BigGrim Does Boarding Actions!

I hit my terminators with a heavy wash of Black Templar and left em to dry.

Gotta say, I’m no a fan of GWs new-ish habit of cutting minis up weirdly for their sprue placement. Two sections that are half a body but cut vertically instead of at the waist (like the old days) with a thrid part being the front of a leg. The excuse it’s for dynamic posing does not wash. We managed just fine in Ye Olden Days. It feels more like it’s designed to hinder conversion. I really do wonder what their mindset is for this change. That and the lack of options, one set of Lightning Claws (Sorry, twin-accursed weapons…) a single chainfist on the wrong side, the list goes on. Not a fan.

In more of an upbeat point, I do like their Void War bases, though it boggles my mind that they don’t do 40mm bases. I mean, it’s Boarding Actions and they don’t have bespoke bases for Terminators? The stars of Space Hulk? Mad. On the plus side, they have so many spare parts, that three boxes have been used to sort 40 od 40mm and 2 60mm bases. I dig em. Should have taken a picture before I mounted the Terminators. I DO still have one of the 60mm with a Dreadnought (Helbrute) standing upon it. Will get a picture of that soon.

I was unsure if I’d put this in here, given I’m considering a dedicated PLog for my Word Bearers but this is about Boarding Actions and I’ve built this force with the express intent of using them for BA. So here they are!

My first force for Boarding Actions and I’m going for a classic! Terminators! Not the thin-blooded lackeys of the Corpse Emperor, but noble and righteous Bearers of the Word! (I will eventually do a classic Imperial Terminator force because Space Hulk rocks.)

So, 2 boxes of the newest Chaos Terminators and one Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator armour later and I have a team ready to go.

Test drive of Green set complete! As before, the huge amount of work required to make the set easy to use was and vindicated again. It went together and came apart easily. I’ll be doing this with every set I do, without a doubt.

I will say, I feel the silver pillar toppers seem to get lost in this set. The temptation to repaint em gold is high. Up close (even in the photos, when you zoom in) you can see the shadows and grime that the homemade washes add but at range, they’re just a little, I dunno, bland?

Anyway, pictures! Enjoy!

So the day has been spent removing the walls from the foamcore, taking them all apart and cleaning them, same as before. This time however, I’d been careless with the lighting, so had to stipple Grey Seer over the yellow and red, then covered that with a coat of contrast Warpstone green, followed by a coat of Ork Flesh.

Oh yes, as you can see, this set, I did the pillar caps in silver. This was a rattle can of Army Painter platemail Metal, heavy washes of homemade black and brown washes, drybrush of GW Leadbelcher followed by a gentle brush of GW Runefang Steel.

But that’s set two completed, with additional breach-able walls. With that done, I’ll give it a proper photo shoot too soon but first? The additional terrain that came with the “Into the Dark” as well as the computers and misc terrain from one set of “Soulshackle”. So still some stuff to do before I even think about set three.

Screens have been given a wash of either Talassar Blue or Blood Angel Red Contrast paint. Once dry, a coat of ‘Ardcoat.

After that, I applied more of my Phil Team hazard stripe stickers. Once applied, yup, 2 coats of ‘Ardcoat, second coat applied after the first had dried to seal em up.

Got some minor patching up tp do for the breachable walls plates and where I over brushed on attached pillars but we are very close to our second completed set!

Tonight, I have applied The Mighty Brush monitor decals. As before, I used water with a drop of fairy liquid when moistening the decals.

This time I used some of the black decals as well as the white. They look good! We’ll see how they look with a blue wash tomorrow or Saturday.  (The Mighty Brush instructions do recommend allowingt the decals to dry for 24 hours, curing properly. Once they have done so, I’ll varnish them and apply the Contrast colours.

My green set of terrain is getting very close to completion. This evening, I have put a gentle drybrush of Pro Acryl Bold Titanium onto the energy coils.

I followed this with two thin coats of Word Bearers Red on some of the monitors and screens and three thin coats of Grey Seer on the other half. All have been given a coat of ‘Ardcoat. My plan is to use white Mighty Brush screen decals on the red screens, as before. This time, I intend on using the Black decals on the Grey Seer ones. see if they work with a Talassar Blue coat over the grey seer.

