I Swear to God, I Paint Stuff

It’s been too long since I painted a model and offered proof, so here are the beginnings of a jetbike squadron.

The Shuriken Cannon is an extra from a Wave Serpent sprue. The only cut I had to make was shaving the ammo belt down on one side so that it would fit under the engine cowling and connect the midpoint of the gun to the bike while still fitting in straight.

I think they’ve turned out well, especially the camouflage on the cowling. The rest of the army has an implied camo scheme, but these are the first models that use an explicit pattern.

Soon I’ll add two more Guardian bikes, including another cannon-bike, and then a Warlock with a Singing Spear. The Warlock will be a project - I hope to find plastic WFB elves with robes that will work. 40K Warlocks are all metal, and I don’t want to cut one in half, fit it to the seated legs of a plastic jetbike Guardian, then balance the whole thing on a bike. Ugg.

In less lucid moments I imagine having two squadrons like this, but one will do for now while I figure out how the hell to use them.

New members of the daemon family

Here is a herald of Nurgle and some plaguebearers. The herald is a beastmen shaman with an old skeleton head and 1/2 of a great unclean one horn coming out of his head. The plaguebearers turned out ok. I mixed green and some orange to liven the unit up a little. I still have 4 more to go before getting the 3 units of 7 I'd like to have before moving on. I won't actually use the herald as I have 2 greater daemons taking up my HQ slots.

I have a Keeper of Secrets done as well. The photo doesn't do the model justice - it looks better in person. There's also a spot on his sword hand that I cleaned up. I did a poor job of removing the metal on that part of the model that has since been fixed. Joining the Keeper of Secrets will be a bunch of fiends when I can get the conversions done.

Essential Modeling Supplies - Disposable Diaper Changing Pad

What's the best bang for your buck in modeling supplies? A pack of disposable diaper changing pads. For just a couple of bucks you can get a marvel of a product. Super absorbent on one side, totally waterproof on the other. Put one of these down on any table and feel confident that the table is safe from paint, water, glue... or even baby poop. If you use the last one in your modeling efforts I don't want to know about it.

I use these to model in our kitchen on our granite counter top or our kitchen table. Also up in our office on our desk. Several years after discovering this trick still no problems despite spilling all sorts of stuff from paint to bourbon.

As a bonus, they usually have some cutesy pictures like fish or teddy bears you can deface with eye patches and horns if you are taking a break.