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.

Red is for Chaos!

Howdy.

This is a figure I entered in a contest a while back. It took Best in Show and I am very happy with how it turned out.

I know the old school chaos dwarves are either love them or hate them. I kinda like them, I think the models are very characterful and are challenging to paint. I opted to stay with the standard paint scheme and painted in pretty much as the army book describes. I just put my own touches on the figure.

Also, I have been working on some arcticles for Bell of Lost Souls. They are being well recieved I think. A bit ot fame is never a bad thing really, but I don't consider myself an expert yet. I know I can do pretty much anything I want to, but truth is I feel like there is so much more I can learn and do. Honestly I feel like I have just started to scratch the surface of things in the painting world. Which is a good thing since I am a so so player. I win more games than I lose, but not by much.

On the work bench is a Skulltaker that is near complete. I need to get it done for my buddy who has been more than patient. Part of the reason I don't take many commissions anymore is I just don't have the time to get them done in a remotely reasonable manner. Then I have a Valkiya to get done, a lord on Juggernaught and a herald of Khorne on Juggernaught.

After that I have a Kugath to finish. Plus all my BOLS articles.

I think the order I will work for the next few is Ork skin, then maybe something on blending. However, I think my blending article would be better done by video on You tube. I'll have to play around with that before I am ready to go official with it. I say a video would be best because most of the belending I do is wet blending, ie I mix the colors still wet on the model, and it is best seen as it happens, not start and finish.

Anyhoo, back to the salt mines.

A Small Divergence for a Big Gun

Howdy.

Normally I would talk about my painting projects and models I am working on. However, I feel I need to stick up for one of my most favorite toys in my gaming arsenal. That is the modest Thunderfire Cannon.

As an engineer in real life, the fact that it is manned by a techmarine is already a plus. Us geeky guys need to stick together.

While most of the game guru's will tell you that it is a piece of junk and not worth its points allow me to completely disagree.

What we have for 100 pts is an artillery piece that can fire 4 templates up to 60 inches. It has 3 types of ammunition, each of which has advantages and disadvantages.

The first type is Strength 6 and has an AP of 5. Good standard marine or anything else killer.

Second type is Strength 5 with an AP of 6 but has the added benefit of negating cover saves. Good bye bugs and IG and good riddence.

The last type is a strength 4 with no AP. However, anything hit is treated as if it was indifficult terrain in the subsequent movement phase, which can be very handy at the right time in messing up your opponents plans to manuever or to cause vehicles trouble.

All in all it is a very versatile weapon and if you look at the opportunities to capitalize you fire it can be extremely devastating. I will throw out example number 1 and my most favorite. Troops disembarking or being caught in an exploding vehicle.

Infantry bunched up together is where this gun really shines. This past weekend at at GT tourney in Austin, in almost every game a rhino or similar transport was blown up. Troops stuck in a tight formation. One in particular was a unit of Grey Hunters with Ulrik in it. Now this was far from average, but in one volley I was able to wrack up 38 hits, inflicting 34 wounds. Suffice to say, a large unit was reduced to 1 model with 1 wound.

Anyhoo, I love my Thundefire Cannon and stick firmly to the mantra if 1 is good, 2 are even better.

August 4

Howdy.
This past weekend I went to Wargames con in Austin. Great event and I had a good time.

I am working pretty hard to try and keep up with the blog, however life has a way of making a mess of things and I have been workin on a variety of things.

Up coming topics is my good friend Honda and I are going to do a tale of 2 wargamers. He is doing Krieg for ther Vraaks campaign and I am working up my FW World Eaters.

Also, I am working on my WHFB Empire army. I have to admit I started working on this several months ago, but thus far I have only 12 models completed with several others about halfway done.

I am also needing to finish up a couple of commission pieces for 2 good friends of mine. I will feature those here over the next month or so as I get them done.

Completed projects: My Silver Skull Space marines are complete at 2000 points. My Tomb Kings are almost complete at 2250 points.

My Winter theme WW2 germans are complete at close to 50 points. Yes 50. There is still a long way to go with them.

Up coming projects

Fall football and coaching my sons team

Kugath conversion and painting

Skull taker

Lord on Juggernaught

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaught

a couple of Hasselfree figures

a few Reaper figures.

End of April

Howdy.

I am finally managing to keep up with my projects. One of them is to paint up some Leman Russ' tanks for a friend of mine. I am very far behind on this but I am almost done. he wanted something simple for his Valhallan IG army so I came up with a simple urban paint scheme that I think looks pretty good.

