Land Raider

Next up I'm torn between submitting an entry for the 40K Radio competition, starting my donation for the Toys for Tots army or working on some converted Honor Guard since GW is taking its sweet time converting those over to finecast (yes, I know two come with the Calgar set but that is waaay to few). I also purchased the Conversion Beamer from Chapterhouse Studios so I will be doing a product review on that in the near future.

Meanwhile:


Happy with how it turned out although I may have gone a little too heavy on the damage on some parts.

A Tip for Keeping GW Paint Pots Open

Sure, dipping your brush directly into the paint pot is death incarnate to the bristles. GW, with only your best interests at heart, has been kind enough to engineer awat the ability to leave the lid open, removing the danger for you by making it impossible to get the paint out. Conveniently it also denies you the ability leave the pot open for any other reason you might want to. Well I don't need them to save me from myself and after much frustration the technique to keep the fething pots open came to me in a flash of inspiration from parts lying around:



Take that GW, now that paint will dry out faster and I'll have to buy more from you whether you wanted me to or not!

Winning.

Back on Altitude: Ultramarines for July and August

Got caught up with my July and August 40K Radio Freebootaz Motivational Painting Challenge entries. With work heating up it has been an effort to get them done in time but I am extremely please with the results. On the down side, money is still tight and I don't have a good location in the new house so I have not set up a new photography area so the effect is varied as you will see:

With flash:



And without:



Overall the painting challenge has been fun but I think one problem is that in many ways it slows me down by forcing me down a certain path that I may or may not want to go. I will probably not do next years for several reasons, not the least of which I am sort of topped off on armies for the time being are really just need to catch up a few pieces. I've got some guard projects that are being delayed as well as that Thunderhawk upgrade I keep telling myself I am going to get around to doing some day. I would also like to expand my terrain and maybe add some sections to the gaming board that I never seem to get around to playing on.

The Joys of Moving, a Book Recommendation, and a Shout Out to Battlefoam

Okay, the move in complete and some normality (normalcy?-whatever) has been returned but I am now way behind on my monthly challenges for July and August. I still managed to get some hobby related things accomplished despite everything getting packed up and shipped off; a friend gave me some Aegis Defense Lines. Actually he gave me four. I cannot thank him enough to be frank. So again, thank you Steve.

Let me also recommend that you all pick up a copy of his novel that he wrote with his wife, "Powerborn" that was recently published. I don't tolerate crap fantasy well so the fact that he is my friend aside, it is a fantastic novel filled with fully fleshed out characters and art (yes art!) that you will not see in contemporary fantasy novels. Check it out on their website www.nenethomas.com

I also transported some GW Primer and Army Painter Primer from Oklahoma City (yet another shout out to New World Comics and Games) to Corpus Christi in the middle of a massive heat wave without letting it get hot. I believe this is one of the reasons it turns to garbage and comes out textured. Cool for some bits of terrain, conniption-inducing for those miniatures you worked really hard at putting together. Finally I have stared painting a ten-man squad of assualt marines and a five-man squad of terminators. I figure these will take me until the end of August and into September.

Not sure about the local gaming scene. I've set food in what appears to be the only gaming store in town and, well to be fair the guy is willing to special order but does not have a large stock. Frankly, the store is more of a Magic: The Gathering and LAN gaming spot with a smidgeon of Warhammer, 40K and Warmachine. The jury will remain out until I can give him a fair shake.

Last, a shout-out to Battle Foam. Everything packed in my cases survived intact but more importantly, I purchased two extra trays to cover some extra items. The packers, being the geniuses that they are, put them beneath heavy books in the boxes they all went in. Despite that, and a little worse looking for wear, the trays did their job and they managed to protect everything. Thanks Romeo.

Primed for action (some of the last of my old blue)

Fething Real World

I am forced to admit that I will be going on a gaming hiatus for probably the next full month until my life resets in my new home (exact location TBD) in Corpus Christi. The is no realistic way I will be able to get any hobbying in due to the varant nature (again, no home) of the transition. This means nada for the monthly Freebootaz challenge which is painful-I have an almost perfect score of gold up to this date. Sometimes the paint brushes take a back seat and this is going to be one of those time.

The Joys of Travel

I had to go out of town for some specialized training (involved literally being blindfolded and flipped upside down under water among other things-compare that to your average "trust exercise). The upside of which was I had some spare time on my hands in a place that I had no real reason to explore so I got my second squad of devastators painted. That puts me five squads into the Ultramarines project.



I've also got a special character about half finished and the Heresy Era Devastators prepped but I may hold off and get July and August's Freeboota challenges prepped; I will probably not have much time to paint in the near future so getting them ready now would go a long way.

Month, er, Two Weeks of Devastation!!!! (Late Entry)

My project for this month is to knock out my Ultramarines Devastator Squads both for the "modern" army and the Heresy Era army. Painting has really taken longer these last two months for some reason; stuff that I would knock out in 5 days has taken two weeks. Case in point; these guys:



So I got one squad done. I will be doing some travelling soon so without "the burden of work and family" to quote Homer Simpson I will be able to get a couple nights of uninterrupted painting in. Arguably I'd rather have the wife and kids along but getting caught up in painting is a nice second place.

Astute observers will recognize the 2nd Ed plastic marines in the squad. I'm using them to fill out both this and the second devastator squad (2 ML's and 2 HB's) of the modern army. The are decent enough figs that I don't want them to go to waste but since they are traditionally min-maxed out to fit in Razorbacks or to shave a couple of points it is fitting that they will be the first to get dropped. I also need to go back and do decals for both them and the tactical squads I have already done. I wanted to maximize using the moulded shoulder pads but alas-for too many figures it was just not practical.

Incidentally, I also got these guys done up: I'm still getting caught up with the rest of the command squad and Captain Sicarius. You will note the name of the champion (I need to clean up the lettering): Thebus. This is a reference/joke (for all you Ultramarines haterz) to the Sacred Band of Thebes. To get why this is a joke, look them up on Wikipedia.