Blood Ravens Land Raider Crusader WIP

Here's the first tank that I've painted for myself getting closer to completion. I still have a lot of highlighting and freehand work to do, but I'm fairly happy with it right now.

I lost one of the headlights, so I converted a sensor from another Land Raider Crusader that I built as a Redeemer.

Land Raider Assembly Instructions - part 2

First off I'd like to apologize for not taking pictures of the assembled "part 1" assembly. I starting building the thing and before I knew it I had the outside hull glued on. Whoops. Hopefully a written description will be enough.

Okay, so now we do the "sandwiched" portion.

The first time I built a Land Raider (without instruction I'll add) I had to cut open and reassemble the thing twice. Knowing that pieces need to be sandwiched between the inner and outer hull would have saved me a lot of heartache. Here's what you'll need:

• the two little round and one rod front door linkage pieces
• the two doors that meet with square "teeth"
• the door piece that is a control panel one one side and a tool kit on the other

Take a look at the linkage pieces. They match the posts coming off the front door on the left side of the tank. One of them is clearly marked which linkage round piece it gets. Glue the round pieces to the door posts, but make sure not to glue the door shut in the process. DO NOT glue the linkage rod into place! Once the exterior hull is on the rod will be held firmly against the round linkage pieces and allow the door to open/close in unison.

As to the square teeth door / control panel thing, you have a decision to make. Either they can go on the gun sponson side or the access point side. It really doesn't matter. This one will be a Land Raider Crusader, so I wish I had put then on the back (to match the Hurricane Bolters) and left the front ones as unobscured access points.

When glueing the outside hull on, it's helpful to have a piece of tread from each side as a sanity check that the two hull pieces are spaced correctly.

Next: the top and sponsons

GW Reverses the Trend

Well this is quite a nice surprise. Check this out:

GW 2009 Annual Report Summary
GW 2009 Full Annual Report






The executive "supervike" summary:

• Revenue up 14%
• Pre-tax profit up 682%
• Debt down 84%

They've really turned it around compared to the last couple years.

Land Raider Assembly Instructions - part 1

About 10% of my traffic seems to be people looking for "land raider assembly instructions." It's time to give the public what they want.

What you'll need:

• The interior walls
• the floor
• the front portion that includes the top turret mount (plus the little sensor plate that goes in it)
• the exhaust pipe half that faces toward the front of the Land Raider
• the interior engine detail piece (with the purity seals and adeptus mechanicus symbol)
• both front access doors (the ones that rotate open)

These are all the pieces that sandwich between the two interior walls.

First off, prime all these pieces. I recommend gray automotive spray primer. Paint the interior walls (if you plan to... but why wouldn't you?!), the interior engine detail and the floor. Once assembled these parts will be nearly impossible to get to for painting, so do it now. You can paint the top part with the turret mount now or after assembly. Glue the sensor to the top turret mount before or after painting, but before the assembly steps below.


Once everything on the interior is as painted as you want it, you will need to trim the interior engine detail piece a little. I've found that this little fellow makes it really hard to get the Land Raider to fit together correctly unless you scrape the corners of the outside edges (left and right) to create a little taper. Being able to easily slip the interior engine piece in will make getting a good fit much easier.

After dry fitting everything to make sure you have an easy fit, it's time to glue. The rear part (engine exhaust) and the floor are straightforward, but you'll need to simultaneously insert the top front door and the top turret mount to get the hinge areas between them to mesh easily. Don't forget: don't glue the front doors! When everything's together you should have a nice square fit, with the top turret mount piece fitting nicely against the top of the two interior walls. Now insert the interior engine detail (which should go in easily.) A drop of glue from the interior of the engine area will hold it in place.

Next: the parts that sandwich between the interior walls and exterior hull.

Continue to part 2.

Quote of the Day

Overhead from a coworker's phone conversation:

"Everyone at their abuse department is so hostile."

Hence the name, I suppose.

Missed Chicago

My chance at a 2nd Golden Demon passed me by this weekend when I skipped going to Chicago Games Day. We just don't have the money for that kind of thing right now.

/sad

I'll admit though, the pressure to up the ante from the past two years was a little intense (albeit all self imposed.) In '07 I set my sights on getting first cut, and made honorable mention (for my Skaven Giant.) In '08 I wanted to get a trophy of some sort, and I took home a bronze in 40k large model (for my Ork Warboss.) This year I was hoping for at least a silver.

The funny thing is that I keep looking at my old competition pieces and I'm less and less happy with my technique. I really hope that means I'm improving as a painter.

Next year's competition will feature two of the really good ideas I had this year, which were for fantasy regiment and fantasy single. A friend of mine had a really good idea for duel (which is now "diorama") which I might steal if he doesn't want to do it himself.

The "Skilled Rider" Rule

I just had a nice description from my coworker Subbu about traffic in India. I'd say these drivers are acutely aware of their surroundings. They would have to be to stay alive I'm guessing.



Subbu was saying that when he got here he couldn't believe that nobody honked. In India, apparently everybody honks pretty much all the time. After getting used to driving here (you know, with rules and lights) he can't drive in India any more. He has to take a taxi.

Celebrity Fleshtones

Lately, I've been thinking about chucking a couple of paints that I've never really liked: Citadel's Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh. I mean seriously... what flesh is actually either of those colors? Dwarf Flesh looks way too orange and Elf Flesh is far too yellow for pale skin. Even cheap acrylic craft paint has better fleshtones. What I use now are P3 Midlund Flesh or Citadel Tallarn Flesh foundation, and highlight up by mixing in a white (skull white or Reaper Linen white.)

But then I saw this picture.

My wife's computer has one of those annoying Real Media film.com news pop-ups in the system tray. I don't typically pay two seconds of attention to it, but this picture immediately got my notice. Here we find Kendra Wilkinson and Denise Richards, appearing to exemplify Citadel Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh.

I guess I won't throw those colors out quite yet... maybe Citadel can rename them "fake tan" and "overexposed flash" or something.

Upgrade Failed

So I finally clicked the "upgrade" button on my Blogger template. Guess what! Fail! Most of my content went over just fine but for some reason the comments link is refusing to show up on my posts. People can still leave comments, but they have to go into the post itself to do so.

Grrr. I know "black box"ing things makes life easier for 99.9% of the users, but I'm still jealously clinging to my control at the source level.

EDIT: Win! Reading some forum posts, I tried clicking the "Revert Widget Templates to Default" link (in Layout, Edit HTML, at the bottom) and it worked! I don't know what about the comment widget had been modified but apparently the default version is the good one.

