Deployment of the Spectral Sicarii (homebrew RG)

[thewarriorhunter]

FINALLY finished base coating the rest of my 100 pt KT. It's gray... but it's a light gray so it sucked. It ended up taking three thin coats and a few touch ups to get a good coat. Pretty sure I will not be expanding this to a 40k sized chapter until I get an airbrush. I was also pretty miffed at how many mold lines I found. I'm usually very good about removing them, I'm not sure how so many got neglected. I scraped a few off after the first coat of paint and am hoping that the paint will stick well enough on those tiny strips of exposed plastic.

 

[thewarriorhunter]

I think I got my base process figured out... time will tell. I tried working with miliput today and it was not being agreeable with me. I remembered I had some air dry clay and it was a success. I cut the brim off a paper plate so I had a flat disposable surface to work on. Borrowed my wife's rolling pin to make the clay nice and level (which was something I couldn't do with the miliput). The pin I bought left a good impression.

 

I think I should get all the bases I need out of this. The clay dries really hard so my plan is to cut out the basic shape/size of the base with my saw and file to fit flush. We shall see how that works out. It would be easier to cut them now while the clay is soft but I'm worried about the clay catching and ruining by tearing chunks out of the clay.

 

[thewarriorhunter]

I made hobby cookies! I ended up tracing the top of a base onto a piece of cardstock and used that as a template to cut out the tops of the bases. They're a little thicker than I think I want so once they've fully cured I'll sand them down with some medium grit paper. I probably could have made them the actual base on not the top but I'd be worried about them cracking over time.

 

I also realized (too late) that I could have reused the clay that was 'waste'. I wasn't sure how this clay would work but I think next time I can cut it right away. Then I'll take the excess clay and reroll it out to make more bases from it. For now this should do for a good sized command roster.

 

 

[NiceGuyAdi]

I’d always looked at those rollers, thought they were cool but didn’t know how I’d use them. The idea of rolling a sheet out and cutting base toppers is a brilliant one.

 

Looks like you got it sorted with air-drying clay, but with milliput, mixing in a bit of green stuff (say 1:3 gs:milliput) makes it more manageable, and I think nicer to work with than either material on its own.

[thewarriorhunter]

You're probably right that mixing the two together would make them easier to work with. I've not had a ton of luck with GS, my buddy said he mixes it and lets it sit for about an hour before he starts to work with it because it's so tacky.

 

I think I'll stick with air dry clay because of cost. I don't remember what I paid for the Milliput and GS but with the volume I need I think the clay is a much cheaper option.

[thewarriorhunter]

Made more bases tonight. The first batch were cut wrong and looked terrible on the bases.

 

I also tried my hand at the symbol for my Kill Team. First time I've ever free handed anything. I think it turned out OK given the size I was working with. I've included the flower my wife painted for reference. Let me know what you think and I'd love any suggestions you might have. I only did the inner purple layer of her flower because I don't think I could do the whole flower and make it look good inside the small area of the shoulder pad.

 

 

[longjohnsilver]

I like the flower, but it currently looks like a chaos star. If you add another layer of orange/ yellow flowers it might look less chaos-y. Or retry the base image with 6 or 7 leaves instead of 8.

 

I tried that moulded plasti-card to base technique once with a kind of tiled/ pavestoned look to it. I was told to use plastic cutters/ clippers to get the plasticard flush to the base.

 

@NiceGuyAdi - I've never heard of GS and milliput being mixed together before. I've mixed different types of milliput but they're mostly the same apart from the colour, except for the superfine white which becomes a bit like porcelain.

[thewarriorhunter]

I had the same thoughts, longjohnsilver. I am going to try a second attempt tonight or tomorrow on the other pad (this was a test model).

 

I think I'm going to drop to 6 petals and see how that goes. Currently it's so cramped to fit 8 petals and they're all very rigid. I think if I go to 6 petals that will give me some space to make them look a little more organic. It'll also allow me to easily frame it up because 6 is still symmetrical.

 

I also am thinking of using the darkest purple as a base layer for the entire symbol, then layering the lighter colors up but being very careful to leave a sliver of the base layer showing on the edges. I'm hoping that might help to make the flower pop a little more. Up close you can tell what it is, from far away it currently looks like a purple blob.

 

Side note: I showed my wife last night and she told me I was a 'really sweet nerd'.

[Brother Quixote]

That's better freehand than I could ever manage, Without context it could be mistaken for a chaos symbol or a mouth with tentacles unfortunately (it's the purple I think).

More offset petals in a different colour would help, but then it's getting fiddly.

 

Keep trying, I'm sure you'll find something you're happy with.

I'm even coming around to liking the bases.

 

(And I said she'd be secretly pleased!)

[thewarriorhunter]

Hobby Cookie update.

 

I made a new batch and cut them at an angle opposite to the previous one. Before they sat on the base and looked off. This time I cut them to have the same slope as the actual base. I sanded it down on a piece of sand paper to reduce the height. After gluing onto the base I cut/sanded/filed the edges down to be flush with the base. A little hobby putty later and I have a pretty seamless transition from base to clay. I'll prime it this weekend and try and figure out a paint scheme.

