1000 Points in Ten Days- Yippee!!

It's been a while since I went on such a hobby tear- probably the Iyanden Eldar army I painted comes the closest to so much assembled and painted in such a short period of time. While I'm not going to win any painting awards with this introductory force, the nice urban rubble bases from Battlefront make up for a multitude of sins! This weekend I'll get a full M10 Tank Destroyer Platoon done, along with an Assault Gun platoon of three M8 Scott tanks. That will get me close enough to 1500 points. If that works, I'll finish the army next week with a full battery of M12 155mm GMC SP artillery pieces. That will give me exactly 1750 points for the army, and should make a nice finish (at least for the time being).

Tomorrow's Turn 2 of our Market Garden campaign. This time, I get to play with MY OWN army.


Nice.

Good Progress Tonight

I didn't get anything done yesterday- I was just too tired. However I killed it today and got 12 bases fully painted. I'll get the rest of the platoon finished tomorrow for sure!

Holiday Progress: FoW Armored Rifle Company

Well, the army's not done yet, but a mighty blow has been struck towards that end. Over the weekend I completely finished one of my Armored Rifle Platoons, including all the half tracks. All that remains now is one more platoon and I've got a fully painted 1000 point force. I have no doubt I'll get this done before Friday's Turn 2 of Market Garden. The question is whether I can get a Tank Destroyer Platoon and something else painted to get me up to 1500 (at least). I'll give it crack! Happy Holidays everyone- I hope your own projects are coming along like you want them to. I'll leave you here with a couple of shots of my completed platoon. Huzzah!!

Crash Project: FAIL!

Ah well, I didn't make it.

I knew the chances of getting it done were slim to none, but I can honestly say I gave it a shot. Over the course of four after work evenings, I got the following done:

ASSEMBLED & PRIMED

2x Full Armored Rifle Platoons

In addition, I got all the vehicles basecoated with my airbrush.

COMPLETELY FINISHED

Armored Rifle Company Command HQ, including additional Bazooka Team

Platoon of 4x M4A1 Sherman tanks

Between the assembled and finished models, this is the entire initial 1000 point force. All things considered, it's not a bad effort at all. I've got some models I can borrow for tomorrow's Market Garden launch, and I think with a holiday weekend's effort I can get the remainder of my first 1000 points knocked out. I'm thinking of a Priest battery and a recon section to round out 1500 points.

Until next time...

Crash Project: American Armored Rifle Company

Hours away from finishing my SS Panzerkompanie, we found out that two out of the three Allied players we believed were going to play the Market Garden campaign have pulled out. This leaves us 4 German players and one Allied player for the campaign starting this Friday. So, I thought I'd go nuts and try to build and paint a 1000 point Armored Rifle Company in time for the campaign and switch sides.... yowsah.

In the last two days I've made more progress than I would have guessed. I've built all 11 half tracks I need, as well as 4 Shermans. I've also put together the HQ and the first platoon in full, leaving only second platoon to complete assembly. I used Battlefront's relatively new rubble plastic bases to help speed up assembly- they are a lifesaver.

The test paint job above has almost no highlighting on the figures other than black lining. I think it looks fine for the battlefield, and it's relatively quick. Here's the recipe:

1- Glue the figures into the base with enough super glue to get pushed up and fill the gaps/spill over a bit. Finely ground shale was sprinkled over all the super glue areas

2- Stand was primed with Vallejo Black Primer shot from my airbrush

3- Entire base was drybrushed with VMC London Grey
4- Medium drybrush with VMC Medium Sea Grey
5- Patches were heavily drybrushed with VMC Flat Brown
6- Brown patches medium drybrush VMC Beige Brown
7- Entire base lightly drybrushed with VMC Iraqi Sand
8- Pants and webbing painted US Dark Green
9- Jackets and anklets painted VMC Khaki
10- Boots painted VMC Flat Brown
11- Flesh painted VMC Light Brown and drybrushed with VMC Flat Flesh
12- Helmet, shell, and bazooka painted VMC Brown Violet
13- 2d Armored Div patch painted with VMC Deep Yellow, Flat Red, and Dark Blue. Khaki used to trim it up into a rough triangle shape.
14- Separate brick wall and loose bricks on the base painted VMC Cavalry Brown and glued into base.
15- Bricks and wall washed with Vallejo Pale Grey Wash.
16- Base edges painted VMC Beige Brown

It sounds like a lot, and maybe it is, but that's about as simple as I can make it other than the patch madness. What can I say, I'm not going to let Khairul get away with those eagles without a fight! ;)

It'll be a miracle if I get this done in time, but I'll go down fighting....

