New Cadre Members!

Cadre Fireblade

This guy was a blast to convert. All I needed were some pieces from both the firewarrior sprue and the new pathfinder sprue. A little extra kit and an elongated braid was all this guy needed to look like a total boss.

The leg pose was achieved by cutting the left leg off of a running pose and replacing the left leg of a standing pose.

The left arm is a regular extended firewarrior arm with the hand replaced with the pathfinder binocular hand holding the magnifier.

The chest piece center was carved out a bit and a firewarrior grenade arm's shoulder pad put in.

Finally, his braid is actually three firewarrior barehead braids glued together to extend the length and add rings.

Darkstrider

The picture isn't great, but there really isn't much to this conversion. It is all pathfinder pieces and a little green-stuff sash.

The left arm is a regular supporting arm put onto a pathfinder carbine.

The markerlight is attached to the gun in a slightly different manner.

In order to distinguish him more, I'll have to paint him more ostentatiously than my other pathfinders or firewarriors.

Magnetized XV-9

This was pretty simple to do. you bore out the inside of the shoulder pad where the elbow pin would normally go. There's just enough room for a 1/8" circular magnet to go in.

The elbow pin is cut off, making it a flat surface. Drill down just a little bit to give the magnet something to sit in and glue it in.

The tricky thing with magnets is that you really need to be sure that the positive sides match up with negative sides. Otherwise they won't stick together after you've superglued the magnets in. So check and double check!

Tada! fusion cascades or twin-linked burst cannons, as you please! I'm excited for the IA:3 2nd Ed to come out so the XV-9's will be awesome again!

A Sturdier Skimmer Stand

Those of us who have owned Warhammer 40k Vehicles that require a skimmer stand, have all experienced the horror of a broken stand. The slender acrylic rods that come with every skimmer, jetbike, drone, etc. are  notorious for snapping off at the neck and leaving plastic embedded in the model.

Converting Your Own "Eclipse Shield Generator"

This is a simple how-to for a counts-as Eclipse Shield Generator.

I needed a shield generator that had sufficient pizazz to pass for the Eclipse. Otherwise my Ralai counts-as would not be sufficiently kitted out. Here is how I made it.

Vespid Counts-as

I have just pulled and assembled the first three Vespid Counts-as. Minus their jump packs, which I have not finished duplicating.

The very first set.

There are some kinks I need to work out. One of the rifles was almost double thick due to lack of compression, and I broke an antenna while clipping the pieces out of the sprue.
Otherwise I think it's a pretty good start and it will only get better!

Now all I need is a shiny new codex that makes them worth fielding in large numbers!

A Growing Family

My family is growing, in so many ways. My daughter just turned 10 months old last week and time is flying by too fast. She'll be walking and talking in no time at all...sigh...
On the bright side, I've been starting her early on painting tutorials and miniwargaming battle reports. Ironically, the battle reports interest her the most; must be something about dice being rolled over and over.

My "other" family is also growing. Some recent success with resin casting has yielded more Tau Battlesuit goodness, and much more is on the horizon. I've run out of resin for my battlesuit molds, so those will have to take a break, but I still have plenty for my own micromark molds that I've been neglecting.

An early WIP pic for my Commander.

I tend to only buy models off the web, and generally that means my models are maltreated and in desperate need of some love. This week I took in a brand new baby from the 40k adoption agency that is Ebay.

Brand new sealed Skyray, obviously meant for me.

Since a new Tau codex is coming within the next month or so, I decided I better pick up one of these guys before GW replaces them. Apparently GW recalled a bunch of stuff from stores so that it can be replaced with new items. The Hammerhead was pulled out, but the Skyray was left. I'm thinking that GW is just going to add some new artwork to the Skyray box, mark it up, and call it a dual kit like they've been doing for other armies.

Bonus Hammerhead Weapons Sprue that Skyrays come with!

This new kit brings my Tau "School" up to 6 full vehicles, not counting the two piranhas. I can field 3 hammerheads, 2 skyrays, 6 devilfish and anything in between.

I fear that GW may try and turn the Tau into a gunline army, which is bad for me because I want to run a mechanized force. A mech force is more in line with Tau fluff, but tau have predominately been played as a gunline army because that was one of the only ways to be competitive with them. If GW embraces popular usage over existing fluff, then this new release may not be all that exciting for me.

No matter, they are going to buff the Skyray, and then I'll be able to field the tanks that were named for me (obviously)

Progress?

I have some pics of my work so far. I wanted to give most of the molds a try before I resort to modifying them. Any number of factors could affect my results compared to the original owner's, but I think it is most likely lack of experience and mold knowledge.
Someone who cast the molds would have a better idea of where its weaknesses are and whatnot. I'll just try to become as familiar as possible with the molds.



Still working on dealing with trapped air, some molds work better than others

This one has lots of issues. Air cavities, not mixing correctly, bad ratios etc.

Various pieces with some of the flash cleaned off. My better pulls so far

More to come!

Learning at the Speed of Resin

I have moved yet again. Our planned 2nd move went pretty smooth (it always helps when you don't have to drive 10 hours to the new place) and we're happy where we are now. The catch is that I had to give up my den. This is not a huge problem, it just means I will have to learn how to be more organized and clean up as I go, but I am still sad and yearn for the day when I can work in an uninhibited mess.

I am currently undergoing Resin Casting boot camp. The going is slow as I am largely self-teaching and learning by trial and error, plus my casting expert resides in the faraway land of England, so time delays make question and answer a long process.
When I have completed a cast worth showing, I will post some pictures. So far I have had marginal success with my Micromark practice mold, but failure whenever using SmoothOn 300 on some molds I purchased from said England caster.

My Practice mold. Waaaaay too much hardening component, hence all the bubbles

I am learning a ton in a short amount of time. I think I need to take a break until I can buy some small mixing cups that work better than the ones I have. Right now my two biggest problems are mixture ratios and holding the molds together at just the right pressure.

On an unrelated note, I managed the 1 hour drive to the gaming store on Saturday for a small warmup skirmish. My virgin Tau were stomped by some Mechanized Imperial Guard (beautifully modeled and painted Death Korps of Kreig). I'm not too worried about it, my list was far from ideal and I forgot so many rules it hardly counts as a game.


My newbies on the field. MVP goes to my big tank in the middle: Railgun FTW

I learned alot, both about playing as Tau and about playing in the local scene. Everywhere is different and a piece of terrain may be considered something else in another area.
For example, I didn't know this until halfway through the game, but that forest is LOS blocking and the gun pit/chimera wreck on the right was considered an AV13 bunker. It would have been more sporting for my opponent to have told me that when we deployed, but than again, I never asked so I deserved it.

Andy! What is happening on your end?