End of the Year Closeout

My final count for the year is 234 figures, 14 vehicles, and 17 markers.

The year ended as it began with some Tyranids. I did up another Tervigon (yes, even though rumor has it they are doing an actual model, I wanted mine to be consistent) and with a Tervigon comes the need for Termigants and with Termigants come rippers.


The big project was my Harpy with magnetized weapons:


Lastly, the Hive Tyrant is old but the magnetized boneswords are new, making him a Swarm Lord on demand. It also pretty much cleaned out the last of my rare earth magnets. I need to get some more before the go up in price.



Next year I am starting with some Ymargl Genestealers using Chapterhouse heads (got them before GW dropped the IP hammer) and a Venomthorpe then it's back to Chaos with a little IG tossed in for good measure.

Happy New Year to you all.

November Ended With a Bang But December is a Bit Slow

However, I finally finished the following:

First is my last 2010 Motivation Challenge, some chaos objective markers. Nothing says "chaos" like pillars of blood crystals, severed heads, mysterious plinths, and of course an eight-pointed start just sitting there on the ground.



Next up are four more Chaos Space Marines. I have more of these left to paint than I really know what to do with. Starting to think that it may have been a mistake to do so many...



Finally rounding out my force are some raptors with oop orginal style-fresh-from-the-Horus-Heresy-stylin' jump packs.



Not sure what's coming next so stay tuned.

Tide of Darkness

The only good thing about my trip getting cancelled is that I've gotten a bunch of painting and modellingdone. Adding this latest batch to the Tots stuff and that amounts to 56 models done this month alone.

Painted; a bunch of Black Legion Space Marines:


Primed; my home-grown raptors:


Modelled; my aspring champions and Berzerkers of Khorne:



Behind these guys is a bunch more Chaos Space Marines that are already assembled, sad, rule-less Cypher and some Fallen to keep him company, and a second hand defiler in need of a refit.

However, before I continue with any of the above, my Deep Striking Santa II project for the Freebootaz is...well that's a secret for now but let's just say it emcompasses someone's doom.

Still Here

I have not drifted off into the Warp, I've just been really busy with other stuff and have not posted my pics yet. I've just completed fourteen Chaos Space Marines and need to add decals and a banner and they will be done. I'm also building some Khorne Berzerkers and some Raptors. I am very pleased with how both are coming and I think you will find them slightly different than the norm. In the meantime, I'm supposed to be leaving on a family trip, but it may get delayed or cancelled due to illness so we will see.

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving.

Tots are Complete!

The whole load will go out in the mail today. There is a lot more I would have liked to have done with the figures; weathering and more details on the vehicles, squad symbols on the figures, but frankly I had too much to do in too little time. Parts I am proud of; the flames on the jet packs, and the squad sysmbols that I did using putty (except for the figs that came with the SoBR box; they already had theirs).

Rejoyce Tots!

Batch #2 done:



The total so far:

First Group of Tot Work

No, I don't mean child labor!

Let the Tots Rejoyce!

This month for my 40k Radio Motivational Challenge I am doing my first batch of figures for their Toys For Tots project which is an Ultramarine army.



I used Army Painter blue for the primer/base coat. Turns out it is a little brighter than Ultramarines blue but it made the first coat go better. Right now I'm about half done (pics when complete) with the first batch which is the stuff I'm contributing from my SoBR set. The rest of the figures will be from Syr Syko, who is serving in Afghanistan and was not going to be albe to paint his contribution. I tossed in a couple other figures to round his contribution out and tie them together but essentially the next three shots are what he will be contributing, to include the awesomely magnatized dread. Needless to say, I have a lot of painting to do this month if I am going to get these in on time.

Lizards and Space Bugs

Finished off the hydras so now I have a full battery of three:


And, knocked out some Zoanthropes and a single Hive Guard. Hope to have a battery of three each of those eventually.

In the mean time, next up I think I'll get started on some Ultramarines. You know...for the Tots.

Hydras, Primed and Ready

Yes, it's clear which one is the Forge World one but overall I'd say the scratch-build is a noble copy.

Hydras, Lemons, and Lemonade

This latest project came about a little strangely.
I wanted another Hydra from my IG army so I asked a buddy to pick me up one at Games Day (because apparently that's all they went there to do was buy Forge World stuff). He did and we sat down at our usual Wednesday game night. This one came with the old Chimera Chassis (which the majority of my units are) but I already had one from a defunct Griffon project so I was going to use that one. Instead I absentmindedly assembled the chassis to include adding the cupola to the front. By the time I realized what I had done it was too late to take of the cupola without damaging the model so I decided, what the heck, I'd scratchbuild a third Hydra for a full Squadron of 3. Although I still need to add copious rivets and a lot of detail to the sides of the guns, to include the ammo feeds, here is my progress so far:

Centerminators Complete!

Meet the herd:



Here's Heady:


Chains:


Hooker:


And Skully:

Photographing Miniatures the Cheapskate Way

I (obviously) like taking pics of my work and posting it but not so much that I want to pay money that could otherwise be spent buying even more figs on it. Not all that long ago I finally accepted that you need a decent background to showcase the figure better. To wit, I use a piece of poster board:



$.98 well spent. I originally used white but quickly figured out that blue was a nice neutral color that provided a good contrast as well as context to the figure. Someone better versed on color theory can tell you far more I'm sure. I use the ambient light as a source; not as ideal as using a diffused source but far cheaper (and less work). However, to keep my shots stable, I did invest (okay my family got it for me for my birthday but same thing) in an inexpensive tripod. This has been a Godsend as I no longer have to stack things or jury-rig stable platforms to choose from. Even a basic tripod such as mine has 3 axis that it can be adjusted on providing flexibility when deciding how best to capture detail. Prices range from $15 to $24 for a cheap but versitle tripod.

Centaurminators and Obliterators

Here are the first two Cents-these are the boar Terminators and according to most of the responses I've gotten, the least favorite. I like their compact nature and find the idea of them tromping along on their stubby legs amusing in a chaotic evil sort of way. I'm also pleased with how the various trophies to include skulls and severed heads turned out.





I am also please with how my homegrown obliterators turned out once painted.


The rest of the Cents are primed and basecoated so I should knock those out over the next week or so. Then it's the Freeboota Monthly challenge (Heavy Support) and maybe the Ultramarines for Tots, just to get those off my plate.

Chaos Bikers and Company

Where are the Centaurminators? Before I did them I wanted to practice the paint job on some troops to get it down better. In addition I had my Freebootaz monthly challenge to complete (which meant additional practice). Because of the nature of the monthly challenge (it started with elites) I didn't have a time to work with my Tyranid paint scheme before knocking out the high-value units (i.e. Hive Tyrant).
It goes without saying that these guys are Black Legion. First up, five Chaos Space Marines:


Next up, four bikers:


After this are the Centaurminators and the Obliterators. After that, I'll alternate between troops and terminators probably, plus a second-hand Defiler that is going to need some serious work to bring it up to par, Cypher and a squad of fallen, and a chaos greater demon conversion or two-and that's just the stuff I actually have on hand. I also have two IG Hydras I'm working on, the ground crew, a couple of weapons teams, and at least one Zoanthrope (and let's face it-he'll need a friend or two since they work better in groups), oh and a dreadnaught and squad of Ultramarines I pledged for this year's 40k Radio Toys for Tots project. I'll probably knock those out after the hyras but before the rest of the Chaos stuff, just to get them done with and off my chest.

Chaos Terminators Pt 5 And Friends

The centaruminators are done and ready for primer and painting:



In addition, I have a squad of homemade Chaos Obliterators ready to go:


Third in my cavalcade of Chaos, the Freebootaz Challenge for September is Fast Attck:

I finally found a primer worth the money. My usual standard, Krylon, failed me and went all spotty first time out of the can so I've set that aside for use some time in a modelling project. Instead I bought some Army Painter white primer and so far so good.

Finally, to prove that I have not entirely given myself over to the dark gods, here is my Imperial ground crew, ready to start engines and taxi loyalist Valkyries and other aircraft: