For Drew Day Williams!

This post is sort of a two part post, but let's start with the joys of Christmas! I painted this fine lady for my buddy as a Christmas Gift:

I didn't see the hair on the nose when I took the picture...

No exchange or anything; I just saw this model when released and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. My buddy was estatic when he opened her up. His response was "I really need to get that display cabinet built now!"

Let's Turn Up the Heat - Eldar Fire Dragons

The Eldar Fire Dragons were one of my favorite squads back in my 40k army days. There wasn't much a full squad carrying melta/fusion guns couldn't take down, plus their coloring really made them stand out! I had four fully painted miniatures for the last two decades. It was time to fill out the squad. 

And now we number seven.

Now I really only needed one to fill out the squad, but like them so I ended up painting three. So here you have an exarch, and two more dragons. 

Upper Management - Biel-Tan Eldar HQ

I had originally intended to finish up another squad of Eldar for my next Summer of Eldar project. However we went away to visit family for a week and a half, so instead of delaying posts I figured I'd do something a little faster. 

This Farseer defeated a lot of enemies with his 2nd ed. powers. I miss 2nd...

Here you have the Farseer who had lead my army since the 90's, his finished warlock guard with sword (who may have been one of the last models I had completed for this army...), and a base coated warlock with a spear. 

Soldiers for Hire - Alai Mercenary Corps

There are many groups of Mercenaries in the galaxy willing to work for the right price. For some that prices is simply the right compensation, while others may seek out the right cause. Then there are Eldar mercenaries. No one knows why they show up or what motivates them. Most would agree that you don’t want to wind up opposed to them. So a group showing up on Locust 4 can spell nothing but trouble…

Eldar mercenaries search through the wreckage of a ship for some unknown reason... 

The Summer of Eldar continues with these five well armed Eldar mercenaries! It's a squad that has been in the que way too long, but are finally finished. They sport the colors of the Alai Mercenary Corps which turned out to be just as much fun as I thought!

A Craftworld Sighting!

My very first ever Warhammer 40k army was this Eldar Biel-Tan Craftworld army. Created during second edition, it served me well until 3rd came around. At that point most of my 3-4 model aspect teams needed updating to 5 model squads. It wouldn't be the last time my armies would become invalid under a new edition, but it certainly annoyed me enough to move on. So for a while it shelved the whole army, and started a new army of marines. 

I like to imagine they come from the part of the Craftworld resistant to change.

The forces made a resurgence for a short time during late 3rd or early 4th edition. I had slowly collected the missing models, got them based up for a few games. Sure, some of the figures were only base coated or primed, but they were a legal army again. I just never got around to fully painting them before I exited the hobby as a whole for over a decade. 

Traveling has it’s Benefits!

Just a quick update while I finish my current project. While traveling for work I found a Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) not far from the hotel I was staying in. I swung by Monday night and found that not only did they have a room dedicated to miniatures, they also had a wall of used minis for sale!

Dug these gems out from between entire chapters of marines...

Here's a picture of what I came away with. I was stoked with the selection!

Orktober 2021 - Oh Captain my Captain

 Happy Halloween everyone! Though with that comes the close of Orktober. The good news is I've completed the project and finished the final members of the crew:

Captain Mogran sees the full usefulness of the other ork races.

Orktober 2021 - It's all Fungus

Today's update is three more members of my Space Ork crew, who also happen to reflect three different races of ork!

Orktober 2021 - It's Not Easy Being Green

Did you ever start spending so much time in an area, things start bothering you and you have to make changes? Happens to me a lot, and this past week it was the basement hobby area I call The Pitt (like G.I. Joe). I organized my video game closet, tore out some old wood supports for a long gone drop ceiling, removed some old furniture that didn't belong, and tossed out a bunch of stuff. Hopefully in anticipation of playing some games soon!

Then I recalled it was Orktober and I had a mission. Here's the results:

A Space Ork crew of mercenaries prepares for a new mission.

Orktober 2021 - First Greenskin

It's Orktober! A concept I've really loved since I started reading all these miniature blogs. So I figured I would join in and participate in the celebration of all things green!

"Runt?!? I'll show them!"

Rock on with Sarge Rockhard!

Airbornegroove26 over at Give'em Lead painted up his own Sarge a few weeks back. When I commented he challenged me to paint up my version. Challenge accepted:

Sarge sneaking his way through some battlements. 

Pulling a 180...

So painting time has still been tough to come by. Long days at work with a new project, and the nearly 30 inches of snow this weekend didn't provide much hobby time. So since last post I've just been pondering my Frostgrave warband. Then two things occurred to me: I couldn't afford all the knights I had planned, and my Reaper miniature collection really doesn't have any non-heroic types. Not Reaper's fault, my collection were all purchased with D&D characters in mind. 

I honestly don't remember any skeletons in this game...

That's when I saw a random Tweet of a streamer starting one of my favorite video games: Shining Force. Inspiration struck and I had a new plan!

From Cult to Killteam

When I jumped into Warhammer 40K: Killteam I immediately knew who I wanted to play. Sure, I could pull from my very first 40K army of Eldar, or my early 2000's space marine army could send a squad; but no this had to be the genestealer cult. They never really saw battle before as stated in the previous post. Their time had finally arrived! Plus in 2018 not only was the cult back in the 40K universe, they were front and center. Heck, they even came as one of the two forces in the original Killteam starter box!

Pouring over the list, as well as my miniatures, I came up with the following:

• For a leader I'll save the points for beasts, and just have a Neophyte.
• Specialists: with their bad BS I'll go with two flamers, and a Heavy Stubber for range.
• I'd really like an Aberrant. A big beast to soak wounds and draw attention.
• I'll take two Pure-strains because why not?
• The rest will fill out with a mix of Acolytes and Neophytes. 
• They will all have code names - was never into the whole cult brother this/that. 

First up is a bunch of Neophytes: 

Disclaimer:, back when I started these guys there weren't as defined lines as to what was what. I could pull a bunch of guard I have painted in their colors as neophytes... but I'd rather field these guys.

Squad members Viper and Leach

One of my gaming group had a Crimson Fist Army back then

Viper is a plastic hybrid from Space hulk, and Leach is one of the Rogue Trader metal hybids. Both have plastic arms and metal Necromunda weapons. Viper has the addition of some imperial guard parts added to his belt and both sport a Space Marine Shoulder pad. Viper's was cut down to make it less recognizable, and had a the squad symbol carved into it. Leach's was looted from a marine (You'll see the other later). 

First Post - The Background

 Hello, and welcome to my hobby blog! In an attempt to get myself organized I decided to detail my progress by running this blog. Hopefully it helps because 2020 lockdowns kept me working on house projects. Therefore there was almost no progress; save some organization of the hobby area. 

Here's some quick bullet points about me:

• Started gaming in the mid 90's with historicals. 
• Prior to that there was an attempt to paint some minis with enamels for a D&D game that never really happened.
• One of the guys brought me into a "beer and pretzels" game called Warhammer 40k. 
• I could not legally drink at the time.
• I was immediately hooked and started my first army, Eldar (that's it... it's all they were known as in 2nd).

Eldar... Mostly painted.

 Had to expand squads in 3rd.