Cheesing Out on a Challenge

I'm having a crisis of list creation. A friend of mine and I have been gearing up for a battle between his Orks and my Space Marines with allied Witch Hunters. He threw down the gauntlet first, setting the fluff for the battle and choosing the armies. (He actually chose Witch Hunters, but I don't have enough to play 1500 points effectively, so allied SM are okay.)

So here's the deal. I don't like fielding list that would be perfect for destroying my opponents army but would be useless against an entirely different army. I think there should be more to the game than picking "scissors" if you know your opponent took "paper." On the other hand, with the fluff that has been developing around this challenge it would be completely clear that I was going to have to face Orks. Would I then be justified in loading up on plasma cannons and heavy bolters? Am I cheesing out if I take Telion to pop any Nobs with PK's before they get to whatever armor I've brought? If this was your garden variety scheduled game then I would never tune an anti-Ork list.

Should I just sort of tune an Ork list or just completely go hog wild about it?

So Now Sweet Sixteen Turns Sixty-three

Okay, random thought......

Bob's Seger's song "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" has the line "so now sweet sixteen turns thirty-one." I use that as a mnemonic to remember that the code for the coffee I like at the local grocery store is code 31 on the u-scan lanes.

If sweet 16 was 31 when the song was released (1977) that makes a birth year of 1946 (can you say baby Boomer?) and a sweet 16 year of 1962. So what rock and roll songs would have been popular at that time?

In the top 25 of 1962, 4 of them have some variety of the word "twist" in the title. (btw, way to milk it, Chubby Checker.) Most of the songs wouldn't qualify as rock and roll by any historical standard. Here I copy the list from musicoutfitters.com:

1. Roses Are Red (My Love), Bobby Vinton
2. I Can't Stop Loving You, Ray Charles
3. Let's Twist Again, Chubby Checker
4. Stranger On The Shore, Mr. Acker Bilk
5. The Stripper, David Rose
6. Johnny Angel , Shelley Fabares
7. The Loco-Motion, Little Eva
8. Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Neil Sedaka
9. Mashed Potato Time, Dee Dee Sharp
10. Soldier Boy, Shirelles
11. Hey! Baby, Bruce Channel
12. The Wanderer, Dion
13. Duke Of Earl, Gene Chandler
14. Good Luck Charm, Elvis Presley
15. Let Me In, Sensations
16. Wolverton Mountain, Claude King
17. Slow Twistin', Chubby Checker
18. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin', Johnny Tillotson
19. The One Who Really Loves You, Mary Wells
20. Palisades Park, Freddy Cannon
21. Midnight In Moscow, Kenny Ball
22. Sheila, Tommy Roe
23. Twistin' the Night Away, Sam Cooke
24. The Wah Watusi, Orlons
25. Peppermint Twist, Joey Dee and The Starlighters

If 1962 was a bland year for popular rock and roll, 1977 was lousy with disco in contrast. Bob Seger leaves us with a universal truth: if you have to pick between catchy lyrics and sociohistoric accuracy, go for the song lyrics.

EDIT: What, nobody's going to call me out about calling 1962 bland? There are 12 songs out of the 25 that don't include the word "twist" that I immediately identify as classic rock and roll songs of the era.

My New Favorite WIP holder

I started mounting high quality paint job minis on corks to avoid touching the emerging paint jobs with my filthy meat appendages. That's all find and dandy until you need them to actually stand on their own. I tried a variety of makeshift holders, and even switched to sawed-off champagne corks (so they'd be much thicker at the bottom) to try and fix the falling over problem.

Now I have it figured out. As you can see in the pic (which is a WIP from my "Big Box of Eldar" project blog) the Sabol paint tray makes an excellent WIP fig holder for these cork mounted figs. Even non cork mounted figs can be placed in the star-shaped cavities. About half an inch of insertion will hold them nicely without contacting the model to the foam. I intend to use one of these to hold 20 tactical Space Marines in the future for actual army transportation once I get them painted and properly dullcoted for protection.

650 Years Summarized

History is a funny animal. We tend to learn about events in the singular and miss the flow of one event to another. If you learned Bible stories as a kid you probably experienced this as well, learning anecdotes of history without much time context.

I'm going to connect some of the dots for a short segment of biblical history. If you know some of the stories buy aren't a biblical scholar then you might get a sense of the bigger picture.

About 1700 BC:

• God calls Abraham to pack up and leave to go to a land that God would show him, and promises him and his wife a child despite their advanced age and childlessness.
• Abraham and his wife Sarah have a child, Isaac. God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac but supplies a ram as substitute for the sacrifice at the last second.
  
• Isaac and his wife Rebekah have children, one of whom is Jacob.
  
• Jacob has 12 sons, one of whom is Joseph.
  
• God gives Jacob the name "Israel" after wrestling with him.
• Joseph's brothers are jealous of their father's obvious favoritism of Joseph (including the gift of a coat of many colors) and so they fake his death and sell him into slavery in Egypt.
• Joseph interprets a dream Pharaoh's dream of fat/thin cows as meaning seven years of plenty were coming, followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh places Joseph in charge of storing the plenty to prepare for the famine
• After the seven years of plenty, Jacob and his family move to Egypt to escape the famine.
• The children of Israel (Jacob) thrive in Egypt, until a Pharaoh comes to power who does not know Joseph. The children of Israel are forced from residing in Egypt to being captive there.
• About 280 years after captivity in Egypt begins, Moses is born.
• At age 80, Moses leads Israel's children (now a multitude) out of Egypt.

If you actually read all that, did it fill in any gaps? Were there things you knew of connected in ways you hadn't known before? I'm just curious more than anything. As a child I did not grasp the connections in biblical history that as an adult I see.

Akiko Rocks the B3

Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. I just heard Akiko Tsuruga for the first time on local jazz station WEMU. She rocks the Hammond B3 harder than anyone I've heard in a while. And by rock, I mean jazz.

Go to her site and listen: http://www.akikotsuruga.com/Eindex.html

August

The room dimmed as we danced
Spinning weightless laughing
Embracing with gaze fixed
And morning came
To prove it was not a dream

Unlikely Pie

Someone left a "Marionberry" pie in the break room today. It sounded like a joke to me... I mean, come on. Marionberry? Were they out of Halleberry or something?

As it turns out there really is a Marionberry. Part of me is disappointed.

New Project Blog... a Nurgle...um.... Thing

I'm painting a large model for a friend during our weekly hobby sessions, and it's a monstrous Nurgle abomination. Actually it's a Nurgle Dreadnought, but very few parts come from the Chaos Dreadnought kit.

Check it out:
http://nurgledread.blogspot.com/

This will be an interesting one to try and pull off.... it's a complicated conversion and I'm not relly sure how to paint it to do it justice.

Are You Smarter Than A Freakin' PhD?

Go read this: http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1742-6596/150/5/052252

I'm serious. Is this a joke?

