Carcharodon Official Badab Chain-Axe mod

I decided earlier this rather than to use any old chain-axes, I wanted to make at least one or 2 officialy recognized ones from the Carcharodon arsenal.

This is a picture taken from Imperial Armour Vol 10 - The Badab War - Part 2 and is a known Carcharodon ChainAxe

I looked over the internet for axes thinking I might find 2 parts that are similar enough to the illustration to attempt this project without creating my own axe model, It would seem that the carcharodon chain-axe is basicaly a modified regular axe so I was lucky in my hunt as it would only take a few small modifications.

I removed the edge of the axe and cut the blade away from the chainsword and also removed the wire from the head of the axe.

I then made sure that the chain blade would be thin enough to bend and glued one end of the blade down and let the glue dry.

When It had dried I flattened the rest of the axe head down and clamped it together with a crocodile clip until set, once set I removed the over hanging blade teeth.

I then used a very thin strip of green stuff to fill any holes in the newly formed mold.and in a sense smeared it into the grooves until all the area was filled,  I'm not too bothered about the rough finish as I will be adding red ink to simulate blood and this will just add to the blood/ gut effect at the end of the model.

I smoothed the model down A little and let green stuff harden.

Next step will be painting this newly formed axe along with model so stay tuned for later updates :)

Carcharodon Squad Member Update 2

OK so this is the near finished tactical squad member,  I used a base coat of codex grey ( dawn stone grey) and used strong sepia washes to give the armor a dirty used look,  I created a mix of white and abadon black for a dark grey and used it for the bolter and the shoulder pads, abadon grey was used for the chest straps along with velavellejo model air steel.  

The trims of the shoulder where based in German camo medium brown and finished with citadel shining gold along with the bolter bullets.

Blood effects where created using a stipple brush and Tamiya color model red ink,  This is still to be completed with a second darker layer adding a little abadon black to the mixture.  

I still have a few touch ups todo foremost being completing the chain-sword.  

Carcharodon Squad Member Update

Just a very quick update here, I have prime coated the whole model grey just to uniform the resin colours so no difference will show through when layering at a later stage.

Before ^ ^ ^

After primer

Carcharodon Space Marine, The making of...

So the pack of torso parts I ordered finally arrived so now its time to create a custom built space marine.
As I'm creating a carcharodon army there army is said to be mk V and all variations below that so I bought custom parts to be able to use on my models.  This is the first time I have used some of them and decided to make the space marine Sargent for a tactical squad.  

I selected which parts I wanted to use for this model from my bitz box mix and matching parts from heresey/ pre heresey parts.  

I removed all molding defects from the parts in preparation for gluing together.  

I started off by attatching the chain bayonet to the phobos pattern bolter as this is some of the more delicate work I found it harder to get a small enough amount of glue so I placed it in a crocodile clip and put it aside to dry.  

I glued together and attached the legs head and torso.  

As I am making a sargent for the squad I needed to remove the hand from the left arm to replace it with the chainsword.  

I glued this together at first but it was a little flimsy so later on I used a product called greenstuff to make a firmer connection with the hand.  

(I have linked the greenstuff to the Games workshop website but it is allot cheaper on ebay).  

I then attatched the modified arm along with the shoulder pad to the character.

As this was setting I attached the right arm to the bolter and left it to dry for a minute   

\

This is the final product ready to be primed and painted :)

Dan

A little Hand Painted work in progress

This is just a little update on some of the work I have been doing and explaining/ commenting on some of the hand painted parts I have done.  These are by no means finished so there are blemishes marks etc that need cleaning up and tidying still.

The Flamethrower has had a coat of abadon black and steel painted onto it and an initial layer of strong wash from war painter   as you can see the hands need some work doing as well as the soldiers helmet needs eyes and work on the skull on his helmet.

 

I decided to hi light the tips of the legs and outer part to the shoulder guards in shining gold, these will be distressed and made duller with washes later to make them look older and more worn. 

The initial layers have been placed on this terminator captain as well as an initial wash and a little dry brushing. 

Weapon bullets hi lighted with shining gold needing a second layer of washes to darken them up a little bit.  

As you can see from the back the paint job really needs some work to clean up spills/ marks

The first layer of blood has been added on various parts of this terminator to really fit in with the fluff that comes with the carcharodon chapter, a second darker layer will be added later.

I also accented the claws with shining gold as this is the only gold colour I own right now and will need darkening using washes to make sure it doesn't stick out too much from the rest of the armor,  

My original first terminator closer to completion the base still needs work and colour touch ups to remove some of the washes that have left too darker marks.. 

