Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Completed Tartaros Terminators


Finally completed my first squad of Tartaros Terminators.  Building these was a love/hate relationship with the models.  I utterly love the models, but the resin that Forge World used for these, at first impression, felt like they were a similar blend to that of the Finecast resin.  Given that Finecast is a GW trademark, it's understandable why Forge World states they do not use Finecast for their models.

When I first received them, due to the popularity of the models (and the Stormeagle I purchased) the order took about 3 weeks to arrive.  upon arrival, I set to working on them right away, but I was disappointed in that the quality I normally came to expect from Forge World was woefully absent.  The torsos were off-centered, as if the mold had shifted, there were air bubbles in the helmets and the mold lines were super abundant.  Furthermore, due to the molding process, there was a ton of flash to clean off.  But I needed to get these completed for my Armies on Parade diorama which is to be a Crusade-era Blood Angels display; so every Heresy-era model was needed.

I had to liberally use a lot of Greenstuff to patch up some of the problems.  For example, the front facing disc on the shoulder guards were missing on 3 of the shoulders.  So I had to make some out of Greenstuff.  It worked in the interim, but I felt it was not the workmanship I had paid for.

I had contacted Forge World after waiting 2 1/2 weeks for an email reply as it was obvious they were so incredibly impacted that it was simply better to call.  I had spoken to an individual named Simon who was incredibly helpful.  He apologized for the delay in replying to my email and would take care of the problem immediately.  It is also worth noting that I had a Mk IV Apothecary that had a mis-cast apron that needed to be replaced.

During this time, I did my best to paint the current Tartaros Terminators I had on hand, but if you note the shoulders you can see where there are a lot of air bubbles and mold lines.

However, the light at the end was that Forge World has changed the kind of resin they make their Tartaros Terminators with and the replacement kit they sent me is simply and utterly flawless.  It blew me away how amazing the replacements are.  After Armies on Parade is done with, I plan on taking my time and painting them very very slowly.  These Terminators are definitely not my best work.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Terminator Size Comparison



Just a size comparison between various Terminator patterns:

Indomitus vs. Tartaros:

"Cataphractii" vs. Tartaros:


Weathered Stormshield of a Cataphractii:


One big happy Tactical Dreadnought family:

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Blood Angels Stormtalon


As many know, I love Space Marine vehicles.  Their unrealistic boxy aesthetics is something I find appealing.  Maybe it's because I drive a Honda Element which looks like something a Space Marine woudl drive.  In any case, last weekend the Stormtalon was released from GW for Codex: Space Marines.  It fills a Fast Attack slot on the FOC and has some fairly interesting rules.  It's essentially a squished down, one-man Stormraven.  While it doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit nor does it have the nose-mounted multi-melta/heavy bolter/typhoon missile weapon pod, it does mount a twin-linked assault cannon as standard with your choice of twin-linked heavy bolter, twin-linked lascannon, typhoon missile launcher, or the new Skyhammer missile launcher which is a 60" S7 AP4 Heavy 3 option.  

So needless to say, I had to get one and paint it in the colors of Great Sanguinius - RED ALL THE THINGS!  Even though Blood Angels don't get to use this beautiful flying potato, our group is pretty casual and tend to let things slide within reason.  As soon as I got it home, I went to work.  There are only two sprues and the vehicle is very easy to assemble.  I was able to put it together in about 30 mins.  I also magentized the side weapon pods so I can swap out for the Lascannon or Skyhammer options.

Once the model was built, I primed it black using GW Chaos Black.  




Here's a size comparison between the Stormtalon (left) and its bigger sibling, the Stormraven (right)


Now that dextrous control over my airbrush is increasing, I felt comfortable to try and use a pre-shading technique on this vehicle.  After the black primer has dried, using my Iwata CS airbrush, I carefully sprayed watered down Administratum Grey on to the raised or exposed areas, leaving the black primed areas in the recesses.  This gives the model an appearance of shadowed recesses and also allows for some depth. 


Once the highlights have dried, I take thinned down Blood Red (50/50 Blood Red and Isopropyl Alcohol) and spray a thin layer over the entire model.  The goal is to apply the layer thin enough where the grey highlights only just absorb enough red but not enough to blot out the shaded details.  This gives the model a very cool layered appearance while the black maintains the look of having been shaded.  Unfortunately the poor resolution of my iPhone camera doesn't allow for all the shading to appear clearly so I tried using the HDR feature and only marginally was able to capture some of the shading.  


I painted the Techmarine Pilot using Khorne Red base, Carroburg Crimson shade, then highlighted with Wazdakka Red and finally Squig Orange to give it a darker, rusted red of Mars look.  The cockpit was painted and the canopy was glued down.  The rest of the details were then painted in.


Finally, I decided to test my potato out against some Orks in a 2500pt match.  Unfortunately my opponent didn't want it getting near him so he kept it on lockdown all night until finally the potato was baked.