I found myself, as so many times in the past, rushing to finish up this mini because I want to see it fully assembled and finished. I have problems sometimes seeing the whole when I'm only working on parts.  Also so I can move on to the next thing I'm all excited for. Well, not really excited, just what I need to get done before the RTT next month, which is 3 heavy weapons boyz, three killa kans and one grot oiler.

The Stormboy Nob is a brute of a piece now that I've glued most of him together. I have the rocket to finish up with a red and b/w checked pattern and a few small touch ups on the main body like the big shoota chain, powerklaw blade, the rings in his arms and blend in the neck extension. Then basing and sealing. Here's hoping the humidity stays low!
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I finished up the wires and control box and moved on to the pants. I guess I don't paint as fast (or as well) as some bloggers but I'm working on it :)

I've come to realize that large, open surfaces area my achilles heel right now. I don't seem to have the right dilution for smooth transistions on big sections, such as this guys blue pants. I choose to paint them blue, rather than the brown of the rest of the army, figuring they want to fool da enemy into thinking they were just another piece of sky! I know the boots are red and black... they're orks. Makes'em easier to find in my army case too.
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I started the body details last night. Leather straps and the jump pack controls were all I got done, almost. I didn't want just a drybrush metal over black to define the box and controls, I wanted something that would stick out a bit. I did a "black" box look so had to highlight it some with greys to bring out the details - I think it worked. I also wanted reds and yellows for the smaller parts, industrial warning colors. I think I struck the right balance in colors here. Choosing yellow for the switchbox and the lightning bolt and balancing that with the red button and the tank on the side.
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... taken from "Liar, Liar", The Movie.

Here's photo I promised showing the finished powerklaw. Pretty eh? I'll finish the bottom blade after it's affixed to the model. The only thing that bothers me in the photos is the shine, but I know it'll be knocked out when I Dullcoat it.

Till next time boyz and girlz!

I'm sure you folks are getting as bored of the Stormboy Nob as you are of the Amazons. At least the Amazons are naked, right? :-)

I put in an hour last night and finished some work on the big shoota and the powerklaw. I worked on some different techniques for brass and I'm not quite happy with the effect yet. Close, but not as happy as I am with the steel areas. I'm waiting to finish the small details like the rings in his arm and the chain on the gun until it's glued to the figure. Small details like this tend to get smudged when I glue the limbs on and I'd have to retouch them anyway.
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As promised last week, I took photos last night of our yearly yard decoration for Halloween. Why yesterday and not today? Mother Nature. It seems she doesn't want to cooperate this year. Todays forecast is cold and windy. Since our setup for Halloween night uses three smoke generators, part of the effect will be lost.

Otherwise, things will go as usual, scaring the kiddies!

Here's some photos of the setup. New this year: 6 more tombstones, a giant kid friendly ghost, a new guardian gargoyle, a life size werewolf and a life size Leatherface animatronic figure at the door.
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Got a little more time last night so I worked on the Stormboy again. Finished up the Scorpion Green highlighting and called it good.




It can be frustrating sometimes knowing that the pictures on the workbench aren't looking as good as real life, even with color correction in Photoshop, due to the lighting I use at my desk being much different than the ones when I "semi-professionally" shoot my models for CMON and my Big Shoota website. Oh well, I'll just have to wait until some space opens up in basement to set up a proper modeling room - that means a child will have to move out......someday.
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I went back last night a blacklined the wrappings and finished up the lip ring. Itried a NMM on the ring and it turned out, ehhhh, ok. I think I'll have to start my testing on NMM with a larger area. Better luck next time, I guess.




I moved on to the skin on the arms and body. Same color progression here: Orkhide Shade -> Dark Angels Green -> Snot Green -> Goblin Green -> Scorpion Green. After the Goblin Green I wash with Dark Green Ink to blend the layers a bit then touch up the lighter/higher areas with another spot of Golbin Green before using the Scorpion Green.
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As I mentioned in a previous blog my friends and I only play Warhammer 40K from October to April to as the summer months here in Minnesota are taken up with yardwork, house projects and travel. This last weekend was our first Gameday of the '07-'08 season.

We had three new(ish) tables to play on this year. A swamp/marsh, which in my opinion, was the best looking table this time. A fall colored midland forest that I think could have used and extra small ruin or two to liven up the table aesthetically. And the new lava table, which worked out rather well although I didn't get a chance to play on it - the ones who did thought it was cool.
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My hobby swing has come back around to the 40K and miniatures world. This weeks obsession is with terrain.

My gaming group doesn't play 40K very often, maybe 5-6 times a year, so I like to have new and interesting terrian to play on each time. This makes it easier to justify the scenarios and gives better narative to play by. We have the prerequisite forest, plains, mountainous, desert and ruined citiescape battlefields. We used 4x6 mdf boards covered by terrain matching cloth. Over this is placed foam hill, trees and other pieces of interest. ...