Have I lost all ability to comprehend anything technical / scientific? To be fair, there are five authors. If I could understand 20% of that I'd feel better.

The Squirrel Underpants are to keep your head from exploding, a practical application of the lowest common denominator. Squirrel Underpants are the opposite of science in both real space and k-space.

Paint Creek GW Reboot

This is a follow up to my previous rant about the fallen state of the Paint Creek Crossing GW store.

I stopped in the store today just to see what was going on. I've done this a couple times since Lance "left" and it's been a friendly experience. For the first time today I had a chat with Brett, the new manager there who will be staying on for a year or so to get the store on track. My impressions?

Breath. Of. Fresh. Air.

Brett really seems to "get it" when it comes to gamers and hobbyists. People coming in and playing at the store in a friendly way is something he encourages! People who antagonize and cause grief for others will be asked to leave. (He indicated that a few key players had already been asked to do so... I'm pretty sure I know who he meant.) We chatted about upcoming releases in a way that was informational and not hard-sell. I had a smile on my face. I felt comfortable.

...and I bought something before I left.

Friday Voynich-ness

So here's the fun. How long will it take the Wikipedia entry for "Voynich Manuscript" to reflect the fact that it was the subject of an xkcd comic?

Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.

Ultraforge Makes Quality Yuckiness

This was a fun one to paint. He's on eBay right now, along with the Imperial Fists Land Raider Redeemer w/ Chronus.

Lord of Pestilence
Land Raider Redeemer

Lord of Pestilence, WIP 1

Big thanks to Sholto for the response to my last entry. I soaked the model in Melaleuca "Sol-U-Mel" and brushed all the old primer off quite easily. After a half hour or so in Sol-U-Mel I rinsed and reprimed, and it really seemed to take so much better.

So I started painting.... I like it so far. Ultraforge minis are pretty amazing.

btw, there are some on ebay right now (new, unpainted) if you are interested.

My First Brush with Resin

I have a number of Ultraforge models that I plan on painting and selling (or just selling... anyone?) and I am thrilled at how great these sculpts are. And they're big! Even this one, the "Lord of Pestilence" towers over a terminator and is almost as much mass as a dreadnought, and he's the smallest of the Nurgle-esque models UF makes.

I tried to prime him up tonight for painting, and made a discovery. Resin resents being painted. To get paint to actually stick to resin takes an act of congress or something, even after carefully scrubbing the thing in soapy water. Thankfully, automotive primer spray stuck quite nicely, but getting it in all the little nooks and crannies of this model was a struggle. I also found that a spray of Testors Dullcote would create a workable surface, but I don't think I would use that unless I needed to repair an area and didn't want to destroy the paint around it.

And yes, that is the same LR Redeemer in the background that I posted a WIP pic of earlier. I just can't seem to seal the deal on that one....

Dreadnought Arm Swaps

I've been trying out some video tutorial making lately. Here is one I put together that describes making dread arms swappable between Black Reach dreads and box dreads.

Painting for Quality, part 2

The second installment of Painting for Quality is up at mybattalion.com. Check it out. I really need to figure out how to do macro mode and movie at the same time. If I could get that working I could really put together some useful tutorials.

I bought a Targus flexible tripod at RadioShack over the weekend. It's the best $8 I've spent in a long time.

Pandemic.... ?

Swine Flu (aka "Pig Sniffles") has been all the talk around here lately. I just heard that the nearby Plymouth/Canton schools have been closed due to suspected cases. Considering how much panic has been going into this, I thought I'd give it a little analysis.

Flu kills a lot of people. About 36,000 Americans die each year from it. That's about 1/100 of 1% of the population in whole. So far the Swine Flu, aka A(H1N1), has confirmed numbers of 876 infections and 26 deaths in the U.S. and Mexico. That is a 2.9% fatality rate, much higher than the overall influenza fatality rates each year.

The WHO defines pandemic as "widespread human infection." We are currently on phase 5 of their pandemic scale, meaning that human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region has been confirmed. Assuming it gets to full blown pandemic mode, the expected infection rate is 25-35% of world population.

6.77 billion humans x (25-35)% infection x 2.9% fatality = 49.1-68.7 million deaths worldwide

Let's hope that equation is very wrong.

And not to let potential tragedy go without some attempt at poorly timed humor, this may be the time to move to Madagascar. Or not.

Painting for Quality, part 1

I am publishing a four part article series on MyBattalion.com designed to take painters to a level higher than basic tabletop. Part 1 is there now. I plan on publishing one segment per week.

Let me know what you think!

Old Guy Update

Last week I experienced what some would call a "rite of passage" of aging. I got bifocals. At some point in the past I could have imagined not liking the idea, but I absolutely love these things! I can see again! It was getting hard to do much of anything up close with my glasses on, and my vision isn't clear for very far with them off. I have to retrain myself to not look over my glasses at near objects now.

By the way, did I mention I love my bifocals? I really do.

The only complaint I have is that I have to actually move my head to look at things. If I hold my head level and look at the floor using only eye-tilt the floor is somewhat blurry. It's disconcerting at first, but you adapt quickly. And I can see!

Social Networking for Gamers

Go sign up at mybattalion.com. I've been hot and cold about social networking in general, but I'm interested to see what a niche specific social network will produce. I've already discovered a local gaming club that plays regularly in the neighboring town, which was terribly difficult in the low signal to noise ratio environment of facebook.

Don't even get me started on myspace....

Working with Water Slide Decals

I've been thinking about decals lately, mostly due to having to paint so many Blood Ravens chapter symbols on my growing army. It's a bit of a pain to get them consistent, and somewhere along the line I had enough people ask me if they were decals to actually make me want to try decals.

The problem, as most of you who have tried to use decals on space marine shoulder pads know, is that flat decals don't sit well on aggressively curved surfaces. From various other tutorials around and about the interwebs I discovered "Micro Set" decal solution. Basically, it softens the decals so that you can smoosh them into position, more or less. Its counterpart, Micro Sol, is even more effective at softening. The fellow at the hobby store told me that if Micro Set does the job, then there's no need for Micro Sol. They were out of Micro Sol anyway, so I bought what they had. I've been testing it with decals on Mr. Missile Launcher here, and the results have been encouraging. Basically, you brush Micro Set on the shoulder, place the decal, then brush more Micro Set over the decal. A few minutes later the decal should be soft enough to tap down with a moist towel into some semblance of flat. I've had to make multiple passes with Micro Set over the highest part, so I might pick up a bottle of Micro Sol and see how that works.

