Big Box of Tallarn Heavy Weapon Teams

In my haste to paint up all of the artillery pieces, I failed to consider how many troops had to be painted to go along with them. Yesterday I managed to get most of the bast colors onto the the support troops. I plan to paint all of their guns, knives, and details tonight.

I'd like to wash their clothing with sienna, but after the last wash dried with white chalky bits in the crevices, I am not sure what to do.  I think I need to seal the models before moving forward with any washes. Since I have to seal the models, I've been thinking about using an oil based wash afterwards. I've not tried this on infantry before, but it seems like it might work well. Any thoughts? I've never heard of people using oil washes on miniatures outside of large tanks, but I am willing to give it a try. Are there any good examples of this technique online?

Tallarn Receive Fire Support

My tallarn now have a small arsenal of heavy weapons with which to pin down the enemies of the emperor. I don't know what weapons are good in an IG list, so I painted up the heavy weapons which had complete teams. The two mortars and two autocannons can be divvied up into squads, while the two teams of three lascannons and heavy bolters can make up heavy weapon squads.

Initially I wanted to paint the mumaks today, but I've saved them for so long a few more squads painted won't hurt. Once all of the respective troopers are painted I think I will have had enough painting under my belt to be confident with the 'maks. Despite their large size, the riders and bits are relatively delicate, so I don't think they would take paint stripping well if I screwed up. Better to paint more of the easily simple-greened minis first.

I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful memorial day.

Tallarn Ultramarine Allies

Back from a great vacation, and one squad done! (ok maybe I need to finish painting their skin...just forgot  oops!)

I find painting these guys a real struggle because there is so much cloth, but I think I am learning. Maybe after I have painted 40 of them I will have it figured out. Despite that, one of the things I really like about the older miniatures is their scale. Plastic IG are so much larger than these guys, which are almost forgeworld scale. The benefit is that space marines look appropriately large.

I had been hoping to add the forgeworld tallarn backpacks to these guys to make them look a bit more like a military force in the desert rather than an insurgent force in the desert, but it seems they no longer sell them. If you know someone who'd part with them please let me know.

Happy memorial day!

40k GT or Narrative Event

Jawaballs called me the other day, and while chatting about other things he mentioned he'd be in my neck of the woods for the Nova Open. (Time to break out the scotch library) It surprised me when he said he was going to just play games, and not participate in the gt. I've been thinking about switching from the gt to the narrative event for a while myself. I love the idea of being able to bring my Ultramarines with tallarn Mumak allies. The narrative event would let me do that. It would also remove me from the stress of playing so many games in the gt. don't get me wrong, the back room of the gt, where all the low brackets play, is loads of fun. The problem is having to sustain crushing defeats repeatedly on the first day in order to get there. It is unavoidable. The first day is rough! So maybe I should go the narrative route. Anyone else thinking the same?

Tallarn Squad Allied To Ultra Marines First Attempt

I painted my first Tallarn squad last night.  I am pleased with the scheme and think it will go well along side my ultras. To help mesh the armies together I painted their head scarves a very pale blue.

In terms of the painting quality...eh. I missed the mark on these guys. I painted most of the miniatures with an airbrush, shading everything. Then I ruined the shading with a washes!

Those last minute, just before bed, washes came out all blotchy, covering up all of the careful airbrushing. Needless to say these guys need to have their cloth areas repainted. On the other hand, at least I have a scheme coming together.  I may just finish the unpainted areas and then grab a fresh squad to test.

Despite my general disappointment with my painting on these guys, i am weirdly really fond of them. I really like seeing them side by side with my Ultramarines. Being a big Lawrence of Arabia fan, might be the root cause, but something about these guys is just cool. Once I put white decals and battle damage on the grey armor I think these guys will start to shine.


oh yeah... I have mumacks...yep... I have a full squad of those rude looking desert raiders. These guys were practice for the big ones!

Merlin's Magic and The NOVA OPEN (Casting)

I've been casting my own resin bases for at least a year now. One of the things that I rarely do is use a vacuum pump to degas the resin. Sometimes I use a pressure pot. (think flying bases where there are only a few) .  So when I need bases, I usually just accept the fact that there will be air bubbles in my casts and get on with it.

This is no longer the case.

While chatting up Bill at the GW store, Dewey, one of the NOVA OPEN gurus, introduced me to  some magic casting stuff appropriately called Merlin's Magic.  In a fit of total awesomeness, he provided me a few scoops of the stuff to experiment with at home.  The stuff is just awesome. I managed almost no bubbles in my casts, and the stuff turned out to be really durable One obvious mistake I made was to not wait long enough after casting before removing it from the molds.

In terms of painting, the stuff really seemed to soak in the paint. When I intentionally chipped the edges, the soaked in painted covered the damage well.

Merlin's Magic is great. I can't wait to use it as a base for some desert base designs.

How cool would it be for people to be able to experiment with Merlin's Magic at the NOVA OPEN? A great little hands on session where people leave with casts of terrain would help out gaming tables all over the place!

Three Storm Talon Based

My Storm Talons are now based! I have a load of additional weathering to do, but I just had to see what these three birds would look like on the ruins. I've never used these birds, but come saturday I think they are going to get some gaming love!

At least one of these birds will be part of my armies on display board.

Custom Resin Flying Base

I decided it was time to finally base my storm talons, which meant they needed a flying base covered in cobblestone ruins. After dutifully creating a blank and then casting it, I added some of the GW building ruin sections. The most difficult part of this project was figuring out what to use to hold the storm ravens up. I really wish GW would come out with some slimmer clear stands. A couple layers of watered down glue and I think these will paint up quite nicely.

As an added touch I dusted most of the horizontal surfaces on the buildings with debris. I think I adds a cool effect. Hopefully it stays on during painting!

Ultramarine Biker Force Weathering WIP

The first round of weathering has started. I put damage on the attack bikes but not the scouts or Outriders. A quick spray of heavily thinned graveyard earth was sprayed around all of the under carriages. This is really just to tie the bikes into the bases a little better. The tires will be revisited later.

The next step is going to be adding stowage to the bikes and painting the headlights. After that the weathering powders come out for the final step. One the powders are out the tires will start looking better.

I think I am going to have to field this force sometime. I wish I could use all three storm talons and the LS storm. That would make a great scouting force for 40k.

The Outriders are equiped for 30k.

Attack Bike WIP

My last squad of bikes is nearing completion. This gives my ultras a scout bikers, regular bikers, and one squad of two attack bikes. These miniatures were ebay finds, so while they were unpainted they were built when I received them. Normally I paint in sub assemblies for ease of painting and then assemble at the end of painting. There are those times when I get really excited to see a model built that I go whole hog and build the entire thing, but I usually regret that by the time it comes to painting.

Before weathering I plan to add a spray of dull coat to the entire miniature. I'll have to paint the metallic parts again, but I think that is better than living with the weird oily sheen nuln-oil wash left on the mini.

The three squads will be dusted together and then have their stowage added at the same time.