Khorne Chaos Space Marine Conversion...Chicago GD News & Go-Kart Racing Report

Another Khornate Space Marine conversion.  I do like this look.  One of things I did on this model was to not use the cone head or have a tongue sticking out.  I'm not a big fan of the tongues anyway.

The possessed legs dow mix well with other bits and the arms are cool also.  Added a tattered tabard to the model also.

 

You can tell I'm beginning to run out of chaos bits in my bitz box, as I dipped into the loyalist box.

A very straight forward conversion.  As is the Slaanesh one below.  Which basically just got a tabard of leftover greenstuff.

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Friday Racing Report.

Not much to report on the Go-Karting front.  I managed to get to the track, made a bunch of adjustments to the kart, got it down to a pound over minimum weight.  They split us into two groups.  Went out in the first heat with 4 of the fastest karts in the class.  Started second to last and finished last, my set lasted good for about 2 laps, after that I was so loose that I thought I was going to hit the wall and porta-pot outside the fence every lap.  The flagstand could see my side panel number for most of the laps as I tried to save it and still run as fast as possible.  Terrible heat.

Heat 2, major adjustments in air pressure and moved in the left rear tire about a half inch.  They inverted the field, I and another clone engine were on the front row.  It's disgusting how much more torque the Animal 206 and Flathead Briggs makes, as they were lined up behind the clone on the pole and pushed him past me before we got to the green flag.  So a restart this time the clone on the pole did not even get on the gas and they still pushed him past me to the point that the kart in third was equal with me at the green flag.  They threw the green anyways, ridiculous.  I drove it super deep into turn 1 and 2 and came out side by side with the polesitter.  Ran this way for a couple laps, got around him after pinching down in the corner to scrub his momentum.  Ran in first for a couple of laps, one of the faster flatheads caught me, ran side by side with him for 4 laps.  Lost the lead and then lost another spot with a lap to go as I was getting super loose again.  Better but not good.  Made more adjustmenst in tire pressure, and went up a gear to see if I could get more straightaway speed.  Wouldn't matter as the screw job was on and they called me for a 3-wide penalty that was B.S. in the corner and sent me to back about 6 laps in, the B.S. part about it was I was not the person that made it three wide and was under someone else, the guy that made it three wide stuck his nose under me and hit me in the left rear in the corner.  They also sent my old man to the back a couple laps before me.  Complained about the call after the race, and the track official I can tell does like me for whatever reason.  And I did it nicely, basically asking for the reason, all he did was yell at me, so I got pissed and pushed him for an explanation and kept pushing for one until he just walked away shaking with anger.  It was actually kind of funny, because I never even raised my voice, and I never got an explanation, other than it was a judgement call.  Maybe its because the guy that hit me sponsered an event for them a few weeks ago. Doesn't matter, now I know the politics.  lol.

My sister jumped in my dad's kart for the pit crew race, had 12 karts on the track.  She took second in that after leading every lap except for the last one. Really good job for her first time out on the track, beating all of the guys.  Take that guys, most of you got beat by a 38 year old girl.

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Chicago Gamesday Golden Demon News

• I was unable to attend, recieved some emails from a couple of guys through our Yahoo group, but its cryptic in nature, I'm thinking something along the lines of the return of Vincent Hudon to competition, not sure though.
• I don't have anything to report, other than Gamesday-U.S. will be in Chicago again next year as they had to sign a multi-year deal with the convention center to get a better rate from the Chicago Mob.  Yay mob!, maybe I'll actually be able to attend next year because of this.  Its within driving distance, must clear my calender.

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Next up.....Pictures of some freshly painted Chaos Warrior marauders.......hopefully.

Old Stuff Wednesday - July...Pre-Heresy Iron Warrior

Gamesday Chicago is coming up this weekend.  There should be lots of cool miniatures there, and I have already plugged the talent and the tutorials that they have planned.  Back a few years ago, a group of talented people all got together to do a Pre-Heresy theme Chicago GD.  I was contacted a bit later to help fill out the entries.  There were a whole lot of others that committed to the project and which Primarch or Pre-heresy model they wanted to do.  When I got involved Perturabo of the Iron Warriors was pretty much the only one left.

The above pic shows everyone that managed to complete their models.  Top left was Angela Imerie's model, going clockwise from there was Chris Borer, James Craig, Tom Schadle, Nathan Commanse, Mike Butcher, Joe Orteza, mine, John Schaeffer.  I can't remember the number golds, I know all made first cut, and honorable mention at least.  Chris Borer's won him the slayer sword again.

Below are pics of my entry.  I've never been happy with this model.  The converting just was not my best.  The paint was a sort of a turning point in becoming a much better painter.  When I was contacted about doing this, I was the only one in the group that had never won a Golden Demon.  I'm an army builder not a one off display piece maker.

