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!

M20s and a Jeep!

OK so HOWDY Again. My client is happy with the M18s so YAY GO ME!

Now the M20s are up for review. I was not entirely sure how to proceed with these guys, but I came across a modeling sight that had some M20s done up and a couple of pictures of M20s from the field in France. It's amazing what a google search will turn up.

Anyhoo, I took one of the more intersting models and split up the markings on the vehicles so each one would have some character.

The jeep I kept simple so the driver and officer would stand out more. I think they turned out pretty decent and am happy with the results. I have a few jeeps of my own and I think I am going to follow the same approach for my own. I was thinking of tryin to include a standing gunner on the jeep, but with the position of the MG and the stadning figure, the models physically did not fit, unless I was going to have the gunner standing on the rear lights/bumper. Would'nt look good at all.

The jeep needs a little grass and maybe some small basing details to finish it out. I am going to do this along with the infantry tonight so stay posted as I hope to update this evening.

So feel free to comment, praise or complaint, it is all good to me.

Thanks!!

HELLCATS FINISHED!!

So Howdy. OK so they are not entirely complete. I still need my client's approval before I can call them done. I do feel really good about them though. I am very pleased with the way they turned out and I think there is something special about these figures I have done up.

In any event I marked them up with some simple slogans and put unit markings on them for the 67th Armored regiment, 2nd Armored Division, " Hell on Wheels" I like this unit because they were in every theatre since the US entered the war and have a illustrious history.

Next up are the Utility vehicles and the Jeeps, then the infantry!

Hellcats! Rawwrr!

Howdy. Up for review is an almost finished M18 hellcat platoon for Flames of War. These are a commission set. I apologize for the poor picture quality but one of lamps was left off when I was taking the pictures and so they came out a little yellowed.

Still all in all I am pleased with them overall, my client wanted a little rust and oil stains here and there along with a bit of dusty grit. I think I have achieved what I am looking for with that, I carefully applied some weathering techinques so the fronts of the vehicles look dusty, but not covered in mud. I think that looks sloppy and not quite a realistic. The M20s I think need something more, what I am not sure of, but they seem lacking something. Maybe a nice big star on the front end, but I am thinking something more. Ultimately it is up to my client what he wants, but he has said he will let me handle most of the details like that.

I had thought putting " The Wild Bunch" on one of the M20s would be cool, but the more I thought about it, it seems like that would be more fitting on one of the tank vehicles. I will leave it to my client if he likes it or not. he may not share my opinions of "personal touches" on armor, at least for US armor. I do not think I have ever seen a US vehicle without some kind of something on it. Sometimes it is too small to translate well on to a mini, sometimes it is just overwhelming and really guady, but still it is there...Well except maybe for a jeep or two...

I know the jeep needs a star, and will look much better when the crew is done, as will all the vehicles, but I like to look at them for a while before I put the crew in them to make sure the vehicle looks "right" before adding drives and such.

The machineguns will be done separatley. I may or maynot attach them before shipping because they have a tendency to break off in the mail. I will have to see how well they fit into the holes before attaching them.

The M18s need some last little details. Serial numbers, any slogans or "nose art' my client may want. Maybe another star on the sides of the hull. I have seen images of them on the turret and hull, turret only and hull only, so it is really quite open as best I can figure.

Thoughts? Thanks!!