Karrde's Blog

Some stuff from May

2010-05-31T17:47:00.002Z

Hmm ok so I'm rubbish at blogging and need to find a new way to do this.

On to the pics - Deathwing Dreadnought, Killer Kans, Temple of Skulls and a Nurgle War Altar.

What have I been doing?

2010-02-24T23:45:00.006Z

Quick update of some of my recent stuff.

1. The Fortress of Redemption for my Dark Angels. Took bloody ages!
2. Then there's a Shadowsword which is ready for some paint and weathering.
3. Flamers of Tzeench which are still in progress.
4. Epidemius, the Tallyman of Nurgle in all his glory - check those maggots.
5. A couple of Ork trukks of varying ages (both supposidly hold 12 Orks)
6. The boss gang - 2 warbosses, Boss Snikkrot, a Big Mek and a Nob hiding in the background.

All the text is up here as blogger is being annoying. Maybe I should transfer this to Wordpress.

Left handed ftw?

2010-02-02T18:25:00.002Z

Why do the Brits drive on the left was a chat we were having today and no one knew. So being bored I looked it up.

The answer is:

Up to the late 1700's, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people.

Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.
Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon.The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent.

From then on, any part of the world which was at some time part of the British Empire was thus left hand and any part colonised by the French was right hand.
Source http://www.2pass.co.uk/goodluck.htm

Back from hols

2010-01-26T10:25:00.003Z

Hello again world.

Back from 2 weeks in Florida, which was good, but a bit chilly with it being the coldest weather they've had for 30 years!

So did I learn anything new?

1. Some Americans are dumb. Now that sounds a bit harsh, but this is a real overheard conversation.

Teenage boy: Mum, what country is Siemens?
Mum: I'm not sure, I think it's in Germany.

This was after the firework display in Epcot, during which they flash up that the fireworks were sponsored by Siemens...

2. Disney is more evil than I imagined.

Epcot is dull, but we went any way. One of the 4d attractions is Honey I shrunk the audience. However before we could go into the 10 minute show we had to watch a presentation. This was a 6 minute advert by Kodak that was sickeningly twee and also confusing imagination with memory.

We paid to get into Epcot, we paid to park at Epcot. I really object to being forcibly advertised at before I go on a ride!

3. I'm getting more and more annoyed by the increasing 'security' in our lives.

Terrorism is bad and some people in the world are doing terrible things. I understand the need for heightened security at airports and that people need reassurance, but is ALL of it really necessary?

What annoyed me this trip was on the way home the US security broke open my suitcase whilst it was away from me, by cutting off the padlock, and then rummaging through it. When I got it back after the flight, all I found was a little note inside saying they had searched it randomly and they bore no responsibility for loss or damage caused. Erm, so if I got to customs and found it full of drugs would it have been my fault?

Grrr they could have least used a cable tie or something to relock it! Or searched it in my presence.

In the UK we never used to be so over the top over the IRA. Plus its handy the full body scanners were ready to deploy so quickly following the bomb attempt at Christmas...

4. Some creatures can be venomous and poisonous.

Luckily I didn't find this out the hard way, but at Seaworld (a fantastic place even if I do feel the pens should be bigger).

Something venomous injects a poison from within it's body to it's target.
Something poisonous is dangerous when it is consumed as it's poison is within its body.

Not something new learnt though is jet lag can be horrible. Once its cleared I'll try and paint again.

Some interesting things

2010-01-07T09:53:00.003Z

Back to normal schedule and as this now combines posts, here's some interesting things I've seen recently.

Firstly a good article about deception in media. I'm looking forward to RUSE as a game too, as it's slow building and sneaky based.

The tube one is awesome, but the police car is creative genius.

The second thing, which I learnt yesterday, was that during World War 2, Japanese troops were so short on supplies that they resorted to cannibalism!

At first it was the internal organs of allied soldiers (yuck, why eat a liver when you can have steak) but as supplies of that dwindled in some places it became drawing lots to see who would be shot and eaten.

Japan obviously has played this down, but it came to light from soldiers diaries at the time, which highlighted how bad the situation was. Yummy.

Finally an update!

2010-01-05T13:49:00.004Z

Yes I know I keep saying I'll get round to it. So what have I been up to?

Well obviously Christmas was in the way and erm yeah that's about it really.

Project photos then. First up the farmhouse/manor I've built, copying a WD article. Took about 3 weeks to get built and painted up to a level I was happy with.

Happy with that, looking forward to either defending it or destroying it :)

For Christmas I got a Fortress of Redemption from Amy, which was slightly bigger than expected!

But it's an awesome piece of scenary and I'm a good chunk through painting it now. The main tower is finished, the gun and silo cover are both finished, along with all the walk ways. What's left is the silo interior and the outside walls of the bunkers and walkway. That's then the main piece finished leaving just spotlights and other small addons to plaint and place.

On to the pics:

So that's where I've neem spending my painting time mostly... oh you don't believe me.. what do you mean I can't stay focused for that long... ok, true. I've also started work on an Ork army following some ideas my brother had. So to kick that off we have Stab:E.

I've got two trukks half painted as well, which despite being Goff are painted in a red scheme (red onez go fasta). Left to build are 20 boys, which added on to an ebay auction I won gives me 15 small vehicles (bikes, etc) and 60 various boys.

Also as part of that auction was a paint station, shown below. I was always a bit dubious about them, but it's really handy for keeping everything together and portable for quick clearing up. The multi-coloured circles in the top right are small cake tins I use as pallettes. Yes I should use something white and some are so old they probably have over 1 cm of dried paint built up in the bottom. The white metal parts scattered around are the pieces of a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch that was int he auction too.

So that's what I've been up to on the painting front, intersperred with Torchlight, Dragon Age, Defence Grid, TF2, CoD MW, CoD MW2, WoW, etc.

Future projects apart from those mentioned above...

- Finish the giant
- Finish the Space Hulk Terminators
- Finish Imperial Guard army
- Unit of Bloodletters and Daemonettes, plus a couple of characters for my daemon army

Luckily I've got a few things to watch whilst I get on with all of that (Christmas presents and sales bargains).

Right a plan

2009-12-16T11:21:00.003Z

Decided maintaining 2 blogs meant neither got updated, so I'll add my interesting things into this and see how we do.

Some photos will follow later!

I've got soul but I'm not a soulgrinder

2009-11-12T10:38:00.009Z

Very happy with Simon Soulgrinder. Well all bar one small mistake but if I keep quiet hopefully no one will notice!

Spent a good few evenings on this, layering the skin tones and weathering particular areas. Now if only I knew how to blend. I've read umpteen 'how to' guides, but it just doesn't click in my head.

Anyway onto Simon...

Ok the tube at the back looks crap I know, I know...

He received more washes than I care to remember, with the green being Orkflesh, then Thraka Green wash, then Knarloc Green highlights, followed by Camo Green highl

ights, followed by two washes of thinned yellow ink and then the highlights redone.

Really happy with the rust effect though, all shamelessly stolen from the Citadel How to paint tanks book.

What next I hear you wish you hadn't asked?

Well I've decided the Emperor is a bit of a knob and therefore my Imperial Guard have thrown their lot in with Chaos (as evidenced by my last few IG vehicles). The fluff is complicated :)

My Chaos Marines are mostly Alpha Legion, so I'm viewing the IG troops as units they have saved from certain death to help them build up an army they can rely on. I like the 'ends justify the means approach' the Alpha Legion have and the reason they turn to Chaos from the book Legion (so as not to spoil it).

The IG troops have not been lied to, they've just had the truth of the Emperor shown to them by a charismatic leader and and so the force has become known as The Enlightened (oooh mysterious) and the Enlightener is now the head of this mix of troops. I kind of see them as having been shown how they've been sent of suicide missions or left behind until the Alpha Legion swoop in and save them, not realising that the Alpha Legion will likely do a similar thing if they need to.

