Some time back I was trying to attach some wires and switches using conductive glue. The results were very poor. So I managed to wash the conductive glue away with a solvent and I tried to solder the bits together.
I ran into several problems. The soldering iron is massive (the fact that it has a very small cable and I don't have an extension right now so I had to sit on the floor in front of a power outlet is my fault of course) and the bits that I'm trying to solder are tiny, so it was hard to control everything. Some of the things I wanted to solder are magnets, and I'm afraid they'll lose their magnetism if I heat them up too much, so I was trying not to get them hot. Also everything was already attached to the plastic base so I was trying not to let anything get too hot.
The solder itself is a real pain. When heated it just curls up along the strip (if you've ever used a lighter to melt a strand of synthetic thread, it's basically the same thing) rather than melting off and flowing onto the components. So I had to cut bits of solder off and try to get them to sit on the connections (itself a difficult task) until I could melt them. Even then, rather than spread out over the connection like, say, superglue, it would just ball up on top and almost instantly harden in to a lump that wasn't even connected at all to the components.
The result was that the base melted a lot, and when I was done the curcuit didn't work. In a fit of fury I snapped the base and the plastic model into tiny pieces, cursing a blue streak the whole time and for a while afterwards. Let me tell you, after the amount of time, effort and money I spent on that one little model, I felt extremely dispirited. I have not recorded here just what went into finding and making all the parts, but for me it was a really big deal, all done when there's a lot of other things I could and would like to be doing. I very nearly swore off the hobby altogether right there.
Eventually though the thought of how much I had invested prompted me to try again. I decided to try the conductive glue again since before I had only shaken it, but reading the instructions again (which were written on the blister pack but not on the actual glue vial, I'm lucky I didn't throw the packaging away when I removed the glue) it said to stir the glue. Doing so, I realised that something - presumably the carbon conductive material - had settled into a very thick sludge at the bottom and it took a fair bit of work to even it out. Then I slowly built a test circuit, applying the glue then leaving for several hours to cure then coating in superglue to protect it so the connection would not get damaged in handling.
The results were not great. I estimate that the bulb is half as bright at best - it flickers inconsistantly - when the battery is connected to the circuit compared to connecting it directly to the bulb. So the conductive glue is just plain out of the question. I haven't given up yet though, my next attempt will be to carefully melt a blob of solder on the iron, then 'wick' it up with the strands of a copper wire, then let that rest in an indentation filed on the side of a magnet. Some bits might just be wrapped around each other then selotaped together, if possible. The whole circuit will be assembled with wires BEFORE being glued into the base, so I don't have to worry about melting plastic. With luck and a lot of effort, this might work - though probably not on the first try.
If it works, I'll have to buy the 8 quid model again. It's a nice model, but it's a simple one, I felt ripped off paying that much for it the first time, I'm not happy that I have to pay it again. This time though I have a better idea for the pose. I'll leave the bulb and attachment to the base for last, as now I have a better idea how it will work.
I'm writing this out of frustration, some days I really wonder why I'm bothering with these little pieces of plastic. Even though I can sometimes enjoy the painting, other times it feels like a chore, especially considering how much other stuff I want to do and how little time I have. Well, I guess as long as I don't try to force myself to paint and only do it when I feel like it I can't complain. Of course then I only get a figure actually painted once every couple of months...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Some "themed" army lists
I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they started talking about the advantages of land speeders. That got me thinking lists again, and I came up with a few silly ones:
RAIN OF MISSILES:
HQ
Librarian: 100
ELITES
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
TROOPS:
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
FAST ATTACK:
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT:
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
TOTAL:
1960 points.
The point of this list was to squeeze in as many missile launchers as possible (perhaps vehicles with HKs could add a few more missiles, but I've decided not to go there). That's a total of 36 missiles per turn. There's a few points left for upgrades, eg: the Librarian can be upgraded to a Master of the Forge with conversion beamer for more long range power to go with the theme. The dreads can be swapped for cheaper scout squads for the same number of missiles, but the higherBS and overall toughness of the unit (plus the multimelta) justifies the cost in my mind.
