Girot

no kidding, lol. what's left in Wave 3 anyway? of everything they just shipped out I don't see the Cloaked Predators (all variants), objective markers (all variants), 'extra bits' kit for the marines, and the add-on versions of the marines. i didn't order the resin terrain, predator ship tiles, or dice (all variants), so i cannot speak to those. everything else seems to be currently available.

checking in at 173 minis painted this year! that last batch suuuuucked... 58 infantry and 4 related 'boss monsters' over the course of two weeks. 9 more large-sized models prepped and ready to get painted. i've got two weeks of vacation coming up. my son and i will be working on the Realm of Battle table and terrain i've had stashed in my garage for the last couple of years. WARNING! LOTS OF DRYBRUSHING IMMANENT!

Finished up another 25 minis today. That brings me up to 127 so far...

Paint Question: what is the closest equivalent to the discontinued Icy Grey color (SKU 09174)? I tried Misty Grey but it's waaay too light.

beautiful work!

Even if the base rules suck it'll give me something to work with. I'm 100% down for this one.

checking in again with 102 painted minis! next up is my first 'gargantuan' mini of the year...

They're getting fielded as Hormagaunts. That's a Scibor "Ancient Ruins" 60mm Flying Base. THAT was a challenge, lol. Oh man... let me think... I layered up about 6 different grades of green, dark to light, then washed everything with "Biel-Tan Green" wash. Also, the entire army is sealed in satin polyurethane. I wouldn't dare use it on my Blood Angels but it looks fantastic on the bugs. :D

thank you, sir! saber building is a heck of a hobby. i can't begin to list the new skills I picked up from the first two sabers, though I used A LOT of the modelling skills i picked up here! :D

Those are Koralon Araktos. The Hive Mind has since repurposed them as Hormagaunts.

Between finishing Dungeon Ravenstein and painting I learned how to build lightsabers! This was tremendous fun. I also cannot convey the satisfaction one gets when they fire up a saber (they themselves created) for the first time. I know it's not miniatures related but I just had to share with you amazing folks... This is the Jedi Ronin "Sakabato" Saber The Force Awakens "Skywalker" Saber

The volume of art they're going to need is going to get EXPENSIVE very quickly. TRUST ME. I actually had aspirations of doing a boardgame based on the Codex Alera series. My friend and I had been prototyping it using Reaper figs, lol.

tell me about it, lol. this scheme was NOT my idea. the core of this army was given to me by a friend who played it once, got whooped, and rage quit. over the last few years i keep accumulating more second hand models. i didn't feel like stripping the original set so I just ran with it. it's grown on me at this point so it's all good.

Yeeeeeesssssss. I need this in my life.

Now that I can paint again I opted to warm up on my Tyranids. Mostly I stick to a "casual" paint scheme to keep them fun. I'm slowly working my way up to blending and layering but I'm please with what I have finished so far. Most of these are recent completions but I've included a few reshoots just because. :D Comments, questions, and critiques welcome!

checking in at... 92 painted minis this year!

I should be wrapping up my first stage practice today. All that's left is a few 60mm bases that need fleshing, Deathleaper, and a heavily converted Flyrant. I've got a large batch of Meiotic Spores that have large fleshy areas. While I could get away with doing the basics they are expensive models and deserve better. Also, I've got a couple of premium sculpted flight bases on the way for both Flyrants. They also will require decent paint jobs. Any good threads/tips out there for painting stone ruins?

what's shipping lead time looking these days?

maybe use the treadmills in the hotel workout room?

Boy, I'll tell ya. I've been rolling ones all day on my painting efforts. I overwashed one of my resin character minis and need to strip it and start over. Then the next three I got a perfect start on... then dropped them (all metal) on the way back into the house. All but one needed to be reassembled and all three needed lots of touchups. At the end of the day, though, I've made it up to 84 painted minis. I was trying to fill the transport tray but the last three I finished kept chipping so I had to stop for the night and seal the entire batch. One of the reasons I love my space bugs is I can use polyurethane spray to seal them. Even the satin is too glossy for most things but it looks great on space bugs. They need a couple days to fully cure, but once they're no longer tacky I'll be breaking out the light box for a full photoshoot of the entire army. Some of them I've shot before but that was before I learned how to photograph minis correctly.