Anyway enough babble, some photos:

The army commander, the Enlightener:

His command squad (still need to add in a special weapon):

And his regimental advisors - 2 bodyguards and a psyker. Others still to come.

So whats next? Well the missing parts of the command squad are underway. Plus I then have to think about how I tie all my troops together. I have a mix of Cadian, Catchan and Pretorian guardsman. As half are painted already I'm looking to keep their original schemes but add an element that ties them together e.g. Alpha Legion coloured shoulder guards.

I've also mixed in a few non IG components and troopers to represent no longer being bound by IG doctrine and having to swap out equipment as it breaks. Their will be a Chaos element to the force as I want to also show that even with the best intentions Chaos still corrupts what it touches...

For all my models plus loads of photos I don't link you can check where I store them in Flickr.

October failed

2009-11-06T10:13:00.001Z

Ok ok, priorities!

I was supposed to finish:

1. Two Valkeryies
2. All 12 Blood Angel Terminators from Space Hulk

I've got 6 terminators left to do, however the soulgrinder I bought is calling me at the moment. Once I've finished that I'll get back to red... honest...

Vindicator vindicated

2009-11-01T23:19:00.002Z

Some de-shinying and weathering were done tonight whilst catching up on my stories (Fringe and Bones).

Happy with the final version of this. It's a bit of odd angles in places but thats the poor casting of a lot of the pieces and saving it froms its original builder.

Now back to the terminators (or should I start on the Soul Grinder).

I'm not dead!

2009-10-31T23:01:00.003Z

Honest, just been erm busy.

Ok busy and not taking photos cos I'm lazy!! But that business has party been in good ways. So an update.

Firstly there was some complaints about previous terminator images (as well as sizing), so a quick reshoot of some of them:

So with them finished it was onto the next batch of three (doing them in small groups is less mind numbing) which are not quite finished yet.

However shy of some miracle I'm not going to get them finished in the last 30 mins of October so looks like I'm not going to hit this months target. Why is that? Random other projects which are on the way. Here's one of them - Mr Giant:

I was going for a different, darker colour for the skin as I don't imagine him spending much time indoors. Once I've finished painting him I'm going to add some mud effect too.

The other project has been my vindicator. Here's some shots as it goes stage by stage:

So green in place (Orkshade Green, then Dark Angel Green, then Thraka Green Wash) and metal areas based coated Boltgun Metal.

Then two lots of edging over the green - Dark Angel Green and Snot Green. For the metal it was a Devlan Black and Mudab Brown wash.

Next step is some tidying up. I'm happy with the main colours, so purity seal is sprayed over the lot to seal it together. Then it's on to weathering.

A nice tip from the Imperial Armour Modelling book is to spray hair spray over an area, then paint a thin coat of another colour over the top. In this case Dark Angel Green was stippled over the bulldozer blades washed Boltgun Metal. Then with an old brush and some warm water rub away at the paint. The hair spray loosens and you get the effect below, which you then reseal seal with Purity spray.

Next stage for this is rewashing the blade with brown and black and start to play with weathering powders.

I would look that hard in the rules too

2009-10-27T19:39:00.002Z

I would probably be a very angry man for a few hours after this

It took me a few seconds to twig exactly how it had got to this problem.

Oh yes Monday

2009-10-21T17:10:00.002Z

I had lots plans for Monday.

Sadly they never really happened following Morbo (the Destroyer of Stuff) decided I shouldn't model and decided to knock over my bits box:

Six hours to pick up and resort it all out...

The cats also didn't want me playing World of Warcraft (Morbo is the tabby, Mog is the black and white):

Save the Vindicators!

2009-10-21T16:40:00.003Z

I won an bargainous Ebay auction a few months ago that contained a dozen or so terminators, 50 different power armoured marines, a variety of marine heroes, a vindicator, a landraider and a landspeeder.

What was clear was that the auction picture didn't show the bad build and paint job the previous owner had made of everything. Undeterred I've pressed on to work on it bit by bit.

