A Genestealer And A Rogue Psyker Walk Into A Bar...

"Ouch!"

(Man, that one never gets old.)

So what do a Genestealer and a Renegade Psyker actually have in common? Well, not much, but I added pages for the both of them to my painting website and there's now links in the Gallery. That is all the bad humor for the moment. Carry on.

Forge World Renegade Psyker [Finished 3/15/2010]

 I had some problems when the flat coat that I had brushed on to tone things down after a few touch-ups went slightly hazy, but I managed to fix the problem areas and everything seems to have dried without further complaint. I've played around with the colors on the base and added quite a few alternating layers of highlights and washes - I don't know what else I can do with this particular figure or the basing, so for all intents and purposes I'd say this Renegade Psyker is done. I've got other stuff I'm working on now, so I'm moving on.

 I painted this Renegade Psyker figure up as a "color test" of sorts to work out a scheme for my renegade Imperial Guard force based on The Shriven (of "Gaunt's Ghosts" novel fame). I was pretty sure on going with the "surgical green" rubberized gear for the majority of the troops, but it wasn't until right before I started painting this guy that I settled on a secondary color of olive drab (P3's Traitor Green, conveniently enough). The spot color on this guy of the bright blue was inspired by a writeup in White Dwarf of the 'Eavy Metal team hazing a competition of sorts in painting up Wizards from all the different colleges of magic - the darker blue of the Celestial Wizard's robes was a variation of the blue I used on my Chaos Sorceror of Tzeentch. It was a color I was already somewhat familiar with painting, and thought it would balance out the primary green and the heavy reliance on reds used in the rest of the painting.

So what do you think?

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 2/28/2010]

 

  

  

  

 

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 2/22/2010]

Been a few days since I've actually been able to sit down and do an update on the Renegade Psyker, but I got a chance to add in some off the effects to the base that I had hoped. Feedback would be appreciated:

I highlighted the exploding rubble on the base and deepened the shading in the crevices a bit more. I was aiming for a paint-blistered, scorched metal effect on the scrap of Rhino hatch being flung outwards - I'm curious as to people's opinions of that, and whether I came anywhere close in my attempt. The last piece was somewhat of an inspiration. My general impression of comments was that I needed to add some more color to the base without making it stand out awkwardly - I'm hoping a rusty spring fits the bill. I can go back and add a bit more in the way of orange for the rust, but I don't want to overdo it.

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 2/13/2010]

 I finally settled on a secondary equipment (spot?) color for this guy, if not the rest of my eventual Shriven force:

 I think I'm about finished with the Renegade Psyker himself, and everything's been highlighted and weathered. I'd appreciate any feedback, though, especially if there's areas I've missed. I'd like to make the base seem a bit more "lively" - I fixed the coloration and bumped up the contrast in the painting itself but I don't really want to do "contrails" from the "psychic wave of force" or anything like that and I just realized I don't really know how to apply static grass since I've never used it before. (I've got some but I've never touched the stuff and never actually seen anyone using it firsthand.)

 Any opinions on the metals? I tried a new finishing technique with them, mostly visible on his backpack and the scrap plates on his thighs.

Forge World Renegade Psyker [Update 1/31/2010]

Here's some background fluff I wrote up and thought it would be worth posting here to hopefully get feedback on what people think:

The official regiment for him was the standing Planetary Defense Force of Fortis Binary. His fatigues are leftovers from his old standard-issue PDF gear and his outer jacket is made from a heavy all-weather fabric and worn to help deal with temperature and environmental changes, both naturally-occurring or accidentally self-induced. The rubberized vest underneath his jacket is cut down from a full CBRNe/hazmat protective suit which would have been worn by one of the regular manufactorum workers of Fortis Binary before the planet fell to Chaos, but is worn by this psyker now more as a barrier to any incidental contact with contaminants or biological/mutagenic poisons in the course of combat amongst the factory and munitorium ruins.

Although this Renegade Psyker is intended to be a member of The Shriven, and my background and theme is in part based from Dan Abnett's "First and Only" novel, for everything else I'm more or less making things up as I go along. I'm somewhat in the same boat as Dave Taylor with his Blood Pact army in-progress; only not nearly as talented, artistically inspirational, well-known, or in the market for a new tattoo. Okay, I'm nowhere near in the same boat as Dave Taylor, but I'm basing my force on something Dan Abnett came up with that was inspirational enough to form a tabletop army around, except I'm lacking in the finer precise details like "official insignia," "color scheme," and "general appearance" (see below the "Dave's Got Ink" heading on the above link).

 Oh, and I'm not actually griping about the lack of particulars for The Shriven, really; I guess it's a credit to Mr. Abnett that he's talented enough to get me buying more of his novels as I find them simply based on his authorship, and also keeping a steady flow of cash into Games Workshop's coffers on impulse purchases of tiny plastic and resin miniatures - it's my own damn fault, and I'm enjoying myself!


 As to the Renegade Psyker himself, I was able to get some painting done last night and finally settled on a spot color for this guy, if not the rest of my eventual Shriven force:

 I wouldn't mind hearing people's opinions on the colors thus far - I've still got a decent amount of work to go, but I'm thinking of going with a worn dark brown leather for his belt pouches and boots, and everything else from there ought to just be finishing things up highlight-wise with some added weathering.

