Is that an Earthquake? Nope just an OGRE Pt.2!

It has been a very fortuitous month for my hobby life!  I received the limited edition Chaos War Alter off the Oldhammer Facebook group.  The Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter arrived as well as a dice one that I supported.  Then this morning there was a thunderous thud at the front door.  Well actually the postman did a heck of a job sneaking up and dropping off the box on the front porch.  My wife commented around noon that there was something out there and to my pleasant surprise I found this!

 Well it was an easy guess as to it contents.

The Ogre 2nd Kickstarter arrived and all I can say is WOW! What a beast of a box full of miniatures.

These miniatures were on the top of the box, 4 complete sets of the 2nd Kickstarter.

In addition there is a complete set of both Kickstarter miniatures underneath the pile of plastic.

I've always been a big fan of the game, I have a 2nd (or maybe 3rd?) edition, pocket box version of the game that saw me through a rough time in high school with a knee blowout and surgery.

I am pumped and can't wait to get these and the 1st Kickstarter set out and get them painted up.  Oh I can feel that twitch to drop the current chaos warriors project and jump into this one.  I must fight it!

The feature pieces of this set are the Mk IV and the PanEuro Fencer with both turret options.

I'm also looking forward to the 3rd Kickstarter which I believe is slated to have at least a Mk VI in it.

Concluding a 40 year Quest!

It has finally happened.  I fought my Adult ADD and actually completed a project, or maybe better put an obsession.  I have finally completed my White Dwarf collection.  Let me put some qualifiers on that.  First I'm referring to what I call the complete first run of the White Dwarf.  This is the one that started in back in 1977 and ran as a monthly publication to January of 2014 in the States when it then changed to a short lived weekly publication until returning to the monthly format.

Qualifier number two, while I have pictured WD #1 here I don't actually own issues 1-10, just copies.  Due to my frugal nature, or plan old cheapness, I refuse to pay the ridiculous amounts for these early issues.  I guess I'm not that obsessed after all!  If someday I happen upon those first ten issues at a reasonable price I'll certainly pick them up but until then I can live with my printed internet copies.

Why this nearly 40 year quest?  This wonderful little magazine was my gateway into Games Workshop, Citadel Miniatures, and the hobby in general.  The early issues of the magazine were actually dedicated to RPG industry and featured articles on everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Tunnels and Trolls to RuneQuest to Games Workshop titles like Golden Heros, Judge Dredd, and eventually Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer Fantasy Role Play.

What current gamers might not realize is how scarce actual brick and mortar stores were back in the day.  The RPG/Wargaming industry was just evolving and not as readily accessible as it is today.  You had to buy them wherever you could find them or via mail order.  And I don't mean via mail as in find it from a Internet vendor I mean look through the mail order ads in the back of a magazine.  I got my first RPG, the boxed D&D Beginners Set, at a very unlikely place.  The Spencer Gifts in the mall!

I also had some occasional luck at the B Daltons or Walden bookstores but they never carried much stock.

I was fortunate enough to have a few options here in Ohio, the first of which was my favorite haunt as a kid, the Tin Soldier down in the Dayton area.  I used to beg m parents to take me down there and I would spend hours flipping through the miniature blisters on the walls or sit on the floor right next to the magazine rack reading the latest issue of White Dwarf or Citadel Compendium or Citadel Journal.  Once I hit 16 and acquired an old beater car I was able to expand my options and often ventured to Columbus to visit the Drowsy Dragon a great little shop on the east side.

I was off to college, close enough to still visit Columbus occasionally.  And then I landed my first job in Cleveland.  I had a job and disposable income.  I found myself in the middle of the Golden Age of Citadel Miniatures with money and a hobby shop less than 3 miles away in Brecksville!   Emerald Games if I remember correctly.  Besides buying way more lead than I could ever paint, I was finally able to get a subscription to the White Dwarf and that is when this little journey began around issue 117.

I carried the subscription from the late 80's well into the 2000's until the price versus return on investment just didn't work for me anymore.  Content steady went down hill from general RPG coverage to becoming a GWS in-house rag.  I didn't mind the in-house shift at first since it was still rich with content.  

Background articles, full army lists, scenarios, Eavy Metal spreads, and the occasional template for a card house or vehicle modification, I still enjoyed it.  But later the cost versus what I was actually getting out of it seemed to diminish to the point where I dropped it altogether.  I had young kids and just couldn't justify it anymore.

This was about the time I lost interest in the hobby, again with young kids my free time seemed to be at a high premium and painting just didn't seem to make the to do list.  One thing that did keep me connected was the opening of the Half Price Books chain in Columbus which had not only old games but also the occasional White Dwarf back issue.  And these went cheap, I mean really cheap as in 50 cents tops and often I could get a stack of 10-20 mags for a dollar.  I was ecstatic when I stumbled upon them.  

