Drinking by Association

My band has another gig, this time with another band opening for us! Drinking Birds will be opening for Kilty by Association on July 12th!

Poster by zorcon

We are returning to one of our favorite local spots--Velo Cult for [about] a 2 hour set.

A Century!

90th BD party!!

My grandmother turns 100 today!! What an awesome achievement that can not go unnoticed! Today is a very special day for my family.

Modern/Sci-Fi Vehicles Showcase (pic heavy)

Here are some pics of vehicles I painted for use in our Dark Heresy campaign. The motorcycle is an old Shadowrun figure (date and manufacturer unknown, but lets say in the neighborhood of 20 years old) and the car is a recently purchased WWII commander's car plastic model.

I specifically bought and painted the car for our Dark Heresy acolyte's--It was a loner from the local government during one of our missions. The only addition to this model is the hood ornament, which is from a Space Marine Commander's backpack.

The bike will eventually be part of a rag-tag Rough Riders unit for my "Trow everything we have left" Planetary Defense Force (counts as Imperial Guard), previously discussed here and here. But we needed a bike during the same mission as the commandeered car, so I moved it to the front of the production line! The model's original handlebars were terribly thin and about to break off, so I replaced them with a pair of bars from a Space Marine Bike and added a pair of Space Marine Magnoculars as the headlights.

The bike's base terrain as is the base it self, are scratch built. The base is two 25mm square bases sandwiched between two halves of a 25mm round base. I used bits from my collection comprising of chunks of sprue, model bricks, and old 1:35 car model bitz.

I really like how these turned out. The car is very basic but it fits the role needed, and the bike will look great in the Rough Riders unit!

This is an old Tonka toy van I had when I was a kid (I keep lots of stuff like this). We needed another vehicle during the same mission as the vehicles above, so I "pimped" up this ride.

I had originally painted it about 20 years ago is a similar cammo scheme, but it had external gun pods mounted on both sides made from bitz from an old Transformer toy. I never liked how they looked, so they were removed with this overhaul. I kept a detail over the rear tires, taken from an old car model as well as the domed sun-roof.

The original rear doors molded on the toy were very crude, so I replaced them with a pair of Rhino mk1 armor plates and added plasticard hinges.

I hope you enjoyed the pics. Comments always welcome! Thanks!

Dungeons & Dragons Character WIP - Ranger

A friend is developing a D&D Next campaign. I chose a Human Ranger. My character concept is a scout who's primary vocation is a scout. He leads merchants, traders, and attaches from a moderate human city through the woods to various recluse non-human tribes and civilizations.

I what this guy to be fairly self sufficient. Good at hunting, tracking, and all-around survival. He prefers to sleep under the stars, but likes to be near society. Being away from D&D for about 3 years and not playing D&D for about 20 years, I am influenced by my recent WH40KRPG campaigns. From that, I will have him use both a crossbow and long bow (as in a sniper rifle and full-auto rifle).

The figure is from Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms line, and is called Potent Bradigus Thorle, Blackclad Druid (PIP81019)

I will trim off the club/axe from the model's hands and attach the long bow.

Here I have taken an 40K Imperial Guardsman backpack and trimmed it down, adding 2 quivers and a crossbow.

Happy 4th Birthday

Taken from interwebs without permission

This blog has been around for 4 years!

I can not believe the trials life has brought me in the last 4 years. Heck, the 5 years prior to that were about as challenging! I look forward to the coming years whatever they bring me.

My post-every-three-days plan hit a speed bump while preparing my home for a very large gathering. Full blown spring cleaning included! I already had placeholder posts in all the missed days, so I will simply keep them at the planned dates.

Thank you to all my readers and I hope the rest of 2013 is prosperous for you all!!

New Rock Star in Town

For my son's 10th Birthday, he asked if he could sing with my band. It made me all tingly inside knowing my son looks up to me and want to take part in playing music. My band mates were amazing--They embraced the idea and encouraged and coached my son during the two practices he came to.

Marcus actually practiced quite a bit more than twice. I record many of my band's songs during band practice and listen to them while I am driving (I spend about 2 hours a day in the car). Often my son is with me and over time he learned almost all of our songs.

A few days ago, we had the backyard BBQ. Kilty played about an hour set, with my son singing 4 songs as an opener. Marcus did such a great job! The party was a huge success, the weather was nice, and we had a blast.

I really appreciate my band mates helping to make this a very memorable night for Marcus!!

