A day of days – Da Grey Knightz return.

Over the past few months I have been attempting to convince myself to try my hand at converting some Black Orcs into Grey Knightz. My resolve has finally hardened and I have pried myself away from my Dark Eldar long enough to start the conversion process.

The first order of business was to decide exactly what I wanted to convert for the fledgling force. A Dreadnought, a Librarian, a Dreadknight? While all of these would be unique and challenging projects, I was drawn toward another option, the Psycannon. If you are at all familiar with the current Grey Knight codex, you know that the Psycannon is critical to the success of the army as a whole, providing both anti-infantry and anti-tank suppression. As such, devising a suitable representation of the Psycannon was essential.

I played around with numerous ideas in my head, everything from using kustom mega blastas to storm bolters. While pondering this, I realized perhaps my largest obstacle was actually how the ork was going to hold the Psycannon, as opposed to what weapon would be a good starting point for the conversion. The Black Orks I planned to use for the Grey Knightz were not positioned in a way to hold a two-handed firearm. This is when my thoughts drifted back towards my first memories of the Psycannon. In Games Workshop’s Inquisitor (combat focused role-playing game), Inquisitor Covenant had an awesome shoulder mounted Psycannon. I decided that mounting the Psycannons to the ork’s shoulder/backpack was the solution I was looking for, and I got to work.

So without further ado, here are some pictures showing my progress on the first of the Psycannon wielding Grey Knightz.

Thus far I am pretty pleased with how the model is turning out. I have made an effort to modify the model’s legs such that he does not look so much like a Black Orc with guns. Further, I am working on converting his left hand such that it is empty, using a Chaos Marine powerfist as the foundation.

I still have a lot to do before the model is finished, but thought I would post some pictures and hopefully get some feedback. Any suggestions of things you would like to see on this model or future Grey Knightz? What do you think I should do about the model’s right hand? Is there a particular type of weapon you think he should be holding?

Failcast

Ever since the rumors began surfacing about the shift towards resin and the introduction of 'Finecast', I was worried. My experiences with resin models (mainly through Forge World) in the past have been pretty underwhelming. Casting and resin quality vary widely. Nearly all of my purchases from Forge World start out with excitement and shift towards disgust as I discover a host of miscast models. This ultimately leads to the models being tucked away in a box with all my other Forge World models, not to be considered for months or years (a sad turn of events for such nice models…).

Despite my reservations, I decided to give 'Finecast' a chance with the new Dark Eldar haemonculus. After going to two stores and looking through the five haemonculi they had available, I was upset to find that all of them had subtle miscasts and air-bubbles. I finally settled on the one that seemed to have the fewest overt miscasts and air-bubbles.

After returning home and taking a closer look at the model (particularly those areas not visible from the packaging), I was shocked at the downgrade in quality. The bottom of the haemonculus's cloak was awash with countless air-bubbles. Air-bubbles continued along the length of his spine and fingers. The bottom of one of the model's hands and his entire chin are simply non-existent. The 'crisper' and 'enhanced' detail that 'Finecast' bring hardly seem relevant when a good portion of the detail is simply missing due to air-bubbles and miscasts.

Judging by the quality of the 'Finecast' miniatures I have seen, it critical that you examine any 'Finecast' miniature before purchasing (and this doesn't even assure a good cast). This essentially prevents one from purchasing any models that are packaged in a box (such as the Wracks, Mandrakes, etc.) and online purchases because you cannot see the cast of the models. Speaking of which, Wayland Games, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of tabletop miniatures is currently not selling ‘Finecast’ miniatures after randomly examining their supply, discovering over 50% of them had noticeable flaws. If interested, you can read more on the matter on their website.

I can’t help but think Games Workshop made a mistake with this shift to ‘Finecast’, or at the very least have put their worst foot forward in the transition. If these ‘Finecast’ models are capable of being nice, I have yet to see it. While I acknowledge metal miniatures were difficult to deal with and often required lengthy periods of time to successfully remove mold lines and pin components, these new resin models bring a host of new issues that are equally time-consuming. Now in addition to removing mold lines and flashing, one has to fill in all of the holes introduced via air-bubbles and re-sculpt missing details.

To Games Workshop’s credit, they obviously acknowledge there is a problem with the current range. After calling customer service and briefly telling them about the miscast model, they agreed to send out a replacement free of charge. Regrettably the replacement model was little better than original haemonculus I purchased, but at least they tried to remedy the situation.

We will have to wait and see if the quality of Games Workshop’s ‘Finecast’ models improves with time. I would be interested in hearing thoughts and options on the shift towards resin. Any good or bad experiences?

Dead man walking

 Here is a little update of what I have been working on.  I finished another death kultist using the mask that I previewed before.  Not too much other special stuff was done other than using some fantasy orc legs.  

In other news I got the ogre kingdom swords I plan on using for the strike squads and the purifiers.  I hope to get some work on them and post some results soon.  

Hell, it's about time.

This is a big day for 'Ere We Go. Finally, it is moving to something more relevant to 40k as a whole. Space Marines. It is also a major day because now almost all the people who read this blog post on the blog. And finally it is important because of the following pictures:

This is the pinnacle of Space Marine tanks. It is also possibly the best tank in the game. This is the WHIRLWIND. Brad’s days of winning with his orks will finally come to an end now that this will be rolling onto the field.

To make it even better, the top can be removed to allow it to be the humble rhino.

Quick update

After reading some of the comments I made some changes to the Death Kultist. He now has more skulls!




Also here is an idea I have for a mask for the next Death Kultist. I think it could work but let me know in the comments.


After reading some comments here is the change I made to the first death kultist.

Lets Go Pens!

So here are some more pictures. I more or less finished another halberd and a guy with a pair of falchions! I think they have turned out pretty good. Both backpacks may be a little suspect, but with a few more bitz they should be alright.

I also got to work on a death kultist. I used another warhammer starter orc. I really like the poses and they are a snap to trim and assemble. I didn't do too much to really make this guy look like a kultist, but he does have a skull! I would love to hear some ideas people have to make the kultists stand out. I think one will have a tombstone strapped to his back.

Grey Knightz Update

First, I want to apologize for the picture heavy post(and mostly for the blurry ones) but a lot of progress has been made and needed to be documented. So I have taken some of the comments I have gotten and have taken them to heart and updated the power armour grey knightz that I have been working on. I started giving them stikkbombs and i felt that giving them backpacks would make them feel a lot less than just black orcs with gunz. So far I am pleased with the results. I now have a looted wagon/rhino courtesy of my friend Eric, who spent a lot of time this weekend to finish it.