Hamsta's Path of Conquest, The Spires

Ok, so I decided to get cracking on the Spires first. Of the 3 factions I am putting together for the Path of Conquest (yes, I’m mad).

I still love them, but the Spires are my 4th tier faction… (see “and so it begins for more), so they were the obvious choice for me to start working on first. This would give me a chance to get used to the nature of the plastic (which is good). Every company uses a slightly different recipe, so every companies “hard plastic” behaves slightly differently.

I was least worried about screwing these up, so they were the obvious first thing to build.

I took a few notches out of the side of the bases during clean up as i got used to the “bite point” of the plastic, but this was kind of the plan, so i wasn’t too fussed.

These were far and away the models from the entire range that I was least excited about, and once I got the in my hand, BOY WAS I WRONG. I love these guys now, there is are so many little details tucked away, the multiple head options, the pose-ability of the arms/weapons, the “banners” across the shoulders. In short, I’m going to be adding more Brutes to my force as the Path continues.

NOTE – The middle of the 3 will actually be turned about 30 degrees clockwise in game so his right hand is “cocked” to throw a big punch, whilst his left is up for defence. But the blades are so big, that it hid all the detail for the photo. This is why he’s not looking where he’s going.

My only disappointment with the 2 player set (which I was aware of before I bought it), was that it does not come with any command models. From my brief flicks through the rules thus far, I think that pretty much every close combat unit would benefit from a standard bearer and a leader. Clones can’t have the later, but they needed a banner. Banners are far and away the easiest rank and file conversions you can do.

So I removed a spear above and below the “hand”, drilled it out until I could slip a length of brass rod into the hand. I started with a 1mm hole and added about 0.5mm to the size of drill bit each time until I got to a brass rod that wasn’t too thin, but still left some meat on the hand to look like it was actually holding something. I then cut a cross piece from the same rod, and used a needle file to create socket for the 2 parts to site part way into each other (this greatly increases the contact point, and allows the superglue to do it’s thing).

I figured that, like everything else, the banners of the Spires would be grown, not made, so I used a file to scuff up the brass rod, but it wasn’t enough, so I then dabbed on some GW Stirland Mud onto the rod. I left it thin in places, and blobbed it up in others to give a non uniform appearance.

I wasn’t 100% sure what I would add to the pole to make it an actual standard (a flag didn’t feel right to me), but I’d come back to that.

I also added a small cork “rock” to the base, just to bring the standard bearer up to more of a focal point for the unit.

The drones them selves are pretty straight forward to build. I stuck the bodies to the centre of the round bases, figuring this would give me plenty of room to find suitable poses, etc. I then added the spear arms to the body, before added the spears themselves (once the poly cement had had a chance to stiffen up a bit).

NOTE – some of the spears are held in the hand pointy side down. This is for the raised arms to make them look like they are either about to chuck them, or are striking over the shields.

I did all 24 at once, so once I got the 24th one done at each stage, the 1st was ready for the next.

I left these over night, and then set to work on the shield arms. After dry fitting a few different shields, to a few different arms, to few different bodies, I could tell that as long as the forearm was horizontal then any of the shields would fit correctly, and be raised of the base by about 1mm (perfect), so I just cranked out all of the shield arms.

I left the shields off, as i will paint these separately and add after with a small dab of superglue. This allows better access to the drones themselves, and the back of the shield.

Finally, I added the heads, looking  across the shields, or down the spear to give the impression they almost know how to fight.

The last photo in this post shows the drone with arms and heads.

I don’t think I’m going to need these until Step 2 of the path, but I was on a roll, and I had just learnt that as part of my Chemo-therapy, but blood platelet level was likely to drop. Given how prone I am to stabbing myself with a modelling knife, brass rod and or pin vice/drill, I thought best to get as much assembly done as possible before I started the treatment, so on with the clones.

The detail level on these is MUCH higher than on the Drones, who are not much more than bone encased sacks of meat. The Clones have muscle definition, fascial features, clothing, armour, quivers, etc. So the clean up on these was a little more involved, but there is only 12 of them, so…

Being a ranged unit, I didn’t intend to charge with these guys very often, so adding a banner seemed a waste of points, but the leaders reroll works just as well for shooting as it does for stabbing, so he was a must (plus the headdress and held bow are awesome details).