Apoxie Sculpt Available Locally

This is the first time I've seen this around here, so I thought I'd give folks a heads up. I found this very nice selection at Craft Haven, a shop at 1 Utama. It's good stuff for a variety of hobby uses, so check it out sometime...

SS Panzerkompanie WIP

Had a productive night tonight, with priming and camo basecoat for the last part of my army. This is Biermeyer's Panzer IVH Platoon from the new "Grey Wolf" Eastern Front compilation, along with an SS Tank Hunter Platoon consisting of two Jagdpanzer IV/70 tracks. I've still got a ways to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the campaign we're starting in a few weeks... Huzzah!

Avenging Sons Rhino COMPLETE

I figured I'd do a vehicle "test model" for the next thing, and I'm even happier with this than I am with the veteran I painted earlier. I think the bright scheme really pops, especially with the weathering. The Avenging Sons chapter symbol was done with green stuff. I cut a template from thick card stock, and then used heat activated mold material that Cool Mini Or Not sells to make a press mold. I did one for a vehicle sized one like this, as well as one that would work for a shoulder pad or small icon. The first attempt here could be crisper, but overall I'm really pleased with it and plan to continue.

The black sections of the Rhino mark it as 5th company, 1st Tactical Squad. Here's a few more pics- thanks for checking it out!

Avenging Sons Veteran COMPLETE

Well, with these pics I think this project is official! I love the paint scheme, it's something new, and it works will with the dark muted city rubble base. Up next, I'm going to paint a Land Speeder Storm that's been on my shelf since I bought it the week it came out. It needs a paint job, and it may as well be Avenging Sons!

Thanks for checking it out- C&C most welcome folks...

More Avenging Sons Progress (WIP)

After writing the script for the Turn 5 update of the Ghemehaal: Annilation series of videos, I went back to my test model for the Avenging Sons. Last night after my blog post I sprayed a gloss varnish on the model (Future floor polish through my airbrush), then applied cobalt blue oil washes along all the detail areas.

Today I did the cleanup of those washes with a brush and some mineral spirits, and then highlighted the blue with a 50/50 mix of VGC Electric Blue and White. I think I'll highlight one more time, very lightly, with pure white. It should pop nicely with that. For the first time I tried a bit of weathering with some scattered "chips" of VMC German Grey, highlighted underneath with the same 50/50 blue mix.

I painted the eyes, completed assembly, blacked out areas that will be black or metallic, and then sprayed VMA Matte Varnish on the model. I attached him to the base and called a night. I love the contrast between the base and the model- they really pop, and it will even more when I do the final white highlights and finish the remaining detail. I think this project is starting to get legs...

Avenging Sons Test Model WIP

Now, before you say something along the lines of, "What about your Krieg, videos, etc...?". I know. I know! I just can't help myself, and I've had this idea in the back of my hobby brain since the Forge World Taros Campaign book came out. I can't help but think that light blue marines on cityfight rubble bases would look SWEET! Tonight I used a mask I cut for myself for the cross crosslet chapter icon, and airbrushed a basecoat of VGC Electric Blue (with a little Vallejo Thinner chucked in there for flow). I love it! I'm going to finish this test model, and make the call whether I'm going to go off the deep end and start painting Marines again.

What do you guys think? Potential, or no....?

VIDEO- 40K Campaign "Ghemehaal: Annihilation" Turn 4

Video update/batrep for our 40K campaign- thanks in advance for checking it out!

I FINALLY Sorted the Video Editing Problem

Apparently A LOT of Sony Vegas users have similar problems with "low memory" errors, and I was no different. Fortunately, I found a video tutorial that showed how to change the registry of Vegas to make it fully utilize ALL of the RAM my computer has. As soon as I did, the low memory errors stopped and I had no problem editing and rendering a very late Turn 3. Assuming all goes well, I'm going to put in hobby overtime this week and try to get Turns 4 and 5 done by Friday. Thanks for being patient campaign players! :)

VIDEO- 40K Campaign "Ghemehaal: Annihilation" Turn 2

Today we'll be playing Turn 3 in the campaign, and here's our video update for all the Turn 2 action. Thanks for checking it out- comments and rates most welcome! :)

VIDEO- 40K Campaign "Ghemehaal: Annihilation" Turn 1

We didn't completely finish Turn 1 until this past Friday evening, hence the Turn 1 update coming out a little later than we wanted. However, we completely finished Turn 2 as well, so we will have our scheduled Turn 2 update online this coming Friday. Thanks for following the campaign! If you haven't already, subscribe, comment, and rate our video. We sincerely appreciate your support for the campaign!

