What I did on my winter vacation

Hello Everyone!
I just got back from the "Wine Country" of Missouri on a little break with the Mrs. I had a great time and am back, rested and rejuvenated with some new models and projects that I am working on.

Rhino... again and a test heritic guard

Hey everyone! Got some more pics of the Rhino (hopefully better ones this time) and my first test model for traitor guard.... I call him Pig Pen

Rhino Finished!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post then I got to head to work. I got my light source finished and I wanted to show you the final product!

WiP: Rhino part II weathering and source lighting

Hello again! Back with another post on the Rhino that I was working on. I have made quite a bit of progress and am almost finished but there is something I need your opinion on.

WiP: Rhino

Hey everyone! Just chiming in with a few shots of a Rhino I am trying to knock together.

From the Work Bench: WIP Aspiring Champion Power Sword

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to post some pics of a power sword that I am working on for my Chaos Space Marines army.

Special Mission Variant

Good Morning,

So I was watching Inglorious Bastards (the original one) and I got an idea for a special mission type.

From the Work Bench: A crappy wall and a pump house!

Hey all!

Those that know me would call me impulsive, or possibly a spaz. I cant argue, I flit from project to project like a leaf on the wind. Take the examples below as proof.

Back to the Blog!: Sopwith Camel and IG Vostroyan

Hello everyone!
After over a month I actually have something worthwhile to show you.

Trying to Break the Burn

Hey all,

As I am sure you all have gone through if you pour yourself into a project too much its way too easy to get burnt out on something. Even if its something you enjoy doing. I had to take some time off last week otherwise I wouldn't have the stomach to touch this stuff. Fortunately for me I play with an awesome group of friends who make it easy to get back in the swing of things. Enough jibber jabber, I got stuff to show you...

Taking a Break

Hey all,

I am going to put my hobby on hiatus for a bit. The two day painting challenge, while rewarding, is taking its toll. I am getting burned out on something that I love and I cant let that happen. I will post something this weekend.

Two day painting challange: Ork!

Here we are, back in the saddle again. I have for you today a Space Ork.

Two day painting challange: Apologies

Hello all,

I'm afraid that I wont have an update today. The wife was home from work this morning so I wasn't able to get to my painting project until way late. I will try to get an update tomorrow morning as well as set the next task for the big weekend project. Thank you for your patience

The two day painting challange: Storm Trooper

Hello all,

Just chiming in with my latest painted miniature the Storm Trooper.

The two day painting challange: Big Project Status Update

Holy crap I changed the format! Forgot that I did that... heh heh.

Anyway, I have some new pictures to show you of what should have been my Thursday painting challenge post (sorry about that) and the completion of my corpse cart! WHOO HOO!

The two day painting challange: Big Project Status Update

Hey all,

Nothing profound to say, just wanted to show you corpse cart progress

The two day painting challange: Wratih!

Alrighty, for today's painting challenge I give you my Carin Wraith and show you an update on the corpse cart

The two day painting challange: Big Project Status Update

Guh,

Well, it didn't quite work out as well as I had planned. I got some time to work on the corpse cart but with a very soggy trip to the family on the 4th it somewhat put my schedule on its ear. However, I was able to make some very good progress this weekend and everything is shaping up very nicely.

The two day painting challange: The Ghoul

On to my 2nd Warhammer Fantasy Battles showcase... the GHOUL!

The two day painting challange: Zombie!

In the constant battle to stave off panic attacks and clinical depression I have decided to turn myself over to a painting challenge. As I don't have much time during the week I will keep it simple at first. 2 minis a week and then a big project on the weekend. I figure I can build/prime one day then paint/quickshade the next. Also, I was able to paint a little this weekend so I have some Warhammer Fantasy Battles test models that I can use to hedge my bets. First up... the Zombie!

Oh thank goodness!

As you are all well aware by now Games Workshop is releasing its 8th iteration of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles game ( Got my copy on pre-order =-D ). As such they have a whole slew of new fancy-schmancy gaming aids out there. Look intimidating? Well worry not! They have instructional videos that help walk you through the fine details. All I have to say is thank Sigmar that they translated it into so many different languages! I don't know how I would ever have figured it out if they hadn't taken the time to produce an English version. (watch the last link and you'll see what I mean)

Dice pool quiz

You are a d6: How can I put this nicely? If you were a flavor, you'd be vanilla. If you were a color you'd be white. If you were a blanket, you'd be wet. I'm sure you're a nice person, but excitement doesn't run down your alley, does it? If it ever did, you'd stop it, and politely ask it to walk. Honestly, you have no right being on any sort of adventure. You're much better suited hanging around at home and telling visitors that the princess is in another castle.

