Monday, March 28, 2011

Thinking ahead, Diecon GT



Seeing as I have 2 months until the Diecon GT, I realized I need to get working on lists and testing lists. It is a 2000 point tournament, and I'll be using my Blood Angels successors, so I have the basics for working on this. I have two ways I can go with this, actually three, but I'm leaning towards either Deepstrike or an Armored Spearhead. I could go hybrid, but for the first lists I'll be working with one of those two themes.

My first I came up with a quick list that seems somewhat solid, but may get some tweaking.

Deepstrike list #1.

Dante                                                                                               225
Mephiston                                                                                        250
10x ASM w/JP, Meltagun, Flamer, Powerfist, Infernus                      245
10x ASM w/JP, Meltagun, Flamer, Powerfist, Infernus                      245
10x ASM, Meltagun, Flamer, Powerfist, Infernus                              230
Stormraven  Hurricane, TLMM, TLLC, EA                                      245
Stormraven  Hurricane, TLMM, TLPC, EA                                      245
Furioso Dread  Blood Talons, HvyFlamer, Magna, EA                     165
Furioso Dread  HvyFlamer, FragC, EA                                            150

Total                                                                                               2000

This list has Mephiston with the non-jumper ASM squad + furioso (either) in a raven to hit hard targets, and be a mobile hood. The other raven + furioso, and 2 ASM squads (one with Dante) act as spoilers. This list can all deepstrike in, or if that looks like a bad idea all be deployed on the table. Constant movement with the ravens should help keep them alive, as well as give them the ability to hit armor and hard spots with their weapons loadouts (go go machine spirit). Overall this isn't a bad list, a bit on the low end of 'boots in the mud', but it has plenty of killing potential, and mobility.



The next list (preliminary) is the Armored Spearhead list #1.

Armored Spearhead list #1.

Mephiston                                                                                           225
10x Tac  Flamer, MM, Pfist, combi-melta + Rhino EA, SB, HKM       290
10x Tac  Flamer, MM, Pfist, combi-melta + Rhino EA, SB, HKM       290
15x Death Company, Bolters, 2x infernus, 2x pfist, 2x pweap +
       LR Crusader EA, SB                                                                   685
5x Assault Term, 3x LC, 2x TH/SS + LR EA, SB                               485

Total                                                                                                 2000

This list has Mephiston with the DC in the Crusader, as a mobile hood bubble and massively effective tarpit/cleaner unit. The two Tac squads combat squad, with half in each Rhino. The Rhino's follow the LR's up the board to grab further out objectives, while the combat squaded Tac's foot slog to nearer ones. Putting the heavy weapons into the foot units and getting them into cover gives some utility on their defense. While leaving the flamers in the meched up tac's gives them a nice little out the firepoint template, and when debarked the ability to potentially deal with larger groups of infantry.

The LR's are mobile bunkers, and their cargo is deadly. The assault terms are there to crush Hard targets, tanks, dreads, etc. It doesn't hurt that the god hammer has it's TLLC's for hard target removal, and the Crusader has it's Assault Cannon. The Rhino's are backup anti-tank with their Hunter-Killer Missiles.      


Overall these lists look 'on paper' reasonably solid, though I'm not sure if they are feasible yet. For their themes they each work, but could be narrowed down or generalized more as needed. I'm leaning more towards the first list for initial testing, but I'm open for input to help tighten each of the lists up. Just don't suggest vindicators, because I don't happen to have any, and I'm not buying any anytime soon heh.

Feel free to comment, critique, give suggestions, I sure could use the input!                          

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Space Wolves 1500ish point force finished!

Well, being sick didn't help, but finally finished the Wolves force I've been working on. Pics pics pics... and me bemoaning my need of a good lightbox with every single shot I took. Luckily some of the issues could be dealt with in photoshop... but the quality of the pictures is still in the middlin' range. I do have a lightbox in the design phase right now (materials are on hand, but I haven't gotten to putting them together).