I started to fill in my collection and slowly over years of effort I arrived to the point where I only had 4 issues left to acquire.  While I have purchased a few off eBay when the price was right I generally stayed away from this source since I felt they were often over priced.  I did find a 4 pack that had 3 of the missing souls for my collection and grabbed it.  

At that point it hit me, the brass ring is right there!  I can see it, heck I can even smell it!  I departed from my conventional wisdom of buying on the cheap and grabbed the remaining issue off eBay.

It arrived today, still in the shrink warp.   And it finally sunk in as I held it in my hands.  It was over.  I relate the drive to collect the back issues over the years to the scene of Pinto in Animal House with the little devil on his shoulder tell him to do all those inappropriate things to his passed out date.  

My crazy little voice would coax, encourage, even demand that I go check a book store or try just one more location.  That voice was gone.  I didn't hear it anymore!  While I was happy to have the last piece and have that complete collection I also felt a bit sad.  It sounds crazy but that search actually gave purpose to my many trips to used book store.  Now don't worry I haven't totally lost it,  There are no plans to lock my self in my hobby cave and disconnect from the real world but I will miss that excitement of checking the magazine areas for a missing back issue.  Knowing myself pretty well I am sure that I will find a replacement quest for that little guy in red to take up and encourage me to complete!

Yeah, baby yeah! Mojo is back

Title says it all, my paint mojo has found its way back!  And all it took was a couple of new acquisitions.  First group came in a package the other day.

Hmm, wonder what this could be?  Something from across the pond?

It is always fun when you get a package in the mail, it actually happens more often now a days than when I was a kid with the advent of Amazon and online shopping.  But I still get a charge even though I knew this one was coming.  Tim from Diehard sent out the heads up email a week or so ago.  I have to say that Tim and Diehard do a great job with their Kickstarter campaigns.

I went light with this one, I was feeling guilty at the time about all my unpainted lead so I kept the order small.  I added some SF robots and undead.  I definitely feel a SF wave of painting coming on with this group and some remaining space frogs I picked up from an earlier Diehard Kickstarter. 

The more important pick up was this little foursome.

I was in a funk and decided to grab some new paints from a local hobby shop.  I have to be honest I loved Citadel paints back in the day but lately I felt that they were a bit over priced.  That and I've had a heck of a time following the new developments in their paint system.

Well that came to an end when the local hobby shop owner suggested that I try the GWS paint app.  What a great suggestion!  It quickly educated me on what I needed to buy.  I haven't used the full base/layer/shade/dry/edge system that Citadel is currently marketing but I really liked my first experience.

With a couple of pots of new paint I had to break out a brush and put down some paint.  I painted up some brass on several of the figures and used the new dry brush paint to do hit some edges and high spots.  Picture isn't that great so more detailed one in a future post when they are further along.  Lets hope this train keeps on rolling.

In between bursts of painting I also did some work on the War Rig for Gaslands/Car Wars/Dark Future adding a few bits and pieces as well as a front plow.  I just need to pick up some diamond tread plate and corrugated plastic card next weekend to wrap it up.  It is getting closer to being ready for paint.

Looking for inspiration! Collecting and Building.

So I seem to have fallen off the blogging map, life seems to get in the way of my hobby effort occasionally.  We took a vacation in late April and that combined with a busy couple of months at work seem to have sent my painting mojo askew.  I don't seem to be able to get it back on track quite yet so I focused on some other aspects of the hobby; collecting and building.

While we were in Texas visiting my oldest I made my obligatory run at the used book stores in the area, predominately Half Price Books which started in the Dallas area.  I was not disappointed!

I managed to find 2 White Dwarf back issued I'm missing!  I'm down to just 3 issues left on the original monthly run from 1-407.  If anyone has US issues 373, 374, or 377 to sell or trade please let me know!  I'd then be able to put this obsessive quest of mine to bed!  I was also able to replace my missing Baen Books version of The Hobbit that I was bemoaning about having misplaced in an earlier post.

I also picked up a copy of Gaslands off Amazon which inspired me to do some more Hotwheels modifications!  First up is a Wasteland dune buggy that gets a little spikey treatment.

Not much modification here other than the ram addition.  I did toss a spare wheel in the back since I covered the one in the hood up with the ram modifications.  Next up is the start of the war rig!  This looks like the start of a fun ride!

This is the twin to my cheap Walmart semi-rig cut up for a Wasteland look.  The engine and frame are from a Hot Wheels Hauler line firetruck.

I had to cut the engine away from the pump unit and reverse the exhaust to better line up with the direction of the blowers on the twin engines.

The wheels are from some McDonald's happy meal monster trucks while the card stock modifications are actually old credit card/gift cards that I have stumbled across unpacking items.  As I started to toss them I realized that they would make great plastic card stock to use in making these conversions.  I do need to pick up some plastic diamond tread and corrugated sheets and some structural members the next time I'm close to a railroad hobby shop.  This is still in the very early stages so far.  More progress pictures to come.

"Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck and I'm about to put the hammer down." More Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands WIP

Yes you knew I was going to eventually quote something from Convoy!   I contemplated   painting the tractor blue but decided to go a different route and try green.

Here is a early WIP shot of the tractor.  Weapons will be blacked and then metaled up. The turrets for the top of the trailer and for the top of the box truck are right below
 

Here is a later one with a bit more detail work on the cab, by no means finished.  I have some clean up to do, the ink wanted to wander outside of the panel lines for some reason.

This is a shot of the trailer and magnitized weapon turrets.

Lastly, the box truck which I decided on grey as the main color.  Not sure if I will use a secomdary.  It can use the above turrets as well.  It has a single weappons spot while the semi trailer has two.

While I had the green out I decided to block out some color on the Chaos Warrior project as well.  Thats it for now.

I’m seeing double! More Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands cars

I wanted to do something a little different for the second round of cars. As I rummaged through my (or better put my sons’) piles of Hotwheels I realized that it had several duplicates.  Then it struck me,  I’ve been wanting to do some wasteland cars and opportunity presented me with a great idea!  I pulled out several of the doubles so I could do an interceptor/wasteland version of each.  One lesson learned from the first project, unless it is an open top vehicle I’m not going to waste time on the interiors!  Here are some of the twins!

This set includes one from the original set of cars I did last year and a copy to do the wasteland conversion.  I need to buy some structural HO scale plastic beams and such for more ram conversions.

These are a couple of Dodge Chargers.  I elected to go with at black primer coat on this set of mins and quickly found out that for the wasteland conversion it is perfect but for the interceptor/good paint jobs it was too dark in my opinion.  At least with light colors, this one actually started off with a yellow paint job that simply wasn't happening. Then a grey that I wasn't happy with either.  I think the green turned out pretty good.  nor just a bit more weathering.

I like the looks of this vehicle with the double twin engines and the low rider look.  For the interceptor version I elected not to prime it and instead went with just weathering the factory paint job.  I did pull the engine insert and paint it.  I enjoyed doing the armor plates and making the rivets on the wasteland version of this one and others.  there is still some work to do on all of them.  I need to do windshields for a few of the wastelanders.  And the weapons could use a ink wash and then another highlight or two.  Overall I'm happy with the results.

Thats a big 10-4 good Buddy! Back into the Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands groove.

I tried, I honestly tried to fight my adult ADD!  I finally succumbed to my impusles and jumped back into some auto body work!  I did up some Hotwheels cars last year and I really enjoyed the project so I thought why not another around!

This project is focused on creating a semi rig for the collection.  It started life as a very cheap pullback toy from Walmart.  I think it was a massive $1.00, I wish I had purchased more than two.  

Here is the cab with a few select weapons on it. I kept it somewhat easy.  

For the trailer, I went with the magnetized weapons option so I could create multiple options to use. 

Here are a few of the turrets with different weapons combinations.  I also did a cab-over box truck with a magnetized box that will accept the turrets from the semi-rig.

Here is a group shot of the upcoming batch.

Quick WIP update

Painting updates first, it has been a chore to find painting time as of late.  I’m not sure why but it has been slow going on these Champions of Khorne, I was very excited about the project and still am but alas this hasn’t expedited my painting any! 

Here are a few shots, got the base red down, inked and then highlighted with the base again.  I was a little disappointed with the brown wash feeling that it was too dark.  Left is the base only and right is the brown wash.

 

I’m not sure if it is the shade of brown or a matter of its age. Yes, that is indeed one of the old flip top pots from what?  30 years ago?

I did go out and pick up the new Nuln Oil wash and a Seraphim Sepia  Brown wash while I was out and about on Saturday, from a quick test on another model the Sepia seem to be more of the result I was looking for.

I did some work on this chap and highlighted with the red base through pink up to white and then gave it a wash/glaze of red.  Pretty happy with the results.   

Here is a better look at the process, left is the white based highlighting and the left is wit the red glaze.  Next up to start on the black and metals.

I made a few used bookstore stops after the Warhammer stop (I guess they don’t call them Games Workshop stores anymore) and had some nice finds.

I always like picking up reference material and grabbed a picture heavy German WW2 aircraft book.  I also picked up an old copy of Ballantine Books version of The Hobbit when I discovered I couldn’t find my childhood copy after the new house move.  No luck on the Horus Heresy books so I grabbed a copy of Ravenour to start.  Lastly, I found the Frostgrave supplement Thaw of the Lich Lord which looks interesting given my proclivity for undead.  A Frostgrave warband is a bit down the road but certainly a project I’m going to do.