space Marine – When Cannons Fade…

Bandai Space Marine! Games Workshop finally makes TOYS!

Many of us in the gaming world are also collectors of toys (myself included). For many years a large majority of us were scratching our heads as to why GeeDub hadn’t jumped on the action figure train. Well, as many of you know, last year saw the unveiling of a collaboration between Japanese toy giant Bandai and Games Workshop to unleash a Space Marine action figure, followed shortly thereafter by McFarlane Toys who would bring it to store shelves.

Our intrepid reporter, Matt Crump, took one for the team and wrote up a review for your reading pleasure. So get some Marmite and toast together and a cuppa and lets get started. Matt, over to you sir.

Black Templar Rhino with xtra armor/armour

This seemed to take waaaaay too long to paint. I’m not too sure why. Maybe because you can’t be as ‘slap happy’ with marine vehicles like you can with say, Imperial Guard vehicles. Well, I guess you can, but it just doesn’t work as well, IMO.

The Forge World armor pieces were pretty much a pain in the arse to work with. Some parts were bent, others ridiculously warped and at least 2 pieces had shrunk, yes shrunk. Making the best of a bad situation, I forged ahead (geddit? Forged? Forge World? never mind…) and this was the finished product:

The Templar cross was masked off and sprayed onto the roof, then weathered to show wear and tear. I’m pleased with the results, I just hope that my other vehicles (i’m looking at you, Vindicator) won’t take as long.

In the meantime, having OB’d (over blacked) i’m going to take a few days off from painting Templars, and having a go with something with a bit more color to it (well, slightly more, I guess). I started one last night. Here is a teaser:

As always, C+C always welcome!

Having a hobby without having time for it.

Playing tabletop wargames is by no means a whimsical hobby to be lightly flirted with. While hobbies as a whole require time and dedication there are those hobbies out there which require the hobbyist to go above and beyond, not only in the wallet department, but in the time management department too.

A couple of days ago, I read an interesting article on the House of Paincakes, highlighting some articles from Rathstar’s Ramblings Blog concerning motivation to getting miniatures painted. It prompted me to write an entry for WCF.

Ours is a tough road, this ‘ere hobby. Beset on both sides by manufacturers waving their new factions or chapters under our noses, or the sweet promises of those new, updated codexes and subsequent miniatures. I’m sure we all know people, or are guilty ourselves of buying up armfuls of miniatures, eager to assemble them and get them on the table to test their mettle.

See, that’s the easy part. Assembling the little blighters is, for me anyway, a quick fix. I can have a unit assembled in an evening. Painting them however is a different story. Painting armies can be quite a daunting, and sometimes even off-putting prospect. A problem I have is that I am a perfectionist when it comes to painting, so my squads get done painfully slowly, although I have been making a considerable effort to step away from this when painting my forces, particularly the rank and file.

Some of us are just not that fond of the painting side of the hobby, whereas others have the same crushing problem I do. Not enough time. Being at work 40 hours of the week, and also a father of a 3 year old, it doesn’t leave me much in the way of time to get my loyal (and patient) forces painted up. I’ve tried a number of different approaches to tackling this, but met with little success.

It’s a mindset you have to get used to. You have to be realistic about what you want to achieve and the timeframe you want to achieve it in. I’ve become happy in the knowledge now that I’m not going to be able to paint every night. If I can paint two or three nights a week, then I am doing well. I can usually average about two or two and a half hours. Seven hours of paint time a week is not to be sniffed at especially when you have to keep LadyBoss happy and also be a responsible dad.

Awwwwhammer 40K — Awwwwhammer - Space Marine in training.

One way I have found to help me is planning. The night before I know I’m going to paint, I figure out what it is I’m going to tackle. I’ll get the items together I’m going to need, put them on my painting tray (one of the most invaluable items GW has ever made, IMO) and have it ready to grab for the following evening. Maybe I want to do some more Black Templars, or even work some more on a competition entry, or even those Lizardmen, or the Stegadon that’s been eyeballing me every time I walk into my nerd closet*

It ‘s quite surprising just how much of your time is lost with set up and break down, if you’re like me and don’t have a permanent area for painting, and have to get everything out every time you want to paint.

The key is definitely in the planning, but also hand in hand is variety! Surely, is it not the spice of life? Change things up a little. Three straight painting sessions of painting just Black Templar armor is enough to make anyone want to take up stamp collecting instead, so, if you have other armies you play (admit it, you do, don’t you?) then paint something from them. Suddenly you’ll start seeing more minis and units coming together without really realizing it.

It’s important, most of all that you have fun and enjoy your hobby. This shouldn’t become something you dread to even think of. If you get to that point, it has become a chore, and possibly the time to sell up and move on.

Here is a sneak peek at what I have been working on bit by bit, using my procedure above. It’s almost ready to be posted up here in full glory.

BT Rhino — Its OK, that'll buff right out.

Cheers!

Ultramarines – The Movie. A review (of sorts).

I was pretty excited when I heard, over a year or so ago, that GW had finally put the gears in motion to produce a movie based on their best selling game line, Warhammer 40,000. It all started with postcards being handed out at GDUK with nothing but the Ultramarines logo on, so it wasn’t long before teh interwebs were on fire with speculation.

It was shortly after that teasers where posted up on the movies official dedicated web page which got legions of fans drooling. It was all pretty cool, and the design work was great. After a while I sort of forgot about the whole thing, figuring I would hear something about it when it was due for release, and thats exactly what happened.

I was pretty impressed by some of the names on the roster like Sean Pertwee (big fan of Jon ‘Dr Who’ Pertwee’s son, ever since I saw Dog Soldiers), Terence Stamp and John Hurt, amongst others. Also the fact that Dan Abnett wrote the story said to me that this was going to be the dogs bollocks*

About October time 2010 (I think) I was sent the info to pre order the movie. There was the standard version and the ‘all singing all dancing with fecking bells hanging off it’ version. Naturally I wanted the latter 🙂 So my mom picked it up for me as a xmas gift.

It’s a nice package thats for sure. It somes in a card sleeve, which holds the metal tin with 2 discs in and a hard back mini-comic which is the ‘prequel’ to the movie. 10 out of 10 for presentation.

So, the other night, after the dust had settled from the holidays, I sat down to watch it. Clocking in at a mere 76 minutes, I wondered what sort of story you could cram into that time slot…

Synopsis

Some Ultramarines, 12 of them, hanging out on their ultra-megaginormous battle barge intercept a distress signal from a planet called Mithron. Not a planet of great significance save for a shrine there that holds a chapter codex relic for the Imperial Fists. In true ‘Aliens’ fashion, the squad head planet side to help out and save the artifact from falling into the hands of chaos.

The movie

We begin with a narrative from John Hurt, laying down the background foundation of the universe that this story takes place in, pretty much like you do with any 40K book from Black Library. Hurt’s voice is slightly gravelly and sounds perfect for setting the tone. I possibly start to get a few goosebumps.

We find our Ultramarine heroes (?) sparring in the training hall (I thought they used training ‘cages’?). Brother Proteus (Pertwee) is sparring with Captain Severus. 5 minutes in, and i’m already thinking that Terence Stamp sounds a little flat, almost like he’s bored, but I give it the benefit of the doubt. After concluding their match, the Brother Captain reveals to them their mission, and they all swear fealty to the Emperor upon a giant warhammer that is held in the chapel/training hall. Already I was wishing that there was a full company of marines, and not just this small group. I understand that it makes for more intimate stroy telling, but seeing them rattling around this city sized ship seemed a little odd to me. Anyhoo.

They prepare for battle, we see them in the, umm, locker rooms? being tended to by Servitors who are assisting with their purity seals etc. One attends Captain Severus as the Captain swears his oath of the moment. At this point i’m thinking, ‘hang on, would marines do that to Servitors?’ I thought it would be a chaplain, or a senior officer or something, but a servitor?? We see them checking their weapons, and the heavy bolter dude inscribing his rounds with ‘kill the heretic’. This was a nice touch.

They set off… they make planet fall. They’ve brought a land speeder which scouts off ahead.

There is lots of walking. I mean, lots of walking. All the while there are exchanges between the characters, but honestly I didn’t feel a connection, nor really care for any of them. Proteus comes across slightly whiny, like he’s been scolded for something, and is trying to get back in everyones good books, as the rest of the group seem a little pissed off at him. Its here that you get to see the marines properly, and I did not like the way the legs looked. From the waist up, they look great, but waist down looked to me like they were wearing bell bottoms. It made them look a little top heavy, and made their walking look clumsy and uncoordinated.

They walk, more, seeing fleeting shadows, walk into a warp/sand storm and locate the rocky mountain top they need to ascend to reach the shrine. The landspeeder occupants bite the dust, as they come under attack from Black Legion marines before climbing up to their destination. Their journey reveals all sorts of atrocities perpetrated by the chaos legions in taking the stronghold. This bit was actually pretty cool. The visuals were excellent. (I won’t spoil it for you).

They get to the shrine, only to be attacked by a demon, also, Captain Severus plummets to his death while taking a Black Legion member with him. They locate the room with the artifact, which is being guarded by the remnants of the Imperial Fists force, one battle brother and their chaplain (John Hurt). So they all start back to their extraction point, which of course involves even more walking, all the while private exchanges are being made as to why and how 2 members were able to survive. I had to chuckle, as the word ‘taint’ is used often >snicker<.

Arriving at the extraction point they come under heavy attack from Chaos Space Marines, and suffer casualties. When it looks like they are about to have their asses handed to them Captain Severus appears, apparently unscathed, to save the day. They make it back to their ship. We get a twist in the story here, which I won’t reveal, as it will spoil it, but lets just say I saw it coming lol!

My thoughts

Over all I actually did enjoy it. Its obvious that it has been ‘dumbed’ down so that people who are not gamers and are newcomers don’t get too bogged down in the ‘fluff’. There are some pretty glaring things that those who are into 40K will pick up on, but all in all it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. The backdrops are well designed, and it does have that dark, gothic, slightly gritty feel to it which is good, as I was expecting it to turn out like Space Crusade or something. I think the voice actors were good choices, even with Terence Stamp sounding like he was ready to fall asleep. I was not a big fan of the marine design, as I mentioned earlier, and I didn’t care much for the apparent groundbreaking technologies they had used for the faces. The marines felt too ‘fragile’ and not the one man tank machines that they are always depicted as. They get thrown around a lot, and I read someone elses review on it elsewhere that said they looked like toys being thrown around by a kid, which I agree with. It did feel like I was watching a feature length episode of Dawn of War.

I hope that this does herald a beginning of 40K or even fantasy features from Games Workshop, lets hope they can deliver more next time, and not spare the horses!

Thanks for sticking with me though my wall of text! I wonder if I too will be spammed by the mysterious GW bot that posts singing praise comments whenever this movie is mentioned…?

Paul

*pretty freaking awesome, general term for something that is good to the nth degree.

WIP update – Wolf Guard in TDA

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

I decided to jump in and have a go at the December painting challenge over at Bolter & Chainsword to see if I could get this guy done. The deadline is 11.59 tonight, and I think I can do it. No prizes or anything, but I like doing these once in a while to get the firecracker up my arse that I need sometimes. I just need to finish up the gold/bronze areas and put the logo on his shoulder pad, oh and add some snow to the base. I may also add weathering but i’m not too sure i’m confident enough to do this yet.

I’m trying to up my skills, as I would like to submit an entry to Golden Demon when it returns to Chicago next year. I have a Wolf Lord that may well be the candidate for that…

In other news i’m hoping to finish up a couple of other projects so I can post up my epic Nurgle article that i’ve been planning. The end is definitley in sight! It’s actually such a big article, I may have to give it a page, instead of just a post. We’ll see!

