Infinity - A New Chapter

So way back in May Corvus Belli launched their Strikezone: Wotan online campaign. I did manage to get a few games in to contribute to the interests of Aleph in the strikezone, but certainly not as many as i would have liked!

I did however take full advantage of Corvus Belli's insane promotional sale, which offered 50% off their army bundles! Yes, thats 50%!! It took considerable effort not to buy more than 1 army bundle, but by some miracle i managed to make only 1 purchase:

The Nomad Corredigor bundle was mine! All that for less than £60 including postage. Felt like i was committing some sort of crime buying this! Nomads have been at the top of my 'next army' list for a while. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bored with Aleph. Having a second (third, forth, fifth!) army will help me develop my game a bit  more, helping my tactics evolve. Well, that's the plan anyway!

So i cracked on with a Wildcat with Spitfire to get my eye in on the colour scheme. I'm not terribly imaginative when it comes to colours, so I'll be going for the box art here.

This is the WIP so far, with the reds and greys done (sorry for the picture quality) Just the blacks and whites to do now. I also picked up another sweet batch of bases from Antenocitis Workshop for these guys which I'll get up on here soon.

More soon!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - Gyrfalcon Jetbike

Its time for a little support for my Custodian squad in the form of a Gyrfalcon Jetbike! I picked up the 3 man squad of these from Forgeworld recently, so theres still 2 more in their boxes. I decided to paint one of these up as a treat for completing a whole squad of Custodes, and what a treat it was! I enjoyed every second of paint time on this model, mainly because it looks so dam cool! Very much looking forward to seeing the whole squad charging into battle!

I didn't use the flight stands that come with the models, they're just a bit to small for my liking. Instead i ordered some 3mm acrylic rod from eBay to given them a bit more height, and it also looks a bit tidier as well!As this one had a bit of height to it i gave it a downward angle, like this Custodian is about to bury his spear into a traitors face!!

The Custodian himself is a little different from his foot slogging brothers. Instead of armoured arms and legs, they sport some leather bracers and, what i like to call, 'space chaps'!

I refrained from doing any freehand on the screens, my skills just arn't there yet. Some green and blue glows break up that gold a bit.

I magnetised the weapons very easily for the jetbike, sticking some 2mm magnets to the underside of the weapons, and counter sinking one into the hull of the jetbike.

Finally the base. Another fine addition from Scibors Miniature, this is their 60mm base which comes in 3 designs. I simply love these bases; full of detail and character and fit perfectly with the Webway theme of my force!

Let me know what you think! More Custodiians comming soon!

The GunGrave

Infinity - Aleph Yudbots

After many a painting session up to my eyes in gold, its time for a quick palette cleanse!

These 2 Yudbots have been languishing on my desk for quite some time. I've been messing around with a few new Aleph lists for up upcoming tournament at the end of July, and Yudbots have started to feature in them. They're going to really provide a lot of assistance for my poor Sophotects who spends all of her games legging it around the table on her own healing the troops!

More soon!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - First Custodes Squad Complete!

I made quite a few leaps since my last Custodes post, getting the full squad assembled and painted! These guys are quite challenging to paint, needing quite a lot of time to get each one done. I painted each one individually as batch painting these guys would've been a bit of a crushing task!! I also think painting them individually is quite 'fluffy' as each Custodian is said to have their training personally overseen by the Emperor.

In all I'm very happy with this squad! There are a few things ill change for next time. I need to make the red's pop a little more, so some more push on the contrast will be good. I also think i over cooked the final white glaze on the guardian spear, so they'll be a little less of that next time. I did use a purple wash selectively in the recesses to help deepen the shadows which i think worked quite well.

The 10,000 are well underway. Still a way off 10,000 but hey ho! more soon!

The GunGrave

Dropfleet - Saratoga Light Cruisers

As i wasn't quite ready to get off the Dropfleet train just yet, i cracked on with the 2 Saratoga Cruisers i ordered with my copy of the boxed game. These were only on sale until the end of April this year, and then only available as a show only model. It'll take 2 in that case then!

So i understand that these Cruisers are an alternative configuration for the New Cairo Light Cruiser (getting to know those names now!) and use the same rules in-game. I have to admit, i do prefer this build!

The burnthrough laser is built into the main hull in this configuration, rather than on the underside of the hull on the New Cairo.

To make these Cruisers stand out a bit more, i added a white stripe to the top of the hull. I wouldn't recommend these markings en-mass, they were a pain to get right!!

The engine layout is different on this Cruiser as well, another bit i prefer to the New Cairo!

The fleet so far! There's only 1 more Cruiser to go now and then I'll move onto the Scourge fleet that came with the boxed game. Maybe I'll be able to get some games in then!!

More soon.

The GunGrave

Dropfleet - First UCM Cruiser Complete

After much highlighting and one repetitive strain injury (possibly related to painting...) the first Cruiser is complete! This is the light Cruiser configuration armed with a burnthrough laser (it does have a name but i forget!)

Tried to get some glowy bits in on the laser itself - this thing is  meant to be able to slice ships in half!

I drilled the engines on this cruiser and hit them with some blue and white to simulate engine glow. I quite like the effect!

Here's the family so far! As i write this I've noticed another Cruiser has got into the shot here which I thought I'd already photographed!! Consider this his official unveiling, so todays Cruiser is actually the second! I assembled that cruiser in the 'heavy' configuration, again i forget the name! Once i start playing I'll learn the names!

More Dropfleet soon!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - Legio Custodes Test Mini Complete!

So after a quick re-supply i was able to get the Guardian Spear completed and get this guy into the light box! 

I have to say, the boy looks goooooooood!

