davetaylorminiatures

Morr progress (pardon the pun)

2012-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

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?

2012-01-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie to wish all my friends and family around the world a very happy (and safe) New Year's celebration, and a wonderful 2012 full of all the things that make you happy.

I'll be back around the 3rd or 4th of January for a "blog birthday" post and recap of 2011, along with some thoughts about hobbying for 2012.

Cheers
Dave

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

This time of year is for spending extra quality time with friends and family, wherever they may be.

To all of you who have shared with me on this blog during 2011, I wish you happiness and fun hobbying throughout this holiday season and 2012!

Cheers

Dave

And don't forget you could buy yourself a fully-painted army with your hard-earned Christmas cash: Grey Knights or Lost and The Damned ; )

For Sale - The Grey Knights

2011-12-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

The second army up for sale is this Grey Knights force. I painted the core of this army back with the original Codex: Daemonhunters release in 2003 (I think). They've been doing a whole lot of sitting around in the intervening years, but the latest release for the Grey Knights finally spurred me into action. The army was originally very Inquisitorial Stormtrooper heavy, but every non-GK model has been pushed to the side and the army has been fleshed out with a lot of the new models.

Obviously the army lists can be written any number of ways, but this army has anywhere up to 2,500 POINTS! worth of value in it. The power armored squads contain a mix of new and old models, and the Terminator squads are almost entirely the 2003 figs, while the Paladin squads are completely new.

It seems that most folks like to have Kaldor Draigo leading their army, so here he is, complete with detailed force sword. The model is Finecast, the blade is plastic (to replace a Finecast sword that was irreparably damaged at the tip.)

A Terminator Librarian, built from the new GK Terminator plastics.

Paladin Squad number one.

Paladin Squad number two.

Terminator Squad number one, with psycannon.

Terminator Squad number two, with incinerator.

Purifier Squad, with two psycannons, a mix of exotic weaponry, and a Rhino.

Strike Squad, with two incinerators, and a Rhino.

Interceptors, with an incinerator and daemonhammer.

Dreadnought with twin-linked lascannons.

And a Land Raider.

I'm not a big fan of going through Ebay, so I'm offering up this army to a serious collector at US$1200. If you are interested, please contact me via the email address in my contact details in the right column on this blog.

If the buyer is in the US, shipping is included in the price.

If the buyer is outside the US, then shipping will be via UPS, or FedEx, or DHL, so that tracking can be done by both parties, and will be charged appropriately.

Cheers

Dave

For Sale - The Lost and the Damned

2011-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

One of two armies up for sale at the moment is my "Beasts of Khargor" army that I put together back in 2003 using the Lost and the Damned army list. I've played with this list quite a bit and even took it to the 2004 Grand Tournament in Vancouver, Canada (I have no recollection how I did, so it can't have been too bad, or good). This army also appeared in a US WD Battle Report in 2003 (or 2004) where I beat the stuffing out of Jeff Smith's Space Wolves on a gorgeous table built by Chad Mierzwa.

The next three shots show the army in its entirety.

Back then it was around 1750 points, but of course the LatD list is no longer "legal" for GW GTs. The army has a lot of conversions or kitbashes, using a lot of the Beastmen, Cadian, and Catachan plastic kits. These Big Mutants are a great melange of almost entirely metal kits. A lot of fun to work on.

Two units of 16 Mutants.

Two Exalted Champions.

Eight Bloodletters.

Two units of eight close combat Traitors.

Two units of eight "shooty" Traitors.

Another unit of eight "shooty" Traitors.

One modified Defiler.

Two Leman Russ MBTs.

Two units of eight Warhounds.

And the army commander, Khargor (with a Beast in the Woods).

I'm not a big fan of going through Ebay, so I'm offering up this army to a serious collector at US$800. If you are interested, please contact me via the email address in my contact details in the right column on this blog.

If the buyer is in the US, shipping is included in the price.
If the buyer is outside the US, then shipping will be via UPS, or FedEx, or DHL, so that tracking can be done by both parties, and will be charged appropriately.

Cheers
Dave

New Post up on Guns Of April

2011-12-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much of a chance to get too much done on my current projects thanks to the joys of assembling half a dozen pieces of IKEA furniture for my daughter's new "big girl" room, but I did manage to wrap up construction of the British Commanders for our Guns Of April project, thanks to a delivery from Dragon Forge Design and Perry Miniatures.

You can check out that post here.

Cheers
Dave

Proof Of Concept

2011-12-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

After almost three weeks with my lights packed away, I finally had the opportunity last night to get them out again and snap a few shots. It has been a while since I've actually made a few "proof of concept" models. I'm not really sure why. I've done quite a few of them in the past.

Anyway, for those that haven't worked with them before (or given a name to them), "proof of concept" (POC) models are the ones you do at the very start of a project, to see if your thoughts and ideas (concepts) will work out in 3D. It's all well and good sketching things out on paper, but I much prefer to sketch things out with plastic and putty.

First up is the Corpse Handler concept (based on the Dave Gallagher sketch below). A Flagellant body and arms (with weapons removed) with quite a bit of greenstuff. The hat is from the Greatsword sprue. I'm thinking that I'll have around 15-16 of these as artillery crew and associated hangers-on.

In the Uniforms of the Empire book there's a Knightly Order shown in there - The Order of the Black Rose. Obviously these guys are devotees of the Death God, and here's my POC model for their Order. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, and I like the massive bulk of the Chaos Knight horse.

If I end up going with this approach I'll need to pick up a few things, such as a dozen 'skull helms' from the Chaos Warrior sprues, and almost the same number of Empire Lord lances. For these I'll be heading to my friend Alex's revamped bitz store at Battleroad Games & Hobbies. He has recently uploaded around 250 different 40K bitz and will be adding Warhammer bitz very soon. If you are looking for 40K or Warhammer bitz, and a bunch of other miniature ranges, check him out.

Let me know what you think of my POC models.

Cheers
Dave

My oh my, what a busy time!

2011-12-08T10:14:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all of you who congratulated my family on our new addition. Things have been crazy hectic, as we now have two youngsters to feed, clean, and entertain. I'm sure that without the help of my mother (visiting from the other side of the world) we'd have completely lost the plot by now, rather than just slightly losing it.

Congratulations to all those other new parents, or new parents-to-be, out there in the blogosphere. Life changes dramatically. I sincerely hope you make it change for the better : )

Anyway, I've had a few moments here and there to post some stuff on the other blogs I'm currently involved in. You can check them out here:

• Guns Of April - British Brigade Commanders
• Celebrity Dreadfleet - Basing the Black Kraken

Cheers
Dave

Sleeping Beauty

2011-12-03T06:49:00.001-08:00

Well, she's here! My second daughter, Lucy, arrived on Wednesday to our extreme pleasure.

Lots of sleeping and eating for her, and not much of the same for my wife and I. Wouldn't trade it for anything : )

Cheers
Dave

Warriors of Morr -- Starting the planning process

2011-11-26T08:29:00.001-08:00

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about my Warriors of Morr over the past few weeks, and my plans are starting to coalesce. I've decided that my "list" will be something like this:

• 12 Knights of Morr (refurbishing models I built and painted ten years ago)

• 30 Flagellants (I've had the plastics for a long time but haven't painted any up as flagellants, I'll focus on the bell-ringing and hourglass accessories)

• 30 Spearmen (the rest of this post talks about my thoughts for these soldiers)

• 2 Cannons (I can't get away from them)

• 1 Mortar (you saw the beginnings of it in my last post)

• plus a few very characterful commanders, a massive rolling altar, and a few more hangers-on/onlookers.

For my Spearmen, I want to have them marching in column, on their way to war. As soldiers of Morr, they'll be in black uniforms, so I want to have a few things that can really push the look and iconography of Morr. To that end I hope to sculpt up a few pieces and have them cast up (for my own personal use only) that will help with that goal. Above are two ideas for heads for the Spearmen. Both are half-masks, the first is obviously a skull, while the second is more of a Venetian-inspired, beaked-nose mask that could echo the hoods worn by the Corpse Handlers (who will be my artillery crewmen).

Which do you think I should go with? I'd sculpt two variants of the design I eventually choose, and then cast the rest.

The arms of the Empire Spearmen are arranged in an "advancing phalanx" fashion, none of them are at ease or on the march, so I'm going to have to sculpt some new arms. At the moment I'm thinking I'll work on arms that'll provide me with the four poses above. If I do them right I can use sturdy brass rod and the spear shafts that will slide into the waiting hands. I can also then create a few different spear tips, halberd blades, and perhaps even a few scythe blades.

And the final step will be to create four or five different shield designs. At the moment I'm leaning towards a "coffin-lid" look, but could be swayed. The sculpted icons would focus on the symbols of Morr: the hourglass, the black rose, and the scythe, with a smattering of bells and skulls too.

If you have any other suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Cheers

Dave

PS. I think my posting might be a bit spotty over the coming weeks as my second daughter is due to arrive any day now. There'll be a lot of rushing around, a lot of adjusting, and very little time for hobbying or blogging.

Well, it's been a mixed bag...

2011-11-22T18:27:00.001-08:00

I realized last night that it had been almost two weeks since I'd taken a photo of anything I've been working on. Well, It's been a mixed bag of stuff. On my painting desk at the moment I have six or seven different projects I'm working on. No wonder I can't get anything finished...

Anyway, work continues on updating my Grey Knights in preparation for sale. Above is the Grey Knight Librarian I built from the new plastic kits. Below is the first Paladin unit I've been working away on. A little more work and I'll have that banner finished off.

I got a little bit of time to mess around with the base for the Black Kraken. I'm painting this up for the cool charity raffle at Adepticon next year - Celebrity Dreadfleet. Click here to check out the blog! I used the GW recipe, which was quite interesting to see come to life. I'll have a post up soon on the CD blog about that experience.

Back in July, at Games Day Chicago, my friend (and crazy awesome painter) Todd Swanson handed me a very cool base. It was a cast of the base he used on his Golden Demon-winning entry (seen here). It has been kicking around on my desk since then and last weekI finally got the urge to stick a model on top and get painting. I've added the Ghoul King from the Zombie Dragon kit (I bought that kit to add the wings to my Jabberslythe conversion) and I've started painting it up. I'm thinking I'll paint him up as some kind of underhive mutant or possibly daemonhost. Let me know what you think.

And finally (for this post) here's the first model I'm starting on for my Warriors of Morr army. It will be crewed by a bunch of Corpsehandlers who'll be pushing and pulling it to war. The smartass in me wants to call it a Morrtar ; )

Cheers
Dave

What the hell is Desert Bus?

2011-11-19T10:54:00.001-08:00

So a week or so ago I was contacted by some folks from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, concerning a charity event I had never heard of. They've been running this annual charity event for the last four years (this year being the fifth) and are looking to expand their geeky audience into the tabletop miniatures realm. Unfortunately I'm too busy at the moment to have helped out, but I'm sure I'll jump in next year!

Anyway, back to the original question, what the hell is Desert Bus?

Well, you can check out their website here, but essentially it's a great bunch of folks from the lovely city of Victoria (on Vancouver Island) who sit down and play a video game for hours (24 hour shifts apparently) on end and stream the excitement online. Thousands of people around the globe tune in and place donations that all go to the great charity Child's Play.

Desert Bus is apparently a super-crappy game that was never released in which you drive a bus from Tuscon to Las Vegas. You don't get to stop to pick up or drop off passengers, and you don't have to avoid any roadkill, you just have to drive forward. Oh, and the bus occasionally pulls to the right.

So, head on over to the site, check it out, take a look at the cool stuff they're auctioning off, see which celebrities they're talking to via Skype, and so on. In just under 24 hours they've already raised over $33,000!

Next year, myself and a bunch of other miniature painters will be providing models that will be auctioned off during Desert Bus 6. Should be good to join up with more folks doing good things for kids : )

Cheers
Dave

It's funny when obsession strikes

2011-11-16T19:39:00.001-08:00

I was just thinking the other day that I probably wouldn't be entering into the 2012 Armies On Parade competition. Although I've been working on some lovely models (Thundertusk and Ironblaster) and have quite a few armies I could spruce up, I just wasn't "feeling" that any of those were real options.

Fast forward to last night at my friend's place, where I was playing in a big Warhammer game to conclude our recent campaign. While the vile stunties on the opposite side of the table shuffled forward and readied their cannons, I took the opportunity to check out some of the terrain models in Eric's painting queue. Ever since I first saw the Dreadstone Portal (above) I've known there was some great potential for a wacky Empire piece.

Add to that the very cool Garden of Morr box on Eric's shelf, and my mind started to tick over. There are a lot of fun things I can do with this piece that could really push the boundaries of the craziness that is now the Warhammer World.

Priest of Morr

And after a look through my copy of Blood On The Reik (a wonderful book full of excellent Dave Gallagher concept sketches) I knew I was hooked.

I'll be working on a crazy mix of "Warriors of Morr"/funeral procession that will include a lot of unique models and considerable conversion, perhaps even some original sculpted parts and backyard casting.

What follows are images that will inspire and inform my obsessed mind and hands as I embark on yet another Empire army.

Doomsayer

Corpse Handler

Grave Diggers

Imperial Judge

Amethyst Wizards

Barber Surgeon

Hobby Horse - I don't know what this is, but I know I want one

Amethyst Wizard

Corpse Cart

Lietpold The Black

Wish me luck, I think this is the first time I've worked on an army that was inspired by scenery rather than miniatures : )

Cheers

Dave

PS. All of these images are from Games Workshop's website, Forge World's website, and the Black Library artbook Blood On the Reik, and are used without permission.

Grey Knights - Soon up for Sale

2011-11-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

Back in 2003 (I think it was) when Codex: Daemonhunters was released, I painted up an army of Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus Inquisitorial support. With the release earlier this year of Codex: Grey Knights, I figured it was about time to pick up some of the Grey Knight plastics, update the collection of models with some of the new equipment, then sell them on.

Above you can see the first updated squad, a unit of Purifiers, which of course were not in the original codex. These guys are equipped with a Justicar with Daemon Hammer, 3 with Halberds, 2 with Falchions, 2 with Psycannons, 1 with a Warding Stave, and 1 with a Sword.

Although the paintjobs are reasonably basic, I have made sure that each model has it's own personal heraldry. Below is the top hatch of the Purifiers' Rhino.

So my big question for you all is, with the army to include the following:

Draigo, Librarian, 2 units of 4 Paladins, 2 units of 5 Terminators, 1 unit of Purifiers with Rhino, 1 Strike Squad with Rhino, 1 Interceptor Squad, 1 Dreadnought, and 1 Land Raider.

Should I sell it all as one big lot? or sell it as individual lots?

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Completed Thundertusk

2011-11-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a little over three weeks of work (on and off) on this big boy, the longest I've spent on an Ogre model to date. Above you can see the final "accessory" I had to paint to wrap=up the Tundertusk itself. I put this poor, unfortunate snack-to-be in a Nuln uniform, a nod to my Artillery Train. I started his skin with a mix of Sombre Grey and Elf Skintone (both Vallejo paints), then highlighted up by adding more Elf Skintone.

Below you can see my painted base for the Tundertusk. It's one of the Dragon Forge 150x100 mm base blanks (to avoid the warping I've seen on a couple of GW plastic bases). You can see the pre-paint in my last post.

Each of the little "divots" in the acrylic was shaded and highlighted by hand, quite the tedious task if you ask me. A coat of gloss varnish was painted on over the top to complete the icy look.

And here is the beast in all its glory! I hope you've enjoyed watching this guy come together.

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Thundertusk and basing

2011-11-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

My Thundertusk moves ever closer to completion (thankfully). I must reiterate my previous comments about this kit, it is simply fantastic. So much character, brilliantly sculpted, and wonderfully fit together. It may be the best model kit I've ever worked on.

Here's a look at the faces of the Beast Riders, a wonderful mix of angry and bored, all at the same time.

And it can be just dripping with the little hanging accessories, like the frozen chicken, Orc hand, pigskin, and huge tongue. You'll also see switched out the regular quiver of massive arrows for the rack of High Elf bolts.

Anyway, on the the base. A few posts back I asked for ideas from you all, and I got some very good ones. I let them roll around in the hobby rock tumbler of my mind, and I decided that while an entire base covered in ice would be cool (no pun intended), I still wanted it to fit in with the rest of my "Spring thaw" basing scheme. To that end I hypothesized that wherever the Thundertusk stepped, tendrils of rapidly growing ice would crackle and spread across the landscape, only to melt as the best recedes into the distance (something like the profusion of life that would spring up in the footsteps of the old Chaos Champion, Aekold Helbrass (thanks for the reminder Mike).

Above you can see what I have come up with.

Step 1 - I traced around the three feet that touch the base, and made a reasonable guess of where the front right foot would have been.
Step 2 - Using snapped off pieces of a clear textured acrylic, I laid out radiating "runners" of ice from the footprints.
Step 3 - I converted an Empire Handgunner as a "victim of the Aura of Frost". He'll be painted up in my Nuln colors.
Step 4 - The footsteps were filled in with brownstuff that was blended into the edges of the acrylic. I also sculpted some up and over the legs of the Handgunner. I plan to paint it all much like the weapons on the Yhetees.
Step 5 - I glued down small clumps of the GF9 medium basing grit, then glued down large areas of the GF9 superfine basing grit.

Now to the long task of painting it.

Here's a small look at the acrylic I used. Thanks go to my friend Thomas for showing me this stuff, apparently it's from a version of the plastic sheeting you see covering banks of flourescent lights. He picked up quite a few sheets at a local Home Depot store for cheap (as they were damaged) and then used them for his Space Wolves army.

Speaking of 40K, I've been refurbishing my Grey Knights and Pre-Heresy Death Guard, getting them ready for sale. Keep an eye out for them in the next few weeks.

Cheers
Dave

The tickets for Celebrity Dreadfleet!

2011-11-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

The tickets are now on sale for the raffle of the Celebrity Dreadfleet!

Unfortunately, your ticket needs to be present at AdeptiCon in order to win the raffle. Note the importance nuance here... Your ticket needs to be present, but you do not need to be on site.

If you are planning to attend and want a ticket (no reason why you shouldn't buy at least 3 dozen...) the tickets are this way.

If you will not be at AdeptiCon this year (which is a shame but understandable... well not really, but still...) you can always ask a friend who will be present to buy them for you and collect your prize on site (if you do win, which I'm sure you will).

If you do not know anyone present at Adepticon, or you cannot trust any of your friends, we have another solution.Mathieu Fontaine and I are proposing to be your reliable friends at AdeptiCon. You send us your donation via Paypal and we will buy the tickets for you, manage them during the raffle and if you win (which again, I'm sure you will) we will send you your copy.

A few rules and details:

• We need to receive your donations at the latest March 30th. Mathieu and I will buy the tickets on March 30th (day on which the online cart for Adepticon closes).
• Any bonus tickets will be awarded as per the guideline on the Adepticon Online Cart. Any extra bonus ticket will be pooled together and if one of them ends up being the winner, the copy of Dreadfleet will be randomly awarded to one of the donators.
• A complete list of the donators with their ticket numbers will be published on our respective blogs for transparency on Saturday, April 21st.
• Any transfer sent to either Mathieu or I must include Paypal fees or be sent as a personal transfer. Mathieu and I will cover shipping of the Dreadfleet copy in case one of you win (and I'm sure you will) but we will not cover the Paypal fees.
• The winning ticket number, along with the name of the winner if it is one of our donators, will be announced Sunday, April 22nd in the evening on our respective blogs.
• I accept donations at the following Paypal adress: tanithtaylor@gmail.com

Cheers
Dave

Introducing "The Guns Of April"

2011-11-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a little introduction to a new blog you should check out/keep an eye on, The Guns Of April.

Well, after a couple of years of hard work (or hardly working) on some Napoleonic models intended for an outing at AdeptiCon, we've finally got our act together. Joe Krone, Brien Dulaney, and I started collecting our Napoleonic figures around November 2009, we discussed plans both small and grand, futzed about with ideas, and applied paint to miniature soldiers, but things never really went too much further despite my collection now exceeding 300 figures (painted).

Enter Dave Pauwels and Jamie Welling, friends of ours from Chicago, and their desire to see a big historical game at AdeptiCon. After some chatting, planning, and a little bit of scheming, The Guns Of April hobby group was born.

For AdeptiCon 2012 (its 10th anniversary by the way) we've decided to present a "what if?" scenario based on the historical Battle of Salamanca, 1812 (also a significant anniversary year, its 200th). For tales of the developing armies and terrain for this game, you can head to our blog, The Guns Of April.

Here's a shot of my latest completed unit, the 5th Caçadores. I actually finished painting them earlier in the year, but was out of Apoxie Sculpt for their bases until recently. I figured it'd be the right time to record my basing scheme for my "Napoleonic British in the Peninsula" army. You can find that on the blog too, although I'll show you the fun pic below : )

Well, head on over to the blog and start leaving comments. Hopefully that'll inspire us all to keep painting ; )

Cheers

Dave

PS. If this goes well, we might do something cool every year!

Might Makes Right! - Cool New Bases!

2011-10-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

So, a little over a week ago I placed an order with Jeff at Dragon Forge for a few of his "base blanks", primarily his new "150x100mm" base blanks so that I could base my Thundertusk on it. I know that the Thundertusk already comes with what seems like a perfectly serviceable base, but I've seen quite a few of them now that have warped thanks to the glue used to apply a texture to them. In my opinion there just isn't enough structural support under the base. Anyway, my order arrived last Thursday (just before I headed off to Lancaster, PA for the Fall In convention) and in it there were a few pleasant surprises : )

The 150x100blank with Thundertusk on top, you know, for scale ; )

The surprises were the first casts of a new line of bases from Dragon Forge. Jeff has brought his successful Slate Wasteland bases (popular with Space Wolves players) into the Warhammer realm. I suspect this line will be quite popular with Ogre Kingdoms players. Above you can see the 150x100mm base, just perfect for your big beasties. There are lots of slightly differing angles on the tops of the slate pieces, so I would recommend you pin your Thundertusk/Stonehorn to this base. Depending on where you place it on the base, you may also need to do a slight amount of putty work to getting it standing just right.

I wanted to put together a few new models so that you could see how everything fits on the bases. Here are two of the new Mournfang cavalry models, each sitting on one of the two unique 100x50mm bases. Despite the different angles on these bases, there was absolutely no trouble gluing the paws of the Mournfangs to the bases. I think pinning is still a good idea though, just for peace of mind.

These are the two uniques 50x50mm bases Jeff has for the line, and these gave me the perfect excuse to assemble a plastic Hunter from the left over parts from my Thundertusk. The large, flat areas in the middle of the bases make it a very easy task to accomplish.

And now we get into the "meat" of the range, important for Ogre players considering this line. Above you can see "Set 1" of the 40x40mm bases, along with an Irongut I put together using a few of the left over pieces from the Mournfang box. Set 1 contains five individual bases, all with flat areas in the right places to mount the surprisingly small "footprint" of the basic Ogre model.

Finally, here is "Set 2" of the 40x40mm bases. Another five unique bases just begging to have some Leadbelchers, Yhetees, or even a Firebelly or two, standing on top of them.

All in all, I think these bases are a great addition to the Dragon Forge stable. They look great, they're well-sculpted and incredibly well cast (only minimal flash around the edges and no airbubbles at all), and they are very reasonable priced.

I'm not sure excatly when Jeff will have them on sale, but I expect it'll be very soon (in the next week or so). Keep an eye out on his site or "like" his page on Facebook.

Now I just need to put together a few more Ogres to fill them ; )

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - WIPs and Celebrity Dreadfleet!

2011-10-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been working hard on the Thundertusk over the past week. It's a glorious model with so much character to it. It's proving to be a tougher road than the Ironblaster, and that's saying something. Not that there's anything that's too hard, there is just so much of it.

Until I started painting up the Thundertusk, I don't think I had an appreciation for the BIG monsters that GW has been releasing since 8th Edition dropped. The Arachnarok Spider, the War/Necrosphinx, and Zombie Dragon/Terrorgheist are cool, but as I don't play with either of those armies (or against them that often) I didn't really have a sense of just how cool they really are. Thanks to you Thundertusk, I now have a whole new appreciation.

Of course, although the instructions obviously recommend gluing it all together before you start painting, I did not. Above you can see the pieces I'm painting it in, lots of sub-assemblies to make it easier to get it all painted with out breaking anything. I'd also recommend that you not attach the head of the Thundertusk/Stonehorn before you paint it, and whatever you do, do not glue any of it down to a base until it is painted!

I'm also working (slowly) on a few other Ogres. The Firebelly is now underway, along with the female Maneater and the Ninja Maneater (which I've had assembled and primed for over five years.

