Foda Bett's Blog

Another Year Another Resolution

2012-01-01T12:45:00.004-06:00

So here we are, 1/1/12 and I'm sure you're wondering where I've been.
First off I got a job in April and its been requiring a TON of my time. The last few months I've been working 7 days a week and turning the lights on and off.
So what have I painted this year?

Space Marines:
Built and painted 3rd Company Tactical and assault marines
Built and painted 3rd Company Chaplain and Librarian
Built and painted Damocles Rhino
Built and painted 10 Space Marine Veterans
Built and painted 4 Dreadnoughts
Basecoated 9 Landspeeders
Built and painted 3 Apothecaries
Built 24 Death Company
Built 17 Marines
Built 6 Chaplains
Built 4 Librarians
Converted 2 Librarians
Built 7 Commanders
Built 4 Apothecaries
Built 10 Tech marines
Built 3 Standard bearers
Built 8 Command Squad models
Converted 2 Company Champions
Built 5 Terminators
Built 9 Servitors

Grey Knights:
Built and painted Grand Master Test Model
Basecoated Land Raider Redeemer
Built and painted 2 Librarians
Built and painted 2 Heavily Converted Dread Knights
Built and Painted Giant Display base
Built and painted 48 Servo Skulls
Built and painted 4 Familiars
Built and painted Castellan Crowe
Built and painted Tech Marine
Converted and Basecoated Lelith to Callidus
Built and painted 4 Crusaders
Converted and Painted Megan Fox figure to Callidus
Built and painted 3 Vindicare assassins
Converted and painted Vindicare assassin
Built and painted Culexus assassin
Built and painted Imperial Assassin
Built and painted 3 Witch Hunters
Built and painted Nearly 150 Purifiers
Built and painted 1 Fallout mini
Built and painted 3 Inquisitor Rex bodyguards
Built and painted Dark eldar to Callidus Conversion
Built and painted Culexus Conversion
Converted 34 Crusaders
Converted 9 Tech marines
Built 60 Terminators

Imperial Guard:
Stripped Fixed and painted Stormblade
Stripped Fixed and painted Baneblade
Built and painted 20 Sentinels
Built and painted 14 Commissars
Basecoated 90 Stormtroopers
Basecoated nearly 200 Guardsmen
Built and painted 16 Enginseers
Built and painted 10 Adepts and Servitors
Built 1 Commissar

Terrain:
Painted 6 feet of Aegis Defence Lines
Built and painted 10 Sentry Guns
Converted enlarged Punisher cannon

Commission:
Built and painted 4 Servitors
Built and painted Enginseer
Built and painted Genesis Chapter Assault Squad
Built and painted Vulkan Hestan
Built and painted Dreadnought
Built and painted Full Ultramarines command squad
Built and painted Ultramarines Tac squad
Built and painted Crimson Fist2 Tactical Squads
Built and painted 2 Crimson Fist Dreadnoughts
Built and painted 1 Birthday Present Cygnar model

Played:
15k Apoc-a-strike with no super heavies
Wargames Con
25k Apocalypse Game
1k Tournament GW Frisco (2nd)
2k Feast of Blades Tournament (4th)
2k Sideboard tournament (2nd)
AMPS modeling contest Silver Medal
Hobby Town Dallas Super Heavy Painting contest (1st Place)

So my hope is to try and do at least 1 update a week.

Space Hulk Libby, Belial, Promise of future knights!

2011-02-20T13:12:00.003-06:00

I've kind of been neglecting most of my posting duties around the net as I work on ebay to clean my house up. However, due to that I've purchased a MUCH better camera. I've managed to paint up a few models over the past months and I'll be posting pictures of them when I get time. In the mean time here is the last of the un-Blood Angel-ed space hulk termi, and my very old Lysander-to-Belial conversion. Pictures after the break!

I tried playing with GIMP a little more to make some better all in one shots. What do y'all think?

As I posted last time I'd planned to complete my Space Wolf army this year, however, I think I'm going to scrap it. I've also been bitten by the Grey Knight bug and I'll be repainting my 10k worth of knights over the next few months. The first step was to get a clear count of what I've picked up over the last year via trades and bartering and I'm glad to say that task is done! I'll be posting some photos of my old scheme and my new base coated Grey Knight later.

36th Post - Updates on me

2011-01-30T20:28:00.003-06:00

Well first off I've got some updates on my resolution. Then I've been working on some commission work for Bob and Mac. And lately I've been painting up some 5th company marines. I also purchased a Pentax K-X camera, so I'll be taking some nice pictures.

Here's the 2010 Resolutions

1) Buy more carrying cases. I have no room to store any more completed models (apart from a few more marines). So my number one objective needs to be to get some more foam to store my minis! I can't finish any half done projects if I have no place to store a finished product.
I've spent more this year on foam than anything else so I guess I've accomplished this one

2)Finalize a paint scheme for my Khador army. I've got a Warmachine army that's been gathering dust waiting for the release of the new rules set this January. Once that bad boy hits I want to be able to play a few games and to do that I need to have a painted army.
Done and done. I finalized a paint scheme for my khador and played 3 games.

3) Only play with painted stuff. Playing in Brian's campaign this year has inspired me to only play with painted figs. I've got enough figs and tanks around the house to field nearly anything I want to so I just need to paint it all, and the best way to do that is to only play with painted figs.
I only played in 1 game this entire year with unpainted models and that was against Brian. Of course I only played in about 20 games.

4) Finish rare models collection. I'm missing 2 models to have every Ultramarine GW has produced, I'm going to try and track them down this year and I'll let no ebay sniper get in my way. I'm also missing a few rogue trader mechanicus figures to finish off a collection of them.
I don't know how but I was able to track down both the Ultramarines figures this year, however the mechanicum figs I'm missing have shot up to the ~$30 price range and I don't know if I'm happy with spending that much on 1 infantry figure.

