40k Statue

Today we have a repurposing of a very old miniature--A Rogue Trader era Marneus Calgar, Ultramarine Commander.

At one point, I had attempted (and failed) to convert Calgar to an Assault Marine leader. This unfinished conversion left poor Calgar without a right leg, leaving me to convert him back to his original pose.

I have glued Marneus, his bolter rack, and his cloak/helmet stand onto a Coke bottle cap. Which was then glued to a 40mm base, and finally on a larger bottle cap. Three metal shields were affixed to the lower bottle cap at 9, 12, and 3 o'clock.

Here is a series of 360° shots. I wanted the to look like aged and petinated bronze on top of a stone pedestal. To get this effect, I used...

Statue and Bronze Elements:
Citadel Warplock Bronze
Citadel Agrax Earshshade
Valejo Brassy Brass
Citadel Agrax Earshshade
Citadel Seraphim Sepia
Citadel Nihilakh Oxide
Citadel Seraphim Sepia

Pedestal:
50/50 Citadel Adaddon Black/Citadel The Fanf
Citadel Nuln Oil
Citadel The Fang
Citadel Fenrisian Grey
Citadel Agrax Earshshade

400th Post: Retconning is a virtue

I'm a day tardy getting this post up, but i'm not opposed to post-dating! :P This an important milestone to recognize... 400 posts!!! What an achievement!

These last 8 years have been a journey. Real Life™ has kicked my butt a number of times over the last 14 years and I have had to back burner this blog. At the pace I try to maintain, I would have hit 400 posts in only 4 years. That said, I am very proud of this accomplishment. Heck, averaging 50 posts a year ain't bad.

But wait, there's more! I have a small showcase to share--A group of  WHFB Wood Elves Glade Guard Winged Fey Forest Creatures, given to me by Lord Grimskull. Whew, what a mouthful.

I don't have a WHFB/AoS Wood Elves army but I figured they could see the battlefield as Dark Heresy alien creatures, Necromunda mutated animals, or even as a stand-in for a small flying creature in D&D. With that in mind, I chose blue-green colors on the figure and a complimentary neutral base color. The figures are based on 20mm MDF round bases.

Thanks for the journey. Hope to see you in 400 more posts!

Dark Heresy Vehicles Showcase

Earlier this month I posted an in progress update on some Rogue Trader era Space marine models titled, Dark Heresy Vehicles WIP. In this post I have the finished models.

This is the first version of the Space Marine bike. As mentioned in the previous post, this has been lightly converted with a new handlebar and saddlebags.

These three Imperial Jet Bikes were used by the Imperial Guard as well as the Space Marines in 1st edition Warhammer 40k. They were phased out around 2nd edition. I chose to paint them in a neutral color and in the same color with the plan to use them as the vehicles for a variety of unified groups--Such as local enforcers, or an organized gang.

DIY Skill Rings

Since 5e came out last year, I now have 3 tournaments and 2 seasons of Blood Bowl under my belt. It has become clear to me how important it is to have skills somehow marked on on the players.

My Blood Bowl figures are clearly numbered and their positions identified with a color ring around the base. I recently started using small colored rubber bands to mark specific skills on players. Even so, both myself and my opponents have occasionally been confusion and made mistakes.

In a few days, I will be participating in an all human league where we draft experienced (with randomized star player points and advancements. With that, keeping track of which player has which skill will be imperative.

For these issues mentioned above, I began looking for solutions. There are a number of skill ring options on the market, as well as some new offerings. However, for me those options were either too expensive, too cumbersome, or unattractive.

So I came up with this idea. Here is the first test. I glued a magnet to a Warmahorde base slightly larger than the player's base. Then I marked off segments according to how many skills the player had.

I really liked how it looked and completed the entire team. Because the magnets on the player's base are not uniformly placed, these skill rings are not universal.

The players removed from the Skills Rings. With numbers to identify which player it goes with.

Hypnotic Gaze Status Marker

Finally managed to get the bitz for my next project. Most similar items like this have concave ends, but I wanted flat ends.

These are fake fish eyes; used as a component of making flies for fly fishing.

Magnetized and ready for primer. (ball for scale) I used a 5/16" hole punch to punch out 2 layers of  plasticard as the top and bottom of the hour glass. Then, I used the same 1/8" magnets that I use on the balls and under the player's bases.

First Hypnotic Gaze status marker is done. I added a bit of wire to each side of the hour glass before painting.

Dark Heresy Vehicles WIP

Today we have a short photo bomb of some quick and dirty vehicles for our Dark Heresy campaign.

This is a Rogue Trader era Space Marine bike. I lost the original handlebars so an Ork Mek was gracious enough to loan a pair, but I chose to make one out of an old IG tank smoke launcher. There are a set of metal and resin stowage from my bitz box added to the back of the bike.

A trio of Rogue Trader era Space Marine jet bikes. No modifications to the figures, but I did make the bike bases.

Greenhaven Packers Showcase

This team was originally purchased and painted in the late 80s. Back then, all of my teams were named and painted like the famous teams in the fluff. This team was no exception--The Greenfield Grasshuggers. However, I now prefer to name my teams after NFL teams in homage to second edition Blood Bowl.

