Long time no post

I know I have not posted anything for this blog for ages, the weird thing is that I have been doing quite a bit of painting and conversions but just have not taken Any pictures. The reason is my Desktop computer died and I only have my iPad and posting pics from an iPad on blogger is not easy. So in keeping with my laziness I just stopped.

Stuff I have done:

Orc blood bowl team (only three painted)
Epic Armageddon Warlord Titan
Epic Armageddon Reaver Titan
40K Tempestus Scions
40K ShadowSword/ Octablade
40K Bullgryns+Ogryn Bodyguard
Etc

Pictures hopefully to follow.

Adeptus Titanicus release date!

Great news from Warhammer Fest, Adeptus Titanicus is finally going to be released this year. The actual month has not been set but I would hazard a guess at around August  time.

The game will be using data sheets for each Titan, they will be used for the weapons and control systems. Each Titan will also need a card pack.

The battle will be played on 4x4 boards i want to thank spruesandbrews.com for all the cool pictures and info.

Blood Bowl Orcs

That is right i am starting an Orc Blood Bowl team. I have never really given this game any of my attention before. I think manly because of Epic and 40k take up so much time, money and space. Thanks to a co-worker also playing i now have no good reason to not have at least one team ready.

Watch this space...........

Repainting bases. Part 1

I cleared my work desk off and set out my Epic Imperial Guard army the other day. I enjoy seeing it all out on parade, really who would not. The thing that struck me the most was that over time i have changed the colour of the infantry bases. As you can see in the picture below it makes the army look less uniformed.

So i have decided to repaint the old 90's goblin green bases with a grave yard brown. I think this will add a nice uniformed feel to the army as they march off to destroy the enemies of the Emperor.

World of Tanks Blitz & Warhammer 40K

You may have heard already by now, that World of Tanks Blitz is having a Halloween special event, that has Games Workshops Space Marine tanks in it. I am super excited for this event as i am a big fan of world of tanks, i play it most days, it is a fun game. From what i have heard is that it is going to be called "Macragge's Thunder" and you can play two types of tanks. The Predator and a Vindicator.


                      

I think i may have to rethink my promise never to buy gold if that is the only way to play them, time will tell.

Storage for my Armies

 There really are a mind blowing amount of different types of miniature carrying cases on the market. All different shapes and sizes at a wide range of prices. So let me share with you what i use to transport and store my Epic and 40k armies. I now mainly use Handgun cases!

I  have collected a number of different cases over the years to store and transport my epic and 40k  miniatures they range from the old old old style single layer GW cases to the old two sided GW cases, then the big GW cases. Some KM cardboard cases and then finally the cheapest and easiest available cases are the handgun case!

It sounds odd but they are cheap, readily available in north America/Canada and i just like the idea of people not really knowing what is actually inside the case. I know that in Europe and other parts of the world there are not as many gun stops or hardware stores that stock them. Then i say have a look on ebay or Amazon and see if they are cheap enough to get.

Capital imperials W.I.P part 2

So i have enjoyed having a bit of a break from posting, but i have not been slacking. I have done a little work on my Awesome Capital Imperials. I have always felt it was under gunned for such an important mobile Command centre. So i set out to give it a full weapons upgrade. this included anti aircraft defences and all-round coverage. As you can see i replaced the side weapons from a short stubby whatever it was, to a more powerful looking lascannon type. The main weapon turret will have an upgrade soon but for now i have added an anti air turret on top. The back of the main flight deck i also added a missile system scratch built from BFG turrets and plastic tubing. More will follow after i glue it all together.

Epic Armageddon Sentinels

I painted these two units of Sentinels up ready for the games of Epic i just played at TABSCon i only really only had about a week to get them ready, so i was not going to go all out on the paint job. Saying that i still wanted them to look nice. The good news was i had already assembled the and undercoated them in black.

So off i went, i painted the legs and main body in codex grey, leaving a strip of black by the joints all up the leg, so i could paint bolt gun metal over them later. The multi-barrel area on the weapon had each barrel picked out in bolt gun metal as well.

the back part of the weapon and the helmet were painted codex grey. the face area was painted dwarf flesh. the base was painted brown then sand was glued on then painted over with brown. I added a bit of white to the brown and dry rushed it on, then I glued a few spots of static grass on and I was done.

My newish toy

Well it is not exactly new, i have had it a few months now, but it is SO much fun. It is Fast! and goes a long way to explaining my lack of "other" hobby stuff.

I am not a big R/C person I just saw a YouTube video one day about a traxxas truck and liked the look of it. So i decided to save my pocket money up and buy one.

The best part i find about it is that it is ready to go straight out the box. Just charge up the battery and away you Goooooooo.

The trap with R/C stuff is you some times break bits or you just want to upgrade, +speed. +power etc

But why not FUN is FUN after all.

W.I.P Epic Reaver Titan

This post i will be mostly talking about the painted Reaver i recently got from D6 addiction. I have decided to repaint it, i was going to leave it as it was, as the paint job was good. But then i just didn't feel right having a model in my collection that I have not put paint on. So i set out to paint it so it matched the rest of my Titan Legion the Mighty Legio Metalica.

I have started by painting the left shoulder guard  white with a plan of then colouring it yellow with a black triangle. Then i will be painting the one half of the carapace white then red. I plan on magnetizing all the weapons so i can swap them around as i see fit. More pics to follow.

My hobby area part 2

I have finally finished my new hobby area upgrade and I have to say I am very happy with it. I now have more light and all my paints are out so i can see then as well as my tools on an old ikea magnetic kitchen strip. I feel really good about this space and the future projects that will come from it.

The original plan was to bolt two pieces of 2/4 to the cement floor then build the stud frame up from there. Well that did not quite go according to plan. So the back story to this was i "borrowed" some cement bolts from my old work. with the intention of fixing my garage up (another project on hold) but i thought i could use them on the hobby area. After buying a new hammer drill, drill bit and drilling into the floor. I just couldn't line the bolts and the holes up. So i said Sod this and got heavy duty construction cement and glued the wood down. I then nailed the top pieces to the floor boards then I cut all the in between bits and nailed it all together.

I also bought an ottolite  i think it will be a big help with my normal painting and with my photography. A family friend is moving house, so she gave me a very nice new desk and side unit that she did not want. Thank you very much.

The only thing I still want to do is maybe put up some shelves so I can display all the books I have.

W.I.P upgrades to my Warlord Titans Part 1

I am a big fan of the old beetle back Warlord titans, when i first saw them many many years ago i was just so impressed with them. fast forward 25 years (DAM!) i am still a big fan but i understand that the design is old so i set out to add a few bits to up date them.

The first thing i did was make the neck joint look a bit more realistic by adding some green stuff then shaping it to look like a flexible connection. You can see from the picture below how it was and then what it looks like after.

The next part was to give the torso a bit more body ( pun intended ) I did this in three different ways. The first was use the back part of the 40k imperial guard vehicle search light. The second was the grill part from the 40k vehicle upgrade sprue. The third and easiest was the bottom part from vox unit from the 40k imperial guard infantry sprue.

My Photo set up

This Quick post is to show you my set up to take pictures of my miniature, i am by no means a good picture taker. You can tell by the dark picture above, i am still learning. Like a lot of things in life it takes time and practice well a lot of practice as it happens.

Now that I have finished my hobby area (post to follow) I can concentrate on improving my miniature picture taking. The warhammer community website has a very good article about taking pictures of your miniatures. I found it very helpful, maybe you will too.

So.....what ya doing?

Well the answer is not a lot really. I have not done any hobby stuff for a bit, mainly because i have had family over from merry old England. I just have not had time to go to my hobby area without a cry of where are you? what are you doing in there? or my personal favourite "you are not leaving me alone with your family so you can model"

So what do i have planned for the near future? i am thinking more Titans. The reason is one is nearish finished and one is well on the way, so that sounds like the easiest options i thing.

