Tag: Space Marines

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.

Continue reading “Bandai Space Marine! Games Workshop finally makes TOYS!”

Spectraltalon – Hobby, Life and Motivation

This IS me motivated!

Welcome back, dear readers! This week, another of my friends from across the pond has kindly offered to write an article for the site. Confusingly his name is also Matt, hence me using his Instagram handle in the post title.

Getting the mojo up to do some painting sometimes can be tough. Inspiration may not be forthcoming, you may be getting to much thrown at you in your day-to-day work/life situation, so what can you do?

This is quite a long one, so make a cuppa, rev up some crumpets and marmite and settle in.

Spectraltalon, over to you sir…

Continue reading “Spectraltalon – Hobby, Life and Motivation”

Mind blowingly unproductive! yes! that’s me!

Yes, it’s true. I haven’t picked up a paint brush in a few weeks now… That pesky thing called ‘real life’ keeps getting in the way. Inbetween remodelling my bathroom, birthdays, financial/work related stress, consistent travelling to the future-in-laws and then a double whammy of being told that my home is now worth only 50% of what I paid for it, painting has been far from my mind. Actually, not strictly true. I just finished ‘Age of Darkness’ in the Horus Heresy series, and wasted no time in starting the Blood Angels omnibus. I’ve actually wanted to be painting, but just could not be arsed to do it. Oh, and then there was that other small distraction that I have had lately – playing Space Marine on the Xbox. How frakkin’ good is that game? i’m addicted!! I was getting a little bored of just dealing with greenskins and got a total nerd boner when frakkin Chaos marines turned up, even some Blight Drones! So, I guess in a sorta roundabout way, I have been keeping my hand in the hobby… sorta…

Although I haven’t been committing brush to miniature, I have been constructing. I based up a bunch of my Flames of War chaps on some sweet scenic bases that Gale Force 9 recently put out. I also assembled my Wolf Priest for my fledgling Space Wolves force and I also picked up the Finecast Emperors Champion, which I felt needed a little extra ‘something’.

I lucked out again, as it seems that this mini had no issues in the quality control area, so assembly was a snap (and thankfully nothing snapped). I decided to put him on a scenic base, rather than a standard one and add sand. I dug around in my bits drawer and found a MicroArt Studios base which I thought would do the trick nicely. I pinned him to the base, putting a little hint of an angle in there to hopefully give the image of movement. He is stepping forward and I wanted it to look as though he was going to step over the piece of ruin on the base.

Given the medieval feel of the Black Templars, and especially this miniature, I felt that he was missing something. I find it hard to believe that this guy would just march out into a battlefield without some other form of protection other than his battle plate. So, I gave him a shield. This was from the Scibor range of 40K friendly accoutrements. It’s big, and it fits the image perfectly, so, I cut off his hand and repositioned it, then added the shield. I made a green stuff handle as well, to make it look like he’s actually holding it:

I know it’s not a game legal piece of kit, but for decorate purposes I think it looks bad ass. I’m hoping to make a start on him this weekend, but we’ll see…

Ta ta(s) for now!

100th Post! Today is Old Stuff Day… Black Templars revisited!

Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 had a great idea for resurrecting old blog posts that may have been missed by newer readers, or just forgotten about in the annals of internet time.

I guess When Cannons Fade is still in it’s infancy when you look at some of the other big players out there, but thats ok. I’ve never really been one to post up army lists, dissect rules, or start working on the math behind my beloved hobby (I leave all that complicated stuff to Dethtron 🙂 ).

I do however, enjoy focusing more on the hobby side of the game, the painting, converting, WIP side of it, so thats what this contribution to Old Stuff Day will be, a look back on my boys in black, my Templars.

This post from back in February 2009 showcased my efforts for the founding of my Templar chapter. I had acquired the Assault on Black Reach box set, and given the Orkses away to my buddy Evan. I thought that this would be a great way to start an army, or at least bulk up the plastics I had already been amassing.

