask to have the Reaper Launcher?"

And then I decided life's too short.

Notice I built Biff's left arm from a Dire Avenger Exarch's arm (using the one with the Deflector Shield and the pointing finger from the wrist-mounted Shuriken Catapult). The swords that come with the models are too pokey-outy. In other words, I wanted them to take up a bit less space. I'll put a sword on Biff's belt, so no problem there (why have a Banshee Mask if you're not gonna hit someone with a sword?), but I haven't made up my mind yet as to what he should be holding in it. I have an idea, though...

Stay tuned.

1/06/2007

Flame On

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Just the starting point... there'll be a lot more.