5) Finish a super heavy. Stormlord, warhounds, reavers, mysterious projects no one's seen? Take your pick, but I definitely need to finish 1 or all of them.
Swing and a miss. Although the warhounds are nearing completion.

6) Keep track of painting and purchases via log book. I've created an excel spreadsheet for keeping track of my gaming related purchases and accomplishments. I'd like to see at the end of the next year everything I've accomplished without having to rely on my faulty memory.
Mission accomplished! I painted 1270 figures in the past year. That includes vehicles, characters and nearly 300 15mm figures. Out of that total 1136 were on commission. I started but never finished 74 figures.
Monetarily... well lets just say I spent too much.

For 2011:
Increase my molding capabilities. There has been some things I want to mold but I've been afraid too, I've got some silicon that's about to go bad and I figure it's time to experiment.

Start my Wolf army. I've signed myself up for the 40k Radio motivational challenge for the rest of 2011 and it'll hopefully keep me going on my wolves. Every month I have to complete something different
Jan - Bootaz Choice
Feb – Troop
March – HQ
April – Troop
May – Elite
June – Heavy Support
July – Fast Attack
August – Elite
September – Heavy Support
October – Bootaz Choice including Toys for Tots
Nov – Fast Attack
Dec – Objective Markers / Terrain /Display Board

Play in more tournaments. Hopefully as I move into the career world I'll be able to get some Saturdays off to play in a few tournaments.

Play on Wednesday nights. As I'm finally finished with school I plan on making it up on Wednesday nights more often. This will give me some more practice, which I am in dire need of.

Buy more foam. This is a repeat goal because I'm tired of having models strewn everywhere. I'm trying to make a case of unpainted models so I can just open it up when I get the painting itch.

35th Post - Update

2010-11-30T18:39:00.003-06:00

Ok so I'm sorry I've let this languish for so long. I'm graduating at the end of this semester and I've been breaking my back trying to study. I've also managed to finish a few more commissions such as 275 Flames of War 15mm Russians for Bob, 80 15mm Germans for Mac and I'm working on 80 more 15mm Germans for Mac.

Bob and Mac are good friends of mine and they've just restarted their Flames of War hobby... well game I guess since I'm doing the hobby.

Next up I've been working on the Damoclese rhino, it's almost done with decals applied. Next step is to gloss and flatten the decals then weather the whole tank. I'm not going to be doing much weathering because I like my marines battle ready.

Dad and I have also been working on the warhounds. We've got lights installed, sound boards ready to be wired and even put some paint down on them! Well it's just the reactors.

I've also been selling some of my unused models. I've now sold off nearly all of my Fantasy stuff, leaving only the pile of 2nd hand Empire models left. I've also started selling my Warmachine models. I've come to realize that with the monetary and time investments I've been sinking into the 40k universe I really don't have much left for other game systems. Don't get me wrong I've started branching off into Battle Fleet Gothic (played my first game) and Epic 40k (Started buying companies of tanks), Aeronautica Imperialis (purchased 4 planes), but I think my table top gaming is going to be in just the 41st millennium.

34th Post - 3 Sanguinary Priests

2010-09-27T16:00:00.006-05:00

Well I've been doing a lot of sanding on the titans lately so no pretty pictures of them, however I was able to finish some quick Sanguinary Priests for Bob. These 3 guys were done in about 2 hours total.

33rd Post - It's been a while

2010-09-24T19:03:00.005-05:00

Hi guys!

I'm afraid I've been a bit busy doing some stuff since my last post. First up I finished the Blood Angels commission

Here's the Golden boys from the commission

I also built some honor guard

Then I started painting the last of my assault terminators

I later finished those termis (bringing the total up to 40 finished that month) I also finished those blood angels in the front row.

Next up was some Ultramarines Sternguard for the same client

And a Land Raider Crusader

I got my spray booth working and sprayed 9 land speeders, 3 Predators, 1 Dread, and 1 Damoclese rhino

I've also been doing some resin sentry guns, some pre-heresy equipment, and some more titan work! I've been posting the titans in the game headz blog (just check out the other blog I'm part of). I'll try to get a summary post over here, as well as keeping this thing updated more often!

32nd Post - 28 more terminators

2010-08-24T17:25:00.007-05:00

Well the titans have been slow going. We've basically taken the time to bring the other 3 into line with the first.
So in the mean time I've been working on a little commission (20 sanguinary guard, dante, and sanguinor) and painting some terminators. I've tried a few things out on these terminators that I like. First I've tried dryrbushing the light gray for all of the highlights. Second I've treid Kermi brown with bleached bone highlight instead of scorched brown with bleached bone highlight for all the parchment. Both these slight changes have increased the speed at which I can paint terminators, and I managed to paint 28 of them since my last post!

First up 10 Thunder hammer storm shield termis

Next 10 shooty termis with assault cannons

Then 5 Lightning claw termis to finish off that earlier squad.
Finally 3 un-Blood Angel-ed space hulk termis.

I built them custom bases so they can still be used in space hulk as well as serve in the 1st when I have to deploy the entire company.

Well thats it for a bit. I'll try to get some photos of the golden boys I painted and I'm thinking of trying to get the final few terminators I built during the winter done.

31st Post - Legion of the Damned are DONE

2010-08-09T23:24:00.005-05:00

Well I can check that off the list (apart from the oop and limited models).
I can also check off one of my resolutions as I finally acquired the Iwo Jima and Uriel Ventris dioramas! I'm still on the look out for some Mechanicus and select Marine and Guard stuff but the Ultramarines were the hardest part.

