Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Several Works in Progress

Not much is going to get done in the next month or so with painting and modeling. This is due to my lease being up having to pack up and move. It's a bit of a downer considering my recent progress, but it can't be helped. I'll still be on and contributing here and there, but not much in the way of pretty pictures and such.

The above being true, I thought I'd dip into the old photobucket and show some of my other projects. Since the Eldar are a recent obsession, these are all other sorts of pics.

First off we have a recent (though stalled) project. I've got about 20 of these xenos riders' mounts ready to go. I just have to convert the actual riders. Of course, now those bastards at GW have redone the Cold Ones again and they look better than ever... bastards. But here follows my prototype. Enjoy!




This one is another prototype. I claim no artistic genius on this conversion as I based it off a tutorial found online. I did add and subtract a bit from it, so I guess there is some of my own thought gone into it. Pictured for scale is a WIP Crimson Fist Space Marine. He's not nearly so bright in person, I think I must have flashed them that day. The marine is also sporting a bit of customization. I ordered many Iron Hands bits from mail order when you could still do that, and this fellow ended up with a bionic leg! I do have some slight concern that the new rules with true line of sight will have this Dreadnought raising some stink because of his height, what do you think?




Below is another prototype Space Marine. Most of the conversion is pretty self evident, but feel free to ask questions if I've thrown you off. Since my Space Marine and Imperial Guard fluff is that they are the personal army of a Rogue Trader, I've taken some liberties with my Crimson Fists. They are on loan to a 'High Powered, Multitasking, Freelance, Troubleshooter' of a Rogue Trader after all! This fellow and his squad were to be Elites. I thought I might use Grey Knight allies and counts as GK these guys. It would fit the vicious weapon, the stormbolter, and the fancy armor. The weapon was inspired by the scene in the Horus Heresy novel where Angron is wading through people with his chain-glaive. The idea of a chain-glaive just really appealed to me.




Next is a picture that was inspired when I was looking through my old copy of the First Book of the Astronomicon. At least I think it was that book... it's hiding right now. Anyway, there is a whole section on Medics of the 41st millennium including apothecaries. There is a great pic of a Space Marine Apothecary administering aid to a fallen marine. I thought that any marine that could still hold a bolter would continue to fight though, so I modeled this. I plan to put them on a nicer base and run some "tubes" from the apothecary to the marines right arm... possibly filled with Gatorade.




Hope you've enjoyed this peek into my 40k future. These are just a tiny sample of the reasons the Eldar have to finish, and finish fast! The new Marine Codex is coming out this fall and it's going to have Pedro Cantor in it... Crimson Fists! Hells yea. Anyway, I welcome your comments and critiques. Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Time Escapes Me (off topic)

I'll not be keeping up with the blogger the next few days. Sunday my grandmother passed away, and today was the funeral. Tomorrow I leave for a short vacation out of state. I'll be back on Sunday night and look forward to catching up then. I might be able to sneak onto the laptop while I'm on vacation, but I can't be sure. Anyway, it's been a busy few days and I'm glad for the break. I hope you all have a great few days and post lots of great blogs for me to catch up on when I get back!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Posting Links in comments, a Quickie...

I'm putting together a quickie. I've noticed that a lot of folks would like to include a link in their comments as I cruise the blogosphere. I'm posting a bit of code that works in blogger comments and probably wordpress as well. You are welcome to copy and paste this somewhere that you can remember it.



I think it's pretty self explanatory, but you place your link in place of the words, "link goes here", and the text that you want to be the actual link in the "words or pic to show go here" part. I don't imagine that you can include a pic as a link, but I made this to place in my Handy Code notepad document I keep on my desktop. It holds all the stuff I know I'll never remember about simple code.

So feel free to drop a comment and practice. You can leave me a link to your blog or some other entertaining page. Here's one to get you started!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Finished Units!

