Blz Bob's build pile reduction

[BLZBOB]

Hi all, well as you may have guessed its another of those damnable plogs in which the instance, I will request of you the reader/viewer motivation in reducing my build pile.

To date I have four major forces on the go, Marines, Tau, Guard and Tyranids.

Now I have a battle companies worth of painted marines but its the assembled and unpainted models that demand attention, I have reluctantly concluded that I will be unable to buy any new coolness that is released until I have made a significant dent in my build pile.

The two main offenders are Tau and Tyranids

Assembled Tau units awaiting paint are:

5 x Piranhas
3 x Piranhas TX42
3 x Devilfish
1 x Railhead
1 x Sky Ray
1 x FW Fusion head
1 x Stealth Team of the XV25 flavour.

Some examples of my completed units can be found here

Assembled Tyranids

1 x Battleforce all assembled and primed, these are on hiatus as I can't for the life of me decide what colour to paint them.

Now for the other two offeneders Guard and Marines.

Unassembled guard units are limited to tanks for the most part, a russ, basilisk, hellhound and a couple chimeras. I have a boat load of troops though and these are calling out to me too. I have decided to repaint my guard to match with the new scheme I have on my Vultures although I may leave the painted Chimera as is.

Marines are my first love and what got me into 40k back in the day, I have collected the 2nd Ultra Battle company from back in the day when that was about the only one that was known. I have five rhinos part assembled and awaiting completion and at least 100 marines clipped from the sprues awaiting the chance to fight.

I think the tau are first on the list and indeed I spent the past weekend assembling a diorama of sorts to hold my grav tanks.

With this decided I will begin green stuffing the gaps on the fishies and generally prep all vehicles for priming with luck that stage will occur at the weekend.

Wish me luck if you would.

[spikedog]

I am always interested in seeing others Tyranid schemes so I will be watching this thread in the hope you get some done soon!

The Tau are very nicely painted and I like your photoshopped pictures of the plane/tank cruising.

Either way good luck with the project what ever you decide to paint first.

[Norminator]

The Tau seem well painted, and I'd quite like to see what you do with the piranhas (I'm painting some myself at the moment).

Just a slightly OT thing; how did you find the Barracuda as a model? It's just I've considered purchasing one myself.

[BLZBOB]

The 'cuda was a dream model almost a shake-the-box build, there is some cleaning up to do but assembly is easy as the hull is one piece with thruster add ons and a weapons bay as extras. If you are feeling adventerous it is also possible to magnetize the gear and have it replaceable with the bay doors for extra posability. Mine came with two cockpits one with a pilot and one without although as the window is so small and you cant see in anyway I left both out, could be a strategem for CoD?

[bluebugs]

Tau looks great. BTW how did you assemble your nid warriors/carnifex. As a color scheme i would suggest the most alien color you can think of. Or take all 3 of your other forces and decide what color(s) you never use. But please don't do any pink nids.

[Wolf Scout Ewan]

Wow cool photoshop! I would love to do that with my stuff but those programs scare me!

Wanna do a tutorial on that?

[BLZBOB]

Well thought I had better post some piccies so people have an idea of what I am up against here is a small portion of my painting stack, these are only for the tau.

Apologies for the variable state of the piccies but I wasnt unpacking my tripod and for some reason my hands were very shaky tonight.






The last picture is a way I have devised for being able to display all my fishies on a single shelf, when completed the bay will have two platforms, one at the left and right each holding two fish with space for two more beneath. Sadly I found out that the plastic sheet I was using for the floor looks fantasic bare but I had used it for a primer shield and so the finish was marred. Originally I had not expected the sheet to be any good in its natural state but it gives a wonderful shine with a metallic depth. reminds me of the death star landing bays.

*sigh* Will order some more of that plastic sheet in the future and use it for my Air Caste diorama

Not pictured are the 2 XV25's it should be three but FW are 2 months late in sending the third, and 3 XV88-2s. I also have a shed load of drones that will be bashed into sniper teams technical drones and other flying goodness.

[Norminator]

I really don't envy you with all those Piranhas, I found painting one was a bit of a marathon...

[BLZBOB]

Cleaned up the fusion blaster turret for a hammerhead last night and all ready for final assembly and priming now

As for the 8 piranhas, well I do have an airbrush sos houldnt be too bad. Priming is set to go ahead on sunday. More pics soon.

[BLZBOB]

Well not much progress per se, as the missus wasnted a trip to ikea yesterday. Still I managed to get another desk lamp and a storage cabinet out of it so not a total loss. Have had to work on reducing the amount of boxes so I have spent the past couple hourse clipping sprues, here are the remains:



That amounts to three boxes of tactical marines two catachan noxes and a catachan box set. They are now neatly organized in plastic organisers (can't you just tell I suffer from OCD). I knw have a few more sprues to do



Though these are only for five rhinos (have already assembled the track units) a couple Tau TX42's and some plastic trees.

