Deathwing Test Model

I actually finished this mini last week, just haven't gotten around to posting up the pics yet. Its not my own method that I came up with, just a simple following of a tutorial posted by Ron over at From The Warp. Its a simple and quick process that produces good looking miniatures, which is what I'm after. Actually, when I was done painting the mini, I felt that this was easily the best painted mini I've ever produced. Quite a nice feeling.

I've also adapted the technique for producing green and black, for regular Company Marines and Ravenwing, respectively. I'm very happy with the speed and results of this process. It actually takes longer for the washes to dry than you spend puting the brush on the mini. Thats a good thing to me!

Autumn Bronzeleaf

It's always good to spend time with the Wife, especially when she is doing stuff that I really enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I like doing stuff with her no matter what, but its nice when she sits down to experience this little part of my world.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here we have an Elf Wizard, Autumn Bronzeleaf, from the Dark Heaven Legends line of miniatures from the Reaper website. We might be having an upcoming DnD group, but I'm thinking its going to fall apart before it ever gets off the ground. Hopefully not though!

She spend a lot of time working on the armor and the eyes of this mini. If you look at the painted pics of the mini on the Reaper website, you will see that she reproduced the armor quite well if you ask me. Getting the bronze over the green must have been a pain, I would imagine. All in all, a successfully painted DnD mini, and I think her 10th fully painted figure, if I remember correctly.

Wednesday Update

Hello again, time for the weekly Wednesday Update. I got a few things done this week, and a few things planned for the upcoming week.

1. I painted up my Trygon to a table top ready standard. No fancy highlights or anything, just a base 3 color minimum that I can build on later when I have more time for that sort of stuff.

2. Did a little experimenting with a Deathwing Terminator this week. I really like how it turned out, easily the best painted figure I've ever produced. More on that to follow in the coming week. I'm in the process of testing out the same technique for a regular Dark Angel, just modified to produce green instead of bone. Again, once the test mini is done, I'll post both up for your viewing pleasure

3. I started work on a brood on Genestealers, and got the first group of 5 90% done. I completely forgot to get some WIP shots though, so maybe next time around when I do the second group of 4.

In the coming week, I'm hoping to get up some pics of the Deathwing and regular Dark Angels test mini's, and also complete the squad of Genestealers, which will round out my first list for the escalation league coming up at the end of the month.

Trygon Table Top Ready

Here it is in all its Table Top Ready glory. Not a fancy paint job, just enough to get the point across. No highlights, no shading, just the basic base colors that I can build on later once the basics of the army is done. You will notice that the base is still black, but nothing in the army has been based yet. I still haven't made up my mind on how I'm going to approach that subject. I've had a suggestion to go with a red planet type base, which would provide a nice contrast to the blue of the army. Decisions, decisions...

Wednesday Update

Having been inspired by All Things Fett I have decided to start my own version of the Weekly Update. If you read over his post it pretty much outlines a list of great reasons to do a post like this once per week. I agreed with him so much, I borrowed (stole?) the idea from him. Hope you don't mind!

So off we go!

First off, Tyranids are my main focus right now. I've got a escalation league starting up toward the end of December,and I'm slowly growing my force to make the initial 750 point list. I've got some more WIP photos to post up and also a quick tutorial on how to paint 'nids, the lazy way like I do.

Second, I've always got my Dark Angels to work on. I recently tried out a test mini focusing on line highlighting, and it was terrible. There will be a post coming up soon on my thoughts about line highlighting and pics of my attempts. It won't be pretty...

Third, My wife and I have began to play Blood Bowl again. Life has settled down to the point where we both have some free time at night to get a game in every once in a while. Perhaps later tonight even, who knows? Expect some game reports for that soon and maybe, a big maybe I might add, maybe some WIP shots of some team members finally getting painted!

That's all for now! Lets see how much of this I actually get done before next Wednesday!

