Two Thirds of Dreadnought Talon Complete

After a month away from home, I finally got the chance to do some painting this weekend. I now have enough painted and magnetized arms to configure my two Contemptor dreads as needed. I really just needed something easy to paint, so I knocked out the weapons as a way to get myself used to painting again. I really think the blues will go nicely with my Sons of Horus and Emperors Children. I'd like them to look like they are fighting as part of the same campaign.

As great as it is to be  home, I just found out I have to travel overseas again for another two weeks. (immediately after a family vacation!) The next two weeks may be the only time for me to paint, so I think I am going to focus on Ultramarines. Perhaps I should finally finish that LS Storm.

Warhammer World

Longest business trip ever! But on a day off I got to head up to warhammer world. Lucky for me Allan Bligh was in Bugman's bar. Unlucky for me work called and by the time we were done Allan had left. Still it is such a great experience. I heard all kinds if awesome rumors 'ahem' for fw products. I was told by a chap painting up 100 heresy era ultramarine terminators that emperors children are getting a beautiful squad with do much detail he had to buy them. Ultras are getting some great lolling minis as well.

Allan, if you ever stumble on this blog, I'd love to play a narrative game with you. I'll even bring my force across the pond.

Location:Charing Cross,London,United Kingdom

Following A Tutorial

I've read loads of tutorial's online, but rarely have I seen posts where someone tries a tutorial and posts the results. Tutorial's are difficult to write, and often have little real world feedback from people trying them.

For a while I've been following a commission painter on youtube named Buypainted. This morning I decided to try out his 7 minutes basing tutorial. You can watch the video here.  His tutorial was easy to follow, and I think the results are quite good. I think the entire basing for 5 bases took about half an hour (with the aid of a hair dryer). Kudos to Buypainted!

OOP Forgeworld Lightning

The new Imperial Lightning is pretty cool, but I love the original, and after a slow morning recovering from travel back from London, I decided to dust off (seriously, I had to dust it!) the model and finish up the areas that were unpainted. Despite being painted over the course of many years, I am really satisfied with the model. So why can't I bring myself to ever finish it?   Anyone else like the old IL over the new one?

Ultramarines Stormraven next?

*EDIT misspelled lightning!  Kudos to Somewhatdamaged. :)

Old School Vindicator

I haven't been painting new models recently, but finishing models that were partially completed many months ago. The down side is that my refurbished original Ultramarine tanks do not benefit from my newish painting style. That might bother some, but for the first time in a long time, I simply don't care. I am painting these guys for fun, so if they are a little out of sorts from the new scheme one word comes to mind.

Meh....

As in meh, don't care.

As in meh, what is a little variance anyway.

As in meh.........drat I do care...I see mold lines.....

I am not going to repaint these guys, but I am going to have fun with oil washes and rain streaks. I might even add all that stowage I started making.

Now back to the bat cave so I can go to work jet lagged by 5 hours.

Rehabbing Old Minis and Bases

I have a lot of miniatures. This is great. This is not a problem. I do not have a lot of space for my minis. This has become one. For some time I have had a load of older armies on display in my office that really are not up to my current painting or basing standard. They are nostalgic, but they also offer a sort of in-house store, where I grab minis I want to re-paint and give them the simple green treatment. Recently I've been painting a boat load of ultramarines.  Now that I have a legal army, my ultras have graduated to the display cabinets. Enter ultras, exit guard. While packing up my Imperial guard for storage, I couldn't resist pulling a few minis to keep in my cabinets. These are my favorites. I don't know why, since I have painted much better models than these, but for some reason these keep my attention. The problem was the bases.

Solution:
1) Mix a couple of scoops of secret weapon green earth weathering powder with water, and thinner.
2) flood each old style base with the new mixture.
3) Add forgeworld rust to all of the pipes, debris, and even any old spot that could use some color
4) Rim base with black.
5) Wonder if I should give my whole guard army this treatment. (the dread base was a test!)

So now I have to make room for a tiny guard contingent. Exit tau.

Thunderfire Complete

The thunderfire cannon is complete. I am looking forward to using this in a game just to see what it can do. I've never seen one of these fielded, or even painted in person. That leads me to my next never seen unit. I think I need to paint up a whirlwind. I had one painted years ago for my BA, but a bath in simple green and the tank is ready to wear new colors.

Sorry for not using the Photo Booth for these shots. I wanted to paint, not setup the contraption. I think I need a dedicated space where the booth can just sit, otherwise I will just keep ignoring it.

Thunderfire Cannon Techmarine

I finished this guy up in between episodes of Breaking Bad this evening. The casting was so terrible on the shells and manipulator arms that I tried to use heavy washes and rust pigments to cover up the detail loss. I am not sure it worked, but I think the guy is kind of cool. the weapons up top have spongy feel, and a really fluffy surface. I used heavy doses of paint on them hoping it would fill in all the little holes. No such luck.

For photos I tried was using a photo booth instead of just snapping shots ad hoc as usual. I'll have to experiment more with it since it will clearly enable better photos going forward. The light was a little harsh this time around, but once I get the hang of it I hope to be producing better photos.