Its as simple as Black and White

Howdy.

So I have finally decided to begin working on my Ostland Empire Army again for Warhammer FB. I was doing fairly well on them about 2 years ago, and then life got complicated and these guys have not seen the light of day since then.

So I have a few WIPS I was last working on since the last time I saw them and a image or two of my spearmen unit so far. I really like the black and white look with the red accent. I intend to add the "red Bull" head to the shields as soon as I can narrow down the exact pattern I want.

if all goes well this weekend I will be working on some more of my Dark Eldar, my Empire and the Valkya conversion.

I'm also going to post my articles on painting Black, White and Red. They are good simple tutorials and this Empire Army is the basis for those articles.

Comments and critique are always welcome.

Back to School

Howdy. Its back to school day and parents everywhere are rejoicing. Well except for homeschoolers, like us, who view it as Monday. But I digress.

Crazy busy weekend, but I did make a little progress on my venom, sadly no pictures, but those will get up later this week.

For now, unit 2 of my Dark Eldar wyches. They are painted up using the same armor recipe for the warriors.
Base: Tau Sept Ochre
Wash with thinned GW Ogryn Flesh to change the depth of the base color, more like a glaze.
Shade with I Kore Earth, which is a great Dark Red-Brown color
Highlight with a mix of Tau Sept Ocher and and P3 Moldy Ocher.
Final HIghlight using I Kore Desert Sand or Vallajo Sand.

The Body Suit is done with base coat of GW Scorched Brown and Dark Flesh
then its washed with Devlan Mud and then Badab Black
First Highlight is done with GW Dark Flesh, and I gradually add P3 Skorne Red.
Finally a very thin highlight of pure Vallejo Sand is applied to pick out the highlights.

The hair actually took quite a while. The base color is P3 Frostbite, then it is washed with GW Hawk Turquoise. After that I built up the hair color with P3 Frostbite , and then added P3 Morrow White to the mix and finally touched the the most prominent areas and tips with GW skull white.

I'm still trying to get the skin colors right, but for now they are pretty good.

These guys are still a Work on Progress, as are the the first group. I plan to expand them to 10 models each, and then add a 3rd and maybe a fourth unit for a Webway portal army.

One thing I am thinking about doing is doing some you tube videos for a few tutorials. Seems everyone is out there making videos, and a lot of what I do can be much better explained with video than in words.

I'm also going to start selling some painted items from time to time on this site. Not sure who to do that yet, but Ebay is getting a little silly with policies and fees. More on that later.

Anyhoo, your thoughts and opinions are important, so I love to hear what you guys and gals think.

A Long Weekend and some Updates!

Howdy all. What a long weekend I had with very little progress on the wargaming and hobby front.
We were supposed to have a nice trip to visit family in San Antonio, but my father was sick so we scrapped that. Part of the reason for the trip was I had to go to a coaching clinic in Corpus Christie. So instead of a leisurely 2 hour drive I had a 4 hours drive each way. Sigh...The clinic was not all that great. There was a guy from Nebraska talking about his success in youth football there. I think he should spend a little more time in Texas. Its a whole 'nother critter here. At least I had a couple good podcasts to listen to on the drive. But I digress.

I did get a nice picture of the Aircraft Carrier Lexington. Its huge!

I also took some decent pictures of my Wych unit. I use different hair color to distinguish the different units and I am pretty pleased with the results.

The red does seem a little out of character for the army scheme, but I have to admit I am liking it when they are paired up with the skimmers. its doesn't show up with the warriors so much since they are primarily sand and black, where the wyches are red and sand. Still, I like the overall look and how they all are coming together.

I hope y'all like them.

I need to finish up the bases. I'm not sure if I want to go with a black color sand or sand color sand. I keep waffling back and forth. I am hopeful this week I will get it narrowed down and get these girls finished.

The Dog Days of Summer....

Howdy, I don't know about you guys, but it is really hot. I mean just sit in the shade and melt hot. Fortunately, the heat has kept me inside and I have been making a little more progress on my Dune inspired Dark Eldar.

One of the things I have developed a real attachment to are venoms. I tell ya, these have got to be the best little transport in the game of 40k ever. They look great, assembled very easily and the rules for them are very well done.

I have been working on one little by little getting some of the colors worked out and adding the black halo to them. The one I have been finalizing is not completely done yet, but it is coming along rather nicely.

There is still quite a bit to do to get this done.Crewmen need to be worked on as do the weapons. The shading needs to be added to a number of areas and the transport section in the back is in dire need of shading and detailwork. But all in all I am rather pleased.

I am confident a few are wondering where I got the name of the Black Halo from, since this is a Dune inspired theme. One of the bands I like a lot is Kamelot. Its a gothic heavy metal band and they did a 2 part concept album/cd or whatever the kids call it nowadays. Download?? Anyhoo, their second album is named The Black Halo and the first song is The March of Mephisto, which if you go to see the video is just dark and sinister in the feel.

Trying to include the march of Mephisto in the theme was going to be a stretch, but the black halo, on my desert background, totally works! For me at least. That and I am a stickler for doing alternative paint schemes on everything. I think if I did Ultramarines I would paint them white or something different.

The other things I am working on are a Valkya conversion which is halfway done. I have the body set up, but I need to add the wings, spear , shield and make the slight body and armor conversions.

Also I am working on a Kugath conversion that is so long overdue its not even funny. Not in the least bit.

It took me the better part of 3 weeks to get this far on the conversions. I have a few more to add and tidy things up and then it is ready for paint. So my end of summer and fall are going to be busy getting all of these things done.

That and I am going to start painting and selling some of my less used or not used armies and figures again. Lots of things I just don't use or have not used in many years are going up for sale. I'm not sure if I will ebay them or try to sell them here. Ebay is getting kind of silly with their fees, but it is a worldwide audience so.... Anyway, stay tuned, there is a lot of things going to be happening here. WOOT!

Happy Wednesday !

Howdy.

So I continue my progress on my DE. I am also adding more interesting blogs that I keep track of.

Also, the house is a wreck. The family is vacationing and I am still here trying to get the honey do's done. Hmmm, so far so good. Still I think I can have most of the mess cleaned up by Friday.

Back on topic. My DE are Dune inspired. I like the Dune books, I'm not a fanatic over them, but they are good and the movies made about them were also I thought, pretty darn good. That being said I went with a basic desert color scheme. Nothing to over the top.

Here is the basic scheme. The first picture is kind of bad. I am still experimenting with exposure and light types and I think I have it nearly figured out as most of my pictures are getting better results.

Anyhoo, overall I am liking what I have here and I am working to get all my DE done before the end of the year. its a tall order, but I think with steady progress I can have it all complete.

The basic colors are for the armor are GW Tausept Ochre. I then shade with GW Orgyn Flesh. I don't really use the wash much other than to help set the tone for the undercoat. Next is a wet blend mix of I kore's Earth color, which is a nice dark red brown color, similar to a mix of GW Scorched Brown and Dark flesh, and Tau sept Ochre. The final highlight is I Kore Meridian Sand. There is no real GW equivalent, but it would a mix of Bubonic Brown and Bleach bone and Skull white.

You could also use Vallejo Pale Sand, the problem here is that Pale sand has low saturation and does not pop very much when compared to the GW colors, or I should say as the final highlight it is less vibrant than the colors it is trying to highlight.

The Helmet is bleached bone, washed with GW Orgyn Flesh and then shaded with very thinned down I Kore Earth. Next the helmet bleached bone is mixed with P3 Moldy Ochre to get a yellowish tone, then is highlighted with skull white.

The weapons are done with Snakebite Leather shaded withe badaab Black and highlighted by adding Moldy Ochre to the Snakebite leather.

All in all it takes about 3 hours per figure. What's weird is I have not hit a burnout yet. I really enjoy painting this army, the more I do , the more I want to work on. I forgot who said it, but this really is a painters army. it is dynamic, has lots of interesting details and just plain looks cool as all get out when it is done.

Here is one of my venom WIPS

These little things are a absolute blast to play with. They zip around, shot lots of shots and just plain look really cool. I love these! As you can tell, they paint up very nicely and look good pretty much no matter what you do with them. GW has done its part to release some really ugly or lack luster models over the years, but these have got to be one of the best kits they have ever made. Good job design team!

Howdy all.

Not much happening this week. Lots of things to catch up one and finish up. I have a Valkiya model I am converting over finally for a friend and a Kugath that needs finishing up.

I was listening to some music and talking to a few friends about what kind of music would be good for our armies. Since I am currently playing dark eldar, one of my favorite bands came to mind.

Five Finger Death Punch. Its hard and to the point.

I like this song soI figured I'd share.

More later as my weekend progress's.

So where have I been

Howdy.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but with football season rolling into championships and me getting things in life in order I have not had a lot of free time.

I know it only takes a few minutes to post something, but... well I am not to good of late on posting.

Anyhoo, that being said, I have been working hard to get my Dark Eldar painted in time for Wargamescon in Austin. As it was, I still had to proxy 3 figures and 2 guys did'nt have heads. I will take some good pictures of my guys later for ya'll to take a look at.

