For once I've moved quickly on to the next project, Platoon 7-1's command squad, CS 710. This squad is built mainly out of parts from the Cadian command squad box set, but I did take some bits from other places.

To start with, all of the bits were removed from the sprues and mold lines were cleaned up. To be honest, the mold lines were almost not existent which is a nice change. Next up I did a test run for each model and used blue tac to see where how I wanted each model to be posed. After this, the legs were glued onto the base. I then glued the torso onto each model, again after a bit of dry fitting. Everything then got a coat of white primer. I'd run out of GW Skull White spray, so instead went down to my local Halfords and picked up a can of their white primer. So far I am happy with the results. It seems to go down just as good as the Games Workshop one, and keeps the details crisp, even when I thought I had a bit of overspray. Here are some pics of the squad as it stands this afternoon.



I'll start off with the two higher members of the command squad. On the left is the officer, who will have the bionic arm with powersword and a pistol of some sort. I had decided on the bolt pistol, but the arm and hand holding it make the pose look really rigid. The trooper on the right will be a standard bearer. I'm planning on making this guy look like a grizzled veteran who has taken up the flag. I may also make an additional member of the command squad equipped with a vox caster, but this is just a thought (I hardly ever play any games so why shouldn't I have a 6 man command squad, or just a squad with banners!).



All three of these troopers are going to be armed with flamers. My plan is that each platoon command squad will have three special weapons.



The picture on the left shows the officers sword arm and bolt pistol arm, but as I said above I'm not convinced about the bolt pistol arm. Also shown is the banner that I'll be using and the supporting arms for the flamer troopers. The flamer arms and tanks can be seen in the right hand picture. The observant ones amongst you may notice that there are three tanks, but only two flamers. This is because I want to use the flamer arms from the command squad box set, so that they have the special shoulder pad. Unfortunately I only have two at the moment, so I'll have to go and grab another command squad at some point.



Finally the heads. The head on the far left will be the officers, the next one along will be the standard bearers. Both of these heads are from the Cadian CS box set. The middle head is also from the Cadian CS box set and will be for one of the flamer wielding troopers. The head second from the right is from the Sentinel box set and the head on the right is from the Cadian squad box set. Both of these will be for the flamer troopers.

Thanks for reading.

Scout Sentinel - Red Angel 1

Now that the Valkyrie is finished, I've got the tiem to finish off some scraps of projects that have been sitting around with only a few things left to be done. One of those projects is the three sentinels that I currently have. I did post some info about 2 of the sentinels a while ago here.

As with most of my projects all I had to do to finish the model off was apply a drybrush of Bleached Bone and seal it with matt varnish. So here are some pics of a scout (Cadian pattern) sentinel, callsign Red Angel 1.



The sentinel was painted with a basecoat of Dark Angels Green. The camo pattern is Goblin Green. I wanted something different on the side of the sentinel, rather than the using the supplied back pack, so I went for a fuel can instead - something for people to aim for. After taking these pics I noticed that I haven't drilled out the autocannon barrel, so thats something else I'll do.



The Red Angel emblem was made using a transfer from the Imperial Guard Tank transfers sheet and then a number from the Forgeworld Imperial Guard sheet. The interior of the sentinel was painted before the model was put together.

I plan to post the other two sentinels in the next few days, so watch this space. Thanks for reading!

Valkyrie - 72 "Sword"


The Valkyrie is finally complete! (And there was much rejoicing!)

This project is done, and it really has taken some time. There was one little addition to the Valk before completion, and that was a magnetised flying stand. I drilled out the holes on the section that is meant to be glued onto the bottom of the Valkyrie. I then glued a magnet into each of the 4 holes. Once the glue had dried, I placed another magnet onto the ones that are already in place. I then added a drop of super glue to the magnets and placed them onto the underside of the Valk and left them to dry. And once they were dry the flying stand can be fitted and removed to aid in transportation. I also painted the magnets in Iyunden Darksun with a Skull White highlight and a wash of Gryphonne Sepia. With a coat of gloss varnish, they now look like landing lights! I have however forgotten to take a pic of the underneath - oops!

