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Friends,

I start this thread with no small amount of trepidation. While I'm no stranger to posting on forums of one sort or another, this is likely to be a very long, demanding and personal endeavor if I do it justice. I ask you for your patience and apologize in advance if I too often wax philosophical... it is my nature. I do promise lots of photo's of miniatures and projects in process and a lot of opportunities to give feedback on what you see and read. So hopefully even those of you without kids will find something of value. There will also be discussions of things particular to guiding a child through the ups and downs of 40k, dealing with losses, setting standards for your own conduct, learning to model and paint, placing value on aspects of the hobby besides just winning the game. You are welcome to comment on these issues as they arise, or bring them up on your own for others to respond to, whether you have a child or not. Wisdom is not the unique possession of those who have bred successfully (often it's just the opposite).

I'm hoping that this topic comes at a rather unique time in the hobby. At around 20 years old, 40k has reached (by several years) a natural point of generational turnover. The kids, like me that were playing it in HS or in college, are now old enough to have children of our own who might also be interested in playing. While this offers wonderful opportunities for parent/child togetherness, it does offer specific challenges as well. I'm certainly not above asking for help or a second opinion when faced with a difficult situation, neither am I above saying "Lookie what he did!" when one of my boys do something cool. Sorry, you'll have to put up with that once in a while, I am a proud father of two wonderful boys.


Enough of that... let me give you a very brief bit 'o background, then we'll get to the interesting stuff.

I've been playing 40k since the Rogue Trader days back when I was in college. I had two armies back then, Mantis Warrior space marines (beakies), and pirate eldar (which eventually became craftworld eldar). Two principles have always guided me in 40k; have a good time win or lose, and have the best looking army on the field. I almost always succeed in both. NOT that I'm a great painter... I'm a good painter... but I always field fully painted armies where every figure is painted to a good standard... so the effect of the whole is greater than my skill with any one figure. About 6 years ago I stopped playing, not for any specific reason... new state, new house, new job, new kid... life just got busy. About a year ago, my two sons (6 and 9) came home from school with a "library book"... an old... OLD copy of White Dwarf (how this got into the school library I'll NEVER know), and were all excited because their friends were playing this cool game with space marines, etc. In the midst of excited begging and pleading about letting them start to collect figures and play, I walked them downstairs into the basement and pulled out some old boxes containing several thousand points of fully painted Marines and Eldar, vehicles and all.

The rest, as they say... is history.


(more to come... need a fresh cup of coffee)

Up next... "Chapter and Verse": the first two units of Doom Eagles


NOTE: My Necron painting process can be found here. (This note is mainly for me as I keep forgetting and am tired of trudging through the blog looking for it.)

"Chapter and Verse" : Choosing the Doom Eagles


After we'd played my two armies against each other for a while it was only natural for both boys to pick army's of their own. The youngest chose orks... since I'd harbored a long suppressed desire for a Bad Moon army and we had the orks from the Black Reach set to get started, that was fine. I'd been hoping my 9-year-old would choose something equally interesting... something with expensive troops so I didn't have to buy a million of them and easy to paint... like Necrons. In the end though, he decided on Space Marines. This vexxed me a bit because we already HAD a fully painted space marine army... having the same army in a different color scheme doesn't really get us anywhere. In the end I relented however, and agreed to let him build a Marine army with the following caveats. 1) It would have to be a color scheme he could paint himself. 2) He would have to be satisfied with hand-me-downs and extra's from my SM army, or use his own money to buy them as I would be d#$%ed if I was going to spend thousands of dollars buying yet another SM army! (I didn't swear but you get the idea.)

Luckily for him, I had accumulated a LOT of extra's over the years, had written all tracked or wheeled vehicles out of my Mantis Warrior list so he could take what I had, and had a good friend (the guy who got me into 40k all those years ago) who donated some more guys & even painted up some command figures for him. Oh, and we had the Black Reach figs too.... so he was set. Lastly, I gave him a special job around the house the payment for which he is allowed to spend on 40k. If he completes his tasks on schedule, it could amount to around $300 a year, plenty for him to spend on a hobby. Money he gets from relatives and such as presents is not to be spent on 40k.


The Great Debate

So... what chapter to choose. My son chose his chapter the same way I chose mine 18 years ago... paging through pictures of marines until you found one that you liked and thought you could paint. We looked on the web, found an old poster with a bunch of different chapters on it, found my old scans of the pages from the 1st Ed rule book that had chapters on them... the whole bit. There was a great back-and-forth debate as he would select one incredibly complicated chapter paint job and I would summarily veto it. Finally we settled on these silver guys with black and red highlights. Striking yet simple to paint... all good.

The fluff we found for them is here: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Doom_Eagles

Clinically depressed space marines... 50mg of Lexapro would do these boys wonders.


