TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK

Continuing on with my personal challenge, I've managed to finish off a couple more pieces for my Dark Eldar army. The first one is the raider for my Blood Brides, depending on whether I'm using the Venom or not, means this may be the ride for my Succubus, so needed to be a bit special. I used two raiders to build this one, it has a double fuselage and double wide running boards, the gunner is sat at the back as well as the pilot, and has a double prow as well ( my friend thinks it's a slide for the Wyches to slide down ! LOL)

I've also got my unit of Trueborn done. During codex 1 I thought about having some elite looking warriors, and got some Black Guard of Naggaroth models to start this, and until recently that's how it stayed, just an idea, on the release of Codex 2 we had an elite warriors unit added, the Trueborn who can have a lot of extra weaponry, so here they are first is the Dracon (unit leader) and three trueborn with Shard Carbines

Next we have four with Blaster

and lastly two with Splinter Cannon, making the rate of firepower from this one unit pretty intense.

so what was my step back I hear you say, well I decided to add a unit I'd left off ! LOL When codex 2 came out the Mandrakes changed, both in look and game wise, now I wasn't a massive fan of the models, as they all looked like they were squatting, and there was only 3 variants, then they were produced in finecast, so they became a total non entity. Now for having all the options I decided I now wanted some, Ebay wasn't going to be an option, for the reasons already mentioned, and the enormous price tag as well. So looking through the bits boxes I found I still had some Empire Flagellants that would work as a basis, I also used a Dark Eldar bare head, and that was my starting point. This is what the first one looks like all in green stuff, I've also included a picture of GW's for anyone who doesn't know what they should look like.

Only another four to sculpt and paint ! LOL That's all for this post, so until next time, which could be a hairy situation, stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave 

 

MEGA ZOMBIES

 Todays offering is a trio of zombies from Mega City 1, zombies in this world are different in that they carry and use weapons, and can also ride bikes. This last bit for me has always been a sticking point, as zombies aren't particularly stable when walking, so being on a bike would be a recipe for disaster in my book, that's why I've put these three on Quad Bikes I produce for my zombies. Now as the riders were produced for different bikes, I had to do a little conversion to get them to fit, but nothing major.

The first one below  is obviously a Judge and so was painted in the relevant colours.

The next one looked to be a Tek Judge to me so I painted him accordingly.

The last one is definitely a dead biker, so I painted his garb accordingly, I also did a few flaws on his bike to add to the biker feel.

This is my last entry for Zomtober/ Apocalypse Me, as I feel the need to paint some Star Wars, also November is the Movember challenge, painting models with facial hair, luckily I got some models to paint this year, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

ORKTOBER

 October is certainly a month for challenges, not only is there Zomtober, and Apocalypse Me, but there are two other challenges running, Dreadtober, where you get your Dreadnought's painted ( all of mine are ! LOL) there is also Orktober, the two main protagonists in this are Luke https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/ and Wudugast ( sorry don't know his blog). When Luke was laying down this years challenge, he might have challenged me to paint an Ork (okay he did ! LOL). Now I don't normally do Orks, and all the cowboy Orks I have are already finished, but I found two in the bits box, the first was a Games Day Ork from Gorkamorka, I used purple as a base colour, and there is a touch of orange in the highlight.

Next is an Ork that came free with a issue of White Dwarf, I did the same on his skin.

Now I'm out of Ork's unless I sculpt some more Cowboy ones, but that's a worry for another year, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

SWIFT DEATH

 Have started some more models for this months main challenge, but have also finished some more models for my personal challenge of finishing off as many of my old 40K armies as I can. The Reaver Jetbikers are a sub faction of the Wych cults, I've kept the affiliation strong by using the same colour scheme as my Wyches, and face paint. I decided on the name of Swift Death for them. 

When I made my tournament list, I had two squads of 3 Reaver Jetbikes, but when I started to expand the armies I decided to increase it to two squads of 10, and I have now finished the first squad. The first 3 below were from my tournament list. One is an Arena Champion, armed with a power sword, and one has a Blaster upgrade to the bike. I've updated them by adding some markings to the front of the fuselage. 

With the rest of the squad, I've got a couple of converted metal Wyches, and the others have had plastic heads and Wych blades added from the newer kits.

The wing configuration was based on the Vyper from Battlestar Galactica. All the models are the original Reaver kit, which I liked as they were easily converted and could get some nice conversions in there. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

CHAIN REACTION

 Phil had got up early, as he needed to go to the mall and get an outfit for the 80's party, it was going to be an all day event, and you could turn up whenever you wanted. Not being a big fan of the 80's he had no idea what to get, but as Becky was going to be there later, he wanted to make an effort. As he left the house, he saw Gladys his next door neighbour Gladys, she obviously had hit the booze early today, stumbling around the garden in her slip. He walked over to the fence to see if she was okay, as she stumbled towards him, she looked strange, and then lunged and bit him.

Lenny, was on the way to the 80's party early, as he wanted to make sure he was there before Phil, as he also liked Becky. The costume was easy as he hadn't changed his style since the 80's and still wore Chino's and LaCoste T-Shirts on a regular basis. As he left his street he spotted Phil heading towards him, what a costume, he looked like a zombie from Thriller, now that was going above and beyond he thought, especially as he's even doing a walk to carry off the look. He headed towards Phil, telling his friend how clever his costume, was just before Phil bit him.

Becky was on her way to work, she was looking forward to the party later, but hoped the brunch over privileged idiots will have left by the time she got there. Her boss had seen their behaviour towards her, and suggested moving her shift to later to avoid them. As she walked towards work, she saw Phil and Lenny stumbling towards her dressed as zombies, what awesome costumes she thought they look so realistic, and waited to talk to them, they had something else in mind !

