Terrain & Army Building Ramblings and Project Log

[Shotgun Justice]

I was going to call this thread Wombling Through a Wargaming Wonderland but thought it might not make any sense to those who have never heard of Wimbledon Common.

Anyhows, I've managed to find a rhythm to getting my wargaming projects completed at the moment so thought I'd use a project log to get advice and feedback, keep up any flagging motivation and add to the fun of it all.
I'm going to start off with two terrain projects I'm working on at the moment, but as soon as they're done there are many many Ultramarines, Genestealer Hybrids and Arbitrators to paint, along with yet more terrain ideas.

I've got two terrain sets which can be combined; the first started life as a home for my Lizardmen and so is a jungle/temple/ruins set but is mostly used for 40k atm and the second is a strictly 40k set of an imperial, most likely admech, installation. The outer buildings of the installation are ruined and the inner ones are yet to be breached. I like large terrain, in both height and footprint, makes the battlefield look much better in an over the top universe like 40k and makes finding sight-lines that much more challenging. Challenging sight-lines do not appeal to my most regular opponent but he doesn't build the terrain so pffft to him and his massive guns.

[Shotgun Justice]

I'm working on an addition for each of the terrain sets right now so firstly 2 jungle bases with removable trees and plants:

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/JunglesTwinshotwLR.jpg

Both of them fully constructed and waiting for texturing, with 2 models for size comparison.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle101.jpg

Jungle 1

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle201.jpg

Jungle 2

All of the trees will have long palm tree-esque leaves while the stumpy plants will keep their tendrils, just with a slap of paint.
Please ignore the very obvious miniature of average quality vodka in the background, a Christmas leftover and not part of my modeling kit I promise.

[Shotgun Justice]

Next up my ruined bunker, it has been shelled from the front so the more intact side is, somewhat counter-intuitively, the rear of the building.

From the front
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/RuinedBunkerFront1.jpg

From the rear

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/RuinedBunkerBack1.jpg

And a very shadowy top shot

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/RuinedBunkerAbove3.jpg


The bunker is not as far along as the jungles, it needs more detailing and the rubble added from my obsessive sprue clipping sessions from in front of the telly. I remember being told about some lads who were building a city fight board and bought an old butchers mincing machine, into which they tipped years of accumulated sprues to create rubble, a great idea but I'm not on that scale yet. Would be fun I bet.

Both of the halves of the bunker are removable, as playing with these pieces of polystyrene in this configuration proved that I will inevitably put tactical marines in there and my opponent will inevitably fire battle cannons at them, necessitating access to models inside the ruin. I'll get a pick of them removed soon.

That's it for now, am happy to talk about construction methods should anyone be interested, am off to add texture and rubble.
Hope y'all have a crackin' weekend

[Crotch Lictor]

Nice use of extra sprue parts! I may have to steal some of those ideas :)

I've always kept a healthy supply of it for terrain purposes. Now I just need to build more terrain.

[Shotgun Justice]

Hello once again after a long hiatus.
First up I'm not sure of what the limits are on BoLS for ressurecting threads are so if this is pushing things then i appologise.
However, after a tumultous few months I have time for the GW hobby again and so have spent a few days of illness to finish the terrain projects I started at the beginning of the year, I thought I would share.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/BunkerUndercoated2.jpg
The whole piece undercoated - I had to do the polystyrene bunker halves by hand as my previous attempt to seal them had failed. It was a ballache to do as the nature of the textured, compacted polystyrene made for very slow progress with a brush when attempting even coverage.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Bunkerbasefirstdrybrush.jpg
Part way through the first dry-brush of the rubble.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/BunkerFirstcolour.jpg
Same stage but with the bunker halves replaced

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Bunkrbasefinishedpaint.jpg
The base close to completion. The red pavers were a last minute change as I felt that grey bunker sitting on grey slabs, surrounded by grey rubble and grey dust with shiny grey bits of metal would be very dull. As this is a control/command bunker for an explorator/ admech installation I felt it needed some red. I thought about making the bunker red but then got caught up pondering wheter it would be grey concrete painted red, or red concrete - i.e with red rubble and dust. I decided that having that much red would dominate so I would use it as a contrasting colour instead

[MasterSlowPoke]

I know it's kind of late, but you might want to texture the sides of the bunker with spackle or something similar. The polystyrene balls just look too strange.

Any update on the jungle pieces?

[Dreadnought]

I like the style of the bunker and I disagree about the bunker styrofoam walls - although I think they need a little extra something. Would it be possible to lightly brush a lighter grey to give them a little added depth? You might be able to get it so the walls look they are made out of cobblestone or something similar. Also maybe embedding pieces of spare sprue along the edges. Would give the walls an outlining metal beam support type system. Just food for thought.

[Shotgun Justice]

Cheers for the replies.
The balls of the polystryene are much more obvious in the photos than in real life, the small gaps where the black undercoat shows through are very stark in the photos, I haven't been able to get a shot that replicates the actual appearance yet. It was, however, a deliberate decision to leave the balls showing as they give a sense of unusual construction to the bunker, to me at least.
Is spackle a type of putty or render? I've heard the name but we call it something else in the UK.

Dreadnought - The bunker is now finished and has had several coats of progressively lighter grey brushed on to give it depth, you're right the walls are very flat in the earlier pictures. There are pieces of sprue representing girders poking out of the destroyed sections of the bunker which are painted a burnished steel but they somewhat disappear in the photos, that or reflect way too much light.
Completed photos to follow.

The jungles are currently in their emo phase, sporting just black and having been textured. I intend to get the first coat on the bases and tree trunks tonight.

[Shotgun Justice]

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050692.jpg

Took this in the evening so needed flash, hence all the colours are much brighter. The final colour of the bunker is closer to a slightly lightened adeptus battlegrey.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050693.jpg

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050695.jpg
Completed front-shot. The finished piece was screaming out for some colour so I added some identification/ insignia stripes to the low walls.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050699.jpg
With one half removed for access.

[Shotgun Justice]

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050700.jpg
Models-eye view 1

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050708.jpg
Models-eye view 2

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050704.jpg
Battle-damaged side

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/P1050707.jpg
Undamaged side

[Tynskel]

yeah, spackle or some sort of puddy on the styrofoam will prevent it from looking like styrofoam. However, the rest of your work is great! If you could apply the same detail of the rubble to the styrofoam, the terrain would be awesome.

[Shotgun Justice]

Cheers for the feedback all, an insane week at Glastonbury followed by some solid recovery and catching up at work has kept me from indulging the hobby - I do appreciate all replies though, thanks.

For the sake of time I've decided to live with the polystyrene walls, I agree they could look better but considering that the first battle using the terrain has put dents and scratches all over it I'm not going to worry too much. I'm happy enough.

That means I need to finish the jungle and my objective markers, the model for the 5th marker arrived this week so I can get them done soon. Just need to find a good cake decorating supplies shop or similar for a nice selection of pillars.

[marcus]

the polystyrene can be a real pain in the bum to paint especially if your paint starts to melt it lol, i found that mixing fine sand with pva glue and then coating the polystyrene with it gives a realistic concrete effect and allows you then to spray paint at will without melting issues rearing their head

heres the same effect but as a desert base
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu323/cassar1photos/Photo0757.jpg

[Shotgun Justice]

Cheers Marcus - what sort of size is that base?
I'll definitely use some kind of filler / coating for the two handy polystrene shapes that will become jungle temples.

