#11 - A return of sorts

After three weeks of total inactivity here, I return. School has been keeping me busy for most part, but I've also found that my painting has been going downhill lately and that has really hit home rather hard after seeing this magnificent Rune Priest by Irwit. I'm not saying that I was an exceptional painter before my hobby time was slashed, but I did manage to reach a level I was happy with and I was looking forward to learning more techniques.

Now, I'm finding myself at the bottom of the hill, looking up and wishing that I had more time to climb it once more. But then again, between exams in two week's time and then my 5 month Army service straight after that are making things difficult.

Anyway, that's all the ramble/rant you'll get out of me today. Hopefully I'll have something more meaningful and useful to you all next time.

#10 - Space Marine Tactical Squad & Rhino/Razorback

I've been awfully busy this last week, hence the lack of activity. Since I have exams coming up in less than a month's time, updates will be somewhat sporadic, but I'll do my best to post a post every week with some meaningful content.

Anyway, onto today's stuff: a Space Marine Tactical Squad built for my currently non-existent Ultramarine army!

Cleaning, building and assembling all of these models has been tough, but the effort has been worth it and I'm satisfied with the results. I also managed to assemble the Razorback/Rhino and I look forward to painting it. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've painted a vehicle since five-six years ago, so it'll be an interesting learning experience!

Next update should be next week-end and I'll hopefully have five fully-painted Space Marines. Anyway, thanks for looking!

#7 - 6 new Followers & a tad more yellow

So, first off, I seem to have picked up six new Followers over the last couple of days which is undeniably cool. Thanks to all of you for deciding to hit that "follow" button, hopefully you'll enjoy the ride!

Now, moving on to the "meat" of the post, I have a picture to show.

I tried out a new way to paint yellow a couple of weeks back and I found that it was far easier to do than the previous yellow method I was using (you can see the results here). Instead, I did the following:

1. Averland Sunset basecoat (multiple thin layers to build up a nice smooth layer);
2. Seraphim Sepia wash in the recesses (clean up any overspill with Averland Sunset);
3. Yriel Yellow glaze over the armour (I glazed the armour a couple of times to get an even result and to properly alter the colour of the basecoat);
4. Seraphim Sepia wash in the recesses (to get a nice contrast);
5. Yriel Yellow highlight (this makes for quite a subdued highlight on pictures, but actually stands out more when seen with human eyes);
6. Lamenters Yellow glaze (to give the yellow a slightly warmer tone and really make it pop);
7. Yriel Yellow highlight (the glaze may have subdued the highlights a bit too much, so I would go over the most prominent edges with another highlight).

And that's it! To me, it's a perfect yellow for the Lamenters Space Marine Chapter. Just need to figure out a way to paint a decent checkered shoulder pad and I can get on with painting the first squad!

#9 - Ultramarine blue test model

Yet another test model that got a lick of paint. This time, I tried to get a blue that would look good for Ultramarines and ended up just painting his arm.

If I may say so myself, the result is rather decent and I'm rather happy with the highlights. Some are a bit thick and/or messy, but with practice I'm confident that those minor issues will disappear.

Another thing I'm rather happy with is that I managed to paint the armour using only two paints (Regal Blue and Ushabti Bone), some painting medium, an ink (Winsor & Newton blue ink) and a wash (Army Painter Strong Tone). So yeah, pretty good result all round!

I'm going to scale this up now and paint a full model, to see how it feels. With any luck, I'll enjoy it enough to be willing to do it on more than one model!

#8 - New GW tools: pricing issues

Games Workshop have released a new line of tools, "precision engineered to be the best hobby tools in the world" (quoted from their website).

Funnily enough, I recently came across a blog post showing how much you save if you do not buy your tools directly from GW and instead buy the same type of tools on Amazon...

