Finished - 3 GKPA

Stick a fork in these guys because they are done! I got a long day of painting in and have these 3 dudes to show for it. They are all metal bodies. The Darth Maul lightsaber looking thing is obviously a conversion that counts as the dual weapons. I have halberds coming out of my ears as that is what all the GKPAs came with back in the day. Snip off the hands and you can attach them to the metal handle. The only down sides are that it makes it a little awkward to store them in foam and they are a little hard to spot on the table top. 

The fellow on the far right has a plastic arm. I did him last and because of the pose of the model, the sword is right in in front of the storm bolter. It doesn't even look like he is spinning around to take a wack at someone. It is a really awkward model. Good thing he is little more than an ablative wound. 

Still need to work on the Drop Pod. I really hate vehicles but these damn drop pods have twice the paintable area of a Land Raider and that's just the outside. I've glued the doors shut on this one rather than magnetizing them. That is because I got it for a song from Bartertown because the goomba that tried to assemble it did a crappy job of assembling. The doors are were all mucked up and rather then trying to fix them, I just glued them shut and was done with it. 

Trying something new - Green Cygnar

At the beginning of this year I said that I wanted to branch out and try something new. This is my Cygnar force and it is anything but new. Nemo, Stryker and the Journyman Warcaster were all painted long ago. The redhead with the gun, Kara Sloan, was finished this week and she is a quantum leap in the detail level that I am used to from Privateer Press. It is particularly evident by looking at their cloaks and capes. The three boys have pretty plain and flat fabric while Kara is full of detail, buttons, ripples and layers. It was very hard to paint but ultimately rewarding. 

I worry a little about her assembly. That gun is attached to her arm through her elbow, but there was very little room to pin it so there is just glue holding that on. That is a long bit and if it is mis-handled it is going to get pulled off. Also on the topic of the gun, is that it is a spindly and thin metal bit. I just know that it is is going to get bent and likely broken. 

I have mixed feelings about this model, but I put her up on CMoN.

I have not played Warmachine in ages. My last game was almost a year ago. I have never won a Warmachine/Hordes game in my life. The first game I played was against a total jerk and from what I've seen since then, jerks abound in this game. 

I play to have fun and there is just too much competitiveness inherent in this game. Most people take the most deadly and competitive list they can and go for blood starting at Turn 1. That's not fun. I want to see if I can take fun and weird units and make them do what I want on the table. 

It is an unresolved conflict of philosophies.

Tonight is WarmaHordes at the FLGS and I should go but won't. Tonight is my Sunday and I would rather spend it painting. While kind of fun, playing is pretty stressful and playing is relaxing. I need some quiet time before going into the work week rather than coming home tired and twisted up. 

To the brushes!

My first three new paints.

Full report later.

Painting at the FLGS

Decided to take the Drop Pod and the Battle Foam on the road today for some painting at the friendly local gaming store not the CLGS. I am starting to see the appeal. Without the distractions of email and the distractions of my room, I got considerable work done. I painted all the black base coat and started the metals.

It was a little more difficult as I did not have access to all m paints and brushes so that limited what I could paint. Even that drawback may have contributed to getting more done as I could apply all my attention to the few things that I could paint.

It is quiet here and a nice change. The only real downside is since I took up space in a retail store for a while, I feel obligated to buy something to pay for that. Maybe I'll try out some of the new paints!

On the table - Grey Knights and hatches

First time at the bench in ages and it is slow going. 

The best advice on painting from Andrew Taylor

There is a interview worth listening to over on the GW blog. A Golden Daemon winner talks about painting in general and it all comes down to hard work. That's how you get to Carnegie Hall after all. Nothing beats hours at the bench and trying new things. His words are the best thing I've seen in terms of painting advice to new and experienced painters. It's really kind of beautiful.

His conversion is majestic. I fully plan on doing my Attack Bikes this way when I get to it.

