Happy Easter! Well... Easterlings.

Here's something I have been itching to do for a while... shoot the Easterling minis on the new backdrops!

I still love my Easterling cavalry, especially my converted cavalry standard bearer.  He was an important part of my command staff.

This minor Easterling sorcerer was also a big part of the army.  His Fury could be a key game changer at just the right moment!

Here's the converted Captain figure.

The War Drum was crucial to everything, contributing to the speed and violence by giving everyone a plus three movement!  Combine this with the Khandish Chariots and the rest of the Kataphracts

This is the Group of Death, which dealt out a lot of punishment in combination with the Chariots and even the infantry.

The two bladed Champion could provide some nice attack bonuses on the charge.  There was a lot of synergy, which made it fun!

I believe a good number of these were upgraded to Dragon Knights, so they were even nastier...

The whole crew again, from a different angle.

And from above!  My next set of group shots will show the infantry.  Not only were those extra pikemen important on their own... but you needed 'on foot' versions of the Kataphracts in case the horses were shot out from under them!

A peek into the Palantir

This was a very fun set of figs that I made for our Lord of the Rings games.

I wanted to set up the Sauruman/Grima whammy on the opponents might, along with a few other nasty tricks!

I converted a Wraith figure using some Empire bits to make a mounted Sauruman figure.  This was to be sure that he could keep up with the Khandish chariots and Easterling cavalry.

He would knock down the hapless opponents (usually Gondor), taking them down like bowling pins.

This meant that the chariots and Easterling cav could jump all over them.  Yes!

Grima was there to cancel out the might points of big time guys such as Aragorn, etc.  Crying into his hankey was just the trick, as Aragorn ended up with some Khandish tire tracks on his face.

There are a number of significant trophy heads on the Khandish King's chariot due to Sarumon.

I was really curious to see what these would look like on the various Hangar 18 backdrops.  The red one for sure!

I thought it might compliment the blue/black marble, and even enhance the Palantir.

I thought I would try this one as well.

It's a bit like Orthanc... showing of the marble nicely, along with Sarumon's robes.

I do hope to try out these guys again... perhaps at Adepticon!!!

Jake on a base

Not quite Jack in a Box, but some fun with glowing RJ-1027!

Here's a second member of the Wayward Eight on the new Burn in Designs bases...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

We three queens

Not exactly the Three Kings, but still fun!!

It's now officially 2015. and it's already an insane pace... there is so much to do, on so many fronts.

I was introduced to podcasting in 2014, starting with the good folks of Screaming Heretic.  That expanded to Garagehammer and The Good, The Bad, and the Enlightened. 

Look for many more podcasts in the year ahead, and other online video activities.

If at all possible, I would like to be able to conduct online classes via Google Hangouts.  These would be reinforced by interaction between the students, and the painting videos.

I'm not quite sure how all that will work out, since I will need to do a lot of small scale testing.  While I probably won't need a new camera, it's very possible that I might need a new rig to make things work in a group/class environment.

While it didn't work out last year (in spite of multiple attempts), I want to have the ability to play some sections of the pertinent videos in a classroom setting.  In effect, it could act as an extension of myself, in case two or more people have serious questions that need to be answered right away!

Another set of considerations involve starting up ebay and/or Amazon store fronts for the painting videos.  Also, I am thinking about having a few standard sizes of special USB drives that will carry copies of the painting videos.  These would be 'bundled' in various price ranges according to what will fit on a given drive.

Anyway, these are all things that I will have to blend in with the bazillion other tasks which all must be done at the same time!  I will try to keep you up to date on all that as things move along.

Thanks again for all your support!!

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!