Guardians Finished, New Blog!

Last weekend, I was able to finish my third and final Guardian squad. With this squad finished, I now have all my troops completed for both my Eldar and my Ultramarines. After fighting through all that monotony, I can finally shift my focus onto more elite and interesting units.The new squad can be seen on the Eldar page, so go check them out!

With the completion of the Guardians, my next squad is the Harlequins. I must say that I'm a little worried about painting them. It'll be my most detailed squad yet. I'm still going back and forth about if I'm even going to put a pattern on them or if it'll look better without. I'll post pictures throughout the painting process so you can see what I came up with.

On the topic of learning painting tricks, I have a new tutorial up for you! This one covers Eldar armor, which is really useful no matter what Edar unit you're working on. You can find the new tutorial on the How To page. Also, don't forget that you can email me at 40khobbiest@gmail.com and suggest new tutorials that you'd like to see.

Just the other day one of my two best friends, Reuben Qualls, started his new blog: The Tabletop Generation. Where my blog solely revolves around the 40k hobby and community, his takes a broader approach and encompasses all forms of tabletop gaming. When you finally get tired of reading about my 40k musings and would like to expand your horizons a bit, head on over to his blog for game and store reviews, tips, techniques, and everything in between!

Loyal Local Craft Show

On Sunday, August 4th, I went to a craft show with my wife. This show, called the Loyal Local event, was a craft show put on by Made in Vancouver, a group of local crafters looking to turn their hobby into a successful business. I'm not a member of this group, however, as I have no interest in painting for money.

Let me back up. Every once in a while, it's my wife's turn to host "craft nights" at the house, where about a dozen MiV women come over and knit, crochet, work beads, or whatever else they do. They also use this as an opportunity to network and discuss business ideas. I generally just sit in the living room and paint like I always do. I don't mind having them over because it generally means free pizza for me, as well as a bunch of new people looking at my models and saying how cool they are. For the purposes of this story, it's also important to note that my display case is also in the living room.

My display case at home

On one particular craft night, one of the higher-ups in the MiV group saw my models and offered me a free table at the upcoming Loyal Local event. Since it was free, I jumped at the chance to hand out business cards and generate some traffic (and maybe even a discussion or two) for the blog.

My table at the event

It was a pretty neat event! Since I wasn't selling anything, I had nothing to lose! I handed out 32 of the 34 business cards I brought, and hopefully that will do well for the blog and the Facebook page! Only time will tell!

In hobby news, work is progressing steadily on my last Guardian squad. I'm just finishing up the guns and arms today. Hopefully, those will be done by the end of the day. After that, all that's lfet is the head, antenna, and rims of the base. And the heavy weapon platform. . .

I'm remembering to take pictures along the way for the Eldar armor tutorial. I'm hoping to have that one up on the site not long after the squad is finished. Shouldn't be long now!

As was to be expected, rumors have started flying around about the new Space Marine codex. In my personal opinion, the Space Marines have too rich a background already to be able to give them new units. One rumor is regarding a new Whirlwind-style tank that has Skyfire. I actually like that and can absolutely see how it fits into a Space Marine chapter. There's another one about handing out assault cannons to tactical squads and devastators. That one's not bad either. It makes sense to me. The one I don't like is something about a new suit of armor called "Centurions." If the Astartes have had this armor, why are we only hearing about it now? Why is it not in the Horus Heresy? I very strongly disapprove of Games Workshop so vastly changing their rich background like this. I sincerely hope this one is just a rumor and we won't see such a giant plot hole in the new codex. Only time will tell.

That's enough ranting for me for one day. Have fun painting!