Forge World Renegade Psyker [Update 12/24/2009]

 I've been looking through some recent White Dwarf issues for inspiration to find a blue-grey color scheme that would complement the orange-yellow undertones of this guy's skin and bone, and lo and behold, I even found a recipe of sorts to sort of base things off of that I can tweak to match my Rogue Psyker's coloration more precisely.

 My current progress (I'm trying to balance the image colors and brightness with this guy, 'cause he's all over the map, but I think this is fairly representative):

 The colors on his front side in the "head view" pic are in semi-shadow in my light box when taking the close up picture, so bear that in mind. I also took a back view pic, since it shows off the color of the fatigues a bit better (he's leaning forwards, so I've got a lot of exaggerated shading on his legs and belt area from the front. I also was playing around with color on his backpack - if I could get feedback on how it looks so far (still unfinished, of course.)


 So what do you guys think? I'd appreciate as much critique as anyone can dish out, since I think I'm a little rusty in the painting department and even more importantly, I'm using this as sort of a test figure for the planned color scheme of the rest of my Renegades and Heretics force - the main colors for my take on The Shriven will be the olive-brown drab fatigues and the "surgical green" that their CBRNe protective gear will be colored. (I already know he's a little glossy - that's on purpose, but it will be sorted out in the end.)

Nothing Lost, Nothing Gained

By Sethero:
All finished entries must be submitted via PM to Sethero by Sunday, December 20th at 1900hrs GMT.

 Competition deadline come and gone, and all of us in the house not feeling well this weekend. Mostly my son, who seems to have a stomach ache today or something going on that was prompting him to cry non-stop most of the morning. He's only had an hour and a half nap today, was crying went he finally fell asleep and is crying again now that he's woke up.

 I made a little progress early this morning before everyone else woke up, but looks like life wasn't on my side for this one. Only about half done, assuming we're talking straight painting without anything fancy like pigment powders or a first stab at oils - I'd contemplated trying them with this guy, but I think he's looking weathered enough already.


 Ah well, my first miniature in progress without having painted anything in about a year and I think he's coming along nicely... he's grossed out my wife, the nurse, who used to work in the Orthopedic Surgery unit at the hospital. (I must be doing something right, I think!)

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 12/19/2009]

I was able to put in a decent amount of time today painting while my wife and daughter were out with her parents and my son was taking a good, solid nap due to not feeling well (of course, getting him to sleep took a while in itself.) Following this, it was off to a holiday get-together with my wife's parents and that side of the family. I had thought I'd not be able to paint any more and finish it before the closing deadline of the competition, but I suddenly realized a few hours ago that it was the 19th and not the 20th as I had thought. Maybe there's still hope...

Someone had asked elsewhere for a closeup of his face. Well, here it is - warts and all - now that everything's filled in and the details are actually visible. I'm somewhat stuck as to what color to paint his outer vest/jacket, and the eye lenses didn't turn out quite as vibrant as I had hoped. All the same, though, it's nice to be making progress on an excellent sculpt - been a pleasure to paint so far.

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 12/13/2009]

 I've had a few hours here and there over the past few days to work a bit more on the Renegade Psyker - I have a somewhat "firm" deadline of sorts, since it's a figure that I'd like to enter into an informal painting competition (we're up to Mk. VII already!) currently running over at the Relicnews Painting & Modeling Forum and the final deadline for finished submissions is on the 20th.

 I'm feeling like I'm more or less done with the skin tones, barring maybe a highlight touch-up here or there - definitely open to suggestion, though, as it's been a while since I last painted any flesh tones. I basically sat down and played with a bunch of different colors worked in, trying to accentuate things towards the face and arms with warmer colors and have details "recede" somewhat further down the chest and stomach with cooler colors worked in. All the little details inset into his flesh still need to be painted, as does his exposed skull - the "exploding concrete and dust" figure base is simply a basecoat and a wash or two of color at this point and needs some highlighting, if nothing else.

 It all seems halfways decent to me, but then again, I was just happy to be painting. I'd definitely appreciate any comments or suggestions from other painters, since I don't really have anyone (other than a few people at the GW shop) who are physically available to "honestly and critically" review my work - it's always been that way, though. (My wife's not a big fan of the hobby, especially any figures that are inclined towards the "Nurgle" end of the scale...)

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 12/6/2009]

 Well, this would mark the first time I've painted in just about a year - I kinda packed it in in December of '08 to get things ready for the birth of our son, who was due (and born) in February of '09. I suppose this next pic is rather a significant event, from that standpoint:

 The base's basecoat was actually the other night, but everything else was painted in a few hours this morning, including tidying up my work space in the basement. I guess right now could be considered by most to match what essentially amounts to a base color, no highlighting, with the skin tones and exposed bone going to be shaded in from here. (That's not actually how I painted him thus far, but that's neither here nor there... unless anyone really wants details.)


 I wouldn't mind any feedback since, again, it's been a little while since I've picked up a brush. (I've done quite a lot of assembly and conversion over the past year, and even was working on a conversion 'n' painting commission piece before the customer disappeared - nothing's ever quite made it to the painting stage, though. This guy is for an informal painting competition, and I think I'll maybe be able to finish by the deadline, barring anything cropping up.

