2009, A Year in Review

Okay, this will be the last post for 2009, so I thought I would take a look back to see what I did along the way. What I found surprised me, other things made me go Huh? Well onto what I did, lets set the way back machine to January 2009...

January

Saw a lot of terrain being built for GitD, some of this terrain actually made it to Chicago as well, but for the most part, I was a terrain making machine. There were rocks, ruins and a ton more things made for GitD, including 140 markers for one scenario! If I ever get another bright idea like this, someone shoot me!

I also built a few 1/48th tanks for a game that Rob & I were working on. We had plans to do Villers Bocage in 28mm with his rules. We each got a bunch of vehicles done, but not much else.

Once again GitD took my attention with me hoisting a few practice games in my garage. We had 6 guys over getting in many practice games for GitD. Fun times in the garage when it's cool outside.

February

Well more terrain was built for GitD and we can not forget that Gathering in the Desert happened in February. We had a great turnout and a great event with many folks coming in from outside of AZ. I have to say that GitD was a lot of work and I needed a vacation just to unwind.

March

As I mentioned above, the wife & I took a trip to Colorado in March to meet our son for Spring Break. Stayed with some great friends, played a few games of LotR at Colletormainia in Parker and saw many of the sights. Basically had a blast on the trip and it was needed because once I got back to work, found out that I was to loose my job at the end of July.

Also finished up 350 points of Uruk Hai for the Adepticon tourney I would play in. Built a display board and got ready to head to Chi Town.

April

Adepticon was on the plate for April with me helping set up on Thursday night, playing LotR on Friday, running a LotHS game on Friday night. Saturday saw me running the Warhammer Ancients Battle Singles tourney which had a few more people from last year. That Saturday night ran the LotHS game again. Sunday saw me running another WAB Doubles tourney on Sunday with breaking down the show on Sunday night. I remember watching the snow come down from the loading dock of the hotel wondering if I would be able to fly home the next day.

April also saw me breaking out 40K again and playing the new rules with my buddy Rob. I still was not sold on 40K, and was still helping Rob with his WW2 rules. 40K would come back over and over throughout the year.

May

May was Pulp month with me getting a few pulp figures painted for myself as well as my buddy Mike. I think we also did a game in May, can't remember for sure. All I know is that I started thinking about doing a Pulp with the Legends rules, never got off the board though.

June

Once again 40K dominated the month with my buddy Rob & I thinking about doing some 40K skirmish stuff. We actually played a few games and talked about doing a narrative campaign of some sort. Once again Rob talked me into a few games of 40K which I moved slowly towards accepting the new rules.

July

Once again I was bitten by the terrain bug which saw me building a few 40K specific terrain pieces for some 40K skirmish. It also seemed that I played a few more games of 40K as well as some 40K skirmish with Rob.

The end of the Month saw me leaving GMAC along with many friends as the company shut our doors here in Phoenix. I looked to this as a good & bad thing. The good side was that I was getting out of a company that was quickly heading for the toilet, but on the other side I was entering a job market that was in the toilet as well.

Also started working on a huge Imperial Guard army for my buddy Lonnie, this project would last throughout the year.

August

17 year anniversary with my wife, no job & I took two weeks to head to Kansas with my son. he was moving into a house off campus and I wanted to be there, so the kid & I jumped into his car and drove to Kansas, seeing friends and the worlds largest ground hog!

When I got home Rob & I once again busted out 40K with us talking about more 40K skirmish stuff. This also lead to us discovering some =I=munda games, this was Necromunda style games with each person using Inquisitors. I also read Dan Abnetts Eisenhorn Trilogy, which fueled the =I= munda ideas.

September

Are you ready for some Blood Bowl? I guess I was with me completing not one but two Blood Bowl teams. Also got in a few games of BB with Mike.

And speaking of Mike, also started painting his Italians for him for Flames of War. I did a trade were I would paint 1500 points of Italians for him in trade for a 1500 German North Africa Army.

Also Rob and I played a few more games o =I=munda and talked about building a few more Inquisitor bands. Also talked about playing Inquisitor as well.

October

My brother came out for a visit which involved us doing a turn around trip out to Palm Springs to see our parents and when back in Phoenix busted out another old classic GW game, Warhammer Quest. Rob joined my brother, wife and myself in a few hours of torture playing WQ. We had a blast but got our butts kicked a bunch of times. Also showed my bro Formula De, which was a blast.

I built more terrain for GitD in 2010 as well as getting a huge order of terrain from GW. Once again the terrain bug bit and I spent a lot of time working on terrain.

Also ran the first GitD 2010 Primer at Imperial Outpost, had a small turn out but a great event. GitD 2010 is looking to be another great year with some awesome looking armies.

Also turned 41 this month, wow, I am becoming old!

November

Saw me doing a lot of work on the Imperial Guard for Lonnie, in act this is all that I worked on for November trying to get in ready for delivery in December.

December

A rather quite month but got my act together and started Saguaro Painting Service http://saguaropainting.blogspot.com/ This would help with bills since I am still looking for work. Finished the IG for Lonnie and this was the first commission for SPS.

Also got in a few more games of 40K with Rob and a few other friends and started to realize that I am enjoying the game of 40K.

So there you have it, a year in review. What stands out to me is 40K seemed to take up a lot of game time in 2009. Rob & I discussed this and he made me aware that I was keeping 40K at arms length away from me. It seemed that I did not want to embrace it fully.

Also I only played LotHS a few times while at Adepticon, heck I wrote the game and I don't even play it, whats up with that?? Well it's about hating what you create I guess, don't get me wrong, I love the game, but after spending so much times writing it in 2008, I needed a break.

Anyhow, the next post will be my game resolutions for 2010, so stay tuned for the New Year...

TK

Merry Christmas!

Well,

It's Christmas time, so not alot going on at Cursed Treasures, so I will leave you with this funny picture I found Freakingnews.com, I saw it and laughed my head off...

So

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

TK

Introducing Saguaro Painting Service (SPS)

Well, I said I would get something going for painting, well here it is, Saguaro Painting, http://saguaropainting.blogspot.com/ I look forward to getting this project off the ground.

In fact it has already gotten started with my buddy Lonnie's work and a few others. Really this is a side job to bring in some money while I look for work. So stop by take a look and let me know what you think. I will still be updating this blog, so no worries, SPS will just be for paint & terrain commissions.

TK

Quick Pulp Update

Some Pulp today!

Well last night I finished up these Pulp figures for my buddy Mike, they are a mix of Pulp Figures and Copplestone Castings . Mike and I are both big Pulp fans and I happen to have these same figures. So last night in order to clear the paint desk, I kicked these out. I finished the desert bases today thought. The Brick bases are made out of Green stuff from a Blog post from Carmen's Fun Painty Time on how to do your own sculpted bases. I have got to say, it was pretty easy and they look pretty good.

So there you go, just a quick update...

TK

Steel Legion Done, Orcs on the Horizon & a Clean Desk!

Well,

That's a deep subject huh??? (Sorry bad pun!) But really, got a little update on a huge project that was completed last night, the Steel Legion project or my buddy Lonnie Jordon who is over in Iraq. I started this project a while ago with all the infantry, but over the summer Lonnie was home & we went shopping for his armour for the army. He bought 6 Chimeras, a Valkyrie, and another Basilisk, this was added to three Leman Russ, one a Vanquisher, three sentinels, another Basilisk as well as. All of this had to be repaired and assembled & painted before he arrived back home on December 9th. So here are a few shots of the completed army.

Up first, two basilisks, the one on the right had to have a new railing added to the back of it since it broke off, so I went to my bitz box and found some stand in parts.

Next up a Forge World Vanquisher that need some TLC.

This Russ also needed some TLC, the side sponson was missing the front plate and I had to dig through the bitz box again. I had an extra and had to glue it back onto the sponson, all ready for battle now.

Lonnie wanted one Russ to have a Special character, Knight Commander Pask added to it. GW does not make a figure of him, so this came from the Baneblade model. I think he works rather well.


Also Lonnie wanted the armour to look like it was out in theater, so I grimed up the Russ' to give them some extra mud effects. Once the model was painted, I added Liqutex Stucco to the tracks and to the side to give the effect of mud. I also added static grass to it while it was still wet. Once it dried I came back with Americana Mississippi Mud and a black wash, viola instance mud!

