#019 - the work continues

so here we are, day two of the serious business that is engineering a death machine... let me start by saying that fun-tak is the best modeling tool ever... using the wondrous blue material, i managed to get the general idea for you all as shown above... the soda can isnt part of the model, by the way, just to support the beast without glue...

on a painting note, the legs can and should be attached at this point because the spacing on the undercarriage will not screw up my painting later on... there is plenty of room for the gold trim without being a bother, so the next step will be attaching the legs... the blastmaster will be fun-tak'd in and tested with a brush to see if i can get that on as well without problems on the painting... would be nice to get a large portion of the beast assembled so i can work on the rest without worry...

on another note, tomorrow is the first day of the fantasy league, and i am, as always, ready for action... whether or not i do well is another story, though, so let's see if the dice gods favor me on the morrow... /post

#018 - the great work begins

what you see before you are the first stages of construction - the glorious opening to what will surely be the magnum opus of my conversion career to date... and its been a pain in the ass to be exact...

the hip assembly was simple... i clipped the right side of one and the left side of the other from the two defiler kits, applied glue, then stuck them together... the next step was simply taking two of the armor plates from the weapon sprues, gluing them to face forward on the front, then taking the dozer blade and attaching to the plates... the twin exhaust systems in the back are spaced almost equidistant by sheer accident, which made me happy... roughly the size of a rhino already, the hip assembly makes for enough of a platform to construct the torso upon...

which brings us to the legs... the initial problem with the defiler's legs is that there are four to a kit, and i wanted this beast to be tall... by ordering a third leg sprue, i was guaranteed more than enough parts to work with, and it worked out very well... the second problem with the defiler legs is that they are sculpted complete, a right and left half on each leg... so i had to sit there and clip, glue, and shave each section's right and left halves together, then glue the sections together until i had 6 legs... as you can see, each leg is composed of 4 separate sections, and took forever to get everything even... there are still blemishes, of course, but that is what green stuff is for, is it not?

also, i went to radio shack tonight and picked up a circuit board, amplifier chip, and a power switch... the board itself is about half a playing card in size, so i have plenty of breathing room to work with when making the torso... also finished at the moment is the twin-link blastmaster, made from the two flail arms of the defiler kits, two dirge casters from the vehicle upgrade sprues, and lots of armor plating... its looking rather prehensile at the moment, and very virile to boot - oh how slaaneshi it is...

i will, thankfully, be able to bypass the "make the circuit" step for now and concentrate on positioning the legs and developing the torso... probably start working up an idea for the arms as well, since i have enough parts to make two of them... but for now, sleep... /post

#017 - subjugator, part 1

what you see is the schematic for my speaker amplifier... total cost to produce, roughly $20 (including the speaker)... picked up some cheap desktop speakers from rite aid today, took them apart and stripped the wires to what i need for later... the best part is the plastic speaker casing will make for a good front torso plate... the warstore shipped out my order, so the extra leg sprue will be here by friday... and tomorrow i get my second defiler kit to start knocking together the hips... pics of that will follow when it is assembled... i should be getting the electronic components by the weekend as well, so the first few steps are already planned for...

on another note, i am also in the final planning stages of building three 4x4 game tables so i don't have to rely on the game room every time i want to play... im tired of having to watch my minis, tired of not having music, tired of distractions, and tired of not being able to drink while i play... also, im tired of using the "game table" they have at the store - static terrain tables are good for tournaments, not for leisure...

also, the fantasy league starts sunday, and i have updated my list - low leadership was killing me in close combat, so i dropped some models and added more orcs... the increased morale and toughness should do much better in close combat, and at the same time i barely had to reduce my shooting (only dropped two bolt throwers in that department)... the black orc boss gives me a nice punch, and throwing a brick of 25 orcs isnt too shabby either... at least now i know i have a plan instead of just marching forward and hoping for the best... /post

#016 - knowing its half a battle

so today saw my first new 40k game of the new year - sisters of battle (me) versus world eaters (victor from the store)... half a game, my favor by the time he had to leave... he had a fairly decent list, but the problem with going against sisters is always the bolter gunline... plus two exorcists... it doesnt pay to stand against them...

so next sunday is the fantasy escalation league, at which the green divas will be strutting up and down the field in their pink finery... i still havent decided if i should orc out my force a little bit (namely by dropping a goblin spear squad and fanatic and replacing), or keeping it all the same... i'll probably come up with another list or two during the week to test out saturday... simple enough task, really...

as for the subjugator, i now put pants back on and head to rite aid to pick up cheap pc speakers to dismantle... wish me luck... /post

#015 - the subjugator of slaanesh

and so, with the plague tower completed, the vulture gunship i received from forge world almost done (2 more guard HK missiles and its ready to prime), and nothing else left to assemble, i find myself without a springtime project... sad, i know...

as it stands now, the weather is improving, so i will be able to actually go outside and prime my fantasy greenskin project, "queer eye for the green guy"... the base of the entire army will be a powder pink spray paint i picked up at home depot, with varying degrees of ink (and in the case of my black orcs, glitter) applied to clothing and armor... oh yes... there will be gay in my collection...