In this go around, in addition to renaming the team and creating a team logo, I touched up the paint, added back number plates, added glossy elements, re-did the bases, and painted a colored ring around the base lip. There are no Star Players represented here. All of my Star Players are painted differently than team colors.

New Team Logo

Since I was not planning on re-painting the team in its entirety, I was limited on which NFL team to base the halflings on. I knew immediately I would base this team off of the Green Bay Packers. Instead of searching the Warhammer Old World map for an appropriate halfling city (are there any? :) ). I eventually chose a suitably sounding halfling community name--Greenhaven.

Coaching Staff

The Coaching Staff from L to R: Head Coach, Assistant Coaches, Apothecary, and Cheerleaders x4.

Linemen

Big Guys

Full Team (front view)

Front Team (back view)

This is the final second edition team that has not been wholly repainted.

Blood Bowl Progress Chart

Charts! My favorite thing after tables. Well, these probably aren't actually my 2 favorite things, but I am quite fond of charts and tables. This progress chart is based of the progress chart invented by Admiral Drax, patent pending

This chart represents the status of every model in my Blood Bowl collection. I have made some progress in the last few months since my last update. Four teams painted, a new team converted, a handful of Star Players painted, and a fifth team painted to tabletop standard.

I finally renamed my last three famous teams in the Blood Bowl fluff. The Reikland Reavers, Darkside Cowboys, and Orcland Raiders became the Helmgart Broncos, Dargoth Cowboys, and Mount Gunbad Raiders respectively. Team logs have been added. I have also added a status indicator for each team (see below).

There are 4 main sections to this chart. The first one on the top is a list of future teams names (and colors), and their 'real' world inspiration. The next one on the bottom left shows my Star Player  uniform colors. The bottom middle section indicates the color of ring I paint on the base lip of the models. Finally, the bottom right section is a legend for the previous chart.

Helmgart Broncos WIP pt 2

Here is a little progress report on the human team. In case you missed it, here is a link to my last post.

I normally use black primer, although lately I have been experimenting with colored primer. But for this project, I went with with to ensure a really nice orange. Unfortunately I have realized its time to replace my base orange. It is Blazing Orange from quite a few generations of paint lines. I think from the first line after Coat d'arms stopped making Citadel's paints. It hasn't dried out, at least not entirely. But it has become very translucent.

Anyway, I have started to lay down the blue. After that, will be skin tones and then touch-ups. Then washes. Here is a list of the paints I am using in this project.

Orange:
Blazing Orange - Citadel Classic
Seraphim Sepia - Citadel
Golden Yellow - Citadel Classic
Fire Dragon Bright - Citadel

Blue:
Kantor Blue - Citadel
Drakenhof Nightshade - Citadel
Calgar Blue - Citadel
Ice Blue - Reaper

Metal:
Leadbelcher - Citadel
Nuln Oil - Citadel
Ironbreaker - Citadel
Runefang Steel - Citadel

White:
Dawnstone - Citadel
Administratum Grey - Citadel
White Scar - Citadel

I generated this list from paintRack--An amazing resource! I will gush over the app in more detail in a future post.

Helmgart Broncos WIP

In preparation for an all human league, I dusted off one of my original second edition teams. This used to be the Reikland Reavers, but after 2 paint jobs and a layer of white gesso, it was time to strip these bad boys.

It has been well over 10 years since I stripped any paint off of a miniature. I tend to just repaint them--Over previous pant jobs, clear cote and primer. But this time, I wanted to put that extra bit of effort. I used the last bit of unused model paint stripper left over from the early 90s.

I will be painting this team following the the above patterns, but with colors closer to that of the Denver Broncos.

Dargoth Cowboys Showcase

This team was originally purchased and painted in the late 80s. Back then, all of my teams were named and painted like the famous teams in the fluff. This team was no exception--The Darkside Cowboys. However, I now prefer to name my teams after NFL teams in homage to second edition Blood Bowl.

In this go around, in addition to renaming the team and creating a team logo, I touched up the paint, added back number plates, added glossy elements, re-did the bases, and painted a colored ring around the base lip. There are no Star Players represented here. All of my Star Players are painted differently than team colors.

New Team Logo

Since I was not planning on re-painting the team in its entirety, I was limited on which NFL team to base the Dark Elves on. I took creative liscense here as I decided to keep the Cowboys team name and searched the Warhammer Old World map for an appropriate Dark Elven city. I eventually chose the watch tower Dargoth on the continent of Naggaroth.
Dargoth and its sister Watchtowers are the size of a city, built to keep the hordes of Chaos that roam the frozen wastelands to the north at bay, and provisioned to withstand years of siege and garrisoned with a great host of Naggaroth's foremost warriors.

Coaching Staff

The Coaching Staff from L to R: Head Coach, Assistant Coaches x3, Apothecary, and Cheerleaders x3. Besides re-basing, the only change here was re-painting the purple trim on the coaches and apothecary.

Linemen

Positionals

Full Team (front view)

Full Team (back view)

This is another attempt to modernize and improve game play with minimal effort.