Baltimore Games Day Bound!

I am so excited to be going to games day! So who else is going? I'd love the opportunity to meet up in person. Maybe you can give me constructive criticism about my tiny corner of the internet. I would prefer tips on painting though :)

I know most of the Storm Wardens are going to be at Games Day in force, and I look forward to hanging out with them at the Fritz & Jawaballs club table. I can't wait to see the army all together on the table. That might be reason enough to bring a small army so I can challenge the new owner to quick match! Of course the army has to be alien, otherwise the whole deathwatch thing is moot. I guess I better paint up a couple more dozen tau.

The painting and conversion competitions look a lot of fun, and I can't disguise the joy that comes from knowing forgeworld goodies will be available. I just bought 60 of the various pre-heresy marines, so my wife and the bank may not be so forgiving if I buy more. I will buy more though. That is almost a given. Does this mean I am a collector and not a gamer? I read YTTH and other tactical blogs but it is mainly out of curiosity. Watching the internet personalities duke it out can be fun.

More Kroot

While waiting to watch True Blood with my wife I churned out 2 Kroot hounds and a handful more kroot warriors. I will put up some WIP shots of the remaining three Kroot warriors. The painting method is just so fast, that I had these guys done before I had read the reply asking for a tutorial. I pulled three models aside just in time, otherwise they would all be done! I think I am going to paint up another set of these guys. I don't have a painted tau army, but maybe I can get 500 pts painted up before Gamesday. That would give me something to throw against the rest of the storm wardens crew!

Chaos & Kroot: Painting for Fun

Right in the middle of painting the Khorne Berzerkers up I decided to paint some Kroot. A while back I found a posting from a guy who had painted some amazing Death Korps of Krieg troops using primarily washes. Since have yet another order to DKK crack coming in, I thought I should overcome my fear of painting such expensive models. Naturally I picked Kroot as my inexpensive test figures. I love painting them. I could paint 50 of these in a day. They painted using mostly washes. The 4 I painted took around 20 minutes. I think the best part is that I can imagine getting a load of these painted up with just two coats of the washes, and then just saving the rest the details for later. This way a giant squad could be pumped out in a single afternoon.

The hardest part about painting these guys......having enough glued together to fill the painting queue.

Just Slopping Some Paint On For Fun

Ever get the desire to just throw some paint down, to not care about careful blending or composition? I've had eight Khorne Bezerkers hanging out on my painting table for ages, and I just felt the need to paint without restriction. These miniatures are textbook un-eveness. I painted what I wanted to paint. I doused the whole miniature in a homemade wash that left gunk in all the cracks and I just don't care. I am having so much fun painting these guys, that at some point I may feel the need to paint more to show the world what I can do technically. Right now I am just painting for speed, fun, and experimentation with random techniques. Isn't this what painting is supposed to be about in the first place?

Home Made Resin Bases Pt2

I tried out a quick and dirty paint job on my resin bases today. Brown, Dev Mud, and then that Tau yellow color make up the recipe. Now that I can whip up 5 bases to try out new paint schemes on in under 10 minutes trying new paint schemes does not feel wasteful. There is none of that stress that comes from potentially ruining a nice miniature or base when I can just cast a duplicate and try again.

I plan to use these bases with my death corps, so there there will be more color difference between the models and the bases than is show in this photo. The goal is to have a warm muddy base paired with cool green or grey toned Death Korps.

You can see my sand bags curing on the cutting board to the left of the miniatures. These are being created for the larger weapon team bases I am working on.

Tutorial: Casting Your Own Resin Bases

A while back I created some press molds to make some green stuff bases for my Blood Angels/Grey Knights armies. Since then I have walked the way of resin! While prepping the images for this post, I cast 25 resin trench bases. The coolest part about this process is that it is dirt simple. I can completely re-theme an army by creating cool new bases, and then mass producing them. The bases you see here are for my Death Korps of Krieg army.

You should go online and buy the starter kit from Alumilite. Seriously...do it now.

Just A Flocking Rant

I just washed off a failed flocking attempt on my Realm of Battle board. I don't know what mojo you master flockers out there have, but if you have some advice please share. Luckily the section I flocked up washed off easily without loosing any of the paint. Now I have a huge mess on my hands with nothing to show for it. grrrrrrrrr!

This is a flocking disaster!

Realm of Battle Board 1

Drathmere 0

SCENERY Ruined Chapel WIP1

Now that I have a battle board I need something to put on it. I love more realistic scenery, so I decided to pile up debris in the corner. I really like the way this is turning out because it looks less like a toy and more like a diorama. Somehow that lets me enjoy games more! I think I may cut out colored plastic to make jagged edges of broken stained class all along the windows.

I think I may try to get some trenches created to go with my Death Korps army. Knowing how to easily reproduce a section of scenery makes it much more enjoyable!