Revenant Autumn

Normandy SR2 auction soon!

2011-11-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

It is up for auction very VERY soon! It will be auctioned 8PM Saturday November 26th on the live stream of the Mass Effect Marathon for the Childs Play charity! Check out here for auction details.
You will have to be in the video stream chat to bid on it.

Note that it is not quite done yet, but I will be working to get it done as soon as possible! I dont anticipate much more time to finish it, but fieldwork will be getting in the way a bit in December.

This auction is not the only thing we have in store for the rest of the weekend.
Please tune in and donate or spread the word if you can!

Normandy SR2 Model Constructed

2011-11-23T12:01:00.001-05:00

Want this model when it is completed? It is up for auction very soon! It will be auctioned 8PM Saturday November 26th on the live stream of the Mass Effect Marathon for the Childs Play charity! Check out here for auction details.

I first started planning the Normandy model around August. It was nothing but a couple screenshots and 3D model files. With small models and minis I can see progress on very quickly, but this build required so much more planning and preparation than I was used to. But I stuck to my guns regardless, chipping away at each little piece at a time.

Now here it is near the end of November, and I have the thing sitting in my apartment! I am equal parts happy to see it come out so well, and relieved to be mostly done with it.

Now there are just a few more steps remain before it is fully complete. I need to fix the stand which has begun to buckle. I didn't pick the center of balance correctly, so it is breaking the PVC. I will fix this with a secondary stand. I ended up magnetizing the front two fins after an unfortunate ship face plant. This makes me much more at ease about moving it. There are also a few last details that I want to score into the ship, and the little mini antenna thing in the front before it is ready.

Oh, and I have to paint it. I will be following the Cerberus colors used in ME2, and this time I will be trying my hand at custom printing decals. I've done decal work before on my Tau and other projects, and I am confident in my ability to get a seamless look. If I need to however, I can fall back on cutting out stencil again. I will be hand painting the other details that didn't actually make it into 3D on the model, mostly windows and vents/important panel lines.

Normandy SR2 WIP

2011-11-08T23:18:00.000-05:00

I've been steadily getting through the build over the last few weeks, despite quite a bit of work getting in the way. The progress I have made recently has me pretty confident that I will be finishing the build in time.

Here is a shot from the last thruster getting put together. I try to build it in sections to give the joins time to strengthen.

After the thrusters were finished, they were assembled and glued onto the wings with wires going through the inside wings to connect to the base when ready. I then took cross-sections of the hull at five points, and created my top hull skeleton from it. The slight curve to the bottom of the hull made things a little difficult, but with enough sanding I was able to achieve it well enough. I made a skeleton set for the bottom section as well, and included the piping as a brace for the stand. Holes were drilled into it for wiring from the wings. I spent half a day working on window lighting which just came out horribly, so it all got entombed by the resin. Maybe next year.

The hull resin work is halfway done. The first layer has been set and sanded. The next layer of patches is applied and setting. It is apply, sand, repeat, until I have the perfect hull. The bottom will get done the same way after.

The base is well along in construction as well. I got the stand set up, and drilled a hole through for the power supply to connect to. The wire will run up to a quick disconnect at the connection on the ship.

I knew my SR2 was going to be roughly twice as large as the SR1, but it wasn't until I took out one of last year' prototype pieces that I was struck by just how much larger of a build it is.

Left to do:
-Finish top hull sculpting
-Create back, side, and front fins
-Wire and integrate wings to hull
-Finish bottom hull sculpting
-Integrate fins to hull
-Prime and Paint
-Decal/detailing
-Finish base. Plaque, and either wood stain or nebula airbrushing

The model will be fully assembled and painted up for auction during the G33kwatch Mass Effect Marathon, November 26th at 8PM EST. The auction takes place in the marathon chat feed, and I will be in chat and on the video when it is auctioned. All proceeds go directly to the Childsplay Charity, which helps children in hospitals to have toys and games.

If you are interested in the model, feel free to ask me any questions! If you can spread the word about the marathon and auction where you can, I would be very grateful.

Normandy SR2 Model Build

2011-10-09T20:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a year since my first real attempt at building a model from scratch. Not only was I inexperienced in many of the methods required, but it was also a much bigger scale than I was used to dealing with. My build of the Normandy SR1 from Mass Effect ended up being a great learning experience, although it was not without its problems and mistakes.

It was created for the G33kwatch Mass Effect Marathon, where it was auctioned off for a good sum! All proceeds went to the Childsplay Charity, which helps children in hospitals to have toys and games.

This will be the second year of the MEM, and so I am back in action making the Normandy SR2! Just as in game, this build will be bigger and better than its predecessor. I've already spent a good amount of time working on this, but the results have been pretty lackluster until recently.

I've decided to write down my experience so far to both give you a preview of whats to come, and also to provide any tips and lessons learned along the way. If you just want to skip to the good stuff, pictures of the current build state are at the bottom. :)

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Planning

I began by looking at my build from the previous year and identifying the major mistakes that I wanted to avoid this year.

Major failings of last year's build
Incorrect source material - The 3d model I obtained for the SR1 was very convenient at the time of planning, but I learned too late of quite a few incorrect portions of it. They were nothing too major, but the discovery when the project was already too far along was demoralizing all the same.

Haphazard materials and planning - I was able to make schematics from my 3D model as planned, but my methods of transferring to plasticard and choice of materials really came back to hurt me during the assembly phase. I was not confident in making perfect cuts, so I tried having balsa wood cores with plasticard encasing. Not taking plasticard thicknesses into account made measurements off. Also, use of Google Sketchup to get proper measurements gave poor results and kept me constantly adjusting on the fly.

Making molds and resin a priority - This was an interesting learning experience and half worked. I was hoping to be able to make a few clones of pieces and extras in case I broke parts. The molds worked out, but the resin gave me many troubles. I was forced to resort to dental plaster instead of the resin. This was not an optimal medium for a large ship, and added much more time to the build on top of the time already spent on making my first set of molds.

So I decided to try to plan out much more of my build beforehand, and stick with methods that I was confident in. I dropped any notion of mold-making, but I felt comfortable enough to add LED's into it.

With this in mind, I scoured the net for source materials. Pictures, models, in game screenshots.. In the end I settled on an amazing 3D model made by Thorreign (Matt/Mathias). The quality and detail are top notch, and I knew I would be in a good state working off this model.

I picked up an Autocad program and determined my scale of choice. This was done partially just through experimentation, and I finally chose a size which would make the model a bit under 2 feet long. This was almost twice as large as the SR1, but I felt the build deserved it.

I spent a few weeks isolating individual parts and generating views from different angles. After that, it was a matter of manually measuring every piece I would need. You can see this in all of my chicken scratch on some of the sheets.

At this point I needed to focus on amassing the proper materials. After looking at my current supply of plasticard, I decided on a 1/32 thickness for the majority of the build, and a 1/16 for certain parts that might need a more sturdy join, like the hull frame. I also picked up some 1/64 clear plastic for the light emitting sections, and tubing for joints and the stand. I threw in some strips of common sizes that would save me some cutting time.

For LED's, I went through Evan Designs, my regular source for ready-made LED's. For single builds, having everything assembled really helps cut out some time on lighting.

Not shown is my resin clay, which I used last year for the hull and will be using again. More on that at a later date.

I decided to upgrade my tools for this build as well. In particular, the repeat cutter has proven invaluable. It allows me to measure out a particular dimension, lock it in, and then cut as many pieces to that dimension as needed. The original stopper was a bit askew on the sides, so I refitted it with a right angle ruler to ensure I was always getting 90 degree cuts.

The smaller hobby ruler has been very helpful due to the quick sizing sections, and the larger clear ruler has a steel side for actual cutting.

I've switched to plastic cement over super glue for my plasticard joins, as it actually melts the plastic for a more cohesive bond.

Also shown painters tape, sandpaper, and many sharp blades are a must for plasticard work.

With the plans and materials available, I took the time-consuming step of categorizing everything into like widths, and cutting strips of each. This looks boring, and it pretty much is. But it was also something I could do while away from my home workspace, so I took advantage of what I could do and got it done.

I then cut all of the pieces for each individual part and bagged them up so that I could assemble them when I had the time.

