Brother Wolf

Jan 162013
 
Vallejo Acryllics Surface Primers

Shiny, happy primers

My biggest impediment to painting is not having primed minis to paint. Sometimes I want to paint a unit, sometimes I just want to paint a little do-dad. In the past I have used any number of aerosol sprays, from GW Chaos Black primer to Armoury Grey Primer to The Army Painter Colour Spray. I’ve used some Krylon auto primers on terrain projects, but I know many folk swear by them for minis too. Still, in the arid desert of Arizona, you get the bitter cold of high winter for about a month or the blistering heat of summer for about 8 months. This leaves aerosols out, more often than not unless you can spray in the dead of a hot summer night. I’ve tried Gesso with less than great effect. Enter the airbrush, which I’m still cutting my teeth on, and Vallejo Airbrush Primer.

I’m always on the lookout for new things to try, due in no small part to my not having any consistent techniques or products which I use regularly, (sad, it’s true). However, there is one brand I have been VERY happy with over the last 6-8 years, Vallejo Acrylics. By pure accident, I stumbled across an older article on Tale of Painters from Feb 2012 relating to using the Vallejo Surface Primer. While VGC/VMC/VMA products are usually easy to find, the primers have been a hit or miss proposition until very recently. Neal @The War Store to the rescue!

So, I am in the process of making a small purchase to see how these will suit me. I have long since taken to priming in grey rather than black or white. It’s not that I don’t find value in the absolutes, but rather grey affords me the ability to take it up or bring it down as I see fit. So, first on the list to try is a 60mL bottle of Grey. Of course, using TAP Wolf Grey Colour Spray has also made me a convert to colour primer, (oh boy has it ever!).  So, while White Scars can be managed with grey well enough, I’d like to see how Imperial Fists or Armageddon Steel Legion might benefit from German Dark Yellow, aka: Dunkelgelb.  I’d also like to play a bit with UK Bronze Green to see if that might help with Dark Angels or PanO Shock Army. For now, $20 or so for 3 colours is enough for me, but there are many more colours to choose from.

The other part that intrigues me is that this is just as applicable via airbrush as it is via standard brush. Again, if I want to add one model to a unit, hopefully no need to break out the airbrush. You can read more about it on Garfy’s post, but I will pen a review of my own once I have them in hand. Looking forward to this working as well as I hope!

Jan 072013
 

Lunch Time = Paint Time!

Happy New Year!!! First blog post this year and I thought I’d bite a little off Larry’s resolutions post from BOLS. Thanks Larry! Without further ado, my hobby resolutions.

1) Organize my hobby work space. I should snap a pic of my room, shelves, closet, et. al. I spent 3 hours Thur night just getting organized enough to GET organized in order to clean. It’s insane, (holidays and our game on 15Dec didn’t help!). Every time I clean, I lose something, or more appropriately lose track of something. Not this time, the Log of Projects and Models has been amended!

2) Paint something each week. While my grand goal is to paint every lunch break at work an at least one evening for several hours at home each week, I know the way my world works. It’ll be hard enough even keeping to 1 hour per week, so as long as I paint SOMETHING each week, I’ll consider this resolution held.

3) Collaborate w/ nephew (see #1). My nephew has finally learned about the Grim Dark and is all fired up to paint. So, the goal is to collaborate with him on painting White Scars. His first army, my long overdue biker army.

4) To paraphrase Larry, “Face the ‘wall/closet/bins/shelves of unpainted purchases’, choose ANY 3 units, assemble, clean and get ‘em ready for paint.” Per #1, my organizing allowed me to catalog NO LESS than THIRTY ONE boxes containing Space Marine models on sprue and in most cases still in cellophane. This does not include Eldar, Orks or my Infinity & Warmachine projects… *sigh* In short, pick models which support the projects I am working on and get them assembled. Top options come to mind: Remaining infantry for Space Wolves, Rhinos for White Scars, ‘Thunderheart’ Vinidcator for White Scars.

5) No new purchases without painting a previous purchase, (see #4). To qualify this, I am further stating the following: No new models without painting a current model. No new armies started without completing an existing army. No new terrain without completing an existing piece of terrain. I am aiming to FINALLY complete 1500 pts of Space Wolves, so I think 1500pts of  40K is a good ‘completion’ point. There’s my White Scars collaboration, (see #3 above), which I have the models collected for to 1500. I also just started a PanO Shock Army force for Infinity, thanks to DesertFoxx’s holiday gift, so 200pts for Infinity should qualify. The only 40K ‘armies’ left to collect are Dark Eldar for me, which I fear may never happen as GW is seriously pricing things outside my comfort range. *sigh*Still, I should leave GK and all 3 of my Sons of Dorn tucked away until the above 3 are in some semblance of order. In fact, if I somehow manage to paint Wolves, Scars & some Infinity, I should get off my tail and paint from Necrons or Orks before another Imperial army.