So without further ado...

Custom rune priest, this pic does no justice to the runes on the sword.


I leaned a few of the wolves in a stance which gives them a running look, this is one of them, and I love how his face came out.

Another with a great face, my pics don't do these figs justice at all.

You can see some of the blizzard theme which had me putting snow on the figs as well as the bases.

Go go wolf scouts... some with 'blizzard effects'.


My kingdom for not having to build the lightbox myself... but overall I love how these wolves came out.


Wolfguard, three of them, this one having on of the more expressive faces got a bit more picture attention.

Custom wolf lord, which unfortunately didn't come out too well in this pic, but looks great in person.
I'll retake pics of some of these for my archives in the next few days, after I get my new lightbox built. I just need to get down to measuring, cutting, drilling, pinning, and taping and it will be done. Overall this project took a lot longer than it should have, due in no small part to spending a lot of time lately helping my wife get her business up and running. But now that things have settled down a bit, and I have things back in order again... I'll be getting started on my next project! Blood Angels successor chapter (name hasn't been settled on, but the paint scheme has).

Yes, 35 jump assault marines so far.


At this point I have the following done for this next project. And I've set a deadline on getting all of the BA miniatures and models in my storage cabinet finished... April 15th. This could be a tight deadline, but overall I think it is doable. The project has Astorath the Grim, a custom built Dante, Mephiston, 40 jp asm (magnetized jump packs & backpacks to allow for jump or foot), 30ish death company, 30 tac/dev, 15 scouts, 5 sanguinary guard,  2 baal preds, 3 furioso dreads, 2 more storm ravens, a LR crusader, some repainting on some figs I have that fit the color scheme I've settled on (like 30ish), 4 rhinos/razorbacks, and repainting/touch-up on a god-hammer LR.

Needless to say, the next few weeks will be fun, and have lots and lots and lots of red paint!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Uugh...

Posting is delayed until next week, some kind of bug hitting the family has my time totally blown so far this weekend. So Monday I'll be back in the saddle with posting.

Be well all.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Posting delay

Unfortunately my post updating the finish of the Space Wolves I'm working on, as well as my tips/tutorial on weathering (with pics) are delayed until either tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday. I've run into a bit of trouble with my camera, as well as having spent 12 hours today working on helping my wife get her new business going. So, tomorrow I'll have things going smoothly again.

Until the 'morrow!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Weathering figs/models without powders.

Many people seem to see weathering of miniatures and models as some arcane science practiced only by those with a lot of skill, or a lot of time. I'm here to say this isn't the case. Weathering can be a very simple process, but you need to know some of how to go about it. There are hundreds of techniques covered by as many or more blogs about weathering. Many go on about weathering powders, which I personally have never used. Others use salt, hair spray, or other techniques. All of those techniques have their place, and can be very useful.

I use 3 different techniques, which I will document further on Thursday with pics, but today I'll be going over some of the techniques without visuals to give you the idea of how to do it without pushing you towards using my exact technique (since everyone finds their own way of doing things that fits their painting style).

My drop pod posts have discussed one method I find is very good for large area weathering, but it also works for small areas (like shoulderpads, legs, etc). This is the use of masking fluid over a base weathered area.

For this technique you will need a few things, which you likely have most of already. First a couple paint brushes (on should be rather worn out), the worn out one being your 'stippling' brush. A base color for the weathering, and 2 colors used for 'rust'. In this case I find a dark color like black or a charcoal grey works great as the base coat for the weathering. Then use of browns in two shades for rust, in this case I used GW Scortched Brown, and P3 Bootstrap Leather. An alternative to the P3 is GW Snakebite Leather, or using Scortched Brown (3 drops) + 2 drops yellow + 1 drop white + 5 drops water to make a more yellowed uppper color for the rust.

