Morr progress (pardon the pun)

Finally, some progress has been made on my Army of Morr. I threw caution to the wind and painted up the concept model for the Corpse Handlers, primarily to establish the color palette. I think it's pretty close, but might still need a few more tweaks.

In order to feel better about making headway on the 100+ models I'll need to have done by late June, I put paint to four Flagellants (there'll be 30 in all). I'm really happy with the neutral palette and the skin tones. I just need to get a few more done. Oh, and the "flames" on the torch are only temporary. Once I have all the Flagellants painted, I'll do all their torch flames and flaming brazier heads done at the same time.

And here are the next ten Flagellants ready to get their drab outfits painted : )

Cheers
Dave

PS. I've put up a few more photos of my British Divisional command stand on the Guns Of April blog.

British Commanders on Guns Of April

Over the last few weeks I've been able to finish off my Brigade commanders for the big Salamanca game we'll be playing out at Adepticon in three months time. 

Below are shots of each of the command stands. For a few more photos of each, head on over to our Guns Of April blog to check them out.

Cheers
Dave

Helping out a friend!

Sign from llamaproducts.com, used without permission.

So, recently a buddy of mine has been going through some medical issues. Lots of visits to all kinds of doctors. He has medical insurance, thank goodness, but even then those co-pays really start to add up. To cover his costs Alex is selling off a bunch of his personal Warhammer and 40K back stock and a number of other things (armies included).

If you are in the market for a great deal that helps out a fellow hobbyist, please head to his blog and see what you could buy.

Check out the great deals here!

Cheers
Dave

PS. I don't think he's selling any llamas, but the sign was just too funny not to use.

Busy this Saturday?

Are you busy this Saturday? Not yet you say? Well...

If you live in the Baltimore area, head on down to Games & Stuff in Glen Burnie for their 12th Anniversary extravaganza. Myself, Jeff Hall, Jake Landis, and a bunch of others will be hanging out and chatting with folks about modeling, painting, and all related stuff. I'll have my paints and putty there, so come on down. I'll be there from 12-3pm.

Details can be found here.

But I don't live in the Baltimore area Dave, I hear you say. Well...

Grab all of your 40K models and head to one of the dozens of global locations participating in the "Big Game II: The Big Game Strikes Back". Friend of the blog Alec Peters (the guy that runs the Apocalypse 40K blog) is running another HUGE event with stores and clubs around the world participating in the madness.

For more information, including locations etc, head here.

Don't live in Baltimore or play 40K? Then just enjoy a relaxing Saturday, perhaps paint a few toy soldiers, and take your wife out for dinner ; )

Cheers
Dave

"Hobby Promises" - 2011 and 2012

And so another few days whips by leaving me wondering "Where is the time going?" The answer is, of course, to my family... and extra sleep. It has been an interesting six weeks since my second daughter was born, and I'm starting to learn a few things that probably should've been evident before. But more on that later...

2011 Hobby Promises

Around this time last year I made a few promises about things I was going to do during 2011. Let's see how I did:

• Participate in the huge charity project with the Storm Wardens team - DONE
     - We went very large and raised over $31,000, thanks to everyone who gave of their time and effort,  and thanks to everyone who pitched in their hard earned cash for a worthy cause. But boy was it grueling! I'm going to take a back seat in what ever comes next.

• Finish my Artillery Train of Nuln at some stage - DONE
     - Not only did I finish it, but I entered it in the Armies On Parade competition. It won at the local level but didn't quite make it on the National stage.

• Add a few more units to my Blood Pact and Genswick 33rd - FAILED
    - I even bought models to add to these two armies, but got caught up in other projects. As I don't expect to see too much new IG stuff from GW this year, these armies might be my 40K projects for 2012.

• Complete another 120 models for my Napoleonic British army - DONE
    - With two units of Highlanders, two units of Caçadores, two units of Dragoons, and a handful of Command bases I think I hit this target. Not too shabby : )

• Add four more tutorials over the year - FAILED
    - Strangely enough, I thought I had hit this one, but a quick search reveals not. : (

• Participate in four painting competitions over the year, with some models specifically painted for the comps - FAILED
    - I participated in three comps, not four, and mostly with existing models. Hopefully this year will be a bit better in this aspect of my hobby.

• Attend a Masterclass Seminar by Mathieu Fontaine - FAILED
    - I didn't allocate the time or money to attend one of Mathieu's classes last year, and I don't think baby number two will allow that to happen this year either : (

• Paint another Flames Of War army, with Infantry in it, and play some games - DONE (mostly)
    - I painted about 1,700 points of Infantry- army based units that work well with the tanks I painted in 2010. It was a great exercise in switching up my hobby and feeling for FOW. I did not, however, play any games with it. Perhaps 3rd Edition in 2012 will get me going there.

• Continue to have a fantastic time working on Wargames Illustrated and talk about it more often on my blog - DONE
    - Another great year had, with more shared on this blog, and another awesome year planned for 2012, including a massive WI300 issue!

So, nine "promises" with five DONE and four FAILED. That's not a particularly good score.

I know I have a tendency to take on too much at once, and that sometimes I can let myself down by not completing tasks. I'm always looking beyond the next deadline and getting annoyed when I come up short. At the same time, however, I just can't float along without structure. My mind won't let me work like that. So, I've decided to reduce my number of goals this hobby year, and see if I can't get that percentage up ; )

On to 2012 "Hobby Promises"

• Participate in the (now) annual charity event in a much diminished capacity. I'll be doing something, but I won't be leading anything.

• Add four more tutorials this year - I have a few thoughts on what they will be too.

• Participate in two painting competitions with models specifically painted for those comps.

• Start work on my Napoleonic Russian army

• Paint up those new Genswick 33rd and Blood Pact units!

• Work hard on the Procession of Morr army for this year's Armies On Parade.

There we go, only six promises. Should be easier to keep, particularly as most of them are suitably vague ; )

Take care, everyone, and has a glorious year of hobby goodness in 2012!

Cheers
Dave

Happy Birthday Blog! - and 2011 re-cap.

Ghazgkull Thraka vs Commissar Yarrick 

(painted by Mathieu Fontaine and Kirill Zhilkov respectively)

Well, it would seem that "happy" has been the intro to my last three posts (Holidays, New Year, and blog birthday). It has certainly been a happy time for me and my family as little Lucy keeps us all smiling (and awake at all hours). Not much hobby stuff has been done, hence the lack of solid content, but I'm sure I'll get back to more of the good stuff once we settle into a routine that doesn't involve waking up at 1am and 4 am etc.

Anyway, here's a bit of a look back at 2011's cavalcade of hobby goodness:

2011 saw another 346 folks join the "Blog Followers", and everyone got to see me reach my goal of two posts per week (110 posts in total, although a few of those might have been fillers).

My "Hobby Tracker" says that I painted 603 miniatures, not too shabby. That's almost 12 per week. I counted every single miniature as one model, so a 15mm German was 1, a Steel Legion Chimera was 1, and a Marienburg-class Landship was 1. I'm quite happy that I achieved what I did, but I'm completely sure I won't get anywhere near that many models painted this year, so I'm not even going to count ; )

2011 Month-by-Month

January - I added three new units to my Napoleonic British collection (Highlanders, Rifles, and Royal Horse Artillery), painted up a model for charity, and announced the winner of the Steel Legion Army List competition (which cunningly went on to be the list we used for the Heroes of Armageddon project later in the year).

February - I jumped into work on my Armies On Parade - the Artillery Train of Nuln, added another unit of Highlanders to my Brits, and showcased my Genswick Armored Company.

March - I got to show off the chariot I worked on for Gorgon Studios, and built a few Space Marines as part of a charity auction to help raise money for my flood-ravaged homeland. It wrapped up with a few work-related jobs - the building of Napoleon's Rearguard and painting the GF9 Fantasy miniature done for Adepticon.

April - Saw the launch of the Heroes Of Armageddon charity project with plenty of talk about what the benefits would be (and a guest post by FTW's Ron Saikowski), some painting done on Napoleon's Rearguard, and the Greatswords for my Empire army.

May - A showcase of the HQ units for my Genswick army, the artillery for my Empire army, and loads more work on the HOA Steel Legion army.

June - This month was focused completely on Heroes Of Armageddon and Armies On Parade, lots of tank weathering and final touches on Empire artillery.

July - So many posts about the Heroes Of Armageddon. They must have done some good as we raised over $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Wonder how much we'll raise this year?

August - A look at the HOA at Games Day, a closer look at the Golgotha and Landship, and a bit of a departure for me - a whole bunch of 15mm Germans for a Flames Of War collection. Oh, and some more Tanith models from my ongoing commission.

September - Tanith, Germans, Ogres, and some cavalry for my British.

October - More Napoleonic cavalry, some BIG Ogre models, and I started preparing for upcoming baby expenses by selling off a few of my models.

November - I finished up another unit for my Napoleonics, wrapped up the Ogre Thundertusk, started posting on two other blogs (Celebrity Dreadfleet and Guns Of April), and launched into my next Armies On Parade project - The Procession of Morr. Most importantly my second daughter was born!

December - More Morr, a start on the command stands for my British, and the sale of my LatD army and my Grey Knights army.

All in all it was a crazy, busy year with all sorts of things going on.

And now it's getting late, 2011 "Promises" to be reviewed in my next post, along with my 2012 "Promises".

Until then, keep painting and have fun!

Cheers
Dave