Harker finally gets deployed ....

There's a little bit of me that can't actually believe that I'm typing this. It's been over 18 months since I first started Sgt Harker and his squad of devils, to be honest there were times that I honestly didn't think they'd ever get finished.

It's hard to imagine what these guys were like when I first started them, they've had a serious amount of conversion work done to them. All the old catachen headwear has been removed and then they've all had t-shirts, cloaks and berets sculpted on to them. I must admit, I've learned a lot from doing them but I wouldn't want to have to convert every model this much, it'd take years to get an army complete.

Anyway, sorry the light ain't brilliant but there's a couple of closeups, first off, we have the man himself, Vet Sgt Harker .....

Next up we have the three standard troopers, including scar face who got hideously disfigured during his dremmel haircut ....

Then there's the special weapon troopers and yes, the middle guy was another dremmeling accident, it was the first time using a dremmel - lol

Finally we have the demo troopers, luckily, I'd got the hang of the dremmel by the time I'd got to these guys ...

So there you have it, the first squad of first platoon, only six or seven more squads to go. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with them, they're not my best painted models, I'm still relearning to paint after my hiatus, but I'm still pretty pleased. Now all I've got to do is finish the second Starstreak Hydra ...

A Quick Update ...

Just thought I'd post a quick update on my hobby progress since getting into our new home as I didn't want you guys to think that I'd disappeared again.

I'm actually working on Harker's squad and my second Starstreak Hydra at the same time which is a bit weird for me as I normally only work on one unit at a time. I simply couldn't decide which to do, so I decided to do them both. The downside of which is that it'll take me long to get finished pics on the blog.

So, here's a couple of pics of my progress, sorry the pics are brilliant, they were done with my phone because I can't find which box I packed our camera in yet!

Anyway, here's the Starstreak Hydra so far .....

Next up we have Harker's squad, I've almost finished their clothing but I wanted to show you their cloaks camo'd up. I still need to tidy up a few of the white spots, especially on Harker's cloak, but they're definitely getting there ...

So, that's it for now gents, I'll be post more as I get them done.

Col

Harker squad finally ready for painting

It's been a long journey and I've learned a hell of a lot about sculpting along the way but now it's time to put the sculpting tools down and get painting!

Here's the final pics of Harkers squad in all their green glory ...

 

The hoods came out quite nice and I've found a relatively simple way of doing them although I need to work on getting them to look more natural and blend into the folds of the cloaks better in the future.

Now it's time to crack open the paints and get these guys camo'd up!

Update on Harkers squad

I thought I'd do a quick post on the progress of Harker's Squad. As I posted earlier, Harker's cloak got broke. This wasn't an accident, I did it because I've been playing around with sculpting cloaks and I reckoned that my newer type cloaks looked better than his old one which was very bumpy and patchily put together.

I've always liked the look of the flatter cloaks, compared to the more bulky fold styles ones. Dave Taylor has some excellent ones on his Tanith squad over on his blog. So, I bit the bullet and gave it a go. They're not perfect but for a first go, they turned out ok. First off, here's Harker ...

Next up, we have the lasgunners ....

Then the special weapon guys ....

Finally, here's the missile launcher team and the demo guy ...

There's still a bit of work to do on them such as adding the hoods and clasps on the cloaks. So guys, what do you reckon, do you think I've managed to pull it off?

Harkers squad got badged

I broke out the green stuff and sculpting tools this week and managed to make a little progress on Harkers squad. My plan was to get their cap badges done. It's been a while since I last sculpted so I was a bit worried that I'd wouldn't be able to pull it off. Surprisingly, they came out pretty well, although it took a few attempts to get it right. Here's how they turned out ...

 

 

 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. Some of them are pretty good and some are a bit iffy, but I'm not being too critical on myself as it was my first attempt at sculpting such small details.

What I've learned this time ...

• When doing small details, it's best to push the green stuff completely flat to ensure it sticks and then push it toward the center to build the details.
• Don't sculpt small details late at night when my eyes are tired.
• It's easy to keep going over the same sculpt trying to get it perfect but at this stage in my sculpting, it's best to get it pretty good and leave it there rather than overworking it and getting annoyed.

I also finished off their bases, which means all I need to do now is to give them cloaks. Unfortunately, they're going to be on hold until I can find a decent tutorial on how to make simple cloaks from green stuff.

Hopefully, I'll find one soon and get these guys finished and ready for painting. In the meantime, I'll be cracking on with my Starstreak Hydra's.

Harkers squad got greened.

I thought it'd be a pretty simple idea, just a bit of dremelling and green stuff up some t-shirts and berets, how wrong can you be. It's taken quite a while to get these guys up to this stage, it's been a steep learning curve but well worth the effort.

First off, I dremelled away all the catachens headbands, bandanna's and arm bands. This went pretty well although I did get a bit over zealous at times and this resulted in me having to rebuild up some of the guys arm muscles. Once I got rid of their rockstar look, I started to build up their t-shirts to match their leader VSgt Harker and once they'd cured, I worked up their berets. Initially they came out a bit clunky but by the time I was halfway into the squad, I got the technique right and the last few turned out quite good, well at least to the first ones.

So, here's the squad so far ....

Next three .....

Last three ....

Now all I need to do is do their cap badges and give them cloaks. I'm not looking forward to do the cap badges as I remember how fiddly it was to do VSgt Harker's. The cloaks are going to have to wait until I've figured out a way to do them, so it's time to start hitting the net for tutorials. Anyway, here's the squad so far ...

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with them, yes they've taken a while to get to this stage but it's been a good learning exercise. I've found that I'm getting better at using the metal sculpting tools, it amazing how quickly you adapt when you force yourself use a different tool or technique.

What I've learned this time ...

• A little bit of green stuff goes a long way.
• Use the metal tool to get the basic shape you want, then the clay shapers to smooth out the shape and then back to the metal tool to sharpen the details.
• The more reference material you have to work from, the better your sculpt.

That's it for now, I'll post more as I get more done, hopefully the next post will have them finished.

Harkers squad - Tactics vs Hobby

As the sculpting on Harker gets closer to been finished and ready to paint, my thoughts have been on his squad. Since Harker is a metal catachen model, I'll be using metal catachens for his squad. Luckily, I have a few to choose from as you can see.


Being veterans, they've got a host of options available to them especially considering that the squad can take upto three special weapons, a heavy weapon, shotguns and even a demo charge if I add a doctrine. So I've been thinking about how to kit them out. 

Choices, choices, so many choices, it's like been a kid in a sweet shop .....

Now the basic choice is Tactics vs Hobby, and it's a biggy! You see, I've always considered myself a hobbyist but I like to play games and I like to win. As a hobbyist, I'd take a wide range of different weapons giving me a wide range of hobby opportunities. As a tactician, I'd go for multiples of the same special weapon because I'm more likely to use the unit in a specific role. The down side to this is that it means that I'll have multiple of the same model in the squad since the metal catachens only have one model for each weapon type.

I pondered this for quite a while, and then decided that the hobbyist side of me won, here's why ....

• I'm investing a lot of time with GS'ing the squad and so multiples of the same model are a sort of let down on the eye candy side considering the amount of effort I'm putting into them.
• I only have one plasma gunner and if I was going to take multiples of a special weapon, it'd be plasma guns that I'd want to take.
• I've seen entire regiments of plastic legs at the club so me calling a melta gun a plasma one isn't going to be a problem, so I can still play tactically whilst enjoying maximum hobby goodness!
• Finally, I'm planning another couple of camo catachen squads in the future, so I'll be able to swap models between them for any WHSIWYG events.

Once my mind was made up, it was time to pick the actual models .....

As you can see, I've gone for a good mix of guys. I've got the missile launcher team for my heavy option as it was the only heavy weapon that wasn't wheeled as I didn't think that a wheeled weapon went with an infiltrating squad. I've also taken one of each of the special weapon options for a bit of variety and I've even added a demo charge guy in.

There's plenty of work in them but I'm hopping it won't take too long to get these guys greened up and ready for painting although don't expect me to be turning these around in a week - lol. Harker's taken a lot of a time but that's because I've had to do little bits and then leave it to cure overnight, as so only a little has got done each night. With these guys, I'll be able to do a bit on each every night, so hopefully I'll get them done in roughly the same amount of time as it's taken me to do Harker.

Harker is just getting his last green stuff touching up, so I'll be posting pics soon. I get the feeling this year is going to be quality rather than quantity!