32nd Inquisitorial Guard – I salute you!

12 04 2012

With the advent of no inducted Imperial Guard in the new Sisters of Battle ‘Codex’ (Codex being used in the loosest sense of the term) I have decided to part ways with my IG, painted to represent the 32nd Inquisitorial Guard (I wanted to distinguish them from the ‘regular’ IG troops.

I took them to my FLGS last night and put them up for sale in their cabinet for a modest $65 (only $5 more than buying a Chimera and a box of guard). I’ll leave them there for a month, and if they don’t sell, it’ll be off to Ebay with them. Is it sad that I got a little sentimental when I walked out of the store last night? I guess when you invest time, money and passion in something, you put a bit of yourself in what you produce, but it did feel like I was saying goodbye, lol!

Hopefully someone will be able to use them and give them a good home. Here are some pics I took last night before I took them to the game store:

Give ‘em hell, boys!





Space Wolves – B&C paint challenge completed!

3 04 2012

I just recently (by the skin of my teeth) completed my painting vow for the Bolter and Chainsword painting challenge. Here are my Grey Hunters!

I’m very pleased with how they turned out! let me know what you think!





Crusader, Adepticon, oh, and some Sisters of Battle news…

1 04 2011

Ultra quick post today my lovlies…

After what we thought was going to be a big shit dump of a mess, no thanks at all to Brauerhouse in Lombard, We’ve actually managed to secure a spot on a show for this saturday night for all those people at Adepticon who want to listen to some heavy metal. So,  Brad, our He-Man-esque guitar player, whose pastimes include playing guitar for us, and wrestling dragons, managed to get us on the bill with She Likes Todd and Situation red. The best bit is it’s f*cking FREE to get in,  and only a 10 minute ride from the Adepticon venue. For more in depth details on how to get to the show from Adepticon, be sure to swing by Dethtron’s blog, Dick Move, to get the information. So, come along, hang out, have fun, drink some beer, and pick up our brand new release EP – ‘Rise of the Templars’ for a mere $5 :)

In other news, I found out yesterday, with thanks to the Blood Of Kittens network, that we have a little taster of what is to come for Sisters of Battle! HELL YEAH!! It appears to be a page from the upcoming new codex… Looks like Sisters will be ‘losing’ acts of faith as an ‘extra’ , but gaining some of them as standard special rules. I’m wondering if different slots will have access to different AoF? AND we see that Repressors are included as vehicle options. Could this possibly mean a plastic kit??? and WTF is an ‘arcaballista’? Anyway, i’m very excited, and you will be too, when you see the image by clicking here! 

If you haven’t already, I urge you to join up with BoK, it’s a great network for fellow 40k bloggers.

Thanks for listening, and see you Saturday night!

Paul





100th Post! Today is Old Stuff Day… Black Templars revisited!

2 03 2011

Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 had a great idea for resurrecting old blog posts that may have been missed by newer readers, or just forgotten about in the annals of internet time.

I guess When Cannons Fade is still in it’s infancy when you look at some of the other big players out there, but thats ok. I’ve never really been one to post up army lists, dissect rules, or start working on the math behind my beloved hobby (I leave all that complicated stuff to Dethtron :) ).

I do however, enjoy focusing more on the hobby side of the game, the painting, converting, WIP side of it, so thats what this contribution to Old Stuff Day will be, a look back on my boys in black, my Templars.

This post from back in February 2009 showcased my efforts for the founding of my Templar chapter. I had acquired the Assault on Black Reach box set, and given the Orkses away to my buddy Evan. I thought that this would be a great way to start an army, or at least bulk up the plastics I had already been amassing.

First to be tackled was the Dreadnought. The snap-fit style of the set was good, although I think they used a harder type of plastic, because cutting and trimming it was a bitch! Eventually, after some blood, sweat and tears were expended the honored brother, in all his resplendent glory, was finished:

Don’t forget to check out the original post for more views: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/02/27/completed-the-aobr-dready/

Fast forward to August of 2009. After tinkering around with some other bits and pieces, I did a test run on how I would be painting my boys in black. I was very happy with the results:

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

You can see the post and pictures in it’s entirety here: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/08/27/chaos-lord-wip-and-black-templar/

November 2009 sees the appearance of my Black Templar Assault Marines. Exactly as the label says:

So there we have it, a couple of snap shots from WCF’s past. Since then I feel that I have improved on my painting skills (i’m pretty pleased with my Templar Rhino with xtra armor, and my Landspeeder). There will be more Templar goodness to come, but I do hope you’ll swing by the WCF TARDIS and have a look back through the archives!

Yes, this is an old picture of me with the TARDIS...

Cheers!

Paul





Black Templar Rhino with xtra armor/armour

17 02 2011

This seemed to take waaaaay too long to paint. I’m not too sure why. Maybe because you can’t be as ‘slap happy’ with marine vehicles like you can with say, Imperial Guard vehicles. Well, I guess you can, but it just doesn’t work as well, IMO.