But Blood Angels devastators get missiles for cheaper, a blood angel version of the list could have one dread and six scout squads for a total of 37 missiles. However, Space Wolves get cheaper Marine models and can have 5 missiles per squad, which gives us a more powerful list:
CHEESY WOLF-RAIN OF FANG-CLAW MISSILES
HQ
Wolf Guard Battle Leader: 70
ELITES
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
TROOPS
5 Grey Hunters: 75
5 Grey Hunters: 75
FAST ATTACK
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
TOTAL:
1990 points.
The total is 41 missiles. Wolf Guard with cyclone missile launchers are cheaper per missile than scouts (plus they are relentless). I don't think there's any troops choice that gets long-range firepower so we just take the mandatory two units. I'm not actually sure this army is legal, there might be some wargear special rules or something, but there you have it.
A second idea I had was for an Adeptus Mechanicus list. I haven't really decided on an exact list, but the basic idea is 2 Masters of the Forge, 3 Thunderfire Cannons, and 3 Techmarines, for a total of 8 Techmarine models. That's probably going to be less than 800 points, so you can afford some Tactical or Assault squads with Rhinos to attach the tekkies to (or even Vaguard Veterans in a rhino, for the extra attacks). You could instead take some scouts with shotguns as Arbites or Storm Troopers or something, truth is I'm not sure what's thematically appropriate for the Adeptus Mechanicus other than servitors, but they are so aweful in this codex that I just can't see taking them.
The techmarines can be given servo-harnesses for some shooty power (flamer and a plasma pistol that can both be fired, a nice opening to an assault), and in assault the enemy either focusses their power-weapon attacks on them (2+ armour), thus sparing the rest of the unit, or suffers a couple of power-first attacks from the servo arms. A techmarine can also have a bolt pistol and power weapon, so they'll do some damage at I4 too.
Look to the Fast Attack slot for some anti-vehicle firepower - I'm partial to squads of 3 multimelta attack bikes as tough, mobile anti-vehicle firepower (they cost about the same as a squad of devastators with 4 multimeltas but can move 12" and fire, have more wounds overall, and are T5), and of course the aforementioned Typhoons for mobile missile power.
I like the Space Marine codex because it has so much variety, and there are so many little tricks (like Masters of the Forge making dreads heavy choices), that you can build some interesting armies. Having said that, there's a few units that I would like to see done a little differently (usually to better match the fluff), I might talk about some of these later.
RAIN OF MISSILES:
HQ
Librarian: 100
ELITES
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
Dreadnought, missile launcher: 115
TROOPS:
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
5 Scouts, missile launcher: 85
FAST ATTACK:
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoons: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT:
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
5 Devastators, 4 missile launchers: 150
TOTAL:
1960 points.
The point of this list was to squeeze in as many missile launchers as possible (perhaps vehicles with HKs could add a few more missiles, but I've decided not to go there). That's a total of 36 missiles per turn. There's a few points left for upgrades, eg: the Librarian can be upgraded to a Master of the Forge with conversion beamer for more long range power to go with the theme. The dreads can be swapped for cheaper scout squads for the same number of missiles, but the higherBS and overall toughness of the unit (plus the multimelta) justifies the cost in my mind.
But Blood Angels devastators get missiles for cheaper, a blood angel version of the list could have one dread and six scout squads for a total of 37 missiles. However, Space Wolves get cheaper Marine models and can have 5 missiles per squad, which gives us a more powerful list:
CHEESY WOLF-RAIN OF FANG-CLAW MISSILES
HQ
Wolf Guard Battle Leader: 70
ELITES
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
10 Wolf Guard, 2 Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher: 270
TROOPS
5 Grey Hunters: 75
5 Grey Hunters: 75
FAST ATTACK
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
3 Land Speeder Typhoon: 270
HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers: 140
TOTAL:
1990 points.
