A GW Rant at Spikey Bits

Things have been a bit busy around here and I have not really gotten anything done on miniatures.  I don't think I have lost the steam or desire, just have a limited amount of time and been working quite a bit.  I also have built with my dad two karts and have done some work on my truck.  Those things should be ready to go this spring.  And not just that, I finally cleaned off my drawing table and have gotten back to drawing, doing some pen and ink, and some point will paint 2d.   Also for some reason I'm having problems posting pictures on the blog, things just seem to lock whether I upload them through blogger or link them off one of my many picture hosting sites that I use.


Anyways the real reason for the posting is that I saw a blog post by Spikey Bits.  I think its a good read, and well said about what he thinks is happening with GW. The following is a link to that posting:
http://www.spikeybitsblog.com/2014/01/utter-chaos-gw-past-present-future.html?utm_source=Copy+of+1%2F16&utm_campaign=9%2F26&utm_medium=email


I can't say that I've been a customer of GW's as long as Spikey, but I have bought a lot of stuff from them over the years.  I have also found that I have been increasingly alienated or maybe it should be annoyed by them.  It is not about the money for me.  The miniature hobby is nowhere near as expensive as my kart racing hobby.  Racing is in the stratosphere in comparison to the miniatures hobby.  I think he hit on what has happened with me, and that is the Fun aspect.   I started in with the GW hobby playing 3rd Edition 40k.  I found the game, fun, but then came 4th edition that sort of sucked the wind out of me.  Some friends then turned me on to 6th Edition Fantasy and I found that fun again, then came 7th and early on the fun was there, but started to fade towards the end with all of the new books coming out for armies, especially with the likes of VC and Skaven.  Then 8th Edition came out and that basically ended Fantasy for me.  I seriously dislike the 8th edition rules.  I had also in that period of Fantasy found Warhammer Ancients and loved the game, 2.0 WAB came out and I loved it even more, then GW killed WAB.  Go figure.  Gone is the fun. Where is the hobby going for me, I really do not know.  I need to find that FUN again, until then I guess I will just keep going with what I find fun, and that is the modeling and the painting, and the kart racing.

For Sale: An assembled Logan Grimnar, Bretonian Knights, and Gripping Beast Berserkers

As the title says:


Space Wolf Lord: 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331121420601?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


Relisted the Knights:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331118382800?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


Another batch of Gripping Beast Berserkers
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331118382489?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


And a whole lot of other crap.

BoLS Article RE: Victor Hardy

I saw the following interview posted on Bell of Lost Souls where they had interviewed Victor Hardy.  Victor built and painted some simply beautifully evil pieces a number of years back.  His dark style has definitely been one of the influences on my style of painting miniatures over the years.  I highly recommend you read the interview.


http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/01/miniature-painting-masters-victor-hardy.html

FOR SALE: 40k Chaos Spacemarine BITS

Having built my latest Chaos Spacemarines which I recently sold on Ebay, I've essentially ran out of legs and such.  As a result of this, I've decided to thin out a bits box that I could use for something else.


So that said I have put up the following on Ebay, a sort of winter cleaning:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/331111141531?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Approximately a 4 ounce bag worth.  Great for someone that does a bit of converting.  Some of the Items Included, this is not all of the items, there is more than what is listed in the following:

• 3-OOP Terminator Combo Weapon Arms - Metal
• 1-OOP Missile Launcher
• 1-OOP Terminator Power Fist - Metal, Black Primer
• 1-OOP Metal Plasma Pistol
• 2-Heavy Bolters
• 13-Khorne Berserker Chest Plates
• 39+ Heads
• 24+ Shoulder Pads
• 12-Back Plates
• 2-Backpacks
• 5-Bolt Pistol Arms
• 4-Chest Plates
• 2-Chainsword Arms
• 10+ Plasma Pistols (Don't roll a one)
• 8-Backpack Trophy Poles
• 15+ Battleroad Games Chaos Heads (great for conversions)
• Miscellaneous Icons
• And Much MORE   

And don't worry I have more Chaos Spacemarines.

For Sale: Warhammer Bretonian Knights, GB Berserkers, Warhammer Monthly Issues, Logan Grimnar

I've listed a number of items on Ebay for sale:


Some converted up Bretonnian Knights:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331108136680?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


3-unpainted Gripping Beast Berserker models
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331108136626?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


Warhammer Monthly Comic Issues #1-7, 9, 11-14.  They are used, not pristine.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331108940167?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


40k Space Wolf Logan Grimnar model, unpainted in pieces:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331108136691?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

WIP On the Desk: How I Paint Red for my armies.....

