The absence...

Just wanted to make a quick update and let folks know that I am alive and well. Been busy after the surgery and follow-up physical therapy; moved to yet another house (much better location and lease agreement) and have made limited progress on several armies. Mostly Trollbloods for WarmaHordes and a number of painting contracts, including a FW Avatar w/sword. In other news, I finished assembling the Hydra squadron and have gotten access to an airbrush; looking forward getting re-acquainted with the medium and cranking out some IG tanks. I will post pics this weekend and have an update or two. Thanks for sticking by and watching the shenanigans!

Warmachine!

I apologise to the community for being absent for a bit. I had knee surgery last Thursday to repair the meridial miniscus in my right knee and have had some substantial downtime (literally) since. Nonetheless, my LGS has been on a huge Warmachine/Hordes kick and I have found myself squarely on the band wagon. Since the release of 8th edition WFB, the WORST incarnation of the game in my opinion, I have been looking for a new game to replace my fantasy kick. With that and some substantial leave from work I decided to take on some painting contracts. For those of you unfamiliar with the Privateer Press miniatures, they are AMAZING and I wanted to paint as many models from the different factions as possible (without ponying up the cash to make/paint several armies). My only complaint, or caveat as it may be, is that I have ran into some issues with gaps in the models, mostly on some of the warbeasts; luckily I am proficient enough with Green Stuff to have corrected the problems myself. I have decided on the Trollbloods faction from the Hordes system. Below is an epic Sorscha model I painted for a client. In the background is a War Hog, also for a client, and my lone Madrik waiting for his albino fleshtone.



All being said I am wrapped up in getting a lot of commission work completed while I am out on leave. As they say, "Idle hands will wander to World of Warcraft or the coveted Starcraft 2". I will post up pics of the finished War Hog and the The Butcher of Khardov and soon as I get a free minute to snap photos. I am also working on some of my IG troopers, 3 ghoul tableu stands for a client (using some of the Kings of War miniatures, more on them later), some Retribution of Scyrah for a client, and lastly a Chaos Lord on Horse for a client as well. Someday, I may even actually paint some of my Trollbloods! All these photos will grace the site soon. Till then dear readers, good fight, and good night!

P.S: Thanks for getting me up to 16 followers, was nice logging in and seeing some new faces, and thanks to those of you for sticking around. I will hobble off to bed now.

Ogryn

So in short, I got the camera situation sorted out. Or at least I have one on loan until I can get mine proper mended. So this fellow blundered into my painting area and found himself with fresh coloring. I am a huge fan of Ogryns in Apoc, not so much in reg 40k. With that said this one, and his buddies, are headed into a huge Apocalypse battle next month. Three IG players vs. Orks, Chaos, etc. 15,000 points per side with the Cadian 109th toting the line with 7,000 points alone! (Yeah, I have a few super-heavies!) Should prove to be great big giant fun in the end. Pics will be posted. Now I just have to get crackin' on those Hydras...

Delays aplenty

So as of late I have had the painting bug, this is a good thing. The downside is that I have busted up my camera but good. All I have at this point is my trusty cell phone camera....yeah. So give me about a week to get this sorted out, then I will have a large post of pics of what I have been doing.

Been lazy...

So I have been on quite a holiday recently. Haven't really accomplished much still getting basic home repairs completed and haven't had much time to allocate to miniatures. What I have managed to put together is all of my autocannon teams. So enjoy.

Hydras! (pic heavy)

So I decided a few posts back that I needed some heavier firepower in the 109. After the Manticores were purchased I started pondering the Hydra. Great tank, cheap points but expensive models from FW. So after scouring the internets, I stumbled across a fellow who was converting Aegis defense line parts into Hydras. With my scratch-build nerves alight I grabbed the following WIP pics off his blog. Before I get too far into this, I cannot for the life of me find the blog again, I thought I bookmarked it but alas it is missing. With that said if anyone finds the blog this gentleman posted his work too please let me know so I can link the credit. This is 100% his ingenuity and deserves kudos. With that said, here are his photos:

He uses barrels from Bic pens for his AC barrels, I picked up plasticard tubing from Hobbytown USA for mine.

Step by step pages.

With this info in hand, I dug out my defense lines and went to town with saw and drill.

Dead is dead.
Parts is parts.
Dead guys is parts.

Barrel extension test.

Simple, fast, nice looking!

All three turrets done.

Tank company commander consulting the most up-to-date aerial intelligence.

I love this tank crew model, very characterful for a chap missing everything from the waste down.

So with all the turrets completed, metal rung steps included, I am waiting on my order of Chimeras to arrive. Once here I can start the process of crafting a flat panel for these turrets to sit on. I will post more on that when the time comes.

UPDATE: Special thanks to a kind reader who pointed out the original thinker behind this conversion is none other than Admiral Drax. Please stop by his blog. This was 100% his ideas. All I did was make a couple slight changes to spice mine up. Thanks Admiral Drax!