The total is 41 missiles. Wolf Guard with cyclone missile launchers are cheaper per missile than scouts (plus they are relentless). I don't think there's any troops choice that gets long-range firepower so we just take the mandatory two units. I'm not actually sure this army is legal, there might be some wargear special rules or something, but there you have it.
A second idea I had was for an Adeptus Mechanicus list. I haven't really decided on an exact list, but the basic idea is 2 Masters of the Forge, 3 Thunderfire Cannons, and 3 Techmarines, for a total of 8 Techmarine models. That's probably going to be less than 800 points, so you can afford some Tactical or Assault squads with Rhinos to attach the tekkies to (or even Vaguard Veterans in a rhino, for the extra attacks). You could instead take some scouts with shotguns as Arbites or Storm Troopers or something, truth is I'm not sure what's thematically appropriate for the Adeptus Mechanicus other than servitors, but they are so aweful in this codex that I just can't see taking them.
The techmarines can be given servo-harnesses for some shooty power (flamer and a plasma pistol that can both be fired, a nice opening to an assault), and in assault the enemy either focusses their power-weapon attacks on them (2+ armour), thus sparing the rest of the unit, or suffers a couple of power-first attacks from the servo arms. A techmarine can also have a bolt pistol and power weapon, so they'll do some damage at I4 too.
Look to the Fast Attack slot for some anti-vehicle firepower - I'm partial to squads of 3 multimelta attack bikes as tough, mobile anti-vehicle firepower (they cost about the same as a squad of devastators with 4 multimeltas but can move 12" and fire, have more wounds overall, and are T5), and of course the aforementioned Typhoons for mobile missile power.
I like the Space Marine codex because it has so much variety, and there are so many little tricks (like Masters of the Forge making dreads heavy choices), that you can build some interesting armies. Having said that, there's a few units that I would like to see done a little differently (usually to better match the fluff), I might talk about some of these later.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Metallic primer
This figure was a gift from my brother. By which I obviously mean he got me a Sanguinary Guard box set. A surprisingly good choice considering he knows very little about Warhammer and a Games Workshop store tends to be overflowing with boxes of stuff that mean nothing to most people (hell, most of them don't mean very much to me either).
I did very little to this model (it's so detailed and themed there's not much to do), except trim the guard on his sword a little, and cut a dangling gem off his right shoulder that would have been at the wrong angle, and of course a little repositioning was needed. I didn't give him a jump pack because I didn't think he needed it. I considered a cloak, which would probably look cool, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off and decided against it.
I was trying to use a metallic primer called 'Plate Mail Metal' by Army Painter. It turns out that paint doesn't adhere to the primer coat very well at all, which completely defeats the purpose. It might be that I'm applying it too thickly, but I don't think that's the case since the primer is supposed to work as the base coat. I also have a blue primer from Army Painter, I haven't really done much with it but I think that works better, we will see. I considered painting him all in bronze with just silver weapons to look like a statue, but after finishing the bronze coat he looked a little flat so I went ahead and painted him as a proper Space Marine, colouring some bits gold to stand out, painting the gems and purity seals, as well as painting joints and pipes in boltgun to look functional.
Because the paint didn't like the primer very much, I had to apply the bronze in three or four very very thin coats to stop it from running. Now, I realise that this is the best way to do it anyway (short of an airbrush), but I'm never patient enough. However, because I had no choice this time, I ended up with a very nice smooth coat of bronze that I was very happy with. I used a light drybrush of gold to try to highlight the bronze, but I think it was too light as it doesn't seem to have made any noticeable difference. I didn't want to edge-highlight him though, so I relied completely on the dip for shading.
I used quickshade again, but this time I attached the model to a drill and used that to shake off the quickshade. This worked better, but there was still pooling on the base and, annoyingly, on the tip of the sword. I ended up sanding the varnish off half the blade and repainting it, then varnishing with good old 'ardcoat. The base I also repainted (over the varnish this time) and varnished with the Galeria matt (along with the purity seals). The rest I left shiny because it's all metal and gems, which look OK glossy.
The model seems to have been darkened a little by the shading (the gems especially look too dark now), which I wasn't really expecting, perhaps I need to switch to a lighter tone of quickshade. A faster drill might solve the pooling problem, but since that's not an option right now I'll just have to manually remove any pools next time (actually, I'm wondering if it can be watered down to make it easier to flick off, I'll have to try some experiments). It's certainly faster than using normal washes, and shades better with less effect on the main colour (take for example the feathers on the aquila - they look much better than anything else I can do short of manually highlighting each feather), and I think I like the uniform shadow colour more than different coloured washes.
Overall I'm happy with how he came out, and it felt as though he took less time and effort than many models have, which is probably thanks to the quickshade and the fact that he didn't need to be pinned or painted as separate pieces and put together afterwards. The gems were harder to paint than I expected, the teardrop-shape turned having more of an effect than you might expect (I was used to the perfectly round gems thus far), and they turned out too dark. He's a little darker overall than I expected, but that works because it makes the sword stand out more and serve as a focal point for the model.
I have decided to call him Amadeus, because he looks somehow Aztec to me (the golden colour scheme and sun-like mask perhaps) and Amadeus sounds vaguely Aztec, at least in my mind. Speaking of which, every time I think of the Sergeant I just finished, the name "Fistandantilus" pops into my head. I know it's silly and unimaginative, but I didn't choose it, the name pretty much chose itself, so there you have it. Perhaps I shall call him "Ant" for short.
I'm not sure what to paint next, I have a couple of Grey Knight terminators already primed with the metallic primer that will hopefully be quick to finish, but I've lost interest in Grey Knights now that I don't like the new codex and fluff and also everyone's painting them right now in exactly the same way (yes, I could paint them differently, but I just really like the official scheme). There's also a few conversions I'm in the middle of, but to be honest I don't feel like finishing them right now, I'd rather finish some painting projects. Maybe I'll get back to those sniper-rifle scouts?
I did very little to this model (it's so detailed and themed there's not much to do), except trim the guard on his sword a little, and cut a dangling gem off his right shoulder that would have been at the wrong angle, and of course a little repositioning was needed. I didn't give him a jump pack because I didn't think he needed it. I considered a cloak, which would probably look cool, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off and decided against it.
I was trying to use a metallic primer called 'Plate Mail Metal' by Army Painter. It turns out that paint doesn't adhere to the primer coat very well at all, which completely defeats the purpose. It might be that I'm applying it too thickly, but I don't think that's the case since the primer is supposed to work as the base coat. I also have a blue primer from Army Painter, I haven't really done much with it but I think that works better, we will see. I considered painting him all in bronze with just silver weapons to look like a statue, but after finishing the bronze coat he looked a little flat so I went ahead and painted him as a proper Space Marine, colouring some bits gold to stand out, painting the gems and purity seals, as well as painting joints and pipes in boltgun to look functional.
Because the paint didn't like the primer very much, I had to apply the bronze in three or four very very thin coats to stop it from running. Now, I realise that this is the best way to do it anyway (short of an airbrush), but I'm never patient enough. However, because I had no choice this time, I ended up with a very nice smooth coat of bronze that I was very happy with. I used a light drybrush of gold to try to highlight the bronze, but I think it was too light as it doesn't seem to have made any noticeable difference. I didn't want to edge-highlight him though, so I relied completely on the dip for shading.
I used quickshade again, but this time I attached the model to a drill and used that to shake off the quickshade. This worked better, but there was still pooling on the base and, annoyingly, on the tip of the sword. I ended up sanding the varnish off half the blade and repainting it, then varnishing with good old 'ardcoat. The base I also repainted (over the varnish this time) and varnished with the Galeria matt (along with the purity seals). The rest I left shiny because it's all metal and gems, which look OK glossy.
