Asurmen's finest..

Back to the normal sized guys today .. I pretty much just worked on more base colors getting the bones and some metallic on there. I still need to add the purples and gunmetal for the base coloring, once that's done I'll move onto blending and detailing. I'm telling you I really have a tough time keeping true on the course of painting squads haha.. I want them done but painting one color for an hour gets old real quick. I'm better at starting and finishing a mini then getting another. I may have to go back to that but painting them in a lot is more time efficient, though if I get tired of them they just don't get done at all .. It also may be that the basic troops are well ... basic and not a ton of extra cool stuff. I did try to pose the DA into different positions such as reloading a clip or holding the gun a little different. I need to have these dudes done though.

This year I sadly won't be able to make it to Games Day but hopefully I can make it to Nova for at least part of the event. I'm thinking about playing and would need to build up a display board. I have some ideas that I'd want to do but I'll probably wait till the dex comes out so I know what will be sitting on it. I was thinking of building an under structure and covering it with plaster to give it a flowing look. I haven't played with plaster in quite awhile but hopefully after a few tests it will come together haha

In case you didn't know, I'm kind of a big deal

So last week I noticed that today would make the 300th post I've done on here. That's a good bit of crap haha.. and for the big 300 I figured I'd post something big. Model wise at least. This weekend I broke out my Revenant. Homeboy have been sitting for a long time, last year I started working on his legs and got them well on their way but then as usual I got side tracked and he sat again. With the new Eldar codex on the horizon it's got me all fired up and in the Dar mood, I want to get stuff done I've been working on so I'll have time for all the new stuff. All the talk of the new big Wraith Construct made me want to work on this big boy. At the time he was the big boy on the block but now has been passed up by the Phantom. But he's still huge, as you can see with the Dire Avengers in the background.

I started priming the rest of his bits and noticed there were still some mold lines so I scraped them a bit more and then primed again. The bone color will go over the white but the blue needs to start off on black.

So I split up what needed what. Right now everything is primed and ready for color. I was going to start on some bone last night but my Badger Airbrush needs to be cleaned and I didn't have the time or energy. I had to get up to get my daughter and didn't fully clean it on last use. I used my Talon to prime the rest of the model and I hate that brush. I have never used a brush that clogs so much. I have to keep a Qtip by my side to keep the tip of the needle clean. Annoying and I wasn't going to spray the top coat on with that brush. So I just called it up for the night.

I'm pretty excited for the new Codex. I haven't fielded my Dar much lately as I'd have to pick up some models I don't really like. Namely War Walkers. I just hate the Chicken Leg look, back in the day I would have just converted them but with the second kid coming along money is tighter. So I've been waiting. I played that 1000 point game against a friend and I'll being playing in his Tourney thing with it. I really don't care how I do, I just want them to represent. I won the last game thanks to my Pathfinders doing what needed to be done, with the help of a Farseer's guiding hand. But in the game I really saw how over costed and behind they are, 1K is tough for them. He was fielding a ton of stuff and they were marines with 2 Thunderfires and a Flyer. It's all good though, will be a nice close out of the old Dex. It's lived long and strong, Funny how each Ed has changed it. Hopefully Wave Serpents get some kind of a boost, otherwise I'll have a ton of them sitting on my shelves haha..

I've also been seeing more and more Eldar info pop up and right now I'm getting a little worried. I'm a bit of an Eldar Elitist as in, I've played them now for over 20 years and very few people I knew did. They can be a hard army to play if you don't understand them and that scares people away. But if you can use them right they can (could, they are showing their age now but still have the potential to) make your enemy bleed. But now I see tons of people all over them, I can't wait for this or that unit and blah blah blah.. Ally this and Ally that. Personally I'm not a fan of the Ally system, it fits into the Min/Max system of cherry picking that people jump on to win. Like Necrons w/ GKs.. that is weak in my opinion. Now when I go somewhere and see the Dar running on a table I know the person likes them and want to field them. Sadly in the future if their Dex is good and the masses pick them up for the sole purpose of Allies it has the potential to diminish that for me. This is only my opinion and I know a lot of people love Allies, and they have their uses. But to me an army should be built with purpose and fluff in mind. That's why you should pick an army, because you like it. Not because it's the latest and greatest. But hopefully the Codex Flood will continue and those people will jump right onto the SM codex quickly .. haha

Get your gear on..

