Dyce's Forge

[Dyce]

I have been meaning to post these for some time, eventually this blog will include quite a few of the models I have been working on recently but for now lets start with the Stormraven's.

Some history-
April was rapidly approaching as were was the new Blood Angels codex we had been hearing for some time that there may be a flying Landraider in the book and that was cool but nothing was confirmed, the other thing that was rapidly approaching was someones birthday but at the time I had some crazy idea of building Sanguinius (as it turned out they ended up releasing the Sanguinator and not the flying Landraider which was somewhat convenient)   About 3 weeks into the battalion bash painting side of things the flying Landraider was all but confirmed and so I decided that was what iI was going to build as a present the Ogres got put assided for a week and I scratch built what i thought the thing would look like.



This being what I came up with. It's a bit of a monster able to actually hold 12 marines in 3 rows of 4 if that gives a better idea of its size. Mainly constructed from card with a sprue based internal frame and then elements of a rhino stuck onto the outside, i had quite a bit of trouble coming up with a way to mount the Dreadnaought but while testing various bits happened upon a piece that would clip right on to the Assault on black reach dread, so no need to modify the dred and no need for magnets, if you don't want to bother equipping the dread no problem just say it gets pushed out of the rear hatch (one of the reasons its larger than the front one)

Why Daedalus pattern? firstly at the time everyone else building flying Landraders was giving them pattern names and secondly i figured since it could fly about in space at least a little why be cooped up in a boarding torpedo when you can board in style in your assault craft (hence the pincer like front end with recessed main hatch - perfect for crashing into an unsuspecting enemy ship). Luckily I didn't bother mounting weapons as I hadn't even thought about the fact that if you mounted melta weapons on the wings they wouldn't even be able to reach the front of the ship.

Once I had handed this first one over, and after much flying it around and engine noises by the various people who got to 'play' with it, I was asked if i could build a second one but maybe a little smaller, and heres the result.



This time mainly constructed from a valkyrie and a rhino so way more detail packed into a much smaller package I still wanted to try and keep the overall style of the original. The tail was added in an attempt to tie it more into looking a bit like a mini Thunderhawk and the space marine was more of a joke than anything else but still quite cool. Again the weapons were left for the client to deal with as they wanted while the paint scheme was intended as a homage to the Thunderhawk in the Blood Angels mini codex but at the same time leaving it almost as a base coat for the client to build upon if they wanted to add more detail. Building a Dreadnought grapple is somewhat more difficult without a Dreadnought or the original piece you used but the valkyrie kit offered an alternative and it can carry a Space Crusade Dreadnought and is some ways thats kinda cooler.

i hope you enjoyed the images and some insight into the design process obviously this interpretation may not match other people but i have ideas about how to build different looking Stormraven's out of a valkyrie + Landraider or more interestingly  a valkyrie + Manticore

[Dyce]

I have recently been going through some of my old stuff and looking at it thinking thats ok for when it was painted but not really that great so lets spruce them up a bit. First up are my dark eldar, I don't remember when i bought the battalion but it must have been around the time they were originally released and I never really settled on a colour theme so they ended up being black with anything from gold to purple trim, time for a bit of a change me thinks...


They are even in focus   well sort of  

Now I just need to get some white spray and get the rest done  

[Dyce]

I got these for Christmas, thought it was about time they saw some paint  


All the weapons are magnetised (still need painting though) and the heads are pinned, the ankles however arn't which I could end up regretting  

hopefully I will get a chance to use them at some point  

Tim out

[McFunk]

nice going, looking good

[Ego Ninja]

I like! - Any chance of an army shot with the rest of your Tau?

[Dyce]

Thanks all, and as requested heres an attempt to show my whole tau army - click the images for a larger view

Whole army shot:

Could probably do with a few more tanks but then who doesn't not included in the image are 10 Kroot hounds and silver gun/shield drones like the ones that can be seen on the middle tank.

Troops:

Etherial in the foreground then 2 squads of fire warriors (there are a few more but you get the idea) some pathfinders next to their devilfish and a squad of Kroot. The closeup of the Kroot contains the guy that gets to be the shaper on rare occasions and a painted squad, the unfinished squad got the finished bases just so they wouldnt feel left out  

Elites:

i think the guy in the white hat was the first tau model i painted so he kinda set the whole colour scheme of the army his bodyguards need a little more work though. The squad in the first image were dipped to get that rusty effect you can see what it looked like before dipping becuase the guy on the rights gun is magnetised so didn't follow him into the liquid  


My commander (in green) his 2 bodyguards or squad leaders as they feel like at the time, and a bunch of beat up crisis suits which is partly intentional and partly because they have had to be repaired so many times, the vast majority of the guns are magnetised. Hazards on their right and Boardsides behind. Anyone who has played against my commander knows he has a bit of a drinking problem often having to lean on his sheild drone to escort him home  

Fast Attack:

The Devilfish my pathfinders ride around in, well occasionally most of the time other troops steal it, both this and the Hazard suits flip the colour scheme slightly and make white the dominant colour as i wanted the fast attack section to have as slightly different feel. The drones however are Tron styled as i have many drones that already match the army colours and is amusing. Image includes 1 custom sniper done and a command drone (Gundam reference)

Heavy:

The hammerheads weapon can be swapped with an Ion cannon, the custom decals like on the other 2 tanks were a pain to apply as they didn't like the curved hulls much, still a liberal coating of spay varnish solves most problems. The Broadside commander is on the left with the arm mounted railguns his team mate is looking a bit worse for wear but that may have something to do with the number of times he has gladly given his life for his leader , the one arm he has is magnetised so i can swap the plasma for missiles.

