It's never too late for an update?

Well, life has kind of gotten away from me since my last update. A lot has happened since then, some family issues, a new job and issues with that, some more family issues, and here we are in October.

That said, I had a fair amount of hobby time, which I tried to use pretty wisely, I have not had any motivation to post. However, now I am on vacation and my wife is watching last year's Nigella's Christmas Special with her friend, so I have some time to kill.

(I am posting this via the Blogger app on my phone, so I have no access to fancy editing).

Surprise Picture Attack!

Whaaaaaaat?!?!?!

Forgot some edge highlights and cleaning up the base, but my first test model for Hive Fleet Ceryx is otherwise complete!!

For comparison, this was my reference:

And a shout out to iPaint on Warseer for his impressive scheme which I borrowed the Maw colouring and Bone technique:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?235088-Hive-Fleet-Ichor-iPaint-s-Tyranid-Log

I will eventually post my ratios for future reference, but as this is a surprise ambush post, I must be in and out like a ninja!

Out!

Alladin's Morning Coffee Musings #9 - Slow it down, GW!

Haven't had the luxury of writing up one of these in a while, but with another chunk of painting backlog complete I thought I owed it to myself to wax poetic about the hobby for a bit, rather than jumping back down the painting rabbit hole.

Today I want to talk about Games Workshop and the steadily acceleration of major releases. This topic has been covered elsewhere, but it seems everyone has an opinion on it.

Why did you have to bring John Voight into this, GW??? WHY???!?!

Another longer-than-anticipated absence...

Well, after a month and a half, I have finally come crawling back to my blog.

While life was particularly busy in May, I have since have had plenty of opportunity to update, yet decided to spend my time on other aspects of the hobby. Specifically, I finished painting my 5 converted Unsanctioned Psykers from the Grey KnightsInquisiton Codex. While the likelihood of me actually fielding these models is low, I feel I must still complete them as penance for my hobby sins (I.e. Buying a crap-tonne of models without painting any).

It was my first real foray into flesh tones and hair, and overall I am pretty happy with the look. Of course, the job took me double my estimated completion time to actually finish, but that's not new for me.

Pictures after the break.

The Battle for Angel Square (Post-Battle Fluff)

As promised a few posts back, here is the fluff-piece I co-wrote with the Ork player. It is a bit long-winded in the beginning, but I wanted to set the stage for the first real battle of our Campaign.

For those who dig this kind of stuff, enjoy!

O Alladin, Where Art Thou?

Hey all! I am here!

It's been a bit tough trying to carve out some time write up a few. Lots of stuff going on, both hobby related (good!) and unrelated (still generally good, but boring!). The plus side of this is that my free time has generally been spent painting, modeling and gaming. The downside is that this newfound hobby motivation is keeping me away from the blogosphere, and I am missing lots of cool stuff.

On the modeling side of things, I am still working on finishing up odds and ends of my Tyranids. Mainly magnetizing weapon loadouts, with the largest part being the 5 Brainleech Devourer arms still waiting to be built.

One game I played looked like this, except the exact opposite. Read more to find out how!

Two more Models Done! (Post updated with actual content!)

Hey Everyone!

This will be an extremely short post. I will elaborate later in the week, but to prove I am not just dilly-dallying around, here are some pictures of my Vindicare Assassin and Jokaero Weaponsmith. Enjoy!

Alladin's Morning Coffee Musings #8 - Oops, I did it again...

Well, it's sure been a while!

Things have been busy over on my end, with lots of Hobby-related (and unrelated) things keeping me on my toes and away from posting. To get the boring stuff out of the way, the last few weeks have seen me do a bunch of painting in my house, as well as installing new closets to maximize space. The only advantage is that my Office/Hobby room now has better organization, allowing me to store more of my gear!

From the hobby side of things, there is LOTS to share!

First, I tried my hand at painting my Vindicare & Jokaero, but quickly realized I needed a few extra colours so that derailed progress. In the meantime I worked toward wrapping up the remaining hits on my list. The bad news is that I caved in and went out and bought a Hive Tyrant kit plus a box of Gargoyles...

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.10) - COMPLETED!

Well, after almost 16 months (on and off, clearly) of work, I *finally* have my 5 Grey Knights painted. This brings my count up to a whopping 10 fully painted figures for my GK army.

The final step was the Nemesis Force Weapons. I had squirreled away my ratios somewhere, over a year ago, and managed to find them, which gave me at least some base to work with.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.9)

So here we are, the second-last part of my first Step-by-Step. Almost 2 years in the making, we are at the final countdown. This one will be a big one, as it encompasses pretty much all the remaining "fine-detail" work aside from the Nemesis Force Weapons. I have been trying to find the time to get this part written up for a while, but haven't been able to until now.

Alladin's Bat-Rep #3 - 1500pts Tyranids vs Eldar

This past Tuesday I had a chance to get my third game in, with the same Eldar player as before. We both changed our lists dramatically. My motivation was finding a combination that gave me more tactical flexibility. I believe his motivation was to give me a fighting chance.

We decided to play a Dawn of War style deployment, since that is the only type of deployment I haven't played yet.

It was a well-fought game. Teaser: This is the first game that actually went to completion.

2015 Hobby Resolutions

This post comes a bit late in the year, but most of my effort is being put toward finishing up my current batch of Grey Knights. 

I wanted to make a hobby road-map of sorts for 2015, as I have a ridiculous amount of small (and not-so-small) projects lying around from 2013 and 2014, and clearly not enough focus to complete much of anything.

My intention is to keep it short, and focus on a few things at once so I don't get distracted. Additionally, I will associate the completion of certain landmarks on my road-map with incentives, typically the purchase of new kits or other hobby-related stuff.

So, without further ado, the list:

Phase 1:

• Complete painting 5x Grey Knights
• Complete painting Vindicare Assassin & Jokaero Weaponsmith
• Finish plasticard rock basing for the remainder of my Tyranids (+ 5 GKs)
• Finish putting together 5 GKs
• Finish Magnetizing odds/ends of my Tyranids

Reward: Hive Tyrant kit

I hate to follow the masses, but this is the simplest way to eventually get myself in the Win column.

Alladin's "Step-by-Step" #1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (pt.8)

Unlike the spectacle of my previous post, I will *really* try and keep this one short and sweet. Here we go. THIS IS A PICTURE OF GOLD SHADING AND MID-TONES:

Alladin's Bat-Rep #2 - 1500pts Tyranids vs Eldar

Last weekend I had a rematch with the Eldar. I felt that I learned a lot from my spanking last time, and was determined to prevent a repeat...

...Let's just start by saying I was schooled once again.

This time we played at his place, he had a decent table with an Imperial Sector kit and some hills.

Alladin's (Pseudo) Bat-Rep #1 - 1500 pts Tyranids vs Eldar

So here it is, my first battle report! I am calling this a "pseudo" bat-rep because:

1. I am missing lots of information, as my main focus during the game was to get comfortable with the rules, and
2. The game itself was called at the top of Turn 3, due to timing (and the fact that it didn't look like the outcome would change all that much).

 

Alladin's Morning Coffee Musings #7 - 2014, A Year in Review

It's been a while since I've updated, though I have been meaning to for a while now. In fact, I have various bits of half-typed posts littered about, that I will hopefully get to publishing. This is the first!

Now that the craziness of the holidays are behind us, I have finally found some time to get back on here and do some updating.  The last few weeks have been predominantly hobby-free, unfortunately. Part of it has to do with all the family stuff that goes on this time of year, and part of it with my newly rekindled obsession with comic books. Without getting into too much detail, I dug out my old books & read them again for the first time in 15-20 years, then re-bagged them in nicer bags for future display in my office/hobby space. I should have stopped there, but then I went out and started buying all sorts of new issues and back issues of old series I never completed. The good news is that I have basically scoured all the local comic stores for back issues, and can stop obsessing over it for a bit and get back to the tabletop gaming side of things.