The summer months in Minnesota are a precious thing. No, it's not quite like northern Alaska with 6 months of night or anything, it's just that when the weather gets above freezing, we tend to get outside and enjoy it. This winter has been a long one, which has been good on the modeling/painting side, but hard on the psyche. The calendar say June but it feels like we've barely made it into April.

Soooo, with the warmer weather finally getting here the hobby stuff gets pushed aside in favor of things like sunlight, grilling, swimming (outdoors) and yardwork. So far we've installed a stone firepit and a large storage shed so we can reclaim the extra stall in the garage. New flowers and trees have been planted to replace the ones that didn't survive the winter (much like some people I know...) We've got a full slate of projects left - a patio, a grad party for our newest graduate, and a family vacation, a couple more trees...
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Been a while since I've posted here - most of my recent work's been logged on in the WIP thread for the Battlewagon. Now that I've started the bikes, I'll post them here.

I needed a brake from the battlewagon as 6-7 straight weeks will drive a person crazy. I dry-fit assembled on whole bike to look at how it goes together so I can figure out how to do it in sub-asseblies for painting. Looks like I'll have 4 parts (not including ork driver). The main frame as one, weapons and mount, front tire, and then the front fender. I'm making two boxes at time - one squad in red and one squad in black.
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Quick post. I put in an hour last night. One hour. An entire hour. And produced this.



I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to make the wider, flatter pyramid spikes that should adorn the roller plates.

Got a lot or work done on the Battlewagon this weekend due to an extended winter up here in the northland. Got the Big Shoota moutns finished, completed the Kill Kannon mount, added a grot riggers station behind/under the engine, aaaaaandd I started the rebuild of the deff rolla. This almost makes my to do list shorter than my done list - finally.

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Finished them a while ago - finally have photos!

You can vote on them here...

 

http://www.coolminiornot.com/188522

http://www.coolminiornot.com/188523 

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Here's the progress on my Shokk Attack Gun Big Mek. Having to paint, assemble, paint more, assemble more.... is making this a long and tricky model to finish. There's some in progress showing the gun prior to glueing to the main body. I wanted to reduce (or eliminate) the amount of greens stuff filler I needed due to time constraints. After test fitting multiple times, I concluded that glueing the arm at a slightly elevated angle allowed most of the other joins to be made on target without patching needed.
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Started work on my Big Mek with the Shokk Attack Gun finally. This is a giant model. I think the only ork model bigger is Gaz. Very detailed as always and a pleasure to paint. The head and body are done with one week till tournameny to finish him up along with 5 shootas to fill out my points.

Here he is in size comparison to the rest of my bigger/special models for color/detial reference. He's a biggie!...

I'm done with the trukk - whew! I know it's not my best work but considering the time I put in it's alright with me. I need the time before the tournament to do the Big Mek up right. Besides, this gives me practice for the next trukk, right?

Not too much different than the last post about it - less shiney as it's Dullcoted now. I think I went a bit overboard in the distressing of the model and it does come off as waaay too busy, to much to look at and hard to focus. I'll give it one thing though, it's very ramshackle looking. Great model (if a bit light on instruction) Games  Workshop!...

I think GW has gone too far. I mean, really. Yeah, yeah, I know. We screamed and shook our fists and banged on the tables for new models, better sculpts and something to make the orks proud. Why the hell did they have to give it to us? Honestly, they've gone far beyond what I would have expected and I'm glad for it. As my previous blogs reported (sound important, doesn't it?) I'm currently finishing up the Ork Trukk and it's a challenge, for a couple of reasons.

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Initial thoughts on the Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun. Skeeve was right about the amount of flash dat critters got on it. Holy crap! It took me nearly an hour to clean it up before primering. The only other model that took that much prep work were the Killa Kans. I assumed it was because the mold was so old, but what's the excuse for the brand spankin' new Big Mek?

Not all is horrible though. I'm finding myself in a strange state about the new ork models. I'm beginning to dread some of them since there's sooooo much detail to them. I've got two models to complete inside a month for a tournament. One Ork Trukk (half finished as you see in my blog here) and the Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun. At the pace I work, I'm not sure I'll make it!
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