The Photopocalypse and Recovery

I have succeeded in saving my Photobucket images and will eventually backfill the old posts, starting with the ones that people actually looked at more than once.

Until then, lets do a quick recap of what I have been up to so far.

Year of the Bug is finally started (or ripped out of the chest of the host to take our an entire crew in less than 24 hours). All of the assembled and primed models are painted. I have a couple of squads of acolytes to do but I have something special in mind with them which will blend them in with my existing AM forces.




Still getting used to using Google so I humbly request your patience while I get this all figured out.

Until then-happy painting.

Thank You Photobucket (Sarcasm)

I fully understand their need to make money-clearly being a free hosting service has not worked for them.

I would have been happy to pay a reasonable price for third party hosting but $400 is off the charts.

The blog will be temporarily on hold until I can shift to an alternate source and get things moving again. Which is unfortunate as I have been really busy recently.

The Rotting Underbelly

Second to last mix of old and new are the familiars; odd creatures that congregate around the cult's psykers.



The Aberrant are a strange mix of sickly and powerful, mutant and evolution. Even the cult which takes all comers lookes upon them with disdain. However that does not stop then from forcing them to do hard labor by day and as shock troops when the cult rises up.



The Favored Sons are the grunts of the cult. They fill all tiers of the settlement, seemingly hard workers who toil away for the good of the settlement.

The Cult Rises

I have at last started work on my Genestealer Cult. Technically this is the second cult I've owned. Though not my original figures, the first group dates back to this era.

This first group is a mix of the original lead (!) cultists, some plastic bodies I traded Ryan for, and leftover arms from a long gone project that looked suitable exotic on this figures.

I call these the Deplorables. They are scum of the cult. They live in the ash wastes and on the lowest levels of the hive. They are the eyes and ears amongst the lowest levels of Imperial society.




These figures are the first born. They are made from the original plastic hybrids. I did, however, decide that the original heads were just too derpy so I swapped them out with some leftover purestrain heads from the literally dozens I have sitting unassembled. With the Deplorables, these are a mix of old and new bits to include some easily recognizable parts and some that have not seen production in at least a decade, maybe two.



Next up will be the familiars which will be a mix of old and new as well, then on to the new figures.

40K Spaceport Equipment

Going off of the sea port or airport model, spaceships need fuel and supplies right? I built these two items to fit that bill. First is a utility vehicle. Often service crews will use them to jet around, delivering tools and spare parts to repair jobs. This one will eventually have two trailers attached to it for moving ordinance to combat vehicles.
The cart is a John Deer Polaris-style toy from Tractor Supply Company. No changes were made; just prime and paints. Super easy and great for random utility vehicles.



Second is a fuel truck. Not really sure what cannon fuel is for 40K spaceships (some variant on promethium maybe) but whatever this stuff is, it likes to explode. The truck is a toy from the latest Fast and Furious movie series. The detailing is just perfect for 40K and I am fighting not to get more for other random service vehicles. The trailer was scratch built from parts I had laying around and some leftover cubes from the moisture vaporator project. It's one of those projects that I have been wanting to make for an long time for some reason.

My intent is for it to be an objective for either a sabotage mission, or an Apocalypse spaceport seizure mission where it can be destroyed (obviously exploding Michael Bay style causing D [or the 8th ed equivalent] to everything within 12 inches, but both sides would lose victory points. What is the point of seizing a spaceport if you blow the dang thing up in the process? Both the cart and the fuel truck and trailer are painted yellow-I figure it is a fairly generic color that says utility but works in both a military (the ones on the base I work at are yellow) or civilian context.






Eventually I need to build the carts and convert over the cargo lifter but for now I have finally gotten started on my Genestealer Cult-the Year of the Bug has begun at last!

40K Scale Cargo Ship

I decided I wanted something to flesh out the airfield/starport I built. Next up, I need a couple of industrial sized landing pads. The size of the main cargo secion was specifically designed for the GW cargo boxes to be able to fit. Theoretically the sides fold up and a lifting device slides the boxes in.






Still deciding on if I want to model crew for the inside. Plenty of time to go back and add later.



Clearly the engines will need to be overhauled. This was my first time to try this technique. Not super happy with the result but it was a worthy experiment.







And anyone who knows my work should have anticipated I was going to build two. Because I did. So there.








Construction started as some Star Wars toys, plasticard, tons of bits, and lots and losts of super glue and polystyrene plastic.







I stripped the toy of spare bitz to reduce weight on the cargo section (I reinforced it and the details I added helped but I didn't want to stress the body). I foresee the parts making their way to an ork Gargant or something. Lots of good parts.

Non-IP Infringing Moisture Vaporators

Completely original. In no way inspired by a major film franchise.




In no way inspired by continued watching of Rogue One.

The project that has sidelined my progress is mostly done; I will be posting in the next couple of weeks.

It was made of used dry-erase markers, drink lids, PVC pipe sections, wooden squares from Hobby Lobby with plastic squares glued over it and details added to that, rings, and of course GW bitz.

2017 Is Off To A Slow Start

But will be ramping up quickly.

I knocked out a bunch of my son's Space Wolves in January.



Year of the Bug has been delayed but the delay will be epic.

I got inspired by Rogue One to do some particularly themed terrain which also ties into the Spaceport Project. I have terrain I new realize I made two years ago and now need to paint it. Considering the projects I am finishing assembling and about to prime, the time is now.

2016 Roundup

Final count for 2016 (estimated):

Figures: 222
Vehicles: 23
Terrain: 24

Figures were way up this year. Vehicles about the same with terrain pieces down. For 2017 that is going to change.

First off I have a job change so my life should go to a much more 9-5 workday (8-4:30 but you get the point) with no weekends, evenings, or travel for work expected. Plus a pay raise of sorts (the old job was commission and paid for garbage for the amount of work being put into it).

Already I have built four vehicles for a friend (I don't really count those since I'm not painting them-they go in a sort of grey area).

My goals for 2017 are as follows:

1) Paint all my 2016 purchases (not many left so that should be easy)
2) Paint all my 2015/2016 built but not painted terrain
3) Declare 2016 (or at least the first half) the "Year of the Bug". I have some great Tyranid figs (maybe this year they will get a decent codes) and Genestealer Cult figures plus I want to round out my AM figures as allies. I have some great plans for Port Maw next year in this regard.
4) More Terrain. This fell a little by the wayside although the pieces I did build (train set I am looking at you proudly) I am really pleased with. I have some factory parts from a Mantic Kickstarter I want to turn into actual scenery. I might expand my jungle bases a little as well.
5) Build another dream project. This year I got two done; the train and the overpasses (awaiting painting). This year I'm thinking of among the following: a) Crashed Imperial Spaceship b) Modular City Base Board c) Scratchbuilt Warlord Titan or d) Leviathan/Capital Imperialis (just wish there were updated rules for it).

Other projects will include finishing off my current batch of Ultramarines and my son's Space Wolves that he got for Christmas and some I got as blood money for those tanks I built. Seriously Ryan-can't you buy used Rhinos from people who know how to put them together?

Overdue by Several Months

So this is most of what I finished out 2016 with. I say most of because there are about 30 more chaos figures I pumped out for Port Maw that I never documented to include a greater demon, some blood letters, regular Black Legion, and Berserkers of Khorne that I just did not take pictures of before I had to pack them away for the trip.

I did achieve my primary goal of painting all of the figures I bought in 2015. I failed however to paint all the terrain I made in 2015; the airfield pieces got left behind. No matter, I will get them caught up as part of this coming year.