Got to spend some time with the jungles this week and am making some headway:

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle%20Terrain%202011/Treesinbox.jpg
Box of sprayed jungle trees / plants. These were sprayed a couple of months ago and in the meantime the plastic coated wire has become very tacky. I presume the spray didn't take properly - I imagine I'll just be able to wash these down. You can see the branches of the trees are a mottled green/black. This is where the paint has failed to take.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle%20Terrain%202011/Base1BrownDrybrush.jpg
I used a few different browns, in different coats to drybrush the whole base. This shot is part-way through that process.
The two layers of foamcore I used are clearly separating in these photos - I'll fix this once and for all near completion but this will teach me to rush into making a base with unsuitable material.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle%20Terrain%202011/FinishedBase1withblacktrees.jpg
The base almost complete with black trees.
I used my old pots of ork flesh wash and dark green ink to create green patches that I then connected up in as random an effect as I could. I picked out the roots / fallen branches and vines in different colours for a little contrast.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Terrain%20Blog/Jungle%20Terrain%202011/TestTreeBrown1.jpg
This is the first test tree, with test base. At this point I changed my mind about having brown tree trunks as I had originally planned - didn't seem visually interesting enough.

[Shotgun Justice]

Long time away from this thread, I hope it's resurrection isn't bad etiquette.

Life and all it's distractions got in the way of the hobby but having bought the 6th ed rules finally I'm loving getting back in the saddle.

I've always had units that have sat unpainted, generally my favourite units on the table top or in the background, if I'm honest I've probably been a little intimidated by them but I've got the bit between my teeth now so am on my way to rattling through several projects .
One of these bogey units has always been Dreadnoughts, I luv em, but haven't felt I knew how to do them justice. Finally decided that there is no way to learn but to try (or what Mr Miagi said - http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZjegWyumtIU/TJKUg6yD9EI/AAAAAAAAPFg/LhQWINvO97k/s1600/moritamorita.jpg)


With some decisions finally made, project Dreadnought is currently dominating every available surface: this is how it began

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/DredBits01.jpg

This is the current weapons selection

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/DredWeapons01.jpg

Close-up showing magnets for Venerable Dred arms, there is a larger magnet in each weapon housing/shoulder mount.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/DredWeaponsCU.jpg

Finally work begins on some torsos

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/DredTorsos01.jpg

This project log originally began with my terrain, it is currently boxed up but I will pull it out for some pics, the jungle is finished bar the leaves for the trees as I can't decide on a material. I made similar trees years ago and used paper, painted Dark Angels Green but I'm trying to decide on something with better texture and weight - I want the leaves/fronds to suit the drooping style of my trees, being pulled down by the weight of their verdant growth.

[Shotgun Justice]

Contained in the pile o' dread bits are the beginnings and I hope the endings of 6 dreadnoughts, there's one assault on black reach fella, 2 that will be ironclads, 2 that will be modelled as venerable and one fantastic lump of pig iron that's the first version of the current dreadnought design. I've owned him for either 16 or 17 years. I'm sure that that old dread, in a sock, would be classified as a lethal weapon and could certainly be used to batter though reinforced concrete. He's been repainted a few times but the amount of super-glue holding him together is outrageous, this will be my biggest physical challenge. I've managed to get the legs off and there's movement in the arms but the torso is still rock solid.

First up on the chopping block was the Black Reach dread, I cut the legs off under the torso, leaving the sarcophagus intact and then attempted to pose his legs

this is the first pass on them,
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AOBRDredLegs01-1.jpg
I cut and re-posed the right leg intending to have it lifting for a step, however it looked terrible so it is now leaning forward on that leg. I then made a step on his base to have the untouched leg stepping down from.

This is his base with mounting pins
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AOBRBase2.jpg


While the milliput holding the pin for the torso to be attached to the legs is curing I started work on a flamestorm cannon arm as I think having a siege dreadnought stomp out of a drop pod and melt things all over the shop looks a lot of fun.

this is the weapon mounting for the shoulder piece and the pins that will run through the cannon
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/FlamestormMounting.jpg

To be honest this was an utter mess, it took me 3 attempts to cut the pieces for the mounting as I only had 2mm plasticard and at that size cutting it was a pain in the hole. In future I will just use one piece of card as the backing, lube the inside of the shoulder mounting and fill it with green stuff, stick it on the arm tab and leave to cure.

[Shotgun Justice]

Finished the inferno cannon

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/FlamestormFront.jpg

Really pleased with this, here's the reverse

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/FlamestormRear.jpg

It slots in seamlessly and looks suitably mean.

Also finished the body of the Assault on Black Reach dreddy, he will need a name soon.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AOBRBody01.jpg

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AOBRBody02.jpg

All went well but I am having problems with the arm pegs for mounting the weapons on him, the AOBR dreddy has smaller pins than the dred/ironclad/venerable kits so I replaced them with cut offs from the GW flying stand. This is wide enough at the base but narrows so we have droopy arm syndrome. Sadly this little dreddy cant keep it up.
I bought some rod but's it's about half a mm too thin so Ill make a press-mold on the arms of another dread and cast replacement pins and hope that works.
Anybody else had the same problem?

[Shotgun Justice]

another long break from posting but have got plenty done in the meantime,
I bought some cheap assault terminators off ebay, having pulled their arms off and stripped them they have been repurposed as shooty termis, the arms are removable and so as soon as I find the right shields to use as storm shields I will be able to field them as either variety.

group shot
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/TermTacSqd01.jpg

serg - who I'm quite pleased with considering I couldn't separate his legs and body
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/TermTacSquadSarj.jpg

and the heavy
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AssaultCannon.jpg

i'm calling this an Eagle's Breath Assault Cannon, as is normal he can take any of the heavy options
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/Cyclone.jpg

[Shotgun Justice]

ah - i should have posted the completed Dreadnought first;
first up a better shot of the flamestorm cannon
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070942_zps25668d5b.jpg

Here is my first completed Dred, he has a chopped up Havoc launcher to represent the hunter killer missiles he can take, its magnetised for game accounting. Every list I write with him has 2 hkms but inevitably they get reduced to one or dropped entirely as the list progresses.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AOBRCompleted_zps59c1c61b.jpg

A WIP shot - chopping the legs up like this makes reposing so much easier, I glue the 2 legs halves together and then with a fresh scalpel blade carefully reduce the legs to this state. Re-assembling is easy and there's just a little greenstuffing required to extend the leg cabling (removed in this photo) and for the rearmost piston.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/VenDredLegs01.jpg

This process was the same for Dreds 2 & 3. No 2 will be another Siege Dred, 3 will be a Venerable - although he will be a normal Dred in anything other than Apocalypse - is anyone using Venerable Dreds in Dark Angels lists? They've come down in points quite a bit I believe

[Pendragon38]

Looking good shotgun I like the way you came at the dreads with those different poses for the legs

[Shotgun Justice]

Thanks Pendragon - the assault on black reach dread is an unlovable lump of static. I thought it would be the best start to project dreadnought but in fact it has been a much more complicated conversion than either of the ones from the venerable / ironclad kits. I'm pleased I managed to get that much motion into the thing.
I mentioned previously that I'd run into the problem of the venerable and black reach dreds having different sized arm lugs, I found this solution" http://paintpotprocrastinator.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/dreadnought-arm-modification.html
used it on the dccw arm above and, perfect - held by friction. I added a magnet behind the 'plate' or cover to grip onto the metal spacer.

[Shotgun Justice]

I completed the 2nd Siege Dred who is currently called Stompy -the Black Reach one is now know as Stumpy. I'm sketching out who the occupant is of each of my Dreds, to help create their heraldry which each dred will display and their awards/ insignia. Sgt Stumpy was obviously a unusually short marine - either that or most of him was blown away.

Here is Stompy without arms
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/SiegeDred1_zps74acd6f9.jpg

and a rear view
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/SiegeDred3_zps3f4bc9d7.jpg

completed
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/SiegeDredSide_zpsa61b0a71.jpg

and with his little friend
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/SiegeampAOBRDreds_zpsb3564e3b.jpg

Stumpy now packs a multi-melta and the flamestorm has moved over to Stompy. I've been using both in my last few games and I love them - especially in the last game where I bought Lucius Drop Pods for them. Stompy killed a Leman Russ before dying to a plasma cannon Sentinel while Stumpy accounted for a Company Command Squad and their Chimera upon landing (heavy flamer attacks inside transports are mean!), a Basilisk and an Armoured Sentinel before finally falling. Both were well worth taking.

