Side Project #347 – Space Marine – Finished!

I finished this guy last night. 

His base isn’t done, but I won’t count that as part of the model until I know how I want to base the rest of the Space Marine models.

Once again a ‘thanks’ to WarbossTae on youtube for getting me interested in this paint scheme.  I do like my subtle changes, and will likely go with this scheme for the other guys I have.

Anyway, so I don’t forget when I do get to painting them:

1. Basecoat everything in Pig Iron.
2. Shoulder pauldrons, mohawk, calf armour and bolter casing in Cygnar Blue Highlight.
3. Pouches and bolter strap in Gun Corps Brown; belt in Thamar Black; grenade and clip in Cryx Bane Base.
4. Purity seal in Khador Red Base; parchment in layers of Trollblood Highlight + Morrow White; eyes in Necrotite Green over Iosan Green.
5. Gold bits based with Bootstrap Leather, then Molten Bronze, then Burnished Gold.
6. Badab Black wash over hands, back of knees, chest aquila and vent areas of backpack; Ogryn Flesh wash on bolter strap.

Now that I know what to do, this kind of model should take a lot less time to do.  I don’t know when I’ll get around to the others, as I’ll never run out of higher-priority models, but it will happen.

Thanks for reading.

Side Project #347 – Space Marine

Like I said in my All On The Table post for 40k stuff I have, I’m not planning on running Space Marines when I get back into 40k.  While I do like a number of their models, and would even consider going Grey Knights, I doubt it’ll happen.  I’m attracted to too much of the Dark Eldar stuff, and there are too many SM armies out there.

However, as I had already bought some kits on ebay a while back, and with motivation from some youtubing recently, I decided to go ahead and test paint one of my Black Reach marines in a psuedo-Astral Claws paint scheme.  This is totally the fault of WarbossTae who has tricked me into liking their scheme. 

I altered it a little bit, adding blue to the ‘mohawk’ and calf pieces, as well as a few other details. 

He’s still not finished of course, but I already like it enough to consider painting the rest of the guys I have like this.  As well as the speeder.  And any other future SM units I get, which hopefully won’t be too many, as I don’t need more miniature distractions! 

Now…how to paint up that Imperial Guard Sentinel that’s just hanging around…

Thanks for reading.

OOPS! I Got Me Some Dark Elders!

Yeah, so I was so excited to find those 20 Dark Eldar Warriors for half price the other day, I didn’t realise they were the old warriors, and not the new Kabalite Warriors.

D’oh!

That’s what you get when you a) are looking for a good deal, but b) don’t look at what’s in the bag before you buy!

Heh, it’s alright, though, I can definitely still use them.  Compared to the new stuff, they have less details, less dynamic poses, and less overall options.  But they will make fine unit fillers, and even better paint scheme test models.

Speaking of Project: Void Raiders (yes, that is the codename for my upcoming Dark Eldar project, whenever we get back into 40k), I spent some time today while the baby was sleeping to watch a few videos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKngHSq565Q&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL is a great ongoing ‘series’ by Warboss Tae, whose videos I recently stumbled on, and quite enjoy.  Well, other than that little intro of his

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tHEI4ydhXQ Here Doctor Faust comes up with a fantastic brown scheme for Dark Eldar that I’m going to try out myself.  I’ve been debating whether to do a classic black with coloured edging look, or something different like this.  Thankfully I have all those warriors to test schemes on now! Hah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDM3L0KAeoY is not a new one for me, but is a long (even sped up) tutorial on painting a warrior.  Well, this has a few too many steps for me.  Maybe an Archon will get this kind of love, but there’s no way I can devote this much time to a single model in a game that requires a bucket of models on the table.

Anyway, this doesn’t mean I’m starting this project now.  I just wanted to share today’s OOPS! finding.

Thanks for reading.

All On The Table – Warhammer 40k

Here you’ll see a bunch of bagged miniatures, waiting to be taken out and given some love.

*I apologize for the cruddy photo.  I accidentally deleted the one I took during the day, with sunlight.*

They need some love because I don’t play 40k.  I have in the past, maybe three times, with my Tau battleforce, but they’re on their way to being sold/traded.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the look of the Tau, but I’m not too gung-ho to play them when we get back into the game (later this year).  You know me, I like starting fresh…and spending lots of money needlessly doing so!

So in the picture you will find:

Space Marines: A set of the Tactical Marines (upper left) from the 5th Ed. starter set.  While I don’t think I’d play a Space Marine army (except perhaps Grey Knights), I do like the look of some of their models.  The regular dudes are one group that I like.  I also like the scouts.  And I like the Landspeeder, which I also have (big bag in the lower right).  Other SM models I like are the Drop Pod and the Stormraven.  And Grey Knights stuff.  But I’m still not planning on running Space Marines.

Imperial Guard: One of the armies I do like, but I probably won’t actually run them.  I have a Sentinel (lower left), as I think it’s a great little walker. 

Dark Eldar: And lastly, my most recent pick-up, 20 Kabalite Warriors (upper right).  I decided some time last year that whenever I got back into 40k, I would do so with Dark Eldar.  I’m not usually an ‘evil’ player, but there are various things about the DE that I like.  So I got these guys at 2-for-1 from Heavy Support.  What a deal!  So, I’m already on my way towards a small DE force. 

All but the Dark Eldar stuff I got on ebay.  Last year I bought quite a number of things on ebay, mostly bits and parts for my various armies, sometimes GW terrain, and sometimes 40k stuff like this.  Namely for the reason that even if I don’t play an army, sometimes I like some of their models, and would like to build and paint them someday.  In the future.  Often the far future.  I have a O&G Arachnarok Spider that will one day be built, even though I don’t have plans to play an O&G army (although if I did, it would totally be an all-Goblin force!).

Anyway, this is everything I currently have for 40k (a game I don’t actually play), aside from the only stuff (Tau) that I’ve actually played.  These are more ‘centerpiece’ models for me than anything else.  It’s quite likely that I’ll add more of this kind of stuff to my collection, be it Fantasy or 40k or even other game systems and companies.  I’m just like that. 

But I’m sure you’ve already realised it.

Thanks for reading.

Hobby Update Part One: The Words

Epic Fail.

Yeah, that’s the way I have to preface this.  Epic Fail.

It’s April 24th, and BGG says I’ve only played 5 games this month.  5!  I used to hit the 30s, 40s…even 80s!  And now look at me.  5.  I’ve only got one more week to beat February’s all-time low of 7 games.  The sad part is, three of the five games this month were Warhammer Fantasy.  I haven’t been to a Thursday gaming night at Meeplemart in three weeks.  What has gotten into me!?

Anyway, enough of that.  Let’s talk about what I have been up to, and where I’m going. 

Skaven: I haven’t painted anything Skaven for a few months now.  I’ve reached the limit of my purchases for this army, and to be honest a lot of it isn`t even built yet.  I love playing them, don`t get me wrong, but I side-tracked myself getting into High Elves, and now I have piles and piles of unpainted Skaven.

High Elves: I`ve built a number of units for this, but there are still a few to be done.  I`ve played a few games with them, and I`m impressed for the most part.  They die easily, but some of them hit hard, and they`ve got some good magic support and special abilities.  I don`t think I`ll be buying any more Elves anytime soon.

Terrain: I`m slowly building the terrain I`ve got laying around.  Slowly.

Empire: In a week some local guys and I will be starting a Tale of Gamers, each picking a new army and starting from scratch.  We`re still working on final details, but it looks as if we`ll be going from a Battalion and 750 points, up to 1500 points by the end of August.  The idea is to paint, paint, paint.  No more unfinished models.  No more blank bases.  Mostly Andrew and I have this problem, so hopefully this little challenge will help US get a built and painted army to match the other guys. 

Imperial Guard or Tyranids: As per my problem, I`m already looking ahead of myself.  I think in the new year we are going to get into 40k again.  If this Fantasy Tale of Gamers works out, we might do it again.  I need to decide whether I go with Imperial Guard or Tyranids.  If I do Tyranids, I`d like to do an Aliens-like colour scheme, or something akin to that.  Black, bluish, grayish.  Simple, I know, but I think I`ll like it.  If I go with Imperial Guard, who knows.  Maybe paint them like Colonial Marines from Aliens as well.  We shall see.

Alkemy: Andrew picked up a bunch of Alkemy stuff, and I think after we`re finished the Tale of Gamers he and I will work on that. I`ll buy his cat-people off him, as I like the look of them the best.  I should probably start practising my fur painting now…

I will leave it at that for now.  Hopefully I can get some pictures of my current armies today and post them up.  Until then, I shall wallow in the knowledge of how pathetic I am.  *sigh*

My Name Is Justin, And I Have A Problem

The first step is admitting it, right?

Is it because I’m a male? Or a Libra? Or because I grew up with some of the best toys around (yeah 80′s action figures!)?

All I know is…I need to stop using the internet, especially checking out TGN.  I see too many utterly awesome new toys.

Take GW’s new Stormraven, for example.

This thing is beautiful! I love it. 

But I don’t play Red Angels. I don’t play Space Marines.  Heck, I don’t even really play 40k!

I have a small Tau force that I’m not really happy with, even though they’re still my favourite looking models overall.  I guess I just didn’t play enough or get into the game enough to fully appreciate them.

But do you know who I do appreciate?  Dark Eldar and the Stormraven.  BECAUSE THEY LOOK SO DAMN GOOD!

And I’ve never even played them.  I just saw them online and in White Dwarf and the boxes on the shelf.  I read about them online and in White Dwarf and the back of the boxes on the shelf.  That’s it.  No other experience.

But I still want them.  I feel like that girl in the picture book, Earings.  “I want them.  I NEED them.”  She says that about earings.  I say that about new models.

Is it wrong that I kinda want to get a Stormraven, just for the heck of it?

Sure it’ll take, what, $60 out of my upcoming $100/month budget.  But it’s worth it for a sweet-ass model I’ll never use…right?

Hi.  My name is Justin, and I have a problem.