When it came to painting, I saw no reason why his models couldn't be as well painted as mine at the very least. He's younger with better eyes, and though his coordination is still developing, he's more than capable of performing the basics (spray priming, dry brushing, washing and basic color selection, detail painting). Our goal is to have his army be one of the better painted armies out, regardless of the age of the painter. There was nothing in your average Doom Eagle, that he (or any other kid his age) could't do if taught properly. It should be noted that the 6-year old can do everything I've mentioned above... he just can't do it on a single figure scale yet... so he paints terrain and the old gorkamorka trucks, of which we have several.

Anyway, here's a photo of the very first figures my son painted... a Doom Eagle terminator squad.


I'd like to break the narrative for a sec here... is this image too small for what you'd like to see? I'm trying to use as little space in my gallery as possible with each image, but looking at it in my preview... it looks a bit small.

To continue:
Here are 5 of the 10 members of my son's Doom Eagle terminator squad. If you're old enough you might recognize the terminators from the original Space Hulk game... I just cut the antenna off. Straight-forward but attractive color scheme that is easy to paint and looks good on the table top. Two shades of metal were dry brushed over black primer, then washed with Badab Black (GW). Black and red details were then painted and washed. Gold eagles and such were drybrushed on. I helped out with the detail on the sergeant (I can never make a face this good on one of my own figs) and the heavy flamer. There's still a lot to do, but rather than forcing him to add detail at this stage, we called them done so he can play with them. Later on, when he's motivated and a little better painter... we can come back and work on adding fine detail to each. Since getting my Foredom up and running again I've been drilling the gun barrels on everything, easy to do and makes a difference... but you have to be careful! It helps to put a little dent in the middle of the barrel with a punch or small nail so you have something to center the drill bit on before you start drilling.

The rule when it comes to painting at our house, is that you can't start the next squad until you finish the one your currently working on. This helps him to stay focused and field completely painted models rather than a bunch of half painted ones. I get final say as to if they're done or not... so I can make sure he's not rushing from one project to the next. Once the termies were done, we cobbled together a bunch of bits out of the bits box into a 10-man assault squad. Here is the result.

The troopers in the 10-man squad were all assembled from random bits left over from my Mantis Warrior army. The sergeant is from the Assault on Black Reach tactical squad. We stuffed jump packs on them all and viola! Instant assault squad. There are at least two different era's of bolt pistols represented in the squad (some are chopped down bolters from the original plastic beakie-marine sets), and only a couple of them have been given any detail yet. Personally I wouldn't have made the entire weapon red... but it's my son's chapter and that's where he wanted to go with them, so I butted out.



Close-up of the sergeants showing detail. Again I did the head and some of the other fine detail, but my son did everything else. This is a good example of a figure that still has a lot of room for added detail. That's O.K. I've been trying to impart my ethic, which is that I never field an unpainted figure... so rather than paint all the little details on each figure from the get-go, we paint them to a good standard so they can be played, knowing that he will eventually return to them when he can relax, take his time and finish them right. On top of that his brush control isn't quite fully developed yet... so I figure waiting on the fine detail as he develops as a painter is probably a wise idea. The assault sergeant also benefited from a little extra attention since at the time he and the termie srg were the closest things to characters in his army.

Next: "The Objective (marker) of My Desire"

This is a short post when compared with the last two. This is a Doom Eagle objective marker that I made for my son's army depicting a battle brother pinned beneath wreckage and fighting fro his life, on his last clip of ammo. The whole scene was scratch built from bits and pieces. Unfortunately it went to a big gaming birthday party last night and did not come home... so it may be lost. But... it is my first attempt any any type of diorama and is a reasonable approximation of my level of modeling skill and at least my attempt is now immortalized in the electronic ether of cyberspace.


So now you have a bit of context. Like I said, I'm not a great painter... but if I apply myself I can turn out a pretty good looking figure and see no reason why my son can't do the same.

I think I just used the standard beakie legs from the original set, so that's just the positions they were in. The one thing I think I was proudest of, which you can't see in the photo is that his left arm is actually going straight down to the ground with his hand flat out like he's pushing himself up to get a better shot. I like doing objectives... have an involved eldar/chaos one I'm working on at the moment. I'm sure I'll have lots of opportunities to refine my modeling technique in the future based on what I learn on the forum, so I'm all smiles.

Good idea on the terminators, I make the suggestion to my son.

This next one is something I'm really hoping to get some help with. This is his first vehicle... an old Mantis Warrior Predator, decommissioned and given a new lease on life with the Doom Eagles. Problem is that I was never any good at painting vehicles... it's one of the reasons I wrote them out of my Mantis Warrior army (love Dreds though... lots of Dreds). So when it comes to teaching my son to paint them... they end up looking like my vehicles... not so good, just different colors. That being said, I thought he did a fine job with what he had... I've just never had the knack of turning out good tanks so he didn't get much useful information from me. Any good ideas or links would be most welcome. Since I just joined the forum I haven't had the chance to dig around for good articles, I'm sure they're out there though.




As far as the little one's painting, I can share a couple of things. I've been doing most of the ork painting as I've always wanted an ork army and his attention span is NOT that of his older brother. But he did a bang-up job on one of the pieces of terrain I gave him (one of the GW pre-formed pieces) and one of his little gorkamorka trucks was really impressive considering he got NO help or input from me... he just did it. Will include shots of those in the next post.

