I've put the set back Chimera's to one side for a while as the weather has turned pretty crappy here in the UK, so it's difficult to get outside to spray them, and my wife doesn't like coming home to find spray dust all over the kitchen/study/hallway (which has happened).

So in the meantime, I have attacked the pile of infantry models that I had lying around. I find that when I don't have the energy to paint, I do have the energy to clean up and build.

Here is the mass of infantry. Currently slightly organised (to my eyes anyway). I'll try to explain my slight organisation.

Top left is a squad of 10 models, with a meltagunner

Just below them is another squad of 10 with a meltagunner, Their sergeant is going to be the Baneblade commander model.

And below them are 24 torsos that will be put to use.

To the right of the torsos are a variety of 18 legs, mainly from the Cadian command squad box set.

In the bottom right are two of the limited edition "at ease" Cadians.

Above them is a commissar and a lord commissar.

Also there is a half built lascannon team.

Next up is a half finished trooper with missile launcher and a lieutenant with lightning claw conversion.

In the top right are a couple of metal snipers and plasmagunners.

Then at the top are 3 autocannon teams that have just about been started.

And finally below them is another pile of 10 torsos and 11 standing legs from the tank accessory sprue.

All in all a bit of a mess really, but the squads will start to take shape a bit better once I've actually glued the torsos to the legs. But on the face of things, I have another 67 ish men to add to the roll call.

Thanks for reading, and I'm off to glue some legs to bases.

Only a little bit of progress to show today. I added all of the rivets to the Chimera's, so that painfully slow job is done. I also added the dozer blade to both of them and magnetised it, after overwhelming support for that idea. So here are the rest of the pictures.

 The rather more loaded up Chimera.

And here you can see the dozer blade removed.

This is the second Chimera. I added a few more bits of stowage onto the turret to help bulk it out some more.

The stowage needed careful placement so that it didn't get stuck on the rear hatch. I ended up trimming the knife down on one of the bags to make it fit properly.

Here you can see the dozer blade removed from the second Chimera.

And finally, this is how I magnetised the dozer blades. A very simple four magnet job, with a bit of cutting and trimming on the blade support and on the underside of the tanks. In future, I would add the magnets to the inside of the Chimera to hide them away, but unless you pick the tank up and look underneath, they are hardly noticeable.

Also, the magnets are relatively strong, so the blade doesn't fall off too easily. You really have to shake the thing about to get it to move.

Thanks for reading.

Today I had a wander into my FLGS to pick up a Cadian Command Squad I had ordered in. It's located in a DIY shop, with the GW stuff at the front and the plumbing, electrical etc stuff at the back.

However, when I went in, all of the gaming tables had been moved behind the counter, the GW shelves were pretty much empty, the display cabinets were empty and the usual member of staff was nowhere to be seen.

Confused, I spoke to the member of staff who was in there, and was told that the usual guy had cleared out his stuff and gone on the missing list, possibly to Scotland. Even more confused, I asked about my order and was told that none of the orders had been placed. Fortunately I hadn't paid for the models yet, otherwise that may have been a bit of a problem.

Now a little bit annoyed, I asked what they were going to do with the remaining stock, tables and scenery and was informed that if they couldn't sell it, they'd throw it in the bin. Seeing an opportunity, I had a sift through the paints and scenery and grabbed 8 paints, a can of purity seal and a built and painted (and rather battered Bastion) - all for £25.

After I'd bought my bits, the member of staff asked if I could find out if anyone else may be interested in buying some of the left over stock, so this is me asking those of you in the blogging world that question.

The store is located in Longton, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. And the address is: 21 Commerce Street, Longton, ST3 1NW and is inside a shop called Dingy's.

I'm not sure how long he'll hold on to the stock for, but if anyone's local (ish) then you may be able to grab some bits. And here is the battered Bastion:

I reckon it can be salvaged, it's now about to receive a Power Spray bath to strip the paintwork down.

I've finally hit 100 posts!!! It's only taken me almost 4 years, but I've finally got there and I'm happy that I have. I would like to be able to say that it's been easy but as well know, finding the motivation to build, paint, photograph and then write about our models can be tricky.

On several occasions I've taken breaks as I really couldn't be bothered with the hobby, but I keep coming back and finding different things to do or try, such as the set back Chimera's or the magnetised and weathered Shadowsword. But in the end it's all worth it.

