Fallout 4 has a new home

And that home is my new Alienware X51 R2. I know, I know. I am a big ole nerd and should be able to build my own computer. 10 years ago that might have been true but technology has gotten away from me in the last decade. I no longer recognize any of the names or tech. I could have gone to a site like NewEgg and built my own but that never really worked out for me in the long run. All the PCs that I built crapped out in a few years whereas the Dell that I bought in 2004 is still chugging along. I know that I paid about $400 more for Dell building it for me and for that sexy little alien head. It came down to security and stability (things that get increasingly more important the older you get).

At the time of posting this, Bethesda has not released any of the system requirements for Fallout 4. This site has speculated on what they might be so I bought a computer that was one better than everything that was there. I don't what the difference between an i5 and and i7 processor but I know which is more expensive now.

There is a speculation that Fallout 4 might have lower system requirements than expected. that would be similar to Fallout 3 which ran on my outdated system at the time. Granted, the draw distance was rather short for critters and grass, but it ran and the experience was pleasant enough.

The X-Wing collection grows

Part of the reason for the drop off in posting frequency is the excitement for Fallout 4. I spent the last month playing through Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and now Skyrim. In each case, I stated a new character and played from scratch. I know those games so well, that I hit the highnotes and got to a place were I was a walking god looting the watelands with impunity and also with no greater purpose. It is the methadone to the china white that I hope Fallout 4 will be. 

Also very distracting is X-wing. After buying the starter set I bought what you see in the picture for about $100 which is about half retail from a nice guy locally. 50% is what I like to pay for things that are not new and it seems that the bottom has fallen out of early-wave X-wing stuff. 

Finished - Broodlord

Stick a fork in him! I should have made that the tag for these posts rather than "finished." I could probably figure out a way to change the names but I am scared that I'll just erase all the tags that I have applied. 

I like almost everything about how this guy came out. I am confused at one thing. Why is he not symetrical? On his left side the human hand is in the front and the claw hand is in the back. It is the opposite on the other side. Seems strange. I tried to reverse it and the mini did not fit correctly. 

I should do a post about all the Space Hulk Genestealers when I get them all finished and I hope that I remember to. Currently there are 9 and the Broodlord finished and 13 remaining from the box. I bought 8 more to field an Apocalypse formation of Vanguard Infestation of 3+ Genestealers and 3+ Lictors. Currently I have all the minis save for one Lictor which I am looking for currently in metal only. 

It is a long road from here to there though. 

Up next I am working on the 30 Cultist project and the custom Lord of Change from Greg. I think I have been bitten by the Slaanesh bug and am thinking about expanding my Noise Marines. 

On the table - Broodlord

I am sorry that I did not get more in-progress pictures of this mini but it was basically done when I came back to it. Sometimes I have time for painting and sometimes I have time for Blogging. Rarely do I have time for both. 

The Broodlord was painted in the same style as the rest of the damn dirty bugs, only I spent more time on him. The details are a little more fine. The pile of skulls got some extra love too. Perhaps too much. I went a little crazy and was not paying enough attention to the wash pooling. There are areas where detail was erased by too much wash. I am mostly ok with it as it is only on the base and only in places where the shadows are. 

He just needs a little more detail on some of the arms and assembly and he is finished. 

On the table now - More Khorne Cultists

After finishing my test mini, the next step in a big project is getting the recipe down and speed up the process. 

The minis begin by being sprayed black and then basecoated brown with Mournfang Brown. It takes two passed of overbrushing to get a solid brown coat. I have to be careful not to let the paint pool or it will ruin detail. An advantage of basing the minis brown is that the client also wants the base painted and drybrushed in brown tones. Twofer. 

The red cloth gets a basecoat of Khorne Red and then washed in Agrax Earthshade with everything else. 

Finished - Three Genestealers

I am trying to clear the painting table of any projects that are sitting in limbo. I had a Broodlord and these three bad boys basecoated and waiting for wash and detail work for ages. Wash and touchup went great but I really stalled out on the detail work. 

