What did you do today.

[Primarch]

A quick shot of the other D&D figures I painted in December.

[Auxryn]

I finished my Shaltari gates and little blue dots little blue dots little blue dots.

gates.jpg

Good work on the trukk, Konrad. You could fairly call that a battlewagon.

[job]

@ Prim: Nice room and nice dogs.
@ Konrad: An Orc piece of art! You are master of conversions.
@ Auxryn: Looks good. BTW, are you breeding Orks in those insect cages?

Job good luck with the letting of bloods.

There will be blood! And skulls for the skull throne!

I got back from my grandma's place. For the past few nights I just worked on the 5 bloodletters bit by bit including a couple hours tonight.

[Lovejoy]

A day looking after the boy and watching him run riot (well, crawl), fun but tiring. A bit of napping and TV too, very relaxing after 4 days with the in-laws. Later I managed to listen to some brief podcasts on WOTR, and watch a little more of a documentary on the same (a historical thing made for dvd called The Bloody Crown). I'm getting a better handle on the complexities now, but the number of Edwards and Richards is confusing.
I think wargaming this period will need a few special rules:- for loyalty/treachery, since there are numerous instances of changing allegiance prior to and even during battles. Also archery duels which often decided what the enemy might do or not do in response. It's fascinating to read and research about in any case!

And well done on the painting and modelling chaps, makes me feel a real slouch.

[me_in_japan]

Today I finally got round to making a base for my dark Eldar razorwing that I painted about 3 years ago. Better late than never, eh? I'd post pics, but it's currently encased in silicon due to me casting it. I also used clear resin for the first time today. 2 things surprised me about it. 1) 36hr cure period. This is compared with 5 mins cure time for regular resin. Maybe I just got the wrong stuff, but damn that's a long wait. 2) it is waaaay the most toxic thing I have ever had to deal with. There are warning labels on there I don't even know what they mean. One of em looks like it means "eat this and explode" I mean, holy crap. The carcinogen and caustic labels were enough to warn me off. Exploding was one label to many...

[job]

Last night I did some work on the same batch of blood letters. I put a black wash on them and worked on other details. I'll keep working on the daemons, but I'd like to shift gears and start work on the Blood Slaughter, but I have to figure a good way to remove the big chunks of resin from the casting. It seems like I'll need to make a trip to the hardware store for some proper tools and protection.

[Dekana]

I assembled most of the raging heroes special characters over the last few days, and now I'm working on the troops. The characters were straightforward, but the troops are very customizable with interchangeable body parts and weapons, so I'm taking my time to plan out everything before starting to glue. It would be a pity if I didn't make enough sergeants and special weapons troops and so forth.

The models are very detailed and came with a lot of extra bits (grenades, alternate heads, daggers, etc). Only a few had mold lines that needed more than a cursory sanding. A few of the troops have a small air bubble that will either need green stuff or some extra paint - under the chin is the recurring spot. My only complaint at the moment is that the sprue is sometimes attached to the models in highly visible places, like along the midriff or biceps. It's not a big deal, but it requires some careful cutting and sanding.





I was down with a fever for most of today, but I'm feeling good enough now to get back to work on the troops.

[me_in_japan]

Last night I did some work on the same batch of blood letters. I put a black wash on them and worked on other details. I'll keep working on the daemons, but I'd like to shift gears and start work on the Blood Slaughter, but I have to figure a good way to remove the big chunks of resin from the casting. It seems like I'll need to make a trip to the hardware store for some proper tools and protection.

Word to the wise - use the right tools when dealing with resin. It's not as forgiving as plastic. My advice would be, at minimum:

A fine saw (a razorsaw) for cutting through the vents (the big blocky bits). Anything else will take forever or risk snapping.
A sharp knife with replaceable blades (you probly have one already)
A pair of clippers (again, probly already got em)
Some sandpaper (roughish for initial removal of lumpy bits, finer for finishing surfaces. You get wierd blemishes sometimes on flat resin surfaces)
Some milliput for filling in uneven surfaces (followed by sanding. This is why milliput is better than green/grey stuff)
A dust mask. Resin dust is toxic. Don't saw, drill or sand it without a mask on.

Also, a useful tip (wot I used a lot recently for my current secret proj): fill smallish gaps and bubbles with superglue followed by a liberal dusting of baking powder. Then sand down the resulting lump. Smoothest gap fill you'll ever see, and no wait time for putty to cure.

Finally, make sure to pin the arms and legs on. You were gonna do that anyway, yeah?

Good luck with the blood slaughterer. Did you get the shooty one or the choppy one?

@dekana - ooh, you got the yagas. I was very tempted by them. Also, 3 nurses? Your chaps planning on doing a lot of getting injured?

[Dekana]

@mij: When I was ordering everything, I put together a spreadsheet to remind me which models were going to stand in for which units. So the yagas are primaris psykers, and the nurses are the medkit-carrying troops (gives feel no pain). I'm not sure how useful FNP actually is for guard since there is so much S6 instant-death shooting out there, but the models looked so damn good I just had to get a couple of them. I only hope I can do them justice when I get to painting.

I had some fun drilling holes in the special weapon bits tonight. The first weapon was a total disaster, but some green stuff later, I learned my lesson and got the process for the special weapon troops figured out. Magnetizing is done for one trooper and her weapons so far out of a planned 18 (it takes awhile!).

Progress on assembling troops: 5/100

[Konrad]

@Prim- Awooooh! Cool.
@Aux- those colors are making my eyes hurt. But also cool.
@Dekana- I so wish I had had the cash to get in on that kickstarter. Those are going to be so cool.
@MIJ- I was reading about that super-glue/baking soda trick the other day. I will have to experiment with that too. You can add superglue to your toxic warning bulletin. Superglue dust can't be good for you. I remember an art prof saying be real careful with the stuff. If it burns (like gets Dremeled) it's like cyanide gas. Probably only enough to kill a 28mm person, but still not cool.