Anyone else wish 40k didn't suck?

I love everything about it, except the game. This is a photo of I manipulated. Its a battle scene featuring a Slaanesh Hell Strider I scratch built, its featured in BoLS's Lords of Battle.

He's a big fan of Three Dog Night

Silver and green were colors unworthy to adorn the triumphant visage of not-Cobra Commander. So I whipped some paint on him. Still needs a bit of touching up and more work on the Cobra logo. My eyes were giving out, past my bed time, trying to use magnifiers, and watch Zulu at the same time. Give it another go tomorrow, hey what?


Chin chin, and carry on with your mud-pies.

Vehicular Combat at KublaCon 2012

Join us at KublaCon in Burlingame, CA on May 25-28, 2012. I have scheduled to run the vehicular combat game of Axles & Alloys 2 on Sunday at 10:00am.

"Come focus your pent up road rage in our radioactive desert landscape. Axles & Alloys 2 is fast paced and easy to learn car combat miniatures game. Rules are a homebrew adaptation of Full Thrust, with cars rather than Spacecraft. Rules are quick to learn (fit on 1 page) and don’t take themselves too seriously, and are designed for jumping in and playing. Free for all battle and scenarios planned."

I will be bringing my custom modified hotwheels/matchbox car miniatures. I have some scenarios we can try or just royale rumble style. Join us at the Khan of Cons!

Work in Prog-Rock

A few weeks back Spooktalker, celebrating my arrival on your planet, gave me a set of Grindhouse Games Dogface Combots from their tennative JUNK line of miniatures. The Dogfaces are currently out of production, but Spooktalker was able to get his hands on a previously owned set. The previous owner had severely neglected the poor 'bots. Shoddy assembly, lack of clean up, sub-standard primer, and improper handling had left them in a sad state.

So with a 2 week soak in Simple Green and a little tlc, they are starting to look like the crack team of metal militants they were made to be.

I made a few minor alterations to establish some character, for instance the CQB Combot with his auto-shotgun would be in the thick of the fighting and ought to have a few more scrapes, dents and blown circuits than the basic model. So I used round and leaf-blade needle files to add some realistic battle damage.

The set also included a boonie hat, designed to fit snugly over the 'Bot's camera eye. While test fitting, I found the slouch of the hat combined with the roundness of their domed heads to give a overly comical cartoon hobo appearance. Not the sort of thing that causes hardened Martian Commandos to quake in their grim, skull shaped gasmasks. Determined to rise to Spooktalker's challenge of, "I know you'll put this to good use," I thought of a picture of Carlos Hathcock wearing a boonie hat tipped back on his head. Probably protecting him from the harsh South East Asian sun while he rested after shooting yet another top NVA sniper straight down the scope into his no-good commie eye.

I also made a minor conversion to his left arm and hand, in order to give him a scouting "Hold, Contact" pose. An homage to several classic Perry Brothers Imperial Guard minis.

Work in Progressssssssss.

Been working on a birthday gift for a friend, the very pulpy Kol. Zanzibar from East Riding Miniatures. He comes with a Not Cobra Commander alternate head, but what he real needs to take over the world is a good cape. How could he boogie to Three Dog Night without one? Besides, there is a technique for sculpting capes I've always wanted to try.

I had cleaned assembled and based the miniature before hand. I used Green Stuff, it has a predictable set time and is stiff enough to span gaps unsupported. After mixing I rolled it out as flat as I could, then put it in between to sheets of plastic. I used a sandwich bag. Then I pressed it between two hard cover books, standing on them in order to get it even flatter. I let the putty set for 20 minutes before removing it from the sandwich bag, then cut it into the size and shape I needed. The putty was stiff enough to hold its shape, yet still workable. Once stuck to the miniature, I used a rubber tipped shaper to smooth folds and curves, and a metal blade tool to create the smaller wrinkles at the top of the cape.

There were a few unwanted wrinkles from the sandwich bag as well as from the shaping. I plan on touching these up with some more putty. Here is the cape from the front:

BTW My Solo Project

At least a couple of you must have seen this already, but I realized I get up to Op-For HQ so infrequently these days (deep cover covert ops, etc, you know how it goes) the word has probably not got around. But for the past six months now I've been doing a blog called Belched for the Depths—check it out!

The low-down is, now that my new career is in full swing and I've shelved the commission painting gig I've finally got the time to throw myself into my own projects, and BftD is for those projects.

Don't worry, though, I'm not leaving the band and you can still find me around here on the Op-For blog. I know you were all panicking there for a sec. ;)

Miniature Review: St. Nikolaus by Tor Gaming

Let's do a product review. Have you heard of Tor Gaming? If not, go check them out. They produce 28mm scale miniatures and have created two gaming systems they work with (Relics and Unbridled Fury). We will talk about their Relics game which they coined "stitchpunk." They have developed three factions within the game. A Britanan and two monster type groups. The models in the Britanan are sorta cute, stitched together, dolls bearing weaponry and clothing from the early days of Britain's army. They have just posted up their rules and are beta testing at this time. A great time to get into the game! Reviewed here is a promotional piece called St. Nikolaus, themed after jolly old St. Nic, but in stitchpunk styling...

What's in the Box? (or blister):

This blister pack included everything to assemble on St. Nikolaus model. And was easily opened, no cutting or sharp plastic edges! Blister was labeled with part number TGRBESN1

• One St. Nikolaus body
• One bag of holiday goodies
• Sprue with piping and bone pieces
• One 40mm round plastic slotted base

Sculpting/Casting Notes:

This model is on the small size compared to others I've worked with. The quality of the casting is very good. With very little mold lines and the flash was almost not existent. This model is only a few pieces so it should be easy to assemble. Pose options are limited. The model stands about 16mm to eye level.

Here is a size comparison to some other models.

Overall:

A very nice model. If your on the lookout for a little more light hearted skirmish game, maybe Relics is your ticket. Thanks again to Tor Gaming, and I am looking forward to checking out their gaming rules and how they develop more.

Click here to order on Tor Gamings website