Aggravations

Blogs...

What to say about blogs...

It's so aggravating to look at some of the blogs that other people follow, read some of the content, fall in love with the content... And then realize that they haven't updated their hobby blog in over a year. So much great stuff out there and it's all been left by the wayside. I really do truly hope that this blog never goes that route. I'm pretty confident that there will be times where I won't be able to update for a a few weeks when "real" life gets in the way but I'm an adult with a full time family and a full timejob so that'll happen.

Small update that "real" life has gotten in the way of the hobby this week with work being busy and I haven't been able to touch a brush all week but I am positive that I will be able to get a few coats of paint on this afternoon. I also haven't been to the FLGS since I picked up my last purchase so I haven't gotten any play time in either. My vacation is coming up in a few weeks so I hope to get a lot of painting and gaming done then (hopefully).

Slayers!

Still working on the unit of Dwarf Slayers. The skin still needs a final highlight and the Slayer beards / hair only have a base coat but they're going along pretty quickly. If you look close you'll notice that there are 12 Slayers in the unit that I'm painting but I only have 10 in my army list. I have 12 models and I figured that while I'm painting the 10 models I would just go ahead and paint the full 12.

I hope to wrap these up in the next week or two. Then I'll be able to start on the final 10 warriors with shields.

500 POINTS COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight ends a chapter of my life. I've been working on this chapter for a few months now and I can happily say that I am finally finished with my first 500 points of dwarves!!! YAY ME!!! Time to celebrate with some dwarf slayers!!!

Dwarf Bolt Thrower w/ Crew

Here is my 500 points worth of dwarves. You'll notice that my general isn'y here in the picture. He's about to be dunked and stripped of paint so that I can repaint him.

And my next painting project! The Dwarf Slayers!!!

Dwarf Color Painting Recipes

Okay here goes...

I'm NOT a big fan of mixing colors and making shades. I prefer to use the colors right out of the pot the way that they are and right now I'm using all GW paints with a black primer.

So, here is a breakdown of the painting steps that I've been taking to get my finished results...

Blue
- Base - Mordian Blue
- Ink - Asurmen Blue
- Highlight - Enchanted Blue

Green
- Base - Orkhide Shade
- Highlight - Snot Green
- Ink - Thraka Green
- Edge Highlight - Scorpion Green

Leather
- Base - Calthan Brown
- Ink - Devlan Mud
- Highlight - Bestial Brown
- Edge Highlight - Desert Yellow

Horns on Helmets
- Base - Calthan Brown
- Highlight - Bleached Bone
- Highlight - Skull White

Shields / Orange
- Base - Macharius Orange
- Highlight - Blazing Orange
- Highlight - Blazing Orange - Second Coat
- Edge Highlight - Sunburst Yellow

Gold
- Base - Iyanden Darksun
- Ink - Ogryn Flesh
- Highlight - Dwarf Bronze
- Highlight - Burnished Gold

Skin
- Base - Tallarn Flesh
- Base - Dwarf Flesh
- Ink - Ogryn Flesh
- Highlight - Dwarf Flesh
- Highlight - Elf Flesh

Bases
Base - Calthan Brown
Highlight - Desert Yellow
Highlight - Bleached Bone
Rim of base - Khemri Brown

I feel a lot better now that I have a digital copy of the steps that I take to get these colors painted up on my Dwarves. I feel like I've really simplified the steps but I'm sure that there's other ways of getting these colors painted but I'm pretty comfortable with these methods.

Work continues and I hope to have the second Bolt Thrower done in a few days.

1st Bolt Thrower = Complete!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I said in my last post that I was going to post my painting steps for my dwarves...

BUT

I decided to paint instead!

Here is my 1st completed Bolt Thrower along with dedicated crew.

(Bolt Thrower) 

(Bolt Thrower) 

(Bolt Thrower w/ crew) 

(Cabinet)

I also completed making my display cabinet yesterday. It's kind of a neat story how this cabinet came to be. I'd gotten this cabinet years ago that someone had dumped on the side of the road when I was a teenager and still living at home. Fast forward about 14 years and I've kept this cabinet this whole time. My neighbors in an adjoining townhouse were evicted 3 months ago and had some cabinets that they left that had glass doors on them. The cabinets were made more for stereo equipment than anything but I had the notion to use one of the glass doors for the front of my cabinet and create a display case for the army that I'm currently working on. I also was very lucky in that my neighbors cabinet also had wired electrical lighting so I removed the door, door hardware and light fixture. 

Yesterday the wife and the kids were away all day so I set this as my project for the day! I went to the home repair shop and got some plexiglass, "L" brackets and screws and when I came home I went to work on my new cabinet. I really wish that I'd taken before photos! At the end of the day I really think that I only spent about 25 dollars on this display cabinet! You can even tell it's a frankenstein cabinet because in the picture you can see that the door is too big for the cabinet. HAHA! But in all reality it turned out very nice looking in my opinion.

1 more Bolt Thrower and I'll finally be finished my 1st 500 points of Dwarves. It seems like they're taking a long time to paint but in all reality I'm actually moving along pretty nicely if I put into scope that I have painted this much in years.

On a side note I went to my FLGS today but they were holding a Warhammer 40K tournament so I couldn't get any games in. I did however pick up my Ork Big Mek that's been waiting for me for over a month. This is my first Citadel Fincast miniature and I can already see a flaw but it's an easy enough fix. So, there is my monthly alottment for my hobby but with Christmas coming around I already know that I'm getting a gift certificate to my FLGS. How do I know you might be thinking...

The owner told me that my wife had stopped in and gotten me one but he wouldn't tell me the amount!

Thanksgiving Holiday - Bottling Session

So, I've got a long weekend because of the Thanksgiving Holiday. I'd said a few days ago that I needed to bottle my beer that I brewed a month ago.  My wife was out shopping on Black Friday and I didn't have much to do so I decided to bottle the beer today. My son wanted to help because he likes to help me bottle so this became a father and son bottling session.

 (The Beer!)

(Three cases of empty bottles) 

(Everything being sterilized) 

(Priming sugar being brought to a boil) 

(Beer being siphoned into the spigot bucket) 

(Spigot bucket)

I put the phone away after this step because the rest of the process is a very wet and messy process. All the beer was bottled and capped and shelved away in the basement so that it'll carbonate and be ready to drink next month. I'm giving these away as Chrismas gifts and I hope that everyone enjoys them! 

And here are some WIP photos of one of my Bolt Throwers...

I thought that I would really enjoy painting up the Bolt Throwers but I'm finding them very tedious and boring. I'm really looking forward to painting up the unit of Slayers though. They've been sitting on my desk and they've been calling out to me lately. Plus I feel like I should be able to paint them up quickly since they're mostly skin. I feel like I've really slacked this month with paining and if I was still holding myself to the 250 point painting challenge then I would've failed utterly. But work continues and I'm trying to get through things!

I'll most likely post something tomorrow or later today about the process of how I've been painting my dwarves. I have everything written down on a scrap piece of paper and I am so afraid that I'm going to lose it. If I have it all up on the blog then at least I will have an electronic copy.

Happy Turkey Day

I just wanted to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there inlcuding my friends and family!

Painting continues...