It's been awhile...

Like the title says, it's been awhile since my last post on here. Since October it's been kind of crazy with my job and life in general. I've sidelined the Astral Claws project for the moment, since I figured Forge World would come out with some more support for them since October. Well that has not happened for some reason, I figured at least some decal sheets or something. I have not worked on the Salamanders since I got back from the UK trip, I need to go in and complete them soon that way I can say they are complete up to 1,500 points at least.

We did get the Toys for Tots 2010 miniatures completed in time for the auction, my friend Jon & his son Jake did a really good job on the Tactical Squad I sent them. But I didn't get to see them in person before they went to California for the auction. I finished the other two Tactical Squads, two Rhinos, and two Dreadnoughts for the Ultramarine's Third Company. Once all the other miniatures from the Freebootaz Forum were received, they formed four Space Marine Company auctions and one for the scratch built Thunderhawk (which looked really good in the pictures). The auctions overall worked out really good and we raised a good bit of money for the Toys for Tots charity. And in the end I won back my Ultramarine Third Company miniatures, and received some very nice miniatures to go with it too. I was a really big fan of the Smurf Bastion and Papa Smurf Sergeant that freeboota "Crayolasmoker" converted and painted, he did a great job on them. Overall most of the miniatures were really great on their paint jobs, but a few of the miniatures seemed rushed and half of the vehicles had OK paint jobs.
So future plans for the Ultras is to redo some of the vehicles to make them so I can change out their setups for multiple use within the army, and try and bring all of the colors into one uniform color across all of the army. On the miniatures I'm going to redo the at least two of the squads and beef out some of them to fit into a ten man setup. And on the stuff I painted I'm going to finish doing the highlights and details that I rushed to get done. And on the Smurf Bastion, well I'm going to add another Smurf Bastion or terrain piece to complement it.

And this years Toys for Tots army is the Imperial Guard Cadians, and I think based on the sheer amount of Imperial Guard troops that it takes to flesh out an army this will be an amazing sight to see at auction. And given that this year the army was decided and announced before 2010 was done will hopefully bring a good amount of money to the Tots.

Whats on the desk at the moment?

As for what I'm currently working on, well being on the road and well over six hours from the house makes painting anything a pain in the butt. I was thinking of dragging my airbrushes and painting setup out to the apartment I'm renting, but I really don't have the room for it in a two bedroom apartment that I'm sharing with a guy I work with. So I really don't think it would be a good roommate to have my airbrush and painting setup out in the living room. So I can put together some plastic kits and try and get an army at least built and ready to start putting paint on them. And that army would be the Blood Angels that I collected bitz for there last year, and picked up one or two of the boxes that came out when their codex was released. Then here just a week or so ago I picked up some of the new releases for the Blood Angels, and have already learned some lessons on building them too.

Main Lesson: Just because it's a dreadnought doesn't mean the parts interchange without some modifications. The fronts for the Blood Angels Dreadnought kit will not fit right on the standard Space Marine Dreadnought body parts, and the back top piece on the standard Dread doesn't mate with the BA Dread fronts right way. With a few mods to the standard Dread body parts they will fit up really good, I worked fast to remove some things that were in the way and put the parts back together before the glue was dry. Good thing this was on the Death Company Dreadnought, and I can make some changes and shave some off the top to make it look good. I used the base Blood Angel Dreadnought parts to make a Furioso Libby Dread, so it turned out really nice and fit together with no problems.

So other then that I've been working on putting Assault Marines together, some Death Company Troops (like their details on the miniatures), and parts of a Stormraven. I'm thinking of making the Death Company guys with magnetic Jump Packs & Back Packs, so I can change them out for different load outs in armies. I was thinking of doing the same with the Assault Squads, but I don't think the standard Assault Marine torsos really go with a regular Back Pack. So I'm doing two 10 man Assault Squads with Jump Packs & one 10 man Assault Squad with Back Packs riding in a Rhino Transport. And I've got some more items coming hopefully if eBay and PayPal actually worked on my purchases and payments today.