The Disciples of the Four and The Shriven (It's All Dan Abnett's Fault)

 Here's something a little different that's not specifically about painting and modeling! Although I've taken a few stabs at trying to crank out an army for 40K in the past, most of which are now relegated to work-in-progress status and many of those linked to in the Gallery of my painting website, I haven't really had any fully realized army lists or troop rosters in mind to work towards - more often just vague half-formed plans. With the goal of keeping myself on track (as well as possibly getting feedback on the validity/combat-worthiness of my forces), I've been busy the past few weeks in spare moments trying to narrow down selections for two completely different army lists for forces I'd like to field in the hopefully near future - one is fairly straightforward from the current Games Workshop Chaos Space Marines Codex and the other has been planned out more from a modeling, conversion, and back story standpoint over the past several years and just lately been pigeonholed into one of the army lists from Forge World's three Siege of Vraks Imperial Armour books. The more convoluted army list of the two is now a Nurgle-biased force using the Renegades and Heretics list out of Imperial Armour Vol. VII, and is serving as my starting point for representing a force of The Shriven as taken from Dan Abnett's First and Only novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series - for anyone who's already read in past entries about my unwholesome fascination with them as described in the book, I apologize in advance.

 Bear in mind that I hardly have any tabletop 40K play experience under my belt as I've consistently been more of a painter and converter than a gamer since getting back into the hobby about 4 years ago, but I'm looking to make a serious attempt at planning, assembling and painting up a few small armies (500 points or so each) with several goals in mind: 1) I'd like to actually play 40K for once with a fully painted and game-legal army of my own, 2) I want to complete a starting force of Chaos Space Marines in a loose, non-Legion-specific Warband of my own design for the sake of getting something playable "soonish" while still allowing for some conversion and variety in painting, and 3) I'd like to finally be able to put a force on the table as allies of my CSM Warband so as to represent remnants of The Shriven from First and Only - an army composed of the former workers, administrators, disciplinarians, and leftover general populace of the Forge World of Fortis Binary who were corrupted by Chaos, went rogue, and overtook the planet itself.

 My first army list has been easier to wrap my head around, as I'm more familiar with the Chaos Space Marine Codex, their troop types, and the overall concept of how the Chaos Marines theoretically handle themselves on the tabletop. This first list represents a smallish beginning force of troops from my self-designed Warband, The Disciples of the Four, that I've been kicking around ideas for in my head ever since Games Workshop released the latest CSM Codex:

=HQ=
Undivided Chaos Lord
- Daemon Weapon
- Combi-melta
140 pts.

=Troops=
5 Khorne Berzerkers (w/ Chaos Lord attached to these guys in game-play)
- Skull Champion
-- Power Fist
Rhino w/ pintle-mount twin bolter
185 pts.

8 Chaos Marines
- Icon of Chaos Glory
- Meltagun
Rhino
175 pts.

Total: 500 pts.

 In terms of a back story, The Disciples of the Four are an extra-zealous splinter group from the post-Heresy Word Bearers Legion, some time after the Legion's retreat to the Eye of Terror. Essentially, the originators of The Disciples split away from the Word Bearers Legion due to a difference in ideology: they felt their former comrades were somewhat lacking in "enthusiasm" - outside of converting whole populaces to worship of the Chaos Powers, building unholy monuments that stretch up into the stratosphere, and dogmatically enforcing their religious will on the conquered, they felt that the Word Bearers Legion's somewhat "distanced" spiritual approach didn't go nearly far enough. The Disciples of the Four want to demonstrate the might and the glory of the Gods of Chaos to the rest of the galaxy physically as well as from a "spiritual" standpoint. My Warband essentially will be marked with rampant mutation and corruption of the body and soul (from a "sane" 40K perspective) as a sign of their devotion to the Fell Powers, and the higher one progresses in the overall hierarchy within The Disciples, the more marked and favored they will be by the 4 Chaos Gods (read: rife with physical perversion and deviation from the semblance of their former appearance).

 I'm keeping with an Undivided belief approach in the Warband's adoration of the Chaos Powers (ideally for the most variety in painting, conversion and gameplay), and from a "fluff" standpoint, so long as any potential new members or allies likewise show complete devotion to the Ruinous Powers (both spiritual and corporeal), then The Disciples of the Four would be accepting of whoever (or whatever) wishes to join up with them in their efforts. I more or less adopted this "theme" for the sake of not getting stagnant or bored painting-wise, meaning I'll be able to incorporate Games Workshop's canonical Chaos Marine Legions' color schemes and styles of appearance that I've always liked directly into my force as well as (suitably corrupted) Loyalist Marine Chapter paint schemes and insignia; so long as I maintain certain specific elements from figure to figure such as iconography or particular armor panels in set colors, I'm thinking things won't look too motley.