but that is not the purpose of this post, as you can clearly see by the image... this is an update based solely upon metal and muscle... this, dear public, is the announcement that i have already started devising my own subjugator of slaanesh for apocalypse...

this 500 point, 3 structure, super-heavy walker of huggy badness will be based off two complete defiler boxes for most of the parts, as well as a lot of ad-lib construction and random bits for the rest (warstore will appreciate the business for spare parts)... but it doesn't stop there, children... there is one more surprise in store: the subjugator's doom siren will be a functional amplified speaker hooked up to an mp3 player...

i'll let that previous statement sink in for a bit...

as such, i have already found the perfect circuit plan for an amp that runs on a 9v battery, and requires minimal cost investment (already own the soldering equipment)... but enough about that - you want to know how i plan on doing the rest of the beast... so here are the steps i will be taking, in order, to get this project done...

1. lower body/hip assembly - can't build anything without a base to model it on, so the hip assembly must come first...

2. leg assembly x4 - using two kits' worth, plus a third leg sprue from warstore, i can make tri-segmented legs for added height, as well as double-thick for a tougher look...

3. audio amplifier assembly - before i can go any further, i will need to build the circuit on a tiny patch-board and make sure it works, as well as keep it small for the next step... i may or may not attach the speaker at this point...

4. upper body/torso assembly - once i have the size of the circuit finalized, i can begin building the torso around it; the torso will have to fit the mp3 player, 9v battery, circuit, insulation, and speaker... the actual siren cosmetics will be done at this time as well and attached to the chest of the beast... also, this will require creative pinning on my part, as the mp3 player and battery would need to be removable, most likely having the chest swing upward...

5. arm assembly x2 - with two sets of defiler claws, i will make the subjugator arms using the same style as the legs... easy enough...

6. blastmaster assembly - the twin-linked blastmaster will undoubtedly be an original design, and will have the honor of being the beast's giant penis of death, hanging scorpion style between the legs under the hip assembly... that's right... giant penis of death...

7. tormenter cannon assembly x2 - using the two defiler cannons, i plan on mounting them on servo-platforms attached to shoulder armor, a la the predator... this is both aesthetics and functionality at work, giving the beast freedom to target as it pleases and still kill and destroy with the remainder of its weapons...

8. add pieces of flair - this will be the difficult part... i will be modeling green stuff for possessed organic bits, plus already ordered slaanesh marine icons for use on the vehicle... then theres the daemonette banners i still have left over... lots of spiky bits and razor wire wrapped around things... there will also be chains hanging down, but those will not be added until after the final assembly...

9. prime everything separately - there will be a hip section, torso section, 4 legs, 2 arms, 2 shoulder cannons, and a blastmaster... the base color will be a deep magenta, most likely spray paint from home depot again (i saw a very good color for it)...

10. paint everything separately - this bears no explanation, as this is a giant, complex model... it would be silly to try to paint all angles after the fact...

11. final installation before assembly - the speaker would be installed with the amp and player inside the torso...

12. final assembly and spray varnish - legs to hip first, then torso to hip, then arms to torso, then shoulders to arms, then penis to groin, then chains to various locations... after all this, two light coats of spray varnish...

13. open a beer and throw a party - because this is how i roll...

/post

#014 - valentine's day...

is a horrible holiday for gaming, apparently... it's now 3:45 pm... i've been here at the store since 11:00 am... it has literally been just myself and the employees here... i helped sell the skull pass set and the fantasy paint kit to a guy though... so i guess it's been a good day for gaming... also helped paint over the damage on the foam table here...

so i picked up a box of wood elf wardancers... im not starting a wood elf army, just using them as death cult assassins for my inquisition force... converting all 10 as best i can for preparation in the cash johnson apocalypse league, starting in april...

yup, 5000 points per 'team,' up to 2 people per team, running from april to july... there will be prize support attached to it in july as well, so hooray!! details to follow soon... /post

#013 - new things

so ive been away for a while, and rightfully so... my laptop finally gave out to the forces of the interwebs, got a virus, and will be reformatted for service once more in the army of doom... in related news, i has a new laptop of incredibly tiny proportions, which is what i am currently working on now...

in recent news, i didn't place dead last at my first fantasy tournament... in fact, i placed 10th of 14... lost the first game to vampire counts (a balanced army this time)... won the second game in a sweep against ogre kingdoms... lost the third game in good spirits against orcs & goblins (and coined the phrase "the grot's tots")...

but for relating this blog to the picture, as i often do, i have announced my orcs and goblins shall be participating in the warhammer fantasy escalation league - 1000/1625/2250 respectively... so i tested my 1000 point list against wood elves yesterday...

result: tie, my advantage by 55 pt

my list had a lot to do with it... at so little points, i figured the only way i was going to survive was to maximize my troops, and i did... 131 night goblins and 4 spear chukkas... my list does not need to change ;) /post