So far, most of the work on the Firebelly has bee confined to his heavily muscled legs.

And now for something completely different. Although I have no intention of buying Dreadfleet, I have been convinced to join in on another Charity Project. Chris Borer and Dave Pauwels have come up with a wonderful way to raise a bit of money for a worthy cause AND highlight the artists who are running many awesome hobby classes/seminars at AdeptiCon 2012. The project is catchily titled "Celebrity Dreadfleet" and you can read more on the custom blog, here.

Strangely enough, however, I'm not running a class at AdeptiCon. I think I might have been press-ganged to make up the numbers. As you can guess from the pic above, I'll be trying my hand at The Black Kraken. Hopefully this will also give me a few styling cues and ideas for when I build my Ghark Ironskin on mechanical rhinox. : )

More news on this project (and other new bloggage) still to come.

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Norse Maneater and Thundertusk

2011-10-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed, I'm a huge fan of the Ogres. When they were first released in 2005 I was all about converting them. With their background showing they didn't make much themselves, but made good use of the things that they found (mmmm, sounds like the Wombles if you ask me), it was easy to create models with great flavor.

Just recently, a friend of mine asked me if I could put together a Norse/Marauder style Maneater for his growing Ogre horde. I sat staring at a model I started converting five years ago, but had never got around to finishing. With a little prompting and a nice pic sent by Jim, I was able to re-purpose my original conversion and have a bit of fun with some greenstuff.

So, here's the finished piece, ready to be sent off today. Just so that he didn't appear to be "completely five years ago" I used tusks from the new Mournfang Cavalry models for the horns on his greenstuffed helmet : )

And as promised, I'm working on a Thundertusk. I used this guy in a game against Chaos Warriors on Tuesday night, standing next to my Tyrant and Ironguts, and he was great! If I'd remembered to Thunderstomp each turn he'd have been even better : )

The way this kit goes together is quite amazing. Unfortunately there were a few areas that required a bit of filling, so I used my Liquid Greenstuff. I can't say I'm too impressed with the results, so I might just go back to my usual Bondo™ Spot and Glazing Putty, I find is takes sanding a lot better and can fill larger gaps too. But enough of my thoughts on LGS, here's a review from a German site that seem reasonably favorable:

Bestienmeister's Review of Liquid Green Stuff

On a side note, there was chatter at the game on Tuesday night about having a few "frozen" models on the base for my Thundertusk. Do you guys have any thoughts about what or how I should incorporate that idea onto my basing for this big fella?

Cheers
Dave

Stuff for sale : )

2011-10-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well, with another baby on the way, I figured it was finally time to sell off a whole bunch of stuff from "back in the day". I haven't used most of these models in an age, but I know that they'll make someone out there very happy. I could put them all up on eBay, but I figured I'd see if any of you guys were interested first. If you are interested, please send an email to tanithtaylor at gmail dot com. All prices listed below are in US dollars and include shipping within the US, international shipping will be extra.

First up is an Ultramarine Scout biker out on a recon mission. He's mounted on a blend of the Space Marine bike and the old Ork warbike. This Scout bike is also mounted on one of the earliest 40mm capsule bases to be assembled in the GW US Studio, I'm pretty sure it was my friend Ty that built the first one. Asking Price: $80

I built this Adeptus Arbites squad with riot shields and power mauls for a Necromunda campaign back in '98 (I think). I must admit the paintjob is old and kind of tabletop quality, but they might still be of interest to some one. Asking Price: SOLD!

These Grey Knight alternatives were built for WD when the Dark Angel Veterans were released. The right arms are from the metal Grey Knights in power armor, the left arms are from the metal Grey Knight Terminators. The red on the robes is particularly rich. Asking Price: SOLD!

This Carnifex was built for WD. The conversion work was done by Ty and the paint job is mine. The quad-Devourer is still a great choice for a Carnifex ; ) The guardsmen on the base are painted like my Marcharian 24th PDF army, a little joke from "back in the day". Asking price: $100

The Dwarf Lord on Shield. A simple replacement of Alrik with the coolest Dwarf model GW has ever made, nuff said. Asking Price: SOLD!

A finally (for this batch at least) is the Wood Elf warband I painted up for a Black Gobbo special (I think). There is an obvious autumnal theme to the color scheme, and if I remember correctly it all comes to roughly 500 points. Asking Price: SOLD!

10 Glade Guard archers.

3 Glade Riders.

4 Dryads.

2 Treekin.

A Wardancer hero and a Sorceror (who I'm particularly fond of).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers
Dave

Off with his head!

2011-10-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

I know I said I'd be working on the Thundertusk, but I just wanted to get Bragg the Gutsman wrapped up and out of the way. This mini lived up to the name Finecast, and didn't cause me the same problems that the Firebelly did (if you want to see my rant you can look back a few posts). Painting was fairly simple on this guy, loads of metal and black clothing. I used Vallejo's Sombre Grey as the additional color for highlighting the black mask, belt, and boots, and I used Vallejo's Charred Brown (and later Pale Sand) as the additional colors for highlighting the black pants. These areas all received a Badab Black wash to knock back any extreme highlights.

I also didn't want to just leave you with Bragg, so here are some shots of my two Hunters and my two Sabretusks, all painted roughly six years ago.

Cheers
Dave

These Dragoons are heavy

2011-10-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Although it was a few weeks back that I first mentioned the British Dragoons I was working on, I've been beavering away to get them finished. Initially I showed you a few shots, in this post here, of my 3rd Dragoons. At the time I only had four more to finish to complete the unit. Well, as occasionally happens, I decided to stay on that painting roll and finish off my unit of the 4th Dragoons too.

So, my 3rd Dragoons are all from Front Rank, and are "at the charge". Now, I think the Front Rank miniatures are quite nice overall, I do think their heads are a bit too big. I always feel they're going to come loose and fall off, despite the riders being single piece casts.

Here's a shot of the "elements" that make these guys the "3rd Dragoons": blue facings (only the collars show on these models), gold lace (the collar lace matches the lace on the front of the jacket), and the III painted on the ends of the equipment roll seated on the back of the saddle. As an extra touch I added a gold detail to the edge of the blue saddle blankets.

And to keep things quite separate, my 4th Dragoons are all on standing horses with their swords shouldered.

The chap in the middle without a bicorne is the NCO, and to his left is the unit's standard bearer. I just have to track down the banners for the 3rd and 4th Dragoons and I'll be good to go.

The 4th Dragoons had green facings (again, only the collar shows), but their lace was silver. I used a series of greys to represent this, on the collar lace, jacket lace, and on the blue saddle blanket detail too. you will also notice an IV on the equipment roll behind the saddle.

I hope you like them : )

Next up, some work on a Thundertusk I think...

Cheers
Dave

Finding time...

2011-10-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

Gotta love that smile

In one of the comments, a reader asked me how I find the time for my hobby, family, friends, and work (and presumably blogging). Sometimes I wonder how I do myself. I thought a bit more about it, and realized that it isn't really about "finding time", it's about "making time". I'm not talking about building a time machine (although that would be cool), but making the most of the time you have.

Prioritizing is, in my opinion, the way to go. Obviously family comes first, that goes without saying (although I've said it here for added emphasis). We have a nice little routine going. From the moment I wake up until I take my daughter to daycare, that's family time. From the moment my wife brings her home until I tuck her in bed, that's family time. Weekends while she's awake? Family time. Of course, sometimes my wife will take Emily shopping or to the movies, that's a bit of time for me, which I usually spend hobbying.

For me, work comes next. Without work there is no money to keep the food on the table or a roof over our head. Simple really. I'm also "lucky" that I really love my job. I say "lucky" in that I decided I wanted to work in the toy soldier biz, and my wife supports that decision.

A new Empire army and her favorite models on the table were my 5-year old Knights

After family and work comes friends and hobby. Those two are kind of on par. Fortunately most of my friends are hobbyists too, so hanging out with them generally means doing something hobby-related (gaming, painting, Games Day, Adepticon, etc etc). Also, the part of the hobby I love the most is the modeling and painting, something that's very easy to do by myself, at my desk, once my family has gone to bed.

Married...with Children. My wife and daughter made the trip to

Chicago with me for Games Day (and sightseeing obviously)

Apparently this Ogre Bellower was yelling "Peekaboo, I love you!"

My wife is a morning person, I'm a night owl. It took us a little while to get used to that, but we've got it worked out by now. So, on any given night, I'll usually be able to get in three or four hours of hobbying (or blogging). Add that up over a week and you're looking at 21-28 hours. If my wife has given me a few extra hours on the weekend, things look even better.

But let's get back to the "making time" thing. The following ideas typically work best if you have an army project you are working on. You can more easily keep your models/materials in a tray (like the one on the table above) and keep that handy in the kitchen, dining room, office etc. Try:

• Clip your bitz from their sprues ahead of time into a small plastic tackle box. If you have a desk job you can clip during your lunch break.

• Once you have everything clipped, you can do the basic assembly at any time you have a few minutes (like when you're on hold with your phone/electricity/cable tv company). Gluing legs to bases is a fairly menial task that doesn't always require all your focus.

• Do your basing/base painting in the morning while the coffee is brewing. A simple task like gluing on flock doesn't take too long and you can get a squad done in the time it takes to brew a pot.

If you are feeling the crunch of family/work/friends on your hobby time, look for opportunities during your day/week to make time for your hobby. Oh, and things like watching TV and playing video games are a complete time sink. Cutting back on both, or cutting them out altogether, is another great way to "make time". Although I often have the TV on while painting, I rarely look at it. There are movies I've heard a hundred times, and I'm often surprised by things I've never seen ; )

So, that's how I "find time" for the four most important things in my life (family/work/friends/hobby), I "make time" wherever I can, without compromising the most important things. I'm sure that's how many of you do it too.

And just so we're clear on what I do for a living, I'm the US Editor for Wargames Illustrated. That means that 95% of the time I'm liasing with contributors, planning with our UK team, photographing cool games/models/tables, and laying out 40+ pages a month. I enjoy all of it. Sometimes, however, I also get a chance to work on a modeling or painting project for a particular article. The last one was the frozen French battalion (seen here). And this 18th Century Massachusetts farmhouse is the latest.

I converted up one of the Perry's plastic American Farmhouse kits to loosely match a few buildings that probably dotted the countryside during the turbulent times of 1775. Look for the full article in our January issue (WI291).

Of course, my daughter loves it when I bring my projects up to the dining room table. Above you can see her impression of the Big, Bad Wolf, huffing and puffing and trying to blow the farmhouse down. How cool is that? : )

Cheers
Dave

PS. Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it before, we have another daughter on the way. She's due in late November. I'm hoping she'll be just as intrigued and delighted by this toy malarkey as her big sister is!

Kyle's Sword, and LGS

2011-10-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

This beautiful model of Meriadoc Brandybuck (or Merry to his friends) was painted up by a friend of mine, Kyle Morgan. He gave it to me last year as a "thank you" for picking up some Games Day tickets for him before the show (apparently it wasn't possible to purchase them online from Australia).

I first met Kyle at Games Day Chicago 2009, where his Large Model beat mine for Gold, as did his Diorama, even after I loaned him some glue and paints to repair his models after a long flight from Sydney. I first mentioned Kyle on my blog back in this post here.

When Kyle gave me this piece I was stunned, so much time had obviously gone into the model and basing, and no one had ever given me such a cool "thank you" gift before. At the time I was rushing off for a week in North Carolina, and then when I got back I was never sure how to best work it in to a post.

So, why do mention it now? Only because I now own a miniature painted by a bona fide Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner. Congratulations to Kyle for winning the Sword at the Golden Demons in Australia this past Saturday.

I am yet to find a pic of his Sword-winning entry, but here's a link to his "close to finished" WIPs for his Bronze and Silver winning entries. I'll update this post as soon as he posts pics of the winner.

Oh, and I picked up some "liquid green stuff" the other day. Should be interesting to muck around with.

Cheers
Dave

The 3rd Dragoons

2011-09-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

I mentioned my British Dragoons in my Napoleonics Update post a few days back, and now I think I have enough models painted to show you my progress. Here they are, the men of the 3rd Dragoons, part of LeMarchant's Heavy Cavalry Brigade. I'll be using these devastating horsemen in our game at Adepticon next year.

