Well, our local trivia marathon is over and I'm feeling very much like a burnt out husk of a human being. Our team did alright at 18 out of 78 teams and we edged out our friendly rivals by one place, again (cool).

The game itself has changed over the years since the birth of the internet and the question writers have gone to great lengths to "Google-proof" the questions. They become riddles of sorts that must be decoded, then you can start looking for the answer they REALLY want. Do this 9 times and hour for 50 hours. Whew!...

Things have been quiet here on the modeling front as of late due to the impending storm that is Trivia. I know we're not the only ones who do this across hte US (as a trivia freak, I'd better know!) but it's one of the larger, and longer ones, and fun none the less.

Our local state college student run radio station - 88.1 KVSC - runs a 50 hour Trivia Marathon every February. Yes, 50 hours straight, from 5pm Friday evening all the way through Sunday evening 7pm - non stop. They ask 9 questions an hour (18 during the "Speed Rounds") over the air and we call in answers, hoping we can get them right before the questions are closed. The point values and time we have available to answer them are based on how hard the question is.
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I know, I know. Not a mini, but it is my latest work - that I've had done anyway. I've been saving up for this for about two years and the time has finally come. my new tattoo! This is about 2 1/2 hours in the chair. Outline and a little over half the shading is done. That's about when my adrenaline wore out. I'll go back in about three weeks after this has healed to get the rest of teh shading and the color put in.

The red tribal swirl and the black bats with it are a previous work. The color is being refreshed to match the rest of the new work. ...

I finished the Ork Trukk bed this weekend. There is an amazing amount of detail on such small surface area there. The roll bars are nearly finished as well, then I can move on to the chassis and engine. The chassis should be pretty quick - grey/dirt highlights with quick but subtle metal dry brush and a coat of rusty wash to blend and age/weather the piece. I'm not going to be too picky as it's underneath everything else.

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I started the metal work for my boyz trukk this week. Here's the steps I use.

I sprayed the panels that are going to be mostly red with Testors Flat Red enamel in two very light coats, then go over all the details I want to be metal with Chaos Black.



The first photo is all of the metal areas blocked out. This is the longest part of the process, and the most tedious. A note on "doing a clean job" versus the "messiness of orks". I go through the piece and block it out carefully, making sure to do my edges as if I was doing a "clean" model. Then I go back over it and pick out the edges carefully with Chaos Black as the basis for my chipped metal edges. It's a controlled randomness that takes some experimenting with to get it right and something that can easily be overdone, which in my book looks just messy rather than worn. I tend to err on the side of too little rather than too much.
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Hmmmm - what to blog about first? Codex or models? It's been a while since I posted pictures so I 'll talk about models. Besides, everyone would rather look at pictures than read, right?

I picked up the new Ork Bikes and the Trukk this weekend and I have to say it - I like Games Workshop! Not that I never did, just that I feel they did the new ork vehicles justice. My first thoughts were "it's smaller than it looked in the pics online." But that's ok, if it were larger I'd be worried about more fire coming at it! Although you'll never actually get a dozen boyz in this thing, it's a far cry better than the shoebox from before. The first pic's a size comparison old and new. As I said before, this thing is downright Junkyard!...

Alright, I'm kinds just burning time here while I wait for the new models to arrive. Bikes, Trukks and Shokk Attack Guns - Oh My! The holidays are over so I can start devoting a little more time to army painting. I'm starting to fill some points out with a Big Gunz unit. I figure I'll just paint up one set of crew grots with an extra grot for each, then I'll paint up a squad of 3 each (lobbas, kannons and zzap guns).

Here's the crews all ready for their newly painted big gunz.
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Well, we're in the middle of the holiday season and been away from the net for a while. here's the lowdown on giftage, which seems to be the topic these days.

Box of Ork Boys
A cool toy truck to loot for the orks
Enough money to buy the codex, 3 Biker Boxes, two Trukks and the Shokk Attack Big Mek, when they're released.

Robot Chicken - Season Two
(More) Trivial Pursuit 80's, 90's, Pop Culture (our favorite family game)

Enough money to finally do my haunted house, creepy halloween scene half-sleeve tattoo (cool). The dragon (left calf) and Fallen, Red-Haired Angel (my wife, right calf) will have to wait until next year....

I went through my army list recently and found I have 6 extra poitns to spend (how did that happen?) so I chose to add a Grot Oiler for the Big Mek. As most ork players do, I havea ton of grot models - both plastic, second edition and 1st/3rd/4th edition metals. I dug through the collection a pulled this one out.

He's carrying a huge wrench that will most likely be used more as a hammer than a bolt tightener. At first I figured I'd speed paint him just to get him outta da way since I didn't think it was that great of a sculpt but as I was painting his skin tones, his character really started to come out. I decided to take a little more time and do him right and here's where he stands now. He really looks beleaguered and downtrodden - perfect for the job. You can almost hear him panting and wheezing.
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I promised new photos when I was done (and brought home the good camera) and here they are. Stormboy Nob, Big Shootas, and the Killer Kans Squadron. Eagle eye viewers will note the missing rokktis on the black kan. I was missing it until today - my bad. Click Kans pic for larger one.

The other pics are of my tournament force for this coming weekend. 1850 points of pure Waaagh! Click on the pic for larger waaagh shot.

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