This Chimera had allot of TLC work done to it. Lonnie was going to use this Chimera for his Lost & the Dammed army, so Chaos symbols were added to make it look more Chaos ie. I had to take these off and make this a proud vehicle for the IG. The turret is completely new since when I was trying to clean up the other one it broke. So another dive into the bitz box.

One thing I had forgot to do on the Valkyrie was the flight stand, so I added a old 4th edition ruin set to the base. This fits in with the rest of the army and does a good job of hiding the clear stand.


Here is a shot with the Valkyrie on it, it looks pretty cool in person.

Also Lonnie wanted Commissar Yarrick painted for the army, so here is the most feared Commissar in the Imperial guard.

I also made a few Command group figures for Lonnie, Here is the Company banner all painted up.

And here is the Medic.

One last figure, Lonnie had a Lord Solar Macharius figure with the group, now the current IG codex does not have stats for him, but Lonnie could use him as his Commander for the army, so here he is in all his Glory.

So there you have it, a huge project done, now I just need to deliver it to Lonnie when he gets home next week.

Also last week I did a crazy trade with my buddy Mike, he had a Orc & goblin army and I had a huge Tomb Kings army. Well I was not really interested in the TK's so I trade him the whole army for this huge lot of Orcs & goblins. So yes this means I will be getting back into WHFB!

Also I mentioned in my last post, I am going to start my own painting service, still working out the details, but the first thing I needed to do was clean up my desk. so here is a few shots of my clean desk which is just waiting for some paint commissions.

So there you have it, been busy looking for work and painting models. Hopefully 2010 will be a better year...

TK

Sorry, depression setting in...

Sorry guys, but the fact that I have not found work yet has me in a slump. But I think I may see a bright spot with this unemployment gig. After talking with a few friends, I think I am going to start taking on paint commissions and terrain commissions to earn a few extra dollars to keep the lights on (and a roof over my head).

So I have been looking at a few websites and one in particular has caught my attention. It's Blue Table Painting http://www.bluetablepainting.com/ Shawn Gately of BTP seems to have a nice little gig going up in Utah. I am taking a few pointers from his site. So in a few days I will be unveiling my new adventure for making a few extra bucks. I am thinking I will be set up a separate blog to document the commissions. Fear not, I will still be updating this blog.

In fact I hope to have a few updates by the end of the weekend, with something different. It looks like I am going to be getting into another game which I left years ago. I am in the process of getting a Orc & Goblin army from my buddy Mike for my Tomb Kings that I was never really interested in playing. So hopefully I will have a few shots of the new army in the early stages of collections.

So to all my readers, I will resume normal updates soon, so hang in there...

TK

Return of 40K

Well I thought it about time to return to 40K, I am sure some of my followers from FTW will be glad for this update!

Anyhow, this past weekend I decided to finish up a few commission pieces I am doing for my buddy Lonnie. First up the Valkyrie, now I have had shots of this before up, but today it's with the weathering and details picked out. This is an awesome model, I have to get me one of these!

Now since Lonnie is over in Iraq, we do not get to talk much, but when he gave me this kit to build, he wanted me to be able to make a Vendetta out of it. For all you 40k folks out there that play Imperial Guard, you know that the Vendetta carries 3 Lascannons on it. Lonnie also wanted to be able to use this as a Valkyrie as well, so as in my previous post I turned to magnets to mount the added weaponry on the kit. First up the Hellfire Missiles,

Next the Lascannons. You will notice that these are supposed to be Twin Linked Lascannons, but I went with a single Lascannon since this is all I had. If Lonnie wants twin linked in the future, I can easily magnetize a set and add them to the model.

Last up the Missile Pods. Once again I love the options that Rare Earth magnets bring to a kit like this.

Sticking with the Fast Attack theme, I decided to finish up three Sentinels for Lonnie as well. The base paint had been finished for a while, but I needed to do the highlights on the models. I also needed to add the rubble to the bases to finish the models off. Here are three of them, two armed with Lascannons and one with an Autogun. I really like how these have come out.

And since I had the camera out I decided to take a few pictures of his HQ squad I finished up. Commissar Yarrick just got finished last night. You will also notice that the figures are very glossy right now. This is because of the Minwax Stain I used. Once I get the base's done I will shoot all of this with Testors Dullcoate to knock the shine off of them.