 My second army list is a first stab at getting some models on the tabletop so as to represent a playable force of The Shriven - I have no experience whatsoever playing Imperial Guard or even against IG, so this is more an attempt to combine the ideas I want to get across with something that will hopefully be effective in-game. Compared to my planned Chaos Marine force, I'm expecting more or less every figure of my Shriven army to be converted from original base models/parts in some way - in other words I'm planning to get my Disciples of the Four troops painted up to a reasonable standard using whatever shortcuts and repetitive batch painting I can tolerate, so as to be able to actually play a game with my own figures, while The Shriven troops will be a bit more involved in creation and can be worked on in the background. So far as a back story goes in terms of their alliance with my Warband, they're intended to be leftovers of The Shriven forces in First and Only after the involvement by Gaunt's Ghosts on the Forge World of Fortis Binary. In the book (without ruining a great read) they are allied with the Iron Warriors and have a leaning towards long range bombardment, trench fighting, self-mutilation (former work-related protective gear sewn directly into their flesh, for example) and the use of, um, poisonous chemicals and daemonic rituals. Here's my planned army list for The Shriven as a separate small force to complement my initial Chaos Space Marine troops:

=HQ=
Renegade Company Command Platoon
Company Command Squad (more or less comparable to the Troop Platoon Command Squad from the newest GW Imperial Guard Codex)
1 Champion, 4 Renegades
(Champion has laspistol/CC weapon, 2 have lasguns, 2 have autoguns)
- Vox-caster
- Chaos banner

Mortar Squad (part of Platoon)
3 Heavy Weapons teams
- Lasgun & mortar each team
- Chemical shells (poisoning of bombardment targets on a 2+, and Marine-killing AP)
125 pts.

Apostate Preacher of Nurgle (comparable to the Ministorum Priest from the latest IG Codex)
- Bolt Pistol
- Eviscerator
67 pts.

=Elites=
5 Plague Marines (same as in the GW Chaos Space Marine Codex)
- Plasma Gun
130 pts.

=Troops=
Mutant Rabble (more or less comparable to a squad of IG Conscripts, and will have the Preacher attached in game-play)
20 Mutants
- 2 Flamers
92 pts.

Mutant Rabble
20 Mutants
- Flamer
86 pts.

Total: 500 pts.

 Given the unfolding of the story in First and Only, this force represents The Shriven "in exile" finding a welcome home as allies amongst The Disciples of the Four, as well as a following of mutants and degenerates trailing in their wake as The Shriven recouped their numbers and sought refuge on a number of worlds following an abrupt separation from their previous "protectors." I'm blaming the current lack of tanks and other fun means of mass slaughter on my difficulty in cramming heavy armor and warm bodies into the same 500 point army list, but I could also say that in their departure from Fortis Binary they were forced to leave a majority of their heavy guns behind but still have a leaning towards trench warfare tactics, heavy fire support. and long-range bombardment as learned from their time with the Iron Warriors.

 Feedback on either the army lists or my "fluff" for them would be greatly appreciated, as I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to army building and actual gaming in 40K - I haven't even played anything in 5th Edition, for example, outside of a single brief run with 500 points' worth of unpainted and borrowed Orks when the Assault on Black Reach set first came out. For anyone interested, I've had a running work-in-progress thread over on the RelicNews Painting & Modeling Forum with both my work on The Shriven and (moreso) the Disciples of the Four for quite a while now. (Barring a few in-progress projects in what free time I have, my planned focus in the near future will ideally be on getting the troops for both these army lists assembled, playable and painted!)


 As an aside, it's nice to see I'm not the only one who has similar opinions about modeling, painting, army building and (eventually) playing using Forge World models and rules as a main focus of an army. Ron over at From the Warp made a post about this regarding his Deathwing Space Marine army: From the Warp: Using Forge World stuff

* KABOOOM* Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 11/2/2009]

 I'm turning my attention back to my Forge World Renegade Psyker as an entry in a friendly painting competition over on the RelicNews Painting & Modeling Forum that's going to be starting up on Oct 15th, and essentially my next step now would be getting under way with painting. He's standing on a trimmed-down Secret Weapon Miniatures "Urban Ruins" resin pre-cast mounted atop a Games Workshop slottabase, which is primarily cracked and pitted concrete in appearance but with a little extra surface grit that I added in parts. This particular base seemed a perfect fit to my vision of the figure's overall appearance, since by offsetting the resin pre-cast piece on top of the slottabase and pinning the Psyker to the slightly raised back portion of the resin pre-cast base allowed me to "play up" the fractured concrete at the Psyker's feet. I further converted the overall figure basing to ideally show him in the process of using a "psychic power," as he's thrown back his gas mask and is clutching his head in apparent anguish - kinda hard to tell, though, since the sculpt of the figure is such that his "face" is stripped down to the bare skull with augmetic eyes and a breathing system.

 At face value, it doesn't make any sense to me that a Renegade Psyker would be sent out to fight an Imperial reclamation force as a living weapon but is having a hard time preventing his own head from exploding. It seemed to me that a better visual effect overall would be to give the Psyker an external demonstration of him actively using a "psychic power."

 Since the "Urban Ruins" resin pre-cast was a perfect layout allowing me to have him standing on pitted concrete with increasing damage in an outward direction in front and away from him, I decided to add an effect of what hopefully looks like chunks of shattered concrete exploding outwards in front of him (and a buckled and torn part of a Rhino hatch in the mix, just for fun with color and texture):


 Unfortunately, my client for the Thousand Sons Chaos Lord commission I've been working on in my "spare time" the past few months apparently "disappeared off the face of the Earth" and I've had no luck in attempts to make contact. I'm taking a break in work on that piece - likely to be auctioned off when finished - in order to paint up the Renegade Psyker for the competition at the Painting & Modeling Forum. I put painting the Psyker on hold a while back in order to work on the Thousand Sons Lord commission - the Psyker suffered some slight damage to the previously-finished basing in the down time (probably our cats and getting jostled around since I need to reorganize my painting area) and I just patched him back up today.

