The 25mm Warrior

I'm starting over.

I don't want to do Orks. They paint up great but I don't like them. Their just not me. I should have listened to the the 40k rulebook guideline to picking an army... pick one you like. If I had to paint Blood Angels into a collection I would go sick. Dang I picked two armies I didn't really want to do. Got to file them under the was a good idea at a time file and offer em up on ebay.

I don't like to have unfinished stuff around. Just reminders that I didn't finish what I had started, a mirror that shows me I am a fickle gamer. 40k is a bit of a mystery to me. As I mentioned before each and every army attracts me and repulses me at the same time but there are none that really "grab" me.

In a way I feel like I'm dating this game. Playing the fields of war until "the one" comes along. If it's anything like my actual marriage "the one" will come when I'm not looking for it but alas this is a game and it forces you to make a choice and it's not dating either. It's more like having a bunch of mediocre women standing in front of you all in a line. You only want one of them (to court them all would be a one way ticket to loony ville). Only you know nothing about any of them, just how they look.

And I don't know which one to pick

Test driving this game is expensive and making a wrong choice is expensive ergo just like in real life playing the field hurts your wallet and can burn you out (not that I would know "in real life" of course...*wink*).

So I'm selling my stuff, raising a financial pool until I figure out just what The 25mm Warrior really wants.

If anyone wants a go at my Blood Angels army it's at

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pro-Painted-Warhammer-40K-Space-Marines-Blood-Angels_W0QQitemZ110409137214QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b4e5bc3e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

My wife put the "Pro-Painted" part in there. She says tag lines like that help it to sell. When I think of "pro" I think of guys like Ron not pro TAP dippers like myself.

So good luck and any advice on armies would be most welcome:)

You know all to often in our lives cool peeps cross our path and we never tell them what we think of them or what they do that makes an impact on us.

This blog is a shout out blog and I want to know which blog in the From The Warp community has influenced you in some positive way. It doesn't have to be just one it can be as many as you like. Anything that has entertained you, improved you as a gamer, made you a better player, influenced your own blog etc. Hopefully we'll get a nice mix that will tell others of the great bogs out there and to check em out!

Now don't be shy. Here I'll start. There are three blogs that have really helped me grow in just about all facets of my hobby. The first being Miks Minis (www.miksminis.blogspot.com). What doesn't this guy do? His blog has everything. From painting tips to conversions to movie reviews to secrets of the universe to the Colonels secret recipe, I mean you name it this guy has it somewhere on his site. The eclectic jumble of games that peppers his posts makes me know there are kindred spirits out there who can't just do one game or one miniature but have a drive and passion to do it all. Not to mention he is a nice guy who goes out of his way to leave great comments. If these is a blog who I aspire for mine to be like the most it's Miks Minis. Thanks Mik, you rock bro!

The second is www.davesminiaturewargames.blogspot.com. With my uncle here I wouldn't even now what gaming is and without his blog I know I wouldn't have one at all. He taught me to paint, taught me to play, always told me games are cool but if you can get a date with a hot chick game night can wait. Ever since I can remember I've been watching him do this stuff and there is no one who has influenced my hobby more. Thank you Uncle Dave!

The third is our HQ, the club hub, the head big leader cheese grand master general of all From The Warp forces. Come on now, Ron is really a given but props and lovin have to be shouted out to the guy who brings us together and gets us noticed the most. Not to mention I really enjoy his emails that keep me up to date on what he's doing and for his collaborative posts that get us all working together on a common topic.

See how easy it is? So come on, which blog influences/ inspires you the most and why. Send some props out today!

So my family, knowing of my ailing eyes (along with the rest of me it feel like) and wanting to help my seeming worsening blurry vision, got me one of these...


Man what a difference! My eyes don't hurt while I paint anymore. The white light floods around and is so natural it absolutely eliminates eyestrain. Not to mention the light improves the pictures that my wife so loving takes of all my minis. See for yourself...

Icky light


Nice, good, comfortable white light


Heh yes that Ork is the latest in my bold attempts at conversion. While playing Dawn of War I heard an Ork shout "Up Yours!!!" I wonder if I could make an "Up Yours!!!" Ork.


