Stencils

You can take the dude out of the game, but you can't take the game out of the dude.

I've gotten back into building models- and part of that means going back and finishing things that have been sitting around half-painted for years and years. This Dark Angels rhino has resin upgrades (I thought they were legit when I got them off of eBay- turns out they are FauxgeWorld) and a magnetised top hatch.

I should be finished with it some time around 2025, if I keep to my current pace.

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.

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.

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.

Making Christmas, making Christmas, fa-la-la...

Happy holidays, to one and all.

On the holiday end of things, my kids got me some DA Vets and a sweet Land Speeder Vengeance that I started putting together last night, accompanied by Netflix and some cheap scotch. I'm going to be magnetizing it to work as a Vengeance (because giant plasma guns) or a Darkshroud (because flying cathedral).

The real winner of Christmas was Games Workshop my wife, who was gifted around 800 points worth of Dark Eldar. She's dived into the hobby in a big way- it's really pretty cool.

Pre-Holiday Update...

I haven't got much hobbying done in the last month, what with preparing for the holidays and dealing with weird weather. I've mostly painted the other two biker dudes from the DV box, but as you can see they still need the 'hard parts'- touchup, highlighting, and bare skin.

I don't like painting faces.

At any rate, some progress is being made on the Dark Angels. I'll start working on the second tac squad and a Rhino in a few days. And my excellent wife decided that she wanted to start a Dark Eldar army, "if you don't mind me getting involved in your hobby."

Yeah, I'm pretty much the luckiest guy in the world.

The Right White

I. Hate. White.

I really, truly hate painting things white. I tried painting my Deathwing dudes mre of a bone color (leftmost below- base color is Citadel Ushabti Bone, with a light coat of VMC Off White), but it just didn't look right. Then I tried straight Off White and Ivory (middle two- both from Vallejo) and settled on the Ivory as the 'least worst'. It's still a pain to cover up after the washes, though- so I'm thinking that after the sepia wash on the last guy dries, I'll try doing a thinned bone layer just to cover the spots where the wash was unruly, and then a couple Ivory layers.

But really- white sucks.

Army Slowcase

The workbench née old dining table that I've been working at since I got back into this was getting a bit crowded (that's an understatement)... so I took the afternoon to straighten things up a little bit. While I was getting models stowed away, I decided to get pictures of everything I'm hoarding I have every intention of finishing and okaying with in the near future.

Since it's all sure to take much longer than I think, here's my very first-

ARMY SHOWCASE SLOWCASE

First up is the homebrew chapter that I was working on when I first started this blog, forever ago- the Marines Cruor Dexter. Things stalled, and for the time being I'm not going to do much with them for a while. I'd like to get some more fancy bases that I think kind of go with the original alpine theme I sort-of had in mind and I'm not convinced that I won't screw them up. Also, I'd like to get the Waaagh! Jenerrik and some Dark Angels to playable levels first.

I've got a Predator to finish up, the AoBR Terminator squad and Dreadnought ready to go, 1 of 5 Sniper Scouts done, and 2 squads of Tactical Marines barely started. I don't know if you can see there, but I was using the old Iron Hands Tactical Marines set to bionicize my guysto tie in with their fluff. Now that GW has switched the Iron Hands bits to Finecast, I'll probably go with scratchbuilt or 3rd party bits if I need any more in the future. I mean, who knows what else I'll wind up buying and never building for these guys.

I've also got some metal Dark Eldar prisoners stashed away to use as objective markers for these dudes.

This is what I've got so far for Waaagh! Jenerrik. It's mostly AoBR stuff (20 Slugga Boyz, 5 Nobz, a Warboss, and 3 Deffkoptas), but there's also 20 Shoota Boyz and a pile of junk 3 Killa Kans that I scored cheap off eBay. To paraphrase that cat reading the paper, "I should buy a Trukk." Also- needs more barcodes.

