6th Edition - renewed energy

Well, it's time to try to get back to it again.  Been doing some hobbying lately, but not as much as I would have liked.  I lost a great friend of 20+ years to Cancer last week and that sort of puts things into perspective.  I'm not saying I'm living for the moment, but I think I am appreciating them more as they go by.

Space Marine Paint Scheme v15.1. Basic Black, Sotek Green and Caledor Sky

Anyhow, I have been bitten HARD by the Space Marine bug (again...) and it's time to work them boys into shape.  15 different color schemes came and went, but I think I have settled on a good one this time.  It's basic black, with Sotek Green Pauldrons and Greaves andCaledor Sky highlights here and there...   Here is the first crack at it.  None of the details are done yet.

It works pretty well for me, I think.  My biggest thought was how it would look on a vehicle.

The Chapter Name is temporarily the "Stigmata Martyrs"  (A compliment to Abney Park), but that may also change.  I'll be using the crosses from the Black Templars and it may affect the name as well.

Mini holder for painting

So, I have been painting a lot lately, and it gets me annoyed sometimes to have to figure out a decent way to hold the mini. I know almost everyone uses some of the tacky stuff for posters and what-have-you, but I cannot seem to get that stuff to hold the mini well enough. Then I recalled a holder I had seen years ago and figured I would try my hand at it. What resulted was a quick afternoon project that didn't cost much and is working really well.  The beauty of these is that they are totally adjustable, hold the fig like an iron vice and then pop the fig off with no hassle at all, and no cleaning up tacky residue or anything like that.

The fig holders are adjustable to hold any mini from 25mm base to 70mm base, square, oval or round. Very handy. Here is what you need to make a set of 10.  The total cost for me was about $25.

- 40" long 3/4" dowel rod, cut into 4" lengths - I find the 4" gives a good handle on the fig without being too big.
- Some Matte paper, heavy card-stock or even sheet styrene, cut into 2.5" squares. Need a total of 11 of these, 1 template and the rest for the mini holders
- 40 #8 Machine screws - 3/4 Long
- 80 #8 Washers
- 40 #8 Nuts
- 40 Rubber faucet washers (My ACE hardware had these for $0.20 each, most expensive part)
- 10 Flush head nails (Make sure these have a very low profile but wide head (keep the jokes to yourself)).
- Wood glue - use your fave, I used Elmer's carpenter glue
- Compass to draw lines on the template

Doomsday Ark - Hawtness

So, I had some time tonight after my toothache turned into an extraction because the tooth broke below the gum-line.  Wonderful USAF dentistry the culprit here, it rotted from the inside out...  Anyhow, I got to finish the assembly of my Necron Doomsday Ark that I started on Sunday.  This is the first model that I actually built in small stages and painted the sub-assemblies as I went.  Very hand y way to do it.  I'm kinda bummed that I didn't clean up the model more, there are mold lines that stick out like sore digital-metallic appendages.

Here are some shots... enjoy...


Still some edge highlighting and touch-ups to do, but mostly done...

These are also on my Flickr Page if you like that better...