You will also need a sponge and masking fluid. The sponge is easy to get, open a blister pack for nearly any miniature and you have enough sponge for a number of weathering uses. I use Winsor & Newton Art Masking Fluid, which is a bit expensive locally (Micheal's $13.99). This works VERY well, gives you enough for hundreds of miniatures and dozens of models, and dries quickly (within a minute).

Prime you model or miniature!!!! Let me repeat, Prime your miniature!!!!

This step is by far the most important for ANY painting. Primer has special binders in it that help it to 'grab' onto the surface, which gives a much more stable and durable surface to paint on. If you don't prime, don't complain when the paint flakes off, rubs off immediate, or acts very oddly while painting.

Next you give a nice thin coat of your weathering base coat, I find that thinning down your paint to the consistency of milk and working on several layers to cover is the best way to work in general. It takes longer but gives a much nicer look and feel to the miniatures and models.

Once that is done, get out your stippling brush and the darker color you will be using to make the 'rust' effect. Don't be shy at this point with it, and don't worry if you seem to have to much on the area you work on. Just dip, brush off until it's getting closer to dry brushing levels on the brush, and start quickly pushing the brush onto the surface. Wiggle it, smash it in, whatever you like. Just remember you can go back over with that stippling brush using the base color and 'fix' any overdone areas.

Once that is done, let it dry for a bit, say 5-10 minutes. This lets it set up more, and bind into the base layer. Never hurts to give a bit between layers, since it also gives you a chance to look over what you've done and see if you need to fix any errors.

Take the lighter color, and do as for the first color layer. Just have fun, but do it a bit lighter than the first color layer. This layer is the 'outer' layer of rust, which tends to be more exposed and lighter in color than the deeper rust. If you hit an area 4 times with the darker color, then 1 or 2 times with the lighter is just right.

Let it dry for a bit as before, then get out the sponge and masking fluid. I recommend cutting your blister pack sponge into long strips. Since that gives you a small squarish end to dip and use and the longer area to hold onto. Don't worry about the fluid getting on your hands, it peels off in less than a minute into a rubbery bit of garbage.

Dip the sponge into the fluid bottle, dab it on a piece of paper, paper towel, or something. Then just dap it onto the weathered area you've been working on. Let the texture of the sponge help keep it irregular. And feel free to let it be a bit heavily applied. Any area covered by the fluid will be your ending area of weathering (in this case rust).

Go ahead and paint up the model as you normally would, paint over the rough masking fluid area too (it won't hurt it at all). And once you are happy with your work, take some blue tac (or even an old tooth brush) and dab it and rub it along the areas covered in the masking fluid. It will come off in rubbery balls and strings, and the paint over it will flake away.

In the end you get a very convincing effect (such as in my newest drop pod post).


The next weathering effect I'd like to give some tips for is oil/chemical/dirt stains. If you look at pictures of old WW2 tanks you'll see discolored areas which are obviously made from chemical spills, or oil running from different fittings. This is by far the easiest weathering effect to do, and with Imperial Tanks for 40k it is VERY fitting.

You'll need 3 things, which I guarantee you have. A fair sized brush, a chosen color of the staining, and water.

Take your chosen color and on a palette add water until the paint becomes very very very very thin. Something along the lines of 1 brush of paint to 10 of water. You now have a seriously thin pigment wash. Take your brush, load it up, DO NOT BRUSH OUT ANYTHING. Then apply it with an upward brush stroke to the bottom of the fittings, edges, or areas you wish to have the stain coming from. Let the edge of the object pull the wash out of your brush, and let it run down the side of the model. This will give a very natural stain/drip effect.

Let it dry, reapply if it isn't heavy enough for your tastes.

Pretty simple really, but it helps make a model stand out, and making it feel used and not off the 'factory floor'.


Another easy to do weathering effect comes from a mistake I made and learned to like. I won't go into details on the mistake, but the quick and easy on it is 'prime from too close'.

