It took too long to finish these models, they should have been finished on the weekend, tonight I forced myself to just shut up and paint. I always spend too much time on finicky details. These four didn’t come out super great, certainly not my best work. I did try some new paints and techniques, but that isn’t the reason for the substandard work. Partly it was being out of practice, partly it was trying to take some short cuts. They’ll do.

I got quite a few things on my painting table, but I’m going to clear most everything off and start building one foot by one foot terrain tiles, 24 of them.

I again used my iPhone to take the pictures of the models. I shoved it right in close and balanced it on the table. They’re on Flickr so you look at them in higher res. The paints used were GW (lots of old pots), Foundry, and Vallejo. I even used some Ral Partha paint and some weathering powder and washes from these guys. Still haven’t gotten weathering powder down and I’ll need to test the washes more.

Wes is going on a multimedia, media blitz, but in the mean time their is my first blog posting about the concert and of course the official Facebook page. You can’t do anything without an official Facebook page these days.

The bands playing are: Rodney DeCroo and his Convictions, the Boombox Saints, Spoon River and the Left. All the bands have MySpace pages, but I thought this time I’d try to dig up YouTube footage of each band too.

I couldn’t find a single Spoon River YouTube clip, so instead you get a Georgia Straight interview.

Well gotta get back to my real job, while I still have a real job. ;-)

I used the wet palette, but still haven’t done any custom blending. The blue-green stuff on the Obliterator, is built up from a grey basecoat, a thinned waaagh green ink, and some vellejo green grey (model color 106). I used two thin washes and finished with a final highlight of the green grey.

For black power armor I go Foundry triad 34. I tried lots of things and that worked the best. I also use Chaos Black and Badab Black and even a little Fortress Grey on the final most highlights.

My purple is pretty much unchanged from the last batch of these guys. Liche Purple, then Warlock, then slightly darkened Titillating Pink. I use a thinned wash of the old purple wash, not the new one GW is selling, the ones with blue lids.

Then I really had to wait for things to dry. The banner needs some fixing up, the brass trim needs some fixing up on most models. None of the eyes are done. The next two colors to be done are a classic dark green for the tubes and bones for the skulls and what not. I also plan to add in a little copper tubing and gold knickknacks. Things always take longer than I estimate, but if I apply myself I should be able to finish the four of them bases and all over the weekend.

Might have to shop for a new camera, of course I’m still paying for my MBA and likely always will. I also may soon need a new job…

If you want to see more of my painting particularly how the Nefarious Fire paint scheme came to be finalized, check out this thread on the Bolter and Chainsword.

At some point I moved around a lot of furniture and set up a new photo booth, with new lights from Ikea, alas my camera died, so I tried it out with my iPhone with disappointing results. I may lean in more next time, and I may invest in a new camera prior to Astronomi-con.

Trumpeter’s Salute is coming up and I’m playing in that 40K tournament so these four models will be done by then and debut on those tables. I really need to crank out the 1 foot by 1 foot terrain squares, maybe I’ll do up a schedule. I also plan on painting a couple test models, then two new HQ choices and finally a rhino. Maybe that doesn’t seem like that much to some, but to me it seems like a lot.

I keep buying new paints and was even talked into using a wet palette. Not sure if it will help much with speed, but I can see how it saves you some paint and helps with custom blending. I tend to be a wash centric painter and to build up from a black undercoat, but it is always good to have extra tricks in your painting toolkit.

These models are my very first Obliterator ever (and for the extra keen, the cheapest possible lascannon in Codex Chaos Space Marines) and three other models that allow my tactical squad to be a little more versatile and to have the Mark of Chaos Undivided. I’m big on lascannons and havoc missile launchers of late, but I may switch to something other than CSM after Astro Vancouver and the Trench Table are complete.

Oh if you ever wanted to know how miniatures get made, particularly pewter ones, or the history of Battletech and Iron Wind Metals check out this story.

First David Eby got a pie in the face, this was amusing for more than just the Black Bloc I imagine. Apparently not everyone in the Downtown Eastside hates the games, their are some secret fans.

Today is actually NHL trade deadline day, but here is an older article on Brendan Morrow, one of the unheralded members of Team Canada.

Apparently the few angry British journalists that weren’t even in Canada for the games may have been wrong, Canada may not have been that bad of Olympic hosts after all. North America and Asia seemed to have gained at Europe’s expense at least that is the conclusion of this article.

Here is another article about kids especially in Vancouver’s historic inner-city being given free tickets to Olympic events. This never gets mentioned by the anti-Olympic protesters…