I never thought it was my (Imperial) Strongpoint...

I've had two Imperial Strongpoint box sets under my table in the shed for a while.  I haven't had much motivation to get them completed, since my 300 sq ft workshop is a bit of a mess.  The roof was replaced recently as it leaked, and all of the drywall (plasterboard for you in the UK) needs replacing in one corner cos it went mouldy from the water.  And it's full of office cube pieces.  Don't ask. The workshop will someday be turned into a more useable room, and I'd got these strongpoints to build for the table that will live in there. They're unwrapped so I couldn't return them to GW for something else.

Since A Club moved into Forsaken Games, the Motivation Gnomes have been whispering in my ear and I decided to crack one open and get it painted up.  For ages the question which has been at the back of my mind has been "what colour?!".  I have been loathe to prime them then crack out the airbrush because it would take FOREVER and use a lot of Catachan Green, or whatever small pot colour I chose.  I started looking at stuff in the paint department at Home Depot, to no avail.  The Painter's Choice greens I was interested in were satin - semi-glossy.  Not what I wanted.

Then The Army Painter came out with their line of coloured primers and my "Wooo!" light went on.  They really are damned good, and my friend Doc had decided to use their bone paint when basing his nids (I'll be doing the same thing).  They look great, by the way. In their own label range, however I just couldn't settle on a colour I really liked.  Then I noticed that The Army Painter also makes the sprayable primers for Flames Of War.  They make colours that are almost pigment perfect for the various armies in the game.  I chose the colour for painting Soviet armour as a base.  Looks foresty enough for me without being garish.

Took it home and started spraying the two bastions and three Aegis Defense Lines I'd just constructed.  I have to say that the coverage is really good in most areas on the first coat.  You have to be careful when getting into corners and stuff that you don't overpaint.  If you need to, you should do a few light coats to get the detail done without obscuring it - the same as spraying anything really. The only "real" complaint I have is that one can isn't enough for a whole Strongpoint set! lol

I wish I had a picture of what the bastions looked like after I'd just painted them with the FoW paint, but I neglected to take some.  When I do the next Strongpoint kit, I'll remember to do that.

Highlighting was very quickly (disturbingly quickly!) decided as drybrushing with Rotting Flesh.  Did it on one defense line piece at first and I was happy immediately, so off I went and did the whole thing.

Some pictures - work in progress

You can see that not all the details are in yet.  The guns and lines are barely usable on the table top right now according my my standard anyway, but if I don't get these bastions completely done in time for the weekend's tournament then I won't mind too much. BUT they WILL be finished! I need to drill out the heavy bolters and paint the door on the pictured bastion.  The other one only has the skulls detailed right now.  The rest will be done one evening this week if I can get to it. I painted the Aquilas on the battlements and on the door here with a 50/50 mix of Deneb Stone and Skull White, thinned down with water and retarder - it helps the deneb stone flow and let me do several layers.  The skulls were just the same retarded Deneb Stone and Devlan Mud (instant talent!)

When I went back to get the second can of Soviet Armour I asked Imperial Hobbies to get me a can of the German Panzer paint, which I will use on my Fortress Of Redemption.  Eventually.

More pictures of this side project as they come.  The Damocles Rhino got sidetracked AGAIN.  Throne...

Linky corner

Docs Projects

Forsaken Games, New Westminster BC

Imperial Hobbies, Richmond BC

The Army Painter's spray can line

Flames Of War spray can line

Nids and Nidability

Hey.  What's this?! There's not a single Calibanian in that picture.  Nobody's wearing robes, nobody's keeping secrets. What the hell?!

Ahhh, worry not dear friends. It's a side project.  I am attempting to build a Tyranid army without paying full price for any model.  Or at least, the majority of them. It's a social experiment tailored to size, to paraphrase the immortal Roy Harper.