And thats about it for now, the kroot hounds will probably show up at some point but they are currently at the vets (being greenstuffed). Obviously the photo quality isn't super amazing so if anyone wants any better shots of anything in particular just say.

Cheers
Tim

[McFunk]

hahaha haro the drone! love it!!

army is looking good tim

[Dyce]

having been commissioned to build a third stormraven i figured I would post as its construction progressed so heres the main hull in a quite blurry pic, Ive already cut the front and rear doors to size so they will be the next things to go on.



As i know what I'm doing this time (rather than trying to find bits that fit and hoping) hopefully the lines will be sharper from the outset and need less greenstuff, mainly because I don't currently have any

[Ego Ninja]

Im looking forward to this - I may be making my own soon so having a guide will help!

[Dyce]

Stormraven update time! as you can see (possibly - apologies for the blurry images snowy weather isn't conducive to good model pics it seems) the lower hull is mostly done, ideally the bit of card on top would be plasticard but more for its thickness than anything else regular card works just as well. on the second raven the card warped slightly and caused a bulge so i was extra careful this time as once its superglued its not coming off again without mass damage to the model.

side doors are possibly going to be a pain as in my enthusiasm I think I cut the parts i used last time in the wrong direction. the rear section will get finished after the upper hull is applied (next thing to be built)

You may have noticed the client has specified that they would like the turret underslung, currently held on with bluetack, from some angles the turret looks quite cool my only concern being how would it go about landing, when the wings are on this might not be an issue plus i think its overall too large at the moment anyway so i might build a smaller one and try incorporating the valk canopy.

[Dyce]

Another day another update, I'm actually further along than these updates would suggest (as in almost done) but lets keep things at this pace for now.

today we need to sort out the upper hull, the wings can still use the inserts to clip into if you want to make your life easier but I prefer the way glueing them level looks, the rhino hull needs some bracing to help maintain its shape and to make sticking it to the rest of the model much easier.


And here you can see I've inclosed everything, card is ideal for this part as you dont have to worry about being super accurate as you can trim it up or sand it down later, you may also have spotted I have decided on the side doors and at its at this point I have started raiding the bits box, if you don't have spare bits of rhino laying around its probably advisable to use the doors that came with the valk and use something else on the front of the model


next time more on the doors and lots of little details

[Dyce]

So we are starting to get there now and things are really taking shape. The top fin really helps to make it feel like a marine vehicle, well at least in my opinion. Anyone who has put a valk together has probably found that the engines can be a pain to put together and on top of that in this build theres no easy way of keeping them in place, both the underside of the engine and the upper part of the wing will require sanding, to make things easier this time and to make sure they say level and inline with each other i have used a small amout of bluetack to keep them in place.

the side doors on the lower hull ended up being rhino fronts but that still left a gap under them and a funny angle to fill, i could have used card but instead took a wild guess that one of the weirder looking valk parts might work, after much cutting Ive ended up with parts that make the door look nice and bulky and like it has a hinge. i may add a door frame at some point  but only if i feel it needs to be tied into the model more.

[Dyce]

Almost there, lots of the little details have been added, any card out of place has been filed down into shape and ive started on the turret which in the end is just a modification to the razorback turret to give it a flatter profile. while the main location for it is the underside of the stormraven there are a number of holes across the hull that will allow it to be pegged into a number of locations.

the next few things to do are wiping off some of the glue residue and some greenstuffing after that its a final sanding and then undercoating, oh and i may add some more detail to the turret

[Dyce]

So despite the fact even at 1k points i can still only have 1 hero I thought I would start on some characters for later on in the league, luckily the rhinox came with 2 bull bodies so I set about cutting them up.


 
Gap filling is already underway, and the legless one just had an arm transplant, the next update should start to give an idea of where they are going.

[Dyce]

I've had 2 pink horror models since I first started playing 40k way back when, don't remember buying them, never used them and every time I painted them they just didnt look quite right, well it was time for them to pay their way and one kindly donated both his arms, not sure what I will do with the rest of his body - turn him into squig maybe?  

Originally the legless one was going to remain legless but I've found a pair that suits him quite well so that will be the next job, along with hair and possibly having to make hands for the other ogre



Not to mention much sanding...