6 Years of Blogging (Mar 2008 - ?)

Imperial Fireworks

Yup, I've been blogging about my army's now for 6 Years, and I've been playing 40k since just before the start of 3rd Edition.  I've dabbled Epic, BFG, and Inquisitor but the group I played with back then just didn't much interest in these.  Over the years I've played Black Templar's, a Mordian IG army, two different Eldar armies, and a Tau army, but my foremost love has always been the Imperial Guard. My current IG collection spans back over 10 years and is still evolving.  In fact I have painted and played 40K in the USA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Spain and now Germany.  The Guard have been with me through it all.

One of my oldest Paint jobs ca. 2000 (I think)

I'm sure you've also noticed that I am far from a "regular" poster.  I model, paint, post, play (in that order) when I have time.  I typically work 10 hour days, so when I'm home I prefer to spend time with my 3yr old, my weekends are filled with "Family obligations" and I typically write my posts between 6 and 6:30am over coffee before I'm out the door.  As a matter of fact that's one of my favorite times to paint (everyone else is sleeping!) if I don't have something that I want to write about.

Now why have I told you all that?  Because I would like to say "Thank You!" Without you there wouldn't be a blog, even if I have less than 100 "followers" and I think I can name the 6 people that have regularly left comments on my blog.  (Zzzzz, Drax, Col. Ackland, Hollyoake, Howell, Scipio) Without them it wouldn't be as much fun.  In my humble opinion it's the things that pull someone in and make them feel like part of a community.   

Something a bit more recent... (2010)

Blogging for me twofold, I enjoy sharing the little things that I do, and it's been neat to see how ideas can be stolen, improved upon, and re-stolen by different people through out the hobby.  I think it's the sharing of ideas and (in my case) Army background or fluff that really keeps me interested.  Even though I don't blog regularly, I do spend a considerable amount of time reading what other people have posted. 

And just to show that I have been doing a bit of painting here's a quick sneak peak from an upcoming post.

Imperial Knight

So I just couldn't resist and I downloaded the new White Dwarf issue 4.  I have to say that I'm already frothing at the mouth to get my hands on one of these things.   The rules for both battle cannon and the melta cannon are sweet, especially if you get this guy up close where you can get 2D6 added to penetration roll. 

The history and background section of the Knights was enough to get you started but was lacking the details that I normally expect from GW.  I do hope that we'll see more in the future.

The rest of the issue had a few short pages about the new Codex: Legion of the Damned, and after that they went on to talk about the Imperal Fists.  I really didn't read to much of that though because I'm not big Space Marine player (which some of you may have noticed  I freely admit though that the only reason I picked this up was because of the rules and information for the knights.  If your're thinking of picking up an Imperial Knight I recommend picking up this issue for the rules if nothing else.  

Echo Troop Rough Riders (Part 2)

I really do hate to change projects half way through, but I seemed to have forgotten a Pledge to finish my Rough Riders by the end of the February...   oops.   So I dug them out and as you see above there's still a bit to do.  It's not a lot, but it's a lot of small detailing.  So until the end of the month (unless a miracle happens and I get these done faster) my poor Avenger will have to wait patiently as Echo Troop, 19th Mynvody Lancers gets painted up.

OH, and just a bit of a Rant over a rumor I heard. I love my Rough Riders, and the way they look and play with my army in general.  No, they are not the "über" unit that everyone wants, but they do their job, and look good.  ("looking good" isn't that what the cavalry is for anyways?) 

Now, I recently read this:
"For the same reasons Rough Riders will be dropped from the army list (much like most entries without models got cut from the tyranid codex). Source: FAEIT 212 "  And that got me thinking WTF!!!  I surely hope that GW doesn't do this.  Over the years they've changed a few units but completely wiping one out of the IG Codex hasn't happened in a while.  Now, as for myself, I think it's to early to tell as to if this is true or not, but I surely hope not.  I have big plans for my Cavalry, and hope to have 3 squads of them done in the not to distant future.

Avenger Strike Fighter (Part 4)

Well I got home a bit early last night and was able to get a bit more hobby time in than normal.  I painted up all the angels / plates / recesses prior to applying the first layer of color.  This is something new for me, but I had seen it done on a number of model airplanes, and thought I would give it a try.  Basically you highlight all those parts in black, ensuring to get down into the crevices and rivet holes (I missed a few...). 

 

Once you've got that done the idea is that you would apply a base coat, (here I applied a grey base coat to the fuselage and wings, but will spray the engines black at a later date) and after that you color in the dark edges.  Tape off the areas you don't want to get any paint and there you go. 

  As you can see above I forgot to take a picture of the step before this, as the model is now taped off for the blue sides, and no longer for the bottom.  In the pictures below you can see how the pre-shading came out under the grey paint. 

 It's a bit lighter than I would have preferred (or the grey was darker) but in the grand scheme of things I can live with it and it wasn't very hard to do anyways.

Now, it's on to spraying the next color on the sides of the fuselage and vertical stabilizers.