Finally, I received a Golden Button from the OTT crew and a fantastic wee write up! I’m incredibly grateful for the attention it’s brought the PLog and everyone’s upvotes have been wonderful to see. Thank you!

I created this mostly so anyone interested in the Boarding Actions game mode could see that while a lot of work is needed for this set, the results are (hopefully) worth it. I hope to have the PLogs QR code on display at the Pop Shop so that it can help their customers see how to get the best, at least as far as the prep work is concerned (I’d an average painter.), out of this set. If it has entertained and inspired you, then job done, I reckon!

Still, there’s more to come! I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy! 🙂

Time to try the lighting effect again, with added feathering attempts, thanks to Avernos feedback. Once again, we start with Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White. I targeted all the lights and energy coils again.

As before, I did half of the walls with Iyandan Yellow. Unlike last time, I used Blood Angels Red Contrast for the red lights. I like it a bit better than the Flesh Tearer Red but feel it’s still a bit too potent. Still, I’ll live.

One thing I will say is, having made the blue set in a more disciplined style, with the matching strips of wall, it was sooooooo much easier to ensure the walls were each different. It’s a lot harder when you’ve put them together willy-nilly like I did with this first attempt. When I build the third set, I’ll be constructing the walls strips just like I did the second time (the blue set.)

Finally, Talassar Blue on the coils once again. This time, I also did the tiny coils found on some of the detail plates I added to the bank pillar faces.

Got to the stage of getting Nazdreg Yellow on the silver to break things up. It worked a treat, as usual, in my opinion.

Having returned to this set after doing the Pop Shops set, I’ve seen that I was considerably more regimented with putting the walls together in identical rows. I was so much more slapdash on my set. There’s no matches here at all. It does not particularly matter but I feel that it allowed me to ensure that no two walls were the same with colour placement. Something to remember for the third set I’ll eventually have to do.

I also wanna point out that one the green set, I first tried sanding with a corded Dremel. Even at it’s lowest speed setting, it spun fast enough to melt the plastic, resulting in scraping with knife and sanding with emery boards. It simply resulted in more work. For the third set (and for trying to fix my buddy BA Commanders set), I intend on buying a reciprocating pen sander by DSPIAE. When I get one and try it, I’ll post about it here. 😉

Well, having handed off the store set to Pete, my desk seemed really empty. Only one thing for it!

Yup. I took my first personal set out of storage. This has the breech-able walls from one of the two Soul Shackle boxes I bought. I have the rest of the incidental terrain from that box and the core Gallowdark box to the side as well. I’ll deal with those once these walls are completed.

This set is at the same place as the entry called “Minor highlighting!” that I posted on Jul 30 2024. Time to break out the Nazdreg Yellow again!

We ain’t done yet! 😀

Well, here’s a completed board! I’m pretty pleased. All the sanding work was worth it. It went together and then apart again like a bloomin’ dream!

Here are some pictures with my Craftworld Eldar Vs Brett’s World Eaters. Please forgive the picture quality.

I’m handing this set over to Pete at the Pop Shop tomorrow. Hoping he’ll be pleased with it.

With this set done, is the Project Log to be closed? Nah. I have two sets of my own to do. One set is about halfway along, plus, given I got these sets through Kill Team, I have a good few of the extra parts, like consoles, generators and breachable walls, so I will show them here I think.

Below is an example of my set. As you can see, I’ve gone green for this one.

I hope you decide to hang around for the rest of the Boarding Actions terrain journey!

This evening I finished off little bits and pieces I’d missed. (It happens sometimes. You can’t see the forest for the trees, y’know?). Everything has been removed from the foam core and certain pieces given a last wee clean. Mostly male connectors where wash had seeped in.

Had a wee pile of masking tape and foam core strips. Taking it off was quite therapeutic. Is that no a bonny sight? 😀

I’ve packed it into it’s box and will take it into the Plastic Krak Heads play room (where my friends and I stream our games on YouTube) for some nice pictures and I’ll deliver it to the Pop Shop just in time for the Boarding Actions release!

I’ll post the “photo shoot” (I’m not THAT good a photographer…) and add them to this log.

