Quick & Simple Papercraft Imperial Bunker

Just wanted to share some pictures and a template of an imperial bunker I found on the net. It's a very simple colored template, which makes it ideal if you need to quickly fill up your table and don't mind large, blocky buildings!

I like that it's size is large enough to have an ingame impact; I'm too busy working on my armies so I don't have much time or resources for Citadel or scratchbuilt terrain; this one will make a good proxy for now. The template and instructions are available at Ralf Engels homepage. The template is very simple, which makes it easy to experiment with. I'm thinking about adding battlement walls to this one.

I wish I had more time for Warhammer - but duty always comes first, at least the Emperor says so! I have way too many projects in the status of "nearly finished", including a Deff Dread, sternguard and bike squad and even some Tyranids - hopefully I'll finish some of these by Christmas. More paper terrain might come meanwhile - I'm having lovely papercraft saturdays with my girlfriend (really the only day in week I have time for the hobby at the moment).

Anyway, glory to the Emperor! I mean, have a nice day.

Genesis Chapter Land Speeder Typhoon

Edit (08/2015): New, beautiful pictures of this vehicle are available in this post.

I have finally finished my Typhoon Land Speeder - and I've spared way too much time with this contraption. It came with the Dark Angels Battleforce box - a great buy, but with outdated LS kit; be sure to have some rubber band handy in case it doesn't hold together when glueing.

I've spent quite few weeks painting this one and I'm happy with the result (though I'm quite annoyed by my low photographic skills, still have a lot to improve in that!). The crew was inserted after painting the cockpit, which delayed me quite a bit, but it was definately worth it.

As mentioned earlier, the assembly didn't go well, and it can be seen. The spoiler at the back is slightly curved, no matter how hard I tried to make it straight - it came like this right from the box! I was quite worried about the flimsy support of the missile launchers too, but in the end they are just fine. I guess these bugs are not present in the modern kit, though.

Since the beginning I wondered how can the rather weak flyer support mostly used for jetbikes and deffkoptas hold something as big and heavy as is the Typhoon. Oh well - it can't! It didn't take long and the support pole broke. I improvised and used a small plastic rock (coming from a toy) with green stuff for a new base. Now I wish I would have put more thought into this, but hey - at least it stands, and in a more interesting angle too!

I tried to follow Index Astartes while working on the markings. This Land Speeder actually comes from the 7th Company, which functions as a reserve of bike- and landspeeder-trained Assault Marines. Their codex colour is steel, therefore the Boltgun Metal shoulder trims. I think reserve companies are greatly under-represented on the table.

Anyways, see you soon, and sorry for the big delay!

First impressions of the 6th edition

Just a quick (and lazy) post today. I had a chance to play game of 6th edition at a convention about two weeks ago and thought I'd share some impressions. I'm pretty much an unexperienced player, since my armies are still largely upainted (and I refuse to play with unpainted models), and I've never really cared of other tactica than space marine gunline. Unfortunately, my Genesis Chapter is still under 1.000 points, so I brought my Bad Moons Orks instead. Even worse, my Orks are going to be a mechanized army, and my opponent played Necrons.

Ouch.

 My army was largely inconsistent (I simply took most of my painted models) - a shooty Battlewagon, a Deff Dread, one Trukk full of angry Nobz with their Warboss, three Deffkoptas and a bunch of Lootas and Boyz hiding near my objective. My opponent had few squads of Necron Warriors and Immortals with Tesla weapons, two Annihilation Barges and a Lord. I knew I was pretty much screwed - especially with the new Hull Point rules - but I accepted it in an orky way and decided to have fun, no matter the odds.

 We played Dawn of War deployment, Emperor's Will mission (aka one major objective per player). The game was lost since the very deployment, since my low experience - in fact, this was the first time I had Deff Dread and Battlewagon in play, and therefore, they didn't do anything - they were wrecked soon by Necron Warriors fire. Defffkoptas proved to be more resilient and later on I had some luck with them - even scoring two 6's in a row and shooting down a Barge with a rokkit, no matter its Quantum Shielding.

