Retro fitting and other updates

What's this? two updates in a month?! something must be wrong....Not really, just at a loose end and had some photos to post. Mojo has died a bit of late but hey ho, it comes and it goes.

Anyway updates, got hold of some reinforced armour off warseer trading forums for a land raider. Now i didn't actually have a spare land raider but always felt my first one deserved a bit more protection. Luckily i always leave the option to revisit my models so any thing that isn't part of the main structure was glued down loosely so could be broken off without damage. 

Pictures show results as i started to attach it to my Ultramarine raider "Bellator" with the armour primed and preshaded.

Part painted with the rest of the armoured group

and onto some other projects, "Uruhu" sentinel and one shot who i am aiming to enter into the ammobunker monthly compo, but with afore mentioned ebb of mojo, not sure if will get it finished in time...well will see

In the mood for.... an update

Actually that's a lie, hence the continued lack of regular updates...but it's not like i don't want to share, its just with only a finite amount of time, the choice is either to spend time posting or to getting stuff done. In such circumstances getting stuff painted/built wins out, unless i am zonked....in that case the bed wins. I don't know how all those other bloggers out there do it, but kudos to them.

Anyway, rare occasion where i have time, motivation and uploaded pics of progress...and by my standards boy has there been progress!!

However, it has petered out of late due to afore mentioned knackerness and also recently got my exam results demotivating me. Mixed bag, passed one, failed one so a resit is on the cards which might limit hobby time again *sad face*...but still, an update is owed of what i did manage to achieve. so on to the pics

Previous post mentioned desire to focus on the tanks, and focus was indeed applied....

Voila, a pile o tanks!

King Russ completed

For those who like a backside

Russ company

plasma weaponry!

Alas the momentum did not last, but they are further along than before!

Pilot is Flt Lieut "Ace" and Flt gunnery sgt "trigger" 

Next up got more work done on the vulture i bought a while back. Markings really do make a difference and quite happy with how it is turning out. The next stage is will be finishing the weapon options ( punisher cannons or rocket pods and hunter killers to create a 40k apache) weathering is also in order but all in good time

Finally a collection of miscellaneous projects

Valhallans on the charge

Grey knight cruiser

a scale line up 

Who doesn't like titans? but whilst the forgeworld ones are beauties, can't justify getting one so a collection of the different sized walkers instead

Also started work on a new line for me, Soda pop miniature's "one shot and Fritz". What can i say? love robots and the pilot is quite cheeky, was a bit of a test in building her though as no instructions and some non intuative parts. got their in the end though. Need to finish painting now though

Tanks, tanks everywhere and not a drop of paint

So, after a temporary forced hiatus due to a build up of all too adult responsibilities, i'm back. Bet you didn't even notice!
But yes, i can finally swap pencils, calculators, rollers and house paint for hobby knives, razor saws, needle nose tweezers and polystyrene cement! With two weeks off, now is the ideal time to return with a vengence!

But where to start? So many projects, so little time. During my exile from the hobby i still managed to keep collecting "bargains" off ebay and fuelled by inspiration from the tinternet, a plethora of ideas made it into my little head that are all jostling to be attempted. From finishing a variety of projects to do with the guard, to getting cracking on some grey knights or refurbing an A-10 warthog (saw a bit of terminator salvation the other day which had them in it), to  Decisions, decisions...its such a hard life!

In the end i haven't really settled on one project after all, variety is the spice of life. However, i thought it would be prudent to bring some focus to my motivation and decided to channel the inner treadhead in me and make finishing my tank companies the priority as frankly its a travesty that they sit unfinished when they only need a bit more work. The problem though is deciding the final finished look. At the moment they are servicable as fresh out the factory. However they lack markings, an essential detail to be truly regarded as "done". What i did know though was i wanted a more rugged looking tank force and after seeing a multitude of excellent examples on ammobunker, definitely knew more stowage and weathering is required. But there in lies a further problem, what stowage and where to place it? Furthermore the number of tanks that needed treatment has been daunting, with 15 Leman Russ, 12 chimeras and 7 artillery tanks now.. how am i going to get through all those?....yes i know, i buy too much, but tanks are my weakness, especially at well below rrp!

However, in recent weeks, inspiration has been drawn having come across a plog on the afore mention forum by Bigwill, (who i have since discovered also has a blog - Heresy Workshop -added him to my reading list) I was inspired by how he put his winter themed WW2 American style guard tank force together.(wow that was a mouthful) taking it a tank at a time and applying some of the techniques and finishes i recognised from the forgeworld master class book. It was the detailing that really added to the force and was the deciding factor in making me set about my own force. So primed with the inspiriation decided to proceed along the same lines, although i'll be going a squadron at a time and not as detailed as all that stowage will drive me bonkers.

Therefore i bring you what i have been working on the last couple of days, "Breaker squadron" - 3 demolishers, a couple of predators to fix/refurb and my version of the King Russ to act as a command tank.

The predators should be relatively quick work, the Ultramarine one is one of my originals and only needed a repair job as one of the lascannons had broken off. 

The other one is an ebay special that was just a tenner! bargainous! who could say no?! Unfortunately on arrival was a bit more work than it seemed in the sale picture, the lascannons had broken off in transit and after initial inspection it appeared to have been resprayed several times so had really thick paint work over it....nothing a few goings over with fairy power spray wouldn't rectify...or so i thought....even with some hefty scrubbing didn't manage to get it all off and left it looking like this. 

Working through the layers discovered it has previously seen action as both a Blood angel and Dark angel  tank. Well soon it would see service once more but this time for the sons of Ultramar.

Otherwise the only other pics i have are of WIP on the king russ, This has been in progress for at least a year already, kinda stalled when i got to the engine block, but having recently obtained another ebay bargain -a Forgeworld Gryphonne vanquisher tank for under a tenner. Felt the turret was just the ride scale to balance the look of the enlarged tank thus has spurred me on to finish it. Only work needed on the turret  is a new lick of paint and pinning the cannon back on. Here's how it looks now

and on the tank.

and work on the engine block

New enclosed exhaust system

I also added in a pseudo engine as the cover will be partially see through as its a grate from the baneblade kit, but also it was to use up the other half of the baneblade exhausts. Waste not want not as they say. Looks alright not that it will be highly visible.  The exhausts were spare anyway having upgraded my baneblade and shadow sword's engines with the landraider engine block but i'll post that at a later date once the tank company is up to shape.

part of the engine.

So lots of work. Hope to keep it up so will keep you posted! but now back to the forge

And the beat goes on..

So, despite my lack of enthusiasm to update, as previously mentioned I have been fairly productive the past few months and i should really post up some progress to demonstrate the fact. This is in spite of pending exams and study gradually ratcheting up and house move/decorating. However, when it comes to updating here i guess because I already have a project log on the Ammobunker, - a friendly forum of like minded individuals - this diminishes my will to basically rewrite what has been written before,... but then that kinda defeats the point of this log....hmmm....anyway my mind is wandering...but in summary i will endeavour to continue updating this blog as it is my record of my hobby love. Anyhoo i should also mark the first milestone of my first comment. Many thanks to Admiral Drax for the kind words, his blog actually put me on the road to my own blog and his painting excel spread sheet was a catalyst for progress on the guard army. (will save that for another post) So many thanks indeed!

But now to photos, an eclectic mix but then i do like to mix it up

The Mercy of Isha of the Lightspear squadron of Ulthwe...this has been  PIP for ages...still not finished but there abouts.

Scout sentinels

Armoured sentinels

AoBR Nobz and the Kommando nob i picked up as one of my first ebay purchases cos really dig the modell 

Paint on the mortar team

And another one

Landspeeder storm

St Celestine

Lorr et co.

I'll probably embellish with more words later but i'm a bit sleepy now! but hope you enjoy the update

Two New years later.., its time for an update

Its been a long time, so much so two new year's have passed and its almost February already! How time flies.  well belated Happy new year and Chinese New year. Hope its a good one and not the end of the world as the Mayans predicted.
Not sure why its been so long, maybe because i've been making the most of freedom after my exam. (i Passed btw! Huzzah!!) More likely its been an overwhelming laziness to post updates. Updating a blog is more work than i figured. Trying to be interesting and witty is hard going (multitasking is not my forte). During my younger days, with ample time and the motivation to create an internet identity, this might have gone differently, but as the years have advanced there has been a marked deterioration in my ability to write...my ability to command words has deserted me...sigh... and here's me thinking i could have been a writer. But that's the way the dice roll i guess, not that i play....but lets not dwell. The main purpose of this blog was to chronicle my hobby and to update on ongoing projects. Thankfully on that level I have not been completely idle. Having had a recent renaissance of the mojo, I have been making solid progress on lots WIP projects. So much so since i took these pics even more progress has been made! but they will have to do for the time being as more photos take time. Anyhoo enough jibba jabba, let let the pics do the talking....with a few captions for commentary of course!

The fleet is complete, well bar a battle barge that I got from Ebay which is still to be built

Ebay reclaimed cruisers hence the missing bits.

Vanquisher squadron - not quite finished but markings added and added some more camo today so they look a bit different

Valhallans worryingly becoming a full company . Darn Ebay again. But these guys are veterans from '94 when they were first released. This picture was taken for posterity as decided to repaint them and make them a true veteran squad b promoting a couple to command squads and then adding some meltas.

And Valhallan conversions

Finally some mortar teams. this one has now been painted and the one further below is done. All in all quite good progress.

So, there you have it. Hopefully won't leave it so long til the next update, but with new exams looming and a house move imminent won't make any rash promises, but here's hoping!

Chronicles of Xepher - Post 1.5

So, never got round to finishing the last Chronicle but this has been sitting in posting tray for ages. Now might be a good as time as any in finishing it off as am off work today in preparation for an exam tomorrow. (And no i am not slacking before you ask, have already done a mock this morning!) 

But anyway other hobby news, have been doing stuff when i have a free moment but no photos as of yet. A nice mix of minis including some Infinity ones. Just had to buy some after they which caught my attention. Very nice sculpts, just want to paint them well now so have also been adding to my blog list by seeking out ones with Infinity minis. This ultimately led me to Studio Giraldez and the home of the guy who paints the studio figs. Very nice log just amazed at how he manages the detail. Talented painters are those Spaniards.

Anyway that's about all on that front so without further ado back to chronicling!

Chronicle 1 - the continuation

Russian "rifles"

Of course these were just imaginary battles to re-enact Sharpe's engagements so no rules as such (besides this was before i was introduced to the whole wargaming thing), just lining up of the soldiers and knocking them over when they were shot with cries of pain and explosions. But with a limited amount of figures it often involved the Russians fighting themselves, but all in all a good time was had. 

Air Marshal

Captain of the ground forces

However, the Russians were soon joined by more advanced colleagues as I was introduced to other small scale toys and figures. First up were zero hour, these where of a similar scale and introduced vehicles into the collection. And actual firing ones to when it came to tanks, now they added some variety as well as having some great detail. haven't got many pics. They were never painted though but i remember many a happy hour, bombing, exploding and shooting with them. Shortly after some uber cheap soldiers in a plastic bag followed swelling numbers and increasing the numbers to make the battles more epic.

all of them together with samurai bot

Being a child of the 80s i had been influenced by pseudo mecha cartoons such as Bravestar, Jason and the wheeled warriors plus some ones i'd seen in Hong Kong. So when Micro machines (remember them?) introduced some robotage figures i just had to add some to my toy collection and eventually got them as a birthday present. Now these added a further dimension to the imaginary wars and probably influenced why i would later fall into the GW hobby.

Fly bot

However while are on the 1:72 scale story, after GW superseded them, they weren't forgotten and at a later stage i revisited them and added to their numbers again. On the pretence of homework, i decided to try and create a diorama of the battle of Waterloo for a French project at secondary school, however with all best laid plans it never happened...although i did end up with some scots guards and les Bleus backed up by cavalry for the French and artillery for the british. They now sit in a pile in storage but it was fun digging them out. 

Les  Bleus

Scots guard

On a more recent note after a trip to modelzone i also picked up some of the 95th Rifles from the italeri ranges. These sit waiting in the paint queue to complete the circle

Month of Change

So doesn't look like this is going to be a regular thing. Requires a surprising amount of time to update this and when low on energy, inclination is even more diminished. Even now this is a semi cut and paste job as i also post on a couple of mini related forums so am using some of that content! lol!   However, the lowdown for my month long absence is that major changes are afoot, both at work and at home. Not least of these is that I am in the process of making the largest purchase of my life..and no its not a titan, although that would be awesome... i am of course talking about becoming a home owner, its been a stressful few weeks hence lack of motivation.

Anyway the gist of this post is that I'm back..if only momentarily, having taken the day off work to "revise" for another professional exam which is soon to fall upon me, i've been able to regroup slightly. So following up on previous army shot decided to continue in a similar vein

This can also serve as a preview chronicle in prep for the big change. Therefore thought it be cool to see my guard army in all its glory and put together another of my roll call parades. Thought it be good also to have a stock take, gf and family have "joked" about selling off my minis to pay for the deposit...hmmmm, now even though i know each mini in my collection, it's still good to have some evidence! :D so after some fun late last night and this morning I present the latest view of the maybe "Cadian" expeditionary battle group. Main photo includes almost every guard model i own bar the ones being built and a few artillery crew. So with out further ado...here we go

Furthest forward: Storm troopers and other misc at the front such as a death korps grenadier squad and some of Gaunts ghosts
Front left: Catachan "Jungle cats" company
Front Middle: Veteran light Assault company
Front Right: "Desert Ice" company
Back left: "C" company - "Codger" company - the old guard(metals)
Back Middle: "A" Company - "Advanced" company(Being built)
Back right: "B" Company - "Bastion" company

"Desert Ice" company

Veteran light Assault company & Death korps etc

"Jungle cats" Catachan company

"C" company

"A" Company

"B" Company

and finally, what would a guard army be without its tanks....so here is the "Armoured Corps"

Left: Leman russ company - Spartans supported by baneblade "Deliverance"
Middle: Chimera phalanx - LAVs for use with Light assault company
Right: Artillery company ("Heavy reign" -under construction) and fire support (literally- 3 hellhounds & 1 swappable pup- "the firebrands") supported by shadow sword "Providence"