Merry Christmas to all...

So I’ve spent most of last weekend sifting through what was damaged by the water issue earlier in the week. All told, I was able to confirm that I lost most of my paperback book collection. This includes all of my Start Wars novels and the Classic and Dark Age Battletech novels. On the bright side I was able to locate a second complete set of the Starrigger trilogy that was stored in a box upstairs. It appears that I had purchased a second set and had the foresight to store them in a box with some hard bound books.

I’m still cleaning up the mess and now I have to get some new containers for storage, this time I think I’ll get some plastic tubs from Home Depot. This should be able to protect the stuff that wasn’t damaged by the water from ever getting damaged in the future. I’ll be glad when the spring comes as I plan to complete my garage this year as this past year was focused on finishing the back yard. My ultimate goal is to budget and complete one major household project a year. The house is brand new, just over a year old so it’s not like I doing a major remodel; mainly just the garage and basement to complete. The rest of the house is nice but I need a decorator’s help in finishing each of the rooms and since it’s just me and the dog, I think it’ll take a while. Of course, if you ask any of my ex-girlfriends they’ll tell you that I just need to settle down and find the right women... which all seem to think is them :P

Also, I’d like to recommend that you guys check out the website www.awesomepaintjob.com as this fellow can really paint. He also has numerous tutorial videos, provides recipes for various washes and provides information on new techniques that I think you will enjoy.

So this will be my last update before the Christmas holiday so I’ll wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas.

Flooded Memories...

So it seems that I had a slight drainage problem for the furnace/humidifier earlier this week that has caused me nothing but grief. The tubing and pvc drain pipe leads to the floor drain properly but there must have been a little overflow that went right for some boxes lined up against the wall. Of course, these boxes hold my book collection, comic collection and some rare Macross models kits.

So far it appears that I have lost every Star Wars novel released in paperback over the last fifteen years, my entire Battletech collection (both old and new), nearly all of the early Forgotten Realms novels and various trilogies and novels from other classic sci-fi writers. I also lost about a year to a year and half of comics that were unfortunately not properly bagged and boarded due to not having time when I moved into the house back in June of last year. Fortunately, my Uncanny X-men collection which spans form issue #200 to about a year ago, was left untouched.

The greatest loss in my opinion is the whole StarRigger trilogy (StarRigger, Red Limit Freeway and Paradox Alley) from John De Chancie, those have been out of print since the mid-eighties and a search on Amazon and E-bay found nothing reasonably priced at this time. That series was and is one of my all time favorite distractions when I wanted to just unwind and get away for a while. The interaction between Jake McGraw and Sam, his father, who is now an A.I in an intergalactic Semi-Truck (ala, KiTT), is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Their adventures along the way to the end of the Skyway are just hilarious and fun and have provided me years of enjoyment. Hell, I was just thinking of digging them out and reading them again just last week. They’re the kind of books that when you read them you begin to relate to relate to the characters like they’re your old friends that you haven’t seen in a couple of years.

I am thankful that my homeowners insurance will cover the damages. I’m now in the process of collecting what is damaged and/or destroyed so that I can submit it on Monday morning. For all of you homeowners, I recommend that you make sure that your coverage includes water damage because you never know when you may need it.

Needless to say, I haven’t done any modeling this week but I plan to try and get some done this weekend. So cheers to everyone and see you on the flipside, I gonna have a few beers and look for the map to the end of Skyway….

Being on-call sucks....

So this month has been pretty hectic so far and I’ll be glad when I get some time off from work during the holiday weekends. My work has me on-call for two weeks at a time and this past week was pretty ridiculous; work twenty-four hours straight on this past Friday/Saturday.

However, I have been keeping up on my reading and found the recent news about the impending ‘Nid release very interesting. I have an existing ‘Nid army that is fully painted and was previously about 2k in points and it hasn’t been out of the display case in well over a year. I found that when I tried to play them in 5th edition they just were not as effective as they used to be.

