March 25th, 2015
So today I spent time on a new Hive Tyrant. He comes from the set of Tyranids donated to me. His torso is already glued together and seems solid, so I hope the previous owner pinned him. In any case, I had to build him a new tail, no idea where the old one went, I just have a stub. I took one of my old lead brain bugs (who are little more than a tail and huge head), stripped the tail off, bent it and then used green-stuff to attach a Carnifex scythe tail. It came out pretty good and now my Tyrant has a unique feature.
The next step was to magnetize his four shoulder joints. I use ¼ inch circle magnets for this, because I like the extra strength. In a Tyrant body there is plenty of room to drill the holes the magnets fit into. Some goop to affix them, a second coat of goop to overcoat and create a thin layer and they aren't coming out. The shoulder joints on all the arms get the same treatment, which does require some green-stuff in some cases to re-build the shoulder ball. For this tyrant I'm giving him the options for; a bonesword and lashwhip, a venom cannon, scything talons (two sets), and four devourers (this used to be an interesting option, he got like 12 strength 6 shots that were twin linked, I hope it still is, but lack my new codex, any opinions?) I have an old set of plastic dragon wings that I have debated magnetizing so he can be a flyrant. I can't find a good spot without really tearing up his armored back, so haven't pulled the trigger. My plan is to give him my usual Hive Fleet Leviathan paint job and get him up for sale.
My second project for the morning was a squad of Vostroyan Firstborn I'm painting up for my Vanastian assault army. Why Vostroyans? Well, they were also donated, so why not. It's funny. I'm not really a fan of the Vostroyans. They have too many little fiddly parts (a pain to paint), and there is too much variance between models for my taste (look at the backpacks if you have any, some are this way up, some sideways, some upside down...<shrug> some have fixed bayonets AND a sheath with a blade in it? Oh well, they still look cool!)
I was given about thirty, but sadly that total includes like three officers and five sergeants. The officers look really cool, but three??? Maybe I see a new command squad built from them, after some weapon switches etc. I'll add it to the list of future projects. Also, Most of them are wearing the breather mask that makes them look like something from Sucker Punch (an okay movie that has some cool action scenes but an overall depressing plot I can't get into). I hate the breather masks, so I'm just using the eight models I have with the heroic mustachioed (this is my spell-checks claim for this word, I’m going with it) faces showing. Nothing strikes me as more macho than a man in cold weather gear who has his face exposed and a huge mustache. That's just me.
I've decided to give them a heavy bolter team, mostly because the models came with two, and also, it looks pretty good! The gunner laying down has a great pose. Strangely, although he's chosen to lower his profile as far as possible, his loader is kneeling completely upright in the shoot me pose. Whatever! I'm magnetizing the loader to the base so he can be removed as a casualty.
The base is being built up in my typical snow scene. First I glued a plastic base to the bottom of some polystyrene, then cut it in an irregular approximation of the base. Some of it I cut smooth, and some planed so I can make it half rock, half snow. I then checked the fit, and placed a tree cut into the base (as in buried in the snow) for the gun to rest on. This took some work, as I only have a bunch of plastic trees for a model railroading, and each is molded as half a tree to be placed in a river as if floating. I chopped one into smaller parts that fit across the base, then glued two together for a full round. It's only partially successful, but I'll use snow to cover the gaps.
March 26th, 2015 (Yes, double post, but they are related.)
I have started painting the Tyrants body, and completed four of the Vostroyans as Vanastians. The heavy weapons team came out the way I wanted it to, and the regular models are going to fit in with the rest of the army so I'm happy. Currently I want them as my fourth regular squad so I can have two platoons.
All my friends want me to use them as the new storm troopers. <Shrug> I already have two veteran squads, and hate the new fluff for the storm troopers. They used to simply be elite troops, like airborne rangers or green berets, now they're some sort of goon squad a little too close to a certain mid-20th century dictators chosen fanatical executioners. (Yes, I'm a historian and I know not every SS unit was made up of purely racist killers, many fought with distinction ((Please see my PS below)), but that isn't the direction GW's fluff has taken the whole Emperium and its cult of worship and intolerance) That element of GW's fluff has never interested me. Anyway, I'm putting some pictures up as I go so check out the IG section (page 3 I think...) and the Tyranid section, page two.
PS: Because I am a historian and teachers are always teachers, I have to suggest this. If you want a poignant, spirit affecting account of the Eastern front from a soldiers point of view, read Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Stop reading if you want to read the book, I sum it up below.