On the Work Bench 2

In the continuing effort to complete my Tyranid force, here is a little snap shot of the work I've completed over the past two nights.

My Tryanid force continues to grow closer to completion. I'm quite happy with the painting of this army so far as the scheme my wife and I came up with is so easy. More on that next post though, as I will be posting a How-To on that topic!

They Trygon has gotten the Asurmen Blue wash over the grey gesso I laid down a few nights ago, and the Genestealers got their second coat of Gyphonne Sepia. I also hit the Trygon's talons and spikes with a coat of Chardon Granite. I plan on picking up a pot of Ice Blue next time I'm at the LGS so I can start to highlight the edges of the carpace on all my mini's.

I also can't think of a way to base this army. Any suggestions?

750 Tyranid List

Here is my list for the upcoming escalation league later on this month. I've only played a few 500 point games with Tyranids so if this list sucks please let me know and what I can do to fix it.

Head Quarters:

Hive Tyrant W/ Heavy Venom Cannon
Paroxysm and Leech Essence

Troops:

Termagants x10
Fleshborers

Termagants x10
Fleshborers

Tyranid Warriors x3
Scything Talons and Devourers

Genestealers x10
Scything Talons

Heavy Support:

Trygon

On the Work Bench

My current projects for the upcoming 40k escalation league.

I made some significant progress tonight on the Trygon and Genestealers. The Genestealers still need another coat of sepia wash on their skin before I can start to paint up the carpace, claws and other such items on aliens.

The Trygon has already gotten its 2nd coat of sepia and I have started to basecoat all the armor plates in gray gesso. Once, the gesso is completed I'm going to hit the armor with a Asurmen Blue wash, which turns out a really nice deep rich blue.

Once the Genestealers and Trygon are finished, that will round out my 750 points list for the first week's game!

November Painting Points And Summary

So I finally painted something this month, enough anyways to mention the painting points that I earned for November! Yay Me! I managed to paint 50 points this month, which brings my total for 2010 to...50 points!

I also played in a Warmachine slow grow league this month. We started out at 15 points on week one and added 5 points to our forces each week, till we ended just yesterday at 35 points. It was a good to finally learn the game since I bought the models back in May and had no clue what I was doing. It also earned me half my painting points for the month!

Looking ahead to next month I have a at home 40k slow grow league that my friend Adam and I have been planning. Look forward to seeing some progress on my Tyranid force that I will be assembling and painting for that.

35 Points of Menoth

Well here it is, 35 points of painted Menoth in all their glory. It was a fun league to play in and maybe I'll get another chance someday! Thanks for the good times guys!

Grand Exemplar Kreoss

This is my warcaster for my Protectorate force.

I really like the model, its way easier than regular Kreoss to put together I think. I think the Exemplar models for the range are pretty cool looking, so naturally I wanted to build a force around them. Kreoss was a easy choice for me as he is the leader of the Exemplar order.

Next up will be my Vanquisher followed by the rest of my heavy jacks. Later this weekend I will post my in progress pics of my Cinerators, which will be the last addition to the force and will bring me up to a total of 35 points.

Thanks for stopping by.

What I've been up to

I know I've been quiet for the past couple months. Unfortunately, work has gotten in the way of the hobby, so I've not had a lot of time to blog. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been not doing things. My current project I've got going on are my Protectorate of Menoth army, a Tyranid force for a escalation league coming up in December, a Sanguinary Guard force, and of course my Dark Angels.

First up for for show and tell is the Protectorate of Menoth as they are my most important project right now as we are half way through the escalation league for Warmachine. The force right now includes eKreoss and a Revenger light jack. For the heavy jacks, I have a Crusader, Vanquisher and a Castigator. Right now the only unit I have is a minimum unit of Exemplar Errants but there is a unit of Exemplar Cinerators and the Unit Attachment for the Errants on the way.

In the coming days, I will give each unit and jack their own showcase on the website, along with a few previews of the Tyranids and the Sanguinary Guard.

