The weather on the weekend was fairly bleak so i managed to get engrossed in painting for several decent sessions.
Result... pretty much got the Custodes light units done.
Had a little finishing up to do today and still need to apply the clear protective coat (ran out) and magnets. Aside from that they're very close to boxable.
[20200226: two coats of stormshield done]
[20200227: magnets glued to base bottoms]
I started with a light coat of black, then leadbelcher over everything. After that a moderate coat of the yellow contrast paint. This ended up a little 'greener' and duller than i was after. I was definitely not after something ganga bling but wasn't quite right.
I dry brushed on some metallic gold which livened it up enough. Pics don't really pick up the subtleties here.
Wont go step by step through the rest of the process but I managed to establish a decent 'painting formula', which i'll use when doing the vehicles.
The spear guys at the front. Swords at the back.
The other spears at the front. Guns at the back. For the Sagitarrum (gun guys) I dry brushed some bright silver on the helmets and pauldrons to create a bit of difference and also to reflect the full size models. Pretty happy with them
The Xiphons turned out pretty good. Worked a wing motif in there, based on a fairly common iconography used on Thunderbolts. Doesn't fit as nicely as on the Thunderbolts but still works I think.
The sword infantry are my favourite units in the army and turned out great. I freestyled a bit of detail on the shields to try to reflect the quite ornate aquila design used on the 28mm version. At arms length it'll be fine.
The light jet bikes actually turned out quite nice with a bit of paint. A touch of silver here and there brightened up some details and created contrast.
As did the heavy jet bikes. Not perfect prints and could have done better with full supports probably, but good enough for arms length use.
Still have the vehicles to go so some work to go before the project's anywhere near complete, but... getting there.
Until next time...
First Blackstone session after a few weeks off.
Safe to say that we've got our 'admin' processes sorted and we really pounded through some maps this evening.
We arrived in the standard entrance point; Passage 23. This thre two random combats at us, first an 'ambush' combat...
and then a 'regular' combat...
Despite warming up with generally rubbish dice rolls (especially shooting dice) we managed to get through these without any wounds. The enemies were not particularly tough and to be honest we've kind of optimised the explorer crew and our MO with them.
Thence, we arrived in Chamber 7...
which we also crushed...
This one had Beastmen in it which were scary, but they didn't manage to do us much in the way of actual harm.
Through Passage 14, which had us shooting at each other in a fit of madness. And on to Chamber 3...
We selected out exit point, aiming for the next shrine and set to work.
This map had some negavolt cultists which again are quite scary in close combat, but we managed to get through the map clinically and without picking up any grievous wounds.
All of these maps so far we have done before. Probably worth considering expending some clues to pop up somewhere more practical next time around. Anyway, we collectively picked up a decent haul of loot so when we get back to Precipice next time we'll have some good trade options (hopefully).
Missionary about to flame a negavoltist through a corridor...
Our progress this evening is highlighted in green text. Everything we did, we'd done before. Our next session has us entering Passage 16 which has 4 random challenges - which seems quite a lot, but [shrug] all good fun.
We're aiming for the 'top right' section of the board where there should be the 3rd shrine.
Without wanting to jinx us we should probably be able to get pretty close to the next shrine without having to return to Precipice (thus making the reinforcements harder etc).
Below is the current states of our explorers with loot and so on. This really is quite a handy practice (recording the pics on the blog) for setting up for the next session.
And that was that. Overall a very entertaining session even though we were retracing our steps.
The narrative aspect of the game (and certainly this is a reflection of the players as well) really makes the game quite engrossing. Despite our characters handling themselves quite capably there's still plenty of suspense, surprise, and the lurking threat of dire reversals of misfortunes brought about by unlucky dice roles, missed shots or saves, unfortunate reinforcements etc. Also plenty of situations that seem to highlight the humorous characteristics of the explorers as well.
As a retrospect i can't recall any of our sessions feeling like just going through a cookie cutter routine process.
The drive was reasonable. This is the first time i'd done it since school was back for real, and overall it felt like going against the traffic (especially knowing first hand that the other direction feels like).
I think i could manage it again.
Until next time...
[Original draft 2020-02-14 - this will be an ongoing WIP post]
Printing continued on the Custodes army.
I remodelled the spear guys into the other weapon variants. Unfortunately i only realised that the bolter variation wasn't meant to have the topknot until after i'd printed them out. I have since carved them off each model - should still look ok, if a little choppy from very close viewing range.
I have pretty much finish printing off my troop or infantry options.
At the moment i have...
- 12 stands of Custodes Guard (spear)
- 8 stands of Custodes Sagittarum (bolters)
- 8 stands of Custodes Guard (sword and board)
and...
- 12 stands of light bikes
- 6 stands of heavy bikes
I also have enough left over individual models and bases to bolster any of those groups. But i'm trying to keep the models, stands and overall numbers to a smaller level. The stands above allows 2 formations of each type with their base numbers.