 I've no idea how the Psyker will turn out appearance-wise except for a few vague color ideas: ideally I'll be trying an airbrush that I got for my birthday in August (using paint for the first time) at some point with him, even if it's just blocking out areas of plain color; he's theoretically going to be a test of a workable color scheme for a Renegades & Heretics force aligned with multiple Chaos Powers (I had a definite color scheme in mind that I was set to use back in 2007 when I first concocted having a Renegade force under the Lost and the Damned rules, but those were more generic troops than the FW Siege of Vraks army list I'm using now); and lastly, and maybe most importantly - I haven't painted anything at all since December 2008! (It's been quite the year.)

Comments/suggestions appreciated, as always!

Getting back to business!

Note: this is not an apology, it is a combination public service announcement and self-motivational tool.

 Since our daughter started 1st Grade in the beginning of September, she has been sick several times and has shared that "wealth" with the rest of the family - I've no doubt we've had our own stuff and passed some on to her, but c'est la vie. Her 7-month-old brother has caught more or less everything that she has had. At one point in the past several months, the both of them had dual ear infections at the same time. My wife (in addition to being sick w/ colds and respiratory infections several times) found out that she had an abdominal hernia, likely dating back to when we had our son in February and due to a respiratory infection for several months around the time she delivered him by C-section, had complications due to her racking cough including tearing her incision - is it any wonder her abdominal muscles didn't quite heal properly (hence the hernia)? She had surgery about 2 1/2 weeks back now, is recovering nicely, and has all her innards stuffed back in their appropriate locations - morbid bastard that I am, I was having visions of Father Nurgle's Plaguebearers with intestines dangling out (thankfully didn't come true in her case) when describing her abdominal hernia to people.

 Myself, I've had several colds and respiratory infections along with everyone else - hey, why not - and am in the process of slowly getting over what feels like an ear infection on one side and has had most of the symptoms of an ear infection, but technically "isn't" at least according to two different ENT doctors. On the neat-o side of things, I got to have a CAT scan of my head to see what's going on internally - I've never had anything like that done before, barring an X-ray of a dislocated and broken "pinkie" toe a year or so ago, but that's not quite the same thing (and besides, I kinda figgered my toe was dislocated and broken, having straightened it back in place from being bent sideways). I'm still waiting on the scan results from earlier this week, and aside from a treatable cause of my "unusual ear pain," I'm hoping they also show the hamster inside my skull still hard at work busily spinning his wheel.


 All this is not really why I'm making an entry here - no, the reason I'm making an entry is to publicly advertise my intention (now that things have hopefully started settling down a bit life-wise) to get back on track with more regular updates and such here to make this painting/modeling site worth reading. To that end, here's a few works-in-progress that ideally will be showing here in future updates:

• The Thousand Sons Chaos Lord of Tzeentch I made an entry about several months ago is nearing completion of the conversion work, but the commissioning client seems to have vanished! Not naming names, he was working at the Games Workshop Hobby Center I generally go to, but is no longer there - I never received my usual down-payment of the final fee (never asked, in truth) because I was able to get ahold of him fairly easily to go over ideas and make sure we were on the same page so far as the conversion and painting work to be done. Well, I put work on the figure on hold and sent the client an email to find out his intentions - my only other means of contacting him. At this point there's been no response by the requested "deadline" per my email to the client and I have no other reasonable way of getting ahold of him (I think hiring a private investigator would be a bit much ). All he's out financially is the base figure and a few conversion pieces, whereas I've sunk enough time and effort into this figure at this point that I'm going to finish this Thousand Sons Chaos Lord how I envisioned him - and then ideally he will be going up for sale or possible eBay auction.
• The Forge World Renegade Psyker I have prepped, re-based and primed will finally be getting painted - ideally in a "test" color scheme for a Renegades and Heretics force allied with my Chaos Warband (The Disciples of the Four). I don't believe I've actually mentioned this yet, but the sole reason for my "going over to the side of Chaos" was Dan Abnett's descriptions of The Shriven - an army composed of workers and military support personnel of a Forge World "gone bad" - in his Gaunt's Ghosts series novel, "First and Only."
  
   I picked up the first Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus in 2007 at the Black Library section at my first-ever Games Workshop Games Day while I stood in line to talk to Mr. Abnett, who was the guest author in Chicago that year. I'll repeat here more or less what I told him when I finally got up to the front of the line where he was chatting and signing: "I'm not going to say I'm your biggest fan, because it would be a bold-faced lie. I grabbed this book more for something to read through while I waited in line to talk to you and I've never read anything else you've written before. l will say this, though: in just going through the first few chapters here, I have to say you've got a hell of a great writing style and I've found myself completely drawn in and wanting to read more. Your descriptions are excellent and I can picture everything in my head, and the characterization and dialogue are very well-written. I'm really looking forwards to reading more by you." Well, ten or so of Dan's books on my bookshelf in and a metric crap-ton of unassembled GW Chaos miniatures in the basement later, and the sentiment still stands. I started working on a force of The Shriven shortly after getting back from Games Day, had a slight change of direction following the release of the Chaos Space Marines Codex and the "fading out" of support for The Lost and the Damned, and then got completely sidetracked with other "new and shiny" stuff since then.
  
   Things have come full circle - the three Siege of Vraks books from Forge World have re-ignited my motivation to have a combined Renegade and Chaos Marine force, and all the ideas kicking around since July of '07 are gnawing their way out of my head in new and more simplified ways. Oh, and if anyone happens to talk to Mr. Abnett - myself and a few unwholesome-looking individuals in body armor with green rubberized industrial protective equipment sewn into their flesh would like to have a word with him and bandy some ideas about.
• Progress on a 500+ point force of Bad Moons Orks in a "speed painted" scheme, ideally with a step-by-step painting piece or two. I blame the Assault on Black Reach set and some generous bitz-donating souls for these guys.
• Progress on a 500+ point force of converted Necrons tainted by millenia of slumber on a Tomb World in the general vicinity near where the Eye of Terror eventually opened up. They've spent their thousands upon thousands of years of dormancy basking in ambient output from one of the largest breaches by The Warp into real space. As a result, while they aren't servants of Chaos since they essentially have no mortal souls to be corrupted, their physical forms for the most part just "aren't quite right" due to the transmuting effects of Warp energy on material objects.
  
   After a "failed first attempt" at painting a Tau army to tabletop standards (I only ever finished a squad's worth - but they did get published on the Games Workshop US website as Honorable Mentions from the 2007 Chicago Golden Demons, so that's consolation) and abandonment of a plain ol' Ultramarines starter force from the Battle for Macragge set (blame Dan Abnett, as mentioned above), I set my sights on painting up some Necrons just for the sake of playing the game (hey, Necrons are easy to paint, right?) I even took shortcuts to speed things along (using spray paint as a base coat color, washes for shading, and simple edge highlights), but then my imagination kicked in after the first 3-4 Warriors and they started not to look so... regimented any more.
• A number of single-figure display-quality figures that right now are sitting lonely in boxes and blister packs near my painting desk in our basement.
• Heck, maybe even some of the several hundred old school Grenadier and Ral Partha figures that have been stowed away in drawers and boxes since I took a break from (or got sidetracked from) miniature painting when I first went away to college almost 17 years ago now.

So far as tentative planning goes, I'd say that's a fairly healthy list thus far. What do you guys think?

Venting a Bit...

 Well, I have to say I'm a little... not exactly sure what word to use: discouraged? disappointed? jealous? Unlike a lot of folks in the blogging community and on the Forum I generally frequent, apparently, I won't be opening my copy of Space Hulk that I ordered and paid for, despite it having been shipped and received yesterday.

 I placed my order at the Games Workshop Hobby Center that I usually frequent, as I like the staff and the store and figgered I'd let my wallet do the talking in terms of doing my part to keep a place I like in business. Ordering through the Games Workshop website and then paying by credit card at the register, the staff asked if I wanted it shipped to my home address or to pick it up at the store.

 Well, given my thinking about spending money on this "surprise release" after I'd already expected to receive/ordered several hundred dollars' worth of miniature-related stuff for my birthday, and not quite being sure how to broach that with my wife, etc. - I just said to have my Space Hulk box shipped to the GW store. I've been following the order online since I placed it, and like a lot folks, saw it was dispatched already - shipped via FedEx, as a matter of fact - and according to tracking it was shipped the 28th of August and set to be delivered yesterday. Well, I'm thinking, "Great! We're going away on vacation to visit my parents-in-law for the Labor Day holiday weekend here and I'll get to relax and check out the game and maybe even play it with my daughter if it's not incredibly complicated."

 I got an email confirmation from FedEx that it had been delivered. Well, I got off the phone with the store after reading all the posts in a Space Hulk thread in the Tabletop General Discussion section of my usually-visited Forum, verifying that it had arrived. The GW store staff confirmed that it had arrived and was in the store, but basically said that I couldn't pick it up until the 5th. I mentioned the FedEx tracking notification and that we were going out of town and that I knew of quite a few persons that had ordered the box elsewhere and had apparently received the set - the staffer said he would call the manager to see if I could come in to pick it up. Well, calling back to follow up, I was told that essentially he confirmed that they aren't allowed to release any of the Space Hulk sets until the 5th, that they were sorry I had been notified of the shipment, and commiserated that if I had ordered it someplace else I, too, would probably be opening a Space Hulk box myself - and that all these other companies that have actually let paid-for merchandise shipped ahead of time to the customers that bought it aren't supposed to be releasing their Space Hulk sets until the 5th either. (I'm also wondering if things would be different if I'd set a home delivery location?)

To compound the sudden discouragement:
 When I was last in the GW Hobby Center about a week ago, the new White Dwarf issue (yeah, the Space Hulk one) had arrived for subscribers and staff were calling everyone letting them know their issues were in. I've had an at-home 2-year subscription with about 7 issues left and there was no joy in the mailbox yesterday yet again.

 I pre-ordered the 3-book Siege of Vraks set early as a birthday present to myself, of sorts - the last book in the series was released the day after my birthday - and the set came via UPS yesterday. I didn't even have to go through the effort of opening up the box - it was already opened for me, well, probably unintentionally and by a large, angry machine... but still! And the special Siege of Vraks slip case included for all 3 volumes has one corner mangled, all pit-bull chewed-on like. And not that it's an amazingly big thing but it was one of the hopeful aspects of me pre-ordering it early... no signature by the author, either. The Model Masterclass book I ordered from Forge World arrived with one corner similarly crushed, folded, and spindled, and while the staff in the UK was nice about shipping a replacement after I eventually was able to contact them, in the process I found that I apparently can't make international calls on our home phone or my cell phone without buying a pre-paid calling card or paying by the minute with a credit card - when the heck did that sort of thing change? Most of my extended family lives in the UK and we used to call back and forth all the time growing up. I'll have to go buy a calling card again to get in touch with Forge World customer service.


