Thursday, January 13, 2011

Rhinos & Dinos & Exodites, oh my!

o/

Just some random updates this time around.

First off, after playing with George Lupus' Rebel Alliance last weekend (the George Lupus name stuck to my CSM sorcerer, so I resurrected the army name, much to b.smoove's delight I'm sure) I realized that my Blood Eagles rhino was very close to being finished, and so this week I made that happen.
I tried to keep this one kinda clean, which is rare for my tanks. However given the dry brushing combo I used for the base color scheme, what grime I did add along the hull bottom is really only visible on the rough terrain modification, and tracks. I glued the top hatch on this one at some point for some odd reason (perhaps because the chaos star goes beyond the roof hatch?) so the interior is kinda hard to see. There also seems to have been some conflict in regards to whom has priority in my painting queue, as a Dark hands' SM helmet has ended up on a roof spike.

Next up, a bit of progress has been made on the Exodite front:
The center & left should appease the fluff bunnies out there who's ire I may have roused when I decided to use a High Elf Griffin as a jet bike. This is my Dragon Knight that will be used as a 'counts as' Wraithguard. Its the usual/simple Dire Avenger upper torso conversion on a cold one & cold one knight's legs. For the arms & weapon, i got an idea from an anonymous poster's comment some time back (suggesting I use DE heavy weaponry for the Exodite guardians instead of a platform). The DE blaster is visually pretty close to the wraithcannon, just proportionally smaller. Its also expensive as hell for two small bits! Whatever a blaster does, it must be good as it is in high demand it seems. I will probably run these as a squad of five. I'm not sure what to do about a warlock as having one walk with a squad of (slow) cavalry seems odd to me. I may just have these hang near the guardians & give their Warlock spirit seer.

Speaking of the guardian's warlock... On the original test mini, as well as the autarch, I had yellow added into their helmet crests as a symbol of status. So I painted the warlock's helm yellow, but with the blue cloak...it started to look like an Iyanden warlock.

He's currently in some simple green contemplating a new path of coloration.

The minis on the right are going to be Exodite Dire Avengers. I was looking @ an Eldar codex @ the FLGS Saturday, and saw that guardians come in blobs of 10-20, with a platform for each 10. so the 3 extras were effectively worthless, and i didn't want my original test mini to be removed from the line up, or marginalized as a guardian with a cloak & fancy hat. So a few bit orders & he will be the exarch to a 5 strong squad of dire avengers (his to accomplices were guardians with a simple head swap). I'm still waiting for my dark elf leg bits to arrive (delayed by the near constant snow I'm sure) to assemble two more.

Lastly, the triceratops cast skeleton is nearing the end of the painting portion. However they did an inventory and no surprise we are missing a few pieces. The missing parts are being sculpted out of foam, and while not as good as the cast pieces, will be a reasonable facsimile. The exhibit officially opens this weekend, but due to the museum being closed all week due to the weather, that may be delayed some. I'm not sure but I may be painting the remaining pieces in the exhibit hall (more or less adding me to the 'display' (scary thought that that is) instead of 'hiding behind glass' as I normally do. I'll find out today I suppose, I need to go for an interview regarding a video narration/welcome/thing today that will be playing on a continuous loop in the exhibit (assuming the snow doesn't keep the museum closed again).

3 comments:

Papa JJ said...

Wow, so you'll be part of the live display and featured in the exhibit's video? That's going to be quite a show! Good luck finishing up the triceratops in time, I had wondered how this was going. Well done!

The wraithguard Exodite knight turned out really well I think, the DE blaster works great in this case. Maybe for the warlock you could have him riding on a smaller dino mount of some sort. I really like your first mini for this squad, it's definitely a cool conversion.

The rhino is also outstanding. I think it's possible not dirtying it up as you usually do really shows off how good of a painter you are.

Loquacious said...

That Rhino is fabulous, fantastic, far-out and more. I love it a lot.

When the kids were itty bitty we took them to see Sue getting cleaned at Chicago's Field Museum. Despite them being munchkins, they still remember that trip fondly. The tri is sure to build similar memories for many families. Rock on!

Da Masta Cheef said...

@Papa JJ: Sorry, it wasn't until I was linking that older post that I saw your inquiry back in December. The interview was interesting today, will see if I can get some of the rough cut stuff to post on here, it'll be a few weeks before the final edited film is done.

Also, starting Saturday, I will indeed be painting in the exhibit hall. I told the marketing manager that after 5ish years, they've finally thwarted my plans to hide be hind glass, away from the public, and she was quite pleased by that (responding with an evil little laugh).

Thanks on the Exodite (and rhino compliment too)! Yeah the Warlock still has me wondering, but the 'Wraithguard' conversion came out pretty good I thought too. Like my other Exodite conversions, its fairly simple, just pricey this time (but then again, the Wraithguard have always had that problem).

@Loquacious: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Shortly after the museum opened in 2007, the first traveling exhibit that they had booked was Sue, and the turnout for it was amazing! As was the exhibit itself. We're hoping the Triceratops creates a similar response.