I made an intentional choice not to highlight the skulls, metal and helmets as much as I normally do in an order to make them not overpower the main body. These minis are very dark overall and a bright red helmet would draw attention away from the killing machine. For the Skulls, my final color was Rakarth Flesh. For the red armor the final highlight was Evil Suns Scarlette but only in very small amounts. I left the green lenses as Knarloc Green and did not do any countershading or reflective dots. 

I spent so much time learning how to do those techniques and how to do bright highlights and tho choose not to use them for effect is a strange feeling. Less is more is not really my style but I am happy how the minis came out. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists

This is the finished product for Greg at Cranky Old Gamer according to his wishes. I am not super-happy with how it turned out as it appears too dark for my tastes. I like high contrast minis with bright highlights and black shadows. This mini has mid-tone highlights and brown shadows. Not my taste but that is what the client requested. He seems happy with it. 

In return for one beautifully converted Greater Daemon and one rehabbed Greater Daemon, I have to paint 30 Khorne Cultists. That is a lot for me but I am happy to do it for the awesome work that I received. I could not have done half as well myself and for that I am grateful. 30 Cultists grateful. 

At this point I just need to streamline my process. I did one, now I am doing three. I am going to try to do the 5 at a time until they are done and then mail them back to Greg with my next project. 

The "Paint for Minis" program is just like turns in 40k. On my turn I feel like I am king of the world, but on my opponent's turn, I feel like I am on the firing line. When Someone else is sculpting or giving me minis, I feel like a king. When I am painting, I feel like a slave. (No judgement, Greg. I love our arrangement). 

So far, I have had very little luck getting people to pay me for already painted minis on BT. Seems that people want custom painted minis instantly for half of what they would pay retail. 

X-wing Starter Set

When there are long lapses in updates, it is usually because I have fallen into a video game or am moving across the country. I have been playing a lot of Bethesda games lately as the excitement for Fallout 4 ramps up and once that drops, you might not hear from me again until 2016. I might have to start posting what I am working on and screen caps in lieu of painting posts. 

I also picked up X-wing today. Now I am about 5 years behind the cool kids on this one so I have a lot of catching up to do. There is not really a painting aspect to this game but you know I am going to get a book on Star Wars fighter markings and make each ship unique. 

I have yet to get my first game in and am already looking at building a large force and getting them in foam. There is a pretty good crew out here that plays and I think that I hooked a 40k player into trading portions of a Starter Set with me. I think he is set on playing Imperials so that leaves me with the Rebels. I think that fewer and more forgiving crafts will suit my play style but I sure do like the look of the advances Imperial craft. 

Finished - Badrukk

Holy cow this is deceptive mini. You look at it in the books or even when it is painted and think, "Yeah, no big deal." Painting it is a whole different story. 

I made a few choices when painting it to adapt it to my painting style. The 'eavy Metal kids painted glyphs on all the metal plates and that was way outside of my skill. I dislike freehanding because it is too hard touch up later. What I opted for was painting the plated a solid color and then drawing on glyphs with a 0.05 pen later. 

The Badrukk in the Codex has a treasure map painted on his loin cloth. While that is thematic, fluffy and bad ass, it is outside of my skillset. I just painted it simple and brown. While this is a lot less fancy, it also does not draw attention away from the other detailed areas that I did paint well. 

I chose a simple color scheme for the mini and stuck to red and yellow as accent colors. I did this because I didn't want to turn him in to an Orky rainbow. Also, these are two colors that I am more comfortable with and they contrast well with the green skin. 

Finished - Custom Keeper of Secrets

In return for painting a big ole pile of Khorne Cultists, My buddy Greg over at CrankyOldGamer converted me up a a custom Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, the Keeper of Secrets. I supplied the bits and he did the converting. He also did a bang up job taking my idea and running with it. I was going to use the weapons from the Daemon Prince kit but Greg swapped them for the swords from some weird Dark Elf WFB kit. I sent the trygon tail but Greg wisely changed it to the Hive Tyrant tail. He put together a better conversion than I could have. 

As far as painting, I tried to paint it in the same scheme as the other Daemons of Slaanesh that are already finished and to a lesser extent the Noise Marines. For the Daemon Princess, I swapped the pink skin and black armor for each other because I am better at painting black than the weird pink that the Slaanesh minis have on them. I decided to keep that theme going as this would have been a LOT of pink skin to paint.