Next up on the painting table is Bob's Sanguinary Guard, Dante, and Sanguinor (GOLD BABY!) I've got another 12,000 points per side battle coming up. This time between Kenny and his friend Eric (before he's shipped back overseas) and myself. We've decided no super heavies and no flank marching. It's going to be their 12k of Blood Angels and Guard vs my 12k of Marines and Guard.

Ok, I may have gone a little nuts on the pictures but here they are:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Foda_Bett/40k/Space%20Marines/Other/?start=all
Chaos black was NOT used on these models. Most of these models were done with dry brushing. After I black washed the flames I brought them back with dry brushing, and that's how I did the braziers by dry brushing the flames. Same thing to highlight the guns, and that is even how I did the bone (except for the noses of the beakies). A small dry brushing can go a long way.

I think they're probably the best line infantry I've done. Obviously some flaws here and there but I'm tired of painting them.

I've also been invited to be a co-author at Game Headz blog at
http://game-headz.blogspot.com/
so expect to see some stuff from me over there.

30th Post - Back from WARcon, LoTD Guard conversion

2010-08-03T23:38:00.004-05:00

Well I've back from WARcon.
I ended up getting 3 wins, 2 Draws, and 2 Losses. The points were a little weird (going from 0 - 50 per game in most cases) and I played a couple of jerks and some REALLY great opponents but all and all I had a blast. Hanging out with Bradford, Michael, and all the people we met was definitely the highlight! Dave Taylor taught and awesome class and I learned some sculpting tricks that I'll be trying out later.

But now that I'm home it's time to go back to painting. First up I put the orange down on the flames of the Legion of the Damned.

Next up waiting for me when I returned home was a box from the Warstore with the new wargames factory greatcoat infantry. I'd been waiting for this set for almost 2 years now as I thought they'd make good IG stand in, and work great for heavy weapon team spotters, and conscripts.
Here's the first conversion. This conversion was only done using 2 cuts to remove the stock gun and attach the cadian lasgun.

I liked this conversion so much I built 2 more.

These figs are DIRT CHEAP at $16 for 18 models from the warstore. So I'm going to be picking up more of these to use all over my army.

29th Post - Termi and Thunderfire pics, LotD paint

2010-07-28T12:21:00.005-05:00

Well you’re in for another barrage of pictures I’m afraid.
First up I got my portable light booth set up and took some photos of my thunderfire cannons.

Cannon 1

Cannon 2

Cannon 2’s tech marine (both marines are painted identically)

Then I took some pictures of the Termi Standard Bearer

The termi assault sergeants

The Lightning claw termis

And the thunderhammer termis

More photos of the termis are here

And finally I put boltgun metal on the Legion of the Damned.

Hopefully I’ll put some work in on the Warhounds. This’ll be my last post for a few days as I leave for Wargames con tomorrow morning!

27th Post - Legion of the Damned,small commission update

2010-07-27T03:35:00.006-05:00

So, now you're asking "Why now, after all the posts you've had why do you chose now to do a history of your marines?" Well the answer to that is simple. I've started working on them again.

I'm afraid I went a little Legion crazy when the new Legion of the Damned models were released. I picked up 1 of every model released and then got a deal for an extra box minus the sarge. So I have 2 full squads, 1 10 man using multi-melta and melta gun, 1 10 man using heavy flamer and flamer.
Here's some pics of conversions I did to make the duplicates from the boxed set not look so samey.

I usually try to pick up metal models when they are first released as they have crisp detail since the mold hasn't had time to deteriorate. You should see some of my "recently" purchased steel legion compared to ones I picked up in the late 90s. There are huge blobs under their arms. I didn't think the Legion of the Damned molds would last long with all those undercuts so I jumped on them when they came out.

First step was do all the bone in Kermi Brown

Then I put Iyanden Darksun as a base for the flames

Finally I added Scorched Brown as a basis for the leather, wood, and purity seals.

I also built Bob's Ultramarines and Blood Angels.

26th Post - Ultramarines History part 6 - Random Stuff

2010-07-27T03:28:00.005-05:00

I also built a Vulkan Conversion

And painted him up

I built a test Spartan marine for the 5th company

I found a Robute Gulliman model on ebay and magnetized his arms

I also painted the Masters of the chapter

I had to do my take on the master of the ravenwing on jetbike

And then basically put the army back on hold to work on the guard which is what started this blog.

25th Post - Ultramarines History part 5 - 8th Company

2010-07-27T03:26:00.002-05:00

When the blood angel PDF came out I knew it was a perfect time to come up with a new marine army. So I decided to make the 8th company.

I started out by doing a test model

And a chaplain

I later expanded it to include
Mephiston

Some crazy death company

And a few parts of squads

When the blood angels dex was rumored I dusted off the 8th company and began working on them again.
I put more troops in each squad

24th Post - Ultramarines History part 4 - Chapter Command

2010-07-27T03:23:00.003-05:00

Chaplain Cassius

When 5th edition hit I had started adding a few “newer“ models like

1st and 2nd ed Calgars

New Calgar

His chapter champion

His standard

Tigurius

Later I finished Calgar’s Honor Guard box

23rd Post - Ultramarines History part 3 - 1st Company

2010-07-27T03:18:00.003-05:00

With the release of the “new” plastic terminators I picked up a box and made a 4 man command squad,

with 2 assault cannons (1 was pre-heresy),

and a librarian for them to guard.

Next I got Lysander and tried my hand at sculpting to turn him into an Ultramarine.

Next I started working on a squad of assault terminators (I later finished 3 more Lightning Claws to go with this squad)

Then I had to paint the new terminator librarian

I took a side track and started working on some terminators (as I had receiving a boat load of terminator bits from Bob

I converted up a deathwing command squad using space hulk terminators

and had fun painting them

I built a Njal conversion

and un-blood-angel-ed a set of space hulk terminators

Finally I repainted 2 old land raiders 1 a Promethus and 1 normal

Since taking those photos I have painted 10 more assault terminators (from the giant batch), the standard bearer, and blue washed all of the other terminators.