Our "what if?" scenario will see them diverted from the main action to help settle things on the battle's left flank. In the actual historical battle, Le Marchant's Brigade advanced alongside Leith's 5th Division (infantry) against Maucune's Divisions of Frenchmen. Seeing over 1,000 cavalrymen approaching, the French regiments drew up into squares - the standard tactic of the time as the square formation was nigh on impregnable to cavalry charges. However, squares were horrendous formations against infantry.

Leith's infantry division tore apart the French squares with devastating volleys and Le Marchant's heavy cavalry rode in to finish off the job.

My limited research has shown an interesting thing (or at least I think it's interesting). It seems that cavalry regiments aimed to have their men mounted on horses of the same color (or at least same color by squadron). So, for my 3rd Dragoons I've chose a very dark brown. At the start of the Peninsular War, most of the heavy cavalry were mounted on black steeds, but as casualties mounted (no pun intended), other dark colored horses were brought in to fill the ranks. It also seems that musicians were mounted on grey horses, I expect to stand out from their mates and make it easier for the officers to spot them and have them signal charges, retreats, etc. My next trumpeter's horse will be a bit lighter than this one I think.

And finally...here are the final four to join this unit. Hopefully they'll be complete by the end of the weekend. Then I can get everyone based up and photographed again.

Also, these models are from Front Rank. Nice models on the whole, good detail, but they feel slightly off in the anatomy department. I think the heads might be a bit to big, but I'm sure everything will look cool once it's on the tabletop.

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Ironblaster and Failcast

2011-09-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it took me just over two weeks of on-and-off painting to get the Ironblaster finished, and pretty much all of it was a treat! Such a great model, lots of detail, goes together wonderfully, and even broke down into a good amount of components for painting (so I could get all of the details painted).

Here are a lot of photos of various angles.

I tried something a little different with the Ogre crewman. After I'd painted his skin with the new mix of "Ogre Flesh" I thinned some Vallejo Charred Brown and worked it into some of the crevices. I also used some Secret Weapon Ruby wash around the areas where the chunks of metal are embedded in the Ogres flesh. Looks quite nice, I think.

I also did my first "red nose" on a Gnoblar. It urned out to be quite easy to do, and again, I think it worked out well. I'm not thinking about going back and re-doing it on my other 40+ Gnoblars though.

The horns that form both the hafts for the chariot parts, and the carriage for the cannon part, were the most time consuming part. Lot's of very thin striations to give it a lovely texture.

And even more texture on the many barrels around the chariot.

Rant ON

And now onto my first Failcast tale of woe. My thanks to the angry, yet amusing and sarcastic, young man who created the logo above. I'm not sure who created it, but I stole it from the House of Paincakes blog. I hope no-one minds too much.

To keep it all simple, I'll let the photos do most of the talking. Here's one shot of the assembled Firebelly. He looks pretty good here, right? Not too much wrong with him.

Well, here you can see him from a few other different angles. A hole in his thigh, the gutplate didn't fit properly, the head/left forearm/firebreath piece did not line up with the body and left gaps that required extensive putty work, the right shoulder did not line up well and required more putty, and - in the worst case of airbubbles I've seen in a long time - the butt and rear left leg were pitted with holes, lots more putty required. Not to mention the warped pieces I had to heat and reset.

Sure, I could've complained to GW, and had their excellent Customer Service team send me a new model, but I'm sick of having to do that for things that should been caught in the first place. You can't get it right all the time, that's true, but this was a model I was super excited about, and it came close to crushing my hardy enthusiasm.

Rant OFF

My enthusiasm is returning, and I hope to have this model painted up by early October. In the meantime, I'll paint up some more British Dragoons!

Cheers

Dave

Napoleonics Update

2011-09-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit quiet on my Napoleonics stuff this year, but I'm getting the bug to paint some more. Here are three things of note for you to keep an eye out for:

#1 - The Guns of April

A group of friends (including me) have decided to band together and put on a historical game at Adepticon next year. Should things go well there, we might put on a game each year, who knows??? Anyway, the first game we're putting on is a "what if?" scenario based on the left flank of the Battle of Salamanca (1812). With a load of British elites facing off against French regulars, cavalry, and possibly too much artillery, we expect to see over 700 models on the table. We'll have a separate blog up soon to chart our progress. It should be lots of fun.

#2 - 1st Dragoons

With much of the British infantry already in hand (see here), I've started work on the my first unit of British Dragoons. They paint up surprisingly easily, and should look pretty cool thundering across the dusty plains of the Iberian Peninsula. Photos to come soon.

#3 - Great models available via eBay!

One of our crew, Brien Dulaney, has switched sides and is now going to be working on the French (booooooo). To fund his new endeavor he has put up a couple of his British pieces on eBay.

• The first is General Sir Lowry Cole (see the cool photo above), which can be found on eBay here.
• The second is his massive unit of 95th Rifles (cool photo below), which can be found on eBay here.

If you are interested in Napoleonic stuff and looking for a great deal, please head on over and help Brien get the money he needs to buy more French (that will then undoubtedly be ground beneath the hooves of my Dragoons) ; )

Cheers

Dave

Might Makes Right! - and a Charity Walk

2011-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back I mentioned I was getting going on my Ogres again, thanks to the awesome new units/miniatures recently released. Well, Operation Big Boy is underway and I figured I'd give you a break from looking at lots of little grey tanks.

Instead I'll start showing you great, big, grey Ogres!

As you can see by the photo above, my Ogres are painted in the green/grey the 2004 GW Design Studio decided on. At the time a lot of hobbyists questioned the decision, but GW had decided on a change, and likened it to the Orcs' quintessential green skin, and the recently updated Lizardmen blue skin. Lots of people ignored that, and continued painted their Ogres in caucasian skin colors. I mean, it wasn't like there was a paint color that had been released to support the change (apart from a spray can of Ogre Flesh (available only in the UK, I believe).

Anyway, I was one of the ones who accepted the challenge, mixed up batches of our own Ogre Flesh paints and cracked on. During late 2004, 2005, and early 2006 I painted over 100 Ogres worth approximately 10,000 points (thanks to characters and Rhinox riders etc.)

Imagine my confusion when the recent set of releases showed that the skin color of the Studio's 2011 Ogres were now back to their pre-2004 hue. I had a wonderful sense of "1984-dejavu" when I read through the army book and could find no mention of the skin color change or variance etc. at all. It is almost like it never happened (Haven't we always been at war with Oceania?)

So, with soooo many Ogres resplendent in their grey skin, I'm going to stick with it.

Above is a shot of my original basing, snowy patches on my "spring thaw" basing was simply done by painting a patch of Space Wolves Grey and drybrushing it with Skull White. That just won't do for this modern era. I'll talk about my new method a bit later.

On to one of the current centerpieces of my army, a Slavegiant. This guy has been recently conquered by a Tyrant, and still has a not of scars and bruises to show for it. His Gnoblar handlers are struggling to get his collar (with attached millstone) affixed before he disappears over the hills.

And here's a bit of a teaser for a big scratchbuild project I'm very keen on starting. It'll be something I haven't done in a while : )

CHARITY WALK, 24th September.

In last minute news, my daughter and I will be joining family friends of ours in a walk to support research into Apraxia of Speech, a speech disorder that prevents sufferers from being able to speak the words they want to say. Our friends, Dave and Angie, have a wonderful daughter afflicted with this disorder, so when I heard about the walk yesterday I figured joining and helping out was the least we could do.

If you have a few spare bucks kicking around that you can pitch in, head to our team page, Elsa's Angels, here and donate away. We would greatly appreciate it : )

Cheers
Dave

Panzerschutzenkompanie

2011-09-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

And another to add to the list. This one is very similar to the previous army (Schutzenkompanie) posted here. Just switch out the trucks for the Sd Kfz 251/1s

- Company HQ - 60 pts

Combat Platoons

- Schutzen Platoon - HQ w/Anti-tank rifle, 3 Schutzen squads - 265 pts

- Schutzen Platoon - HQ, 3 Schutzen squads - 245 pts

Weapons Platoons

- Schutzen Machine-gun Platoon - 2 sections - 135 pts

- Schutzen Mortar Platoon - 3 sections - 180 pts

- Schutzen Infantry Gun Platoon - 65 pts

Divisional Support

- Assault Gun Platoon - Comm. plus 2 StuG A - 495 pts

- Self-propelled Infantry Gun Platoon - 135 pts

- Tank-hunter Platoon - 4 Panzerjager I - 335 pts

- Bunker Flak Platoon - 2 Bunker Flak - 450 pts

Total - 2,630 pts

Cheers

Dave

Schutzenkompanie

2011-09-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

You've seen the first two tank companies here, and here. Now I can start on the infantry companies. First up is the Schutzenkompanie. These were the best infantry in the German army, loaded onto trucks to keep up with the Blitzkrieg advance of the German armor.

- Company HQ - 45 pts

Combat Platoons

- Schutzen Platoon - HQ w/Anti-tank rifle, 3 Schutzen squads - 200 pts

- Schutzen Platoon - HQ, 3 Schutzen squads - 180 pts

Weapons Platoons

- Schutzen Machine-gun Platoon - 2 sections - 135 pts

- Schutzen Mortar Platoon - 3 sections - 180 pts

- Schutzen Infantry Gun Platoon - 65 pts

Divisional Support

- Assault Gun Platoon - Comm. plus 2 StuG A - 495 pts

- Self-propelled Infantry Gun Platoon - 135 pts

- Tank-hunter Platoon - 4 Panzerjager I - 335 pts

- Bunker Flak Platoon - 2 Bunker Flak - 450 pts

Total - 2,420 pts

Cheers

Dave

Mittlere Panzerkompanie

2011-09-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the second of the army "lists" from my collection, the Early War Mittlere Panzerkompanie (or Medium Armored Company).

- 1 Panzerbefehlswagen, 2 Panzer II C (early) - 120 pts

Combat Platoons

- Mittlere Panzer Platoon - 4 Panzer IV D - 600 pts

- Panzer III Platoon - 3 Panzer III E - 390 pts

- Panzer II Platoon - 4 Panzer II C (early) - 180 pts

Weapons Platoons

- Leichte Platoon - 1 Panzer II C (early) and 4 Panzer I - 195 pts

Divisional Support

- Panzerschutzen Platoon - HQ, 3 Schutzen squads - 245 pts

- Bunker Flak Platoon - 2 Bunker Flak - 450 pts

Total - 2,360 pts

Three more armies to come, all using what I already have painted.

In Ogre news, I got a hold of a Golgfag, a Firebelly, and a Bragg yesterday. I was severely disappointed with the quality of the Firebelly, so once the Flames Of War posts are complete, prepare for a rare dose of vitriol on my blog.

Cheers

Dave

FOW Panzergranadiers - Part 7

2011-09-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Another quick update for you all after another busy weekend of birthday parties, street fairs, ghost tours, and crab feasts. The things we do to keep our children entertained ; )

Above you can see my Infantry Gun Platoon, armed with the 7.5cm leIG18 light infantry guns. Their role was to advance with the infantry attack, taking out hazards like enemy machine-gun nests.

I also painted up a platoon of Panzer IV Ds for the Mittlere Panzerkompanie. For Early War, these tanks are very well equipped, boasting some of the highest armor and (tank mounted) anti-tank ratings of the period.

I also started on some Panzer 38(t)s for the Czech Panzerkompanie list. These are some tanks that will also be able to be fielded in a Mid-War list.

And finally, here is Erwin Rommel ready to invade France in 1940. I'll be able to add him to a few of the Early War German lists.

Well, I've taken a few more photos of the current collection and I'll reveal those each day this week in a new army list each time, so you get a chance to see how it could all be fielded.

Cheers
Dave

Leichte Panzerkompanie

2011-09-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

I started working on this project to see just how easy (or difficult) it could be to build up a collection of Flames Of War models that could span numerous lists and periods during the war. Well, I have been pleasantly surprised by the speed with which I've been able to assemble and paint these 15mm models. Sure, they're a lot smaller than the 28mm I'm used to so they should take less time, but I'm pleasantly surprised by just how much less time and by the techniques common to both scales.

Anyway, this is the first of a series of posts of Army Lists and accompanying photos of the models I have painted for them. First up will be a "journey" through the Blitzkrieg Early War book, starting with the Leichte Panzerkompanie.

