Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well, he's making progress on the Whirlwind, all on his own with no input from me (love that he's gotten to that stage). Good thing too, those of you who follow my Mantis Warrior blog may have noticed there have been no updates lately... just no time, too many other things to take care of at home to find the time to paint.... and when I am finally free (9-10 PM) I'm freakin tired. BUT... the boy has time and is making good use of it! The little one has been asking me if he can work on his orks... sadly he still requires a lot of oversight which I haven't had the time to do lately. I will make a point of setting time aside over the holiday weekend though and sitting down with him for some painting. Expect updates soon!

- GS

Some great stuff here. Your eldest son's painting is actually better than mine lol.

Dateline.... whirlwind.

Well, the whirlwind is done. You'll note there is no picture. That's because by the time I took a close look at it, the whirlwind looked like it'd been duct taped to the wall and had globs of silver paint thrown at it from 10' away. All he had to do was carefully re-paint the green parts boltgun metal, do a quick wash and all would have been well in say... 30 - 60 minutes, but he globbed it up so badly that I had to take a couple of hours of my very rare painting time and re-paint the entire vehicle. Even with that you'll never see a close-up of it because it looks like crap.... globs and runs everywhere... Thing 2 did better the first time he held a brush. Oh was I PO'd... this was a WW built (like the rest) on one of the original rhino hulls & it was so mucked up I almost pitched it. Luckily washing and weathering can hide a lot... as does "tabletop viewing distance".

So, we've had a serious discussion about paying attention to what we are doing... and doing a job right or not at all. I think he's re-gained a bit of his focus now and we're painting his Marnius Calgar figure together... so with luck he'll be back on the straight and narrow in short order. It was just such a shock to see him do one vehicle every bit as good as I can, then the next as if he'd never held a brush before in his life...

Maybe you should post pics, and then we can do the "ewwww what happened?" thing and a bit of peer pressure (or whatever it is when its full grown men and a 9 yo)

Just drill some bullet holes and chip some bits and wear some pieces down.

Then you can say it has EXTREME Battle Damge.

If I was going to put bullet holes in THIS tank I'd use my 30/30...

Lol, I have used .22, 9mm and 40 S&W brass as basing. Anything else just seems too big for even the big barrage guns.

Paint stripper?

EagleArk wrote:Paint stripper?

The kid is only 9 man, hes a bit young for a stripper!
Oh, wait. Ok, I got ya. Give him some simple green and a tooth brush, tell him to get scrubbing!

whalemusic360 wrote:Oh, wait. Ok, I got ya. Give him some simple green and a tooth brush, tell him to get scrubbing!

This would teach him a better lesson than anything else, I think. I've used the Simple Green method, and while it works relatively well, it's still a good bit of work. It would definitely lodge the idea of "do it right or face the consequences" into his psyche.

LOL... well, he is almost 10... at that age I was already.... ah well... that's a story for a different "Forum".

I think we'll let this one slide. It's OK looking, just not up to close scrutiny. He is enthusiastic about working on Calgar with me so I don't want to blunt that by making him re-live a past failure.

Thats a shame.

Calgar leads the Chapter?

Well... Calgar equivalent...

ChocolateGork wrote:Calgar leads the Chapter?

Hey, Telion trains other chapter's scouts! Why can't Marneus lead another chapter? Besides, it's only a matter of time before Matt Ward writes something like that in an attempt to make the Ultramarines sound like the most super duper spectacularly perfect guys that existed ever ever.

This isn't the same Matt Ward that used to play "Robin" in the 1960's TV series "Batman"?

I'm not sure, but some suspect that he plays C.S. when writing books.

Remember... Goto is a 4-letter word... no swearing on the forum... especially THIS blog.

Your right. I'll edit it, for the sake of the children.

Gitsplitta wrote:This isn't the same Matt Ward that used to play "Robin" in the 1960's TV series "Batman"?

Err.. no, that would be Burt Ward

Great blog by the way, I've been following this since you started

Gits:

I think you are a great parent, and your wargaming with your boys is the sort of thing I know they are going to remember fondly in may years to come. (I wish I had done more things like this with my Dad when I was a boy.)

It sounds to me like "Thing #1" was just a little overeager to spend a little more time painting and modeling Calgar with his father.

While I can well understand your frustration at what should have been a job well-done turning into something horrific, I think you may be missing a valuable learning opportunity with your son. It might be better for you both go over the model looking at what went right, and what went wrong. It sounds like the paint was not thick enough; there may have been additional challenges other than haste he had trouble getting around.

My unsolicited advice: it's best to strip it down and repaint from the ground-up, not as a punishment, but as a new skill to learn and challenge to tackle with dear 'ole Dad.

You're probably right rashad, and I do really appreciate your advice and suggestions... I need to remind myself that he IS just a kid, and even though he's capable of adult work it's unfair to hold him to that standard all the time. It's unfortunately too late to revisit the whirlwind as I've already "fixed" it for the most part, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities and when he doesn't live up to my "expectations" I'll remember to chill and try to turn it into something positive.

We're moving along well on Calgar, spent the weekend camping but I'll post a WIP in a day or two. We've been discussing each step as he goes. He does the work though & I check each step over carefully before we move on. So far we're both having a good time and he's doing a very good job. We'll need everyone's comments as we go. This will be the warm up for a figure he'll do for a painting competition this fall at our FLGS. I figure it's OK to advise him and get him exposure and ideas on dakka, but I won't lay a hand on the figure... he has to do the whole thing himself. That WIP we'll post in it's entirety so you all can chime in and become part of the process.

Looking forward to seeing his progress. Does he (or you) know what figure hes going to use? We may even be able to help figure out what will work well for judging.

I too look forward to his next piece. Who knows, a little more experience and he may well decide to return to fix the WW later on. What models is he considering? I bet a bike lord would look great in those colors!

Well, his options are kind of limited... we were thinking of one of Calgar's bodyguard as they're pretty cool looking and he's got them already. We have Telion too, as well as a number of older minis o mine that he can have. He's trying to save his money up to buy Crons... but I'm sure he'd entertain any suggestions.

Im a bit biased, but the robbed DA guys look pretty awsome. I'll take a few pics of my favs later and post em. I can supply the body if thats what he wants. Or a sternguard for him, using the FW ravenguard heads (they have beaks, seriously) and go all crazy.

Having looked Calgar's posse over, I think the chapter champion in Doom Eagle silver/red will be an amazing sight.

You could always work with him on a conversion.

By now you must have countless bitz and the coolest models in painting comps are the ones that are converted.

@rashad: Not sure exactly which guy is the champion... the box is long gone... we just have the assembled figs on the bench.

@CG: Yeah.... I've been thinking about that... but I'm adamant that I'm not going to lay a hand on the figure if he's going to enter it into a competition and I'm not sure he's ready to handle all the tools and techniques used in converting yet. We can always try a conversion first, then fall back to the champion if the conversion doesn't work.

@WM: The "robbed" DA guys? What? Did someone roll them when they were out looking for a good time? I actually used a DA head to replace Calgar's in the model Thing 1 is working on right now... you'll see it in a bit. You're right, those are cool looking figs.

Robed, whatever, I can't spell. Maybe hes not ready for conversion work yet, but a kitbash is no harder then anything else (which is what 80% of the "conversions" are, including alot of mine) and can have amazing reslults. Some good basing using random bits and hes good to go!