Back view mainly to see the stones that I made up from little bits of air drying clay to see how they would look after placing a little fortress grey and a wash over them,  turned out pretty good I think :)

Here's another picture of the group together :)

Anyways Like I said this was just a small update not much to say about the work right now but just thought I would show some of the things I'm working on right now so any questions don't hesitate to ask.
When I'm a little bit better i'll be doing more in depth posts about individual figures but as these are some miniatures I started before I started the blog Its kind of hard to do a step by step feature but as soon as my other models arrive through the post then I will be doing a step by step feature of the making and painting of each of them to give you guys a little bit more of an insight into my process.   

Dan

500pt Army Variations for the models I own

When I first started off collecting Warhammer (which is still pretty recent) I just purchased a couple of different squads to glue and paint so bought a terminator squad and a space marine unit or two (the ones I'm painting in the previous posts).  

It was only later that I decided to get into the actual game and not just the model side I had to pause.
Looking through the rules of terminator squads I could not for the life of me figure out a way to have a squad member equipped with both a power fist and lightening claw,  or for that matter nether the terminator squad or the terminator assault squad would not legally allow a storm bolter/ power sword combination.

This had effectively cut out 2 of my terminator squad members from my army,  then I remembered that some of the HQ selections allow for me to upgrade them with terminator armor.
As I turned the pages I was hoping that the 2 now seemingly doomed for decommission squad members could find a home in some other way.

SUCCESS !!!
The Space Marine Chapter Master & Space Marine Captain and Librarian HQ's allow for my variety of upgrades so all was not lost and these guys could actually form the bases of a smaller 500pt army for small skirmish games.  
Here are the variations that I can actualy use these 2 characters.  


Space Marine Captain 1
+ Terminator Armour
+ Storm Bolter
+ Power Sword
140
Space Marine Captain 2
+ Terminator Armour
+  Power Fist
+  Lightning Claw
115
Space Marine Chapter Master 1
+ Terminator Armour
+ Storm Bolter
+ Power Sword
165
Space Marine Chapter Master 2
+ Terminator Armour
+  Power Fist
+  Lightning Claw
140

Space Marine Terminator Librarian
+ Terminator Armour
+ Storm Bolter

130

This was both a relief and exciting as I had found 5 different variations to use 2 characters in,  now for the purpose of this post I will only be using them for a 500pt army variation as I still don't really have a huge amount to my army but I'm sure they will be something I think about using in larger games when my collection grows.

I have so far managed to create three 500 point variations for my army so far as follows.

Please note the army in these pictures are eBay bought and due a wash as most have not been painted and are purely being used for illustration purposes. 

Variation 1

Razorback is not present in picture as it is in the post

Space Marine Librarian

+ Terminator Armour

+ Storm Bolter

130

Tactical Squad x(10)

+ melta bombs

175

Sternguard Veteran Squad

+ Dual Lightening Claws

155

Razorback

40

= 500pts

In this variation the army is kept very small and I would most likely be running them close together and not splitting up very much but there may be chance for the stern-guard Squad to hold an enemy up while I got the tactical squad into a safe firing position using the razorback as stating covering fire and extraction if the unit falls below 7 models or to setup the flank with the stern-guard squad.
I chose the razorback over a rhino as for a small skirmish I don't really plan on using it as a transport unless to get out of a sticky situation and and it comes readily equipped with twin linked heavy bolters rather than the rhinos 1x storm bolter.

Variation 2

Rhino is not present in picture as it is in the post

Space Marine Captain

+Terminator Armour

+ Power Fist

+ Lightning Claw

115

Tactical Squad x (10)

170

Tactical Squad x (10)

170

Rhino

+ Hunter Killer Missile

45

= 500pts

This to me is a more objective based army using the Rhino to take a squad to the objective quickly and safely while the other squad follows soon after with the captain leaving the captain with the capturing unit to pack a punch in close combat.  Not really much else to say about this one.

Variation 3

Razorback is not present in picture as it is in the post
Space Marine Captain

+Terminator Armour

+ Power Fist

+ Lightning Claw

115

Tactical Squad x (10)

170

Tactical Squad x (10)

+  Melta Bombs

175

Razorback

40

= 500pts

This is allot like the previous iteration but with the subtle difference of adding melta bombs to the second tactical squad and using a Razorback rather than a Rhino.
This is more for annihilation games than capturing the objective taking advantage of the heavy bolters from the razorback for covering fire and using the second tactical squad to dish out some pain with there free missile launcher and melta bombs. 

From these 3 variations I see another strategy forming too though a little more risky and offers up more points to the enemy if it fails.

In variations 2 + 3 as both tactical squads are equipped with a single missile launcher and flamethrower each I may try using combat squads.

I'm sure many of you know that is when you take a 10 man unit and split it into 2 units of 5 creating a total of 4 separate units.

If I was to do this at the start of turn 1 I could effectively swap over the my units position to have 2 separate entities for close combat and mid to long range combat.

Lines around image show legal unit cohesion. 