 Some more close-ups.  Rather than do a complete sculpt of bigger-ized space marine, I elected to do a conversion.  In hindsight that was the wrong thing to do.  I do really like how the face turned out, as well as the sculpted crew cut.

I did custom build the shoulder pads, the mail tabard, and the Iron warrior skull on the greave.

I also built the large power hammer.  For the backpack I wanted something that added that Iron Warrior feel, so the chainsword and bolter were just obvious choices to make. 

The Iron Warrior skull icon on the shoulder was another piece that I sculpted, and also on the helmet.  The blood effect on the sword bionic was a splatter and stipple effect with a tooth brush splatter and a paint brush stippling.

The base seemed semi-uninspired.  By the time I was done with this miniature, I quite honestly hated it.  So there you go.  Old stuff infamy...not my best work, at the time it was pretty good for me, and most certainly not Golden Demon worthy.  The best thing about it though was the respect I was shown by all of the higher level competitors, I was quite shocked by it.  Many thanks to those guys for inviting me to participate.

A new Nurgle infested Chaos Space Marine...WIP

As with the Word Bearer, I'm getting better at doing Nurgle.  The Beasts of Nurgle demons that I did on commission a while back using the Forgeworld Nurgle Ogryn, really opened my eyes as I mimic'd the FW sculpting style to blend in the parts.

This is a work in progress (WIP).  I still need to finish up the head, adding the gas mask look.

So this is another of the Nurgle infested ones.  Used a possessed bit for the conversion.  The tabbard I think adds quite a bit to the model conversion.

The picture below shows the little puss blisters on the shoulder, that was done with the Mechanical pencil.

And if you want what looks like an popped blister,  as shown on the leg below, use your tooth pick tool to prick it.  You really need to have nasty thoughts when doing nurgle.

Normally when I do Nurgle I like to do some tentacle like things coming out of the back pack, but this time I elected not do so.

 

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Another Friday night has past, but no Kart Racing report as I was unable to get to the track in time to race last night.  So I just helped out with some of the other racers and my dad's kart.  And the old man may have sold one of our home-made frames last night.  What some of the karting companies sell their karts for is pretty outrageous when you sit down and think about it.  And those karts are not any better than what we made in a garage.  The old man finished second in our engine class last night in the Feature.  But the Animal engines continue to dominate the racing.  The mixed engine classes are not working, but I think the goal of the track is too get rid of the Clone and Briggs engines and get us all into Animals.  Its kind of like watching a Grand Am or American Le Mans race with the different classes all running at the same time.  Well there is always next week.

A new Word Bearer...In gray and green

As I build various things, I will often assemble a Chaos Space Marine leftover from 40k never played nor built in my bitz box, and use up left over bits of GS or other types of putty.  I'm still a fan of 40k models and the fluff.  So this is my latest creation, meant to be another in an endless line of  Word Bearers.  I do like the possessed bits, lot of fun those are.

This is sort of a primer of sorts.  I'm planning a return to 40k, building a new "Insert Color Here" Templar army.  I've been working on the vehicles this past week, and they should be interesting, as I'm attempting to recapture the sort of ramshackle look that my Cerulean Templar motor pool had.  My new breed of 40k Templars will certainly not be Black and White and will not even be Blue and White. 

The drapings on this marine are something that I will use with the Templars.  All the new Templar bitz, will definitely make me sharpen up my game a bit, so that my sculpting won't look completely out of place. 

40k Chaos though does beckon me, but having done Fantasy Chaos since 2003, I think I need a bit of break from chaos.  Once my Fantasy Chaos Warrior army is mostly done then I will completely move onto Orcs and 40k Templars and Vikings and back to my WAB Crusaders now that Conquest Games has announced that they are going to do Plastic Infantry.  That should give me the break that I need from Chaos, and take care of the next few years of Hobby time. 

Skaven War Litter III Conversion...done

I've done two other conversions of Skaven Warlitters.  While I thought they were good conversions, I was not as happy with how the litter looked.  The model below is stuck to the base with some poster putty.

 The primary reason for not really caring for the way the litter turned out, was the poles were upright that the Storm Vermin carrying the litter were holding on to.

So for this one I decided to fix that.  And that fix works very nicely.  This is what I envisisioned in the first place. 

For the Lord model I used the one out of the basic boxed set.  Its a very cool looking model, for a simplistic two piece miniature. 

The Lord model does lean way forward so I knew I need to compensate for that by leaning the entire platform forward.   Did this by building up the base with Apoxie Sculp.  

 Below is another angle of the litter.  The Lord model is also on this big rock, I removed that with my dremel and then sculpted in the wood grain of the platform.