C+C welcome on wolfy up there, thanks for swinging by!

Paul

Some WIP updates – multi-tasking aint so bad.

Throwing caution to the wind, I have actually been working on several projects at once. I’ve actually found it somewhat liberating, as I can see progression on a number of different things at once, instead of painting one mini/unit and then thinking ‘wow, I still have a shit load of stuff to do’.

Did some more work on Evan’s Nurgle Rhino. I figured I should as I was running out of excuses lol! Weathered it a little, using the same technique I had used on my Chimera a little while back:

Next i’ll be adding the rusted metal colors on there, and figuring out what color to do all the gross bits. Painting this up prompted me to start another side project, which happened frighteningly quick, but I won’t go into detail here, as i’m writing a separate article about it. I’ll show you a teaser though:

I also started on a Wolf Guard Terminator as well. He’s painted using the recipe I used on the other shap I showed y’all recently. I’ll be redoing the flesh though, as I wasn’t happy with the way it turned out with this formula:

Arse shot!

There are some spots that need tidying up, but I want to add some weathering too, so I’ll wait till i’ve done that. I also have a Black Templar Rhino sitting on my worktop that keeps honking it’s horn impatiently at me. I suspect that little bugger will get worked on over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Thats it for today! i’ll be back shortly, enjoy!

Paul

From the mighty halls of Asaheim

‘Come my brothers, come walk with me
to the new worlds across the Great Sea
In Asaheim our destinies lie
as warriors at The Emperors side…’

I decided to take a step out of my current projects and do something completely different. I have some odds and sods that I picked up off Ebay, like Deamonettes, Chaos Warriors and whatnot, just odd minis, not whole units, so I could change things up once in a while. I Also thought it would be a good way to push myself in terms of techniques and strive to get me up to a higher standard. So, reaching into my drawers (hehe) I pulled out this chap and set to work.

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Space Wolves, being a frustrated viking myself, so I was pretty intrigued as to how he was going to turn out. I debated at first whether or not to go with dark grey armor, or the lighter ice blue/grey armor. I settled on the latter, as so much of my other stuff is supergrimdark so the change of pace was quite satisfying.

I spent 10 hours (roughly) on this chap, but I’m very pleased with the results. I have to pick up some of this adhesive stuff to apply the decal to the shoulder pad. I’d forgotten how much I hated water slide decals, especially for shoulder pads. Trying to apply a flat surface to a rounded one will ineveitably lead to frustrating creases. I remember Dethtron telling me about this stuff you paint over the decal which basically fuses the membrane to the surface of the mini.

This was the recipe I used for my Space Wolf:

Armor:

Basecoat with a 1:2:1 mix of Space Wolf Grey, Shadow Grey and Codex Grey. Wash with Devlan Mud in the armor recesses. Don’t worry about being tidy! The add progressivley more Space Wolf Grey to the base mix and paint the armor plates, concentrating more on the outer edges to get that defined edging.

Bones:

Base coat of snakebite leather. Devlan mud wash over the basecoat. Re-apply snakebite leather on the higher parts to begin your highlights. Add bleached bone to this for your highlights. Take this all the way up to bleached bone, or even skull white, depending on how ‘bright’ you want it.

Yellow areas:

Base coat of Tausept Ochre, add some skull white to this and paint a layer on. Wash with devlan mud and gryphonne sepia (concentrate more on the edges). Add skull white for highlights.

Eagle/helm trim:

Base coat is a 1:1 mix of shining gold and scorched brown. Wash with devlan mud. Add layer of shining gold on the high points. Add mithril silver to this for highlights.

Jewels:

Scab red base coat, followed by blood red, add vomit brown to the blood red for highlights finished with a dot of skull white.

Shoulder pad rims:

Base coat of Bolt Gun Metal, washed with devlan mud. Mithril silver to give worn look to the very edges.

As always, comments and criticisms are always welcomed!

