Spaaaaccee Shaaarrrkkks!

Hello Kitty WIP complete!...wait..what?!

2011-09-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

No Space Shark update today, got one one of the girliest post you'll ever see on deck instead.

I have had another project on my table to complete with the utmost haste and importance, so others have had to wait. What is that you may ask? Well, its part of my wife's birthday present! She's a big fan of cute stuff and what is cuter than Hello Kitty! She is also a BIG Alabama football fan (season tickets, tons' o shirts, was on the spirit team when she went there for college, etc.) So what better way to give both her favorites than to combine them into one! Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Hello Kitty Alabama cheerleader mini:

I made it out of sculpey clay. I had got introduced to sculpey a few years ago when we were making christmas ornaments out of it at a friends house. I liked it so much I managed to make my groom's cake topper out of it for our wedding (I didnt make the cake, not that talented!):

The mario and princess sculpts were actually easier than this one. It would have been alot easier had I had enough scupley in the right colors for each part. I had to prime and paint parts thier respective colors and that took some time.

I am also not a sculptor in the least bit, so making this thing from scratch was kind of a pain (despite how simple it looks) but worth it.I got a cake to make tommorow when she gets home (she went with her family to the football game today) so hopefully she'll like both and be super suprised!

I promise a spaceshark update next time!

Dwarfs??...in my Space Sharks blog??!

2011-09-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Now for something a little different! A friend of mine is trying to get me to play D n' D, and Iv'e never played so I figure ,"hey I like the computer games (Baldur's gate, NWN, etc.) guess this will be fun too". They use minis in the games, but I he said they used those pre-painted ones sold by the makers of D n' D. I've seen those things in the store and they look like crap, so I figured an old reaper mini would suffice for me. I managed to get a dwarf barbarian painted up pretty quickly, it was a nice break from space marines. Here it is in all my crappy lighting kitchen's glory:

But, this post isnt all dwarfs and fantasy RPG's - I got some Space Sharks updates as well! The command squad is almost complete minus some basework on the minis and the standard bearer needing further painting:

So here they are as of this posting. This is turning out to be the most colorful unit in the army. I cant decide on what to for the standard, been scouring the internet for ideas to stea-err "borrow" heh heh ;) Just a finish up for the standard and some basework n touchup's (like that powersword ughh) and it will be done! Thanks for looking, more to come soon!

P.S. Got the new Space Marine videogame today as well, its off the richter scale!

Apothecary WIP

2011-08-22T02:18:00.001-07:00

Almost done with the Apothecary, just needs some touch-up and the basework completed.

More to come!

Librarian done and FW madness!

2011-08-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

I got some things finished today, namely an HQ unit for my Sharks. I also got some FW multimeltas on the table ready to be primed. Once again excuse the photos, its late here and my house lighting/camera sucks:

Had a time trying to glue resin to resin, I washed the parts pretty well in the sink before the build so I dont know what was going on.
Ah! who is that in the back....?

Why its the Librarian that's gonna lead this party bro! I've had this mini sitting on my table primed for well over a year and I finally have gotten to finishing him up. I'm not happy with the face and how it came out, but its gonna have to do because I know I'll make it worse if I keep messing with it. Maybe I can get some better pics tommorow or at a later date when the sun is up and I can take 'em outside for better lighting (and therefore better pictures).

More to come, the command squad is basecoated n' ready!

Command Squad WIP begins!

2011-08-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

Got the command squad and Librarian basecoated up today:

Went a little further with the librarian to get the colors right and see if everything jived, hopefully he will come out good.

More to come soon!

Landspeeder complete!

2011-08-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

I got the landspeeder finished up today, but I'm not that happy with it. I made the mistake of assembling this one completely and that made it harder to paint, so I just got real sloppy with it.

It looks alot better than it did when I got it, with its crazy thick red gore paintjob slapped all over it along with missing radar, weapons, pilots, and base (I know I have the wrong base on it right now, but I'll remedy that soon).

More to come!

Dreadnought complete!

2011-07-29T22:00:00.001-07:00

Got the dreadnought complete today, and it looks like he made a friend in the process!

Looks like we'll bee needing those paper towels after all!

The other half, looks like he got a little too rough with this Dark Eldar ;)

Next model to be painted will hopefully be the Landspeeder! See you soon!

Dreadnought WIP begins!

2011-07-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

I'm on a mad tear trying to finish up these models, and the next one up to get the paint is this AOBR style dreadnaught (bad lighting photography ahoy!)