OK here by popular demand... the painting efforts of my 6-year-old... otherwise known as "Thing 2".



My 6-year-old's first piece. Guided by me but he did most of the work himself, I just touched up the pod and added the center dome. Still needs flocking. He did the priming, base painting, highlighting and washing. We had to go back to it a couple of times with each step to make sure he got everything... but he stuck to it and turned out a pretty nice piece.



My 6-year-old's second attempt. He did this one with no guidance or involvement from me what-so-ever. I don't know about you, but I was impressed... I don't look at this as an end-point but as a starting point, and a pretty good one for that age.

I wanted to let you guys know that I've run all your ideas by my son and he's very excited about it all. I must say I'm excited too, never had help before really... not like you folks are providing. Got a tidbit here and there of course but to have a number of accomplished individuals looking over and providing helpful advice is a tremendous experience. Thank you!

So I started with something simple and took Munch Munch!'s advice and fiddled with one of the terminators. I figured I'd experiment with one first before setting my son to the task. Here's what I came up with...



I painted the head skull white, washed with Valejo "pale wash", then went back over the ridges and such with white again. While I was at it and because I'd been digging around GW's site looking for their painting tutorials (thanks again for alerting me to these), I made an attempt to paint his eyes using their technique (my son picked the color). When all was said and done it looked good, but something was still missing... so I painted the power fist to match.

My son loves the way they look, and so do I. Problem is that a fair amount of this is above his level yet (the eyes stretched mine to be sure). But he can do the white, the red trim on the PG and the washing for sure. Who'd a thunk that these cheezy old plastic terminators would turn out looking this decent? Unfortunately the storm bolter is just kinda... yech. But hey... they were free. What do 10 termies cost now-a-days?? Few bucks I'd guess. We'll stick with the free ones & spend our sheckels on things we don't have.

The link to the background info was in my second post. Here it is again though...

The fluff we found for them is here: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Doom_Eagles

Did a little more fooling around with the terminator... found a great article here about using green stuff to do a bunch of things including making purity seals... something all terminators should have. It was easy and worked really well. Will update the photo in the earlier post with the final results tonight.

That's very generous, thank you! At the moment the only heavy weapons he has for his 10-man squad are the flamers, so something with a bit more range would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone, he does do a good job... though if I didn't re-focus him from time to time I think he'd be rushing through some of this stuff so the results wouldn't be quite as good.

Here is, I think... the final version of the terminators. For those of you going "wow!" please keep in mind that the picky little details (head, eyes, purity seals) on this version were done by me (the dad). Look at the original photo's of the troopers and tanks (and read the narrative) to sort out what he's done vs. my contributions. That being said, I expect that he will be doing the heads and power fists on his own from now on... I'll do the eyes and make the purity seals. I have a really neat idea for making a "banner" for one of the terminators that will be a golden rope baldric with campaign ribbons and purity seals hanging off of it. I'll start playing around with it tonight and will post pics if it works out.

And yes, we go through the posts together so he can see everyone's comments and read the advice for himself. We've both learned a lot in the last few days since beginning this blog... and it's been fun to work together on improving the models. It's been even neater than usual because he get's to see ME learning new things too, rather than just me always teaching him.



Ah yes... the "raging sister" special attack... devastating. The only defense is to have your Land Raider "hull down" somewhere in the back of your closet or hidden under the bed.

Will do, thanks gretar!

Funny bit... looking at those purity seals, the center "ball" still looks way too large for the seal. Let me tell you those are the smallest little balls I could make. I just kept "rounding" a ball, cutting it half, rounding it again, cutting in half again, etc. The reason they are so uneven is that they were so small I could no longer round them between my fingers, they ended up oblong. I need to find tiny little spheres somewhere that I can use instead.

Excellent suggestion! He's really excited about the way they turned out, so I don't think I'll have any problems convincing him.

I have a lot of faults... not listening when people share good ideas isn't one of them.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about this a bit. I actually have a few things of this type I'd like to talk about, but everyone seemed so interested in the figures that I thought I'd let that run for a while (plus we were getting excellent advice).

We play a lot of games at home. I just started bringing him to the local gaming shop as I've started to get to know the owners and the other players. It's a great place & the other 40k'ers are fun and very talented, and I'm very comfortable bringing him there. In general... the rule around the house is "you can't field unpainted figures"... and since I already have a space marine army, if he wants to he can always borrow my Mantis Warriors to fill the gaps in his army... but to be honest he will always choose his figures over mine. So that's a self-motivating factor. The second painting rule is; "You can't start another unit until you finish painting whatever you're currently working on." I have final say over when a unit is complete. So he knows that if he want's to move on the the next, greatest thing... he has to finish up what he's working on now and do a good enough job that I'll give it the OK. (even the little one knows this rule)

I've never yelled at the kids about painting, though I certainly have made comments about sloppy work when I know they can do better. I spend a lot of time painting myself, and as you can see from the blog I try to inspire them by not only working on my own stuff, but by helping them with their stuff. The two termies in the last photo will be the last I do the heads and fists for him... they were just the inspiration and something to get him started. I'll encourage him to go back and paint the white and red on the rest himself, then I'll come in, tidy them up and do the really difficult stuff like the eyes. Eventually I'll teach him how to do that too, but all the painting can be very overwhelming, so rather than ramming it down his throat, I just gently encourage him and help him along the way.

