Time is like a bullet from behind .. 2013

The last day of 2013 is here and I figured I'd write up a little yearly summery and wrap up. Hobby wise it was a pretty busy year and I think it had a lot of pluses.

This year was the first time I've played in a large scale Tourney, I've been playing 40K since 1990 but have never played anything to the scale of the Nova Open. I've played in local Tourneys and what not but nothing with the amount of people that were there. I had some trepidation going into it, there are a lot of good people out there but there are a lot of tools too. One bad experience can ruin it all. Thankfully everyone I played was either very cool or at least cordial. I finished rank 96th out of 223 people which isn't half bad (literally and figuratively haha) which was cool but the best part of the event was getting to see some awesome armies and talk to a lot of people. I built my first display board for the event and was pretty happy with it. I got a lot of great comments on it and my army, that is always very cool. I busted my butt getting everything done for the event and was nice to know it was well received.

I also got to meet up with Evan from FTGT which was very cool as we chat a lot on our blogs. Having two little ones makes it tough to get out there and just have a fun adult (wait does playing with little plastic dude mens count? hmmm my wife would probably say no) weekend with no obligations. It was like the old days, went down with Sean from L33tlike.us and besides playing we hung out with Evan and some of the Beltway Gamer guys. Was a very fun time though tiring and even a little rough with the stomach battle we fought thanks to Buffalo Wild Wings .. sheesh. I'll be going back in 2014 but unsure what I'll be playing..(event wise) was hoping to do the Trios but sounds like Evan won't be able to be our third so not sure what will be the plan. Either way I'll be there and hopefully able to enter a few things in the painting contest as well. 8) No expectations just would be cool.

I also painted a ton this year past. Getting ready for Nova was like I was on a mission and well.. I was. I wanted all my Dar done and done to a level I would be happy with. I know it wasn't a requirement but if I'm going to be out there I want my Dudes to look cool. I had no expectations to be the Champion but my guys could at least look good in their defeat. Some of the things I got done this year..

That's just a few.. Don't want to post too too many haha. I feel I've increased my painting skills some this year. Nothing spectacular but I have been working more with the airbrush and have been working more on my Technique. I think the Crimson Hunters, Wraithknight and Revenant really turned out nicely. Building of the display board was pretty cool and a nice learning experience. I have a new one planned for 2014 to build off what I learned from making the first one. The new one is even bigger which makes it kind of a worry, it was hard to tote around before so now what do I do haha.. I saw people with carts and while that is very cool from the aspect of moving it around that seems a bit excessive but I really don' think I'll be able to carry this around too easily which then begs the question of should it be that big? It will look cool and it will be a lot more intricate then the last one. I built the first one in a couple of days time (working time and about two weeks from start to finish). This one I will devote at least a month to it. Then what to do with the first one? I might sell it, there is no way I have the room to have them both haha.. I really don't have the room for even the one.

Work space, I have moved around and built a lot of stuff this year. From different rooms to how I have everything setup. It seems that it's ever evolving and with the growing family it starts to limit the available space in the house. I'm hoping that within two years we'll be able to move and getting a house that can better accommodate the family and my nerdy endeavors would be nice. I can always hope right haha..

Sadly forgot to download the picture of my painting table last night..

The blog is doing well and traffic has increased a good bit and I have posted over 220 posts this year. The most so far for me for sure, that is a pretty good amount. I'm still thinking about making a full blown site that isn't blogger based but it really just comes down to time. I don't have the free time I did starting a new job and if I get the free time I usually just want to paint or lay on the couch reading or watching a movie. We'll see how it goes down the line..

So what does 2014 hold? We've seen GW pump out Codexes fast and furiously and I have heard some rumors of Blood Angels coming this year sometime. So that is pretty cool.. and I have a bunch of models still sitting in boxes. A good bit of Orks plus some Marines I've been saving to start a Codex Chapter but do I really need to do all that? I sadly have more plans then time and money these days. Which also leads me to another thing. My friends think I should start doing commissions but I really don't know if I want that kind of stress. As I said my time is shorter now and do I want to use that time to paint stuff that I will then ship out? hmmmm maybe I should just start building display boards and selling them haha ..