After the first try I was surprised to see the first decal dry up and fall off the model! Maybe I wet it too long and it lost all its adhesive. For try #2 I put some matte varnish over the decal to try and "glue" it in place and hopefully obscure the edges a little. Big mistake! The varnish (Vallejo Game Color matte varnish) clouded the decal significantly. Spot testing the varnish elsewhere didn't cause the clouding. With the current run I wet the decal with a cloth from the back, hopefully retaining as much of the adhesive as possible.

Once I get these things to wrap around a should pad properly the next step is to print my own and see how they work. I bought a Testors decal printing kit (a paltry $10) and have been experimenting with the free image processing software Gimp to get exact measurement printing. Gimp 2.4 was terrible at it, but Gimp 2.6 is wonderful. Once I get a reasonable decal sheet of Blood Ravens icons I'll post them here. I'm a little concerned that the spray sealer that covers the printed decals will stand up to the rigors of Micro Set, but I'll find out in time.

Masking - No Salt Required

Salt masking has been all the rage lately, mostly thanks to giganticdark's amazing Space Marine. The technique requires multiple passes with a double action airbrush, which can be something of an inconvenience if you don't actually own one. This tutorial describes how to use a brush-on masking medium to achieve natural looking wear. This is a very basic tutorial, so please experiment and see how you can alter it to produce more complex effects. The key is this stuff: Vallejo Model Color Liquid Mask. It's a water soluble acrylic that dries to a gummy consistency like rubber cement. The key here is that when it's set it is easy to remove, revealing whatever color was under it.

Step 1: Deepest color. I started with a Rhino that I had basecoated Red Gore. To the area I planned on weathering I painted Reaper Shadowed Steel (basically boltgun.) Viewing the result, I think I would go with a brighter metallic next time, like Chainmail. After the steel dried I applied a very diluted wash of VGC Orange Fire, the brighter of their two oranges, to give the impression of corrosion. Let this coat dry thoroughly before continuing.

Step 2: Apply the mask. Put some of the mask on your pallete, pick a bit up with a coarse brush and then tap the mask lightly on the areas you want to reveal when the process is complete. Try to keep the pattern of application somewhat random while controlling where you want to wear to show most. It's much easier to see when dry, so don't be afraid to apply a little, let it dry, assess the pattern and then apply more as needed. I haven't tried this myself, but the "toothbrush spray" technique may work for random splatter patterns. Let the mask dry thoroughly before continuing.

Step 3: Match the base color. Paint over the mask and wear color with the base color again. I know I sound like a broken record on this, but multiple thin coats make for smooth paint jobs, not thick paint globbed on in one coat. Let each coat dry before applying the next, until the wear area roughly matches the rest of the paint color.

Step 4: Remove the mask. Use a colour shaper, pencil eraser, or a stiff brush that you have an irrational vendetta against and gently brush the mask off the area. It's gummy and will pill up, but it comes off eventually leaving the wear color from step 1 revealed. If you get it on a brush, soap will do a pretty good job of removing it.

That's it! A low sodium technique for natural looking wear. I'm sure this group can figure out interesting variations to get the most out of this. Show me!

My Level 18 Tourist has GDSM and Magicbane

This one comes from the "if you have to ask..." department.

I'm a long time fan of the game Nethack. Even before it was Nethack, I was busily souring my first stab at higher education playing its predecessor hack. It took me something like 17 years to win it for the first time. Yes, I kept coming back for that long, and I'm still coming back.

Currently, I have a very unlikely game going... a tourist in Gehennom with basically a full ascension kit in hand. I don't have the Book yet, but the Bell and the Candelabra are mine. As you can see from the screenshot, I have nearly every intrinsic. Currently, I am on a very low level (or high, depending on how you think of it) in a locked room doing the "cursed scroll of genocide" with nurses thing to gain max hit points. I still have two wands of wishing (wow didn't always mean World of Warcraft, kids!) that can be charged again with the Platinum Yendorian Express Card. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I may just ascend a tourist.

And for the uninitiated, GDSM is "gray dragon scale mail" and Magicbane is a unique artifact athame.

Blogger Tip: Wrapping Text Specific to Multiple Images

One thing I've struggled with in my blog is the ability to post multiple images and have text roughly aligned with each image. That way I can actually write about the image that's next to the text.

It's going to take some html changes. Don't be scared. You can do this.

If you don't know what html is, don't worry. It's the language that a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) uses to know where and how to put stuff on the page you are viewing. Html "tags" tell when to start and stop a particular format. The starts look like <this> and the stops look like </this>. Got it? Good, because you don't need to know any of this. Read on.

Here's the quick list of what we're going to do:

1. Load an image into the post
2. Add some text to go with the image
   
3. Add a snippet of html before the image
4. Add a snippet of html after the text

So start by composing a new blog entry and import an image into it. Just for grins at this point, click the "Edit Html" tab in the upper right of the compose window. The code for the image is a big scary block of html that starts with <a onblur="try... and ends with ...border="></a>. It should be about 5 or 6 lines total. Again, you don't need to understand it... you just need to be able to find the <a> at the end.
Okay, so switch back to "compose" mode (upper right tab) and add some text to the post. Now, switch back to "Edit Html." If you entered your text to the right of the image if should show up after the </a> part. That's good. That's what we want. Now find the end of your text. That should be pretty easy to do. Got it? Great. Guess what... we're half way there.

Okay, here's the fun part. Go back to the html and find the beginning of the image code again. Right before the <a paste this code:

<table style="border: medium none ;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100%">

Good, now go to the end of your text and paste this code in:

</td></tr></tbody></table>

Good. Now go back to "compose" mode and look at it. Okay, so it's not so impressive.... yet. The trick of this is that those code blocks can be repeated to get the text to stay with the relevant image. Each separate picture and the associated text is surrounded by its own "table" tag. This way, the browser knows to keep them separate. The post immediately below this one is a good example of two pictures with associated text.

Here is the updated post html, the parts I added are red. Since there are two pictures there are two "table" tags included, as you can see below:

<table style="border: medium none ;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100%"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSWLwihwZWVfFdR_DapsP5f3wDUbiWr0t_LeV3-g3a2OUf4G1rmRD4IKmcPON4WyrOjBmpKTtJaUArTPHFxwFUTVYixn_o_DVPgv6ohDcla-fUPls9GS7GQd6T3AbyvYzoGIM/s1600-h/wip1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 243px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSWLwihwZWVfFdR_DapsP5f3wDUbiWr0t_LeV3-g3a2OUf4G1rmRD4IKmcPON4WyrOjBmpKTtJaUArTPHFxwFUTVYixn_o_DVPgv6ohDcla-fUPls9GS7GQd6T3AbyvYzoGIM/s320/wip1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319591784571512354" border="0" /></a>Hmm. The title sounds like "Kibbles and Bits"... Menites and Kans, Menites and Kans, I'm gonna get me some Menites and Kans.