I'd also like to say a massive thank you to everyone that reads this blog, and puts up with my erratic posting and dry sense of humour. And to say thank you, I dusted off all my models (no seriously, they were very very dusty, some had cobwebs on!), lined them up in parade fashion and can now present you with the Cadian 127th Regiment, with attached armour and aerial support:

I apologise for the unpainted Chimera's, I haven't quite had the time to finish them off yet. I have put in links to the relevant post for certain units, if anyone wants to have a close up look of the models.

The infantry of the 127th, commanded by General Alexei Kyroskinovitz.
From front to back, and left to right:

Regimental Command Squad
Platoon 7 Command Squad, Regimental Commissars, Assassins

Squad 712, Squad 414

Squad 713, Squad 714, Squad 913, Squad 914

Mortar Support Squad, Heavy Bolter Support Squad

The armoured and aerial support, led by Colonel Jerome Adumis, in his Eradicator pattern Leman Russ command tank.

From front to back, and left to right:

Chimera, LR MBT, Col. Adumis' Leman Russ Eradicator - 601, LR Demolisher, Chimera

LR MBT - 621, LR MBT - 611, LR MBT - 631

LR MBT - 623, LR MBT - 622, LR MBT - 613, LR MBT - 612, LR MBT - 633, LR MBT - 632

Shadowsword, Sentinels 1, 2 & 4, Valkyrie, Artillery Platform, Basilisk - B23, Baneblade

So there you have it. The current fighting strength of the 127th. I've cheated a little bit, as I've put a few tanks in that aren't finished yet, but never mind. Thanks for taking a look at this post, and thanks again for sticking with this blog over the past 99 posts.

The Chimeras are continuing to take shape nicely, with all but the minor details now modelled. This is a pic heavy post, but I do have a conundrum. I don't know if I should add the dozer blade permanently, leave it off permanently or magnetise it. What are your ideas?

Anyway, onto the pictures. Here is the first Chimera, with the dozer blade in place and then removed, to give you an idea of what it would/could look like.

The smoke launcher on the side of the turret is a leftover from the FW mine clearer kit and the extra armour are sections of track trimmed down. The crewman will get arms and a head, but not until after the tank has been painted.

Here you can see the smoke launcher and extra stowage on the back of the tank, as well as the standard rear door. I glued the rear door in place as there isn't much to see on the inside.

I drilled the venting holes on the heavy stubber barrel, and also the barrel end. I can't seem to get the hole's dead centre when I'm doing them, so any tips would be appreciated.

Here is the second Chimera, again with the dozer blade in place and removed. This one has received a lot more kit on it to cover up the patch work track guards.

A mix of tank accessory sprue items, Forgeworld extra stowage and some old metal pieces were used. I also had another smoke launcher, so added that to the turret to make the look more uniform.

Here you can see the extra gear loaded on the back of the tank, and the uprated comms equipment on the back of the turret.

I'm still trying to decide what to add to the blank turret panel on each tank, but this may stay empty and just have markings. Mordian 7th suggested that I should turn the autocannon muzzle around so the vents were horizontal. In doing so, I glued the muzzle on the wrong end to where I had cut it. But I think the outcome is ok.

Thanks for reading.

Here is part 2 on my attempts at set back Chimeras. The past few days have involved a lot of cutting, filling, sanding, refilling, sanding, refilling, sanding, etc, etc.

  

I'll start off with the Chimera that has had the most work. Ok, so the big gaping hole on the armour plate has been covered and sanded smooth. The lasgun ports have been filled and sanded smooth as well. The tracks have also been added - and man do I love how easily these new Chimera's tracks go on!

I had a set of ForgeWorld track guards lying around that had definitely seen better days. They were bent and broken (an extremely cheap eBay purchase). Using the hot water technique, I managed to get the resin to conform to the tank's shape a bit better. However, the fit was still pretty crap. Drastic measures were needed, so I grabbed the hobby saw and removed the rear slope section and also part of the middle section. I then filed and sanded these down until they could fit. Even then there was still a bit of a gap, and the gap where I had hacked them apart, so I used green putty to fill them and then smoothed it down.

I also filled the gap that is on the track guards as standard, which can be seen of the ForgeWorld website here. This was a bit of a pain as I had to get the track guards looking like they weren't a complete patch job. A lot of putty and sanding later and the effect is passable. Once some stowage and accessories have been added they should be all but sorted anyway.

As well as the track guards I also had a FW rear door. Again this needed the hot water treatment, but fortunately was a lot easier to get to fit. The top hatch was also covered using a couple of pieces of plastic card. I will add a handle to this later on.

During construction, I added a piece of sprue where the hull mounted weapon will go. I couldn't decide if I wanted to magnetise the hull weapon, but this will provide me with somewhere to put the magnet in the future. The final bit of conversion on this Chimera was the main gun. I trimmed down an autocannon from the Cadian heavy weapons team sprue so that it would fit on the turret mount - just to be different. I have got a FW autocannon turret, but its got a round peg mount and the new Chimera's have a sort of key mount. That will be a conversion for the next one.

And here is the second Chimera. Whilst this one has not seen as much attention, it is basically ready to have the final bits added. I may add some stock track guards, but the rear door will be the normal one.

Next up will be the circular hole on the front. I'm not sure if I want to follow Sandwyrm's pattern and use a square hatch to cover it, or to use a regular round hatch. Time for some experimentation. Thanks for reading.

Rather than trying to do more to my Crimson Fists, as I'm saving up for an airbrush and compressor to hopefully make my life easier, I've decided to try and get some of my boxed models built, and I've started with a couple of Chimera's. But rather than going down the simple road of building them according to the instructions, I'm using SandWyrm's set back Chimera guide which can be found in 3 parts, here, here and here. There is also a bit about how he paints his models, here.

I've progressed a fair way into this project so far, having spent about 6 hours work on it. The side sections are built following the instructions. The fun starts with hacking the troop and turret sections to bits in order to move the turret further back.

 

Here is a close up of one of the Chimera's. There is a lot of careful trimming and sanding involved just to get to this stage. With a bit more practice I'm sure I could managed to get a better fit, but this will do, and I'll use Green Stuff to fill the gaps.

And here is a shot showing how far back the turret has gone. The rough removal of rivets etc, will be tidied up using sandpaper once the gaps have been filled.

I know I really should be concentrating on finishing up a few of the things that are sat on my workbench, such as the Manticore and Hellhound, but I was getting a bit annoyed at having these sat in boxes not doing anything. And anyway I'm sure I'll find time to finish them all at some point :).

Thanks for reading, comments, questions and suggestions are always appreciated.

After my failed attempts at undercoating my Crimson Fists using the GW Spraygun, in the last post, I took the nozzle apart and left it to soak in some white spirit overnight. In the morning I cleaned out all the bits using an old toothbrush and some cotton buds and then had a second go at the undercoating - and here are the results:

So first off is the Captain. I'm not going to do much explaining through this as the pictures are pretty self explanatory. The only thing I've done to this model is drill out the storm bolter barrels.

Here is the standard bearer and the apothecary from the command squad.

And here is the company champion, with a few added purity seals.

Command squad meltagunner.

Devastator squad sergeant.

Devastator squad multi-melta and lascannon.

Devastator squad plasma cannon and missile launcher. As you can see there are a few bits I missed with the undercoat. This was during my failure stage when I was still trying to get the spraygun to work properly. I'll go over these sections with a brush as they tend to be in harder to reach or obscured areas.

And here is "Mr Stompy" - not his actual name. I've not glued the weapon arms on so I can choose which loadout to go with.

Here are the side on shots of the assault cannon and close combat weapon arms.

Next up are the bread and butter tactical marines. Currently there are 13 of them, but I have a few awaiting bits that I've bought which will be made up tomorrow probably.

No tactical squad would be complete without a sergeant, and a nice big banner to let everyone know he's the sergeant.

The tactical squads plasma gunner.

And the squads plasma cannon.

Below are the pictures of the regular bolter armed marines (including some snap fit ones)

With the marine's undercoated, I then moved on to their paint scheme. And in trying to keep the paint time down to a minimum, I picked up a bottle of Vallejo Model Air Insignia Blue.

This is the darkest blue that Vallejo do in the Model Air range. The camera flash has brightened it up a bit, but I think it will be a good base for my Crimson Fists.

Thanks for reading. Oh and if anyone has any tips on taking photos of dark/black miniatures please can you enlighten me. Thanks again.