Project Dread Mob: February

I had a busy opening to the year with preparation for the Las Vegas Open and the development of our upcoming Pipe Works Terrain System. Luckily my birthday was in February and birthday cash allowed me to finish off the model requirements for the Dread Mob Formation. So I did more shopping than painting but progress none the less.

I was able to assemble and prime my Gorkanaut but did not get much farther on the paint. What time I did find was spent running some LED lights to the head and main gun. The Gorkanaut is nice and open inside with plenty of room for battery storage and wiring. The materials I used from my bits stash were LED lights, wire, heat shrink and a battery holder. Thankfully today we have access to LED sources like Powered Played Gaming for light kits that fit our hobby. So next time I'm ordering my LED's.

I think the lights are going to work out great. I need to finish an acrylic blast effect for the end of the Deffstorm mega-shoota. Once the tech upgrades are in I think it's definitely time to add some paint!

mechanicalwarhorse.com

powerplay.net

Project: Dread Mob 2015

Last year was full of sporadic painting on everything and anything in my collection. The overall accomplishments cannot be seen on the tabletop. This year I've decided to focus my painting between one 40k army and Mechanical Warhorse Terrain. The two selections will go hand-in-hand helping me flesh out models for the tabletop and give good photography opportunities to feature products.

The winner this year will be my Orks! An army that didn't get allot of attention in 2014 and needs some now to bring it up to pace with the recent Codex and supplement releases. My starting point is the Dread Mob formation from the WAAAGH! Ghazghkull Codex supplement. My seventh edition orks contained allot of trucks and small units of boyz to ride along inside. The units of boyz can merge together to create the bigger mobs and Dread Mob will be added to thunder across the board with them.

I started this project with an inventory of Dreadnought models and divided them up into what I need to assemble and paint. Working back and forth between assembly and painting works well for me with my work and family schedule. It also gives me a chance to look at my paint scheme and make sure I don't wander from it or need to change it. With inventory and a plan in hand I'm going to get started by assembling the Gorkanaut.

I'll be posting progress reports on painting, army inventory, progress and especially kit-bashing and conversions.

Ork Big Mek on Bike: First time with Tentacle Maker Tool!

This month I'm adding some new additions to the Hero Holder line. New products are always a great opportunity to work on models that I haven't had time for. The neglected model for this project was an Ork Big Mek. The new Ork Codex lets me add a custom force field and also puts the Big Mek on a bike! With Bubblechukka parts from the Mek Gunz kit, I built the custom force field generator on the back of the bike. It looked cool but I wasn't completely sold on it. But time caught up to me and I needed to leave for the Bay Area Open (BAO) so I set the model aside until I returned.

Luckily, I ran into Rich from Green Stuff Industries at the BAO, the creator of the Tentacle Maker Tools. The tool allows you to roll modelling putty into different sizes of tentacles or cables. I've seen this product before on the internet but seeing it in person is even more impressive. With my new tool in hand, I had the key to unlock my creative block for the Big Mek.

The tool is easy to use, you just have to experiment with the amount of putty you need to make the size you want. You form your putty, (preferably green stuff) into a worm like shape an press and roll the putty between the tool. Once I was satisfied with the size of my cables, I ran them throughout the force field generator and even connected one to the back of the Big Mek's head. The power cables running about the force field generator was just what the Big Mek needed.

This was a great addition to my Big Mek and tool kit! The level of customization I was able to create with the tentacle tool, makes the Big Mek a great piece to show off my new Biker Hero Holder!

Go to greenstuffindustries.com for tutorials, blog and webstore for the Tentacle Maker Tool.