First to be tackled was the Dreadnought. The snap-fit style of the set was good, although I think they used a harder type of plastic, because cutting and trimming it was a bitch! Eventually, after some blood, sweat and tears were expended the honored brother, in all his resplendent glory, was finished:

Don’t forget to check out the original post for more views: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/02/27/completed-the-aobr-dready/

Fast forward to August of 2009. After tinkering around with some other bits and pieces, I did a test run on how I would be painting my boys in black. I was very happy with the results:

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

You can see the post and pictures in it’s entirety here: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/08/27/chaos-lord-wip-and-black-templar/

November 2009 sees the appearance of my Black Templar Assault Marines. Exactly as the label says:

So there we have it, a couple of snap shots from WCF’s past. Since then I feel that I have improved on my painting skills (i’m pretty pleased with my Templar Rhino with xtra armor, and my Landspeeder). There will be more Templar goodness to come, but I do hope you’ll swing by the WCF TARDIS and have a look back through the archives!

Yes, this is an old picture of me with the TARDIS...

Cheers!

Paul

Ding dong merrily on high! on Terra the shells are ringing!

Indeed it is fast approaching that time where the big fat dude in a red suit empties his sack down your chimney. Oh, and also Santa should be putting in an appearance too. I’m hoping that he’ll be bringing me the Forge World stuff I asked for, else I’ll set the Inquisition on his ass for use of witch power and xenos technologies.

This may be the last post I do for a week or so, as the preparations for the holidays are sucking up all my spare time, and then the day after xmas I will be hauling the family down to America’s Wang (apparently the affectionate name for Florida…) for a mini vay-cay and also to take my son to Disney…

So, first up for this one:

Land Raider Loadouts.

I have been having a spirited (but very friendly) discussion with my compadre back in the UK via email about Land Raiders and the positioning of sponson loadouts. It started initially by me telling him about some sweet armor plate upgrades that I purchased from Scibor’s Monstrous (which you can see here ). I wasn’t too sure where they were meant to go, but they do seem to fit quite nicely on the front quarters of the Land Raider, just forward of the sponson mounting.

Cries of ‘Heresy’ soon were abounding when I told him that my gun loadouts are positioned on the doors nearer the rear of the vehicle. When he was asking me where I had put mine, it made me wonder if I had cocked up when I was building the kit. Nope, the instructions show that, as do the images and diagrams in the Codex. Now i’m aware that just because the pictures show this, doesn’t mean you have to have them there, and I see plenty of pictures on teh interwebs with them on the forward quarter doors. In my honest opinion I think that they look freakin’ ugly and front end heavy with them like that.

His point, which was well made, was that surely troops embarking/disembarking would get shot to shit as they would be getting  out of  the vehicle right in front of the loadouts, and that having the armament on the forward quarter doors offers a little in the way of protection and cover for troops embarking the vehicle in the heat of battle. My counter to this was that as I use my LR primarily as a vehicle to get my assault terminators around, and couldn’t see marines in tactical dreadnaught armour trying to squeeze their asses out of those side doors when they have a bloody great assault ramp to charge down. I see those doors for getting into (before entering the combat zone), more than out of, but that could be me being pedantic.

A number of ‘real life’ examples where brought to the table by my buddy, who is a total treadhead at heart,and the points he made really did make sense.  I guess I am sacrificing practicality over vanity. I also mentioned that real world physics mean little in 40K (I can see Dethtron rolling his eyes right now) and to try and rationalize some of the things in the 40K universe would probably give us a nosebleed.

So what are your thoughts, dear readers? Front quarter loadouts or rear quarter? does it even matter? I’d be intrigued to hear what you’ve got to say.

Black Templar Marshal

Amongst other things I have been tinkering with, I mentioned in my last post that I was going to convert a mini into a Templar Marshal, and showed you a sketch that I drew up. Well, I’ve been working on this chap, and here he is, ready for a little green-stuffing here and there, then some paint!