Simple Green!

So a friend of mine gave me some old 2nd ed Death Guard mini's, they were in good condition except for the paint. Fourteen years of basecoat, paint and repaint. So after perusing the internets and seeing a myriad sites expounding the greatness of the Simple Green product, I figured I'd give it a shot. Not to mention, my fiance had a bottle of it in the house which she does not use because "It doesn't smell very good, you know, like clean." In my opinion she seems to be rather nit-picky about these kinds of things (**edit** Under no circumstances is my beautiful, loving fiance at all nit-picky she just has ways she wants things. This message was not added under coercion. Yeah Right**) Moving along, I dropped the 5 figs (plastic and all) in a glass jug of Simple Green and let 'em sit over night. Got up this morning and took an old toothbrush to each one and viola! Simple, easy, awesome! All I can say after using this product is this, if the Miniature Gods made a better product for getting old paint off from models, they kept it for themselves. No pitting or jelling of the plastic, no residue, nothing. Didn't even interact with the old CA glue. Which I will go in and pick out with tweezers.

Manticores!!

So after seeing that GW was releasing a Manticore kit I scrapped my plans of scratch-building them. Instead I picked up a couple of the new models, and re-focused my efforts on planning out some Hydras. More on that project in a bit.

Front View (imposing!)

Side View

Rear View

Side View

Twins, Basil, TWINS!!

I absolutely cannot wait to drop these templates on some poor undeserving soul. But in proper Grimdark fashion, "There is no such thing as innocence, only varying degrees of guilt."

The Arvus!

This is the Arvus Lighter kit I recently purchased. The cockpit is a separate piece that I am leaving off so I can paint the pilot.


I got this little shuttle for a very good deal on eBay. Although primarily useless in 40K and even Apoc, this little guy will be shuttling the Planetary Governor off-world in an upcoming Apoc game I have planned as a house warming for my new place. I will need to break it down and reassemble it to get some of the mold lines cleaned up. I also picked up two of the new Manticore kits, nice models, I will post them up soon. And then the Hydra project...

Considerations...

So I am thinking of branching into some DKoK minis. I have been mulling it over for quite some time and I think I am going to slowly phase out my Cadians with DKoK forces. The figures are amazing and I like the idea of having a force that is not often seen at the LGS's in the area.


Also, the Arvus Lighter arrived and will need some general cleaning before I can start the painting process. Going to pick up some MIG weathering powders in order to get some weathering done on the Valk's, Ven, T-Bolt, Arvus and the Super Heavies. Pics will be up soon. The new painting room is getting organized today, taking a break now to update the blog. Keep the eyes peeled for upcoming goodies.

Moving Time!

Just finished the move into the new house this past Sunday. Now the monumental task of unpacking. Ugh! The Escalation League I am running starts tonight at the LGS so until I can unpack some paints and supplies, playing will have to suffice.

Replacement part received!

So when I got the new Thunderbolt I noticed that the engine part was missing. I shot an email over to the fine folks at FW to advise them of the issue. They replied that a replacement part would be cast and shipped. Five days later, low and behold, a package arrives with the part. As a long time customer service guru, (answering calls on everything from cars to mattresses and all points in between) I am impressed by the service level of FW. I will continue expanding my army with Forgeworld pieces, mostly because they are amazing figures and vehicles, secure in the knowledge that this company has my back on quality and responsibility. That's my two cents.

'Ard Boyz 2010

So this year I will not be attending the 'Ard Boyz competition. Mainly because I simply do not have the miniatures or time this year. Not wanting to go out and be yet another Leafblower player hoping that lightning can strike twice; I have a 2,500 point army that will be built up over the course of this coming year in anticipation of next year's competition. Also, since TheNecro is canceled for 2010, there simply aren't any good, large tournaments in the southeast area with the exception of BoLS-Con. With that being said I am currently on plan to head up to Games Day 2010 in Baltimore but those plans may change to BoLS-Con depending on finances.

To all the players who are duking it out at 'Ard Boyz today, best of luck!

Saturday Night Fights!

A clearing where a Rhino and a squad of Grey Hunter's once stood.

Cmd HQ and an Infantry Squad preparing to sell their lives.

So my buddy Brenton is in town from school and getting ready to head up to Boston for a summer intern position. So I figured it would be a good time to get the ladz together and go roll some dice. My buddy Luis (Lue Bangs on my followers list) lives here in town and loves the new Space Puppies, he has an Ork army and offered to lend it to Brenton. We stuck to games @ 1500 pts so we could all test some 40k goodness. I fought Luis' SW first and managed to eek out a victory 8 kp's to 6. Next I fought Brenton's ork list and barely managed a victory of 2 objectives to one. I feel safe in the knowledge that one more turn would have seen my IG receive a sound crumpin'. It is very clear to me that I lack some significant punch to the list. I am going to start building a Manticore or two out of extra Hellstrike missiles and some plasticard. More on that in a few days.