I said the same thing last year when looking forward to the new year.. I want to focus more on painting whatever I want instead of what I need to put on the table. But that never seems to happen, I always seem to get an idea for something and then start to paint what I need to play it. I want to relax more this year and paint what ever calls to me when I go out to paint but I can already see that not happening. I want to go to Nova again and have plans for another display board. So for 2014 I better keep it simple,  keep improving my skills and having fun building little dude mens...

Theres got to be some order..

With the holidays passing by and getting some new goodies this weekend I have been trying to organize my painting areas and just clean up in general. I'm pretty OCD so a messy area starts to bug me deep down and I can't work normally haha.. I've basically just moved everything into it's new home and there will be another session of complete re organization that will be performed. I'm pretty happy with the setup now though, the new display case gives me room and I spread out my spray area and painting table so now I won't be as crowded.

But now on to some of the fun bits.. I got a good bit of hobby stuff for Christmas..

First off was my new Robart mini paint shaker. It was on sale and so I asked for it for Xmoose. So far it seems pretty cool, I got it mainly for the leaf paints and some air brush colors but it will be nice to have some of my painting completely mixed. I will need to pick up some ball bearings though. I seams to work well but I'm worried it won't last too long, the motor seems ok but that is a lot of stress on it. I'll post on it in a month or so when I get a better idea of how it's doing long term.



 I got a case of bottles, never seems like I have enough and will be nice not have to flip back and forth as much with the tops.

 I also scored the Comm Art colors I had sitting in my wish list. It may not look like much but that's a $100 in paint haha..  The Comm Art is worth it to me though and will last me a very long time.

 And I got a bunch of other tools.
New Files - they are nice but wow they are bigger then I thought they were going to be. Oh well, a bigger set it's so bad. Buildings will not be quick work.
Stainless Steel Tweezer set - No more battling with magnets, non magnetic for the win!
Sprue Cutting Tweezers - um ... that's what they are alright
Mini Drill Chuck - Allows you to use ultra bits in a standard drill.
And metal bending plyers - I have a few ideas I want to try and I'll need these (not pictured but I also got some metal pipes for bending)
I got a lot of cool toys, now I just have to get the room all ready and get back to using them!

Another update on the room, the work light I bought I mounted yesterday. I took off the base on the light and then built two sections with sliders so the light can  be slid in and out without issue. It's about 1000% brighter then it was so I'm pretty happy. Now I'm excited to test it out and see what I can see.

Are you too good for your home?

It's not completely setup but I relocated my Miniatures again haha..  I really like the all glass display case but it wasn't holding enough and I didn't have the time to make it hold more. I mentioned before my parents were moving and in doing so they didn't need this case anymore. It's much larger and has glass shelves and doors which is close to the all glass. It does block some of the mini's when the doors are closed but it is what it is.

I still like it and can arrange them in a nice way so they also look pretty cool. I still have some more to get in there but I'm working on a cool layout. I might build up a few Eldary looking platforms to organized them in there. But overall I think it looks pretty good since I didn't have a ton of time to set them up and the case was free so bonus. It wasn't all that much either way, and was originally purchased from IKEA.

Here are some of the shelves closer up.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all. Been offline for a little bit with the holidays and got a bad stomach bug. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Walking Tall

So it looks like I picked the perfect time to get the Revenant done, well he's almost done at least. I've been looking at some of the reviews/rumors for Escalation and it seems the Revenant is one of the better Titans out there. He has numerous Str D weapons, is quick and has a shield that can defend against other Str D weapons. Hopefully I'll be getting the Escalation book from Santa this year so I can really dig into it. As I was building him I was thinking dag, he's mainly just going to sit on the shelf. But with the new expansion I will actually be able to get him into a few games, sure there might not be much else on the table but still haha. I wonder if I can squeeze him and two Wraithknights in a list 8) Would look pretty cool if nothing else!

I'm also hoping to get in a game of Apoc within the next few months if possible. I can field a pretty large force of Eldar so it should be a pretty large game. Either way I just want to get this guy on the table!

Just Another Victim

Got a little work done on the Wraithknight, glued together his legs and his victim, one of those Cron Spider things. I have been cleaning the seams on the WKs legs and there is still a little more to do to make them completely clean. I will also have to Green Stuff the pivot of his right leg. I wanted the pose to be a little lower but it really wasn't looking to good so I brought him up a little bit. Still his leg is kicked out more then normal and is mainly being held by the pin I added do to the angle. I'll GS the joint some and secure it a bit. With that done I now have an idea where the dead Cron will be and I can start to finish up the base which needs to be done before I can move on to him. Well, doesn't have to be but makes it easier so there isn't any over spray onto anything else.