But anyhoo.... I converted a Killa Kan from various bits, and I think he turned out okay. Meet Stompy and Chompy. I think the rationale behind Chompy's name is self evident, and of course Stompy is up on one leg. The third in the set is tentatively named "Clyde," named for the ghost in Pac-man who broke the rhyming pattern. I don't know what Clyde will be, but he won't be a stock Kan. Anyone care to share ideas?</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table style="border: medium none ;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100%"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW7BKuVUUoiBG7FlpdUc-sMU92_6vsgFNQ1TWwqvwK2Of2xQ15z646NKEKaUf3IGz8KIAMx1wIIQrIGlthF-fFf8TMl-9BnL5ykODbw4rvj02tffVjuXqF2gvsgNcR2wvpwfzL/s1600-h/wip1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW7BKuVUUoiBG7FlpdUc-sMU92_6vsgFNQ1TWwqvwK2Of2xQ15z646NKEKaUf3IGz8KIAMx1wIIQrIGlthF-fFf8TMl-9BnL5ykODbw4rvj02tffVjuXqF2gvsgNcR2wvpwfzL/s320/wip1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319593172141889330" border="0" /></a>Also up are some models from the game Warmachine. I play the "Protectorate of Menoth" faction, and I absolutely love the models in this game. I have a standing challenge for a 500 point fully-painted game around May 1, so I'm planning what models need painting. My opponent will almost assuredly field Khador, so I'm in for a first-class whuppin'.</td></tr></tbody></table>

That's it! Go to town and let me know if it works/doesn't work for you or if you've found a better method to accomplish this.

On the table: Menites and Kans

Hmm. The title sounds like "Kibbles and Bits"... Menites and Kans, Menites and Kans, I'm gonna get me some Menites and Kans. But anyhoo.... I converted a Killa Kan from various bits, and I think he turned out okay. Meet Stompy and Chompy. I think the rationale behind Chompy's name is self evident, and of course Stompy is up on one leg. The third in the set is tentatively named "Clyde," named for the ghost in Pac-man who broke the rhyming pattern. I don't know what Clyde will be, but he won't be a stock Kan. Anyone care to share ideas?

Also up are some models from the game Warmachine. I play the "Protectorate of Menoth" faction, and I absolutely love the models in this game. I have a standing challenge for a 500 point fully-painted game around May 1, so I'm planning what models need painting. My opponent will almost assuredly field Khador, so I'm in for a first-class whuppin'.

My First Eight!!!

Since I discovered CoolMiniOrNot way back in '05 I have had the singular goal of getting an 8.0 score on one of my minis. Today I looked at my gallery and realized that I had one! The duel entry from Chicago Games Day '08 had been hovering in the high 7's for ages, but today it's at 8.0.

So why would this make me so happy? The miniature isn't any better looking at 8.0 than it was at 7.8. It still didn't win a trophy. I think the big deal is that I've always defined 8 as the "great" range for minis on CMON. To think that about 100 people think my mini is (on average) "great" is an encouragement. Golden Demon is a tough competition. To even think about competing against the likes Chris Borer, James Wappel and Vincent Hudon takes some cajones. It's easy to get discouraged, especially competing in categories like 40k single model.

The simple plan: Keep painting. Get better. Win a silver. Win a gold. Win a sword.

...someday

The Dollar Store = Kitbash Heaven

I have a confession to make... I'm frugal. Okay, maybe cheap is the right word. Either way, I've discovered in the past couple years how great the dollar store is for kitbash raw materials.

In case the term is new to you, kitbashing is taking something and disassembling/destroying it to get at its core components, then using those components to make something else. The toy section is especially handy, since a lot of the items have similar scale to wargaming. My BattleWagon shown here is a kitbash of a garden variety GW Ork Trukk, a dollar store steam roller toy and a dollar store Hummer Limo toy. Other bits from older GW models plus some styrene (used gift cards) were used as well. The big shootas in the front were originally the exhaust stacks from the steamroller.

The other Dollar Store item I really like is clocks. For only a dollar you get a wealth of cool gubbins like gears and springs and clear plastic disks. For Orks, all those fiddly little gears look great. I even used some broken gears to base my Grand Scrutator Severius last night.

Other Dollar Store items you might find useful:

• laser pointer (true LOS!)
• hobby paint brushes (for glue mostly)
• craft sticks (tongue depressor sized or smaller) for wooden planks
• plastic shot glasses for mixing 2-part epoxy
• steel cookie sheets for carrying magnetized models
• basing material (small rocks, spices, etc.)

Three Fails

1. Failed my "job" roll
My application that was supposed to go into production today wasn't correct. I'm scrambling to finish it now.

2. Failed my "parenting" roll
My five year old had been telling us that his pre-school class does "show and tell" so he had to bring something, typically a toy dear to him. It turns out that his class does no such thing, and this was just a sly attempt to take his favorite toys to school. The fact that it took three weeks for us to find out is the embarrassing part. Nice one, Jay.

3. Failed my "40k gaming" roll
I played a substitute game of 40k Saturday for a friend who had to cancel on someone. It was a 1500 point game vs. Space Marines. Since my friend plays Orks I took Orks too. The list I faced was that Salamanders character (Vulcan?) to 10 marine squads in rhinos, three Dreadnoughts, Three Predators (AC, 2xHB) and three Land Speeders. Ouch. I got destroyed. Granted, I had to scrounge to get to 1500 points, I've never played Orks before and I've never actually won a game of 40k, but I was still the optimist! Once he had nine kills points to my 3 we called it, roughly the end of turn 4. In honor of my Warboss' crushing defeat in the unstoppable grip of his Dreadnought I am painting my opponent a Warboss head to place under the foot of his Dread. In fact, I should pledge some sort of hobby favor for any loss I incur.

Wait, maybe I should make the "plain, blue police box" I owe someone first... (yes, I mean you.)

Imperial Fists Land Raider Redeemer WIP 1

This one has been on the shelf for a few months awaiting completion, and I think I'm going to get it done this week. I don't know how I would have done this without an airbrush. Seriously, I'm on at least coat 10 of yellow on the multimelta gunner and it's only now starting to look reasonably smooth. One of the goals for this one was a painted interior, so I ended up painting in the middle of assembly. That was a new experience, but I think it turned out well.

This is headed for eBay fairly soon. I made Chronus and the gunner removeable so you don't have to field them if you don't want. The final piece will include an "on-foot" Chronus in addition to the Chronus shown in the pic, both converted to Imperial Fists.

If anyone is seriously interested in purchasing this before it goes on the block, shoot me an email.