HA! This is hilarious... and probably more accurate than I would like to admit

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Photo Dump III

Hey Everyone,

Not much to post as the way of progress. This weekend marks the 2nd anniversary to my beautiful wife Lindsey. However, I was able to get some game time in on Friday. It was as pretty low attendance so Necron Darrell, Chaos Tad and I decided to run the 3 player mission in the back of the big rule book. We called it the Chaos Company Picnic, enjoy:

From the Work Bench: Chaos Rhino - Complete!

AAAAAAND .... here we are. Same tank as yesterday but with dirtier smokestacks.



Not really much to write today, just creating a post to mark the completion of a milestone and to give thanks to the blogs/people that helped me out through this project.

From the Workbench: Chaos Rhino WIP - Mud, Dust and Pollen

Hey All,

Just about ready to pass out for the day so I thought I would show you the latest on my possessed Rhino. Today I took the weathering up another notch and added mud, dust and pollen. Hepa filters be damned! GLORY TO NURGLE!

From the Work Bench: Chaos Rhino WIP - Weathering

Hey Everyone,

Just taking a break from lawn work to post some pics of that possessed Rhino I have been working on



This is the old photo, I took some time to make it look like its been around a bit longer

From the Work Bench: Possessed Chaos Rhino WIP

Good Morning Everyone!

Just wanted to chime in with an update on my possessed rhino. Check it out!

From the Work Bench: Plague Marine WiP

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to throw a few pics on the blog of a Plague Marine that I am trying to knock together:

From the Work Bench: Chaos Warrior Test Model

Good Morning Everyone,

Just a quick post here to show off my chaos test model. You may remember my less than impressive first foray here

Photo Dump II

Another game night, another photo dump!

Photo Dump!

Hey everyone,

Long time no post I know. Been very busy with life and stuff. HOWEVER, I have managed to take some interesting POV photos of some recent games so I thought I would share

Battle Missions: First Impressions

Good evening everyone,

I got my hands on the last copy of battle missions from the FLGS (YAY) and promptly turned it loose on my gaming group...

From the Workbench

Hello everyone,

Just taking a quick break from painting to show you what I have come up with so far with my latest WarMachine WIPs.

From the Workbench: Techno Chickens

Hey everyone

Just wanted to get an update on the blog to keep myself going. My schedule has changed and free time is a very valuable commodity right now. Which would probably explain why I am doing WarMachine instead of my usual 40K fare. I figure I can get a battle box knocked out pretty quickly and taking 5 models to the game store for a Mangled Metal duel instead of 30+ for a 1500 pt game is looking really appealing right now. Anyhoo...

A quick HTML tip for my 40k friends

Hello everyone!

Afraid that I don't have anything in the way of 40K this week. I have just started school for web/program development. Its pretty demanding as far as time is concerned leaving me to look wistfully on my minis in passing.
HOWEVER! I can still contribute to the FTW blogging community by sharing what I learn in class with you.

Valentines Day wishes and a word about Orks

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Ok.. on to Orks.

From the Work Bench III

Good morning everyone, I have some new pictures to share

Rhino and Predator WiP

Hey everyone,

I have some pics to show you of my Rhino chassis conversions and my first attempt at playing with Green Stuff.

Tournament Results are IN! ( a word on customer service)

I went to my first tournament this last weekend and I have to say that I was really impressed with my record. I DIDN’T LOSE ONCE! Yup, you read right, I didn’t lose a darn match. I can owe this all to the fact that I didn’t get to play.

Two days until tournament, a revelation and Warmachine Mark II first impressions

Two days to go! Man am I excited. I went to the LGS to pick up some paint and I think I saw one of the competing armies. It was a splendidly painted Tallarn IG force. I hope I get to talk to him this weekend to tell him how great his army looked.

From the Work Bench II

Hey all,
What with the tournament and all coming up I have been feeling a very Iggy vibe as of late. So much so its caused me to table my orks and paint completely irrelevant things. How fun is that?!

To war! TO WAR!

"..Ninety-nine decisions treat
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call out the troops now in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by.."

Goldfinger - 99 Red Balloons

Food for thought... is it worth the time?

Look at this

Beautiful isn't it? I told him as much and am now a devout follower of this site. It also got me thinking about how I am wanting to customize my own models.

A killa ...... Kup?

Hey everyone,

I had a really bad day at work a week ago so I thought I would take out my frustration with a new project.

From the Workbench

Just got done building some Chaos Space Marines and I thought I would show you some photos:

More things you probably know about already...

