So, I Feel Stupid...

...as I mentioned the other day, I got the magnets in the mail that I was waiting for to make all the weapon arms for my Warjacks in Grind interchangeable. I gathered all my tools and sat down to get started. There's only one problem: they're already interchangeable. They use a fairly clever pressure-fit collar so you can pop the arms on and off. It even says on the product page for Grind on the Privateer Press web site (which I looked at several times) that they're interchangeable.

Duh.

Oh well. I thought about going ahead and magnetizing them anyway, since they require a fair amount of pressure to pop on and off, and it probably won't be real conducive to keeping the paint job in good shape, but I decided against it. Rather, i think I'll use it as an opportunity to test a sealing method I recently heard about - using a high-gloss sealer first for durability, then using a matte sealer to knock down the shine. Many people who paint models that are going to get handled a lot swear by this, and since it's a board game, it's definitely going to get handled more often than pieces I paint for show...

On Deck: Orks

Picked up a few things the other day:


a Trukk & some paints (more greens, mostly). Speaking of green, I guess I'm ready to start my Ork army, 'cause I've got a LOT:

I'm eager to start my Orks - I think it'll be neat to build an army that I already have most of the models in front on me, not one that I bought piece-by-piece as I went. I finally dug out the box of stuff I got from Craigslist last year - the contents:

-8 Stormboyz
-15 Ork Boyz
-5 Nobz
-Warbuggy
-5 Warbikers
-Deff Dread
-Wartrukk
-Killa Kan s/ Burna
-4 Ork Boyz w/ 'eavy Weapons

...add that to the stuff from the AoBR box I haven't painted yet:

-Warboss
-5 Nobz
-20 Ork Boyz
-3 Deffkoptas

...and the stuff I ordered when I bought the Trukk:
-Painboy
-Ork in Mega-Armour w/ Kombi Shoota-Rokkit Launcher
-'ard Boyz Armour Pack

...now, I don't know squat about list building - I never play in tournaments, and can count the number of games I've played in the past year on one hand. I'm primarily in it for the painting. But I'm actually really looking forward to playing some games with these models, just because they're so different from what I'm used to.

As far as in-progress stuff, the Scout Squad will hopefully be done tomorrow, I'll have pics when it is. I got the magnets in for Grind, so that needs started too. I've actually got a hug pile of stuff to be sealed & stuff to be primed, but we've been stuck with sticky, nasty weather for a few weeks now, and the forecast looks like this:

Wonderful. I was seriously considering brush-on sealer & primer just so I could finally knock some of these projects into the "finished" category, but I've had inconsistent results with those in the past, so I guess I'll give it 'till the end of the week...

On Deck: Grind, Space Hulk

So I had a busy week here, and the next two weeks don't look much better, so not a lot of progress was made. I thought I'd show the next few projects that are going to be occupying my time:


I bought Space Hulk at Origins, all the minis have been assembled and de-flashed, greenstuff work has been started, a bit of sanding and they'll be ready for primer. I'm a little torn about trying new techniques on the Marines - while I definitely want to get away from the basic basecoat/wash/drybrush method, it's the technique I used on my Techmarine (see the "Mini-Friendly Light Box" post below) and it came out great. It would be easily adapted to the Blood Angels from the Space Hulk set. Maybe I'll do the Marines in my traditional method and mix it up for the 'nids - I don't think I care for the standard GW black/purple color scheme that is usually used, so I'll probably change that. I saw a scheme over at Warseer that used Elf Flesh & purple ink that looked fantastic, so I might try to duplicate that.

The copy of Grind was acquired from a buddy of mine who decided to thin out his collection a bit - the minis are assembled, but unpainted. It actually worked out pretty well - I don't play Warmachine, but have been dying to try painting some Warjacks. the last thing I needed was to start playing another game that would require me to buy sourcebooks and build a whole new army, so this is a perfect way to give some Privateer Press models a try. Plus, one of the regulars at my local shop (who also serves as their painting guru) just became a Press Ganger, so I might take the models to one of his seminars to get advice on color schemes, etc. Either way, my friend assembled the models with his personal choice of arms (the game includes 30 different weapon arms) and I want to have options, so I am waiting on some neodymium magnets to arrive in the mail so I can start chopping the models apart and greenstuffing them.

The Ork Nobz are just one box out a full Ork army (1,000 points or so) I bought last year on Craigslist for peanuts, which is all unpainted and mostly still unassembled. It was all thrown in a box and it took me forever to sort it out and bag it up so I knew what went where, but that's finally done, so now I can start assembly. Since the Orks are going to be my "second" army, I plan on having lots of fun with the fluff and trying some ususual stuff with scratch building. I also recently bought a couple of airbrushes & a compressor that I've been getting the hang of, I suspect these will be invaluable for the Ork army in regards to weathering & stenciling.

...on top of all of the above, I have an 18-gallon tote in the closet that's completely full of Armorcast resin terrain I bought at Origins 2009 that I haven't touched yet, and a Zuzzy 4'x6' Terra-Flex terrain mat that has been sitting in my office for months. Oh, and a box of Tau somewhere that I got in a trade...