Take Cover! Final

Facing superior firepower and running low on ammunition, this Blood Raven waits for the right moment to unleash boltgun fire on the enemies of the Emperor. I wanted to convey a sense that the cover was insufficient compared to the enemy, and hopefully the big glowing hole in the rock says that clearly enough. I think this is the final product. Unless I find something glaringly wrong with it tomorrow then this is it. Thanks to all of you who suggested improvements. I really appreciate the feedback. It's interesting to note the difference in his right leg in terms of delineation of the kneepad, the lack of which was pointed out by Wienas. Both photos were taken in a light box with no direct light sourcing, and the darklining around the kneepad is far more visible in one pic than in the other. I'm guessing the camera was going through a little "red freak out" trying to figure out how to capture this. I didn't put the scorch marks Lord suggested, as I had envisioned that he wasn't right there when the hole was blasted in the rock.

Special thanks to Felix for the photography tips. These pics were f3.1 1/15 sec ISO 50. This is the first time I've been able to use the light box without pointing a light right into it. You, sir, rock.

The OSL was about as simple as it could be. I mixed some orange paint in with a great deal of P3 mixing medium and glazed it on in very transparent layers. It's pretty effective visually for the amount of effort. Damage on the shoulder pad is thin lines/spots of Reaper Bone Shadow with thin lines of skull white underneath. The key to thin lines is dilute paint and controlled brushload. Too thick and the paint gets chunky as you paint. If you pick up too much thinned paint on the brush it beads up or flows on the mini.

Like it? Give it a score on CoolMiniOrNot! http://www.coolminiornot.com/216976

Take Cover: Almost Complete!

Nearly done! Almost every part of the mini got some work tonight, with only the boltgun and chapter symbol as big "to do" items before Friday night. I'm going to complete this one!

The armor was highlighted with VGC Blood Red, glazed on rather than hard edge highlighted. The shading for the armor was VGC Night Blue / VGC Red Gore. Using a blue in the shading layer is something Jeremie Bonamant Teboul discussed in his painting seminar in Chicago in 2007. I took some notes on it, and he posted them on his site.

The damage to the armor is Reaper Honed Steel (roughly GW Chainmail, but a bit more blue) tapped on, then black edges along the top of the damage. I then used red gore again to touch up the black to more controlled areas, then selectively glazed with GW Terracotta to soften the area and give the subtle impression of rust. The face is washed with Ogryn Flesh, then re-highlighted with P3 Midlund flesh and shaded with VGC dark fleshtone. The stones were based with Foundation Charadon Granite, then washed with several different washes to give a non-homogenous look. The glowing damage is skull white at the center and layered through yellow to orange to dark red.

Okay! I'll post final pics when I get this fellow completed!

My Photography Setup

As my CoolMiniOrNot gallery amply demonstrates, I've struggled with how to photograph minis for some time. I've read so many articles on the subject that I can't even remember if I'm doing what they say to do or what they say to avoid.

Whether it works well or not, here's what I'm currently using. It's a cheap and easy method if you have never tried mini photography before.

The white box thingy is a 12" photo light tent I purchased from Amvona on eBay. It's collapsible, but I never collapse it. It came with a few colored inserts, but I like just picking pieces of felt or using a printed paper with a color gradient as the background. The lights are an Ott light (on the right) and a cheap desk lamp with a compact fluorescent bulb from the dollar store on the left. The price difference is extreme, but the light quality difference is negligible. Seriously. The thing in front of the tent is a piece of foam from a Sabol army transport with a notch cut in it for my camera. Yes, I use a piece of foam as my tripod. My camera is a Casio Exilim 7.2Mp. It's a nice little camera and it wasn't terribly expensive.

So to take the actual pics, I set the camera to "macro" focus mode (for close up things) and set the self timer to 2 seconds. I shine the lights into the tent (at an angle, shown in the photo) and position the mini, then put the camera on the foam support. I elevate the camera if needed (seen in the photo is a small box under the foam to raise it up a bit.) Press the shutter button and get your hand out of there. Two seconds is enough time for the shaking from the button press to be absorbed by the foam, so the pics come out fairly clear.

After the pic is taken, I use Gimp (free image processing software) to clip and sometimes alter the image for color levels.

Take Cover! Step 1: Basecoating

Tonight was priming and the most basic basecoating. Getting a consistent color as your base makes everything else so much easier. Even with Citadel Foundation paints you should use more than one coat. Do not be tempted to put the paint on thicker to get better coverage. Thicker paint dries unevenly, and the acrylic binder creates a rough texture. You really want to be painting as close to the original surface as possible. Paint should not be used as gap filler!

So, colors.... VGC = Vallejo Game Colors (a brand of paint)

Primer: Rust-o-leum gray automotive primer. This stuff behaves better than any primer from a miniature company I've ever used, and it's only $4 a spray can.

Foundation "Mechrite Red" for the armor. The initial coat had a purplish twinge that I see a lot with thinned out reds. Just keep laying on thin coats and the real color will develop.

Reaper Master Series "Bone Shadow" for the shoulder pads, purity seals and chest icon. It's a bit less yellow then GW's Graveyard Earth, and I really like the bone color combo of Bone Shadow, VGC Khaki, VGC Bonewhite, Reaper Linen White.

VGC Black.... chaos black? I don't know. The label rubbed off the bottle.

GW Foundation "Calthan Brown" for the ground on the base.

GW Foundation "Tallarn Flesh" for the skin. Again, multiple layers were very important here.

Now that I have a good base to work from I'll try and get some highlight/shade done tomorrow. This thing has to be done by Friday night at 11:59 PM or no possibility of Blood Ravens swag for me!

Modeling Complete... Painting Next!

My entry for the "take cover" contest is coming along quite nicely, if I do say so. It looks almost exactly like I envisioned it looking before painting began.

And now it's time to paint.


Couple more things.... my friend with the legal problems mentioned in a previous post got an adjournment of his sentencing. Basically, he hired a new attorney and there were so many things not quite normal about his trial that the judge is delaying sentencing by a month to give his new attorney time to act on all the issues.

Last thing: children + keyboard = broken keyboard. My space bar only works from the left hand side now. The right hand side is stuck in such a way that it won't depress correctly. No fewer than nine different children have used this computer at some point since it's purchase, so I'm not terribly surprised that something like this would eventually happen.

Switching Gears and Taking Cover

I've put my own army on hold for the rest of the week so I can power through an entry for the "Take Cover!" painting competition over at The Painting Corps. Since the subject of the competition is Blood Ravens, I don't see how I can pass this up. The theme is cover, and I found myself repositioning a marine to get the most dramatic pose possible. I'm hoping I can take this from vision to product in less than a week. The contest time frame was a month, but I just found out about it. I suppose I should have some sense of hush-hush about what I'm doing, but it someone out there can see what I'm doing and do it better than me in less than a week then they deserve to win.