Jack, Ken, and Lionel were sat in the restaurant, they would have normally left by now, but Lionel insisted they stay until he saw his favourite waitress Becky. The other two laughed at him, you know she's not interested don't you ? I'll have what I want was his reply. He turned and saw Becky behind him, boy you look rough out of your uniform, was the last words he ever uttered.

Simon was practising for the marathon, for some reason his running buddy Brad hadn't turned up this morning, so after waiting a while, he decided to carry on regardless. He had got about a mile into his run, when there was a commotion outside the restaurant, as he ran over to see what was going on two zombies set on him.

Carl was on his way to the gym, he wanted to do a set before going to the party, the guy at the desk had promised to get him some stuff to make the party exceptional, so was looking forward to seeing what he'd got his hands on. He saw Simon round the corner, it looked like he'd had an accident, Are you alright buddy ? was the last thought as his face was ripped off.

Kevin was sat at the desk of the gym, the pay was terrible, but the side line of selling what his customers thought was top notch drugs, kept him in a lifestyle he liked. The door opened and Simon, and Carl stumbled in, what the hell happened to you two ? as he reached for the phone, he never placed the call.

So got a few zombies finished and a little backstory for them, hopefully I'll do some different ones as well, but good to get these finished. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

NOT MY FAULT

 This distraction was totally not my fault, on Sunday my Daughter drove to our house for the first time, since passing her test, and brought up a couple of projects that needed working on. One I can't show until it has reached it's final destination, but I will take pictures to show when I can. The other was my son's statue of the Alien Newborn, it had broken in three places on it's legs and lost four fingers as well. This piece was the first he had bought from a Sci-Fi convention, so had a lot of sentimental value for him, he also asked if there was anything I could do to improve the paintjob of the model. Below is what the model looks like when in one piece with the factory paint job.

Now the Newborn was never my favourite model, but I wasn't going to do anything less than my best for my son, the first thing I did was add a wash over the original paint, to help define all the detail that is in the sculpt, then using Rakarth flesh, and Corax white, I worked up all the detail as well, hopefully my son likes the new scheme.

This model is 18 cm tall, so a pretty large model to paint, but glad to get it finished and repaired for him. Now back to these zombies, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

ANOTHER DISTRACTION

 Yes I got distracted again finishing off another piece for my Dark Eldar, this time it's a vehicle of my creation. In the first codex there was a scenario for a Slave Raid, cool idea I thought, but the vehicles are not big enough to put slaves on I thought, so why not make a Slave Raider, big enough to carry the troops, and also a place to keep the slaves. It ended up so big that I had space for more weapons on the prow ! LOL Some may say it's now a Ravager, so in game terms you could claim it's a raider, and only use one Dark Lance, and have the transport facility, or claim it was a ravager and drop the transport element, or as I will be using it at home, have all the elements and pay the extra points for it. I have included parts from the newer kits, to help finish it off, like chain snares, for trapping slaves, and some of the trophies as well.

It was made with the old Raider kit, and some plasticard, and a little bit of mesh, so you can see what the slaves are up to. I also included a slave master as seen here taking a spirit stone from an Eldar captive.

Inside the cell I used the slaves from Asdrubael Vect's raider, but these were the GW head office version which had less clothing, and were never made available to buy.

This now solves the problem of what my Trueborn will ride on, when they are finished, now back to painting Zombies, so until next time stay safe and have fun ! 

Cheers Dave

HOLLYWOOD ZOMBIE

 After a week of new distractions arriving I actually have my first Zombie finished, this is one of the Zombicide mini's from Bryan Scott's collection that Joe (Zabadak) distributed amongst the community. When I first saw the model it reminded me of a zombie from the remake of "Dawn of the Dead", as zombies go she wasn't in it long, but was the first clue for the survivors that if you got bit by a zombie, you would become one yourself. The model required a small bit of conversion mostly the hair and removing the handbag.

Below is the reference picture from the movie, and below that what the model looks like before conversion.

I've kept the blood to a minimum, other than the bite and around the nose and mouth like the reference picture, was a fun one to do, that's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

TOTALLY NOT A ZOMBIE

 So it's the start of the challenge Zomtober/Apocalypse Me and I got distracted finishing another piece for my Dark Eldar army. I was taking stock of what was left to do, and realised I needed one model to finish the Court of the Archon. Rather than another one of the three I already had I decided to add a Sslyth, this is what 40K has to say about them :

The Sslyth are a sentient xenos race of reptilian creatures with a snake-like lower body and vaguely humanoid torso, though they sport multiple arms and a head more serpentine than human.

As true Drukhari make rather dubious bodyguards due to their treacherous nature, instead, Archons employ these more reliable alien mercenaries.

Of all the species to haunt Commorragh's satellite realms, most Dark Eldar Archons have found the Sslyth to be the most reliable -- and survivable -- bodyguard species available for hire.

These four-armed, serpentine monstrosities hail from a world long lost to the caress of She Who Thirsts, yet their short-sighted and self-indulgent nature makes them safe enough for the Drukhari to exploit.

All but inured to physical pain, and happy to be paid in slaves and sensory gratification, these alien warriors make excellent, if dull-witted bodyguards. (I remembered Matt ! LOL)

Now GW did produce a model for this but it is no longer available, you can find them on Ebay, but they've gone up a lot in price, but I hadn't bought one when they were available for two reasons 1 it's produced in Finecast, which I'm not a fan of, and 2 I didn't like how the second set of arms were so close to the first set, which would make it hard for the creature to move both sets of arms ! So I decided Friday night I would build my own, and below is what I came up with, I've also included a picture of GW's for reference.

Now I've got this distraction out of the way, I really need to get on with my challenge entries, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave