Posts Tagged Modeling
My Workspace
Posted by NockerGeek in Modeling, Painting on November 16, 2009
This week, I finally got back on the painting horse and made a fair amount of progress on my first Hammerhead. I figured that this would be a great opportunity to show where I do my mini work. There’s about a 16″ square of space on my desk that I devote to my miniatures projects. That’s where I keep my brushes, a couple of plastic cups for water, and whatever paints I’m using at the time. I also keep my bottle of super glue at my desk; I tend to squeeze in assembly and repair time whenever I can, so it’s always ready to go. Here’s a closer view of the work area itself.
Besides everything I keep at my desk, I also have a set of rolling shelves just to the side, topped with a tacklebox full of paints. Each shelf has a certain purpose, which just helps keep me organized and functional. The top shelf holds minis that are assembled, but not yet based or primed. Next, a shelf of bases and basing material, including grit, flock, stone, and even a resin base for my Chaos Dreadnought (whenever I put it together). Next down is the tool shelf – my clippers, files, hobby knives, spare palettes, etc. Finally, there’s the shelf just for unassembled minis, mostly occupied by old pewter Chaos minis in pieces (including the aforementioned Dreadnought). Below that, three more shelves of miscellaney, including everything from spare paint bottles (mostly old Apple Barrel craft paints) to spare bits (such as a cup full of CSM backpacks).
Finally, a picture of my current project. Work on the Hammerhead has been progressing very well. I have all the flats and inking done, so this next week will see doing minor cleanup, edge highlighting, and detail work. I’m using the same colors as my Devilfish, but there’s more Knarloc Green panels amongst the Goblin Green ones; I wanted my tanks to have a different look from my transports.
One thing this week has taught me (or at least, reminded me) is that when it comes to getting something done, there’s no substitute for getting intentional and doing it. Sometimes, just blocking out an hour or so of time is enough to get the ball rolling. I’d planned on only working around one hour on one night last week; instead, I ended up working two nights and one morning to get to where I am. It’s nice to be making progress again.
Where the Heck Have I Been?
Posted by NockerGeek in Warhammer 40K on November 4, 2009
Well, my computer is back in working condition (after a major mistake by Dell almost sunk the whole process) and despite some business around the house, I was able to make some progress in the interim. I have my 1000 point Khorne army assembled, based, and primed – save for one Rhino, which for some reason was missing a side door. A new door bit has been ordered, and I should have it completed and primed by the weekend. I solved my Raptor pistol conundrum with some good old-fashioned conversions (cut off one gun, replace with a spare bit), and I figured out a solution for my icon bearer problem. A little brass rod, a pin vise, and a bit of drilling, and I had a Khorne icon added to a pole on his jump pack. It looks a little unwieldy, but not too much more than GW’s Chaos Lord with Jump Pack does. I also managed to squeeze in a unit of Terminators into my priming window (which continues to shrink as the winds pick up and the days get shorter and colder). A Khorne Terminator Lord, one Heavy Flamer, two Combi-flamers, and an Aspiring Champion with Lightning Claws are ready to be painted. Now I just need to get my Land Raider assembled to cart them all around, and I should be able to bump my army up to 1500 points, or close to it. I’d probably need to get a third unit of Berzerkers ready, though, along with a Rhino for transport.
Meanwhile, I still have many Tau vehicles to paint. I love painting, but it’s the hardest part of the hobby (possibly besides playtime itself) to fit into a schedule with an 8-to-5 job and a two-year-old. Assembly, I can mostly do in spare time – it doesn’t take long to snip parts, file off flash/sprue nubs, and glue them together. Painting, though, has more set-up and clean-up time involved, and requires some concentration. I need to set aside some stretches of time as “Daddy’s Official Painting Time”, but that will have to wait until we can get the last few home projects finished. In the meantime, my Hammerheads are still basecoated and ready for the next step. If anyone has some tips or secrets to getting painting done in a tight time schedule, I’d love to hear them!
