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
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
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!
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
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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.
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:
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
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
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Another Big Terrain Push!
Big terrain update today, getting ready for the Gathering in the Desert Primer event on October 25th 2009, so here are a few pictures of whats been going on.
First up, the completed "Not Weathertop" from Castle Kits We received one for a prize and another one for terrain, but I ran out of time to get it together. Well it will be making it's appearance at the Primer & GitD2010. Painting was rather easy, just flat black followed by several different shades of Grey. Came out rather well, I look forward to getting a few more kits from Castle Kits in the future.
Next up are the Modular hills and regular gaming hills from GamesWorkshop and these were painted like the rest of the Realm of Battle boards in my previous post. Krylon Flat Brown, followed by a drybrush of Nutmeg Brown from Apple Barrel with another dry brush of Honey Brown from Americana. The rocks were painted Flat Black followed by a drybrush of Slate Grey from Americana. Added some GW Green Grass to them and they are ready for battle.
Now for GitD, I like to have themed tables with lots of terrain, last year I built a Mordor table which after GitD was shipped out to Brent & Jamie in Chicago who run the LotR events at Adepticon. When I was there, I told Jamie that he could keep the terrain as a gift from GitD. But that meant I needed to build another Mordor set of terrain. So I busted out two set of GW trees and kept the leaves off to give them that Creepy Mordor feeling to them. Here they are.
I also had a few trees let over from Woodland Scenic that I used last year, but these were individually based. I found that the trees kept getting moved during the game so I decided to do a few bases for these and use some sheet magnets to fold the trees to the bases. Here are three bases that I through together last night.
Also for the Mordor table I needed a few rock sections, so these were dug out and touched up for the event. Nothing special, just Pink foam covered with Liqutex Stucco again and painted up.
The last piece of terrain is a tower section sitting atop a Temple of Skulls from GW. Storage is always a concern when building terrain and I knew if I mounted the GW Tower to the Temple model that it would be a pain in the Butt to store. So I decided that I wanted to remove the tower plus I wanted the tower not to move during game play.
So I added a Ruin Section from the LotR kit to the Temple. I glued it down so that it was just wide enough to slide the GW tower over the top of it. 
So there you have it, another busy week and now the packing begins for Sunday. Until then...
First up, the completed "Not Weathertop" from Castle Kits We received one for a prize and another one for terrain, but I ran out of time to get it together. Well it will be making it's appearance at the Primer & GitD2010. Painting was rather easy, just flat black followed by several different shades of Grey. Came out rather well, I look forward to getting a few more kits from Castle Kits in the future.
Next up are the Modular hills and regular gaming hills from GamesWorkshop and these were painted like the rest of the Realm of Battle boards in my previous post. Krylon Flat Brown, followed by a drybrush of Nutmeg Brown from Apple Barrel with another dry brush of Honey Brown from Americana. The rocks were painted Flat Black followed by a drybrush of Slate Grey from Americana. Added some GW Green Grass to them and they are ready for battle.
Now for GitD, I like to have themed tables with lots of terrain, last year I built a Mordor table which after GitD was shipped out to Brent & Jamie in Chicago who run the LotR events at Adepticon. When I was there, I told Jamie that he could keep the terrain as a gift from GitD. But that meant I needed to build another Mordor set of terrain. So I busted out two set of GW trees and kept the leaves off to give them that Creepy Mordor feeling to them. Here they are.
I also had a few trees let over from Woodland Scenic that I used last year, but these were individually based. I found that the trees kept getting moved during the game so I decided to do a few bases for these and use some sheet magnets to fold the trees to the bases. Here are three bases that I through together last night.
Here you can see the one tree of the base, I used PVC Plastic or the base, then took and cut out a round disc just large than the tree base out of sheet magnet. Nice thing with the sheet magnet, it has one side that has adhesive on it, so once cut I just stuck them to the PVC base. I then textured the base with Liqutex Stucco and let dry. Once the Stucco was dried just painted to match the base of the trees.
The magnets are fairly strong and will hold the trees (that are mounted on steel washers) pretty well. Nice thing is that folks can remove the trees with out moving the base.
Also for the Mordor table I needed a few rock sections, so these were dug out and touched up for the event. Nothing special, just Pink foam covered with Liqutex Stucco again and painted up.
The last piece of terrain is a tower section sitting atop a Temple of Skulls from GW. Storage is always a concern when building terrain and I knew if I mounted the GW Tower to the Temple model that it would be a pain in the Butt to store. So I decided that I wanted to remove the tower plus I wanted the tower not to move during game play.
So I added a Ruin Section from the LotR kit to the Temple. I glued it down so that it was just wide enough to slide the GW tower over the top of it.
So now I can have the tower on or off without a problem and I can store each easier than them being always together.
But as you can see, the tower is not done, so the Temple will be going as is in the picture below. I will finish it up by GitD. You may also notice that the large skulls have been covered up. Once again since its for LotR, I wanted it to fit better, so I cut/added more rubble to try & disguise the skulls. Since this is one of four kits, the next ones will have the skulls hidden better.
So there you have it, another busy week and now the packing begins for Sunday. Until then...TK
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