Happy New Years Eve, my friends!  Here is the video update of my finished 6 Bulls unit.  Hope you enjoy them!

Vampire Counts Skeleton Boxed Review

A very cool little (#sarcasm) boxed set of the GW skeletons, getting read for the new VC release this January.  Enjoy!

6 Man Ogre unit DONE, son!

Hope you like them!  Video should be up on YouTube later today!  =D

Fiddly Skeletons!

Almost finished with my Product Review - Vampire Counts Skeletons!

Wow, are they fiddly!  Small joints, delicate joins, each mini looks like it has half the plastic content of an Orc Boy.  Praise Sigmar for the small applicator tip of Model Master Liquid Cement!

"Hey, you kids!  Get off my Plastic Cement!"

I thought a fun little modelling thing would be to have the guys in the front with their shields up, protectively, while they march forward, implacably, to meet the foe!

Hope you like them!  The product review video should be rendered and uploaded by tomorrow.

Ogre Update - Standard Bearer

What up, playahs!

Here's what I was able to finish yesterday.  A WarbossTaetorial on How to Paint a regular old Ogre:

 

And a standard bearer for one of my units.  Praise Sigmar it was the only one that I put together with a cloth front, because I don't think I could do another free-hand one.

So as my Ogre army is coming together, I am starting to develop a little bit of fluff for them.  I think I want my army to be a wandering band of mercenaries globetrotting the Old World and getting into all sorts of crazy adventures.  Where I am in Hawaii, sometimes groups of tourists or college kids from the University will rent out mopeds on a Saturday and just drive around the island in one large noisy group, stopping at a beach here, or getting shaved ice (or an ice cone for my mainland or world-wide readers =) shaved ice in a cone with flavored syrup) and generally having a good time. 

That's how I see this army.  The Great Maw called out to them to take a holy pilgrimage and be like Russel Crowe in that South Park episode ("Making movies, Making friends, and Fightin' round the world!")  One day, they get in a scrap with some Empire troopers and after smashing up a unit of Greatswords, they decided to take up their banner and use it as a trophy.

So THAT'S what all the fuss is about!

I'm 2/3 of the way through the Eisenhorn omnibus trilogy and I fething love it!  Over the last couple of years, I've wondered why the first 40k rpg ever released (Dark Heresy), along with many expensive supplements and add-ons, was based around the idea of being a part an Inquisitor's band, furrowing out mysteries in the grimdark far future.  I don't even think you had the opportunity to rise to the rank of Inquisitor, itself, until one of the much later-released expansion books.  And, with most (if not all, I can't remember off-hand) of these books being in hard-back, I couldn't understand why anyone would be interested in exploring this side of the 40k experience.  Remember, at the time of release, Deathwatch, Rogue Trader, and Black Crusade were just twinkles in the eyes of Fantasy Flight Games developers.

Why couldn't we have an rpg about a party of ragtag misfits, comprised of a grim Space Marine, a wise-cracking Catachan Jungle Fighter, a sultry Eldar Banshee, a crazy Ork Freeboota, and their trusty Kroot Hound traipsing around the galaxy getting into all sorts of misadventures?  No, not grim dark enough.  Plus, you must remember that all the races in 40k pretty much hate each other, unlike the (slightly) more tolerant Old World of Warhammer Fantasy, where you can at least walk into the local tavern and possibly see an elf or dwarf, either of who would still sooner punch you in the face than talk to you, but regardless, the fact that they can be in the same breathing space as humans is telling.

But an rpg that was basically a detective story/Call of Cthulu in space?  I didn't get it.

Until now.  2/3 of the way through the Eisenhorn omnibus.  Thank you, Dan Abnett.  Now I'm going to be purchasing the core rulebook for Dark Heresy, as well as the follow-up omnibus Ravenor, as well as some 40k Inquisitor models and the Grey Knight codex, which I swore I would never get because I don't like the idea of Grey Knights bathing in the blood of Battle Sisters (Waaaard!).

Really, though, what a great book.  What a great story!  Taking place over centuries in the illustrious career of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, it frames his grand adventures with a glimpse into the life of the rest of the Imperium.  The civilians, and day-to-day workers, Arbites (cops), and citizens who fill the hive worlds, agri-worlds, and mining worlds that make up mankind's great domain.

Rarely do Space Marines come in to steal the spotlight, and that, in my opinion, is wonderful.  As the be-all, end-all solution to all problems, praise be to the Emperor for the mighty Astartes, the Space Marines are almost a deus machina that a lazy author could just drop-pod in to save the day, and Dan Abnett is NOT a lazy author.  He has done his 40k homework and has weaved a sector of Imperial space that lives and breathes, and is filled with terrific characters.

Thanks, Dan Abnett!  I'm sorry I ever walked past this book and scoffed at reading about something other than Ultramarines or Space Wolves.  Eisenhorn and his entourage prove that its cool to be a regular human being in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium.

Welcome to my blog!

So with the new year just around the corner, I came to the decision to finally get myself a daily blog to post my work!  I plan to include pictures and updates, along with links to my YouTube video.  Thanks to all my friends and supporters who have watched my progression through the years as a painter and hobbyist. And thanks to my busta foo' brother for helping me get this blog set up and started!

For starters, here are a couple of my most recent WarbossTaetoials, starting with my biggest Taetorial ever, THE SKAVEN DOOMWHEEL:

How to Paint an Astral Claws Space Marine:

How to Paint an Alaitoc or Iyanden Warlock:

How to Paint a Talabheim State Trooper: