New Directions

Howdy. I have to admit I have been in a bit of a rut of late. Caught a nasty bought of brochitis and was laid out for 2 weeks. Add on top of that a lack of motivation to accomplish things. I was on and still am on a real high from Chicago, but lots of things have stimied my attempts to get anything going with any seriousness. Is seriousness even a word?? Oh well, ya'll know what I mean.

So as I layin down in the depths of illness misery it came to me. Diversity is the way to go. I often look at minis I like to paint with the intent sell them. But as I look at a lot f what I have, I am not sure whether or not they are marketable. Sometimes things do very well when put up for auction, and sometimes, not so well. But the thing that ocured to me is I do historical minis very well, and none of those have ever done badly, plus they are a pleasant change of technique and style from the more common Sci-fi fantasy types most tend to see.

So with that in mind, and my desire to begin playing Flames of War in earnest, I am going to be painting lots of historical minis for sale and personal use as well as the fantasy and sci fi figures I am also very fond of.

Add to that I finally have venue to try and form a painting group here in town and things have been on an upswing last couple of days.

For your viewing pleasure, I have posted my lastest 15mm project. Waffen SS in Autumn camo smocks. These guys are almost done, all I really need to do is finish up the command section and an objective and then they are ebay bound.

What I am not going to sell are my British commandos. I will post some pictures of them in the next day or two, just ya'll can see what I have. On the workbench is a unit of German Machine guns and Brit machinguns as well as my long awaited Eldar army.

I am also almost done with the Bloodthirster I am doing for a friend, almost a year to finish it, and then I have a project long overdue for the Miniatures page. Those will be worked in and completed before the end of the year if all goes well. I got a lot of catching up to do, but slowly I will get it all done.

Anyhoo, comments are always welcome, and if you have any ideas for Historical units you would like to see done, let me know, I am not too discrimantory, but the end is to try and sell most of them. Although if I like them enough I will certainly exercise my right to keep them for myself.

It's October!!

HOWDY. Wow, it's been almost a year since I started this and while I have not been as attentive as I would have liked, I certainly have been busy. I am slowly getting things done. The Blood thirster commission is coming along and if it ever stops raining here in Houston I have another commission to do. For the Miniatures page I will be doing a Hordes boxed set of Trollbloods. Humidity has been killing me here. Makes my primer go all fuzzy. SO after one unit of choas warriors turned fuzzy I decided to wait it out. No one wants fuzzy trolls. Maybe an ogres or two but not a troll.


The guy I have here is an Arch confessor I painted a few years ago. I am rather fond of him, but sadly no one really notices the details on him. Oh well, sooner or later he will be appreciated by more folks other than me. This guy was my firat foray into Non Metallic Metallic. I think it came out pretty good considering it was my first attempt.

2 versions of red and gold

Howdy. Over the last week or so I have been working on a number of things. One if my Vostroyaans Imperial Guard and the other is my Epic scale Space Marines, the Crimson Guard. Both are using red and gold, although in the case of the epic scale it is more of a yellow gold color thana true metallic as on the vostroyaans.

On my vostroyaans I used a base color of vallejo brass and then washed with GW brown ink. Actually a couple of washes to add depth and definition to the metallic. Once dry I painted with Vallejo Glorious gold and then washed again with GW chestnut ink and picked out the highlights with more Glorious gold and finally highlighted with Vallejo Model Gold. Overall I am pleased with the results as the golds have a rich deep color and a bit of a warm reddish hue.





The epic scale guys are based with GW Vomit brown, washed with a light wash of GW brown ink and then ther details picked out with GW Golden Yellow. They are nice and bright and should look really good on a nice green flocked base once complete.







Next thing I am working on is my Mortal Chaos army and I should have a few pictures up in a few days.

The beginings of the Hochland Highlanders

Howdy. Through the weird twist of fate I have wound up with a another WHFB Empire army. With a new fantasy league forming I initially decided to do Empire for the league.I wanted something different for them so I elected to create the Hochland Highlanders. With a little bit of work I have added kilts and other Scottish type gear to them so they take on a new look but yet are still distinctly Empire.

Ultimately I discovered this is going to take a lot more work than I initially planned so I changed the army I was going to play to Mortal Nurgle, with another article on them later. But I am going to continue modeling this army, but I won't be rushed so I can do it justice and make a really cool looking army.

Me and my Silver Demon

Howdy. Ok so this is not my best picture, but this a dream for me. Me with a demon of my very own. I can't tell ya'll how excited and thrilled I was at this moment. Something I had been dreaming of for close to 18 years since I first discovered GW and the Golden Demons. I can hardly explain because what I had always hoped for was the chance to go and see, and yet here I am with one of my very owm.

Things have been a little busy since I got back from Chicago, but at least they are moving along. Gotta finish the bloodthirster for my friend and I have started an Empire Army for WHFB.

I also need to get my Warmaster skaven painted up and last but not least, I need to finish up a bunch of figures for the Miniatures page. SO FAR BEHIND AND SO LITTLE TIME.

In any event, I am slowly getting caught up and getting things done. Also, school and family events are reving up again and my garage is in dire need a major cleaning.

I will post pictures of my initial highlander theme empire army soon.

Tahnks and take care

Back from gamesday

Howdy. I returned from GamesDay Chicago and what a show it was. I played in the Grand tournament with an overall record of 1 win, 2 draws and 2 loses. There were some very tough lists there and some very good players as well. Lots of really nice looking armies, only problem is I am such dork I forgot my camera.

I also entered four figures in the Golden Demon, a dream of mine for many years now and I placed with a silver in the LotR category!! I also had my Court of the young king make first cut in a very difficult 40k squad category. The competition there was unbeliveable and I amreally glad to have done as well as I did.

Anyhoo, there were lots of things to do and I had a really good time and piked up some very good tips and ideas on how to approach things so I will be more competitive in the future. Now all I have to do is get cracking and make these things happen while they are still fresh in my mind.

The picture is of my court of the young king some one was kind enough to take. It still needs a lot more work, but I think I am going to take a break from it for a while and or sell it and start another one. I am not sure yet, but we shall see.

The Bug Guy!!

Here is the guy have been working on for a long while now. He is completely done, but the picture is probably a little dark so I will take better pictures later. These pictures were for a friend of mine so he could review and comment. He has good insights and I am fortunate to get his help!!

Anyhoo enjoy!

2 Days and counting!!!

Howdy all, I have been quietly working hard to get all my entries done in time, but as one should expect there are the inevitable delays.

I have one more figure to get painting on and it is the avatar for my Court of the Young King.

Overall, I am very happy with the way all of my entries have turned out. With each exarch I am trying to keep and elemental feel to each one without blatantly showing it is an elemental theme. I want for the viewer to look at each one and say, wow, that gives me the impression of heat or water or air or earth, depending on which figure you are viewing. That is my goal, I won't know for sure until somebody actually looks at them. Chicago will be the big debute. Yippee!!!

Tommorrow I will post my bug guy because I figure it is safe to show you guys what I have worked on for the last month and a half.

I would appreciate any comments you guys have on what you think, so feel free to fire away. Thanks!!

Working on More entries for GamesDay Chicago

Howdy. I have been steadily working on my figures and conversions for Gamesday. In this I have learned a lot about conversions and sculpting. One of my figures is the most ambitious project I have ever attempted and he is complete. But you will have to wait until before Gamesday to see him. Sorry, don't need someone borrowing my idea for their own use. I'm selfish like that. But once it get closer to the actual competiton I will be ore than happy to post him for ya'll to look over.

But in the mean time I have a picture of my Howling banshee Exarch conversion. I always hated the sculpt for this figure so I borrowed some bits and body parts and improved upon it greatly in my own honest opinion. To me it seems to have a much improved dynamic to it instead of the lame big girl with a pointy stick that is in the current line.

On another note. my youngest Daughter turned 1 yr old a week ago and we are all very happy about that. Now if would just stop kicking our co-depenant anxiety ridden dog life would be perfect. Ahh, well perfect is boring, nothing unexpected ever happens.

And off to Games Day Chicago I go

Howdy. Well in case anyone missed me, clearly I have been away for a long long while. Work has had me very busy and I have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth on anything not related to work, but fortunately these things don't last forever and I am happy to have a little breathing room again.

I have had a wonderful year so far though. Life is good, marriage is good, kids are good. its all good. I also finally after all these years of dreaming, I have finally gotten my ticket to a Games Workshop Gamesday. The one I will be going to is in Chicago end of July. I am really excited about this. I have a few figures already stared for the Golden Demon painting contest and I am also working on my army for the Grand Tournament.

I hope to post some more of my ideas and maybe, just maybe a few pictures of my entries shortly before the actual contest.

I don't know exactly how to go about painting and/or converting some of my figures, but I do have some in mind and if all goes well, I will have them all done in time.

In the meantime, here is a finished figure I did. I think she turned out rather well.

Been Slow going

WOW, it has been a while and so little has been done. I have been busy with work and family and as a result I have not done much painting. Ok well I have been playing a lot of Final fantasy online, but I need to cut back on that. I can get right addictiative if you are not careful.

Anyhoo, I am going to be out of town for a while and as a result I will be getting very little painted. Honestly, I won't be painting anything.

BUT..... I have started a project for a friend of mine. I have been commission to assemble and paint a Forge World Bloodthirster. I have all the parts and have begun the clean up work.

My intial thoughts are that this figure is way to expensive for the quality they provide. it has huge seam lines where the molds did not line up properly. This requires some extensive work to remove the mold line and then resculpt the details. It would be one thing if the parts were smooth and could be done with a simple sanding, but the parts are very detailed and will require a lot of hours to make it presentable. I supposse I could have let them in and just painted it, but that does'nt seem right. I figure if you are going to do something, then at least do it right.

Lastly, I submitted my Roman Signifier to TMP for the Alpha painting contest. I like the figure. it may not be the latest vogue with regard to painting styles today, but I am very pleased with the results. It is a simple but effective figure that has some real depth and character to it. I pretty much decided I am going to paint him up how I wanted to and not with what I thought would win the contest, cause at this point I honestly have nothing to prove and don't care how the contest goes. Painting this figure was a delight and I consider myself lucky to have the opporunity to be a part of this contest and share how and why I did what I did on him. I hope you like him.

Boy, have I been busy

So Howdy. Man, what a long holiday season it was for me. I started playing Final Fantasy Online again and have been having a blast doing it. Also, I have been trying to get a lot of paintig done and out of the way. Little progress has been done on my Brits, but I have finisged up my Russian Arty.

I also got my Alpha Paintig Contest Mini finished. I am in the final round and hopefully I can make a good showing.

Been playing around with the forum as well.Got a nifty header/banner logo or whatever it is called and I think it is rather spiffy.

I loaded my "desk top shot of the week". It is a concept got from Mr. Jacob Rune Nielson. I don't know if he knows I borrowed his idea, but I like it. I hope, or I should say it is my intent, to post a desk top shot of the week here every week. It will help me keep track of what I have been working and doing.