This weekend allowed me to follow through on my goal of a high-planning approach. I took my prepared materials and plans for the lower thrusters and wing assemblies, and put everything together. Not everything was exactly correct and I had to make quite a few new pieces that I missed, but on the whole it worked out spectacularly.

I am very pleased with the speed at which these got completed. You can see the completed thrusters next to their schematics, and the pile of the next set of thrusters awaiting construction.

And now what you were actually looking for in this post, the pics! Here they are all test lighted up. I wasn't originally going to do the LED's just yet, but the way the assembly came together they needed to go in.

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Black Reach Complete!

2011-08-28T21:03:00.000-04:00

Work complete! While taking much (100-200 hours?) longer than I originally expected, I really enjoyed the project. I've learned a bit more about my vallejo paint. I struggled with first coat coverage, but I also ended up painting from black and brown basecoats. I will probably go back to some citadel foundations to round out my earlier paint coverage stages on darker models from now on.

I also learned to make a paint chart of all my mixes and washes used. This helped greatly when coming back to work on it after a week, to maintain a uniformity in style. These will get passed on to Rebornflames, to help act as a template towards any new units that might get painted up in the army. I will be doing this with every project from now on.

Blackreach Raven Guard

2011-07-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

I have eaten much humble pie while working on this Black Reach set that was supposed to be finished in 24 hours. The Orks continue to stare me down as I work on them, but the Raven Guard may now stand tall (and painted!)

The winner and friend to G33kwatch, Rebornflames, was nice enough to let me take my time on them instead. Having more time meant that I could put a good deal more effort into them, so I have done my best to bring them up a notch in quality. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I actually got to play a game?

2011-06-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

After a month or two of not being able to get any games in, I was finally able to make it down to our PBL a few weeks ago. I got in an 800 point game with my Shadow Crows, which marks the first "real" sized game I've managed to play with them. The pictures are pretty blurry thanks to my poor phone camera, but they are better than nothing for a battle report.

The mission was standard deployment, with 3 objectives in a triangle and two troops choice counting as killpoints. I took
Librarian with JP, blood lance, shield
2x 10man Assault squads, JP, 2 meltguns, Serg with powerfist, one of them combat squadded (the one with the sergeant and the other full squad were my two troop killpoints).
1x Honor Guard, JP, 2 with single Lightning Claw, 2 with meltabombs

I came up against Scott's Ultramarines fielding
1 Terminator Librarian with Smite, something else
Sicarius
2x 10 man Tactical squads with Flamers, 1 w/ missile launcher, 1 w/ heavy bolter
Dreadnought with assault cannon and missile

I gave the first deployment to Scott, who deployed with the dread in the middle flanked by the tac squads. I Reserved everything, and he took his free 2 turns to move up onto the closest two objectives. At the bottom of turn 2 all of my units managed to come in thanks to Descent of Angels. I landed my main force in the middle behind the poor dreadnought with meltaguns primed. The honor guard dropped in closer to Scott's table edge, as I wanted to do my best to keep the main squad in their FNP bubble, without endangering the HG to much fire. the two squads dropped in to put pressure on sicarius' squad, and ran to get in cover for next turn. I ended the turn with another good roll when the librarian's squad managed to explode the dreadnought with melta.

Scott responded with firing on my librarian squad with his librarian tac squad, killing about 3-4. The Sicarius tac squad manoeuvred and rapid fired at the 5man team with the powerfist. A lucky shot killed the sergeant, and another marine ate a plasma pistol shot.

Rather than split my forces, I decided to overwhelm Sicarius, judging that I could most likely hit the other tac squad quickly enough afterwards, or control most of the objectives if need be. My four squads converged on Sicarius, sending a lethal hail of fire and reducing their number by a few marines.

This ended up leaving the librarian squad out of charge range, but the other three pressed on. The end result would see Sicarius standing alone surrounded by enemies.

Scott opened fire on the librarian squad again, though I don't believe it caused any casualties, and the combat was resolved. Sicarius made a valiant effort to buy more time for his comrades, and very nearly remained standing. But in the end, he lost his last wound to the last of the armor saves and fell.

My squads formed up with some generous consolidation moves, forming a forward line of assault squads, with the honor guard behind and the depleted combat squad hugging cover on an objective as insurance.

My attack force swept forward, with the two assault squads managing their assault through cover distances, and the honor guard keeping the bubble up in the shooting phase. The Ultramarines lose quite a few, and failed their morale check. Instead of getting cut down by a sweeping advance, they reformed and turned fearless for the next round.

The assault during Scott's half of turn 5 whittled down the remaining Ultramarine Tactical squad members, leaving the Terminator Librarian locked in combat. On my turn the Honor Guard boosted over the melee and charged into the lone Librarian, felling him with lightning claws.

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Overall it was a good game that gave us both some more experience with deepstriking and assault. My deployment worked flawlessly, and I had some lucky rolls early on that I can not always count on happening. Even with just 1D6 scatter, I've learned to respect my drop zone choices. Also, I need that FNP and furious charge on my side. Even fighting Tac squads, I felt my Assault Marines whiffing after the initial charges.

Furthermore, by going second and reserving all, I was able to capitalize on Scott's deployment choices. Had he deployed more defensively, it would probably have been a much closer game. Being able to get behind the dreadnought and split his forces in two was much easier than dropping out of melta range and dealing with the two units close enough to support each other. I have the feeling I won't get the same drop on him next time, however. :]

The decision to go with Honor Guard was a last minute one, but I think they did the job perfectly at this point level. They kept my priest safe in combat, and still provided a bit of punch that I would have looked for with my Vanguard veterans, at half the price. The lack of the VV heroic intervention is something I can do without at such a low point level. I will definitely consider them in larger lists as well, sacrificing some bling on my VV. Their equipment options really open things up, either turning them into tank hunter and FNP support, or going for close combat punch.

Black Reach Auction Sat June 4th!

2011-06-03T11:59:00.000-04:00

One day to go before the G33kwatch Slumberparty! I bought the Blackreach set from our local store, Timewarp Comics, and I have spent the last two weeks prepping the miniatures. Everything is now ready to go for tomorrow's painting challenge. All of the models have been deflashed, assembled, based, gun barrels drilled, and primed.

It will be auctioned off Saturday June 4th at about 2pm. You will have to be in the live Ustream chat to be able to bid on it. Please be capable of donating the amount relatively quickly after winning so I can begin working as soon as possible! I will be around to answer questions before hand, and will be able to work out details with the winner on design and color choices.

I'll have my airbrush with me for any basecoating once I know the winner's color choices, and then its the long road of painting them all up in the ~22ish hours of the rest of the marathon. (Note that should I not succeed the challenge then I will still make sure to finish the models later to a quality level, its more of timed event for the fun of it)

Extras that are making it in are:

2x custom made objectives, one an Ork kannon of mass destruction, and another is some Imperial supply crates.

Some low rubble and building terrain courtesy of Paul's Basement League. I haven't yet seen it, but we will have pics when Paul arrives at the marathon.

2x 36" tape measure. because nobody should have to use those weird red stick rulers.

Extra Dice! Dakkadakkadakka

I am still working on making some foam inserts tonight, we shall see how it works out.

I hope I have some people's interest, please tune into the Slumberparty and donate if you can. There is a metric ton of prizes being raffled off to donaters, in addition to some other cool auctions besides this Black Reach set. All money goes to the Childs Play charity, helping children in hospitals have fun and be kids!

Even if you are not interested in this auction, I would greatly appreciate anyone spreading the word! Thanks all, see you tomorrow.

GDMNW, Charity, Battlestar

2011-05-11T14:05:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, I received the banner marine from the folks at GDMNW that I had won in a raffle, and I have been meaning to post my thanks. It is a wonderfully done miniature that has found its place among my best painted models in the display shelf. I may even make a Sternguard killteam to match him when I get the chance. Thanks for the raffle and the help to the gaming community that you provide!

I took some pictures of him with my new photobooth, which I am still getting used to. The lighting is much nicer, but I definitely need to work on setup and perhaps get some better backgrounds than the fabric it came with. Once my game room is returned to normal state I hope to set up a permanent booth to streamline the process.

