A Guardsman's Guide to Glory

Apocalypse Terrain: Defence Laser 'Heretics Bane' - Pt 3

2012-03-05T12:00:00.002Z

The 'Heretics Bane' build is complete!

Its been a large project, but surprisingly has only taken me 2 weeks to build. I reckon that out of that, only 6 solid days of building have actually been spent doing it. This is encouraging, as all the parts for a second defence laser are sitting under my desk!

So I've just added a few finishing touches since the post last week. Most noticeably is the railings on the top deck. Originally i was going to use Aegis Defence barriers for this, but they took up to much room. Then i went for Cities of Death building railings, but it didn't look right. Finally i settled on these railings!

They're made from lengths of wooden BBQ skewer's stuck to cut down CoD Basilica Buttresses.

I drilled holes at equal intervals in the buttresses so the wooden rod would sit nicely flush into each piece. It was worth the effort, as assembling it was really easy!

A scale shot here with a Vostroyan volunteer. The railings are the prefect height for minis to see over.

Where the railings met the main power feeds i decided to use CoD girders, simply because i didn't have enough Basilica buttresses! I sawed off the bottoms at an angle to make them match the angle of the railings.

Other detailing includes an access hatch to the top deck. I found this on an old Leman Russ accessories sprue.

I've added 2 searchlights to the main deck. They're IG Russ searchlights mounted on the bottom half of a CoD lamp post! This made them high enough to reach over the top of the railings, allowing them to be 'maned'.

Below the searchlights Ive also added some vents and wiring.

Here's some more detail on the bottom deck.

I struggled to jazz up the ramp. In the end i went with the 'less-is-more' approach, which has never failed me in the past! I've added a few CoD bits to the sides and a COG Mechanicum as well. I originally wanted to put wire mesh over the whole ramp, but when i did a mock up it didn't look right. I'll get it painted up and see how it looks.

I added some plasticard pieces to the hardboard base to simulate deck plating. It would take to much plasticard to cover the whole base so this will do!

Finally i added the finishing touches to the gun towers. A few Pegasus pillar tops did the trick nicely!

So, another Apocalypse Terrain project nears completion! A buddy from club said the other day that we're seriously going to have to reconsider the number of tables we use for Apoc'! I'm inclined to agree...

Next up - painting!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Defence Laser 'Heretics Bane' - Pt 2

2012-03-02T12:42:00.000Z

I haven't had much time this week to work on the Defence Laser. Ive been in Birmingham all week training, and with another week of training back in Birmingham next week, I've been working had to make some more progress before i leave again! Setting up a new Dialysis Unit is hard bloody work!!

So whats new? Take a look! The works been progressing well under the watchful gaze of Master Yoda!

The most noticeable work has to be the Laser itself. I didn't manage to find the pluming part i wanted for the main weapon, but i did find a suitable substitute.

I've installed a blast shield in the roof of the weapon dome. I figured that an ancient and powerful weapon like this wouldn't just be sticking up at the sky when not in use!

Weapon detailing was completed quickly, as the pluming parts already had a good bit of detail on them already. The wires were from the main power cable of the doomed Xbox lead that the cats ruined, and the main targeter is obviously from the CoD sets with a large lens stuck on the end.

The Black cables are from the Xbox power lead while the red t-bits are from the guts of an extension cable, also ruined by the cats! The cat-piss incident turned out OK in the end, as I've now got a huge stock of electrical bits for conversions!

Another large addition is the main generator power feeds to the main weapon. These were made from a generic Outlet Hose that i got from The Range (a really cheap homeware store) for £1.50/1.5M's! I grabbed 2 which was just enough for my needs.

The hose had to be screwed into the main structure, as glue just wouldn't be strong enough to keep them in place.

As the screws really mucked up the aesthetic of the hose, i had to hide them. For this i used some thick cardboard tube and toilet roll! I needed materials that were already curved to make fitting them around the hose easier.

These are the smaller brackets.

And the larger ones made from toilet roll.

Once in place i added a few rivets cut from plastic rod.

The main access ramp. I've been waiting for some sets of stairs off eBay for nearly 2 weeks now which were going to lead up to the main access. I got impatient and decided to build a ramp instead!! I had just enough room on the baseboard to make the incline shallow enough to balance models on!

Other details include some large pipe work around the base.

I've also added some supports to the upper platform. These were made from the CoD Basillica buttresses.

The larger sections will form corner posts for the upper deck railings, while the smaller pieces were used to act as the deck supports.

One last bit of detailing was added around the base. As this section is sloped it wouldn't take a pipe section. I raided the bits box and added some industrial looking pieces instead!

Not far off completion now. I'm going to add some smaller pipes around the base, along with a multitude of vents, fans, and rivets to finish it off! I'm hoping for completion next week!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Defence Laser 'Heretics Bane' - Pt 1

2012-02-24T12:00:00.000Z

Its one hell of a Pt 1, as about 70% of the main build is already done! I've been hitting this project HARD this week, as I'm hoping to take it to an Apoc' game in March!

So, as you can see, it doesn't much resemble the humble plant pot it started off as! We now have walkways, towers and turrets!

The main entrance is from the Cities of Death Basilica set. I installed an armoured blast door in place of the ornate one that comes with it. As this is meant to be a small fortress, i thought it fitting! The sentry guns are obviously from an Imperial Bastion. I had to take a hack-saw to it to get those off, and luckily they came off intact!

Now the defence towers. Theres two of these, again made from CoD building panels, each with a custom blast door installed in place of the normal doors.

This is just a scale shot for you!

Is it just me, or are the Planetstrike Aegis guns a little...lame?! Well, i bloody well do! Originally i was going to use the cool new guns from Puppets War but two would cost me around £40 - a bit of a large outlay for a couple of guns! So i made these out of the Aegis guns:

Badass! I'm so pleased with them! Wanna know how to make them? Here's how!

Take a barrel from the CoD sets and cut out the middle. You'll need to keep the ends.

Stick the ends onto the middle support. Its almost a perfect fit.

Its a good idea to run a pin through the middle to give the guns a bit of support here.

Now onto the gun barrels themselves. Fairly straight forward here; saw off the end of the barrels and replace them with some copper rod. I would take the time here to file the ends flat, otherwise it will cause you problems later when you try to glue them in place...as i found out! Once the barrels are on, add the ends of the original Autocannons and its done! Pin each gun onto the main support and voila - Hydra Flak Platform!

Back onto the main structure. Theres CoD floor panels running around the circumference of the building with the gaps underneath boarded up with plasticard.

Where there are no slanting building panels to support the walkway, i had to put in some small wooden supports to keep it stable! The plasticard on its own wouldn't support it on its own for very long!

As for the laser itself - well, not much has happened with that. I'm still trying to find an elusive pluming part for the main weapon! I'm hoping a trip to B&Q today will prove fruitful! I have also added a wooden base to the top platform for the whole lot to rest on.

FINALLY, the Comm's Tower! Smaller than the defence towers, this baby will supply a large portion of the installations external communications and also orbital targeting.

The satellite dish is an old idea i saw years ago! Its a IG Dozer Blade with all the knobbly bits sawed off, with a Multi Laser barrel glued to the middle. The base of the dish is the base of an Aegis platform with a plasticard plug. The antenna array is obviously from the Planetstrike sets - perfect for this role!

I've added some thick cabling between the Sat' Dish and Antenna. I've used soldering wire for this. Its great stuff, cheap, and widely available. Its also very soft and flexible, making it easy to work with.

That's your lot for now! More on this epic project next week!

The GunGrave

Defence Laser and Mag-Lev Terrain Projects

2012-02-22T12:00:00.000Z

Now I'm back from a long weekend in London catching up with some school buddies, its time to get some terrain projects off the ground!

I mentioned an idea of a Mag-Lev Track in my last post, but first up is another long standing idea - The Defence Laser!

Since i saw the defence laser Duty's Fist that GW featured in the Apocalypse book I've been in love with the idea of making one myself! Now I've begun to do just that! The reason its taken a while to get going on this is because i was struggling to find the right shaped plant pot for the base of the laser. It appears that hexagonal pots are heard to come by! However, last weekend i found some!

I also bought this Hamster Lab from a pet shop! The dome shape is perfect to house the bulk of the laser itself!

I'll only be using the top half of the dome. The three openings in the sides will be perfect for running power cables thorough.

I'm still waiting for some materials to arrive through the post before i can begin building. In the meantime I've started preparing what I've got. I've trimmed off the rim of the pot as well as the 'feet'.

I've also mapped out the footprint of the Laser onto some hardboard. The inner Hex is the base of the pot, while the outer Hex is going to be a raised platform running around the base. The connected squares to the top and bottom of the picture will be defence towers, and a Comm's Tower will be attached to the bottom right of the picture.

On a more tragic note, one of the cats pissed on my Xbox power cable, frying it!! I've got a replacement now, but the old cable will be great for adding detail to the Laser!

So that's it for the Defence Laser for now. I'll be pushing on with this as the week goes on.

Now the Mag-Lev! I'm at a similar stage with this as i am with the Laser, in that i have a load of parts, but cant really progress with the build at the moment. I've managed to find suitable materials for the tracks. Below is a plastic curtain rail (about £6) on which my Mag-Lev train will run!

It comes with the plastic runners on which you would normally hang your curtains on! I'll be modifying these to fit to the base of the train so it can run smoothly on the tracks!

The plastic runners are to flimsy to support themselves, so I've bought some 6mm steel rod to run beneath the tracks and give it support.

The main problem I'm having with this project is the train itself. I cant begin building the stations until i know the size of the train! Because of this, the Meg-Lev is stalled for now. However, i have it on good authority that 'O' gauge hobby trains are around the right scale for 40K, so I'll be searching for a suitable train to convert over the next few days!

Phew, that's it for now! Hopefully I'll have made some more progress on both projects by Friday!

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Lascannon Squad

2012-02-20T12:00:00.002Z

This is just a quick post to give you loyal readers something to look at while I'm away! The 'nearly complete' Lascannon teams I showed you in the last post are now done!

This is one of two squads attached to my infantry platoons for my Krieg Siege Regiment.

I've got this week off work now, which will be spent working on the next awesome terrain project: Mag-Lev System!

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Reinforcements

2012-02-16T12:00:00.001Z

These units were painted over the weekend in a mad attempt to bolster my Krieg forces for the Apoc' game - which was subsequently cancelled!

Not to worry though, as the completion of these units went a long way towads the Great Krieg Repaint, that has not seen some love in a while! Now i'm well up for getting my Krieg on for a while!

This is the 5th squad of Krieg for the Siege Regiment:

My Artemia Pattern Hellhound! I would eventually like to have 3 of these to make an Apoc' formation that makes use of the Hellstorm template! I much prefer this pattern Hellhound to the plastic version.

I made the fuel tank nice and greasy! Theres extra grease around the cap!

MIG weathering powders were heavilly applied to the nozzle of the flamer.

On the table now? A very NEARLY completed Lascannon squad!

More Krieg action soon.

The GunGrave

Photographing Your Mini's - the Essentials

2012-02-13T12:00:00.000Z

Unfourtunately the Apoc' game on Sunday was cancelled! Some players had to drop out so we scrapped it.

Following the latest Elysian Showcase, i had a handful of questions about how i take my pictures. Now you can find out!

Theres no surprises here for the more experienced miniature photographer, but if your just getting started or are looking to improve, these are the things you'll probably need.

1. A Light Box

This ones home made, and they are SO easy to construct! I wouldn't even consider buying one! Take a cardboard box, cut out a large window in the top and sides, then fix grease proof paper/tracing paper over the windows. Done! Get yourself some light sources (these lamps cost about £3 each from Ikea!!) and your away.

In addition to the Light Box you'll also need some Photo Backgrounds. These are widely available for download on the Internet. Just Google it and you'll get heaps of results.

2. A decent SLR Camera

The camera i use is a Cannon EOS 1000D, a mid range SLR. Hell, if you''ve got a decent enough digital camera, that will do just fine! This one belongs to Mrs GunGrave, who i bought it for a few years ago. I also have a Telephoto Macro Lens 70-300mm for close ups and a dedicated Macro 100mm lens for super detail! The lenses are expensive and not entirely necessary for good photography. If you do have them or have access to them they can make your pictures a bit better!

3. Tripods

Mrs GunGrave has 2 Tripods that i have access to (both of which i bought her! She's spoilt rotten!) The one below is a 1.5M Tripod which i use for most of my pictures. The Tripod is so important in certain photo modes, which will blur with the slightest movement! You don't need to spend a heap on them either - you can get a half decent one for about £30.

Sometimes though you might want to get a bit closer to your minis for those super detailed, close in shots. The big Tripod probably wont allow you to do this so this Gorilla Pod is perfect for the job! Again, its not that expensive and small enough for you to get in nice and close.

4. White Balance

Having an understanding about how White Balance works will improve your photos loads, even without the other things listed above! White balance simply eliminates that horrible yellow-tinge you get on photos sometimes, and will give you brilliantly clear photos. A tutorial on White Balance can be found here.

Hopefully this will improve you mini pictures and give you nice clear results. If you do take up some of these tips, do let me know how you get on!

Finally, get some cat-proofing for you Forge! They can really get in the way and screw up your photos sometimes!

(Errr, got any Tuna...?)

The GunGrave

Battle of Martyr's Square - Sunday 12th Febuary 2012

2012-02-10T13:00:00.010Z

The Tyranids are coming….

Those words echoed in his head long after the briefing at Command HQ, high up in the Spire of Hive Primus. And the shrine world of Orphelia was right in its path.

Captain Gerek had arrived on Orphelia with his Elysian Regiment a month earlier, diverted while en route to Hydraphur in Segmentum Obscurus. A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan was striking out to the galactic west, deep into Segmentum Tempestus, and had already decimated a dozen systems. This, surprisingly, was only half of the problem.

The presence of a Hive Fleet had scared up every renegade, heretic and Xenos in the Sub-Sector, driving them away from the Veiled Region and straight towards Imperial Systems. Cultist uprisings, mass suicides, and on Orphelia, an Ork invasion. As if the Guard didn’t have enough to worry about…..

The Valkyrie jarred wildly as it hit a patch of turbulence. Gerek instinctively look out of the viewport to the Sky Talon flying opposite. It was carrying his prized Taros, and the Orks would be the least of the pilot’s worries if it was damaged.