While planning out the base I was thinking the spider thing should be upside down with it's legs all curled up and while that sounds good it wasn't really looking as cool as the carapace up. So now I'll be cutting and chopping some bits of the spider to make him look worse for wear.

All the spider parts are primed and are ready to be added on. I'll be using some more wiring like I did on the first WK but I'm also thinking I'm going to add some water effects to represent the leaking lifeblood of the thing. This is the first bit of time I've had to work on anything hobby related over the past few weeks so was nice to get back out there haha.. Work is hectic at the moment as well as all the Holiday Prep.. hopefully this weekend I can sneak a few more hours in on the base.

The Great Wheel

Today I figured I'd go over a tool that is highly useful but very few people I know use it. The good old low tech color wheel. I ordered this one from Dick Blick years ago for a couple of dollars and while I don't use it all the time it's a nice reference to have.

Are you starting up an army and are thinking about the color combos you want to go with? The wheel is your friend. Right now I'm thinking of what colors to paint my Aleph models so I broke out the color wheel to go over what colors would compliment what other colors. If you don't feel like painting a model over and over again the color wheel can be a great help. It will give you a good idea what multiple colors will look like together. I had a smaller one back in the day for drawling but ordered a really nice one to match up some colors while painting. They aren't expensive and are worth having, even if it sits in a drawer for months. I always pull it out when I'm painting something new, I like knowing what I'm going to get before I even put brush to model.

So my recommendation is to get one..  they really can help.

Here is a --> link <-- on using the color wheel. It's not based off modeling, but the idea is all the same.

Hopefully I have some new stuff for tomorrow, it was another busy weekend past so very little got done.

From the Sky..

After talking about the Swooping Hawks yesterday I dug around in my box to find out how many I actually have. Alot, I have alot haha.. I have 18 unpainted or in need of stripping (the 2 dark blue on the left) and I have 8 more built and painted .. 1 is the converted hawk I posted yesterday

Another is an Exarch I painted up awhile back

He could use a little updating but overall he's ok. And I have 6 that look roughly like this guy

Back when my pallet was quite limited, so now how do I want to handle them? They will probably all be updated to look like the brighter blue with the rainbow wings. There was a snipit from one of the Codexs (the 2nd Ed version I think) that talking about the Hawks wings moving so fast they gave off a rainbow shimmer. That stuck with me and I started moving that way for their wings back in the day. I like it but I also would like to try something a little different. I'll probably stick with it though. I'm not changing the old models .. well the old old ones I am but not the other two.

The other ones I bought to make the converted wings, typically I need two sets to make one. It's a pain to make them cutting and trimming the metal wings so the molding process might be the way to go and think I'll give that a shot. We'll see how it goes haha

Bail out!

Sadly last night I had to bail on my game with Evan, my daughter got sick again. She has had a rough month and it only really seems to happen when I have something planned. So maybe I need to stop making plans haha..

Had my boys all packed up in the car and ready to hit the table but they unfortunately just did a tour down to DC and back. My wife was hinting that she wanted me to cancel but wouldn’t ask me to, I guess she didn’t want to say it but she wanted me to come home. My daughter just laid on the couch with me and we watched Christmas movies. Her birthday is tomorrow so I hope she is feeling better for it.

I was going to test out a couple of units last night, mainly the Swooping Hawks, they look good but I really want to see how they perform. I think I realized the night before that I only had eight Hawks built and painted (mostly bad, they are very old (1991)and had limited paints back then). I really wanted to field test them and see how they did but alas it will have to wait for another day. Either way I think they will be the next unit I finish up. I probably have 15 sitting ready to be built but I want to convert all the wings like this guy. 

This was one of the first conversions I did back in 93 I think. Tough using metal wings haha. I went on eBay and bought a bunch of them for cheap waiting for the day I’d start converting all of them to run the spread wings. I was thinking about making one more set and trying to mold them so I wouldn't have to build at least nine more of them haha.. 

I also wanted to try the Fire Prism, I know a lot of people are running them and for the points they got a big boost. So far the Night Spinner has been doing well when I used it, nice to have a barrage weapon to hide and drop some pain on people.

I haven't been able to get to the painting table in a couple of days, I'm hoping tonight I'll actually be able to get something done!