Guard the Forges!

This my next little Rackham, Tir-na-bor dwarf. I absolutely love painting these dudes! So much character and great, crisp detail. Only one more left to complete the squad of three Forge Guardians.
If you haven't ever had the pleasure or painting a Rackham figure, particularly a dwarf (undead or living) I would suggest scouring ebay to find some.

Not much more to say about this little guy. Thanks for checking him out.

Confrontation: Incubus of the Despot

Just finished this guy up over the last few days. Had a lot of fun painting him as I usually do with my Confrontation stuff.
I typically give my Middy's eyes without any pupils, but I couldnt help myself on this guy.
Turned out sort of creepy looking if you ask me. ;)
Only one more fig to go and I will have finished twenty of them! I'll toss up a group shot then.

Nothing much else to say about this guy. Thanks for looking, and let me know what ya think.

Extreme Close up!!Whoaaa! (gold star for movie reference)

On the Bench

Wow! what a slacker I have been this month, half way through and just putting up my first post. I did actually finish a few figures very recently but forgot to snap pics before they got sent off to the new owners. Ah well, live and learn I guess.

For now, I 'll go ahead and show some of the current WIP's I am actively working on.

Have a few Dark age things in the wroks up first. Really pleased with how the Junker chick is turning out so far. Not so terribly pleased with the Buzzblade yet though.

More pics after the Jump

Dust Tactics update; BBQ squad and Hotdog Walker finished.

Had so much fun painting up my first Dust walker from earlier that I had to move right on into the next one.
My freehand work didnt end up identical to the first but Its close enough for the table top job these are all getting.
The unit of troops was super quick and fun to paint. Its really kind of nice to have something that I can just grind through without having to put a ton of thought into it.
Had my first game the other day which basically ended up a slaughter where I had nothing left on the table. Was still a good time though and hopefully my troopers will show up to fight next time around.
Working on a squad of "Grim Reapers" Heavy attack rangers currently, so stay tuned for those.

And here is a shot of the whole crew together, Ready to whoop some axis scum..........eventually......

Also, for those interested. I threw a post up on the Geek Garage site a few days ago with the latest addition to my Mid-Nors.

Confrontation: Dwarf Wrecker

I have been working on this little guy on and off between other figs while I was waiting for stuff to dry.
 I freakin love the look of these big face confrontation Dwarves, and this guy was a blast to paint because of it.
Seems I got a bit crazy with the colors on him, especially on the back! I think he came together well in the end though.
Cant wait to start work on the other two sculpts now!

Let me know what you think.

Madrak Ironhide, World ender and plans for 2013

Well, in an effort to start off 2013 better than 2012 ended, here is the first figure I've finished completely.
This one is another commission to go along with Janissa Stonetide from before.
This figs pose is extraordinarily goofy so it made him somewhat difficult to paint. He just doesn't seem to flow very well from one part to the next. The worst and best part of this project is that its really making me want a Trollbloods army bad!
 The base was left unfinished again at the owners request.

I've also added a Completed figures tally to the sidebar so that I can keep better track of my own progress throughout the year.  Perhaps watching the number rise slowly will help keep me motivated to sling paint.
I have great hobby ambitions this year, as I am sure most of us do.
As of right now I plan to get the Majority, if not all, of my Dark Age figures fully painted and table top ready.
This is one of the games I plan to delve pretty deeply into as I like where its going a lot!
What with the awesome new Core being fleshed out and the new, Mayan inspired Kukulkani being previewed, it just keeps getting better and better.
     (Dark Age studios paint job)

I also have plans to continue work on my Confrontation armies throughout the year so I will be ready for the imminent release of Confrontation Phoenix!

Along with those, I am tentatively optimistic about Relic Knights. I bought into the Kickstarter for that one, so hopefully it wont be a dud.  We will see when March rolls around.

Definitely looks awesome though!

 I'm sure other games will be stuck in here or there. Warmachine and Hordes are always a constant of course.
It certainly seems as if Cool Mini Or Not will be getting a fair amount of my cash this year though.

Confrontation: Tir-Na-Bor Khor warrior

Decided I needed to power through painting a fig just to try and get myself out of this no-hobby funk.
The Khor warrior from my weekend WIP's was the lucky winner.
I'm still bummed that hes such a crappy cast but other than that, I like the way he turned out.
I may try to incorporate more Orange into the next one as the silver did get a tad overpowering on this one.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

Also, since reading seems to be the thing that is taking up most of my hobby time lately I thought I'd turn you on to the series I'm working on.                                                                                             

After finishing up the most recent Dresden files novel by Jim Butcher, I was scrambling for more Urban fantasy Novels. 

M.L.N Hanover's  "The Black Suns Daughter" series has fit the bill nicely.  After burning through the first one in just a few days, I'm well into the second one and I have to say they are a very good, action heavy read.