On the table now - Combi Weapons

Decided to bang out some combi-weapons for the IW vehicles. Turns out it was pretty easy. Sunk a couple of mangets into the one side of the weapon and mounted it securely. Then, I magnetized the bit that is to attach. Used a couple of Loyalist meltaguns with the triggers pulled off. They look ok now, but they'll look great when painted. 

Finished - IW Rhino #2 and arms

Just put the last swipes of paint on the second and last IW Rhino. It is still missing the smoke stack bit but I can glue that on later. I just realized that I did not do any weathering on the smoke stacks so I'll have to do that now. The second one still needs to be clear coated and there are a few bits that I need to paint up like a Havoc Launcher and some extra blank hatches. 

I also finished two magnetized arms for the IW Terminator. I do not have many of them and so being able to swap out arms is crucial at this time. I plan on having 10 or more in the end and at that point, I'll skip the magnets and just have dedicated minis for each weapon. 

Up next are the 3 GK in power armor and a drop pod. 

Foam is in the house! Thanks, Gordon!

I just got my first Battlefoam bag in the mail and I love it. I'll do an unboxing post later and talk about all the things I like and do not like.the short of it is that this is a serious bag for serious gamers. 

On the Table - Same Old

Since I finished the first IW Rhino and Typhus, my painting has been slowing down. I've had the other Rhino on my table for a while now. The time stamps say it has been a week since I've done any real work on the Rhino. 

Today, I did the washing, touch ups and highlighting. It is closing in on finished. I am losing my mind with the yellow on the top hatch and getting the doors sufficiently black. I am still waiting on a bit to finish the smoke stacks, but that can come later. 

Your transport is incoming!

Just got the e-mail notification that my Battle Foam is in the post. I'll have it in my hot little hands the day after Taxes are due to be mailed. That should be this coming Monday! I can check another thing off my list of goals for this year.

I'll do a write up of the actual product as soon as I am done nerding out about it.

PuppetsWar.com Review

The crew over at BoLS have been chatting up PuppetsWar.com quite a bit lately. First it was the Necron jetbikes and the Vindicator stand in. More recently they talked the Ork plane and the Dreadnought Autocannon arms. Now, I don't know if this is more embedded sponsorship like the dull and droll Man Boy Genius and his inane Spikey Bits plugs that masquerade as content, but they are decent reviews of decent-looking products. That's right, aside from that little tear on MBG for his crappy articles and even crappier conversions, there is no hate in this post. We're gonna keep it positive. I am going to give a brief overview of some of the interesting bits and models available over at PuppetsWar.com.

Vurumai's Law

I've always wanted something named after me but never came up with something original first to have the chance to do that. Until now.

I've noticed a trend in mini wargaming that seems to extend to almost all genres and manufactures. It seems that the bigger the size of the weapon on the mini, the stronger it is in the rules.

I am not saying that I am the first person to notice this, but I may be the first to articulate it and name it. I may write it up more thoroughly later with graphs and such, but I wanted to name it before someone else gets to it.

How to use Liquid Tallent and WTF GW Blog

Two posts in one today!

Agrax Earthshade (formerly Devlan Mud, aka Liquid Talent) is not the final step in painting. It is a shading step and the model still needs to be painted after that. The to the left picture demonstrates this.

One of these is painted.

I have a basic pattern of how I paint. I give a base layer, shade, touchup then highlight. You see how there are two steps after the shading/washing step. That's the painting part. Slopping on a basecoat then dipping a mini really takes no talent, skill, time or energy. It is not painting. It is cheating.

Now, I don't have a real problem with this. Dipping minis is just like dipping tobacco. Dip if you want to, but don't expect me to like it or condone it. I won't acknowledge a dipped army ad "fully painted" because it is not painted. It is better than a grey or black army but not much.

The bottom Rhino was just washed with Dev Mud and nothing else. The one above has been touched up (intentionally sloppily), then highlighted and perhaps some lite drybrushing and it is a world of difference and took very little work and time.

The GW doth protest too much, methinks

For those of you that do not know, the title comes from Hamlet where some chick keeps going on and on about how something is not true that people become suspicious that it is true.