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My main focus this month is around the rapidly approaching G33kwatch 24hour slumber party marathon which I will be participating in. At the same time, I will be painting a custom Black Reach set (with extras!) that we will be auctioning off near the beginning! It would be a great starter set for someone new, or as a gift for friends who haven't yet been able to get into the game. And it all goes to the Childsplay charity so you will be giving games while getting one! See this previous post on the details, and I will be updating the contents closer to the event as well. I am a bit nervous that nobody will actually want it, so I would appreciate any exposure people could provide!

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I also found a diversion from my Cryx in the form of some pieces from the Battlestar Galactica boardgame. My friend Ryan introduced some of us to the game, and it is a blast! Very suspenseful trying to find the cylon traitor amongst the group while making tough choices on things to sacrifice for the good of the fleet. The mini's are really nice too, but having them fully painted up would bring it up a notch, so I offered to paint some and see if he likes em. Theres plenty more to paint than just these, but this is one of each ship type. I tried to stay faithful to the real colorschemes, but I did take the Mk7 viper blue scheme from a larger scale painted model that I saw online. I'm also working on a secret side project of similar subject..

Aside from that, my Cryx are scratching at their box to get more work done on them. Soon guys(gals? wraiths?), soon.

Charity Auction - Custom Black Reach Painting Challenge

2011-04-22T14:47:00.000-04:00

Lets talk charity. My brothers in arms, the G33kwatch crew put on an epic Mass Effect Marathon last year for Childsplay charity, in which they auctioned off my Normandy SR1 model. While I have plans for the SR2 for this coming year's ME marathon, the G33ks have a new 24 hour marathon in the works on June 4th, consisting of many different party games! Talking it over with Charismatic guy Joe, we decided to try something a little different for my crafty contribution to this Slumber Party:

I will be purchasing the Warhammer 40k starter set Black Reach box, and preparing it for the Slumber Party(assembling, basing, priming). Early into the marathon day we will auction this set off, to be painted up to the exact specifications of the winner, DURING the marathon. I will be painting and also jumping into a few of the games and crazy hijinks during the rest of this 24 hour period.

What will Definitely be Included:

The full Black Reach box contents(minus sprue, unless you really want it..) amounting to a respectable Ork and Space Marine forces. Arguably one of the most generous starter kits to date!
Painted to match your color choices, or an existing army.
Based to your desired terrain, or to match any existing forces as closely as possible.

Additional Items I am working to also Include:

Custom Objective counters (mix of orky and Imperial)
Extra set of rules and templates (for those who might want to split it up between two new players)
Protective foam to fit the Blackreach set.
3-5 pieces of low terrain so you can play a real match right out of the box!

In addition, if the winner is new to painting and would prefer, I will document my colors and steps carefully. I can paint the base troops in a way more suited for a new painter to match when they add new models. In this case I will spend extra time on the commanders and elites, and may include some starter paints and brushes if I have them available.

Whether you are interested in this auction or not, I encourage you to tune in and watch the marathon during the 24 hour period. We will be playing plenty of fun video games, raffling off a metric ton of prizes to those who donate, doing crazy things for donations, and unlocking g33kwatch member special costumes! Sponser me in your donations to force me to do hilarious/dangerous/informative things while trying to meet my painting deadline!

Lastly, any help in spreading the word on both the auction and event would be greatly appreciated. As we approach the Slumber Party, I will be posting progress and updating this post should any of the specifics change. If you have any questions or suggestions for this Auction, please let me know!

Building Cryx and battery/Switch Bases

2011-04-19T16:20:00.001-04:00

I was able to get a good bit of modeling done on the Cryx this Saturday. The Deathjack got most of the improvements, namely soldering and greenstuff to conceal the wires to it's body, and getting the base and broken parts back on. I used crystal clear caulk, tinted green with a wash, and applied it around the led to bridge that area and add some texture over it. This worked pretty well, and should work fine when painted transitions into the LED section. I added resin sand to the base to shore everything up, and primed it after these pictures. You can see that the intended effect of bathing his victim in green is unhindered by the caulking.

The Satyxis all got some assembling and priming as well. Their bases will be another large project, so they are on temporary ones with a pinned leg each. I didn't pin the flails, so hopefully that doesn't come back to haunt me..

Speaking of bases, here is the first step. They were made by taking normal GW bases and cutting the rims off. Sanded down a little, they fit into the PP bases like other inserts. Over top of that I applied resin sand and broke up some plaster into rocks. These will be masters which I'll use to make a mold, for the much more difficult secret stage of the build...

I also have my newer versions of warjack base+switch+battery setup. I first applied the holder and switch to the base with careful superglue locations. It's important to not oversaturate the holder or block it in any way with glue or the resin sand. I then cut out tops out of plasticard and threaded the wires through, lightly gluing the top to the battery holder.

After that I applied resin sand to the top and around the sides. I've come to really like this stuff, its much more convenient than glue and sand for non-terrain projects.

Then I took a wirecutter to some more plaster to make some blocks to a cracked rock formation in line with the others. I originally tried taking foamboard and removing one side of paper, then carving out rocks, but it did not look as good, so I will redo the larger base to conform with these.

You can see the test turkeyjack showing how the finished product should look, with wiring going up one leg when it is ready. This ended up being much neater than the original, which had extra wires everywhere. I will probably make a removable battery cover of some sort next.

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The Investigators Are On The Case

2011-04-16T19:50:00.000-04:00

I was the only one who came back that night to the old fishing town as legend bade, for only the poor and the lonely remember.

H.P. Lovecraft

"The Festival"

Here is the current state of the 8 investigators from Mansions of Madness.
I got through most of them, though half of them need some more work to be brought up to the same quality.

I enjoyed working on the ground shadow effects, I feel it adds to the lighting ambiance for the characters. I would like to shade them even more according to the lighting to heighten this effect. You can see where I figured it out on the first three of these characters. The rest should follow with a similar feel.

Also left to finish are about 6 monsters, which I shall get to in time. For now, I've switched gears and begun to get into my Cryx force that has been sitting patiently in a box for a couple months now. I put a good deal of work into them this weekend, so WIP pics coming very soon. In the meantime, here's some more pictures of a few of the completed monsters.

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Cryx Deathjack LED Teaser

2011-04-12T10:57:00.002-04:00

Expect some pictures soon of my mostly finished Mansions of Madness, but in the meantime, here's a little something I have been working on for as the next project...

I will be working with clear caulk to mold out some ghostly trails around the LED, but I dont want to diffuse the main beam too much. I'm hoping that during a game I can engulf the deathjack's current victim in a green haze, room lighting permitting. The glow gets around the major areas I was hoping for, though I probably could add one to the back, or drill out the main exhausts and fill them with clear caulk to try to carry the light. As it stands I will probably just mimic that with the paintjob.

Here is one of the other works in progress, which took considerably more effort due to recasting the body in clear resin. The green is off, it should be closer to the deathjack, a little more cyan tinged.

And here is one of the original works, also recast in clear resin, though it loses quite a bit of detail. The paintjob was a test, and not likely to be the one I keep.

The LED's wont stop at the jacks though, expect some very small lighting attempts before this army is through.

Painting Mansions of Madness!

2011-03-30T22:05:00.002-04:00

The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

H.P. Lovecraft

"Call of Cthulhu"

Well, I have been unable to post updates per week as I would have liked, but that does not mean I have not been progressing where it counts!
(edit: Fixed this pic so you can click for a larger view)

I'm most of the way through the monsters, with only a couple left to go. I am thinking of switching gears to get some of the investigators out of the way next, as I definitely want them all finished in time.

You can see what I have left here:

I will do a breakdown of my steps in a future post, but here is a quick look at how I prepped the models. I first took an exacto and file to the mold lines, which proved to be a bit more difficult to remove compared to GW plastics. After that, I washed and scrubbed them all to get rid of any remaining demold agents. I decided that the easiest way to keep them upright was to put them on their bases, but I did not want to spray the bases a bunch, so I cut out some wax paper to put between the model and base.

This worked fairly well for the priming, but I would probably skip it next time around. The models don't stay in the base very well, so it can lead to annoyances later on when painting.

This would have helped more if I had followed through with spraying all of the monsters with colored base coats like I originally planned. I ended up forgetting about it, and just handpainted the basecoat on most.

More to follow soon.

Mansions of Madness March!

2011-03-08T18:02:00.000-05:00

I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness...

