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Fake-or had blue skin. You should totally go with that.

What color wash are you going to use on Fenris' horse? I would suggest using washes that match the color of the base paints. So, use a red was on the rsd bits, brown wash on the brown bits, etc. It seems to give a better sense of depth when you do the washes like that, rather than spamming the black wash.

I didn't end up doing too much washing on the horse. Black basecoat, super dark grey highlights, black grey drybrushing, watered down German grey where the grey was too bright. Maybe I got all my grey variations mixed up, but I'll take a picture of him this weekend. Or better yet, make you take a picture since mine always suck.

So my glorious weekend of no family to worry about started much later than I expected. Took me nearly two and a half hours to get home from LAX. It was getting dark by the I got home. I left around lunch time. A long day indeed.

I did find time to watch some random documentaries and start painting some Chronopia dwarfs.



Not a big fan of the Chronopia Dwarf line. They've got GIANT heads and teeny tiny bodies. Remind me of the Rackham dwarfs. In fact, I bet the two companies' dwarfs would look pretty well together. I'll see how they look together. I stuck a GW one there just to get a sense of head size.
I ended up grabbing these guys when I realized they have completely enclosed helmets. Not a big fan of painting faces, and I also love big ornate helmets. These guys look like a perfect candidate for me then. They'll be getting really simple paint jobs, with the gold one being the unit leader, I guess.

Also, I went ahead and went with the Fake-or idea for Kallus' skin.



I had started with the basic armor, drybrushed with silver, and then started washing certain parts over in gold to help make it pop a bit more. He still needs some work.

He also got a Gargantuan warbeast in the mail yesterday....


Because I don't have enough Kaiju at home or at work. I'm really liking this new one. He *might* fit on a 120mm base. He's huge. He's a DX Kaiju, but unfortunately when Bandai went and shrunk ALL their kaiju down when the 500yen line started, that menas he's about the same size as all my other chunky older ones.

Where I can I see more figures from that Kaiju line?!?

I need them!!!

For Kaiju of various sizes, I'd suggest checking out HobbySearch or Amiami. They're both in Japan, ship to the US, and have pretty reasonable prices. They also carry all sorts of scale kits if you're into Japanese kits from less well- known manufacturers.

Ebay is probably the easiest place to search out kaiju.

You've got to be careful with kaiju though, especially since their scales are really inconsistent. For tabletop stuff, I whole heartedly recommend using the capsule/ trading/ supermarket figures. Here's a couple of random ones culled from my classroom at recess today.



The human is a Horrorclix figure I had in my desk for some reason (?), and he's probably pretty close to 28mm to get a good sense of scale. The supermarket/ capsule/ trading stuff tends to cap out around 50-75mm, so they're perfectly suited to duke it out with your speysh muhreenz.

We learned how to play Song of Blades and Heroes a few summers ago using nothing but these guys and SD Gundams. Fun times.

Dude on the left needs to be based, stat! He looks like he'd be right at home hanging out with your Dark Legion.

The thing on the left was from one of the Ultraman Cosmos movies. I think. I know the thing had two forms. One was a more bug like typical kaiju then such a straight looking machine.

I had the larger typical sized figure of its other form, but I don't know where it is now, and neither of the kids can remember. They aren't much help. I have to track it down just to prove it to myself that I did own it and I'm not going crazy(er)!

Huh... It's been a while!

Probably didn't help that I wasn't at home for the last month or so. I was here:


That's the front yard at my inlaws' house in Japan, taken from the front window. They live out in the countryside, where space isn't as much of a premium as it is in the big cities, so everything is a lot more spread out there.
Plus it rains constantly, so that garden stays vibrant pretty much all year long.
My wife's father pretty much maintains it all by himself, with occasional help from whatever children are present (myself included). It is grueling work. Every single one of those plants needs to be trimmed individually.

The pond also needs to be regularly cleaned out, and has quite a few large koi and frogs that live in it, which the tanuki in the nearby forest often try to come and steal.


Their house literally is on the edge of the forest. There's a river that runs through it, mountains, caves, the works.

One really interesting thing I have to show off. This piece of poetry.



Even my wife had difficulty reading this piece. I can pick out bits and pieces. The interesting thing is what's on the left- hand side. The signature. This poem was written by Isoroku Yamamoto, the Admiral of the Japanese fleet during World War 2. Yamamoto was from the same area my wife's family is from. There's a museum about him about 20 minutes away in fact.

This poem was given to my wife's Grandfather at some point before the war actually broke out. Her Grandfather, being the firstborn, was not allowed to enlist in the military in order to take care of the land and his family. It's been hanging in the living room ever since.