The Forge World armor pieces were pretty much a pain in the arse to work with. Some parts were bent, others ridiculously warped and at least 2 pieces had shrunk, yes shrunk. Making the best of a bad situation, I forged ahead (geddit? Forged? Forge World? never mind…) and this was the finished product:

The Templar cross was masked off and sprayed onto the roof, then weathered to show wear and tear. I’m pleased with the results, I just hope that my other vehicles (i’m looking at you, Vindicator) won’t take as long.

In the meantime, having OB’d (over blacked) i’m going to take a few days off from painting Templars, and having a go with something with a bit more color to it (well, slightly more, I guess). I started one last night. Here is a teaser:

As always, C+C always welcome!





A dream of wolves in the snow…

2 12 2010

OK, 1,000 extra internet cool points if you can guess the reference in the post title :)

I actually finished my Wolf Guard in TDA last night, and boy was I glad. I’m keen to get rolling on some other projects I have lined up. I’m guessing there is about 12 hours of work in this mini, give or take. I’m pleased with the results, although I have to say that the whole waterslide transfer thing on marine shoulder pads is very frustrating. 3 attempts at securing one on this shoulder guard (even with applying Microsol) proved fruitless and saw me wanting to take a hammer to the figure, as the Microsol actually started taking the paint off the mini.

After cooling my jets and repainting the shoulder guard, I though f*ck it, I’ll stick with what I know is a tried and tested method – hand painting the bastard on. So I did. I think it actually turned out pretty well.

I’m still going to have a shot at painting a Space Wolf in darker grey armor, to satisfy my curiosity, but it will have to wait for now.

In other news, my loyal Black Templars have been sorely neglected, but no longer! I bought a couple of torsos from Ebay from the ‘Masters of the Chapter’ set, with the intent of converting them into Castellans or Marshalls or something, to lead my zealous Templars into the fray.

My first selection was the Master of the Arsenal (not the football team!). I chose this basically because of the feet (nothing kinky). The feet look like they are from an old suit of armor, so that sold me straight away.  Over my lunch break yesterday I got to sketching a rough idea of what this chap will look like with some simple additions and converting. I’m still unsure on the power weapon, so that is subject to change. Here is what I have:

You can see my notes there too, as I would’ve probably forgotten which bits I needed.  My son saw this drawing when I took it home last night and wanted it, so I told him I would get a copy and he can color it for Daddy. I told him I’d post it on here before I stick it on the fridge too :) Bless him!

OK, thats it for now. More to come shortly!





WIP update – Wolf Guard in TDA

1 12 2010

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

I decided to jump in and have a go at the December painting challenge over at Bolter & Chainsword to see if I could get this guy done. The deadline is 11.59 tonight, and I think I can do it. No prizes or anything, but I like doing these once in a while to get the firecracker up my arse that I need sometimes. I just need to finish up the gold/bronze areas and put the logo on his shoulder pad, oh and add some snow to the base. I may also add weathering but i’m not too sure i’m confident enough to do this yet.

I’m trying to up my skills, as I would like to submit an entry to Golden Demon when it returns to Chicago next year. I have a Wolf Lord that may well be the candidate for that…

In other news i’m hoping to finish up a couple of other projects so I can post up my epic Nurgle article that i’ve been planning. The end is definitley in sight! It’s actually such a big article, I may have to give it a page, instead of  just a post. We’ll see!

C+C welcome on wolfy up there, thanks for swinging by!

Paul





Some WIP updates – multi-tasking aint so bad.

18 11 2010

Throwing caution to the wind, I have actually been working on several projects at once. I’ve actually found it somewhat liberating, as I can see progression on a number of different things at once, instead of painting one mini/unit and then thinking ‘wow, I still have a shit load of stuff to do’.

Did some more work on Evan’s Nurgle Rhino. I figured I should as I was running out of excuses lol! Weathered it a little, using the same technique I had used on my Chimera a little while back:

Next i’ll be adding the rusted metal colors on there, and figuring out what color to do all the gross bits. Painting this up prompted me to start another side project, which happened frighteningly quick, but I won’t go into detail here, as i’m writing a separate article about it. I’ll show you a teaser though:

I also started on a Wolf Guard Terminator as well. He’s painted using the recipe I used on the other shap I showed  y’all recently.  I’ll be redoing the flesh though, as I wasn’t happy with the way it turned out with this formula:

Arse shot!

There are some spots that need tidying up, but I want to add some weathering too, so I’ll wait till i’ve done that. I also have a Black Templar Rhino sitting on my worktop that keeps honking it’s horn impatiently at me. I suspect that little bugger will get worked on over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Thats it for today! i’ll be back shortly, enjoy!

