A Quick Update

Hey guys!

After last months deluge of posts, things have been a bit quiet on the blog front. Behind the scenes has been beehive of hobby goodness. So, here's a quick update on the past two-ish weeks. I apologise in advance for any ramblings, overly family related pictures and text, or sporadic plot jumps!

First things first, big shout to Da Masta Cheef for sending over the bottom chassis for Corben's Basilisk. In an interesting turn of events, Cpl Corben is now amassing an Ork force, meaning that the the first piece of artillery for the Corbanian 1st has been looted by a blond haired Grot! (Now I've actually typed that, I think I'll strip him of his rank and call him Grot from now on for betraying his namesake regiment). One of the aforementioned unwanted Ork bits from my brother was a forceworld ork bomber! (Cheers Bro!)

Obviously, we can't have unpainted models on the tabletop now can we, so the cpl grot has been blackmailed into painting. His little sister, not wanting to miss out on the action, decided she was going to paint something different!

 
Willow's plan was simple, she wanted to paint a fairy princess for heroquest. According to her, it would make everyone better with kisses from its gold butter fly and kick the bad guys in the fudge! (Don't let the innocent look trick you guys!)

Whereas the grot has been building up his Ork forces to take on the might of the Corbanian 1st! He's actually a pretty good painter considering ...

These family painting sessions has been spurred on by a new weekly get together with my good mate and occasional blogger Mike. These are typically Mike joining us for tea, spending a couple of hours painting and gaming with the kids, then once they're bedded down, we paint and do the things gamers do when they get together. It's certainly helped rekindle my 40k flame, even the grot is learning the 6th ed rules with us, albeit a much simplified version.

Here's his Ork's in action, you'll notice unpainted models! Truth is, you can't stop a kid from putting his toys on the table and you can't blackmail them into painting to play, you just can't. What you can do is tell them that painted models get to reroll shooting dice! The idea that he'll be able to reek more damage on his enemies (me) has certainly spurred him on with painting up his Orks.

Please excuse the pile of washing in that photo, our washing machine broke and that was the resulting clothes amassed over a week while we waited for the replacement to turn up. The washing mountain has now gone, although the ironing mountain still remains as my lovely wife is a serial washer but unfortunately not a serial ironer, that's my job! (Thank the Emperor for podcasts!) 

Anyway, on a lighter hobby note, I've attacked my second starsteak hydra with renewed vigour and there's only an hours work in it to finish it. Here's a WIP, expect a proper post on the finished hydras soon guys.

Leaving the best till last, I've actually taken on quiet a big hobby undertaking recently that's soaked up a lot of my time.

As a bit of background, now that both our lovely children have settled into school life, my darling wife (the serial washer!) decided that she'd had enough of being a stay at home mum, she was bored and so we discussed her going back into nursing. In parallel, for the past six months, I've been getting more and more fed up of the corporate life, hotel rooms, sitting on the M6, etc and to be honest, I've really missed the kids with me getting in at bedtime at best. So we decided to switch roles, she's the breadwinner and I'm the stay at home dad. It's only been 6 weeks now, but its going well and the maths work, so its looking good.

My wife was quick to point out that I would get bored very quickly when the kids were at school (and the ironing was done!), to which I pointed out I had a hell of a lot of models to paint and I'd be fine whilst sporting a very big grin, that was a mistake, a big mistake. Numerous expletives rolled from my lovely wife's mouth, a discussion developed and a condition was applied. It has to be productive ...

Now, I'm not going into details now, I'll save that for a near future post, but you'll love it! (Master of Cunning gents!)

See ya soon guys!
Mel (aka Col)

Now it feels like home ...

Hello Strangers ....

I know over the past year or so, my blogging has been a bit off, my commenting dire and my hobby output has been none existent, for that I apologise.

As a bit of background, just over a year ago my business collapsed due to quite a few customers who owed me a lot of money going bust in the recession. The fallout was pretty horrendous, some serious debt and us losing our home and having to move in with family.

As you can tell by my blogging, the whole thing had a pretty drastic affect on my personally and my hobbying. I just couldn't take any joy out of hobbying, it just didn't feel right having time to myself whilst my family weren't in their own home.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we moved into our own home and overall, things are generally on the up. So last week, I took my models out of storage and setup my display cabinets and for the past couple of nights, I've had my painting station out and been cracking on with various projects. Last night, my wife came down after putting the little ones to bed and stood at the doorway, looked straight at me and said 'Now it feels like home'.

