Days of Rust (Part 2)

In Days of Rust Part 1 I talked about The Doctor's initial work on this project as well as our playing of the Necromunda starter scenario. Excited and rejuvenated by this experience Dr TSG returned to his man cave, with airbrush in hand, and has made considerable progress on his Zone Mortalis tiles.

"These are the paints I used, over an automotive primer."

"I layed down the purple over the primer, then came in with the raven black and dark rust mixture. Then, I added the red earth mixed with a little purple and raven black. Then highlighted with red earth." -Dr. TSG.

What follows is essentially a photo dump of his progress so far. He told me that this is the results of about 3.5 hours of work. Enjoy!

So far, so... grimdark!

The Snowy Ruins (Part 3).

After an afternoon of what felt like frenzied drybrushing dedicated to the pursuit of completing this ruin, I have these results to show for it.

Pass thru this egress, assuming you can open it.

And here is the final piece:

Nearly birds-eye view.

It went so quick that I didn't take many 'work in progress' pics until nearly the end.

Patina and Rust.

I drybrushed Patina over the entire model.

Patina coat.

Then I picked out the areas that were clearly metal support structures and painted them with Indian Red which is sort of a terracotta color. These were Function vs. Form features such as I-beams, plates, wall sections etc. and I wanted their rust to contrast from the patina/copper look of the rest of the model.

The old roof. 

I then light drybrushed on Apple Barrel Cloudless on the raised areas of the Patina colored areas.

Cloudless layer.

All the hatches, vents, control panels and consoles,  as well as hinges and latches, were all liberally washed with Orange Ink. I applied lines in some areas to give the appearance of rusty run-off stains.

The rusty hatch. 

Rusty doors, controls and panels.

Finally I applied White as the final high highlight on the Patina colored areas of the building.

Rusty areas on top.

Patina and copper touch-ups on the doors.

After a few touch ups on the front door, it was now done as well. I love all the details the sculptors put into this model. The control panels were a lot of fun to paint, as were all the Saint statues. I couldn't help but wonder if there are design notes in the studio somewhere that might reveal the names of these forgotten holy characters...

Saint Bannon vs. The Led Zeppelin Hermit.

The project was a quick and fun one to do. I wouldn't mind doing another one, but I will have to see what the shop has laying around.

The Snowy Ruins (Part 2)

It warmed up enough outside for me to get this thing primed. After that, I base-coated the ground with Folk Art Patina. At this stage it kind of gives the model a weird look as it was based with aquarium rocks or something...

Patina base coat. 

Here is another pic, a bit closer with the lighting dimmed so you can get a better sense of the Patina's intensity.

Intensity.

I then began the application of Apple Barrel Cloudless (I love the implied positivity of that name). It's a lighter blue but is still intense enough to not dull the Patina too harshly.

Cloudless on the corner.

Cloudless all around.

With that done I started on the White. The camera has a way of white-washing the color out. To better demonstate the contrast this next pic shows a section half painted with a White top coat.

Right side has the White coat.

And the base is now done. Next I started on the ruin proper by painting the doors and other ornamental fixtures with Copper. And with that I called it a night.

Base done and copper bitz painted.

In between my starting this post and finishing it, I managed to get the whole project done. (A rare feat for me.) I will reveal the final piece in the next part, but for now here is a preview:

Saints fighting over a sword. 

The Snowy Ruins.(Part 1)

Terrain projects have always been an aspect of this hobby that has thrilled me. But in my current living situation I can not really work on them nor do I have the space to store them. Let alone do I have a game table set up at home. Luckily my local game store, Hobbytown USA of Johnson City, has many gaming tables with some great terrain. You can see these tables in most of my Battle Reports. One of my favorite tables is the Snow Table upon which my Chaos forces recently battled the Lions of Harlech.

Ruined building painted by Patrick.

The table, like most of HT tables, was built, painted and modeled by HT's Patrick. He has done brilliant work on these tables and they are a joy to play on. The Snow Table is lacking in terrain however. I have always felt a tad guilty about not having contributed to these tables like others have, which is why I painted the street lights for one of the other tables recently.

Close up details.

But I felt like I could do more.

At the end of the last game session I had there, I took home one of the uncompleted pieces that had been donnated by one of the players. I intend to paint it for the snow table but I need to match it as close as I can to Patrick's models. I asked him what paints he used but his answer ("a lot of different blues!") wasn't particularly helpful, so these pics I took will hopefully guide me.

I took pics of the table itself as well as some of the other features, so that I could try to match the ruin's base as close as possible.

Here the model I brought home. It clearly could use some attention, yes?

The humble dusty model.

The first thing I wanted to do was apply grit to the base. In the end, most of it will be painted to appear like snow.

The grittier the better.

