I'm Back!

My new camera arrived last week, so photos will return to Citizen Nick Hobby Center!

Here is the unit I feel like I've been painting for an eternity, the Bloodletters. While my new camera is a bit nicer than my last one, the functions and settings are all different. It has macro, of course, but pretty much everything else is different. That is my long way of saying that I'm not 100% happy with these pictures. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon and crank out some nicer pictures.




I definitely have to add a little more highlighting o these guys and clean up some of the mistakes. There are quite a few areas that I slopped red paint somewhere it wasn't supposed to go (the red paint I slopped on the swords may stay).

I have to finish up the claws, some spines, the teeth, eyes, and more highlighting on the swords. I'm hoping to have this unit done after one more painting session.


Here's the banner/ icon. I was trying to make it look like an old faded tapestry (maybe painted with the blood of heretics?). The last layer came out a little brighter than I wanted, so I think I'll have paint some more highlights.

Some other business, I add a blog to my links. My buddy Felix's log, Pokeminiatures. The blog mainly features Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine/Hordes. Check it out.

Also, I've watched this video about 15 times since it hit the tubes. Enjoy:

There's a Disturbance in the Blog-o-sphere

I now interrupt my half-assed Adepticon coverage with two new blog links.

First up is the blog of nine-time Golden Demon winner, Dave Pauwels:
Rabid Bat Studio

There are some great miniatures on this site. Everyone should go over there and pressure Dave to paint even more.

Secondly, here is a new blog by Nick Barran:
Redemptors of Golinar

Nick is in the the same gaming group as me, a former game store co-owner, and former GW employee. Nick has already posted some great articles and I'm sure there will be more to come.


I've made some changes to links. I've removed a couple of blogs that have ceased activity. I also removed the Warseer link because I figure most people know how to get there themselves. Plus, blogs are better than forums any day!

Stay positive, people!

One for the Road

I know I said that the blog was on hiatus, but I just can't stay away.

I came across this article yesterday (thanks to GoffRokka at AWC for pointing this out). While the zenithal lighting effect is something I want to incorporate more in my paining, I was much more interested in what the article says about painting with washes. James Whipple demonstrated a similar painting method in the Adepticon class I took with him last year.

So last night I had some time and a horror miniature that I had previously primed white, so I decided to give it a go.

Here's it after two hours of work:




One problem I had with this miniature is its crappy undercoat. A while back, I decided to try priming with gesso since I hated spraying them. I've had less experience with it, so it came out a little clumpy. I think I laid it on a little too think in some parts and a little too thin in others. That, and the fact that gesso doesn't seem stick to metal very well made for an extremely uneven undercoat.

I didn't go for any zenithal lighting on this miniature. It's a demon that's supposed to be made of pure warp magic, so I wanted the light to look almost internal.

Since this is just a basic troop, I didn't want to spend a ton of time on it. I made the washes a lot thicker than the article recommends. Plus, with something this light, it didn't take many washes. I can see what the author says about this process taking a ling time. It took me two hours to rush through basically two colors. I think I'll use this process to paint my HQ units, but I'll slow it down a lot.

I'm not happy with this picture, so I'll take more when I get back.


That's all for now, ya'll. I'm off on my honeymoon!!!

Gaming Comics

I really like comics. As evidence by this blog, I also like gaming. Therefore, I really, really like it when gaming and comics are combined.

This is basically my convoluted way of saying I've added a list to the right over there of links to my favorite gaming related webcomics. Check them out. I will point out that Secret Lives of Mobs is on hiatus at the moment. Still, if you've never seen it before, the old ones will be new to you.

Also, Misfire has recently returned to the scene after disappearing for sometime. Unfortunately, they have yet to get into the routine of posting frequently. Hopefully they will soon because what they've posted so far is pretty funny.

Some other stuff...

Rich over at Chicago Terrain Factory has added an interesting feature to his blog. It's a list of RSS feeds from 40 different hobby blogs (including the one you're reading Right now). Click on over there and look to the right sidebar. it's pretty cool.

Dude, Where's my Demon Engine? I wanted to follow up my last post about the Codex: Demon rumors. I was pretty excited at the early rumors of this codex because they seemed to hint that there would be two different demon engines: an "unbound" defiler and some kind of mutant amalgamation of various tanks from other armies.

As the rumors have gotten more specific of late, it seems that there is only one demon engine in the codex and it's just another version of the defiler. Still cool, I'm sure, but the more demon engines the better, I say.