Each of those formations allows 1 or 2 additional units (bases) per squad so i could have, i.e. 1 squad of Sagittarum and include 2 stands from 'the other' Sagittarum formation, making the used formation up to 6 stands. I didn't want to end up printing 12 stands for each to include the possible additional units (though i current have models to probably do that) - it's just too much bloat.
This is pretty much everything except vehicles done. So remaining on that line of thought is...
Pallas - speeders (land speeders eq)
Coronus - transports (rhino eq)
Caladius - tanks (predator eq)
Also a set (or two) of Xiphons (air support), and one (token) Orion Air Transport (Thunderhawk eq)
Update 2020-02-18
Printing progressed almost of its own accord... things just seemed to keep emerging.
With the result that i'm almost done.
I've add...
1 x 4 Pallas formation
2 x 4 Caladius formations
10 Coronus models (transports)
1 x 2 xiphon formation
This is pretty much the end of the resin [* refer note at the end] so i'm about done with the project and printing for now. Not entirely disappointed [ed: to be done with printing for a while].
I guess i'll try to give them (the army) a run on the table and see what, if anything, might help boost their performance. i haven't done any 'unusual' formations such as the commander but i actually have enough left over models to make that a thing if required.
Insights and Learning Always
I'm sure that weather (/temperature) has a lot to do with it but during this entire print i've has zero print failures. My technique or approach has not changed.
Actually the closest i came to a failure was due to a momentary blackout with 2 minutes remaining of a 4 hour print! So 2 of the tanks have a layer or 2 less somewhere than all the others from when the printer reset... not that you can tell!
However, i discovered something with (especially) vehicles. Historically i've done no or low amount of support. For this project i've been letting the project do 'auto-support' and also all the vehicles are 15o nose up, so tilted with the nose 15 degrees up from the tail.
Obviously this approach leads to more sprue cut offs and surface marks (on the underside) but there's been invariably no droop in the undercarriage.
Will be adding this to my print rituals on going.
[Later 2020-02-19] I've also developed a 'ritual' for replacing the memory stick. making sure the power is off at the wall and leaving bare minimum files (as practical) on the stick. Don't know if it really helps, but the results have been good.
Update 2020-02-19
This is apparently a print run blessed by the Emperor himself.
With resin to spare after finishing the Caladius (the last official models i planned on doing) i printed off first one then two xiphon sets (just after 2 models) and both were mis-scaled somehow. payed extra attention the third time i did them.
Anyway i thought to myself, Orion, why not? i already had the model sliced and set it a-running. Around 11pm last night we had pretty serious storms through (snapped a sizeable tree in the neighbours yard in half) with huge winds and tonnes of lightning and thunder.
At the heart of the storm i had 17 minutes remaining on the job, of a 7-8 hour print job.
The overhead lights were actually flickering but the power remained on and the job completed. Might actually have been something with the neon tubes rather than mains instability, anyway I now have an Orion.
As the job finished the storm actually dissipated and trundled off to the east.... literally as the job finished. Almost a murphy's law scenario, but instead the second case of print jobs surviving (or close enough to) the weather.
Sydney is prone to plentiful lightning storms in summer.
After cleanup i set a properly scaled xiphon printing. done now, so that is ALL the models i had on my rather vague wishlist done. yhay.
i'm using up the remaining resin doing some vehicle bases in part because i want to be done with printing for the time being. I want the contraption boxed away by COB. [now also done]
And this is it... army done...
Infantry and transports. the transports are big. Guess they're the equivalent of a skimmer Land Raider so follows an internal logic.
Tanks and bikes and other stuff. Orion and Xiphons will go on transparent perspex mounts.
Observation
Maybe professionals with extended experience will find this dubious but i often find i often underestimate the resources for printing. As in i'll have what looks to me like a small amount of filament or resin left after whatever project i've been working on, so i just do 'this and that' jobs to use it up. but it seems to last a lot longer than i anticipate.
in this case i was expecting the resin to run out during the Caladius prints. Glad it didn't of course but that last little swish seems to last a lot longer than it should. As in, if it were the same amount at the bottom of your milk container it wouldn't cover your cereal, but you might slightly lighten your cup of tea...
there you go.
So, what's next? I've been cleanup the models as i've progressed (mainly) so probably can get straight into printing (yhay). There's no great rush on this project, and to be honest i don't have a defined plan for what i'm going to do with them paint-wise. will probably need to experiment with finding a suitable gold-based or gold-esque colour scheme to start with.
Oh, and of course all the vehicles etc need basing before that starts.
Until next time...
It's a project i've certainly been contemplating for a while (amongst the morass of others, yeah, i know).
Epic Custodes
For non-Epicers and non-40k universers these are specialised Imperial faction troops. Bigger and better versions of the Marines more or less, but far less numerous, as far as the fluff goes. An Elite of the Elite... maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, they're gold armoured, close combat oriented Imperials.
A fluff summary would be that they're the guards of the corpsified Emperor's body on Terra and used to be like his body guard when he was out and about.
There was a post recently-ish of someone who'd built a printed army, kind of preempting my project and leading me to think about it more. Having an existing example and a few pics definitely helps planning and projecting, and with inspiration.