Tyranids vs Dark Eldar

Wife and I played a 500 point game tonight. I took the tyranids for a spin since I've never played them, and she used the brand spankin new Dark Eldar. Not much of a battle report, just more of a few pics.


Wyches are absolutly deadly for what its worth. They wiped out a unit of termagants in assault and took at turns worth of firing from the Hive Tyrant and a unit of Warriors and only lost 1 model. The pain tokens really help them out.


In the end, it wasnt enough though. I had pretty much tabled her by my turn 3, all she had left was lelith. The Hive Mind was closing in and she conceded.

Going on Campaign

Well, the gaming group and I have decided to put some story behind our games for the next couple weeks. This coming Sunday officially kicks off the Battle for Coriallis 4. We don't have all the fluff worked out, but basically the Black Legion has invaded and my Dark Angels are the closest ones able to respond. With all the fighting on the planet, of course Orks are attracted and rumors of the Tyranid menace have began floating around.

The plan we have is a campaign map with a random Risk style deployment. Each player will make a 10000 point "master roster" and then divide up that master roster into as many Army Groups as they want, each no bigger that 2,999 points. 2 Army Groups are allowed to ignore the FOC, as one is dedicated attackers and one dedicated defenders. The defense force is allowed one Super Heavy or Apocalypse formation in it as well, however, they cannot move from your capital.

We will also be incorporating Kill Team. Each player is assigned 200 points to make a Kill Team. They will be able to assist an Army Group in an attack, or they themselves can go attack an undefended territory and take it from the owner, but they can't capture it.

There are also rules in place for experience points, so units can advance and gain USR's based on how much experience they have gained. Kill Team members and Independent and Special Characters will also have a separate attribute table to roll on, both for advancement from experience and dying in a game.

All in all, its shaping up to be a fun couple weeks. I'm pretty excited for it to begin. Saturday is Games Day here in Honolulu, so we get to do that and begin our campaign in one weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

More Terminator Progress

Terribly sorry about the double post. Please forgive me!



Just wanted to share some more progress I made on the first squad of Deathwing, and their assigned Land Raider. Not much done other than just basecoating. I've decided to give The Vanus Temple way of things a try and see how that works out. Without keeping you in suspense any longer, here's the pics!







Tomorrow I need to finish basecoating the Land Raider and wash all the models. After that, they will start to get some color other than tan!

Terminator WIP

Just a quick update on some work I did on some terminators tonight. These guys will be painted up as Deathwing once they get to that point. All the arms have been magnetized, but I'm still cleaning them up so I didnt have them attatched. Here are a couple close up's.




In other news, my marines finally came in the mail, so now all I'm waiting for is the Guard to show up, and I will have all my stuff.

Tomorrow's Game

Got a 2k game tomorrow against Adam and Chris. Chris I know is bringing about 1k of Orks and im not sure what Adam is brining. Regardless, here is my list for tomorrow's game. On that note, my armies still havent arrived, so im using proxies and Deffkopta's in a Space Marine army...Oh well.

HQ - Captain
Artificer Armor, Relic Blade

HQ - Command Squad
Company Champion
x2 Power Weapon
Storm Shield
Plasma Pistol
Rhino + Extra Armor

TRPS - Tactical Squad x10
Lascannon

TRPS - Tactical Squad x10
Power Fist
Rhino

ELT - Terminator Squad x5
Assault Cannon

ELT - Terminator Squad x5
Assault Cannon

ElT - Dreadnought
Multi Melta
Drop-pod + Locator Beacon

FST - Assault Squad x5
Power Fist

FST - Deffkopta's x3
T.L. Rokkit Launcha
Bigbomm x1

FST - Deffkopta's x3
T.L. Rokkit Launcha
Bigbomm x1

HVY - Predator (chimera proxie)
T.L. Lascannon turret
Lascannon Sponsons x2

Check back tomorrow for the game report!