Damn you, Hackers! Adeptus Windy City, my hometown forum, got hacked this week. Bastards! The data center where the forum is hosted seems to have it's head up it's ass, so about a month's worth of posts are gone! Very sucky, but the administrator has gotten things running pretty smoothly again, so hats off to him.

New Ash Waste Setting for Necromunda

I recently popped over to the Specialist Games Website and noticed that they recently posted rules for setting Necromunda games in the Ash Wastes. The supplement can be found here, but fair waring, it's a 128 page PDF and may take a while to load.

Basically, this supplement adds vehicles to the game. I haven't given it a good read yet, but from the looks of it, the authors transplanted the GorkaMorka vehicle rules over to Necromunda. This could be very cool.


... And why you're visiting the Specialist games website, why not read the setting I wrote, Alevan Town (second place winner of the Necromunda settlement competition).

Blogsplosion

I have a couple new blogs that I've added to my links that I'd like to point out.

First off, my friend Aaron has started a blog to showcase his many painting and sculpting projects. Aaron's a great sculptor, so I'm sure we're going to see a lot of great conversion projects from him.

On the other end of the gaming spectrum, Bill Kim, the winner of the 2007 Chicago Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament, has started a blog talking about strategy. Since I'm kinda dumb when it comes to basic strategy, I'm looking forward to reading this.

While on the subject of blogs, I've been a big fan of Bell of Lost Souls since around Adepticon this year. Then, I meet these guys at Adepticon and they were super cool. I've been secretly hoping that they'd link me from their site and recently, they added me to their blog roll!

I felt terrible when I realized that I hadn't added them to mine. Oops, bad form on my part. That has been corrected.


Thousand Sons HQ Update

Not much has been happening on the Thousand Sons front. I've been painting slowly, but nothing that would be that interesting to anyone. I'm still in the early stages of the models.

I have however done some work on my Sorcerer HQ.

Look, I glued an arm on:



The other arm is complete, but I'm waiting on an order of magnets that I need to attach it.




The picture above is generally what it will look like when I glue the head on and put him on his base. This picture makes me realize that this base is way too tall and I'll have to trim it down a bit. Also, I need to take a picture of it someplace other than my cluttered desk. The camera has a hard time focusing on the mini with all that junk behind it.

Adepticon Recap Pt. I

Well, Adepticon 2007 has come and gone. What an awesome event this was. I had so much more fun than I did last year, and I'm even more excited about next year.

My favorite part was being able to meet up with people I normally only communicate with over the Internet. That experience is kinda odd in itself as people rarely look like you picture them. Still, I was glad to have real-world communications with a lot of cool people.

I ran into Rich Nelson in the bathroom. He was getting water for the plaster to be used in his Hirst Arts seminar. I overheard him telling someone this fact and realized it was him. It was odd because I also realized that I had in fact met him face-to-face before, but had just somehow disconnected the face and the on-screen personality.

The other face to face meeting was almost as odd. I was sitting in the lobby killing time waiting for the Forge World people to show up. I was on the phone with my girlfriend, and a guy sat down across from me, apparently also killing time. Just then Jervis Johnson walked by. I stood up to introduce myself to Jervis and mentioned my blog to him. The guy sitting there realized who I was and introduced himself as "Old Coast" who I know from AWC (you should check out his new blog ).

As I suspected, I did play in the same Blood Bowl league as James Wappel many years ago. His object source lighting seminar was amazing. I'll talk about that more later in another post.

I also got to meet the Fly Lords of Terra who have an awesome blog that you should also check out. These guys were super cool and it was a pleasure talking about blogging with them.

I also have to give a special shout out to Brian for picking me up and driving my car-less but out to Shaumburg on Friday.

There is a lot more to talk about and more pictures to post. Here are a couple to hold you over for now.



Here is the hall pre-Gladiator Tournament and pre-gamer funk.


Dan here was a judge for the Gladiator tournament on Friday. Yes, that chain is real... Real weird that is (Just kidding, Dan. Don't beat me).


This is me looking totally insane during an Aeronautica Imperialis demo game.

Adepticon Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day! I can hardly wait. I signed up for two seminars:

Intro to Object Source Lighting with James and Cathy Wappel
and
Urban Decay with Nathan Comase

I think I already know James Wappel. I think I was in a Blood Bowl league with him about three years ago. I guess I'll find out on Friday.

New Link

No fears, the blog isn't dead.

To hold you over until I post a better update, here is a cool link:

http://chicagoterrainfactory.wordpress.com/

This is done by a friend of mine from Adeptus Windy City. Check out the article on clay molding. It's really cool!