 I guess I'm just venting a bit with all my recent "highly anticipated" items from Games Workshop/Forge World getting "shot down" in some way or other.

 I get the concept of a September 5th release date and all, it just feels like I'm being "penalized" (in a manner of speaking) for ordering it through my local GW store, especially since I was notified my copy of the game was delivered already via FedEx and we're going to be away visiting relatives through Monday - a vacation it seemed like I'd be able to bring the new game along for and get family involved in playing during 4 days of relaxation.

 I also understand the problems with shipping large packages overseas re: my Forge World stuff. I guess I had hoped this time the rilly expensive book set would arrive unscathed - it was disappointing to see the UPS guy walking up the driveway to drop a large box off behind the house and I'd been looking forwards to the books and when I bring the cardboard box inside, the end is hanging open and the contents were damaged. Thankfully not the books, though! (And a small box of bits I ordered when calling back about the Model Masterclass book arrived safe and sound, too.)

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 8/7/2009]

 I finished flocking the dust cloud on the Renegade Psyker's base after quite a few hours' worth of work last night, and it's turned out pleasantly similar to the way I had originally envisioned it looking. I'm still a little undecided on whether I need to add more in the way of projecting "flung" rock or do any tidying up of the dust cloud effect anywhere - or if I should just leave things as-is and move on to priming and painting.

Here's two pictures of the figure as he currently stands:


 I'm hoping the impression coming across is that he's causing the pavement/ground in front of him to explode outwards in something like a concussive blast or "shock wave" - I thought the "head about to explode" posture was less than inspirational, even though the figure itself is great, and decided a dynamic base might make him look less "counterproductive" if fielded with a Chaos army.

 In between finishing the flocking of the base and attempting to take photos late last night, some areas that apparently didn't have enough glue/sealant started to crumble and it seemed like every time I fixed up one faulty area another one fell apart in my hands. I ended up going nuts with extra-thin CA glue and then painting over the entire thing (with semi-thinned Future) from a jar of my standard thinner mixture. Taking a look at him this morning, everything seems to have set nicely and I'm thinking short of any minor cosmetic changes, the next step will be priming everything and then setting to work on the painting.


 Our son was born in February (the week after I joined the ranks of the unemployed masses), and has kinda precluded painting due to his schedule and limited finances. I'm rather looking forwards to painting something again. Assembling and converting figures is nice, and it's something I can easily set down in order to take care of the kids and then pick up where I left off later in the evening or even several days afterwards - but despite the hassle of mixing colors, cleaning brushes, and safeguarding works-in-progress from nosy cats, I definitely miss painting...

Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP [Update 7/16/2009]

Well, (I think) I've finally finished filling out the concrete/dust cloud to the point where I'm relatively satisfied with it. It's been slow going, because the process is slightly involved and I've only been able to work on it in fits and starts. The side leaning directly away from the Psyker is mostly smooth and the outward dust cloud is fairly thin but is randomly "puffy" (like a cumulus cloud, I suppose) especially around the base of the flying concrete chunks - I'm assuming they'd have smallish contrails of dust when exploding outwards?




Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated! Is the thickness and/or presentation of the concrete dust cloud okay? Does it look like the front section of paving he is on exploding away from him?

When I've got it looking about right, I'm going to flock the dust cloud over with some extra-fine grit and add smaller pieces of the broken "concrete" material that were just too tiny to be pinned springing outwards from the figure.

Hobby Tip - Prepping Forge World Resin (Actually, Minis in General)

 Somebody asked me regarding my mention of soaking the resin Renegade Psyker I'm working on in Simple Green - since Simple Green (or "Flash" in the UK, I believe) is commonly used to strip the paint off of figures, and this guy is unprimed resin.

 One thing I would highly recommend everyone do after all the sanding and filing and shaping is done - possibly even before gluing any parts together - is to give your figures/parts a good scrub under warm water with a toothbrush and some dish soap ("fairy liquid," again, for folks in the UK). The reason being that for metal and plastic figures, there's generally a certain amount of the mold release agent left on the surface of the figure from the manufacturing process - think essentially ultra-diluted liquid petroleum jelly being sprayed in the mold prior to the metal or plastic being injected in. Depending on the primer you use, this may or may not be a problem, but generally you want your primer and anything else (Green Stuff, base texturing, water effects) to stick as well as possible to your miniature and so a simple scrub before with a degreasing surfactant like dish soap can make a big difference.

 Now in the case of my Forge World figure, their pieces are fairly well-known for having a decent amount of residual mold release agent, with this often being problematic to the priming/painting process. Simple Green, while having ingredients that help to release paint and primer adhering to a figure, has its main use as a high-strength cleaning and degreasing product. (As an aside, Simple Green has a lot of the same "stripping agents" as in Castrol Super Clean, etc. if you check the company's product Material Safety Data Sheets online - but without all the fun "desiccating and invasively stripping the oils and moisture from your skin" stuff.) Since many mold release agents are petroleum-based, my soaking of the figure in Simple Green overnight was just an added preemptive step prior to my usual toothbrush 'n' dish soap scrub. It seems to have worked, though, as there's no "greasiness" left on the figure and the Simple Green (presumably) caused some of the leftover release agent to congeal visibly in the figure's deeper crevices - easily removed with the follow-up scrubbing.