Over the years, I have painted a lot of miniatures in a red paint scheme for my armies.  I have often been asked what colors I use and when I tell people they think: 

A.  Games Workshop is the only one that makes paints.  or

B.  They think its too many colors and too hard to do.

Above are the paints that I often use.  Now when I painted my 2008 GT Khorne Demon army, I used a lot of 50/50 in between blends.  When you paint just one off show piece models, you can get away with using just a couple of colors and wet palette.  Super time consuming for me if you are painting an army.  I prefer a formula that can be written down or remembered from sitting to sitting and works with an assembly line style of painting.

So the following is what I did today on a couple of Romans and couple of Normans in the next batch of minis that I am working on.  For my initial stage I block in the reds with a large No. 4 round brush, using Vallejo Model Color - Hull Red.  If you do not have that you can substitute Reaper Master Series Red Brick.  If you have just GW colors, I can't help you.

So next up I did a 50/50 blend of Hull Red with Reaper Master Series Deep Red.  If you don't have that you can substitute GW Scab Red or Vallejo Game Color Scarlet Red, pretty close to the same colors.

For these colors I want to put them on pretty fast, as we are army painting after all, so I'm using a worn out Round No. 1 that gives me a bit more control than the No. 4.

Below you can see the worn out brush, all splaying and beginning to curl, a Simply Simmons brush.

 Next up I paint on Vallejo Model Color Red.  A bit more controlled, painting like I'm building a contour map of highlights from dark to light.

 Following that step, I use a 50/50 VMC Red and VMC Carmine Red blend.  Now I know these are historical minis and often times the reds in real life fade to a sort of pinkish color, but I'm just not into pink.  I prefer a bold bright red.

For the final step I pull out a Red Sable for better, finer, brush control and pick out the sharper edges and high spots for highlights.  So there you have it, how I paint army reds.  I probably later go on and apply some dark red washes in the recessed areas to make the shadows and a bit more depth, but I will wait to do that when I address the armor and skin tones.

2013 Year Ending - My Hobby Review

And so 2013 is soon coming to an end. This will be my last post of this year. The year like last seems to have flown by. Maybe its just that I'm getting old or something.

Much like I did last year, I have decided to do a sort of summary and a comparison of sorts. So I pulled up that post and took a look at it. Numbers are fascinating sometimes, must be the engineer in me, I continued the Hobby Activity Log you can see on the right. The final tally:

                                        2013     2012     2011

Models Built/Converted: 258       258         225

Models Painted:               161        46           74

Models Purchased:           225      181         191

Tournaments Played:          3          5              4

Go-Kart Races Entered:     59       72             11

I don't know how I did that Models Built/Converted. I stepped up the painting a bit, with the help of a lot of Vikings, that I have yet to get a good camera to take pictures of and post on the blog. I somehow purchased more models, and the majority this year were not Games Workshop models, but were Gripping Beast once again. I played less, due mostly in part to the closing of our local game place and openning of one that I really cannot afford to be seen in. I somehow raced fewer races but attended more racing events. I most have lost count somewhere, but I did injure my back and busted up a hand pretty bad over the summer.

Now as I have said before, this was not intended to stroke my ego, but was more intended as a motivator and budget type of thing for myself. I have learned a lot by intentionally doing this. I started the blog back in April of 2009 and prior to that spent tons of time posting on forums. I believe it has capped some of my spending. My gameplay has dropped considerably, because of not going anywhere to play and then I'm racing during the best time of the year to be outside. I converted less minis, but built a ton of models mainly because of my work on Historical armies and the large size of them. My painting is lagging behind again.

Last year I raced the full season locally on the oval in the modern left turn only (LTO) racing go-kart, and won the track championship. This year I missed a 6 races on the oval and finished 5th in the points, with a few 2nd place finishes in the Feature races, but no win on the oval. That did not surprise me as I was more focused on the sprint tracks and vintage karting, and it took probably a month on the oval just get our new chassis figured out. I jumped into the vintage kart for some sprint track (similar to roading racing but a smaller scale) and won the at Springfield, which was extremely cool. My dad and I were pretty successful in the Vintage karts win 4 out of the 5 events this season and finishing 1-2 at our home state track. I also raced in my first grand prix street race, something that I will never forget.