Gerek and his company were on their way to an out of the way township called Sable. Ork forces were massing to the east of the settlement, and Gereks company had been dispatched to rapidly secure the town. In fact, an entire armoured regiment from 141^st Death Korps of Krieg as well as their superheavies had also been dispatched in support. Gerek nearly laughed out loud at the thought of all that overkill being labelled as ‘support’. Under normal circumstances it would have been called exactly that – overkill. The arrival of a Crusade Fleet of Black Templars had changed that.

Sable was the first major settlement to have been established on Orphelia back in the mid 36M, long before Hive Primus had begun to rise from the dust, and was the site of a major Imperial victory against a Chaos incursion not long after its founding. Forces of the PDF, Black Templars and even the local citizenry had rallied against the invaders and fought with a fanaticism that rivalled the Chaos forces themselves. The enemy was defeated in a decisive confrontation in the Plaza of the Emperor Ascendant, home of the planets most sacred relic, The Emperors Aquila, said to be touched by Him On Earth.

Once the battle was done and the cost counted, the surviving planetary government ordered the construction of a monument on the site of the great victory. The remains of the fallen were to be interred within; a testament to their courage and sacrifice. They would not rest alone. So impressed were the Black Templars with the citizens courage, the few Templars that fell were also interred with them. It was for this reason that Gerek and the Guard had been sent to this backwater settlement. The Templars had cited the importance of the monument and final resting place of their ancient brothers, and would not see it defiled by the vile Orks.

(Pict capture of the Maartyr's Square monument taken by Templar Scouts, now MIA)

‘Come and defend it yourself then’ muttered Garek. Unfortunately the Templars were busy hunting down the Warboss leading the invasion, and Gerek wasn’t about to tell humanities finest what they should or shouldn’t be doing, especially when they were throwing their weight around.

No, it was up to the Guard, again, to pull it out of the fire. Although with the Orks, Tyranids and Emperor knows what else plundering the sector, Gerek wondered if It would be enough…..

Table and Deployment

This battle will be fought on a roughly square table with the major terrain pieces set up as per the map below:

The set-up is designed to encourage fierce battle in and around Martyrs Square.

The table will be split diagonally down the middle, with 12in either side of it forming No-Mans Land.

Objective

There is only one objective: secure Martyrs Square!

Objective marker: The Martyrs Square Monument

Victory Conditions

In order to secure the objective and claim victory, the players must have at least 2 non-vehicle units within 1 inch of the base of the objective.

For the purposes of claiming objectives, scoring units must be above 50% strength and not be falling back.

If both armies meet the Victory Conditions at the end of the game, then the objective counts as Contested.

Pictures next week!

141st Elysian Drop Troop Regiment "Helljumpers" Showcase - Mk2!

2012-02-08T13:00:00.000Z

Following 'A Guardsmans Guide to Glory's' second birthday post, i got a suggestion from Admiral Drax regarding my Elysians. He suggested that now i have the hang of White Balance i should re-shoot the Elysian showcase i did a while back. Looking at those pics again is pretty cringe-worthy! So i quickly set about taking some fresh photos!

For the second time, may i present the 141st Elysian Droop Troop Regiment "Helljumpers"!

Captain Garek in his Taros Assault Vehicle

Company Command Squad

Long Range Ground Scanner Team

Drop Sentinel Squad 1

Drop Sentinel Squad 2

Veteran Squad 1

Veteran Squad 2

Veteran Squad 3

Veteran Squad 4

Valkyrie -this is one of two identical vehicles

Vendetta Gunship - this is also one of two identical vehicles!

Vulture Gunship with Twin Linked Punisher Cannons -this is (you guessed it!) one of two identical vehicles!

I'm really pleased i took the time to shoot these minis again. The last photos didn't really show them off very well at all! I hope that this set is better, and is the least i can do for the 141st!

The GunGrave

Necron Overlord Complete

2012-02-06T18:50:00.000Z

This is the final infantry unit for the Necrons - the Overlord!

The scheme is very straight forward, the gold being the only real colour that makes him look more important! I'm happy with this though, as the rest of the army's colour schemes are equally simple!

The Warscythe. I applied the same glowing effect to the blade as i did on the Crypteks using Dark Angles Green and Emerald Green, applied with an airbrush.

The same glowing colours were applied to the Orbs and most importantly, the Resurrection Orb.

Finally, the Overlords cape. Now, i had a real dilemma painting this! I got as far as shown below and felt that it didn't need anything more; it felt 'finished'. But its so plain, so basic, almost to much so! I decided to go with my gut and leave it alone!

Theres only 3 more units to do for this army: a Doomsday Ark, a Monolith, and the unreleased Night Scythe. But alas, a long weekend on the lash with some old school buddies in 2 weeks means these things will have to wait until March! Until then its Krieg all the way!

The GunGrave

A Guardsmans Guide to Glory's Birthday!

2012-02-03T13:00:00.000Z

Well, where did that last year go?? Another year in blogging has flown by, and in hobbying terms, it was even better than last year!

This post will showcase the 5 most popular posts of 2011 from AGGTG.

1. Mycetic Spore Tutorial

No surprise here! With the explosion of Tyranids back in 2010 people were clamouring over anything that told you how to make a 'Spore (myself included!) With no news on GW releasing a 'Spore of their own, i won't be surprised to see this on the list again next February!

2. Legio Custodes NNM Tutorial

I didn't consider this little project a success, and have since abandoned it as a painting option (for the time being anyway!) However, i did learn a lot about wet blending in the process!

3. Grey Knights Army List

A big Codex for 2011, I'm guessing that this post popped up in a lot of search engine results over the last year! Looking back, it was a pretty shit list! Make what you will of it!

4. 143rd Elysian Drop Troop Regiment "Helljumpers" Showcase

Unfortunately this post didn't coincide with my White Balance photography tutorial! If it had, then the dam pictures would have been better! This is one of my favourite armies in my collection, and probably the most used on the tabletop!

5. Tyranid Army Showcase

Probably the most successful army I've run to date, this armies worst result on the table was a draw! I found this a really fun list, to paint and to play!

That's 2011 done! 2012 promises to be another big year for my hobby, but I'm guessing its going to be more to do with terrain than miniatures. Although i am looking forward to the supposed Chaos Legions release this year, I'm not really gearing up for another army build, mainly because I'd have to sell an army to make space for a new one!!

Here's to the next 12 months!

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Superheavy Tanks; Necron Immortals

2012-02-01T12:25:00.000Z

I had a freakin' mad day of painting yesterday! I was in the zone, and painted a Baneblade, a Macharius and finished off a unit of Necron immortals! I really wanted to get the super heavies done and ready for an Apoc' game this Sunday (more on that on Friday)

First up, its the Krieg Banblade!

This tanks got the new 141st Regiment colour scheme, weathered in the usual fashion!

MIG weathering powders were applied to the Baneblade Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, and exhaust pipes:

Managed to get some good rust spots on this one:

Vehicle markings. This is the 2nd vehicle of the 23rd Tank Company.

Now my favourite tanks in my collection, the Macharius! Easily one of my favourite Forgeworld models, of which i hope to have a full company of one day! That's 3 tanks not 10 before you get excited!!

Vehicle markings. This vehicles is the 3rd tank of the 11th company.

The tank commanders painted in the same way as the new Krieg colour scheme, as is the driver.

The Heavy Stubber.

Phew! Now these bad boys are ready for the game, which promises to be full of carnage!

Now finally, the last unit of Immortals for the Necrons. Only the Overlord to go and that's all of the infantry done!

The GunGrave

Battlefield in a Box: Sewage Works Play Test: GW Fame!

2012-01-27T12:00:00.001Z

Yesterday I managed to get to club for the first time this term. This gave me the opportunity to play test the Sewage Works terrain set!

Below is the set up we used, show before deployment. I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough terrain to cover a 6x4 board, but it was more than enough!

Here's a shot about 2 turns in. My Vostroyans were pitched against the vile Eldar! It was a comfortable win, 7KP to 3KP.

I think its safe to deem this project a success! The only thing it really needs is a nice Zuzzy battlemat to play on! Once my Credit Card has recovered from the recent car breakdown (£400!!!) I'll think about getting one!

On a more smug note, my Space Wolves were featured on the GW website yesterday! Thanks to Alex (From the Fang) for dropping me a line and letting me know! Click here to check them out!

(a very smug!) GunGrave

'Martyr's Square' Monument

2012-01-25T12:05:00.000Z

Our Club's got an Apoc' game coming up on the 5th of February, for which I'm writing a scenario and narrative for. The battle will be centred around 'Martyrs Square' , but i quickly realised that i didn't have a suitable terrain centrepiece for it! So i threw this together on Monday!

GW building panels with plasticard tops to each tier with the gaps all sealed with Polyfilla. Very quick, very easy!

The 'water' at the base of the monument is just Bestial Brown sealed with Army Painters Quickshade Strong Tone Varnish to make it look watery. It used to be a mosaic covered pond, but after many months of neglect, has become a mucky, rain water filled puddle.

The Space Marine statue is of course from the Honoured Imperium set. Basecoated in shining gold, it was given a heavy drybrush of 1:1 Goblin Green:Ice Blue.

I've left the Statue detachable from the monument for storage purposes, and so it can eventually be part of a 'Battlefield in a Box' project later on!

I'm looking forward to seeing this on the table for the Apoc' game. Stay tuned for pictures of that in the next 2 weeks!

The GunGrave

Necron Crypyek Conversions Painted

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000Z

These guys caused me more problems than you might think! I struggled to settle on a scheme that i liked! What you see here is the 3rd colour combo i tried! First a blue scheme like the GW ones, then a gold scheme and then this. The Chaos Black plates are highlighted with Dark Angles Green (you can just about see it!), Dwarf Bronze for the ribs on the back, and Emerald Green for the eyes and staffs.

Although it ended up being really basic, I'm actually really happy with it! I like the large amount of black on them, which makes them look really sinister; just like a keeper of forbidden power should be!

I gave the eyes a blast of Emerald Green with the airbrush and highlighted that with 1:1 Emerald Green : Skull White. Theres a bit of Green Wash in the recesses as well.

The Staffs were a real pain to do. I wanted to wet blend Dark Angles Green up to Emerald Green, but its like my wet blending skills have deserted me!! I tried multiple times to make it happen, but for some reason it wouldn't work! I just blasted it Emerald Green (using an airbrush) over a Dark Angles Green base. Then a small highlight on the edges. Not as good as i wanted, but it'll have to do.

I also airbrushed Emerald Green onto the orbs on the back of the Crypteks to make them glowy as well.

Overall I'm pleased! A simple conversion with a simple paint job (in the end!)

Our clubs got an Apoc' game coming up at the end of the month now, so I'm making a terrain piece for the occasion! This will interfere with painting the last of the Immortals, but I'm hoping the terrain won't take to long to make! More on that later in the week!

The GunGrave

Back to the Necrons

2012-01-19T12:00:00.000Z

With the Rapiers out of the way, i thought it was high time i gave the 'Crons some love.

First up is some Cryptek conversions. I use the term 'conversions' very lightly here, as it basically involved a head swap and a bit of staff adjusting! Its an idea that's been floating around the net for a bit now: use plastic Lychguard models and stick Deathmark heads on them. Much better than running the 'CrapCast Guantlet' in my opinion! Plus you get loads of spares! Their are 2 Harbingers of Destruction with Eldrich Lances and 1 Harbinger of Transmo-whatsa-thingy with Tremorstave!

I made some minor adjustments to the Harbinger of ~~Transmo~~ Tremorstave guy's staff! The end is just a Warscythe with an extra Warscythe blade attached to the other side. It just had to be different from the other two. This guys also going to be packing a 'Harp as well, but I'm still working on ideas for that.

Some more Immortals with Gauss Blasters.....yawn.....

Out of those 10 Warriors i showed you a few weeks ago, i figured that i only needed 4 more for the army, so i was lazy and boxed the other 6!

Some more good results on the marble paint effects.

Finally, my Overlord. I decided to buy an Annihilation Barge and use the Overlord from that than bother with the ShiteCast version. At least this way a get a decent Overlord and a quality 'HS' choice as well! A simple 40m base was all that was needed for this guy with plenty of Necrony crystals as well!

Some painted pictures of these guys will be up next week!

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery

2012-01-16T12:00:00.000Z

The second and third Rapiers were swiftly completed over the weekend to complete the first Rapier battery! I say first because its entirely likely I'll be getting more of these awesome minis in the future! If you haven't got any, go and get some!! NOW!

You may have noticed that I've used the Cadian arms that came with the Rapiers for these two. I figured that for the sake of a shoulder pad difference, it wasn't worth the hassle fitting an actual Krieg arm. Besides, they look fine once painted!

Here's the whole Battery together! These will form the backbone of my anti-tank firepower for the Krieg Siege Regiment list.

All this Krieg action has seriously distracted me from the Necrons! With some Cryptek conversions, an Overlord, Warriors, Immortals and an Annihilation Barge sitting on the side awaiting attention, I'll have my work cut out for me over the next week! More from the Tomb World soon!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Complete!

2012-01-11T12:00:00.001Z

I present, the Hab Block!

This has only really took me 3 weeks to complete (that's not including the idle time over Xmas), so pretty swift in Apoc' Terrain terms. Ultimately I'd like to have another 1 of these, maybe 2! With a small build time like this, it seems very likely that it will happen!

After another 2 coats of primer i airbrushed some Codex Grey on random parts of the structure. I did this partly to break up all the dark grey, and partly to cover up the patches of paint that the oil paint wash melted! Yes people, it doesn't happen very often, but it does happen!

Aside from that, theres not a great deal of colour on here. The picture below shows the areas where I've added some Boltgun Metal. Just to the fans, boxes and skulls, repeated all over the structure. I also added some MIG weathering powder to those small cap things on the base of the fan tiles. They looked like they might periodically eject something from them!

This is as fancy as it got in terms of embellishments! A bit of Dwarf Bronze on the Cogs and doorway, and the rest is Boltgun Metal.

The botched corners on this building are suitably muted now its painted! Their tragic story will never be known.

A small splash of weathering powder to the roof sections helped break up the grey a bit more.

That's that! Another Apoc' Terrain project complete! Unfortunately the Hab Block now has to go into storage until the next Apoc' game. I'll have to visit it in the garage every now and then.....! With any luck it will be joined by some new pieces soon. On the list is a pair of Defence Laser Installations (heavily modelled on the GW ones in the Apoc' book), and a long standing idea: Imperiator Bridge!

