Progress! Slow But Steady.

Well my Daemons are starting to materialize out of the warp!  I now have the Bloodthirster, 4 Fiends of Slaanesh, 6 Flamers, and 5 (old-school metal) screamers assembled.  All of these models have been based so they can quickly and easily be swapped from round to square bases.  I'm really feeling the draw to get some paint on some of these models too!  I also have all of the pieces prepped to assemble a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (Be' Lakor The Dark Master.)  I think that model will rock for Slaanesh!

Not much else in the works currently.  More Daemon assembly in the near future.  Here's the photo I promised last post though.  This was the first stacked laminate base I ever made.  Ignore the paint job; it was the best I could do about 4 years ago.  I'm still pretty fond of the flamey writing on the cloak though!

Making stacked Laminate Bases

Sorry for the length between posts.  Real life and all that.  But, the bills are getting paid, and now I have time to post an update!  I haven't gotten much done since I posted last.  My desk is still in a shambles as you can see below.  No painting done, minis in various states of assembly, new paint to get transferred into dropper-style bottles.  Its horrific.

I've started making some progress though.   I'm getting some assembly and green stuff work done on my Chaos Daemons with the goal of getting 2000 points assembled for 40K so I can start learning the army.  I will then move forward with painting consignment work, and start actually painting said Daemons.  The big slow down has been figuring out what to do with bases for the larger models since I want to use the army for both 40K and Fantasy.  Rank and file infantry is easy: put them on round bases, and make movement trays that hold the round bases.  Something kinda like the War of The Ring trays GW has out but cheaper.  Single model units, and skirmishers are another story.  Here's what I'm doing so far.....until I figure out something faster anyway!

This is the base I'm working on for a Bloodthirster.  I've made a base from counter top laminate (Formica, etc.)  I snap a few pieces up to roughly the correct size with pliers, and then glue them all together into a stack.  I then took my Dremel and routed out an area to epoxy in a rare earth magnet.  I epoxied a scrap of sheet metal I'd cut to size onto a stack of the old thin style 60mm round GW bases.  I use epoxy for this type work because superglue is too brittle when cured and I've had it break a number of times when magnets were involved.  The stacked laminate base is sized so it will also fit the correct 50mm square base the Bloodthirster needs in Warhammer Fantasy.  

Where do I get counter top laminate you ask?  Well, I actually have some scraps of it left over from the last remodeling project here at la casa de Bob.  If you're not so fortunate, then I have 2 suggestions.  First, contact a local cabinet maker and ask for some scraps and/or broken pieces too small for their use.  Unless yesterday was garbage day they'll let you grab some out of the trash.  If that doesn't work, go to your local DIY store.  The closest one to me happens to be Home Depot.  Lowe's works too, as will anyplace that sells kitchen cabinetry.  Wander through the kitchen showcase area and you'll see little 2 inch by 3 inch color samples of laminate.  They are free.  Grab a couple big hands full and go build some bases.  A note of caution: be careful of wandering through the new kitchen area of the store with your significant other.  You may end up with new kitchen cabinets instead of that new toy from Forge World!

 

In the past when making bases like this I've used green stuff to fill in gaps to make the base look like something other than a stack of thin scraps.  I'd read in a WIP post over on Coolminiornot.com about using this Heavy Carvable Modelling Paste  to build up scenic bases so I'm giving it a try.  Check the clearance section at the hobby store!  This bottle had been dropped or something and the lid had come off, making a mess.  I checked it in the store, and the material inside was still good, and 95%+ of it was still there.  I bought it for the discount you can see, and then cleaned the cured paste from the cap threads to make sure the lid seals properly.  I very large container of modelling paste for a much better price!  I just scoop the paste out with a sculpting tool and smear it into the edge of the base, filling in the gaps.  I went back and wiped excess away with my finger.  The last step was to use the corner of a sculpting tool to recess the paste a little bit so it looks more like layered shale/slate type stone when done.