We also do a lot of story telling and narratives based on our games or the units we have. The ork army is loaded with little stories about different units or characters. Even though I'm the one painting the orks... the stories help to fire their imagination and keep them motivated. The other thing isn't something I have any control over... but it helps tremendously. As I mentioned in the into, he's got a bunch of buddies from school that also play. I think only one or two have made any attempt to paint their figs, and none of them have the "vintage" figures that he's gotten from me. So, the fact that he's got all these retro figs combined with how they're painted get's him a lot of attention from his buds... which of course he loves. More motivation to keep painting, and having the nicest painted army helps take the sting out of losing (works for his dad too).

So, the fact that he's never seen an unpainted figure on the gaming table at home before, and the fact that I help him paint and the reenforcement he gets from his friends all add up to keep him pretty well motivated when it comes to painting.

He got a little $5 store credit in a gift bag from the 40k birthday party he went to. He and a buddy combined their credit and bought a little blister pack of 2 Tau (the winged guys) and split it... pretty smart. Now he's all cranked up about painting the Tau and is talking about a Tau army.

Can I continue to write this blog even *after* I wring his neck??? *grin*

Since we're sort of discussing what vehicles to use to keep a young hobbyist motivated, I thought I'd share one of mine. I'm also promising not to post a dozen little chatty comments a day for those of you who may key in on updates. Not that I won't answer questions or talk with folks (that's the whole point after all), but I would like each of my posts to have some actual substance to it. I'm sure you folks would appreciate that as well. You can always PM me to chat... could spend all day doing that. (chuckle)

As I've mentioned before, one of the things I do to help keep my kids interested in the "hobby", as opposed to just the war game... is to make up stories about certain figures or units. Right now they're all limited to my orks because there's not a whole lot funny or silly about craftworld eldar or space marines. Besides, the 6-year old can't read yet, so he's still very dependent on story telling as a way of accessing "fluff". I try to make the stories fun and a bit funny... if not in a "slap your knee, haw, haw" way, then at least worth a smirk and a giggle.

So, I present to you... the story of my Bad Moon Warboss, Oozegob Gitsplitta (along with a little pic so you can see the fig that inspired the story). It's just the Black Reach warboss... just about the first figure I painted after getting back into the hobby last year. Hope you enjoy it!



Back in the days when Oozegob was just another young nob in the mob, he was looking for a way to distinguish himself from the other nobs (aside from his constant drooling) and curry favor with the war boss. While he was ferocious in battle, it just took him too long to hack his way through the armor of the "oomies", "fairies" and "bugs" with his rusty old choppa to rack-up the body count he felt he needed to get the attention he deserved. So, he collected up his teeth and went in to see the mad dok for an upgrade... "sumfin' splitty-like", he said. Unfortunately the mad dok explained that in spite of the prodigious pile of teeth Oozegob had brought in payment, times were tight in the clan and supplies for such a modification were hard to come by, so only "battle damage" was allowed to be repaired by such a process. Oozegob... realizing that his dreams of advancement were being dashed before his eyes... flew into a rage. He took his own, rusty choppa and in one mighty blow... cut off his arm below the wrist. He then took the severed appendage and proceeded to beat the mad dok near to death with it. He then shook the bloody stump of his arm at the bloody stump of a mad dok, and bellowed... "Dere! Now dis is bat-le damage! Now git me my Splitta you Git!" When the dok regained consciousness, his orderly was immediately dispatched to get the clan mek, and after three days of intensive effort (and several more beatings)... Oozegob's mighty power klaw, dubbed "da Git Splitta" was created.

Over the years of course, Oozegob and his appendage have split a lot of gits... and his name and that of his weapon have become synonymous. "Oozegob and his Git Splitta" became "Oozegob the Git Splitta" followed by "Oozegob Gitsplitta" and now more often than not... just "Gitsplitta". It is a transition the War boss is entirely satisfied with. There is even some indication of a schizophrenic break in Oozegob's psyche, with some of his boyz reporting instances of Oozegob referring to his arm in the 3rd person and suggesting it is making it's own decisions. i.e. "Da Gitsplitta don't like dat... but I'll see if I can talk 'im inta it." Only time will tell if the role-reversal will ever be complete and Oozegob the ork will become simply an appendage of "da gitsplitta", rather than the other way around.



*whoops!* I did actually intend to answer the questions...

I used to technique from GW where you paint the whole eye black, then do the upper part dark tone, the middle mid-tone and the lower the lightest tone. You leave a thin black line just visible along the top and put a little white dot on the lens to represent a reflection. I know you can't see it from the photo... but it's all there. I am very open to suggestions & happy to try other techniques. As to the purity seals, it just dawned on me that if I use a small nail-setting punch to turn the GS ball into a seal shape, I should get exactly the shape I want in one step. Come to think of it, I'll probably make my own "seal stamp" out of a little piece of styrene rod. As usual, will show a pic if it works. Should be pretty simple though... The power glove is actually a solid white, but then it was washed over with Valejo "pale wash" just to keep it consistent with the head (which also has the same treatment).

OK, I know I said that I wouldn't deluge the blog with posts, but I also said that if something I tried worked... I'd post it. What I tried tonight worked beyond my expectations.

This is a follow-up to an excellent article on how to use green stuff, part of which was how to make your own purity seals. (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/242387.page)
I had issues with making the tiny little balls that went on the inside... so I decided to use my brains rather than my fingers.

I made a purity seal "stamp" out of a toothpick that makes perfect purity seals, every time. Not the ribbon part, but the seal part. Here's a very brief tutorial...


1. To make perfect purity seals every time... make a tool by either drilling or grinding a small hole in the end of a dowel or toothpick. The tool I used with my Foredom (rotary tool) is on the right... it's just a ball with grooves for grinding away material.



2. Next, dip the tip of your tool in water and press down on the ball of green stuff. Seems to get the best definition of you roll the tool around gently once it's pressed down.



3. And here we are... perfect purity seals every time. I made about 25 of them in less than 5 minutes. Making the little round balls was the hard part.



4. final result...



5. Here's how you make the tool. If you don't have a rotary tool, simply drill a straight hole into the bottom of a small dowel, then bevel the edges of the dowel with a file until you reach the edge of your hole. Since the green stuff will only go up the "shaft" as far as you push the tool down, and friction will give the inner section a natural curve, the end result should be nearly identical.





Neat thing is that once you get the hang of it, you can make fancier stamps. You can file grooves into the face of the 45-degree bevel to make a starburst pattern if you want. I'm even looking at taking a tiny little plastic I-beam and trying to use it to make a Maltise cross (or something similar).

O.K., now I'm done for the day. :-)

Your ogryn are awesome... can't wait to see them completed.

My son got the white on the power fists done tonight after homework, 3 nice thin coats. He also read the entire blog start to finish. I thought he might get a little full of himself with all the attention, but I think he handled it very well and he called all the compliments "very sweet" (my wife's influence). The little one was excited about seeing his stuff on the web, and was pointing to everyone's avatar saying "Read this one!" "Read this one!" He also made me go to the article that Much pointed out so that we could see how to weather his little ork trucks... he liked it, so I figure we'll be trying that system out pretty soon.

I read them the gitsplitta story (off the blog) as kind of a bed time story. The last part is a little advanced for them, but as I was trying to explain it... my oldest smiled and said, "You mean he's losin' it." LOL Yes son, he's losin' it.

Well, there are a bunch of kids in the local gaming group, and a couple of parents (including one mom) who are very supportive of the hobby... but as far as I know, I'm the only parent who actually IS a gamer & am actively doing the hobby with my boys. That's one of the reasons I thought it might be an interesting topic for the blog... it's kind of a unique situation.

But, as you can see from the posts, there are a lot of gaming parents out there... just seem's like most of their kids are too small to really get into it yet. Based on my experience, if you wanted to try and get your kids interested in the hobby, I would recommend the following...

1. Let them see you having fun. Let them hang around and ask questions during games, even if it is an annoyance.
2. When they're old enough to play computer games, dig out one of your old DOW games. A lot of the teenagers at our local store got hooked that way & both my boys play (grades and behavior permitting of course) and I know it's helped to keep them interested.
3. Try to get them somewhere they can meet other kids their age who are also interested in the hobby. Peer "pressure" (in this case, positive) is very important.
4. Let them paint! Dig out some old models you don't want any more or buy some cheap off the internet and let them go nuts! Kids love crafts... this is just another one. Help your kids work on them, teach them real techniques but don't be too critical. In the early stages, what the figs look like is immaterial, it's the process of painting and the fun they have doing it that's important. Make sure to use those figures in games too, so the kids can see and play with them.

Good evening all. Have progress on a painting project to share, but first... to respond to some of your comments...

CM: Yep, they're already looking at other things. I figure if they finish what they're starting up to about 2000 pts, they'll have enough to play in any normal game or tournament... then they can move on if they wish. As I mentioned earlier... there is specific money they can earn by working around the house to spend on 40k... so that will limit their spending, and of course everything has to go through either myself or their mom... so we're covered (I think).

CT: Any time my friend! I knew there were others like myself and my sons out there... just a matter of getting connected.

Taco: Well, you can check out what I'm doing with one of the termies tonight (see below). "Thing 1" has a test tomorrow so he didn't get to paint tonight (studying), but he'll be working on finishing the terminator squad & we'll post a pic when he's done. He says he wants to "blog" too... so there will probably be a post from him directly here pretty soon. Oh... and your story... just about fell out of my chair! The mental image is just too funny...