So gents, thanks for sticking with me during the past year, although I probably won't be knocking things out at the rate I did before but I've definitely got my mojo back for hobbying and my beloved guard. Anyway, that's enough from me, I'll leave you with a couple of pics of my favourite bits of furniture, I've got to get cracked on with painting up Harkers squad.

All the best
Col Corbane (aka Mel)

 

Back in the Saddle

Well, it's been a fantastic week so far, I've had a well deserved week off from work which has been jam packed with a long weekend away with the nearest and dearest, various family days out and even some hobbying.

So, you could say I'm back in the saddle. Painting is coming along nicely with Harkers squad and one of the Starstreaks getting attention. I'm finding that I've got to relearn to paint again, I suppose I should expect it considering I haven't picked up a paintbrush in almost a year. What skills I had are slowly coming back to me although I have a feeling that these guys aren't going to be my best. Hopefully, it won't be long before I'm painting as well and as fast as I was before.

I've also managed to get a game in against my mate Mike, the Corbanian 1st were victorious against his Space Wolves, so I'm taking it as an good omen. What I did realise is that I've also forgotten quite a lot of the rules for 40k and my Guard, so I think it's time I dugout my MES (multiple edition syndrome) treatment book.

So, I'm definitely back in the saddle now, hopefully I'll be up to speed for Blog Wars in June.

The Painting Gods are laughing at me

Sometimes, life just knows how to throw a spanner in the works. My models are undercoated, so I sat down tonight to start painting them. Now I have a lot of paints, I had a big collection before my wife got me the huge paint set from GW. I've also been in the hobby for quite a while, so I've got some paints that GW does stock anymore.

But tonight, I only needed one, Codex Grey. Guess what, yep, no codex grey, I've got ghostly grey, I've got space wolves grey, I've got adeptus battlegrey, I've got six pots of fortress grey but not a single pot of codex grey. It sort of stops the painting dead in it's tracks.

So, tomorrow, I'm going to have to nip into GW on the way back from work and pick up another pot. In the meantime, I'm going to crack on with rehydrating my paints, only another 100 odd to go!

My wife the tattooist ...

As some of you may know, my lovely wife has recently taken up tattooing. Over the past six months she's actually become pretty good at it. Although she's still a long way off becoming a professional tattoo artist, her work is becoming better with each tattoo.

Recently, I've convinced her to give blogging ago as a way of sharing her work and getting support and feedback. Unfortunately, there's no From-The-Warp for tattooists that I can find, so that means no followers and no comments and we all know how that feels.

So, if any of you bloggers out there have a thing for tat's, nip over to her blog and say hi ....

http://kay-elles-tattoos.blogspot.com/

Thanks in advance guys!

The Great Paint Drought

The image above is quite appropriate for this particular post. If you're regularly follow my blog, then you'll have noticed a decrease in posting recently. Work, Kids, Wife, Blah, Blah, Blah, you've heard them before and no doubt if you've been in the hobby a while, then you've experienced your own painting droughts at times.

For me, it's been over six months since I last dipped my brush within a paint pot, so I'm definitely suffering a painting drought. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy with hobby stuff. Actually, I've been busy with lots of different things. I've been reading quite a lot, at the moment it's a Ciaphas Cain books. I've finished the first two and I'm just loving them. It's strange to go from Commissar Gaunt to Commissar Cain, but I'm finding it quite refreshing to the doom and gloom of the Ghosts series. I've also been working heavily on the first of my campaign pdf's for my campaign focused blog, which hopefully should be ready for publishing next week.

But I digress, recently I've tried to jump start the painting side of my hobby and I've hit a bit of a problem. Unfortunately, after six months of not painting, the above image is quite adapt when it comes to describing most of my paints. Yep, they've dried up!

Quite a few are completely dried up and literally have solidified and cracked in the tub, some have just turned to a very thick sludge. So, I've got myself a load of glass beads from ebay and started the monumental task of sorting through them all. Some will be thrown, some will be revived, but hopefully, I'll have the majority rescued in the end.