Here's the Bloodthirster on his base!  He still needs some green stuff work where he was pinned together (every joint was pinned.) but you get an idea of what the base will look like.  The best part is he is easily swappable from the round base to a square one when I need to!  The only down side to making bases this way is that it is slow.  I'll keep plugging along though while I research faster ways of getting a similar result.  I've got photos on another computer that show a painted version of this style of base.  I'll transfer one of those over and include it in the next post so you get a better idea of what this will look like.  Until next time!

Ultramarines!

So, a slightly longer than hoped for delay before this post.  I'm not complaining though!  Work over the past few weeks has been a little bit slower than I would prefer, and this week was busier again.  It's always nice to be able to pay the bills!  This is going to be another photo heavy post, with lots of photos of my most recent army, my Ultramarines.  The Smurfs seem to be a very polarizing army.  People seem to either love them, or hate them.  Me, I used to hate them, but that was due to their color scheme (shuddering at the thought of the second edition uber-bright paint jobs!)  Since their paint job was updated I'm pretty ambivalent toward them.  Why go to the time and effort to build an army I'm ambivalent toward?  I decided years ago that "some day" I would build an Ultramarines army so I would have a vanilla marine army that was obviously vanilla marines.  This past spring, while deciding what army to build and paint for the Alamo 40K GT I decided it was time.  I also built the army with primarily infantry models.  I get SO tired of all the mechanized forces on the tables!  Yes, Razorspam is a good, strong list, but be different!  Show some originality!  As I was building models, I also decided to clean out my bitz box some.  I built 1 full tactical squad from just bitz!  With the help of a friend (a backpack or 2 and a couple of arms if I remember correctly) I also fleshed out 1 devastator squad and built a second.  Toward the end, seriously scrounging through the box, I built a Vanguard Veteran squad too!

A few years ago, I bought a couple of cans of Ultramarines Blue spray paint from some friend's hobby store.  I'd nursed those cans along, shaking them up every couple of months to nurture them until I was ready to paint blue.  The big day came, and after 1 short burst, the first can clogged up!  Nothing I tried got it working again.  I tried the second can: same thing!  I knew I didn't have time to base coat all of those models by hand and still get them done in time for the Alamo in May (this was about mid February.)  Out came the previously unused airbrush.  I re-read all of the articles I had downloaded, and went to work familiarizing myself with this new tool.  After a couple of weeks practicing with ink on paper I figured it was time to bite the bullet and shoot some paint.  Long story short, I sprayed the base coat, and a couple of highlights on over 100 models in about 5 hours.  That time included cleaning the airbrush in between each color for practice doing it.  With all of the time I saved NOT base coating with a brush, I was able to spend more time on detail.  I've received many compliments on these models, and they helped take me to Games Day again this year. I still have 3 or 4 units to paint, but well over half of the army is done.  I'll probably try to finish them off, and be done painting Smurfs by the end of the year; see how it goes.  Here's the boys in blue:

At Games Day!  "Primus Inter Pares," "First Among Equals."  Ultramarines.  A received what I consider to be a HUGE compliment on this army while at Games Day.  I was speaking to Phil Kelly, Games Designer, and having him autograph my Space Wolves Codex.  I mentioned that in addition to Golden Demon, I had an army in Armies on Parade again this year.  He asked which one.  I told him, "The Ultramarines display with all of the columns."  His eyes got big, and he stood up saying he wanted to shake my hand.  He told me the display was , "Spot on. You totally nailed the Ultramarines with that display."  He asked what the Latin on the display meant.  I told him, and he got a grin on his face and said, "Nice!"  That brief exchange made my day!  Little did I know the day would get even better that afternoon! Thanks for the compliment Phil, you have no idea how much it means to me!

"Dirty Steve" formerly of White Dwarf photographing my display.  Youngsters tripping across this won't remember Dirty Steve, but us Old Timers do!  It was a pleasure to meet him in person and chat while he was taking these photos!

The army as it was when I made the trip to San Antonio for the Alamo 40K GT.  The vast majority of what is on the display was painted in a 3 week binge.  The Inquisitorial Drop Pod, and the black (Deathwatch) marines in the foreground are Sternguard Veterans.  I've always liked the Deathwatch, and when I saw the Sternguard rules in Codex Space Marines I KNEW that I would have a unit painted as Deathwatch.