When Cannons Fade is rapidly approaching its 2nd birthday (seriously, where has the time gone?) and there may be a few changes going on around here. I’ll reveal more on or around November 7th, along with some self indulgent ‘looking back’ at WCF since it’s inception.

Cheers!

Paul

Dark Eldar win the race…

Just found out that Dark Eldar will in fact be released November 2010. Well, balls. I was really hoping we’d get some Witch Hunters love before xmas. Looks like that’ll be the arse end of 2011, which could possibly be what will be ‘unveiled’ at Games Day/Golden Demon 2011 in Chicago.

I guess on the plus side, it means I can keep my hands in my pockets and not spend too much moolah for the forseeable future. Meh.

In the meantime:

Product review – Scibor Monstrous Miniatures

Product review – Scibor Monstrous Miniatures.

I happened upon this company some time ago when I saw some one off custom Primarch sculpts they had produced. I was also very interested in the excellent sculpting articles that they have too (check them out!) Scibor appear to be a small independent company based in Poland who are relatively new to the marketplace. They seem to be gaining a lot of momentum with their own lines of Dwarves, Goblins, priests, beasties and conversion bits (amongst a plethora of other products), and it’s easy to see why people will shop with them. Quite simply, their products are great!

I had been meaning to purchase something for a while, and with me wanting to personalize my Black Templar forces, I figured Scibor would be the place to start. I placed an order on their snappy and rather slick looking website for some ‘Big Templar shields’ and some ‘Templar shoulder pads’ to get the ball rolling. The ordering process is nice and simple, and they accept PayPal, which is also very convenient. The prices are very reasonable, and the standard of the detail means you’re getting a pretty good deal all round. After my order was placed I got a confirmation email from them, which unfortunately I couldn’t understand a word of, due to the language barrier, but I got the general gist of it.

It took about a month for the order to get to me, which is not so great, but then it is coming from Poland, hardly just down the street! I did notice on the site it says they mail out orders seven days after receiving payment, and that it takes two to three weeks for delivery.

After receiving a ‘final notice’ slip from the post office (even though it was the first one I’d received, weird!) I picked up my order. It had been sent in a small bubble pack envelope, which was pretty flimsy. Inside were two little baggies, one with the shields, and one with the shoulder pads. Two of the shields had been broken, which I am sure is a result of USPS taking their upmost care in handling packages, and also a chunk had snapped off one of the shoulder pads. This was disappointing, especially after waiting for a month for it to arrive.

Initial disappointment aside, it was nice to get this stuff in hand to get a good look at it, and I have to say, it’s really nice quality workmanship. The resin that it’s cast in feels quite substantial and pretty heavy duty. The breaks were clean, so I’m sure I’ll be able to repair them with no problem. I’m looking forward to having some plastic Sword Brethren now!

So, in summary:

A great company with some really nice products.
Some incredible sculpting talent.
Some nice tutorials!
A little slow on shipping (but this is a variable that you can’t control unless it’s through a carrier like UPS or something).
Scibor could take a leaf from Forge World’s book on shipping. Ship breakable stuff in boxes, not mailer bags, with plenty of cushioning, if you have to charge more for shipping to do so, do it! People will still buy your products!

I’ll give Scibor 3 ½ mortar shells out of 5 for now. I will be purchasing more from them soon. In the meantime, check out their website at:

http://www.sciborminiatures.com/

New 40K short story finished

It actually started out (in my mind) as a couple of paragraph snapshot that I wanted to scribble up to be able to give an impression of what it would be like to witness the Legion of the Damned turning up to lend a hand. Well, six and a half pages later and it was finished. I guess I got a little carried away, but it was a lot of fun putting myself into the story and trying to picture the scene. I could have gone into waaaay more detail than I did, but I didn’t want to get too bogged down with specifics. I’m not a writer really, and just wanted it to be a bit of fun. I hope you all enjoy it. Here is the link: https://whencannonsfade.wordpress.com/dark-brotherhood-a-40k-short-story/

C+C are welcome!

Cheers

Paul