So without any further blabbering from me, here are some pics of the finished article:





Here is the Valk loaded out with Hunter Killer missiles and Lascannon, and my preferred blue lens sensor. The drybrush of Bleached Bone did help to tone down the paint chipping, and the matt varnish helped to get rid of the shininess of some of the transfers. Thanks go out to The Antipope for noting these problems.



And with the help of magnets, I change the loadout to Missile Pods and MultiLaser with a different sensor. If you haven't tried using magnets, I do recommend it. The results really are worth the effort.



A few pics showing the door gunners, ready to lay waste to any one foolish enough to take a shot at the Valk as she skims the tree tops.



I've put this of the Missile Pods in as I hadn't shown them finished. The tips of the missiles was painted using Blazing Orange. A wash of Badad Black was applied before the whole pod got sealed with matt varnish.



The flying support itself was glued onto the base and then I used greenstuff to add some strength to the stand. The whole base then got a couple of coats of Graveyard Earth. I then covered the base in PVA glue and added modelling flock. I also added a few patches of static grass. The trees are fromRiko Scenice Accessories, I think, and were intended to hide the flying support a little bit. Here are a few pics showing the flying base without the Valk attached.

And so the Valkyrie is finished and now I must move onto another project, hopefully one a bit less time consuming. Thanks for reading and please leave comments etc if you want. Cheers!

P.S. The Valk got the name "Sword" partly because of the transfer on the nose, and partly as I plan to have 5 of these bad boys and they'll be named after the Normandy D-Day landing beaches: Sword, Gold, Juno, Omaha and Utah

The Valkyrie is nearing completion. There's been a lack of updates recently as to be honest, I haven't done anything until the past couple of days. My time has been spent either at work, or watching DVDs that I got a Christmas or playing the several new PS3 games that I also got at Christmas. But on Friday I decided to give some time to the hobby that I've neglected for the past month and get the final things complete on the Valk.

The longest and most time consuming part was to get the paint chips finished. This is now done and I am very pleased with the results. I do think that if I choose to ever do paint chipping again I won't do as many on each panel, mainly because it took me so long.

I also had to get the paint chips onto the canopy sections, which I think turned out ok. Again I didn't want the chipping to overpower the section of the model.

Through all this chipping, I'd completely forgotten to paint certain areas. One of these areas was the nose. The yellow sensor was painted with a couple of coats of Iyunden Darksun. For the red sensors, I started out with a coat of Mechrite Red. I then painted half of the sensor with Red Gore. Then I used Blood Red to highlight the Red Gore. Next up was a highlight of Blazing Orange, followed by a very small highlight of Skull White.

I had also forgotten to do the side sensor's and weapons. For the multilaser and lascannon I decided to go with a different scheme to my usual green's that I use on my vehicles. Instead I went with a simple black and silver design. I used Boltgun Metal with a Mithril Silver highlight for the metal areas, and Chaos Black with a highlight of Adeptus Battlegrey followed by a Fortress Grey highlight. I also chose to paint the weapons this way so that they are similar to the heavy bolters in the door mounts.

And now onto the side sensors. The red sensor was done in the same way as those on the Valk's nose, except they also got a wash of Baal Red at the end to tie all the colours together. The blue sensor started off with a base colour of Enchanted Blue. Next up half the sensor was painted with Mordian Blue. A highlight of Ice Blue was applied to this area, followed by a highlight of Skull White. The sensor was finished off with a wash of Asurmen Blue.

The yellow lights were a complete pain to do. I used Iyunden Darksun and applied several coats to get a nice smooth finish. Then using Chaos Black and a small brush I picked out the caging. Finally, I used a Gryphonne Sepia wash to give the lights some depth.

So the project is nearly complete. It has taken me way too long but I think the extra work I've put in is starting to show through. Next up I'm finishing off the under wing missile pods and magnetising the flying stand. I'll also be painting the base stand and adding some detail to that.

Stay tuned for the next post and hopefully (fingers crossed) a completed Valkyrie. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave any comments/suggestions. Cheers.