Tactical marines.  Yep, there are 3 full squads of them and the rest look just like these! Well, different squad markings.

The 3 tactical squad sergeants; with banners color coded to their squads.....yeah, its a sickness.

A squad of Devastators ready to provide covering fire!

 
A couple terminators with their sergeant.  Forge World shoulder pads.

Assault Termies this time.  FW pads again.

The drop pod; Inquisition icons on all doors!

Opened up.  Object source lighting inside.  Forge World etched brass above each doorway, and on the floor in each doorway....did I mention its a sickness?

Some of the Deathwatch/Sternguard.  There are 10 total, 11 if you count their Librarian.  Of the 11, 6 of the chapter symbol shoulder pads are ones I sculpted myself.  The muzzle blast bits came from a friend of mine.  Yep, more brass etch on each of their backpacks.  I HAD to help designate them as Inquisition didn't I?  Well, DIDN'T I?

Some assault marines, including a captain with jump pack.

Another view of the captain.  You can get a pretty good look at the "cross hatch" style highlights I used extensively on these models.  Its an artistic technique I've seen in graphic novels and first saw used on models in a GW store that had been painted by the store manager.  Its fast, and looks pretty good on the table top I think.  I get quite a few comments on the style; all positive so far!

The cloak.  I was really pleased with how this turned out.

The 2 Librarians.  One Ultramarines, and one Exorcists Chapter, seconded to the Deathwatch.  I got lucky with this model because the Chapter symbol for the Exorcists is the same horned skull as the symbol for Librarians.  I changed the skull on his belt buckle to a horned skull so he has a Librarian symbol on him and I was set!  Green stuff is your friend!

Heavybolterbob!  In case you haven't noticed, most of the models are on assault legs to look like they are running forward to get into position.  The Devastators are all kneeling since they are holding position and steadying heavy weapons.  All of the models have free hand on them as well.  Litanies, squad markings, and a Roman numeral 13 on a knee pad for the 13th legion.

Another angle to show the kill markings on his Heavy Bolter!

This Land Raider isn't mine!  I traded the assembly and painting of it for some models.  I knocked it out (along with lots of other stuff) the week leading up to Games Day so I could include it on my AoP display board.  I think it turned out pretty well, and the owner is happy with it!  As an added bonus he can say it was displayed at Games Day!

These on the other hand, ARE mine.  Two of the very few vehicles that will be in this army.

 An old school pewter dreadnought that I was given in pieces!  He had 3 or 4 nasty-thick coats of paint on him and he was missing a foot!  I stripped the paint.  I converted him slightly using feet from a Imperial Guard Sentinel I had in my bitz box.  I pinned him all together and pinned him to the base.  I jazzed him up with some Forge World icons, and here he is.  I probably should have named him, Phoenix.

Last but not least, me with the AoP display, and Jawaballs Ultramarines banner.  This was Jawaballs' 4th straight winning entry in the banner contest at Games Day.  He was gracious enough to let me display my army along side it AND he took the photo.  Thanks Jawa!

Yes, that is a Silver Demon from the Golden Demon painting competition next to the army.  That's for another post!  This one is for the Ultramarines!  I learned an absolute TON while painting this army.  They won me my 2nd straight Best Painted at this year's Alamo 40K GT in May.  I also won 3rd Player's Choice at the Alamo.  They won best painted at a local tournament in Montana in June while I was visiting family and friends.  They won me a second Parade Day qualifier, which paid for my ticket to get into Games Day.  Models from this army have also been featured in the Photo of the Day on Bell of Lost Souls.  If that's how you feel about the Ultramarines, you can hate on them all you want, but I like my Smurfs!

40K 6th Game 2 Plus Space Hulkamanders!