I am sick of the GW blog, the emails and the damn Black Shirts extolling the virtues of the new paint. A few blog posts and the intro video would have been sufficient, but there are several "testimonial" videos on the blog. Now, I ain't even going to watch them because I know what they are going to say already. They are going to tell me how great and new and better the paints are and not really give me any details as to the how or why they are better. Testimonials are not reliable and this outpouring of praise seems disingenuous. I know when I am trying to be sold something and this feels like a sales pitch.

If the paints were as good as they were saying, then they could get by on their merits alone and testimonials would not be necessary. All they would need to do tell us they are out and put them out for sale. I mean, it is not like people are going to stop buying their paints at the GW store.

Thank you Tony!

 

My buddy Tony sent me some precious bits to finish the CSM Iron Warrior Rhino that is currently on the table.  Without these, I could not have finished it as the smoke stacks are currently sawed off. 

THANKS TONY! This Bud Rhino is for you!

Now I just need one more to complete me monster!

Hatin on BoLS - Apples and Oranges

The best thing about hating BoLS is that they give you so many opportunities to point out their shortcomings. I could make an entire blog just for that.

Today's hate is directed towards Black Blow Fly and his article entitled "40k: Devgants vs. Purifiers." The article is full of half-baked ideas, unfinished thought and ultimately full of fail. I really do not care to take it apart piece by misbegotten piece. That would take up valuable painting time. What I will do is copy a short excerpt from the article that is rife with not only logical fallacy, but also indicative of his overall poor writing and the poor writing common on BoLS.

"No this is not another batrep... Heh. Let's take two units from two totally different codices and compare them.

One unit is selected from the Tyranid codex which is often said to be the worst codex released during fifth edition (there is some contention for Dark Angels though for sure). The other unit is selected from the Grey Knight codex which is often said to be the most broken over the top codex ever released. How can we compare the two?"

On the table now - Chaos IW Rhino number two

A long way to go.

A New Way to Run a Forum

I added The Back 40k on a whim and am really happy with the articles they are putting out. If you do not follow them, you should. I've only read a little over there but from what I see thus far they seem to be a group with their heads screwed on really well. They seem like my kind of gamers and they produce actual content that is worth reading. Shocking in this day.

Case in point is this article on how to better communicate in mini wargaming. Computer nerds run a forum where your rep and group consensus. They call it a Stackoverflow. Someone got the hot idea to do one for us tiny metal men nerds and it sounds great!

I hope it gets going because this is the place where I would like to get my answers from. 

Typhus Epic Post

Typhus the Traveller, Herald of Nurgle, Host of the Destroyer Hive is a Chaos Space Marine of the Death Guard legion.

History

After the Heresy, The Space Marines of chaos wore a lot of spikes and carries some pretty strange weapons. Before the Heresy, most of them wore plane armor save a few. Calas Typhon, the future Typhus, was one of those few. Really, you've got to wonder a little about your buddies when they start carrying giant scythes and wearing spikes on their face.

Heresy-era Typhon

This is actually rather telling. According to Lexicanium and the novel The Flight of the Eisenstein, Typhon willingly turned to Chaos before his Primarch Mortarion or even before the fall of Horus. He was converted to Chaos by Erebus, First Chaplain of the Word Bearers and used those powers to climb the ranks of the Death Guard legion to the dizzying heights of Captain of the 1st Company, the highest rank second only to that of the Primarch himself. By virtue of his rank, he was given undisputed command of the battleship Terminus Est a massive and powerful battleship.

His original name is also rather telling of his personality. "Calas" is a homonym of callus and callous. A callus is "... toughened area of skin which has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation." This is certainly a good characterization of Typhus both before and after his fall.From what I remember of him from The Flight of the Eisenstein, he was constantly irritated by everyone including his Primarch. He hated Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro and would have killed him in an instant if he had the opportunity to get away with it. If he had only known the troubles that Garro would cause (the escape and resultant humiliation, warning the Emperor and founding the Grey Knights), Typhon would have slain him regardless of the consequences.