This one I'm happy with.   The base and big rat are one piece.  The front bearer platform and Lord are another piece.  The storm vermin in the back is separate.  And the banner is brass tube and removable, pinned to the platform.  Doing it in pieces like this will make it much easier to paint.  Assemble after painting.

All the lessons learned are being applied to an orc palanquin that I'm building from my new fantasy army.  It should look pretty cool when I'm done.

Chicago Gamesday....Hobby Instructionals and Q&A

Games Workshop's Chicago Gamesday is July 30, 2011.  Generally a decent event.  I've had the pleasure over a number years of taking part in the Golden Demon Lounge at Chicago Gamesday, even though I have never won a Golden Demon, that's what knowing people and internet imfamy gets you sometimes.  But anyways, this is good stuff, no matter what your level is in the hobby.  We all gather together, mostly as friends to talk shop, and boy we love the hobby and to talk about the hobby.  Its a great place to learn and see the various techniques being applied. 

Below is the schedule, if you can make it to this event, this is my recommended must see if you love converting and painting miniatures like I do.  I know many of the people sitting at these tables, none of them are arrogant, no question is a stupid question, and these guys have unquestionable ability in the hobby and are willing to share it with you.  I, unfortunately, will be unable to attend this year, otherwise you would see me scheduled below.  I love doing this kind of thing.

9:00AM - 10:00AM
Open Lounge: Here is your chance to show off your 2011 Golden Demon entries before they go in the display cases. Stop by the Demon Lounge before you enter to discuss your entries and get feedback from fellow painters. Several previous Golden Demon and Slayer sword winners will be on hand if you would like an expert's critique.

10:00AM - 11:00AM
Kent Plumb - General Q & A
Chris Borer - Putty Conversion, Sculpting & General Q & A
Dave Pauwels - General Q & A
Brice Cocanour - Blending, Freehand Demos & General Q & A
James Craig - Weathering techniques for armor and vehicles & General Q & A

11:00AM-Noon
Todd Swanson - Painting Demos, Miniature Conversion & General Q & A
Kirill Zhilkov - General Q & A
Dave Taylor - Telling a Story with your Painting and Modeling & General Q & A
Chris Borer - Putty Conversion, Sculpting & General Q & A
Dave Pauwels - General Q & A
James Craig - Weathering techniques for armor and vehicles & General Q & A

Noon-1:00PM
Brian Sobb - General Q & A
Kent Plumb - General Q & A
Jeffery Bowden - Non Metallic Metal (NMM) & General Q & A
Chad Patrick - True Metallics & General Q & A
Yuri Chinenov - General Q & A
Drew Dresher - General Q & A

1:00PM-2:00PM
Todd Swanson - Painting Demos, Miniature Conversion & General Q & A
Brian Sobb - General Q & A
Brice Cocanour - Blending, Freehand Demos & General Q & A
Bennett Blalock-Doane - Building a Solid Basecoat for Highlighting & General Q & A

2:00PM-3:00PM
Brian Sobb - General Q & A
Kirill Zhilkov - General Q & A
Dave Taylor - Consistency in your Army Painting & General Q & A
James Craig - General Q & A

3:00PM-4:00PM
Kent Plumb - General Q & A
Bennett Blalock-Doane - Building a Solid Basecoat for Highlighting & General Q & A
Chad Patrick - True Metallics & General Q & A

There are a few people on the list I don't know that are newer additions to our group. 

Kent is a huge space wolves fan, when I first started in this hobby his space wolves army was something I loved and inspired to. 

Chris Borer is someone that to me was almost legendary in the hobby, I have always loved his models, they are stunning in sculpting/converting detail and the paint is awesome.  I think he has won like 5 slayer swords or something amazing like that.  When I first met him quite a few years ago at Adepticon, he was the one giving my armies praise.

Dave Taylor, yes that Dave Taylor.  He needs no introduction.

Dave Pauwels, for those of you that don't know, he is part of Gorgon Miniatures, and avid historical gamer and modeler also.  And a very realistic like painter, exceptional detail.

James Craig, he's Canadian.  lol.  A great guy, very good converter, painter, sculpter, teacher.  Has a beastman army that is simply amazing.  And always a smile.

Brice, I don't know well, but I know his work and know his love of the hobby.  He will teach what he knows.

Bennett Blalock-Doane, this kid is absolutely amazing.  You can learn awful lot from him.  I've been contemplating asking him to give me some tutoring for a couple years now.  His armies are the most unbelieveable things I have ever seen in person.  Always look forward to what he does next.

Brian is another awesome painter, and loves to talk shop with people.  Always enjoy visiting with him.

