Red Gobbo & Bounca

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Orks, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

A Merry Squigmass to all, and to all a good fight!

Red Gobbo

One final model for 2022, ‘Red Gobbo & Bounca‘. I received this kit as a Christmas present from a good friend this time last year, and it has been sitting on the Shelf of Shame ever since, waiting for the holiday season to roll around again. This model won’t be joining any army projects, it’s simply a fun festive display piece.

Modelling & Painting

This was a record for me in terms of number of LEDs on a single infantry-sized model, seven in all. It was originally eight – there was an additional red light on the end of the fairy light string – but the connection for the eighth LED became damaged during installation. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t seem to fix it so I decided to cut my losses – literally – and snip the failed LED from the end of the string.

I had to work quite quickly on this project in order to get it done, photographed and shared by today. I didn’t want it to sit on the shelf for another year! So that’s why there aren’t many ‘work in progress’ pictures – I couldn’t spare the time to stop and take them. But I did capture this picture of the wiring shown above. It might look complex, but the design is a fairly basic circuit. Every LED is in series with a single resistor, and every LED and resistor pair are connected in parallel with all the other pairs. The entire circuit is driven from a single coin cell battery and switch under the base. Essentially it is my Simple Muzzle Flare tutorial, but with the LED and resistor repeated multiple times in parallel.

If you are trying to reproduce this then a useful tip I found was to paint a dot of colour on each of the resistors to remind me which colour LEDs they were supposed to connect to, since different colour LEDs have different resistor requirements. This was easier than looking on the tiny resistor colour code rings or testing with a multimeter each time. You can see these spots if you look carefully in the image above. This photo was taken just before the wires were coiled up above the resistors and covered in a thin layer of modelling putty to hold them in place.

When it came to positioning the LEDs on the model, I tried to replace the sculpted plastic lights with real LEDs on a one-for-one basis, which I largely achieved. Thankfully I didn’t have to spend a lot of time hiding the wires, as there were already sculpted wires on show as part of the model, so I left the actual wires on show and then painted over them. The LEDs that formed part of the fairly lights were secured with a small blob of glue from a hot glue gun. When dry, the transparent glue also acted as the ‘bulb’ of the light. However I stuck to my normal acrylic gel method when sculpting the fuse on the dynamite.

For the paint scheme, I followed my recent Ork-related paint schemes found in this article. The snow on the base was from a tub of ‘Citadel Snow’ that I’ve had hanging around since about 2009. Once I had hidden the wire under the putty on the base, I painted the putty Fenrisian Grey, which is a cool, light blue-grey. Next I gave it a heavy Corax White drybrush. Finally I applied a thick coat of PVA and the Citadel Snow, which is basically a fine white flock.

So there we have it, a small but intricate model! I’m quite pleased with how this turned out, but if I could go back again with a bit more time I’d probably take more care on the fairy lights to make them neater, and also add some more layers to the highlights on the squig hide. Those are only minor gripes though, and as I said overall I’m pleased with the finished miniature.

So that’s it for this week, I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun festive figure! As always, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram. Merry Christmas everyone!

Goff Rocker, Ork Musician

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Orks, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

‘Ere we go, ‘ere we go, dakka all the way!

The Goff Rocker

When I first saw the Goff Rocker, I knew I’d have to add it to my collection eventually. The model is just so full of character, I love the call back to the classic Goff Rockers miniatures, and the awesome tie-in Christmas song just sealed the deal!

Modelling & Painting

I didn’t make any serious alterations to the model itself, other than giving his bionik eye the LED treatment. To achieve this I used the same technique as for my Eradicator sergeant’s bionic eye, including the 3V red ultra nano SMD chip LED. The metal stage texture is from a very old Games Workshop battlefield accessories sprue that has been languishing in my spares box for years. Originally it was a large square pallet for stacking ammo crates up, but I cut, filed and sanded it down into a circle.

My first “draft” of the base was a 50mm circular base with LED fire pyrotechnic effects on each side. But I decided it dominated the actual miniature too much, and revised it down to 40mm, which is the base size that the model is supplied with. I also swapped out the fire for two stage footlights, one in purple and one in blue. This change took it closer to the light artwork painted on the base of the box art model, and of course following the existing artwork is one of my key design philosphies when using LEDs in miniatures.

The stage footlights were made from small comms speakers, again taken from a battlefield terrain sprue, drilled out, and with more 3V SMD chip LEDs inserted, one in blue and one in white, as I didn’t have any purple LEDs in this size. To finish off the footlights, I filled them with acrylic gel and once it had dried glazed them with blue and purple glazes respectively.