It started when I got a free Fortress of Redemption.  I won't say where or how, needless to say I got it legally and for free. Which was nice.  Except I already have one.  So I took it to my local GW where they exchanges it for me as it was still sealed and they didn't have one in stock.  I ummed and aaaahed for a while, resisting the temptation to get MORE Spess Mareen stuff (even though a third Ravenwing box was calling my name) and picked up the Tyranid codex and Battleforce. Paid a measly fourty dollars or something in difference and off I went.  People were agog

"Chris is doing nids!" (And all at the same time! F'nar!)
"Chris has dropped his Dark Angels!" (which I will deny at the top of my lungs from the highest peak)
etc.

So I got the battleforce. Put that together.  Hmmm need more stealers.
I love Craigslist.  I love eBay.  Now I have 40 2nd edition Space Hulk genestealers.  Unpainted. I have more spore mines than I can shake a stick at.  I got more gaunts and a hive tyrant at discount and bought gaunt bodies and heads from Hoard O'Bits to make more gaunts using the arms left over! Then I got three warriors for $20 which were unassembled and unwanted.  That would make my warrior brood and Prime.
OMFG - I looked at all of the niddiness I had amassed and was... a little overwhelmed.  That's a hell of a lot of dipping to be done in the near future.  Possibly a whole liter of Minwax will be used.

And I did it again today.  Craigslist, you slut. I answered her call again today and got:


9 stealers with rending claws
3 termagaunts with devourers
2 termagaunts with spinefists
21 termagaunts with fleshborers
6 hormagaunts
1 base of rippers
10 spore mines
1 old Zoanthrope that needs basing somehow
1 old (smaller) hive tyrant (which will now be my Tyranid prime)

Not cleaned of flash, poorly primed and some horribly painted. $25.

I'm off to buy some Simple Green to give them a bath.  Really, they're horrible.  It looks like a certain local Howling Griffons player painted them. Yikes.

I may start a sub-blog to cover the creation of my bug army, or maybe not.

Late and Lateability

Oh Throne...

Yes, there has been no updates to my blog of oooodles of time.  Fact of the matter is I have just been too plain busy with stuff and haven't really had the bandwidth to sit and compose something for you all to read and enjoy.  I could have posted something for you to read... but you may not have enjoyed it.  A-ha! ha! ha...

I've been trying to do Real Life™ which is always fun, as well as moving A Club to a new home.  That was a big distraction, but now it's done.  A Club now has a new home at Forsaken Games, which is an awesome FLGS run by Rick and Kath Misiurka.  They do allll kinds of stuff from Munchkin to LARP.  Rick has history with GW, so he supports Warhammer in all it's flavours.


I was off work for six weeks on Workman's Comp after wrenching my back, which hasn't been so bad.  It's been frustrating in that all the home projects I could have tackled during that time off were of course bound to be hard on my back, yet I managed to get a bunch of nids built and a second Ravenwing box built and primed I also managed to add an Apothecary and Standard Bearer to my Ravenwing.  Pictures of those will be popping up as and when I get round to painting them.

Most importantly I finished the Deathwing models that I started for the epic fail that was the Paint Or Die! project.  It was a hard slog, to be honest.  Some days I just couldn't find the motivation to paint the same things over and over again but I didn't let myself paint anything else until they were done.  Here's a pretty slideshow - I love Picasa!!

What I'm most proud of is the Belial model with the lightning claws. I put a fair chunk of effort into it with the Forgeworld bits and the extra time and everything.  To spend so much time on a character model is really important, as it's often the centerpiece of your army whether that's from a gaming or display perspective.

Now that they're all finished, I got to work on finishing a project that's sat in the box since last June.  My Damocles command Rhino. I built it with the Forgeworld doors and front plate.  I did buy the Rhino back door but it was very warped and one of the pins broke off.  I wanted the door hinged for display because it really would be a shame to spend so much time on the model and not be able to see the interior very well, so I ended up just using the original door.

Today I finished painting the interior and clearcoated the crew.  I glued them in, then glued the side on. Once the glue is dried, I'll glue the lid in place and start work on the outside.

  

I'm moving forward with the Rhino fairly quickly.  I'm excited to get it finished as it's my first dedicated Imperial Armour vehicle.  Sure I have Mortis Pattern Dreadnought arms, but they're just a swap-in.  This was bought FOR Apocalypse games. More pictures as the painting progresses.  Or maybe you'll just see a picture of the finished model in three months lol