H.P. Lovecraft

"From Beyond"

It's time for another month painting challenge!

Mansions of Madness is a recently released board game by Fantasy Flight for 2-5 players that is set in the Lovecraft mythos of the early 1900's. If you are unfamiliar with it and interested in learning about it, I recommend checking out the HP Podcraft podcast for a crash course.

The new game pulls characters, setting, and art from the the Arkham Horror game, however the game mechanics are very different. It is more heavily skewed towards a narrative flow, and splits most of the players as investigators against one keeper player. The investigators work together to solve the mystery of the mansion and ultimately how to stop the keeper. Meanwhile, the keeper gets to toy with the investigators through dangerous monsters, inciting madness, and playing mind games.

Included are 32 miniatures, just waiting to be painted! Boardgamers might not be as used to the idea of painting set pieces, making them likely to leave them in their grey plastic form. In my opinion, you should paint(or get someone to paint) these wonderful miniatures as soon as possible to get the most out of an already amazing atmosphere. The longer you wait the more likely you are to never get around to painting the set!

Now that my box has arrived there is no time to lose! I hope to debut this game in a month for a certain Lovecraft-themed birthday bash, and I will be showing progress shots as I go. I encourage anyone who is interested to pick their own paint challenge and paint along with me for this month! Feel free to post pictures of your own.

So as you might surmise, this is going to be a very Lovecraftian month for my postings. I hope they'll be enjoyable.

My Power Weapons: step by step

2011-03-05T11:56:00.001-05:00

I had these photos from the day I did the jump pack tutorial, so I figured I would turn it into a quick step by step of what I do for my power weapons. Click the picture for a larger view.

Black base coat weapon. I prefer to finish everything else, and leave the power effect for last.
P3 Khador Red thinned down and applied by painting little droplets, think like a slow tattoo gun motion. This means you need to keep the paint watered down and not very much on your brush. I try to make larger black sections by the base and back of the blade, and get smaller as I get closer to the business end.
50/50 mix of P3 Red and Vallejo Sun Yellow. Same approach as step 2, but trying to get a thinner line.
Repeated again with straight yellow. I went a little heavy handed on the left, and it will show by the end.
Touch up the lave flakes with black, thin the lines down to make them look more like cracks. You can see again the right is looking better than the left.
Apply a layer of P3 Red Ink to the blade side, and quickly remove it from the tip and along the front of the blade (I use my thumb to completely remove it from the very edges, and then slightly from the nearby area) to make a quick gradient. If you want more red intensity you can repeat this step a few times, applying to less and less of the blade towards the base. You may want to go back with a black wash to darken the black parts if you do this.
When everything is dried, reapply some yellow in spots where multiple lines meet, and try to trace it down the length of the sword towards the little power node thing. Take some white and hit a few of the line intersections sparingly.
Apply a leviathan purple to the bottom half of the blade, and wipe away the top part again for a darkened gradient at the hilt. Repeat as necessary. You can see it hadn't quite dried when I took the pictures, but the end result is a dulling down.

There you have it, pretty straight forward. Its not better than layering 20 times, but it is certainly faster. If you don't like the gradient, you can just leave it at step 5.

From these last two tutorials, I have grown into a technique of inks and washes for lighting effects that has worked fairly well for my tastes. Inks intensify and saturate, and washes to dull and shade. I have some more inks on the way, so expect a few variants on this method for my lighting effects in future projects.

Jump Pack Thrusters - Light em up!

2011-03-03T23:17:00.004-05:00

No longer must your jump packs be extinguished! light em up! Here is a step by step of how I make mine (shamelessly copy&pasted from my BnC post..)

I use P3 red ink, and Vallejo sun yellow and white.

I start with basic black primed or dark dry-brushed jump pack thrusters. I work on them in sets so I can maximize painting while others dry.

I start with a big blob of white in the two source parts of each thruster. I often have a huge crack there, so I will add thick white layers over the course of painting to fill it up. These will be my light source. I then take thinned whites and edge all the hard corners and lines that would face these white light sources. This needs a brush with a well kept point, but uses the paint on the edge of the brush. If you are not used to this method, take some scrap minis to try it on. Having the right amount of thinned paint on the brush will help immensely, so I usually wipe the first stroke on my thumbnail (subsequently I often end a paint session with a Jackson Pollock on my thumb)

Next I do the same thing with a thinned Sunburst Yellow, leaving white at the source dots. Well thinned paint helps again. Too watery and it will run into crevices, and too dry and you will be dry-brushing a yellow that isn't as striking.

I cover everything in a thin layer of red ink, leave the white sources if you can, otherwise touch it up at the end. This gives everything a good heated area look.

I go back over some of the edges with yellow again.

I decided the red wasn't heavy enough, so I apply another red ink layer to certain spots away from the edges and touch up the white sources.

There you go! This is a good way to get used to simple source lighting. You can see that my powerfist/thunderhammers follow a similar lighting feel. My other power weapons follow a slightly different style, relying more on lava texture and gradient.

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Vanguard at the Ready!

2011-03-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

Vanguard Veterans and Priest are nearing completion. Still missing jumppacks and some detailing before they are complete, but soon! I hope to finish this stuff this weekend, as I have a secret project that has crept up on me...

I will do what I can to shield you from the unknowable horror with which it holds, but I fear I will ultimately fail in such a task..

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Big Trouble in Little Malifaux

2011-02-21T12:07:00.001-05:00

As I work to finish phase one of my Shadow Crows, I'm planning for what needs to be done on my other projects coming down the pipe. In the meantime I've got some smaller projects that have seen some good progress.

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Viktoria Crew Detailing

I really haven't had a good chance to finish learning Malifaux, but that doesn't mean I can't fix up some of my models! I put work into the Viktoria's shading the cloak, adding some decorative lotus petals to the scabbards, etc.

One of my favorites is my Ronin who got herself a Big Trouble in Little China shirt! I would like to add a bit more freehand to some of the other characters sometime soon.

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Burna Boyz

I actually painted these burna boyz a long time ago, but completely missed taking a picture of them. I really liked how they turned out, but I could still use some better shots with proper lighting one of these days. I took this after turning them to green paste with my assault marines (who were in turn, rendered into grey paste :]) Also here is a shot of the infamous Shady Warboss from an angle to show what is going on behind him on the base. His palanquin has been replaced as well, it breaks a lot.

"Our blast templates shall blot out the sun"
"Then wez waagh in da shade!"

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Vanguard Veterans WIP

The Vanguard Veterans have also seen some love. I'm working on getting the Jumppacks ready, but managed to get the last of the beakie heads on and start up some basecoats. I'm slowly finding my way through what variants on my colorscheme to use for the VV and the HQ's. More to come on these guys over the week.

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Descent of Crows - 1000pt Army

2011-02-17T15:41:00.001-05:00

My current force of Shadow Crows are getting closer to completion! With the assault squads completed, I only have the Vanguard Veterans, Priest, and Librarian to get through. While I was originally keeping pace with a 200pt per month escalation, I have been inspired to complete them at a faster rate. With an elite force, this is not so difficult. I figured I would begin thinking through variants on my initial 1k list.

I have only managed a few kill team games and one 500 pt 2v2 match with them, and I am still learning the little nuances about assault that I could normally ignore with my Tau. My army is expending a lot of points for reliable deepstriking and fast movement. I am learning that I need to make use of this to the upmost of my ability if I want to make sure those points are not wasted.

With that said, here is what I have been building my models towards:

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Librarian x1 - Jump Pack, Shield and Bloodlance powers

Sanguinary Priest x1 - Jump Pack, Power Sword

Vanguard Veterans x6 - Jump Packs, and a few melta bombs
- Sergeant with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
- Storm Shield Bolt Pistol
- Lightning Claw Bolt Pistol
- Lightning Claw Storm Shield
- Bolt Pistol Chainsword
- Bolt Pistol Chainsword

Assault Squad x10 - Jump Packs, Sergeant with Pow Fist, 2x Meltaguns

Assault Squad x10 - Jump Packs, Sergeant with Pow Fist, 2x Meltaguns

1000pts, 28 models, 5-7 Killpoints

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This leaves me with a pretty small force for 1k points, but also a good amount of flexibility with starting on the board vs a reliable deepstrike, and combat squadding for spreading melta hits if needed. One of the decisions to field a risky force like this is to aim for faster games, one way or the other :).