Sajer was one of those half-breeds living in the Alsace/Lorraine area. The spot Germany and France fought at least three wars over. He had one German parent, and at 17 was drafted by the Germans after the fall of France. He does NOT use this as a defense or excuse. He bought into the propaganda, namely that the Nazi's were fighting a war against the real scourge of the world, communism (do NOT take my words as a defense of the Nazi's please, there is none. But this IS what they put out as their reasoning.) Sajer is made a truck driver, and is in the main convoy halfway to Stalingrad when it falls. His unit is stopped, everyone is lined up, and a General asks for volunteers to join n elite unit to stop the Russian advance. Sajer does not wish to join, he is a terrified 17 year old! All his friends in the unit(who are full German) step up, and he gives in to peer pressure. The unit turns out to be the Gross Deutchland, an SS unit. He fights through Kursk, the great retreat, the siege of Memel and worse, and is finally captured by the British. Yes, he's on the “wrong” side (although let's not forget Uncle Joe was as bad as Adolf...) but the misery he goes through applies to all soldiers in all wars (see my list of books below). There are points in Russia in which the soldiers survive on a single can of butter for days. They keep warm by putting their hands in the stream whenever one urinates. Most of his comrades die, one veteran tells Sajer there's no place for them after the war, because all he knows is how to kill...
Anyway, this synopsis sucks. Read it. It ends with him finally released by the French (they call him a traitor, but his choice was follow the draft notice or be arrested by the gestapo, which ISN'T a choice...) He comes home, and while walking down to his farmhouse (he is now 21) he sees his mother walking toward him with the milk bucket. She sees him, his uniform, and throws the bucket at him and runs! He has lost all his teeth in the war (no one talks about malnutrition because of diet, do they?) his hair is almost gone, his eyes have turned gray from their blue, and she doesn't recognize him...
Now, I must also point out that this book has some critics. Sajer has no documentation for most of his story (he WAS drafted etc, but all the other records of his service were destroyed in the retreat and when most of Berlin was burned) so take it for what it is. This is not the only book on this subject, but I read it when I was 21, after I had studied WWII for a years and felt there was little left to learn...I was wrong and it changed a lot of the way I judged information on the war. It was the first book that so clearly showed me the difference between the top down view and the view from the dirt.
Okay, sorry, I rambled on this one. That's what happens in teacher mode, and that really is who I am. Here is a very short list of books similar to the one above from soldiers of other nations in WWII. I cannot recommend them enough. They turn the war from the epic scale to the personal scale, and show it was caused by national ideologies, but fought by flawed human beings.
United Stated of America; Roll Me Over, Raymond Gantter; Helmet For My Pillow, Robert Leckie; Cutthroats, Robert C. Dick
Germany; Iron Coffins, Herbert A. Werner
Japan; Samurai, Saburo Sakai (I can't recommend this one enough); Tales from Japanese Soldiers, Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley, Blossoms in the Wind, M.G. Sheftall
So today I spent time on a new Hive Tyrant. He comes from the set of Tyranids donated to me. His torso is already glued together and seems solid, so I hope the previous owner pinned him. In any case, I had to build him a new tail, no idea where the old one went, I just have a stub. I took one of my old lead brain bugs (who are little more than a tail and huge head), stripped the tail off, bent it and then used green-stuff to attach a Carnifex scythe tail. It came out pretty good and now my Tyrant has a unique feature.
The next step was to magnetize his four shoulder joints. I use ¼ inch circle magnets for this, because I like the extra strength. In a Tyrant body there is plenty of room to drill the holes the magnets fit into. Some goop to affix them, a second coat of goop to overcoat and create a thin layer and they aren't coming out. The shoulder joints on all the arms get the same treatment, which does require some green-stuff in some cases to re-build the shoulder ball. For this tyrant I'm giving him the options for; a bonesword and lashwhip, a venom cannon, scything talons (two sets), and four devourers (this used to be an interesting option, he got like 12 strength 6 shots that were twin linked, I hope it still is, but lack my new codex, any opinions?) I have an old set of plastic dragon wings that I have debated magnetizing so he can be a flyrant. I can't find a good spot without really tearing up his armored back, so haven't pulled the trigger. My plan is to give him my usual Hive Fleet Leviathan paint job and get him up for sale.
My second project for the morning was a squad of Vostroyan Firstborn I'm painting up for my Vanastian assault army. Why Vostroyans? Well, they were also donated, so why not. It's funny. I'm not really a fan of the Vostroyans. They have too many little fiddly parts (a pain to paint), and there is too much variance between models for my taste (look at the backpacks if you have any, some are this way up, some sideways, some upside down...<shrug> some have fixed bayonets AND a sheath with a blade in it? Oh well, they still look cool!)
I was given about thirty, but sadly that total includes like three officers and five sergeants. The officers look really cool, but three??? Maybe I see a new command squad built from them, after some weapon switches etc. I'll add it to the list of future projects. Also, Most of them are wearing the breather mask that makes them look like something from Sucker Punch (an okay movie that has some cool action scenes but an overall depressing plot I can't get into). I hate the breather masks, so I'm just using the eight models I have with the heroic mustachioed (this is my spell-checks claim for this word, I’m going with it) faces showing. Nothing strikes me as more macho than a man in cold weather gear who has his face exposed and a huge mustache. That's just me.
