Painting Across the Pond Inner Geek Edition Pt III

I don't have much money, but if I did, I'd spend it buying some time. Since I can't buy time, this will be a post short on words.

Drax and I engaged in a project some time back. The idea was to each send the other a mini to paint then send back. Basically painting a mini for each other. I sent him an Ogryn, as I'd never seen him paint one and I have a cruel streak. He sent me a ForgeWorld Cadian IG Colonel!

Here are the results...







Not being one to leave well enough alone, I decided to fabricate a little extra work for myself. He is painting a rather larger model for me after all.

I decided that every great commander needs that certain special someone in their life. For this commander, that person is his personal body guard Major Payne. Being a trusted member of the Colonels inner circle, he has access to exotic weapons like his antique las pistol. I meticulously cut, greenstuffed, and stretched my modeling abilities to give this guy a bigger chest and beef him up a bit. After all my trouble I noticed that there is a plastic Catachan torso with flak armor available. It's technically better than what I made, but mine has that home made look... kinda like your kids macaroni art. Anyway, here is the Major.







And finally a group shot. I think this photo, even with the flash on, most closely represents the colors of the models.



While taking these photos it occurred to me that I forgot to paint the bodyguards las pistol... or maybe it's just really dark... no I forgot. Anyway, I'll leave this for Drax. That way he can say he worked on the pair too! Now, to say that these look a hundred times better in person would be an exaggeration. But two to three times better would be accurate. I've purposely given the bodyguard a pretty generic load out so he can be used a sergeant if preferred. I hope Drax enjoys them and they bring him lots of luck on the table.

That's all for now folks. Be sure to check out the Admiral Drax blog
as he should be posting his edition of Painting Across the Pond about the same time this one hits the blog rolls!

Painting Across the Pond Inner Geek Edition Pt II

So Drax has posted his second installment in our collaborative paint series and now it's up to me to show mine. I'm notoriously bad at taking pictures as I go, so this is less and WIP and more an 'almost done' post. Drax is not quite as far along, but in his defense I tasked him with a mini with lot more surface area to paint!

For anyone needing to catch up, I've linked the first Editions of painting across the pond below;

Painting Across the Pond Drax Edition Pt I

Painting Across the Pond Inner Geek Edition Pt I

Now that we're all caught up! Drax gave me free reign to paint his Colonel as I please. This is very trusting of him, so I'm trying not to disappoint him. I've been trying to make sure that this important fellow is different enough to stick out, yet similar enough not to look too out of place with Drax's army. I also wanted to add some color, as he is a ranking officer and likely to have some freedom in how he wears his uniform. I didn't want too much bright though, it would only make him a glaring target in the grimdark of the 41^st millennium.

Without further ado, here is the Colonel in progress... really quite close to finished...







I hope you all like the direction I'm taking with this guy, but I especially hope Drax likes it. He's the one who has to live with it after all.

So that there is still something to spring on my readers I'm saving one last surprise for the next post. It's a little thing, but could be very important to someone as high ranked as a Colonel!

Thanks for stopping by. Comments, suggestions, and vague hints at total annihilation are welcome, as always, in the comments. Look for a post about my adventure seeing the UltraMarines movie in the theater in the next few days!

Proposition, Name Calling, and a Peak into the Future

Two posts in one week! You lucky readers!

First off, I'm looking for a date. Don't worry, my wife knows. I have seats for Inner Geek plus one reserved for the theatrical showing of the Ultramarines Movie on Saturday February 26^th in Denton, TX @ 11:00am. If anyone in the greater North Texas area would like to go, I'm only using one of my two seats. Email me, there is email info in the left sidebar. On a side note, the movie is at a studio movie grill, so if it's as bad as the folks on the interwebz say, we can drink beer till it doesn't matter. (beer is assumed to be available and will not be provided by The Inner Geek)

Nextly, I'd like to start off a sentence with a made up word. Done.

If you read my previous post and the ensuing comments, you will have noticed that there was some discussion on naming/designating miniatures. If not, you can go read it now, or just hang tight as we move forward. The gist of it is that I'd like to name my minis to add some personality to each one. I got the idea of marking their bases from my pal across the pond, Admiral Drax. I've printed out some homemade decals and given it a go. Here are some troops from the Cadian 5^th regiment, 3^rd company, 1^st platoon, 1^st squad.





I've learned that Testors decal paper works in a Brother laser printer (black only anyway) and that the decals suck. When trying to remove them from the paper and add to mini the decals curl back and stick to themselves like the most infuriating sort of sticky tape you can imagine. For the record, 8pt font fits about right on a standard base. The curvature of the base is a bit of a pain, but not too bad to if you use a decal solvent like MicroSol.

Anyone interested in being immortalized as a lowly guardsman is welcome to email me their name and I'll be happy to get you inducted. It's that many less random names I have to come up with. I'm trying not to get to the point of resorting to names like 'Jack Handy' and 'Phil MacKrevice'.

So what's coming up on on the blog? Of course now that I'm making some progress on my IG, my attention span is starting to wane. I'm not stopping them, but I am going to keep another project going so I can switch back and fourth in hopes of avoiding burn out on either. So what will it be? Here's a clue...



It should make for some exciting times as I'm really wanting to push the proverbial envelope on dynamic posing.

Thanks for stopping by. As always comments, critiques, and giggling are all welcome in the comments. Oh, and I'm serious about that Ultramarines Movie. If anyone in the North Texas area wants to go, email me. All the reservations are filled so I intend to get there early to get my seat(s).

More IG Finished, a Page Change, and Other Thoughts

Well, my self imposed goal to post once a week was certainly short lived. Sadly, other blogs may be without updates as well. Big Jim over at Galaxy in Flames is going to be taking off a couple weeks and, sadly, Ron over at From The Warp will be discontinuing his blog completely. Thankfully Ron will be at least keeping us up to date on his new WIP blog, Black Dot Barrel Studios. Still, it was a sad night of blog reading when I got on Sunday night.

In other news, I've made a subtle change to my blog. Can you see it?? Did you notice it right away? Yea, probably not, but I'm proud of it anyway. With my meager html/css and graphics know-how I managed to widen my blog. Why, you may ask? Why not? It will allow me to post my pics a little bit bigger (though you may typically click on them for a larger view anyway) and it will fill up a screen a little better. The total width is now 1024 pixels which is about the minimum size of any monitor anyone uses these days. Trust me, there was a temptation to try and really stretch it out, but I decided not to show too much favoritism to my readers with wide screen displays.

On to the newly finished IG minis!







My camera skills are weak after all that painting, but you get the idea.

Now I'd like to share some thoughts on assembly line painting I've had over the last couple weeks.

First fifteen is too many to assembly line paint. Sure it was probably efficient, but it became tedious quick. In the future I'll probably work on five minis at a time. I think that will be my magic number to knock a few out and feel accomplished in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, at five every week or two, I could knock out all my guard dudes in about a thousand years... or, minus the exaggeration, a year or so... yea probably not with my attention span. Realistically I'll probably work on other projects some weeks. So then my guard will never get finished... damn. But, you wouldn't want to see me post every week about another five guardsmen anyway.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my rambling thoughts. If you'd like to leave a comment, I always enjoy hearing from you folks. As a fond farewell to updates over at From The Warp, I'd like to ask that any comments work the word "warp" into them somehow. That is all. Thank you.

IG Beast Squad Finished

Just a quick update today. I've been working sporadically (when babies and real life allow) on my first full squad of Imperial Guard Beastmen using the new fantasy Ungors. I really like the way these guys came out! I'm thinking I'd use them for counts-as penal legion, but I might do a whole platoon with command made of beasties. Well, the junior officer might be a human of some sort... you can only trust these beasts to far!



I've got parts to do another ten of these guys. So, two penal legion squads or the start of a two squad platoon. I don't think I'd ever do an entire army of these as the cost per trooper is about double that of a plain old Guardsmen... in money that is. But, a couple squads will make for a nice visual on the field!

I've also been playing around with a salvaged Leman Russ tank and a Chimera. I'm not much of a tank painter, but once I have some decent progress to show, I'll do so.

Thanks for stopping by and having a look. If you have any comments, critiques, or at least a decent catch-phrase, feel free to share it in the comments section!

IG Using New Ungors Prototype Finished

Last week I spoke a bit about the new Ungors and their naked butts. More importantly, I asked the question will they convert to beastman guardsmen as well as the old Ungors models did. This week I'd like to share the results... and another gratuitous butt-shot of the new Ungor models.

