Awesome Autarch Done!

Nick speaking,

Well I said it was going to be awesome, but I didn't realise just how awesome it was going to be! Here is the amazingly painted Mantarch that was done for me by my very good buddy 33claydog. I really would love to be able to write down in words how awesome this guy looks, but as they say, a picture paints a thousand words, so I will let Clayton's work below say it all for me. Don't forget to click the subscribe button on Clayton's YouTube Channel to watch his latest work of arts come to life...

Read more ...

More Mechdar Messing - Jetbike Units Sizes?

Nick speaking,

After a few games with another re-vamped Mechdar list that enabled me to get my Wraithknight in, I think I am ready to make a few decisions regarding my Jetbike units. I have noticed that my six strong Jetbike units always go down in one turn of shooting or assault if they get targeted, regardless of how well I am using them! So what is the ideal unit size?

The conclusion at the moment is for me to have four units of three rather than two units of six, I only had four troop slots previously, so I have the space for them. It would also mean that I could drop the two Warlocks I had with the larger bike squades. The Warlocks weren't that great anyway, and sort of went against the idea of reserving them, as I couldn't get the Psychic Powers up from reserve, and then when I did get the chance, failed the Leadership eight roll anyway! With the Warlocks dropped and a few tweaks here and there, I am able to get a second unit of Warp Spiders into the list and fill out my Troops slots at the same time...

HQ
1 x Autarch/Jetbike/Fusion Gun/Blaze/Mantle/Lance/Mask (150)

TROOPS
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
3 x Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (61)
10 x Dire Avengers/Exarch - Power Weapon + Shimmershield (150)
        Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)
10 x Storm Guardians/2x Flamer (100)
        Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)

ELITES
5 x Fire Dragons (110)
      Wave Serpent/Scatter Laser/Holofields (135)

FAST
6 x Warp Spiders/Exarch (124)
6 x Warp Spiders (114)

HEAVY
1 x Fire Prism/Holofields/Spirit stone (150)
1 x Fire Prism/Holofields/Spirit stone (150)
1 x Wraithlord/Suncannon/Scatterfield (300)

Points 1997

Battle report to follow...

Read more ...

IDIC Seer Council Jetbike Conversions Painted

Nick speaking,

At long last I can finally reveal my painted and completed Seer Council conversions, they were a long time coming, but I really enjoyed getting them done and with a bit of help from Ron, over at From The Warp with the Farseers hair, I am very happy with the results...

More to come on the Farseers hair later...

Until then, here is my traditional painting project video that I did, where you can see the process of them being painted...

Read more ...

First Freehand Work!

Nick speaking,

When I first put my Farseers Jetbike platform together, I always knew I wanted my Craftworld logo on the front plate. I had previously thought about having the logo on the front of all my Jetbikes and Tanks, but in the end I decided I would save my first piece of freehand work for my Sexy Farseer

The project seemed a bit daunting at first, and to be honest I thought I would fail, and end up just having the section painted plain purple instead!. Before I attempted the logo, I had a look at one of my favourite painting blogs From the Warp for some inspiration. I was not disappointed and found several great freehand painting posts like this one, that gave me the confidence to get going.

So with the base coats all done on the rest of my platform, it was time for me to have a go. First I drew a cross with a pencil to give me a guide to where the logo would be...

Next I pencilled in the actual logo...

I then painted the outline of the logo with black...

Next was to paint in the purple sections...

Then all I had to do was tidy it all up...

All in all, I was very pleased with the results for my first freehand piece, and when viewed with the naked eye it is very difficult to see the imperfections. So once again, many thanks to Ron, and his fantastic painting articles. I am going to continue to keep having a go at freehand, and can only inspire to be as good Rons work one day!

Read more ...

Seer Council Coversions Done

Nick speaking,

After waiting a while for some Warlocks to come from eBay, I was able to complete the final touches to my Seer Council. With all the Warlocks and 'Jetbike' Anti Grav platforms magnetised, I was able to start work on the next stage...