[Shotgun Justice]

In painting news I finished the repairs to my first 4 objective markers which had been battered by constant transportation and I finally found inspiration for the 5th. I'll post the 5th marker when it's finished in a day or so.

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/Objectives1-4_zpse7addf20.jpg

I was using the lack of a good pillar model as an excuse for not making these so finally bit the bullet and made one - it's made from the textured cup-holder that goes around a take-away cup of coffee with a foamboard topper. For a cheap solution I like it.

and I've been working on some Predator conversions - the current vehicle rules make taking a predator that isn't from Codex Blood Angels a bit of a daft choice I think, however, I really like the models and rules for the 2 Forgeworld Deimos variants.

Firstly I think that the GW Heavy Bolter sponsons are ugly so I remade mine - they're a good match for the plasma destroyer turret if I have the points.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070952_zps0960ad51.jpg

Secondly I can't currently afford to buy the Forgeworld models so I decided to scratch build the weapons options instead. I don't envisage using the flamestorm turret so didn't bother with that.

This is the beginning of the Magna-Melta
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070941_zps0c7924c4.jpg

and the first mock-up
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070939_zps472f1e12.jpg

As you can see it's ugly but it meant I could figure out how to make it properly.

[Shotgun Justice]

this is the 2nd attempt at it
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070945_zps2aa8a7c0.jpg

Just needs a little tidying up at this point but I like.

I haven't got a pic of the final version in the turret but here is the mock-up in place.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070940_zps32128a17.jpg

I can't find what this pattern turret used to be called but Forgeworld has renamed it as the Deimos and I'm going with that.
I currently only have 5 Rhino chassis which have to be multi-role, they are 3 MkIIIc Rhino chassis:
Demolisher / Rhino,
Predator / Razorback / Rhino
and Rhino / Razorback
and 2 MkIb which are a Rhino and a Stronos Razorback.
I wanted my Deimos turret to be useable on both the MkIV Predator and the MkIb(Deimos) chasis so have bulked it up and added a peg to fit into the metal Deimos Razorback plate.
Here it is on the Deimos chassis
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070949_zps75945d91.jpg

[Shotgun Justice]

I also made a Plasma Destructor, here they are side by side
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070947_zps6bf28b73.jpg

and the destructor in the Deimos turret on the Stronos chassis
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/P1070950_zpsf6d4c73f.jpg

I decided to build these as I had a couple of games in a row where the shooting dice were not with me, normally I can hit either as the odds would suggest or better but wound well below the expected average. In the aforementioned games I couldn't hit, never mind wound and I envied the large blast markers that were ripping me up. I built a list around 3 Preds: a Magna-Melta , a Plasma Destructor and a Heavy Conversion Beamer with a Damocles added for the one-off BOOM. Although it was a slightly unbalanced list I really enjoyed Space Marine accuracy with BIG guns.
I've lent my collection of Space Crusade Dreds to a friend so I need to wait to get them back before I can make the Conversion Beamer. I might just use the old weapon or I might use it as inspiration to make a larger version, saving the Space Crusade weapon for a Master of the Forge.

I've been reluctant to post painted minis here as my ability is pretty average, however, other logs have been full of positive suggestions and this isn't exactly a snarky forum is it?
So, here is my Assault Squad
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AssaultSquad01_zps674396e5.jpg
They need their eye lenses done and their bases painted. When I painted these boys I hadn't decided on how the army's bases would be themed, I need to go back and sort out these guys and 3 tactical squads.
Here's one c/u - sarg needs his combat shield painted and glued.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AssaultSquad03_zps774dc16f.jpg

[Shotgun Justice]

and another c/u
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/AssaultSquad04_zps516ca21e.jpg

There are 2 models with plasma pistols and 2 with flamers although the plasma pistols have been used as bolt pistols since 5th ed.