First a group shot to see how they fit in with the old Ungors (I encourage you to click for a larger view)...



I think they would blend in well enough if you have a quite a few models on the table though you can tell they are more closely related to each other than to the rest of the herd.





And as for the new Ungors converted, here are a couple shots of them. First the front.



Finally, the sans-pants shot of the rear...



First off, my opinions (you are welcome to share your in comments). I didn't have high hopes for these guys at first glance out of the box. However, since then they've really began to grow on me. Of course, so will mold if you stand still too long. I think that the old Ungors were more of an animal that walked upright. The new Ungors seem more like a beast-man to me. This is also true of them when not converted and used as actual Ungors in Fantasy Battle. Since they are more man-like, I chose to paint them in the general theme of the GW painted ones. They have human flesh colored skin where there is no fur, and a darker color for the fur. Once again, I think this makes them look more like beastmen than upright animals. Another thing to note is that these can be bought by themselves in a box. The old Ungors were the minority in a box full of Gors. Not so much left over bits with the new Ungors. All in all, I think I like them just as much or maybe even more than the old Ungors I converted to guardsmen.

So what do you think? Old or new, which is better? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Ungor Booty Call... WTF?

I just wanted to share a quick observation with you guys...

As you may have noticed, I like to do conversion and I have a soft spot in my heart for that rare creature, the 40K Imperial Beastman. I've used some Ungors from the old box to do some of these conversions and I think they have come out pretty nice.



But, those Ungor models are no longer made. There are new models for the Ungor that came out with the WHFB most recent Beastman Army Book. This could turn out to be a good thing, as you used to have to buy a box of combined Gors and Ungors to get just the Ungors, and you got more Gors than Ungors for your trouble. Now, you can buy a box of just Ungors... better right? That remains to be seen. I recently picked up a box of the newer style Ungors to see what kind of converting I could do to them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are not covered in Chaos symbols I'd have to shave off, nice start!



Then I turned the sprue over. I was dumbstruck. I think there is a reason you never see a rear shot of these models on the box, website, or anywhere else. But, I'll let you in on their dirty secret...



Yes, just like all cartoon bears, they have no pants on. That's right, bare, beastie, buns for all the world to see!

I haven't honestly decided how I feel about this yet. I guess there is something fittingly feral about running around with your (literal) tail hanging out. I will reserve judgment until I've had a chance to convert one or two and paint them up. Besides, I think they'd be the only bare bottoms on the average 40K game table. They might even make for a decent distraction technique? Maybe it won't be that bad? I've already found some reference material to work off of!



Thanks for stopping by. I'll keep you all posted on how these conversions turn out, until then, keep your pants on!

New IG Go For A Dip

Quite some time ago I bought a can of the Army Painter Quickshade product, Strong Tone. My original intent was to paint a lot of skeletons for an Undead WHFB army. I dipped a few test skellies and they turned out really good. However, that army fell to the wayside and was eventually traded away on the Barter Bucket over at Santa Cruz Warhammer. Since I've been wanting to work on some Imperial Guard I was cruising the interwebs and found someone mentioning that they used Quickshade on their IG. So I figured since I already have the stuff, why not give it a shot? What follows here are my steps on some test minis and the results. One other note. I've been trying to get better at taking pictures as I work, so this post is pic heavy. And, as always, you can click any picture for a larger view.

As seen in my previous post, I have been trying out some new paint from Krylon in their camouflage line. So these guys were painted first in that product for a base coat of khaki.



Then I put some Catachan green on the armor and guns. Two light coats is quick work over the khaki color...



Chainmail for the gun parts, blades, and other metal bits. Shining Gold for the Aquilas, belt buckles, and a couple of details on the beastman.



High Elf Flesh for the Guardsmen flesh and Vomit Brown for the beastman flesh & fur with Bleached bone for his horns & hooves. I also painted the belts, accessories and any other leathery bits with Snakebite Leather...



While it's hard to see, I did do some very basics highlights. I edged the armor and guns with Camo Green and highlighted the khaki just a bit with actual Kommando Khaki, which is very slightly lighter than the Krylon spray. So much so, that I'm not sure the highlight really did anything. I also hit the beastman's horns and hooves with a little Skull White...



I'm terrible about squad markings and things like that. So I figured I'd use the IG decal sheet to cheat my way out of some freehand painting. I brush on 'Ardcoat first, then apply the decals using some Model Master Decal Solvent. After they are good and dry, I put another layer of 'Ardcoat on, just to make sure they are sealed down and hide any decal edges. I hit them with Testors DullCote to take the shine off before continuing...





Next up is the dip. After reading lots of reviews and how-to's online, I decided that actually dipping the minis was not my best bet. So I used an old brush and slopped it on them manually. One thing I read that does seem to help is to hold the mini upside down while doing this. It really does help. As you can see below, they come out very shiny.







After a 24 hour dry time, the DullCote really makes them look better!



Some work on the bases and these guys are done.







I'm not sure what happened with the bases. They don't look like my bases usually do? They might get a redo eventually. And oh crap! That beastmen has a nose ring. As you can see the Quickshade will not hide my glaring base coat faux pas, but it does shade a mini nicely.

I know some folks hate the dip, and say it's not the quality result that you get from hand painting. But I can say it makes these guys look better than the ones I hand paint and in a fraction of the time. So while I won't use it for everything, my Guard is definitely getting the Quickshade treatment.

Comments and critiques are welcome as always, I only ask that you work a wild African animal name into your comment somewhere. Something you've seen on safari perhaps...

Ah that new paint smell... Camouflage Spray Review

I could have wrote a whole blog about how ideas and what you like changes over time. And that would explain some of the direction this posts starts my hobby off in, but instead I'll give you a short synopsis before the actual blog.

I always wanted a gray, urban camo style guard army. Always. Since Rogue Trader. None of that silly army looking paint scheme for me. Then for a long while I wanted a guard army with black armor and red fatigues. Green and khaki was for sell outs with no imagination! Well, I've sold out. I've been painting outside my comfort zone, color-wise, while working my project with Admiral Drax. It turns out that traditional Guard colors are pretty nice when you get right down to it. They just look right.

So I started looking around on the interwebs and found something interesting. Some folks have been using Krylon paints to prime their minis. This is not too much of a shock (compared to GW Primer sticker shock anyway). But I found out that Krylon makes a line of paints for camouflage applications. So after being fooled by their corporate website into believing that Home Depot or Autozone carry their product, I finally found some at Ace Hardware. In all fairness, Wal-Mart does carry Krylon, but the one near me did not have the camo colors.

I picked up a couple of cans, one of khaki and one of a 'jungle green' sort of color. I have to say that I'm impressed. The paint went on smooth and coated well.

Here is a shot of some guard that had been painted, (in some cases twice) already.



If you click and view the larger image you may notice some "grainy-ness". That is my camera and post processing. The actual minis are smooth as butter.

The product claims to be ultra flat. I've put some paint on these since taking that picture and I will say that it goes on fine despite the fact that this is not, technically speaking, primer.

That worked well, so I grabbed a tank that has been in need of some love for a while and went to town on that too. I sprayed it with the khaki then taped off some pattern and hit it with the green color. The green is a little lighter than I would prefer, but it will darken up a bit when I paint the tank...



All in all I'd say, if you aren't using this paint for base coating, you're stupid. Ok, maybe that's a little extreme. But, it does seem to be really good paint so far. You can google around for other reviews by folks much more eloquent than I. You can also have a look at the product webpage. But I think if you have an army that could benefit from one of the available colors, you should consider giving it a shot!

I'll share the progress on the four guard and the tank. I might even sneak in another totally over reviewed product in the project!

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 41^st 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!

Macharian Crusade IG Regiment Challenge!

The guys over at the Bell of Lost Souls are having a competition of sorts. The gist of it is, convert and paint an Imperial Guard trooper and write a bit of fluff for it. Include some doctrines from the codex that are fitting and POW! The top three entries will be included in their upcoming Macharian Crusade book. I am a little curious as to whether doctrines will remain a part of the Imperial Guard Codex when it's revised this summer. Rumors seem to point to no. Then, will the Macharian Crusade book only be IG and 40K 4th edition compatible?

Anyway, here is a sneak peak at one of my IG beastmen.


We'll see how the horny bastard does in the challenge!