on the desk 07.01.14

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

So what have i been up to recently while i've been slacking on the blogging front?

Well Ive been trying to expand my networking / exposure online through interacting with the hobby community on Google+, you can see my most recent Monday morning hangouts on +Cryptek 's youtube channel which you can find here. These are a lot of fun and have introduced me to a whole host of people who all partake and encourage great things in the hobby. Through this i've been introduced to +Mike Scott  who is running a competition throughout the month of July for which i'll be entering into the terrain category. For details on the feast fest comp check out this link. There's also a hangout on there where you can see some progress on the jetbikes towards the end of their completion for another thing I've been up to but more on that in a bit. Also on the hangout is another guy I've met through the Google+ community +Martin McNeil he's set up a full commissions service where he can help from the point of interest in a particular army, through to making a list, buying / converting the models and then painting them, not only are his models painted to a very high standard but he rattles them out super quick here's a link to his facebook page for the studio.

Back to the jetbikes, these were painted as part of a painting threat that runs every month over at the WGC site, really great way to get yourself motivated and stick to painting your pledge.

Last but not least the Warmaster painting competition is well under way and finished on the 10th of July so I need to crack on with that this week, but i'll pick up more on that in another post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Warp Hunter Pt2

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

This week i've carried on painting the warp hunter, i've finished off the black lining in between all the panels and then covered all the green areas with a biel-Tan wash. Following this I then set about adding a line of green around all the panel work, with the exception of the white and red areas which had a lining of skull white and scab red respectively.

















I then set about adding the OSL to the main weapon, both at the barrel end and then also further back on the hull of the vehicle, this was achieved by spraying blue followed by lighter blue followed by a fine spray of skull white in the middle.

I also added a drakenhof nightshade wash to all the white / grey areas prior to edging the white bits.

You can also see more detail of this over on my WIP thread on +Fritz 40K 's Warmaster forums.

Incidentally if your after a bit more info on the bastion I have a regularly updated post here.

For the most part the warp hunter is done, I need to detail some of the gems but everything is magnetised where it needs to be and with the exception of the gems were done!!

What's my motivation!???!?!

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!!

A lot of people talk about how they find painting boring, or tedious or simply they don't enjoy it. Some people enjoy painting and collecting more than gaming with their miniatures for me I like to dabble in all aspects of the hobby, I enjoy collecting, painting, gaming and creating supplementary aspects to the hobby such as gaming terrain etc.

While sure you can play games with proxies models, or even just assembled models without paint on them I think that by not painting your models your missing out on an aspect of the hobby that can be enjoyable. I used to hate painting, never could find a way to not be doing something else other than painting and as such I've amassed a large collection of mini's that are still in their boxes, but I'm slowly working through them. The trick to painting if you don't enjoy it is to break down what in particular is it that you don't enjoy about it? Is it that it can be time consuming, or you just think your not good enough at painting to warrant spending the time doing it. I guess everyone will have their own reasons for why they put it off or just don't bother with it, everyone's reasons i'm sure are valid to some extent.

As I said I used to be one of those guys who actually detested painting, I didn't think I was good enough and the whole process in truth I found a bit tedious. What changed? It was a slow change at first but the first step in changing my mindset towards painting was actually joining a community, in my case it was +Fritz 40K 's warmaster forums. I got chatting to one of the guys on the forum about how much I had to do and how I could never find the time or the will to do them. The guy turned around to me and said "do me a favour, go get a glass of water, a paper towel and pick up your paint brush." there's more to the story but i'll focus on this element to begin with. I laughed it off initially and said maybe later or something along those lines but upon reflection this was probably on a subconscious level where I first realised that I was the reason that my models were sitting there crying out for some attention. All of the excuses I was making to myself were obstacles I was putting in the way to avoid doing something that I didn't enjoy.

Later on in the discussion the guy pointed me in the direction of a motivational paint thread on the forum and also made a bet with me, I would paint 5 models (in this case chaos terminators) in 7 days, he would over the same duration paint some of his to do list ( I think it was 20 daemonette's he was part way through painting and a Demon Prince), however he added an extra element to the bet in that if I met the deadline he would also paint up a unit of something else over the course of 2 days. He'd upped the anti so I felt obligated to add my own sweetener to the deal and added a unit of dire avengers to the bet with a new deadline. This might seem convoluted but by having a bit of fun or an ongoing bet with a friend over something you both agree to that gives you an excuse to do something rather than put it off.

One of the big things I did to help speed up and remove one of my other excuses was to buy an airbrush, i now use this to prime my models, undercoat them, 2 stage highlight them and when trying to use stencils etc and honestly it's one of the best investments i've made. I save money on not buying spray primer because the airbrush does it better anyway, it allows me to put layers of detail on the model simply by spraying it removing the need to learn how to layer with my brush and those large areas of space on your tanks that used to take hours with a normal brush and ended up with brush strokes etc are now done in minutes with a very even coat which just makes it look better. Airbrushes are expensive!!! Well I used to think this too, but actually you pick pick one up relatively cheaply (for the same cost as a riptide or  stormraven gunship!)

The point of this was that sure painting wasn't fun but by turning it into something else I had to get the models done, and I did but this led me to another realisation. Painting while still being dull and somewhat tedious I could make it interesting by finding the right motivation, and you know what I kinda enjoy challenging myself, pushing myself to do models in a short space of time in this case but I now have made a bet with myself if you like whereby every time I pick up a new model / unit to paint I find a way to add in something new each time, be it learning a new technique or learning how to use a stencil just something to challenge myself with.

I also find something distracting to put on in the background to distract myself from the passing of time, be it music or a bat rep or just some random videos on youtube.

I'd be interested to hear about your motivations or lack thereof when it comes to painting and what you do to overcome them, if the idea of making a wager with a pal sounds like the right way to get you in the right frame of mind then go for it, if you can't find anyone to make that wager with then head over to the warmaster forums, make an account and drop me a message!

Thanks for stopping by!

A new collection / labour of love and a bit of a bastion.

Hi guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

I've been spending a lot of time recently working on another terrain project and pretty much nothing else. I was inspired by the original card punched terrain sets GW put out when I started in the hobby many many years ago, in particular the Imperial bastion and the imperial firebase. not you can pick these up on ebay 2nd hand and i'm sure you'd derive just as much enjoyment out of them as the end result of my project however being the glutton for punishment I am I decided that no, buying a 2nd hand kit would be far too easy and seeing as I'm trying to challenge myself why not built my own one from scratch.... well some might call me mad, inspired, some weird wobbly line somewhere in the middle of the two however with nothing more than some old necromunda bulkheads,some plasticard, a rough idea of how the bastion looked and plenty of glue, sweat, tears and cuss words later i've arrived at something that closely resembles the original piece. I will touch more on this in another blog post however as being the complete tool that I am I decided that i'd leave the WIP at home and not have it to hand to take awesome show off style pictures of...

So while wallowing in my nostalgia trip to ages past when I had a lot less going on in my life, I was scouring ebay.... never a good thing when you suffer from Magpie syndrome when I stumbled across some old limited edition (read expensive on ebay) models that a friend of mine used to collect (he actually still has his models and wont part with them, believe me I asked!!!) called the praetorian imperial guard. You can read all about these models and why they were created here at the massacre at big toof river.

So I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the following which i'll strip back to metal and repair where needed.

This is enough to get me started I think but is a far cry for where i'll probably need to be for my usual 1k points games, sadly I have no clue how to play guard other than the usual image in my head of a big gun line with tanks supporting but I hear they have some pretty good flyers. If you have any advice on how to go about establishing a decent 1k list then please do drop me a line, offering advice, suggestions, tips or just general comments are appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

Eldar on the desk update.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

I figured I'd do a follow-up to my original 1k eldar list post as more of an update on progress as well as exactly what needs doing to each model / unit where appropriate, I was also considering doing this as a weekly / bi-weekly thing and maybe even as a vlog on youtube because sometimes these things are just better on a video than still images... not 100% on this but as always any feedback / suggestions are welcome. I do feel I need to be using youtube more especially now I'm seemingly starting to get a regular reader base for the blog. I believe I should be thanking +Fritz 40K and those on the Warmaster forums for their help and support in this regard.

Anyway I digress, back to the topic at hand, my eldar game league list, as a reminder for those who have yet to read the original post here is my initial 1k list which i've also included an update as to exactly where I am at with each unit:

HQ
Autarch w/ Fusion Gun, Laser Lance, Mantle of the Laughing God, Jetbike (BNIB / yet to be converted)

Elite
5 Striking Scorpions (being stripped)
Exarch w/ Scorpion's Claw (being stripped)
Wave Serpent w/ Holo-Fields (BNIB)

Troops
5 Dire Avengers (painted not yet based)
Wave Serpent w/ Holo-Fields (BNIB)

3 Windrider Jetbike (jetbikes under-coated awaiting guardian body conversion)
3 Windrider Jetbike (jetbikes under-coated awaiting guardian body conversion)

Heavy Support
Fire Prism w/ Holo-fields (painted not yet based)
Warp Hunter w/ Holo-fields (base-coated, highlighted, needs detailing and based)

I have been somewhat distracted with terrain making of late and after making the bunker highlighted in my previous blog posts Pt1 here, and Pt2 here I am almost done with quite a large project which I will post more details of next week.

So here's where I go into a bit more detail about my conversion plans or general outline for what I want to do with each of the models.

With the Autarch I'm basically looking to build / convert him from scratch using green stuff and a dire avengers exarch sprue, ofc I will magnetize where I can for extra options.

The striking scorpions are all old metal models, one of which is missing a sword so I have some bits on hand to make a push mold of one of the other models swords and will just make a new one out of green stuff, the painted scorps are currently sitting in a tub of acetone to remove the paint.

The wave serpents I want to keep pretty much standard but by following the conversions guide on Andrew Hicks website I want to magnetise for all options etc, I may even try to do some freehand designs on the hull to break up to open space on the panels. Andy's website is amazing for inspiration if your a budding or even a veteran conversion oriented person, this guy has some serious skills.

The jet bikes will stay largely standard with possible magnetising of the weapon options so I can include under-slung upgrades, but the models were second hand originally and have a very rough paint job as well as the riders already attached, I'm already looking to remove the riders and remodel them following +IDICBeer 's guide here and I'm also contemplating just stripping these as well.

The warp hunter is currently being painted and as it stands has a nice freehand on it of the Biel-tan symbol and also has some options magnetized underneath for weapons

I will be in the process of moving over the next month so I will try to keep up with my blogging commitments and keep you all with plenty to read about!

Let me know what you think, if you have any comments suggestions questions or any general feedback I'd love to hear it, thanks again for stopping by!

Scratch(build) that itch

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

Last week I went through the basic bunker and provided you with a semi-step by step view on building this to a basic level Link for reference: http://biel-tan-wip.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/when-you-get-that-itch-you-just-cant.html. That bunker is now pretty much done with the exception of the base which I'll sort out when I decide on my general board theme though I'm leaning towards either an abandoned eldar world that's now covered in sand or possibly a dark grey / lava world. Construction of this wont start till probably late summer but the general plan is similar to the idea set out by +The Wargamers Consortium in their video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvj957aoA6M but basically a 2 foot by 2 foot series of modular tiles to make up a 6 foot by 4 foot board. I really like the idea of a modular table so that you can vary your gaming environment and utilise your board to it's fullest potential, but more on my plans once they are finalised and we are closer to actually making it.... back to the topic at hand.

I was quite happy with where we left the bunker, considering I've not done anything like this for practically a decade it turned out well, but there's always more you can do to these kind of things so armed with my tube of poly filler, an xacto blade, the hot glue gun, some fine sandpaper and some magnets I had kicking it about I set about the bunker and tried to improve what I had already created.

The first thing I did was set about the roof and also the window ledges with the xacto blade to create a more angled edge. I then added some magnets as per picture below.

Next up was a liberal coating of the poly filler to all the surface area's. This was to help create a 'seal' to the foam and at the same time give it a more realistic texture to apply the paint to.

Once the filler had dried I then sanded down all of the rough areas, you can see in this pic that those few magnets alone were enough to hold the weight of the structure incidentally it also shows the bunker post sanding and ready for some paint. I chose the army painter Uniform grey primer and coated the bunker in it.




I then applied a subtle highlight to the edges and shaded the underside of the window ledge and along the edges of the support struts. I tried to make my own stencil to make the Aquila on the roof however it failed and I ended up free handing it. And here's the finished product. Let me know what you think, if you have any comments suggestions questions or any general feedback I'd love to hear it, thanks again for stopping by!

 

When you get that itch you just cant help but scratch

Hi Guys,

Thanks for stopping by!

I know I've technically already given you a post 'this week' on my paint racks but as that was more of an ad-hoc review rather than a regular post I thought I'd treat you and post up something else, aren't you lucky!!!

You may or may not have been aware but recently +IDICBeer ran a terrain competition which I initially planned to enter due to a few things but namely an increased workload in my final year of Uni I had to pull out of the comp, but I messaged Nick and he was pretty cool about it and I promised him that I would look to continue my planned terrain piece in future..... I do and it is one of 4 terrain projects I have in mind at the moment 1 of which is what I wanted to go through today. But first just a bit of background as to where this has come from. Way, Way back when I was originally finding my feet in the hobby my friend and i used to battle it out on a regular basis, Games workshop produced a whole load of punched card terrain that fit into the old necromunda plastic bulkhead at this point, I think it was around 2002 ish. But I happened across a post on a forum where people were posting pictures and asking if people had any for sale and just generally pointing out how awesome they were which got me to thinking....... but I'll save the rest for a future blog post!

I've always been told that it's a good idea to start small and ease yourself into something, especially if it's new or your just simply out of practice. With that in mind I started looking through scratch builder resources, print and play terrain sites and various other places to see if there was anything that took my fancy terrain wise and stumbled across this little gem http://paperwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/bunker-40k.html

The idea of paper terrain seems a bit flimsy to me though and with a few bits on hand I set about making a bunker using the paper terrain piece as a guide to follow.

Here's what I started with.:

1 A4 sheet of blue foam 0.5mm thick,
Sharp Xacto knife,
Metal ruler,
Hot glue gun, you could use PVA or wood glue but I found the hot glue was great as it dries solid pretty quickly and allows for easy construction.,

Probably with a general disclaimer at this point, Xacto knifes will be very sharp and they do glide through the foam with little resistance so it's very easy to cut through and has the potential to cause injury, on a similar theme the glue gun (if you use one)  does get really really hot, as does the glue itself, you don't want to touch the metal heated element at the end of the glue gun to the foam as it will melt it and if it comes into contact with your skin you will burn yourself.

At the end of the basic construction of the project I was left with roughly a third of the blue foam left so in terms of material cost it was pretty cheap.

The instructions are pretty easy to follow and the guide itself is very well presented so I've simply taken a few shots throughout the project with a 'final shot' of the basic level of construction with some models around it for size comparison. I do intend to and have actually started doing further detailing work to this bunker, even though it's just to ease me back into terrain making there's no point doing something if your not prepared to give it a good shot.

these three pictures show the angle the edges were cut at in order to create the joins the the main angles of the bunker, the middle shot shows how I used the paper terrain as a guide to creating the foam pieces, these were especially useful when getting the angles right as I was able to hold them in the correct position while the glue was setting, the right hand picture simply shows a few of the pieces cut out of the blue foam.

These shots were taken part way through construction and show the angled pieces put together and the basic shell of the bunker. 

These 2 shots are the same views as above but at the completed stage. This is as far as the papercraft guide takes you and as you can see from below you end up with a decent sized piece of terrain which you can fit around 10 models inside. I've put a couple of dire avengers inside the bunker, a war walker and my current painting project the warphunter in shot for a size comparison.

In terms of time to make this took me no longer than 2 hours total to get to this point and if i'm honest it was pretty easy and I think it actually looks pretty decent too. Let me know what you think, keep an eye out for more terrain oriented posts from me in the near future, including putting the finishing touches to this bunker as well as some more old school oriented terrain stuff.