Friday, April 30, 2010

Super Blog Chain Give Away! Winner: Old School Terminator!

As all good things must come to an end, and new things must begin, I pass on the prize and the SBCG burden on to Old School Terminator at Dark Future Games!  It was a tough choice for me and I wish I could have split the prize and given something to everyone.  But there must always be one and the idea of lusty Slannesh walkers was one I couldn't pass up and his prize of a painted converted Dreadnaught is something I'd love to see made and shipped.

It's the prizes made with love for the hobby that I love the most!

Congrats to the winner!  And congrats to SCWH for putting together such an awesome contest!  The entries I got below were just awesome. 

And the prizes aren't bad either.  Guess what I got in the mail today?  2 gorgeous brushes, brush cleaner and some fantastic basing material.  I can't say enough good things about the guys over at Santa Cruz Warhammer

I hope the other entrants will head on over to Dark Future games and post their prizes on to this contest!  Keep it alive!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Super Blog Chain Give Away! Deadline approaches!


My computer has crashed and I'm working hard to restore it, but in the meantime, I wanted to remind my readers of the Super Blog Chain Give Away deadline approaching on Friday! 

The Prize is Three (3) Eldar War Walkers still on the sprue!


Already I see some awesome entries, so the competition is fierce (and difficult for me!)...but that doesn't mean you can't top someone on here for this great prize.  And remember, if you win, you'll be running the Super Blog Chain Give Away next and Santa Cruz Warhammer and I will work hard to send people to your blog!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

"The "Pay It Forward" Super Blog Chain Give Away" (part 2)

The give-away feeling at Santa Cruz Warhammer is fairly infectious.  The excitment of the prize, the daydreaming as you post...and then that email that says "You've won.  Pay it Forward!"

It's a small thrill, but a wonderful one nonetheless and one I'd like to share with my own readers (and new visitors to my blog!).  So I'm having a contest!  Just like SCWH's Pay it Forward contest!

The prize?  Three Eldar War Walkers still on the sprue.  I'll never do anything with them and it'd be nice to send them to a great Eldar home.  This means, the winner will receive, by mail, the sprues to make 3 walkers (minus 1 decorative piece), 3 large bases and 3 glass canopies.  Oh!  And 3 sheets of transfers!  It's as if you time traveled back to when the Eldar were released and purchased a War Walker Squadron cause you thought you'd like to make an Eldar army!
 The rules for the contest are simple...and copied verbatim from SCWH:


Rules.
1. you must have a blog.
2. you must have something worthwhile to offer up to give away for free.
3. if you win, you must hold your own blogsite give away using the same rules to pay it forward.
4. you must contact us with a link to your give away so we can send bloggers to your site.
5. you may only enter once per give away.

To enter.
leave a comment to this post as follows.
1st sentence, why you need the prize.
2nd sentence what you will give away on your blog to pay it forward.

I will choose the winner based on how convincing they are and what they offer to the next winner.

The winner will be announced this coming Friday night 9pm EST!
Be clever!  Be witty!  Be greedy!  Be crazy!  Be awesome!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

40 Days of Painting: Failure and a new contest!

I owe a few pictures for the 40 Days of Painting contest, but I thought I'd let folks know that I lost.  Mainly cause I didn't paint a single Tactical model on Friday night before the deadline.  The winner, Viper (on nerdnyc) had won in the first few days and received the gift certificate and our grudging admiration.  If I could paint half as fast as him, I'd have 6 incomplete armies instead of a measly 3!  There was a second place prize that I also did not win...but I could have scored if I had completed my tacticals.  Curse my laziness!

No big deal though!  Worst result out of this contest is that I'm out $10 and I've added another 1000 points of painted Crimson Fists to my collection.  In fact...that's not a bad deal at all!  I had a great time trash talking folks online and getting models painted under a deadline is great motivator.  I mean...even if you don't win the grand prize...you still win those painted models, right?  Right???

Speaking of contests, Terrain from Junk is holding a terrain building contest and I've decided to join.  Which means I have 15 short days to pull together a 6x6 piece of terrain, take pictures (normally my undoing) and send them along to that fantastic (and fledgling) blog.  Go over there and comment!  DIY Terrain is a dying art!  Revitalize it!  With the power of junk!!!

I'll post updates as I go.

Step 1: Gather the materials!
More to come.  This will eventually be a Fuel Storage silo turned bastion.  It's going to be awesome.  I make terrain way better than I convert/paint models. It's like a secret skill I have.  Maybe it's why I enjoy basing models so much. 