These guys are smaller than thier regular boxed brothers, but thats not stopping me from modifying this joker. I have cut the bolter off the fist arm and plan to attack a flamer instead. Hell I may magnetize both so I can swap them out (photo taken earlier).

I also got this joker basecoated up so it'll hopefully be next real soon!

2011-07-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Sharks are back after a super long hiatus! Two rhinos have gotten thier teeth and are ready to roll out!

Also completed those crappy AOBR style terminators:

So far I got the following left to do:

Paint 1x landspeeder
Paint 1x AOBR dreadnaught
Paint 1x attack bike
Paint 1x command squad
Paint 1x librarian to lead all this stuff
Assemble and paint 1x rhino
Assemble and paint 1x landraider
Assemble and paint 2x bikes

So yeah, things are winding down for the sharks. I'm sure I'll add more units but I want to finish these up and get cracking on my Black Templars for a while. I'm going to do my best to at least get most of this stuff basecoated by Sunday . More to come (and hopefully alot faster!

...and that hiatus was longer than expected!

2011-05-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Been really busy w/ work and life in general these days since the last update. I am still working on the terminators, doing what I can when I can. I have decided on the red n' grey scheme because I had already based coated them in this scheme and I'm too lazy to turn back ;) I've got two figures completed for the most part just need to finish up the bases and then finish the rest.

not exactly the best photo, but it'll do. After I complete these guys and finish up the rhinos I'll be giving my Black Templars some attention.

More to come (hopefully soon!)

Terminator WIP begins!

2011-03-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well the terminators WIP begain late yesterday and is ongoing. Instead of assembly line painting them like I basecoated them, I took one model out and plan to finish it to see if I like the color scheme and basework that I have in mind. Here's a few pics of the progress, it's nowhere near finished:

The helmet is pretty much done along with the powerfist except for some highlights on the metal bits and touch-up. The rest is basecoated and the base is obviously bare at the moment. The limbs are magnetized like I did some of my Black Templars as well. I can't think of a color to paint the stormbolters casing, so any ideas on that please let me know. I plan to finish this guy up sometime this week if time permits.

Here he is assembled:

And my little dog keeping watch for any stray bits that fall from my desk so he can chew on them!

Thanks for looking!

Rhino complete (well almost)

2011-03-17T18:48:00.001-07:00

Rhino is pretty much complete paintjob-wise, just needs some dirt weathering to match my minis. These photos arent the best (I've been saying that alot lately) but I really hope to get them all outside for the lighting soon.

Thanks for looking! Terminators are next!

Greeeey Kniggghttsss!... wait, what?!

2011-03-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

picked these up at the local gamestore on discount:

not abandoning the sharks or bandwagon jumping, I just figured it was too good a deal to pass up (plus I think the old metal ones look better!) I'll get to these guys eventually.

I'll be back to finishing up the Rhino and those poor terminators as soon as I finish this here Black n' Tan!

Happy St. Patricks's Day!

Rhino details: to add "eyes" or not?

2011-03-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

I'm debating on adding eyes to the mouth n' teeth on my rhino. Think of the A-10 nose art:

I got a spare rhino side I use to test junk out before applying it to the real model. What do you think of eyes being added?

I need feed back on this, so help me out - Yay or Nay?

My first Classic Rhino

2011-03-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

Got this lil' gem in the mail today.

Its in ok shape (no missing exhaust pipes hatch guns, etc.), but not nearly as rough as some of the other items I've proccured off ebay in the past. So far I've fixed the rear end bar where flags used to go, and you'll notice the paperclip being fashioned into a replacement gripbar-thingy that circles the rhino as well.

I cant decide which army I'll have this rhino be apart of - my Black Templars or Space Sharks. I'm leaning towards BT's at the moment because I got some ideas in mind accesory-wise.

More to come!

This ol' boy's got TEETH!

2011-02-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

I decided to bite (HA!) some of Tristan's style and give my Rhino some teeth!

I tried to give the teeth a worn and painted on look instead of making them solid colors and symetrical , hence the grey wear. Hopefully I'm not straying into Ork territory by doing this ;)

hopefully I can finish this guy up soon!

Rhino Work

2011-02-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided to try and work on the Rhino first this go round. I have never painted a Wargaming vehicle in my life, so I'm hoping this tank will come out decent. My wife has been really sick this week and weekend, so that takes priority number one and minis will have to wait!

Here's the Rhino so far, lets start with some drybrush work:

Process was Adeptus Battlegrey basecoat > drybrush (more like dryscrub w/ as little paint on the brush as possible) Codex Grey > drybrush Fortress Grey on hard edges/ lines.

I plan to weather the tank lightliy with a painted "dirt mix" to match my shark's bases. I think the tracks came out pretty well:

Ready for more grime n' dirt!

Speaking of weathering, I also tried to do paint chips and scratches type weathering on those cracks (see earlier posts), but I dont think I'm doing it right.
The results have been less than spectacular with painting the paintchip or scratch area black followed by a fill of boltgun metal and then a lil chainmail or mithril silver (depending on scratch size) to top it off. Any suggestions would be appreciated on this type of thing.

In addition to the chipping, I managed to get a few decals on. They need soem touch up and I'm not done with adding more, but here's where am at on things for now:

WHy the last one came out sideways I'll never know. More to come!

Terminators and Vehicles: Basecoating begins!

2011-02-24T13:12:00.001-08:00

After coming to a comfortable stopping point on my Black Templars restoration project, I am now back at getting these Space Sharks up to speed. The terminators got thier basecoating today:

Hopefully I'll get these guys looking decent by the end of the weekend if time permits. The main problem was coming up with a decent color scheme. Thanks to the good folks in my Bolter & Chainsword WIP thread, I think we've got a winner!

Also, I managed to get one of the secondhand rhinos from ebay basecoated too:

Kinda looks like it hasnt been painted at all since the basecoat is close to the color of the original plastic!

This thing came to me painted bright fire engine red and whatever paint was used, Simple Green couldnt strip it completely. After a 3-day soak, the rhino came out a strange hunter orange color. I thought about sanding it, but feared I would lose detail. The paint was smooth so I figured a good spray painting of black primer would kill the orange but I was wrong. For some reason the black paint would bubble and crack like it didnt want to stay on. After another soaking, the primer decided to stick with only minor cracking. The cracks show up a bit more with the lighter basecoat, but I think they'll work in my favor when I weather the rhino.

More to come soon!

New restoration blog for Black Templars

2011-01-24T05:22:00.000-08:00

Instead of bogging down stuff here, I made a seperate blog for the black templars I'm restoring. You can go to it here: http://www.blacktemplarswh40k.blogspot.com.

I'll be adding more stuff to get it caught up to my Bolter and Chainsword forum post like this blog, but check it out if you havent already!

Small New Year Update!

2011-01-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Time for a much needed update, even though it is a small one. Despite a bout of illness, Christmas time craziness, and a wild work schedule, I did manage to finish up the missle launcher guy as well as finish up on the final powerfist sergeant to round out my tac squads:

I've also started fixing up some busted/broken/abused minis I got for cheap into black templars. I may start a seperate log for those guys soon, I fell I dont have enough work put into them just yet to justify another log. Here's one of the guys a fixed - total repaint plus a new head from the Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard sprue (his old one was broken off):

As for the Sharks, a set of AOBR terminators is up next- hope to get some work put in soon.

Until next time!

A quick paintjob

2010-11-24T14:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick missle launcher guy done up today, the base still needs work at time of pic:

3rd 10-man tactical squad complete!

2010-11-23T07:32:00.001-08:00

Just a few minutes ago (9:10am) I completed my 3rd and final 10-man tac squad. pictures arent great because of the lighting in here but if you've seen my other squads you've seen these style/paint wise:

I got another sergeant w/ powerfist in the works to lead a previously made squad, along with a missle launcher guy and a flamer guy to sub into this squad for the melta and lascannon dudes.

more to come (and soon hopefully!)

2010-11-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Managed to bust out another sergeant with a powerfist yesterday, got pics of it before dark came:

Not exactly happy with the banner, but it'll do. One more 10-man tac squad to go before I can move on to the terminators and vehicles.

after a long hiatus....

2010-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

....I'm back! I did some work recently on my guys. The pics arent to great but they're still a WIP so I'll try to take better ones once they're done.

Painting on a Larger Scale (and a biggger WIP!)

2010-02-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much time to do painting of the Sharks recently. My fiance' and I have been painting on a larger scale, aka renovating my house. With my roomate moving out we've had time and access to his old room to make it into a better guestroom. Next room on my list is this computer room ;) - I'll try to manage without computer access a few days for the greater good ("greater good"?! HERESY!). Room's still a WIP as of this writing, but not much is left to do. The awesome hardwood flooring that was obscured by some nasty ass carpet is in good shape, yet could use a lil cleaning and waxing. Here's a few pics of the process: