All your base are belong to us!

During the week I finished the Wraiths, the second three has their bases detailed and that was that, as I said in an earlier post, the pictures would be posted later so here they are. Plus some pics of the Canoptek Spyders that were started today.

As you can see the Wraith bases have a fragment of slate and a skull from the Vampire Counts Skeletons, I think it adds a nice touch to the models.
The Spyders pictures feature the two halves of the main torso, heads and front legs which will have a gap between the limbs when they are built. The back section of the main body has lots of little Scarabs crawling around the insides of the model. One of the abilities of a Canoptek Spyder is the generation of Scarab Bases, as long as there is at least one Scarab base on the game table the Spyder can add another base per turn, and whilst they may be small, scarabs are extremely nasty, they posses the ability to degrade vehicle armour to zero and reduce the the armour saves of non vehicle models, so not only can these little blighters cause a wound in close combat they can effectively remove armour. (insert evil laugh here!)
The problem with the photos of the Spyders is that the black undercoat hides the detail on the model. Once I’ve done some work on them I will post some more photos.

A short update

I now have six Canoptek Wraiths, three of which have interchangable close combat weapon arms. All that is left to paint for them is the six ranged weapons. The kits include three tesla carbines and three particle casters so I have made up thee of each. According to the codex if a wraith is equipped with wip coils it can't have a ranged weapon so I have the option to mix the squad with close combat and ranged. I think I will have to play a game using all the variants before I decide on the best loadout option. Since I'm out gaming tonight and at astronomy club tomorrow pictures of the full squad will be posted on Saturday or Sunday.

Still on the wraiths

The second set of three Canoptek Wraiths are coming along well. Not as quickly as I was hoping but that's down to a lack of time and other stuff taking priority. I have finished the bases for them and they have had some of the slate fragments put on plus I've added a skull from a box of Vampire Counts skeletons that have been laying around for a few years. The skulls were undercoated white before being given a base coat of bleached bone. Once the base coat had dried each skull was given a wash with Gryphonne Sepia and when that had dried they were dry brushed with bleached bone and fixed to the base. The only thing left to do is attach the main bodies to the bases, paint the close combat weapons and finally paint the ranged weapons.
Although adding an extra box of Wraiths has added extra time to the project, I really think it's worth the time and as I was painting them the other night I looked over at the pile of boxes and noticed how much it has shrunk since I started the project. It seems that there is an end in sight, it may still be a few weeks away but it's definitely there and I'm really starting to look forward to taking the models to the shop and playing my first game with them.

Wraith count, almost at six

I nipped down to the shop yesterday after work as there was a box of Canoptek Wraiths waiting for me. I rushed them home, opened the box and clipped off the two halves for one of the close assault arms. Using one of the flensing blades from the previous kit, I did a test fit to see if it would slot in. It did so my plan to be able to swap out the flensing blades for Whip coils is looking good. The second set have had the tails, which are in two sections, glued together and fixed to the bases. The main body segments are built and they, along with the tails and individual carapace parts, have been undercoated with Chaos Black spray. The segments and the tails have all been base coated with Boltgun Metal. I'll post pics tomorrow, If all goes well and my head stays focussed, I should have the second set of Wraiths finished by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. I think that the fact the the Wraiths have gone so well and I am so pleased with how well they have worked out that my thoughts of getting the Necrons finished and on the table can't come quick enough. I just hope that the first game I play with them is a win with lots of losses for the other player. Althpugh to be honest I will just be glad to be able to take the to the shop and show them off. If you read this blog regularly you should have realised that I don't consider myself to be a brilliant painter, I enjoy painting, more than gaming, and I'm not really the bragging type, but I honestly think that the first three wraiths are probably the best models I have ever done. They have certainly surprised me as they are much larger than they appear on the box. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do the Spyders or the Tomb Blades yet. I just hope that the rest of the kits are as easy to complete as the wraiths have been.

We shall see!

Ta ta

Wraiths!

So the state of play is that three Canoptek Wraiths are finished, in less than a week, and I have to admit that I am rather pleased with the results. So here’s a few pictures first is the sprues, then the tails, then bodies then finished models. As you can see the first ones have had the Whip coils fixed in place, and they don’t have the underslung weapons mounted. The next three models will have the option to change the whip coils for flensing blades, not as deadly as the coils but the blades allow the models to take a ranged weapon option. This means that I can either have one squad of six wraiths all fitted with whip coils, or a squad of three with whip coils for close assault and three with blades and a ranged weapon option.
Anyway, enough babble, here’s the pictures!

Yes, the above pictures are actually the same tail, the variants can be seen in the photos of the finished models a bit further down.

No, they’re not dead, this is the underside.

Top area of the carapace

Whip Coils

So there you have it, three monstrous, nasty, hacky slash death beasties.
There’s another three on the way.
Sweet dreams

Hack, slash, death

Just a quick update, three Canoptek Wraiths are almost complete. The main bodies were built in sections. The carapace comprised of three separate components which were easily put together. Each model has three main body parts that consist of upper and lower halves and four “legs” on each. The front section also has two extra arms on which are mounted the close assault weapons, in the case of these three particular models they have been fitted with the rather nasty “whip coils”. for the next three I’m going to try and arrange the attacking arms so that the whip coils and the standard “slicey death blades” (technical term) are interchangeable. The models each have a coiled tail section, this results in a beastie that looks like the result of an unholy union between a robotic snake a cybernetic centipede. On the whole I like these models and they have, so far, been the easiest build of the project. Every part was sprayed black, the tails and main body was given a coat of Boltgun, the carapace was very lightly  dry brushed with Boltgun and the detail picked out with Goblin Green and Moot Green from the new range. The tails and body parts were washed with Nuln Oil, also from the new range. The legs were left black and given a liberal drybrush with Scorpion Green. I’ve made a start on the bases, each base has been given a coat of Armageddon Dust from the new texture range. I think I’ll give each one a wash with Devlan Mud, then a highlight of one of the mid browns and a very light drybrush with, possibly, Iyanden Darksun or Tausept Ochre. I’m still working on the base and so far the Armageddon Dust is the only definite at the moment.
the last piece that needs to be painted is the under-slung weapon, once that’s done and the bases are finished I will post photos of the finished wraiths. I know that I should be posting pictures of the work in progress but I wasn’t aware of how quickly the Wraith would be finished that it got completely overlooked. I started these models on Sunday evening and, if all goes well, the current three should be finished on Friday. With three more waiting at the shop to be collected on Saturday I will get on with those and post the work in progress pic of those. Although the close assault weapon arms have been fixed with the whip coils the arms themselves simply plug into the sockets allowing the arms to be swapped for ones with the standard assault weapon so a visit to bitz box will solve the problem and I will be able to field the wraiths with the standard load out if the need arises, although I think that Five Canoptek Wraiths as a dedicated close assault option should prove to be fairly destructive on the table.
Next time I’ll tell you what I finally decided on regarding the bases and I’ll post those work in progress pics.
TTFN

Ooh, I have a Stalker!

Triarch Stalkers that is, and there’s two of them. The underslung weapon mount has been magnetised, admittidly not as well as I’d hoped because the magnets haven’t taken to the glue very well so the magnets have a tendency to break off. If this becomes too much of a problem I will fix the two most lethal weapons in place and be done with it.
Any way, on with the pics!

Three Canoptek Wraiths next.
Ta ta