Happy Halloween!.. Nemesis was good.

On Friday my friends and I got together for a fun night of pumpkin carving and Halloween themed cupcakes and cookies. And non Halloween themed beer!

The two pumpkins I carved are below.



Boba Fett:

And this guy:

Finished reading Nemesis a few nights ago. I liked it. Learning about the traits of the different clades, appearances by important figures (including a certain primarch of a certain favourite legion/chapter of mine)... all good stuff. For a Black Library book, it was very well written.

 I've started reading Angels of Darkness by Gav Thorpe. Two chapters in, and the book seems pretty good.

Space Wolves Land Raider Redeemer WIP

Fairly basic Redeemer. No magnets or significant conversions. I used spare bits from infantry kits to add some Space Wolf character to it.

Quick painting update for my Imperial Fists

Here is where the vehicles are paint wise.

There are two more Land Speeders at the same stage of painting, Doing a whole army at once is rather daunting.  My next armies will be painted unit by unit.


p.s. If any readers have the time, I would be interested to hear a bit of feedback on my Ragnar conversion. I know it isn't finished, but am curious about what people think of the shoulder guard. Does it look plausible, or need some work?

Ragnar Conversion- WIP

For this conversion, I used the Space Wolf Pack kit, and the Wolf Guard kit, as well as one sword arm from another kit; probably the Space Marine Commander or Command Squad box. I am waiting on the Space Wolves accessory sprue from GW to arrive in the mail. It has the commander back pack that a Ragnar model should have.

Here is how Ragnar's sword arm started. The GW model and the art in the new Codex both show Ragnar with a chain sword. None of the chain swords in the Wolf Pack kit had a pose I liked, so I dug the power sword arm out of my bits box and did some cutting and glueing.

Ragnar is supposed to have fancy shoulder guards. I wasn't too keen on sculpting a laughable imitation with green stuff, and started looking around for suitable bits. While looking over the sprues from the Wolf Guard kit, I noticed this bit:

Perfect! I even had a spare that I had ordered from a bits seller on ebay a while back (thinking ahead/buying stuff I probably wouldn't need). The rest of the cloak has the fur from a wolf's leg that looked like a possible addition to my conversion. It, and the wolf head bit are shown below, trimmed and ready to be attached.

Edit: pictures of the model mostly finished.

Excuse the tissue box with the flowers.

Space Wolves

Courtesy of Maelstrom Games, I picked up a Space Wolves army for myself a while back for a very good price. My original intention was to leave everything sitting in boxes until the summer. I made the purchase when I did because of the exchange rate at the time. So far, my choice remains a good one. Relative value of the British Pound to the Canadian dollar hasn't been that low since.

As it turns out, I enjoy modelling more than painting, and so when I needed a break from studying and felt like doing something hobby wise, boxes of Space Wolves and not yellow paint pots were opened.

My rune priest conversion. Everything I used came from a Wolf Pack box. The staff is a frost axe with the bottom and top removed.

His runic weapon is a bit unusual with the sword at the bottom, but I don't think it looks too goofy.

Next up, my Ragnar conversion and then some vehicles. The Wolf Guard in terminator armour will bemaking an appearance eventually. I need to get some cork board for the basing. The rune priest and Ragnar will get the same treatment. There is only the smallest dab of super glue keeping them on their bases at the moment.

University and hobby time, not the best of friends

I have seen several blog posts about the lack of hobby time people find themselves facing, and how life is preventing them from painting, gaming and blogging. Sorry for posting another one, but I felt that doing so was a better alternative to just leaving my blog quiet without explanation.

What part of life is keeping me busy? I have started law school! I'm not even sure if I want to be a lawyer, but I do know what I would like to do in life career wise. How I will get into the position to do it is not obvious, but law school seems like a sensible step. Even if this step turns out to be one that doesn't take me towards the path I would like to travel later in life, it will still leave me with plenty of other options (and should be a pretty fun path all on its own).

From what I have heard from second and third year students, first year law will be a lot like the first year of undergrad. There is a staggering amount of reading assigned, and even though a lot of it doesn't need to be done, it's only after you've done it all that you will have learned what you didn't need to do, how to glance at something and get everything you need to know, etc.

There is a way to succeed in school and have free time and hobby time. I did it in undergrad (minus the hobby time, since I wasn't into the hobby yet. But if half of the free time I had was turned into hobby time, there would have been enough of both), and I will do it in law school. First, though, I have to learn how. For a while that means my hobby time will be too restricted to game, and paint, and blog about it.

Eventually, I hope to have the time to do all of those things. Right now, I think only the very infrequent blog post will make it up. (especially considering that I'm behind on all my readings. Thanks Bungie.)

When I do manage to put up a blog post, it will likely be on one of the following:

-painting for my Imperial Fists (managed to get quite a bit done before school started. Just need to find time to photograph everything).

-painting and modelling for Dark Eldar (I've wanted them since first getting into the hobby. No way am I  being reasonable and not getting them as soon as they come out).

-painting and modelling for Vampire Counts (hint: my favourite background story in the army book is about a certain fiend from Krudenwald).

-gaming with Space Marines in Battlefleet Gothic (the fleet is ready to go, minus a protective coat of varnish. I'm currently trying to decide how to do it. Two friends very recently had spray varnish frost their models).

To those who have read my posts, and especially those who have taken the time to reply, thank you! I will be checking the FTW blog rolls frequently to check out the awesome stuff everyone is working on. 

Battle Fleet Gothic painting update

The fleet is nearly finished! Drybrushing is done, and the bases have been re painted. All of the engines and turrents still need attention, and the Imperial Fist symbol needs to painted onto each ship.

I'm mostly happy with how the models turned out. Sometime down the road I may repaint them. If I do, I'll bring the colour of the hull and highlight closer together.

The photos below were taken after I finished drybrushing, but before I repainted the bases. The base colour is Iyanden Darksun. This is followed by a wash of Ogryn flesh, which is followed by a dry brush of Iyanden/Bleach Bone mix, and then followed by a dry brush of Sunburst Yellow.