HQ
- 1 Panzerbefehlswagen, 1 Panzer I, 2 Panzer II C (early) - 155 pts

Combat Platoons

- Leichte Platoon - 1 Panzerbefehlswagen, 2 Panzer I, 2 Panzer II C (early) - 200 pts

- Panzer II Platoon - 5 Panzer II C (early) - 225 pts

- Panzer III Platoon - 3 Panzer III E - 390 pts

Divisional Support

- Panzerschutzen Platoon - HQ w/Anti-tank Rifle, 3 Schutzen squads - 265 pts

- Bunker Flak Platoon - 2 Bunker Flak - 450 pts

Total - 1,885 pts

Not a bad start to it all. Of course I haven't tested it on the tabletop yet. Next in the series, the Mittlere Panzerkompanie.

Cheers

Dave

FOW - Panzergrenadiers Part 6

2011-09-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

Despite a busy weekend, including a broken water main and a leaking roof, I managed to get two more platoons finished for my German Flames Of War army.

First up was the MG-34 platoon. Four bases plus a command stand. This was also the first unit I painted the Heer symbol on the helmet (right side - black, white and red shield).

The Mortar platoon is almost finished for Early War lists, just a motorcycle and sidecar to add. I also painted the Heer symbol on these guys too. Now to go back and paint it on over 100 other tiny helmets ; )

Finally, I've started work on my Ogre Ironblaster. Seems like it's going to be quite a bit of work!

Cheers
Dave

FOW - Panzergrenadiers Part 5

2011-09-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it was only a month ago that I started on this fun little project. I also chuckle as I type the word "little" as I now have close to 3,000 points of painted Germans for FOW (that includes the Light Panzer Company I painted last year).

Anyway, on with the latest additions. Above you can see my Company HQ, which will be good for the HQ of the Schutzenkompanie, Panzerschutzenkompanie, Kradschutzenkompanie, Infanteriekompanie, and (at a bit of a stretch) the Pionierkompanie and Liechte Pionierkompanie lists from the Blitzkrieg book. Not bad for ten guys and two bikes with sidecars ; )

If I want to upgrade my platoons from Schutzen to Panzerschutzen, I now have a dozen Sd Kfz 251/1 halftracks ready to roll! I might get back to painting the rows of seated soldiers that are supplied with the transports. I think it just adds that neat little touch.

Once I had the necessities sorted out, I moved on to the rest of the AFVs from the Motorised Rifle Company boxed army. Above are the Self-propelled Infantry Guns, the 15cm sIG33 auf Panzer Is. Try saying that three times fast. For the crew I painted their epaulette piping red, instead of the white I've used for my infantry, but more on Waffenfarbe in a different post.

The Panzerjager Is are my Early War tank hunters. As such, they have pink piping, as befits their branch of the Heer.

And finally for this batch I have an Assault Gun platoon, two Stug A assault guns and their command halftrack, an Sd Kfz 253.

You may have noticed some strange white lines across parts of my halftracks and Stugs. I added these primarily for visual contrast on the dark grey hulls. They were inspired by some tanks I saw at Historicon back in July, tanks painted by Bill Wilcox (and shown above). You can see the white stripes painted on the back of Bill's beautifully modeled and painted tanks. These were apparently used by some tank units as aerial recognition markers, with the aim of clearly showing the Luftwaffe where the friendlies were down on the ground.

I decided, rightly or wrongly (ie. with no further research) to add these to my halftracks and Stugs. I'll be going back to add them to my Panzers once I've got the rest of the collection sorted out.

So, if you've enjoyed these models so far, I know you will be blown away by checking out the miniatures in this thread from the Flames Of War forums. I was floored when I saw the detail that could be achieved on 15mm miniatures and I know that when I get to eventually doing a very researched, themed army, this will be the standard I will be aiming for. Please check it out.

Cheers

Dave

A few more Tanith for you...

2011-09-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

And so, without further ado, here is the first platoon completed for this fun Tanith army project. Clockwise from front left you can see: The Treadfether squad (missile launchers), Meryn's Squad (including Dalin Criid), Mkvenner, 'Shoggy' Domor's Squad (including Merrt), and Rawne's command squad - including Rawne, Brostin, and Commissar Hark.

As for details, here is Major Rawne. His pose is based on a panel from an old comic strip that appeared in White Dwarf over a decade ago. I was lucky enough to be given the original artwork for this strip, and I keep it close at hand. The artwork is by Karl Kopinski!

Here's Brostin. Described as a huge, heavily tattooed, and hairy pyromaniac, I found it interesting to try to bring all those things into the one model. One his left arm and right hand, I included some fairly nasty burn scars too.

The rest of the squad are made up of a voxcaster, a specialist with grenade launcher, and a medic.

One thing I did to add a little extra detail to some of the elements of the army was cross-hatching. I put some on the gauze bandage the medic is unrolling and on the knees and lower legs of the weather-beaten Mkvenner.

In the comments for my last post I mentioned the Tanith cloaks being mostly slung or stowed. above you can see the greenstuff work I did on a variety of troopers. Below are the painted packs.

From A to G, the backpacks are from the following sources:

A - A backpack and cloak roll sculpted by me (as a bit of a time study really)

B - The small pack from Secret Weapon Miniatures

C - The small pack with cloak roll added by me

D - The comms pack from Secret Weapon Miniatures

E - The large pack from Secret Weapon Miniatures

F - The large pack with underslung cloak roll added by me

G - The small pouches that cover the back of the MaxMini Combat Armour Torsos

Finally, a commenter asked about the prone guy on this base. I thought I had a better shot of him, but here's what I've got.

To make a prone Guardsman:
• Take a pair of either Cadian or Catachan legs that do not have bent knees (or only very slight bends). I generally cut the boots off the model at the point where the boots and pants meet. This should be a very clean cut.
• Glue the legs down flat to the base you are using, then reattach the boots so they look right against the ground. In the example above his left foot is lying with instep completely flat against the ground, while his right heel is raised slightly to accommodate the slight bend of his right knee.
• Glue on the torso. Depending on your final desired pose, you may need to pack out the underside of the joint with some greenstuff (as you can see on the example above). This will give a bit of an arch, try not to make it too extreme.
• Test fit an appropriate head. Again, depending on the angle you're looking for, you may nee to trim down the front of the neck, and rebuild it with some greenstuff work.
• Add arms and weapons as desired.

I hope you like these guys. I'm excited about seeing the whole army together (in a year or two).

Cheers
Dave

PS. My Ogre Kingdoms book arrived last night. Hopefully that will inspire me to shoot a bunch of my Ogres for you.

Tanith Treadfethers

2011-09-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post for today, here're a few shots of the first Heavy Weapons Squad for the Tanith army I'm working on, a Missile Launcher squad. To represent the Tanith 'treadfethers', I thought I'd use Space Marine Missile Launchers as they're quite a bit shorter and a little more rugged looking than the IG equivalent. I tried to add a bit of extra character into each base. I hope you like them.

More to come later in the week.

Cheers

Dave

FOW - Panzergrenadiers - Part 4

2011-08-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I had hoped to get another post in again last week, but it wasn't to be. Following my last post the East Coast of the US felt the tremors of a 5.8 earthquake (centered near the GF9 office in VA) and the wrath of a Category 3-2-1 Hurricane (Irene). While the first event didn't impact my vacation at all (although I did feel it all the way on the Outer Banks of North Carolina), the second certainly did. It was quite the constant topic of conversation, and as it seemed to be growing in strength and proximity, NC was put on a State of Emergency, and we were under mandatory evacuation orders. This meant we had to leave our relaxing paradise a day early and try to prepare as best we could once back in Baltimore for the storm's arrival there.

There has been quite a lot of chatter about whether or not media outlets like The Weather Channel overhyped the dangers posed by the storm. Personally I felt like they pushed it a bit too far, but what else have you got to work with when you're a 24/7 weather channel?

Regardless of the actual severity in my local area (only one tree downed, no power outages) I know that a lot of my friends suffered various levels of deprivation (some are still without power after two days) and that the only road to our idyllic vacation location was cut completely (washed away), so regardless of the "hype" the storm has had a considerable impact all along the Atlantic coast.

Of course, all that time inside waiting for a tropical storm means quite a lot of painting. These shots are overalls of my three platoons of Panzergrenadiers. I went back to the first platoon you saw and repainted much of the webbing black, following the advice of John from Santa Cruz Warhammer (who buys and sells WW2 kit for a living). I then painted up my second platoon, all with the M40 uniform pants, which were the German Fieldgrey rather than the standard grey I used for most of my first platoon.

For my third platoon I assembled them from a donation gratefully received from my mate Brien. Even at 15mm I could tell these guys were a little different. The pants on some of the models were a little puffier, the boots shorter, and they had quite a bit more webbing. I'm assuming these are Mid-Late War troops, and I painted them to match my second platoon as best I could. Now that I have three platoons painted (the most I'll need for any one game) I figure that when it comes to building actual lists I can field the 1st and 2nd platoons first in my Early War lists, and the 2nd and 3rd platoons first in my Mid-Late War lists. At a push I could field all three in any period (which was always the plan).

To match with my "slightly different" troops from 3rd platoon, I figured I'd paint up the four Steyr Kfz 70 trucks that were a gift from my mate Rob. It seems these trucks were a later introduction to the war effort, meaning it was appropriate for my 1st and 2nd platoons to ride in the Krupp Kfz 70 trucks that saw service throughout the war. Again, at a push I'm sure not many folks would mind me using all the trucks together regardless of period. In addition I painted four Kfz 15 field cars for the command teams, although only three are needed at the moment.

As part of my final platoon I used one of the signposts from the plastic bases sprue to add a little bit of extra character. You can see here I've opted for the signpost that would never really exist, but it shows the potential targets for my army, it can be posted anywhere in Europe between France and Russia, that should be flexible enough ; )

Next time around I hope to have the Company HQ underway (if not completed) along with some photos of actual kit from John.

Take care.

Cheers

Dave

PS. You may also have noticed some activity in my "Hobby" tracker. I decided that if each of these 15mm guys was to count as a model, I couldn't leave it as it was. Back when I painted up the tanks for the Heroes of Armageddon project, I awarded myself "10 models painted" for each tank. I went back and removed all those extra points (counting each tank as a single model), then added back in a point for each FOW model painted (one for infantry, one for trucks, one for tanks etc). I feel much more karmically in balance now.

More Tanith on the way

2011-08-22T07:50:00.001-07:00

In my now traditional "blogging from the beach" post, I thought I'd start to get you caught up on some of the Tanith units I'm currently working on. These are part of a long-term, slow-burn commission. You can check out my other posts on the commission by clicking on the Tanith tag in my long list of tags on the right.

As I think I've mentioned before, the intent of this army is to create a "best of" army that will eventually include all the major and almost all of the minor Ghosts characters. They're being put on sandy/high desert bases reminiscent of the long march up to Hinzerhaus (from Only In Death).

Above are Meryn's squad. Meryn is the sergeant up front right, with the Maximini commando head, the camo cloak, and tube charges. To his left is Dalin Criid, acting as his vox-trooper (also sporting the beret that his "father" Caffran is/was famous for. Behind them are a mix of Tanith, Verghast, and Belladon troopers. Quite a few of them have their cloaks folded and draped over their backpacks (many of which are from Secret Weapon).

This is Domor's squad. Sergeant Domor was injured in an early encounter in the life of the regiment, and has since sported bulky augmetic eyes that look a lot like an animal native to Tanith. The Ghosts have since called him Shoggy (the animal he now looks like). Above he also wears his camo cloak unfurled, something that'll become a bit of an indicator you are looking at a sergeant (or officer). On the other end of the front rank is Rhenn Merrt. Wounded by Eldar on Monthax, Merrt's clumsy augmetic jaw has been his defining feature. It has caused no end of problems, including the loss of his marksman lanyard. (Spoiler alert: he may be getting that back in Salvation's Reach).

And finally, here are a few details of the four named characters from this batch. From left to right: 'Shoggy' Domor, Meryn, Merrt (with his famed 0E4TH punishment lasgun), and Dalin Criid.

There may be one more post this week, or I might be too busy relaxing with my family on the beach or poolside. I love the last week of August!

Cheers

Dave

FOW - Panzergrenadiers - Part 3

2011-08-18T10:36:00.001-07:00

Time to knock out another quick, lunchtime post about my Germans.

Last night I painted up some examples of how I'm going about painting my Early/Mid/Late War Germans for Flames Of War. In my last post some folks were interested enough in my approach to basing to ask me for more info. Ask and you shall receive...mostly.

Above you can see the three and a bit stages I'm going through to paint up the plastic rubble bases (from Battlefront). These bases are quite cool, in that there's already a lot of detail on them that takes drybrushing well, but not so much stuff that they're threatening to detract from the miniatures. The "multi-hue" approach is something I learned from friends John Shaffer and Jason Buyaki. I typically use it a lot for terrain building, but not so much for mini basing (until now that is).