Most primers say to use them from 8-12 inches away. Which tends to work pretty well. But I have found that if you do it from say... 4 inches away... at times you get the effect I like to call 'cracked looking area'. This can be pretty sweet, but I don't necessarily recommend it for everyone. It's not a guarantee that closer priming range will give it to you, and you definitely have ZERO control on where it shows up. But if you try it, you can end up with some sweet cracking effects that give the feeling of age to a model, or unrepaired damage.

Comments, critiques, arguements, helpful hints, feel free to reply to your hearts content!

Space Wolves Drop Pod, WIP #2

Having found that last night was a tiny bit optimistic in finishing the drop pods (due entirely to trying to watch a movie and falling asleep), I've gotten more done today. In this post I'll show the current progress, as well as a bit of explanation on the weathering process thought process. And expand upon upcoming work on the pods (upcoming as in tonight).

When last we left the pods, they had been through priming, shade/weathering layer with masking fluid sponging, and a basecoat layer.

Next I went on to do a shade layer, then a recoat with the base coat color. I used my airbrush at a roughly 45 degree angle to 'touch up' with the base color and leave the shade color in the recesses of the model. Then I used Space Wolves Grey to highlight, using the airbrush at a roughly 80-90 degree angle to give the appearance of lighting from nearly directly above. After that I went back and began to peel the masking fluid, using a mixture of blue tac and a hobby knife (depending on how easily it wanted to come up).

This brings the models to a point shown in the following pictures.



This gives a very effective look of heat damage rusting and paint blasting that a drop pod would get through atmospheric interaction. Metals that are heated rust much faster, due to thermal chemical reactions. And going through an atmosphere will allow any water in the atmosphere to vaporise and interact with the metal in a highly energized state. So paint blistering, flaking, and blow off as well as the rust growth will be rapid in an atmospheric drop.

Next I began the detail work on the exterior. With a brassy gold being used on all of the rivets/bolts, and the aileron pistons in a dull black/charcoal grey. As well as touching up a bit of the weathered area that got scratched with a bit of black in the scratches.



I've also begun to touch up the areas of the upper thruster and panelling with black and dark dark greys. And I'll be giving burn scoring on the ailerons from thruster burn. Once that is finished I'll be using a brassy gold on the retro thrusters on the bottom of the model. Panels for the intakes near the doors will be getting some highlighting from above also. As well as a steely metal on the intake tube grates.

Once that is finished I'll be going to the interior, for a bit at least. Working on the door interiors by repainting the ribbed areas of the doors used to leave the pod. I'll be doing them in a black/charcoal grey, then weathering them with a steel/silver chipping effect to show wear and tear of embarking and deployment out of the pods.

I may have another update on the pods tonight, but that is up in the air. I will be working on a post about weathering without powders tonight.

Comments, critiques, etc etc always welcome! Feel free to post your thoughts!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Wolves Drop Pods, WIP

The work is coming along steadily, with a number of steps towards completion finished.

I started with a shade/weathering layer of black, then stippled it with beastial brown and a leather brown. Over which I sponged a fair amount of masking fluid. This will allow me to use blue tac to remove the paint over the weathering, leaving the weathering exposed, after I've worked up to the highlight layer. Masking fluid can be a bit expensive, but you get enough to do hundreds of miniatures and models in one bottle. I've found that the sponge from miniature blisters works perfectly to lay it down for weathering.



These pictures give a good look at the 'rust' effect I've worked up with the stippling of browns on a black base coat. This gives a nice beaten and rusted look, and with a drop pod rusting would be normal. As thermal effects will cause rapid oxidation of metals.

Next I layed down the base coat of shadow grey. I'll be going up to a shade layer in recesses using Fenris Grey. This will then be followed by a touch up with shadow grey to remove some of the 'blotchiness' you get from up then down shading and highlighting. This way of working allows for specific effects and the use of layers to fade together in more convincing ways.



The shade layer being next I'll be posting again in a few hours to show the progress. These pods should be completed tonight. I've been wondering if I should finish up the interior or leave it a grey/black as it is now. Since detail painting at this stage would be problematic at best on the interior. I may do some highlighting and minor detailing though, as it would be nice to see when on the table deployed with doors open.

