Thursday 29 July 2021

2 million


Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity pageviews are still something I only note as a milestone, rather than an aspiration. I knew this was coming up but I only just spotted it had hit it [like when I missed the 40,000 miles on my car's odometer actually on the way to Warhammer World!]. I'm not even 100% confident of what this 2,000,000 actually is, given Google analytics and AdSense show very different numbers. I'm curious because I like understanding the data but I can't deny blogger claiming I've hit two million feels impressive. 

The blog continues to tick over and although the amount of hobbying I'm able to do at the moment may limit how much I post, I don't think I'll ever give it up now. In fact, given how much effort I put into this I'm even going to include 'blogger' in my LinkedIn profile! I've been doing this for over a decade afterall, I think that deserves some personal recognition. I should stop feeling I need to keep this separate or even be embarrassed about it in a professional capacity. Lets face it my 23 year's experience, various accolades, skills and too many projects to count isn't causing employers to fall over themselves at my door to 'head-hunt' me. I can't imagine including a blog about toy soldiers will do me any harm now.

I'm incredibly grateful for all the true visitors I receive. Thank you everyone for your continued support and proof that blogs still mean something compared to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Obviously I do use them, but I still find this blog my favourite way to share my hobby. Anyway, for those that are still keeping track on their own blogs, and in need of GW themed numbers, feel free to go back to my 1 million post. It's taken me almost 5 years to do what originally took 6 - there's no 'exponential growth' here, just peaks, troughs and milestones 😜

Tuesday 27 July 2021

Dark Angels - Macragge Tactical Squad - WHITE PICS

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angels Macragge tactical squad. A closer look at these models. Hopefully you can see them in more detail individually. My camera was overheating in the hot weather and with the lights on. Here are all the unique models in the unit - Heavy Weapons, Special Weapons, Sergeant and Squad Leader. 


Here are the monopose, although I think there are actually two poses in here.


Sergeant Vaan, I dunno the name just popped into my head. The freehand text is awful... but I could not believe I managed to get his eyes done. No splodges of white or black and the pupils almost look dead centre.

 

 

Plasma Cannon heavy weapons. Naturally the orange plasma glow was one of the last things I did as it goes over the top of the Blessed Verdigris. I was really pleased with the result. It's always a bit hit and miss, but certainly from a distance I think it's a hit. At the same time, I also did all the underside of my Ravenwing Talonmaster, as the levitation nodes are plasma powered [in my army anyway 😉]. I'll share that update soon as it's one of the next jobs in progress.

 

 

The Las-Cannon, once again using the las-coils as red glass insulators. They'll match the ones on my Old Skool Predator and it's good to get the practice in as I will be doing the same on my Knight Preceptor Las-Impulsor.

 

 

Flamer Special Waepons marine. Hopefully you can see that litany script that my marines usually mark on their armour has been done with a little more panache. I tried to get it to look like cursive italicised text, to give it that handwritten look. Some it works really well on I think, the Las-Cannon guys knee is quite cool.

 

 

Brother Balor, where do I come up with these names? Anyway, he's a Squad Leader, he has a Terminator Honour badge on his back-pack [in Ferron Proxima stone]. I figure he may have been some veteran, even in the Deathwing, hence the broken sword badge on his right shoulder too. Why he is not the Sergeant is as yet a mystery to me. But I like the idea that despite his previous elebvated status he is back with some of the outer circle guys, maybe to better observe their behaviour and ensure loyalty and compliance, even under the Sergeant's command... Here you can just about see there is still some Army Painter Anti-Shine frosting. The second picture [top right], side on view, just a alongside the purity seal on his leg there is a pale circle - that was a bubble of varnish. It's not really noticeable but zoomed in and under the lights it shows up.

 

Also, on the last picture, you can see in the crease between the helmet and the targeting lense there is still some pale frosted varnish.

 

There's a tiny bubble of frosting on his right shoulder pad [our left in the front view]. I was rushing when I did it, I could see the paintbrush was making all these bubbles and because it was the end of the bottle it may well have had more matting agent and it was thicker. The bases too don't quite reveal the darkest of the shading I applied because the Anti-shine has frosted it,. Thankfully it's less obvious.

 

 

This one, frosting inbetween the pouches in the final pic. I had gone over most of those creases with some thinned black but clearly I missed some. It was really annoying at the time and a totally deflating. I will have to remember in future it's the most important part, take my time or end up ruining all this effort.

 

 

This one, frosting inbetween the pouches in the final pic, right leg and piping in the 3rd back pic, and the recess in the helmet crest in the second pic. All since fixed with more black but frustrating both for it to happen and I missed the fix before the pics.


 

 

Frosting in the bottom recess of his right shoulder pad, but you can't see it on final side pic - lights and zoom enhance obviously. As does how rough the chapter symbol looks, and I was so proud of my freehand efforts.

 

 

I really don't need to point out the frosting, you can find it if you look hard enough.

 

 

I still love the muzzle size of this Bolter. I had to cut the original off and use plastic lollipop stick for it.

 

 

Anyway what can I take away from all this? Was I devastated by the frosting? No, disappointed yes, but I took a few days off, fixed it. Took the pics, fixed what I'd missed when I saw the pics and probably still missed some. But again my headspace is such that I can take some of these flaws despite how upsetting they should be. They're all done now and boxed off. Who knows if they'll ever even be on the battlefield in anger. They'll be part of this years Armies On Parade but any flaws won't show up in those pics. The fact I am able to overlook them and move on I think is a huge achievement. Striving for perfection can do more harm than good, for me. So 'finished not perfect' still rings true as one of my mottos.



Friday 23 July 2021

Dark Angels - Macragge Tactical Squad - TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angels Macragge tactical squad. I don't recall how long I've had these for... actually, I have a way to find out [the search function in this very blog!] - October 2013! I bought the Macragge box for £14 so I could have some extra Space Marines and ironically they appear to be the last thing in the box to be painted [I think the fuel cell might still need completing].


8 years on and they're TO DONE! I didn't know it had been that long! I specifically wanted to put these on 32mm bases, just to see what they looked like. 


I'm now looking at my 25mm based marines and they do seem tiny, like those ridiculously small Star Wars Legion bases.


So I'm still debating whether to get 32mm adaptors, but the slate on these bases fill them out really well and add height, which makes the proportions work. 


I'm not sure adding to the diameter of my existing models will work as well, if they're flat to the ground. They'll just come across as Subbuteo players...


On the plus side, I think these bases really help enhance what are thoroughly mundane figures. They're monopose snap-fit. 


I've added some bits and doodads here and there to try and differentiate them a little but I think the basing does most of the hard work - they're taller and more substantial because of it.


But there are some varied characters in there too and I have two heavy weapons guys to choose from to complete the unit. 


I think I have just enough variety to decide how to Combat Squad them - the ones with targetters on their helms and bolter will be the 3 standard marines to join the squad leader [with the banner] and heavy weapons marine.


The rest will join the Flamer and Sergeant. I spent quite a while trying to think what honour badge I'd give this dude - it was just a disk of sprue I stuck on. Then it came to me and it was so obvious - he has the Watchmen honour badge! 🙂


A bayonet attachment, targeting scope and some dangly scrolls help add individual character to repeated poses. Luckily they're such a generic poses it only takes little touches like these to add variety.


I swear I cannot do those knife blades. I was trying to recreate a Japanese Hamon blade pattern, but it looked awful so I just added some more black in the end to cover it up.


Once again I was a little disappointed with the finished pictures, in fact in the heat my phone started to malfunction as I was taking them! Also, I rushed adding my Army Painter Anti-Shine, which was at the end of the bottle. So it went on a bit frothy, which meant that it did dry with frosty bits in recesses, not unlike the AK interactive fiasco. I was understandably disappointed after all this effort, but I'll cover that more in the white pics as I was able to fix most of the problems in the end. Until then, here's the Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval.