The Whispers Grow Louder...

Here I am sitting on an unfinished army that is pleading with me to get back to painting and I hear rumors of "new Tau" mounting by the day.  It's overwhelming and motivating at the same time.

I mostly stick to the painting side of things since I still have not been able to garner any appreciable playtime, but interesting things appear to be coming our way... especially if you are a fan of our fine blue friends.  This new image to float around the web certainly has me excited:

(Image linked from Warhammer Tau)

Back In Time For Fun

Well, well, well...  What do we have here?
Sixth Edition, you say?

Allies and Flyers and Changes... OH MY!!!

State of the Blog Address

Here we are, a quarter of the way through the year 2012.  The blog has been through some changes, but I have been through much bigger changes away from the blog.  A new place of residence kept me away from the paints for a while, but ultimately enabled me to have a dedicated place for the hobby.  I have been able to complete my first conversion.  I was even able to really look into how I present my models overall.  But, I must say that I have an even bigger change coming... 

The Basis of an Army and Delusions of Grandeur

Well, well, well.  What do you know.  I might actually have a playable army in the coming weeks.  Go figure.  All it took was...

...not letting myself get carried away with my goals for the future.

Pathfinder

I promised an update on a Pathfinder I was working on.  Here it is.

He is the first in the squad, so he's the guide for the rest of them.  But what did I do and why did I do it?  Let's jump in.

First (Minor) Conversion

I had bought some Green Stuff a while back and wanted to practice using it somehow.  I wanted to start by filling in gaps on some models, but never really got around to doing it.  Thus, I decided to use it on a FireWarrior conversion.  Specifically, I wanted to simply use it to adjust an arm position in order to adjust the look a bit. 

The model in question was this guy:

Situational Update

Well, we have internet at our new residence now.  It took a while since we had more important matters to which to tend.  This means that, for the most part, I was able to fix most of the coding issues for the blog and will put some finishing touches as we go. 

I have started some trials with Green Stuff and started testing a paint scheme on a Pathfinder, so there is a lot to catch-up and and present here.  I'll try to get the first update up sometime today.

More to come!!!

Codices and Rumours of Codices...

Peering through the dark haze of uncertainty, our scanners

show Tau on the horizon.  ETA: Unkown.

These are Dark times for the Tau...  or so every Tau related blog this side of Ke'lshan says. 

Bases and Setting the Tone

I was originally going to update the previous post with images of the updated bases on my models, but, after performing the updates, I realized that I was stepping into a much larger world I had long forgotten about.  After experiencing something for the first time all over again, I wanted to share a bit about that experience .

Adding Some Grass

I took some time from unpacking and getting furniture back together to start adding more details to those Fire Warrior bases.  First up for updating was the Fire Warrior walking along the broken wall. The details in that one are the best out of all of them, but I felt it could still use a little spicing up. 

Tweaking Bases

Well, I wanted to do some updating to the bases on the Fire Warriors.  The camouflage on the Fire Warriors certainly did work with the bases as they were, but they did such a good job of blending in that under low light they hardly looked painted. I aimed to fix that...

Renovations and Updates

I am in the process of trying to update the code for the blog.  In the mean time, I have given it a template that agrees with Blogger's various inner workings.  So, don't let the change in appearance alarm you.  I'm just working on making this blog better than ever. 

One of the consequences of my recent move is not having any internet in my home yet. So, I'm having to update the sight by other means.

I did take some time from the recent workload and updated my Fire Warriors.  I don't have a phone with a decent camera at the moment, which precludes me from taking the picks and uploading from there.  No worries though!  I am aiming to have the situation remedied by this weekend. 

Change is afoot here at Mechanical Volition.  Rest assured, though, that the result will be an easier way for us to present you with more modelling and painting, and a better reading experience for you.

Thank you for your time!

Moving Along

Well, our family's move is underway.  We've still got some furniture to bring over to the new residence, but most of it is complete.  I went ahead and set up my shelf in the new painting room and put my 40K stuff in it so that it would start to feel like we were actually living in this new-to-us house.

