HeavyTankBuilder

Last weekend I attended the tenth competitive Ultimate Commander tournament run at 4tk Gaming in Colchester, Essex UK.   This event was compact at around 30 players but was surprisingly hard fought. Several capable players attended (ETC, England team backgrounds) with locals bringing out their strongest lists (20 Custodes Jetbikes and Morty/Skarbrand/Magnus super-friends to give you a feel!). 

There is no getting round the fact the new release for the Space marines has been fantastic, just fantastic, huuuuge some may say... I digress. In my next few articles I plan to complete my own take on Tale of Four Gamers running in White Dwarf, to get a table-top ready, pure Ultramarines Primaris force up and running.   This first article will talk through the thinking that went in to organising the project and some of the early build. The new boxed starter sets and easy build kits make for great value. Using retailers like 4tkgaming that offer significant % discounts, the savings begin to stack really quickly. Selling-off the Deathguard side of the box also helps. To focus my purchases I chose to write a list that covered what I would need to run 2 detachments (a battalion and auxiliary detachment of some sort). This would provide a frame I can add to next year.  The list also tries to tick off the common Tale of Four Gamers challenges; HQs, mandatory tro...

This post has been sat in my archive for far too long. I am not going to pretend it is new work - it has been up on my Instagram for some time but I thought I would show you some WIP photos and talk through some tips on making what is a very large project manageable. Hopefully of use to someone out there! Three Kinghts is a decent amount of work - but to be fair, you pretty much have an army once you are done.  To keep me motivated and to make the project achievable I broke it down into stages: 1. The Metal Skeletons 2. Panel Work 3. Bases 4. Weaponry. This approach will save you time and will help you get 3 Knights above table top quality quickly and efficiently. It won't feel like it as you go - but trust me when you reflect, you will have saved yourself some serious time.  There is also a uniformity you can't replicate from doing 1 then adding 2 later on... Take the pain and work in multiples....read on... 1. The Metal Skeletons: Army Painter Silver Rattle C...

There are some really interesting new formations coming out of the new Space Marine Codex.   Clearly some of the Chapter tactics, Librarian formations and the Land Raider ‘walls of death’ are drawing some attention.   But look over the lowest common denominator at your peril.   The humble Marine and his workhorse transport have been and always will be at the core of your list and GW is ramming that home with the new Demi-Company.

These are the final parts I need to get my small initial Nemesis Strike Force up and running.  These were the last bits needed for my 1650pts tournament list.  As a group they come together really well, looking great on the board.  I will however admit I am not fully happy with the second Librarian.  That finecast model is pretty tired and doesn't stand up too well against the newly converted Blood Angel Librarian model.  The converted BA model has worked well and will make a good Warlord Model.

I have painted something not blue for the first time in years!  These have come out very well and I had some real success using the Tamiya Clear plaints to get some great metallic finishes on some of the surfaces.  The Blue Sword effect Kenny uses on Next Level Painting worked a treat. I hadn't used P3 paints until he recommended them; they went into the airbrush no problem, giving some great results.

This is the completed 715pts I need for the upcoming UK Games Expo tournament (I expect to get destroyed, but want to get involved!).  Now I have 2 weeks to get the rest of the force completed which will be tight...Hopefully I will have at least some kind of competitive edge to my force and come away with one win out of five. I want to go to see what other people come up with and see how some of the more challenging lists play out. I have a back up plan which involves adding a Command Squad/Drop Pod, a Stormtalon or some Sternguard as back up if I fall short and don't get the GK's finished.  Fingers crossed. HTB.

The final part of my GK/UM allied attachment is finished.  Now to get on with the GK Librarians.  The Grav Cents have come out pretty well.  The OSL and colour blends are pretty good. The transfers are not quite as smooth as I would have liked; my fault for missing a step (GW varnish on the Humbrol Acrylic Gloss Spray where the transfer sits).  The over all unit looks great together - the bald headed guy looks better than I thought.  Initially I wasnt convinced by the sculpts. 4 Cents is a lot of work.  The bodies and shoulder pads could be built and painted all assembled up.  The pipes, weapons, amps, heads, pistons, rear plate, side metal work and arms all had to be done separately to access all the nooks and crannies.  The OSL looks great but comes at the risk of ruining everything you have done to get to that point!

Here is my latest offering now I am back into some kind of routine again.  This has served as a good warm up project, having kept it slightly simpler this time around by not doing a full interior.  There is a limit to how much effort I can repeatedly put into 35pt models!

These were finished quite some time a go but I have been off the blog for a while, now trying to get back into things.  They came out real well and work brilliantly as a pair on the table.  Hope people like what they see.  Probably the best FA option for SM.

