5 and a Wake-up

Bray'arth Ashmantle, aka. "Fat Albert"

It's that time of year again.  Team Snake Eyes is headed to Adepticon in Chicago, IL for their team tournament on Saturday the 21st.  There's all sorts of stuff going on up there, and I highly recommend you make the trip if you ever get a chance.  You'll meet some fantastic gamers, and see some ridiculously talented artists put their hearts and souls into their craft for our enjoyment.  We all have a richer gaming experience because of it.  If you see us up there, don't hesitate to stop by and say hello, we'd love to meet you guys.  Some of the team will be heading up on Thursday, but the majority of us will arrive on Friday with everyone leaving at some point on Sunday.  So, without further ado, here's a tribute to my artist of choice, our very own Chaplain Aerion.  He's been the creative powerhouse behind my Salamanders army from the very beginning.  While I do a lot of work on this army, none of it matches the skill and quality that we see from Aerion.  From our very first "test marine" to what you see here today, Aerion has put more time and effort into this ongoing project of mine than I ever imagined possible, and that Mrs. Aerion would likely have wished went into other pursuits.  In that regard, I offer my warmest thanks to them both.

Left side: I'm loving the mural here: Bray'arth as a young lad
giving the Genestealers what for...before getting his face
eaten off and then stuffed inside a Dreadnought sarcophagus
for the rest of his days...

Right side: I love what he did with his DCCWs.

You think he needs to duck coming out of that Lucius
Drop Pod?  I don't, but I'll let you tell him if you do.

I love his power plant, and the heraldry that Aerion
was able to put onto the banner.

Forge World Lucius Pod, aka "Mystery Machine".  Apparently FW resin is as
much a pain in the ass to work with as you might have expected.

Venerable Dreadnought, left side.

Venerable Dreadnought

Venerable Dreadnought: I like this alternate power plant
as well.  On the other hand, I like Dreadnoughts, so
it's never really a tough sell in my book.

 These are a few of our Salamanders we'll be putting on the board this year.  Hope to see you there!

Space Marine Drop Pod tutorial, Part 2 (Still Dark Eldar free!)

Just like in any complex construction, the foundation is key. Luckily the foundation of the Space Marine Drop Pod is fairly idiot-proof. The base is two pieces (with a few little vent fans that glue on the bottom), and the 5 doors are two pieces each. That's the good news.

The bad news is the doors, like every other contact point, must be shaved like a Wookiee going to work in food service.

The key points are the underside just above the "hinge" (i.e. the base of the actual door which will close against the floor of the pod). This seam, when the two door pieces are glued together, will not be square. You'll want to dry-fit the doors into the floor pieces and check to see how flush they close. Then scrape whatever excess plastic you find around all the seams, paying close attention to the hinge and the door base I mentioned previously.

Once you are sure you have all the doors able to close completely you can begin carefully gluing the floor to the base after laying the doors in their brackets (this part is pretty obvious so I won't go into more detail.)

Painter's Note: This is the perfect time to take care of painting the base of the pod (at least the inside bits.) As you can see I have also decided to handle the caution striping at this stage. It's a great deal easier to get your hands at the right angles to tape and paint before the walls are raised. Here is how I did the stripes:

I laid out a strip of blue painter's tape on my handy exacto cutting mat and marked it in 3/8 inch intervals. Then I used a ruler to cut the tape along those lines with my exacto knife. Finally I cut the tape in half longways leaving me with a strip of 3/8" tabs of tape to be peeled off and used as needed. I found a length of about 8 inches gave me more than enough tabs to do all 5 doors.

Once the tabs were cut (and the door edges were painted black), I proceeded to tape every 2 "dots" (the recesses that are molded along the door edge), leaving the first 3 dots from the pod black, then an open strip, then 2 dots covered with tape, then 2 dots exposed, etc until the end of the door was reached.

I then painted the exposed areas with foundation paint followed by a brighter yellow once dry. Once I had the yellow looking the way I wanted I carefully peeled off the tape and cleaned up a few slips. Tadaa! Done.

At this point the base of the pod is ready to go. We will use this portion to help build the uprights in part 3 of the tutorial.

Feel free to post any questions you may have. Until next time, FOR THE EMPEROR!

Space Marine Drop Pod tutorial, Part 1 (HEY! No Dark Eldar!)

First, let me acknowledge that others in our hobby have blazed this trail prior to me. The only reason I'm posting this is to share some detailed observations regarding the infamous (and oft hated) Space Marine Drop Pod assembly, or perhaps to help someone who reads this blog that may have encountered problems. At least I hope it will help you avoid the above scenario.