Step A: Paint the base with Vallejo Charred Brown (similar to GW Scorched Brown).

Step B: Drybrush Vallejo Dark Grey (similar, but a but darker than GW Adeptus Battlegrey). Pick out the things you want to be "red brick" with Vallejo Red Leather (no GW analog) and dust a bit of the Red Leather around the edges.

Step C: I threw in a base that is entirely drybrushed with Red Leather, obviously in the middle of a town square as there is no building debris (although I may bring some in when I put the modes on).

Step D: Finally, put down a light drybrush of Vallejo Pale Sand (also no GW analog).

By varying the colors as you build up the basing, you can add a lot more depth than you would usually get by doing the old "brown, light brown, lighter brown" progression. The light dusting of the Pale Sand at the end helps tie the colors together.

After this I'll be gluing in the finished figs, filling gaps with putty, gluing down some GF9 Super-fine Grit, painting it appropriately, then adding some very small tufts of Silfor Late Summer Buffalo Grass, just like in the pic below. Easy.

While I was at it I figured I'd show you how I'm painting up my infantry. As you can see, most of the guys are being glued to "popsicle/paddle pop/iced lolly/craft" sticks to increase the assembly line speed.

Step A: All the basecoats are applied. All colors are Vallejo unless specified.

• Tunic and pants - German Fieldgrey WWII

• Helmet - German Cam. Dark Green

• Rifle stocks and tool handles - Beige Brown

• Bread bag - Flat Earth

• Pouches and straps - Leather Belt

• Rifle barrel - Gunmetal

• Flesh - Tan

Step B: The entire model is given a wash with a mix of GW Devlan Mud and a thinned Charred Brown.

Step C: Highlights are added to the flesh (Dwarf Skin) and the tunic and pants (German Fieldgrey WWII).

If the wash has been too dark on some other areas, I'll go back and highlight them with the basecolor.

So, there you have it. That's how I paint my Germans.

Now back to work.

Cheers

Dave

FOW - Panzergrenadiers - Part 2

2011-08-16T08:48:00.001-07:00

So, I've been quite busy, painting up bunches and bunches of little mens. Thanks for taking my filler post about the awesomeness that is the pending Ogre release in the spirit it was meant. and yes... I'll post some pics of my existing Ogres when the time is right.

Anyway, last night I finished off the infantry for the first of my Panzergrenadier platoons. One command stand (front center), six Rifle/MG stands (rear), one light mortar stand (front left) and an Anti-tank rifle stand (front right). I'm pretty happy with not only the way they turned out, but also with the speed I was able to paint them despite coming to grips with 15mm again.

I used the plastic Rubble bases for all the stands (except the light mortar and anti-tank rifle), which gave me a good start. I painted everything separately (models and bases) then glued the infantry to the stands. This seemed like a great plan at the start, but it did mean that I used quite a bit of putty and additional basing grit to make sure that everything blended seamlessly.

Over the years I've learned that the key to painting up an army efficiently and effectively is to get into a rhythm with it. I'm pretty sure that by the time I'm finished my next platoon, I'll be in that rhythm and ready to share "the secrets" I've learned then.

With all the prone models in the figures I have, I found the guy holding the mortar to be quite amusing, with his butt sticking up in the air, apparently just begging to be shot in it.

In the comments on my last post JMHahn commented on the differences between certain things in different periods of the war (like the SdKfz251/1C and SdKfz251/1D). Check it out here. His comment was pretty much spot on, but it got me to thinking a bit more about my "accuracy" and the reasoning behind this whole project.

The idea for this is not to be "cheap". As we go along you'll see me spend quite a bit of money. Getting the most out of the purchases will be important, just as getting "reasonably" close to accurate will be important. Building a collection that can span all three periods (Early, Mid, and Late War) will mean that sometimes I'll come up against the 1% of folks who not only know their stuff back to front, but also care enough to call me on it.

JMHahn characterized it as being a 97:2:1 split (don't know the difference: know, but don't care: know and care greatly). Possibly because of the folks I know and circles I travel in, I suspect the ratio I'll encounter will be more like 80:17:3. I'm hoping that should I encounter too many in that 3% I can calm them by pointing out things I have done to achieve accuracy, and remind them, we're all just playing a game.

Of course, I also fully expect that at some stage in the not too distant future, I'll find an army that grabs me so much I'll want to build it as accurately as possible, with all the bells and whistles.

And here's a sneak peek at another project I'm working on at the moment. This is Commissar Hark, the next fig in the long-term, ongoing commission to build a Tanith army.

Cheers

Dave

Sweet Jeebus, look at all this cool stuff!

2011-08-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

All of the images in this post are borrowed from Dakka, where they were borrowed from The Ogre Stronghold and Warseer, and presumably they were ultimately "borrowed" from GW somewhere along the line.

I usually don't worry too much about "What's next?" kind of posts from the blogs, news sites, and forums I visit. Typically I'm working on a couple of projects at a time anyway, and getting too excited about new stuff would only derail those projects.

Anyway, over the past couple of weeks I haven't been able to avoid seeing images of the new Ogre stuff to be released "soon" by GW. As someone who has over 10,000 points of Ogres painted already, it does my heart glad to see so much new stuff, rather than simply a re-hash of the existing range.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a bunch of these models, although I think I'll take my time collecting them. No doubt some of the price tags will be a bit hefty, to match the pure awesomeness and size of the models.

Mournfang Cavalry

Stonehorn Monstrous Mount

Monstrous Mount for Hunters?

Scraplauncher

Ironblaster

Bragg the Gutsman

The Firebelly (this will really push my painting skills!)

And Golgfag, the famous Ogre mercenary captain!

FOW - Panzergrenadiers

2011-08-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

Last year I assembled and painted a Flames Of War Early War Light Panzer Company, in around 20 hours from start to finish (over a week). I was quite happy with how they looked and with how quickly they painted up. So happy, in fact, that I resolved to paint up some infantry to go with them in my "New Year's Hobby Resolutions" post.

Well, I'm finally ready to get to the infantry.

Part of the Blitzkrieg book that I really liked (and immediately understood, as opposed to the rules, which I'm still learning) was the cool picture of the Early War German soldier (reproduced above). For my Light Panzer Company I used this scheme to paint the crew on my Bunkerflaks. It looks good, and it got me thinking...

...and a few months later I was chatting with Warren from Beasts of War at Salute. He mentioned hearing from a few folks that Flames Of War was a bit daunting to get into because there were so many options, starting with Early, Mid, or Late War, then German, British, Italian, American, Soviet, Finnish, Hungarian (etc etc), then Tank, Armored Infantry, or Infantry (and dozens of specialist lists). Where is a potential FOW gamer to begin?

This also got me thinking...

...then Battlefront released their plastic rubble bases, and I knew it was time to stop thinking and to start acting.

We all know that the really cool thing about WW2 15mm armies are the huge amounts of very detailed tanks you can put on the tabletop. For many armies (particularly the Germans), their tank technology evolved rapidly during the short span of WW2 and many new tanks were put into service in an incredibly swift arms race. There's really nothing you can do about that. For each period there's a slew of new tanks to have fun with. So I figure I'll just talk about the infantry.

My plan for this project is to build a collection (rather than a particular army) of German infantry stands and support that contains as many elements as possible that can be used across all three (or only two at worst) of the periods. I'm going to use the rubble bases for my collection, which means that I'll be building forces for the European theater. For Early War they could be part of the invasion of Poland or France, for Mid War they'll be invading Russia, and for Late War, they'll be back peddling all the way to Berlin.

As you may have already surmised from reading about the other armies I've built over the past few years, I'm usually all about the story of the army. But as you've also seen, most of these stories I've made up myself. History is obviously a little different, but as Flames Of War allows for some ahistorical armies to be fielded, I'll be putting aside the larger story and concentrating on having fun painting up the infantry and creating lists that are feasible and cross as many periods and styles as possible.

To get me well on the way, I stopped by the office today and picked up the bulk of what I'll need.

• There's the Motorised Rifle Company that gives me two of my Rifle platoons that will form the core of my army (useable across all periods). It also contains a Mortar platoon that is also useful across all three periods, an MG34 platoon that is good for Early War, a bunch of support AFVs (most useable across two periods), and quite a few trucks (also useable across all three periods).

• I added an MG42 Platoon, which replaces the MG34 platoon in Mid and Late War lists.

• And an Infantry Gun Platoon, using the 7.5cm leIG18 gun that was used in all three periods.

• And a Platoon of the famed "88s", the 8.8cm Flak 36 Anti-aircraft guns, again used in all three periods.

• You can see a bunch of trucks, thanks to my friend Rob who hooked me up with some figs he didn't need anymore.

• And in that brown box are 12 SdKfz 251/1C halftracks. Panzergrenadiers used these halftracks during the Mid and Late War period, but they'll also work well for the SdKfz 251/1 halftracks that were used during the Early War (or so I've been told).

I'm going to learn an awful lot about building and painting 15mm infantry, and a lot about building armies for Flames Of War, and an awful lot more about how the German army was equipped and operated during WW2.

Wish me luck, and please, be gentle with me ; )

Cheers

Dave

"Pious Glory"

2011-08-06T19:14:00.001-07:00

I thought it was about time you got to see the mighty Landship "Pious Glory". I finished it all off on the Thursday before Games Day with the banner proclaiming the ship's name (thanks to commenter Jason).

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions about her construction or painting in the comments below : )

Cheers

Dave

The Golgotha!

2011-08-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Early on in the Heroes of Armageddon project I knew that I wanted to have a couple of surprises that I could "pull out of my hat" towards the end of the donation period. A little something that would show everyone that we were serious about creating unique armies. One of the surprises I concocted for the Steel Legion army was the mighty Golgotha Superheavy Missile-Platform.

Following a discussion with Matt Bonders from Miniature Wargame Conversions, I knew I had someone who could create my vision in miniature form. Matt pulled together the necessary funds and bought the Baneblade and Reaver Missile Launcher required to put this bad boy together. Although there were a few hiccups along the way, Matt sent the finished tank off to Brandon Palmer of GMM Studios, who put the great paintjob on the tank as only he can do, swiftly, but with a lot of gorgeous detailing.

A big THANK YOU to both these guys for their contributions!

In my mind, a massive artillery piece like this would certainly need an observation post, a spotter of some kind. In stepped Jeremy Webb, who bought this Elysian Tauros Venator for the job. Jeremy shipped it off to Jeff Wilhelm (of Dragon Forge fame) who started on the assembly and paint job. As the deadline drew closer and Jeff's real life workload grew, he passed it back to me to wrap things up. In a collaborative project like HOA, it is vitally important that communication is regular and that expectations are met. In this case Jeff kept me appraised of his situation and we worked out a plan B before things got too late. Success!

Another big THANK YOU to both Jeremy and Jeff!

And finally, nothing this big would be complete without an Apocalypse datasheet from the master of Apoc datasheets, Larry Vela! (or Bigred from Bell of Lost Souls). I laid out my thoughts on the possible rules, then Larry went to town creating a very cool set of rules. You can download the datasheet from HERE.

THANK YOU Larry, for all your work on this too.

So, there you have it. A great part of the HOA project, and a cool datasheet to go with it. You now have all you need to make your own right? I know I'll be adding one to my Blood Pact army ; )

Cheers

Dave

Heroes At Games Day!

2011-08-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a few days since Chicago Games Day, so I figured I should put up a post. I went out to Chicago with my wife and daughter, so it was quite a long trip (lots of sightseeing included) and I'm not fully recovered just yet.

All of that means this will be a quick one. More info to come later in the week, but here are a bunch of photo I took of Heroes of Armageddon stuff at the show.

Kirill brought his Commissar Yarrick to the show and he did not disappoint. With his yellow claw and subtle shading, he was a great match for Ghazghkull. Kirill entered him in the toughest category in GD, the 40K Single Miniature, and walked away with a Final Cut pin.

Here are a few photos of the table on the day.

Here's a friend of mine (and former colleague from GW Oz) Matt Weaver running the Armies On Parade booth at the show. In just a few short months, Matt will be running the triumphant return of Games Day to Australia's shores! Good Luck Matt, I hope it runs smoothly for you!

Ghaz and the Old Man face off on the causeway.

John Dickerman (left), one half of the HOA overlords, chats with Dan (right) from GW's What's New Today blog (that will hopefully be showing off some of my Empire army soon).

