Blogmancy - again!

Wow, has it really been nearly four months since I last posted?

Life's been pretty crazy for me over the last few months. Between personal issues and working in retail in a tourist town in summer, I haven't really had the time to keep this blog updated. I would say it won't happen again, but I think we both know it will.

Anyway, just because I've been away from the keyboard doesn't mean I haven't been making hobby progress. In fact I've been making loads of it. Since 8th Edition release I've painted gotten a crazy amount of Emperor's Children painted or nearly painted and my Deathwatch are coming along nicely too.

The problem is that due to not having the time to keep the blog updated,  I've completely lost track of my painting points and 365 Challenge. I'm not even sure what I already claimed points for. Obviously this is a problem. Luckily I've got a simple, yet elegant solution.

I'm going to cheat.

Well not quite. I'm just going to hit a big ol' reset button.

 

It makes sense to me. My painting points were only meant to give me a rough idea of how much progress I'm making, to keep me going in the right direction hobby-wise. I'm not going to stress myself out trying to work out what I've done recently. I'll just start it again from scratch and try to actually keep things balanced this time around

I do want to go back over a lot of the stuff I've been painting recently, as I've been mostly just churning them out to basic tabletop standard so I could get some games in. Now I have a playable 2000 point force for 8th Edition 40k, I can go back give them the full 'love and care' treatment, ready to go in this:

I found this display cabinet going cheap in a local charity shop the other week and I have to say it's rather fantastic. It should be a great motivator for me to actually get stuff finished so I can show them off.

So without further ado, let me show you what I've been working on:

Any Emperor's Children army wouldn't really be complete without a Sonic Dreadnought or two. The problem was that Forge World don't produce models for them any more. Luckily a solution quickly soon presented itself. A mate of mine was having a clear out and had an old Blood Angels Dreadnought he thought I might be able to make use of. Result!

A bit of converting and application of some modelling chain later and I had my Sonic Dread. I had great fun converting up a suitable Blastmaster with some plasticard tubing:

 I've still got a few details to finish up with the painting, but I'm happy with the way this is turning out. I even managed to do a little bit of freehand!.

I particularly like the way I've left a few of the BA-specific details showing, as it conjures up some very evocative images in my mind. I figure that the ever-creative warriors of the 3rd Legion would take great delight in torturing one of their captured cousins, so background-wise, it's still the orginal occupant in there. His screams of torment are now turned against the Imperium he once fought to defend,

 I think Slaanesh has clearly corrupted my mind!

Anyway, I'll post more once he's done. Shouldn't take long, as I'm on a bit of a hobby kick this week.

Poundland Scratch-build Idea

I found this in Poundland the other day. Whatever it was originally meant to be, it caught my eye as a good base onto which I can scratch-build an Arvus Lighter for my Militia/ Warp Cult:

If it doesn't work out, it's no big deal. It only cost me a quid, so I figured it's worth a try. If I can make it work properly though, I can build myself a fleet of flyers for not very much money at all.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Tub of Heresy

Having gone through my vast horde of GW bits, I decided to seperate out any and all bits which were usable in my heresy conversions. Needless to say, I ended up with rather a lot so now I've got a big tub of heresy parts to be used or stripped down, plus two small craft boxes of the rarer or more prized pieces I found.

By my reckoning there's enough parts in there for 20-30 marines of varying descriptions. Add those what I've already got built/painted and I reckon I'll be hitting 8000 points on my Sons of Horus and Thousand Sons within a few months, once I've had a sort through and build of what's in there.

Sods law says I'll still end up spending hours looking for that one bit I need for projects though!

Oh and annoyingly I've run out of the wash I need for my Sons of Horus, bringing progress on repainting them grinding to a halt (again). Hopefully I'll be able to finish off my first Inquisitorial Henchman Squad done  though.

Basilisk Restoration Project Part 1

 A friend of mine at my local club runs a hobby shop on Ebay, so he often gets in junk lots or models which need serious TLC as part of larger job lots. He also knows that I enjoy restoring such otherwise lost causes, so often gives me first dibs on them at massively reduced prices.

His latest finds might just become my greatest challenge yet though:

That's a Chimera and a Basilisk, both in pretty bad shape. To be fair, the Chimera really just needs a strip, a reworking of its weapons and a repaint. The Basilisk on the other hand is horrendous.

First up was the horrible splotchy paint job which looked like the work of a 5 year old. I had to give it a basecoat just so I could get a look at what work needed to be done with it. Once I'd done that, I almost wished I'd told my friend 'no thank you' when he first showed it to me. Take a look at the gun shield for example:

The previous owner clearly tried to add some extra armour to it by using track pieces, but failed to line them up with the existing lines of the shield, meaning I'm going to have to try and pry them off at some point. The person who built it was clearly going for an armoured look, judging by what they've done with the crew platform at the back:

That's more stuff to remove and before I can start on the restoration work. Considering the rails are the most delicate part of the model, I'm probably going to have to rebuild these completely.

In case you're wondering where he got the tracks from, here's your answer:

Yup, they took them from underneath. They didn't even bother putting them on the underside of the front of the vehicle, so it would be have been very obvious that there were missing tracks, even from across a table. Luckily I had some spares which I used to patch it:

It's not brilliant, but it'll do for now. I want to see if I can prize those tracks from the front of the tank and return them to their proper place, but that's not my main priority on it The majority of my work is going to be sorting the back platform.

As you can see, it's in the worst state of the entire vehicle. I think I may have to pretty much rebuild this from scratch, due to the state that it's in. I'll see what I can do though.

Before I do anything else, my first step is going to have to be to give it a good soak in a tub of Fairy Power Spray. I'll keep you updated on how I get on

Huzzah! Airship progress!

 After a lot of work, I've finally managed to make some progress on the airship.

I know it's not the clearest of pictures (Ill try and get some better ones tomorrow), but as you can see, the prow of the ship is finished and the sides are pretty much done as well.

This means that the hull is nearly complete now, allowing me to to get to work on the detailing and the gas balloon.

I have to say, even getting to this stage is making me very happy indeed. This thing's been sitting half finished on my shelf for nearly two years now and seeing the progress I'm now making is a good feeling.

Hopefully I'll actually get it finished this time

A whole lot of Terminators...

Ok, so I caved. I deviated from my list.

I can never resist a bargain, so I just had to pick up these when I saw them going cheap online...



That's 46 Terminators of various types and 1 Dreadnought. These will be funneled into my various projects I've got going, mainly Deathwing and Scarab Occult, although some will go into my CSM's too

but first need to focus on that list...Focus, Khorneguy, focus!

I Need Money! aka: Revised Project List

Wow, I really am keeping up the post count...

Last post I mentioned my project list has been revised due to money issues, so I thought I'd post up my new list to give you an idea of what I'm working on in the next few weeks

- Build my new hobby area (put on hold while finding a new place to live)

- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units

- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force

- Paint up the bodies to my first five Scarab Occult

- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit

- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads

- Finish building Bjorn

- Paint my Rune Priest

- Finish building my Cygor-based Bloodthirster

- Paint at least 50 (out of 350)of my Zombies

- Strip down my previous failed attempt at Deathwing ready to start anew in the new year

- Build my Throgg the Troll King conversion, ready to lead my Ogre Kingdoms/ Warriors of Chaos monster force

As you can see, it's not all that different to my previous project list and still gives me a lot to do. I just really wish I could do the projects that have been 'bumped off' but there's no point starting them if i don't have the cash to finish them.

Sigh...

Still, should be lots of lovely pics of progress for you to see coming soon. Currently on my table are the Bloodthirster and Throgg for their latest round of GS work, so you should be seeing more from them very soon...

A mighty hobby quest

I should know better than to venture into GW in the run up to Uni deadlines. I always end up with far too many ideas for projects that i have nowhere near enough time for.

But, in a feat of incredible self-control, I've decided that those can wait until New Year, when i have a six week break and my student loan. In the meantime, I'm going to focus my hobby efforts on getting my current projects done and dusted.


Here's my 'To Do' list to lead me nicely to the 1st of January. You'll notice most of it's stuff that's been featured on The Wandering Mind over the course of 2011 and never seen again.

- Build my new hobby area (more on this next post)

- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units

- Paint my Dark Eldar Kabalite unit that's been sitting on my desk for the last 4 months

- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force

- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit

- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads

- Finish my Thunderwolves, including my Lord

- Finish Bjorn

- Paint my Rune Priest

- Paint Trazyn the Infinite

- Finish building and painting my Zombie Dragon Bloodthirster/ Shard of the Void Dragon

- Paint at least 50 (out of 350)of my Zombies

- Strip down my previous failed attempt at Deathwing ready to start anew in the new year

- Build my Throgg the Troll King conversion, ready to lead my Ogre Kingdoms/ Warriors of Chaos monster force

As you can see, it's a fairly substantial list, but one I feel i can manage. The theory is, if i get all this done, I can start the new year without an huge backlog of stuff, allowing me to focus on my new projects.

I'll post the stuff up here as I do them, so you can see how I get on and I'll do a follow-up post in the New Year, where hopefully I can congratulate myself on a job well done. Hopefully.

Here we go then...

Madness I tell you!

Well it's 3am here and we've been up all night painting.

That's right, we left our Golden Demon entries till the night before.

We aren't expecting to get far, using them as more of a reason to get into Games Day at nine rather than ten (thus ensuring we can grab our seminar tickets), but it'll nice to get through to the second round.



Mine is the Psyker, my friend Johnny's is Harker. Not bad considering the short time available to us. You'll be seeing more of Johnny's army in the near future as he has graciously let me photograph his fledgling Catachan force as it takes shape.

More updates later, i'm taking an internet dongle with me so hopefully i'll be able to post updates as the day goes along

Games Day Weekender

Well with less than 24 hours to go, the excitement is palpable. Me and my friend have decided to stretch the excitement out even further and make a weekend of it.

Ignoring these "Mini Games Days" happening up and down the country at GW stores, we're celebrating in our own way. We're not sleeping tonight due to the fact that we have to up at 3am, so instead we're grabbing a few beers, few mates and playing an all-night 40k game.

If we've got time after that, we're having a painting session, before walking down to catch the coach for the big day itself

Once we're actually there, i've got a list of things i want to check out, also I'm picking up my Forge World order of some pre-heresy marines plus weapons and a Contemptor Dreadnought to kick off my planned Pre-Heresy army properly. I'm still teetering between doing Thousand Sons or Space Wolves, but I may see what Forgeworld are bringing out Space Wolves-wise with the next AI book before deciding. Or else do both, given my love of both Legions

For the most part though, big thing at Games Day this year is going to be Black Library. A must for me is picking up Salvations Reach, the new Gaunts Ghost book, as well as getting it signed by Mr Abnett himself, as well as getting in the "Writing for Black Library" seminar

I'll post what i can up tomorrow, but you might have to wait until early next week before i can.

Anyway, off i go, wish me luck. I'm off to game, drink, be merry in the highlight of my gaming year

Armies on Parade: Twelve Hour Mark

After a long hard slog, i'm finally there. The mind has been focussed for once!

While i don't have any images of the finished army right now, what with them laid out on my desk for final detailing, i can assure you i am bang on schedule to have them on display for 12 Noon today. Here's a shot of the board from earlier today.



I think i need to make the earth mounds look more scorched and war-torn, but that might just be the camera flash.

More images, including the whole finished product are coming in the next few hours, just before i pack them away for transport.

Stumble Gun

This is the start of a Stumble Gun for my Blood Pact.



For those of you who don't know, it's a terror weapon unleashed by the Archenemy in the Gaunts Ghost book His Last Command.
Essentially they're spheres of metal and guns that are literally rolled at the enemy, bouncing around randomly, crushing and killing all in their path with both their weight and energy weapons studded across its surface.

I loved the idea of these balls of destruction the moment i saw them and i've wanted to build one for ages. I'm still not sure what i'm going to use it as yet, but i'll work that out later.

Hopefully i'll be able to show you more in the next couple of days

Deamon Challenge

I've decided to set myself a challenge, seeing as I'm bored and
I've got a few days to kill.

I will turn this...



and this...



And the contents of my half-finished figure case...

... into a fully finished 1750-2000pt 40K Deamon army by 5pm Monday. Seems a tall order i know, but i have twenty Plaguebearer-Zombies to finish basing, 10 Possessed-Guardsmen-Horrors to paint and my Soul Grinder (the 'ruined' Land Raider in the pics above) to finish up and I'm done, so i'm confident of my chances.

So, donning my paint brush, I'll check in on monday to let you know how it goes and post pictures. I've promised myself lots of shiny Storm of Magic stuff if i manage it

Stuff I've painted this month

College has now finally finished, but that means i now have to find a job and start paying my way in life :(

On the other hand, i now have a ton of free time compared to before, so i've been painting. I've decided to work through the huge pile of random models that litter my desk, shelves, cupboard, army cases, etc. But me being me, i'm not working in a logical order, literally painting whatever the hell i feel like at the time. It's had mixed results. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's good or not.


First up, i'm stripping down a load of (very) old models that have too many layers of paint on to even identify properly, let alone use. I'm using fairy power spray and it's working quite well on metal. Plastic's a slightly different story, as you'll see in a minute



Heres the first batch, freshly stripped. I know the top one (plastic scout in case you're wondering) isn't fully stripped, but as i said before, the power spray didn't work so well on plastic as metal. I think I might need repeated soakings to get it all off.




I've also been starting to work on the batch of scout bikes i got for my birthday back in February. I'm planning to eventually make a Salamanders Biker army. The low model count means i can take my time and paint them up really well (for me at least)




A batch of zombie Plaguebearers for my Deamons force



Possessed Dreadnought. Probably going to be used as a Lord of Change or Bloodthirster. Note that it's a Blood Angels Dread, the only chapter to get Librarian Dreadnoughts (the only thing easy to possess than a psyker is a nearly dead psyker!)



I'd nearly painted this guy when i decided he needed more flames and 'possession-y' stuff, so the final thing will look a lot more elaborate than this, complete with flaming wings coming out his back! I think it'll look awesome and it'll be good for WYSYWIG too.


The first of many Orcs



I also found a buch of random marine models whilst sorting through stuff, so i decided to paint some up, more as test models or experiments than with any consistent colour scheme in mind





I know it's random stuff, but what do people think of it all. Any requests on which stuff to paint up first? I've still got Blood Pact stuff in the works to show off too.

Painting over Lunch

Between being an art student going into my final major product, the pressures of home life and having a girlfriend to keep happy, i often find that I've got very little free time to sit down and do hobby stuff.

However I've also said to myself that i won't buy any more models till i paint most of the ones I've already got, in an effort to clear my backlog

Unfortunately, i have all this and more to work through



So after much pondering, I've come up with a novel solution to my problem. It goes something like this:

I'm very lucky to live right next to where i study - five minutes walk each way

I get between 30-60 minutes of lunch break each day.

Take off walking time there and back and i can squeeze in between 20-50 minutes of hobby time into my otherwise jam-packed day, before returning to an afternoon of lectures

Sure, this time restraint means that i can't do anything too ambitious. It forces me to work in little steps. but also i find it's improving my painting skills by forcing me to think about things and plan them more thoroughly before i do them - something I've always had trouble with.

It's helped to set a task for myself for each session, like basecoat all my crossbowmen, or flock 20 bases, ensuring that slowly but surely, my armies are getting painted.

Here are some of my fruits of my labour so far


Dark Elf Crossbowmen



Space Hulk Terminator with Heavy Flamer. The flame was made from Green Stuff



Skull Pass Troll, painted over 2 lunch breaks, starting from a grey undercoat, then just using washes for the colours



A rather gruesome base for my Khaine-themed Dark Elves. This took the better part of a week to complete



WIP DE Manticore to be mounted on the base shown above. The other wing is being finished tomorrow


I'll post more up as they get done, but for now, what do you think?

The Sentinel of Vrar

This is something i've been working on the last few weeks - a 'counts as' Armoured Sentinel



If anyone questions its use in-game, i simply point out the following facts: it's a 'walker', it has a single crewman, it's on the right sized base and it's got the right weapon.
Technically it's wysiwyg!

Dark Elf insanity!

I woke up this morning/lunchtime to an email from my local gaming club organiser, reminding me that the fantasy battle league starts tonight. It's a 1500 pts league and i have just under 700 points of Dark Elves, as i can't use my black dragon at that level.

Most people would've just given up at this point, citing time restraints on constructing such a force, but note me.

Reading the email, i realised that the models only have to be built, not painted. I also have about £200 spare cash sitting in my bank account, doing nothing at the moment, as i was saving it for Games Day this sunday. Therefore, if i dip into that fund and if I can put up with an infantry-based list for a few weeks, then i reckon with a monumental effort, i'll be able to get a (at least usable) army together in time for 7pm tonight, even if it's not going to win me any games.

With this in mind, i'm off into town to pick up the following

2 boxes of warriors, to be build as crossbowmen
1 box of corsairs
1 box of cold one knights
1 Manticore
Hopefully 10 executioners, or if my FLGS doesn't have them in, i'll go without for this week.

Wish me luck, i'll post up the results