Well the holiday is going on nicely. I’ve managed to get some good computer gaming in and have managed to complete Bioshock 2. I’ll do a review of that and my new Saitek Commander gamepad unit in the near future.
I’ve managed to finish a book as well and still had time to get out and about on my bike. A nice 20Km cycle up and around Beacon Hill in Leicester was interesting… For the first major cycle I’ve done for years, it was ambitious but I managed it thanks to others on the ride. Still, shows I need to do it more often.
Vendetta Painting
In the meantime, I’ve also managed to do some more modelling to my Vendetta model.
The wrecked Chimera is supposed to be a Nurgle chimera and this supposed to look diseased and old, possibly rotting. The paintwork is splitting open and peeling hence the brown patches. The symbol is supposed to look like it’s mutated out from the hull and hence the cracking – those cracks need highlighting somewhat as they look a bit flat currently. I need to model some smoke coming out from the vents and around the back of the chimera. I’m a little unsure what method to do for it. I was going to the age old cotton wool but it looks a bit cliché and a bit pants in my eyes. However I stumbled upon this guide and I love the look of it so might give it a go. The only thing I’m not liking is that I probably should have done it BEFORE painting the chimera.
The Chimera was painted a Khemri Brown basecoat then a ~50/50 camo green and dheneb stone layer which was then washed with Gryphonne Sepia then highlighted with bleached bone
The Vendetta itself I’ve started to drybrush it with scab red.
Well tomorrow starts a week long holiday. Well, technically I get 2 days off and then Friday, the weekend and Monday and Tuesday are University closure dates so I get them off anyhow…
However, this gives me some time off to do some stuff and catch up with some gaming, reading and painting. I have got planned a trip to York possibly on the Friday/Saturday. However this still leave s a good portion to catch up with various things.
Books
I have a good number of books to read currently. I have Roadside Picnic to read which will be interesting as it’s the basis of STALKER (both the game and the film). I also have a good number of Warhammer 40,000 books to read (Faith & Fire, Lords of the Night, Salamander, Star of Damocles amongst a few others)
The aim is to get through at least one of these during the week. I read very quickly so in theory I could read a book a day with doing nothing else. However this leads to my next point – computer games…
Games
I now have a fair few games to start playing through. At the weekend, I bought the excellent Bioshock 2 and have briefly played a level of this. I also have the following games to play through and complete.
Dawn of War 2 – Chaos Rising – I’ve barely played this yet because the difficulty level has increased and it isn’t as easy (a challenge I like but to much makes it not that fun…). I’ll give this another go now I’ve started the game from a slightly lower difficulty level.
Bioshock 2 – This game is more of the same from the original from what I’ve seen but it is very god from the littel I have played – This will probably end up priority 1.
Sins of a Solar Empire – A strategy game that has intrigued me for a while and when I saw it in Game this weekend for £1.98 in the sale (Bioshock 2 was also in the sale), I thought it would be well worth a short at that price.
Borderlands – I have to continue with this game – it’s great fun and I love the guns etc. This will probably provide some needed distraction through the week as well.
I also have a few other games I’ve barely touched – Titanquest and Blazing Angels come to mind.
Painting
I also have my Warhammer 40K to paint as well. The Vendetta as I mentioned in a previous post needs to be painted up as well. Therefore I’ll be working on this as and when this week as well.
Anyhow, tomorrow’s day will be filled with gaming. But the holiday starts this evening with comedy with Dave Gorman.
Now I was always into my Airfix as a child but I’m a very keen sci fi fan and when I discovered Warhammer as a teenager, I was hooked. Warhammer had all the fun of model making and painting but it also had the most amazing back story which is still rapidly expanding (thanks to the great work of the Black Library). It is also a wargame but to me the main attraction is the fiction with the painting and modelling a second. I am, however, no good with the painting lark but I do love the conversion and modelling side of thinks.
What’s this got to do with aircraft modelling? Well over the past year I’ve been building up (ok, buying, but since last September, I’ve not really had the heart to paint or build any of the models) my army. Of the many races, I collect Imperial Guard – the human army in a universe filled with super human warriors and aliens. It might have been mentioned before when I did my Imperial Guard loadout (something I want to resurrect if only I could come up with enough people to create rag tag guard bunch!). Around February I felt the urge to buy something and model it. I know I have a lot of stuff lying around in boxes but I wanted something large, something I could use as a centre piece in my army.
Now my army is focussed on an artillery company. Don’t ask me why particularly but I love scenes such as this one in “A Bridge To Far”.
The aim is to pound the enemy to dust with big guns. However these still obviously needs support and when Games Workshop released the Valkyrie I couldn’t resist it. The model is fantastic. It also adds tactical flexibility to my army and would allow a conversion to take place.
Taken from the Games Workshop Website
This aircraft keeps my army theme together – the artillery pound the enemy and the dropship flys overhead to deliver the elite stormtrooper squad inside to where ever on the battlefield. However I had noticed was that my army lacked any anti tank hunting capabilities. The artillery I use (Medusa’s) are a serious threat to infantry but if you take the anti tank shells, it makes them less effective at the infantry. Also the artillery itself is inaccurate so using something with a little more accuracy to target the tanks made more sense.
Therefore I decided to convert the Valkyrie into the Vendetta gunship with 3 x twin linked lascannons which are devastating to armoured units. It’s job is to fly around and take out tanks (and possibly deploy some units behind enemy lines). Obviously this required some modification to take place as there’s no parts in the box to make what I wanted (typical!) so I dug around in my bits box and pulled some lascannons out from my heavy weapon squads – they all use mortars or heavy bolters so there are a few left over. With some plasticard and putty, I fitted them under the wing.
Also as this is a large model, I decided it needed to be done well so I’m also sorting the base out to be a fully detailed miniature diorama. I toyed between using Epic scale models to represent the Vendetta flying at high altitude or to have it flying over a kill. In the end the kill option won out as I had the parts to start getting on with it.
Now it’s currently work in progress but here it stands currently.
The base has a the remains of a Chaos chimera which I got from a Basilisk kit I had which had an extra sprue of armour plating in. The model is supposed to be flying low over the Chimera which it has just destroyed – the Chimera has the gaping hole where the las shots entered and this will be painted to show molten metal (or ceramite to Warhammer fans!) as the “kill” is fresh. The white parts are supposed to be the escape hatch that has blown out due to overpressure (the explosion of the Chimera!). The green stuff is putty and is there to represent the sand as as the side comes to a stop from exploding out from the side of the tank. It will be covered in sand along with the base. I also intend to scatter a few bits of “burning” debris around to base once the putty is fully cured and base is covered in sand.
The model is not affixed to the stand to allow for ease of carrying and to make it easier to know when the place is hovering etc in game. With a little luck, it should come along soon but I’m going to have to redo the black undercoat as some of it has gone horrible and bits are missed.
As for the paint scheme, I’m undecided. It will have to tie in with the desert themed camo that my guardsmen wear but I’m currently unsure how to pattern the craft – I would like to use an airbrush but they are quite expensive so I’ll have to consider the options. I certainly wont be using the Games Workshop “airbrush” as it’s terrible! It’s more an undercoating device…