And finally, Jawaballs doing his best Vanna White impression, showing off the FOUR Pack 1520s kindly donated by Battlefoam.

Cheers

Dave

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

2011-07-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow I head off to Games Day Chicago with my Empire army in tow. Here are all the oddly-shaped parts of the army tucked away in my nice, new "oddly-shaped parts" box, but more of that later.

If you are going to Games Day Chicago, please make sure you check out our Heroes of Armageddon display and take plenty of photos of the great table and the armies that raised $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders. You'll be able to find it in the Club Tables section!

After that (well, between 1pm and 4pm) head to the Armies On Parade area and vote in the popularity contest. Well, vote for my Empire army in the popularity contest. I'm sure there'll be other armies that are just as good (if not better), but you'll vote for me anyway...right...?

; )

Well, take care. Enjoy the radio silence until next week.

Cheers

Dave

It has been CRAZY around here!!!

2011-07-26T05:03:00.001-07:00

Random hair-pulling image stolen from the internets.

I'm very sorry I haven't posted this already, but it has been a busy time these past few days. In addition to several quick work trips to photograph cool gaming tables, co-ordinating the final elements of the Steel Legion Army for the Heroes project, shipping off said army to Chicago for Games Day, trying to wrap up my Empire army for Armies On Parade (pics of the Landship next week methinks), and dealing with a chronically over-heating car in the middle of the worst heatwave in 75 years, my parents are visiting from Australia for two weeks. It has been quite hectic. On to a few housekeeping details:

Heroes of Armageddon

I'll have a couple more posts over the next few weeks, showing off the final models and thanking all the members of the Steel Legion build team properly. But I must thank you, the readers of this blog, for showing the world there can be some serious good done by those who play with little toy soldiers. We raised over $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders, a truly worthy cause. This money came from all over the world, as do the readers of this and other "HoA-associated" blogs. Thank you one and all. There are bound to be some great pics from the display this Saturday at US Games Day. If you are at the show, swing by, say "Hi", and check out the armies in person. They'll be on a custom built table in the Club Tables section.

Armies On Parade

The Landship was completed last night, but I think it might need a finishing touch. The aim will be to paint up a banner for it with some crossed cannons and skulls. Suggestions for a name should be put in the comments. More news on this after the weekend. Oh, and if you are at Games Day, please make sure you vote for my Empire Army in the Armies On Parade popularity contest. With a lot of luck you can help me squeeze through the field into first place. Remember, there's only a trophy for first place.

What's next?

I have a couple of projects to get sorted in August, including a platoon of Tanith, a heavily converted Stormtrooper, and I'm planning on painting up some German Panzergrenadiers for my Flames Of War forces. Lots more to come : )

Have fun, and enjoy your own busy summer/winter!

Cheers

Dave

Last HoA post before the Drawing!

2011-07-23T06:43:00.001-07:00

With just about 15 hours remaining to donate money to Doctors Without Borders (via the Heroes of Armageddon Project that is), and only 32 hours until John from Santa Cruz Warhammer and Jawaballs do the live drawing for all the prizes, I figured there was still time to squeeze in a look at the latest WIP photos from Mathieu Fontaine.

His interpretation of Ghazghkull is almost finished, just the face and one or two other bitz to finish off. It should be wrapped up before the drawing and Mathieu will be express shipping it to me on Monday so that I can carry it to Chicago myself.

No doubt there'll be plenty of other posts over the next few weeks, but make sure your browser is pointed towards Jawaballs' blog tomorrow for the live drawing. Things should kick off around 6pm Eastern Summer Time (US), which will be roughly 11pm in the UK, 3pm on the US West Coast, and 8am (on Monday) on the east coast of Australia.

All the best, and thank you all for donating!

Cheers

Dave

The actual "Heroes" of Armageddon

2011-07-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

As the countdown timer on the right ticks down towards the time of the drawing for the winners of the four Heroes of Armageddon armies, we continue to have some wonderful images trickle in.

First off, Lord Dante is leading the Blood Angels army (obviously) and has been painted by Slayer Sword winner Thomas Schadle. It's a truly beautiful job. You can see more of Tom's work by following him here on Facebook.

Next up we have Wazdakka Gutsmek, the leader of the Speed Freaks army, converted and painted by John Shaffer. John is not only among the best hobbyists working for Games Workshop, but he's also the nicest guy in wargaming. John has warned us that there'll probably be a few more small touches he'll be adding to this model over the weekend.

Then we come to the biggest "Hero" of all, Ghazghkull Thraka. He must be good as he's the only model to have leant his name to a Citadel paint color ; )

This beast is currently being painted by Mathieu Fontaine. Mathieu has won Golden Demon awards in more than three countries, and is planning on heading to Australia later this year to try to conquer another show. You can see more of his work here.

While not technically a "Hero", this Master of Ordnance is still a brilliant piece of art currently being worked on by *cough* four-time Slayer Sword winner *cough* Chris Borer. You can check out the scratch sculpt here, and see more of Chris' work here.

Finally, the leader for the army I've been coordinating, the "Old Man" himself, Commissar Yarrick. Yarrick is being painted by my friend Kirill Zhilkov (aka The Mad Russian), who has been quite coy about sending me WIP shots. Here are a few photos of the base that Kirill sculpted himself.

To be honest, Kirill is painting Yarrick even as I type, making sure he'll be ready and in with a shot for the 40K Single figure category at Chicago Games Day next weekend.

So there you have it. Four awesome "Heroes" (and one awesome lackey) on their way to Chicago for the festivities there.

In the meantime, please keep an eye on the Heroes of Armageddon blog, and also check out the great Doctors Without Borders post on the Santa Cruz Warhammer blog as a bit of a reminder about why we're all doing this.

Take care, donate your asses off, and be kind to your fellow man.

Cheers

Dave

A Great Table is just as Important

2011-07-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

After looking back through my posts about the Storm Wardens last year, I remembered I'd shot a few photos of the army on a gaming table at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker and posted them for all to see. I figured it wouldn't be too tough to do the same with the Steel Legion army and dragged it to GW White Marsh yesterday to shoot these.

Let me just tell you, the army is HUGE!

After clearing off the terrain and laying down the army, there wasn't really too much room to put any scenery back on the table. I still think it's nice to see all he models "in situ" as it were.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Brian Niro from A Gentleman's Ones blog is our fifth team leader, the man in charge of creating a fantastic display table for the armies when they make their combined public debut at Chicago Games Day in less than two weeks. Brian has been hard at work creating something extra special. Take a look at the WIP photos below.

Not only are these tables going to look great on the day, but they'll brilliantly showcase the hard work of over two dozen hobbyists. They will also be for sale! That's right, if you are interested in buying the 8' x 6' worth of killer table, you can get in touch with Brian directly at:

gentlemansones@gmail.com

Pick up would need to be from Games Day, or Brian's place (in the Chicagoland area). Of course, all the money will go to benefitting Doctors Without Borders.

We're almost there folks!

Big Badda Boom!

2011-07-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

I had a few very cool (and ultra important) snaps sent my way today, so I'm combining them all in this latest post about the Heroes of Armageddon project.

Last post I mentioned a couple of superheavies. The first is the Stormsword you see here. Donated and assembled by a great gamer and all-round good guy Phil Lisak, this fully resin Forge World tank was then painted by Joe Marshall, Brien Dulaney, and myself. You can catch a glimpse of it in some of our "tank painting extravaganza" photos here. This Stormsword is the 12th vehicle of the 8th Armageddon Superheavy Tank Company. This notable formation was initially composed entirely of Stormswords, but as losses have been suffered and requirements changed, new superheavy patterns have been introduced. This tank is named Hammer of Hades.

And now, I can finally bring you a look at the cherry on top of the sundae that is the Steel Legion army. It's something I started thinking about after having the opportunity to play with a Reaver Titan at last year's War Games Con. After discovering the potency of the Apocalyptic Missile Launcher, I wondered what it would be like to see it on the back of a big-ass tank.

Early on in the HoA project I spoke with Matt from Miniature Wargames Conversions, a guy who has created some pretty amazing "Apocalypse-style" conversions/builds in the past, and he agreed to take on the task. After the past few months Matt has been tinkering away, gathering a few bits from here and there, to create what I would like to dub the "Golgotha".

When Matt had finished the tank, he shipped it off to Brandon from GMM Studios. Again, another great guy and spectacular hobbyist, who whipped up this great paint job on the mighty Golgotha. Brandon assures me the airbrush stripes are Rotting Flesh in hue (to match the rest of the tanks), but his lights appear to have slightly washed it out.

Honestly, both guys have done a spectacular job, donating their time, talents, and personal savings to bring this dream to life. I take my hat off to them.

And of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I wanted the Golgotha to have a cool observation team scouting ahead and plotting in co-ordinates for the massive destruction that would follow. To that end, a mate of mine in Philly (thank you Jeremy) purchased a FW Tauros Venator from Showcase Comics (sometimes Mike deals in second hand kits, often unopened like this) and shipped it off to Jeff Wilhelm of Dragon Forge Design, supplier of the bases for the Steel Legion army. In between casting and shipping off his great range of awesome bases, Jeff assembled and started on the paint work for this cool recon vehicle, before sending it through to me for the finishing touches (including helping it match the other Elysian Recon elements of the army).

So, tomorrow some of these photos head off to Bigred, from Bell of Lost Souls, along with some thoughts on the possible rules for the Golgotha and its spotter. He'll be working his magic and preparing a wonderful set of rules for using this brand new superheavy. As soon as I get the sheet back, it'll be straight up on the blog.

So, if you want these great models, worth over 1,000 points and a retail cost of over $500, then head to the donation button and donate a ton of money, or just a little bit. Every bit helps, so please tell your friends (especially the wealthy ones).

Cheers

Dave

The Steel Legion get some Transports!

2011-07-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

Last night the mighty Battlefoam case (a rolling PACK 1520 XL to be exact) arrived at my house. I burst straight into it's cavern of foamy goodness and started packing in the models.

With the front hatch open, you can see the 22" of foam stacked from top to bottom. Those of you who were reading this blog around this time last year might remember the post I did on filling the Battlefoam case with the Storm Wardens army. If not, here's that post. With Battlefoam donating FOUR cases this year (including lots of custom foam trays), I felt it was only right to do the same sort of thing.

Here you go:

Tray one, holding 550 points, still has quite a bit of room for adding another few squads.

Tray two, holding 635pts, is pretty tightly packed but there's still room for a few characters.

Almost full, Tray three is holding 425 points (and five of the seven heavy weapons teams)

Maxed out, Tray four holds 560 points.

Tray five has a little room left over, but currently holds the 130 points of Vendetta (plus the other two heavy weapons teams).

With a little extra room for more tanks in the future (or part of a surprise) Tray six holds 705 points of big gun goodness.

And tucked away down the bottom of this case is the Superheavy tray (or Tray seven). It currently holds a 450 point Stormsword (more about that in tomorrow's post), but it will also be shipped out with another piece of superheavy excitement. This surprise tank will hopefully be shown on Monday or Tuesday, keep your eyes peeled.

So, there you have it. A massive Steel Legion army sitting in around $300 worth of foam trays and sturdy rolling luggage (apparently the "canvas" is actually a ballistic material, ie. used to make bullet-proof vests).

For those of you who weren't tallying as you went. This army currently stands at 3,455 points, with Commissar Yarrick, the Master of Ordnance, and the surprise Superheavy still to go.

Yes, this beast of a collection will top out at OVER 4,000 points! Thank you Battlefoam, for providing an awesome transportation case for this monster!

How can you win this? Donate more money to Doctors Without Borders via the Paypal button in the top right navigation, Go on, do it now!

Cheers

Dave

Steel Legion army - the last of the infantry!

2011-07-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

With the deadline for the Heroes of Armageddon project drawing near, I'm going to let you know now: expect a vicious flurry of posts driving you towards the "donate" button!

Here are the last infantry squads to cross my desk. The next time you see these they'll be nestled snugly in their Battlefoam trays.

1st Platoon, 3rd Squad (rocking the las/plas combo) were donated and painted by Mark Donelson. They match the rest of the army perfectly.

This is the second Savlar Chem Dogs squad. These guys were converted by John (from Santa Cruz Warhammer and one of the project's overlords) from Cadians with the addition of some greenstuff and heads & backpacks from Victoria Lamb's Highland Guard kits. They look great. They match the feel of my original squad, but have a character all of their own.

