What's worse; personal opinions or unasked for advice?

I wanted to post on my blog....well because I hadn't been here in a while! I'm going to give a few little tips and tricks, advice really, that I have accrued since I started playing and painting. Let's hop right in!

Thin your paints!!!!!- Well this is a litany you might hear every accomplished painter yell in the face of oblivious/inexperienced hobbyists around the FLGS. But what does it mean to you and your miniatures? Well, the lovely people at Citadel make their paints very thick(foundation paints even moreso). Just straight applying those pigments to a model creates that unpleasant blotchy effect on your basecoat. By creating a 50/50 mix of water and paint you get a much more workable solution that will apply better to a model. It also extend the benchlife of paints on a palette, especially under a hot work light. Paint pots also benefit from a little bit of H2O added to them while being stored.

Make your own space!!!!- Someone once said that a man's home is his castle. If such were true, then my hobbybench is my sanctum; comfortable, safe, and free from distraction. And raiders. Definitely safe from raiders. It's important that you have a centralized location for your endeavours. Having all your tools and paint and minis strewn about your house is not only inconvenient, hobby knives hurt when you step on them! Lot's of us have these people that live with us, no not roommates. They are females, females whose happiness and not-bleeding-from-sitting-on-a-minisaw status is important to us and our collective sex-lives. Offspring must be thought of as well. God forbid one of them takes a sip from one of the multitude of bottles full of harmful chemicals we utilize in our hobby. Nobody wants to make that 911 call. Especially if it's because we had to kill a child because they had to play with, and break, an expensive model.

Seriously, a dedicated area for your endeavours makes it safer for you're family, and safer for your projects. For those who don't have much money or maybe don't know where to start with something like walling off your own workspace, I'll be posting a how-to on my blog on building your own desk and how to stock it with essential stuff!

Well guys, it's 10pm sunday night, and I have to wake up a t 3:30am, so I will check in later this week with some more how-to's and unsolicited advice! 'til then, I Love Yellow Paint!

Blood Spilt At Painting Competition!

Well it isn't exactly what could be considered a blood bath, but that's what happens when you play hard in a speed painting competition! For 8 hours the best painters in Bangor Maine gathered at 3 Geek Gaming to crank out some big bugs; Carnifex speed painting!

This is a pic of Becker, this is the fella that pulled first with his beautifully painted carnifex(below). Yes, he paints that way. No, I don't know why.

The hairy beef hands belong to my pal James, doing his best to contain the rage of a carnifex in full-on "crush your face" mode.

And since it's my blog :) this is my entry. I went for a Hive Fleet Leviathan scheme, and I placed 2nd out of ten competitors. I want to thank all the guys that provided such excellent and gentlemanly competition, I love these contests! And most of all I want to thank 3 Geek Games for hosting what is always a stupendous event, month after month!

The circle is complete...

Well, there it is. I now have all of my materials for my Imperial Fists army! Now all it needs is adhesive, paint, and time....precious time.

Today I got all my tactical squads chopped and shopped, that's twenty SM's in total, the remainder I have to paint for the force. I got a few dynamic poses in there, as I hate the standard SM hugging a bolter to his chest. Dammit! Extend that bad boy and shove it down a xenos/traitors throat! True Grit, man! True Grit!

I broke from my usual policy of "no assembly prior to painting" too. I put the torso on the legs of all my fellas, kinda emulating how the AoBR SM are built. I managed it well when painting the AoBR set and now I'm giving it a try with my troop box marines.

'til later, I love yellow paint!

Landraider from the Depths of Space Pt. III, Revenge of the Terminus Ultra

POW, how do ya like me now?! Well, this monster is in the can. Meet Tor, Land Raider Terminus Ultra Pattern.

See the terminator shield on the front quarter? I grabbed some of my friends thunder hammers and cut them in half, mounting them on a GS blob behind the shield. I like to think of them as the heraldry of notable commanders that have helmed the Tor in the past. This detail is mirrored on the left side as well, just with a different shield and a pair of Beastman axes behind it. The main cannons on the sides have a pair of buckler size shields mounted on top of spears, the shields and spears were both found on the WHFB Skeleton regiment box. And they laughed when i bought them, they said I was mad, crazy even! Well I am crazy! Crazy like a fox!

'ere is his bum. Ladies, please remain seated.

Imperial Fist Biker Cavalry, part I

The Imperial Fists are reputed in the annals of Imperial history as the personal gaurd of the Emperor during the Crusade and in the Defence of Terra. In seeking to personalize my force of Fists, I delved into a bit of research to find an aspect of their real-world analog that I could exploit; the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire.

The Praetorian Guard were an elite formation that served as the bodyguard of the Roman Emperor while at home and while campaigning with his legions. You can see the similarities drawn between the two organizations; both renowned for loyalty, both elite formations, both respected within their cultures for their virtues(of course, later, the Praetorians became a group of political strong-armers whom placed and deposed Emperors dependent upon whether they were appropriately paid off or not). As I perused the specifics and histories of the Praetorians, it mentioned an organization within their organization- The Equites Singulares Augusti(see the above illustration). They were an elite group of cavalry that accompanied the Emperor into the field and fought beside him when he deemed to engage in battle on horseback. Bam. I had found my in.


Well as some may remember, the Fists are well known for siege-craft, heavy weapons and loyalty to the Emperor above all. So their emulation of the Praetorians would mean that they could possibly have a corp of specialist biker marines. This formation would have been a very prestigious group to be a part of, and following the retirement of the Fists from being the personal gaurd of the Emperor they would have adopted more traditional tactics yet retained the pride and esprit de corps. They would have also brought their own tastes to the look of an SM bike.


I've done some looking on the net(thank you Google pictures!), and the look I want to bring to the SM bike can be seen to the left. That's actually a motorcycle with 100% tracked locomotion. Not totally what I was envisioning.

Thaaaaaats more like it. I intend to remove the rear lower portion of the wheel armor and the exhaust pipes. Then I'll create a track using the small tank wheels from the Leman Russ kit, fashioning the actual track sections out of thin plasticard. Some smaller conversions to the piece include adding plastic bearings to the surface of the front wheel(mimicking a snow tire), and just generally cutting down on the bulky look of the bike. I plan to exclude the plate that constitutes the foot wells for the bike and just make the foot spokes out of plasticard rods where the bikers foot would naturally rest. For attack bikes I'm going to double the rear track and put a plate of plasticard over it with a mounted rack to support a heavy weapon with the supporting marine sitting behind the pilot.

This is the work I've done thus far, the rear of each bike has been significantly reduced using some clippers and sanded down with a file. I've done a dry piece together, and I have great confidence that this is going to look awesome!