Like a kid in a candy store...(Part two)

As if these two visits from the post man were not enough, I also got a couple of other unexpected surprises.  A friend of mine had gotten interested in playing Warhammer 40k a number of years ago.  I agreed to paint up an army of his choosing.  He didn't have a huge preference and wanted something that a newcomer could play fairly easily and that I would be interested in painting.  We agreed on starting a Nurgle Chaos army.  I painted up the first unit of plague marines and a chaos lord and things stalled out on both ends.  He never got into it, and I quickly discovered how difficult painting an army could be!  I found a tutorial online about magnetizing the rhinos and assigned him the task of magnetizing the various doors and hatches.  This past weekend he gave it back to me with the magnets in place!  He did an outstanding job on it.  I'll need to assemble it and glue it, but it's finally magnetized.

 

Finally, to top it off, I received my plinth from Model Display Products that I was fortunate enough to win for the May/June Facebook page for Figure Painter Magazine.  Martyn Dorey runs the shop there and does an outstanding job.  I've ordered from him before and, in my experience, the service has been top notch.  He communicates very well and gets your items out quickly.  If there is going to be a delay, even for a few days, he'll let you know.  He sells plinths, of course, but also stocks his own line of miniatures called War Griffon Miniatures, which are larger scale (54mm and up) as well as busts.  There also a couple of other lines as well.  He also has a wide range of accessory products for your gaming and miniature needs including but not limited to pigments, Silflor/Mininatur, Vallejo water effects, and magnetic sheets for basing.  Have a look at http://www.modeldisplayproducts.co.uk/.

 

Martyn was also kind enough to toss in one of his display bases on the right.  It is a nice little base of stonework stairs.  Both the plinth and the base are made of resin and are really quite nice.  Solid, very sturdy pieces with no air bubbles I could see.  Quality!  Thanks again for the plinth and the base, Martyn!

 

 

Like a kid in a candy store... (Part One)

After months of patient waiting, I got a number of surprises in the mail this past week.  My eagerly anticipated Massive Voodoo artbook arrived.

 

 

Well worth the wait!  The hardback book is 130 pages filled with high quality photos of Roman Lappat's and Raffaele Picca's miniature work from 2008 through 2012.  Huge amounts of inspiration!  With each piece, they also included a small write up which I very much enjoyed reading.  The second part of the package was the documentary booklet.  It is softback and includes 60 pages of work in progress photos, tutorials, and a massive (pun intended) step by step on Raffaele's Untold Honor, which won the Slayer Sword in Germany in 2012.

 

I also received my box of Reaper Bones!  Well worth the investment as well.  I easily managed to double my miniature horde with the box, much to my wife's chagrin.  I picked up a number of the larger add-ons in addition to the standard vampire pledge.  I'll break them out in the coming days to see how they fit together and make sure I didn't miss anything.

 

 



As if these two visits from the post man were not enough, I also got a couple of other unexpected surprises.  A friend of mine had gotten interested in playing Warhammer 40k a number of years ago.  I agreed to paint up an army of his choosing.  He didn't have a huge preference and wanted something that a newcomer could play fairly easily and that I would be interested in painting.  We agreed on starting a Nurgle Chaos army.  I painted up the first unit of plague marines and a chaos lord and things stalled out on both ends.  He never got into it, and I quickly discovered how difficult painting an army could be!  I found a tutorial online about magnetizing the rhinos and assigned him the task of magnetizing the various doors and hatches.  This past weekend he gave it back to me with the magnets in place!  He did an outstanding job on it.  I'll need to assemble it and glue it, but it's finally magnetized.

 

Memorial Day

First off, a huge thanks to all of our soldiers and their families, both current and retired, for their service to our country, giving me the opportunity to pursue my hobbies like painting little men.  I have several extended family that have served and are serving in the military and we have been especially fortunate in that no one has lost their lives in the line of duty.  For those families that have my sincerest condolences.  Thank you to those soldiers that have paid the ultimate price.

Secondly, yet another new member joins my blog!  Hello and a big welcome to Shades.  He's a great guy I initially met over at WaMP.  He was very helpful during my construction of the Dark Carnival piece and I am glad to see him over here now as well.  He's got a blog over at http://minimayhem-theblog.blogspot.com/.  Most recently, he attended both Adepticon and MCFA and gave a nice report on both.  Well worth a visit!

Finally, another WIP in progress.  You'll find as time goes on, I tend to have a large number of WIP's and a significantly smaller number of completed minis...I'm trying to get better about that.  This is one of Reaper's metal Hell Hounds.  It is a practice mini on doing a bit of freehand as well as some lava effects.

New painting set up

First off, a hearty welcome to Brovatar.  Thank you for following me!  He is a prolific painter and does some amazing conversions as well.  Check out his site here: http://www.denofimagination.com.pl/

Now that the blog is getting set up, I'm in the process of doing the same for the painting area.  The old area was nice, but now that my youngest child is getting a bit older, some rearranging of rooms is in order.  This room is a bit smaller than where I was at, but much more sun--a good trade!

The walls are drying now and some preliminary moving has begun.

Once the paint is fully dry, I'll begin to stretch out a bit :).

The South London Warlords, who put on Salute every year, have posted a nice compilation of the winners from the various categories this year.  Congratulations to the winners this year!  Well worth a peek for some inspiring pieces. http://slwarlords.blogspot.com/

Adding some content today

Not much to see today...just adding more to my blog roll!  I'll be posting a bit about my recent trip to Texas and seeing the great folks at Reaper.

Another beginning

I've decided to catch up to the rest of the world and start my own little spot on the interweb.  I hope to be a source of inspiration and resource for anyone who wanders over here.  My goal is to post semiregularly items that I paint both completed (or more likely as works in progress).  I also hope to serve as a resource for the many amazing websites out there dedicated to the miniature painting hobby I've grown to love in my 40+ years.  I will occassionally do some tutorials as well and I plan on doing an occassional interview or two if anyone will answer my questions!

Here we go....