Wednesday, August 19, 2009

WORKING...

Not much to show right now. I am in the finishing stages of painting my scratch built Demolisher. Pics will be up shortly.

Since I don't have much substance to show right now, I'll change the subject, I'll post a fun pic of my guardsmen...

Thursday, August 6, 2009

TERRAIN: MANUFACTORIUM

This is my utterly bombed out and ruined Manufactorium.
First are WIP pics taken before any paint was put on. Cardboard, foamboard, balsawood, random bottle caps, wire mesh, tubing, printer parts, and 15-year-old floppy discs were used to make this ugly thing:

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After painting, the trashy looking thing finally turns into a manufactorium:

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A brave 27th Overwatch guardsman:
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

MAKING PLASTER TREADS

Plaster. You can do a lot of things with it, you can make awesome casts for like no money at all, you can make terrain, awesome concrete effects, you can paint it on a surface and make it rough looking, etc, etc, etc. If you don't happen to have plaster lying about, do yourself a favor, and buy some. Go to your local arts and crafts store and get it. For some $8 you can get a bucket of it. While you're there, you might as well by some non-hardening clay, its also cheap and just as critical for you to have as plaster is!

Since I refuse to spend 40 something dollars on a Leman Russ, I decided to build my own. Since I don't have a lot of tank treads left I needed to make some copies of the ones that I do have!

This is what you'll need:
Plaster, water, (Optional PVA glue), non-hardening clay, old sprue frames

Plaster, water, and a bowl. I also add pva glue to the mixture, because I feel that it makes the plaster a bit less brittle.
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Now get your clay and spread flatly along some surface; I used a ceramic tile.
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Now get your tank treads and press em in the clay
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To do the least damage to the mold, get a small knife or pin and try to pop the plastic tread out of the clay by just pulling up from one end like so:
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Now prepare the plaster. If you've never worked with it, be careful not to add too much water, its really easy to make your mixture too watery. You want your wet plaster to be the consistency of pudding. Pour the mixture into your mold.
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Since I am making treads, I needed to reinforce them with something because they are very thin and dry plaster is brittle like hell. I used balsa wood strips and set them into the plaster while it was still wet. A good idea would be to use an old sprue frame instead of balsa wood.
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While the plaster is drying, shake the clay mold so that the air bubbles in the wet plaster rise to the top, this is important if you want a good looking mold. I forgot to do this, and had several air bubbles in my treads!

Let it dry for a few hours. When its ready, carefully pop out the plaster. Peel away at the edges of the clay mold, until you see that the dry plaster is starting to detach from the clay.
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Cut off the edges where the plaster overflowed and glue the track sections onto your tank! In all honesty, while these plaster treads can look pretty good, they are only useful as long straight sections for your tank. For the curving treads, just use the extra plastic ones that came with your other tanks!
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In case it isn't obvious, there are much better ways of doing this. But this method, is by far the cheapest, easiest, and quickest to do!

Monday, August 3, 2009

GRENADIERS

Ok so now, that I’m done with the intro, here are photos of the only two finished squads in my army. They are both grenadier squads.

(This is a repost of an older thread from Boot Camp, Found Here!)

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Next, I will be doing a small tutorial about plaster!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

BACKGROUND

The Murii Overwatch Regiments initially started as a Planetary Defense Force for the little known mining world called Murus. In M31, warp storms opened within close proximity to Murus, and daemons were believed to have made their way to the Murii solar system. By M32, the farms which had sustained Murus had failed. While it is unknown what caused the crops to die, many attribute it to the nearby warp storms. Rebellion ensued, and wars over scraps of food crippled Murus. With the mining industry utterly disabled, the planet's only export was was no more. Widely regarded as a useless "pile of rock" by most nearby planetary governors, no help was issued and Murus was forgotten. The planet was engulfed in chaos. Dark agents had set up countless underground cults with which starving peasants came to in eagerness. By M36, the PDFs lost complete control over most hive cities, and were driven out to the sulfer ash wastes or Murus.



In 337.M37 PDF General Dominic Vibius, a figure widely respected by PDF forces, renounced the planetary governor and simultaneously marched his loyal PDF forces on every hive city. Entire populations were massacred mercilessly. Hellhounds were deployed as Riot tanks. Grenadier squads infiltrated underground chaos cells and destroyed them. Demolisher tanks supported by brave guardsmen assaulted the cities, supported by artillery barrages from Earthshaker batteries. Within 300 years, Domonic Vibius single handedly brought order to an entire planet.
Not only had he made the Murii Overwatch a skillful urban fighting force, but he reformed the entire military system on the Planet. This completely transformed the Murus PDF into an elite, respected, and skillful fighting force. The 27th was among these honorable fighters.

Regimental Banner of the glorious 27th:
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INTRODUCTION

Well I've had my guard for a few years now. While I have been working on them very slowly, I think I've gotten to the point where there is actually something to show! I don't work on them much, mainly because I'm a poor college student who is busy with work and other things! But, at the time of writing this, it is my summer vacation and it can't hurt to start up a blog to keep me motivated to go on!

I will be posting wip pics, as well as finished pics with descriptions to go along with them. In addition, I'll write up a few tutorials on how to do certain things, and show off some Imperial Armouresque photoshops I like to do from time to time. So sit back, crack open a beer (or soda), bookmark this page, and enjoy the show!