Tallarn Rough Riders WIP

I was dreading painting the old plastic horses, due to the lack of detail, but also due to my unfamiliarity with horses. A few google searches later and some feedback from my wife, and I have painted horses that exceeded my expectations. Tonight I plan to finish all of the barding and the lances, which should make it possible to base the unit. I plan to use biker bases like those I used on my..erhm...bike squads. I hope that is allowable game-wise. I just can't bring myself to use squared bases on 40k. 

I really need to keep the painting temp up for Armies on parade. I only have a few days before traveling overseas and a few days once I return before the competition.

Tallarn Heavy Weapon Teams

Final blending on the soldiers is not complete, but I really wanted to base them. So I did. I found a pack of forgeworld IG stowage, which I'll add to the bases to fill in some of the blank spots. I think that will spice these up quite a bit, as well as let me get some more green on the models.  In the Armies on Parade pictures you'll see how well the yellow complements the blue of the Ultramarines.  I'll have to select only a few of these guys to join the force, since the bases take up so much room.

I had been worried that with only two base styles that the force would look too uniform, but I think all of the extra rubble customizes the bases enough to overcome this.

Now...

Do paint a tank today, or do I paint rough riders or Mumaks? I managed to pick up a Malcador on ebay, but I could paint a chimera instead . (or a pair of egg shaped sentinels...forgot about those)

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!