Looks like I can :)
(Good primer job too)

Nothing beat my sons card to me though. In it he wrote for me to go to the game store and get whatever I wanted. Now what kind of daddy would I be if I didn't listen to my own dear boy?

A huge I love and appreciate you to my Wife, Son, Mom and Dad for being loving and supportive enough to help me along in my hobby (and making it easier on the 'ol eyes)

For you Dads out there I hope your fathers day was filled with love and cool swag like mine was.

And if your not a dad...

"Go find a wench. Raise fat babies, live a good long life." -Porthos

Of course do that so your can get some lovin and cool swag.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Oh you remember it don't you?

The way your eyes would light up when you saw the object of your affection. How you thoughts would be occupied with it. The excitement you would experience, then way it seemed to soak up all your time. The way tha...

Huh?

Dude, I'm not talking about a girl I'm talking about games. Geeze. This is a gaming blog remember?

My first "gaming" love was Battletech and oh how I was smitten. My twelve year old mind was filled with images of lumbering BattleMechs and stories of great houses vying for control of the universe. I remember how I would look over the rule book trying to wrap my twelve year old mind around things like "line of sight," "terrain modifers," "pluses to hit," and the oh so complicated "death from above." I felt advanced. The rest of the world was playing "regular" games but I was playing a tactical war game.

And as time went on I found other games and more complicated rule set. Battletech became a thing of memory taking its place beside things like He-Man and Captain Power (heh remember that one?). You know the things you did as a kid but rest only in the memory of your childhood?

But what if you could go back?

For my birthday this past year my uncle (who told me I could start playing these games at twelve... never understood why that was the magical age) got me the Classic Battletech boxed set. After tearing that thing open I was quickly reunited with my first love. What a trip it was to see record sheets again, battlemaps and those oh so boxy looking Mechs.

Now I'm not a die hard Battletech fan but it is something I like to breakout every once in awhile and give it a go. The cool thing is the boxed set came with twenty four miniatures which fits in nicely with my painters ADHD I suffer from. This new Battletech is different. Wae website really gave alot of direction in how to paint the minis to be apart of actual units within the game giving the experience more of a context than when I was a kid painting up all the mechs different colors (yes I had a rainbow mech and yes he is in a landfill somewhere).

"Word of Blake religous fanatics from the 7th Division IV-Iota: The Glorious"

Aww... their holding hands. Er guns... er hand in guns. Mech on Mech lovin... umm...

I used a bleached bone basecoat with a light drybrush of white along with metallic highlights around the Mech. The they went for a good dip in TAP


The nice thing about these miniatures is it's kinda hard to screw em up. Any cursory look at the Mechs on the website will tell you that. They come in all different paint schemes. I figured this would be a good time to spread my painting wings a bit and try a color I have never painted before... PURPLE!!!

Again these guys were used with TAP but I took a more detailed approach to painting then is required. Working with Liche Purple I built up the base coat by drybrushing lighter shades made with bleached bone, skull white and a bit of tentacle pink. Then I blacked ink the whole mini and followed up with yet a lighter shade of purple. The highlights are just straight bleached bone.

Then I dipped em.

I followed the Free World League 3rd Marik Militia: Lucky 13th paint scheme. We need some good guys to take down those religious crazies right?


So whatever your first love is I hope you return and find some of the fun I had as a kid (and I do mean games. Please don't call up some girl who broke your heart in high school... that's just creepy).

To start, a pre-script...

When I first started out with the Space Marines I had originally intended to do Ultra Marines. Seeing how well The Army Painter did and their tutorial on how to paint up an Ork I order the red primer. Since I'm an impatient fellow I painted up one of my Orks while waiting for the red primer to show up and realized that I didn't need the red primer. So here I am with a can of red primer, strong tone dip and a bunch of unpainted marines.

Ok, I'll just do Blood Angels.

Then I discovered after I painted them that Blood Angels have their own codex and they are primarily a close assault force. Looking over my list I had just painted up a Blood Angels shooty force.

Sigh.

Now the force I have has been a great training bra. They've taught me the game and they have played decently but I think it's time for me to part with them. I don't want to have to spend more money on more marines and more red primer. It's like I'm doing the army all over again. Besides if I ever really wanted to do them again it only takes a little over a week to get a painted Blood Angels force going again.

Then there is a question of gaming.

I really only play against Opiewan and he has been working on his Sisters for the better part of ten years (and they still arn't fully painted yet!). I mean really, how many Imperium on Imperium games can you play?

Boooooring.

So over the next couple of days I'm just gonna ebay my Blood Angels. They've taught me how to play but I think our time together has come to an end.

Now I got to figure out what army I really want to do... maybe it's back to the Orks for me :) The problem is when I look at the 40k armies they all appeal to me and they all repulse me in some way. I want what every 40k gamer wants though, an army I can really get into and collect for a long time (would be awesome to eventually do an apocalypse game some day).

I guess I just haven't found my niche yet.

Chalk it up to a noobie feeling his way around a vast universe and stubbing his toe.

So long Blood Angels!

I'm a big fan of test models. After all who wants to put up his expensive force to the whims of a paint scheme that might not end up looking right.

Thankfully my local game store has an extensive bitz/loose miniature bins with plastics for fifty cents and metal ones for a dollar. Now most of the stuff in there is crap but every now and again you'll find nice little gems. The Eldar a couple of posts down was from those bins.

Since 'ol Opie and I are eying Mordheim (a game he has wanted to play for years) I wanted to see what I could pull off here.


The Shadow Warriors list looked really cool so I scoured the bins looking for a High Elf fig. Since these guys are outcasts and are "shadow" guys I wanted to go with a darker look than the traditional High ELf. Not only did I find a High Elf fig but the bottom of his base says "1984!" The sculpt was super easy to paint and cheap too (remember, plastics are only fifty cents!). I mainly used codex gray for the robes instead of the usual white for High Elves to make him "shadowy." This is also the first time I've ever just painted the miniature as it. No primer. The paint seemed to go on smoother this way and it kept the color tone down a bit since this minis base coat is essentially just the plastic. Again this supports the dark tone of the figure I was aiming for.

And of course he's dipped in TAP. I wanted to use the strong tone to make him look dirty (can't imagine an outcast faction would look very clean). After the dull coat was applied TAP works wonders on the gems making them look shiny as if you actually painted em!

He was a fun little mini to paint and I'm looking forward to more of em. Heh it would rock if I could form my whole warband from those bins. I'd save a tone of money!

Go check this guy blog out especially if your a fellow Guard player

http://blackbagjob.blogspot.com/

Awesome conversions, slick paint jobs and eyes, man can he paint eyes!!!

Join me in bugging him for a tutorial on how to do eyes!!!

Thanks mates!

Not bad huh?

I never even painted an Eldar before.

I picked up this mini in a bitz box at the local game shop last night(for a buck at that). With our fearless leader sending out a call for blogs about time saving tips I figured it was the perfect time to show you just how simple and fast The Army Painter dip really is. Not only is it quick but the level of detail is unparalleled for the amount of time you'll put into the mini.

You want to save time?

Here's how I paint a Saim-Hann Eldar. All paints used are from Games Workshop.

1. I primed the miniature white. This a crucial. Unless you want the mini looking really dark after you dip it always use white primer (or The Army Painter primers that are designed for it). We've tried it the other way and believe me, the mini will come out looking far better.

2. Since this is a Saim Hann trooper red is the primary color. I used Blood Red for this. Cover the main body area trying to be careful not to get it onto other area of the mini where you'll be using different colors. It's no big deal if you do but it does save time in it's application. Easier to put colors over white than fighting with a stronger color base coat. This step took 5 minutes. If you have The Army Painter Primer: Red you can just skip this step altogether. Remember though if you use the red primer on the mini as is (plastic or metal) it will look a tad darker than if you just prime white. I found that out with my Blood Angles.

2. Next was the helmet using Fortress Gray. I decided on going with a gray helmet against white considering I'm using the strong tone which is a dark brown color. It looks good on gray but ends up making white surfaces look brown. Took 2 minutes for the helmet. I also went for a lighter shade of gray since the dip will darken it up some. Also this is where I could change it up a bit and add some color variety to the mini. Wraithbone is way cool and is a welcome change to my usual painting (bolters and metal weapons get a bit boring after awhile). I covered the gun and his device thingy in Bleached Bone. Now the strong tone quick shade looks awesome on Bleached Bone. This step took about 7 minutes.

3. With the miniature nearly done it's time to focus on some detail. The weapon tube and gems were the longest step clocking in at about 15 minutes. I never knew just how important gems were to the Eldar mini until I painted one. The model is covered with em. Not to mention you want them to look good (more on that later). I changed up the gem colors. on red I used Enchanted Blue. The gun got Liche Purple gems. I used Goblin Green on the device and the helmet got some more Blood Red.

4. Now your Eldar is done and ready to take the plunge. Go ahead and go back and clean up anything where you made a ooops before you dip though. This will be your longest step, letting the mini dry. Now you don't have to wait the 24 hours The Army Painter website tells you to wait. My patience lasts about 30 mins and then I start to dull coat the the mini. Not only does the anti shine take the shine away but it also smooths out the stickiness from the dip.

5. Remember those gems? Now their all nice and dull from the protective coat you just put on em. Now if you can paint gems more power to ya but were saving time here so scratch that idea. Instead take a toothpick and get just a dab of the dip on the tip. Glaze the point over the gems and just let it dry. The dip with make em shiny. Natural light with give it a gem effect.

That's it fellas, nice and easy. All in all painting time took about 30 minutes. Simple math tells us a squad of 10 is gonna take nearly 6 hours.

A squad in an afternoon?

Now that is saving some time!

Opiewan has been a long time fan of Mordheim. Now I believe that part of being a good friend is doing what they want to do from time to time. As a gamer I have my alliances (to say I have games I already play) and money is really the only factor that keeps me from grazing the green pastures of other games out there. I know I put so much effort into one game I don't want those efforts wasted on something that may or may not stick.

But then again who cares?

I'm a gamer and in reality I'll play anything. I already have my 1000 point trainer bra force to learn 40k (a Blood Angel cross your heart support bra at that) so while I figure out what direction I'm gonna go with my main 40k love why not see what else is out there.

Not like I'm married to my Marines...

Ewww.

So when Mordheim came up I was immediately intrigued at the setting. A ruined city? I've always wanted to do one of those and an entire game done in a small version of one with a small Warband force seemed like a refreshing change from the overwhelming atmosphere miniature gaming can take on (painting hordes and hordes of troops and all that).

8-12 dudes and your done.

Awesome!

So last night I looked over at a pizza box. Then I grabbed some small Popsicle sticks, white glue, clippers, ruler and a razor and voila!





I'll have do do up a blog showing step by step what I did.

On a bummer note I accidentally erased my visitor tracker and can't find where I got it...

Sigh.

Post, umm post: Found my tracker. Got it from histats.com. Man I was bummed there for a sec. Thought I lost my whole blog traffic history. Thanks for helping out guys!

The other half of the Flames of War starter set came with a couple of German tanks.

I had to eyeball these ones for their paint scheme. For the U.S. troops I had picked up there recommended paints at the local swag dealer. I did that before I went out and got the stater set and after the Sherman tanks painted up so quickly I decided to give these guys a go.

The pics of these looked like a desert yellow. Since I didn't have the Vallejo color the paint guide called for I decided to go with GWs Desert Yellow. Problem was in most of the pics I was seeing the base coat either looked darker or greenish. That was no problem really knowing The Army Painter would darken it up some as the dip dried on it.

The Part that really scared me was the camo job on em. I've never been able to pull off camo right. It looks like camo should have a real fluid look to it on the mini with the colors blending into each other. Camo jobs on other miniatures I've seen pull this off nicely. When I would do it however it clearly looked like I just painted stripes on the damn thing. So this time around after I had zebra'd the tank up well I drybrushed a lighter shade of the base coat (Desert Yellow with a drop of Bleached Bone) over the stripes. I tried to take care to do this around the edges of the camo pattern while glazing over the stripes hoping that would blend it all together. While it worked better than any other camo job I had ever done it still feels like it could be better.

Does anyone out there have some good tips for doing up camo or know of a link to someones blog that talks about it?