Summertime, air is sweet, lets move those update beats..

So, erm, has been a while... dare i make excuses? Well, life is one great big excuse! Can't complain though, big changes afoot and has been an exciting couple of months resulting in happiness (lots of various bits to list!), sadness, (main thing being i lost my wedding ring :S ), but generally the good has out weighed the bad. One particular good bit of good news is i have finally completed all my professional exams! Huzzah, that means more time to do fun stuff that i actually want to do,to use my annual leave as actual leave and not study leave!! Has been a long slog but hopefully will be worth it all. So hopefully that gives me more incentive to write up my hobbying exploits, it being my main vice in life.

Tanks tanks and not a drop to blow the heck out of anything..

So what have i been upto in the meantime? well, continuing to buy too much with the justification that i am saving for retirement... :P Hopefully by then my robot body and eyes will allow me to continue to paint and appreciate fine sculpts. But it i do need to reign it in a bit.. Case in point.. too many tanks...?






Quite possibly, considering this is just my guard armour,...  i would say this is down to a slight case of OCD and that i require order. Cos i tend to collect symmetrically so they form up nicely... Hence they are in squadrons.

Anyway sometimes i sit back and think what is this all for? and in times like these its just to array them out or occasionally have a mock battle. Here is my Blood angel armour vs some of my Eldar armour including recently added Scorpion from the wonder and curse of ebay...

One day this will take place on a proper table with proper terrain, but for now, the floor must do.

Anyhoo now to actual progress updates, work continues on various projects from one mini  month entries (OMAN), to stuff that takes my fancy or that has been hanging about a while. I was going to give the Eldar  rest a bit, but does not seem to be happening so for now work continues on Fire Dragons, Crimson hunter, Phoenix, rangers, and Old school guardians with a smattering of old jetbikes, seers and exarchs... not all featured here Just dragons have pics at the mo, but they are in train.

Otherwise OMAN entries include, Imperial preacher, White Dwarf in spaaaaaace, and this month Malifaux Oiran, Quite happy with the effect on her err.. dress/sash. The main body of the dress needs some work though as not entirely happy with it as could be neater. But Brush definitely helps if it is decent, as does paint.Trying to work with paint without mixing as much now to see what effect that has... Its feels like cheating as i grew up with only a 10 colours max to mix to make other colours from.. But does result in a slightly smoother finish. Also testing other companies. Already moved to Vallejo for airbrush work, but starting to utilise their other range, but also branching out to P3 and Reaper. Will see what i can achieve with them.

 Finally some misc, Picked up the assassins sans box from ebay, They came built but have not seen paint yet. Nice dynamic sculpts, not that the old ones were bad, the old ones have their charm and are still some of my favourites.


 Finally some base work for the larger models. Here you see the base for one of my Valkyries. Reasonbly happy with the result utilising all sorts of waste models and crud on my desk to form something half decent. needs more weathering and the Forge world resin chunk needs a bit of work to ake it look more like a concrete something or other.. But those offcuts do come in use!

Biker kicks from phwoars....

Apologies for the rather poor tabloid-esque title, but couldn't think of a thematic title to segue into the post.  

Anyway what's the reason i wanted to shoe horn a biker reference in? Infinity, that's why. Their new releases continue to amaze to the extent i can't help but need to have them. This especially seems true of their bike based units --->

I now have picked up Yojimbo, the bootleg version of Penthesilia (having already painted the original) and their latest release the Nazarova Twins. I absolutely could not resist with these girls, I was going to pick up their compatriots the Kum enforcers at some point as those too are fabulous models, but these jumped the queue. The only issue now is doing all these figures justice... they are just so intricate and the amazing paint job by Angel Giraldez on them just makes me feel so unworthy... but try i will at some point, probably using tips from his book. 

But Infinity do seem to have taken over from GW with the wow factor for me. This seems to be an ongoing trend. While undoubtedly the quality and tech is obviously there being the big player in the industry, GW new releases are doing it for me less and less as more and more the sculpts and designs are leaving me cold. I'm not sure why this is but i have a sneaking suspicion they have changed the design team... Where does Jes Goodwin feature nower days? who does do the designing? I can't seem to find names of who sculpted what these days, Is it because it is all CAD designed now? Are the new minis now the work of trainees to meet the demand of the intense release schedule? All in all while there are some nice ideas, final execution just is missing for me meaning i am not in a rush to pick up any of the new stuff like i used to. The last model that did get me going was the Imperial knight, but i put that to it being a large kit so more QA has been put into it. But that was a while ago now and none of the new stuff is making me want it right now. Take the new Eldar, haven't even picked up the harlequins yet, while some of them look nice, none scream get me now... Now looking at the new craftworld releases, this seems to reinforce the feeling. While they have been based on Jes's designs, they seem to lack his finishing touches. More so on the Farseer model, but the canopy seems a little short and the riders a bit lacking in dynamism. I can't put my finger on it but compared to the dark eldar reavers they are missing something.

But where they have fallen away, my attention is more and more drawn by Corvus belli's work. a combination of excellent studio painting and quality minis, priority is now going to them for my hobby budget. 

Anyway enough of this semi monologuing on my views of the state of miniatures. back to the updates. Continuing on from the biker theme, another reason why am not rushing out to get the new kits.... i still have a bunch of the old ones! this will complete my ulthwe windrider host as well. Infact many of the bundles they have put together now i already have so it does look like minimal renewal for me in this respect.

Also have bee working on old skool rogue trader harlequins, guess who discovered pink paint ... So now one of the troupes have electric pink hair. In addition, Crimson hunter is coming to fruition after much debating on the final colour scheme as wanted it to fit in while still reflecting its aspect colours.



Old is the new new for me a the moment and as you can see have also been revisiting an old epic knight errant, do love these figs, won't be for gameplay but i like these occasional one off pieces to mix it up.

Finally a couple of projects also nearing completion. One for One mini a month for Ammobunker, A commissar which i have now found out is from a company called brother vinni miniatures i picked up off ebay. nice sculpt. And FW Ultramarine Venerable dread also from ebay which is having finishing details such as the banner being worked on to bring it to completion. All in all, still productive despite exam season fast approaching!

Quarter year update

I probably should update, just days pass,... then weeks, then months.

Warp hunter progress

Anyway that is life, so best quit whining and cut to the pictures as haven't been idle hobbywise. It's has been a good distraction from the daily challenges of trying to be an adult. Anyways what do we have? Mainly Eldar, guard and Angel Giraldez's book plus some group shots.

Photo collage on the way

Metal company's new snipers

Raging Heroes Foxy Dynamite

Techpriest

Nightspinners

King Russ Tank Cmder finished

Lovely book.

Metal Co's new Command

Base coating of more guard

Valhallans

Some additional hawks to round out the sqd

New sentinel

Tanith first and only

Heavy flamers

Rogue trader Solitaire

Harlequins and Fritz from sodapop

Blurry shot of "Bastion company" 1 of 3 of my main Guard companies.

Festive post 2

Okay so these were less frequent than initially envisaged but alas there has also been less hobby than initially envisaged :S
Anyhoo photography skills still somewhat lacking, can't get my set up right, But have completed Alarielle and am working on the Blood angels. Also picked up a bargainous Armageddon pattern Medusa, It was however glued shut, so it has been to the breakers yard so i can paint the lovely innards. Luckily came apart relatively easily.

But Hulk terminators are reminding me why they have been put off for so long, they are character models in themselves with lots of little details so taking my time to get them right.
But in the back ground have some converted Dark vengence terminators, shamelessly copied from Poom or Marius from the ammobunker/flickr, they will beef up my assault element, even though Terminators aren't great in the game anymore they are still some of my favourite models. But for the hulk ones will try to finish this first batch then move on to the second group after i put together some more standard ones, All this in between the tanks
and other things that take my attention away. I.e the Ultramarine tanks and some more Infinity

Finally to finish up a bit of dining table battle re-enactment with most of this year's Eldar and some fart gun action :D

Festive Hobby day update 1

With great freedom comes great responsibility, alas i have none and have too many projects on the go. Always something new to start and always something old to finish. With the recent release of the new blood Angels, this has reignited a little spark to get some more of them finished. Not that i am particularly enamored by any of the new releases, but has got me wanting to get back to work on them by finishing their tanks and first company, namely the space hulk models that have been languishing unfinished since 2009... jeez time flies.... but seeing as the new terminators are based on these models, its kinda like painting new stuff. But yeah had a mini rant the other day about the general quality of the new releases from GW. More and more am getting less excited by what is being produced. They seem to be mostly rehashes of stuff out already i.e all the new space marine stuff, wolves, angels etc that aren't done particularly nicely. Now that's generalising a bit as fantasy have had some nice releases with that wow factor namely Nagash, but for smaller less expensive figs, just haven't been feeling it. Does make me worry about the future for them. But what has happened to the design team. Are they all made up of trainees now? What has happened to Jes Goodwin...Well it matters not, have built up a massive backlog now for retirement (lol) or whenever there is time and other companies such as Corvus Belli are drawing me more and more. Still is sad to see.

Anyhoo another mini rant over, back to the hobby programming. Where was i? ah yes Blood angels, i also started the above fella as a potential subject for one mini a month on Ammobunker, the lord executioner was one of the more impressive minis from the captains release and picked him up when they came out but never got round to him. But now he has taken the first steps to become a blood angel i am faced with the dilemma that the stock head just doesn't seem to fit the aesthetic.. however, choices are limited and at the moment the below two are alternatives to the original (left photo). The middle one looks pretty boy-ish but have used that head on the honour guard before so not sure. The one on the right just looks a bit big. so decisions decisions... for the record don't like any of the ones supplied with the Blood angel kits. Hair doesn't fit and they are too big...

But moving on, you may have noticed some blue in the tank pic... Well if you did it can only mean one thing... yes the Ultramarine's look like they too will be getting a bit of time in the sun as i look to beef up their tank pool. This has been spurred on from my recent purchase of a couple of used rhino chassis from my old pal ebay for a not too unreasonable £20, but what caught my eye was that they came with FW doors.How could i resist?! And having also in the stash a trio of razor turrets what more incentive do i need? Downside is they are missing rear ramps but am sure can rustle some up. This is especially the case as i plan to build and paint up a ride for Chronus's and have been collecting the parts for this for a while. It will be a super FW pimped up Predator with Ultramarine plates, mk4 predator upgrades, extra armour and the works. Should keep him happy, until i get to work on a sicarian. But 2015 is shaping up to be a case of  back to the Imperium.

Finally to finish up the update, something old and something new. As mentioned before for the one mini a month, in the end decided to do something different and submit a fantasy figure. With what has been happening to the elves recently thought it was time to paint up Alarielle as a potential kickstarter to High elf reinforcements.. well actually a new army but will see. But while working on her also thought it is also high time to finish the Kingdom of death pinup preacher. Spent the majority of my day yesterday on these two and reasonably happy with the results. For Alarielle, while i love the studio colour scheme, tried to be a bit different and went with an off white cream and wood theme. Came out pretty well, just needs some final touches. For the preacher, stuck with artwork colours. Just needs some highlighting on the erm... clothing.. but she has eyes and stockings are almost there, few details hear and there, but flesh wise am pleased with the learning, obviously more practice is needed but getting there