Although the detailing does take a bit of time to complete properly (including retouches and adjustments!) it's totally worth it!

I went with a blue power blade for the guardian spear. While i am very happy with the result and look of the blade, i may try straight metallic grey for the next one just to compare.

Very happy with the base selection, perfect for my 'war in the webway' look I'm going for!

I think i may have nailed the colour scheme first time here! The only think i will try is to make the tones and shadows a bit deeper in the pre shading stages. It will just make the details pop that bit more. I may need some sunglasses to look at all this bling!

The GunGrave

Guardians of the Emperor - Legio Custodes Test Mini

Now, i don't know about you, but when the Horus Heresy range first dropped i remember thinking "Aw man, how cool would it  be if they eventually did Custodes!?" Well, that day of course did arrive, and I'm just as excited about them now as i was then! More so given the insane levels of cool that the model range has shown so far!

So true to form, as soon as Mrs Gungraves back was turned, i casually logged onto Forgeworlds website and ordered myself a....modest....selection of Custodes!! More on those in the coming weeks. First up though i had to nail down a colour scheme. 

I have to admit, GW's tutorial on these guys was pretty good, so i more or less followed their guide for this mini. I did swap out some of the paints for the Vallejo Game Air equivalent in some cases. 

I base coated the model in white, then hit it with Vallejo Game Air Glorious Gold. Once dry, i applied an zenithal highlight of Polished Gold, again using the airbrush. 

I then washed the whole model with Seraphim Sepia (or whatever its now called!)

I then started refreshing the gold with thinned down Polished Gold, being careful to leave plenty of shadow in the recesses.

Then finally i applied a tiny highlight to the apex's using Vallejo Game air Silver. I called the gold areas done at this stage, so i blocked out the other areas in their base colours before doing any more. I was still happy with the gold afterwards, so left it at that!

As the Custodes are going to be quite a special army for me, i wanted to make sure i got some sweet bases for them. I always wanted the theme of this army to be the Webway, where they spent so much time fighting daemonic incursions with the Emperor! No i haven't read Master of  Mankind yet, so no spoilers please!

Scibor's do a great range of bases, so i was confident I'd find some there. These are some of their SF Elven bases in 30mm (2mm off the standard size for some reason, but i don't think anyone will notice!) As the Webway was build by the ancient Eldar, i think these fit my theme perfectly!

I basecoated them in Army Painters Desert Yellow.

I then dry brushed them with Ushabti Bone.

Then lightly dry brushed them with White Scar.

Finally i added some shadows to the bases. I did this using an airbrush with Vallejo Beasty Brown and then Dark Fleshtone for the deepest recesses. I then edged the bases in Abbadon Black. Suitably ancient Eldar-y i think!

Here's the (nearly) finished test model on a finished base. I completed the shading and highlights on the other base colours, but ran out of thinner before i could get onto the power blade!! I will go for a blue glow effect on the blade initially, but i may do it in silver metallics. We'll see.

I'll get this guy in the light box once I've done the blade. In the meantime please let me know what you think!

The GunGrave

Dropfleet - Magnetising UCM Cruisers

Things have been pretty busy on the Dropfleet front. My appetite for the game and the models continues to grow, especially after success with the Frigates. As the Cruisers come with an equally large amount of options and configurations per ship, i wanted to make sure i could take advantage of  them all.

There is quite a lot of tutorials on the Internet regarding Cruiser magnetisation, so working it out wasn't difficult. Here's how i got on!

The first bit to address was the upper hulls of the Cruiser, of which there are two. One where you can mount turrets on the upper hull and one where its just armour plating. I used the weponised upper hull to map where the magnets should be placed on the main hull. I did this by holding the upper hull in place on top of the main hull, then i used a pin vice to drill a small hole through the weapon socket and into the main hull. I then used a larger drill bit to make a cavity to counter sink the magnet inside. I used 0.5mm thickness by 2mm diameter magnets for these ships. You can pick up 50 for about £1.50 on eBay!

I then 'reverse-mapped' the position of the magnets onto the upper hull without the weapon mounts.

The under side of the main hull was easy, as the magnets sat perfectly within the weapon sockets.

I  moved onto the weapon options; 2 turrets, 2 bombardment cannons, one burn through laser, and one troop lander module-thinggy! I just stuck the magnets straight on here, no drilling or counter sinking required. The magnet sizes turned out to be perfect, as 2 magnets stuck together was the exact height/depth of the weapon sockets! Oh, and i suppose it goes without saying, but keep an eye on your magnet polarities when your doing this, or your magnets wont stick to each other!

So these are all the options i was left with after magnetising.

The rear hull segments didn't require any magnetisation, as they just clipped on nicely to the main hull. I did glue these weapon turrets in place here, as the sosckets were specificallly deisigned to fit onto these area of the hull only, so i wouldn't be changing them around.

Finally for a little extra flavor, i drilled the engine's!

Done! For the time being i have bagged up each Cruisers options separately, just in case the magnet polarities aren't inter changeable between ships (despite my best efforts!)

Straight onto painting! I hit the whole lot with Army Painters uniform Grey. As you can see, i spent a bit of time mounting the pieces for ease of painting.

Firstly i washed the whole model lightly with GW Nuln Oil. I then highlighted the edges with Vallejo Stonewall Grey (i think!) and a small white highlight after. The engines, weapon barrels etc were painted in metallic, washed and highlighted.

And here's the sneak peak of the finished Cruiser with all of its Class options! It does take a bit longer to paint up the Cruiser when you do all the options as well, but not that much longer. I'm pleased i put in the effort, but we'll see how i feel after doing 3 of these!!

Proper pictures to follow soon!

The GunGrave