Magnetising a Dreadnought Drop Pod

How do,

So here its all shut, with battle damage started and real blood fx...

Full disclosure. There is nothing more I hate to build or paint in this hobby than drop pods, and the dreadnought drop pod fills me with an unending and burning rage. I hated this thing. Now I am sure that some people will get one that goes together fine, and the hinge attachment don't just shatter under the hefty weight of the door... BUT everyone I know that has one has had exactly the same issue with those bits breaking. 

This is less a guide, more showing you where I put the magnets and the strength these things have in holding this beastly bastard of a drop pod together. I used 5mm x 2mm magnets and needed 18 in total, 6 per door.

Now I am not supporting that bottom door at all, it is JUST held up by the magnets. If you new how sodding heavy these doors were you would be impressed. I think they would make excellent improvised weapons during a break in...

Here you can see 2 of the magnets that hold the door closed in the up position. You'll notice green marker on the top magnet, I use that to make sue I glue them in the right way!

You can see the magnets also inhabit the door hinge area. Yes there is blue tack in there, I ran out of green stuff and if you use a little and lather it in good super glue it holds fine...

These two show the corresponding magnets in the bottom of the door. This requires you to shave off a nub of resin so that it fits into the slot for the door. These nubs would normally make the hinge but the resin they pull against just isn't thick enough to take the doors immense weight!

Finally you can see all the doors folded down looking swish. 

Anyway, this was just to show that if you are having trouble with the doors like I did, then crack out the drill and some magnets and get to it. This makes the pod easier to paint and battle damage and will probably make transporting easier as I can wrap the doors individually and stuff the centre with bubble wrap (which is incidentally a protected term). 

Peace out,

Rob

Forgeworld - Macrocarid explorator design pictures revealed

Me again folks!

Here is a lovely 3D render of the mechanicum land raider equivalent. This looks incredibly tasty!

Peace out.

Rob

Coming from ForgeWorld - Mechanicum Vultarax - Stratos-Automata

Afternoon,

I was going through blogs about warhammer fest and saw these tasty pictures on recalcitrantdaze.blogspot.co.uk. I don't care about rules, I want these because they look fucking beautiful and cool as hell!

Yes that's a flyer stand! This looks so bloody awesome and will add a nice air/skimmer based looking thing to my cybernetica horde without having to get the more imperial looking flyers available to the mechanicum.

Peace out,

Rob

Win a Titan from Forge World - My Entry - Hygrometus The Storm Bringer

Hey People,

So recently Forgeworld ran a competition that only people who had spent over £150 in the month of March could enter. The idea was to write up to 400 words describing how your Titian acquired there famous or infamous name. The entries will be judged on originality, creativity and how well they fit the spirit of the universe of 30k/40k. 

I only realised this was a competition after I spent £272 with Forgeworld, so I decided to enter it and make the most of the big spend! Below is my entrance to the competition, I don't expect to win but thought I would share it with you anyway :)

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The defenders stood atop the battlements. Its crude granite walls sat in a row of three, the ground between each was a singularly designed killing field. The hot red flash of laser weaponry would become indistinguishable from the bright red spurt of blood as the enemy threw themselves upon its walls and into its breaches. The stench of the dead that rose from the foot of the first wall, Exitium Exoptat – Hopes Bane, choked the air with sickly sweet fumes of necrotic flesh.

Yet stood here at the summit of this world, fear lay rank between the defenders. Their traitorous heart had fallen from the light of resolution that the Emperors beneficence provided. The courage of their conviction had wavered. Death was coming, and it came with the storm. So short sighted are these men that cannot see beyond their choices. Each choice a branch of life he follows, unaware of the fire he has stoked.

The Ruinous Powers promise much and deliver little to these fools, whereas the Emperors wrath like an unstoppable wave, will always cleanse the heretic from its lands. Beyond Exitium Exoptat lay the great wastes of Disthandor Prime, normally an arid plane where the curvature of the planet is all that is to be seen. But at the normally empty horizon of this vast Hive world, on this day, clouds gathered. Dark and brooding with nought but a promise of death... They came closer.

As the Mars Pattern Titans feet inexorably drew it towards the granite citadel, its reactor core, exposed from the prior conflicts of Disthandor Prime, cast arc lightening up and over its gigantic bulk. A blue incandescent ball of electric phosphor fury, emitted with a pained scream of the tortured machine spirit. The crackling arcing energy of the core sparked upwards into the atmosphere, its energy dissipated to fuse the hydrogen and oxygen of the planets skies. Clouds formed like a dense smoke plume above the behemoth, a storm of terror that precipitated its arrival.

Before the day was done the killing fields lay red with the defenders blood, beneath a black cloud of righteous might. They could not run from the fury and the fire, he said. I smote them down with the weapons I was given, he said.

I did my duty, he said.

I am Hygrometus. I am the Storm.

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Peace out,

Rob

The Leviathan Rides in Style!

Hi Readers,

Today I retrieved a bowl of soapy resin from the back of my bench and began scrubbing away with a tooth brush. After a good wash and dry I was then ready to start dry fitting the transport that will carry my Leviathan dreadnought to the heart of the enemy and induce many a brown trouser moment!

Behold the beginnings of the Dreadnought drop pod!

My Alpha Legion are going to be heavily battle damaged, fluff wise being an independent splinter force conducting autonomous raids, as you would expect from the Alpha Legion. Building a forge world model is scary because I don't want to cut what I think is flash off and ruin it. Cutting into them for damage is TERRIFYING! But I am quite looking forward to cutting battle damage onto this bad boy. 

Also here's a scale picture next to the Blood Angels Drop pod I showed you a few days ago:

Peace out,

Rob

Some Reveals of my Forgeworld goodness!

Hi Folks,

As promised I am going to stop being an arse and actually show you some of the forgeworld good that I have been purchasing! Only a few though but I'll go over what to expect coming up :) So here's a few photos and some blurb below!

So!! A Xiphon interceptor for my Alpha Legion and some mechanicum! The Xiphon is one of three flyers, the other two being a pair of Fire Raptors, one of them is nearly built which has been something of an arduous process when you discover you didn't straighten something enough very early on and it all goes out of kilter... 

There is a fair few more castellax and thallax to come and these will make up a 1300-1500 points mechanicum force until I can afford a couple of Thanatars... But they will also be allies for my Alpha Legion and even accompany a Praevian or Forge Lord that I will convert for my Alphas.

The canopy of the Xiphon is plasticard, because the original one had to be removed from my foot... Problem of having a bedroom/study/hobby room personal living room all in one!! You can also see that I have cut big (terrifying process!) chunks out of the Xiphon for battle damage which should hopefully be easier to paint than stylised chips and also look cool!

I hope this has whetted your appetite for things to come :)

Peace out,

Rob

More Forgeworld Teasing - Coming soon!

Good morrow peoples!

Today I shall tease you once more with a promise of things to come... Behold!!! Below lies a box of forgeworld goodies that I received a little while ago. I've waited this long to post the picture up so that I had time to build a few things from the box and start undercoating them.

These things vary from small to large and I am sure the eagle eyed among you may be able to read the labels of some of these. There is a healthy mix of things for existing armies and the birth of another new one. This is my final spending on actual models for likely the better part of this year, and I will be restricting purchases to paints and other equipments for the hobby. But I have MOAR than enough to keep me going.

Be sure to keep an eye out next week for a few shots of the first built models to take the stage!

Peace out,

Rob

The Leviathan Looms...

Just a tease of what is coming...

Don't worry he isn't h-armless....

Peace out,

Rob

Converting a Xiphon Interceptor and grav cannon WIP

Hi everybody,

So I've been umming and ahhing about buying a flyer from forgeworld for some time now. The xiphon interceptor really interests me but I would want at least two of them as an escort for a larger aircraft like a fire raptor or a storm eagle.

Someone mentioned on google+ that they resemble battlestar galactica Vipers. After having a look at the 1/32 scale kits of the Viper I have purchased two of them for around £30 and intend to convert them into Xiphon interceptor counts as. As you can see below compared to the above picture they have more than a passing resemblance to the Xiphon:

My main plan for converting is to extend the wings to make them match the large Xiphon wings and add the twin linked lascannons and a rotary missile launcher. I will be painting the cockpit canopy as opaque to avoid converting the pilot as I am lazy...

These guys should arrive soon and I will do a little unboxing of them!

In terms of the flyer to be escorted I am now deciding between a fire raptor and a storm eagle. Currently I am leaning towards the fire raptor and having these guys as a dedicated reserve force to come on and support my Alpha legion ground troops.

Grav Cannon WIP

Following on from the bodies of my Devastators yesterday here is a quick WIP of the guns. These guys should be all done and completed tomorrow or wednesday and then I will move on to the drop pod and the sergeant!

See you soon

Peace out,

Rob