My aim is to have ten Warlocks in total, five Warlocks with Witch blades and five with Singing spears. This would give me the option to interchange my five 'Jetbike' Warlocks to any combination of weapons I wanted, and have the added bonus of giving me a full unit of ten foot slogging Warlocks to use if needed. After purchasing as many different Warlocks as I could find, (think I have them all, but I could be wrong) I only ended up with three Singing spear models, so a bit of conversion work was needed...

First was to make a Singing spear out of a Dire Avenger power weapon...

With the spear ready I took a duplicate Warlock I had, and cut off the Witch blade arm. I then made a sleeve for the Dire Avenger arm and made both the original Witch blade and the new Spear arm interchangeable with magnets...

One of the figures I got from eBay, was a another duplicate Warlock, that had had the top of it's spear broken. This gave me an excellent opportunity to make my fifth Warlock a bit different to the original one...

First I cut the spear away from the foot so that I could bend the arm a bit to give the spear a different angle. I then made up a new top section from another Dire Avenger power weapon, and added an odd piece I had to the bottom, to get the length of the spear back again. Finally I cut of the antlers to alter his appearance further...

With the Warlocks and Platforms all done, it was time to sort out the foot slogging bases. I found that the magnets on the Warlocks feet were sticking out a bit and you could see them on the bases, fine on the platforms, as In my mind the Warlocks control the platforms with these 'discs', but they looked a bit silly on the 25mm bases.

I thought that if I put some cardboard/plastic discs on the bases the same size as the magnets, i might be able to get the Warlocks to look like they are standing on some sort of council pathway, maybe made out of wraithbone discs or something! I made some carboard discs using a cereal box and a hole punch, which I have to give credit to my wife for coming up with this ideas, after I spent a week unsuccessfully looking around my local hobby shops...

Finally, I made some extra psychic 'smoke' for my Sexy Farseer, and I am all ready for painiting...

Read more ...

Seer Council Conversions

Nick speaking,

One reason why I like to play with my models before I paint them, apart from finding the time to paint, is so that I can make sure any conversion work I have done is all OK, the last thing I want is for my many hours of painting to be ruined by something falling off that has not glued/pinned very well, or maybe a magnet or green stuff section that just doesn't do what it is supposed too!

After play testing my Jetbike Seer Council conversions on the tabletop a few times, I soon realised that my previous magnetising work was going to have to be re-done, before I could start painting them...

The main issue was that although the Warlocks and Flying bases where pretty well magnetised on flat ground, when it came to standing on uneven terrain, the Warlocks where just a bit too top heavy and kept falling off! Of course being metal, the last thing I needed was for them to be toppling over and chipping off the paint.

Here are a couple of pictures of the original magnets that I used...

After a trip to my local hobby store, I managed to get some stronger magnets that I could use, although as expected, they were a bit bigger than the original ones. It didn't bother me if you could see the magnets on the platforms, in my imagination these would be the "control pads" that the Warlocks stood on to steer the platforms anyway...

With my new strong holding Warlock in place, another problem with my original design was highlighted! I originally had the magnet for the flying base glued onto the centre column where I was going to slot over the shuriken catapult, but again it proved to be too top heavy...

I needed to get the flying base to somehow fit into a hole, so that it would not be able to topple over from the heavy Warlocks. I cut off the centre column and drilled out a hole right through, and then put another magnet on the top of the platform. Now the flying base would go into the hole and magnetise without toppling over...

With the centre column gone, I no longer had anywhere to glue the shuriken catapults too, so I decided to put it straight onto the platform itself! I had to add something to the back section, and cut off some sticky out bits to make it sit flush. I found some leftover pieces I had from my Razorback kit to use at the back of the catapult and got to work with the glue and clippers...

Now to re-do the rest of them...

Read more ...

Flying Jetbikes Without Flying Bases!

Nick Speaking,

Fellow Space Wolves player Terry, and owner of my local hobby shop TD Books & Wargaming, has recently entered a piece into a local gaming club competition, and unsurprisingly to me, has won first place with it.

It is a great battle scene of Space Wolves Vs Eldar, but the thing which stands out for me is the ingenious way he has made the Eldar Jetbikes fly without using flying bases. As you can see from the pictures below, he has used the Jetbike guns and Wolf Claws to make the Jetbikes look like they are really flying. A very effective ideas, and just shows what you can do with a bit of bendy wire...