Link to our Krak Heads channel. Most of the games are of a competitive 40K nature, though I wish to expand that. A few of us have moved into the Old World. Be aware, we’re not terribly PG, being a bunch of older fellas with a robust sense of humour.

https://www.youtube.com/@PlasticKrakHeads

So, with the decals given 24 hours to dry, I hit the red screens with Blood Angel Red Contrast and the green screens with Striking Scorpion Green. Once that was dry, all screens were coated with ‘Ardcoat Gloss Varnish. I also gave the hazard strips labels with another coat of varnish. With this, I feel this may well be finished!

Time to take the walls off the foamcore and dismantle the walls. Looking forward to pulling this all apart and checking how well it fits together for gaming. Wish me luck! 🙂

Todays endeavours started simply. Paint the screens either Incubi Darkness or Word Bearers Red.

Then I broke out the decals. These are the Displays & Screens Waterslide Transfers Decals by The Mighty Brush and they are extremely nice!
They can be bought on ebay or their webstore:

https://www.themightybrush.com/product/displays-screens-waterslide-transfers-decals/

I used warm water with a drop of washing up liquid, as they suggest. They are quite sticky. Lost two decals and two have minor folds but an hours work got readouts on sll of the screens. They are being left to dry for 24 hours, again, as the included instructions suggest.

Once they are dried tomorrow, I will test painting over one of the smaller ones in Contrast to tint the white, to see if they reactivate. If successful, we’ll have a new post tomorrow!

I want a method of seeing, at a glance, where the Bulkheads are. Obviously, hazard strips are an awesome way to do that.

One problem. I SUCK at hazard strips.

Enter a fella called Phil. He posted on one of the myriad 40K that he had created bespoke stickers for himself that fit on the top on the wall sections! One swift PM later, I paid him £12 for 60+ labels that will sort out all three Boarding Actions sets I’ll be working on!

He has since added them to his Ko-Fi shop!

https://ko-fi.com/phil_g/shop

https://ko-fi.com/s/163ecf7b94

The labels are excellent quality and are delightfully detailed! HIGHLY recommended!

I varnished the surface of the wall over the Bulkheads and once dry, applied all 20 labels required for one set. I then coated them with a coat of gloss varnish which ought to seal them in place.

Next up, I painted all the screens Pro Acryl Coal Black. There’s only two wall designs that have screens! Bonus!

After that, I applied a gentle and targeted drybrush of Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White on all the energy coils.

Sunday was a day of painting progress. It started with a first time attempt at a basic OSL (Object Source Lighting). It started with stippling GW Grey Seer around all the light fixtures and the power coils. I did the stippling with a small makeup brush.

I then did much more contained, focussed stippling of Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White. The results can be seen below.

While that dried, I dug out the Contract colours I thought I’d use.

Warp Lightning and/or Striking Scorpion Green for computer screen displays.

Flesh Tearers Red for lights and computer screen displays.

Iyandan Yellow for lights.

Aethermantic Blue for the power coils. This turned out to have nearly zero impact and was swapped out for Talassar Blue.

With the colours selected, I started. I stippled Iyandan over half of the lights, then Flesh Tearer over the second half.

I then stippled Aethermantic on the coils. There was practically zero change. I swapped out Talassar Blue and got a much better result.

Tonight I got two coats of Nazdreg Yellow on random sections of silver. This can make some sections look like gold, others quite like bronze.

Next, I think to try and get certain additional details done. Thinking red and white arrows on some of the gauges. Possibly red handles for some of the bulkhead wheels. Add some colour to some of the doors themselves. White and blue for some of the tesla coil details.

Once that’s done, I believe I’ll do some, if not all, the monitor screens. Thinking a mix of green and red.

A quick update today! Gave the newly darked walls a gentle drybrush highlight of Maccragge Blue. The silver was drybrushed with Leadbelcher.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how this is looking so now, I reckon it’s time to do the detail work. First up, GW Contrast Nazdreg Yellow over certain pieces for a gold effect. Then block in screens and do things like dial needles and the like.

Not doing skulls. On a GW kit, that way lies madness!

With the Leadbelcher blocked in, I took an evening to give the walls an all over wash of slightly stronger black ink wash. These are images 1 & 2.

The next night I did the same with slightly stronger brown wash, images 3 & 4.

I am leaving them to dry overnight again and I’ll see if the blue needs highlighting before highlighting the silver. Further updates soon. 🙂