This is a momentous... um... moment? Anyway, I've finally completed some minis! Right down to spraying them with Testors Dull Cote, these guys are done. There are some details that I might have liked to have cleaned up a bit... but I had to stop the endless cycle of fiddling with stuff or I'd never be done. So here we have the first of my finished Eldar minis.

Here we have a family photo of two squads of Eldar Guardians. There are ten Guardians in each squad with a heavy weapon platform. The platforms have Eldar Missle Launchers on the right now, but being magnetized I'll have plenty of opportunity to try them different ways and see what works best for me.



The Guardians get a little overwhelmed sometimes, so I have brought in their reinforcement. Also finished is my Wraith Lord. He carries a huge scythe which is also a trophy from his previous life as the Autarch of Craftworld Altansar. He will likely get his own blog post with full fluff story included, but I'll summarize here. Being stuck in the Eye of Terror for the last ten thousand years, Altansar has had to repel many attacks by daemons. There was one greater daemon in particular who lead attacks on Altansar relentlessly. Each time the attacks were repelled. Finally in a duel of epic proportions the Autarch took on the greater daemon in single combat. After a long battle they slew each other, but not before the Autarch cut one of the long bladed appendages from the daemon. The Autarchs soul stone was taken and placed in the craftworld where his soul could rest, if only for a short time. The weapon of the daemon was worked into the scythe by the craftworlds Bonesingers. Now when the craftworld goes to war that Autarch marches with them still. And enemies, especially daemons, who see the greater daemons bone enslaved within the wraithbone weapon are filled with dread.



And another shot just for good measure. I think the Wraith Lord looks best with matching weapons, but in game play, it would probably either be two different weapons, or just one. But for photos, I like him to be extra menacing.


Hope you've enjoyed this update. The Dire Avengers are almost done, as are the three War Walkers. Pictures of those finished and ready to rock should be up by mid next week. Maybe sooner? Then it's on to the first twenty Storm Guardians which are primed and ready to start being painted. I'm thinking of a third Heavy Choice. A battery of heavy weapon platforms might be nice, but another squadron of War Walkers sure sounds shootier and more flexible. Any thoughts, comments, criticisms are welcome. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Quickie, too cool not to share!

I've been a big fan of Dawn of War since the original beta. Now with Dawn of War II on the horizon I'm getting pretty excited about that too. A friend of mine found this video from G4 featuring the newly announced third race Eldar!

Enjoy!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Updates and Storm Guardians...

Time for an update!

The table is filling with almost finished models. The Wraithlord is a hair away from being finished, so watch for that announcement coming soon. The Dire Avengers and Guardians (not pictured) are also, just almost finished. The War Walkers still have a bit of work to go, but they are definitely well on their way too. Also not pictured are the heavy weapons. They have all been magnetized and are ready for a spray of Testors Dull Cote to protect them and they will be ready to rock.


Note the limited edition Space Marine Sergeant in the foreground. That little bastard keeps taunting me, trying to get me to succumb to the distraction monster!

Pictured below are the first twenty of the eventual forty Storm Guardians! These are the guys that are driving me crazy with Super Glue. Thanks to several tips from the awesome blogger community I'm getting a tiny bit better with Super Glue... though I still hate it. In particular, adding a tiny bit of toilet paper to the joint seems to have a positive effect for me.


That's all I've got for now. The army is coming along pretty well. My anti-distraction campaign continues, but I do want to stop and paint the counters from my Gamers Edition I picked up this weekend. I understand the bright green is meant to make them easy to spot, but I think I'll tone mine down a bit with some paint. Also, at some point I may have to stop and try a game with them... no really...

Thanks for stopping by, and as usual, feel free to leave comments or critiques.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Super Glue and Random Thoughts

Let me just say one thing about super glue, I hate it. Yea, that's right. I hate super glue.

When gluing plastic to plastic, I always choose plastic cement. When gluing metal to metal I (almost) always use two part epoxy. But with plastic to metal I use the despised super glue. I think it may be that I feel mislead by super glue. There used to be television commercials in which a man was suspended in the air clutching his hard hat that had been super glued to an iron beam. I think it's much more likely, in hindsight, that he could be held aloft by a ferocious jet of flatulence that would make Grandfather Nurgle say, "wow..." than any amount of super glue. My experience with super glue is as follows; I glue two pieces and hold them together for about 30 seconds, I let go and the free piece falls and is permanently attached to the first thing it touches. Whether that thing be my finger, a bit of paper towel, the table, or a piece of nonstick teflon, it is stuck. Luckily, even the best bit of super glue can be undone with same amount of pressure it takes to fold a piece of toilet tissue... one ply toilet tissue. I hate super glue.

If anyone has any tips, suggestions, or would just like to poke the poor freak who can't use super glue with a stick, please feel free to leave a comment.

In other completely unrelated news... My local GW store called me today to confirm that there was to be a midnight release with events and fun stuff Friday night the 11th of July. "That's great" I said, "but I have to go now to get my teeth drilled as I'm at the dentist." And so I did. Big fun. Then a few hours later whilst recovering from the Dental Adventure they called again. This time to inform me that there would be no midnight release and as it turns out I'm welcome to swing by Saturday the 12th to pick up my Gamers Edition 40K rules. Life seems so unfair at times... I know there are children in Africa starving, but this is about me damn it!

Oh well, Hellboy II comes out tomorrow. They can't take that from me... or can they?

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Cheese!

This little video has more free flowing cheese than a fondue themed restaurant. Still, it's amazing what GW used to want to do!

Enjoy

Monday, July 7, 2008

Dire Avengers!

Finally an update! These guys are almost finished. I still need to highlight the weapons and do work on the eyes. Of course, the 'jewels' are not done yet, I'm waiting till I have a ton of Eldar finished so I can assembly line those bits.


Also in progress but not pictured... The Wraithlord is almost finished, just need to finish the paint on the scythe and a few touch ups. The heavy weapons are almost all done, I've added a lighter gray color the rearward 'base' part of each heavy weapon to break up the blackness. And, some (not much yet) assembly has begun on the Storm Guardians. Unfortunately, the three War Walkers have remained at a standstill, though they are based and primed.

Thanks for taking the time to check up on me. As usual, all comments and/or criticisms are welcome. Also, check out the folks on my blog roll. They are all great folks with great blogs... otherwise they wouldn't be there!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

News, Updates, and Off Topic too...

News:
Reinforcements have arrived! 40 Storm Guardians have arrived! I'm not just tickled pink that the way they are packaged you HAVE to give two out of every 8 a special weapon, but I'll see what I can't come up with to get something assaulty into the hands of those who need it.

The side affect of this is that the order size qualified me for a free Space Marine Sergeant mini from direct order. He looks really kewl. In fact, there maybe a timeout called from Eldar long enough to paint him... no.. no... MUST stay on track...

Updates:
The Wraithlord is coming along pretty good. The heavy weapons platforms and crew are almost done too. I have the prototype Dire Avenger almost ready to snap a pic and put up. Work has been slow this week for reasons in the off topic section...

Off Topic:
My progress has been impeded quite a bit this week (and will continue to be) because of family needs. My grandmother, who is 93 this year, recently had a double stroke. She was in the hospital for several days and has now been shipped to a "nursing and rehabilitation" facility. I have been taking turns with my father going to visit her. It's really awful to see her in the condition she is in, but I know it lifts her spirits when we visit. She had lost her vision and her speech after the strokes. She has regained her sight and, thankfully, still mentally very sharp. But, she still can't speak and writing is difficult for her so she gets frustrated trying to communicate. I'm sorry to be such a downer on my 40k blog, but I needed to get it out there I guess. If you have older relatives, enjoy them. You never know how long you'll have them for.

Now go paint something! That's what I'm gonna do!
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