The Campaign Has Begun

I've clearly not gotten enough Krieg painting done, but I have been hard at work learning more about working with video. We're going to try and do a weekly video update on this blog's YouTube channel, and tonight we've published an intro to the campaign:



We're learning as we go, and it's fun to work with this relatively new medium for me. Firestorm is a great system, and after only one turn we're having a blast. Once we get into the groove of things I'll start working on the Krieg again, but for now I've got my hands full running this campaign and chronicling the progress...

Starting to Grind Out Some Work

Sorry no pic folks, but I did indeed get some paint on two Krieg vox-caster troopers, as well as a squad Watchmaster. With any luck, I'll get these three finished tomorrow evening. I stayed away from the devil video games today. This is good. I need to get some damn work done.

As many of you know I'm a huge fan of the band "Clutch". Here's a rare track that I found on YouTube today that I hadn't listened to in a while. I leave you tonight with "Apache"... enjoy.

Damn You Space Marine!

It's been a LONG time since I've lost so much hobby time to video games. Deus Ex and Space Marine absolutely killed my Krieg progress over the last couple of weeks. Argh!

The good news is that I've basically played my fill of these for the time being, and FINALLY got back into the hobby room to stay for continued Krieg progress. Tonight I primed black 5 troopers, and sprayed their coats with the customary Vallejo Model Air Primer Grey. Good times.

While this endeavor isn't worth posting a pic, something I stumbled across today is. From the Warseer forums, a thread by the Australian hobbyist 'Sheep' prominently features a Death Korps army he's made a lot of progress with. He came up with a fantastic mortar team conversion doubtless inspired by the German Nebelwerfer from WWII. It's a fantastic conversion, and the autumn SS camo he's using looks great as well. Check this out:

I think this is some innovative and sexy hobby. If you'd like to see more, check out his massive Warseer thread. He's got some serious chops.

Well, I'm back on the wagon and have cast aside the devilish influence of video games! Let there be hobby!!

Death Korps of Krieg Deployed

Last Friday we got together at Hobby Night and took a bunch of pics and some video for our upcoming "Ghemehaal: Annihilation" 40K campaign. I've never really done any kind of Corel/Photoshop stuff before, so I'm slowly learning how to manipulate images for publication. This is the first one I thought I'd post up. The more I do this the better I'm going to get at it.

In the meantime, I've actually gotten some real work done as well. I've assembled and based another full squad of Krieg troopers, and will start painting them after work tomorrow. Onwards!

Death Korps Leman Russ Tank DONE

Woo hoo! I've added another tank to the army tonight- one step closer to being ready for next month's campaign. Nothing too crazy/unique with this paint job, just more of the same I've been doing up to this point.

Up next is another Krieg infantry squad, followed by their Chimera transport. Until then, thanks for checking in!

Platoon Command Chimera DONE

Well, I've spent a full week on vacation, mostly watching movies and playing the hell out of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. AWESOME game. What else can I say?

 However, the week was not a complete hobby loss. While I did indeed expect to get more done than this Chimera, it is still done and that's cool. I'm happy with how the turret marking came out- the '1' is a stencil and the command laurels around it I painted freehand. Really pleased with the overall look :)

 Up next is a Leman Russ! Until next time, thanks for checking this out and for your comments...

Krieg Platoon Command Chimera Started

Considering I only hobbied for about two hours tonight, I got some reasonably good progress done:

1. Vallejo Grey Surface Primer

2. Tamiya Desert Yellow basecoat

3. Vallejo Model Air German Grey camo pattern

4. Future floor polish gloss finish

5. Masked off and sprayed black stripes

6. Masked off and sprayed white company and platoon command mark

The turret "1" in white was intentionally positioned slightly up from center to give me room to paint laurels underneath it. Unlike the rest of the platoon where turret number shows the squad, this "1 with a laurel" will show 1st Platoon command.

I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to get this done tomorrow except one: Deus Ex comes out tomorrow. I'm a big fan of the original and the remake seems to be seriously badass. I might lose a couple days Xboxing away with this new game.

Either way, this Chimera is well on its way to being done...

Krieg Platoon Command Squad Done

Finally, I've finished the squad. I got distracted, and the banner took longer than I expected (and I'm still not entirely happy with it!). Nonetheless, I'm trying to paint an army here, so I'm going to call this done. They'll look just fine on the table.

In other Krieg news, once I've finished this first 1750 points, I will be painting a plastic Baneblade kit for the army. This was a gift from my boss back when this kit was brand new- about damn time it gets done!

Today Soo Jinn, a good friend and mentor of mine here, gave me some Krieg mortars as a gift. Thanks dude! In addition, for a hefty discount, he also passed to me this:

For those of you who don't know, this is a Macharius super-heavy tank, armed with the devastating Vulcan Mega-Bolter. It is a truly badass resin kit, and I've now got a brand new one. This will get built and painted in the same desert camo by the time Ghemehaal: Annihilation rolls around to the final Apocalypse battle. I can't wait! Soo Jinn, thanks once again for the hook up. You truly are the man! Folks, this dude is a hobby nutter. If you've never checked out his blog, I highly recommend you do so by following this link. The dude is a rockstar!

That's it for tonight, folks. Tomorrow I'll get started on painting the platoon command's Chimera transport. With any luck, that should only take a couple of days. After that, it'll be painting a Leman Russ, and from there another infantry squad. Gotta push this thing- only five weeks left! :O

Krieg Platoon Command Autocannon Team Done

Didn't get the squad done today, but at least I got the autocannon team finished. All that remains is the vox caster and standard bearer. Maybe with some luck I'll get them done before the weekend...? Gotta work faster.

Death Korps of Krieg Lieutenant Complete

I'm going to have to start hobbying/painting A LOT faster if I'm going to get this army done for the October campaign, but at least it's SOME progress.

I tried using GF9 Super Fine Basing Grit, a new product. It's nice, but I think for desert I prefer the finer texture of play sand for the bases. So, this command squad will the only squad that gets this grit.

Nothing else to report tonight folks. Tomorrow is a public holiday, and my battle plan is to finish painting the platoon command section. Wish me luck! :)

Churchill Tutorial Video "In the Can"

Last night I completed shooting and narrating the video, and I think this is one of the best ones yet. I completely changed equipment, lightning, camera angle, and shot composition to get a new look that I like quite a bit. Once the video guys at the NZ studio "do their thing", this video should be posted to Battlefront TV.

Now, it's back to Krieg! :)

Here's the final version, published on Battlefront TV. Before you ask, I have no idea why they added that black border around the edge... maybe it's a Kiwi thing ;)

Death Korps of Krieg Platoon Command Started

I haven't been hittin' the hobby too hard the last couple of days- I blame Red Faction: Revolution and the need to run excessive errands in mad Malaysian traffic. Nonetheless, progress continues with the noble men of Krieg:

The squad is basically assembled- painting will start this weekend for sure. I've also got a Churchill video to do for early next week. I assembled that tonight as well. With any luck I'll have both fully painted and sexy by the end of next week, and well into the platoon command Chimera.

I hope your hobby endeavors are kicking much butt- take a moment and tell me all about it in the comments. Until this weekend, may the hobby gods favor you all...

Death Korps of Krieg Engineer Squad COMPLETE

Woo hoo!

After I finished their Chimera transport on Sunday, I decided to keep going and try to knock out the remaining five members of the squad undone. That consisted of the Watchmaster, Vox Operator, Engineer with Demo Charge, and two standard Engineers.

The Watchmaster

This was a simple conversion- no fancy tricks or anything like that. I just used a pair of arms from the Krieg Officer Upgrade pack to hook him up with a power weapon. He turned out decent enough...

The Vox Operator

This was my favorite one to build, without a doubt. I took a regular Engineer and added a Krieg Vox Caster from their equipment pack. It comes with a vox caster (duh), as well as a little microphone doo-hickey that attaches to the left side of his helmet. I didn't realize what the tiny bit was until I checked the Forge World site and closely examined the Command Squad vox operator. While I was doing that, I noticed that there is a cable that's supposed to run from the vox caster to his helmet, and then another one from his helmet to the gas mask. Since these cable weren't included, I went ahead and rolled some really thin sausages of green stuff and made my own cables pictured above. They turned out decent enough. I'm certainly happy with the final results- the antenna is a bristle from a plastic broom

Demo Charge Engineer

This one was pretty easy, too. I shaved away a bit of material from each of his back mounted gas filters until the demo charge would snugly fit in there.

The Last Two

No conversions necessary on these- regular ol' Engineers to round out the squad.

So, the entire squad AND their transport is done- HUZZAH! Up next I've got to do another Battlefront vid- I'll have that squared away by mid week. Once that's done, it's time to build and paint the infantry platoon Command Squad. I'm really looking forward to that one!

I'll leave you tonight with a shot of all three vehicles finished thus far- good night and thanks for checking this out....