Thankfully civilization isn't more than a 20 minute car ride away, where a hobbyist is likely to experience a sense of nerd nirvana.


This is the local hobby shop I've been going to for the last 15 years. It's not the biggest, but this is only 1/3 of their Gundam selection, nevermind all the historical models, trains, girly figures, castles, other robot models, hobby supplies... it's a pretty cool store (and quite reasonably priced). Newer Gundams are on the left, various Bandai properties on the right (One Piece, Pokemon, Funashi, Youkai Watch, even a few random Macross kits are still there.


One of many hauls, for less than 30 bucks.

Upon coming home, I was greeted to 4 boxes of mail and about 12 packages I had to sort out, but I basically set it all aside because this had just come out.


Can't remember what the name of the "chapter" is, but I really liked this color scheme and am starting to work my way through the starter set.

I also have a horrible addiction that whenever I have spare arms for Chaos figures, they all end up with multiple limbs. Sorry Mr. Marauder, but you and all your buddies are getting mutated.

You should have let me know - I've would have had you pick me up a bunch of Gaiking, Getter Robo, UFO Robo Grendizer and Gamera stuff!!!

Looks beautiful over there - I haven't been to Japan since 1998.

Ha! Pick up Gaiking and and all those big, heavy, metal robots in giant boxes?

Dude, you don't even know how much of an evil eye I caught from my wife for the little that I bought this trip! I have to disassemble any models I get and pack them into the small container I can find, and that's if I'm lucky.

She crams each and every suitcase with as much stuff as she can possibly drag home- usually it's stuff for the kids' school, clothes, study materials, books, etsy supplies she uses...

Literally almost every trip through customs involves them opening up all of our bags and boxes looking for something.

I wish I had taken a picture of the "game" store I found. Only place I've come across in the area that sold proper board games and miniatures.

It was literally the space under the escalator. It looked like a cave. It was both sad and awesome at the same time.

The owner mentioned that he wasn't even aware of any local wargaming scene. He said most customers bought 40k stuff just to paint.

Japan looks really cool from your pics its not somewhere I've been.

Ultramarine looks good as well

Wow, the place looks way overgrown since I was last there. Then again, that was nearly 10 years ago.

I hope you got the Astray those Matsuri weapons all go to. Your haul is nothing compared to mine when I go. But, that's one of the perks of being single.

You Marauder conversion looks good and clean. Nice work on that. The Sigmarine looks good in those colors, too. Except, the scheme and overall design makes him look like an Axe Knight from Castlevania.

That yard isn't overgrown at all. Her dad cultivates it a certain way, down to the moss growing on rocks and on spots in the path. He got pissed at me for sloppily raking leaves and uprooting a small clump of orange moss that was near a green one.
Her dad's out there every weekend that the weather permits, and even then I saw him cutting and trimming stuff in the rain. I know I've dealt with the leaves in the rain.

I didn't get the Astray. I have the SD one, which is good enough.

Also notice I said it was *ONE* of my hauls. These days I go a lot more in for books than I do model kits. Not much SD stuff at the moment either.

I totally see the Castlevania color scheme in that Sigmarine. Nice catch. Too bad they don't have an enclosed helm that doesn't have a Sanguinary Guard face plastered on it.

I'd bet that it wouldn't be hard to find the right kind of helmet among GW's Empire Knights or some Perry knights.

Yay! I finally got something finished!



I need to seal these guys, but I'm out of sealer and have no car at the moment to go get some since a moronic driver totaled it and I'm still having to deal with his shenanigans via my insurance company...

Regardless, I'm not sure what came over me but I just started rolling on these guys. I'm happy with how they turned out. They're quite large too! Makes me hopeful for what the Age of Sigmar will hold for the Children of the Horned Rat.


Also had a bunch of leftover Ogre pieces, so I started slapping all kinds of things on them and ended up with some armored weapon masters.



I'm going to try and get those guys done within the next two weeks or so. I had a few more weird ogre conversions, but the lighting is terrible and it's impossible to make out the details.

Recently I got a bunch of Stonehaven Miniatures stuff in the mail.

I had backed their Half Ogre Kickstarter, and ended up with just about everything that wasn't a Half-Ogre.

Stonehaven's stuff is a bit hit and miss for me. On one hand, they have pretty unique concepts and their figures have a lot of character. On the other hand, their figures tend to be very flat, mostly due to their being one piece.

Regardless, there's still a lot of fun stuff in their catalog.

First up is this little guy.