 

This first pictures shows the thickness difference vs sanded and unsanded. The next batch I'll try and make a little thinner so this step can be avoided/shortened. Second shows the gap filling, last picture is the end result that awaits priming.

 

 

 

Damn Duz, did you like this before I hit post? 

[RG-Predators]

Those bases look great! I really like how flush you made them. Definitely going to look good once they’re painted. Have you thought about any designs in the tile? That would really make them pop if you managed to through some patterns in there. Sort of like the old school victorian designs.

[thewarriorhunter]

Freehanding the symbol on the shoulder is challenging enough so I think I'll pass on the tiles. If you look a few posts up the roller has some very intricate parts that will be included on a couple bases (but definitely in the minority of them). I think those areas will suffice for detail. I'm concerned that if I do too much with the bases that it will take away from the models.

[thewarriorhunter]

So glad the boards are back up! I managed to finish my first Intercessor Gunner and my Comms specialist is currently being glued together as painting was finished the other night. If Borderlands 2 wasn't so distracting I'd probably have the whole Kill Team done

 

I still need to name my guys, I'm not sure what theme I want to go with. I'm leaning towards some time of Middle East/Hebrew/Judaic naming scheme since that's where Sicarii is derived from historically. In another forum I was talking with a fellow hobbyist who was also a history buff and new the history of the Sicarii well. He suggested I name their home world Masada since that was the desert fortress where the original Sicarii made their last stand. These guys are going to be fleet based so I believe their flagship will be called The Masada as an homage to real world history. It is very fitting because Masada was a nigh impregnable fortress and while the Romans did crack it, it took them a lot of time, effort, and manpower to do so.

 

Here's the pictures of my first model done. I still need to varnish the model but we've had a lot of rain and humidity so I'm waiting so as to not fog up the varnish.

 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with how he turned out. I'm tweaking a few things on subsequent models but overall I've got my scheme and methods down.

 

And here's a sneak peak of my comm's arms:

 

[WAR]

Very nice

[thewarriorhunter]

Comms Specialist is done. I need to work on his base but it'll be raining all weekend so I won't have a chance to prime until next week. I also am going to stop painting the rest of these guys until I can seal them all. The base coat has a tendency to chip and I want to fix that. I'm not sure if it's the new primer I'm using, the paint color, or what but it's very annoying. I think sealing them up will help to protect them from my grubby hands as I paint them. I also forgot to paint the vents on his pack. I kind of like them as his base gray and may clean it up and leave it, or I'll paint them black... not sure yet.

 

 

 

 

[Race Bannon]

THE EYES!

[thewarriorhunter]

THE EYES!

Are so easy to do I'm never going back to shaded layers.

 

I left them the base grey color and applied a dark purple glaze for the base color and highlighted with a lighter purple glaze for a little OSL.

[thewarriorhunter]

Spent some time hobbying with my son. He painted up his necrons (those pics are in my other WIP thread since they aren't RG) while I worked on the base for my Comms Specialist.

 

"Hey, what time are purging the heretics?"

 

"I dunno, lemme check."

 

 

I've got my base routine down and am really happy with it. It takes about six steps as shown in this picture and goes really quick aside from the drying time on the washes:

 

[Race Bannon]

:tu:  So crisp!

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Seeing you post progress pics to the various subreddits was like a heartache.

 

I longed for this thread once more.

[thewarriorhunter]

Seeing you post progress pics to the various subreddits was like a heartache.

 

I longed for this thread once more.

 

Swoon!

 

You and me both. I like posting on reddit but I am very glad to be back here.

[thewarriorhunter]

I've been stuck at a work conference all week thinking about my kill team. I've got a drop pod that I've never done anything with because of the 8th rules.

 

I'm thinking I might paint it up in Spectral Sicarii colors and use it as a scenery piece for kill team.

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

That's a great idea. I love the model, but they seem to have really crappy rules.

 

Peachy and Duncan played a narrative game of KT on Warhammer Live last week and Duncan plonked his Deathwatch drop pod down in one of the ruined building and deployed his KT from there for cool narrative purposes. I liked how it made deployment part of the story.

[thewarriorhunter]

That's pretty cool! I don't really watch Warhammer TV because it never seems to sync up with my schedule.

 

What Duncan did is my exact thoughts. If it was a narrative game I'd do as he did, if it was more open/matched play I'd probably pre place it and then deploy as normal. It will still show how I got there but I'm adhering to the rules of the mission and not placing the pod to my advantage that way.

 

When I have some funds another thing I want to do it buy some crap vehicles off ebay and make a Sprit of the Machine God Graveyard. I think that would make a cool scenario and it would be a lot of fun.

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

I only caught it because I had the day off and decided to watch it while I was painting. It was good to see a game between two guys who wanted to tell a cool story rather than play something tournament-like and trying to win.

 

The graveyard idea sounds really cool. Big piles of ruined tanks to fight round, some patches of drifting waste for difficult terrain, you could even create some new tactics to cause stuff to collapse or to cause not-quite-empty fuel tanks to explode.