Landspeeder update #1

I have now assembled the main body and fuselage on the Landspeeder.
It took a lot of cutting and sawing, but I finally got it together in what looks to be an acceptable way (though experts on this model will see that it is slightly amputated in some places).
I plan to use thin layers of Greenstuff to fill and close the small gaps that has occured because of the assembly problems. For some of the larger gaps I will have to decide if I should use Greenstuff or some other cheaper putty (will probably end with Greenstuff).
Then I'll do the used car trick, and give it a good paintjob and simply paint over all the bodywork to give it the usual finish. I will have to decide on how to do the two-tone colorsceme of Midnight blue and UltraMarine blue of the 2nd Ultras, but I have a few ideas that I will play around with.

After I got the top glued to the rest of the main body yesterday evening, the assembly seems to work fine. The only thing I am a little sceptical of now, is positioning the arms for the pilot and gunner in such a way that it will look natural now that the controls and weapon mount probably are a little closer to the pre-assembled feet compared to what was the plan when the model was cast.
But if it should end up looking too "crappy" I guess I will have to try to do some more modifications. I have some spare arms that I can experiment with if the worst should happen...
I will try to take some pics of the way the speeder looks now, and keep you updated on the progress along the way.

As for the 4 remaining terminators, they got the remaining coat of Ultramarines blue yesterday, so tomorrow I will start on the shoulderguard details in Boltgun metal and Shining Gold, and Boltgun metal and Scab red for the weapon. Aslo there are a few details on the powerfists that need some painting.

Beware of the old Landspeeder...

My main problem with minatures is that I want to do everything at once.
Yesterday evening I started to work on a Landspeeder model that I bought a little while ago. This is the most troublesome kit I have built so far in the Warhammer range.
I haven't built much transports before, but I have quite a lot of experience from building 1/35 scale models. Plenty of hulls being assembled, and the difficulty level varying from very easy to quite hard. So with this in mind I cut out all the pieces for my Landspeeder and got to work thinking that this should be a quite pleasant build. Boy, was I wrong!
After painting up some of the interior details, I started to assemble the Landspeeder according to the instuctions provided in the pack. It went ok until the top piece was to be glued on. Nothing would fit at all! The middle section was too long, and after assembling the controls the front did not fit at all! Then when I finally got the front to look almost decent, the middle support section was suddenly too long and would not fit at all.
Obviously I must have done something wrong with the assembly even though I followed the instructions provided, so now I am sitting with a hobby knife cutting and filing small pieces off the fuselage to get the top piece on to the speeder. When that is done I think the speeder will need some greenstuff to cover up a few minor glitches in the fuselage that appears in some places.
It might not be the prettiest Landspeeder in the 2nd Ultramarines, but I won't quit working on it before it looks fairly decent. Then I will buy another one next time I am at my local GW store and see if I get the same problems with that model...

status update Monday January 26th

New week and new chances to build miniatures.
There has been so much going on in the last few weeks, that I haven't been able to keep up my tempo in building and painting. But there are some progress...
Space Marine updates:
The first two terminators are still standing on the bench in the workshop to get their bases done. I found some things that needed to be fixed on one of them, and that's taken care of now. The plan is to do the bases when the remaining four Terminators are ready. At the moment they are fully assembled, but there are some painting remaining and then they need some wash.
Beside the first two finished Terminators stand the first of my Scouts on motorbike. The plan is to make the remaining two scouts on motorbike that are laying on the shelves to create a unit.
The 4 Chapter masters are as good as done, they just need a little bit more wash on some of the colors, and one of them needs some Greenstuff to get him to stand correctly on his base.
The Commander is also close to complete, except for his personal banner that still needs some work to get the correct layout.

Chaos update:
There hasn't been any new models painted, but I have started to wash the Chaos Champion on foot, and I like the way he's turning out so much that I have decided that his colorscheme will be the base for the chosen warriors, champions and Lords to follow. The common warriors will get almost the same treatment, but with a little less gold and probably simpler capes.

