Monday, July 15, 2013

Tau XV-A-001 Stealth Combat Walker (AKA Ta'Lissera Mal'Caor, The Bonded Spider) Part 001

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During the 4th expansion of the Tau race, the Earth Cast members of the Blacktide cadre were tasked, by their Shas'o, to build something to combat the enemy titans. A god of war that would strike from beyond their lines.

The engineers forwent the stasis pods that would keep them ageless and safe in their interstellar travel. The ship crossed lightyears of space to reach their destination. Generations of Earth Caste members died as they traveled to distant battlefields. The project leader, K'ule kept his stasis pod active to keep his "perfect mind" intact during long periods of fabrication, rousing himself during times of hardship for the project.

As the project neared its end, the colossal walker towered over everything in the hanger. Its power cells humming quietly as the chosen pilot, a brave and anonymous Shas'El struggled with the behemoths controls. Years of piloting the Riptide suits had given the pilot a preternatural skill with complex systems but even his mind was over whelmed with the sheer weight of responsibility and systems within subsystems. A labyrinth. After nearly 70 years of work an ageless Commander Soo'outh stepped from his deep sleep to reluctantly shut down the project a mere year from their destination.
Moments later the projects progenitor K'ule had locked the hangers doors and sealed its bulkheads, only later would reports begin to circulate about the pilot selected previously being torn from sleep and dragged into the hanger.

Soo'outh and his honor guard stood ready and armed as the final meter of the 8 meter thick bulkhead fell away into the darkness of the hanger. Nothing could be seen or heard from within. On some unseen command the lights began to raise to reveal an empty space where the walker should have been. Empty but for a streak of dried blue blood. As the commander stepped through into the vast empty space a static laced voice drifted into his receiver.
"Honored Commander? is that you Shas'o?"
Hearing the fear in, what he realized was his pilots, voice, he softened.
"Come out brother, your safe now."

An entire section of wall shifted and stepped towards the group of Fire warriors, veterans all, they stepped back. The titan glided across the hanger as if barely touching the floor, its grav-inhibited feet guided to each step. Silent. Blood caked the outside of the cockpit as well as thick welding lines where the pilot had been sealed to his fate, his brain given entirely to the piloting of the beast.

 "Fuckin' ell" Soo'outh breathed, as was his wont.


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FLUFF! Here are my inital drawings.



THANK YOU

Over 400 unique views in the last two days! A new record for the blog. And a few new followers too!
Over the lead up to Septembers armies on parade I have two projects. paint the board piece for my army and convert a Tau titan!
From what I plan I will need,


2x Hammerhead Gunship
Squadron Command Frame
2x Tau Piranha
2x TAU DRONE SENTRY TURRET WITH BURST CANNONS
TAU HAMMERHEAD FUSION CANNON TURRET
TAU HAMMERHEAD MISSILE POD TURRET
and a load of plasticard.
All in all about £190. A steal for a warhound alternative!

Once i get properly into painting the board I will start this as a side project.

Thanks for all your support!
Henry

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Beauty Shoot: Henry South and John Ashton

Well I finally pulled my finger out and did a full photoshoot with a load of my models and the top notch models of my friend, and accomplished painter, John Ashton.

We both take a lot of photos showing off details and regular group shots, so we thought we would do something a little different and give them a cinematic feel which not only hides a multitude of painting sins but looks great!
Those marked with an HS are mine and JA are Johns. check out his flikr feed for more awesome-sauce. (http://tinyurl.com/nmrjs8h)

To see the full unadulterated awesome of these pics right click and open in a new tab for the full screen images.





And for Johns stuff! Including the immense Heldrake and Blightdrones. Does this guy know Nurgle!



















Cheers for stopping by! More to come!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Armies on Parade: commander finished

Wow! What a great response! Over 1000 views in the last week!
I know the weathering style isn't to everyone's tastes and I'm still justifying it to myself too. so any tips or ideas you have i would love to hear them.

So here is my finished commander. I'll say 99% finished as i will be adding weathering powder to the legs/undercarrages of all the models to tie them in with the super muddy landscape. enjoy!




Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Armies on parade: progress

A very quick update with the power of the SLR.

Lets kick things off with an action shot of my Devilfish. Furnished with scout drone poking its head out the top, like the badass sneaky minigun robot death drone that he is. I will be painting my whole army to this standard before taking it further. Oooooh yes. a lot further. This way I can keep the standard consistent throughout the board, and my recipe doesn't need to change. When it comes to phase two of my masterplan you will see changes.


Next is my beat up DeathKorps executioner. poor little bugger, hes had a rough day of it. Obviously heavily beaten down during the first phases of my imaginary war then finished off by the crazy remnants of the blue hippies that are the Tau. You can see the exit holes of the final shots in the bottom right of the track and just below the main turret. Considering wire wool smoke but that might look a little corny and distract from my Tau. Which i might have to do if they dont look good.

As for the rest of the pictures, you have phase one of my hammerhead and my commander.
ENJOY!