And rounding out the squads are the Armageddon Ork Hunters, also by John from SCW. John wanted a lean, veteran look to these badasses and you can check out his post about the choices he made here.

Finally, I finished off a Commissar for the Company Command Squad. The original list didn't call for one, but I felt it would be nice to throw one in, particularly one of the old school Steel Legion Commissars (gussied up a bit for "modern" times).

Anyway, the Battlefoam bags for these bad boys should be arriving today. I'm looking forward to getting all the models into their foam trays and taking a lot of pictures.

Get ready for the onslaught of Heroes of Armageddon posts! And Donate!

Cheers

Dave

Heroes of Armageddon - Fast Attack!

2011-07-13T19:55:00.001-07:00

So, this morning a box lands on my doorstep, a box sent from Northern Virginia. I open it up and inside is what appears to be a bottle of Balvenie Scotch. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and saw the two Steel Legion Hellhounds from John Stiening!

To be honest, I wasn't too surprised. I'd seen his post about it just the day before ; )

Here are the first two models in the Steel Legion Fast Attack choices - a pair of Hellhounds, with the parts to make them Devil Dogs or Banewolves too. Thanks to John for these!

Next up is a trio of Sentinels painted up by Jordan Carasa. These walkers, seconded from an Elysian Recon Regiment, have only just arrived in theater and are yet to become too dinged up. I'm sure after their first few encounters with the green menace their crew will be hardened veterans. Their lascannons will also help against enemy armor, the bane of Mechanized Infantry.

And finally, for the Fast Attack choices, we have the Vendetta that will transport the Armageddon Ork Hunters. Painted by Pat Ohata from Senji Studios, this Imperial flyer is just fantastic! Such wonderful weathering and details, including an awesome "nose art" decal (see below) and opening doors.

Like John, Pat has provided all the options for this flyer. The winner will be able to use it as a Vendetta or a Valkyrie. Nice!

Friday - The last of the infantry!

We're almost there. Donations close July 23, so donate now!

Cheers

Dave

Heroes of Armageddon - Scratch sculpted character!

2011-07-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

When we first embarked on this crazy adventure (The Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project), I cast about, asking a bunch of celebrated miniature painters I know to join in the "fun".

Chris Borer - winner of FOUR Golden Demon Slayer Swords and all round excellent guy - offered to provide the Master of Ordnance for the Steel Legion Command Squad. Then he floored me by offering to sculpt it from scratch. Above you can see the wonderful miniature he has created (from greystuff or procreate, I'm not sure which). As Chris himself said when he sent through this pic, this model could probably do double duty as either the Master of Ordnance, or an Officer of the Fleet.

Chris is currently painting this model up to be his entry for Golden Demon. Wouldn't it be great if he could pick up his FIFTH Slayer Sword with this model. What and awesome part of the Steel Legion prize : )

Donate now! Donate often!

Cheers

Dave

More Steel Legion Infantry!

2011-07-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

I know you've been waiting to see more of the infantry for the Heroes of Armageddon Steel Legion army, but I've been crazy busy lately - including a three-day trip to Historicon for work.

Anyway, I finally got a chance to shoot the rest of the infantry that has arrived over the past week and I'll lay them out here, acknowledging the painter for each squad as we go along.

1st Platoon, Command Squad - painted by Brien Dulaney

1st Platoon, 1st Squad - painted by Joe Marshall

1st Platoon, 2nd Squad - painted by Matt Boles

2nd Platoon, Command Squad - painted by Brien Dulaney

2nd Platoon, 1st Squad - painted by Marc Raley

2nd Platoon, 2nd Squad - painted by Marc Raley

Savlar Chem Dogs, 1st Squad - painted by me (way back in the day). I've shown you this squad before, but I figured it'd be good to put it in here again.

Commissariat Stormtrooper Squad 01 - painted by Jonathan Lindgren

Jonathan actually painted up 12 models for this squad. Two are equipped with Grenade Launchers (as per the original army list) and another two are equipped with Meltaguns, allowing the winner to switch out the special weapons depending on their needs for the squad.

Jon also through on some great touches, including sergeant chevrons, glowing plasma coils, and great looking lenses.

The drawing of the "final four" winners is rapidly approaching. you have until July 22 to make your donation (or to make ANOTHER donation), and the drawing will take place on July 23!

Click on the link in the right column of this page now, and kick in some bucks!

Cheers

Dave

Empire Landship WIPs

2011-07-08T03:51:00.001-07:00

Over the last few days I managed to get some paint on my Marienburg-class Empire Landship hull. I'm pretty happy with how things are going, and I certainly enjoyed the barnacles at the bottom of the hull.

Cheers

Dave

Tabletop Gaming News - Fundraiser

2011-07-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

Recently, my favorite tabletop gaming news site (and the 4th page I check every morning) has been seeing some pretty heavy traffic. Loads of folks have been heading there to get the latest info on games they love and games they've never heard of before. Tabletop Gaming News has not only put a lot of effort into promoting all things to do with tabletop gaming, but they've been proud Champions of the Storm Wardens project, the Heroes of Armageddon project, and a few of my own charity efforts (even though I've never actually met Zac in person).

Head honcho Zac and his tiny team have been keeping up by the skin of their teeth. They'd like to expand their offering, bring on new contributors, and build on their current success.

To that end, Zac is running a Fundraiser to, wadda ya know, raise funds for the growth. I know I ask a lot from the readers of this blog, but head on over to TGN and help Zac to not only keep bringing you all the news that's fit to print about the miniatures business, but to expand on it! I know I already have.

Oh, and just by donating, you go in the draw to win prizes from a massive prize pool provided by the very companies that Zac has helped build consumer confidence in. There's a ton of stuff! So go and donate $5, $10, $20 or more, for your chance to build TGN (and win some loot).

UPDATE: This Fundraiser ends on Sunday, so don't miss out!

Cheers

Dave

And now, some infantry!

2011-07-05T19:07:00.001-07:00

With the drawing for the Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project drawing very near, I wanted to start posting the infantry models. Here is the Company Command Squad, all polished and squeaky clean (except for the dusty boots of course). You can see the pre-paint versions of these models here.

Donate now!

Cheers

Dave

Heroes of Armageddon - It's all coming together!

2011-07-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project is starting to reach "critical mass". It's my favorite part of the whole thing, as visions of armies start to become clear, and models from across the country (or even around the globe) start to trickle in to "Build Team Headquarters" : )

Below you can see the bulk of the armor for the Steel Legion army. There are four Leman Russ variants, and NINE Chimeras : ) It does this old treadhead's heart good to see so much 40K mech in one place!

With the Steel Legion army, I knew that one of the most important factors for creating a great, cohesive force would be to have a solid looking armor base. It's the first thing you'll be dropping on the table, after all. To that end the vehicles were kept with within a fairly tight group of hobbyists, to ensure we could get maximum cohesion. I should also mention, there are still two Hellhounds, a Vendetta, and a couple of BIG surprises to add to the iron fist above.

Let's take a closer look at all the vehicles we have so far. The Leman Russes are from the 23rd Steel Legion Tank Regiment.

Leman Russ Vanquisher (23-1)

- Assembled by Bob Weiss

- Painted by Brien Dulaney, Joe Marshall, and Dave Taylor

Leman Russ Executioner (23-7)

- Assembled by Bob Weiss

- Painted by Brien Dulaney, Joe Marshall, and Dave Taylor

Leman Russ MBT (23-4 & 23-5)

- Assembled by Josh Roberts

- Painted by Brien Dulaney, Joe Marshall, and Dave Taylor

Chimera Armored Transport (01)

- Assembled and painted by Justin McCoy (of Secret Weapon Miniatures)

Justin really went to town on this model. He was the first to tackle the paintjob and really set the tone for all the other work we did on these vehicles. It is only fitting then, that this vehicle has been designated as the ride of Yarrick and his Commissariat Bodyguard. In my mind, this is the Chimera he used during the Second War for Armageddon, pulled out of retirement for a second go around.

The following Chimeras are all transports for the fighting men of the 276th Steel Legion Regiment, 4th Company, 1st & 2nd Platoons.

Chimera Armored Transports (276-4-C through to 276-4-7)

- Assembled by Dave Taylor

- Painted by Brien Dulaney, Joe Marshall, and Dave Taylor

Loads of armor and transports just itching to get to grips with Ghazghkull and his Orke horde!

So, if you think you'd like to have a chance to win these tanks (and do a lot of good at the same time), please click on the Paypal link in the top right corner and donate a lot of money to Doctors Without Borders!

More to come : )

Cheers

Dave

The Artillery Train of Nuln (Part 9)

2011-06-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Grab a cup of coffee, sit down, and relax...there's quite a lot in this post : )

As faithful readers will remember, last Saturday I took my army to the GW store at White Marsh to compete in the Armies On Parade store heat. I was the winner on the day and you can check out my shots of the cool looking Nurgle force I was up against in this post here. Well, I managed to get some photos of finished pieces last Saturday and tonight I finally have a chance to put them up here.

The photo above is the entire force as it was displayed at the store, complete with flocking.

Some of you may remember the Helstorm Rocket Battery I had painted up. I was looking for a few suggestions regarding a design for the back of my merchant's cloak. You provided lots of great ideas, some of which I really wanted to try out, but time and the primary color (the turquoise) didn't really help out with the decision making. Fortunately I spotted the perfect thing to key off. I simply repeated the Empire eagle motif, found on the back of the "rocket board", in a slightly lighter version of the turquoise. This way I could create a direct visual link, and not feel like I was introducing too many other colors to the piece. Rest assured though, those ideas will surface again.

I also added a small N in the lower right corner of his cloak. Just something for a little fun.

The next piece I finished up was the second cannon. I wanted this crew to have a stronger sense of urgency, as though the enemy was almost upon them, the barrel is loaded with grapeshot, and it's almost time for the last ditch defense.

I figured that with such a short range war machine in their hands, the Helblaster crew would also be about to mount a desperate defense (or run away as the case may be). The guy with the barrel swab has obviously had little weapons training, unlike the gunner reaching for the sword in the rack, but both are showing a great deal more courage than the third gunner about to flee the scene.

The Steam Tank came out very nicely I think, considering it was a bit of a "Frankenstein" job. I had to stitch together various parts from the plastic and metal kits, as well as a few sheets of plasticard. The dark metal of the body was painted in a slightly different way to how I painted the rest of the dark metal on the other war machines. I mixed Boltgun Metal with Flames of War/Vallejo German Grey. This gave me a very dark and smooth basecoat that looked great once I added a couple of layers of thinned Badab Black.

After checking out the photos above, I realized I hadn't named the beast, so I scoured the internets to find the names of the original Steam Tanks, and immediately settled on Pride of Nuln. Very fitting.

So, I was nearing the home stretch. Just a few characters to go. Here's my Battle Standard Bearer, regally bedecked in his shiny gold armor. I knew his uniform and the banner were going to be black and I really wanted something that was going to pop. The gold works really well, and has it's own lovely depth added by applying two thin coats of Secret Weapon's Amethyst wash to the recesses.

I decided that this relatively small force (for a city the size of Nuln) must serve defending one of the numerous gates or waterways into the city. For no particular reason I settled on the North Gate, so this army is now "The Northgate Defenders". Appropriately enough, a portcullis and a cannon are the symbols on the Army Standard.

And finally (or so I thought), I had to finish up my Engineers. A friend of mine had recently lambasted me for not running Engineers with my cannons. He went so far as to say that it was the main reason I'd lost so many games with the army. I dug through my boxes of Empire bits and put together these two daring students of blackpowder from plastic bits alone. I'm quite happy with them. Of course, in my last game they helped kill a Hellpit Abomination, which promptly came back to life with six wounds and rampaged through my line. Thanks for the advice John ; )

The last thing I had to do was finish off the "planter boxes" I'd made. Almost all of the bases in this army are from Dragon Forge Design (their Temple line). Jeff was kind enough to let me know where his secret stash of textured plasticard was sourced from (the UK actually) and I had to make a couple of orders to get enough for the display base. I had a few sheets left over and knew I needed to add some height to the terrain. I painted up two of the twisted GW plastic trees and built these two "planters" out of the textured (and some untextured) plasticard. A little bit of putty, paint, and tufts of grass and they were good to go. They are separate from the table for ease of transport.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour through the latest additions to the Artillery Train. The Marienburg Landship is slowly grinding its way towards my painting table.

Stay tuned...

Cheers

Dave