Devilfish: Preview of What is to Come

I put the Devilfish on the base for a preview of the finished product.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my work coming together.  The camouflage on the transport meshes well with the scenery on the base.

Well, here is a picture.  I'll let it talk.

If I can get an entire army looking like this, I'll be doing alright.  Still need to finish up this Devilfish, though.

Devilfishin'

I'm also trying to finish up the Devilfish troop transport.  I have the underside and starboard side left to complete.

I am going to have to make sure that the mud on the 'fish's landing gear matches that of the bases now that I've actally done a few.

Devilfish Base

I started making a base for my devilfish.  Why does my Devilfish need a base when there are "flying" bases for those?  Well, because I want one.  Everyone has a clear plastic "flying" base.  I want to have something unique that fits with the rest of my army.

A Haven Found

Well, it's been a long time... TOO long.

I have had a lot going on in 2011.  Hopefully, 2012 is much more palatable.  With this new tidbit, I believe it is shaping up to be a banner year for Mechanical Volition.

Back to Painting

I finally got back to painting last night and decided to start finishing up the crisis suit.  I was trying to think of different ways to add distinction to the jetpacks on the crisis suit.  While running ideas through my head, two major points came to mind:

1.) I was imagining this force as using experimental digital camouflage, since such a camo scheme is not typical Tau design.

2.) The weapons and jetpacks for the Crisis suits are made as removable and interchangeable.

That's when it hit me... 

While the Cat is Away....

I've had some trouble with my computer at home the last few weeks.  It's needing some new memory.  :P  I'm back now and wanted to share something that has occurred during the period of incommunicado.

About a year ago, I created a 3D CAD model of a Tau Fire Warrior's pulse rifle:

In the Bunker at Memphis

I took a break from it all and went with my wife and daughter on a vacation.  After getting back in the swing of things this week, its time to show you some pictures!!!

We went to Memphis Tennessee to meet friends and family and try to enjoy ourselves.  Of course we did the normal things like visit the zoo and go to a baseball game, but the real treat (for me anyway) was getting to run by Games Workshop's North American Headquarters!!!!

Awesome, right?! Well, I didn't get to stay too long as my little girl was tired (She is already rubbing her eyes in the picture.), but I did get to check it out.

I went into the Battle Bunker, which is the store and game center.  It was pretty awesome.  They had a mini-shrine of sorts to their productions through the years, everything from Mordheim minis to current releases.  On another wall, they had several armies painted from different races for Fantasy, 40K, and Lord of The Rings.  But the thing that interested me the most is where it all goes down...

 That's a lot of playing space!  Me likey! One table in particular caught my eye...

 Surprise!!! It's a cityscape!  My army would love to hide here!!!

I have some some close-ups!  I apologize in advance for the poor image quality.  I was frustrated with my normally ace camera on my phone (most of the pictures I load on here are taken on it) only to find out after I left I must have touched the photo lens when grabbing it from my pocket as there was a fingerprint on the lens itself. :P

Fortunately for my wife and daughter, they had a zone for breaks and relaxation with recliners, couches and tables. My wife noticed the banners on the wall above the seating arrangement and took a picture.

Here's a close-up of one of them...

Pretty Schweet, huh?!  Come to think of it, Elvis would be an awesome Ork!!!!  Rockboss Elvis... has a nice ring to it!

I went through the store section, but no picks there. Sorry.

I tried to pry some super secret information from the Games Workshop employees as well, but they were well trained.... too well trained for my Tau Water Caste buddies to sweet talk it out of them.  I'll bring my 'A'-game next time I''m there.

It was a fun time and I'd like to spend more time in the Bunker.  I will return.  Definitely the best experience I have had at a GW store.

Now it's back to the normal routine and painting my army when I got a moment to spare.  More to come, my friends... more to come!!!!