These 'crons are scrap.

With Battlewagon and Deff Dread down, the only unit I could count on was the Warboss and his retinue. Their Trukk was easily destroyed by the Necrons, and the disembarked Orks were assaulted by Necron Warriors and their Lord, who challenged my Warboss. I accepted the challenge and passed the roll on Mindshackle Scarabs (with a roll of 9). I think my opponent underestimated me here, since his squad was quickly wiped out, including the Lord. My Warboss was left with one wound though, and died a turn later. The Nobs still had some luck though, as they succesfully took down the other Annihilation Barge.

At least I had beer.

Still, the battle was lost for me, since my enemy was left with too many Troops. My Waaagh! has failed and my Boyz were unable to assault an approaching Warrior squad, and that was pretty much the end of the game. I guess I ended with only one victory point (earned for taking down the Warlord) - not that I cared. When it comes to Warlords, I was quite dissatisfied with the random choice of abilities - actually, the command ability I obtained was useless against Necrons!

My overall impression with the new edition was very good though. The game felt much more realistic and epic - for example, while the new wound removal system is very disadvantaging for foot-slogging orks, it feels very atmospheric and forces the player to think about their special weapon positions. Defensive fire is very unpleasant as well, though my Nobz welcomed it (they have used their kombi-skorchas against the ambushers). Snapfire is something that's going to make Lootas even better than they are - why-oh-why do I have the feeling that they will be nerfed in the next codex. Challenges between individual characters are a very interesting addition though that will please many ork players. I love the way Challanges combine 40k-epicness with careful tactics and risk. The reduced cover saves are also something that will not please foot-sloggers; I guess this is weighted by the addition of hull points - everything is going to die more often, it seems.

All in all, there is more risk to all player actions now (thanks to warlord abilities, hull points, random effects and defensive fire) - and, when combined with the allowance of pre-measuring and alliances, I think this will lead to a much more tactical game. Bravo there, Games Workshop!

Anyways, back to finishing my Deff Dread and Typhoon. I hate myself for playing with an unfinished model!

Ork Bonebreaka Gunwagon finished!

Nearly a year ago I started working on a Bonebreaka gunwagon - second edition Epic ork tank armed with a Battlecannon and a Deffrolla. I made two posts with the vehicle, and now it is finally finished and painted. So, let's see the beast!

Luckily enough, I took the vehicle to a 6th edition test game on a gaming con, and a friend took some very nice pictures of the vehicle - this reminds me how important it is to have a good camera and know how to use it! I'll post about the game soon.

Since my last update, I have added a conical (or should I say "comical") turret and some more details - for example the mushroom-like exhaust pipe on top or the teeth-like plates on the deffrolla holding arms. I've decided to "barricade" any leftover holes with small pieces of plastic, so it looks like the Orks looted the original weaponry and did not care much about replacing it or fixing the damage.

Let's look at some more regular pictures of the vehicle:

I'm very proud of the paintjob, this must be the best looking vehicle I have so far (not that there are many). I actually mobilized my girlfriend for this one, and she has painted most of the vehicle! My job was mostly washing and highlighting the wagon, and adding transfers and dirt. And I think we both succeeded, the vehicle looked very good on the tabletop - pity it didn't kill anything!

I hope you like the wagon and find it interesting or even inspiring. I really think second edition ork vehicles such as Bonebreakas, Gutrippas or Pulsa Rokkits deserve a second chance - in fact, now I think I'll start a Bonecruncha project one day!

One last thing - this vehicle has been actually made with the Dakka Dakka Ork Vehicle Competition 2011 in mind. So if you like it, you can give it a vote here! It's also worth checking the poll for other vehicles, you can find some truly incredible orky contraptions there.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Bad Moons AOBR Boyz

I'm still alive! Not really active though, it's exams time after all. At least I have finally finished my Assault on Black Reach Slugga boyz... Most of them were painted over a year ago though, the squad was just waiting for last few boys, and basing.

The last boy painted is the one with yellow helmet, and he was really just speed-painted. I can't believe it took me two years to realize how good looking yellow helmets are for Bad Moons. Oh well, at least I know what I will do with my shoota boyz.

I'm not really satisfied with the squad, but it will do for tabletop. To be honest, I hate those models! Painting them was fun at first, but turned really frustrating later. Bad Moons color schemes are quite rich on colors, and these models are really repetetive; sure, they are full of details, but these details are all the same. There's little room for conversions, too. That just gets annoying after first ten models.

Anyways, back to focusing on those pesky RL issues. Hopefully I'll update soon with pictures of Deff Dread. So, see you!

Finished: Magnetized Predator

Edit: Be sure to check out the wallpaper-size picture of this tank here!

It took ages, but my Predator is finally finished! I decided to make its weapons magnetized - after all, you never know whether the Annihilator pattern won't be worth it when the next Codex gets released. Anyways, let's see the dakkapred first!


I tried to make the vehicle more detailed and more weathered than my Rhino. More bright colors are used (mainly for targeters), and I've done some weathering around the exhaust pipes - nothing more than a simple drybrush, but it feels good.


A side view on the Destructor pattern, showing the weathering and a heavy bolter. I use a 1:1 mix of Tin Bitz and Chaos Black for the black metal on weapons.


I've already tested the Destructor in a small battle and I have to admit it is a beast (at least when it comes to putting down Orks). Yet, somehow, I like the design of Annihilator more, and I guess it can be seen on the model. A sniper tank with four lascannons (ok, three and a half, technically) just deserves respect; I wish this setup would be more worth it in-game. As a side note, I'm glad I got all the insignia right this time (gotta love that Insignium Astartes).


Finally, the controversial Maverick (or "autolas") pattern. Somehow this pattern actually feels the most basic for me, since it was the only one featured in Final Liberation, the game that got me into this hobby.

Anyways, let's take a short look on the magnetizing!



The turret wasn't really hard to magnetize. What you need are 3mm wide, 1mm high neodymium magnets; they fit the holes almost perfectly. I also advise glueing a small piece of plastic on the turrets lower side, so that the weapon holds firmly and doesn't fall down (which is always a risk with small magnets). If you look carefully, you can see on the picture that I used just a small piece of sprue there, and it works great.



The sponsons are harder to magnetize right. I decided to go the easy way and replace the whole weapon support with a line of magnets - it works pretty good and is not really noticable on the model. Just be *very* careful to glue everything right and even, so you don't end up with the weapons leaning in sloppy angles. Drilling a correct size hole into the weapons themselves is annoying as well; perhaps a bit of green stuff might help there (didn't try though).



So here's the model with all its parts separated. The army building possibilities are great with magnetized models, but to be honest, if you are a perfectionist, go with the normal, un-magnetized look. If you are more into gaming, though, magnetizing will allow you to try a lot of options without proxying or buying multiple models and the Predator is a good model to get a grip on it, since you need magnets of only one size. Be sure to get a good bunch of them, thought - the turret part requires at least 6, and the sponsons require anywhere from 4 to 12, depending on the way you deal with it.

Anyways, I hope you like the vehicle! See you soon.

Simple Combi-Flamer Conversion

Hello! You might have noticed my love for combi-weapons before in my tutorial for combi-plasma conversions. I'm fond of flamethrowers too, so this post will be about converting a combi-flamer using as basic bits and techniques as possible.

1. Basic materials

Yes, for this conversion you'll need not much more than a regular bolter and an orkish slugga pistol! You can find this particular slugga in Boy Mob kits, as well as in the Assault on Black Reach box.