Comments, critiques, etc always welcome! More to come in a few hours!

Updates updates... yeah

Okay, the weekend got away from me, family and such suddenly taking away my free time. I did get some work done, nearly finished the detail work on all 33+ wolves, and assembled, primed, and initial shading on both drop pods. I'll have pics later today, once I get things finalized.

I'll be doing the wolves with a mix of resin cast (by me) bases, and flat bases, with a mix of snow to make them into winter bases. Seeing as the Space Wolves come from a world that is ice and snow bound most of the time, I felt it would be thematic to do it that way. I need to get out the casting rubber for the next project, I need to replicate some bases for the Blood Angels successor figs I'm getting ready to desprue a bijillion bits for.

I also need to revisit the finished stormraven and give it a little more tlc on the shading I think. Oh, and I still need to finish up the last 10 figs for the Salamanders batch I started last November, and get them up on eBay.

So, onward we go. 'Til later today!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Space Wolves Update pt 1

Having totally forgotten that my youngest sons birthday dinner was postponed to this evening, my schedule got a bit messed up. I did get some work done, but it was basically putting together 19 space wolves in PA and 5 wolf scouts, and getting them primed. So no pics, just a little update blur for now.

I will be getting some pics and things up tomorrow as a part 2 of this update.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The effect of painting on the use of miniatures.

Lets be honest, everyone has likely run across a player that doesn't bother to even try to paint their miniatures. It happens for a variety of reasons. I personally don't mind it so much, but lets look at the effect painting your miniatures can have on how they are used in games. Keep in mind, this is entirely my opinion, but I believe I'm reasonably correct in my theories.

When you see an army that looks a lot like this...

Add caption
Basically bare plastic.

You tend to see the person playing typically not investing as much into their army. Either in how they talk about it, how they use it on the table, or even in their care for the army. A lot of times you see those armies tossed into a box between games (I know I've seen several armies like that). Basically the person has only put in the time to get them assembled.

Now, this could just be that the person hasn't had the time to begin painting the figs. Everyone has those hectic times after all. But when you see that same army month after month with nothing done to it, you realize that a few things might be up. One thing could be that the person doesn't feel they can paint it to a standard they would like, which is an honest feeling for a number of people. Another thing could be they just don't feel it's worth the effort, can't say I believe that but every player has their own take on the hobby.

Then you find the armies that are painted to a three color standard...
Using an example of one of my figs during work on it, unfinished, but just to show a point.
The player has obviously spent a bit of time on the army, beyond the desprue and glue together point. They are likely more involved with the army, and likely to show a fondness for the army beyond it's ability to just be on the table. Sometimes the army will stay at that painting level, and that's perfectly fine as long as the player is happy with it. Maybe a three color standard is all they feel they can do with the army without 'messing it up'. Or even that it just needs the three colors to be playable.

I can't say that it's wrong to leave an army at that level, because it's not my army after all. But the players that have put in the effort to reach that level tend to seem to enjoy playing the army more overall. A lack of hobby skill shouldn't deter people from getting their miniatures painted to this level, especially if they like the army. You don't have to be a perfect painter or an artiste to get a decent looking paint job done. And lets face it, if you are willing to put in the effort to reach a basic three color level, you'll likely find some people around your FLGS that can help bring it up a level for free (because, lets face it, some of us love the hobby side of the games we play).

Then you run into those armies that have had a fair amount of time and effort put into them beyond just painting...

A local players Khornate army, with his display base. Love playing this guy, his army is just sweet to see.

These armies show a lot of attention to detail, sometimes with custom bases/resin bases/etc, the details are lavished upon. Not everyone can spend the time, or has the talent, to get this kind of army painting done. It is possible to get those things done if you can't do them, but a lot of the time (like most of the time) it will cost you in the wallet department. Artists tend to like being paid for their effort after all.

