Building my Company Master, part 2: Cut and Paste

Here's where I start cutting bits into smaller bits and assembling them into new bits. :)

The first part of this series is here:

1. Building my Company Master, part 1: The Bits

The Sword Arm

With a couple of straight cuts with my trusty scalpel, I ended up with these bits.


As you can see, I've removed the guard, from the original chainsword, that was covering the fingers. This was also easy with the scalpel.

And, after a small amount of plastic glue and some adjusting, here's the finished left arm:


And the outside:


The terminator sword is actually not that much bigger than the standard sword, but a bit beefier. I think it will look pretty good.

The Chest

Another couple of slashes with the scalpel freed the dangling winged sword symbol from its string. The plan is to glue it onto the chest, like this:


It's not glued in place yet, so if you want to protest, please go for it! I'm not entirely sold on the idea yet, myself, so if you have another idea, let me hear it.

The Helmet

No cutting needed here, except to remove some mould lines. If you remember from part 1, I was worried the wings would look weird on this particular helmet, but I'm starting to let go of the worries... I think it looks promising. Please let me know what you think.


Side view:



Here are a couple of full body pictures, minus the arms. (By the way, I still haven't settled on a right arm, but I'm getting closer. By the next update, I'll have one, I promise.)


Side view:



Don't be afraid to tell me what you think. All comments are greatly appreciated!

/Stitch

Next Update: January 1

The next planned update will be on January 1 2009.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See you on the other side! :)

Best regards,

Stitch

The Other Talon

I've just started a second 40k blog, The Other Talon. It'll be sort of a sister site to my main blog, the Angel's Talon, to cover everything 40k that is not Dark Angels-related.

It won't be updated regularly, but basically whenever I feel like it. The first post is a mini-review, with pictures, of the new gameboard from GW. It's a fantastic piece of kit!

Please check it out and let me know what you think.

The Other Talon: http://theothertalon.blogspot.com

Building my Company Master, part 1: The Bits

As I wrote in another post, I plan on building my own Company Master from the various plastic bits available. Here's a first look at what I'm going to use:

I haven't decided on a right arm yet, I'm still looking at options.

Two left arms? Well, as I'm sure you've noticed already, the bottom one is a terminator arm. I think that power sword looks awesome so I'm going to do a switch on the arm with the chain sword.

I'm not sure about the head. I think the Maximus pattern helmet (from the Black Templars upgrade sprue) will look great on a Company Master, but I'm not sure how it will look with wings on it.

We'll have to see if it works. Check out next month's update!

/Stitch

Painting Tutorial: Robes

I'm currently painting my second squad of marines, and I thought this would be a good time to do a step-by-step tutorial on how I paint robes. I love the warrior monk theme of the Dark Angels, and I plan to have robes on most, if not all, of my veteran sergeants and other characters.

My usual painting disclaimer: Please note that this tutorial is about painting an army, not winning painting competitions. I'm not even close to a Golden Daemon standard miniatures painter, and neither do I aspire to be one. The important thing for me with my miniatures is that they look good on the table, and that means they only have to look good at arms length.

Dark Angels robes, step by step:

1. Basecoat
2. Shade, wash
3. First highlight, heavy drybrush
4. Final highlight, light drybrush
5. Rope: Wash

As usual, a note on brushes and paints. Unless otherwise noted, all paints and brushes used in this tutorial are from Citadel/Games Workshop. You are, of course, free to use whatever painting supplies you like, but it's worth mentioning for the purpose of brush size, for instance.

Right, here he is, the Veteran Sergeant of 2nd Tactical Squad, 3rd Company:



The armour, metal bits, markings and bone coloured details will be painted in exactly the same way as in my earlier tutorials, so I won't repeat every step here. You can check them out here:

1. Painting Tutorial: Dark Angel Space Marine
2. Painting Tutorial: Dark Angels markings, part 1
3. Painting Tutorial: Dark Angels markings, part 2

Here we go...

1. Basecoat

First, paint the robe with Khemri Brown. Even though it is a Foundation Paint, two coats may be needed to get an even coat.

As you can see, I have just painted over the Dark Angels insignia on his chest. This will be painted red later on, to stand out and add some contrast.

2. Shade

Now splash on a generous wash of Devlan Mud, to provide some basic shading.



And from the back:

3. First highlight

Give the robe a heavy drybrushing of the base colour, Khemri Brown, for the first highlight. Ignore the piece of the robe showing between his legs. It's difficult to reach, and it'll look better shaded anyway.



And again, here's a view from the back:

4. Final highlight

For the final highlight, drybrush the robe lightly with Bleached Bone. Pay special attention to the edges. Again, never mind the piece of robe showing between his legs.



Back:

Almost done...

5. Rope

Now you just give the rope a wash of Badab Black, and you're done!

This last image is from a later stage of the painting process. You'll see more of this guy in next months update...

Of course, there's a million different ways of doing it, but this is how I paint the robes on my Dark Angels. It's quick, it's easy, and it looks good enough, I think. Please tell me what you think by leaving a comment, or emailing me.

/Stitch

The Tiger roars about the new Codex: Space Marines

Mr Kilgore, over at The Jungle, has written an excellent review of the new Codex: Space Marines. If you're into Space Marines, head over and give it a read, then tell him what you think over at the Millenium Gate!

Assembling the Space Marine Drop Pod

[This article was supposed to be a part of the october update. Unfortunately, my back broke in half (not really, but it felt like it did) and I was unable to sit at my computer for several weeks.]

Assembling our store's pre-release drop pod, I thought of some things that may help others. So, here are some hints for assembling your drop pods.

Center turbofan

Only glue the middle parts together. Then stick the pin through the hole and glue it to the bottom bit. This will let you twist the pin on top, to turn the Storm Bolter/Missile Launcher mounted on the bottom bit. Not only is it good clean nerdy fun to be able to turn it to face its target, but it also makes sure the weapon won't be aiming straight into one of the wings.

Tricky part

When I glued the restraint blocks in place, I found it easiest to start with the upper part. Then I slotted the block into place, while pushing the small protruding bit on the bottom down to force it into its own hole on the column. The plastic is quite flexible, and this worked like a charm.

Rubber bands

When the wings are in place, strap some rubber bands around the whole thing to keep them in the right position while the glue sets.



I hope you found this short article useful. See you next month!

/Stitch

[A very small, very late update, I know. My back is better now, though. That means that I will be able to put together something a bit more substantial for next month.]