Friday, April 9, 2010

40 Days of Painting: Tactical Squad

The original list for my 40 Days of Painting consisted of 2 Tactical Squads.  Well, I completed 1 of them so far here they are!
For the most part, this is a very simple tactical squad.  A few old metal models with new arms (though the guy with the knife and bolter has old arms...I wanted to make a model that looked like the old school Rogue Trader plastics).  The Plasma Rifle tactical has a very modest conversion...I attempted to raise up the plasma rifle so it looks like he's aiming it.  I used an old tutorial I found on Bolter and Chainsword that was pretty kick ass.

The lesson learned here is that not only for you need to adjust the wrists, you should also consider adjusting the joins at the shoulder.  He looks great from the front, but from the top, he looks like he's holding that plasma as far from his face as possible!

Oh noes!  Cawshis is cheating!  His tactical squad has a meltagun model as well.  No!  I'm not cheating.  I must have snapped this shot with the meltaguy instead of a tactical.  I'll make up for it with the other tactical squad in the contest, I guess!  The melta model is an older one, but I loved his face so much I highlighted it.

Lastly is my Tactical Sgt.  He's got a magnetized banner pole (for ease of storage and less chance of breaks).  At first I hated banners, but now I kind of want all my special marines to have one.
Another old model that I love and I'm so happy to finally have put a decent paintjob on.  He's got new weapons and a new plasma, but his helmet barely fits in his neckguard.  Awesome.

I'll be applying transfers next, but I'm going to wait until I get the microsol and apply in a huge batch.  More to come!  I hope folks enjoy these additions to the Crimson Fists!

40 Days of Painting Status Update:   
Less than 1 days left...31  points complete.  Still ahve to finish those tactical marines.  Might. Not. Make it.  Tomorrow we all get together for Kill Team games and paying of debts by losers and huzzahing (hating) on the winners.  I'm definitely going to finish these guys though, so expect pictures of the rhinos and the tacticals soon!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

40 Days of Painting: Captain

About 2 weeks ago, I posted pictures of a WIP Captain.  I figured now with only 2 days left in the original contest, I should get around to posting pictures of him.  It's shameful.  I know.

For the pictures this time, I set up 2 lamps and a white sheet of paper.  I might need a 3rd lamp or I may just break down and buy a picture box.  I don't know.  I can't seem to get these pictures looking as crisp as other folks have them!

As always, my Crimson Fists are a very simple paint scheme.  I take a bit more time and add a bit more highlights on my HQs and models I really like...but for the most part, it's drybrush Mordian Blue, a lighter drybrush of Ultramarine blue and then details and washes.  

I tried to get the power sword to look like the charges were flowing across it in motion (he's swinging the blade across his chest).  It looks good in person, but this is the only shot I got of it that looks decent.  I think my macro settings wash out the details.

I really enjoyed painting this guy and I can tell I've made leaps since my very first Captains of days past.  Although, looking at those old posts, I feel like my picture taking has gotten worse!  Coincidence?  Maybe I'm taking more time painting and less time taking pictures.  Yeah.  Or the lighting in here is awful!

40 Days of Painting Status Update:   
Less than 2 days left...31  points complete.  9 tacticals in two days.  I don't know if I can do it.  But I did paint up TLHB and TLLCs for make my rhinos Razorbacks.  That counts for something, right?  Right?  

Thursday, April 1, 2010

40 Days of Painting: Assault Squad

This past weekend I was at PAXeast.  So the week before, I was working like crazy so I could leave to a game convention without any guilt.  Instead, I transferred that guilt to not updating folks!

Anyways, I'm finally putting up some completed pics.  I finished this unit so long ago, it's silly it took me 3 weeks to post them.  Here is 5 Assault Squad members painted in your standard Crimson Fist colors.  Or nonstandard!  I wanted to see what a little drybrush of ultramarine blue did to the models.  Lightened them up a bit, but that's okay.


Flamer Assault squad member.  This is an older metal model (I have no idea from when!).  Even the Jump Pack is metal!  Lots of nifty details on this guy and I decided to paint his skin a darker color.  I wish the skin hadn't come out so shiny (I'm guessing that was from the washes), but I'm hoping when I get around to the finish, the skin will tone down.  Also, Hand Flamer!  I love hand flamers and I am very disappointed that only the new Blood Angels have access to them.

I'll save that rant for another day though.  Instead, more assault squadies!
Since I wanted to complete there guys as quickly as possible, I didn't do anything fancy here.  Bases are very straight forward and color scheme is very simple.  I may go back and do a few touch ups here and there (I don't really like the Black Templar badge for example), but these guys are tabletop ready!


40 Days of Painting Status Update:   
Less than 7 days left...20  points complete.  Have to highlight both rhinos and 10 tacticals in such a short amount of time.  Also, I need to paint all the bolters...so actually, I have only 10 points.  Damn you PAX!