A busy year concludes... two and a quarter miiiiiillllliiiion times.

As 2014 draws to a close, it is hard to believe the degree of changes that have occurred in the painting realm for me!

It's not just how I paint... it's what I paint.  I never expected to be painting Wild West figures, nor did I think I would be building tiny hexagons of terrain for a historical WWII simulation game!

Painting historical themed miniatures is something that I had never done, for a variety of reasons.  That was probably the single biggest change.

My introduction to MDF terrain (specifically Burn in Designs) was also quite unexpected.  I am used to building my own terrain from scratch, using foam, cardboard, and whatever other junk is on hand.  Painting and building kits was certainly something out of the ordinary!!

I certainly did not expect to be playing the new games.  Quite by accident, I ended up playing Memoir '44, and you all know it became a favorite of mine.  After my rather unpleasant experiences with the standard GW games in recent years, I was a tad bit frustrated.

Putting in the massive amounts of time and effort into the armies seemed to be misplaced, as the games were no longer enjoyable to play, and the amount of change and chaos within those systems was just too much to deal with.

Memoir was the ideal game.  No list building, everyone knows what everyone has and does... and then you switch sides!

There's a lot more new stuff coming up for next year.  As 2015 is just hours away, there is even more change in store, both in miniature painting and game playing.

I will be adding Flames of War and Bolt Action to both categories.  This should be very interesting.

It leaves me with lots of optimism looking ahead, as there will be no stagnation in my painting life!  Painting model ships, and the new techniques that will have to be developed to do so, will be very fun.

Even with all the new miniature lines I have been painting of late, there are even more on the horizon.  I am also looking forward to a very new Adepticon, and my second Reapercon.  Gencon 2.0 should also be far more interesting for me!

And, once again, a huge thank you to all who come to this site on a regular basis to listen to my rantings!

That is always appreciated.  I hope that it does provide just a little boost to your day, and to your own hobby exploits.  You have done so 2.25 MILLION times!

Rudolf the red eyed Thrall...

Yes... another day, another Thrall.

I never really envisioned a day of assembly-lining things like these :-)

There will be quite the mob of these little buggers soon!

The legend of Zarelda

Here's a new version of Wild West Exodus Zarelda... a member of the Wayward Eight.

Aside from the Irradiate (and who doesn't love that!), she can also be a boon to a nearby Mercenary, giving them extra actions.

That's quite a nasty surprise! Curse your inevitable betrayal!

Iron age

Here are some shots of those Burn In Designs bases painted.

They certainly look different with a bit of color!

I have almost twenty more of them to paint!

Some have gears, others have deck plating and tubes...

Stay tuned!

These bases are destined for more Wayward Eight minis...

Heading out to sea...

So, you have been waiting to see what this secret project is all about.

Well, this was a Christmas gift from my Brother-in-Law, who knew that I wanted to attempt some waterline model ship dioramas.  I had also discussed with him my dilemmas over the various scale possibilities. 

Since I have not had a chance to see the models in person, I could not get the best sense of what 1/1500, or 1/700, 1/200, etc. would mean in a practical sense.

I had a feeling that 1/700 would eventually be the way to go for my own 'before and after' USS West Virginia project, but this is an interesting test piece!

These next few images show some of the parts.  There are actually fewer than I expected.

These pieces will be difficult to prep in terms of mould lines without breaking them!  I will also have to apply glue with needles, in all likelihood.

Mike was also kind enough to snag some extra aircraft for the hangar deck!  Lots of variety in these booster packs!

They are very tiny, as you can imagine!

This will be an interesting color scheme.  I did not expect a green camoflague scheme at all. This was done to mimic merchant ships, and to disguise its true scale.

Ironically, this was meant to fool submarines.  It was a submarine which sank her in late 1944.

There is also no red dot on the flight deck, as the Battle of Midway showed that such a marking is little more than a "Hit it Here!" bull's eye.

Another illustration of the color scheme.

This ship was originally going to be completed as a Yamato style super battleship.  Needs dictated otherwise, and the Shinano was converted into a large carrier.

This image shows how I want to display this waterline vessel.  I am really looking forward to the challenge!

The War Gods are coming...

One of my favorite miniature lines to paint is from Crocodile Games.  This piece is from the War Gods of Aegyptus 

Here's the website:

https://www.crocodilegames.com/game.cfm?gameID=2

The sculpts are always consistent.  They are solid as well, easy to assemble, and sturdy once built.

This means they have an excellent combination of paintability and durability.  That's rarer than you think in this industry!

These are sculpted the "old fashioned way".  That is, green stuff and brown stuff.  By hand.  Yes... it still happens that way!

My only regret is that I don't have tons of these sitting around to paint!

As far as this set goes, I felt that I needed to make a set of bases that did justice to the fine sculpting.

It required many hours of carving, but it was worth it!!

Hopefully I will be able to add many more pieces to this in the future.

Until then, enjoy!

A sneak peek at an Adepticon project tomorrow!  Stay tuned!

One more time...

Another Privateer Press figure for you!

Now that we have returned, so begins the process of reorganizing and rebuilding the studio for all the new projects!  Later tonight I will have some fun images for you of a brand new, never attempted before piece.  It should be very interesting!!!

One more look at the termies

One more set of Terminator shots!

The eggshell versions of the Grey Knights were very interesting.  I have painted them slate and red many times, so this was fun!

The bases, as always, were a blast!

There are many articles on how those were made in the basing techniques section of the blog.

I didn't often get a chance to use these guys.  The army I made had barely any Grey Knight elements...

I really enjoyed the assassins and other retinue stuff.

I will have some images of an interesting future project tomorrow, so stay tuned!