The GunGrave

Battlefield in a Box

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000Z

We're quite lucky at our gaming club - we've always got tonnes of terrain to play with! I've been shocked to see the the state and quality of the terrain at some tournaments I've been to, and always counted us lucky to have quantity and quality on our side. Our biggest problem is maintenance! We struggle to look after the terrain we have, and i think that this is largely down to inadequate storage.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the 'Battlefield in a Box' project over the course of this year. The reason its taken so long for you to hear more about it is because I've been hunting for the 'perfect' storage box! This itself was featured on the blog a few months ago when i found one in B&Q for a tenner. "What the hell makes the perfect box?" i hear you cry? Well, for me it had to be of a medium size (you can make your own calculations on that one), and rectangular. Now this sounds like a very simple set of criteria to meet, but i assure you, it was not! Plastic boxes always seem to have these funny indentations in the sides of them, which makes the insides (the most important part) irregular. This box had none of these problems, and so was the perfect candidate for the project.

The purpose of the project? To make terrain fit the box, not the other way around! I think that our terrain becomes abused and damaged because we try to cram as much terrain as possible into the box, so with any luck, tailor made terrain will keep wear and tear to a minimum.

All of the terrain I made for the Sewage Works project was all made to measure for this storage box. It fits easily and safely. Theres even space to spare!

The scatter terrain is in a separate cardboard box.

Oh, here's the finished macerators from a while back! They're in there to!

My dining room table is 6 1/2 ft long and just under 4ft wide. The terrain here gives a pretty decent coverage. The only thing i will be adding is a few more pipes, but aside from that theres a great gaming table there! And all of it fits into a sturdy, easily portable box!

So what do you guys think? I know its kinda teaching people to suck eggs, but to see the idea in action really makes terrain building a much more feasable idea for me (and hopefully you guys to!) I intend to take this lot to club when it restarts again, just to test the theory.

The next Battlefield in a Box will be dedicated to the art of Trench Warfare! More on that over the next few months.

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Rapier Laser Destroyer

2012-01-04T12:00:00.000Z

Santa you fat bastard, you really came through for me this year! That's right, a shiny new Rapier Laser Destroyer was under the tree for me on Xmas day, shooting up all the other presents!

As soon as i saw the minis on the Forgeworld website, i was hooked! A massive Rogue Trader throwback for sure (which i don't usually buy into) but for some reason it really called out to me. Once i read the rules for this baby, i was set on a 3 piece squadron of them for my Krieg, which really lack anti tank firepower at the moment. If your not familiar with the Laser Destroyers weapon profile.....

Range Strength AP Type

36" 9 1 Ordinance 1, Twin Linked

Its a Lascannon on steroids, but you compromise a bit on the range, which I'm happy to do for AP1 and Twin Linked! It also has an AV value of 11, 10, 10 - understandably flimsy, with 1 IG crewman (which changes to Kriegsman if used in a Krieg list) I can also take a squadron of these as an Elites choice for a Krieg Seige Regiment List, and at 40pts a piece, I'm all in!

Anyways, enough talk, here's the painted pictures of my first Rapier Laser.

The usual tank weathering effects were applied, with the exception of the mud on the tracks. I thought that it would make it look a bit clumsy with all that extra bulk on it, so just went with the muddied brown tracks instead.

Here's the WIP shots. As you can see, a genuine Kriegsman was used as opposed to the Cadian crewman that comes with the set. This guy is the gunner of a Centaur Artillery Tractor! 3 sets of Centaur Crewmen were sent to me in error from an eBay seller Y-E-A-R-S ago, which i had no use for but dutifully held onto. I'm glad i did!

The spotters backpack came with the set (which is a nice touch), but the arms were a real problem though. The right arm controlling the joystick is a Krieg arm which would normally be holding onto the Heavy Stubber on the topside of a Centaur. The problem was, it was way to long. I had to shorten it dramatically to make it fit. The shoulder plating covers up most of my "trademark-sloppy" Green Stuff work fortunately!

The other arm was from the Cadian that came with the set. The second Krieg arm bent to much towards the middle of the Kriegsman (as if you were hugging a stomach wound) and to much work would be required to make it right. So i added a cuff to the arm and decided to just live with the Cadian shoulder pad. At least this way it wouldn't look shoddy from being butchered to death by my woefully inadequate Green Stuff skills! It doesn't look that bad once its painted up.

Finally here's a quick size up for you. Mrs GunGrave was appalled by how small it was! (turns out it wasn't Santa after all.....) I assured her that you couldn't put a price on the death of the Emperors enemies.....she wasn't convinced!

It felt really good to get back to the Imperial Guard after all the Xenos action that's been going on around here recently. Thought i might have to change the name of the blog! Suffice to say, I've got 2 more Rapiers on my desk waiting to be built, so expect more reinforcements for the Death Korps soon!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Pt 4

2012-01-02T12:00:00.002Z

Welcome to 2012. I hope you all had a good New Year and a happy 'Inconcevable Virgin Birth Celebration Day' as well!

After a good week off from the hobby, i jumped straight back into the Hab Block project. I'm pleased to say that its now 100% complete! Those corners gave me tonnes of trouble though!

Firstly i went with the Polyfilla, and after 2 layers of the stuff and 4 days of drying ( ! ) the filler took on a rubbery consistency, much like bathroom sealant. This made it useless, as i wouldn't be able to sand it flat. Then i tried Milliput to finish it off. This worked well, but i struggled to get crisp corners and smooth surfaces. ARGH! Finally i gave some thin plasticard a go. As the gap was filled already, all i needed to do was clad the filla/milliput in the card to get a tidy finish. This worked, and after the addition of a few rivets, it didn't look to bad. At this stage i decided to cut my losses, chalk it up to experience, and go with it!

2 of the corners had gaps small enough to fill with some Cities of Death pieces.

Once it was all dry i got it undercoated so i didn't have to look at all the horrible imperfections any longer! It still needs another 2 coats of paint before its done. Then its onto the details and a swift completion!

On a side note, Mrs GunGrave and her buddy wanted to dress up as Roman Soldiers for New Years! These breast plates were made from Plaster of Paris Bandages - thought they came out quite well! Guess which lucky bugger got to apply the bandages!!

Anyways, they also needed an eagle design on the front, but i only had an Imperial Eagle stencil. They seemed quite happy with this, so on it went! It didn't half remind me of the Sisters of Silence! Always comforting to know theres a covenant of Sexy-Deadly-Pariah chicks knocking around!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terraiin: Hab Block Pt 3

2011-12-22T12:00:00.001Z

I've been casting, sanding and building solidly for the last 2 days! I was desperate to get the Hab Block built before Christmas so that painting could start promptly during the week off i have over the new year. I wasn't completely successful, but have only the corners to sort out! With a handful of solutions in mind, it shouldn't take long to put right.

Here it is! As you can see, the Block was made up of about 98% resin cast panels, the total cost being around the £80 mark. Not bad i think for a building this size! Scale is shown today by members of the Vlka Fenryka! (Soz about the picture quality. They were taken in the evening so i only had the yellowy light to go by!)

And so remains the corner problem. One of my options is to fill it with by new buddy Polyfilla, and it smooth, and add some rivets to it.

I probably wont be doing any more work on this until after Christmas, but it shouldn't take long to put the finishing touches on it and get painting!

Have a great Christmas, and I'll see you on the other side!

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Pt 2

2011-12-16T12:00:00.008Z

Just a quick update on the Hab Block today!

I've now installed the roof of the right wing of the Hab. Theres a lot of floor space to cover in floor panels here, so a bit of support was needed to keep it in one piece. I made a 'H' shaped frame from hardwood for this wing to provide support to the edges and the middle of the floor, secured with Araldite.

I still had the same problems with fitting as i did with the building panels themselves, in that they don't all quite line up neatly! As i despaired at the amount of Milliput I'd need to correct this, Mrs GunGrave suggested i use the liquid Polyfilla that's been collecting dust under the stairs! Shes a GENIUS! If only she was interested in my hobby - think of all the things we could accomplish!!

The tapered nozzle made application a doddle, so if theres any budding Apoc' Terrain builders out there, go and get some of this stuff!

So here it is so far!

As i sat back and stared at the thing, planning the next phase of construction, i was reminded of a large problem that I'd need to fix:

Yeah, the dam panels again! I stupidly installed the corner supports before i began construction, which didn't allow for the irregularities of the panels. These gaps will have to be filled with something, but I'm not sure what yet!

Finally, a little extra hardwood support for the central tower. The sides of the tower will sit atop these supports.

While all that polyfilla was drying, i slapped a bit of paint onto the Macerators! All they need now is their oil paint wash and their done!

From now until Xmas i think it'll be terrain all the way. I have more resin (and Necron) supplies on the way, and hope to have the Hab Block constructed by the end of next week. If Santa (AKA: The Munitoruim AKA: Forgeworld!) brings me the Rapier Lasers i requested, then I'll be getting well back into the Death Korps for the New Year!!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Pt1

2011-12-14T12:00:00.001Z

Once i saw all that terrain come together in the Apocalypse game at the weekend, i went a bit terrain mad again! I'm in a similar mode to when i was building the Cathedral - build, build, build, with all painting on hold!

The day after the game i immediately set about planing the Hab Block! A 2.5ft long and 1.5ft high building with plenty of floor space for my Long Fangs to occupy!

Here's where i am at the moment. If you can make it out in all that mess!

The first level is stuck down to the base, supported by wooden pillars in the corners for stability.

Here's a scale shot with an Elysian in the center! The 'wings' of the Hab will be 2 panels high, while the central tower block will be 5 panels high. The whole structure will run 6 panels deep.

My random scrawling to give you an idea of what im aiming for.

When i moved the base off the desk to let it all dry, i was a bit worried that the base was a bit bendy. There was some ominous creaking as i set it down, so i decided to reinforce the base just to be on the safe side!! 2 strips of sturdy hardwood were glued to the base to prevent it bending, which worked just fine.

These are the panels for the second level, ready to go! I have to wait for a layer of Milliput to dry on the first layer before i can continue. As the pieces are cast in resin and plaster, they don't all quite come out the same, which results in a few different heights! I used the Milliput to make up the difference on the shorter panels, and create a much more even surface for the second level.

So with the first level drying i decided not to waste any time and crack on with an idea i had for some scatter terrain for the Sewage Works. These are Macerators! Where chunky sewage goes to die - well, diced up into little pieces anyway! The tubs are from Morrisons Cotton Buds, and only cost a quid! The pipes you'll recognise from the Pump Station building, except i used a few of the originals here to give the pieces some weight.

Some Cog Mechanicum iconography and some Cities of Death bits to tart it up a bit! The assembly on the top is the motor for the macerator blades within!

So then i found myself waiting for more Milliput to dry! To pass the time, i took these pictures of the new storage Ive just installed in the garage for my fast growing collection of terrain!

These modular shelving units are from B&Q, and were quite pricey. The whole lot (3 strips, 6 shelving brackets, and 2 long shelves) cost me juts over £70. A lot i know, but the space it creates for me is invaluable, especially as I'm growing out of my hobby room!

Some of the Aqueduct didn't survive the trip to Ponterwyd for the Apoc' game, and will require some touch up. I'm going to try using some clear wood varnish on my terrain pieces to protect them a little more.

Finally, here are some Necron Warriors that i got offa eBay! 30 Warriors for £30 - not bad! They're painted shite, but that's not a problem, because that's what makes them cheap!!

I'm slowly turning them into these - re-sprayed and re-based minis ready for assimilation! With the Hab Block in full swing though, painting might be a while away for these guys.

More on the Hab Block later in the week!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Game 10.12.2011

2011-12-12T12:00:00.001Z

APOCALYPSE! Love it! Last Saturday saw 7 of our club membership congregate in a remote primary school in Ponterwyd, Wales, for a titanic clash of arms! A classic 'Good' vs 'Evil' face off!

Myself, Dai and Chris represented the forces of Good - Dai and Chris with their Black Templar's and Pre-Heresy Death Guard, and Me with my Death Korps Armoured Regiment and Praetorian from the Legion Astorum Titan Legion! Around 15,000pts

Calum, Joe, Gareth and Jake commanded the forces of Evil! A diabolical mixture of Chaos Renegades, Tau, Dark Eldar, Orks, Necrons and Tyranids! They had around 12,000pts - a little less than us, as we opted for more Templar's over an extra Strategic Asset! I lent the guys my Tyranid army as well as the Necron forces i had painted so far - couldn't be seen to be playing both sides now could I?!

The game. Only one objective - KILL, KILL, KILL! No objectives and no strategy, just a massive mash-up! The table was split diagonally and we deployed 18in either side of the line. To save time, we all deployed at the same time and rolled off for the first turn. Imperials won the roll and went first!

I haven't done a battle report for this game, as there was just to much going on! What I have below is just a load of pictures from the day.

Here is a pre-deployment picture of the battlefield. We used 5 GW gaming mats for this table and flipped them over to the black side to better represent an urban environment.

A shot of the fully assembled Aqueduct!

The Cathedral makes a welcome return!

All of the existing components of the Sewage Works. Once it was set out together it looked like it would cover most of a 6x4 battlefield for standard 40K. I'm gonna make a bit more scatter terrain though - a few more pipes and some small buildings should do it. It looked great though!

I loved the fortifications the lads added to the Cathedral!

Dai's impressive Fortress of Redemption. This became a formidable area of resistance for Evil team.

Imperial deployment. The Marines would form an armoured wedge and drive up the middle in 5 Land Raider Crusaders, while the Death Guard took the left flank and the Guard tanks followed in support (ready to swoop in and take all the glory once the hard work was done!)

Evil deployment. They focused their defence around the Cathedral and the Fortress of Redemption, taking advantage of the many Bastions and Aegis defence lines.

Necrons lurk behind the more.....inferior races!

Dai's Templar reserves!

Templar 'Raiders drive their wedge up the middle towards the Xenos lines.

Homogaunts take a Bastion and turn its weaponry on the Imperials! The Hive Mind always finds a way!!

Chris's Death Guard Drop Pod behind Xenos lines.....

.....catching the attention of the Necrons!

More Death Guard Drop Pods in turn 2.

Templar reserves advance onto the table.

Frantic dice rolling around the Cathedral.

Tyranids begin to appear on the flanks on Evil turn 2.

Brave Black Templar Terminators charge towards a Stompa!

Ymgarl Genestealers appear behind the hapless Marine Devastator Squads! BOO!

Crisis Suits Deep Strike among Imperial tanks.....fools!

More Ymgarl 'Stealers swamp an Imperial held Bastion!

Templar 'Raiders continue their charge towards Xenos lines! To the left of them the Terminators managed to 'Wreck' the Stompa with their Chainfists, but lost most of their number doing it.