The lynchpin of the force is the vanguard veterans. If they mishap I am in serious trouble, and if they scatter out of charge range I am still in a tough spot. The storm shields can help them possibly weather a bad turn of shooting, but primarily to help them take on things that would normally rip through my regular squads. The problem is that it bumps up the price of the squad quite a bit.

I have to decide, at 1k points is deepstriking worth it? Lets look at a list without the vets that is more about jumping across the board to do their dirty work.

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Librarian x1

Sang Priests x2, chainswords

Assault Squad x10, Pow Fist, 2 meltaguns

Assault Squad x10, Pow Fist, 2 meltaguns

Assault Squad x10, Hammer, 2 meltaguns

~15pts leftover, apply meltabombs or a lightning claw on priest
1000pts, 33 models, 6-9 Killpoints

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This would be using my VV as normal marines, and opening up my other box of assault marines to make up the rest of that squad. This list focuses on weight of numbers in a deployed force. I could combat squad into 6 units to cover late-game objectives or hit more units with melta/assaults. I can stay full squads for killpoint efficiency and utilize the librarian squad to gain cover during the approach. But I am forgoeing deepstrike for the most part. I could always drop combat squadded melta-sacrifice units if really needed, but I cant expect to get a charge off without the van vets. I am gaining a second priest bubble which can be game-changing, but also sacrificing power weapons. If I can manage a claw on both ws5 priests it might even out, but on the other hand I do not want to draw more threat to them then they already have.

What do you all think? Keep it simple and efficient at such low points, or go for the gusto with expensive veteran badasses? Work the Librarian dread in?

The Shadow Crows

2011-01-25T12:29:00.001-05:00

We are scattered, we are lost, but we are not yet dead. We become Crows now, until the 10th flies high once more." - Commander Korvydae, Shadowcaptain of Raven Guard 10th Company, “The Shadow Crows”

Here is a look at the beginnings of my newest 40k addition. Rather then rewrite the whole thing, here is a mostly copypasted post from the ATT forum..

Thoughts Behind the Army:
When I began to plan for this army I decided that I wanted a few specific things.
Jump Packs, Lightning Claws, and Beakies. Raven Guard became an obvious choice, and I did enjoy what little fluff they have.

While Shrike or Korvydae's Forgeworld rules would work OK for a jump pack list, I feel the Blood Angels DOA rules really make it much more viable, but I really did not want another red army. Korvydae's rules mimic Dante (although he is very much Dante's junior), so I chose to establish him at a time where he has grown considerably in power, and perhaps at the head of a more gritted force. My Korvydante army was born.

I was rather disappointed with the showing for Raven Guard in the Imperial Armor book. I've modeled this force off of an interpretation of Korvydae further on in his life. His company have been torn asunder, and he has gone a bit crazy trying to replenish these losses. I'm not entirely sure if he has been ousted from the RG, possibly to atone by overseeing a newly founded chapter at this point. Their equipment colors have been stripped down to base materials either in penance or because they have been cast off. It is possible that they have uncovered long lost equipment belonging to the original legion, maybe even some of Corax' experiment chambers. It can be a rather tired idea in some space marine stories, but one that could explain the method of advancing newer recruits into marines in such a small force, and gene-instability mimicking the red thirst.

I will be trying to avoid overly Blood Angel units like Sanguinary Guard and Death Company for now, though I do plan to have some things that stretch RG fluff. Sanguinary priests will be lore keepers with relics or banners reclaimed from the dropsite massacre, my librarian Furioso was made mostly just for the sake of modelling him, etc..

Current Showing:
The army is forming in tune to a monthly escalation league. My killteam 200pt force performed very well, although I have chosen to give the scouts the boot for the next round. In their place, a librarian dread and a fully fleshed out assault squad to bring it to 400.

I have since modelled a second assault squad and 6man VanVet group, as well as a priest and librarian. I particularly like my repurposed Ezekiel shown here. I stripped my 10year old paint job, and hacked up his feet quite a bit, but I think it was for the better. Pictures of the assault squad and VanVets will follow next week. At present force I have 1250pts, though that is including the scouts which dilutes the jumppack idea a bit. I plan to play this army for awhile and determine if I want to go up to a 2k force. I most likely would add another assault squad, another priest, and an honor guard with Korvydante.

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Mass Effect Model - Normandy SR1 Complete!

2011-01-09T20:48:00.001-05:00

After much taping, detailing, and airbrushing, the Normandy is complete! This was my first complete scratchbuild, and it sure was taxing. But I learned a lot and I'm pretty happy with the end result.

The glare in the lighted pictures is due to my gloss coat coming out a bit fuzzy(it was drying too quick when leaving the airbrush) You can see how much it reflects when the light is on in the pictures due to the bumpy nature of the coating, but its still black without a flash. This isn't too big a deal as it is, but I should be able to fix it with a correct coat of gloss/matte finish. I will probably pick up a can tomorrow and test this out before packing up for shipping Tuesday.

Now for a break, and then to think about MEM2011 project :]

Normandy SR1 WIP continued

2011-01-04T17:44:00.001-05:00

Well I am reaching the last few hurdles of the Normandy auctioned model. December was very busy, so I wasn't able to devote as much time to it until recently. After multiple failures at producing good plastic casts, I decided to go back to plaster. To offset the brittle nature, I've magnetized the wings for transit, and kept much of the thin parts in plasticard. The magnets work fairly well, but they will most likely have to be glued to keep the build secure after shipping.

As can be seen, the major coats are done, and now its detailing time! Heres hoping the winning bidder enjoys!

Projects on deck:
1k pt Shadow Crows, Raven Guard successor chapter (Blood Angels jump pack list)

~35pt Cryx army: ESkarre, PDenny, a bunch o' green LED's, satyxis, and deathjack :]

Auction for SSV Normandy SR1 Model

2010-11-27T15:12:00.001-05:00

My good friends are currently running through a Mass Effect Marathon to raise money for Childs Play Charity. Help them break their goal of $10k!
They're doing various donation challenges and raffling off prizes. One of two auctions is my secret project for the last two months.

I have made a model of the ME1 ship, the SSV Normandy SR1. Picture here is the first casts in plaster. Original pieces were from plasticard, balsa wood, and sculpting resin. I rushed to get it assembled to show on the marathon, however this will not be the one being shipped. I have casting plastic coming in the mail for the official model. This will make a much more durable model, which was my main concern with the plaster version.

I will post progress as I finish it, showing assembly and painting steps. Because I will be taking a bit more time to complete it, this will probably take 2-3 weeks to finish, so it might not arrive to the winner until January. I'd rather take my time and be happy with the finished project than rush it out at this point. Hopefully it will look like this:

It will be auctioned off tonight at 8pm EST, you must be in chat to participate. I should be on as well to answer any questions, and will then be showing up tomorrow on the show (after a 10 hour trip).. Where Liv will be dying her hair pink in honor of the Sunday Auction: Blasto!

Tune in and support it if you can, every little bit counts.

They Came From... Behind!

2010-09-17T00:49:00.000-04:00

A quick little bit of terrain thanks to playdoh and plaster. It took about 2 hours to mold, dry, and base, and then another 2 for painting. I'll be making one for each vehicle in the cadre. They make good large area objectives too!

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September's Random Creations

2010-09-15T13:06:00.000-04:00

Rather than continue my monthly challenges, I've taken a break for September to get a few pieces done that have been sitting around. Though some are part of an army or warband, there's no real pressing need to get them done.

To start we have two Mordheim bosses: one Skaven and one Orc. While I would love to get the newer Sniktt model, this older one is still pretty good. I was going for a moonlight look, though he could still use a few more layers to bring out a bit more color. I may add detail to the cloak with a Skaven symbol as well.

The Orc was a test of building metal tones out of greys, and it is ok, though I need to work out a bit more rust and possibly use a weathering technique to make chipped black laquer for the armor.

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This demon is a friend's piece that he left about a year ago, hoping I would get to it at some point. I finally did, and I'm glad the inspiration took. The burnt fabric came out better than I expected, but I used an undiluted ink to get the heavier stippled scorches. This has left it a bit too glossy, so I will have to airbrush it with some matte varnish.