There are a few models available on thingiverse already, some for vehicles will be usable as is. However, the infantry options are a bit mono-pose, especially after my work on the Templar with many variations. I didn't want a stand of these guys just all standing in the same pose - it looks a bit dumb.
So i set about tracing (and simplifying) the existing models (only done one so far - and future efforts will be variations based on that - sword and bolter variations to be done).
Came up with about 10 pose variations, then started printing.
First stand...
I'm only adding 4 models per stand for these guys as they're a bit bigger, and frankly a bit annoying to position. Should have done some left-handed variations too, would have helped.
Size comparison with a left over Terminator and Tactical marine.
In the fluff Custodes are stated as standing a foot taller than a marine so this is about on par.
As a fluff note they all have 'spears' which are more a kind of power glave (cutting blade rather than thrusting spear tip) which also have an integrated bolter (gun) near the end too. For positioning the spears tend to get in the way a little, but i eventually managed to get 12 stands done.
I most definitely am not printing out multiples formations of everything for this army. I've selected about 7 model types that i'll need to field a functional army. Won't be a tournament winning army (running theme and seems to be my niche) but it will have a couple of formation options available based on what i make.
Anyway, the core of this army is the 'Custodes Guardian' squads - which is 6 stands of these guys [above]. You need to take one of these 'core formations' and may then take two 'support formations', which are the other unit types.
I also printed out 'hover bikes' (and some extra bases). Bikes happen to also be 'core formations' which is handy.
There are actually two different types of bikes here, 12 'light' bikes and 6 'heavy' bikes. The heavies can be substituted into the formation so don't need as many.
These were thingiverse models straight out of the box.
Size-wise they fit perfectly with the models i did - which isn't overly surprising as they're by the same person. The bike prints were fairly unimpressive (a lot of the little feature fins were atrophied, which is a print issue, not a model issue - but clearly resolution still plays a part in what's appropriate for a model) but generally (just) good enough to use.
Additionally, the heavy bikes all - except one - compressed on the nose. There was one 'good(-enough)' print so i kneaded up some green stuff and press moulded it's fender.
The impression seemed to work ok so my intention is to either;
a) dribble resin into the impression and hit it with the uv. might work, might not.
b) might alternately push some more green stuff in there once the original mould is 100% set.
I used some olive oil spray between the original model and the greenstuff and i think it helped with releasing the model - should have got the clearstuff at cancon, damnit.
Given greenstuff is a day to set this is a week-long project (or more).
Anyway, the plan is to cut off the underside front of the heavy bikes and fit in the new fender. Won't make a huge amount of difference at arms length... but i'll know.
Given this is a 'display' army rather than a 'performance' army it's probably worth making it look as decent as possible.
And that's where it's at.
Until next time...
Unlike previous meets, they had the air con cranking for us - even at our 9:30 pre-open it was relatively cool. The auditorium was the coolest place (nerd jokes unintended but definitely applicable) in the surrounding suburbs. Even a trip to the bar proved the main club area to be a little warm... and outside... forgedaboudet.
The name of the game today was Battlefleet Gothic. BFG for everyone!
With Epic/Cancon only a week distant i was happy to not be rolling Epic - though surprisingly i probably could have without cringing... anyway.
With of our local crew guys being established BFG gurus we had plenty of knowledge for beginners and guidance and those of us too lazy to look up rulebooks.
We had two tables - Marines vs Imperial Navy. Marines were in a commanding position when we wrapped the game up.
And Chaos vs Eldar where i believe the Eldar narrowly pushed ahead at the end of the game.
After lunch we had a table of Necromunda running (as the second BFG game was still concluding).
Just in-game shots rather than anything tactical or notable.
It's been a good two months since we last played (and showed a bit).
My Van Saar models still need the paint finished - first game with them as well. Bit underwhelming but they weren't using the advanced tricks that would have really increased their effectiveness (in theory).
Post Cancon Observation
Despite not actually have wet paint on models at Cancon there's something about the buildup that is kinda tiring. In the week since Cancon i've mainly just been fixing models (BT Strike Cruiser - much sturdier now)... stands on the fliers... etc etc.
Haven't really had a lot of enthusiasm for launching into new projects. It's also been aussie hot which has made the paint table virtually inaccessible. Excuses, excuses, i know, but too bad. It's just hobby.
Future - March Event
Have announced an Epic event for March CoD. Looking at playing 'Convoy' scenario and have put a wider invite out to (practically) other in-state players.
The basic premise is you have a model on one side of the board and need to get it to the other side. The opposition is trying to destroy it and you're trying to defend it.
Overlaying a mini-comp so hopefully everyone can come up with a 'convoy' model of some type - prize for coolest convoy. Have suggested that an AT warlord stripped of weapons and trotting off to the repairatorium might be a suitable example.
Decided to hit the bitz box to make something a bit more unique. Progress so far (fairly basic).
[will probably update progress here as i get around to it.]
Until next time.
