Knights Bellicose, Eldar Progress

With the release of the new Codex: Space Marine, I've decided to formally begin work on the Knights Bellicose. When thinking about the new army, I've considered changing up some of my techniques. One thing I've considered doing is to use waterslide transfers to apply the tactical markings to my units. To test this, I took a large flying stand and glued a bunch of posts to it. I then hung a shoulder pad from each one of those. I painted each shoulder pad as if it were from a different company, just to see how they would all look. After that, I started applying some waterslide transfers to them, just to see how it would look. Here's how it turned out:

Left: waterslide transfers / Right: hand-painted (incomplete)

You can see the edge of the film pretty obviously

As you can see, the waterslide transfers are far too obvious and would detract from the models. It looks like I'll be hand painting them. When I complete my second test (the one on the right in the first picture), I'll be sure to post more pictures and let you know how it turned out!

Progress on the Eldar army is coming along nicely. The Harlequins are almost done! Most of the models are done and sealed. All I have left is the Troop Master and the Shadowseer. Keep checking back to see how the progress is going, but you can have a sneak peek right now!

The masks really make the model stand out.

So Drew, you're working on three armies now? What? No! Well, kind of.

Since I'm going to start working on the Knights Bellicose, I'm setting aside the Ultramarines. In the beginning, they weren't intended to be a full army anyway. 1,000 points is a nice round number to stop them at for a nice little side project. I'm now going to devote my time to getting the Knights Bellicose up to full strength. I plan on building the entire chapter someday! So right now, the only two armies I'm putting effort into is the Eldar and the Knights Bellicose. I think that if I try to do more than two armies at once, I'll get too bogged down and I won't ever finish anything.

Because of the circumstances I find myself in, I have the opportunity to have a gaming table once again. My awesome father-in-law is helping me build it. That means that in a few months, I'm going to be able to start working on terrain! When that happens, I'm going to devote some attention to building and painting some awesome terrain to play on and take pictures on! I'm going to put as much effort into the terrain as I do the armies I build. Hopefully, we'll have some pretty awesome terrain to use! Keep checking back to see how it all turns out! I'll be sure to post up some tutorials as the terrain happens!

Until next time, have fun painting!

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!

Staying Engaged

When I work on my models, it's like I'm in my own little world. I'll listen to music while I paint, or perhaps put something simple on the television. I'll generally watch something science fiction related, something that I can listen to and don't have to look at. As of late, I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I've seen enough of it in the past that I can listen to it without having to focus on it. The distraction helps me devote attention to my models and keep me motivated enough to work for longer periods of time without getting bored with the painting process itself. Despite the motivation I have to work on models when they're right in front of me, I need to keep that motivation while I'm not painting, so that I'll keep coming back and continuing my work.

In my day job, I am a professional truck driver. Since I drive for long hours, I am unable to read novels, browse the internet, or receive any other visual stimulation to keep me interested in the hobby. Instead, I download a bunch of 40k-related podcasts to listen to when I drive. Listening to battle reports or hobby progress from other 40k players always makes me want to work on my models.

What do you do to motivate yourself when you're working on your hobby? Even if you don't paint models, what gives you to motivation to keep up with your creativity? When you're not working on your hobby (painting, knitting, etc), what keeps you coming back for more? Leave a comment below and let me know about how you do your hobby.

As for my own personal hobby progress, work is continuing steadily on the third and final Guardian squad. Today, I've basecoated the arms and am preparing to attach them to the Guardians. I've also basecoated the weapon platform. This squad is getting steadily closer to being finished. I'm looking forward to being finished with this squad so that I can start working on more ambitious projects. After this squad is finished, the Harlequins will be getting some work. I'm looking forward to seeing how the squad markings work. Keep checking back to see how the Guardians turn out!

Seer Council

The other day, I took a break from painting the third Guardian squad to focus on their squad leader, the Warlock. After an entire day staring into my magnifying glass, he's completely finished. With my third Warlock completed, I've been presented with an idea. Next time I play, I'm going to try running a Seer Council instead of tossing them into the Guardian squads like I normally do. I've realized that I'm having trouble getting their powers to work effectively and am having limited usefulness in their current position. I think, in the end, I'll keep them in their Guardian squads (where their squad markings will make more sense), but for the next game or two I'm going to try keeping them together so that I'll have more freedom with their powers. Feel free to post comments below and let me know what you think.

As for now, check out how the third Warlock came out. I think they look pretty sweet as a Seer Council.

As for the Guardians themselves, they're coming along nicely! I should have them done in another week or so. With all the pictures I've taken of all the steps, it looks like its going to be a fantastic tutorial when its done! Keep checking back!

Trying the New Eldar

Yesterday, I went down to Games Workshop: Eastport Plaza to see if I could get a game. I haven't played with the Eldar since the new codex came out, so I wanted to try them out. I ended up finding a game with Avery and Eric, who play Space Marines and Necrons, respectively. We played a 1,500 point game with my army verses the two of them (it's how the points ended up). In order for me to round out to a nice even 1,500 points, I used the Eldar as my main force and allied in a few squads of my Ultramarines.

We played for objectives, so when you see my Titan crew wandering around the board, that's why. They were the objectives.

The pictures below tell most of the story, but I'll give you a few highlights first. For starters, I took 6 troop choices (2 Guardians, 2 Dire Avengers, & 2 Tactical Squads), an Autarch, a Farseer, a Space Marine captain, and to a lesser extent, a dreadnaught. When you look through the pictures, you'll notice that the dreadnaught isn't in any of them. Why is that, you ask? Because it was immediately destroyed before it could take its first shot.

Also, in most of the pictures, the only Space Marines you'll see are mine. This is because the entirety of Avery's force was outflanking or deep striking and didn't make it on until late in the game.

That being said, I was still annihilated. Eric's Tesla-whatevers just killed squad after squad. In the end, I ended up losing, but I still learned a whole lot about how the new Eldar play, as well as what choices I should make in the future to have more successful games.

Check out the pictures below to see how the battle went!

Battle lines are drawn

Awesomely airbrushed Necron vehicles:
the bane of my existance

Eldar Guardians worked out amazingly well, even if they
didn't make it to the end of the game.

Space Marine allies outflank me!

This is the end. . .

 In hobby news, the last squad of Eldar Guardians is coming along swimmingly. I'm really looking forward to having them finished. When this last squad is done, I'll have all my troops done for both armies and I can focus on painting the fun stuff! Keep checking back to see the progress on the final troop squad!

Special Project Complete

The special project I've been working on, the AQRF, are finally complete! Head on over to my Other Models section to check them out!

With the new Eldar codex finally out, I've resumed work on those guys. I've just started work on my third Guardian squad. With them complete, I'll have my entire troops section filled out and I can focus on all the cooler stuff without having to worry about fleshing out the core of my army. Also, I'll be photographing the models in stages and posting a tutorial on how to paint Guardians and Eldar armor in general. Stay tuned for another tutorial!