I left the quivers off for now for much the same reason I left the shields off the drones. Plus, I am not yet sure where they will be mounted. I do like the waist mounted quivers (it’s how I learned to shoot my bow), but since these quivers are so long (I think the clones have a draw length of around 4 feet!!!), I’m not sure yet, but I’m on no rush, so I have time to wait.

Not using the standard pieces left me some spares, so I turned my attention back to the Drones standard I was converting.

The banner the Clones have is a bit to complex for the drones IMHO, since it uses fabric, decoration, etc. The Drones are more of a simple is best kind of group. But the web style decoration piece does look grown, so that made the cut.

I then read that the Drone standards actually give off pheromones/spores, so I wanted to go with some sort of census type thing. Two of the spare heads from the Brutes were about the right size, and I figured the Biomancers would be ok with a little recycling, so a couple of dismembered Brute head were attached. I used more Stirland Mud to rough up the back of the heads (where they glue to the Brute bodies) and also cover the joints between the new plastic parts and the banner poles. I plan to use some cushion stuffing, or something similar, to create a whispy smoke-like cloud of pheromones/spores coming from the eye sockets, but this will come post painting. I think I have some of the fungus ball parts from the GW Goblin fanatics kicking around, so these might get used instead, but we’ll see, For now, he’s done too.

I then set to work on the Abomination.

This was done at around 3am, after I couldn’t sleep (did I mention I’m on a lot of meds), so no pics. The PDF assembly instructions on the Para Bellum website are clear enough, so I just dry fitted pieces to check, and then built a few sub-assemblies before bringing them all together.

For those new to the hobby, sub-assemblies in this case meant I built the lower body, the torso, the head, the upper legs, the lower legs, and all the feet separately.

I then dry fitted the torso to the lower body to work out the angle the body needed to be to get the torso where I wanted it (I did NOT glue it yet as the extra weight would mess up the next step). Then glued 1 of the upper legs in place with poly cement, as this allows me to move it around a little until I am happy. I then used SUPERGLUE to attach the next upper leg (diagonally opposite from the first), and added a tiny drop of superglue into the socket of the 1st leg. a quick shot of activator (I’m quite impatiant at 3 am), and I had a model that only needed 1 hand to hold in the rough position I wanted.

I then went back to my poly cemmet for the 3rd and 4th upper legs. Again, once I was happy, a tiny drop of superglue into the socket and he/she/it could “stand”.

I then played around with the lower legs until I was happy. I figured it the ankles joints were all at roughly the same height, I could sort out any minor differences using the various feet options the kit includes (It comes with something like 12 or 16 different feet options).

I was going to use the gripping front feet to have it climbing over a wall, but could make the angles work (next time), so went with the option standing up on it’s toes. I don’t recall which back feet I used, sorry.

I did however change the angle of the front left leg. I brushed on some more poly cement into the joint, then remelting it, and bent the leg forward, raising the ankle and placing the out stretched foot to look like it taking a step. I then glued the other 3 feet to the base. This gives every joint of the legs 2 contact points, which makes the overall piece much stronger and less prone to sagging whilst the cement goes off.

I glued the torso and head on next. There isn’t a huge amount of movement in these pieces, so your options are limited. The “horns” on the side of the head stick out a fair way too, and you need to know where they are.

Finally I added the arms. The shoulder pads and the head horns limit your options hear (hence why you need to have the head in place). I wanted a swiping look to the hands, so just played around until I found a look I was happy with.

Sorry, no pictures of the Abomination being built (as I said, VERY late, tired, dark, didn’t think to come back in the morning, etc).

Finally I added a few rocks to the base, just to break up the big flat area. This is real rock I keep for just such uses, and was simply superglued to look like the Abomination is stepping over them.

As you can see, the entire force was then mounted to scrap wood via masking tape. I turn it sticky side up, and use a few scraps on the ends to stick it down. If I need to , I may add a few smaller pieces part way along for added stability.

The abomination is mounted on 3 old Tamiya paint pots via bluetac (postertac I think it’s called in the Colonies). The pots are then held together with a couple of elastic bands. These glass pots give some real weight, making holding larger models easier (I’ll likely mount the Brutes each to a single pot once primed).

I noticed after I put the camera away that the banner (for the Drones) had been left upstairs, so he also got mounted a spare pot, and was primed at the same time.

I then realized I’d totally forgot the Drones shields and the Clones quivers, so off I went again to get more scrap wood and tape.