I only had a free hour or so last night so I worked on applying the beginnings of the bone colors to the Dire Avengers. Got about 10 boned up but that's about it. Typically I apply all my base colors and then start to go back for the detail work. I think I'll make one squad with two bone should pads and the other squad with one purple one bone just to make them separate themselves. Just what I'm thinking now, we'll see once I get some color on them. As I was going through them I noticed they have some mold lines on them 8( .. then I remembered that I build them all pretty quickly to get them on the table. And also remembered some are the old plastic/metal hybrids, you can really tell by the different shoulder pads and shorter barrels on their ShurCats. Oh and that the metal plumes actually have detail on the top! haah

Also flocked the Reaper. He's pretty much done just a few things I want to clean up.

Eldar rumors are coming in Fast and Furious now. Some I like and some I don't. They are saying Phil Kelly is writing it and I'm pretty happy with that, he seems to use a lot of Fluff in his Dexs and to me that's important. But that also leads me to hearing Guardians being cheaper and that is not the way I wanted them to go. To me they should be more expensive and have better stats. NO Eldar should be a meat shield. They are dying and the loss of one Eldar life is a major loss to the race itself. Also seeing the Autarchs are going to open up Aspect choices which I'm not really into as I don't like the idea of the Autarchs. To me they are not needed as a whole. I would rather they fix the old standby units and only add a few new things like Flyers maybe a few other vehicle options where they are weak. Make Exarchs tough again and bring the Warlock back as an IC with his own powers. I never use Locks now, but back in the day they were tough mofo's... but enough whining. Can't wait to see some new Jetbikes and more plastic mini's .. with metal gone I have to hope for all plastic now! 8)

Your outlook is quite Dire..

Finally got to do some painting last night and I'm liking the new painting setup better then my old stand. So I grabbed the Dire Avenger I was working on and finished him up. I really would like to get both squads done but that will probably start to weight on me haha.. Looking at the pics you can't really see the yellow highlights on his eyes.. they are light but they are there. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, I did a good bit of fading on him even though I was trying to keep him quickly done. I think his base might have a bit too much grass on it so I'll probably knock some of it off the front edge, I don't want it looking too furry.

I ended up going with a grey tabbard or loin cloth or whatever it's suppose to be. I had a bit too much bone color in there and wanted to brake it up. I also want to keep the core of the colors in there, those colors being blue and purple for the Craftworld I wrote up. The next two nights are going to be busy so don't know if I'll get more time soon but hopefully I will get to sneak in some more time.

Group shot of the awaiting avengers

And their main homie which I was still trying to keep them close to just not to take so long to paint haha

Fully Operational

I finished up the paint rack last night but I made some modifications. They are just sitting on the steps now, there is no way I was drilling that many holes haha! Way too many HOs! I mean damn it was a ton of holes and I would still be there right now drilling them if I had gone that route. Press board is pretty resilient I'll tell you. I was taking my time drilling it and took minutes for just the one hole. So I out a hole on each of the bottom ends and that will be the home for my glue 8).. I made myself feel better by telling myself I can fit more on there and of different sizes this way..  so I don't feel so lazy about not drilling .. 8)

Yesterday at lunch I ran to Home Depot and picked up the other sheet of press board I needed. Sadly I didn't look at my wood bore set, I have a nice set of Irwin bits and figured the 1 3/8" would be in there. Nope ... bahh .. so I ran back to the HD last night to buy the bit then didn't even use it haha. Well at least I now have a full set from 1/4" to 2" .. 

Here is what the table was looking like before the rack.

I guess I could have done without but I like my stuff orderly. Now I need to build two more shelves to hold stuff and the room will be complete. But for now it is at least fully operational 8). Tonight I'm going to actually try to get some painting done. I'm really looking forward to the new Eldar Codex. Please be awesome! So I might get some more Dar done tonight. Hopefully.

Doing some Maffs

This weekend I sadly didn't get any painting done as I was still working on my new painting room. My OCD makes me irritated if everything isn't in it's proper place. But I did get everything in it's place (sort of, I have to build the new shelves). I also sat down to design a new paint stand. I measured up the space I had available for the paint station along with two more shelves that I'll be building to hold the rest of my stuffs. Which is a lot of stuffs now that I have to squeeze it into a smaller room haha,.. why does nerdism  make a person collect so much stuff... and make it painfully hard to get rid of any of it. But anyway..

I'm making the paint station out of mainly 3/4" pine and 1/4" press board. It's actually a very cheap build using scraps from the spray station I made. Sadly the 2'x4' press board sheet was 1 1/2" short and I'll need to get another 8( .. blah. But it's not much just sucks I couldn't get it all constructed last night. Now I'll have to get the board cut it and then glue it plus cut all the holes hopefully tonight. And it will be a ton of holes .. a ton. Here's some of the maths..

I measured the two main paints I use.... Vallejo and GW. I need space for both and want to make sure I have enough room to hold everything I have plus more... Plan for the Future! 8) The Vallejo bottles will require a 1" hole and the GW paints a 1 3/8" hole. With three layers for each I should be able to hold a ton of paints. Going from those measurements and the space I had available I went with 1 1/2" deep levels for the GW paints and 1 1/4" for the Vallejo. Laid out below.

It's funny that there isn't a ton of materials used but damn it there a lot of cutting.

I ripped the press board into the sizes I needed and that was when I realized one 2'x4' sheet wasn't going to do it. I was short by 1 1/2" .. poop. Then I used my scroll and jig saws to cut out the step supports. Glued the sides to the bottom and measured the areas to notch. The tops of the lower level will also be the bottom (stop) for the next level. With the sides and middle notched I glued them all together using Gorilla Wood Glue. It will mostly be held together by the glue but I will be picking up some very small screws as well.

Some of the shelves required some clamp love.

So right now it's all glued together minus the missing level I need to cut once I pick up the press board today. Probably about 2 hours of work into it so far not counted the planning and measuring. I put the paints on it but they will sit in it once the holes are cut. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to stagger them yet. but I should be getting plenty in there. Leaving the back open I'll also store paints and materials I don't use often. This way they are stored taking conserved space and not being forgotten as I'll be able to see them and remember .. "oh yeah there they are!" haha..

Eldar keeping it real

Baiel Kair Tain sat in the Dome of Seers resting against one of the numerous crystalline trees. He could not recall how long he had been in meditation but his muscles were stiff and sore from the lack of activity. He had been drawn from his revere by the runes that rose and fell from his hand. Runes are like cascading water flowing from a fountain, always in motion, the runes flow on the torrent of time and fate. Three runes stood out as they quivered and spun like they were caught in a eddy. Istu-karun the Scout spun opposite of Cosseainn the knight of mankind and always nigh to both was Haras, blood. Baiel held his right hand aloft and let the other runes fall onto the outstretched palm of his left. If the the other runes held no significance to the newly weaved thread they fell away and grew dormant. Baiel watched as the thread grew in strength and certainty, this would be unavoidable. The blood of man would be spilled, sadly the human Space Marines would not listen to reason and his only aim now was to limit the loss of Eldar lives. With a sweeping motion all of the runes spun into tight formation, one by one falling into the case attached to his belt. He slowly arose and as he did Menteal one of his assisting Warlocks appeared at his side. "Menteal, send word to Phidious, we will be needing his assistance. Tell him to summon his best."