So, I got in my second game of 6th Edition last night.  I lost again, but it was a ridiculously close game with lots of back and forth, and good and bad dice rolls on both sides.  The game would have been a draw except my opponent scored points for First Blood, and killing my Warlord....gotta love advancing into the guns playing Tyranids!  The silly part about the game is my opponent won with 1 wounded model left on the field.  His Nurgle Sorcerer in Terminator armor had 2 wounds left.  Stupid toughness 5 and 2+ save!  I had around 30 models on the table; mostly free spawned termagants.  Fortunately (for him) I had explained to James earlier in the game how he could use "Look Out Sir!" to protect his Sorcerer.  Oh well, it was a fun game.  I still don't like the random charge distance, even though I generally rolled better for it this game than last.  I also didn't need to roll well, because I tried to set myself up so I COULD roll crappy and not have it matter.  In one case I only needed to roll a 2 on 2d6 which was good, because I rolled a 4!  On 2 other occasions I rolled 12 on 2d6 (unheard of!)  Again, it didn't matter because I only needed about 5 inches in both cases.  The jury is still out.

Enough of that!  Here's some painting!  Still showing stuff I have done over the past few months; these models were finished back in March or April.  These models are the Space Hulk Terminator models.  I painted them up as part of a trade with a friend of mine.  I was originally supposed to paint them "just like the ones from the box."  Before I got to them however, my friend decided that since he doesn't often play Space Hulk he'd rather have them painted in his army's colors, green for Salamanders.  He carved all of the Blood Angels iconography off, based them, and then I was off and painting.  He added Forge World shoulder pads wherever he could.   He also included 1 old school pewter model with a bionic leg (he has a "thing" for models with bionics) and converted up a power fist into a narthecium so I could turn the kneeling model into an Apothecary.  He also requested a crazy half, half, and half color scheme on the Apothecary.  After painting 1/2 of these models I took a break, learned how to use my airbrush, and base coated all of the armor on about 100 Ultramarines models in 1 day.  THEN I had to go back and look at Hulkamander squad two!  Did I want to painstakingly build up the highlights by brush, or dig out the airbrush and have them look better in a tenth the time?  No, they needed to match, so I went to work with the brush again.......here's the results:

All of the models

The Librarian and a couple dudes.  I was happy with the armor and the robe on the Librarian.

The commanders and the flamer.  I like how the sword turned out.
 

Another angle

Just an assortment of the models

The last 3 models I finished.  I was pleased with all of them for one reason or another.

Top view!

I'll hopefully have more pics up by the end of the week. It depends on how work goes.  With the next post we'll be getting into my most recent stuff.  I'll be showing my Ultramarines army!  I also started teaching a local guy how to paint last night.  He hadn't touched a brush in about 10 years because he just never got a model he was happy with.  So far he's tickled with the results he's getting.  Hopefully more on that front after next Monday night.  With luck we'll finish the 3 models he's working on.  If not, then it will be the following week.  Either way, watch for updates!

We Have Ignition!

So, I've been debating with myself for the past few weeks whether or not I want to deal with a blog.  I've obviously decided to give it a go.  On the one hand, it could be nice to be able to post updates on my painting projects and Works In Progress.  On the other hand, it could just be one more thing to make time for, and at times (like trying to finish up my painting for Games Day) darn near impossible to make time for!  What can you expect?  Not much right away!  Over the next couple of weeks, I'll try to post some history stuff; past Armies on Parade entries, recent painting, and most importantly, my recent Silver Demon winning unit from North American Games Day 2012.  Beyond that, I'll be talking about and showing photos of my current painting projects, both my own and commission work.  I'll also be posting progress reports as I get ready for events I plan on attending.  If I can figure this whole blogging thing out enough, I'll also try to add in some "how to" type articles to help people get solid table top results on their miniatures in less time.  I often hear people lament that they are too slow at painting, or painting is too hard, I just want to play.  Well, I'm here to tell you that painting to a nice table top standard is not difficult once you know a few basic techniques, and more importantly, it does not take a great deal of time.  My army painting goal is to have finished models that take less than one hour each to paint.  If its taking longer than an hour to paint, then I'm using the wrong technique, or its a ridiculously difficult color scheme.  These days my "standard troop" models take me between 30 and 45 minutes each depending on what I am working on and win me painting awards at tournaments.  I'm supposed to be helping some local players with their painting next Monday night.  I'll let you know how it goes and we'll be off!