and Angels descended from the Heavens….

In the last week and a half, I have completed ten Deathwing Terminator models and I have another five that are partially done. These last five models have the Forge World DW shoulder pads on them and I really like how they look. I still need to finish painting some of the details but I should have that done by this weekend. The escalation league doesn’t kick off for another couple of weeks but it will be nice to have most of the army finished before the start of the league.

I’m also making headway on assembling my remaining terminator models and I figure that I’ll have about 45 terminators finished by the end of the league. My LR Crusader model is pretty much complete and I am just starting to paint my third dreadnought, this one was a conversion piece that I had done some time ago. I’ve also started assembling a fourth dreadnought using the new plastic Venerable model. This will give the army a total of four dreadnoughts to choose from so I should have some flexibility when creating my lists. When these models are finished over the next two weeks, I’m planning on completing my LR Helios model and possibly adding a third Land Raider variant. I have a Prometheus conversion ‘squirreled’ away somewhere that I would love to add to my collection but if I cannot locate it I’ll assemble the model as a regular Land Raider so that it is ready for the event.

As I mentioned last week, I placed an order with Forge World and I was surprised to find that it arrived on my doorstep Monday evening. This box was heavy but looked to have arrived ok and all of the goodies looked great with no issues to report. I have to admit that this was the fastest that I have ever gotten an order from Forge World or overseas for that matter. Let me say that the Macharious Heavy Tank is a hefty chunk of resin that looks impressive when sitting on the table. I didn’t really have to do much clean up but there was some warping of the lower plate lower body but a hair dryer fixed this problem. The model is actually assembled and ready to prime at this time but once it is primed, I’ll be setting it aside for after the Deathwing project.

Also, thanks to the folks that sent me emails congratulating me on the new job, it was much appreciated. So far things are going well and I definitely like the new job and the people that I work with. I’m still working on getting some pictures taken of my completed models but the weather really nice so I spent some time this past weekend outdoors getting some much needed Vitamin D :)

So until next time….

Whoa!?! Is it May already...

So I realized this morning that it has been roughly three months since I last updated this blog. My apologies to my readers for the delay but life threw me a few curve balls that took priority over my modeling projects. Thankfully, everything has been sorted out and it looks like things will be getting back to normal. Chiefly among these changes is that I just accepted a new job that will now allow me to have a normal personal life. So I’ll no longer have any excuses for not painting and completing several model related projects this year.

As previously mentioned, I have started a Skaven army and I have been slowly working on that project. I have assembled and based the Clan Rats and Plague Monk models and they are ready to be primed and painted. I picked up the new Screaming Bell model and that is on hold for the time being due to my desire to complete the Core units first. I’ve also put this project on the back burner due to a couple of campaigns that I’ll be participating in this summer.

The LGS is hosting a Mordenheim campaign and WH40k Escalation League this summer and now that I have more free time, I’m going to do a little more playing than painting this summer. I’ll be playing a Black Orcs warband in the campaign and an all Deathwing list for the league. The Black Orcs are all completely painted so I am focusing on the remaining Deathwing models. I have about 20 terminators that have been mostly complete for a while but I’d like to get all of the models completed by the end of the league. There are bonus points given in the league for models you add and paint during the new rounds and for having a fully painted 2500 point army by the end of the league. I’ll be adding a Land Raider or two and I already have three dreadnoughts with two being fully painted and ready to roll-out … err... walk-out :P

I’ve also just ordered a bunch of new stuff from Forgeworld today because now is the time to buy. The British Pound is at the lowest it has been in over a year so if you’re planning to buy something from FW then you might want to get your order in now. As for me I picked up some goodies for the Deathwing army, mainly Land Raider doors and Terminator shoulder pads but I also picked up the two latest IA books and the Imperial Macharious Heavy Tank for my Imperial Guard project. I saved about eighty bucks on this order over one placed last year for about the same amount….hoody hoo!!!

So that’s a short update on where I am today so keep checking back as I’ll be posting some pictures of my current projects just as soon as I figure out how to post the damn things into the blog ;)

It's Been a Long Time Coming....

So I know it has been a while since I last updated but work has been kickin’ my butt all over the place lately. However, I have been able to pick up and review the new Tyranid codex and sadly, I’m a little disappointed. As a result, I think I’ll be focusing on my new Skaven army instead of dusting off the Nid’s army. The key reason is that to make a competitive list I would have to assemble and paint another thirty or forty models and then covert several new ones to add some of the new units to the list. Frankly, I’m just not that interested at this point to do that much work for my secondary army.

Therefore, I am moving forward with assembling and painting a Skaven army for WHFB. I’ve never actually played a real game of WHFB and from what I hear it is more tactical than WH40k. So I’ll give it a try and we’ll see what happens.

I’ve so far picked up the Skaven regiment, Plague Monks and another Clanrat box. I’ve also just added a Doom Wheel to the mix and I do plan on picking up the Screaming Bell this weekend. The Bell will be the centerpiece for the army and I am still deciding if I want to add another Doom Wheel to the mix but I think that I’ll hold off on that for now. I’d like to get a few games in with the models that I have purchased so far and see how things progress from there.

This will be a new experience for me because I have been playing WH40k for over tens years now and for many years Fantasy didn’t really grab my attention. I think that the time is right for me to try WHFB in that I want to do something different but still within the realms of Warhammer. I’ve tried Warmachine, hell I actually have the beginnings of a Khador army, but for some reason the mechanics of the game just never really grabbed me. GR anted, this was when it was initially released and from what I hear the new release is pretty good in that they altered moved away from the warcaster is king methodology. I might still give this a go down the road but for now I’m going to stick with the Skaven and see how that pans out.

So until next time…

The New Year's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and that the New Year is treating you well so far. Mine has been very good so far there has been no drama or unexpected problems that have come up; so far so good. I have finished cleaning up the basement and I am now in the process of reorganizing and repacking my ‘stuff’, not ‘shit' there's a difference (see George Carlin), into plastic storage containers.

However, I have made time over the last couple of weeks to do a little work on the Porsche King Tiger that I have been working on. I also dug out a 1/48 BF-109 G10 from Hasegawa to work on as well. The Bf-109 already has all of the detail items that I’ll need to accurately detail the model. I’ve pulled out several items from Ultracast, Aires and Eagle Editions to add to the model and the cockpit is nearly ready for painting. I’ll be using the discontinued Eagle Strike paints for most of this project; they were manufactured by Vallejo for Aeromaster/Eagle Strike Productions. They don’t require any thinner as they are similar to the Model Air line from Vallejo, just use an acrylic cleaner for clean up. While I haven’t used them before, I have seen the results from other modelers so they do nicely.

The King Tiger has been a little slow in getting finished as I’m at the stage of adding the little photo-etch details and working on cleaning up the ejector pin marks on the track links. I’m still looking at reference pictures to decide which scheme I want to do. Depending on the particular tank, I might have to make some adjustments to certain hull details but I think for the most part it’ll turn out pretty well.

I’ve also been doing so reading about the new Tyranid codex, released today, and I have to admit that I’m a little excited about using my bugs again. The interesting thing that I have found so far is that my army used to be at 2000pts. and I’m curious to see if they have dropped down to 1500pts. I’d rather not be forced to by a bunch of stuff to make the army useable again. That is one of the things that upsets me most about how Games Workshop does their new codex’s lately. They force the player to scramble and bye a bunch of unnecessary items to make the army playable. Hell, in this new codex they have several units that actually have no models at all, forcing the player to come up with something quickly if they want to use that unit and remain WYSIWYG. While not a bad business strategy, it’s just a pet peeve of mine when you force people to do that right of the bat. Oh, well, I’ll still be picking up a copy of the codex today and then will probably add a Trygon or two before the end of the year.

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.