I have yet to be brave enough to apply this procedure to the unopened boxes which consist of

3xLand Speeder of varying types
2x SM bikes
3 x Termiator boxes
1 x Assault Terminator Box
1 x Scouts box set
2 x sniper scouts box
3 x Rhinos
1 x LR Crusader
1 x Box Of SM Veterans
1 x Box Marneus Calgar and honour guard
1 x 2005 Nid Battleforce.

Also have several metals packed away techmarine (direct sales version)
8 x servitors
1 x 2003 SM command squad set
1 x Tigirius
1 x Cassius
1 x Sicarus
4 x HB devestators
1 x PC Devvie
1 x MM Devvie
Unknown metal marines not even counted them probably about a dozen at this stage ~I keep finding them.

And these are only the ones that are being prepared for the build pile, the pile itself is still huge need to prime tomorrow Just as well its a three day wekend I need the extra time just to figure out what needs doing.

[slaaneshes_own]

Dude.....awesome stuff!

Joe

[BLZBOB]

Well made a little bit of progress this week, although the majority of my time was spent fighting off incompentent double glazing salesman who seem to think they can charge four times market rate, I did spend a little time at the workbench. Most of this time was spent getting the vinidcator to a pre priming stage. Humidity has prevented any sprayingt his weekend but with luck the next weekend will be more favourable, this is the current state of affairs:



I spent some extra time painting some termies up, well starting to paint them I have more or less fnished the legs and have now started on the torsos as can be seen here



And finally my agressor pattern dreadnuaght its been wip for about a year now and I admit I have a problem with it, I just keep adding bits it was okay, then I decided it didntl look quite right and added the waist and servos, then some more piping and chains. I have some leg shields put aside for this build but have yet to figure what to use for groin armour. I am curently considering a termi storm shield as the size should be about right. Hopefully this will be at least basecoated by then end of the year, hopefully...



Well thats all for this week I should get some more pictures up next week or possibly mid week depending on how much work gets thrown at me.

[Rabid Bunny 666]

That dread.....

Consider the idea nicked!

[Norminator]

The dread looks great, but as you said you really need to work on the leg/bottom armour. Have you considered building it up with plasticard?

[BLZBOB]

The leg armour is all osrted just not tacked into place yet, it will be as the original version seen here:



I just need to decide on the groin shield and wether it should have one or not, of course it now needs minor repairs as the missus just managed to accidently drop a g cramp on it. I think she harbours secret chaos sympathies.

[beefpizza]

I like the way your dread looks, however my only concern is the power fist. I think it needs one more joint for the four fingers. Now it doesnt look very graspy and powerful, maybe some tiny hydralics would fit nicely too.

[BLZBOB]

Yup, that is a concern I will be redressing shortly, I am going to green stuff some ribbed power cable between the two segments on each finger as per the original metal dread claw, this should give a better 'power' feel, I will also experiment with a spare fist and add tines to it just to see how it looks.

[BLZBOB]

Well another update (pics go up this evening), its been a strange week not much time for working on the pile last week was taken up mainly with trying to take care of a sick pet. Sadly my stalwart pal died on the wednesday and so after burying him and consoling the missus not to mention my own sadness I didnt get around to anytihng till the weekend.

I did however spend most of saturday priming, I have primed the following units

3 x Rhinos (for squads III, V & VI)
1 x Damocles command rhino
1 x Vindicator
3 x XV88-2s
7 x Pathfinders
6 x XV25 stealthsuits

Yesterday (sunday) I built up 10 scouts 5 sniper, 2 shottie, 2 bolters and 1 vet seargent. These need basing and priming (probably in a couple weeks as spraying can only happen every so often)

I also spent yesterday afternoon/evening building a display board for my 2nd company, its a two tier structure 700wx280dx300h (mm) the lower level is geared up as a vehicle hangar (should take at least six rhinos) and the upper deck should accommodate 100 odd marines. It will have lighting installed and at the moment has a structure made from necromunda bulkheads and the urban war hexagon builder sets as a entry point. So far it seems ok, as I said pictures should go live this evening.

[BLZBOB]

As promised some piccies, first proof of priming.

Tau units 1 team pathfinders 1 tem stealthsuits 1 tem XV88-2s

Vinidicator and other bits

Top of the base.

[BLZBOB]

Close up of my hybrid necromunda strucutre and hexagon sets, this is to be the top of an elevator shaft that you can just make out in the second pic.



Left hand of the catacombs

And the right


The plan is to have two 4" CCFLs (blue or purple as thats all I have thoughI do have a spare 12"white one)illuminating the catacomb area and possibly some heavy lifting equipment and rock hanging from the ceiling. Yes I kinow the ground thickness is too thin but I decided to use PVC foam instead of a 1/2" thick piece of polystyrene, mainly for strength and also I only have 300mm vertical space to play wth and it is getting close as it stands.