The First Wave Has Landed

Just yesterday I was playing Star Craft 2. In particular, it was the level that the Terran Dominion decided it was a good idea to invade the planet Char, which is the home world of the Zerg. After looking at this picture, I think I know what the Terran's felt like when they looked out the window of their drop pods.

In a slightly less dorky vain, I got some of my collection back today. On the table you see all manner of Games Workshop shwag. 40K, Fantasy, LoTR, Space Hulk......too much stuff. Its almost like a time machine in a way, with miniatures starting out at RTB01 and going all the up to Space Hulk 3rd Edition.

With the return of some of my minis, and just importantly these bad boys, "The Almighty Bitz Boxes", you the reader will begin to enjoy regular updates here on The Unforgiven.



Also, stay tuned for this weekends Apocalypse battle report! Its my first ever Apocalypse game and I couldn't be more excited! Wish me luck!

Test pics with new camera

Took some pics today with the new camera we got. I'm impressed with the results. My wife got me a light tent for my birthday right before we moved. This was the first time I've been able to try it out.

First up we have the Incredible Hulk from the Heroscape line of minatures. Nothing fancy, just one of the few painted models I had handy, as most of my stuff is still in the mail on its way here.

With flash on

Without flash on

A group shot of some BFG Imperial Cruisers

All in all pretty good photo's if I do say so myself. Any critiques are welcome as I'm always trying to improve my miniature photography skills.

We now return to you regularly scheduled broadcast

Well folks its been a long crazy haul moving to Hawaii all the way from North Carolina, but im finally here and set up. Not that I havent been doing anything hobbywise, ive actually put together the beginnings of a Command Squad for my Dark Angels and a 5 man Assault Squad. Tonight after work I will take some pics and put them up for you perusale.

I also wanted to share these babies with you.


http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/

New MK3 "iron armor" marines from forgeworld. I will definatly be picking up some of these guys to spread around the army, most likely as Veteran Sergeants.

I've also recently completed my gameing table, kinda, still making and completeing terrain, but the actual table is complete. Pics to follow this weekend. Thats all for now though, I need to get dressed and go to work. Hooray for Friday!

The Unforgiven are still alive!!

The blogs not dead I swear. Im in the process of moving to Hawaii and all Im waiting for is the keys to my house. After that there will be a return to the hobby and blogging. yay! Speaking of that, any members of the blogosphere that are in Hawaii and would like to get some games in? Let me know!

Menoth Test Figure

Finally started work on my Menoth army box that I bought a long time ago. Most of the time wasted was thinking about how I wanted the army too look. I ended up deciding on something other than the studio colors and went with yellow and blue with silver armor.



I've never painted yellow before and its turning out to be quite a challenge. I think I got the base color down, but I haven't figured out how to shade and highlight the yellow. Actually, all I've done is base colors here, no highlighting or shading has been done, just wanted to see how it all looked on the mini compared to in my head.



So far my plan is to take the blue up to Ultramarine's Blue and wash the armor plates with Badaab Black. The yellow is still a mystery though. Not sure how I'm going to do that.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated, all help is welcomed!

Game Review: Heroscape

Just finished my first couple games of Heroscape with my wife. Must say, this game exceeded my expectations. There are 2 different rule sets that come with the game, a very basic version that would be good for teaching young kids (which I will be doing in a few years) or introducing someone to their first tabletop miniatures game.

First off the master pack is a terrific value for the money. $40.00 Dollars gets you 24 painted figures and 75 terrain tiles ranging anywhere from 1 hex to 24 hexes per tile. Also included is all the dice, counters and cards necessary to play.

The advanced rules are a bit more complicated but anyone who has experience in tabletop minis games wont have any problems catching on. I'm sure any member of the blogosphere could go straight to the advanced rules.

