Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tallarns!!! An army I can stick with?

So, Im gonna dust off the blog here, its been a while since Ive posted anything useful/entertaining ;)

For everyone that replied to my January post thank you. Some of the techniques mentioned have helped deal with the hand tremors. Combining that with my generally lazy nature when it comes to painting, I think I have several methods that should get me back to gaming/modelling.

As the title suggests, Im going to be resurrecting my Tallarn army. I sat down and realized that theyre my most expensive army, and one of the least played in the 10 years Ive owned them, they never even made it to any tourneys. They also seem pretty rare these days, like 1 in 30 or less compared to Cadians.

So, theyre mostly painted, but theyre painted at my 8 years ago skill level. The tanks/apc's have alot of nifty conversions- which have since been done better as bitz on the IG accesory sprue. And I've always hated IG tanks, theyre like some sort of tank caricatures that have ridiculous layouts and features. I know its an imaginary game- but I like to imagine my little toy soldiers with tanks that have evolved past trench warfare.

So, my big plans-
  • 1-Build a playable list with what I have and start working off the 3 years of gaming rust I have.
  • 2-See if the existing paint jobs are worth saving/upgrading. If not, work up a new color scheme and rotate stripping by squads to repaint.
  • 3-Conversions- The tallarn troopers are metal, and hence limited in selections and weapon options(as well as availability). Im wanting to convert some shemaghs (they arent turbans!) and see how they can match up with Cadian bodies. I may just sculpt them onto the torsos if it seems easier to get the cloth right that way.
  • 4-Add in a Combat Labor/Engineer Platoon- mostly catachan models since I have TONS of the lil bastards. They represent a lower caste, hence are the trench diggers and cannon fodder( but not conscripts).
  • 5-Tanks/APC's- This is the most ambitious part, phasing out the craptastic GW IG tanks with what will hopefully be more practical yet appealing models. Best case, the designs can be cast for easy expansion and a fully mounted force. Also designs to reflect desert warfare(water stowage, wider tracks for sand etc etc)
  • 6-After all that crap is done- add an AirCav element. Converting a 1/35th Hind 24 would provide an size and role equivalent model to a Valkyrie.

To keep on top of all this, I could use your guys help :) Any links of well done Tallarn stuff, specifically updated conversions would be awesome for ideas on what to do with my own. I also could do with some of you guys harassin me to keep working on one army- otherwise my 40k ADHD will have me doing ork,sm and eldar stuff all at once and I'll never get anything done ;)

In return for the help Im hoping I can document easy methods of painting and converting, the basics of airbrushing for 40k models, and maybe even some casting FAQ's if I get some good tallarn heads and tanks worked up :)

Oh, and of course some cool figs to oogle over ^_^

7 comments:

  1. Hooray for posting and geeking again.

    Guess this means I can let you go another month or two before doing my routine "not dead?" check. :-p

    Get to work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Update for anyone watching- I've decided the paint on the existing figs is pretty much gonna have to go.

    So, sculpts and conversions will be worked upon while the stripping of the rest commences.

    2 Shemagh covered heads have been completed-and they gotta be done on the torso to get the cloth to lay properly- otherwise they look like retarded ninja heads.

    Pics to follow sometime tomorrow- might even get a couple more heads done- the 'prototypes' took about 30-45 minutes each, and look decent.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome back to blogging and good choice of army. Always nice to see another guarder in the group.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a ton of stuff that I have been working on over the years here:
    http://www.astronomican.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6055

    sorry its not really organized in any real logical order. For just straight pictures my photobucket is tallarn_bucket - ton of stuff in there...

    the other guy who has some cool stuff is sandwyrm, he goes for 'set back chimera' while I go for predator turrets...

    http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2010/04/converting-set-back-chimeras-part-i.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Tallarn, you've got some nice work there. Between your and Sandwyrms stuff theres some motivation :)

    You both have good apc conversions, Im probly going to end up using some similar ideas. But eventually my tanks are going to have an entirely different track/hull arrangement. GW really should have updated the chimera & Leman russes shape when they made the new sprues :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. on the medusa conversions I tried some external tracks:

    http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee62/tallarn_bucket/?action=view&current=completefrontright.jpg

    only thing I dont like is how low that inner hull sits to the ground, but with a proper blade on the front you wouldn't notice... and the look from the side was worth all the effort.

    no matter which direction you decide to go, we'll be watching!

    ReplyDelete