But even those that don't feel they are artists can still make their army 'pop' with some minor work. Even a three color army will reach a new level if you do some easy work on the bases, adding rocks, static grass, snow, etc. Those things can really help a 'looks good' army jump to the 'damn that looks nice' level without a ton of effort. And lets be honest, taking that time can help you really be involved with the hobby side of the game. You'll feel more invested in the army, and that feeling of investment can lead to more fun at the table, and at times even better play (yes, I mean that, having a good looking army can help you focus on the play which is a big help in play improvement).

Basic hobby skills aren't hard to develop, and with them you can feel your army is looking better and better. I'll be putting up some tips and tutorials in the coming weeks that cover some of the basics, such as customizing bases, use of various materials for basing, as well as basic highlight and shading techniques.

Feel free to comment, I'd love to here what people think on this topic.

Comp scoring in Tournaments, for or against?

It's easy to see that Comp is a touchy subject for a lot of miniatures wargamers. For many reasons people are either for or against it. Personally I'm against it, for what I feel are well thought out reasons. I've been looking at arguements for Comp, and I think I can finally list the main reasons people feel Comp isn't bad.

For a number of reasons many people feel Comp helps 'balance' armies between codexes, army lists, etc. Thus giving a 'fair' battle between players.
Sadly, I find that this reasoning if flawed on a very basic level. You can't balance codexes, or army lists between unbalanced sources. Edition changes not taken into account, costs disparity, and changes in special rules all combine to make some armies decidedly unable to be balanced against newer codexes and army lists. You can attempt to do so, but in doing so you have to hamper the newer lists/codexes to allow the older ones to 'compete' in a 'fair environment'. In all fairness, no two codexes are the same, they all have different strengths and weaknesses, and attempting to make all armies fit into one set of arbitrary scoring rules just hurts certain armies that are better at some things than others.


Another reason that is pushed forward time and time again is the argument that giving penalties to lists that are 'unbalanced' helps make scoring fair.
I have to disagree again here. If a list plays to the strengths of an army/codex, then why should a player be penalized for building an army that goes along with that strength? Why is it considered 'cheesy' or 'WAAC' to build a list that caters to the strengths of a codex/army list? And why is it fair to impose penalties that could reduce the scoring of a player that plays well and to the strengths of his/her army, in favor of other players that don't? I feel it is decidedly unfair to make a portion of the scoring for a tournament based on arbitrary rules designed to penalize a player for using a legal list.


Yet another reason given is that without Comp to help level the field (aka, limit armies buy expecting certain things to be taken, or not taken), then 'hardcore' armies will dominate tournaments. You know, the ones that only take certain things, you know those things that are the best part of that armies list.
This particular argument was actually given to me by a tournament organizer as a main reason they used Comp. Yet a consistent winner at the tournaments they ran used an optimized list that 'just' fell within Comp limits. But this list would be considered WAAC by some. And they allowed a 'Best General' for this player, even though his list was ILLEGAL. Justifying the use of Comp by saying it will help level the play is just lazy. Good players will play well, bad players will play badly. It's just a fact of life that some people aren't as good with tactics and strategy as others, and penalizing a player for using the most effective builds for their army is in my opinion just wrong.


Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for fair play in tournaments, and in non-tournament settings. But lets be honest here, some armies are just better than others. If you penalize a player for playing to those strengths then you are being unfair on a fundamental level. A players skill is one part of play, the others being how well the dice roll, unit statistics, and terrain set up. If you penalize a player because of their armies unit statistics, as well as the player for choosing to play with the best options for their LEGAL lists, then you are being unfair... period. This is why I dislike Comp, it isn't fair, it doesn't balance anything, all it does is put an arbitrary list of 'must take, must not take' options in play that effect the scoring of events and put a disadvantage on those that play to their strengths.

This honestly feels wrong to me, it's not something I endorse, nor will I ever agree with something that makes things unfair in a blanket fashion.

