It never rains, it pours...

Well, I haven't had much of a chance to get photos taken this week and posting without pictures seems a bit counter-intuitive on a hobby blog. I had the chance to get some photos taken tonight, so this post will be a bit eclectic. I hope you can stick with it ; )

Above is the first Infantry squad finished in all their glory. They are currently toting a flamer and missile launcher. I plan to paint up a variety of different special and heavy weapons for the army. Once the new IG Codex hits the shelves I'll have a better idea of how to arrange them in the army.

Below is a re-shoot of the masks I posted in the last post (I think). The difference? I've been chatting with CMDante of DakkaDakka recently and as I really liked his skin scheme for his Blood Pact I asked for the recipe so that I could steal it - best to change early on. I hope you like it as much as I do.

A few people have been asking me about the backpack I've added to the "Pacters" that don't use the Forgeworld torsos, below is a picture of four of the finished packs. Further down is a tutorial on how I make these accessories.

CMDante (and a few others) encouraged me to have a go at sculpting my own "grotesques" on the heads of my Blood Pact troopers. Finally, after much deliberation, I had a go at it. The results are below. I'm pretty happy with the result and I think that paint will hide a multitude of sins. While from the side they look quite fierce there are moments that I think I've managed to sculpt a handful of great looking clowns!

Faithful readers will also recall that I am yet to base my Commander. I've finally decided to use the base you see below. This 40mm beauty is from the Urban Wasteland II collection of resin bases from Dragon Forge Design

Jeff Wilhelm has a load of great bases as well as some nice looking plinths and modeling accessories (more of those later). While making your own elaborate bases isn't too tough, it can take a bit of time. When it comes to building an army I'd rather be sculpting masks, painting troopers, and making backpacks than making a lot of bases.

The Aforementioned Blood Pact Backpack Tutorial

Step One - Prepare your materials (I usually work on five packs at a time)

A) a rectangle of plasticard 3/16" x 5/16"

B) a plastic tube 3/16" diameter, 9/32" in length

C) a plastic rod 1/8" diameter, 11/32" in length

D) a plastic rod 1/8" diameter, 9/32" in length

E) three hex rod slices - 0.08" diameter

F) a strip of thin plasticard 1/16" in width

G) a thin plastic rod 0.03" diameter

H) a piece of "power cable" from Dragon Forge Design (found here)

I) a piece of finely rolled and cured greenstuff (easy to make)

Step Two - Assembling the core

The first thing to do is glue tube B to rectangle A. Then glue rod C into tube B so that around 1/16" stands proud of the end. Then glue rod D to both rectangle A and tube B.

Once the glue is dry and the rods and tubes firmly in place, I carved the rectangle around the edges to follow the contours of the rod and tube. These are my hands in the photo and I have to credit my lovely wife for taking the photo, she told me I had to ; ) Thanks Julie!

Step Three - Add the details

I glued the three hex rod pieces (E) to the pack, one on each end of the large tube and one on the face of the small tube. I then cut small pieces from the strip (F) and glued them to the large tube, spaced evenly around it. This was followed by cutting thin slivers from the rod (G) much like slicing a carrot. These slices were then glued carefully to the pack create rivets. After letting the glue dry completely, I drilled holes in each end of the large tube (through the hex rod slices) and inserted the "power cable" and greenstuff cables. 

The final step was to insert the other end of the greenstuff cable into a hole drilled through the hex rod

So there you have it. A lengthy post, but worth the reading, I hope. I'll be putting aside the Blood Pact for a short time while I work on an LoTR painting commission for a friend. Perhaps I'll post some pics of that, if you're interested...