I've decided to give them a heavy bolter team, mostly because the models came with two, and also, it looks pretty good! The gunner laying down has a great pose. Strangely, although he's chosen to lower his profile as far as possible, his loader is kneeling completely upright in the shoot me pose. Whatever! I'm magnetizing the loader to the base so he can be removed as a casualty.
The base is being built up in my typical snow scene. First I glued a plastic base to the bottom of some polystyrene, then cut it in an irregular approximation of the base. Some of it I cut smooth, and some planed so I can make it half rock, half snow. I then checked the fit, and placed a tree cut into the base (as in buried in the snow) for the gun to rest on. This took some work, as I only have a bunch of plastic trees for a model railroading, and each is molded as half a tree to be placed in a river as if floating. I chopped one into smaller parts that fit across the base, then glued two together for a full round. It's only partially successful, but I'll use snow to cover the gaps.
March 26th, 2015 (Yes, double post, but they are related.)
I have started painting the Tyrants body, and completed four of the Vostroyans as Vanastians. The heavy weapons team came out the way I wanted it to, and the regular models are going to fit in with the rest of the army so I'm happy. Currently I want them as my fourth regular squad so I can have two platoons.
All my friends want me to use them as the new storm troopers. <Shrug> I already have two veteran squads, and hate the new fluff for the storm troopers. They used to simply be elite troops, like airborne rangers or green berets, now they're some sort of goon squad a little too close to a certain mid-20th century dictators chosen fanatical executioners. (Yes, I'm a historian and I know not every SS unit was made up of purely racist killers, many fought with distinction ((Please see my PS below)), but that isn't the direction GW's fluff has taken the whole Emperium and its cult of worship and intolerance) That element of GW's fluff has never interested me. Anyway, I'm putting some pictures up as I go so check out the IG section (page 3 I think...) and the Tyranid section, page two.
PS: Because I am a historian and teachers are always teachers, I have to suggest this. If you want a poignant, spirit affecting account of the Eastern front from a soldiers point of view, read Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Stop reading if you want to read the book, I sum it up below.
Sajer was one of those half-breeds living in the Alsace/Lorraine area. The spot Germany and France fought at least three wars over. He had one German parent, and at 17 was drafted by the Germans after the fall of France. He does NOT use this as a defense or excuse. He bought into the propaganda, namely that the Nazi's were fighting a war against the real scourge of the world, communism (do NOT take my words as a defense of the Nazi's please, there is none. But this IS what they put out as their reasoning.) Sajer is made a truck driver, and is in the main convoy halfway to Stalingrad when it falls. His unit is stopped, everyone is lined up, and a General asks for volunteers to join n elite unit to stop the Russian advance. Sajer does not wish to join, he is a terrified 17 year old! All his friends in the unit(who are full German) step up, and he gives in to peer pressure. The unit turns out to be the Gross Deutchland, an SS unit. He fights through Kursk, the great retreat, the siege of Memel and worse, and is finally captured by the British. Yes, he's on the “wrong” side (although let's not forget Uncle Joe was as bad as Adolf...) but the misery he goes through applies to all soldiers in all wars (see my list of books below). There are points in Russia in which the soldiers survive on a single can of butter for days. They keep warm by putting their hands in the stream whenever one urinates. Most of his comrades die, one veteran tells Sajer there's no place for them after the war, because all he knows is how to kill...
Anyway, this synopsis sucks. Read it. It ends with him finally released by the French (they call him a traitor, but his choice was follow the draft notice or be arrested by the gestapo, which ISN'T a choice...) He comes home, and while walking down to his farmhouse (he is now 21) he sees his mother walking toward him with the milk bucket. She sees him, his uniform, and throws the bucket at him and runs! He has lost all his teeth in the war (no one talks about malnutrition because of diet, do they?) his hair is almost gone, his eyes have turned gray from their blue, and she doesn't recognize him...
Now, I must also point out that this book has some critics. Sajer has no documentation for most of his story (he WAS drafted etc, but all the other records of his service were destroyed in the retreat and when most of Berlin was burned) so take it for what it is. This is not the only book on this subject, but I read it when I was 21, after I had studied WWII for a years and felt there was little left to learn...I was wrong and it changed a lot of the way I judged information on the war. It was the first book that so clearly showed me the difference between the top down view and the view from the dirt.
Okay, sorry, I rambled on this one. That's what happens in teacher mode, and that really is who I am. Here is a very short list of books similar to the one above from soldiers of other nations in WWII. I cannot recommend them enough. They turn the war from the epic scale to the personal scale, and show it was caused by national ideologies, but fought by flawed human beings.
United Stated of America; Roll Me Over, Raymond Gantter; Helmet For My Pillow, Robert Leckie; Cutthroats, Robert C. Dick
Germany; Iron Coffins, Herbert A. Werner
Japan; Samurai, Saburo Sakai (I can't recommend this one enough); Tales from Japanese Soldiers, Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley, Blossoms in the Wind, M.G. Sheftall