Comments, criticism, etc etc... please feel free to respond, I'd love to here the readers take on this subject.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Wolves, an update and WIP

Tomorrow I'll be starting on the next 19 PA wolves and 4 termies. Tonight I'm finalizing detail work on the 19 wolves I have been working on the last few days. Also I've gotten about 30% done with Astorath, mainly because I needed a break from painting blue/grey heh.

One thing I've found is useful in painting a number of troops is keeping to the same palette of colors, any changes throws the whole batch out of whack. So I do my best to work on specific color until all the figs are done, then start the next. Batch painting at its finest.

Gotta love the dynamism and feel of the trickster. A lot of fun to paint this fig.
Gotta love the stalking forward, and his coloring is working well.... I seriously need to get better at taking pictures though.
Ah, Astorath, so utterly 'I'm coming to kill you!' love this fig. Of course all the little details are a pain, but it is a great fig overall.
At this point I'm looking at 6 wolf guard, 2 long fangs, 5 blood claws, 25 grey hunters. Plus 2 drop pods, possibly 2 rhinos, and 'maybe' a dreadnaught. Once completed they are going up for sale. Then it will be time to hammer out my BA stuff, before grinding away at IG. Overall I'm looking at a lot of work, but nothing to insane. And my work deadlines for each project are coming together nicely.

As I get into a rhythm of painting, I can sometimes crank out roughly 2500 points of painted figs a week... at least to tabletop quality. Going to higher quality drags that down quite a bit, but overall I've pretty well mastered batch painting. A skill anyone working on a large army should eventually learn.

Tomorrow I'll be posting on a pair of topics, though I am up for suggestions on topics related to miniature games. I'll be stepping on some toes with one of my topics... 'Comp'. The other topic at this point is up for replacement or suggestions, it being 'The effect of painting on the use of miniatures'.

Updates

To keep myself doing regular posts I've put together a schedule for my posting. This should help keep me from taking weeks off from posting, and keep my project updates flowing more regularly.

As of right now I'm nearly finished with the first 14 space wolves figs, working on details now. I'll be starting the next 23 tomorrow (4 of them terminators). Then on to the 2 drop pods. I've also begun work on Astorath the Grim, but ran into an issue with my airbrush and clogging, so I've had to rework my paint thinning a bit.

New posting schedule:
Monday - Thoughts on the hobby - tips/tutorials/etc
Tuesday - Project updates
Wednesday - Thoughts on the hobby - debates/rants/general thoughts/etc
Thursday - Project updates
Friday - Project updates & Misc hobby posts
Saturday & Sunday - nothing official, days off, tournaments, etc.

Later tonight I'll get a post up with pics of my current space wolves work, and my thoughts on ways to go with the project. As well as getting things together for my Wednesday post. If I can keep to this schedule things should go a lot more smoothly, as well as help me keep my projects going at a steady rate.

I've got ideas for tomorrows post, and it's going to be a couple of posts... hopefully thought provoking, and bringing up debate and discussion by the readers.

Until later tonight!

Friday, March 11, 2011

The incredible 'why didn't I get this years ago' thought process

Having finally received my air brush and compressor, I decided it was time to get some work done. All told I normally with a brush would have taken somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to do base shade, mid tone, and highlighting on 14 figs. With the new air brush it took me 45 minutes, including color swapping and cleaning between colors of the air brush. Seriously this is by far the best investment I've made for working on models and miniatures.

Of course after this afternoon I'm sitting here thinking 'why didn't I get this years ago'. I can't recommend an air brush and compressor enough now, it makes a lot of the work so much easier. Detail work is still for brushes, but main color work I can crank out sooooo much faster with the air brush that it makes this work time-economical now.

I'll be getting pics done of the Space Wolves I'm finishing up later this weekend, but for now just this text.

Be well and enjoy your hobby time! Until later!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

WIP Space Wolves

As I'm waiting on my air brush and air compressor to be delivered, I decided to start putting together figs and getting them primed in preparation of the delivery. Here is my current progress on 30ish Space Wolves, they will also have 2 drop pods and a rhino when I finish them up.

