Mixed Bag 11: Mixbo Baggins

So last week I neglected posting not because I missed out on painting anything, but mostly because everything I was working on was in various states of progress. The end of this week brought a bunch of projects to a close and should be more interesting to read about. Or not. I don't tell you how to live your life…

First up were a pair of Armiger Warglaives from the new 40k starter "Forgebane". My friend Chris had picked up the set and I offered to paint these goobers up in House Krast livery since I'd painted his  Knight previously.

These were nice kits and went together well. If I had one complaint, its that they really are just scaled down versions of the Knight - almost identical in parts and build. I was expecting a little less involved construction with these cats, but it turned out fine I guess. 

If nothing else, these guys definitely gave me the chance
 to paint all the free hand hazard striping I could eat. 

I had to slightly cut down the House Krast crest (say that
five times fast) in order for it to fit on the carapace.
I was still happy with the end result.

I also finished up my ten man unit of Breachers for my Horus Heresy army. Then, as a break from painting so much yellow, I knocked out a Primus Medicae Consul for the army as well. Whew. I've just got another Vindicator to paint and the army will be at 3k points. I'll have to take some big shots of all those chuck heads together soon. 

I'm really pleased with how these guys turned out, but man was it a slog to get them done. 

"Tell me where it hurts. Everywhere? Good. Good."

Then I spent an evening applying transfers to the shields on my Arab spearmen. The decals are from Little Big Men Studios  range. They were very reasonably priced, even for shipping them to the US, and gave the models a nice "pop" once applied. This was my first time using them, and they are a little unusual, but give good results. They almost apply more like stickers than traditional decals. 

I've got enough for the rest of the army, but I'm not sure if I'd use them again in the future. That is ONLY the result of
owning a very nice printer myself and knowing how to make my own decals. For anyone not in that situation, they are an excellent product!

Finally, I finished up the second unit of Arkanauts for my burgeoning Kharadron Overlord army. These guys also felt like they took forever, but were worth the effort. Maybe I need a break from painting ten man units? The next biggest unit in this army is five guys, so hopefully that will help shake the cobwebs from my noggin and get me into a proper painting headspace.

My growing force from Barak O-Bomb-ya.
I'll be here all week. Please tip
your waitress…

Next up are probably some more Overlords, then the Vindicator tank. I hope to finish up around the moment a special treat I ordered from Forge World arrives…

Cheers!

Bearded Weirdos Week

It seems like the theme of my blog this week is dudes with beards. Weird. Not the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but not expected. First on deck is my general for the Kharadon Overlord force that is slowly growing on my painting table. This guy is called Brock Manchowder or some such thing - I've forgotten the real name and can't be bothered to use the internet at the moment. He came in a bazillion pieces, but was a lot of fun to paint!

I really dig this wacky cat. I'm not entirely sold on the chainsword,
as that gets a little to 40k for me, but the rest is a lot of fun. 

I painted him in a bunch of subassemblies for ease. I'm not sure
it made much difference, though. I did use him as an excuse to design
and print out some transfers for the runes on his sword and
dirigible. 

I also made sure to ditch the clear plastic stand and replace
it with some heavy gauge wire because hahahaha, you've fooled me
in the past flying stands and I'm not up for THAT kind of bullshit
anymore! Seriously, when someone designs a flying stand for
infantry that doesn't break off, call me.

I also finished up the first unit of Arab spearmen for a new Crusades era army I'm building for Lion Rampant or Crescent and Cross or some other system played in dimly halls that smell of cigars, shattered dreams and pine oil.  These guys were built using Gripping Beast's new plastic set and I'm a little on the fence on this one. Since the poses are supposed to work for archers or spearmen, the poses feel a little wonky to me. Still, the shear amount of guys you get in a box makes it worthwhile I'd venture.

I still need to add some insignia or flair to their shields, but for now they are ready to rock and or roll. 

Finally, a new game popped into my lap at the end of the week called SMOG: The Rise of Moloch by Cool Mini or Not. A friend had backed the Kickstarter and just didn't have the time to paint the set and I had a keen interest in scooping it up. I was a huge fan of the SMOG models when SmartMax introduced them - but being in a much larger scale (75mm if I recall) and being pretty pricey to get my hands on in the States, I had to give them a pass. CMoN has done a really great job of translating the original sculpts to board game pieces, and its a really nice way to get some of a SMOG fix without trying to hunt down the (sadly) out of production original models. 

"Major Disaster, at your service!" The whole SMOG line has a wonderful
wacky Victorian London feel and I'm super jazzed about painting the set up.

Obviously, the detail is less crisp than a metal or resin casting, but I'm
really surprised at how nice these are. 

"What, what; Old Bean?! Steady on!"

Looking Ahead

So I've hit a point where I'm super close to finishing up my Heresy Era Imperial Fists and now I'm trying to nail down my next big project. Or projects. Because I can't just stay focused on one thing apparently. Ugh.

Stalker 7 miniatures by Lead Adventure

While I've been deciding what to start next, I've continued hacking away at my lead pile - literally this time as I finished these old sculpts of some Pockeylips Survivors. I have no idea what I'll use them for, but they are ready to raid the Radzone and fight off mutants, cannibals or talking apes of all sorts now. As I was painting these cats, my gaze fell upon an unopened box of these fellows:

"Avast, ya weak-kneed land walker! Blood and Plundaaaaar aaaaar ours! Yaar!"

When they came out, I really dug the whole aesthetic of the Kharadron Overlords and was champing at the bit to paint some up. Unfortunately, I got wildly side-tracked by new 40K goodies and never got around to putting paint on the dorfs. Now Age of Sigmar is calling to me again, and I'd really like to take a crack at one of the sky-ships. Fortunately, its turned out that painting the basic infantry is a lot of fun as well. I've still got six more to do for a first unit, but I can see collecting a small army as a nice project to work on in the coming days.

The start of something new.

Not to be one to bite off only what I can chew, I've also decided to build an Arab army for Lion Rampant. My buddy Ron and I played again with a few modifications and it felt better. Enough so that we both wanted to paint some more for the time period. I wasn't too keen on adding more guys to my Norman army, and since Ron has a pretty generic middle period Medieval era army I thought they could serve as Crusaders in the Holy Land. All they need is some adversaries! And someone dippy enough to paint them!

A first unit of spearmen is taking shape. 

I've also got some more Napoleonic stuff I should be working on as well as some Necromunda commissions for a friend that should be pretty cool to paint. If I can keep to it, these projects are what will probably be featured most in the next few months. Wish me luck!

Cheers!