Most of the little guys got shot up too quickly to be effective so I set them aside because I didn’t really want to add a whole bunch of models to a backup army. See, for most of my gaming career, I’ve been a dedicated Dark Angels player and have only deviated from that path a few times when playing teaching games of helping others improve their game. The new models for the ‘Nids are very impressive but I think I’ll be holding off buying any of them until I actually get the new codex in hand. I’d like to see what has changed and continue following the information that the fine folks at BoLS have been posting.

On the modeling front, I have been able to do some work on the 1/35 King Tiger – Porsche last weekend. I have added most of the photo-etch details and I’m working on cleaning up the individual track links. For you WH40k players just be glad that GW hasn’t picked up on this trend yet with their tanks ;) One of the really nice touches the kit has is a turned aluminum barrel with a really nice turned muzzle break; includes some really nice photo-etch pieces to enhance this piece. This is probably pone of the nicest muzzle breaks I have ever seen on any tank model to date.

I’ve been researching which unit to model for this particular tank and while I have some ideas, I’ve been unable to find the ‘right’ one at this time. I’d like to do a complex ambush scheme consisting of Dunkelgelb, Olivgrun and Rotbraun but I have yet to find a scheme I like. My Tigers in Combat book includes nearly everything you ever wanted to know about the Tiger I or Tiger II, aka King Tiger but none of the schemes pop out at me. I’m leaning towards doing a King Tiger from the 506th or 503rd Heavy Panzer Regiments but I may decide to do a little artistic license with the scheme just so that I can really experiment with the weathering techniques and powders.

I’ve got another week of being on-call before I can really begin airbrushing the tank anyways so I should be able to select a scheme to do by then.

Takin’ a break… sort of...

So I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, I got stuffed on turkey and pie and had a great time watching football on Thursday. I was able to play a few games on Friday but I came to the realization that I wasn’t having much fun playing WH40k anymore. Maybe it was my pathetic dice rolling or the fact that lately I just haven’t been excited about the game or hobby overall. Part of the issue is I’m letting problems in my real-life affect me and I am unable to switch-off and relax like I should. I have been frustrated with the game and hobby for a while now and nothing seems to help in getting me out of the funk. I still show interest in certain areas like the new Skaven and Imperial Guard armies the problem is that it when I sit down to paint or play a game it feels like a second job.

As a result, I’m going to be stepping away from the gaming table for a while and focusing on other areas in an effort to rekindle my fire for the game. One thing I have decided to do is experiment with some new painting and weathering techniques on some tank models. It’s been a while since I have pulled out one of my many plastic airplane or tank models and this seems like the perfect opportunity to build a tank and experiment.

I picked up a Dragon 1/35 Tiger II – Porsche Turret heavy tank earlier this summer and it includes separate track links and a small fret of photo-etch for the tool handles and screens. It features the zimmerite coating already molded on so it should be an easy build and a great medium for using my new Mig Productions weathering powders. I’ve used them before but this time my goal is to do a heavily weathered Eastern Front tank. I think that this experiment will allow me to brush up on my airbrushing and weathering skills as I would like to these technique when I begin work on my Imperial Guard tanks early next year. I also think that it will help me convey the grunginess of the Skaven as well.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress and I should have some photos up soon as I’ll be picking up the light tent combo set in the next couple of weeks; gotta what the budget this close to Christmas :)

Ohh…. Shiney!!! … strikes again…

As I have mentioned before, I have an extreme case of ‘Shiney’ syndrome and as of yet there is no cure but the effects can be subsided for a time by purchasing the object that you are drawn too. On Thursday, I was at the game store for our monthly club meeting and I picked up the new Skaven Army book. It was at that point that all hope was lost and I picked up a box of the new Clanrats before I left that night. Then last night on my way home form work, I picked up the new Skaven battalion box. Hopefully this will curb the ‘Shiney’ tendencies for a while and it provides a nice Core to the new army. I’ve been trying to get more involved with the local gaming community and we now have several Warhammer Fantasy players at the store so I thought it a good time to startup a WHFB army.

A couple of years ago, I purchased the Orcs & Goblins book and was looking forward to running the Grimgore Ironhide’s army list that allowed the player the use Black Orcs as Core units; basically, like running a Deathwing army in WH40k. So I purchased sixty of the new plastic Black Orc models and commissioned a friend to paint them for me. He did a fantastic job on the models but I was informed that that list was nullified and that I couldn’t use it anymore. So here I was having invested a large chunk of money on an army that I couldn’t use unless I spent more money on purchasing/painting up regular Orc boys. I made the decision to not get anything else for that army because I lost my enthusiasm for playing them.

Now a couple of years later, the Skaven are released and I feel the desire to start a Fantasy army again. The Skaven have always fascinated me, my buddy down in Austin runs them and he always seems to have fun while playing them. So with his guidance, I have begun painting the first box of Clanrats and so far they are going pretty well. My two test models turned out well and I was able to refine my painting style enough to where I think I can paint the basic troops quicker that before. The technique relies heavily on drybrushing and layering ad so far seems to be going well. I’ve got three more in progress to give me the first five models and then I’ll try a bigger batch over the holiday weekend.

I’m still playing in the local WH40k campaign and now that I’m off-call for the next two weeks, I’m hoping to get in some games this weekend. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and hopefully I’ll win some games this week.

On a different note, I think I have a solution to my light-tent issue. I located a vendor that has a light-tent combo kit available and it includes everything I’ll need to get started with. The EZ Cube site even has a package geared towards miniature and model photography which includes two table top lamps and some acrylic risers for setting your models on. Here is the link to their site and the specific combo that I mentioned: http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/miphkit.html

Well, I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving holiday and doesn’t get too stuffed over the weekend.

Cypher Rules!!! and the Fallen are on the move….

Sadly, I’ve been on-call for the last week and a half so I haven’t been able to do much but surf the web and stare at my models that need to be painted. I have been tracking the campaign that is going on at the store and I can safely say that it appears that Chaos has a slim lead over the other teams; cursed Imperials are right on our heels.

Since I’m playing the Fallen Angels in the campaign, I thought that it would be a great idea to include the elusive Cypher into my army. The only problem is that his rules have never really been updated for 5th Edition so they are not really useable is today’s games. So enter the kind folks over at BoLS Lounge, who answered my plea for help. I started this thread and Mkerr was kind enough to develop an updated set of rules for Cypher, which can be found here, that look to retain the ‘fluffyness’ of the character while making him a viable character in 5th edition. I plan on taking the rules for a test run over the holiday weekend. Props again to Mkerr for helping me realize my dream of running a truly Fallen Angels army.

The campaign will be entering the third round at that time so the missions will begin to vary quite a bit form the initial Planetstrike format. The new round will include some regular missions and several City Fight missions that should provide some variety for the folks that are playing. Most of the players, have never really explored the City Fight missions so I think that it will be a nice change of pace for most of the people involved.

So all in all, while I haven’t done much hobby or game related activity this past week or so I’ve definitely got something to look forward to over the coming holiday weekend.

The Fallen have stumbled a little...

As you may know, I’m playing in a campaign at our local gaming store and have put the Imperial Guard on hold for the moment so that I can complete a few new models for my Dark Angels army. My new 1850pt. list seems to be working well so far and I have been able to add some new models to my army. I used the list this weekend to play two games, one regular and a campaign mission that involved Planetstrike.

I had difficulty in the Planetstrike mission but that was due to using a regular list and not one that takes advantage of the new force organization rules featured in Planetstrike. My opponent was very good and kept me boxed in a corner while I was trying to attack his bases. It was a good game if a bit frustrating at times due to some onlookers distracting us.

Earlier, I also played a regular game, Annihilation/Pitched Battle, against an Emperor’s Children player and I won that game in five turns. To be fair my opponent had serious issues with his dice rolls; ‘bad dice’ day doesn’t even come close to describing it. He had a squad of five Chosen, all with melta guns, move onto the board behind my Dreadnaught and Landspeeders and roll 1-2 for all ‘To Hit’ rolls. He was unable to assault so on my next turn the Dreadnaught opened up with its heavy flamer and assault cannon. They never had a chance and were wiped out to a man that turn. I was able to also take out his Daemon Prince, Sorcerer and a TAC squad at the start of the third turn while minimizing my losses to only 3-4 marines. The list seems to be doing well for me but I’m still reserving judgment until after I get several more games in.