Two tournaments played at Adepticon last spring in Warhammer Ancient Battles. I played the singles with my Vikings played pretty well. Then I teamed Mike Butcher, my Vikings with his Saxons, and we played well. That was good fun.

As for the blog, today we are at 278 followers compared to 254 followers last year at this time, and the blog had 181 followers in 2011, that has increased gradually, as I suspected it would. My blog list is growing, and my forum activity has decreased drastically and probably will continue to decrease even more.

I continued to develop my Youtube Channel which the videos are all about my racing. I added a helmet camera which turned out to be a great thing for my family and friends and I. Much of my family and friends cannot attend the races, especially the out of state ones and this has given them a cool experience. Its also helped me as a driver. So I purchased another camera that should have a bit better video, but I have yet to use it on track. I also started up a Facebook page for my race team, that will help with separating the miniature hobby from the racing hobby. Which I'm sure many of you are in favor of. But please take the time to "Like" our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Welte-Racing/505442252871148?ref=tn_tnmn
It helps with us attracting sponsors and such.

　

TOP TEN POST LIST:

2012 had the top ten viewed posts as:
#1 - FireForge Games - Teutonic Knights Review: 5,224

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/03/fireforge-games-teutonic-knights-kit.html

#2 - Nurgle infested Chaos Space Marine: 4,063

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/nurgle-infested-chaos-space-marine.html

#3 - Chaos Warriors to Chaos Space Marine: 3,518

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/07/chaos-warrior-to-chaos-space-marine.html

#4 - Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Hirdmem Review: 3,332

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/12/gripping-beast-plastic-viking-hirdmen.html

#5 - Something Different....Skaven War Litter: 3,058

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/something-differentskaven-war-litter.html

#6 - My Chaos Warrior Unit Beginning to take shape: 2,548

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-chaos-warrior-unit-beginning-to-take.html

#7 - Boba Fett Space Marine Conversion: 2,495

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/boba-fett-space-marine-conversion.html

#8 - Old Stuff Wednesday - July - Pre-Heresy Iron Warrior: 2,210

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/07/old-stuff-wednesday-julypre-heresy-iron.html

#9 - Space Wolf Scout Conversions: 2,105

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/space-wolf-scout-conversionsusing-chaos.html

#10 - Khorne Chaos Space Marine Conversion: 1,590

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/07/khorne-chaos-space-marine.html



So 2013 has the Top Ten posts as follows:

#1 - FireForge Games - Teutonic Knights Review: 8,261

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/03/fireforge-games-teutonic-knights-kit.html

#2 - Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Hirdmem Review: 5,640

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/12/gripping-beast-plastic-viking-hirdmen.html

#3 - Nurgle infested Chaos Space Marine: 4,726

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/nurgle-infested-chaos-space-marine.html

#4 - Chaos Warriors to Chaos Space Marine: 4,318

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/07/chaos-warrior-to-chaos-space-marine.html

#5 - Something Different....Skaven War Litter: 3,559

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/something-differentskaven-war-litter.html

#6 - My Chaos Warrior Unit Beginning to take shape: 3,500

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-chaos-warrior-unit-beginning-to-take.html

#7 - Old Stuff Wednesday - July - Pre-Heresy Iron Warrior: 3,238

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/07/old-stuff-wednesday-julypre-heresy-iron.html

#8 - Boba Fett Space Marine Conversion: 3,040

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/06/boba-fett-space-marine-conversion.html

#9 - Green Stuff Cloth Tutorial: 2,995

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/12/green-stuff-cloth-tutorial-space.html

#10 - Space Wolf Scout Conversions: 2,944

http://psychosispc-themadhouseworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/space-wolf-scout-conversionsusing-chaos.html

It appears people really liked looking at my review takes. I’ve been quite surprised by that. The other thing that is always shown is the popularity of Warhammer 40k, it is really quite unquestionably the most popular of the gaming systems and I really have not done anything in 40k for years. My Old Stuff Wednesdays are certainly popular as ever also, as they are routinely high in hits on a monthly basis, even though only one is in the Top 10, there are a number that are just outside of the top ten. And one of my tutorials climbed in to the top ten for the first time.

So there you have it once again, my blog. Good bye to 2013.

I am very much open to suggestions that you the readers may have, I don’t always ignore them.