Imperial Navy Vulture Gunships prepare to strafe the Xenos defending the entrance to the Cathedral.

Death Guard gradually move into the rear of the Cathedral, taking advantage of the cover.

The Leman Russ Squadron turn their Demolisher Cannons and Lascannons on the Crisis Suits - who weren't there for long! Sorry Jake.....!

Templar Assault Squads wade into the defenders.

Tau forces were mass assaulted by Templar Squads, as was the second Stompa at the top of the shot.

The charging Templar 'Raiders are finally able to release their deadly cargo! Unfortunately, the Vortex Grenade they were carrying scattered straight back onto the Templar Terminators, instantly killing 3 of them and sucking the wreck of the Stompa into the Warp! Big laughs were had by all!! The surviving Terminators went and took it out on the Renegade Guardsmen manning the barricades!

The battle at its height.

Praetorian continues to provide devastating long range fire support!

So after a full day of slaughter, we called it a day after Turn 3. I have to say though (without any pics unfortunately) at the beginning of Evil Turn 3, they brought on all their remaining Tyranid forces, consisting of a stupid number of monstrous creatures! Between them i think they managed to destroy 13 vehicles and who knows how many infantry! I think if the game could have gone on any longer then the Imperials would have really been in trouble! The Emperor protects.....!

So that concludes all of our gaming club action until the new year, and what a high to end on! We decided it was a draw, but after those 'Nids turned up, it could have been a loss for the Imperials after another turn or two!

Enjoy the pictures, and we're hoping to get a lot more Apoc' action in when the New Year rolls around!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Sewage Works and Aqueduct Projects

2011-12-09T12:00:00.003Z

These last 2 days I've been consumed by a flurry of terrain building in order to get ready for an Apocalypse game on Saturday! This meant moving on with the Aqueduct and Sewage Works projects.

I quickly finished the Pump Station i showed you on Tuesday. I literally slapped some basic colours on it, which only took me an hour or two. This is my general approach to terrain pieces - quick, easy, but catches the eye! We don't want our terrain pieces out shining our minis now do we!

Some Cog Mechanicum details.

Rust detailing. You can see here where the plaster-cast panels didn't fit together very well (hence my switch back to resin) Its these areas where i concentrated my weathering powders. Its not bad construction, just wear and tear.....sort of!

The roof. A small amount of weathering powders were applied to the vents and access hatches.

This brings the Sewage Works project to a potential close. I say potential because i was toying with the idea of making 'submerged' sewage processors out of the lids of the containers i used for the larger processors. I'll set it all up on Saturday and see if its enough to cover a 6x4ft area. Combined with the over-ground pipes I'll use for scatter terrain (see below) I'm confident it'll be enough.

Next up is the long neglected Aqueduct Project! I've constructed another two 2ft straight sections for the project, giving me just under 7ft of Aqueduct in total!

And here it is assembled! It should look great on the gaming table! This completes this project, but i may add some curved sections in the future.

(Tyranids and Tyrano-Cat for scale purposes only!)

Finally, the over ground pipes. I bought a set of these from Evil Mushroom Games a while back (here's the original post) and they've been sitting on my desk since then! While i was in the mood, i got them painted up! I have to say, they look great!

You can obviously assemble any number of configurations, and the pieces fit together well. Its these pipes that will compliment the Sewage Works, providing loads more cover. Once i set it all out, I'll decide if i need any more, and if i need to construct some 'submerged' processors.

Looking good there lads!

Phew! Think i need to go for a bracing walk and get some fresh air! To much time in a room with White Spirit and Araldite fumes!! I'll have some pictures of the Apoc' game up on Monday as well so you'll ge to see all this terrain in action!

The GunGrave

Necron Ghost Ark and Apoc' Terrain

2011-12-06T12:00:00.002Z

With my spine on the mend after a week off at the family home, I've been able to get much more hobby done over the last few days.

First up its the second and last Ghost Ark for my Necron list. There was a bit of a drama yesterday after i completed this model! I got a bit trigger happy with the spray varnish, and as a result, i made about 50% of the vehicle 'fluffy' with excess varnish! ARGH! This morning I've had to repaint one side of the Ark to put it right! Very frustrating but its done now!

You may remember the Pump Station i made a few weeks ago for the Apocalypse Terrain: Sewage Works project. Well, the completed building has been sitting on my desk untouched since i posted about it! Today it was time to get this thing painted. With an 2 day Apoc' game coming up at the weekend, i wanted to get this done ready for the big game! This is where i am at the moment, but i hope to have this guy completed by the end of the day.

The GunGrave

Necron Warrior Squad and 1750pt Army List

2011-11-24T12:00:00.000Z

The back problems I mentioned in the last post have really been hampering my attempts to crack on with the Necrons. Some progress has been made though; a Warrior Squad and 6 Scarab Bases.

The next 12 Warriors. I forgot to wash the resin bases before painting, which has lead to the paint not sticking properly around the edges of the base. Now they're varnished, i'll try paiinting them again and see if it sticks!!

These are the Scarab Bases that came with the Warrior sets. Painted in the same
scheme as the Warriors.

Here are some pictures of the Gauss Blaster rods. I used the marble paint again, and had much better results! There's defiinately a knack to it. Only one out of the 12 wasn't quite as i wanted it. Below are some of the rods from this batch.

Finally, the army list. I've never been that great at writting lists, but always managed to get a decent one together in the end. The Necrons have made list writting a real pain in the arse though! I usually make a 'take on all comers' list, or at least something close to it! I just can't seem to get that here. The army list feels very...modular to me, if that makes any sense!! Each section seems to have to compliment the other, and the player needs to have a firm idea of the strategy he or she is going to use.

That being said, i've tried to make a list that has:

Plenty of Troop choices
Transports
Anti Tank

Seems pretty standard, but it helped me put this list together. See what you think:

Necron Overlord – 185pts

· Phaeron – 20pts

· Sempiternal Weave – 15pts

· Resurrection Orb – 30pts

· Tachyon Arrow – 30pts

Cryptek – 55pts

· Harbinger of Destruction with Eldritch Lance – 10pts

· Solar Pulse – 20pts

Cryptek – 35pts

· Harbinger of Destruction with Eldritch Lance – 10pts

Cryptek – 55pts

· Harbinger of Transmogrification with Tremorstave – 5pts

· Harp of Dissonance – 25pts

Troops

Necron Warriors – 232pts

· 9 Necron Warriors - 117

· Ghost Ark Dedicated Transport – 115pts

Necron Warriors – 232pts

· 9 Necron Warriors - 117

· Ghost Ark Dedicated Transport – 115pts

Necron Warriors – 130pts

· 10 Necron Warriors

Immortals – 85pts

· 5 Immortals with Gauss Blasters

Immortals – 185pts

· 5 Immortals with Gauss Blasters

· Night Scythe Dedicated Transport – 100pts

Heavy Support

Monolith – 200pts

Doomsday Ark – 175pts

1,749pts

The list is pretty self explanatory for most part. I don't see a lot of Doomsday Arks in the 'Net lists, but i think that S9 AP2 gun is underrated (and i LOVE the model!). I'll probably sit one of these in each corner of my deployment zone and blast away for as long as possible. Yes they'll be vunerable to Deep Strikers and Infiltrators - but isn't everything...?

The Warriors and Ghost Arks will be securing and babysitting objectives, supported by attached Crypteks. The 'Arks will provide fire support and spare Warriors as nessesary. The 5/10 strong Immortals (i'll decide on the day how large the squad will be) and the attached Overlord will be providing my mobile support in the Night Scythe, going where they are needed most. The Overlord is excessivly tooled up, simply because i had the points to burn. I was going to spend those points on Scarabs, but i'll try a few playtests first.

Finally the Monolith. Again, these guys seem to get a bad rep' in this Necron incarnation. Having not played Necrons before, i guess i don't feel that effect as acutely as others, but theyre still a AV 14/14/14 tank with a load of guns which can put pressure on multiple units each shooting phase. His main role will be Fire Magnet and moving units around the field with his Portal, as well as Fire Support.

I'm sure this list will change as games progress and new models are released. I love the looks of the 'Stalkers, and think their Twin Linked-confering abillity will prove invaluble so im sure they'll make an appearance. We'll see how it goes. For the time being, i'd love to hear peoples thoughts on the list!

The GunGrave

Necron Doomsday Ark

2011-11-18T12:00:00.001Z

Its been a slow week on the modelling front, for two reasons; firstly I’ve got s prolapsed spinal disc which makes it very painful to do anything but lay flat on the sofa! Secondly, the excessive sofa laying has lead to an obsession with ‘Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim’ that Mrs GunGrave kindly picked up for me to play over my 3 weeks sick leave!!

That being said, I did manage to get the finishing touches done on my first Doomsday Ark, as it was mostly complete before I was injured.

Some more sinister engine-glowy-goodness!

The front of the Doomsday Cannon. I couldn't make the barrel glow with the same colour as the Gauss Blasters, because the paint is to thick and would kill my airbrush. A tiny glow of Scorpion Green was used instead.

Here's how the armies shaping up so far! Theres another Ghost Ark and Warrior squad in the post and should be here tomorrow (ordered before i hurt myself!) so the force is expanding rapidly. I hope for get some work done on them over the next 3 weeks.

I also received my Long fangs from eBay - eventually! Fortunately i only had to make a squad leader and the rest can stay as they are; albeit with a Space Wolf colour scheme. Gonna try and fit them in at some point soon.

That's where i am at the moment. With all this time off on my hands, I'm really hoping to hit the hobby hard next week, and even do some more work on the Apocalypse Terrain: Promethium Refinery project. Finishing the Aqueduct and Sewage Works Pump Station will be on the top of that list.

The GunGrave

Rise of the Necrons!

2011-11-11T12:00:00.000Z

They're finally here! Well, they have been for nearly a week now, and i have not been idle in that time! This is to be my very first Necron army and i wanted to get off to a flying start!

So here are the units that I've completed so far (well, actually this lot takes me up until Tuesday just gone!)

Necron Warrior Squad. The first of three squads i have planned for my list! I used Army Painters 'Plate Mail Metal' metallic primer. This stuff makes painting Necrons a doddle! Its Boltgun Metal in a can, and you don't even need to undercoat the models first. Then i dipped them in 'Army Painters' Strong Tone Quickshade, another must-have for Necron army builders! Simply, dip, wipe off the excess, and leave to dry! Its also a varnish, but its a bit to glossy for me so i sprayed them lightly with Purity Seal afterwards.

The Gauss rods got a bit of attention here. I had the idea of using green Marble Paint to try and create a interesting effect! You put a few drops of this paint into a bowl of water, swirl it around a bit, then dip your Necron Gun Rod into the water. What you should get is a nice marble pattern, much like to one below!

Now it should be said that this is one of the better Gauss Rods! It takes a bit of trial and error to get the technique right, and about 4 of my Warriors have dodgy Gauss Rods as a result! But once you've got the hang of it, its worth it! I also plan to apply this pattern to the crystal atop a Monolith as well!

Next up is a five strong squad of Immortals with Gauss Blasters. I painted the Blasters with the same Marble Paint as the Warriors, which i think came out well. I of course didn't dip these into the marble paint, but instead had to paint it straight on. The effect isn't quite the same, but close enough for consistency. I also went with black shoulder guards to make them stand out from the grunts a bit more. I applied a very subtle highlight of Dark Angles Green to the edges of the pads to break it up a bit.

Finally, the icing on the cake! The first of two Ghost Arks! now, I LOVE this kit! It took ages to put together and paint, but it was well worth the effort! This is the first kit that I've put together for ages where i thought "I'm really getting my moneys worth here"! Definitely words you wouldn't associate with GW at the moment!

Starting with a base coat of Chaos Black, i edge highlighted all the angles with Snot Green and then did the same with Emerald Green. The Warriors were painted in the same way as the ones above and the Gauss weapons had the same treatment as the Immortals weapons.

I used an airbrush to apply Emerald Green to the power source and the engine outlets. I think this gives a really sinister feel to the vehicle! I love it!

One thing i will say about this kit: you'll need to paint a lot of it before assembling! It probably goes without saying but there it is. You've been warned!

On the table now is a half build Doomsday Ark, which will probably be half painted by the time this post goes up! Its full steam ahead for the Necons, and i hope to have this army built and painted by Christmas! I'll also post an army list next week for dissection!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka: Logan Grimnar Complete

2011-11-09T12:00:00.000Z

No WIP shots for this guy - he unfortunately suffered the same treatment as Arjac, and stayed half finished for ages! So without further ado, here he is!

Pelt detail. Logans pelt is grey/white as opposed to the brown/white pelts found in the rest of the army. Firstly to differentiate him from the rest of the army, secondly, i wanted the Old Wolf to have the pelt of an old wolf as well!

The Axe of Morkai. I used an airbrush to apply the fuzzy red patches of Red Gore and then applied a Blood Red highlight down the length of the blade. I didn't want to use the frosty effect that I've used on the rest of the armies Power Weapons, as this is meant to be a Warp forged blade (which i find highly unusual considering the Wolves' aversion to the Warp - to the point where they won't use Telaporters!!) You'll also notice that I've left the right shoulder pad plain black. I wanted to apply the Great Wolf transfer onto the pad and paint over it in Skull White. This was bloody hard, so i scrapped the idea. So, when in doubt - do nothing! Until i think of an easy way to get a white Great Wolf transfer onto his shoulder pad, it'll remain blank!

This brings me within spitting distance of army completion! Good job to with the new Necron Codex sitting on my desk and a pile of cool models! Just one more Lone Wolf and a squad of Long Fangs (which are on their was from eBay) and we're good!

Then I'll be turning my attentions to chrome-clad immortality.....

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Sewage Woks: Pump Station Built

2011-11-07T12:00:00.004Z

Last post i mentioned that i was constructing a Pumping Station for the Sewage Works Sub-Project. Over the weekend it was finished!

This building was made entirely of cast resin panels. I also tried casting the panels in plaster to try and minimise the cost. Although the detail as OK, it was a real pain to work with. It seemed to reject any type of glue used to fix the panels, and the PVA i eventually used took about 3 days to dry properly!! I won't use plaster for building panels again, but it'll be fine for other less detailed moulds.

The roofs on the towers are just cardboard which will be painted to look like corrugated iron sheets. I wasn't just being lazy here! I went for flat roofs to make storage in a box easier! If I'd used GW building railings, the I'd be forever gluing the spikes back on!!

The side of the Pumping Station. By this time i was fed up of the plaster, and used resin for the pipes!

Roof detail. As you can see, theres a large roof space, great for playability.

Here's a shot of all the buildings together:

Those over ground pipes i ordered from Evil Mushroom Games arrives at the end of last week as well. They're resin cast and of medium/high quality. They cost me about £15 and will provide a good bit of scatter terrain for this board.

Finally, these are the lids off of the containers i used for the sewage processors. I toyed with the idea of making some submerged/ground level processors as well to bulk up the board a bit. I saw these in the bin and the idea struck me! They'd be perfect for this: right size, right height and have a decent ridge around the edge. All I'd have to do is build some sort of 'shit-stirer' for the middle and mount them on a more solid base!

By the time this post goes up I'd have already started painting the Pumping Station, and the other Processors and Pipes will probably be on their was as well. That being said the Necrons are released, so expect some news on them as well!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Aqueduct Pt2 and Promethium Refinery

2011-11-03T12:00:00.001Z

First up its the parts of the Aqueduct that i showed you in the last post, now painted!

The struts were painted in a mixture of 1:1 Calthan Brown: Red Gore and washed in a black oil paint wash:

Finally the connectors were sprayed with Tin Bitz and given a wash also. I'm glad i decided to paint the connectors a different colour - it breaks up all that Boltgun Metal!

If i find time before the Necron release on Saturday I'll begin construction of the other two straight sections for this project.

Secondly today, its the Apoc' Terrain Project: Promethium Refinery. Now I've mentioned this a few times since i completed the Gothic Cathedral project a few months ago, and today I'm going to outline exactly what it is!

The first bit is simple: its going to be a large Refinery of some sort! What i trying to do with this project though is make enough terrain to cover a 16ft x 6ft area! Obviously I'm not going to do that with one terrain piece, but a collection of Apocalypse scale terrain pieces! I've broken it down into sub-projects:

Promethium Refinery Itself

Subterranean Loading Dock

Aqueduct

Sewage Works

Power Station/Relay Station

'Principle 1' Highway

Hab Towers

(maybe a Communications Array - not sure on that yet!)

Its quite a list of Apoc' projects, but I'm getting through it quite quickly! You''ve already seen the Aqueduct, and that's about half way through, and also parts of the Sewage Works. The Sewage Works wasn't on the original list, but i figured as i had the terrain, it might as well be included! I've done the bulk of the construction on a Pumping Station for the Sewage Works today, which will bring this section of the project to completion. Well, it will once a load of Over Land Piping from Evil Mushroom Games arrives! Im trying to make each sub-project large enough to cover a standard 6 x 4ft gaming table, enabling me to use the terrain in normal games of 40K. This won't be possible for some of the projects though!

With those two sub-sections nearly completed, I've moved straight onto the next one: the Subterranean Loading Dock! I saw these on eBay the other night in a sale, and immediately grabbed two for £10 each! Bargain!

These are perfect for the Loading Dock and will service a set of four huge loading platforms which take supplies underground. Each crane is 1 meter high, and is actually remote controlled (but i wont be making use of that!) You can just about see the Genestealer on the top of the crane in the centre to give you a sense of scale! More on this sub-project once the other two are squared away!

Phew! So you can see that I've been going flat-out on the terrain front this week, and while the ideas keep flowing, I'm gonna keep building! The Necron release will understandably hamper my construction timetable, but I'm determined to keep up the momentum!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Aqueduct Pt1

2011-10-31T12:00:00.000Z

Remember a few posts ago i showed you some of the bits i picked up from the DIY store? Well they've been put to good use!

This is the Aqueduct! This terrain piece is entirely modular and is part of the larger Apocalypse Terrain Project: Promethium Refinery! I'll explain a bit more about that in the next post! So this is where i am at the moment:

The straight section is 2ft long, and the pipes are about 40mm in diameter. Suitably large for Apoc' games, but could also be used i 40K as well.

The supports are made of plastic H-Beam glued to a hardwood base. The spikes are from the GW building sets.

This is the end section; one of two that I've made.

The connectors will be left loose for this terrain piece, enabling full customisation! I'll probably be adding more imaginative pieces in the future as well.

The connectors for the straight sections will also be left loose. The insides have this ridge-stopper-thing which is quite helpful! The 45degree connectors have them to.

That's it for the mo'! I've got enough materials to make another 2 straight sections, which will give me roughly 6-7ft of Aqueduct in total! Sweet! Painting will begin later today, and expect to see Logan Grimnar up here soon as well!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Arjac Rockfist Complete

2011-10-28T13:56:00.000+01:00

The poor guys finally been completed, after weeks of neglect!

Cloak and pelt details. The Anvil from a fantasy Dwarf banner top is just perfect!

I made Arjac a Blonde-Bombshell to make him stand out a little more! The usual grey i use for beards gets a bit boring!

Here is Arjac with the rest of his squad. They'll be deployed via Drop Pod in games! They should pack quite a punch!

This army is rapidly approaching completion, and i'm eager to try it out on the table top! Next up is Logan Grimnar, followed by a Long Fang Squad and a Lone Wolf. More on them next week.

Until Next Winter.....

The GunGrave

Sewage Processors WT-1B and WT-1C Completed!

2011-10-26T12:00:00.000+01:00

Here they are in all their disgusting glory!

Same paint scheme to match the larger processor. The stencils came out really well again!

I added some rust detailing on these smaller processors using MIG weathering powders.

More of Army Painters Quickshade 'Strong Tone' for the water effects.

Here's a shot of all the processors together, and some more helpful volunteers from the Vostroyan Firstborn!

Because these terrain pieces are so large, it wouldn't take much more terrain to fill a 6x4 board. With this in mind, I'm considering making a few more 'sewage/water treatment' themed pieces to go with this lot. I may make some more processors if the right materials come my way, but i think I'll try doing some of the more common processors that are submerged into the ground. A control station/building may also be on the cards!

But before all that, i need to finish off poor Arjac! With a day off on Friday, I'll get him squared away before i start anything else!

The GunGrave

More Sewage Processors WIP!

2011-10-24T12:00:00.003+01:00

After the success of the large Sewage Processor, i knew i wouldn't be able o leave the other two containers alone for long! Poor Arjac Rockfist had to remain half finished for the weekend!

The two secondary processors are now done and ready to be painted. Much the same as their larger predecessor, with the exception of ladders instead of metal rungs for the access. This is because the ladders were a perfect fit, and it saved me a tonne of work!

Yesterday i went down to B&Q (a large DIY store for our American cousins!) to try and find some shelving for my growing collection of terrain! Unfortunately i was unable to find any reasonably priced shelving, but i did find loads of cool bits and pieces in the plumbing section! The red balls and cylinders are usually found bobbing around in water tanks or toilet cisterns, but will make excellent liquid/gas storage containers! All for a £1 each!!

The 2M lengths of plastic plumbing (only £2.50 each!) and the white bits beside them are going to be part of the next Apocalypse Terrain: Promethium Refinery project! At 40mm diameter, the pipes are huge (for 40K scale anyways!!) and will carry whatever materials are needed to refine Promethium in the 41st millennium. For the purpose of the project it will be termed the Aqueduct. More on that in the next week or two!

Finally, I managed to complete my quest for the perfect terrain storage box! You obviously wouldn't have been aware that this quest was in progress, but I never realised how hard it was to find a rectangular plastic box with straight sides!! Theres always stupid and unnecessary indents in the ends and a multitude of other annoyances! Now the search is over, and the "Battlefield-In-A-Box" project can get started! More on that as well in the next week or two as well!

Phew! Thats your lot for now! As you can tell, i'm well into terrain building at the moment, and may be for some weeks! I haven't been completely idle with the Vlka Fenryka, and Arjac is very nearly done. Hopefully this time next week i'll be picturing him on here.

The GunGrave

Terrain: Sewage Works pt2

2011-10-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday i cracked on with painting my sewage works!

So here it is: Sewage Processor WT-1A!

The stencils were made by printing off the desired text in 'Stensil' font in MS Word, and then sticking them to card from a cereal box.

Once dried i cut out the text:

This was a bit fiddly, and some of the detail had to be lost:

Some of the detailing on the pipework:

The depth gauge was made from a bit of Plasticard. I also stuck some roman numeral transfers of of a IG transfer sheet!

Imperial Eagle stencil:

The contents of the container! Mmmm,, yum! Scorched Brown was applied to the whole area and then some Bestial Brown closer to the edges. The i used some of Army Painters 'Strong Tone' Quickshade on the whole area. Not only is this a dark brown wash, its also a gloss varnish! Perfect! Now I have some suitably disgusting and water-like contents!

So that's this container done! The sharp eyed of you will have noticed an additional two serial number stencils from earlier in the post. They are intended for another two containers that i have waiting to go, and these are pictured below. They used to have liquid silicone in them for mould making! As they're a bit smaller than the one I've just made, so will make great ancillary containers!

Not sure when I'll get going on the other two containers - not to long i imagine! Anyways, i hope you all enjoy this terrain piece!

The GunGrave

Terrain: Sewage Works pt1

2011-10-19T12:00:00.000+01:00

I've decided that i need a break from the Wolves, so a bit of terrain is a good way to break up the monotony!

What we have here is a plastic chocolate container. Send it 40,000 years into the future and we've got ourselves a Gothic Sewage Works!

The image below is what i had in mind for this piece (well, one of these anyway!):

I didn't need the lid, so i binned that. On the inside were these small ridge like things that were perfect for supporting my 'water'! I used soome foamcard for this:

Next, i sealed the edges with some Milliput and smoothed down the edges with the back of a spoon. I also added some random milliput on the surface just to break up the flat area a bit.

While that was drying, i moved onto the base. I'm going to add a few bits around the edge of the main container later, so the base was made big enough to accommodate this. The container was then simply super glued to the base:

Next i moved onto the access. There will be a gantry spanning the width of the container, so i had to make some sort of ladder to reach it. I went with metal 'rungs' - quick and easy to do! I bent a bit of florists wire over a piece of wood to get the shape:

Then i stuck a load of them up the side of the container. In order to make them stick a bit better, i drilled small holes for the rungs with a pin vice. I did the same on the opposite side of the container:

No industrial site is complete without some huge pipes! I just so happened to have a few copper pipes lying around that fitted the bill nicely!

Problem is, these things arn't cheap! When i bought these ages ago, i decided to make a silicone mould of one so i could replicate them on the cheap a bit later on.

I just cast a few more for this project!

Two pipes were stuck to the base and the side of the container; the same was done on the other side. As the container is obviously curved, the pipes don't quite sit flush with it. I'll fill the gaps later with some putty and make them into welding marks.

Now the inspection gantry. I toyed with lots of ideas here! In the end i wondered why the hell i was trying to make it more complicated for myself, and went with a simple wire mesh bridge! The frame was made out of wooden dowel with some wire mesh over the top. I haven't glued the bridge in place to make painting easier later on.

(stupid sideways! Wish Blogger would sort this.....!)

That's as far as I've got for the time being! The bulk of the work is done, but there are a few more details, dials, and bits i want to add before i move onto painting!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Arjac Rockfist

2011-10-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

The man-mountain himself! Out of the handful of conversions i had to do for this army, this one excited me the most! It would also be the most difficult to get right.

That being said, this conversion was done with the minimum of fuss, mainly using existing parts from various sources. I'm very very pleased with the outcome!

Have a peek for yourselves:

I've tried to recreate this picture of Arjac from the codex:

It seems to capture him perfectly, so i wanted to reflect this in the mini itself.

Most of the parts you'll recognise from the Space Wolf Terminator sets. The shield is from Scibors miniatures with the iconography of a SW Storm Shield stuck to the front. I loved the cloak, but I didn't fancy the hanging arm of the wolf pelt on his back, so i left that off and filled the gap with Green Stuff. Some Green Stuff work was also required on the shoulder joint of the left arm to get the Storm Shield raised enough. Aside from that, no other serious conversion work was needed! Then finally, the Anvil on his back! This was a bit of a pain to decide on, but a buddy from Club suggested that i use a fantasy Dwarf banner top! Lady eBay was kind enough to oblige, and i got one for about £2. Perfect!

Just a paint job now. I really want to do this model justice, so I'll take my time with him.

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Lone Wolf Completed

2011-10-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

This guy took me longer than i thought! But i did want to spend a little bit more time on the 'Heros' of this army:

I'm very pleased with him, but he's not quite as striking as i would have liked him to be. I am rather pleased with his right shoulder pad though! These are the names of his lost Pack Mates who he strives to avenge in battle! A nice touch i thought!

I tried something different with the armour this time. I used an airbrush to apply the Space Wolf Grey base coat and watered down Badab Black wash (as usual). Then i used the airbrush to create areas of shade by applying 2 further layers of lightened Space Wolf Grey to the raised areas. It worked OK, but i need to practice a bit more on the close up airbrush work. I over did it on a few areas. essentially though i like the look, and will try it again on the other Heroes.

As for weathering - well i stared at this model for ages trying to decide on paint chips, etc!! As i couldn't make decision, i left it.....for now anyways! It night come later.

Next up its Arjac Rockfist! The last part i needed for the conversion came through the post yesterday, so they'll be more on him of Monday!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Lone Wolf WIP

2011-10-12T12:00:00.001+01:00

Well, most of the work is actually done! All it needs now is a cracking paint job!

This, the first of two Lone Wolves, was based/inspired by this piece of artwork:

I love the raw aggression in this piece and I really wanted to capture a bit of that in this model; the anger, the violence, and the pain of loosing your pack mates!

I acknowledge that the mini doesn't really resemble the artwork much! The swinging axe is as far as the similarities go, but you get the gist!

The bulk of the model is made from Space Wolf parts, cut, repositioned and modified in one way or another! The legs are from a SM Assault marine, and the base is from those awesome dudes over at Scibors Monstrous miniatures! I'm using large 40mm bases for all the 'Heros' in the army to help make them suitably heroic!

I'm currently in the process of making the legendary Arjac Rockfist! More on that soon!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

My First Finecast - Logan Grimnar

2011-10-10T12:00:00.001+01:00

I've finally bitten the bullet and taken on my first Finecast model. After all the bad reviews I've seen and heard, i was not looking forward to it!

I've mounted Logan on a Scibor Snow Base; suitably dramatic for a charicter of his stature! The smooth 'melted' bits on the base will be covered in snow-flock once done, so it'll fit in nicely with the rest of the army. As he's only got one foot firmly on the base, i've pinned him on.

Having inspected the model, i feel that i got off quite lightly. There was a defect on the Axe of Morkai handle, where it meets the hand. It was barley attached to the model, and fell away soon after i removed it from the packaging. I pinned it back in place and filled in the gaps with Green Stuff.