The mysterious stranger! He's a gremlin gunslinger! He's super tiny! I'm also going to totally be using him as my new character the next time I sit down to play Shadows of Brimstone!

Another figure from the same campaign, is this Half Dragon Duelist. It's super zoomed in and his base isn't finished, but he's just too cool for school.


I like to refer to him as hipster lizardman, who is unimpressed with your paintjob/ your army/ your conversion/ your momma. He's seen it all and nothing will ever get through that thick skin of his.

This is the perfect figure for me. If he wasn't a single piece and had a bit more volume/ depth to him, he'd be one of the greatest figures ever in my personal reptilian collection.

My Stonehaven guys recently encountered another group of strange figures that made its way to my home.

THE FIGHTING FUNGI.


These are the first three I've got painted, but I have an entire hefty box of them to go through. I think I got every sculpt they made in their Kickstarter. From left to right is the slinger, the archer, and a moldy zombie mushroom.
Unfortunately the hipster lizardman is suitably unimpressed.

I also got my wizard painted up for playing Barzam at Frostgrave.


The whole warband will be made of old Rackham dwarfs. Possibly with a smattering of Chronopia ones as well. Happy with how this guy turned out. I'll post my other Rackham models I painted this week later on.

Great stuff all 'round. I really like the little gunslinger as he looks a bit like Orco but with guns

I love that little gunslinger. He's a cool little figure, both figuratively and literally little!

He also got a friend of his finished the other day.



That's one of Stonehaven's Tengu mages. He's most likely shorter than the gremlin, but he's got a big hat and giant getta sandals on.

Here he is with a few of his Stonehaven buddies.



My criticism still stands that the Stonehaven figures are a bit flat, but they're a pretty varied lot. Their half orc campaign (of which these all came from) had a lot of variety in terms of character races and professions.
The girl with the guns in the back is one of the few Half Orcs I actually got from the set. Down the road I may have to get myself a few more random figures from this company. I have a few more guys from the half orc set, but they're all half painted/ half primed and just aren't worth showing off at the moment.

These guys are a bit further along than my other Stonehaven figures.



The thermopriest is looking like a bit of a mess at the moment, and I hope to get all that sorted out. The gunners are just about done, with a few things to fix and we'll call it a day on them. Thanks to whoever gave me those at that swap & shop! These guys are going to end up in my Frostgrave warband. Hoping to track down some more Rackham dwarfs to flesh that group out. Really like the thermowarriors and priests. Need to get more! The local game shop used to have a bunch. I went back to snatch them all up, and someone literally bought out all of their leftover Rackham figures. I was very disappointed. I guess I need to head back to Brookhurst Hobbies one of these days, since they seem to have a neverending supply of Confrontation stuff.

Also decided to get started on the last few Skaven heroes I've got laying around.


They've got a ways to go, but I'm pretty sure they're the last of the individual stuff I've got for my rats at this point. After that, it's warmachines, weapon teams, and rank and file. Probably in that order. I've got quite a lot of big ratty stuff to do. I keep putting it off, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just intimidated by the sheer size/ mass of having to paint some of the larger figures? I have to keep reminding myself I did finish a Vermin Lord and a few other large figures, so it's not like I can't. Maybe once I clear out all these little guys...

You and your hydrocephalytic dwarves. I wish I could stay home and paint stuff. I've got a couple Stonehaven figures on the way. I'm looking forward to painting them. Hopefully they won't be too flat.

Never hurts to see some Rackham minis getting painted. Fungi look cool, too.

Wow those guys *are* tiny tiny, cool.

Stupid Army Painter.

I was in need of more primer and matte sealer, so I went to the hobby shop the other day. They didn't have any of the brands I usually get, so I got some Army Painter, figuring it wouldn't be that bad, considering I like a lot of their basic colors that I've acquired through Mantic and other Kickstarters.
Primer was fine. Primer is primer after all. Sprayed a ton of stuff, no real issues.

Went to seal the stuff I'd been working on. Stuff just SPEWED out. Totally ruined a bunch of detail on some of my figures. Absolutely ruined my Bronzeback for Hordes. His back is all smooth and there's no more detail whatsoever. That Skaven looking Banebeast guy I've been working on? Totally lost details on his face and weapon.

The sealer also completely ate all my metallic paints. The sealer I usually use is really good with metallics. I love using metallic paints. Very disappointed.

This guy I don't think I've shown yet. I picked him up the other day for a buck. Between Barzam and myself we cleared out a large portion of old Target miniatures our hobby shop had discovered.



He's a Chronopia Warrior of the Sun. Since he's a Sun warrior, I tried to practice my poor caligraphy skills and write the characters for sun on his banner. My kids and wife instantly criticized me and I was teased all day about my poor Japanese writing ability.

This guy was also a victim of the sealer debacle, but you can't see it too much (it's mostly on the other side). His rat buddies in the background there were also victims. The lighting at home isn't very good at the moment, so I'll try to photograph them better tomorrow.

Up next I have a few more Sigmarines to finish (and hopefully not ruin with the sealer) and then it's time to start wrapping up all the Hordes figures I seem to have accumulated these last few weeks. Also giant rat machines.

Sounds like it's time to bust out the Simple Green. Sure, you'll lose all that work you put into the figures, but at least they'll have their details back.

You got your Frostgrave warband together yet?

Search in MajorTom11's posts - he had something similar happen to some beautifully painted Blood Angels and there was a solution.

It was so long ago, so I'm not 100% sure it was the SAME problem, but it won't hurt to check BEFORE sacrificing time, blood, effort and tears to the all consuming paint destroyer that is...Simple Green!

So I said it and intended to use that stupid sealer come hell or high water. It wasn't cheap, it's a huge bottle, and I've got a ton of models that need it.

I tried spraying some stuff I was a bit indifferent about losing all that time and energy towards making them decent.

Started with this Bones Ork Warboss that one of Dakka's darlings sculpted. He's been getting lots of leftover paint slapped on him the last few weeks.



Most of the detail seems to have made it intact. More importantly all of the metallics seemed to have survived, unlike my poor little rat warlock guy from the other day.

Also tried it out on this warpfire thrower that's been waiting to get finished for months. Metallics turned out alright as well.



Biggest quibble with this stuff (other than unpredictably spewing out all over my poor bronzeback's back) is that it leaves everything with a really rough texture. The Krylon matte sealer I had left everything nice and smooth. These guys feel all rough and grainy.

You can also see I've been playing around with some turquoise Sigmarines behind the rats. I was kind of going in blind on these two since the few models that have been painted in this scheme don't even match each other! I'm somewhat pleased with them so far, and now that the sealer seems to want to cooperate, I'll probably get them done before next weekend.

The inevitable march back to school is coming closer and closer, which means my hobby time will be more and more limited. What does that mean for me? I need to squeeze in as much stuff as I can before I need to worry about work!






So I wrapped up the next of my Stonehaven guys. This guy is supposed to be a half orc ranger. I misread half orc as hobgoblin. Why? Because there was a different figure that was a hobgoblin in the KS campaign and I confused them. Oh well. I keep saying it, but it bears repeating. These Stonehaven guys are neat! There's such variety in their jobs and sculpts! They've got a halfling campaign going on now, and I'm sure I'll be picking up a few... halflings, I guess. At least they've got halfling barbarians riding feathered raptors.

He's hanging out with an out of focus Rackham goblin guy that I finally got around to finishing. Funny thing, all these Rackahm guys. I put a huge lot of stuff up in the Spring on ebay, had tons of views, lots of people watching it, and a few really lowball offers. Ended up saying it and just started in on them all myself. Let me say, I am far happier for it! I'm sure I'm going to have to go back to Brookhurst before I start work and stock up on more Rackham junk.

Speaking of Rackham, I finally got started on a Grave Guardian I had laying around.


He's got a ways to go, but I'm happy with the progress I've made on him so far. I'll glue his arm on once I'm finished with all the stuff that ends up obscured by his blade.

Also got started on two figures I've been wanting to paint for some time now.



A Crucifier from Warzone Ressurectoin and Braylen Wanderheart, badass Trollkin bandito lady. Braylen's just a bunch of primary colors at the moment but she's getting to where she needs to be. The Crucifier is just a base red coat since I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet. Eventually I'll be diggnig out all my other Warzone/ Warzone Resurrection stuff in the future. But I also started these things in the next photo, and I know they'll be taking some SERIOUS time to get done.



A Bones Balrog, A forgeworld Skaven warlord on big ugly rat thing, a Stormvermin champion, and my ridiculous Banebeasts Rat Abominaton. I don't even know what it's called. I love that model! Flamethrower heads, drill arm, crusher claw, blades all over its back, robotic spiked tails, it's all that's wrong (in a good way) with Skaven sensibilities.
In typical fashion, I've broke both those models countless times. I'm really bad about putting resin models together. Once they're done, great, no problems. They're solid. Prior to building? Busted up in pieces constantly. I've broke that FW skaven guy's feet, his trophy rack, his (now nonexistant) reigns, the teeth on his mount, the shields that are supposed to hang on it... it's been bad.