More Titans

Well it was a very Happy Birthday for me, i was lucky enough to get my hands on not just one but two Reaver Titans and two Forgeworld Warhounds plus a much needed Baneblade.

This was all made possibly thanks to D6 addiction having an Epic clear out. It really was an Epic clear out, I was luckily the first to message him about what I wanted. I would have taken a lot more off his hands but I have Sooooo  much still left to do i surprisingly exercised restraint.

So i have a few Titans to finish. This is a list of what needs finishing from within my Forgeworld.

 1,  Emperor
 7,  Warlords
 1,  Psi Warlord
 3,  Reaver
 2,  Warhound

So it is safe to say i have a bit of work cut out for me to finish my Legion, but finish it i will!

My hobby area part 1

This is my fortress of solitude, my happy space, my hobby area. Basically the place i get to paint my miniatures or little men as the Wife likes to call them.

 As you can see from the picture it is in the basement of my house, it is a good size hobby area and i normally keep it tidy. I am grateful that i have a dedicated area that i don't have to pack away every time i am finished.



Now don't get me wrong i am happy with it but i would like to have some natural light, unless i win the lottery or a long loss relative leaves me some money this will not change. So i will make what i have the best it can be. I have a cunning plan..... i am planning on making a stud wall on the side and back  so i can put all my books, paints and stuff on.

Part 2 on the way.........

Epic Hellhounds

So as I have said in previous posts I am upgrading the paint job on some of my 90's era Imperial Guard army units. 

So basically that means i am repainting all the units that don't match. These old Mk1 Hellhounds original were bright orange, but now they are a more subdued codex grey. I did leave a bit of the orange around the unit numbers and the skull, mainly because i liked to keep some of the old school feel to them.

Epic scale W.I.P Hunter.

Just like my post about not having any Artillery in my Space Wolves or Mentor Legion armies. I also didn't have any anti aircraft weapons so as luck would have it i had done a model swap about a year ago and remembered that there was some hunter turrets included. 

So just like i did with my whirlwinds i wanted to "Share" them with both my Wolves and Mentor armies. The best way to do this was to magnatize the turrets and all the rhinos.

To add a bit more detail on my Wolves ones i cut away the left side bolter turret and replaced it with a radar dish. This was made by cutting a thin piece of plastic tube and drilling a hole and gluing it in. The dish is cut from an old rough riders base, then cut in half and angled inwards.

Apocalypse class Leviathan part 3

This is the finished Apocalypse class Leviathan, i have to say i am very happy with how it turned out. I have said before this project was a long time coming and having it done is both good and bad. Good that it is painted and finished but bad because now i need a new Tactical command paint project.

so how did i paint it? the missiles and radar body where done in chaos black with codex grey as the first stage hi light with skull white as the final hi light. All the metallic areas where done with chain mail then washed with blue and brown ink. them i lightly drybrushed  them with boltgun metal.

The Doomsday barrel and turrets were done in blood gore then highlighted  with blood angle orange.

The final highlight was skull white with a bit of blood angle orange. The main body was base coated in a mix of codex grey and chaos black. then the raised areas painted in standard codex grey. The final highlight of the main body was skull white.

The Final touch was to add the decals which are from the 40k Imperial guard set, i wanted to put the imperial eagle on, but i couldn't find ones small enough. So i went with the ones i put on.

Epic scale W.I.P whirlwinds.

I have taken a good long look at my Epic Space Wolves and Mentor Legion armies and came to a surprising realization i had No Artillery! that is nuts. Especially as i have a metric ton for my Epic Imperial guard army lol.

So i set out to convert some, i know i could have gotten some from ebay or some proxy's from Shapeway but the cost and well to put it simply, i like converting stuff. Ok i know what some will say,  if i factor in the cost of original BFG turrets and the time to convert it would be cheaper to buy some turrets. The thing is i don't care, i think they look cooler and that is what really matters.