I still have to mess with the base as well, but I wanted to show you the fruits of my labors so far. I’m thinking i’d like to add a chain around his left fist and wrapping it around the shaft of the weapon, like the other Templars do. I’m a little apprehensive about modelling chain, but i’ll give it a go! It’s been a lot of fun seeing this chap develop from a sketch into reality. I think he seems to have a slightly haughty air about him, which is befitting of the chapter. I may well convert some more and have them as his command squad, we’ll see what happens with that.

So thats it for now. I may try and get another post in, but if I don’t, I’ll see you all in a week or two, so have a safe and happy holiday and make sure that you eat and drink lots!

TTFN

Paul

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

Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again!

Last Sunday, in all its warm sunny glory, saw myself, my good lady Diana, my son and my future mother-in-law high-tailing it down I-80 to Minooka, Illinois to go to a pumpkin patch. We were to rendezvous with Colin (Dethtron) and his Dr. Girlfriend there shortly after noon. This place was pretty cool, it was relatively cheap and there was a lot of stuff going on, including, much to my excitement, an American Civil War battle re-enactment. Anyone who knows me well will know of my love for the ACW, and will know that I was once a ACW re-enactor myself in ol’ Blighty (yes, we really do have ACW re-enactments over there!). I was a private (later Corporal) in the 24th Michigan, part of the ‘Iron Brigade’.

It’s been a good 15 or so years since I took to the field amidst the rattle of musket fire and the earth-shaking boom from the artillery, and it was great to see the field pieces set up ready for action. We all walked around the living history camps before the battle started, in both US and CS areas. I was like a big kid and was loving every minute of it. I had to share my nerdy knowledge of the Civil War with the others as we wandered about. I remarked to Colin that this was ‘Wargaming on a larger scale’. It was great to hear the fife and drum music, to which I could sing the old marching song words to. Dr. Girlfriend found a new friend in one of the the Cavalry’s mounts, and apparently spent the rest of the afternoon mentioning about ‘getting another horse’. Good luck with that one Dethy. I’m sure you’re garden is big enough for it and Loki won’t mind 🙂

Cannons roared and muskets sung their battle hymns as the confederate forces tried to repel the armies of the North, and seemed to do well in the first instance, but then the line began to crumble and the Army of the Potomac gained more and more ground by the minute ending in a defeat and surrender for the Confederate forces.

After the display we hauled ass all the way back down the hill to the farm, where it dawned on me that I had caught the sun pretty well. Dammit! Dethy was asked (read: told) by the little fella to ‘pick me up’ and was consequently carried back down the hill for the most part. I’m pretty sure that he was being taught how to spit as well. Thanks Uncle Dethron!

Probably up to no good...

Man, was I bitten by the bug again! I did mention that I would like to get back into re-enactment, but I got ‘the look’ from Diana, which told me ‘don’t you dare!’ So I guess I’ll have to assuage my hunger for this by attending other events and actually painting my 15mm ACW army and playing the rules system I have. Not suprisingly, a lot of the people on the ‘scene’ (back home, at least) who were re-enactors were/are also ardent wargamers…

So, we saw lots of pumpkins, a couple of tantrums (boy that was fun…) and ate way more unhealthy food that we probably should have: funnel cake, pizza, chocolate preztels, real lemonade etc etc.

On my signal... ...unleash hell!

 

In other news, played a game of 40K against my buddy Evan on Saturday. I fielded my holy Black Templars against his foul traitors of Chaos. Evan managed to squeak out a win, due mostly in part by a couple of stupid decisions on my part later in the game. The dice gods were certainly not with me that day either. I’m not a sore loser (for the most part, lol!) but I really did seem to be making constant lousy rolls throughout the game, so, after we finished, I filed them in the garbage can… So, I need to get some new ones. I’d actually heard about the GW dice cube die having air bubbles and whatnot in them (not that I’m using this for an excuse) but I thought I should just try some new ones anyway.

I’ll be starting on a Black Templar Rhino this week, and I’ll be posting a tutorial on that as well, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Paul.

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/