2. Merging it together

I think the pictures are self-explanatory here. First, carefully cut off the boltgun's muzzle. Then, cut off the slugga's frontal part and glue it onto the boltgun. File the surfaces first so the new muzzle is exactly in line with the boltgun - you don't want to leave the gun with a bent barrel!

3. Adding a fuel tank

As an optional decoration, you can take krak grenades, split them up, file them and glue them onto the weapon. They'll make good fuel tanks for the flamer.

And that's all! The final product actually looks quite similar to the "Vulcan pattern" combi-flamer, which can be seen at Lexicanum. You can even try to put the krak grenade part under the barrel, to make it nearly identical.

Here you can see the finished weapon on a commander:


And here you can see the weapon again, with some paint:


Anyways, I hope you found this tutorial helpful! As always, comments and criticism is most welcome.

First Genesis Chapter Bike

I'm working on my new Ravenwing Battleforce and I have just finished the first Bike. Since I still have six more to do, I thought I'd share pictures, in case I'm doing something wrong.

So, here it is!




As you can see, the marks show that the marine is an Assault marine of 2nd Company, 7th squad. I didn't put squad number on the bike, even thought it should be there according to Insignium Astartes. It seems illogical to me that the bike should show squad number, but not a company marking, so I didn't paint the squad number at all. After all, according to the fluff, bikes belong to the chapter Armoury, and not to Companies (as do Rhinos and some other vehicles); the Companies instead request them according to mission requirements.



This picture shows a better detail of the base. I modelled the base according to a tutorial that was available on the Games Workshop site, but it looks like they took it down now! The base is covered by a thin layer of Green Stuff - and the bike track was made by pressing a spare Bike wheel into it. The effect is pretty cool, and complements my idea of a swamp planet pretty well, although most of the track is covered by the bike anyways. Here is a detail shot of the base, before I put the bike on it:


Regarding the bike model itself, it can be seen that it's mould dates back to the third edition. The detailing is simply not that good, but luckily a good paintjob can cover that well! I hope I have achieved that.

And that's about all for now, so - thanks for reading! As always, comments are most welcome. After all, I still have five more of these to do, and an assault bike as well!

Genesis Chapter Tactical Squad Revisited

You might remember my first Tactical Squad. It missed squad markings and consisted (mostly) of basic AOBR marines, so I've decided to revisit it by adding markings, and mixing in more "advanced" marines.


Probably the most important change is the Sergeant. I've decided to supplement the flamer combat squad with a new Sergeant; particularly because I wanted to arm the squad with a stronger close combat weapon, and particularly because I've grown quite allergic of the stock two-dimensional AOBR sergeant.


Sergeant Malleus, 3rd Tactical Squad, 2nd Company

As you can see, the new one is quite an improvement. The axe is a power weapon from Assault Squad sprue, and the other parts are standard Tactical Squad bits. I got quite bored of bare head marines, so I gave this one a helmet - in blue color, to represent sergeant status. I also stopped to paint marine eyes in Blood Red and instead went for Iyanden Darksun.

I've made minor changes to my first Rhino as well; after reading Insignium Astartes, I've found out I got the markings all wrong. So I've replaced them with a 2nd Company insignia and a tactical mark; note that the large tactical arrow is yet to be added. I also added a large Genesis Chapter logo on the back doors.




I'm still solving out my army list, and I'm thinking about actually putting this Tactical Squad into a Razorback, so that's why the Rhino still doesn't have squad markings. For some time though, the squad will use it as a dedicated transport, so here they are together:


And here is a better look on the squad markings, which are variously placed either on shoulder-pads or knee-pads:


As you can see, the squad is the third squad of Second Company (indicated by the golden shoulder-pad rim), Genesis Chapter. I'm afraid I quite messed up the Sergeant's banner, because the squad number insignia there looks too similar to a company badge - see the picture with Rhino to understand what I mean. I'll definately use different style of markings on future banners.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope you like the squad. As always, any comment or criticism is welcome. Do you think I should re-do the banner, to make it more apparent that it displays squad number? Or is it apparent enough?