I just found out about this great site from Dark Future Games. I may never try to build terrain again http://armorcast.com/store/index.php

You never know what you'll find...

... if you just look around.
Found a new blog out there that I am really excited about: Kitbashed 40K by Alan. I am a big fan of putting stuff together out of bits and bobs you find about your house and what you have on your work table. ALSO they have a link http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Imperium_-_Limited_Release that brought to my attention that the 4 grenade gals that I got with my first ever IG lot were collectors items! DOUBLE WORD SCORE!

Project "Thunder-horse": a tutorial

A fellow brother in arms by the name of Vern asked Lantz the other day:

What size magnet do you suggest I use for the sponsons and turret options on a demolisher? I don't want to buy something too big where I cant use them.

While Lantz is the magnet king around our gaming group he doesn't have all that much experience with IG stuff so he turned it over to me. I have recently knocked together the new IG "Heavy Russ" with the Punisher, Demolisher and Exterminator cannons and have come up with something I like to call Project "Thunder-horse"

Here she is now:














While still a work in progress all of the magnetizing has been completed. I can add/remove sponsons at will, change out each gun in each slot, change out the main gun and add/remove the track guards

What you will need:
3/16" x 1/32" thick cylinder rare earth magnets
1/16" x 1/32" thick cylinder rare earth magnets
A flat bladed file
A 1/16" drill bit
A Dremmel and/or drill
The sprue for the tank and a blade/knife/Dremmel attachment to cut it with
Super glue
A sharpie or magic marker

All of the steps that I will show you were done during the construction of the tank. While the examples are of the finished project I did not have a camera at the time to record my steps.

--Sponsons--
I cut a small section of sprue and glued a 3/16" x 1/32" thick cylinder rare earth magnet to the flat edge, I then stood the cut sprue inside the sponson and glued like so:














Let me save you some heartache and show you the trick to it now. Take the flat bladed file and use that to hold the magnet in place. This is a two fold step as it will make sure that your magnet/sprue combo wont move while the glue dries AND it will ensure that your magnet is flush with the side of the tank (see below)














*PLEASE NOTE* If I had this to do all over again I would have used a much shorter bit of sprue. While the longer sprue does center the magnet more in the middle of the tank there is no real advantage. I suggest making a cut that just barely extends beyond your magnet for added stability.

After the glue dries simply take the outer wall of your track housing ( see figure 1 of your manual) and fit the sponson on the raised grooves. Once in position take the magnet that will be this sponson's mate and place it on the inside of the outer wall of the tank. The magnets will attract and will tell you where you need to put the glue. Simply apply the glue to the general area and repeat this step. Now you have a magnet on the inside of the tank and the one glued into the sponson itself. Repeat for the other sponson and you are now ready to assemble the track housing.

--Tread Guard--
After you built the track housing but before you add the actual tank treads you can set up your track guards. For the top guard simply count the treads out to find the center and place your 3/16" x 1/32" magnet on the inside of the track like so:














Then take your track guard and glue it in the middle on the underside (please excuse the primer):














The front and back track guards are a little more tricky as you will not want the interior magnet to be in the exact middle of the tread. I suggest gluing your magnet to the tread guard first then using that to get the exact position of the magnet that you will use on the inside. When complete you will have something akin to this:















*PLEASE NOTE* The next two steps I would almost consider optional. After you prime and then paint the guns that fit in the optional slots you may have enough friction there to hold the guns in place without magnets. However, if you are an OCD nut such as myself, read on. Also, this is where things start to get a little tricky/dangerous as they involve power tools. If I have any young readers viewing this please make sure that you have adult supervision and take the necessary safety precautions.

--The Turret--
First take your drill/Dremmel and attach your 1/16" drill bit. Bore out a small hole in the indention of your barrel hinge ( Fig. 12 in the instruction manual ) like so:














You can then glue the much smaller 1/16" x 1/32" magnet into place.

Next we will want to attach the magnet to the individual gun barrels. Each barrel has a different mold cast to it but the basic premise is the same :














As you can see the Punisher cannon (1) already has an indention large enough to place the 3/16" x 1/32" magnet with room to spare while the Executioner (2) and Demolisher (3) will require you to drill small holes as shown. Simply glue the magnets in place and allow to dry.

*PLEASE NOTE* While the instructions state that you shouldn't glue the barrel hinge to the turret to allow you to aim I did glue mine in place. I have never needed to move my gun barrel up or down to make sure I could hit something. I also find that gluing your barrel hinge in a middle "neutral" position will add stability to the cannon that you have inserted (and thus making the magnetizing of the turret optional )

Now, if you are feeling exceptionally crafty, you can magnetize the ammo hopper/plasma vent on the back of your turret. If you flip over the upper half of your turret ( see figure 13 of your "closed hatch assembly" of your instruction manual) you will have just enough room for two 3/16" x 1/32" magnets to fit inside. You can then glue magnets on the underside of the hopper/plasma vent like so:















--The Sponson gun slot/hull mount--
Ok, we are almost done. This was the most difficult part of the build for me but I have a trick that should save you some of the heartache that I experienced.

Going back to our example on the sponson you will notice that there is a 1/16" x 1/32" magnet in the gun housing :














You will want to take your drill/Dremmel and drill all the way through the barrel that your gun slots into trying to keep as close to the center as possible. Then glue your 1/16" x 1/32" magnet into the hole you have just created, you should find that it is a perfect fit.

Now drill a small hole in the "tab" that slots into the barrel of your sponson/hull mount like so:

BE VERY CAREFUL ON THIS STEP as you could possibly damage the tab that slots into the barrel.















Simply glue your 1/16" x 1/32" magnet in place and allow to dry

-- The tiny magnet sponson trick --
While this will probably come off to you as a no-brainer but it was something that I found myself doing because I was too "in the zone" to realize that I was doing it:

DO NOT TEST THE POLARITY OF YOUR MAGNETS IN THE DEEP SIDE OF THE SPONSON

All you have to do is:
1)Flip your sponson over
2)Place your magnet on the "shallow" side of the sponson
3)Mark the exposed side of your magnet with your sharpie/magic marker
4)Glue your magnet into the gun tab so that the sharpie is the side that is going to go into the sponson

I was dropping my tiny magnets into the barrel of the sponson, using a slightly larger magnet to fish out the magnet I had just thrown in there and then marking what side needed to be facing out. It was a totally bone head move on my part and I was really lucky that I didn't get my polarity reversed.

--Final Thoughts--
BEWARE THE POLARITY - please make sure that your magnets are facing the right direction before you glue them in place. Take it from me that digging magnets out of your toy soldiers is a pain in the rump.

BEWARE THE POWER TOOLS - just do it, don't ask questions on this one.

TAKE YOUR TIME - a lot of this is pretty delicate work but if I can do it so can you. Just take your time and make sure that you measure twice and cut once.

There you have it. My complete guide to magnetizing your "Heavy Russ". Its a really fun project and gives you quite the sense of accomplishment after its done. On top of that you have a tank that you can custom build for any situation. Please let me know what you think and if I can improve this tutorial in any way. Questions and comments are always appreciated.

Once more.... WITH PICTURES! ( VERY pic heavy)

Hey Everyone! I got a camera! Now I can show you some of what I am actually doing around here. I was really impressed at how well the pictures turned out. Albeit some of them are still a bit fuzzy but I assure you that is the fault of the operator not the equipment.

The new carrying case:


The new army:


Tom the Psyker:


Tim the Almost Sanctioned Psyker:


Next I want to show you some of the highlights of what I have been working on:

These two are models in the force shown above that I thought really turned out well.

The one on the left is part of my "assault" squad and is carrying a combat shotgun and a demo pack. The guy on the right .... wasn't really supposed to come out so "Gomer Pyleish" but has become one of my most favorite models. There is a great picture of a Catachan soldier in the IG codex that is holding a grenade launcher in one hand that I just had to try. However, when I did it, he was either shooting you in the foot or in the face. I figured the face was the more effective of the two poses and then I modeled him telling you about it.

Here is another shot of the assault vet with a better angle on the demo pack and shotgun.

The shotgun is just a standard lasgun with the aiming gubbins and the barrell shaved off. The demo charge is a trimmed down Cadian flamer fuel tank with a vox caster glued to the facing. I found it to be a simple yet effective conversion.

Finally, I want to show you a few of the models that I have finished but haven't made it into the army yet.

My grizzled commander w/power sword and sniper Dave
I was really pleased with how well these two came out as far as detail is concerned. Not sure how often they will see the battlefield considering that A) I want to be a mobile force and B) a power weapon on an Iggy is as useful as a screen-door on a submarine


My Astropath and Master of Ordinance

These two are my favorite GW sculpts to date. The Astropath is such a simple model but has some great opportunities for fabric detail and the Master has so many bits and buttons to him you cant help but want to go through and pick them out.

Well there you have it. I plan to be a lot more detailed in my posting from here on out. Let me know what you think. Comments and criticisms are always welcome.