Skulltaker....and Rant in GW Major

So, finally getting back to the blog.  I actually tried a few days ago, and Blogger was having issues and wouldn't save anything.  It kept telling me I had logged out.  I decided that someone didn't want me to post that day, so here I am, trying again. 

First, I need to get something off my chest.  Sometimes (more and more often) Games Workshop really irritates me!  The latest reason has to do with coverage from the various Games Day events around the world.  Last week, via a post by Mathieu Fontaine (winner of many, many Golden Demon trophies) on Facebook, I found out that there were a few photos from Games Day France (specifically Golden Demon winners) up on GW's website.  This was about 4 days after GD France.  North America Games Day was the end of July and there's still no photos up from it!  Three months!  Where is the coverage from the other Games Days?  Games Workshop, you make some really great games.  You also make some really good miniatures (don't get cocky, there's LOTS of other awesome miniatures these days.)  The way you interact with your customers/fans; not so good.  You're getting more and more competition all the time GW: better watch out, people are getting tired of dealing with you. 

Now that I've vented a little......here's some pictures of my Skulltaker-on-a-Juggernaught conversion!  I've seen a few of these over the years, and they never look right.  Always, Skulltaker is just stuck on the back of a Jugger and is balancing there like he's a circus act.  I gave him reigns to hold on to; which meant I had to swap his sword from one hand to the other.  It went smoother than I was afraid of, with only a little putty work to finish him off.  What do you think?

 I cut away the flaming skull, and then repositioned his hand so he could be holding the sword.  Swapping the sword; easy.  Repositioning the hand; tricky.  I didn't want to try sculpting an entire hand, so I carved away until I had just the hand with a cylinder shape in it that would look like the sword hilt.  I then cut the fingers at a knuckle joint and bent the hand around the "hilt."  Rebuilding the joint with intact fingers on each side of the gap wasn't too tough.

 

  Here, I had to cut the hand free from the arm so I could reposition it....without damaging his armor!  I then pinned the hand to the arm, and built a new wrist from Green Stuff.  Some plastic chains from the Skullcrusher kit finished off the look.  I'm pretty pleased with the overall look.  This was a pretty fun conversion to do.  This was my first conversion using a Finecast model.  Finecast definitely has some problems, but this project was much easier to pull off with resin as opposed to metal.  Comments?

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!