I worked on the Librarian some more too. He's coming along nicely but I see more and more and more areas I need to fix on him. He's really going to take a long time tweaking the little details. I'll probably get him to the 95% mark and call it good for now, which actually means call it good forever.

Terminator Librarian WIP and thoughts on salt masking

I've been a big fan of this mini since GW first released it, and now I'm finally painting it! Like everything else I've done lately he's Blood Ravens. I will get to 1500!

I'm not sure I really like the face yet. I was going for a strange glow effect with completely white eyes, but I can't tell if it looks other-wordly or just unnatural. Thoughts?

I tried something new for the bone coloration, which is on the chest emblem and head crest. Instead of Bleached Bone (or VGC Bonewhite) I went with a mix of VGC Khaki mixes with a little Reaper linen white. Final highlights are entirely linen white. The highlights on the red sash is a mix of red gore and reaper leather white. Reaper has such an interesting line of white variants, and I love the way they interact with other colors.

I've been following giganticdark's WIP thread on the CoolMiniOrNot forum, and it's been amazing. One of the techniques that I'd like to try is the salt masking, but I think I'm going to develop a variant using Vallejo masking medium. Maybe if I toothbrush spray the masking onto the mini then glaze over the dried mask it will have roughly the same effect as the salt mask. Since I don't like to haul out the airbrush a lot (and especially because Ann Marie is probably going to want her airbrush back one of these days) I'd like to come up with a similar effect that can be brushed on.

Dreadnought w/ TL Autocannons

I've had a thing lately for converting vehicle weapons from the new Space Marine codex that don't have any official bitz available locally. Sorry for the pic. I should have taken it mid-conversion with better light.

In any case, the new Dreadnought can replace the Multi-Melta arm with a twin-linked Autocannon, and another option to to replace the Dreadnought close combat weapon arm with a twin-linked Autocannon. Of course I thought, "what if I replace both arms with TL AC's!" The Black Reach Dread is inexpensive enough to chop up without the twinge of "I just chopped a $40 model up" regret that comes with modding the regular Dread.

The conversion is a few Woodland Scenics styrene tubes (3/32" and 5/32") nested to make the barrels. The Multi-Melta arms had an obvious place to attach the autocannon. For the CCW arm, cut off the CCW and glue a bit of the cut off Multi-Melta barrel to the front of the arm at the same location as the other arm. Use some epoxy putty to build up the arm to the same general shape as the other arm. Privateer Press' P3 modeling putty cures harder than green stuff, and can be filed to the crisp lines that look good in applications like this. I can't remember where the ammo boxes on the outside came from... just regular rhino/razorback accessory sprue I think. I filed off the hinges to try and make it look more like a magazine and less like "box glued to the side of an arm." By the way, I use these same tubes to make Ork Big Shootas by drilling holes in the larger tubes as cooling, and putting the smaller diameter tubes inside as the barrel. It looks pretty good, and will give some of my deffcoptas a different weapon option.

So back to the Dread... other than looking a little too much like a Macross Defender Destroid, what good is this thing? It gets four shots, twin linked, with 48" range. With BS4 and twin linked you aren't going to miss much. With a Venerable's BS5 you are pretty much never going to miss (okay, well, you'll miss 1 in 36 shots statistically.) So what are four S7 AP4 shots good for? The only thing that comes to mind is Ork Nobs in heavy armor. Wounding on a 2+ with no armor save... but they'd still get a "feel no pain" roll if they had a Dok in the unit. A Predator might take a glancing hit or two. A Dread will probably take at least a glancing hit. Against heavy infantry I don't think autocannons would be as effective as an assault cannon. Both wound on 2+ against T4 and assault cannons get rending.

So... now that I have the thing converted, what should I use it against?

Devastator Squad in Rhino - worth it?

I've been contemplating this for a few days... would it be worth parking a Devastator squad in a Rhino for protection?

Pros:

• Rhino's armor of 11 makes them impervious to bolter fire.
• Possibility of 12" emergency move if needed
• Repair possible if Rhino immobilized
  
• Vehicle and squad can target independently
• Not significantly expensive (cheaper than extra marine + heavy bolter)
• Potential for two Storm Bolters
• Likely that entire squad would survive vehicle exploding

Cons:

• Only two models can shoot from fire points
• Points could be spent on additional long range weapons
• High strength fire magnet

So for a mere 175 points you get 5 Devastators with 2 missile launchers in a Rhino armed with two Storm Bolters and a Hunter Killer missile. For that same cost you could get a 5 Devastator squad with 2 Lascannons and a missile launcher.

Have you done this? How did it work for you?

Golden Demon Completion Meters!

They're back! I decided to improve them a little this year with a bit of JavaScript. For your technological edification I present it here. It could be easily inserted into Blogger or probably any other. Feel free to use/steal as you see fit. Just remember your old pal Mike when you're rich and famous!

Next up: more Blood Ravens!

Games Day: No Atlanta? No L.A.?!

Maybe I'm the last person to realize this.... on GW's Community and Events page for Games Day, only Chicago, Baltimore and Toronto are listed for Games Day 2009. At first I was thinking, "They'll probably add the other two later" until I saw this sentence:

There will be three Games Days in North America this year, one in Baltimore, Toronto, and Chicago.

That's it. Only three. No more Atlanta. No more Baltimore. Plus, the tickets are now $25 with the option to buy the exclusive miniature for another $15. Between lower ticket costs and fewer venues I can only come to the conclusion that Games Day attendance has been weak. Chicago seemed lighter in 2008 than it did in 2007, but that may be because I wasn't quite so overwhelmed by newbishness in 2008. I also wonder about the geography of the Games Day locations. Sure I'm glad Chicago is still hosting, but what are people in CA going to do? Or FL? Or WA?

What I'm really hoping is that this is not evidence of deep financial problems at GW. I like GW's miniatures and I like their games. I'm not fond of everything they do as a company, but I don't want them to go bankrupt that's for sure.

DIY Sternguard Veterans

I have a unit of Sternguard Veterans in my April challenge list. I own the new Sternguard models from the Space Marine Spearhead, but I decided to convert/paint some from existing plastics rather than paint the metal models. The primary reason was that I didn't want a power fist in the unit and wanted both a combi-melta and a combi-plasma. The combi weapons from the Space Marine Commander box work very well for this. Just clip a left hand from a standard tactical marine arm (you should have tons of these) and glue it to the hole where the Black Reach marine bolter/hand bit pegs in. The commander's combi weapons have the right hand included, and it works well on the Black Reach models. I'll post pics of that as I continue.

In the photo I have a standard tactical marine (speed painted for a "Black Reach in Four Weeks" contest) and the same model as a Sternguard Vet. In addition to the white helmet, the right shoulderpad has a Rosarius icon from the Terminator sprue to indicate his veteran status and a gold plate on his bolter. The lighting washed out the gold more than I would have liked.

Modeling a Mark 1 "Stronos" Razorback

Ever since I read the new Razorback options in the new Codex: Space Marines I've been wanting to model one of these. Since this is supposedly the oldest Razorback variant I wanted to make it look a bit different than the box kit looks. I had modified a Razorback to be lascannon / heavy bolter interchangeable, so making the Mark 1 turret was just a matter of building a small "cap" of styrene to fit on the turret mount. Since I had already removed the elevation pins from the mount, this was fairly easy.

The lascannon is a Predator sponson lascannon, and the plasmaguns are just Marine hand held guns with the stocks removed and enough of the bottoms cut flush so I could easily glue them together. The optics on top are from a Land Raider Crusader hurricane bolter. The conduits in the front are from the original twin-linked lascannon that comes with the Razorback. I had trimmed mine down as part of the interchangeable conversion.

I can't wait to try this out in battle against some foul traitors!

Hooray for AB40k.org !

If you've never tried ArmyBuilder, I recommend you do. It eases the creation of army lists for GW products immensely. It's primary strength/weakness is that it relies heavily upon a user community committed to creating the data files that allow legal lists to be created. The initial purchase of ArmyBuilder comes with a finite timeframe license in which the softwrae will automatically detect that updates are available for the games data files you have installed. After that you either renew or download them manually. I have chosen to let me license expire and install manually.

Enter the good folks at ab40k.org, who faithfully produce a data file for 40k each time a new codex/rules edition is released. Yesterday they released version 1.01a of their 40k 5th edition data file. I just want to thank them publicly for all the work they put into the product.

Dangerously Close to 1500 pts Painted

The current challenge recently written about is actually closer than I had previously thought. After making a 1500 point list, I compared what I had painted to what I planned to field, and they aren't that different. I had forgotten how much I painted of the Assault on Black Reach box.

1500 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Blood Ravens

Painted:
HQ: Space Marine Chaplain (jump pack, plasma pistol)
HQ: Space Marine Captain (terminator armor, power weapon, storm bolter, hellfire rounds)
Elite: Dreadnought (heavy flamer, multimelta)
Elite: Terminator Squad (3 x power fist/storm bolter b, sergeant w/ power weapon/storm bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (7 x bolter, 1 x missile launcher)
Troops: Tactical Squad (7 x bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (sergeant w/ bolt pistol, chainsword)
Fast Attack: Assault Squad (4 x bolt pistol, chainsword)

Need to paint:
Elite: Terminator Squad (1 x power fist /storm bolter + cyclone missile launcher)
Troops: Tactical Squad (1 x meltagun, 1 x plasmagun, 1 x heavy bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (finish sergeant w/ pf/bpistol in previous post)
Fast Attack: Assault Squad (Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs; Storm Shield; Power Fist)

2 x Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Land Raider Redeemer w/ multimelta, storm bolter

Army Total: 32 infantry, 4 vehicles

Painted: 26 infantry, 1 vehicle
To Paint: 6 infantry, 3 vehicles

That's it? 6 infantry and 3 vehicles? Could this possibly mean I'm going to get 1500 points on the table painted for the first time ever? ... don't hold your breath.

Flash Kraken - Complete!

Okay, goal #1 for Open Source Flash development is complete.
Behold a single SWF file that shows a picture and plays a song when you click the play button. It will take a minute to load, since it's 6MB or so.

I used swfmill to capture the assets in a swf file, then compiled onto that using the FAME combo. Big thanks go to Kevin of http://open-actionscript.blogspot.com/ for providing the resources for the button logic. Flash can be a little esoteric for the traditional C programmer sometimes.

Source, including assets and xml file for swfmill here.

Blood Ravens veteran WIP... I painted!

After a four month hiatus, I have painted! He's not done, and I think he looks better in person than in the unforgiving context of macro photography. All in all, not bad for an evening of painting.

The important thing is... I painted. And I enjoyed it.

My friend Mark and I have a 1500 point game lined up for sometime in the future. Basically as soon as we each get 1500 painted we're going to roll dice. I've never had 1500 points of my own models painted in my life, so we'll see what happens.

Today is the Day I Paint

I've been away from painting for a while. During my little mental hiatus I just had no desire to pick up a brush. In fact I remember picking up the 40k rulebook at one point during the whole ordeal and asking myself, "Why do people consider this fun again?" The last time I painted something was October 23, 2008.

Even though I am feeling a lot better I still have not started painting again. I really want to, but I can't seem to decide on how to actually start. Last night I dug through a bunch of miniatures just to figure out what to paint. I didn't actually decide, since the hunt turned into an exhaustive search for a box containing particular Space Marine sprues which I may have taken to work. The end result is that I've gone through just about every miniature I own and today I am going to paint something. I need to get a brush in my hand again. It's been too long.

I will post results here. Please verbally abuse me if I do not. The internet is my accountability group.

Micheal != Michael

What kind of idiot misspells his own name, you ask? This one. I just corrected my name in the (c) footer of this page. I am Michael, not Micheal.

In other news, I was at work until 2:30 AM last night trying to dig myself out of the volume of work I had committed to. I think I might be over-promising lately, but I've always struggled with that.

Next up: fully painted armies and fantastic games programmed in Flash! Plus advanced degrees and career upgrades, martial arts ranks, self-employment and ... well, you get the idea.

That Crucial Moment

There are few experiences in life that can rival awaiting the reading of a jury verdict. I got that experience Wednesday as I sat in a courtroom with a friend whose fate lay in the hands of a jury of his peers. For days we had heard testimony and arguments. Sure, I was biased by friendship and the experiences of knowing this person for the last four or so years, but even imagining myself as an impartial listener the evidence seemed so strong for the defense and the prosecution witnesses contradicted each other repeatedly.

The court officer called us back into the courtroom.
heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat
The jury oozed into the courtroom in slow motion.
heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat
The foreman of the jury stood.
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Guilty.

It's like getting punched in the gut with a pillow. Guilty.
The feeling is utterly helpless. My mind was frantically racing for some way to change what was happening, all the time knowing I couldn't. Wake up. Go back. That didn't happen. Guilty.

I sat there not sure what to do. It's over, but as long as I sit here it's not really over, is it? The sentencing date was set and the next case on the docket began and I was still sitting there.

Even now I still have that sudden urge to change things somehow, knowing I can't. I feel helpless. I couldn't stop it. I can't stop it. It's going to happen. I can feel my stomach clench at the thought. I know it wasn't me in the defendant's chair, but it feels like I was.

It feels like I still am.