The 25mm Warrior

Sigh...

Not a good painting night.

I got to work on one of my Deff Kopters tonight. Everything was going great. I painted it, dipped it and then I varnished it... too much. As the dullness dried it made it look cloudy. I could pick the stuff off in chunks. Seriously it was that caked on.

Suffice it to say the mini is ruined. Two hours of painting down the tubes. I can only hope base coating the little bugger and painting it again will save it.

I also got the balls up to post the Warboss on coolminiornot.com and let me tell you if your looking for something to boost your ego that is not the way to go. As my Warboss swims in a sea of professionally airbrushed minis he is being gobbeled up by the aristocratic sharks behind them. Alas I'm at a 6.6 raiting...lol. I guess I should have read how people are supposed to judge on that site. You assume the role of a Golden Daemon judge, rating them as if it was a real competition. 10 is awesome, 8 is great, 5 is tabletop quality... I guess I shouldn't get my feeling too hurt. fter all I was going for just tabletop quality anyway :)

Man, The Army Painter should use me as a testimonial...

So I was looking at my white primed Orc Warboss that came with The Assault on Blacks Reach set and decided to give him a go. I confess that center pieces scare me. While it's somewhat acceptable to fudge a bit on troopers it's a bummer to have your armies central leader look less than substandard. Again, I hate painting or better said I used to hate painting. The Army Painter rewards you for effort. You sat down and painted your minis didn't you? Why should only Golden Daemon winners and Heavy Metal team members have the monopoly on great looking minis. I'm convinced miniature painting is all technique and time. The Army Painter takes both and cuts them down considerably.

So here he is, My Orc Warboss Gazzgortts!



I ran into a bit of trouble after using Games Workshops dull coat on him. He bacame kinda ashy/ cloudy looking. He just needed a a little bit of a natural sheen to him so my beautiful wife (who does not paint minis but should) gave a great suggestion.

Taking a Qtip and getting a bit of AstroGlide on it put the shine back on the mini. Once it's applied it worried me because it looked really wet (yeah!) but as it dried it left a subtle sheen that was just what I was looking for.

His boss pole was done by me. I'm not really into customizing my miniatures but he needed something to make him look a bit savage. The heads are from each of my other armies that I started but never quite finished. All were spare head bitz except the Tyranid. I had to clip it off of a perfectly painted up Genestealer. But since I have no desire to do a Tyranid army anytime soon and how I would do it with a different color scheme it was a worth while sacrafice :)

So I finally decided on a Space Marine army build...

BLOOD ANGELS!!!

The Army Painter products have enabled me to get a really good looking force out in no time. I should have a 1000 point force fully painted and ready to go by Friday. As another testament to the awesomeness of The Army Painter here are a couple of tanks that were done in just one nights time

All done and not too shabby for a guy that hates painting :)

Anything that makes my life easier is great...

Anything that makes painting miniatures easier is friggin awesome!

My uncle first plugged me into Army Painter and from the get go I was excited. Simply put it's a solution that solves the problem of countless hours of labor trying to get your miniatures to shade and highlight just right while trying to make them all look alike. You just slop on paint (and I do mean slop), dip the mini into The Army Painter, let dry for a few hours and your done!

Sound to good to be true? That's what I thought. How can a simple dip take the place of what hours of painting can do (or at least what you think hours of painting can do)?

Well, see for yourself...


I just painted the colors on dipped it in the army painter and presto! One good looking mini.



So as you can see... the 30 buck drop for the Army Painter is well worth it. Go get some now and start playing your games sooner than the 6 months to a year it would take you doing it yourself.

I'm ashamed of myself...

So I guess the 6 day plan turned into the 365 day plan... only I got rid of my Tau army. With frequent hospital visits, surgery and an ongoing addiction to World Of Warcraft I abandoned my Tau to the auctioning depths of Ebay, entrusting their care to the highest bidder.

Oh now don't worry I kept the ones I painted (can't seem to part with them), but with my plastics gone and my interest in the Tau fading into the warp it was time to look into something new. I've always wanted to play 4ok but every time I delved into the 41st Millennium something happened to where I quickly found myself returning to the 21st century. Everything from not having someone to play with to not having the cash (this game is damn expensive) worked it's way to keep me out of it's ranks but now with my interest renewed and a determination to get at least a 1000 point force done I'm ready to go at it again, dipping my brush into the world of war gaming once more.

Now I have flirted with other games in the mean time. I found Battletech again and to my surprise discovered that my old childhood introduction to this genre of gaming got a very nice overhaul. Its core is the same but with FASA tanking it proved once again that games florish when players are given control of them. In the future I'll set some blogs to it.

However I digress... this is about Warhammer 40k and my new army is Space Marines which is really the best choice for me. Even though I know the rules and have played a couple of games I am new to the game and I have plenty to learn about the ins and outs of the battlefields waged across countless worlds and to my knowledge Space Marines are the best for that. Also with the new boxed set I got some Orks which will give me a go at something different letting me decide wither I really want to defend the Imperium or wage Waaagh! against those dirty humies.

Only time will tell.

The cool thing is my recent discovery of Army Painter. If you've read my other posts you'll know I hate painting. I want to play the game dammit! I'm by no means an expert "pro" painter but I do want something that looks respectable to other nerds sitting across the table from me. After some initial trials with this stuff it's perfect for getting a decient looking army fielded in no time and I'm really looking forward to posting pics of just what this stuff can do.