... turns out that you can save a whopping 50% and you end up with more tools (this depends on where and what you buy, of course). Of course, the quality of these tools may not be on the same level as those from Games Workshop, but for a hobbyist starting out or someone who doesn't need such high quality tools, this is just ridiculous. I've got the feeling that GW is trying to milk the metaphorical cow as much as possible and that the company is taking advantage of the fact that most of their customers, being kids with spending parents, aren't familiar with alternative brands who offer similar tools for much less.

Ah well, hopefully the pricing team will learn their lesson before everything goes belly-up. Whatever happens, this is the end of my little rant. Normal posting service will be back shortly.

#6 - The Liebster Award

Well, well, well. Looks like I've been named in someone's Liebster Award blog list! Pretty cool, considering that I've just started blogging a few days ago. I've had a look at the other nominees and I must say that out of them all, I'm definitely the one who least deserved the nomination based on the quality of the blog's content! However, since this is to help people with low Follower numbers (I've got two, one of which is myself for post formatting reasons), I hope that this will help me and my own nominees out!

Now, the aim of the game is for each nominee to tell eleven truths about themselves, answer the eleven questions asked by the nominating blogger (in this case, Mr. Lee) and then writing down eleven questions for the eleven blogs that will be nominated by the nominee (ouch, my head hurts reading that). The ultimate aim is spreading the word about the cool but over-looked blogs on the blogosphere and having a laugh or two!

Anyway, my thanks to Jordan for the nomination and here goes the fun!

Eleven Truths:

1. I get distracted far too often and am very indecisive;
2. I love eating and appreciate good food;
3. I can actually paint a decent yellow (proof);
4. I've had about half a dozen blogs (including this one), though all of the older ones are burnt out husks and are mostly forgotten;
5. I'm not very good at basing my models, so I'm trying to improve that;
6. After many years in the hobby, I still don't have an army of any kind (shame on me!);
7. I love walking;
8. I'm single (com'ere ladies!);
9. Winsor and Newton Orange ink is god-send;
10. I don't like PVA glue but I still use it on occasion (for basing);
11. aaaaaand *drumroll* I much prefer English literature to French literature.

Eleven Questions (answered to):

1. What is your favourite food? Home-made lasagna!
2. What was the first model you painted? A Space Marine painted in the colours of a home-grown Chapter. I think that I was the Sergeant of the squad too.
3. How did you get into your miniatures hobby? I honestly can't remember. I may have come across the Games Workshop website while browsing about eight years ago, but that's such a long time ago so I can't be 100% certain.
4. What is your favourite book? The Eisenhorn Omnibus by Dan Abnett. Such a great story.
5. If you could choose any fantasy/sci-fi race to be, what would it be? WAAAAAAAAAGH!
6. Do you have any other interesting hobbies besides collecting miniatures? Aye, picking my toenails. And collecting wood chippings.
7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My frequent tendency to procrastinate.
8. If you could pick ONE model to paint/convert/have, what would it be? This. So so so soooooo this.
9. What's your most prized possession? Though one. Erm... Hum... I... Mhh... my (terrible) humour?
10. If you were to travel to the Chaos Wastes/The Warp, what one item would you bring with you? A minion to sacrifice to the Dark Gods. Or, a bunch of flowers. Whichever is the most effective.
11. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? Maybe... 

Eleven Blogs (in no particular order):

1. Snakebite Leather
2. Porky's Expanse
3. Beneath the Mire: Hobby First, Rules Last
4. The Art of Schwager
5. Officio Convertorum
6. Realm of Chaos 80's 
7. Forge Mechanicus
8. The Magnificent Bastards
9. Between the Bolter and Me
10. The Responsible One's Wargaming Blog
11. Battle Brush Studios

Eleven Questions (asked):

1. Favourite colour?
2. Favourite glue?
3. d6 or d10?
4. Fantasy or sci-fi?
5. Karl Kopinski or John Blanche?
6. Favourite sport?
7. Buried alive or strangled to death?
8. Beer or cider?
9. Favourite musical genre?
10. Favourite model?
11. Favourite paintbrush?

So, I hope that my nominees will have fun with that random lot of questions! Spread the love fun and hobby coolness!