 It might be obvious, but I'd also recommend saving the scrub until the very last thing before priming your figures, if at all possible - the same way that mold release agent can interfere with adherence, well, so can fingerprints, dust from filing, Cheetos crumbs, etc. A clean mini is a happy mini!

I feel like an idiot!

 I went out of town with my family for the holiday weekend to visit with my wife's parents, with the plan of working on the basing of my Renegade Psyker when not busy with family stuff in order to finish adding texture and remaining "atmosphere" to it prior to priming. I had my box of tools with everything packed in (loaded for bear: sanding, cutting, filing, and scraping tools, several types of glue, brushes, my full set of Craftsman hobby pliers - you name it), three different tubs of ground cover texture (mixed gravel from individual grains to smallish rocks, dry kitty litter, and cornmeal), a separate tub with all my collected "scenic debris" for rubble and ruined machinery, several different jars of brush-on mixtures with varying concentrations of Future Floor Finish (it makes an excellent fixative for ground cover), and my Dremel set w/ carrying case (wasn't sure if I'd need to re-texture the ground cover if things didn't pan out). Now this isn't nearly as massive a gathering of gear as it might sound, since I have a few compartmentalized trays that hold a lot of this stuff (with the exception of the Dremel and assorted bits in its own carrying case) - but it took nearly an hour the nught before we left to get everything together from being scattered on my painting desk, and packed away for travel.)

 The Renegade Psyker as he currently stands, needing some bulking out of the base with added texture to represent a "concussion wave" of dust and shattered concrete:

 So it's just me and my 4-month-old son the day after we drive up - Dad got assigned baby detail as the rest of the family was out in town checking out garage sales and holiday festivities - and he falls asleep after his bottle around the time of his usual afternoon nap. I put him in his crib and he settles back down quickly, thankfully. With the baby monitor on and no need for the Dremel, I figger it's a perfect time to get everything out to start gluing the initial "dust cloud" onto the Psyker's base. Stuff gets moved out to a spare table in the back room, tubs of groud cover get unpacked, I get myself situated... that's when I realize that prior to leaving our house downstate, I never packed the based figure itself after setting it on the high shelf of the computer desk the night before to keep him from being toyed with by either of our jumping cats or "carefully" inspected by our 5-year-old daughter who loves her daddy's miniatures. Gah!

 At least I got to do some prepping and assembly on some of the Khorne Berzerkers for my Chaos Warband, since I also packed box of figure parts, but it wasn't at all what I was hoping to do - I'm chomping at the bit to get painting on this guy, but I want to finish tidying up the "visual effects" of the base first and get everything looking "just right" before moving on to the next step.


 Anyone else do something asinine like this when really looking forwards to working on a particular miniature?

Hey, look! He's standing on a base! (Forge World Renegade Psyker WIP)

 It's taken a while to get to this point, only being able to work in fits and starts. This is one of the Forge World Renegade Psykers I picked up at the Games Workshop Chicago Games Day in 2007. It's taken me a while to get around to work my way over to these guys, partly because there's been a certain "apprehension" in approaching this and the other Psyker - mostly the "it's made of resin!" thing. He is completely cleaned up so far as mold lines, excess material in a few spots, and tidying up things like the leveling of the soles of his boots, so he would properly fit on the pre-cast base from Secret Weapon Miniatures. He's soaking in a jar full of Simple Green along with extra broken chunks of hard resin from another source.


 This is actually the first Forge World piece I've worked on, although I've got a few others still in their packaging squirreled away at my painting desk. I've heard stories, both good and bad (and some really bad) about the quality of Forge World's figure casting and the ease to work with of their figures. I must say that although I was initially tentative in handling it, the resin isn't nearly as brittle as I thought it would be - nor as malleable. It was a pretty even mixture of the two in that I could deform some areas to shape by gentle pressure (trying to shape crevices, like the line around both shins where the boots meet his pants, for example) as well as by outright filing/sanding/Dremeling - the latter being important because it would've otherwise taken me forever to get rid of all traces of his now-unneeded slottabase tab. The expected mold lines were very light and none of the casting was mismatched. The only real complaints I have about the figure (and again, I don't really have a standard to compare it to) is that there appear to be multiple mold lines around the figure instead of just the one on a typical GW white metal or plastic figure. There was also some slight excess material in a few areas (front of his right shin, around the sides of the multiple tanks on his back), but nothing on a scale where it was unmanageable or covered details.

 Overall, I'd have to say I was quite pleased (and impressed) in prepping this Renegade Psyker figure. The level of detail on the guy is just amazing - I'm wishing I could sculpt even half as well - with things like 1/8" inset areas actually having crisp details at the bottom. He also cleaned up much easier than a comparable GW plastic piece, although a fair amount of this might be due to some tools I just started using in working on this guy - I'll be posting about these at a later time, but sufficent to say I was surprised at how apparently something unassuming such as a few new scraping tools can make such a big change (for the better) in my prepping of figures.