The rough priming, including the grainyness, is on purpose. I plan to do these SW figs in a snow theme, with snow not only on the bases, but also 'frozen' to their armor. The rough and grainy priming will help by giving 'raised areas' to work with on the snow/ice.

This is obviously an old and grizzled SW veteran, either a wolf guard or wolf lord. The pose shows nice movement, as if he's stalking into the snowy wind.
The wolf on the left is one of my favorites in this batch so far. He looks like he's charging in bolter blazing and chainsword ready to maim the enemies of Russ.
The wolf on the left in this one is another fav in this group of figs. He looks like he's roaring out a challenge, and preparing to rush at his opponent.
The wolf on the right in this pic is definitely fighting back the wolf within as he challenges his opponent.

More updates coming soon!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

WIP Blood Angels & Salamanders

Got a bit done on the salamanders project from late last year, should have it finished this week. Also got a Stormraven about 85% finished, with 2 more to assemble and prep. Here are pics of my current progress.

Salamanders Rhino (Nearly finished, at detailing stage now).

I've added green stuff lizard hides to this, and only need to do final highlights on them and finish the 'flesh' areas and copper studs holding them in place. Oh, and the hatches, must do those.

Blood Angels Stormraven #1.

This model is a lot more detailed than many other vehicle kits GW has put out, which makes it fun to work on. I started with a priming in The Army Painter Pure Red, then brushed on The Army Painter Strong Tone for shading. Let it sit for 24 hours before I started to add in GW blood red to cover some of the odd varnish areas, and a wash of red ink + blood red + mixing medium + water to blend it together better. I still have to finish up detailing work, and some metalic pieces, plus iconography. But overall this is coming along nicely. Oh, I also magnetized the doors to allow for adding the sponsons or not.



The following are a couple pics of the Leman Russ Vanquisher I picked up to add to the IG I had bought. I don't claim any of the modelling work, nor the basecoating. I did remove some putty work on the front, I'm debating how to rebuild the lascannon housing with plasticard. It is an older version I believe of the Leman Russ model, but I'm honestly not sure.




More progress reports and random bits of brain efflusium to come!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Updates updates updates... and such

Session is almost over, my Saturdays are about to free up again, and I have a TON of figs to paint.

Currently I have the following to work on.
1x Astaroth the Grim
1x Mephiston
2x Blood Angels Battleforce
3x Stormraven Gunships
1x Drop Pods
1x Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer
2x Furioso Dreadnaughts
1x Siege Dread
1x Venerable Dread
1x Sanguinary Guard squad
1x Death Company squad
1x Baal Predator
1x Predator
5x Rhino/Razorback
1x Catachan Jungle Fighters Army
1x Gaunt's Ghosts box
2x Commisars
3x Catachan Snipers
1x Catachan Hvy Flamer
1x Leman Russ (with Forgeworld Vanquisher turret)
1x Space Wolves Battleforce
and 40 marines to repurpose, as well as 20 metal terminators to repurpose.

As well as having picked up another 20 ork boyz and a mekboy and truck to add to my oldest boys soon to be started ork army. Which I have decided will be done entirely by him with limited help from me. This should turn out a fairly 'interesting' in the chinese proverb way force. Since he's starting with what I got him plus the ork contents from an Assault on Black Reach box. My youngest soon gets the marines from that box, and quite possibly a few things from my pretty huge collection of marine stuff to paint up as he likes. Which yet again should end up with something... well... colorful.

Basically I have a lot to work on and keep busy with, and will get back into taking pics of the work in progress, and finished work. Been a while, but I have to get back into the swing of things, especially with school restarting next week. My schedule has become somewhat more flexible though, so my painting will have more time.

I've decided to do the BA stuff in a successor chapter color scheme, though I'm still debating between the Angels Encarmine or going with a chapter that isn't shown in the Codex or other places.

Be well!