When it came to painting, I followed the “offical” scheme fairly closely. The majority of the colour choices came from the WarhammerTV Citadel Colour masterclass painting tutorial for this model. The only exceptions were the ork skin and the squig hide. I used my own recipe for these to match other recent ork models in my collection, such as the Kommando Kill Team (the skin and hide receipes are in this linked article for anyone interested).

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed this detour into greenskin territory! If you’d like to see more of my orks, search the ‘ork’ category on this site. Also, don’t forget to stream and download the Goff Rocker song and who knows, maybe we can get it to Christmas number one in the UK! As always, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.

Zevaboa, Skink Priest

On By Chris B.In Age of Sigmar, Grand Alliance Order, LEDs, SeraphonLeave a comment

Float like a terradon, sting like a well-crafted simile.

Zevaboa, Skink Priest & Warrior-Poet

This week I’m returning to my long-running Seraphon project with Zevaboa, skink priest & warrior-poet, equipped with a star-stone staff and mystical cloak of feathers.

Painting & Modelling

This is one of those projects that seemed like a good idea at the time! I spotted this model on the shelves in Warhammer World when I was up there for Golden Demon, and bought it on a whim since it’s ‘Direct Only’ and not normally available in stores. Plus I thought it might be a fun model to enter into the Shattered Brush painting contest. Of course it’s no secret that Finecast can be tricky to work with, but I feel like I got there in the end.

The LED staff follows the basic principles of my Simple LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial, with a few minor difference. The LED used is an ‘Ultra Nano’ 3V blue LED from Small Scale Lights, connected in series with its supplied 10Ω resistor. The circuit is powered by a single 3V CR2032 coin cell battery and switch hidden in the base. As you can see from the ‘work in progress’ pictures above, the LED emerges from the neck of the staff, while the wires run through a 1mm hole that I carefully drilled through the shaft of the staff. The wires then pass down through the torso, right leg, and then into the base.

I carefully drilled and cut the original Finecast ‘star-stone’ out of the head of the staff before inserting the LED. Once the tip of the staff had been undercoated and painted I began replacing the ‘star-stone’ with my own version made from acrylic gel. This gel can take a few hours to dry, so I had to build up the spherical shape in layers over a number of days. When the final application of gel had dried, I applied a shade of Drakenhof Nightshade and then a glaze of (the now discontinued) Guilliman Blue. If you’re interested in a more detailed explanation of working with the gel, then I have a further explanation of how you can achieve similar effects in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial.

For the paint scheme, I used my standard Seraphon recipe found in my post about the Terradon Alpha, but with a few more layers of fine highlights, since this is a hero model and I’m entering it into a contest. The only part that gave me pause was the lining of the cloak. On the stock model the lining is red, but I didn’t want to copy that as it would be too similar to the skink’s skin. I did briefly consider a ‘flayed human flesh’ effect, but in the end settled on ‘terradon skin’. This was partially so I didn’t have to extend the purposely limited palette for my Seraphon project, and also because it fit thematically with the flight-granting abilites of the cloak of feathers.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed revisting my slow-burn Seraphon project. If you’re a fan of the Seraphon then you may like to check out the other models in this army project. As always, thanks very much for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram.

Demios Predator, 15mm scale

On By Chris B.In Horus Heresy, Horus Heresy 15mm, Imperial Fists, LEDs, Space MarinesLeave a comment

Death has arrived!

Predator tank commander motto

It’s a quick diversion back into slightly unusual territory this week with a 15mm scale Demios Predator! This cool little model was printed as a gift by a good friend who owns a 3D resin printer. He also included some 15mm MkVI Space Marines and several other vehicles, including a 15mm Land Raider that I shared a few weeks ago.

Models at 15mm scale sit somewhere in between the 6mm scale of Epic miniatures and the 28mm scale of Warhammer 40,000. They’re small enough that they don’t take super long to paint, but large enough to tackle some interesting details. I’m using this cool gift as an opportunity to paint-up a small 15mm scale Horus Heresy Imperial Fists army. Below you can see comparison shots of the Predator next to 15mm infantry, and my trusty 28mm Guardsman ‘Sergeant Scale’.

This particular model was very high-up the painting priority order. For me, the Deimos Predator Destructor is one of the most iconic Space Marine tanks. In fact I think the very original 1980s plastic Predator was the first vehicle I ever encountered on the 40K tabletop!

