Happy Holidays!

Yes my precious.....

To whatever you follow... Happy Holidays!

Frost Ogre Update

I finished the first 5 Ironguts in the "horde" Irongut unit of 15.

The front rank.

Individual shots of front rank (Crusher and Bellower)

More shots of front rank (Standard Bearer and rank and file goons)

So there you have it. One completed rank of 5. It still blows my mind that this unit will be a "horde" in-game. I would not want to meet that on the battlefield thats for sure. Besides this unit I have been chipping away at the Tyrant and the 2 Butchers (the Tyrant in particular was a lot of work thanks to Failcast).

Also, I had gotten the Firebelly and the 4 Sabretusks from the client a few days ago and Finecast fails pretty hard. The Firebellys face is really jacked up, he basically has no eyes and there are so many holes all over the model that I need to fill. His gut pate was victim to the thin-cast I've been hearing about. The robes under the plate (and one half of the gut plate) is so thin you can see through it, making it a bitch to clean up. I told the client and hope he has e-mailed GW for his free replacement but until then I will have at him with some Greenstuff. 

As far as the Sabretusks are concerned, 2 out of the 4 came out ok. A set of them look as though when GW was finished pouring the resin they didn't wait and pulled the mold off causing one half of the model to have an extremely rough texture. I would really like to know how this happens because its been a long time since they had started this Finecast business and there is no excuse now. 

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Fainecast I really do. Doing away with the pewter was the best thing they could have done, but now they seem like they have absolutely no idea what their doing. How are these mess ups even getting out of the building? Is there any kind of quality control anymore?

Ok rant over haha.

Should have another update before or after Christmas which should entail completing another rank and maybe even one of the Butchers and the Tyrant.

Till next time, thank you as always for looking!

+++Kevin+++

Balls! Balls! and more Balls!

WARNING: Don't be thrown off by the title of this post.
I'm just a HUGE Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson fan (plus Geoff is my hero) and couldn't think of another title...
Anyways, just a bit of randomness and a small update on the Frost Ogres today.

                                              Heres a crappy pic from my phone for you to enjoy!


I've been trudging away at the Frost Ogres commission and man, quite a project it is! I have never held and or seen the Mournfang Cavalry models and dear lord are they IMMENSE! I was completely thrown off when I opened the shipment box a few days ago and held what is in my opinion the largest "cavalry" in the Warhammer game. There was that and just how immensely detailed the Stonehorn kit is. I'm super excited to paint that beast.
I hit a wall so to speak wash wise. I don't know if its the wash itself or the brush I am using to apply it but man is my Asurmen Blue wash going crazy on the first batch of Ironguts. Its just being a complete pain in my ass. It refuses to settle in the recesses or give me a nice even coat over the P3 blue to tone the hue down. I'm working on the first rank of 5 Ironguts and its just fighting me the whole way. Although I am making it work, not much else I can do but maybe ask my wonderful wife to "buy" me a new pot of wash and a large brush.
I'm also considering e-mailing my client and giving the grim news that I may not have this project done by the end of December. Mainly because I refuse to "hurry it up" and or rush to return to him an inferior product. He paid me to do my best at painting his army and damnit I will deliver on that, even if it takes me a week or two more then I originally planned.

                                    

+++Kevin+++

P3 review and commission work a go go

First in this blog entry I would like to discuss P3 paints from Privateer Press. I've never used them before and figured I would throw my two cents in and write a mini review. Then once I finish my review I will show off some commission work (otherwise known as test models).

Now I received my P3 paint set today (ordered from the Warstore, great site, with awesome deals on everything!) and I am very impressed. I've never used P3 before and with my client wanting a scheme similar to the Horde Trollbloods (just slightly darker) for his Ogres army I figured this would be the chance to try them out. You can't beat $14.00 giving you 6 paints.

Let me first say that P3 paints are ridiculously smooth and cover a hell of a lot better then GW (except for the Cold Steel, that took 4-5 layers working from a black undercoat) and take to thinning with water with relative ease. In fact their so nice you can practically use them straight out of the bottle, though I suggest thinning your paints all the time, makes it less chunky and saves the details in the end. Their bottle design is the best Ive seen next to the dropper model of the Reaper series. Unlike GW paint the P3 paint pot actually stays open, resting the inside "plunger" on the back lip perfectly, allowing you the ease of not having to grow a third arm to mix your paints AND leaving practically no excess paint on the rim. To be quite honest, Im actually enjoying panting miniatures more then I have in a long time. I believe this is due to the relative ease of laying down the coats of the P3 paint even when using on a black undercoat. I don't have to constantly be adding more and more water, or to constantly be re-painting the same spot because the paint just won't "stick".

The paint also works well with paints/washes from other companies like GW or Reaper. The GW washes seem to take to the paint the best, completely surprising me how well they actually work together. At this rate if the Secret Weapon washes do just as good of a job I may stop buying GW paint altogether. I'm always on the look-out for a new set of paint because lets face it, while GW has some good paints like the Foundations and what not, they are not the best out there (and their prices are ridiculous for what you get anyways).

Now will I expand my paint selection with P3? Yes, I definitely will be as soon as possible. Will it completely replace my GW paints? Eh, its hard to tell. Once I expand and get ahold of more paint selections and truly see how the range comes together then I can judge that. However as of now I will be taking every opportunity to buy more of their fabulous paint. Keep up the good work Privateer Press.

Rating: 4/5. I like what I'm seeing but of course I need to get my hands on more to truly get the full picture.

Now onto the commission pics.
My client asked for a color scheme similar to the Frost Giants from Thor. Naturally I sent him some pics of Trollbloods and asked if this was something he wanted. He said yes but he wanted them a bit darker. This leads to the first collage of an Ice Ogre. I like where it was going and right after I finished I knew he probably wouldn't like it. Surprisingly he liked it but wanted it a bit darker.

After a bit of discussion I went back to this figure. I sent a lot of time on it and well I didn't want to just start a new Ogre. There had to be something I could do to him to get him darker. I grabbed some Asurman Blue GW wash and thinned it considerably with water. I haven't sent him this collage yet but I think it definitely got darker and looks less "Smurfish".

I actually really like this "version" a lot. It didn't kill my paint job but gave it just enough of a shadow boost to make it less bright and in your face. I did have to go back over my highlights but it was worth it. Hopefully he'll like this and all I would have to do is give them a nice quick wash after achieving the first scheme. Even if he doesn't like it and I have to go even darker, this will be the scheme for my own Ogre army after I finish his. Frost Ogres here I come!

Thanks for taking the time to look and as always comments and concerns are always welcome!

+++Kevin+++

Small "sick" update

So it seems I have contracted the Walker virus...
...or Nurgles Rot I can never tell.

I am definitely hurting and have been laid low, severely.
I mean its pretty bad, whole body aches/shivers, fever and raw throat just to name a few. But amongst this most horrible of news I have finally gotten my first commission! If I wasn't so sick I would jump up for joy and squeal like a little school girl. It always seems like the thing you want the most pops up right when your at your lowest so to speak...

No it is to paint an Ogre Kingdoms army (pretty much my favorite Fantasy army, I can't get enough of the fatties :P), roughly 30 foot slogging Ogres (variable units and equipment), some Mournfang and a few beastly plastic kits that I have been biting the bit to get my hands on!!!
Its definitely good timing as I have been slaving away at painting my own brand new Ogres army and I have perfected a very nice simple flesh color. I've been knocking around the idea of airbrushing the base coat of the flesh and maybe even the first washing to speed it up. I definitely HATE base coating flesh especially over a Black undercoat and I need to speed this process up ten fold (not that I will not pour my blood, sweat and tears into this project, I just want to get it to him before the chaotic anarchy that is Christmas hits. Christmas is always a pain but I like that it is coming soon to get my into a fast/organized/groove if this commission thing works out.

Now to finish this I will post up a collage I did of the first 3 Ogres (out of a unit of 9, soon to be a lot larger in the near future) I have painted for myself and I am quite happy with. So please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my stuff and to read my flu induced ranting.
Please excuse me while I moan in pain while watching the encore of the mid season finale of Walking Dead, then Talking Dead, THEN downing a nice dose of NyQuil....

+++Kevin+++

Lets try this again.

Greetings fellow hobbyists!
I'd like to keep this short and to the point.
After much review and real life shenanigans I decided to start this blog over. And after some "soul searching" hobby wise I have also decided to go back to why I started the hobby in the first place... Chaos. I'm going for one of the big Legions.
Either Black Legion or Iron Warriors, I haven't fully decided.
I'm leaning more towards Iron Warriors as I am in the middle of re-reading "Storm of Iron" for the 100th time haha. Plus I have a very sweet metallic recipe I'm going to use that I found on Fromthewarp, which is an invaluable site for resources.
Not only am I going to be working on that I also have to finish a 1,000 point Carcharodon Astra (Space Sharks) army for Adepticon. I was accepted into a group to play in the team tourney. Our theme is Badab War space marines, 2 Loyalist and 2 Secessionists. This should be fun.
Till next time, keep your bolters clean and keep reciting the Imperial mantra.
I now leave you with my favorite Innerpartysystem song.
If the rumors are true they have officially broken up and I am a very sad panda now...

+++Kevin+++