22nd Post - Ultramarines History part 2 - 2nd Company

2010-07-27T03:12:00.003-05:00

When I started the 4th edition update I decided to do all my models in drop pods with 2 melta guns in each tactical squad.
Here’s some pics of the squads on my city fight board

To help these squads out I added 6 dreadnoughts.
3 Venerable,

and 3 regular

They all have removeable back banners

Of course all of those models needed drop pods and the infamous Foda Pattern drop pod was born

In the end I made 12 drop pods

I later added a chaplain,

a landspeeder

this model had the first of my senic bases

Later as the Apocalypse “bug” started to rear its head I realized I needed to flesh out the 2nd company so I added
Sicarius

6 plasma gunners and flamers (so every tac squad could choose its special weapons)

6 Lascannons (So I can do something with the squads), and more marines (so each squad could hit the full 10 man requirement)

2 Devestator Squads with 4 heavy bolters each

and of course they needed more marines to make them 10 strong

A tech marine

I also gave Sicarius a command squad using dark angel vet legs (again with double the special weapons needed so I can take what I want when I want)

and finally a librarian

21st Post - Ultramarines History part 1 - Starting the army

2010-07-27T03:10:00.002-05:00

Well here we are another history post, this time it’s for my Ultramarines.
You may want to get something to drink while this loads.

As y’all have read I originally started 40k with Tyranids. However due to the lack of a codex I decided to start Space Marines. After I read the 3rd Edition Space Marine codex I found I really liked the Ultramarines fluff and special characters, so I started painting my models in the original blue and yellow scheme.

With the release of the 4th edition codex and many improvements in my painting skills I decided it was time to redo my army. I went with a scheme that was darker than the stock GW one.
Here was the test model

I had originally tried to organize this chronologically but my memory isn’t clear enough to go back the nearly 8 years since 4th edition has come out.

20th Post - Display board

2010-07-25T15:39:00.002-05:00

Today I pulled the display board out and took some photos of the army on top of it.
Here's the whole thing.
Colonel with Plasmas.

Flamer squad 1
Heavy support
backdrop
More photos in my PB account.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Foda_Bett/40k/Imperial%20Guard/Painting%20Updates/

Nineteenth Post - Vendettas weathered

2010-07-22T12:45:00.004-05:00

Well I've always thought the Vendettas needed something and after coming home from gaming last night I grabbed the Tamiya make up kit and went to town

Here's just 1 bird
The muzzle burns by the cockpit
Looks kind of silly without the gun there.
I think they look good. I'm going to go back with a little brown and hit the engine burns and muzzle burns a bit. I destroyed that little makeup brush they give you so I'll need to go buy another one.

I've got 1 week till I leave and the army is technically done! That's a big improvement from last year where I was painting in the hotel room the night before the Big Waaagh.

So apart from commissions what should I do next?
I've been thinking of trying to finish off my russes or maybe paint some more terminators. Of course I'm going to keep working on the titans but I need micro projects do do in the mean time.
I don't have room to start anymore projects so I need to finish some of the ones I have abandoned.

Eighteenth Post - Infantry finished, Manticore finished, Warhounds dusted off

2010-07-21T00:43:00.004-05:00

First up I attached the missiles to the Manticore. I decided to use sticky glue instead of magnets due to the way their built.

I also finished touching up all of the infantry I will be using

And finally I resurrected an old project.
Some of you may remember my old Warhound thread from many years ago
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/205219.page

I have since re-organized the pictures into the new galleries here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Foda_Bett/40k/Super%20Heavies/Warhounds/WIP/

Well the warhounds have sat (more like laid) around the house since then waiting for a day to be picked up and worked on again. Well that day has come!

Tonight I started dusing off and re-tightening all of the warhound bolts, which proved to be a bit of a job, and tallying their parts. I also glued on some of the broken parts I could find.
Let me start by saying THESE TITANS ARE NOT FOR SALE NOR WILL THEY EVER BE FOR SALE!

Seventeenth Post - Bases ringed, and final 2 hydras weathered

2010-07-19T23:38:00.003-05:00

Tonight's update isn't going to be as flashy.

First up I got the other Hydras weathered.

Then I repainted the rings on the rest of the army

I also finished the Callidus and decaled the 4 new recruits (2 plasma gunners and 2 demo charges)
I've started doing touch ups on all of the infantry. As well as basing touch ups and sealing of the bases of the infantry and the movement trays.
Since I finished the majority of the infantry in June 2009 I've pretty much played with them only so they've got some scuffs and paint chips I've got to repair. I'm also cleaning up some of the blending where I can.

So now I've got to:
Weather Vendettas
1/2 Touch up old models

Sixteenth Post - 4 bases 2 hydras 2 mystics and a callidus

2010-07-19T01:08:00.005-05:00

Well I've been away for a bit with work and what not so it's time I get back to work on my army!
I've got 2 weathered hydras now and now I've got 2 more to go.

I also finished the 2 mystics I needed.

I also started the Callidus

Next I glued the canopies to the Vendettas. I also glued the resin Vendetta together.
Finally I painted (and sanded) 4 galeforce 9 lazy trays... err movement trays.

So now I've got to:
Weather 2 Hydra upper 1/2s
Weather Vendettas
Decide if I like the new base ring color
Decal new guardsmen
Touch up old models

All this by the 28th.

Fifteenth Post - Straken's new arms, finished Psykers.

2010-07-16T12:01:00.004-05:00

Well I finally finished off the last 2 Hydras. These 2 didn't seem to like the older magnets I'd installed in their turrets so it took some work to cut them out and put new magnets in them

Then I finished the Psykers.
I'm trying a new color around their bases. I don't know if I like it yet. It does have the benefit of creating a definite separation of models.

Finally while waiting for the Pyskers to dry I decided to try out those new Max Mini bionic arms!

I also primed the 2 mystics and assassin.

So now I've got to:
Paint 2 mystics
Paint callidus assassin
Weather Hydra upper 1/2s
Double check magnets for Vendettas (a couple were loose the other day)
Weather Vendettas
Install cockpit in resin Vendetta
Install Canopies in Vendettas
Decide if I like the new base ring color
Decal new guardsmen
Touch up old models

All this by the 28th.

Fourteenth post - Battle psykers, weathered missiles

2010-07-14T01:37:00.004-05:00

Another night another layer of paint!

I added sand to the Vendetta's bases.
I added some slight weathering to the manticore's missiles so they don't look so factory fresh. I realize they're 1 shot but I figure they'd be driving around for a while before they spotted a target worth firing one of the rockets at.
I also flattened the psykers and overseers and added some green and metals to them.

Also I built another hydra, this one seems to stay together better so now I've got some experimenting to do with the others.

Thirteenth Post - Vendetta Lascannons and Psykers

2010-07-13T00:03:00.004-05:00

First up is the battle psykers I managed to get their base coats down and dipped them in minwax like the rest of my guardsmen.
Here's some photos of the lascannons for the Vendettas and the missiles for the manticores.
I color coded the lascannons so I don't get them mixed up.

Next up is highlighting the psykers after they dry, painting a callidus assassin and 2 mystics.
I'm down to 16 days before it all has to be done so its becoming crunch time.

Twelfth Post - manticore nearly done, hydra treads done

2010-07-05T18:46:00.005-05:00

Well I've been working on the now WarCon army.
I've painted and rusted the treads for the Hydras

I also painted up the bases for the vendettas. Next up is some drybrushing and sand.

The Vendettas got some touch ups and sealer. They're still lacking their guns.

Next up is the nearly finished Manticore. It's only lacking it's missiles now.

Well I'm off to another family funeral this week so it'll be a while before I get another update in.

Eleventh Post - Death Company Done, valk progress, more guard stuff.

2010-06-28T23:12:00.008-05:00

It's been a while, I totally forgot to update the blog in the flurry of BoLS prep I've been doing.
I got the death company finished and delivered as well as the characters I was working on with them.
Pictures below (more pics in my photobucket)

Overall the figs came out good and Bob was happy thus I got paid.

Considering that was nearly 2 weeks ago I've got more news.

Next up was the Manticore for my guard. I converted it so I could magnetize on the kit's 3 missiles or put on a deathstrike missile (to be built later).

I also decaled up the valkyries. The forgeworld decals are a bit horrible and could have been put on as 1 large piece but they didn't include enough space in between for the panels. Instead you're expected to disassemble to decals and the put them down. If they would have added some spacing on the decal sheet this would be fine but there's barely any room to get a pair of scissors in there! They turned out ok, I've got some touchups to do with paint but them's the breaks.

Next up I started work on my Hydras. I've decided NOT to just stick something on my chimeras as that'd look goofy. Instead I'm going for a leman russ chassis (it's higher ;) ) with a special add on... take a look.

I've got some more work to do before I'm happy with them. Right now they keep falling over because they're so blasted top heavy.
So that's it from me.
BTW blame Bradford for my lack of posts. He recommended Fallout 3 to me and after picking it up I can't stop playing it.

Tenth Post - Nearly Finished Death Company

2010-06-18T10:42:00.005-05:00

That's right I'm almost done with Bob's Death Company.
Since Sunday I've done the following to the death company:
Built them
Primed them black
Picked out red bits
Painted metallics
Painted parchments/tabbards
Painted wings/skulls
did touch ups
painted lenses

I need to do some touch ups around the eyes and then wash the metallics and parchments.

Ninth Post - Death Company and Psykers

2010-06-14T12:22:00.004-05:00

So I finally received the parts I needed for my psykers and I started building them. They're coming along rather nicely I think:

I really need to get off my ass and start painting these guys but I'm hoping whenever the forgeworld decals get in I'll start working on them again.

I also picked up another commission from Bob in the form of 30 Death Company, 20 Sanguinary guard, and every Blood Angel Special character.
Here's the Death Company, Astorath, Mephiston and his "stand in" Lemartes.

I'm hoping on finishing the Death Company and hopefully a couple of the characters by this weekend.

Also I recently reformatted my OS. I thought I had a problem when I installed new updates for XP but it turns out one of my SATA cables went bad.

Eighth post - Commission break and Straken

2010-06-10T23:06:00.005-05:00

I finished the last of Mac's minis. This time they're Tallaran Models, everyone of them had a conversion of some king. The lasguns had been converted to look more like carbines, others had simple weapon swaps.

Sarge, melta, and lasguns

Some guardsmen vox, 2 snipers and more lasguns

Heavy Weapon team

My favorite pose, it has a lot of story to it

Lately I've been trying out my BOLS list and I've decided to try out Straken. However I have no model for Straken so I needed to convert one, as the current and old straken models don't fit my army's look. So I came up with the following.

I had tried the scout biker shot-gun on the hip pose, but it didn't look very good so I went with the giant glaive.

I also ordered 3 foam trays for my vendettas, my first carrying case order of the year. It only took 6 months for me to start on my resolution.

Seventh Post - Commissions and BOLScon updates

2010-06-07T01:27:00.008-05:00

Well for a while there it didn't look like I'd be going to BOLScon, however now it looks like I'm about 90% sure I'm going.

I started working on Mac's commission guardsmen again and got the Catachans and the Specials done.
I love working on Heavy weapon team bases, they allow me to really tell a story with the models, and just have fun with them. Here a junk russ turret becomes an ad-hoc piece of cover.

Here's Mac's Harker and 3 melta gunners.
More Catachans. Mac's guard are all rather bastardized amalgamations of every guard model he can get his hands on. Here some last chancers make good Catachans with the right paint.

Both of Mac's flamer's had a miscast on the left side of their face's. I painted them like they'd just been freshly burned by their charge.
The iconic Catachan sniper trio.

Mac also had some converted up medic's from the Lt Varras model from Battle for MaCragge boxed set. These figs need their bases finished (and the Callidus needs rubble)
I think they came out nice.
Next up was an Astropath converted from a Genestealer Magus, and a Callidus assassin.

This is the scheme I used for all of Mac's Cadians. It's the scheme that ties most of the figures together.

I started painting the vendettas I'm going to need.
I did one of the plastic vendettas a few days ago and did the old forgeworld resin tonight.
Here they are side by side. As you'll notice the wings are backwards. I like this look alot better than the normal GW look, as it makes the aircraft appear sleeker.

Here's the plastic's cockpitAnd the Resin's.

The resin Vendetta was originally my Inquisitor's Valkyrie so I'm going to just update the paint scheme.

Here's a close up of the Inquisition symbol on the wing.

And the inquisition door symbol. I've been wondering if I should paint the door black to match the backdrop of the wing symbol (and break up the gray). What do you think?

Obviously these 2 birds aren't done. I ordered a set of the fancy forgeworld valk/vendetta decals the other day and I'll be adding them later along with some weathering and possibly my normal Armageddon camo. I realize the fluff is that valks get attached to a ground unit after serving for so long so supposedly they would adopt the colors of the tanks around them, but I don't know. Again, what do you think, camo or no camo?

I also bought a new manticore/deathstrike list and I've got to say it's a fine kit. I don't like the style choice for the launcher itself (as I would have preferred a hydra/manticore pack) but apart from that (and the fugly deathstrike missile) I love it. I've gotten everything but the launcher assembly built and it went together so much smoother than the old chimera chassis vehicles.

Sixth Post - 275 finished Cadians, a GT, and PBS

2010-05-30T01:05:00.005-05:00

Well it's been a while.
First off I had to finish this semester and that was a little crazy, with 2 major projects during finals week.
I finally finished all of Bob's 275 Cadians you can see them here
Here's a pick of all of them together:

Before that I went to a GT in San Antonio Texas the Alamo 40k GT. The first of it's kind. I ended up coming in 21st out of 46 so a little above the 1/2 way mark (my goal). Results can be found here.

While there I took some photos of some of the neat armies (and X boards) and a few of the sights. Those photos are here.

While waiting for some of those cadians to dry I built the start of 3 squads of Psyker Battle Squads. Here are the front of the overseers for the units.

And the back. The one pointing the pistol doesn't have his finger on the trigger. I plan on putting some text on the book like "How to tell if your charge is possessed:".

I figure this is the 3 steps of battle psykers. Step 1 wait till the enemy is about to be shot by the army and break them (guy with binoculars). Step 2 drop the LD debuff (guy with sword). Step 3 fail psychic check and kill off some guys (guy with book).
And here is one of the 12 battle psykers I built. I'm trying to round up more of those stockade arms from the flagellant sets so if anyone has any let me know.

Hopefully I can do some more updates as I paint these 3 squads, 3 vendettas (which need tons of work), and build (and paint) 6 hydras all before the end of July!

Fifth Post - Eversor Predators painted

2010-04-26T11:18:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago I purchased the Horror Clix Predator boxed set. Inside were 6x 25mm predator figures. I decided that the skin was a little too yellow so I painted over it with tallarn flesh and gave the whole figure a mud wash. Just these 2 little changes made them look amazing and I've included some photos of them in my little inquisition case below.

These figs will make great Eversor assassins in the next apoc game.

Fourth Post - Mogul Khamir

2010-04-23T21:17:00.003-05:00

Well last night I spent some time and built the Dragon Blood miniatures Skull Cracker bird. This model is 4 parts (body, 2 wings, and tail). I tossed the wings in my bits box as they impede the rider's leg position but everything else went together fine. The place where the wings went together is actually sculpted so the wings don't have to go there so yay for me. I also built the last few birds from the first casting. I'm debating trying to paint them for BOLS con but I don't think that's going to happen.
Below are pictures of the big bird next to the normal birds to give a size reference.

Third Post - Work on Rough Riders and final plasmasaurus

2010-04-21T00:01:00.008-05:00

I'm going to try hosting the pics here to see if that changes anything. If it does I'll probably go back and edit the other posts.
Well tonight I got some work done on my Rough Riders and the final 2 plasma-saurus.
I had originally ordered 5 of the limited Pheonix Gamer's Society Moa bird rough riders and at the time I built 4 and cast the final one. I kept pouring molds until it broke and ended up with about 13 complete extra birds. So tonight I built another 5 birds to make 9 total.

As you can see they're kind of static. I'm going to build the first squad like this and then make a new mold of varying leg poses.

Here's a picture of one of the birds next to an assassin I'm doing as part of a commission.
The other thing I got accomplished is putting the gunmetal and silver down on my final 2 plasma-saurus.All these tanks lack now is tracks, stippling, touch ups, blue effects, squad colors, and finally decals. It sounds like a lot but I can finish some of those 2 per night.
I finally finished reading "Storm of Iron" last night and I really enjoyed it. You can tell it's a very early book by Grahm as Space Marines are treating guardsmen as equals, and sitting in chairs.
As a reward I'm starting Iron Warrior. It's one of those new limited release books from black library so I hope it's worth the price of admission.

Second Post - My Guard army up till now

2010-04-18T12:16:00.002-05:00

I was originally writing this as a piece for the 40k radio webzine but due to some recent problems I will not be submitting it there.

I originally picked up the Steel Legion models upon their release as they were the coolest thing I had seen. I built a rather crappy army and took it to the 2001 Dallas GT, and got STOMPED I took second to last place.
Here's a couple of crappy old photos.

With the release of Armored company rule-set I picked up about 18 more leman russes and expanded the force to this:

More photos.

Well I ended up finding out that 4th edition mech guard were crap, so I shelved the army for a while.
After a while the 5th edition guard codex preview copy came into my work. I spent every minute not helping customers pouring over this book writing lists changing things and talking to people. I knew this would be the book that brought back my IG and I started cruising the net looking for a good GT to go to and I found the Big Waaagh coming to Memphis, TN. Only being a 6 hour drive away I figured it was worth going, and I wanted to use the new hotness at the time, the Imperial Guard. Since my painting had improved significantly, and I had begun to hate the old gray scheme, I wanted to repaint the army in something more keeping with the Armageddon theme. So I sat down and read the guard book over and over and over trying to find something that was different enough to be noticed by a painting judge, but fit with the theme of the planet.
Then like a bolt of lighting it hit me, the 339th Iron heads. In the codex there's a story about a unit of guardsmen that defend a tank factory assembly line by assembly line as tanks are constructed around them. The guardsmen then mount up on freshly built but unprimed tanks and proceed to rout and then kill the orks. This is what I will do. I started doing research on tank metal rust and other things. I found a super bright metalizer Steel paint that worked well for a fresh from the factory look, and a desert yellow that worked well for the troops.
I wrote a bit of a back story about the 339th and how on the inaugural battle of a campaign they always strip their chimeras down to bare metal before assaulting an enemy position.
Now that I had a back story and a paint scheme I wanted something else. At the time I was play-testing a list led by Creed and none of the current Steel Legion models fit the air about him that Creed has. So I decided I'd make one.

I fell in love with this commander and decided he would be my creed.
But he needed a skull mask so he could fit in the army. So I ordered an extra steel legion commander and swapped their face masks.

With the commander sorted out I decided to paint the army. I saw the "priming stick" method in white dwarf and decided to try it out.

I cannot recommend this method enough if you are priming large numbers of models. It definitely saves the amount of paint needed to cover such a large number of figures as you are saving the over-spray.
So I set about painting my models. It took 2 sticks to get the entire army primed but after wards I had an army that was ready to be painted.
I then sealed the models so that the GW acrylic paints would stick as the spray was lacquer based.
Next up was scorched brown boots, gloves and pouches. Followed by catachan green helmets.
I then dipped the models in "Special Walnut" Minwax to give them a nice shaded look and then spray them with another coat of sealer. So the acrylic paints will stick to the laquer based Minwax.
Then I highlighted the leather with calthan brown, painted the guns with testors gunmetal, painted the lenses black, highlighted the coat with commando khaki, and picked out silver details with chainmail.
Which gives me the following look:

The model on the left is the test model, the middle model is post dip with leather highlights, and the model on the right is post dip with coat highlights.

Well now I've got a large group of guardsmen with no way to tell them apart. Steel Legion troopers don't have armored shoulder pads like Cadians so it's hard to put numbers on them. I came up with a military stencil font and then printed my own decals for squad lettering. I devised a 3 digit system the first digit being the platoon number and the second two being the squad number IE: 101 being platoon 1 squad 1. Command squads would have the relevant digit replaced with a skull so platoon 1 command squad would be the number 1 and a skull.

Next up were the tanks. I knew that I needed a way to differentiate the tanks as easily as I had done with the guardsmen. However the white decals I ordered from forgeworld didn't show up very well on the Steel hulls of the tanks so I had to come up with some way to have a different color on the tank. I decided I would paint the side skirts of the tanks in the normal Armageddon scheme, I came up with a BS story about techpriests not wanting the machine spirits inside the engine disturbed by stripping the paint and a painting I went.

No good guard army can survive on men alone and this one is no exception. I decided that I could use 6 meduasas to back up my very kill-able troops and after about a day and a half I scratch built the breech of a medusa, then with some metal working skills and a lathe I turned out a barrel to fit it.

I then cast up 6 of these beauties in resin

and test fit them to my medusas.

Now the meduasas needed paint. First up was another batch of awesome spray metalizer this time Gunmetal for the big guns.

Next was the usual Armageddon scheme for the hulls, plus some additions. Each squad got squad markings and decals, they also got battle slogans or names depending on the squad.

Squad 1:

Squad 2:

Squad 3:

Well after this flurry of painting I decided that the next cool thing the army needed was a display board. After a quick trip to home depot I picked up some pink foam and some edging and laid out a base.

I apologize as there are no WIP pictures of the base. After taking the pictures of the set up (mainly so I'd know where to put stuff back as I cut) I finished the base in less than 2 hours. This was rather critical timing as this was done the night before I left for the tournament.

Here are some completed pictures of the base and parts of the army. The chaos army that is also on the base is my friend's chaos army. We entered a team tournament that ran before the main GT. We were team FETC (Face Exploding Throbbing Cannons)

We massacred game 1, Game 2 we lost due to funky scenario writing, and game 3 we were soundly massacred.

The next 2 days during the GT I had a great time and came in 15th out of 82 people.

After returning home I realized how many more guardsmen I had to paint. To add more fuel to the fire a friend of mine made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I purchased 10 more leman russes. I realized I have tons of anti tank fire power already and I need some anti troop weapons. I started by converting up a leman russ punisher from an Terminator T-1 toy and one of my newly purchased leman russes

I painted that bad boy up and put him with the army

After a few games in a local campaign I realized that while I had tons of anti-tank and anti-light troops I needed something to kill marines. So I ordered some forgeworld ryza plasma cannon turrets and combined them with the new Demolisher tank turret and made some plasma-saurus' (My play group calls the leman russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons)

I then began to take stock of the guardsmen I had left in the house and decided to get them painted up. I started by building a ton of heavy weapon team bases and painting the rest of the guardsmen I'd acquired over the years

You can see a few more WIP pictures of the army here.

After that flurry of painting I decided that since I have 30 leman russes I would organize them into 3 companies. The first company would be the plasma russes. Well since I had 3 of them painted I needed a few more to get to the 9 per company. I've now got 2 full squads and the start of 1 squad.

Closeups of one of the tanks. You can almost make out the weathering on the tanks and the different colors in the camo.

Since taking these pictures I've started the 2 final russes for this company.

Next better shots of the finished punishers.

I'm not going to be finishing the turrets as I have a different gun in mind for later. I'll keep these turrets gray and that way I can sell them later.

I also painted some more command figures.
A commissar lord.

A commissar (This is a reaper figure but it fits).

Uriah Jacobs, you can barely make out the really cool way the coals came out.

And Redemptor Kyrnov.

At the moment this is where my guard army stands. I have almost another platoons worth of Guardsmen I've acquired since these photos but They are all bare metal and waiting for more guardsmen. I'll probably strip my Inquisitorial stormtroopers and put them in my guard scheme but I'm still debating it.

First post - My story

2010-04-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

About me:
I started my miniature wargaming hobby with the release of 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy. I went to a plastic model show and purchased some loose minis of a saurus warrior, a skink, a space marine, and a genestealer. I went home and built these models and I knew I needed more.
I purchased the 6th edition Fantasy starter set and expanded into a sizable lizardmen force. In the beginning I made the same mistakes everyone does and only purchased 1 of each unit, this of course meant I had a horrible army and only won games against my friends when we would do "everything I have versus everything you have" games.
After a while I started to look towards 40k and pruchased the 2nd edition tyranid army box at the start of 3rd edition. I kept expanding my force but grew impatient with waiting for the tyranids to be re-released. I then went on to space marines and built an army of them. When the 3rd edition tyranids finally came out I purchased it and expanded my bugs.
I had originally tried to play at Hobby Town USA but upon complimenting one of the gamers there on his paint jobs I was told to "Go to Hell kid." I didn't really want to play with people like that so I went somewhere else.
I ended up playing in a weekly 40k tournament at a store in Plano called Rama Lama Comics. I was soundly thrashed every weekend for a year as not a single person was willing to tell me what would make a good army, or even how to play.

I kept up with my original 2 armies till I had around 200ish bugs and 50ish marines and then I started Eldar, guard (with the release of steel legion), tau(with their release), necrons, demon hunters (with their release), and 2 chaos marines (World Eaters and Thousand Sons when the 3rd edition book came out).
I did a few crazy conversions and scratch builds while working on my armies. I built a 5 foot tall Warlord titan to go with my Imperial Guard and had planned on building a manta to go with my tau, but before I could do that I managed to destroy the army in pine-sol and the manta only got as far as the cargo bay.
My next project was necrons who were going to be lighted. I had started dremeling out the necron gauss weapons and installing a light inside before I started expermenting with the cost of batteries and their running time. Since I was using grain of wheat bulbs I got about 20 minutes of life out of a single watch battery. This would turn into a BIG expense in batteries and the army was shelved.
Next up where demon hunters. I purchased a squad of Grey Knights in power armor on their release day and was able to paint them up for a contest at Games Workshop. To make their weapons appear different I polished the pewter blades up to a mirror finish (which takes about 2-3 hours a model) and did my best paint jobs on them. This won me first place in the contest and I was able to enter the next leg of the contest in Austin. I drove down to Austin with a newly repainted squad and re-polished blades and was beaten by the managers girl friend and best friend. My "prize" was free admission into all tournaments held in the store for the next year. Nothing like winning something that you have to drive 5 hours to use.

Well time came and went I grew up from that kid with his parents money to that working guy and I've decided that I can't fund a struggling cold war between my armies (or finish the ones I've just massed stuff for) so I've narrowed it down to just the Imperial armies.

I also started warmachine some where in there. I started with cryx then I expanded into Khador when I wanted to put some dead guys on my bases. Oddly enough this made me want to start a Khador army, and with the release of Mk II I've sold off my Cryx army (except for a few pieces). Since then I have been slowly expanding my Khadoran army, but refuse to play with anything that isn't painted.

This blog will chronicle my Imperial 40k armies, my Khadoran Warmachine army, and what ever else I decide to put in here.
While doing this I will also try and keep track of my resolutions for 2010.
Which are:
1) Buy more carrying cases. I have no room to store any more completed models (apart from a few more marines). So my number one objective needs to be to get some more foam to store my minis! I can't finish any half done projects if I have no place to store a finished product.

2) Finalize a paint scheme for my Khador army. I've got a Warmachine army that's been gathering dust waiting for the release of the new rules set this January. Once that bad boy hits I want to be able to play a few games and to do that I need to have a painted army.

3) Only play with painted stuff. Playing in Brian's campaign this year has inspired me to only play with painted figs. I've got enough figs and tanks around the house to field nearly anything I want to so I just need to paint it all, and the best way to do that is to only play with painted figs.

4) Finish rare models collection. I'm missing 2 models to have every Ultramarine GW has produced, I'm going to try and track them down this year and I'll let no ebay sniper get in my way. I'm also missing a few rogue trader mechanicus figures to finish off a collection of them.

5) Finish a super heavy. Stormlord, warhounds, reavers, mysterious projects no one's seen? Take your pick, but I definitely need to finish 1 or all of them.

6) Keep track of painting and purchases via log book. I've created an excel spreadsheet for keeping track of my gaming related purchases and accomplishments. I'd like to see at the end of the next year everything I've accomplished without having to rely on my faulty memory.