Painting & Modelling

The 15mm Horus Heresy project is quite light on LEDs – if you’ll excuse the pun – compared to most of my other armies. But many of the vehicles are just too tempting not to wire up! As you can see from the above left image, the Predator autocannon barrel came out of the printer slightly ‘droopy’, so I decided to replace it with plastic rod. This also made it easier to drill the holes for the muzzle flare wires.

The Predator autocannon has a 3V Yellow 0805 SMD Chip LED (available from Small Scale Lights) at the muzzle. The LED is in series with its supplied 100Ω resistor. The circuit is supplied by a single 3V CR2032 coin cell battery and switch in the 50mm base. The muzzle flare effect around the LED is made from acrylic gel. I have a full, detailed explanation for how this whole process is done in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial.

If you’re interested in my yellow paint receipe, you can find it in my previous post on the 15mm scale Land Raider.

As mentioned in my previous post on 15mm Horus Heresy, my plan is to use these models to play a few games with my regular gaming buddy Apologist who is building up an Emperor’s Children force. If you’d like to see how that’s going, then search his blog for 15mm Horus Heresy.

That’s it for this week, I hope you’re all finding this slightly unusual project interesting! I’m sure there will be some more posts about 15mm Horus Heresy again in the future. As ever, thanks for reading, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on Twitter and Instagram.

“Pacification of Logan’s World” Flesh Eaters ‘Armies on Parade’ 2022

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

“The War of the False Primarch was a dark and bloody episode of the Imperium’s history, now largely lost to myth and purged from all records, that plunged the Segmentum Pacificus into anarchy from 780.M33 to 860.M33. The conflict was finally ended when the High Lords of Terra convened the Pentarchy of Blood and tasked five loyal Chapters to destroy eleven others that had been declared Traitoris Perdita for their actions during the war.”

– IMPERIAL ARMOUR VOLUME TWO – SECOND EDITION PG. 17

The Flesh Eaters space marine chapter, a key member of the Pentarchy of Blood, bring the will of the High Lords to the Partisan frontier planet Logan’s World on the border of Segmentum Pacificus. Brother-Chaplain Uriah Grimm leads elements of the third company in a purge of the population. Resistance is put down and captives are taken for interrogation. Clues are sought regarding the whereabouts of the Abomination, the so-called “False Primarch”, and his Silver Stars chapter.

Concept

The concept for this board was fairly straightforward. The Flesh Eaters have come to a world loyal to the False Primarch, and are conducting a purge of the citizens while looking for clues to the whereabouts of their enemy. The local population are mounting a resistance, but without space marine support of their own they don’t have much hope…

The Flesh Eaters have chosen the ruined Sanctum Imperialis – an obvious symbol of Imperial authority – as their base of operations. Brother-Chaplain Uriah Grimm directs the purge from the balcony. The colour scheme of the Sanctum subtly echoes that of the chaplain, with a lot of red, black and white on the details. The red backdrop behind the building is a cardboard miniature photography background that came free with White Dwarf a few years ago.

The Partisan Population

The Partisan resistance are all made from the Necromunda Hive Scum boxed set, and the market stall and accessories come from the Underhive Market set. I wanted to give a “Jesus kicking the merchants out of the temple” vibe with how the Flesh Eaters were dealing with the locals who had dared to use the Sanctum as a market place. A small easter egg, you may have spotted the market stall has a Silver Stars helmet for sale! The Sotek Green – more of a turquoise despite the name – of the Silver Stars’ helmet is also used in the clothing of the Partisan population. This was used to help visually associate them with the Silver Stars’ cause, and also to give a contrasting “red versus blue” vibe to the display board.

The graffiti artist being captured for interrogation is based on the artwork below from the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook. The Hive Scum box didn’t have any arms in this pose, so I had to sculpt them from scratch myself.

What’s Next?

There we have it, another ‘Armies on Parade’ project concluded! I hope you’ve enjoyed all the photographs of the display board. Don’t forget you can click on any of the images to open a larger view. So what’s next for the Flesh Eaters? This certainly isn’t the end of the project. I’m still aiming to reach at least 1000 points. I have at least one more squad, one character and two vehicles planned, so stay tuned over the coming months to see this army continue to grow.

That’s all for today, thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s Armies on Parade project. Don’t forget you can also follow my work on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll be back again with more miniatures soon!