For the weekend I ran my 2000 paint "Black Halo" list. It still needs a few tweaks to get it clicking everytime all the time, but what I ran was

a succubus with agonizer and haywire grenades

2 haemonculi with liquifier guns

2 units of 4 trueborn with blasters and in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

2 units of 5  warriors with a blasters in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

2 units of 5  warriors with a shredder in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

1 unit of 8 wyches with a hekatrix with an agonizer and haywire grenades in a raider with flicker field and shock prow

1 unit of 7 bloodbrides with a syren with an agonizer and haywire grenades in a raider with flicker field and shock prow

1 unit of 5 scourges with 2 haywire blasters

3 ravagers with flicker fields.

overall I went 3 & 1 day one and missed the top bracket by 2 points, next day I went 2 and 1.

I am pleased with how everything went for the most part, but I am thinking I need something more and I will be experimenting with my army over the next few months to get it where I want it to be.

Its good to be back home though and I am glad I have a couple days of vacation to rest and recover.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I won best single in the Sci-fi category of the paintging contest. Nice to get top honors in the toughest contest category. Thanks all.

Dark Eldar

So no pictures just yet, but Dark Eldar have really captured my attention. So much so I will do my best to document my progress as I work on things.

I initially had in mind to do a desert type themed army, but the more I looked at it I had a lot of trouble coming up with something I liked. I painted one up in black with red accents and I am pretty pleased with it, but one of my best buddies convinced to try the desert theme again. I have a warrior I am working on and then I will decide which f the two I like best and go with that.

Updates from the front

Howdy. Its been busy since last time I posted.

So where are we. I have assembled a Rhino for my Imperial Paladins Space marines, which look a lot like Black Templars. Chapter symbol is almost the same, but has a skull in the center of the cross. Along with this I have recycled 20 marines I picked up a few years ago, cleaned them and they are waiting for priming.

I have assembled 15 Iron Hands marines. There is a bitmore work involved with these guys so they go a little slower. One of the things I want to do with them is remove all imperial aquilas ( chest eagles or wings) from them. I like them to still be bitter towards the emporers children and shun things that remind them of their most hated brothers. I know fluff or otherwise mentions nothing about this, but its my army. :)

Another thing I have done is begin to work on some Flames of War models. One of the things I hate most about FOW is the barrels of the tanks always seem to get bent, then the paint flakes off, or the barrel just falls off because the glue does ot have enough strength to hold it in place. Pinning does'nt really work well either, so I came up with a neat alternative. I replace the entire barrel with brass tubing. its much stronger, and making the barrel a little longer I can pin the bareel into the turret and get a strong solid fix for one of my buga-boos.

Iron Hands

Howdy. I dug out a small squad of Iron Hands I did several years ago. This is the basic paint scheme I have in mind. I won't use to much of the bionics from GW, but I will modify most of mine to maintain the improvements they make for themselves.

I really like the gear pattern I have all over and want to continue it as this army progresses. I am at this point, hoping they will be done and ready to go by BOLScon end of summer. This may seem like a ton of time, but I have 4 children, all of who play football year round and I coach them, so I spend a fair amount of my time on a field somewhere here in Houston.  Its all good, just takes away from toy soldier time is all.

I also have my dark eldar, which I am going to be working on little by little as well, and my Empire army and some FOW and Warmachine. And..And..And...

I know, its a lot, but since I don't really have any deadlines other than those I make for myself, it will all get done when it gets done. :)

Iron Hands

So after much consideration I have decided to do Iron Hands. Not neccessarily as GW has them modeled, which to me looks too much like an Mad Doc did the bionics. I want something more anime-ish in style without being overly gratuitous.

I will use the IH bitz I have, but some will be greatly modified, all with the goal of making my Iron Hands look more like Iron Hands and not Ork test subjects.

SO in the next few days I hope to get a couple of test models worked on and modified. I don't expect to have any painting done, but a conceptual start is what I am going for.

Dorn or Manus, Fists or Hands??

Howdy.

So I sit here debating which way to go. I am sure there are many out there who as little sense as I do when it comes to stopping the never ending build up of marines.

I love the ideas of Ferrus Manus and his approach to becoming stronger and stronger by eliminating weakness.  I love the inclusion of cybernetics. He strikes me as the guy I would want to be if I was a primarch.

Conversely, Dorn to me seems like the guy I would want to follow if I had to choose a primarch. Tacticly brilliant and always doing thebest that can be done.

I think both are a like in many ways and different in many ways. Both were utterly loyal to the Emperor, and both died for his cause. Yet, Manus hated weakness and wanted it purged, whereas Dorn was constantly trying to improve. Both were driven to succeed, in some instances at great cost.

If you had to choose, which would you choose??

Who would win?

So I was reading a thread and all the literary yada yada that goes with it. Here is your question.

Who would win in a 3 way fight

Voldemort, ala Harry Potter fame.
Sauron, deni god bad dude with a thing fro Rings for Lord of the Rings
or Darth Vader, who likes black and starlite walks on Star Destroyers.

Lets isolate them from all thier toys and helpers and place them in large area, maybe the size of the Reliant Stadium so there is plenty of room to move around but not enough to run away.

My thinking is this.

Voldemort has a wand that channels his power, without he is very limited in his power. True he has horcruxes to keep him alive, but his living physical form is tied to his body while his souls is torn in shreds and spread over the horcruxes.
he can be beaten, but not truly killed unless his horcruxes are destroyed. has a plethora of killy spells and magic and is able to bend minds to his will.

Sauron, we will go with the he has the ring and is not a floating eyeball. Cannot be destroyed unless the ring is destroyed as part of his soul, if you can call it that, is contained in the one ring. he has a massive mace and is 15 ft tall. Lots of strength and terror, but no real magical gimicks aside from some wicked mind affecting powers preying on the vanity and courage of those he is fighting.

Darth Vader has a glow in the dark sword and the force. His suit keeps him alive, but he is able to survive without his suit for short periods of time ( gotta read Shadows of the Empire for more cool Darth Vader mojo). Still, with the force he does not any other tools or spells, he's kind got it built in.  Plus the more angry he gets, the more powerful he becomes, a lot like the hulk.

So what I see here is Volde and Sauron's greatest stregnth is affecting the mind. Sorry, Darth Vader is a Sith and not really going to be intimdated with fear or lusts for power. He has been there, done that and has the T shirt to prove it. Honestly I think the whole affecting one another's mind thing would be a wash. No one is really going to get anywhere with that.

I read where Volde could just "Acio ring" away the one ring and  "Acio Lightsaber" the light saber. Sauron does'nt need the ring to beat you silly, and Darth can do a lot of beat down as well without a light saber.

What I see, honestly is Voldemort using his wand to snatch away the one ring from Sauron, maybe getting vader's lightsaber as well. Sauron beats a path to Voldemort withhis big mace in hand. Volde teleports around to keep away from Sauron ( and for the record I would run, teleport, run away some more too).

Vader uses telekinesis to lift Sauron in the air and keep him at bay.

Volde tries to cast a killy spell at Darth vader, but can't seem to get the words out of his mouth as Darth Vader force chokes the life out of him. Hmm, no air, no words, no spells.

Vader then uses the force to send Voldy's wand into Sauron's eye. It's what I would do to a 15 foot ball demigod in armor with only eye slits showing. :)

Voledmort drops dead, or at least as dead as he can.

Vader uses his Jedi pwer to crush Sauron's armor, then sends his lightsaber in to flying Ginsu mode and chop Sauron into little pieces. If he does'nt have the lightsaber, I supposse dark force electrocution would work in a pinch or just beat Sauron with his own mace.

Then we are left with Sauron in pieces, Voldemort broken and in near death, with Vader in full possession of both artifacts to destroy at his leisure.

Really, thats how I see. Vader has too many advatages with the force. Even though he does not have the ring or horcruxes to keep his life or soul separate from his physical body, he does'nt need them.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Nuff said.

Thoughts?

Dark Eldar

Howdy. SO the new Dark Eldar are out and everyone seems to be in love with Wracks and other such goodies.

I think I have to be out of my mind, but I just don't really find it all that appealing. I supposse it is because there are'nt any models available yet.

What I find myself most intrigued by are the reavers and hellions. To me those just seem like 2 of the most awesome looking untis in the entire list.

So I find myself trying to build a playable list using these as my core.

Currently I am thinking about 1 unit of 12 reavers, with 4 dark lances. Not the best tank hunters in the game, but from a playing perspective, I don't have to fret over the short range to get the melta bonus and it still glance on a 4+. Not so bad given 4 shots.

The I am also looking at 3 units of 12 - 15 hellions. Looking atthe splinter pods, unless I am wrong, that is 24 to 30 poisoned shots per uit out to 18 inches. Its not the 24 inch range of the rifles, but with jump troops I can move around pretty quick, and assault if I need to. Seems pretty versatile to me.

Add in The Baron so hellions are troops and then lelith to join a raider mounted unit of blood brides and I have most bases covered.

I also want to add a unit of trueborn with 4 blasters for more AT killiness and then either a couple ravagers or a pair of the fighters. I think whenI added all the points that brought to somewhere around 1500 points or so just doing the number quickly in my head. Actual list still needs to be worked out, but I think it is different from the wrack-haemconolous lists that are popping up everywhere.

Nothing wrong with them, I like to play more uncoventional lists.

Go Power Ranger GO

Howdy. I did this guy up for a Bell of Lost Souls article on painting yellow. I am rather happy with how it turned out. I am thinking of building a small Imperial Fist force based on Mk 5 Power armor.

Anyhoo, something to look at.