As you can see in the picture arranging the, now 4 units I have created 2 lines of attack/ defense.  with the units in cohesion red and yellow now share 2 long range missile launchers while blue and green share 2 flame launchers and 2 Sargent's with chain swords to get up close and personal :)
This also leaves it very open to how I could use the razorback as it gives each unit the possibility to fit into it.

These last 2 options (especially variation 3) are definitely something I will be considering for the smaller games and something that I might incorporate in to bigger games at a later date.

anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this and it was easy to understand

bye

Dan

Plans for today in the 40k Universe

OK so there's people in be so I wont be able to do any airbrushing for a few hours but I still have plenty to do on yesterdays 2 x Terminators so I think i'll get started on them pretty soon adding facial and armor details and see how it turns out :)

I recently ordered a Dark Angel Death-wing Terminator squad for my army in hopes that I can cleanly convert them into a variant of my terminators by removing any chapter specific markings and make a nice variation among my army.

I have also purchased some model stone/ sand for basing (£2) that I will be using for generic model bases like space marine squads.
I am also attempting to make a chapter specific tactical and or assault squad so have purchased a mkV armor set aswel as some other older mk armor as the fluff states that the carcharodon seem to have upto mkV armor,  I think this will create a really nice variant in my squads but the colour scheme will still tie them into the same army.

Just for a change and because it only cost me £2.40 I also purchased a Chaos Space Marine Lord and I plan on paint him the colours of the Iron Warriors as there colour scheme is most appealing to me and who knows, maybe i'll end up with a full chaos army too :)

But that's all work to come for now here's a small video my friend and fellow warhammer 40k enthusiast Gunbuck made a while ago of him playing Space Marine for PC

Airbrush Round Two

I have been playing around with the airbrush again.  It was a little less daunting this time and yielded some good results. 
I ordered a colour on eBay called Vallejo dark sea grey as the codex carcharodon colours where a little bright for my tastes. 

I created a 1:1 dark sea grey to black as my shading colour and applied the first layer. 

next was an original dark sea grey layer.  when both of these layers dried i realised that although it looked allot better than being hand painted that the colour variation between the two layers may of worked a little better using a light grey or white undercoat as the black may of made the already dark grey darker,  after this i applied a lighter variation of dark sea grey by adding 1 part white to it. 
Although this did make the darker tones stand out i may of been a little heavy handed brightening up too much of the model,  again something i will keep in mind for the airbrush's next outing.



After the b base layers were painted I sealed them with a gloss finish so that if I made any mistakes from here on out I basically have a save point to come back to.  From the picture you can see the gloss looks white but this is just due to camera flash and is actually invisible to look at.

I finished this session by painting the shoulder pads abandon black just to get a better feel for the final colour scheme (washes and details next)

I was impressed with my first attempt at 3 layer base coats and learned a few things I would like to try out next time.

• Grey base coat instead of the black to see if there is a colour variation. 
• Lighter handed on the hi light coat as I think it was a little too much.
• Thinner layer of gloss. 

While this is only 3 things I can think of to try next time I'm sure I will come across a few other snags or happy surprises but ether way I'm impressed with my first attempt and things can only get better right ?......RIGHT ?

OK well that's if for this post



Dan

First Airbrush Experience

Well that was an experience...

As I mentioned in my previous post I recently purchased an airbrush which came allot quicker than I had expected :)

And these are my first 3 base coated models.
All 3 started with a black base coat the 2 on the right have had 3 different shades of grey dark, original and a light highlight,

This is pretty hard to tell from the quality of the picture but also I haven't had the pleasure of mixing the tones before so It was hard to judge the difference with each one,  from this experience I learned that my undercoat needs to be a few shades darker as its not as easy to differentiate the regular and darker tone as I would like but I'll take a note of this next time I get the airbrush out :)

Also learned from hand on experience the correct paint to thinner ration,  It's easy to say 1:1 ratio when its on a video or down in writing but actually doing something that sounds so simple even that needs a little practice.

Overall verdict is very positive, the initial black coat went on and looked brilliant.
The grey coats though not perfect are smoother than painting them and with a little practice the future looks positive :)

Below is just a short video of my first experience with the airbrush, there is no talking init but thought I would record it anyways but will be narrating videos in the future.

Thinners, Reducers and Cleaning Solutions

As I have recently mentioned soon I will be starting to use an airbrush so I wanted to make sure I read up about ways to use and clean my airbrush and came across what seems like a common mistake among new people to the hobby like myself.
I'm from the UK so when I was watching tutorials there seems to be allot of mention of reducer, which in some videos and tutorials is a method to both thin paint and clean your airbrush between colours.At first I thought this was more of a colloquial term for what here in the UK we call paint thinner, so just to make sure I checked around to see if that was the case and i'm glad that I did.

A quick eHow search lead me to this."The main difference between thinners and reducers is in the paint type that is being applied.Thinners are for lacquer-based paints. Reducers are used for urethane-based paints. "
These products are important if you was going to be spray painting cars and I think the majority of people buy this kind of thing because the video tell's them too.in my opinion, be it right or wrong these products have no place in my hobby kit when it comes to actually thinning my acrylic paints.

The most common paint to be using for painting miniatures is Acrylic
"Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymeremulsion"
As acrylic paint is a water based paint then for the purpose of thinning paint enough to use in an airbrush is actually in my opinion the best and cheapest solution.The disadvantage of using water to thin your paints is actually a positive for airbrush painting.

"Adding water to your paints will both thin down your paint and reduces the intensity of pigment"
From this "disadvantage" of this thinning method I find the positive would obviously be that the thinner your paint is, while yes it would take a couple more coats of any given paint you will have allot more control over the paint out of the airbrush.Obviously there would be an acceptable limit to how thin you would paint but if that's the only disadvantage I see no reason to buy any other medium for thinning my paint.

So why do they even have thinners/ medium ?Simple answer to this is that they are used for tube paints, Most likely if you are buying your first hobby paint set you will be buying a variety of colours at a cheaper prices that come in squeeze bottles aka fluid acrylics, The amount you are going to be thinning these paints will not really be enough to necessitate the use of paint mediums unless you are wanting to change your current paint into a matt, satin or gloss based paint but for that you would be buying it as a medium not as a thinner.

What would you use to clean the airbrush ?Personally I will be using a substance called turpentine substitute or as people in the UK may also know it, white spirit/ mineral spirits,
This can be picked up from your supermarketat a fraction of the price fora much bigger bottle than any named alternative from the top brand paint brand companies.
I have also been reading into it and there are people that say it will also work to thin my paint so I may consider adding a drop or 2 to water while thinning it. This is a mild irritant so I would suggest using gloves if you have sensative skin. 



The thing I think people forget is that for model painting we will be using acrylic paints and dont need a heavy industrial cleaner when warm water can remove a water based paint from any surface, the white spirit just makes it a little easier.

CARCHARODON, I Choose you !

The first thing I needed to do is choose your Warhammer 40k army.
This part I found took a little time but was actually pretty fun.
I searched lots of different sources from websites and forums to people’s previous traditions to get an idea of colours I wanted to use and more importantly the army I wanted to create.
I had already decided I wanted to be using space marines as I am still fairly new to the game and there great all-rounder and in a way forgiving for a new player like myself.
Originally I was going to paint the Raven Guard because I was liking the cool black theme and looking at the specific rules for their HQ the close combat tactics but after a while the black theme just seemed a little too dark for me to be able to enjoy painting details.
After looking a little longer I finally settled on the Carcharodon AKA The Space Sharks. I chose these guys because there’s quite a lot of mystery behind them with very little back story but also the colour scheme. While the colours to some might seem a little boring but the grey black and gold combination was really striking to me, I’m not really into the idea of painting bright blue ultramarine or iron fists but really liked the natural feel to the Carcharodon.
I will be painting more in-depth step by step process of how I make and paint the models but for now I will just show you a picture or two of the things I already painted before starting this blog.

Desk Setup

Ok well this is the first post on the new blog 40k Dan
although this WordPress will not be strictly about warhammer 40,000 I thought the name fitting as it will be my main point of focus for the projects im going to undertake.
First of all I needed a workspace.
As I currently don’t have much room to really lay everything I eventually want out I bought a small desk around 3 foot long.
I think this is the perfect starting size for the kit I have which I will post about in the next couple of days but for today the desk will suffice.
The main things on here that I purchased was a cutting matt where I will be cutting gluing and painting most of my models I didn’t want the desk to get damaged too quickly, some water pots a day light (will purchase a second soon) so I can get a true daylight look at the colours I will be painting and in the centre a paint rack I bought off eBay, as well as the obvious Paints and brushes which I will go into more depth with In later posts as they will deserve their own time in the spotlight =)

Compressor and First Airbrush

This is just a heads up to a couple of future post’s I will be making soon.
I decided to buy myself an airbrush and compressor.for 3 part base coating.
By that I mean creating an initial darker layer for the shadowed areas, the main colour for my themed army and finally a hilghted area but more on that when it arrives and when I have had a little practice with it.
I will not be using the airbrush for all my posts as I feel it will steer away a lot of people with out one but videos, tips tutorials and updates on what I’m learning will definitely make an appearance soon here.
I opted for the
AS186 AS 186 with Compressor with Tank with 2 x Double Action Airbrushes.

I chose this mainly for the affordable air compressor and the Airbrushes are a nice little bonus, as I don’t plan on doing a lot of detail work with the airbrushes I found it would be pointless to fork out 1/200 on an all singing all dancing airbrush but in the future who knows
Anyway that was my quick update on things to come



Dan