Terry does some nice touches in-store that really do make a difference, you can go in and buy some of the models already built and base coated for the same price as buying it in the box! Great for kids, or for parents of kids who don't want to give there children clippers and superglue to play with? I like supporting local shops and his shop is always my first port of call when I need something.

Read more ...

Painting The IDIC Eldar - Jetbikes

Nick speaking,

I know it's been a long time coming, but the IDIC Jetbikes are finally finished...

More pictures to follow...

Read more ...

Last Jetbike Battle

Nick speaking,

One of my current projects is painting up my Guardian Jetbikes. Having recently finished painting the actual Guardians, I am now ready to start painting the Jetbikes themselves. This is the last battle I played against Blood Angels with my IDIC Hann styled list, before the Jetbikes got some paint love...

Read more ...

IDIC Eldar Shuriken Cannon Jetbike Conversion

Nick speaking,

When you go to buy your Eldar jetbikes you get a choice, either get the expensive standard Jetbike, or the very expensive Shrieker Jetbike? The standard Jetbike comes with the normal catapults and the Shrieker bike comes with a Shuriken Cannon. In my opinion, the jetbike should come with all the bits to make both versions as standard, but of course it doesn't.

Even so, I also find it a bit odd that the Shrieker model has the Cannon on the side of the bike! Surely it would be better weighted in the middle somewhere? It seems like it must be time to start converting...

I have seen a few Cannon conversions around, but most of them are based on keeping the original Catapults. I have two reasons for not keeping the Catapults. Mainly, so that I could use the Cats for my Seer Council Conversions, but also because the Cannons are suppose to be an upgrade and just wouldn't be there!

So this is how I did my version...

First up, build your Jetbike as normal but leave off the Shuriken Catapult. All you have to do is cut off the pole where the Catapult would normally sit, and the sticky out bit that would have gone over the Catapult. It should end up looking something like this...

Next, find a Shuriken Cannon from your bitz box or get a cheap one from eBay....

I simply cut off the top loop as this is not needed, and trimmed the bottom circle off to make it look like part of the gun...

You will also have to gently re-shape the top back section of the gun so that it fits snugly into position...

Now just put some green stuff in the gaps and your done...

Read more ...

How to Convert Eldar Jetbikes

Nick speaking,

New Eldar jetbikes? When? Will it ever happen? Well yes one day! But the question is, is the current old school jetbike really that bad? Well, in my opinion, if you don't bother with the dodgy flag and exchange the supplied rider with a 'real' Guardian, it actually still looks pretty cool.

To be honest, when I first got around to doing my bikes, I was going to use the original leather jacket guy and just cut off the heads. I thought that rotating them around a bit so they were looking in different directions, and glue them back on would do the trick!

It didn't take me long to realise that putting a 'real' Guardian on the bike would look so much better, and match in with the rest of the army as well. In this post I will show you how I did it...

First up, build the Jetbike as standard, the flag pole on the back is optional! Use the original Jetbike legs , but don't glue them on yet. Then, take a standard Eldar Guardian and glue the front and back of the torso together. When dry, take some clippers and cut of the small sticky out bit at the bottom of the back section as pictured below.

This will let the torso fit down onto the legs better. The section were the torso joins the legs will also have to be cut, giving a straight edge to make it easier for them to fit together

Next, Glue the two jetbike arms onto the torso, let them set slightly so that they still move but will not drop off. Remember not to glue the guardian to the Jetbike to make it easier for painting in the future.

When ready put some glue on the top part of the legs and slide the torso into position Make sure you put the hands onto the handle bars first as you go. The arms may slide back a bit out of the armpit sockets, but not enough to be be noticeable. You may also have to raise the legs up slightly with the other hand to join the legs and torso together. Again the legs may not be 100% sitting on the seat, but not enough to be noticable. All that's left to do is put a small bit of green stuff where the legs meet the torso to finish them off.

Of course, you could really start to make them stand out and try some different poses as well. I found that changing one arm every third model was enough to make the unit stand out a but more...

Now you can really start going to town and put Guardians everywhere. Here you can see my Vyper with a 'real' Guardian manning the gun...

Next up, Shuriken Cannon Jetbike conversions

Read more ...