Plastic Fantastic

Well it's been a while but I have been busy painting away in my ape cave.

After banning myself from playing on the xbox or ps3 (ps+ is amazing! how many free games??!) until I had painted my bolt action, I finally got them done.

So I've gone down the Army Painter route, but not physically dipping-applying it with a brush. Now, I have used a similar method on my nids but that was with wood stain and not with army painter. Is army painter different? I'm not convinced it's that much different although it is thinner and flows much more easily. However it's twice the price and half the size of wood stain. Still, I think it gives a better result so probably worth it.

Even though I used Army Painter, it's worth pointing out that you still have to spend time actually painting the base coat neatly, otherwise it will look, well, gash.

I did buy the matt spray from Army Painter, but I've heard horror stories of grey misting and chickened out, instead using Vallejo matt from a bottle. It took longer, but no risk of misting.

So without further ado-I think these are decent table top standard and I can always go back and paint in eyes and other fiddly bits:

Bazooka team




Sniper




Forward Air Observer




HQ


Medic


Mortar


50. cal


And an awesome Spanish guy from a wedding I went to in Spain at the weekend - the man is a legend and I salute you and your dancing skills Sir!

W'art(orn) a disappointment...

Just a brief blog post following my annual pilgrimage to War Torn in Scarborough a month or so ago.

I'm not sure what happened but it seemed a bit flat compared to last years event.  I was speaking with a chap at the Warlord Games stand who agreed with me on this point.

When I attend one of these conventions I hope to see new games and systems that tempt me to part with my money. In particular I had been hoping to see some Infinity and maybe some Mercs on display.

In the end I settled on a few Bolt Action bits and rounded off my US infantry (the majority of which I had bought from Total Wargamer for £55 (£20 off rrp!) for Fathers Day).

So why no pictures? Well I've put the smurfs back in their boxes for the time being to focus on the new "craze" sweeping my local club - Bolt Action.  I will get pics up asap.

In the meantime I have also been tempted back into Warmachine, although I haven't painted anything I did pick up the Judicator and the 2 player Hordes battle box as part of a 3 for 2 deal in York.  It was completely unintentional as I had only popped in to town to pick up some paint after I finished TA training on Sunday, but with Travelling Man on the same street as Boyes, I made the mistake of thinking there was nothing that I would want.  Oh well, £130 (after selling the Kraken) for the two items is a bargain!

Expect pics of something very soon.

If you've read this far then thanks! You clearly have too much time on your hands!!!

More Smurfs!!

The smurf painting mojo continues for the time being whilst I await my Bolt Action goodies (and War Torn). The wife has been moaning about the amount of models I have still on sprue so having learnt the lesson of selling stuff only to regret it, I have instead decided to glue, paint and shove in a case for future usage (or not).

So without further ado - three dreadnoughts with interchangeable weapons (I think the newest kit has more options but these are from 04/05)













(FWIW all symbols are free hand not transfers.)

Comments and criticisms are always appreciated :)

Still painting the smurfs...

Finally got around to finishing my land raider which, like many of my smurfs, I started painting years ago.

It still needs a transfer or two adding.  I went down the route of painting the interior, not to a high standard but enough to give the right effect. I also got the Forgeworld doors because, why not? :)













Comments, crits etc always welcome.

Next up will be either more Smurfs or some ship-based shenanigans

Ultrasmurfs

I would hazard a guess that most people who play 40k have at some point, even if they no longer do so, collected a space marine army.

My love affair with all things blue began one Christmas Day round my cousins house when I was given command of the blue squad in Space Crusade.  I dont remember much of the game itself but I remember being hooked and hassling my dad for ages to buy me some.  Being a bit of a gaming geek himself (albeit historical) my dad knew where these could be purchased and a trip to Another World in Leicester (before GW opened on the same street!) yielded up a box of the infamous RB01 beaky marines (£10 for 30-although I didnt seem to have enough bits to make 30?).  I still have them somewhere but they were painted with Humbrol paints and well, I was 10, so you can guess how they look.

Fast forward to my time working for GW when there were countless opportunities to benefit from more free space marines than you can shake a stick at (thank you Stock Take Booty!) as well as a very generous staff discount meant I could get the metal shoulder pads for 1p each.

Fast forward again to 2013 when I finally get around to doing something with them again, mainly thanks to playing Space Marine on the xbox 360.  

The ultimate aim is to paint up a full battle company plus lots of extras.  Even if they don't make a particularly effective force, hopefully they will still be fun to try out.

Freshly painted assault squad - started these in 2006...

My Company Commander 

An updated tactical squad.  Painted these in 06 but have updated with a new base edge and some liberal application of nuln oil

Comments etc always appreciated.  Plenty more to follow (if I dont get distracted, fickle soul that I am)

An update on my Empire Blog

Please check out my update on my Empire Blog

Lots of pics of my newly painted steam tank.

http://apaintingape-middenlandsfinest.blogspot.co.uk/

Necrons - What next?

Back in the mists of time (circa 2003) having just started working for Gee Dub, I was told that we all needed a 2000 point 40k army fully painted.  The reason for this is not clear, but it was some edict from an area manager.

The quickest army I could think of was Necrons (back in the day when they had boltgun metal spray paint). So a quick phone call to the lovely Mail Order trolls and a large box of Necrons was winging its way to the store.  They were duly constructed, painted basically and then stuck in a case and basically forgotten.

But with the release of the book last year (or was it 2011?) I've decided to awaken them like the proverbial necrontyr.

So this is what I have:
40 Warriors
10 Immortals
6 Heavy Destroyers
12(?) Destroyers
2 Monoliths
Lord
Lord with Destroyer Body
3 Wraiths
2 Tomb Spiders
Load of scarabs

There might be some more but I think that is it.

The question is, can I make a half competitive army out of this? I dont want a ball breaking tournament list, just something reasonably fluffy but not a walk over.

And, what do I need to get in as few purchases as possible to achieve this?