The new models that I am working on are a squad of Sternguard veterans, Pedro Kantor and completing two Land speeders. I put together a drop pod for use in this list but I sprayed it black and I’m currently leaning towards leaving it that way and marking it as part of the Ravenwing. I’ll paint the metallic parts, drybrush the black with a dark grey mix and add a little charred blast affect to finish it off. I have some Mig Production pigments that are rust and smoke colored that should pull off the charred affect nicely.

I’m still trying to put together a light-tent so that I can take pictures of my work and post it here on the site. There are several manufacturers that make light-tent packages and I think that once I have a little extra money I’ll be picking one up. I’m hoping to have something added to the site after Thanksgiving.

The Fallen are on the move...

So I played my first game in along time this past weekend and it was a pretty good game. We are started a new ten week campaign at the store this past weekend and the kick-off was this past Saturday. I’m using my Dark Angels Battle Company as the Fallen due to a shortage of Chaos players and the fact that there is another Dark Angels player on the Imperials side. This should make for some interesting campaign fluff in the coming weeks.

My first round game was against a younger Imperial Guard player with an over-converted army; still trying to understand why younger players always feel the need to do that. He was using a space marine model as Commander Straken and all of his infantry looked like Stormtroopers and it was hard to differentiate between squads and veterans. Regardless, the game ended up being a draw I felt that I was lucky to get that. My problem was that I was using a list that I cobbled together and it wasn’t really optimized to deal with his imperial guard. His artillery was spot on and sadly I couldn’t do anything to stop it because it was on the opposite side of the table and I had nothing left that could get to that side quick enough.

I spent some time developing a new list based on advice that I received in the BoLS Lounge this week. The biggest change was to switch from using the current Dark Angels Codex to using the regular Space Marin Codex. This change allows me to take much of the same equipment but at a cheaper points cost and this allows me to add some additional units to the list to beef up the army. The campaign games are anywhere between 1500 and 2000pts. per game it is up to the players to decide the actual point value. Most of us will probably be playing in the 1850 range so that is what I have geared my army for. I’ll be using this new list this weekend and if it performs well then I’ll post it here so that you all can take a look.

Till then cheers and have fun playing and painting your armies.

Imperial Update

I finally got the new Space Wolves codex and I’m really impressed with it and at this point cannot wait until they redo the Dark Angels codex. Granted, it is going to be a while until that is done but it’s nice to dream. I can at least take comfort in the fact that it will get redone before Dark Eldar or Necrons :P
I plan on developing a Space Wolf army in the future, after I complete the Orks and Imperial Guard armies. Hopefully by then, they will have released the new cavalry models and other little goodies.

On the modeling front, I have finished assembling another squad of infantry models. I used the ForgeWorld upgrade packs to complete these guys and I’ll be airbrushing the base coat on them this evening. I’ve also finished preparing the Special Weapons squad that will be part of the platoon; still having a problem deciding on how best to arm my Heavy Weapons squad. So I placed an order with The Warstore for tripod stands and gun-shields to allow me to create more squads per box. This way I’ll have flexibility to swap out models without having to spend a fortune in box sets where the majority of the parts go unused. My goal is to still have 30 models or three squads completed by the end of this month. I did pick up the Cadian Command box last week so that I can finish up the first platoon. I have another on order at Stonebridge Games so I’ll be able to start building my second platoon in November. I’ve already started putting money aside for the next order from Forge World. Looking at getting more Cadian upgrade packs with respirators and possibly order up a Hydra or Medusa conversion.

Weekend Update...

So I was looking forward to picking up the new Space Wolves codex but it appears that UPS screwed the pooch again and didn’t deliver the right box to the store. I did get to look at all the nice models that were released this weekend and I have to admit that once again I am impressed with Games Workshop’s latest offerings. The new dedicated Space Wolf sprue’s are amazing in that they give you a ton of options that will allow you to customize your models; very impressive work. My hope is that this is the start of a trend that will carry over to the other armies as future products are released. I was also please to hear that they will be releasing the Dark Angels ‘Indomitable Fortress’ model around Christmas time; can’t wait for this one as it looks fantastic in the early photos.