Anyone who has purchased one of these long-overdue and dreamed of kits will already know that the GW instructions included within the box are, in a word, crap. And that's me censoring myself big time. The pictures are vague and barely instructive (a feature I've often found to be key in instructions, but maybe I'm just picky).

Now, don't get me wrong. The model itself is an opus of engineering and design. The kit is so well made that, if properly prepped and assembled, will fit so snugly together that glue becomes an option in some places rather than a necessity.

So if you're staring at a Pod on the sprue and haven't done the following, STOP and do this before you go any further:

1. Go here and study this blog. Pay close attention to (and even save and zoom) the picture.
2. Clip your kit from the sprue and SHAVE MOLD LINES.
3. Shave some more.
4. Once you think you have the mold lines gone, SHAVE SOME MORE!
5. Dry fit everything. If it resists, well, see steps 2-4.

I hope you see how vitally important the complete and thorough elimination of mold lines is in this process. As a hobbyist with a glue-frosted and disassembled-via-velocity kit sitting in the box (which has been covered in various litanies of hate and profanity), I really can not stress this enough.

Once you get the imperfections shaved completely (focusing extra hard on the contact surfaces between hull and base, as well as the underside of doors where they contact the model when closed), you may opt to begin gluing the pieces into the Pod's 3 main parts: Hull, Base w/ doors, and console.

A. The console-

The console is the central pylon which forms the core of the Pod. To assemble this hold the segments upside down (so you're looking "up" into the pylon) and, once dry-fitted, carefully glue each segment to the one before it using a little glue on the contact surfaces. If you look carefully you will notice that each segment has a tiny notch at the bottom and a tab at the top (with an indentation on the backside that receives the tab on the next piece). Once you dry-fit the first two segments together while looking at the underside you will see how the fit snugly together. Be sure to hold each joined segment carefully until the glue sets, then let it sit a bit longer until it is good and solid. If you start attaching the segments too fast the whole thing will pop apart in your hands and rage will ensue. Patience is key in this process.

Eventually you will get down to the final segment. This part is TRICKY! CAREFULLY and gently twist the final piece in so the tab slips together at the top and the bottom fits snugly into the notch at the bottom. This can get frustrating but with a little practice it will work. Be sure to try it a few times without glue before you do it for keeps. I found it best to put the glue on the receiving segment rather than the one I was handling, but you know your fingers better than I.

After the pylon is together and the glue has set you can slip the dome over the top to hold everything in place. If the dome fits snugly you have the pylon together perfectly. If it fights to go on you likely have a segment or two out of whack and will need to fix the problem. If the dome is snug, go ahead and glue it.

The next step is to begin dry-fitting the harnesses into the posts. There is one key element here to consider:

There is one harness with a skull on the cross-piece. This piece will only fit into the upright that has a circular hole instead of a square. There is only ONE circular hole on the uprights so once you find it you're home free.

Glue the harnesses into the uprights (after dry-fitting of course) and make sure the "bulb" where they meet (around the little nipple on the back of the uprights) is cylindrical (i.e. make sure the seams are as smooth as possible and line up well). You'll want to hold both harnesses for a bit until the glue sets so there's no slippage.

Once the harnesses are in place you'll want to check each bulb seam and scrape or file them until they're even. This is the part that will insert into the round holes that surround the console just under the dome top. If they will stick in until the hoses are nearly touching the pylon you have a good fit.

Painters Note: It's a good idea to paint the console before you assemble it completely. I laid down a dry-brush of Boltgun Metal over black, then hit it with a few highlights of Chainmail and then painted some of the fittings gold or brass. This is purely optional of course.

Go ahead and grab the floor piece and notice the raised bump in the middle, as well as the long, narrow slots around the outside. You will also notice that each upright has a thin, flattened rod of plastic sticking out and pointing in the same direction as the bulb above. On the central pylon you'll see a small arch in the center of each segment. Be SURE to slip the rod under the arch when affixing the uprights to the pylon, and make sure you have them glued properly. What I did was after inserting the upright into the pylon I would slip the tab at the base of the upright into a slot while the central pylon sat over the central bump. This ensured that all the pieces were in the right place and would remain so while the glue solidified. Again, this is NOT a race, and if you go for speed you WILL lose.

Work through the uprights, leaving the "skull" harness to go in next to the control panel on the pylon (see picture). Do NOT glue this upright.

At this point you can go ahead and finish painting the console as detailed as you wish. Once it's done and all but the skull upright are glued into place you'll be ready for part 2 (coming soon).