Gamesday 2011

Went to Gamesday last Sunday, some pics can be found here. On the queuing fun, have to say GW were quick to apologise – got an e-mail from the CEO today promising this won't happen again.

ApocaFez Summer 2011

Another Apocalypse game has come and gone. The pics I took can be found here.

A Space Marine

So young Eddie, master organiser of Apocalyptic delights, sent the below to a few of us back in April:

"Hello all. I'm formulating an Apoc formation for Chapter master P-Fisty's honour guard - and I hit upon the idea of getting all my hobby heroes to paint a marine to represent them! As such, if you want too, will you be in my honour guard?

Each marine has artificer armour, a boltgun, bolt pistol and power weapon. You can swap for a relic blade, and also have the option for a auxiliary grenade launcher! All I ask is you paint the right shoulder pad black for me to put the storm legion icon on."

So, below is my contribution. I painted a Space Marine, I feel dirty…

(If anyone is interested I can detail how I painted it, but to first put credit where it is due, I lifted the gold painting method from All Things 40K, and the power sword scheme from From The Warp - except they both do it much better than me).

 

 

Pylon - assembling the cannon

 

Onto the final assembly stages.

 

(note: the part names I use below all come from the pylon assembly document which Forgeworld kindly provides with the kit)

 

Fist, glue the main crystal clamps to the gun rail. So far so easy.

 

 

Then glue the cannon to the gun rail. You'll notice a gap between the clamps and the cannon. Do not try and glue them as is – with the tension all you'll get is parts separating again promptly. Rather, use the resin worker's best friend: the hair dryer. A few quick passes over the clamps and they'll be soft enough that they can be bent into placed and glued.

 

 

Maintain them in place while they cool down (it doesn't take very long). Presto, a strong joint.

 

(note: be gentle with the hair dryer, you don't want to melt the resin. The bottom of the clamp has a hollow where the green plastic rod goes - this is quite a thin part and can easily collapse on itself.)

 

Onto the cannon muzzle. As you'll see below, the thing does not fit nicely onto the crystal.

 

 

Back to the hair dryer it is. You'll have to hold the muzzle if you don't want it to get blown halfway across the room. Unfortunately the hair dryer expels rather hot air. I've found that holding the piece to warm up between two layers of kitchen roll will keep your fingers nicely cool.

 

 

Again the above advice applies: don't overuse the dryer! Better to do several passes until the muzzle is flexible enough to fit onto the crystal, using gentle pressure. Just maintain it in place until it's cold, then glue it on.

 

For the last part, the side crystal clamps, follow the same process as before. They will likely be too short, a gentle spot of warming (again, use kitchen towels to hold them) will ensure they glue in nicely.

 

 

And that's it. The pylon assembly is complete.

 

One last tip: the turntable will likely be loose inside the base centre, resulting in a leaning pylon. Just stick Scotch tape onto the turntable until you get a good fit. The tape is thin enough that you can get quite precise results. I would not advocate using thicker tape here (like electrical tape).

 

ApocaFez - January 2011

Hey, our big game at Warhammer World back in January has made Games Workshop's Facebook page!

As the pics they're linking to are mine, thought I'd relink to them: here for day 1 and here for day 2.

Now to get back to the prep for the August encore…

Pylon – fixing the focussing array

The focussing array is them six "whiskers". I have tried a number of methods for fixing them.

For the first pylon I built, I went with magnets (two per). Unfortunately, they were not that strong and I ended up with some droopy whiskers. So at the last moment I added a pin (that's the whisker to the left below). For the second pylon, I went with two pins and no magnets (right, below). This one makes for a sturdy link, however each time I put the whiskers on I'm a bit concerned that I'll damage the holes.

First try (left) vs. second try (right)

 

 First try (bottom) vs. second try (top)

 

 First try - 2 magnets and a hole

 

Second try - 2 holes

For the third pylon, I decided to go back to magnets – because if I can't magnetise something, I get that very annoying feeling that I've failed somehow. This time around however, I went with rod magnets (1/8" x 1/4"), so I get the benefits of pins as well. So far, so good…

Rod magnet, half-sunk into the whisker

 

 There are magnets inside the holes - these ones are 1/8" x 1/16".

Arac Attack!

I undercoated a bunch of scarab swarms outside this morning and then left them to dry. When I came back, they were under attack! Aw, aren't these itsy bitsy spiders the cutest little things?

It's not the first time the local arachnids have taken an interest in my Necrons. Below is a much larger critter that decided to visit my first pylon. It does look a bit drowsy (well that paint does emit some serious fumes), but went away alright in the end.

(and then people wonder why I'd rather stay inside…)