I did accomplish some modeling this weekend and I’ve got another 10 guardsmen ready to get their first coat of paint this week. I’m hoping to have my second batch that was started last week completed by this week. My painting goal for this month is to have 30 -35 infantry models table ready by the end of this month. I’m planning on taking a break next month by working on building and painting some of the vehicles that will be part of the army. I have purchased a Hellhound, Leman Russ Demolisher and a Tank Destroyer and they will allow me some flexibility when developing lists for gaming. The Hellhound and Demolisher will probably become standards for my list with the Tank Destroyer being the occasional wild card. We’ll see how these ideas pans out when I have a playable list later this year.

Starting an Imperial Guard Army

I can’t believe that it has been two weeks already since I first started this blog; my apologies for lack of updates but things at work have been a little hectic. So I am currently in the process of building and painting a new Imperial Guard army based on the Cadian 8th Imperial Guard. So far I have completed painting 15 infantry models and I have another 10 on the way. I’ve decided to incorporate the ForgeWorld Cadian Upgrade w/ Respirators sets into most of my units. The key reason is that out of the box, the Cadian models look a little light in that they are lacking the extra gear that modern soldiers are always carrying around. When you look at pictures of today’s infantry soldiers they all have packs, backpacks and extra ammunition everywhere; even when they are mechanized. The upgrade pack includes new heads and backpacks that add depth to the models that really appeals to me. I’ve completed one squad, a heavy weapons unit and a few other models and I’m really impressed with how they are turning out.

I’ve deviated from my normal style in that I have gone back to my scale modeling roots. As mentioned before, I was a scale modeler long before I got into painting miniatures. So with this army, I am taking a more realistic approach to the painting and weathering. I’ve begun to weather using oil washes, pastels and airbrushed effects and so far I’m really pleased with the results. I hope to have some pictures posted in the coming weeks as I am in the process of creating a light-box so that I can get proper photos of the models. I tried to take some pictures earlier but I was not happy with the results so I decided not to post them; the new light-box should resolve this issue.

The army will be based around two full platoons of troops and will include both artillery and tank squadrons. I’ll be purchasing the upgraded turrets for the Mars/Alpha Leman Russ models from ForgeWorld as I want the army to be a little different than what you normally see on the table. I also want some flexibility with the army so I’ll be adding various units as the army grows. However, my first goal is to get a playable 1000 point list together that will be the basis for future growth.

That’s all I have for now but I’ll try to get some pictures up within the next week so that you all can see the progress.

I Blame My Parents....

I got into scale modeling because my parents owned a hobby shop just north of Detroit when I was a kid and my Dad would have me build snap-tite kits to keep me occupied and out of his hair. My grandfather was also model train enthusiast so we would operate the stores display trains for hours when I was a toddler. These are some of my earliest memories, that and free almond cookies and egg roles from the nice people that owned the Chinese food place next door. Sadly, my parents sold out of the hobby business when I was six years old. However, I was already addicted and modeling it has been in my blood ever since.
Growing up, modeling kept me out of trouble and was a great distraction to the ‘everyday’ life of growing up on a farm in remote Tennessee. We moved down south to be closer to my Mother’s parents when I was about ten years old. During that time, I remember building airplanes kits that I would buy with my allowance and then displaying them on my shelves or bookcases throughout my room. Looking back, they were pretty rough looking but back when I was ten or eleven they were awesome to look at; the Tomcat was and is till my favorite plane... Curse you ‘Final Countdown’!!!! I seemed to get better with each one and eagerly awaited the next opportunity to go to the mall or Wal-Mart to get another one.
When I started college, like most people, I put away my models because I didn’t have time for that ‘kids’ stuff but I admit to still picking up copies of Finescale Modeler every now and then when I went to the grocery store or newsstand. After I moved out to Colorado, I found that I had time once again to devote to my favorite hobby and so I went to a hobby shop. Boy was that an experience, I went to Don’s Hobbies up in Greeley and let me tell you it was like going on a pilgrimage to Mecca or Rome. Three stories of hobby heaven and it was owned at the time by a really nice guy named Tony, sorry forgot his last name. He helped introduce me to resin detail sets, photo-etch and aftermarkets decals and all kinds of new stuff designed for modelers. This guy knew it all and if you saw something in a magazine, he’d try and get it in for you. He was just that kind of guy, great customer service and a hell of a nice guy to talk to. He would also make you a deal on items that he just got in and I admit, most times I spent at least a hundred dollars in there when I only intended on getting some paint or new brushes.
I was also introduced to several area clubs and these guys were great, I strongly recommend joining a local modeling or gaming club has great benefits for people new to the hobby. These guys were great in that they helped me refine my modeling skills and I really started to produce some really nice models. Hell, I even entered several area contests but soon realized that I had a long way to go before I would win anything.
The guys that won baffled me with the amount of detail in their models and the paint work was flawless; mine were far from being anywhere near as nice. I began to get a little frustrated with my abilities as they were not progressing as quickly as I wanted. That changed when I met a fellow modeler, Suds, at a Denver model contest. He was up from the ‘Springs and was helping with judging when he asked me if I would like to help; appears they need additional judges. I learned a lot from that judging session and had a lot of fun as well. He and his wife invited me down for a BBQ dinner as he was having some ‘students’ over for a painting session. It seems he taught airbrushing to new modelers out of his basement and invited me down for a session. He used a form method of pre-shading and blending that is fairly common now-a-days but back in 1996 hardly anyone had ever thought of it or let alone used it. So I headed down for the weekend and brought my trusty Paasche airbrush and an old model to test on.
What a setup he had, first was a large area of his basement was dedicated to the workshop and then he had a small room that was a lounge/library. He had one of the best reference libraries that I have ever scene, even to this day it was impressive. We began airbrushing after dinner and apparently I was a quick study in that I had the technique down pat within the first few tries and was able to blend the colors to make a seamless transition from shade to highlight. He later told me that I picked up on the technique a lot better than the others and that made me feel pretty damn good. He also challenged me to a friendly competition in that if I beat him at the next show then I will have ‘graduated’ from his class; needless to say I won, hell, I won third place in a class of 75 models the largest of the show. The two guys ahead of me in the category had been modeling for more years than I’d been alive so I felt like I was in the big leagues for quite a while. So according to ‘Suds’ I graduated with honors… :D
I continued to focus solely on scale models until Games Workshop released Warhammer 40k 3rd Editon, back in 1998. When they released the new space marine models, I was asked to paint some up for a local hobby shop so they could display them along side the new books. I assembled and painted these models just as if they were any other kit but along the way I found that I really liked these ‘little guys’. I painted them green because I liked the look that they had over the blue or red ones. When the project was finished, the store owner let me keep the models that I had painted. I eventually started to collect more of these ‘green marines’ and pretty soon I had enough to play with. Turns out that the green marines were called Dark Angels and a friend turned me onto reading some of their back story. Next thing you know, I was playing my first game of Warhammer 40k and getting my butt handed to me by kids half my age, and I was only in my late twenties. I sucked at the game but really enjoyed painting the figures and models that went along with the army. So I kept at it and eventually played in tournaments and began teaching painting classes at the local gaming store.
Now over ten years later, my game has really improved as have my painting skills. I’ve got several armies, two complete but several more in various stages of completion. Apparently, I’m attracted to shinny objects like new miniatures and models…. as a matter of fact, ‘Oohh… Shiney’ is one of my favorite sayings; it’s usually followed by the sound of a cash register or credit card machine J
So I welcome you to my painting blog and please follow along as I build or paint the latest ‘Shiney’ purchase or additions to an ongoing project.

My First Blog....

So Last night, I had a conversation with an old friend and based on that conversation, I've decided to start this painting blog, which I admit is a completely unoriginal idea as I got the idea from my buddy. I have been looking for a way to motivate myself into painting more figures and models on a regular basis and this blog just might be the way to achieve that. I have been painting/playing with wargaming figures for over ten years and building/painting scale models for close to thirty years.
I’ll post tips and techniques that I use in building and painting my projects and hopefully they will help you with your own projects.