On the left leg there was a hell of a mould line, which revealed a 'trench' like defect beneath it. This was filled and filed quite easily.

Finally there was a small hole in the right ear of the pelt on Logan's back. It was to small to take a picture of, and was no problem to sort.

Overall, my opinion of Finecast is unchanged - its still a pile of shite! Although i got away with getting a model with minimal major defects. the overall quality is TERRIBLE! A lot of the 'smooth' armour surfaces had to be filed flat for one reason or another, and a fair bit of the details were filled with flash which had to be scooped out with the tip of a scalpel.

On the plus side, i heard a rumor that Finecast has its days numbered, and GW may be scrapping the whole thing. How true this is i don't know, as it seems unlikely to me that they would do this. On the other hand, given the quality of the product, they may be making a massive loss and discontinuation of the product may be the only viable option. I live in hope!!

Thankfully this is the only Finecast i need for this army. We'll see how it paints up over the next few days!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Second Drop Pod Complete

2011-10-07T12:00:00.001+01:00

The second and final Drop Pod for this army is done.

Much like the first. The only difference here is that i was a bit more confident with the weathering powers while doing the scorch marks. I was wary of overdoing the scorching, especially as it was on such a light base! I do like the look of this Pod though over the first, and will probably go back and add a bit more scorching onto the first later!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Terrain Made Easy: 40K Silo

2011-10-05T12:00:00.001+01:00

After the success of the Necron Obelisk i decided to start making my way through the pile of cans, canisters and containers that are piling up under my painting desk! As i toyed with a baked bean tin, and old GW idea surfaced!

Anyone who's been gaming for a while may remember this very simple piece of terrain: Tin Can Silo!

On the left we have your standard tin can; in this case, a baked bean can! In this tutorial I'll show you how i made the example on the right.

Firstly, i made a template. The picture below will enable you to print out a true-scale copy of it, allowing you to replicate it yourselves. Well, it came out in the right scale on my printer, so hopefully you'll have the same success!

Cut it out and stick it on some card. Don't waste your plasticard supplies, it works just fine on some cardboard from a cereal box!! (excuse the picture - sideways syndrome!)

Once dry, cut it out.

Wrap it around the tin can and stick it in place.

I then sprayed it in Boltgun Metal with an airbrush. I didn't bother with an undercoat, the paint goes on just fine without it.

Lastly, i gave it a heavy wash of black oil paint mixed with white spirit to make it nice and dirty!

A quick varnish one dry and your done! Quick, easy, and environmentally friendly! If your feeling really creative, you could add rivets, handrails, and a multitude of other details. I'm planning on making an Aquila stencil for my silos, and maybe adding some alpha-numerical designations to them as well!

Enjoy!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Rhino Rush!

2011-10-03T12:00:00.001+01:00

The Rhinos are done! Now the Grey Hunters won't have to walk to battle anymore! Take a look:

Rhino 1

Rhino 2

Front Armour Detail

Side Armour Detail

As far as paint schemes go, they're quite plain and bland. I'm really glad i added the Forgeworld doors now!! I threw around some embellishment ideas for a bit, but none of them really did it for me. So i went with my gut and these were the results. I am really pleased with them, but i won't be surprised if i look at them in a few months time and start accessorising! Im happy with the usual weathering that i've applied as well - clean vehicles just don't do it for me!

So the Space Wolf army project is blasting along at full steam, and the painting desk is now occupied by a half painted Drop Pod, the second for the army. I was planing to have a crack at Logan, but i decided to knock out the Pod quickly so it was out of the way!

Move Wolves soon!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Second Wolf Guard Terminator Squad Complete

2011-09-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

Well, they're sorta' complete! This squad is of course missing the legendary Arjac Rockfist, who'll be converted and painted separately. So for the time being, its a four-man show!

Here's all the Wolf Guard Terminators to date! Looking bad-ass!

On the table now is the pair of Rhinos that i pictured a few posts ago. Got a day off on Friday, so they'll get some attention. Then it'll be time for me to sample the notorious Finecast and tackle Logan Grimnar!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Wolf Guard Terminator Squad Complete

2011-09-21T12:00:00.004+01:00

Yesterday i woke up early, determined to get a squad of Wolf Guard done! Work started at around 0900, and by 2000 they were finished!

I'm very pleased with them and the way that the colour scheme translated so well onto the Terminator armour. I wasn't able to get the yellow and black scheme of the Wolf Guard on the left shoulder pad, as the Great Wolf transfer is black! To get aroound this, i split the colours between the shoulder pads. I also decided to make a feature our of the power weapons, and went with a nice frosty look! I love it!

With the release of Gears of War 3 yesterday, i can't see me getting much done over the next few days as i wile away the hours chopping Locust in half with a chainsaw while wearing my most satisfied smile!! Happy days!
Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - On the Table.....

2011-09-19T12:00:00.002+01:00

Since returning from my annual leave and getting back into work, i haven't had much solid painting time lately. As a result I've contented myself with building my newly arrived units in front of the TV!

5 Man Wolf Guard Terminator Squad. These guys are primed and base coated in Space Wolf Grey and are awaiting painting. The dude on the far right will be the one carrying the Cyclone Missile Launcher, once i find the rest of the bits!! I've got all the bits bar the base of the launcher for one, and all bar the base and back of the launcher for the other! They must be in that dam bits box somewhere! The search continues.....!

Here are the four members of the second Wolf guard Terminator Squad. Theres only four because the fifth will be Arjac Rockfist, and he'll require some converting and a bit more attention. I'll do him separately.

Here you can see where I've extended the Chainfists on these Terminators. To me they always looked woefully short!! It's not a new idea, but its one i like. I used the ends of some Grey Hunter chainswords to extend the 'Fists.

Two Rhinos. These will carry the Grey Hunter Squads. I slapped some Forgeworld Doors on them as well to jazz them up a bit! An army in my collection just doesn't feel right unless its got some Forgeworld in it!

Finally, the second Drop Pod. This was a B****rd to assemble for some reason. I probably cocked up the build somewhere along the line, but hey-ho! Also shown here is the first Drop Pod and the added detail of a Forgeworld Space Wold Icon. The second Pod will bear similar icons as well.

So plenty to do over the next couple of weeks! I'm hoping to get this army done within 4 weeks so i can use it at Club in the run up to Xmas. An optimistic target (even for me!) but this will give me plenty of time to play test it for Blog Wars II at the beginning of December, should i decide to take the infamous Vlka Fenryka!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Battle Report: Orks vs Imperial guard (Part 2)

2011-09-15T12:00:00.000+01:00

TURN 3 - ORKS
After an eventful Imperial turn, it was time for Gazkhull and his Warbosses to reply! With no further Ork reserves, it was straight into the Movement phase.

The first thing that Dai did was rally his fleeing Deffkopptas; easily done now they were within range of Gaz' himself! The Green Tide continues to advance up the side of the right flank, using their WAAA move in the this phase to save time! Not to be outdone, Gaz' also uses his WAAAA this turn, enabling the Warboss and his Nobz from the wrecked Trukk to get moving towards the Imperial lines. The surviving Trukkks continue up the middle while Zagstruck and his Stormboyz continues their advance up the edge of the opposite flank.

On the left flank, the heavily damaged (but far from destroyed!) Stompas grind into action. The Stompa closest to the middle of the table advances 6" (due to his Drive Damaged result) and disembarks its compliment of 8 Burna Boyz. The second Stompa follows suit, pivoting 45degrees and disembarking 12 Ork Nobz to its rear. The Ork forces occupying the far edge of the left flank remain stationary for the time being.

Nobz disembark from the Stompa

Its Dakka time, and the Lootaz on the left flank took full advantage of the kind Valkyrie pilots positioning, and took 36 shots at his rear armour, scoring 11 hits! not bad for Orks! This resulted in 3 Glancing Hits (Immobilised, Weapon Destroyed (Rocket Pod), and a Crew Shaken) and 3 Pen's (Weapon Destroyed (Rocket Pod), Crew Shaken, and a Crew Stunned) All in all, i think the Valk' got off lightly! While all this was going on, the Ork Wierdboy was going even more insane, and failed his Psychic Test, while the Shokk Atackk gun took a S7 shot at one of the Imperial Navy Punishers, inflicting a Crew Stunned. Good news for him! The right flank saw not shooting; everything either being out of range, or taking advantage of one WAAAA or another!!

The assault phase commenced on the left flank, seeing the nobz from the Stompa duel charge the Elysian and Vostroyan Melta Vet' teams, while the Burnaz from the other Stompa duel charged the Elysian Melt Vet's and their Vendetta. In the centre of the flank the Boyz squad charges one of the Elysian Vet' squads that disembarked from the Valkyrie. The Nobz easily wiped out both the Elysian and the Vostroyan squads that they duel charged, causing multiple casualties and forcing impossible leadership checks that, predictably, failed! The Boyz in the centre did likewise, killing off the entire squad of Elysians and taking only 1 casualty themselves. The Burnaz did equally well, wiping out the Elysian Vet's and inflicting a Crew Shaken result on the Vendetta. A good round of assault for the Orks!

The Orks after their sucessful assault

TURN 3 - IMPERIALS
Now it was time for the last of the Imperials reserves to arrive! Originally we intended for these reserves to arrive from the same table edges as the Orks, but due to the slow rate of advance by the Orks, and the potential for the Orks be be unfairly caught between a 'Hammer and Anvil', we decided that these reserves should come on randomly on the long table edges. Here's how they arrived!

Praetorian moves to cover the centre of the field on his flank, and the Baneblade rolls on while its gunners rubbed their hands with glee, and targeted the Green Tide! In between the shadows of these leviathans came Captain Gerek in his Taros, moving on 12" and targeting the Green Tide with his grenade launcher.

Krieg Armoured Fists Squads arrive

Eliments of the Krieg Armoured Regiment arrive

A Squadron of Krieg Leman Russ arrive behind Ork lines

The Krieg Baneblade eyes up the Green Tide!

Praetorian eyes up everything!

The Elysian Vultures continued their push onto the board, moving flat out to secure the Temple entrance with their Punisher Cannons, while their Imperial Navy brother took cover behind a building to weather the now functioning Stompa weaponry, leaving his Stunned buddy where he is! The surviving Elysian squad on the left flank reembarks onto their Valkyrie and gets the hell out of Dodge, moving at top speed away from the Stompas. The Vendettas that still functioned held their position and continued to target the rear of the Stompas.

Elysian Vultures secure the entrance of the Temple

Elysian Valkyrie retreats from the Stompas!

Imperial Navy Vultures take cover

Vendettas press the advantage and continue to target the rear of the Stompas

On the right flank Imperial Armoured elements formed a gun line, ready to receive the charge of the green hoards!

Imperial gun line

The Vendettas were now committed, and targeted the Stompas in the shooting phase. The Elysian Vendetta near the centre of the left flank scored 1 Pen' and destroyed its Supa Gattla, leaving it with nothing but minor offensive ranged weaponry. The second Elysian Vendetta scored 1 Glancing hit, inflicting a Gun Crew Shaken result, but also scored a Pen, managing to remove the final Structure Point from the rusting leviathan! I rolled a 6 on the Catastrophic Damage Table, causing a huge 3D6" S9 AP2 explosion! The inferno travelled 13", killing 9 Nobz, 8 Gretchin, and 7 Ork boyz. Not to mention Immobilising 1 of the Vendettas and Stunning the remaining Valkyrie. Despite the carnage, the result was a good one for the Imperials!

Pre-Stompa BOOM!

Post-Stompa BOOM!

(sorry 'bout the pics; they're doing their sideways thang again!)

The Baneblade targets the Green Tide, and its mighty guns spoke! 39 Orks died to the Baneblade Cannon, but only an additional 2 were killed by its secondary weapons. On the opposite side of the board, the Armoured Regiment had minimal success. The Demolisher Squadron only managed to kill 6 Stormboyz, while the other Russ Squadron couldn't hit their intended target of Gaz's Battlewagon. The Company Command Tank had more luck, scoring a pen' on Gaz's Wagon with its Vanquisher cannon, but the Big Mek's Custom Force field saved it! The Gun line in the centre performed poorly, the combined firepower of a Russ, 2 Chimeras and 2 Sentinels just managing to bring down a Nob from the Warbosses retinue in the centre. This particular Warboss became known as 'Bulletproof'!!

The Baneblade targets the Green Tide

Green Tide before Baneblade....

Green Tide after!

Lastly, it was the turn of the mighty Praetorian and the guns of the God-Machine spoke! The Gatling Blaster targeted the Green Tide, scoring 69 hits, 54 wounds, but only 21 casualties due to the presence of a Pain Boy! The Apocalypse missile Launcher added its firepower to the devastation killing off a further 15 from the Green Tide. With the Princeps' patience running short, he ordered the Moderatii to target Gaz's Battlewagon with the Laser Blaster! 3 Pen's were scored on Gaz's wagon and a hit was also scored on the adjacent Truckk - both exploded!! With a satisfied smirk, the Princeps set about reloading his guns for the next salvo!
This ended the shooting phase, and the Gretchin on the left flank were the only unit to flee. No assaults were made.

TURN 4 - ORKS

The last turn - it was all or nothing for the Orks if they wanted to take the Temple!

On the right flank, the Stormboyz moved to engage the Russ squadron that thinned their numbers last turn, while the Deffkoptas in the centre re-routed to tackle the Russ Squadron that appeared behind heir lines. They were joined by the last surviving Trukk, who's Nobz and warboss deployed in front of the Tanks. Gaz and his nobz were now on foot and continued to advance up the middle in an effort to kill SOMETHING, as did the now Truckk-less Warbosses and their surviving retinues. These were followed by the Boyz squads, and the Green Tide continued its implacable advance.

The Orks advance on the right flank

The Warboss and the Deffkopptas move to engage the Russ Squadron

Zagstruck and his Stormboyz charge the Russ

On the left flank the Ork survivors move to engage the Vendettas while the surviving Stompa hobbled towards the newly arrive Krieg Armoured Fist squads. The Boyz and their Wierdboy held position as did the Kanz.

The Stompa advances!

In the shooting phase, the Wierdboy tries once again to use his powers, and this time is successful! Dai rolls a 5 giving him an "'Ere We Go"! For those unfamiliar with it, the Wierdboy and the squad hes attached to may Deep Strike to a new location anywhere on the table! Dai places the Wierdboy and his 30 boyz close to the Temple and very close to the 2 Imperial Navy Punishers! Unfortunately for him, they scatter poorly, and he rolls a 'misplaced' on the mishap table, enabling me to place the unit as far away from me as possible! i place the unit in the diagonal opposite corner of the table, out of harms way!