There were a few parts I added to it. Obviously that unpainted part on the very top, and a small buttress on the side.

The backside.

I wanted to spray primer on the base but it not only is far too cold outside to do it, but it is also snowy out there. Fun coincidence, huh?

And it's 10°F as well.

Also, at this time I have a line of miniatures waiting to be primed outside: 20 plastic Daemonettes, Concord c3-strike-troopers, and few other odd-ball minis and models. They'll just have to wait for now. 😀

Bink's Birthday Bash!

"I know I dropped it around here somewhere...".

 

Last night we gathered for a massive 40k game, and since it was the eve before Bink's birthday we decided to have two Ork armies (Waaagh Bink and Waaagh RorRuk) square off against Screech's Chaos army (yes, the nefarious Thousand Sons (of Bitches) deploying from their battle barge The Velvetta Scourge) along with Jim's Blood Angels (of Khorne, apparently). Since we all had 1500pt armies made up, we just went with those.

Setting up the BAs...

Knowing that time was limited for such a large scale game we agreed to try to limit our movement phases to 15 minutes tops. We choose to e deploy on the long table edges, and chose Purge the Alien as out mission.

Orks set up on the right side of their DZ

Orks set up on the left side.

Thousand Sons set up

Blood Angels set up and the start for 1st turn moves...

 

Surge in a pop smoke!



And here are the highlights

Turn One Blood Angels/1K Sons

 

• A Blood Angel Drop Pod lands in the middle of our Deployment zone cutting off a key path between one of the high rises and a bunker. It deploys a dreadnought with twin-linked heavy flamer! (ulp!)
• The BA dread blows up the trukk that was transporting Mad Doc Grotsnik!
• BA Bikers shoot up my Kommandos who break and run!
• One of my Deff Dredds takes HP damaged from the 1K Sons Landraider.

The BA dread blows up a Mad Doc's Trukk!

 



Turn One: Orks

• None of my shooting was effective at all! I rolled a lot ones considering that I needed 5+ to hit, yeah I expected to miss, but jeeesh! I killed a single Devastator marine.
• Mad Doc's retinue is a mob of 'Ard Boys who charge with frothing fury at the fire throwing dread, but it is no match against all of that rage and is wrecked.

 

And a dreadnought dies

Turn two BA/1K sons

Thousand Sons and Dread Co. Dread tearing up the Ork lines

• The Death Company Dread is deployed via Drop Pod into the left portion of the Ork's deployment zone. It blows up my Battle Wagon with a lucky shot!
• A squad of Thousand Sons marines lead by his Warlord, a Chaos Sorcerer, arrive via Dread Claw. They shoot up, and charge Bink's Bikers, killing his Warlord in a Challenge, defeating them and running them down. It was a humbling affair but at least one of the Thousands Sons died via overwatch.
• On the other flank, the Chosen charge my slugga mob, and champion challenges my squad's Nob. They kill each other! The two units remain locked in combat...

Turn Two: Orks

• We focus most of our fire on the left flank on that Death Co. Dread. It simply must go! And after taking HPs to a Weird Boy Zzzap! it's my Lootas T7 guns that finished it off.
• On the right, Bink's Deff Coptas and my Dredd shoot the heck out of a 1K son's Rhino and fail to do anything to it! My dredd charges it and wipes it out with a power klaw!

Look, more things to kill!

• Desperate, and statistically challenged, the Burna Boys charge the Thousand Sons. They are crushed by the Thousand Sons who slowly and purposely stride across their fuel soaked corpses.

"You Blood Angels just hang back an' watch this..."

•  My slugga mob wipe out all but one of the Chosen, and he's the guy with fearless banner! So, this one guy has my Warlord and big mob locked in combat with him.

"HA! I will take you ALL on!!!"

• My Kommados, who rallied on our Turn one and have been making their way over to the BA Bikers that have been shooting at them, attempted and failed a charge against them.

it struck us that it was now nearing 2 am, and most of us were feeling it hard! The funny thing is, when you're having this much fun it only feels like 2 hours have past, but in fact MANY hours passed and passed quickly! We agreed to call it there and tally our VPs, declaring the BA/1K Son alliance the victors! All of us were itching to continue, but we just HAD to stop. Still, it was good fun and all units got to participate (regardless of their effectiveness, heheh).

Looking down the Ork lines, another round or two and it was going to get SERIOUSLY bloody

As we packed up we tried to figure out what happened: how can we do this on a Friday night and actually finish the game? Shy of playing with a greatly reduced point agreement, we probably can't. We would need to agree to play an all day game starting at noon or so get through this kind of Epic awesomeness. Still, finishing wasn't the point: it was the fun of getting our war-cries out and hanging out together, and enjoying the time well spent, and that is what this is all about! It was a good start to Bink's Birthday weekend: we'll see if we can top it next time!