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This is a color test for my upcoming RG army. I will most likely go for a darker grey, and may rethink the red secondary color. Maybe a dark blue?

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Some time ago, Joe from Crimson Sundown and I came up with an idea to use smoke to mask a flight stand. I finally got around to giving it a try. I also managed to test out hairspray weathering, though my undercoat was a bit too busy, and I removed too much of the black overcoat. In the end some washes helped to dull the busy piece, but I will try a different approach on the next of the squadron.

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My current project is a ten strong squad of winged Kroot countas Vespid. I never really liked the Vespid model, and it is a bit expensive. So when Gargoyle wings came around, I jumped on the idea of a newly evolved Kroot kindred! I'm going to finish these three up, and then probably paint them before moving on to making the rest.

ATT Contest Entry

2010-09-05T14:15:00.000-04:00

Here are the only two models completed in August. It took a whole lot of time, but I'm happy how they turned out.

The pilot consists of firewarrior, Glade Guard, and dark eldar bits.
Most of the choices came from what I had on hand.
The suit is mostly Rymyr and xv8 bits, with a few extras. The fins came from my xv9 shoulder pads that I cut off for Farsight. The hands are also xv-9, modified with plasticard. The extra gun lenses are taken from Devilfish antenna.

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The other half of the contest was a short story:

Shas’Vre Kor’Sua’Ka - “Stormstrike”

Dawn was just breaking over the skyline of the capital city of the arid planet Persentia. From atop the roof of an abandoned apartment building pathfinder Shas’Ui’ Lem’Rotaa could see well out across the city. However the streets were winding and still dark, making it difficult to discern much activity below. Beside him was a Shas’Vre who many years ago he had called his pupil, before she earned the name of Kor’Sua’Ka. She looked lost in mental preparation. Ui’Lem did not need to guess as to what she had planned. The pathfinder training ingrained in her always led to an surprise Mont’ka that befitted this hive of buildings and alleys.

The gue’la had originally welcomed the 7th Vior’la Response Cadre when it had air dropped in to turn back an Ork Waagh. After the Orks had been defeated, the Ethereals were careful to ensure that the gue’la culture was largely kept intact. This peace lasted for over 3 years.

Rebellion spread like wildfire seemingly overnight. City fighting became a common occurrence, with the Tau finding it difficult to bring their heavier vehicles to bear in the cramped streets. Conversely, the human armor thrived in this situation. They were easily concealed and able to sweep streets with minimal support. It fell to the crisis suits to meet the threat.

She had always been unconventional as a young ‘la, but her elevation to Crisis pilot only served to highlight her temperament. Originally assigned to a Crisis team, Kor’Sua’Ka was known to break off and pursue her own objectives more often than not. It had been on one of these pursuits that ended with the wreckage of 6 tanks and one tattered crisis suit. A week later she appeared back at a Tau outpost half dead. When she returned from medical leave, she found herself promoted and gifted the title of Stormstrike.

Gunfire quickly brought Lem out of his reminiscence. Down below, the street still untouched by dawn lit up with muzzle flashes as the kroot burst from shops and alleys, putting up a fighting withdrawal from the gue’la still out of Lem’s view.

“Prepare your squad, Shas’Ui. We will be upon them in but a moment.”

Kor’Sua’Ka was halfway into her XV-8, the camouflage netting discarded onto the ground. Lem nodded affirmative and radioed to his pathfinders scattered in the surrounding buildings. Clicks acknowledging the orders came in quick succession. He steadied his carbine on the roof ledge, zeroing his markerlight sight onto the open street below. Rumbling treads filled the air and Lem patiently waited for his target to come into view. He felt the rush of air pressure as Kor’Sua’Ka effortlessly boosted her Crisis Suit beside him, perching on the ledge like a giant bird of prey. In the precise moment that the armored behemoth rolled into view all of Lem’s senses dulled for a silent, almost serene point in time.

“The calm before the storm” he whispered to himself, and pulled the trigger.

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Overall I did OK in the competition. I Placed 3rd in modeling, shared 2nd in story, and somewhere 4th or 5th in the combination poll. Regardless of ranking, it was a lot of fun to work on this piece, and I will definitely be entering other competitions as they arise!

Farsight Mark II

2010-08-07T13:10:00.000-04:00

I have finally gotten around to working on this project. I've put it off the entire year, mostly due to a lack of confidence that I'll actually get the results I want. Well with a few weeks before GD, I'm ready to give it the old college-last-minute-try!

WIP shots, just about ready to paint. The greenstuff isnt as bad as it looks, the glossy Slikk doesnt show up well in pictures. Thanks to Liv's color shapers and Slikk, this is probably some of my better sculpting. Its since been shaved down a bit and I am in the process of completing the Farsight insignias.

Here's hoping I don't mess up the paint job!

Keeping the ball rolling..

2010-07-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

Please excuse the long post, it has been awhile so I have quite a few projects to show progress on. I have not yet completed my terrain goal, but I'm slowly getting there. I've been concentrating on my Tau lately, and I'm finally putting some time into my Farsight piece which will hopefully be my first Golden Demon entry.

Terrain:

The river tiles were a nice learning experience with clear resin. I managed to mess up the edges by not really blocking them up properly during the resin setting. I've gotten a bit better about it in the second half (though still not perfect), and after some touchups the first batch are looking ok.

Objectives The objectives came out as well as I expected. They were a quick project for something that I had been dragging my feet on making.

My buildings have both seen some progress, though I'm nowhere near completion. I need a lot more casting to complete the bastion, and some detail work and sanding on the compound before the painting phase.

The Ethereal statue came out ok, and can be placed by itself, on top of the bastion, or on the Space Marine column. The rubble scene was formed from miscast and junk plaster. The guardsman scene was not planned, I just kinda shot from the hip.

TAU

I finished my last 6 Firewarriors, and then went back and added some squad markings to the others. I can now break them down into 6 man teams, or combine two groups for 12 man teams. I also put some more detail into squad leader markings, so they're a bit more obvious. After the firewarriors, I made a decision to change my brown earth color up to a tau ochre to match my board a bit better. It took the rest of the afternoon and a handfull of Xfiles episodes, but I powered through all my other Tau models to unify the army bases. I will take pictures of these all when I have the chance, as some of my earlier pictures are poor in quality.

As I began to work on my last devilfish, I came to the conclusion that I had to put some time into the others to make them a bit more coherent. In the end I airbrushed my original hammerhead into a gradient pattern and darker red, while trying to bring my pimped out hammerhead a bit more vibrant. I practiced using masking to spray on white panels, which was infinitely better than handpainting large areas of white (even despite a few errors in masking which left white overspray in a few places).

-Skyray/Devilfish-

-Veteran Hammerhead-

-LED Hammerhead/Devilfish-

With these pieces finished, my assembled pieces in my Tau army are complete. Granted, I have about the same amount of tau figures given to me which are sitting half assembled in a box. I haven't quite decided what to do with them yet, but maybe the Cadre will grow again in a few months..

My Farsight model will likely consume most of my hobby time for August. After that I have a rising queue of new projects to work on. Top of the list is my Raven Guard in the works for the PBL escalation league. After that, I may be painting Joe's orks for fun! Lastly I'm really looking forward to the Warhammer Fantasy box set, so I will have Skaven and High Elves to paint (as well as maybe a Fantasy themed table?)

May Painting Challenge Week 5 - Done!*

2010-06-08T01:10:00.000-04:00

*I didn't quite finish the Lilith and Viktoria crews. Theyre definitely up to a tabletop quality, but I've neglected a bit of detailing to finish them off. Viktoria's crew in particular is rather unfinished in highlights and facial details. That being said, I'd rather just leave them at this point and return to finish them up at a later date.

I started this challenge on May 3rd, with the intent to finish on June 3rd. 31 models in 31 days turned into 33 models in 37 days. Not too far off from my mark, this was due more to missed days and subsequent sluggishness to restart painting when I could.

So whats next?

I've had a steadily mounting pile of unfinished terrain, newest of which are some great Terranscapes resin river tiles which I can't wait to start working on. My objective markers are another set of things which should be fun, and probably pretty quick to boot.

