Hobby Season 2014/15 Review

The 2014/15 Hobby Season draws to a close, and how did I do? Well I managed to complete 5 out of 17 items on my list, these were

Blood Bowl Elves - there is still a Treeman to add to make them more interesting but for the first time ever I have two, painted, functiona,l Blood Bowl teams. We don't play it much but the actual achievement means more than the outcome.

Dark Vengeance Deathwing - despite some reservations about colour choices, again this was an important milestone and despite a subtly different way of painting them they do fit in with my existing Deathwing, At least if I can't meet this year's early hobby targets these models will be useful at Blog Wars X

Dark Vengeance - Dark Angel Chaplain Seraphicus. I'm not entirely convinced Chaplains are any good but I was definitely chuffed with my effort on this one. I don't know how often he'll see the light of day but it's handy to have options.

Genestealer Cultists - I honestly don't know how this happened. The original cultists were a nightmare to paint and I suddenly got the urge to do these despite languishing for too long [they began as a concept in December 2013!]. Personally I think it was an avoidance tactic for the Dark Angels but it did pay dividends to the Fallen, we'll get to that later

Project Ω, Realm of Battle board -  I could have thrown in the towel when things went 'Polyvine up' but eventually I got this done. I'm not 100% convinced of it's durability after all that effort but should I get chance to play on the board it'll more than stand up to the occasional use.

Now that doesn't seem like a lot but as per last year what of the things not on the list well these included:

• Dark Angel Techmarine
• Spawn of Cryptus
• Dakkafex No 2.
• Malanthrope
• Deathleaper
• Asmodai
• Tyranid Maelstrom objective markers
• Vortex template
• Dark Angel Scouts

 

 

 

 

A lot of single models in there but some of significant size and others just very different to paint, the scouts in particular were an unexpected bonus but although those additions make my effort look somewhat more significant there were even more contributions in the shape of:

• a massive brood of Genestealers - waiting to be painted
• A Cerastus Knight Lancer - constructed and half painted
• A Knight Paladin - half constructed
• A Ravenwing Nephilim Jetfighter - half constructed
• My Bastion  - constructed and undercoated
• Old One Eye - constructed and half painted
• and various other bits and bobs built, modelled and painted...
• not to mention the time and effort on the 40k man cave. 

Oh, and I came second in this

And I won these

So although the mid part of the year may have been a bit in the doldrums, the blog was downsized a little to reflect this and the To Do List was only scratched I think the balance turned out quite well with all the extras, and awards. 2015/16 holds a lot of promise but also change, thanks to the transition to the man cave, theres no guarantee my output will increase, but I'll cover that in my next post. All I can say is thanks for persevering with my efforts and your own, your continued support is a great motivator and hopefully you'll all be along for the ride in the next season :)

Dark Angels Scouts - MOAR pics.

Sorry to eek this out [money for old rope?] it just seemed far too many pictures for one post but moving on the scouts are perfect for shooting from cover :)

So here's some individual close-up shots so you can pick out all the detail.

Quite pleased with the tread on his boot. And yes, I think the camo does look like leaves.

Notice I did three types of chevroned cable, back-slash, vertical and forward-slash, just to add a bit of variety. can't decide which I like most.

Company markings on the missile launcher scout, really like how the mix between brass and bronze worked on this.

And his oversized camo cloak doesn't look too bad now.

I also did some litany scripts alongside the chapter symbol poking out of the camo cloak.

Interestingly the Bolt Pistol is from the Space Wolves but I actually think that wolf on top look more like a lion

That'll be handy because it looks like there are Space Wolf Plasma Pistols that do the same thing and as Space Wolf weapons are going for buttons on ebay I may well use some Plasma Pistols to make Plasma Talon upgrades on a spare set of Dark Vengeance bikers so I can have more Ravenwing Knights.

 

Another visor, the Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 manages to rescue all my lens effects and it's further augmented with Vernidas gloss varnish, it still shrinks a bit but it's much thicker than acrylic gloss varnish.

OK, so more of the same but as I've mentioned things are a bit disrupted at the moment. I am still getting to do little bits of hobby, some really exciting things but I am flitting from one project to another. Snip bits of sprues here, scrape mold lines there it's all stuff that needs doing, it's just not particularly photogenic so please understand if things go a bit quiet over the next couple of weeks. 

Also, the man cave is due on Monday so I will be fitting it out with insulation and the electrician will make it powered, then I'll be painting it and transferring all my hobby stuff to the shed. Following that there'll be DiY in the vacated back room to make it half decent as a dining room so progress will be even slower but then hopefully the new space will allow me to crack on with things.

In the mean time I've a couple of little WiP posts to whet your whistles but we'll have to see how things progress from there. Stay frosty!

Dark Angels - Scouts TO DONE!

I've split these pictures up into two posts for a couple of reasons, one it can be quite daunting to see a page full of stuff and this means you only have to devote a small amount of time over two days compared with twice the amount of time on one day. Also, given how most of my currect enterprises are difficult to show progress I'm better spreading this out a little bit so at least the blog is ticking over, otherwise there'll be nothing to post. Hopefully you don't mind.

I really enjoyed painting these, I know I felt a little impatient at the end but it resulted in a sense of freedom that the rest of the Dark Angels fail to deliver.

I was also wary of painting the guns, the tarnished bronze didn't seem to fit the stealthy hiding in the shadows purpose of snipers but thankfully the verdigris toned down the half-way done brass and bronze elements to actually make them still fit with my theme and not stand out. Anyways, the anacronisms of the grim dark universe means these things could be day-glo and I'd get away with it!

I also made sure that I managed to cover up as many eyes as I could with sniper scopes. I'm all out of patience with them, I can't paint them for toffee. I must have tried about ten times on my Azrael conversion and I'm just about to give up on my Tac Squad sergeant too

But these guys make a nice unit. I wonder if the Space Crusade ones will fit in...?

The sergeant also had a freehand chapter symbol added.

Camo cloaks turned out alright.

I'm really thinking I should do some warpaint on some of my bare headed models but I fear it won't make too much sense, but we'll see.

Glow effects didn't work too well on the visors but I do think the little whit highlight looks like a targetting reticule which just about lifts them from mediocrity.

The sergeants one worked out OK too. I'm really chuffed with the chapter symbol. Sure it's quite patchy and a decal would be tidier, I don't even think it's my best but there's something about the roughness to it that's just right, almost like he painted it himself [badly].

Cloaks blend together well.

The extra highlights on the black may be a little too much but I think it help break up the orange expanse a bit more.

So I'm really chuffed about these, especially as they're seen as 'competitive' now. I'm kind of wishing I took a longer look at what my nephew was selling now as ther was scouts in there. But it's nice to have something done that's going to definitely get used, considering I had zero intention of using them when I started! Anyway, there'll be moar pictures in a day or so but in the mean time a big red stamp! Incidentally I was thinking of doing a green one for the 2015/16 hobby season, alternate red/green each year, what do you think?