A few things..... This one is gonna be a bit long and rambling and has a few subjects.

Sorry in advance my ADHD is kicking in a bit. Well I don't actually have that but I didn't feel like working on the Butcher/Behemoth diorama and my Karchev model came in the mail the other day and ya'll know how Shiny Object syndrome works....

Anyway. I ordered the Karchev model with no intention of ever actually fielding it on the table, but its such an incredible model that I really want to paint it up. I figured hey why not take the lessons I've learned about building a diorama and see if I can do even better. Off to Hobby Lobby I went to find some things... I grabbed a 10" diameter balsa wood plinth for $1.99 and some wood putty. I already had some plastic brick wall stuff and other things in my bits box. So I walked out of Hobby Lobby for under $10 equipped with what I needed.

First thing I did was put together the model. This thing is all metal and weighs about 2lbs! Its solid and big and lets face it, kinda awesome. The 2 Storm Guard will be added in to the diorama as well so I included them in the picture for scale.

Next up it was time to lay out what I want the diorama to look like. Out came the pen and the bad drawing skills. 

Not sure why this image is staying sideways....

Then it was time to add the first layer of wood putty

You can see that I drilled into the wood and placed brass rods where the modes will be. This will let me slide them on to the pins when all is said and done giving it what I hope will be a seamless look.

Next it I smoothed out the lower side and added in some eye candy.

I used a few Warjack weapons, a barrel ect to add a bit and break up the open ground.

My favorite addition is the pipes coming out into what will be the water down the road. I made these by cutting two Q-tips (ear cleaning things for you non-Americans).

You can also see that the very end of the water part I cut into the wood to give it a bit of a channel. I am hoping that it will keep the water in place without having to add a rim around the entire thing.

Now to let the wood putty dry. Then off to priming and base coating, followed by painting and flocking....


But wait there is more.... Now that I had a few models ready I figured it was time to prime.

I was able to prime Karchev, the Juggernaut from the last post, and a Menoth Redeamer that I picked up for my son.

Last but by no stretch of the imagination least. My Table Scapes tiles finally came. It was a long 2 year wait on the kickstarter but they are amazing. 

My guess is I'll get to them in the next 6 months. 

Menoth 3.0 - Finished off the Choir.

Finally got home from work and finished these guys up. I am happy with how they turned out. I was shooting for a good table top standard and I think I have achieved that. Keep in mind these are for my 8 year old to play with so I didn't go all out and spend 30 hours on a 6 man unit.

Also this was the first time I got to try out a light box. Still messing with the lighting to figure out what is going to work best. Now to convince the wife that I need photoshop and classes on how to actually use photoshop....

Next up I think I am gonna paint some GW stuff, Its been a while and a really good friend is sending me some tank type stuff to do. 

Menoth Choir 2.0 (and some legion to boot).

Well it's been a bit and I realized I hadn't been down to paint in over a week.

So I put the baby down for a nap, let the older kids get on the MineCraft (aka Kid Crack) and headed off to the painting cave.

In our last installment of painting the Choir I had just used an oil wash on the leader. I had since finished the base coats on the grunts and used Tamiya Gloss Coat on them to seal in the freshness (well that and seal them off so I could apply the wash).

So today I washed them using my last pot of Devlin Mud. For those new to the game Devlin Mud is probably the best GW product to come down the pipe. It really is talent in bottle. It's just shy of an actual oil wash but I was a bit lazy today and didn't feel like mixing a wash so I didn't. All that's left on the grunts is to let them dry, hit em with a dull coat of varnish, add the highlights and squiggle some lines on their parchment looking things. The Choir's Leader is just about done. He needs a few more highlights on the golds and some Gloss Coat on gem stones and we can call it a day.

Have some pics (they're free ya know).

As a bonus I put together a Legion Angelious. This is somewhat of a side project for further down the road. I felt like putting together a model or two and the box was just sitting there all innocent like, just begging me to open it. 