Things I'm thinking of doing in the future:

1. Some kind of diorama with maybe two characters fighting a great battle, and hopefully If I do everything correctly I'll be able to use these two in armies of their own.
2. Complete my Dystopian Wars fleets (Prussian & Rising Suns) that I started late last year. I've already got two games in against Jon (FSE Fleet) & Jake (Britannia Fleet) at New Years, and was beat down for the most part (they understand the Spartan Games rule sets way better then me). I think they might be one of the next posts on the blog, once I get home and have time to snap some pictures of what I've got done so far. If you want to see some awesome Dystopian Wars stuff, then check out this link for Jon's FSE Fleet (they look awesome in person).
3. Grey Knights, can't wait to see what Games Workshop comes out with for the GK's. I'll have to see what the codex has for rules and figure out what I have to do to bring my previous GK army up to date with the new codex, and what cool new plastic kits they bring out. And to see if the new stuff will fit in with the old stuff, and I can foresee a Forge World order for some Grey Knight and Inquisitor stuff. And if the old fits in with the new, then I'm going to strip off all of the old paint and redo the whole army. If not then I might put them up on eBay or something to make room for new kits (I'm starting to run out of space at the house for my hobby stuff).
4. Display cases to put some finished items in and get out of the hobby room. So I'll have to put the woodworking skills to use, and finally use the equipment that I've been getting and buying over the years to use at the friends house (thank goodness he has a basement & a wife that doesn't mind the use or me, at some point I'll have a building just for our woodworking equipment). I would like to get one of the CNC 3D routers to do some symbols and icons within the Display Case wood. And being on the road all the time supplies the money to buy this, but the trade off is no time to use anything that I've bought.

Well until next time, keep the dice on the table.

Plans for the Future

After reading over the Imperial Armour 9 book I decided that one of my next armies was going to be the Astral Claws, and I had the pre-release Lugft Huron model from Games Day UK. So I ordered some of the Forge World Space Marine Mk armor sets, and the weapons to go with them. And since the IA9 book has an army list for the "Tyrants Legion", I'm going to be using that as the basis for my army. As it allows a mix of Space Marine & Imperial Guard for an army list. So I also ordered a Vulture with Twin Linked Punisher Cannons for the Tyrants Legion for the IG side of things.

Also while I was at Games Day they had the pre-release of the Red Scorpions Librarian Sevrin Loth and his Honour Guard, which I bought while there. And after reading over his rules in IA9 I'm very excited to get a game in with the rules. And the models them self are just amazing in their details, and the one good thing about the model for Sevrin Loth is that there is only one Red Scorpion icon that I've found so far. So I might have to get another model at some point for use in a Salamanders Army with maybe the same rules as Sevrin Loth. This will be geared more towards a theme army for the Salamanders Series of Books by Nick Kyme. But that is on down the road after I finishes the series of books, which I picked up the pre-release of Firedrake at Games Day & had Nick Kyme sign if for me.

I also ordered some Ork items for a future army, and the other two weapons for my Warhound Titan that I need to start working on here soon too. Hopefully my Forge World order will be coming over here this coming week, and I'll try and get some pictures up once I get the items but work might get in the way of that soon.

Also I'm working on my entry for the Freebootaz Toys for Tots 2010 Armies eBay auctions, which I have a set of Ultramarine Rhino Doors coming soon I hope. Then I have to finish painting up the Ultramarine Rhino, my friend Jon is working on the Tactical Squad to go with the Rhino. I can't wait to see what he does for them, but life might step in that he can't get around to painting the Ultra's. Which I understand due to his situation at the moment, and family comes first before miniatures. So I've started on a backup plan of my own just incase, I started painting up another of the Tactical Squads that I have sitting around. So at the moment if Jon doesn't get his Tactical Squad painted, then I'll have mine and the Rhino that I've painted ready to go. And if Jon does get his Tactical Squad complete in time, then I'll have them and the Rhino I painted and will go ahead and put another Rhino together to go with the Tactical Squad I painted. Since I think I can get a Rhino (that I have laying around put together) painted up in a weekend easily, as I've put together and primed and base coated the first one in the past 24 hours.