The rat construct thing had a bunch of wires on his back break as well as spikes on his tail mace. At least those aren't noticeable, and I managed not to castrate him like a lot of my other big hairy Darklands stuff.

Lots of nice models your working on highlord, the rat guys look like really nice models.

Looking forward to seeing Braylen painted.

Braylen was finished the other day actually. Finally got around to sealing her paint.



Camera doesn't do a good job of bringing out the highlights, but whatevs. I'm happy with how she turned out, and even my daughter thought she looked decent (though she'll only judge by painting on "fighting girls").

That wasn't enough for me though, so I started painting Janissa Stonetide, another femal troll, to hang out with her. Then I realized it was 2:00 AM and I was already finished with her.



You'll notice I even tried to do the tartans on them. I hate doing the tartans!

Still not satisfied, I dragged out a model I've had sitting around for years now, since I first started getting back into tabletop stuff. Captain Gunnbjorn, and you guessed it, yet another troll.



A lot of painting in not a lot of time! I had no choice since I'm going to take the family down to San Diego for the weekend. And naturally, wouldn't you know it, but I get confirmation emails stating I've got stuff coming in while I'm gone. It figures.
A bit bummed the hobby shop in Old Town SD finally closed after all these years. It was always fun stopping by there whenever we would visit (which was fairly often growing up), and regardless of how overpriced certain things were I always ended up going home with something.

I guess this trip I'll just have to grab some more tabletop Alebrijes. I love Alebrijes! Look them up if you don't know what they are!

A shame a lot of the details aren't being caught in the light. I really tried to hit all the different metals and materials their gear is made out of, but it doesn't show up. A shame. Maybe I'll try reshooting them at an earlier time of day.

I also wrapped up the final details on my Lords of the Celestial Vindicators. Here they are:


I'm not sure what their chapter's Lords are supposed to look like, but I figure, eh, that's probably close to how the official paint schemes would be.

Also finished up the last of my Rackham dwarfs!

Three cheers for more Rackham. That Wolfen Grave Guard is a favorite. The Sigmarites also look very cool.

Those ogres are interesting, as are the dwarves.

Those big armored guys are very bright and rather violent looking

Well San Diego was hot. Damned hot. What a hot weekend. That's some of the hottest weather I've experienced down there. At least all the yummy Mexican food and gallons of margaritas helped keep cool. Damn that food was good. But still, it was hot.

Of course when I got home and it was over 110 degrees, it made me appreciate SD's weather a bit more.

I had a bunch of stuff left on the painting table from before we left on Friday, so my first priority was to finish that stuff up.

First up, yet another Stonehaven Half- Orc. This one is a "Spellblade," whatever that is. A mage that infuses their weapon with magic I guess? I kind of remember reading about a class like that in D&D. Anyway-



I think this one is a girl. I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter. I'm going to assume it's a girl. Pretty sure it is. Like all the other Stonehaven stuff, got a lot of character. Smirk on her face, layers of fancy clothes, pocketwatch flopping out of her jacket...

I feel like I should do something with her sword to make it look a bit more magical.

I also finished up ANOTHER Stonehaven guy. This time it's a half dragon rogue.


He's one of the heftier figures from the bunch. Still kind of flat, but larger and thicker than most the other figures. Plus, he's a reptile guy so he's a must purchase.

Also almost done with my Stormvermin champion, who my daughter was busy haranguing with a pack of kobolds.



Some of those kobolds are in need of finishing as well, but don't tell them that!

Guy looks pretty dignified for a Stormvermin, so I tried to keep his armor nice and clean looking, and used a bit of gold to really polish him up. You can kind of see him here from the front with a friend of his.



I know he's a bit out of focus, and he's not really finished yet, but I'm happy with him so far. He's in a really weird pose, so no matter what angle you photograph him from he looks awkward.
Another awkward thing about him was his original weapon. It was so flimsy! I had a leftover sword from the big Nasier Wrath of Kings guy (who will probably show up here soon), so I did a quick snip and gave Praach here a new weapon, and it seems to suit him pretty well.



More mushroom goodness from Ganehsa Games' Fighting Fungi. Love that axe man. They have a new dwarf Kickstarter starting tomorrow with some really crazy looking stuff, so I'm looking forward to that! Plus I've got piles of mushrooms still to get through.

Last but not least, I've got this big ugly thing.



It's a Skaven Warlord mount, and it is gross looking! The lighting washed out the nuances of how gross it looks, with all its saggy skin folds, weird pustules, growths, and random warpstones growing off of it. It'll make a fine addition to my Skaven forces then!