Deathwatch Character Showcase - Blood Angel Devastator Marine

This is the character played by my son in out Deathwatch campaign. It is built using random SM parts--I let him choose the head. The gun and back pack are from older sets (metal).

I not completely done with the figure. Eventually, I will add some scroll work to the parchment and his name on the shoulder pad.

Deathwatch Character Showcase - Dark Angels Tactical Marine

Real quick post today. Here is one of our Deathwatch characters painted by Adeptus-B. This is a Dark Angels Tactical Marine.

The player that plays this character also plays an techpriest in out Dark Heresy campaign. It is a great change of pace and he is often the squad leader and is more front and center versus a mostly support roll.

Kilty goes (In)Sane!

Design by Jason Raines

My band played a Birthday Party gig a few days a go.  It was an amazing show! We had a blast as did the audience. Best of all, the birthday boy did too. The venue was perfect for us and it is only minutes from everyone in the band, so I expect we will play there again!

Me drummin' along!

We played about a 2 hour set and then closed the bar down. Unfortunately, but awesome Kiss-like platform boots and the guitarists coon-skin cap were lost! That was a bummer!!

If you want to see more pics, here is an album of the show.

Deathwatch Character WIP - Blood Angels Assault Marine

Here is the first post of our Deathwatch campaign Kill Team. This is my character--A Blood Angels Assault Marine. 

This figure is built with a mixture of bitz from different sources, but mostly from the Assault Marine set. I would list the sources if I knew, but unfortunately I do not.

My GM suggested that I magnetize the jet pack for those missions that it isn't used. So I ran with the idea, magnetizing the arms as well.

I decided that I wanted to equip my character WYSIWYG for each mission. Typically, after one of my characters advances a bit or changes his armor/weapons significantly, I make a new version--My figures "level up"! Because it is unlike that I will be making a another version of this character, I chose to make the model as versatile as possible.

Here is a different load out, with all the current options laid out. The chain sword and power sword aren't magnetized, but they slide onto the pin that is glued to the arm--So far that is working just fine. As I am able to requisition additional gear for the character, I will make versions of those bitz for the model.

RPG Mobs - Dark Eldar WIP

Here is another installment of the series showcasing the models I have put together (past and present) for our role-playing games. In this installment we have Dark Eldar...

Third Edition Boxed Set Dark Eldar

I recently and secretly painted up some bad guys for our GM. I wasn't sure if these would be used in Dark Heresy or Deathwatch, nor when they would appear.

Well they just popped, so I can share what I have done so far. These showed up in our Deathwatch campaign as a twist to the mission we were deployed on, so we were not tooled up for them!

I don't have the most recent DE Codex nor was I able to get a hold of more current DE bits. The sprues only had slinter pistols, rifles and cannons, so I looked at some of the models on GW's site for weapon variation ideas.

These were built with RP'ing in mind and not wargaming, so I wasn't trying to make proper squads, but here is the rundown of what's what:

• Warrior w/ Splinter Cannons x3
• Warrior w/ Splinter Rifles x10
• Warrior w/ Splinter Pistols/CC weapon x3
• Sybarite w/ Hand Flamer/CC Weapon
• Sybarite w/ 2-Handed Axe
• Sybarite w/ Dark Lance
• Sybarite w/ Agonizer and Poisoned Blade
• Dracon w/ Hell mask, Poisoned Blade, and Psychic Energy

I wish I could have also made 1-3 models each from the other unit in the DE range, but I just wasn't able to.

The paint scheme turned out much brighter than I intended. Since this project was a quickie and possibly-one-use-mob, I wasn't up to edge highlighting these models. Instead, I chose to dry-brush. Unfortunately, I was too liberal with the base coat and covered up almost all of the black. I intended to go back with some washes to darken up the armor, but I ran out of time.

I will still finish up the last bit of detail before boxing them up for long term hyper-sleep.

Retro Models - RPG Giant Creatures

Super quick Retro post today...

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Here are a few monsters I have painted up for D&D over the years. Most were purchased on the early '00s but the centipede was bought (I think) in the early '90s.

All of the figures were painted around the same time. I cut squares of MDF board for the bases, and the style is representative of my standard D&D basing of the time.

The figure is a converted old skewl GW warrior with plastic bitz added (swapped): sword, shield, cape and belt trappings)

There is subtle striping on the body of the spider. It is a little more prominent in person.

Not much else to say here. In hindsight, I think the basing is sub-par... but it is about 10 years old. I am happy with the painting of the figures themselves--especially for simple dry-brushing.