AOP all done and dusted, 3 rd place over all in my local store.  Disappointed? Yes.  My entry focused on models, display board second.  I went about this wrong from all the entries I have seen online.  The models of course need to be good (1 st and 2 nd had great models) but the display board carries far more weight with the general public.  Lesson for next time! The board was fun to make and I don’t regret putting more time and effort into the models, as that’s the core of what I produce and enjoy anyway.  AOP is a great competition for a whole host of reasons; it forced me to finish stuff that perhaps would have dragged on otherwise, I saw some great stuff produced by other people and came away with a whole host of other ideas for the future.  This article runs through what I produced and how I went about it.

Finally finished the Falchion and another model in line with the core theme of the blog.  I picked this up back in March at the Forge World open day, with a view to have it finished before wider release... anyway...  it's done now.  The techniques involved are covered in the Glaive tutorial.  This time around I have tried to apply some of the pointers and tips passed on from Matt Murphy-Kane and Mark Bedford from not only Warhmmer Fest, but the FW open day to.

Just a few snaps of what I am working on ready for Saturday and AOP.  Getting there...but not much time left and it still feels as though there is a lot to do!

Warhammer Fest was good.  Forge World (FW) owned the show.  Games Workshop (GW) suffered in comparison because they cannot discuss upcoming releases and run a different business model to FW.  We had a good day because we planned early in the queue, saw 4 Forge World Pods back to back and we got seminar tickets early in the day for the Forge World discussion.

The Terminators are finished at last!  Can't remember when these things first got primed and based but my goodness it was a long time ago.   They have come out really well; there is however a few things I am not as happy with as I would like.  The varnish ran out and did not give the sealed coverage I require in my gloss varnish/oil wash process.  Some areas are a little stained where the wash could not be removed correctly.

Marneus is complete.  He has come out really well and sits nicely alongside Marius Gage (my TH/Shield Eternal Chapter Master).  The combined limited edition Space Marine Captains have come together brilliantly with some help from the pipe roller. 

Something that I am sure a lot of hobbyists have suffered from is having too much on the go at one time. I have talked about it before but still find myself falling into the trap of stocking up too many kits and wanting to build/paint far too much in too short a period of time. It's gotten so bad that it is actually hindering my ability to blog on stuff because I am not finishing things and getting distracted by the latest successful game test. Here is a run down of where I think I am going wrong. 1.  Play testing the latest good idea and then wanting to paint that to the standard of everything else in quick time. In other words, inability to stick to one list for an extended period. 2.  If find airbrushing more satisfying than brush work at the moment.  Not completing one project before starting the next. 3.  Taking on too much.  Articles, mock up builds to allow gaming, my first commission for someone and getting in more games ...

Managed to get the Techmarines completed at last!  Pretty happy with the final look and feel of each unit.  Most of the techniques for painting these can be found in previous articles.  What I will say is their performance in games has been outstanding.  From vehicles, massed troops, important characters, these 2 cannons have laid waste to huge chunks of opposition armies.  Thundefire cannons are top of my list right now in terms of getting on the roster once all my troops choices are in place. 

My HTB website needs reinvigorated. I have been busy with work and hobby/website has really slipped off. I will talk about WIP overload (again) in my next article but I really want to get back on track. In my opinion White Dwarf and Visions is so far removed from what I thought was historically good about WD that I wanted to do something about it. GW doesn't listen to anyone so asking them to change anything is a waste of time. Articles on list building, advance modeling techniques, tactics, detailed battle reports, use of other products (heresy!) that offer something GW doesn't or that are better is never discussed. Airbrushing is huge and so accessible nowadays yet it is totally ignored by GW. Look at coolminiornot.com ; airbrushing is everywhere. It is as if it doesn't exist in GW's world.  I think there are loads of topics that used to be covered so well that sadly have been actively removed by GW's head-shed.   So my s...

Another squad now complete at last!  I fell into the trap of having too many projects on the go but have stuck to my 1750 list and continue to work down it.  They have come out really well and the tiny magnets have worked great.  I can now come back later and add any combi-weapon I choose based on play testing.  It also allows me to swap with Sternguard Squad 1 so I can have a no combi-weapons team, or loads of combi-weapons or a complete mixture. The new wrist mounted weapons mean it is far easier to magnetize the wrist joints.   I use a 3mm x 1mm diameter magnet in the wrist and a 2mm x 2mm diameter magnet in the weapon hand.   You have to be very careful drilling out the 2mm magnet in the hand but it can be done.   They marry up very well – only issue is getting the paint to stick to the surface of the magnets.   Even if it does chip off it doesn’t matter, it cannot be seen.   I may use these magnets on my next special weapon ma...