Alaitoc Farseer

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

From Stuff I Have Painted: Eldar/Dark Eldar

Just a quick note. As I said in a earlier post, I needed to change it up from Dark Angels. So I started on this model I had lying around. I was surprised at how quickly this miniature went. It looks a little less clean then most of my work, but it was also done really quickly, especially for me. In all I am very happy with the trade off, as all said and done this was like a five hour model.

With him complete I have 2 troops and an HQ for my Alaitoc models as well. So I can now field the two tiniest armies ever, although fully painted!

Thanks for reading,
T

Reinforcements Arrive: Tactical Marine Combat Squad, 2nd Tactical Fully Assembled.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Space Marines

The rest of the boys from 2nd Tactical finally got finished. I will be the first to tell you that I am really disappointed that it took me so long to finish these five miniatures. It is all on me, as there were nights where I didn't follow Picasso's advice, often obeying the voice inside telling me not paint.

It felt good to put this squad behind me. I have done a lot of green lately and am looking forward to taking on something else. That something else being Ravenwing, specifically an attack bike. Working in black has always been a challenge, so I am eager to under take it. Until it pisses me off...

But back to the tac marines. Here is a close up of the Sarge:

From Stuff I Have Painted: Space Marines

Already having one bald sarge, with this guy I attempted to create an effect of closely cropped hair to break it up a little. It met with moderate success, but unless you get up close it just kind of looks like light spot on top of his head.

From Stuff I Have Painted: Space Marines

And here is a quick shot of the whole 2nd Tactical together:

From Stuff I Have Painted: Space Marines

Lastly, for the first time in like 5 years I do, technically, have a painted 40k army. It is only like 840 points, and would get clobbered, but min force org is met. It is a small victory I am going to take. So my take on the 5th company up to this point:

From Stuff I Have Painted: Space Marines

Thanks for reading,
T

Reinforcements Arrive: Tactical Marine Combat Squad

Put the finishing touches on these five guys this morning and have already started work on the five remaining models in the squad. These guys are members of 5th Company, 2nd Tactical, better known (Only to me...) as Thrones of Fortitude.

I have enjoyed working on my Dark Angels as I learn this edition. It can be said that it is a continued labor of love and patience. Not only because I paint slow and must fight the urge to jump from project to project as usual. But also because I have been getting my head kicked in with them. I think in nine games of 6th Edition I am like 2-7. And maybe only two of those losses were close. Most of the games have just been me getting pummeled. I am sure that all of that speaks more to me as a player than the codex. Also I don't really talk tactics here anyway. I am super eager for a new codex for my beloved Dark Angels. Perhaps some new tricks will be exactly what I need to discover my inner tooth-chipper.

I did pretty much the same thing with these guys that I had for the Assault on Black Reach set. I had been advised that my bases were kind of plain and one dimensional. In order to fix that I added some tufts of grass, in addition to the normal static grass mix I use, to add something different visually. I think I will go a step further and add some large chunks of debris to the next batch.

A canny-eyed reader might notice that these are the tactical marines from the Battle for Mac Cragge set. I promise my army will consist of models other than those in the boxed sets. It probably just won't seem like it for awhile, as I am super eager to tackle the rumored models coming out in the 6th Edition starter box. That box has me incredibly excited, as it will contain new Dark Angels models if the rumors are true. Something not seen for like five years. At least I can use quite a bit of the marine stuff that has been coming out in that time as it looks great.

Thanks for reading,
T

My Assault on Assault on Black Reach Complete!

Nothing says anti-climax like crap photography. Try as I might, I just couldn't get a good group pic with the lighting rig I have. Anyway, now is not a time for negativity, nay it is a time of joy! You see, I actually finished something I said I would do. Granted, seventeen models isn't exactly worthy of a medal or anything, but it still feels pretty cool. And just in time for the next half of a starter box to boot.