[dwez]

Might I ask where the turret came from? I've lost mine from my original Predator and could do with one. I like the Magna Melta too, so if I can get a turret I can blatantly draw inspiration from your effort ;)

[Shotgun Justice]

The turret is from my bits box, it's either from a predator that I forgot I owned (which is entirely possible) or I think an ebay seller threw it into a batch of rogue trader rhino bits I bought. They turn up on ebay fairly often though.
I'm going to attempt to cast a replica of the magna-melta for the Caestus I'm planning - it will be the biggest component I've replicated so have no idea how successful that will be

[Shotgun Justice]

Long break from posting, have achieved some modelling goals but have got in plenty of games. I've been really enjoying marines with a little foregeworld pimping - I haven't had any problems that weren't of my own making through ****e deployment and the games have been close when I've lost.
I've now got an Ironclad and Venerable dread that need only the final bit of greenstuff before painting. I hope to finish that today and post later.

I the meantime I’ve been using the dreads on the table-top and decided they need a ride or 3. That means drop pods and Lucius drop pods for competitive play. I can’t afford the GW models at the moment so it time for some more scratch building.
I’ve had the old GW France pdf’s for a dreadnought drop pod for a few years and finally decided to make use of them. They come out a little smaller than the Forgeworld model but apparently they are greater enough in size than the GW pod to be acceptable on the table.

For the prototype I used 5mm foamboard and a cereal box since I’m really not very good at cutting plasticard in straight lines.
The base is a double layer of foamboard, the supports a single layer and the doors and armour detailing are cereal cardboard. In the background you can see a paper mock-up I used to get an idea of the construction.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusParts_zps88644959.jpg (http://s943.photobucket.com/user/shotgun_justice/media/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusParts_zps88644959.jpg.html)

I then added plasticard strips around the foamboard to hide its crinkly innnards and assembled the supports and roof
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusSupports_zps345dc4d0.jpg (http://s943.photobucket.com/user/shotgun_justice/media/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusSupports_zps345dc4d0.jpg.html)

A wanted to put a decent amount of detail on the pods so that they don’t’ just look like cardboard. The pdf has cut out spaces for door hinges. I had a go at sculpting a little hinge, it’s terrible but it’ll do for the first attempt at the lucius. I made 5 press moulds of it and stuffed them with greenstuff. They’ll have cured tomorrow and I can finish the prototype. It’s frustrating to have had all the other parts completed for a couple of days and not be able to finish the thing.

This pic shows the clamps holding down the plasticard for the floor of the hinge housings.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/shotgun_justice/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusHingeClamps_zpsdc846fab.jpg (http://s943.photobucket.com/user/shotgun_justice/media/Ultramarines%20Photo%20Blog/LuciusHingeClamps_zpsdc846fab.jpg.html)

I've made a mistake on the roof height so will need to create tops for the doors. I also need to find something to be the engine on top, I'm not going to model the underside thrusters but need 3 identical thingys for the engines.

[Shotgun Justice]

As far as tactics go I want to use 3 lucius pods, one for an Ironclad, one for a flamestorm Siege and one for a stupid contemptor mortis idea I’ve come up with. I hope to test it next week in a game, I’ll report on how well it works.
I’ve been playing my marines quite ‘straight’ recently. By that I mean I’ve been reserving very little, not using flyers much and trying to go toe to toe in a straight up fight against whomever I’ve come up against. It’s been an exercise in playing out the relative strengths and weaknesses of the codex against 6th ed opponents. The list has however become repetive and I want to up the ante with my AA, which basically means the Contemptor-Mortis.
I plan to use 2, I just cant decide on weapon options for the second one. The first will be dual Kheres & cyclone launcher since that many dice is just fun. Online advice says that S7 is fine for AA but I find it a bit underwhelming especially against marine flyers so I’m not that sold on autocannons and am looking at lascannons for sheer punch. Even dual melta looks pretty sexy, especially in a pod.
Any feedback from other contemptor users?