The board itself is a hex-grid type map that you put together yourself in whatever way you want. There are several different types of terrain including water, swamps, grass and desert. Some units can take advantage of the differing types so its not all just stuff that your minis walk on.

The minis themselves are outstanding for a prepainted mini. The minis have been base coated and washed to bring out the details and textures. Its not just half blue and half grey, they actually have picked out the details on the miniatures.





The combat system is a skulls vs shield dice roll. Simply roll your dice and the defender takes the difference in wounds between the number of skulls the attacker rolls and the number of shields the defender rolls.

All in all, a very sound game with sound mechanics. Nothing overly complicated with this game makes it perfect for a short evening or perhaps a lunchtime skirmish. I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for something to play that doesn't take as long as 40k or Warmachine, but still will provide all the entertainment needed for the evening.

Product Review: GW Skull White Spray Primer

Good ol Games Workshop Skull White Spray Primer. Ive had this can for a while now and finally found a use for it when I began to work on my Protectorate of Menoth army a few days ago. Before I get to far into the review, here are a couple factoids about it.

Price = 15.00 USD on the website
Can Size = 10oz/400ml

Now that we have the pricing and size info out of the way, lets get to the review shall we?

To sum it all up, this product does not deliver at all. I am extremely disappointed by the quality of this primer. It really is a spray chalk and not a spray paint. Now I know Spray Paint is already somewhat dry before it even hits the mini, but take a look at the pic below and you can see what I mean.

(click for bigger shot)


If you look closely you can also see some shiny spots where the primer has just rubbed off from handling the arm once. Unacceptable in my book.

I tried to press on with it anyways, seeing as how thats all the primer I have right now. It didnt work at all. Im just going to have to strip my minis and restart. Im going to Michaels on Thursday to pick up some gray gesso and give that a whirl.

Overall, this spray primer gets a whopping 1 out of 5 stars from me. Never again will I buy this primer.

Protectorate of Menoth

Been a long while since I posted anything. Between moving, work and raising kids, not much time has been spent making progress on hobby related things. However, I did recently pick up a Protectorate of Menoth battlegroup box and that's got me pretty excited about working on miniatures again. I also grabbed a box of Exemplar Cinerators and Exemplar Errants officer and standard bearer, just cause that's what they had at the hobby shop. Here are some pics of the progress Ive made so far.

Kreoss



Crusader Heavy Warjack



Revenger Light Warjack



Repenter Light Warjack

Been a slow week

Well over the past 5 days I have gotten absolutly no hobby time in. Guess waking up everday at 3am to go to work will do that to you. Anyways, tonight I've started working on the 3 squads of terminators I need for my 1500 points Deathwing list. Nothing worth taking pictures of, its just a bunch of peices laying around right now. As soon as I get somewhere with it though i'll post up some pics. I've also got a Belial conversion I've got planned that should turn out pretty neat too. Thats about it right now. Oh yea, I also just won a copy of the old Epic Space Marine game on ebay for 15 bucks. Not to shabby.

Fear My Wrath

Here is my new dread that I have recently converted. I was hoping to achieve some sort of sense of motion with a normally static and boring model. I haven't gotten around to doing the Assault Cannon or DCCW, but they obviously will be magnetized also. The holes in the legs will be the regular armor pieces from the dreadnaught and the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade sprue, so there will be 4 total. I left them off for now for ease of painting later.









The one thing I can't decide on is whether or not to put some sort of flag or ornamentation on top of the dread. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! C&C welcome as always. Later.

Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer Sprues

The Wife and I did a little post holiday shopping yesterday and I managed to nab my self not 1 but 2 Land Raider Crusaders! Not to shabby if I do say so myself. As a little extra to this post I managed to contain myself long enough to take some pics of all the sprues that come with the box, for those among us who are looking for conversion parts or whatever reasons you have. Enough talking though, onto the pics!















If anyone is curious about a particular piece and wants a close up just let me know and I'll post it. Later.