The model seems to have been darkened a little by the shading (the gems especially look too dark now), which I wasn't really expecting, perhaps I need to switch to a lighter tone of quickshade. A faster drill might solve the pooling problem, but since that's not an option right now I'll just have to manually remove any pools next time (actually, I'm wondering if it can be watered down to make it easier to flick off, I'll have to try some experiments). It's certainly faster than using normal washes, and shades better with less effect on the main colour (take for example the feathers on the aquila - they look much better than anything else I can do short of manually highlighting each feather), and I think I like the uniform shadow colour more than different coloured washes.
Overall I'm happy with how he came out, and it felt as though he took less time and effort than many models have, which is probably thanks to the quickshade and the fact that he didn't need to be pinned or painted as separate pieces and put together afterwards. The gems were harder to paint than I expected, the teardrop-shape turned having more of an effect than you might expect (I was used to the perfectly round gems thus far), and they turned out too dark. He's a little darker overall than I expected, but that works because it makes the sword stand out more and serve as a focal point for the model.
I have decided to call him Amadeus, because he looks somehow Aztec to me (the golden colour scheme and sun-like mask perhaps) and Amadeus sounds vaguely Aztec, at least in my mind. Speaking of which, every time I think of the Sergeant I just finished, the name "Fistandantilus" pops into my head. I know it's silly and unimaginative, but I didn't choose it, the name pretty much chose itself, so there you have it. Perhaps I shall call him "Ant" for short.
I'm not sure what to paint next, I have a couple of Grey Knight terminators already primed with the metallic primer that will hopefully be quick to finish, but I've lost interest in Grey Knights now that I don't like the new codex and fluff and also everyone's painting them right now in exactly the same way (yes, I could paint them differently, but I just really like the official scheme). There's also a few conversions I'm in the middle of, but to be honest I don't feel like finishing them right now, I'd rather finish some painting projects. Maybe I'll get back to those sniper-rifle scouts?
Saturday, October 1, 2011
New varnish
First a quick update on my engine: after imported a model with a simple animation, I have confirmed that animation in my engine is still broken. I just don't have the time or energy to look into it these days though.
Now back to Warhammer. The big news recently was the SoB pseudo-codex. While I'm not actually a player (I just paint really), I'm still opinionated, and in my opinion: it sucks. My biggest complaint would have to be the fact that they lost Martyrdom and resistance to psychic powers, which were two of the most characterful rules of the army. The new way that you roll for Acts of Faith isn't bad (to be honest I prefer it to the old way of rolling against the number in the squad and needing less or more depending on the act), but the acts themselves suck and are rarely all that useful, plus one specific act per squad makes it feel less like a miracle and more like just a trick they've been taught (but aren't very good at yet). Or a psychic power, but more random and less useful. Nevermind the random amount of faith per turn which just takes all the strategy out of it (and out of list building, which I think is a shame), and which does not scale with the game or army.
But one thing that gets to me is the fact that you have to roll two dice now for faith: once for the amount and once (per unit) to see if it goes off. And either roll will ruin your carefully laid plans to... I don't know, land a couple of extra wounds, for all the good that will do. The point is, if I'm rolling to see if the power goes off every time anyway, why did I have to roll to see if I would have enough faith before? It may not sound like a big deal, but having to roll well twice for the marginal benefit of, say, re-rolling to hit with a squad that isn't particularly good at CC to begin with just doesn't seem fair to me.
I'll not discuss all the nonsense that plagues individual units (that would just take too long), but suffice to say that, while it seems the army will be playable (albeit with less variety in competitive builds), it's lost much of it's character, it's flavour.
I've been doing a bit of painting lately, and have finished my power-fist seargent. He's an early conversion from the Assault on Black Reach box. I replaced his pointing left arm with a power fist from the Black Templars box, I think the chains don't look too far out of place since he has chains on his torso as well. Originally I had replaces his right arm, which held a chainsword, with an arm holding a bolter that I built from several leftover pieces. The bolter hand later broke off by accident, and rather than glue it back on I decided to replace it with a bolt pistol (also from the Black Templars box), which makes more sense rules-wise even if it is more generic.
Initially he was going to be part of my squad of Crimson Fists. Then that nonsense with the varnish clouding over happened, and I decided not to waste any more time on them and to focus on my chapter, so I added the Sentinels Eternal icon to his right shoulder (I was considering switching to the right shoulder so terminators would match regular marines - I mean, seriously, why do they swap sides anyway?), and ended up forgetting to paint anything at all on his left shoulder. It doesn't matter, he was an experiment anyway.
After the cloudy varnish debacle I ran into last time (which has since come to plague my Chaplain, though luckily the effect there is less pronounced so far), I picked up some Galeria Matt varnish. As mentioned previously it didn't cloud up after a month on my window sill, so I decided to try it on a model. I was also trying a method of painting skin that I hoped would produce smooth gradients and a smooth surface, as well giving quick-shade a try. Plus I wanted to see if red worked well with the black-and-blue colour scheme I want for my army. Oh, and I didn't give him a backpack since, to be honest, I don't like them and I've decided my Sentinels will not wear them. I did add a magnet on his back so I can add a backpack later if I really need to.
No varnish or shading.
Quickshade.
Matt varnish.
I was surprised by how well the quickshade worked, not only did it fit into crevasses in the armor, it also worked surprisingly well to shade the face. However, despite following the directions on the tin to 'shake 5 or 6 times' (actually I shook it far more times than that, but perhaps not as vigorously as necessary for fear of the model flying off), the varnish pooled in several areas. Next time I'll try attaching the model to the end of a drill, as I have read about somewhere on the internet.
The matt varnish did not work as well as I had hoped, creating the same satin-like sheen I have seen before. I'm not sure if that's because I applied it too thickly despite my efforts not to, I tried to add a bit more on his back afterwards where the effects would not be very noticeable, it didn't seem to help. I had to apply the varnish directly rather than watered down since in my experiments it didn't seem to work properly when mixed with water. There's also a strange effect on the surface when you look real close, although this might have been caused by my trying to brush it on as thinly as possible. Overall I'm not sure about it, I might try another varnish or go back to Purity Seal. Purity Seal has worked well for me in the past despite the stories I've heard, but using spray cans just takes a lot of effort because I don't have a good place to do it.
The red looks OK to me, I think I'll be using it for cloth, though probably not for armor (one of my ideas was to give models different coloured shoulders depending on rank, and I painted him with red shoulders to see how it looks, though I don't plan to actually go ahead with it). The chapter symbol doesn't look very good in bronze and black, I don't think pure bronze really works either, at least not on the rank-and-file. I'll try white and black next time. I might try giving the shoulder plates a white trim, or I might try smoothing the trim off entirely. I did consider a blue trim on a black base, I'm not sure how it would look but I feel a solid blue would work better.
I've been trying something fancy with a Cairn Wraith (love that model), hopefully I'll get back to that later, right now I'm trying to get a few models out quickly using simple colour schemes and quickshade. Hopefully, when things calm down here, I'll get back into programming too.
Now back to Warhammer. The big news recently was the SoB pseudo-codex. While I'm not actually a player (I just paint really), I'm still opinionated, and in my opinion: it sucks. My biggest complaint would have to be the fact that they lost Martyrdom and resistance to psychic powers, which were two of the most characterful rules of the army. The new way that you roll for Acts of Faith isn't bad (to be honest I prefer it to the old way of rolling against the number in the squad and needing less or more depending on the act), but the acts themselves suck and are rarely all that useful, plus one specific act per squad makes it feel less like a miracle and more like just a trick they've been taught (but aren't very good at yet). Or a psychic power, but more random and less useful. Nevermind the random amount of faith per turn which just takes all the strategy out of it (and out of list building, which I think is a shame), and which does not scale with the game or army.