Chaos Warband "Jerkface". At least, until I can come up with a better name. You know, a name that is both grimmer and darker than Warband Jerkface. There's not much to see here- just a bunch of Dark Vengeance models still on the sprue, some Secret Weapon 'bone fields' bases, and a pile o' broken up cruddy Chaos Terminators (another eBay deal- but this one wasn't such a good deal). I think the Termies will be getting dual lightning claws. Other than that, I'm not sure where I'm going with this one. Maybe some Daemons.

Maybe lots of Daemons.

And finally, some Dark Angels.

Obviously, I was pretty impressed with the Dark Vengeance models. I decided to make a commitment to build a Dark Angels army. I like the fluff, and they are (obviously) getting a lot of support right now on the hobby side. I went ahead and got another set of Tacticool Dudes (eBay, again) and a Predator (it's actually going to be a convertible Rhino/Razorback- a Rhinoback?). I'll probably snag a DA Command Squad and some more Ravenwing goodies to flesh them out. Ooh, and a Landraider. And maybe Sammael. And the Dark Talon looks pretty pimp.

You know what? One Rhinoback probably isn't enough. Maybe another one. Or two. I'll probably need some Devastators, too, since the DA can take a ton of heavy weapons.

Screw it. I wonder how many DA Chapter Upgrade Kits I'd need to make this work...

You all already know this, but-

Secret Weapon bases are pretty frikkin' awesome.

The Desert Wasteland bases are for Dark Angels, and the Bone Fields bases are for some Chaos baddies- I decided to go ahead and actually flesh out the Dark Vengeance armies. So, you know, I'm probably in way over my head, with four un-playable incomplete armies...

Oh well. It's keeping me out of trouble and off the streets.

Oh. Goodness.

I had all-but forgotten that this blog existed. Since the last time I posted, I've- Got another cat. Got divorced. Bought a car. Bought a house. Got married. Got a dog. Painted 0 miniatures. ...but I bought the Dark Vengeance box set, so maybe that'll change once I get my workbench set up. Right? Right?!?

7 Months and Counting

It's been over seven months since I've picked up a brush.

In all fairness... Well, no. The fail is on me.

The Eternal Enemy Arrives

I just got the 'Incoming: Dark Eldar' email in my inbox. I can't wait... This is just the motivation I needed to get back on a more regular painting schedule.

Isn't it funny that sometimes we need an extra-hard kick in the pants to do the things that we enjoy?

Baby Steps

I snuck in a minute, and did some final touch-up on my Dread. I can now say that finally, for the first time since my eyes rebelled, I have finished something.


Front!


Back!


Side-to-side!

Now, I feel like I need an awesome banner for the top of my page, too...

Almost Back

It's been well over a month since I've done anything useful with my 'little mans', and as long since I've blogged about it.

My eyes are better now (for sure... it's been two weeks since I've had any problems), my brushes are all clean, my paint is all organized, and the only thing holding me back is streaming Doctor Who on Netflix.

And the paralyzing fear that I have forgotten how to paint.

My Eyes! My Eyes!

Remember in my last post, when I said that my eyes were better, and I was really looking forward to getting back to the paint table?

Man that was a laff.

Good times, good times...

Now That I've Lured You In With A Cat Picture...

I'm not above exploiting my kitten painting buddy for site traffic.

But really, this post isn't about how cute my foundling kitten is. No, I've had a horrible case of conjunctivitis for the last week (bad enough that I missed three and a half days of work that I could ill afford) that pretty well prevented me from painting; or doing much of anything requiring sight, for that matter.

Now that I'm better, I'm raring to make up for lost time. A month or so ago I ordered the Iron Hands tactical squad from GW. I'm not making Iron Hands, but I wanted to use the bionic bits as prosthetics for the Marines Cruor Dexter and I needed another tactical squad anyway. I am imagining them as having been nearly destroyed in a Dark Eldar retaliatory sneak attack, and I wanted some way to show that they were war-weary and hardened without resorting to battle damage, which I am in general not a huge fan of (although, to be fair, I have seen some excellent Imperial Fists that have nearly changed my mind).