Anyhoo, I have a few pictures of the command tank for ya to look at. I am hopeful to get a picture of the complete 10 tank company, as well as the 2 baneblades I have been working on for him as well.

I am rather pleased with how they turned out. Simple, but with a few nice little details. For the command tank I painted a simple HQ skull on the top hatch of the turret and wrote in "valhalla" on both sides. On each tank I painted a Armored fist with the # 257, which is my friends old army unit and I used WW2 style US army tank designations on the back of each turret to identify each tank, squadron, unit and so on. Overall it looks pretty good.

Hope ya'll like it!

I have also started up again on my Silver Skulls army over on Bolter & Chainsword. Hopefully I will hear some good comments on them. I will post some pictures here shortly.

Tax Day

Hmm. Taxday today. Lots of interesting things going on in the world. Pirates, presidents, terrorists and maybe some really good summer movies coming out soon.

Anyhoo, life is messy and I have been busy with life and all that goes with it, so little time for updates. But I have made a little progress on some things here and there.

All of my kids are involved in sports. I have been busy with that since the fall. My wife has still not recovered from her illness, its a weird vestibular problem so she gets vertigo real bad sometimes.

I have mostly finished a huge project in the front yard. Just got to finish up some edging and it will be done for the year.

I am hopeful to go to gamesday this year. It is not looking like it will happen, schedule issues making a nuisence of themselves, but I have my fingers crossed.

So anyhoo, the picture is a howling banshee that I entered in Gamesday la last year. It was close to placing the judges said, but for a small gap under the foot and a kind of awkward pose. Still I am quite happy with how she turned out.

I am almost done on the leman russ project, that one is way overdue to get done.

The tiger platoon is still waiting to see some time. Everytime I sit down to work on them, something comes up. I think I am just going to have to settle for little opportunites as the present themselves. No airbrush work as I rarely have time to get my set up going before I have to stop and address something else. Also, I had to change internet providers so I have to do some digging to recover my clients email. I do not know if he still wants the tigers or not, but I will give him first crack at them as they were for him, and if not I will put them up on ebay.

I will also be putting up some US Flames of War stuff I have for sale. I have had these figures for a little over 2 years and they have never even been out of the box. Time to go if you ask me.

Crimson Guard are still on the shelf. No work or progress there, although I have worked up some Silver skulls Space marines while I have been away from home for work. The lighting in hotels is horrible for any serious painting work, but it is decent enough for metallics. So I have got some of them finished. Overall I think they look pretty good.

WorldEaters are collecting dust. Sigh...

The panzer division recieved some color along with the Tigers for Wittmann. Sadly not much else. But that is better than collecting dust.

Anyhoo, this week I will be getting started on Wittmann's platoon as well as a painting project for The Miniatures page.

Its September!

SO Howdy all. Anybody miss me? Well I missed me. Been a really busy busy year. I have been really involved with work and my wife became very ill in Februrary. SO needless to say I have not been doing much on the mini painting front.

That being said, I did get 2 figures painted over the last 7 months. Not exactly what I had in mind, but we take what little we can get. For my trouble I won a Bronze demon at the Los Angeles Gamesday this August. It was kind of a mixed blessing. I had so many other things to get too, however I had already bought my tickets and those for my son as well. Naturally they were the non refundable kind( always read the fine print). So with 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there I did get 2 figures done.

Anyhoo, I am beginning work on several projects that are so far behind it is not even funny.

Project 1. Wittmanns Tiger platoon for Flames of War. A client of mine had requested these and it is high time I got on them. I am very thankful he is a patient man.

Project 2. A Leman Russ tank squadron and a couple of Baneblades for a good friend of mines Warhammer 40k army. I have a free reign to do what I like with them so I think it will be interesting. Also a patient man. Good thing.

Project 3. More work on my Crimson Guard space marines. A little bit here and there to keep it interesting.

Project 4. My New WorldEaters chaos marine army. This is going to be a hoot to get done.

Project 5. My German 21 Panzerdivision for Flames of War. I bought this army earlier this year and have only managed to open the box so far.

There are other oddball figures and projects here and there, most of them for Gamesday next year and hopefully Reapercon in Dallas as well.

And now even More Shermans!

So here are the Shermans to tie into the Tank Destroyers. They have early-mid war markings and are identified as the 2nd Armored Division, 67th regiment, which saw action in all theaters.

The Infantry and a Jeep!

SO I have finished up the Infantry for the M18 tank destroyer unit and the jeep as well.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Thoughts and opinions always welcome!