This is where he was MENT to be...

...and this is where they ended up!

The Shokk Gun turns its attention to the Elysian Valkyrie to its front and manages to inflict a Shaken result, while the nearby Lootaz target the immobilised Valkyrie to their rear and score 1 Pen, destroying its second Rocket Pod. The surviving Stompa turns whats left of its mighty weaponry towards the Krieg Armoured Fist Squads, using its Supa Gattla to create havoc! The weapon managed to get off multiple shots at each of the 4 Chimeras before its ammo ran dry! This was the result!

(Another sideways thang...!)

With the access points blocked by the edge of the table, it looked like the Krieg were going to be sitting this one out!

On the right flank the Deffkpptas score 1 Pen against the Russ Squadron, immobilising it and subsequently destroying it as per the 'Squadron' rules. The Lootaz were finally i range of something and took lout their frustrations on a pain of Elysian Sentinels, wrecking them both. Gaz and his Nobz used their combi-rokkits to Immobilise and Shake the Vostroyan Chimera to its from, taking both the vehicle and the squad out of action for the next turn.

In the assault phase, the Deffkopptas on the right flank assaulted the Russ squadron, but caused no damage. The Warboss and his nobz showed them how it was done, scoring 2 glancing hits and inflicting another immobilised/wrecked result and a weapon destroyed result! Only 1 Russ remained. The Stormboyz fared equally well against their Russ squadron, causing the explosion of 1 leman russ, but loosing a Stormboy in the process!
On the left the Burnaz assaulted the closest Elysian Vendetta, hitting 15 times, but only scoring 2 glances - for which Dai rolled snake-eyes!! The Vostroyan Vendetta took hits from the Boyz squad, causing 6 glances but inflicting no more than crew shaken/stunned results! The 2 surviving Nobz had better luck, wrecking the other Elysian Vendetta.

Orks assault the flyers

TURN 4 - IMPERIALS

Literally the last throw of the dice, it was time for the Imperials to ensure their sacred Temple is not defiled by the Green Menace!
The Elysian Vultures moved off their position at the entrance of the Temple to bring their Punisher Cannons into range of the Lootaz sheltering in ruins on the left flank. Also on the left flank, the only mobile Vendetta moves flat out towards the safety of the Vostroyan gun lines, while the Vultures of the Imperial Navy move onto the left flank to engage the Shockk Attakk Gun. Over on the right, the last surviving Russ that was assaulted by the Deffkopptas and the Wasboss attempts a Tank Shock on the Deffkopptas (the tank commander was executed shortly after the battle for such a foolish maneuver!) The Deffkoptas pass their leadership test, and the Russ passes by harmlessly. Close by, the Company Command Tank turns to target the Stompa, while the Demolisher Russ Squadron retreats from Zagstruck and his Stormboys to get a clear shot. Praetorian and the Baneblade hold position to continue pounding the Orks with their guns.

The Imperial flyer's move into attack positions

Elysian Vultures target the Lootaz

Imperial Navy Vultures target the Big Mek and his Shockk Attakk Gun

The foolish Command Tank Tank Shocks the Deffkopptas

The Demolishers line up Zagstruck

The final shooting phase saw both pairs of Vultures close on their chosen targets. The first Imperial Navy Vulture opens fire on the Shockk Attakk Gun with its Punisher Cannons, the gunner confident of his kill! Until the Big Mek emerges unscathed, shielded by the Imperial Bastion it sheltered in! As the Mek begins to roar with laughter, the second Vulture banks sharply around his comrade, and emits a roar of its own! The Meks triumph is short lived, and he is quickly turned to paste!! On the other side of the board, the Elysian Vultures unleash 40 twin linked Punisher Cannon shots at the Lootaz on the left flank, wiping out all 12 of them. Just behind them, the Krieg Command Tank took a shot at the Stompa, scoring 1 Pen and inflicting a Driver Stunned result.
At the rear of the Temple the Vostroyan and Elysian guns were chipping away at the green hoard. The Medusa and 2 Sentinels kill 12 Orks from the Green Tide, while Captain Gerek and the Elysian Sentinels kill 5. The Vostroyan Leman Russ in the centre of the right flank targets 'bulletproof' and his Nobz in the centre, killing the 3 remaining Nobz and wounding the Warboss! This guy just keeps on comin'!

The Krieg Baneblade deems the Green Tide sufficiently thinned for now, and turns its attention to the Boyz at the centre-rear of the right flank, killing 16 of their number and causing them to flee. Finally Praetorian opened up, killing 10/12 Lootaz on the right flank (they had cover saves!) with its Apocalypse Missile Launcher. The Gatling Blaster wiped out the newly arrived Wierdboy and his 30 man squad, scoring 5/6 direct hits on the scatter dice! Lastly, it was time to see of old 'Bulletproof' - the weapon of choice: the Strength 'D' Laser Blaster! Suffice to say, he didn't survive THAT one!!

The final positions of both Ork and Imperial forces:

So ended the battle of The Temple of the Emperor Ascendant! The shrine was secure and the Ork army was in tatters! Much merriment was had by all!

This was definitely a fun Apoc' game to play, and it made a pleasant change to get more than 2 turns in as well! The game flowed really well with only 2 players, allowing us to crack on quickly and decisively with our turns without having to consult other players. As for the scenario; I'd definitely like to have a firmer and more well thought out set of rules done before the game. We had a rough idea of what we wanted (very loosely based on the Rynns World novel) but as the game progressed we saw the problems, and so made up rules on the fly! It did work though, and nothing a good bit of prior planning wont fix!

So i hope you've all enjoyed reading this two part report! I love playing Apoc' games and can never really get enough of them! I hope its not to long before the next one!
The GunGrave

Apocalypse Battle Report: Orks vs Imperial Guard (Part 1)

2011-09-13T12:00:00.001+01:00

Today i met up with Dai, a buddy from my gaming club, to have a long overdue Apoc' game! I was more excited than usual as I'd be using the 'Temple of the Emperor Acendant' in today's game!

So, we knocked together a quick scenario which saw the Imperial forces struggle to defend the Temple placed in the centre of the board while Ork forces poured in from the flanks! The surrounding terrain was made up pf craters and ruined buildings; the remains of a once proud Imperial city.

A token Imperial force was to deploy in the vicinity of the Temple, while a small Ork scouting force would deploy along the two short table edges within a 24" deployment zone. The idea of the game would be escalation, where each army commits more and more forces in order to achieve their objective as the turns progress. Imperials would not receive any reinforcements until Turn 3, while the Orks could receive reinforcements at the beginning of Turn 2.
Imperial Forces:

The Ork WAAAAAA!

The Battlefield! Shot of the Left Flank:

Shot of the Right Flank:

My Vostroyan 1750pt army was tasked with the initial defence of the Temple, and deployed evenly around the edges of the Temple to face both attacking fronts. Dai deployed a total of 18 Bikes with Wazdakkka, 9 Deffkoptas, 24 Lootaz, and a Big Mek with Shokk Attakk Gun! A squad of Ork Kommando's led by Snikrot Infiltrated on the left flank very close to the boundaries of the Temple. Just a terrifyingly small fraction of his Ork WAAAA!

Vostroyan Deployment

Command Squad at the entrance of the Temple

Ork deployment Right Flank

Ork deployment Left Flank

Ork Kommando's

We forwent Strategic Assents as we thought it would take away from the scenario that we were trying to create, and decided that Dai should go first! The Orks can never wait to get stuck in after all!!

TURN 1 - ORKS

On the left flank, Wazdakka and his mob of Bikers Turbo Boosted straight towards the entrance of the Temple and the Command Squad defending it, while a 5 strong unit of Deffkoptas moved up the table edge on the same flank. A 12 strong squad of Looterz stood on over watch in a city ruin, while the Shokk Attakk Gun did the same from the top of a Bastion. The Kommando's sneakily snuck forwards through the ruins and into charge range of an unsuspecting Leman Russ! On the right flank, the Ork forces did much the same, with the Bikes Turbo Boosting forwards while a 12 strong squad of Looterz covered their advance. The Vostroyans looked on nervously through the banks of smog coming from the Ork war machines!

Right flank advance

Bikerz advance on the Temple entrance

Kommando's sneaking through the ruins

The shooting phase saw the Deffkoptas on the right flank open fire on a Leman Russ, but inflicting no damage. The Looterz on the same flank targeted a Chimera with 36 shots, hitting with 4, causing 1 glancing hit, leaving the vehicle Shaken. Meanwhile on the left flank, Wazdakka shot enthusiastically at a Leman Russ, scoring hits but inflicting no damage. The Looterz took a handful of shots at the Command Squad guarding the entrance to the Temple, killing 2 Snipers! The Company Commanders Leadership kept the squad in the fight. Finally, the Shokk Attakk Gun powered up and took a S6 shot at the Medusa, but scored no damage.

Only 1 assault occurred in this turn, with the Kommando's only just making their charge though difficult terrain to engage the Leman Russ! The Kommando's attacked with Stikk Bombz causing no damage, while Snikrot scored 2 Pen's with his Power Klaw, but rolled 'snake-eyes' on the vehicle damage table! Oh, how i laughed, and Dai had to be content with a Shaken result! The Emperor was truly watching over the Vostroyans! This concluded Ork Turn 1!

TURN 1 - IMPERIAL

The Vostroyans react to the closing threat of the Orks, and all units on the left flank retreat from the Kommando's and the fast approaching Ork Bikerz! The stunned Russ moves at Combat speed, rolling a 4 and reversing 10" away from the attacking Kommando's, giving nearby units the opportunity to target them. The nearby Chimera pivots and deploys the Vostroyan squad which take aim at the Kommandos, as do the Sentinels. On the right flank both Chimeras move to engage their respective Biker squads and deploy the troops within while the Leman Russ pivots to target the incoming Deffkoptas. The 2 Sentinels on this flank also move to engage the closest Bikerz with their heavy weapons.

Vostroyan forces edge away from the Kommando's

Vostroyans disembark to target the Ork Bikerz

The guns of the Guard now had a chance to reply to the Ork threat! The left flank saw the Command Squad Snipers target the Biker Mob to their front and kill 1 of their number, more than the Plasma Cannon Sentinel managed despite a direct hit! The Sentinels Autocannon-totting partner targets the Kommando squad to its left as does the Chimera, killing 2 between them. The Vostroyan squad added their firepower to the task, rapid firing their Plasma Guns and Lasguns (with a Melta in there for good measure!) killing all remaining Kommando's and taking Snikrot down to 1 wound.

Meanwhile the forces on the right flank were reaping a fearsome tally from the Ork invaders! The Chimera and its troop squad in the centre target a 5 mand Biker squad and wipe them out, the Bikerz failing all their cover saves!! A good job to, as both Sentinels miss the Bikerz with their heavy weapons! The Leman Russ targets the Deffkoptas to the left of the now-expired Bikerz, killing 1 and causing them to flee a mere 6". On the opposite side of the right flank the Chimera and its troop squad manage to kill 3 Ork Bikerz with their fire but they pass their leadership tests and stay put.

With no assault from the Guard, this concluded Turn 1!

TURN 2 - ORKS

It was time for the Ork reinforcements to arrive! The diagram below show where the Ork forces arrived:

On the right flank the Green Tide arrived, and Dai performed his 'WAAAA' (which the Green Tide gets every turn) in order to save time, and moved onto the table 12". Gaz' and his Bully Boyz move at full speed onto the table in the traditional Ork manner right up the middle of the right flank, followed by the Boyz squad. Zagstruck and his Stormboyz take the far side of the flank.

Gaz and his Bully Boyz lead the charge!

The Green Tide!

On the left, the heavy stuff came stomping in! Led by the 2 hulking Stompas, 60 boyz, 3 Killer Kanz, and the canon fodder Gretchin move cautiously onto the board!

Further movement on the right flank. The fleeing Deffkoptas fail to regroup and flee a further 14", right into the path of Gaz's Battlewagons!! The remaining Biker on the far right moved to engage the Chimera and the infantry squad, under the cover of the still stationary Looterz.

As for the left flank! The large Bike squad moves closer to the Company Command Squad at the entrance of the Temple, while Wazdakka breaks off and makes for the Leman Russ. A 5 strong unit of Deffkoptas continues to move cautiously up the edge of the flank, while Snikrot moves closer to the Vostroyan squad that slew his comrades!

The bikerz close with the Command Squad

Wazdakka turbo boosts towards the Russ

The Deffkoptas continue to edge around the ruins

The shooting phase. The Wierdboy that was accompanying the newly arrived Boyz squad on the left flank decided to exercise his unusual powers and rolled a "frazzle" - with nothing in range, he decided to use it on one of his boyz!! Only joking, but that would've been funny! The Shokkk Attakk Gun powered up once again, generating a S8 shot which was flung at the Medusa, but missed. The Looterz on the left targeted the Plasma Cannon Sentinel, scoring 2 Pen's with their 24 shots, but only managed to Stun it. The Deffkoptas who were now in range of the Medusa decided to take a pop at the Medusa with their Rokkits, but missed. The large Biker Squad targeted the Company Command Squad to their front and slew the remaining 2 Snipers, and wounded the Company Commander. Although standing alone, the Commander took it all in his stride, passing his leadership test! Wazdakka used his Dakka on the Leman Russ but only scored the paintwork.

Then it was the turn of the insane constructions of the Ork Mekboyz, and the Stompas opened fire! The first Stompa targeted the Russ with his Supa Rokkit but failed to do any damage, while his Deff Kannon took a shot at the Medusa. This scattered and scored a half strength hit on the rear armour but caused no damage. Many Gretchin were killed for their incompetence! The second Stompa fared no better, failing to damage the Russ with its Supa Rokkit and missing it with its Deff Kannon! More Gretchin died.....!

The only shooting that occurred on the right flank came from the lone Biker moving to engage the Chimera and its troop squad, and he managed to slay one guardsman before his assault!

Snikrot assaulted the Vostroyan squad on the left flank, killing 1 Guardsman. The Vostroyans fixed bayonets and charged in to avenge their failed comrade, inflicting multiple wounds and slaying the beast! The lone biker on the right flank charged into the Vostroyan squad, forgetting that he had a Power Klaw, and was slain before he could use it!