Quick rant. This model has eight pieces. 8! It should not have taken me a goram hour and a half to put it together. Its white metal and that's awesome, but man the flash and the need to pin (big and small) because of its weight was just nuts. Add in all the spiky bits.... and erg, Why? Why did I get two of them? 

My son's first real game!

Well now that we have this gaming table in the basement it was time to play on it. My son is 8, he is awesome and really likes Warmachine. He like Protectorate of Menoth so we got him a 50 point list together. He has played a bunch of caster kill games on our dining room table but never a real game before.

We played scenario and it was fantastic. He lost, but he did really well. I can't wait to play him again.


Here he is deploying his models.

 Hmmm where should I put these guys?

Counting em out to make sure his stuff is all there.

Awe man, is that a Galleon over there? Good Thing he has the Avatar of Menoth.

 Look at that pretty table!

Privateer Press Choir of Menoth 1.0

Yay for painting. I was able to set an hour aside tonight and needed to get some painting done. I don't know how you feel but I get a bit shaky if I don't paint for a while. It's my addiction (just like caffeine but that's a whole other blog).

I decided to keep working on my son's Menoth. I wanted to get a good color scheme down so that I could knock out the unit decently quickly. The thing I have noticed about painting PP models is that there are so few in a unit and so few on the table (compared to things like GW games) that I find myself putting a greater effort into all the models. For example a Space Marine might get 10-15 minutes of my time where as a Chapter Master will take hours. Well with PP stuff it all seems to take hours. That isn't really a bad thing just takes a while to get it all done and painted.

Anywho here is what I was able to get done tonight. I got the golds put down. The gold on the Menofex is Vallejo Alcohol based Old Gold. The shoulder pads are Vallejo Alcohol based Red Gold, and the other lighter stuff is Vallejo Model Color Gold.

The dark red/purple is P3 Sanguinary Red with highlights. The dark metalic is P3 P3 Pig Iron, and the light silver is Vallejo Modal Air Chrome.

The model looks shiny as I took the pictures right after coating it with Varnish for the next step which will be washing. I'm thinking a brown oil wash will really help out here, it should highlight and define the edges on the whites as well as the golds.

Well that's all I have for now. See ya'll in a few days. 

It's finally happened! I painted a thing in the new house.

So after all the moving, the personal tragedies that struck, the 101 hours I have put in to work in the last 8 days. I have done it. I have painted stuff.

Let's start at the beginning of this story. My 8 year old plays Menoth. He loves Warmachine. He loves that it's his special thing with me. And he like painting the models. The boy has been fantastic throughout the move and I wanted to get him a special gift. Something to tell him that his good behavior was appreciated.
My no not so local FLGS has had a few used menoth models in the show case for almost a year and I figured it was time to take them home and give them some love. I picked up the Avatar of Menoth for him. Here is what it looks like right now.

This is obviously not the best paintjob and this model deserves everything I can do in my power to make it look great. It really is a center piece to a Menoth army, so off to the Simple Green it went. 

This should take about 48 hours of a soak, then I'll wash and scrub the paint off with an old tooth brush, dry it and then off to prime and repaint.

If you have read this far you are probably wondering what I was talking about when I said I painted a thing. Well your patience is just about to be rewarded.

I also picked up a primed Choir of Menoth.
I started by getting the white base coat down using the airbrush. I used Menoth White Base. Using an airbrush is the best/ easiest way I have found to get a good smooth coat of white onto a model. I didn't want it too start white so I sprayed the white over the black primer and it gave me a pretty good look.

I used a kind of highlight that is actually a bit darker. It's also a bit warmer in color and gives what I think is a good contrast. I used Menoth White Highlight which has a tinge of Khaki to it. I then started to paint the unit assembly line style and did all the browns using Vallejo Game Color - Beasty Brown. This is a great base coat for just about any gold. I also used the old GW - Jack Bone for the parchment.

Well it took us a while but there we are. Tomorrow I hope to get the reds, browns for the leathers, and finally the golds onto these guys so they can be sealed and then washed.

Let me know what you think, you people of the internets.