Why Dark Eldar? Well, assuming that they actually do get a new Codex, there are sure to be plenty of DE armies sprouting up for me to get destroyed by... I mean... blow off the table. Also, it's an excuse to paint up Dark Eldar prisoners as objectives.

Ooh la la. Hopefully they cast up some new ones, too. I know there's a gag there about objectifying women, but I digress.

For those of you who haven't seen the Iron Hands tactical squad, it's a regular plastic Tactical Squad plus a blister with some metal Iron Hands pauldrons (9 for your basic troops, and onefit for a Sergeant, all useless to me), 2 torso fronts of dubious bionic-ness, 2 bionic right arms with bolters, 2 bionic left arms in generic "Here, hold this bolter!" pose, 1 bionic left arm brandishing a thunderhammer (which, after a quick glance at the Codex, I won't actually be able to use on anything but an Assault or Vanguard Sergeant), 5 funky bionic heads, and 2 sets of cybernetic legs. It's really not a bad buy, considering it was only $15 more than a regular Tactical Squad. Considering the price increase it's an even better buy now- a Tac Squad is up to $37.25 from GW DIrect, but the Iron Hands squad is still only $45.

Anyway... I needed more. Considering the pieces I could use (arms, torso fronts, heads, legs) I only had enough bits to make 13 Marines with prosthetics, and that's stretching it awful thin with only 1 bit per marine.

Frank Zappa being the mother of invention, I decided to try to split the cyber-legs in two and combine them with plastic tactical legs thereby doubling my pleasure hardship and doubling my fun heartache.

Lacking any real modelling skill, I had to position the plastic feet on chips of rock bulked up with greenstuff to keep the models from leeeeening way over.

I'm happy to say that I am not too disheartened by the results. I'm pretty sure these guys with the bionic legs will stand head and shoulders above the rest...

...literally.

Just Enough of a Good Thing

Much grass to sonsoftaurus and bi0m3trics for encouraging me to stick with my guns on this AoBR Dread. He's still not quite done (You know how I roll... slowly), but at least I have an idea where it's headed, and I like it.


When I paint a new type of model I'm always full of self-doubt and indecision. I'm glad you guys commented on the first pic of this guy and convinced me to do what I knew I should be doing.

I love the internet. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy sometimes.

I Want You To-

Here's a quick post. I've been trying to force my thoughts on the recent price increase into something more like a post (and less like a fortune cookie) but every time I tried it just wound up being a rambling, incoherent stream-of-consciousness wordamajig.

Obviously, that's not the way to go about it. Bear in mind, I'm only recently returned to the hobby after a near-decade long absence so I don't see this as one price hike on top of another; to me, it's just bad timing on my part that I'm getting back into a hobby right before the supplier feels the need to raise prices. C'est la vie, no biggie. It's a hobby, I can opt to spend the money or not.

But there's one thing that does really bother me about GW raising prices, and here's a simple exercise that many (perhaps most) of you can do yourselves.

I want you to grab a Tactical Marine sprue, the one with the helmeted heads. Now look at the horrible mould misalignments and tell me that GW has any business raising prices on kits that haven't been redesigned (or even had new moulds made) in who knows how long.

You want to introduce new kits at higher prices? Fine, that's to be expected. Shoot, if you want to retool the olds stuff and raise the prices, I'm cool with that, too. I'm not upset with your prices, GW... I'm upset with your manufacturing quality.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

I'm having second thoughts about painting this dreadnought purple, it just seems a bit much now that I actually have a coat down.


See what I mean?

Quite by accident, I'm seeing the Marines Cruor Dexter as a Hawk Lords successor chapter, which means that I could easily get away with painting the dread black (since, by the rules, Dreads are vehicles)... but that doesn't sit right with me; I imagine dreadnoughts being the zombie-marine's new body, more than something the marine drives around.

I don't know. Maybe I should just reserve judgment until the whole thing is painted up. If I don't like it I can always burn it in effigy try again.