I'm working on the ones I use most often to start with so that I can actually do some painting whilst I'm going through the rest. In the meantime, I'm working on a storage and maintenance plan to make sure this never happens again. Any tips would be gratefully received guys!  

A quick update ...

I just thought that I'd post a quick update for my regular followers ...

Although life's been tough recently, things have started to take a turn for the better. The kids are more settled now, we've started to balance the finances, my wife has landed a good job and I've had a cracking promotion at my new job that's made quite a bit of difference. We're not out of the woods yet, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

All this has given me a new lease of life for the hobby as I don't feel as guilty now for spending time on little toy soldiers when my family was struggling so much. I certainly don't have the time I use to have for the hobby, but one of the bonuses of this hobby is that you can do as much or as little as possible.

So, I'm dusting off the painting station, shaking the paints and pointing the brushes, expect model updates coming soon!

Yours ..... A Happy Hobbyist!

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget.

For all those who have made great sacrifices in the past for our freedom and for those who fight courageously for our freedom now, we thank you.

Why I love my wife .....

There's many reasons I love my wife, but today she pulled a blinder. Some of you may remember about my xmas fail where my wife got me Heroquest from MB games on ebay not realising it was Advanced Heroquest that I was after.

For you younger hobbyists, Advanced Heroquest was a game produced by GW a long time ago. It's basically a mixture of Dungeons and Dragons, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It was so popular that MB games did a spin off simplified versions called Heroquest. Although, it was a long time ago, so it might have been MB games who did it first. I'm not sure, but I do know that I lost many hours of my youth to this game.

Well, this morning, she woke me from my duvet day comfort with a package. Yep, Advanced Heroquest. So, I am a very happy chappy. It's virtually brand new, so I think I've found the miniatures I'm going to be using for my miniature a month project.

Finally, didn't get any hobby stuff done tonight, it snowed here heavily for the first time in years, so as all big kids, I headed out with the son-in-law to be and we made this .......

The moment you realise ....

I've had a bit of an epiphany, a moment of clarity recently. I was checking on the replies I've had on a few forums to my ambulance. A few people have asked what rules I'm going to use for it, and to be honest, I don't know, I never really thought about using it in a game.

Now, when I first started this blog, it was all about the game, yes I enjoyed the painting, but I was painting to get models on the tabletop. I did convert my advisers because I didn't like the GW ones but they were for the tabletop.

With my ambulance, it was converted and painted for the sake of it, it's probably going to spend the rest of it's life sitting on a shelf. With the year coming to an end, I've been thinking about next years projects, one of which will probably never really get used but is going to take up half my modelling efforts for the year.

So, I've realised that I've moved from being a gamer to being a painter and converter. I'm hoping that this isn't a permanent change, more a simple swing of the 40k pendulum and it'll swing back to the gaming side in 2010. I must admit, I've got very comfortable with painting in the evenings but I do need to get off my backside and get down the club for some games.

I can see a new year resolution coming on.

Life returns to normal

Well, little miss has been let out of hospital as she's doing much better. She still has to go back everyday for her IV meds but for the time being, we're back to normal. So, it's a sunday afternoon hobby session for us. Hopefully I'll be posting pics of my ambulance soon and a special tutorial for you all.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and include us in their prayers, we do appreciate it. Thanks guys ......... right, papa mache calls ;-)

Real life throws me a curve ball again

Well, I was supposed to be painting an ambulance these past couple of days, instead I've been riding in one. My little miss was rushed into hospital on Wednesday night with Meningitis. Don't worry, she's doing well now but she'll be in for a bit longer. I'll be honest, I've been in some pretty scary situations, but I've never been that scared.

Anyway, I've got a night at home before I take over from my wife. Obviously, I might not be around for a while, but I will return soon. In the meantime, we're all taking antibiotics the size of horse pills and my pee has turned bright orange - lol

Right, I'm off to grab some sleep, catch ya laters guys.

The break is over!

Well, my self enforced painting break is over, it's only been two weeks but I'm feeling refreshed and gagging to pick up my paintbrush and get stuck in. I've got a few things that I want to get finished. I've got two heavy weapon squads and a ten man squad to finish 2nd platoon and then an executioner to finish my armoured company. I've also go a few other bits and bobs to do as well. To be honest, I'll be glad to get some hobby content on the blog as well as these past two weeks have been a bit filler'ish.