I do the majority of my 40k blogging over at Still Practicing, however I felt it only appropriate that this end where it begun. So I finished up the dred. And since he has been painted I think he has lived about 3 turns (Hull points, wah wah waaahhh.) Even still, I had a good time painting him, as I have alway loved dreadnoughts.

Thanks for reading.
T

WIP: Clanrats

Still cracking away at the clan rats. Doing a couple ranks this time. My intent is use every brown and most of the grays I have on these rats. I am just kind of grabbing handfuls and laying down the fur tone I want to work with at the moment. I didn't get as far as I would like with these guys by today, but some of that is because I used some of my painting time for Dust Warfare.

In trying to lay down the base for these rats I have found that, because I am using snow flock, if I go too light on the dry brushing of the sand, it tends to not add enough contrast. Everything kind of blurs together is a mass of dull light-color and am white. That being said, I am not sure I am bringing the color up high enough, and struggling to find the happy medium. Until I get something I like better, I am basing the sand with VGC Charred Brown, followed by a dry-brush of VGC Earth, and finally another dry-brush of VGC Cobra Leather. This color progression is illustrated in the photo below, going from right to left.

While I was waiting for the initial coat of Charred Brown to dry before dry-brushing I went ahead and started blocking in the base color for this grip of rats fur. I also started laying down the flesh-colored parts on a few of the rats before I ran out of time.

The running out of time part is tied into me taking my usual painting time to get my second game of Dust Warfare in. I wasn't in a huge hurry so we played a big 300 point game, wherein I am sure rules were butchered, misread, or ignored out right. I really like the Dust rules set, and the models remind me of playing with the plastic army men I got in a bag when I was younger. I am extremely enamored of the SSU, as I have always been a huge fan of heliocopters, probably based on the countless hours of Airwolf my older brother subjected me to.

Which leads me to my only point of contention with Dust. I need more stuff from them, specifically the rule book to play the faction I want to play. It is almost like the reverse of GW, where they have given models for the game but not rules. I can't decide which is more consternating. I fear that for Dust to really get legs with my local play group there needs to be more options than "either or", and really the only games I have seen do well with the folks I play with had at least four factions.

In the meantime, David Morris has been nice enough to let me use his models, and has been an excellent teacher. My SSU guys sit ideally by until they have rules and I can start zooming over the table with my choppers, Airwolf theme blaring in my head. Oh, and after grabbing this bad boy I will at least know the basics for when it is that glorious time:

Thanks for reading,
T

Skaven Clanrats

Over the Memorial Day Weekend my younger brother and I decided to pick up the Island of Blood set and learn how to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle. My vitriol toward that product has diminished over time, although I will say, despite any information given by Games Workshop or unscrupulous game store owners, you cannot in fact a play a game of fantasy from that box. Despite that major let down, my younger brother rolled a die, unable to choose between rats and elves, and ended up with the High Elves.

Admittedly this had me concerned. I paint so slowly that the notion of doing a horde army almost killed any chance of me getting into Fantasy before it began. But, despite a couple of set backs, we still were (are) waiting for the new 40k rules, and didn't see a whole lot of point in playing another battle under 5th.

We did muddle through a game after getting some army books, and had a great time. In the few games we have played he continues to hand me my butt (Stupid griffon!) but there is also a fairly large points disparity between the two forces. We are enjoying ourselves immensely, and have decided to attempt to put paint to our forces, at least for the time being.

This actually works out well. In just one short week it will be all 40k all the time in my local play group, and I am sure I will catch a learning game or two, however I am content to sit back. An entire edition of 40k has come and gone, where the army I love most, Dark Angels, sat with sup-par rules and didn't even get a new model. To say that I am ecstatic that Dark Angels are rumored to be featured in the starter box, as well as one of the early armies to be released is an understatement. But even still, I think I will save my enthusiasm for when it actually happens. I am OK being a little late to the 6th Edition party, and love the idea of starting off with a new book and new models.

In the interim, rats, and plenty of them. My brother and I have decided not to get any more models until we have finished what we have, which is the stuff in Island of Blood. He has a let less models than I do, so I needed to get cracking. Also I will tire of getting griffoned to death every time we play, so I will want to start padding out my ranks and getting some more pointy-teeth and claws on the board. I needed to start slow, so I just did one rank, well kind of, I will probably have no idea who all goes where when it is all said and done.


The models themselves actually paint up fairly quickly. And I struggled with not over complicating them. They still took a fair amount of time, because I wanted to add some extra touches like the glowing eyes and all the rust. I want my have my rats feel like you could get lock-jaw just looking at them, but didn't want to over do it so they looked like blogs of red-orange. I went with the snowy bases because I have had the flock lying around forever. Also, having been through three long winters where I live, I am beginning to equate winter and snow with a certain degree of misery, apropos for Skaven.



There are some techniques on the snow flock that I need to improve on and refine. I also need to find the setting on this new camera that makes the pics a lot less yellow. But this is the start of one of my rat squads, packs, nests? I have no idea...

If there is interest I would be glad to do a tutorial of how I did them, although the next group I do will have lighter fur.

Thanks for reading,
T

New Digs

The MPB is going down. Well not for a month or so, however there will be no new content. I don't post frequently enough to justify my own blog so I have joined forces with my friend at his blog, still practicing_. If you follow me here, please follow me there as well. It should be better for all, and really my work there is going to be exactly the same as it is here so there shouldn't be too much of change.

Thanks to all who hung out with me here! Now shoot over to SP and check seven more Bad Moon slugga boyz!

Thanks for reading,
T

Aww Shucks

Just a quick note. If you follow me here, and don't follow Ron at From the Warp, what the heck is wrong with you!? I kid...or do I, but check out the awesome article Ron wrote about saturation vs. desaturation, featuring the ork boyz from right here at the MPB!

Thanks for reading,
T

More Bad Moons WIP

From Mars' Project Blog

Last week was busy in my non-hobby world, meaning slow within my hobby world. Even still, I was able to make some progress on the small batch of boyz I have been working on. Painting seven models at a time is seeming rather daunting, which doesn't bode well for my intended push of 20 models at a time for the next mob. I will move up gradually one more time before taking the bull by the horns.

One nice thing about building models is that I can be far more mobile in doing it than when I paint. I was able to cobble together the Nob squad I wanted to run, largely in part to a generous donation of kombi-shootas from Brian Haler. They were assembled almost entirely during the viewing of Burn Notice with my wife, via Netlfix's streaming service.

From Mars' Project Blog

I liked the idea of my Nobs being shooty rather than chopp because there is a very heavy shooting element to my ork army. Furthermore it seems to fit in alright with the Bad Moons theme. I had a great deal of fun putting together my Pain Boy, Dr. J. G. Matthews, OMD. Although not a very orkish name, it?, he? does take his/its namesake from a very generous and incredibly inspiring person who has made this ork project possible. Dr. Matthews, so enamored of the way Space Marine apothecaries are able to heal the Angels of Death, he has decided to emulate them, in order to better patch up his boyz.

From Mars' Project Blog

Thanks for reading,
T

Bad Moons Boyz Test Complete +

All in all, these three models weighed in about 6 hours. Not bad for my slow-painting ways. I would hope that that with practice I can get it down to less than 2 hours a model. The build on the black parts/pants went rally quickly, as I just highlighted it up with a mix of khaki, followed by straight khaki. I have already started on the next group.

I played in a team tournament this last weekend with Tallarn from Still Practicing. It is always a good time playing with or against him. The game table at my house has developed something of a reputation for hating me, well specifically my dice. I am not much of a believer in bad dice. They happen, so do good dice. You will pretty much see what ever you are looking for, luck wise, if your are in the frame of mind that your dice are good or bad. Furthermore, I have a little bit of a dice obsession...

