Still Alive

So just wanted to make a post to say that Im still here. Ive been working and kinda off point, doing a little at a time. In fact right now im letting some paint dry before I finish up the last of my "original" troops. The ones that were originally plastic ultramarines, are now going ot be my Dark Knights. The reason these are taking so long is because I have to be really careful that none of the paint shows through. Tommorow morn I ll have some pics up.

Oh, and i got some suprises instore for the army as well.

Tips and Tricks

Here is the link to the video I was talking about in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZGtkd-2FzA

One of these things is not like the other (BoA 2.75)

So while watching Dallas rip up on Green Bay I decided to do a squad of termies, basically 5 out of the 20 I have.






The thing though is I wanted to take some of the ones I had striped down. You really cant tell which ones are which, lest you know the actual design changes.



I still need to do the arms, but Im a little worried. Ive been getting this really gritty finish on them and I have no idea whats causing it. Any ideas?

Everybody get to the Choppa! (BoA pt 2.5)

So as much as I would like to do some more work today I actually have to go into work. Its not until 5. But I like to leave about an hr and a half to shower and actually make the journey. What sucks is it took about 4 months, but I finally hate my job. Well not my job persay, but the management. One in particular, oh and my new supervisor. I dont know him, but from Ive heard hes a very "work first fun second" which kinda the opposite to my style which is "create a fun working environment, and your employees will naturally work harder and take more pride". But im ranting, I would love to get out of there, but I havent been getting many subbing calls and i need the money to pay for my TeXeS and ExCet exams so I can start applying to be a teacher. Oh yea, and I still want a second job for the extra cash. BUUUUT... abck to where we are supposed to be.

Who ever said thinking outside the box would make work easier was a liar. Its not about thinking outside the box, its about thinking with the box. I was trying to figure out how i was going to prime all my temies (and this will probably be the technique i use for my squads also) and I though, if only i could paint them on their bases... and then it hit me... SHOEBOX. I poked little holes to stick the ones with nubs on, slots for those that had then, and a lil duct tape for the flatfoots. It worked perfectly.

The problem i thought I would face would be all the ones that were previously painted. I did a decent job of getting most of the paint off... But there was still some there. I was afraid that the primer wouldnt cover most of it up. But as ive learned form my research and the company which I shall steal most of my technique from ^_^ patience is the key. So I went to work, quick passes, and constant movment. And Ill have to admit they primed pretty nicely.

Sadly though, thats probably all Ill get to do today. As I wont have time to do more, and while i would love to stay up till 3 am after i get home from work, Ive got school in the morn. But as boring as it is, I enjoy it. I feel like im learning something, because its something that I can better myself and the lives of others doing it. And as much as I hate that manager, 10 years from now, hes going to be working at **********, and Im going to be enriching lives.

Building an Army (part 2)

So today's undertaking was a bite more involved than last night, and well to be honest its a sign of things to come. Over the past few weeks ive been slowly stripping all the paint off my old army in order to basically switch chapters and use a new theme. Im either going to go black templars or something in the same vein, color scheme wise. One idea I had running was a sucessor chapter using basically the same color scheme as the Black templars, but with grey shoulders instead of white ones, but we will see. The hard part is a name, and well, as much as I would like the Dark Knights, well.. its a bit cliche.


One of the things i noticed today was how much more time im going to have to spend repainting the models that were stripped, as the prime and wash only go so far. Im making sure to get good coverage, but as you can see from todays addition, the paint might seem to be caked. Plus I need to think about how to protect the coats, matte? gloss? im not sure. But for now onto the project.


So today we start with a smurf Land Speeder . I had to make sure to wash him and clean him off nicely so you couldnt see much blue. After the prime it looked like i had caught all the crevices, but I still had the wash to go over.




The land speeder was a bit easeir this time, because i had a general idea what I was going to be doing this time, and really the only accent colors were going to be silver, and well... silver. Keep it simple is my philosophy. Plus I want my army to have a bit of a night strike theme, so I dont want yellows and blues and otherwise bright colors making them stick out.


So then the bits, they were primed at the same tiem as the speeder itself, so really the only thing i had to do was assemble them. After putting them together I put them back onto the speeder, and viola, all done.




I also utilized the same time to finish up the 2nd dread that I had sitting around. Arnie, was happy to get some arms and even sneak into a few shots with his 2 new buddies in their lil new whip.





So yea, 1.5 models done. My next goal will be my bikers, I need to score one more so I can have a squad of 4. It will be nice to have them and refer to them as the 4 horsemen. On that same note I need another dread also, 1) for more weapon variety, and 2) to compete the 3 wisemen.

Building an Army (part 1)

So today was my first foray back into the wonderful world of 40k. I havent played or painted a figure in about 7 years and well, man when yer goin from scratch you forget how long the painting takes. I guess perhaps I could have started with something easier but you know me.

For the past 3-4 weeks I have been getting supplies and getting ready to undertake this endevour and today I was finally ready, what with the aquisition of what will be mah new painting table. But despite the 2.5 hours it took to paint my black templar themed dreadnaught I was really happy how it came out. I documented most of it, for your viewing pleasure, so I hope it came out well.


The first step was primer. I did this outside with some krylon camoflage flat black. Followed the steps I learned from Blue Table Painting as far as the basics of priming. Which were pretty much, small circles, dont stop moving. The next step was a base coat. I did this using a 50/50 mix of Chaos Black and water. This allowed a very flat finish and pretty much filled in the gaps that were missed from priming.


This was the only real hard step. Since I didnt really have a picture to go off of, I spent alot of time thinking and debating where would be a good place to highlight the figure with some Boltgun Metal. Eventually i figured it all out. Id think this step took about an hour all by itself.




Ahh the white step. Not perfect, and not easy, luckily not too much to do. Its got a nice ameture look to it. But, ive never liked the way the white, or red tbh, paint goes on. Some people might find this step to be cheating, but ill be honest, my hands shake a lot when im painting, so some of the paints might not be where they are supposed to be. So to account for this after I am done i go over the whole model with a fine brush and some Chaos Black and basically "erase" what mistakes i might have made. It might not be perfection, but it looks much better.


I pretty much followed the same steps I took with the body and did them on the arms. The only exception was instead of priming them with spray paint, I used a quick coat of Chaos Black. Made sure to get full coverage, but didnt bother going into the cracks in detail, the wash took care of that step.





So there he is all glued and put together. Now i think Sylvester came out ok. Im not exactly ready to enter a golden demon competetition or anything, but hes definitely play worthy and I am very happy with how he came out. I have yet to do his brother, and i will def not be documenting his progress as he will more than likely be very identical to this one. But yea... this hobby is fun and very relaxing to be honest. I do however have to apologize for the shoddy camera. Ill try to get a better one sometime soon. Its just hard to find one that will capture all the detail of something this small upclose.