A few weeks back, Spiral Arm Studios published some sample force lists for the V2 Maelstrom's Edge rules. These got me a little inspired to put together a new force for myself, and so I dove into the unbuilt model pile and put together 120 points based on the Epirian sample list.
Check them out on the Maelstrom's Edge gallery page!
The original metal Necron Destroyer models didn't come with any options - they were just a Necron in a comfy chair, with a Gauss Cannon strapped to the armrest. I decided my classic Necrons needed some heavier firepower, so I sculpted myself a Heavy Gauss Cannon. After a little testing and refining, this is now available for free in the STL Downloads section.
Note that this is not a complete model, just the weapon. You will need the original metal Necron Destroyer model to carry the cannon.
Some more Oldhammery WIP... Started working on a couple of Ork Dreadnoughts I picked up from a second hand seller at Adepticon waaay back in 2014. Stripped (mostly) and disassembled, cleaned up and reassembled. Two small ones ready for paint, and the four-arm version still to finish cleaning up.
I've been slowly working through and updating the Miniatures Gallery, and this week have added some new pics of my small Dark Eldar force.
Back around halfway through the third edition of Warhammer 40k (maybe 2000-ish), I went on a bit of a modeling blitz in an attempt to get 'caught up' with my modeling backlog. This small force was one of the results of that, being cobbled together mostly from the 3rd edition starter set plastics with a couple of ring-ins to flesh them out. Painting was mostly a rough and simple drybrush to get them done quickly - while I originally had much more elaborate colour scheme plans, I just didn't like these models enough to spend a heap of time on them!
You can find pics of the individual units in the gallery here.
After a little more tinkering, I have finished off the digital parts I sculpted to customise the original Space Hulk terminators. These include a vent piece to fill in the huge cavity in the model's back, and a cyclone missile launcher that fits on over the aerial mount.
If you would like to spruce up your own ancient Terminators, you can grab the STL files from the new Downloadable STL Files section.
So, it's been a little quiet around here as my time has been taken up with my Maelstrom's Edge work. I feel like Under The Couch has hung around in limbo for long enough, though, and it's time to start posting some updates here again. I'll go back to sharing my Maelstrom's Edge articles as I produce them, and also hopefully share some personal projects that I'm tinkering with on the side.
To kick things off, I've been playing with a few digital assets for a bit of sculpting practice. Some of these will just be for the fun of it, some will be to fill gaps in my older model range.
For example, I have a Necron army for Warhammer 40,000 made up of the original 2nd and 3rd edition models. Back then, the original 'Deckchair of Doom' destroyers didn't have a heavy option... so I decided to make one:
For something completely different, I'm working on a 3D sculpt of the old 'deodorant bottle tank' that Games Workshop featured back in the very first edition of Warhammer 40,000:
And finally (for now), I picked up a bunch of the original Space Hulk terminators some time ago. They were a rather inexpensive find due to the fact that, let's face it, they're not very good. But making allowances for their age and their roll as board game components, there's a certain charm to these sorts of elderly models that I find I quite enjoy. What I didn't enjoy was the gaping cavity that they have in the back of their armour as a side effect of the moulding process. So I sculpted a piece to fill it in:
This initial attempt worked fairly well, although the vent sits out too far due to the central support in the back cavity protruding further than I had allowed for. So there's a little reworking required...
More soon!
The big joy of the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue, for me, is that wandering around the house turns up an endless wealth of items just waiting to be turned into wargaming scenery by slapping some bits on it and painting it up. This week, I turned my attention to the recycling bin, where a humble tissue box was just calling out to be saved from the weekly rubbish collection. With a little cutting and gluing, and a lick of paint, I had Atmospheric Modification Plant #14 ready for the table!
Full walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/terrain-spotlight-tissue-box-building
A few articles back, I painted up a Mature Angel using Colorshift paints, as a bit of an experiment. That was actually the second model I attempted with these paints, but I hadn't been entirely happy with the first one. This week, I had a little inspiration though, and so I dug him out and, with a final tweak to his face, wound up with a shiny green/blue Shadow Walker!
Full walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-spotlight-colorshift-shadow-walker
The Kaiser Industries OR-8 'Gaterunner' was originally designed as a small freighter. Sales were initially poor due to its limited cargo space compared to other ships in its class, combined with a lack of artificial gravity and other 'non-essential' crew-comfort systems in the interests of keeping the ship's mass as low as possible. Despite its ungainly appearance, the OR-8's speed and manoeuverability were excellent, however, resulting in the ship becoming popular with short-ranged couriers who used them primarily for 1- or 2-gate hops between systems. With the coming of the Maelstrom, many of these couriers were pressed into service as evacuation craft, with their non-pressurised cargo holds retrofitted to accomodate sleeper capsules.
This was a project spawned by a rodent ball habitat dome idea shared by Patrick Keith a while back on the COUNTERBLAST Facebook group. I had originally intended to do something similar, but when I received my ball it turned out to be a little smaller than I had pictured. While I was figuring out whether or not I needed another small hab dome alongside my salad bowl domes, I decided that the markings on the ball made for nice detailing for a cool ship design. And so the OR-8 was born!
Check out the walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/modeling-spotlight-rodent-ball-spaceship
There are a lot of examples out there in internet land of huge, sprawling, super-detailed dioramas that you can pore over for hours and dream of one day having the time (or the storage space!) to make something like that yourself... This is not one of those. Dioramas can also be just a quick, simple exercise in putting together something different to whatever else you're currently working on. I love putting together armies, but sometimes I just want to do something unrelated, or I'll have a little flash of inspiration for a mini scene, and letting that out and building whatever it leads to is a great way of flexing those creative 'muscles'.
That's sort of what happened here. When I put together my kitbashed escape pod a couple of weeks ago, I had the idea to throw together part of a launching bay for it, just to give it something to hang from for the photos. I hadn't originally even intended to paint this, but looking at it sitting on the table afterwards, I decided that it would make for a cute little mini-diorama. So, I broke out a few extra parts, slapped on some paint, and this was the end result:
Full article here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-spotlight-escape-pod-diorama