I am sure there are people who have many more. But I have my fair share. I refuse to believe that they all suck on my table. Even still, Tallarn was unwilling to risk my multitude of "bad dice", or the off chance that it was just my table that hated me. When I arrived he handed me these:

I was confused but enthusiastic. I mean they were dice, and I always need more dice. But, according to Tallarn, these dice were unlike any I had, outside of color/design, because these dice were blessed. To hear him tell it, no kidding blessed. Like they were purchased in Germany and blessed at a Belgian monastery before being sent over to him. I am not sure on the logistics, but either way it was pretty awesome.

So how did the blessed dice work? Friggin' awesome! Our poor turn two opponents could only shake their heads as I rolled ten "5ups" on twelve dice. Be it divine, or the fact that is was all BS and I just had the plastic cube equivalent of Dumbo's feather, the dice were going crazy. I am a firm believer in averages, so to anyone out there who rolled a lot of crap this weekend, I am sorry. I was riding the high side of the curve. Thanks for taking one for the team and riding the low side of the curve in order to keep the universe in balance.

Tallarn and I didn't win. We were five points out or something, though I still got a prize.

Thanks for reading,
T

Bad Moon Boyz Yellow

Getting pretty close to finishing this lot. Just the black areas left. I am not sure I am sold on the yellow, weird I know. I really like the color, but I may try working the tone something brighter and warmer. The real hurdle was whether or not I could pull off a quick weathering technique I envisioned and be happy with?

A canny viewer will notice that the sword choppa looks wonkey, weathering wise. That was where I started, and I realized I was doing the technique backwards. Pro, I know. After I got my mind right I was able to accomplish what I was trying in a short amount of time. Hoping it will get better with practice, but it suffices for now.

So will I go back and fix that sword-choppa? Almost certainly not. It will be one boy in a mob of at least twenty. Got to keep moving forward. Backward be damned!

Thanks for reading,
T

Bad Moon Boyz Continued

Keeping on keeping on with the boyz.

I upped the presence of metallics a little from my original base color. I am striving for more menace than comedy with my Ork horde. Between the severe shading and metallics it might give me a leg up in this attempt. I relied heavily on some washes in order to accomplish this in a "quick" fashion. I feel like it is just enough to add interest, but will not be overwhelming within a horde in effort or appearance. The washes were as follows:

"Silver" metallic areas- Based in Boltgun Metal, washed with 1:1:1 Chaos Black/ Badab Black/ Water, washed the recess with Scorched Brown, washed recesses again with Vermin Brown, and finally highlighted with Chainmail.

Bronze metallic areas- Based in Tin Bitz, raised areas painted with Dwarf Bronze, recesses washed with 1:1 Dark Angels Green/ Hawk Turquoise, and finally highlighted with Chainmail.

That is where we are at for the moment. Eager to get back to them, though I have a feeling I will be spending a few hours behind a snow-blower this week.

Thanks for reading,
T

Bad Moon Boyz

This holiday season an amazing person, whose generosity is pretty much boundless, ended up hooking me up with a bunch of Orks. It came at an interesting time, as I have decided that this year I will focus all my efforts into painting a 2,000 point army. Of course I would come to that decision when the edition I have been playing unpainted for fiver or so years is coming to a close. So, Orks it is. Why Bad Moons, well the wife picked the klan, and my daughter's favorite color is yellow, though she is just shy of two so I imagine that will change at some point.

In order to do Orks, I needed to be able to paint green skin. I just tried a scheme straight from a few GW tutorials.

Right now the shaded areas look really severe to me, so I will be curious to see if it is still as severe when the other colors are brought up. I decided to use a fleshy tone for the lips just to break up the green.

If you know me, or have followed my blog, you may be thinking, "Why is the world's slowest painter painting Orks!?"

My retort to the doubter is, "You're right. It is a crap idea. Wish me luck."

Thanks for reading,
T