Going on Campaign is going well, it's got 34 followers so far with the help of Drax and Ron - thanks guys. I'm just hoping the Bols guys left the three month rule slide for the project, so I can get it listed on the Alliance. On Bols, my nids made it as the Pic of the Day today, and it's generated quite a few comments.

Right I'm off to do a couple hours painting and then, depending on how the old grey matter is, I might even get another page done for GoC.

Remembrance Sunday

We will remember them.

October Parade Ground recruits

This is the first of a regular monthly feature where I'll showcase this months additions to The Parade Ground bloglist. So here's this months recruits fresh on the parade ground.

Imperial Armour - an excellent blog full of Guard and FoW stuff. Check out his troopers, they're really life like and very well painted.

WH40K Imperial Naval Infantry - a project blog based on the Imperial Navy, it's got some excellent concepts, can't wait to see how they turn out.

Tiberius Prime - a brand new blogger with some classic mini's. Go visit, leave him some comments, we all needed a bit of encouragement when we first started (Thanks Drax/Ron)

Why I will never have money - if tournaments and guard are your thing, then I'd check out NemFX's blog.

A Canadian in space - a brilliant blog full of WWI guard conversion goodness. Well worth checking out.

XIIIe Regiment de Cadia - an excellent blog full of guard and inquisition conversions. Full of gothic conversion goodness.

First rank - Fire - a blog about putting together an Imperial Navy masterclass army by two gamers. Looks
promising.

Black/Red painting studio - a painting studio blog that's got some excellent guard stuff. Check out the objective markers.

That's it for October guys, remember, if you run a guard blog or know one that isn't listed on The Parade Ground bloglist, then drop me a line or just comment on this post, and I'll get it added. As it's Halloween, I'll leave you with a few pics.

IG Veterans

Like the rest of the FTW community, I got Ron's email about the never leave at home unit, for me it's Veterans. Unfortunately, I haven't put together mine yet, so in the games I've had in the past, I've just used normal troops (The guy above was painted by my mate Tolcrothlogan). I'll be painting mine relatively soon after I get my mojo back.

So, what is it that lights me fire about veterans. Well, they get the job done. In truth, guard arn't the best fighters or shooters but with a bit of experience, they can do wonderful things. They're a ....

1. 10 man squad, 
2. that's a troop selection, 
3. gets an improved BS 4, 
4. can have a vox for rerolling oders tests,
   
5. can have lasguns or assault shotguns, 
6. can take 3 special weapons, 
7. a heavy weapons team,
8. can get an improved 4+ save, or +1 to cover saves and defensive mines, or melta bombs and a demo charge.
   
9. can get another rentless, feel no pain heavy bolter whilst getting infiltrate, move through cover and stealth.
10. or can get a vet sgt that can issue commanders orders on Ld 10 as well as been able to regroup regardless of the situation.
11. can take a cheap chimera or mobile gun platform as I prefer to call it.
12. could hop on a valk for some hellrazing.
    

Now, stop for a moment, then scroll back up and have another look at those options and have a play with combining a few and when you're done, come back. Go on, go now, scroll up :-)

Ah, now you're back, see what I mean, these guys can be customised to get any job done. The possibilities are endless, and they always do wonders for me. That's why they're the boys who never get left at home.

It's a bit hard to write a post about veterans this close to November the 11th without mentioning those who have fallen for our freedoms. To those who have gone....We Will Remember You.

 

Please support the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

That's it, I'm done!

I've had enough guys, I'm burnt out, knacked, disillusioned. I've just gone to paint up some heavy weapons for 2nd platoon and I just couldn't bring myself to put paint on the models. It felt like a choir, not something that I love doing.

It's not surprising really, I've painted a phenomenal amount of models (for me) since starting this blog. Combined with the fact that I haven't really got many games in these past few months, it's understandable. Sometimes, I'm envious of these people who pick up different armies all the time, or finish an army and leave it at that. The problem is that I love my guard, I want regiments of them, all lined up, even if I know that I'll probably never use all of them. It's the curse of the lifelong guarder!

So, I've decided, I'm not painting any more guard.

For at least a couple of weeks (see what I did there, that's a Dan Abnett moment). I don't care if I'm up for it tomorrow, I'm having a break. It'll mean skipping the TEOMP challenge this time round, but I'm sure that won't be a major problem. I might paint something else for a bit of fun but no guard. I think I'm going to get stuck in to the Gaunt's Ghosts books. I've already started another 'big long term' which I'm sure loads of you will love and get involved, but I'm not ready to reveal that to the community.

So, I'm off to work on that, and there's not a paintbrush in sight.

Objectives complete

I've finally finished my new objective counters. It was an interesting challenge and I've loved putting these little scene together, so much so, that I'm looking forward to seeing what other scenes I can create. Big thanks to the TOEMP challenge for pushing me to give these a try.

Sorry they're not the best pics, I really should have waited until daytime to take the pics but it's been a hell of a weekend and I wanted to do a little painting and blogging to wind down before I hit the much needed sack. Anyway, here's the pics.







I'm hoping to get the extra command squad models done for Tuesday, the latest TEOMP deadline, but that depends on whether I can keep Real Life (TM) getting in the way of the important stuff ;-)

On the Real Life (TM) stuff, I'm knackered and by that I mean properly knackered. The wife and I had a weekend away with friends and last night was a late one. We finally got to sleep at 6am after a night of clubbing and laughing, then the hotel reception rang us at 9.30am with our wake up call. I'm really surprised that I've even finished these and blogged about it tonight.

Anyway, whilst on our way down to Brum on a cold, spitting, bitter October morning, we pulled in behind a guys cruising in his Porsche Boxster with his roof down. My lovely wife spotted his number plate and took a pic......


No question at the end of this one guys, I've decided that it makes the blog to much like an article and that just isn't me.

Involving your kids in your hobby

When involving your kids in your hobby, this is OK ......

This is not!

A great dads day out!

Well, today was all about spending the day with my little lad. I had a bit of a trip out planned, that included nipping into Shewsbury, checking out a few model shops, a nip into GW, a visit to a proper castle and then finally a visit to a bouncy sort of castle.

It's been great! On the castle front, we've visited Shrewsbury castle which also houses the regimental museum for the various Shropshire regiments. Here's a couple of pics, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pics inside the museum.



This is Laura's tower, a summer house built in the 18th century by the then current owner for his daughter. It's the highest point in Shrewsbury and has some outstanding views. I also reckon it'd make a good terrain project, I love the twin staircases working around the door.


There were also two large field guns just outside the gates, so my little man climbed up (bit naughty) and give me a smile.



The museum was excellent and chocked full of bits of kit, weapons and uniforms from all different periods of time. One thing that got me was the Russian WW2 weapons, the heavy machine guns look straight from the DKoK. Big, chunky and on little trolleys. If any of you end up in the shrewsbury area, I'd highly recommend checking it out.

We also nipping into GW which was swamped. I only needed some green stuff but they were completely sold out. After chatting with the lads and explaining that I wanted it for the TOEMP challenge, they pulled a blinder and gave me some of the stores that they had in back. I know we can all get pee'd off with the corporate side of GW but I've got to say, the guys who actually man the front line do an excellent job. I also picked up the second Guant's omnibus and the planet strike manual, I'll let you know what I think once I've got my teeth stuck into them.

The last bit of our day out was a trip to Crazy Knights, a huge industrial playbarn geared around a castle, two hours of slides, ball pools and padded madness. It was knackering but GREAT, the perfect end to the perfect day. I just need to plan our next day, I think chester calls.


Old School Guard

I've been sorting through my kit lately and I came across these old catachens that I painted up so long ago that I can't remember when. I'm assuming one's got lost in the mists of time as there's only nine. What really surprised me is that I actually painted their eyes, which is something I don't do on my guard as I don't think I'm a good enough painter. I might have to have a rethink about that based on this new evidence.


Snipers

As part of the TOEMP challange, I'm painting up some snipers and a converted Marbo. I'm saving the Marbo for a bit of a tutorial, but here's the snipers.


I've already used the challenge to push myself by using a dremel to grind off the leaves off the four catachen snipers. I've never used a dremel before, even though I've had one for about a year now. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how they've come out but I'll only be able to tell properly once they're painted. The first few were a bit dodgy but by the end, I think I'd got the hang of it. The last model only took a few minutes and the finish was the best of the lot. So, the TOEMP challenge has already challenged me to leave my comfort zone, it's sculpting next!


That's all for now folks, more wip pics of the snipers coming soon.