So we will see how it goes, as the Toys for Tots stuff needs finished before any of my stuff gets started (maybe).

It's been awhile

So I kind of slacked off on the Posts on the lead up to the Geek Nation Tour on Sept 23rd to Oct 1st, but I was able to get the Salamanders to a decent level of completeness right before I left for the tour. And I plan on taking the Tactical Squads back apart from their bases and doing some more details on both the bases & the Tacticals. The vehicles still need hard line details and some touch ups on them too, and decals on the drop pod.


So about the Tour, the tour was a great time with some awesome people. We all meet up in Toronto and flew out the nite of Sept 23rd, then we landed in England at around 11AM on Sept 24th. Then proceeded to London to our hotel at the Hilton Metropole, and was given the rest of the day to explore London and then meet back at the hotel for dinner. I took the rest of the day up to dinner to get some sleep since I had not sleep for about 27 hours up to that point. On Sept 25th there was two different tour options for the day; either the Military Tour of London, or the Geek Tour of London. I went on the Geek Tour of London; which we went to comic book shops, game stores, and one really nice model store with R/C stuff and scale model kits. Then we went to a Curry House for dinner as a group, boy was that a bad idea. The food was alright, as I had never had Curry before that. There really wasn't that much served up during the dinner, then the check for the dinner came to the table. Holy Crap! was the expression from just about everyone, cause the meal cost about $50 US. That will more then likely be the last time the tour will go to that Curry House.

After that we left for Birmingham for the evening, and then on Sept 26th we went to Games Day UK. Which after being there I can say that I'm not sure if I would go to another Games Day anywhere. It was good to see all of the sites, displays, and get some pre-release items; but the show as a whole was poorly run by GW. The only smart group there was the Black Library section, as they were well organized and had people controlling the lines for their products and to get the main authors to sign books. The worst group there had to be the Forge World sales area, there was zero organization to the area for the whole day. They had people just pile in front of their tables and then push to the front of the lines, then once you got your order you have to go stand in the chaos to pay for your order. And they did have a pre-order area, but it was just as big of a mess as the regular order area. I did learn one thing for the next time if I go to a Games Day, enter the Golden Daemon competition and you get in an hour earlier then everyone else. And if there is a line to get into the Games Day and there is space beside the line, then just move up there cause the organizers are going to do that anyways. So would I go back? Not unless they have something that really interests me, and even then I would enter the Golden Daemon to get early access. And they Photoshop all the pictures they take anyways for the Golden Daemon, what a big let down that was to see going on right there in front of everyone.

We all then went back to the hotel and some of the guys got in a makeshift game of 40K on some tables in the lounge area beside the bar of the hotel. So that was a fun nite, and I got to quickly go over my Imperial Armour 9: Badab Wars Part One book. Sept 27th we went to Bovington Tank Museum, which was really good. I wished that we would of had some more time there to explore everything, and we found out that if we would of called ahead we could of took a tour of their restoration area for the tanks. But what I really wanted to do was get to either drive one of the tanks, or ride in one of the tanks. But they only had four days a year where people get to drive or ride in the tanks, and the next one was I think at the end of October. But I will definitely go back to Bovington Tank Museum, and hopefully get to drive one around too. After that we went to our hotel in Bournemouth and then a group of us went out to a pub in the town. During our time at the pub we realized that it was my birthday, so all of the sudden I had two more pints sitting in front of me on top of the three that I had already drank. After that we walked down to the sea side and the beach area, then we walked back to the hotel where there was more games going on.

Then on Sept 28th we went to Corfe Castle, which was really great. I will go back to this Corfe Castle town at some point for sure, it is a really great little town. And the Castle was amazing, if only it had not been destroyed it would of been even more amazing today. We had a guided tour of the castle, and the tour guide was really good. After we finished that tour we went to the Miniature Village & Castle / Cafe for lunch, again I could of spent more time in the town due to all of the shops and sites to see. After that we went to Nottingham for the evening, where we went and had dinner at "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem" which was built in 1189 AD in Nottingham.

This place is really interesting and the food was really good too, but there was more going on that nite then just food. We had some visitors that came out to the dinner; there was Alan & Michael Perry of Perry Historical Miniatures, Alessio Cavatore of previous Games Workshop and now Mantic Games rules writer, Ronnie from Mantic Games, John Stallard & Steve Morgan of Warlord Games, I think I seen Nick Kyme there for a few minutes (author of the Salamanders Series of novels), and I think two guys from Unseen Lerker magazine too (not really sure). So that evening I spent most of my time at the dinner listening to Michael Perry talk, as he was sitting beside of me at the table. And then I wandered over to see if I could find Nick Kyme, but he had already left if he was there. So next up was Alessio Cavatore, I wandered into the conversation he was having with another guy on our tour. Right before I left to go get another pint I asked Alessio if he was going to stop by Warhammer World tomorrow, he laughed and said that he didn't think that was going to be a good idea. I told him that he could just be a normal gamer getting in some games, he didn't buy it. Then went the "Trip" was closing a group of us went over to another pub in the town. Alan Perry went with us, and I think the two guys from Unseen Lerker too but they sat at another table with Romeo. Our group grabbed a table and again I was sitting beside Alan Perry this time, and listened to him talk about everything. Then when that pub closed at 2AM we went back to the hotel, which there was a two games going on at the hotel just starting to finish up.

Sept 29th was Warhammer World from a little before 10AM to 11PM (normally Bugman's Pub closes at 10PM on Wednesdays). So I started a game of 40k, but was pulled away to get a guided tour of the Miniatures Hall at Warhammer World before we started playing. We were allowed to have the guide take one miniature from the cases for close up pictures, and then we were allowed to hold the Slayer Sword for the Golden Daemon competition. After that we went back down and finished our game, which lead to me conceding at the start of my forth turn with no Tactical Squads on the board. And I had my squad of Vulkan & Terminators left on the board and way out of position to contest either of the two objectives. After that we had lunch at the Warhammer World Restaurant, then I went back and wandered around watching some games going on. Then around 3PM a few of us went over to Warlord Games offices and metal casting area in Nottingham. John from Warlord lead us around on a tour of their area, and we were shown how the casting process is done for Pewter figures. Then we were lead to their offices and had a Q&A session with them on their products and the future of Warlord Games. We then checked to see if we could get a tour of Mantic Games, but they were already closed for the day and it was going to take longer to get over there. So we went back to Warhammer World, where I went and placed my Forge World order. We then had dinner at the Restaurant again, and then I went back and watched some games and talked with other on the tour. Then at 10PM we transferred to Bugman's Pub and had a few more pints, then went back to the hotel for the evening and went to the bar at the hotel for some more discussion.

Sept 30th we left the hotel that morning and stopped at Maelstrom Games, the place was in the process of remodel but it will be a really great place when complete. I believe the next tour over to the UK there is plans to have a tournament at Maelstrom Games. Then once we got to London we had the rest of the day for what ever we wanted, I was starting to feel the bug that was being passed around on the tour so I went and had a nap. We then had a goodbye meet at the sports bar of the Hilton Metropole that evening. Then in the morning of Oct 1st we got up and left for the airport to fly out, very early in the morning. We flew out at about 11AM from England, and arrived in Toronto at about 3PM. Then my flight wasn't until 1PM the next day, so me and Hyde from Columbus Ohio got a hotel room there at the airport in Toronto. Which we finally crashed for the day at about 8PM, and didn't awake till 8AM on Oct 2nd which helped get back into the swing of the time zone.

Overall it was a great trip, and I would like to go back and do the trip again for sure. With maybe a few changes for the next one, mainly get a roommate for the trip that does not snore like a chainsaw at full blast.