Mid construction of the wave serpent

The wave serpent is about 75% done. Here is a quick shot of it on the project table. Still have to add the weapons, and finish up the cockpit painting, but its getting there.

I built the falcon about 6 moths ago, and I neglected to write down how I painted it, but I wanted the Wave serpent to match the Falcon (or at least come close...). Its a close approximation. I'll have to be better about writing down how I paint things- especially over long periods of inactivity!

Next was to glue the enlarged transport compartment to the bottom hull. Glued it together with styrene cement and used the clamp to keep it nice and tight (without cracking of course) while it set up.














After waiting a half hour, I put on the back door. It has a very nicely done attachment means, that fixates the door while allowing to open and close.














Next on the hit list was to glue some components together before spray painting. This includes the antenna. I glued it directly to the turret while the turret was still on the sprue. This always helps me when I spray paint- I can hold on the wide sprue edges while spraying the parts as I rotate them.













Once the top and bottom assembly was spray painted white, I spray painted the cockpit black and painted the jet intakes and nozzles with a mix of black and silver on eh bottom hull assembly.

I also gave some thought to making the turret on the wave serpent rotate a bit easier. I clipped off some of the bottom geometry of the turret, and drilled a hole on the bottom for a strong but slim magnet. I also addded some side slots to let the air escape.














I also glued a mating magnet to the top of the serpents hull, so the magnet on the turret could rotate freely (always a pleasure to aim the turret at the intended target...) A little sanding and gluing and voila! A free to spin turret.














Weapon switchouts are a bit tricky for the waveserpent (since there are two weapons, and there is not a lot of 'meat' to drill in and glue in a magnet).

A couple of pointers I've found from the school of hard knocks:
1) When using epoxy to glue in a magnet, make a thru-hole or side slot so that air can escape and not push your magnet into an unwanted position while the epoxy cures.
2) I've found 2 part epoxy (5 minute set time) to work pretty good...
3) Make sure to 'premate' your magnets so you don't glue them in wrong way. If you glue them in the wrong way they will never attach... And its a pain in neck to re-do!

Starting the Waveserpent

Well, sick of my eldar not having the move power to truck around squads of 10, I invested in the almighty wave serpent. It came in on Friday, and Unbeknowst to my son, I started to assemble it while he was at basketball. I'll take you along in this adventure.

I've built a couple of Eldar falcons before, so this I know will help me with assembling this beautiful kit. First off are the sprues. I especially like the two sprues of Eldar weapons. these will come in handy if I decide to mix an match the weapons between games.

I took some time, started cutting the parts off (of course keeping the flat edge of the clippers against the side of the part, to minimize the amount of sanding I have to do after its cut off.

I sanded all the parts a bit more, and dryfit them before gluing them together. The most interesting fit is the added trailing edge to fit the enlarged crew compartment.

Well that's all I could do tonight. Until tomorrow.

Drop Pod Complete

My son and I finished off the Space Marine Drop pod today. It was a very hard kit to build. Lots of questions for how the parts mate and order of assembly, but we both pushed through and completed it. The doors work and the storm bother inside can be rotated to get the drop on enemies. It feels great to get it done- its a complex but well thought out design. His Dark Angels Dred is stationed next to it.

Dark Angels vs Eldar

My Son and I played a game of 40K last night. His Dark angels vs my Eldar. Kill points with the Dawn of War set up. (a 'play what you have' game...)

A wonderful game. Up in the air till the last turn. I was lucky that his drop troops were delayed due to some unlucky reserve rolls. My Autarch gets most of my reserves in early with the +1. Its an advantage for sure. Eventually his forces showed up and started savaging my Eldar into an early extinction, but not before I complied a healthy Kill total.

His Terminators with the 1st turn deep strike are very irritating as well as his T5 Ravenwing bikers.

A quick action shot of his Ravenwing making an unwanted appearance on my flank is shown below;

Epic Ork Warhost

Here are pics of the latest table top warriors.
This time it is an Epic Orky war host.
Painting and modeling Epic is different , the need for detail is important, but not as demanding- which is a desirable change.