This week I've had a go and the mangled vindicator. Nothing had been painted but it was held together with some kind of epoxy glue that needed cleaning off and rebuilding.

So after some cleaning and reassembly we have:

So next job is some armour, replace missing pieces and green stuff up some of the holes.

Coincidentally I was watching Tank Overhaul - mostly it gave me inspiration to either buy my own tank or failing that a sand blaster for making ad-hoc holes :)

So a bit of work and a few hours later:

Next steps are priming and basecoating, and to decide whether to make it Ultramarine or Dark Angel.

Halfway done

2009-10-18T18:39:00.002Z

So been a while without updates, but thats cos I've been busy splitting my time over WoW and painting and wanted to show some progress.

So progress:

2 painted Valks, just need to pick up some black weathering powder to soot up the engine areas and friction damage.

Then there's the terminators from Space Hulk.

The Librarian isn't finished yet, just the details to go.

The two are almost done, just some script to add to them.

So the next things to get done are the other eight terminators from the game.

Other things on the painting queue are:

Corpse cart - I've scrapped the war altar version of this and rededicating it back to the vampires. Instead I'm going to use the new Skaven screaming bell as a war altar when it's
Publish Post
out.
Dark Angel's vindicator
Five Chaos Knights
Landspeeder (probably Ultramarine)

Once I'm through all that I'm onto Imperial Guard for a while.

Ooh somewhere for the Deathing to live

2009-10-05T12:32:00.004Z

My Dark Angels army han't seen any love for a long time, so maybe I should go for:

Pics here

Would be like a home away from home for them. Rumoured to be £60 though.

5 coats of paint later...

2009-10-04T21:42:00.001Z

Both Valkyrie's have been base coated with Desert Yellow thinned with water.

5 thin coats later and I'm almost done...

Maybe 6 is the lucky number

Painting pledge

2009-10-01T22:46:00.002Z

I've ripped the idea of pledging what I'm going to paint off another site as I think it's an ace idea and will provide some motivation.

So for September I pledged:
1. Rebase all the old style flock demons (about 15)
2. Icons for 6 terminator shoulders

Managed to get all of that done despite the two weeks holiday in Mexico (the reason I kept it small).

So for October I aim for:
1. Two painted Valkeryies
2. All 12 Blood Angel Terminators from Space Hulk

A little bit tougher as I intend to paint those Blood Angels as well as I can instead of fast.

A good bits box

2009-09-29T20:36:00.003Z

One of the good things of being in this hobby so long is that you build up a really good bits box.

I think I'm now on on bits box version 5 which is why I had a good sort out of everything I have and organised it into a new box. Wasn't a bad find and only £20 at B&Q.

So the newly organised box:

Top half

Bottom half

A bit blurry but it shows it off enough.

Obviously this doesn't include the two large boxes under the bed of terrain building bits...

Black undercoat

2009-09-29T20:04:00.003Z

I undercoat 99% of my models black and usually do this by hand.

I thought for a change I'd make the leap and use black spray for the Space Hulk and Valkyries I have to paint up.

One Valkyrie was assembled, the other was on a sprue to see how they different methods would work. Both had had their insides painted so I had to be careful how I sprayed.

Had to make sure Mog and Morbo were both indoors as I did this, which greatly upset the two of them.

Morbo

Mog

So with them safe away, lots of spraying ensued. A difficulty was spotted a few seconds in, spraying black on dark blue in the dark...

But it all went well and in 20 mins I sprayed what I normally would have spent days over.

Not a great photo but it shows the volume. Why haven't I converted before?

How did I get here?

2009-09-23T15:06:00.001Z

I’ve been collecting GW stuff since my first purchase of Heroquest (I say first purchase as I have five copies now). I’d been inside Games Workshop Sheffield a few weeks before Heroquest started advertising on TV, but had been put off by the scary people inside (I was 10 at the time).

This changed once I saw the Heroquest adverts and that Christmas (1989) became the proud owner of my own copy. This saw me, my brothers and anyone I could rope into a game playing the games quests over and over again and me start to design my own dungeons.