6) Complete 4-6 pieces of terrain for each of my 3 tables. I have a fully painted Realms of Battle table as well as 4×4 and 4×6 temperate climate mats. I have several items assembled, but not enough painted. So, at minimum 1 piece for each 2×2 section for each table, painted to match. Again, to quote Larry, “I can drink in my house!”

7) Confirm state of paints, brushes, supplies. Some of my paints are quite old and I’ve begun finding a number which have dried up or separated their pigment. The desert is not kind to paint pots, so I need to know what I have that’s still in service and what NEEDS to be replaced for the upcoming projects, (looking at you my dried up Iyanded Darksun, right when I needed you for SW shoulders!!!).

8) Play 1 game a month. I’m lucky to get one game/month with the gang, but sometimes we miss several months. We only play 2 systems at present, we need to stay in practice. So, don’t let a month slip without playing.

9) Play with painted forces. I have 3k+ of painted Tau, and until I can paint more of something else, that will be my go-to 40K army. However, a better way to approach this goal is to not play any force without at least one painted unit. Every new game they play, they need to have one more painted unit than last time. This would suggest that if we play a game every month, I should have 12 NEW painted units before the year is out. As for Infinity, well, I’m going to paint up my PanO to at least 150-200pts and not play with my Caledonians until I do the same. Kilts are fun, so I need to paint them. Of course, being a skirmish game, perhaps for Infinity the goal will be to paint any models form a give unit type, so if I have my Shock Troop regulars painted next month, the next game day I should have my Bagh Mari painted, or some such.

10) Master 40K and Infinity.  While we have models out the wazzu for all manner of games, (40K/WFB/Necro/Mord/BFG/Infinity/CBT), not to mention those which we collect and don’t play regularly, (Warmahordes/Warlord/FoW/Epic/Dreadball), I can heartily say that 40K & Infinity are the go-to games. We’ve all had a recent thrust of 40K enthusiasm, (dunno why, since we all went into shock pricing out Chaos armies with the DV/CSM release), however Infinity is just such a terrific game with amazing models and a better than most entry price. So, we’ll be see Alpha Legion take the field vs Eldar on 12Jan, and after that we’ll do our best to hold 11 more game days in 2013.

Sep 112012
 

Unboxed on YouTube! Watch Now!

It’s official, all the kids are finally at home! The last of my errant Tau figs arrive on 07Sep12 along with my Flames of War project, (details in a separate thread). March 2011 to September 2012, kind of a ridiculous time frame, much of which has already been detail in other posts. Still, I’ll take some time to film the entire lost all in one go and post up unit bios as I have time. At present, the force totals out at 3316 points, with 3061 painted courtesy of PaintedFigs. The remaining 255pts are 3 Broadside Battlesuits which I am converting to have their railguns under-slung on the arms with custom ammo feeds. Anyway, until I get to showcasing everything about the models, the experience, etc, feel free to waste 15min watching me unbox the whole kit & kaboodle on YouTube.

Aug 162012
 

Tau XV-25 Stealth Suit ReplacementHoly schmokes folks!!!

After 17 months, the last model is complete and we are preparing to ship the lads home. That’s right, “I gave the stealth suit in for photos yesterday“. And there he is at left!

For those not paying attention, (is this thing on?!?!?), 1 of 6 Stealth suits already painted as of Aug 2011 went missing from the return shipment. As such, a replacement was called for. Kudos to Navin for arranging the replacement mini, however the replacement took 5 months to obtain and paint. I mean, well, DAMN!

Let’s recap the project to date, shall we?

  • In Mar 2011 I shipped minis to be painted.
  • In Aug 2011 the majority of painting was complete and the final issues and outstanding purchases were being managed.
  • In Mar 2012 the majority of the shipment was finally returned, minus the 4 Crisis suits I sent, the 2 Crisis suits which were on order, a Devilfish which was on order and 1 Stealth suit which was clearly complete in the final photography, but somehow never made it into the box.
  • In Aug 2012 the replacement Stealth suit is completed and all outstanding Tau models, (as well as a Flames of War starter box project which was also a year+ in completion), are preparing to ship.

What is it about March and August? Weird. Anyway, now I cross my fingers and hope they arrive without incident. If all goes well, the Tau will sally forth against DesertFoxx’s Sallies, (no pun intended, Salamanders), for their inaugural game in September. After seeing the Orks dismantle BriBri’s Blood Angels on the 11th, I am curious what a real shooting army can do on the table.