Todd Swanson, I've yet to meet him in person, but I know his work and its simply awesome.  Thank him for organizing our little group of disorganized troopers, I think James has normally done this in the past. 

Kirill, I do not know him personally, but his work is stunning.

Jeffrey, Chad, Yuri, and Drew, are new to me, I have never met them.

So there you go guys, if you are going, sit down with these guys, you will learn something in our wonderful hobby.  It does not matter what level you are at in the hobby.  Seeing things done and being personally instructed is not something to be avoided. 

Upcoming Projects...

Nothing really to post today picture wise, but I thought I would update on a few things.  One, I'm not currently accepting any new commissions.  I'm in the process of looking for a new place to live and have begun packing things.  I will however be continuing the work on the VC Bashin' Orks.  I have a dedicated tub for this commission.
The Go-Karting is sucking away some of my war games hobby time, but that is okay, its refreshing to me to be competing again on some level.  Over the fourth I along with my father participated in a local go-karting charity race.  We did not race, even though a contestant begged me to drive her kart, but we demonstrated what can really be done with actually racing karts.  I think the charity racers were rather shocked when they realized they were not going all that fast.  Last Friday night I finished second in my engine class in the end of the night feature race, but that was 7th overall.  We had 14 entries in our Adult Sportsman Class and did a semi-feature.  I was unable to qualify directly into the feature, and had to race my way in through the semi-feature which was not very hard to do, with exception of one of the competitors many attempts to wreck me lap after lap.  Paid him back in the feature.  Most of the faster engines finished well ahead of me, just don't have the straight-away speed to keep up at the moment and I finished about 20 feet behind the fastest Honda Clone engined kart in the field.

Current projects:
Finish my Chaos Warriors:  I'm working on it, just not making much progress.
Paint a few more Roman Auxilliary Archers.  I thought I was done with Romans, but decided I need some more.
Starting to assemble the first elements of my orc fantasy army.  This should be my best army yet.  Its going to be over the top crazy and brutal.  Matter of fact, "Brutality" is my theme for the army.

I'm also returning to 40k.  8th edition Fantasy has not been something that I have enjoyed to play.  And I miss 40k modeling, and I have a huge Space Marine bitz box.  So loyalist Space Marine DIY chapter here I come.  I'm planning to reinvent my "Insert Color Here" Templar army, this time with probably a red and white paint scheme.  I started some conversions this weekend on the Devastator squad.

This fall I plan to begin making my Dark Ages army for Warhammer Ancients and Clash of Empires.  I'll be doing Danes, using the Gripping Beast plastic viking shield wall.  Looking forward to this.  I really do not know that much about Viking history, looking forward to doing a little bit of research on it as I have really enjoyed reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series of novels.

My WAB Knight Unit...Painted

These are my WAB knights. Some of them are my converted Perry Miniatures knights mixed with the Perry’s Holy Order/Hospitaller Knights.

The ones without hoods and sleeve-less surcoats are my conversions. I think this unit of knights turned out pretty good. I was attempting to get them out of the First Crusade in the 1090s, into more of the late Second and Third Crusades.

I also played around a bit with color schemes, make some of them Knights of Jeruselem, some Ibelin color schemes, Franks, English, and Spaniard themes. Note some of the kite shields are actually GW High Elves shields from their foot infantry, that made conversion of the shields much easier.

 The basing is HO scale railroad ballast, some tiny stones, with Joefix grass tufts, static grass, and GW Staw.

I'm extremely happy with the way the horses turned out.  I really wish that the Perry's someday convert some of their horses to give them caparisons, because its a lot of work to do.

The above is very good picture of a couple of the horses.   

Another angle.  As you can see in the front knight I also updated one of the helms.  The musician horse is kind of a miscast, but it does have a very dynamic look to it.

I do want to be able to play these guys across alot of periods from the Iberian Pennisula all the way to the Holy Land.  So there you have it for now.  That is it for my WAB knights for awhile.  I will come back to them later this year.  Next up I return to painting the Chaos Warriors and few Roman Auxilliaries with them.

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Well spent another night also at the race track tonight.  It started out with an air temperature of 101 F, not exactly the kind of night that you want to put on a jacket, gloves, and a helmet on.  The heat did effect me early.  I'm also battling some sinus issues that have caused a build up of fluid in one of ears, not really helping my equilibrium.  Did not drive well and did not drive clean, kept getting caught up in little things on the track and either getting spun out or just flat spinning out.  But that said, I definitely made huge gains in speed.  So much so that my Old Man had nothing for me.  The feature was kind of comical, as I and my old man got into each other.  Tomorrow we will tear apart his engine and see why he was down on power.  With how things went tonight I look forward to next week, hopefully it will be a bit cooler.  My go-kart's handling keeps getting better.