Tuesday, May 14, 2013

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Tonight my uber hawt wife and I will start our journey to the states and will be home for a month.  As a result I'll likely not be posting much during the next 30 days.

In hobby news, I worked on my World Eaters vehicles and Contemptor the other night but didn't get as much done as I would have liked.  I also ran into a major issue.  While I was doing the weathering on the Contemptor, the paint and primer in a few areas started coming off and I was left with bare resin in about three places that I could see.  I think I may strip the model when I come back and start over.  The Rhino and Predator didn't seem to have the same issue so they will get finished when I get back.

While I'm home I'm going to try to get some games in at my FLGS and go see many friends around the country.  I'm also going to be spending a few hours at Wargames Con in Austin and hope to meet a bunch of new people while I'm there.

See you in a month.

~Syko

Friday, May 10, 2013

More Dreadball!

I finally got off my butt and knocked out two more teams for Dreadball.  The were quick and dirty jobs but I'm pretty happy with them.

The New Asgard Giants


The Dalcorp Cowboys


Yes, I know they have very similar color schemes but they are based on the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys who have almost identical uniforms.

Now if Season 2 would hurry up and arrive...

~Syko

40K Project #2 - Heresy Era World Eaters Part 6

Got some work done on the Rhino, Predator and Contemptor tonight as well as knocking out two Dreadball teams which I will show in the next post.

Shot the blue on the shoulders of the Contemptor.  I need to go back with a brush and clean it up.


I had to spend a long time thinking about how I would do the blue on the vehicles.  After many failed attempts with tape I finally picked an easy pattern and free handed it.  I've gone back with a brush and cleaned it up some but still need to do the same with white.

Sorry for the haze in the pics... not sure what's going on with my iPad camera.
Next step is to clean up the blue and white then start the weathering.  Not sure if I'll get it all done by Tuesday and if not, they go in storage until I get back from vacation.

~Syko

Monday, May 6, 2013

40K Project #2 - Heresy Era World Eaters Part 5

So close to being finished with the next batch of my World Eaters.  What's taking so long?  Well, I broke down the other night and made some adjustments to the models I had already finished.  I think they look much better now.  I weathered the Cataphractii Terminators a bit and replaced the decals on the shoulder pads of the Tactical Marines and Heavy Weapon Marines.  I'm much happier with them now and am in general happy with the guys I've been working on.  Minor details and water effects on the bases and they are done.  I also need to finish the back banners and helmet crests on the sergeants.

Here are the guys I've been working on.


Here are the ten man squads as they will be run.


Heavy Weapons squad as they will be run for now.

And here are the reworked Cataphractii Terminators in five man squads.

I'm pretty happy with this sergeant and his power weapon.


That's all for now.  Next update should have work in progress of a Dreadball team.

~Syko


Sunday, May 5, 2013

You Light Up My Life

Kickstarter alert!

Powered Play, a company that makes easy to use plug and play lighting sets has been featured on a lot of podcasts lately.  I had heard about them a few weeks ago and looked into their kickstarter but in the end, it just didn't appeal to me.

I heard the other day that they had pulled their kickstarter because it wasn't going well and they will be relaunching it on Monday.  I'm looking forward to it this time because even though I don't care so much about adding lights to my models, I am really interested in lighting up my buildings and terrain features.

Burn in Designs recently posted up some photos on their facebook page of one of their building kits with a Powered Play light kit added and it really got my interest going.  So this time, they will have my backing.

I strongly encourage you to look into them when they launch again on Monday.  Even if you don't want to use the light kits on your gaming models they can be used in so many cool ways.

I'm glad to say that they have a bright future.

Speaking of future... here is a little about the future for me.

I am going on vacation in less than 2 weeks and will be gone for about a month.  I'll try to post a few updates while I'm gone but it will be even more sporadic than my normal schedule.

When I'm back in "The Stan" I am going to be forcing the hobby to take a back seat to some other things I need to focus on.  I'm about to turn 42 years old and am noticing that I look more and more like my dad every day.  I'm overweight and have little energy and I'm pretty sure I'm a heart attack waiting to happen so I am going to force myself to spend an hour in the gym at least three times a week and am going to start walking/running every day.  I know I can do it, it's just a matter of making myself do it and not let myself put painting on front of this more important goal.  I will weigh in when I get back and will try to lose at least 15 pounds before I go to Hawaii in October.

Also I am going to start focusing more on learning about the retail business.  I've been reading a lot and listening to a lot of audio books and self help books trying to learn all I can in preparation for opening a game store in the near future.  I need to get more serious about this and stop procrastinating.

So, in the coming months I will be limiting myself to three hobby nights each week and the rest of the time will be spent reading and studying.  I want to get my mind and body in much better shape so they will help me in the years to come.

I will also put the blog on a regular schedule and will update three times each week.

Oh... and I am almost finished with the World Eaters Tac Marines.  Pics will hopefully be posted tomorrow.

Ciao

~Syko


Thursday, May 2, 2013

40K Project #2 - Heresy Era World Eaters Part 4

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days. I honestly keep forgetting to take and upload photos of my progress.
 The Tac Marines are nearing completion. I had forgotten a few steps and only remembered them when I pulled out the finished models from the last set. All that's left is to clean up the white on the backpacks, wash the metal on the backpacks, do the back banners and do a little detail work. Oh, and I need to do the bases which go pretty quick except for the flowing blood which takes a few sessions.


I have also been working on the vehicles I showed the other day and I have made a very important discovery in regards to the Minitaire Ghost Colors.  When laying down the colors for weathering, I sprayed some Oil Discharge to give the metal a bit of an interesting color.  I then put the hairspray and salt down then hit the whole model with a coat of a light grey color that I plan to use as my base.  Unfortunately, as you will see in the images, the blue from the Oil Discharge is bleeding through the lighter color.  This isn't a coverage thing, it's something to do with the Ghost Color itself.  After two coats I had to go back with black primer over the areas then shot it with another coat of grey.  The blue is still there.  I'm starting to get worried that I may need to redo these if I can't get the color to cover up.
If you look at the Rhino below you can see the blue in several areas, mainly where you see salt.

So there you have it.  Once I've figure out how to fix the Oil Discharge problem I will hit these with a sealer then mask them for the blue.
In the meantime, I'm solidly plugging away on the Tac Marines.  maybe I can get these all done before I go on vacation.

~Syko