That Was My Office

I almost never post non-40k things on my blog. It has always been an outlet of pure hobby for me. While preparing to leave work and go home to work on my Armies on Parade entry an employee notices smoke coming in from the hallway. A fire that started in the alley between the large building on the left (ours) and the house on the right climbed up the walls and engulfed our building. I was painting so furiously because I had three major sales trips starting monday. We've worked for 10 years to get to this point, to have these very special meetings overseas. And now we have nothing to show. I always knew there was a risk in having a single facility, but as a boutique software developer, sometimes I had to choose between having something to show, or having high availability. I have not processed everything yet.

There are now so many tasks in order to get new office space up and running. I am overwhelmed.

I have nowhere to go to work tomorrow. Those screenshots I decided not to take today because we were close to fixing a few visual bugs in the GUI are not possible now.

As the guy in charge at the office I have to maintain focus and calm tomorrow morning. I don't want to panic, but I am not ready to go into cool and calculating mode.  I am between feelings.

Sorry for the rant.

This sucks.

Tallarn Rough Riders WIP

I was dreading painting the old plastic horses, due to the lack of detail, but also due to my unfamiliarity with horses. A few google searches later and some feedback from my wife, and I have painted horses that exceeded my expectations. Tonight I plan to finish all of the barding and the lances, which should make it possible to base the unit. I plan to use biker bases like those I used on my..erhm...bike squads. I hope that is allowable game-wise. I just can't bring myself to use squared bases on 40k. 

I really need to keep the painting temp up for Armies on parade. I only have a few days before traveling overseas and a few days once I return before the competition.

Tallarn Heavy Weapon Teams

Final blending on the soldiers is not complete, but I really wanted to base them. So I did. I found a pack of forgeworld IG stowage, which I'll add to the bases to fill in some of the blank spots. I think that will spice these up quite a bit, as well as let me get some more green on the models.  In the Armies on Parade pictures you'll see how well the yellow complements the blue of the Ultramarines.  I'll have to select only a few of these guys to join the force, since the bases take up so much room.

I had been worried that with only two base styles that the force would look too uniform, but I think all of the extra rubble customizes the bases enough to overcome this.

Now...

Do paint a tank today, or do I paint rough riders or Mumaks? I managed to pick up a Malcador on ebay, but I could paint a chimera instead . (or a pair of egg shaped sentinels...forgot about those)

Big Box of Tallarn Heavy Weapon Teams

In my haste to paint up all of the artillery pieces, I failed to consider how many troops had to be painted to go along with them. Yesterday I managed to get most of the bast colors onto the the support troops. I plan to paint all of their guns, knives, and details tonight.

I'd like to wash their clothing with sienna, but after the last wash dried with white chalky bits in the crevices, I am not sure what to do.  I think I need to seal the models before moving forward with any washes. Since I have to seal the models, I've been thinking about using an oil based wash afterwards. I've not tried this on infantry before, but it seems like it might work well. Any thoughts? I've never heard of people using oil washes on miniatures outside of large tanks, but I am willing to give it a try. Are there any good examples of this technique online?

Tallarn Receive Fire Support

My tallarn now have a small arsenal of heavy weapons with which to pin down the enemies of the emperor. I don't know what weapons are good in an IG list, so I painted up the heavy weapons which had complete teams. The two mortars and two autocannons can be divvied up into squads, while the two teams of three lascannons and heavy bolters can make up heavy weapon squads.

Initially I wanted to paint the mumaks today, but I've saved them for so long a few more squads painted won't hurt. Once all of the respective troopers are painted I think I will have had enough painting under my belt to be confident with the 'maks. Despite their large size, the riders and bits are relatively delicate, so I don't think they would take paint stripping well if I screwed up. Better to paint more of the easily simple-greened minis first.

I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful memorial day.

Tallarn Ultramarine Allies

Back from a great vacation, and one squad done! (ok maybe I need to finish painting their skin...just forgot  oops!)

I find painting these guys a real struggle because there is so much cloth, but I think I am learning. Maybe after I have painted 40 of them I will have it figured out. Despite that, one of the things I really like about the older miniatures is their scale. Plastic IG are so much larger than these guys, which are almost forgeworld scale. The benefit is that space marines look appropriately large.

I had been hoping to add the forgeworld tallarn backpacks to these guys to make them look a bit more like a military force in the desert rather than an insurgent force in the desert, but it seems they no longer sell them. If you know someone who'd part with them please let me know.

Happy memorial day!

40k GT or Narrative Event

Jawaballs called me the other day, and while chatting about other things he mentioned he'd be in my neck of the woods for the Nova Open. (Time to break out the scotch library) It surprised me when he said he was going to just play games, and not participate in the gt. I've been thinking about switching from the gt to the narrative event for a while myself. I love the idea of being able to bring my Ultramarines with tallarn Mumak allies. The narrative event would let me do that. It would also remove me from the stress of playing so many games in the gt. don't get me wrong, the back room of the gt, where all the low brackets play, is loads of fun. The problem is having to sustain crushing defeats repeatedly on the first day in order to get there. It is unavoidable. The first day is rough! So maybe I should go the narrative route. Anyone else thinking the same?

Tallarn Squad Allied To Ultra Marines First Attempt

I painted my first Tallarn squad last night.  I am pleased with the scheme and think it will go well along side my ultras. To help mesh the armies together I painted their head scarves a very pale blue.

In terms of the painting quality...eh. I missed the mark on these guys. I painted most of the miniatures with an airbrush, shading everything. Then I ruined the shading with a washes!

Those last minute, just before bed, washes came out all blotchy, covering up all of the careful airbrushing. Needless to say these guys need to have their cloth areas repainted. On the other hand, at least I have a scheme coming together.  I may just finish the unpainted areas and then grab a fresh squad to test.

Despite my general disappointment with my painting on these guys, i am weirdly really fond of them. I really like seeing them side by side with my Ultramarines. Being a big Lawrence of Arabia fan, might be the root cause, but something about these guys is just cool. Once I put white decals and battle damage on the grey armor I think these guys will start to shine.


oh yeah... I have mumacks...yep... I have a full squad of those rude looking desert raiders. These guys were practice for the big ones!