But one thing that gets to me is the fact that you have to roll two dice now for faith: once for the amount and once (per unit) to see if it goes off. And either roll will ruin your carefully laid plans to... I don't know, land a couple of extra wounds, for all the good that will do. The point is, if I'm rolling to see if the power goes off every time anyway, why did I have to roll to see if I would have enough faith before? It may not sound like a big deal, but having to roll well twice for the marginal benefit of, say, re-rolling to hit with a squad that isn't particularly good at CC to begin with just doesn't seem fair to me.
I'll not discuss all the nonsense that plagues individual units (that would just take too long), but suffice to say that, while it seems the army will be playable (albeit with less variety in competitive builds), it's lost much of it's character, it's flavour.
I've been doing a bit of painting lately, and have finished my power-fist seargent. He's an early conversion from the Assault on Black Reach box. I replaced his pointing left arm with a power fist from the Black Templars box, I think the chains don't look too far out of place since he has chains on his torso as well. Originally I had replaces his right arm, which held a chainsword, with an arm holding a bolter that I built from several leftover pieces. The bolter hand later broke off by accident, and rather than glue it back on I decided to replace it with a bolt pistol (also from the Black Templars box), which makes more sense rules-wise even if it is more generic.
Initially he was going to be part of my squad of Crimson Fists. Then that nonsense with the varnish clouding over happened, and I decided not to waste any more time on them and to focus on my chapter, so I added the Sentinels Eternal icon to his right shoulder (I was considering switching to the right shoulder so terminators would match regular marines - I mean, seriously, why do they swap sides anyway?), and ended up forgetting to paint anything at all on his left shoulder. It doesn't matter, he was an experiment anyway.
After the cloudy varnish debacle I ran into last time (which has since come to plague my Chaplain, though luckily the effect there is less pronounced so far), I picked up some Galeria Matt varnish. As mentioned previously it didn't cloud up after a month on my window sill, so I decided to try it on a model. I was also trying a method of painting skin that I hoped would produce smooth gradients and a smooth surface, as well giving quick-shade a try. Plus I wanted to see if red worked well with the black-and-blue colour scheme I want for my army. Oh, and I didn't give him a backpack since, to be honest, I don't like them and I've decided my Sentinels will not wear them. I did add a magnet on his back so I can add a backpack later if I really need to.
No varnish or shading.
Quickshade.
Matt varnish.I was surprised by how well the quickshade worked, not only did it fit into crevasses in the armor, it also worked surprisingly well to shade the face. However, despite following the directions on the tin to 'shake 5 or 6 times' (actually I shook it far more times than that, but perhaps not as vigorously as necessary for fear of the model flying off), the varnish pooled in several areas. Next time I'll try attaching the model to the end of a drill, as I have read about somewhere on the internet.
The matt varnish did not work as well as I had hoped, creating the same satin-like sheen I have seen before. I'm not sure if that's because I applied it too thickly despite my efforts not to, I tried to add a bit more on his back afterwards where the effects would not be very noticeable, it didn't seem to help. I had to apply the varnish directly rather than watered down since in my experiments it didn't seem to work properly when mixed with water. There's also a strange effect on the surface when you look real close, although this might have been caused by my trying to brush it on as thinly as possible. Overall I'm not sure about it, I might try another varnish or go back to Purity Seal. Purity Seal has worked well for me in the past despite the stories I've heard, but using spray cans just takes a lot of effort because I don't have a good place to do it.
The red looks OK to me, I think I'll be using it for cloth, though probably not for armor (one of my ideas was to give models different coloured shoulders depending on rank, and I painted him with red shoulders to see how it looks, though I don't plan to actually go ahead with it). The chapter symbol doesn't look very good in bronze and black, I don't think pure bronze really works either, at least not on the rank-and-file. I'll try white and black next time. I might try giving the shoulder plates a white trim, or I might try smoothing the trim off entirely. I did consider a blue trim on a black base, I'm not sure how it would look but I feel a solid blue would work better.
I've been trying something fancy with a Cairn Wraith (love that model), hopefully I'll get back to that later, right now I'm trying to get a few models out quickly using simple colour schemes and quickshade. Hopefully, when things calm down here, I'll get back into programming too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)