Weekend WIP's

Actually found some time this weekend to sit and paint for a bit. Got a little work done on a bunch of figures, so I thought I'd show you the WIP's.
If you are wondering why the Khor Warrior looks so pitted and nasty.....that's because he is! Geesh, what a joke. It has definitely made him a lot more difficult to paint. Hopefully he turns out and looks just fine after all said and done.
I also threw in a pic from a challenge over on my other collaborative  blog the Geek Garage. We were supposed to be finished with our entries at the end of August, so needless to say, I have been slacking all around.

Memory lane and a bit of an explanation

Well, first off, I guess I had better address why my posts are so few and far between at the moment.
As seems to be the typical case in September, my Job goes absolutely bonkers and I rarely go home for more than just dinner and sleeping.

All can't be blamed on a hectic work schedule though. The free time that I do happen upon has been taken up by a Mr. Jim Butcher, and his amazingly awesome Dresden Files novels. 
Once the temperature begins dropping more rapidly and the days get considerably shorter, working should ease up and hobby updates can commence as usual.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you a fig I painted a couple of years ago who holds the top spot in my collection as being the piece I am most proud of.
The Cyclops of Mid-Nor.
I finished him in 2010 just in time for Gen Con. I entered him in the Gen Con painting competition and was pleasantly surprised when he made it past the first cut and into the top 8 for "Large Figure category"  He didn't earn me any sort of medal or anything but I was more than happy with my first crack at a real, legitimate painting competition.
He also happens to be my only figure currently rated above an 8 at CMoN which landed him in the Cool Mini or Not annual for 2011.


Thanks for having a look.

Gamers Asylum Paint night

Once a month we plan an evening at the local game shop for everyone to get together, BS, paint and have a good 'ol time.
With summer in full swing the attendance is a little lacking, which is really to be expected. We have a great time though,no matter the turnout. I went ahead and snapped a few pics of the figs everyone was working on. There were a few other people there earlier, but I had forgotten to get out the camera before they were long gone(these things tend to last until 1 or 2 AM after all.).
The greatest part about these painting parties is seeing all of the different things that people are working on, and getting feedback from all sorts of different perspectives.

If this is something your local crowd does not do, I would highly recommend coordinating one and making it a tradition. 

A few WIP's

Well, with the long Memorial day weekend, I found a few minutes to get some paint on a few figs.
I should have gotten a lot more done in the time given, but my Vallejo Hot Orange had other plans. It just so happens to be one of the main colors for my Tir-na-Bor faction and it decided to completely settle on me since the last time I had used it.
So, a good portion of my evening was used trying to revive the paint back to a usable state. (which never really worked anyway)
The Orange on my Mid-Nor fig was not intentional either. He had a run in with my 5 year old sometime back, Yikes!
So this is what I got started this weekend, thanks for taking a look. Hopefully all 3 of them should see completion soon.

Tir-na Bor, Forge Gaurdian

Started this guy up for a contest on a forum I visit occasionally. Unfortunately, as usually seems to be the case, I did not finish in time for the deadline.
I did however have a great time working on this guy. I have painted up a bunch of Mid-Nor dwarves but this is only my second Tir-na-Bor on the completed list, so I got to work on my favorite thing, which is tweaking the color scheme.
I have a veritable mountain of these guys waiting in boxes and blister packs, so now that the scheme is set they should start to crank out rather quickly. 
Let me know what ya think.

Assembling the Masses

Finally caught the assembly bug! The Local game store owner asked if I would assemble the Titan for his Skorne starter box, and I thought if I was going to be putting another one of those pains together I might as well make a day of it.
Typically I hate assembling, but occasionally I find the groove and bust a bunch of stuff out all at once. Still have a bit of gap filling to do but my Greenstuff had gotten too hard to continue working with.
The biggest bonus is now I can try out my Epic Baldur Wold lists!

Mid-Nor: Cthonian Larvae

Well, now that the Holidays have calmed down,and life has resumed as normal, I found a few minutes to sling some paint.
Been working on this guy for a little while but held off finishing him at the thought of painting all of those individual eyes. Painting just 2 on a fig is usually bad enough!
In the end, I'm glad I took the time to do it , as I think it adds a whole new level of creepy grossness to an already nasty fig.
Thanks for checking him....it out.

Old school Middy

Finished this guy up the other night. I don't know what it is about these Mid-Nor figs, but i get going on one, and I exclude everything else I'm working on till its done. I guess they are just that fun to paint. I tried a new gloss medium for the blood on this guy and I don't think I like it much. Really gave it a lot of goopyness. Perhaps it will work better if I do a bunch of gore.
After working on this guy I have a new appreciation for Rackhams older sculpts. I thought they were pretty sub-par at first but I am looking forward to another one now.

Incubus of the Despot

Well, this is the guy I had tried some different skin tones on , and I gotta say, I really like how he turned out.
The green was also a bit of a different choice, considering how the rest of the army is usually covered in blood. But these guys are supposed to be poisonous and toxic, so I thought it fitting. I do think I've finally kinda burned out on painting the Mid-Nor figs so much and should be moving onto some other things now.
We will see how long that lasts though, as these beautiful figures always seem to call out my name whilst I am painting something different.