US Rifle Company part one done

I have been out of the country for most part of September, so there has not been much time to spend on the minis. Giving the marines a little rest for now and giving the US Rifle Company some attention instead.
Everything (except staff, observer, jeep) for my US Rifle Company is ready for the table.

The Rifle Company so far

Command

Platoon one

Platoon two

Weapons Platoon with some  minor variations on the bases.

105 mm Field Artillery

On the 14th I have a battle evening planned, I hope it will be good. Going to order the other half of my company and with some luck it arrives before the 14th and I will be able to field some tanks as well. Not painted but it will be better then nothing.

On the table - August 2011

Next up on my table for some care are two 10 man JP assaulters and my Vanguard Veterans. I have been eye balling the Space Wolf sprues for some time and in my last order I got a box of them. They have some pelts, runes and teeth and I think most of this can be made to fit in to the theme of Flesh Tearers (killing tigers with their bare hands or something). With some green stuff and a file I guess the most blatant evidence of wolfyness can be erased.


First up is my Vanguard.

BP/Chain sword, Power weapon/BP and Lightning claw/Storm shield

Thunder hammer and Lightning claw/Bolt pistol

I think I will have to do something about the storm shield, maybe file it down and add some more fleshy items?

The first ten man jump squad, minus the sarge who is almost done and not in the picture. Two arm less melta gunners are in the picture too.

US 105mm Artillery - Part 2

Two months to almost finish the guns, not bad for being me.
Been a busy summer, trying to fix up some parts of the house. With no vacation, working full time at my usual work and then having our small side business picking up some customers as well the little plastic/metal soldiers haven't gotten the attention I was hoping for.


The four guns are painted, varnished and based (a few straws of grass and some other basing material left) so for the full battery, I will have to paint the command, observer and a jeep.

I was fixing up some marines with some green stuff and got a piece left over, so I tried to model some sand bags for one of the snipers.

US 105mm Artillery - Part 1

The FoW-bug has bitten me again so yesterday I primed the rest of my infantry and the guns and bases for my 105mm artillery. Working with the airbrush is a joy, makes priming so easy. With the new work room in place, the work gets even easier. To improve my air brush experience I need to build a small stand for the air brushes though, at the moment I have to fiddle around a bit when I refill paint and so on.

Additions to my US Rifle Company

105 mm howitzer has gotten some paint

As always, when the minis has been primed the mold lines that I missed show up. Guess the old file has to work a bit again.

Basing my US Rifle Company - Part 2

The basing material has finally arrived and I have started to base my Rifle Company. Part one can be found here: Basing my US Rifle Company - Part 1


I started out by mixing up green and brown turf. This is the mix that major of the bases will have, the two base shades will be used to break up the pattern a bit.


Pu the base that will get some nice greenery on a piece of paper, this will let you bring up the turf that is not sticking to the base. To stick the turf to the bases, I use PVA/water about 50:50 and I put it on the base with a good old brush and then just sprinkle some turf on it. I let it dry for a bit and then shake the excess off.

Repeat this for the different shades that are going to be used.

When the turf is done, I put some static grass in a few spots. I tried a small sift but it was more difficult and did not produce the result I was looking for. Instead I just stick some grass on to a glue spot and shake it off, holding the base up-side-down to have the grass stand a little bit (at least I imagine it will help).

After this, I go for the foliage in two different shades. To put it on the bases, I use a pair of tweezers, grab the flock, dab in a bit of PVA (not watered down) and then stick it to the base. It might need a little press and squeeze here and there to come out the way you want it.

Final step for these bases is the grass tufts. 

A note on the grass: I bought some "Field Grass" from Woodland Scenics but I am not that happy with it. Very hard to handle since it comes in individual straws and 15mm scale is not very big. Next time I order some miniatures I will try out Silfor's grass tufts (or similar from some other brand) since they seem to be easier to handle: just some glue and stick it to the base. The WS-stuff takes a lot more time, cutting, shaping and so on. If anyone has any ideas to make it look good, please stick a comment below.

Magnetizing predator sponsons

This is how I have magnetized my Rhino-chassis. I have four Rhinos, which can go as Rhinos, Razorbacks or Predators.
What you need:

• 3 mm magnets
• 3 mm drill
• Some sprue
• Scalpel (optional)
• Super glue
• Marker pen (optional)

First, I drill a hole in the sponson and glue a magnet in there. 

Then I cut a piece of sprue to fit on the chassis. I make sure that I cut it down a bit so the sponson can fit. After this, drill a hole in the middle of the sprue (I use a scalpel to make a small dent to guide the drill).

Finally, glue another magnet in the sprue. Make sure that you have the polarity in the correct direction. Easiest way to do this is to let the magnet go on to the sponson, mark it with a marker pen and then use the mark to remember which side goes first in to the hole in the sprue.

Baal Predators, ready to mow down some xeno scum!

