Monday, March 21, 2011

Basing and Rocketry

Okay, so last week I decided to rebase my entire army. So far I have rebased about 50 of my guardsmen as well as my Valkyrie/Vendetta. Before I had a process where I would use different colors of flocks and stone to base them, it was kind of too bright and did not feel urban enough.
The new format uses a mixture of 4 sizes of ballast, sand, dirt, slate chips, and small chips of brick mortar.

I paint this mix, which can be seen on some of the guardsmen above, with charcoal gray, then dry brush on codex gray, followed by, a little lighter gray, and then finish with fortress gray. I keep the brush really, really dry for this and make very swift but heavy strokes. So far I really like the effect as far as being an ash waste/urban rubble theme. Below are two samples I made up first. I also bought several sets of bases from Dragonforge: Desert wasteland sets 1&2, urban ruble wasteland, and wasteland II sets 1&2. They are great and include a lot of bits I could find at the hobby store, but it would end up costing me much more. Plus I got a 60mm base for free, for ordering $30 worth of product.


Next up, some heavy weapons teams, with Missile Launchers. After seeing recently how effective missile launchers can be in game. So, I used mostly Cadian parts, but with the Catachan legs, as they are a little more dynamic. I did not add the shield part to the fronts of the launchers, so I had to drill out the front. I like the way they look this way, more compact and realistic, I suppose. Did a lot with strip styrene on these, using it for slings on the lasguns, as well as to make a missile carrier for the loader. I had to do a lot of pinning of their hands.


Here's a close up of the carrier frame I made for the loader. It's a lot better than just grabbing an armful of missiles, lol. Mounted most of these guys on my new Dragonforge bases, they're really nice, and 2 of them actually have tank parts incorporated in them.

Here's the next team, modeled these guys as being on the move. More strip styrene for the slings and missile rack. I made this one with just one missile left in the rack, gotta change it up a bit.


This last team required the most styrene both lasguns are on their slings, and I had to make straps for the missile holder as well.
Lastly, just a crappy shot of the new squad taking some practice shots at my brother's Storm Raven across our work table. It's too bad my company commander wasn't there to order "Bring it Down!"

6 comments:

  1. Those conversions are sweet dude, nice work!

    Capn Stoogey.

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  2. Thanks man, these guys took quite some time.

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  3. Well it was definitely worth it!

    I especially like the dude with the missiles over one shoulder, lasgun over the other, pointing and yelling. Everything, down to the angle of the weapon and sling looks completely natural, like its about to slide off as he's running.

    Very cool man.

    Capn Stoogey.

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  4. Thanks again man. I appreciate the kind words. :)

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  5. Great work, I like the missile rack idea.
    Consider it stolen ;-)

    Cheers from Denmark
    Simon

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  6. Thank you! Steal away, it's good to standardize military equipment across armies!

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