SoR: Not sure what an etched brass off cut is... but my original idea was to make a metal stamp from scratch (I used to do a lot of jewelry & fine metal work... so making a metal tool is a natural leap for me). I was about to start when I realized that for green stuff I didn't need anything that "tough"... the toothpick seemed like a perfect answer. (what I didn't mention is that it still took me 3 tries to get one that worked right) Your comment about the bases is right on. He got fixated on this glittery stuff that came in a Harry Potter magic wand kit he got for Christmas. Certainly better than a bare base, but not up to the standards of the rest of the figure. We'll talk about it and see if he's interested in another option. Thanks for the link... we'll certainly check it out.


On to today's project...

So, the thing is... I hate painting banners... lousy at it. Love the way they look but couldn't paint one to save my life. But I like the idea of each squad having a banner bearer (not the commander of the squad though... it'd be like putting a large bulls-eye on your chest that said "Shoot Me!"). So, I was trying to figure out a way that a marine could bear the standard or "pride" of the unit, without a big, flappy flag that I couldn't paint decently in the first place. One of the "hats" I wear is that of a cub scout leader, and whenever our pack participates in a camping event, we get a large silk ribbon commemorating that event that we tie to our pack flag pole. So I hit upon this idea that the "standard bearer" for the squad would be decked with a heavy, golden silk cord or rope from which the units "campaign ribbons" would hang, commemorating each successful campaign that squad had participated in. Neat idea... unique, and I wouldn't have to paint some fool flag.

So, here's the shots of the project so far. First I made the rope out of green stuff as per the instructions of the green stuff tutorial referenced in an earlier post. It took days to get the rope right... at least 7 attempts, perhaps more. What finally did it was that I'd rolled out the rope, then forgot about it, so it was really pretty far along the hardening process when I remembered to twist it. It's far from perfect... but it was probably as good as I was ever going to get. I "sealed" the baldric with a handy-dandy purity seal... just lightly pushed a GS ball on to the tool and pressed it directly onto the model.



Next came the painting. First a coat of Golden Yellow, followed by lighter yellow highlights (any light yellow, I used a Valejo). Then I applied a thin wash of Burnished Gold to get the silky sheen, followed by a thin wash of Sepia. Final result really worked... and at least in-person is a very convincing silk braid. Looking at it I may try to very carefully add some full-strength sepia wash in the crevices of the braid... we'll see if I'm brave enough to try that.



So all I have left are the actual campaign ribbons. I have two different options... green stuff or my personal favorite... masking tape. Masking tape is cheaper, easier to work with, is bendable, more realistic width and will last forever (I have a Mantis Warrior banner that I painted 15 years ago that still looks as good as the day I painted it. That is to say it stinks... but the physical structure of the banner is as good as new. And, since kids are going to have their hands all over it... the masking tape will probably be more resistant to damage or at least easier to replace. But... we'll see. I'll do some test pieces and see how they turn out.

Just thought I'd post a quick bit on what's coming up in the near future.

I'll post a pic of the finished banner bearer termie when complete.
40k fiction written by Thing 1 (the eldest) for school... got a good grade on it too!
Maybe a battle report if we can sneak a game in this weekend
Will post a photo of the re-vamped termies when Thing 1 gets them finished.
I'll be working with Thing 2 (the youngest) on using some of the weathering techniques folks have shown us on his little ork buggy/truck thing, so will post the results of that.
I'm looking for help on how to keep they boys positive and fighting even when they're losing (or appear to be losing) a battle. This is a big problem for us. Please hold your comments on this until I can properly frame the issue in a post, but I could really use some advice.

Next week might be slow 'cause da boyz and I are going crappie fishin' with grandpa (fishing is our other big shared interest). But check every few days and there may be something new!

Thanks

I've got a treat tonight. This is a 40k fiction story written by my 9-year-old for a writing assignment at school (got him a decent grade too). I didn't influence the story at all (didn't even know about it until it was almost finished). I did give him some editorial help at the end... but that's it. Spelling errors are mine.

Enjoy!


The Adventure
by Thing 1, age 9

Chapter One: The Wish
One New Year’s night I wished to be a Warhammer 40k soldier. Then it happened! I suddenly appeared on a battle field with a bolt gun in my hand. I was a strong, young man with space marine armor and I was surrounded by captains, commanders and sergeants. I saw the over-all commander. When I tried to move, he did an amazing flip over some rocks. I made my way to the commander. Once I got close I realized that I was surrounded by tanks, land speeders and dreadnoughts. The commander said… “Come here!”, and when I got there, he asked “Do you know what we are doing?”. I answered “No.” “We are fighting the orks.” He said. I looked, and saw a massive ork army coming over the horizon. Then the commander said “Here it comes boy, we might not survive this. I think this is the end.”

Chapter Two: The Orks
I heard the commander yell “Charge!” and I ran forward screaming “Die!”. I first saw an ork coming. I shot. “Bang!” I hit it, but he keeps coming. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The ork finally fell dead. I was about to shoot again when I heard; “Eewwwwwwww….. BOOM!” The tanks were firing. I pulled out my chain sword and charged. In a short time I have killed many orks. As the orks start retreating everybody fired at once and the rest of the orks fell dead. There was a short silence, then everybody started cheering and yelling. “Victory!”

Chapter Three: The Camp
We were sent to make camp. I couldn’t sleep with hundreds of questions buzzing through my head. I heard a small sound. I sat up, looked through a hole in my tent and I saw a bunch of little gretchin. I yelled to wake everyone, then heard a bang. I felt a sharp pain, then I fell. The last thing I saw is my partner looking over me as I fainted. I woke up in a medical tent. Looking around I only saw one other soldier. A medic came over to me with the company commander. He said “Thanks to you the camp is saved.” “Rest now.” I went back to sleep and when I woke I wasn’t in the medical tent. My cast was gone and my wound was has completely healed. I saw an Eldar Farseer and I realized that I’d been captured by the Eldar! The farseer, named Creyas, said “Come with me.” As I walked through the camp, I saw howling banshees, guardians and warp spiders and looked at the strange buildings. I was allowed to see the summoning of the Eldar Avatar. As I watched, I saw his horrifying molten body. He stared into my eyes and I could see the wars he had been through!
I asked the farseer if they were getting ready to fight the Necrons. “How do you know that name?” he said. “I once fought a battle against them and won” I replied. “How?” he asked. I responded by saying “I cannot tell you, but I can supervise your army.” The farseeer agreed, so off to work I went. I called for two squads of wraithguard, two squads of howling banshees, five wraith lords and ten striking scorpions. After the troops were summoned, we made our defenses.
I told the Eldar farseer to make all the buildings invisible so that when the necron army came we could attack out of cover, completely annihilating them. (note: DOW computer game reference - Gsplitta) The battle went as planned, and after the Eldar victory I was given access to a ship, a weapon and a warlock for protection. We set off and traveled to the planet Kaurava where the Imperial Guard were at war with the Sisters of Battle.

Chapter 4: The Trainer
Once we landed on Kaurava, to my surprise we weren’t attacked. Suddenly, I heard the sound of an arrow. A brief stinging, followed by a drowsy feeling, then darkness. I woake up in a tent with a cross on it. I looked over to see my warlock next to me, but when I tried to get up I realized that I was chained down. I saw the Imperial Guard leader coming. He said “Are you a spy?” “No” I respond. “I am a bodyguard of the Emperor.” “To see if this is true” he said, “you will challenge someone.” Then I said “Who?”. He responded “Me.” I suddenly felt worried. His name was Yarrick. I was given a gun and I went to the practice range. BANG, BANG, BANG! Bullseyes. After some more practice, I went to bed.

Chapter 5: The Tournament
The next day was the duel. I walked into a study room and all around me I saw Imperial Guardsmen. I was given the first choice of weapons. I picked a power fist and a storm bolter. Yarrick picked a power sword and a bolt gun. I went to the other end of the field. I shot my gun… PING, PING…. Nothing happened. Yarrick’s shot was also useless. I began my charge to attack him with my power fist. Closer… closer… As I was about to hit him with my power fist, he put his power sword right through me. I fell. I saw Yarrick come to my side and raise his arms in victory. With the last of my strength, I raised my storm bolter and shot him in the head until my vision faded. (Ick!!! – Gsplitta)

I woke up in my room, still thinking that everything I'd just experienced was real. Then I saw something in my closet… it’s my power fist and armor! A note was attached that read… “Dear friend, it has been a great adventure! Signed, Your friends… the company commander, Farseer Creyas and Commissar Yarrick.

-finis-

Thanks Luke, got it linked and "followed" (I think). Yeah... had these ideas bouncing around in my head for at least 12 years... finally decided to act on them. Will take my time with it, all new figures, all converted, each one painted individually. It get's done when it gets done. I've waited 18 years to get the guts do my chapter right... I can wait a couple of more to pull it off the right way.

My son loved all the supportive comments and says "Thank you!". I'm very proud of him, he's got a good imagination and has been telling me stories since he was maybe... 3? Not 40k stories of course, but stories none-the-less. Perhaps with some training and practice there's a future there for him.

Kids and mom are off to her side of the family for fun and frolic this weekend (fishing is next week), and I have to work two 12hr days... but I think I'll finish that banner bearer termie tonight, so I'll post that. Don't want to tip my hand but Thing 1 loves what I'm doing with it, and he had an idea for it that I just loved... so it's a cooperative project. So check back around 9 or 10 CST and I may have something up by then. It's kind of a prototype of what I'd like to do for my mantis warriors... so we'll see what you think.


OH, and for any of you able to attend Adepticon... I am really, REALLY jealous!

OK folks, here we go. Took me a while to get the photo's set... they're bigger than usual so you can zoom in on the in the gallery if you want.