My friend Sean from http://www.l33tlike.us/ is running a 1K tourney at our local gaming store and he wanted to show some people what you could make for 1000 points. I spoke to him about going up there and we figured we'd get a game in. I threw together a quick Dar list using his limitations, Force Org sections limited to 0-2 instead of 0-3 except for troops. The board was also going to be 4x4 so a small table. Dar are a bit overcosted at the moment so throwing together something really potent isn't going to happen. But I wanted to get them on the table, always nice to run my Dar. So I came up with this

Farseer - Warlord w/ Runes of Warding, Guide (replaced with 1 from the Div Chart)
Farseer - w/ Guide (replaced with the Default from Div)

5x Pathfinders
10x Dire Avengers w/ Ex, 2xShurCat, Bladestorm
3x Jetbikes

2x Vypers w/ 2x ShurCan
1x Vyper w/ 2x ShurCan

5x Reapers
1x Wraithlord w/ BL, 2x Flamers

He ran a very strong list containing
Lib
2x Thunderfire Cannons
1 x Storm Talon
Aegis with Las
2 x 10 Marines w/ HB and Flamer
Dread  w/ 2x AC

I was a bit worried from the start as the Thunderfire cannons can shred the Dar and the flyer could also be an issue as I have nothing with Skyfire. I went first and on that first movement phase I really paid attention to where his TFC were, I took the side with higher terrain to cut down his lanes of fire which worked out very well, he only got one TFC shot off the whole game. Thankfully the Pathfinders came out to play and were the heros of the game. The Seer kept them "Guided" and they were throwing out tons of low AP shots, they took both the TFC's out and the Aegis LAS. The Reapers poured hate into the marines all game taking out a squad but he was making a lot of cover saves for them the bums .. haha The Vypers unleashed a lot of fire but didn't kill much. They did at least make his flyer Jink, saving some Dar Casualties at least. I should have just given both Seers the default Div power but figured what the hell.. Yesterday I got up at 5:40 and went for an hour road bike ride (I need to get back into shape!) but it was starting to wear on me last night haha.. I totally lost track of the rounds (thought I had one more round till 5) and it almost bit me in the end. I also forget about the big guns never tire, so I moved units into positions I didn't need to but oh well. The Eldar held strong and came away with a 7 to 3 Victory with me having 2 objectives to his 1 and me getting First Blood. It was a very good game and I was happy the Dar could still show they can kick some ass.

In this pic you can see the Jetbikes coming in congo line style to avoid the interceptor shot from the LAS haha..

The Dark Reapers I ordered off Ebay came in and wow do they look rough haha.. I'm guessing a younger kid painted them. I was hoping the paint/primer wouldn't be too thick and stripping wouldn't be needed. Sadly that is not the case.

For the Birds..

So after drawing up numerous designs that all looked goofy to me I went online to look at some Raven images and came across a cartoony Raven. It looked pretty cool and then I figured it didn't have to be a head per say and maybe a silo side design would look cool. So I think I will be going with something like this, as it will be a stencil I'll spray it on then do some of the detail work with the brush. I made a mock up on the side of a Stormraven coming up with something like this..

I added a Blood Angel drop coming from the beak but I may remove that. My only negative thought is someone could confuse it with the Blood Ravens. I tried to draw it standing on the BA symbol but that was coming off looking cheesy haha.. The wings on the wings will probably look suitably ragid to match.

Raven mad!

Since my room is still in a state of complete disaster I've been trying to draw up something that I want to put on the side of the Stormraven. I have been wanting to get this thing done for a long time but I'm never really quite happy with where it is or where it's going. I don't know why it's getting me so annoyed but I want to get this thing done and on the completed shelf. I want it to have something to make it stand out. Especially now that GW went and gave it to Space Marines as well (lame in my opinion). I've been working on a Raven design that I think will look good on the side and then some wings for the wings. The design is eluding me though haha..  I've probably made up about 20 different images in Photoshop but I can't get behind them... grr..  taking a break and getting some food!

Throwback Tuesday.. Reaper Style

As I was moving stuff around I started to look at some of my old mini's and it's pretty cool to see the difference in my painting along with seeing techniques I still do. (the pictures even look old timey, took them with my phone on the way out of the house and they look aged haha) These guys were probably painted in 1990 or 1991 and back then I hardly had any paints. It cracks me up when I look at some of my old color combinations remembering I used what I had haha.. My big conversion at the time was to trim off the helm fins on one guy to make him look a bit different. Chopping metal was a pain and I can still remember sitting there sawing away at him with a little hand saw! The good old days haha.. When I look at these guys I still like them and then I think maybe I should update them a little but on the other hand I also think they should stay as is. So I can remember the old days when I hand 6 colors and 2 inks.

The Mini design is still pretty good, though I do prefer this mold the best.

I ordered 5 more off Ebay and I still need to finish this and his brother up. I've always been a fan of the Reapers, hopefully they will get their range finders back in the next Dex haha..

Where's my furniture? Lady, where's my DOOR?

So this weekend I performed the Musical Room move in my house and this will be the new Puter/Painting room. The room is a bit smaller and I don't have the closet of storage or straight walls. The room was a breezeway that I just refinished (almost complete just have quarter round I need to put up) for a playroom. But the playroom has moved upstairs and now it will be my DOMAIN!!!. haha It has benefits and disadvantages that I'll have to work with. The room has a ton of windows which will be nice for painting during the day but I also have to be careful not to let too much sun beam in on my paints and painted mini's, I don't want them to get sun bleached. I also have to figure out how I'm going to store my tanks and larger mini's. Right now they are on two large Lack Shelves but the walls are filled with windows and then are angled. So I'm going to have to build another shelf to store them and some other stuffs. But it is closer to the garage which is nice when I need tools or larger sanding and it's closed off from the house so I can jam out without affecting anyone else!

The worst part is that my paint rack won't fit, there isn't enough room from my desk to the window. So it looks like I'll be making another one of those too.. argh. haha.. Oh well, I do enjoy building stuff but not when I have much other stuff to get done! I'll start thinking up some designs today I suppose. All the miniatures scattered about aren't even have of the mini's I have. They are still on shelves in the old room.

Overall it's a nice space, just have to figure out the best way to make it awesome haha

Moving again..

This Saturday I'll be moving my paint location again, this time it will be to a new room. Over the past few months my wife and I have had very little sleep due to our Son's crib being in the same room as us. We are basically losing it haha.. so now we are playing musical rooms to give him his own space and hopefully we'll be able to get a little more sleep. It's going to be a pain, it will be four rooms that will need to be moved around and some of the furniture will have to be taken apart and then built again. Yay! sad face.. but hopefully it will be a good thing for everyone and more sleep will be had!

Got a little more work done on the Dire Avenger and Dark Reaper.

I blended the blue some more and worked on color choices for him. I'm also trying to concentrate on being able to get them done quickly. So other quick tech choices are also coming into play. Right now I'm pretty happy with his colors except I'm iffy on his butt cloth. I'm thinking of making it purple so there isn't too much bone color on him. That will probably be the only thing I change though, the rest will be a quick clean up and I think that should do it.

The Reaper is almost done, just a little more cleanup on the face, gems and leg decoration and I think that he'll be all done up ah hoo hoo. 

Locked, Loaded and Silently Done

Last night I got the Ranger/Pathfinder finished up. I want to finish some molding but I was tired and getting annoyed with it. So I got some painting done instead, allowing me to wrap up this guy. I only have one more not painted, which is ok because I can field them using some of my older Ranger models. Sadly I don't like two of them haha.. So I'll have to get another Ranger to be happy. I have one squad that matches pretty well but I want the other squad to be completely disjointed and no where similar. Outcasts should have their own flair!

And his buddies