Paul





From the mighty halls of Asaheim

28 10 2010

‘Come my brothers, come walk with me
to the new worlds across the Great Sea
In Asaheim our destinies lie
as warriors at The Emperors side…’

I decided to take a step out of my current projects and do something completely different. I have some odds and sods that I picked up off Ebay, like Deamonettes, Chaos Warriors and whatnot, just odd minis, not whole units, so I could change things up once in a while. I Also thought it would be a good way to push myself in terms of techniques and strive to get me up to a higher standard. So, reaching into my drawers (hehe) I pulled out this chap and set to work.

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Space Wolves, being a frustrated viking myself, so I was pretty intrigued as to how he was going to turn out. I debated at first whether or not to go with dark grey armor, or the lighter ice blue/grey armor. I settled on the latter, as so much of my other stuff is supergrimdark so the change of pace was quite satisfying.

I spent 10 hours (roughly) on this chap, but I’m very pleased with the results. I have to pick up some of this adhesive stuff to apply the decal to the shoulder pad. I’d forgotten how much I hated water slide decals, especially for shoulder pads. Trying to apply a flat surface to a rounded one will ineveitably lead to frustrating creases. I remember Dethtron telling me about this stuff you paint over the decal which basically fuses the membrane to the surface of the mini.

This was the recipe I used for my Space Wolf:

Armor:

Basecoat with a 1:2:1 mix of Space Wolf Grey, Shadow Grey and Codex Grey. Wash with Devlan Mud in the armor recesses. Don’t worry about being tidy! The add progressivley more Space Wolf Grey to the base mix and paint the armor plates, concentrating more on the outer edges to get that defined edging.

Bones: 

Base coat of snakebite leather. Devlan mud wash over the basecoat. Re-apply snakebite leather on the higher parts to begin your highlights. Add bleached bone to this for your highlights. Take this all the way up to bleached bone, or even skull white, depending on how ‘bright’ you want it. 

Yellow areas: 

Base coat of Tausept Ochre, add some skull white to this and paint a layer on. Wash with devlan mud and gryphonne sepia (concentrate more on the edges). Add skull white for highlights. 

Eagle/helm trim: 

Base coat is a 1:1 mix of shining gold and scorched brown. Wash with devlan mud. Add layer of shining gold on the high points. Add mithril silver to this for highlights. 

Jewels: 

Scab red base coat, followed by blood red, add vomit brown to the blood red for highlights finished with a dot of skull white. 

Shoulder pad rims: 

Base coat of Bolt Gun Metal, washed with devlan mud. Mithril silver to give worn look to the very edges.

As always, comments and criticisms are always welcomed!

When Cannons Fade is rapidly approaching its 2nd birthday (seriously, where has the time gone?) and there may be a few changes going on around here. I’ll reveal more on or around November 7th, along with some self indulgent ‘looking back’ at WCF since it’s inception.

Cheers!

Paul





Games Workshop and customer service…

26 08 2010

I like the idea behind St. Celestine. I bought the model, many moons ago. I couldn’t ever make up my mind if I like the idea of what looked like a curtain being held up by two Cherubim behind her. I like the Cherubim, but decided the cloak/drape/rug/curtain/shower curtain just looked limp, so I decided not to use it. I was strenghthened in my decision by the illustration in the Codex, which shows her as an angelic being with majestic wings. Why, then, not do that with the mini?

Anyway, confusion aside, I’d thought about converting her and giving her some feathery wings in homage to the illustrated version. Finding a set that actually seemed in scale was a bit of a task, and over time she got forgotten about. That is until I found some sweet ‘steampunk’ wings at my FLGS. They are reminiscent of the Imperial Aquila, so I thought these would be even better. I stuck them on with some poster-tac to give you an idea of the vision:

Pretty neat, huh?

I also managed to lose the hand holding her sword (but not after I had already stabbed myself in the thumb while trying to drill and pin the impossibly small join), which brings me nicely to the point of my post. I ramble, I know, but it’s my blog, geddit?

As many of you know, back in ‘the day’, Games Workshop used to sell individual bits. So, every seperate bit of any multi-part mini had a serial number, and could be ordered seperately, for converting, or even missing pieces. Wonderful! Brilliant! Genius even!

Well, they stopped doing that.

I found that out this morning when I called their customer service to inquire about buying a replacement arm for Celestine. The chap I spoke to said they no longer offered that service. Bummer. I figured at that point i’d have to jury-rig something to replace said part. I had an inkling they didn’t do that anymore, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, and it didn’t hurt to ask today, as a few minutes of just shooting the shit with Madison (the CS rep) he asked if I had an account with GW. I said yes, and confirmed my email address, and my mailing address before telling me that he would ship me a whole Celestine mini to me, at no charge! There was much rejoicing. I thanked him a number of times, and tried to get a scoop on SoB stuff (no luck, lol!) and came away from the experience very happy.

So, GW may seem like some tyrannical oppressive multinational corporation, apparently vehemently hated by the gaming community (although they keep buying their products…) and are an easy target for the whiners and nay-sayers out there, but you know what, they’re a business. (gasp!). While they may have some odd marketing ideas, and may be on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, they still know how to take care of their customers.

Today is a WIN + FTW for GW.








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