Goblins update:
The first two nightgoblins of my second core unit are done. I will try to see if I can give them a little wash to make them look a little more gritty, but apart from that they are ready for basing.
The tree netters that will probably join this unit (at least two of them) are also done, and one of them is already based and ready for the gaming table.
The standard bearer for this unit is almost ready, except for the ornaments on the top of the banner that needs painting and washing.
I have also finished the first unit of Squig herders (not sure if I mentioned that in my last blog entry), and they are now awaiting basework.

The Terminators are comming...

Here are a few pics of my first finished Terminators. They are still missing their bases, but I plan on doing them shortly. First I will finish the remaining 4 Terminators standing in my mobile workshop.
The terminator with the bolter and powerfist is a free model that came with White Dwarf magazine along with a space Ork. The other Terminator is from the Terminator Boxed Set. I relly enjoyed the look of the Chainfist, so I will use as many as possible for my Terminators. It's a shame the boxed set only comes with two of these as they look really mean.
While painting the chainsword on the fist I remembered seeing some in an old rulebook painted yellow with black stripes. I liked the idea, and decided that all chainswords in my army will be painted this way. Hopefully the stripes will get thinner and more symetric as I get more practice, but for a first attempt it didn't look half bad.

some pictures

I didn't feel like going down into the basement where I usually take pictures, so the light is a little bad as these pics has been taken without extra lighting. The models were just put on a white box beside my mobile workshop. This is the Dreadnought i have shown off earlier, but now the entire model has been washed with Badab Black for the metal parts, Gryphonne Sepia for the gold, and Asurmen Blue for all the blue parts. This is the washes that will be used for all my Marines and vehicles. Also I will use other washes on other colors (like Devlan Mud on brown parts).
This is a picture of my Scout bike. It is almost ready, but I need to make the base. I hope to get this done in the near future.

New Year, new models to paint...

We have entered into 2009, Happy new year everyone!

At the official Warhammer Forum I have taken a pledge for 2009 to paint more miniatures than I buy this year. Hopefully this will lead to more posts with pictures of game-ready miniatures, and less posts with the all too usual "nothing has happened since my last post"-content that I have become known for in 2008.
I know myself well enough to say that I will keep buying miniatures, so that means I will have to get better painting them up.
The status so far for 2009 is perhaps not the best, but it will soon get better. So far I have bought 11 minis (5 terminators, 5 fast attack marines, 1 drop pod), and painted 2 minis (both terminators). The 2 terminators will be followed by 9 more. 4 of them are in the making, the last 5 are still in their box. I have planned to make 1 full terminator unit (10 terminators), and then I have one terminator left that I haven't placed in a unit yet. I will probably end up with buying one more boxed set (5 terminators) and find 4 on ebay or through blister packs at Games Workshop (the last option is preferred). That will give me 2 units of 10 Terminators for my 1st Company.
The single terminator came with the "Space Marine release issue" of White Dwarf Magazine, along with a space ork (anyone want a free Space ork?).
Since I had fun assembling that, I started on a terminator from the boxed set that had been sitting on my shelf for a while. I had even more fun assembling that, so the rest of the boxed set was moved to my mobile workshop.

I'm also working on a Space marine Scout on bike. He is also almost finished.
I just have to decide what wash to use on some of the parts that are painted Bleached Bone.
I had an awakening when it came to using washes, so some of my finished minis will get a round with washes before I give them the final layer of protective coating.
When I was at my local GW store in Oslo, I had some of the finished Space Marines with me and they were very positive to the way they looked. Still they showed me how washes could make them even better, and I decided to give it a try. I feel that they look more battle hardened after the right ammount of washes has been applied, so I will work on improving that in the future.

The 4 masters of the chapter that I have been working on for so long (don't know why it has taken so long) are as good as finished (3 of them is ready for base work), and I am also nearly finished with the Chapter Master. He is really a Captain (I think) but with a gold helmet and a battle standard he looks a lot more like a Chapter master. I guess I will have to have a command squad along with the Chapter Master, and one of the members of that is my apothecary. It is a metal blister of Apothecary Corbulio, and I will try to add him into a command squad for the Chapter Master.