TURN 2 - IMPERIAL

It was at this point we decided that the Imperial Air Assets should arrive, as they'd make better time than the land based forces. We also decided that, due to their mobility, the aerial units could enter play from whatever board edge they wished. So 2 Elysian Vendettas, 2 Elysian Valkyries, and 1 Vostroyan Vendetta arrived behind the Stompas, deploying their Melta-totting squads. The 2 Elysian Vulture Gunships with their twin linked Punisher Cannons arrived near the entrance of the Temple with the Ork Bikerz in their sights, while their Imperial Navy counterparts arrived at the rear entrance of the Temple. An Elysian Sentinel Squadron Deep Striked in the middle of the left flank, but scattered poorly, resulting in a 'Misplacement' on the mishap table! Dai decided not to put the squadrons Multi Melta and Heavy Bolter to close to his lines, and instead placed them near the Imperial lines on the right flank. The second Elysian Sentinel squadron scattered only a short distance, and arrived safely in the midst of the Imperial lines on the right flank. The final unit to arrive was the Elysian Ground Scanner, which arrived on target right behind Wazdakka! Those boys were putting an awful lot of faith into their Vostroyan brothers!!

Arrival of the Air Cavalry

Veteran squads deploy to tackle the Stompas

Veterans in support of the Melta Teams

Elysian Vultures target the Bikerz

Elysian Sentinels following their misplacement! The secon squadron arrived safely

Imperial Navy Vultures target the Deffkoptas

On the right flank, both Vostroyan squads reembarked into their Chimera transports to better weather the coming green storm! The Sentinels from the left flank move around the back of the Temple to lend their firepower to the right flank. The Chimeras, Russ's and Medusa simply pivoted to engage their most immediate threat.

The shooting phase. On the left flank, the combined fire of the Infantry squad and Chimera kill Wazdakka, while the Vultures of the Imperial Navy make short work of the Deffkoptas with their twin linked Punisher Cannons! Never leave home without them! Their Elysian counterparts fared equally well, killing all but 1 of the Ork Bikerz approaching the entrance of the Temple, subsequently failing their leadership check and fleeing 14". The Leman Russ took a pot shot at the Killer Kanz with its Battlecannon, destroying 1 of them.

The Russ scores a lucky hit at 70" and destroys a Kan

Now it was time to see if the Elysians gambit would pay off! An Elysian Vendetta Targeted the rear of the first Stompa, scoring 1 Pen and inflicting a Drive Damaged result. The Elysian squad and their Meltas fared better, scoring 3 Pen's and inflicting a Crew Shaken, Weapon Destroyed (Deff Kannon) and a Chain Reaction! Rolling for a second time I scored a gun Crew Shaken result, for which i chose the Supa Gattla!

The second Stompa took even more punishment, this time from the Vostroyan Vendetta, the Elysian Vendetta, and 2 Vet' squads with Meltas. The Vostroyan Vendetta scored 1 Pen' with its Lascannons inflicting a Driver Stunned result. The Vet' squad scored 3 Pen's with their Meltas, removing 2 Structure Points and inflicting a Gun Crew Shaken result (Deff Kannon) Not bad!

The Elysian Vendetta now had a crack at the Stompa scoring 1 Pen and removing a Structure Point. The Stompa only had 1 ST remaining. The Elysian Melta squad scored 2 Pen's and a Glance, resulting in a Drive Damaged, Weapon Destroyed (Deff Kannon), and a Weapon Crew Shaken (Supa Gattla) Another good result! The 2 nearby Valkyries and their squads took aim at the 30 boyz to their front killing 15 in total.

On the relatively quiet right flank, a Chimera destroyed a Trukk with its Heavy bolters, killing 4 Boyz in the resulting explosion and wounding the Warboss within. The Green tide escaped damage due to the poor shooting from the Sentinels!

All in all, a good round of shooting from the Imperials! With no assaults, that concluded Turn 2!

That also concludes Part 1 of this battle report! With over 70 photos of this battle, it'll be better for everyone if i split it in two! Later this week I'll have Part 2 ready for your perusal!

The GunGrave

Necron Obelisk

2011-09-12T12:00:00.001+01:00

So, a random Monday smattering of terrain for you dear readers!

I've been hoarding empty tin cans, coffee tins and a bewildering array of containers for some time now. The reason being I’m stocking up on materials for the next Apocalypse Terrain project: Promethium Refinery, but that’s a way off yet. In the meantime i decided to try and slim down my junk collection a bit with a Necron Obelisk!

So this is what we have: a shower gel bottle ('Original Source' if you’re interested!), and it just screamed Necron Obelisk at me! As I’m still waiting on the next delivery of Space Wolves, i thought today would be a good time to do something.....evil.....!

Firstly i made a base out of a bit of chipboard, cut circular and bevelled using a Jigsaw. I used a Palm Sander to tidy it up a bit.

I then based it.

While the base was drying, i designed my Necron sigil on some thick plasticard.

This was then super glued to the bottle. I had to use elastic bands to hold it in place for an hour or so, as the superglue wouldn’t take for some reason!

One sinister paintjob later and voila!

All in all it took me about 2 hours to do (including drying time). Quick, easy and effective!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Drop Pod

2011-09-09T12:00:00.000+01:00

While Maelstrom Games processes my monster Space Wolf order, I took the time to crack on with a Drop Pod that previously served my Red Scorpions army. I've been chipping away at this Pod for about a week now, and I put the finishing touches on it yesterday!

Plenty of burn marks on the hull to mark its passage through the atmosphere, and plenty of weathering on the doors to. This Pod is one of two that will be in the army, both transporting my Wolf Guard Terminators into battle!

With any luck I'll have the rest of the Space Wolves here in the next few days. If not, then expect to see some more, long overdue, work on the Death Korps repaint!

The GunGrave

Taking Good Photos: Ajusting White Balance

2011-09-07T12:00:00.000+01:00

I was asked by a reader how you would go about adjusting the White Balance in order to eliminate that yellow-like tinge that you can sometimes get on your mini photos. This is a skill that I've only recently learned, and it has changed the way i take mini photos! Now you can do the same!

The camera i use is an SLR Cannon 1000D, although I'm sure the standard SLR menu set up isn't to dissimilar from the one shown here. Your looking for a button labeled "WB" - which (you guessed it!) stands for White Balance.

Push it!

Once in, you want to set it to "Custom White Balance". For this camera, its the far right setting. NOTE: if you use your camera for more than just mini photos, you'll need to reset your White Balance back to "Auto White Balance" found in the same menu. If you don't then your pictures will be VERY white!!

Next, you need to take a sample photo of your display area. The reason you need to do this is so you can tell the camera what 'White' looks like for your photos. I simply stick a sheet of white A4 onto the back of the light box and take a standard shot. In my light box, white looks like this:

Yeah, i know! No wonder I'm getting a yellow tinge on my photos! You'll need to keep hold of this image for the next step.

So now you need to tell the camera that this is 'white', and input this into the SLR. To do this push the "MENU" button (found on the top-left corner of my SLR). Scroll through your menu options until you find the "CUSTOM WB" option. Select it. This will then take you to through the images stored on the memory card. Find the picture you took of the A4 paper, and then select it. You'll get a confirmation message which you'll need to confirm.

Now your ready to go!

The SLR will now compensate for that yellow tinge now that you've told the camera what 'white' looks like in your photo area. Your photos should now be a lot clearer and cleaner!

Have a crack and let me know how you get on!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Grey Hunter Squads Complete

2011-09-05T04:00:00.001+01:00

The bulk of the infantry painting is now done!

Grey Hunter Squad 1

Grey Hunter Squad 2

They're not going to win any Golden Daemon awards any time soon, but I thinkthey're a really nice gaming standard. I'm looking forward to trying out thiscolour scheme on some Terminators soon!

So whats on the table now? As I had a spare Drop Pod (formally of the RedScorpions chapter!) knocking around under my desk, I've decided to do a bitmore work on that! I've just got to add the shading and weathering to this Podand it'll be done and ready for the Wolf Guard Squads!

I've ordered most of the remaining models i need for this army, so hopefullythey'll be here later this week. I think this army will probably be done in amonth or two once they arrive. Good job too, as I've got my eye on an AstralClaws army next using the Imperial Armour list! If you haven't seen the latestAstral Claws models in Fridays Forgeworld newsletter, then head over to thewebsite and have a look - they're pretty sweet!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - More Grey Hunters.....

2011-08-30T12:00:00.001+01:00

So yeah, 5 more Grey hunters are done with only 5 more to go.

The real thing i wanted to show off was the improvement in picture quality. This is down to Mrs GunGrave's sister giving me a tutorial in the use of White Balance.

I'm sure that this is all old news for most of you, but I was so pleased that I've got a solution to my yellow-tingged pictures! An adjustment of the white balance completely eradicated this problem, giving me much cleaner pictures!

Anyhoo, with the completion of the 2 Grey hunters squads looming, I'm starting to think about the next units to paint for this army. Traditionally, I like to get all the Troop choices out of the way first, so i think I'll be cracking on with the two five man Terminator Squads that are on the to-do list!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Another 5 Grey Hunters

2011-08-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

With the Cathedral project squared away, its time to focus on the Space Wolves for a bit. 'Blog Wars II' is set for the 5th of December so i wanna get this army ready for then, just in case i decide to take it over my Guard!

So what we have here today is another 5 Grey Hunters. Dunno whats happened to the gold in this picture - its gone all yellow! Gonna have to get this photo thang sorted out!

Anyhoo, I'm really happy with how this colour schemes going. I was a bit unsure at the start but I'm really diggin' the classic Wolves look! Its nice and easy as well; the next 5 Wolves are nearly done already! 5 more after that and the Grey Hunters will be complete!

Also, I've tweaked the rules for the Cathedral a bit following some excellent feedback from a few readers! The rules set has a little bit more meat on it now!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave

'Temple of the Emperor Acendant' Apocalypse Data Sheet

2011-08-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

Last night i knocked out a quick data sheet for the Apocalypse Scale Cathedral I completed yesterday. Take a look and see what you guys think!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Gothic Cathedral Complete!

2011-08-15T13:56:00.000+01:00

Its been a bit of a slog over the last month and a half, but now i am pleased to report that the Gothic Cathedral Project is now complete!

Font view

Rear view

Instead of blogging every little update over the last 2 weeks, i just decided to press on and get the thing completed. Here are a few of the last bits that were done to complete the project.

The Pews. They're in place and washed with oil paint which has given them a really good time-weathered look. I decided to make a barricade out of the pews near the entrance of the Cathedral. A hurried defence for some beleaguered defenders!

The Alter. This was made out of left over Balsa Wood. I made the simple shape, then got a shred of old t-shirt and cut it to shape. this was then soaked in PVA glue, draped over the alter, and left to dry overnight. A quick spray of Macherite Red and a few embellishments and its done! Quick and simple.

Purity Seals. Where the prayers of the faithful are left in hope of an answer. Simply made from green stuff and strips of paper, then washed with oil paint. A nice touch i thought!

Relic. I needed to find something to fill the space at the back of the Cathedral, so a hanging Aquila Relic worked nicely. Excuse the picture - i had to shove the camera inside and try and take a picture blind! This was the best i could do! Its a bit small, but i didn''t want to make a home-made large Aquila and risk it looking a bit shoddy.

Finally, the roof! The solid roof idea was abandoned some time ago, mainly due to the irregular shape of the walls. I figured a ruined roof would save time and hastle, and enhance the playability of the piece as a whole. I've gone for 2 large ruined sections and 2 small ruined sections. I installed a plasticard base onto some plastic T-Bar and then glued plasticard tiles too it. A quick coat of Charadon Granite and an oil paint wash and its done! The T-Bar was undercoated in Scorched Brown and then attacked with some rust coloured weathering power. Where there isn't any ruined roof sections, theres a rusty T-Bar instead!

So with all those bits in place, its DONE! As much as I've enjoyed this project, I'm glad its complete. Some things can really rumble on! So what now? Well, the Space Wolves project is still in its infancy and needs a bit of attention. That will be my main priority for now. Saying that, I'll probably begin planning my next Apocalypse Terrain project: A Promethium Refinery! This project will be even larger than this one, covering a 12x6ft area!! More on that as it develops over the next few months!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Gothic Cathedral Pt 7

2011-08-03T12:00:00.001+01:00

Theres been some real progress on the Cathedral in the last week or so, and I'm not to far off completion!

I've got the last of the large flying buttresses on and undercoated:

I've blocked out the colours:

And I've washed the whole thing with an oil-paint-wash! This stage really helped re-define the 'crazy paving' on the base as well.

I decided not to dry brush the whole thing and instead relied on a heavy wash to pick out the detail. Besides, if the wash doesn't quite cut it, then i can always add a dry brush layer. At the moment i think the wash will do, but i guess we'll see once its dried properly.

I've been thinking about the interior a lot as well. I'm going to scrap the balconies, and theres two reasons for this. Firstly, playability. Secondly, space. There wont be any room for the intended spiral staircases, and in think ladders would look a bit shoddy! I think that the lack of balconies will make the interior space much easier to play on as well. Again, these can always be added later if theres a dire need for them after play testing.

So between bouts of thinking, i cracked on with the pews. These were easy enough to make. I made them out of Balsa Wood rather than plasticard. This will save me having to make the pews look 'woody'! I made as many as i could out of the strip of wood i bought, and got 18 out of it.

I don't want the whole Cathedral filled with pews, but a scattering of them! Some will also be made into barricades and some will be smashed up! Presumably during the course of the war, they were scavenged, stolen or vaporised!

Here's the pieces i used:

A scale shot with a Krieg Commissar:

And in the actual Cathedral:

I used an airbrush to spray them with Bestial Brown. These will be shaded later with an oil-paint-wash, probably after they're glued in place.

(Dammit, the pictures doing some sort of side-ways thing...!)

So that's where I'm at now! Theres an Alter to build, some ruins and rubble to add to the interior, and a few statues to buy and paint for the 'front porch'! Then the final (and maybe the most difficult bit) - the ruined roof!

The GunGrave

Vlka Fenryka - Grey Hunters

2011-08-01T12:00:00.001+01:00

I've been chipping away at these guys since i completed the test mini, and today saw them finished!

Aside from the guy in the middle who looks like he has a deformed face, I'm really pleased with them. The colour scheme has been replicated easily and was pretty quick to do. Again, i really like the classic wolves look with the pale grey, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks on a vehicle - a Drop Pod is on the table at the moment, volunteering for that experiment!

I'm just trying to find a Melta gun at the mo' so i can finish building the other 5 men of this Grey Hunters squad, and then I'll start on their paint job!

Until next winter.....

The GunGrave