Regarding Raptors…
Posted by NockerGeek in Modeling on October 23, 2009
I have half of my Raptors assembled, and hope to have the other half assembled this weekend. However, I do have one question – why is the Raptor boxed set packed with the assortment of parts that it is? Having an Aspiring Champion is nice, as is having a special weapons Raptor with several options. The pistol arms, though, are a bit disappointing. 2 bolt pistols and 1 plasma pistol in each box… which means that out of two boxes, I can only get 4 “standard” Raptors without resorting to finding other sources for pistols. I’ve got spare bolt pistols, so that’s not really an issue (beyond cutting off the plasma pistol), but it’s the principle of the thing.
Also, I still have to figure out how to mount an Icon of Khorne on one of the normal Raptors. I’d like to do something more visible than just a symbol on a shoulder pad, but I’m not sure what yet. I suppose I could cut off one of the chainswords and mount something that way. Ponder ponder ponder…
Two weeks of fewer distractions
Posted by NockerGeek in General on October 20, 2009
My laptop stopped being able to recognize its own power supply last week, so this weekend it was shipped back to Dell for repairs. This leaves me with an empty desk and fewer distractions to keep me from getting miniature work done. I actually managed to finish my Defiler over the weekend, so I’ve got a good start on things. Tonight I may work on my Raptors, although I’m hoping I can get them together without pinning them – I don’t currently have a drill bit fine enough to pin small pieces.
I’d like to get the Raptors done, as well as getting the rest of my 1000-point Khorne army based, by the weekend. It’s fall now, and before long it will be too cold outside to prime minis. I have to prime soon, or otherwise I’ll be left with bare metal and plastic until spring. Priming inside is a no-go; my wife is too sensitive to the fumes from spray paint to even use the garage. I’ve heard good things about priming with gesso, though, so that’s a possibility for the winter. I think that for my Chaos armies, I’m going to go with grey rubble with the occasional shard of blood-red crystal poking out. I’ve wanted to do some crystals on a base ever since I saw this beautiful Eldar jetbike, and my Chaos Space Marines give me a perfect opportunity to try it out.
I’m also hoping to get back onto my painting schedule this week or next; I have a Hammerhead waiting for some fresh paint!
Curse You, Grandfather Nurgle!
Posted by NockerGeek in Modeling on October 10, 2009
Once again, illness has caught me in its sticky, snotty web and basically wrecked my week. Fortunately, it wasn’t the H1N1 swine flu (or as my wife likes to call it, “hamthrax”), so I seem to have bounced back.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on a couple of assembly projects when I haven’t been blowing my brains out through my nostrils.
- My first Chaos Defiler, which is roughly one-third of the way done. The legs and arms are built, as is the abdomen. Last night, I started getting the torso/cannon assembly together. After that, it’s a matter of assembling two CCWs (this is a Khornite Defiler), and then I’ll just put it all together. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. The sooner the better, though – I want to try out my 1000-point CSM list, although I still need to get the Raptors assembled as well.
- Four Crisis suits to pad out my latest Tau list. So far, I just have the torsos put together, and that alone has been an exercise in shaving, filing, and filling with green stuff. The torsos themselves fit together well, but the jetpack assemblies were not so kind. It took a fair amount of trimming down some miscast curves in otherwise-flat surfaces to get them to fit even remotely flush, and even with that there were still gaps that needed filling. Thanks to this, I’m also down one hobby knife blade – one of mine snapped mid-shave, ricocheted off my forehead, and landed on my wife’s desk. Fortunately, no one (besides the knife blade) was hurt in this incident. The green stuff has cured and has been sanded down, though, so I’m ready to move on to limbs and weapons.
My painting schedule should resume in November, so I’m planning on getting my Hammerhead done then. Hopefully, I can get some priming done before it gets too cold to do it outside.
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