Genestealer Cult - Thant, the 50p Magus

Well, I think I'm going to call this one a success. I got a really battered plastic Empire Wizard that had been converted into a Wraith rather badly from the bargain bucket at Marquee Models (my local games store). I only bought the thing as it was 50p and I had a vague idea that I could probably build something out of him. After a lot of cleaning as best as I could (he had rather a lot of melty plastic glue on him!) the conversion was surprisingly simple. A head swap, new backpack with robot arm and the icon from the Hybrids box was basically all it took. I've named him "Thant" after a particularly memorable character from Heroes of Might and Magic III as the resemblance was quite striking when he was finished.

Anyway, enough talk - more pictures!

When I originally painted him the first time, I did the whole cloak in yellow, but he didn't blend into the rest of the force very well. The weathering also clashed with it rather horribly; making it look like a dirty plastic Mac. After a lot of to-and-fro over the whole thing I repainted it black and now I'm glad that I did.

If you're wondering about the additional mechanical arm, I'm hoping to tye him into the background of an upcoming campaign against a mechanicus force, so think of him as a corrupted tech-priest or something. Well, that's the gist of it till I get more time to develop the storyline.

The original Thant in all his retro glory

FoxHunter KMS Airbrush Review - A Complete Airbrush kit for £60 ($90)!

I've been interested in airbrushing miniatures for quite a long time, but what was holding me back was the start-up cost. Airbrushes can be expensive and I really didn't want to drop a lot of money on something that I might not like or use without being able to have a bit of a go and test the waters.

After buying a copy of Angel Giraldez's "How to Paint Miniatures from A-Z" I was inspired by the quality of his work - before that book I thought the only thing that could be airbrushed with good results was Eldar vehicles and power weapons! I was determined to have a go myself, but I didn't want to go into it and drop a ton of money on kit right off the bat.

I had a look on a few retailers and saw that Amazon were doing a full kit; compressor, airbrushes and hose for £60 ($90). At first I was sceptical, but the reviews were quite positive, so I thought "why not" and took a chance by ordering one.



The complete FoxHunter KMS kit.

The next day the whole thing arrived and I began to experiment. The first thing I did was set it up and then I began by spraying water just to get a feel for it. The pressure can be adjusted on the compressor - I've found that 1.8-2 bar is about right for miniatures as it gives a gentle spray that won't blast out too much paint in one go. The only thing is that as you spray the pressure will go down as the compressor is a bit budget. The way to get around this is to set it higher than you need and then spray air till the pressure stabilises to a steady flow at the pressure you want - then you can paint away! 

In the box you get 2 airbrushes - one bottle fed and one gravity fed. The gravity fed one is the one you want for miniatures. The needle size is 0.3mm which is about right for larger models (Say Daemon Prince Size) and vehicles of all sizes. You can basecoat miniatures of any size with it, but it won't have the precision for highlighting etc at a small scale. 

The other absolute essentials are Airbrush thinner and Airbrush cleaner. You're going to need these as much as you need paint. Vallejo make big bottles of them that aren't that expensive and I recommend using those products.

With the 0.3 needle, thinning to about 50/50 paint to thinner seems to work quite well. sometimes 2/3 paint to 1/3 thinner is right, depending on the paint consistency. With this airbrush you can mix straight in the bowl as it isn't too sensitive. I've since bought a finer 0.15 needle brush and it won't take that kind of punishment (it clogs easily as it is much finer). The basic KMS airbrush is a lot more forgiving!

The one thing I would recommend is using Vallejo paints with an airbrush. You don't need the pre-mixed airbrush paint specifically, but they flow a lot better than Citadel paints and seem to be a lot better engineered for airbrush use.


I also recommend starting the airflow when the airbrush is pointed away from the model as sometimes flecks of paint can clog in the nozzle and then you get a scatter-gun blast of flecks when you restart the flow. It is a small thing, but it can ruin the finish of your model, so it's worth remembering, especially if you were coming back for that last highlight!

The compressor does get hot and can vibrate across the floor - luckily at the low pressure you'll be using these problems are mitigated quite a lot and it won't really move. It also comes with an inbuilt moisture trap which seems to work reasonably well. The moisture trap basically removes any water that gets into the line, which in theory stops excess water getting into your paint or spraying out of the end unexpectedly. Unfortunately this can still happen and I plan to invest in a better one at some point.

I did a few test pieces of scenery before I took to painting any actual models. I'd recommend it while you get used to using your airbrush as the trigger mechanism is a bit sensitive and you don't want to blow a massive load of sticky paint all over your model!

After reading Angel's book I wanted to try my hand at painting a TAG from Infinity (big robot about the size of a Daemon Prince). I followed the guidance in the book about adding layers of highlight using the airbrush and it came out really well. It was a steep learning curve though, so be prepared if you're getting into airbrushing!

The progress after my first night of airbrushing. I've outlined these panels in black and white to create a metallic look with an ordinary brush after the airbrushing was complete. 

All of the blue armour and the sword was airbrushed with the FoxHunter KMS

The one thing I would say is don't expect to get great results if you can't get them with a brush. The real advantage of the airbrush is speed and the ability to get smooth blends without tears. After that though you're still going to have to finish the model off yourself, so you can't throw away your fine detail brushes yet!

That said this is a fantastic kit for the money - whether you want something to basecoat with, or to paint your tanks and larger models it really is very good. The best part is that it all comes in one box, so there is no need to shop around or wonder what type of air hose you need as it comes with one!

Verdict:

09/10 - Perfection on a budget. You're going to need something better with time, but as a starting kit you can't go wrong.

To say I'm happy with the results is an understatement.

Converted Mega Armoured Nobz - Budget Wargaming

I wanted some Mega-Nobz for my all grot army, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Luckily at the time it wasn't long since the release of the Sanctus Reach box set, so I had a lot of Ork sprues lying around the place. I suppose Mega-Grots would be the correct term for these guys.


It turns out with a bit of elbow grease and some spare parts it is easy to make some fairly convincing Mega-Nobz using the regular Nobz box. The best part is that you get so many of them - I built a unit of 4 to accompany Makari into battle (see earlier post - Waaagh Makari if you're unsure what that means). I still need to up armour the legs to make them look a bit more mechanical and fill a few gaps, but I'm happy with the way they look so far. One day I'll have to paint them too .... and don't even get me started on the Battlewagon they ride around in!

The trick to building these guys was to glue the body and legs together and then add a thick piece of Plastic/card across the top of their shoulders (those big white blocks you can see in the pictures. I then added the arms and put on double-layered shoulder pads to make the torsos really big. After that it's really just armouring the rest of them up with spare parts and getting some power generator type things on their backs. Scale wise they're actually quite a bit bigger than Space Marine Terminators, so everything worked out well.


I'd honestly recommend building Mega-Nobz like this to any Ork player with decent conversion skills as the GW ones are a bit of a rip-off! It does help if you've built some Killa Kanz recently too as the spares from them came in very handy on these guys - plenty of armour plates and glyphs. The only real difference would be how you put the arms together as mine are basically Power Klaw parts mashed into spare gun bits for a mechanical look, but I'm sure you'd figure something out.