Other pieces will be a bit more time consuming, such as the large Tau center which still needs puttywork, sanding, and some extra doodads before its even ready to paint. The bastion is also still getting its required blocks cast from Hirst Arts molds, and I'm kinda making up the pattern as I go along.. The two Tau towers have been primed for ages, but I still think they need a bit more work before they can be painted.

Terrain usually goes pretty quick, so I am going to try to have this stuff done by the beginning of July. Have some terrain just begging to be drybrushed? Still using beer cans as objectives? Join in and get some terrain finished this month!

May Painting Challenge - Week 3

2010-05-24T12:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, so to make up for no pics last time, here's extra pictutres with this update! First up, the completed 40k projects Eldar and Orks. Finished for the most part, except for a little bit of detail work.

I've also completed the Perdita Ortega crew for Malifaux, and started on Lilith's bunch. I am really liking these models, the sculpts speak for themselves and don't need a whole lot of paint finesse to shine.

I'm happy with my progress so far, so happy that I added 2 more models to Lilith's crew! I felt that she could really use these additions game-wise. I plan to try out some NMM and light source techniques to keep these guys interesting. I still hope to finish them before leaving for vacation this thursday, leaving only Viktoria's crew.

I am starting to get annoyed dealing with all this metal however. The resin bases have no hollow bottoms, so I cant stick them to paint pot handles like I normally do. This means I'm handling the minis too much, which leads to wear and tear. Also, the amount of chips I've caused from dropping and transporting these guys is staggering. My last part of this challenge will definitely be clearcoating all of them.

I was distracted a bit from my painting this Sunday due to my Hirst Arts molds. I managed to finally make use of my new machinery molds to pump out a few neat looking objective counters. The medium base is still a little cramped for most of my ideas, but I managed to fit them down to size. This was a good primer to other things that I can make, so expect some larger pieces of terrain in the future: Zzap guns, power generators, interior computer terminals and the like.

So there you have it, results from the first three weeks. Almost there!

May Painting Challenge - Week 2

2010-05-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

Current status:
Striking Scorpions - 6/6 done!
Orks - 3/3 done!
Ortega's Marshalls- 4/8
Lilith's Brood - 0/4
Viktoria's Outcasts- 0/9

Pictures to follow soon.

My painting speed has really picked up, as I was able to get through the ork bosses and four of Perdita's warband this last week, and that was with taking the first three days off from painting. I'm hoping to finish the last 4 and get through Lilith by the end of this week, which would leave me the viktoria band to finish during the week that Liv and I will be visiting her family in Michigan. I don't know how much painting I can actually get through while there, so I'd rather just be done with it by then.

May Painting Challenge - Week 1

2010-05-11T11:04:00.000-04:00

So 1 week has passed, and I've been keeping a very good pace. I went into this week with a bit of more prep to finish to alot of the Malifaux models. I spent the first day priming and working on the custom cobblestone bases for my Viktoria gang (I had ordered resin bases for her group originally, but it was delayed). They came out passably and I was able to prime all of them on the second day while starting to tackle the major effort of the week: The Striking Scorpions squad.

After painting an Eldar pathfinder squad, I was worried that the models might not hold my interest enough to put the proper love into their paintjob. Thankfully, a change of technique helped to push me to work very hard on these guys. I've experimented with two tone priming, starting with black, and then applying white primer from a directional source to provide an initial light/shadow. It has worked ok, though I think I will continue with just learning to use all white primer from now on. I daresay they are some of the more polished squads I've produced. I really enjoyed watching them progress, though by the last two I was ready to move on to other things.

Next up this week is the three ork bosses. They've already been started and I tend to paint orks pretty quickly, so I hoped to be into one of the malifaux bands as well by the end of the second week.

Time to Test My Mettle/Metal

2010-05-03T00:02:00.000-04:00

After taking a painting break for a few weeks, I've tried to get back into the swing of things. I can feel the projects piling up, so I'd like to get a few of them done. I was able to finish the 5 Eldar Pathfinders for Pedro, but I am staring down a mountain of other metal figures to get through. I've decided to try out a month challenge to see just how much I can get done when under a schedule. To list them out, I have:

Malifaux:
Lilith warband, 5 models
Viktoria warband, 9 models
Perdita warband, 8 models

40k:
6 Striking scorpions
3 Ork special characters (these will be more of a treat, Orks are fun!)

So 31 metal minis in 31 days, June 3rd. Got a squad or two of stuff you've been dragging your feet on getting done? Feel free to join me with your own May Painting Challenge!

Pathfinders Complete, Hammerhead on Deck!

2010-03-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

I had a long weekend thanks to snow, and I managed to get a few things done. Just have to finish a hammerhead, and my army list for this saturday's Paul Basement League event should be just about fully painted!

I Painted up the last 4 of my pathfinders. I got them done in one sitting, which was surprising considering it took me months to finish painting the first 4. I guess I had a better idea of what I wanted this time around. I may add a few more later on to form two midsize squads like I've done in the past.

After much cursing and superglued fingers, I fixed the LED work on my pimped out hammerhead that I had previously broken. I still need to hide all the wireing on the railgun, likely with some greenstuff and plasticard plating.

I also did a good deal of the less interesting tasks that were piling up. I finished basing everything in my army, darkened the red on my original hammerhead, and fixed up some terrain.

I've noticed a growing disparity between my terrain and my bases, which will have to be fixed. As much as I dont want to, I think I need to retouch all of my bases to less muddy look and more desert. Hopefully this can be done with just a bit of the coloring from my terrain paints. I'm also thinking of matching my base rims to this sand color as well. I'll make a test group and see how I feel.

Next up on my plate is to work on airbrushing gradients on the last two vehicles, as I am done trying to hand shade reds over vehicles. You can see this started on some of the hammerhead images below. Its currently at a satin kind of look, and I think it looks pretty good in subpar lighting. But when seen in pictures or good lighting, its not quite there. I think it needs a bit more contrast so I'm going to give it another pass of darkening, and maybe a pass of orange red to bring out a bit more color. Heres hoping I dont screw up!

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Vior'la reinforcements

2010-02-23T12:01:00.000-05:00

I am lazy so just copying over my post from ATT. This is some of my more recent work. The four suits are just about done, save for a few touchups. The color balance is a little off in these pictures, but the red is pretty close.

The pathfinder reinforcements have finally arrived. They now have a proper 'ui, who has, ahem, "rekrooted" some odd characters to fill the ranks. I need to finish up gsing before they can move into the paint queue. The female 'ui was made with some Wood Elves Glade Guard bits.

And here is a quick shot of the cadre on display. The flash managed to reflect the weathering attempts on the pathfinder fish a bit more than is actually there in normal light. My original hammerhead has turned out to be much brighter than how the rest of my force developed, so it is in the process of being darkened.

O'scar'mey'er Wei'ner stage WIP

2010-02-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick update of my current work. 4 suits and two fish are at hand painting stage. At this point their base coats look like hot dogs and mustard (thanks for the reference Joe) The one fish is fully modded out. Insides are painted, everything is magnetized, side doors and top hatch are hinged, LED railgun and engine thrusters, modular for HH,DF,SR load outs. I figure I will do this just once and get it out of my system because it really makes for a long project. I also managed to make the other fish skyray compatible as well.

I recently got a Badger Renegade-Velocity airbrush, and it blows my old Aztec brush out of the water. Long times before clogging, very forgiving on mixed paints, and quick on color changes. The level of detail I can achieve has lead me to more experimenting in shading, though I'm not quite proficient at it yet. I managed a slight shade through black base coating and a white base coat on certain parts, but its clear that I need shadow/highlight colors to reach a full affect. While this isn't necessary on the suits, such as this one, because I hand paint in the end resulting red. But hand brushing shadows and highlights on the vehicles can really ruin the look on such flat surfaces. Hopefully I can get the hang of doing it with the airbrush to deal with an otherwise annoying step.

There are some fun modficiations in this group. The most obvious is the deepstrike suit. As I've had some slight success with a lone deepstriking sunforge suit (twinlinked flamer/ Air frag burst 'Vre variant as well) in the last few games, I've decided to model a specific suit for the job. I've spent some time sanding down almost all of his corners to go for a bit of aerodynamic feel to it. His raised height will single him out and generally mean he will have nowhere to hide. I might lower his stand just a bit, and base in a bit of vehicle roof as a simulated target (probably out of a plaster mold like previous ruined terrain! I love that technique!) But honestly, his job is rather suicidal, so I don't feel much remorse in lessening his life expectancy.

