Ninjabread - Wargaming Scribbles, by Curis, every Space-Friday

This apparatus must be unearth

I finished my Termite last night, but the glue on the base wasn't dry so I let photographing it to today. And my golly, if I can say so myself I am rather impressed with how well this has turned out.

And with all that photography, I couldn't resist a quick play 'shopping it GW Box Style. Well, it's not quite their house style, as they don't have muzzle flash coming off every single muzzle, barrel and tube.

I love the Marine Scout box, with these two firing their weapons so nonchalantly. It's the Photoshop equivalent of painting all your weapons with Blood Red, and then anything else with an edge with some Blood Red. And then putting a few more Blood Red gore patches on anything painted silver for good measure.

In fact, I might mock-up some more modern renditions of my Squat boxes to take to tournaments with me. Get them shrink-wrapped and lie to all the kids at Games Workshop I got them from pre-order...

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 8:02 PM

Armour for sleep

Hurrah, my Forge World parcels arrived while I was at work today.

With my Termite done I can now have an all-out armour-painting-fest.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 7:21 PM

Don't get it twisted

Textured up my Termite, just about to spray it black. Quite excited as I need a change of pace from my infantry, and my Forge World accessories still haven't arrived. When they do I've promised myself I'll take my squats back to the table, (because they'll be closer to being wysiwyg with the chimera extra armour skirts).

I wet-brushed the textured paint along the drill bit in the direction of the bit to make it feel like it really has just been rotating feverishly. I also mixed in some fine grade sand to give it more of a 'just-surfaced' look, and hid a few of the more faffly joins.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 10:09 PM

Enter Sandman

I've been hunting round for some textured spray do I can dirty up my Termite before painting it. Caro and I went to an art shop in Lincoln, where a very helpul shop assistant told us they didn't stock any, but recommended this stuff -

I've not had a go with it yet, but it will provide a much finer texture than GW's Ruffcoat, and not mongle up my models with a really harsh and blotchy finish. It'll also be great to texture up the tracks and bottoms of all my tanks and look like like mud, and not like they've driven through a cereal factory (cf. this tank).

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 12:13 AM

Oval motrhead 2

I got a parcel of magnetic oval bases, thanks to Veni Vidi Vici. They're perfect for my bikers, who are now all waiting for the glue to dry on their wheelie poses. I wasn't fussed about them being magnetic, more the shape, but they're so much fun!

Who needs meltaguns when you've got a big dock-off microwave?

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 11:09 PM

Like a mole

Since I'm thinkng about Termites a lot, I think it's time for a brief history of Drill Tanks. Most famous tunneling machine in pop culture is the Mole out of Thunderbirds. It popped off its carriage, drilled underground and rescued people. It's a great design, a triumph of function over form.

Can't say if it's the first ever Drill Tank, but it's the most recognisable.

There've been many over the years. Space Sheriff Gavan had one that was bizarrely similar. In fact, it was just 2 Moles stuck together. Kind of like a tandem I imagine.

Japan likes the idea a lot. They brought out a lot of Transformers with a Drill Tank alt-mode.

Then Games Workshop came onto the scene. Squats were synonymous with tunneling technology as they lived in Space Caves, and they introduced not one, but three, Imperial tunneling machines similar to the Mole. In fact, you could say they were straight rips, but as form follows function they didn't have much choice. In fact, one of them is even called the Mole in order to drill home the homage (hahahah).

Termites-

Mole-

Hellbore-

And then in the 90's, Epicast did a 40K scale Termite.

I think mine's better.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 1:06 PM

Part of the plan

I discarded my earlier attempt at a Termite, as it was too, well, crap. I've spent the evening with a soldering iron and plasticard bashing this model out instead, which I think you'll agree, fits far better with the established Imperial stylings of my army. I need to finesse the tracking sections, and work out how to give it a nice earthy feel. I'd like to try giving it a coat of Ruffkoat (or whatever GW call it), but I've heard it's insanely temperamental and faffly. I need to make it feel like it's been tunneling under the earth, and not just rolled off the production line.

If my life was a comic book, I've retconned yesterday's attempt as a proof-of-concept. Or perhaps this the Termite built by my Earth-2 self.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 11:17 PM

A box whose secrets are open

I've seen a lot of fuss over dropping guard armies of late on the various forums, and so I thought I'd also get in on the act. How do squats drop? Well, my exo-armour have been teleporting, but a squat army would not do that en masse. Oh no. They would tunnel! Oh yes! Termites! Moles! Mighty dock-off Hellbores! So work has begun on modelling these classic war machines.

Just made out of a Humbrol lid with some card, and a CD for a base, but the main shape has come together really nicely.

I won't be using these with the VDR rules. They'll have no game impact, but just look incredibly cool left on the board whenever squads deep strike. And they'll make for nice themed display pieces when this army gets transported to tournaments.

Speaking of transporting my models, I got fed up this week carrying around my Chimeras and Russ and bikes and Rapiers in a shoebox while my infantry lorded it up in a proper old GW carrycase. I've always resented the newer style of cases because of the giant Imperial Eagle and the brazen "GAMES WORKSHOP" emblazoned across the outside. Well, I bought a case and took a sander to it.

Aha! How did I get it so smooth?! "Surely you would have sanded through the case before you'd got the Eagle off as it's cheap and nasty thin plastic?!" I hear you cry. Well, I did sand 4 holes in teh case and still the Eagle remained. But I expected as much, and so I bought two sheets of thick black plasticard which I cut to shape and glued over the top to give a nice crisp clean smooth lid. Hurrah, a nondescript case that no-one will ever suspect carries geeky toys. I might stick a small badge on it in the corner to give the impression it's a musical instrument case.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 6:29 PM

Models for the programme

Corr, New Year. The year that Warmaster Gorun's Squat Legion will burst onto the tournament scene, like an overripe tomato. Not many updates as club time has been spent putting together some decent terrain (which matches my army's basing scheme) instead of gaming.

I call it 'low-ambition terrain' because it's not detailed and didn't take too long to make. All the previous terrain projects the club has undertaken have run out of steam as they're too complex (eg, modular Cityfight boards) leaving us with unfinished pieces on half-done boards. The other advantage of this terrain over the more elaborate approach is that it's perfect for heavy-gaming.

Finished almost four squads of squats now, and it's time some of them had their photos taken. I took these especially for the Wikipedia Squat entry which I hope to adopt. It's a fairly small-scope project revamping the Squat entry, and it doesn't get editted too often by the more opinionated.

I hope Batsquat will eventually evolve into a Squat resource rather than just an army blog eventually. It will grow in scope as my army grows in size.

Labels: Squats

Posted by Curis at 12:43 AM

City of delusion

The worst thing about squats is other people's attempts to revive them. I don't see my army as championing there cause - I've accepted that squats have no place in 40K and Workshop have moved on. I just so happen to own a lot of old models I really rather love. And I always construct my armies around a quirk or a very strong theme in order to give them a proper identity. I like making my armies unique, and making a guard army from squats almost guarantees that.

With my army I've been very careful to avoid using dwarf pieces. I think sticking a bolter on a dwarf is not only lazy, but also a fundamental misunderstanding of what squats were. They were space dwarfs, but never wore chainmail and shot space crossbows. It's why I cringe when I see conversions like this: