Macrohobbies

Well, see, there's this thing about owning a house.

Once you really start to get settled in, you realize that there's all these things that need to get done. I have trees that need to get cut down before hurricane season really gets started, and I had to issue an Exterminatus order against Tyranids termites that were eating my house (and that cost a pretty penny). Among other normal day-to-day pain-in-the-rear work stuff.

There's all the projects around the house that are still going on (slowly)- wiring the house with Cat6, painting, cabinet repairs, cleaning out the garage (HAHAHAHA), flooring the attic for storage, and going through all of the clutter that we've carried around for years to decide once and for all what stays, and what goes.

Basically, on my list of priorities right this instant, painting my armies is unfortunately pretty low. Hopefully I can get back to it in earnest in the next 6 weeks or so- once the attic is done and the garage is cleared out, all the other projects should go a lot faster since I'll have some staging areas for everything. I like to think of these as my 'macrohobbies'. It makes all this stuff feel like less of a chore and more like something I enjoy doing.

Another thing that I did- I turned an old dresser into an entertainment center. It came out great, if I do say so myself.

Update Nothing

Blog URL has been updated (obviously), and as soon as I get to a point on some house projects (I'm working on some electrical wiring, plumbing, and data cabling at the moment) I should be able to get around to some painting.

Finally.

Again.

The Names They Are a-Changin'

I'll be updating the URL of this blog to fromastartestofinish.blogspot.com in a couple days to match the new name.

I'm guilty of not touching my paints in a few weeks- my table got covered in mail and other household detritus, and I haven't screwed up the gumption to clean it off. In the meantime I've been messing around with Hyperspin, setting up a multi-console video game emulator.

You know. For the kids.

Dark Vengeance HQs- OR: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Get It Done

Librarian Turmiel and Company master Balthazar from the Dark Vengeance set did not go as well as I'd hoped, over all.

Things that, specifically, ended poorly were everything metallic (it's probably time to try out Vallejo's metallic medium or maybe even their alcohol-based metallics), their swords, and anything white (which, on these models, is about half of what you actually see).

I tried not to let it bother me too much, though. I figure that I can obsess over what's not going right and spend days and days fighting with it and still not be happy with the result, or I can just power through it and learn my lessons for the next model. I've got enough real world stress going on that I don't need to bring it into my leisure activities.

On the positive side of things I was fairly happy with the blue of Turmiel's power armor- it's Plaid Folk Art 'Brilliant Ultramarine' with a dark blue GW wash. The Ultramarine goes on really smooth at about a 50/50 mix with water, though it looks like I'll need to find something a bit lighter to highlight the edges to give him some volume. The green of Balthazar's suit is the same as I use for my tactical dudes. I spray them with a Krylon dark green as a primer/basecoat, and then highlight with various PFA greens and then a Thrakka Green (I guess it's Biel-Tan Green now) wash to bring it down a bit.

Also, I need to find my actual camera. I suspect it was lost when we moved into the new house. These cellphone pics just aren't cutting it- the paint is sketchy enough on it's own!

Impending name-change.

So, I kinda feel bad about the whole name thing, so after years of piggybacking with an inadvertently stolen name, I've decided to go ahead and change the name of this blog. Probably this evening.

I mean it's not like I've got a loyal audience that's going to be affected- the blog is really just for my own motivation.

So. Coming soon- World War Joe. Or maybe something else. I haven't really made up my mind.

Finally finished- magnetized Land Speeder Vengeance / Ravenwing Darkshroud

After entirely too many hours of agony, self-doubt, and abject terror, my Landspeeder Vengeance / Ravenwing Darkshroud is finally to a point that I can finally say without too much embarassment that is is done enough for me.

The paint is nothing special, even though it took me forever. Just a lot of basecoats and 'talent in a bottle' (and more than a little courage in a bottle), and some lazily-applied edge highlighting here and there. The fact of the matter is that I am very uncomfortable painting black at the moment- but I should certainly get over it, since I've got another 3 DV Ravenwing guys to paint, as well as some Black Knights.

Anyway. Here's some poorly-lit pictures. I'm not immensely proud, but I'm not embarrassed, either, and that's got to be worth something, right?

*I have no idea why this picture is rotated- it isn't anywhere except on this post. I reckon everybody can deal with it.

Right now on the Dark Angels bench, I've got a second DV tac squad, a Rhino, and the DV Captain and Librarian. Once those are done a think I might take a break from the Sons of the Lion and work on some Orks (I've got a box full of Boyz primed) or some Chaos jerks for a change of pace.

Until next time!

I thought landspeeders were supposed to be fast.

I haven't been completely idle, lately- I've been slogging away on my magnetized Landspeeder Vengeance/Darkshroud. It's just going very slowly.

VERY slowly.

At any rate, here's where I am so far with the painting.

The Plasma Storm Battery and Relic of Caliban thingy are magnetized to the turret (which required a bit of cutting into the bottom of the relic (which I haven't started painting yet(yay, nested parenthesis!))) and the pulpit gunner's arms are replaceable to swap out between the heavy bolter option and the assault cannon using a spare rhino gunner arm bit and 1/8" neodymium magnets. I used spare 'plain' Ravenwing pauldrons so that both sets would look the same (the Vengeance pilot and gunners come with some fancy-looking torsos and shoulder pads- I saved almost all of the shoulder pads and one of the torsos for other projects).

The pulpit gunner, heavy bolter-

-and assault cannon.

It looks like it's going to work out well. My only concern is that the paint on the torso might get worn as the arms get swapped out for play and storage, but I guess time will tell.

Oh, yeah. Gratuitous cat shot.

Progress? Slowgress. A brief update.

I'm wearing some.

Ah, haha. Just kidding. well, not really, I am wearing briefs, but that's not what I'm talking about.

It's been a while since I've posted anything, because it's been a while since I've completed anything. I've got a bunch of half-finished stuff going on- a second Dark Vengeance tac squad, some Chaos Terminators with lightning claws (rawr!), a DA Rhino and a magnetized Landspeeder Vengeance / Darkshroud, a couple different HQs, a bunch of Orks, some Sisters of Battle Adepta Sororitas rescued from Fleabay that I'm cleaning up, and the ever-present albatross of the marines Cruor Dexter that I would really like to work on, but there's just so much other stuff...

Anyway. One thing I did manage to get done was rearranging my hobby space and throwing together a paint holder to make it easier to share things with my wife. Her side has the groovy chair and the Dark Eldar warriors, and my side has the Academy P40 that I'm going to use to test out the airbrush that my neighbor is letting me borrow.

Wow, I really need to sort out the lighting situation. It's extra-important now that I can't use both lamps.