Smoke markers

I decided to make some smoke markers, good for 40k when you pop smoke for example.


What I used:

Poker marker

Paper clip

Some aquarium filter thingy

Glue gun

Skull White and a light grey primer

1. Glue a piece of the paper clip to the poker marker
2. Take a piece of the plastic filter thingy, glue it to the paper clip. I just wrapped it around and then glued the seam. 
3. Prime with grey primer, then add some white when it has dried.

The result

Reinforcements!

A small package arrived in the mail the other day, some 105mm Howitzers for my Rifle Company is here!
I will probably not have time to paint for them for a while, but I can put them together with some hobby-tac and play test them at least.

From Miniature gaming

There was also some hair (as my wife called it) in the parcel, just waiting for the rest of my order and I will finally be able to finish all the basing I have left to do for both my Rifle Company and my Flesh Tearers.

From Miniature gaming

Sanguinary Guard - Update 3

Some haze and highlighting of the edges, pretty happy with it and I don't think I will spend more time on them now. Next I will add some soot effect on the infernus pistol and the jump packs.

From Miniature gaming

Sanguiary Guard - Update 2

Had some time left over, so I sat down and started painting the weapons of the Sanguinary Guard. I found a small tutorial on lightning effects over the Bolter and Chainsword
I didn't have the same colors in stock, so I have used the foundation Necron Abyss, Valljo's Blue, Vallejo's Electric Blue and a white.

The blades were based with the Necron Abyss and then I painted a lightning like pattern with lighter and lighter blue and finished it with a thin white line. To finish them I need to do some highlighting on the edges and the white haze effect mentioned in the tutorial.

From Miniature gaming

From Miniature gaming

Sanguiary Guard - Update 1

My Sanguinary Guard are getting closer to the finish line. I have fixed up all the feather parts, blood drops and engine exhausts. I have the weapons, both swords and guns, parchments and cloth, heads, wings and bases left now. Maybe some minor details too, they will probably show up in a photo when I have varnished them.

From Miniature gaming

From Miniature gaming

I got the colors for the engine exhaust here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=209978&view=findpost&p=2504715

From Miniature gaming

Some projects and some games

Been busy times at home and here are some updates on what has been going on.
The office/hobby room has been redone. We have painted the walls, put up cabinets and built a better desk.
The room before, just a desk and no space to put aside anything. It looked really messy no matter what:

From Rödeby 2011

Fresh, tidy and orderly, meet the iRoom 2011:

From Rödeby 2011

From Rödeby 2011

I have had time for a few games of 40k, all of them 1000p games.
One game vs Orks, a foot slogging list with some Deffkoptas. I tried out some jumpy assaulters and a sanguinary guard. It was a five objectives game, spear head deployment. I smashed up the Orks pretty good and won.
The second game was versus a Tyranid force. I had some good luck with my shooting, routed a group of gaunts off the table and in the end it was down to a draw with both of us holding one objective each.

From Miniature gaming

From Miniature gaming

The third game was a guy at the local game club who threw together a quick list of Grey Knights. It started off quite OK, but then it went down the drain and I lost 5-2 in that dawn of war with kill points. GK are really mean in CC with all those power weapons. The shooting I can take with the FNP bubble, but those swords, ouch!

From Miniature gaming

From Miniature gaming

Some painting has been going on too, a shot of my Sanguinary Guard unit:

From Miniature gaming

We had a game of Axis & Allies 1942, my first. I really enjoyed it even though I was on the losing side. It will probably be more of these nights coming up in the future.

From Miniature gaming

And finally, the best project of them all: my self.
Me and my wife has changed our eating habits and work out habits a bit, I have now lost about 20 kilos, my wife about the same.
Here is a before-and-after picture of me (I don't think my wife would like to pose):

From Weight change

FT Librarian

Put my last painting touches on my Librarian last night, now he just need some varnish and basing done. At least for this time, I need to paint up the bulk of my army and I don't want to spend to much time on individual characters at the moment.

From Miniature gaming

First projects for 2011 started

The first house project for the year has started, our office/hobby room is getting a face lift and some needed storage space.
We will put up some cabinets and shelves where we can put some things away, hidden behind some doors instead of being spread all over the desk. The old desk has been given away to my wife's brother, in it's place we will build a long desk along one of the walls with space for two instead of a big, curved desk taking half of the room.

From Rödeby 2011

On the miniature front, I have cleaned up and put together my Honour Guard, a squad of Vanguard Veterans, another Dreadnought, a Sanguinary Guard and some bikes. I have also converted some Melta guns from Bolters/Infernus Pistols.
On the way to finishing those 1000 points, I am trying out some NMM and glazing technique on my Librarian that I found on Youtube.

From Miniature gaming

From Miniature gaming

Tried to practice some steel NMM on a horse's ass. I am not sure if I got the shine correct, maybe the colors should have been switched. I also made some misstakes with the highlight (too much and thick paint in the bristles).

From Miniature gaming