I won't give a lot of background... I don't like big square banners as I've previously stated. Like the idea of pennants. Will probably do something very much like this when I re-make my Mantis Warriors, but I thought I'd try it out on my son's terminator. I was going to put "campaign ribbons" on the gold cord (that's what it's for), but my son decided that he wanted to EARN the campaign ribbons. So as this squad fights in 40k battles, they will earn ribbons that will be added one at a time to the baldric.

I though that was cool... shows character.

Anywho... here goes nothin... (sorry, not too chatty tonight... have a splitting headache).





Changes since last time: Painted sepia wash into the cracks of the baldric to help define it. Finished base. Drilled holes in lower back to accept banner poles. Made & painted banners (they're just stiff wire & GS). Banners are not glued in yet, so they can be moved and fiddled with as needed. Highlighted high points on armor and weapons.

Eh, don't be to hard on him. My dad never understood my hobbies... still doesn't, and he's 83 now. Just find something you both enjoy and run with it. My dad and I shot black powder rifles together, now we fish when we can. The gaming was my thing. Maybe some day my boys will find their own things too. That's OK with me, I don't get paid by GW to pimp their product line... I just want to spend time with my boys, however that happens. Even if some day they get out of 40k, it won't change the time we had together. Just means I have to find someone else to give my figures to when I'm too old and decrepit to roll dice! *grin*

Yep, part of my thought process was to make a banner style that was plausible to fight with. The Japanese back banners are an excellent prototype, but I didn't necessarily want these to look Japanese, so I opted for a pennant style.

Hey MeatShield,

Thanks to the generosity of others like yourself, I think my son has enough basic marines for several tac squads & filling out his dev squads. Thank you.

I, on the other hand would be very willing to buy those from you. In re-building my Mantis Warriors from scratch, I plan on integrating a lot of Mk-6 armor into my conversions, and cleaned up, those wonderful beakies would be perfect! Your call. Either way is was a very generous offer and both my son on I appreciate it.

Have a battle report between the boys that will be unfolding over the next couple of days, but in order to understand the ork objectives you guessed it... more stories. So, for your edification and entertainment... our Bad Moon objectives!



"Da Bronz Boss" (objective marker)
You see, Gitsplitta and his boys were raiding one year and came upon an Imperial installation that housed a foundry where a group of artisans made bronze statuary to decorate the halls and courtyards of government buildings all over the Imperium. Gitsplitta liked the idea of immortalizing himself in bronze, so forced the chief sculptor to make a statue of him. Fearing for his life, the sculptor created a perfect likeness of the ork leader. Gitsplitta was so enthusiastic about the results of the project, that he fed the sculptor his pet attack squig, Spot. (no wait... that's not right... must be a typo) "Gitsplitta was so enthusiastic about the results of the project, that he fed the sculptor TO his pet attack squig, Spot." (that makes more sense) No matter, I'm sure it was a great honor for the man whatever-the-case. Anyway, now Gitsplitta makes his warband carry this heavy bronze monstrosity around with them wherever they go, and the boyz of-course... not wanting to lug this thing around... have a tendency to leave it behind. So every once in a while, the boss realizes that is prize statue is missing and must send the mob out to retrieve it.




"Da Spook 'utt" (objective marker)
This is a dwelling that used to belong to Da Great Gobbo, a Night Goblin shaman and sometimes street magician that was a part of Gitsplitta's mob until he met his demise at the hands of an Eldar farseer. The hut has the unique ability to absorb and focus the ambient ork psychic energy around it. As a result, Gobbo's tent is the favorite place for the mob's weird-boys go to power-up their psychic powers before a battle. The tent's special attributes help the mob's weird-boys in the opening moments of a battle by amplifying their control over their first psychic attack. As one weird-boy puts it (after much drooling and gibbering)... "Da first bang, is da best bang!" Problem is that there's so much residual energy concentrated in this little hut after use that it has a tendency to "phase out" of existence like a ghost and re-materialize elsewhere... necessitating occasional retrieval operations by the boyz.

-finis-

With that background, I have photo's of the initial deployment and will give the background and objectives for the battle... probably in the wee hrs or tomorrow morning. See you then!

People kept throwing them in with things I bought on e-bay... think I have 2 more lying around somewhere. It's a great fig, just nearly impossible to use for conversions (at least for someone of my skill). So this was my compromise...

Well, clearly Gitsplitta jumped the gun a bit on feeding the sculptor to his pet squig... or perhaps it was BECAUSE Spot was not included in the statue that the Warboss' ire was tweaked. We'll never know for certain. In any case, an appropriate oomie 'ead was found and placed at the bronze boss's feat in an appropriate tribute to his victory.

Bronze doesn't really rust, it tarnishes green. I did give the statue a green wash after all was said and done, and it is apparent when you hold it in hand, but it is rather subtle. I may come in later and really color up the statue, add greens and browns for age and bird poop and all that. Good suggestion though. Your right, it would look much cruddier given it's likely treatment at the hands of the boyz.

WONDERFUL orkish btw ICB... you can write for me ANY TIME!

Gone fishin'.

Battle and fishing reports when we return!