Here is a close up of Yarrick, I will also be adding more highlights after I dull coate him, but you get the idea of what he looks like.

Now most folks know that the Steel Legion line is not a complete line, it is missing a few HQ options for models. So per Lonnie's request I converted a few Steel Legion troops for him. First up a trooper with a Standard. I will admit, this is an easy conversion, it is a Standard from an WFB Imperial Knight cut off at the had and stuck on a Steel Legion Sergeant model. I also used decals for the flag since my skill is not that great on Free Hand painting. All in all the model looks good IMO.

Next up is a sniper, once again this was an easy conversion, all I did was cut down the stock Lasgun barrel, added a Kroot barrel and a Space Marine Scope. That's it, pretty easy but makes a great model.

The next two are stock troopers, one has had a Vox Caster added to him, which meant removing some of his Kit of his back, The other is a regular Plasma Gunner, nothing special about these.

Next up is a Heavy flamer, now all Guard players know that the Heavy Flamer is your friend for mass troops, but the Steel Legion line dose not have any flamers. So this conversion was a bit more complex to pull off. I first had to find the right model pose, then had to remove all of his kit and clean that up. Then took off the models right arm to add the stock Flamer arm from the Cadian line, which meant I had to file off the shoulder pad. I then took the left arm from a Sergeant model and bent it to be able to look like he was holding the flamer. then green stuff the heck out of the gaps. I am not 100% happy with it, but it will do. Lonnie got to see this before paint got on it and he loved it and that's all I cared about.

Last model is of a medic. This was rather hard to figure out, but once again went with a Steel Legion Sergeant but took off his left arm and added a Sentinal Drivers arm with part of the control stick still attached. It reminded me of some sort of medical scanner. His right arm was taken from a plastic Cadian which had the shoulder pad removed and had the glove cuff extended. I wanted him to look like he was carrying a medical bag which came from a Catachan backpack. I also added a small blob of green stuff to his left shoulder for the medical cross. I really like how this guy turned out as well.

Last up are the finished Storm Troopers. Reader of my blog may remember that these guys were done to this point and were waiting for a shot of Dull Coate, but I grabbed Testors Sac Brown/green instead of the dull coate. Well here is what they look like again! I had to strip them down & repaint them. Needless to say I am a bit uneasy with dull coating them again. But this time I will spray the can on a piece of board before shooting the models!

So there you have it, another 40K post in the bag, next up will be more 40K units to finish for Lonnie. I have 7 Chimeras, 2 Basilisks and 3 Leman Russ Tanks to finish by December 9th. Good news is that all the models are assembled and have base colors on them, so it will go real quick!

TK

Gathering in the Desert Primer October 25, 2009

So the Primer has come and gone and everyone who attended had a great time, so here are a few pictures from the event. I would like to thank Darren from Imperial Outpost for the prizes and allowing us to play there. Unfortunately we only had six folks show up, four folks had other commitments and were unable to attend.

Tom O brought out what he called Osgilith Lite for the event as seen below, for anyone who was at GitD last year, that board will be coming back with a bit less terrain. This board was the opposite, it was pretty lite.

Round two shots, you will notice that Howard B & Jerry A are pictured now. Howard got a call from work and had to rush to work, but made it back by Round two. Jerry on the other hand had over slept and only got up once I called him at home, but he made it down by round two.

Here is a shot of Howard's new elves he is working on, he has gone with an autumn color scheme. So look for these at GitD in 2010.

I love this shot and how it came out, it has Mike G's Dwarf's fighting Jerry A Minas Tirith in a heavily wooded area. This shot too me says Lord of the Rings, call me weird but I like this shot out of all that I posted. Sometimes you get lucky with taking pictures!

So here are the final results and the breakdown of points:

Name - Overall - Total Battle - Sports - Appearance

Mike Gingold - 122.75 - 50 - 32.75 - 40
Tom Opalka 106.75 - 35 - 32.75 - 39

Howard Beam 98.50 - 35 - 21.50 - 42

Jerry Auteri 80.50 - 20 - 21.50 - 39

Rob Ehlers 78.50 - 35 - 31.50 - 12

Andree Cauley 52.50 - 20 - 32.50 - 0

So there you go, look forward to seeing you all in February for Gathering in the Desert 2010

TK