This lead to me making some new friends at school who also played. They also played a funny game made by the company working with MB on Heroquest – the Games Workshop.

I’d seen other GW models in the free ‘How to paint citadel miniatures’ magazine that came with Heroquest and had been drooling over them for months, but I’d never played one of their other games!

This lead to a few games of an American Football style game called Blood Bowl. The owner cheated outrageously and put me off the game for 20 years and I’m only now discovering its joy.

Anyway, the next trip to my Nan’s in Sheffield saw me braving the GW store there – this time not seeing the people inside as strange but now as fellow hobbyists. I left the store clutching some savage orcs and a basic paint set.

Armed with paints and my how to paint magazine I went about painting all of my Heroquest models and my orcs I’d bought to upgrade the ones in the box. The barbarian with his huge blue dot eyes and gloss varnish and the orcs that were all competing for bloodiest weapon award became firm favourites in the now colourful world of gaming.

My first issue of White Dwarf was 128 with a battle report between Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson, where they have very small plastic men and big lead tanks. I must have read this report 50 times over and immediately went about requesting Space Marine for my birthday.

A very happy Jeff was delighted with the game and spent the next few years playing and buying more and more of the tiny men, alongside all the extras and upgrades that came out. Most of them still live in tubs in my spare room and are in a shocking state following a poor rebasing effort when Epic came out.

From here it became an obsession to collect as much as I could. Over the next 6 years or so I added to my collection –

Space Crusade
Advanced Heroquest
Advanced Space Crusade
Space Hulk, Genestealer and Deathwing
Krunch
Space Marine 2
Epic
Warhammer Fantasy (editions one upwards)
Warhammer 40k (rogue trader and upwards)

In that time many memorable things came about – the day my friend spent £90 on undead only to quit the hobby a week later after I thrashed him too many times to count, the oversized great gargent made too obviously from a plant pot, painting an entire army in two weeks whilst listening to the same six cd albums I owned.

Then came work and college and girls and cider…

Whilst I still kept getting White Dwarf, post the swap to white metal I felt a resentment towards GW based on the increased prices and I had less and less time to paint and less people to play against.

I picked up the occasional mini or codex but the gaming dimmed and the rare painting session was all that I could do. Stay in and paint or go clubbing – is there a choice?

Then about 2003 and I’d moved city from my old friends and clubbing had become to fade out as I reached the old age of 25 and now had a mortgage with my fiancé. Obviously this meant more time for painting and GW products once more started to become attractive.

Friends once more had their passions in GW re-awakened as I blather on about new models I was working on or showed off a new tank. Even my brothers hatred of always losing to me had dimmed and they could re-engage with the hobby and now they were adults too so could buy their own things and actually beat me (curse them).

So here I sit now at the grand age of 31 with a spare room adorned with GW models, custom scenery, glass display case and enjoying some regular gaming. Has anything changed from when I was 10?

White Dwarf went down hill and whilst it’s got better recently it’s still not the hay day it once was
GW prices are insane. I’m a grown man with a grown man’s salary and I wince when I pay £20 for 10 models. Those original savage orcs were £1.99 for 5 lead monsters
Models have got better. Some of the new sculpts are amazing, look at the new Space Hulk for proof
The internet is amazing – so many clever people out there showing me so many new things, some of them even include miniatures to convert and paint!

What am I into now? Well the project list is never ending and current projects include:

1. Alpha legion repaint for all of my chaos undivided marines
2. Skaven blood bowl pitch
3. 2 valykeries to build and paint
4. Space Hulk models to build and paint
5. 50 man Death Wing force to paint
6. Vindicator to build and paint
7. Battle board to finish painting
8. War alter to finish painting
9. Chaos knights to finish painting

All this plus whatever new distractions come my way like the skaven blood bowl team I want to buy and paint, those new bastions look good but will also need converting. That Stormlord model is good, but with enough magnets I reckon you can make all of the kits from the one model…

Men never change - toy soldiers is as much fun at 31 as it was at 10