This group will nearly complete my current Tau collection. Only some newly converted pathfinders, half done firewarriors, and broken crisis suits remain. After I still have some army-wide tweaks to bases, freehand symbols, and weathering, but these can be done at a leisurely rate. I'm much more excited to continue work on my Christmas XV-9 and prep it as a GD entry!

Hot off the Earth Caste productionlines!

2010-01-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since my last post, but I have been busy.

Crisis suits have filled out quite a bit. I revisited my original, and gave it a heavier detailing to match my newer versions. Here they are all displayed with magnetized weapons. Each suit has 4 magnet hardpoints available.

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The devilfish mimics the stealth drone "reeds" style camo pattern. I enjoyed painting the camo and feel it really helps to tie the fish in with its job ferrying the pathfinders around.

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I wanted my Piranha to look like its seen better days. Maybe its been overhauled more than once, or maybe the pilot just likes skimming over mudfields. Either way it could use a good power wash.

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My first Pathfinders are complete! Others are on the way, giving me two squads of 5. These were alot of fun to convert, pose, and paint. The use of a cooking scourer bristle as reeds has inspired me to try sprinkling these around the rest of my army a bit. They could probably use a wash or two to tone them down.

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A new Kroot tribe has arrived to support cadre Revenant Autumn. Ol shaper Grim Eye has no love of these blue kroot. He hopes to show that his boys are the superior choice for fieldcraft and melee. I'v converted him out of a shaper model I got from my ebay purchase of most of the army. He has been pretty substantially converted, and I like him so much that I might just run him as a shaper. For now hes just in there for looks, as I cant justify the points for it.

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My WIP Devilfish and Hammerhead.
I've put a lot of time into making this hammerhead as modular as possible. Magnetized doors, top hatch, back hatch, front turret. I even magnetized the rotatable engines, which has proven to be a good choice. Its normally a matter of time before I break that little plastic nubbin and have to superglue the engine to the hull. This way, its fully rotatable, and no worrying of breaks. I hope to LED the engines when I have the time. The other DF was already assembled, but ive worked on it so I can switch it to a skyray if needbe.

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My vat project was alot of fun. It sat in my mind for a long time, and to see it finally completed and so close to my original idea really makes me happy. I filled the full vat with plaster, painted it, and then covered it with a good amount of tinted green resin.

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These wrecks were an idea I tried from Terragenesis. Basically take a clay/dough, stick vehicle into clay to make a mold. Pull it out and fill the mold with plaster. voila, instant wrecked terrain. After these two I switch to cheapo playdoh and had much much better results with a little more cleanup. I'd take pictures but I gave them away as birthday presents.

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The column is a simple project where I took my girlfriend's unwanted swan candleholder, snapped off the 3 swans, and replaced them with old dark angels. I also dremel sanded down some flowery stuff, to be replaced with aquilla's. I also would like to hang a Tau banner from the top, with a newly installed ethereal topping the column, as part of a propaganda campaign to win over the human settlements.

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So thats the new stuff. Two vehicles, 4 crisis suits, and a bunch of pathfinders are still sitting around waiting for my new airbrush to come. Expect a post when I complete the next wave!
Here are some more pictures for those interested. A few more can be found on my photobucket account.

Cadre Revenant Autumn

2009-09-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

While I dont have any pictures of new items yet, I figured I should put up some of my past work for inspection. Todays post is my Tau cadre, Revenant Autumn. Hailing from the volatile planet of Vior'la, this cadre takes an alternate color scheme more in line with a Farsight army. While it is still an army under command of the Ethereals for now, that may change in the future...

Firewarriors
First up are the Firewarriors, staple troopers for the belly of every devilfish. These were some of my first painted figures in this army, and it took me a while to settle into a color combination that was acceptable. I bounced from an original red/orange scheme, into red/tan/white. I admit the black weapon style originated from not quite deciding on how to help make the weapons stand out. I am pleased with the way they look for now, though I may one day go over that detail armywide. Perhaps a white instead.

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Stealth Suits
I love the old Stealthsuits, as they feel a bit more dynamic and interesting. I refuse to field any of the new eggy suits, though they are a wonderful source of bits. In the end I chose to go in army parade colors over a camo or darkened look. I may revisit them if I am inspired to add camo similar to my pathfinders.

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Pathfinders
My Pathfinders are my main source of conversion in the army. While anything I build tends to get some sort of tweak to it, alot of this army was bought already assembled off of ebay. As I was turning firewarriors into pathfinders, I really wanted them to be differentiable. I do this primarily through posing and basing. I want them to be hugging terrain, looking around corners, and surveying off of rooftops. Helmets and leg armor was shaved off quite easily, and markerlight carbines converted with an extra carbine thing on top. I bulked them up with kit and survival gear, adding kroot straps, and wood elf capes to some. I also took the comm antenna from the eggystealths to act as a beefed up helm comm. I know it looks a bit large, but I feel it helps to seperate them from the firewarriors, and symbolic of their long range communication neccessity.

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Hammerhead Gunship
Ahh the hammerhead, breaker of flight stands. I hated my paintjob on this model up until the last two hours. Once I started edging the panels with orange and beating it up with sand and mud colors, it really came together in a much more believable finished piece. The pictures definitely pick out the errors on it though, which dont seem as noticable in person. Or maybe I just painted in poor lighting..

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Kroot Carnivores
Kroot Kroot Kroot KROOT KROOT! These guys are fun models. I have another 10 to paint, of which I would like to introduce a bit more diversity. After making the first 2, I really ended up cutting down on the color depth of the skin, which I feel leaves them feeling flat. I may go back and highlight the skin much more, or add an underbelly tone. The hounds came from Chaos warhounds, with greenstuffed horn areas and beaks. I personally think they work perfectly as kroot hound standins, and a heck of alot cheaper.

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Crisis and Broadside Suits
I only have two Crisis Suits painted so far, mostly due to my dislike of painting larger stuff. I chalk this up to the difficulty in experimenting with style and colors on larger models. It can take many more steps to achieve a desired finish, and during these steps it may not be clear whether its working or not. For example large panels can just be a real pain to keep looking uniform, and proper shading technique becomes crucial to keep it from looking sloppy. I am much happier with the detailing on the broadside, and hope to bring my original suit in line with this style.

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Bit by bit the painted army grows. I have plenty of unfinished models to get through, and as you can see there are quite a few steps to rework my "finished" pieces.

Weekend Harvest

2009-09-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

The weekend bears fruit. Completed 5 nobs, and 90% done on my Planetary Empires map. I apologize for the inconsistent lighting, I have yet to get a good photograph setup going. (Edit: I hav e some slighty better pictures which have gone into this post)

Corey's orks provide a welcome distraction to my Tau. The orks are just plain fun to paint. There is so much stuff going on with these models, and if you want to keep things dirty its OK in their book. I built up the yellow from an orange base, and then experimented with a light layer of gold along the edges to give it a glint. Leather was a couple different sets of brown-tan layers with a wash. Light bleached bone drybrushing for grittyness. Also some basic freehanding going on, but some good practice nonetheless.

The map took all of Sunday to complete: Assembly, priming and basecoating by airbrush, and all of the drybrush and detailing. I still have to paint the borders, flags, and buildings. Most of the base color was from a big drybrush of acrylic brown, and then the color variations were adding green, blue, or red to the remaining brown on my palette. This kept the colors tied together to the primary brown. I tried including the building tiles in this drybrushing but I did not keep it uniform, though the hive cities came out acceptable. In the end I went over all of the spaceports with a new basecoat and some layers of drybrushing.

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New Beginnings

2009-09-11T16:39:00.000-04:00

Welcome. Hopefully I will update this enough for it to be worthwhile. I will be using this site to document the many works in progress that enter my queue. Typically these can take a long time to finish, mostly due to lack of ambition. I hope to streamline projects a bit more through this site, as to keep myself on track and get any suggestions or criticisms along the way. My current projects are to complete my 2k point Tau army, various Mordheim Warbands, a boatload of terrain, and various conversion and paint projects that friends throw at me. More to follow.