Real Life and Productus Interuptus

So if you're still reading thanks.  You'll already know the updates have been lacking. As my kids have gotten older and busier, hobby time has been sparse. 

The other issue is that there are a metric ton of painting resources out there that quite frankly do a better job and produce a much better product than I do.  These are folks who a masters of their craft and offer more than I can.

Time for a change.

Over this summer I got involved in a few projects for my local club involving terrain.  I forgot how much I enjoy that part of the hobby over everything else. Couple that with my other shop projects, and my delving into 3d printing, it seems my niche lies elsewhere.

Coming soon will be a new project, focusing on terrain, resources, tutorials, products and services.  Once I get things set up I'll announce here first.

What does that mean for this little blog? I'll keep it up as a resource, plus when I do anything army focused that's interesting I'll post over here, more for posterity than anything.

Thanks for your patience. 

Painting Howling Griffons Part 6

Managed to finish a Captain and LT over the summer:

Converting and painting a Howling Griffons Librarian - Part 2

I've been slack.  Here's the finished Lib:

Converting and Painting a Howling Griffons Librarian Part 1

I really didn't want to pay for the Librarian, so I figured since I wasn't using the Ancient, I'd base the Libby conversion on him.  I cut the cape off the Gravis Captain and secured it to the Ancient:

Painting Howling Griffons Part 5

I wanted some slate stone bases, but the ones I found online are too OTT for me, so I made these masters:

Painting Howling Griffons Part 4

Went with black glazed metallic silver for the trim and chest plate, as well as started with the joint seals and general cleanup.

Painting Howling Griffons Part 3

Made some decals, I found some excellent ones on bolterandchainsword, just mashed them together to make a single sheet for the laser printer

Painting Howling Griffins Part 2

After trying a few different methods, I settled on repriming the red quarters by hand, again using the VJ German red brown.  I use a chisel tip brush as it's easier to get straight lines. Two thin coats!

Painting Howling Griffins Part 1

Painting these guys is very much a shifting, fluid process.  It's taken me a while through trial and error to get to a point where I'm getting results without spending way too much time them.  The first squad worked out well, but war way too labor intensive, so I keep refining as I go to see how much i can simplify as still get consistency on the finished product.

For this first part I'll show how I got the yellows done.

 I used Vallejo German Red-Brown acrylic, thinned 3:1 with Flow-Aid and ran it through the airbrush. I completely covered the model as the whole thing needed a primer base. I didn't preprime with any enamel black or white.

Let's roll with Primaris Marines

Yes, it's been a long time.  That's life I suppose.  Anyhow, when GW released Primaris Marines along with 8th Ed, I took the opportunity to start up a new army project.  I've always wanted to do a vanilla marine army, but since I've already got Space Wolves the motivation wasn't really there.  Then Primaris Marines dropped.  I could get new sculpts, with fewer troops, and I could salvage vehicles from my abandoned 30K force.  But what chapter?  After I kicked around a few ideas, I went for broke:
Howling Griffons

Here's what I have so far:

Don't fear change...

Astute readers may notice a slight change to the header above.  What does this mean? Should I riot? How should I react?  Don't panic.  All it means is that I'll be adding more to the blog than 40K conversions.  Why?  Well frankly I have other projects I'd like to showcase.  Expect more in the coming weeks.

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 9

Finished up the turret and the main gun build. I got the hatch in place, going for a big square cupola.  That kept the build looking orky, rather than it being too refined. The gun mantlet fittings match the ones from the previous scarp tank so the weapons can be interchangeable Now all I need to do is a fully assembled pic and start creating the molds for casting.

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 8

Yes, yes it's been a while.  As the kids get older and busier more time gets taken up being Dad.  Totally worth it!  I got a bit more done on the wagon turret and the main gun.

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 7

Real life totally gets in the way of hobby time.

The little bit of progress I did manage to get done was to start the 'Ard Case and turret for the Wagon:

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 6

Over the last few lunches at work I got the side sponsons finished:

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 5

Today's lunch progress, pegs in place and sponsons started. I bored out the wheel on the drill press last night:

The peg is a nylon bushing from the hardware store.

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 4

Hey, some actual progress.  I got the front wheel started.   

Glued two soy milk carton caps together and filled them with resin:

AoS Chaos Warriors of Slaanesh Part 1

I'm playing AoS now, and the supple wiles of Slaanesh have called to me. It's a nice quick diversion from building orks.

Gotta have conversions:

Sorcerer Lord

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 3

As I began the track modules I found that they would be the same size as the one for the OrKV-2 grot tanks I'm building, so rather than double up on the work I modified the gun wagon chassis so those tracks would fit.

This is what I started:

Scrap Canon Wagon Part 2

Holy Hannah!  Progress!  The cab and bed are complete.  Now to move on to the track units.